Growing Up

Goodness, I really can't stand how fast my babies are growing :( Though we aren't quite sure Macy weighs enough to turn around in the car, she was at the maximum length for seat she had been using, so we bought a booster seat for Jadon (because he fits both height and weight requirements already), and she got his old one. So now both kids are facing forward, and well, while I love being able to turn around and see her smiling back at me now, it is hard to see how fast she is growing...they both are growing.

Here they are before and after church on Sunday...

Looking out the side windows, facing forward for the first time:

I think Jadon is not only proud to sit in a "big boy carseat," but also that Macy is doing things on his level more and more. He loves having her participate in his world, and you can always see the sense of wonder in his eyes, when he realizes she can do new things. So sweet :)

Macy is such a toddler! She loves walking all by herself in public, which presents a problem in certain arenas, like the mall. She loves running around and exploring her environment. I think Easter egg hunts will be a big hit with both of them this year :) Here she is running around outside after church last Sunday:


She lights the faces of everyone around her. She's just the sweetest, smiliest baby (well, except when she's around strangers at first). Love her to pieces, our little baby doll :)


Oh, and our big boy. Less than three months from turning three. So, so sad :( I wish he was Macy's size again, so I could squeeze his chubby belly and kiss his chubby cheeks. He's more of a little boy now. He has his own ideas, his own sense of humor, his own pretend play and games. He rarely calls me 'mama' anymore...and that breaks. my. heart :(

So is parenthood, a bittersweet journey of letting them go, grow up and become their own person. When I look at this picture, there is no bitter; all I see is sweet. He might be big, but he's still Mama's baby.

8.25 months

At 6 months, it was all about the army crawl. Just days before she turned 7 months, she started crawling on her knees like a maniac! Around the same time, she started pulling up onto anything and everything. In the last few weeks, she has been getting into EVERYTHING, including bookshelves, kitchen cabinets, and her favorite---the shoes in the foyer, this decorative twig thing that sits in the corner by our bedroom door (she tries to eat it on an hourly basis) and she tries to knock over this very large bamboo vase we have behind the couch (not to worry, it was broken long ago by Jadon, when he was just over a year old!). Ahhh, babies :)

As of today, we are still putting her in her swing in the kitchen floor. It is just really convenient to have them both strapped into something at the same time, so Jadon gets the high chair still, however, during other snacktimes, etc. Macy uses the high chair...as you'll see in the pics below.
She's been doing a GREAT job at eating solid foods (despite having no teeth yet) and perfecting her pincer grasp. Her favorites are pieces of banana, puffy Os and Kashi crackers. We plan to try pieces of carrots, broccoli, and green beans this week. She's pretty aggressive, if you're holding her and she wants a taste. Today, she had Daddy convinced she wanted pizza. I think you need to get some teeth before that happens, little one ;)

Although you would think she might prefer cold, pureed fruit, she really doesn't. She's not much of a fan of any baby food. We have started adding hard-boild egg yolk to her cereal, and she does like it a little more. Tomorrow we plan to start adding ground flax seeds too. It used to be Jadon's favorite meal. It's so nutritious, so hopefully she'll grow to like it more.
Another of Jadon's favorites was my homemade organic sweet potatoes and avocado (I know, sounds icky, BUT again, sooooo nutritious). Macy is not so fond of it either, but I refuse to give up. She can't live on breastmilk, Kashi crackers and puffy Os! Can you believe she only eats 1/2 of a container of Yo! Baby yogurt??? Jadon used to lap up that stuff. Hmmph! She's just too cute for words though :)
We've had this push toy out for a few weeks now, but honestly you have to give Jadon time to experiment with anything that is new to him (since he has no memory of using it), before he'll give Macy a chance to play. It is always a battle that takes time, so we are forced to give him time to adjust (for the sake of many tears/tantrums/arguments...yes, they argue at this age already!). Sooo FINALLY he has come around to the idea of Macy being able to push the "stroller" by herself (only a few minutes at a time), and today she started moving right along, one step at a time. Seems like yesterday we were hearing that tune, "Walk along, walk along, take a step and sing a song..." with Jadon behind the handle.

What a joy to watch Macy blossoming into a toddler! Oh the sadness that our tiny baby is growing up :( Good Lord, the chasing around and saving of her life we are in for on a now daily basis!

In the next few weeks, I'd expect to be writing updates on Macy standing on her own...maybe?? Or you may get an update that she's signed her first word :) likely "milk" or "eat." Fun to think of that happening! I still long for another day of waking up to my sweet little Jadon looking at me and signing "milk." I miss those days, but these are at least twice as much fun :)

Macy 5-6 months

I MUST get something done here, so it may not be thorough, but it will have to do. Too much has happened...sooooo much is changing daily with both kids, I just cannot keep up. In seriously condensed form, here goes:

Last month, Macy took her first roadtrip out of state. As you know, she traveled nearly six hours to the mountains of NC with the Salamanca side of the family. She was a little slow to warm up to the idea of new faces in the house, but obviously (as you saw in the pictures), she fell in love with all of them...especially Tatay! Nanay and Tatay effectionately gave her the name "Macy Macy," and no matter where they were, once they said it, she would turn to find them and smile from ear to ear :)

Macy had been able to roll around the house for sometime, before they arrived, and just four days after they left, she started crawling. A day before she turned six months old, on August 3rd, she started doing the army crawl. As you know with babies who become mobile, a cage is needed immediately...well, that is unless you have a two year old brother who likes to shake the cage :/

Needless to say, the play yard won't be of much use to us. Jadon is entirely too tempted to throw toys into the area that is supposed to keep Macy safe. Safe she is not, especially when Jadon picks the side up and tosses the play yard over onto its side, in a WWE or ulitmate fighting-type move. This is just not a battle we feel we can pick right now...entirely too much effort, and frankly, we get tired of hearing ourselves say things like "go to timeout" and "no, Jadon!" Maybe in a few more weeks...maybe never. For now we have to stay close by, making sure she doesn't bump her head under the dining room table or pick up a toy of Jadon's that she could cause her to choke (pretty much ALL of his toys!). Challenging, to say the least, but we're coping just fine...most days ;) It's amazing that she can be surrounded by fifteen age-appropriate toys, but will spot a Matchbox car 20 feet away and make a beeline for it. She can out arm crawl the best of 'em!

What do you expect a girl with a big brother to play with, Barbies?

ALWAYS in the middle of Jadon and his toys!

In other news, it only took Macy TWO months to learn to eat solid food. Sheesh! We worked on different types of cereal 1-2 times/day from Father's Day until she turned six months old. She literally did no better in August than she did in June. It was AWEFUL! Jamie always joked that we were the ones who needed the bib. We had no idea if ONE person would ever be able to feed her. You know the saying, "This too shall pass," and it did. I really was ready to call the doctor and ask him if there could be something wrong with the development of her jaw, her tongue, her pea-size head. Once we started with some regular food, she caught on a lot faster. So far, she has had sweet potatoes, peas, mango, bananas, pears, and apples. Apples are by far her favorite, though she doesn't get them often because we are trying to introduce new foods every three days or so.

Here she is on her first day eating sweet potatoes:

Here she is after her first few bites of peas (getting ready to cry because I stopped to take a pic...see her eyebrows and nose turning red?):

She's also started drinking water from a sippy cup, and the other night, she actually drank a 50:50 mix of juice and water from a BOTTLE!!! Yay! You know what that means, people??? I can go on a date with my husband! Can you imagine??? Whew! Soon. Very, very soon! Still trying to decide if we should go to Tahiti or the Bahamas :)

Isn't she just the CUTEST, little thing?

I know I have a million more updates, but I am sure I can include them in the upcoming posts. I don't want to overwhelm myself with the pressure of getting it all done now, otherwise, you might get nothing. Here are a few videos of Macy crawling in the last two weeks...more to come!

Twenty-Five and Five

I'm sucha slacker! I know :/ I completely skipped an entire month of updates for BOTH Jadon and Macy, and the one I missed for Jadon was him turning TWO!?! It was just too overwhelming to put all of the changes that have been happening with Jadon, in particular, into one well-written blog entry. I KNOW I'm going to want to go back and add a hundred things because Jadon cracks us up and also challenges us everyday with all of the new things he does and says, but here goes...

Macy first. Macy turned five months old on July 4th! We did a little photo shoot the day before to celebrate, since we knew we'd be busy on Independence Day.

Geisha baby
She always looks more Asian on her back.
Baby doll

She is the SWEETEST, smiliest baby girl I have ever met. Think Will Ferrell in the movie Elf, she "loves smiling." :) She started eating a tiny bit of cereal on Father's Day (about 4 1/2 months old), and was honestly so horrible of an eater that I regretted not waiting until she was 6 months. She would spit more out than she ate, but since we had already opened the can of organic formula (NOT cheap!), we didn't want it to go to waste, and it has to be used within 30 days.

We persisted. A few weeks later, and a stretch of six days without a BM, she's doing somewhat better.

We knew she'd adjust to the extra iron eventually. Thankfully (???) she's back to her old self in that department. It still takes two people to feed her because she is the world's messiest baby eater, but she's getting better. She just can't grasp that eating from a spoon is not like nursing from Mommy. She will only suck on the spoon. She SLURPS every drop of cereal, and gets made and fusses now everytime you have to refill the spoon. Pretty funny to see her get frustrated.

Speaking of frustration, she's pretty good at throwing a tiny tantrum at least a few times a day now. She cries when she drops a toy in the car or if Jadon takes a toy away from her, while she's playing on the floor. She loves her new Eric Carle toy caterpillar and elephant rattles and a wooden alligator on wheels that was Jadon's.

Macy is spending more and more time in her exersaucer/walker, or according to Jadon, "Macy drives car." She gets to spend most of her time in it, when Jadon is either in another room, at Gramma's or taking a nap...so really not as often as we'd like. If Big Brother is around, Macy gets to go around and around and around for about 30 seconds, until we put Jadon in timeout and take Macy out of her "car."

Since she's spending so much time standing in her walker and moving around all over the floor now, she's starting to thin out. Her arms, legs, and belly are losing their chubbiness :( Both Jamie and I are a bit sad to see this change happen so soon. Soon enough, she'll be trying baby food, and maybe some of it will come back :) We love us some chubba bubba!

I will not be surprised if I'm updating, before she's six months old, that she is crawling. If we lay her on her playmat, many times we will find her at least 3-4 feet away from it facing another direction on her belly. We always ask, "Now how did you get all the way over there?" She seems quite a bit ahead of Jadon with her physical development, and he crawled (not always with butt in the air) at six months. I just can't wait until she can sit up without support. Pictures will be much easier and look better without someone's hand or arm on one side of her ;)

Other than that, we are also excited that Macy's attention span is increasing daily, and we can have the good old Baby Einstein company watch her for a while...well, maybe just 10 minutes at at time, but still :) Jadon doesn't mind watching some of his old school DVDs, so we sometimes get 10 minutes of complete silence in our house! Wow!

A few pics of Macy snuggling with Daddy this month:

As alway, what Macy does...

Speaking of Jadon. Whew! He is now a month past his second b-day, and oh my, whatta handful he is becoming! Seriously. Wow! He talks and talks and talks and...honest to goodness, so much that we cannot wait for bedtime, and even there he lays and talks himself to sleep. He has sooo much to say about everything, and he is such a stinkin' parrot!

SOME (read: very few) of the funny things he says lately:

Person of Authority (Mommy, Daddy, Gramma, etc.): "Jadon, do you want to go to timeout?"

Jadon (every, single time): "Nooooo...now staaaaohp!"

What do you say to that???

Jadon (too busy playing and waits til the last minute to run to the potty).

Mommy or Daddy: "Oh, man, Jadon. You..."

Jadon: "Jadon! Don't peepee in udderdayer! Peepee in da potteee! Ah meeeyan!"

Everyday, a hundred times a day, we hear: "(________insert name), let's play cars/trucks/airplanes/helicopter/garage." You never really have to play. You just have to sit there. Haha. Can get annoying, but it's pretty cute to hear him say...the first five times, at least ;)

Making things with Play-Doh is a daily duty. "Momma, make a brown truck. Daddy, make a purple pizza. Momma, make a pink rabbit. Daddy, let's make a big ball." It's endless, and no matter how many times we teach him to make things, he never does any of the work. I'm excited for that day to come!

Random, but he also tells us that a triangle has "three sides," and a stop sign is an "octagon." Thanks educational DVDs! So funny! Oh yeah, and he is getting really good at pronouncing his last name...gotta getta video clip.

Any parent of at least two children quickly learns when the older one becomes the authority...ummm...immediately! You hear that, Auntie Em? It's all about birth order. As sweet as Jadon can be to Macy, showing her EVERY, SINGLE toy that he has on an hourly basis..."Look, Nacy (yes, Nacy)...it's a purple van. Etc. Etc. Etc," he has also started correcting her, uh em, wrong behavior. "No no no no no, Nacy. Don't eat da airtane." FYI, it is permissible for her to eat a Matchbox car, so long as Jadon was the one placing it in her mouth. Oh my!

He's becoming braver and braver by the day in the pool.

He LOVES Mommy's homemade smoothies, and has no idea they have spinach, flax seed, squash, kale, tofu, and cabbage in them. Yummy :)

He would be outside all day, if only we could stand taking Macy in the heat. He'd likely want to "cutdadass (cut the grass)". He calls a lawn mower, "cutdadass." How funny is that? When we were leaving my mom's the other day, he said, "Bye bye, cutdadass." LOL
He always says, "Hi, Elijah," through the door every morning.

Other favorites: watching his "Little People" DVD over and over and over, at least this month. Last month it was "Bob the Builder." When given several options for breakfast, he almost always chooses "Special K and a danana," (yes, danana). He even pointed the box out to me at Costco the other day. Haha. His favorite books are If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Please Baby Please, The Foot Book, Oh David!, and his two Look and Learn books from which he has learned EVERY motorized vehicle/machinery known to man!

Other favorite foods he loves: homemade waffles with berries, tomatoes and cucumbers with vinegar, green beans, ANY fruit (especially berries, grapes and bananas), grilled chicken, cheese and crackers, dried cranberries and raisins, pizza, grilled cheese, mandarin oranges, yogurt with flax seed...hmmm...oh yeah, and he became slightly obsessed with these Captain Booty's brand cheese puffy things, so I forbid Jamie from buying them for the rest of summer. He would stand at the pantry door and whine for "treats" several times a day. We need to decrease temper tantrums, right? Sheesh.

Speaking of tantrums. Oh. My. GRACIOUS!!! I cannot even go into it. They require an entirely separate entry. It was a slow start, but they are in full-effect (I pray they get no worse), as of two weeks ago. So many meltdowns a day over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! In a nutshell, lots of whining, lots of tears, lots of frustration, timeouts, occasionally stomping in place(!?!), and running in the opposite direction of Mommy and Daddy. Blah. And I read someone's blog the other day who said age five is a million times worse than two :/

Can I just say though that Jadon has been with his Gramma for the last two hours, and I've had enough silence to last me another week? I missed him from the time he kissed me goodbye and said, "Bye, Momma. Bye, Sisser." I love that little boy (and his baby sisser), fits and all. I'd go back and relive these 25 months a million times over, and if I had one wish, it would be that I could store each tiny memory and experience with them in a marble that could be put in a mason jar on a shelf, so that I could pull them down anytime I wanted to relive them for the rest of my life. I savor each day with these babies and their amazing daddy. Sappy, but it's true. I am blessed.

Nom nom nom...kind of

On Father's Day, we decided to go ahead and give Macy a little bit of rice cereal. We started Jadon just before he turned 5 months old, and he did GREAT, as you may remember (see video below).

The experts recommend you breastfeed exclusively for six months (if you want), but since we are taking a trip to the mountains of NC, when Jamie's family comes in July, I wanted to be out of the practice mode with Macy eating before then. Needless to say, things didn't go near as well with her as they did with Jadon. Despite two attempts at feedings everyday since then, things have not improved AT ALL. Her tongue is just too stiff. She spits EVERYTHING that goes in right back out :/

Here she is just before getting her first taste. She looks sooo tiny in that seat, compared to Jadon!


Here's just a short clip of her eating, right before the battery to our camera died :/


Jadon lapping it up back in October 2007:


So the doctor tells us today that a baby who is exclusively breastfed (never had even one bottle) up to the age of six months will NOT take a bottle until after a year old (even if it is pumped breastmilk in the bottle). WHAT??? He may just be right because Macy is CLUELESS how to suck on a bottle. She HATES it! This is a bummer because it means that I am forced to nurse her like FOREVER (i.e. at the beach, while on a road trip, if I ever want a date night with my husband(!!!)).

I had no idea this was the case. I never thought about it. I had given Jadon a small bottle here and there, when he was just a few months old (mainly for things like going to Target or on a short trip, if I didn't want to whip out my boob...which I NEVER do, duh!). So Jadon learned fairly early on how to suck a bottle, even though he really was breastfed 99% of the time.

I think we're going to try to get Macy to take a 2-4oz. bottle everyday for a while...or at least try because I'm thinking this could be a really tough issue to deal with when it comes time to wean her. Can you imagine weaning a baby who has ONLY had the breast for at least 12 months directly to a bottle of cow's milk? :/ I'm thinking that could be difficult. Like I said, with Jadon, he really did like the taste of formula and knew how to hold a bottle by himself way before he was weaned at 11 1/2 months. The learning process of parenting is endless, no?

Toe Chompin'

Nobody's looking, Macy. Go right ahead :)



Both Jadon and Macy starting eating their tiny toes at the same age, right around 4 months. They each perfected the art by 4 1/2 months and did/do it on a daily basis. Thankfully, they don't walk on floors yet, right? Here's a clip of Macy at the doctor's office today and one below of Jadon in October 2007 on our way home from our trip to WV. I love looking back at Jadon's pics/vids and seeing how they compare in development. So far, Macy has chubbier legs, and Jadon had a bigger noggin.

Pearly Whites

I know, I know. She turned four months old two weeks ago, and I haven't written an update yet. Uh...I'm sure you may have also noticed that Jadon turned TWO a week before that, and I still haven't posted his slideshow or updates. I feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the changes, I suppose.

If I list them one at a time, as they come, it seems more feasible. So here it is...a pic of Macy's first two teeth peeking through her bottom gums. They've been that way for about two weeks, and so far, nothing much has changed. She's drooling a lot, but not fussy, thank goodness :) This may take a while (which is fine with me) because they don't seem to be making too much progress so far.

If you can't see them from this size pic, click it to enlarge. I can't believe gummy grins will be a thing of the past so soon. Wow!

Little Miss Giggles

I'm sure I posted recently that Macy had her first giggle...can't remember the exact date now. Good thing I blog this stuff to keep track of it! Anyway, I was finally able to catch her on video yesterday. Just before I got the camera, she let out a big, full-belly giggle, but the ones in the clip still make me smile :)

Belly 2 Back

Despite getting shots today, Miss Macy Bleu hit one of her first big milestones---she rolled over from her belly to her back! And she did it twice in five minutes, so I'm thinking she's a pro now ;)

Of course her #1 cheerleader (her big brother Jadon) was nearly on top of her at the time...no doubt the biggest reason to learn to roll over so soon! Two months, three weeks, and three days young...good job, girlie! :)

T-Minus One Month!?!

Well, big boy, you turned 23 months old yesterday. I really can't believe my little baby is turning two in less than a month. While I am so excited to think of all the changes that will happen for you in the next year, I would be lying, if I didn't say it makes me sad as well. Bittersweet is definitely the best description of parenthood for me, thus far.

This month proved to be no different. I started keeping notes to use for your monthly updates, and just before I began typing this, I looked back over the month of April 2009. Wow! You have REALLY changed this month! Let's do a re-cap and give some updates on our soon-to-be two-year-old...

You've had a couple of playdates, which went well :)

You have been working on your "Big Brother of the Year" title :)

Always holding Macy's hand...

smiling and proud to assist her in the smallest of tasks :)

no matter where she is

you don't want to miss a thing and you're very affectionate with her (sorry so blurry)

It is so funny to see the things you are picking up from Mommy and Daddy, when it comes to Macy. Lately you've been carrying around your stuffed animals and patting them on the back. After a few minutes, you'll say, "Durt (aka burp)." You also did the same thing to Gramma a few weeks ago. Haha! Crack me up! You've also tried to teach Macy where her ears are...by putting your Mr. Potato Head ears in hers!

Mommy and Daddy are very proud of your progress with your "sisser." If Macy could talk, I'm sure she'd say the same thing too ;) Speaking of proud, you are quite the climber now at the playground. Daddy and I are both amazed at your willingness to challenge yourself and succeed. What you couldn't do last month is now a piece of cake.I wouldn't say you are fearless...at least when it comes to other kids. I think we've hit the second battle with stranger anxiety (to a degree), though we never really went through the first one you were supposed to hit around 9 months old. For some reason, you're now VERY slow to warm up with other kids. You like to watch other kids, figure them out a bit, before you decide to play around or near them.

You used to LOVE going to the church nursery, but lately have become a bit of a wall flower or lap sitter. You don't cry, but lately we find you on the lap of one of the volunteers, when we pick you up after the service. This past Sunday, when we pulled into the church parking lot, you started saying, "Noo...noo." You were a little clingy, but you went in without crying. You sat on a lady's lap the entire time. She said you said, "Dada," a few times, but seemed content to just sit. This is a far cry from the Jadon they used to see. Not sure what's going on, but I really hope you come out of it.

It kind of makes Mommy sad to think you feel intimidated, so hopefully that's not it. You did the same thing at the pool yesterday for about 30 minutes, then finally warmed up to the idea of playing around the other kids (all little girls). (More pics of that in another post.)

Sort of related to the pool is your tan...my goodness! Just from being at the playground 2-3 times for no more than an hour, look what happened to your feet! Tan lines around your sandals! Must be nice, says the girl who burns, peels, and freckles :/

Other random things that have happened this month:

---you became obsessed with the "Wabbup" or Easter Bunny; you even asked to go into the clubhouse again yesterday at the pool to see him

---you were sick for about a week with a mucousy eye thing. Your eyes were purple underneath and had green stuff draining from them, though the doctor said you were fine. Either way, you got over it and the nightly wake-ups with you crying (not so much fun)

---you have learned to REALLY shoot a basketball, and you're good at it! Seriously, you can stand across the room now and shoot the ball into the hoop. If you don't make it, you say, "Miss!"If you do make it, you say, "Good shot!" Hilarious!

---you've started imitating lots of things people do that you don't really understand just yet. For instance, you must have seen someone open Gramma's bedroom door and toss something onto the bed and then close the door. You now like to open the door, toss a pretend something (kind of like you're doing an abracadabra magic trick thing), then close the door...then repeat the process 5-10 times. We're always standing by laughing...so funny to watch! Yesterday, you were trying to step on the storm door hinge, just like you see Daddy doing to hold the door open, when we're loading/unloading things to/from the car. I'm sure you didn't know what you were really doing, but thought you'd be big like Daddy by doing so ;) You also like to try to imitate Mommy's multi-tasking by pushing Macy's swing with your foot...not the best idea, now is it?

---you got your first, second and third pair of Polliwalks...the blue frogs, the green fish sandals, and the blue dogs with the liner for winter (50% off! whoohoo!). Thanks, Gramma and Grandpa!

---your favorite foods are grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup, nectarines, homemade waffles with berries and yogurt as a dipping sauce, and strawberries ("stawdoos").

---somtimes you will go on and on telling stories. Most of the time, we can only decipher a few words of the 3-5 minute rant, and you only rarely get annoyed by that (thankfully). But I must say your vocabulary is CRAZY these days. You know words like "wetlands," "comet," "planet," and "earth." You can put strings of words together like nothing! The other day in the car, I said to Daddy, "He repeats everything," and the little parrot in the backseat said, "He repeats everything." Oh my!

---you have a few daily meltdowns nearly everyday. They make no sense almost 100% of the time, and your daddy and I do our best to accomodate and/or ignore and move on. Life can be tough, kid! You're adjusting just fine ;)

---you can now count to 20!!! What?!? I only taught you 1-10! How do you know that??? Gramma was so excited to tell me you were counting in her backseat the other day in the car. She said, "He can count to 13!" I told your Daddy, and he said, "I know. He can count to 20. He does it all the time with me." Oh yeah? Well how about someone tell Mommy about this? So now I have witnessed it myself ;) Made me think about all of the things he will learn in school that I won't always know about :( Why? Why do kids have to grow up???

---One of the funniest and most amazing things you have started doing this month is describing things. You tell me all of the time that the giraffe has a "loooong neck." You tell me that you use bread to "make a sandwich," birds "have feathers," and the ocotopus lives "in the ocean!" Crack...me...up!

---you LOVE your ABCs! You can now identify some of your lower case letters. Ummm...who taught you that??? Not me. Not Daddy. Thanks, Brainy Baby! You were running around the house a few weeks ago saying, "O...O...Ocean!" Then you told me that "E" is for "Emily" (which Mommy taught you), but you also said it's for "ears." Thanks again, Brainy Baby!

In a nutshell, this month you've become a little leary of strangers (mostly half-pints like yourself); you've become obsessed with the Easter Bunny and guitars (forgot to mention that); you've learned to love your sisser in more tangible ways (and you're easy about it); you've conquered the playground; you want to be just like Mommy (taking care of sisser) and Daddy (cutting the grass and using big scissors); you still HATE brushing your teeth (to the point of faking needing to go potty to get out of it almost every night?!?); you've been re-introduced to the world of swimming; you've started working on your tan, you went to see the dragon boat races with Gramma and Grandpa (no pics, darn it!); you love you some strawdoos; you have daily emotional breakdowns; you love playing with flashcards and books as much as you like cars, trucks and sidewalk chalk, however, I do think you'd choose any tool or a guitar over any of the above; you talk about your Tatay and Nanay, as if they just live next door...yesterday you were on your play cell phone saying, "Hi, Tatay."

You are awesome, awesome, awesome, and I LOVE you soooo much. I am beyond excited to plan a birthday party for you, even if it small and uneventful. You are my favorite little man in the entire world! If I've said it once, I've said it a million times...I am so very blessed to be your mommy!