Smells Tasty

Wow, what a long time between posts! My apologies to Daddy's side of the family. My whole family has been visiting for a little over a week and it was wonderful. It started with Aunt K coming in last Saturday (after a 24 hour flight delay) followed within hours by Papa and Grandma Nese in their plane. Then Sunday Aunt Lady M joined us and we expected Uncle SwingDaddy and Cousin Bud, but they were also delayed in Dallas by 24 hours. I have no idea how SwingDaddy survived on so little food and so few diapers that night in a hotel with no crib, but he did. They arrived Monday tired, but recovered quickly. Here is a more detailed review of their adventure.

We did little more than let everyone acclimate for the next few days, but we did manage to catch a concert on Wed night at the Hatch Shell. Daddy was wonderful about finding the event and getting everything together for us to go. Bud was thrilled with the orchestra's performance, but LR was more interested in the boats. Daddy and I each took a turn chasing him down to the edge of the Charles River. He outran Grandma Nese and managed to get a foot in the water just before we left. He is getting so quick!

About mid week he learned how to do a somersault by himself. When I expressed concern about him breaking his neck, Papa comforted me by saying, "kids don't break their necks, they just dislocated them." Thanks goodness for medical people in the family to make us go from cringing to white-knuckling. LR also learned how to jump and practiced a lot, especially at the Hatch Shell after watching a couple of girls jumping.

Despite some tension between the cousins, they had a great time playing in the sprinkler outside a couple of times. Bud was much more adventurous with the spray than LR was. LR was more content to slide into his little pool.

There's so much more to report about this week, but I'll have to do it over the course of a few posts.

First Gender Dream

I dreamt about the twins for the first time last night and they were both boys. When I was pregnant with LR, my first dream about him was that he was a boy as well. While I think it would be convenient to have 3 boys, I also think a girl would be fun to have in the mix. Hopefully we'll know after the next ultrasound in August.

Witch's Brew

The other day LR spent a good 15 minutes making a great concoction in the sink of carrot and potato peelings in a bowl of water. "Mixing" is one of his new words and favorite things to do. Since then I've set him in front of the sink a number of times to mix whatever he can reach to put in the water. I should buy him some plastic vegetables or something similar. Yesterday he used clementine peels and half a banana that he decided he didn't want. He also threw in some fish from his fishing game for good measure. Gross, but entertaining. We even mix the bath water now as he takes his bath. We play the hokey pokey, but instead of turning "ourselves around," we mix the water around.

Another favorite bath time game is "loud and quiet." We drum on the side of the bath with flat open hands and we both yell "LOUD!" Then we tap with our fingers and it's "quiet." The quiet part never lasts as long as the loud part.

LR has started using a few words in the wrong way, but we've figured out what he means. First is the word "different." When I give him something to eat, he often feels a lack of symmetry and asks to have another piece of whatever I've given him for his other hand. For example, I'll hand him a cracker and he'll say "different cracker." He actually wants a second cracker to hold in his other hand just in case the first one disappears too quickly.

The other word is "try," which I guess he's using correctly, but it always makes me laugh. Whenever I'm eating something he asks to "try it" even if it's something he's familiar with or has eaten one hundred times before. Daddy and I used to have a friend, Rerun, in college who used to wander around parties asking people what they were drinking. When they told him he'd always say, "Hmmm... I've never had that before. Can I try it?" Amazing how often that worked with Bud Light and Natty Light. So whenever LR asks me if he can try my food, I think of Rerun and wonder if I'm being a little gullible.

Sleeping Through the Night (Again)

Since LR's last bout with a cold, he's had a hard time sleeping through the night. He'll wake up at 2 or 3am and call for me, claiming that it's "Mommy's turn." I still have a hard time listening to him cry, so I've been getting up, or making Daddy get up, and giving him a couple ounces of milk and putting him back to bed. With my family coming into town next week, we decided we have to get him to sleep all the way through again so that everyone can have a good night's sleep. Each night he cries a little less and last night was probably just 3 minutes or so. Then he slept through the night. If everything continues to go well, I'm hoping he'll be back to sleeping through the night by the time everyone arrives.

I'm up early this morning for no good reason other than most of my waking moments are filled with a sort of dread about having twins. Is it possible to feel lucky and screwed at the same time? I guess something like this was bound to happen since both Daddy and I are lucky people. As a kid, I was often picked as the volunteer during field trips or performances and Daddy always rolled double sixes when he needed them. I think it's time to start playing the lottery.

Big Brother

Say hello to Baby A and Baby B.

So LR's going to be a big brother... and not just once, but twice. We're shocked and excited, but mostly shocked. With no history of twins on my side and only one incidence of twins on Daddy's side, we were unprepared for the news at the radiology lab today. I'm going to have to decide whether to keep this blog exclusively for LR or whether to include the new kids. Should they get their own? If so, do each of the twins get one? I honestly think that's more work than I'm going to be able to handle, so my guess is that everyone is going to be cataloged in the same place.

What choked me up most today was thinking that LR won't remember the amazing 2+ years we had with him when it was just the 3 of us. He won't remember that we devoted all our time and energy to just him. With twins coming, I can only imagine the frustration he's going to experience when we have to divide our time. I know the same thing would have happened for just one child, but with two... it's going to be that much harder. This blog is probably the best way for him to know what it was like before A & B came along. I hope it's enough to capture what it was really like. Heck, we wouldn't have even tried for another baby if he hadn't been so cool.

We will start entertaining good in utero names for A & B. Let the games begin.

Daddy's Footsteps

There are 2 things worthy of note from the past few days. One is that LR has stubbed his big toes and bloodied them 3 or 4 times in the last 72 hours. This would indicate that LR, indeed, has Daddy's feet. Daddy is notorious for stubbing his toes, once so hard that he broke the big toe on his left foot. We were hoping LR wouldn't inherit his very big toe, but oh well. Actually, one of the cuts came from dropping rocks on his toes while in his pool. He has a bucket of rocks that he plays with while he's in his pool. He drops them into the water and counts them and then counts them again as he puts them back in the bucket. Yesterday he made it up to 18 which was a big jump for him. I'd only heard as high as 12 the last time I heard him count.

The other thing was that when LR says, "Mommy?" I always answer, "Yes, Hudson?" Today as we were climbing the stairs to change his diaper he said, "Mommy? Yes, Hudson?" all by himself. He's such a thoughtful child, willing to take both sides of the conversation so that I won't have to exert myself.

Summer Fun

We spent another fun filled Sunday at the YMCA pool. LR loved it so much that he cried when it was time to get out of the water. He calls it the "big pool" or "walk water" because the entry to the pool is a gradual slope that makes it easy for kids to walk in. Daddy dunked LR 5 times and LR cried each time, but recovered quickly. He didn't like being underwater, but he certainly didn't want to get out of the water. When he went down for his nap on Sunday I filled his kiddie pool with water so that it would warm up by the time he woke up. Late afternoon I put him back into his bathing suit and he spent another hour in the water while Daddy went for a bike ride with our friend B. I also positioned his slide so that he could get out, climb the stairs, and then slide back into the pool. He loved that. He also liked holding my hands while he did it which makes me think he's not quite as adventurous with water as he is with other things.

Uncle Corbin came up for a quick visit and LR quickly suckered him into a never ending game of chase. Not just any chase... the person being chased has to be holding onto one of LR's push toys. LR's push toys are about an average of a foot, maybe 18 inches off the ground. I imagine Uncle Corbin is a little sore today.

LR had a good day with the nanny today. He swam in his kiddie pool, fell asleep in the stroller, and had tons of milk to drink. Apparently wasn't too hungry, just thirsty for milk. When I got home I let him spend another 40 minutes in the pool. I lotion-ed him up before bed because I'm sure he's drying out from all the washing. The good news is that he's tanning! What some of you may not understand is that I worried while LR was in utero that he would have my skin. That might sound weird to people who have never burned so badly they blistered all over their back, or smelled so strongly of vinegar that they couldn't sleep, or who were never convinced by their best friend that suntan oil would help them tan. I wished he would have Daddy's olive skin and it looks like he does. *phew* Not that I won't still bathe him in suntan lotion, but at least I don't have to worry as much about the lobster effect.

2 going on 8

You know, I really enjoy spending time with LR. Sure, sometimes I'd rather get housework done, or some decorations up on our bare walls, but most of the time I'm fascinated by him. He's a great mimic right now. I'll be in conversation with Nanny C and he'll be quietly playing with his trains, offhandedly repeating every tenth word or phrase we say. He's not saying them to us, he just saying them to say them. It's like having a big parrot in the house. He smiles all the time and only gets really irritated if you say you're too tired to play a game of chase right now. "Mommy's tired," carries absolutely no weight with him.

Yesterday I was surprised by a knock at the door just before 6pm when our two 8 year-old female neighbors asked if Hudson could come out a play. Seriously? When I opened the door, LR wanted to go out, but while I was looking for his shoes, the girls came in. They started playing with his train set, and then took all the balls out of his basket. LR was elated and giggled the whole time. One kept trying to give him hugs. (He was convinced she had cooties.) The other talked my ear off about other girls in the neighborhood and things they'd done and seen today. They took turns peppering me with questions about our house, LR, and life in general. By the time I shooed them out the door a half hour later, I was exhausted. LR was irritated that I made them go. He kept asking for them.

For now, I'll take a 2 year-old over an 8 year-old any day. Parenting is obviously something you have to build up to like weightlifting. You can't expect to bench press twice your weight the first day.

Biking and Swimming

We had so many great photo opportunities this weekend that it's hard to pick which ones to post. On Saturday we took a nice bike ride around Horn Pond in Woburn. LR loved it. He even kept his sunglasses on for the majority of the ride. We went around once and stopped for water. He said "again, again, again" until we hopped back on and went around the pond another time. Then I coaxed him out of the trailer by promising we could throw rocks into the pond. We did that while Daddy packed up the car. LR fell asleep on the drive home, but woke up when Daddy tried to put him down in the crib. It took another car ride after lunch to get him to go down finally. Oh, and taking action shots while riding a bike... not as easy as it looks. I'm pretty happy I didn't wipe out when I got the shot of them riding with the pond behind then.

On Sunday we went to LR's long anticipated first swim lesson. It was awesome. Daddy took some fantastic pictures, but more importantly, LR loved it - right up until I let him go under water after sliding. He really wanted to slide, but wasn't sure about the landing. Anyway, he didn't want to get out of the pool and I know Daddy is looking forward to his turn next weekend. (Only one of us can be in the pool with him at a time.) I have so many photos to post that I'll put up some more tomorrow if I get a chance. The photos seem to be taking a ridiculous amount of time to load tonight. *sigh* The swim picture is of him riding a fun noodle while singing "Puff the Magic Dragon." I hadn't thought of singing that too him, but he heard the word dragon and repeated it while we rode around. He didn't want to give up any of the equipment each time we moved onto a new activity.

LR still has the sniffles and Daddy and I caught the cold too. We're tired and congested, but not much worse than that.

Nose Hurts

Last night around 6pm I noticed a light rash on LR's back. When I put him to bed I saw his nose was running very slightly. At 10pm he woke up crying with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. He was up just about every hour last night. I took the day off with a migraine and tried to recoup some of the lost sleep when he napped today. Although his nose ran all day, he didn't seem any worse for wear. The rash is still there and brighter during the bath which reminds me of his bout with Roseola. At dinner he told us that his "nose hurt" and I imagine that it does. Hopefully he sleeps better tonight. He hates the medicine for stuffy noses, so I just gave him Motrin for the sore throat. Thinking about grabbing some Dimetapp tomorrow to see if he'll take that.

The nanny tried to put him down for a nap, but since he couldn't breathe, he woke up within 10 minutes. I put him in the car and he passed out quickly. This pic isn't from today, but it certainly could have been.

4th of July at the pool

LR loves the car pull toy Grandma W and Grandad B gave him during our recent visit. He pulls it around the house often with much enthusiasm... so much so that one of the wheels keeps popping off. It just needs a touch of wood glue, so I'm not worried about the toy lasting a very long time. Gigi, if you look carefully, he still chews on his lower right lip. :)

On the fourth we had some quality family time at the pool. This Sunday is our first swim lesson and we wanted to make sure he isn't afraid of a large body of water. He's not. He loved it. He would have loved it more if the water hadn't been quite so cold. He kept jumping in with me and then scrambling to get out. Then he'd run down the length of the pool, challenging Daddy to stay between him and the water. The last picture is one of the many times Daddy retrieved LR. Really looking forward to the swim lessons!

In house news, Daddy installed 2 new toilets on the 4th so that visiting family will no longer have to listen to a trickling tank or have to catch themselves as they sit on a short, unsteady toilet. Thank you, Daddy! Nothing says patriotism like toilets.

Brio-rama!

Daddy and LR have been having a fabulous time with the Brio set from Uncle D. Here's Daddy's latest creation. We're still working to get LR back on schedule. He's going to bed and getting up a little later than we'd like. Tonight he made it down by 8:45pm which is definitely an improvement. Daddy's going to wake him up in the morning if he tries to sleep in too much. (I can't believe I just typed that.)

Anyway, I haven't been able to blog much because I've been going to bed pretty much right after LR. Hopefully, we'll be back on track soon with more blog entries and more time to chill out after LR goes to sleep. And by chill out, I mean wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean up from dinner, etc. Luckily, LR is totally worth it. Sleep tight, kiddo.

Latest favorite movie: Finding Nemo
Favorite scene: what LR calls "speak whale" when Dori tries to communicate with a Whale in Sydney Harbor. We watched that short scene 6 times today.

Oh and he's starting to sing along when I sing to him. "Row, row, row your boat" and "You are my sunshine" are favorites.

Trip Out West

I was really trying to be good about blogging and then we made a trip to Denver this past weekend and it all went to hell. Oh well, the trip was worth it. Before the trip, however, last week we had our new nanny, Nanny C, start full days with LR. He really seems to like her and we're very happy with the new schedule. I have to get up too early, but it puts me at home with LR by 3:30pm every afternoon, so it's worth it.

Sat morning we took our time, packed up, planned our car, bus, train, and plane adventure and stepped out the door at 11:00am. We drove to a satellite lot at Logan and parked. LR kept asking for the "last tunnel" but since we'd already gone through the big dig tunnels, there were no more to be found. We boarded a bus to get to the airport and LR was very excited to both be on a bus and see all the planes. We had him in the stroller, so it all went pretty smoothly, even security. (They do make you take baby shoes off, just like SwingDaddy reported.)

The novelty of the planes wore off just in time for LR to pass out as the plane took off. Unfortunately, the captain came on over the intercom with about 45 minutes left and woke LR up. He was pretty groggy until we landed in Milwaukee. He took some time to run around while we were in the airport and then we boarded the second flight to Denver. We got bulkhead seats, so LR couldn't kick anyone in front of us. That was a great advantage. A gentleman next to us was kind enough to let us out whenever LR decided to run up and down the aisle. Daddy and I had prepared a bag of tricks which included favorite foods, new toys, and new books. His favorite new books are "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear," and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." The pigeon one is his favorite though and we all read it to him multiple times over the long weekend. The big toy winner of the weekend was a wind up travel fishing game. LR was quiet for 10 minutes at a time focusing on catching a fish with his magnetic fishing pole. I'm still shocked we made it both ways without losing any of the tiny, plastic fish.

When we landed LR was wowed by the Denver airport (and their trains) and could scarcely be bothered to greet Grandma and Granddad H. He warmed up quickly to his playmates though and played lots of games of peek-a-boo with Grandad. LR loved all their cubby furniture, face-plant friendly couches, and giant ceramic frog. Just about everything makes him smile which, in turn, makes us smile. The grandparents were amazed by his verbal skills. He mimicked everything everyone said this weekend, but he's also somewhat of a trend setter. His favorite saying is still "no like" and by the end of the trip, we were all saying it.

The weather was extremely hot, so we spent most of the time indoors, but Sun. we did go play at a great new park they have nearby. LR went down the highest slides over and over on equipment made for 5-7 year olds. It made Daddy and I nervous, but he's tough to stop sometimes. We also hit a mall on Mon. with an awesome play area. I forgot to take the camera, but it was giant rubbery breakfast foods that they could jump, climb, and slide on. Very cool. We spent the rest of the weekend playing with the Brio train sets that Uncle D had when he was little that he's lending to LR. LR absolutely loves it. Thanks D! Oh, and I believe LR has absconded with my Ratatouille stuffed animal you bought for me, D. Something about the spoon appeals to him.

We left Tues and had a rough time on the way back. We weren't quite as organized and LR had already seen all the new toys and books. He slept the first flight again which was nice, but the second flight was all squirming and kicking the seat in front of him. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home and still haven't quite recovered. Really wish we could travel more since it was so wonderful to see family, but we're just going to have to wait until he's a little older. He's getting too strong for me if that's possible. That and he's really close to being two. I think my wagging finger is sprained.

Evening in the Park

The first picture is of LR enjoying a partially put together kitchen island. Thanks, Uncle Corbin! I just have to make one more trip to pick up the counter top. In the meantime, LR thinks of it as his own personal fort. The hat he's wearing was a gift from grandparents Y and C. You can't see in the picture, but it's a Cubs hat. In a town as rabid as Boston for its sports teams, the grandparents are sure trying hard to get him beat up. So far he has a Tampa Bay shirt and a Cubs hat. Want to throw a Chargers visor our way, SwingDaddy? Good thing we only have a few NY family members or we'd really be in trouble. (Go Sox!)

Monday evening Daddy came home early and we decided to take a picnic dinner to the park. The day had been in the high 80s, so it was a perfect temperature. LR was more than willing to go for a car ride, so it was easy enough to get over there. The park was deserted as, presumably, most people took their kids home for dinner. (Suckers!)

LR started in the sandbox with the big dump trucks and then moved on to the swings. We convinced him to come over to the picnic table for a quick bite of mac n' cheese and pickles before he went on to other equipment. He loves dill pickles, but he wouldn't chew them up and swallow. He would just bite off a hunk and keep it in his mouth while running around. It was driving me crazy thinking that he was going to choke on it as he climbed the rock wall and slid down the tunnel slide. That tunnel slide is just about the greatest slide ever, according to LR. He found it just as I was starting to think about heading home. It was too nice an evening to keep him from enjoying it completely though, so we waited until he tired of it. Then he found the path into the Fells Reservation at the edge of the park. He headed into the woods, mosquitos and all. He was convinced he heard water and kept trudging farther into the darkening woods looking for it, saying "water, water." We followed until we hit a family of gnats. Then I put LR on my shoulders and we tromped out of the woods and to the car. He didn't fuss about getting into the car and it was a pretty awesome evening overall. The last picture shows Daddy playing a game of chase with LR.

Weekend Grandparents Visit

This weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from Grandparents Y and C and Uncle Corbin. The arrived with adorable Thomas the Train outfits for LR which he happily wore all weekend. He entertained them their first night by screaming from 2:30 to 4am. Not sure what his problem was, but because of the illness last week, I'm guessing it had something to do with him wanting to be in our bed instead of his. At least he slept through on Saturday night.

Saturday we spent much of the day playing outside and then had dinner at Jasper White's Summer Shack. When LR finished his dinner we all took turns walking him around the restaurant. He fixated on the lobster tanks in the center of the restaurant and it was all we could do to keep him from going for a swim with the lobsters. Uncle Corbin, however, encouraged it. :)

At home LR spent a lot of time playing with and climbing on his new train table provided by a gift certificate Y and C gave us to Pottery Barn. At first we tried to keep him from climbing up, but after 24 hours, we gave up. Now he can climb on it, but not stand on it. When he does stand on it, I usually give him the warning, "you can sit down, or get down." He smiles. I say it again. He dances around. I make a move to come over to him and he drops to his butt. Such a character.

Sunday night we convinced our friends D & H that he was fine on the table and hadn't yet fallen off. Moment later he tumbled off and I only half caught him as his forehead hit the floor. He cried for a minute and then fussed for a minute, but there was no major damage (to his head or the floor). It was another example of stunningly adept parenting.

Happy Belated Father's Day to all the dads out there. Special thanks to Daddy for being so amazing with LR. LR pretty much worships him already. You won't see a happier kid when he hears the garage door open in the evening.

Goodbye Nanny M

I've missed a bunch of major events in the last few days, so I'll try to catch up in the next few posts. Last Friday was Nanny M's last day. The whole family misses her already, but we know she's going on to great things. We are forever grateful to her for her dedication to and loving of LR. He has been extremely well taken care of and I'm just sorry we don't have more photos of their time together. Luckily, Daddy snapped a few pics on her last day.

Congrats on the new job and thanks for everything Nanny M!

Won't Anybody Help?

Last week I took LR to the grocery store. When we got to the prepared foods counter, I ordered a small container of mac n' cheese for him. While waiting for the man to fill the order, LR decided it was time to get out of the shopping cart disguised as a car, which he calls "car cart." He was strapped in, so was making very little progress. As he strained, he decided to announce that he needed help to get out of the cart by yelling, "help! Help! Help!" To the casual observer it looked like a scene out of the DSS handbook. I was a little embarrassed and the man behind the counter was terribly amused.

Floor Tantrums

Mark the calendar. Yesterday was the first time LR threw himself to the ground to express displeasure. None of the tantrums were major, but I'm sure he's just priming the engine. He did it twice for me during the day and once for Daddy last night when he wanted Daddy to take him outside. Speaking of Daddy, yesterday morning while LR and I played cars downstairs, Daddy got ready upstairs. When it was time for me to leave for work, I called out, "Derek! Are you coming down?" Daddy came down the stairs, LR looked at him and called out "Durk! Duuuurk!" I'll have to remind myself to just say "Daddy" from now on. He's getting much better with names though. He can now say his own name, but it comes out very much broken into 2 parts: Hud-san.

LR finally seemed to be mostly recovered from his illness yesterday although he's still napping a lot and he did throw up his dinner of zucchini, rice, and beans. Not sure what it was, but I'm glad it's almost over. He slept through Tues night, but didn't make it through last night. I think he's gotten used to sleeping in our bed again. *sigh*

LR has a favorite new expression, "no like." He uses it when I pick a book he'd rather not hear for the thousandth time. "No like." He uses it when he's finished with his dinner and pushes his plate away even though he ate all but 10% of it. "No like." He uses it when I walk in the direction opposite the way he wants to walk. "No like!" It's expressive, but annoying. Just right for a burgeoning two year old, I guess.

Tummy Hurts

LR woke up with a fever on Saturday morning. Because it was low grade and he was playing happily, we decided to try a run to Ikea. It was a little overwhelming to all of us and he fell asleep on the way home. When he woke up, his fever went up to close to 103 and he spent the rest of the day resting on me on the couch while watching A Bug's Life. (He loves the scenes with the bird.) Saturday night was a rough one. Very little sleep and lots of attempts to get the right medication into him. The problem is that he'll take Motrin, but it doesn't break a fever as well as Tylenol. Unfortunately, the Tylenol is gross and once I start giving him that, he'll reject the Motrin too. I picked up 3 version of Children's Tylenol, grape, strawberry, and meltaways, on Sunday hoping that he would like one of them. No dice. Every time I made him take it, he dissolved into tears and hiccups.

We're were supposed to host my book club's BBQ on Sunday, but I canceled it to keep the other kids from picking up whatever LR has. It was by far the nicest day of the summer so far and it was a shame we had to spend it inside. In the afternoon Daddy and LR decided to nap in our bed and LR woke up screaming. He was inconsolable. He was stiff as a board in my arms and clenched his fists and raised them to his head. When he calmed a little, I asked him if something hurt. He said, "hurt, hurt, tummy hurt, tummy hurt" and then cranked up the volume on his wailing again. It's the very first time he's been able to tell me what's bothering him and I felt completely helpless. I didn't know what to do that might help. He hadn't eaten much for the past 2 days, so it could have been hunger, or maybe gas, or upset because of the Tylenol. He drank a little water when he calmed down and the episode passed. Unfortunately, it wasn't the last one. He woke up at 11:30pm last night with the same thing and we were just considering taking him down the street to the hospital when he calmed down and fell back asleep.

During the night his fever broke and he slept much more peacefully. The fever spiked again this morning, but I'm hoping we're on the tail end of whatever this is.

Su-sha

About a month ago we exposed LR to sushi. We're not big fans of sashimi, but we like vegetarian maki. When he expressed interest in my dinner, like he always does, I unwrapped the seaweed from an avocado roll and gave it to him. He popped the whole thing in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and asked for more. I ended up splitting my dinner with him that night. He called it "su-sha."

Since then his sushi appetite has ramped up. He asks for it on site when we're at the grocery store. At Whole Foods they have a giant plastic sushi roll hanging above the sushi station, so he knows when it's coming. It's not really grocery store finger food, so I try to restrict him to crackers and grapes when we're in the aisles (despite mighty protests). In the past month, his pronunciation has improved. It's now "su-shi" and he eats 8-10 pieces on his own in a sitting. I stopped unwrapping the seaweed and started cutting them in half. He doesn't seem to have a problem with the seaweed as long as it's in small pieces.

I love that he's a good eater, but did he have to have such expensive tastes?

This week we went with friends to StellaBella, a great toy store in Cambridge. I could have spent hundreds of dollars, but I ended up with an adorable wooden sushi set. (I think my sister-in-law Lady M mentioned the same set in a blog post a while back.) LR loves playing with it so far. He uses the wooden knife to cut the velcroed sushi rolls apart and practices dipping the pieces into soy sauce using the chopsticks. It's really adorable. We spent the last play time this evening playing a family game of "sushi." I should contact Milton Bradley...

Have? Have.

LR's favorite new word is "have." He uses it both as a question "have?" meaning "may I have this object that you have but I dearly want," and "have," a command, telling Daddy or I "you shall have this thing this very moment." The first is the equivalent of "gimme," but much nicer. For example, in the picture I'm pretty sure he said "have" as he reached for the camera. The latter he uses when I ask him to share something. Usually his playmate doesn't know why she is receiving such a gift, but she doesn't often complain.

LR is just getting the hang of saying his name. It's usually in the context of "Hudson's turn," which comes out as "Hudnes tourn" or "Huds tourn." (It's not usually mommy's turn.)

A few pics

watching the cougars with Mommy









walking with Daddy at the zoo












sharing a bowl of raisins with King J

Bikes Rides and Other Fun

LR's obsession with rides is no longer limited to cars. On Saturday morning we took our first family bike ride. Daddy and I bought a Burley D'Lite trailer and hooked it to my bike. I was worried about 3 things before the ride.

1. would he keep the helmet on
2. would he enjoy the ride
3. would I be able to hear him
   

When we got to our drop site, he definitely wasn't thrilled about the helmet, but once he got into the trailer, he seemed to forget about it. For the first 10 minutes of the ride I could hear him in the trailer saying "Woah! Woah!" He really enjoyed it. We biked part of the way around a pond and then decided we needed to get home for a play date. When we got back to the car he was not happy that we had stopped. He kept saying "bike again, bike again." I'm thrilled that he enjoyed it and I was even happier to be back on the bike again. Since Saturday we've been out 2 other times. Once he and I went to a park by ourselves and then last night we all went for a quick evening ride before bed. The only trouble we ran into was that he didn't want to leave the park and I ended up with a sobbing child in the trailer for the first 5 minutes on the way home.

When we got home on Saturday morning, our friends came over with their daughter V. V and LR really enjoy playing together. It's the first time I've seen him engage in interactive play instead of side-by-side play. They chased each other around and giggled when the other one did something especially funny, like fall down. They have very similar personalities, so they're neat to watch. We headed out to the zoo and spent a very warm morning checking out the flamingos, cougars, and monkeys. Luckily it's a small zoo, so in 45 minutes we saw just about everything. After the zoo we had a BBQ with them and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Apparently LR made a big impression on V. Her mom reports that she woke up the next day asking for him.

LR is starting to put together lots of words. We've jumped from 2 words to 3 or 4 and sometimes more. He's feeding me words for songs if I "forget" them. This morning he was pushing his old bouncy swing and saying "one money, two show, ready set go!" It was a funny combination of what I say when I push him on a swing and what Aunt J taught him to do when racing.

His latest favorite game with Daddy is chase, but LR has certain rules that he likes to enforce.

• Daddy has to be pushing the stroller, the push car, or the dump truck while LR pushes something else of his choice.
  
• Daddy has to have both hands on the vehicle.
  
• Daddy can only stop when LR gets tired.
  

The best thing about the game is that LR has learned the concept of turns. When Daddy gets tired, he'll announce "mommy turn!" After I run the loop with him, he'll say, "daddy turn!" (He really prefers Daddy for this particular game.) He's even started to apply it to other things. When we tag teamed a diaper change last night after the bath, LR turned to me to pick him up and said "mommy turn."

I promise to get new pictures up soon. Our camera battery ran out, so I'm a little behind.

Wanna Go For A Ride?

I always associated the question "wanna go for a ride?" with dogs. Now I use it for LR. He gets really excited when I ask him if he wants to go for a ride in the car. For the first time he actively participates in getting into his car seat and buckling up. No more strong arming him into the car then into his seat. As soon as we pull out of the driveway and onto the road he announces, "fast!" Not sure if he's saying I drive too fast or not fast enough. Yesterday he was so intent on going for a ride that we ran an errand that wasn't particularly urgent. When we returned to the garage, he gave me his best sad face and asked "again?" I told him that we'd go for another ride tomorrow.

Grandma Nese sent a cute package of Cars (the movie) books last weekend. LR really loves them and we've read them many times already. I was especially interested in the book titled "Doc Hudson." (The others are "Sally," "Lightening McQueen," and "Mater.") He can say so many words now, but almost refuses to say his name. He refers to himself as "baby." Every once in awhile he might say "Hun," but it's still a ways from sounding like his name. I figured the book would offer a good teaching point. So after 5 days of reading the books to him he refers to them as "blue car," "red car," "tow truck," and "Doc." Oh well. Thanks for the books, Nese!

Last thing I keep forgetting to write about. Rocks. He carries them everywhere. I rarely get them away from him when we come in from outside and the result is that we have one on our bathroom sink, one in the living room, two next to the kitchen sink, and one on the floor in his room. Every time I come home I find new rocks in the house. When he's not looking, I toss them out the door. I'm pretty sure he's disassembling our decorative rock wall on the patio rock by rock.

Crash!

LR's friend R was born just a few days before LR. His mom and I took prenatal yoga together and we've had play dates since. They are similar in size, but have really diverged in personality in the last year. LR, despite being a child cared for by nannies, is on the aggressive side. (I only say that since that government study came out recently that says kids who were in daycare for multiple years are slightly more aggressive. Turns out they are .2 percent more aggressive than their non-daycare counterparts. Apparently they media took the study and ran with it, implying there was a great difference in aggression based on their early childhood care.)

LR always wants whatever toy other kids have. He chased R around because he had his new Thomas the Train toy. He tried to get it 2 dozen times before R finally took his eyes off the prize. Then LR played with it for a minute and dropped it again. LR and R spent a fair amount of time just running around the house. There's a lot of open space since we're not really unpacked yet. At one point LR announced "crash!" and ran chest first into R, knocking them both over. R's mom and I were both surprised. Since neither of them was hurt, it was pretty funny.

Yesterday LR did the same thing to me while I was crouched down cleaning something off the floor. I heard "crash!" and then felt him thump into my back. It really made me laugh. Thank goodness the rain has finally ended and we can go outside. Apparently someone has a lot of unused energy!

Meal Success

Sometimes I get into an absolute rut when it comes to cooking for LR. After the move it was convenient that he wanted corn dogs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but that phase seems to be over for the most part. So, now I'm trying to make good meals again. The other night I threw together some beans and brown rice with an onion I had handy. He loved it! Maybe it's just that he was hungry, but I was shocked by how much he ate. He also asked for corn as a side dish and then had 2 large helpings of it. He ate it again for lunch the next day. I feel particularly lucky that he's not fussy when it comes to food. He's now drinking out of a cup without a sippy top on it. But with each step forward... when he's done drinking what he wants, he dumps the rest on the table. *sigh* I only give him a bit to drink at a time and at least that minimizes the cleanup.

Toothpaste! Is it good that he asks for toothpaste first thing in the morning? I have to put (training) toothpaste on his toothbrush at least 3 times before he's satisfied. Guess it's really tasty. I also found a cool, cool, cool toothbrush that is translucent yellow, but flashes red for 60 seconds so that kids know how long to brush their teeth. LR carried it around for the first couple days and loves using it regularly. What a great invention!

NYC

Spent Mother's Day in Brooklyn visiting Gigi and feeding her treats. LR got a real kick out of force feeding Gigi some of the wonderful food Uncle Corbin prepared. She also brought him a book of Thomas The Train, whom he affectionately calls "Tom."

It was also his last opportunity to see Uncle Keeper and Aunt J before they go off to Arizona for the next 4 years. I'm already looking forward to visiting them. He also got a chance to view the city from our hotel room near LaGuardia. We were amazed that we didn't hear any of the planes since they flew directly over the hotel. We inspected the windows since we'll need ones like it to block out the noise from the busy road we live on now. Not that it bothers LR. He actually prefers to sleep in our room right now which is the noisiest room in the house. Don't know why he's having trouble going to sleep in his crib these days, but we're hoping it passes quickly.

Otherwise things are well. We spend most of our days outdoors. He loves the yard and has found things like the hose to play with. I was nervous the first time I saw him play with the loops, but it hasn't proved to be dangerous, so I just watch him carefully when he heads over to it. In the picture he's wearing a T-shirt our friends brought him from Orlando; it says "Thing 1" on it. It's perfect for him. He also still loves to push and ride in his wagon. The slide is not as interesting anymore which is making me second guess buying a little jungle gym for him. Not sure what sort of outdoor equipment he'd enjoy most. Probably one of those inflatable castles so he can bounce himself silly. The cars and trucks going by the house are a constant source of entertainment, but it's nothing compared to trains. It's either the Brio set, Thomas the Train episodes, or the full length of The Polar Express. He now takes the DVD out of the player and brings it to me when he wants to watch it. (He does it even knowing he's not supposed to touch the DVD player. I admire his dedication.) There are a few scary parts, but he loves it. I'm pretty tired of it, but that doesn't seem to matter at this point.

LR is in desperate need of a haircut. I think we're making a family trip this weekend. He's showing some serious bedhead in this last picture. (In all honesty, I did it to him on purpose while trying to wake him up from a particularly long nap. I kept running my fingers through his hair, combing it straight up until he finally woke up.) He's reading his new Thomas book in the photo.

Happy Belated Mother's Day Everyone!

Attack Turkeys

The other day I was standing in the backyard at one corner of the house and LR was standing at the other corner. He was exploring all the nooks and crannies in the yard... mostly the nooks with the most dirt. I heard the sound of something crawling through the brush in the woods behind the house. Our neighbors have seen deer, coyotes, and foxes, so I peeked over the fence just in time to see a large bodied animal slip under a bush as it headed toward us. It was only 20 yards away or so, so I sprinted for LR, scooped him up, ran the length of the house, into the garage, and through the door. LR was unsure what the rush was, but he didn't complain as we bounded up the stairs and into the guest room. I looked out the window and saw a large wild turkey wandering around behind the fence. I told LR that the turkey looked fierce, but I don't think he believed me.

In other animal news, LR chased a bunny out of our yard and giggles whenever the birds decide to hang out on the grass. He can really get up some speed now, although he looks like a marionette when he runs - high knees and swinging arms. He's much tougher to catch though. The animals and I are going to have to start taking him much more seriously.

Catch Up

First week in the house was a wet one. LR blessed the house with mud. If you look carefully in the first picture, you'll see his handiwork on the white corner of the house. It was just like finger painting, but more fun!

He loves running up and down the bulkhead doors to the basement. Initially he thought it was a slide, so he would walk up one side and sit and drag himself down the other. We went through a number of pairs of pants before he figured out the coefficient of friction was too high. Bummer. So I bought him a little slide for outside and he uses it to send cars, trains, and rocks sailing. Daddy is very proud.

I also bought him a stroller since he was scratching up the hardwood floor pushing around his real one. He loves the little blue one, but not the baby I bought to go with it. He slings the baby around by the collar of his shirt and dumps him unceremoniously anywhere. Sometimes he'll push him in the stroller, but not often.

Again, sorry for the delay in posts. We went through another stomach bug (which nobody wants to hear about) and a jury duty day for me. I'm also back to part time after 3 weeks full time and I couldn't be more thrilled. The weather is warming up and I can't wait to spend the afternoons playing outside.