New Beginnings.

This morning, Titan slept in until 8! I was definitely happy about that. Last night could probably go down in history as one of the most annoying nights' sleep of all time! Some parents let their kids run free like wild heathens in our parking lot until almost midnight (by the way, apartment walls are about as thin as printer paper so remember that next time you decide to speak loudly outside!), then at 2 Titan must have had a bad dream and woke up crying, at about 5 the train blew past us- honking its horn the entire time, about 10 minutes after that ended someone's car alarm went off for a while, and finally at about 6 our neighbor tried starting his car over and over and over and OVER (that rickety noise where it won't turn over) and to no avail (thank GOODNESS he finally gave up or I was about to shoot him). And there you have it. So if Titan hadn't woken up at 8, he might have gotten strangled. Which has already almost happened to him this morning actually because he figured out how to unscrew the Gatorade cap and spill it's orangey juice all over our tan carpet. I screamed at him, cleaned it up and then shut myself in my room to avoid having a heart attack. Does being a mom come so UNNATURALLY to anyone else?! Man, I am having to re-learn everything about being a stay-at-home-mom. And let me tell you- after being on both sides of the fence, getting dressed up and going to work every day is about a million times easier than this.

I titled my post New Beginnings because we've had some new experiences! This morning, Titan woke up and came into my room with his wubby dragging behind him and his eyes all puffy and just-woke-up-like. Next to me was a body pillow and another pillow that Derek would have been using had he been here. I asked Titan, "Where's Dad?". He went and tackled the body pillow as if Dad was on the other side of it and realized he wasn't there. So he lifted up the pillow and still didn't see him. So he lifted up the OTHER pillow. Dad wasn't under there. He thought it must be a joke so he started digging through the covers. I quickly realized I shouldn't have asked him that question because now tears were forming in my eyes and I had to distract myself by saying, "He's not here. Let's go get a bite of breakfast!" But he keeps saying Dad and looking for him. When he saw Derek's picture on the fridge, he started crying and calling for "Dad". Yeah, very sad. I've used up my fair share of tissues already.

On another note of New Beginnings, Titan started talking more! Just the other day I was looking up what most kids do at 17 months old and felt discouraged that Titan hasn't learned more words. Two days later, his vocabulary shot up to the moon and these are all the words he says and how he says them:

Cracker: Ca-koh
Diaper: a-po
Dad: Dad or Dadda
Mom: Mum or Mumma
Grandma: Gammah
Titan: Ty-tee
Thank you: Da-kyoo
Water: Wahgong (this one is crazy. Water is so much easier to say than wahgong)
Baby: Bay-bee
Jesus: Cheese cheese
Shoe: Sho

And finally, when Derek was giving Titan his final goodbye he said, "Titan, I love you" and Titan said, "La yoo". We looked at each other with raised eyebrows and I said, "Good boy, Titan!"

There couldn't have been a better time for him to start saying that. I think it made Derek's day. So here's to a new beginning.