Kiss

So in Quebec it is custom to greet and part by touching cheek to cheek and making a kissing sound. There is a wonderful woman in my ward who I have become really close to. She wished me a happy new year and proceeded with the customary cheek to cheek. She then tried to do it with David. She reaches his elbow in height. David is more of the high-five kind of guy. So he didn't know what she was doing. So she was on her tip-toes pulling his shoulder down trying to perform the customary parting. She was finally able to give him an actual kiss on the cheek very awkwardly. It was so painful and hilarious to watch.

Quiet

Our nightly routine begins with baths. Then we change into pajamas and brush teeth. This is followed by family scripture study and family prayer in the boys' bedroom. I stay with Anders and settle him down for bed by reading a few stories to him and then cuddling with him for a few minutes while we sing church songs together. At the same time I am doing this with Anders, David watches America's Funniest Home videos while feeding Bram his bottle. (David claims that Bram insists on watching AFV because it is the only thing David can watch that keeps Bram still and calm). When I come out of the boy's bedroom I kiss Bram goodnight and then David lays him in the crib in the boy's room. Tonight I changed it up a little bit by cuddling and singing with Bram on my bed in the dark for a few minutes before putting him in his crib. He is mostly sleep trained so he rarely cries anymore. When I laid him down tonight he started crying the minute I wasn't touching him anymore. After I left the room and settled on the couch I heard Anders go, "Quiet Bram! You're otay." Bram immediately stopped crying. A couple of seconds later Bram started talking to himself and every minute or so Anders shushed him. Just now Anders started singing Happy Birthday. I am loving this stage with the boys!

Too Smaller

Tonight we were working on sounds with Anders. He has a sound book that has lots of pictures to make it more fun. We got to the letter h. There is a traced picture of a child's hand but it is still bigger than Anders'. Anders put his hand down on the picture and sounded disappointed as he said, "too smaller." He then had me do it and sounded equally disappointed as he said, "too bigger." So cute!

He is also having a hard time with correctly using pronouns. When he wants mom in the morning if Dad goes in to help him instead, he always asks, "where is mommy? I want momma! I need him!" Lol. It drives David crazy. We are working on it...

I asked him if he knew my name tonight. He says, "mom!" I asked if he knew my other name. He looks thoughtful and then says, "girl". Lol. I love that kid!

You say someping?

I told Anders that when his movie finished it was nap time. He jumped off the couch and ran to turn off his movie and then proceeded to run down to his room. I noticed he left his little penguin that he snuggles with under the desk so I called for him to come back before he got to his room. He comes running back down the hall and peeks around the corner with a questioning look, "you say someping mom?" I told him to grab his little penguin, and as he did he cuddled it under his chin and whispered, "I love my buddy" as he headed back to his room.

He also told me today: "I love you so much!" It is the first time he has added the 'so much' part. I loved hearing it.

No Jacket, No Happy

We were getting loaded into the car for our Ward Christmas party tonight. As I was buckling Anders into his car seat I realized I was freezing because I totally spaced putting on my winter jacket. I shouted for David to grab it as I was finishing buckling Anders. Then Anders says to me very matter-of-fact, "mom, need coat to be happy". Perhaps I am a grouch without one? I guess I will watch and see.

Bram played baby Jesus in a skit for our ward party tonight and he did a fantastic job. Don't worry, I won't let it go to his head...don't want him to have a Christ complex when he grows up. Luckily, he will never be young enough to play baby Jesus again.

Facelift and Boys Update

So it has taken way too long for me to do a facelift on our blog. It isn't that I don't love our new addition to our family. It is that I have an hour or two a day to take care of everything while the boys are sleeping, and so it has not been a priority for the last nine months! Can you believe it? I sure can't.

Bram is already 9 months. He has six teeth. He is crawling everywhere like a champ but would rather be walking. Of course he is fascinated by everything that can hurt him. He is always pulling plugs out of outlets, trying to pull over the floor lamps, and leaving huge messes in his wake. He has the cutest variety of grunts to talk to me. He is also a skreetcher. If Anders takes something from him or a toy isn't behaving how he wants it to, boy do I get an ear-full. He also has a great sense of humor! Him and Anders are always laughing together. Probably my favorite sound.

Anders. Where do I start with this guy? He is talking like nobody's business now. He loves reading with me. We read for almost thirty minutes every night before bed and he is ALWAYS asking for more. Then I tell him no more, time for bed and he immediately requests to "cuddle for a second". So we cuddle and sing "I am a Child of God". Anders can sing the first verse all by himself. Another sound I love! He loves to sing and dance.

Anders, Bram and I do daily dance parties, where we turn on a playlist of songs from Anders favorite animated movies. His most favorite song is "Accidentally in Love" by Counting Crows (it was part of the soundtrack for Shrek 2). I am grateful I like that song too. He now knows most of the words. He also has his alphabet down, even though he says one instead of y. And sometimes he skips n. Back to the dance parties. So I turn up the volume and we dance around the living room. Bram has started to dance with us and does a little bouncing booty shake while Anders and I dance circles around him. Cracks me up! Anders has started spinning in circles, almost. He TRIES really hard and can ALMOST do a full spin. Sometimes we are able to do dance parties with his cousin Nathan and Aunt Tracy over video chat. Anders and Nathan are always asking to do that with each other.

Pretty much, we have a blast together all day long. Unless Bram is ornery, or Anders is feeling cooped up, or I am sick. But mostly I have a blast being a mom.

Happiness

When you are recovering from the stomach flu and have spent two days in bed, NOTHING, and I mean nothing, is better than your husband and two-year-old coming home from grocery shopping and your two-year-old is carrying in a huge bouquet of flowers for you. Serious melt my heart moment. He was so pleased to hand them to me even though I couldn't see his cute face until he finally handed them over. Almost made it worth it having the stomach flu, but not really. I sure do feel the love though.

Not feel good Mom, I hurt.

So the desk and I got into a fight this morning. The desk won. 

I was reaching for some toys for Bram, who was at my feet, and as I reached down to hand them to him my eyelid (right under my eyebrow) hit the corner of the desk really hard. Boy, that hurt A LOT. 

So I was hollering (as my grandma would describe it) and Anders kept asking me what was wrong. I told him I was hurt. He came up and asked if he could kiss it. Sweet kid, but the last thing I wanted was him near my very sore eye. I went and grabbed an ice-pack and curled up on the couch. Anders came up and said "Not feel good Mom. I hurt too" and proceeded to try to grab the ice-pack from me for his pretend owie on his head. 

He gave it back. So I put it on my eyelid again. Then he tried to get it back. I told him he was fine. I looked back at him a few seconds later and he was shoving a toy car into his eye repeatedly to 'hurt himself'. I started laughing and handed him the ice-pack. If he was willing to hurt himself on purpose for it, he was more than welcome to it. 

Bram now has four teeth. Two top and two bottom. He has started giving me a huge toothy grin all the time that cracks me up. They just look so out of place in such a small body. He is also standing and is always demanding that I stand him up where he can hold onto something. It is possible he will start walking before crawling really young like his big brother. He is also my screecher, whether happy or sad. He is always looking for something new to grab as well. 

Loving my boys and the journey!

Daddy... Poop...

So David here again...  The other day I hear Anders calling "Daddy!  Daddy!" like he does in the morning to let me know that he is awake and ready to be up.  I go into his room and in the pale dark can make out that he looks a little dirty so I turn on the light before getting him.  He says: "Daddy, Poop!" and I look closely and he is covered from head to toe in throw up.  He must have thrown up early on in the night and then rolled in it because it was all over his sheets, clothing, hair and face, feet, hands... and all dried on.  So I get him up and take him to the bath and strip him down to wash him off.  Take off his diaper and yup, there was poop in there too.  I asked him what was all over his hair and even after telling him that it was throw up, he maintains that it was poop.  And Bram just watched through the whole thing wondering what was going on.

The joys of a 2 year old vocabulary and understanding of the world...

Hide-And-Seek

So this is David putting in my occasional post.  Tonight, Anders wanted to play hide-and-seek so he would count to 10 and then come find me by following our dog Camrose to see where she had found me.  So I told him that it was his turn to hide and that I would count to 10.  I counted and then called "Anders, I am coming to find you" to which he replied "Yeah".

So I said it again and he again shouted back "Yeah".  Then I said it again and he said "Right here!" so I asked where right here was and he called "Behind the door!" to let me know where he was hiding (which is the only spot he ever hides...)

Oh yeah, Bram isn't crawling yet but he can turn in circles on his bum or his belly which is a start and tonight he scooted while on his bum by grabbing things to get to where he wanted to go.

Elevators = A Mom's Worst Nightmare

I used to think that elevators were invented as a truly great blessing for mothers with strollers. That was until today, when I came to the terrifying realization that they are actually a mom's worst nightmare. 

Anders, Bram and I were at the Eaton Center (a large, 5-story mall on Montreal Island near McGill Campus). We were exploring the mall while David was in a meeting for school. It was taking longer than I thought and we had already explored most of the mall and spent quite a bit of time on the elevator in the middle of the mall. Anders and Bram needed their diapers changed again, so I thought I would just take care of it to pass the time faster while waiting for David. (He said he would do it when he came back from his meeting). I had changed their diapers on the third floor before. We were on the fourth floor. When I went to where I thought there would be bathrooms, it turned out there were only elevators. I knew that these elevators were near the bathrooms on the third floor so we hopped on one of them and rode down to the third floor. These elevators were amazing. They had changing bright neon lights, a flat screen monitor playing commercials. Really I had never been in an elevator quite like it. Anders and I were entranced. When I stepped out of the elevator on the third floor I had Bram in my arms and was pushing a double stroller. Anders had been walking around the mall instead of riding in his stroller, so he was standing in the elevator. I was surprised to see a flight of stairs as I stepped off and was momentarily disoriented. As I turned to make sure Anders was getting off the elevator, the elevator doors were almost closed. I jumped to put my hand in, but it was too late. I frantically pushed the button to have the doors open, but it was also too late. All I knew was that the elevator was going down. I was terrified. Here I was with a baby in arms, a huge stroller, and an elevator that went down another four stories (two of which were underground parking). The elevator across the hall kept opening, but I didn't want to risk not being there when the elevator opened again in case Anders had stayed in there. 

It couldn't have been more than three minutes, but it felt like hours before the elevator finally came back up. My heart dropped when Anders was not on it. I got on not sure what I was going to do next. I called David to tell him I had lost Anders. He immediately took off and ran down seven flights of stairs and across two blocks to get to us. I was still on my own looking for Anders though. (Side note- Montreal is part of Quebec. The Province that prides itself on being "French". So everyone is supposed to speak French, and it is the first official language of the Province.) A girl came on the elevator with me as I was hanging up with David. I told her I lost my 2-year-old on this elevator. She could speak English! When we got to the 2nd floor I asked her if she could hold the door. I stepped off and didn't see any signs of Anders. I got back on to go to the 1st floor. The elevators opened up onto the food court. We had our lunch there before David's meeting. I stepped out and peered around a corner and scanned with Mom radar. I had Anders in my sight within 3 seconds. A large man (his guardian angel in my book) had been waiting to go up the elevator with his lunch. He was surprised to find a two-year-old all alone. He had taken Anders over to the nearest mall employee (a custodian) who was working on radioing mall security. I grabbed Anders to run back to the elevator where I had left the stroller. And no, Bram was not in the stroller. And yes, the very nice girl that had been helping was still holding it open for me. 

My biggest regrets: Not thanking the girl or large man enough for their help. This event could have been so disastrous. I am so grateful for the good people out there who just do what is right without having to think about it. 

I am sure you are wondering how Anders is doing. He was so shaken up. He hadn't been crying as far as I could tell (but it hadn't been very long either). He just looked stunned/confused. When we got back to the third floor I was pulling the stroller down the stairs in an almost trance. I think I was in shock. Two people stopped to help me, and again I didn't thank them enough. Anders was begging to hold my hand, but I was holding Bram and pushing the stroller. I just stopped and crouched down to hold Anders as close as I could with Bram also in my arms. David came around the corner at that moment. When I had called him he couldn't wrap his head around how I could have lost Anders. It was one distracted second, just one (okay maybe 2), but that was long enough for the worst experience of my motherhood to happen. Back to Anders. So for the rest of the day he was pretty clinging to me and wanted to hold my hand basically non-stop. And he needed his pacifier at all times. The pacifier also probably helped him when he was lost to not absolutely lose it.

I have this fear that someone is going to try to take my babies. Who wouldn't want to? Look at these cute faces:

Moral of the story: Elevators are NOT your friends if you have little, easily distracted children.

Wonderful Mom Moments

Anders is really sick today with a bad cold and constantly running nose. He is a tough kid so you know it is bad when he breaks down crying because his runny nose hurts and his eyes are watering non-stop. I put him down for his nap at his usual time, but he woke up an hour earlier than he usually does. I went in and gave him a little bit of water and then told him he needed to go back to sleep. I didn't hear anything from the living room for an hour. I just walked past his room to get something from the kitchen and saw/heard him playing with a toy in his crib. For some reason this sight filled my heart with so much joy! How could it not fill my heart with warmth that my sick little boy wanted to make his mom happy by staying quiet for an hour in his crib even though he couldn't fall back asleep? He is so amazing! It is millions of little moments like these that make being a mom so wonderful.

Anders' Birthday Presents to Me

1. It was fast and testimony meeting at church today. I got up to bear my testimony. Next thing I know, Anders is coming up on stage with a shy smile and arms folded. When I finish my testimony and go back down to sit with David, he said that Anders had asked, "Testimony with Momma?". I didn't know he knew what a testimony was.

2. We got home from church and Anders wanted a snack. He asked for some chips. I gave him a few. He asked for some more. I told him after he finished the few more chips, he could have a little bit of Gatorade and then it was time for a nap. David helped him with the Gatorade while I was checking messages on my phone. About 5 minutes later David asked where Anders was. He had put himself down for a nap. What?! Amazing. He is such a great little guy. I am so lucky to be his Mom.

YOU

Yesterday we were at a friend's house for FHE and the kids were all playing out back while the adults were talking inside. Anders kept coming in and yelling at his dad (since he always is yelling or shouting almost everything he says): "YOU [pointing directly at David] Ow-side. Ow-side, YOU!" He then did the same things with me this morning. I got a video of it that I will try to upload later today.

Trip to Wally World

We split up in Walmart to get the shopping done because Saturday is the busiest day at Walmart on the Southshore. Anders was walking with me. David and Bram had the cart. We got the item Anders and I were looking for and took off to the other side of the store to find David. We didn't find him where we thought he would be, so Anders and I go to grab the deodorant I knew was on the list and called David to find out where he was. He was a couple of aisles over in the Pharmacy. I hand the deodorant to Anders and told him we needed to go find Dad. He immediately starts yelling, "Daddy!" at the top of his lungs. He was about ten steps or so behind me when I turn around to him making the spritzing noise and pretending to rub the deodorant under his arms. He then holds out the deodorant to a random guy we are passing and makes the spritzing sound towards him. I love our Walmart trips!

More Anders

June 8 - We updated all the pictures on our living room wall last night. Anders was very pleased to see him and Bram all over the wall. There is one picture in the middle of Christ and right underneath it is a picture of me and David. I was asking Anders to tell me who was in the picture as I was pointing to the picture of me and David. He looks up and says, "Jesus Christ, amen" while looking at the picture of Jesus above us.

June 9 - This morning Anders was pretending to count Bram's fingers. I asked him how many fingers were on my hand, while holding my right hand up to him. He counts all four and then proclaims "FOUR!" I then asked him how many thumbs were on that hand. He immediately yells, "ONE!" He really is such a smarty pants.

June 8 - Bram really really wants to be a thumb sucker. He is ALWAYS putting his hand to his mouth, and so we have to constantly be on the watch to shove his pacifier in before he finds his thumb. He found his thumb today and I got a hilarious video but it won't upload. Bram was only able to suck on his thumb by have all of his fingers extended and grabbing his cheek as his thumb was hooked into his mouth. It was so funny. As he was watching me laugh at him, he kept giving me huge grins that made him lose his thumb. He would concentrate and furrow his brow to try to get it into his mouth again. I really don't want him to be a thumb sucker because it is so much harder to break than a pacifier. BUT it could also be nice because it would mean we wouldn't have to wake every hour in the night to give him his pacifier...What to do? What to do?

Snippets of Anders

Alright friends, here is the deal. I haven't written on the blog forever because the only good ideas I have for things here come to me when I am falling asleep at night and I can never remember them in the morning. Then there is that whole problem of having two kids that don't give me much time or access to the computer. (I am not complaining, I LOVE being with my boys). So I have been sending these little snippets of Anders to my parents and parents-in-law to keep them in the loop with the every-day doings of my very bright and silly kid. My mom suggested that I blog these stories. I thought, "But I am already sending them to the people they are meant for." But then I realized that I do have friends who might appreciate these little stories too. So here you go. I have not forgotten you.

May 17 - We took the bus and metro to visit David up at school so he could introduce his fellow graduate students to Bram. We were waiting at the bus stop when a bus pulled up at a different stop across the street. Anders LOVES buses in general, but also LOVES riding them. When he saw the bus across the street he started screaming "BUS! BUS! BUS! BUS!" at the top of his lungs. I told him that it wasn't our bus, we were waiting for a different one. He looked thoughtful for a second, not taking his eyes off the bus across the street, and then started yelling, "Hurry! Run!" (while motioning wildly with his arms). He was adamant that we ride THAT bus! 

May 29 - We rode the bus to David at the Metro station. The weather was very hot and muggy when we left, not a cloud in sight. Then a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in on our way home. Luckily, David had his windbreaker and he covered him and Bram and ran home ahead of us in the pouring rain. The bus stop is about 5 minutes from our house. Anders stepped off the bus and started giggling immediately as he began to get soaked by the downpour. We didn't stop laughing the entire way home as we ran through rivers of water. I have NEVER seen him so completely and gleefully happy. When we finally made it home after ten minutes of getting soaked through and through, Anders exclaimed, "AGAIN!"

June 5 - When we finished eating dinner last night, Anders put his fork and plate on top of mine. I got up and put them in the sink. When I turned around Anders was holding out the salt shaker to me and pointing to where I needed to put it away. So I did. I turned around again and he hands me the next item to go in the cupboard. As I put it in the cupboard it hit me that Anders totally got me without me realizing it! David is usually the first one done at dinner and so he is always clearing off the table. He tried to take over once we started to giggle after realizing how smooth Anders had been in getting me to do it instead. Anders insisted that I needed to finish the job by handing me the last item on the table, even though David was closer to where it needed to go. Then he looked at David and explained that David needed to thank me for clearing off the table. I wonder who the boss is at our house...

June 5 - Anders has been repeating prayers for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday he started to end his prayers on his own without needing to be prompted for every word. The only hiccup with this is when he hears the word "the" when he is repeating his prayer or his scripture verse he jumps to "name of Jesus Christ, amen!" with a pleased smile on his face. So we went to cuddle and read "The Giving Tree" (our nightly routine before bed) and I asked him to help me read it. I prompted by saying "The..." and he interjects, "name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!" Of course he would!

Remember Me?

It has been WAY TOO LONG since I last updated our blog, but I am sure you will be much more understanding once you know why. Since moving to Canada, this pregnancy has been a huge roller coaster. The humidity difference here made my first trimester even worse than the last one. I was throwing up constantly. Then the throwing up stopped, but the nausea never went away. David started graduate school the week after we arrived, and started working from home. I wasn't used to having him around so much but not having any access to him. That was a hard adjustment. We finally got into the swing of things about midway through his semester, when my doctor ordered me to stop holding Anders, like ever. Then just before Christmas we learned that Bram (baby in oven) was pushing for premature labor so I was ordered into bed rest. After Christmas it looked like things were getting better until I started to exhibit pre-cursers for pre-eclampsia again. That stressed me out beyond belief because I didn't want to have a seizure or something while David was at school and I was home alone with Anders. So I really wasn't supposed to do anything, as well as cut out salt from my diet to help lower my blood pressure. Turns out that Bram is also breech. My babies don't want me to experience labor I guess. I thought with being borderline pre-eclampsic again my doctor would let me do a c-section early...cause really what is the point of having a c-section if you don't get to skip a few weeks, right? Nope. Not this doctor. She wants Bram to stay in as long as possible. So I got an ultrasound last week, and he is measuring 8lb 10oz right now. Most likely he will be over 10lbs by the time my scheduled c-section happens the 24th (only 2 days before his due date). I think that has been the hardest thing for me. My doctor is making me carry this huge baby full-term and making me take medications that make it so that I haven't had a nausea free day this entire pregnancy. AND she told me to cut out sugar from my diet too. Um, cut out the only stress reliever I have?

Everyone is making suggestions as to what I can do to help pass the next two weeks (read, write, etc...). The problem, all the suggestions are things that Anders will not let me do. So I will just continue to watch him without resentment, hope that Bram will spare me a lot of the after birth drama I had with Anders because he will be full-term, and take it one day at a time.

The only reason I had a chance to catch you all up on the past six months is because I am not allowed to go to church, so I am home alone for 4 hours on Sundays.

Things I want to remember about Anders right now:

Whenever Bram kicks and it hurts I say "ouch" and no matter where Anders is in the house you hear his little voice say "ouch" back to me.

I have cried a few times the end of the pregnancy despite myself, and Anders gets so concerned he comes and says "sorry" over and over again, while holding my hand or massaging my arm. So sweet!

He really wants to talk so he has started to mimicking a lot of what we say. He still can't make a 'k' sound, so he uses a 'z' sound instead. We were eating lunch today and we would both say "yum, tasty" after each bite. A lot of times he calls me bama, instead of mama. But he can say butt paste, button, purple, and tons of other words without any problems.

I ask Anders who is in my belly and he says Bam. I then ask what is Bram, and he attempts to say brother.

He is absorbing sign language like you wouldn't believe. He can sign: ball, milk, water, mom, dad, more, have, shoes, same, (he made up his own sign for sip), again, excuse me.

Anders was asking for something the other day, and I was making him use signs and words. So I told him to sign have. He did. Then I told him to say 'some'. He smiles huge and holds up his thumb while saying thumb. I also am trying to teach him "I love you". I tell him to say "I" and he does while pointing to his eyes. I am still  not sure what he is saying when he says "love".

When he colors, he makes you draw stuff and then he scribbles and says he is drawing the same things you are drawing.

He loves looking at books and learning about stuff and new words. He has gotten down a lot of animal sounds, except monkey. Ooo eee ahh ahh sounds like a giggle to him so he will giggle to make a monkey noise.

I really wish I could remember everything about him right now because he literally makes me laugh out loud a hundred times a day. He has got such a great sense of humor.

I know this doesn't quite make up for six months of nothing, but I hope the update helps fill in the gaps for those of you that care. Love you all!