Fly By February

Another busy few weeks over at Casa Dean.  Poor Eric had to get tubes again.  It was a tough day – the surgery was scheduled for 1:30 so he couldn’t eat anything after 6:30 am.  And we had to be there right in the middle of naptime.  Needless to say, this poor little guy was starving and exhausted by the time we even got back to the waiting room.  The sweet nurses were pulling various toys out of the woodwork to try and keep him entertained.  By the end, he was just yelling “Albright!” over and over again (Dr. Albright is his doctor). 

This being our FIFTH round of tubes between the 2 kiddos, I thought we were old pros, but poor Eric had a really hard time coming out of the anesthesia.  He woke up with a start and immediately began to try and rip out all the IVs and cords hooked up to him.  He was pretty inconsolable for the rest of the day – we offered him everything we could think of to try and soothe him but nothing really worked.  I think the breathing tube irritated his throat because his voice was kind of scratchy and he kept asking me to “Wipe” and then opening his mouth as wide as he could.  He was just a sad, sick, mess who only wanted mamma and pretty much stayed like that for the next few days. 

We did lots of resting/books/TV and luckily, within a few days he was back to his old self.  

Which was lucky because we had tickets to see Sesame Street Live!  It was a cute show which he seemed pretty mesmerized by.  

Olivia was a good sport about the whole thing too and even snuck her way to the front of the stage with him at the end.

Then came Valentine’s Day.  I got each of the kids little gifts (candy, toy, books etc) and they were both very happy.  Olivia loved her LOL doll and Eric was thrilled with his Pete Cat book! 

The kids also were happy to share their Valentines with their friends.  Eric handed out little rubber ducks.  I didn’t get a picture of Olivia’s but she had a “squishy” for each of her friends. 

Olivia made a sweet valentine for us

And she helped us with Eric's "love notes" each day the week of Valentines Day.

And we continued our fondue tradition  which was SO yummy!

We took the world's quickest trip to Dallas and packed A LOT into basically 24 hours - hugs, playtime, make-up, a quick bday celebration for me, and the Little Mermaid symphony!

  

We were ALL worn out after the whirlwind trip - these 2 slept most of the way home and both Matt and I were jealous!

And we ended the month with the cutest little pep rally from Olivia's cheerleading clinic.

And now its already March!  

Life Lately

I just want to do a quick update on the kids.  January has been insane for us with Matt's travel so I've been mostly solo with the kids.  They have been SO good.  Olivia is helpful and generally self-sufficient.  And Eric is too cute and happy for me to ever get upset with.  Knock on wood, we are in a pretty good place with these 2.   

When dada is out of town, its a big pile of sleepy love in our bed.  As sweet as these 2 are, they are SO SLOW in the mornings.  We wake up about 1.5 hours before we have to leave and I swear almost every day I am yelling "Come on!  Let's go!  Shoes! Hurry!" as we rush out the door!  

 

Eric:  I think I say this every time but he is so stinking cute right now we could all just eat him up.

 

His speech has just exploded.  He is SUPER curious and constantly talking and asking us questions about everything he sees. 

He knows about half the letters of the alphabet (O and E are his favorites and he refers to “D” as “dada”!).  He knows his colors too.  Speaking of, his favorite color is yellow.  I just LOVE that kids just get attached to a color.  Of course Olivia loved purple and it seems like “wewwow” is Eric’s jam.  He loves to eat “whoa whoas” (Cheerios) from a “wewwow” bowl.

 

But speaking of eating, its gotten bad.  This kid will eat candy (nandy) any time, any day.  Or chips.  But try to give him even a cheese sticks and he refuses.  Pancakes and muffins are hit or miss at breakfast.  The other day he must have been hungry because he ate one of the muffins I made him.  So of course  I made another batch that, of course, have gone uneaten!  He also has acquired a love of peanut butter.  He won’t eat it on anything – like if I give him a waffle or toast with peanut butter on it, he will throw it on the ground.  But peanut butter on a spoon is ok.  The latest obsession is ice.  Seriously for dinner a few nights he has only consumed ice.

Speaking of eating, he and Olivia have a deal going on that if either of them gets any sort of treat, they must get one for the sibling.  This has been going on for months – back at Halloween Olivia got called out by a few houses when she took 2 pieces of candy; she sneaks an extra lollipop for him after gymnastics every week, and is quick to offer him a bite of whatever she has if there is only 1.  

And, Eric reciprocates the love.  He will yell “Yah Yah” for any food he is given.  His teachers told me at school at Christmas time they were putting treats in the kids backpacks and he was all “Yah Yah! Yah Yah!” because he wanted one for her; he needs 2 crackers, 2 M&Ms, whatever.  And, surprisingly, he won’t eat the 2^nd one – his little self-restraint is pretty impressive.  But they sometimes take their sharing to an extreme – the other day he demanded 2 teething rings and proudly ran over to “Yah Yah” to give her one which she then chewed on.

We are in a sweet routine at school too.  He says hi and hugs all the teachers we see on the way to his class, he looks at the babies, he points out the leaves and balls on the playground, and then he excitedly enters the classroom.  That’s when things start to go a little awry.  We are in a bit of a "mommy phase" right now (which I obvi love) so he gets really sad when I leave him.  I hate it. But as soon as I leave, his teachers assure me he is fine.  And we get lots of updates during the day of him enjoying the work in school.

He refers to himself as "Rheric" and that is probably his favorite word.  Anytime he does anything he will always say "Rheric! Rheric!"  And, the favorite word of most almost-2 year olds -- "MINE!"

He is also very friendly and will smile or talk to most anyone.  We were at HEB the other day and I guess I was pretty engrossed in whatever item I was looking for.  All of a sudden I heard Eric say "Hi!" and I turned around to see an older man standing next to him looking at the products too.  The man smiled and said "Well hi!  I'm so glad I ran into you to wake me up!"  A few days later we were waiting for Olivia at gymnastics and he noticed a little girl probably about 5 years old.  He became obsessed with her.  He walked over, stood as close as possible and started yelling "Rheric! Rheric!  That?  That?"  Which means "I'm Eric, what's your name?"  I helped translate and her mom told me her name was Eloise.  I told Eric.  He then rubbed her belly and said "Nice. Nice."  It was so bizarre.  I've never seen him do that and we don't have a dog.  He then yelled for "Weez!  Weez!" for the next 30 minutes.  That was about a week ago and anytime someone says the word "nice" he will look up and say "Weez?  Weez?" remembering her.

I have really started to love our Fridays off together.  I walk a bit of a fine line because I know Olivia is really sad to have to go to school and jealous of our days with Eric.  But having this special time with him, just like I had with her, is so precious to me.

We have started doing Gymboree and he loves it!  He is pretty brave and is usually the first to try the activity for the day.

Bubbles and parachute are a big hit

And after class is over he patiently waits (on yellow of course!) for a coveted Gymbo stamp on his hands and feet which he admires all weekend!

We had a sleepover with Casey, Annabelle and Ryan the other weekend and he absolutely loved it.  He took to them easily and has continued to ask for them all week.

Sleep is still hit or miss.  Most nights he will go from 6pm - 4am.  And then he wants milk.  Usually he will go back to sleep till 6:30ish but every now and then we are all up with him at 4am.

 

Olivia has taken a few turns helping to put him to sleep at night.  She crawls in the crib with him - which he LOVES!  But when she leaves he is usually so upset that Matt or I have to go in and calm him down and assure him they will get to play again in the morning.

At daddy's insistence, Eric had his first haircut in mid-January.  I was pretty worried about (1) making sure we kept those baby curls and (2) whether he would sit still long enough.  After several recommendations we found a great location.  He was amazed at this little red car and sat quietly the whole time.  He looked so cute and big when it was over (though my precious curls are still there!) He then kept pointing at his head the rest of the day yelling "Hair cut! Hair cut! Lollipop!  Lollipop!"

Like his mamma and sister, we recently discovered Eric too suffers from motion sickness.  I thought we were in the clear with him and began letting him read in the car (which he LOVED!) but after 2 pukes (including 1 where I didn't have a change of clothes and was forced to go to Cavender's and get him a western shirt onesie!) we decided no more reading in the car!

Eric's love of junk food is only outweighed by his love of books (which is why the car sickness thing is an extra bummer!).  Olivia has always been obsessed with babies -- there are/have always been lots of babies in my car.  But Eric doesn't seem to really like toys yet. I got him a few Sesame Street characters and those are what he usually plays with.  

 

His true love is books.  So when I saw that an Eric Carle puppet show was coming to Houston, I immediately got us tickets.  As it came time for the show I got a little nervous about taking both of them by myself, but it was so great.  He took turns sitting in my/Olivia's lap and was completely mesmerized the entire time.  And even Olivia, who originally complained that it was too "baby-ish" seemed to enjoy the puppets and scenery.  

For me, the show was unexpectedly emotional.  As we sat there and Olivia asked "Can I hold him?" I quickly transferred him to her lap.  She cuddled up and whispered in his ear what was happening "Oh!  Do you see the red bird?  Yes!"  As I watched them, I was overcome with happiness because this was such a sweet moment between siblings that I had always dreamt of.  Since the time Olivia was Eric's age she has been caring and doting on her babydolls and begging for a sibling.  This right here was one of the reasons we kept going with the IVF.  And then, after a while, she said "He's getting heavy, can you take him back?" and I did. I put him back in my lap and she then rested her head on my shoulder.  And as I sat there with both of my babes cuddled up close to me, I purposely and intently paused and tried to imprint that moment, that feeling, that heart-bursting love in my memory forever.

And speaking of Olivia, the latest with her is a new found love for basketball.  A few months ago she told me she was "really good at dribbling" and asked me to sign her up for basketball.  After nagging me a few times I realized I had missed most of the deadlines but luckily found 1 available team. 

There is one other girl from Kinkaid on the team but I think even if she wasn't there, Olivia would still LOVE it.  I have never seen her like this - she's aggressive, coordinated, and athletic!  She is pretty good and really tries her best. 

Of course she has quite the fan club supporting her!

We got a basketball hoop for the backyard that has been a huge hit for the whole family.

Except for poor Eric who is usually left out of the game

Given her love for basketball, we surprised her with tickets to a Rocket's game for her monthly Big Sister date night.  She was totally into it, learning all the players names and watching the entire game.  

 Though the late night, wore her out!

She is still very into Legos and of course her AG Dolls (different dolls, same love).

Aside from basketball, she is also really into gymnastics.  This is another area we have been so impressed.  She does cartwheels and backbends around the house all day, practicing her moves and has gotten pretty good!

Olivia still says the darndest things!  We were recently discussing MLK Day holiday and had the following convo:

Me: Hey Liv. You’ve got a holiday on MLK day so I’m gonna sign you up for a camp at Idea Lab. Ok?
Her: MLK? Milk? We have a milk holiday?
Me: (explains MLK)
Her: What’s the camp?
Me: It’s a science camp about the ocean
Her: No
Me: Liv!! You have to! It will be good practice for this summer to see if you like it! Remember Main St Theater? You said no and then you loved it
Her: No
Me: Fine. What do you want to do it?
Her: (thinks for a while). A cookie cake. You have to get me a cookie cake that night when I get home.
🤷🏻‍♀️ So obvi I had to sign her up and apparently order a cookie cake.
She also has a little crush on a boy in her class, so she loves to torment Matt by saying things about him (kissing, dating, etc) and seeing his over-reaction.

She entered the school's Cow Competition where they have to decorate a cow.  She did Sparkle the Unicow and was very proud of her work!

 

And she still is the sweetest big sister to Eric.  She sings to him in the backseat when he gets frustrated, runs to cuddle or hold him every chance she gets, and is such a help to me in watching him if we are out and about.  Recently we were at the tailor and she was trying on some clothes.  I was helping her and the tailor said "Baby! Baby!  Come out here and leave the baby with me!"  Olivia's eyes got wide and she mouthed to me "Don't do it!"  I didn't (of course!) and later she told me "I don't want you to let Eric go with anyone else!"

She recently taught him their "secret" handshake and he loved it!

The feeling is definitely mutual