Preparing for the big night with a bottle, a cuddle with our TET tiger and a nice long nap.

 

Once mama woke me up we were off...to Mary's place for the annual Tet Party.

Here I am last year, just a short time after arriving home to Canada

And this year...

I spent some time with friends...kissing is my specialty.

How cute am I in my ao dai?
 

Hopefully more pictures to follow...

Crazy about snow...

 

Hard to believe that yesterday looked like this.

Dude hates sun in his eyes!
 

If you are the praying type...pray for a snow day.

I need all the prayers I can get.  

Working for the same board of ed since 92 and there has only been one snow day...

the day AFTER they called in the army to clear the roads.

One year ago...how cute is my little guy anyway????

 And today?  A special visit!

Auntie Kristen

And Uncle Chuck (and a brand new CAR!)

For Uncle Chuck...

 

Here he might be saying "Flames are number 1!"

or

perhaps

"Show me the money!"

I'm not going to lie...the wee dude got a bit of flack for wearing this today in leaf country.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!!

What a wonderful weekend with sweet friends. It was a long weekend because of Ontario's Family Day (today) and that one extra day makes traveling worthwhile.  It was a big weekend because lots and lots of beautiful material was delivered (finally) to the quilter for Ben's Wish Quilt.  4 or 5 years in the making so far.

In an effort to drag myself into Vietnamese cooking in honour of TET, the VNese Lunar New Year, I took the ingrediants for a favourite snack up into the great whiter north where I was sure to get a bit of kitchen help...here are the results.

I made the rolls (mostly) and Auntie Kimley made the peanut sauce...SOOOO yummy.

Tonight a delicious Valentine's Day dinner...here is Turtle Pie for dessert and unbelievable.

And finally a segment brought to you by the letter B..

Bedtime baba (bottle) with Baa and Baa (the wee sheep) and a great Baar Bubu (Barney bus book)

Ben in a bak (basket) with his trusty baba and his lovey banban (blanket)

and finally?

I call this one "bushed"...

B is the sound of the week apparently...

Go! Stop!

This is a game called GO.

Little dude says go and Uncle Matt goes...

fast...

around the livingroom or den or yard or where ever.

Then Matt stops...

until little Dude says GO again.

Go apparently is one of his favourite new words.

When the dude is tired out from an evening of GO

he stops...

What?  This isn't how you enjoy your evening snack?

Soft cuddly lounging area, TV show, grapes quartered into your favourite bowl?

Me neither.

20

20 months...20 points of interest

1. Dude loves to climb.  Present day personal goals include scaling the back of the couch and balancing for 10 or more seconds on one foot on a wheeled riding toy...any riding toy will do.
2. Mama's little animal.  We play a little game where I ask him at random if he is "mama's little * insert animal of chioce here" and he will respond with the animal's common sound.  Monkey is his personal favourite....but mama likes cows that say booooo.
3. He is a big boy weighing more than 28 pounds and standing at more than 33 inches in height.  Fits perfectly into size 2 clothes.
4. Music flows through this boy's veins (well...it would if he HAD veins).  Current favourites included 5 little monkeys, eensy weensy spider, Barney's I Love You, skinamirink, and Elephants have wrinkles.  Word of warning, he takes the actions very seriously so DO NOT quietly sing the spider song in his ear as he drifts off to sleep.  When that poor spider gets washed out?  Mama gets a black eye.
5. Loves to toddle in the snow.  Pick up the snow, lick the snow, blow snow off his mittens.  Certainly a winter boy.
6. Baba=the bottle and is in our life for the foreseeable future because of dudes swallowing delays so I'm glad he is a willing participant in drinking out of it.  Unfortunately he begins to freak out as soon as it is mentioned and continues to scream until it is in his mouth
7. BuBa=blue ball.  He can throw it up and kick it for hours.  Loves his little blue ball.
8. Bumpa=grandpa.  Grandpa spent much of month 20 living with us while he worked on contract in the area.  BenBen loves his Bumpa and asks for him every time a black car drives by.
9. tuckey...a truck of course and
10. carkey...well, a car and 
11. cookie...obvious and 
12. cuckie...hello?  Its a chicken!  You know, they go cluck-ie.
13. Baby boy is getting bossy as he picks up his first "controlling" words including more, go, up, more, more and more.  Mostly more.  And the adult better know what he wants more of because frustration follows quickly if the adult is in the dark.
14. Bedtime is getting later...and later...and later.  If I stick to 7:30 he takes an hour to go to sleep some of the time.  If I do 8:30 it may only take 1/2 an hour but at 9 bedtime is 5 minutes, a quiet rendition of his favourite songs, a black eye for mama and snoring.  But frankly 9 is waaaay toooooo late when I kiss him awake at 6:15 am so I' going to start running him around the block to tire him out.  can't wait til spring...
15. cheddar cheese, sticky rice, peas, corn flakes, cheerios, melon, pears, broccoli and any noodle that is long and round...a few of his favourite things.  Not a huge fan of meat but really a diverse eater when he is feeling well.  Otherwise?  rice.  only.  rice...
16. Counts to three and matches the objects with his finger.  Right now it sounds like this... bu, bu, bu.
17. cars and trains and animals that eat meat. Oh, and elephants.  Favourites around here.
18. So very ticklish all over his body.  One of his favourite games to play is called trapped.  I trap im between my legs and then tickle him over and over from his toes to his neck.  Oh, the belly laughs.  I hope they stay forever.
19. Ben ben learned to blow bubbles in the bath this month.  Not mama's favourite activity but he LOVES to blow bubbles.  Now he tries to do it when he is having a sip of water from his straw cup.  Ewww...messy wet boy.  And belly giggles of course.
20. Ben is so very sweet.  Loves to cuddle and hug and kiss.  and then he likes to do it again.  Love my little Manh.

yeesh

Like "where's waldo"..."where's Ben"?

So, after what seems like an eternity of sick.

Fluids of various levels of viscosity.

Crankiness.

Poor eating.

Terrible sleeping.

Grumpy morning, noon and night.

And yesterday?  A bit of wheezing to add to the snot and gasping and snorting.

So I did it.

Made a Dr.s appointment.  Didn't want to head into a weekend with an emergency situation.

Left work early to make it on time.

Made it.

Met a new Doctor at the practice.

Loved him.  Right away.

5 minutes later he delcared...

wait for it...

this child is the picture of good health.

And I had to agree.  Practically no snot, no wheezing, no gasping, no coughing, no rash, no fever, no crankiness, no nothing....seriously.  

Unbelievable.

Picture proof that dude is apparently over whatever was ailing him for the last 15 days.

When I look at this picture I see...

a one year molar coming in on his left

AND

two year molars coming in on BOTH SIDES...

yikes...must check (when he isn't sleeping of course)

 

May tomorrow be as lovely as the final 3 hours of today!

Highs and Lows

What a week...

When fluids stopped flowing from places in the body that no fluids should ever flow we went back to school...well, I went back to school and he went to the sitter.  But the nastiness of the weekend was replaced by rivers of snot and a nice deep worrisome cough.  Such is life.

It had it's definite lows.

Poor baby.  This was just after arriving home.  He was already tired enough for bed.  But hey?  Might as well stay awake snotting and coughing and gasping for air until 10.  Tuesday and Wednesday night (and then wake up over and over again coughing and gasping for air as you aspirate your post nasal drip-lovely).   Makes life so much more interesting for mama!  

Tonight?  9.  Felt like I won the lottery.

A nice warm steamy bath, some little noses saline mist and the boy practically lights up with life.

Tig-Tig preparing for upcoming Tet events

The meat eater claiming supremacy

I call this one:

What not to do if you are an aspirator

and want to live til your 2'nd birthday

The bubble were cute-the aftermath ugly 

(though no 911 calls were made in the making of this post)

Here is a soapy bit of "new molar" loveliness 

Can he please have a tooth that grows in in less than a month? 

Pretty please?

And now, almost, the weekend.

May it be relatively fluid free in all the ways that count?

Please...

Like any other weekend...almost

Saturday rocked...check out the playroom over at The Road to Vietnam! 

Slides and riding toys and space!  Oh My!

And upstairs?  Trains and tractors!

Good time, special friends, yummy asian food, missed naps, etc...
A few ah-ha moments that I missed in retrospect.

Sunday started 13 1/2 hours after Saturday ended which should have clued me in.
Snot and vomit and nasty diapers and practically no eating.
To the curious observer 95 % of the time BenManh looked pretty good...though a bit crusty.

5%?  Not so great.  Just take my word for it.
And he wasn't eating.  He ALWAYS eats.

12 more hours of sleep (sort of-not so consistently sleeping like Saturday night) brought us to today.  Monday.  A day where I should have been at work.
Ben at the Babysitters
She doesn't make enough money to endure the fluids coming from the wee guy's body. 
Diapers that I don't ever want to revisit.  Yikes.

To the Curious observer he had another 95% normal day.
The other 5% was nastier than yesterday.
Dude ate only a handful of cheerios, less than 1/2 a cup of rice and perhaps 5 part bottles.
And I pushed the water (which in our no liquids world means 2-4 ounces or so over the day).
Which has resulted in coughing and gasping that can only be explained by aspiration.

While all of this loveliness is happening he is being Ben...
Reading...upside-down you say?

No, he is teaching his Bear some early vocabulary Speech Language style,
really, bear has to be able to see his wee mouth if there is any hope of hearing wee bear echo Ben's words.

Looking high and low for the perfect book.

And staring glassy-eyed at Seseme Street.
Elmo is most certainly our friend but the violence of Cookie Monsters eating habits is what we wait for...

What will tomorrow bring?
If it is like today it will certainly bring a Dr's appointment.