Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Peanut is 2!

Yes, yes, he turned 2 just over a month ago. We've all seen how well I've kept up with posting about him, so nobody is surprised are they?

My little boy is an absolute treasure and a joy and keeps us very busy! And as always, my lament over the past two years has been, "where does all the time go?"

So while I spend lots of time enjoying his actual awesomeness, that means I don't have a lot of time to write in depth posts about what he's doing now. I don't know how other moms do it. I seem to have found enough time to Twitter a few times a week but somehow, 140 characters doesn't seem enough to tell you about how great my little Monkey Boy is.

But he is - great, amazing and wonderful. He learns new things every day and teaches me something every day. He runs and jumps and plays and loves trains and balloons and his family. He is mostly a good eater and doesn't hassle us too much at meal times. He is still a terrible sleeper although we're down to usually only waking up once at night. He's 3 feet tall and weighs almost 30 lbs. And growing fast! Must be all that Mama Milk.

Speaking of Mama Milk, with little fanfare and a few tears (on my part only!) I weaned him in January, 6 weeks shy of his 2nd birthday. Being pregnant, it got to be too painful for me to continue any longer. Considering he was only nursing occasionally at night it was an easy transition for him and it surprised me at how much he didn't seem to notice it had even happened.

Peanut loves tunnels and is constantly wanting us to come play trains and build tunnels with him. When he wants you to come somewhere with him, he will tug on you and say, "Pull!" When something is out of his reach or too high to climb on he says, "Too big, mama!"

He talks so much now and one of his favorite questions is "Whatcha doin' dere?" and he is CONSTANTLY asking it. How many times a day do I say, "I'm making breakfast, buddy." "Putting on your shoes." "Mommy's going potty, baby."? I feel like I am my own narrator sometimes!

He still has some trouble with F and L, and so says "I yove you" and "yeyow" (for yellow) and his own name has become "Betcher." When he sees a picture of himself he excitedly exclaims "Betcher!" or sometimes "Brody!" which is his cousin who is two months older.

Cousin Brody and Auntie Heidi are two of his favorite people EVER. He is constantly asking, "Go Brody house?" Auntie always lets him borrow one of Brody's trains when we go home, and so at our house Monkey is always asking, "Where Brody trains?" which is so cute because he really does know and specify which ones are his and which are Brody's. And he also knows all of the Thomas trains by sight, whether on t.v. or in the books or his actual toy trains, as well as the "supplemental" cars that come in the sets - one of my favorites to hear him say is "BAGGAGE CAR" in this funny little voice.

And of course, aside from I love you, one of my favorite things to hear him say is something he says all the time: "HI MOMMY!" Even if he's already sitting on my lap, he will often turn an look at me with delight and say HI MOMMY! I love his little voice, but even better is his laugh. He laughs often and heartily and has even inherited Mommy's laugh-snort if you get him going.

He loves tickles and will scrunch his fingers on your side and say "Tickle you!" and then look at you and go, "Tickle me!" One of our favorite games is when Mr. Fantastic does "Everybody tickle!" and we all tickle whoever's name Daddy says. He loves Mousey Mousey and Bumble Bee and any other tickle game you can come up with.

Peanut also loves his books - especially when we point to the pictures and ask who that is and what color and what sound do they make. He knows his animals and animal sounds and colors very well but is still working on numbers and letters. He knows the numbers - just not the order they go in past 3, and so will sometimes say "1,2,3...7!"

I could keep going on and on (and on...) so I'll just say it's been amazing becoming a mom. Fletch has taught me so much about myself and about how much you can love another human being. I finally understand now how my parents felt about me. And I can't believe that come July, we get to do this all over again with a little girl.


Hard to believe in two years he's gone from a little 7-pound-something burrito...




to this amazing ball of energy and inquisitiveness.

Week 26 of the JellyBean Progression


Week 26
Time marches on! And there’s no hiding that there’s a baby in here anymore. Not that I ever was, but nowadays the baby bump is more mountain than molehill and JellyBean is making her presence known well and often. Plus this week her hearing is developing further and she weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel. Well, at least the cucumber reference is a lot more relevant than last week’s rutabaga.

In general, I am feeling pretty good. Still no persistent backache and I am sleeping okay – still using the multiple pillow/flying buttress system I developed with Fletch and so despite multiple waking in the night, I am usually able to go right back to sleep. (Even sometimes when there is a surprise two year old climbing in to be with me!)

Mr. Fantastic has gotten to feel JellyBean kicking a few more times which he always enjoys. And I am still feeling HUGE, mostly because I can’t bend over anymore and have the grace of a hippo getting in and out of the car. At least this time around we have a different car, which is not so low to the ground and so Mr. F doesn’t actually have to hoist me in and out. So far I can still do it by myself. And we are working with Fletch to have him climb into his carseat himself so I don’t have to lift him in anymore. He is surprisingly cooperative with this endeavor (so far – I’m sure just until the novelty wears off!). Fletch weighs almost 30 lbs now so he is getting to be a bit of a chore for me to lift. And also to hold or carry – it’s kind of funny to see him try to get situated on my hip like he’s used to doing because now he can’t get his little leg around my front to hold on. So a lot of time when I pick him up, he seats himself waay high up on my waist so he can sling his leg around my front over my belly. But this places him way up high so that his head is higher than mine. He’s not used to being so tall when Mommy carries him!

Next appointment isn’t until 4/11, when I’m supposed to do the glucose test. Still looking into alternatives for that. One thing I may have to end up doing is just a basic blood sugar check 4 times a day for a week. Since I still have all the testing stuff left from when I was pregnant with Peanut, that shouldn’t be a big deal. In fact, I may just go ahead and do it proactively the first week of April and bring my results to Dr. Owens on the 11th and see what else she might want to do.