Vo-ka-BU-larry

The babe is getting older...and bigger... and more talkative.

This week, I was talking emphatically.

He stood next to me and imitated my tone and hand motion exactly.

Sigh.

A few weeks ago, I was lamenting his 'lack' of vocabulary.  Then I started listing his words.  They're not pronounced perfectly, but still.  We got a decent list down, and then... it was like he knew I was counting!  Because it just exploded.  He can mimic almost any word (when he feels like it) but here's his most consistently used palabras:

Hi

Bye

Mama 

Mooooommmmm

Dada

Bruh-bruh (brother)

Nana

Pop

Gran-ma

Kah-DEN (Kaden)

Yesh.

Go.

GO, GO, GO, GO!!

Peas (please)

Piz (peace) (at Mass)

Uh oh.

Done.

More

TA- DA !

the Many Sides of Serious Sam

So I logged on with a specific idea to post today... 

and then went looking for some photos.  I got distracted. 

Our little cub has grown so much!  He was never "small" per se (I met a 3 month old baby the other day who still wasn't at Sammy's birth weight!).  But look how small he was!  and red!

And... innocent looking!

There were a lot of times he just looked... bored with us.  Or maybe long-suffering?

Around six months or so, he started to get curious...

Some days, he wore himself out.

But then he started crawling... and sitting up... and about 2 weeks later, he'd pull himself into a standing position.  He's pretty good at pulling himself up (or pulling things off the table.  We may not be using table clothes for a while).  He thinks he can walk, but he can't.  Mostly he moves one leg, loses his balance, hits his head, and cries until we pick him up.  Then he's off again.  The babe can CRAWL, people, and he's pretty fast.

And he's starting to develop his personality!  He normally stares down strangers, but if he's seen you a few times before, he'll give a shy smile.  And if you're his big brother and walk into the room, his face will light up!

But if you try to feed him sweet potatoes.... even if yells because he wants to eat them... you'll get a look.  The expressions he has!  From serious to smiling, he's got 'em all now :)

quick takes: Brotherly Love

** Kaden came in the door with an empty donut bag.  "Did you bring me a donut?" I asked.
"No.  But I'll give you a thousand kisses, and that's worth more than one donut."

**  Nicknames Kaden has called his brother:  Little guy, Little man, little brother, baby brother, my baby, cutie patootie, squirrel, the cute one.

** One day, about 2 inches from his face, he jabbers away at Sam, who promptly started crying.  Kaden hung his head and softly said, "I think he hates me."  We re-explained that of course he loves you, but he's just a BABY, and babies don't do anything except eat, sleep, poop and cry.

** The next day, Kaden pops up into Sam's space and says "Hi there! It's me, Kaden, your big brother.  Do you remember me?"

** Sometime when I was pregnant, Kaden had mentioned something about someday he'd have a baby in his belly.  Without going into a lot of detail, I explained that no, only women have babies, because they're not really in the belly- we have a special organ called a uterus that grows babies.  Fast forward a few months, to a few days after Sam was born.  The first time Kaden saw Sam with a bottle, instead of nursing, he was a bit surprised and asked, "What, he doesn't he like drinking your uterus milk anymore?"

** Sam doesn't say a lot these days.  But his smacks and squeaks have us smiling!


There's a lot more, I'm sure- our oldest is all superhero and sweetness rolled into one.  But I'm still working on lack of sleep here, so we'll go with this for now!

Introducing...

In late January, our second son arrived!

Meet Samuel Joseph, 9 lbs, 2 oz, 21 inches long.

His birth story is a bit long- we'll get to it in another post :)

His older brother, born in a Florida summer, was 4 months old and traveled 4 states away before he saw his first snow- which was a light dusting.  This little guy, born in a Pennsylvania winter, was 4 days old, stepped outside his house and had over 4 inches on the ground!

Isn't he adorable?  Even when he looks like a little drunken sailor!

We haven't gotten a lot of great family photos yet. 

I'm working on it.   I'm also working on thank you notes, but then lost the list.  

And my brain is mush from sleep deprivation, so that put everything on hold until I found the list (which I did, earlier today!).

Kaden is thrilled to be a big brother.  There's a good many posts in the future about how sweet and gentle he is (and some of the funny things that come out of his mouth!).  Perhaps the next one we'll recount as much as I can remember of brotherly love from the last few weeks...

It is life with a newborn, though- so it's not all roses.  Like all new humans, he's a bit squirrel-y.  

True to his genes, he also has stomach/gas issues. Poor guy.

The good news is that his lungs are just fine, thankyouverymuch.  Very strong lungs, indeed.

Another "odd" thing (not really bad, just.. an adjustment) to having two BOYS in the house... all the nicknames I have for Kaden have to be adapted.  Because if I say "What's wrong, little buddy" - Kaden answers "nothing, why?".  Or if I say "are you hungry, goose?"  Kaden answers "no, Mom".  So we're adapting:  littlest buddy, baby boy, littlest man, littlest brother.  Geesh, I hope Sam doesn't get a complex.  Maybe we'll have to adapt those nicknames again!

One of the most fun side benefits is that we've recounted a lot of "when you were a baby" stories to Kaden.  I almost forgot what fun he was.  Especially when he hit the older baby - toddler phase. And the preschool phase.  And... oh, really, he's just a fun kid... a good son to have in the family.  

And now we have two of them :)