Berik uses his head!!

January 2008

Well little does the Huntsville newspaper staff know but I do have the cutest kid ever!! See for yourself.. I entered Berik in a cute kid contest and nope he didn't get it but hey I know he's the cutest! Each year they have a contest and put the entries in the local paper. I won't do it again as his was in the crease of the paper with this big line across his face and the print/color was all smeared. Oh well, lesson learned. I hope they enjoyed my $20.00 donation.
Berik continues to use his head in many ways.. for balance..

and to carry things..







and most of all so he doesn't have to stand while playing at the refrigerator with his magnets.
Berik is learning more and more each day and continues to get better at talking, however, babbling along is still his favorite. He loves to count and make animal sounds. Occasionally, Berik will sit ever so quietly in his car seat and soak up the world around him. One day Jaimie and I were talking and made mention that someone we knew was a "cow", to which Berik responded Mooooooooo... We just cracked up laughing.Neither of us took into account that he was listening to us and when he busted out with a big ol' Moooooo it was hilarious!! From here forward we will have to watch what we say, that's for sure. He can say big words clearly like butterfly, but won't say milk or even try to say it. He is definitely on his own agenda. One day he turns to me and says, I need to go poo poo..ok , really? Well, run, run to the potty, poor thing he turns around to run and trips over a box. That kind of ruined the moment but I encouraged him to go ahead and get up and go. We did, he made it to the potty but no poo. He made the sounds effects for me but no go. Well.. that was exciting but false alarm. We continue to go each evening before bath time and tt is always successful. I guess at just under 2 I am glad that he is even interested.
He still likes to eat, 24/7. He is not fat but he is big. We haven't weighed him lately but he was at 34 last we checked, in Dec. He had his first drumstick the other day and loved it but we had to finally take it away as he was trying to eat bone and all. He went crazy over it like a dog almost, which meant he wouldn't touch anything else on his plate until we took it away.
He also helps himself to the refrigerator whenever he can get away with it, which I don't like, but I did sneak a pic of him trying to get some milk, so at least it was a healthy choice! Meal by meal the battle over the veggies increases. He will eat yellows most anytime but green is usually where he puts on the brakes. He will eat green beans if he is in the mood but he used to eat more greens. He definitely lets you know that a certain veggie is intruding upon his plate by taking it in his hand, flinging it over on to your plate while at the same time
making a very convincing choking/throw up sound and gesture, completed with body/head movements. He to date has not completed his warning but one day we are fearful that he may very well follow through. Needless to say, when we eat at a restaurant we don't usually push the issue. So I guess in a sense he is winning this one. Any one out there with some ideas? It is so good that I have tried to get it on video but haven't been able to yet. Not that you wanted to see it really anyhow but it is very believable.
Speaking of pushing it! He loves to push bedtime now. You know last month he was simply wonderful and easy and now he has discovered, in its entirety, the LIGHT SWITCH! Let the fun begin. I could move his bed but then I would have to move other furniture in his not so big room, which would cause me to have to move pictures etc.. so I will battle this one out. No fear of being thrown up on, just a little crying. The routine, same as usual, gets the elephant, his water, and heads to bed. Books and then kisses goodnight and a few minutes later... the DISCO lights begin! Click, on, click off, on, off , on, off. He hears you coming..if it is daddy, when the door opens, he makes a diving leap into the sleeping position leaving the light however it was, sometimes off, sometimes on. If it is me.. well you watch and see..

So as you can see Mommy is the.. oh well it's just mommy! Berik still likes to ride on his little tikes truck, but is he so big that the wheel just would fall off? Or did the factory ( daddy ) not put it together good enough? Daddy votes that B is just too much for the truck and would like to see it retire in someone else's house. B watches intently as daddy fixing his tire as if daddy really had time before work but he did it anyway. He loves to push around his tonka truck that he got from Santa but I really watch out for that one as it is made out of metal and hurts when he runs it into your legs. He continues to play with vehicles which seem to be the toy of choice at the moment but he also loves his blocks too! And .. last but not least by far.. you remember when I said Berik uses his head.. well on Jan 31st he used it alright, to get a potty seat stuck on. Yuck!! I know but he already had it on his head by the time we noticed and Jaimie whipped out the camera to capture the action. At first it was funny, as he wore it for a hat a bit before slipping it over his head. He continued to play as J and I were both busy we figured out that it was fairly new and I had just cleaned it so we just let him. Well when he tried to get it off he became hysterically because it wasn't coming off. I laughed (mean mommy) but it was funny , until Jaimie and I tried and it wasn't budging. He was crying hysterically and we tried pinning his ears back and forward and turning the seat and then smeared Vaseline all over his head and still nothing. We finally had to unscrew the bottom piece, and cut off all the rest with a knife and then bust the plastic piece to finally gain his freedom. Poor Berik his ears were fire engine red and then bruised and stayed that way for several days after. Way to go Berik, way to use your head!!!! My two cousins had both sent gifts cards a while back and I had used the first one for the seat and I used the second one for the replacement seat. So both cousins gave us the exact same thing, how exciting! not. But just a few minutes later he was smiling again. Stay tuned for Feb. as slowly I will get caught up. Gena

December , Yes December posting in March :)

What did we do in December? Well, it is now March and I'm obviously not getting any quicker or younger so I will try to do my best to drum up something! The first thing we did was go to the Huntsville annual Christmas parade. We met up with some friends got parked/situated and the first thing down the street was some jazzed up motorcycle club adorned in their Christmas garb and right behind them the fire trucks with their horns/sirens blaring. Not loud and exciting to Berik, rather loud and scary to the point of tears. We figured they were killing his ears as they could be sensitive due to the ear tubes. I put my hands over his ears and held them tightly waiting for all to pass and wouldn't you know they stopped right in front of us. Still blaring the sirens and throwing Christmas candy Berik was not thrilled. Finally, it started moving again and Berik settled down, enjoying the school marching band, the acrobats, the colorful floats and finally got the hang of telling daddy where the candy was that he wanted by yelling and pointing to it on the ground, while he hung out safely in the bed of the truck. Finally Santa came and Berik waved because Santa was but really could have not cared less. His friend Matthew (4) liked it though and was thrilled to get extra candy from Berik. We took the rest home and let Berik rummage through it and then tossed it. Gratefully he doesn't understand candy yet!!!
We did plenty of shopping with Berik but finally left him with a babysitter and for the first time we went out of the city limits together, Jaimie and I, without him. I probably called the babysitter enough to drive her crazy because I was just worried. Everything turned out fine and he was only up about l hour before he went to bed so really we just paid her to watch him sleep, yet I still worried. Silly me, I have my parents right here in town and plenty of friends in case something happened but still, now I am trying to decide whether it is more stressful to shop with him or without?
Berik is so easy to put to bed it is ridiculous! He lets you know by grabbing up his elephant, Mr. Blue, and then he comes and pulls you to his room and throws his arms up in the air for you to put him in the crib. He gets in, you say nite nite and that usually it. On the sad side he doesn't much liked to be rocked once you get to his room. He is growing up so fast :) and :( .
We continue to have the best Friday nights with Berik. After dinner everyone that is in our house, friend or family, falls victim to or gets in on whatever we decide to do, whether its playing blocks, trucks, or kicking the balls all over the house, as we usually don't watch any TV which is great!!, but during the week we do have it on and by the time you slide in a bath and bedtime story etc and trying to get ready for the next day there is usually no time for 100% play! He continues to like this particular set of stacking toys and had the best time putting them on daddy's head. His fine motor skills and getting better and better in a hurry! He can now put my car key all the way into the door lock, can almost get the lock turned and then open the car door. He can climb up in his car seat and almost buckle himself in, as he still has a hard time with the 5 point harness. His talking is still mostly babble but has called my mother, Nana, Mimi and now Mammy. Her name that we call her, to him, is Grammy but he usually just calls her whatever he wants.
Because I have Berik I now "QUALIFY" to go to children's church Christmas eve service starting at 5:30pm, yeah!! This is the service that I like the most with the little kids performing the Christmas skits etc.. This years was about stars in heaven and the kids did really good except one little girl started crying when she fell off her step after she was elbowed by another star who didn't have enough room..lol! It was quite funny really. I can just see Berik now, pushing someone down or yelling over the music! Only time will tell. We had Christmas with my parents at my house, in the morning and in the afternoon at their house. My brother and his family came in the next day and we had Christmas all over again! The best thing besides the obvious, Berik, was that we were not FREEZING COLD like we were last year! Berik loved that Santa brought him a big tonka truck and exclaimed , " WOWWWWW" when he saw it in front of the tree. He was pretty good about opening his presents but by day two he wanted to open all of his and all of everyone else's too. He did not mess with the tree except once, when he took off one of my shiny ornaments and proceeded to smash it beyond repair and that's why my favorites were at the top of the tree
.He is getting better with the cats as you can see here, he is "petting the kitty nicely" while the Sam thinks he has found a new bed inside of a wreath meant for outside.
Jessi (16), my stepdaughter, came for a week. We had a good time with her, shopping, going to the movies and to a friends house on New Years eve to play a few games and eat! Berik is all about Jessi and she is good with him, as well she should be used to it because she has 3 siblings at home, all under the age of 5. She got everything she wanted for Christmas and then some and we just enjoy her so much it is always sad to send her home to Alabama.
The only other significant thing is this month marks the end of the bottle. We had decided to keep him on it for one year from the day we got him into our custody and we pretty much kept that promise. It was absolutely no problem, quick and easy. One day we just put them all up the cabinet and stopped cold turkey and he didn't care at all. These photos are from a visit with a special friend Bob. He gave Berik a remote control car and B had such a good time he was whooped on the way home and crashed out in the car seat. So sweetly sleeping! That's all for December. I am sure there was something more or at least a tad exciting but as it is March that's the best I could do. I am really trying to catch up as this is serving as my journal and hopefully when he gets older he will enjoying reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Until Jan post you'll take care! Gena

November 2007

So far, so good for the ears!!!!! No more infections but now he has Bronchitis, ugh!! Poor baby he was sick for a whole week. Here is a picture of Sam watching over Berik as he naps on the couch. We have another cat named Bandita but you'll never see her and Berik together as she makes it a point to be where he isn't. Berik is pretty good to Sam but there is always brief pull of the ol' tail waiting and Bandita doesn't want any part of that.
Berik continues to amaze me with the things he does and says. He continues to try and help me, help him, get dressed and sometimes dresses himself :). Here is pic of B lining up his blocks as he lines up a lot of things, magnets, food, his trucks etc. He is messy at times dumping out the whole toy basket but at other times he insists that everything is lined up. His vocabulary is picking up and he can say some things that I would think are more difficult, like butterfly but can't or won't say milk. He calls all liquids juice so then the guessing begins as to what he wants. I think he is on his own agenda :) . In the morning, if he gets into the kitchen first, he helps himself to whatever he wants for breakfast, this day it happened to be a sugar cone which I didn't think was great but I should have gotten there sooner and no, that's not all he had for breakfast. The other day while I was attempting to tidy up the house, I turned to see Berik completely up in his highchair. What? How did you get up there? After all it is still on the tallest setting. So, naturally I grabbed the camera and got him down and asked him to do it again, and he did. He also "has to" buckle up the highchair straps after each meal and although they aren't always correct he does get the job done. For the first few times I had not seen him clip the buckle and I thought Jaimie was doing it and I found it quite annoying but now that I realize it is my darling sweet baby, then it's ok right?
Speaking of darling and sweet, I think we are hitting the terrible two's early. When he is not being good, which is most of the time really, he shreds stuff like magazines, video covers, books (which we keep out of his reach the best we can) and styrofoam cups which don't stand a chance. I finally just gave in one evening and let him destroy a cup and of course I took pics. He is easy for the most part but at times he is quit challenging, as he runs from you instead of coming to you, sits when you need him to stand and squeals!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my does he squeal, so shrill it practically pierces your ears. When this doesn't work then he cries or stomps his feet. All my friends and family tell me it's just a phase and I hope they are right because I don't much like this. Just look at him at nap time, uh I think he is saying something like..."#!@&^*^ I don't need a nap@&^%$*^*" and then once he winds down he is so peaceful and sweet and wakes up the most smiley happy baby! Maybe he will pass through the terrible twos before he actually is 2?
Every year, for the past 13 yrs now, I have taken pictures for my friend Tracy, of her kid, (now kids), for their Christmas card. This year we went to the Huntsville State Park for a nice background/scenery. Not really planning on pictures of us we just kind of threw on something that had fall colors in it and left the house. Go figure that our pictures turned out pretty good but I just couldn't stand it that Berik's white socks he had on with brown boots showed, and that I had on a 3/4 sleeve shirt and they had on long sleeves so I decided not to go with this set of pics for our Christmas card. Due to busy lives, it was a couple of weeks later, when Tracy came over to our house one morning to take our pics and it was the most overcast, windy, ugly day ever but we went for it anyway and just picked out the best of the those. Note to self... next year plan way ahead, as this was stressful for me or just send picture of Berik and be done with it..as I am sure my friends really don't care what Jaimie or I look like anyhow! :)
Thanksgiving day was at our house and my parents came over, as they live here in town. We had really good grub and had some really cute pics of Berik and Mimi and Papaw but who knows where those went? We can't seem to find them anywhere. Finally, I qualified to have Thanksgiving at my house because I have a little one, but in the past I have always had to go to someone else's house. Berik initially balked at the turkey but eventually ate everything on his plate. We let him down from the table early as we were still stuffing it in. Mistake! Berik found my cell phone and somehow managed to put it on speaker phone and dial up Jaimies work. About the second time the lady said , "Wynne unit, control picket, officer so and so speaking" we figured it out and rushed over to get it but he hung up on her. Oops!! About a week later my cousin called me to ask me if I had text messaged her? Uh? No. Well guess who? Yep he had my cell phone again and had texted her, wmmw. Ok, note to self put cell phone totally out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind? We will see.
Last but not least, I think of things for, You know your a momma when... but when I don't write them down like all momma's, I forget. Here are three that stand out in my mind that I haven't forgotten yet...
You know you're a momma when.....

..you drop your baby off at daycare and you find yourself still listening to and singing along with the nursery rhyme CD all the way to work...

while tying your own shoes you attempt to double knot them..

you can turn the nightlight off and on with your toes because of course your hands are full..

I am sure there are more stuck in my little ol' brain just waiting to bust out but for now that's all folks. Until Dec. post, you'll take care!! Gena

PS- If you look close at the picture of Berik where he has dressed himself you will see that the wall it chewed and clawed up. This was the present we got, when we got back from Kaz from our boxer, Harley, who apparently wasn't too pleased that we were out of country. :)

I’ve been “tagged” and now have to post 7 strange/weird facts about me, and then tag 7 other bloggers to do the same.
Here are the rules for those I’ve tagged: Post the rules on your blog. Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random bloggers, as well as your original tagger. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on his or her blog.

1. At the ripe ol' age of 43 I still like to color

2. When walking with anyone I like to be on their right side, other wise I end up bumping into them when I walk.

3. There is one particular kind of choc chip muffin mix that you just add water to. I don't like the muffins when they are cooked but love the raw dough and have been know to eat a whole package of it for lunch.

4. I have had the same blue comb since Jr high school.

5. When I was about 4 or 5, I was getting out of my dad's private plane and I saw Jack Benny. I ran over to his plane and said, "hi" as my parents were running after me. My parents said he thought I was cute and invited us on his plane for sodas. After the visit my parents asked my if I really knew who that was and I said, "yes, he's the man that holds up one finger and says," one gallon please". (from a Texaco commercial)

6. While waiting on my friends, I feel asleep at a nightclub (completely sober) and got thrown out because they said I was drunk.

7. my husband and I met when we were 16 and 13 respectively. I was in 8th grade and he in the 11th. He told me then that someday he would marry me. He did at age 39, only 23 years later.

That's it and now since I have waited so long I don't have anyone to tag so you'll just have fun reading these and maybe next time I will respond in a more timely manner. Gena

October 2007 (finally)

The first thing that October brought was Berik's new found ability to say, " no no no no, no no, no no no no, no",( I'm sure you get the drift). Everything was, "No", probably thanks to the 3- 3yr old girls at daycare or at least that is who we are sure it came from, when it came with an attitude and "the look". For a while there we couldn't get him to answer yes as he was stuck on "no". We'd be at the store and be getting him out of the basket and he be saying , no, over and over and escalating his voice and people would look at us like we were abusing him. Thankfully his little power trip only lasted about 3 wks.
After about a bizillion ear infections, he finally got tubes put in on Oct 11th. We had been to the Dr and or the Dr's colleagues EVERY SINGLE MONTH,
(except June) from Jan 2007 until Oct. 2007. at least once or twice each month, for his ears, which included 2 trips to the ER. Each time we would see a doctor, they would tell us that he would probably out grow the infections and then give us antibiotics. After about the 4th or 5th time we were starting to get anxious and inquired about tubes, but to no avail, nope, it will be ok, here are some more meds. In Oct, our second visit to the good ol' Huntsville ER, was with Berik screaming /crying and running 104, at midnight no less. Jaimie and I lost it with "those" people after they never so much as triage him and left us waiting for over 30 min. We drove to a different hospital 30 miles away, all the while he was screaming at the top of his lungs. The new ER saw him immediately as they said he was definitely a priority. His ear drums were perforated and leaking out all the gunk at which time he began to feel better. The MD there says, "have you'll ever thought about tubes?" FINALLY, someone who saw the light. He gave us a referral and we saw the ENT shortly thereafter.
The trip to the ENT was awful and according to the ENT doctor the worst experience he had ever had with a child. As "B" had been to the doctor so many times he was no fan of the "white coat" which is what set him off to begin with. Then came the hearing test, which lead to hysterical crying, causing a horrible nose bleed, which almost no amount of wipes, tissues, or shirts etc. could absorb. It took forever to calm him down and needless to say that was the end of the visit. The Dr. informed us that the only way to evaluate him was to put him "under" and we did that two days later and yes he got the tubes, finally!!!! It has been the best thing that ever happened to us and to him! We were able to see the change in Berik almost immediately. He is so happy and has started to speak alot more.
Toward the middle of the month we visited the pumpkin patch/playground/petting zoo with my friend Tracy and her son Matthew (4). We had alot of fun and it was nice to be able to let Berik loose and let him run and run. He was really interested in "looking" at the animals but not so kean on touching them. In fact while on his hands and knees spying the sheep, the sheep began to get up and Berik fled the scene rather quickly! It was comical :) .
At the end of the month wevisited my brother and his family in Southlake, Tx. Berik cheered for Graham (my nephew) at his football game and at the house he helped uncle Reid play the grand piano. We took him to the park to run and swing, two of his favorties things! Jaimie and I took him for his first real bike outing, which he really liked. This pic was taken at home when he was on the "test ride".
The end of the month of course brought , Halloween, in which, we produced quite possibly the cutest giraffe ever! We went a church carnival of sorts and Berik was thrilled just to be able to RUN!! Is anyone seeing a pattern here? Everywhere he goes he wants nothing more than to be let loose! Mind you, he may run for a bit but still stops to see where we are, so that makes us feel good. We also visited Pawpaw and Nana's house, where B loves to play the piano and then visited a couple of friends before calling it a night. He had no concept of trick or treating/ getting candy, which is fine by us, but had no probably eating a nutter butter ghost cookie, given to him by our friend Robin. We also participated in the daycare Halloween gift exchange at daycare and this is about the closest I let him get to the bags as he will make short work of tissue of any kind. Bubbles continue to be a big hit and if I can get it to load you might see B in action with the bubbles. Berik continues to fool with all the electronics he can get his hands on, which is almost anything, considering how tall he is! (3ft). No matter how careful we think we are he still manages to come up with a phone. All in all we had a really fun, busy month! G, J and B

Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming blog for Oct. 2007. Yes don't remind me about how behind I am.