Bye Bye 2009…
…hello 2010!
Grace will have to wait until tomorrow to officially ring in the new year but she sends her best wishes to everyone!
Archive for December, 2009
No Zs…ABCs and 123s, please!
29
Dec
They say that one of the reasons kids have trouble sleeping is because they are on the verge of learning something significant. I don’t know who “they” are because “they” are usually something that Jenn read, heard or made up to back up her point. In this case, I am inclined to believe “them”. We have certainly had trouble with sleep in our house in the last week or so. Grace wakes up around 9:30 or 10pm yelling for Daddeeeee. When I get up to her room, I am greeted with a smile and some late-night reading suggestions, so I know she isn’t feeling ill or scared.
Tonight, we happened to be sitting next to the monitor, after I put her to bed and heard her conversation with Bla Bla. Most of it was disconnected words and noises but then she started saying “A-B-C, A-B-C” (which we have heard before as a song or game request) suddenly followed by a “D-E-F-G”. Whoa! We haven’t been able to get her to say more than one letter in a row since she started repeating them back to us. Then, a little while later, we heard “A-B-C-D-F-G-H-I-J”. Her alphabet may have a silent “E” but there is definitely some learnin’ going on.
Prouder parents we could not be. So, we did what any proud parents would do…we high-fived each other and listened carefully to the monitor for a repeat performance or something similar to feed the insatiable hunger for achievement. After a few rounds of “Name the kids at school” and some false starts of “1…2…1″ she suddenly laid down a clear “1…2…5 (oops)..6-7 (“sevben”)-8-9-10…Yay (yay!)”.
There it was, as plain as the smiles on our faces—counting…and letters—as perfect complements to sleep deprivation as I could dream of.
Grace turns 21, Hazel is 35
29
Dec
While she didn’t hit the bars with B-crowd (Bla Bla, Baby, Baby and Bear) and she didn’t end up face down in a plate of chicken nuggets, Grace did hit the bottle/sippy cup pretty hard before passing out in her bed on her 21st. Our big girl (who is now 1/12th of the way to the real 21st birthday!) is running us ragged in true toddler fashion. We remember fondly the days when we used to wish she could walk and had only a few words to say.
Now, when we are not running (or waddling, as the case may be) after her, we are running through 5 or 6 rounds of the ABC’s, the numbers 1 through 10, the days of the week, the kids at school or the names of everyone in the family and their dogs. She is an accomplished parrot, who can be reduced to peals of laughter and air-kisses at the very mention of her favorite monsters—Elmo and Cookie.
As far as we can tell, Grace is looking forward to the arrival of her new baby, Hazel…though that may be overly wishful thinking on our part. Her favorite book at bedtime is “I’m a Big Sister Now” or “Sistuh”, if that is too many syllables. It is a classic tale of how special one is despite (maybe even due to) the arrival of one’s small-and-unable-to-eat-pizza sibling. We are soon to see if any of the material from that nightly studying has sunk in and G is able to manage the slightest bit of love and gentleness when H gets here.
Speaking of whom, Hazel (not pictured) is now officially in her mid-30s and is really starting to put on some weight. She continues to tip the scales at a couple weeks heavier than her 35 weeks would suggest (currently double Grace’s birth weight) and we are really hoping not to have to get a second womb for the overflow. Currently, Hazel is either resting her (giant) head on Jenn’s obturator nerve or she has gotten a hold of a crowbar and is rearranging some of Jenn’s key skeletal features around the pelvis area because walking has become a difficult proposition, to put it mildly. Which reminds me, if you have the opportunity to ask Jenn how she is enjoying the never-before-experienced last few weeks of her pregnancy, don’t.
A spoonful of bathwater
23
Dec
Hazel Update – 33 weeks
17
Dec
Jenn visited the Doctors today, but that is nothing new. She visits them a couple times a week while they closely follow her blood pressure. Currently, the big, sudden and incredibly scary pre-eclampsia problems we had with Grace are “unlikely”. But there is another version (that she may or may not have) that slowly creeps up the BPs until the doc just decide to take the baby out to avoid any risks. So that means that she has to rest a lot and we might have a baby anytime between December 29th (which would mark 35 weeks) and January 25th (her scheduled delivery date). This is fast becoming “real” and my legendary denial abilities are experiencing a catastrophic failure.
Scary as it all is, there is much good news to be found. Hazel is VERY healthy. In fact, at 5lbs 4oz, she is measuring about the size of a 36 week-old baby (which isn’t possible because I was out of town that week). The words “huge” and “wow” have been used to describe her (Hazel), along with the medical assessment “good thing you are having a C-Section!”
In the ultrasounds today, Hazel consistently refused to smile for the camera, but did manage to show off what are apparently VERY long legs.
She also showed a certain cinematic flair with this shot I call “It Came From the Womb” .
That’s our update: We are walking on eggshells in hopeful anticipation of our new little girl. Of course, we are hoping to make it all the way to the end, happy to be healthy all around and wondering if she will come out with any of the belly henna (that Jenn got this week) across her forehead.
Slip sliding
13
Dec
I just realized that I forgot to post this video from Jacob Razon’s first birthday party. At a playspace in the east bay, Grace figured out that she could combine her new found skill of climbing stairs with her previous ability to sit on her butt, resulting in endless fun on a slide. This video doesn’t capture the endless part, but if you just keep hitting play when it is over, you will get essentially the same experience that we had last week.
Grace and Jesus
04
Dec
5 whole minutes of Grace walking around the house may be only for the biggest and truest of Grace fans, but since I am the biggest of the big and the truest of the true, I think it’s adorable. For some reason, Grace has adopted a funny statuette given to us by Jenn’s brother a few years ago at Christmas. You can ask it questions and it will tell you (in the style of a Magic 8-Ball) to “Pray Harder” or simply call you a “Sinner”. If you don’t have any questions, you can just give it a whirlwind tour of the house.
My favorite moment comes at about 2:35.
5 minutes of Grace and Jesus from Brad Topliff on Vimeo.
