Easter Sunday 2009 (4/19/09)
I'm at work. I was not supposed to work any more holidays, but this is not a holiday for work because it is a Sunday. What? Oh well. Tomas, Lee, Carla and the kids went to Sunday brunch. Arianna played with Zoe, and Xavier ate his three course meal. Tomas said he was a trooper. He must have missed a nap. They did an egg hunt at Carla's church first. Sounds like a big day. I left Easter baskets with goodies for the kids that I got at work. I wanted to see them open them. Tomas said there was a lot of stuff in them. Xavier had a stuffed duck basket with duckling and Arianna's was similar, but bunny and rabbit. I talked to Tomas briefly earlier in the day, but a little busy. We talked just before the kids went to bed. Xavier left a cute message first. He copies what we say so good not. A low loud and clear voice. Even the jibber jabber is loud and clear. Maybe it is spanglish. I was talking with him and I said "I miss you" and he said it back to me so loud and clear, that I asked Tomas if that was Xavier. He said yes. Arianna got to talk too and sounds different. He is getting so good at talking. I miss them a lot, but is seems like they had a great day with Daddy. Tomorrow, I will have Xavier because Angelica is not feeling good and I gave her the day off. That's good because I miss him. I was on call Friday and Sunday. He was clingy Saturday and so was I. I need to try not to spoil him, but I want to hold him as much as possible.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Arianna's new stuff
Arianna at Brandi's Baby Shower on Sunday 2/22/09She has had a record two weeks with 7 greens in a row, meaning she did not change her color at school for being bad even once. This is huge for her. Even getting 4 in a row was hard. Maybe Vava mailing her small gifts for getting three greens in a row helped. She has been good at home too.
At home, she showed us her loose tooth last Sunday (2/22/09). It is her top left incisor. She already has four new adult teeth along the bottom middle. They are strait too, thanks to her slowing down her thumb sucking. Now with only a few times that I caught her at night and none during the day that I can tell. This will be #5 for the tooth fairy and she ate most of an apple Sunday to help it along.
At home, she showed us her loose tooth last Sunday (2/22/09). It is her top left incisor. She already has four new adult teeth along the bottom middle. They are strait too, thanks to her slowing down her thumb sucking. Now with only a few times that I caught her at night and none during the day that I can tell. This will be #5 for the tooth fairy and she ate most of an apple Sunday to help it along.
Last night she had a cough and Tomas was going to be home late, so I let her sleep in our room. Good or bad idea? You decide. I gave her cough drops and cough syrup at 9pm for a cough that was keeping her up. I went to bed at this time and she said my stomach doesn't feel well, then promptly fell asleep. I then woke up with her throwing up on my back. I ran to the bathroom, bad idea, and took of my clothes. She kept throwing up. Good thing Tomas was at home for the rescue and changed the whole bed including pad while I put her in the shower, feeling a little better. I got in the shower with her and realized it was a bad idea to run out of bed. I didn't hold her hair, so had to comb out the chunks in the shower. So fun being a parent. She got a new bed on the floor next to my bed with washable bedding and a bucket. No school tomorrow, thanks to the live-in nanny. Poor Arianna. The flu is going around and no surprise she is sick. I'm not on call until Friday, then Sunday and Wednesday. At least I will be home tonight to comfort her. I think "Spongie" (Sponge Bob) is in order today.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday 2/22/09
Arianna and I went to Brandi's Baby Shower and left Tomas and Xavier home. Tomas was missed because a lot of our friends were there, husbands too, but it did turn into a real baby shower with games, prizes and tons of baby stuff. Tomas was fixing my iphone. So nice! Xavier, left to his own devices, figured out how to get onto the step stool in the kitchen and then moved it to interesting counters to get into even more things. Tomas said he got his toast out of the diaper bag and asked for a napkin, just out of reach, so he can stand on the stool and eat it off his napkin on the counter. Such a proper little one. Today, Monday, Tomas's keys are missing. Hmmm. Xavier does open the trash bin and throws stuff away in the kitchen trash. He will juggle the bags.
Arianna is so in love with playing in the dirt. she wanted to go outside during the party to play in the dirt, I presume, because when we were walking to the car she wanted to go explore at the park. We did a little but she kept picking up fist fulls of dirt. Like we were going to take it home:) She did settle for field flowers to add to her collection from Jesse. Arianna and Demian are still playing together well. Now in the sand box (I got out of the garage and cleaned out the abandoned mouse nursery) and bubbles. The first day with the sand box, Arianna managed to get a dirty face, shirt, hands and arms. I got a picture!
Arianna asked to start measuring her height. In the past, I told her about how my mom measured me, Chad, Sara, Robbie and close friends on her pantry door jam. When they moved, they had to take the door jam with them. I was not sure how to continue the tradition in a more mobile fashion. Oh well, with her insistence, I could not come with a better place and stopped stalling. We started this month and have her, Demian and Xavier on the pantry door jam. The next day she wanted to be measured again. I told her that we need to give her time to grow and will do it in about 6 months. She will probably remind me.
She has a great internal alarm clock and is always reminding me of events. Especially upcoming birthday parties or when a school form is due. I feel real bad when I forget a birthday party and when she remembers the night before something is due, but it is late. Me and Tomas talked about this and will try to be more aware of her deadlines so she doesn't have to. Last Friday (2/20) Arianna woke me up for work. Good thing because I left my iphone/alarm clock in the guest room and she must have heard the alarm. I woke up to her hands all over my face. She doesn't remember hearing the alarm, but she has never woken me up before. I thanked her anyway. She always wants to sleep with me and Tomas, so instead of deciding each day if she was good and it is not too often, we make it Sundays and Thursdays. She has never forgotten it was a sleep in our room day, and reminds Tomas and I when we forget. Xavier sleeps in the pack'n'play on those days too (at least).
Arianna and I went to Brandi's Baby Shower and left Tomas and Xavier home. Tomas was missed because a lot of our friends were there, husbands too, but it did turn into a real baby shower with games, prizes and tons of baby stuff. Tomas was fixing my iphone. So nice! Xavier, left to his own devices, figured out how to get onto the step stool in the kitchen and then moved it to interesting counters to get into even more things. Tomas said he got his toast out of the diaper bag and asked for a napkin, just out of reach, so he can stand on the stool and eat it off his napkin on the counter. Such a proper little one. Today, Monday, Tomas's keys are missing. Hmmm. Xavier does open the trash bin and throws stuff away in the kitchen trash. He will juggle the bags.
Arianna is so in love with playing in the dirt. she wanted to go outside during the party to play in the dirt, I presume, because when we were walking to the car she wanted to go explore at the park. We did a little but she kept picking up fist fulls of dirt. Like we were going to take it home:) She did settle for field flowers to add to her collection from Jesse. Arianna and Demian are still playing together well. Now in the sand box (I got out of the garage and cleaned out the abandoned mouse nursery) and bubbles. The first day with the sand box, Arianna managed to get a dirty face, shirt, hands and arms. I got a picture!
Arianna asked to start measuring her height. In the past, I told her about how my mom measured me, Chad, Sara, Robbie and close friends on her pantry door jam. When they moved, they had to take the door jam with them. I was not sure how to continue the tradition in a more mobile fashion. Oh well, with her insistence, I could not come with a better place and stopped stalling. We started this month and have her, Demian and Xavier on the pantry door jam. The next day she wanted to be measured again. I told her that we need to give her time to grow and will do it in about 6 months. She will probably remind me.
She has a great internal alarm clock and is always reminding me of events. Especially upcoming birthday parties or when a school form is due. I feel real bad when I forget a birthday party and when she remembers the night before something is due, but it is late. Me and Tomas talked about this and will try to be more aware of her deadlines so she doesn't have to. Last Friday (2/20) Arianna woke me up for work. Good thing because I left my iphone/alarm clock in the guest room and she must have heard the alarm. I woke up to her hands all over my face. She doesn't remember hearing the alarm, but she has never woken me up before. I thanked her anyway. She always wants to sleep with me and Tomas, so instead of deciding each day if she was good and it is not too often, we make it Sundays and Thursdays. She has never forgotten it was a sleep in our room day, and reminds Tomas and I when we forget. Xavier sleeps in the pack'n'play on those days too (at least).
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Xavier's Accomplishments/Update
December 2008 to February 2009
Xavier is learning a lot of words and making small sentences/phrases of two words. This has made him more demanding because he can tell you what he wants, but it is nice to make him happy when we understand him. He spends most of his time with Angelica, so his vocabulary is probably much more than I can tell since most of what he understands is Spanish. If he does not do what I ask, I use my gringo Spanish and he does it. Like sit down and go get me your bottle. I almost think it is like talking to someone whe knows another language. He looks at me blankly, then a light goes off when the Spanish comes out. I hope this keeps up so he has another language, but at this rate, he will pass me up. We talk English on the weekends, so maybe less often than 5 days a week of Novelas on TV and Mexican music he loves to dance to on Angelica's cell phone. He really loves her.
On the weekend, he asks for her. It was about a month ago that I realized he missed Angelica and Demian on the weekends. It started when he would get so excited to see them after Christmas vacation. He could hardly contain himself in his carseat at the bus station where I picked them up. Then it was confirmed a month ago when he woke up from his nap on a Saturday and ran to the laundry room yelling "Gaga" for angelica. I thought, he must miss her a lot, but just could not say what he was thinking. Now he occationaly yells her name and looks for her on the weekends. He stills seems to favor me when I'm around. I'm surprised he still knows I'm the Mama, but I like that she is so special to him. It confirmes that she is good as his nanny.
I will try to remember some of the things I keep in my head and tell to my friends at work. I want to get them down so I don't forget and I remember when they happened. Xavier is now 19 months old.
As I remember, he likes to pick up random objects that are the size of cell phones and say Hello, Hi and VaVA? He did this on 2/18 so I gave him my cell phone and dialed VAVa Anderson. He listened to the message and said Hello, Hi, Vava and Ni-Night (with some baby talk, maybe baby talk with a Spanish accent). Mom called back on 2/20 and told me she could hear his words so clearly. He is pretending too. For Valentine's day, I got a big blue dog for him and a big red heart pillow for Arianna. He loves pillows and attacked it, Arianna let him. Last week, he wanted me to change his stuffed animals diaper because it was "poopee". He likes to get the diaper and wipe and helped me wipe. When he has a dirty diaper, he brings me his wipes and diapers and tells me peepee or poopee. Angelica taught him to pat his diaper in front or back. He just uses the words, but doesn't always get it right. He does not always need a change, but I have to pay attention when he uses his words "peepee and poopee". Arianna wanted to learn how to change him, so on 2/15, I let her help, but Xavier pushed her hand away. I think that he thinks it is creepy, so I told her that he doesn't want her to. She can play with her dolls instead. She does clean him in the bath tub. They like to take baths in our bath with the jets.
He is asking for what he wants all the time. He asks for agua, te-ta, milk, juice, snacks or candy he sees, he especially wants more of anything sweet. He says "uh" for pick-me-up A LOT and is not afraid to say "pees" with a smile for please when prompted. I always give in. He wants to be in the action and since the kitchen counter is where it is at most of the time, he wants up. Two weeks ago, Tomas dodged across the kitchen to catch him because he leaned over head first too much. He caught him, but now we don't want him sitting up on the counter even when we are near because we step over to get something and he is so quick. Now I have him on the step stool, hold him or have him in my baby back pack.
He is not too afraid of much. He puts his leg through the upstairs banister like he wants to walk through it. Last week, he was upstairs in his crib and started crying after Arianna went to bed. I knew he was tired and wanted to sleep when I laid him down, so I did not think it was because he was not wanting to sleep. Arianna has gotten in trouble with Tomas from playing with Xavier after going to bed. He would cry because she wakes him up fully. She knows better to do this now and she was not calling for help, so I let him cry for a couple minutes. He can self soothe and go to sleep. I gave up and found his leg and knee stuck through the crib posts. I felt so bad for him. If it was Arianna she would have screamed bloody murder. He just has a softer cry and this has continuously put me on higher alert for him. I put him down in the pac and play in our room so this won't happen twice in one night. I hope it does not happen again. We have the newer crib specifications but oh well nothing is 100% safe.
I am so paranoid about loose change around the house. He is still at the choking stage and can reach into the drawers. I put all change up in the metal canister on the counter, but it is still found everywhere. It is hard to micromanage the choking and unsafe objects (aka scissors, toys, etc) from being left out by all in the house. A 6 and 9 year old mostly are the culprits. Tomas and Angelica are better, but I'm at least more paranoid than Tomas. Angelica is very safe with him and when he hits his head when I walk through a door holding him, I feel so bad. Angelica has a great record of keeping him injury free. He did have the ladder fall on him (Tomas left it out), I got after him when he left it out again. OMG! once is enough. He had my little dresser fall on him too. I turn it around so he can't get to the drawers to pull it down. Both times he survived because they were tall objects in small rooms, so it hit the wall before completely squishing him. He did not cry every time. He doesn't even cry when he slips in the tub and lands under water. I rescue him and he is back to playing. He is pretty kick back. For example, he used to go to sleep with a milk bottle. I knew it would not last because I was worried about his teeth rotting. We switched to milk BEFORE bed (sometimes on the couch with mommy and TV with a pillow:) my favorite time). Sometimes he drinks his milk bottle while following us around the house. Then he goes to bed with a water bottle. He did not have a problem at all with the transition and still goes to bed with a chuckle. He laughs/chuckles when I lay him down, like "oh I love my pillow and blankets, this feels so good".
I used to sing with Arianna when trying to get her to sleep. Tomas and I would sing and dance until she fell asleep, then gently/carefully laid her down. Xavier, at about 6-12 months wanted me to just lay him down. I would try to sing or dance and he would squirm and lean out of my arms down toward his bed. I would let him go. He would not even cry out if I took his bottle away to change a leaky nipple. He just laid there until I got back. Before this time, as a smaller baby, he fell asleep on the couch in our arms with the bottle or nursing and TV. He also went to sleep with fast juggling. Not the swaying and dancing Arianna liked. Now he likes my singing and even held my cheeks to have my mouth at his ear when I sang his lullabies. Now I hold him and sing a few short songs while dancing or not and then just lay him down.
He is very clean and organized. He likes to take the wipes out of the wipe cases (makes a big mess, but I still put them back and use them, so I let him). He uses the wipes to clean the floor and counters. He walked by the cabinet under the TV and closed it last week. He put trash in the kitchen trash on his own also (watch out for the keys!). Angelica lost her wallet, I hope this was not its fate. He also puts toys back when asked and in the exact same place. He loves picking up messes (like putting the Cheerios back in the cup) He will keep at it until all are back. He helps me organize too. He will knock over the wood blocks Vava got him. This mess making is too fun. He is not afraid to get dirty. He likes a fork for food, but tried to eat the sand in Arianna's sand pit.
Arianna is a great sister already. She is very motherly, but treats him like a little brother. She used to take his baby toys when he was smaller. She was too old to care about them, but they became interesting when he got hold of it. This got her in trouble a lot. She then became a little rough with him. She was too small to carry him, so these attempts were uncomfortable for him. I'm surprised she did not fall over with him. We kept saying "don't carry him, if you want to hold him let me know and sit down". Now she tries to play at his level. He loves this. She brings him toys and talks to him. She is a bit loud and spastic still. I keep telling her to "calm down, he has sensitive ears, he is a baby." She yells at him when he gets something he is not supposed to, like the light cord, but since she yells, I keep telling her to tell me and I will discipline him. She does mean well.
Last month, Arianna and I counted 18 words Xavier knew. Now he picks up new words almost every day. I need to learn Spanish. Angelica talks to him in Spanish to put the dirty diaper in the trash, and he does. He calls Arianna-Nana, Demian-Memian, Me-Mama, Tomas-Dada or Daddy, Angelica-Gaga. He knows Vava too. It took the longest to get a word for Angelica. He says Mama a lot and is sometimes misplaced. Tomas thinks he calls him Mama to tease him. Angelica knows he calls her Mama too, but this makes sense.
When I come home Arianna Screams with excitement! Xavier learned to do it too, so I get "Mama's Home Mama's Home!" really loud. Xavier runs to me too and expects to get picked up immediately. I try to wash my hands first, but I pick him right up. If he is eating dinner in his high chair, I stand next to him and try to get him to eat dinner. On 2/12, I came home to change my clothes and was going to run out to meet Tomas for a investment dinner. I was already way late. Arianna was crying (emotional and upset at everything) so I went to give her a hug first, she is still easy to pick up and carry. Xavier was heart broken, so and started to sobb, so I had to pick him up right away. It was hard to calm them down, change and get to the dinner. I was 30 min late, but oh well. It worked out.
I think about and miss Xavier all day at work. I try to talk about him. Interjecting something about him into the conversations of single workmates and during surgery is not easy, but I still have to talk about him. I tell the new updates to people at work every day. To who ever will listen. I wish I was better at writing it down, so Xavier will know if he wanted. I have a desire to save their accomplishments. Arianna's are written on random papers, so hard to access, but definitely saved. Xavier's are so far in text, but not organized really great. I hope this blog will be one place for all of it. There is always a new picture and a new anecdote that happened the night or weekend before to tell anyone who will listen. There are a few nurses that like to hear about him and I love to come over and give them the update. My patients still say you look so young and are consistently surprised when I say I have 2 kidS (pleural) and in my thirties (31!). Like the kids makes me older and wiser. Oh well. Most of the young doctors in my program are young looking girls and we all get it.
I will try to put this energy of telling my story and having Xavier on my mind in text. We will see what happens. My cell phone should be able to send to the blog, but is needs some Tomas attention. This way I can send cell phone pictures to it too. Like the new picture I'm showing now of Xavier with his blanket tucked around his head while he is sleeping. He likes to put the blanket or large fluffy pillow over his head when he sleeps. I'm so paranoid, that I used to not be able to go to sleep until I checked on him and Arianna, now I'm more relaxed, but this would have freaked me out. Now, I'm used to it. You can hear him breathing under it through a crack and I leave the blankets, but remove the occasional pillow. He started this last August with a very large duck stuffed animal at Vava's house. That had to be removed. It was as big as him! A few weeks ago he got more sophisticated and tucked the blanket. I showed Tomas. The last one got a picture (i turned the room light on for the picture) because he wrapped the blanked around his head some how. Interestingly he does not care about his body as much and had his hands and feet uncovered. Sooo Cute!
Xavier is learning a lot of words and making small sentences/phrases of two words. This has made him more demanding because he can tell you what he wants, but it is nice to make him happy when we understand him. He spends most of his time with Angelica, so his vocabulary is probably much more than I can tell since most of what he understands is Spanish. If he does not do what I ask, I use my gringo Spanish and he does it. Like sit down and go get me your bottle. I almost think it is like talking to someone whe knows another language. He looks at me blankly, then a light goes off when the Spanish comes out. I hope this keeps up so he has another language, but at this rate, he will pass me up. We talk English on the weekends, so maybe less often than 5 days a week of Novelas on TV and Mexican music he loves to dance to on Angelica's cell phone. He really loves her.
On the weekend, he asks for her. It was about a month ago that I realized he missed Angelica and Demian on the weekends. It started when he would get so excited to see them after Christmas vacation. He could hardly contain himself in his carseat at the bus station where I picked them up. Then it was confirmed a month ago when he woke up from his nap on a Saturday and ran to the laundry room yelling "Gaga" for angelica. I thought, he must miss her a lot, but just could not say what he was thinking. Now he occationaly yells her name and looks for her on the weekends. He stills seems to favor me when I'm around. I'm surprised he still knows I'm the Mama, but I like that she is so special to him. It confirmes that she is good as his nanny.
I will try to remember some of the things I keep in my head and tell to my friends at work. I want to get them down so I don't forget and I remember when they happened. Xavier is now 19 months old.
As I remember, he likes to pick up random objects that are the size of cell phones and say Hello, Hi and VaVA? He did this on 2/18 so I gave him my cell phone and dialed VAVa Anderson. He listened to the message and said Hello, Hi, Vava and Ni-Night (with some baby talk, maybe baby talk with a Spanish accent). Mom called back on 2/20 and told me she could hear his words so clearly. He is pretending too. For Valentine's day, I got a big blue dog for him and a big red heart pillow for Arianna. He loves pillows and attacked it, Arianna let him. Last week, he wanted me to change his stuffed animals diaper because it was "poopee". He likes to get the diaper and wipe and helped me wipe. When he has a dirty diaper, he brings me his wipes and diapers and tells me peepee or poopee. Angelica taught him to pat his diaper in front or back. He just uses the words, but doesn't always get it right. He does not always need a change, but I have to pay attention when he uses his words "peepee and poopee". Arianna wanted to learn how to change him, so on 2/15, I let her help, but Xavier pushed her hand away. I think that he thinks it is creepy, so I told her that he doesn't want her to. She can play with her dolls instead. She does clean him in the bath tub. They like to take baths in our bath with the jets.
He is asking for what he wants all the time. He asks for agua, te-ta, milk, juice, snacks or candy he sees, he especially wants more of anything sweet. He says "uh" for pick-me-up A LOT and is not afraid to say "pees" with a smile for please when prompted. I always give in. He wants to be in the action and since the kitchen counter is where it is at most of the time, he wants up. Two weeks ago, Tomas dodged across the kitchen to catch him because he leaned over head first too much. He caught him, but now we don't want him sitting up on the counter even when we are near because we step over to get something and he is so quick. Now I have him on the step stool, hold him or have him in my baby back pack.
He is not too afraid of much. He puts his leg through the upstairs banister like he wants to walk through it. Last week, he was upstairs in his crib and started crying after Arianna went to bed. I knew he was tired and wanted to sleep when I laid him down, so I did not think it was because he was not wanting to sleep. Arianna has gotten in trouble with Tomas from playing with Xavier after going to bed. He would cry because she wakes him up fully. She knows better to do this now and she was not calling for help, so I let him cry for a couple minutes. He can self soothe and go to sleep. I gave up and found his leg and knee stuck through the crib posts. I felt so bad for him. If it was Arianna she would have screamed bloody murder. He just has a softer cry and this has continuously put me on higher alert for him. I put him down in the pac and play in our room so this won't happen twice in one night. I hope it does not happen again. We have the newer crib specifications but oh well nothing is 100% safe.
I am so paranoid about loose change around the house. He is still at the choking stage and can reach into the drawers. I put all change up in the metal canister on the counter, but it is still found everywhere. It is hard to micromanage the choking and unsafe objects (aka scissors, toys, etc) from being left out by all in the house. A 6 and 9 year old mostly are the culprits. Tomas and Angelica are better, but I'm at least more paranoid than Tomas. Angelica is very safe with him and when he hits his head when I walk through a door holding him, I feel so bad. Angelica has a great record of keeping him injury free. He did have the ladder fall on him (Tomas left it out), I got after him when he left it out again. OMG! once is enough. He had my little dresser fall on him too. I turn it around so he can't get to the drawers to pull it down. Both times he survived because they were tall objects in small rooms, so it hit the wall before completely squishing him. He did not cry every time. He doesn't even cry when he slips in the tub and lands under water. I rescue him and he is back to playing. He is pretty kick back. For example, he used to go to sleep with a milk bottle. I knew it would not last because I was worried about his teeth rotting. We switched to milk BEFORE bed (sometimes on the couch with mommy and TV with a pillow:) my favorite time). Sometimes he drinks his milk bottle while following us around the house. Then he goes to bed with a water bottle. He did not have a problem at all with the transition and still goes to bed with a chuckle. He laughs/chuckles when I lay him down, like "oh I love my pillow and blankets, this feels so good".
I used to sing with Arianna when trying to get her to sleep. Tomas and I would sing and dance until she fell asleep, then gently/carefully laid her down. Xavier, at about 6-12 months wanted me to just lay him down. I would try to sing or dance and he would squirm and lean out of my arms down toward his bed. I would let him go. He would not even cry out if I took his bottle away to change a leaky nipple. He just laid there until I got back. Before this time, as a smaller baby, he fell asleep on the couch in our arms with the bottle or nursing and TV. He also went to sleep with fast juggling. Not the swaying and dancing Arianna liked. Now he likes my singing and even held my cheeks to have my mouth at his ear when I sang his lullabies. Now I hold him and sing a few short songs while dancing or not and then just lay him down.
He is very clean and organized. He likes to take the wipes out of the wipe cases (makes a big mess, but I still put them back and use them, so I let him). He uses the wipes to clean the floor and counters. He walked by the cabinet under the TV and closed it last week. He put trash in the kitchen trash on his own also (watch out for the keys!). Angelica lost her wallet, I hope this was not its fate. He also puts toys back when asked and in the exact same place. He loves picking up messes (like putting the Cheerios back in the cup) He will keep at it until all are back. He helps me organize too. He will knock over the wood blocks Vava got him. This mess making is too fun. He is not afraid to get dirty. He likes a fork for food, but tried to eat the sand in Arianna's sand pit.
Arianna is a great sister already. She is very motherly, but treats him like a little brother. She used to take his baby toys when he was smaller. She was too old to care about them, but they became interesting when he got hold of it. This got her in trouble a lot. She then became a little rough with him. She was too small to carry him, so these attempts were uncomfortable for him. I'm surprised she did not fall over with him. We kept saying "don't carry him, if you want to hold him let me know and sit down". Now she tries to play at his level. He loves this. She brings him toys and talks to him. She is a bit loud and spastic still. I keep telling her to "calm down, he has sensitive ears, he is a baby." She yells at him when he gets something he is not supposed to, like the light cord, but since she yells, I keep telling her to tell me and I will discipline him. She does mean well.
Last month, Arianna and I counted 18 words Xavier knew. Now he picks up new words almost every day. I need to learn Spanish. Angelica talks to him in Spanish to put the dirty diaper in the trash, and he does. He calls Arianna-Nana, Demian-Memian, Me-Mama, Tomas-Dada or Daddy, Angelica-Gaga. He knows Vava too. It took the longest to get a word for Angelica. He says Mama a lot and is sometimes misplaced. Tomas thinks he calls him Mama to tease him. Angelica knows he calls her Mama too, but this makes sense.
When I come home Arianna Screams with excitement! Xavier learned to do it too, so I get "Mama's Home Mama's Home!" really loud. Xavier runs to me too and expects to get picked up immediately. I try to wash my hands first, but I pick him right up. If he is eating dinner in his high chair, I stand next to him and try to get him to eat dinner. On 2/12, I came home to change my clothes and was going to run out to meet Tomas for a investment dinner. I was already way late. Arianna was crying (emotional and upset at everything) so I went to give her a hug first, she is still easy to pick up and carry. Xavier was heart broken, so and started to sobb, so I had to pick him up right away. It was hard to calm them down, change and get to the dinner. I was 30 min late, but oh well. It worked out.
I think about and miss Xavier all day at work. I try to talk about him. Interjecting something about him into the conversations of single workmates and during surgery is not easy, but I still have to talk about him. I tell the new updates to people at work every day. To who ever will listen. I wish I was better at writing it down, so Xavier will know if he wanted. I have a desire to save their accomplishments. Arianna's are written on random papers, so hard to access, but definitely saved. Xavier's are so far in text, but not organized really great. I hope this blog will be one place for all of it. There is always a new picture and a new anecdote that happened the night or weekend before to tell anyone who will listen. There are a few nurses that like to hear about him and I love to come over and give them the update. My patients still say you look so young and are consistently surprised when I say I have 2 kidS (pleural) and in my thirties (31!). Like the kids makes me older and wiser. Oh well. Most of the young doctors in my program are young looking girls and we all get it.
I will try to put this energy of telling my story and having Xavier on my mind in text. We will see what happens. My cell phone should be able to send to the blog, but is needs some Tomas attention. This way I can send cell phone pictures to it too. Like the new picture I'm showing now of Xavier with his blanket tucked around his head while he is sleeping. He likes to put the blanket or large fluffy pillow over his head when he sleeps. I'm so paranoid, that I used to not be able to go to sleep until I checked on him and Arianna, now I'm more relaxed, but this would have freaked me out. Now, I'm used to it. You can hear him breathing under it through a crack and I leave the blankets, but remove the occasional pillow. He started this last August with a very large duck stuffed animal at Vava's house. That had to be removed. It was as big as him! A few weeks ago he got more sophisticated and tucked the blanket. I showed Tomas. The last one got a picture (i turned the room light on for the picture) because he wrapped the blanked around his head some how. Interestingly he does not care about his body as much and had his hands and feet uncovered. Sooo Cute!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Winter Family Photos are up
We hired a local college student in photography and arts to take our family pictures. No more Sears/JC Penny hacks!
We received 2 DVDs of all the original and toned pics. Tell us what you think!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
