Playdates galore

We've had a fun week hitting playdate after playdate. We're actually suppose to go to another one tomorrow, but I let the hosting mom know we are only a maybe. When we got home from the park today, Leo's diaper had a record amount of sand in it. Impressive.
Here he is bossing everyone around. Swinging.

Being silly with mama's sunglasses.

I didn't finish grading my students' papers like I had intended. Tom was kind enough to pick up a couple of bags of candy so I can appease the kids and take the weekend to finish them up.

Dance Dance Baby

Nana sent Leo a "toddler tunes" CD. We popped it right in the player and it was a hit. We listen to a lot of music around here, but kiddie music is especially appreciated by Leo. Here he is showing off his moves.

So, Leo's surgery is scheduled for March 31st, which is right after my winter quarter ends and about a week before my spring quarter begins. I can completely dedicate myself to pampering my son during his recovery. From what I understand, the recovery should be pretty quick. Little kids have an amazing way of bouncing back fast. Though the timing of the procedure is perfect, it's a little ways away giving me a lot of time to obsess on it. Maybe it is because I've been through so many surgeries and procedures myself, I know what's in store and I don't want to think about my little boy having to go through it. I'm trying to remind myself that this is a very simple, routine procedure and he is going to be fine and once this is behind us, our normal life will resume as if it never happened. But mama fear is strong and I can't help but worry and obsess. Maybe my sense of this stuff is heighted because of my experience with my brother, Mikey. I don't know. I read a couple of blogs by parents of kids with special needs. One little five-month-old girl with spina bifida just underwent brain surgery (she did really well). It helps put it all in perspective. I'm very lucky and my son is amazing.

No clever title tonight

I have a large stack of essays waiting to be graded. Anyone interested in making a little cash?

Yesterday I organized a little outing to the San Jose Children's Museum. We had a blast. It was such a different experience from last time (on Leo's birthday) since he is now a walker. He loved the "disco room" (just a big open space with flashing lights and music) and the water area. He spent a good 15 minutes putting plastic balls into a water tornado thing, over and over. He got soaked, but I thought ahead and brought a change of clothes. We were so busy having fun and eating lunch that I only took one picture. Here he is in the "pretend play" area. I knew he was ready for lunch when he started handing me the plastic fruit and signing "more". Here's a pic and a little video of him with his juice. We don't give Leo juice since it is pretty much needless sugar. He gets momma's milk and water. I keep meaning to start him on cow's milk, but I've been lazy about it (I know, bad mom). But tonight, Tom juiced some oranges from our neighbor's tree and some carrots, so Leo got a treat. He loved it and made a mess of his last stain-free onesie.

So our TV broke today, just a few days before we were planning to get a new one. Isn't that amazing how things work out? I may place a little blame on Leo and his affection for turning it on and off and on and off. No TV means more time for other stuff (like grading those papers, ugh), so here are some links to two good articles I read in a recent issue of the New Yorker. One on Scrabble and another on pumping breastmilk.

Still busy...

and very tired. I'm still trying to figure out the work/mommy balance. It's not easy, I tell ya. I'm looking forward to next quarter when I have a more traditional college instructor schedule (two days a week, mid-afternoon class). But the beauty of the quarter system is its brevity, so I won't be having to deal with this five-day-a-week madness forever. My mom visited this weekend, which was so helpful. Loads of laundry and dishes were dealt with, errands were run sans toddler, class work was taken care of while Leo was entertained by Nana. Awesome!

Leo had his 15 month check-up yesterday. And once again, the doctor declared him a happy, healthy kid. He's 23 pounds and 31.5 inches tall. She's happy with his language progress despite his lack of "real" words. He does a lot of mimicking and has his own words for things (da da = cat, wee-wee= wheel). I've also taught him a couple of signs ("frog", "more", "eat" and we're working on "please"). He's getting more consistent with "hi" and "bye" too, which is cool. The pediatrician agreed with the surgeon's assessment, so we will be moving forward with the procedure. I'll keep you updated on that.

Here's Nana and Leo playing at the park.

Nana spent a lot of time pushing Leo around on his tricycle, which he loved.

Cruisin' on the trike, wearing Nana's visor.

I like this picture

Back in August, we attended a wedding on the Oregon Coast. The bride recently shared the photos and I like this one of Leo and I from the evening before the ceremony.

A couple of videos

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a busy week. We've had some insane weather and we've tried to spend a lot of time outside. Lots of park visits and walks around the cul-de-sac inspecting the neighbors' yards. On Tuesday, we got squeezed in for a surgical consult. We had to wait for over an hour to see the doctor, which was not easy since Leo was missing his nap. But the doctor was super nice, so that made up for it. He gave me a lot of info, including a hernia booklet. We have our 15 month check-up with our pediatrician on Tuesday, so once we get some additional feedback from her, we'll make a decision about surgery.



Here are some recent pics:

A Sunday evening concert. Tom was taking a little break from his hours long search for the channel changer which Leo hid in his wagon.

Trying his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich today.

Running around like a maniac at the park.

I'd like to post some videos, but Blogger isn't cooperating. I'll try tomorrow.

Picnic

Some of the kids in the cul-de-sac organized a little picnic today. When we showed up (a little late), Leo was greeted like a celebrity. "Leo's here!", the kids shouted as we approached. It was beautiful weather and Leo really enjoyed himself. He also wore himself out walking up and down the street, so he took a great afternoon nap.

Here's our neighbor, Anna, showing Leo how to play with a rocket toy. Leo wasn't very impressed.

Leo always likes watching big kids, but he was especially fascinated by Issac wearing sunglasses.

Enjoying lunch with the kids.

Relaxing in a Leo-sized lawn chair. Having so much fun is hard work.

Wednesday play date

Now that the holidays are over, our Wednesday play dates have resumed. It was great to see the crew yesterday and commiserate about the holidays and the lack of sleep all of our kids got while away from their familiar cribs. As much as I love being with Leo, parenting a toddler is a lot of work. They are moody little creatures and I spend my whole day with a two and half foot shadow. I dream of the day I can pee alone. Chatting with the other moms gives me an opportunity to vent and get ideas about how to deal with this strange little person.

April took all these great pictures. Doug just chillin'.

Daisy giving Addison a hug.

Leo and James.

I'm trying to get Leo to hand over something gross he found on the ground. He wasn't interested in giving it up, so I took it by force causing a mini-tantrum.

First Day Back

Today was my first day back teaching since last June. I've been dreading it, but it wasn't too bad. Typical first day of class - I was nervous and talked too fast. The students looked tired (it's a 9:30am class), but didn't overtly roll their eyes at my lame attempts at humor. My class meets daily for 50 minutes, which is strange for a college class. Leo stays home with a sitter since I'm only out of the house for two hours total (three hours on Tuesdays when I have office hours). She's from Estonia (look it up), very nice, and today she informed me that Leo is speaking Russian. Apparently "da" is "yes" and Leo says this a lot, so I guess he's a very agreeable boy. Most of the time the sitter is here, Leo is napping. This allows the sitter to do some "light housework" and means I don't miss out on much awake time with Leo. He is so much fun, I wouldn't want to spend too much time away from him while he's up and being silly. Today we read the same books over and over and over....and over. Annoying, yes, but he sits on my lap, resting against me and allows me to rub my cheek on his hair and I love every minute of it.

He's still waking up at night, so we think he's still experience teething pain. Tom has taken over getting up, so Leo doesn't have any nursing expectations during the night. Though, when he is upset and having trouble falling back asleep, I'm very tempted to run in there for a little booby time, since that fixes everything.

I spoke to the pediatrician again today and she's going to follow up on Leo's surgery referral so we can get this thing on the calendar. I don't like it hanging over our heads. I want to know when it is, so I can start visualizing it being over.

Here's the man himself, sporting his favorite look of the moment. He loves to wear his "fancy lady beads" around the house. In this shot he's got the mardi gras beads, my nursing necklace and a bit of Christmas ribbon. I think he may this tendency from me since I went through a shower cap phase and a life jacket phase when I was little (thankfully, not at the same time). Here he is playing on his new zebra (the modern version of a rocking horse) from his Ito and Sharon. He really loves this thing, but pulled "serious face" during filming. Notice he's rocking the beads, of course.

Nothing's better...

than discovering a forgotten Christmas present in the back of the closet.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2009! Leo decided to ring in the new year by waking up at midnight, completely miserable, and staying up for over two hours. He fell asleep only to wake up every two hours after that. Though we're not completely sure what the problem was, we're guessing it is teething. We can see a couple breaking through towards the front and his molars are definitely making progress too.

Thankfully, Leo's rough night did not effect our guests as badly as it did Tom and me. Carrie and Maggie came to town on Tuesday to spend some time with Leo. They showered him with lots of love and attention. We were sad to see them go today, but hopefully they'll come back soon.

Maggie and Leo play at the park. Maggie is hiding her cast - a souvenir from some Christmas day sledding. Leo wears his "fancy lady" beads on New Year's Eve.

Maggie, Carrie and Leo give good grins before saying goodbye.