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    21 months

    May 29th, 2010

    Our little man is 1yr 3/4. He’s almost 2 🙁 I’m not sad at this milestone, just that it’s so strange that he’s gone from this:

    to this:

    in what feels like overnight. He sees his photos come up on the photo frame and says “Baby!” when the baby is him.

    G and I also had a conversation about how old he was. We were discussing that soon he was going to be two. To this he immediately responded “Three!” I showed him 1 on my hand, then 2, then 3. I counted all the way up to 5. I concluded that he was going to be 2 soon. To this he responded “10!” My dad was quick to remind me that he WAS right, and that in binary 10 really was 2. Yeah, hardy-har. You guys got me. I don’t think G has any idea what binary is, but I’ll give it to him.

    He’s figured out a few new tricks this past month. For example, he can identify body parts I never even knew he knew. He knows his tongue and his knees (in addition to the standard, eye, nose, ear, mouth, belly button, etc. repertoire).

    He’s an avid birder and can spend hours on end telling you about “buhds”, pointing up at the sky, and chasing ducks. There’s a pair of ducks settled into G’s school, and if we’re unfortunate enough to spot them on the way out of the car, it’s guaranteed to be a “late to work” day as G refuses to go in  until the ducks waddle beyond his reach.

    He’s figured out that if he pulls on my pants, or finger, he can get me to stand up and that if he keeps pulling, I’ll go where he wants me to. Of course, when we get to his intended destination I have no clue what half of his babbles mean… but that’s a different story.

    In addition, he fully understands that Elmo comes on the TV. The TV comes on with the remote control. G now brings us the remote control and simply states “Elmo!” as a demand to watch the little red, high-pitched dude waddle around. Curious George is also a sneaky influence. The other day G took me all the way upstairs (where we watch George on the week-ends), sat down on my bed and demanded “Goge”. Sadly for him, it was evening, and a week-night, so no George. He wasn’t thrilled and there might have been a tantrum involved.

    Weight: 23lbs (woo! let’s hope he keeps gaining weight)

    Number of teeth: 16 (last canine is now out! Halle-frikkin-luia, ‘cuz these last few were not fun… for anyone)

    Words: 20+, but he is using more of them in phrases now, stringing 2-3 quite consistently.
    * kite
    * jamma
    * water
    * bread
    * chair
    * nigh-nigh (Night Night!)
    * puhket (blanket)
    * again
    * sun
    * egg
    * boken (broken)
    * aw man! (yeah, we’ve got the pre-teen responses underway too)
    * jacket
    * outside
    * zippeh (zipper)
    * pease (please)
    * apple
    * Goge (George)
    * tree (three)
    * ten
    * run
    * bunnies
    * tutle (turtle)

    Favorite food: No new foods. Still old tried and true spaghetti, oatmeal and the like. Kid likes his carbs. What can I say?

    Favorite activity: Blocks and soccer. The kid can kick a ball with a running start and has great accuracy. He’s also enthralled by his wooden blocks.

    My hopes for next month: That we can wrap up the last phase of sleep training, and leave his room while he’s still awake. He’s past the holding stage, which is great. One more stage to go. And that I go back to taking lots of pictures. My side photography business has eaten into my desire to do fun-for-me stuff and sadly, it’s reflected on G.

    Potty trained?: Joke, right?

    Naughtiest moment of the month: Rushing time-out along

    Sweetest moment of the month: Kisses. He hasn’t really figured out the smooch part, yet, but he leans is head in and presses his nose in as a kiss.

    Temper tantrum meter: mild


    Foto Friday

    May 28th, 2010

    G’s new play-table

    My little reader

    Sunday mornings with Curious George

    Little Movers Moving Co. (est. 2009)


    How do you discipline a kid that times himself out?

    May 27th, 2010

    I know discipline is important. It’s important to start early. We do lots of redirecting in our home, paired with counting and some time-outs for serious crimes. But I’ve hit a new ceiling. How do you discipline a kid that counts themselves into trouble?

    Case in point.

    We’re trying to get G to NOT walk or stand while on the couch. This is mostly for his safety as he’s tumbled onto the floor now on two separate occasions. But he thinks it’s a game. Yesterday he gets up on the couch and blatantly stands and walks around while I’m sitting there next to him. Of course grinning ear-to-ear. We engage in the following discussion:

    Me: G, I need you to sit down please

    G: [cackle]

    Me: Ok, that’s one!

    G: [laugh]

    Me: That’s two!

    G: Tree!!! (while STILL standing mind you!)

    And there you have it. G knows that three (or in his case “tree”) follows two, and he’s happy to participate in the counting game. BUT IT’S NOT A GAME, KID! You’re in trouble, and you just hurried yourself into it!

    So since he counted himself out, he got removed from the couch (which is what I was going to do if I got to 3 on my own).

    The thing is that this is the second time now he’s done that. He gives himself the 3 count, which has the same result as if I would’ve counted.

    I don’t really know what else to do here. The consequence is the same no matter who gets to 3, but why is this fun for him? Is this him disrespecting authority? Do I need to be harsher in consequences if he counts vs. me?

    Suggestions?


    Artwork Day

    May 27th, 2010

    03.30.2010

    04.07.2010: Feather painting

    Date unknown

    Date unknown

    Date unknown

    04.19.2010: Medium? Sandpaper. Wonder what the brushes looked like afterward…


    A conversation with my son

    May 25th, 2010

    A bed-time chat with G. [Imagine a toddler, in his footed jammas, standing in his crib, a “banket” and Nubsie in each hand.]

    G: Pease

    Me: Please? Please what?

    G: Sit

    Me: You want me to sit? Ok.

    Me: Do you want momma or dada to sit with you tonight?

    G: Mama

    Me: Ok, I guess I’ll sit with you.

    How frikkin’ cool is this? This is the first actual exchange I’ve had with G, and yeah, even though he wasn’t using lots of words we actually had a conversation.


    14 weeks

    May 25th, 2010

    How far along: 14w (ok, 14w2d ‘cuz I slacked on getting a belly pic, but hey — we’re here)
    Weight: 128.2lb
    Sleep: Lots of sleep, but also lots of wake-ups.
    Gender: TBD
    Movement: Not yet, but I think we’re getting close. I think in another 2 weeks or so, I’ll have my official “bubbles”
    Feeling: Blah. Zofran prescription is extended for another few weeks.
    What I am looking forward to: Another clean blood screen
    Weekly Wisdom: Sleeping through nausea helps, but being awake before 6am due to the 9+ hrs of sleep doesn’t help get through the day. It makes for a vicious cycle of tired, and icky, and did I say tired?
    Milestones: Out of the first trimester anyway you slice it!!! Oh, and the boob faerie paid me a visit. My girls are no-where close to what they used to be like nursing post-partum, but I’m seeing some signs of them returning. Hurray! I missed them!!!
    Food cravings: Fruits more and more. Lots of food aversions still, though
    Fetal development:
    Our baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee (the wonders of what goes on inside me!), and possibly suck its thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, its facial muscles are getting a workout as its tiny features form one expression after another. Its kidneys are producing urine, which it releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process s/he’ll keep up until birth. S/He can grasp, too.

    In other news: The baby’s stretching out. From head to bottom, it measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and it weighs 1 1/2 ounces. Its body’s growing faster than its head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, its arms will have grown to a length that’s in proportion to the rest of its body. (Its legs still have some lengthening to do.) It’s starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over its body. The baby’s liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it’s doing its job right — and its spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can’t feel its tiny punches and kicks yet, our little pugilist’s hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.


    I want a blanket too!

    May 21st, 2010

    I had really hoped to keep G blanket-in-crib free until he turned 2. While, yes, he sleeps with a lovey, and yes we put the fancy, thick crib bumpers back in a few months ago, it’s not the same to me as a blanket in his crib.Yes, I still worry about SIDS, and have taken the recommendation to keep blankets away from kid’s cribs until 2 to heart. Remember, too, that I used to go and check that G still breathing at 2am every morning until he turned 1.

    I’ve tried to make him comfortable by still running the heater in his room, and putting him in fuzzy jammies, but G now goes to bed asking for a blanket. I’ve been giving him a really light-weight blanket and letting him fall asleep with it (since I stay in his room until he does), but then I take it away.

    Except now he wakes up in the middle of the night and asks for a blanket. I can’t supervise him with it if my eyes are shut while sleeping.

    So what do I do? Do I cave and say “Ok, you’ll be 2 in three months. Wrap yourself away!”, or do I hold firm on the no-blanket rule?

    For the record, in day-care they nap with blankets. But they’re supervised by 4 teachers.

    Am I just over-thinking this?


    I can kiss my own boo-boos. Thanx!

    May 20th, 2010

    There may or may not have been a rumble between our four-legged and two-legged children this past Sunday.

    Hypothetically speaking, a certain toddler might have gotten a bit excited about chasing after a ball, and not seen a certain 18lb feline napping beside said ball. Also, this ball-recovery attempt might have taken longer than usual as cat and ball were under a chair. After a hiss warning, and no back-up from hypothetical child, the hypothetical cat might have issued a 5-claw salute. 3 times in fast succession.

    Ok, fine. It happened. Right before bed-time. Made jamma-time interesting.

    G escaped with a scratch on his arm and 2 on his forehead. He’s fine, and the crying stopped within a minute. He was more startled than injured, but it still required some TLC from us.

    What’s interesting is that now when you ask “G, where is your kitty scratch?”, he looks at the (fading) scratch on his fore-arm and brings it up to his mouth. Don’t ask me where he got this from. I’m a general hugger/top-of-the-head kisser kind of mom. Not a “let me kiss it where it hurts” parent (some day he’s gonna fall on his butt in the park and trust me, I don’t care to kiss that in public). Either way, it’s cute and kind of funny.

    So yeah, cat-kid battle was on. Cat 1, kid 0. Luckily the battle scars are fading, and their relationship is the same.


    Do you know what you’re having? Yes, a 6lb bag of potato chips

    May 17th, 2010

    We went to a b-day party yesterday, and feeling the liberty of 13w and the fact that most of our friends know we’re expecting, I wore a very belly-hugging shirt.

    While I was following G run around like a mad-toddler, S was chatting it up with his b-school friends (sharing our news with those still in the dark). Later as I approached their group, friend N says:

    “A, I see you need to lay off those chips”

    My simple response was “Yeah, I agree, but with any luck in about 7 months, I’ll end up delivering a 6lb bag of potato chips”

    N’s wife, however, was away while N got the scoop from S that we are expecting. To me, I look pregnant, but I think I’m at that stage where people are just afraid to ask. Horrified that her husband was getting so lippy, her jaw just about dropped. Thankfully after she heard my response, she relaxed. She said she was ready to smack him, or at the very least run away from the group so that she didn’t have to be associated with the embarrassment he was raining on himself. So lesson to the guys out there: if you’re in on knowing that someone is pregnant and want to make light of the situation, share it with your significant other first. Otherwise you risk getting their shoe fitted in your mouth 🙂

    I kept the joke on for the rest of the party and as people asked if we knew what we were having, I responded “Not yet, but I hope it’s a bag of Kettle Salt & Vinegar”.

    Now… onto G.

    This party had a petting zoo. Although it took him 2-3 entries into the animal enclosure G LOVED it. They had little goats, a pink-bellied pig, bunnies, chickens and ducks. He was all over them, and really enjoyed the bunnies and the goats. I wish I had pictures to illustrate this to you, but in my “get out of the house” state, I replaced my dying camera battery with a fully dead one 🙂 Nothing better than pulling out your camera only to find out you can’t even turn it on. Sure made a nice weight for my diaper bag though.

    G also greatly enjoyed the sand box. At daycare there isn’t a sandbox in the toddler/infant play area. Also given that we live in, what I swear is, a wind-tunnel, any sand left loose in our yard could only end up giving us a fine reproduction of the movie The Mummy. As such, R’s party was a bit of a treat for him. I think, he bonded with the sand particles as he took it upon himself to lead mission “Liberate Sand” and tried to evacuate as much of the sand from said box onto the mulch around it (pretty much now making it unrecoverable). This is where Mom buries her head in her hands and profusely apologizes to the owners of said home/sandbox.

    Either way, a fun time was had by all.


    13 weeks

    May 16th, 2010

    How far along: 13w
    Weight: 126.8lb.
    Sleep: Pretty good
    Gender: We find out in July!!! Or at least we hope this one will cooperate enough to let us find out.
    Movement: None yet, but I think in another few weeks we’ll be getting some baby bubbles
    Feeling: So-so. More good days than bad days, which I’m thankful for
    What I am looking forward to: Telling work this week. Above anything else, it means I don’t have to wear the same 5 outfits anymore 🙂
    Weekly Wisdom: Toddler climbing on preggie belly doesn’t feel good
    Milestones: End of the first trimester baby! I don’t know of a better milestone than that. My manager and I also discussed my time off. I’ll be out of office from 11/8-3/28. Pretty excited on that one.
    Food cravings: I’m getting into my fruit craving phase. Right now melon sounds good. Also, still in a meat aversion phase. Anything that is not chopped up beyond recognition just makes my stomach churn. What do you want to bet this kid will be A+ blood type?
    Best moment this week: Seeing the wee one during the NT scan. Also, sneaking up on it with the doppler at home. I got it… for a whopping second before it swam off to non-doppler detectable land.
    Fetal development:
    Fingerprints have formed on your baby’s tiny fingertips, its veins and organs are clearly visible through its still-thin skin, and its body is starting to catch up with its head — which makes up just a third of its body size now. If we’re having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.