PDA

Nate is a good looking kid. We are going to have our hands full once he starts really being interested in girls. Or when they start being interested in him.

Last Thursday, Nate acquired his first girlfriend at the community center drop in. She was a little younger than him (only 2 to his seasoned 2.5 years of age). Let's call her V. I wasn't there to see everything in person, but apparently she called all the shots. She tried to feed him his pretzels and juice, and gave him a huge hug when they left the play group. Nate didn't know what to do... my mom said something about trying to climb up the walls to get away from all the PDA.







Come to think of it, Nate seems to be against too much PDA in any form. When he collects his bedtime kisses from me and David (and lately from the grandparents) he offers the Royal Forehead. Yes, my 2 year old leans forward and allows us to kiss his forehead before he retires to his bed. Here are some examples of Nate instructing us on the proper technique during our mock Christmas gathering.

Video Trial

I'm testing out the video function... anyone know how to compress video? My mother in law takes some great videos of Nate on her camera, but the file sizes are huge.

Anyway, here's a test. It's Nate with my old point and shoot digital camera. I'm training him now in hopes of getting a new artist in the family!

White Man's Overbite

If you're anything of a movie buff, you'll recognize the reference to "When Harry Met Sally" in the title of this post. Suffice it to say, Billy Crystal's character was referring to the inability of "white men" to dance with any kind of rhythm.

Lately, this has been evidenced by my son.

I spent this evening watching Nate blast "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" from the CD player while simultaneously choosing a synthesized version of "Auld Lang Syne" on his crocodile piano (turned up to top volume for our listening pleasure), while he danced (here I use the verb loosely) around singing (again, I use this verb loosely) to both. His dancing consists of a slightly forward bent jump off both feet, interspersed with some spins and what look to be "let's do the twist" moves.

If I weren't afraid of stifling his creative spirit, I would've been rolling on the floor laughing.

I think this display was thanks to the sugar high from Connor's birthday party cake and ice cream. Funny what a skipped nap and some refined white stuff will do to a 2 year old!

Fishy

Four weeks before I was due to give birth, my husband decided to abandon me for five days while he went on a fishing trip to Campbell River. He took his father. My father in law had also abandoned his wife, but in a less delicate condition than I.

I would've been suspicious about the whole thing if they didn't come back with any fish. (After the second day, David said they had caught 24 fish, 23 of which had to be thrown back into the ocean because they were Coho salmon... apparently not a legal fish on one side of the island.)

Return with fish they did... squid, cod, salmon and halibut. I like fish, which is a good thing because we are eating it about three or four times a week. However, it is taking up serious room in our deep freeze. I hardly have any room for my tubs of ice cream, Claudia's homemade cookies, and frozen pizzas.

Here is the evidence that they were fishing. David told me about the night life in Campbell River, but that's another blog altogether.

Thank goodness for family

I don't know how new moms do it without family help. When Nate was born and now, with Jacob's arrival, we've been fortunate enough to have lots and lots of family help. Both my parents and Dave's are out here for a month. They do all the cooking, errands, dog walking, cleaning, playing with Nate, and general support while I live a life of leisure. Well, in as much as you can when you have someone stuck to you every 2 hours or so.

Still, I can't imagine how I would be coping if it was just me.

Jake is changing so much. He's plumping out and gaining new nicknames. He's definitely a squeaker and so we've decided that Squeak will be our new name for him. He might not like that when he's 16 and trying to be macho, but for now it works.

Nate is continuing to adjust fairly well. It helps of course that he has non-stop attention. He likes to point out Jacob's features, and to say, "He likes me" (emphasis on the word "likes") with wonder. So far, so good.

David and I are reacquainting ourselves with the words "sleep deprivation". Although it took Nate over a year to learn to sleep well, especially through the night, he's now such a fantastic sleeper. We have taken the last year or so for granted as I am now coping on about 4 or 5 hours a night (at most) and David's close behind. Here's hoping Jake learns early to go for long nighttime stretches.

The other thing that I haven't done is write thank yous to all the people who have given us gifts or sent us well wishes. If you're one of those and reading this, please know that I am grateful and will get around to them sooner or later!!

Here are some more photos... definitely fewer than when Nate was born, but at least there are some!

My boys



Grandma Val



Grandpa



Man to man chat



Nate's new fishing rod... Thanks Greatest Aunt Kathy!



Grandma Claudia



Pepere



"He likes me"



"He likes me" part two



Late evening snuggles



Filling out



Milk drunk



Bath time



The shirt says it all!

Our newest miracle

David and I spent hours wondering about how the labour scenario would go. In our own minds and sometimes together, we went over the possible scenarios...

1. I was stuck on the North Shore in a taxi, trying to get over the Lion's Gate Bridge (into Vancouver and to the hospital) during rush hour.

2. Labour started at home, but happened so quickly that David would have to deliver the baby roadside.

3. My own worst fear: the labour would be a gruelling 48 hour process, nothing like the 3.5 hour birth of Nathan.

Nothing quite so dramatic happened. Indeed, the birth was as easy as possible when, as someone once put it, you're going through a process the equivalent of stretching your lower lip over a watermelon.

My parents arrived in town on Tuesday, September 25th, determined to be here before the baby was born. Good thing. The next morning, as they babysat Nate, I went in for my doctor's appointment. After hearing the usual, "It could be any day now, or several days from now", which, incidentally, my doctor had repeated for the past three weeks, we headed for coffee and croissants. Returning for another "pain au chocolat" (hey, pregnant women are allowed their indulgences!), I suddenly felt something that could be a contraction. Hard to say. With Nate I went from feeling fine to full on labour in the course of 20 minutes.

David wisely suggested I come and hang out at the office for a little while to see if anything developed. After all, I was already on the "right" side of the bridge. I was definitely not feeling on top of my game and had two more, "Are these contractions?" feelings. I decided to call the doctor's office, but they kept putting me on hold. And forgetting about me. So at 11am I barged into David's meeting and said, "I've just had three contractions in the last 10 minutes and the doctor's office won't talk to me."

David: Maybe we should go in.

Mandy: I don't want to go in and have them laugh at me and tell me to go home.

David: (Now on the phone with the doctor's office.) No, I CAN'T hold; my wife's in labour.

Receptionist: Oh. OH! I'll go get the doctor.

Our doctor approved the hospital move, but warned us that we couldn't have the baby for another 5 hours as she was manning the office alone (the other doctor being on holidays).

Less than two hours later, Jacob was born.

I have to say, the second time around was easier, and, having always been an over-achiever I was proud to have shaved 1.5 hours off my "previous best" delivery time. At this stage, should we have a third child, I'm aiming for under an hour from start to finish.

The hospital was great. We got the "Four Seasons" suite according to the receptionist. I can't say the food lived up to that billing, but it was definitely a step up from the cubbyhole of a room we were in the last time.

Here are some photos of Jacob Keith David Gratton who arrived at 12:50pm on Wednesday, September 26, 2007. He has dark brown hair (not represented well in the photos) and blue eyes. He is decidedly perfect, just like his older brother Nathan.

Soooooo Tired

I haven't had enough sleep to write a coherent sentence. I will blog... in the near future.

In the meantime, check out David's first blog on Jacob written Sept 30th. It's worth the read:

http://www.davidrdgratton.com/

Mandy :)