Many Bullet Points...

So much has been going on! So many firsts, so many visits, so much FUN! (And so little sleep.) So that explains my lack of posting…

1) Caleb made his first cookies! Oatmeal raisin. They were super yummy. He worked every step, until Mommy finally quit letting him when he decided that rather than spooning dough onto the cookie sheet, he would spoon it directly into his mouth!
2) Gavi is a laughing maniac! He’ll just get started and not quit. It’s like those viral videos of kids sounding all insane while they laugh. Those videos freak me out, but when Gavi does it, I get all happy!
3) Caleb decided to use Vicks VapoRub as hair gel. Much hilarity ensued. Corn starch followed by dish soap followed by corn starch followed by dish soap, then repeated a half dozen more times. But his hair looked incredible the next day. So was it a debacle or a discovery?!
4) I’m working super hard right now on getting rid of Gavi Z’s cradle cap. I’ve been pretty mellow about it since I understand that it generally goes away on it’s own, but we’re doing pictures this weekend! Plus, no matter how short his nails get cut, I can’t keep him from clawing at his head and face when he gets frustrated. So for the next day and a half, he’s wearing socks on his hands.
5) Caleb is starting to have a concept of pottying. For example, in the bathtub, he’ll fill up his rubber ducks with water, then put them on his Gatorade bottle and say, “Look, Mommy! Ducky potty!” And when we’re playing with stuffed animals, he’ll have them “drink” from his cup, and later ask if they went potty. You’d think I was forcing him to get potty trained.
(Side note on this: last night I was on the pampers website, finding out what size of diapers Gavi needed to be wearing. Apparently there’s a guy who believes it is a "slap to the intelligence of a human being that one would allow baby to continue soiling and wetting himself past age 2." He says that it shouldn’t be more difficult than housebreaking a four month puppy. I can understand that viewpoint, but I choose to believe my little boy is a lot more complex than a puppy.)
6) Gavi was fifteen pounds twelve ounces at his last appointment. We keep messing with him about being the chunkiest little man in the universe, but he’s smaller than Caleb was at this age!
7) Caleb’s language is getting so amazing! And he knows the colors orange, green and purple. The primary colors still evade him, though. He’s really big into the interaction between things – yesterday, the alligator was eating the bunny’s toes. Pretty specific. And with the magna doodle that Miss Karen gave him, he's taken to drawing snakes and fish. (The snakes are pretty convincing.)
8) My Gavi is not doing a lot better with the sleeping, but now that we’re getting the vomiting under control, I have high hopes! He’s four months old now, and I believe that as his acid reflux gets less, he won’t be so desperate to eat all the time.
9) We joined MOPS! It was so fun! I made a super-plain picture frame, but I finished it, by golly! I’m really looking forward to continuing it. The ladies were lovely, and even though it was the first time I’d ever left Gavi in the nursery, I didn’t worry about him!
10) We’ve gone to this new church three times now, and we’ll continue going until God tells us otherwise. Yay!

Okay, enough numbers! Jonathan is on his merry way to Puerto Rico, and after Caleb’s gym time today, we’re on our way to Grandma’s!

Triumphant!

I am a mechanical genius. After many, MANY failed attempts, I have put something together that came in more than three pieces. Actually, by that criteria, today I have put together TWO somethings!

My biggest accomplishment is Gavi’s highchair! My folks bought one for Caleb that is beautiful and heritage-worthy. Unfortunately, without padding, belts or removable parts, he didn’t sit in it until he was almost seven months old, and then only under giant supervision. So they – my folks – bought Gavi one that he can sit in now! But it had to be put together, and I set about on the challenge of assembly.

Caleb helped a little, so I can’t take all the credit. He held the legs while I figured out what went where.

Anyway, I had success! Please see the pictures that I’m sure will be posted soon, because Jonathan has been a wild man at getting pictures up lately! (AND DID YOU SEE THAT NEW DESIGN?! He’s amazing! If you came in directly to my page, go to the home page and see the difference.)

Then, my second big accomplishment was putting together Caleb’s potty chair. Some of you may scoff at that, but there were seriously ten pieces! I’m really not going to push potty training. I was going to – and may still – wait another six months. But two days in a row now, while I’ve been feeding Gavi, Caleb sneaks off to his room and takes off his diaper! He was doing it during his nap a while back, but had quit. Now, he says, “potty?” I figure it’s just another phase, but who am I to discourage him?!

The other thing the little stinker did while I was feeding Gavi yesterday was to get into our hall closet, get one of my new shower gels from Christmas, and dump it all over himself and the couch in his room. Sheesh. I’m going to have to get some more child-proofing jazz!

Gavi Z has been having some hard core sleep issues for the past couple of days. I think they’re related to his hard core eating issues, which may very well stem from the fact that I was trying to lower his dose of antacids. Big mistake. Between Caleb’s messes yesterday and Gavi’s throwing up, we went through four outfits APIECE yesterday! Anyway, the result of Gavi’s sleep issue is that I am having some coping issues. I fell apart this morning for the first time since my Bell’s Palsy went away.

Is Bell a person that they named a palsy after? What a sucky legacy.

I was quick to pull it together, because Caleb Zakai came and sat in my lap and wiped away my tears. He has such a sweet nature. Another example? Jonathan and I have been working out a couple nights a week, and one of the exercises that absolutely destroys me is the wall-sit. Sunday night, after I had crumpled to the floor in pain like usual, Caleb came over and said, “It’s okay, Mommy! Kisses?” Then after his kisses, he helped me to my feet. Dang, he’s precious!

We got into a MOPS group! After being put on two wait-lists, I was able to find a group with some space. I’m so happy! I don’t even know if I’ll like it, but I’ve been wanting to do it ever since I left my job. They don’t meet during the summer, and then when they started back up, my sweetness was born. Now we’re finally going to get to go!

My little Gavi is just the most adorable little man in the whole world! He smiles any time he isn’t screaming. Even when he’s eating, he’ll just look up at me and grin. It makes it really hard for me to be mad at him for his lack of night-time etiquette. He’ll learn, I guess. Just like Caleb did. I hope he learns faster than Caleb.

I’ve made some mistakes as a mom lately. I don’t want to post all of them, lest child services come after me – KIDDING! – but one of the most recent was yesterday afternoon. Caleb was screechy-whining, which is my least favorite sound in the world. Gavi was wailing, my second least favorite sound in the world. Both of them were having a rough afternoon, which (to quote Jane from Serenity), seriously damaged my calm. But I wasn’t yelling or anything, which is kind of a miracle, because I also had a headache. I was just like a robot. A sleep-deprived, on edge robot. What finally pulled me out of my funk was when Caleb hollered at me, “Don’t sit there, Mommy!” I stood up, put my hands on my hips, and said, “You’re not the boss of me!”

Realizing you’re acting like more of a two year old than your two year old is a disheartening thing. But if you were about to lose it and that shook you out of complacency, it's priceless!

 Wendy replied...

I just love those mind-numbing crazy kiddo days....good for you for reminding Caleb who's boss. :) hee hee....

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And! Happy Anniversary to me. Happy Birthday to Michelle and Quentin. Happy almost-anniversary to the Van Ryn’s. And happy almost birthday to Jasmine and her mommy! What an eventful time the new year is!

Our anniversary was awesome! My folks watched the boys and got us a hotel in Loveland so that we still only had to make the long drive once. We got to have dinner out ~ thanks to a gift certificate from my folks as well! Bonefish Grill is new to Loveland, and jam packed full of people who have been waiting for such a trendy place in town. (I still prefer Chilis.)

We went to see Juno. There were a lot of questionable things in it from my moral standpoint, but it was the closest thing to “a triumph of the human spirit” that I’ve seen in a long time. I wept pretty copiously through it. I’m thinking it would have been ten times worse if I’d been pregnant while I saw it. Seriously. It’s by the same director as “Thank You For Smoking,” which I think was the last movie I recommended on my blog. Considering that those are the only two movies he’s really directed, I think I might have a new favorite guy!

Then we crashed at our hotel with some Ben and Jerry's, watched a couple episodes of “Bones,” and slept in the next morning until almost nine o’clock! I seriously don’t remember the last time that happened! It was GLORIOUS!

Then Chris and Alisa were going to watch the boys for us on Sunday, our actual anniversary, so that we could go to another movie. But they gave Jonathan a 55 gallon tank and stand with some beautiful African cichlids, so there was a lot of work in transporting it, and by the time it was set up, Jonny and I were exhausted. (We’d slept until almost nine – why were we so tired?!) So Chris and Alisa stayed for the evening and we played Munchkin!

Oh, and for Christmas, Jonathan’s old boss gave him some game money, so he bought a new fun one – Ninja Burger. And he used a birthday gift certificate to buy another game at B&N – Carcassone. We’ve sure been having fun with all the games!

And games were certainly played on New Year’s Eve! We always have kind of a last minute party and invite people to our place, and this year we ended up with a dozen people! We started with Ninja Burger, then some people broke off to Carcassone, and at about eleven-thirty, we started a ten person game of Nerd. (Multi-person solitaire for anyone who doesn’t know what it is.) It was unreal! We had to stand up around the table because we couldn’t fit that many chairs around.

Yesterday, the 2nd of January, marked two years after I had to take my son Caleb to daycare for the first time. I spent the morning praising God that I don't have to do that with Gavi, and thanking the people that make it possible. I was crying just thinking about it. I never thought I’d be such a big wuss about my boys. My friends from high school know what a huge cynical poo-head I was about kids. They laugh at the transformation. I laugh too, because I’m so much happier this way! I hope you’re happy too!