That's Exciting Guys!

It was my second pregnancy. The first one didn't go to well, I miscarried after three months. The second time around, I didn't bother to see doctor for three months, just in case anything happened again. No doubt - I was scared. I don't know if that was a smart move or what; however, health-wise, I felt good, nothing bothered me - I biked, walked, worked, ate well. Decided to wait. After three months, finally dragged myself to the doctors office. The home test said I was pregnant, it was time to get the professional confirmation.

Let me now divert you from a sad introduction. I had funny conversations with people, but to have one with your family doctor was kind of rare. I had more after that, but this was a great start to get to know our family doctor after all. First let me tell you that. I don't know how he does it, but he is the fastest doctor in the world. I call him Speedy Gonzales. I swear, I think some of my visits literally lasted 30 seconds.

'Hi, oh yes that is normal, here is a prescription for Vitamin E' - he would reply. Yes to get my spirits up and reassure me that nothing else can be done, he would prescribe me the Vitamin E. No I need prescription to dermatologist, not Vitamin E. But then he was right after all, the dermatologists visits didn't help. You just have to live with some things.
'Anything else can I help you with today?', waits a second (not enough time to even think one single question) - 'Okay good buy'. I guess if you don't know your pains and aches when doctor asks you really fast, then you probably don't have them.

Well these short visits were about to finish when I got pregnant and got my beautiful baby.

My husband and myself decided to carry the whole process together. Not a single doctor appointment missed, and even now when Matthew is two years old, we always visit doctor together. After three months of contemplating, we are now at the doctors office. As usual, he runs into the room.

'How can I help you today?' - he asked.
'I think I am pregnant.' - I said.
'Oh that is wonderful guys!' - he replied.

And when he found out that I was about 10 weeks into pregnancy, 'we better do all the tests fast' - he replied. Suddenly my life changed. I felt like I was sick, but no I was just pregnant.

We were standing and about to leave. Now this was kind of strange moment. He wasn't fast anymore. Stood and kept saying, 'that's exciting guys'. He truly was happy for us. Then out of no where, 'Are your breasts enlarged?' - he asked.

Shocked, no time to get embarrassed, 'Oh yeah' - I replied. Not yes or yes doctor, but the big 'Oh yeah'. Well the truth was they were and hey it happens. I think I and my husband saw small laugh on his face after I said that. So after the big 'oh yeah', he replied, 'that's exciting'. Smiled, shook our hands, said good bey and left.

We left the office, stunned and then laughed our heads out in the car. Until today we still don't know if to him my enlarged breasts were exciting or my pregnancy. Not to distort the doctors reputation, it was probably the pregnancy.

Kids Say the Darndest Things - Bye Bye Man!

Children are the best if comes to their expressions, their gestures and their innocent talk. Matthew is now 20 months and what a small loud character he is.

Yesterday we had an appointment with the banker to invest some money in Matthew's future education. Last year the same appointment wasn't so bad, as Matthew was still in the car seat, but this year he walks, runs and talks. The crayons and the coloring book only kept him busy for three minutes, other ten minutes he actually observed the banker do all the work on the computer. Suddenly, Matthew screams - 'oh preent preent woooow'. Yes, the man was suddenly printing our paper work. Well that was it for sitting in the office.

He runs out the office, and the exploration starts. On the side of the eye, I can see everyone looking at Matthew, and in their eyes I can see smiles. Yes, he not only walks, runs but asks - 'What is thees? and thees?'. That's man's computer, that is TV, you want to watch Bambi - 'Nope', he says. He walks into another empty office, stands there for a good minute and observes everything around. Finds calculator, 'Seet Seet', points at the chair. Sits on the chair and makes a butt motion to move him closer to the table. He is ready to calculate. He knows his numbers. Then he takes the calculator and brings to the office where his dad sits with the man.

Ready for another run. Matthew now gets my cell phone to play with. Oh Matthew this is a long distance to Maryland. I still don't know how his little fingers always find numbers to call the numbers we don't want him to call. So he calls some number, puts into his ear - 'Noonnaa, noonnaa! doing' That is his grandmother he is calling now and asking what she is doing.

Time to sign some paperwork for me, so we switch now - my husband gets him. Time is running out and so is Matthew's patience. He swirls him self away from daddy, grabs my handbag and starts walking out the door. Matthew where are you going sweetie? 'Bye bye man, taank you, bey bye man'. He walks out the office, and walking to the door keep repeating to everyone around 'bye bye man', happy having us going with him. On the side of my eye I could see everyone in the line turning, and again bright smiles in their eyes. We came out laughing too. I guess we will have to decide later on the education fund investment.

I also have Matthew's latest photo on MyOnlyPhoto blog, Motion Pictures - My Experimental Photography - little speedster he is.

Someone Little Enjoys His Food

My Matthew who sometimes looks like a little man in the baby clothes is definitely growing. Not just physically but mentally too. His little brain is processing everything he sees, and everything he sees he wants to do - one of them - eat like we eat.

You Are Getting Your Own Dinner Plate. It was time to give Matthew big dinner plate, and let me tell you why. Every breakfast, lunch or dinner Matthew would reach out for our fork or spoon, and dish full of food. He wanted to eat what we eat. It was fun for while, but us eating spaghetti with the spoon did it. 'Matthew you are getting your own plate' - we said. He absolutely loves it now as he can choose from three different foods I put on his dish. To our surprise Matthew started to pick his own food with his fork right into his mouth. The nice thing is that he knows when he does something new, and he is so proud of himself - the big smile on his face tells it all.

Spaghetti Time. Matthew is now almost 15 months, and he got total of four teeth - two on the bottom and two on the top. We thought that eating spaghetti would be tough, but we were wrong. Matthew would grab this long pasta and grind into pieces with his four teeth, and then with more shredding on the back and then its all gone. The best of all is to watch him how sometimes he would try to put long pasta onto the fork and then into his mouth. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, and this is when his face looks like tomato smugged in the ground beef.

Let Me Clean Your Face. No not Matthew's face. In fact my face needed to be clean one day. With few sneezes around food, and with Matthew sometimes eating from my dish and then grabbing my face for a small hug and kiss, it is hard for me to keep my face clean. In addition, Matthew likes to pick small crumbs around him with his little fingers and eat them. So one day Matthew finds a small bread crumb attached to my face, picks it and eats it. This time I laughed.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate yet?... Yes Matthew loves apple cinnamon chocolate loaf !!!

As life goes on, we continue our messy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners. One day when I am old and washing my floor around the table, the greasy stains will remind me how wonderful and precious eating times we had together.

My Baby is Showing Affection - Unforgettable Moments

My reflections - unforgettable moments with Matthew.

'The first touch,
The first smile,
The first eye to eye contact,
The first hickey, a hunger call,
The first lick on the face, a wet one,
The first hug, for the bear,
Very shy every time,
Then snuggles to me,
- its all my baby.'

I was sitting on the sofa and watching Matthew playing. He is now 11 months plus. With his little hands he takes the white Easter bunny and hugs him on the left, then on the right side, and playing shy at the same time. That was so so cute, and I wish I had the video camera, but I knew soon as I get one all will be over. I continued to watch, to my surprise, Matthew is now talking to his prayer duck, of course in his own language. Then I get up and get the camera, but the unforgettable moments are now over. Truly unforgettable.

Earlier today we went to church for Ukrainian Easter Good Friday. It was his third visit to the church. Unfortunately we were not able to take him on regular basis on Sunday before, because of his eating and sleeping schedule, especially that he likes to eat and sleep at the same times as all the church masses. Well on the parking lot we ran into two priests who knew my father and came up to greet him. One of the priests immediately ignored my dad and dived to play with Matthew. Matthew responded by pointing and reaching out to him - next thing the priest is kissing his little hands. Another unforgettable moment.

Matthew started to show true affection around nine months but earlier around six months Matthew had these interesting ways to express hunger. When hungry he would latch to my chin and give me a hickeys. He would also make suction motions with his lips where we though it was hunger, but no he was massaging his gums. But try to explain this to his uncle who insisted that I feed him - I guess he got paranoid when Matthew made a move on him with his lips. Another unforgettable moment to share.

The true affection surfaced when Matthew started to hug his blue plush bear and a big brown bear. It was and still is so cute to watch him as he embraces the big brown Bear's head with his little hands. And then it is nice to watch him when he embraces the small plush bear with his little hands and brings close to his body to hug him. Many many unforgettable moments.

'Matthew can I have kiss kiss' - we would ask. 'Matthew I love you' - we would say all the time. 'Matthew eeee eeee eeee' - we would squeak. And there he goes with his mouth wide open and tongue across my face, a wet wet lick. Unforgettable feeling.

A Tip, Parents Do Not Loose Your Children at the Zoo

About two years ago we took our 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to the zoo. It was hot sunny day so we really needed to have some mouth watering ice cream. We split, I took my niece and sat under the tree full of peacocks. Yes, the peacocks were hiding in the tree. We decided to be brave, and lucky no flying patties or rain from the sky. My husband took our nephew to get the ice cream. I think the ice cream man was making that ice cream from scratch since there were only few people in line and took them forever to deliver that mouth watering ice cream to us. The funny thing was that there were few young Amish girls same age or a bit older as my nephew and they couldn't take their eyes off him. I watched from far away as he would at times put his head up and pretend not to see them. It was kind of cute.

The ice cream was really being made from scratch. We gave up waiting, just sat under the tree and observed by passers and by standers. As the time lapsed, by standers would come and go. Then one cool looking guy, not good looking guy, but cool looking guy made a quick stop to have a cigarette. He played cool, blowing smoke to the sky. Good thing it was to the sky and wind was blowing away from us, because I am allergic to the second hand smoke and I can smell it miles away. This cool looking guy was not approachable, he just looked like one of those if you are lost somewhere, you rather be lost and not ask questions.

We continued to wait. Many people passed by us, especially lot of parents with children - walking, being pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons. As we watched all these people passing by, suddenly a child fell out the wagon. The parents continued to walk not seeing what happened. The victim of the situation was 1.5 or 2 years old girl. The second older child in the wagon, the brother, was reaching out with his hand saying something, but because it was loud no body could hear him. The little girl was stunned for a moment, so she just sat there for few seconds trying to recover. There were lot of people, so no body really noticed anything, just us and the cool guy.

I really underestimated the cool guy, he was actually first to notice and first to yelled out loud - 'excuse me, excuse me' - he at first said in deep cool voice. No response from parents. 'Excuse me, you lost your child' - he finally yelled really loud, and started to move towards the little girl. It all happened in matter of seconds, and since I knew that the cool guy was taking care of the business I just got myself ready just in case. The parents finally turned back, the girl started to cry. The parents picked up this little girl and just walked away - looking kind of embarrassed. Well may be this is why the cool guy is cool guy - he got no thank you, or even a nod of acknowledgment. And I was ready to give him a medal.

The moral to the story - don't underestimate others by their behaviour or look or cool look, they may be first to give you a helping hand after all, and probably the last to be thanked. And the main moral to the story is - strap your children to the wagon, especially when at the zoo, because it isn't just the zoo of animals, but zoo full of people and you can easily loose your child as these parents did.

Something to Laugh About - Television Is Watching Me

I have not realized that its been few weeks since I posted here. Just got involved in some renovations of My Only Photo blog - and now I am done. However, I will make this post short and sweet just to get some energy flow here. Something I want to make a note of. I had small talk with my mom over the phone, and somehow we started to talk about television. Oh I remember now. When I put Matthew [9 months old] to watch a cartoon, he will not watch. But if I put him front of the News channel, boy he watches. I think I know why? They are talking to him. Then my mom said, never mind listen to this story. When our neighbour got first television, it was after the war. She made this comment, 'Oh my God I didn't clean the house, and the whole world is watching me here'. Its amazing what people thought of the television then. But then get this, the old televisions used to have lamps inside, and I always thought that all the people on TV live there.