Monkey Hear, Monkey Say

Posted by: Jennifer

 

I know by now that James has very keen little ears, and picks up many things that we say. A little while ago, I was annoyed with Sam, and said, “Stupid dog!” Next thing I hear was a little voice saying “tupid dog!” and then repeating it several times. Another time, I was putting James into his car seat. It was a very windy day, and the car door kept trying to blow shut on me. I must have muttered to myself because James said “tupid wind!” Oops! I hadn’t even realized that I’d said that! I’m just glad that considering the mood I was in on both occasions, I didn’t use a stronger expletive.

Actually, despite what everyone thought, Jose was the first one to get James swearing. He was changing one of James’s poopy diapers and when he opened it, it was a particularly nasty one. On opening the diaper, he exclaimed, “Hijo de puta!” (translation: son of a b****!”). That was when I came on the scene. Jose, laughing, called me to come upstairs. As I ascended the stairs, I heard “Puta, Teddy!” repeated over and over. I was not overly impressed. Jose thought it was quite funny. What I thought was funny was that Jose was the one to slip up with a swear, not me.

So, I know that James hears what we say even when we don’t think he’s listening. And today, I was shown how important it is that I am careful about what comes out of my mouth. We were driving home from Future Shop and a pickup truck with an extraordinarily large woman in the passenger seat passed us. I was looking back at James, and saw the truck approaching. I cattily said to Jose, “Yikes! Look at the hippo in that truck!” Jose glanced over, and I thought that was the end of that. All of a sudden, Jose snickered, and I assumed that he was just laughing at my nasty comment. Then I picked up what James was saying in the backseat. He was repeating, “Hippo tuck” over and over. OOOOPS!!! Of course, I started laughing, and the more I laughed, the more he said it. He loves getting a good reaction. At the same time I was laughing, I felt guilty. I definitely need to learn to keep my negative comments to myself! I don’t want James growing up to be a vicious gossip. Although, just thinking about “Hippo tuck” puts a smile on my face even now!

Baby Picasso!

Posted by: Jennifer

 

 

James continuously amazes us with his ability to do things. For example, he knows how to turn on the TV, open the X-Box, put in a DVD, and then close the X-Box. He also knows how to turn the X-Box off. He loves toddler “seek and find” books and doesn’t take long to find all of the hidden pictures. However, last night took the cake.

We had mixed veggies with our supper last night, and a few had fallen out of James’ bowl. He was pretty much done eating, and was playing with the vegetables on his tray. I thought nothing of it – pick your battles, right? He ate his supper with minimum bribery; we’ll worry about manners later. Then he said, “Hammy!” (his word for Sammy). I thought he wanted to feed his leftovers to Sam, so I asked him if that’s what he meant. “No. Hammy!” He said again, this time pointing to an arrangement of vegetables. “Nose!” I looked more carefully at the peas and whatnot on his tray. He was pointing to a pea that lay below some other miscellaneous veggies. It was indeed in the proximity of a nose. I asked, “Is that Sammy?” “Uh huh!” “Did you make Sammy with your vegetables?” “Uh huh!” I looked even closer, and realized that the veggies weren’t just randomly placed. They looked like a face. Jose became involved at this point and asked where the eyes were. James pointed to two more peas that were stationed side by side a short distance above the nose. Two pieces of corn on either side of the eyes made ears, and a green bean laid horizontally across the top completed the picture. When asked, James informed us the bean was Sam’s hat.

Needless to say, Jose and I were a little stunned. We’d never arranged James’ food in pictures before, so we weren’t really sure where this was coming from. I asked Michelle this morning if she ever does that, but she said no. This of course, leads us to the only logical conclusion: our son is a baby genius. Not that we’re biased or anything.

Peanut's Ultrasound

Posted by: Jose

 

Finally got a chance to put this up. Enjoy

 

The Birthday Boy Loves Himmin'

Posted by: Jennifer

 

James is two!! It seems quite incredible that he’s that old. He can do so many things, and every day he adds a new word to his vocabulary, or does something that he wasn’t able to do before.

Speaking of vocabulary, just a note on the dictionary I did before. The words that I included were only the ones that he has his own special way of saying. He has so many words that he says exactly right (like “tia”) that I didn’t bother putting them in – the list would have been way too long!

For James’s birthday we had a party Sunday afternoon. Man, was he ever excited! Whenever the doorbell rang, he would run to say “Hi! Beuh-day!” He knew it was his special day! Since James and Teddy are absolutely inseparable, we had a Teddy Bear’s picnic party, and asked everyone to bring their teddy bears. I even made a teddy bear cake. It was a near disaster since I burnt one of the first ones the night before, but it turned out, and I have to say, I was quite proud of my creation. James was given lots of books and clothes. He was polite about the clothes, and very excited about the books. Mummy was much more excited about the clothes than he was, I think! He wore one of his new outfits that Papa Toño gave him to the party. Sam was remarkably well behaved. I think partly because Papa Toño arrived the day before. He was content to just lie by his feet and quietly worship him. Even when Garbhan arrived, both dogs were on their best behaviour.

Yesterday, we took James “himmin’”. One of the outfits he was given for his birthday was a trunks and swimming t-shirt from Mama Loli. He really wanted to put it on yesterday when we got home. He brought me the shorts, and so we had to strip him down (right in the living room, of course) and put them on. Then the socks had to come off, and after that he was done. He decided to do without the shirt. When he was dressed he said, “Him?” (translation: swim). It had been so long since we last took him swimming I was amazed he knew what that was. I figured going swimming was a great idea. If nothing else, it was a carrot to dangle in front of his nose to get his supper eaten (which he did, wearing nothing but his diaper and swim trunks). He was SO excited. He kept saying “Himmin’ himmin’!” Jose couldn’t go in because of his eye (bacteria in the water), so he sat on the side and just watched us have fun. James loved hopping around in the kiddie pool and going down the slide. He played with a boat and a ball for a bit too. After awhile though, he wanted to go in the other pool, so we tried that out for a bit. He’s old enough now to be a little nervous, so he was clingier than he was in the past, but he’d forget himself for a bit. He enjoyed jumping off the edge quite a bit – I think it was a bit of a nervous excitement. He liked the thrill but was scared at the same time. We played with a mat, and he loved going for a ride with Mummy swimming along and pushing. We went back and forth between big pool and kiddie pool a couple of times, and ended up in the hot tub for a couple of minutes. He was really happy just sitting on my lap, and really didn’t want to get out when they called for free swim to be over. I let him sit on the top step for a couple of minutes, and then he was content with getting out and going to see Papa for his towel. It was a really fun time, and we’ll have to do it more often. Especially when Jose gets the go-ahead from his doctor.

In Memory of Buddy Samayoa (1997-2007)

Posted by: Jose

 

 

Geeko, Geeko!

Posted by: Jennifer

 

He approaches. The cutest two-year-old you ever saw clutching a well-loved Teddy, and a purple rubber ball with little spines on it. He looks up at you with big, brown, innocent eyes, and says, "Up?" Your heart melts. You reach down and gather him up, Teddy and all. All of a sudden, he cries, "Geeko, geeko!!" and before you know it, he deftly manoeuvres the ball to tickle your face, laughing hysterically. You've just been the latest victim of the cunningly deceptive Geeko Monster.
Watch out - he's never satisfied with just one attack. He'll be watching to see when and where he can lure you into his clutches.
Sometimes, it's a wiggly little finger that is his weapon of choice.
Other times, Teddy, his loyal sidekick will be the culprit. Whatever his choice of weapon, you can be guaranteed that you will be laughing right along with him.

Our other little Peanut is growing rapidly. I had an ultrasound on Monday, and everything is looking great. We got to see a great shot of Baby's face, and saw the mouth open and close. Very cool!! I've noticed that this baby moves a lot. Already, it can kick my hand so that it actually moves. Hard to believe that I'm 5 months along - over halfway there! My blood pressure is holding, so that's fantastic news.

One last item that I'd like to mention - unfortunately it's a very sad item - Sam's Uncle Buddy had to be put down this week. The whole family is feeling quite heartbroken right now. Buddy was a treasured member of the family, and will be very sorely missed. Buddy was sick for quite awhile with fluid in his lungs, and heart problems. To the end, he remained a sweet-tempered, loving dog. He was buried with his favourite blanket and teddy bear on a friend's farm.