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D.C. Area Babies
time for a check-in?
Inspired by mcatmay's post, because it reminded me how time really is flying. What's going on with your LOs?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: time for a check-in?
This week, LO has been amazing. He has slept really well (not all the way through, but totaling 12 hours, with usually one short wakeup around 4 am), napped, eaten much better and just been a delight. He's not sick for the first time in what seems like months.
He is picking up words so quickly, it is amazing. He says ball, light, cat, Shep (our cat's name), mama, dada, coffee (caahhh), give, block, cup, helicopter (ehkop), milk, water, apple and maybe a couple more I can't remember. He also has a few sounds he repeats a lot that we just haven't figured out the meaning of. I confess that I get a little bit of satisfaction that he says mama much more than he says dada. It is the greatest feeling in the world when I see him after work and he lights up and says MAMA!
He's cruising a lot, but still no walking. We've started taking his socks off so he can try it barefoot and that seems to help him make the connection a bit. But he's a pro crawler.
We have early intervention coming out tomorrow about the eating/oral-motor skills. I have discovered that some of the things I've been worried about are things that he does just fine at day care, like drinking from a straw. So I don't know what that means. Our follow-up weight check is in a week, and I don't think we're going to meet the goal. I am stressed about that, but I see how happy and bright and engaged and active he is, and I think that maybe he's just intended to be little. My DH apparently was never on the growth chart his whole life, so maybe LO takes after him.
DD is crawling really well and is very adventurous. Once she started crawling she started pulling up and cruising pretty quickly. She loves to laugh, especially at her favorite books. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I just look at the video on my phone of her flipping through her books and laughing at every page. It's nonstop entertainment.
She's started to say "yeah" whenever we ask her a question. It's unbelievably cute even though I'm sure she doesn't really connect the meaning of the word, just knows that she's supposed to answer us with something. I'm glad it's "yeah" and not "no." I basically love everything she's doing at this stage. Now that we've babyproofed, I feel more confident letting her explore and she loves it too. She's a great eater, sleeper and has a super positive demeanor, so we feel especially lucky every day!
I'll go . . .
J is doing pretty well. He's definitely hitting the twos, and can be a little difficult at times (he had quite a few timeouts this weekend, including one where I specifically told him not to do something, and he looked right at me, smiled, and . . . did it. Oooooh I was mad). He's also having problems napping at daycare (which is no fun for us at night) and it's gotten to the point where he will only fall asleep if the DCP sits with him to keep him calm and on his cot. Oy.
Otherwise, though, he's so much fun. He's gone from only singing "Happy Birthday"--on a continuous loop-- to singing all kinds of songs. He even mixes it up a little, like if I sing "Old McJackson had a farm," he'll sing "E-I-E-I-Jackson!"
He also has an imaginary baby sister, who apparently is tiny enough to fit between his thumb and forefinger. He talks to her and feeds her. It's sweet (and a little bittersweet).
And! He can also say the Pledge of Allegiance which, wth. (I will pimp the video.) He learned it daycare, obviously, but it still blew my mind when he started reciting it out of nowhere at dinner the other day. The best part is, instead of saying "one nation, under God," he usually says "one nation, under the sea," which is hilarious.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
Mostly good over here! This is H's second week at daycare, though she only goes 2x a week. They are in love with her there and she seems to really enjoy it. Unfortunately napping there is still terrible - an hour max the whole day, so today I took her sleep sheep in with her to see if that helps.
She is almost running now, and climbing everything. She's figured out how to position one of her toys beneath the sofa and stand on it to get herself up on the couch.
Gah. She *loves* books. Every day she takes each book off her shelf and we read them all, sometimes multiple times.
Still not a ton of words - she knows doggy, kitty, daddy (sometimes they all sound the same, sometimes you can distinguish 3 separate words), uh-oh, "dat" (that), and up. About a week ago we also could have added wow, owl and duck to that list but all of a sudden she stopped saying them and won't even when prompted. Mama still seems to elude her, though she can make the mmmm sound and babble mamamama she doesn't actually say mama.
We gave her back the bottle. After over a week of offering milk only in a cup (2 kinds of straw cups, 2 kinds of sippys) she still refused to drink milk from them. I figure the bottle won't kill her at 13 months so we'll try eliminating them 1 by 1 and see if that works. Between that and the picky eating phase- esp. refusing something she loved the day before, food related things are driving me nuts right now!
DS is turning into a full-blown toddler with fun and not-so-fun toddler behavior.
Naps are touch and go. This past weekend I had a meltdown trying to get him to nap for 1 1/2 hours. It really sucks. I never realized how much I needed naptime on the weekends until it was taken away from me.
On the positive, he's so cute and giggly most of the time. Some of his favorite words are doggie, cheese, all done, lots of animal noises, daddy, up. I love chasing and tickling him. We're still nursing mornings, evenings, and weekends. He is not showing any signs of stopping.
Mealtime is an up and down experience. He's starting to experiment with feeding himself with a spoon, mostly with yogurt (his favorite food). It makes a decent mess, but he's getting better and I'm encouraged that he wants to try. He is still not open to many new foods that we offer him, but we will keep offering.
The crib is his favorite place in the whole world. He loves to jump in it and run around in it. I don't know if it is a terrible idea to let him do it, but I figure he'll get tired of it eventually. Any time he is in the vicinity of the crib he runs to it and whines and cries until we put him in it.
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
mssaint - wow! that is a lot of words for his age!
We just moved Ben's toddler bed into his own room (it had been in our room) so now he naps and starts the night in his room - we are still bringing him into our room when he wakes up during the night to co-sleep until morning. But now I can go back to watching tv in bed at night - I confess - I love doing that;)
We also registered Ben to go to a mother's day out program one day a week (although we are debating adding a second day - they recommended it to help w/seperation anxiety - if anyone has any thoughts on this - would love to hear them) he will start in Sept. when he is two - they do circle time and acitivty centers - and then he will start preschool there at age three.
We are at the tail end of our ttc for 6 months on our own - so we will probably start treatment to ttc #2 soon - I'm looking forward to taking some steps in the direction of expanding our family:)
we are doing mostly well.
DD loves rhyming and will just make up words after saying all the words she knows that rhyme with the one she picks. Her verbal abilities have always amazed me! The tantrums of the 2s are very much alive during the 3s and are, as everyone said, much worse. We had a big milestone - she finally took a shower. We have a "My Own Shower" that DH & I installed and she really loves it.
DS is go go go and, like his sister, is a climber. I turn around and he's on the kitchen table or inside the sink. At 20mo old, he's perfected the art of throwing himself on the ground arms flailing and screaming. He is still really attached to me but I honestly don't mind.
Looking forward to doing more fun activities w/ the kids this year as they are getting older. DS will sometimes even skip a nap.
MrsHandy - T has started asking for her crib all the time recently. It almost derailed us Sunday afternoon when she wanted to stay in there indefinitely after naptime rather than go to papa's for a visit. I don't get it.
T is starting to be afraid of something at night. I'm really working with her to not be scared of whatever it is (her stuffed "buddies" will bark or growl at a monster if it comes near here, Mommy & Daddy are just downstairs, etc.). FIL bought her a cute little flashlight and I might give it to her at bedtimes for a while to see if that helps. I don't know if it's related, but she was up just about ever hour and a half last night. (How did she know to save that for a night Daddy was away for work so Mommy could get up with her every time???)
We've moved on from everything being a meltdown unless Mommy does it to *sometimes* being a meltdown if we do something when she wanted to do it. (Yesterday there were tears because I took off her mittens, because she wanted to do it. My ESP didn't kick in to tell me that in time to stop the yelling, but luckily I put the mittens back on quickly so she could do it herself.) And this morning I had to take her out to the car without a coat, shoes or socks because she refused to wear them. Thankfully it wasn't *that* cold, but enough for her to want them all on by the time we got to my car. She certainly knows how to assert herself
Like PPs, DS1 is a typical two-year old with all the fun and not-so-fun stuff that comes with it. He gave up napping for good just after DS2 was born but still needs it. Attempts at "quiet time" alone in his room (which DD, at this age, was fine with) are met with him roaring with anger, demolishing his room, and repeatedly opening the door to make sure we're noticing the dramatics. No nap during the day makes for a cranky kid by evening until he rallies with a second wind. However, he's such a fun little boy and really coming into his own - I love the time we have together when DD is at preschool. He's no longer in his sister's shadow as much nor following her around like an obedient dog. I don't think she knows what to do with this new dynamic.
Not much new with DD other than spelling and reading more words and already getting excited for kindergarten (which is good because for a while she said she wouldn't go). She is in a ballet/tap class that she loves, and it is beyond adorable to watch. There's a new show on the Disney Channel called "Octonauts" that I made the mistake of introducing her and DS1 to, and they're now obsessed. I'm already burned out on the requests to watch it and then the hours of imaginative play that center around it. I had to ban talk of it at the dinner table.
DS2 is doing lots of cooing and "talking," and he has found his hands - which are often in his mouth. He's definitely an "oral" kid and the only one of oura who ever took a pacifier. I'm a little worried we're enforcing the habit by having him use it at night and wonder what that means for breaking him of it later. However, it's a big help when we're out-and-about because the poor child isn't on any sort of schedule yet...he often naps "on the go" because of the necessity of errands, preschool drop-off and pick-up, and his siblings' activities. He's having more good nights than bad nights, and I anticipate a few more weeks of improvement before the Four Month Regression arrives. Luckily his reflux is slightly helped by the Zantac I asked about on here a few weeks ago. He still hates to be put down and will scream his head off if he's not getting what he wants, but he'll outgrow that in the coming months (right??). He's a tall, skinny guy, which is strange after having two double-chinned, chubby-rolled, big-cheeked babies. However, he's *strong* - even the pediatricians he's seen have commented on it. I hope this doesn't mean he's going to be an early crawler or walker, because I'm already realizing how challenging three mobile children are going to be.
I always say this, but I love reading everyone's updates. DD hit a big milestone, after being quasi potty trained for months (she never had accidents at school, just at home), she seems to have made the transition to fully potty trained. Thank the lord. Poppy underwear is way worse than a poopy diaper. She's doing great at school, is socializing well, keeps on amazing me with the new things she is learning. I recently bought longer storybooks, and she loves following the new stories. She gets really engaged and asks questions and follows the trajectory of the story. I would really like to start reading chapter books with her soon, I think she has the recall and ability to sit and listen down. We've been doing beginning phonics at home with mixed success. Maybe it's too early to introduce. I've pulled back to just doing songs about phonics - I think we'll give it a bigger go this summer.
DS is still so sweet and adorable and so happy during the day. He's a climber, gets into everything, and is just so curious about the world. We've been working on his fine motor skills, and he loves manipulating food with a fork and spoon, coloring on paper and the bath tub, and stacking blocks (although he really prefers knocking down my stacks). His vocabulary is taking off, although I don't always get what he is saying. I forgot how attuned you have to be to understand baby speak. DS isn't a book lover, which I would really like to change. He likes the ones that are touch and feel but he has no patience for stories (with the exception of Moo Baa La La La which he thinks is hysterical). DD loves books and I wonder if it's because I don't spend as much time reading with him since he is always so go go go. I also really, really, really need to hunker down and sleep train the boy. He still gets up almost every two hours all night long and struggles to fall back asleep between the hours of 2 and 5 a.m. It's ridiculous. I just don't think I will be successful till I fully wean him, but I guess there is no harm in trying. I really can't be more sleep deprived than I already am.
We've learned that we have to make "active" plans for every weekend, because he gets bored (and destructive and cranky) when we try to stay home. So our weekends are filled with trips to museums, parks, playgrounds, and other places where he can run around. Thank goodness I'm in decent shape, so I can run after him. My "down time" is pretty much zero right now, unless I let him watch TV.
P and F are doing great. They are so fun to be around and are startign to interact more and more. It seems like when Fletch wants Piper's attention, she wants nothing to do with him and vice versa. It's so adorable when they try to play with each other and just break down in giggles.
Piper is having a full on toddler/daddy phase. She throws herself onto the floor and into tantrums for the smallest things. She also won't let me come near her in the morning...she needs her daddy. If I try to pick her up, she goes ragdoll, but as soon as DH comes in the room, she's jumping up excited. Other than that, Piper is getting into pretend play. She pretends at times to be cooking in her play kitchen, and she loves to "talk" on her phone.
Fletch is my cuddle bunny. He's just such a sweet little guy. He LOVES to read. He'd let us read to him all day if we would. It's gotten to the point where we have to hide books sometimes or else Fletch will get really upset that that we can't read him Moo Baa Laa for the eleventy millionth time right at that exact moment. He's also into any type of music. He simply adores this mini piano that we got for him.
In terms of sleep, they are doing great (knock on wood). They go down easily at 6:45pm and up at 6am. On the weekends, they nap for about 3.5 hours each day. Like WnW, we need to do something in the mornings or they go crazy. Right now, on Saturdays, we have swim lessons, which they just love. I think Fletch has a crush on the instructor b/c he just beams and giggles at her the entire time.
They are also great eaters most days. They love broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and most veggies. They adore fish, spaghetti, hamburger, etc. We do have a few picky days but that's mostly if they just aren't that hungry b/c they had a big breakfast or lunch.
Our only area of concern is their speech. Neither of them, we don't think, has any real words, including Mama or Dadda. Piper might have a few words, but we aren't sure. We did the initial EI evaluation and qualify for services. Tomorrow, we go for a full evaluation to see how our therapy plan will be. I'm particularly concerned about Fletch b/c he doesn't even babble in a conversational tone. We had both of their hearing tested a few weeks ago. Piper passed the first time, but Fletch failed. He passed the second time, but I'm still not completely convinced that his hearing is 100%. We'll see what they say during the evaluation tomorrow.
DD #1 (weird to say that!) is doing wonderfully. She is in such a sweet, affectionate, and funny stage that parenting is extremely rewarding at the moment. There are so many random outbursts of "I love you so much, my own special Mommy!" and other sweet things that even in her dramatic toddler moments, she is enjoyable.
DD#2 is measuring big. I am as big at 33 weeks as I was at 40 with DD#1. I have a lot of amniotic fluid but went for a sono today that showed a fat belly, chubby cheeks, and hair (unheard of in my family on a baby) and approximated about 5 pounds. This is making me nervous. Delivery for #1 was so easy that I am afraid of a very different experience the second time around. I am having a lot of BH contractions too so am nervous about not making it to my due date. I'm starting to get nervous about life with a newborn since life with DD#1 just gets easier by the day!
DD#1, at 3.5 is so fun and smart and then can turn into tantrum child in an instant. Luckily, the good times are more frequent than the bad times. Like Sofka's DD, she is all about rhyming these days, and writing her name on any paper she can find. It actually looks like her name and I am beyond impressed she can write it already. She is all about picking out her clothes and dressing herself in the mornings, which makes her seem so grown up. Sometimes she doesn't even want me in the room.
DD#2 at 21 months is a copy cat, for better or worse. She follows DD#1 around and wants to do everything she is doing. Even if DD#1 only does a bad behavior once and then stops when we ask her to, DD#2 continues to do it. They love to play together and wrestle and be silly, but it usually turns into someone crying because they are so rough. DD#2 is finally picking up just about any word we say, and is really starting to be a better communicator. She climbed out of her crib again when I tried to put her down last night, but will let DH put her down no problem. So just like that, after 21 months of being the one to put her to bed almost every single night, I am relegated to hiding out in another part of the house while he puts her to bed (she will protest if she thinks I am home and want me). DD#1 also goes down more easily for DH, so I feel like chopped liver at bedtime. This will probably be a good thing when DD#3 arrives in 6.5 weeks, since I'll be BFing so much and not able to do as much for bedtime I imagine.
I can't believe DD#3 will be here in less than 7 weeks. I had an ultrasound on Tues and she was measuring 4 lb 11oz and looking great. I have gotten to the point where I am huge and uncomfortable, but luckily, only parts of the day are really bad, usually when I am playing with the girls and they want me to get up and down and chase them all around. I am still doing zumba, step aerobics and yoga, so that is helping to keep me fit, while getting me some funny looks from the other participants.
DS is doing great. shortly after he turned 2 he deicded it was time to potty train so i am going with it. he has been in undies all week with an average of about 1 accident a day..not too bad in my book. He has remained dry during his naps but not at night, though last night he called for us in the middle of the night to go, so thats the first step i guess (he is still in a crib). His vocabulary is amazing me every day and how fast he "picks things up". we are still ttc #2 and I am very frustrated and feeling down as the spring approaches when my original due date was in between all of our other preg mommas (4/12) so its hard to keep my chin up but hopefully it will be our turn again soon!
in the mean time DS continues to be the absolute light and joy of our lives:-)
DS is so cute right now with all his little phrases he busts out with. Right now it is "Where are you (insert thing or person here), where are you?" and then he turns himself in a little circle looking all around. He says he loves us everynight before bed and he is starting to know the stories we read each night and will "read" them along with me. And he gets so so excited to see his friends when we have playdates & when we drop him off each morning at school when he sees his classmates.
DS is still getting his 2yr molars and gets cranky in the evenings and has been getting up earlier in the mornings but is content to sit in his bed and read or play with his stuffed animals or cars. He is such a little hoarder. Do all toddlers do this? We go in and check on him again as we head up to bed around 10pm and he has books, a plastic toy bus, some stuffed animals, and all sorts of stuff in bed with him.
I am super excited to take DS to Disney on Ice this weekend at Verizon Center. I have no idea if he is going to be entertained the whole time but I figure he should get a kick out of some of it. I have never been to anything "on ice" so I am not too sure what to expect. But I got tickets to my company's box so we'll be sittin' in style, so that should be fun & entertaining in itself.
This month was the first month we were back to TTC #2 and of course during my peak the flu went through our household (whomp whomp). So hopefully we will have better luck next month.
Aside from the Plague hitting C this week, things are great. When he's healthy, he's happy, curious and highly interactive, though he plays on his own really well when I'm preparing dinner. He is so close to standing on his own - I've stood him up and let go of him and he stays upright for a few seconds, and then I think he realizes that I'm not holding him and he falls on his bum.
He still loves to throw things and playing catch, and he's really good at it. He's pretty accurate, and loves the back and forth of it all. And he understands if the ball rolls past him, he turns and crawls to retrieve it, then crawls back to his initial spot and throws it back to us.
He thinks its hilarious when I'm changing him for bed/in the morning when I grab his foot and sniff it and say "Peeeeeeew! Stinky Feet!" Even while he's been so sick this week, I get a smile and a few giggles when I do that.
And finally, his favorite song is "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO. It comes on my iTunes and he automatically starts "dancing" to the beat. If you are a FB friend of mine, you've probably seen the videos. I've tried "I'm Elmo and I Know It" and other dance/techno songs to make it more age appropriate, but at this point he's totally uninterested in it unless it's the original.
Aw, so cute! I love that your LO is just a little more than a month ahead of DD because I can see what's coming soon! DD loves to dance to music too. I always put my iPod on shuffle when we get home from work/DC and when anything by Michael Jackson comes on, she stops whatever she's doing and bops along to the beat. Just Michael Jackson - newer or older songs, doesn't matter. Cracks me up every time.
This makes me feel better because after a month, C is still having accidents at home but not at DCP. I was starting to feel like this was a big FAIL. Of course, when he does have accidents it is almost always five minutes after he has forcefully insisted that NO he does NOT have to go potty . . .
Other than PTing things are same old same old these days. We are getting a lot of imaginary friends and characters that he points to and directs questions to. He is obsessed with Star Wars, based solely on the Valentines cards he picked out for daycare. He has definitely made DH proud by memorizing every character in the box. Although, DH was a little frustrated when he tried to explain that Yoda was good and C insisted that he was a bad and scary monster.
We are getting much better with being consistent with time outs (especially for not listening) and it shows with C's behavior. Often times, he will actually do as asked instead of getting distracted and running off, which feels like a huge accomplishment.
This is late, but I loved reading everyone's updates!
DD had her 15 month appointment last week and passed everything but the weight check with flying colors. She was only an ounce more than at her 12 month appointment, so we're headed back in mid-March for a weight check. DS did something similar with his weight, so I've got her on a high calorie high fat diet and am not too concerned right now. She is still working on a buttload of teeth and isn't sleeping, but as she hasn't been sleeping at night since 9 months old, it's kind of old hat now. Otherwise, she's a happy little toddler. This is one of my favorite ages.
DS is really coming along with his social skills. It's taking less and less convincing to get him to go play with other kids. He even has a list of people he wants to invite to his birthday party! Of course, they dont' know that he wants to be their friend, but we're working on it. :-) Now, if only I could teach him that he has to play what they want to play sometimes and that no kid but himself wants to pretend to be a train for hours and hours... :-P He adores school and comes home bragging about everything he learned after every school day. He is signed up for 5 days a week next year, and while I think that will be quite an adjustment from 2 days a week, I think he's really going to grow.
DS1 is adjusting well to the arrival of his baby brother. Poor guy got bit today at preschool, which seemed to bother his teachers more than him. I am enjoying my special mommy/son time with him even more now that there are two children to take care of.
DS2 is 3 weeks old now, and is the sweetest little guy, but still prefers to sleep on us at night. I spend lots of time looking at his cute face because I know how quickly he'll grow up.
My recovery after this birth has been so great. I feel so much better now than I did weeks after my first delivery...not sure why.
I feel like there's something tickling the back of my mind about twins being more likely to have some delay in language development because they interact with one another and have their 'own' language - but that it always sorts itself out in the end. I could also be completely be making this up, so ignore me if i'm coming from left field ;-)
I have to agree with Jellisy - I love reading these updates! It kind of gives me a foreshadowing of what's to come.
As I mentioned before, DD hit 6 months and she is AWESOME. In the past twenty four hours, however, she is either teething or has a bad cold. Of course, being a complete, neurotic FTM, I vacillate between 'acting cool' and being totally worried that I'm missing something. Tonight, I left work early to see her before she went to bed and found her a complete mess - tears streaming from her eyes from just being sick, not actually crying; clear snot coming from her nose; and drool (BUCKETS of it! WHERE THE HECK DOES IT COMES FROM?! <composes herself> ok, calming myself back down ;-). I'm thinking teeth but she had a low grade fever and was incredibly clingy, so we'll see what the night brings.
She is otherwise growing SO fast that sometimes i want to beg her to slow down. Nursing has come back with a vengeance, which i love, and she will no longer take bottles from me again (yay!). She loves to be on her tummy and now can scoot herself all around in a circle and roll herself from one side of the room to the next. She is bound and determined to explore everything...we better get started on babyproofing (no idea where to start so this should be fun). She sits on her own for 5-10 seconds at a time and can stand for 10 seconds when leaning on something (a wall, her giant bear, etc...). She is the absolute darling of daycare to the point where one of her DCP called from her house today to check in on the girl because she thought she 'wasn't quite right' yesterday. I'm of course, bursting with pride ;-)
So, we're in a good place - just still sorting out all the 'is this normal' questions - but, most days, i just feel really, really lucky.