23 Months

We're in the home stretch now...almost TWO years old.

Other than words, I’m not sure what else is new. He knows body parts. Head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, boogers (technically I know not a body part), feet, hands, tummy. He likes to sing…badly…and off key. Totally my child. He can jump, although 9 times out of 10 his feet don’t actually leave the ground but all the moves are there. He can somersault with assistance. He alternates between eating really well to not eating at all. He still loves to throw food at Riley, who btw, is still his all time favorite.

He’s growing taller. How tall? About this high. Honestly, I don’t know how tall he is. His new catch words are: “oh no”, “seriously”, “thank you”. He will use these constantly, in the wrong context and oh so adorably.

He likes to help carry the basket at the grocery store. He also likes to help out around the house. He loves to vacuum. I’m positive that he’s channeling his Auntie Brenda because of this fascination with the vacuum cleaner. He’ll put his dishes in the sink if asked. He’ll also throw things into garbage, unasked. Sometimes non-garbage related items. He charms absolutely everyone he meets. And for the most part he’s a laid back little guy.

The Special Chair

Noah donated all these wonderful clothes etc.. to John. Two boxes/bags of barely worn (some - never worn), brand name clothing. Holy smokes, if it weren't for other people our son would never wear brand name stuff! Thank you so much Noah, Brad & Mariko! And thank you Nancy & Uncle Roy for thinking of us.

Steven & I are truly blessed to have amazing and generous people in our lives. We are so thankful.

In John's eyes, this "special chair" was the amazing gift. Just think, a chair just my size. In a cool, bright yellow. The seat is comfortable and conforms to my bum!

I LOVE my new chair.

And look, I can slip my hands down and make sure everything is still where it is supposed to be.

I had to hide the chair after he went to bed. Can you imagine if he got too attached to this char? Just think how difficult potty training would be. He'd think he should pee & poo in EVERY chair that he owns.

Noah is my aunt's grandson. And that in itself is confusing at first glance. Well, I suppose if you want to be technical about it then Noah is my step-cousin's son. Funny story actually. I was an adult when my uncle married my aunt. For the first few years I had a difficult time calling her anything. She used to be a teacher in my elementary school, so in my head I would call her Aunt Mrs.XXXX. teehee. Now I just call her Nancy.

Overheard

In the truck, on the way home from swim class.

Steven: did you see that one guy in the class?
Me: which one?
Steven: the porn star.
Me: oh yeah, the one with the gold chain and moustache?
Steven: I don't know about the chain but he had the moustache.
Me: total porn moustache.
Steven: 70's porn.
Me: oh no. More like the 80's.
Steven: 1984 to 1986.

That's my husband. All about the details.
But I bet you can picture the one dad in my class!

Suppertime

So blissfully unaware.

"CHEESE!"

"Um, hello daddy. What is it?"

"Holy Mother of God....What is it? It's coming closer"

"You're kidding, right?"
"I asked you. WHAT IS IT?"

"Num, Nums?" Are you sure?"

"Okay, I'll try it"

"Eww. Ewww. Ewwwwwww."

"The hell? Get that away from me."
"AWAY FROM ME"

"Phew, that was a close one"

"It's touching me. IT'S TOUCHING ME!!!!"

Yeh, that's right. Lobsters for supper tonight. Al is obviously paying me too much money.

Thirteen Years

Happy Anniversary to us.

Conversation with a co-worker about the past weekend.

Me: Steven was away this weekend.
Co-Worker: Wasn't it your anniversary this weekend.

Me: No it's later this week.
CW: Didn't he miss your anniversary because he forgot or something?
ME: No. Oh wait. Yeh, he went camping on our wedding anniversary because we both forgot what day it was.
Me: (continuing) I don't know why we can't remember our wedding anniversary. It's the last day of August, it's not like it's a difficult day to remember. At least both of us forgot.
I stand up to leave the kitchen.
Me: We always remember this anniversary (of our first date). I mean May 13th is so much easier to remember.
And I'm walking out of the room.
I turn around quickly, laughing.
Me: I mean May 12th. May 12th is so much easier to remember.

I'm such a dork.

Six Months

So, it's been six months since mom died. And eight months since she had her massive stroke. There still aren't enough words to describe all the emotions that are still swirling around in my head. (thank God I have a humongous head) Some words that come to mind are unfair, angry, justice, maddening, sadness... and then something passes over me and I remember that I can still laugh. I can still remember. And man, some of them are great memories. Some of them are stupid. Some of them are boring. But all of them are mine and I cherish them.

Dawna, Cindy & me.
I look little and I still have long hair so this is before school.
Maybe 1975?

I think this is at the House of Wong.
What year? 1975 again? or the summer of 1976?

This must be Christmas 1972 because it looks like I'm still in diapers.

I must have just learned how to wink.

I had to include this one because OH MY GOSH, we're wearing matching clothes.
My mom made almost all of our clothes and we got to pick the buttons to make it unique and special to us.
It's kind of funny really, because Cindy is 9 years older than me and she had to wear the same kind of outfit. And then sad because I still had 2 more outfits to
grow into so I had to wear them for YEARS.

1976.

Holy smokes does John ever look like me.
And you know what? I look at Dawna, and I see mom.

Happy Mother's Day

I'm not going to lie to you. Today was really really difficult. I tried to tell myself that it was just another day but there are so many Mother's Day references around.

So Happy Mother's Day to me.

With my first baby.

Riley, such a good and patient fur-guy.

Me & my two boys.

Getting tackled from behind.
For such a little guy, he's surprisingly strong.Happy Mother's Day to my mommy.
I miss you so much.

Overheard

In a conversation about dad.
Cindy: It's never a dull moment with him.
Cindy: Although, it is the same moment over and over again.

Crazy Eyes

Telephone conversation with my sister.
Me: I emailed you some pictures
Dawna: when?
Me: Just now. Some crazy eyes pictures.
Dawna: Crazy eyes? What are craz... oh..OH..crazy eyes.

I'm not sure why or how I manage to do this but whenever I take a picture of myself, my eyes go super crazy. Thus the term "Crazy Eyes" pictures.

Only sorta, kinda crazy eyes.
But I'm sort of squinty so it doesn't really count.
(but then again, I'm always "sort of" squinty... what, shaddup I'm the one that said it, not you.)

Super Duper Crazy eyes.
BOTH OF US!!!

And then there's this one.
Not so much crazy eyes as it is "Big Cheese" grin