St. Nicholas Day 2009

Hi everyone! 

Last year, as you may or may not remember, Matt and I had a rough time figuring out how to build our own family holiday tradition.  Well, after seeing how tired and overwhelmed our little boy was last year, and getting to know some other Orthodox families and how they do holidays at home, we decided to do our stockings on St. Nicholas Day instead of waiting until Christmas morning.

Saturday night we went to our Church for Great Vespers, and the end of which we were paid a visit by our own resident Bishop St. Nicholas (ie. our Subdeacon dressed as St. Nicholas) who handed out candy canes.

As you can see, Justin couldn’t wait to help St. Nicholas make his entrance.    At one point I had to hold him back, as he was losing his composure to the excitement of it all:

Kids young and old got to venerate the Cross and receive a candy cane from our, as a friend dubbed him, “Sub-Nicholas”:

And of course the sugar high ensued.  Between the half-chewed chunks of cane and the little pink candy-drool spots on the floor, you almost had to watch your step!  I’ll tell you though, everyone seemed in good spirits – despite the army of increasingly wild kids.

 After all this excitement, we headed for home and to our warm beds (it’s been an awfully cold and windy December!).  This morning, Dec. 6, we got up and “discovered” our filled stockings!

And what did our little cheese find in his stocking?  A “hoose!”, a “kitteee!”, a Potato Head booster pack, and an orange.

No overwhelming morning before Church this time!  And who could be with this cheese smiling at you first thing in the morning?!

HALLOWEEN!!!

Sorry for the overdue post, friends. 

10/31/2009 marked Justin’s second Halloween adventure.  Taking Justin’s utter love for all things He-Man, we dressed him as none other than “The Most Powerful Man in the Universe”!

Okay, so for those of you who don’t remember what He-man looked like, here you go:

Then here’s the guy in the costume I spent WAY too many hours building (made the whole thing including the sword from scratch):

Once Justin was dressed and his squires equipped with his armory (pumpkin, sword, and foam battle axe), we headed to Costco and then to the mall for some introductory trick-or-treating.  All this not without a few outdoor adventures on the way to the car:

Then off we went:

Justin didn’t really get the whole “gimme candy” thing.  He thought it was cool to be around all the other kids all dressed up (he even chased a little boy dressed as Batman pointing and yelling, “Batman?!!”).  He’d run up to folks giving candy and just look at them.  Then, when they’d offer candy, he’d just shyly give a gesture as if to say, “no thanks, I’m good”.  He thought it all much cooler when he had a little candy (ie. shiny weighted objects) in his bucket that he could shake around. 

After visiting Patty at the Target Pharmacy, and tromping around the mall we headed for our friend Brooksana’s house to trick-or-treat, hang out, and chill down before heading home for bedtime.  Good times.

Oh!  I have to share the He-Man words Justin says/knows (it’s almost embarrassing how many he knows, and yet I’m proud…):

Buh-ban = He-Man

Owkow = Orko

Sow-sess = Sorceress

Cat! = Battle Cat

Manadoom = Man at Arms

Dandoe = King Randor

Biss-man = Beastman
Skehtoe = Skeletor

Msss-mn = Moss man

Ta ta = Teela

Gatskoo = Greyskull

Zoh = Zoar

 

Justin is 18-Months Old!!!

So, our not so little guy has reached 1 1/2!  In honor of this occasion, I made 18 bumblebee cupcakes:

Why bees? you may ask.  About a month ago, at the suggestion of our friend Erin, we picked up a copy of “Raising Your Spirited Child”.  This book describes Justin to a “T”.  There’s one anecdotal story in the book in which a 4 year old boy, when asked to put his shoes on by his mother so that they could get in the car a pick up his sister anxiously looks up at his mom and says, “But Mom! What about the bees in my body?!”.  In the case of the story, the little boy couldn’t fathom the torture that would be having to sit still in the car.  Justin clearly has this problem.  He simply has bees in his body that must get worked out somehow before he can sit still for more than half a second.  Realizing this about our child has led us to ensure that Justin gets at least an hour at the park 7 days a week – and it has helped.  Now before you all jump in and say, “oh, he’s just a boy”, I’ve watched him with other boys his age on more than one occasion.  Justin is easily 3 times “more” than other boys.  Not ADHD, just busier, more intense, and more emotional than other kids.  Oh, and he’s exactly like his father in this respect.  He’s wonderful and on occasion, can be found just bursting with buzzing bees!

Justin dove face first into the bee on his cupcake without hesitation:

It was great to spend Justin’s 18-month birthday with Nanna and Poppa – who he insists on talking to whenever someone is on the phone (who else could we be talking to?!).

So, a few updates will come soon, when in mid-October I’m able to give real stats on just how big our big boy is after his 18-month well child doctor visit.  In the meantime, enjoy these observations:

1.  Justin is running and pushing around anything he can get his hands on.  If it can be pushed across the floor, it will be. 

2.  Justin loves the park.  We are starting to make friends at Cornwall Park.  Justin would move in there if we’d let him – if only he could bring He-Man.

3.  Justin LOVES He-Man.  You know, the mid-1980’s cartoon.  Yeah.  He knows all the characters’ names (or the sound they make) and proudly shares when he watches them.  Some recent additions include “OwKoe” (Orko), “Soe-so-ess” (Sorceress), “Gatskoo” (Grayskull).

4.  Justin now is the proud owner of a total of 16 out of a total 20 baby teeth!  No wonder breastfeeding hasn’t been so comfy lately…  little bi-ped piranha!

5.  Justin’s most favorite foods include apples, spicy red pepper tomato sauce on whole grain penne, and Kraft Premium 3 cheese macaroni & cheese (where momma has swapped out half the noodles for frozen peas & carrots and added a little actual cheddar cheese – if you don’t do this, he won’t touch it). 

6.  Justin loves to be at Church.  He sings the “amen”s, the “hallelujah”s (though it’s more rhythm with lots of “L” sounds than anything), says “Mmm!” when he gets Communion and makes a big deal of kissing the Chalice.  He does many of the metanoyas (by looking around then touching his finger to the floor), and is getting really good at prostrations when called upon to do so.  He knows the difference between regular pictures and Icons (“Icon” is a new word for him this week), and regularly demands to kiss them by saying, “Kiss!! Kiss!!”.  And while he loves Church, he can’t stand still and is frequently walking around trying to get the best view of whatever is going on.  If he’s not able to see what he wants or we’re not cooperating with his requests (which can get awfully rediculous) he’ll yell and fuss forcing us to make a little escape for a break.  He may be awesome, but he’s still a toddler. 

7.  Justin still doesn’t sleep through the night.  On a good night he’ll only wake up 1-2 times (waking up qualifies as being awake enough to try to crawl into our bed and say, “Momma?  Nerrr??” ).  On a rough night he’ll be up as many as 6 times in 10 hours.  Talk about exhausting.  But the nights he sleeps better are getting more frequent, with the rough nights only happening maybe 1-2 times per week.  The biggest factor?  We know he won’t sleep well at night if his nap was interrupted by a phone call or daddy trying to move him to his bed so he can use the restroom.  That and not getting enough exercise - hence the daily park visits. 

So that’s what our little monkey is up to.

Do You Know Who’s Chatting with Your Daughter Online?

I couldn’t resist.

To Quote a Beloved (bad) Movie…

“It’s better to get pissed off, than pissed on!” – Achoo, Robin Hood: Men in Tights

You know, as a parent, I expected some excrement.  Really, I did.  When Justin was itty-bitty I had some good adventures in Diaper-Land.  There was the time I took his diaper off to change him (1-month-old and had a cold) and he shot poop about 18 inches across the changing table.  Then there was that first Pascha where a diaper leak led to me getting poop all down the front of my shirt and no clean shirt to change into at Church.  At his first visit with the pediatrician, I went to get him in his birthday suit to be weighed and he peed straight up into his hair, down his face and across his belly.  Lately though, these adventures have been generally limited to diapers being over-saturated first thing in the morning resulting in the need to change all our sheets or the occasional poopy blow-out.

Excrement happens.

Last night, my little boy didn’t want me to put a new diaper on him when I was getting him ready for bed.  This is not new behavior.  Daddy does diaper changes, Mommy is to be toyed with.  So there I am, sitting on the living room floor in my jammies trying to get Justin into his.  He, naturally thinks it’s hilarious to run around me in circles in the buff occasionally stopping to pull my hair.  But this time, that wasn’t all he had in mind:  he suddenly stopped running long enough to lean into my back, bury his face in my hair and pee.  That’s right, pee.  Standing there, in the living room, right down my back.  I’ve never been so horrified to feel anything warm/wet in my life.  Shirt, jammy-pants, undies – all soaked through.  The carpet?  fortunately left unscathed due to the amazing absorbent power of my own, personal pajamas.   Nice.

That’s another adventure for the books, or at least the running list of stories I could unleash upon a teenage boy in front of a girl he’s trying to impress.  I don’t know a mom who would do such a thing… but it’s an option to consider. 

The Fair!!!

Last year, we weren’t able to go to the NW Washington Fair in Lynden because we were busy going to Justin’s godparents’ wedding in California.  That was a wonderful trip, and I think that Justin enjoyed the Fair better this year than he would have at the 5 months old he was last year.

Mostly we went for the animals.  Justin LOVES animals. 

Our first stop was at the cattle barn:

This little bull’s owner actually let Justin touch her cow, but needless to say, the cow wasn’t terribly impressed when Justin poked his finger in the cow’s eye and enthusiastically proclaimed, “That’s yo’ eye?!”   Forgiveness was granted (I’m sure the cow promptly forgot) when we moved on to the next pen:  sheep and goats!

I’m sure he’d have ridden this one if we let him…  except the part where Justin kept putting his finger in the sheep’s water and making the sheep look more and more suspicious of this obsurd pink bi-ped on a leash.

Then it was off to have a bit of lunch.  Justin LOVES grapes, and Poppa and Nanna brought grapes.  Needless to say, the three got along nicely.

I can’t say much for the other entertainment while we were eating though.  Here we are, in Lynden, WA of all places at a county fair and what’s the hour’s entertainment?  Well, how ’bout an offbeat klezmer band with an improvisational hula-hoop-dancer with hot pink hair putting on a show together?  Wow.  How random is that?!  I tell you, I never expected to watch a hot-pink-hair girl dancing in a hula-hoop to Hava Nagila anywhere, much less Lynden (the Dutch town that’s so Dutch -and therefore Reformed – that you get cited if you mow your lawn on Sunday, not to mention that it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for greatest number of churches per capita).  And yet, there we were.

Then it was off to Justin’s favorite part of the whole fair – the chicken coop! 

At first we didn’t think he was enjoying it.  Then I thought I heard something.  I leaned over the stroller and put my ear down close to Justin.  What did I hear?  Very quiet repetitions of “oo OOO!”

I tried to catch it on video, but he was already on to us that we were listening so my video doesn’t catch all of his enthusiasm for it, but alas, I have some video, and to me, it’s priceless.  Enjoy.

What was cool was the fact that at home we’d taught him “Cock-a-doodle Doo!”.   And when he copied us he’d say, “Cah-doo-doo”.  But here he was in the chicken barn at the fair correcting himself on what we’d taught him: roosters don’t say, “Cock-a-doodle-doo”! they say “oo-oo-OOO!”.  Oh, and he liked the baby chicks too:

Little yellow chicks still say “Bock! Bock!”, by the way.  Oh, and they’re awesome. 

Of course we adults wandered around the goofy salespeople at their booths, looked at over-priced kitchy crafts (Justin wanted a wooden flute SO bad!), and walked ’till our feet were sore.  Definitely a great day. 

Thanks for coming with us, Nanna and Poppa!!

Summer Fun!!

Sorry for the long absence.  Working at 5:30am each morning and having to go to bed when Justin does hasn’t left me much time for telling all that’s been going on!  This has (so far) been a fun and exciting adventure of a summer (and lots more to go!).  Justin has made lots of discoveries:

1. Outdoor water – generally in the form of fountains and sprinklers:

 

2. Penguins are awesome.

3.  Shopping carts can be bent to the will of this toddler.

(You’ll note that he’s buckled in.  When we first put him in the cart he was facing the appropriate direction.  He has toddler powers I’ll never be able to understand.)

4.  “He-Man Day” is the best day of the month.

Each month MattyCollector.com releases a new Masters of the Universe Classics figure.  Justin loves He-Man and the MOTU more than just about anything.  He has endearing names for He-Man (Bubba), Battle-Cat (cat-cat!), Orko (oukkg), Mer-Man (“gtgrr” is the sound Mer-man makes), and Skeletor (pronounced “skeh-toe” and frequently followed by an open mouthed “he he he”). 

5.  I can use my words to get what I want:  One morning, repeatedly handing Momma one shirt after another and demanding “And this!” got me to have 6 shirts on at once.  Also, shoes are to be applied simultaneously, not one at a time.

More to come!!  (especially since we’re going to the Northwest Washington Fair on Monday afternoon with Nanna and Poppa!!!)

Our Little Bat-child

In my reflections on Father’s Day, I thought it’d be appropriate to find a way for my boys to have a little “common ground” time.

Meet Justin’s Dad:

This is the Halloween costume I made for Matt while we were dating.

Tonight after his bath, I suited Justin up in his new Batman pajamas (complete with cape). 

Here’s the portrait:

“Look at all my MUS-KULLS!!!”

Then he went about his regular business… just happening to be in his Bat-suit:

Then he proceded with the plotting necessary of a dark anti-hero:

Geek in the making…

Comments?

Justin’s First Few Unassisted Steps!

Short, but complete with the sounds he frequently makes while toddling around.  Now, just 2-3 days later, we’ve installed “Buckles-the-Monkey” as a new fixture to all our outings.   The added exercise of walking all the time has helped Justin sleep much better once he’s asleep.  Now, if we can just get the other three of those nasty first molars through to make the rest of the evening easier (he’ll get through that 5lb steak so much faster once those puppies are in!!)