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.

 Terra replied...

The reason I hated Fracture so much was that I couldn't figure it out and of course my husband had it figured out way early and then made me feel like a dunce for not getting it. I even had to think about it awhile afterwards to put all the pieces together. I suppose it has less to do with the movie and more to do with not liking looking stupid, even with my husband. :)

 

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!

 Emily replied...

That is too funny about the dinosaurs! What a cutie!

I, too, sometimes end up eating by myself. It's just not fair. I have tried to feed Chloe first, but now that's she's eating more of the same food that we're eating, it doesn't always work. Sometimes, she does end up getting crackers or puffs or cereal while we're eating. I'm afraid the doctor is going to yell at me at her appt. on Monday. She's such a chunk!! She and Jamie are only a few pounds apart. She's already in a size 2T. Eeek.

I better get back to work now. I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! Love you!

 

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!

Happy May!

Being a parent is always challenging. I’m not sure that anyone who tells you it’s easy would be entirely truthful. However, for every difficulty comes a hundred joys, so it pretty much just balances out in favor of having billions of kids. It’s been a while since I posted, so I’ve got a lot to say. Again, for your reading pleasure, it’s broken down. Read a paragraph a day for the next three years…

Gavi’s Bear Crawl: Little guy is really starting to try to crawl, but can’t quite get the knee motion right. So he pulls himself up on his very tippie toes and moves around that way. Actually, it’s starting to look like he’s trying to get to a standing position because he pulls his hands down close to his toes. It’s just hilarious to watch.

Poo-apalooza: Caleb occasionally likes to go “potty in the toitet,” and even though I’m not keen on potty training right now, I appreciate the desire. So we go to the bathroom, and I take down his pants and diaper so he can go potty. Unfortunately, there was a poo in said diaper, and it hits the floor with a thud, causing Caleb to jump back in alarm. Stepping in it, of course. Then as I’m frantically trying to grab him, he starts running, spreading poo from the shoe all over the bathroom floor. When I finally get him by the hand, he falls over backwards, further fostering the poo spread into the hallway. I’m avoiding stepping in the multiple poo prints, but then when I picked him up, I slipped and had to step in a pile to avoid dropping my sweet boy. Our bathroom looked like the site of some strange poo ritual. I cleaned carpet for the rest of the day.

Two bowls down, Cap’n: One of the mornings that had already started off a little rough became comically bad thanks to our sweet Gavi. He’s become very grabby, for lack of a better term. You can’t hold him and try to drink anything anymore because he’ll get a finger hooked around the rim of the glass and yank. On this particular morning, I forgot about his full range of motion, and placed his bowls of food within lunging reach of his highchair. As I went to get him a bib, I hear Caleb say, “Oh no!” and I was just quick enough to get back to the room to see him dangling the rice cereal bowl from two fingers. As I ran in slow motion, he released his grip, and the cereal joined the carrots and zucchini on the floor. I cleaned that one for about a half an hour. Luckily, I have orange carpet.

Fun on Stage: Two weeks ago at church, the children’s church overseer had all the kids from the fifth grade and under come up on stage just to show the people in the church how many of them there were. Then she said, “Let’s pray.” This was the first time Caleb had been on stage at church, and Jonathan and I were beaming in pride as he folded his hands, closed his eyes and bowed his head. Seriously, I was crying. He was such a big boy, and all of a sudden I felt like he was growing up too fast. Halfway through the prayer, he and another little boy started wandering the stage and happened upon a banjo sitting in it’s stand. And they started playing with it. The lady just kept praying as my tears of pride and joy turned into the weeping of a woman who doesn’t know what to do. Do we interrupt the prayer? Haul him off stage? Fortunately, she stopped praying and dismissed them all to Sunday school, and Caleb only stayed on stage for another minute to mistreat the banjo.

Gavi’s Dedication: It was so great! The Fashbaugh grandparents, the Garmane grandparents, Unka Chris and Sisa and Auntie Cristina joined us at church for Gavi’s big day. Pastor Jay did the dedication, and everyone joined us on stage for the “vows.” It was a little different than I expected, but incredibly special. And Gavi was such a sweetheart! He only interrupted once during the prayer to grab Jay’s microphone! And Caleb ran around from relative to relative until my dad grabbed him and held him. After all, there was a banjo on stage to be avoided!

Flowers for my hair: Anytime my Caleb starts to really get to me, I just remember how precious he is with flowers. He is now picking every dandelion he can find to bring to me. He makes me so happy. “I pick a flower for you, Mommy!”

First teeth: Gavi’s two bottom teeth were just below the surface for about a week, and then during Mom and Dad Fashbaugh’s visit, they both popped out within twelve hours of each other! I was so happy, thinking that his teething fussiness would start to abate, but there’s a whole mouthful of those suckers waiting to come in!


Gotta get this posted before I forget again and go another month without posting! Since this is my alternative to a scrapbook, I'm kind of doing a lousy job!