Adjectives and prepositions

B has been using adjectives much more the past couple of weeks. He says things like "Big red fire truck!" and "Little trashy truck" "Big yellow bullzaturner".

He's also started saying "and" sometimes, like when we are reading he will say "the cat -and- the dog -and- the chicken" It is just really cute to me the way he pauses before and after the "and's".

He has also started saying things like "under the table." I think this is his favorite preposition so far. He also likes "behind" alot. He said last night at dinner for example, "Quiche behind my mangi." Mangi = macaroni and cheese.

This afternoon he said "[B] has 2 cats sleeping in pappasan." Which was true, he was sitting in the pappasan with the two cats.

I just wanted to record these before I forget.

Go, Dog, Go! Sleep, Dog, Sleep?

Everyone knows there are two types of people- the night owls and the early birds.

I come from a long line of night owls, and apparently B has inherited these genes as well. He gets plenty of sleep, don't get me wrong, 9-11 hours per night, 1-2 hour naps most days (especially on days following the 9 hour nights).

It's just that he's not at all interested in going to bed at a "reasonable hour" for someone his age. On average he is asleep around 8:30-9ish, but many times he has been up til 10:30, 11, 11:30...
This schedule has advantages and disadvantages, of course. Less alone time for DH and me on B's late nights, but we all get to "sleep in" a little on the mornings after.

For Christmas, B's Godfather gave him the Dr Seuss book, "Go, Dog, Go!" - one of my childhood favorites as well. I still clearly remembered reading about the "big dog party" at the end; it just fascinated me somehow as a child, imagining all these dogs on top of a tree. B absolutely loves it and we read it usually at least once per day.

There is a certain page in the book which talks about how "Night is not a time for play. Night is a time for sleep." This is great in and of itself-now B has taken to quoting that particular passage, so he is hopefully absorbing that message to some extent. The associated illustration depicts a long line of dogs all sleeping in a row in their big bed, except one lone dog whose eyes are wide open.

When I ask B who that wakeful dog is, he responds with his name. It cracks me up every time.

It is so true.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Shortly after B was born, my Mom brought us a toy that had survived my childhood so that he might enjoy it too. I polished it up, but ever since it has been sitting up high on a dresser in B's room.

As I've blogged about previously, we have had a bedtime routine for about a year now with B, and it usually involves reading at least 2 books. Lately one we've been reading fairly frequently is a book of nursery rhymes, including "Hickory Dickory Dock."

One evening during our bedtime routine as we read his nursery rhymes, I remembered the little toy my Mom had brought and took it down for B to look at. It is a Fisher Price "radio" that plays the tune of "Hickory Dickory Dock." And he loved it!

Because he is a boy, of course he loves all kinds of the same things my husband played with growing up. I was overjoyed that there was finally a toy from my childhood that he was interested in and wanted to play with.

This is the first thing I felt that he really liked of mine. I am so glad that it still works and that my Mom thought to bring it to us so that we can share it with him.

Roll it, Pat it, Mark it with a...

Smelling the "flower"!










Licking the spoon.









It was baking day at our house today.

For many years (since before we met, 12 years ago?), my husband's favorite cake has been carrot. There was no chocolate groom's cake at our wedding reception- it was carrot all the way [totally delish].

So for the past few years, I have baked a carrot cake from scratch for him on his birthday, which is coming up again very soon.

But today was super special because it was the first time B helped.
He stirred the eggs, smelled the flour (I tried to explain that it only sounded the same as "flower" but he didn't quite catch that), and generally had a pretty good time. He also smelled the vanilla and cinnamon and was slightly more impressed with those than the "flower".

He even licked the spoon!

To make an omelette...

So, we all have our little ways of doing things, right?

Most of the time when you're living with someone, you can put up with a lot of their quirks. They feed the toilet paper roll under, no problem, you quickly reverse it, problem solved.

But then there are the things that you can't "fix". Ingrained habits we all have, but which may get on our most loved ones' last nerve.

In our household, a major issue is the technique employed for cracking eggs. Really, you ask? Seriously? I am afraid I must say yes.

I crack my eggs on the rims of bowls or pans. That is just the right way. My dear husband, on the other hand, takes the egg and cracks it - I am not kidding you - on the underside of my kitchen counters. Ugh. This little habit of his has been grating on me for months now.

Then just in the past few days I have seen this miraculous product, the EZ Egg Cracker, advertised. Many people may claim that this is a superfluous, even useless product. But this I dispute this as an oversimplification. It may be a sanity preserver or in the most extreme case, a relationship redeemer.

More Funny Moments with B

Driving home this afternoon from the aquarium, we were stopped at a red light.
I turned around and blew B a kiss and he said something, but I couldn't catch what he said. In the meantime, I noticed the light had changed.
As we drove on I kept asking him to repeat himself because he had said a phrase that I hadn't heard him use before and I was interested to know what it was. I had him repeat several times...
Finally, I translated what he had said: "Light is green!"
I burst out laughing.
I asked him, "Mommy turned around to give you a kiss and you were telling Mommy that we needed to go because the light had turned green?"
And he's like "Yes!"
I just thought it was hilarious.
:-)

Mashed 'Tatoes!!

We made homemade mashed potatoes while my parents were here for the holidays.

Ever since then, every morning if I ask B what he dreamed about he says "Mashed 'tatoes!" And laughs. When I then ask if he wants to eat mashed potatoes, he quickly says "no."

So I don't get the joke or why he always claims to dream of them, but I love it. I think it's too cute!!

Weekend

Yesterday, I took B to the Aquarium. It was wonderfully empty and quiet on a Friday afternoon. Quite a contrast to the previous Saturday when we all went. Although that was an awesome time too- but I was glad DH was with us!

This morning, we walked down to our little community center and attended the pancake breakfast to benefit our fire department. It was nice to be a part of a community event like that and be around other families, even though we don't actually know anyone and didn't speak to anyone else. Which caused us to discuss this very fact as we ate, how we grew up in the opposite way; if our families had gone to such an event, our parents would have known at least half the people there. We concluded that whenever we do get more settled, we will have to make much more of an effort to be community-involved.

This afternoon, we went to a local park that we hadn't explored before. The scenery was quite nice and since it rained a lot this week, the little creek that runs through was fairly high.

I have been feeling more hopeful lately than at the start of the year. I do not necessarily feel like following our doctor's advice to wait one cycle to start trying again...I don't really see why it is necessary and I am so anxious. I think the main reason doctors advise this is so that they will have an easy way to estimate due date, based on your LMP. Anyway, we probably won't "try" but we may not do anything to prevent either.

In summary it has been a great weekend so far. I hope tomorrow is nice too.

The things they say

Lately many interesting things have come out of B's mouth. Some super cute, some that make us want to hide...Here is a sampling:

"Have a good day!"
And its newest variation : "Have a good day, stupid!"
And lots of "stupid" in general. ugh!
"Damn it!" *cringe*
"What [are] you doing Papi/Mommy?" spoken in a high sweet voice. love this one.
"No!" also "Nope!" and "buh-BYE!"- same meaning...
"Get up, Papi/Mommy/bullzaturners (bulldozers)!"
"Ow! Ow Ow!"- not when he's actually hurt but when we are doing something he doesn't want to do- get in the car seat, put on his shoes/jacket/hat, etc.
He refuses to hold my hand, yelling (in public) "Dry skin!". *cringe* again.
When I ask him my name, he knows it (not perfect pronunciation, but we understand). However when I ask him what Papi's name is, he usually responds with my nickname for my husband. Very sweet.
He has known his middle name for at least 4 months now and if you ask him his other name he tells you.
He started saying "yucky!" a few months ago and I told him to say "No, thank you" instead. He actually does most of the time now.
Today, we were eating mongolian bbq at the mall and I was encouraging him to eat other things besides just noodles. So I asked if he would eat an onion and he said "No, thank you!" So I made a big deal out of eating it and said it was yummy and a few seconds later he said "Mommy eat onion. [His name] eats noodles!" Super cute.

A couple of months ago we were all driving along one evening and we saw a personalized license plate that said "A J Bug". So my husband and I were conversing about what it might mean and B just started cracking up. saying "Itchy Bug". So now Itchy Bug has been an inside joke for our family, and he cracks up whenever we say it.

"Up high, Papi/Mommy!" when he wants to be picked up.

"Big Bobba Boom" could mean that something scares him or that he got hurt.

"Poor [B]." This one also cracks us up and he says it appropriately, like when he falls down or something.

"Love Papi/Mommy...although usually he only says spontaneously "Love Scotty/Mocha"- our cats...

Calls McDonalds "Pancakes" because for the past few months for a treat sometimes we go there for breakfast.

My mom gave B "Hi God" for Christmas.
I was listening to it again tonight and I wanted to share this song. The youtube version is not the original Carey Landry version, but gives an idea. Below are the lyrics. It touched me even more now that I have a son who may ask questions like this someday.

What Color is God's skin?

"Good Night" I said to my little son
So tired out when the day was done
Then he said, as I tucked him in

"Tell me, Daddy- What Color is God's skin?"

CHORUS
What color is God's skin? What color is God's skin?
I said it's black, brown, it's yellow... it is red, it is white
Every man's the same in the good Lord's sight.

He looked at me with his shining eyes
And then I knew I could tell no lies
He asked "Daddy, why do the different races fight
If we're the same in the good Lord's sight?"

CHORUS

"Son, that's part of our suffering past
But the whole human race is learning at last
The thing we missed on the road we trod
Is walking as the daughters and the sons of God".

CHORUS

These words to America a man once hurled
God's last chance to make a world
The different races are meant to be
Our strength and glory from sea to sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqVw9gN7a0

Not so good start to the new year

So, I was hoping to shortly announce that we were expecting a little brother or sister for B, due in August. But instead I am currently going through a miscarriage. Ugh.
We had our first doctor appointment on Dec 9th and she didn't see anything in the embryonic sac. But actually, even before she looked she had said not to worry, because it was so early we may not see anything...but she had me go and check hormone levels. They seemed ok. The first day was 2400 and 2 days later, 4000. She expected to see the embryo by around 5000, and since the day we had gone to the dr was the 2400 day, things still seemed to be on track. I started getting the same symptoms I had had with our son and everything.
Our hopes and plans were blown apart however at our next visit. On Dec 23rd (really bad timing by the way), we went back and she still couldn't see anything in the sac. She started saying different things and then words like "blighted ovum" (which innocent me had never even heard of) and "miscarriage". What? No this can not be happening. I started to tear up but I was still in shock. I still had hope. Somehow.
Something strange that helped me was actually that the same tech was there that afternoon, right after we got that news, to take the blood for hormone levels. He had also taken it the previous 2 times, but at a different lab location. So I was shocked to see him, but we had shared small talk before, and now tears were just streaming down my face. I had to go to get the blood taken at the same hospital where we had had such a wonderful birth experience 2 years before with our son. And here was this stranger that I had only seen 2 other times. I told him, "It doesn't look good." Of course, he could probably tell that by the tears. Anyway, he took me back to draw the blood and he shared his personal story about how he and his wife had experienced the same loss and gone on to have 3 girls. I appreciated his kindness. That was the first thing that made me feel even slightly better.
I feel like God brought us together somehow. It was just a really strange coincidence to me that he was there at the other lab the 1st 2 times and then at the hospital lab that last time. Anyway, sure enough the numbers were high- 17000. Which was very bad news, since she still hadn't seen anything on the u/s.
During the next week, I had to go through the motions of the holidays without feeling like it at all. My parents were visiting. We all got sick.
But through it all I still had some crazy hope that my doctor, as much as I respect and love her was wrong somehow. I went back and looked at the early u/s pictures of our son. And I counted the weeks...the first one was at 6.5 weeks, and he was just a tiny dot, no heartbeat. On average, they expect to see a heartbeat on the u/s by 6 weeks. We didn't see it until the next u/s, which was at 9 weeks, 1 day. At the u/s on the 23rd, I was exactly 8 weeks. And my cycles are much longer than average, so maybe, just maybe I thought, she's wrong. I haven't had any cramping, no spotting, nothing. She must be wrong. I went over it, again and again. I googled "blighted ovum" and found stories of women who said they had had their doctors tell them the same thing only to see the baby at a later appointment.
We "celebrated" our 9th wedding anniversary on the 30th. Then, on the 31st, the spotting began. Just a tiny speck, but there. So I knew. No matter how exact my calculations, they couldn't change the truth. I just never thought this would happen to me. I have only been pregnant once before, and my son is healthy, the pregnancy was fairly easy- I did have gestational diabetes, but it was easily managed through diet. So how could this be happening?
I really couldn't talk about this with anyone at first, but when the spotting started, I decided to share what was happening on my facebook page and I have received so many messages of support and love and prayer. It has really helped me.
Writing this also helps I think.
I am slowly starting to have hope again. For the new year, that it may actually turn out decent after all.
I am never going to innocently trust the "pregnant" reading on a pregnancy test again though. In fact I was so angry at first that I told my husband I was never going to take one again because they just lied; that I would just wait and then make the appointment with the dr and see on the u/s what was happening. I may still do that actually. It is so painful to have been wanting this for more than a year and trying for several months, finally seeing that "pregnant"!! Only to find out weeks later that it isn't so.
We are going back to my dr on Friday. I have many questions, such as, can they tell the sex by what is left (chromosomally)? What does she think the chances are that the embryo had already stopped developing by the time I took the pregnancy test? When can we start trying again??? etc.
I will update hopefully with better news in the coming months...