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So tonight while Kadin was screaming (he does that you know, scream) himself to sleep, I decided to have a little fun.

I mean, I KNOW he's not in pain or hurt..he's crying out of ANGER which is directed at me for leaving him in the crib and having the gall to make him sleep there!

But anyways, after watching him cry and cry, we engage in the following game.

(I snap my fingers)
Kadin makes a "light-bulb turning" motion with both hands.
(I clap my hands)
Kadin claps his hands
(I cluck my tongue)
Kadin clucks his tongue
(I ball my hands into fists and turn them over each other, over and over)
Kadin balls his hands into fists and turns them over each other, over and over.
(I blow him a kiss)
Kadin blows me a kiss.
(I say "GOOD JOB!")
Kadin blows a snot-bubble and screams louder.

At that point, Tonia switched with me. I think she winked, cast some sort of Newfie magic, and Kadin was asleep before I made it down the hall. Hrm.

Of Santa, allergies, and sleeping in your own damn bed!

This past Sunday Kadin and I had a day to ourselves which we spent downtown at the 1st annual Santa Clause Parade. While it is extremely difficult to keep a 14 month old child interested in a milling crowd for 1.5 hours, once the action started he just sat quietly on my shoulders and drooled on my head. You know, as opposed to squirming on my shoulders and drooling on my head.

Kadin was especially fascinated by the bagpipes and firefighters marching band. I thought at first Ronald McDonald would be a sure winner, but the guy sounded like he was a homeless guy in clown make-up "HEY KIDS, WHO LOVES CHEESEBURGERS?!?!". Maybe you just had to be there...

Since the parade didn't start until 11:30, we only watched for about an hour until we absolutely had to find a fine dining location for him to get a nutritious lunch; Denny's!

While sharing some chicken nuggets and nacho's with Kadin, we witnessed the charming young family at the next table go from "Do you want me to order you a coffee, sweety?" to the father kicking the table and demanding the mother not ever do what she was doing. It appeared she was leaning over the seat to pick up a toy from one of their two sons, so I'm still not sure what happened.

In any event, without Tonia there to stop us, Kadin and I stared with absolutely no shame whatsoever and enjoyed the lunch-time theatre playing out right in front of us!

Skip ahead to Tuesday...

As Kadin had recently had two bad reactions for fish, we went in for his scheduled allergy test. Apparently Dr. Kim is not entirely comfortable around small children though. While we were all in the tiny waiting room, Kadin was getting understandably restless just sitting in my arms. So I asked Dr. Kim for one of the tongue depressers for him to play with. Kadin of course dropped it 20 seconds later, at which point I just scooped it up and handed it to him.

That's when Dr. Kim looked a little shocked and said "Don't you want to give him a ...sanitary one?". I just laughed and said he'd had worse in his mouth. At that point I think Dr. Kim started paging the child welfare office. I still found the whole thing quite amusing, as he was acting as if the stick fell in a pile of FECES or something, as opposed to a carpetted floor.

Oh, he didn't show any reaction to fish, but we have to book another appointment and bring cooked samples to see if those do the trick.

Skip ahead to Wednesday night...

Fed up with the situation we've created for ourselves (Kadin sleeping in our bed and one of us invariably moving to the couch so the other can get a decent nights sleep), we bit the bullet and decided to put him back in his crib that night. Well, 3952305293 stories and 2 hours later, he was lightly asleep IN HIS OWN CRIB AND NOT IN OUR ROOM! Granted, he woke up crying a few times that night, but still it was a success.

Since then he's taken all of his naps and gone to bed only in his crib. Tonia currently holds the record of 1 hour from room entry to exit. Our next target is to reduce the blood curdling screams and increase the..uh...well, really just decrease the blood curdling screams. See, Kadin isn't convinced just yet that his crib is a good place to be, but we'll get there soon enough.

Oh, my friend Marla was kind enough to send some pictures taken on Halloween. Enjoy!

Defiance

So Kadin is getting close isnt he? You know what Im talking about. The same thing everyone in my life has talked about since I got pregnant. Something I myself avoided as a teenage babysitter. The two's. OK OK I know he just turned 1 like 3 months ago but what else could explain the crazed, spitful outburst coming from my son?

He squeals directly at you if you try to take something he wants to keep. He squeals at you if you tell him to stop...or no...or don't touch. Kadin squeals at you if your not getting him something fast enough or if you try to keep him from running in a direction your not ready for and my god does he squeal when you try to stop him from drinking poison. Funniest thing.

Yesterday....well just let me retell this story of mommy/son bliss and computer use.

He is obsessed, and yes ok I know he is young and obsession is a strong word...but you try and sit here during a nine hour day and 450000000000000 freakin times tell him not to touch the computer and then frantically run to actually make him stop touching the computer.

But Hasan and I are sticking to it and following through. We are trying to show the monst...I mean Kadin that there are consequences for the decisions he makes. Kadin will learn to not touch the computer. I assure you. And besides Dr. Phil says this is the best way to do it.

I just realized I told you above that I was going to tell a story and I havent yet. Can anyone say babbling?

Kadin was at the computer. I told him not to touch. He continued. I got up and pulled him away from the computer. He squealed at me...RIGHT at me. I squished his face so his lips were pressed together. Picturing it? And I told him in a very firm voice to stop and not to touch.

He ran to the sofa and began sobbing with the force of a broken hearted child who has also been taken away from something he is obsessed with. As he sobbed - and by the way watched television...something caught his little beady eye - he squealed, outloud, twice with the force of ten 2 year old little girls whose mommy has gone to work... (Come on...what? You know its true)

What the...? Who the hell is this kid?

And do not get me started on the TV....we had it so good for awhile and then this kid came along.

Did I mention the double hug?

Oh something else....

Kadin
likes to double hug his abu and his mommy. If he is in the arms of one of us and we are all standing close he will outstretch both arms and put one around the neck of Hasan and one around the neck of moi.

Show Me Show Me

So Kadin has taken to the art of imitation. Anything he catches he will immediately attempt doing.

He will cough if one of us coughs. He will sneeze if one of us sneezes. He will clap, snap and pat anything that we clap for, snap at or pat.

Kadin will dance and dance especially if one of us is doing it as well. He pretends to sing and best of all the reading. Let me tell you.

Most of Kadin's books have animals in them and for the most part there is some sort of roaring animal in these books. When I read to him I try to make the sounds and Kadin really likes it when I roar.

Now when he reads he sits on the floor with his books all around him and we hear this as he turns each page, "Bah Bah bah bah bah ARRRRR bah bah bah bah ARRRRRRRR bah bah bah bah ARRRRRRRR..."
It is absolutely priceless.

Today I am lying in bed with him trying to get him to take his nap. I always lie with the blanket cuddled into my face or hugging a pillow. Today I had the blanket. That little shit - term of endearment for me - takes the blanket and holds it next to his face cuddling with it. I had to then wipe my face with the blanket (of course I was crying after seeing something so freakin cute) and what does Kadin do? Wipe his eyes with the blanket.

I love that kid. He amazes, astounds, surprises and loves me everyday. Nothing better....absolutely nothing.

LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!!

The past week-ish has been a period of remarkable achievments for Kadin.

In no particular order:

1. He's learned to feed himself with fork and/or spoon. Granted, his spoon handiwork results in about 99% of the food in question (generally cereal) to end up on his neck, chest, or crotch. He almost stabbed me in the eye with his fork earlier today while at the mall, so we do recognize there is still some room for fine tuning.

2. Bottle? WHAT BOTTLE?! Tonia, fired up with strength stemming from GOD ALMIGHTY and many generations of Hanrahan women, has eliminated all bottles from Kadin's diet. Well, his last milk of the evening is an 8 oz bottle (we plan on continueing that for several months yet), but any other milk/juice/water intake is through those damn fangled sippy cups.

3. He can snap. Yes, it's true. Well, not really. Alright, so last night I was laying down with him and in the sacred ritual known as "MAKE NOT THE CHILD CRY", I was alternating between clapping my hands and snapping my fingers while singing Twinkle Twinkle little star about a billion times in a row (I'm nowhere near the musical encyclopedia Tonia is: my repertoire consists of A-B-C, Twinkle Twinkle little star, The Elephant Song, and snippits of Urdu songs that make no sense to me and I suspect might actually be dirty jokes my older cousins taught me when I was a kid).

Kadin has been able to clap for some time now, but last night he started to mimic the snapping motion; he would rub his fingers together and then curl his hand like someone revving a motorcycle. Wooo!

4. He peed on the floor of his room during naked time the other day. Heh.

ANNOUNCING...

Yesterday was Kadin's first day without ONE 4 OZ. bottle!!!! The weaning process has been slow going but we have chosen to do it that way.

I mean the first step we took we took long ago by not teaching him a word for the bottle. We thought it best that he never had a way to ask for it. And it helps A LOT!

Now we just give him his milk in a glass as much as possible and it works. He drinks all of it 95% of the time from the sippy cup and only has to be supplemented occassionally with the bottle. Now mind you he still gets the 8 oz. good night bottle. But that's cool. I mean he has to get a certain amount of milk for his age and that we won't budge on...as much as we would like him weaned.

But yesterday he even had extra milk and I didn't once have to give him a bottle. YEH!

Remember when? I love being Kadin's mom.

A funny thing happened on the way to the bathroom....

This morning as I lay with Kadin letting him take his nap, I could not resist the urge to pick his nose. Ok just let me say this...I know its wrong but I have a problem. I have had it for about 14 months. I am am obsessed nose picker, Kadin's nose that is. I did once hear another mom admit to it as well but it was only briefly so I couldn't be sure.

Back to this morning. I dug the booger out and well ok.....sometimes...SOMEtimes I flick them! SHHHH!! What else am I suppose to do? I put them somewhere so I can get them later but generally in the moment I want it off my finger....so I flick. I did just that this morning, and as I gave it a firm flick, it was a real sticky one, I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be funny if it landed on my glasses?!" (I put my glasses on the floor as Kadin falls asleep)

Moments later when I left him in the room to rest, I found myself in the bathroom brushing my teeth and low and behold there lay the sticky booger. Right on my glasses, on the nose piece. Are you picturing it?

Be afraid..

What is the most terrifying creature in existence?

Kadin when he misses a nap. It's been a very long day.

Our day started with a trip to the dentists office for 9 AM as Tonia had an appointment. Things went well enough for the hour she was in there; Kadin and I roamed the mall, he winked at the ladies, and I fed him a hashbrown. Life was good.

As much as Tonia hates the dental experience in general, she was ok when she came out. Sure, she had some freezing and a little drool on the go, but good otherwise.

Something happened over the next hour though, that resulted in Tonia quickly developing a headache that escalated to a vomiting spree that went on until about 4 PM. During that time, Kadin decided he would protest something or other and forgo his afternoon nap.

There are several divinely beautiful things that happen to Kadin when he is tired.

1 - He cries.
2 - He cries louder.
3 - The louder crying transforms into screaming.
4 - The screaming results in his nose running.
5 - Beyond just having a runny nose, a giant wet snot finds it's way to the side of his nose or on his forehead somehow.
6 - Since he is crying + crying louder + screaming, any attempts to wipe the aforementioned wet booger on nose and/or forehead result in him shrieking, and the wet booger invariably finds it's way into either his hair, sheets, or Tonia's pillow (my pillow seems to be immune to all substances other than urine..more on that subject later)
7 - Hasan dials random numbers in the phonebook looking for a Heroin fix.
8 - Hasan hits redial and indicates that his previous request was in fact a joke born out of desperation.
9 - Crying + crying louder + screaming + wet booger emitting Kadin starts hiccupping.
10 - Kadin gets a bottle and falls asleep in 0.0000052532 seconds.
11 - Seeing him blissfully asleep makes us forget steps 1-9, and parts of 10 as well.

So Kadin is in bed as of 5:30 PM, and Tonia is relaxing after having feasted on the honey garlic ribs that _I_ made. Ok, so she was giving me advice between bouts of vomiting, but I still did all the leg work.

Pictures

There are new pictures up everyone. They include Kadin's Sears 1 year photos as well as some from the end of Sep to the end of Oct. Enjoy.

I especially like the ones where Kadin has his own pants on his head. I thought when I looked at them, that it would be his grad book baby photo some day! heh

I'm thinking it might be a snack time for Kadin. I just eye balled him out in the dining room eating his left over Kraft Dinner from over 2 hours ago! Gotta go!

Halloween wind-down and vengeance on the seafood industry

So just a quick QUICK update that Kadin was indeed in fine health when he woke up Sunday morning, so we had a fantastic time taking him out for Halloween with some friends.

I'm typing very slowly and very softly while Tonia attempts to put him down for his nap. If my typing should wake him, rest assured I'll find my head inside the monitor!

More later when it's safer to type loudly...

(Thursday, 10:46 PM)

...and here we are.

On Sunday we went to our friends place in Langley so Kadin could go out trick or treating with her 2 year old daughter, and the 2 year old daughter of her neighbour. Funny enough, both girls were dressed as Tigger!

As they lived in a nice and quiet cul-de-sac, it was very safe and relaxed taking Kadin door to door. He absolutely LOVED being outside and walking about! I almost killed myself watching him attempt to walk up driveways though. It looking something like an adult walking into a hurricane; he would lean forward and try and walk up the slight incline, and half the time he would just start tilting backwards until Tonia or I gave him a little push to get him going.

Watching him go back down the driveways was funny and terrifying at the same time, as he would just run like a bullet until he tripped and fell.

He managed to walk to three houses on his own, at which point we put the very tired but very, very happy bobaloo into his stroller to walk the rest of the way. He was kept occupied and content by being allowed to sift through his little pumkin bucket which had maybe 9 pieces of candy in it.

About 7:30 we had to call it quits and head home. Kadin slept very well that night. The rest of us, not so much.

Tonia is something of a light sleeper, so the constant fireworks around our building resulted in her being up most of the night. Since I sleep like the dead, I think that they caused me to stay awake for about 0.000002324 seconds longer than normal.

Stay tuned for pictures!