Steps in the Right Direction

Now that I can tell people Anthony recently turned 1 -- which I never hesitate to do, because everyone is sooo interested in my baby, right? -- the next natural question is, "Is he walking?"

Which he isn't.

When I reveal this, the person who asked usually backpedals desperately and acts like it's crazy talk to even suggest a 1-year-old might take a step or two and I should really be glad I'm not chasing him all over creation and they remember that their first cousin's coworker's massage therapist's baby didn't walk until he was 14 months...as if they don't want me to fret about Anthony ignoring the first part of the "walking at 1, talking at 2" mantra.

Which is funny, because it's probably the one thing in Anthony's whole life I haven't really felt that worried about (everyone walks eventually, I figure) until it became obvious that strangers think I should feel worried, so now I guess I will.

I would just lie and tell people he's 8 months old or something, in order to avoid the walking issue altogether. But that's not really an option, as everyone in Miami, for some reason, thinks my child is GARGANTUAN. Usually, when I tell someone Anthony is 1, they gasp, look at me aghast and stammer, "One? He's only 1? but he's so big -- oh my goodness, he's huge!" as if I've spawned some sort of Sumo wrestler rather than a normal little boy who began life on the small side of average and fell just shy of the "triple their weight in the first year" standard.

Anyway, on the bright side, Andre the Giant has finally started to show a little interest in getting on his feet.

He managed to stand on his own a few times by letting go of whatever he was holding onto, each time with a look of incredulity spreading over his face, like, "Am I really doing this?"

He even dared to take a few forward steps while pushing his music table (thanks Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeff!!)...

... and his favored method of crawling has switched from hands and knees to hands and feet...

...he looks kind of silly and I'm pretty sure all the other kids at daycare will make fun of him, not a good thing what with the Giantism already working against his chances of social acceptance, so I hope he just goes ahead and switches to walking soon.

In any case, he seems pretty happy these days:

Happy Father's Day!

Last year for Father’s Day, I gave Brandon, well, fatherhood. Anthony was born the day before Father’s Day. On the holiday itself, we brought him home.

So, I was kind of off the hook in terms of a Father’s Day gift last year.

Of course, it also means that while I got full Mother’s Day benefits for roughly 11 months of actual mothering, Brandon had to serve the entire 365 days (actually, more like 372, as Father’s Day is a week later this year than last) to cash in on his Father’s Day rewards.

Based on all that, I guess I should get him an actual present and not just try to sail through with this blog entry.

Just kidding, of course I got Brandon a present! I got him some nice knives because he likes to cook and a new pillow because our cat ripped up his pillow a few months back and poor Brandon has been sleeping on a folded up comforter ever since. And yes, I realize it’s just a touch creepy to give someone knives and a pillow for a gift. Maybe I’ll just go ahead and throw some rubber gloves, plastic tarp, duct tape and a jug of bleach in there as well.

Anyway, yes, of course Brandon gets a Father’s Day gift, because Brandon is a wonderful dad. And as I have a wonderful dad myself (my grandpa, my dad, me and Anthony)...

...I know a thing or two about wonderful dads. So trust me.

I say this even though Brandon has done his fair share of funny things over the past year.

Once he went to get groceries and tried to pick up Anthony's food for the week, and came back with something like a two-pack of pureed peas, a tiny jar of applesauce, several containers of Gerber “banana custard desert” and roughly 72 jars of meat. I was going to get all self-righteous and snotty about it, but then I thought to myself, “Given full freedom, this is probably how Brandon would feed HIMSELF...meat, meat, more meat, a little banana custard because, hey, a guy’s gotta get his fruit, meat, and then maybe some peas when guilt sets in.” So, I figured Brandon's choices for Anthony don’t mean he has no concept of what our child eats, they just mean he was trying to make the little fella happy, daddy-style.

Then there have been several times where I’ve come back from running important errands and volunteering at the soup kitchen (browsing through Macy's) to find Brandon SOUND ASLEEP AND SNORING while Anthony stands right next to him, red-faced and screaming. I always freak out at this point and yell, “What in the world are you doing???!!!???”

Not because I’m mad at Brandon...but I really want to know...so I can learn how to do that!

And I won’t even mention the time Brandon, upon arriving home from work, scooped up Anthony and lifted him in the air, not realizing he was standing under the “low” part of our ceiling and that lifting Anthony in the air would lead to bonking the little guy’s noggin. Yeah, I won't even mention that...ooops...

(Of course, what I really want to know is who exactly was snapping this photograph while her defenseless child...I mean that defenseless child...was being hoisted toward the rafters...)

Anyway, despite his funny ways, Brandon, as I said, is a great dad. Even though I know this to be true, I thought I’d go straight to the source just in case there are some doubters:

Anthony, who do you love very much?





I don't know if you've really answered my question. Let me put it a different way. Who is your favorite person in the world, right after your mommy, of course?

How interesting. Why don't you tell me how you feel when daddy has to leave to go to work?




I know, my interviewing skills are AMAZING. It's easy to see why I'm a professional journalist, right? Right? RIGHT???

1

By now we're down to something like HPPY BRHDY ANTY...they're GOOD! Anthony agreed, even managing to forget that he was kind of mad about wearing a rather dorky "Baby's 1st Birthday" crown...

He started with the frosting, then picked up the whole thing and tried to stuff it in his mouth. He may look just like his daddy, but there's some mommy in there too!

Here's his present from mom and dad.

Climbing + a good chance of broken bones = Anthony likes.

Anthony had a fun day today celebrating the big 0-1 with mom, dad and Grandma Char.

It is hard to believe it has been a year since two completely clueless people (this is the ONLY picture of me pregnant that shall ever appear on this blog. I made it as small as possible)...

...welcomed Anthony James Josephsen into the world. Somehow, he is not yet in therapy.

I used to be so glib when I was pregnant and people asked me if I was ready to be a parent. My stock reply: “A lot of people who are stupider than Brandon and I have managed to raise kids.”

(Of course, those people likely refrained from using one of those "listen to your unborn baby's heartbeat" things on their cat...)

At the time, of course, my biggest worries were how to lose 10 pounds after giving birth and how best to berate Brandon when he used expressions like “preggers.”

I wish I’d known then how hard being a parent is; I might have instead used my mental energy to figure out what I’d do with the baby once he was here (umm, probably NOT this).

I remember after Anthony was born, and I was moved to the recovery room at about 4 a.m. Anthony was still being checked out, and Brandon was in the waiting room until visiting hours started at 8. The nurse said it would take a few hours to finish Anthony’s tests, so I should try to sleep until they brought him to my room around 7.

It would be just the first of many times Anthony would keep me from getting my share of sleep: lo and behold, the little guy showed up around 5.

A normal woman would have swooped her baby into her arms, overjoyed at his early arrival and excited to start bonding. Me? I felt something akin to panic: “Should I pick him up? What if he wakes up? And starts crying? And I can’t make him stop? And Brandon won’t be here for THREE MORE HOURS?"

(The above offered as proof that I'm not an awful person...)

Fortunately for me, Brandon emerged not even an hour after Anthony, who, being just six hours old, of course slept the entire time.

But I had no way of knowing that.

I didn’t know much of anything.

As I look back, I am struck by how much I learned these past 12 months Such as:

…that giving your baby solid foods, while billed as a lovely bonding experience, is really, after the 582,342nd spoonful of puree, a soul-sucking chore that makes you yearn for the day when your child to refuse to eat anything but fish sticks and gummy bears, provided he is feeding them to himself.

…changing a diaper is not that gross but touching a gummed-up Cheerio is stomach-turning.

…a daycare kid gets up to 20 colds a year and a cold lasts two weeks, so a parent isn’t crazy for thinking their kid is always sick (so says Anthony’s pediatrician). If your child is in daycare, phrases like “he’s starting a cold,” “he has a cold” and “he’s getting over a cold” are useless. Just say “he’s in daycare” if someone recoils from his crusty nose and pack-a-day smoker’s cough.

… if you want your baby to sleep through the night, bathe him at 6, feed him at 7 and put him to bed at 8. (I am being entirely facetious here, obviously, as Anthony is not exactly the poster child for sleeping through the night. The joke is that every time – and I do mean every time – we go to our pediatrician, he tells me to “bathe him at 6, feed him at 7 and put him to bed at 8” if I want Anthony to sleep through the night. He says this whether I ask for sleep advice or not. He has said it whether Anthony was 9 months old or 3 days old. He has said it to me; he has said it to Brandon. And the funniest part is, every time he says it, he acts like he’s sharing some newly-discovered nugget – no, gem – of wisdom and that he’s letting me and only me in on the secret.)

…you can throw your hands in the air and avoid even a half-hearted attempt to deal with any problem your child has – fever, cough, runny nose, crying, not eating, not sleeping, etc. – if you blame teething. The first time Anthony gets detention, I am going to tell everyone he is teething.

Rereading this, I think I sound a little cynical, perhaps to make up for the sap of a week ago…but of course, I also have my share of warm and fuzzy sentimental memories about the past year.

But do I really want to make people gag by sharing them (like how Anthony’s laugh is the best sound I can even imagine, how my favorite moment of the day is when I pick him up at daycare, how sometimes when I watch him play I nearly cry because I know how lucky we are to have a happy and healthy little boy, how sometimes when he wakes me up at 3 a.m. and I’m sooo tired and just want to go back to bed I end up holding him for a few minutes longer than necessary just because I love the way his warm little body feels) in this already too-long post?

Suffice it to say I love Anthony more than anything on earth, and I hope today will be just the first of many times when I'll have the honor of saying, "Happy Birthday, Sunshine!"

Sappy Birthday to You...

I don't think of myself as a particularly sentimental person. A few silly things make me tear up -- Publix commercials, the hometown montages on American Idol, Brett Favre's retirement speech (but only the first one) -- but I don't have to remember to pack tissues when I go to a wedding and I haven't even seen Beaches or Steel Magnolias.

But lately, I feel like everything has been making me sniffle (NO, I'm not about to announce that I'm pregnant. If that were the case, I'd be sobbing, not sniffling...)

It's just that I'm feeling a bit...nostalgic...about Anthony turning 1. It happens Sunday, and while I'm very excited, I'm also getting a little emotional about it. He's not going to be my BABY anymore. He'll be a toddler, and then a little boy and then it's the first day of school and, just give me a minute while I go drop him off at his freshman dorm. And get a tissue.

Seriously, I'm excited about Anthony getting older. When we last visited home, we hung out with Anthony's cousins, Bradley, who is 3, and Matthew, who, at 7 months, still gets to be a baby for a while longer. The whole time, I kept thinking, I can't wait until Anthony is Bradley's age, at least if he's like Bradley, who is smart, well-behaved, funny and helpful.

And I'm still excited about all those things (yes, I mentally block out the fact that "all signs point to no," as the Magic 8 Ball might say, when it comes to Anthony being well-behaved), but as time marches forward and Anthony gets ready to smush his little fingers into his first birthday cake, I can't help but think back to the little baby we brought home from the hospital 51 weeks ago.

How did we go from this...

...to this?

The last year was the craziest, most fun, most chaotic and most emotional I've ever experienced. I'm not going to lie and say I loved every (sleepless) moment of it, but I get the feeling it will always be one of the best years of my life.

So, I guess I'm a sap, at least for now.

But before you make fun of me too much, go to YouTube and search for "Publix Valentine's Day commercial." You'll see what I mean. If you don't at least tear up, you may not have a soul...

Random Stuff

1. Aunt Kerry asked me to post Anthony's school spring picture (he's about 10 months old). She says she wants to do something artistic with it to mark the little guy's first year -- and anyone who is aware of Kerry's artistic abilities will know that I encourage this 100 percent!!

So, this is mostly for Aunt Kerry, but everyone else can feel free to write in the comments about how insanely adorable my baby is!

Just kidding!

Kind of!

2. Sunday, Anthony figured out how to climb onto stuff (doesn't he look proud?) and, naturally, immediately became obsessed with doing so. I have placed the nearest ER on full alert.

3. When Grandma and Grandpa Lantau were here, Grandpa took Anthony for a spin in his boat in our condo's swimming pool. (Anthony's boat, not Grandpa's...I don't think even Grandpa could catch too many fish out of this vessel!) In any case, Anthony seems to finally be grasping the idea that swimming pools are fun...

4. Next up? Parks are fun, too, Anthony!

Really, they are! Fun, I tell you, fun!

Seriously, little fella, kids LOVE the park!

We're working on it.

5. Like his momma, Anthony gets many of his clothes at thrift stores. Check out this Izod shirt and Old Navy cargo shorts combo that the little guy scored for like two bucks.

6. Brandon and I were crushed when we found out his million-dollar idea -- spray-on diaper rash cream -- had already been invented. I'm sure someone is also already marketing baby stroller bumper stickers, but at least we had a few laughs...

Yes, I had a lot of time on my hands today.

By the Book

Before we had Anthony, and I didn't know what to expect, I always said one of the things I looked forward to most was reading to the little guy. In all honesty, that was my stab at being positive...I was worried having a baby would not be much fun at all, but I knew I'd enjoy sharing my own love of reading with my child.

Of course, nearly a year later, I realize I vastly underestimated how much fun babies can be -- as well as how much work!! -- but I was right about one thing: I do love reading to Anthony, and it is one of my favorite parts about being a mom.

Fortunately, the little guy seems to love his books.



Not only do they taste good...

but they have cool pictures and stuff...


When they're wrapped up as early birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, even better!


While Anthony has a number of his own favorites, I also have to bring attention to what I think might be the coolest baby book ever written. Or at least the most unusual.

Introducing... "First Book of Sushi!" Because we all know babies and raw fish are a great mix!

But they totally manage to rhyme about sushi, and for that they deserve a lot of credit, if you ask me.

"I see take-out tekka maki, kappa maki packed to go.

Temaki-style hand roll, with uni urchin roe.

Miso in my sippy cup. Tofu in my bowl.

Crab and avocado fill my California roll.

I'll take yellowtail hamachi, and a red maguro slice.

Big, BIG futomaki, has so many grains of rice.

Ikura squishy salmon roe like dabby dots of jelly,

salty on my lips, and yummy in my belly!

Egg tamago and shrimp ebi, dipped in soy sauce (not a lot),

Pink pickled ginger cools my tongue, wasabi -- hot, hot, hot!

Tobiko, flying fishy roe, flying from Japan.

Someday I'll eat with chopsticks, today just with my hands!"