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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Mama and Mom

During the course of the trip, I have become "mom" to Spencer. How sad that my not-quite-yet 17 month old son thinks he is already mature enough to just call me "mom." And, on top of that, he now call my mom "mama" as his way of saying "grandma." This afternoon we had a play date with Amy and Zachary. Mom dropped us off and ran a quick errand, and when she returned, Spencer spied her walking to the front door and grinned widely as he said very clearly "mama!" Pictures from this afternoon have been added to the end of the Passover album.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Passover 2005

I have to confess that I scoffed at mom last month when she said we needed to hurry up and make travel plans because they flights were going to be very full for Passover. She was exactly right - the flight was completely booked and it seemed the entire plane was filled with people travelling to NY to celebrate Passover with their families.

I feel awful that I did not take any pictures of the seder we went to at Harriet's, or the seder we hosted here last night. Both evenings were wonderful (and Spencer looked too adorable all dressed up and wearing a bib that said 'matzoh baby' on the font!) I still can't believe that we had fourteen people here in mom's little house last night.

Jim is back in Houston, and unfortunately missed our visit to see cousins in NJ this morning. I did make sure to take some pictures of Spencer and his cousins.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

scared and dirty

These are two of Spencer's newest words and signs. We have been using "dirty" for quite a while (as toddlers this age are frequently picking stuff up off of the ground!) but he has never made the sign or tried to say the word until yesterday. He had picked something up off of the floor under the table, likely a crumb from the previous meal, and when I said and signed "dirty" he repeated it! I invited him to throw the "dirty" in the trash which he proudly did! A teaching opportunity for scared occurred as he was rummaging around in the pots and pans and one of the lids fell on to the floor and made a huge noise which upset Spencer. He clearly understood that word and sign right away, and used it again several times later that day. It is so cool to see how their little brains work!

Monday, April 18, 2005

weekend visitors

Karl and Heather came to spend the weekend visiting with us and young Spencer. For me, the highlight was when Heather & I hit TJ Maxx on Saturday night after Spencer went to bed. This followed a lowlight earlier in the day of getting rear-ended while stopped at a red light. The Pilot shows hardly any damage (getting assessment at the dealer tomorrow) but the front of her car was smushed and had to be towed. Strong argument for driving an SUV.

Teething is STILL bothering Spencer. Last night, just as we were getting ready for bed around 11, Spencer woke up wailing pitifully. He was not able to relax enough to sleep in his bed until nearly 1:00. Poor guy, and poor us. He slept well one of the two nights with houseguests this weekend. I hope things improve before out trip to NY, that won't be terribly fun...

Friday, April 15, 2005

$37.12

That's how much it cost to fill up our vehicle this week, ack.

Yesterday was Jim's b-day and we went out for an 'adult' dinner at Fleming's Steak House. What a phenomenal place! Their chocolate lava cake was out of this world!

Tonight Spencer and I went to hang out at the Y for an hour before dinner. It was "Open Gym" night and was such a blast! I enjoyed getting to meet some other parents, and Spencer had SO MUCH FUN on the see-saw, and playing with the parachute and jumping off of big foam mats and laughing and yelling "YEAH!" We are definitely going back!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

still teething

Spencer's big molars are a big pain - literally. Poor guy has been off of his game for over a week now. He hurts (knows the sign and has been using it, along with the word, quite often this week) and he cries a lot. He wakes up wailing during the night, wanting medicine and to be held. This evening, our olympic eater wanting nothing for dinner - no food, no milk. He cried and begged through the tears "UP!" to be picked up and held in my lap. (Which made eating dinner a bit of a challenge for me!) As I sit here thinking about heading towards bed, the past week's events have reintroduced a familiar and unpleasant feeling I thought was behind us. It is the false sense of security offered by the bed, not knowing when the peace it offers will be interrupted by mid-night cries. Fingers crossed as I head towards the bedroom...

Monday, April 11, 2005

more teeth

Spencer's four molars are in various stages of breaking through. Compared to the little ones in front, these seem absolutely huge. And our poor guy has been feeling the pain on and off for the last few weeks. (Not to mention new incidental problems like biting his tongue while eating.) These past several days have been particularly bad with teething pain. How sad is it when your baby looks over at the tube of baby orajel and cries "me'cine! me'cine!"

Saturday, April 09, 2005

great weather

Our fabulous April weather in Houston continues. Spencer and I went to Collins Park this morning for our monthly meet up group with other signing babies and toddlers (and their parents.) I expressed my frustration about the lack of financial commitment for the upcoming workshop on Monday. Lots of people have called/emailed they plan to come but haven't "sealed the deal." I just hung up the phone with a kind man in Colorado who paid for his son and daughter-in-law to attend. He saw the article in Life Magazine that ran in late February and had called me back then to find out how soon they could sign up! With one exception, everyone who I have talked to on this topic has nothing but positive things to say, believes in the documented benefits, etc., but I guess the word is just slower to spread here in Texas, compared to the area around theBaby Signs home office in northern California. When our signing toddler group broke up, Spencer and I hung around and ate a picnic lunch in the sunshine at the top of the hill. He tried to follow me as I ran up and down, but he decided that going down was too steep for him. So he turned around to put his hands on the ground, backed down on all fours for a few steps, stood up and tried to walk forwards, before deciding he needed to turn around and bend down to use his hands again. It was too funny for words. Some pictures from today have been added to the new April album.

Friday, April 08, 2005

happy day!

Today has been fabulous. Jim and I just got home from having a delicious dinner out at Ruggles for an impromtu celebration on a job very well done! For me, it capped off some great Spencer & mommy time as we enjoyed a picnic lunch with friends at the Oil Ranch. Here are some pictures from today.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

oc'gon

Another one of Spencer's favorite objects to identify is "octagon." And he is delighted that we pass several [stop signs] driving to and from school each day.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Hot and Cold

These are two of Spencer's new favorite signs and words. He's got the concepts down, and can generalize quite well that many different objects (besides food) can be hot or cold. When he enters a tub of warm water he'll say "hot hot" and make his baby sign by blowing out through his mouth. Or, yesterday when wandering barefoot at home, he came across the cool tile, pulled his arms in to his chest and shivered and said "BRRRRR!" Very, very cute.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

April in Houston

Today was a reminder of just how perfect April can be in Houston - temps right around 70, bright blue skies with no clouds, and ridiculous amounts of sunshine. I felt a bit guilty dropping Spencer at childwatch while I started the day with Pilates, but I knew we had big plans in store so it was ok. Afterwards we wandered over to the fields to the annual YMCA Healthy Kids Day, and our Y sure seemed to do it up right. Spencer was most pleased by the abundance of balloons, and demonstrated his newly learned sign for 'train' when we rode on it with other moms and kids around the field. Then off to Brenham. Last year I never made this trip when Spencer was little, a bit worried about driving around aimlessly with an infant. But this year I was armed with specific info from other mommies about "prime spots" for flower pictures. Unfortunately, armpit-high wildflowers made Spencer less than pleased, but I kept snapping away. We even stopped in at Blue Bell Creamery - I failed to deliver on my promise to Spencer that we were going to see cows, but I think sharing my ice cream made up for it! Here are more than a few pictures from a gorgeous day in Houston/Brenham.