Paul at 19 months

For some reason, Paul has seemed a lot older to me these past few days. Maybe it's the way he asks me to "draw a star, please" or the fact that he can tell me exactly what he wants for lunch, whether it be "pene butter anich" (peanut butter sandwich), an "onge" (orange), an apple, yogurt or whatever it may be, and can ask me to "dir" (stir), "poke", "cut", or "mash" it with a "moon" (spoon), "ork" or "ife", and he might ask me to "bow" on it if it's "hot". There are very few basic words and ideas he cannot express - often using two or three word sentences. My baby's constant questioning and chatting, demanding and imploring, reasoning and concluding is forcing me to realize he's just not a baby anymore.

Some other new skills of his include: pointing out and naming any of the letters of the alphabet; identifying most basic shapes; pointing out and naming the colors yellow, blue, orange and black (the other colors are still a little confusing for some reason); and, the skill he's most proud of, running super fast! On average, he fits in about 30 laps around our dining/kitchen/living room circle every day. He certainly takes after his daddy.

Something we're still working on: not screaming. Anyone out there have any ideas? We've been consistently putting him in his crib whenever he screams and closing his bedroom door until he's quiet and asks nicely to get out. (We leave the lights on and window blinds open to differentiate from nap time.) It seemed to be helping at first, but the ear-shattering screeches have not left for good. Has anyone else found something that works? Or should we just continue to be patient with the crib method?

As a whole, life with Blair and Paul is heavenly. After story time and our nightly prayer we all hug each other in a tight knot of giggle-filled bliss. I can hardly believe how lucky I am to have these wonderful, loving and good-looking boys in my life!


Who does he look like more? Mommy or daddy?

Paul loves to sit and "stretch" with daddy after Blair's run.

This poor kid really needs a backyard to play in. He loves going outside but this cement patio is all we have outside our back door.

This is the way I see him most - running!

My Newest Nephew!

My sister, Reana, had her baby!!! Woohoo!

All through church my thoughts were on Reana. Her water broke at four that morning and she and Shawn arrived at the hospital at nine. I subconsciously assumed my sister would have a labor identical to mine - fast! However, things took quite a bit longer for her. Her contractions didn't start until one or two that afternoon, and they just kept coming after that. All that evening we waited for a phone call. Nothing. That entire, restless night my phone lay right next to me, and still there was no no news. Reana labored all through the night without any pain medications and without much progress. Finally at about eight in the morning she was given relief through an epidural and in a very short time she dilated completely and was ready to push. Lincoln Grey Sabbavarapu was born January 28th at 11:22 am, weighing 6 lbs 15oz.

Reana is one strong woman, and little Lincoln is strong too. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck during delivery which caused his heart rate to drop to dangerous levels. After he was born, he had trouble breathing, but thanks to the wonderful staff there at St. Vincent's hospital, he and Reana are perfectly fine.


Lincoln in his daddy's hands.


Lincoln and Reana.

I'll have to post some pictures of when Paul and Lincoln first met. They're a pretty cute pair already. :)

December 2012

December was wonderful, as usual. On the 17th we celebrated my parents' 30th wedding anniversary by eating out at our (Blair and myself) favorite restaurant, Dar Essalam, in Wilsonville.


Paul's favorite food was the pita bread, especially when he got to feed it to grandpa.


We also spent some time near the temple and in the visitor's center for their nightly musical productions. The temple had a giant nativity on the reflection pool. I'd never seen it before, so it was a pretty surprise during our walk.


Since my mom would be working on Christmas day, we got to celebrate a bit of Christmas on Sunday with my family then the actual Christmas day with Blair's family. On Christmas morning we had our own little present opening. With Paul getting older, Christmas is just about to become magical again. We certainly didn't go all out this year. I figured we'd save that for when Paul's old enough to appreciate it. But we did have a tiny bit of Santa magic for Christmas morning.





Paul opening his very first Hot Wheels car.

He likes it!

New Year's eve was spent playing games and eating treats at my parent's house. Those are some of my favorite things to do with family! The Christmas break always seems to fly by way too quickly, but every day was a blast and we're excited for what the new year will bring.

Paul's 15 Month Accomplishments

This post is just to remind you that we're still here and we're still obsessed our little Pauliewog. 

At 15.5 months, Paul is definitely a toddler now. He has all his teeth except his 2 year molars. He's walking, running, climbing, opening, braking, laughing, screaming (*shudder* he just started this one), and talking!

He almost talks as much as a girl! His pediatrician said he's an early talker for a boy. Beside all the English-sounding babble, here are some real words in Paul's current vocabulary (since I know you're all dying to know) :

Mama

Dada

Up

No

Nummy

Ersss (yes)

Push

Bar (he's so obsessed with Larabars that he's learned to say this word perfectly with the correct "R" sound and all)

Door (also means "open", again, with a perfect "R")

Chair 

Gar (car)

Guck ( 3 meanings:  it could be a truck, that he or something is stuck, or it's also used as "yuck")

Beya-ba (belly button)

Beday (body)

baba (bubble)

Hi / bye (all the time to anyone and anything very loudly!)

More

Mook (milk)

Moosh (juice) 

Nack (snack)

Bub (poop)

Uh-oh

Awtttt (hot)

Eye 

Neck

Ay ay (light)

Rice

Me (we're hoping this means "please"...)

Mess (he loves to make them)

Bush

Bird

Guy (sky or airplane)

Dore (store)

Go go

Shoe

Gock (sock or clock)

Bik (bike)

Wahw (wall)

Bahw (ball or Paul)

Bock (block or tower)

Gaing (train? or again?)

Book

Wow!

Meh (Cat "mew")

Woof Woof 

Moo (cow)

Buh-buh (chicken)

Ooo (owl)

Oo-aah -eeh  (monkey)

Bey (pray)

Jich (church)

Jishish (Jesus)

Buck (bug)

Mana (banana)

Rash (trash)

Wee-oh (wheel)

A-wee (away - as in cleaning up)

Who will ever read that huge list up there? Me! So I'm keeping it in my blog. 

Paul is as happy and confident as he appears in this photo. He owns the world and what a fun and silly place it is!

Sunday best. What a charmer!

Paul was a raccoon for Halloween. (Thanks, mom, for the costume!)

What's the opposite of claustrophobic? Because that's what Paul is. I always find him wedged in the smallest crevasses of the apartment. 

Yep. He got in there all on his own.

Another favorite pastime of his is stacking things. Anything!

He sneaked those out of the fridge when my back was turned and created a condiment tower.

(I helped with this book tower.)

Ready for the Christmas snow! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

I write as if I have a huge blog following or something. Ha!

Idaho Falls - Pool and Farm

We were able to go to Rexburg Idaho to see my lovely eldest sister be sealed to her sweetheart JC. (More on the wedding in a later post.... maybe, if I get around to it.)

Twelve. Hours. Of. Driving.

I was totally prepared for screams from Paul. It was going to happen. No question. Not only that, it was going to happen while we were crammed in the very back row of  an eleven passenger van filled with family and friends.

Miraculously, incredibly, unbelievably, Paul was actually happy the entire way there! Are you amazed? I still am.

He earned a fun trip to the hotel's pool with daddy.







After all the wedding hullabaloo, we got to see some real farm animals at my grandparents' farm and Reese's dairy in Idaho Falls.

Paul was a bit overwhelmed with the experience. Put yourself in his shoes. What if all your life a "horse" was that cute little cartoon in your board book that said "neigh!". The real thing by comparison would be a huge, smelly, scary mammoth! Every animal took some getting used to.



Paul wasn't so sure about sitting on that huge animal.


Goats are a more friendly size for Paul.


I think the pigs were his favorite.






Paul got some real cow licks on his head!


Paul started to worry the cow would eat what little hair he had.


Chillin' with grandma before the trip back home.


I wish I could say Paul did as well on the way back, but being sick and teething while strapped to a car seat for twelve hours was not too fun for him. My favorite was when he could sleep.



Paul's getting so big and he sure babbles a lot for a boy! ;) We love him like crazy!

Surprise Teaching Assignment

Blair suggested we go to church early for ward choir this morning. It’s always great to be at church an hour early; you have time to prepare yourself for the sacrament meeting and you can fill your head and heart with beautiful hymns in choir - just time to relax and feel the spirit. Haha! Not today.

Kourtney, another ward missionary, came up to me and said, “so I hear you’re teaching the lesson in Gospel Principles today...”.  My brain instantly conducted a violent search through all past conversations that might have contained the word “teach”. My stomach seized as I remembered our ward mission leader casually asking if I could possibly teach on Sunday as I was leaving the building last week. Gah! He was serious! I gasped and covered my mouth. Blair laughed, so Paul did too. Kourtney added, “well have fun preparing the lesson. If you need help with Paul while you teach, I’ll be happy to do it.” I thanked her and got to work looking for some scriptures and a manual. This was the one week I didn’t bring them.

I looked at the clock - forty-five minutes to whip something up before sacrament meeting. Blair downloaded the Gospel Principles manual onto his phone and began flipping through the lessons until one caught my attention. Fortunately for me, we haven’t been following a schedule so I could choose any lesson I wanted. Naturally, I chose the longest one titled "The Life of Jesus Christ". I borrowed some paper and a pen form the ward clerk and dove into the text.

I came into Sacrament meeting feeling - if not confident - comfortable. I had scribbled a bullet-pointed list of things I wanted to discuss in my lesson as well as some thoughts, scripture references and questions. Before the opening song, I was told that we had more investigators than usual today and to “gear the lesson in their direction”. I responded as casually as my acting skills allowed, “okay, no problem”.

As usual, I spent the last half of sacrament meeting wandering the halls behind Paul, who was stomping about aimlessly without any obligations or worries. (Occasionally a particular closet or trashcan would worry him, to which he would voice his loud disapproval, with much arm gesticulation and head shakes.) When we wandered close to the library I asked for a stack of Gospel Principles Manuals. (We were really going to need them considering half of my lesson plan involved taking turns reading from that manual.) She only had three copies. I took ‘em and ran.. er... waddled behind Paul.

I had left the diaper bag as well as my lesson materials on the bench with Blair. I just trusted he’d bring them to me after the closing prayer, which he did - all except the papers with my precious notes. He had thought they were blank pieces of paper, but I told him they had my notes and I needed them. People were already settling into their seats as Blair returned three minutes later to tell me they were gone! Someone must have thrown my notes away, and he couldn’t find them in any garbage can! “It’s okay” I told myself, “I’m sure I can remember most of it.” I’ll just listen to the Spirit.

That’s when Paul started whining.

I calmly introduced myself, while Paul stood at my knees, head thrown back in a red, slimy wail of utter despair. We were all crammed in a tiny classroom and tried to ignore the screams that were painfully reverberating into our ears. Kourtney had the diaper bag of goodies she was shaking in hopes of luring the little precious peach. No luck. 

Finally, the ward mission leader had to take Paul out of the room and everyone watched the heart-wrenching scene of mother and child being torn apart. Soon silence returned and so did everyone’s attention - back on me, the one without a lesson.

I’m sure it went well. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. There’s no way of knowing for sure. My brain went into prepare-for-humiliation mode, where it completely shuts off the short-term memory from retaining any events that have a high potential of becoming painfully embarrassing. Thus I have no recollection of that second hour at church. Nobody said anything, so I’m hoping that means no false doctrine was taught. Let’s just hope my ward mission leader has learned to think twice before asking me to teach again. If there is a next time, I guess I'll write it down in my planner.

Amnesia

I think Blair got amnesia. Sort of...

A couple of weeks ago, some awesome friends from our ward let us join them for a ride on their motor boat on the Willammette. (Paul's favorite part of the whole outing was the pizza dinner.)

After speeding, chatting, and eating, they let Blair try out the wake board. It took him a few tries to get up but he caught on pretty quickly once he was standing. After riding safely for about 5 minutes, from the boat I saw a smile sweep across Blair's face. I knew immediately what he was thinking. He was going to try to jump the wake! Sure enough, I watched him bare down before lifting into the air off the wake's edge. Before I had time to mentally congratulate my brave, manly husband for successfully jumping on a wake board, he was making a sharp face plant into the water. Arms and legs flailed while quickly being swallowed by the splatter of white spray. We circled the boat around, and he pulled himself back in the boat, seemingly unharmed.

He hit his head harder than we thought.

Later on, as we were gently pulled behind the boat as a happy little family in two sea biscuits, Blair surprised me by asking, "How did we get out here? Did we drive to the river?" Blair couldn't remember anything from that day. It was as if his short term memory was erased.  He encouraged me to ask him questions about our trip so he could force the memories back into his noggin. I asked him things like, "do you remember what we ate for dinner?", "where did we park", "what are the names of the people in the boat?" "what did you do just before this?".

When it was time to go home, we thanked our friends for a wonderful time and Blair added under his breath, "I think we had fun... were we good company?"

Blair's memory slowly improved over time, but he was pretty sore for a few days. What a strange experience! I'm glad he's okay. :)