The Moniz Family

Okay...so a certain someone, who shall remain nameless, pointed out to me that my blog has been a little abandoned. Agreed. Okay...so here I am once again.

So Marcus is 17 months now and growing like a weed. Not that I've really noticed, actually, except all his clothes aren't fitting again and I've got to switch them all over again. Jeans that I

put on him in the beginning of the summer (see pic) and had to cuff are somehow fitting perfectly now. I usually blame the dryer myself (tee hee) but alas - I think he's growing :) I pulled out the cutest little camoflauged hoodie from the closet the other day that was marked (size 2) - put it on and he looked like a little sausage! Personally I think the sweater was a small make because the rest of his 18-24 clothes don't quite fit yet - but man was I dissapointed when this little gem didn't fit. He got a total of 1 wear out of it. :( Ah well.... I also found a box of clothes that I had put into the closet marked 12months+. You think I would have pulled that out at the one year mark and not 17 months. And here I was thinking I was short on 12-18mo sleepers.....well - I found them! And now they don't fit. Dammit!!!!! K...gotta get better at this clothes-organizing thingy. I'm quite lucky though - I'm getting clothes from everyone around :D Daycare is giving me clothes from 2 seperate ladies!!! Sleepers and dressier clothes is really all I've had to buy these last few months. I've got a ton of clothes for 18-24 - his closet is bursting! And I bought one of those closet hanger converters that gives you a secondary rod that hangs under the main rod. Both are full. The dresser is full. And the spare room I think has a bed in it - but I haven't seen it in a while for all the clothes that are piled on top of it. :) I'm not complaining tho. These clothes are definitely getting their use. My girlfriend also had a baby boy who's just about 6 months now and I've been loaning her all of M's clothes. So I don't feel too bad about some of my stuff not getting worn.

And thanks to all you Mom's who are so-called-friends out there who never warned me that the terrible two's start at about 16 months. WTF? Some mornings are MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY! Daddy could stand on his head and spit quaters and it doesn't matter. M and I were in bed this morning reading a story and Daddy walked in. No problems.....Daddy tried to pick him up so Mommy could go have a shower and baby could get ready for Daycare. Not cool. The tantrum started there and pretty much didn't end...well.....it subsided a bit while Mike had him outside showing the baby the garden.....but it picked back up again at daycare which he loves....but he wasn't letting go of Mommy!!! Sigh....Daycare lady just laughed...all the kids seemed to be in a bit of a funk today....so she threw her hands up in the air and said "Okay - everyone back to bed!!!" Hheheheheheeh.....God bless her.

I was telling Carol yesterday that M loves his books. He's got a stack of them beside our bed that's just about as tall as he is. :) He loves snuggling up in bed with us, hauling out as many books as he can get into bed with us and then handing them to us to read. He loves flipping the pages (weather your done reading that page or not.....as I'm sure all kids are) and he loves pointing out all the little animals and such that he knows. He's still using the pacifier in the mornings and he pulls it out when he sees something he recognizes in the book and exclaims "Birdie!" and then pops the pacifier back in....cutest thing :)

This weekend he learned the arm motion that goes with choo choo train, although he doesn't say Train or choo choo yet. He also learned "oo oo" for the monkey noises and lost his mind when we were at the playground and there was a picture of a monkey. He kept running over and going "oo ooo!" "oo ooo!" and pointing to the monkey. It was hilarious! :)

He does have quite a few words though - "cookie" and "more" being his favourites. But he also says: doggie, kitty, car, horse(ie), birdie, and cow. Although I'm sure I'm forgetting some...well...Mommy and Daddy too of course. He tries to put on his own shoes and socks...which is also hilarious cuz he just tries shoving them on.....sideways...backwards. He knows the shoe goes on his foot and if you shove the two of them together hard enough - they'll work themselves out :) He combs his own hair (or tries to) and loves the blowdryer. He gives full on kisses and hugs. If Daddy is laying on the floor and you tell him to "go get Daddy!!" he tackles him. He can tell the difference between some of his toys....and if you ask him to go get certain ones...mostly he gets it right :) He still hasn't figured out the concept of a puzzle yet....but I'm sure he'll get there.

Oh....and the climbing has started. He figured out how to put his stand up piano thingy beside the counter and climb up on it to reach the faucet and anything else he can get his little paws onto. I figured, okay, I'll move it away from the counter and he won't climb on it any more........riiiiiiiiggghhhhttt. Climbed onto it right in the middle of the room. He'd have stood up on it if he could have managed it - the little monkey. He's also figured out how to get up onto the couch by himself. Same day as the kitchen faucet incident - he climbed up on the couch, up onto the back of the couch and stood up in the window looking out all excited holding onto the blinds. Needless to say, my heart was in my throat. This is the kid who still tries to crawl off the side of the bed thinking there isn't a edge and now he's standing up on the back of the couch. Oh God help me. :) He's also figured out how to climb up into our bed by getting his toes in between the mattresses and hoisting himself up. Except - there's the problem of the edges again once he's on the bed and he fell off the side again the other day. Sigh.......he tries to climb down off the bed and usually he does pretty well...but of course..the one time Daddy isn't looking..........BANG! He's still in one piece, thankfully. And surprisingly - he didn't cry all that much....again....it must have been mid-decent and just sounded worse than it was.

So, our 10th anniversary is this week (Yah!) and we've decided to go to Quebec City. We had origianlly thought about going to Vancouver but the flight is so long and you loose so much in the time difference. I've always wanted to go to Quebec anyway and am actually much more excited now that we've changed plans :) We've decided to leave M with Mike's Aunt - she's been great at the babysitting and has offered to look after him while we're gone. This is our first time leaving him for the entire night with someone else and it's going to be for 3 straight days. We thought about taking him with us....but how do you go for a romantic anniversary dinner when you've got to be home by 8. So - we're leaving him at home.

One of my main concerns though is that I'm still nursing him when he gets up in the morning and before he goes to bed. I'm going to take a pump with me (I missed one feeding the other night and I paid for it in the morning!) so that'll help me some. But I'm wondering about M. I'm sure his Aunt will give him a bottle and so forth.....but will he wean in 3 days? He loves feeding and very much looks forward to it. It's so routine for him - I thought maybe now that he's a little older he might show signs of wanting to give it up - but absolutely not. And I personally love our time that we get to snuggle up together so it doesn't bother me. Oh well....guess I'll just have to wait and see what he's like when I get back. Carol thinks he might possibly wean - or come back with a renewed vigor....hehee.

As for everything else.......Dad's doing great. He's on a new trial drug regime and it seems to be working wonders. His Ocologist suggested this trial as his last drug had stopped working and his cancer had started to spread a tiny bit again. So, after much research and deliberating, he's decided to go on this trial - and thankfully it's working. His last scan shows that all of the spots on his lymph nodes, adrenal glands and his lung have shrunk. All very good news. He now has to come into the hospital once a week for this treatment, and now that they've worked out dosage and so forth - it's all going very well. He's able to drive home and isn't experienceing too many ill side effects. All in all, definitely a positive.

September is a busy month for us....already we've had 2 weddings, a birthday and my girlfriend, Liliana, just became a Grandma to a beautiful little baby girl, Sofia. We've still got 4 more birthdays and our Anniversary to go. And then we leave Oct 1st for Quebec. We're going to go from Friday to Monday and then we've taken Tuesday off to spend with M so he's not too traumitized :) (Anyone got a money tree I can borrow, btw? Anyone???)

Okay...seriously? What's wrong with me? Jan was my last post? Terribly sorry about that folks. I'll be better in future. Promise.

So...we're up to 8 teeth now. Big jump from 2 but that's what happens when you don't post for 4 months :)

Marcus also had his first birthday! Yeah!!! My little man is One. They grow up so quickly, don't they? Hhehehehehehee...

He was pretty good during all the festivities. He got pretty curious when everyone started singing 'Happy Birthday" and started looking around at everyone with a "What the hell are all you people doing?" kinda look on his face..and then when the clapping ensued...he merrily joined in :) It was pretty cute :) He ate his first piece of birthday cake like a champ. He jumped in with both hands and was soon covered in icing (and so was mommy...who sat too close while opening his gifts) :) But all in all, there were a lot of people, too many gifts and way too much food. Couldn't ask for anything more!!!! :D