One more thing

On the way into day care today he said:
I have had a fun year. Just matter of factly. I'm amazed at his reflective spirit. He often seems like an old soul to me.

Baby on the Way

So I am now 12 and half weeks pregnant! We are very excited and I can't believe how much of a belly bump I have already. I wanted to write down Rogan's reaction about the news of the baby before it is forgotten. We told him when I was about 8/9 weeks along. He was taking a bath and Zack came in while I was finishing washing him up, so I thought why not.  Here is how the conversation went for the most part:
me:  Rogan, guess what.
Rog: what?
me: I have a baby in my tummy.
Rog: You have a baby in your tummy? he smiles.
me: yep and the baby is only about this big (holding my figures out about an inch apart)
Rog: Is it a boy or a girl?
me: I don't know. It will be awhile before we find out
Rog: Lets say it is a boy
me: ok - you want a baby brother?
Rog: yes and I will teach it lots of this. (at this point he is out of the tub and dried off and is running to his room naked talking about all the things he is going to teach him. Everything from crawling to walking, eating apple sauce, talking - although he thinks it will be able to talk already, to playing and reading books. He is very excited!)
and then he says: I will be able to pick the baby up because I can pick up pumpkins. Not the really big pumpkins but the smaller ones.
So we get his PJs on, brush his teeth, read him some books and get him in bed. I sit with him for a few minutes as he winds down. I kiss him and tell him I love him and he says:
I love you too mom and I love my baby brother!
I completely melted. I never thought he would have such a strong and sweet reaction. He has such a big heart!

Earthquake

While I was typing up my post yesterday, my big old building started to shake and rumble. At 1:50ish pm, we had a 5.9 earthquake. I have never felt anything like it before. I didn't follow any of the standard earthquake protocol - like getting under my desk. I mean c'mon! It is the East Coast. Instead I wandered out into the hall where I found my other co-workers wide eyed and confused. I think I remember feeling an earthquake once in Ohio when I was in grade school. It was probably along the lines of a 2 or 3. This one though, was intense. The first thing I thought is I don't want to go down in this building -it already has enough problems. So out we went, climbed down 14 flights of stairs, all the while hoping we don't get an aftershock. Not much else to tell. We stood outside for about 30 minutes and just waited to see what happened. Nothing! So we slowly and begrudgingly returned to our desks.

 I called day care when I got back to my desk, only to find out that Rogan and his class slept right through it. I guess that is probably for the best, but I feel like they all would have gotten a kick out of it - maybe.

Things I want to remember

There are so many little moments I want to remember with you. The things you say these days are pretty funny. Your imagination blows me away sometimes. One of  my favorite new games you like to play right now is PACKAGE! It starts when we pull up into the driveway. You run ahead of me to get to the front door. You open the glass door, wedge yourself in between that door and the beautiful wooden door your Dad made. You contort yourself up a bit to become box-like and then I walk up. I open the glass door and exclaim: A Package! I wonder what it could be! I love getting packages! I unlock the wooden door and you inch your way inside, eyes usually shut, so as not to mess up your box persona. From there I proceed to open the box by tickling you all over.
Good simple times!

What you up to now....

Jokes! You don't really now how to tell them, but your main punchline for all of them is "on your head!". That's it - that is all you have and you think it is pretty darn hilarious.

Yellow Room

You said you liked the yellow room today!! Yeah! You just moved up last week and you were having a bit of a tough time. The transition has actually gone much more smoothly then I expected. Every move up (lets see - this is your 5th move) have been hard on you. You started in the baby room then moved to the walker room, on to the blue room and then the green room and now the yellow room. And bonus...Yellow is your favorite color! I have to say for me it is a bit frightening. Some of those kids in the yellow room are big and ruff! I so clearly remember carrying you to the baby room and watching the moms lead their kids into the yellow room and in my head I was thinking how glad  I was to still have you as a baby.  I couldn't even imagine you getting to this age and I didn't want you to get to this age. But with every month you become even more amazing.  And now here I am. I have really tried to savor your childhood as much as I can. Life is busy though and it is easy to get caught up in the daily cycles.

I think yesterday's moment when I came to pick you up from daycare will be forever burned in my head. It makes me laugh to myself when I conjure it up.  You put on a spider man costume and then stood tall with your hands on your hips in a true superman pose. It was hilarious - mostly, because that was your one and only pose. I couldn't see your eyes clearly through the mask, but I knew exactly what face you were making.

Big Boy!

Once again, I have been a bit behind with my reporting. I am toying with the idea of making this more of a personal blog. I think a combination will be good. I was reading through some older posts the other day and there was already so much that I had forgotten. I would like to be able to type like the wind right now, detailing the last few months, but I am proctoring a family medicine shelf exam as we speak or write in this case. I fear the typing of the keys may be a distraction to these students who probably feel like their lives are on the line. I will be back with more soon - I promise!

Where to start

It has been so long and I have no idea where to start. I have missed recording so many new moments! And it is hard to believe that you are going to be 3 in exactly 15 days! FOR REAL...yes, it is for real!!! So to catch you up on stuff that has been happening over the last few months I will go backwards - that will help me remember...

*currently you are sleeping in the bed with Daddy and me. You don't start off in our bed, but usually around 1am you come in. You use to make a big production out of it and wake me up. You have to bring all of your things with you from your bed. For some reason you have ended up with a total of 5 blankies that you have to have!! As you say: "but I need them." The two important ones are the blue one with the silky edge and the pink one with the silky edge that use to be your Grandma's blanket - and that is exactly what you call it. I think it is very sweet that you like to sleep with her blanket. And then you have your binky and your cup of water. Usually I  wake up to you either dropping your sippy cup on the floor several times or you often throw all of your blankets on my head. Lately, though, you have been quiet and I don't always notice you are there. Although, you do take up most of my pillow. Because you have been entering the bed in a more ninja-like style, I have stopped putting you back in your bed. So...you now pretty much sleep with us.

*We also have both suffered through two different rounds of illness - back to back no less. I pretty much missed 2 weeks of work - which was fine by me :). Although, being sick while taking care of a sick kid sucks for sure! I think I got it worse then you too. We both had upper respiratory infections and then you had strep on top of that. I had pink eye in one eye to begin, but it slowly crept over into my other eye. I looked like hell! Then not even a week later you got a flu virus. Only a little vomiting - mainly just fevers and feeling crappy. Luckily I got through that one without getting sick! Knock on wood...hopefully we are done with all of that for now!
While you were out, I had an interesting conversation with Francis, the day care director. She said that you are really into the bible stories and often continuing signing the bible songs later in the day (I didn't even know that you knew how to sign to songs). She asked if we as a family went to church and I said no. Even though we send you to Tabernacle Child Care Center which is connected to Tabernacle Baptist Church, we are not a religious family. I like to think of myself as being spiritual, but we don't do anything formal. So, Francis was surprised, because she says she sees this every so often from a child - sort of a heightened sense or interest in God - but usually it is from children that go to church regularly with their parents. So to say the least- I found that really interesting and so did she. Who knows what you will gravitate to when you are older, but I can say you are very compassionate. You have such a big heart and show empathy for other people, animals, and inannimate objects. You have an old soul quality about you too. You also have an amazing imagination. You get so into whatever you are doing in the moment. As I say: You are happiest where ever you are in the moment!

*Oh and we can't forget about potty training!!!! You are going completely diaperless during the day now. It was finally time and it really was just the right time. With a little added peer pressure ( the twins - Asher and Phillip were jut potty trained)  - you did it in just about 2 weeks. We mainly worked on it while we were home sick for those 2 weeks. You were loving being naked and that made it easy for you remember to keep going to the potty.

Those are the main things that stick out right now. I will try to be more diligent about posting. We have a fun birthday party planned. A pirate themed birthday at the SPCA. And you and I have the weekend all by ourselves - both your grandparents and Daddy are leaving for the weekend. I think some popcorn, movies, and staying up a little late will be in oyur future. Plus we have fun play dates lined up with the Twins and William and then hopefully Arlo and Hazel on Sunday! Fun Fun!