MayJune05 Babies - Walking, Talking, Getting into Everything!

[cynder]

happy1nuv NO! Don't tell me that now. We were at Target this morning and saw how cheap they were and just put them away in DS's room. At least they were cheap.

Eating out 80% of the time, we do great. Generally we go to family type places but we're both itching to try a few more fancier places since we're foodies. Last week he was great, yesterday not so much. Usually I have a bag of tricks to occupy him (new stuff from the dollar store = great distraction) but I do draw the line at letting him out of the high chair when he gets antsy as a courteousy to the waiters trying to get around. It's a lot of work for us but we take him once a week so that he gets used to it and learns to eat in public.

ahavnes & Sasha Hope you had a good time out!

[jrdhbunny]

Pumpkin Patch- We took James to his first one today. It's a big farm with hayrides, pumpkin patch, petting zoo, pony rides, corn maze, etc. We had a good time, but it was a little too close to James' naptime by the time we got to the pumpkins, so we didn't get any good pics there. We still had fun though- DS' favorite part was the chickens.

Eating in Restaurants- Sigh. James used to be so good, but since he learned to walk, he's really tough to take out.

Alicia- Hope y'all had a great time!!

tgr68- How fun!

[psusna]

Pumpkin patch: So much fun today! Did the patch and hayride. He was running like a crazy man so it was hard to get a great shot but here's one of him with the pumpkins and one on the hayride.

(removed pics)

Happy fall ya'll!

[Traciann]

We went to a small pumpkin patch today too! Mary Kate really enjoyed the little baby pumpkins, so we bought her a few to take home. They also had a little picnic table that she loved sitting on. For some reason if we walk by a bench she insists on climbing on them. I took a bunch of pictures...but they are on the film camera.

Mary Kate doesn't color either. She likes to hold and talk to them, and put them in an out of her case. Its really strange what she has really latched onto lately. She has a bunch of jelly bracelets and plastic spoons that she carries them around all day long and puts in and out of a jar. She is fascinated by it. Should I return her christmas presents??? :) Anybody else's kid do crazy stuff like this?

[DisneyGirl]

Nikki loves to carry around her trick or treat plastic pumpkin and putting anything that can fit in there. Another thing she loves to play with are my oven mits. She thinks they are the coolest thing and runs around and try to grab onto your leg.

[kimthebride]

My Weekend Away
Thanks everyone for your healthy-me vibes, I actually felt very good on Saturday and the m/s Sunday was manageable because it was a short day & DH drove home. YAY!

Saturday we all met up at my Brother's house and then went to a local apple orchard. Sad story: we couldn't go to my childhood one because the caretaker accidently sprayed the ENTIRE ORCHARD with herbicide instead of pesticide and killed it. Yes, killed the ENTIRE ORCHARD! They had no choice but to close up shop - someone mismarked the canisters and this poor guy who had been there for 40+ years ended up killing off his favorite place to be. So sad!

Anyway, we went to another one and it was fun. Thomas loved pulling the apples off the trees and he carried a little one around for about an hour - he was so proud. :cool: But now I have 1/2 a bushel of apples, apple cider, and an apple pie. What the heck can I do with all those apples!? So far we had apple pancakes this morning..not sure what's next.

My mom really enjoyed her bday celebrations, loved her gifts, the kids had fun playing together and my brothers girlfriend seems ok. I was too tired to really drill her, but there's always Thanksgiving. ;)

alienhost
If I was in your shoes, I'd probably just send a card saying sorry we didn't have much time to talk, but I think of your family often and hope for the best for your son. When my nephew was ill and passed away a few years back, I didn't want to talk about it but a few cards came in and it really meant a lot to me that people were thinking of us.

Eating Out
We are always eating out, whether it be just at Panera Bread or Houlihan's or a nicer restaurant when we visit the IL's. DS has always been exposed to social settings, and he's pretty good about it. I do keep it quick and ensure he's fed or entertained the whole time. Have to face him out - he loves watching the people come in and out.

He's slowly learning the crayong thing, so that's helping. Otherwise, I'll bring some fruit or cheese and Goldfish crackers to munch on while we wait for the food so he's not just sitting there. I find there is always something he can eat when we're out, even if its not a 4-food-group meal like I'd prefer ;). As long as he eats something and we get to enjoy the meal I'm happy.

Date Night
Our anniversary is coming up in another week so we have the babysitter coming for that. Provided I can start eating actual restaurant food again at night soon I hope to go out at least once a month with DH. We need our time together!

psusna
I am so weak for little boys in overalls at pumpkin patches. Adorable!

[rancherswife]

psusna: CUTE pics. from the pumpkin patch. We have GOT to do that this week.

After posting that we were maybe gonna take him last week, on a day dh got off early, he promptly went outside w/ dh and played in the mud, while planting trees in our yard, all evening. Which for him, was just as fun, I'm sure. :)

Sesame Street: So, since he's been waking up an HOUR earlier than normal, we have to wait an hour before SS comes on. I've noticed he's totally not interested in any of it, until Elmo comes on. Of course, Elmo doesn't come on until the middle of the show, so the entire time he's waiting he's shouting "ELLL-MOOOOO," it's great when it's still DARK outside. :) Anyone else's kid JUST like Elmo and not the entire SS show?

We got him "Elmo's Potty Time" on DVD and he'll watch almost the entire thing, which is nice, I've been showering while he watches it.

Tomorrow's the big day, first thing in the morning, which is nice, since I had to wait half the day for Landon's u/s. I'm just excited to get to see this baby, we haven't had an u/s since I was 5 weeks to see the h/b. Of course, I'm a nervous wreck. I'm sure everything's fine, baby moves a lot and is moving more and more each day, but still....

[rancherswife]

kim:we cross posted..SO glad you felt OK for the weekend. I was thinking about you!

[Sasha]

Well dinner at Benihana wasn't a total disaster, but certainly wasn't enjoyable for me or DH. ;) Nope, nothing on the menu she was going to eat, so good thing I had brought along her Perdue chicken pieces. She did however love the salad dressing (Miso, I think?) and gladly gobbled on some carrots and lettuce...go figure! We were hoping the entertainment of table side cooking would be fascinating to her, but we apparently got the world's most boring Benihana chef, and Sarah could have cared less about what he was doing. No trick I had, including my 3-year niece, was going to keep her quiet and happy in that highchair. I am so jealous of all of you who have well-behaved restaurant kids! I seriously can't remember the last time I ate my dinner while still warm at a restaurant! My aunt and uncle are coming to visit next weekend and they want to take us out to dinner, but I think I am going to cave and get a babysitter so we can enjoy a "grown-up" dinner with them at a nice restaurant. It just isn't fun or relaxing right now when we try to take Sarah with us and they shouldn't have to suffer through it too.

psusna - I love Jackson's little overalls! He looks so cute.

Kim - Glad to hear you had a good weekend. How terrible about what happened to your orchard! :eek:

Rancherswife - Good luck tomorrow....my guess is a girl, just based on what Disney said before!

Originally Posted by Rancherswife
Anyone else's kid JUST like Elmo and not the entire SS show?
Sarah LOVES Elmo. She will mildly watch SS if Cookie Monster, Grover or Big Bird is on the screen, but as soon as she hears the opening music to Elmo's World, her face lights up, she starts dancing, and Elmo has her full-on attention. Needless to say, I am guilty of putting on an Elmo DVD if she is having a fit, because I know it will make everything better! :o

[rancherswife]

sasha: Sorry dinner was somewhat of a bust. We've been there, same restaurant and all! Although, he was actually OK at benihana, it's everywhere else that we've had issues w/ keeping him occupied.

We eat out quite a bit too, at least once a week and once on the weekends. I am guilty of taking him to my parents lately, so we can have an enjoyable, warm dinner w/ nice conversation and not breaking out into a complete sweat. ;)

[alienhost]

restaurants we took a two month hiatus after our vacation when we ate out at least once per day. I was so tired of worrying about the mess etc. But we just started a few weeks ago going out with her again. She actually did very well - she likes seeing other people and interacting with the wait staff etc.

crayons they are still hit or miss. She will entertain herself a bit scribbling a little but she still puts them in her mouth so we have to supervise very closely.

psusna cute pics w/ the pumpkins!

kimthebride I'm glad you had a nice weekend. So sad about the orchard! How horrible.

regarding the card for my co-worker I think I'll send one this week. Just to let them know I'm thinking of them. Thanks for your input!

Sasha Sorry your night out at Benihana didn't go so well.

rancherswife enjoy your u/s tomorrow!

[psusna]

Kim: Glad that you weekend was a success. That orchard story made me cry! I feel so badly for that gentleman!

Sasha: Sorry about your dinner out :( I hope this is just a phase for her.

rancherswife: I'm getting nervous for you! I'm sure everything will be great.

I'm home today because of Columbus Day so DS and I are having a big day of fun. Thankfully he's in a great mood and wanting to go, go, go. It's nap time now so when he wakes we are hitting the mall!

[kimthebride]

restaurants we took a two month hiatus after our vacation when we ate out at least once per day. I was so tired of worrying about the mess etc.
I forgot to mention something else I do, that my friends laugh at but always gets me good treatment the next time I go to the same restaurant.
First, I always bring wipes and a diaper disposing bag with me. I use a Table Topper to keep as neat as possible, and clean up what I reasonably can before we go. Then when I sign the check, I tip well and write "Sorry about the mess - thank you!" on it so they know I am acknowledging the extra work they do for having a kid at the table.
I waitressed before and just knowing the parents took some responsibility for their kids' mess made me feel better.

[rancherswife]

kim: we do the same thing when we're out. i've been w/ parents (before we had Landon) and they laugh as they're leaving the restaurants, I used to get SO embarrassed by that and feel so bad for the wait staff!

[alienhost]

I forgot to mention something else I do, that my friends laugh at but always gets me good treatment the next time I go to the same restaurant.
First, I always bring wipes and a diaper disposing bag with me. I use a Table Topper to keep as neat as possible, and clean up what I reasonably can before we go. Then when I sign the check, I tip well and write "Sorry about the mess - thank you!" on it so they know I am acknowledging the extra work they do for having a kid at the table.
I waitressed before and just knowing the parents took some responsibility for their kids' mess made me feel better.

writing the thank you is a great idea, never thought of that! But then again DH is usually the one paying the bill when we are out b/c I'm trying to pick up food where I can.

I use a table topper too/and bibster - do you take those with you or leave them there to be thrown away? I usually fold/roll them up and put them on my plate w/ whatever food I can reasonably pick up. DH leaves a good tip. Is it rude to leave that "garbage" on the table? Again, I take off the tabletopper and don't leave food sitting on the table, but I do leave some on the floor since I don't want to be crawling under the table. ;) thus the large tip.

[tgray99]

Restaurants: We take Aidan probably once a week or so. She's a tad messy so I usually apologize to the waitstaff once or twice before we leave.

Crayons: She'll scribble a little but they do usually go into her mouth or on the floor. She's big on having a clear tray and doesn't like having stuff cluttering it up. :rolleyes: Crazy kid.

Kim: I hate to hear that your childhood orchard got killed. My grandparents used to have cherry trees that I would pick cherries from and eat as a child. Then the county came along and killed them in an effort to kill the weeds. :( Made me so sad.

Sasha: Sorry to hear your dinner was a bust. I think getting a babysitter for your next trip is a good idea. I'm dying for a night out alone with Ryan!

[DisneyGirl]

Rancher Can't wait to hear the big news tomorrow! Please post to the thread as soon as you can.


Sasha Sorry to hear your dinner was a bust. I am also jelouse of thoses with well -behaved babies. My DD will not behave herself at home in a Restaurants or anywhere for that matter. I amlmost afraid to take DD out places in fear that she will pitch a fit and start her yelling and crying fits.

crayons I will not even dare try and give Nikki a crayon. She eats everything as it is and I know for sure she would either eat the thing or color on my walls. No thanks!

[diedra1027]

Kim - How terrible about that man and his orchard :(. As for the extra apples, if you are handy enough how about homemade apple sauce? or maybe something you can freeze like apple muffins?

Eating out - We also go to very kid friendly places and I keep her in my lap (or the booth if we're sitting in one) until the food comes. She won't sit in the high chair for long, so we have to make good use of the time we get ;). We also clean up the floor and chair after the meal as best as possible. Writing a little special note on the receipt is a great idea!!

[cynder]

Eating out Funny story - this weekend we went to the world's kid friendliest diner but I think DS woke up on the wrong side of the crib but he was CRANKY (plus he already had his breakfast, mistake #1). After my usual bag of tricks failed, I asked for some crayons and paper that the bigger kids get hoping to distract while we finished eating. Well he colored for about 30 sec before putting it in his mouth. He bit the tip off a brand new crayon so it was a bare silver of crayon. We were so exhausted by the meal that I said "If you're that desperate to eat a crayon, have at it." He started chewing a bit with a "This tastes bad" look on his face before I fished it out.

After that no more chewing of the crayon! We did get throwing of the crayon later though.

Sasha Sorry going out didn't work. I say get a babysitter and treat your self to a nice dinner. We do it once a month and it is soooo worth it.

[happy1nuv]

Sorry cynder ~ They're not bad diapers if you just use them at home...I'll probably continue to buy some for just at home use because they are so cheap...

Kim ~ That's terrible about your childhood orchard... that poor man!! And..excess apples... you can make baked apples... get frozen puff pastry and wrap it around a cored/peeled apple...stuff apple with brown sugar/cinnamon/raisins (if you like em) ... bake til golden. Yummy and easy.
Caramel apples are always yummy too...especially around this time of year. I'm no good for any keep longer ideas though... I'll keep thinking for you though...

[kimthebride]

I use a table topper too/and bibster - do you take those with you or leave them there to be thrown away?
I have a bit of a system (suprise, suprise :p ):
- peel off the Table Topper with all his food on it, roll up and toss in diaper garbage bag
- use wipe to clean off the table a bit, then pick up large food items from floor under high chair. Toss in bag
- I bring my own bibs, since the Bibsters don't last for more than 30 seconds on him. I wipe the food out of it with a wet wipe and toss it in the bag. I roll up the bib and put it in my bag to take home.
- I put all other baby trash into the bag, tie it up, and leave on the table along with my parge tip and thank-you note

Apple World
Hmmmm....thanks for the tips, but now happy1 has me wondering if I can make homemade candied apples?? Anyone know how? I love those sticky, hard red candy apples!

So far today i have had apple pancakes, apple cider, apple pie and 2 apples. I must start baking tomorrow. Oh, and I invited my neighbor over to take some off my hands as well. :)

[allyray231]

HI guys! Trying to catch up! Here is our pumpkin picture :)
Aiden still has his cold and is TOTALLY going though seperation anx BIG TIME! God I need a break

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6ce28b3127cce8e556319213000000016108CZsmrFyyac
Oh I give up ion the picture!! Have to post i alter

[rancherswife]

cleaning up at restaurants: Just thought of something else that drives me crazy, that I see other parents do at restaurants. Taking the floppy and shaking out the food onto the floor! Drives me nuts! kim that's quite the system, we always do the thank you and nice tip, but I hadn't thought about bringing the diaper garbage bags to put everything in. That's a great idea. I always just put it all in the table topper and roll it up and put it in my plate. I always have those bags w/ me, now I have another use for them! :)

OOOHH...Candy apples sound YUMMY!!! I love those things!

[wendstress]

I've been MIA as usual, but I usually log-on every couple days to see how everyone is doing! I can't keep up with my life and 1 toddler - and yet I'm crazy enough to be gestating #2!

Restaurants - As long as it is a reasonable wait, James is a joy. Loves finding ladies to flirt with! He is shameless!

Crayon Eating - yes, James does this, too. Although I think he just does it to spite me. Maybe I'll just let him eat the next one and get it out of his system. Then he'll go back to throwing them on the floor.

Spinning - Anyone else's DC doing this? James has started to simply spin himself around the middle of the room until he gets dizzy and falls over.

Which reminds me - anyone else have a kid that can't (won't, more likely) stand up by himself? When he does fall over, he crawls to the nearest stationary object get himself up.... Although he'll push up on toys that are a mere 3" tall, it hasn't occurred to him that he can get up entirely by himself.

No. No no no no no no no no no. He grunts the word while he walks along - one "no" with every step. He wakes up in the middle of the night and whines "Nooooooooo". (And then he wakes up a little more and says "Car!" I mean, WTF?) Sometimes he knows what it means, other times it means "I want more". Of course, DH doesn't help the situation by repeating "no" every time James says it.....

Costume for Halloween - am I the only deadbeat Mom that doesn't have one yet? Going looking tomorrow....wish me luck!

We're heading North next weekend to visit my folks in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I chatted with my Mom tonight and they have a SNOW advisory for Wednesday of this week cautioning up to 12" of snow. Great, huh? And my lovely husband thinks we're going to leave James with Grandma and go canoeing. Uh-huh.

[tgray99]

Spinning - Anyone else's DC doing this? James has started to simply spin himself around the middle of the room until he gets dizzy and falls over.

Yup, I got video of it last week. She gets dizzy and falls down then laughs hysterically like it's the funniest thing ever. Crazy kid!

[kimthebride]

I chatted with my Mom tonight and they have a SNOW advisory for Wednesday of this week cautioning up to 12" of snow. Great, huh?
All I have to say about that is no no no no no no no no no no no no. ;)

[alienhost]

kim that's an impressive system. I'll have to remember the bag next time, I usually pile everything on my plate. But I have to say most wait staff are already impressed that we use the table topper.

apples how about apple crisp? I love the crunchy, sweet brown sugar/oatmeal topping!!!! Plus you can kill a lot of apples that way. I think you can buy kits at the grocery store to make the candied apples. Just be careful with fillings! :D

Sesame Street someone posted this a few pages back. DD mainly responds to/watches Elmo, Zoe and Grover etc. The Elmo's World segment gets her watching but she isn't too interested in the rest. She "watches" probably 25% of the hour. The rest of the time she is walking around the living room playing with toys/books.

Columbus Day we had a fun day with beautiful weather. We went to a local park and played on the swings/slide. We put her in the middle of the grass field and she ran around for ages. She was one tired girl tonight! We then went to buy some more fishies for the tank, she loves watching the fish or "ishes" as she calls them.

[Dreshny]

Spinning: Oh, yes, we have spinning here. Especially when he's tired.

Restaurants: He's unpredictable. He's often fine, but when he's not fine, he's a terror. We try not to put him in the highchair until the food is actually in front of him.

[rancherswife]

spinning: Yes, mostly when he's dancing.

And then he wakes up a little more and says "Car!" I mean, WTF?) LOL! We crack up, Landon makes car/truck/tractor noises ("vrrrrmmmm") in his sleep, TOTAL BOYS!

new words: It's crazy, in the last couple of weeks, Landon's averaging a couple of new words a day. I told dh we REALLY need to watch our potty mouths! I don't even want to think of him repeating some of the crap that comes out of our mouths! ;)

[DisneyGirl]

Spinning - Anyone else's DC doing this? James has started to simply spin himself around the middle of the room until he gets dizzy and falls over.




Yup, Nikki started doing that as well. Its so funny how fast she spins then she stops and tries walking and falls right over and she thinks its the funniest thing ever.

[cynder]

Spinning Wow! I was just coming her to say that DS figured this last night during our nightly dance party. Before bath we usually have all family 5 min dance party (he loves Nelly Furtado!) and yesterday he was overjoyed to figure out spinning.

Words Still not alot of words but he's def. trying out new sounds. Right now "K" sound is being worked. Some words with certain sounds, he totally gets like "apple" and "elbow". He also is into animal sounds and of course motor sounds. He's going to be a cow since he loves to moo. The other day we were driving and realized that he was "pfffting" because he saw a construction vehicle that looked a tractor.

My daycare just sent a sheet of 15-24 months verbal milestones. I glanced at it but I can post it if anyone's interested.

[allyray231]

Oh Cynder I would love to see the verbal milestones.

words Aiden is talking a TON but a lot is still babble. However he totally has converstaions with us. I did notice that he is doing "K" a lot too. He say kaka yesterday ;)

Aiden is 16 months old today and 2 years ago today I found out I was pg!!

[psusna]

Spinning: Count us in. The worst is when he does it in the driveway. Not the best idea.

I’m thinking of getting him the Little People Thanksgiving Celebration play set. They also have a new Nativity set out this year as well. I wish the Nativity set was priced like the pilgrims. Maybe we’ll do one this year and one next year. Does anyone have either set?

Our Columbus Day of fun was a hit yesterday – so much so that he ran into school this morning and hugged his teacher. :rolleyes: We played all sorts of things yesterday, colored, went to the grocery store, played a new game we invented with wooden pumpkins and apples I have on display that is all about saying please and thank you, went to the mall, played outside…apparently he missed his buddies. When we asked him this morning if he “wanted to go see his friends” it was a resounding YES! At least I know he loves school and his friends.

Now whenever he wants anything he shouts MOM or DAD as loud as he can. The MOM thing just started yesterday – I was always mama or mommy but now I’m mom too. It’s whatever suits his mood. When he woke up at 2am and couldn’t find his puppy because he was hidden under his blanket it was “mammmmmaaaa” but when he wanted more O’s this morning in the car it was MOM! Too funny.

Cynder: I would love to see the milestones as well.

[DisneyGirl]

I am afraid to look at the milestones as Nikki only says about 7 words. She does babble lots and she makes different sounds. Maybe she will just talk late..which maybe a good thing..EHHEHEEH

[diedra1027]

Verbal Milestones - Would love to see the list you have cynder. Disney - don't be too worried!! I was doing a little poking around a few months ago to see what milestones the doctors might be looking for. DD has a cousin who is 2 months older, but seems WAY behind her developmentally, so I was curious. From what I read the base milestones are something like: 10 words by 18 months, putting two words together by 2, and complete sentances by 3.

Spinning - Oh yes. She loves to spin around. When she stops, she'll squeal out "Dizzy!!!!" and disolve into laughter. So cute :).

[Traciann]

words- I have a question to the mom's whose kids do talk alot, do they uses these words everyday? I have heard mk say nite, nite and bye, bye, but its not like she uses them everyday. She babbles like she knows what she is saying like Aiden and has said a few words, but not many.

I would love to see the milestones as well, cynder!


Little people we actually just got the thanksgiving set this weekend from nana, and its precious! mk loves the table for some reason. We also have the nativity and its wonderful as well. Actually we have a version from a couple of years ago, so you get a little more with this years set than I have. nana will be giving mary kate the lil shephard set and the drummer boy set for christmas. I guess if you only want one this year, it might be the thanksgiving, because I don't think mk will understand the christmas story this year, so it wouldn't be critical to have it, KWIM?

[rancherswife]

My good sleeper DID NOT SLEEP last night. We were up pretty much the whole night. He was screaming, tried tylenol, diaper change, pj change (thought he may have been hot) brought him into bed w/ us, where he proceeded to KICK both dh and I for an hour, I was seriously losing my mind. I felt bad for him, but us too! Finally got him to sleep at about 3 a.m., only for him to wake up while I'm trying to sneak around quietly and get ready at 6:45 this morning. Thankfully his Nanni came and got him so dh and I can go to our BIG u/s in a half hour! I'm BEAT!
I'm hoping it's just the "I" teeth that he's cutting, they're in, just not all the way, my mom says those are the worst. Poor guy!

[psusna]

Words: Some he uses every day like bye-bye, mom (and variations), dad (and variations), more, yes, and cheese (his after school snack). Some he uses more some day than others (car, bus, truck, baby, mine, please, thank you) and some he has yet to say – like hi, light and fan (three that we thought would be in heavy rotation, but no dice). I thought I heard “my book” from him last week but I’m not 100% and I haven’t heard a phrase again. He is still mostly babbling but trying so hard for new words. It seems, from what I’ve read and in talking to friends, that a verbal explosion comes around 18 months.

Traciann: Thanks for the Little People review! That was my thinking on the Nativity as well – make that next year when it is starts to have some meaning. I’ll check them out this weekend. Thanks again!

Rancherswife: Ugh! I’m sorry about Landon’s restless night. Can’t wait to hear your big news!!!!

[Sasha]

Disney - I think it's pretty common for second children to develop verbally slower than first children. My younger niece talked later because her big sister was always answering questions for her! But at 3yrs old now, she talks all the time, so don't worry! :)

Rancherswife - Sorry about the bad night, but good luck today!

Spinning - Not all the time. She'd rather play chase around the house, I guess!

Words - Same as psusna said. Some words are every day (mommy, daddy, thank you, night-night, bye-bye, kitty), and some words aren't used every day (bubble, apple, hello). Her newest word is our cat's name, Emma, LOL. She calls after her all.the.time. She does have a pretty big vocabulary so far, but not every word is said every day.

[cynder]

I'll type the sheet later tonight since it's in my car but just glancing at it, I know for a fact that our kids hit all of it. That's why I thought some of you might be pleased to see it. I really liked how they gave it to us. It wasn't really fixated on the amount of words but had things like pointing and sounds.

Little people - We have the School Bus and that's it. He likes to take the people out and push the button himself. We're not buying him any toys for Christmas but I might get him the Noah's Ark after Xmas since he likes animals.

[kimthebride]

Words
DS still only says about 5 or so, and lately he's not saying much of anything but Mama and the random bye-bye or Dada.
Doesn't worry me too much, since a close friend's son said almost nothing up til right at his 2nd bday then it was suddenly like "Hello, how are you? I am very fine this sunny afternoon..." :)

Spinning
Not yet. Though he does like walking backwards and in circles.

This morning I was cleaning off the table and heard a loud THUNK! I turn around and there's DS walking around the room with his flannel recieving blanket over his head - he had walked right into the wall. :rolleyes:

rancherswife
Yuck, what a night!
Good luck at your big u/s! I can't wait til mine, which is in 7 more weeks.

Naps
Can I just say AAAAAARGH! One or two? Long or short? Yes or no? I seriously never know what each day is going to bring, and I am way too tired to deal with the lack of routine.
(End of whine session)

[tgray99]

Naps: My once-great napper has decided that she doesn't want a morning nap anymore even though a blind and deaf person could clearly see that she needs one. Yay. Today is even more fun because Ryan got his wisdom teeth out and isn't being that great of a patient. I need to take care of him and he keeps trying to do everything himself. Ugh. Lord give me strength. Aidan's standing in her crib talking to her stuffed animals that hang over her bed. Oy, go to sleep already!

Milestones: I'm not too worried about the verbal stuff. I know she understands us, I can give her commands and she'll do it and she talks when she wants to. What I'm wondering about is stuff like puzzles and shape sorters and stacking. She doesn't stack at all, puzzles are hit or miss as are shape sorters. I'm sort of concerned but I don't know when she's supposed to be able to do these things. Any ideas?

Walking and such: Aidan has learned she can walk backwards and I think she was trying to jump yesterday but don't quote me on it.

[allyray231]

Naps we are still on 2

[DisneyGirl]

Naps We are still at 2 naps here as well.

[psusna]

Naps: One big one midday (yesterday was 2.5 hours)

I have the same question as Tgray re: shape sorters, stacking, etc. He is into his stacking cups but not blocks and the shape sorter and ring stacker are blah to him. He likes to take puzzles apart but gets frustrated at putting the shapes back into the board.

[Carissa]

naps We have been on one nap for a long time. Grace has never been a good napper until recently.

[ahavnes]

Wow! You girls are a chatty bunch! Our internet is down at home, so I am relegated to typing at work. Bleck.

Our date night was fun, but I shaved my legs for nothing. :o We were so tired from overeating and splitting a bottle of wine that we collapsed when we got home. Abbey fell asleep before we left and never even knew the sitter was there. :)

Words- She only says about 8 words, but she will do just about anything we say. It's uncanny. Last night I told her to brush her teeth and she went into the bathroom, got the toothpaste and pretended to put it on her brush and then started brushing her teeth. Crazy! But also fun to watch. :)

Delayed Speech- My cousin didn't speak until she was about 2.5 and then just blurted out "Richie (brother), go to your room." LOL! :)

Sesame Street Tantrums- I am soooo glad to hear Sasha say that she puts SS on when there's a tantrum in the house b/c we do the same thing and I've been feeling very guilty!

Naps- One 3-hour per day. During the week, she naps after I pick her up from school at 1pm. On the weekend she gets tired around 11am. Strange, but she seems to do well during the week with the later nap, so I'm not changing anything.

Loving all of these Halloween Pics!

[alienhost]

spinning not yet

naps still on 2 most days. If she takes a really long (2.5 hr-3) AM nap then she isn't intersted in the PM one.

words Everyday words: mama, dada, bye bye, night night, fishies, cheese, up, no, uh oh. She has others that aren't used everyday but fairly regularly and if prompted, will use it. She is still communicating a lot with signs she knows/uses about 2 dozen signs. Lots of babbling and such. She hasn't put two words together yet (trying to get her to say "bye bye dada"). She understands almost everything though and will do stuff when asked.

fun stuff Just last week I gave her her PJs and said "can you put them in the hamper?" she walked over and tossed them in there. I was surprised b/c I never showed her what to do and some how she knew where the hamper was. :D

oh, she's up from her nap...BBL.

[jmvan74]

Naps: Sometimes 1 and sometimes 2! I prefer one long one in the middle of the day, but lately he's been reverting back to one morning and one afternoon nap.

Sorting, puzzles, stacking: These are all skills that can be practiced, but don't generally happen consistently until a bit later. Some little ones have better fine motor control, but 16-18 month olds rarely have the control to do these things well. As for sorting...this is a skill that may be recognized early on, but is actually a focus for many kindergarten programs.
Personally, we have puzzles and stacking toys, etc... Collin prefers to carry the peices around than try to use them properly. We just keep showing him what to do and eventually he'll get it. :p

Spinning: DS hasn't figured this out yet. He's too busy trying to climb on the back of the couch to look out the window at squirrels. :rolleyes:

little people: We have the school bus and DS love it. We also have a small peice of the pirate collection. Of course, the pirate is usually in the bus. :)

[cynder]

One nap - 2 hrs at daycare, upto 3-4 hrs at home.

DVDs I am looking to borrow 2 DVDs but I am loathe to buy them. So if you any of you have "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" DVD or any kind of signing DVD, in exchange I can design a site or bake you cookies.

I never have time to read the Karp book like I want to so I remember someone saying the DVD was useful. I'm still kind of holding back on showing a signing DVD but DS sat for more than 2 sec to watch Elmo the other day and was mimicing the signing of a deaf child. Half of his signs for words, he made up. I can live with a delay his speech, we're looking for a way to cut the frustration.

Milestones I don't think it's a cause for concern at all. By 18 months, they should be able to stack 2 blocks. That's it and we're still a couple of months from that. Again these are all guidelines to help track. It's when they can't do a number of things that there is cause for concern. Miss Aidan is def. thriving!

DS loves shape sorters and stackers but we have to hide puzzles for now because his lack of coordination or smarts to get the right piece in makes him very MAD!

[happy1nuv]

cynder ~ Have you tried looking at your llibrary for the videos? That's where I got both from (my library has the signing times series, and the karp ones too. Wasn 't too thrilled with the karp for toddlers.... I felt ridiculous following his advice, and the few times I tried at home I either didn't do it right or Nic just wasn't into it cause it didn't work for us...)

spinning ~ Nic loves to do this. All ya have to say is where is the dizzy boy, and he'll start spinning...

Words ~ Everything here is still dada. He does understand though... last night I asked him to bring me the yellow triangle (block) and he got it for me :) Although his new sound is baabaa (not like a sheep, but not like you'd say baby bottle either).. couldn't figure it out. We had our aardvarks class (kinda like music together, but its nyc based (some of the songs are based on nyc)...lots of fun) and when she has them put the props away, she goes baabaa as it "hits" the bottom... hmmm... :)

Naps ~ We're on 1 here. Sometimes he goes down really easy, and sometimes its a struggle... our big battle though is nighttime. Since I stopped nursing him to sleep, he fights to stay up later and later...last night he was up til 9:30 UGH!!! He did sleep in til 8 am (but, ugh...we had a 9:30 class... just made it)

[Traciann]

naps-sadly I think we are down to one for sure. problem is that she has not been taking even 2 hr naps and that has been frustrating. I am thinking we are finally going to move her bedtime up...because its just too long for her to be up without additional sleep during the day.

cynder-I taught Mary Kate the signs for please and more. She does really good with them and the uses them correctly. i have thought about buying the signing times baby dvds, but they are pretty expensive. signing does help with the frustration some, but not all the time...hmmm maybe if she knew more signs... her latest thing is when she is throwing a tantum is to throw her head back...thus causing even more crying because she hits her head. sigh. i just checked with netflix and they have happiest toddler dvd, but its on a very long wait. i am going to it see if its any good.

sorting/stacking/blocks we have some abc block books that are just right for stacking...and mk loves to stack them. pretty amazing to me in that i put her soft blocks up a while ago, so she hasn't seen me do it in a while. I have a set of blocks on her christmas list this year. I have 2 shape sorters, one is too advanced and the other she can do with help from me. I have the FP old school stacker, but I was considering getting her a more advanced one for christmas as well.

my current project today is looking at mk's toys to decide what will go to the consignment shop. i was planning on saving some of the bigger baby toys for the next one, but I have changed my mind. we just don't have room to keep them. oh course now that I am pulling everything out...what is she doing? playing with them!

[Carissa]

Little People I am thinking about getting some for Christmas gifts for Grace I use to love them when I was little.

spinning oh yes Grace loves to spin.

sorting and stacking Grace loves to stack and she also loves the shape sorter from tupperware. I need to get her some more toys like this we don't have a lot of toys in our house yet.

[allyray231]

We like staking here but Aiden's thing it to put things on top of stuff-for example-he was stacking the VHS tapes on top of the a/c. Now that is talent ;)

[DisneyGirl]

milestones Nikki can stack 3 blocks so far. She can also say Hi daddy and bye daddy and hello kitty when she sees the cat.

[Dreshny]

Milestones: Asher can't quite put two words together yet, but this weekend, he started singing "Happy Birthday" in its entirety. :eek: At first, he was just singing the "happy birthday" part, but now it's actually "happy birthday to you." And today I heard him throw in a "dada," (like in "happy birthday [to] dada") too.

[rancherswife]

Back from my u/s....Baby Boy Reece showed his goods w/ out a fight!!!:D His little profile looks just like Landon's did and still does!!! We're thrilled beyond belief!!!:D Everything looked good, his legs measured 1 week ahead, but so did Landon's. Dh is a tall drink of water!;)

[Carissa]

Rancherswife CONGRATS!!!!

[alienhost]

signing - cynder check your PBS station. Signing Time is being shown on some PBS stations around the country. I really believe in the Signing Time show/DVD. I have borrowed a few volumes from the library but there always is a wait list. I tried teaching her a few signs around 8/9 months and she really didn't pick up on it. I started again at around 15 months and she picked up 1 or 2 a day for a while. It really helps with frustration during meals. She can sign MILK, MORE, EAT, CRACKER, CHEESE, COOKIE, APPLE, SLEEP, PLEASE, THANK YOU, BATH. Other ones aren't as "useful" but are fun she knows, BEAR, BALL, CAR, DOG, BIRD, AIRPLANE, BABY, CAT and others.

ETA: she can also sign "ALL DONE" which is so helpful with eating, when she is done with the bath, finished on the swings etc

sorting/stacking she can stack 2 or 3 blocks, she can put the stacking cups inside each other. She shape sorter is frustrating for her. She can do the round one but the other shapes are much harder for her. We practice sometimes but she doesn't have much patience for it.

FP Little People we have Noah's Ark, the Bus and the Farm. DD loves them all. Her favorite right now is the bus, she pushes it around the house with her little passengers (including farm and Noah's animals). She loves the animals and likes to make the animal sound as she pulls each one out.

rancherswife CONGRATULATIONS! How exciting for you!

dreshny now that's impressive!

[psusna]

rancherswife: Congratulations!! I love his name :)

alienhost: Good tip on Signing Time airing on some PBS stations. I'm going to search for it on DirecTV. Thanks!

dreshny: Your little man cracks me up with all of his achievements! Go Asher!

Ugh. More teething here means more gross diapers. He is a total mess when he's teething. Blech.

[DisneyGirl]

Rancher CONGRATS on your new little guy.
I really thought you were having a girl and it looks like the baby boys are taking over here.
Congrats again! Love the name BTW

[ladybug0525]

Congrats Rancher -- too fun! I find out in 3 weeks and am really hoping for another boy but would be happy with either!

[Dreshny]

Congrats, rancherswife! Your instinct was right!

[tgray99]

Congrats, rancherswife!

[jrdhbunny]

Congrats rancherswife!! Love the name!

spinning- Oh yeah, it's usually the first move in his dance repetoire.

Words- I really really wish I could understand what this kid is saying! We have entire conversations; he says the same "phrases" over and over, but it sounds like Greek to me and DH. I think he's said "James did it" several times, but I can't be sure.

Teething- DS presses his hands against the sides of his face constantly and grimaces in pain- I think his molars are coming in but he won't let us look in there. And I think we're going to have to move up to a toddler toothbrush to get behind his teeth; I think I see some plaque building up back there. :(

Stacking- James likes to take one thing and place it on something else; the more precarious the better. He loves doing it with a piece of Kix cereal- he'll do it over and over until he can get it to stay put. He has a couple of shape sorters, but he gets frustrated when he can't jam the square peg in the round whole so to speak. He usually winds up bypassing the holes and just puts the pieces in the top.

dreshny- That is so cute!

[rancherswife]

Thanks for the congrats and compliments on his name. After hearing what Brittney Spears named her baby last month, my dh decided to throw out Pierce Mc Lane as an option for us :rolleyes: (thought he had GREAT reason, we've got a ranch named the "Pierce Ranch" and one named "Mc Lane" I asked him if he was naming the next High School to be built in our town, or our child???? WTF? Obviously, we settled happily on Reece, thank goodness! Sometimes I wonder about him. Not that Pierce is that bad, but the whole combo, paired w/ our last name! GOOD LORD!:eek:

sleep/ teething issues: Just got Landon down for hopefully what will be the night! I'm just not used to all nighters! It's been months, and I've only got four more before I have to have all nighters w/ Reece. I'm thinking maybe he and his brother are already working against me???;) I've given him tylenol around the clock today, it seems to be helping...we'll see!

[tgray99]

Aidan and I are flying home to Houston this weekend! My mom called earlier tonight and asked if we wanted to come home on Saturday so we're flying out at the buttcrack of dawn on Saturday and home on Monday night. Yay! I'm so excited! I thought the next time I'd get to see my mom would be Thanksgiving! :D Happy happy joy joy!

[Traciann]

tgray what a wonderful suprise. I bet your mom is missing Aidan. its pretty raining here, and should be all week.

[allyray231]

Congrats, rancherswife!

[rancherswife]

tgray: YAY! That's great news! Enjoy your time w/ your family. :)

ally: Thank you!

last night: was much better, thank GOD! He still woke up at 5 am this morning, but it beats being up screaming all night long!

[cynder]

DVD Thanks for all the suggestion. I work in an academic library but it never occured to me to check the local public library, duh! And had no idea Netflix had it but I don't want to waste my Netflix DVDs on that. I am using to Netflix to revel in Grey's Anatomy. That's for mommy!

rancherswife Congrats on baby boy Reece and getting more sleep.

DS slept until 7:30 and so did we! Ooops! Sure beats the 4:30 wakes up we had been getting lately.

DS's new sound for yesterday was "Kkkhhh" and he was sounding very German. Now he nows "car" but it comes out "cockkkh". Kind of weird and funny to see this little kid running around saying what sounds like a male part

ETA-I got edited for profanity!!! :)

[Sasha]

Rancherswife - Congratulations!

Tgray - What a nice surprise! Have fun this weekend. :)

Last night - Obviously Landon must have forwarded his memo to Sarah yesterday. :p From the moment I walked in the door, she was throwing a temper tantrum every 5 minutes. She wanted to be held, she didn't want to, she wanted to eat, she didn't want to, she didn't want to get out of the bath...yikes, it just went on and on! Then she was up at 2:30am for awhile. I made DH take care of that one because he hadn't been home for the all night temper tantrums, plus I wasn't sleeping well, so it was his turn! ;)

Stacking/Sorting - Sarah knows how to use her shape sorter and definitely can, but sometimes she gets frustrated and just puts the shapes in the center opening. She is very meticulous about lining up the shapes however along the floor. She could spend awhile just doing this. We have that ring stacker too and she can do it, but she gets bored with it pretty quickly.

[jmvan74]

Congrats Rancher on your baby BOY!

tgray: What a great surprise.

Teething: DS has all of his bottom teeth and we are waiting on 4 top ones and then we'll be done! Thank goodness. He is not a good teether.

[alienhost]

tgray what an awesome surprise, have fun!

sleeping I hope everyone has better nights to come, please, please do not issue a memo.

James likes to take one thing and place it on something else; the more precarious the better. He loves doing it with a piece of Kix cereal- he'll do it over and over until he can get it to stay put.

DD does this too, loves to balance food on the top of the sippy. By that time I know she is done with the meal. ;)

Boo Boo DD had her first "big" boo boo last night. I was getting the bath ready upstairs and DH was with her downstairs getting ready to come up. I must have left the drawer with her sippies/stuff in the kichen ajar a bit :( and she got her finger caught in it. DH wasn't able to stop her from slamming the drawer on her finger. :( She has a pretty big gash. Quite a bit of blood. We got it to stop bleeding and put some bacitracin on it. It looks pretty icky today but is scabbing over. DD keeps looking at it and touching it and bending the finger (it's at the first joint). Oh well I suppose it is one of many.

"phrases" DH is trying to teach her to say "yabba dabba do", I swore she said it the other day. Why he can't teach her something "useful" I'm not sure. :rolleyes:

[tgr68]

As usual, I am sooooooo far behind!

Crayons~Shylah loves to color. We do have to keep a close eye on her because she'll try and make a snack of the crayons!

Restaurants~DH and I both used to work as waitstaff, so we know how they dread cleaning up after babies. We never ask for crackers - always bring her Puffs because they don't crumble the way crackers do, plus we thinks it rude to ask for free crackers when they don't come with your meal. Also, as soon as something hits the floor, we pick it up. ILs make fun of us, but we both know how hard our waiter/waitress is working for a few measly bucks. That being said, we do have a tendency to leave used baby food jars on the table (lids on). :o

Halloween Costume~We just got ours yesterday. I ordered it from Farm Goods for Kids (http://www.farmgoodsforkids.com) for $5 less than every other site I checked! It is soooooo much cuter in person!

Columbus Day~I cleaned most of the morning until my dad & s/mom came over. They started cleaning until I literally had to drag them out of the kitchen. (I love that they are so willing to help, but I hate that they do every time they come over. I would rather them be playing with Shylah.) I got Shylah and I out of our PJs, and we all went to lunch with DH. After lunch, we ran to Walmart to get pictures developed, Dollar Tree for some last minute party supplies (pack of 20 plates/napkins/cups for $1 and 51 pieces of plasticware for $1), Big Lots for cereal, and finally to Starbucks! We got back home around 5:00pm, so I had to quickly make dinner and a shopping list. DH and I dropped Shylah off with Ggma and went to the store alone!

Morning Conversation
Shylah: "Dada!"
Me: "Daddy's at work."
S: "Cheese?"
Me: "Do you want some breakfast?"
S: "Nana!" (Banana)
:rolleyes:
The way I see is that I'm at least 4th on her list! :p

Naps~We are down to one usually lasting about 3 hours!

Blocks~DD hasn't been into blocks/stacking cups except to throw them across the room here lately. I have seen her a couple of times nest her cups inside each other though.

Congrats, Rancherswife, on a son!!

Tantrums Question~Does anyone elses DC bang their head on the floor during tantrums? DD has taken to throwing herself down screaming and then slamming her head to the floor once really hard.

Boo Boo~We had an interesting one yesterday. Didn't hurt DD too bad, but scared the crap out of her. She reach in a drawer and grabbed one of our set mousetraps! :eek: Poor thing cried forever, but fortunately walked away without even a red mark! Whew!

Phrases~Last night, DD looked at DH and said "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!" He was so proud, as he's been working on that one for weeks to get her ready for Thanksgiving.

Videos
Riding the Carousel with Mommy (http://www.dropshots.com/videolink.php?userid=32398&cdate=20061007&ctime=192440&showVideo=1)
Riding the Carousel with Daddy (http://www.dropshots.com/videolink.php?userid=32398&cdate=20061007&ctime=193528&showVideo=1)
Riding the Dragon Ride all by herself! (http://www.dropshots.com/videolink.php?userid=32398&cdate=20061007&ctime=193122&showVideo=1)

http://www.dropshots.com/photos/32398/20061010/185824.jpg

[happy1nuv]

rancher ~ Congrats on the boy...great name too! (What did Brittney Spears name her kid? I'm sooo far behind on current events, I'm not sure I even knew she was pg)

tgray ~ Yay for the trip home to see your mom :)

Stacking/sorting ~ Nic loves to stack. He's another sippy stacker too...but will stack anything -- but rarely things he's supposed to stack. Like, if he stacks a block, it will be on top of the slide, then he puts a car on top of the block or something like that... I think I've only seen him stack blocks on blocks once (of course, I make fun towers for him to knock over... stacking all different sorts of stuff, so that could be all me...) He loves to sort things into piles (and can pile by color if you tell him to..like, can you put the yellow block with the yellow triangle...good...now put the blue square next to the blue truck...etc.) ... He has 2 shape sorters...one is a cube with about a billion different shapes in it that he can put the shapes in if you show him the right side, the other is a cube with 4 different shapes that he can do pretty much by himself...but he gets frustrated with it pretty quick and moves on to throwing the shapes after about 5 minutes... we still love to throw better than anything else...

[ahavnes]

Originally posted by Sasha
Obviously Landon must have forwarded his memo to Sarah yesterday. From the moment I walked in the door, she was throwing a temper tantrum every 5 minutes. She wanted to be held, she didn't want to, she wanted to eat, she didn't want to, she didn't want to get out of the bath...yikes, it just went on and on! Then she was up at 2:30am for awhile.

Seriously! That was our night too! What is up with these kids? I finally just left and went to the gym for a hard workout to clear my mind. :o Abs was then up THREE times last night. The third time she started dancing and saying "yayayay!" WTH?!?! :cool:

rancherswife- Congrats! My best friend has a little boy named Reese and he is adorable. Love that name (with either spelling).

tgray- Have fun in H-town! It's supposed to be nice and cool this weekend.

psusna- Now that you mention it, Abbey has had some funky diapers lately too. I hadn't thought about teething as the cause, but it would explain a lot. I mean, she had 5 poos yesterday! Five?!?

tgr68- Very cute photos!

Sorry to hear about all of the boo boos lately! :o

[DisneyGirl]

Tantrums Question~Does anyone elses DC bang their head on the floor during tantrums? DD has taken to throwing herself down screaming and then slamming her head to the floor once really hard.



Yup, my child does that many times a day espcially if she does not get her way and I am really at my wits end with it...I can not take anymore of her throwing herself on the floor and screaming at the top of her lungs.

tgray Have fun seeing your family this weekend.

[tgray99]

Morning Conversation
Shylah: "Dada!"
Me: "Daddy's at work."
S: "Cheese?"
Me: "Do you want some breakfast?"
S: "Nana!" (Banana)

Wow, we've had that exact conversation, although substitute cookie for cheese.

Thanks everyone! I'm really excited about going home. My mom mentioned that a cool front was on it's way so I hope it's nice and not warm!

Pumpkin Patch: A couple of pics from today's visit to the pumpkin patch:

http://static.flickr.com/80/267052273_44819d4613.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/80/267053131_8f1dd9f65d.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/109/267053525_5af42173b0.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/82/267053709_3e61aa2206.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/109/267054410_8de5c3bd4f.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/34/267054518_ee2523e2c7.jpg?v=0

[rancherswife]

sasha: Sorry my son let the word get out that the "cool" thing to do was throw tantrums for no reason and then wake up all hours of the night, cause mommy and daddy don't need to sleep! I'll talk to him about that. ;) Tell Sarah to just throw that memo out! :)

tgray: Darling pics. from the pumpkin patch. She's so cute. I love her little bob hair style!

[Carissa]

tgray cute pics!

We so need to get our butts in gear to the pumpkin patch :)

[rancherswife]

We so need to get our butts in gear to the pumpkin patch


Us too carissa, we're lagging, we keep saying we're gonna do it, then by the end of the day, when dh is home, we're too tired or Landon's melting down about something! Maybe tonight or tomorrow evening!

[psusna]

tgr: Look at her riding all by herself! What a big girl!

trgay: Yay for the trip home -- that's wonderful! I love the pumpkin pictures and her sweater is just the best.

Alicia: everything I've read and what the drs say is that teething can't cause the diaper messes but I beg to differ in a big way. Based on my experience, the experiences of his teachers at school and friends of the family it happens. Changes in odor and texture. Gross!!

Tantrums: DS hits himself on the head and pulls his hair. The hair pulling is new and taking the place of hitting himself. I tried something new last night during a tantrum. He laid on the floor and started to get fired up and I laid down next to him. He rolled over and gave me a hug, got up and was fine! It happened again so I did the same thing and he snuggled up to me and we read some books. He was overtired last night.

[tgray99]

Thanks, y'all!

[allyray231]

Tantrums Aiden either trys to head butt you (if you are holding him) or will roll around on the floor. Fun times :)

[happy1nuv]

Nic likes to spin in circles screaming and then plop down on his butt while increasing the volume... He hasn't figured out the head banging thing yet, but he's getting REAL good at the circles/screaming thing... There's a church on the corner that always has fun quotes on their sign...todays was "Practice makes perfect so be careful what you practice" .... Ummm, too late! This kid LOVES his signing times videos, but REFUSES to sign anything except "more" ...and that can mean a WIDE variety of things too (usually more cookies or more bananas, regardless of what we're actually eating)

[tgray99]

Tantrums: Aidan demonstrated one of her tantrums today. She "threw herself onto the floor" which means that she looked down at where she wanted to go on the floor, laid down carefully then proceeded to yell and whine. I have a cautious drama queen. ;)

[allyray231]

So my kid hates Gymboree.

Both last week and today at free gym he freaks. LAst week at class he was fine when no one was there but the minute the kids were playing he got upset and wouldn't do anything. Today at free gym he just screamed and cried and wouldn't play

Oh god-do I have a timid kid on my hands??? Thoughts

[happy1nuv]

tgray ~ hahahahahahaha.... (have you ever seen the video clip that shows the kid having a fit in front of the camera, camera moves, kid stops tantrum and gets up and follows, then resumes tantrum once more in full view of camera?)

ally~We do aardvarks (music class) and the first class, nic was clingy but not overly so. Second class he was all over the place...had a ball! Third class, would NOT leave my arms and had the i'm shy head thing going... after class the teacher told me that it was normal and half expected... sometimes it will just seem more overwhelming to them than others... and all you can do is keep bringing them... ;)

This is a good article I thought...about feeding toddlers (although I think a lot of the advice is for older toddlers... is anyone's kid dipping stuff they eat? Maybe I just need to let Nic experiment more...)
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030800.asp

[allyray231]

Thanks Happy. The first class he was great -granted I was there with him and the nanny. Last time he played alone but today NOTHING. I hope he gets used to it

[HedgeGirl]

ally: No real advice, but DS is pretty reserved and takes a while to get acclimated to new environments and new people. He is usually very clingy any time we go somewhere new or if there are alot of people around but I also know that he enjoys just observing. When he's ready he'll join in and play. That was definitely the case with our music together class. The first session he just observed. By the 2nd session he actually started interacting. Now, I can't keep him close to me.

[rancherswife]

tgray: That tantrum sounds very familiar! Landon learned about the second time he threw a tantrum, our aggregate is hard on the head.:( So, he gently puts himself to the ground and then continues on!:rolleyes: They're smart little buggers!

ally: Landon's pretty timid in new places too. It normally takes him a while to warm up, but once he does, what out!:eek:

So, we didn't go to the pumpkin patch like we had planned, again! My mom called on her way home from work and wanted to know if she could pick Landon up and she and my dad could have dinner w/ him and spend time w/ him this evening. They're leaving on a trip tomorrow morning, God forbid they don't see him for a couple of days! ;) They don't know how lucky they are, I should have her read our board and see how many of you girls don't have mama's close by. So, dh and I feasted on breakfast..yum! And now we're just waiting for Landon to get home, bathed and ready for bed! Nice to get a break for the night. :)

[alienhost]

tgr cute costume and videos!

tgray cute pics too!

crayons she actually used them for 15-20 minutes without eating them. I think it helped that I had her at the living room coffee table (covered with a large paper grocery bag that I cut the bottom off) rather than in the high chair. :)

rancherswife did you have breakfast for dinner? I did that tonight - DH is at a football game and I love breakfast for dinner, DH not so much ;)

[rancherswife]

alien:YES! Too funny, my dh isn't fond of it either, but it's what I wanted, and damn it, if I'm cookin', I'm pickin'! ;) It was delicious!!!

[allyray231]

Thanks guys-I hope he grows out of it. I want him to have fun :)

holding pee at night So the last few nights Aiden's morning diaper has been dry. I don't think there is anything wrong because once I change his diaper he pees right away and pees a ton during the day. Yesterday his diaper was wet when he woke up but today it wasn't. He had 5 ounces of milk before bed. Thoughts???

[cynder]

He's started to show signs of being able to control is bladder overnight and hence closer to being able to potty train. It's a good sign.

[allyray231]

Cynder that is what I am thinking. Might have to go get a potty :O

[Sasha]

Ally - Sounds like it could be time for you to start trying some potty training! ;)

Tgray - Adorable pics! I love Aidan's sweater.

Crayons - She still prefers to eat them mostly. Draw for a minute, then start chewing on them. :rolleyes:

Tantrums - We're going through them quite a bit. Sarah used to hit her head on the floor (maybe around 11 months) but she doesn't do that anymore. Now she just screams, kicks and cries. Oh yeah, and throws if anything is in her hand.

Ok, two questions.....

1. Sarah has this horrible diaper rash right now. I suspect that might be one of the reasons why we're going through so many fits, because the poor thing just isn't comfortable. We're using Butte Paste to try and clear it up and putting water on the wipes too. Her daycare is going to change her frequently today. What else do you guys do to help clear up a really bad rash?

2. Babysitters. My MIL is our primary babysitter, but she was unavailable, so Sarah's beloved infant room teacher from daycare volunteered to babysit for us on Saturday night. She is probably in her late 30's/early 40's, so it's not like she is some teenage kid coming to babysit. What should I do for her for dinner? She's coming at 6:30pm, so Sarah will probably be done with her dinner by then and she will have to eat dinner after Sarah goes to sleep at 8pm. Do I have a frozen pizza for her? Leave her extra money to order food? Sandwich meats? What do you guys think?

[alienhost]

Ok, two questions.....

1. Sarah has this horrible diaper rash right now. I suspect that might be one of the reasons why we're going through so many fits, because the poor thing just isn't comfortable. We're using Butte Paste to try and clear it up and putting water on the wipes too. Her daycare is going to change her frequently today. What else do you guys do to help clear up a really bad rash?

2. Babysitters. My MIL is our primary babysitter, but she was unavailable, so Sarah's beloved infant room teacher from daycare volunteered to babysit for us on Saturday night. She is probably in her late 30's/early 40's, so it's not like she is some teenage kid coming to babysit. What should I do for her for dinner? She's coming at 6:30pm, so Sarah will probably be done with her dinner by then and she will have to eat dinner after Sarah goes to sleep at 8pm. Do I have a frozen pizza for her? Leave her extra money to order food? Sandwich meats? What do you guys think?

Diaper Rash DD had a horrible one 2-3 months ago and I actually used paper towels soaked in luke warm water to clean her up - the wipes really sting. I then dried her bottom with a tissue. I applied Balmex/Desitin type cream (I think the Butte paste is better but I couldn't find it). I've heard people recommend allowing them to dry a bit by leaving the diaper off but that just wasn't an option with squirmy girl and I didn't want her crawling around diaper free. I changed her every 2-2.5 hours when possible.

Babysitter good question, not really sure. Can you ask her beforehand if she will have eaten before she comes over or what you can leave her? I think leaving a frozen pizza is a good idea and maybe have some sandwich stuff on hand is good too so she'll have options.

[psusna]

Ally: Agree with Cynder and Sasha

Sasha: regarding the rash – I use A&D Gold, Desitin or Aquaphor. Also, make sure that it is truly a diaper rash. About a month ago DS had what I thought was a bad diaper rash but after using A&D, Desitin and Aquaphor for 3-4 days it was not any better. I looked it up online and he had a yeast infection! I treated with Monistat cream (after talking with the ped. nurse), of all things, each night and it was gone in two days. It was ever so slightly raised, very red and had a scaly appearance. – re: babysitter dinner: I agree with Alien.

[alienhost]

psusna good call on the yeast infection, now I recall that I did use some nystatin cream (had a prescription of it from a previous bad diaper rash) but my ped did say Monistat over the counter would have been fine.

ally sounds like it's time for a potty! DD is no where close at night, her diaper in the AM is so heavy, I'm tempted to weigh it on a scale but somehow putting a dirty diaper on a food scale doesn't seem like a good idea. ;)

[Carissa]

Tantrums Grace screams bloody murder and cries she hasn't started throwing herself on the floor yet but I am sure that will happen soon.

rancherswife I am so jealous of your time alone with DH, we have to hire a babysitter in order to get a long time, I can't wait until my folks come up for Christmas.

Crayons Grace loves to color she doesn't eat them but she will draw on everything in site, the floor, teh walls etc that is why we have to watch her very closely.

Babysitter Our teenage babysitter usually eats before she comes, I also ask her if she wants me to leave or pick something up for her but since she usually comes from her retail job she just picks something up on her way. But I also have easy stuff around in case she get's hungry, pizza, hot dogs, hot pockets and let her know they are there if she wants any.

[Sasha]

psusna - OMG, thank you for that information!! I looked up the yeast infection and that is exactly what she has! I just talked to the ped. and she said to treat it with Lotrimen three times a day. Thank you so much for your help!

[allyray231]

Sasha My niece has a yeast infection once as well. Probably what it is

Well we did much better at Gymboree today. Of course that was because there were 2 girls in the class and Aiden spent his time chasing them around :)

[psusna]

Sasha: Excellent! Well, not excellent about the rash but yay for cracking the case :) I hope that getting it treated cheers her up for the weekend. It should go away fairly fast.

Ally: Too funny! I guess you need to make sure there is always a little girl there for him to chase. Sounds just like Jackson -- that's why he loves school it's him, his pal Mason and 4 girls!

[happy1nuv]

Sasha ~ Don't ya love cc sometimes? :) Hoping the yeast infection goes away quick now that you know what it is... and as far as the babysitter... I think a frozen pizza or cold cuts is fine... (I wouldn't buy something you guys wouldn't eat though...cause 6:30 is not too late for her to have already eaten herself too...)

ally ~ yay for having fun! :)

Ok...help. I finally stopped nursing nic to sleep and naps are fine. Once I stopped nursing though, I got nap time and dh is now taking nights... Nic is now up til 9-9:30. UGH!! And, a total grouch in the morning cause he didn't get enough sleep (his wake time didn't change)... So, we switched to bottles at bedtime, but I want to stop those as well... (he usually doesn't fall asleep on the bottle...it's bottle, try to play, then eventually curl up with daddy and pass out... ) Any ideas? (Our routine is dinner, quiet playtime with the lights turned down 20 min before bedtime, watch tv while you get your diaper changed/into pjs, kiss mom goodnight, then go upstairs with daddy and a bottle. We've just added music for bottle time (but I need a different cd, since this one seems to rile him up) ... any ideas?

[DisneyGirl]

babysitter I would leave her money as well as a few option of other food that you have in your home. Also, be sure to let her know what she is aloud to eat and what she can have to drink. There is nothing worse then not knowing what you are able to eat or not eat.

[ahavnes]

Ugh. Abbey and I are BOTH teething. :rolleyes: I am getting another wisdom tooth in on the bottom and it hurst like h*ll. Now I know why Abs is such a crab. I really need to have them all taken out, but I had such a bad experience with the first one (no anesthesia and a bad dentist!) that I've delayed the other 3. :mad:

In other news...we've ditched the paci in our home and things are a little rough, but not as bad as we had expected. I think we were using it as a crutch more than Abbey was. :o

Sasha- We have the same kid! Abs has a diaper rash too, and she never gets them. I'll have to look and see if it looks like a yeast infection. As for the babysitter...ours is only 19, but when she came last weekend I made a big batch of Buitoni Tortellini (that you buy in the refrigerated section). That way Abbey could eat it early and the sitter could snack on it later if she wanted. Nobody hates pasta! :)

psusna- Have you read anything about diaper rash being connected to teething? I swear that also must be connected, but I don't understand how. :o

[HedgeGirl]

rash & teething: I seem to recall reading something about saliva changing when teething which can cause irritation/diaper rash...or maybe it was just the increased amounts of saliva/drool. Sorry I don't remember the details more clearly or where I read it...maybe the Sears Baby Book.

[allyray231]

Oh Alicia you are a strong woman to ditch the paci. I am still trying to get my kid off the bottle!!

I think with teething it is about the increase in saliva which can cause rash

[Carissa]

Speaking of paci's do you guys regret using one for your DC? Grace never took one but I am wanting to try to get Jonah to take one if he will. Just wanting some opinions, I know at times I wished Grace was a paci baby early on.

[alienhost]

Sasha glad you know exactly what it is now.

happy1nuv that sounds similar to our bedtime routine, maybe you can start the whole thing a bit sooner? We do dinner, playtime w/ daddy (sometimes some tv), bath, pjs, read a book and into bed. My goal is usually to get her in the crib no later than 7:30 or so. But we actually generally eat after she goes to bed b/c she wants to eat around 5:45/6 and I DH is barely home then.

ally he probably just needed a few sessions to get warmed up/familiar with the surroundings!

paci DD was never really intersted so I didn't push it. However she is a thumb sucker (generally only when she is tired or upset). I don't regret not getting her to use a paci, especially when I see older kids in the store still sucking on the paci (I swore I saw a 3 or 4 year old the other day - that seems a bit old to me). Hopefully DD won't be sucking her thumb in kindergarten or anything!

[tgray99]

Teething: I figured out why Aidan has been such a crankpot lately...after her bath while Ryan was changing her diaper I dug around in her mouth and counted 5 :eek: teeth that she's cutting! Poor baby! She has every right to be a big ol' grouchbucket!

We're leaving at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow to go home so I'll catch up with y'all on either Monday night or Tuesday afternoon. Aidan starts day care on Tuesday so I might be a bit of a basket case since I've been home with her every day of her life for 17 months! Wish me luck!

[psusna]

Alicia: Yep. DS has horrible diapers and a rash when he cuts teeth, like he is doing now -- ugh. One of his teachers in his last room at daycare taught me a lot about the signs and byproducts of teething...she could always tell when he was teething way before I could.

Paci: I always swore I wouldn't let DS get addicted BUT DH didn't share that view and now he's hooked. He's ok when it's out of sight/out of mind but when he's teething, he wants it 24/7. They say there is a window at 6-9 months when you can cut it out before they become attached as past that point it is just habit and not serving much of a true purpose for them. I knew it, but didn't go with my gut. I'm kicking myself. We decided that starting at 18 months it gets limited to bedtime only and then we wean him off by 24 months.

teething: He's cutting at least 2 on the bottom right now. Blech.

tgray: Have a BLAST this weekend!! Daycare will go great next week -- she'll do fine, but I know it will be an adjustment for you. It will get easier.

[DisneyGirl]

paci After what I went thru to get DS off the paci I vowed I would not give DD a paci and thankfully she never seemed to need one.

[tgray99]

Bapoo: Bapoo is Aidan's name for her beloved paci. She is seriously addicted and when she can't find it, she wanders around the house calling it, "Bapoo, bapoo!" She wouldn't take one at first then around 6 months all of a sudden she couldn't live without it. I have to make sure I have a few for the trip tomorrow. I haven't even begun to think about the drama that will ensue when we try to wean her from Bapoo.

[ahavnes]

Paci- Before she was born, I always swore that Abbey wouldn't ever get one, but that lasted about 2 days. :rolleyes: I don't regret it b/c it has saved our sanity nearly every day for the last 16 months. The weaning really hasn't been as bad I anticipated, given that she was a total addict. Ofcourse, we still allow it at bedtime, so I'm not sure how that battle will go. One day at a time. ;)

[cynder]

Paci We gave the paci (actual the finger) from the start since I'm a big believer in the 5 "S"s. He was pretty hard core on the Soothie paci for the first 6 months but then he kind of self weaned around maybe even before. It might be related to when we weaned from nursing, can't remember.

I have no regrets that he was a paci person longer. One less thing to worry about having around and one less thing to wean him from. His teacher noted that he usually is not a big biter either. I beg to differ b/c that's all he does now. There are times when were in public, when he's about to hit a wall that I kind of wish I could use a paci. But not really.

I have 2 friends who cut the nipples around 2 years and said it was broken and it was highly effective. Another gave a gift after giving the paci to the paci fairy.

Nightmares So I am on my own this weekend, and DS woke up at 10:30 last night!!!! Never done that as far as I can remember. I think he had a nightmare because he would not let me leave the room. I know there are some memos going around but what do you in this situation.

[tgr68]

Thanks everyone for the costume compliments! I can't wait to take her out in it!

tgray~Adorable pics! I have a cautious drama queen. LOL!

Ally~That is really impressive that he's staying dry overnight! I would'nt worry about it as long as he's having plenty throughout the day! Also, like Cynder said, you might want to look at introducing him to the potty.

Sasha~I would think that she would eat before she came over, but in the event that she doesn't, I think the frozen pizza or lunch meat sounds like a great idea! :)

Alicia~Hope both yours and Abbey's teething pain goes away soon!

Carissa~DD loved the Nuk pacifier by Gerber. Wouldn't hardly take anything else!

Cynder~When DD has a nightmare, I go ahead and take her out of her crib and try rocking her. If that doesn't work, I'll walk her around her room. Sometimes though, she wants an entire change of scenery, so I take her to mine and DH's room, since he's usually awake too by that point.

We are finishing up our yard sale here. DD ended up staying the night with ILs (was up twice during the night to play). I'm battling a headache now, so I'm trying to steer clear of the rest of the crew until I absolutely need to be outside to clean up. We did pretty well, but DH spent a good chunk of our profit on a trampoline for DD. :rolleyes:

[jmvan74]

Paci: I always swore I wouldn't let DS get addicted. He's ok when it's out of sight/out of mind but when he's teething, he wants it 24/7. We decided that starting at 18 months it gets limited to bedtime only and then we wean him off by 24 months.



This is exactly how I felt and our plan for getting rid of it is the same. I don't regret using it. It has saved my sanity many times.
At this point, it is more of a chew toy for DS while teething. He often falls asleep w/ out it, so i'm hoping it won't be too much of an ordeal.

[psusna]

DS was a mess today. The teething combined with a runny nose equaled tantrums to infinity and beyond. He's actually staying with the ILs tonight unplanned b/c the furnace for our first floor bit the dust today. It was 32 here last night and Jackson's poor teeth were chattering away this morning when he came downstairs. So, we sent him off where it's warm.

cynder: Like tgr said, getting DS out of his room is typically the key. We will go downstairs, get a drink, until I feel the tension leave his body then we go back up and back to bed.

jmvan: We can be paci partners when the time comes. I've also heard of Cynder's ideas of cutting and the tip and the paci fairy. We aren't that far in our strategy yet :) Hope you are feeling well and Brady is growing like a weed. He'll be here before you know it!

[rancherswife]

tgray: Hope you're enjoying your time w/ your family!!!

paci.: Refused it from the start. No he steals his cousin Madison's "baboo!" tgray I cracked up when I read what Aidan calls it, I'll have to share that w/ Madison's mom. Now Landon calls it a "baboo." He just likes to steal hers and chew on it. Not sure if I'll try w/ Reece. We'll see what works for him. ;)

Off to the Pumpkin Patch for sure today!

[HedgeGirl]

paci: We have always used it sparingly and currently only use it for sleep. I'm much less worried about weaning from the paci than the thumb (DH was a big thumb sucker and I've heard more horror stories about not being able to take away the thumb than the paci). No regrets here on using it.

[IrishEyes]

paci: we've used one since we were in the hospital after the birth and DS would not sleep unless he was sucking on something! But we've always restricted its use to sleeptime and that's worked well for us. I haven't regretted the decision.

[Sasha]

Paci - Sarah sporadically used one around 2 months old and then stopped using it by 4 months old. For a bit I thought she was going to be a thumb-sucker instead, but she quit that pretty quickly too. So, she never really used one, although there were some pretty inconsolable times that I wished she did!

Nightmares - We'll go in her room and usually rock her back to sleep. Sometimes it can take awhile.

Just to update, it turned out the babysitter had eaten before she arrived, but I was stocked with frozen food and sandwich meats, just in case! ;)

[psusna]

Two questions today:

1)Moms of sons – is your son deathly afraid of haircuts (specifically, clippers)? If so, what do you do to make the whole thing go more smoothly (we’ve tried holding, lollipops, etc. – nothing works and he needs a haircut in the next two weeks).

2)Travel question. Have you ever driven overnight with your DC? We would like to try an all-night drive at Thanksgiving. Put him to “bed” like normal, just in the car instead of his crib. This cuts down on stops and should allow us to get farther faster, etc. I’m wondering if he’s too young for this yet or if it will totally screw up his schedule. We would leave our house in GA between 7-8pm and arrive at my parent’s in PA between 6-7am. Thoughts?

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

[jmvan74]

jmvan: We can be paci partners when the time comes. I've also heard of Cynder's ideas of cutting and the tip and the paci fairy. We aren't that far in our strategy yet :) Hope you are feeling well and Brady is growing like a weed. He'll be here before you know it!

I've heard that trick, too. We haven't really thought too much about the particulars. I'm hoping he'll have all of his teeth by December, so he won't need it so much. :p Brady is a maniac! He is so active it can be nauseating. Other than that, things are going well. Thanks for thinking of him. ;) Hope your heat is fixed! Brrr.


Pumpkin patch: We hit one up this weekend, but the trip didn't last long. After about 20 minutes Collin had a melt down and we left. He's just so darned stubborn. Oh well. He enjoyed the petting zoo and watching the electric trains.

[allyray231]

psusna Aiden is fine with haircuts but we have only done the clippers once and that was at home to "clean up" what the person who did the hair cut missed. Maybe you could have them do the haircut at a kids place and do the clippers at home?

[psusna]

Ally: We did a kids place once and it was the worst of all haircut experiences (the woman was new, slow, trying too hard to entertain). He wasn’t having any of it. We’ve been taking him to the local barbershop and they will do scissors everywhere but the back they do the clippers and he freaks out so bad that most times they can’t finish. We can’t even think of doing a chain place like SuperCuts or anything b/c they are clippers all the way.

[jmvan74]

Haircuts: Collin freaks out! He screams and cries the whole time and we go to a kids place that uses scissors. I basically have to stand next to him and whisper in his ear just to keep him from flailing his head.

overnight travel: I've never done it, but have a friend who goes from GA to NJ overnight and her little one seems to fair well. The only problem is that by the time you get there you are ready for bed, but little one is ready for the daytime!

[DisneyGirl]

2)Travel question. Have you ever driven overnight with your DC? We would like to try an all-night drive at Thanksgiving. Put him to “bed” like normal, just in the car instead of his crib. This cuts down on stops and should allow us to get farther faster, etc. I’m wondering if he’s too young for this yet or if it will totally screw up his schedule. We would leave our house in GA between 7-8pm and arrive at my parent’s in PA between 6-7am. Thoughts?

hey, you are coming to my neck of the wood!! YEAH :D

The farthest I have ever driven with my kids was 6 hrs and we drove straight thru without stopping at bedtime and it wourk very well for us. However, i do realize that your drive it much more than 6hr more like 13 or so hr, but i still think that you should be fine and your DS should sleep just like he would as if he were at home.

[rancherswife]

Dropping off pics. from the pumpkin patch....


It was a nice sunny day..Landon had fun.

Here's dh and Landon, poor dh squeezed his 6'2'' self into the "farm train w/ Landon:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k15/rancherswife/landonanddaddy-train.jpg

Landon and his cousin Madison:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k15/rancherswife/landonandmadison-standing.jpg

Landon and Mommy:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k15/rancherswife/landonandmommy.jpg

Sorry if they're so big

[allyray231]

OMG where did our babies go!! Look at all these BIG BOYS!!

rancherswife you look great!

[cynder]

rancherswife You look AWESOME and your family is too adorable.

Haircuts We've had one every month since last Nov. so I feel well versed in this. At first we started at a kids only salon and had great luck because he got to sit in a plane and watch TV which he never got to see at home so he was mesmerized. She started with scissors and then used a moustache (small) clipper to clean up the sides. We went there for a fall but I thought I would try DH's Sports Clip place because it was cheapers. They have TVs there too and it's loud and distracting but the awesome guy who was there left. So now we're back at the kid's place. DS has so much hair that I rather spend good money to get it right and last longer.

I always ask them to start with the scissors and end with minimally clipping. One time both DH and I had to hold him but since he's getting more and more used to it, it's not bad now.

Pumpkins We hit the patch but it was so sunny that DS is squinting in all of our photos. Man did this kid like the tractor and hay ride. Ours had a Brownie troop and DS was in heaven with all the motor noise and watching the squealing girls.

[allyray231]

rancherswife B]Haircuts[/B] We've had one every month since last Nov. so I feel well versed in this. At first we started at a kids only salon and had great luck because he got to sit in a plane and watch TV which he never got to see at home so he was mesmerized. She started with scissors and then used a moustache (small) clipper to clean up the sides. We went there for a fall but I thought I would try DH's Sports Clip place because it was cheapers. They have TVs there too and it's loud and distracting but the awesome guy who was there left. So now we're back at the kid's place. DS has so much hair that I rather spend good money to get it right and last longer.

I always ask them to start with the scissors and end with minimally clipping. One time both DH and I had to hold him but since he's getting more and more used to it, it's not bad now.


This is what we do. He has had 3 hair cuts already and needs another one soon

[rancherswife]

WOW! Thank you for the compliments! I need to come here when I'm feeling fat and frumpy, like was feeling Saturday night while getting ready to go to a wedding.

We had fun yesterday. Landon would have rather bowled w/ the pumpkins than do anything else w/ them. He LOVED the farm train ride w/ daddy though, wasn't happy to get off, but dh couldn't take much more w/ his legs practically to his chin. ;)

haircuts: Landon has only had two, one w/ no clippers, right before his b-day and then one w/ clippers. He did fine until the clippers came out. But she was actually pretty quick about it. He's due for another one, so we'll see what happens. Probably do it this week sometime.

ally: I KNOW!!! Where DID our babies go?????? :(

[KGif]

Overnight Trip
I've taken Jack on an overnight trip (to the beach, relative's houses) BUT never one where we've driven all night.

Haircuts
Jack if fine with the haircuts we've given him (as long as his paci is in his mouth AND Play with me Sesame is on tv.). Fine, that is, until we break out the clippers. So what do we do? We just don't use the clippers every time. Sure he's not as "polished" as he could be but I don't mind. I hate feeling like I am scaring the beejezus out of him :)

Pumpkin Patch
My husband had the day off last week and kept Jack home with him for a "guys day". They went to this pumpkin patch around here that goes ALL OUT and puts up a "fall festival". They have all kinds of slides, hay tunnels, rope swings, unlimited hayrides, cider and apples to enjoy while you are there. They do it everyday this month. On weekends there are some extras like live entertainment and face painting. Anyway Mike and Jack went last week Tuesday and apparently Jack had a BLAST! He wasn't scared of the big slides (Mike went down with him of course!). He loved the hay tunnels. He wasn't such a big fan of apple cider tho. Oh, and he got his own little pumpkin to take home. Very cool!

Paci
Yep. Jack uses one. Usually only when he's sleeping tho.

[alienhost]

psusna/haircuts Did you try Snip-Its? It looks like they have a nice set up. My DD still does not have enough hair for a cut!

any other thumb suckers out there or do I have the only one? Sounds like most of your DC use the paci or nothing, any other thumb suckers?

rancherswife you look great and cute pics of Landon too!

[rancherswife]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while and keep forgetting. Does anyone elses dc put their hands down your shirt, EVERY TIME YOU HOLD THEM???? Landon has started doing this, actually has been for about a month now and it's driving me crazy! He'll do it especially when he's tired and wants to lay down. You'd think I still nursed him. ;) He probably wishes I still did, crazy kid! :)

[diedra1027]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while and keep forgetting. Does anyone elses dc put their hands down your shirt, EVERY TIME YOU HOLD THEM???? Landon has started doing this, actually has been for about a month now and it's driving me crazy! He'll do it especially when he's tired and wants to lay down. You'd think I still nursed him. ;) He probably wishes I still did, crazy kid! :)Yes, we've got this here too. She'll even squeal out a 'Boobies!!' every once in a while while she's fishing around in there. Definitely her father's daughter ;).

Taking Clothes off - Did someone's ped ask them if their DC was taking off their clothes? Did we ever determine what particular milestone this was attached too? Avery recently started removing her pants ALL.THE.TIME and I don't find it as cute as it sounded before it was a daily happening in our house :rolleyes:.

[DisneyGirl]

Tgray I know you told me this already ..but what is that web side where they sell Xwide shoes. I need to find a pair of x-mas shoes for Nikki.

Thanks!

[tgr68]

Operation No Paci~Best of luck to those of you starting to wean DC from the paci. Hope it's a smooth transition!

Travel~We haven't done an all night drive, but we have arrived to my aunt & uncle's house as late as 12:30am. We just let DD sleep in the car during the 6 hour drive. It seemed to work fine.

Rancherswife~You look great!! Landon is getting so big!

Deidra~My ped didn't ask us this, but Shylah does it. There have been quite a few mornings where I've walked into her room to find her with her pants off!

[psusna]

Thanks to everyone for your posts today re: haircuts and night-drives.

I feel better knowing that DS isn't the only one that freaks about haircuts. This will be his 4th or 5th one so I would think he would be used to it by now. We'll see how it goes. We are going back to the neighborhood barber.

As for the night driving, I'im glad to ehar that it has worked for a few people. I think we are going to give it a shot. I'll just plop him in the carseat in his pj's with a blanket and his pup-pup and see what happens.

taking clothes off: Our ped asked this question at 15mo. I found it in the baby book as a milestone for 24 months, I believe. I'm not sure what it is a sign of, but DS tried to take his shirt off for the first time tonight -- it was button down so not much success but he tried to unbutton it.

rancherswife: Landon is so cute!! Great photos. You look AWESOME!

[KGif]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while and keep forgetting. Does anyone elses dc put their hands down your shirt, EVERY TIME YOU HOLD THEM???? Landon has started doing this, actually has been for about a month now and it's driving me crazy! He'll do it especially when he's tired and wants to lay down. You'd think I still nursed him. ;) He probably wishes I still did, crazy kid! :)

We have something similar ... Jack will grab the neckline of my shirt and pull it down, then look down my shirt! he particulary likes to do it whilst we are grocery shopping. I'll be distracted looking at my grocery list and WHAMO! he sneaks a pull and there I am standing with my boobs exposed for all to see. Ain't that sweet!? ;)

Edited to add...

Ranchers - I officially hate you for looking SO damn good while pregnant! Hee hee. You are my role model for pregnancy if we have anorher. :)

[allyray231]

Oh Aiden has started the pulling down of the shirt-esp if I have something low cut one.

[KGif]

Tgray I know you told me this already ..but what is that web side where they sell Xwide shoes. I need to find a pair of x-mas shoes for Nikki.

Thanks!

I know you wern't asking me but thought I'd butt in anyway :) We have wide feet here too (Jack is actually a DOUBLE extra wide!). Preschoolians:

www.Preschoolians.com

are supposed to be great for wide feet. I have some on the way so I will let you know how they work out. You can sign up on their site to receive a free meauring device to ensure you're getting the proper fit. The shoes come with 3 different "footbeds" that you can put in or take out to adjust for width! When you sign up for the measuring device you'll also get a first time customer code for 10 or 15 % (can't remember which!) off you'r first pair of shoes. So far the customer service has been awesome - I SO hope the shoes work for Jack.

[psusna]

Flashing: Oh yea. Pulls it down, pulls it up and shots "bellybutton!" -- so much fun in the middle of the grocery store.

[DisneyGirl]

I know you wern't asking me but thought I'd butt in anyway :) We have wide feet here too (Jack is actually a DOUBLE extra wide!). Preschoolians:

www.Preschoolians.com

are supposed to be great for wide feet. I have some on the way so I will let you know how they work out. You can sign up on their site to receive a free meauring device to ensure you're getting the proper fit. The shoes come with 3 different "footbeds" that you can put in or take out to adjust for width! When you sign up for the measuring device you'll also get a first time customer code for 10 or 15 % (can't remember which!) off you'r first pair of shoes. So far the customer service has been awesome - I SO hope the shoes work for Jack.

Thanks so much....I usually buy her shoes from the stride right, however I really don't want to be spending 55 bucks on fancy x-mas shoes that she will only be wearing for a few days over the course of a month and most of the time I am sure they won't even be in the x-mas photo.
Thanks again
hope the shoes work out very well for you.

[Carissa]

haircuts Well Grace hasn't had her first haircut yet but she did go with me to get my haircut yesterday and freaked out when she saw me getting my hair done.

Thanks for your opinions on the paci.
We were suppose to go to the pumpkin patch yesterday but got rained out :( we will try again this weekend.

[ahavnes]

The paci wars continue. :rolleyes: My sweet little Abbey has been a total grump over the last few days. I think it's probably related to paci withdrawl. Today her daycare teacher said that she cried almost the whole day b/c she couldn't have a paci and saw all of the other babies with theirs. Ugh. I told her that it was ok if she found one on the floor at daycare, but not to give her one in any other case. Does that sound ok? This is hard!

Haircuts- I don't have a little boy, but my girl needs a haircut once a month. No lie. We have done the kids place with the dvd player, but she seems to do better if I just put her on my lap at a normal hair place. (Although it does mean I end up with itchy baby hair all over me. :rolleyes: )

Hands down shirt- Abbey has been doing this off and on for a while. Especially this summer at the pool. Not sure what that's about?!

Taking clothes off- Thanks goodness no! :)

rancherswife- What cute pictures!

[psusna]

Alicia: Oh no! I’m so sorry. I know that is how Jackson will react as well which is why I dread it. I guess giving her something like a transition object of a blanket would just fan the flames, huh? Then you break her of the paci but she’s dragging around a blanket! Keep us posted on her progress paci-less!

[kimthebride]

DS only puts his hands down my shirt when they are very very cold. Brrr! I just went and bought him some mittens today.

Paci
DS uses one, but I buy the ones with gum-massaging bumps on them. I notice he usually chews on them rather than sucks. he seems to only suck when using it to sleep. He does fall asleep and self-sooth without it, but I am just too tired/sick to deal with an intervention right now. :o Soon enough. As long as he doesn't have it when he's 2 I'll be fine.

Haircuts
Ha ha ha - he hasn't even had ONE haircut yet. Takes after his fine-haired mama. Maybe we'll get him a trim before the holidays...

Overnight Drive
We've done a bedtime drive. We put him in his pjs, with the blanket and paci and didn't talk to him. We took off right at bedtime, but it didn't go so well.
I ended up having to sit in back with him (we NEVER do this, never had unless there were 3 adults in the car) to keep him calm and happy.

rancherswife
You look fantastic (*cough* b**ch *cough*)!!! :D

[Sasha]

Haircuts - Sarah isn't even close to having enough hair to warrant a haircut. At the rate she's going, we figure she won't need her first haircut until she is 3 years old! DH and I were both baldies as babies too, so she really didn't have a chance. :p

Hands down the shirt - Sarah will totally grab my shirt and pull it down. So embarrassing in the middle of the mall or at my ILs house. :o

Taking off clothes - We apparently haven't reached that milestone yet!

Rancherswife - Landon is so adorable and you look amazing!

Alicia - I'm sorry paci withdrawal isn't going so well. I think the idea of giving her a blankie is a good one. Sarah doens't have a paci but certainly does drag her blankie around the house from time to time!

[tgr68]

Haircut~For those of you who are wanting to grow DD's hair out, how often are you cutting it? Shylah's hair is getting so scraggly looking, but I don't want to cut too much if any at all. I want it all the same length, so I'm not wanting to cut bangs. And, I know we are going to hit a weird growing out phase, but her hair is constantly in her eyes right now.