Halloween

This year BJ dressed up as a dinosaur and made a great one at that! Luckily Mom did not have to run to the hospital complete in costume to catch a baby like last year (that was fun, aw . . . residency) so we got to go trick or treating together. He still doesn't quite get the concept- didn't ever say trick or treat to anyone at the door- but will say it at home- but did say thank you. We hit about 7 houses in the neighborhood and handed out candy at our house. He ran to the door every time, but the masks definitely scared him. Because of his allergies and my mission to keep his sugar intake low, he traded his candy with Daddy for Hot Wheels Cars, which are cooler anyway ;) He did come down the next morning looking in his pumpkin for the candy, but calmed down when we filled it up with cars again. My nephew Anson was also a dinosaur, so I'll have to ask Ran if we can post his pic too. (Thanks Grammy for the awesome costume!)

Grandpa and Grandma got him the dinosaur light in his L hand, I'm trying to get him to show it to me, but he didn't quite get it. It "Roars" when you turn it on!

I need 3 pumpkins right? We need lots of loot!

Checking out the stash- I love that it looks like their negotiating here!

BJ's 2nd Birthday Party

Sorry for the delay in posting, my to-do list keeps growing- instead of shrinking! BJ had his 2nd birthday party the weekend after his birthday, complete with lots and lots of attention from his family. Both sets of grandparents came out for the event, plus his Aunt Maria and Uncle Matt and their 3 kids, plus friends from church. It was only a bit chaotic, but luckily I think it went fairly smoothly. BJ enjoyed presents from all- although there were so many we had to open them over days. Plus, he got into eating his cake much more this year than last!! I didn't take a lot of pictures since I was trying to host and enjoy the time, but here are a few!

The cake- He even blew out the candle himself this year (I'm sure we got that on video)

Cake demolished- not sure what the look on his face is about though.

Definitely got the concept of ripping off wrapping paper this year.

Some of the loot- and playing with Grammy- both have a train going :)

BJ is 2!!

I cannot believe my baby is two! It is amazing. We are blessed daily by this little boy! We celebrated tonight with his favorite foods for dinner, coconut milk ice cream, and presents. He definitely enjoyed it!!

1st ice cream ever- you eat it with your hands right?

Now with a spoon and an "accessory utensil" help

So excited waiting for Daddy to take the cars from Kathy out of the package (thanks so much Kathy!)

Brandon says there is a good chance BJ will have an engineering mind- he parked them in a line immediately!

Lining up the cars on the train track while waiting for the train to get batteries! Thanks Stefanie!

Working on his new tractor and impact driver with Daddy!

Enjoying all his new toys!

Uh-Oh's and Owies

One of BJ's first words was "uh-oh". At the time I thought it was because we were saying it a lot, but it may have been a forshadowing of things to come. He started using the word with every spill, every broken object, or just when things aren't going his way. Recently he has added "happen" to his uh-oh. Likely because he says "Uh-oh"and we respond "what happened?" It is pretty cute though to see him run up to you and say "uh-oh, happen" to let you know something happened. It usually goes this way "uh-oh, happen" "What happened BJ?" "water" "Did you spill water?" "Yeah" "Well go get the towel and clean it up" (and he does generally). Believe me, much cuter in real life. But today we had a "uh-oh, happen" that took a little more than a towel. BJ is becoming more and more a little boy loving to run around, climb, and imitate others. 2 weeks ago he tried to jump off a couch onto a bean bag like his big cousins and slipped, fell and had a black eye for a while. (Come to think of it, I think they showed him how to climb up slides too . . .) So when our sitter, Stefanie texted me at work to say he had fallen and had a gash on his face and a cut by his eye, I figured it couldn't be to terrible. Plus, we love our sitter, she is amazing, and if she's not worried, I'm not worried. A few hours later, she became more worried, when she texted to say it wouldn't stop bleeding (basically it would only not bleed if there was a good bandaid on it). So being Dr. Mom, I ran by on my lunch hour to hopefully dermabond it back together (like special skin superglue- I have some in my car- hey I'm prepared). Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it dry long enough to glue and was pretty sure I wanted the best possible cosmetic result- it is under his right eye afterall- so I took him back to work. I was a bit flustered at this point, knowing he'd need stitches, on his face, by his eye- and knowing he is almost 2- I can't reason with him. He actually did pretty well- moved around a bit more than I liked for having stitches being placed under his eye. One of my bosses sewed him up amazingly- wiggling and all, and BJ screamed through the whole thing- enough to be hoarse and wheezy. But each time he saw the needle go by he gave out an "Uh-Oh" yelp. Poor guy. He got 4 stitches, and was a great trooper. So our first stitches incident come and gone, with only a bucket full of tears from BJ (and few from mom when it was all over). I'll spare you the before pic and just show the end result. Thanks to my amazing staff who helped cover for me in a crazy afternoon, and Dr. Matt for having amazing steady hands.

P.S. Dr. tip for the day, keep scrapes and cuts moist with vaseline/antibiotic ointment and covered to minimize scar. :)

The owie he wants you to see- no owie, just a fun bandaid to keep him from paying attention to the one on his face.

You can kind of see it here- again, he wants you to see his cream instead :)

And the best I could get- Brandon has the camera and is out of town, we'll get a better shot, but you get the idea. At least he isn't still upset!

Spanglish

In my attempt to take advantage of vast amount of knowledge one can acquire during the early years of life, my son has really learned some quality Spanglish. It may be that my Spanish vocabulary has suffered some (or that I never previously knew the word for hyena- which is hiena FYI) but BJ has started saying some good ole fashioned Spanglish phrases. Two of his favorites are: Luz on (for light on) (which is easier for luz encendido) and mas please (again easier than mas por favor). I would say that I'm disappointed, but I'm not. As crazy as it sounds, I worry that my knowledge of the Spanish language is not comprehensive enough for him to truly be fluent- and I have been looking for classes (not just to learn his colors and numbers, but true conversation). However, so far we have been doing pretty well. I can ask him to pick up his toys, tell him that we need to go have a bath, put on close, etc. and he understands me. He also has quite a few words he says himself (some of which he doesn't know the English translation to). On a routine basis we hear luz (light), mas (more), uva (grape), ojo (eye), boca (mouth), agua (water), cereal (with the Spanish pronunciation) etc. Plus there are a dozen or so words that he will repeat if you remind him. It is cool, but I hope that it turns into conversation instead of a sweet party trick of a few Spanglish phrases from a very gringo kid.

But what a sweet gringo. . .and growing, here I was amazed and only a bit miffed that he wouldn't let me hold on to him on the ski lift going up the mountain the other day.

Ready to hit the alpine slide (taken before I jumped on to go down!) He loved it!

Our family (not sure what is going on with my hair) at the top of the mountain on an awesome Day on the Town with some great friends the Clinefelter's!

Mischevious grin-- Go Huskers!!

God's Identity, Changing my Priorities

It is amazing how God speaks to us. . . I love it when things start lining up that are knocking on your heart (even though I wish he was more direct sometimes). As a new doc in my practice, I am still developing who "my" patients are- those patients who would say I'm their doctor, instead of that I was the one they saw last. Because of this and the nature of the practice, I am seeing quite a few physicals- anywhere from 2-8 in a day. And the vast majority of the physicals are women aged 30-55. So many of them come in wanting to know why they can't sleep, can't lose weight, etc. I ask most of them what they do for themselves. Many can't tell me. And most start crying when I start to talk about how as women, moms, wives, etc. we tend to do for everyone else 1st, and leave the leftovers for us. Interestingly enough, I think this is true spiritually also, we do everything on our "to-do" list 1st, leaving time for God rushed, and time for ourselves nonexistent. I am no exception in this. I am good about reading a devotion daily, working out 3-5 times a week, and picking up a book to read, but in general, I am not great at sitting down (as I type this I am standing ha!) and spending time with God refreshing me. The interesting thing is that most of our families could care less if our houses are clean (our standard of clean), or if the meal came from a box or from scratch. And yet, many of us, me included, place high standards on getting this all done, so that we collapse into bed at night exhausted not able to identify what we did to refresh ourselves that day. As a doc, I can give you a whole list of things this can do to you, but I won't. Mainly, I'm just working on it myself. I tend to be a perfectionist on many things, and have even struggled today with making sure I'm accomplishing everything on my "to-do" list today. But I started reading this really great book today, and I feel like God is really trying to work at changing my priorities and my to do list. One quote from the book (Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl) "If Satan can use our everyday experiences, both big and small, to cripple our true identity, [in Christ] then he render's God's people totally ineffective for the kingdom of Christ." I like it. I'm going to try and focus on what really matters, where my identity really lies, taking time for myself, and not beating myself up for not packing socks for a recent camping trip (Thanks Ran), or showing up to the park without shoes for my son (Thanks Jenna), or having my husband have to wait til 9 p.m. to eat dinner some nights (Thanks Babe) but focusing on spending more time with God, in his relaxing presence!

My true priorities- the boys (driving the project car!)

Too cute- he is not potty trained, but is sitting on the potty chair, diaper on, reading "How to Potty Train in a Day" :)

Beginnings. . . (Thanks Julie:))

It's official! I've actually been at my job almost a month- thus the lack of posting! I'm loving work, loving my schedule, and loving having time to be a mom! I'm still trying to figure out how to "schedule" or not schedule my time off, since I'm not used to having much! BJ and I are enjoying an occasional storytime at the library and trying to just relax on his "Mommy days." However, he is also enjoying his "Daddy nights" on Thursdays when Mommy works late and Daddy feeds him fast food and lets him play in the playplaces- so far Chik-fil-A is their favorite :) We've had some very busy weekends Brandon's mom came out for 2 weekends to spend time with BJ, we hosted a large baby shower, I ran a 1/2 marathon, BJ and I flew to Omaha for a weekend to celebrate the great marriages in my family (and their milestone anniversaries), I've worked 2 weekends, and we've had countless parties and dinners to attend. That makes us sound very popular, I'm not sure that is the case :) BJ and Brandon have been working on a deck and almost have the surface finished- next for the railing and stairs. BJ has been hysterical lately, here are a few stories to share:

The other night he was in his crib chatting instead of going to sleep, so I snuck up to see what he was doing and heard him singing "bus, shh, shh, shh, bus" which is his rendition of the "Wheels on the Bus"

We try to be clear in any location what he is and isn't allowed to play with and go around to identify what is "no" and what is "yes" (in terms of touching). He has started running around and passing the "no's" with a hearty "no" each time he runs by, but doesn't touch!

He has decided his cousins, Wolfgang, Katarina, and Isabella, and their parents are very fun, but has started referring to all of them as "Lella" until this morning when he shouted "Matt" when he saw Uncle Matt coaching on the football field. I think it hurts Katarina's feelings, but he'll soon be saying her name too.

He has routinely lifted his shirt to show us his "belly/panza" when asked, but has occasionally lifted up others shirts to help them find theirs too.

The best of all is his hugs, he routinely gives Mommy and Daddy hugs when asked, that are so sweet! We are so blessed by our sweet little BJ!

"Foreman BJ"

"I'm on the phone, Mom"

Chilling on the airplane to Omaha, likely his last flight for a while, since he has to have a ticket after age 2.