5 Weeks and COUNTING!

Only FIVE more weeks until baby Kuba arrives!  Yippee!  

We have been calling him baby Kuba for months now.  It's a nickname for the name Jakob.

Anders name is very Swedish, and his second name is Anna's dads: Anders Bjorn.  The next baby will have my dad's name as a second name, so we wanted a Polish boys name to go with that.  The nurse at Anna's doctor's office is from Poland.  We asked her about good boy's names and she said there were not that many that translated well.  Except of course, for Jakob.  That name is very popular in Poland, and she especially loved the nickname, Kuba.  (The pronunciation for the name Jakob in Poland is YaKUB, hence the nickname Kuba) We've been calling the baby Kuba, and you know, it just might stick.  But then again, with us, you never know.  

Writing it Down

Anders sometimes says the best things.  I feel like if I forget to write them down I will lose these in a few years and he'll never have any stories to listen to when he's older about the funny, brilliant, or plain old silly things he has said as a toddler.  

A recent quote:   "Mama, no drainage here?" 

He said this to Anna as they were hiking down to the swimming hole at Bristol Falls.  I had taken him there just once before summer, but honestly, I don't think I used the word drainage.  This time he was going down and looking at a rocky cliff above them and piped up with this little doozy.  

Another funny one was recently when Mor Far was visiting.  We were sitting at the dinner table and Anders was directly across from Mor Far.  He looked up at Mor Far's forehead and said in an absolutely curious an excited tone - "Why you have those lines for?"  He was referring to the wrinkles on Mor Far's forehead.  They span left to right and there are lots, but who really sees these things?  

Little kids do.  

And then this morning when he woke up too early calling for me,  I went in and told him I was up and was about to take a shower and then I would come and check on him.  His sleepy response was "you dirty?"

Yep, I sure am.  

Pre-School Jitters

It's me.  

I've got a case of nerves worse than Anders does.  

He started pre-school 2 weeks ago and had three half days of school.  All went well...other than I wanted tons of feedback from his teachers and didn't quite get that.  This week he had 3 full days.  It seemed like it was going alright except for the morning drop offs were getting harder for him and he was a bit clingy on the second full day.  The third full day he cried saying, "Don't leave Mama!" over and over.  Anna said it was heart wrenching.  That night he was crying in his sleep dreaming and saying "Don't leave Mama" over and over just like he did at school.  Heart breaking to know that he is processing this separation anxiety as he sleeps.  So, I am just not sure what I think about it all yet.  I want him to love it, I want his teachers to love him, and I feel anxious myself that maybe this place is a bit too big for him, too overwhelming.  Everybody says - give it time.  Everybody says - this is normal.  I'm not so sure.  

He's the youngest one in his class of mixed ages, most are 3 and older, and even that makes me anxious.  So, I'm giving it time.  If it still feels like he's unsettled and unsure in 2 weeks, I'll figure out what to do next. 

Drinkin' From the Tap

We are in the middle of putting in a new bathroom sink and cabinet.  Anders has already figured out that if you pull yourself up you can actually drink right from the tap.  Our 187-pound great dane used to do the same thing...but he kept his feet on the ground. 

Back Yard Beauties

 

Each year we get a few photographs of our back yard in bloom.  Here is our apple tree with ripe red apples. This was the first year we really got any apples from the tree, and some were quite nice!  Most of them have lots of bug holes and rust.  Considering that our garden was small and ridiculously weedy this year, we still managed to grow green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, basil, raspberries, strawberries and one single beet.  Next year we have a better plan for the garden and our backyard.  But we'll see.  We will also have an 8 month old and a 3 year old to manage at the same time, and they'll be growing right along with the weeds, but are a little bit more important!  

Cha Cha Cha Changes

 Oh so many changes these days!  First and foremost, we have about 2 months left until the second baby arrives!  Anna's due date is coming right up.  It's amazing how quickly this pregnancy went by (it seems like a blink of an eye) compared with Anders gestation, which felt as slow as molasses.  Baby number two certainly doesn't get the same pre-birth perseveration.  

Anders is clearly aware of the new baby and as time gets closer we will prepare him even more.

Next on the list of changes, Anders has begun to use the potty!  this is a major milestone!  He decided on Sunday all on his own, that he had to pee in the toilet and has been doing really well ever since.  We bought cute flashy car stickers and also some zoo animals as rewards.  So far, so good!  

Sleeping has been another major hurdle, and we seem to have landed safely on the other side.  He loves his new bed, bedroom set up, and his bedtime routine.  All in all, I'd say our boy is growing up.  

Finally, there is pre-school.  YIKES!  As excited as I am about him beginning, I also feel pretty anxious.  What if it's too much for him?  What if he's too young?  What if they won't appreciate him the way I need them to?  This one will play out over time.  There is open house tomorrow and we'll take it one day at a time.  We will make it a slow transition and ease him into it lightly. But at the same time, I am n e r v o u s.  

Family Vacations II

 

One week after our big family vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine, the three of us headed to Cape Cod.  Round 2 of summer bliss!  The beaches were the absolute best part, besides our early morning routine of a freshly baked, warm, flakey croissant from right in the center of Provincetown, and our early evening routine of 2 scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone.  Coffee almond fudge was the flavor favorite, but Death by Chocolate came in a close second.  Anders doesn't like ice cream and only eats an empty cone, so it was just Anna and I who enjoyed the ice cream.  We deserved it though, because we were camping in mosquito hell. Who knew our site would be next to a swampy pond?  We were lulled to sleep by a chorus of bull frogs and awoke at the crack of dawn to the most amazing bird song.  Then we high tailed it right out of there to avoid the stinging bugs!  Anders had fourteen bug bites on his forehead alone!  You see, the early morning croissants were a very just reward (as was the ice cream) for our hardships at the campground.  I snapped this photo of the rocks on the beach and I happened to notice three heart rocks...can you spot them?