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July Catch Up...
It’s gotten to where if I don’t blog often enough, I’ve already forgotten half the stuff I really wanted to remember. So I’ve started just making notes on a piece of paper to remind myself when I don’t have time to blog. Which is good, because most of what I’m typing about today is ancient history. I really need to do this more often! Caleb has his own unique way of talking. He’s brilliant, of course, and verbose, but sometimes it takes a little bit of getting used to. His phrases are almost right, but just a little off. Like my personal favorite, “Not so quite.” “Are you ready to get out of the pool, sweetie?” “Not so quite.” “It’s time to go to bed, beloved.” “Not so quite.” Too cute. Or when he kept nagging me about the “put raps.” I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he was talking about. Then he said, “Remember? In Royal tummy?” Jonathan had let him play with the RAT PUPS before he fed them to our snake. He was so cute with them, too! I came into the room where they were playing, and it looked like Caleb was holding a mouse up to give me kisses. I don’t care about my son handling rodents so much as I hate the idea of having a mouse loose in my house. But since it was just a little rat pup who doesn’t do much more than crawl, he was free to play with them as much as he liked. The funniest part was when he put the pup down on the floor, squooshing him just a little, and said, “Rat sleeping,” then punctuated it with a snoring sound. And the two rats kissed a lot. Pretty innocuous stuff, really. Gavi is getting two more teeth, and if he survives the coming in, I will be grateful forever to the giver of those teeth. He’s not getting diaper rashes like Caleb did, but he’s SO dang cranky it blows my mind. This little sweetness turns into a howling lunatic when he’s in this much pain. I’ll hold him until he falls asleep, but the second I try to put him down, he’ll awaken with a shriek, and continue yowling until I pick him up again. Good times to be a mom, lemme tell you! He had his first pizza bone a couple weeks ago! He ate the majority of it, then gummed the last little bit until it resembled the dough it started from. It was so cute. I got some pics, but since I’m the photographer, they might not be entirely clear. Ugh. Jonathan and I took Caleb to his first professional sporting event ~ A Colorado Crush game! I think he may have been more impressed with the BMX display at half time than the arena football game, but he had fun regardless. He also experienced the joy of… *drumroll, please*… cotton candy! Ohmigoodness, was it ever a blast to share some new experiences with him. Jonathan and I are being frugal and neither of us are particularly sporty, so getting free tickets to an event that we’d never seen was a fun way for all of us to try something new! Then we took Gavi to the zoo on his own while Caleb stayed at Grandma’s. It was such a blast to be able to stay at the zoo longer than two hours! We saw parts of the zoo that I’d never seen before, and it was awesome. Plus, Gavi got to take little naps whenever he wanted, but we didn’t have to deal with temper tantrums when we chose not to stay at the hippos for forty-five minutes. Caleb has started being brave in the pool – FINALLY! He’s got his little lifejacket, but he was still clinging to me like he was terrified he was going to drown. Since he was tall enough to touch the bottom – of the pool! – I convinced him to finally walk around. And once he understood that his head wasn’t going under water even when he lifted his feet up, that was it for Mommy. It’s so gratifying to have him discover that he can do something on his own. Now he’s a doggy-paddling fool! (And when he’s telling someone about it, he describes the arm motion as “the wheels on the bus go round and round.”) I’m getting really confident in his stability. Yesterday, I took Gavi in his new lifejacket out to the deep end, and Caleb followed us without any assistance. It’s a blast! When we have pennies and nickels, we've always given them to Caleb to put in his bank. But now there are two banks - one for Caleb and one for Gavi. When I put money in, I usually put it in Gavi's since Caleb is able to put money in his own. But I have to stop that now, because I watched him last time. He put a penny in his, said "For Caleb," then a penny in Gavi's and said, "For Gavi." He can't share a monster truck with his brother, but when it comes to money, he's splitting it right down the middle. Maybe because he has the concept of the clink, but not of the money itself. Ah, and now, the story that smacked my ego into oblivion: Caleb, Gavi and I went to Sam’s with Grandma a few weeks ago. Of course, Grandma bought Caleb some ice cream, and surprisingly enough, a couple of Disney movies found their way into our cart as well. When we were getting ready to leave, Grandma went to get a hot dog for Grandpa, and said she’d meet us at the car. So we headed to the door with our receipt. The lady at the door commented on Caleb’s face covered with ice-cream, and Caleb said, “Grandma bought me ice cream and I got it ALL OVER!” Then she pointed out the awesome videos and said someone had good taste. Caleb said, “Grandma bought me movies!” The lady looked right at me and said, “Do you just have them for the weekend?” SHE THOUGHT I WAS THE GRANDMA! The smile froze on my face and I just kept walking. Seriously, my brain got a little stuck. It was TERRIBLE! So, after buying stock in an eye cream company, I’ve decided to start taking action. Grr…
Wednesday Wanderings...
Every parent is faced with the kind of questions that make us uncomfortable to answer. Not so much BAD uncomfortable, but “what the heck do I say now” uncomfortable. Caleb asks “why?” about forty-nine times an hour, and sometimes those answers are a little sketchy for me. Some of them – usually regarding nursing Gavi – are glossed over lest I hear my words repeated in pleasant company. But yesterday came the first one that REALLY got me. “Where’s God?” Caleb asked on the way to VBS. (Since he’s not really attending, just accompanying me to nursery duty, I’m not really sure where the concept came from.) My brain went a tiny bit fuzzy. I was thinking so many things at once. “How can you simplistically present the idea of omnipresence? Do I dumb down my answer since my child is two? Or does that offend the Almighty Creator of the universe? If I answer wrong, could I derail my son’s entire spiritual future? GO FIND YOUR MOTHER, KID!” So I said a quick prayer, then responded, “God is everywhere, sweetie.” After a brief pause: “Okay.” No other comments, questions, ANYTHING. I at least expected to hear “why?” So I mentally wiped my brow, and considered the answer a success. I told Jonathan about it at dinner last night. So in return, he asked Caleb where God was. He thought for a minute, then said, “God’s at King Soopers.” Technically correct, right?! Anyway, we about bust a gut laughing. I love how he’s learning. His vocabulary and comprehension are just growing by leaps and bounds every day. Also, the bed seems to be an incredible success! He doesn’t sleep a whole lot yet, but he’s got the concept that he needs to stay in bed, whether it’s for his hour of quiet time or at night time. I put a couple of books by his bed, and he’s got a few stuffed animals. The biggest trouble has been him keeping Mr. Gavi up by shouting and singing when he should be sleeping. But after hearing some of the horror stories of my friends’ children’s experience, I was a little nervous. Plus, his first night was a little rocky. Our bathroom is only half done, but we have to wait until my Papa comes back from Germany to finish it. The stupid shower added two full days, and unfortunately, Jonathan and I weren’t as much help as he probably would have liked. Grr. But even unfinished, it’s about sixty times more beautiful than it was! And it seems SO much bigger! I can’t wait to get the shower done! Gavi is doing really well, too! He’s gaining a LOT of weight! I suspect that when we go back next week for his weight checkup, he’ll have gained about three pounds. It’s sad to see his little jowls come back, but I hate to think of him being undernourished just so his face is pretty! His big thing for interaction now is shaking his head. It’s the first way we’ve really seen him communicate. (His "lalalas" aren't contingent on our responses.) He’s so sweet! Jonathan actually feared that he had an inner ear infection for a while because he shakes his head so much. But as soon as anyone shakes their head back at him, he’s done! Then he’ll watch them until they nod, then shakes his head again. He’s giggling like a teeny madman, too. He’s such a sweetheart, I can’t hardly stand it. He’s more of a cuddler than Caleb ever was. It’s fun to just smoosh him. He and I get up earlier than the rest of the family, so I get a lot of time just snuggling him. Plus, he’s still waking up occasionally at night, and while he’s adjusting to the new bed, I’ll get up with him. And Jonny will probably hate having this in print, but in case Gavi ever goes back and reads this, it’s important to have on the record: Jonathan loves to sit and just kiss Gavi. He pulls him back when Gavi starts slipping him the tongue, but they’ll just sit and smile at each other and kiss forever. It’s too precious.
June Delights
Ohmigoodness, I feel like I brag on my kiddos so much that it’s all I do! Then I look at my blog, and it’s been five hundred years since my last post. My mom told me yesterday that I blog more than anyone she knows. But I’m the only person I know who doesn’t scrapbook or keep baby books, so with that perspective, get ready for my latest novel… Gavi has the biggest achievements these days: ~ open mouth kisses ~ pulling himself up on people and furniture ~ walking around said people and furniture ~ sings his “lalala’s” five hours a day ~ shaking his head no in response to someone else nodding or shaking their heads There have been other things I’ve forgotten – like how he started reaching out for whoever he wanted to pick him up. Or crawling like a tiny wind up toy. Or pushing his arms through his shirt rather than being a potato with arms. Or how he undermines my authority by giggling his little head off even though I’m yelling at his brother not to squish him. He’s playing with cars and trucks already, too! And he’s got three more teeth pushing their way through. I hope they come soon because he’s a cranky little cuss! Caleb’s biggest news of the day is… drum roll please… HE HAS A BIG BOY BED! Oh, is it beautiful. My Dad built it for my sister or my gram a few years back, and both of them have moved on to bigger and better beds. So they donated it to their grandson! It has a headboard that perfectly matches both the changing table AND the crib in their room and a better mattress than I’ve ever owned. Plus, Grandma went shopping for sheets and blankets and everything to entice him into it. NOT that he needed to be enticed! I’ve been prepping him for this day for the past couple of months, so as soon as Grandpa showed up yesterday, he demanded, “Where my big boy bed?” Anyway, we got pictures of him in it, and he kept requesting naps yesterday, so I think it was a success. During his actual nap, we were ripping out the bathroom, so he didn’t sleep for long. He’s in and out of that thing so quickly it’s terrifying. So when we put him to bed last night, I anticipated no problems. However, because the bed’s inaugural night was one in which we had been doing hard physical labor – I ripped down two walls of drywall, y’all! – and I had been forced to take an antihistamine at three thirty in the afternoon, Jonathan and I were barely able to stay conscious to get the boys into bed. A mistake I would warn other parents with new big kid beds not to make. At twelve thirty this morning, Gavi did his usual screaming bit, which I usually ignore. But since HE was in his new bed, too – a big boy bed in its own right! – I figured I’d better go reassure him. But I tripped over Caleb sleeping on the floor. Why was Caleb on the floor when he was so excited about his new bed? Because his bed was filled with EVERY BOOK HE OWNS. And most of the toys, too. If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I would have gone and got the camera then and there. As it was, I just threw all his books in his laundry basket and helped him back into bed without a lecture. And Gavi was just doing his usual teething cranky crying, so I just cuddled him and popped him back in bed. In other news, have I mentioned how much Gavi LOVES the pool?! We’ve only been three times, but every time he just giggles and coos. And Caleb loves it much more than last year. I was a little nervous about that. Unfortunately, since I’m the only person with the two of them, I have to hold both of them the majority of the time. Caleb has a little life jacket that keeps him more buoyant, and he’s able to sit on the stairs for part of the time so I can swoosh Gavi around a little. It’s precious. On Tuesday, I realized that since I could sit on the bottom and Caleb’s taller than I am sitting, he might be able to stand up rather than holding on to me the whole time. So I said, “Let’s see if you can touch the bottom. Stand up, duckie. Can you touch the bottom?” He looked at me like I was insane, then reached around and grabbed his own hind end. MAN, I love that kid! Yesterday at lunch, Caleb finished before the rest of us. He asked, politely, “Milk please, Mommy?” I said, “I’ll get you some milk as soon as I’m done eating.” He gazed around the table, checking out everyone’s plates, then said, “Grandpa, you done eating?” Everybody chuckled at his persistence. Grandpa said, “Yeah, buddy, but I don’t know where your milk is.” “Grandpa, it’s in the fridgerator!” he exclaimed. We erupted with laughter. The munchie has an answer for everything! There are a thousand other stories I could tell about the adorableness that is each of my boys, but since I’m outta time – hafta get back to that bathroom, dontcha know?! – I better leave it with this: If I could freeze these boys at this age, I wouldn’t. If it was my choice to keep them here, I would have to pass. But I am enjoying 98% of it more than I could have ever dreamed. I just know that something even MORE fantastic is on the way!
Where did May go?!
My beloved children continually take on new habits. Some are designed to reduce me to tears of joy, some are designed simply to teach me how much my parents deserve my respect for not killing me as a child. Caleb has started in on "why?" after every word, phrase, command or question is posed to him. I thought that didn't start until they were like four. I'm hoping he lives till four. The good thing is that it's not ALWAYS rebellion that prompts the question. Sometimes he seems genuinely curious. And sometimes he's just stalling. Regardless of its motivation, this single word is causing me to consider boarding school for preschoolers. It makes my "huh" frustration fall by the wayside. I guess that's the thing about life - never resent issues today, because tomorrow is probably going to bring something far more irritating. Wait, is that too pessimistic?! Gavi is a crawler to the extreme. He's the fastest little thing in the world. Except in sand ~ it's so fun to watch him on the playground, because he leaves "turtle tracks" in the sand! (Like when turtles are using their flippers to get off the beach? I'll have to try to find a picture.) But he gets where he's going. He also pulls himself up on anyone or anything that stands still. It really shocked me the first time he did it, because I hadn't realized he was to that phase yet! It doesn't seem like he should be able to do that yet! He's also enjoying the guilt factor that I've got going on. He eats almost twice as much as he was eating before and gets supplemental formula bottles as well! He eats ricotta with rice cereal for breakfast, chicken with zucchini and carrots for lunch, and pork with green beans and applesauce for dinner. It's got to be pretty nice for him. He still has cranky time at night, though. I don't know what it is. My favorite night of the week is Wednesday when we have our bible study. Having him in a different environment seems to keep him from cranking out. Plus, he just loves the ladies that play with him. Happy Birthday, Mom Fashbaugh! Did I mention that I saw Prince Caspian?! I usually just use this website to ramble about my cute kids, but MAN did I enjoy that! We had Rob and Susan come over after church then left the monkeys with Miss Mandy. (I had told Caleb, "Rob and Susan are coming over, then you'll stay with Miss Mandy. " So he kept asking when "Miss Robin" was coming over. Hilarious, if a little insulting to Rob's masculinity!) It was SO fun to see a movie in a big theater! The last movie I'd seen new was Juno back in December. I hope to get a chance to see Hancock, but I'm not going to count on it. My mom is retiring this FRIDAY! A lifetime of teaching little rugrats comes to a close. The end of an era, really. I thought she'd be happier, but I think she just needs to get done before she'll be excited. Right now, I think she's half grieving, half just in shock. And a smidge overwhelmed by all that she has to do before she's done! Regardless, if you see her, give her a big congratulatory hug! She's still involved with the school board at Rez, so I suspect she's not going to be some little gardening lady. And my own fair family is going to do the best we can to keep her hopping! Caleb's vocabulary is getting greater every day. His sentence structure sometimes just shocks me. It's fantastic! And Gavi is starting to babble. Hooray! His big thing now is the "lalalas" since he really just likes to play with his tongue. And I think he's got those next two teeth coming in. The two of them LOVE to play together! Whenever Gavi gets fussy, Caleb tries to calm him down with "peek-a-boo." It's so precious. On a good day, he can get Gavi laughing like a loon. On a bad day, it generally devolves into Caleb shushing him and Gavi screaming more loudly. It's a good time either way just to see Caleb work at the interaction.
How did I get a skinny baby?!
Start with Gavi news: that little stinker hasn't gained weight in three months! He eats like a baby hippo, and at eight months, still hasn't doubled his birth weight. The doctor wasn't really concerned, but asked me to go ahead and up his protein intake AND supplement with formula AND come back next month to have him weighed. I don't want to give up nursing until he can drink normal milk! I can't afford formula! (Correction: I don't WANT to afford formula. If that's the best thing for him, that's what I'll do. Happily.) Yesterday, I was one of those moms who had to walk calmly while my two year old screamed his little head off. We were only there for an hour when he tripped over a curb and hurt his elbow. After that, his attitude got worse and worse until he was continually yelling. At that point, I threw his teeny bottom back in the stroller, strapped him in, and walked as fast as I could while his voice reached pitches that caused even the loudest animals to cower. (We were over by the mishmi takin when it happened - the furthest point from the entrance.) Every child fell back, every mom looked at me in disbelief. Entire school groups - some of them high school - were freaking out. I suppose people assumed I had beaten him or something. It was that level of carrying on! And as soon as we got to the car, he said, "We go back to zoo, please?" Ohmigoodness, he makes me furious and delighted within about thirty seconds of each other! Oh, and last week, Caleb wore the shorts that he wore to his dedication two years ago. Nice. I guess baby butts just don't grow that much! Gavi has outgrown anything 6-9 months that is a one piece, but if it's just pants or shorts, even six month stuff just slides right down his little bottom. I think I've actually packed away six month clothes since it wasn't summer when he was wearing them. It's tempting to go back and get them out! Caleb is a jabberbox and Gavi is a slobberbomb ~ and both of them are just about as cute as anything you've ever seen. Gavi sat in the pew by himself at church last week! I had to keep a hand on his arm, because he likes to move from the seated position to crawling, and there was a two foot drop to the floor. Caleb has those little girls at church wrapped around his very small pinky. They cater to him like he's a little potentate. They're both just so friendly! I find myself wanting to be friendlier just to be like them. That's a good problem to have!
Top 5 (and other randomness)
Tagged again! This time, Terra has a list of TOP 5 things. How very “High Fidelity” of her. (Super cute flick that introduced me to Jack Black. I thought he was the same crazy as in Twister, who I now know was Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom I also love!) 5 things under $5 I couldn’t live without: - Diet Coke - ABC (Lost) and Fox (House) (cable internet comes with cheap tv) - The Library (that’s per month. I rack up some pretty serious fines…) - Toothpaste - Hair clippies 5 favorite movies: (for the moment) - Bend it Like Beckham - Dan in Real Life (I’m in the middle, but I’m anticipating a beautiful ending…) - Scarlet Pimpernel - Juno - The Incredibles 5 Baby Names I love: - Emma - Jasleen - Jonathan - Diesel (not kidding – heard it in the store this morning!) - Kyra 5 Songs I could listen to over and over again: - Creed (Rich Mullins’ version, not Third Day. Sorry.) - Be Thou My Vision (Fernando Ortega) - The Slam (Toby Mac) - I hope that I don’t fall in love with you (Tom Waits) - Lightning Crashes (Live) 5 People who have influenced me in a positive way: - Parents (two people, one flesh) - Pastor John Leach (youth pastor, senior pastor) - Jonathan Earl Fashbaugh (cutest boy in the world) - Caleb Zakai - Gavriel Zakai 5 Things that are always in my purse – aka: diaperbag - Burt’s Bees chapstick - Other random lipgloss - Wallet - Hand lotion (even if I don’t use it) - Tylenol 5 moments that have changed my life forever: - Introduction to Jonathan - Proposal by Jonathan - Wedding to Jonathan - Wedding night with Jonathan - Bearing Jonathan’s children (I swear I’m not obsessive, but he’s kind of been front and center at the majority of my highlights!) 5 Obsessions that I have right now: - Jonathan (how handy after I just said I wasn’t obsessive!) - Total Money Makeover - Biggest Loser Workout - MOPS - The cutest kids in the universe – my own! 5 Places I’d like to go: - Israel - Australia (although it’s not as urgent now that Steve Irwin isn’t with us) - Glenwood Springs - Mexico - Canada 5 Appliances or tools I can not live without - food processor (baby food!) - rice cooker/steamer (also helps with the baby food!) - microwave - George Foreman grill - FoodSaver (got it for my birthday last year. Seriously the coolest thing for cheapskates!) 5 People whose top 5 I’d like to see: - Evelyn - Jonathan - Wendy - Michelle - Alisa Okay, that’s all for the top 5. I need to throw out a couple of kid related things: First of all, Caleb and I were discussing going to the zoo, and he said, “We see dinosaurs at the zoo?” I said, “No sweetie, we won’t see dinosaurs at the zoo because they’re all gone.” He looked really sad, then said, “They go to work?” Too cute! My Gavi Z is doing a bang up job crawling! He does a crawl, crawl, thump. Back up on the knees. Crawl, crawl, thump. Back up on the knees. Etc. He’s also starting on finger foods today. That’s sheer desperation on my part. He just screeches all the time at meals, and it’s gotten pretty routine that I get everyone dinner ready, then sit down and feed Gavi while Caleb and Jonathan eat. Then I end up eating by myself and the food is cold. I know it’s kind of a stereotypical mom thing to do, but I don’t like it anymore. So that kid is going to eat earlier, then deal with tiny veggies or puffs while we eat. Oh, and Caleb said I was the most beautiful girl the other day. He’s getting pretty good at distracting me from what I’m doing!
Quickie...
I forgot to write earlier that between yesterday and today, Gavi has pulled himself from a laying down position into a sitting position. I don't know if it was an accident both times, but still - pretty cool stuff! I just let him gnaw on my fingers for an hour because it's the only way he isn't screaming lately. I'm totally scarred, but it was worth it. Sheesh. I don't remember teething being this traumatic for Caleb, but maybe that's because I dropped him off with someone else nine hours a day. NO WAY can I do that anymore! Even for the sake of my eardrums!
Quick Notes
My Gavi is taking a nap on my tummy as I type this. God bless the makers of the Moby! This poor little angel is having SUCH a terrible time teething that he’ll only take naps when I’m holding him. I’ve been sitting in the boys’ room for the last twenty minutes trying to get him to sleep, but my arms get tired. Finally, I wised up and got the Moby and he was out in ten seconds flat. Caleb Z is seriously the cutest thing in the world! Grandma gave him an outfit with Spiderman and an outfit with Cars on it. (Sorry, haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know what their names are.) In the five days since he’s had it, he’s worn the Spiderman outfit twice and threw a fit when I wouldn’t let him wear it again today. Welcome to the age of clothing awareness. We went to the zoo yesterday during the most perfect time. It was early enough in the day that it was nice without being hot, and other than about a dozen school groups, it was fairly uninhabited. We made it a little more than two hours when Caleb decided it would be best to leave. I’m cool with his making that decision, because he generally knows his own tolerances. As we were walking out the exit, it started to rain. Amazing timing! Jonathan will be home tomorrow! Yay! He’s been gone for more than a week now, first in San Diego, then New Orleans. He’s having a pretty good trip, though, so I’m grateful. My typing has woken up the little boy, so I need to get away from the computer. Happy May!
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