Parenting Check-In (11/24)

Jazibel · November 2014

Good Morning Everyone!

How was your weekend? Any new successes, challenges or milestones to report?

QOTD: What would your letter to Santa say (or to family/friends). What items are you eyeing for your LO(s), this holiday season and why (or why not)?

Parenting Roster:

(Please let me know if you would like to be added)

@2brides – G & C born 5/18/06, other Mom is L

@Themommymonster – C (DS) born 2/18/09

@Mystjava – Little Bear (LB) born 3/2010, other Mummum is Shawn

@winstan1 – J (DS) born 9/10 (currently 3.5 years old)

@Trisholio and @trisholiosboi – Proud foster parents to M born 2/6/12 and K born 8/22/13; baby Adalyn born 8/29/14

@jazibel – Kaden born 7/13/12 and Owen born 5/2/14, other parent (Aya) is EV

@newmompeanut – N (DD) born 2/12/13, other Momma is B

@CageyMack – W born 3/16/13

@JGY – Gabe born 3/24/13, other Mama is S.

@Stringy813 – M born May 2013

@Clairmeij – Alarico born 6/28/13, other mama is V

@Wallace323 – J and L born 8/8/13, surviving triplets born at 31 weeks

@Jrtmom – Henry born 8/15/13, other mama is L

@ATXmommas – Sebastian (“Ash”) born 11/21/13, other Momma is Z

@mwagner25 – Oliver born 11/27/13, other parent is L

@herbabymama‌ – C (DD) born 12/10/13, other Mama is K

@Sarahtrpt – C born February 2014

@AmandaG47 – Twin girls born 2/22/14, other Mommy is J

@Mamosey‌ & @Karlamo‌ – R born 2/25/14

@shameless370087‌ - Anthony and Sati, born 3/9/2014, Other mom is S

@Filmfanatic82 – Charley born 3/15/14

@2momsinCA‌ - B & O born 5/27/14

@KH826 – Will born 6/4/14

@redrockmama – M born 6/19/14, other Mama is J

@ball.and.chain – B born 6/28/14

@Flygirl1228 – Twins 7/25/14

@KLeigh1‌ - S born 7/25/14

@shelly2314 - Elise and Olivia, born 8/19/14, wife is M

@2MamazInSeattle‌ - S born 8/21/14

<a rel="nofollow" href="https://forums.thebump.com/profile/rkbo" sl-processed="1" sty

ball.and.chain · November 2014

B is almost 5m old!

Last night he had an inexplicable meltdown. We were at my dad's house for dinner and my sister picked him up so I could go check the car for his missing sock. When I got back he was crying. I think he's too young for separation anxiety and fear of strangers (not that my sister is a stranger to him -- she has babysat multiple times and loves to hold him and entertain him at family get-togethers). So although that would have made sense timing-wise, I don't think it was the problem. Regardless, when I took him back he didn't stop crying. In fact he got worse and cried off and on for hours. All of our normal tricks did not work to console him. He wouldn't go to sleep, he wouldn't take more than a few sips from a bottle, his diaper was clean, and I couldn't find anything poking into him, nor did he indicate pain when I touched different parts of his body. A few times he would quiet down, stop crying and even smile and laugh at us, and then start crying again. It was so strange -- this is not normal behavior for him at all. He was quiet in the car on the way home and then was perfectly normal when we got home, when he had his MOTN bottle, and this morning. Unless it happens again I am chalking it up to "weird things babies do."

Otherwise he is doing well. Still has a little congestion and an occasional cough, but for the most part he is much, much better (FINALLY). If he stays healthy for the next few days, he'll be rewarded with sleep training after Thanksgiving! (That should be fun).

My FIL is coming up for Thanksgiving. He hasn't seen B since he was 2m old so I think he is excited about seeing him again. My MIL is coming up a week later and we are going to do Christmas things with her. Should be fun.

QOTD: Since B is too small to know what's going on, we aren't hoping for anything exciting this year -- it's mostly practical. Honestly I'm really hoping my dad buys B(us) a convertible carseat, since we need one for each car and they are not cheap! The rest of his "wish list" is small practical stuff -- winter gear, jammies, teething/solid-feeding items, and a few books and toys. Oh and I really want one of those chairs that clamps onto the table for feeding him at restaurants and at relatives' houses (we have a full-size high chair at home). My dad goes nuts with our gifts at Christmas and this is his first grandchild, so I imagine he'll really go overboard for B. My sisters have already bought presents for him and I think they picked out stuff on their own, which is fine. S and I haven't decided yet what we want to do for B.

Jazibel · November 2014

Kaden is 2 years & 4 months old, Owen is 6 months old

It's 6:47am and I'm going to jump in before my day gets hectic. I'm brewing a cup of Irish Black tea and Owen is hanging out in his high chair with some pear while Kaden runs around. It's gotten to the point where I can't leave them unsupervised in the playroom even for a moment. Kaden is mostly gently, but now that Owen is mobile they're both much more playful which can result in baby toddler rough-housing. ;-)

We had a great but super busy weekend. Friday we were in the car from 8am in the morning until 8pm: Dropping EV off at work, Pediatrician appointment/Playground/Gas/Starbucks/ work pot-luck with EV/ trip to Vital Records to pick up Owen's birth certificate/back to the mall to play at their indoor park while EV finished work/PF Changs for dinner....

Our nephew was born on Friday morning, and on Saturday we drove to the hospital to take EV's brother to lunch to celebrate and then visit with our new nephew briefly. He's such a sweetie.

Sunday we drove up to visit our friends. It was great to see them and made me miss them even more than usual. Kaden and their daughter A played so well together. They've known each other since we met in birthing class so they're BFFs. (I'm attaching a picture of them holding hands on our walk to the park). We're talking about driving down to LA to see them again soon.

Owen weighs 21.2lbs and is 28" long. He's in the 93rd percentile for his age. He's currently wearing 9 month clothes and 12 month clothes (which are a little baggy).

He's trying solids, and the Pedi. recommended meat for the iron content, so he had a tiny bit of turkey the other day. Otherwise he's tried: Soft foods: banana, avocado, kabocha (squash), sweet potato and pear and Hard foods: apple, carrot and sweet peas.

Kaden had his first crazy tantrum yesterday. We has a foreshadowing the other day, but yesterday was 20x worse. Luckily EV was with us, and she picked him up and carried him to his bedroom and sat with him until it was over. It was way out of his control and almost scary/sad to watch. I was reading up on them and I guess these types of tantrum's are caused by chemical changes in the brain. It was like watching a storm raging over him. He asked his Aya (EV) for help at one part and she spooned him and helped him take deep breaths.

QOTD: EV would ask Santa for a zipline for Kaden. Which I don't get at all???? Our kids have plenty of clothes & toys right now. I always get sad this time of year thinking of those without resources for their families so we'll be focusing on gifting to some families in need. For our kids I'm sure Omi & Grandpa will get each of the boys some clothes and something fun. I'd like to get Kaden a bike w/ training wheels, some books, craft supplies and couple of random toys. Owen will likely get a few toys of his own and some warm booties.

*edited to add ages

2brides · November 2014

We are rolling along. The kids are out of school all week - I think they were ready for a break!

QOTD: They are getting laptops. They have schoolwork that needs to get done on the computer and my 8y old Mac with a dying battery isn't cutting it. They don't know about these.

They haven't really made a list yet - and honestly have been spending their allowance money/money from family so fast that they have bought themselves most of what they want. I think they are going to get those bedrest pillows with the arms (they fight over L's), books, headphones (and not the Beats by Dr. Dre that they are asking for!), C is interested in Legos again so they might make an appearance, maybe a DVD or 2....

L also wants to buy them desks, but these is more for L and her organization and not the kids.

JGY · November 2014

2brides said:

We are rolling along. The kids are out of school all week - I think they were ready for a break!

QOTD: They are getting laptops. They have schoolwork that needs to get done on the computer and my 8y old Mac with a dying battery isn't cutting it. They don't know about these.

They haven't really made a list yet - and honestly have been spending their allowance money/money from family so fast that they have bought themselves most of what they want. I think they are going to get those bedrest pillows with the arms (they fight over L's), books, headphones (and not the Beats by Dr. Dre that they are asking for!), C is interested in Legos again so they might make an appearance, maybe a DVD or 2....

L also wants to buy them desks, but these is more for L and her organization and not the kids.

Wow, laptops are a huge step in the gift dept! Lucky boys, I hope they really enjoy them.

JGY · November 2014

sarahtrpt said:

C is 9 months! We had pictures taken this weekend. She would not smile for the guy. I can usually get her to smile really easy but no luck. The pictures were outside so I think she was a little chilly. And she would not sit still and was obsessed with putting ALL the leaves in her mouth on the ground. It made me feel a little sad that I haven't spent more time with her outside since it has gotten cold, which brings me to a question I've been meaning to ask: At what coldest temperature do you feel comfortable taking your child outside for a walk or to play for maybe 5-10 minutes (bundled up of course)? C is amazing. Just so cute with all her babbling an happy noises. I'm very excited for my sisters to see her at TG. They haven't seen her since the 3 month mark. QOTW -- I feel like I have not been in the true "gift giving" spirit of Christmas lately because I am obsessed with all this stuff I want to get C, and some of it is really for me (ahem, I need more cloth diapers!). We have already bought her some toys and I bought 4 more Cloth diapers last week. I just couldn't wait until Black Friday sales. I used to buy all my Christmas gifts the few days before Christmas. Now I can't even wait until after TG to start. We did buy a gift for a family sponsored by our church, which I'm excited about. It's for a girl that wanted a nerf bow and arrow set. I wish they had those when I was a kid.

I feel like I have a different frame of reference for this since we spend 5-6 months out of every year at or below freezing. This past weekend it was actually warm (about 35 degrees) and G and I took the dog for a 30 minute walk each day. He was in the carrier on my back. He didn't wear gloves (bad Mom) because I knew he'd take them off and throw them and I wouldn't be able to keep track of where they went. He was fine.

His daycare takes the kids outside every day (for about 30 minutes) as long as it's above 20 degrees, and it's not pouring rain or blizzarding. I think that's a pretty good benchmark. We will definitely take him sledding this year, and I hate sledding when the snow is melting. So that'll be below 32 degrees as well.

Honestly, he's shown no signs of ever being cold when we're outside. But I agree that hands and feet are an issue and gloves are next to impossible to keep on those little fingers!

2brides · November 2014

jrtmom said:

We had a pretty good weekend. Henry has been pretty clingy and wanting to nurse A LOT. At night he has been pretty much glued to me when we sleep. It is cozy and all, but not like him. I think he has some more teeth coming in. It rained pretty much most of the weekend, so we couldn't really go outside much. I took him to one of the children's museums that we have a membership too. Because the weather was so crappy, it was packed. He was definitely on stimulation overload.
He seems to "talk" more and more each day. It is so cute!
QOTW: I would beg Santa not to bring us toys! He really doesn't need them. I would ask Santa to either bring puzzles, books, make a donation to a charity on his behalf, or contribute to his college fund. I haven't even thought about what to get him. We probably won't get him much. He has so much already and has memberships to almost everything we could ever need/want. He is my parent's first and only grandchild. A vacation might be nice?

yea. I am still not 100% sure about it...

JGY · November 2014

Well I survived my first solo weekend with all the boys (G, dog and cat) while S traveled for work. It wasn't picture perfect, but it actually went reasonably well. I did lose my cool once and raised my voice pretty severely, and G definitely took notice and actually started crying. I felt terrible and apologized and I think we're past it. Well, he's past it. I'm not. I'm embarassed and regretful. But I'm writing it down here so I have to deal with it.

The house looks like a tornado hit it, which is awesome since my family arrives tomorrow for their T-Day visit. I'll do what I can tonight, but I'm afraid things are just going to be a little chaotic for the first day or so. Luckily my family lives in a ton of clutter all the time, so at least they'll feel at home.

Our main sewer line backed up yesterday as well, so now I have to get a plumber out to fix that in the morning. Luckily I can work from home, but seriously it's just one thing after another. If I can make it through this week and the family visit without my dog biting anyone and with my child healthy and with me retaining a bit of my sanity then I will chalk it up as a win.

One cool thing that happened this weekend ... at tumbling class we were getting towards the end of our class time and the kids were in the beam area. Well G walked across it a few times and then was just done with it. So he went over to the chalk area and found a big ball. One of the other littles in the class had followed him over there and the two of them started playing catch. It was seriously the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. The (substitute) teacher was concerned that they weren't staying on task but the other Dad and I just said "Hey, we're fine with it if you don't mind." Anyway, I've never had the opportunity to see G actively engage another child in play before (I believe he's been doing this at daycare for a while). So it was pretty cool.

QOTD: Oh man, I know this question is about to be posed by all of our family members and I haven't formulated a good response yet! I think some new bath toys are definitely on the list. A donation to his college fund would be great too. He reallly doesn't need m/any other toy-like items and he's set for clothing. Perhaps I will ask for memberships. A re-up on our Children's museum membership would be great. Also a membership to this indoor playground place that we tried out last weekend would be good. Dare I ask for a Y membership so we can swim???

ATXmommas · November 2014

As of last Friday, I'm a parent of a one year old!

First things first. PSA for parents of baby boys. I noticed that Ash's testicles were really red after I took him out of the bath on Thursday night. He didn't seem bothered, so I put him to bed with plans to reevaluate in the morning. It looked much worse in the morning - the testicles and penis were swollen and red and his creases were also red. It wasn't alarming enough to feel that it was an emergency, but enough to make us schedule an appt with the pediatrician's office. Turns out that it was a fungal infection/diaper rash, which is a side effect from Augmentin (sp?), an antibiotic he's been on for his congestion. We've been fortunate that he hasn't had any hint of a diaper rash until this point, so it was a bit surprising since we didn't know it was a possible side effect. Good thing is Ash never seemed to be in any discomfort and the topical ointment that was prescribed is working.

Saturday was a whirlwind getting ready for his party, but everything turned out really well! We had a group of about 20. Perfect size. Ash had a blast, but was really tuckered out by the end. Just a great, great party.

I'm pretty sure he's in a significant WW period right now because he is doing new things and attaching meaning to objects in a way that he hasn't previously. Examples - trying to put a sock on his foot, picking up my hairbrush and brushing my hair, putting my phone to his/my ear. It's really amazing to witness! This kid just gets more amazing every day!

QOTW: Especially since he just had a birthday, I'm in camp donate-to-the-college-fund for Christmas. I have a few little things like books and puzzles and blocks saved up for Christmas and there are only two things left that I want to get - 1) toddler table and chairs, and 2) a Melissa and Doug pounding bench. Oh, also a toy broom
set because he likes to play with the broom. And if the boy wants to sweep, who am I to stop him?

I will share a few Bday faves:
1) My Pal Scout. I think KH mentioned this recently. He likes it. After demonstrating, he knows how to push the buttons and he starts dancing to the music. So cute.
2) Music sets. He actually received two - a M&D set and the B. Parum Pum Pum Drum Line set. The M&D is intended for an older child, but he'll grow with it.
3) Little Tikes Rocking Horse. He LOVES this one!

ATXmommas · November 2014

@ball.and.chain - do you know if B is going through a WW?

Regarding weather, you can tell I live in Texas because the DC's threshold for outside play is 47, which sounds right to me! Ha! I love that @JGY said that 35 was "warm." Fortunately, we don't have a ton of days during the year that are much lower than 47. I'm obviously no help here.

KH826 · November 2014

Hi everyone! Just popping in for a quick hello - don't have time for a full checkin, but wanted to say I read everyone's posts! Today was adoption day, and we went out to eat with my in laws to celebrate tonight. Tomorrow AM we leave for our big road trip to Boston! I will try to come on and post more once we get settled in at my Mom's. Happy Thanksgiving week to all those celebrating!

ball.and.chain · November 2014

stringy813 said:
Was there any particular smell or animal or something at your dads? Or has he been there a lot? There's so many things that end up happen that are just mysterious though!

Not that I can think of. We often have Sunday dinner at my dad's house so he's been there many times. My dad has an exuberant golden retriever, but B's met him before (he has licked B's face) and has never had an issue with him.

There was a fair amount of farting, so maybe he just had mega gas pains.
:-?

redrockmama · November 2014

M is 5 months old.

We had a pretty great weekend. Saturday we did a lot of shopping to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. J made a new closet "door" for M's room. It's really cute. His wooden door was just in the way in his tiny room. He had a pretty good weekend and tolerated us running around everywhere with him pretty well. We went to brunch on Saturday and so many people said he was the cutest baby it was funny. One woman even came and sat at our table for a minute and talked to him. Another little family walked by and said (to their little boy) look an even cuter baby. hahah. Is it wrong to be proud of how cute my little guy is?

M is so close to rolling from his back to belly. I kept filming him thinking he would do it, but nope. He's done it in his crib a few times. We decided milk/boob is more of a motivator than his toys. He is talking so much it's adorable. He says "hi hi hi hi hi" over and over again. He is so proud of himself when he makes new noises. Then he wakes up at 4:30 am and wants to practice all of his new skills.

QOTW: We both worry about too many gifts and have talked about it a lot, even before I was pregnant. My mom goes way overboard. We decided not to say anything this year and see how it goes. If she gets him way too much stuff we'll set a limit for next year. We are going to do want, wear, read, need, (at least loosely). I have no clue what we are getting him yet. Probably some magnets (he is obsessed with them) some interactive books, and some winter gear. I want to find some sort of toy to help him learn how to stand up, but I don't want a huge, blinking, noisy plastic thing, so I will be doing some research on that. My mom is bringing over some neat toy catalog thing on Thanksgiving for us to look at with her. She insisted we would want big bulky plastic toys once he was born, so I'm glad she is realizing we just don't and won't.

ATXmommas · November 2014

@redrockmomma & @carls10‌ - I've seen wooden push carts and wooden activity cubes - counterparts to the plastic activity tables and walkers. The activity cubes are still pretty large, but not plastic! Search Amazon and a ton will come up to give you ideas. We went the used plastic route, so at least we weren't buying new plastic crap. I've succumbed to having lots of bright, noisy things around, though. :P

@herbabymama‌ - we went full on sugar even though his exposure has been extremely minimal. I do think he reacted a bit to the sugar, but it want terrible. I don't know if Ash will have another bite of cake until his second birthday, but we just went with it for his birthday. I've seen recipes for healthy versions of smash cakes around, so I'm sure you can find something you feel comfortable with.

redrockmama · November 2014

@carls10 I just searched around a little and found this one:

https://www.oompa.com/collections/toys-babies-7-12-months-view-all/products/haba-carpenter-pixie-wagon and then looked at the price, holy cow. There are quite a few options out there it looks like. This one is pretty awesome though.

JGY · November 2014

herbabymama said:

Questions for those with 1+ year olds: what kind of cake/sweet did you do for first birthday? As I've mentioned many times, C is not a great eater and she has probably had a total of 15 foods in her life as we are introducing things slowly and as she expresses interest. She has never had sugar, other than whole fruit. I always imagined I would let my baby destroy a birthday cake on her day, but now I'm hesitant because I don't think I'm ready to introduce sugar. No idea how it will affect her and she is already a live wire, going at 100 miles per hour until she passes out to sleep! Any thoughts?

G was not introduced to sugars other than those naturally occurring in fruits until his birthday. We ended up doing a few small cakes for the guests, so he just got a cupcake decorated the same way (like a monster). He really wasn't all that enamored with the sweetness, which I was happy to see. We also didn't see a noticeable reaction to the sugar, but he was already on a downward spiral from all the activity so it was hard to tell exactly how he reacted. He did get some frosting in his eye and wasn't a fan of THAT at all.

Jazibel · November 2014

@herbabymama - EV made Kaden a banana spice cake with whipped cream frosting. I think the whipped cream had a small amount of sugar - but otherwise it was all natural with a little pumpkin butter for sweetening and decor. (It was actually "baked" in a steamer on the stove top. We were in Roatan at the time and didn't have a working oven. Suffice to say it was a very moist cake! ;-). Anyway Kaden loved it because it tasted so much like the food he had already eaten. Even to this day he rarely eats processed sugar and no candy. He had his first cupcake with blue dye a couple of weeks ago and 15 minutes later flew off the front of a swing and split open his lip. Coincidence? Probably. Not sure what we'll do for Owen, probably another natural cake - though I loooove the way the cute smash cakes look so we'll see.

The real !!! Is that baby C is almost 1. And Ash just turned 1. I can't believe it!!!

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