The Downstairs Bathroom is Filthy- What Joy!

May 15, 2013 at 11:40 am (Hula Girl, Raising Children)
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Hula Girl and I have been outside pretty much the entire time she’s been awake for the past several days. And when that girl goes outside, she GOES OUTSIDE. Dirt, mud, dead grass remnants, dandelion stains, scrapes, sunscreen, sweat, and bruises cover her entire body when she comes back inside. It is awesome.

There is something innately glorious about a child outside. When children are allowed to roam and explore to their hearts’ content, it makes a very satisfying mess. Call me weird, but a hot, sweaty little girl’s head resting on my shoulder while I read a calming story to her is one of the most beautiful things about summer. To let her play, to let her exercise, to let her be a child outside- well, I wouldn’t trade it for much.

When we go out, Hula Girl usually spends her time digging in the mud, walking barefoot over the rocks, following ants, lackadaisically riding her tricycle in slow purposeful circles on the driveway, and getting absolutely covered in outdoor grime of all kinds. Mostly the kind that sticks to her superthick and insanely-difficult-to-rub-in sunscreen. Small rocks, insects, and tidbits of dead grass sink into the creases in her knees, elbows, and neckline. Dust and shreds of leaves stick in her hairline. And her fingernails are ever-caked with mud and gunk from her latest dig in the garden, the sandbox, or the empty field next to the house. Her face is always sporting some kind of debris, the kind a kid can only get when her hand unconsciously swipes at the gnats buzzing in her ear. And her hair- well, her hair is always matted down to her forehead with sweat and water from the hose. She is a picture of the grandeur and joy of childhood.

And then there is the smell. The hot, sweaty, absolutely disgusting little child smell. But since that child belongs to me, it’s one of the very best smells in the entire world. Healthy, you know? I love a child who smells healthy in the summer.

We can’t manage a bath every time we come back inside, so we stop in the downstairs bathroom and use a washcloth for a full-body sponge bath. She laughs and laughs when I sit her up on the sink and stick her feet in the cool water. She giggles with glee when I splash the back of her neck and she gets a thrill of delight when I scrub her toes with the washcloth. I so cherish the time I get to spend washing her little not-so-chubby-anymore-but-rather-muscular-now arms and legs. She squeals, “I’m cold! I’m cold!” But five seconds later she insists she needs a drink of water because she’s hot from being outside. So I slip her off the sink and dry her little hands and feet and marvel at the way she is growing.

What joy.

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Gelato-9 Months (+1 week) Update

May 14, 2013 at 2:20 pm (Developmental Milestones, Gelato, Raising Children)
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Well, I took Gelato and Hula Girl to the pediatrician this morning for Gelato’s 9-month checkup. It was good overall.

Remember how I give birth to ginormous babies? Well, Hula Girl stayed pretty big. She’s still in like the 50-75th percentile for both height and weight. I expected Gelato would continue on about the same growth curves like her… I was wrong. I have a true little man! He weighs in at 18 pounds, which is exactly a half-pound heavier than he was at 6 months old, and only the 7th percentile. He’s 27.5 inches long, which is about the 9th percentile. His head circumference is 17.5 inches, which puts him just above the 25th percentile. That was a bit surprising.

I can’t really say it was completely unexpected. I have been commenting to myself and to Jonathan lately that I feel like Hula Girl was bigger than Gelato is when she was his age. I just looked back at her stats, and she was! She weighed 18 lbs, 3.5 oz; she was 28.5 inches tall/long; her head circumference was 17.75 inches! So she was barely bigger than him, but she was! I knew it. Also, I think she seemed much older than him, because she was our first child. He just seems like such a baby in comparison! :)

Anyway, he has met all the milestones on the 0-9 month developmental chart. So that’s good. He was all clear and healthy. She said we’re going to keep an eye on his growth- not that she’s worried, but just because he is smaller than most. Maybe he’s a true Mama’s boy after all!

Gelato is doing really well outside of the pediatrician’s office. Here’s a very detailed description!

Nursing: we’re still going strong. He nurses 4 times a day now. My plan is to keep those 4 nursings until the middle of July, and then phase feedings out slowly so he’s drinking out of a sippy cup instead. Our last day nursing will be on his first birthday. This is the same plan I had with Hula Girl, and I ended up nursing her until she was 14 months old. We shall see how things go.

Eating Solids: Gelato is working on this still. He can do it, but he doesn’t really have much interest. He kind of goes in spurts through his meals. He’ll sit down, play with his food, eat a while, take a break, push things around on his tray, bang his hand a bit, flirt with Hula Girl, eat some more, squeal at me, kick his feet, eat a bit, drink some water, etc. Meals are a forever long occasion for him these days. I end up cutting him off after about 30-45 minutes, because, really, what baby doesn’t want to just get down and play!?

Sippy Cup: He’s working on it. Again, he can do it, but he’s not really interested. Silly boy.

Brushing Teeth: Yeah, he finally has two teeth! They broke through in the middle of his 8th month. He wasn’t super duper fussy or anything. But we could tell that *something* was bothering him. Now we’re learning how to brush his teeth, which he hates. You know.

Sleeping: Gelato takes great naps. He consistently takes a 1.5-or-2-hour nap in the morning and then another 1.5-2-hour nap in the afternoon. He dropped his 3rd nap sometime in the middle of the 7th month, and although I kept trying for it daily until he was 8.5 months old, well, it was really gone a long time ago. His nighttime sleep has finally consolidated, with a bit of help from his mommy and daddy, and he sleeps completely through the night now. However, he has lower sleep needs than I’d like him to have, so a 10.5-11 hour night is not uncommon. In fact, if he slept 12 hours straight, I’d think I’d gone to Heaven. So. He averages about 10.75 hours of sleep per night and 3 hours of sleep per day. Kind of on the lower end of sleep needs for his age.

Talking: Gelato likes to talk a lot! He says book, ball, duck, quack, yeah!, mama, moon, dada, cat, and kitty. He attempts to say anything we tell him to say, usually coming up with something very close to what we’re saying. He also just talks and talks to himself during independent playtime, car rides, or during his exploration.

Free Play- Gelato likes to explore. He can’t really crawl all that much yet, but he scoots himself along the ground using his elbows to pull and his big toes to push. He is into everything. His latest favorite is the cat’s food and water bowls. Yummy. He also likes the music table, any kind of shaker toy, and wooden puzzle pieces that he can bang together. Oh, and I can’t forget that he likes doors. He loves to lie on his side and swing a door open and shut. He loves to figure things out. He is definitely an experimenter.

Independent Playtime- Gelato does about 20-25 minutes each day playing in his playpen. I need to get some more toys rotated in there, because he really does enjoy the time as long as he has a new toy to learn about. He has been doing IP since he was 5 days old, so he never fusses or complains when it’s time to do some playpen time!

Personality- Gelato is so laid-back it’s ridiculous. He is perfectly content to just drag himself all around the room exploring and learning about new (and old) things while the rest of us do life all around him. He is not fussy or crabby or clingy or anything. He is going through some separation anxiety now, but he gets over that really quickly. He likes to laugh and likes to get our attention at the table. He really likes to participate in physical play with Hula Girl and Jonathan. He also loves to give high-fives and he will just crack up every single time he successfully slaps our palms. He is truly a very good-natured little boy and I think we’ll really enjoy this quality as he gets older! I don’t see him as a boundary-pusher, as long as we continue to give him room to explore.

Our Schedule:
6:45 wake, nurse, eat breakfast, free play
8:45 nap
10:30/45ish wake, nurse, independent playtime, walk, sibling play, lunch, play with Mommy
1:30ish nap
3:00/3:30ish wake, nurse, afternoon whatevers with Mommy and Hula Girl (sometimes we go out, sometimes we stay home)
5:15 eat dinner, then family time
6:00/15 bath, pjs
6:15/30 nurse, bedtime story
6:30/45 bed

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Hula Girl’s Art Table

April 29, 2013 at 2:50 pm (Crafting, Hula Girl, Learning Time, Mommy Blunders, Neighbors, Obedience, Projects, Raising Children, Things that Bug Me, Walmart)
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Hula Girl and I do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to “projects.” I tend to have a finished vision in mind and she couldn’t care less. She is much more interested in the process and discovery than the actual product. She LOVES to paint, color, tape, glue, and make a mess. A huge mess. There is some innate sense of hatred of paint that resides deep in my soul. Every time we pull out paints (water colors, tempera paints, finger paints, doesn’t matter), I end up a stressed-out ball of frayed angry nerves and I don’t tend to mother with very much gentleness or grace. I don’t know what it is about paint that does this to me.

And it’s not just paint. Hula Girl puts everything in her mouth. I mean, EVERYTHING. (I’m actually looking into this from a more medical/psychological point of view right now because I mean it when I say she puts everything in her mouth.) She knows that she’s not supposed to, but she does it. From the very first of our art endeavors, when I handed then-10-month-old Hula Girl some crayons and a piece of paper and proudly posted pictures of the scribbles all over Facebook, to our most recent watercolor masterpiece at the easel encounter, she has had her supplies taken from her for putting them in her mouth. I am not kidding. I have had to stop the activity or take supplies each and every time we have ever attempted art, because she is always tasting and sampling and chewing and licking and spitting. Drives.me.crazy. (My poor mother-in-law has had to hear all about this over and over. Sorry, Momma C.) Thank goodness kids’ art supplies are generally considered non-toxic (although you’d have to pay me a LOT of money before I’d admit that maybe the artificial dyes aren’t so bad after all…)

Anyway.

I have been wanting to test a theory. I have been pondering the idea that perhaps Hula Girl has been so obsessed with putting art supplies in her mouth partially because she knows it makes me so upset. What if I just gave her free access to them and didn’t care about what she actually does with them? What if I just let her go for it using whatever supplies she wanted to use to create anything she wanted to create? Would we still have the mouthing issue? I have been talking it over with Jonathan and he said we could create an art space for Hula Girl somewhere in the house.

Then, last Friday we were given a free “art table” for children. It looks like this. Some random neighbor we’ve never talked to before chased me down when I was out on a walk with the kids (actually, I was terrified about this random person running behind me!), and she offered the art desk to us since she doesn’t have any kids. I said we’d take a look at it, and once we did, we knew we had to have it.

Since it was used, Hula Girl and I spent some time on Saturday afternoon washing it and making it a bit more presentable (we removed the white board section before we soaped it up). It wasn’t in really bad shape, but it had some writing on the white board that was done in permanent marker, and it was a bit dusty. Hula Girl was a great help when we were washing it. I gave her a sponge and let her go for it. She ended up with mud all over her feet, a trend that continued throughout the weekend. (Mud messes I can handle; paint messes, not so much. Weird?)

I ran to Walmart (our favorite store, duh) and stocked up. Like, STOCKED UP. Hula Girl now has access to white board crayons, regular crayons, markers, watercolor paints, colored pencils, regular pencils, erasers, tape, glue, scissors, paper, and stickers. I am planning to add playdough (homemade), 3-D supplies (like egg cartons, etc.), and chalk. I will also add other supplies, and specialized supplies (like glitter crayons), as she gets older.

She has been busy. She has spent 2.5 hours total over the past three days just cutting. My floor is covered in little tiny scraps of paper. But she is busy and happy and she feels that the work she is doing is very important. She keeps putting stickers on paper and cutting them in half so that Jonathan and I can “learn what happens.” She has painted, colored, taped, and written the letter “N” over and over. Absolutely nothing I would have wanted to do in my supplies-hating heart.

And do you want to know something else? She has not put any of her supplies in her mouth, with one exception. She put the glue stick on her lips because it reminded her of chapstick. She hasn’t done that since. :)

 

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Chatterboxes

April 29, 2013 at 2:03 pm (Developmental Milestones, Funny, Gelato, Hula Girl)
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Both kids have been going through periods of rapid language development lately. Neither kid is quiet unless asleep. No one will ever wonder if they’re really mine!

Gelato is 8.75 months old. Here are some of the words he says:

  • “gaa” for cat (he practices this a lot when he sees Riley; I can’t really exactly type the noise he makes- “gaa” isn’t quite it, but neither is “daa”)
  • “boo” for book (he launched himself over the arm of the rocking chair this morning, screeching, “Boo! Boo!” and reaching for the pile of books)
  • “mama” (teehee, I love babies who say mama)
  • “dada” (he gets very serious and looks directly at Jonathan when he says this one)
  • “ee-hee” for sister (it’s quite breathy)
  • “kak” for quack (a.dor.a.ble.)
  • “duh” for duck (he loves to hold yellow rubber ducks and point to pictures of ducks in books)
  • “bah” for bark (he says it when he hears a dog barking)

Hula Girl is 34.75 months old. I cannot even begin to believe she will be three in June. That said, here are some of the amazing things she has been saying lately:

  • “I’m gonna eat the baby! <sad voice> Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOO! The baby is crying because I ate his head!” (She was holding a tortilla like a baby. Also, this is kind of disturbing.)
  • “I just love you guys so much.”
  • “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.” Upon further questioning
  • from a freaked-out set of parents who could not for the life of us begin to think where she learned to take the Lord’s name in vain, it was revealed that, “I am praising the Lord. Oh, God! Oh, God! You’re beautiful, God!”
  • She fell down and scraped her hands and knees. “Mommy, I will pray and ask God to heal me.” Several minutes later… “Mommy! I prayed and asked God to heal my hands and knees and now they don’t hurt anymore! God is not really that far away, is He?”
  • “Mommy, I can’t wait for Grampy to come and see me cutting scraps. He will laugh and think it is so funny.” I commented that she likes to make people laugh. “Yes, because that is the way that God made me!”

     

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Toddlerese is on its Way Out…

April 10, 2013 at 2:14 pm (Developmental Milestones, Hula Girl, Raising Children)
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My Hula Girl is 2 months away from being three years old, and she is no longer speaking a whole lot of toddler-speak. It is bittersweet to hear her suddenly pronouncing all her /s/ sounds and integrating long difficult words without batting an eyelash. Language has never been extremely difficult for her, except that some people couldn’t understand her very well due to the absent onsets and the rapid rate of speech she’s accustomed to using (to keep up with her brain, no doubt).

There are a few things that are characteristic of kids her age as far as language goes. Here’s a checklist (found here) that describes toddler speech at Hula Girl’s age:

Significant Language Milestones

  • 200 word vocabulary – This milestone is reached anywhere between 19 and 30 months. If they don’t know 200 words by their second birthday, they will well before their third. They will continue to learn new words.
  • Using words – By the time they are three years old, your toddler will have a word they use for almost everything. It will not be a perfect, adult word, but will be consistent.
  • Simple sentences – By two years, your child will have put two words together. They will start to use three-word sentences during their third year. They will also be developing some grammar skills.
  • Types of words – Your two to three-year-old will start using more words that are not nouns. They will start to use simple words to describe objects, such as small or big. They will begin to use pronouns and will be using verbs.
  • Use of speech – Between two and three years of age, your child will make the transition from gesturing to using speech to ask for something or get your attention.
  • Understandable speech – By 30 months of age, the family should be able to understand your toddler’s speech.
  • Body parts – They will get even better at naming parts of the body.

If you know Hula Girl at all, you know she reached all these milestones before she turned two. So yeah.

Hula Girl is still somewhat difficult for “outsiders” to understand, namely because she is rather reserved when speaking with unfamiliar people for the first time. Also, she is a bit hard to understand when she’s talking on the phone, partially because she usually talks on the phone during meals and therefore has food in her mouth, and also because she doesn’t know to hold the phone close to her mouth.

She still struggles with the /l/ and /r/ sounds, which is unfortunate. She says /y/ for both (with one exception–see my first bullet under the next paragraph). She calls rainbows “yainbows” and lemons “yemons.” If a word has a consonant blend including /r/, like “great” or “bread,” she will just omit the /r/– “gate” and “bed.” When I ask her to say “L,” she says, “Ehh-oh.” “R” is pronounced, “Ahh-wah.”

She rarely mispronounces words other than her little idiosyncrasies with the /l/ and /r/ sounds. However, there are a few funny mispronunciations holding strong in her language, and I will cry the day she pronounces these words correctly:

 

  • Any word with a –ther ending is pronounced as though it says –bee-yer… This, ironically, is the only time she can say /r/ correctly! Examples of this are mother (muh-bee-yer), father (fah-bee-yer), and feather (feh-bee-yer). “Mommy, Daddy is taking me on a fah-bee-yer/daughter date!” Interestingly, she can say “leather.” 
  • Animals. Like, the word, “animals.” She says, “ah-moo-moos.” Always. “I want to go to the zoo to see the ah-moo-moos.”
  • Grammy and Grampy. These have varied throughout her life. She used to say Mimi and Maybe. Now she says Geemee and Gapey. (Omits the r in both!)
  • Little Bro/Little Brother. “Yeedoo Bo” or “Yeedoo Buh-bee-yer”

Why is it so hard for parents to hear their children learning to speak so clearly and so well? Maybe it’s like we’re losing our super secret, ultra-exclusive, no-one-outside-the-family-allowed club! Gasp! Maybe it’s another step toward independence! My daughter no longer needs me to translate her every thought! Soon she’ll be out in the world, talking to people without my help. No! ….. sigh.

This raising kids thing… so hard. It’s SO hard to let go.

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Gelato 8 Months Update

April 9, 2013 at 2:27 pm (Developmental Milestones, Gelato, Raising Children)
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Um, hi. <crickets> Well, I’ve been gone a while.

We just went through another major schedule transition this month, which accounts for my absence here. I intend to get back soon. For now, I just want to put up a quick post detailing Gelato’s last month and all that jazz, for posterity at least.

Wonder Week

Gelato is technically 35 weeks old, but since he was born 5 days late, he’s about 36.5 weeks old in brain development age. That means he’s right on track for wonder week 37, and WOW, we’ve seen it. This one has been the most noticeable of all the wonder weeks so far. He’s been showing all the classic symptoms: clinging, crying, and crankiness. Oh, and sleep funkiness. But since I understand what is happening, it’s not freakin’ me out that much. I’m just grinning and bearing it!

Physical Development

He’s so good at sitting up that we’re doing regular baths in the big tub now. Gelato especially enjoys bathing with Hula Girl. Somehow siblings make the menial tasks in life so much more fun.

He’s finally kind of on the move! On Easter morning he started moving forward across the floor. It looks like he’s swimming in the Olympics, freestyle. So funny. He has also started to push himself up onto all fours, and he’ll stay there a few seconds and rock or he’ll push too hard with his arms and move backwards across the floor. But hey, this is major progress! Of course, he can always fall back on rolling and spinning, and he does those things frequently, too!

He’s also been working on his pincer grasp. He can pick up raisin-sized crumbs (don’t judge- I have a toddler), rocks, blueberries (smooshed), and, much to Hula Girl’s consternation, felt “sprinkles” that go on her felt “cupcakes.” I don’t think he’s actually eaten any of the things that aren’t food. But I do know he’s eaten at least two blueberries. Progress. Ha!

We still have no teeth.

Language Development

Gelato’s receptive language skills are pretty good! He’s able to look where we tell him to look, find familiar objects and people when we ask him (“Where’s Daddy?”), and imitate several movements and facial expressions. He knows how to turn a page in a book when we ask him to. He smiles and laughs with us when we smile and laugh in front of him.

He has been working on saying some words. He can say “Dada” and “Mama” as well as “tat!” and “gee-gee!” Both “tat” and “gee-gee” refer to Riley, our cat (tat=cat; gee-gee=kitty). Jonathan has been practicing saying “red” and “green” with him; his approximations sound like “ded” and “dee!”

Gelato also enjoys making lots of bubbly gurgly noises. He blows raspberries, rolls his tongue around while saying, “aaaahhhh,” and generally drools a lot while just sounding like a happy baby. (Hula Girl is always thinking it’s okay to chastise him for spitting at the table. I have to remind her that he’s only a baby and even though toddlers aren’t allowed to spit at the table, babies are. How unfair! ;) I’m also having to remind her that Mommy and Daddy may tell Gelato what to do, but toddlers aren’t allowed to do that.)

Nourishment

Gelato is still nursing 4-5 times a day. Most days it’s 4 times/day. (See “Sleeping/Schedule” for more details.) He still nurses well. We have had no issues with nursing other than a few bouts of soreness from biting or a weirdish latch. I am thinking some teeth might pop through soon.

We are doing really well with baby-led weaning. Gelato has just figured out how to keep his hand in front of/in his mouth to hold his food in there while he chews it up. We have had far less food falling back out, and his diapers hold evidence of a much larger solids intake (can I take a moment to just say THANK YOU to whomever it was that invented the diaper sprayer?!?!?!). He still doesn’t seem to really like pears, but he likes pretty much everything else we give him. So far, he has eaten: chicken, egg yolks, mango, pears, peas, broccoli, cucumber, carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes, potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, waffles, bread, pancakes, rice cakes, oatmeal, hummus, avocados, bananas, apples, ham (for Easter), asparagus, muffins, pasta, cheese, and more. I can’t seem to make my brain think of anything else right now.

Sleeping/Schedule

We are still having early waking every single morning. It is still driving me crazy. I guess Gelato is just an early riser. I think I have found that he needs to be in bed between 6:30 and 7. Too early, and he’s awake between 5:30 and 5:45. Too late, and he’s awake between 5:45 and 6. If I get the sweet spot, he sleeps until about 6:15. I do need to start logging his bedtime/awake times for the next few days to check this theory, but I really feel like he’s just an early riser, plain and simple. Fortunately I am a bit of an early bird myself… or these early mornings would be way more brutal than they already are.

A week into this month, Gelato decided he was ready to be on a 4-hour schedule. He had one day where he slept through to 4 hours between feedings. Then he went back to 3 hours the next day, 3.5 the day after that, 3.5 for another day, then he moved to 4 and that’s where we’ve been ever since.

We’re still working to figure out the last “cycle” of the day. He doesn’t sleep late enough in the day to drop his third catnap, but he doesn’t take that nap (or at least, he’s only taken it once in the past 11 days… but who’s counting?). I would just say the nap’s officially dropped, but since he’s in the wonder week, I have been attempting to do the 3rd nap every day anyway.

Another issue we’re facing is that he’s waking sometimes in the middle of the night and he will.not.go.back.to.sleep.without.nursing. (See the 4-5 feedings/day mentioned in the previous section.) I know he COULD sleep through the night, every night. But we haven’t had him cry it out. I have been too afraid of him waking Hula Girl. We actually plan to have him cry it out and get rid of all night wakings as soon as his wonder week is over. Or maybe sooner. I have a hard time convincing a super sleepy Jonathan this is what we need to do when I return from nursing Gelato at 3:45 a.m.

So, here is what his schedule typically looks like (parentheticals are times when he DOES take the catnap):

  •  6:15 wake
  • 6:45 out of crib, nurse, start making breakfast, get Hula Girl up
  • 7:45 breakfast, sibling playtime
  • 8:30 nap
  • 11 wake, nurse, independent playtime, go for a walk
  • 12 lunch, free play time
  • 1/1:15 nap
  • 2:45/3ish wake, nurse, one-on-one time with Mommy (so rare!), “baby activity”
  • 4:45/5 attempt catnap
  • (5:30) up, dinner
  • 6:15 (6:45) bath, bedtime routine
  • 6:30 (7:15) bed

Personality

Even with the wonder week and fussiness, Gelato is a happy guy. His favorite thing to do is to be held facing me so we can fake laugh back and forth. He has a crazy deep voice and he laughs like, “Huh, huh, huh!” It’s so funny. He’s very inquisitive and he enjoys studying things- his sister’s movements, the way a box opens and closes, the holes I’ve poked through a lid, the way Riley’s tail swishes (so tempting), or the way a drawer pull swings in its brackets. He can use his little fingers to manipulate small objects and will do the same motion over and over and over… to make sure the outcome is the same every time? … to practice making his fingers move the same way? … not sure why, really, but he does. He is a very independent player most of the time and does not mind just rolling around exploring in the room while I read to him and Hula Girl or help Hula Girl clean up or whatnot. As always, he’s just a laid-back kid. I have a feeling that when he’s a toddler, he will test me a LOT… not because he’ll be obstinate or willful, but just because he’ll be so involved in what he’s doing he won’t hear me telling him to stop or he’ll be so active he won’t remember what I said about jumping on the couch eighteen hundred times yesterday! ;) All in all, he’s a very very very fun little person and it’s a delight having him in our lives.

Sibling Relationship

I added this category because I feel like the two of them actually have a relationship now. It’s not just Hula Girl smothering him and cooing over his latest achievements. He has really started to interact with her and she expresses to me at least fifteen times daily how much she loves him, how much she wants to play with him, and how fun it is to have a little “bo.”

He watches her every move. He tries to copy her to the best of his ability. Yesterday this led to him pouring a measuring cup full of cold water all over his legs (kids were playing with a bowl of water and “scoops” on the kitchen floor), but he dipped that thing back in there and tried again!

He screeches or fake laughs to engage her in a screeching or fake laughing “conversation” across the table.

He bounces up and down in my arms when we go upstairs to get her up from her bed in the morning and after naps. As soon as I open the door, he lets out a shout of glee and screeches until she says, “Hi, Buddy Boy!”

He pulls himself up onto her lap. (She helps him sit up all the way, and then she sings songs or says nursery rhymes with hand motions and guides his hands, just like I did with her when she was little.)

He cries when she leaves the room.

I feel so blessed to have two children who love and care for each other the way they do. I KNOW that many siblings, especially at this age, do not get along and/or end up hurting each other (accidentally or not). Hula Girl has never hurt him, and I have never heard her speak one jealous word against him, barring the occasional, “Gelato doesn’t need to get up from his nap. You can let him cry a while so we can finish this book.” I know we are bound to have scuffles in the future, but I really do hope we can continue to grow our family’s sense of respect and kindness as they get older. It is just so lovely to see them enjoying each other. I’ve really started to see a lot of that in the past two weeks, and now I believe all those folks (like you, KATE!), who said that a sibling is the greatest gift I could have given Hula Girl. Love.It.

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Self-Sufficient

March 21, 2013 at 1:47 pm (Cooking, Developmental Milestones, Hula Girl, Raising Children, Things I'm Looking Forward To)
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Our little Hula Girl is growing up some more. Her 3-year birthday is looming, and suddenly she can do so much. All the things she does are part of her daily routine- things we’ve been doing since she was weaned and walking (and even some things we’ve been doing since she was born). It’s just amazing to see how the locus of control in her life is slowly shifting to her rather than being all on Jonathan’s and my shoulders. Note the slowly part of that sentence. Obviously, our eventual goal is to raise children who are 100% self-sufficient (aside from the grace of God!), but it’s just a bit bittersweet to see it actually happening in tangible ways.

Now that Hula Girl can dress herself, she does it. For the most part, I choose what she wears. I pick out an outfit, hand it to her, and she does the rest. She can put on her own shoes and her own hat and her own jacket. So she does. It’s very helpful when we’re heading out for a walk and I’m getting Gelato and myself ready to go. I can just tell her, “Put on a jacket! Now put on shoes! Don’t forget a hat!” Still supervising, but not for long.

Along with that, she can reliably undress herself, except for her shirt, for baths, or for changing into jammies at naptime (are we the only family that does this? I think most kids nap in their day clothes). This is a nice skill when we’re coming back home from a walk. As you know from yesterday’s post, we remove our shoes before entering the main part of the house. We have shoe bins (one for each of us) and coat  hooks (again, one for each of us) in the tiled front entryway. I no longer have to remind Hula Girl to remove jacket or shoes. She walks in, sits down, takes off her shoes, unzips her jacket, and puts her shoes away. Even though the coat hooks are low enough that she can reach hers, she still has trouble getting the jacket to stick sometimes. That’s cool. If that’s all I have to do to help, works for me!

When it’s time to put on her jammies and pull-up for nap or night (we’re getting rid of the pull-ups when we move her to a big girl bed!), she doesn’t even want us to look like we might offer help. She can do it, she wants to do it, and I think that’s great. Less bending over for me. We just have to allow enough time so we don’t feel rushed when she’s got her foot in the wrong hole for the eighteenth time and she finally asks us to straighten them out so she can try again. Persistent little one.

She’s old enough to do some real chores now, and she takes them very seriously.

  • Each morning, she must tidy up her crib (drape a blanket over the edge, put her sheep in a corner, straighten her pillows, etc.). This is in preparation for when she has a big girl bed and will need to make her bed every morning. Then she has to get dressed, put her jammies away in their drawer, and carry her pull-up downstairs to throw it away.
  • When she gets downstairs, she must check to see that Riley has food and water. If he is out of them, she must ask us to help her get some for him. She can open the food container and scoop out the right amount (not hard, since he’s free-fed), but the food container is in the garage. So we have to open the door for her. We also have to open the door to the bathroom and turn on the sink for his water.
  • After breakfast, she needs to carry her dishes to the sink, and stop to dispose of any food left on her plate on her way. She actually asks to save her leftovers (and she’ll eat them) most days. She doesn’t like to waste food. After she does this, she must open the dishwasher (if it’s clean) and put away her dishes and Mommy and Daddy’s silverware. My silverware drawer is a mess, but I don’t mind.
  • Her last task of the day is to vacuum with my little hand-held dustbuster. She adores this task. She literally vacuums until the battery runs out, then I charge it again overnight each night. She knows how to take it apart to empty it, and she hands me the filter to wash it when she’s done.

Hula Girl has also taken to helping me with baking and cooking. We have always invited her to assist in the kitchen, but her contribution has always been minimal to distracting. But now that she can read numbers and she is learning to read words, she can help me read recipes. Yesterday we baked some bread. She read “whole wheat flour,” “yeast,” and “water” all by herself (we have made this recipe before- she probably remembered at least some of the things she was reading from a previous encounter with the recipe). She told me that we needed “four k-uh-p-s–CUPS!” of flour, and “one-one-two t-s-p” of yeast. Pretty good for almost-three, right?! We also made a lasagna yesterday. She looooooved being in charge of spreading the filling in between the layers of pasta. She did a very good job of keeping things even. She even put the noodles in the pan pretty straight!

I have enjoyed her so very much since she turned six months old (newborn Hula Girl was less enjoyable, what with the reflux and the severely chronic 45-minute naps, and the insane-first-time-Mommy-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-but-determined-to-do-it-right-ness), but I think I enjoy this particular phase almost the best so far. “Little Helper-hood” is awesome!

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Garden: 2013- Front Yard Transformation

March 20, 2013 at 2:42 pm (Gardening, Things I'm Looking Forward To, To-Dos)
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We are pleased to announce that we are almost ready to plant some seeds and get underway!

Jonathan spent the majority of last weekend hauling rocks. (Why is it that our gardening ventures ALWAYS involve clearing huge amounts of 1″ granite?) We now have double the garden space we had last year, and the front of the house looks somewhat finished. I’ll address the front in this post and get to the garden deets in another one soon.

We live in a rented house. (We are debt-free and intend to stay that way. We will be living here- in this city- for about 3 more years, but after that we aren’t sure we want to stay here. So we rent. No need to buy a house only to have to turn around and try to sell it again.) The street we live in bends right after our house, and the lot across from ours and right next to ours (the “elbow pit” and the “funny bone” part of the road) are vacant. Since we live in deserty-prairie-wilderness, there are a lot of tumbleweeds, prairie grasses, cacti, and dirt all around. Nothing pretty. And that was our entire front yard, except for the little split-rail fence that surrounds part of the area, along with a spruce tree and two bushes that are pretty darn ugly (and dying). We have a brick patio with a rose bush and a cement walkway with a little planter next to the house. The planter has a miniature rose bush and two baby holly bushes surrounded by brown mulch. Beyond that, the front yard was horrifyingly ugly.

And the pokies! Since, like, nothing normal or lovely grows out there, we were overjoyed to find some pretty yellow flowers sprouting last summer. Let me tell you, the flowers are deceptive as all get-out. We let them proliferate because we thought they were mild and pretty and we were excited to have something other than brown foot-high grass to look at while we pushed Hula Girl on the swing. Big mistake. Have you ever seen those burrs called goat heads? Check these things out. Make sure you scroll down to see what they look like when they get all dry and stick into your shoes. We always remove our shoes when we come inside, but not all our guests do. And that is what sticks our toddler’s heels on a regular basis. Nice, huh?

All that to say, Jonathan moved a lot of rocks. He took the rocks out of the back yard and covered all that deserty-prairie-wilderness area that is designated by the shoddy old split-rail almost-fence. He put underlayment in a few areas, but we’re mostly going to just have to get out there and pull all the weeds every other day or so. That’s fine. I plan to spend my entire life outside this summer. No joke.

So our front yard looks really nice. Jonathan edged the mini granite chunks with large white sandstone-type rocks that are just laying all around in the field next to our house. He also made a giant obstacle out of some old driftwood in the area that the neighborhood boys like to run through (it’s SO annoying when they run down our walkway and under our patio area during Hula Girl’s nap and wake her up because they’re squirting their water guns at each other right under her crib- like, seriously, kids? Didn’t your moms ever teach you to stay out of your neighbors’ yards and front entryways?!!?). We actually kept one large rectangle open and surrounded that area with tulip and daffodil bulbs, which are now pushing up. We plan to grow mint there; we’re also going to throw down some wildflower mix. It will be pretty- wild crazy mint and wildflowers. Yeah!

The front yard care this summer will include:

  • pulling weeds in the rock area
  • watering the mint/wildflower area
  • re-mulching and adding compost to the rose and holly bushes
  • watering the aforementioned bushes
  • trimming and/or replacing the terribly ugly evergreen bushes that are half-dead
  • watering aforementioned bushes
  • cleaning all the trash out from under the spruce tree (we live in the windiest part of the world, and ALL the neighborhood trash cans empty themselves into our yard every trash day)
  • trimming the tree
  • watering the tree
  • tending the garden box that lives out front- preparing the soil, planting, mulching, watering, weeding, etc.

We are going to have SO much fun. :) (And I’m not joking!)

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10 Tiny Things I Love about being Married to my Husband

March 19, 2013 at 2:30 pm (Uncategorized)
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Hey, Random! Just thought I’d throw these out there since I’ve been thinking about some of them a lot lately! Thanks, Jonathan, for being you!

10. There is always ice cream in our freezer, even though it’s never in our budget.

9. I never have to get my own water for my nightstand.

8. My feet stay nice and cozy any time we’re watching Dance Moms together because I can just shove them under his legs. He doesn’t mind.

7. He never questions my need to purchase anything. He knows I am frugal and trusts me to make the budget balance at the end of the month.

6. I don’t have to take the trash out.

5. My inner goofball comes out more than ever when I’m with him. We’re talking, making faces at myself in the mirror. And he never tells me to stop!

4. He likes to make our children laugh.

3. I never have to get splashed during bath time– he takes bath duty for both kids! (Oh, how I despise getting water on my skin!)

2. My house is decorated for all holidays. With gusto. And he’s not happy unless there’s pink on Valentine’s Day.

1. He lets me talk for hours after bedtime, even if it’s just about silly things.

BONUS- he listens.

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Gelato- 7 Month Update

March 8, 2013 at 3:34 pm (Developmental Milestones, Gelato, Nursing, Raising Children)
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Well, the little Monkey Man is getting older. And for some reason, I feel like he’s SO much older this month than he was last month. Time just really keeps on flying. He was 7 months old yesterday.

Physical Development

Gelato can sit up unsupported for several minutes at a time. The only time he really falls over now is if his sister bonks him on accident or if he’s reaching for the cat. (Nothing is so wonderful as the cat.) He can’t crawl yet, but he can roll anywhere he wants to go and he can spin on his tummy like a seasoned member of the Step Up cast. So basically, we have to keep an extra eye on him now. Jonathan stopped him from eating cat food a couple days ago. Crunch, crunch.

His pincer grasp is coming right along. He can grab things with both hands, transfer toys and food from one hand to the other, and doesn’t have to “swipe” at things at all anymore- he can just reach out and get whatever he wants. He tends to leave his fingers open to feel an object for a few seconds before closing his fist around it. This gives me enough time to realize he’s reaching for my bangs before he gives them a good yank. Thank goodness.

Language Development

Gelato can make all kinds of sounds, starting most frequently with /d/. He also has the /b/, /g/, /y/, /h/, and /w/ sounds down pat. He likes to talk all the time. Our friend from the library says he’s got “the talkies” whenever she sees him. That’s pretty accurate. Jonathan is 100% convinced Gelato knows how to sing, and we’re both pretty sure he’s already using some of his own “words.” Whenever he sees Riley, the cat, he says, “gee-gee!” It sounds like a very babyish approximation of “kitty.” He also makes specific noises when he first sees Jonathan.

He is learning to sign. He has attempted to sign “all done” at the table a few times. I really need to get on this whole signing thing with him. Hula Girl had signs coming her way from like 4 months of age! Ah, well, the second child is supposed to reach milestones later than the first… anyone wonder why?

Nourishment

Gelato is still nursing 5 times a day. He nurses fast and well. I am not on any kind of restrictions in my diet any longer, except caffeine. That one’s just common sense.

We have started solids with him (actually, we started a week before he turned 6 months old). We use Baby-Led Weaning, which basically means we skip the purees and go straight to letting the baby feed himself (finger-sized wedge-shaped pieces at first so the baby can grab it and have enough left hanging out of his fist to take some bites). It’s a lot less work (you know I’d be all up in the making-my-own-purees-from-100%-organic-ingredients-and-breastmilk business) and it’s pretty much hilarious to watch a baby munch away on a half of a banana. I was getting sort of worried about his intake- he wasn’t really interested in eating very much. Tidbits were making their way into his diapers, but he’d really only lick the food and then play with it, squish it, and generally make a huge mess. I know that food is just for fun before they’re one, but my only other REAL frame of reference was Hula Girl, who demolished a whole cucumber quarter the first time she ever had solids at all, and she never looked back. Girl’s always eaten like a fiend.

Two nights ago, I gave him some roast chicken, carrots, and potatoes, and mango for dessert. Apparently it pleased his palate. He gobbled it down and has been eating like crazy ever since. He had sweet potatoes last night, and this morning I gave him banana. He actually managed to eat over half of both. And his diaper this morning had evidence of what he’s been ingesting! :)

Sleeping

Yes, he does sleep. I would not say he is a better or worse sleeper than Hula Girl. I would just say he’s a different kid and has different sleep needs and challenges. He goes down between 6 and 6:30, and wakes between 5:30 and 5:45. I used to get him up and nurse him for a half-feeding, then put him back down… but that was just getting ridiculous. So now he’s just awake until I get him. Here’s a typical day in his life:

5:45 wake, play, coo

6:15 nurse, play with Daddy, breakfast

7:45 nap

9:30 nurse, independent playtime, go for a walk, sibling playtime

11:15ish nap

12:45/1 nurse, 1-on-1 time with Mommy, read books

2:15/30 nap

3:15/30/45/4:00 nurse, hang out with Mommy and Hula Girl, jumperoo time

5:00 dinner

5:45 bath/bedtime routine with Daddy

6:15 nurse

6:30 in bed (earlier if he wakes from nap earlier than 3:30ish)

Personality

Gelato is a go-with-the-flow kind of kid. Not much bothers him. He rarely cries. He rarely fusses. He’s really active and always wants to be able to see what’s happening. He likes playing games that include a lot of 1-on-1 interaction, especially with Daddy. He thinks the world of Hula Girl- you can see it in the way he watches her and smiles at her. He is only snuggly when he is tired, but he will tolerate a little kiss-and-tickle-fest every now and then. He is extremely inquisitive and very much a go-getter.

We are very excited to see him growing into an actual person rather than just a little blobby baby. I had forgotten how much fun it is when they really start interacting a lot. It is also nice when naps lengthen (for the most part) and our days become predictable!

I expect he’ll start crawling and get some teeth within the next month. Watch out, world!

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