I thought I had been doing a good job

I was worried that with out that "manly" influence in Bears life every day that he would turn out kind of girly. It has been almost 7 months now that it has been just the Bear and me and I really thought I was doing a good job of being both mom and dad and providing the loving nurturing side and the "suck it up kid" side. Until today. First, while I was cutting the grass (with scissors of course) I look up to the porch to see Bear in tears. I stopped cutting and went up to see what was wrong. In between sobs I got a "flowers bye-bye!" He had loved standing at the kitchen window looking at the flowers every day. Yes that's how long my grass was. I almost lost Tela when she went out the bathroom last night so I decided it was time for a grass cut.
Then, after the lawn was done, I brought him out to play in the grass and play on his slide. There was a little bit of dirt on his slide, it is an outdoor toy, and all he would do was stand there shaking his head adamantly saying "Oh no! Oh no!" and refused to go on the toy. I even tried to brush it off with my hand to show him that a little dirt would not hurt his little hand. He would not go on it until it was completely dirt free.
Next, while I was sitting on the steps watching him run around, I saw a snail and thought he would get a kick out of it. Heck I used to eat them when I was a kid. I called him over and showed him the snail, and touched it, and asked him to do the same. He looked at me like I was nuts, said "no thank you mommy," and ran away to play on his clean slide.
And the final straw that convinces me that I am not manning him up enough happened tonight while I was preparing dinner. A fly had gotten in the house and was zipping around the kitchen. I figured I would just deal with him later after I got some food in our tummies. Bear was standing there watching me when he noticed the fly across the kitchen. I thought he was going to flip his lid. He jumped in the air and started screaming. He bolted from the kitchen and refused to come back in. He stood there at the entry watching the fly and if he came with in five feet of Bear, he would start screaming and jumping around. I wasn't sure what to do. Part of me wanted to comfort him and tell him it was okay, but I also didn't want to reenforce his fear. So I started making a big ruckus chasing the fly around being silly. He did not think this was funny. So I just decided to kill the darn fly and be done with it.
I guess I need to step up the "manly" part of his upbringing.

Cali pics

Bear did so well on the flights down to California. We had a layover in San Jose and he got to run around a little bit. He grabbed the cell phone, put it to his ear, and just started walking like he was off to an important business meeting dictating notes to his Secretary. I followed close taking pictures of my little seasoned traveler!

Of course he was slathered up with SPF 50 the entire time.

"Uh, Mom, there is no room left on your lap! Where exactly do you expect me to sit?"

Cousins!

I can hear him laughing when I look at this picture.

Finally I get it on camera

He has been singing his ABC's and counting to 16 for a couple weeks now. I just could never catch it on camera. Until tonight... I finally got him in the right mood, kind of. He gets just fine to 16 and then he just kind of loses it. He continues on with 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. And 13 sounds like 14.

Here he is with his ABC's, he still misses some of the letters, but gets the majority of them. This is not the best he has done, but it is the best I have caught on tape, and I really think it might be the cutest thing in the world.

The things he absorbs

We went to California this last weekend, to visit family. While we were at the airport waiting to board the plane, I took Bear to the window so we could look out and look at the airplanes going by. We were there for about 30 minutes looking at things and talking about them. We talked about the luggage truck and how they work and we talked about the little trucks that push the planes backwards, and we talked about everything on the planes. The wings, the engines, where the pilots sit, where the passengers sit, and then I saw a hose coming from the bottom of the plane, so I told him that this was how they got the poo poo off of the plane. People have to use the bathroom while they are flying and now they are emptying out the tanks so more people could use them. And from there we just kept talking and pointing. I didn't think anything of it, until we landed and my sister asked him about the airplane trip, and he very seriously told her, "poo poo airplane!" And every time he asked now about his airplane ride, he tells about the poo poo on the airplane. I am so glad that out of the whole speech I gave him, this is what he remembers. I will post pictures later of the trip.

K's

Well he has finally got the K sound down. After trying it out for a week, he is pretty good at it. Kind of. First of all, he says it with so much gusto, that he sounds like he is hawking a loogie. At first, he could only say it if it was in the middle or end of the word. Like truck or croc (which was my favorite because it would come out sounding like "troc!" Yesterday he started to start his words with the ck sound. But he concentrates so hard on getting that sound out that he sometimes forgets other-very important letters in the word. For instance, "troc" has now turned into croc with out the "r." Unfortunately this is one of his favorite words. So he runs around saying this word all day. We went to Wal-mart today and he had his crocs on and of course he had to point out what kind of shoes he was wearing to everybody we passed. And I got some nasty looks until I would say "yes, Bear, those are cRocs."
He is also not really sure what to do with the "t" that he has been using in place of the "k." So now instead of "pottets" (pockets) he has "pocktets" on his clothes. All of this just cracks me up. I love when kids say words funny. I had been so sad when he started losing all of his cute words. Like button. He used to call it a buttmon. I mean I don't teach him to say words wrong, and I don't say them wrong to him because I don't want to reenforce it, but it always made me grin when I had to "buttmon" up his "jattet." Now I am asked to "button my jacktet please mommy!" Which is still really cute in my of course non-biased opinion. :)

Tough decisions

By this time in Bear's pregnancy, actually about 2 months ago, I was ready to give birth. His nursery was done, all of his clothes for the first 2 years of his life were bought and properly stored, I had all the baby stuff I needed, I had read all the books, I was ready. This time around, I am praying she will decide to hang out in there for another year because by then I might, just might be ready for her. I have very little ready for this little girl. And I am starting to freak out. I have her baby bedding, (I bought that before I knew it was a girl) :) I have a beautiful antique dresser that my dad bought for her. But that is in his garage with promises of it getting refinished before she is born. So the few clothes I do have, sit a plastic tote. The one thing that I am having a really hard time deciding on is her crib. I know what I want. I know exactly the one I would lo-ove to have. This one(I had to screen shot it, because it wouldn't let me save as) :

It is beautiful, it is perfect, it has that antique look that fits the vision of her garden antique room I have in my mind. It is just waaaaay out of the price range :)

So my second choice is this one (this is the bedding I have too):

It is just such a popular crib that it is out of stock at the 2 places that carry it and they have no idea when it will be back in, and 2 months back ordered at the other one. So do I wait patiently and hope that someone will have it in stock before she is one year old or do I get something that I don't really love just so I can get her room done? I have searched the internet 5 times over looking for another crib that I like. And I can't find anything. Am I being too picky? I have dreamed about having that perfect little girls room forever. Light pink walls, with a white picket fence on one wall with flowers crawling up it. Lacy window coverings, and classic furniture that won't go out of fashion. Now I feel like I have to compromise my dreams for reality. And I don't do that well. :)

GRRRRR!

The Lady Bug

I went in today for the 4D ultrasound of the Ladybug, and she is just beautiful. I forgot how amazing Bears was when we went, but as soon as she brought that little face up on the screen, it all came rushing back. She looks exactly like Bear did. She has really long fingers and big feet. And the fattest little face you have ever seen. She has 2 chins! She sucked on her arm for a majority of the time and even cracked a smile when her big brother came to talk to her. He got to sit right next to me on the table while it was happening. He laid his head down across my chest at one point and laid there rubbing my belly watching the TV screen. He was as mesmerized as I was. He was completely still for 45 minutes as he got to see his baby sister for the first time.

And she was super calm too. She just cuddled up against me and was super photogenic. Here she is: