Joey: He's a toddling machine. He walks backwards, sideways, in circles, and is learning to run and (oh no) climb. He had a recent growth spurt and now he can reach all of the kitchen drawers. We tried to childproof them, but we still have mashed fingers every day. He's been talking a lot more too. He can say Mama, Dada, Nanna, Bapa (Grandpa), Jojo, apple, onion, up, down, la-la-la (light), lur-lur (blender), aaaah-da (please...don't know where he got that one), ball, dog, duck, cat, truck (with their accompanying sounds), ak (sock), booger... just to name a few. He knows the signs for please, thank you, more, again, shoes, where, eat, poop (courtesy of James), all done, goodbye, and he made up his own signs for brushing his teeth, blender, music, dancing, drink, and a few others that we haven't quite identified yet but he sure does them a lot. His biggest news of all is that, after seven toothless months, he cut three new teeth today! We were pretty sure he'd have 8 teeth for the rest of his life.
He's had more than his fair share of trouble in his little life. We've got him on a very limited diet (much to his dismay) and a four-day food rotation to help his intestines heal and to keep his allergies under control. We have been trying for months to get the carpet adhesive that he is deathly allergic to out of our new house so that we can finally move in! If he's exposed to even one molecule it seems like he is up screaming in pain all night long. Poor little guy. I'm not sure what it's like to have a baby who sleeps though the night...or half the night...or doesn't insist on being held all night...but he really doesn't do it for any reason besides he just doesn't feel good.
So we've got Joey quarantined for now and it's helping. We've been switching off going to 2 different wards so he can stay home (away from church building chemicals and perfumes) and we can both go to church. Our doctor says that every time he has a reaction, he goes backwards, so the best way to help him actually heal and not just cover the symptoms is to keep him away from everything he's sensitive to. That means looking crazy while muscle testing everything he's going to eat/drink/wear/touch/breath shared air with, and basically not taking him into public for a few months (no spur of the moment grocery store runs without a sitter). No easy task, my friends. We're doing our best though. Just do us a favor and scrub up with unscented soap before visiting. He's SO worth it!
James: He's branched out from computers and become quite the jack of all trades. He's spent so many hours over at our new house ripping off wall paper, removing carpet, scraping and scraping and sanding and scraping some more at that glue on the sub-floor. His parents have been here this week to help us and it's been really really nice. We were making slow work since James could only be there after work in the evenings, and I could only come when my mom was free to tend Joey. James and his dad have been figuring out the ancient wiring, putting light switches in the right rooms (seriously, the switch that turned on the light over the sink was 20 feet away in the dining room), ripping out chunks of the ceiling, etc. etc. It's never ending. He's such a good sport though and doesn't complain even though he's pulling double shifts every day and getting nowhere near enough sleep at night. I definitely married up.
Sahra: I'm "blossoming" as my father-in-law kindly put it yesterday. 21 weeks pregnant and it's no secret. It's nice to look pregnant instead of just chubby. James and I have an agreement to not find out the gender until birth and it's especially hard right now because I know I could know! It'll be such a fun surprise though, and the anticipation alone will probably get me through labor. My only concern is that big brother Joey will still insist on sleeping draped over my stomach and chest when baby #2 makes a debut.
Other than that, I spend my time trying to keep an adorable toddler happy and alive. My parents have been a godsend in helping with him so that I can run errands and work on that house! We're aiming to move in next month!
That's about it. If you ever get the insatiable urge to clean or fix or weed or sand or paint something, by all means we're here to help!
