The Seventh Month

Here we are in the seventh month. Charlie's second tooth just popped out two days ago, June 14. Just in time for Father's Day. Seven months, carrots and broccoli later and we are doing great as a family of four. Except for the times when Charlie makes a huge fuss when we put him down for bedtime and it is right around the time that Jack has stepped into the tub for bathtime. What do I do? Let the baby cry it out? I have been a lot better with the cry it out method now than with Jack, but man, that voice and scream just gets higher and higher and louder and louder. It's not a lot of fun when your oldest is holding his hands over his ears, letting you know that Charlie is indeed , very loud.

Other than that, we are fine. I am relishing these moments of Charlie just sitting on the floor with nowhere to go. I am sort of dreading when he starts crawling and where we live now( hello fragile chotckes!) we will be saying a lot of , where is he? Where is he?

Jack is on the cusp of staring some sort of preschool. The good news is that Brian and I were talking to a preschool teacher today and she let us know that preschool is a lot cheaper than daycare. Thank God.

We are still trying to see where that will be. Right now, I am just trying to teach Jack on what happens during a baptism, and hoping that he doesn't freeze up when it is time to sprinkle the water on his head. Boys' baptism is in 6 days.

Oh, and Brian and I are renewing our vows in 6 days. Our sons should be our ring bearers.

The Day At Brookfield Zoo

We are members at Brookfield Zoo, which means if we wanted to, we could go every single day of the week for the next 365 days.

The Brotherly Love

There is this look of absolute glee and love that Charlie gives Jack. Everytime Jack is talking, Charlie will look at Jack with these wide open eyes.
This is what people say when they talk about the younger sibling adoring their older sibling. They love everything that their sibling does and just wants to BE them.
The sound of Jack's voice makes Charlie's head snap and go " What? Where is he? Where is Jack?"
Jack is starting to notice that Charlie dotes on his every word. Now and then, Jack will make him laugh and when Charlie cracks up, Jack has the biggest smile on his face.
I love watching the two interact with each other now.
I love that we have given Jack a sibling. And I will for sure remember these warm fuzzy feelings when these two may fight over their toys later in life.

The Lost Treasure

I have this stuffed bunny that I got when I was in kindergarten. I think I got him for being a good student? He was fluffy, a lemon yellow as my dad calls it, his ears was bendable. It was the first gift that I associated as my special friend.
Over time, my rabbit has seen the how time can be. He is still lemon yellow, with a couple of missing fur patches, the wires that made his ears bendable poked out, so we took them out and now his ears flopped over his head. He was still my special guy, and made the move with me when I moved out for the first time. He made the move with me throught the three apartments that I have shared with Brian.
In comes Jack. He has discovered the bunny and now is attached to it. Which I love because how special is it to see your child attach himself to the very some love that you attached to as a child.
In comes last Wednesday when the rabbit got lost.
Jack , Brian and Charlie were all over on Wednesday and somewhere along the way, the rabbit decided to go his own way. By Thursday, it was a realization that this rabbit was lost and I died inside. A sadness that I thought I would never have over this stuffed , ragged but wonderful toy came over me and I couldn't stop crying. I cried as I changed Charlie's diaper. As I nursed Charlie. As I put on my PJ's. The whole time, I knew that it was a bit silly to cry over a toy. I'm 35!! But that was my childhood, my happiness and now it was gone. Probably in a trash somewhere, in the dumpster. Thinking of that just made me cry even more.
Then Jack comes along, and he said " I am so sorry I lost your bunny." Then I cried even more. Not for the bunny, but because my 4 year old son knew what it felt like to lose an important toy. And to think that he thought I was putting guilt on him made me feel like a complete jerk.
I held him tight and said " It is not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong." I said it over and over again, hoping that it could wipe away his guilt.
He even tried to make me laugh and said" Does that make you happy now?"
My beautiful son.
The rabbit was found of all places at Target the next day. I don't know if it was St. Anthony that did the trick( which you can bet I prayed and prayed to the whole night) or it was Brian's insistance on finding the toy, but he was found.
Jack amazed me that night. Trying so hard to make his mom happy. That's my boy everyone. He has just become my new stuffed bunny, my treasure that I cannot live without.

The Missed Milestones

Here is how we found out that Jack was walking. This was back on April 27, 2009. We went to pick him up from my parent's house and my mom asked me  "Why didn't you tell us that Jack started walking?" My response was "Because we didn't know."
I know that being a working parent I would miss the milestones of my kids. Jack walking, Charlie's first laugh.
I was going home on Monday and I bumped into the boys' daycare sitter. She waved at me excitedly and from far away, I didn't recognize her. Who do I know in this neighborhood? Nobody, except my family. As she got closer, she said " Oh my god, HI!!!! " I then recognized her.
Then she said, how about that little tooth huh?
Tooth? Jack??? Jack has his teeth. Did one fall out already? No, he's too young. She must be talking about.....
CHARLIE!!!
Charlie has a tooth? And I wasn't the one to spot it first, it was his babysitter. I played along however and went , oh yeah, it's amazing. Like I knew all along that my little baby was about to grow into a man.
She then went on and said how happy Jack was to see it and they kept talking about it. So now she saw Charlie's tooth first and she shared the joy first with my firstborn. Without me.
I work because we need money right? If we ever won the lottery, yes I would quit my job, but I would still send the boys to daycare because I would be busy trying to set up my non for profit art center.
So I know that working will make me miss the milestones, and it is something that I don't like, but what can I do? After I talked to the sitter, I walked home and was feeling low. But quickly brought myself back up and said " Hold up! That is enough with the  whoa -is - me charade."
I quickly went home and wondered now what new adventures Charlie's teeth will bring us. And how much pain I will be in with his new found fangs while I nurse him.

The New Song

Jack's new movie of the moment is Shrek. For anyone knows this movie really well, there is a karoke scene with all the characters at the end of the movie.

Princess Fiona sings "Like a Virgin." Since Jack has seen this movie for the umpteenth time, Brian and I caught him singing some of the Shrek songs at breakfast the other day.

One of the songs was Like a Virgin.
He sang clearly " I made it through the wilderness, somehow I made it throughooooooo."
Imagine those lyrics being sung by a 4 year old boy.

The Firsts

May 8
First time Charlie rolled over. On Jack's bed, in the midst of getting everyone ready for bedtime.  He just went for it... and has been rolling over non stop.

May 13
Mother's Day. We were doing our annual plant the garden and make it tidy for the summer at my mother in laws. She kept announcing " Who wants to see a wormie??!!" Not I. Although Jack readily went over to her and picked it up like it was no big deal. I am proud that my son had no fear of something as disgusting as a worm, and I fear of the day when he says "You hold it Mama." What then? Run away and scream? I can't do that. I'm Supermom. Supermom has no fear. Somewhat.

First week of May
Charlie started eating cereal. It was like he was born to eat. As soon as I cautiously led the spoon to his mouth, he just grabbed the spoon from my hand and PLOP! into his mouth. Like he knew all along what to do and that he was waiting for that moment for months. Since then, we have given him carrots, apples, bananas. We will try to avoid buying the baby food as much as we can and just make it ourselves. But I have a secret love for Gerber Peaches. That sweet slop is so good. I was hoping that we could buy some for Charlie and whatever is left over, I could have finished.