scoopy doo

last night jack explained when asked that another word for garbage is trash. so the baron explained about synonyms.  very impressive. 

singing winnie the pooh–angelic.

will post more soon.

yoook out! here comes percy w the weather tracker.

you wlil sit wif me.

hiiiiiiiii.  ’8when going to bed)

it’s easy bc it’s hard.

I meant to include what I emailed myself in the last post, so here’s a smattering of items from the past few months (Hank is 3 months old already…wow).

AUGUST 24

Hank smiles (starting last week, doing it a lot more now)

Trip to TX. Jack’s first plane ride he remembers. 1.5 hour delay but first plane ride with 2 kids wasn’t a disaster

Jack goes to ft worth zoo

Visit with grandmother who has recovered enough to go to rehab

Crazy drought in tx

Swimming in the spruiell pool

Hank barely fits in 3 to 6 month clothes

Starting an advice blog

Jack is starting to be defiant; sigh

Steve jobs resigned. I feel like I owe him my knowledge of computers, even if it is lacking

SEPTEMBER 22nd

hank smiled today (wed)

jack’s preschool woes

life insurance

indy’s drama

tally’s home!

mama drama–frugal vs cheap

October 4

Pita buttuh

No you sing it by yourself

Hank is guy smiley

Tummy time for toots

Laughing at the phonics song (Hank, that is)

 
I’d have to write forever in order to elaborate on everything, but Tally has come and gone and we had a great time.  Rico was here for a couple days, also fun.  Indy is getting old and my parents don’t like it Hank finally laughed at something I did.  In addition to the phonics song, any crazy movement i make with my head along with a high-pitched talking sound elicits what seems like a laugh. I’m quite impressed with myself.

jack has a big boy bed now with thomas sheets. we finally got a bed rail which kept him in bed till 6am today.  Yday and today I ended up in my green bed with both boys and stephen was out on the couch. it’s very bizarre but there’s not enough room for four of us and i don’t want to make it a habit with jack.  Preschool has been quite eventful. Jack loved it the first day and it got worse over the next two. I panicked that I’d have to pull him out. luckily another little boy named Gary also cries, so sometimes Jack tells me that “Gary cries at preschool.”  We have now established that Jack stays at preschool while Mommy goes to work.  Tomorrow I’m going to NYC with my mom and Hank to see the PCP show so I don’t know how I’ll explain that to him. He says “Mommy you came baaaaaack” in this really cute voice when I pick him up from preschool so I’m dreading the day that I can’t pick him up from preschool. hopefully it won’t happen often. He seemed to turn a corner once we explained why he had to go to preschool and once he realized there was play-doh at preschool.

He’s doing very well in Chinese class now, and especially when we practice Chinese words at home. We’re doing colors and hello and bye bye and thank you.  He picked up the word for butt very quickly thanks to Stephen. haha. What is it with boys and butts?

Hank wakes up a lot more at night but he’s usually in the bed with me so it’s not too bad.  Also it seems I fall asleep more often putting Jack to bed so I end up getting more sleep overall. Tonight I managed to put them both to bed by myself. Jack is still amazing with his baby brother. He’s so cuddly and talks to him (look over here, baby Hank.  don’t be so sad, baby Hank).  “He’s open da eyes, mommy!”  i don’t know what i’d do if he didn’t like his brother.  Thank goodness I don’t have to find out until Hank steals one of his toys or something.

Today while he was playing with trains I think I heard him say, “Have a drink, Gordon. So Gordon have a drink.”  He’s hilarious when he makes up stories by himself about his trains.  And of course he uses all the pronouns correctly.

We bought Memory at Target today–Jack already seems like he might be good at it.  My mom rec’d i buy  it bc Tally was really good at it. i stink at it!

ok i’m fading.  i will hopefully update more quickly next time. ciao for now.  (oh i actually re-established contact with moe and she wrote back as if no time had passed. so qui sait?)

We went to TX for a week and missed an earthquake and hurricane Irene in VA. Thankfully, our plane trip there was fine despite a 1.5 hr delay on the tarmac (Jack was so excited by the Jeremy Jet Plane that he fell asleep by the time we took off), and our return flight didn’t even get delayed because of Irene.  Our power was off for a bit, but not long.

Yday I decided to see if Jack could go for any extended period sans diaper. He did wonderfully.  He went #1 and #2 in the potty so I decided he deserved  a train. We probably should have gone to Why Not but I decided to try to do too many things and went to BBB. I forgot to buy pacificers (which Hank will occasionally take) and bring in the coupon so I couldn’t buy the Bjorn. I need to buy one because Hank likes to face out. The Ergo is ok but it’ll be much better once Hank is big enough and has head control to use it sans infant insert. Or maybe I just suck at baby-wearing and need to get over myself.

We visited Mollie in the hospital.  It’s really hard getting old, but I feel sorry for her.  She’s a lonely, mean person despite having a daughter who tried all her life to have the ideal mother-daughter relationship.  And now the daughter is just waiting.  Mollie apparently didn’t like my name when she heard it and planned to call me Diane-Marie, and doesn’t like Hank’s name and called him Stephen Henry at the rehab center.  What is it with older women deciding they don’t like names and making up their own rules about how things are going to be?  My mom with Jack’s name (you still have time, you haven’t signed the birth certificate yet), my grandma with Rico’s name and just being weird about calling hm Hank, and Mollie with my name and Hank’s name.  I hope I will never say anything like that to someone.  It’s not anyone’s business, and it makes you seem like an idiot.  My parents called him JJ for awhile but now they call him Jack (although my mom still says she doesn’t like the name though she loves him…uh…ok).  They named THREE children. They have no say in what I name mine.  But it’s amazing how many people think their opinions matter.

MIL didn’t tell us Mollie didn’t like the name bc she was worried Stephen would be hurt, but the truth is, we think she’s ridiculous. It’s more that she hurts MIL every time she says something horrible.  (“They named him after a hound dog.” hahahaha. but it was in front of her ne’er do well relatives, so doubly infuriating to MIL.)

Anyway, more importantly, Hank and Jack were great.  It was nice to have some help, although I’m glad to be home and i know where everything is and there’s a strange system to things. I’m kind of a horrible parent who relies too much on technology to get me through the day, but I figure it’ll get better once Hank is older.  He has a very sweet smile and loves when I sing him the crocodile song and itsy bitsy spider.  He kicks his legs and waves his arms and coos and it’s darling.

Jack is still working on pronouns.  He’s perfect when he uses them to tell stories, speaking as the train or whomever.  but we’re getting there.  “I close my eyes, then I open my eyes and suddenly a train is pooping. It was…GORDON!”  He also told a story last night about Gordon seeing Jack’s poopy diaper. Or something

Off to read some blogs and zone out. Jack woke up at 6AM thanks to some stupid trucks and now he and Hank are conked out but I drank too much caffeine. Sigh.. OH i’m starting an advice blog. Because I have too much time on my hands! Haha.  I need to get on the political VO thing and the advice blog because I think it’ll help me order my days a bit.  Give them some purpose besides all kids all the time.  Jack starts preschool next week. He’s such a big boy, and so cute. I’m a little worried, but I’m hopeful. And excited for him to have some more friends.

He’s a very mischievous little guy too.  Very funny.

Labor started uneventfully. I thought I’d peed in my pants during Jack’s speech therapy appt that morning but thought, hmm, I’m overdue, maybe I should call the hospital. They were overly cautious and told me to come in, and my mom somehow knew I’d be staying there.  I started having contractions in the car but they weren’t painful.  Stephen, at his co-workers’ urging, met us at Georgetown.  They checked me for amniotic fluid and even though my water had not gushed everywhere, some forebag was broken or something.  Verdict was I had to stay for the duration.

Georgetown was a far cry from my experience at Weill Cornell/ NY Presbyterian.  I was there from around 11:30am to 9:07 when Hank came out in maybe two pushes.  There were a ton of people in the room when I delivered him (a NICU team because of meconium, a chief resident, a junior resident, the attending Dr Benson who was my doctor so that was cool, nurses out the wazoo).  I couldn’t have done it naturally without my amazing nurse Amy (i think that was her name) who had been a Lamaze instructor.  I thought I’d die at 6cm dilated, but fortunately labor only lasted another 20 minutes or so.  Because of Nurse Amy, I was able to be in a trance-like state for hours during labor. I was just breathing in silence, riding the waves of the contractions like I was at the ocean. It was crazy. I’ve never been into yoga or able to control my breath like that. It was remarkable.

Stephen was glad I didn’t have an epidural, and so was I.  No spinal headaches for me, thanks.  I would have done it if medically necessary. I got the impression Gtown is very medication-friendly and no one thought Dr Benson would let me walk around. But he did, and when that was too weird bc of outsiders and painful, I just sat on the bed not strapped to too many things and did my breathing thing. I think it helped that I’d delivered naturally before because everyone knew I was capable of it.

No one, including me, thought he’d be 10 lbs.  The initial doctor asked us to take bets on his weight, and actually said I would be able to have an elective c-section just based on her guesstimate of 8lbs12oz.  Kind of weird, I thought. I opted not to, obviously.

Funny enough, I tore a lot and demanded more pain meds than my doctor thought I needed. After the fact I took Tylenol with codeine and motrin whenever they’d let me. I was in a lot of pain. The nurses were all great, staff was great.  They had these amazing plastic cups and cranberry juice and midnight snacks.  Lactation consultant was nice and thought my technique was good. Ha.  BF’ing still hurts like a bitch in the beginning.  I was crying once we got home.  There was another nurse, Fran, I think, who took Hank to the nursery for a few hours on my last night because I couldn’t see straight and needed sleep. Gtown has a policy of rooming in with your baby, which is great, but also stressful and I hadn’t had much sleep because I’m a chatty person and the nurses all like to talk too.

Jack and my family came to visit on Saturday. So did Lexi Arrico.  It was great. Lots of fun, Jack was fab.  Hank was a snoozer and didn’t really open his eyes at the hospital. In fact, he didn’t open his eyes much for weeks, I thought. He’s finally looking more alert at 5 weeks. He still likes to sleep way more than Jack and for that I am grateful.  I think Stephen and I are better about letting him sleep but he certainly wants to.  When he’s awake it seems like he’s mad for being made to come into the world and would rather be snug in my tummy. I think he’ll come around, though.

My parents have been ridiculously helpful.  Living here has been a blessing. We love our apartment. I don’t know how it’d be in NYC.  I’ve only had a few jobs but I did make a political demo in mid-June and hope to find some success with that.

Today I accomplished taking both boys out to a store by myself. Jack didn’t nap on the way home, thank goodness, and we all returned in one piece. Jack falls asleep on the floor for naps now and he slept for 2.5 hours, so I got to read some of Sandra’s new memoir which is quite good. Hank slept for some of that time too. Yay!

Also, Jack recited his numbers in Chinese today at no urging from me. It was amazing!!!! At the beginning he was even doing the tones. By the time I recorded him, the tones weren’t as good and he was being a bit silly, but that’s ok. He is only 2, after all

Here are some highlights from the past month or so:

before i forget, i hinking of a boo engine, got tung by da duh! (the door)

August 6: “chocolate babies?!?” (in response to me reading a WSJ article about black women and marriage to stephen…we had no idea he was paying attention but they always are) then he said “chocolate mommies!” and “chocolate mommies shirt!”

August 3: I think hank smiled today though not at me so I dunno if it counts. Pacifier works like a charm but wonder how long it’ll last.

August 3: I hinking of anudder engine. Dis nudder engine is boo…

July 25:

Whating are you doing?

Baby hank whating are you crying about?

Dino horse

Tigger noise

Pooh in da bed get a crane tigger come in

Baby hank is open da eyes

Jack’s train stories

Hank’s little baby noises

Hooray

Yay now we can go (at hank’s baptism)

July 14:

Hank’s arrival

Spits up more
Coos more
Dramatic cry
Defined chin
Seems to sleep better
What we do differently
Aquiline nose
Furrowed brow
Dark eyes
Grunting
Trying to poop or pass gas
Hardly burps
Stretches like jack on occasion

July 12/13:

I want to spin please

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

—–Original Message—–
From: dianemarie.johnston@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:52:41
To: Di Johnston<dianemarie.johnston@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dianemarie.johnston@gmail.com
Subject: Blog

Play wif uhcooz me?

Happy daddy happy mommy crying baby hank (roll call in the car)

Pay wif daddy hoss?
July 10

Fam time on couch
Jack alphabet
Wih nee da pooh POOH!

July 7

Duck should yook out da way

June 29:

See hiro song rih yee yowd? (this will become yowduh and yowduh and yowduh???)

June 23:

Overheard in the next room:

We sing a song for salty
He’s yittle, go on the track, he’s proud
Etc etc (w gordon lyrics)
 

The speech therapist wants to work on his pronouns.  He still talks in the 3rd person which is really cute but not a good habit. We’re not great about enforcing it either–I think the more we talk “normally” to him the better off he’ll be, but it’s REALLY hard to make some people get on board with the idea (ahem, Baron). At the same time, I hate correcting him, too. I’d rather just enjoy him, but i know he’s capable of speaking correctly.

He sang the Ode to Gordon song all by himself this morning. SO CUTE.  He knows W for the alphabet song, and he seems to know (or at least tries to say) a lot of numbers between 10 and 20  So we will have to work on that.

I’m getting a bit nervous about going to NYC on Wednesday but I know it’ll be ok because my mom will be there and i’ll tell my gma to pray for him.  I’m grateful to have the job and to see NYC one last time before baby arrives hopefully safe and sound.

One time a few days ago Jack said “avo-some-cado” when he meant to say “I want some avocado.”  He mostly says “Jack have avocado” and then I ask him “Who wants avocado” or “Who has avocado” and he’ll say “I want some avocado please.”  I dunno if the rote repetition is good but we’ll see.  Pronouns are really confusing.  Little kids go through so much to learn language, and for some (like me and Stephen, I guess) it’s just easy and no one thinks twice.

The Baron is in Dallas with Bot and Rico bc they’re going to see Game 3 of the Mavs/Heat series tonight. I’m really excited for them and hope it turns out well.  Stephen has half-jokingly said we should consider the first name of the Mavs’ star players, and the weirdest thing is that I’m not entirely opposed to it, provided the Mavs win, of course.  Stephen has said it’s probably a bad idea bc what if the star does something ridiculous and get in trouble later in life and then it’s totally embarrassing for the kid.  But the more I think about it, the more I like it…  Strange.  We’ll see what happens, i guess.  LET’S GO MAVS! (said in the strange AA arena announcer’s voice)

Our last day was a bit crazed bc I underestimated the amount of time it would take to leave NYC. I think my parents were pretty annoyed at us since they’d been so generous to take Jack for a few days. They went to Stotes in Philly and Jack lost and recovered his purple ball in spectacular fashion.  Yay Gonzaga crew boys for retrieving it but I think Jack is still a bit traumatized.

A funny Jackism from awhile back: Buttah ahn tray n Jack eat it, yes?  Buttah ahn tray n Jack eat it.  YES!

We went to hard times last night with my parents and Rico and Jack and I were outside for a bit when Jack said, yet’s go beach!

I wish, buddy. I wish.  All in all a fantastic week for the Von Spronston clan.  Our first family vacation and then a fab weekend with the Baron.

I’ve been sending myself email blog updates but neglected to actually update the blog, so here goes:

MARCH 8

Paul rudd and mary stuart masterson on same day

Professional advice, hand on heart for personal read, touching hair for sensual read. Make it personal (stacy at bcasters)

Duhduh zess (victor says yes)

Guh duh– gordon

Wut- work. Where’s daddy? Wut

Mama wut

Cow say mooooo

In law visit.

Deh dis. (There it is)

Wah han (wash hands)

Bee beee beeej (big big bridge)

Jay bees (james and the bees)

Shaking his head during james song while dancing

Mo coo kee peas (more cookie please)

APRIL 5

Guh duhn zoos cahs

Uh pus, shuhk- octopus shark

Uh nuh- under

Mama fix buh bihj- mama fixed the big big bridge

Poop! poop! (With concerned look on face)–when he’s in the middle of going to the bathroom

James puhs shuhk
Guh duhn zoos cahs

James knows guhduhn (no idea if he can get the concept of knowing someone)

Pay chains- play trains

Running in circles and stomping feet to dance when the beat gets faster

Weektuh- victor

APRIL 6

Jack counted to ten all by himself at hard times last night. Counted packets of equal haha

APRIL 13

Yo guck

APRIL 15

Jack sentence

Heh yeh (harold) pick up beetie!

(From the shake shake bridge while watching stop that bus)

APRIL 16

Icy keem — ice cream

Normally he says it right but it’s pretty cute

We’re on our way to dairy godmother in del ray with janna and loyd

APRIL 17

A jack convo from the car on the way home from dropping me off at union station. Stephen was telling him about daisy and the bulls eyes and he responded in various ways until finally stephen realized jack wouldn’t fall asleep unless he (stephen) stopped conversing with him. Jack continued talking to himself with tidbits like these:

“Daysee LOOKED champee, champee was MAD. DAYsee mad.” “Daysee all keen? Yes.”

He just went on like that and after awhile just fell asleep.

APRIL 23

Mo kiss it (after playing the famwich kissing game–daddy was kissing jack and mommy in rhythm)

Mama sing cheh cheh n fens peeze

(Mama sing thomas n friends pls)

Jack fell in his toy chest half in half out and didn’t know quite what to do w himself

APRIL 27

Jack take jemmy jet plane jack wuhk. (Jack take jeremy the jet plane to work

Hi jemmy jet pane
Bye jemmy jet pane

APRIL 30

Said thomas correctly

Com poo tuh– “see hero uh ruhs on mommy com poo tuh?”

Dehdehdeh- filler syllables

Tomato song at bedtime (I say tomato, you say tomahto)

Toys r us in fair lakes, got thomas ride on

So cute. Starting to seem very grown up

Sings abc song

Counts to 10

Starts the gordon song (sing uh sahn uh guh DUN)

Wih zihs (whistles) very yowd

Tmw is day out w thomas in bmore

MAY 3

Jack spells cake (on his bday)

MAY 12

A b c’s and 1 2 3′s

He can say one, two, bucka mine shoe haha

Count to 10

Pretty much sing the alphabet song.

Today I had to go to NYC really early and last night in the bath I realized how big he’s getting and how it’s not just going to be the we two for much longer. I’m praying and hoping that the new addition will fit right in and jack won’t be too sad. But then again, little sibs never have their parents to themselves. So we shall see.

He ate a lot of my stir fry chicken and rice yday.

Apparently has a heart murmur. Have to go to a cardiologist. Probably follow up with the kidney doctors and get med records from medina.

So much to dooooo!!!

MAY 19

The beach!

Fawa chucks, boats, airplanes, cahs. Jack iss yituh, jack ride fawa chucks

Ocean, sand. Salty ah dooty (salty got a lot of sand on him)

Ice cream, pizza, choca chip cookies from hotel each night

Jack ran into the water and back out. Fell a few times and got right back up. Didn’t seem scared of waves OR funland rides even though I thought he was too little for them. Proved me wrong big time!

Swimming in the hotel pool. Played with the pink ball and dunked his head underwater (on monday of this week).

Outlet shopping. Browseabout books where we found lots of thomas things

Jack loved to run all over the sand. Would not stop running. Super cute. Didn’t mind the sand on his toes at all.

“Jack is running! Jack is running un oshun!”

Watch…watch…victuh says yes on mommy comPOOtuh?

Speaking of OB appts, i might have gestational diabetes. It’s been a nightmare trying to get anyone to do anything they’re supposed to do at the new OB practice, I feel like I have to do everything myself. Such is life, I guess.  Similar drama is happening with my Neutrogena account.  hopefully all these things will resolve themselves soon.

I finally have some more jackisms to report.  A lot of my friends’ kids started talking ages ago and I’ll admit I was a tad jealous of what their kids were saying. But now my kid is saying lots of cute things too and I love it.  He loves to parrot things from the story “The Close Shave,” esp “Sad Duck. Bad Trucks!” and “Mad Duck. Glad Trucks.”  It’s hilarious and adorable.  He talks about all the trains.  Sometimes he’ll attempt to say things correctly, like Victor’s name. “Vvvvvvv…duh duh!” haha.  Gordon now sounds like Gordon, James is Jay, Thomas is still Tuh Tuh, Henry is nuh-REE, Duck is Dut, Hank is Hayt or Yayt.  He continues to swap T for K sounds at the end of words. (Mup is the exception, for milk.)

Yesterday he spilled water on his tray which drowned a cookie and he got really sad and said, “Cookie Dooty!” (Which is cookie dirty.)  It was very cute.  He orders us to Sit Dah, Mama, and Sit Dah Dada and Cuh ME in the mornings.  I think sit down, dada was his first real sentence.  I consider “race” his first word.  He’s mimicking fairly well now, and attempting to say lots of things, which is great.  Of course my mom will say things like “ok jack that’s enough,” but I’m so excited he’s talking that I don’t care how many times he repeats something.  He loves it when he gets things right.

“Jays eh Bees” is James and Bees.  It’s another Thomas story we read.  He likes to sleep with a pillow and his big stuffed Thomas.

Sometimes he’ll randomly prompt us to sing Let’s Have a Race by saying “Sooooo” and looking at us expectantly.  Yo PUN for open has become much more casual-sounding.  More like yoBUN?  PUHkoo is pickle but the emphasis is on the right syllable.  Sometimes he shakes his head and snaps his fingers during the James song. I can’t believe he can snap.

He did qualify for speech therapy so he’ll prob have it once or twice a month, and we just started attending this therapy playgroup which was cool.  He loved to watch the older kids but was also overwhelmed and wanted to go to the car a few times. He loved snack, bien sur.

Cuh AHN, guh dun.  Come ON, gordon!

Here’s what I typed out on my BB one day to record on my blog:

Paul Rudd and mary Stuart masterson on same day

Professional advice: hand on heart for personal read, touching hair for personal read. Make it personal. (stacy at bcasters)

DuhDuh Zess– Victor says yes

Wut.  Where’s Daddy?  Wut.

Mama wut.

Cow say mooooo. (he said that once all by himself)

In law visit (fun times)

Deh dis (There it is)

Wah han (wash hands, which has in recent days become wash han)

Bee bee beeej (big big bridge)

Jay Bees (james and bees)

Mo coo kee peas (more cookie please…he had a tough time with this sentence at first but everything seems to be coming more easily now)

Otherwise things are moving along at a rapid clip.  I’ll find out about GD and have an additional ultrasound to check for too much amniotic fluid.  Hopefully it’s nothing too stressful bc I really don’t want to deal with anything too taxing   Most important thing is the new budge and helping him arrive safe and sound.

I’m still concerned about his speech but maybe am overreacting. Molly went with me to sonogram and all looks good so far, thank God.  It will be really weird to have another bub in the house

Tally left for Beijing and is having a fab time already. She’s detailing it in her emails.  Otherwise I’m trying not to freak out about how little work I’m doing.  Trying to save money but it’s not working all that well so far.

Stephen is working hard, loves his job, teaches me about the budget and appropriations and all things political. There was a bit of drama. Politicians are awful, all of them.  That’s all I’ll say.

otherwise Jack is fab and my parents are fab for taking care of him all the time and I’m having a pretty good time of it, all things considered.

Till next time.

A couple enormous developments in the past couple months.  Stephen got a job with the House Budget Committee in DC so we’re moving to Alexandria for 2 years. And I’m expecting again. Ha.  We found out when Stephen was in Canada doing an election night roundup on Canadian TV where he enjoys his lame fame status.

Jack’s been running around and saying a lot of buh DUH buh DUH buhduhbuhduh and NIH minh, NIHmin (mostly used as car sounds but sometimes he likes to make noise).  His intonation is usually really good but his articulation could use some work.  After his eighteen month appt I really tried to be more zen about it. I’m sure the pregnancy hormones didn’t help the cray cray.

He likes to climb on things more than before and is obsessed with Harold the Helicopter (Hi yah). He also counts in a funny way. At first his counting went like this: wah…wah… WAH.   Now it sounds like wah..deu..DIH.  he’s trying, i guess. It’s pretty cute actually.

We’ve been commuting back to DC the past couple weekends because of Stephen being there for work already, and the last time just sucked.  The trip to DC was so terrible (thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, specifically a fellow mom who gave jack a toy) and coming back was ok but not great. Blech.  I’ll be glad when we’re moved into hopefully the apt we just picked out last weekend.

I’m tired and ate too much today. There was some drama with our photog from the family pix.  But she finally came through. phew.

My sister is here–yay–and we went to see Wicked last week which was super duper awesome. Even better than expected.

I will hopefully update sooooooon.