Cry Me a River

This blog could probably be a continuation of the one I wrote the other day regarding the differences between the boys. I remember when Jacob was born, I thought it was so fascinating how he would cry around the clock to be fed, changed, held, etc., yet no actual tears ever came out of his eyes. He would receive vaccinations from the doctor, yet even the pain of having needles pierce his delicate baby skin was not enough to provoke tears.

So the weeks and months passed, and still Jacob would "cry", but he never cried tears. Then, on November 24th, 2008, his seven month birthday, it happened. I don't even know what upset him exactly, he had been happily playing in his Exersaucer and the next thing I knew, he was crying. I went over to him, and to my astonishment, huge alligator tears were pouring down his cheeks:


At the risk of sounding uncaring, I will tell you honestly that I started smiling, (and snapped the photo above). I was a proud Mom - my baby was crying real tears! It felt like such a huge milestone in his life. Besides, even in his sadness, he was still super adorable.

Ryan on the other hand, cried tears on his first day of life. It was such a switch from Jacob, I could hardly believe it. Ryan cries very easily to this day. In his defense though, he gets picked on a lot, being the younger sibling. Most of his days are spent struggling to keep a hold of whatever toy he is playing with that Jacob is trying to steal from him. Jacob rarely cries tears, they usually only appear when he gets injured. Instead, he likes to do what I call a "fake cry", he lets out a "Wahhh wahhh wahhh" sound, scrunches up his face and rubs his eyes, so it looks and sounds like he is crying, but there are no tears. This typically happens when he is not getting his way (imagine that in a two-year-old!), like when I turn off Baby Einstein, put him down for a nap, or tell him, for the hundredth time in one day, that we cannot go outside.

So I just spent a good chunk of time going through our photos looking for a picture of Ryan crying to include in here, but apparently, since it wasn't anything special for him to cry tears, I guess I never took the time to snap a shot of it. I did notice however, while looking through the pictures, that while Ryan may be easy to cry, he also is very easy to smile, so I offer this photo instead:

Weighing-In

If you know me, then you probably know I've been trying to lose some weight. It's weird how when I'm dieting, time seems to go by so slowly, and it can feel like it will be an eternity until my next bite of a delicious, high-sugar carb. When I'm not dieting however, time suddenly goes into warp speed, and the next thing I know, the "baby" that I keep claiming I recently gave birth to, is now nearing his 18 month birthday and I realize that I really can't use that excuse anymore.

So I decided that I needed to take some action; I need to lose some of this chub so that elderly people and Asians will stop asking me when my baby is due, (and no, I am not ageist or racist, those are the two specific groups who have actually asked me when my baby is due).

So if today is the 18th of June...then that means that I have been on a diet for the past 26 years. It's okay though, I accept the fact that I will never be naturally thin, and that I will always have to be mindful of what I eat, (and try not to hate skinny people in the process). If I look at the bright side of this, maybe I could start a website that reviews all different diet programs and regimens, as I have been on most of them at one time or another. I think the first official diet program I ever did was Weight Watchers, but I have also used Slim Fast a couple times through the years, as well as Atkins, from time to time. During college I had much success with LA Weight Loss, and more recently I was on Nutrisystem; but at the present time I am simply counting calories. I have also tried some not so well-known diet programs, such as drinking three Sobe juice beverages a day, as meal replacements (I thought this brilliant plan up all by myself, if you can believe it), that one lasted less than 48 hours because ohmigod was I STARVING!

My weight has been up and down throughout the years, and I have the stretchmarks to prove it. Yet something is different now that I am married. Richard is such an amazingly sweet husband, and never once has he made a negative comment about my weight, not even when I was 9 months pregnant and enormous. He tells me every day that he thinks I am beautiful, and when I tell him I am dieting he says that I don't need to, and that he is concerned I am going to get too skinny, bless his heart! In fact, the time when Richard told me he thought I was a size 4 - that was the moment I knew I would stay with him forever! Honestly though, Richard has given me a confidence and acceptance of myself that I've never had before. While I know I still need to lose some weight, and I would like to do so in order to feel better about my appearance, Richard's support is so helpful, and lets me know that even when I falter in my weight loss attempts (which I know is inevitable every now and then), he will always be there to tell me that I am still good enough in his eyes.

I am so lucky to be his wife.

"1, 2, I won't perform for you!"

People always say that kids never perform on cue, and that is so true tonight. I had planned to write today's blog about Jacob and how good he has gotten at counting from 1 to 5. I had already figured out everything I was going to write, including a couple of photos I was going to add in here and there. All of the pieces of the blog puzzle ("bluzzle", if you will), were in place, except for the final one, the centerpiece to the entire story: a video of Jacob actually counting from 1 to 5. Never mind the fact that he did it for me effortlessly several times today, but of course, once I brought out the video camera, he suddenly became very ADD and would only count the numbers 1 and 2, before finding something more entertaining to do. When I tried desperately to keep his attention just long enough to finish 3, 4 and 5, he began screaming and shaking his head no, as though I were some crazy stage parent who makes him suffer through counting to 5 and other horribly torturous things every day.

::Sigh::

So, alas, there is no video, and therefore there is no blog, per se; at least not the blog I had planned on. I realize that none of this is very exciting, and I apologize for taking up your time, so to make good, I leave you with this to brighten your evening and make the blog worthwhile:

Because, really, who can resist these precious faces?

Kellyn, Get Your Gun

I didn't sleep well last night. It's always a struggle for me to get a good night's rest when Richard is away, but I was more anxious than usual last night because of a certain fugitive from our neck of the woods: the Barefoot Bandit, AKA Cowardly Loser. His full name is Colton Harris-Moore; you may or may not have heard of him. While he started out a few years ago as a local trouble-maker, breaking into empty summer homes on Camano Island, stealing food and using showers, he has exploded into a national "sensation", a modern-day Jesse James. After escaping from a juvenile home in Seattle two years ago, he has remained on the run, evading police and FBI through his knowledge of the Northwest backwoods terrain, and help from sympathetic hippie friends. In the meantime though, he has continued to break many laws. He has stolen planes, yachts, and consistently burglarizes homes for food and items he can use or sell for money.

Loooooooser

My mom read me an article from the Standwood-Camano Times regarding Harris-Moore yesterday, as it seems he is back in the Camano area. This is what was keeping me up all last night. While it is highly unlikely that he would choose to burglarize our home, (it is currently occupied, and in a well-populated, well-lit neighborhood), I couldn't help but let my imagination run wild. Every noise and creak of the house was him trying to break the lock on the front door, or bust open a window. It was shortly after midnight that I started kicking myself for not letting Richard buy a gun. Why do I have to be so stubborn!

Don't get me wrong, I am all for guns. I am a proud member of the NRA, I am against gun control and I strongly encourage responsible home owners to have guns in their home for their own protection. The reason I didn't want a gun in our home however, is because of our boys. I just didn't feel safe bringing a weapon into the house with little babies/kids running around. Once they are old enough to understand the power and responsibility that comes with firearms, then I am all for it. Besides, I highly doubt we will need to protect ourselves anytime soon, it's not like we live in Compton.

Of course, I wasn't thinking rationally last night. I began looking around my room for anything that I could use as a weapon in the event that the cowardly little mama's boy decided to break into our home.

Use a headband as a slingshot? No.

Carve my toothbrush into a shank? Would take too long.

Aha!

Captain Kirk to the rescue!

It's large, heavy and would probably knock out a would-be intruder long enough for the boys and me to make our escape! Right? Right?? Then again, I have a feeling Richard would be pretty mad if I used his Captain Kirk statue for that reason.

So what, you may ask, is the answer to my dilemma?

Borrow a guard dog.

Do not be fooled by her timid appearance, she is ferocious. has a loud bark.

In any case, hopefully I will enjoy a better night's sleep.

Brothers

When I found out we were pregnant with Bug, I just assumed that he would come out looking like an exact copy of Binker, same features, same coloring, same personality. Being so close in age, I couldn't imagine him being anything but a slightly younger version of Binker's twin. So when Bug was born it was a pretty big shock. He looked nothing like Binker, his facial features were entirely different, he had less hair than Binker did at birth, and it was much lighter. Also, Binker has big beautiful brown eyes, and Bug has these amazing blue eyes, (where the heck did those come from??). I have always wondered what color eyes my kids would have. My Mom has brown eyes, but my Dad has hazel, so I knew that if I married a person with light-colored eyes, I stood a 25% chance of having a child with light eyes too, (I learned about all this in 10th grade biology, when we studied genetics for a total of maybe two weeks, so I am clearly an expert). When I married Husband I assumed our kids would have brown eyes, as I had always been told that brown is the dominant gene, but I figured that if any of our kids ended up having light eyes they would either be hazel or green. But blue? That was definitely a surprise. It really makes me wonder, if we ever have another child, what that one will look like.

The differences between the boys don't stop with just their looks though. Bug has posed new challenges to me that I didn't have with Binker. For instance, Bug loves to climb. It seems like every time I turn around he is climbing up onto something new - and it's always something that is hazardous to children. With Binker, I could just block his access to dangerous things and he would move on to something else, but Bug is persistent in his attempts to get around my child-proofing. I guess persistence is a good quality to have, but it keeps me busy!

They are even different when it comes to eating. Binker likes to stay clean while he eats. He takes small bites, and chews his food until it is completely gone before he takes another bite. Once he is full he won't eat anything else, not even favorite items. (I have even seen him turn away M&M's - if I hadn't given birth to him, I would say this kid can't be mine!) Bug on the other hand, LOVES food. I think he has food radar, no matter what he's doing or where he is, he always seems to know when someone else is eating and he comes running out, hoping to get a bite. He shovels food into his mouth in fistfuls, making a huge mess all over his face and hands, and he could care less. Meal time is never really over for Bug, even after he has finished a huge dinner, once he is out of his high chair, he will often wander over to Binker's high chair to sneak food off of it!

Last weekend we took a trip to the beach, and they displayed their vastly different personalities there as well. Binker walked carefully around, inspecting everything thoughtfully. Only a couple times did he actually reach down and touch the sand or water, but each time he would rub his hands together quickly afterward, trying to get the dirt off his palms; he really doesn't like being dirty. Then there is Bug. He practically bathed in the sand! He rolled around in it, covering his clothes, arms, hands, and face with wet sand. He looked as happy as a pig in mud. I think I am still trying to get all the sand out of his hair.

 

"Look, Ma, no dirt!"

 

 

"Mmm, sand is yummy!"

Now that they're both here, I can't imagine having them be exactly the same. I love how different they are, it's what makes they both so special and unique. Yet even though they have many dissimilarities, there are certain awesome qualities that they share. They are both such loving and sweet boys. They are warm and affectionate, and they melt when you hold them; they love to cuddle. And they both give the BEST kisses.

Oh, and for some inexplicable reason, they like to do head-stands.

Binker

Bug

Bieber Fever

This afternoon I walked into our living and saw Ryan combing his hair, and I noticed something was different.

ME: Hey Ryan, looks like you've got a new hairstyle.

RYAN: Yeah, I'm going for the Justin Bieber look.


















Ryan's new 'do


Justin Bieber

ME: Wait...What? How do you even know who Justin Bieber is?

RYAN: Come on, Mom, you make us listen to him in the car ALL the time.

ME: Psh, that is so not even true, I don't listen to Justin Bieber!

RYAN: (the stare)


ME: Okay, okay, maybe I do, but he is a lot older than you. I don't think you're quite ready to handle that kind of hairstyle yet. You're only 15 months, and Justin Bieber is, like, 10 years old or something. (Wow, note to self: seriously need to take Justin Bieber off iPod!)

RYAN: Fine, I guess you're right, Mom. Anyways, I gotta borrow the car for a bit, I'm going out with some friends.





They grow up so fast.