...it was duck.
Yep you read that right....Kadin's first word was duck!!!
I said it to him many times while bathing him and tonite after I said it he repeated it. Its a little broken. I had Has listen as well to make sure and folks...Kadin's first word is duck.
Mom seems to be some type of joke to him cause he laughs hysterically whenever I try to get him to say it. And then he never fails to follow that laughter with da-da.
Abu is a tricky one for him I think given its two syllables. But we shall see...
Well here we are. After what seems like an eternity (but has really only been a little over a year) my mat leave has ended and I am expected to go back to work and let some stranger raise my little one.
Well it isn't gonna happen. I think Hasan and I decided long ago that I would stay home once Kadin was with us. It was a long thought out decision and it has/will take some sacrafices....but those we will make happily. I will have to find someway to make some cash on the side...god only knows how but I'll find something.
I mean when we made this decision we thought about everything involved. The cost of daycare is crazy anyways and its the exact amount I was making when I was working so what's the point? Besides Kadin adores having his mommy home with him. He told me so. hehe
It seems that as soon as the mat leave ran out and I wasnt getting money for nothing (well giving birth I guess) some personality I have never known appeared.
I find myself doing dishes everyday. Cooking everyday. Scrubbing floors. Changing bed cloths. Packing away clean laundry. My god!
Ok wait for those of you who don't know me...I'm a Taurus and have a pretty severe aversion to house cleaning. For those of you who do know me...pick your mouth up off the floor. haha
Is this my way of making my (I mean our) stay-at- home decision more ok? Is it my way of lessening the guilt of Hasan going off to work everyday? ORR is it simply my way of not going nuts doing nothing but sitting around the house watching the Olsen twins on Oprah!? :)
Whatever it is - it works. I enjoy it. Gives me purpose. Yes picking up dirty underwear off the bathroom floor can do that for you.
And now that Kadin is mobile its easy to have him play in the floor close to where mommy is getting her house work done.
Some other big decisions have been made by Hasan and I of late. Some we can share others we cannot. One we would like to let people know about it our beautiful, gorgeous, innocent, friends - Daisy and Grady.
Excuse me....
Sorry...back.
It's too hard and so over the next little bit Hasan and I will be trying to decide where they should end up before the end of the year.
Don't judge us please. This was NOT easy by ANY means. We just didn't understand how it would be after Kadin got here.
We are also offering up our lease of a KIA Rio to anyone who is willing to take it! hahaha :)
Ok so lets end on a good note....Kadin got up at 3 am last night and stayed up till 4:30 am. Wait that's not a good.....
OH WAIT here's something...this will be my first Mother's Day and my birthday is just the day before!! YEh gifts! ha
Did anyone see Oprah today? My god....
To summarize, it was about moms who had lost their children in terrible accidents and there was one mom whose children went through a horrible ordeal. They were nearly burnt alive.
My summarization does not even begin to convey the horror of seeing this show and what these women had to now live with.
I can't even go through what each women experienced. It's too much. Too emotional. And I'm just sitting at home watching this.
One story involved a mother leaving her 4 boys in a van alone while she ran into the house. One boy lit a piece of paper with a lighter and well...
They all lived and although each innocent little one has to go through many surgeries to correct the damage done to their bodies...they are alive.
I have to admit I cried through this entire show. A little tear here...a little tear there.
But then they showed the youngest of her children. He was 18 months when the accident occured. I sobbed. Oh god I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. He had been strapped in his car seat and had the worse burns. It was like someone took a suit of melted skin, put it on this child and told him to live like it forever. His eyes were barely noticeable hidden under layers of melted flesh. It appeared he had only one lip and his nostrils were small holes on his face.
Sounds came out of me that I haven't heard since I was 2. It broke me. The mom said she found herself falling a part and then realized her children did need her so she managed to pick herself up and live on.
I get that. But I don't know how. I'm weak. I'll admit it. I'm a weak woman. I can't even begin to understand how she can hold him, look at him, pick him up out of his crib when he cries in the morning, look at pics of him....
One woman whose ex-husband had shot her 4 children at point blank range while she was out for her morning walk, didn't appear to be moving on. She seemed to have a hatred still inside her for the world and people in it. She said she no longer believed things like "Love thy neighbour", "Do unto others.." blah, blah, blah..... She wanted to hear nothing about there being a purpose to all of this. To her still being alive and them dead. She didn't want to hear about them being angels now and having a greater calling in another world.
That would be me. Bitter. Angry. Sick. Tired. Why go on?
Another poignant moment was when another woman - whose ex-husband shot her 3 boys while he had them on the weekend - gave this woman some speech about making choices. How she made the choice to go on. How she made the choice to live happy. How she made the choice to remarry and have children.
The first woman looked at her blankly and said "I can't make that choice. I can't have children."
I just knew she didn't want to hear any of it. And neither would I.
I called Hasan to tell him about the show. He knew right away that I was upset. When he asked me why I said "Well on Oprah.." Has immediately said "I should have known, it's 2 o'clock..."
So since we came back from Newf Kadin never sleeps through the night. We thought it was the trip, we thought it was some 6 month thing we heard about and now we are telling ourselves its because he is teething.
To make it through these nights of him waking anywhere from 3-5 am we started taking him into our bed. SHHH I don't wanna hear those sounds of "Oh that's too bad..."
And now it happens everynight. Every night at about 4:30-5 our little guy wakes and the ONLY thing that makes him happy is to sleep next to his mom or abu.
So I decided a few nights ago that I would let him cry through it and then Kadin would know he had to stay in his bed.
MY GOD who are the parents who can do this? I can't. I simply cannot. I tried. I really gave the best I had. I gave him some water, I rocked him, I rubbed his back but always with the same outcome. Him frantically crying and trying desperately to get out of his crib and look at me...sobbing...sobbing madly!
Someone told Has the other day that we would regret having him come to our bed and we should stop it now while we can. Apparently that guys kid slept with them till he was 2.
I have read the books and I have listened to the advice about letting him cry till he can sleep on his own and stay in his own bed, but I admit it...I'm not gonna do it.
So which makes me the bad mother?? Letting him cry and sob madly while looking at me and not understanding why his mommy just won't pick him up and let him sleep next to her?? Even though I know in the long run it is the best thing to do. Or does it make me a bad mother to selfishly want him to sleep in the bed with me and be happy and content? Even if he does it till he gets his own bed.
An aunt once told me she let her boys sleep with her in her and my uncles bed and it was never really a big deal and once they got their own bed they were actually excited about it.
Two years isn't that long.
So about 15 minutes ago we (well, Tonia) discovered that Kadin quietly pushed out one tooth (bottom right front), and a second one which looks about 9 minutes from coming out itself!
The 14 minutes after that were spent with the three of us dancing around the living room like fools, singing various oh-so-creative songs involving "I see teefies! I see teefies!".
....
We had to take a bit of a break just then as Kadin has been busy trying to rip the phone out of the wall. Over. And over.
Well I have gotten the OK from all parties involved. So for a sneak preview here are the pics we had done at Sears. Well not here exactly but in the gallery...*sigh*...come on you know what I mean. :)
So some small milestones to report. Kadin has now graduated to the cart when we grocery shop. No longer do we have to load up the stroller for that adventure! YEH!
He is also sitting in the tub now. We have to be careful cause he does love to reach out for his toys but its a nice move up from always having to lay down.
Kadin is making many new sounds. For example "dada", "mama" (not considered to be mom), "nana", "gaga" those sorts of things. He has also started clapping quite recently which is so cute.
His crawling still is backwards and consists of a lot of rolling but let me assure you he knows how to get where he wants to be. Kadin is also attemping to pull himself up now when he is holding onto a chair or the side of his crib. I think I may have cried when he did that the first time. :)
Well I believe thats all the updates for now. There are NEW PICS in the gallery and more to follow. The Sears portraits are scanned but we will wait until the family gets them before we put them up on the site.
Okie dokie....
Well we haven't posted much since Hasan cut his hair but here are some little tidbits.
Kadin does crawl. It may be a little backwards and sideways at this point but he is getting there. He tries really hard to chew on the edge of our rug but we put a stop to it. Kadin also gets up on his knees but can't work out going forward. :)
We had some pics done of him last week....for his 6 months. Although he was closer to seven at the time. They are amazing and we will certainly scan these for all to see before we give them away. Sorry folks but these were done for immediate family only.
Kadin is quite a big boy now. Hasan and I did a little shopping for him at Old Navy today and I bought him shirts and shorts for 12-18 months. The shirts fit him now. WOW eh? Since he started eating food he has grown quite quickly.
His hair is quite long and I want to cut it but find myself making every excuse not to. Then last week we were in a Coles store and the girl mistaken him for a girl and someone else that day had asked if he were a boy or girl. *sigh* I have to cut his hair. :))
Kadin received some very cute gifts this week from his nanny and poppy. They are from the Easter Bunny for the Easter holiday this Sunday. Kadin couldn't wait and opened them earlier. ;) heh Now he has some little boats and rubber duckies for the tub and a blow up rabbit, an awesome summer suit and some chocolate he can eat in 2 years. :)
So that's about all from this front. My mat leave ends soon and the Hai family have some decisions to make. (Hasan, Kadin and I) I will let you all know the final decision.
Later. New pics this week.