Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

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Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers

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Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Monday, April 21, 2008

Pop!

So, I have officially "popped" out in terms of my baby belly. In fact, random strangers are beginning to notice and ask when I am due. (As a side note, I am constantly amazed at people's boldness. I could have just had a baby, or worse, just be a little chunky around the middle...but that doesn't stop anyone!) I am 19 weeks now, and this is exactly when I popped last time. When I was pregnant with Will, I went on a week-long business trip around this time in my pregnancy. When I left home, I was still squeezing into my regular clothes (I gave up on that idea long ago with this pregnancy), and when I came back, I had "popped, " was decidedly pregnant, and needed maternity clothes.

Based on the way I am looking these days (and various other completely random things), I'm thinking this baby is another boy. Of course, my intuition is terrible--I haven't had a really strong feeling on this one either way, although I did "know" I was pregnant before I got actual confirmation. But other than that, my intuition is crap. I spent lots and lots of time convinced Will was a girl, and clearly, he's about as boy as they come. (See previous post if you need clarity on that subject.) Even the Internet and my family and friends are divided on this subject: currently the poll stands exactly 50/50. Old wives' tales and intuition aside, the only way to really know--other than actually waiting for the baby to arrive--is ultrasound...which we are having on Friday! (Vote by Thursday if you haven't already!!) I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I know some people really like to wait and not find out the sex (or is it gender? which is more PC?) until the baby gets here, but for me, I get to have this day of excitement now PLUS the beyond-exciting day when the baby is born. As long as this lack of intuition on the sex doesn't indicate that I'm having a boy and a girl, I'll be happy. Either one is fine with me. As long as it's only one.

Note: Of course I realize that the main purpose of the ultrasound is to make sure that everything looks okay with the baby. Finding out the sex is obviously secondary. I don't want anyone to think that I am glossing over this very important medical test... I have been thinking and praying about the health of our baby more than anything. But, since I can't even let myself think that anything would be wrong, thinking about the sex of this new baby is certainly very thrilling! I know it doesn't "matter" which one we get, in terms that one is right and one is wrong. But, the sex/gender of your children does really shape the direction and interests of your family. I just can't wait to know what is in store for the Mathers!

Body Parts

First of all, I think Will believes that his toes are actually called "tickle toes." Whenever he sees bare feet, he refers to them as tickle toes because this is what we say to him when we see his cute little feet. It's always interesting to see what he picks up on. Such as...learning the name for his um, "boy parts" (And yes, I know what it is actually called and am not embarrassed to use the correct term...in fact, I taught Will. However, I don't want freaky Internet people searching on that term and finding my blog.)

So, Will is very proud to have learned the name for his boy parts: hee-mus. Every time we change his diaper, he shouts "Hee-mus!!!" When it's time to get in the bath, "Hee-mus!" When we put his diaper back on, he says "Bye-bye, hee-mus," unless it's after his bath at night, in which case he says "Night-night, hee-mus." To him, this is like learning any other body part, like his nose. He wants to talk about his and other people's! He asks "Mama hee-mus?" to determine if I have one (I explained that no, only boys do, and we didn't even begin to get into what Mama does have...that is WAY too much information for me to handle at this age.) So, once we had this chat, he says very definitively: "Will hee-mus. Daddy hee-mus." Good thing we have that straightened out...at least for now. I'm sure the new baby, boy or girl, will bring up lots of new curiosities!

Ahhh....the joys of raising boys! Things I never thought I'd be discussing are now daily topics, often before I'm even fully awake. I can only imagine things go downhill from here in terms of the conversation and vocabulary. I hope I'm up for it!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Ready, Set, Go!

We had such a delightful weekend with Will. He was in a good mood for most of the time (despite the fact that his damn teeth are still bothering him), took a (short) nap each day, and was generally hilarious. He is so curious and into everything!

On Saturday, we went to Homewood Park, and Will was at the top of the slide. I asked, "Ready?" and he replied with "Set! GO!" and then slid down the slide. Well, sure. We've never taught him that. I don't even remember saying that to him. But there he was, telling me he was ready, set, go for the slide.

I want to stop time so I can always have this sweet little boy with me. While we were at Hulie and Bubs' house on Sunday, my mom said to Will, "Bye-bye, precious!" Will, ever the little parrot, replied back with "Bye-bye, preshus." Of course, he had no idea what he said, but he did seem to realize that he melted the heart of every adult in the room. AHHH! I just want to eat him up!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

New Obsessions

It seems that the toddler mind works in obsessions. Will will have an INTENSE interest in something (like Shrek) for a little while, but then suddenly he's onto something else...his previous love abandoned. His current obsessions are basketball and coloring (an athlete and an artist!). Just like with Shrek, Will is only allowed to play basketball in the afternoon after school, not in the morning. So, as soon as the car pulls in the driveway and he sees his basketball goal, he starts shrieking "Bab-beet-ball!! Bab-beet-ball!!!!!" (Yesterday I told him he was "shooting hoops", so now he also refers to it as "hoooops"--said in a deep voice.) Zach makes him come inside first, to let me know that they are home. He encourages Will to come and give me a hug, but usually, as soon as Will sees me, he just starts up the shrieking again: "MAMA! BAB-BEET-BALL!!!!" I guess I know where his true love lies.

Will also loves to color, which is great because it keeps him occupied while we do things around the house or get dinner ready (in theory--he often insists that you color with him). He calls it "Hun-ner," but does a hand motion like he's holding a pen and writing, just in case we didn't get it.

The only problem with these activities is getting Will away from them. That's when the shrieking really begins.

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In other news, I've been feeling Bean (aka new baby) move! It is very exciting and comforting. In fact, Zach could even feel him/her moving around last night, which is remarkable since it's still pretty early for ME to even feel it. I think this means it might be another wild boy. Will was very active in my belly and hasn't stopped since.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Sentences!

Will has started to string words together to form phrases and sentences. He'll repeat things he hears or try to come up with his own ideas. Some things make complete sense, like when he said "Daddy go bye-bye. Mama go bye-bye too." Most things are more gibberish, with a few intelligible words stuck in: "Aba beju sehis Mama's juice buboo."

My recent favorite, however, was when he declared out of the blue: "I see a purple cat." (Except that it came out like "Ah see pur-ple tat.") And then, "I see a white dog." I momentarily worried that Will was hallucinating from the back seat, until I remembered that these are two sentences from one of his favorite books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Miscommunication, Part Two

So, a few months ago, we were driving up the mountain to Will's school, and it was very foggy out. He looked out the window and started yelling, "Steam! Steam!" because he knows about steam from when we get out of a shower or when things are too hot. At this point, I tried to explain to him that the stuff he was seeing was not steam, but was actually called fog. Apparently I need to work on my pronunciation, because when I said "fog," Will got all excited: "Bob? Bob? Mel-mee? Bob???"

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Fast forward to earlier this week. It was again foggy when we drove to school, so I decided to try again. "Will, look at all of the fog!" His response? "Ribbit. Ribbit."

I guess fog is not a concept that we're going to master right now.