Beatrix is 5!

March 14th, 2013

My sweet, endearing, sensitive, stubborn, beautiful mini me, you’re five years old!

I am both at odds with you being five and so amazed!  I’m at odds because it means I”m ageing, time is passing and it brings the day closer to when you’ll move away.  On the other hand I am amazed.  You were such a tiny baby, and even so sick for a while, and now you’re this vibrant, intelligent, albeit tiny five year old.  You are amazing on so many levels.  You leave me breathless daily, from how your eyelashes graze your cheeks when you sleep, the curve of your cheek, the lovely shade of red that your lips are on your fair skin, your amazing blue eyes, which get overlooked when you are next to your brother, even though they are the same shade of blue.  You leave me breathless when I am so frustrated at your stubborn ways.  I rationalize with myself that you’ll never be a pushover, so I’ll celebrate your stubbornness, and I know where you get it from, and I think I’ve done pretty well for myself.  I did create you after all!  And you take my breath away at just how witty and bright you are.  You make funny jokes, you deadpan which leaves me aghast at how you understand that humour, or it just comes naturally, either way, it’s funny and I often guffaw under my breath.  While you get your stubborn nature from me, we all know you get your brilliant intelligence from Daddy.  I gave you one of your first Lego kits a few weeks ago and you assembled it in no time by following the instructions.  I was sure you’d get frustrated and leave it to me to assemble most of it, but when you called me over you were nearly done and were confused at why something wasn’t working and it was because a page in the manual wasn’t opened all of the way.  (it folded in on itself)  I guess it’s time for us to move away from Duplo into the wonderful world of Lego.

You love princesses and Disney.  I know a lot of people claim that this will ruin you, and if I defend that you still play with other toys and don’t always gravitate to pink, the princess detesters still come back with how it’s not normal to play like that.  My darling, you play with your princesses, dress like them and love your pink.  I will protect you from the scowls of the others, as I pack the van to go to Disney, yet again.  We bought season passes this year and we’ve been several times and you and your brother have so much fun!  Daddy and I have already planned several more trips, with one coming in the next couple of weeks, with just you and I!  I plan to keep it a secret until we leave, I think you’ll be so excited, it will be an epic Mama and Trixie date!

The night before you turned 5 I was putting you to bed and told you your birth story for the first time, and as I was telling it I realized that it’s not the best bedtime story for a little girl.  It’s a little graphic and unsettling, even now for me!  But I glossed over a lot, so it was very short and ended with me holding my beautiful little girl.  After the story I reminded you that you’d turn five the next day and you started to cry. You were worried that you wouldn’t be allowed to go back to school because you’re in a four year old class and you though that you wouldn’t get to see your teacher again.  Poor sweet girl!  I reassured you that you would get to see her again and that your class is actually for four and five year olds.  This is one of the reasons why you are so amazing, you are so sensitive and empathetic, you love other people and sincerely care for them.  There’s lots of talk in the world now how children are getting numb to other people and don’t notice other’s pain, for example when a child is hurt on a playground other children will ignore that child and keep playing because they’ve become immune from media to other’s pain.  You aren’t numb to it.  You will go to that child.  This warms my heart.  You are so sweet and caring!

At school you are in a class with 17 boys and 7 girls, but you are thriving!  You are that girl who will play with the boys and the girls.  You’ll play a little bit at one area and when that cycle of play is done you move on to another area.  However you do spend the bulk of your time at the craft table and the free craft table.  You love to create and make and explore!  The days that I am at the school you check in with me, but you are confident enough to keep on with your day, you do love to be at my snack table, and I try to always save you a seat, and your teacher is kind enough to change your circle time so you can have your snack with me.  We are blessed to have her as your teacher this year!

This past year you’ve been thinking about what you want to be when you grow up, you’ve settled on a paleontologist, an entomologist or an anthropologist, so you love dinosaurs, bugs and bones.  You also love animals and dote on Chachi and Bonsai relentlessly, much to their happiness and distaste depending on their moods.  Daddy and I are considering getting you a cat to help defray your ministrations from Bonsai to a younger cat who is less grumpy.  For your birthday party you chose to benefit the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, so we had your friends bring stuff for the animals instead of gifts for you.  I love how you understand that you won’t get presents and you loved the tour of the facilities so you could see who the presents would be benefiting.  I also have the added bonus of not trying to figure out where to store a whole bunch of new toys!

For the past while, probably 2 years you’ve been dressing yourself, and I look forward every day to seeing what creation you’ve come up with.  I secretly take pleasure in your stripes and spot configurations.  I love your intentional mismatched socks and the days when you’re monochromatic down to your underwear.  I joke that I need to create a look book for you, and I should!  I wish I had the same fearless approach to fashion as you do.  In fact everyone should, you dress with abandon and wear what makes you feel happy that day, not what some talking head or rather bobble head as it may be, dictates what you should wear.  You’ve also discovered light up shoes this year and you’ve already worn a pair out and are onto your second pair.  I indulge you because you love them so!  You’ve also started to choose your brother’s clothes, mostly so that he’ll coordinate with you, which I find so many levels of adorable.

At our five year check up at the doctors he was gracious enough to point out how tiny you are.  You’re 3rd percent for weight and 6 for height, Hudson is 3 inches or so shorter than you and only about a pound less than you.  You are tiny!  (32lbs 39 inches)  I’ve been telling you for a while that you are petite and you’ve embraced it, reminding folks that you are “betite” like you Mama, I’ve heard you in your room giving yourself peptalks about your smallness:  ”I have long legs and short body, I’ll be a good ball-ler-ay dancer.  Mama has a long body and short legs, but she’s betite like me.”.  You’re still in a 3T and you wear a size 8 or 9 shoe.  You are tiny.  The doctor isn’t worried, considering that I’m only 5 feet tall and Daddy is small too, we are going to keep an eye on you though, just to make sure that there isn’t anything going awry.  In the meantime we have to make sure that you eat all of the go food, because you’re not a big eater so we have to make sure that the food you do eat is nutritious.  You’re pretty good about it though and luckily you love fruit and veggies.  I find it amusing how you remind Daddy and I often how you’re a “vege-me-tarian”, and when you tell me you are, I honour it.  It is funny though how you become a meat eater when there is red chicken to be eaten!

Finally my love, you are amazing.  These past five years have been intense and wonderful.  I tell you often how you and I are learning all about parenting together since you’re my first, and I’m not kidding.  You are teaching me as much as I am teaching you.  You’re brother is a lucky boy that you’re my teacher on this endeavour.  I love being a parent so much, and I owe it to you!  Parenting you, while challenging at times, it such a joy.  You are a joy.  I am a lucky Mama.

I love you so much, so so much.  As big as the universe, times infinity!

Love, forever and always,

Mama.

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Hudson is three!

February 24th, 2013

Hudson!  My sweet boy!  You’re three years old!  I type this knowing that I am late on this post and ever so delinquent on doing your monthly posts, so delinquent that it’s best that I not mention it, ever again.

Anyhow, you have grown into this adorable, snuggly little boy.  I adore you and your tounge thrust lisp.  You are quick to give hugs, but never kisses since they are gah-ross!  You are also quick to tears if chided, but hugs and snuggles will resolve the tears and we both feel better after a little chat about what was wrong and what we can do better next time.

While you spend most of your time with your sister and me, and most of your friends are girls; you my boy, are all boy, a sensitive boy, but all boy.  I love your devotion to Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I love your shaggy blonde hair and incredibly bright blue eyes.  I love your pink lips, even with their little scar, I love how your hands are forever dirty (I must go through a brick of baby wipes every couple of days chasing you down to wipe you up), I love how you, even with your dirty hands, always want to touch my face, to look into my eyes.  I love you so much.

You are an incredibly bright boy.  You often baffle Daddy and I with your ability to make stunning connections about the world around you.  You have this intense desire to understand how things work.  Daddy says you have the “knack” (for engineering), mostly I just try to keep you safe!  We were at the mall one day riding the coin operated rides and you climbed off of your ride while it was going and tried to get a good peek underneath it to see the mechanics of it.  I had a mini heart attack watching you do this, because I was worried that you would crush your head.  Now writing it out, it seems like I was standing far away, but you’re quick, I was close!  We had a chat about how to stay safe, and I had to remind you a couple more times, but you were just so interested to see how it worked.  Other times at a park you’ll crawl off of a moving part of some apparatus and see how it works.  I’m starting to get good at anticipating what you’ll need to inspect before I need to panic about crushed heads or pinched fingers, but yes, I’ll agree with Daddy, you have the “knack” indeed.  But please, Sweet Boy, be safe, if only to protect my heart!

You also have a good understanding of your letters and numbers.  You know your upper case and lower case numbers and you can write your name.  You can count to 10+ in English and to 10 in Spanish, and we’re working on French.  We practice basic math, and you are grasping it so easily.  Now if you’re reading this in your 20s or so and think that I ran a super tight ship and made you study study study while you were only two years old, you are absolutely right!  Except, no, I’m sure you know that we just played with letters and numbers a lot.  You know that your Daddy and I valued such things and we just worked them into daily life.  Who knew that there were so many lessons that could be casually brought together from a bag of clementines!

Speaking of oranges!  Oh my word!  You love oranges!  You will beg me to peel you orange after orange until you’ve eaten four or five, which is when I’d normally cut you off; I should just let you keep eating them to see what your limit is, but I fear for your tummy.  I don’t think there is a limit for you.  Luckily though, I have planted an orange tree at our new house.  I hope it keeps you in oranges, if not, I’ll plant another.  Although I also planted a grapefruit, lime, two kumquats and a buddah hand, which you love to chant as you play in the back yard.  ”Bue-dah hae-ndh, bue-dah hae-ndh.”  This is in addition the the two lemons trees we already have, which you make great use of.  I am grateful that you adore citrus so much, but honestly I worry about your tummy!  With eating though, you are still a pretty good eater.  We have days when you would rather play than eat, and I try to let you do what you need to do, but lets not forgo eating too much, okay?  You’ve also recently decided that you love spicy food, and your favourite spicy food is red fish, as you call it, which is the spicy Korean fish cake.  You’ve also told me that only boys like spicy food.  I didn’t have the heart to tell you otherwise, but reality in our house, is that Daddy and you are the ones who eat most of the spicy food!

Oh my word Hudson, you love babies!  We have a little baby in our social circle whom you adore.  It’s ovary jumping adorable to watch you play with her.  You’ll go up to her, and she’ll squeal her amusement at seeing you, then you’ll offer her your face and head, to which she pokes and tears at, to your delight.  You’ll often tell me that you want a baby sister just like Baby Ruth.  And Buddy, I’m working on it!

Recently you got a new baby cousin, Esmee, and while you’ve only been allowed to peek at her so far, you’re so excited at her arrival.  We talk of her a lot and you can recognize photos of her, and plot which toys you’re going to share with her and how you’re going to play with her.  It’s so cute to see you bonding with her in your own way, in her absence.  I know that you’re going to make an amazing big cousin and eventually big brother!

Your favourite toys are wheeled or mechanic in some way.  I often find you surrounded by duplos and hot wheel cars.  Sometimes though you do play with baby dolls, which is interesting since your sister has doffed baby dolls all together.  You also love playdough, any crafts and playing in your play kitchen.  For Christmas you got a couple of toy knives in different play sets, a play breakfast set, a playdough set and in a fossil toy thing, and you have managed to bring them all together and will proudly share your “knife-es” with your Daddy and I.  It’s really cute how you’ve not learned the correct plural form of ‘knife’, and while I correct you, I secretly hope you’ll keep saying it wrong.  Also I can see how it looks a little creepy that you like your collection of knives, but you spend a lot of time chopping your playdough to make little meals for me or Daddy or even Sister.  So perhaps with having the knack for engineering you have the knack for being a cook or chef.

Finally, my little Doodle, my little Bunny, my little Buddy, my Sweet Boy, I love you to pieces, and while I can’t wait to have a sibling for you, I am so happy that you’ve been my baby for so long.  I know you’re excited to be a big boy now, and that you’re ready to move away from babydom, but you’ll always be my Sweet Boy.  I love you so much; you know how much, as big as the universe, times infinity.

 

love, always and forever,

Mama.

Posted in Hudson, monthy letters | 1 Comment »

So Much Love!

October 23rd, 2012

I’ve had a pretty overwhelming response to my post yesterday.

It’s so heartwarming to read everyone’s kind and wise words here and on Facebook.  Also thank you to everyone else who shared their stories, either publicly or privately.  It’s very touching.

This journey has been surprisingly emotional for me.  Less so about the weight loss and more about what I can do now, and who I’ve managed to change into.  I’ve shocked myself several times when I find myself tearing up at a stop light when I’m running, or just before I did the triathlon I was on the verge of tears for a whole week.  Then when I crossed the finish line, I was That Girl.  The one who was a sobbing mess, clinging to a friend crying into her neck.  Yep, That Girl.  Oddly, I’m not humiliated.  It was pretty powerful for me to complete a triathlon, even if it did take me longer than I wanted, I feel like that when I crossed the finish line I changed into a different person, shedding the fat suit.  It was intense.  And it was sudden!  Moments before as I was running on the beach I did a little emotional check and I felt okay, glad to be done, but not emotional, I was pretty sure I’d be okay when I crossed.  Heh.

(Also they said my name wrong as I crossed. One R folks, Deadra has one R!)

The other night I was watching Grey’s Anatomy and they had that scene, where the girl who had the skin removal was moved by her new, albeit bruised and swollen body, and I teared up.  I knew that I would get loose skin after I lost a lot of weight, and I didn’t think it would bother me, and yet, it does.  I don’t want to trade it for the previously plumped skin I had, but the bat wings are awful.  So I understood this girl’s joy.  It was moving, and caught me unexpected.  If they feature a woman who’s lost a lot of hair in the next episode I’m sure I’ll lose my mind there too!  (I’ve lost about half of my hair, it’s already growing back, but I’ve always had some vanity around my hair.)

And yesterday, with all of your kind comments, supportive words.  They were so wonderful.  I was a sniffling mess yesterday.

I’m a lucky girl.  For so many reasons.  So blessed.

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The Why, The How.

October 22nd, 2012

Alternative title:  ”The the Judgement Begin.”

People ask me all of the time how I lost my weight and I struggle with how to answer them.

So in full disclosure, I had weight loss surgery on February 29, 2012.  I had the gastric sleeve.  Basically it’s where they removed much of my stomach, leaving behind a tube of a stomach.  You can do research on it if you care to learn more, but I chose it because in my mind it was less invasive than the bypass and the lap band, which has proven to be less effective and cause more issues.  (You have a chunk of plastic in your body, possibly forever.)

I am happy with my choice.  I understand that things can change, but right now I am happy.

The reason I chose to do this is a story:

It took over a year to get pregnant with Trixie, when I did finally get pregnant I was about 220 pounds, I successfully carried her to term and then some, and had a traumatic birth, not related to my weight.  She left the hospital eventually and is now a happy and healthy girl.  When we decided to get pregnant again I went back to the fertility doctor and that’s when they started talking about weight loss surgery (WLS), and I was angry at them for even suggesting it to me.  There was no way I’d consider that!  I got pregnant, had a healthy pregnancy and a VBAC, I was 220 pounds when I got pregnant and 250 when I gave birth.  (The same for both).  Then we decided to get pregnant again, more talk of WLS and more anger from me.  Again I was about 220, having easily lost the 30ish pounds each time.  I got pregnant and lost that pregnancy.  I was devastated.  I actually thought to myself that I needed to punish my body, so I had some McDonalds.  It made me feel awful.

I had been diagnosed with having had a blighted ovum, which is when there is an embryo that implants but your body rejects it because it detects a problem with the embryo, but since a placenta starts to form you get all of the pregnancy hormones and symptoms.  (This is also what happened with Hudson’s twin.)  It was awful.  From what I was told it’s not uncommon, but not that common either, and it generally doesn’t happen more than once in a lifetime, and there I was on my second one.  Also being fat could have contributed, or not.  No one knows.  Regardless of there ever being a baby, or not, because there was an embryo at some time, I was still pregnant and wanted that baby.  I was devastated and so mad at my body.

It took a little while, but I got past wanting to punish myself, but I would like to avoid ever having that happen again.  I also thought a lot of my children and how they see me, how others see me.  I thought a lot of how I was bullied as a child and even as a young adult because of my weight.  I think of how I had 2 men in my life tell me that they couldn’t be with me because of my weight (but they would have sex with me).  Mostly I thought of my children.  They needed a Mama who was healthy, who could play with them on the floor, who could run and jump with them.  So I made an appointment.  I got a referral, I went to a lot of classes, I saw a surgeon and I lamented.  I talked to doctors, psychologists and friends.  I learned a lot about myself, and then I made the choice.

Before I could have my surgery the surgeon told me I had to lose 20 pounds, so I started swimming.  I swam a lot, and I lost that 20 pounds, slowly.  Then I had the surgery and I kept swimming, I added running and some biking and some stretching classes (barre).  I was amazed at how easy running had gotten.  It’s funny really, but it’s so much easier when you’re carting around so much less bulk.  Now I’ve completed a triathlon.  I also changed how I ate, and I eat less.  I still eat healthy though, and I don’t eat low fat or fake sugar.  I eat full fat foods and I really limit my sugar intake.  I don’t really eat bread, but it’s not because I want to be low carb, it’s because I see bread as a filler and I don’t have a lot of stomach space for filler.  I stick to high protein, nutrient dense foods.   I am an anomaly in the WLS world because I don’t do diet foods, I don’t eat processed foods.  I have lots of protein powders, but I don’t use them much unless I”m starting to feel like I”m low on protein.  Which honestly isn’t that often.  I’m supposed to take vitamins every day, for the rest of my life, but I am awful at remembering them.  I do my best, but I think that my good healthy diet helps me out.  All of my vitamin levels are good, but I am not advocating not taking your vitamins.  I need to work on remembering them.  I make an effort every day to make good food choices, and there are bad days and there are better days.  I still have to control my environment just like anyone else losing weight.

So the whole point of this post?

I need to convince myself that I have no reason to be ashamed that I made the choice I did.  So I’m going to own it.

I had weight loss surgery, I’ve lost close to 90 pounds overall.  But the WLS was only a tool.  I work my butt off.  I work out, I am not letting this weight fall off of my body passively.  I guess I could do that, but that’s not going to help me in the long run, and I wouldn’t be a good role model for my children.   Many of the people close to me know, but I’ve kept it from some people, worried about judgement.  Then yesterday happened.  I had a small Halloween party for my son’s playgroup, and one of the moms at it told me she was jealous and asked me how I lost my weight, and I told her that I had WLS, and I watched her face.  First there was the eye widening of shock, then the furrowed brow, wrinkled nose and eye shift of disdain.  I saw this and followed up with that I run a lot and swim a lot then run some more and she just looked at me, impassive.  By then one of my kids needed me and I took the opportunity to walk away with my anger before I said something to her.  And I was so mad!  She judged me because of a choice I made that was right for me!  For my family!  I understand why she judged me, there is this view of WLS, that it’s the lazy way out.  So let me explain to you how it’s not.  It’s serious.  It’s a major surgery, and it hurt, a lot.  The first weeks sucked.  And some days it still sucks.  I worked my tail off, I need to stress this, I worked out a lot, when I had the surgery I couldn’t run a mile without stopping, now I run and run and run.  I’m healthier.  My blood pressure, while never dangerously high, is so much better.  My eyesight has gotten better, which can mean my blood sugar, which was never dangerously high, is lower too.  I was a healthy fat person, but now I am an even healthier thinner person.  I went from a tight 2XL to a M, from a tight size 20 jeans to a 10.  I still have a good 20 pounds to lose, and I made the right choice.  I don’t want to be the poster girl for WLS, but I need to be comfortable with myself and my choices.  I”ll let the judgement roll away and know that it comes from society not from an individual person.  (I’ve also cultivated a disdain for Jillian Micheals, but that’s another post.)

I won’t let anyone’s judgement throw me off of my game again.  Ever.  I don’t know if I will always tell folks that I had the surgery or that I just ran it off.  Mostly I can’t wait until it’s a non issue.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

I am pro love!

August 10th, 2012

So I know that the chick fil a thing is so last week, but it’s still bubbling away in my brain meats.  I get so irritated why I see some right winged nut job making a comment that the chick guy was just answering a question.  Ugh!  He was not just answering a question.  If he is a big business owner in the US he’s going to know politics, and he’s going to know what’s going on culturally, heck if you have a heartbeat in the western hemisphere you know what’s going on with the argument around gay marriage.  So my argument is this guy knew that if he made a comment regarding “traditional marriage” then he would be drawing a line in the sand, he would be saying that he was either pro love or pro hate.  Sure you can argue that words are being put into his mouth with that statement, but with the cultural environment right now, that’s what it boils down to, you are either supporting love and marriage, or you are supporting bigotry, the dismissal of equal rights and ultimatly hate.

I’m not okay with that.

Sure, say it’s free speech.  But you know, it goes both ways.

And don’t quote bible verses, don’t give me some song and dance about the sanctity of marriage, especially if you have the Kardashians on your Netflix queue or in your DVR.

The only person who has any bearing on your marriage is you and your spouse.  So get over it.

Besides you shouldn’t be eating fried chicken anyhow, it’s bad for you.

Posted in culture, facebook status, I'm a hippy, it's all about me, married life, politics, rants, religion | No Comments »

November 2011

November 30th, 2011

Is coming to an end, and this post will be my last for NaBloPoMo, of which I also won, having posted everyday in November.  (although if you check the time stamps it says otherwise, I guess word press didn’t roll back?)  Anyhow the bigger news is that I won NaNoWriMo with 50208 words.  I’m so proud of myself.

A couple other things this month:

I didn’t get caught up on my love letters to my kids, but I will in the next week or so.

I remembered how much I love to write.

I really really enjoyed writing a novel, and I would love for it to get published, even if it’s just an e version.

I swam a lot, and I’m rather shocked at how much I love swimming, it doesn’t feel like a workout to me, I guess it’s ’cause you don’t sweat in a pool, I know I work hard, my heart rate is high and I feel like I”ve worked hard. (also lost nearly 10 pounds this month)

I have gotten zero comments this month, which is disturbing, and yet, comforting.  heh, I can write whatever I want and no one will know. (see above!)

Adam has been super amazing and let me sleep in a lot when I’ve been up super late writing.

I have a lot of editing to do.

Including what I wrote on the blog, I’d guess I wrote close to 70K words this month.  YAY!

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Negative Tide

November 29th, 2011

This weekend we took the kids to the Negative Tide event at Half Moon Bay.

A normal low tide would be 0 feet, whereas a this negative tide was 1.6ish feet below that, hence a negative tide.  So we were walking on rocks which are normally covered in 8 feet of water, so there were all sorts of interesting creatures to see.

We saw:

anemones, sea stars, crabs, sea snails, hermit crabs, all sorts of sea weeds and lots and lots of people.

The drive into Half Moon Bay took a couple hours because of the traffic to see the tide and because it was the first weekend to buy Christmas trees.   The drive home was equally as long, but it was okay.

 

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Almost there!

November 28th, 2011

There are only 2 fulls days left of the month and I have under 5K words to write to make the 50K goal.  Then there’s the editing.

Anyhow what is amusing me about this book I am writing is that it seems to be getting more and more relevant to life.

I linked to an article on my Facebook, which is scary because part of the plot of my book is similar.  It’s about living in a fascist country where you can get jailed for saying the wrong thing around the wrong people, jailed with no trial, just jailed.  The government treats it’s naysayers like they are disposable and takes measures to dispose of them.  Writing it has been a little scary for me, first that I can come up with this stuff and secondly because I feel that we’re not that far from this imagined world.  Beyond all of the distopic creepiness there is a (I hope to be) tender love story.  I struggle with making it end happily ever after or with how I think it might actually end.  That’s where I am now.  I keep waiting for the characters to let me know what needs to happen. hmmm.

Anyhow writing it has been a total trip, some days I can barely slog through, other days (like last night) it was like it was writing itself, its like these twists and turns are happening and I can’t help it at all.  For me it’s been like reading the story, but I’m writing it, and I have no control.  Adam tells me that I can just not write something, but sometimes I have to.  The story needs it.  So I write it.  So strange.  I rather like it.  I am totally hooked.

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44th Month Newsletter (Beatrix)

November 27th, 2011

Dearest Beatrix.

You’re 44 months old now and such a little lady!

You love to dress yourself, and you tend to go for a very monochromatic looks, if you commit to a colour for the day, you commit!  Down to your underwear and socks.  I love it!  You have your own little rules that you abide by.  I don’t always understand them, but you’re pretty sure that they’re rock solid, like if you’re wearing a shirt with an owl on it, you want pants with a bird, but not any other animal, because they won’t match.  If you’re wearing a shirt with stripes, then you need striped pants, but sometimes I can convince you to use a colour from the shirt for the pants.  Sometimes.  I guess we all have our ideas, like I won’t wear beige and grey, I don’t think they match.  Heh.  We are related after all.  You’ve also started picking out Hudson’s clothes, mostly so they match yours.  I think you lament that he doesn’t have more pink outfits.  I’m not sure though how much longer he’ll let you pick out his clothes though.  He’s starting to have opinions too.  You still love shoes and you try, often, to convince me to buy one of each colour of shoes, I guess to make your monochromatic look really work.  I am persistent too though.  You have plenty of shoes!  Although we did buy you some rainboots recently.  You love to wear them and want your pants tucked in, or pulled up so that you can see the pony on your boots.

This month you’ve been complaining of pain in your legs at night.  I’m pretty sure it’s growing pains.  I’m so sorry!  I had them when I was little too and I remember how much they hurt!  So together we’re trying to get you to get more calcium into your diet, I hope that helps.  Also, my beautiful girl, you are going to have long legs.  I’m so happy for you.  Already I can see how long they’re getting in comparison to the rest of you.  It’s making for a conundrum for pants for you since pants that are long enough fall off your waist, but ones that fit your waist are many inches too short in your legs.  (You can wear Hudson’s 18 month pants, comfortably, they look like capris on you.)

This month we went to Disneyland again, this time for my birthday.  We had so much fun.  I think it’s a family favourite place to go, and I don’t care that so many poele think that Disney is horrible.  I love watching you have so much fun there!  And I have a great time too!  For my birthday lunch we had lunch at Ariel’s Grotto, so we could see all of the princesses.  You were in awe, again.  We took lots of photos!  We didn’t get to see Mulan this time, which was disapointing, but we did see Belle, which you were excited for.   During our trip we also went and saw Tinkerbelle which was exciting, she spent a lot of time chatting with you and Hudson, it was really sweet.  Also during this trip we realized that you were tall enough to ride the Matterhorn!  You were so brave and such a trooper!  I screamed and you did not!

While we were in Southern California I went to a conference and you adn Daddy and Hudson went to La Brea Tar pits, and you had so much fun!  You learned about a lady who fell in to the tar pits thousands of years ago, and you have not stopped talking about it.  You’ve educated everyone you’ve come across about the lady who fell into the mud trying to save an animal, but she didn’t get out, she died too.  Your preschool teachers have asked me what you’re talking about, and I’ve had to explain to them.  They thought it was funny.  (after they explained to all of the other students that they don’t have to be scared of mud)

One day at home I was putting away some eggs and on a whim I gave you an egg for an egg baby.  I explained that you need to take care of your baby because it’s very fragile.  Hudson promptly lost his baby and you dropped yours within ten minutes.  You were pretty sad and I put the egg away, we’ll try egg baby again in a couple of years.  (I found Hudson’s egg a couple of hours later.)

We had a really scary day this month when there was an angry man at his job and he shot some people then ran away.  He car jacked a lady and shot her too, and why this is extra scary is that this was close to your preschool.  Luckily the teacher found out before school started and cancelled school for us.  If you would have gone to school that day I would have been so nervous.  We spent that day at home, with the doors locked and I hugged you and Hudson a lot that day.

Since it’s football season again, Daddy has been watching more football and you’ve been watching with him.  So to teach you more about football Daddy took you to a Stanford game.  You wore your Stanford cheerleader dress and went to the game.  Daddy said that you had a great time, and the photos show just how adorable you were waving the little pom pom you got there.

Finally this month was Hudson’s playgroup’s annual party and you were there too.  I hired Andy Z to preform for the group, and you loved it!  He was amazing and really engaged the children.  We ended up buying a cd and he signed it, and you ahve asked to listen to it every single day since then.  You especially love the “Sticky Bubblegum” song and the “Scarecrow” song.

Sweet girl, it’s so exciting to watch you grow up into such a big amazing girl.  I love you so much!

love forever and ever,

Mama.

Posted in monthy letters, NaBloPoMo, Trixie | 1 Comment »

20 Month Newsletter (Hudson)

November 26th, 2011

My Dear Hudson.

Sweet boy you’re 20 months old now!  We’ve had a quiet month.

We went to the beach at Half Moon Bay with some friends and you had an excellent time eating sand, getting a lot of sand in your diaper.  (How do you not complain when that happens?)  It was a little chilly, so there was no playing in the water, just lots of digging and playing with cars with the big boys, and watching the Mamas try to fly a kite, which I can see is amusing for it’s own reasons.  We also went on a lady bug hunt, which you found to be most amusing.   There was a steep trail up a small bluff that we had to climb to get back up from the beach, and since my arms were full of all of our beach stuff I had to wear you on my back, which was interesting becasue I haven’t worn you in a long time, but you were happy back there.  Nice to know that we can fall back into our old routines!

A big milestone this month.  Daddy taught you how to euuurch your cars.  Since you’ve developed this facination with matchbox cars, you carry them around with you everywhere, mostly driving them on what ever surface you are next to and telling me or Daddy waht kind of car it is (car or truck) and what colour it is.  So to perpetuate you love for cars we bought you a car rug so you could have something to drive them on , then Daddy taught you how to euuurrrch them.  You make the most adorable little euuurch.  Often when I am not sure where you are, I can find you on your car rug, on your belly driving cars around the little town, not on the streets or anything, just around, randomly euuurrrching, often parking in the parking stalls.  The adorable is high.

This month we went apple picking and you were in small boy heaven.  Your favourite food might be apples, so seeing whole trees of them, and then row on row of trees of apples may have made you a little crazy!  I think you ate 5 or 6 apples that day.  We had a lot of fun picking them and filling the big bucket for Daddy to carry.  Then we all went or some apple pie and then for lunch and to play on the beach.  It was a really great day, and you had so much fun.  I think you are defiantly a little California boy.

I’ve started a new playdate with your playgroup.  We’re doing messy art playdates now.  I wanted to put you into an art class, but the times didn’t work with our schedule, so I figured I could just host them myself.  And we do.  It’s going well.  We made drawings with chalk soaked in sugar water, which helps it to be really bright.  You had a good time, did some good drawing, but mostly had a great time playing.  I’m looking forward to more of the art playdates, so that you can play with more of your peers and do some art that’s more appropriate for your age.

So recently I’ve realized that you can count to five, then ten.  Also you know your alphabet.  I know that some people assume that we work on your letters and numbers over and over, but you learned them because the toys in the shower are foam letters and numbers and over the months you’ve just learned them.  It’s rather amazing really at how you did it, and a testament at how easily children learn.  In any case you are so proud of yourself.  Also it’s so cute to hear your tiny baby voice counting.  And since you’ve learned you want to count everything, identify numbers and letters everywhere.  So random strangers are hearing you count and recite letters, they’re always shocked and demand to know how old you are.  I like to tell them that you’re not even two years old.  What they don’t know as well is that your Daddy learned his numbers and letters really young too, so it’s understandable that you did learn them so young.   Also with language and learning this month, you’ve learned the sign for ‘baby’, and every time we see one, you drop what’s in your hands and sign it, or just sign it with one hand.  You adore babies!  When we were at the doctor’s office there was a really new baby there, and you kept going over and standing beside the baby’s car seat and bending sideways really far to look at the baby, then you’d run back over to me signing ‘baby’ while shouting ‘BABY!’.  It’s so cute.  I think you’d love a little brother or sister just as much as Trixie would.

So this month ends with us going to Disney for my birthday.  I’m really excited to see how you react this time to Disney.  Last time you had a great time, so I hope you love it again.

My sweet boy, I’ve said countless times in this letter that you’re adorable and cute.  I know it’s poor writing, but it’s the best words to describe you.  You are adorable and cute.

I love you so much!

Love,

Mama.

 

Posted in Hudson, monthy letters, NaBloPoMo | No Comments »

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