2 year check up! CHECK!

So today was your two year checkup..only about a month late..

You were so brave. I was really fearful of how it would be since any time previous to this was gut wrenching torture. You are fine as long as the doctor is no where near us. The minute he comes close, there's a break down.

Well today, you did really well while he sat and talked to you. He was quite impressed with your conversational skills. He walked through the door and you immediately said "Hewo"  He was amused. He then asked mom, "So how are things?"  to which you answered. "Fine, thank you."  He did a double take, and asked me how old you were. "How old is he? I thought he was only two"  YEP! You're a smarty!

Then the check up started. Not at all your favorite part. The minute he pulled out his stethascope you broke down. "No, no, no" After you realized it wasn't going to hurt, you calmed down a bit. Then he checked your ears, which was a little bit of a panic, but not as bad as listening to your heart. Then he went to look at the mole on your leg. That was it, you went through the roof. You remember so many pokes and pricks from needles from over a year ago.

It broke my heart. Holding onto you while you nearly popped my head off.  Once the shot was over, and he offered you a cool Garfield bandaid for your boo boo, you were fine. Still a few tears and the sup sups, but fine. Then you remembered you got a lolli, then you were completely fine, said thank you and marched us out the door to get your reward.

Love you goose!! You're amazing, astounding and the light of my life!

My singing bird

So for the last few weeks, you've been singing snippets of songs. Just out of the blue you will start with a phrase you've picked up from the song. Yesterday in the car, you were sing songing like you do on occasion. There's not rhyme or reason to what you're saying it's just either sounds or a few words here and there. Well yesterday it was distinct. I could pick out that you were trying to sing "Sweet Baby James". Mom has been singing that song to you since you were a wee tiny baby. You tend to mix songs while singing which is really cute.

 Right now, you're trying to coerce daddy into putting yogurt into a bowl for you to play with. I would say eat, but when mom puts it into a bowl for you rather than feeding it to you from the cup, you end up with your hands in the bowl and spreading it around the table. You come walking into the living room singing the pawprint song from blue's clues. You know almost every entire word and sing it nearly perfectly. It's so adorable.

We spent last weekend celebrating your birthday with everyone. Marc got you an awesome Metallica shirt. :) You're going to be the coolest kid on the block!

Today was a boo boo sort of day. We were getting ready to leave for work and you were fighting tooth and nail not to go. I was trying to put on your shoes while you dangled your head over the back of the ottoman. You were holding onto your heavy toy phone with it right above your face. You dropped it right on your right cheek. So now you have a nice little bruise under your right eye.

When we were at work, I was trying to put you down on the floor so I could do something. You were fussing something terrible as it was getting close to that magic 3 hour mark. When I leaned over to put you down, you let go of my hands and fell back cracking your head against the cement floor. That always scares me. I'm sure you probably inherited our cement strong head, your Aunt Beaner put a dent in our wall at home with her head and it barely phased her at all, so I'm thinking you have a head like that. You were hard to calm down though. When you get really badly hurt, you cry so hard that you forget to take a breath. It's scary to watch. You cried and cried, and I was worried that you might have a concussion.

You and I are going tomorrow to put the order in for your cake.  I'm still not sure what we're going to get. I was thinking spiderman, but I'm not sure. I guess we'll just have to wait to see what they have available. You told me you wanted "Fungebob Pairpants" so we might get that if you still want it. You change your mind daily.

We've also got to get your balloon order in for Sunday. We promised you balloons and I don't want to forget them. Daddy was going to pick you up a bunch for your actual birthday, but there were signs about a government regulation on helium or something...he said it was really weird. Anyway, we'll do that tomorrow too if we get out of work on time.

Yesterday Uncle Noah was home from Hyde Park NY. You were SOOOOO excited that he was going to be home. You spent all Sunday and Monday asking to see him. Tuesday came and from the moment you woke up, all you could think about was seeing him. "SEE UNCLE NOAH! TODAY!!!" over and over, mom had to listen to it.

He came and spent a lot of time playing with you. Looking at books, reading to you, coloring pictures with you. You just couldn't get enough! I think he had just as much fun playing with you as you did playing with him. He'll be home again around Thanksgiving hopefully!

I'm getting excited for your birthday party on Sunday! I can't wait to see what other presents you get. Grandma and Grandad and Uncle Awesome and Aunt Sarah got you an awesome basketball hoop/football goal post. You are so excited you can't wait for daddy to get it set up. Mom's got to get your sand ordered so we can pick it up before the weekend.

I'm behind in posting as usual

So I'm way behind in posting. Your birthday was this week, and we've been busy going out to the park with O Cookie and Dae. Having a mini party, just you, daddy and me. Time has flown! I can't believe you're two already! It seems like only yesterday you were the teeny tiny baby they put into my arms an hour after you were born. You are a charming little, intelligent fellow. I can't wait for your big party with everyone. We miss them so much. I can't wait to see the joy as you see all the presents you get. You loved opening the things daddy and I got for you. Thankfully daddy captured it all on video for you. Your face lit up as you opened your first package with Brobee!

Today we went out with Uncle Chad, Aunt Carrie and Josh (you kept calling Josh "JOSHUA") We went out for pizza at our favorite place. You had a hot dog, pizza and no nap. The no nap thing made for a very cranky Val at the end of the evening. While we were waiting for our food you got onto this crazy "IN THE KITCHEN" spell. That's all you kept saying! I'm not sure if it came from a cartoon we've watched recently, or not, but it was funny. You thought it was HILARIOUS, though I think it was more due to Josh's facial expressions as he played the game with you.

We found a nice cheap purple boa for you. You've been wanting one from Michael's or Joann's but they're just too expensive. I think daddy was unsure what to think about the boa thing, but I think it's a good tactile prop for you to play with.

You're finally sleeping. You spent the last half hour calling "Mom" . You're overly tired, and wound tight. Hopefully you'll sleep in a bit tomorrow morning. Mom could use a sleep in!

This was taken on your second birthday! Look how handsome you are! I usually get some big cheesy smile, but this one is PERFECT!

Today your new baby cousin arrived. He came on Adi's birthday. She's got a birthday twin! He's super cute and I can't wait until we get to hold him. You and I have been talking about him so much, that I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the real "new baby".  I'm trying to prepare you to be very gentle with the baby. I'm a bit nervous as you can get a little rough, but I think you'll do well.

You spent the day with O' Cookie. She said you had lots of fun. You took her car to the car wash, but you didn't like the kind she took you too. You're just used to the sprayer type. She said you were afraid of the big cleaning spools and washers.  She gave you some water beads, which has made mom want to go in search of more so we can make another fun tactile bin. I'll probably get you some for your birthday. Dae took the cutest picture of you on his phone and sent it to me at work. It was a really nice surprise to see your smiling face while I worked.

I'm getting excited. You'll be two soon. I'm excited and sad at the same time. You're growing ever so quickly and it seems like the last two years of your life have just slipped through my hands. Slow down time! You're moving too fast! So we're starting the planning for your birthday. I'm still not sure what kind of cake we'll be getting. We'll be having your birthday two weekends after your actual birthday.  I know we've got to get balloons for you. We can't NOT get you balloons. That's all we've talked about over the last few months.

You were a bit cranky today. It's odd for you to be cranky, but I think you were a bit tired since we got up so early. Add to that the heat of today, and I think that's where my little cranky man came from. Daddy gave you a bath even though you just had one last night. You wanted one, and when I picked you up at O' Cookie's you told me you wanted to play with water. So bath time it was.

You're now sleeping comfortably in your bed. You went to sleep quite easily. I love that you're pretty easy to put to bed most days. We should consider ourselves very lucky that we worked out a bedtime routine so early on in your life. I think it suits us very well.

So I decided today, that my promise of an every day entry is a bit much. Some days are just so boring that there's nothing much to blog about other than: We got up, ate breakfast, did pretty much nothing and went to bed. Instead I will blog when things tickle me enough to inspire a blog post. Things like today are blog worthy.

Today we took daddy to the doctors to have a throat scan. It was REALLLLLY early in the morning. Too early for you actually. I was kind of concerned how well our waiting room trip would be.  You however, were amazing as always. You impressed people with your charm, your intelligence and your good behavior. I came prepared with snacks, books, coloring supplies, scissors and paper, and breakfast for us.  We sat talking, and singing and taking trips to the bathroom..you're still so enthralled by it all. I dug out the bag of special rocks I'd brought from home and we played with them for quite awhile. A man was walking around the waiting room and asked how old you were. He was amazed that you weren't even 2 yet. He said you had an amazing grasp of language and lots of personality.

Once daddy was done, we had to sit back in the recovery room with him for awhile waiting for the doctor to come and talk to him. You were so well behaved that one of the volunteers stopped by to say she didn't even know that you were there you were being so good.

We took daddy to work after we all ate breakfast together. You fell asleep in the car. Then when you woke up when we got home you were still extremely tired. We fought for two hours while I tried to get you to go back to sleep. I finally gave up. We went and got daddy, went to eat dinner and then to the park to play for a bit.

You had fun at the park! We played a bit on the playground equipment, but you were more interested in playing in the creek. We took off our shoes, got into the creek and played around, splashing water. Some older boys were catching plecoc (sucker fish) and brought their bucket down to show us. You wanted to touch them. You had a blast throwing rocks in the water. We'll have to be sure to do that at the lake sometime. Mom found glass and a metal cap on the bottom that I pulled out. We have to be sure to get you some water shoes to wear. You don't need to get any cuts while having good clean fun.

We came home, took a bath and read books. Tonight was an early bedtime..but it was a fun filled day. Today you said "anything" instead of "ankysink" like you used to. You're growing and changing right before our eyes. It's a true joy. I LOVE YOU. 

Saturday July 10 2012

You woke this morning with a "Good Morning Mom" ..Sweet as pie, I just love when you greet me with a good morning. It makes me so happy. It's a great way to start the day. Seems like it's going to be a busy day with you too. You're going from one thing to the next, a constant stream of activity.

We're getting ready to go out for shoe shopping round number 3. Hopefully today we can find something to get for you. Mom's getting tired of looking. We found you a nice sporty pair of actual sneakers today! WITH LACES. Geez, looking at things they way they are now, it seems like in the next 10 years or so every dang pair of shoes will be velcro.

Anyway, today was a relatively good day. I told daddy that tomorrow we need to get ice cream. You talked about it all day yesterday and ask for it right after your nap today. Since this was supposed to be our vacation, we need to have at least some vacation ice cream to cap it off.

Today you amused people in the Cranberry target by singing. You started shrieking in the store today as you sometimes do. This perturbs me a bit, but I've got to get over it. You're so good on almost all occasions, that I shouldn't get so mad at you when you have little outbursts like you do. Anyway, you were yelling, I was getting mad and a lady walking behind us said "oh you've got a singer there". Well I had pictured you up and was  talking to you sternly, when you burst out in song for this lady. Twinkle twinkle little staawaa. She thought you were adorable.

And you are!

Friday July 6 2012

Today was a crazy day.  You were tired all day long. You got up earlier than usual, and though I tried to put you back to sleep as I normally do it didn't last long. We made some mail for Trent and Hannah, and then some for O Cookie and Daein. You love making mail for people. Around 12:00 you started getting mean and stinky. It was nap time. So we put you to bed. Half an hour later mom was cleaning up poopy underwear and starting a bath for you. We decided just to pop you into the car because you usually fall asleep within  a few minutes when you're tired. Well it didn't work this time. We shopped for new shoes for you. Then went to see Grandma and Grandad. Uncle Tom and Aunt Gaye were there to visit. They were impressed with your speech and how cute you were. Grandma was impressed with the way you now say Valor instead of  "Balor"

Night night sleepy head. See you in the morning!

Thursday July 5th

Today was a pretty mundane day. We spent most of it hanging around the house. You and daddy took a nap, and mom passed out on the snuggler chair for awhile. We then went grocery shopping. Nothing overly exciting happened today.

Wednesday July 4th.

Today we spent time in the morning cutting paper. You LOVE to cut paper with scissors. It's a bit boring for mom and dad as we have to sit and hold the paper for you, but the thrill you get from it is worth our time sitting with you. I'm trying to get you to understand the fun of gluing bits to other paper. You love to play with the glue stick, but don't really want to have anything to do with sticking things to the glue swipes on the paper. You're very interested in sticking your fingers down into the glue stick part. Thankfully mom always buys a bunch at the end of the school shopping season. I've got to get a good organizational system for all the kid art supplies.

In the evening while I made dinner, you and daddy watched tv and played with the beads. You love digging into those beads and spreading them around. We had sausage crepes for dinner. I wasn't sure you were going to have anything to do with them, but you ate them up fast! I was kind of shocked. You've been going in waves lately with eating. Some days we have really good days, other days you eat very little. I think we're gearing up for another growth spurt though as you've been a little eating machine. Usually about 10 minutes after we eat a meal, you're growling "EAAAAAT EAAAAAAT" right away. I've got to get more snacky things to keep your belly busy.

Tuesday July 3

Today we went and had lunch with my friend Arlene. You love going to lunch and meeting people. We spent some time looking for shoes with you and we had to sit on every "fancy" red seat in the whole shoe store. It was raining a bit and you wanted to talk about it most of the afternoon.

Today you actually mastered the V sound in your name. Instead of saying "Balor" you said Valor. It might have started early in the week, but I really noticed the exacting change you made today.  You amaze me with your memory and personality.

I can't wait for your birthday! It's going to be so fun!!!

Val,
 I started this blog when you were first born with the full intentions of blogging as you grew. I was so busy your first two years, I just couldn't get it together to get too many posts going. I'm making a promise from this day onward to post at least once a day with little updates of how far you have come in your growth and the amusing things you've done that day. I've missed catching so many milestones along the last two years. Thankfully I never have the baby book far from hand and do my best to pop things in there when I remember. Dad is also helping by writing things on the calendar.  So this is my promise. Once daily I will write an update of something, anything that gives a little view into what our day was like. If I miss a day, I promise to make up for it the next day with double posts for that day and the day before. I want to capture your childhood and keep it for you. Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy these little snippets of your life.
                                                          Love,
                                                                      Mom 

                                                             
  

Too little time to post!

I've been so lacking in time to upload this blog. It's kind of sad in a way. I was hoping to have this little reference for Val when he was older. A place where he and I could check in and see where he was at progression wise, and what milestones we had hit on which days. Unfortunately, that has not come to pass. I barely have time to do anything that absolutely NEEDS done, let alone pop onto the pc to do a little blurb about what happened "today". I really want to start fitting it in however. He's going to be one in under two months and it's breaking my heart a little that the infant stage is almost over.

This week he started walking! He's been crawling for about three or four months now. He's been standing up and lifting things from the floor for about three. He's been cruising along the furniture for only a small amount of time. That started about two weeks ago. He has been standing up and holding onto things for so long, that it was kind of shocking when he didn't go straight to walking right after getting upwardly mobile. So Tuesday May 24 2011 he decided was going to be the day. There was not much thinking. He was on the floor with Patrick and was leaning over him as Patrick was flat on his back. Val just pushed up from his chest and stated walking across the kitchen into the livingroom as if he had been doing it for weeks. A bit unsteady, sure, but he knew where he was going and he was GOING to get there. So once he figured out that he COULD do it, he spent all day Wednesday motoring around the house. It had so completely engulfed his activity for the day, that even the open dishwasher, which is always a draw, wasn't even noticed. Back and forth across the kitchen, from the kitchen to the living room, from the living room back to the kitchen end to end.

So we've now got a walker on our hands. I'm thrilled. He's been hitting so many milestones so early. I signed up for a bunch of the little baby newsletter type things. I get monthly updates on "what your baby can do" this month sort of thing. He always seems to be about two months ahead. I got one at 8 months that said " you should start thinking about baby proofing, in just a short month your baby will start to crawl. WHAT?!? We had to baby proof for a crawling baby at 5 and a half almost 6. Needless to say, I only briefly glance at most of them now. They're so far behind where we're at that I'm really only looking at the articles to see if there is something I've missed, or something important.

I've been burning the candle at both ends however, and it's starting to bite me in the butt! I was really good up until this past week. I had a bunch of deadlines at work and we'd been really busy , so I was up until 3 or so most of the week. I've been a ZOMBIE for the last three days. Yet, here I sit, rather than going to bed and catching some shut eye, I'm here on the pc updating things. Well I think it's best that I head to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a long day, and I'm tired already just thinking about it!

All'

Dear Santa

Dear Santa! I've been a very good boy this year!

We're slowly getting ready for Christmas. Since this is Val's first, it's been really fun. Of course, he's not really interested in much other than sticking things into his mouth. We've bought him a few gifts. Patrick has something sitting here in a box. I have yet to see it. I wonder what it could be?!?

Val's interest in books is growing. We've been "reading" books for awhile now. When you pull out a board book his little fit start going and he wants to hold it. We love the Sandra Boynton books. We got a few for baby shower gifts, and I started reading them to him to keep him entertained while waiting for things such as boiling water for dinner, or waiting for a laundry load to complete, or mom taking a bathroom break. We've got " What's Wrong Little Pookie" " Let's Dance Little Pookie" and "Pajama Time" Of course these are just a few of them. While I like the little pookie books, there are better Sandra Boynton books out there. Val doesn't seem to mind currently however.

I'm really enjoying watching him grow. Though I'm sad it's happening so quickly. He's already hit the 16 pound mark. He's into 6 to 9 month clothes mostly. A few of his 3-6 month stuff still fits, though most of his sleepers that are that size are too small...mainly in the feet. What can I say? My boy has big feet!

It's so hard to believe that time has gone so quickly already! We've almost hit the half year mark since his birth, and it seems like only yesterday in some ways.

Well it's late, and I've been staying up far too late these past few weeks. Most of the time I stay up for his first late night feeding. He's already done that for tonight. He's been quite restless and I'm not sure I know why. Most of the time I have an idea of what's keeping him from settling down to a nice night of sleep. I'm beginning to wonder if he's hitting another growth spurt. It's a bit early I think....but who knows.

My goal for 2011 is to try blog daily about Val's daily exploits. What kind of milestones we're hitting, what fun mother or baby issues we're going through...that sort of thing. Even if it's just quick short posts, I'd love it if I can show him this blog in a few years and share the experience his dad and I are going through and our feelings and fears.

For now, mom is signing out!

The adventure is well under way!

So I had all these great intentions of blogging about being a mom. I planned to record cute little things he did, milestones, things I find useful, things I find annoying, things I wish I would have known to steer clear of..... I guess this will be the start finally. Val's slowly getting onto a sleep schedule. I can pretty much set my sleep schedule to his feeding times. No, he's not sleeping through the night just yet. That's the first question I get from anyone these days.

We're now in the hunt for a walker to keep him busy. From about the second month, he's wanted to stand. He wanted to pull himself up, and would be curled into a ball trying to stand up on his own. He's been really sturdy, holding his head really steady since about two months, maybe even younger. That made Patrick very happy. Patrick had never held a baby before. He avoided holding all our nephews and nieces until they were around three years of age. He was just afraid of breaking them. When we found out we were expecting, I told him he had no choice but to hold a newborn now. He wasn't going to get away with not holding Val no matter how small he was in the beginning. Not that he would have wanted to avoid holding him. I think this picture says it all:

Our Adventure into Parenthood begins....

Our amazing little miracle has arrived. He was born on July 19th. We've been married for 15 years in October and were beginning to think this part of life would never happen for us. We'd both come to the point over the last few years where we had finally decided that it was most likely not going to happen. We never really talked about doing any kind of fertility treatments and bandied about a few discussions on adoption though never enough to follow through with research and the like. We were satisfied being Aunt and Uncle and while wishing a child of our own would come into the picture were growing less and less broken hearted that it hadn't happened yet. We had settled into a life of free schedules and picking up at the spur of a moment to do anything we wanted.

I spent about 12 hours in labor. Then after all that work and no progress we ended up a c-section. Things were going well with me and the baby, both dealing with the labor process really well with no signs of stress. After the Dr. gave us a few "let's give it another hour and see where you are at the end of that." I figured it was time to throw in the towel and quit hoping that nature would take it's course and make my body do what it needed to do. Why risk a possibility of the baby or myself going into some kind of distress or something happening when we were still both doing so well.

Val was born at 8:38 pm on July 19th. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces. To say that we were beyond happy is an understatement. We listened while he screamed and cried from the minute he was taken from the womb. He wasn't happy being removed from his nice cozy resting place into the harsh world outside. The dr. announced his arrival with Val crying right before. The Dr said " He's here! BOY does he have BIG feet!" Of course in my drugged up state all I could visualize was a baby with giant clown feet. So we sat and waited for our chance to meet our little guy, we could hear the nurses going through the checks, Val voicing his displeasure all the while. They swaddled him and brought him around the curtain still fussing and placed him into Patrick's arms. Both of us in tears, Patrick greeted Val with a "Hey buddy" and Val went silent and just blinked back in wonder at his dad. He was so amazingly cute and wide eyed.

The most disappointing thing about c-section is the fact that they strap you into a crucifix position on the table. Both arms stretched out and tied down. So while I could stare in wonder at the little guy I couldn't reach out to touch him or hold him. Thankfully the hospital has a rule that the only people who can hold the baby while mom recovers is dad.

Off Patrick goes, holding our little man and taking him down to the nursery. I was left being stitched up and sorted, then taken off to recovery for an hour. The worst was the horrible bout of shaking. It started after they started getting me ready for the c-section and continued for almost an hour after the surgery. I have to say, with all my fears of the c-section, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. Yes, it's major surgery, but it was a lot milder than my ovarian surgery. The bad thing was that I had picked up a cold from Patrick the week of my induction. Poor Patrick was sick all the week that Val and I were in the hospital. Coughing and an abdominal incision do not mix.