My Reading Buddy

I find it interesting that Dylan is quite into his books. I read the same amount to both boys and truth be told, probably more consistently to Zach. Zach has always been one for routine and would never let us skip 2 stories at bedtime. Dylan is an easy sleeper and hasn't cared too much about the routine (although lately his big monkey has to be in the bed and his blanket has so be laid over him, not next to him at night). Therefore, if the night was running a little late, books were possibly overlooked a time or two. He has started carrying books all over the house. Every room in the house has a different one or two board books that Dylan has insisted come down with him in the morning. It's really kind of funny. He says, "book" very clearly and tonight said Ba Ban for Brown Bear...a Ward family favorite.
So maybe I'll have someone in the family to have literary discussions with after all!

Dylan Dialogue

I forgot. 12-24 months is all about speech acquisition. Not only is Dylan working on saying any and every word he can, he is also learning all about non-verbal communication. He is a huge "nodder."
"Dylan, do you want to go to bed?" He's curled up in my lap, rocking in a quiet, dark room with his pacifier in and his blanket all curled up.
He will shake his head no.
"Do you want to rock with mommy?"
Nod yes.
It's really cute and I love it! :)

He can point to most of his body parts when you ask him "Where's your...?" questions. He likes his tummy and he's learning knees and elbows right now. He also can tell you a lot of animals and what they "say". He really likes cow and duck sounds too. I asked him today, "What does a mommy say?" He put his fingers to his lips and made the shushing sound. Not that I do that a lot, but in the Wheels on the Bus song the Mommy on the bus says sh, sh, sh.

Another cute little story about language acquisition...you never know how much they understand until something like this and then it's an ah ha moment of realization.
We were playing with some coins in a jar on the floor. Dylan was picking them up and pushing them around on the carpet. I kept saying, "Dylan, put them in here." He would take the penny and look like he was putting it in his ear. He kept doing this and I couldn't figure out what in God's name was making him try and put a penny in his ear. Until I realized what I was saying. "Dylan, put them in "HERE". Not put them in your "EAR"."
Too funny...he was just doing what he thought he heard me say. I can just imagine him thinking, "not sure why she wants me to put it in my ear, but okay." :) Once I said it clearly and showed him - not "in your ear, but in here." He did it. I'm sure he was thinking, that makes more sense lady! :)

One more funny 18 month story.
He loves being tickled and has such an infectious laugh that we love tickling him. His toes, his tummy and under his chin are sure fire ways to get a giggle. The other day I was tickling him in the kitchen. (Which can be scary because he'll fall to floor laughing and it's hard ceramic tile in there!) Anyway, he was laying on the floor laughing and I stop tickling because I'm always afraid he can't catch his breath or it's not fun anymore (if you have an older sibling, you know it can cross a line quickly). So I stopped. He finally caught his breath and then pulled up his shirt pointed to his belly and said, "Mo, Mo". He was ready for More! Absolutely adorable!

Please don't go, I'll eat you up, I love you so.

Okay, so I had to think twice about posting this one. I found it the most endearing moment as a mother, but don't want it to embarrass him when he's older. This one is for our private blog book and to share publicly for now since he's little and can't read yet (nor can most of his friends).

We watched "Where the Wild Things Are" tonight. To be honest, I had a hard time staying awake. Mostly because I was so tired, but it was a little slow to start. The movie definitely had some fun parts, but it was much darker than I had thought it would be. We didn't see it in the theaters because I thought the big Wild Things would be a bit much in a dark theater, but at home he could handle it. He did and he wasn't scared at all except for maybe one or two scenes that got a bit intense. I will say it had a good message for kids that are a bit older (maybe 8+ could get the deeper meaning of anger management, complexity of parenting etc). I really didn't think Zach was paying too much attention to it, but towards the end of the movie he had climbed into my chair with me and we were cuddling. Almost the very end, Max is getting ready to sail away back to his home. "Please don't go, I'll eat you up, I love you so." Carol, the main beloved Wild Thing, comes running at the last minute to say goodbye to Max. They have had a fight and Max doesn't think he's coming. He reaches the edge of the water and Max and Carol share a look that says "It's all good, I still love you even though we fought. You're my buddy." Zach turns his head around and looks at me and I'll be darned if he didn't have little tears in his eyes. Really. It made me tear up. Here is my son becoming emotional for the first time about any story. Reading, TV, movie or otherwise. It touched me so much to see that he "got" the unspoken looks between the characters and the deeper meaning of friendship. Of course, being a boy, he quickly turned away and was embarrassed that I had seen him. The look he gave me though was one of surprise. I don't think he really "knew" why he was crying. He just "knew" that the emotions were there and kind of turned around to check and see what I was doing.
What a cool moment to be a Mom! In the end that's why I wrote about it. What better memory to keep and share than the first time your child showed a complex, almost adult-like emotion.

Pitsco Rocks! and donation totals

I just had to update the blog and say that Pitsco (a large company here in Pittsburg) has generously agreed to donate the cost of shipping the donations to Colorado Springs (the US location for the Haiti orphanage). Thank GOD! I was losing sleep wondering how I was going to pay for what ended up being 5 HEAVY boxes of donations!

Here's the total count of donations on their way to Haiti:
500 diapers
1200 baby wipes
50 cans of formula
90 jars of baby food
5 boxes of rice/oatmeal cereal
15 baby hygiene items
10 bottles of Infant/Children's Tylenol
20 baby blankets
24 bars of soap
various clothes, onesies, and other misc hygiene items
$156 dollars in cash! :)

Not bad for a month's work!
Thank you Pittsburg and friends! :)

Conversations with Zach

Tonight during his teeth brushing with his Dad...Zach asked, "Does your tongue go all the way into your tummy?" (Good question if you think about it...where is the "end" of your tongue?) Craig said, "No, it ends about here." Zach looked at him with a bit of disbelief, "Well, Hulk's goes all the way into his tummy." That would be in reference to his Incredible Hulk toothbrush he was using. Seriously, what will they think of next!?!? :)

Haiti Orphan Relief

I can't tell you why exactly the Haiti earthquake affected me so deeply. I have a couple theories. One, I'm human and it was an enormous tragedy, how could you not be affected. Two, I'm a mother and seeing all those children suffering or thinking of all the mother's losing their children was enough to make me lose some sleep and count my blessings. Three, a friend of mine from college, who I haven't talked to in years but have been "keeping" up with on Facebook adopted two children from Haiti. I was so impressed by that before the tragedy. He and his wife opened their hearts up to these children and made such a beautiful family that it just always stuck with me (interestingly enough, another of my "friends" on FB adopted 2 children from Africa and I was equally as impressed (especially when you see that she had 2 or 3 other biological children!). Anyway, as soon as I heard about the earthquake I thought about my friend and how it would affect him having two children who's family and origin is from there. Well, sure enough he headed off on a mission to help in Haiti and the orphanage they adopted from was asking for supplies.
I truly felt that it was God's way of giving me the answer to, "What can I do?" I decided to work with an organization in Pittsburg that we are involved with, Young Professionals, and see if we could get some donations together and send to the orphanage. I thought I'd just set up a little booth at the mall and see what money or supplies we could receive. It wasn't a huge amount and the second day of sitting there I started to wonder if I wasted my time and could have just made my own donation for the amount I was collecting. :)
Just as I said this out loud to my friend sitting with me, a man who was deaf and was struggling to communicate with us came up and motioned for me to come outside. I went out and found a women in a van with 20 cans of formula. She had the formula and her grandson couldn't use it anymore. What a blessing for an orphanage! They had seen the little blurb in the paper and had the exact items to help. I guess I'm saying, there were a lot of relief efforts, but none focused on babies and children. The formula would have gone to waste, but this was a perfect way to help others. Within another 20 mins or so, an elderly lady came up to my friend and I and looked at the pictures I had around me. She said, "Now what exactly is this going for?" I told her and she said that's perfect. But let me tell you something before I give this to you. She went on to tell us how over a year ago she found a wallet at Walmart and turned it in (it was around Xmas time). She went back to the Customer Service to see if the owner had claimed it. The owner of the wallet had in fact returned and was relieved to have their Xmas money returned. The wallet owner left a note, "To the angel who returned our wallet, Thank you!" This woman decided she would keep that $20 and give it to a good cause because she didn't "need" the money. I began to tear up thinking, this woman held onto the $20 and the note for over a year, how many Salvation Army ringers did she pass, how many other valuable charities had she seen in the last year that maybe didn't resonate with her. But the "irony" of this Christmas "angel" giving her $20 a year later to God's Littlest Angels Orphanage in Haiti....was not lost on me. It wasn't irony in my opinion, it was my answer. "You did the "right" thing." My friend and I were both emotional as she told us her story. We really couldn't thank her enough.
Just as we were thinking about packing up for the afternoon, two women came in carrying armloads of blankets to donate. Funny enough, they said, "Is it too much?" Is it too much?!?!? NEVER! :) Junior high girls from the local Catholic school were learning to knit and put all of their practice squares together to make baby blankets. It just so happened to coincide with our fundraiser. Again, I was emotional while receiving their gift to these kids in Haiti!

Sometimes God's answers are not whispers but great big billboards! I have been so touched by the outpouring of support.
This picture doesn't include the last 3 weeks of donations that have come in at Zach and Dylan's daycare center, The Center. Monica, the director, put out a box for collection and we received at least as much if not 2x's as many donations. I will definitely post the total when I get a chance to count it all this weekend. I'm now hoping for a corporate donation of shipping costs to help me get all these great supplies to Colorado Springs (to then go in cargo containers directly to the orphanage in Haiti).

People really are good and generous!