February 2009

Between me having Pnemonia for 2 weeks and Berik having "the crud" for several days we didn't have time for much so this post will be short!
I turned the big 44 on 02-04 and we celebrated quietly at home and had my parents over for dinner. My friend drove 30 miles one way, to get my cake, for my husband who had requested a really yummy birthday cake and boy was it good!!!

The weather has been really fantastic, which is giving Berik plenty of time to practice riding his tricycle. He is getting really good at pedaling and can now go faster than I can walk. He won't get on daddy's 4 wheeler yet (which I'm not complaining about), but he likes to race daddy, side by side. It is really fun to watch the excitement in Berik's face

He is still into puzzles and enjoys lining up all the pieces. For Valentines day we made handmade cards for daycare. He liked having ink all over his hands for the handprints. He enjoys getting messy! We were the only ones in the class to make Valentines ourselves. What happened to the good ol' days? I thought at least one other mother would have time to sit down with their child and hand make them? Guess I was wrong. It wasn't that time consuming and believe me they weren't fancy at all. Best of all Berik had a super time making them!
He gave me these special handmade roses for my gift! Aren't they cute!
His speech still isn't all that clear and some words are really funny to us. For example, what are you doing? comes out, watcha dunin? Umbrella comes out , humm brella. We try not to repeat them but they are funny so sometimes we have to watch ourselves. Some sentences are completely clear and others are completely garble. We were going this month for more hearing tests but with all of the sickness we opted to wait until next month. His learning processes seem to be at or above level. He speaks Spanish words really well. He loves to throw his stuffed elephant on the ground and then say, "abajo" (down) and then bail off the bed or couch to get him and exclaim, "arriba" (up). He also knows what is "pequeno" (little) and "grande" (big). He knows lots of other words in Spanish too but these are the ones that he has been focusing on this month. He likes to go to the park that has the, teeter totter, and tell me up and down in Spanish. He is bossy at times and really takes your nerves to the limit but other times he is the sweetest thing on earth!
We are still potty training and he is not intersted. He will go when you put him on the potty but could careless about Skittles, M&M's, candy corn or anything else. He just as soon be wet as dry and so we are wondering when the light will ever turn on. I am sick of buying diapers and in Aug. they won't move him up to the next class unless he is trained. We took him for his first visit to the dentist this month, yeah I know a little late, but he loved it and said on the way home, (without prompting), "I like the dentist", that's a plus!
So see nothing exciting, we are just plugging along and making plans to go to Kazapalooza. We hope to see alot of you there!

Take Care, Gena

January!! Year I finally made it to 2009 post!

We rung in the New Year the old fashion way.. well old married way I should say! We stayed home and watched TV and or played on the internet. No big celebrations and we barely made it to midnight.
Berik is absolutely thrilled with his new tricycle! He can ride it really well and it beginning to go faster and faster almost to the point of tipping over. He doesn't mind, in fact he likes to wear his helmet, so that is good for us. We play train almost daily and he is enjoying his new puzzles immensly! He goes for a puzzle almost before anything else!
His tubes seem to be working although he didn't pass one of his follow up hearing tests so we will have to go back in Feb. He seems to becoming more and more verbal where you can clearly understand him.
He doesn't miss a chance to say bye to the house, the trees and any vehicle as he goes to school. He sings loud and proud and is now beginning to add his own endings to the songs to make them silly.
He keeps us going from daylight to dark and we are so blessed to have him. I will leave this here and just post a couple of pics of B man in action. There will be one picture that he is just staring. That is him concentrating on TV! Until Feb. you'll take care. Gena

December 2008 On a Roll!!

Before the month began good I had already decorated my parents house inside and out, as a surprise for them, while they were away for Thanksgiving! I had all my photo cards made and I even made some myself of Berik being Santa in the tub! I was on a roll !! I even managed to mail out 10 cards and was going to do the rest later. Back at my house, I got my artificial tree out, not wanting to spend the money on a real one, but I didn't have time to decorate it, so meanwhile, the cats climbed and climbed and climbed it for about a week, until it was completely demolished. Berik felt the need to hang a couple of coat hangers on it but other than that it was never decorated. I hauled the bent branches box and all to the curb and waved bye.
The rest of the month was a blurr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had one day off Dec. 5th, to take my mother shopping, as my weekends were all booked up with candy making and church Christmas parties, and wouldn't you know that Berik came down with his 3rd EAR INFECTION!!! , on Dec 4th at 1:30am with 103.5 fever poor guy! So to the Dr. we went and we got the referral to the ENT Dr. that we had asked for 2 ear infections ago. Long story short, Berik ended up taking antibiotics all weekend which didn't touch his infection and the Dr. had take a more serious approach with a series of injections, Mon, Tue. and Wed. 2 shots, one in each leg, simultaneously. He was not a happy camper and we felt so bad for him but his ears got better. So he ended up being sick for 10 days. The only day they had available for his tubes was 12-24, Christmas eve, so we scheduled it and waited hoping that he wouldn't get sick again before then. It snowed here by our standards on Dec. 11 and everyone was excited including Berik. He liked the sound of it crunching beneath his feet the best! One day we will take him to see "real" snow.
Meanwhile, Berik and I had fun making candy and cookies and all 3 of us went to our local Christmas parade. He loves parades and gets excited if he sees a string of cars, flags or people anywhere. Outside of the prison where I work, he saw a bunch of offenders that were being released on parole and exclaimed, " a parade, a parade!!" Jaimie and I laughed!
We celebrated our 3RD GOTCHA DAY on Dec. 23 and let Berik have his favorite meal of fried chicken and chocolate milk ! Mom and I never got to go shopping and I didn't get a tree until about 3 days before hand. I never mailed anymore cards and Jaimie and I barely managed to shop for Berik.All in all from Dec 4th-Dec. 24th it was a blurr!
He got his tubes on Christmas eve morning and was good to go to church in the evening. We put out cookies and milk for Santa and he seemed to get into that this year! He is at a really fun age!! Santa brought him a tricycle, which he pronounces bi sis sul.

and he got lacing boards, a memory game, pounding blocks, and a train. We kept it really minimal but he had a blast! Since we originally had planned to go to Alabama, my parents had made arrangements to spend the holidays out of town, so it was quiet here with just the 3 of us.
The weekend after Christmas we had my parents and my brother and his family over and had a whole other round of opening gifts. Berik loved helping everyone open their gifts! New Years slid by and that was it. Happy New Year!

November

The first part of the month took us to Alabama for a visit with Jaimie's mother and his daughter, Jessi. We hadn't seen Jessi since June of this year and his mother hadn't seen Berik since January 2007. She was really happy to see him again. He loves his sister and insists on laying on top of her whenever possible, especially to watch TV. Jessi is very sweet and tolerate which we love!
When we first started talking about going to Alabama, a 10 hour car ride, I was leary but once I saw the price of airline tickets I decided we could do it. Let me be the first to brag on Berik. He and I sat in the back and he was a SAINT!!!!!!! all the way there and all the way back. Jaimie and I jokingly asked each other who's kid we had with us. Furthermore, he was soooooooo good the entire time we were visiting. He didn't break anything, tear anything up, cry, whine or fuss . We were so so so proud of his behavior. Normally he acts like a typical 2 yr and gets into everything. He is 100% BOY !
We took him to Gulf Shores beach, which was his first trip ever to the beach. Although it was slightly cool he loved it. He could not understand that is was too cold and just had to get in the water. He was one wet sandy boy we he got finished. We hope to visit again during the summer.
Berik is growing up so and each day brings changes here and there but one constant is the cuteness of a sleeping Berik. He can sleep almost anywhere and as you can see in any position, and with any assortment of pillow, blankets and or animals. This months artwork isn't all that fancy but I am sure he is having fun doing it. Jaimie had to work Thanksgiving day so Berik and I went to a good friend of ours to feast. Jaimie did catch up with us as we were starting dessert. Good time to get in on things in my opinion!
Berik had fun playing with this scooter! He had never seen nor riden one and he did very well. I think a scooter may be in his future, ooohhh Santa!!!! The older kids were nice and played roll the ball with him and of course he had lots of fun at that too. All in all a good month and a Happy Thanksgiving!

October- What's for breakfast?

Since Sept.'s blog decided to give me the blues while posting I finally just gave up and ended up leaving off a couple of things I wanted to journal about. One was this really cute bathtub picture I took. To me Berik looks older and it is almost like a sneak peek at what he may look like as a teen. I am probably nuts but that is what it reminds me of.
Secondly, Berik had been pulling his shoes off at daycare alot recently and the staff had been letting me know and had been tying the shoestrings around his ankle in an effort to keep him from taking his shoes off. POOR GUY....his shoes were a little too small. I got him some new ones right away and he is now a size 10W. He finally wears a wide instead of xw width. I felt like a bad mommy but really he had only had the shoes he was wearing for a short time. His feet are going to be huge!

October was just a mixed bag of low key events. We did some more "cat fishing" in the house. Some "redneck" kite flying in the front yard, was a huge hit with Berik ! We live on a small hill where it is really windy but I just couldn't get the kite up high enough and so Jaimie hooked the kite to the end of a fishing rod and stuck it way up in the air and away it went. It was also a lot easier to control to reel it in and out.





















We played outside in the dirt. Jaimie was filing in a hole, left from a tree that he had cut down in our yard.Berik loved all of it from riding atop of the soil in the wagon , to sitting directly in the dirt to throwing it, to raking it. All in all a simple way to entertain the B man. He is pretty much easy to entertain but when he is hungry he wants food right then and there. One Sat. morning Jaimie and I were up and getting breakfast ready when we discovered that Berik had pretty much already helped himself to what I am sure he thought was a fantastic breakfast. See for yourself and count em... five, yep five lollipops, chewed up and consumed in a flash! He left us all the evidence we needed strung out between the kitchen and stopping just before the TV in the living room. We usually don't keep bulk candy around but it being the Halloween season we had some. Plus since his ear tubes fell out in Aug. we are back to having ear infections, which = Dr. which ='s lollipop and sticker after the visit. Sometimes they are out so we have our own supply! We are hoping the ear infections will stop or hoping for tubes again. The Dr. says we need to wait a bit longer. This is infection # 2 so we will see.
Berik is always up to something and currently he is fascinated by putting on my hosies and carrying my purse. He brings not just sticks in the house but more like branches. He continues to be my "monster in training" and looked pretty cute in the shirt I found at the re-sale shop for $1.25. Gotta love a bargain. He and I had a blast at the park and we played a round of secret blog pal. Our blog pal sent B these PJ's and some bath tub flutes etc.. He had fun opening up the package. When he is not busy he is OUT of it, sleeping away in these funny positions and with his pretend food, in the first pic he has a banana. If you look carefully at pic #2 daddy is asleep face down and B is using daddy's behind as a pillow.
One weekend we took Berik to 7 Acre woods, a outdoor play area for kids with a petting zoo. He had a really good time climbing, running and driving! He looks very determined to get going! We manged to get a couple of pics but none of him and the animals because he still won't really have anything to do with them. Jaimie talked or gobbled with a turkey there until the turkey started talking back which was about the highlight of the petting zoo part. For Halloween I thought of a bunch of cute ideas but none that would work for Berik. Since he won't wear a mask, hat a lot of things I thought of like, a scarecrow, a pirate or a train conducter were pretty much out of the question. We ended up with him being a baseball player. I went to the resale shop and got cleats, and a baseball jersey from a former Houston Astro player and got pants from a friend. I also ordered an Oshkosh jersey online. We used one jersey for the daycare trick or treating event and the other jersey for the evening trick or treating.
At the daycare all classes and volunteer parents set out for a mid morning trick or treating outing around the town square. The daycare which is in a church, sits on the corner of town square and they do this each year, visiting the local retailers. The first stop was the church office were Berik got a lollipop and proceeded to eat it just outside the church. As you can see the other kids in his class followed suit. He wasn't really supposed to be into the candy at that point but that's Berik for ya! At the courthouse we got to see the ladies that helped me with his dossier paperwork. The ladies were excited to see him again !
At every shop around the square, that we got candy from, Berik would scope out the bowl for a lollipop, and would then say "lollipop" and then pick it out. He didn't touch any other candy and didn't take anything but lollipops. Some of the people would dump in extra candy and Berik would look at kind of wierd as if he did not want it in his bag. I would have expected him to grab it up by the handfuls but he didn't and I was pleased with his behavior.
After work we took him to a Mimi and Papaws house and then on to a friends house. We didn't end up going anywhere else because Berik was having so much fun answering the door for the other trick or treaters so we just stayed and visited. One tween girl that was in the house even slipped out the back door and pretended to be a new trick or treater, ringing the bell. Berik ran to the door, opened it and then was like, wait a minute? Aren't you in the living room? He pretty much figured it out. He is pretty clever. Here he is showing off his loot and looking pretty happy about it all !! All and all a great halloween!! Until Nov. take care. Gena