Most fun game ever

This afternoon, after we returned from a trip to the zoo with temps in the low 30s, we were warming up in the house while Sacha prepared for a student and I whined about what I was going to do with Mateo. "But what am I going to dooooo with him?" I whined. She responded by listing a million things I could do with him. One of her ideas turned out to be the most fun game ever. Perfect for those days when you're stuck inside with your toddler and it is just too cold to take him to the park even though it's sunny and beautiful out.

She said: take two buckets, fill them both with warm water, set them down in the kitchen with a bunch of plastic toys, and let him have at it. And have at it he did. He went crazy! He just kept putting his toys in and then taking them out and throwing them into the other side. He entertained himself for close to half an hour, which is unheard of in these parts. The funniest part was when the cat got in on the action. Behold:





Plus, here's a photo of my beautiful wife and our gestating little one at 20 weeks. 20 weeks! Halfway through! Wow!

Preparedness, or lack thereof

We went downtown this afternoon to meet with an attorney. We've recently gotten motivated to update our wills and do some other estate planning, so off we went. The meeting, which I had been a little intimidated about, went fine and Mateo hung in there during the boring adult talk like a champ.

We walked out of the office with some preliminary plans, patting ourselves on the backs. We got to our car and I felt in my pockets for the keys. And felt for them. And found nothing but my phone, my wallet, and a pacifier. Sacha had even asked me if I had the keys as I was locking the car, but the pacifier faked me out and I had said yes thinking that I had them.

Then we saw the keys. In the ignition. Of the car. Which was locked. Aack!!

An hour later, which involved two very cold girls and one slightly less cold boy, a tow truck arrived to unlock our car. As it turned out, the guy had only been doing this for three months and had learned all of his skills on the job. He said they didn't give him much training, but he had never left a car still locked. Well, ours was very, very close to being the first. If you want a car that can't be broken into, try a 1991 Volvo sedan.

But, he finally got in and we all clapped. And loaded up and headed home, feeling very grateful to be warm and moving once again.

It did seem kind of ironic that we were downtown being extremely prepared for the future while simultaneously being incredibly unprepared just for getting home!

Teething and photos

We're still on a seemingly endless trip through Molar Land. I think he has two almost all the way through now and is still working on two on the top. This has led to a miserable boy and miserable moms and all of us being up for several hours both nights of the weekend. All I can say is thank goodness this didn't happen while Sacha was still in the first trimester!

We're all doing well during the daytime, though. And, fueled by a rather strong hot chocolate, I am feeling motivated to post some photos. So, without further ado:

M, Lucy and I at breakfast this morning. This is a typical post of late. I call it, "All aboard the Alayna bus"!


A photo from the holidays. There are many more but this is the only one that actually involves a tree (and a reindeer outfit):


Sleeping with Mommy:


Tickling the ivories:


Playing with his BFF Nils:


With Apa:

Chilling with his buddies the three Bernese Mountain dogs:



And finally, after breakfast this morning, when I found him squeezed in next to a bookcase peacefully looking at a book:

Catching up

Mateo's Apa was just here for a visit and we all had a lovely time together. M always loves hanging out with his Apa and even said "Apa" or some variation of it several times while he was here. Z brought M a gorgeous quilt he made when M was born and we've been admiring it. M is lucky to have such a creative guy in his life!

Things are getting back to normal around here after M's ear infection and such. Well, sort of. If normal is molar teething purgatory. His sleep has been pretty disrupted and Sacha and I are both feeling like walking zombies. To the point that, when M slept all the way through the night last night (!!), I felt only marginally more rested and now feel about as tired as I normally do. We had big plans to have him sleeping through the night consistently before the new baby comes, but I'm not sure how that's going to happen.

Our latest plan involved me just feeding him on one side when he wakes up in the night...and I wanted to do it, really I did...but I just can't. I don't know if it's because I know I'll be uncomfortable when I go back to bed or if the biological need to feed my child is stronger than my desire to go back to sleep, but I don't seem to be there yet. We have really been through the wringer with sleep and our little guy! He has been giving us a run for our money in that department since he was about a month old. I know one day this will all be a distant memory, but I guess for now we just have to keep taking it one day at a time. And, really, it's not so bad. He's getting up once or twice at most, which is not ideal but could be much worse.

Also, because he's teething, he's quite clingy during the day. It's caused him to learn a new phrase - "up, please!", which comes out like "uh-PEES!" It is the cutest thing ever and always gets the desired outcome: one of us picking him up.

Anyway, my point in writing that was to say that I feel run down enough that I'm doing a horrible job of keeping in touch with anybody. When M's napping, I just want to zone out in front of the computer and when he goes down for the night, I want to go to bed! I think maybe when this group of molars finishes emerging (1 is completely out, one has mostly emerged, one is just poking through and one is still a swollen lump in his gum) then things will settle down again.

Meanwhile, all is well with Sacha. We have the anatomy scan/sex-finding-out-ultrasound in a few weeks and we're exciting about that! Other than a persistent cold/sinus infection, she's feeling good and enjoying feeling the baby move, which happens mostly at night when she's lying down. It's so cute to see her tummy poking out a little more each week!

And, things are good with Lucy the kitten. She's made herself right at home. We're working with Mateo on the concept of 'gentle'. It's slow going. Slow enough that he had his first timeout the other day when he wouldn't stop grabbing her tail and holding on for dear life. And, we're getting the barest inkling of what it will be like to have two kids. The other day, they were tussling over a coveted place on my lap at breakfast!

I'm going to post some photos of Christmas and other recent events soon. Mateo got to hang out with three bernese mountain dogs last night and he had a great time. The youngest dog was four months old and I swear, the size of a full-grown black lab. It curled right up in my lap just like a puppy of any size would though!

Introducing...

...our new kitty! We got her yesterday from a foster family connected with our local humane society. We went to the shelter a few days ago and looked at some adult cats, but didn't find any that we felt comfortable bringing home to live with us and our little guy. We decided that getting a kitten was going to be our best option. We looked at a few, but the one we liked best was already spoken for and we were running out of steam...so we left empty-handed, although with more clarity. We also felt like we needed to pick up Beso's ashes before we could really move on. I did that yesterday - so sad, but we feel good that he's home with us again. Now we just have to decide what to do with him.

Anyway, after we got home Wednesday evening, we were looking at the shelter's website and saw that some new kittens had been listed in the foster care section. I went and checked out several of them and then brought Sacha and Mateo back the next day. We fell in love with this little black and white girl kitten. We've had only boy cats, so this was a change for us! After a quick trip to the shelter to fill out papers and pay, we brought her home!

She's three months old and we've named her Lucy. She is a little snuggler. She wants to be with us all the time. She snuggles up with Sacha in bed and sits on our shoulders and even fell asleep in my lap at dinner today. We've only had her for two days, but we think she's a great cat already.

She's a little too busy to photograph well, but here are some snapshots from this evening:




Plus one of M, who is, shall we say, utterly infatuated with the new arrival. When she says "meow," he answers back with his own emphatic "meow!"

This just in

Ear infection. Apparently, a bad one in one ear and the other ear doesn't look so good either. Sacha said the doc said to start antibiotics now, so his ear drum doesn't rupture on the bad side.

We came really close to not taking him to the doc at all, since he was acting pretty much normal this morning. I'm so glad we decided to just get him checked out. Poor little guy!

Sickie

Again, we seem to have a sick kid on our hands. After looking for all the world like he might start feeling better on Jan 1, he instead spent New Year's Day with a 102 degree fever. He slept almost all day again, which we are starting to realize only happens when he has a fever. That, plus the heat emanating from his body and the racehorse breathing means we really don't need a thermometer to tell what's going on. Although we use one anyway. After taking our cats' temps, a baby is soooo easy by comparison!

Anyway, he's at the doctor (dahter in Mateo-ese - it's one of his favorite words to repeat for some reason) right now with Mommy getting his ears checked out. He's feeling a bit better today so S and I spent the morning flip-flopping on whether we thought he had an ear infection or not. We should be finding out pretty soon.

Meanwhile, like the saint that she is, S took M to the doc by herself so I could have some time to myself. I'm sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop, drinking a soy mocha, and it is great. Yay for time off!

In other news....we're thinking of hitting up the humane society later today. Our house feels too empty without a kitty running around and we thought we'd just go and look. Not sure what the result will be, but I guess we'll find out!