TWO YEARS!

I truly can’t believe it’s been two years since David drove me the three-minute walk down to the hospital for Timothy’s birth. Wow! These two years, God has blessed David and me so richly with our delightful and sweet son. As I’ve mentioned before, Timothy is far from angelic, but his sweetness and delight far, far, far outweigh his naughtiness (most days)! I wouldn’t trade being his mom for anything.

Some people say the reason women can have more than one kid is that as soon as each baby is born, they forget the awfulness of pregnancy and delivery. Well, not me. I can tell you what it’s like to feel nauseated most of the time, to have awful heartburn every night and no Tums, to agonize through each contraction, to be poked with needles “in case they need to set a line” and because I’m Rh-negative, to actually deliver. Oh yes, I remember very clearly. Even if my body doesn’t remember, my brain remembers – which is why Timothy is all the more a wonder to me, and why I’d seriously consider not having another kid! But I’m glad for Timothy. He was worth every minute of it. And I hope I can still say that honestly in 13 or 14 years when he’s learning to drive, spending time with girls, hiding in his room… God, prepare me for those days!

Here are some of Timothy’s recent “cute” moments:

• Lining up toys and other items in a careful and precise row. I’m pretty sure this is a normal development step, not a sign that he’s obsessive-compulsive. :) He’ll take his toys in the bathtub and line them all up in a row, or his animals from his Noah’s Ark. It’s a real hoot.
• Playing games with his books. He’s got a touchy-feely book with puppies and kittens, and the other day, he pointed to the dog and said “meow.” When I said, “That’s not a cat!” he just laughed and kept doing it to the other pictures of puppies. He then pointed to each cat and said “woof-woof,” just to keep me laughing and himself giggling.
• Reading aloud his books. He’s got one book that just has one word on each page and then a picture of that word – butterfly, flower, friend, airplane, frog, and moon – and he’ll say them now. Okay, so to those of you who have older kids, this may seem silly. He’s not reading. He’s just saying what the picture is. I know that. I’m not delusional. But to see him open the book and say the word that happens to be on that page is still adorable!
• Calling me “Mary.” He has a First Christmas book we’ve been reading for months now, and the first page has a picture of Mary and says, “This is Mary.” Yesterday morning, Timothy pointed to me and said something I couldn’t understand (“mimi”). He finally pointed to the picture in the book and then at me and repeated himself. I finally understood he was calling me Mary! I just loved it!
• Saying hi to everyone he sees. He doesn’t do this all the time, but in the past week, we’ve been several places where he’s just kept saying “HI!” to everyone he’s seen for at least ten minutes straight. Great attention-grabber!
• Repeating back “Happy birthday!” He’s a good repeater (although he seldom is intelligible), and he always copies my greetings – good morning, see you later, good night, how are you. In fact, when I ask him to “ask nicely,” instead of saying, “please,” he says “ask nicely.” It cracks me up. So today every time he heard “happy birthday,” he said his garbled version of “happy birthday” back to the person. We all loved it!

So that’s Timothy for now. His birthday party is tomorrow, so I’ll try to take some pix and post them. Dada is still in Nigeria, but he returns Monday, so we’ll try to have a family celebration next week.

Pumpkin patch excursion

Timothy and I visited a pumpkin patch for the very first time yesterday! We’d been scheduled to go with some MOPS moms and kids this past Tuesday, but it ended up raining all day long (what are the chances, especially around here?), so we went yesterday instead. After two mostly-sunny days between Tuesday and Friday, it was overcast and sprinkly. And it wasn’t even particularly cool. So weatherwise, we didn’t get the best of days for our outing, but at least it wasn’t hot.

The pumpkin patch is south of town a bit, bordered by corn fields, and includes a corn maze. I was disappointed we didn’t get to go through the maze because of the mud, so we might have to return when it’s dried out a bit. There are two tractors that pull wagon trailers with hay bales, so we enjoyed a hayride with the other moms and kids (above). The mud the tractor went through was really amazing – the exact kind of mud you would never drive through in a regular car or even probably a 4-wheel drive. I mean, these tractor wheels were almost as tall as I am, and they were quite efficient!

We also got to sit on picnic benches (right) and hear two books read to us by one of the patch employees. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d have picked the first book. Although it wasn’t “scary,” per se, it was about pumpkins not being scared by witches and ghosts, etc. I grew up with Halloween as a fun holiday but never scary (we never dressed up as anything ghoulish, only wholesome characters), and I don’t think Halloween ought to be scary, especially for pre-schoolers! Most of the kids there with us were 4 and under, so maybe the book wasn’t right. Oh well. I’m not going to write a formal complaint about it, but maybe next year I’ll find an alternative book to recommend…

The pumpkin patch itself was so muddy we didn’t even dare go to that side of the compound. I mean, honestly, if it had been our only chance of going this year, I’d have ignored the mud and explored more. Mud comes out of most clothes, and Timothy loves baths, so we could have gotten clean. I’m not obsessive about that kind of thing if we can go home and get clean right away. And we can go back for free later when it’s dry. So we just avoided the actual patch this time (and still managed to get a bit muddy).

Timothy spent most of the time we were there pulling around an empty wagon. (At left, he started pulling someone else’s wagon full of pumpkins!) I finally chose a pumpkin from one of the piles of hay bales and put it in Timothy’s wagon to give him more of a sense of purpose. (LIke it matters to a 23-month-old.) We pulled the wagon all over the grassy, hay-strewn part of the compound, around the hay bales, steering clear of other children and parents. Timothy loved it! Then he noticed a pyramid of hay bales that had no pumpkins, so he climbed up and started playing on them, followed by other kids. His favourite thing was to jump down from the bottom row (right) – one, two,, three!

So all in all we had a pretty good time, even though we didn’t really hang out with anyone but each other. We got a little muddy and brought home a pumpkin! I have no idea what to do with it now, never having cooked a pumpkin before, but at least it looks nice on our porch for the time being. We won’t even be home for Halloween!

Imminent arrival of the terrible twos

Timothy will be turning two in just about three weeks. Wow.

In some ways, it will be fun. I have no idea yet what sort of celebration to plan, since we’re not a very party-oriented family. I know, though, that Timothy loves playing at the playground, so we might just meet a few kiddie friends there and eat cake. Oh, and we must have balloons, since Timothy is a balloon-lover. (Even when they pop, he doesn’t worry.) The presents will be few, but at two, will he really care? I think not! As long as there’s something sweet to eat and a slide to go down, he’s likely to enjoy himself.

In the past week or two he’s developed a special attachment to Elmo (or “Melmo”), so I’m thinking of looking for cheap Elmo gifts. He’s only seen a few snippets of Sesame Street, since we don’t have a TV, but he’s got an Elmo book about colors, and we picked up some Pampers last week (instead of our usual Costco diapers), which of course have Elmo on every single one. I tell him he’s got Elmo on his bottom, and he gets a kick out of that.

But I’m afraid the bad behaviour has already begun – perhaps not in force, but enough to bother me. On our play date last week (yes, we actually had a real play date!), Timothy started being aggressive, which he has never done before. The next day at Bible study, they told me he had pushed a few kids and hit some. This is not the little guy I know! The problem is that 90% of the time he’s with other little kids, I’m not there, so I can’t even figure out a way to combat the problem. This is going to be tough.

Tonight we went out to eat (it’s been a long past few days for me with grading papers), and Timothy is usually great at restaurants. Loud, perhaps, but not bad. Well, tonight was different. He was downright rotten for most of the time we were there. When he wasn’t being naughty, he was pouting because we were being stern with him. David finally had to take him outside while I paid the check and got the leftovers to go. He hadn’t even eaten anything. Good grief. And Timothy cried for the next half hour until he finally got ready for bed. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this – between being angry and frustrated half the time, and feeling sorry for the little guy the other half of the time. I cannot even imagine having to go through all this again in a couple of years with another kid! How do people do it??

Timothy-isms

I know I’ve been absolutely horrible about working on this blog. And trust me, it’s not because Timothy’s not funny or interesting! Considering how lax I’ve been on my own blog, I guess it’s hardly surprising I haven’t done much work on Timothy’s. But I’m here to say that’s going to change! So if I have any readers who were reading and gave up, the good news is I’m getting back to it! That’s a promise. If I make that promise publicly, I’ve got to keep it, right? ;)

So what has Timothy been up to?

• Talking! Not very many words yet, but one of his favourites is horse, which he pronounces “oh-se.” On the way to the grocery store one day when we were walking—which we will probably never do again because there’s no sidewalk much of the way, and it’s a narrow road with a 45 mph speed limit—we saw a corralled horse in a paddock. Now whenever we go that direction, Timothy makes a cow sound (go figure) and says “horse!” Another of his more familiar words is “yeah.” Whenever you ask him a yes or no question, he’ll say, “yeah!” Sometimes he’ll shake his head, too, to indicate no. The painful thing is that he’s also started using “no,” which he just says as a very long and drawn out “oh,” usually while covering his face. The terrible twos are just around the corner.
• OCD already! Timothy has always had this thing about getting anything on his hands, whether it’s jam, peanut butter, dirt, crumbs, or milk. He whines and wants me to clean him up as soon as possible. Well, in the past week, he has started to notice particles floating in his bath water. They’re practically microscopic, but he notices them. Two bath times this week, he just stood in the bathtub, surrounded by his toys, and whined, refusing to sit down in the water and play. Oh no, he pointed to the elusive particles and fussed. There was no way I could get them all out—especially considering I couldn’t see most of them—so I just forced him to get wet, washed him, and gave up on “bath time.” Tonight I scrubbed the tub before his bath, and he seemed not to see particles. Phew. So now I get to scrub the bathtub every time he takes a bath. Yay.
• Building a social life! Now that I go to MOPS twice a month and Bible study every week, Timothy’s spending a couple hours in the church nursery two to three times a week. He gets to play with kids mostly his own age, which is something he hasn’t really done ever, so I’m sure he enjoys it! One day when I went to get him, he just turned back to playing, unlike the other kids, who ran to their mamas. I had to laugh. We had him in the “baby” nursery at first, since he won’t be two for another six weeks, but two weeks ago the person in charge asked us to please put him in with the two- and three-year-olds. He’s just too big for the babies! Hardly surprising considering he is bigger than many of the two-year-olds! (And outgrowing more clothes…) He’s also enjoying story hour at the library every week, especially the songs when he can jump up and down. It’s a little intimidating (with anywhere from 30 to 100 kids), but as long as I stick close to him, he loves it.
• Learning to cook like Mama! (May God make him a better chef than I!) I don’t have baby-proofing in my kitchen, so I arranged everything such that things on the lower shelves are Timothy-safe. That includes the pots and pans, which Timothy loves to take out and play with around the house. He even uses the potholders to hold the handles, and sometimes will put a potholder on the table or floor before putting the pot down. He’s getting the hang of it! He likes to fill the pot with his little animals – Noah’s Ark Stew!
• Reading books! Timothy loves books, especially about animals. (I’m grateful for such a wonderful library!)He can say words that I recognize as giraffe, frog (although this can be confused with dog and duck), and dog, and he makes the noises for other animals. One of his favorite books is Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.

   

And his feet are really wide and fat. If anyone has insights on where to get shoes for huge toddler feet, please let me in on your secrets!

So these are some of Timothy’s antics of late. He sure can be naughty, but he sure can be sweet, too. And generally speaking, he’s a good little guy, a real bundle of joy. Thank heaven for little boys!

Cute tidbits

I thought the other day, as I watched Timothy play during a break from my work, I’m going to miss so much of his development because I’m sitting at a desk in another room. I envy the moms who are active in their toddlers’ development, the ones who plan activities, art projects, trips to see museums, etc. I sometimes try to do those things, but at this point in our lives, if I don’t work, we don’t eat. Not that any mom sits and watches her little ones 24 hours a day! But maybe if I weren’t working, I’d see more things like this:

• The other day, I was cooking dinner, and Timothy came into the kitchen to play. (He really likes to be in the same room I’m in if I let him.) He climbed up onto a chair at the kitchen table, put his plastic peahen on the table facing him, and proceeded to “talk” to it. He used a high-pitched voice and jabbered away at the little peahen. He stuck his face right up into the peahen’s face (it’s about 1-1/2” high) and talked to it! I had to turn around from the stove and just watch for the duration, which was several minutes. It was priceless!
• One day last week, I was really tired and went to lie down after dinner. (This is the first time I’ve ever done that.) Timothy came to me and brought me toys and books as I lay there. He climbed up and sat with me. When he brought a book, he lay down on my chest and let me read it to him lying down. When he left the room, he came to bring me his precious Pippin-Bear. Then he gave me a kiss and went out the bedroom door. Within seconds, he was back with his Pascal-Bear. He gave me a kiss again and headed out. But before he got to the door, he turned around and came to give me another kiss! This was so reminiscent of our nighttime routine that I just had to laugh.
• Yesterday, I turned around from working at the computer to look into the living room, where Timothy was playing quietly. (Quiet is always worrisome when you have a toddler!) My little boy was sitting across the living room, facing away from me, reading a book, and he had his little hat on! I can never get him to wear the hat, but he was sitting there inside, wearing it, happy as a clam!

These are just some examples of my cutie. I hope I get lots more of these glimpses, even though I’m working. At least I get to work from home!

Timothy’s 1-1/2!

This past week, Timothy turned one-and-a-half. Wow! It’s been a crazy last few months, and I’ve been awful at keeping up this blog, but Timothy’s still growing and being cute. One of his new things is to run into the depths of the closet when I want to change his diaper. He knows that one of the closet doors doesn’t slide open, so he goes in as far as he can so that I have to go into the closet myself and remove him physically.

Oh, and he just adores cheese. This morning at breakfast, he threw a tantrum in his high chair because he wanted cheese, and I wouldn’t give him any. He did the same thing again tonight at dinner. Yesterday, we attended a tea at my aunt’s institute of fine arts (the imaginarium), and Timothy had a blast. He enjoyed lots and lots of cheese, strawberries, and grapes, and he ran around without my chasing him. He climbed up onto chairs and sat with strangers. He danced to the live guitar music and clapped with the rest of the guests. He had a wonderful time!

He has also fallen in love  with the song “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” I guess it’s not really a song, but it’s on a CD that we hear every week at the library storytime, and he’s learning the actions. He’ll put his hand up with five little fingers and fuss until I do the ditty.

He loves to try to eat things. He chews on the ends of crayons and has tasted my chapstick more than a dozen times. While we were moving, and I was busy packing a box, he found my deodorant and took a bite out of that! Ugh! He spit it all out and made a face, so I hope he doesn’t get tempted to do it again. Yuck.

And I’ve discovered a problem: his Pack ‘n Play portable crib is getting too small. With the sheet on, the mattress becomes scrunched up and doesn’t fit the length of the bed. Timothy is now longer than the scrunched mattress. And I keep thinking, That bed can’t possibly be comfortable. Its padding is only 1/2-inch thick. I think it’s time to move on to bigger and better things. The problem is that I’m not sure what. My aunt has said we might be able to borrow a toddler bed, but this presents two problems: Timothy would roll off, and he would also be able to climb out of bed and play during naptime and nighttime. Another option is to just get a crib mattress and put it on the floor. This would allow him to sleep more comfortably and not fall off of a bed, but it would still allow him to play with his toys. And I guess the third option is to bite the bullet and buy a real crib. That would be a huge expense, and it seems almost a waste, since Timothy will be too old for a crib before we even realize it. What to do? Any ideas?

Trip to the Zoo - American style

My aunt and uncle took us to the Fresno Zoo yesterday, and we had a wonderful time!

We actually started the day off at a living history exhibit put on by an organization for the deaf and hearing impaired. It was a silent exhibit, with everyone using writing, gestures, and sign language to communicate. (People even got thrown in "jail" for talking or making noises.) Timothy didn't last too long and went outside with Daddy after the first two sections, but the rest of us stayed awhile longer. I found it frustrating, since I don't understand sign language and certainly can't communicate with it. (I can sign the alphabet and my name and a few other things, but generally, I've lost almost all the ASL I used to know.) It was just like being in Nigeria, surrounded by people who couldn't speak English. But it was fascinating to watch everyone else actually communicating in ASL, not to mention the cool things we learned about Martha's Vineyard in the 19th century. It was a neat program. I think Timothy's favorite part was eating a brownie. :)

Afterward, we had lunch out - yum! - and then went to the zoo. The only other zoo that Timothy had ever been to was the Jos Zoo, which really doesn't compare. The zoo in Fresno is larger, prettier, and has many more animals. Some of Timothy's favorites to watch were the black leopard, giraffes, and elephants. He also got to pet some sheep, goats, and a llama, and he got to touch a stingray! We got wet and a little cold, but we had a lot of fun! (I just wish we'd had a camera. I always forget mine when I know we'll most want to take photos!)

Timothy is 16 months old now and has 12 teeth. He loves my aunt's cats and tries to say, "meow," which just ends up being "maw."

The other night we were eating Mexican food, and he kept pointing to the black olives in a dish on the table. But when he tasted one, he spit it out. Only after several minutes did I realise he'd thought the olives were grapes!! What a rude awakening!

Fifteen+ months!

Timothy is such a big boy now! He has ten teeth now (six on bottom, four on top) and loves to eat almost anything. His favorite foods are fruits – especially tangerines, bananas, and grapes – and yogurt, but he also loves cheese, tomatoes, and any type of juice. He’s not a huge fan of lettuce or Dijon mustard. But he had his first corn dog yesterday, and that was a huge hit! He loves coming to Costco with Aunt Pamela and me to get the yummy samples while we shop!

Timothy got an interesting haircut a few weeks ago. I asked his daddy to use his hair clipper, so Timothy came out of the bathroom looking like a new military recruit! It was a little uneven at first, but now that it’s grown in a little, it looks cute.

We’ve taken Timothy to the nearby playground a few times (Daddy more than Mama as Mama has had to get a lot of work done recently), and he loves the swings, the sand (mostly just throwing it, which of course we don’t encourage), and playing with balls. Aunt Pamela just bought him a nice big ball yesterday, so now we have something larger than a tennis ball. :) Timothy loves to run and dance and is just always active!

He has also attached himself to my bear, Pippin, whom we just call “Bear.” I’m glad he’s really settled down with another best friend, after I lost his other one. :(

Timothy also loves to say “bah” and wave, meaning “bye-bye.” And he’s learned an approximate sign for “banana” in addition to his other signs. I know it’s just a matter of time before he starts speaking words. Goodness.

The other day, Timothy got into the bottom drawer in the kitchen, the one where Aunt Pamela keeps her Ziplocs, wax paper, aluminum foil, and shelf paper. He took out the aluminum foil, so I took it, said thank you to him, and put it on the counter where he couldn’t reach it. So he thought he was being helpful and proceeded to empty the whole drawer, putting each one on the counter! It was the cutest thing, and afterward we put them all back in the drawer together. :)

December-January

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past month. There are more on Flickr.

 

Timothy's first time opening his own Christmas presents

 

Playing on the floor during our Christmas dinner at the Singers' house

 

 

 

 

Did I ever mention that Timothy is completely weaned now? I can't remember. Well, he is, and it's pretty strange and good at the same time. I haven't nursed him in over a month. It was easy as pie, and completely unintentional, but I'm glad it's over and done with.

A week or two ago, Timothy learned how to climb onto the dining room chairs and thus onto the table. Fortunately, he hasn't actually tried the stunt more than a few times. It sure would be a headache if he decided to make that his favourite trick!

Timothy's newest thing is opening doors. He just started a few days ago by opening the kitchen door at my parents' house. (We had to start keeping the door shut after Timothy learned how to crawl on top of the box that we were using as a barrier.) Today he opened the hall door for the first time, too, so we're sunk! It's a good thing we're leaving soon and going to a country where we can get baby gates and other safety devices!

Santaclausophobia and sleeping over

Wow, a lot has gone on in our lives since the last time i blogged here. Timothy is almost 14 months now and has seemed to stop growing. Phew! It's nice to have a break after having to change out his whole wardrobe every month or so. He's settled into 18-24 month clothes, size 4 diapers, size 6 shoes, and hopefully that's where he'll stay for awhile. J It's almost impossible to find shoes for him already, and I know it's only going to get worse! Such fat feet!

The past week has been nice and restful. Timothy slept poorly Monday night, as he was coming down with a cold, but he had a grand time Tuesday at our friends the Savelkovs' house. They have a sort of stroller that looks like a big plastic car, and my spoiled little one-year-old refused to get out once he was in. He screamed and thrashed whenever I tried to remove him to let another child have a chance. Good grief. In the end, we all had snacks and tea, and he kept sitting in the car. Olga's helper even pushed him around the house while we were eating. It was pretty funny but pretty pathetic, too! I'd say he needs some more social time with kids the same age to get adjusted to sharing. What do you think?

Timothy's at the age where he gets stuck on one present instead of enjoying all Christmas presents. He opened up a gift from Mary D. - a butterfly that flutters paper confetti inside its middle when you touch the antennae - and that was enough for him! We had a lovely Christmas dinner with our friends the Singers, Aunt Claudia, and Timothy's godfather Marc, even though Timothy didn't actually eat more than two or three mouthfuls of mashed potatoes. (He was napping during most of the meal.)

But the funny part was yesterday when we went out to Mr. Biggs as a family (with my parents and Luke). David actually had to eat and run because he was on call, but the rest of us stayed at the restaurant for a little longer. While we were finishing our food, a tall Nigerian man in a Santa suit (complete with big white beard) came out from behind a corner. Timothy started walking toward me, shying away from this new figure. As Santa got closer, Timothy pressed himself closer to me and started whimpering. Santa, maybe not realising the agony he was causing, came right up to Timothy and tried to touch him. Timothy lost it. He cried and flung himself into my arms, clinging to me. Santa didn't get the hint and kept trying to get near Timothy. I just held Timothy tightly and tried to keep him from being too scared. But Santa remained for several minutes, and poor Timothy has been traumatized for life! When he's old and gray, the psychiatrist will probably attribute his multiphobic personality to the trauma of a Santa Claus who wouldn't leave him alone when he was a year old!

And last night, Timothy slept over at Grandma and Grampa's for the first time! Grampa put him to bed at 20:00, and he was asleep pretty quickly. I didn't go home until almost 23:00 (after watching two episodes of House with my parents), and they said he slept all through, without any trouble! Yay! I was a bit anxious at first to leave him, but I'm glad he did fine during his first sleepover. J

(Pictures to come...)