Half Way There

We are offically 1/2 way through Den's trip. He gets home super late on Thurs.--or if he wants to earn us some discounted travel, takes a bump and gets home on Friday.

I should be in bed, but am winding down from a meeting tonight and sitting up with Josie, hoping against hope that she will sleep through the night tonight.

I am forever trying to catch her in her 'tripond - plus' pose. The one in which she is basically standing, or all but standing, as she leans on something. It just blows my mind. When I whiped out the camera this afternoon, I got the usual, 'no pictures of Eddie' and I assured him I was taking photos of his sister--then snapped this one (she is just below the house) (A house I had wanted to buy for Eddie just as he got old enough at 18 months to be too old for this, but it's a great garden. Now I wish I'd bought it, as I don't know how much use Josie will give it as she hates her playpen and going into this little house/garden--I think she feels trapped. I'm about to advise Eddie to take his toys and go into the playpen if he wants to escape his sister, as she'll never go in).

Then he tells me he wants his photo taken with the dog--in the stroller. And still more shocking, he wants his photo taken with his sister. Then he wants to knock his sister over, just as she has a cute look on her face and they are both looking. Yay. I hated seeing her head lurch forward and snap back after the force of his shove, so he got a time out after his second shove. He is mostly pretty good with her, but I don't usually like to leave him with her these days because he is obsessed with her staying away from toys--pretty much any toy. So this photo of the 2 of them is rare indeed.

Enjoy the pictures. I need to wash some dishes.

Monday

At the risk of blowing all my posts for the week in one night, I'll make one more post. Who knows when I'll be able to sit down this long uninterupted again. Cue screaming baby.

Here's proof that we're raising a computer geek. Den has set up a special document with dog pictures to select and light blue font in something like 65 point font. And have I mentioned/bragged that he knows how to spell cat, dog and cow?

Just don't ask him to poop on the potty.

Ed is also logging more night-time hours. This morning, Josie woke earlier than he did--well, if you don't count 8, 9:30, 11, 2, 4, and 6, she didn't wake til 7:30. Doesn't show in this picture though. Sunday she did put herself to sleep for a nap at 9am and proceeded to sleep for 3 hours. Tonight I made her scream for a bit and fall asleep on her own. We're getting there. Some nights are great and she wakes only once. Other nights, are less fun.

Here's hoping for lots of sleep...for the whole house!

Carry you through...

After spending a great deal of the Thanksgiving break knocking items off our 'to do' list, Den and I decided to hoof it downtown to the Natural History Museum. We figured Ed would get a kick out of the dinosaurs (he'd never been) and with Den getting ready to go away, an afternoon of the four of us sounded appealing.

Eddie was taken by the giraffe. He doesn't remember it, but Sept. of 06, he actually fed a giraffe in Santa Barbara (posted about it). We weren't sure about two strollers versus one, or even if we should try the double stroller. We opted for 2. I'm inclined to think the double would have been nice as we both spent a lot of time carrying a child and pushing an empty stroller. Oh well.

It was a great time--well except for the 30 minutes it took to find a parking spot (they really have eliminated a lot of spots) and the last 30 minutes when both kids decided they'd had enough quality museum time. There were 2 hours in between, during which Eddie got a chocolate cupcake with sprinkles and mom got a giant ladybug sugar cookie. Yum. They had good tasting nutrious food too. Much improved from years past.

The Gingerbread House

I will freely admit that I bought a kit to make a gingerbread house. I do know my weaknesses--and one of them is the culinary arts--seriously, if you can make a good looking gb (gingerbread house), you could be a pastry chef.

This is not to demean pastry chefs--a very dear friend is one, it's just that making that tube of icing do what you want is harder than one would think.

We took it a step further and Den hot glue gunned the sides together so we didn't have to wait forever for it to dry--boy that sure was nice. I was in charge of applying the cement icing and Eddie was overseer of candy application.

There was minor overlap in a couple areas, but overall, we stuck to our assigned tasks. I must say, Eddie did remarkably well in not eating the candy--until towards the end. I didn't do as well. Everytime I opened a new bag of candy, my mouth began quivering and I longed to snitch a piece, but if Eddie could restrain himself, then so could I.

And then I caught him snitching a piece--we still did well, but Den helped himself to a couple pieces too.

Den is in Orlando all week and requested a new post...let him have gingerbread!
She's had a kind of funny looking smile the last couple days...funny looking in that it doesn't look like her---doesn't look like she usually does anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is Eddie with one of his favorite breakfast foods these days--a waffle with a letter 'E' in syrup. It's my way of making sure he doesn't get too much.
Baby J isn't as proficient with bottle holding as Eddie was at this age, but she's starting to give it a try.
This is Eddie as he talked to G'ma and G'pa Ohio--he was more 'on the move' as he talked with g'parents Wisc. Josie is just out of the picture by my knee, crawling around. Eddie is eating one of about 5 munchkin doughnuts he had for lunch today. Boy they sure hit the spot.

The above photos were taken today, on T-day, but the below cover this week. I'm just amused by the facial expressions of Josie.

Here Eddie is eating some of his 'blue' Halloween candy. I don't think it shows up, but his mouth and surrounding area were dyed blue, as the candy itself was quite blue. He is slowly eating his way through his candy, one blue piece at a time (this contradicts my earlier statement about letting kids gorge themselves, but I do allow him to have more than one piece at a time, if he asks, but he just doesn't ask).

So the whole point to this photo, as that while he doesn't like getting his photo taken, on ocassion, he is interested in seeing his picture on the back of the camera. Now he is getting interested in the shutter, and he can kind of see it through the camera and is in this picture trying to peer in as I take several photos (if I don't use the flash, he doesn't mind getting his picture snapped as much).

We stayed home this year as Den is flying out Monday morning for a week and the thought of taking two trips so close together was more than he wanted to stomach--that and the nearly $400 price tag per ticket.

Good friends invite us every year to their house for Thanksgiving and we are always in Atlanta. This year we took them up on their offer and had a great time. There were 4 other kids besides Eddie and Josie and 2 of them were Eddie's age. We had smoked turkey and fried turkey--neither had we tried before at Thanksgiving and both were juicy and flavorful.

The biggest thing I will miss this year is the 12 hour shopping trip with my mom and sister. I almost always come home with something and it's nice to shop without kids and without torturing Den--just my mom and sister. While I have no intention of waking myself from a perfectly good snooze to be at a store at 5am, I am wondering if I will battle the crowds to do any shopping the day after--it just won't be the same.

It's My Blog...

And I can rant if I want to. I just had to get all this off my chest. I originally wrote this on Sunday, but I've got a couple things to add...things that are on my mind at the moment that I'm steaming over.



1. I am so sick of those plastic things they use to attach price tags and product tags to clothes and other items. When I worked in retail, I figured someone could buy one of the guns they use the attach the tags and reattach anything you wanted. I've wasted coutless hours clipping those off--especially fun on baby clothes and toys--talk about a choking hazard! When are those going to be on the cpsc recalled lists?



2. It drives me crazy how manufacturers have all but glued toys to boxes with so many twisty ties that it takes 30 min. just to get the toy out of the box. I know it serves a purpose, but isn't there a better way?



3. Along those same lines, the blister packs for containing everything from knives (just ask g'pa Ohio) to software and even toys. I narrowly escape injury every time I try and open one. Why oh why, must companies use these? I know it must cut down on returns and the like, but one of these days, someone is going to sue them and then where will they be?



4. That my sister and her husband were told they'd be getting an infant and then because of a brand new (this summer) Federal law, the baby is staying with the family who got him from the hospital. I really truly want to hate the family that got to keep the baby. I know that's not 'right' and all that, but really, they got in through the back door and that's not right.



5. That a dear friend who is my age just had hopefully sucessful surgery for uterine cancer.

6. That my son had such a bad croupy cough on Sunday that I was shaking as I called the doctor and on the verge of leaving for the ER (unmistakable cough that resembles a seal barking and in Eddie's case, he is struggling to breath--it's what preceeded his bad asthma attack last fall).

7. That my daughter has been to the doctor no less than 4 times in 2 weeks between her adjustment to solids and now they are all concerned about her eye draining--so we have an appointment for a pediatric opthomologist in a couple weeks.



I am usually the kind of person who finds the silver lining in things, or tries to at least think of something good. I will, but right now, it just feels good to put all those things out there that are pissing me off right now. It's my blog I'm allowed :) No positive energy or thoughts allowed in the comments, please, I just want to be angry.

Will try and post something cheerful for Thanksgiving.

Up To Date

I have to post this so that it is still up to date. Here are a few snaps of the kids over the last week or so. Den has started using this inflatable bathtub in the upstairs tub and after I gave her a bath last night, I know why. She is a wild girl in the tub. Splashing around, exploring the edges of the tub, it's a bit un-nerving. I think last night will be the last time she is bathed on the kitchen counter!
So Eddie is hit or miss with his nap these days, even though he still usually needs it. Last Saturday, he climbed up in his chair at the dining room table in anticipation of a snack. We look over and he is doing the 'head-nod' thing. He recovered and then kept doing it, insisting he was fine. I moved him to the couch and he protested, saying he didn't need to sleep.



Less than 5 minutes later I found him like this.

On Sunday, while I was feeding the baby and Den was making dinner, Eddie helped himself to a small snack. btw, he can reach and open the pantry in the kitchen, and I've made sure his snacks are at his level--both good and bad aspects to that decision.
G'parents Ohio got Eddie two different train sets by Brio. One makes a figure - eight with a bridge and the other makes an oval with a zoo. We put them together and he has loved playing with them all week.



All the while I was writing Josie's 7 month update, I was trying not to talk about the following stuff we're experiencing:



Eddie has offically entered the "terrible-twos". It's not really bad at all, it's just you have to rethink how you react to his behavior and retool how you get him to do what you want. I've been doing great the last year or so, and both Den and I are going through some growing pains as we adjust to this new mini-teenager in the house. He knows when he is doing something wrong and not only does it anyway, but does it because it's wrong.



Say, I'm not supposed to throw this hard toy that resembles a ball, but let me see how close I can come to hitting my sister in the head. Time out? I don't like standing at that wall, I think it would be funny to run across the hall to the other wall for my time out. No good? Lets move down the wall. Laughing all the way.



Let me cry crocodile tears anytime I object to something--say eating dinner. It works for my playmate. Doesn't seem to work for mom and dad, they ignore me. I try anyway, at some point I'll wear them down.



It's sooo funny to get all ready for bed, make mom and dad think they will have at least an hour before they decide to crash from exhaustion and then I'll go running across the floor of my room, swing open the door, laughing hysterically and try to go running down the stairs. Usually they hear me running for the door and meet me at the top of the stairs.



I think I've really pissed mom off after a full day of this type of behavior (it builds on itself ya know) let me see if I can push her so far over the edge, she wonders if preschool 5 days/week isn't a pretty good idea.



I really do want to figure out how to think like him so I do better with him. Or least understand his thinking--that would be a start.



Josie is making huge progress physically--in the last 2 weeks her balance while sitting really solidified--she would be able to try and catch herself if she started to fall. She also started to be able to get herself to a sitting position and seemingly an instant later she was crawling away.



It happened that quickly. She was working on it all -- getting to a sitting position, she'd rock on all fours, could scoot herself around crawling on her belly and then one Monday of this week she was off and moving. We also decided to move the mattress in her crib down as she was showing signs up trying to pull herself up. Not a day too soon, as on Wednesday, Cookie walked in to find her STANDING in her crib!

She is typically sleeping better (here's where I'll regret writing this), she will often stay asleep from her now 7pm bed time till midnight or 2am (maybe cry out once for a pacifier), be fed and sleep again until 5 or so. Just have to eliminate one of those wakings and I'll be doing well. I did get her to put herself back to sleep on Tuesday, as I was just tired of trying to soothe her back to sleep--she needs to learn this skill anyway.

She is doing a lot better with food--well in terms of being able to voluntarily swallow it (push it into her mouth with her tounge instead of out of her mouth). She is starting to protest ocassionally when she is constrained by a contraption such as a swing, exersaucer, etc. so her time in thosse is limited--I'm sure by Christmas they'll be history.

She wants what Eddie has--it's pretty funny--except that I can see the fights brewing already. sigh.

In addition to being able to open doors, Eddie can now climb onto the kitchen stools! Course this means he can access so much more than he has figured out--and we want to keep it that way. He has really picked up a lot of what we say--a real parrot. Lots of it is worked into his daily vocabulary. "Actually..." or "just a little bit" or "I'm sorry, it's..." if he's made a mistake with something.

Den is reading him books tonight (he got home at 8pm instead of midnight). I had told Eddie that Den would read to him when he got home and sure enough, Eddie heard the front door open and calls out "Daddy's home!", comes bounding down the stairs, all the while talking about how daddy was going to read to him. Mind you, I had just spent the last 30 minutes reading to him.

We're headed to the library tomorrow, hope it goes well. Last week Josie was due for a nap, so it was a bit of a problem.

The DENTIST!

If you ask a pediatrician, they will tell you take a child to the dentist at age 3. Ask a pediatric dentist and they will tell you when the first several teeth start coming through or by 18 months. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but in Sept. they didn't have anything til November.

I kept reminding myself to prep Eddie and fortunately made it to the library last Friday with him and Josie to get some books on going to the dentist. Then I forgot to read them to him more than at the library. So the night before the dentist Eddie and I were going over how he was going to open his mouth and I speculated that he might get a sticker and a new toothbrush. Those were two things I could fulfill if the dentist didn't come though.

Fortunately both Eddie and the Dentist did great. The dentist's office was decked out in Disney from the forms you fill out to the sinks to the 'bibs' to the wall of stuffed animals. Perfect. He was extremely relunctant and had to be coaxed at several points. Once she got going though--past getting into the chair and down to business, he was fine. He did a great job for the hygenist, Alex, but the Dentist it took a bit more.

The hygenist let Eddie take a look at each tool she was going to use, as above when she is using the cleaner on his hand. He seemed to get a kick out of the water stick and the suctiony thing--but then that's my favorite part of an otherwise unpleasant visit (for me). They did a full on cleaning and the dentist used that sharp hook, pointy thing. I thought for sure he was going to hurt himself the way he kept closing his mouth on it or grabbing at it, but the Dentist was quick with that thing and avoided any blood being drawn.

He was fine with the bib laying on him, but she lost traction when she wanted to hook it around him. Initially he didn't want to put on the sunglasses, but once the light was shined on him, he reconsidered. This is about the only time you'll see him in sunglasses as he hates wearing them.

Here he got to pick the flavor he wanted. He must of chosen well because he actually asked the hygenist to clean his teeth AGAIN. I kid you not. He wanted more. Clearly he liked the flavor--grape that he had selected.

She was amused and commented on what a good job he did--that most kids don't usually do such a good job. Course this ruined it for the actual Dentist because that took a lot of effort. Partially I think because Eddie lost his game edge while he had to wait 5 minutes for the dentist.

Check that box off. Wow! Because someone will ask: He has 8 teeth on top and 8 on bottom. Doesn't have his 2-year molars yet. Dentist said sometimes kids are into their 3s and since he got his teeth late (around one-year old), it's not surprising.

Smooching

So we have a little eye-gunk issue. The doctor gave us stronger anti-biotic drugs which hopefully do the trick. I couldn't pick which of these to include. Sometimes she looked like my sister, sometimes Eddie, and sometimes just her.

7 month update--Josie

Apologies for the dearth of photos--esp of her actually looking at the camera. These were all taken on Nov. 3, the day she turned 7 months.

G'ma was feeding her prunes here. I cropped out g'ma with her mouth wide open to encourage Josie along.
At the beginning of Nov, she was still struggling a big with balance while sitting. Here she is straddling Ed's train set while reaching for her own toys. One thing has remained constant--she is often more interested in Eddie's toys than her own. He is catching on about how to address this issue.
Exhibit A, Josie is holding one of Eddie's trains. While all this was going on, Den and I were working like dogs. G'parents Ohio were too--in a different sort of way. They were probably cats, ducks, sheep, cows, and pigs too.

We've moved on from the baby tub, but now use the inflatable tub. It's a lot more forgiving to her noggin of the slip that occurs every so often. At this point, she was still slip sliding in the tub a bit.

No doctor visit at 7 months, but that doesn't mean we didn't see the doctor plenty. In short, J is having difficult adjusting to solids. I will spare more of the gorey deails except to say that much of Oct. we were awakened to Josephine screaming bloody murder only to pick her up and she'd let out a HUGE burp or continue to writhe in pain.

She'd often be on all fours rocking back and forth. This wasn't just at night, but most disruptive to our sleep then. Poor thing was bound up tighter than a rope. We tried all sorts of changes to her diet, to my diet. We tried giving her more food, less food, less meals in a day, no food in a day. Everything we could think of and nothing consistently did the trick. Last week we saw the doctor 2 times in a week.

She was (and is) spitting up several times/day whereas before she almost never spit up. She does seem to be doing better. Most recently doctor put her on a once/day dosage of milk of magnesia, to keep her regular. You know how they say parents talk about their kids poop a lot? Well, there is a reason for it--if your kid is having issues in this department it affects your life and theirs in profound ways. I've learned more about nutrition and what different foods can do to your body in the last 2.5 years than I had in the previous 30+.

Limiting myself to the month of October, Josie tried for the first time, pears, peas, oatmeal, sweet potatos, prunes, and I'm sure soemthing else I've left off.

In addition to waking because of discomfort, she was still in the phase of just plain waking. So, it was rare the whole month that she would make it from her bedtime of 6:45pm till midnight without waking at least 2-3 and sometimes 4 times. It would gradually ramp up. The first time, a pacificer would put her back to sleep. The second time, we'd try patting her back of diapered bottom, but usually have to pick her up and she'd fall back to sleep. The 3/4 time we almost always had to feed her water. Then she would wake at midnight or so and need to be fed (at this age, it is not uncommon for a baby to wake 4-6 hours after their last feeding to be fed again). Waking up all the other times is just plain annoying.

She would then wake sometime in the 2-3 am range (this was usually my turn) and again in the 5am range. Often she'd sleep till almost 8--too bad Eddie would wake at 6:30 or 7. Come to think of it, maybe this is why I haven't posted consistently. I'm so freakin' tired by the time Eddie was in bed, neither Den nor I could see straight.

Someday soon we're going to have to get her to fall asleep on her own. She did fall asleep in front of a football game a couple weeks back. That is one major difference--Eddie couldn't be less interested in TV, but Josie will get sucked into ANYTHING that is on. It will grad her attention--or in this case, lull her to sleep. Den and I were in the kitchen for a couple minutes and when I went to check on her, she was out cold.

She started pulling on the mobile about mid-month. Good indcator that it's time to move the mobile. This would be while she was laying on her stomach! She also started to outgrow size 3-6 month clothes--that sure didn't last long! She was trying the later half of the month to get herself to a seated position and finally did on Nov. 1--mind you I only witnessed this myself today--she would get almost there and then peter out. She also started really chattering--dada, mama, etc. All different sets of letters--whatever are age appropriate. [it did dawn on me that I need to work with her more these days on developing the age appropriate skills--with Eddie I was practically following a chart. With Josie, I basically do whatever Eddie is doing--and I'm sure she's learning a lot that way].

By the end of the month, her nap schedule was starting to evolve and solidify into consistent chunks. Usually around 9:30am, then sometime between 11:30 and 1 again and then again around 4:30 or 5.

Like Eddie, Josie is a laid back baby. She does not like it when I leave her alone. If someone else is there, she is fine, but if I plop her somewhere safe and dash off, she sometimes gets a little bent out of shape. Eddie cracks her up in the most basic ways. Just watching him laugh makes her laugh. He usually does really well with her. He has started to want to taste all of her foods.

I'm having a hard time not talking about what is going on NOW in their lives, so best to move on to that post...

Grandparents Ohio

I've just given up on frequent posting. I had 3 night meetings last week and 4 nights of meetings the week before. This week Den is working 20 hour days, so it's like he's on a trip out of town. How is it that as soon as I cross 3 things off my 'to do' list 4 more take their place? I keep telling myself that if we had Cookie one more day, I'd be able to get my work done and get control over my long list. But I'm sure I'd find some other way to squander the time.

Way back at the beginning of Nov. I mentioned that grandparents Ohio came out for a visit. They watched the kids whilst we reorganzied the house. Here are the pictures they took (the ones of Josie will be a separate post because bad mama that I am, I managed to get no other photos of her from the day she turned 7 months). What is it they say about second kids? At least we have a couple photos of her.

Eddie always has a great time with g'parents Ohio and somehow, more than anyone else, they managed to get every.single.toy out -- all at the same time. Mind you, I'm not complaining, it's just I notice in these pictures it looks like our living room exploded. It doesn't take much to do that and it doesn't help that I can't bear to put a toy away lest it be one of his favorites and it will scar him forever to miss it. But, I will overcome...someday I will be able to load up a whole bunch of toys for the attic.

We are counting the days until g'parents Ohio come again. G'parents Wisc. too--but that visit is a long ways off.

The Great Pumpkin

Happy Halloween--a week late. I had planned for Josie to be in bed or on her way to bed and didn't see the need to dress her in her Halloween finest. Cookie had other things in mind. Being a kid person, she is way more into the holiday than I am.


These pictures a way out of order, but I think you guys can figure it out. Let me start by saying Eddie asked Dennis to carve a dog. Dennis was all set for the traditional pumpkin scene with toothy-grin, triangle nose, etc. This request stumped him.

But not Cookie, she had all sorts of thought on how to implement. Den kept running in the house for more implements (we were all hanging out watching the pumpkin carving). I went in to get Ed some dinner and when I came back out, Cookie was carving the pumpkin! Boy, she is a full service babysitter!
She did one side as a dog and then as a surprise for Eddie, did the other side a cat. It really was a work of art--we were suitably impressed.

I think it's documented that Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I don't like all the kids coming to the door and having to coo over their costumes--especially when they are store bought (now that I'm a home-made costume snob). I took Eddie out so Den could hand out the candy (well, and Den had taken Eddie out the year before).

We went with his neighborhood buddies. I got Eddie to say trick-or-treat, but it was usually to me and not the person at the door. He did consistently say 'thank you', which I was most pleased with. Here they sit on the front porch, relaxing as they wait for kids to come by (so they won't ring the bell and wake the sleeping Josie).

Eddie has a week later pretty much forgotten about his Halloween candy, but I can't. I think I need to start giving it to him, so I don't eat it all.