Xingu Plane

I went to the park this afternoon with LR after work. I put him in a swing and he talked about all the things he could see while he was swinging: trees, cars, trucks, slides, etc. At one point he looked up in the sky.

LR: airplane!
RuggerMom: What type of plane?
LR: Xingu plane (X is for Xingu in his plane alphabet book.)
RuggerMom: Are you sure?
LR: Yak plane (Y is for Yak in the same plane book.)
RuggerMom: *laughing*

He's awesome.

Little Daredevil

Okay, I've missed a bunch of things from last week, so I'm going to try to catch up here.

Gifts for Daddy's birthday arrived last week including an awesome beach bag from the Denver grandparents. LR claimed it as his own and Daddy and I made the mistake of giving him "rides" in it where we basically tested the bag's seam strength. Boy, is it a tough bag! Now we have to hide the bag from LR.

Last Wed we had our second ultrasound. Since we already knew it was twins, it was easier to enjoy it this time. I had started the day with a big glass of OJ, so the kids were bouncing and dancing all over the place. "Twin B is facing down... no wait, facing up" the technician said. The important part of the visit was that they found 2 placentas. The doctor said that makes them 95% sure that they're fraternal. Next visit we should be able to find out the gender.

On Friday we went to my company's summer outing where they had rented a large moonwalk for the kids. We could not get LR out of it. It must have been 100 degrees in it, but he bounced and followed the big kids around in it for at least an hour. Right away he found an 8 foot ramped ladder which led to a steep slide. He went up and down it 3 times before he tumbled a little on the fourth try. Then he was slightly more tentative, but only slightly. As soon as other kids he wanted to follow started doing it again, he was right there with them. And if he wasn't on the slide he was throwing himself around in the big jumping area. He was the youngest kid in there by about a year. That's our little daredevil.

On the way home we picked up a second bouncer from a mother of twins from my group. When we got it home, I couldn't get LR out of it. He's wearing his Mr. Potato Head glasses while sitting and playing with all the toys hanging on it. He was content for at least 10 minutes on the kitchen floor which is why it's still sitting there and will sit there until he starts ignoring it. Guess I put his bouncer away WAY too soon!

At swim lessons on Sunday the teacher guessed he was two and a half years old. I told her that he wasn't quite two and she was shocked because of how well he speaks. The past week he's shown a huge improvement not so much in vocabulary, but how he uses it. There's a lot more comprehension going on now instead of just mimicking. It's very cool to have little conversations with him now.

Great Beach Day

We had an amazing day at the beach with friends D & H and their son King J. The weather was perfect and the boys had a ball. If I were less exhausted, I would write a nice long post; however, it's bed time. The sun really wipes you out!

We went to Rye Beach in NH. It was an hour drive up and Daddy got the drive the new minivan for the first time. The boys watched Animusic 2 while the adults chatted. They stayed awake and then loved every minute of playing at the beach. LR was a little concerned about he sand in his flip-flops at first, but got over it quickly. King J kept running straight into the 61 degree water. LR was much more tentative. He thought the water was too cold, but Daddy managed to get him to play in the water for a bit. LR and I built sandcastles and dug big holes which we let fill with water. Both boys barely made it back to the car and fell asleep immediately. I took this picture of them when we pulled into the garage at home.

G'night!

ABC's

Last week LR started singing the ABC's all by himself. He tends to skip E and mumbles a little around L, M, N, O, P, but gets the sounds right in general. He also sometimes gets sidetracked by the S. It makes such a nice hissing sound that he has to stop and do his snake impression for a while. Then he might start over at the beginning because he can't remember where he was. Tonight he sang it 5 times in a row in the bath. It was very cute and we clapped each time he finished.

Opening the gate was not a fluke. He did it again tonight and Daddy had to chase him down. Luckily, we were watching for it, so he wasn't far behind. We'll figure out a fix tomorrow and will have to remember to tell the nanny.

For dinner we had corn tamales which he called corn "Ta-Mommies." I thought it was cute enough to include in a blog entry. Oh, and I took a first pass at shaving him down again. His hair had gotten long and it will just take a few evenings to get it all off. In the meantime he looks a little weird with clumps of short and clumps of long hair, but this is better than restraining him while a stranger cuts his hair. He even tried the shaver by himself (with the guard on). He had it turned the wrong way, so he couldn't do any damage.

Daddy's 33rd birthday

On Thursday LR managed to unlock the gate and let himself out into the world beyond the yard. I was watching, so I went out with him, but it made me nervous. I watched him try it again Friday with no luck, so I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Maybe the gate wasn't very securely locked. In either case, it's going to be hard to let him run quite as free in the yard anymore unless we add some other security measure to the gates.

Today is Daddy's 33rd birthday! We marked it by running down south of Boston to buy a minivan, the Honda Odyssey. It's the closest to a luxury vehicle we've ever owned. It's even got the all important DVD player with wireless headsets for the kids - only two, so I have the feeling we'll have to buy one more for our "bonus" child. We also checked out a store which carried one of the triple options we're looking at. First of all, triple strollers are ridiculous. They're heavy, unwieldy, and pretty inflexible in terms of configurations. There are very few solutions for our combination of kids. When I asked the MMOTA (Mass. Mothers of Twins Assoc.) for advice, three women with our exact combination of kids answered that they all us the Valco Runabout with a toddler seat attachment and love it. Unfortunately, it won't work for the time the twins are in infant carriers unless I want to take them in and out of their car seats to put them in the stroller. *sigh* So I need a double Snap n' Go for them while using the Bugaboo Cameleon for LR and just bring someone with me, I guess. In an emergency, when I'm by myself, I can take the twins out of their car seats. Sounds like fun in the middle of winter! Where do I sign up?

Our neighbors, T & T, invited us over for a BBQ this evening and their teenage daughters entertained LR outside while we sat on the deck and enjoyed a really pleasant dinner. Daddy and I even got a chance to talk! I had been battling a migraine for 24 hours and it finally went away during dinner. Was hoping I'd see an end to them now that I'm out of the first trimester, but no such luck.

LR is going on 2 weeks of sleeping through the night. Don't know how the family visit changed his routine so significantly, but I'm glad it did. I really need the extra sleep. LR continues to amaze us with his vocabulary. He's repeating whole sentences now and can usually tell us exactly what he wants or is thinking. He often gives running commentary in the car and when the salesman couldn't find the keys today, LR helpfully chanted "find da keys, find da keys," growing progressively louder until it got embarrassing. Not for us, for the salesman. We thought it was pretty funny.

No Pants

Yesterday, by the time I hopped out of the shower, I could hear LR calling "Mommy! Come in!" from our bedroom. He was hanging out with Daddy on the bed while they de-grogged. I think he actually meant "come out," but it was close enough. I emerged from the bathroom without my jeans on yet and crawled into bed with the boys. LR looked at me and said simply, "no pants." I started laughing thinking that it was a good thing he's not in school yet, otherwise I'd be the mom who doesn't wear pants.

See the People

Every morning when LR woke up during the family reunion, the first thing he said was "see da people?" He wanted to go downstairs to see what group of people were in the house today. I think that may be part of the problem he was having with sleeping through the night. Since everyone went home last Monday, he's been sleeping though. It's been really wonderful to not have to get up in the middle of the night with him. I'm thinking we need to alter his bedtime routine, however, so that we brush his teeth after he has his milk, not before. Unfortunately, he still uses the milk to go to sleep and I keep reading articles about 2 year olds with rotting teeth. For now I'm just happy that he's sleeping through. We'll tackle the teeth next month.

After Grandma Nese and Papa left, Grandma W and Granddad B arrived. They were not as terribly delayed getting in, but I hit accident traffic trying to pick them up. The reunion week was an incredibly bad travel week. Very few travelers made it through unscathed with 3 separate parties being delayed at least 24 hours. The day after they arrived we all packed up and went to the New England Aquarium. The place was packed and not as cool as I had hoped for. We also missed connecting with Aunt K's friend who was diving in the main tank in the morning. The kids loved it though. Penguins, jellyfish, and sharks ruled the day. On the way out the grandparents bought both boys stuffed turtles which they both loved.

In the picture Granddad B is reading the airplane book that the other set of grandparents brought from Oshkosh on their way. LR absolutely loves the book. His favorite page is "M is for Messerschmitt." I can't get over the way he says it. It's adorable. Then he always follows it by saying "looking for a dogfight" which is part of the second sentence on that page. The nanny must have been reading it to him since I came home from work on Monday and that was his new trick. He knows about half of the planes already. I think "J is for Jenny" is his other favorite page. He also follows each plane's name with the word "plane": China Clipper plane, Electra plane, Ford Tri-plane plane.

Another wonderful gift LR received was a Mr. Potato Head from Swingdaddy, Lady M, and Bud. He played with it often during the week and you can see him playing with it with Grandma W in the last photo. It comes with many more options than it did when Daddy and I were young. Not all of it fits into the butt of the potato anymore. He needs his own carrying case!

Tonight he sang the whole alphabet with me from "A, B, C" to "sing with me." It was awesome to have our first sing-along.

Explanation of Previous Post's Title

*laugh* I forgot to explain the title of the last post. On Sunday night we went out to eat with Grandad B, Grandma W, and Uncle D. We had to let LR run around a bit outside while we waited for a table. There was a pot of flowers next to a prickly bush and I encouraged him to smell the flowers. After exhaling on the flowers a few times, he turned to the bush, stuck his nose in and declared, "smells tasty!" That was it. Sorry for any confusion.

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.