"gardeners working"

we talked to him the night before about the gardeners coming in the morning. we told him it might be noisy and you might hear people walking by your window, but don't be scared. if it wakes you up, try to go back to sleep or wait for us to come get you. they didn't come as early as they said they would, but nj was good and didn't get scared or cry. it was like any other morning. he was fascinated with what was going on as he is with the pool man. he even said to dotty, "come here, dotty! come see gardeners!" he sometimes calls gardeners neighbors instead. I think because usually when we see or hear someone moving through our fence we tell him it's the neighbor. a lot of times it's the neighbor's gardener. I wish I had taken some before pictures for the before and after. life got in the way and everything got overgrown! now I'll feel better about walking the neighborhood... some of our weeds were as tall as me!

"dotty eat this, right here!"

he got crumbs all over while eating his snack. so when he got up, they fell on the floor. I tried to get dotty to eat them by pointing out where they were. nj joined in, he even picked up the last crumb to feed it to her. how nice!

birthday party!

lots of yummy food! he had a beef taco (plus some of my chicken), cucumbers, watermelon (two slices), strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and a bit of cake and ice cream. wow!

lounging with the ladies...

pinata candy! I was a little surprised he wanted to get in there with all the kids. it's great that he wasn't shy. it took some convincing, though to get that bag of candy from him. I was proud of him not to eat other candy that kids had left on the table. and he picked up open candy pieces to put in the trash. he also helped uncle stuff the pinata with candy.

what a mess...

his toys and books were everywhere today! at least nj is pretty good about putting his toys away.

this morning baba came in our room holding nj. he said, "tell mama what you just told me." uh-oh, what could it be? nj says, "want to see mama." awww, how sweet!

"mama, that's mine!"

excuse me? did I hear him correctly? where did he learn that?! and it's no surprise he was talking about food.

"want to dip!"

"mama, thumbs up!"

that good, huh? looks more like one thumb up and some kind of sign.

what's two cars plus two cars?

grandma asks nj... he says, "four cars." good job! we asked him if he wanted to be an accountant like gong-gong (grandpa). he liked showing baba the folder full of car cut outs that grandma made for him. on each page, he likes to name all the different cars.

baba says he practices every morning in the mirror in his undies. if only he'd stay still long enough for better photos.

missed you today...

poor guy was already quite tired, but I had to take a quick pic with him!

nj approved*

Tomorrow's another clinic day. Although I dread waking up at 4:30 am to drive to wait and wait some more... I do enjoy the chance to see the friends we've made waiting for clinic, the coordinators, the doctors, and the nurses we've gotten to know. And as much as I don't enjoy being in the hospital, everyone there makes it a more pleasant experience. Everyone at UCLA has been so incredibly nice, sweet, caring, and wonderful. *So thank you, I miss the day to day interaction and getting to know all of you. I wish I could write something more personable for everyone, but this will have to do for now! It takes a special kind of person to do what you do. Our little nj is happy to have his mama back! I don't pretend to think that everyone's all that interested in our lives. That's what this blog is for... You can follow it or not. I like it better than putting stuff on fb. Not everyone needs to know everything about our lives and I like it that way!

lunch with ah-gong

grandpa came over with some thai food. he said i look great. i would hope so, since the last time he saw me was straight out of surgery. he's been at his travels again and just got back. we love to hear his stories of where he's been, what he sees and does. i've hardly done any traveling in my life, a lot of it's been spent sick. sometimes i get a little jealous, but really it makes me happy to hear about other people enjoying their lives. :) well, grandpa was impressed by how much nj was talking and how well he ate. nj said to him (about lunch), "it's good. thank you, ah-gong." and "come again" in taiwanese. thanks, dad for visiting with lunch and staying to spend some time with us.

"want air, it's hot!"

hmmm... sounds like another certain someone. nj says this as baba buckles him into his car seat. we took a little trip out for errands.

i handed him the receipt and he says, "give it to the man." exactly!

when we got there, he said to me, "auntie becca go home" with a bit of a sad face. he's still thinking of the day that we spent with becca.

"want to draw for gaby"

he giggled every time he uncapped a marker. it was hard for me to watch him try to keep his drawing to that small card. it was hard for me to even let him use a marker. but he kept it on the paper, barely!

"want apple."

he brought these in from the front door. it surprised me since it's big and heavy, i can't even carry it right now. but he's one strong boy, i guess he's always picking up stuff that surprises me. he's been called, solid, thick, and just plain heavy. the common reaction to picking him up (or trying to pick him up) is, "woaw". even from mothers of kids his age or older. funny. i can't remember the last time i lifted him. just having my foot stepped on by him is painful!

"it's a very big one!" i hear this from the kitchen and laugh. great, just what i wanted to know! he's starting to say to us, "don't want wash hands." and we tell him, you have to wash your hands! every time. if you don't it's yucky. he's not convinced, but complies.

some floor time

thank you for visiting, nj loves to see his auntie and favorite baby (so does dotty)!

"want cookie from ah-ma."

from the moment he saw the jar of cookies, he wanted them. and he's been asking for them since (since saturday). finally, he gets the satisfaction of eating one! he even said, "it's good." and asked for another one. i shared one of my peanut butter crackers with him too. when he's eating the same thing as me, i do this thing with him that makes him giggle... we both hold it up and say what it is. it's silly, but he likes to copy however i say it. like with bagels, crackers, or pretzels. i try to say it in a fun or silly way.

"don't want this one."

he says this as he places three of his cars on the seat next to me. but he plays with them anyway. we gave him a couple of empty boxes to play with. lately he's been dumping his cars back and forth from shopping cart to bin to basket to cup to whatever he can hold his cars in. when he's filled something up, he comes up and proudly shows us what he's done. the extra boxes seem to make him happy, gave him more to do. dot dot was also interested in the boxes, but probably because it still smelled like food.

he's always been bossy, but now that he can express himself clearly it's gotten worse. it's really funny yet annoying at the same time. typical things he says:

"don't want mama do it, want baba do it."

"want juice in basketball cup."

"don't want this fork, want blue fork."

"want spiderman." (it's an ironman bowl)

"don't want this." (takes food he doesn't want off his plate and puts it on his tray. or sometimes when he's done playing with a toy)

"baba stand here eat peach yogurt!"

hmm... i just realized that it's almost all food related.

hold my hand...

he got to see one of his favorite girls today! he really wanted to hold her hand and she kept trying to pick him up (literally). auntie marnie (helping in the toddler room) said that he designated himself as the trash monitor. he went around and picked up trash and cleaned up. at this age i wouldn't be surprised if it's his dream to become a garbage man or a construction worker that drives an excavator or backhoe loader. my how things change as we age!

what are you doing?

"ummm... uhhhhh..." he does this a lot of times when he's excited or thinking too fast to get the words out. he points to his knee and says, "hurts." huh? he says, "gabby hurt herself, jeremy get red train." ok, gabby hurt herself while jeremy was getting the red train? he's only been in a class with them one time and he's still talking about it? i asked him what he did in the toddler room and he said, "eat crackers, cheese, yogurt, and more yogurt." oh really? only with this guy would the highlight of sunday school involve food!

"baba, want to go sleep."

having lunch with two families from hope, like old times. i love being able to do the simple things we used to do. it's a sign that life is actually returning to normal. the dads sat together, the moms sat together, as did the girls and the boys. except for nj who was thoroughly enjoying his food and sitting with baba and his uncles. thanks uncle steve for the chips! when lunch was done and we all just sat around chatting, nj said to baba, "baba, want to go sleep." wow, he actually felt tired and wanted to sleep! he knocked out on the way home.