Playing the Parents

I knew this would come. Just not this soon! Canaan is not even 2 years old! I remember trying this, but I was quite a bit older. I never thought he'd be trying to play his parents already!

The other day, Dougle and I were both in the kitchen, talking. Canaan has had this bad habit he's formed of asking for something over and over and over. He never gets what he wants, no matter how many times he asks, but he doesn't seem to have figured that out. And it has been getting annoying. So, we have been telling him that he will be "in trouble" if he asks again for something we've told him he can't have. This particular evening, Canaan was asking for crackers. Supper was almost ready and Dougle told him he needed to wait. He continued to ask, two more times, until Dougle told him he would "be in trouble" if he asked again. Dougle and I resumed our conversation and after a few seconds, Canaan came over to me. He stood in front of me and ever so quietly said, "Crackers please." He said it so quietly that I almost didn't hear him. Of course, our kitchen isn't that big and Daddy was just 3 little Canaan steps away. I am sure he didn't want him to hear! Dougle looked at me and asked, "Did he just ask you for crackers?" Oops, Canaan was busted! He got his due punishment. However, that didn't stop him from trying to pull the same stunt the next night. This time, though, Dougle was in the living room telling Canaan he couldn't have something, and I was in the kitchen. Oh my!

Half Way There!!

I am excited to announce that I am half way through my pregnancy! It has been a long road so far, this time around, but we are so blessed! About 10 days ago we felt that baby move for the first time. Since then, I feel the baby kicking almost everyday, usually in the evenings when I am sitting down and relaxing! Dougle has felt the baby a few times and last night he was even able to SEE the baby kick my stomach a few times! The baby was a little live-wire last night!I am close to one track with weight gain and looking pregnant! I have gained about 15 pounds so far, I think.
Just a few quick facts: the baby is about 6 1/2 inches from crown to rump, but now that the baby is bigger, they can more easily measure from head to heel. Head to heel, the baby measures about 10 inches. The baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces, is swallowing a lot now, and has even started producing the meconium, which is the black, sticky stuff that comes out in the first diaper! If you want to see a cool picture of about what the baby looks like now, you can go to this site: http://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-images-20-weeks.

Canaan is doing well. Several have asked whether he understands anything yet about the pregnancy. I don't think he does. We show him where the baby is and tell him to be careful of Mommy's tummy, but the other day he pointed to his belly and then Dougle's belly and said "Baby there too." Oh well. The closer the time gets, the more we'll talk about it with him. For now, he is happy being the only child for a bit longer!

More Pictures

Hello all. Well, I don't have much to write about again, but I thought I'd put a few pictures up. One of the pictures is of Sasha, who I have mentioned before. She comes over about once a week. She speaks really good English, but tries to help me with my Russian too. We usually talk a mix of Russian and English when she is over. She has helped teach me how to cook a few Russian meals. She is also the one who helps on Tuesday nights with LST. Canaan has really gotten to look forward to seeing her. Some days he asks, "Sasha back?" He doesn't say his "S" sounds very well and usually won't attempt to say them, but he will say them for her name!
Last night we were walking from the church to the metro with Sasha. Canaan left with Sasha, wanting to hold her hand and walk instead of ride in his stroller. So, for the short 10 minute walk, we let him. He just held her hand and was very content. When it was time to get onto the metro and part ways, we put Canaan in his stroller, but Canaan was very upset at having to let go of her hand. He said, "Sasha hand." So, being the sweetheart that she is, she held his hand while we went down into the metro. This is a picture of that, her holding Canaan's hand as we ride down the escalator!
The other pictures are just snapshot of Canaan on a swing, which I thought was really cute, and another of Canaan standing on the tall slide on our playground. When Canaan looks out our window down onto the slide, he says, "Canaan up stairs, down, Momma catch." It is cute. He knows he walks up the stairs, and he requests that I catch him on the way down! He calls the swing a "foof." I am not sure exactly where that came from!
The last picture is of Canaan with his storller. He still loves it. Whenever we walk to the playground or a store close by for a few items, he takes it with him. In fact, today at church he was looking at a book of Baby Jesus. In the book, he noticed Mary was wearing a "hat". Then he pointed to and decided her long robe was a "big tote (coat)." After that, he said, "Bye-bye, stairs. Push stroller, yeah." So, now you know his associations. If you are putting your hat and big coat on, you must be going outside to play on the stairs. And you will probably push your stroller there too!
On a weather note, today is it supposed to get up in the 50's, and the sun is shining in our windows for the first time in a few weeks! It is really nice. Though Canaan was wearing his full body snowsuit (everyone else had broken out snowsuits, so I just follow suit!), but today we got to put him in just his regular coat.

A Few Pictures

Here are a few pictures we've taken recently. I hope you enjoy!

Canaan and Daddy reading "Wake Up, Night" before bedtime.




Canaan standing on a chair looking out the window at the cars and trucks. If you notice, he found a way to get even higher!




Canaan getting ready to go outside and push his stroller. It has been in the low 40's for over a week!













This is Canaan sitting on the arm chair, listening to his music. He sits on the arm chair because the speakers are above it on the shelf!

You bought him what??? and pregnancy pictures

Pregnancy Progress

Hello to all. Things have been going much better recently as it seems that I have finally gained a bit of energy and am able to make it through the day without a nap or two! I am starting to look pretty big now. It is more obvious that I am pregnant these days; I am just growing more rapidly than my previous pregnancy, which I hear is normal. It is exciting, because I love looking pregnant! I think I might have felt the baby kick, but it is so hard to tell when they are so little. The baby is now about 5 1/2 inches long (head to rump), though my uterus is the size of a cantaloupe!!

You Bought Him What??

Well, we have a confession. We bought our son a toy stroller! Yes. We did. It is not pink, though. We made sure to choose the more boy color of blue! Let me explain.

Here all the little girls seem to have these small little toy strollers that they push around. Canaan absolutely loves pushing things around, strollers being no exception. Moms here bring toys to the play grounds for their kiddos: toy strollers, trucks and cars, sand box toys like shovels, buckets and molds, noise makers, etc. I've learned from watching that it is perfectly acceptable for the kids to play with each others toys, as long as the owner isn't demanding it and they aren't stealing toys from each other. If there is a problem, either the toy owner or the youngest child gets to play with it. Well, Canaan loves to push around the strollers if there are any. Well, it seemed out of the question to buy our BOY a stroller, and there were no boyish options that were in an acceptable price range.

So, that leads us up to last Saturday. We were invited over to Alexei and Katya's house to have a small celebration for their son's second birthday. They have two boys, Leonid who turned two, and Alexei Jr (Leoysha is the nickname, though I am sure I am butchering the spellings) who is 8 years old. Canaan loves going to their house because it is like a car/truck heaven; I think they have more cars/trucks than we have!! Well, when we were there, I pointed out to Dougle that there in the corner of their livingroom, stood a toy. blue stroller. Later, we went to the park with them. The big boys played Frisbee and the little ones played on the playground. Much to Canaan's delight, he found a bright pink stroller just waiting for him to push it all over. He pushed it for at least 20 minutes, having the time of his life. We snapped some pictures and remarked how Canaan loves pushing things. Alexei said that their youngest son also loves pushing things, like strollers. Every time they'd go to the park, he'd find someone's stroller and push it around the whole time. That is why they finally broke down and bought one for him, even though it seemed ridiculous to buy a toy stroller for a boy! So, shortly after visiting their house, we bought Canaan his own little stroller! And he loves it!

The Slideshow

The slideshow of pictures has some from the birthday, some from our day downtown while waiting to submit our Ukrainian visas (see Dougle's blog for the story), and some other random recent photos. Hope you enjoy!

22 months and counting!

So, I am about 9 days late posting a 22 month post about Canaan. This seems to be the way I've been posting things recently...a bit tardy! Oh well. Is being pregnant a good excuse?? :)

New Words: There are many. I can't list them all, but here are a few: play (pay), stack (tak), see, cookies, off, on, there, here (these 2 sound almost the same: ear/ere), sit, big, small (mall), shower (wower), milk (bok), monkey (onkey), frog (og), bird, over, under, away, potatoes (tatoes), coin, heart (arch), dog, too, towel, and dry.

New Phrases: He is starting to put words together and talk in sentences or semi-sentences more and more each day. His longest little phrase is about 5 words: "A blue choo-choo there too!" He has started saying lots of short phrases:
"sit ball"
"up stair truck" (when moving his trucks up and down things)
"play trucks/cars" (I want to or can I play with my trucks and cars)
"a new, Yeah!" (when he is requesting another song)
"See Canaan" (when he wants to look in the mirror)
"here go" (here it goes)
"choo-choo on truck"
"stinky diaper"
"a new diaper momma"
"more cars here"
"all over" (he said this today when the music ended
"3 'O's' truck" (three O's in the truck)
"mama, catch" (he says this a lot when throwing me a ball or when he wants me to catch him at the bottom of a big slide)

New Concepts
He has learned big/small. He successfully can identify which things are big/small about 90-95% of the time! He has learned off and on and will tell us when things are off/on. He knows the difference between a fan being off and on, and when a truck is off or on a book, etc. Being his Mommy, I am so impressed! Canaan also has picked up on the concept of "too." He is always saying such and such too, when there is more than one thing. He has also started to pick up other prepositions, like over/under and he definitely knows what push means. We are working on pull. He also loves to use the words here/there. They sound really similar, so I can't always tell if he uses them correctly all the time. But he is always pointing and saying "there" when he is talking about things at a distance. We continue to work on colors, but I feel he just must not be ready yet. He calls everything "blue." I think it is his new favorite word!!

New Feats

Canaan is full of new stuff. I just can't remember it all right now. However, he is starting to feed himself more and more. If the soup is thick enough, he can eat it by himself. He eats oatmeal by himself too. And he cleans out his yogurt containers pretty well now. He is getting so big!

As far as large motor skills, he is throwing and kicking well. We are still working on catching. Small motor skills are developing well too. He plays with some uncooked kidney beans and has started stacking coins. He has also taken up watercoloring. When I try to get him to color with crayons, he just wants to hold all of them in his hand or line them up in a row! 

Well, that's all for now folks. I hope to post another blog soon about our recent exploints and my pregnancy growth. Hope you all are doing well!!

Climbing out of Bed

Here is the promised video of Canaan climbing out of his bed! As you can see, it is only safe with our bed right there! He does great at not getting up when he isn't supposed to; but he knows he can call our names when he wakes up, and once given permission, he climbs out by himself!

We've been taking turns being sick this week, that is why I haven't put on his 22 month update! Hope you enjoy the video!