Rebellion

Wow, I haven't posted since summer and it's already a post-holiday chilly winter now! A lot has happened in the past few months as our little world has decided to rebel against the status quo!

August: The end of summer brought my birthday, and the worst present of all: Covid. Definitely an immune system rebellion. At least me and the boys got to take cute "Breakfast at Tiffany's" cake smash photos for my birthday ahead of the day. We quarantined for 11 days, with Hubby getting hit the worst (lost sense of taste and smell) me getting it medium, and my preschooler not getting it at all (my youngest only got a drippy nose, thankfully). At least to keep occupied during quarantined life, the boys had fun playing outside in our driveway with kinetic sand, water toys, bubbles, rideable cars, and more.

September: School started up at the end of August so we were back to the swing of things by September. My oldest did a bit of a rebellion against school picture day shirts. He's likely neurodivergent and very particular about his clothes, but is otherwise much less of a rebel than his little brother. He isn't much of a risk taker (avoiding the water toys, for example), but he is pretty good with most change as long as we prep him for it (unless it's something that bothers him at his core like the clothing, or toys taken by his brother, or no more chocolate).

October: My baby brother got married! With my preschooler as the ring bearer. It was definitely a challenging event trying to balance the needs of two young children while also get dressed up and being there for my brother. But I think we did well overall, and while our family had to leave before the cake cutting (with two young children passing out), it was such a beautiful event and we were able to be very present for the majority of it. I'm so excited to have a permanent little sister! Of course, immense system rebellion quickly followed. While the boys had fun with Halloween events at school and my work, the actual day of Halloween both boys were a bit subdued with stomach flu. My preschooler was well enough to eat chocolate at least but my youngest was quite disappointed that he couldn't have his usual whole milk.

November: It felt a little rebellious changing up our usual Thanksgiving traditions this year--instead of having afternoon Thanksgiving with my parents and then evening Thanksgiving with my in-laws we had a full Thanksgiving meal with my in-laws and then flew to Texas the next day to see my grandfather! It was a great experience spending time with my aunt, uncles, and 93-year-old Papa. We also did a second wedding celebration (complete with mariachis!) for my brother since my grandfather wasn't able to fly for the wedding in October. The food in south Texas is delicious and authentic Mexican food and my kids even wore charro outfits for the celebration to celebrate their roots (they are half Mexican heritage and half Filipino!).

Top left: My grandfather at age 5. Bottom right:
My grandfather at age 93 with my boys and me!

December: Oh, by the way, we bought a house! In this market that's definitely a bit of a rebel move.... But we found something at the end of September that was more spacious, not too expensive, and still in the town that we love. It's actually closer to school and work as well, but just slightly farther from our families (15 minutes vs. 5 minutes isn't too bad). We closed in October and picked a move-in date right before the holidays on December 23. Everything went relatively smoothly considering we had to move with two kids under 5. And then, surprise allergy rebellion! Baby 2 ate something at our Italian Christmas Eve dinner and broke out in a rash across his face, including puffy eyes! I called our pediatrician's nurse line and they recommended half a Benadryl and a trip to the ER. So Christmas Eve night was three hours in the hospital! Thank goodness Baby 2 got better quickly and Baby 1 is still too young to worry about Santa visits the night before Christmas. We were home and able to sleep in the new house on Christmas Eve night and awake to Christmas morning with a beautiful tree (no ornaments, but hey at least I got to put up a tree with lights) a couple of gifts, and way more presents at the grandparents' houses. Of course, we couldn't end the year without one last immune system rebellion: Covid hit my parents. So they couldn't make it to Baby 2's second birthday! While that was a disappointment, we still had 12 people arrive for a dinosaur-themed birthday party in our new home. The cake was ADORABLE. The balloons were BEAUTIFUL. And I even found fun party favors like safari hats, squishy dinosaurs for the three kids in attendance, and dinosaur bottle openers for the adults. My in-laws brought the food and the kids took turns playing inside with birthday presents and outside in the chilly air with new Christmas presents.

My newly 2-year-old is definitely in his own phase of rebellion. Or rather, independence. He wants to do everything himself, wants to climb everything, and gets very upset if he is told "no" or "wait." Four months ago I even received an email from the Babylist website stating, "Your 20-Month-Old: aka Your Little Rebel," which is what initially inspired the title for this post. Still, despite typical 2-year frustrations, he remains my more smiley and outgoing baby. In addition to climbing, his favorite past-time (besides TV) is singing songs he's learned from TV. And boy is he learning fast! He's started to memorize everything from nursery rhymes to 80s rock songs (He requests "All wan do!" as Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now" because there's a line that says, "All that I want to do...is love you forever!"). He also loves identifying numbers on his PinkFong Numbers Zoo iPad game. And big brother is reading entire books by himself, often cuddling up with Mommy to read Daniel Goes to School (with Daniel Tiger) at night now.

We've only just started January and the new year of 2024 but I'm sure there will be many more mini rebellions and fun new changes to come!