as you all know, last week marked the conclusion of the absolute longest period of time we've been separated from bean. i had the misfortune of working the day she got home, so i was bouncing off the hospital walls trying to get out of there in time to lay eyes on her before she went to sleep. we did have time to give each other many good night kisses as she graciously stayed up late for me, but prior to my arrival, an even more emotional (and affectionate) reunion took place.
and ever since, it's been peas and carrots again. we are definitely appreciating this time where they absolutely adore each other. with the exception of occasional disagreements over toys and miscalculated limb placements, these two thoroughly enjoy each other's company.
we enjoyed a somewhat hectic few days with nani and zuzu, eric and emily, and cousins bob, lisa and colin higgs all here to welcome bean back to chicago.
some happy coincidences in scheduling allowed dad to have a few extra days home with us at the end of his vacation, which included valentines day. i happen to LOVE this artificial hallmark holiday, and hear me out on this. valentines day to me seems very analogous to halloween. yes, it loses a few cool points being in the winter vs. the fall, and is the closer to a string of holidays rather than the opener. so, it's no halloween, but it's still a holiday that invites fun little craft projects, parties, exchanging tokens, candy and sweets, without any strong religious or familial connotation, so you can make it what you want without any guilt or obligation. rather than viewing it as a scam to make single women miserable and couples spend preposterous amounts of money on mediocre pre set menus, i choose to see this as a small beacon shining in the depth of winter, one last hurrah after the real winter holidays have ended to tide us over until spring.
on my last bean free day, i indulged in a little heart shaped crafting, making felt valentines for the kids. reese's i filled with noisy paper as that is most interesting to him these days, and bean's with this little necklace, instructions on this great blog:
i was really inspired by my experience knitting xmas gifts this year, and have since made a commitment to make ALL handmade gifts this year. it's scary to actually type that, but that's the plan...it's a fun challenge and certainly ensures some gifts will come late, but it's exciting to think about branching out from knitting in my crafting and putting a lot of thought and time into gift giving...isn't that the point?
obviously, the kids are just a bit too young to get really fired up about any holiday, but i think we all had a great time on valentines day. it started with a thematic riff on bean's favorite, french toast, followed by the presentation of gifts.
buddy's went straight into his mouth, which is always a positive sign.
bean was very excited to open and don her beautiful big girl necklace...
...for precisely .25 seconds before ripping it off her neck and breaking it. it has since been reinforced and adequately bean-proofed.
we also of course had to end the day with a thematic dish:
perhaps more delicious than it was beautiful.
in other rather significant news this week, it's very possible that we may have a house, or the promise of a house, in davis california. forgive the crypticness (see the previous post re: not counting chickens). what i will say is that on our trip, we surprised ourselves by falling in love with a house that hasn't yet been built. the idea of building a house never occurred to me before as realistic because it seemed far too overwhelming to do so without ever even owning a home, and from across the country. as it turns out, this is why they make model homes. without giving away too much detail, i had resigned myself to knowing that my current kitchen, albeit in a tiny apartment, might be the nicest kitchen i ever call my own for the rest of my life, or at least for several more years. then i met this model kitchen. love at first sight.
what ensued over the next week or two, i'm not really sure...a lot of back and forth between our wonderful realtor, other realtors, david, designers, associations, other potential buyers and realtors...i chose during this time to remove myself from the deliberation entirely (see the previous post regarding my utter lack of competitiveness, not to mention my very short attention span for anything pertaining to money--i can't even focus on a game of monopoly), until i came home from work last week to find a happy husband with a glass of wine waiting for me to toast our winning offer...now that's good service.
so, barring any major disasters of varying nature, this may be our house in five-six (!) short months.
anyhow, onto more important topics. the KIDS. i am thrilled to report that these kids have been an absolute JOY since bean returned home. per the previous post, everyone knows how magical and special reese has been...in fact, it's a story too long to mention here, but the degree to which his charm and general adorableness helped us secure our future home over our competitors is an interesting consideration (note, he was a part of our toast). he's finally crawling on all fours rather than like a well compensated hemiplegic. he's also very focused on climbing and standing. his sleep issues have all but resolved, in spite of waking up the other night moaning and covered in snot. he's sleeping better with his cold than he did the entire last month.
however, ms. beautiful baby princess also deserves some serious praise right now. as we suspected, despite her illness, she really flowered in michigan and returned to us a little lady. it's amazing what a difference verbal communication makes. she talks (and sings) all the time now, and is clearly picking up a ton of vocabulary daily. she easily whizzes through the alphabet now, reading every letter, and is doing pretty well with numbers and colors. she speaks in spanglish, really impressing us sometimes with tough ones like peacock or crocodile. she is starting to put words together into caveman sentences as well.
it's great to be able to communicate with her more effectively, and this can really short circuit those horrible tantrums when we can decipher why they started. for example, if she's screaming in her high chair because she wants to get out, she will scream incessantly regardless of what food, toy, affection or distraction you offer her. however, if you ask her to repeat "i'm done. can i please get down?" she stops crying immediately and pays close attention, repeating word after word.
she has been thoughtful, loving, clever and funny, attentive to her brother, attentive to us, making us laugh and impressing us every day with her new skills and abilities. she also has a new favorite band, rodrigo y gabriela, a feisty mexican guitar duo. david recently put on a video of them and bean instantly started dancing the pasa doble and rocking out on her air guitar, speaking of surprising us daily with new skills and abilities...
both kids have been sleeping great overnight and at naptime, so without needing a nap myself, i have opted to stagger their naps such that i have a few hours of alone time with each of them during the day, which has been fun. they do well entertaining each other when they're awake together, but it's nice to get one on one time. this makes it difficult to leave the house, but we're not in a big hurry to do that during the winter anyway.
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