Annie and Oscar 12-09

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The nightmare before Christmas

Annie is having her first Christmas where all the gears are turning and she "gets it," boy, does she ever. We wrote a letter to Santa and mailed it to him at the North Pole. Her primary wish is for a red bike. She added later that she'd like a double stroller for her and Oscar (she's so practical), but I told her she can only ask for one big present per Christmas.

We've tried to embrace Annie's new awareness of the holidays by taking her to holiday-themed events, one of which was a "Santa Fly-in" that we were invited to by our landlords Beverly (shown above with me and Annie) and Al (Al is a retired pilot and Beverly still belongs to a wives club that hosts the event each year). Santa taxis in a red plane at a local airfield, deplanes and the kids get to follow him back to the air club where he hands out presents to each child (supplied by the parent elves earlier). When it came to Annie's turn, I had to carry her up (she wouldn't walk by herself) and then screamed bloody murder as soon as we got within a foot of him. I had to take her present from Santa, and ever since then she has often pronounced that she doesn't like Santa. I'm hoping he's hard of hearing at his advanced age. Fingers crossed. My thinking is she's just never been a fan of big loud crowds and this place was packed and noisy with kids hopped up on candy canes. She's more into the "Silent Night" version of Christmas we believe. Well, we'll just have to see what ends up under the tree to learn just how forgiving he is.

We're headed up to our own North Pole on Sunday, aka Connecticut. It's going to be one big family-palooza with my sister and her boys, Jay's sister and her family and my good childhood friend Miranda and her family returning for her first Christmas in Connecticut since they moved to Jakarta 3+ (maybe 4?) years ago. She has a little girl who will be almost 2 and the last time we saw her she was 6 months old, so we can't wait to see how she'll give Annie a run for her money. I expect the results to be hilarious and fully documented. Oscar will also be there, observing it all with his few hours of awake time per day. We can't wait.

Oscar just chillin', waiting for Santa

Speaking of Oscar, he's the gruntiest baby we've ever met. It's his way of getting noticed, we gather, since as the second child, he's got to find creative ways if he's going to get any kind of attention. He's a great, albeit slow, eater. He's getting better at the sleeping thing, usually getting up once in the middle of the night, then again in the early morning. We cart him around everywhere and he doesn't seem to mind, and, as a result, is (sadly) becoming a great car-seat sleeper. Today at his one-month checkup, he measured around 9+ pounds (I have it written down somewhere...), and a little over 20 inches. He's at 25th percentile for weight and height and 35th for head circumference; his head is smaller than Annie's was (she had and still has a huge noggin). He hasn't smiled yet but gives us this sort of pleased look. He coos (which melts me every time), and as mentioned before, grunts like a sow.

P.S. Just so I don't forget to document this: Annie's newest Annie-ism, when I'm kneeling to put her jacket on or something and tip over saying, "Oh, I lost my balance!", she pretends to pick something up and hands it to me, and says, "There you go, Mama, there's your balance."

We'll have more after the new year with what I hope to be some hilariously cute photos and video of all the relatives and ensuing shenanigans. Until we return, Happy Holidays, everyone!

In a nutshell

It seems Oscar's first month of life will go largely undocumented, but on the bright side, there wasn't much variety to these first 4 weeks. He basically slept, ate, pooped, ate, pooped, slept, pooped and ate, usually in that order. He's now seeming more of a "baby" to us and less of a little alien parasite, albeit a cute one. It's been a challenge figuring out how to entertain a 3-year-old and keep an infant alive without losing what little sanity I have left, but we're managing. Some days better than others. I have to say though, the second kid gets the shaft. I can count on my fingers the times Oscar cried for only a second before picking him up to nurse, more likely, he's cried for at least 5 or 10 minutes while I raced around trying to complete whatever task I was in the middle of before scooping him up. I can say though, that I've become quite adept at nursing and doing many other household tasks at the same time; something I never would have done with Annie when she was an infant. Such things as cook, dress, make beds, type, and play doctor with Annie. Oscar doesn't seem to mind. He's sadly used to the lack of undivided attention.

Annie's in love with her little brother and will adopt that "he's soooo cuuuute" tone of voice usually reserved for grandparents when addressing him. She'll say things like, "Oscar, don't worry, food's comin'," when I'm having trouble getting to him for whatever reason and she helps burp him, brings me diapers and pacifiers when asked. She's a big help. It's been hard for her though to adjust to not being the center of my world every second of the day. I guess it had to happen sometime. We've noticed a little more acting out and disobedience than usual, a little potty training regression, but the last few days I see a little more of the "old" Annie coming back. We had her three-year checkup and she's right where she should be, so that's a relief. She had to get a H1N1 shot the other day and was quite brave, as she always is. Since then she'll say at random points of reflection, "I don't like shots, Mama." But we've talked about how they're necessary to keep us healthy and she seems to get it. Her vocabulary grows every day and she now uses verbal pauses, like, "well," and words like "actually," often now, which always cracks me up. She'll explain if she's upset when I put something of hers away by saying, "Mama, that's important to me." She loves to dance, play doctor, pretend "school" with me. She's into puzzles (the big floor kind), playing store, and I'm always amazed at her capacity for imagination. She has made the space between the wall and Oscar's crib her "Mexican house" (we don't know why). Basically, she's becoming a pretty cool little person and an extremely patient 3-year-old. We still have it pretty good, despite the occasional tantrums and emphatic "NO!"s. I can't wait to watch her interact with Oscar as he gets older. I have a feeling she'll be a pretty fun big sister.