Mommy Madness

Reshen has developed a case of "Mommy (and Daddy) Madness." He has to know where both mommy and daddy are at all times. He calls for us, runs after us, hugs and kisses us, and announces our presence in the room with glee. He likes to touch our personal objects (purse, coats, shoes, mugs, etc.) and delcare who it belongs to. He is so in love with us, his parents, it is really sweet. Today he sat on my lap facing me, looked deep into my eyes and said "Mama!" then he leaned in and kissed me square on the lips, gave me a huge bear hug and squealed with delight. How much more does a parent need? :-) The only downside is that he doesn't want to go to sleep- he'd rather be up playing with us. And now instead of just crying, he calls for us..."Mama, Mama, Dada, Dada..." in this pathetic, pleading little voice. Oh, little man....

We took Reshen to Chuck E Cheese's on Saturday for the first time. They had a toddler slide, so needless to say, he was in love :-) He paused long enough to eat some pizza and then was right back to playing. He was entranced by Chuck E Cheese, himself... a large robotic mouse. It would appear from behind a curtain, sing a song or two, and then disappear again. Reshen would watch slient and wide-eyed, but then would call for it as soon as it left. "Mouse! Mouse!" he would yell, "Go?" It made such an impression he talked about it for the rest of the day, "Mouse Bye-Bye," he kept saying.

Reshen is really showing just how much he comprehends these days. It's becoming increasingly easier to communicate with him. Today he became frantic because he wanted to watch Alan mow the lawn. I had to put his shoes on him first. A couple of weeks ago this might have progressed into a tantrum, as he would want to go outside that very second. Today, though, I told him that we needed to put his shoes on first and then we could see the mower. He paused and thought about it a second and then said "Kay" and sat down on the stairs for me to put his shoes on! How cool is that? :-) He still looked a little worried, saying "Mower." and looking at the door. I would respond, "Yes, we'll see the mower after we get your shoes on, OK?" "Kay." he would answer. What a good communicator he is becoming :-)



He is really into repetition lately. Everything we do, we have to do 100 times in a row it seems. After every song, book, action, etc., we do he shouts "more!" "again!" If we don't oblige he will shout it over and over. How many times in a row can you really listen to "Wheels on the Bus?!" I found that 5 is my limit... I'm really trying to get him attached to some different CDs, but those action songs are still his favorite and he asks to hear it the moment he's in his car seat. His singing is really improving, though, and he will "sing" an entire song now! I suppose I could listen to "Wheels on the Bus," a few more times just to hear that funny, sweet little voice sing along :-)

Yeah!

"Yeah" is officially Reshen's new favorite word. And as most of his words, he usually voices it as an exclamation. Me: "Do you want more milk?" Reshen: "Yeah!" Me: "Do you see the bird?" Reshen: "Yeah! " Me: "Let's go bye-bye." Reshen: "Yeah!" It sure beats the constant "no" we were hearing before!

Reshen has collected a new obsession, almost rivaling his intense love of slides. Doors. He has to open them. He has to close them. He shouts "Door!" when he sees one. If there is something or someone he wants on the other side of a door, he gets frantic, calling out "(Name of object) Door!" over and over again. He still can't turn a doorknob (thank God!), but sure tries. I see those annoying childproof doorknob covers in our future.

Our big excitement this week was the evening that Reshen got half of a plastic Easter Egg stuck in his mouth. I don't know *how* he got it in there, but I freaked! The worst part, was that it was wedged so tight in there that the rim of it cut into his little gums :-( He was screaming and sobbing after I got it out and his mouth was bloody. :-( I felt like crying right along with him. It took awhile to calm him down, but after gnawing on some frozen yogurt he was OK. I also dabbed some oragel on his gums and gave him some Tylenol to help with any pain. Don't worry- he is fine now. I'm sure it hurt him in the moment, but it did no real damage. It was just scary for us. So if any of you have little ones, and some plastic Easter eggs lying around, you might want to put them out of reach.
The Easter Egg is not the only thing he tried to stick somewhere... I caught him trying to push a cracker crumb up his nose while he was eating. What is it with this kid and sticking objects into his nose and mouth? I'm know it has something to do with his intense curiosity, but it's wearing me out! I've already had to fish a pea out of his nose a month or so ago.

He's getting really good at stringing words together to get his point across. Today I was rocking him with his sippy of milk before naptime. When he finished it he sat up in my lap and announced "Gone!" I said "Yes, your milk is gone. Now we go to sleep." He pointed at his sippy and said "Milk (gilk)" then pointed at the door and said "Stairs" "Mama." I said "You want Mama to go downstairs and give you more milk?" "Yeah!" was his excited reply. How could I deny him after he put together that amazing "sentence?" :-)

Reshen is still working on his molars. I think the top two have come in, but the bottom too still have a ways to go I think. Some of the points are through, but you can tell much of each tooth is still buried. He's been a bit manic the past few days and fighting going to sleep again. Once he's asleep he's sleeping well (through the night) and taking adequate naps, but just getting him to sleep has been a challenge. He's taken to talking and squealing in his crib. He's never done this before- he was one of those babies that would either cry or sleep in the crib... never was the type to play by himself in there. But lately he's been having a good ol' time after I lay him down. I didn't mind at first because he was actually putting himself to sleep after playing for a bit. I was shocked the first day that happened. He had been squealing in delight about something up there and then there was *nothing.* Concerned I peeked into his room and there he was, sound asleep in his crib, all his blankets and animals on the floor below that he had apparently tossed out. But the past few days the playing ends in crying and screaming and then he *won't* go to sleep. Yesterday I went in during one of his crying spells and found that he had taken off his pants and socks! I had to laugh at that one. I'm sure if he wasn't wearing his onezie undershirt he would have had his diaper off too. But he spent an hour, yesterday, cycling between the playing and the crying (with me coming in and laying him back down) before I finally rocked him. He needed that nap *so* badly and was showing all of his tired signs, but he just didn't want to give in I guess. As most of his sleep issues have gone, I'm sure this one will change in a week. He's consistent about one thing- being inconsistent.

His singing skills are evolving still. Now he'll "sing" songs out of the blue. The other day he was playing and began saying "Baby GaGa, Baby GaGa," over and over again in a sing-song voice and doing some hand motions. I wasn't sure at first what he was talking about and then realized he was singing "Baby Beluga." I started singing it and he grinned really big and began grooving and singing with me. I love how he just thinks of these songs while he's going about his business and starts to sing them. So cool! I wonder if he'll be into music when he grows older. Whatever he decides to do, I'm sure he'll do it with determination and gusto :-)

The Little Man

When did my little baby become a little man? He's been such a funny, cheeky, expressive little fellow this past week. Even the mommies of my nanny charges have commented on how much older he seems lately. He's such a *kid* all of a sudden!

Today he ran up to me an said "Juice!" I was reading a book to Luke, so told Reshen I would get him some in a minute, after I was finished with the page I was reading. Being only 16 months, he didn't want to wait a minute and said "Juice!" again, touching my arm and leaning into my face. I again told him just a minute. He then proceeded to tug at my arm and tried to physically pull me into the kitchen! He *really* knew what he wanted and that was for me to pour him some juice. We need to work on that patience. At least he gave me a very sweet "thank you" when I finally gave it to him.

He is very into slides and sees them everywhere. The other day he noticed the couch cushion at an angle and told us it was a slide. He then spent close to 20 minutes "sliding" down it (it was a short ride, but he didn't care). He does excellent at the park now and can go down the toddler slides all by himself. All I have to say is "Let's go to the slide," and he practically climbs into the stroller himself. He saw a *huge* slide at Costco yesterday and was extremely excited about it- too bad it was only a display model and out of reach.



He still loves vacuuming and will grab his own little vacuum every time I use mine. Today he had such a fun time of it, he kept announcing "more!" every time I turned mine off. I ended up vacuuming one more room than I had planned just because he was enjoying it so much.

One of the funniest developments has been his singing. Yes, our boy now sings :-) I play his British Action Songs CD in the car and he will pick out a word and "sing" it at the right moment. For Wheels on the Bus it is the word "All" in the chorus. It's *so* cute and hilarious. He's loud and very off-key, but his timing is perfect! Even though I am so sick of that CD, I play it anyways just to hear him sing.

He has really begun to show beginnings of make-believe. He plays with his doll, feeding it a bottle while making little eating motions with his own mouth. He also likes to take the doll's diaper on and off, and sometimes we wrap it in a blanket and pretend it is asleep. He also likes to load up his little school bus with "guys" (as he calls them) and push it around saying "bye-bye."

He has shown more interest in potty-related ideas. The other day we were at a store and he suddenly grabbed his diaper and said "diaper!" "pee pee!" He did it again when we got home, so I changed him and he was wet. He also will poo and tell me "diaper!" Now this doesn't happen all the time, just every once in awhile, but it's a start. There have also been some times he wants his diaper changed and it's not even wet, so I don't know what's up with that. I think we are going to buy a potty chair this weekend so he can get a little familiar with it. I don't expect him to actually use it yet (I don't even know if he can physically control it yet), but I figure there is no harm in introducing it.

He is saying *so* many words these days. I've actually stopped keeping track because he really tries to say almost everything. I love how he'll pick a word out of a sentence I say and repeat it. He's also saying more two word phrases. This is just a *small* sample of what new things he has been saying lately:

carrot (ker-tit)
whale
mine
blanket (un-ket)
basket (as-ket)
egg
guys
tractor (truh-ter)

His phrases lately have to do with people or objects leaving: "cat go?" "dada bye-bye" "kaka (one of our friends) car" and of course there is still the "no mine!"

I'm always excited to see what the little man is going to do next :-)

Easter Fun

Happy Easter! We had a fun Easter Holiday. On Friday, I held an Easter Egg Hunt for Reshen and the kiddos I nanny for (Luke and Lucy). It involved much instruction from me (Pick up the egg! Put it in you basket! Yay!), but it was still fun and cute to watch. Perhaps he'll "get" the idea a bit better next year.

On Sunday morning he got a special basket from the Easter Bunny (mommy and daddy). He didn't get one last year (he was only 4 months old), so this was a first for us. I had a lot of fun putting it together. It contained some Color Wonders Markers (the kind that only work on special paper) and a Color Wonders Finding Nemo coloring book, a book about spring, some Bunny links that snap together, a box of Animal Cookies, and a few plastic eggs with fruit snacks inside of them. He really got excited about it and played with all of it (including the basket) all morning :-)




Later I dressed him in a cute little Easter outfit (nothing special, but a little nicer than he usually wears) and took some photos outside while it was still sunny.




We had lots of good eats on Easter too. Reshen inhaled some carrot cake and also enjoyed the ham, pineapple, deviled eggs, and green bean casserole that we had for dinner. Yummy!

Pure Love

How wonderful it is to be a mother and have a child to love. I truly don't think a greater love exists in this world. It is the purest form. No baggage. No expectations. No disappointments. Just pure, deep, intense, uncomplicated love.

How lucky I am to receive the sweetest unsolicited hugs and kisses from a little person whose heart holds only adoration for me. How lucky I am to be called "mama" and clung to when he needs comfort and reassurance. When he was born I didn't think I could possibly love him any more, but every day a miraculous thing happens- I wake up, hold his snuggly little body against mine, and my heart swells. I have been overflowing with love for him lately... rocking him at bedtime and crying because I love him so much. I am crying right now because I'm writing about it.

I can't kiss him enough, can't hug him enough. I am amazed, elated, entertained, and proud of each and every one of his accomplishments every day. I can't believe he was not in this world 2 years ago. I can't believe I played a part in making him. I can't believe I'm his mommy.

He is perfect. He is pure joy. He is mine. :-).