CANADA bound!!!

We're BOOKED!!! August 17th to September 7th. Already, I'm dreading the long journey there on my own with the two, but just looking at the photos from our last couple trips reminds me how well worth the horribleness of 15+ hours of airplanes and airports our trip will be. Not to mention the occasion to meet Baby Rocky(ette) and am so praying the baby is not more than a week late! (will insist on running 10Ks with Susie if she surpasses her due date of August 30th) When I told Andrew this morning that we will be going to Canada, the first thing he asked was "Will Grandma have macaroni and cheese and jujubes?"!!! And the next question was "Will I get snacks and new toys on the plane?" And then, "Are we going today?"

Cars, cars, and more cars

I'm immensely enjoying watching little guy's budding personality evolve. His favourite toys are, without question, those with wheels. He empties the toy boxes daily, both Andrew's and his, and the first things he plays with (and puts in his mouth of course) are the cars, the tractors, the ambulance, the police car, etc. He crawls around the entire apartment now, all the while driving along his car of choice. Adorable! The funny thing is, to this day, Andrew has a very minimal interest in cars, and unlike some of his friends who have watched the infamous Cars movie countless times, Andrew continues to shut off the tv within 10 minutes of putting on that movie.

World Cup Fever

One of Robert's biggest passions is soccer, otherwise known as "le foot" here in France. I never actually gave a hoot about the sport until introduced to it by Robert in the 2006 World Cup, in which I became almost as obsessed as him in watching those final matches. I vividly remember those games, sitting on the couch in our house in Riverwalk for hours on end, 3 months pregnant with Andrew. It was so much fun. Now that the World Cup is here once again, we are very much into the games, albeit this time round, we have a lot more "noise" going on in the background, and many distractions, including changing diapers, feeding hungry little boys and putting them to bed. There was a big controversy about some actions by a French player, who ended up being booted from the team, but we had to go on the internet to read about it, as Andrew decided to play "you make a better door than window game" while it was being covered on the tv! I am fully supportive of Robert's passion for the World Cup, the good thing about soccer is that it's not on all day long every single Sunday like NFL, and aside from the World Cup which is only every 4 years, the only other soccer he really cares about is the Premier League, and we don't seem to get all that many of those games on our satellite. It actually amazes me to observe how big the game of soccer is, world-wide, and the size of some of those stadiums just blows my mind away.

I like the fact that I was raised in a very sports-oriented household, though to this day, I am quite certain of my father's disappointment with having no boys for whom he could coach American football, baseball or hockey. Regardless of the sport, I cannot help but get seriously into the big games, whether it be the Stanley Cup, the Wimbledon, the Masters, the World Series or the NBA Finals, but usually moreso when it is a "home team or favourite" in the running. Unfortunately we don't get much coverage of the typical American sports here in France, but perhaps that is a good thing, because the actual time we have to watch tv nowadays is seriously limited. And I must admit, I'm already pretty tired from staying up too late watching games already and the tournament is far from over. Growing up, gymnastics ended up being our family's main sport, and even my dad became quite interested in that sport and it seems we spent half our life in the gym, between the three of us girls, and then moved on to coaching gymnastics in our later years. I'm still a little hopeful there may be a third, and female addition to the fam, one that could be enrolled in gymnastics, but perhaps I'm in dreamland as the decision has far from been made!!!

It is our plan to expose our boys to as many sports as possible, assuming they enjoy them. Tennis, skiing, soccer and swimming are probably at the top of the list, largely because of our preference to those sports in addition to the fact they are all widely available here in this area. We know that the benefits of sports to children goes far beyond the physical ones. Teamwork, leadership, discipline, fun...and even a positive influence on self-esteem and academic success. I snapped the photos above in the first game of the World Cup. Robert and Ryan sat down together to tune in, (Andrew was busy with his animals) and it seems Ryan hasn't yet developed his Daddy's interest in soccer, he was far more interested in Daddy's belt!

School Playground

Now that the weather is warm, we head to the playground at school almost everyday after we pick up Andrew. We ALL love going there. It is the perfect playground for us, as it is gated in so I don't have to worry too much about Andrew going too far, and it has fake grass, so that Ryan can crawl all around without getting hurt, dirty, etc. Andrew is just loaded with energy, even after a long day at school, so he loves to go and play and run around with his friends for a while. Ryan is completely entertained by all the activity, and usually gets loads of attention from all the little girls that love to see the baby. And I love it because it gives me the opportunity to meet many of the school moms, in addition to the perfect opportunity to speak French. We start off with a "gouter", the afternoon snack that every French kid eats (I generally give Andrew some fruit and cookies and Ryan some yogourt and pain grille, I guess sort of like a thick Melba toast), and then the two of them roam around the playground until around 6PM, when we go home, have dinner, bathtime, then we sing lullabies to Ryan (Rock-a-baby, as Andrew calls it, followed by the Mommy song which is a song my mother invented for us and is now a family tradition for all Deacon babies), and then once Ryan is down, Andrew and I read together before lights out for him. It is such a great routine we are in, and I'm so thankful this glorious weather is upon us now.

Play time at home

When Andrew is at school, Ryan has free reign of all the toys. After Ryan woke up from his nap, I thought I'd take the opportunity to snap some new pics of him playing at home. I have some very similar ones in an album of Andrew with the same toys at this age. Unfortunately, Ryan is not quite as photogenic as #1 and doesn't quite smile for the moment as easily as Andrew did... most of the pics I took during this session were of him crying, because I would not let him have the camera! But here are a few that I thought were quite cute.

Ryan at 9 months, getting taller and chubbier...

and cuter and still toothless! The doc was joking about the "petit americain sans dents" at his 9-month check-up. Just like Andrew, who did not have a single tooth before his first birthday, Ryan's nearly constant smile is gums-only too. Love it! At 9 months, Andrew was 9kg and 76.1 cm. Ryan is 9.620 kg and 76 cm. Almost as tall as Andrew but nearly a pound and a half heavier. I was a tad bit concerned about his weight, obviously unfounded, but the little monkey has decided that bottles are not for him. I tried everything, different nipples, fresh breastmilk, different formulas, to no avail. So, until he is on cow's milk at 12 months, it is me and me only, who will be putting the little guy to sleep at night. He nurses in the morning, before his afternoon nap, and before bedtime, right after his bath. Sometimes, he wants a breast before his morning nap too. But sometimes, he nurses for only 2 or 3 minutes in total, and I questioned whether he has been getting enough. Based on his current weight, and how well he eats throughout the day, I know I have nothing to worry about. At the creche, they offer him yogourt at lunch time, in replacement of a bottle before his afternoon nap, and he seems to do just fine with that. And I'm not at all concerned about being the only one capable of putting him down at night...quite frankly, it is one of my favourite parts of the day, and I adore the closeness that comes along with nursing my blossoming boy.

So long soocies!

It's actually pretty funny how many things I have now done as a mom that I vowed I would never do, that is, BEFORE I had children. And I have fully realized how unfair it is to pass any judgment at all on how other parents are doing things, because you really never know what you would actually do, unless you walked in their shoes. I said I would never allow my children to sleep in our bed. (Andrew came in for a cuddle at 3am last night, and needless to say, spent the remainder of the night with me) I said I would never allow the tv to be a babysitter. (everytime I nurse Ryan to sleep, I put on a movie to keep Andrew occupied) And I said that I would not allow a soocy after 3 months, then I said I would not allow a soocy after one year, and then, truthfully, I kinda gave up, became quite complacent with the whole pacifier use thing, with exception to my attempts at keeping the soocy in the bed. The truth is, I really have no regrets on anything thus far, and I am 100% confident that it was that plastic little sucky thing that averted countless tantrums, and allowed for peaceful airplane rides, car rides, adjustments to new places, long restaurant meals, and especially nights. All those parenting books have pretty much gone out the window, and I have found, by far, the best advice comes from fellow moms. One exception, is the Gina Ford Contented Baby book, which was strongly recommended to me by Jane and Bec, and though I didn't buy into all of her ideas, those on establishing a routine have been paramount in developing such a seamless and peaceful schedule with Ryan, something I NEVER had with Andrew.
So...last weekend I was on the phone with Aunty Lo. Andrew came to me and asked if he could go get his soocy. Since it is so rare these days where Lo's schedule coincides with mine for a phone chat, I just nodded my head to him and off he went to go suck! When Lo asked what he wanted, I told her. She then brought up the issue of potential dental problems caused by using a soocy for too long. Honestly, I had never thought of that. I only knew that prolonged thumb-sucking could cause the teeth to grow outward. So when I hung up the phone with her, I googled it, and did find indeed evidence that pacifier use after the first few years of life could be problematic, from a dental stand point. Andrew happened to ask me what I was reading, while I was doing this research. I explained to him that it says on the internet that soocies can cause you to have an ugly smile if you use them when you are a big boy like him. I could tell he was processing this new piece of information, and accepting it. So the next day, while at Marineland, I told him that we better throw out the soocies, so that he doesn't damage his teeth. To my shock and amazement, he accepted this instantly, and told me that he, himself, wanted to put them in the garbage! To make it a little more motivating, I told him that big boys don't get soocies, but they get to play with big boy toys that little babies can't have...so we agreed that he would get an inflatable killer whale for the beach and pool, and Ryan, who still has soocies cuz he is little, cannot have a killer whale yet. Andrew was extremely happy with this notion. And to my amazement, Andrew went to sleep that first night, with not one mention of the soocy, and picked out a new "doudou" (a stuffed animal or blanky or something similar that nearly all French kids attach to). The next day, he told me he wanted to go look at his soocies in the garbage and I explained that I had taken the garbage to the basement and they would be long gone on the truck by now. (of course I still kept a couple in the event that this turned out to be disastrous and would need to revisit when Robert was here!!!) Robert is away now, and I consciously made the decision to take away the soocies while he is gone, knowing full well that he is more of a "softy" than me, and would be more apt to give in than I, if it turned out to be a big struggle!!!
When I told Robert about this new "milestone" the other night (I told him after we had surpassed the three night mark), he was happily surprised, of course, but in the same breath, he was not at all surprised with Andrew's response. We talked about how Andrew responds to things in general, and lucky for us, he generally accepts our answers. For example, if he wants to go on a merry-go-round ride that we are passing by, and I tell him that I have no money, well, that's that. You obviously can't go if you can't pay the man! Or if he's not keen on leaving a playground when it's time to go home, all I have to do is tell him that it is closing. And then he just agrees to come along.
So, in the end, I'm glad that we kept the soocy around for nearly 3.5 years. It made us all happier, and now that he is old enough to rationalize why he shouldn't have them anymore, it was pretty much a walk in the park to say goodbye to them. (despite many people telling me the longer we allow it, the harder it will be) That said, the other morning I was getting ready to leave the house with Ryan and could not find a single soocy in the house. (Ryan's soocies are different than Andrew's and fortunately, he never liked Ryan's and vice versa) Then it had occurred to me that Andrew was playing "Swiper the Fox" the night before, while I was cleaning up from dinner and I just knew that all the soocies had been swiped! When we got home from school pick-up, I asked him where Swiper put all the soocies, and thankfully, he remembered this time where he'd put them...underneath the cushions on the sofa!