Blissful Love

Alright here it goes again… it’s officially my third attempt to blog. Somehow I find it extremely hard to find time to write a post, since I feel I could be doing something more productive with my time. However, sometimes it’s hard to shut your creative self up, so it tries to squeeze out and make some time for writing, painting, photography, dance, and other creative outlets so much craved by my inner self and so often neglected. For the last couple of months I was contemplating writing a blog, not for my sake or for the sake of my friends and family that are far and near (primarily far), but for the sake of my son. There are some things sometimes that come up that I would like to teach him about and talk to him about but alas he is too small. I still try to install all the values and ideas I think are important to become a decent human being, and what I here in return is “No, no.. ddd go?” I know, it’s so adorable and the time will come when he will say that he knows best and will do all the stupid mistakes I have done in my time and maybe then, he’ll somehow finds my posts, reads them and thinks: “My mom actually is a pretty smart cookie.” At least it will be my incentive to force myself to put it out there: my thoughts, ideas, memories, reflections. And maybe some of you that I barely know or haven’t seen in a million years will feel that you  know me a bit better and maybe my silly, sad, or happy stories or thoughts will make you feel better, will make you reexamine your life, make you thankful for what you have and what you don’t.

Alright my first chapter is on LOVE, yes, I know…but it had to be since tomorrow is your parents’ wedding anniversary. Yes, two years tomorrow as your mom and dad made your little family official. Not that it wasn’t before but, you know, honey, in this world, I’m sure you will learn it soon, paperwork is very important, especially to all the people around you and less so to you. Time is a strange concept. It feels as though two years was a million years ago but still seems that I met your father just yesterday. I remember two years ago at this time exactly your dad was passed out in the back seat of the car since a day before he passed a very important Chinese exam and hasn’t had a wink of sleep. Your mom though was driving 8 hours straight with auntie Tanya by her side listening to Hirai Ken “One more Chance”. It was a long drive from Eugene, OR to San Fran, CA, but it was so worth it. You see, we thought that it would be a great new start for us to make our marriage official in the Bay Area, since both of us wanted a change of scenery so to speak. We both wanted a new beginning, a new place, a new life. It might be hard for you to comprehend that, since you cannot imagine your parents being apart, but before your mom and dad met they had been married to different people. It was a difficult experience for both of them and you probably will find out about it in due time. You see, before I met and married your father, I thought that marriage is supposed to be difficult. You know, you have to give up something, to get something in return. Very often you will hear that marriage is hard work, you have to make sacrifices for the person that you love and so on. Call me selfish or lucky, but my marriage with your father is a complete opposite. He redefined the word marriage and relationship for me. It is simply bliss. Yes, it takes no effort what so ever. I think it is partially that we are very similar in so many ways and our relationship flows organically and smoothly. There is no words to describe how extremely blessed we are to find that incredible connection with each other. You know, I probably said that a million times by now, but I knew that your dad and I will be together from the first time we met. His charming smile, bright blue eyes, and continuous silly jokes won me over in a few minutes as you might imagine. And from that moment forth it became clearer and clearer to me how deeply I truly love your dad. I remember the time when we brought you back from the hospital he was holding you so gently and sang you a lullaby in the most soothing of voices, the tears involuntarily left my eyes. I could have never thought what an incredible father he would be to you. The bond that your dad and I have is rare but it does exist. It is more than love, it is closeness that you couldn’t have imagined before you experience it, it’s a feeling of belonging and security, and it’s a never questioned trust, and never-ending understanding and forgiveness. It is a family. I’m so incredibly thankful for your dad being such an incredible husband to me and deciding on making our little family “official” on this day two years ago. I still can’t believe it’s been two years. I so hope and pray that you will someday find something similar to what your parents have. It’s bliss!

Love you forever and always,

Mom           

... And we are back...

… And we are back! I’m sorry, family and friends that it took me so long to go back to blogging after the holidays. As soon as New Year came about our family life was overwhelmed by so many events. Nick’s search for a job went into a full swing. I didn’t want to lose time either, so I was filling out a bunch of scholarship applications (just in case we stay in Oregon). Recently, we found out that Nick got a job in LA, however, we are waiting on one more job interview in Santa Clara near San Fran… so we’ll see how it goes… but we will be moving to CA within the next month. It is both extremely exciting and nerve racking. :)

 At the same time, Oscar has been growing like a weed. He is a tall baby, about the size of an average one year old but quite thin. He just turned 7 months, and celebrated it by getting pretty much most of his front teeth. It translates into a needy baby and no sleep for mommy or daddy for a couple of nights. Sleep is still an issue in our house; we’re all cursing the Augustinian gene. Well, I sleep like a log, and Nicholas unfortunately is a very light sleeper. So, needless to say, Oscar is taking after his daddy… we both hope that our next child will be more like mommy. :)  Oscar’s personality becomes more obvious each day. He is most definitely an observer and thinker. He always looks at and examines a new toy or an object for a while before it goes into his mouth. He doesn’t crawl yet, but makes attempts and I see that he is getting there, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes after mommy and goes straight to walking. Oscar is in love with animals. He can be talking and cheerfully screaming at our cats or dog for hours. McMuffin reciprocates his love in form of licks on the head, ears, and sometimes hands, especially after dinner. Oh, yes, we stared on solids at 5 months. I wanted to start at 6 but Oscar was literary grabbing food out of my mouth basically giving me every sign that he was ready. We started with banana, of course. 

He makes the most incredible faces with each bite regardless of liking it or not or trying it for the first or second times. I know he loves carrots, chicken and sweet potatoes, and ikura. That’s right yesterday he tried one bite of ikura (salmon eggs) and loved it. Alright, how can you go wrong with salmon eggs when I was eating it for breakfast with a table spoon when I was a kid, and Nicholas being born and raised in Japan had a good share of it as well. Our child was destined to love ikura. :) Over the couple of months we also had an extraordinary week when both father and son ended up in ER within 24 hours. Everything started with Oscar getting his routine 6 month shots to which apparently he reacted with a very high fever of 104F. So we ended up in ER but the doctors at Sacred Heart just would not listen to me and probed him for anything and everything. Probing included: poking with a needle 7 times with attempt to put IV, then gave up and just drew blood, x-ray, nose swabs, ECG, catheter. It was painful and unbearable to watch.  And remind you everything happened within 4 hours, from 10pm till 2am, it was his bed time and he wasn’t getting any sleep which made him even more cranky and sick. Meanwhile, my dear husband was suffering from a horrible stomachache while we were in ER with Oscar. As soon as we were released with inconclusive diagnosis from the hospital, Nick moaning drove back to the ER but to a Riverbend hospital. Turned out he had an acute appendicitis. So, Oscar who was still running fevers, and I ran to the hospital to see our daddy off to the operation. After a few hours, the appendix was out; daddy got some sleep and was as good as new or even better. Meanwhile Oscar and I had to go back to the hospital for his checkup where he was probed more and still was running fever. After a few days fever subsided and our little one was back to his own happy self. And over those horrible 24 hours I couldn’t sleep, because was monitoring Oscar’s fever, or eat, just didn’t have time. It was a crazy week for us, but we are doing so much better now. After that we took a trip to California, for Oscar and I to visit one set of his grandparents and for Nicholas to have a bunch of interviews which were very successful.  It was a wonderful trip but it’s nice to be back and start packing. It will be very busy couple of months but I’ll try to keep up with the postings even if they are just a few words. Have a wonderful beginning of spring! :)          

Baby’s Connections

When you think back, way back, what are the first memories of your friends? The first memory that comes to my mind is of my fist kindergarten friends.  Giggly twin girls Masha and Dasha that looked more alike than drops of water. Most of the teachers couldn’t recognize which one was Masha and which one was Dasha. I remember that the only difference was that Dasha had a cute little mole on the side of her cheek… or was it Masha… Then I also remember a skinny tall red headed boy whose name of Yura, but everybody called him a “Match” because he was incredibly skinny with a fiery hair.

So, since Oscar is growing up and becomes acutely aware of the people around him I wanted him to know that he is not the only baby on earth and that there is more of his kind than he thinks. I remembered that several times after pregnancy I was contacted by Birth to Three (Parenting Now!) organization and invited to visit Baby’s Connections. However, at that time we were too busy adjusting to the routine and going out with a newborn just to socialize seemed like an ordeal. Now, it’s a different story, Oscar is so much more manageable in terms of going out. If he is not tired, he will be looking around in fascination and be quiet not knowing how to take what is going on. In short, I decided to go to one of the Baby’s Connections meetings to see how he will react to others. Our first trip was a success, although, he was a bit tired, he was taken by other babies. I could see it in his face that he didn’t expect to meet anyone that behaved and looked similar to him. We were hanging out with 7-9 month old crowd since Oscar is deceivingly big for his age and already attempts to walk around (with your support of course). After that trip it was decided that we will come again. Our next visit Oscar found a friend, and it had to be a girl, a precious tiny 6month old cutie with big blue sparkling eyes and curly long eyelashes. It was so adorable to see how they seemed to make their way towards each other in a crowded room.  They were both salivating like crazy chewing on their hands, as soon as they reached each other they stretch their hands towards each other mouths although saying: “Here you go, you can munch on my hand while I chew on yours.” They started cooing and smiling having a great conversation. It was a shame that his little friend had to go home soon after, so we left as well. In our next visit Oscar acquainted with another little cutie pie and had a blast playing around. For anyone who has little ones and are in Eugene, I think it’s a great idea to come to Parenting Now for Baby’s Connections. Your little one will have a great time socializing with other babies and you will have fun finding out tons of useful information from other mothers.         

Teething and other fun stuff

Today we hit exciting four month mark. Oscar is a big and strong boy, growing faster than I could ever imagine. He is always on the move or so he wishes he could be. He is trying to roll, crawl, walk and jump… yes, all at the same time. I see we have trouble on our hands and need to make sure that our house is baby proof as soon as possible.  Oscar is more aware of the surroundings and other people around him which makes going out more fun for all three of us. And if a “stranger” holds him for a second, the whole world will be crushing down and it will never be the same. So, Tanya, you need to come visit us more often!!! Oscar is mesmerized by our furry friends and I have a feeling he can’t wait to get his little hands on them as soon as he can scoot himself fast enough. What I’m noticing more and more each day is that Oscar, not to my surprise, is a very talkative guy. Squeals of joy and throat gargling is his way to communicate now, and every day he invents and tries out new ear piercing sounds that my husband only can handle wearing both earplugs and headphones at the same time.    

Teething… we finally arrived to the dreaded teething period as well. Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING goes in the mouth: hands, all the toys around, blankets, our fingers and NOTHING is quite satisfying. What’s worse is when you thought that your night routine was set, you and your little one finally started getting some sleep then the horrible teething would ruin that for you. As soon as Oscar turned three months his sleep during the day became pretty much non-existent while at night it would be constant rocking and singing. But as I mentioned before we don’t have a little guy on our hands, so my arms were sore from trying to continuously rock him to sleep, since he grew out of his swing already. And as soon as you think he is asleep his eyes will pop back open, and you’ll have to start all over again. So, desperate mama got a “promote healthy sleep book”, read it with a speed of the lightning, and some advice was very valid but in general our sleep problems continued. However, still desperate mama found an amazing cure that gave us both peace and healthy happy sleep back. The miraculous solution that I found was Camilia drops that soothed his pain within minutes and let him have a good sleep. I know that we still might be boxes of Camilia away from our first tooth. But, oh, how happy we all will be when that first tooth arrives!

 

Three month discoveries

We are three months today! Oscar keeps surprising us every day with new tricks he learns and how fast he grows.This month was full of discoveries more than ever, and I have to admit that I love seeing his progress. From a screaming sleepy always hungry newborn Oscar turned into hand chewing, bubble blowing and constantly drooling, giggling and cooing baby. He is more alert and curious about the surroundings. If he is awake he refuses to lay down and insists on standing up. Although he wobbles like a Humpty-Dumpty, I can feel that he is getting stronger each day. And no, for everyone concerned, it will not make him bow-legged. He loves talking and watching others communicate with him. His cries now have meaning and differ according to his complaint. Yes, the toes are discovered as well! His face was full of surprise and disbelief when he grabbed his big toe with his fingers in a bathtub. It was like "Wow, look at that cool thing! Mom, did you see that?" 

Oscar is holding his neck up with no problem and doesn't mind his tummy time unless he is very tired. He is still working on turning from tummy to his back. He can lift the legs and the side of his body but doesn't seem to want to actually make a turn. However, he can turn to the side from his back, which spells danger to me, ah, our child is growing up too fast. He absolutely loves the show Voice, and don't judge me! :) The flashing lights and music make him drop every toy in the world and just stare at the magic screen in amazement! Still cannot handle but a few minutes in the wrap but I'm not the one to back down on that, just keep putting him in even for just a minute a day.

Oh, grabbing! That's right, grabbing everything that crosses his sight: toys, blankets, and hair, my lucky husband doesn't have to experience that one. :) According to our Dr visit last week, Oscar is still in high 90%for weight and height... of course, I already knew that, since we started wearing some of the 6-12month clothes now. That's right he is only 3 months today, our sweet little big boy!