"CAH!"

A few months ago, Ronin was saying "GA" for ball and "DA" for truck and everything else. But nowadays, he expresses pure delight when he sees a car, outside or on TV or in a pictures, and says, "CAAAAAHHH!" He repeats this with real gusto in his voice. It's so cute! Cars and trucks are somewhat similar things to him. He can distinguish what a train is, but can't call it a train yet. Ronin is also stubborn as hell and is going to be the death of me one day. He keeps banging the TV screen. I have told him NO and even tried putting up that red Stop sign to get him to stop. Instead, he bangs it again, defies me, rips down the sign, or just flat out ignores me. It's driving me crazy.

At 4 months and 1 week, Audrey is growing like a weed and looking a lot like Nikko did as an infant. She's awake a bit longer nowadays, maybe 2-3 hours between naps, drinks 7.5 - 8 oz of formula a meal, and is cooing a alot. She looks around at her surroundings and even crans her neck back to look at me when I hold her on my shoulder. Her eye contact is really good. When she wakes up in the morning and turns over to look at you (I help turn her over; she can't roll yet) Audrey squeals in delight and is full of smiles that go from ear to ear. I spend a lot of time kissing her smooth cheeks and nuzzling her clean-smelling hair. SUCH a cutie.

This Friday is a GNO at Drury Lane to watch Miss Saigon. I can't WAIT to go. I really, really need a night out with the girls. I love my kids so much, but I need some quality time away from them to recharge my batteries. The issue here is can Denis take care of all three of them without losing his mind? The clock will start around 5:30pm on Friday when I leave. I say that he can handle it. The boys will be easy; it will be carrying Audrey around and placating her until it's time to go to bed. Even then, he'll have to rock her to sleep. Once she's down, however, he'll be coasting fine. Ronin is easy to put to bed. And Nikko will be fine. I just have to remind Denis of putting all our safety measures in place i.e. keep the bathroom door closed when he's not in it, keep the basement door closed, put all knives out of reach, don't use the stove burners closest to the edge of the stove. Other than all that, our house is pretty child-proof except for a few doors I have to reinstall some hook closures. I am so looking forward to hanging out with all the girls (except for Wendie who's working, Rhonda who is in Michigan, and probably Rachel who didn't want to go see Miss Saigon at Drury Lane). I'm going for the bonding, man. I've seen Saigon 2 times and wouldn't mind seeing it again as long as it's the Cameron McKintosh version.

Three dozen

Yesterday (Thursday), on our way out the door to Nikko's playgroup, the FedEx lady came up to me w/a big box of flowers. I brought it in and was going to open it but Brianna told me she'd take care of it because I was running so late. When we came back from playgroup, the red roses were in a big vase. So lovely! It wasn't until later that night, before Denis came home from work, that I looked closer at the bouquet. I started counting buds and was confused when it didn't stop at 12 or 15 or 18. It took a few tries, but I counted 36! That was the first time in my life I ever got three dozen roses, and I rearranged them in the vase to look so bountiful. Denis didn't have a really good reason for them, except that it's what they offered at Costco (no fault there, I'm just happy that I got roses for Valentine's Day). But when I was chatting with Ginny on FB later that night, I speculated that maybe they symbolized our three kids. (aahhhh, how sweet) Of course, that wasn't the real reason at all, as I could tell from Denis who said, "Oh, yeah, SURE, that sounds good!" But it's ok, I think it was just awesome to get all those beautiful red roses. Tonight he brought me a box of chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva and a Mario Tricoci massage/pedi/mani. WOW! I guess it's a combined V-Day/B-Day gift, and I am very happy about it. I almost cried in front of him, but I didn't. LOL! Seriously, it's not even VDay yet, but it feels like the best VDay I ever had. Maybe it's coz we have all our kids together with us, we're going to do something together as a family tomorrow (go to that Counterstrike Open House), and he already gave me stuff. That means he actually thought of me in advance, despite the random order of things. That's ok by me for now, I'll take what I get!

The volume on prayer

I listened to WMBI around 1pm for Pastor James' show (the head pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows) and he said something that makes sense to me. He said that when you pray, you should pray aloud because if you sit and pray silently, your mind starts to wander. Then, you're distracted and you may not even be praying truthfully anymore. He challenged people to try that, to pray out loud... you are more focused when you do. He has a good point, and I wonder about all my Christian friends who end up praying aloud. Did they already know this about praying and focus, or do they just pray out loud coz that's what they were taught? And what does that say about praying Catholics? I don't know a single Catholic who seems comfortable praying out loud (except the priest). They all bow their heads silently. Why is that?

Ronin watch

I'm worried. Ronin's nose was extremely runny today. It started yesterday, actually, but today it was a faucet. By the time we went to the in-law's house for dinner, he developed a cough. I gave him multi-symptom cold medicine at 6pm, and then Tylenol at 10p before bed. I'm worried because last time he had a cough, the next morning he was wheezing and had retracting in his breathing. That led to an ER visit. It was the time before last, because the last visit was preceeded by his 104 fever for 4 days. This time around, he's not sporting a temperature yet. Honestly, I fear what the morning will herald. Please, please God don't let him start wheezing.

Audrey had a terrible time at the in-laws. She started out ok, was quiet in the car seat at the beginning of dinner, and seemed to pass along to the others easily. But right before worship she went ballistic and was inconsolable for I don't know, maybe 20 minutes. She cried the hardest I've ever seen from her, and I have no idea what agitated her. Sure, she may be sensitive to her environment, or overstimulated by the lights and different ppl, but someone is going to start telling me that I have to expose her to more ppl outside of the home so she'll get used to being other places. She does get out when we go to the Clinic, or even the store, and she doesn't melt down in these places. She was unhappy at the Penepacker's on Rory's bday gathering, and at the in-laws. I'm kind of at a loss for this. All I can do is try to soothe her, pacify and hold her close and tight. Giving her a bottle is not really that productive in a time of crisis because she's crying too hard to swallow the milk without choking. Poor baby.

Pain in the back

Today was a tough day for some reason. Partly because it seems the day after I get a back adjustment, I seem to be really sore. That totally happened today; I felt like my leg was going to fall off again, and I also experienced some body aches that made me finally pop some ibuprofen. Chinny came over to help with DT, and she graciously came with us to Target and Costco so I could get errands done. We also got the Real Trains for Kids 2 DVD and Train board boook that I ordered on Amazon.com. I felt pretty miserable on the way home from everything, and was lucky that Audrey slept just a little longer in her car seat when we came home. I was lying on the floor with a blanket getting some rest; unfortunately I didn't fall alseep. But after Audrey woke up I fed her and she was pretty much awake. Audrey has been a joy to play with lately. Very expressive, but also very sensitive to her surroundings. Ronin is starting to say "Car" and gets very excited to see cars, trucks and trains wherever he goes. So cute! I'm looking forward to watching LOST tonight, just relaxing in front of my fave show right now. I've also got to catch up on the Oprah Winfrey episode on being frugal, as well as last Monday's Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Oh yeah, before I forget, just wanted to dash down what I think is Audrey's daily schedule as of right now:

8-8:30a Wake up, diaper change
8:30-9a Feeding
9:30-10:30/11a Play time
11a Nap
11:45a-12p Feeding
12:30p-2p Play time
2p-4p Nap
5p Feeding
5:30-8p Play time
8:15p Faux bath time
8:30p+ Ni-night time

Behind the name

Chinny came over on Wednesday to help watch Ronin during Nikko's DT session. When lunchtime rolled around, we were having Denis' homemade chilli and I offered some to Chinny along with some oyster crackers. Then Chinny said it:



"Oystas, lil' oystas!"



That obscure movie reference struck me as funny and charming as I imagined the little oysters hopping around the Walrus, unaware of their fate. The cute part was the oysters, which reminded me of my own little kiddies. Hence, a blog page dedicated to my thoughts on everything was born. Actually it was born today, on Day One of http://www.nikkomannikkoman.blogspot.com/ as well. This might end up being a very therapeutic way to keep my sanity.