Nicie's new words

Trash - which he calls Wa Wa (same word but different meaning for water!)
Wall - because he bumps into the wall a lot!

I know there are more but at 2 am they won't come to me! I wil work on this list more tomorrow!

"Remember"

Jac has been having a little biting problem. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it happens really quickly, before I realize that something is really going on.

A few days, the boys were playing, and it got contentious over a toy, and Nic tried to take it, and Jac bit him. It was a pretty hard bite that left teeth marks on Nic's arm, and the bitten area swole up a bit. Nic was very upset and cried for a bit, and as I worked to calm him down, I talked to Jac about what was going on, and why Nic was crying.

After NIc had calmed down, I saw that the bitten area had gotten swollen. We talked about that, and decided that Nic needed a bandaid, like Mommy had on her finger. The discussion about the swollen arm and the bandaid went on for a while.

This was several days ago and we have discussed it a few times since then, all initiated by Jac.

Tonight he said "swollen," which was a new word for him that came out of the discussion of Nicie's arm. His enunciation of swollen is a little unclear and I am not always able to immediately recognize it. Tonight, he said "swollen," and I didn't understand him. He said, "remember, swollen arm." Amazing!

He is such a little sponge! It is so fun to watch!

"I love you Momma"

Jac can say just about anything now it seems!

On Sunday, Grandma asked Jac to say "I love you." He said it but not very clearly.

We have been practicing saying different phrases, like, "Good morning Dadda," and "Bye, Bye Katie." Jac now has a great sense of praciticing saying things for the future and that they are not actually applicable right now.

So tonight I asked him to say, "I love you Dadda," and he did! And then he said, "I love you Momma!" I also asked him to say, "I love you Grandma," and "I love you Grandfather," the next time we see them. He said both!

When Jac said, "I love you Daddy," it flashed me right back to the NICU. I remember sitting for hours with him in Kangaroo care, and watching him laying on Daddy in Kangaroo care. The feelings that I had back then, to protect him, to help him grow up, to hear those words, were so strong, that as soon as I heard him say, "I love you Daddy," it took me right back there. I would sit, and think, "I love you little one, grow, and be well, we love you." It was a powerful flash back that brought tears to my eyes! My little boy is growing up!

"Momma"

Nic has started calling me Momma - sort of! Over the last few days he has finally! started saying Momma - but not all of the time - and it still doesn't really feel like it is directed at me! But I will take it! Except when he is crying about his diaper change and crying, "Momma, momma" - I think I preferred it when that was "Dadda!"

Welcome Cooper James Marsh

Congratulations to Chris and Alexis on the birth of their son, Cooper James Marsh, who joined us this morning at 10:02 am London time! We were all soundly asleep (or not so soundly asleep!) here in Pasadena when the news arrived!

We have received a few pictures but we are looking forward to many more!

Benecalorie and hGH

We have started adding a calorie supplement to Jac's night time bottle. It is a supplement called Benecalorie. It is a medical food and it has 330 calories in 1.5 oz - which is 7 cal per ml! Amazing! It is an oil supplement and it is hard to get it to mix with his milk, but I try! We started last week and I can't tell if it is helping him gain any weight yet.

We have decided that we are going to start Jac on hGH, which is Human Growth Hormone. There are lots of reasons that we need to do this for Jac all of which I don't want to explain right now, suffice it to say we have decided that it is best for him, and until he is old enough to decide he doesn't want it, we are going to give it to him. It is a daly injection, like an insulin shot, same kind of tiny, thin needle. We are waiting on the hGH until we get all of the approvals from the insurance company - hopefully we will get that in the next month.

Left handed

Nicie is most definitely left-handed. If you offer him something to hold he usually takes it with his left hand - and he loves to throw with his left arm. He has got some ambidextrousness going on also though - the other day he took two balls, one in each hand, over his head, and threw them, and hit me with both of them! Fortunately they were soft! He uses forks and spoons with his left hand and holds teething rings with his left hand.

Bam Bam

When Nicie is wearing a sleeveless suit he likes to stick one of his arms through the neck hole. I usually manage to keep him from doing it but this morning he did it and so ended up wearing a nice off-the-shoulder look.

Daddy said he looked like "Bam Bam" from Flintstones and I would have to agree! With his propensity for throwing, running and hitting it seems an apt nickname at times!

Twins?

We are constantly asked if the boys are twins. This is not at all surprising given that they are a similar size and unless you pay attention it is not obvious that Jac is light years ahead of Nic developmentally (14 months ahead!) I always answer, "No, they are 14 months apart." I get a lot of quizzical looks and head scratching and then people usually take a closer look and reevaluate and see that they are not twins.

The funny thing about this is that up until yesterday I was always just a little bit offended by the question. It seemed so obvious to me that they are not twins, and my Jacie is so much "older." Yesterday as I was watching them play together, and really enjoy one another (they have done this for a while but it really struck me yesterday), I realized that as soon as Nicie starts really talking (2-3 word sentences - like Jac is doing now) it is really going to be like having twins, in a really cool way!

My mind started wandering to what things are going to be like when the boys are 3 and 4 and are at more developmentally similar stages than they are right now. Oh man! It is going to be wild and fun! I better be on my toes with both of them watching me!

My boys!

Directed play

The boys have been playing "together" for a while now, more often than not it is more about having the same toy at the same time!

They like to chase one another, and that develops naturally at certain times of the day. Today, Jac decided that he wanted Nic to chase him. He went over, got Nic, asked him to hold hands, and then started puling him and saying, "chase."

Wow! I could see the future opening in front of my eyes as the boys start developing their own games, and making rules for those games, and getting the other one to play with them!

I remember doing all of that so clearly with my sister! The thing I remember most clearly are our Snoopies! We loved them! They were our friends and we created entire worlds for them to live in and stories that they lived out. They got to do all of the things that we wanted to do but didn't get to for one reason or another.

I can fully understand now why my parents' memories of us playing that way are so special. I can't wait! Yes I can! I love this time, but that is going to be just amazing!