Jack is just starting to say some understandable words (well, i can get them, i'm sure others couldn't!). But I LOVE this stage so much. He's just learning and exploring and starting to turn from a little baby into a little toddler. He's getting into so much now and has such a michevious little smile and glint in his eye. It's so hard to get mad at him though cause of where he's come from and he's so cute! He loves to dance. You just say the word and he starts bopping with his hair bobbing along, too. And he likes to stand up at the TV and press all kinds of buttons he's not supposed to. And when we say "no", of course he gets that little smile and does it all the more.
Anyway, back to his words. So "uh-oh" is understandable. But now he's saying "boon" for balloon (apparently he's not over his obsession with those) and "puppa" for his little puppy. And he's gets stuff now, too. He was in the kitchen and I asked if he wanted to go have a bath and he right away started crawling to the stairs, up the stairs and to the bathroom. I just find it to be such a neat age where this stuff is coming together in their little minds.
You ask him where his head is and he pats the top of his head. That's the only body part he knows so far...Norah's working on teaching him more! Aside from actually walking, I'd say he's mostly caught up with his gross motor skills. He's just started walking along furniture now and walked around the whole coffee table to get his puppy today instead of getting down and crawling. He also can stand up on his own in the middle of the room and he always claps for himself when he does it...guess we inspired that since we clapped for him when he first started doing it so he thought he'd copy. And I love that he's mastered the stairs going down now. I still like to keep my eye out but the last couple of weeks he learned that and it's so nice. Also nice that we never had to gate the stairs in our house. Amazing since we have so many flights of them. He took one fall down the stairs when he first became mobile and ever since then he'd stop at the top of the stairs and dangle his legs over the edge but not attempt them again. Oh, and he loves throwing things down the stairs.
Today we were just going to go for a walk and when we passed by the park, he threw a fit when we weren't going to stop. So we changed our plans...the park it was. He loves crawling up and around on the play structure and going down the slides.
Oh, and he's finally got some teeth! 6 now to be exact. We saw him with no upper teeth for so long that i'm still getting used to his new look with teeth up top. i'm sure some others will be close behind.
anyway, just wanted to record some stuff about Jack since i've realized i'm not writing as much in his baby book as i did norah and i don't want to forget these things.
Such a bright kid! As much as I love this age, in a way i'm kinda sad that the baby stage is passing. In other ways, however, I'm very much glad that stage is getting more and more behind us!
And he's got a great arm....man, can that boy throw! Especially his food - halfway across the kitchen. This is one of his not so fun new tricks.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Summer So Far
Well, despite not having super great weather so far this summer, I've been really enjoying it and feeling like we've got lots of "summer" things on the go finally.
We started out the season with a week of holidays at Nate's parents place in Milton, ON. We spent about half our time up at their cottage on Georgian Bay which was great. Some highlights included:
- going for seadoo rides - Norah LOVED it and wanted to keep going faster and faster!
- having a ride on Nanna and Poppa's boat
- playing on the beach
- swimming with Uncle Jordan and Auntie Jolene and Cohen at their family's pool
We also got to see and spend time with some great friends that we still keep in touch with from when we lived out there 5 years ago.
Then in July we spent a long weekend up at Elkhorn Resort at Clear Lake with my family. Had a great weekend and had good weather both Saturday and Sunday. The men enjoyed some golf and we had some fun beach time, pool time, visiting, games and shopping.
(I'll post pictures in a separate entry cause this program is making me crazy with trying to put them in here!)We've also enjoyed a bit of pool time in the backyard, trips to the park and the wading pool, BBQ's with friends, walks, bike rides and scooter rides, playing in the backyard, drawing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway, eating popsicles and ice cream and so many more things.
We're still looking forward to warm weather hopefully! And looking forward to having some friends come visit next week, a family camping trip (where we won't actually sleep over, just participate in the daytime fun!), a few days of "holidays" for myself and the kids at my parents and hopefully enjoy another visit from grandma in the city. We'll see if I get another post in before fall about those events!
We're still looking forward to warm weather hopefully! And looking forward to having some friends come visit next week, a family camping trip (where we won't actually sleep over, just participate in the daytime fun!), a few days of "holidays" for myself and the kids at my parents and hopefully enjoy another visit from grandma in the city. We'll see if I get another post in before fall about those events!Jack's Outbreak
Jack has had ezcema almost from birth but in the last couple of weeks he has experienced a breakout like we've never seen. It started with a small patch on the outside of his ankle which we thought was looking real raw and even oozing. That spread and suddenly he had patches all over his ankles and feet and on his fingers, too. Here's what ended up being the worst of it all - his thumb.
Thankfully it turned out he had a followup appointment with the dermatologist right when this was going on and he said it was infected and put him on antibiotics. Since then it is much better. The pussing and oozing is done now and he's left with some sores still that are drying up and coming off. But it's amazing to me how he's as happy as he is with the issues that he's had to face.
Now that he's learned to crawl on all fours and can get around quite fast, his new favorite activity is pushing around little cars. He'll sit down and put a Little Person on it it, then lift his leg and push the car under his leg. Then he starts chasing it. He'll push it, crawl after it, push it, crawl after it...and so on. It's so cute to watch him take interest in these different things when for so long all he could be interested in was whatever we put in front of him to play with.
He is progressing physically but slowly still. Now at 15 months he's able to finally crawl, and pull himself up on stuff. He's still quite wobbly when he stands for any length of time and needs to sit. He's learning how to crawl up stairs and waves good bye and claps and imitates us (today he was making kissing noises after I made them!). We celebrate every milestone with him almost more I think and love seeing the progress he's making! Now if only he'd start making progress like that on the scales!
Thankfully it turned out he had a followup appointment with the dermatologist right when this was going on and he said it was infected and put him on antibiotics. Since then it is much better. The pussing and oozing is done now and he's left with some sores still that are drying up and coming off. But it's amazing to me how he's as happy as he is with the issues that he's had to face.Now that he's learned to crawl on all fours and can get around quite fast, his new favorite activity is pushing around little cars. He'll sit down and put a Little Person on it it, then lift his leg and push the car under his leg. Then he starts chasing it. He'll push it, crawl after it, push it, crawl after it...and so on. It's so cute to watch him take interest in these different things when for so long all he could be interested in was whatever we put in front of him to play with.
He is progressing physically but slowly still. Now at 15 months he's able to finally crawl, and pull himself up on stuff. He's still quite wobbly when he stands for any length of time and needs to sit. He's learning how to crawl up stairs and waves good bye and claps and imitates us (today he was making kissing noises after I made them!). We celebrate every milestone with him almost more I think and love seeing the progress he's making! Now if only he'd start making progress like that on the scales!
Soother
Well, we FINALLY did it!! Took us till she was 3 years and 4 months old but we finally took Norah's soother away! It was like apart of her and we've talked since before she turned 3 about needing to take it away. But I think we were both too chicken to do it and it was kind of sad for me. As much as it annoyed and embarrassed me that she still had it, it was also cute that it was such a vital part of her sleep routine. And in the end it happened kind of abruptly. We were on a 3 hour drive to Elkhorn for a family weekend and Norah had her soother as we were hoping she'd nap in the car (she didn't). Anyway, she told us the soother had a hole in it. And I figured there was no way I was buying her another one (she did have a backup one but I didn't want to think or mention that one). So Nate and I decided then and there that we'd let her have the soother till we got home after the weekend and then that would be it. And I found a used pink scooter online to buy for her "trade" or "reward" (she had been talking for awhile about how she wanted a pink scooter). Tuesday afternoon came and I let her have the soother for resting time and when that was over, I said she could throw it in the garbage or I would. So shse doddled for awhile and really didn't want to get rid of it. Finally she took it over to her craft table and decided to "craft" with it. She cut it with her scissors a few times, wrote on it with markers, then wrapped it up securely in painters tape and threw it in the garbage. At bedtime she did mention it and called me back up and sheepishly said to me "I DO still want my soother." But she made it through and had a not bad night considering. The next day was worse and she was so tired that she did end up crying for her soother at bedtime. And the next morning the first thing she said to me was "maybe there's another soother. maybe I can have the yellow one." (which was the backup one). So i promptly took all backups to work with me that day and threw them out there so she wouldn't find them at home somehow. That day after I picked her up at daycare and we pulled up in the driveway at home she said, "maybe the garbage man will fix my soother and bring it back." But that's about it with the soother. There have been a few comments here or there about it but overall, the transition went MUCH smoother than I anticipated. And her sleeping is definitely no worse without it - in fact I'd almost say it's been better (however, now i'm sure I'll be up with her for a few hours tonight!).
So that was the last sign it felt like to me that my baby is no longer a baby. She's gone through the 3 transitions that seemed so big in my mind only a year ago - she's in her big bed all the time, she's potty trained and she no longer has her soother. So happy about it all, but a bit sad, too at the same time.
Here's a picture of Norah with her new little scooter!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Spring!
Well, it's been so long since I blogged that it almost feels overwhelming which has then made me wait even longer! So now I won't even try to catch up but just record some of the recent things.
This morning it was pouring rain out. We were standing at the front window waving good bye to daddy and norah said "i want to go outside and jump in the puddles". My first reaction is no, it's pouring rain, we're not playing outside. Especially cause I'm not one to want to be outside when there's inclement weather! But then I gave it a second thought and realized for her, that would just be such a fun thing to do. So she got her rain gear on and out she went (I opened the garage door and sat under shelter for the most part!). And she had so much fun jumping in the puddles, riding her bike, and just playing out in the rain. She saw one of those big long earthworms (or whatever the kind is that comes out with the rain) and called me over to see the "snake". She was very fascinated with it and said "I think it's going to be my pet. I like pets." And she got an umbrella a few weeks ago at a garage sale and loves it. So of course she had to have her umbrella out there, too.
And she's doing so great on her bike, too. She can pedal the bike with training wheels pretty much on her own - she needs help getting started but is doing great with being able to pedal and steer at the same time, too.
On another note, I know my last post was called Potty Trained. However, likely a day or two after writing that, it became a false alarm. She "untrained" herself so we left it and attempted a couple more times before last week when we realy went at it again. And in a week and a half she's basically day and night trained! It's gone so well - we're soooo proud of her and how she's doing. We had three accident free days and two dry nights in a row. Excited about how she seemed excited about the process so we just went with it last Saturday and have said good bye to pullups now i think!
Norah has been saying some really cute things lately and I wish I had written them down when she said them cause of course now I won't be able to remember them all. The only one that comes to mind right now is "You're the best mom"!
On to Jack....! What a cutie he is, too! As important as Norah's bunny is to her, Jack's puppy is becoming that important. Sometimes he'll be sitting on the floor, put his soother in his mouth, hug his puppy and just rock back and forth. Or if he's lying on the floor, he'll tuck puppy under his arm and lay his head down on the carpet...so cute! Here's a pic of him holding it near!
I wish I had a picture of him doing one of his other favorite, cute things. Because he can't crawl yet or get around much, I guess he's finding other things to do to compensate. He's like a monkey with the kinds of things he can do with his feet. He LOVES balls and balloons first of all. And he'll lie on his back, put his legs up in the air, hold a balloon or ball between his feet and bang on it like a bongo drum. It is so cute - I've got to get a picture of it. And yesterday we went for our first bike ride of the year and put both kids in our bike trailer. I'd catch a glimpse of Jack lifting his water cup off the floor with his feet and bring it up to where he could reach with his hands! It's quite amazing to see - for me at least ...maybe that's normal for other babies, I just dont' remember Norah doing things like that.
Well, that's it for this time. Hopefully it's not as long between posts next time!
This morning it was pouring rain out. We were standing at the front window waving good bye to daddy and norah said "i want to go outside and jump in the puddles". My first reaction is no, it's pouring rain, we're not playing outside. Especially cause I'm not one to want to be outside when there's inclement weather! But then I gave it a second thought and realized for her, that would just be such a fun thing to do. So she got her rain gear on and out she went (I opened the garage door and sat under shelter for the most part!). And she had so much fun jumping in the puddles, riding her bike, and just playing out in the rain. She saw one of those big long earthworms (or whatever the kind is that comes out with the rain) and called me over to see the "snake". She was very fascinated with it and said "I think it's going to be my pet. I like pets." And she got an umbrella a few weeks ago at a garage sale and loves it. So of course she had to have her umbrella out there, too.
And she's doing so great on her bike, too. She can pedal the bike with training wheels pretty much on her own - she needs help getting started but is doing great with being able to pedal and steer at the same time, too.
On another note, I know my last post was called Potty Trained. However, likely a day or two after writing that, it became a false alarm. She "untrained" herself so we left it and attempted a couple more times before last week when we realy went at it again. And in a week and a half she's basically day and night trained! It's gone so well - we're soooo proud of her and how she's doing. We had three accident free days and two dry nights in a row. Excited about how she seemed excited about the process so we just went with it last Saturday and have said good bye to pullups now i think! Norah has been saying some really cute things lately and I wish I had written them down when she said them cause of course now I won't be able to remember them all. The only one that comes to mind right now is "You're the best mom"!
On to Jack....! What a cutie he is, too! As important as Norah's bunny is to her, Jack's puppy is becoming that important. Sometimes he'll be sitting on the floor, put his soother in his mouth, hug his puppy and just rock back and forth. Or if he's lying on the floor, he'll tuck puppy under his arm and lay his head down on the carpet...so cute! Here's a pic of him holding it near!
I wish I had a picture of him doing one of his other favorite, cute things. Because he can't crawl yet or get around much, I guess he's finding other things to do to compensate. He's like a monkey with the kinds of things he can do with his feet. He LOVES balls and balloons first of all. And he'll lie on his back, put his legs up in the air, hold a balloon or ball between his feet and bang on it like a bongo drum. It is so cute - I've got to get a picture of it. And yesterday we went for our first bike ride of the year and put both kids in our bike trailer. I'd catch a glimpse of Jack lifting his water cup off the floor with his feet and bring it up to where he could reach with his hands! It's quite amazing to see - for me at least ...maybe that's normal for other babies, I just dont' remember Norah doing things like that.Well, that's it for this time. Hopefully it's not as long between posts next time!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Potty Trained!!!
Yes, we now consider Norah "potty trained"! I'm sure it'll come with its share of accidents (in fact, we had one this morning). But yesterday she had a completely full, accident-free day and she had pooped on the potty two days in a row! She is completely initiating going to pee on her own and would like to do it all by herself if able to unbutton her pants and pull them down. She's taken to it so fast it's great. So last night we gave her her potty training reward - a princess castle! She had been so excited to get it and was very happy when Nate came home and she could get it.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed with it. According to the box, I thought it would be a lot bigger/taller than it is. But she seems to like it so hopefully it provides some entertainment for her at least.
Jack's favorite activities
If Jack doesn't have any bath toys besides a washcloth or two, he's completely happy. His favorite thing to do is take a facecloth and shove it in his mouth and lay on his back kicking his legs and flailing his arms as much as he can. What's even better for him is if he can then have a SECOND washcloth which he holds in his hand and waves around as he flails his arms around! It's very amusing to watch (would love to post a video but that may not be appropriate for the internet!!)
And I may have mentioned this before, but he LOVES the jolly jumper now. He gets quite animated in it and loves to jump. Then Norah likes to pretend he's in a swing and pushes him which isn't always the safest since she doesn't understand the concept of pushing him straight and not towards the doorframe and walls! But it's so much fun to watch him get as much air as he can and really just jump and be happy.
Here he is in mid-air!
Friday, February 13, 2009
it's been awhile
Yes, it's been awhile since I blogged before. Not sure if there wasn't much going on...well, the other thing is that this blog is for "positive only" stuff and I haven't had such a great attitude lately so maybe that's why it's been hard for me to find stuff to put on here.
Anyway, a few things about each kid. Jack is still in such a fun stage. He has no desire to move (ie, crawl), which really is fine with me. As cute as it will be, it'll only add more work for me (I'll actually have to vacuum and clean up more regularly!!). But he is sure exploring anything that he can possibly get his hands on. He'll reach as hard as he can to get at something and once it's in his hands, chances are very good that it'll end up in his mouth just as fast. Even if that means spitting out his soother to make room for said other object! It's so neat to see his fascination with things that we just take for granted. He loves strings and he has this hand movement he does to pat/touch things that's really almost gay looking, but still very cute...too bad I can't really describe it in words. And he's got such a cute giggle. His eyes and face just completely lights up when he sees his daddy come in the room. And Jack loves to play with him and Nate can get him giggling so easily. It's like Jack is just looking with wide-eyed awe and wonder at his daddy - so cute!
Norah seems so different in the last few days -maybe cause she finally napped a couple of times this week and maybe that's all it takes. But she's all of a suddent started using forks and spoons (I didn't think she'd ever get past eating with her hands all the time) and she's taken a new interest in potty training the last few days. She's got a couple of older girl friends who are all trained and sees them wearing panties and I do think that's a bit of motivation for her. Yesterday she stayed dry during her whole afternoon nap time which was such a huge, but pleasant surprise for me. Then today she actually pooped on the toilet which was great, since yesterday we didnt' get that far. So I'm happy with how things are going and I"m really hoping it's for real this time.
She's also lately gotten obsessed with Jay Jay the Jet Plane. Last week at our church's MOMs group, the kids watched that show and I guess she loved it. It's really quite sweet I think how she gets scared quite easily by kids shows. Even Dora occasionally scares her and she was watching My Little Pony at a friend's house the other day and that scared her, too. But this one she LOVED. So I took a couple of the DVD's out of our church library on Sunday and she has watched each one over and over and over. And then she wants to pretend we're airplanes. I get some major flashbacks of my childhood cause she'll tell me she's Jay Jay and I"m some other character and we have to chase each other around flapping our arms! or do some other thing that she sees them do on the video. This morning she said to me "you've got to be kidding". It was totally not in context and I asked her where she had learned that and she said from Jay Jay!
Anyway, a few things about each kid. Jack is still in such a fun stage. He has no desire to move (ie, crawl), which really is fine with me. As cute as it will be, it'll only add more work for me (I'll actually have to vacuum and clean up more regularly!!). But he is sure exploring anything that he can possibly get his hands on. He'll reach as hard as he can to get at something and once it's in his hands, chances are very good that it'll end up in his mouth just as fast. Even if that means spitting out his soother to make room for said other object! It's so neat to see his fascination with things that we just take for granted. He loves strings and he has this hand movement he does to pat/touch things that's really almost gay looking, but still very cute...too bad I can't really describe it in words. And he's got such a cute giggle. His eyes and face just completely lights up when he sees his daddy come in the room. And Jack loves to play with him and Nate can get him giggling so easily. It's like Jack is just looking with wide-eyed awe and wonder at his daddy - so cute!
Norah seems so different in the last few days -maybe cause she finally napped a couple of times this week and maybe that's all it takes. But she's all of a suddent started using forks and spoons (I didn't think she'd ever get past eating with her hands all the time) and she's taken a new interest in potty training the last few days. She's got a couple of older girl friends who are all trained and sees them wearing panties and I do think that's a bit of motivation for her. Yesterday she stayed dry during her whole afternoon nap time which was such a huge, but pleasant surprise for me. Then today she actually pooped on the toilet which was great, since yesterday we didnt' get that far. So I'm happy with how things are going and I"m really hoping it's for real this time.
She's also lately gotten obsessed with Jay Jay the Jet Plane. Last week at our church's MOMs group, the kids watched that show and I guess she loved it. It's really quite sweet I think how she gets scared quite easily by kids shows. Even Dora occasionally scares her and she was watching My Little Pony at a friend's house the other day and that scared her, too. But this one she LOVED. So I took a couple of the DVD's out of our church library on Sunday and she has watched each one over and over and over. And then she wants to pretend we're airplanes. I get some major flashbacks of my childhood cause she'll tell me she's Jay Jay and I"m some other character and we have to chase each other around flapping our arms! or do some other thing that she sees them do on the video. This morning she said to me "you've got to be kidding". It was totally not in context and I asked her where she had learned that and she said from Jay Jay!
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