Guess who's part of the band?

Last night we had my marathon fundraising party. It was a small event, but everyone had such a good time. Jim B and his band played awesome music. Pepe was so excited and attentive. After a couple of song, Mark, who played the guitar, said that "we need another guitar player" looking at Pepe. Immediately Pepe grabbed his guitar, a chair, and joined the band. He was a bit shy at the begining, but after a couple of songs he completely losened up.

Even his friend Michael ended up joining in the fun

The auction worked out pretty well. Chris is very proud that someone paid quite a bit of money for his tennis lessons! Here is Chris happy.. dancing away.

And here is the "silent auction wall" put together by Sonia (Thank you Sonia!)

update

It seems that I DO need mom to pester me about blogging in order to post regularly. Now she is here with us, and has been for 2 months, hence the limited updates.

Ok, lots has been happening. Crazy marathon training for me, and fundraising and work. Getting thoughts together about a potential new job for Chris. Great times with mom and Ioana- the cleanest house ever (I did not know that one should clearn the woodwork, or that the teapot is white, not yellow:). A lovely vacation for Chris and me, in NC, at Ed & Robin's (nope, no pixs:(. many colds for all - after 4.5 weeks of a cold, I was fine for 1 week, and now, once again, another virus seems to think that I am a great host...

Pepe has been doing lots of growing and growing up. He is an eating machine these days, which makes mom superhappy. Of course, he continues to be the skinny kid, thanks to Chris's genes.

Continues to be obsessed with lighthouses. I mean obsesses. I have to tell him lighthouse stories - hhow many can a mom make up? He knows the name of a dozen, and loves to watch them on Utube. At school they are trying to potty train him by having him sit on a potty with a lighthouse book "But itn hurts my buttom..." he says, but he complies. Yes, he is still in diapers.

Aligators and dinosaurs are still big on his list. He loves to play "dinosaur" game in our bed, where we get under the sheets and scream and act like dinosaurs (oh, you don't know how dinosaurs act...dahhh!).

His sleeping has normalized, though he still asks to go sleep in "mommy and daddy's bed".

He is very interested in "the clock" and is actually able to read the time a bit - "the little hand shows that is 5 o'clock".

He knows all letters and numbers, and counts to 30.

He uses (most often correctly) words like: usually, sometimes, often, I wish, I am sad, I am happy, I am mad at you, I am angry, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

He continues to love school. He loves kids. Has no attachment issues - he needs kids and toys much more than his parents, and we just love that.

Continues to love playing the guitar in front of the TV, following along Liz or some other musician.

He is almost 3 and 7 months and so grown up! This parenting thing is getting better and better!

Cruise part II and Miami sans mom

One of Pepe's favorite activities on the boat was torturing me. How does it go? See below

But in the end, after all that terror, all was forgotten...

I said "good bye" to Pepe on Friday am, and it went smoothly. On Thursday night we had a talk about it:
AM: So, Pepe, mommy is going to go back home tomorrow and you will stay with Buni and Ioana.
P: Why?

AM: Because mommy knows you are going to have a lot of fun in Miami with Buni. Cousin Landen is coming...

P: Are there going to be more kids?
AM: I don;t know

P: Playgrounds, and lighthouses?

AM: Yes, there will be playgrounds. And Buni will take you to see a lighthouse.

P: OK, you can go.

So I did. And Pepe did have a blast. Mom spoiled him. She bought him everything he wanted, toys and food (e.g., an entire bag on M&M's, a pack of Ritz crackers, mac & Cheese, all very healthy). Godmother Ioana bought him Henry the train. Joe (Ioana's godfather) took them to see a lighthouse.

Mom got the boy all to herself for a bit..

They visited the biggest playground in Miami

He terrorized Ioana...

And finally got some sleep

Only to wake up for some more action

Godmother Ioana and Jeremy and cousin Landen came over for the weekend to hang out. Unfortunately, mom's camera ran out of batteries...I hear they all had a blast.

And me and Chris? We enjoyed 2 adult nights with friends and 3 sleepless nights with mom's dog Obi running around the house restless terribly missing mom...Good times!

The cruise, part one

On Monday morning (1/26) Pepe, mom, Ioana (mom's friend) and myself woke up at 4:30am to get to Logan on time for our flight to MIAMI. Everyone was excited. Pepe loved the ride to the airport, especially driving over the Zakam (sp?) bridge. After getting over a ticket fiasco, we settled nicely into the plane, mom and Ioana in the front, myself and Pepe in the back. I confess I was a bit worried about the flight, perhaps some PTSD from my last plane trip with Pepe, when he was 1 year old, and crawling all over the place. I was prepared for the challenge - books, legos, crayons, snacks, music on Ipod. But the boy was so well behaved. He had his belt on the entire time. He only asked a few times "Are we in Florida?", had his snacks, watched TV, played with the Legos. Such a good boy.
















We took a taxi to the boat, which was a difficult task bc we did not have a carseat for Pepe and so a few drivers refused to take us on. We finally made it on the boat -Norvegian Sky, after a long check in process delayed by the fact that mom and I share the same first and last name. Once on the boat, we had lunch, but were unable to enter our rooms. It was very hot and our luggages were on transit. Pepe was very excited, and after his first icecream decided that he "needed" to get into the kiddie pool. As such, I took his clothes off and left him in his diaper, without realizing that it was "superabsorbant". The result? Check out the pics.


Yup, at least 3 people asked permission to take pics with the boy. What can I say, he was the talk of the Norvegian Sky!


And at home, daddy, well daddy was so proud: "That's my boy"!
Having a great time!

In the afternoon we settled in and signed Pepe up for "Kid's Corner", the daycare on the boat. Pepe loved it! He ended up going there every day for 2 hours in the am (so I could get my workouts in) and 2 in the afternoon/evening (so we could go see the adult shows). He wanted to go longer, but I just could not make myself let him....I know, pathetic:)
Speaking on Kid's Corner, Pepe charmed everyone over there. They found out about his lighthouse obsession and they made these huge lighthouse posters for him. They made a rule that only Pepe could go into the pretend lighthouse. They let him jump on their tummies. They took him for icecream. Check out the pics below.
"Pirate night" - "Coach" and "Alligator" opening the treasure. Pepe got a fish toy!

"Princes and princesses night" - going for icecream (was nr 4 for Pepe for the day, but who is counting?)

Everyday we did the following things:

*We went to the pool, first mini pool with Pepe, then big pool with iced cold water. I was the only one who swam laps in it the entire trip! Pepe was glued to me, as you can see below.

He ate on me.

And ate some more.

We ate together - I had to eat the skin of Pepe's pears..



And...I even managed to take a short nap!



* We played basketball

Mom was a superstar. She moved around the court like a pro, and even shot a few baskets with her back at the hoop, over her head!




And Pepe, well ...he is daddy's son!
* We took the ferry to the beach

In the background - Norvegian Sky!

* Mom and Pepe played in the pool while the other mommy took a "mental health" break.

Everyone had such a good time. I was really impressed with how reasonable Pepe was, how understanding, negotiating, making deals, sitting down for meals, being so affectionate, so engaging, charming everyone. I was so proud to walk around with him because he put a smile on everyones' face. Such a charmer. I gave him as much freedom as possible. Icecream and chocolate? As much as he wanted (after one day he started saying "no" to icecream). Fall asleep watching cartoons? Why not! Sleep naked (no diaper)? Sure....Sleep with mommy? Sure.

He is now in Miami with mom (I returned on Friday so that I could do my 18 mile run and have a couple of nights with Chris), and I hear there's lots to blog about that... So stay tuned!

Big Boy bed drama

We bought a big boy bed for Pepe almost one year ago. His room is pretty big and it easily accommodates the crib and big boy bed. We have been talking about switching Pepe to the big boy bed for a while now, but since t here is no pressure -he does not insist or especially like the big boy bed, and he does not get out of his crib - we procrastinated. Until New Years Eve. I was at the neighbours' house and Chris, in charge of bedtime, decides to have Pepe sleep in the big boy bed. It worked beautifully! He slept through the night, and in the morning, the biggest presents ever, he went downstairs and we found him there when we woke up. However, it was a downward spiral after that. Every single night Pepe would get our of the big boy bed, start playing, come downstairs. We'd put him back in the bed, tell him that if he gets our he'll go into the crib, out him in the crib bc he did get out of the bed, listed to him screaming, trying to sleep on the floor in his room to help him fall asleep, listening to more screaming, and then giving in and bringing him in our room, "sleeping" worried that we might hurt him or that he would wake up, which he did, at ungodly hours like 5:00am or 4:45 am. Last night Chris was out and I had a crazy day interviewing 8 psych fellows in the am, dealing with 80 emails acquired between 9am and 3pm, and I did not even go through the entire process, just brought Pepe into the bed with me at 9pm and we both slept until the morning, sans Chris, who supposedly tried to get into the bed with us when he got home but there was no room. So now Pepe is talking about sleeping with mommy and daddy every night. We are biting the bullet tonight - took all the toys out of hims room and we are going to stay strong and not take him into our bed. We'll see. I am not convinced I am going to be able to do it.

playing "pretend"

I went to get Pepe from his bed after his afternoon nap. Lately, he has been asking me to get into his crib with him, which I also did today. We snuggled a bit and then Chris came and got Pepe out of the crib. Next, I started pretending I was Pepe...
AM (pretending to be P): Mommy, can you lay down on the ground with me...
P (Pretending to be mommy): OK, but only for one minute.
AM: I want something...chocolate
P: No, not now.
AM: I want something to drink.
P: No, mommy, I mean no Pepe.
AM (with my leg up): I want to get out. I want to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed.
P: No, you can't
AM: But I am lonely
P: Well, you can use your imagination....You have your friends in bed with you, too.
AM: I want the light on
P: I am going now, you have to sleep. And tomorrow we will have fun....

It's been a looooooong time...

Sorry for the delay in my blogging. I also have a personal running blog which took precedence to this one, for a little while. Lots has been happening. Pepe has been making huge strides with his language skills. He's got the tenses down, and has learned the proper usage of adverbs such as "often" and "usually". So grown up.

He has been worried about mommy going for a run early in the morning after a snow storm
"Mommy, don't go running, it's icy and you are going to fall".

He has been very difficult to play with, as he wants company but does not let you touch any of the toys. He's got mommy's control issues.

He has been eating lots of chocolate and very little else.

He has been growing a lot. He's got Chris's skinny genes for sure.

He can't understand that people can share a name. When I told him that my mom's name is Ana-Maria, and my dad's name was Pepe, he laughed thinking I am teasing him. "Don't tease me mommy".

He LOVES sledding. We went a few times and he was the youngest kid going down on a huge hill (with me or Chris on the sled, of course).

We have been working on transitioning to the big boy bed. As such, bedtimes are now 2h+ because the boy gets out of the bed and comes downstairs as soon as we leave the room. I tried sleeping with him in the bed, helping him get adjusted to the bed, but it did not work. So after 2 h of trying , he goes back into his crib. Since I am back to work on Monday and I will not have 2 hours per night to spend helping him fall asleep (also, he needs his sleep bc he needs to be up early for school), we are going to give him one chance to sleep in the big boy bed, and if he gets out of the bed, he goes into the crib. I am counting on classical conditioning, as I realized Pepe is not developmentally able to think of consequences. Will see.

The other night, after I transferred him to the crib
P:"Mommy, I have a fever, I have a fever, I have a fever"
After 5 min or so, I go check on him.
AM: Hm, let's check you, no fever on your head, no fever on your body, nope, no fever.
P: Mommy , do you want to lay down on the floor I am scared (yes, right)
AM: OK, just one minute.
The trouble with that is that he fails to fall asleep bc he checks on me every so often to make sure I am still there. After a while, I try to leave.
P: Mommy, don't go.
AM: I have to, baby.
P: Give me a kiss.
AM: OK
P: No, on the mouth (he has been into this lately, Oedipus complex time????)
AM: OK
P: A nose kiss.
AM: OK
P: An ear kiss
AM: OK
P: An eye kiss
AM: OK, now I go
P: But mommy,,,,the other ear, the other eye.
AM: OK, now say "good night" (I know that if he says good night, he usually settles)
P: Good night mommy..
*
Next day I follow up on the fever conversation.
AM: So, you thought you had a fever last night.
P: Yes, I had fever
AM: Really, coz you got a flu shot, remember, so you would not get a fever.
P: yes...
AM: Maybe you had bed fever..
P: Yes, bed fever.
AM: Why did you say you had a fever?
P: Because when I have a fever I go into mommy and daddy's bed and sleep with mommy and daddy...
(Hm, next time he does have a fever will think twice about using the mommy and daddy's bed strategy)
C: Well, Pepe, when you have a real fever mommy and daddy want you close to check on you. You remember it is not fun to have a fever, you don;t feel well.
P: Yes, but I feel lonely in my crib, I can't get out (well, that's the point, kid!).
AM: You don;t need to get out, you need to sleep. You have your snugglies there.
P: Yes......
Oh, and this is how I found out that Chris used to pull the "sick" once in a while to stay home and watch TV (Supposedly the moment everyone left the house he used to go: "YES" and get himself icecream and turn the TV on.). I also used to play with the thermometer so I could stay home a day or two longer when I was sick....

*
These days home went by quickly. I started my training for the Boston Marathon in April. We went to the Y a lot. We went sledding a lot. We saw Charlie and Sonia and Sonia's parents who are visiting from France (the coolest, hippes, most happy couple I have ever met!) for late nights with food and games (Oh, and they invited us to Paris and Tunis...nice!), I had girl's night, Chris had a few outings involving sports and a trip to Harvard Square, we saw the neighbours for a playdate and for a movie, we said "good by" to another neighbours who went back to Holland after 3 months in the US, and who left a ton of food for use. Now it's back to work and I foresee that tomorrow morning both Pepe and I might be trying to pull an "I am sick" one.....It's always hard going back, but we are super excited mom is coming in one week! Hurray!