Progress

Wow, a lot has happened since last time I posted. It's kind of been the best of times and the worst of times around here. My family has been going through a... transition. It's been hard and sad. I'm not going to talk about it here, but I'm hopeful that things will work out ok in the end.

A lot of happy things have been happening, too. Little Man is learning so much these days. It seems like he learns a new word everyday. He has a whopping 10 teeth now. (That means that 5 teeth have erupted in the last 6 weeks or so, which might explain why I wanted to sell him to the circus for most of August.) He also started at his new daycare last week, and it's been wonderful. The lady we picked is fabulous! Since he started going, he's been eating, sleeping, and... wait for it... he kicked the binky habit! She doesn't let kids use them at her house, and we tried to cut it back to bedtime only, but it was just too hard on him to know that it was in his crib and he couldn't have it. So it went bye-bye. The first two days were a little rough, especially at bedtime, but it was way easier than I thought it would be. And did I mention he's eating? He's eating! He's actually become quite adventurous in his food choices. He's been trying lots of new foods and has finished his dinner every night. James and I just stare at him and wonder where our kid went, because the change has been so sudden. We're not asking questions, though. Maybe he'll put on a few pounds and get back on "the curve!"

Here he is eating a bowl of cold cereal in his new booster chair.

School started for James and I last week, too. James is being challenged by his classes, but he seems to enjoy it. And I love my new school more every day. It's such a different atmosphere than what I'm used to, and that's a good thing! The staff is great, the kids are great, my department it great. I'm in heaven.

Also, in other happy news, we've been enjoying the fruits of our garden this week. Our green beans are finally ready and we even picked a zucchini last weekend. Our pumpkin plant has 3 lovely little pumpkins that we are really hoping are ready in time for Halloween. And remember the great tomato massacre of earlier this summer? Well, I'm pleased to report that one plant seems to have made it and it even has a blossom. Whether or not I ever get an actual tomato or not remains to be seen, however.

If you know James and/or his family at all, you will not be surprised to hear that Little Man has some OCD tendencies. One of his new obsessions is coloring. He does it for hours a day. At daycare, the other kids have started to bring him a crayon when ever he cries. He's usually pretty good at keeping the crayon on the paper, but every once in awhile, he extends his artwork to other areas. Here is one of his masterpieces.

Little Man in also obsessed with sprinklers. It takes us 45 minutes to walk up the street and back because he has to stop and touch every single sprinkler that he sees.

James's new obsession is Harry Potter. (Oh, he's going to be so mad at me for telling everyone!) I read all the books over the summer, and am more than a little obsessed myself, and I challenged James to try them. He said he'd read 50 pages and now he's already well into the 5th book. Here he is looking particularly engrossed. (He was finishing the 4th book. If you've read it, you know why he's on the edge of his seat.)
Here are my boys enjoying their daily cartoons-and-cuddling ritual.
More to come soon. Here's to a happy Labor Day weekend!

Making Mischief

It's never a good sign when Little Man is quiet for too long. This afternoon, I went searching for him, and this is what I found: (Please ignore the camera strap in the pictures.)

(What does it say about me as a mom that instead of getting mad, I pulled out the camera?)

I guess I'm mostly glad that he only scribbled on himself and not the carpet or walls or something. A quick shower with Daddy took care of most of it, but I'm afraid it will take a few days to get it all off.

Little Man's Menagerie

I've been bragging about Little Man's animal sounds and I finally got a video tonight. Little Man has turned into Little Monster these days (he's working on at least two molars) and tonight in the bath was the most cooperative he's been in days. So please forgive the nudity. Hopefully Little Man will forgive me, too.

A day with the girls

As a favor to my sister, I kept her two cute girls for a sleepover last night. I'd been craving some girl time (does anybody else ever get tired of living with boys?!) and they were the perfect fix. We did a craft (glass magnets for their mom), ran through the sprinklers, played a board game, watched "Coraline," went to the park, colored, and listened to Hannah Montana. Little Man loves the girls and wanted to be right in the middle of everything we were doing. The girls were mostly patient with him and tried to include them in their play when they were sure he wouldn't mess anything up. Here's my favorite Kodak moment from this morning: all the kids brushing their teeth.

Where We Are

I found a cheap copy of "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" yesterday. I have a love/hate relationship with these books. Sometimes, when Little Man is surpassing even the "might even be able to" things I love the book; other times, like when he hasn't even attempted the "should be doing" things, I hate them and vow to not look at them anymore. So, mostly for my own remembrance, here are the things Little Man is achieving these days:

• He can say Dad, hi, bye, shoes, cheese, hot, and Jesus.
• He can make the sound a duck, a cow, a sheep, a rooster, and a monkey make.
• While looking through books, he can find and point to lots of objects. Some that he knows especially well are grapes, ball, guitar, and fish.
• He is showing some early signs of potty training-readiness. When you ask him if he pooped, he will look down at his diaper, then shake his head or nod.
  
• He has mad dance skills. When he hears music, he starts bouncing up and down. Sometimes he will grab my hand so that we can dance together. And my favorite move is the turning-in-circles move. He giggles the whole time he's spinning, then falls down with dizziness.
  
• He's getting good at scribbling. We try to keep him away from crayons (he eats them) but he does very well with colored pencils.
  
• When we say that it's time to have a prayer, he folds his arms (for about 5 seconds).
• He's very close to running. He has perfected prancing, however.
  
• He's very good at building with his blocks. The book says he should be able to stack two blocks, but he's been building towers for awhile now.
  
• He knows several "commands." When asked, he will throw something in the garbage, shut a door, go get his shoes, hold hands, give kisses, go to his highchair, and go into the bathroom when it's time to brush teeth. We're still working on "Come here" and "Stop that".
  
• He will drink his milk cold. Since we switched him to cow's milk, the only way we've been able to get him to drink it is by warming it up. Finally, just in the last few weeks, we've been able to get him to drink it straight out of the fridge. (In a related story from the week, the other morning, James got him a cup of milk when he got up. Little Man handed it back to him and said, "Hot." So maybe we haven't completely broken him of the habit.)
• He had a molar break through. He's still missing the two teeth in between the front one and the molar, so hopefully those don't end up crooked. The molar seems to have stopped moving down, but there is a tiny sliver of sharpness back there.
  

Although it is not an achievement by any means, he is still enjoying his baby food. He is such a picky eater! Mostly, he's unwilling to try anything new. Last week, while having dinner at my mom's, he tried bread (in the form of a roll) for the first time. We can usually get him to eat noodles, corn, beans (as in dried beans), tomatoes, and graham crackers. And don't even mention the word "yogurt" unless you plan on giving him a bowl-full.

Making mischief.

Playing guitar with Daddy. We tried to go camping a few weeks ago, and ended up packing up and coming home at 11:30 because Little Man had been crying for about two hours. He doesn't like to sleep anywhere except in his crib.

Every night after his bath, Little Man enjoys running around the house with his cape. It is one of my favorite parts of the day.

Brown Thumb

Several of my blogging friends have posted pictures from their gardens this week, so I thought I'd join in. We have a HUGE (to me) garden space (it's about 30 feet long, and about 6 feet deep) and we spent two straight days getting it ready to plant. Everything was coming up so well and growing fast. This is what is looks like now:




I refuse to believe that this carnage is my fault. There is a very old tree that is next to the garden and I think it has a disease. Trees aren't supposed to ooze, right? That tree is definitely sick, and I think it's contagious. All of my plants were beautiful and the tomatoes were getting blossoms, and then, one by one, they started dying. The things that are doing ok are the things that are at the ends of the garden, away from the gross tree.

There's corn,
and pumpkin,
and watermelon,
and green beans.
I guess there is something to be hopeful about, but I'm really, really sad about my dead tomatoes. I mean, that's the whole reason to plant a garden, right? So, when your tomato plants are weighed down with more fruit than you can possibly use, remember me and my sad garden. I promise to be your friend for life if you let me taste one.

Magical Clown

Last week, my best friend from forever was in town (for her wedding). I went to visit her and we took Little Man down to the toy closet to look for something to keep him entertained. While we were down there, I found some of my old toys! I didn't even know they were missing and it was a very happy reunion. Among the treasure was "Cown," a wind-up musical clown I got when I was one year old. Little Man immediately took a liking to him. I've gotten into the habit of putting him to bed with Cown. Whenever I wind him up, Little Man's eyes light up, he hold out his hands, then he gives Cown a big hug. I'm so happy that my old toy makes him so happy. I was thinking about it the other day, and I realized that since he's been introduced to Cown, Little Man has not given me any trouble about going to sleep, whether for a nap or at night. That's no ordinary clown; that's a magical clown.