Update

OK, so I have been too self involved lately, completely consumed by my marathon training and my own blog, and have not unpdated Pepe's blog in so long. Sorry, Pepe!

So update, update:


1. POTTY TRAINING
It's happened. Pepe is fully potty trained. It took 2 weeks, one of Pepe fighting it, the next of Pepe miracoulosly becoming potty trained. He rarely has an accident now, and if he does, it happens bc he is outside and there is no potty. He is able to go through the night without an accident. For a while we had him in a diper, but the kid likes to sleep nakes, so in the morning we'd find a pile of clothes and a diper on the floor, and Pepe cozy under 5 blankets!

2. STILL IN THE CRIB
We'll have to attack this one, but we are putting it off since we know it is going to be hard to keep Pepe in his bed/room at night time.

3. LOVES HIS CROCS
Yup, that's the only thing he wants to wear. He is the kid wearing no socks, crocs, jeans, a Tshirst and a hat while mommy wears her winter jacket.

4. LOVES his websites: traffic signal museum, lighthouses, crosswalks.

5. LOVES his trucks. He looks over catalogs we have gotten from Toys R Us and other such stores, and says: "We need to buy this one, we don't have this one", or "I wish I were driving this truck, and daddy this one, and mommy this one".

6. BEDTIMES ARE SHORTER, thanks to THE TIMER
The timer is a miracle. We set it for 30 min, and Pepe choses how to spent the time. Most often for 15 min he uses his self-made crosswalk (tape pieces on the carpet, foam blocks with red green and yellow, legos people) and then we read books for 15 min. Then hop into bed. EASY!

7. LOVES HIS GUITAR AND MUSIC
He loves Bob Dylan, My MOrning Jacket, and other such groups, and is not nshy about singing along. WHen I or Chris try to sing, he says : "No, don't sing, you don't know the song".

8. LOVES SCHOOL

9. GREAT AT SHARING

10. V SENSITIVE TO OTHERS' FEELINGS.

11. MANIPULATIVE - "Daddy says I can have a cookie' (don't think so!!)

12. LOVES DONUTS WITH SPRINKLES, CHOCOLATE, and other such healthy treats.

The big marathon is tomorrow. On Tuesday Chris and I go to Montreal for the Society for Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting aka VACATION for almost one week. Pepe will stay with grandma and he is almost as happy as we are to get away. Buni will be arriving in less than a month. He already has a list of things "I need" for Buni to get for him. Ha! Life shjould get back to normal in May and I will get back into regular posting.

potty-potty bilibish naughty

I have not talked about Pepe's potty training here because it has not been very interesting. In a few words... School decided to put Pepe on the potty, Pepe peed in the potty (while looking over a Lighthouse book). School decided that Pepe should wear underwear, Pepe decided to stop peeing the potty. School decided that Pepe can look over the lighthouse book only when he puts pee in the potty, Pepe decided to continue not peeing in the potty. School thought Pepe is not drinking enough, starts giving Pepe more fluid, Pepe has more "accidents" and still no pee in the potty. Daddy very embarrassed and concerned. Mommy not touched by this. This goes on for 2 weeks. Until today, when IT happened. Pepe put pee in the potty. We celebrated. We had pizza and ice cream. Pepe does not seem affected by this, he is neither happy, nor proud, and overall he does not want to talk about it. Daddy is proud and happy, though! Mommy is happy too, but her hopes that this pattern would continue are not very high. Will see.

Buni, Petru and Bianca

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!