Dinner on October 23 will be ...

They say when you have kids that you should enjoy every moment because the time truly does go by too fast. Well, this is true, as Harmon seems like a little man right now and Simon is a big boy. But, it doesn't help when your 3-year-old is constantly pressing the fast-forward button on life. An example: This morning when Harmon got out of bed, I told him to take off his pajamas and go to the potty. He was, however, more interested in knowing what pajamas he would be wearing to bed tonight. Innocent enough, you say, but he is always doing this. When it is breakfast, he asks what is for lunch or dinner. When we get home from work/daycare in the late afternoon, he wants to know what is happening the next morning. Don't get me wrong, this really is cute and we get a chuckle out of it. Maybe it is a good sign that he is always thinking ahead. Maybe his Mommy can help him organize his upcoming days and nights, meals and pajamas, etc., into a spreadsheet?

BIG LIP

OK, I think Simon wins the big lip contest. Kevin called him "NEWTAGE" really loud this past weekend and this was the result:


Don't feel too bad for him - he didn't cry at all. Actually, he started smiling right away. Weirdo.

This was the result in early 2006 when Kevin called Harmon "NATOR:"


Harmon was a little more sad after the fact but that didn't stop us from doing it again and again. They both have cute pouts and we like to see them so ...

Look alike

This is one of the MANY things I love about having two boys - they get to wear the same clothes! And Kevin and I get to go on and on with crap like "remember when Harmon wore that ... blah, blah, blah!" I'm sure, pretty soon, it's going to get pretty old to BOTH of them but, until then, we're going to keep doing stuff like this. There's nothing they can do about it!

Simon Bunny

This was the first photo the teachers at school took of Simon. It was on his cubbie for the longest time and it was larger than every other infant's photo. They FINALLY took a normal-sized photo for his cubbie and sent this one home with us. God, so smiley! Look at those gums (before the teeth came in)!

Harmon Q&A

This comes courtesy of Sundry. I thought Harmon would have some interesting answers to the following questions and he didn’t disappoint. It’s going to be funny when he reads this stuff when he’s older, although I don’t want him to be older anytime soon. Enjoy!

1. What is something I always say to you? Play with my computer

2. What makes me happy? Going on walks

3. What makes me sad? When you’re frustrated at me

4. How do I make you laugh? You tickle my belly button

5. What do you think I was like as a child? (crickets)

6. How old am I? 10 (holds up both hands)

7. How tall am I? Points to the sky

8. What is my favorite thing to do? Play Legos with me (we pretty much NEVER play Legos anymore)

9. What do I do when you’re not around? You check on me

10. If I become famous, what will it be for? (crickets)

11. What am I really good at? Playing

12. What am I not really good at? Yelling at me

13. What is my job? To play with the computer

14. What is my favorite food? Chicken

15. What makes you proud of me? When we take walks to the park and when you play cars with me

16. What makes me proud of you? When I put my cars away

17. What do you and I do together? On which days, Mommy? We go to restaurants and to the park

18. How are we the same? You look like me

19. How are you and I different? I don’t know

20. How do you know that I love you? Because I love you in the whole world (his version of when I tell him I love him more than anything in the whole world)

21. What is the one thing you wish you could change about me? That you wouldn’t yell at me

22. What do you wish you could go and do with me? I want you to take me to Walgreen’s to get a car

Breaking through

Last Friday (May 8), while playing with Simon on our bed, I noticed some white areas on his gums. Since he wouldn’t let me gain access at that moment, I had to harass him the rest of the morning. By noon, I finally was able to confirm the breakthrough of a tooth – his bottom front right chopper. I immediately called Kevin at work and we both were sad. He’s our baby and he’s our last and now, with teeth, he’s no longer a newborn. He’s simply an infant now. While his gums aren’t as pronounced as Harmon’s were, I will miss them so much. There’s nothing like a toothless grin from a baby!

And to make it EVEN worse, the bottom front left chopper is through now too. WHY do they have to grow up so damn fast???

Simon at 5 Months

Simon turned 5 months’ old on April 25 and it was a pretty eventful month. At his 4-month appointment (April 3), we were given the go-ahead for rice cereal so we gave him some the very next day (April 4). He was digging it but I must point out that he’s never tasted anything but Enfamil so he doesn’t know any better. I, on the other hand, DO know better and that stuff is nasty. I accidentally got some on my finger while feeding him one morning and I made the BIG mistake of just licking it off – GROSS! Anyway, the cereal – rice and now oatmeal – has been great and he’s getting bigger, stronger, faster (oops, that’s the Six Million Dollar Man). He’s been growing like a weed and sleeping so much better at night and doing all kinds of cool things.

The long-awaited meeting with his feet finally happened Tuesday, April 21. They had been flirting for weeks and, finally, they got up the nerve to talk to each other. Simon moves quickly, though, because by Thursday, April 23, he took their relationship to the next level – he put his feet in his mouth. As is typical in a new relationship, you try so hard to impress and Simon thought FINALLY rolling over (stomach to back – both ways) would be quite impressive indeed. This happened on Friday, April 24.

OK, other quick things:
1) Simon loves his exercauser and he figured out how to work it on Saturday, April 18. He played the duck sound!
2) Simon absolutely CANNOT GET ENOUGH of Harmon! It is the sweetest thing in the world to watch.
3) Although it happened in MARCH, I need to note Simon’s first giggle. My Mom got him to laugh out loud for the first time on Wednesday, March 18 (while I was at work, damn it) by hiding and then surprising him while he played in his activity gym.

Falling down

A few weeks ago, we thought for sure we were headed for a trip to the ER with Harmon. He seemed to be falling down ALL THE TIME and all this clumsiness culminated in an ever-so-slightly chipped tooth (a chip only a mother could see on his upper front left tooth) on a Thursday night (April 16) followed by a LONG fall from the top stair of a huge play structure on a Saturday afternoon (April 18). This fall took place at Fuller Park, which we won’t be able to visit for a long, long time. Well, at least until I can get the image out of my head of Harmon falling down 10-15 wooden stairs. Thankfully, this incident resulted only in a few scrapes and bruises. After all that, we were a bit nervous about what was to follow but he seems to have pulled it together. Maybe he was going through some kind of growth spurt, which might explain the clumsiness AND the insane food intake!

3 ½

OK, as promised, Harmon is 3 ½ today so it’s going to be my last monthly update for him. Today was semi-eventful for him. He went for a long walk with Kevin and Simon in the afternoon and, because he was SO GOOD on the walk, he scored Tex Dinoco from Toys R Us.

When I got home from work, we played while Kevin grilled. The best part of playing was realizing that Harmon now can catch a ball! He may have been able to do this for a while and I just didn’t know but he was snagging everything I could throw at him. Maybe Greg Andrade’s prediction will come true and he, indeed, will end up being a “hands tight end!” Or, maybe he’ll be the next Joe Mauer … um, yeah ... not so much!

After dinner, my parents stopped by on their way back home after their trip to Springfield, Ill. for my uncle’s funeral. My Dad was missing the boys so they stopped in to steal an hour or so of their time. Of course, within minutes, my Dad had Harmon running around and doing great big belly laughs (and also had Simon “talking”). They both love their Papa!

All and all, a good day to be 3 ½!

Adjusting

When I came back to work after having Simon, I had to shift my schedule a bit. It’s been about 11 weeks now and we’re STILL trying to get the hang of it. For me, it’s difficult because I USED to be at home in a chunk (off all day Friday and Monday morning) and then at work in a chunk (in Monday afternoon and through the end of the day Thursday). Now, it’s all mixed up and it’s been hard to focus on BOTH places with all the back and forth. For Kevin, going in at 7 a.m. on a Monday was much easier because he had the weekend to rest. Now, he works a full day on Monday and then has to be in early on Tuesday so it’s harder on him too.

As for the kids, Harmon seems to be fine with it. Now, he just gets to spend more time watching the garbage trucks (Tuesdays are our garbage days). Simon, however, has had it a little rough. The breaks between the days the boys go to school are longer now – they go on Mondays and Thursdays instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays – and he’s having some issues adjusting. The teachers have explained to me that he just gets very sad and then he’ll cry if he’s alone for too long. They say he brightens right back up so it’s not a prolonged thing but it still makes ME sad to think about him being sad. I spoke with the teachers and the director and they all thought maybe an extra few hours a week at school will help (evidently another part-timer was having the same issues and it worked for her). We were SUPPOSED to try this a few weeks ago but he got a cold so we delayed it. So, today, Kevin so graciously gave up his Tuesday afternoon with both boys and dropped Simon off at school. I don’t want him to be sad at school so we will do this if we have to BUT I would much rather have him at home doing fun things with his Dad and brother. I don’t think it’s necessary and I also don’t see how just a few hours are going to help things but we’ll see. I’m just hoping it’s a phase and he’ll grow out of it.

Oliver Jeffers

Not too long ago, I was reading the blog of one of our friends, Brian DeWagner, and he mentioned an author by the name of Oliver Jeffers. I had never heard of him so I then was on a MISSION to find one of his books, read it and then decide if Harmon would like it.

At our local Barnes & Noble (the one “down the mountain” with the ESCALATOR, per Harmon), I found a copy of the Incredible Book Eating Boy and I loved it! I read it to Harmon and he loved it too so we bought it. I’ve probably read it to him at least 1,000 times – I’m not kidding. Unfortunately, this was the only Oliver Jeffers book available at Barnes & Noble or any of our local Borders stores so I had to take my search underground – to a LOCALLY OWNED bookstore (imagine THAT). At Nicola’s Books, on the west side of Ann Arbor, I found exactly what I was looking for. I found copies of How to Catch a Star, Lost and Found, The Great Paper Caper and The Way Back Home and Harmon got ALL OF THEM from the Easter Bunny. We read four books to him every night before bed and not a night goes by without an Oliver Jeffers’ book in the rotation.

So, thank you Brian, thank you Nicola’s and, most of all, thank you Oliver Jeffers for writing some great books that further strengthen my oldest son’s love affair with reading. Good things!

Harmon at 41 months

Since Harmon’s month all run together in a sea of cars, cartoons, Disney movies and trips to the park, it’s getting harder and harder to do a monthly update. So, once he turns 3 ½ (on May 12), I will cease to do an update on the 12th of every month. I’ll instead just write about things as they happen. And, this LATE monthly update really isn’t an update at all. It’s just going to some funny crap that Harmon has said (and done) recently. The kid is hilarious!

On a Tuesday afternoon:
Kevin: We can go to Toys R Us OR Chuck E. Cheese.
Harmon: We can go to Toys R Us AND Chuck E. Cheese!

On that same afternoon, he also must have had a dream about Chick Hicks during his nap because, when he woke up, he had a serious case of full-on Chick Hicks’ obsession. I happened to be out running work errands that day so I got it for him and all was perfect in his world (for five minutes).

One day recently, he was in the bathroom going #2. When I walked by the bathroom door he said “It stunks in here, turn the fan on!” I died.

On our way home from a recent grocery shopping trip: “Mommy, you can park cars with me. Daddy, you can make dinner!” Love that role reversal.

When asked what he wanted to do one weekend: “We can go to Target and get Lightning McQueen stuff!”

On another Tuesday, as Kevin was heading out to Chuck E. Cheese, he asked Harmon if Isabel could come. Harmon’s response: “No, she’ll poop on everything!”

Last weekend, he wore shorts and a baseball cap for the first time this year. He had this to say: I’m wearing shorts (a hat); I’m a cool man!”

He calls his fleece a SLEEF – weirdo!

Also, he loves the fine music of Wesley Willis (especially "Rock and Roll McDonald’s" – ROCK ON CHICAGO – and "Cut the Mullet") and would give his right arm if he could listen to ANY freecreditreport.com TV commercial.

Four-month stats

OK, this is so long overdue that it’s ALMOST embarrassing. I was never this late with HARMON’S info. Anyway, at his four-month appointment, Simon weighed 15 pounds and 2.8 ounces and measured 26 ¼ inches long. So, a big boy BUT not quite as big as his brother who weighed 16 pounds and 11 ounces and measured 27 5/8 inches long at HIS four-month appointment. Kevin still has money on Simon being bigger ONE DAY. He better get busy and I mean B-I-Z-Z-Y busy (I love you Rod Allen)!

This cat eats it!

After peeking in our living room window YET AGAIN today, this crazy-ass neighborhood cat needs to be called out. The thing is freaky.

First school photo of the Bergquist boys TOGETHER

Yeah, this is just great. Simon is leaning in like Billy Charlebois from Slap Shot when he takes a quick look in the mirror and Harmon doesn't know what to do with his hands like Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights during his first, post-race interview. It's no surprise we didn't purchase 100 wallets of these photos but we HAD to buy this one sheet - priceless!

Our little turtle

Not cool, not cool!

The last four nights, Simon has had some sleep issues and, needless to say, it’s not cool. Wednesday, it was up at 3 a.m.; Thursday, it was up at 5 a.m.; Friday, again with the 5 a.m.; and Saturday, it was back to 3 a .m. God, we are SO hoping he will make it all the way through the night tonight. It would be different if he hadn’t been sleeping through the night for the last two months. BUT, he has so this sucks big time. Get it together kid!

Timeline

Last night was a weird-ass night. Both boys had some issues sleeping (even though they usually are great sleepers). There was not a full moon. There were not monsters under their beds or in their closets and, as far as we know, there were no nearby alien abductions! So, WTF?

10 p.m. – Trying to watch last week’s DVR’d episode of “The Office” – Simon screams through all of it.

10:30 p.m. – Finally plug Simon’s hole with a six-ounce bottle. Please note we were not STARVING him. He had just eaten at 8 p.m. He’s such a hog sometimes!

11:15 p.m. – Put Simon to bed. He was dead asleep as I rocked him so we thought it was safe. It wasn’t. We have to go in and calm him a few times.

11:16 p.m. – As we’re calming Simon, Harmon wakes up. He bolts out of his room and heads to the bathroom. We thought he just had to go potty but he says “I need to get my clothes on for school!” Weirdo. We tell him it’s still nighttime and tuck him back in.

Midnight – Harmon wakes up again, comes into our bedroom and asks Kevin to tuck him back in. Alright.

12:15 a.m. – Harmon wakes up AGAIN, comes into our bedroom AGAIN and tells Kevin he can’t find Chick Hicks, the car he went to sleep with. Kevin locates said car, crawls into bed with him and sleeps with him until 1:45 a.m.

3 a.m. – Simon wakes up crying. In an effort to salvage ANY sleep, I let Simon sleep with me in our bed and Kevin bolts for the big comfy couch in the basement.

We then get rolling, like usual, in the 6 a.m. hour, still wondering WHAT THE HELL! MUST get some sleep tonight!

Four-month-old Newt!

Well, he really doesn’t look like a newt anymore mostly because the only time he really gets mad (and red) is when he’s hungry. And speaking of hunger, he’s up to six ounces at each feeding now. Not including the time while he’s sleeping overnight, he can go anywhere from 3-5 hours in between bottles. I’m sure all this will improve after his four-month appointment (on April 3) because he’ll then be able to mix in some rice cereal! He’s going to love that!

He’s been a GREAT sleeper over the last month. We’ll give him his last bottle around 10:30/11 p.m., I’ll rock him and then he’ll sleep until AT LEAST 7 a.m. most of the time. Every once in a while he’ll wake up a little bit earlier but, for the most part, we’re very happy parents. Our next step will be to keep pushing back the time of the last bottle so we can get both of the boys to bed at 9 p.m. (and have a portion of our nights free again). I don’t want to rush him but he’s already growing like a weed so maybe it’s OK. I don’t know.

The big deal lately has been his giggle. My Mom got him to laugh for the first time last Wednesday (March 18) when he was playing with his activity gym. She would hide behind the mirror and then pop out at him and he thought this was all kinds of hilarious. She said it was a big belly laugh and I’m SO SAD I missed it. I did re-create the experience later in the night and he did giggle for me but it wasn’t a big belly laugh. Kevin then got him giggling a bit Sunday night and Harmon made him giggle – by laughing himself – Monday night.

Ah, yes, Harmon. He loves his little brother (and is a great helper) and Simon is a HUGE fan of his! Simon just watches everything Harmon does and loves to be everywhere he is, especially if it involves reading or playing with cars or balls. You can just see that they’re going to have a great time together very soon!

Other quick things happening – Simon’s eyes have YET to change. They are still grayish blue and so pretty. I know they will change and end up being beautiful just like Harmon’s eyes but it’s just odd to see that they haven’t changed already (like Harmon’s did). While Simon is pretty much aware of his arms and hands now, his feet, legs and knees are totally blowing his mind. When you lay him on his changing pad (his favorite place in the world), he can ALMOST get them. Pretty soon, he’ll have those feet in his mouth! He’s still not interested in holding his bottle but he’ll claw the shit out of your hand while you hold it. But, two things he IS interested in holding are his duck blanket and his Peter Rabbit blanket. I didn’t use these much with Harmon but Simon likes to grab so he loves them.

Despite many attempts, he hasn’t rolled over just yet. Again, I’m not rushing him BUT, once he call roll from belly to back – both ways – he can sleep on his tummy at school. And, he sleeps SO much better on his tummy. School is going really well. It’s nice to drop him off and have teachers fighting over who gets to hold him! When Harmon was at KidZone, he was always the little rock star and we weren’t sure how it would go with Simon at Annie’s. But, it’s gone much the same way so far. The teachers tell us that he’s so good and easy going and, surprise, only really fusses when he’s hungry. We’re very happy with the school situation and it makes it even better when Harmon can come up and visit Simon every once in a while.

So, four months have gone by and it seems like four days! We feel so lucky and blessed to have such strong, smart, handsome boys and we TRY to enjoy every minute with them!

Boys at Chuck E. Cheese