some stories.

he is starting to say little sentences.  his first three-word sentence was “chips all gone.”  last night I told him to stop throwing grapes and he said, “awww man.”  he likes to put labels on things – he will point to something and say, “da book.  mama drink.”

tonight we bundled up in coats and layers of pants and went for a walk and he pointed to the sky and said, “stars!”

I put away all her clean clothes today, and when I went back in her room, all her clothes were tumbled on the floor.  I opened the drawers and found that she’d tucked all her babies in bed.

we’ve been playing games of candyland together after the baby goes to bed – her, her father, and me.  she keeps winning, and she gets so upset because she wants us to win, too.

we put up our christmas lights today and she was so excited to go outside tonight to see them.

she cooked food for her baby doll in her play kitchen and told me that “my daughter” likes strawberries and bread.

my cousin’s little baby girl was born today.

he must sleep with his favorite things: his bun-bun, his pup, and his blanket.  when he wakes up in the morning and I go to pick him up, he likes to point out all his favorite things: “bun-bun.  pup.  blanket.”  and at night when he goes to bed, he likes to pat around his crib and make sure that all his favorite things are there.

his special blanket is a muslin baby swaddle, white with little gray stars.  it was one of the first things I bought for him when I found out I was pregnant.  it keeps disappearing.  sometime when he was about nine months old it went missing, and it was lost for months and months, until I found it at my mother-in-law’s house.  he saw it out in a couch and went straight for it and cuddled it the rest of the time we were there.  then another day, recently, we went to the park after a week of rain, and there, right at the park gate, was his blanket.  I gasped wiht shock.  we hadn’t even known it was missing – I kept thinking I would find it in the wash.  and it been rained on for a week – but it’s totally fine.  not a speck of mildew or a tear.  his miracle blanket.

my husband is fifty or so days out from his auto stem cell transplant.  now that his white blood counts have risen and he feels better and he is getting some energy and strength back – well, I have been living in this little blissful bubble.  he can play with the babies and even watch them long enough for me to get a shower.  we got a free secondhand (thirdhand) exercise bike and I can cycle for thirty minutes while the kids play in the living room and maybe I’ll start to lose some of the baby weight I haven’t managed to budge yet.  the baby goes down for a nap at eleven or twelve and I even have an hour or two to write and clean and cook, while he sleeps and the little girl watches a movie.

we have family hugs, where we each hold a baby and squeeze each other as hard as we can.  we have been playing family hide-and-seek games.  we wake up and spend all day with each other and we don’t even have to go anywhere, except maybe to pick up a grocery store order.  we cook dinners together.  we watch countless disney movies.  we are all together, all day long.  it’s all I ever want.

the little girl starts gymnastics in two weeks.  we bought a new couch, turquoise blue, and it is so, so soft.  our old couch was the best sleeping couch but scratchy and so stained – it was a free couch that my husband got off freecycle in college.  we’ve gone to family events, like my father-in-law’s fifth heart transplant anniversary.  we’ve gone to the lake house and even on a boat ride.

we’re almost like real people.

I don’t ever want to leave this bubble.

the little girl says, when she’s so tired: “I can’t walk! My legs are bending!”

the baby boy has so many words.  water.  truck.  book.  milk.  more.  snack.  mama, dadda, nana, pop.  cat, dog, bear.  we counted them all and it was over twenty.  he can point out his head, mouth, ears, hands, tummy, belly button.   still hasn’t found his nose.  he is completely obsessed with brooms.  he has discovered a board book about trucks that we have to read about forty times a day.  he screams with happiness when the garbage truck picks up our trash.  this week he learned how to bypass the childproof locks on the cabinets where I keep cleaners and I caught him squirting windex in his mouth.

the little girl loves to watch the movie ponyo.  she says she wants to be a white flamingo for halloween.  she found a new show that she loves, team umizoomi, and she answers all the math questions and we are always surprised at how much she knows.  she has used the potty twice this week!! we’ve taken a long and slow route to potty training: you can’t make this girl do anything she doesn’t  want to do.  she hasn’t decided yet that she wants to be potty trained.

we went to my cousin’s baby’s gender reveal party.  I took the kids to play at the playground at chick-fil-a.  I’ve been so happy.  it is the best thing in the world, watching him play with the kids.  seeing him sound and act with all his old energy and humor.

I want to live in this bubble forever.

today was day 44 post stem cell transplant. almost halfway to 100 days. his friends came to visit – we ordered pizza and we all went to pick it up as a family – we had a family movie night and watched labyrinth. a good day.

We have read this book ninety-six times since wednesday. charlie carries it around the house and opens it to the page on sanitation trucks and gives kisses to the garbage trucks. He sits by the screen door hoping for the garbage trucks to come pick up our trash.

her new favorite word is “gorgeous,” she calls everything she loves gorgeous.  “mama, I love your gorgeous elephant!”  “mama, look at this gorgeous flower!”

he is obsessed with brooms.  he says, “bruh, bruh,” and runs back to the laundry room where he knows the broom and dustpan live.  he spends all day pushing them around the kitchen floor under my feet.  on mother’s day, when he kept throwing up, he woke up at three a.m. puking all over me on the couch where we were sleeping, and when i put him down to strip the blankets off the couch, he ran to the laundry room and i found him, covered in vomit, trying to sweep the floor.

she loves to build nests.  she gathers her stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, and every toy in the house and piles them together in a pile.  she calls me “mama bird” and demands worms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

she is obsessed with rolly pollies and calls them “rolly rollies.”

he ca say, “up,” “broom,” “water,” and “dog.”

when i tell her i’m taking something hot out of the oven, she grabs her brother’s hand and holds it so he won’t run over and try to stick his fingers inside, and says, “no, charlie, too hot.”

last night my one year old, fresh from the bath and wearing his birthday suit, walked out to the living room, stuck his finger in his buttcrack, licked it, and looked at my husband and said, “Snack.”

we painted nails round here today and the little boy couldn’t wait for his turn. he brought me bottle after bottle and sat down in my lap and grinned his little slow smile every time i added another layer of glitter nailpolish on his fingers and toes.

he started walking and stopped, distacted by his glittery toes, and put his hands on his knees and leaned over to gaze at them.

all day long he keeps coming up to me and saying “nahs, nahs,” wanting me to admire his nails.

I don’t want to forget

How when i sing old macdonald had a farm, he sings E I E I O.