Nephews

All of our nephews--along with my parents, three of my brothers, and two of my sisters-in-law--got together in San Diego this past week. Here are some pictures of the cuteness. When J and I looked at them this morning we really really wished we could have been there, too.

This is G (almost 2.5) meeting Li'l Tyke (9 months) for the first time.

Is this not the cutest ringbearer (and family) ever? A&M travelled out to San Diego for a wedding, and G was the ringbearer. I can't get over how adorable he is in his tux!

In this picture of Li'l Tyke (who is getting so big!), J and I think he really looks a lot like Cali's dad.

Love this huge smile!!

Here's 4-month-old Trucker chatting it up with Li'l Tyke.

Trucker always has the cutest little baby expressions. I just love this photo!

M's face in this picture is classic.

Looks like the water was cold!

I love my sisters-in-law!!

And, not to be outdone, here's one of my brothers--Geg, Surf, and A:

First Belly Shots: A Comparison

15 weeks (3.5 months), baby 1

16 weeks (3.5 months), baby 2

19 weeks (4.5 months), baby 1

20 weeks (4.5 months), baby 2

Momdy

On Mother's Day J and I called each of our grandmothers and mothers and wished them a happy mother's day. When we called my grandmother, she told J at one point that she was so impressed with how good he is with R and that he's like a "second mother" to her.

I think R agrees.

Tonight, while getting ready for bed, I asked her if she wanted Mommy to read her a story. She picked up Shel Silverstein's Falling Up, walked over to J, and said, "Dat's Momdy, Momdy read a book" and promptly sat down in his lap.

A Conversation with Grandma about Baby Names

When my parents came to visit at the beginning of May, we spent some time one evening talking about baby names. If you know my mom, you know she can be downright goofy sometimes. Check it out.

Grandma: You know what would be a good boy name?
S & J: What?
Grandma: Superman.
J: Nicolas Cage already did that. But hey, that's a good idea-- what are some good superhero names we can consider?
Grandma: How about Wolverine?
J: Actually, Logan is pretty cool.
Grandma: Or Hugh, because Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine.

Wash your hands, Baby

We spend a lot of time talking to R about the new baby and explaining that there's a baby in Mommy's belly. She loves to lift up my shirt and look at my belly button (which is completely flat right now-- it doesn't poke out at all, it just flattens out!) and say things to the baby.

The last two days she's spent a lot of time telling the baby, "Wash your hands, Baby, Wash your hands, wash hands, Baby" or "Baby in dere!"

I have no idea why she thinks the baby needs to wash its hands, but she has said that on more than one occasion. Maybe she knows something we don't?

I can't wait until the baby's movements are strong enough for her to feel through my belly. Right now it's still early enough that only certain movements, at random times, are strong enough for someone else to feel from the outside.

Halfway there!

Some news I haven't talked about on here yet: we're expecting a second baby sometime in mid-October.

We're thrilled! It's hard to believe we've already reached the half-way point in the pregnancy though. Be prepared for lots of baby-related posts in the near future, including a few I've had lined up waiting until I was ready to start talking about it on here.

Sweet!

It's Parent Appreciation Day -- or at least Free Breakfast for Parents Day -- at R's daycare today. J was sweet enough to bring me back a chocolate donut after gorging himself on fruit and bagels while there. I took the opportunity to make myself a small cup of half-decaf coffee and enjoyed my donut. Mmm!

Toddler Fashion

The other day, R insisted on accessorizing her outfit herself. She's wearing a belt made from a lion headband, a cape made from a sleeper, a Michael Jackson-esque sock glove, and a new hat J and I bought for her at a tag sale. She was so proud of her outfit that when I asked if she wanted me to take some pictures, she was more than happy to pose and show it off.

A Party! A Party!

A conversation we had before going to a picnic yesterday:

S: (to R) Are we going to go to a party?
R: A pee pee party!
S: (surprised) Are we going to a pee pee party?
R: (pause) Nooooooooo!
J: (who is holding R in his arms) (laughs) Took the words right out of my mouth!
R: (licks J's mouth and then buries her head in his shoulder)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

I read this book to R two days ago.It's a Signed English version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears that was actually mine when I was younger and my mother was teaching me how to read and sign.

R loved the story. She got really into it.

When I finished the first read-through, R read through it herself, turning all the pages and pointing out stuff on every page. Her favorite page-- or at least the one she talked the most about-- was the page where Goldilocks breaks Baby Bear's chair.
Then she wanted me to read it to her again.

Fast forward to today. She woke up from her nap just talking and talking and talking--having this huge long monologue up in her room. Since she wasn't crying or fussing, I just let her talk, figuring it was good for her to continue to have quiet to-herself time. J listened through the monitor for awhile and we were kind of confused. She was saying things like, "chair broke to pieces not at home not at home not at home not at home bears eat cream of wheat" and lots of other random words we couldn't always make out.

Honestly, at first, we couldn't really tell what she was saying because we had no idea what she was talking about. Once we figured out that it was all about Goldilocks and the Three Bears it came together. She must have been telling the story to her three babies that sleep in her crib with her.

When she came downstairs, she still wanted to talk about Goldilocks. Here's a video of part of our conversation.

(a transcript of the video conversation follows, for those who may have difficulty understanding either me or R):

S: Do?
R: Broke da chair.
S: Yeeaaah. And was Baby Bear saaad?
R: (nodding head) Cyin.
S: What did he do?
R: Cy [cry]
S: He cried, that's right
S: What did Goldilocks do when the bears came home?
R: No, no
S: Did-- The bears told Goldilocks no, no, right? And then she ran home. Yeah.
R: A run. A run no.
R: Tha-. Goldilocks.
S: Yeah
R: Lock a door. Lock a door.
S: That's right, next time the bears will have to lock the door.

So, folks, there you have it. Moral of the Story: Lock The Door.

My new desktop pic

23 months

Dear R,

You just turned 23 months. What a little lady you're becoming. Almost daily we have conversations that run something like this: "No, mommy, sit down, sit down mommy, sit down right here, right here, mommy." Then you insist that I sit down while you go off and do something--quite often something you know I don't want you to do.

The upside is that when I "catch" you, we share a gigglefest while I distract you from whatever it is you've got your heart set on doing. You love to laugh and giggle and Daddy and I love to make you laugh, so it works out great for everyone.

You're using a lot more sentences, and you're much clearer on what you want. It takes more work than it used to to distract you from what you want, and you make a lot more specific requests.

Among your favorite requests: Blueberries! or Strawberries! or Blackberries!

or Yogurt! or, if J or I are eating, "have some?" accompanied by vigorous head nodding.

We have to be careful about how much food you have on your plate because--especially if it is something you really like--you often shove so much food in your mouth you have to spit it back out because your mouth is so full you can't even chew. It's not uncommon for me to tell you, "chew, chew, chew" to encourage you to grind up your food more carefully. Sometimes we even do "crunch, crunch, crunch," from a John Leguizamo as "Captain Vegetable" Sesame Street video we watched with you once on YouTube.

Love,
Mama

What Does the Dragon Say?

(J is reading R a book about dragons while talking on the webcam with Grandma and Grandpa.)

J: (turns page) Oh, what color is this one?
R: Yellow!
J: Yeah, it's got some yellow on it, up here. But thiiis part's orange.
R: Ohnge!
Grandpa: (over webcam) What's the dragon say?
R: Bye-o

Corn Flakes

Eating is turning into a new kind of adventure with R. She no longer wants to have warm cereal for breakfast-- we used to always give her oatmeal or cream of wheat. She now insists on having (usually) whatever kind of cereal J is eating, although lately she's been demanding corn flakes, more corn flakes, please!

The other thing is that she won't sit at her high chair at the big table anymore. Nope. She has to sit at her little chair and table set (a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa-- they got her this one) to eat. The only problem is that the table's still a little bit high for her when she sits with her bottom on the chair, so she likes to sit on her knees, and she's not the best at keeping her spoon--dripping with milk--over the bowl so there's usually drips and flakes everywhere.

I wonder how long she'll be doing this. She even insists on having dinner over there, so while J and I are eating at the big table, she wants to be at her own little table. Maybe if we get her a "regular" type chair for the big table she'll be more interested. I'd love to get her a Stokke Tripp Trapp chair ("the chair that grows with the child") but not at that price tag! I don't particularly want to get her a booster seat because we have guests often enough that I don't want to lose one of our four dinner table chairs. We'll just keep our eyes open on CraigsList and tag sales for other chairs that might work.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers I know--and the mothers-to-be--you know who you all are. I love you all. Thanks for giving me lots of great examples of how to be a good parent and for being so generous with your experiences and knowledge.

****

J and R and I had a really nice Mother's Day weekend. J bought me a beautiful green bead necklace and R planted some sprouts in a plastic cup and decorated the outside of it with dragonflies and butterflies. J also let me sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday, took me to Target (my favorite store!), out for Thai food, and made chocolate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. What a decadent weekend.

A New Song

In the bath today R was in a downright chipper mood. When she gets older, she'll be a great shower-singer, we can already tell. She stood up in her bath and started singing all these random syllables. After awhile it kind of sounded like she was saying "tur-tul hav, tur-tul hav, tur-tul hav" over and over again in a loud sing-songy way.

J: what does a turtle have?
R: (singing) Tur-Tul haaaaave CAAAAANDEEEEEEEEEE!
J: (singing along) turtles have caaaandy, ba da ba da dum
R: Tur-Tul Have Caannndeeee

Pretty soon the turtle not only had candy, but a heart, as well. J provided bunches of acoustic sound effects that R loved imitating. She kept saying, "Daddy turn," meaning, Daddy sing now, and less frequently, "Mommy turn." When she wanted to sing, she'd say, "R turn" and then belt something out.

Yummy Yummy Tummy

Today one of R's classmates had a birthday, so the girl's grandma brought in cupcakes for the entire class. J and I went together to pick R up and we arrived just as all the kids were waking up from their nap and getting ready for snack, so we hung around to let R join in on the party.

Everyone sang happy birthday and then dove in to their snacks. R, like a good girl, started with her pretzel, while just about everyone else went for the cupcake first. We actually had to ask her if she wanted to try it.

Once she tried it, she kept saying, "Yummy, yummy, tummy, Yummy, yummy, tummy" with a HUGE grin on her face.

Then, a little later, she started singing. "Happy Birthday, R! Happy Birthday, R!"

We got her to say "Happy Birthday, Chloe" once or twice but she kept reverting to "Happy Birthday, R!" and then laughing and grinning. She was so delighted, it was really really cute.

First Pigtails

Today was kind of a rough day with R. She's got a cold and it's making her really irritable. We've had some major tantrums, particularly around nap time (tantrums that are exacerbated by the fact that she's absolutely, definitely, tired). She threw a mondo fit this afternoon before her nap, and woke up exceedingly cranky. The only way to appease her was to feed her some of my mom's raisin bran muffins (really, they were for ME, but I sacrificed them to R) and to let her sit on my lap. The merest hint of anything else (yogurt as snack, sitting in her high chair, facing the wrong direction, having a hair out of place) set off another screaming fit.

She was a lot happier after she ate a muffin and started working on another ("More Muffin, Please. More Muffin Please. More Muffin PLEAAAAAAAAAAASE!") and finally I asked her if I could put pigtails in her hair since I'd just picked up some teeny-weeny hair ties. She graciously agreed and voila, her first (done by me) pigtails.

Sorry her hair is greasy (she was due for a wash, plus she'd gotten a little sweaty during her nap) and the pigtails aren't even, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances.

The other (relatively recent) development is that when you ask her to smile, she does what we call the "Beast" (from Beauty and the Beast) smile. This is that smile. And she has muffin all over her face. But. There you have them. Her first pigtails.

I love Daddy!

This is actually a photo from last month that I just uploaded. I love it.

A reminder of the beauty of spring

In the last post I mentioned that we "lost" the camera for a little while. I just uploaded pics and found these from a trip that J and R and I took to the park one weekend morning last month.

A zoo list

Sorry, no pictures for this post-- J and I have been very lax about pulling out the camera the last few weeks. It even disappeared for awhile (it was in a pocket in the stroller) and we couldn't find it for about a week, not that we looked terribly hard for it.

Anyway, this weekend Grandma and Grandpa visited and we went to the Philadelphia Zoo. It was excellent. The displays were great, and you really could see the animals up close. And we must've gone on a good day since all the animals were moving around and having fun and doing different things while we were there so it was definitely interesting.

Here's our list of the three grossest things we saw while we were there.

1. One of the two giraffes started following the other one around. Then the one in front stopped and peed and the one behind looked like it was drinking the pee as it was coming out.

2. A keeper was raking up what looked like ostrich poop and putting it into a wheelbarrow. Then the ostriches walked over to the wheelbarrow and started picking at it with their beaks.

3. At the gorilla display, a really cute gorilla walked over to the glass window where a bunch of kids were watching and leaned against it all casual-like, and then proceeded to slowly pick her nose and spend time examining her finger afterwards.

The latest saying...

Lately instead of just saying "noooooo" or "noooooohhhhpe", R has been saying "noooooo way."

Today I taught her to add on "Jose."

It's totally awesome, when we ask her if she wants more dinner, to hear her say, "noooooo way jose."