Geez...when I don't blog for a while, I feel so overwhelmed with how much to report. First, I'll do a kiddo update and maybe I'll get in a few more posts this week!
Well, let's start with Michael since I think I did Matthew first last time :)
Michael is 13.5 months old. Doesn't feel like a month and a half since his birthday, but, lo and behold, it has been.
Michael is a busy, busy boy!! He got a shopping cart from the McKinney's for his birthday and has been walking up and down the hallway in our apartment, with a big smile on his face the whole time.
He calls the shopping cart "Yay!!" Because that's what we shout when he gets walking, so he thinks it's just called "yay" when he walks. He'll crawl up to the cart and say "yay-yay!" and then go walking.
At first, he was timid of it, and I admit, so was eye. I just imagined him pulling up on it, and then the wheels go without his legs catching up and he would fall on his face, or hit the handle or something...but he didn't! He picked it up pretty quickly after Daddy had the courage that Mommy didn't to just let him go with it!
Now he tears all around the apartment (what little space we have) and goes crazy! One of his favorite things to do is go back and forth between Michael and I if we sit on opposite ends of the room. Once he reaches us, we turn him around and send him on his way to the other parent. He doesn't ever seem to get tired of it!
Today, I don't think I am exaggerating when I say he made the tour of our apartment in the neighborhood of about 20 times!
I took him to the park with it, and that was great fun because he actually had space, but then he saw the sandbox and crawled full-speed ahead to get to it. But he liked walking on the grass with his cart.
In other areas, Michael is such a joy, as always. His vocabulary includes the ever-steadfast "Hi!!" which sometimes emerges at less than appropriate times...like in the middle of Mass. Earlier this week, right during a very quiet time at Mass he rattled off about 10 "Hi's" in a row very loudly. I was trying to encourage him to be quiet, but was laughing so hard, it wasn't really helping to get the message of reverence across. It was cute, but it is something that may not be as cute to everyone trying to pray. :)
He also says "Key" and "cheese" and, interestingly, though he doesn't make the "ch" sound right yet, it does sound different than his word for "keys." He loves to say "keys" and knows right when to say it. If he hears keys jingling, he'll say it, but also, if we get out of the car, he knows that I am going to get my keys out of my bag, so even as I'm unloading him and am not yet looking for my keys, he'll remind me that I need to get them out!
Though it sounds nothing like "on" or "off" he does have a sound that he makes just for those words. I know what it means, and for anyone who doesn't, his emphatic pointing at the lights or the switches will get the message across pretty darn quickly.
He is great at "car" (still kind of "cah!" but there is an "r" kind of forming), and he is starting to develop sounds for foods. Again, to a mother's trained ear, it sounds like a word, but to anyone else, it's indistinguishable. But I know his word for "bread" and "grape" and "yogurt." He even makes "wah!" sounds for water and "muh" sounds for milk. Oddly, his favorite fruit, blackberries, does not have a sound...but he doesn't really need one because of his fierce pointing and insistent grunt...
I've gotten a few good "mama's" out of him, which is fun, and he is resuming his "dada" habit, but now, it seems like it comes most often when he looks at a picture of his dad, instead of just calling random things "dada."
A few times, I'm sure I've heard him say "bath" when he knows a bath is coming. It sounds really cute, "BAF!" and he gets all excited because he likes a bath.
His eating is doing well, but I find myself stressing a bit about making sure he gets his proteins. He LOVES fruit, but sometimes gets a little unpredictable when it comes to meats. He used to be quite the meat eater, but I found lately that I have to wrap meat-type items in bread in order to get it in him. He still likes eggs, so that's good, and he is pretty good at drinking milk and eating cheese and yogurt, so he is still getting some proteins.
Michael is, as I've said before a very determined little boy. If he wants to do something himself and you try to get involved, he will very sternly remove your hand, making it clear he doesn't want your involvement. Today, I was playing with him while he was spinning the stroller wheel, and thinking I was making it more fun for him so he could feel the wheel spin with his finger, he looked at me, furrowed his brow, and moved my hand away so he could spin it himself. He wasn't whiny or mean about it, just direct.
He sometimes does that with Michael playing the guitar too: "No thank you, Daddy, I want to play the guitar myself," he seems to say.
Michael is becoming very affectionate. He is always coming up to me, pulling himself up to standing by using my pant legs, and looks up at me wanting me to pick him up. It's so irresistable that even when I am busy, I can't help it, I have to pick him up.
He is VERY affectionate with Michael. He loves to burrow his head into his dad's shoulder and rest there comfortably. He is so attached to his father...it's so beautiful (though I have to say, it's kind of heart-wrenching when I take him from his dad and he winds up screaming like I am some baby-torturer until I give him back to Michael). Ah well, it's cute and Michael Sr. doesn't mind it too much, so neither do I :)
Michael loves to sing. He loves spinning wheels on anything that has them and he insists you sing "the Wheels on the Bus." I must sing that song, oh, thirty times in a day. It's so funny, he grabs the wheel, looks at you and kind of "howls" until you sing.
He loves Patty-Cake (or Pat-a-Cake as I have also seen spelled) and the Eensy-Weensy Spider. Good heavens, if I start singing that song, I find myself committing to those songs 10 times in a row each. He loves those songs, and before I'm even done, he'll give me his little "again" word, very insistently.
He is getting some practice eating with a spoon. It makes meals go way longer, but eventually, he'll need to learn, so we take them time. But he loves to practice and is actually getting good at it! He puts the spoon in the bowl and, after a bit of encouragement, is able to get it in his mouth. I cheer him enthusiastically when he does it, and likes the praise. Sometimes, he gets a little eager for the accolades, so he'll scoop whatever is in the bowl, and before he puts it to his mouth, he'll applaud vigorously, not sure why I'm not doing the same. But he'll the hang of it!
Michael loves to entertain! If he finds something that he thinks you think is funny, he'll keep it going as long as possible. Whether that be a goofy look, or, his favorite, a funny way of drinking his bottle. When he drinks his nighttime bottle (we're down to just one...yes!) he will drink it normally, then look at Michael and me, get a mischevous look on his face, then flip the bottle upside down and pretend to drink out of the bottom. We always give him a good reaction, "No!! You're silly! You're doing it wrong!" and he just eats that up. He plots and plans and waits for the right time to do it. It's so funny.
Everything is going really well. We only have one little battle: teethbrushing. Geez, this is hard...but I suppose it's getting better. It really is important to not only teach him good oral hygiene, but in the mean time, making sure he gets it...but it is such a battle. He likes to brush his own teeth, but hates it when I intervene to make sure it's done well. Oh well...just something he'll have to learn! I just hate the thought of years of a battle until he gets old enough to do it well on his own....and hopefully by then, he doesn't have this totally negative association with the toothbrush!
Well, that's it for Michael....
Matthew seems to be doing well! Just getting bigger! Michael and I always say it feels like Matthew is kind of along for the ride. He just kind of hang out there, only making his presence known (well, aside from my huge stomach) from time to time during the day. At night, he definitely makes his presence known a bit more. Whenever I go to bed, I always say, "Time for the Matthew show!" because that's when he is usually most active: right when I try to go to sleep." On a few occassions, he wakes me up with the hicccups, but by and large, it's just about 10 minutes after I lay down that he goes crazy and then he is quiet.
The pregnancy is going great. By God's grace, no complications at all. Yeah, a few pregnancy-related discomforts, but nothing to complain to much about (though, I admit, I do complain more than I should). This morning the backaches I recalled having with Michael seemed to start. Ugh. It's tough especially when Michael wants to be held a lot. But it comes and goes throughout the day, so it's not totally constant.
I can't believe that in about 2 months, he'll be here! I was looking at some things I was thinking of doing with the Church, and we were trying to schedule a week each month to have a meeting. The last week of August, the last week of September: both busy. What about the last weekend of October. Geez...that may be my last weekend before the baby comes!! I haven't schedule the surgery yet, but it's likely it will be about two weeks before his due date, so it very well could be early November. Crazy!! That's two months away!
We are SO excited to meet Matthew. We always talk about what we think he'll look like (I'm thinking dark hair) and what his personality will be like. I can't really describe how I think he'll be, but I kind of have a sense. I think I was pretty right on with Michael...I just can't describe how I think Matthew will be in words...it's just a feeling or intuition I think I have of how he'll be.
One thing we talk about frequently is how crazy it is to imagine that another person will soon be born who we will love as much as we love Michael. I mean, when Michael was born and as he grows, we are just speechless at how much we love him. And to know that another love of equal enormity will soon be coming our way is a bit overwhelming. We can't wait! It's amazing that God is able to multiply our capacity to love so powerfully, essentially overnight, it's just beyond words.
Not that we don't love Matthew now...of course we do! But we know that the love becomes so tangible the moment the baby is born, and we see him, can kiss him, squeeze him, and get to "meet" him. He's not just a baby, but a baby with a look and personality we get to personally encounter after he is born. And the moment we encounter that person in that personal way, it's like a whole new heart, full of love for this little person suddenly comes into being and it just grows and grows each day. More than the sleepless nights, more than the hectic nature of juggling two babies, more than recovering from surgery, that what I am anticipating as the biggest change once November comes. Not all the peripherals, which I am sure will be exhausting and overwhelming, but the thing I am "bracing" myself for the most is being totally captivated by little Matthew and little Michael at the same time. Wow.
So, we are doing well in the Barber household! Just enjoying each day with our little boy and counting down the weeks until we get to add another little boy to our family!
