TTC #1

We find ourselves in January in a new year. My baby boy is thirteen months old now. He can say Diego (thanks to his sister’s movies – sigh), cheese (chee) when he takes something and uses it to take pictures and light (lie) and points at a light. What a smart guy! He waves and blows kisses. He says hi and started saying bye (buh). He has been teething lately and I see a hole where a molar will be coming through. Teething has been brutal this time around and I’m a little relieved at his relief. Then I remember he has three more molars that need to come in soon. Argh!! He also strung together his first sentence this week. He took the baby monitor and held it up to his ear and kept saying Hi Daddy! Adorable! My heart melted!! He’s doing so well and I believe he’s gaining some weight. I will find out next week at his weigh-in.

My big girl is doing so well. She has even started printing practice at preschool! She loves dancing, singing and creative play! She currently loves One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful! It’s so adorable!

Now onto bad news. My BFF’s son who is 21 months old died this week when he choked while having a seizure. He had oxygen deprivation by the time he got to the hospital. They donated three organs to three lucky kids. I’m awaiting news about his forthcoming funeral. Truly tragic. I’ve been crying nonstop. She called me as soon as she gave birth. I held him only a month ago at my own son’s birthday party. Terrible loss.

I can’t write more as its hurting me to relive this.

I cannot believe for one second that my beautiful baby boy is already one year old! It’s astounding how quickly the year has passed. I’m so amazed at all the changes I’ve seen in him. How he started off as a helpless baby that needed me for everything and all he knew was my face and smell and how to scream and that now he’s more independent and resourceful than ever before! His vocabulary had increased so much lately! He’s saying ho ho ho, uh oh, oh no, ma (Max), li (light). He is absolutely fascinated by lights! Every room he enters, he points to the light immidiately. He loves the Christmas tree! We have it on all the time. Good thing we use energy efficient lights! He loves the cat(s) and his big sister. He has separation anxiety from me still. He loves balls (throwing) and destroying towers of blocks. He also loves remote controls, laptops and cell phones. He has great rhythm, loves music, singing and dancing. He has started to copy me when I dance and what I sing. He has started imitating Ryan and does antlers. It’s adorable! Even cuter is his waving and blowing kisses! He is just starting to show an interest in books. He still bites them and throws them but will now sit for a bit and look at them. He’s such a joy! He’s starting to wean himself off of nursing lately (he won’t nurse for naps and barely when he wakes but only for nighttime sleep). He won’t sit to eat so daddy feeds him now table food or baby food for me. He’s very inquisitive. He has such a sweet tooth. Speaking of teeth, he has eight of them. He bites when he’s frustrated or mad. This is usually when something is taken away from him or he thinks his sister isn’t being fair. He follows her around like a little puppy. I’m so very proud of him and love him so much. I’m so happy to have extended my leave so I can spend more time with him.

As for my big girl, she had a great Christmas. She was so looking forward to Santa coming and giving her presents. She got so much over the holidays. She was overwhelmed. And she is now potty trained!! It took three long days of staying home, accidents, stickers, and a million reminders. We are so very proud of her! She now wears big girl undergarments (Dora and Diego). The second day was a killer. Now we need to work on night training. Problem is that she sleeps with a cup of water so we put her in pull ups. Oh well! She loved opening all her presents and those of her brother. Our blue boxes are overwhelmed with wrapping and cardboard boxes!

I’m so very blessed with a healthy and happy family this holiday. Since my daughter was born, her first Christmas was ruined with me being in the hospital with a shattered arm. Her second was filled with a new baby brother. This time around, thank God we were all together and well. We make gingerbread houses, tons of Christmas cookies, watched the Santa Claus parade, and many holiday shows on tv. It was the Christmas is always dreamed of! It couldn’t have been better! We had brunch and dinner at our house for the holiday. So busy! But I loved it. My husband didn’t really. He doesn’t want us to do it again since it was so much work. I think that this year he did most of the cooking so he realized its too much. 🙂

My year in review:
This 2012 year was special since my family was complete. We all four have lots of fun together and I cherish our family time. I was doing volunteer work for my mommy group every week since the summer. I’ve made some amazing friends during this mat leave. I didn’t have to visit the hospital for myself or anyone I love (knock on wood). My kids are my pride and joy. I love them so much and am constantly amazed at them. I’m learning how to sew better. Although I’m not as concerned with keeping a tidy and organized house (much to hubby’s chagrin). I’ve loved being off of work this year. I’m not too happy about all the germs that daycare has brought into my house though. But I’m happy that we decided to keep my girl there during my time off so I could bond with my baby boy.

It always amazes me at the speed in which time passes when you have kids! We are already planning my baby’s first birthday along with Chanukah and Christmas celebrations. Time passes too quickly! On the plus side, I have been allowed to extend my leave from work until mid March. 🙂 More time with my baby!

Little man is walking more (up to eight steps alone), he’s starting to wave hello and making the ‘more’ sign. We are working on clapping too. Unfortunately sleeping through the night is not very frequent anymore. 😦 He wakes up at least once a night and doesn’t always go back to sleep.

My big girl is doing wonderfully! She knows her colours and animals. She’s working on letter recognition and remembering parts of a story and she can count to twenty. She’s also working on one to one correspondence and she started swimming lessons with her daddy! We are so proud of them both!

We are looking forward to Halloween next week with an Elmo costume and penguin costume. The house is spooky and our Dora pumpkin has been carved. It’s almost time to look forward to Christmas. I’ve started buying gifts already. 😉

Happy October!

Too much time has passed!  I can’t believe I’ve skipped a month.  Eek!  Such is the life of a second born child. 🙂  Sorry baby boy.

So much has happened in these months that I don’t know where to start.  Baby boy is growing like a weed!  He is long (75th percentile) but light (25th percentile).  He is thinning out so much.  He is a busy little guy.  He started cruising around furniture.  The first time we noticed this was when I was helping my mom set up her class in August.  We looked up and the baby was cruising along some toy boxes! That led to standing on his own for a few seconds (mid-9th month).  And THAT led to taking a couple steps by himself.  The first time was when he walked from the couch to his sister’s princess chair.  The second time was when he walked from the couch to hubby in the middle of the room.  He was starting to stand up from a sitting position.  He was eating well most days.  His teeth kept popping out (by mid-9th month he had six teeth and a seventh on the bottom was coming out).  Now that the weather was getting colder, I had to dress baby in more clothing.  He was NOT enjoying this. 🙂  He hates wearing socks and shoes.  Coats are difficult to wrestle him into.  And speaking about wrestling, I can’t change his diaper and clothing without fighting with him.  Even when I pin him down, he manages to get away (usually buck naked).  He loves bare time. 🙂  He also loves his sister to bits!  He looks forward to seeing her at the end of the day. She makes him laugh like nobody can.   And she adores the heck out of him!  She kisses him and hugs him all the time.  Of course she also takes his toys away. 🙂  And he is getting a horrible temper.  If anything is taken away from him he has a horrible fit. He’s biting me when he’s frustrated, angry or tired.  I’m covered in bruises!  One of his favourite toys at the moment is a plastic pipe that he got from my mom’s classroom.  He carried around with him everywhere.  He even slept with it.  After about two weeks, he got over it. 🙂 He doesn’t have a favourite toy at the moment.  He has a bit of separation anxiety but it’s nothing like it was with his big sister.

The house keeps going through cycles of colds and coughs.  My daughter brings it home from preschool and then gives it to us!  She had a couple weeks after my husband went away on business of anxiety.  She didn’t want to be with her daddy.  She didn’t want to go to school.  She wanted to be with me 24-7.  This is going to be difficult as my hubby goes away once every two months.  She’s had to deal with this since she was born but it’s getting harder for her now that she’s getting older. She’s almost 2.5 years old!  She is so smart and loving.  And her tantrums are making us crazy!  She is constantly testing us.  She also has an amazing memory so we have to be careful what we say to her.

Little man has had some rough nights lately.  Hopefully he’ll sleep well tonight.  Since he’s asleep (for now) I will get some rest too.