We Love You, Aunt Hannah (and Uncle John, we're pretty damn fond of you, too)

Mixed emotions is the only way to describe it. (Well, that and devastation.) Aunt Hannah and Uncle John stayed here all weekend, but departed this morning for their next big adventure...a cross-country move to Denver, where Hannah's dream job awaits her. I'm at once totally bereft and completely thrilled. We had such a great weekend...and Cordelia became particularly bonded to her mama's best friend. : )

Aunt Hannah, the speed bump!

Girl talk!

As for Cody...well, he knew exactly how to pay homage to Hannah:

Cody Plain Sick, Mommy & Daddy Heartsick

Around 2:00 on Sunday morning, JVL and I heard the dreaded, telltale sound of rasping over the monitor...and Cody has been on a downward spiral ever since. Poor sweet bear is as sick as I've ever seen him, and has been alternately weeping and putting on a brave face. He's still too little for us to give him any sort of cough medicine or decongestant, so we are just waiting it out...but the poor darling can't really sleep for coughing, and his nose and eyes have been streaming for 36 hours. We're hoping to keep Cordelia away from it, and in the meantime, have just kind of decided this will be a lost week. Keep little Cody Bear in your thoughts.

My heart is in pieces. He was up and down all night, coughing and crying. We'd get him juice and he would mumble, "Mommy, I just do not feel well. Something just feels so wrong. When will I feel better?" This morning he rested in my arms for more than a half hour, just staring straight ahead. And then finally burst into tears and said, "Mommy, I need you. Please do not let me be sick anymore. Please get me better!"

Oh yeah, and Cordelia began consolidating naps...from three to ONE...and is also sneezing...and my best friend moved away today. Yes. The day is that sucky.

Even Five Guys didn't help.

Car Conversation

Today in the car, on the way home from running a quick errand with Aunt Hannah:

CJP: Mom, can we go to Wegman's for an adventure?

SLL: Um, I don't know, buddy. You're probably going to have to go the bathroom and Wegman's is kind of at time commitment.

CJP: I think we should go. We should take Aunt Hannah with us to see Wegman's. And I will just check out their bathroom, and then we will have some lunch. We will have Wegman's pizza, and then I will pee. After I check out the bathroom first.

SLL: You ok with peeing at Wegman's? (And yes, he has gotten over his fear of public bathrooms, thank goodness.)

CJP: I can do that. Or I will just hold it until I get home. But probably we should have pizza at Wegman's.

We did. And, he did. Twice.

Then on the way home from Wegman's, as he was getting sleepy:

CJP: Mom? Yesterday (his catch-all for anything that happened in the past) Bidi and I went for a walk and saw a moth stuck to the window of the Jeep. (Mom, remember the Dining Room Moth...last MAY?)

SLL: You did? Was it big? Or was it little?

CJP: It was enormous. It was the size of Daddy!

SLL: That's pretty enormous, all right. What color was he?

CJP, without a pause: Lavender.

SLL: A lavender moth?

CJP: Yes. And he had a lot of red hair.

SLL: Wow. What did he say to you?

CJP: He could not talk, Mommy. He does not have a mouth. So he just flapped his wings. And Bidi and I checked on him every day to see if he was still there until he flew away one day! (Pause.) Mom, can you please turn Sarah McLachlan back up?

Cody and Bidi, Then and Now

November 2008...

January 29, 2009...

January 2011 : )

Rockin' Robin

Bird and Bear, Almost Buddies

There's still some definite unrequited love going on here. But it's getting better, with moments of true sweetness.

Here they are at Cody's train table. He likes to construct, she likes to eat.

Note they are both wearing his pajamas.

If you look closely below, you can see Cody in the box. He calls it his ship, and it vies for first place in terms of Christmas presents (tied with train table crane and Mary Poppins doll). I dread the day it falls apart.

He mostly likes to hide from his sister.

Little Bird at 9 Months

Cordelia had her 9-month checkup the first week of January and I'm pleased to report her thighs weigh 22 pounds. The rest of her is the 5 ounces. She's a work of art, and 29 inches long! She was a brave little toaster for her shots, too. Her focus so far this month has been on figuring out how to walk. She mostly just stands -- for minutes on end -- and bounces. It reminds me so much of when Cody was trying so hard to "race" Aunt Hannah but couldn't actually crawl. She doesn't even try to walk, exactly, but it's clear she's pondering the mechanics of it. And anything else that will bring her closer to her brother.

Also, she now says "mama," "dada," and "ba-ba." Today she very distinctly said "COOKIE!" but I'm sure it was a fluke. Funny, though. And she waves hello and goodbye, flaps the "all done!" sign when she's sick of eating, and is working on blowing kisses.

Here's her first little pony-tail. She looks like Pebbles! (Or is it Bam-Bam?)

She's just the most wonderful little girl imaginable. I can't believe she's been here longer than she was inside me. I'm clinging to these last weeks and months of babyhood--she still falls asleep on me at night--but not because she needs to anymore. I just kind of still love it, and it's always a little bittersweet when my arm falls asleep and I move her to her crib.

Six Teeth

Teeth 4, 5, and 6 broke through last night. Poor birdie! Cody had ZERO teeth until he was 10 months old. She's like a little shark. And in pain...can you tell?

Spiderman Underpants!

Ok, so JVL fixed my computer, and I have a new camera (that I still have to set up) which means, no more excuses. (I did work almost 90 hours in the last two weeks though--work and freelance--plus the kids, so I haven't been slacking on purpose.) But on to the big news...drumroll, please...

So on Monday, January 3, Cody came downstairs and announced, "I would like to use the potty." Which he then did. And has ever since.

That's actually the whole story. That's it. He just potty-trained himself. I put him in Pull-Ups for a couple of weeks, figuring it would be a long haul, but he didn't have a single "accident." So I told him that if he kept it up, we'd have a Saturday morning Kohl's date to get big-boy underpants. He waited patiently until Saturday last, and then...

As you can imagine, we now own 15 pairs of superhero underwear, with some trains thrown in for good measure.

It's kind of freakish, isn't it? Several friends have asked how I did it so fast and so easily but I can't take any credit. We've laid all the groundwork -- the potty books, all that -- but he just decided. All I did was dole out a few M&Ms, which he doesn't even ask for anymore. It's awesome. We're so proud of him, but not nearly as proud as he is of himself. : )

After a few days, he stopped even telling me he had to go. He'd just disappear and then I'd hear him announce--in extreme detail, mind you--his doings. Once last week, it went eerily quiet. I went looking for him and came upon him on the toilet, "reading" The Weekly Standard. I said hi, and he looked up and said grumpily, "Can you please close the door, Mom? I would just like you to give some privacy to me."

Ok then, little old man.

Mary Poppins is real.

This morning, Cody and I went to Kohl's to get "big boy underpants" (more on that later!!) and we passed one of those totally generic brick "town center" kind of buildings, with a Five Guys and a big clock tower. As we passed by, he said, "Mom? Is that a Five Guys?" (It is NOT the Five Guys we go to.) I said, "Yes -- how did you know that?" He replied, "I recognized the logo, Mom."

Then he pointed to the clock tower and said, "Is that Big Ben?" I said not exactly, because Big Ben was in London and we were in Woodbridge. But it was kind of like the Woodbridge version of Big Ben. Then, this long disquisition:

"Mom, when I get big, you will take me to London, England. And when I get there I will go find Mary Poppins. She lives there. And I will play with her and she will take such great, kind care of me! And I will also play with Jane and Michael Banks, and they will share all their toys with me! And we will probably drink medicine together. And then, Mary Poppins and I will drive in her car to St. Paul's Big Church. Mary Poppins has a new purple car just like we do! We will not walk, we will drive. And then I will find the bird lady on the stairs and I will give her tuppence! We will NOT see Uncle Albert because he freaks me out a little bit. We will just hang out with Bert."

I was laughing too hard by then to hear the rest.

Faster. And more dangerous

Last year I took Cody out in the snowpocalypse in a classic sled, which was more like being in a horse-drawn sleigh with me in the role of horse. This was it:

It was a good time and everything, but it lacked both a sense of serious adventure and very much velocity. (My fault.) During our trip to NJ, however, Uncle John decided to carve a luge path on the diagonal across Pop-Pop's front lawn and build a giant starter ramp at the top. Pop-Pop then procured a slick plastic tobagen tobboggen tababoggyun sled from Denville hardware. Between the grade of the hill, the packed snow in the chute, and the sled's delightfully low coefficient of friction, Cody was able to achieve some real speed. So much, in fact, that Pop-Pop had to wait for him at the bottom and body-block him from careening into the street:

The only way to really get the sense of speed is to note that his hood starts up, but gets blown down in the course of the run. It was that intense.

The best part, however, is that every single time we did this we had the same routine: He would call down to Pop-Pop and ask, "Do I have a thumbs-up?" Pop-Pop would post the double thumbs, indicating that it was safe to go. Then he'd count to ten as fast as he could and shout "Go!" I'd release him down the track.

And then, for the entire length of the run, he'd repeat, over and over, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer . . ."

I'd chase him down and then he'd beg me to carry him back to the top so we could do it again.

He only took one spill and faceplant, but he took it very well. Quite enjoyed it, actually. Here he is up close, savoring the feel of snow on his cheeks:

"Ooh, heaven is a place on earth"

I'm starting to feel about this blog the way I do about the pile of New Yorkers stacked neatly, unread, in my magazine rack: that I'm so far behind, I'll never catch up. Still, this requires much less intellectual acuity, so I don't have much excuse. I will just quickly share a highlight from this morning's ride to Mass.

Me: Love you, Cody. You're the best boy on Earth!

Cody: Mom, what's Earth?

Me: Well, it's the planet where we live. It's filled with forests and oceans and roads and buildings and people. (Weak, I know, but it was not quite 7 am.)

Cody, pointing out the window: Mom, is all that Earth?

Me: Yep.

Cody: Mom, where is heaven?

Me: That's kind of a big question. But the simple answer is that it's a place we can't see, kind of up in the sky, where people we love live forever with God after they leave this earth. It's filled with angels and saints, like Mary and Joseph, and many other holy souls. They can see us even though we can't see them. It's a beautiful, peaceful place.

Once we got to church, he made straight for the creche, where he spent the entirety of Mass sitting among the shepherds, wise men, and animals. He kissed Jesus and Mary, then put his hands around Mary's neck and said a Hail Mary. (You think I'm kidding, but you couldn't make up this sweetness.)

Then he ran to the pew, got Bidi and Patches, and curled up next to the manger, staring dreamy-eyed at the Blessed Mother, upon whom I think he has a little crush. During a quiet moment (of course) he stage-whispered earnestly, "Mom? Is this heaven?"

In that moment, it was a tough one to answer.

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long since I blogged. It has been a VERY busy time for me! Christmas came! It was amazing! Mommy and I left some cookies for Santa, and Daddy and I wrote him a note.

In the morning, I came down, and guess what? The cookies were gone! And Santa had used my special cup to drink some milk! And he wrote ME a note right back!

I will keep it forever. I liked all of it except for the part where he said to be extra good to my sister. Next I gave everyone I love a good morning Merry Christmas hug. That's our tradition!

And, the best part of all? Baby Jesus was IN the manger! When I went to sleep on Christmas Eve, he was not there yet. But there he was!

And I got an Iron Man ornament, and I hung him in place of the angel! I figure they are pretty much the same. They both can fly and stuff.

Santa and Granny and Pop Pop brought me so many presents. A helicopter, many books, some puzzles and toys, and ear protectors!

Granny bought me the most BEAUTIFUL Mary Poppins doll! I cherish her. And Aunt Kelly got me an ornament that is her umbrella!

And then, just when I thought Christmas couldn't get more amazing, Mommy gasped and said there was something waiting in my playroom!

Can you even believe it????

We had a great morning. Cordelia had a lot of fun, too, climbing on the presents and snuggling Mom.

In this picture, she and Pop Pop have the same crazy hair!

Mom and Dad seemed really tired though. I'm not sure why.

Happy Christmas and New Year! I have more to blog from our trip to New Jersey -- where I went SLEDDING WITH POP POP! But now, Mom says it's time for lunch.