Nic "talking"

Nic is making more and more sounds - and he is just so cute! Here he is in the front seat of the car with me while Jac sleeps in his car seat in the back.

High Five

Jac likes to do "High Five" now - and the other day after doing it with me he decided to do it with his brother! Of course Nic does not understand "High Five" yet so Jac helped him!

Self portrait

Jac likes to look at the screen on my camera when I am taking pictures. He will come around to look at the screen when I am taking videos of him or Nic. Last night he took my camera and took some of his own pictures.

Jac also gets a little "crazy" at night when he is getting tired! He talks a lot and runs around and spins (the spinning is a new development in the last week).

Playing in the pool

The boys have been playing in the Baja deck of my parents' pool. It is less than a foot deep - and Jac can very easily walk around in it. He has also discovered that he can do a modified sort of swim. He puts his hands down on the bottom of the Baja deck and then lets his body float out behind him - doing this he can then walk around on his hands and use his hands and a little bit of his legs to propel himself around! So much fun! His arms are just long enough that he has to really work to keep his face out of the water - and so there has been some swallowing of water. He doesn't seem deterred by it though, and has been having a great time, "swimming" around!

The other cool thing is that we taught him about the, "stop line" at the edge of the Baja deck. This is a line of white tiles on the background of the dark blue bottom of the pool - very clearly visible. We taught him that he has to stop at this line - so he goes up to the line - not too close - and then tells me "stop line". So cute!

It is amazing how many words he has now - I cannot! count anymore - and he repeats so many things! It is truly amazing to watch him acquire language!

Ama's cooking

Ama cooks very good food! It seems like every time she shows up to see the boys she has food of some sort - something that the boys like! Asian food seems to agree with the boys - of all sorts! It is so great to see them both enjoying good food - and nice to be back in LA where Asian food of all sorts, from Ama, and eateries is available for the boys to enjoy!

Opening doors

Jac can now open the doors at my parents' house! Oh man! They have the door handles rather than knobs and yesterday he figured out that he can pull the handle down and then pull it back and get out of the way! Tonight, when I was trying to get him to sleep, he got down off the bed, opened the door, and went out into the living room to play with the room lights!

He has grown quite a bit taller since we got here a couple of weeks ago! When we got here he could not reach the top of the lights to turn them on and now he can - on tip toes but he can! He looks taller - I am curious to see how much taller he is. It is time to start the yard stick. When I was a kid we had a yard stick on the wall and periodically my parents would measure us on it and record it - we loved it - and hopefully the boys will also!

"Grandma" and "Grandfather"

Grandma has been trying to teach Jac to say "Grandma" forever! Pretty much since he was born I think! And he finally did it tonight!

He has been saying "Mama" for everything! When he wants something, up, down - anything! Including me or my Mom! (BTW, this "Mama, Mama" thing is in a very LOUD voice! - and he says it again and again until you figure out what it is he wants, say that word, which he then repeats, you give/do the thing, and then he is happy!)

Tonight we were in my bed trying to go to sleep - Nic had fallen asleep nursing and Jac was almost asleep. Right before he fell asleep he started saying, "Mama, Mama". I asked him if he wanted "Grandma" and he said "Grandma"! She has not heard it yet though! I called Grandma and asked her to come in and get him. She did and took him to her bed where he promptly fell asleep!

Also, last night he started saying, "Grandfather" - or something to that effect - nothing that anyone but me would recognize, with context, as "Grandfather", but he does now have a name!

Jac pushing Nic around Sam's Club

Today, Jac pushed Nic around Sam's club in the shopping cart. He got up a full head of steam in the straightaways - he was almost running! Unfortunately the cart needed some tire balancing and it pulled strongly to the left so I kept on having to course correct for Jac!



Also, at the end of this Sam's Club session Jac had his first public throw himself down tantrum. Fun! Fortunately since he is little I can just pick him up. Just wait 'til Nic gets there :) Oh man!

Also, I am getting really tough - I took the boys to Walmart, Sam's Club, and Kohls on an all afternoon shopping trip - all by myself. I am preparing for my pseudo-single parenthood as Joseph enters a new phase of his career development and is not going to be around much! Thankfully we are back close to family and I am very happy to be here - and have so! many grandparents around - and Aunts and Uncles - biological and otherwise!

Welcome back to CA!

Nic chasing Jac around Grandma's bedroom

Last night, when the kids were supposed be sleeping, they were instead playing in Grandma's room. Their favorite game was for Jac to run away and Nic to chase him by crawling after him. I think within a month or a month and a half this is going to turn into a literal game of chase. Man have I got my hands full!

BTW - sorry for the lousy video - dark room and iPhone 3G S video - but I had to capture the moment!

Trampoline

Ama and Akon purchased Jac a trampoline for his birthday. Yesterday they came and put it together! Wow! That was a big job and one which the boys wanted to help with! Jac's PT in Boulder suggested that a trampoline would be very good for his physical development.

Apple and iPhone

Triumph! Jac now recognizes the Apple logo and says "Apple" and says iPhone! Oh man! I made no effort to teach it to him! Osmosis!

Nic's 9 month specs

Nic had his nine month physical on Tuesday at our new pediatrician at Rose City Pediatrics in Pasadena. Everyone at the office was really great, especially Dr. P who has a really great bedside manner and a lot of great information - I look forward to working with him for many years to come!

Nic is now 20 pounds and 9 ounces, and 28.75 inches tall. He is 50th percentile for weight, 75th for height, and 80th for head! Our big boy!

He has had a cold, we think the same one that Joseph has had, and it went into hs lungs a bit and gave him mild bronchiolitis. He has had the cough more more than a week, but it seems to finally be getting better, with no meds! Yeah!

Video of Jac and Nic playing with Nic crawling

It is so much fun to watch the boys play now that Nic can crawl a bit (the furthest I have seen him go so far is about 12 feet in 20 seconds). Nic has realized that, at least for some things, he can go get them himself!

It is going to be very interesting to see how the play dynamics change - Jac currently, voluntarily, plays very close to Nic, so that Nic takes things away from him. I wonder sometimes why Jac does it when it seems like he knows that "Hands" - is going to take whetever he is playing with away from him.

Things are getting better in the car

Nic is not crying in the car - as much! When we got to LA he was still crying every single time we got in the car and now sometimes he just sits in the car and sometimes he sleeps and sometimes he cries. A huge improvement!

4 more teeth!

The other day Jac was laying on my lap in such a way that I could see his top jaw and I saw more teeth there! 4 more I think! It is a little sketchy trying to count teeth in his mouth but I know for sure I saw two new ones! Big ones - half way back - they look like good ones for chewing!

T.V.

We came home tonight from a nice evening, out at Kids Space with friends, and I plopped down on the couch with Jac and Nic in my arms. Jac was tired, as he had only taken a very short nap in the car. The second we sat down he said, "T.V."! Oh man! I knew hew knew the word but this was the first time he had requested it!

We don't watch kids shows - although Jac turned on Grandfather's TV the other day and managed to turn on Sesame Street, which he was quite transfixed by! We watch lots of reality shows, mostly cooking shows and fashion shows - perhaps we will have a chef and a fashion designer! I personally don't like most kids shows so we don't watch them! Just wait until Jac understands how to really change the channels! Right now he mostly hits random buttons on the TiVo remote which ends up pausing, fast forwarding and rewinding while we are watching our shows!

Nic is free standing (4 seconds)

Oh man! Here we go! Nic stood on Grandma's bed for 4 seconds - and then for 3 seconds and so on! He gave me the turtle face he was so pleased with himself! I will try to get some standing on video! This is all moving so fast!

Beautiful smiles

My boys have such gorgeous smiles!

.5 second free standing

Today Nic pulled himself to standing on me, then transferred over to holding onto a milk crate filled with toys and then let go of the crate for 1/2 a second and stood on his own before grabbing the crate again. Oh man! This is all moving a little fast for Momma!

Go Nic!

Two words together

Jac's vocabulary is increasing every day! It is amazing to watch! Yesterday in the car he was cracking up saying the word "old"! Every time I would say it he would repeat me and then crack up!

Today he said two words together several times. I asked him to bring me the, "other ball" and he repeated it and brought me the ball. Later, I called Nic, "turtle face" because I love the turtle face that he makes, and Jac said "turtle face." Oh man! I really have to watch what I say!

This is developmental mental milestone for speech that is expected by two so hit it three days later!

Nic is crawling on all fours and cruising

Nic is crawling on all fours! He started last night when he went from where he was sitting by the trash can in my parents' kitchen and crawled over to get the dishwasher door (which was open). It looked a little roadrunnerish as he was having trouble getting traction with his knees on the wood floor but he managed to make his way there! And then he tried to grab the dishwasher door and leaned a little too far and fell over! Oh well! It is amazing to me how quickly he has gone from not rolling over to rolling over, getting to sitting and crawling! Amazing! I am too tired to sort through the crawling videos I took today but I will find one and upload it!

Nic is also cruising now - holding onto the couch or other things and moving along while standing! I will find a video of that! He has been doing that since this past weekend!

I am in so much trouble! I can hope that, at least for now, his brother will continue to act as a magnet, and they will stick close together rather then going in opposite directions!

Jac's 2nd birthday party

Jac had a very nice second birthday party with lots of friends and family! It was so nice to see everyone and know how much Jac is loved by all of friends and family in Los Angeles. I have to say that we really miss our friends the Perletzs back in Boulder though!

We had some Green Street salad, a Costco pizza and cake and fun and sun by the pool!

Jac met his new "cousin" Nathan Jr. Nathan is the son of our friends Nate and Amy. He is solid! He is going to give Nic a run for his money!

Time to sleep

Since we got to my parents' house Jac has started to go to sleep more easily. Joseph has been sick for the last several days and has been sleeping a lot. Since Jac normally sleeps with Joseph when he was tired I would ask him if he wanted to go to bed. He would say "bed", "ne ne". I get him the ne ne and then either take him into the bed with Joseph or direct him there and he goes on his own (he also did this with Ama). He then cuddles up next to Dad, covers himself with the covers if he wants them, drinks his ne ne and goes to sleep. Amazing. i have left him in there with Joseph a number of times now, only staying for 20 seconds or so after setting him down, and he has gone to sleep without complaint. Nice!

It is so great to see him growing up! I love co-sleeping and I am happy to see it paying dividends. If you are reading this and you sleep with your kids don't stop just 'cause people look at you funny when you mention it or your family thinks it is weird. Keep going! You will be glad you did!

Jac is two

Our little boy is two years old today! I can hardly believe it! It is amazing how quickly two years can go by!

He is walking and talking and showing every sign of developing normally. We are so fortunate! So many things could have gone wrong with our little 1.5 pound 30 weeks and 6 day boy. Other than being small (which we are working on) he is developing normally! Wow!

He is up to around 120 words now and it grows every day. He repeats so many words now. It feels like he learns a new word every day.

He called Ama "Ma" yesterday! I think he is calling Grandma "May" but I am not sure about that one yet. He has not gotten Akon or Grandfather yet!

He loves his brother. He checks in on him and points it out to me if he is crying. Tonight, while we were out at dinner, Nic was sleeping on me in the carrier. Jac started to get upset and asked to come over and check on Nic. Once he checked up on him and gave him a kiss he calmed back down. So cute! He gives him kisses and hugs and rolls on him and just generally loves him on him. So cute!

He is climbing more and more. My parents couches are lower and he has been climbing up on them and trying to climb up on me!

He takes a little while to warm up to new things and places. He needs to be in a new situation for a little while before he is comfortable with it.

He likes to explore and touch and move things. He has discovered the light switches at my parents' house. He can turn the lights off he stretches on his toes. I have showed him how to move a small box to stand on so he can reach to turn the lights back on and he has done it.

He likes noodles and will almost always eat them but he will eat most anything. He still has eight teeth. I keep on thinking he is going to get his one-year molars but he hasn't yet.

He has the sweetest little sly smile now. Yesterday he was joking around with Grandma and me and saying "No." He was laughing and giving us this little smile and then saying "No" again!

This is the last birthday where he won't care what he gets or if it is wrapped. This is the last birthday where we can celebrate it any day we want. This is the last birthday where he won't be able to sing along a little bit with "Happy Birthday."

Grandma has taught him to answer the question, "How old are you?". He says, "two," and holds up one finger! Yesterday morning when we were doing it he held up one finger on both hands in response! Cute!

He is a sweet, loving, lovable little guy who I love with all of my heart.

Nic really can get to sitting!

Oh man! I have now seen Nic get himself to sitting a bunch of time (the first one last night!). He is getting good at moving really quickly! He is just so strong!

Cruising and almost crawling

Nic is crawling - sort of! He gets onto all fours like he is going to crawl - and then flops down onto his tummy and soldier crawls - sort of! He really can get a few feet if he really wants something - but mostly he fusses about it!

He can now pull himself to standing on a lot of things - if there is a handhold - and he has started to cruise along the couch! Oh man!

I am predicting that he is going to be free standing before he is 10 months old and take his first steps before he is 10.5 months old! Not that I am voting for him to do it that early! I just think he is going to!

Sat up in bed?

Tonight I got up from bed after Nic had fallen asleep to do some things on the computer. I heard him crying and very quickly went to him where I found him sitting up in bed much to my surprise! I have never seem himself get himself to a sitting position from lying down which he must have done! Whoa!

He has also taken to sleeping rolled almost all the way over onto his tummy - and rolling around in the bed! Exciting days are ahead!

Jac is eating more - elevation?

It seems like the moment Jac made it down to the lower elevation in CA he started eating more - dramatically more. He still does not eat as much as we would hope for - but more! It is really amazing to see the difference. I can't figure out any explanation other than the elevation!

Nic is moving!

Oh man! We are in so much trouble. This evening, after a long, frustrating day in the car, Nic nursed a lot, didn't go to sleep, and then proceeded to stay up to 1:30 am to show off determined he is to learn how to move. He has now become a master of rotating on his belly, and he is really able to effectively move a foot at a time to get to his toys (or a remote that he wants!) He was climbing over my knees to grab his cell phone from the other side. He was pulling himself to standing on me and then transitioning from me to the couch (while holding on). He also had one moment of freestanding (about 1.5 seconds) after he used my legs to stand up.

It is amazing to me to watch Nic do all of this so quickly after watching it take Jac much longer (and it wasn't that long ago that Jac was doing this!). Nic is so strong! He can just push and pull and fight his way to do things. Jac had to have so much more balance and awareness to be able to do them since he is not as strong.

I have been telling Nic that he should not be in any hurry to walk - but I don't think he is listening. It is quite clear he is going to walk before a year. I can't say as I minded having Jac start taking steps at 17 months and not really start walking until 18 months - he had such a brain and planning on him by that point and had spent so much time cruising and crawling and I really didn't have to worry that much about him when he started walking. Nic doesn't have all of that! Hopefully he will spend a little time crawling (very good for his brain and his reading later) before he gets up and starts walking!

Singing with Mommy and Daddy

This evening in the car, after a long day of driving, and a lot of crying in the car seat by Nic, Joseph and I were singing "Wheels on the Bus" to calm NIc down. We have been singing "Wheels on the Bus" for a long time to Jac, long before Nic was born, and it is one of our favorite songs to sing to the boys. From the back seat we heard Jac singing along with us. He was mostly making the sounds - like "Beep, beep," "Squeak, squeak," and a little bit of the "all around the town." He was clearly trying to carry the tune with us. I wish we could have taken an audio recording of Jac's singing - it was absolutely adorable and the first time he has ever tried to carry the tune with us. He has previously made the sounds from the song but the tune carrying was completely new! On the positive side our singing put NIc to sleep!

We are home!

Big news! We have moved back to LA! We missed LA and the family too much and we are back! We are living with my parents while we sort out our living situation here! We are very excited to be back although it is bitter sweet. We miss our friends in Boulder, especially the Perletezs, and we have taken the boys away from their birthplace. It is interesting to think that our little ones are really Colorado boys since I really am a Californian and Joseph thinks of himself as a Californian. I want to make sure that the boys visit Colorado when they are older (I know we will back quite a bit to visit) so that they know where they started.

There are so many memories in Boulder, and to move away from those feels weird. I am a parent in Colorado and an adult and a kid in California - and now it is time to become a parent in California. Hmmm... Hard to explain.

We are so glad to be close to family. This morning Joseph and I took Nic out and went apartment hunting. Jac was asleep when we left so we left him in the care of Grandma and Grandpa. He has not seen them in a couple of months (he was asleep when we arrived late last night) and he was just fine with them for several hours until we got home! Yeah! We are living the high life now! Yeah! Babysitting! We are looking very much forward to the time when both boys are comfortable enough with all of the members of my family and Joseph's that they can stay with them so we can have a date! Yeah! That will be the day! Nic is still nursing a lot and is very attached to me so I think it is going be a bit before he can do it - but he loves to eat - so it might not be too long!

Nic is nine months old!

Man how time flies! Our little Mr. Nicie is nine months old today! He is starting to soldier crawl, and think about taking some steps while someone is holding his hands, and stand up while holding something! He is making more and more different sounds - Mamamamamama, Dadadadadada, Nenenenenene and others.

He still cries in the car - a lot - but sometimes he falls asleep. He doesn't sleep as much during the day anymore - probably 2 or 3 naps - but because he mostly sleeps on the go (since Jac only takes one nap) it is a little hard to know! He loves my computer - if he can reach it he wants to take the keys off. He can play contentedly by himself on the floor for a while and he likes to play near Jac. Jac likes to play very close to him - even though he doesn't have to - and I wonder how that dynamic is going to change as Nic starts to be able to move more and more. Nic realizes that he can grab things that are a little more distance from him - he gets up on his legs and hands and reaches for things - and will go down on his tummy without complaint to try to get them. He doesn't like to stay on his tummy for too long though and will complain for help to get up - he hasn't figured out how to get to sitting by himself.

He is strong! Oh man! My wrists are starting to hurt from wrestling with him! He is sweet and smiley. When he sees people that make eye contact with him he smiles and coos at them! It reminds me so much of Jac at this age. It is a lot of fun to watch Nic progress through the same stages as Jac did and since it was only 14 months ago that Jac did it I can almost remember it! He nurses to sleep, and to nap. He eats solid foods well - and quickly - and complains mightily if you don't give him the food fast enough.

He nurses during the day and night, but not as much as he used to. He is a Momma's boy. I carry him in the Beco a lot when we are out - he is almost 20 pounds and tough to carry as he twists himself around without the carrier. He likes Madie second to me and will sometimes sleep with her in the carrier. He likes Meghan also but he hasn't spent as much time with her yet to sleep with her. He gets very excited when he sees his brother and seems to like it when Jac comes to see him when he wakes up. He likes to be carried. He likes the little toy animals that we just bought at "Into the Wind" on Pearl Street. He likes to chew on diapers and wave them around. He likes to roll over on his changing table.

He doesn't like to be taken away from me or Jac. He gets very excited when Jac gets very excited and they seem to feed off each other. Jac gives him hugs and kisses. He assaults you with his hands if you are carrying him - and he really whacks you and scratches you. He doesn't spend that much time with Daddy and we are going to try to change that a bit. He is a sweet, very cute little boy who continues to look like a "Mini Me" of his Daddy!