Nino and his new pal Pocoyo are ready for bed.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Eli down for a nap
She's down and out for the count. You'd be tired too if you were playing all morning with your big brother.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Eli & Nino
Here is my son Nino giving his very first kiss to his baby sister Eli back in December 2012. With some exceptions, Nino has demonstrated that he is a very affectionate and loving big brother. Eli takes great delight in watching her big brother's antics.
Friday, October 12, 2012
It's Potty time!
Around Labor Day, I was getting myself excited about taking my very first online course. I was making some rearrangements in my daily schedule so that I could have some time to devote to classwork. I wanted to make the addition of an significant academic committent as least stressful as possible. Balancing work, school and family is no easy accomplishment.
It may seem strange to many but one of my parental worries that began to weigh on me more and more was the potty training of my 3 year old Nino. My wife and I had begun actively training to coax him into taking an interest in potty well before he turned 3 but with no luck. He had no interest and furthermore he became demonstrably upset when we broached the topic ("No! His favorite word these days.)
So I started fretting a little bit. Of course, my wife and I were surveying all the parents we knew about their experiences potty training their children, especially those who had sons. There seemed to be no common practice or philosophy in the described experiences. Even at his daycare, his teachers couldn't offer any wisdom as to how to proceed. More often than not, I heard "When he's ready, he'll let you know."
Then, one day two weeks ago, I returned home from work and received a bit of news out of the blue. "Nino tried to use the potty today at school," my wife said. "Really? Huh?" I replied. Nino had
Since then he has made rapid progress. He is using the potty as many as six/seven times a day often letting us know that he has to go. He beams a smile as big as a house after each visit; he is very proud of himself (and he should be). Two weeks I was fretfully imagining that my son would turn 4 years old and he'd still be in diapers. Now, not so much.
Don't get me wrong, he still has aways to go. One thing that I am sure will be a major challenge is getting him to stop wearing diapers and start wearing the training underwear. Really looking forward to that. In the meantime, I'll continue to encourage his progress and confidence as he begins to say goodbye his babyhood once and for all.
It may seem strange to many but one of my parental worries that began to weigh on me more and more was the potty training of my 3 year old Nino. My wife and I had begun actively training to coax him into taking an interest in potty well before he turned 3 but with no luck. He had no interest and furthermore he became demonstrably upset when we broached the topic ("No! His favorite word these days.)
So I started fretting a little bit. Of course, my wife and I were surveying all the parents we knew about their experiences potty training their children, especially those who had sons. There seemed to be no common practice or philosophy in the described experiences. Even at his daycare, his teachers couldn't offer any wisdom as to how to proceed. More often than not, I heard "When he's ready, he'll let you know."
Then, one day two weeks ago, I returned home from work and received a bit of news out of the blue. "Nino tried to use the potty today at school," my wife said. "Really? Huh?" I replied. Nino had
Since then he has made rapid progress. He is using the potty as many as six/seven times a day often letting us know that he has to go. He beams a smile as big as a house after each visit; he is very proud of himself (and he should be). Two weeks I was fretfully imagining that my son would turn 4 years old and he'd still be in diapers. Now, not so much.
Don't get me wrong, he still has aways to go. One thing that I am sure will be a major challenge is getting him to stop wearing diapers and start wearing the training underwear. Really looking forward to that. In the meantime, I'll continue to encourage his progress and confidence as he begins to say goodbye his babyhood once and for all.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Sleep! O glorious sleep!
For so many years, I slept as little as possible. Now of course if I was under the weather or I had truly exhausting day of physical exertion, then I might snooze a little more than usual. But in general I felt that sleep was a waste of one's time on this earth. Why sleep when there are so many more interesting things to do in life? Early morning: I'd watch the sun rise in summer while sipping coffee before heading off to work go running. Late at night: do homework, study, socialize with friends, play music or write.
Then my first born, Nino, arrived. And so did a new perspective on sleep.
The one thing I failed to appreciate as an expecting parent was how exhausting being it can be. Big fail. You're at work or run around all day shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. And just when you think you're done you remember there's one (or five) more thing(s) to do.
And when you have very young children, nighttime is not guaranteed to be a period of rest and recuperation. It took my son about a year and a half before he slept through the night in his own bed (although there were some factors that I believe contributed to this, starting with intestinal surgery two days after he was born). Nevertheless, for 18 months there was a nocturnal routine of waking up several times to feed, change, soothe, hold watch while he goes back to sleep, etc. One can't rest properly if one is sleeping for 2 hours at a time.
But eventually Nino did learn to sleep through the night. And then child number 2 (Eli) came along. She turns 10 months old later this month. That's almost 10 months of my wife and me not being able to sleep straight through the night. I have hope that she'll begin to sleep for 8-9 hours in a row sooner rather than later but who knows if I'll ever have a good night's rest again. I wonder if my wife is still in favor of having a third child. I'll ask her when she wakes up from her mid-day nap.
Then my first born, Nino, arrived. And so did a new perspective on sleep.
The one thing I failed to appreciate as an expecting parent was how exhausting being it can be. Big fail. You're at work or run around all day shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. And just when you think you're done you remember there's one (or five) more thing(s) to do.
And when you have very young children, nighttime is not guaranteed to be a period of rest and recuperation. It took my son about a year and a half before he slept through the night in his own bed (although there were some factors that I believe contributed to this, starting with intestinal surgery two days after he was born). Nevertheless, for 18 months there was a nocturnal routine of waking up several times to feed, change, soothe, hold watch while he goes back to sleep, etc. One can't rest properly if one is sleeping for 2 hours at a time.
But eventually Nino did learn to sleep through the night. And then child number 2 (Eli) came along. She turns 10 months old later this month. That's almost 10 months of my wife and me not being able to sleep straight through the night. I have hope that she'll begin to sleep for 8-9 hours in a row sooner rather than later but who knows if I'll ever have a good night's rest again. I wonder if my wife is still in favor of having a third child. I'll ask her when she wakes up from her mid-day nap.
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