Ivo 'n' Burl

The other day, Ivo asked, "Ivo-Dash touch Baby Burl?" I said ok. Ivo touched Burl's forehead and said, "forehead." In the same manner, he then touched Burl's "nose," "philtrum," and "mouth." Pics from today.

Beautiful Baby Burl

Burl's cuter and sweeter by miles than this video and these pics reveal... He's strong and happy. He loves to babble and be paid attention to (like me!). He has controlled eye-contact and all the signs of a baby-genius!

He enjoys walks in his Baby Bjorn as well as in the stroller. (Note to self: Baby Bjorn is excellent - comfortable, good design. Other similar-idea carriers cause back aches and entanglements. Hard to know til you wear it for a couple hours. But Scandinavian designers rule!)

Ivo says...

"lellow" for yellow but "yike" for like"

I don't get it.

We are doing great.

On Monday, 23 April, Ivo hugged my arm and said, "mama, I love you." He's said it everyday since. He's too much! Despite this love, "No kisses!" has replaced "No picture!" in Ivo's efforts at self-determination. Variations such as "No kisses de face" and "No kisses de head" accompany a hand, proffered for kissing. Cheeky.

Ivo's been playing with a squirt gun a lot this week. On Wednesday, he was running on our way to the science museum park. He fell down and the squirt gun broke. We've gotten a new one and are back in action. The squirt gun makes every walk even more of an adventure. Ivo's pretty great about what he's allowed to shoot and what he isn't. "No shoot people," he is often heard to say. His aim - as with ball throwing - is spot on target. Also, the squirt guns have made him an object of envy, not simply scrutiny, while allowing him to protect his perimeter.
My former self might be discomfited by so much gun play, but my new me doesn't play chagrin.


Ivo knows the basic crayon box of colors and he's working on distinguishing b/w black and brown. He's all about Spiderman these days. He has an ever-empty Spidey pez dispenser that he takes with him everywhere he goes. He holds spidey out to fly. Spidey often "fight de killer whale de floor."
eating seaweed and shooting de squirt gun

Burl and Ivo and baths

Burl and Ivo hold quite different opinions about baths.

Ivo & Burl at 'bucks

Pics from last Wed and yesterday (11 & 18 April) - in that order - all at starbucks. We are feeling good and getting into a nicer routine.

Pics with friends coming soon. I just haven't had a chance to do much with the pics lately.

Have been hanging with Dylan and Heather, Mary, Karin and a bit of Sho and Alison.

Burl reached 7 weeks yesterday - pic on the pastel blanket. Yay!

Ivo says

When he's upside down, Ivo proclaims, "UPSIDE DOWN!" When he returns to an upright stance, he proclaims himself to be "UPSIDE!"
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During the past week, Ivo has napped 2/7 days.

Also, I found out another thing(s) wrong with me; thrush which repeatedly brought on bacterial mastitis. Both of these SUCK. I will not go into details at this time about how inconvenient and miserable this has been. I will say that Burl drank 2 bottles of formula yesterday and I have finally gotten meds. The dr kept telling me to wash with water- and use vaseline on Burl's mouth, bum and my nipples. Though bathing Burl after each poop consumed a huge amount of time, it proved ineffective in clearing up his fungal rash or addressing any of our other concerns.

This has likely been going on since I had the d&c (St Patrick's Day, I think) which is why it's been excruciating to breastfeed and my energy has been low. Hopefully this is the last hitch in these days of forever postpartum. It's all cramping my style!
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So I haven't had time/energy for anything productive just maintenance. No blogging, no email, no phone calls, no fine-tuning or taking pictures etc.
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However, we are positive things are getting better. The boys are great and I've stopped weeping at night:)
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Burl got his 3rd hepB vaccination last week. Will post his vitals asap. He'd BIG! He smiles a lot - he babbles too. Before I forget, he changed from New Born to Small diapers at 4 weeks. He's grown right out of most of his New Born clothes. He pushes down with his legs when I hold him in a standing position. He turns his head when he hears Ivo, Ryan or my voice. He makes and maintains eye contact better than many adults I've run into! He's wonderful.

so much to say

hi lites:

all of us went to dylan's for easter egg hunt on sunday. founf beautiful eggs with chocolate inside!

went to park today, made ladybugs. The pics of Ivo with his hands on his ears are his impression of Stewie from Famnily Guy. All by himself, he came up with this. At lunch today, he squinted, held his ears out, grinned and said, "Ivo-Dash will open the ear, will Stewie." Hilarious!

ivo n grammie eating rice at taipei 101

ivo loves taiwanese food. but it's not gail's fav...

sooo busy

but doing great.

pics from 31 march in taipei - grammie gail's last day:) we went to the nat'l palace museum and taipei 101.

Ivo Dash and Burl in Taipei

These pics are from MRT and the zoo - Gail and Ivo by the flamingos and Ivo and Ryan in the penguin house (very crowded cuz of Happy Feet - a fun but woefully unfocused and strange movie). 30 March 2007.

When we're out it's much trickier to take pics. We have a lot from the hotel though.

Ivo Dash: did you SEE that?

Ivo loved the hotel (and the bus, trains, taxis, zoo, museum, 101). Ivo now uses what sounds like "will" in place of any/all helping verbs and even sometimes as a stand-in for the whole verb. Regardless of tense. "Dash will jump the mama bed."

At the park - achoo

Also from 020407

We 3 on Monday

From 020407 - The highs and lows in one minute. We like to be as close as possible!

April is the cruelest month, is that right?

April 1 - Sunday - It's no April Fool, fool. Our first day w/o Grammie Gail. We were ok - but running around like crazy washing people and things (clothes, dishes, floors) - Gail had gotten us accustomed to a certain level of cleanliness that we are loathe to give up.









We'll see how it goes. It seems like if you do things before you think about them - the chores get done. But it's a lot of auto-pilot. We even had to make our own food!

April 2 - Monday - Scared. Ryan came home during a morning break b/w 9-11am. He played with Ivo and got laundry and garbage together. Later the other 3 of us went to the park. It was an ominous weather'd day with imminent thunderstorms all day. Ivo-Dash, Burl and I all napped nicely. Pasta leftovers for lunch and dinner. Ivo helped me "cook" AND made his own egg. Ivo not asleep til 10:30pm ish. But all's well. Ivo had wake-up-booby and nap-booby. We argue a little about what and how forcefully things can be pushed into Burl's head.

April 3 - Tues - Trying not to get cocky. Lack of sleep helps tame my hubris. Ivo keeps saying "oh, poor guy" everytime Burl makes a sound. Very cute - both. Lunch was the same leftover pasta. Ivo had rice. We are out of leftovers. Today Ivo and I argued about up-turning the diaper-changing basket and a little about changing his poopy butt. After which Ivo fell asleep in the rocking chair. While he slept, I vacuumed and ate and Baby-Burl'd. When Ivo woke up, he was in a great mood and I sort of suckered him into the bath (while I came out on top of the basket kerfuffle, I had lost the pre-nap poop debate). It wasn't anywhere near the end of the world - no crying even! He believed he was there to wash some of Baby Burl's clothes... So far just wake-up/ish booby - but lots of demands. Ivo recently says "right here" all the time. So-and-so or such-and-such is "right here!"

Pics from Taipei soon. These are from yesterday and today.

quick

It's Monday. Our mini-vacation - featuring a morning at the Canadian trade office - is over.

Pics of zoo, museum, 101, hotel and other fun stuff coming. Grammie Gail is probably landing by now. Or will be soon. We made it back on our own... So lonely, so missing Grammie Gail.

Ivo's a little mad at me right now. He keeps telling me "Sandy-Mama turn around!" When he wants someone to leave him alone (like overly interested looky-loos and crazy people at the bus station...), Ivo says "Owl turn the head." This seems to mean, not-interested or turned-off AND suggests that the addressee go away. It's a metaphor lost on many...

Pamphlet-bearing Jehovah's witness just stopped by, doing her jw-thing. Kooky. I wonder if there are any male jw's in Taiwan. I've never seen any/none has come to my door. Maybe that's why they have to recruit... Don't wanna go the way of the Shakers...

So far, so good. Ivo-Dash-gege poopin'. We may walk to the park if the rain holds off. But it's kind-of one-thing-after-the-other around here anymore. Burl finishes nursing. Dash begins pooping. By the time Dash is finished and changed, Baby Burl will need a new diaper and then probably a little more booby. We may get to the park by Saturday!

Pics from 28 March.