Picture Update

haven't posted pictures in a while, so thought I'd post a few recent ones. William's hair is really coming in now. Sometimes it looks light--almost reddish. And then other times, it looks really dark. You can definitely see it in these pictures.

These were taken the week before last, when he was home sick for most of the week. I gave him a few bowls and measuring cups, some dried rice and pasta, and let him have at it.


Here's a video of the same thing:



Here's a picture of William and me . You can clearly see that I'm gaining a lot of weight!


And finally, William with goofy-looking face and hair:

The State of the Hahns 2008

It's that time of the year again! I've been thinking about this post a lot lately, although it comes at a pretty boring time in the Hahn household. (If living with a toddler can ever be described as "boring," which it isn't really to us, but my blog entries sure make it seem that way!)

Anyway, how do you sum up the state of your family? How do you describe where you've been and where you're going? What did we accomplish this past year, and what do we hope to accomplish in the coming year? I've been thinking about it in terms of certain words that I use to describe us.

So first of all, the state of the Hahns is blessed. We are soooooo fortunate to have our health, to have never faced anything worse than wheezing when it comes to William's health, to be financially secure, to have jobs that we like, to have supportive families, to have the ability to conceive so easily, to have friends, to have each other, and laughter in our lives. We have worked hard to be where we are, and yet, all of these things have come to us easily, without a lot of angst or worry. Many of these things can change with a moment's notice, so our challenge for the upcoming year is to appreciate these blessings, and to not take it all for granted, which is so easy to do.

The state of the Hahns is also amused. Every day we laugh out loud at William's antics. We often laughed together before William came along, and we still laugh together often when it's just us. But there's something about the shared joy we experience when William makes us laugh. It brings us closer, and tightens the bond between us. Whether it's a dramatic, anguish-filled face in response to a reprimand, or a spontaneous dance and accompanying grin brought about by ice cream or an Oreo cookie, our life is so much the richer for the laughter that William brings out in us.

The state of the Hahns is routine--gloriously, predictably, comfortably routine. Our weekend activities change, of course, and we can, and sometimes do, step outside the box and shake things up a bit. But for the most part, we have mastered the day-in and day-out functioning that is required of two working parents with a toddler. There is definitely room for improvement--we haven't quite mastered the ability to keep our house clean on a routine schedule--but I know that will come with time. (And more money to hire a cleaning service!) And as things change, we adjust accordingly. It's just so nice and comforting to know what to expect, but at the same time, to be able to say, "it's okay to do things differently for one night, because tomorrow, we'll be back to our routine."

The state of the Hahns is content. In this past year, we have figured out so much about how to operate as a family, how to ask each other for help, how to support each other, and how to find joy in the most mundane of everyday activities. A sense of contentment that is hard to describe and articulate has settled over us. This does not mean we have not had our moments of disagreement and exasperation. This does not mean we do not hope for more contentment in our future. But we have learned that it is possible, even at the height of frustration and bitterness, to feel content, and to know that the tough moments and the discontent really are fleeting. We know we're in it for the long haul, and the long haul looks pretty darn good.

The state of the Hahns is both confident and anxious in anticipation of our new arrival. Is it possible to be both? We're confident because we've done it before. For the most part, we know what to expect. We're prepared (sort of) and can't wait to meet our newest family member. However--even though we've done this before, we've never done it with a toddler who is very attached to his mommy! And we have no way of predicting what the new baby will be like. Will he/she be laid back? Demanding? Colicky? Will he/she sleep? It's definitely a crap shoot. And how will William react? Will the terrible twos rear their ugly head just when we bring the baby home? Or will he surprise us (as he usually does) and rise to the occasion, loving his new role as big brother? And how will our routine and contentment be thrown off by this new addition to our family? How will the logistics work with two? So we are anxious facing all of these unanswered questions, but confident that we will figure it all out with time, patience, and a lot of help from our families and friends.

So where do we hope to go in the coming year? This is a question I'm not really prepared to answer, in light of all the unknowns that the upcoming year will bring. But more of the same sounds very appealing to me. I'm not setting the bar too high, and simply want to see where life takes us. This past year brought us a new house, a pregnancy, and a baby who turned into a toddler. It will be hard to top a year like that, but I have a feeling that the love and joy will only expand as our family grows, despite the challenges that we will inevitably face. Life is great, and I'm pretty sure it will only get better from here.

Catching Up

Wow--time flies when your kid is sick and you have house guests. So to catch you all up, William didn't quite make it through daycare on Wednesday. He woke up from his nap after about an hour and a half with a low-grade temp, so they called me to pick him up. We went home early and on Thursday, he stayed home all day with Ed. He had a good day and didn't have a temperature all day, so back to daycare we went on Friday. I finally got to my desk a little before 9:00 a.m. and got a call at 9:30 a.m. that William was coughing a lot and had thrown up. Oh great. So home we went. Fortunately, the throw-up episode was brought on by the coughing and not a virus. And the coughing did not turn into wheezing, and there was no more fever.

And that was good because Friday night, my mom and brother came for a visit. We didn't do much of anything while they were here, but William enjoyed entertaining them, and they enjoyed playing with him. On Saturday morning we went to Target and my mom bought William a big set of construction vehicles. Actually, the vehicles are small (think match box, but a little bigger), but it was a big set, with lots of different kinds of trucks, and William has been having a blast with them. On Saturday night, we ventured out to dinner and William actually did pretty well, although he ate hardly anything. On Sunday, we spent the day at Ed's parents. Can I just say that I'm soooo lucky that my mom and MIL get along and that I have pleasant in-laws? Anyway, we stayed for lunch and dinner and then my mom and brother left on Monday morning.

Whew! So far this week, William is doing great, although his nose got runny again. I'm hoping it's not another cold. Regardless, we made it through the last one with no wheezing, so I'm thankful for that. He's also slept through the night two nights in a row now, and no morning (or wee-hours-of-the-morning) bottle, so my plan is to be done with bottles entirely for him, even if he wakes up in the wee hours of the morning.

Not much else to report. William and I went to Barnes and Noble on Monday and encountered a screaming-bratty kid. He was about William's age, maybe older, and he was determined to hog all the trains on the train table. He had an absolute fit when another kid started playing with trains that were on the other side of the table. William just stared and stared at him. I asked him if he wanted to go look at trucks book and without looking up, he shook his head and said, "No." It was like a bad wreck that you couldn't turn away from. I was a little sympathetic towards the kid's father, until a little later, when the brat grabbed a train out of another kid's hand, and the father didn't do anything. That's just unacceptable, in my book. William is soooo not aggressive like that when it comes to kids he doesn't know or a setting he's not familiar with. Now put him in daycare with all his friends, however, and it's another story. But he definitely needs a lot of time to feel comfortable.

So that's it for an update. I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. So far it's great. I'll try to give a better review when I finish!

Almost, but Not Quite

For the most part, William is acting like his normal self, but he's not quite over this bug. I stayed home with him yesterday, and even though he had a low fever for most of the day, I took him to daycare today because he's been sleeping well, acting fine, and eating and drinking. He woke up from his nap today, though, with a slight fever, so home we went. Ed will stay home with him tomorrow. I felt really bad because when I picked him up, he looked awful. His nose is pretty goopy now, and his eyes looked a little red and puffy, and his cheeks were flushed and dry. Despite how he looked, though, when we got home he was ready to play. He did have a bit more attitude this afternoon than normal, though. Not sure if I should attribute it to him being sick, or just the onset of a new and lovely phase. Time will tell. He was a bit more stubborn, a bit more defiant, and a bit more dramatic.

Anyway, I've been wanting to blog about my professional self--or lack thereof since having William--but that may have to wait until I have more energy. I've just been thinking a lot lately about where I want to be professionally (if anywhere), and how I can refocus on my job/career. I don't have any intention of getting a different job, or changing careers or anything. But I have felt the itch lately to be better at what I do. It's been soooo easy to coast in my job since I've had William. That's partly because I have an accommodating boss who doesn't ride my ass. But it's also the nature of my job. The demands ebb and flow and I can easily put things off. Maybe it's dumb to be thinking of re-focusing now, 3 months before I have baby #2 and my 12-week maternity leave. But I'm hoping that when I come back from that leave, it won't take me as long to get back into it. I could continue in the track I'm currently on, where basically, I have a job, it pays the bills, offers us financial security, but that's about it. But what I want is to feel proud of my work, to strive for some kind of accomplishment, to work really hard and have it pay off. That sounds so dumb--as in, "duh--isn't that what everyone wants/does?" But that has not been my reality for the last 20 months. So we'll see what I can do in the next 3 months.

I guess I had the energy to blog a bit about this topic after all!

Sick, Again

I had a feeling that William's marathon naps this weekend probably meant that he was getting sick. Sure enough, he woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning with a barky cough, and feeling very hot. I didn't have a working thermometer, though, so I gave him a bottle and he went back to bed with no protest. He was still hot when he woke up at 6:45, so I stayed home with him. He was in a surprisingly good mood all day, though. We went to Target to get an ear thermometer in the morning and he was so laid back and easy going. He didn't protest being in the cart once, and didn't want to get out at all. And the thermometer confirmed his fever. It hovered around 100 most of the day, but after his nap, it was 103.9! We'll see how he does tonight. I'm guessing he has a mild form of croup, and hopefully it will stay mild.

So that's our news. Hopefully he'll get over this quickly.

Weekend Report

We had a great, low-key weekend. On Friday night, I got to meet Laura (from Laura's Mommy Journal) IRL! She was just how she "appears" on her blog--funny, smart, friendly, and sooo well-adjusted!--and I had a great evening with her and her two friends. They got to meet William and then the girls got to go out to eat. What could be better?

On Saturday, I had my 24-week doctor's appointment. I have already gained 20 pounds. Yikes! I definitely need to lay off the sweets. But it's sooooo hard. I'm definitely craving sugar much more this go around than I did the last time. No fun. We'll see how I do this week. I gained about 40 total with William, which is a lot, but not completely over the top. Still, I'd like to gain no more than that this time, and even less would be better! (Although that seems somewhat impossible at this point!) Other than my weight gain, everything looks good with the baby. He or she is a kicking, moving fool, though. It seems there is movement all the time!

As for William, we had a good weekend doing a bunch of nothing. Yesterday was pretty nice out, so William and I spent a long time outside and ventured to the playground behind our house. He found two trucks that someone had left behind and had a blast playing with those and climbing on the jungle gyms. We even rode the swings together, which he normally isn't interested in. Today we mostly played with toys and read books. Ed taught him about Goldbug in the Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. Goldbug is on every page, so you have to find him. I didn't think William would be into such a concept, but he really likes looking for Goldbug! He's also been playing a lot with the fridge phonics magnets and knows a few letters now. And he can count to 6, although I don't think he really understands the concept of counting. Still, it's progress, right? He's 20 months old today, which makes him that much closer to the big 2! What happened to my baby? I'm loving this stage of his life though, when he's learning things so quickly, and you can literally see the wheels turning in his little head.

So that's all for now. I didn't pull the camera out this weekend, but maybe I'll get some pictures this week. My mom and possibly my brother are coming to visit this weekend, so that will definitely be an opportunity for pictures. I'll be back before then, though!

Hodge Podge

William has taken to flirting with the women slugs who ride with us on our commute to and from work. The last two or three days, he's been strangely quiet in the car--as in, hardly uttering a peep the entire ride. But he'll stare at the passengers, and try to make googly eyes with the women. And he'll laugh and play peek-a-boo if they play along. As soon as the passengers get out of the car, he'll start talking to me, and pointing out everything on the road. It's pretty funny. I wonder how long it will last, though.

Favorite books: William loves Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go right now. He also loves The Little Engine that Could, and he has a few other truck books that he loves. One is a big book of rescue vehicles. And by big, I mean large format and really big pictures. Another one has pages that fold out, and has one page of rescue vehicles, and one page of flying vehicles, and one page of trains and one page of boats. (He's really not into boats, though.) Anyway, he likes the page with the Space Shuttle on it. We need to take him to the Air and Space Museum. Finally, he's been bringing me a Winnie-the-Pooh book that is actually for his Little Leaps electronic book. But we read the book by itself.

Cooking: I made chicken tenders with Panko bread crumbs tonight and they were sooooo awesome. If you haven't tried Panko yet, go get some now. (I'm probably the last person on Earth who hasn't tried Panko!) I baked half the tenders and fried/sauteed the other half, and they both turned out super crispy and good. Yum yum yum!

Baby: I'm getting pretty close to only having 3 months before this baby arrives. That freaks me out a little. Three months does not seem like a long time. We don't even have a boy named picked out yet. (Anyone want to play name the baby?) And I don't have a plan set in stone for what to do with William when it's time to go have this baby. There are different vague scenarios, but we need to get this taken care of! And I want to re-do William's room and transition him to a bed. And get him completely off the bottle. Or do I? *Sigh*

That's enough for tonight. More randomness to come, no doubt!

My Day with William

Ed went squirrel hunting with friends today (don't even ask--and no, he didn't bring home any squirrel for me to cook. That was not an option!) so William and I had the day to ourselves. We went to the Container Store and then to Barnes and Noble to play with the trains and read books about trucks, and then to McDonald's for lunch, and then home for a good long nap.

Before embarking on our day's adventures, I had to take a shower, so while I was in the bathroom, William occupied himself by taking the 500 Q-tips that were nicely stored in their container and stuffing them inside all of my shoes instead. There were still lots of Q-tips left, though, so the rest seemed to fit nicely in the floor vent. He wasn't crying and banging on the door while I showered, though, so I'm not complaining. I salvaged what Q-tips I could and threw the rest away. Some messes and waste are totally worth it!

So onto the day's adventures. After a quick trip to Container Store, we settled in at Barnes and Noble. William is so funny with other kids. There were two younger kids already at the train table when we got there. They were right about one, and just walking. William just watched them cautiously for a while and didn't play at the table until they wandered away. When another toddler about his age showed up, William again stepped back and cautiously watched the other child. When an older girl came to the table, (she was probably 5 years old) William watched her, but then started following her around the table with his trains. He clearly wants to be like the big kids. At daycare, where he's familiar with the other kids, he's not quite so demure and quiet. But I guess it takes him a good long while to warm up. At least I know he's not a bully! (At least not until he's good and warmed up.)

So after trains, we went to the truck section and read almost every book on trucks that we could find. Note to self: William is not quite ready for pop-up books. Thought I was going to have to buy a book for a minute there. Luckily it was the "view" copy and was already beat up to begin with! After trucks, we looked around at a few more books that caught William's interest, and then headed back to the car. Outside the Barnes and Noble, though, William spotted a little playground, so we made a slight detour and played on the playground for 15 minutes or so. He went down the "side" (slide) several times, and then we finally made it to the car, and onto McDonalds.

We got home around 1:00 and after cleaning up toys and reading a few more books, William finally went to sleep around 1:45 and didn't wake up until 4:15. I should have been "productive" during this time, but I decided to take a nap, too. God knows I need to sleep when I can! Post-nap was the usual playing, reading, cleaning up, doing a little laundry. At the end of this day, it struck me that William was really more like a companion today, and less of a "baby," for lack of a better word. We had conversations (or close to it), he made decisions about what we were doing, we negotiated. He's getting to be this little, independent person now. It's neat to watch it all unfold, and scary to think about how much influence Ed and I have, and don't have, over that blossoming personality.

Overall, it was a really great day, though. I hope we can have lots of "dates" like this as William grows older, and our family grows.

William to English Dictionary

William talks all the time. He clearly knows what he is saying, and I'm an idiot because I only understand about 10 percent of it. So here's what I've been able to interpret so far. (And this will be a work-in-progress. I"ll have to keep coming back to add to it because I know I can't remember too much right now.)

hel-i-cop = helicopter
mo-kul = motorcycle
peese = please or peas, depending on the context
hode it = hold me
skoo bus = school bus
hot shockie = chocolate milk
seem = steam (he also calls smoke steam)
biwds = birds (it's hard to write the pronunciation in English; I think I need umlauts)
fiwr = humidifier (again--hard to write the pronunciation; clearly has an issue with r's, although he can say truck and Clark with no problem)
aht = light
shoo-a = squirrel
bot = bottle
passa = pasta
I lub ooo = I love you (he only says this when I prompt him, but it makes me melt nonetheless!)
mise = mine (this means both "mine," but also means, "I want to play with that," and I've only heard him say it at daycare
bi truck = fire truck
off = off or on, either way
bi (?) = fan (I think he's saying "bi"--it's hard to tell, but clearly not even close to "fan")

That's all I can think of for now. Next I"ll be working on getting him on video when he's talking. I love how earnest he is when he tells me things. And then he gives me a priceless look that says, "Mom, I know you don't understand me, but it's not even worth it to repeat myself." He's so stinkin' cute!

Fostering Independence

William's clingyness of late has me worried for our future. The new baby is coming in four months, and I have a feeling William is going to be none too pleased to see Mommy catering to a new person. He has also been showing a bit more attitude lately--insisting on his way a bit more, throwing fits a bit more often (although I still can't complain because his "fits" are very short-lived), expressing his anger or frustration by hitting me. I think I handle these situations pretty well, but when he tests my patience and I'm sleep deprived and a hormonal wreck, will I fly off the handle? Will I break down in tears?

So we've started working on getting William to be a little more independent, and we've been trying to talk a lot more about emotions. We've been getting him to climb up and down the stairs on his own. Ed is going to do bath and bedtime much more often. We talk about feeling angry, sad, frustrated, and happy. He's learning how to put his coat on and take it off by himself. It's all baby steps, to be sure, but I really hope it will help us when the new baby gets here. It's bittersweet, though, to be sure. He's growing up so quickly. And he's learning so much in such a short amount of time. It's so hard to balance wanting to provide comfort and security with fostering independence and teaching him empathy and respect. This parenting stuff really doesn't get any easier, does it?

Tonight I did my exercise video when we got home from work, and although William tried desperately to sabotage the workout (by turning off the TV and trying to hand me books to read), I held firm and continued the workout and encouraged him to "dance" with me, or play with other toys. Fortunately, the workout is only 20 minutes, and overall, he did really well. We'll see if I can keep it up.

Finally for tonight, I have belly pictures. Here I am on Nov. 26, which was 18 weeks (gotta love Clark in the background!):


And here I am today, at 23 weeks:


I have gained much more during this pregnancy than the last, I think. I'm certainly eating a lot more. Maybe it's a girl? At any rate, not looking forward to stepping on that scale at my next appointment. But such is life! I'm working on eating better, and have been drinking lots more water, so that's a start. As for the baby, I've been feeling him or her move a lot, which is in many ways reassuring. I think William was pretty active, too, but I wasn't ever sure if it was him, or just gas. I guess now I know!

Happy New Year!

Wow--another year has come and gone, and what a year it's been! A full entire year of being a mom, and a working mom at that! We ended 2007 on a pretty good note. We had four full days to unwind, relax, get a few things done here and there, and get ready for the year ahead. It was so nice to have no obligations for once. We went out to dinner with Ed's family on Saturday night to celebrate his grandfather's birthday. The rest of the time, we stayed home and played with toys, played outside, read lots of books, and took good naps. I managed to disassemble the Christmas decorations, so our house is back to normal. All is right with the world, and I'm ready to tackle 2008!

As for New Year's Eve, after we put William to bed, Ed and I had fondue for dinner and played Monopoly. The fondue was excellent, I got spanked in Monopoly, and we were asleep by 10:30. I could celebrate New Year's Eve like that for the rest of my life!

As for 2008, I have lots of resolutions, none of which I'll keep, I'm sure. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try. For starters, I'm putting on weight like crazy right now, so I'm going to try to use my Denise Austin Fit and Firm pregnancy workout DVD. I've also got to cut back a bit on the sweets. I'm eating way more during this pregnancy than I did with William. Second, I'll keep working on the menu planning/grocery budgeting thing. And of course, I'll try to stop biting my nails. Come the end of April, though, all bets are off. My only goal at that point will be survival and making sure that both of my children stay alive!

So Happy 2008! And also, Happy Birthday to my good friend LJ!