Julia's 5th

In hindsight, we're glad Julia asked for a backyard art party. It took a lot of planning and finger crossing for good weather, but it was a really beautiful day. Our friends, Joyce and Steve, were awesome enough to make us this video slideshow of the pARTy. The kids got to decorate their own goody bags, journals, rubber duckies and party hats. They made their own colorful lollipops and spin art with water guns turned paint guns. They played, "Pin the Smile on the Mona Lisa," and just got to paint whatever they wanted on large paper taped over the garage. I think Wayne and I had almost as much fun as the kids.

Wes - 15 months

(warning: the following post is too long and may be boring to everyone else other than me. More than anything else in this entry, I just wanted to remember as much as I could about Wes at 15 months).

To really remember a child's firsts, I would have to keep a daily journal of what my kids said and did each day. So this entry - far from a daily journal - is just a stab at trying to capture Wes at a certain moment. He's changing so much, I just want to remember something at this point in time because Julia is a constant reminder that I will not be able to remember I love about this specific time (all of Julia before who she is at this moment kind of blurs together).

So . . .

Wes loves shoes. I bought his first shoes (not counting Robeez and Robeez knockoffs) - Stride Rite sneakers - a few weeks before he started walking (May 24, 2010). The first two times we put them on him, he hated it and screamed bloody murder. The next time, I slipped them on his feet while he was napping and he was okay with them. After that, he quickly associated shoes with going out (a byproduct of a no-shoes household) and was happy to have us put them on him. In fact, when Wayne and Julia would leave in the morning, he would desperately go to the shoe rack and point back and forth between his feet and his shoes to say that he also wanted to go out (I sure hope I can catch this on video because it is beyond adorable). Since he doesn't really talk yet, his gestures were accompanied by, "Aaa, aaa, aaa." He brings us our shoes when we're getting ready to leave. But it's not just about going out, he reminds us to remove them from his feet if we forget after getting home. I think he likes having the responsibility of shoes. Or he likes the ritual of them. Or he just likes that he knows what they're about. (Postscript, at 16 months, "shoes" is one of his first 5 spoken words.)

Wes bites. Julia and I have bite marks and bruises from him. I never imagined I'd have three bite marks on me at a time. And while I have been sharp with him, I don't feel mad. 99% of the times that he's bitten, it's been out of playfulness - he doesn't understand. He thinks that when I say no and wag my finger at him, it's a game. He now smilingly wags his finger back at me and I do my best not to melt. Julia has been amazing. She has gotten upset that he's hurt her, but she hasn't gotten mad at him either and hasn't ever taken a retaliatory action for his biting. We try to say, no bite, kiss. Or try to give him something he can bite.

Wes has communicated for awhile even though he hasn't consistently used words. He learned sign language for the word, "more," early, but has used it to mean, "want." The first words that I was certain he understood were "Deng" (ceiling light) and "Ralphie." One of his consistent words at this time is "Aarf." I guess he might hear that "word" more than any other. Thanks Ralphie. He says this whenever he sees any animal, including the birds and squirrels he sees on our walks. His "Aarf" is very convincing and many a dog has turned their head back at us wondering what the heck they just walked by. He also says two Chinese words, "Bao bao" (asking to be picked up) and "Hua" (flower). Oh, he loves flowers, always pointing them out to us. Somehow, he knows only to ask us to pick him weed flowers on our walks.

Lately, he says, "Ba" in combination with pointing to mean that he wants whatever he's pointing at. He also says a disgruntled, "Aaeem," when he is upset. Julia claims it's a bad baby word and frequently tattles on Wes for saying, "Aaeem." Once, when I made light of her complaint, she told me that "Aaeem," means that Wes wants to bite, hit, kick and pinch us forever. Wes also says, "Ahm," not to be confused with "Aaeem." "Ahm," means he wants to eat. And yes, it is embarrassing when he puts his face to my chest and says, "Ahm, ahm." Sporadically, he does seem to use "Mama," "Dada," "Ball," and "Mo" appropriately.

Wes mimics many things now. He learned early on to point the remote control at the television so we try to keep it hidden when watching something or else we won't be watching it for long. He has also pretended to talk on the telephone for awhile now. When someone else is actually on the line, however, he tends to just push buttons. He uses a hair brush and a tooth brush too.

Wes seems to have an instinct for sports. He loves balls. He throws well, he kicks well (for a 15-month old), he likes to hit the ball around with a stick a la field hockey. After "playing" t-ball just once at nana and baba's house, he dragged the tee out the next time we were there and placed the ball on the tee himself. Without any encouragement from us, he likes to try to throw the ball into the basket. I'm just amazed how natural it is for him and wonder if this means he's destined for greatness. No really, I just wonder how much we can predict from a toddler's behavior. (On the flip side, I'd like to think that Julia's current indifference to athletic activity doesn't mean that she won't like playing any sports.)

Wes loves waving. I love hearing other kids excitedly tell their parents that the baby waved at them. More than peek-a-boo, he loves playing the game of waving. He'll wave to you across the table, then wave to you again. Then he stretches his hand as high as he can and waves to you with a really happy excited expression on his face. It makes me wish I was that happy to see people.

Wes loves Julia - he loves hugging her, barreling into her until she falls down. If she cries or whines, he starts to cry.

Miscellaneous: he likes pushing belly buttons, tapping our noses and giving me his smelly feet to smell. He likes climbing - it's hard to keep him off our kitchen table and chairs. He won't sit still for books and doesn't care for milk. He's sensitive to being told, "no," and he's not so good at faking crying (we know when it's fake).

Anything else? I guess, if you can't tell from the above post, I'm very very much in love with him.

American Idol

I wonder if anyone has ever auditioned for American Idol with a performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If not, I hope Julia doesn't become the first. We watched an AI show with her tonight and she is excited. She wants "to go to sing at the place with the judges" and she wants to go to Hollywood. She said, "I think I am the best singer who sings everywhere (pause) Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose . . . ."

So while Wayne and I are happy that Julia can now watch a show that we want to watch, I can already see how this show throws a little wrench into our mantra that the important thing is not being the best, but trying your best. And having fun. Julia's at the age where everyone says, you can be anything you want be. For now, of course, we can continue to encourage her in whatever she loves, but at some point, we may have to intervene/re-direct, so that she does not end up on the audition reel highlights of American Idol. I mean, all those clueless people - couldn't their parents have done something?

Between Christians and Devils

Between Christians and Devils, Julia turned 4. Literally. Her birthday party - held at a central New Jersey farm - was under a tent situated between a Christian retreat and NJ Devils' (a hockey team) corn maze registration tent (some sort of fan appreciation event). A hay tunnel for kids opened out on one end by the Christians' tent and on the other, the Devils'. People could also enter and exit the hay tunnel through an opening in the middle, which is the one Julia and her friends used since it was right next to our tent. It would have been funny to have noted which direction the kids chose to go once in the tunnel. As it was, I don't think many of the kids exited either end of the hay tunnel. They just came back out to us, telling us stories about hay monsters and the like.

This year, we decided to invite everyone from Julia's class, so it was her biggest party ever. A week before, as she attended he friend's transformer-themed party, she declared that she was going to have a Princess-Transformer-Apple-Picking Birthday party. I thought briefly about trying to satisfy that request, but we stuck with a general apple/farm theme. We gave a nod to princesses by putting a Snow White (eating an apple) cake topper (homemade by Julia's aunt) on the cake. Despite rain, we had a really great time and I think the kids loved getting wet and muddy and hay-ey and picking apples and feeding the animals.

Our friends, J and S, were nice and talented enough to make this picture/video slideshow of Julia's birthday.

They're Breaking Our House

That's what Julia says. It does feel like that I have to admit. It all started with the need to replace the old red roof, broken gutters and crumbling chimneys. Then we figured, while we're at it, how about replacing the siding which had a few minor issues and also the sagging porch. Then Wayne decided to redesign our back deck and work on it with his father all at the same time. It's just a wee bit crazy. We're still in the midst of it all. Julia has been handling it pretty well but has told the contractor that they are hurting our flowers (decimating is more like it) and has told us that she prefers the red roof.
I found some pictures of the house when we bought it. Umm, the house looked pretty good. Were we completely crazy to start this whole thing?
We are excited that we're going to have the original wood siding that was under the aluminum and vinyl siding restored. We're also glad that the crumbling brick chimney and brick supports under the porch are going to be solid. We're going to get blown-in insulation too (currently there's no insulation in the walls at all!) and take care of the tax credit that Obama is giving for weather-proofing one's home. At this point, there's no going back anyway.






The scallop/shake design and the square cutouts to the left had been previously covered.


Wayne's deck project. He's already gotten a nasty gash down one leg and bruised the other one doing this project. Luckily, his dad has been safe.

Our haunted-looking garage. We discovered that the sagging roof and leaning walls were worse than we had thought. On the right side, some previous owner had actually added on some wood before wrapping it in vinyl so that the walls would look straighter than they actually were.

I hope it won't be too long before we can post some pictures of a non-haunted-looking and hazard-free home!

Tickling Wes

Julia loves to kiss Wes and make him laugh. She'll copy gimmicks that others use if they make Wes happy. The chin-tickle shown above was borrowed from Aunt Valky.

Happy

The best way to share what Wes is like now is to share these videos. He loves it when you talk to him and as you can see, is ticklish.

I have been a lot more productive this maternity leave than when I was at home with Julia. I would like to think that it is because I have learned a thing or two about being a mom these last few years, but the reality is that Wes is an easier baby than Julia was in about every way. He only takes 10 to 15 minutes to eat whereas Julia would feed for 30 to 40 minutes. At night, he falls asleep right after eating whereas Julia would require rocking. And most importantly, he isn't colicky. I'm still amazed that he doesn't require hours of carrying him while doing deep-knee lunges to be content. If not for Julia, I might have taken this all for granted. Thank you Julia :) Julia - the baby - was easier in one respect. She rarely ever spit up. Wes spits up voluminously several times a day. His spit up has graced the floors of MoMA and ABC Home and Carpet, among other places. Yes, it is gross (we did wipe up), but . . . I guess there is no but. Only I will confess that while I know it is objectively gross, I don't feel that way. I just wear my hair in a ponytail as much as possible and give him Zantac three times a day.