Lights On!

Vash enjoys lights. Now that he's tall enough to turn them on and off by himself, that's what he likes to do instead of taking a nap. But way before he was 37 inches tall and before he could walk, we took him to McKormick railroad park to see the Christmas lights. They have a train at the park and it slowly takes passengers through a man made Light Wonderland. They have Santas and presents galore, "flying" reindeer, elves, and usually some particle board cut outs of a recent popular cartoon. (E.G. they had Shrek that year.) But the thing that makes this ride the most special is all the lights. Hundreds of thousands of light every where. Even though Vash was only about six months old when we took him, he seemed to really enjoy it. For a wiggle worm who never wanted to be held, he sat quietly and still, looking around with wide eyes for the whole ten minutes of the train ride. He looked so cute with his puffy coat and hat, all wrapped in a blanket. His cheeks still got pink, but that's Vash. Ivory skin and pink puffy cheeks. We had to skip last year because I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant and didn't want to risk delivering on a train. We're pretty excited to take both the kids this year.

Extra Special Gift

Vash was only days old on Craig's first father's day. Craig was changing Vash on the automan. It was just after church so Craig was wearing his nice white shirt and tie. Any how, Vash was breast fed and any one who breast feeds knows how.... interesting baby poop is from a breast fed baby. Well, Craig was changing the diaper when all of a sudden... BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!! Out came bright yellow seedy poop all over Craig, his white shirt, his tie, onto the wall behind him, onto the couch, and even on his face. Craig tried not to throw up, clean himself up, while I cleaned up the baby and the walls the best I could. Craig was sputtering and mumbling something about "Did that on purpose....gross... why on Earth..." I tried to lighten the mood and said, " Well, Craig, just think about this. He's probably saying 'Happy Father's Day!' in the only way he can."

Two Stories

#1 Driving Home
In honor of Vash's birthday I want to write about when we brought him home from the hospital. It was surreal to think that we had a little person in the car with us. The entire fifteen minutes I kept turning around to be sure he was ok and Craig drove about ten miles below the speed limit to be extra safe. When we got home we set his car seat on the couch and just stared at him for a bit. I remember feeling like, "wow, look what I made!" He was sleeping so peacefully. We touched all his chubby rolls and caressed his cheek until we were ready to take him out of his car seat. It was the official "We have a baby and he's home now" action. That was a great day.

#2 Bink Bink

Papa hates that Vash loves the binky. Every time Vash sucks a binky in front of Papa, Papa asks Vash for the binky, Vash hands it over, then Papa tells him how much better he speaks without it. Anyway, Craig and I were taking the kids for a walk and a man with a hat got out of a car across the street. Vash asked around his binky, "Papa"? "No, that's not Papa," we explained. But Vash was convinced. "Papa! Papa!" He cried. Then he took out his binky and acted like he was going to hand it over, "Papaaaaaaaaaa!" He yelled in tears. I could just imagine what was going on in his head. "If there is a Papa, and thou art Papa, will thou make thyself known unto me? I would give away all my binkies to know thee."

Ultrasound

As I've said before, Vash is a mover and a shaker. We found that out before he was born. Not just from later in my pregnancy when I could feel all of his energy, but way, way, before. The very first ultrasound we did, I was about ten weeks along and we were yet to even know the gender. The machine was turned on and after taking some measurements, the screen was turned toward us. The first thing we saw was this amazing and tiny beating heart. The ultrasound technician zoomed out then to reveal this very active little baby. Pumping his little fists and legs as fast as he could, Craig and I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of our unborn and very energentic child. Every time I'd laugh Vash could feel it and would freeze, probably wondering what was happening. As soon as I could stop the giggles he's begin his little pumping dance again. I wish we'd have caught it on video, but even though we didn't it's some thing I'll never forget.

(BTW, Rhyla was the complete opposite in her first ultrasound. It was a high tech 3D imagery one with her because they were checking to be sure it wasn't an Ectopic pregnancy. I could see every little move she made. She lay there looking asleep, only occasionally moving her fists in front of her face and trying to snuggle even closer to the uterine wall. Very much like her as we've found out. Snuggly and docile.)