Growin' Boy

Tonight for dinner, Ali ate two pieces of chicken, one serving of mac-&-cheese, and about four green beans.

Sam ate about 15 pieces of pork tenderloin, one serving of mac-&-cheese, one full serving of green beans, and an entire banana.

Ali is 2 years, 11 months, and Sam is 1 year, 3 months...and just MIGHT be going through a growth spurt.

She's Catching On

Sam started crying tonight because I wouldn't let him have some uncooked corn that he spied on the counter right before I started boiling it.

Ali walked over and asked, "Why is Sammy crying?"

"Oh," I told her, "he wanted to eat some of this corn, but he doesn't realize it's not cooked yet."

She pondered that for a moment while Sam continued to wail about the injustice of it all.

Then she put her hands on her hips and said, "Oh, Sammy. Now you're just making noise."

Speaking of Talking...

This morning when I asked Ali what she would like for breakfast, she said, "Wellllll, let's think about what options are available."

What happened to my babyyyyyy???

Ali is 2 years, 11 months, and 1 weeks old...and going on 15, apparently.

Never a Quiet Moment

Anyone who has ever met my daughter knows that she's a talker. At 2.5-yrs-old, she talks like a 5-yr-old. She says things like, "I am fit to be tied!" and "Oh, I agree!" and "Mommy, could you please put on a short video? I don't think we have time for a long video. Maybe on the weekend, but today is not a weekend day, it's a school day!"

She talks. A lot.

I'd been warned that the second child typically starts talking later than the first, and that boys typically start talking later than girls. Since our second is a boy, it seemed like a double-verbal-whammy, and Alex and I remembered to temper our expectations about Sam's verbal skills and vocabulary.

Ali's first word, "book," was at 10 months.

Sam's first word, "ball," was at 8 months.

Way to defy expectations, buddy.

Now, at 14 months, Sam at least 45 words in his vocabulary (I don't even think I've properly accounted for them all). He is talking MORE at this age than Ali was.

Sam's words: 
ball
all done
mommy
daddy
Ali
milk
more milk
please
thank you (<--- which he says unprompted when you give him something. CUTE.)
cracker
cheese
agua (<--- bilingual, baby!)
shoe/shirt/shorts (he calls these all "sh")
fish
hi
hello
bye-bye
baby
up
down
woof-woof
meow
ela (elaphant)
bock-bock (chicken noise)
baaaa (sheep noise)
maaaa (goat noise)
doodle-doo (rooster noise)
booo (cow noise...apparently cows are scary)
quack-quack
oink-oink
ah-ah-ah (monkey noise)
kitty (he pronounces "titty." Insert joke here.)
dog
--the horse sound made by blowing out between your lips--
butterfly (bub-bub)
brmm-brmm (tractor sound)
choo-choo
whoo-whoo (owl sound)
roar (lion sound)
a-oooooo (wolf howl...he scrunches up his face and closes his eyes. I may or may not ask him what a wolf says many times a day because this is so cute)
(((adding these that I forgot yesterday!)))
door
banana
blueberries (boo!)
apple
go-go (when he wants to walk or go somewhere)

Sam is 14 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days old, and my house is never going to be quiet. Not ever.

Today

Today I went through all of the clothes Sam has outgrown and put them into piles to resell, pass along to a friend, and donate. With him being my second, I knew going in just how fast time passes, and I made a conscientious effort to enjoy the small moments, to be present, to soak in the sights and sounds of each day, knowing tomorrow he would change and I'd never get that day, those moments, back.

I did a pretty good job. I sat and I soaked. But still, today, going through all his itty bitty clothes that I loved to dress him up in so much, still it hurt my heart with a deep ache to think about all the time that's already gone by, all the versions of him that came and went that I'll never have back.

I had a panicky feeling and suddenly wanted to video tape our entire lives, every meal, every diaper change, every bath, every evening walk, so that a year from now, five years, ten, thirty, fifty, I could replay those videos and have it all back.

Those mental snapshots I took in my mind suddenly seemed so inadequate.

On the way home from school, we listened to sing-along kid songs. When each one ended, Ali would yell, "It's OVER!" Pretty soon, Sam started yelling "o-vuh!" at the end of a song, Ali would yell, "It's over!" and I would confirm, "Yep! Over!" I think that's the first time the three of us have had an actual conversation together. When we got home, of course I didn't yet have the house wired for continuous video recording, so I put dinner on the stove and sat and played with them. Ali played a new game on the iPad where she fixed cars' flat tires. She thrilled with telling me each step ("first I roll the car in, then I drop it, then I raise it, then I pick new tires, then I lower it, then it rolls off!"). I sat on the floor with Sam and a box of blocks and we talked about the pictures on each one ("Apple. Monkey. Elephant. Those are pears. That's a bunch of grapes. [to which he signed "eat"] That's right! You eat grapes!") and eventually he started telling me which ones he wanted me to find: ah-puhl (apple), ella (elephant), ha-ha-ha (monkey), shhh (fish). I got up to go to the bathroom and Sam followed me, playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain while I laughed at him. Ali ran in and hugged my knees. Later we went for a family walk around the small parkland by our house, and then came back to play two rounds of hide-and-seek (Ali's current favorite) before bath time. I nursed Sam, and when he was all done he sat up and said "ah dahh" while waving his hands in the air. And then he buried his head on my shoulder. When I got Ali out of the bath, she would squeal while I jiggled her throat, making her noises jagged and vibrating and she laughed uncontrollably at the sound. Sam picked out the books he wanted read both by pointing and by forcibly shutting the book when I picked up the wrong one. And when it was just he and I, standing in his dark room, singing his bedtime lullabye, he rested his head on my shoulder, knees tucked up into my chest, and reached down to hold onto my finger while I sang.

I can't video every moment. But maybe this will help, ten, twenty, fifty years from now, both as a way of reminding me of the tiny wonderful details that make up my day, and as a way of reassuring myself that I lived them, I loved them, I breathed them in and appreciated them and was present in them when they were there, happening to me for real.

Ali's First Dentist Visit

A couple of weeks ago, Ali had her very first visit to the dentist! She's had dentists come to visit her school, and she's very good about brushing her teeth twice a day. She was so excited for her visit!

The kids' dentist we visited had a great office--lots of fun toys and a movie playing not only in the waiting room, but also on screens in the ceiling of the main exam room! The staff were very friendly, and Ali did so GREAT with her cleaning, they even did some baseline X-rays of her mouth, from which we for to see her adult teeth already starting to form. Neat stuff!

I was SO proud of how well she did, and the staff was obviously impressed as well--they gave her a balloon, sticker, bear, and a bouncy ball!

Enjoy the pics!

Summer's here!

After what was officially the longest winter ever, summer is officially here! To kick off our summer season, we hit the local splash park not once, not twice, but three times (in as many days). Ali is still not a big fan of getting wet, but Sam? He's in LOVE.

Oh, and Momma's got a new phone that will let me take pics and immediately blog 'em. Hellooo, blog revival!