Sunday, February 27, 2011

Daddy Naked

A few observations about kids. First, they can develop a vocabulary seemingly overnight. Parents often are comparing their kids' progress against other kids... "Little Mikey has been walking for months, why isn't my kid"... Well, within his small group of friends, Casey was on the slow end of the talkers.. But, suddenly, he is making up for lost time. At first, he would say one word here and there. Within the last few weeks, he has taken the next step, and began stringing words together.

In the summertime, when its hot outside, we would leave Casey in his just his diaper right after a diaper change. We would call him, 'diaper boy'... and when we get him out of the bath, we call him, 'naked baby'...

It appears he has stored all this information, and now with his increased vocabulary, he has decided to utilize all his skills. After diaper changes, sometimes he will now say, 'diaper boy'.. So, we leave him to run around in his diaper for awhile. He as also taken to saying, 'Casey naked'... IE: he doesn't want any clothes on... Well, the other night, as I was getting ready to change him and read him bedtime stories, he says, 'Casey naked'... Then, he follows with 'Daddy naked'.... Huh? 'Daddy naked!!!' If any of you have tried to reason with a two year old, you KNOW what happened next.. I'll spare you the visual.

The next day, as Daddy was sitting on the couch watching basketball, Casey comes over and says, 'Daddy naked'. I got a choice, miss 1/2 the game trying to reason with a two year old, or comply and watch the game in peace... There was a blanket and a pillow on the couch to keep me warm, so you can figure what option I chose. Only Casey grabs the pillow and says, 'mine'... At least he 'let me' share the blanket with him...

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A$$ Backwards

It seems Sydney has it all backwards. He likes to sleep during the day, and stay awake at night. Which reeks havoc with everyone's sleep schedule. It's been pretty rough for a few weeks now. We are so fortunate to have great family who have been helping us. Your assistance has been invaluable. Most importantly, it has allowed Mommy and Daddy to get SOME sleep. Based on my experiences thus far, those who had previously warned me are spot on.. Having the second child is more than twice the work. Its most definitely not a linear relationship. More like exponential... As in... the work load increases exponentially with the additional child... So, add in a second child... Bam.. 10 times the work of just one.. Add a third child... 100X the work? I dunno, and I dont want to find out!

Aside from the lack of sleep, everyone is doing well. Sydney is constantly feeding, and the brothers are getting along great. Just this week, Casey has began kissing and hugging his 'baby brother'... All on his own, without any prompting... Just the most adorable thing to see!

Nap time, see ya.

Snow Day

Pix from Casey's time in the snow...





Daddy Time

Recently, I took a week off work to spend time at home, and to celebrate the arrival of Casey's 'baby brother'. As it turns out, i didnt spend too much time at home. Casey and daddy had an action packed, adventurous week. Each day, we sought out a different activity. One day was a beach day. Casey played in the sand, climbed up and down a coaches bench, and played with lots and lots of volleyballs. We also attended his 'Parenting the toddler' class. Usually, mommy takes him to this class once a week, but this week, daddy got to see what it was all about. Daddy didnt know all the songs, but we did the best we could. We also got to play at the park during recess and got rained on during our walk home.

Another day, we went to an indoor playground. This place had a giant ball pit and a huge climbing structure; a great rainy day retreat. Alas, on this day, it was indeed raining, so lots of people had the same idea... The place was crowded! Casey loved the ball pit; this is news because the last time he saw one (about 2 months ago), he didnt want anything to do with the ball pit. He (we) also spend a lot of time in the climbing structure. I was pretty worn out from playing in the structure. Evidently, so was Casey, cause after two solid hours of playing, we ate some lunch, took a shower, and he slept 15 straight hours!

As the week continued, we went to the Santa Ana zoo. We arrived a little before they opened, so we had some time to kill. Luckily, Casey noticed a 'tunnel' just down the street... Knowing how much he loves tunnels, I asked him if he wanted to go in the tunnel.. He enthusiastically replied "yes!"... and we proceeded to drive thru the tunnel multiple times. When the zoo finally opened, we toured the place; Casey's favorite was the monkeys...

We finished off the week with an epic snow day. After we dropped mommy and Sydney off at grandmas house, Casey and I headed for the mountains... where a snowstorm greeted us. We pulled over, and enjoyed our white, winter wonderland. Casey didnt want too much to do with the sled, he preferred throwing snowballs at daddy, and tilting his head skyward, trying to catch snow in his mouth... On a couple of occasions, Casey did say, "Casey wheeee".... Which meant he wanted to try the sled. We did a couple of mini runs together; I think he has mixed feelings, he likes it, but at the same time, he's a little afraid of it...

All in all, we had an eventful week together, creating lots of memories and having lots of daddy/son time!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Nai-Nai, Ye-Ye visit

Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye came to visit! And boy did Casey like it. In anticipation of the visit, he kept saying 'Nai-Nai'... When he woke up in the morning, the FIRST words out of his mouth was 'Nai-Nai'. It was great visit. Casey had us all playing ball in the living room. Ye-Ye got his old bones down on the floor and helped Casey construct his racetrack, and even played cars with him! We had a great family meal at Sizzler, and Nai-Nai spoiled Casey with Ice Cream! And to top it off, we got a rare photograph of both Casey and his baby brother.

Nai-Nai with her two grandsons!

Nice to meet you

This weekend Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye made a trek from San Diego to meet their newest grandchild. It appears Sydney has taken to Nai-Nai. She sure has his attention here!

Proud grandpa holding a precious little package.

Gotcha

Sydney had his two week doctor checkup today. The first order of business is to weigh him, so we had to strip him naked, and carry him on this office-provided sheet. I dont know the exact material, but it isn't exactly absorbent. That's all that matters. We get him weighed, and were waiting on the nurse to prepare his shots. Knowing what was coming, and wanting to comfort him, I leaned in close and was whispering in his ear. My upper body was about touching his, hoping it helped him feel safe. Don't really know what he felt, 'cept the urge to relieve himself. When I finally stood up straight, I looked at my shirt... SOAKED. Like a giant spot, maybe 4-5" in diameter, soaked.. I likely could have wrung it out.. But I didn't.. I went straight to the sink, amid laughter from my wife and the nurse, and diluted the pee with water; then I wrung it out. Looking back at the bed, there was a small puddle on the surface, and a few drops on that sheet. But I definitely took the brunt of that one.

I made it through 2+ years of fatherhood without getting hit... My streak is now over.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Precious

Just a few of quick photographs. To me, they illustrate just how precious a newborn baby is... Here's the little, little guy, three whole days into his life!





Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Magic Month of May

Two babies, both born on Feb. 3rd... Doing the math backwards, it appears that May is a magic month around the Wang household. If I even look at my wife during the month of May... bam.. prego!

Thus, I've decided to spend one hour each day in the month of May, soaking in the hot tub... Kill any of my little swimmers....

Friday, February 4, 2011

The specs

Sydney Bing Xian Wang

Born: 2-3-11
Weight: 7 lbs 4.6 oz
Length: 19"

This pic is special.. First kiss!



I think this one is gonna have SOME personality...

Peeking at Daddy...



Sticking out his tongue at Daddy...

Here I go again!

Deja vu, all over again.

Yesterday started out like any other day. For me, that meant going to work. Mommy went to a doctor appointment to check on the baby's progress. Long story short, but the doc suggested Mommy come home and have sex with Daddy! Thanks doc, I'll pay you that $5 later.(Apparently, my bribe not withstanding, sex is one activity that helps the pregnancy process along). Guess it makes sense, that act that starts all this madness apparently can bookend usher in the finish too.. Alas, I didn't get lucky.. at least not in that way... Apparently Seahorse didn't want any part of that... So, he decided to speed things up a little. About 1PM I was told, 'Come home now, we gotta goto the hospital'. We get to the hospital between 2 and 3PM. About 4 big pushes later, Seahorse ummm, peeked his head out. He was born 2-3-11 at 3:57PM...

I wonder if he knew his older brother was born on 2-3-09... at approximately 4:30pm... Is this the first salvo in a long sibling rivalry?.... Like "Ha,ha I beat you by a half hour..."

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Happy Birthday Casey

Casey officially turned 2 years old today. And talk about a birthday surprise...

SURPRISE

In light of that surprise, (and considering the fact that we have had birthday celebrations for the last 2 weeks) tonight was a low key recognition of his actual 2nd birthday. We had a Sesame Street cupcake, and put two whole candles on it.

I digress. Anytime we serve him food, we test it with our fingers/ lips to see if its hot.. If it is hot, we blow on it. At the beginning, Casey didnt understand this concept; when he was hungry, he wanted to eat... right then. We had to explain to him, 'its hot', and he would see us blowing on the food... It got to the point where he would look at food, and say, 'hot' and start blowing on it...

Back to the story... with this in mind... picture what happens when I bring out the cupcake with two lit candles on it... I say, 'blow' So, he does what he sees us do all the time, and what he does all the time... puts his face right up to the hot 'food' and blows...