You may have noticed the posts are kind of sporadic lately. Because we still don't have the internet up and running, and that's because...we're still waiting to close on the house. I won't go into the gory details except to say that I have probably lost a few pounds from stress (or maybe gained a few pounds...we packed the bathroom scale 3 weeks ago LOL). I guess the good part is that without TV and internet to hypnotize -- I mean, occupy -- me, I have read several books that were waiting on my nightstand, almost finished the sweater I began knitting for J 4 months ago (of course being Vegas now it's too warm for him to wear it), and I have gone to the gym ALOT. Believe it or not I've discovered that I LOVE SPINNING. You know, the really hard class where you're on a stationary spin bike and you sweat like you're in a sauna the whole time? Yeah, that one - I love it. I wish I could do it every day, it's that much fun for me.

It doesn't hurt that yesterday for the first time a client actually noticed my weight loss efforts. This was a lady who I haven't seen if a few months, and while I was examining her dog she said, "Dr. E, I hope it doesn't bother you for me to say this but you look like you've lost a lot of weight." That's right, she said "a lot" of weight. Thankfully she didn't turn it into a back-handed compliment and add, "You look SO MUCH better." I was high from that for the rest of the day.

In J news...he's addicted to syrup. I've been worried about his eating habits, because he's VERY picky and yesterday his Daycare Lady told me she thinks he's getting "too skinny." But syrup, well, that we can always depend on. This morning he actually ate 3 mini-blueberry muffins that I got up and made before work in a random fit of domesticity, and of course, he had to have syrup with them. Then he proceeded to "drink" the syrup off of his plate, and asked with perfect pronunciation for "More syrup, please, Mommy."

Goodbye, 30

Tomorrow I will be the big three-one. That's right, 31, vintage 1977 with full-bodied flavor. I was sitting here thinking about the highlights (and a few lowlights) of the past year, and I must say that overall it was pretty interesting. I honestly hope that I can say that about every year of my life, good or bad. Who wants boring memories?

The one that stands out for me most, though, is exactly one year ago -- my 30th birthday. Not because of the usual "OMG I'm turning 30 my youth is over blah blah blah." I will always remember that day because it was the first time we paid a sitter to come over and watch J so we could go out on a Grownup Date. I know, it's crazy - he was almost 10 months old before our first night out...we were such weenies then about leaving J for a couple of hours. Anyway, it's memorable because that was also the first night that I gave him a sippy of milk before bed instead of nursing because my milk supply was starting to dwindle. I remember being all dressed up for our fancy dinner, sitting on J's couch in his room holding him while he drank his cow's milk and crying because I knew that breastfeeding was ending. He went to bed that night without any fuss, not seeming to mind that a stranger was doing the bedtime stories, and slept until the morning, also a first. We had a great time at dinner, reconnecting as a couple instead of just talking about J the whole time. The whole night was kind of bittersweet in so many ways -- we realized that J was growing up, leaving his babyhood behind, and we were growing up as parents, too, learning to let go a little bit and not forget ourselves in all the madness that is being a new parent.

And the glasses of wine I FINALLY got to have since I wasn't breastfeeding that night, well, those weren't so bad either.

Nothing worth having ever comes easy...

I knew this whole house-buying thing was going a little too well. The seller was cooperating, the lender was giving us a phenomenal interest rate, the inspection went great, etc. Of course something had to go wrong. Closing was supposed to be on Valentine's Day. Today is the 16th, and guess what? You guessed it, we're still waiting to close. Long story short, someone (not us) messed up, and our new closing date is next Friday, February 22. On the upside, hey, it's on my birthday! On the downside, our current place was already packed up and ready to go because when did they tell us the 14th wasn't going to happen? On the 13th. So we had to run around calling all of the utilities to tell them, no don't turn off our phone/power/gas/water just yet. But we already had the cable turned off so now we have no TV for 7 days. Just when Project Runway is getting really good! Oh, well. We'll live. Barely.

Needing to blow off some steam, yesterday TH convinced me to finally check out the Shark Reef exhibit at Mandalay Bay. We've been in LV for four years now and somehow haven't gotten around to seeing it, mostly due to my inherent dislike of going through casinos to get to "family" activities. But we needed to get out of the house, so off we went, and lo and behold...it wasn't that bad. As a matter of fact it was pretty cool.

J loved it. He was pretty well-behaved--no tantrums, nothing thrown into an open aquarium, no fights over getting into the stroller. And when he saw his all-time favorite animal, the sea turtle (which. was. HUGE.) the look of delight on his face totally erased all my screwed-up-house-closing stress. When he saw that turtle, he yelled out "KURKLE!!!!" loud enough to get a few snotty stares (get over it, people, it's an aquarium inside of a casino for God's sake not the frigging Louvre), and spent almost ten whole minutes with his face pressed to the glass just smiling. So even with all of the drama of the last few days, thanks to the tourist trap that is Shark Reef we ended the week on a good note.

"I am the greatest...kurkle...of all time!"

Man, this picture coulda been a contender. I never look this good when we're both looking at the camera. Instead you get a good shot of Mommy with an even better view of J's 'Fro.

I just realized that J's ENTIRE wardrobe that day was courtesy of Old Navy. Old Navy kid's clothes rock!



And now for your entertainment, I present J the Blues Brother...(Give your toddler a harmonica. It's entertainment for the whole family!)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Their brains get bigger everyday...

J can count to 3 now. I don't mean he can SAY "one, two, three" -- he's been doing that all the way up to twenty for awhile now. I mean he can COUNT. Example: This morning I heard him wake up and start talking to all of his toys, and saying, "bee-tees, bee-tees" which means "binky." I know it doesn't sound like it, but that's what it means. Anyway I went into his room and he was standing up in his crib with a binky in each hand (yes, he sleeps with at least 2 binkies. No, we're not breaking that habit yet.) And he looked from hand to hand, then looked at me and said, "TWO bee-tees!" He then proceeded to look around his bed, making proclamations: "TWO bankets!" "ONE kurkle!" It was like that scene in The Miracle Worker where she suddenly gets it -- I could almost see the light bulb going on over his head.

Then this morning he was in the backseat of the car and told me that he had three books, which was true. Once again, I know I'm a first time mom so I'm easily impressed, but come on. You have to admit this kid is looking more and more like a genius everyday.

Dear J,

Right now I can hear you upstairs, jumping in your crib and yelling at the top of your lungs and from the sounds of it, throwing things at the wall. You have been in there since 12:30 and now it's 1:30. Did you forget that you woke up at 5am this morning for the THIRD DAY IN A ROW? I know that it's my "day off" and you're excited to have me to yourself all day, but seriously. How can you stay up for 7 hours and not be falling-down tired? Or as my text-messaging friends would say, WTF?

I'm writing you with a little request. I've noticed that for the past few days you have been refusing to sleep during the day. It's almost like when you were 3 months old and you would only sleep for 20 minutes at a time. Don't you remember how much we struggled with the whole nap thing? 6 MONTHS. 6 LONG MONTHS before you took a nap that lasted longer than half an hour. And you were doing so well! I'm starting to think you were lulling me into a false sense of security with the 2 and 3 hour naps you've been taking for the past couple of months. Maybe you even read my "21 months old today" post where I bragged about it, and now you're teaching me a lesson in humility. Whatever the case, I'm asking (begging) you - please tell me you're not giving up on naps already. You're not even 2 yet! Mommy needs naptime as much as you do, maybe more. When else can I drink my coffee without you pulling on my arm begging, "foffee? foffee?", or mop the yogurt/applesauce/ oatmeal/etc. off the kitchen floor, or pack these frigging boxes so we can move next week? If you never take a nap, how will I ever beat Diner Dash 2?

So J, please do Mommy a favor. Go to sleep. It doesn't have to be two hours, or even one. 45 minutes would be great. If you really want to skip your naps, wait until Monday when you go back to day care.

Sincerely,
Mommy

The Little Emperor

I think J is starting to exhibit some Only Child behaviors. We're not quite ready for #2 yet, but I found myself watching him this weekend thinking, "He really needs someone to compete with." As a twin I never had the experience of being an only child, and TH is the youngest in his family, so we always had someone around to remind us that we weren't the only kids on earth.

Over the weekend we got to witness a little Emperor in the making. His new thing (which I think he learned at--you guessed it-- daycare) is to try to push us out of his way, shouting "MOVE, Mommy!!" Yesterday morning we ended up in a little standoff at the entrance to the kitchen when I told him no, we don't say "move," we say, "excuse me." The standoff lasted for a few minutes until he mustered up a begrudging "coose me" so he could get past me into the kitchen, only to climb up into his throne (I mean chair), point at the pantry, and bark out, "Cereal, Mommy!" And actually folded up his little hands on the table waiting expectantly. When I didn't move as quickly as he wanted he commanded me again: "CEREAL! Thank you." (He thinks saying "Thank you" guarantees he will get whatever he's asking for.)

Later on when I was trying to get ready for a little Super Bowl party we were going to, he came into our bathroom and made an immediate beeline for this bottle of lotion he has an unhealthy obsession with. Due to the grease stains on our comforter from the last lotion expedition, I moved it out of his reach. So he tried to push past me to get to it. "MOVE!!" he demanded. I said, "We don't say move, remember? What do we say?" And he actually replied, "RIGHT NOW!" and proceeded to push me again. So I showed him the back of my hand like Ralph from the Honeymooners, "Why, I oughta....". Just kidding. (Okay...let's be real. I'm only kinda kidding. He was this close--this close--to getting a karate chop to the back of his neck for pushing me like that.)

Oh, well. I just tell myself that he's learning to assert his independence.

21 months old today!

J is 21 months old today. That means that in THREE MONTHS he will be 2! WTF?? Where did the time go? This past year has gone by so much faster than the first year, and I have a sneaking suspicion that things are only going to keep speeding up. I was looking at this picture that was taken almost exactly a year ago, and I can remember the day we took it like...well, like it was yesterday.



The terrible 2's are upon us in a big way, but the development has been astounding too, and J is SO MUCH fun to be around now (for the most part. He has his moments.) I found his baby book the other day and I'm going to fashion this entry like the monthly pages in the book:


21 months!
Date: February 1 2008 Height: ? umm, maybe 34"? Weight: I think around 27-28lbs.

Sleeping patterns: 11-12 hours straight through the night! Yeah! I'm a sleep rock star now. I even take a 2-3 hour nap every day.
Eating habits: Picky, picky, picky. As always. Juiceaholic.
New foods I liked: Yeah right. I don't like new food. I may not like today what I liked yesterday.
New discoveries I made: Taking my clothes off, playing with Play-doh, Nick Jr. website where I can listen to the "radio" and hear the Go Diego Go song over and over for an hour straight.


My accomplishments:

• Counting from 1 to 10 by myself, being able to identify all of the numbers by sight, being able to read the words blue, yellow, red, green, and Jackson.
• Talking in 2-4 word sentences such as "phone broken," "fire hot," "I see you Mommy," "waffles and syrup", etc.
• Opening the refrigerator so I can pull out breakable jars (all by myself!).
• Getting water out of the water dispenser. Well maybe not "getting water" so much as "flooding the kitchen."
• Pulling my step stool up to the potty by myself so I can then stand on it, turn around, and pee on the bathroom cabinets.
• This is a big one -- figuring out how to turn off Mommy's "keyguard" on her cell phone if I push enough buttons.
• Wiping my own nose and sometimes blowing it. Or pulling 5 feet of tissue off the roll so I can take one square and smear snot all over my face singing "wipe nose, wipe nose".
  

Places I went: Daycare, church, restaurants, the mall, pretty much everywhere Mommy and Daddy go. I've even walked through a couple of casinos. I didn't win anything though.

Special friends I made: I'm REALLY attached to my friend Bobby the gloworm and Kurkle the turtle. Like so attached that when Bobby's batteries wore out at bedtime I had no choice but to pitch a monster fit until Daddy found some batteries in the remote.

Photo of Me at 21 months: