Boy Wonder

This was taken yesterday morning just after he tossed Chili's food on the floor and was mad that I wouldn't give him the entire bottle of green puffs.

Oops he did it again

In response he says, "the bottles look the same."

The Rocco Name Generator

Oh Rocco is funny. He calls himself Coco. He still calls me Mami. He calls Daniel Baba.
He calls Oma Anne Amu. He calls Opa Hans Apu. He calls Andy, Anja, Jen, Robyn, our neighbors Na na. He calls my friend Lisa LaLa. He calls Eric Ick. He calls Lydia Annie. And he calls everything else chi chi or gato.

He really is speaking quite a bit. It's so cute (didn't I recently call him a monster). Oh that was SO yesterday. Now he's cute and perfect again.

where do i begin?

So much has happened since I last posted here. Let's see - the most pressing moment was that Daniel's father - Hans was hospitalized for heart problems. Now he's better but still recovering since he had a problem a few days ago. And Daniel's mom, Anne was also in the hospital for over a week. Needless to say Daniel was very stressed and upset. Anne is doing better and is now home. Anja has been taking care of everyone and I know how hard it must be for her.
Daniel's been checking in with everyone and we are keeping everyone in our thoughts.

In these past few weeks, Rocco caught a mild cold, i caught a pretty bad cold and Daniel caught some virus he still can't shake. It's been about 2 weeks now.

My niece Olivia is home and gaining weight and doing well. Jen is doing well and going above and beyond. I'm so impressed with her.

Let's see - what else! Oh, I got a part time job at my chiropractor's office. Rocco will be in day care 3 days a week now. I have been telling folks for a couple months now that I'm looking for PT work and I was very happy to receive a phone call from he and his wife. I've known them since I moved up north in 1995 so working for them will be familiar. Plus they know my situation with Rocco and are very family friendly.

Rocco is definitely in his terrible 2's. I may have mentioned this already in an earlier posting. I just hope that this stage passes soon because he can be pretty awful at times. He's just a total handful. I feel my blood pressure rising several times a day. We've had lots of hitting issues lately. And he loves the word, MINE. Everything is MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE. He's hitting a lot, throwing a lot, screaming a lot and finding new ways to scrap his knee or climb on the table only to fall off it. Oh boy. I was telling our midwife about this and how difficult he's been lately and she recommended that Daniel and I read the Wonder of Boys.

Everyone says this stage only lasts about a year. I'm hoping this year goes by fast!
Don't get me wrong, he's still adorable and he isn't a monster every moment of the day......he's just a little monster half the time. But it's half too much for this mama.

He's perfect!

All parents must say this about their babes. He's at such a great stage. At times he totally drives me crazy but he is so fun and cute. We have so much fun together. I love him a million times, a trillion, a ga ga zillion times over.

Night Weaning

Rocco is going to be 20 months in 2 weeks and we hope by then that he will be sleeping through the night.
We began night weaning him Thursday night and so far it is going well. He begins the night in his room and when he wakes we bring him to our bed but instead of breastfeeding him back to sleep, we now just pat his tummy or back to sleep. The first night went really well. He still woke his usual 4-5 times and asked for "chi chi" and I told him "chi chi" was sleeping and he needed to sleep too. He'd yell and scream for about 5 minutes then go back to sleep. In the morning he kissed me and hugged me and I felt pretty good about sticking to my plan and not caving in to him (it is sooooooooooo easy to give in sometimes). And I felt comforted knowing he wasn't angry in the morning.

Night 2 was tough. Rocco woke up at 3:30AM and didn't go back to bed until about 6AM. He was angry and upset that he couldn't get "chi chi." We just gave him lots of love and told him we loved him and that he needed to sleep and rest. We told him that as soon as morning rolled in, he could have chi chi. I swear 6:30 AM came and he was there, asking for it and I let him eat for a long time until he passed out.

Tonight is night 3. I hope it gets easier and I hope he finally gives up. I know it's only been 2 nights versus 19 1/2 months of eating on demand whenever he wanted but I'm tired. I'm beyond tired. I need to sleep and I know the only way I'm going to get sleep is to cut him off milk at night.

Wish us luck. I hope that by his 2o month birth date he will be weaned and sleeping through the night.

Olivia's first day

Here she is in the NICU.

She weighs 2.5 pounds and she is 14 inches long. She's tiny, beautiful and overall she looks great. She has long fingers and dark hair. I wish we could have spent more time with her.

I love her already and can't wait for her and Rocco to be best buds.

Jenn is amazing and looks so good considering she just had major surgery. Andy is doing well too. He was telling Jenn that SHE HAD no idea how much he's been through in the last few weeks. He's exhausted. I thought Jenn was going to kick his ass. We were all laughing. Daniel piped in and said mother's had no idea how tough birth was on Dad's.

Rocco is doing great and handled his flight really well. This kid has serious flight miles under his belt.

Ok, signing off for the night. Please continue to keep Olivia, Jenn and Andy in your thoughts.

I'll try to post more soon.