Friday, October 19, 2012

The TV Moment


My Parents took a photo of my sister and I , probably back when we were Jack and Charlie's age, in this same position, watching TV. I am glad to have caught this same moment with my two boys.




The Jack and Charlie Moments


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Baby Moments

I was not sure why a couple of weeks ago I was praying for the day for Charlie to be older. Perhaps my frame of mind was that I just wanted things to be a bit easier than they are now. We are pretty much a family that goes from here to there and cannot really be at one place for too long. We are that much in demand!
Kidding, but things are so busy right now, especially at home when Charlie pretty much just wants someone to walk him around the whole house. I don't blame him. He sees his awesome brother running around. Who wouldn't want to run around with that guy? Crawling is babies, running around is for Charlie.

Then nighttime comes and I nurse Charlie to sleep. All the sweet baby, I never want you to grow up moments rush in like a flash. I soak in every moment that Charlie and I have together at night. I breathe in his baby smell, I stroke his super soft baby hair, I pat his little butt to go to sleep. I listen to his intense breathing as he first nurses, then gradually turns to relaxed I am getting my Mama's milk breathing. He touches my arm, sometimes strokes it, but most of the time it just lays there.

Why do I want these moments to fade? I don't, and as my little baby becomes older and older, I hope that there will always be moments like this between us, where we just enjoy and live in each other's company.
I need to remind myself that moments like this do not last forever. But they are here and now.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The 11th Month

Here we are. Down to the very last minute countdown. Could it be really true that almost a year has gone by? It has been almost a year when Brian and I went to the hospital to have a very long labor ( 22 hours ) and look at us now. Running around now more than ever. Jobs here, bathtime and bedtimes there. Yes, I still will not talk about the good bedtime habits. I still think it is a jinx. This is known to be true as my sister asked me last Wednesday on how Charlie has been sleeping. " Oh better, blah blah blah" was my response. And here came the jinx gods, descended upon our room that very night and has made Charlie now wake up at 3, then 4:.30, then 5:30. This is in the AM. Come on Charlie!! I am right now praying to the gods of intensely good slumber and in hopes that they sprinkle upon the sleeping dust to Charlie and his brother Jack. Yes, Jack has been waking up in the middle of the night now. Guess who has discovered on how to remember his dreams and now wants us to be with him in the middle of the night? Jack does.
I laughed today in the morning when my husband looked at Charlie and said" Hey! You had a really good sleep last night! " What?? I said, well Charlie woke up around 4 and Jack woke me up in the night to bring me back to his room. 
Guess who didn't get a good night sleep last night? Me. I should be used to it. I haven't been getting a good night sleep for 5 years now. Why should I start now? 



Charlie now calls me Nana. I think it is the cutest name anyone has given me. When he gets really upset, he calls me Mama. That is when he means serious business. He also has this great rolling sound that he makes with his tongue. It rattles within his teeth; if you hear that sound. that means Charlie is incredibly happy. 



Like his brother, Charlie loves animals. Dogs, cats, bunnies. Anything cute and furry tickles his tummy the right way. He has a lot of these touch and feel books so we spend a good while talking about the different animals. Also like his older brother, Charlie takes great delight in putting the furry books to his mouth. At first I thought he was giving them kisses. Then I saw that he was trying to eat the kitten "fur" from the book. Jack used to do the same thing when he was that age.



Jack is a fan of school. He still doesn't like singing Happy Birthday and hearing when others sing in general. It's a process that we are trying to deal with, as Jack has had issues with loud noises in general. He is getting better at listening to loud sounds, but one day at a time you know? On the extra bright side, he has discovered Angry Birds and tells me that he loves me almost every day. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The First Words

Charlie talks! And now the world awaits as to what will be the next word that will be coming out of his mouth.

His first words ( in order ) :

Dada-  yes, as in Dad, papa,my husband. At first we thought he was just doing baby babble and saying ba ba ba, da da da. Til one day he looked right up at my husband and said "dada." My husband couldn't be prouder only because his first word was dada.

Jaja - I always ask Charlie on where is Jack? This huge smile would appear on his little chubby face and he would go Ja? til he saw Jack. Then he will squeal in delight. There is such a thing as squealing in delight for those of you that have never experienced it before. Charles is the master of squealing.

Mama - yes!!! He finally said Mama!! He would say "Ma" a lot and that would be when he would want milk at 4am. I always took the Ma for a whine, as in " buahana maaaaaa.
Today however, right at 4:30am Charlie got up. He was whining for a bit when he said "Mama." How could I get mad at 4:30 now when my son has called out my official name. I scooped him up and kissed his forehead and said " Thank you for calling my name."

Just to confirm that Charlie is indeed saying words, when Jack woke up today I said " Look Charlie, it's Jack."
He went " Ja, Ja!" I happily went over to Jack and said " Did you hear? Charlie just said your name!!!!"
Jack was less than impressed since it was 6 am. I think he was awoken by Charlie's cries. His look pretty much said " I am awake at 6am. I don't care who is saying my name at this moment."
We can't please them all. This mama is very pleased however.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Croup

At this time of the season, Jack always gets this horrible hacking cough.
Very dry, sounds like his voice box is about to come out of his mouth,. His little face winces when he coughs and he holds his chest. I hate to see him so uncomfortable and miserable.
We would take him to the doctor's or urgent aid everytime this happens and they would always tell us the same thing,
His lungs are clear.
How can you sound like that and yet have no fluid in your lungs? Asks the mom who is not a doctor yet has seen this on her kid one too many times?
 Meanwhile, he would be feverish, coughing and would rarely get a minute of rest before the coughing storm would start. We never got a straight answer as to why he would get this all the time at this time of the year. We still haven't.
Bronchitis was thrown around as a possibility, asthma, allergies. We went to an ENR specialist last year to see what was going on and that went splendid. Our first day there, she had Jack restrained by her nurse as she tried to look down his throat. He of course was screaming and crying only because some stranger , and not his mom beside him, was holding him down. She was supposed to be a pediatric ENR doctor as well. but she did not display one ounce of friendliness, kindness or gentility. That was the end for me. We will find a new doc thanks.
As if God heard my prayers, Jack became well and that cough went away. So much that we haven't heard a bad cough from him in a long time.
Til now.
But now, a doctor finally told us what we wanted to hear. Croup is what he has and is a word that I have heard over and over again from other people's kids. Now Jack has it and the best that we can do is what we have been doing this whole time. The nebulizer treatment. Which Jack has perfected by turning it on, placing the mask over his face and reading a book. Like a champ.
So at least he doesn't have bronchitis, allergies, influenza as how my parents sometimes look at it.
Simple, ugly, dirty croup. I guess I can live with that.