Life in the Boonies

Little Timmy is growing up fast before our eyes. He is so different from Frank I don’t know where to begin. He is his own individual self. Timmy loves to bat his toys. Today he managed to grab the cow and pulled the ring so it started to sing. He can sit some but mostly he will lean and flop over if you don’t hold him. Timmy likes to stand. We hold him by the arms and he pulls right up to standing position.

Frank says tummy time when I put Timmy on the Gymini. Frank loves to show Timmy the toys. He says “Timmy, da (elephant), down down down, up up up,” as he pulls the elephant down and the string recoils back. Timmy has a teething ring and he is starting to grab it and shove it into his mouth. Frank being the good brother that he is kept taking it away and telling Timmy no. So mommy explained that it helps Timmy grow teeth so he needs to chew on it. So now Frank shoves it into Timmy’s mouth saying “Timmy grow teeth.” What a helpful brother.

Timmy often scratches his head and leaves it all red when his nails are getting long, again. Sometimes when I’m burping him he likes to rub his face on my shoulder. Maybe he is itchy? We only manage to bath him twice a week. TJ is such a happy baby. Anyone who will give him face time he will smile so big at them. Everyone loves holding him and getting his smiles. He is especially good with the ladies. He has also started to laugh, very loudly in fact. When I make funny faces at him or sometimes when I tickle his neck. Timmy is very vocal and makes lots of noises. Several times it sounded like he said “ma”

He is not yet sleeping through the night but we are down to one feeding, sometimes 2 at night. Mostly he naps 3 naps lasting anywhere from 45 min to 2 hours. He only last 2 hours when I hold him though so that is only possible when Frank is also napping. We are still swaddling him. When we unswaddle his blanket, one side comes loose, that arm goes way up above his head, the other side comes loose, the other arm goes way up above his head. Nice stretchy stretch. Daddy loves watching him do that. He still sleeps in the swing but we only turn it on for naps. Most mornings he find himself snuggled next to mommy for the last stretch of sleep before the day starts.

Timmy eats well. Eating is never a problem in this family. He is growing big with rolls on his legs and tummy.

Talking

• Frank saying cako (Costco) piya as we go to Costco for shopping.
• In the car, Frank says red stop, green go. He tells us what color the light is. Then at home, he practices in the backyard. He repeats red stop, he stops on the tricycle, green go, he goes on his tricycle.
• A few surprising new words: camel (picture of camel in Just So Stories), seagull, toad (picture of toad in A Pacific Alphabet), purple green ball (his favorite soccer ball), almost, full (when told to eat his dinner).
• Just yesterday I put Frank in the car seat and he said ouwei and I said it’s not ouwei. He stopped to think and then said “tight”. I smiled and loosen the seat-belt and asked “How’s that?” Frank said “better”
• A few days ago around 5 o’clock and time to get Nat from the Bart station, Frank told me “shoe on, five clock, get daddy.” He tells daddy “daddy shoe on (getting shoes for daddy in the meanwhile), go park, two swing black (referring to the park near Safeway with 2 black swings)”
• Frank got a strawberry plant few weeks ago and it already had 2 berries on it. We told him big one for him and small one for Timmy. We have to wait til it is red to eat it. 2 days ago we were looking at the plant and a bird had taken a bit out of the small one. Frank was so upset saying Timmy, strawberry, bite, birdy, one. I told him to go tell daddy to see if daddy can understand without knowing the context since I saw it with Frank. Daddy understood. “timmy, strawberry, birdy, one bite”

Singing

• Five little duck - he hummed the tune, no words while working on his birday puzzle.
• ABCs - Since he has been singing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ba Ba Black Sheep, he already had the tune down. He says the alphabet, especially the first few. Then one or two in between and some are not very intelligible.
• Music Together songs - We took this music class a month ago and there is a music book and CD. We play the CD and practices the songs on the piano with the book. Last night, Frank sat at the piano and flipped to the beginning, started to sing and play the piano. He played random notes but he was clearly singing the song on that page of the book. As he flipped pages, he sang the song on that page. Half way through the book, mom made him start over so she can record the singing. All uninterrupted he went through about half of the songs in that book and sang something that were words in the song. Roll that Little Ball and Great Big Stars were the two songs with the most words and the best tunes.

Reading

• It has been weeks, months, probably really just days since I had to read The Lorax. Our new favorite is “The Elephant’s Child”. Our library is having a puppet show on the Just So Stories so mom took the book out to read a few of them to Frank to familiarize. He immediately liked that one. We read “The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo” first and Frank did not like it at all. He always tells me when we flip the book, “no roo”. We did manage to read “How the Camel Got His Hump” and half of “The Cat That Walked by Himself”. Frank only wants “mommy read da” - da xiang is Chinese for Elephant. So we read it and read it. Sometimes Frank goes off to do something towards the end of the story but if mom stops he comes back and says mommy read. He likes to say Baboon. Every time I read to that part he repeats that. Now I pause and wait for him to say it, heehee.
• Another new favorite is The Pacific Alphabet. It has beautiful pictures and things that start with the letter hidden in the illustration. I personally love trying to find them and pointing them out to Frank. This is where he said toad rather than frog on the T page.
• Daddy still reads Goodnight Moon at bed time and nap time if he is home. Mommy sometimes have to read Bats at the Beach but now more frequently she has to read “I am Not getting up today.” Expect now we have been to the library and borrowed new books about trucks and trains and now that is what nap time got.

Playing

• We started Tumbling classes again and Frank loves it. He doesn’t just go straight to the trampoline, even though that is what we talk about when I tell him we are going to Tumbling class. He follows directions well. He has done the rings, the bars and somersaults just like the teacher shows him. Even on the trampoline, he does open close (legs) and then sit down like the teacher says. This week he even walked on the real balance beam while holding my hand. There is only one other boy in this class so we get alot of personal attention too.
• SOCCER. Frank loves ball. He kicks it while running now. We played and played in the backyard with him repeatedly saying nani getit. Then he ran too fast after the ball and fell face forward. Nosebleed! First one ever. Good thing it was on the grass area too. We plopped down on the floor and read stories to keep it from bleeding. The next day first thing in the morning he wanted to go out and play, but the grass was all wet from sprinklers. I guess the fall didn’t hurt so much that it scared him from playing. So we played inside after cleaning up. Then he liked bouncing it off the coffee table. He is able to catch it when I bounce it to him.

Frank’s third zoo trip was plenty of fun. This time we visited the Oakland Zoo with several other moms and their kids. We all piled into the car and zoomed out before 9. Dropped daddy off at work and arrived at the zoo before they were open. Timmy nursed while Frank read his zoo flip book in the backseat. We met a new mom and after I introduced Frank he corrected me by saying “Nani”. He does that alot now, everytime we call him Frank, he says Nani, as if we are saying his name wrong. We saw flamingos. Pink says mom. Frank signed white pointing to another bird in there. Oh, they are called the African Spoonbills, pictured right. Spoon says Frank. He liked that bird, heehee.

Then we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras and camels and lions and tigers. One tiger was resting and other one was walking around so Frank said nite nite pointing to resting one and morning to the other. We also went to the children’s area for lunch. They had a rope spider web structure that everyone climbed on. Also a lily pad thingy in a pond for jumping around on. Frank was good for awhile then he jumped right into the water and was wet from ankles down. Right next to the sign that said no wading. Oh well. We quickly moved along. It was really crowded (spring break). We saw some alligators. They were so still some kids thought they were fake. On our way back we saw more monkeys and then the train went by. Of course then it was “choo choo” non-stop so we had to do that. Good thing the other two moms also had kids also obsessed with trains. We waited in the loooooong line. The kids were playing peek-a-boo and tag and then they needed snacks. Frank learned to do jumping jacks from Nathan. No major meltdowns from all 6 kids the entire time at the zoo - a miracle in itself. Then it was looking like we might make it on, but only room for one so we waited instead. Then we were all first! So Frank got to sit in the first row. The whistle was so loud it scared him the first time. Then he was prepared so we had a great time. Great views. Then it was 3ish. All the kids were running down. Bathroom runs and bye-byes. Timmy was great. He enjoyed some views and slept some and nursed twice inside the park and once more in the car before the drive back. He must have been over stimulated cuz he cried awhile in the car before sleeping and woke up while the car was still moving and cried some more before getting home. Then we were all exhausted. What a day! Timmy slept 5 hours straight that night.

So many new words these days it is hard to keesp track. The last few nights bedtime story has been Bats at the Beach (read by mom) and Goodnight Moon (read by dad), as requested by Frank. He says mommy bat beach, daddy moon. Frank likes to point out what everyone is doing or where everyone is. He says, “mommy eat, nani eat, timmy (signs waiting), daddy byebye” at the breakfast table. When I’m driving he can tell me if Timmy’s eyes are open or closed. Not 100% reliable yet cuz often he wants Timmy to be “morning” when Timmy is “nite nite” so you can’t tell if he is saying what he wants or what Timmy is doing.

He only lets mommy change his diaper. Last time he got so mad at daddy and kept saying “mommy ching” (change). Usually I ask him if he has a poopy and tell him to get changed. Today for the first time he told me. I told him it was nap time and he said no, chu chu (Chinese for smelly, what we call dirty diaper), mommy ching.

More new words: warm, cold, bring, come, wait, doctor, window, oh (open), Timmy, mom, dad, gramma, Eli (a friend), Becky (daddy asked where you get that valentine’s day pencil and Frank said Becky - the librarian gave it to us), one (he also counted backwards today - three, two, one, go and then flopped over on the bed), do (Nani do is said often), story, book, durry (hurry), turtle, bezi (nose), rain, ring — more than we can keep track!