...it can’t be done! Are you insane?

He is feeling much better. He notices that the “fluids” that come out of his body in the bathroom smell funny – I tell him it’s the antibiotics, and this means they are working. As we discuss the origin of these smells, he says, “I had to take this same medicine when I was in the hospital with Strep last year, right?” And I say,” yes… and that’s why we want you to stay healthy. The next time you feel really sick, if the doctor needs to do a strep test on you, you cant get upset, you have to let them do the test – its one of the ways we can be sure to keep you out of the hospital again, so we can get you the medicine to get better before it comes to that.” He gets this horrified look in his eyes and reaches up and grabs me by both shoulders and says, "But I can't do it! Are you, insane!?" I laugh in my head at what he said (I now know better than to laugh out loud at these moments), but I can tell he is getting genuinely upset just thinking about it – so I back off the subject and change gears and let him finish brushing his teeth.

But now in my mind, playing it back, I hear him saying it in a high pitched frantic voice, as if he’s in some Sci-Fi horror movie, and the crazy scientist just let him in on the plan… I imagine hearing it said like a hysterical Jimmy Stewart or Bugs Bunny might say it, “it can’t be done! Are you insane man?!” Later he confirms he learned the phrase on Penguins of Madagascar…

daycare homework assignment - a keeper

Daddy took point (with a little coaxing) and was the one who completed this assignment for daycare's Week of the Young Child. (4/2006)
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To our Baby Boy (name withheld from blog),
You are special for so many reasons but here are some of our favorites:

You are special because when you smile and say, “Hi Dada” or “Hi Mama” you always bring a smile to our face no matter how hard our day has been.

You are special because you give the best hugs in the whole world. You walk up to us and stretch your arms out and say, “Oh Oh, I wanna big hug,” and we just melt.

You are special because when you wake up, the first thing you want to do is cuddle with Mama or Dada and there is no better way to start our day.

You are special because you can say “Flamingo” and “Well I’m not very big, but I’ll try” and “Helicopter.”

You are special because you say “Sorry…” in the cutest way that we can’t stay mad at you. And when you say, “Please…” you are so cute that we can’t help but give you our last sip of juice or our last potato chip.

You are special because you run up up up big hills so fast and down down down so fast.

You are special because you love trains and cars! Both are Mama and Dada’s favorite things too.

…But most of all, you are very special because you are YOU.

big boy...

Beach Baby

life's a beach

catching up on summer reading

frankenstein

thats what we call him sometimes... as he is working on vocalizing... he grunts or SCREAMS when he sees something he likes (car, train, bus, dog, another car, helicopter, juice, tree, the sky, a truck, birds...)

but he has some "words":
"a-baaah!" (which can be a plane or a bus or a boat - depending on what he sees)
"aarrrgh" (which is car and has a driving/steering wheel sign that goes along with it - but is sometimes also called a "bvroom, vroom")
he said "bubbles" very clearly for a week or so, but it has now turned into abuh-buh-buh-buh-bubbles!...
he makes a clicky kinda gulp sound for truck and a two syllable one for helicopter (I think he is trying to master the K or hard C sound...)
and he makes a kinda double gulping noise for train aka "choo choo"
he says "a-ma" for grandma (my mom), and "nana" for nana, and sometimes even "blah" for abuela! and he manages to surprise us with "TiTi" every now and then...
and now he says "up-ah" when he wants you to pick him up! (or sometimes to tell you there is a plane in the sky - maybe he is saying "look up" ...?)

and as of this week he is saying "A-pple" pretty distinctly!

and he is working on animal sounds:
what does the cow say? "mmmmm"
what does the kitty say? "mmmmm"
what does the horse say? "mmmmm"
what does the sheep say? "a-baaah"
what does the pig say? (he snorts in response)
what does the dog say? (he pants)

he still uses some modified signs:
MILK! brush teeth, finished, more, eat, car, juice, water (to drink or when at the ocean), apple, banana, chicken/fish (which can be food or fish in a tank or Goldfish crackers), cheerio/cereal, duck, rooster...
and he has made up - or has independently learned his own signs (thanks to the wiggles): yummy, wiggles (music), guitar...

how do you define swear words?

Daddy was watching golf on TV with the baby and exclaimed, "oh! he just knocked the crap out of that ball"
I said, "Hey! watch what you say in front of the baby!"
He said "what?!?! its not like I said - he knocked the *shit* out of that ball..."
I said, "ok - so do you want *crap* to be one of the first words out of the baby's mouth?"

Daddy sighed and said, "that means I have to try to not swear all the time so it becomes habit but then the guys will laugh at me the next time I say "he knocked the stuffing out of that ball..."
I said, "No, just remind them that you are a new father with a nagging wife and they will understand..."

He turned to the baby and said "thanks for getting me in trouble man..."

My heart is going to explode!!!

Baby boy does these little things that make me go absolutely all mommy mushy inside!! And my heart does like the Grinch's did when the love of the Whoos got to him and it expands to 10 times its normal size...

since my poor abused back is begging me to let the baby walk more... we have been working on "hold mommy's hand" when walking outside (from the car - to the house or daycare...) and it's usually a struggle to grab and hold his hand because the second you put him down and his little feet hit the ground, he's off and running with that excited giggle...

so you're lucky if u can grab a sleeve/arm or his coat hood or anything to secure him by. Well yesterday, we got home and were parked securely in our garage and after I got him released frm his car seat, I thought "this is a safe enough place that I can put him down just for a second so I can reach back and get a bag out of the car..." and I thought, "ok, so I'll have to do this really fast as he will be starting his forward momentum just when I turn back around to him..." but instead - this time when his little feet hit the ground, he paused and turned back to me and REACHED UP TO TAKE MY HAND!!! (oh i've got those darn tears in my eyes again...)

baby boy is becoming such a big boy...sigh