Wait, She's WHAT?!!

If you were at the Ross Park Zoo Thursday evening, near the Bingturong house, you may have overheard a conversation between us and a coworker's family.
"Did you find out what you're having?" they asked.
"We just found out today," we said.
"Oh, congratulations!"
"Well, we knew she was pregnant. But we're having a girl!"

Later, I told Jess it was a hilarious joke and I couldn't understand why we didn't laugh more about it. She is nine months pregnant, after all : )

It's kind of funny how getting ready for this baby was so much different than when we had Hugh. I remember calling people when we heard Jess was with child the first time, some friends who I haven't talked to in a while. "I thought that's why you'd be calling," one said. Maybe I should call more often. Everyone knew we were getting ready to have our first!

This time though I didn't make too many extra calls. We didn't even officially announce it on Facebook, and you know nothing is official until it's on Facebook. People started catching on when some pictures of Jess made it online, nine months pregnant is hard to hide! The baby shower comments drew some attention too : )

I'm unsure what it is this time around, like we're such experts and know exactly what we're up against. If we thought one baby was a life changer, oh boy, get ready! I've heard it said you don't know how easy one is until you have two. We'll be finding out in about four weeks, and so will Hugh. . . and I guess the rest of Facebook will be finding out when she graduates from high school.

Bedtime Buddies

New this summer was Hugh’s first stuffed animal that joined him in bed. Ducks in books and pictures were always referred to as “quack quacks” (pronounced, “kak kak”) and it seemed obvious that the yellow stuffed duck became his first buddy. Quackquack even came to the beach this year! Only for bedtime though, it’s not one of those travel everywhere animals . . . yet.

In recent weeks, a few other animals have joined the bedtime crew. Following quackquack came “Meow”, a stuffed cat from the “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” book, and usually the two went together. A pair that almost replaced them (but didn’t) was “Eee eee,” a Valentine’s day monkey holding a stuffed heart, and “Roar,” a cool tiger from Aunt Renee and family. I think my favorite is the orange and purple striped Dr. Seuss character, a wocket from “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket,” which Hugh has named, “Coat.” Coat’s a weird thing, but has an adorable name!

A few other stuffed animals are on deck, but don’t make the cut too often. “Bear,” who is named by what he is and not what he sounds like, is an Alpaca fur bear Uncle Curt got from his life outside the U.S. “Woof woof” is a foxhound that looks a little like Melvin the Foxhound and every now and again we meet “Moo”, the moose from “If You Give a Moose a Muffin.”

Not all these buddies make it into the crib at night, there wouldn’t be much room for Hugh! The ones who are not picked await their friends to join them again – typically right after Hugh wakes up and, first thing of the day, asks me to put the animals together on the chair. Hopefully I can get an E.T. photo with Hugh on the chair surrounded by his new bedtime buddies.

Some people call me . . . Clay!

When Hugh was around seven or eight months old he started babbling "da da da" which was awesome. I knew it was for me, but eventually he started saying "ma ma ma" to his mom and just about everything else. Including me. Simply being recognized by your own young child is a great moment, but being called "mom" doesn't feel masculine. It falls somewhere between being unable to open the pickle jar and staring at a car engine wondering if that's the way it's supposed to look.

A tip I learned from a veteran father of three is that parents need to call each other "mommy" and "daddy." That's some good advice, because Hugh picked up on mommy calling me "Clay" around the house. Yep, my son calls me by my first name. Sometimes he hears me as I'm leaving in the morning and I can hear from his room, "Clay? Claaaaaayyyyy" and that's how he greets me when I come home. It's sweet, and sure beats mom!

It probably shouldn't last forever though. Some things just won't sound as cute. Like, "Clay, I wrecked the car," or, "I ate all the food in the fridge again, Clay." We'll slowly work our way to dad or daddy, but for now, at least I know who he's talking to. Even gives me some incentive to learn what an engine should look like : )

Someone Give This Guy A Hand

When babies are really small they can be held entirely in one hand. After seeing an older baby, especially your own, it's hard to remember them being so small. Once they can hold their head up by themselves a baby will sit on your hip and look around - you don't need to be a redneck woman to enjoy that. Am I right?!!

I find myself holding a baby in one arm quite often. It's winding down as Hugh gets older and walks around more, but there are many times when he wants to be held and I still want to do something else. It's a real parenting dilemma - there is always something else to do!

So to bring back memories for experienced parents or to help in training you parents-to-be, here's a list of my top five one handed actions as a parent (in order of increasing difficulty).

• Typing

I kind of type for a living, but it is much easier with two hands. Practice up - blog comments and Facebook updates don't type themselves!

• Opening/Closing a ziplock bag

We made a lot of our own baby food and stored them in freezer bags when Hugh was little, these days it is animal or Graham crackers. Opening is harder than closing for me.

• Find house key after getting out of the car

Unless you don't lock your front door, I hope you know your key order. Using your mouth helps on this one.

• Opening/Closing a baby food jar

I've only managed a fresh jar a small number of times in my life. Finger exercises are recommended.

• Opening microwave with full cup of milk

Hugh gets a cup of milk before naps or bed and we warm it so it's not really cold from the fridge. Pouring the milk is easy. I've tried a zillion times holding the near-full cup of milk and opening the fridge with the same arm and every time some spills over the edge. Why are the springs on the door so hard?!!

Good luck, you single-armed heros. May your kids cry and whine less while being held, as you carry your disproportional biceps as a badge of honor : )

Selective Hearing

Interpretive license is needed to be a parent. It sounds crazy to think that babies have different cries, but one can really tell the difference after only a few weeks. (Rather than the non-parent interpretation of "annoying" : ) Hugh's first words are really coming together but sometimes it might just be hopeful parents as much as it is vocabulary. Ball, door, and car, along with a few other words, are all legit. He says them on sight and doesn't mix that word with something else. His "car" would pass for a Bostonian any day, such as "Where's my caaa?"

Some words you have to be around him to really know what he's saying. Ducks say "quack quack" but sound more like "kac kac" and shoes sound a little like "czyoo." He says "awww" when something he's holding drops, which is quite cute too, though I don't know if he's really sad that it dropped or just sounds that way. The most fun comes from random babbling when it really does sound like he put the right syllables together. Back in December my dad and I swear we heard him say "turtle" when looking at a stuffed turtle (cotton, not taxidermy), but it has not been repeated since. At dinner this week Jess gave Hugh his own pon de queso (cheese bread) ball to which he replied, I kid you not, "oh yeah!" We both cracked up, and I'm still not really sure if he meant it.

More recently he is starting to repeat words he has heard, even phrases. Half the syllables are skipped of course, but you can tell he's trying. It's fun to hear just the right things, even if I'm being biased : ) 

Hughzy Monster

The curtains in our living room ripped. Well, they technically started ripping a year or so ago and the latest humongous tear happened a few weeks ago, so it was time for new curtains. We looked around and Big Lots hooked us up, just FYI.

Anyway, while the curtains were sitting in our living room and Jess had a few appointments last week, I put threw the curtains over Hugh's head. Mainly to see what he would do, as I put a number of things on his head, and he didn't freak out. He actually laughed and sometimes tried to walk (which usually ended up with him tripping).

I took a quick video (sorry so dark). I like to call him the Hughzy Monster. Watch out, he'll try to scare you at the end : )