Hugo's 1st Birthday

My little boy has turned one.  A tough day for me as I feel accutely the last time I will have a baby turn a year old.  But, what a little wonder (one-der) he is!

Hugo is into everything.  His favorite thing to do to drive his Mommy crazy is to put his hands in the toilet.  I close the bathroom door constantly, but as there are four other people besides myself in this house that use the bathroom, it is a battle.  I am in the process of training everyone to keep that door closed!  He can even lift the toilet seat, so simply putting it down is not going to stop him!  He also loves to climb the stairs and has a sixth sense for when someone forgot to close the gate.  We have caught him three times now making a break for the upstairs.  Luckily, the highest he has gotten before someone scooped him up is five steps.  Much more than that and the fall, when he falls, because he will, would be no fun.  But, the kids are getting the hang of keeping that shut, too, and hopefully we will keep this little mischief maker safe.

Hugo loves to talk.  A lot of the time he just babbles on and on trying out all kinds of different sound combinations, but he also says quite a number of words - Daddy, Mommy, hi, Nana, cookie, dog, light, on, Kyrie, and I think he is working on Declan.  It comes out Duh-la or something like that, but he always says it while looking at Declan, so I am fairly certain he is working on that one.  He also signs really well - milk, water, cookie, cake, pear, hat, light, eat, all done, more.  I am enjoying communicating with him!  But, the down-side of that is that when he doesn't know how to communicate what he wants it means a nasty tantrum as he is used to be able to convey many of his wishes.  His annoyance at not being able to get it through to us results in a head thrown back cry-scream that is not fun to listen to!  The good news is that this mostly happens when eating and so the tantrums are, in general, limited to the dinner table...so far.

Our baby is also officially a walker.  He walks as often as he crawls now, switching from one to the other as needed or required.  He walks till he falls, then crawls till he finds something to pull himself up on again.  He is very proud of this and can be seen coming towards us with a huge grin on his face, zombie arms reaching out in front of him.

Hugo also loves books and will "read" them to himself, or climb on my lap when I am reading Declan his bedtime books.  We are reading to him now before his nap and bedtime and he sits really nicely while listening and trying to turn the pages on us.

It won't be long now till he is completely on table food, and soy milk - he has less than two weeks till he is weaned, as Mommy is going away for a weekend (woo hoo!) and while I am going to miss the closeness that nursing brings, I am not going to miss how time-consuming it is...not to mention I will be able to have dairy products again...but, he won't and that makes me sad.  My poor boys and their dairy allergy.  What a bummer.

I have spent the last two weeks creating a slideshow of photos and videos from the last year and am very happy to say that I completed it in time for his birthday party.  We had a nice pizza dinner at Nana's house this evening and Hugo received lots of money that we will be putting towards his college fund.  What a blessed little boy he is, and what a blessing he is to us.

Happy birthday, Hugopotamister.  We sure do love you!

Good Guys and Bad Guys

Conversation with my son who has never seen a single Star Wars movie in his short three and half years of life:

Declan: Mommy, does Daddy like Luke Skywalker.
Me:  Of course.  Who doesn't like Luke Skywalker?
Declan: Hayden doesn't like Luke Skywalker, he only likes Jedi Knights.
Me: Well, Luke Skywalker is a Jedi Knight, so Hayden must like him.
Declan: The Jedi Knights are the good guys, but the Star Trippers (hee hee) are the bad guys - they have guns.
Me: Yeah, the good guys have light sabers.
Declan:  So, Darth Vader is a good guy?  He has a light saber.

Yeah...you got me as usual, child. 

Me (in my head): Well dear, Darth Vader started out as a good guy, but then...

Yeah.  For another day.  I am beginning to understand why people let their three year olds watch Star Wars.  I am holding out, waiting.  The girls haven't even seen it yet.  We finally borrowed it from some friends and have plans to watch Episode III one of these days, but it could be awhile.  We do most things slowly in this family.

Protect the Castle

Are you at all concerned that I am not overly fond of playing dolls, Barbie, princesses, or tea party, but that I highly enjoy playing knights with Declan on a regular basis?  Of course, I also do not love playing fire fighter, cars, or police, but bring me that sword and I am all yours. 

Declan, and even Hugo, and I have been having a grand time pretending to be knights of the round table.  We defend Declan's new castle and occasionally I act the part of the queen and confer a knighthood upon both my boys as they kneel down before me (Sir Declan McWilliam and Sir Hugo McLeeman).  They must swear to defend my honor!  It never gets old.

 

P.S.  I thought I would just share that I am not quite sure why it is that I am okay with swordplay, but do not allow guns, real, pretend, or imaginary in my house.  I guess the intent seems different somehow when you are holding a sword.  Defending honor vs. seeking to end someone's life.  Do you think someday people will feel the same way about gunplay in their children when blasters (or something) are used by the protective forces and criminals alike?  Food for thought.

Was Jesus born this year?

Warning:  I don't usually get so overtly religious on this blog, but sometimes you just need to share where you're at.

I was driving Declan to preschool this morning, I saw a Christmas tree by the side of the road and thought, "Wow.  That was it.  Christmas is over."  I couldn't believe it.  Christmas was only a few weeks ago and my most specific memories of the season are pride in my whole family being present for the first Christmas ever, excitement over the snow this year, stress over shopping, shopping, and more shopping, and more stress over family drama, and then wham Christmas morning was here, it was awesome, but it was stressful, and then it was over and now it is January 2013 - the 2nd week of January, no less, and I am sitting here wondering if Jesus was even born at all this year?

No, I don't mean I am having doubts about his birth.  I mean every year we celebrate Christmas on his symbolic birthday as way to have him born again in our hearts (not to be confused with Born Again Christians - a whole 'nother thing) and to be reminded of how his birth began the journey that led to our lives being saved.  And, as I took a look at my heart I started to wonder if Jesus birth happened this year?

Last year, I was large and round awaiting the birth of my own son as I prepared for Christmas and I felt a certain kinship with Mary.  I remember I participated in an Advent study at church and there was some kind of video of a pregnant woman sitting on a donkey and I was thinking, "There is no way a woman nine-months pregnant would straddle a donkey like that.  It would not happen."  Maybe if the donkey was pulling a cart, Mary could've sat in that, but otherwise I think that poor woman walked all of the way to Bethlehem.  No wonder she went into labor when they got there.

But, that was last year (or the year before last year!).  This year (or what is now already last year), I felt like I was waiting for Christmas to be over.  For life to get back to normal and all of the pre-Christmas preparations to stop taking over life. 

How sad. 

And now that it is over and I face the necessity of taking down all of the decorations, that I hadn't really looked forward to putting up in the first place, I am warring with myself - I want to keep all of that symbolic joy hanging in my house.  I want to celebrate the birth of Christ.  I want the love to be born again in my heart.

And, as I was thinking all these thoughts on a short ride to preschool, the announcer on the radio said something about a song that was still popular (on the Christian radio station anyway) even though Christmas was over, and then they played Cloverton's "A Hallelujah Christmas".

Amazing how sometimes you get just what you need exactly when you need it.  And now I can truly feel like Christmas did indeed happen.  God was born, hallelujah.  Merry Christmas!

(And, isn't this version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" so much happier and more meaningful?!  Even though the original might be about another bible story - David.)