So, we busted out the green screen, stormed our brains, got creative, got out the characters, wrote the script, and made one of our most epic productions yet!
And by "we" I mean, "you." I love taking y'all's direction and helping you guys bring your creations to life. I follow your lead (and okay, sometimes hog the spotlight a little bit...) and I love watching how bright you shine.
And now, I proudly present, a Purple Curtain Theater Production: Longlocks and the 3 Sharks!
A lot of people have been posting their children's 'favorites' as part of the new school year. I think it's a great idea, as it's really cool to take a time-capsule-esque snapshot of a kiddo at that date and time.
Julia, as of now, your list is really quite easy:
Favorite Food: Placenta Favorite Band: The Darkness Favorite Song: The Sound of Silence; Heartbeat Favorite Movie: Dark City; Dark Crystal Favorite Book: The Heart of Darkness Favorite Activity: Growing, Bouncing on your Mommy's bladder. Favorite Place to hang out: the womb
But soon enough- yikes...in 2 weeks!- you will soon have a whole new experience, and we can beef up your musical and culinary tastes.
But Aidan, your favorites are a bit harder to pin down. You can be obessed with something for weeks on end, or minutes on end. Some favorites are evergreen, like Toy Story or the color Yellow; you never get tired of them. Others, like broccoli or sweet potatoes, you may have over-dosed on and now you aren't as fond of them as you used to be. I set out on a week's long quest to find out all of your favorites direct from the horse's mouth. This was foolish, because one cannot simply ask a 2 year old what their favorite movie if they have no intention of watching said movie and, as mentioned before, your favorites vacillate from day to day on some items. So, there is some parental editorializing in the lists. But, trust me, this is pretty accurate, and has been approved by your mother.
Favorite Color: Although you love many colors, this one's easy:Yellow. Always has been. 'Nuff Said.
Favorite Super Hero: Hulk. Unless Buzz Lightyear counts as a super hero.
I made your lunch for school yesterday and included a little hand-drawn Hulk that said "Hulk Love Aidan." Miss Jessica said when you saw it, you whispered "WOW!!!"
Favorite Book: This is a tough one. You LOVE to read. In fact, you fell asleep on a book over the weekend, napped on it, and spent the rest of the day with 'newsprint' on your face.
You've loved two pop-up books nearly to death: "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Charlie and Lola's I will not Ever Never Eat a Tomato." Those could clearly be candidates for favorite book. "Olivia" was a fan favorite for a long time, as were the old "Sesame Street" books Mimi and Pops brought over. You love "Mouse Cookie"(what you call "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie") and "Everyone Poops" ("Poops book!") "Gossie and Gertie" and REALLY love "Ice Mice" (what you call "I can Read with my Eyes Shut"); In fact, 1 of the 4 times I asked you what your favorite book was, you replied "Ice Mice." Time two, you said "Horton Hears," which is a very good book too. But, 2 out of four times you said the same book:
"Hippo, no Hippo"
and
"Hippo book"
So, you really like Sandra Boynton's "But not the Hippopotamus." And that's going down as your favorite!
Favorite Song: This is a tough one. You love you sing; you love to listen to songs; you love to request songs be sung to you; you love to do sing-a-longs with Mommy and Daddy.
Lately you've been singing "Happy Birthday" to yourself quite a bit (Happy toy ou/happy to you/happy to you). You've also been really into Muppet's Bohemian Rhapsody for the longest time. You used to call it "Mama," now you call it "Muppets." But the cool thing, is that now you are singing it! You know one whole verse, and sing it like this:
Easy Come/Easy Come
Little High/Little Low
Any rainbows
Dont Matters
To Me
to me!!!!!!!!!
So that's definitely a candidate for favorite song.
But, you also love 'classics' like the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Old King Cole," "You are My Sunshine," "I'm Looking Over (A Four leaf Clover)."
Your favorite Lullabye right now is "Pooh Song" (aka "The House on Pooh Corner" by K-Log), which was one of your favorites as an infant and has recently made a comeback.
But, executive decision here, I'd have to say that your favorite song is "Let it Be." This is one of your favorite tunes, whether it's "Letter B" (the Sesame Street cover) or the actual "Let it Be," this tune rocks your socks off for some reason. You sing it with us, you sing it on your own, we can us it as 'bait' to get you into the car when you don't want to go ("Want to listen to "Let it Be?"). The answer is always "YES!" to Let it Be.
Favorite Food: You are a pretty dang good eater. The problem comes when we find something that you really like, and then make a lot of it, and then you burn out on it...like mashed sweet potatoes, rice, etc.
But, some foods are always golden, and you could probably eat them every day if we let you. But we're not going to risk letting you burn out on them!
So, your favorites are: sausage, edamame, mango, oranges and avocado. Oh yeah, and pizza!
Favorite Movie: Toy Story. You love Toy Story. Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3. You've loved Toy Story since before you could talk. You called it "Ha ha" because of the scene where Woody and the Shark have that little conversation about Woody's hat in the first movie (yes, we've seen it a million times). You love Toy Story so much that you had a "Two Story" themed second birthday party. Thanks to some very kind Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents you have a whole "Andy's Toys" set. You carry them around and play with them daily. Buzz is your favorite. You cheer "Finity and BEYON!" at home...and on the swings...You know the words to "Fren in me" ("You've got a friend in me"). So, yeah, Toy Story is the bomb.
You've been branching out lately, though and enjoy "Horton Hears a Who," "Bug's Life," "Madagascar," "Finding Nemo" and "Monster's Inc."
But, when you ask to watch "Woody Moozy" we know that you're a Toy Story guy at heart.
Favorite Toy/Posession: "Blankies." That's your blanket. We don't know how it happened; you've slept with many stuffed animals and toys and even books. But you grew attached to your Blankies. It's great to sleep on, makes a great monster maxsxsk (as you showed your mother and I last night), and even is sometimes a lion's mane! It's great to hide under, and to wear as a cape, or to tuck your toys in to bed with.
Where you go to sleep, blankies goes too.
Favorite Activity: You love to play outside. Running around, picking up rocks, making rock soup, looking for rolley polies, blowing bubbles, doing 'airplanes' and kicking the ball...you're an outside kinda guy. You have been for a long time.
But, you're also a water guy. If there's splashing or dripping water around, you're gonna find it, you're gonna splash in it, and you're gonna love it!
Favorite TV Show: Wonder Pets/ Timmy Time/ Blue's Clues/Sesame Street
You don't watch many shows, but when you do, you've got an opinion on what 'epsodes' are the best. You do love Sesame Street, and were asking for it yesterday ('sesame street moozy plesase'), but as of today, I think that if you had to choose any show to watch, it'd be Timmy Time, the spinoff of Shaun the Sheep (which you also love, and like to sing the theme song to "Shoppa Sheep, Shoopa Sheep...Bleet!), the spinoff of Wallace and Gromit.
Favorite Animal: Tough one. You've been liking horses, dogs, koalas, kangaroos, grasshoppers, butterflies, cats, and pandas. But, here's another executive decision, your favorite is the "elephant." You love making the elephant noise, singin the elephant song (from the "Jungle Book"), reading "Stomp the Swamp" (an elephant romp), and "Horton Hears a Who" (a Seussian Elephant of great esteem).
Favorite Phrase: Normally only sitcom characters have catch-phrases. But, here are a few of my favorite 'catch-phrases' that you love to use as you're learning this language.
"Bye-bye, See ya!" (useful to say bye-bye, see ya to inanimate objects, animals, toys and nature as you're leaving a room, building or park. Such as "Bye-bye park, see ya!" Or "Bye-bye bed, bye-bye diaper, bye-bye Buzz. See ya!")
"Have it" (like "Strawberry. Have it!" or "Have it, Daddy!")
Alright, so it's taken me a week to put this post together, and thus, your favorites have probably all already changed and changed back. But, consider this a 'snapshot' of a young man, with a lot of opinions, and a lot of love...and a lot of favorites. Your favorties may change as you grow up, but one thing won't: you're one of your mother's and my favorite boys in the entire world (and our favorite first-born son). So put that on OUR lists. It won't be changing.
You are making some stellar associations and doing some great imaginative play as of late. Sometimes, they amaze us, sometimes they crack us up (because, c'mon, some of this stuff is funny to an adult); but all in all, they just show how fast your brain is working and continually learning and re-assessing the world around you.
Disappearing Act
A few weeks ago, when you had a double ear infection and bronchitis, we had to give you medicine via oral syringe three times a day. This stuff must taste horrible...because you hated it.
At first you fought us...that didn't work.
Then you thought you could cry your way out of it. That also didn't work.
Then you adapted and tried something more clever. You kept your raspberry motor running the whole time, so anything that entered your mouth would be immediately spit out. That also didn't work...babies gotta breathe.
So, you figured out the ultimate solution: if you could just disappear, then we wouldn't be able to see you and we couldn't give you your meds! But how to make oneself disappear...oh, that's an easy one!
When you saw your Mom or I approaching with the antibiotics in hand, you immediately covered your face with your hands! And, as an avid player of peekaboo, you know that when the hands go up, Aidan disappears!!! Cute, clever, funny and very smart of you. Unfortunately, that trick didn't work either. But, good news: the ear infections are gone (and so are the antibiotics).
Under The Sea
Back track a little: your vocabulary is growing day by day, but sometimes there are easier ways for you to talk to us than use your words. Most of this creativity comes out when you request a song for us to play on the iPod.
When your arm reaches to the sky dramatically and you say 'Mama', you want to hear the Muppets sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'
When you used to say 'Ha Ha,' you wanted to hear "You've got a friend in me" from Toy Story (Because 'ha ha' meant Woody at that point.)
"B" means you want the Sesame Street classic Beatles spoof, "Letter B."
When you trumpet like an elephant, you want to hear the elephant march from the Jungle book.
Your song-du-jour for a while was this little ditty from "the Little Mermaid." (at this point you and your Mom had just watched the Little Mermaid, and you loved it!)
You request this song by conducting a bit with your hands and singing in a high voice "Hoo hoo ho ho." Under the sea entertainment at its finest
Okay, flash forward to last weekend. We took you to the Dallas Children's Aquarium, and we walk into the door into a magical world where we're seemingly underwater. Fish surround you in big tanks and your first reaction was to sing The Daughters of Triton, "Hoo hoo ho ho!" And they say that the seaweed's greener in somebody else's lake...
In the Bathroom, by the sink, on the toothbrush...
Another amazing feat of cleverness that has just been cracking us up is your budding skill set as a detective. You're finding clues everywhere!
Now, this post is really making us sound like parents of the year because I'm talking about all these movies and shows that you watch. But, give us a break! Your Mom's pretty much been sick 24/7 since week 4 of your baby sister or brother's journey! So, at any rate, lately you've been really in to Blues Clues. I'm really happy about this development, actually, because it's a pretty educational show and it does for attention spans what lying does for Pinnochio's nose..that is, makes it longer. I'm so ADD from my Sesame Street-riddled past that I could hardly watch the show at all. Plus Steve's pleated khakis are gross. But, the issue was that you didn't want to watch it either. It was either too slow, or too advanced or something. But, around when you turned two, you actually requested to watch this show. You saw Blue, the dog, and said 'arf arf arf!' So, we watched it, and you loved it.
In the show, the dog leaves her blue paw prints on items...these are clues. Then pleated-pant Steve solves a mystery based on these clues. Not a scary mystery like "who stole the mummy's emerald scepter?" But a more cool mystery like 'what song does Blue want to sing?'
Any way, so you've been a fan of Blue's Clues for a few weeks. You even request the show by name" "bloo cloo." And then, all of a sudden, while your Mommy and you were brushing your teeth one morning with your Snoopy Tooth brush you started saying "cloo! cloo! cloo!" It took your Mom a minute, but then she saw what you saw: right there on your toothbrush were Snoopy's paw prints! And of course, paw prints are clues!
Then you started seeing 'clues' everywhere: on paw printed washcloths, and towels and t-shirts. And you'd tell us: cloo! cloo! Cloo!
You even started pointing out semi-clues. The apple logo on the back of someone's iPhone? Close enough! It's a cloo too!
We are tickled pink by this development. You're so smart and clever, and unintentionally funny too; and we couldn't be more proud of our budding detective. You even like to try to draw a clue on your MagnaDoodle with Mommy's and Daddy's help! We even play a little "Blue's Clues" ourselves from time to time, involving a crudely crafted clue on a piece of construction paper that materializes from time to time!
Do Eat the Pictures
Okay, okay, final bit of bragging about my clever, funny, creative boy.
We've been encouraging you to stop and smell the flowers for a long time. You do this quite well with real flowers all the time.
A while ago, I can't quite remember when, you started smelling flowers in books. I think it must've been that interactive sensation, "Pat the Bunny," that originally encouraged this type of imaginative engagement with literature. Now you smell the flowers whenever the appear in books, even if they don't actually smell.
For Valentine's Day, your Aunt Sham gave you a cute Valentine shaped like an ice cream cone. What's a kid to do but lick it? We know you're pretending because, after the first lick, the jig is up that it's not really a sugary treat. But you kept on licking.
Now, to be honest, I can't remember which came first the Valentine or the about-to-be-described behavior, but they go hand in hand...or tongue in mouth.
When reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," you used to name all the foods. Now, in addition, you help yourself to tasting all the foods too!
When you come to this page, which is now pretty much the first page you flip to and the only page worth eating... I mean reading, you take your time and lick, pretend eat (nom nom nom) and chew up all of the foods.
Did you try the watermelon today?
"Pop!" you say, before trying the lovely lolly.
Mmm...pickle.
This, as you can imagine, is hilarious, endearing and just plain awesome.
I just hope you don't get a paper cut on your tongue.
One of your other favorite books has no edibles in it, but you also started to interact with that one too. In "Hello, Van Gogh," the other night you decided to greet Van Gogh's Landlady in a very romantic way:
You planted kiss after kiss after kiss on this painting, while your Mom and I beamed with pride.
You truly are a book lover.
Between the books and the clues, the singing and the hiding, you are just wowing us around every turn. You're creative, you're making connections, you're hilarious and you're aware of so much. You're melting our hearts...and our faces!
You're Aidan at almost 25 months...and we couldn't be more proud!
Last Thursday, you went to your first day of school.
You had visited the school a few times before while we were checking it out, and really liked it.
So you were really excited to go. You even like saying the word 'school!'
So, you got your lunch packed right, your boots tied tight (alright so they were velcro) and off you and Mommy went.
You ran right in to the classroom and started playing with the toys.
Your teacher, Miss Jessica, said that about 15 minutes after your Mommy left, you went to the window and looked around and then started to cry a bit. You noticed that your Mommy was gone and didn't like it.
But, they said you quickly got over it and had a great first day playing with the other kids and that you really liked going to play outside. You even took a nap on a mat, which impressed your Mommy and me very much!
Then, your Mommy came to pick you up before you knew it and you ran to her arms!
The next day, your second, was a little more rough. You figured out that you were being left at school, without us. And you bear hugged your Mom's legs so she couldn't leave. You wanted her to hold you and sit on her lap. You wanted to stay and play, but you wanted your Mom to stay and play with you. When she finally left, you cried and cried and cried. They said you were pretty sad for a while, but that some of the other kids came up to you and comforted you. They said by lunch time you were no longer so sad, and had a good afternoon. Before you knew it, your Mommy came to pick you up again!
Since you're only going 2 days a week, that was the end of your first week.
Week 2 has gone even better. You cried and cried when your Mommy dropped you off both days, but Miss Jessica let us know that the crying only lasted a few minutes, and then you went on to have a lot of fun playing with blocks, and friends and their car. Of course, your favorite part of the day, was playing outside. The teacher says you are always the last one to come inside!
As a reward for our big boy's first week of school, and since we've been itching to try it for a long time (since you're so good at watching "Toy Story" and some selected other movies at home (like "Wallace and Gromit," and "The Jungle Book,")) we decided to take you to your first movie in the theater.
"The Muppets" was playing at our local dollar cinema, so we figured, "what the heck!" If you lasted 5 minutes, no worries!
But, you lasted 2 hours! The second we sat down, you got cozy in your Mommy's lap and calmly watched the pre-trailers, the trailers, the Toy Story short cartoon and, then, the main event: The Muppets! You basically sat calmly and watched the movie, while occassionally being interested in the emergency exit lighting on the floor. But, mostly you loved the movie.
You got really engaged when they were singing, especially when they sing "The Rainbow Connection," which is also one of your lullabies!
Near the end, you got really excited and stood up on our laps and held on to the chairs in front of you, bouncing and sticking your tongue out.
Your first in-theater movie experience was a total success. We will have to take you again sometime.
It's amazing to me that you're almost 2 years old and we still have so many firsts to experience...but I look forward to the seconds, thirds and fourths too!
You've been a busy little boy lately. You are moving regularly and it's not just little kicks, jabs or rolls anymore!
Two days ago, after we put up our Hanukkah and Christmas decorations, you were kicking and rolling all around in your Mom's belly (especially after she ate some cookies).
Last night, you were extending some limb (a foot? a hand? your head?) into your Mom's gut for extended periods of time. These weren't just fleeting movements..I actually had my had around whatever that was for like 5 seconds at a time. Maybe you were reaching out to me as a reaction to my voice or my hand on the belly, or maybe you were just trying to get comfortable and I kept bothering you.
Either way, it was truly amazing to just hold your (foot?)...it felt like a human...just a human wrapped up in a thick comforter pushing against you. So, yeah, I could feel a sturdy little appendage reaching out!
But cookies, my voice or touch aren't the only thing that's making you move now a days. We've told you how you react to music just the way that the pink ectoplasm does in Ghostbusters 2, but your Mom has been telling me that certain music makes you move more than others, letting us think that maybe you can recognize (and like?) certain tunes. You've certainly been exposed to enough Ben Folds and Beatles to know them by now, but your Mom swears that you'll wake up from a sleep and start moving around whenever she puts on Folds or the Beatles.
In fact, today she was sewing you a stuffed Lion and was listening to Abbey Road, and as soon as the tunes started, you started dancing.
This is consistent with our findings a couple of a week ago: When your Mom and I were playing "The End" from Abbey Road on Beatles Rock Band, you started kicking like crazy! So, your Mom made me play the song 5 times in a row to try to get a good video of you kicking and moving. Take a look at yourself moving:
Specifically, around second 33, look at Toby's ear!
And look for the big one at 1:09 near Toby's collar.
(also, ignore the gentle rat-a-tap-tap-thump-clods of my ah-may-zing drumming..it's on Expert, so give me a break!)
But, of course, we're gonna test this theory and see if it's JUST Ben Folds and Beatles or if it's just music in general that gets your motor running and starts you rockin' around!
Something stinks. And, according to your Mom's renewed super sense of smell, it's still me! After not hearing much about smells for quite some time (probably due to the cold and sinuses blocking that sniffer's super sensibilities), we are now currently experiencing a resurgence in your Mother's acute sense of smell!
The other day I went in for a smooch and Holly notified me that I "smell weird."
"What did you eat?" She asked.
"A slice of pizza and tuna fish." I replied.
"Yup! That's it! That's what it stinks like!"
Okay, admittedly, that snack wasn't my finest culinary hour, and tuna pizza breath would probably offend a regularly-powered nose.
But then yesterday, we were talking after we both got home from work and I was notified again that my breath stank once again. I did have a sandwich for lunch, but no tuna and pizza to speak of.
"You've been eating cloves of garlic again?" she asked.
First of all, I only did that like twice, and secondly, I hadn't done it that day!
But her nose was so sensitive that I was instructed to speak out of the corners of my mouth...like the Ninja Turtles.
Now HIS breath would certainly reek of Pizza and small acquatic organisms.
So, it's entirely possible that I suffer from halitosis. But I seriously doubt it. My mouth is so clean you could eat off of it! I think what we're really dealing with here is pregnancy Super Powers rearing their ugly heads again. First victim: anyone that might not smell like roses 24 hours a day. Namely, me and my breath.
Hopefully side-of-mouth-Ninja-Turtle talking will put that issue to bed.
Speaking of putting things to bed (how was that for a segue?), I started thinking yesterday about what Lullabyes we want to sing to you.
We could sing the Ben Folds Lullabye we heard at his concert (which you seemed to react well to, since you did kick your mother a lot during that concert).
And then, there are tons of Beatles candidates too, including Blackbird (which my old College roommate taught me to play on Guitar), I'm So Tired, Let it Be and Golden Slumbers.
And also a strong candidate is "All the Pretty Little Ponies" which- with a little bit of Hebrew added in- is pretty much the Lullabye Mimi and Pops sang me and Aunt Rebekka when we were growing up.
Ignore the "My Little Ponies" in this video. They are frightening doe-eyed monsters.
I also am quite fond of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence," though I don't think it's a lullabye.
But, in an effort to sing that tune to you last night, I came across a very serious, chronic, hereditary illness from which I suffer: Lyric-itis. I inherited it from Mimi (who famously sang the song "You make me so very happy" as "Me so Me so very happy")
In "Away We Go" (that movie we were watching when I felt you kick) this pregnant lady sings a pretty cool lullabye to her niece: Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." SHE KNEW EVERY WORD TO THE SONG off the top of her head! I couldn't even get through one verse of "Sound of Silence" before I started make words up. I couldn't even do "Let it Be" without the song playing along with me! Singing you a Lullabye is gonna be pretty tricky if I dont' know any words to any songs.
So I started compiling a list of songs whose lyrics I do know:
Boehmian Rhapsody
Row, Row Your Boat
Some of "Rapper's Delight"
Quite a bit of Weird Al's "Yoda"
Werewolf Bar Mitzvah
Yeah, these will all make terrible Lullabyes. I've got to start memorizing some lyrics!
In any case though, please be sure that after we tuck you in and turn on your nightlight (which your Mom made herself! Check it out below) and BEFORE we start singing you a Lullabye, I will brush my teeth, rinse with Scope and eat a mint- just in case you get your Momma's nose.
Coolest Night Light Ever! Made for you by your Mother! Sleep tight, little guy!
Baby W, you are now 19 weeks old! We're getting closer and closer to that official half way point!
You keep growing, and so does your Mom's belly! This week you're the size of a Mango!
Seeing as how you're really climbing up the produce food chain, and that you're moving like crazy in your Mom's belly, it's no wonder that she's been feeling you kick and turn and move for just about a full week.
But, what was a wonder to me, was that I felt you move too! We were on the couch watching a movie (oddly enough, a movie about an expectant couple called "Away We Go"). During the movie, I had my hand on your Mother's belly and...POP!...I swear I felt you move below and to the right of her belly button.
Was that you in there?
Holly said that she "wasn't paying attention" to know if what I felt was, indeed, you moving...but I'm pretty convinced that was you! It felt almost like being gently flicked, but very quick and abrupt. Was that your foot? Your hand? Did you hit your head?
No matter what it was, it made my night! No, it made my whole week! Maybe you could hit your head against her belly again tonight?
Speaking of moving, you'll be happy to know that your Mother and have moved forward in a particularly difficult arena: registering.
As you'll recall, we were both incredibly overwhelmed by Babies R Us and hightailed it out of there with our tails between our legs. I was happy with never going back to that store again, and figured you'd do just fine in hand-me-downs and old cardboard boxes taped together to create a crib. Little did I know, though, that your Mom found her comfort zone for registering and basically went through every category of everything you'll ever need by registering online. It was way easier!
But, when I got filled back in on the loop, there were still two items that were vexing your mother: your crib and your stroller. So, I figured we should take it up a notch. Biting the bullet, we headed to another baby superstore: Buy Buy Baby.
They even let me park right up front!
This store was A LOT better: each employee is an expert on baby things, and the store is laid out to not induce hyperventilation and vertigo. So that's a plus. On our first trip there, we learned a heck of a lot and saw about 15 million strollers and cribs.
Stroller Over-Load! We felt like this couple, except that I still have my lucious head of hair! (as of this writing)
We definitely still felt overwhelmed...but not as badly as before. I guess going to these baby stores and registering is like being bludgened: the more you experience it, the less pain you feel! But we ironed out a lot of ideas and brainstormed and discussed and talked and thought and thought some more and sought advice and turned inward and...we made a decision on both fronts!
So yesterday, we decided that we needed to go back to Buy Buy Baby to see if our idea would even work! In order to make ourselves feel better about being bright-eyed and deer-in-the-headlights at these baby stores, we decided to bring some folks who would make us feel like old pros: enter the Nodelands! So, with BJ and Kari in tow, and confidence artifically heightened, we went back to Buy Buy Baby to register for more amazing junk for you and test our stroller idea.
Registering can stink. Is that a fake burger patty in your hands or are we in a PetSmart?
After a hands-on demonstration from three different associates, encountering an even-more bewildered couple than us, and test driving (and test lifting) about 10 carrier and stroller combinations, you might have thought we'd high-tailed it out of there again. But no! Consider your stroller and infant carrier registered-for! You're gonna be so comfortable (and safe (and stylish))).
I've got a good feeling about this!
Your new ride! We don't look too scared, do we? Plus, check out your Mom's 19 week bump!
As of today you are 17 weeks and 3 days old! That means you are now at least the size of an onion! It's fitting that your week as an onion should have begun with such stinky circumstances, since, well, onions stink.
This weekend, your Mother got a cold, and that stunk for everyone (almost as much as a giant onion).
On Friday afternoon she wasn't looking too good and by Friday night she took a turn for the worse.
Despite drinking lots of tea and put Mentholatum on her feet, your Mom woke up Saturday morning (actually, it was closer to afternoon) with a full blown cold:
Drainage, Sore Throat, Achy Ears, M's turning into B's (you know like saying "Bobby" instead of "Mommy"), Exhausted, Miserable, Stuffed Up Nose, Headache and a wonderful Cough!
The only problem is, when you're pregnant you can't take the same medicines you'd usually use to kick a cold's butt. After a call to the doctor, we started your Mom on a healthy diet of Mucinex and Acetemeniphen. (NO Ibuprofen for preggo-ladies!)
But, medicine alone can't cure a cold. So, your Dad played nurse all day Saturday and took a wholistic approach to making your Mom feel better.
By the end of Sunday afternoon, you and your Mom had:
spent over 36 uniterrupted hours indoors
eaten approximately 64 ounces of Egg Drop soup
drank 3 bottles of Gatorade (blue, yellow and orange!)
used 80 tissues (an entire box)
drank 7 cups of decaffeinated tea and four cups of warm apple juice
Used at least 3 Breath-right strips
Put 10 olive-oil soaked cotton balls in her ears (backwoods medicine)
Breathed in 3 full containers of Humidified Air Water
I also have to tell you that you suffered a significant exposure to a film genre called "Chick Flicks" on Saturday.
Back-to-Back-to-Back, your Mom watched her favorite movies, and you had a front-row seat some of the best make-Holly-feel-better movies out there:
"Ever After," "The Princess Bride" and "Shakespeare in Love"
Your First Chick Flick Marathon. Hopefully your last? (Note: I approve of most of these movies for repeated viewing...just not one that rhymes with "shmever shmafter")
The good news is that in a genre that contains some of the worst movies of all time, you managed to have a mother who likes some of the best of them. That is to say, I mostly approve of the movies you watched, despite them definitely being "Chick Flicks." But Drew Barrymore still kind of talks funny (you'll see what I mean).
But, the good news is that you and your Mother survived! By Sunday morning your Mom was feeling markedly better. See, all that medicine and loving care and MSG worked! Either that or it was a 48-hour bug and our actions had no effect, and you suffered through 7 hours of Chick flick for nothing.
Even though our weekend was ostensibly stinky as an onion, your Mom and you and I did get to spend a lot of time together and talk about you and your nursery and your name and registering for all the things you'll need. So, all in all, despite the living room turning into a makeshift sick ward, it wound up being a pretty nice weekend: unless you were once a tree that was turned into tissues. In that case, this weekend blew.
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You basically sat calmly and watched the movie, while occassionally being interested in the emergency exit lighting on the floor. But, mostly you loved the movie.
