Wombat. Wombat, Wombat, Wombat!!!

Glory Hallelujah! I would cry about this except I am at work and that's just so inappropriate.

Today I had confirmed for me that the order for Connor's Wombat Tilt-in-Space chair was placed 4/13/10, approved by insurance.

Connor has been waiting for this chair since April 2008. Connor shouldn't have to wait for things. Drew can wait for more Thomas toys. Tucker can wait for Mommy to pick him up until her hands are empty. Connor cannot wait. Every moment of every day is a little different for him than it is his brothers, and to be near the end of this long, stupidly delayed process fills me with little bubbles of joy. It's like my blood is suddenly carbonated!

I've never been more pleased to hear the word wombat in my life. And I love funny words.

This is the end....this is the e-e-e-e-end...of the infancy

If you are now hearing a set of chords from the 80s played by Bruce Hornsby, then you are right on the money - totally took over that great song he wrote for Don Henley there in the title. It's appropriate today, because today Tucker is one, and there will be no more infants in my household to whom I personally gave birth.

Tucker's first year has been a really hectic and special one for us. He arrived a little early, 2 days prior to expectation/schedule. When he was delivered, and Dr. Elliot showed him to me over the sterile drape, I gasped and said, "Oh, he looks just like Drew!" Which is hilarious if you take into account that I look practically identical to one of my sisters, and yet it never occurred to me until I saw Tucker in person for the first time that the same "phenomenon of genetics" could happen with my offspring. I know - it's like tunnel vision except with the brain. Tunnel brain.

The day we left the hospital with him, I insisted that Lee stop at our partially renovated house - I wanted Tucker to be home first, even if we would only be there a few minutes before heading over to the rental house and his very excited brothers and grandparents who were waiting there for us.

Tucker has been an easy and genial child. He never seemed to have much trouble with sleeping - it was only 2 months when I started getting 9 hour stretches at night. He cries when he's hurt or extremely, extremely tired. He laughs almost constantly, and you can turn his tears into laughter with minimal effort. It usually takes Drew only one "Peekaboo!" to bring Tucker back to his sunny disposition. He started crawling before he was 8 months old, and walking in his 11th month. His first tooth broke in his 7th month, and now he has 6! He has said "dada", "mama", "megan", "hi", "uh oh", "blah, blah, blah" and "gerry" though not always on purpose.

He has started to discover Connor, and it will be interesting to see how he absorbs the difference of Connor into himself, and to see how it is similar to Drew and how it is different.

He seems to think that Drew is the best thing ever. I wish Drew felt the same way all the time instead of taking toys away from him.

I cannot wait to see what the rest of the years will bring. I am so grateful and happy that he has had such an amazing first year. No doctor visits other than well-baby checkups. No major falls, like off the stairs or a bed.

But...I miss my baby already.

The Return of Joefish

So when I was young, and my brother was younger, there was a small contingency of people (his friends) who couldn't pronounce his name right and called him "Joefish" for a while instead of Joseph. He eventually shortened to Joe, which then got accidentally re-lengthened to Joemybrother, but that's another story and not one for a blog with updates about my boys.

Last night, I was giving Drew and Tucker a bath - now every time there is a bath to be had it's together. They both truly seem to enjoy sharing the "boyo tub" as Drew calls it. Tucker loves the bath. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES it. It's so entertaining to watch him enjoy himself so thoroughly. So on this particular night, Tucker managed to wiggle-scootch past Drew and ended up down by the spigot. He kept looking at the drain pull cover, which is reflective and just about head-height for him when he's sitting in the tub. Finally, he started to try to bite or suck on the plate cover. Each time he leaned in, I said, "Tucker, no," and he would look at me over his shoulder and stop. I must have said it more than five times. Suddenly Drew chimed in, "Tucker Joefish, stop! Don't do that!"

I had to sit back on my heels and stifle combined laughter. Tucker's middle name is not Joefish, or even Joseph. It's Smith. Drew's middle name is Joseph, but as far as he's concerned, it's the word that gets used when he's in trouble. Hence his lecturing tone and admonishing attitude towards poor little Tucker! I am not sure why he mispronounced it. He does hear "Andrew Joseph" with fair frequency.

Anyway, it was great, and I laughed a lot about it today. Lee didn't get it at all. But he never had a Joefish, or a Joemybrother, either.

Tucker walks, baby

T is almost 1 - one week away! I can't believe how fast he went from 8 pound nugget curled up in my arm to the big, robust and happy toddler he is on the edge of becoming! He is so very cheerful. Now that he walks some, Drew can just taste that tag is right around the corner. He is a great big brother. This morning, he told Tucker, "No, that's not nice. You should say sorry. Say you're sorry, Tucker." but it was teaching and not mean or yelling! I laughed and said, "Honey, Tucker can't say sorry yet! He can't even say Mama!"

That said, he does say a few things: frequently Dada, just recently he started repeating Blah blah blah and yesterday he said Megan to Miss Megan when she was leaving after her appointment with Connor.

Speaking of the C-Man, he's had a rough week. He wasn't feeling so hot a week ago, and has struggled at school this week to get his feet back under him. The good news, no, the GREAT NEWS, is that yesterday we got a letter stating that the new chair we've been trying for TWO YEARS to get for him through insurance has been approved! Finally! And he's only a foot taller! Giggle. We'll remeasure him and get the correct size made for him. We were so surprised to get a "yes" letter after so many no's, we had to read it several times.

That's all from this end. We have this fancy new camera I don't know how to use, so I'll have to cool it on the pics a little bit. I'll try and get some good recents up soon.

Two firsts...

It was a pouring rainy first day of daylight savings time. Drew decided today would be the best day to not nap, destroy my willpower, AND shove something up his nose for the first time. It happened at snacktime, when I made some popcorn for us. He found an unpopped kernel in his bowl, which of course I should have pulled out but apparently I failed to. All innocently, he asked, "Mommy, what is this?" and I told him what it was and that he wasn't to put it in his mouth and to give it to me. To his credit, he did not put it in his mouth. However, he immediately placed it ever so delicately into hsi left nostril, and then waited to see how I would handle it. I calmly pushed it out of his nose, threw is in the trash, and told him that if he ever, ever, ever shoved anything up his nose again I was taking away his toys. Calm heads did not prevail there.

Then, as I tucked him in, he said, "Mommy, I'm scared." I asked him what was scaring him, and he pointed to the closet. He informed me that there was a monster in there. I checked, showed him, and swore I would never let a monster in there. No threats this time. Apparently the beer I drank at dinner had diminished my propensity for flagrant threats which I would likely never keep.

Things Tucker will smear on himself - Sunday edition

Tucker is still fantastically awesome. Today has been an especially, um, tactile day, and here's a brief list of the stuff he's covered himself in so far...

1. banana
2. syrup
3. baby cereal/peaches
4. syrup again
5. french toast
6. baby spaghetti

It's all over his face, in his hair, etc. Incredibly adorable, but also sticky as the dickens. Good thing he loves the bath - I see one in his near future...

Music and my boys

This evening was a lot of fun. There have been all kinds if crazy predictions of the looming snowstorm (will it actually be historic??) and we were in a bit of a pre-snow tizzy while getting dinner together. So we sat down to porky pasta and ate together. Connor fell asleep at the table very nicely. Tucker sat in his chair at the other end and ate some baby food (turkey and sweet potatoes, I think) and Drew inhaled the pasta as fast as he could. Lord, that child loves spaghetti.

After dinner, Lee pulled out the guitar, and we sang "I'm Yours" together. Drew danced and sang the "yourssssss-ah" parts - his favorites. Tucker looked at the guitar in abject wonder. Connor continued to sleep.

Lee moved on to "Wanted (Dead or Alive)", and I noticed as we started singing the song that Connor started smiling in his sleep, and smiled for the whole first verse and chorus. Connor has a lifeling history with that song. When I was expecting him, I was also practicing for the band's anniversary, and we had decided to pull that song out and sing it. Fast forward a few months, and I discovered that the best song to soothe my cranky newborn Connor was "Wanted (Dead or Alive") which was simultaneously awesome and so very sad. I'm sure he doesn't know why that song makes him smile, but it sure made me glad to know that it's still something that brings him joy.

After bathtime, Drew serenaded me with some Swedish Chef music (bork bork bork!) and then Puff the Magic Dragon. Nothing in this world makes me happier than hearing him sing a song and be so proud of himself. I guess if I was an author I would be excited when he wrote something, or an artist, when he drew a discernable object. But I'm a singer, so to hear him sing proves to me that I have managed to pass something along that he can share with anyone and everyone he chooses. I hope they find it as wonderful as I do.

Now, if only he inherited my projection abilities...