Our Future American Idol?

Ok, so I'm going to shamelessly brag, boast and otherwise put our son up on a pedestal. Prepare your eyeballs for some major rolling.

Yesterday, I was washing dishes, and Paul was just dancing around, being his merry self. All of a sudden, I hear him bust out in Twinkle, twinkle - he sang the entire first line (with a couple of babble syllables at the end), then he sang, "Up above the (insert some unintelligible babbling)". I really thought I was hallucinating considering the most I've ever heard him string together is 2 words - if even that. And I've never done more than sing that song to him once or twice in total - weeks ago! I guess he must have heard it on a Barney DVD. Kudos to Barney! (He's in LOVE with Barney now, by the way!)

He also can sing "A-B-C-D" to the alphabet song, but I credit that to his leapfrog phonics toy that he plays endlessly.

He says "Bless you" now after you sneeze.

Anyway, that's enough on the boast post.

We just came back from a trip to see my Dad's lake house on the finger lakes in NY (Cayuga to be exact). Our first time there. The countryside was beautiful. I actually listened to country music and LIKED it for the first time - those sappy love songs are really enhanced when you're out amongst fields of green, lakes of blue, and lots of stinky cows, horses, etc. Will I be a country music fan for life? I doubt it.

We had a great time. We got to see my Aunt Sandy and Uncle John, and their kids and grandkids, most of whom had no idea who we were of course. Also got to see my Aunt Jackie, Uncle Bob and Aunt Evelyn, and cousin Nancy on my Dad's side. It's been too long since I'd seen them. Funny, I find myself saying to my cousin's kids the same thing that I used to roll my eyeballs at whenever relatives said the same to me ... "I haven't seen you since you were ___ years old! You are SO grown up! You were only THIS tall the last time I saw you!" Haha! A few relatives said that to me, minus the "so grown up and tall" part, which I can understand. I'm sure they tell themselves, what can I expect after 20 years? For her to still be 4 feet tall? Haha again.

On the way home, we stopped at Philly just for some good ol' city fun - good way to balance out all the countryside we saw. We stayed in a hotel with Paul for the first time. He did remarkably well - even when we were tiptoeing around the hotel room for fear of not waking him up since he gets 6 or 7 hours more sleep than us on a given day (when you include naptime). Kids are so resilient and adaptable. Or at least Paul is. We took Paul to a science museum for kids - he loved all the stuffed animal exhibits - lions, gorillas (which he called "monkey"s), bears, dinosaurs, etc.

Here he is in front of the waterfalls in Philly.



Be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom of the page for pictures from our NY trip.

Here's a bonus pic. He likes to put his stuffed animals on the diaper pad when it's time for a diaper change. Here he is changing monkey's diaper:



Happy Birthday, USA!

21 Months old! (Going on 21 years old)

It's amazing how fast kids grow up! Especially babies, and especially when they're yours! Paul turned 21 months old yesterday - that's only 3 months from his 2 year birthday. I can't even imagine looking down and seeing a 2 year old any time soon.

So, what's new with us?

Well, let me get on to the good stuff, the stuff you're REALLY wanting to read about on here - We are boring, Paul is intriguing.

I bought him "Alex the monkey" - a dress up monkey. He can take off the overalls, untie his shoes, etc., and plus he is really big - almost as big as Paul. Paul likes to carry him around everywhere, even outside. He puts him in the play shopping cart and wheels him around the house, just like mommy does in the real store with Paul. He tries to feed him sippy cups and cheerios. He talks to him constantly. His name is "Aggie" (prounounced, "Ahhggie"), and that is the Korean word for "baby". C's parents said they never taught him that word, so maybe it's just a coincidence. I am starting to get a complex that I am neglecting my child and he feels deprived - well, not really. It doesn't exactly look like a "dolly", so I'm not worried about what others will think.

Since the weather turned warm, Paul and I try to take nature walks outside everyday on the trail behind our house. It's beautiful and he loves it. Although I do have to poke him along at times, because he doesn't exactly walk. He stops and looks at everything, especially the caterpillars - and they are out in full force! First time he saw a caterpillar, he just kept yelling "WWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW" and pointing. Our walk ends at our neighborhood playground - and we just discovered he can now climb the ladder up to the top of the playset. He still needs to be spotted, though - he bangs and bumps his head at least ONCE a day now - I don't know how he got such a hard head because somehow he just manages to carry on after a good cry. Then it seems, 10 seconds later, he bangs his head again on something else.


As always, Paul loves Elmo and now recognizes him everywhere he sees him. Same thing goes for balloons. He is obsessed about balloons. Let's see what else.... well he has about 8 more teeth coming in at once. Hopefully, he'll manage to keep them (he fell pretty hard on them the other day - blood everywhere, busted lips - pretty scary). Paul recently started calling me Daddy, even after having called me mommy for the longest time. He says "uh-oh" most times when he does a "no-no" and even pulls me over to the scene of the crime to show me. He loves it when mommy tickles him everywhere, and especially loves it when he tickles mommy's feet and gets a big laughing reaction. As always, he loves physical play with mommy and daddy, and even points to cows and says "moo". They all learn so fast at this age! Paul can also now say "OW" and point to where his boo-boo is. And he gets lots of boo-boos! Of course, he eats it up when mommy kisses it to make it all better. I give him something he wants, and he says "Da-doo" (translated: Thank you).

Well, that's it for now. I don't feel as guilty anymore for not posting sooner. I'm sure I'll have more to say as this is the weekend the pool opens, and it will be Paul's first time at our pool. He's already been to Grandpa Dave and Grandma Katie's pool in FL in March, and he misses it.

As always, you can check out the slideshow at the very bottom of this page for updated pics. You should hit "refresh" on your browser so the slideshow can start from the beginning (And try not to go crazy over the fact that you can't squeeze those lovable cheeks on your screen. I never knew cheeks could be so irresistible and delicious!)

"How I Helped Prepare Mama for Motherhood" - Featuring Pepe the Cat

My Strategies:

1) Weave in and out of mom's legs when she's trying to walk from the refrigerator to the sink
2) Make the most disturbing yakking noises at 3 am and all hours of the night, whilst running around frantically trying to spit up a furball or other inedible item.
3) Pee on the bed in the middle of the night
4) Have an assortment of health issues that mom has to solve and do millions of hours of research on on the internet (chronic constipation, sick stomach, flea infestations that take over the whole house and self, etc.)
5) Have mom buy me an array of fancy toys because I am her only child - most of which end up hidden under the furniture which mom has to dig out later
6) Mess up the furniture and scratch up the floors

Eerily similar to her mothering Paul:
1) Circle around mom's legs when she's trying to walk from the refrigerator to the sink.
2) Wake up screaming at 3 am for no apparent reason. Then again, at 5 am, then again at 8 am.
3) Pee on the crib (and self) in the middle of the night. Even with 2 diapers on.
4) Have an assortment of health issues requiring research (why is his medication giving him chronic diarrhea, why is he now constipated, how do I help heal his many cuts, scrapes and bruises from being a super active toddler, what IS that rash that just won't go away???)
5) Have mom buy me an array of fancy toys because I am her only child - most of which end up hidden under the furniture which mom has to dig out later with a Swiffer.
6) Mess up the furniture with slobber, sippie cups, and other mysterious gunk, and scratch up the floors.

Aren't I just the best cat in the world for doing all this? Mom should thank me.

More another time...

Learning to speak.... well, sort of

Although Paul can say about 15 human words (the latest acquisition being "Grandma"), his favorite 2 words these days are "Gock" and "Schnap".... pronounced "GGGGGoCKKK" and "Schhhhhnapppp". We have no idea what these words mean, but they mean something to him, as they are said with such enthusiasm, and usually accompanied with a pointer finger pointing in the air at some invisible force.

Our "Sshh" Adventure

Took Paul to Petsmart today on an errand. He went crazy over the tanks of fish everywhere. He would just stand in front of them and screech and giggle and say "Wwwwowww". When I said "Fish", he just kept repeating "Sshh". He does that a lot lately. Hat is "ttt". What a cutie.

We ate lunch at a Japanese/Korean buffet and whattya know, again there are 3 huge tanks of fish swimming around -right next to our table. Again, he repeated the screeching, pointing and giggling in front of the tanks, even dancing with joy. The entire restaurant was his captive audience, unlike at Petsmart. Do I see a homegrown"shhh" tank in our future?

The Quilt

This is Paul's gift from Aunt Sandy, a beautiful quilt. Here is a grumpy Paul, having just woken up from his nap, sitting on it.

Of course, this is not one of Paul's finer moments. But the kid did sit still long enough at least for me to take these!

He also likes playing with the stuffed kitty Aunt Sandy bought him for Christmas. He likes to pretend it's Pepe and to torment "him" the way he's not allowed to with Pepe. He even puts him on top of Pepe's scratching post and starts babbling away at it. He/She/It doesn't have a name yet, but Pepe has claimed her as his toy (he, too, likes to wrestle with her, we've found).

More later... it's getting late and the brain is shutting down.