Birdwatching

Addie and I went walking with Blake and Tjabe several nights ago, and both boys brought binoculars to look for birds. They had a blast looking at everything, from birds to airplanes to the moon. Everytime they heard a bird, or one would flutter by, they would stop and the binoculars would go up, along with an exclamation of "Bird!" And now for some long-awaited pictures...

Looking at birds

Looking at the moon

Apparently Tjabe and Blake look similar, so for those of you who haven't seen Tjabe much, he is in the blue shirt and Blake is in the yellow. These pics are also up on Addie's blog (http://softersideofcynical.blogspot.com), which I highly recommend, whether you know her or not...

Monkisms

For those of you who watch the TV show "Monk," you will understand what I'm talking about. Tjabe is slightly anal and obsessive-compulsive with things (which may be normal for a two-year-old boy, right?). Here are some of his Monkisms:
- He can't walk around our condo building without stopping to touch each of the automatic sprinkler heads next to the sidewalk as he goes by.
- The other day when we were putting him to bed, he was very upset and insistent about something, almost to the point of tears. He kept pointing to Blue Bear, Frog, and Oliver, the stuffed animals he sleeps with, so we figured he just wanted us to say goodnight to them. After us telling them goodnight several times, he was still upset. Finally he sat up and, obviously disgusted with our cluelessness (I'm sure I heard a huff come out of him), switched Oliver and Blue Bear around so that Oliver was on the outside of the bed and Blue Bear was next to him. Apparently Dada had put them in the wrong order when he tucked them in that night. Then he laid down and went happily to sleep.
- Whenever he takes his shoes off, he deliberately places them (very neatly) right next to each other squarely on the rug by the door.

There will be more as we encounter or remember them, no doubt!

Our baby the plum

I read in one of my pregnancy books yesterday that our unborn baby is about the size of a small plum now. Last week he/she was the size of a medium green olive. So what I want to know is, what's with all the references to food? And if the baby is only a small plum, why is my stomach now a large butternut squash?

Our son the genius

This title is not accurate at all but I thought it might raise some eyebrows. No, I am NOT one of those parents who thinks my child is the smartest ever - in fact he's a pretty average two-year-old boy as far as intellect goes. I know this because, while he can read his letters and numbers, he also thinks that snow should be eaten whenever and wherever it is found (including in parking lots, on the bottom of shoes, etc.). The other day I almost fell into the trap of motherly pride, however. We were going through the letters of the alphabet, and he would tell me, "A, Mama - a,a [imagine him making the different pronunciations of "a"]." Then he did the same for B and C. I was glowing inside as I thought, "This is incredible! Have I taught him this without realizing it? Or has he really learned this by watching Super-Why twice a week? [and the famous dreaded thought...] My child is a genius!" Only later did I realize that my friend whom he stays with two mornings a week has been teaching her boys to read in front of him, and he is just picking it up. Suffice it to say, she is an amazing mom, and I am fortunate enough to reap some of the benefits! I have several of these friends, and if you're reading this I hope you know how grateful I am. I am also grateful to God for curbing my pride. Right after Tjabe showed me his pronunciations, I asked him what a donkey says (we've been working on that) and he responded, "Baaaa."

Ms. Michelle

My good friend from college came to visit this weekend, and we had a great time. It's so nice to have someone you can just hang around with and not feel like you have to plan wild and crazy entertainment every night (unless you can count Tjabe as that - he did a Tae Bo performance for us last night). This is great now that I usually don't feel like doing much. Plus we always have a lot to catch up on. Tjabe for some reason would rarely say her name, unless you specifically said it first and asked him to repeat it (then you would get a shy tuck of the head and a very quiet "Shell"). We took her to the airport this morning, and after she got on the plane Tjabe and I drove to the spot where you can see the planes take off to see her plane leave. Tjabe loves planes, and I think the Bozeman airport is a little disappointing because every time we go there he gets very excited to see planes, and we end up seeing one every 8 minutes or so. Even then it's not usually a BIG plane, so he spends most of his time watching for planes and very little time actually seeing any fly. But we waited long enough today, and we got to see Michelle's plane leave, and ever since we saw it taking off he has had no problem with her name. As it flew away, all I heard was "bye plane shell!" and the whole way home, "shell plane bye bye mama!".
By the way, we also took Grandma S. to the airport over a week ago after her visit with us, and Tjabe now understands the following:
Grandpa got on a plane earlier that day and flew and now he's home
Grandma got on a plane at the airport and it still on it ("Grandma airplane, Grandpa home" is his reply when asked about it)

Announcement

Most of you already know this, but to sum it up for those who don't... we're pregnant! We are expecting Baby Two around the middle of November, hopefully just in time for Grandpa S.'s birthday. We had Tjabe on his anniversary and as you know, consistency with children makes all the difference. So this means that as I am writing this I am about 8 weeks pregnant. It is still fairly early in the pregnancy, obviously. How am I feeling? How nice of you to ask. I was pretty nauseated (not "nauseous", as I usually say - apparently that means something that causes nausea. Good thing my husband is an English major) - anyway, pretty nauseated for a couple of weeks, kind of an all-day thing that got worse as the day went on. But I think I am starting to get better. I still get nauseated throughout the day but it doesn't last nearly as long and I haven't actually thrown up for several days now. It lasted a few weeks when I was pregnant with Tjabe so it all seems normal so far. The biggest problem I've had is the lack of motivation to do anything. I don't even feel like sitting around the house and doing nothing - that is how unmotivated I am. But I'm hoping that as I feel better physically I'll be more up for getting things done.
Let's see, what else would people want to know? We are planning on finding out if it is a boy or girl, probably around the end of June, and we have some names in mind but nothing definite, so we won't be sharing them too much. Tjabe can tell you there is a baby in my tummy if you ask, but he doesn't really seem to care about it yet. I think he will as I get bigger and he can actually see and feel the baby. I think he will like being a big brother. He likes to take care of other people's babies and is very affectionate with his two favorite stuffed animals, Oliver and Blue Bear, for whatever that is worth. I'll try to keep people posted here as the pregnancy moves along - I might even put up some pictures if I ever get around to putting on make-up again.

Visits with Grandparents

Tjabe got to visit Grandparents K. and S. this past week. I think he was a little confused when Grandma and Grandpa (K.) left and two days later Grandpa and Grandma (S.) showed up, since they were both Grandma and Grandpa but didn't look at all like each other. Talking on the phone is confusing too - the person talking always says, "Hi Tjabe, it's Grandpa! or Grandma!" and I don't know if he really knows which one it is. But since they're all wonderful, it's really a glorious problem to have.

Tjabe spent Easter weekend at home with Grandma and Grandpa K. visiting. He did an Easter egg hunt around the house and was excited to find coins in the eggs. Here's how it worked:

Tjabe found the egg

Tjabe popped open the egg and the coins went flying. Every time. He was never interested in opening it carefully over the table.

Tjabe picked up every single coin and the empty egg.

Tjabe deposited the coins in his piggy bank, and the empty eggs went to Grandma.

He had a lot of fun with it and was a little disappointed when the last of the eggs were found. Then he and Grandma hid a few eggs for Mommy in his room, and Tjabe was very willing to show Mommy where they were so that she didn't actually have to go to the effort of looking for them herself.


Tjabe spent the week after Easter at home with Grandma and Grandpa S. visiting. His favorite thing to do was to swing with Grandpa. He laughed his head off. Here are some pictures.


He's really developed a thing for grandpas lately. He loves his grandmas, but for some reason was drawn to both Grandpas when they were visiting. The first thing he would do in the morning is go find Grandpa. Maybe it's because he's a boy, maybe it's his age, but either way it was kind of sweet.