Boys and other random things: Jan through March 2017

As we were looking back over my posts from when the boys were babies, we realized how much we have forgotten about it all.  It makes me sad to realize we forget anything.  But it also makes me want to find some time to just hit on some things we might forget.  My accounting brain decided to try quarterly reports.  Hah.

Joel:

He gave up racing his Hot Wheels Nascar cars for Lent.  The afternoon of Ash Wednesday we found him lining up little bouncy rubber balls on his race track to race them instead.  Yesterday he thought of coins, and borrowed all the change from his dad's nightstand.  He now has his own Fantasy Nascar team where he picks five drivers each weekend, and he studies for this more than anything he does for school.

He just came and asked one of his typical, out-of-the-blue DEEP questions:  "Mommy, how does God hear everyone when they are praying?  EVERYONE?  How can he do that?"  I answered carefully, because trying to explain the concept of omniscience is tough with a 7-year-old.  I asked if he hears Father Eric during each Mass say, "The mystery of Faith".  He did.
Me:  "Do you know what mystery means?"
"No."
"It means something that can't be explained, or looked up in a book.  So God being everywhere and being able to hear everything is something we can't explain.  It's sort of like He is the greatest super hero EVER and has some amazing powers."  I am not sure that was a satisfactory answer.  But he walked away.

Joel has found a good friend, Thomas, who is very much like him, loves baseball and video games.  The only difference is Thomas is waaaaayyy into super heroes and J not so much.  But they've been to each others houses for sleepovers and things went pretty well.  I really like his parents, Ana and Pete.  They are older parents like us and seem very level-headed, willing to help at the school, but they're also fun.  We spent New Year's Eve at their house and had a good time.  Definitely a couple we would like to hang out with more - if only we can find time.


Huge news for this boy is his grades.  This quarter is the first quarter ever that he is eligible for Honor Roll, and he made A-B honor roll!   I'm so proud of him.  I can be a little Tiger-mommish when it comes to grades.  Jav is always on me to lighten up and realize if they are trying hard it doesn't matter what grade they get.  But I know how smart they both are so this is difficult for me.  But Joel has a very tough teacher this year and I wasn't expecting much, but he has surprised me with these grades.  He still will say out-of-the-blue, "I don't think I want to go to high school or college.  It's going to be really hard by then".  We remind him that each year you have to learn more and work a little harder, and if you do the next grade won't be that bad.  He grumbles and moves on.   On the other hand we have Gabriel who is already thinking seriously about where he wants to go to college.  He can't wait.  Man are they different.


Gabriel:
Gabriel and I went to see School of Rock at Theatre Arlington.  It was a total youth cast, even the parts of adults.  It was fantastic!   I think Gabriel has the theater bug BAD but unfortunately the camps for that type of thing are really expensive.  ($300+ as opposed to $150-175 we pay for others.)   He already decided to attend Rock Camp at his music school again this summer so he's got to make those tough choices next year.

Gabriel has given up games on the Ipad for Lent.  He wasn't quite ready to give up all video games yet.  I wish he had given up arguing.  Sheesh.

He has grown at least 2 inches since Christmas and his school pants are all of a sudden too short.  We're going to get one new pair for Friday Mass, and the rest of the time he will just have to flood away.  Just when we thought Joel might catch him, he shot up.  But now Joel is following suit and seems determined to pass him.  They will both be taller than Jav's mom any day.

And in the WOW department, Gabriel's good friend Charlotte asked him to go with she and her family on a crazy two-night road trip to Carlsbad Caverns!  They have four kids ranging from Charlotte (4th grade), Emily (7th), Katherine (Senior in HS) and Michael (Junior at University of Dallas).  They each brought someone, so 10 people in 2 vehicles with 2 hotel rooms.  G stayed in his sleeping bag on the floor with Charlotte, her mom, dad and Michael.  All the other girls were in the other room.  They drove out Tuesday morning, stopped for sand dune sledding at Monahans Sandhill State Park, and arrived at Carlsbad at 9 that night.  They spent all day at the Caverns and had a picnic lunch down there.  They were originally supposed to go home through Roswell and see the infamous Hangar 18, but the family voted to head toward the Guadalupe Mountains Nat'l Park to hike and rock-hop.  They didn't head back home until 1:30pm and arrived back at 1 in the morning Friday!   G was a tired boy for the rest of Spring Break, but very happy he got to go.  Pics to come, hopefully.

People who know how control-freaky I can be about my kids were amazed that we let G go on this trip.  It was not easy for me.  But we have gotten to know Charlotte's parents and family pretty well the last couple of years and we both think they are the best parents, very devout and responsible.  The kids are all honor roll students; the younger girls are altar servers and the two older ones are lectors and Eucharistic Ministers at Mass, Charlotte's dad and brother are both Eagle Scouts.  I don't think I would have let him go with anyone else, and I didn't really worry that much about him.  But I sure was happy to hug him at 1 in the morning when he got back!!!

I'm proud of G for finding a good group of friends this year.  A mixture of boys and girls (but mostly girls), they all care about grades and being well-behaved at school, as opposed to the super competitive sports boys he was trying to be friends with before.  He has never seemed happier.



Family/Random:

My dad had surgery for kidney stones and other male issues I won't go into.  He did fine, is still recovering but almost back to normal.

My mom took me to see the FW Symphony play selections from Rogers and Hammerstein movie musicals while the movies played on a huge screen above them!   It was so great.  The music is very moving anyway, with the visual factor added in I welled up quite a few times.

We have been having a blast watching Master Chef Junior.  The boys love all the kids, and I think it will inspire G to help me in the kitchen more.  But J....he is so funny.  He says, "wow that looks really good" about something they're making.  Jav and I then hopefully ask if he would eat it and he always says, "Oh no way."  Shaking my frustrated head.  

The other show they loved was "A Series of Unfortunate Events" on Netflix, based on the Lemony Snicket books that no one in this family had ever read before the show.  Gabriel has almost read all of them now (they had them at the school library), and I'm interested in them too.

We made a huge decision in our TV-watching world.  A few years ago we were told that satellite wasn't an option for us any longer unless we put the dish on the FRONT of our house.  Not on the roof, sticking out from the front porch.  No.  So we went Uverse, but kept having problems with the signal popping in and out, and the cost significantly rising each year.  The signal problem turned out to be squirrels chewing on the line.  My brother had recently rid himself of all satellite/cable for TV, and has the Amazon Firestick with apps on 4 tvs now.  We decided to do the same thing.  We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, Playstation Vue for local TV and sports and our favorite cable channels, and we are thinking of adding Hulu.  We LOVE it!  We also had to add more bandwidth and stronger signal, so we switched to Charter for internet only.  Our bill has dropped over $100 a month!  The only complaint I have is that we still don't have PBS, but Playstation Vue people swear it will be available soon.


And at school/church, Gabriel trained to become an altar server in the Fall and is serving pretty regularly on Saturday nights now.  It's good and bad, we needed to attend more regularly, but sometimes we have family get togethers that we have to do on Saturday nights and if he's scheduled you have to find someone to swap nights with (kind of a pain).  But we are very proud of him for wanting to do it and have fully established ourselves as 5 pm Saturday Mass regulars.

During Catholic schools week in January, the school has students participating in all the weekend Masses.  Our boys had a Mass where G did 1st reading and Prayers of the Faithful, and J did the greeting and 2nd reading.  I was a nervous wreck ( more for Joel because he had some challenging words for a 1st grader), but they both did beautifully.  I would never, ever have been able to get up in front of a sanctuary full of people to do what they do.  The first grade class was scheduled to lead some important Masses this year.  The first was when Bishop Olsen officiated and spent all day at the school.  And the second was for Accreditation Week, when the team to evaluate our school visited the entire week.

Cute

This morning I was busily packing up the car to leave for work and school while the boys played together in the living room. When I came back in to collect them, Gabriel was sitting and just watching Joel run around like a crazy person. He turned to me with a big ole smile on his face and said, "Mommy, that's the best baby that ever came out of your tummy!"

I love that kid. I told him that they BOTH were.

Another birthday party

For JoJo! Yeah!

My brother and his two cute and wonderful kids.

We put up the ping pong table even though it was a bit chilly. Tita took advantage of some sunny moments.

Getting some soccer tips from Tia.

I decided to invite my cousin, Kristen and her husband, Vinnie, and their two girls (Rianna, 16 and Kalyn, 12). Even though they live in Lake Worth, we had not seen them in several years and they had never met Joel. We reconnected through Facebook and have been keeping up with each other again. It was SO good to have them. Their girls have grown so much, and both look like models. I forgot to get a picture of them, dang it. We will not let so much time go by without seeing them next time.

Gabriel and his sweet Tito.

Our dear neighbor and friend, Helen.

My uncle Dennis. He is married to my aunt Anita (my Dad's sister), who is in a nursing home. It had been awhile since we had him at any family events, and were so glad he decided to come.

The birthday boy, with his poor little runny nose.

Nothing a fistful of cake can't cure!

Cade spent the night before the party with us, and helped me more than I can say with all kinds of things. Macy stayed the night with us after everyone else went home. She was so proud to get to help Joel open his gifts.

Piggy back!

The handsome big brother.

Joel is changing by leaps and bounds. His sentences are getting easier to understand. He loves to count things, and sat at the piano today for 20 minutes playing. Not banging, playing. What two-year-old does that? The one who sees his big brother do it all the time, that's who. His favorite things to shout out are, "happy, happy, happy, happy", "ready to eat Mama!", "I did it Mama!" and "There's a monster truck" which he says about any truck of any size. We hope you had a happy, happy, happy, happy birthday, JoJo!

Joel is 2!

Loves to give hugs from behind. Plays with my hair constantly. Dances and sings ALL THE TIME. Reads books like a mad man. Asks for his brother as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Jumps, with both feet off the ground, for an entire song on Barney. Has more energy than a nuclear power plant. Smiles as big as Dallas when his Daddy comes home from work. Is fearless and wreckless which is making me age faster than I should be. Climbs anything. Has a full, deep voice that is lower than his brother's. Squeals at an ear-splitting level just to make me mad. In the grocery store. Talks in full sentences, some of which we understand. Knows how to work the cuteness when he wants something - already. Will knock me over with a full body shot when playing tickle on the floor. Has a temper that scares us more than his brother's, but we don't see it as often. Would rather be outside. All the time. Totally rocked my world two years ago today, and I've loved every second I've spent with him.

Time to start our Christmas music this year with a little rendition of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". Happy Birthday Jo Jo.

Namesakes

I have never shared with anyone the story of how Jav and I came up with Gabriel's name. Many months before I became pregnant we were headed down for a long weekend at South Padre. The drive gets to be a little tedious pretty quick after you get through San Antonio. We decided to go through the alphabet, letter by letter, to find baby names we both liked. Which turned out to be difficult. By the time we got to "G" we only had agreed on two or three names. I was having trouble thinking of names that started with "G". Then I remembered we had just watched The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Che Guevara's motorcycle trip through South America. And I THOUGHT the lead actor's name was Gabriel. Jav said he liked the name too, and it moved to the top of our boy name list and stayed there. And the rest is history.

However, the actor's name is not Gabriel, but Gael. Still a very cool name. But I don't think we would've even considered it as a possibility. A little too different. I think I must have gotten confused due to the actor's full name, Gael Garcia Bernal, being so close to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. So Gabriel is named after a Mexican actor names Gael by way of a famous Columbian author named Gabriel. Oops.

Later on, once we were officially pregnant and thinking seriously about names, we also liked it because it translated to Spanish, and because it was biblical. It translates to "the strength of God". Gabriel was one of the archangels. Gabriel's middle name was Jav's paternal grandfather's name, Valentin. Which I think is beautiful. We really debated about it, worrying that he might be teased. But then decided we needed to give him a strong enough character to not pay any attention to such silliness. I haven't seen many pictures of Valentin, so don't know if Gabriel favors him or not. Sometimes Jav picks up on a personality trait or a way that Gabriel moves that he says reminds him of his grandfather. I wonder, though, if we look for these things a little harder BECAUSE he is named after him.

Joel was not even on our list of names at first. At some piont we added it, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I liked Zachary, and Jav liked Nicholas or Benjamin. We narrowed our list down to 10 names, and were going to decide and start letting family know by labor day weekend. Sometime over the summer, I woke up one day and realized I really liked Joel. I haven't known many Joels in my life,which made it more appealing. I mentioned it to Jav and he said he was still thinking. By the beginning of August we both loved it and never looked back. It was derived from Hebrew, just like Gabriel. It means "The Lord is willing", or "the will of God". It translates to Spanish. It is a strong name, and suits him perfectly.

Joel's middle name is Terrell, after my paternal grandfather's first name. I didn't get a much of a chance to get to know my grandfather very well. He died of a heart attack when I was eight years old. I called him Pawpaw. The things I remember come from the times my brother and I stayed with he and my grandmother when my parents went out on Saturday nights. He was quiet and gentle, with a warm smile, curly hair, glasses and a big round face. He had strong hands and would let me ride "horsey" on his legs while we watched Hee Haw, Porter Waggoner, and the Grand Ole Opry. He was the calm steadiness to my grandmother's frenetic, never ending energy, a pairing that sounds a little too familiar in this house now.

And he is the only person, on either side of our families, that Joel resembles.

Seems we may have hit the nails on the heads in choosing both names for both boys. Hopefully they will be happy with them too!

Rain Baby returns!

OK, I know it's a coincidence. Probably.

But yesterday afternoon, while in a desperate state due to weathering day after day of drought conditions and 105+ degree weather, I decided to ask God something. Not for rain specifically, but to invoke the power of my Rain Baby again.

When I was pregnant with Joel, we had the wettest summer in my lifetime. Then after he came out, we had more snow that winter than we had ever had. But after that he lost his powers. I've thought about it a couple of times during this drought, but not seriously enough to actually do anything.

Joel and I had the house to ourselves yesterday afternoon, so I sat him on my lap. I started my chant, Rain Baby, Rain Baby, please come back.... I rubbed his head, his back, his tummy and feet. I hugged him and lifted him high above my head. I swung him back and forth, my chant growing louder and louder. He, of course, loved it and was laughing uncontrollably. But I was very serious.

Then, early this morning, Joel finally decided he'd had enough tossing and turning for one night and cried enough to get me out of bed. While brushing my teeth, I heard a sound outside and thought it was wind. But on my way down the hall to get Joel, I glanced outside the back windows and saw it. Beautiful rain, slow and steady, glistening in the lights. Hallelujah, praise to the heavens!!!

I picked up Joel and went to the back porch. We pulled out a chair and sat and breathed it in. We listened, we laughed, I came close to crying with blessings of thankfulness and humility. But I was mostly filled with wonder about the power of the Rain Baby.

I will remember this morning for the rest of my life.

The screamie meamie

That would be Joel, of course. The loudest 20-month old who can clear out a space around our table in a restaurant faster than you can say, "let's just sit at the bar!"

He has natural rhythm, maybe even more than Gabriel, and has some fierce dance moves. Gabriel loves to dance, but still dances like a toddler boy - no arms, stiff hips, mostly feet. I guess that's how alot of adult boys dance too - hee hee hee. Joel moves his arms very gracefully, stopping just shy of showing us his jazz hands. He loves to squat waaaaaaaayyyyyyy down and lift his arms up on the ending note of a song. Drama. You could even call it interpretive. I told Jav he just might end up on Broadway. Or as a mime. Boy, did that get me a look. Which got him a "we would be ok with that though, right?"

Joel has just started singing too. He sort of hums along with the melody, not really in key but perfectly in rhythm. He picks up the drum sticks as soon as his brother puts them down. I caught him today playing rhythms of threes, alternating from the drum to the cymbal. I'm not making this up.

I'll hear one of them playing one of our three keyboards (toy, electronic, and upright), and think to myself, "that's Gabriel" because the touch is very light, no banging, and very exploratory. It's usually Joel. When I think about money that will need to be spent in the future, I can't help but think we need to foot the bill for music lessons for both of these boys. They seem to drink, eat and breath music. Which makes me very proud!

His incessant babble continues, but is starting to sound more like real words. He's learned to say "NO" very emphatically to any question, whether he means it or not. Gabriel finds this very amusing and loves to keep asking him questions that he knows that Joel should be answering "yes" to. "Do you want ice cream for dessert, Joel?" "Nnnnnnnnoooooo" (He says it, of course, very dramatically.) If he's been playing for awhile and hasn't seen me, he starts yelling "Mama" over and over again, and wanders through the house until he finds me. Then he gives me a big hug and a belly kiss.

Here he is, just being Joel.

A thank you to my son

You had me nervous before you ever came out.

You see, I didn't prepare and learn about all the issues of nursing a child before I had your brother. I thought it would be easy and simple. After all, women had been feeding their babies this way since the beginning of time. But your brother came out hungry, and we could never make it all work. Which broke my heart a little. So when I found out about you, I thought to myself that I had a second chance. But would I be able to pull it off? Make that would WE be able to pull it off?

Well, we began our journey really well. You were so laid back about everything, and didn't seem to mind that your mother is a complete control freak. Something that goes against the nature of nursing. But you were patient with me. You were probably amused by my late night phone calls to my friend Sue, who I consider the equivalent of a sponsor to an AA member - only my drug was control. Every time I spoke with her, she had to patiently remind me that you were the one who should be running the show, not me.

We got into a real rhythm by about your fourth month, and I was finally able to get it. THIS is why women breast feed. It felt like an extension of the miracle of pregnancy and birth. Not only could I grow you inside of me, but I also had this ability to feed and nourish you, almost like the umbilical cord became magically attached again every time you nursed. I was nervous at first about nursing you away from home. But we learned together to do it. No need to cart around bottles, or formula, or anything. We just needed you, and me. And even though you were too big to ever feed out in public (no blanket could keep you covered up), as long as I could find a bathroom stall or empty room, we could be comfortable. Anytime you needed it, anywhere we happened to be, I could give you food.

Early on I read a book or watched TV while you ate at home, but sometime around your sixth month I decided to only pay attention to you. I sang songs to you, which you really seemed to like. I stroked your downy, fuzzy head which I know you loved, and still do. But the things you gave to me were so much bigger than anything I gave to you. I felt a connection to all the other women who came before me and did this. I felt in touch with the rhythms of the earth. I felt a relief from just letting go. But I mostly felt really, really peaceful. No matter how crazy our day had been going, or how frantic you seemed if you woke up at night, all it took was five minutes to get us both so relaxed we could go to sleep.

We had some rough spots here and there. You started getting your teeth in, and had to learn that a biting boy ends up a hungry boy. OUCH! But it only took two interruptions for you to figure that out. You are so big that we had to try a couple of different places where we could both be comfortable, ending up on an ottoman that we stuck in the middle of your room. That became such an important piece of furniture, and even though it is back in its place in the living room I will never sit on it without feeling the weight of you in my arms, remembering the sight of your sweet profile and the feel of your little hands on my face.

I find myself looking at you doing different things around the house, playing or watching TV, and I can feel my milk start to come in. I have an urge to grab you and let you eat, and start it all up again. Because even though you have been ready for this for weeks, I am still not ready, and I don't believe I would ever have been truly ready. Because when we were together, doing our thing, my addiction to control had finally given way to an addiction to peace. And because I know I will never do any of these miraculous things again. This ending brings an ending to the magic of having a baby.

But see, here's where you have come through for me again. Bedtime, which could have been hard for me to get through, has turned into a special, fun time each night. After I came up with the idea of singing one song with you before rocking and singing you to sleep, you decided to start playing a new game. You point to different squares on the wonderful quilt that Susan made for you, and want me to tell what it is, and sing a song about it. And hearing your funny babble, seeing your little thumb and index finger pressed together pointing, and knowing how happy you are has made it so easy for me to move on. Instead of the wistful sadness I was sure I would feel each night, I find myself looking forward to bedtime now just as much as before. And I realize, every night, watching you and holding you, that not only did we pull it off, but we did a fantastic job. We should both be so very, very proud.

New shoes

We went to do some formal shoe shopping for the boys last night. All I have done up until now is use hand-me-downs, birthday and Christmas gifts, and an occasional purchase from a random shoe store for the boys' shoes. I knew that Joel has needed some that fit him better for about two months. But just didn't want to take the time to get to Stride Rite, the holy grail of shoe stores for kids, because it was kind of a long drive to The Parks mall in Arlington. And also because I knew it was gonna be expensive. Then about two weeks ago we noticed Joel had these weird blister looking things on almost all of his toes - yuck. It turns out he can't wear Crocs right now because he still turns his little toes in so much while walking, and all that rubbing causes the skin to flake. Double yuck. And since he only had those and his tiny tennis shoes, he was kind of up a creek.

So we finally loaded them up and made a fun afternoon out of it. We decided to check Gabriel's size too, because I thought his tennis shoes were looking kind of small. (Not very scientific, but at least it entered my brain). It turns out both boys need wide widths. Gabriel was only one size too small. Joel was two. Ouch. Hopefully I haven't ruined his feet for the rest of his life. We walked out with new tennies and water shoes for both boys, but since they were having a good sale it didn't his us that hard in the pocketbook. Joel wouldn't stop looking at his feet walking around the mall afterwards. He probably couldn't figure out why his little toes weren't all smushed together, and marveled that he could actually move them around.

Up until now I think I must admit one big parenting FAIL when it comes to shoes, but I have seen the light! I will now be making the pilgrimage to Stride Rite once a year to check their sizes and make a yearly purchase. I believe in the power of freer, wiggly toes!

Little things

These are Gabriel's bathroom buddies. The first pretending he ever did was with them in the tub. Their names are Peaky (we thought he said Pinky, but were quickly corrected), Purple Wyme (once again, we thought he said Purple Wine, but couldn't figure out how he knew anything about that), Sally, Bluto and Greenie. Most nights recently they have a Buddy band with various rotating instruments. Joel took a shine to Peaky from the get-go and wouldn't let go of him during the whole bath at first.

We decided Joel needed his own Buddies, but of course he like the original ones better. Gabriel only plays with these, so we let him name them also. Allow me to introduce Bluey Blue, Orangey, Reddy Freddy and Greenie-Back to you.

This gentleman we just call Turtle. He has been a huge part of both of the boys' crib time. He plays 5 or 6 songs, with a very quiet and pretty sound, and also has a button for wave noises. The two little fish move and another button turns on a soothing bluish-green light. Joel uses him much more than Gabriel did, though, and has relied on him for a much longer period of time. Gabriel didn't seem to need him much after four or five months. Joel's loved him for about nine months, and is still going strong. He used to help him get to sleep, but doesn't need him for that anymore. We hear him in the middle of the night often, and especially in the morning once Joel is ready to get up.

I will be a very sad Mommy when it's time to take Turtle down for good.

I haven't done any comparison pictures lately, but this was too good to pass up. Look how different they are! Not just in looks, either, but in personality. Gabriel - careful and fearful/Joel - no cares or fear. Gabriel - quiet (at least, WAS quiet at that age)/Joel-world's loudest baby. Gabriel - loves books/Joel - throws them across the room. They both have two loves, however - music and trucks.

The forgotten birthday

My sweet one-year-old boy.

Little Joel turned one amidst the post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas hoopla, as he will every year seeing that his birthday is December 1st. And it kind of got lost in the shuffle, as it probably will every year. We are going to try to fight that, though.

We resisted putting up Christmas decorations inside until after his birthday. We wanted him to be the star, at least this year. He, however, in typical Joel fashion, was very nonchalant about the whole thing.

All he really wanted to do was pull out all the videos and DVDs. We say he's taking inventory. He started out just pulling them out. Then he started trying to put them back. Now he looks and them and decides if it's one he likes or not.

We decided to just have family, and we just had a small afternoon party instead of a big meal like we always tried to do with Gabriel. This is his cake. I don't mean THE cake, I mean HIS cake. The corner of ours is in the background of the picture. The bakery his Tia found will make a smaller version for the kid to tear into.

Only it's not so small, and he didn't quite know what to do with it.

It took a lot of time and a lot of coaxing to get him to dig in.

But then he got a little better at it, and before long he was stuffing big hunks of icing into his mouth like an old pro. All I could do was sit back and wait for the tummy ache, which woke him up from his post-party nap causing big giant screams. Sigh.

But he enjoyed himself, as did all of us, so it was a success. He got some cool new toys, and some new PJ's, the really warm footie kind that he really needed. And some other clothes and a bath toy. All he wanted to do was crawl around after his brother and stare up at Cade and Macy, who he loves having at our house.

Tonight Jav and I noticed that he is getting better at punching buttons and purposefully playing with toys instead of randomly like before. He's also much more thoughtful these last few days. I'll catch him just staring into space thinking about something. But then he'll see me and flash that Joel smile and start moving his happy legs.

I have a bad cough again and couldn't sing to him tonight, so I decided to try whistling O Holy Night. It's not easy to do! But it got him really soundly to sleep.

Love him so, so much.

All kinds of stuff

We have a possum that's eating birdseed spillage from the feeder late nights. We've never seen another possum with his coloring before. His fur is a dark gray, but it's kind of silvery in the lights of the backyard. Jav has taken to this little guy for some reason. Any time I mentioned anything about feeding one before now he would scowl and protest. But he doesn't say a word when I say maybe I should throw a handful of trail mix out there every evening. The problem is he doesn't grace us with his presence every night. So if I throw food out there and he doesn't come, Molly gets an unintentional snack. One night he was out there grazing for quite awhile, and I needed to let Molly out for the last time before bedtime. So I went out on the porch and started making noise, and he slowly sauntered to the back corner of the yard and crawled up on top of the fence. I came in to get Jav to try to scare him on over, because Molly will charge a fence and possibly could have knocked him off of there. But even though Jav was only about 3 feet away, the possum just sat and stared at him when he tried to shoo him away. Before last night we hadn't seen him for about 5 days and were starting to think something happened to him. But I noticed Zoe with her nose pressed against the French doors and there he was. I went to tell Jav, who was about to take a shower. He came almost running out of the bathroom to get to the window so he could see for himself. He's named him Pepe, even though I told him that was silly. Everyone knows that's a skunk name.

Joel is doing so many wonderful things right now, and has started playing while on his knees, which I think is so cute. He's also sitting still much more to play with things, and he has the best posture. I guess babies haven't been beaten down by life stress yet. I used to stand pretty straight, but for the last 3-4 years my posture has really slipped. Joel is inspiring me to try and stand straighter. He's still not walking yet, but I'm in no hurry. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and hide toys in them. I could watch him play all day. He still has crazy happy legs when something delights him, but now he's added a fake laugh for effect. It's hilarious.

And then there's Gabriel. We have a new "Elf on the Shelf", a gift from our neighbor. It is a little elf that supposed to sit high up in different rooms to watch what's happening all day, then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa each night. According to the book, he will land in different places around the house when he comes back, and it's supposed to be a game to try and find him. At least that's how it's supposed to work. Our son does not like Dipsy (Gabriel got to name him.) We're not sure if it's because he's not supposed to touch him (according to the book, it could take away the elf's magic), or if it's because Gabriel's planning to be bad and doesn't want anyone to report that to Santa, or if he's genuinely afraid of the little guy. Even I have to admit that he looks a tiny bit creepy, kind of like pinocchio with a red suit on. The last few days Gabriel seems to be accepting him a little more, but maybe he's just a little young for the concept.

We're watching Scrooged. I love Buster Poindexter as the ghost of Christmas past. "It's a bone!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

Ah-tya

...which is Joel's favorite "word" right now. We're not sure what it means, but he says it while crawling and playing, mostly when he's busy. Gabriel claims he's trying to say "hat". He also loves to squeal really high and end up lower. He'll do it back to me if I start it. We have entire conversations making this noise. Other than those two noises, he says "mama, mama, mama," and "dada, dada, dada" pretty evenly now. He's speed crawling now, and crawling over things that aren't really meant to be crawled over. He loves to crawl on top of our footstools and get his belly over them, hang his head off one side and let his feet dangle off the floor on the other. I am sure he will end up falling on his head when he does this, but the one time he let that big 'ole head hang too far he got his arms out lightning fast to catch himself. He chases Zoe, which has made her even more nervous if one of the kids starts petting her. She gave Gabriel a mean scratch just under his eye the other day to prove her point.

Joel has the funniest habit of taking different things, like blocks or little pieces of food, and holding them way up in the air, then slowly moving them down across his hair and then face. All the while he stares at you as if he is just daring you to make him stop, or maybe he's just very proud of whatever it is he's showcasing. This gets really funny when it's food, because it invariably ends up stuck to his hair and face.

He's such a big boy, but not chubby like Gabriel. He has some mean thighs, but he's just solid up and down. He's VERY strong too, and likes to pound Mommy while I'm holding him with one fist in the chest and one fist on the back when he gets excited about something. He's always shown his excitement in those legs, though, and now wiggles them like crazy while in a sitting position when he's happy. It cracks me up.

He is the absolute best hugger in the entire world. He puts his whole body into hugs. He loves to fake laugh just to get me to laugh. I finally have succeeded in getting him on somewhat of a schedule, and he will take a long nap in the morning and a short one in the afternoon. My neighbor, Helen, kept him last week while I went to the dentist and she got him take a nap without being fed first. She is SO wonderful and Joel loves her.

I'm trying to get him interested in books. He has a tendency to get impatient halfway through even the shortest ones and knock them aside. The other day I was reading a book to him about colors, and I could swear that he was saying the words for some of the colors. He made an "re" noise for red, a "bu" noise for blue, and "pu-pu" for purple. I kept thinking to myself at the time that it must just be a weird coincidence, but my gut is telling me that he is already starting to talk. I dried him off after bath time with a shark towel, and showed him what he looked like in the mirror while singing the Jaws music. He started making the same noise and would laugh when I lunged towards the mirror. I'm beginning to think that he is scary smart like his brother. I'm not sure if we can handle two of them in the house, trying to confound and confuse us 24/7. At our age we're pretty easily confused.

He's just at that age where it seems like he's constantly doing something cute or amazing, or both.

The Joelster

I haven't posted about Joel in awhile, so I thought I'd take a break and catch up with our little guy. That is, if we can catch him!

He has no fear. His crawl finally kicked in high gear and there's been no stopping him since. Gabriel was pretty content to stay in one room and play for awhile. Not Joel. He is constantly circling the house and I have to watch him non-stop! He crawls with purpose, lifting his hands way up and smacking them down on the floor as he goes. Up until a couple of weeks ago he was pulling up to his knees anywhere he could reach. But then that changed to feet. He's already had some bad falls and has learned to be cautious when he pulls up on new things. And then, Thursday afternoon I looked up from cooking dinner to see him walk across the living room pushing the footstool my grandfather made, which was shocking, funny and sentimental all at the same time. It's the perfect height for him to lean on.

He can communicate already without talking. Gabriel had this cute move in his highchair, where he would lean his head over, always to his right side, and we'd say, "Aawwwww look at the baby!" Joel started doing it, but to the left, and I always touch his face when I say the Awwwwww! Yesterday I didn't and he took his own hand and touched the side of his face while making sure I was watching him. I caught him holding the toy phone up to his ear one day. At the zoo last week, he had been fussing about something for awhile, and I finally noticed him trying to unfasten the strap around him in the stroller.

He loves to follow Gabriel around and do exactly what he's doing. Same toys, instruments, it doesn't matter what it is. They play a crawling form of chase all over the house. For some reason, he wants to put his mouth on everything all of a sudden. The dishwasher, his quilt, the door to his room, the crib, the rocking chair all get special Joel kisses all day long. He was staying at Jav's parents one day and they had him sitting in the big plastic car in the backyard, and couldn't believe he was already turning the steering wheel from side to side and turning the key in the ignition. Then he'd stop and throw the football back at his Tito. He's already so far ahead of where Gabriel was at his age, I guess because he's got a big brother to catch up with.

He is trying all kinds of new foods daily and my nursing is starting to slow down. We are down to three times a day with one overnight feeding. But then he'll have a tough night where he wakes up three or four times. My hormones are not amused. I think he may finally be working us and just wanting Mommy to be in the room with him until he falls back asleep. During the day it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to nurse. He kicks his feet and squirms around, and wants to see everything going on around us.

Of course, all of this growing up is breaking my heart a little. I'm not ready to say goodbye to his babyhood and hello to toddlerville just yet. I breathe him in every chance I get to smell that sweet baby smell, the one that I wish I could bottle up because I know it's going to go away. And he's such a sweet, sweet guy. He gives HUGE hugs that you can tell he really means. He's starting to lay his head on my shoulder when he's tired. I love it when he wakes up at night and talks to me ( in his own baby language) about what is wrong until I start to feed him.

I think I have magical thinking when it comes to Joel, even now. You would think by now I wouldn't still be in awe that we actually get to have two of these wonders running around. (Well, at least one is close to running!) It's hard to explain, but we expected to have Gabriel. When we found out about Joel, all hope of having another one on our own had been gone for awhile, and we had moved on to other plans. Sometimes I look at him and feel in my heart that he is actual proof that God exists and answers your prayers. That's alot of weight to carry on such small shoulders, and I need to get over it. But watching my two boys playing on the floor, both laughing, I can't help but be humbled by the powers in the universe that have brought my life to this point in such an amazing way.

Addendum: When I read this back it sounded to me like I think Gabriel is just ordinary and not special in any way. So this is just for him, so that later when he reads all of this he will understand a little better what I was trying to say.

Gabriel, when you came into our lives it was like opening the big giant present under the Christmas tree that you'd been looking at for weeks, the one that you hoped was the thing you wanted most in the world, and thought it probably was but you were still just so, so happy to find out that it was. And Joel coming into our lives was like someone pulled out one last package from behind the couch, one that you didn't know about at all, so it was really exciting to open. I hope that clears things up.

Too fast

We had Joel baptized last night - finally! We had put it off this long so that his godparents from Mexico could be here. But because of all the flooding in Monterrey and around the border, they couldn't come after all and we had to ask my brother and Jav's sister to stand in as proxies for them. And considering our priest, Father Paul, believes in total immersion (which we went along with after much deliberating), Joel did really well. He was so shocked that it took him all three dips in the water before he worked out his scream. But he calmed down relatively quickly. It was a great service, and we had everyone to the house afterwards for barbeque and it was SO much fun.

I had spent all week trying to clean house which is relatively impossible with a baby and a preschooler. Somehow it all got done, and Jav and I worked like trojans all day yesterday to try to get everything ready before we had to get ready for Mass. I was determined, however, to relax and have a good time once everyone got here, and that's just what I did. My Mom suggested I channel my maternal grandmother (Mamaw), who used to throw parties quite a bit. She would never panic about anything, and would just have some wine and thoroughly enjoy herself. I did pretty good and I think everyone else had a good time, too.

Joel is losing that baby thing waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too fast. Of course size-wise he never really had that baby thing. And my gosh is he getting bigger. I can't wait to find out what he weighs and how long he is at the nine month check-up. Actually yes I can wait. As I said, it's all going too fast. But the biggest change is in personality, and how all of sudden he has a distinct one. He protests if you take a toy away from him. He's finally started babbling again and if he's awake, he's talking. He's trying to clap his pudgy hands together and gets so proud of himself when he gets even a little close. He is so laid back compared to the way Gabriel was. Gabriel had swim class for almost two weeks and Joel would just hang out with me, sitting on a beach towel playing with a water bottle or whatever I gave him. Sometimes he fussed a little if I didn't have time to feed him before we left the house, but all I had to do is hug him a little and he would stop. He's just the BEST baby. When he does get mad about something, he invariably says, "mama" really clearly.

Last week I had to get a little upset with him when he kept biting me on the shoulder (he has a really hard time when he's teething). After the first couple of quiet tries didn't work, I had to raise my voice quite a bit. He burst into tears. It was then that I had confirmation of how opposite his personality is from his brother, who was never too concerned if I got mad at him. Sensitive!!! Joel is starting to get into watching Baby Einstein more, and does some crazy half-running, half jumping moves all through a showing. I've got to catch it on video. Along with the clapping attempts and the sweet way he looks at his daddy when he comes home from work every day.

Gabriel is mostly happy with these changes. He just doesn't like it when Joel grabs one of his toys and starts chewing on it. Joel still can't quite get his crawler to work, and keeps scooting backwards and getting frustrated. If I'm not in the room, Gabriel will bring him a toy (or two or three or four) to console him. Mealtimes are getting more and more fun with Gabriel trying to get a laugh out of Joel. It doesn't take much! You'd think I wouldn't still be marveling over the fact that I am lucky enough to have had two of these wonders.