March 2007 Moms & Babes....growing so fast!

[danalou]

Mia - DD has the home at daycare and the kitchen at home and loves them both!! As others said it is by far they are her favorite toys!!

Tandis - You are going to have your hands full once they both start crawling!!

[Tandis]

Dana - V has been crawling for about two weeks :) I posted it here, but I think it got missed when we were all talking about whether we were staying or going to LJ.

Update on A's crawling - I was just at my parents' for lunch, and tried to get Audrey to show them how she can crawl. She has now modified what she's doing, so that rather than slowly scoot her knees forward, she is doing a downward facing dog (if you know the yoga position), and then hopping her feet forward to land on her knees! It moves her forward slighly and she seems to like this better than actually crawling :rolleyes: Have I mentioned that with my daughter, she'll do something once, and then never again? Like, once was enough to show she can do it, so she sees no reason to repeat it? I'm hoping crawling isn't going to fall into that category for her.

[danalou]

Tandis - I must have missed that one!! Too funny about the downward dog position as she might be a yoga nut soon.

[Kanga]

laugh and learn home - after all the recalls I said I was never buying plastic toys anymore, especially MIC but we're going to make an exception for this one. Just trying to hunt down a good deal on one. I know it's worth it even for full price, but being the bargain shopper that I am I really don't want to pay $70 for it.

[Janey]

Audrey is *finally* crawling! :D I'm so proud of her. It was only for a little bit last night while she was trying to get the phone, but at least it was progress and better than what she has been doing :D

I swear though, is she the last baby in this thread to crawl?

Tandis - K just started crawling last week. I'm glad to know there are others on our schedule! ;)

[ieducate]

laugh and learn home - after all the recalls I said I was never buying plastic toys anymore, especially MIC but we're going to make an exception for this one. Just trying to hunt down a good deal on one. I know it's worth it even for full price, but being the bargain shopper that I am I really don't want to pay $70 for it.

Kanga, we have the laugh and learn home and LOVE, LOVE it. We bought it way too early, as she barely looked at it at first, but now she is really into it. She loves to open and close the door, ring the doorbell, and play with the letters that go in the mailbox. She is also using it to pull herself up a bit and it is very sturdy. Hard as anything to put together though...I warn you that it took me hours to put this thing together...there are many pieces and they have to go together in a certain order to work together. It was quite the pain, but worth it when all done. This one didn't have the recall...even though the laugh and learn kitchen did. I like this one because it is smaller than the kitchen. I think you will like it too.

[miaclear]

ieducate....thanks for the warning. I was debating about wraping it up for him to open, or putting it together and bringing it out for him. I think we better put it together first ;)

[Tandis]

Mia - We let the girls open it for Xmas, and then the box sat for about two weeks before we could open it. It was cute because the girls kept pounding on the box and looking at us, as if telling us that they wanted to play with it. :) We put it together after they went to bed one night (only took me maybe an hour to put it together? Lots of screws.), and they were so excited the next day when they saw it in the Living Room. In fact, it was back when they were both sick, and they actually forgot they weren't feeling well for a couple hours while they played with it. :)

[betsyboop]

I just posted this in my LJ, but Walmart (at least the one near me) is having a huge sale on toys- all the stuff in the sale are is $1. They had sit n' spins, wooden train sets, dress up clothes, Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch dolls, puzzles, etc. I got a cart load of stuff for $13. Most of it is stuff she'll have to grow into, but I couldn't pass up the deal!

[ieducate]

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU. I hope that you all have a very special and relaxing day. :)

[Tandis]

So for those of you with the Laugh & Learn Home:

What the heck are the lyrics to the counting song? Specifically between "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" and "I'd love to count again!". Seriously, it sounds like they're speaking German and it's driving DH and I crazy trying to figure it out.

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday, Noah!

[shimmerstar]

Little Mia- Thanks so much!

We had a good day and I have to say, this past year has been a blur! I will post pics of his party this weekend.

[betsyboop]

Oh, Littlemia beat me to it- I was just coming in to wish Noah a happy birthday!

[shimmerstar]

Thanks Betsy!
He is getting his shots today except for the MMR- we are getting that this summer. He seems to have the same slight cold I have, and I know they say it's okay to still get shots when they are mildly sick, but I'm still worried.

[ieducate]

So for those of you with the Laugh & Learn Home:

What the heck are the lyrics to the counting song? Specifically between "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10" and "I'd love to count again!". Seriously, it sounds like they're speaking German and it's driving DH and I crazy trying to figure it out.

Oh my goodness...I am so glad you brought this up. My dh and I have been trying DESPERATELY to figure out those darn words. I have no idea. I cannot for the life of me figure them out. If you find someone who knows...let me know.

[ieducate]

Shimmer, happy day late birthday to Noah. Sorry I forgot to come back on here and post a message to him yesterday. Hope his first birthday was great. We definitely want to see pics.

[danalou]

Happy Belated 1st Birthday Noah!!

[Brink]

Happy Belated First Birthday Noah!

[Orion]

I just announced this in my LJ so I thought I better come over here and announce it too....I'm pregnant! OMG...and as Kanga pointed out to me over in LJ...three under three! Wow.

[ieducate]

Orion, CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!! That is awesome. When are you due? I am so excited for you...and nervous for you. Congrats.

[Tandis]

Happy belated birthday Noah!

Congrats Orion! :D

ieducate - Glad we're not the only ones who can't figure it out ;)

[shimmerstar]

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

At his appt today he weighed 23 lbs, and was 30.5 inches. I took issue with the way she weighed and measured him though. She went really quickly and didn't let the scale come to rest, but oh well. I love his doctor. I told him I didn't want the MMR today because his party was tomorrow, and he said "well, let's just wait for everything then". I never would have expected a doctor to suggest that.

His right foot is turned in the maximum amount before they intervene. Mine was too and I had to have a brace. He has fluid in his ears, and possible reflux, asthma, or allergies. He also said it might just be virus after virus. Poor kid!


Orion, congrats! You must have every emotion possible right now!

[MrsKinnison]

Happy Belated Birthday Noah!!!

Congratulations Orion! How far along are you?

Laugh & Learn ~ after 1,2,3,4...10 it says "wasn't that the best, I would love to count again."

[Tandis]

MrsK - Thank you! You don't know how much that has bothered us - or how many different phrases we heard ;)

*********

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of my girls:

A is left, V is right in both pics.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m21/tandis1/IM000437.jpg?t=1203188838

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m21/tandis1/IM000431.jpg?t=1203188801

[Brink]

Orion - wow, huge congrats! Three under three - it's not so bad!

[Orion]

Congratulations Orion! How far along are you?

Thank you! I am due in October but I'm not really sure of the exact date as my AF's are never regular and I've always O'd late. Based on the date of my LMP my due date would be October 2 but I'm guessing it to be the 10 - 15th. I will get a dating u/s just to make sure but I'm guessing that I'm around six weeks right now! I'm still very much in shock but very happy!

[danalou]

Orion - That is great news -> CONGRATS!!

[whitlockan]

Happy Belated Bday Noah

Congrats Orion!!

Ok crazy baby will try to come back to post more!

[MarriedaGoalie]

Congratulations Orion!! I don't know how you do it, but that's awesome! You will definitely have your hands full!

So, I have a question... Carter is starting to get to the point where his legs are getting really scrunched up against the seat (since his car seat is still rear facing). Unfortunately, he still has over a month until his first birthday when we can turn him around. What do I do in this situation? Any suggestions?

[shimmerstar]

Mag, everything I have heard says you can just have their legs scrunched. Noah's are pretty scrunched too, and I plan on leaving him rear-facing until he reaches the weight limit.

[whitlockan]

I am going to try to make this fast, we just got back from the park and he is out but who knows how long that will last!!!

Carseat Z's are really scrunched as well, this is a huge point of contention for us, DH thinks that his legs being like that are much more unsafe then him being RF at 1 year (wont turn around before obviously). I want to keep him RF until the maximum limits on the seat but we are in constant disagreement over this....funny you brough it up.

Shoes we just went to stride rite and they measured his foot at 4.5......I think I am going to go to another stride rite and have them remeasured, I dont think this kid is already in a size 5 shoe.....I can just never feel his toe so I never know! I feel like going to the outlet and seeing if they have any XW in 5s or whatever size and taking these back, there not my favorite and I know the outlet store has these pair. Argh......

Biting ARGH I think he is on a nursing strike, he will not nurse and always insists on biting, so today he has had nothing but sippy cups, but I am wondering if he is teething still because his gums are white in some spots. Oh well still not giving up and if he continues I guess it means I will just have to EP.

Background - Xposted from LJ:

Birthday Update:
Well I feel a sense of relief all of the stuff on my end for Zachary's b-day party in both Virginia and Indiana are done! Both locations can make the cake so here is his cake; they cant do fondant but will try to smooth over the icing as best as possible...the frog will be cake too:

http://pics.livejournal.com/seebwifeweebmom/pic/0000e8za/s320x240

His smash cake will be a lilly pad - both are vanilla with buttercream icing.

I got all his ballons; candy (gummy toads); birthday boy shirts and frog beach balls in the mail - sitll waiting for jelly bellys. My mom and SIL has to: pick up all the serving dishes/pitchers, table cloths, silverware/cups/plates/napkins and mason jars. Our ballon boquets are on order but of course require same day pick up - they are mailing me color samples.

We got all the invites out in the mail last night - DH was very happy he was so sick of them, took a while to please me it seemed but we did them at home, actually turned out better than in lab at Ritz....here they are; thats a low image scan of the one we printed from our printer:

http://pics.livejournal.com/seebwifeweebmom/pic/0000fkws/s320x240

**I know the aiden is larger but my DH was sick of me staring at this for hours and told me to get over it....oh well.

Update on normal life:

Hmm lets see where do I begin, so much has happend this week/weekend....

V-day:
I got up, no v-day gift so of course I left the house in a really bad mood, we had a meeting at work and we had just mentioned what we had recieved and I of course said nothing as always and explained how DH doesnt believe in it, and then in walked a lady with a dozen long stemmed red roses, box of chocolates and a bear and we were all joking about how they were probably for me and what woud you know they were for me! I was pretty excited about it, they are still alive and healthy this morning!!! This is where the story gets bad, I didnt like how tall they were, didnt realize they were long stem (well didnt even think about it) I took them to the kitchen and cut a good amount of the ends to make them fit better into the vase.....yeah I know you dont have to tell me, everyone pretty much freaked out when I walked back out. DH got a box of Godiva chocolates from me! Zachary got a box of chocolates for all his teachers they were all pretty happy.

Friday:
Our network went down at work at 10:45 so after lunch I just left, DH had an interview in Richmond so he got home 5 min after I did, we spent time together and then went to get Z. He gets really excited when we both show up to pick him up from school. Afterwards we went to TRU and picked him up a ball pit and 2 bags of 100 balls each. We put it up and had some fun. DH had a friend come over that night and Z and I were playing in the ball pit, his friend saw me in it and laughed so hard then later that night he was like wait thats a ball pit , its like a real life :chuckie cheese" at home....haha! After he left we went were getting ready for bed and we turned our head for like 5 seconds and Z had taken all the sides off his walker wagon and was using it as a skateboard. I caught him out of the corner of my eye and we could not believe it. He was standing in it yes but seriously moving it back and forth, how he kept his balance no idea, this kid is a dare devil! **BTW after trying to continue to do this all this morning, it has been put up, that is just an accident waiting to happen!
http://pics.livejournal.com/seebwifeweebmom/pic/0000gfex/s320x240
http://pics.livejournal.com/seebwifeweebmom/pic/0000kp07/s320x240
Weekend Edition:

Saturday:
We attempted to clean up but that didnt work......we went to the climbing wall/gym and spent 2 hours there in the morning, Z loves it so much, free run of a padded area to just go for it all, he loves touching the hand and foot holds too, always a good time! After that we came home and did what felt like nothing the rest of the day.

Sunday:
We went yesterday to CompUSA (well actually target but saw there closing signs) ventured in and got an epson high def phot printer for 89.99 retails over 300!!! After that we went to a few furniture stores just to look and then dinner at Olive Garden and then home and DH slaved over the invites, lets just say they took longer than what you ever need to put into a 1st birthday party!

Today:
Happy Presidents Day, I am at home with Z since school is closed. **A side note about school, I took him on Friday and was so impressed at 6:20 he goes to the door and stands there until you leave, thats what time him and dad normally leave its so amazing that he knows its time to go. Also when you pick him up you put his coat on him and say lets go and he waves bye and walks to the door. Kids are amazing! Anyways, just waiting for the offer letter to come in, we really want to move to Richmond, better schools, more money (DH will not take a pay cut and made that very clear) and bigger single family house/bigger yard for the cost of a brand new townhouse. There is even a Goddard School right up from the office......keeping my fingers crossed, they did give him a relocation package to review and said that he was exactly what they were looking for so thats all positive vibes right!?!

[shimmerstar]

Well, our birthday party was a hit! It was so much fun. I will post pics as soon as stupid flickr is done uploading them.

Noah is getting better with his communication skills. He will hold up his arms to you when he wants up, and will give kisses and hugs. He waves sometimes and grabs at something when he wants it. I think he's signing "milk" for everything that he wants. :p He also said mama several times today and I think he actually meant it.

I am on my deathbed. Seriously, the pain is way worse than my c/s. I have either nasty strep or the flu. The doctor gave me antibiotics without doing the test because my throat was so bad. My tonsils are swollen so that my throat is only the size of a pencil eraser. Today I started shivering all over and my lips turned blue. Motrin didn't touch the pain, and neither did tylenol with codeine. I took a leftover loritab from when Noah was born and it's helping slightly. I never even took one after he was born! The rest of my family gave each other the stomach flu at Noah's party.

Good news though- I enrolled him in a different preschool today. I was impressed with them- they seem to have it together. Unlike our current one. I'm scared to tell them he's leaving because I don't want them to be mean to him. The new one has only half-walls throughout the building, so everyone can see and hear each other. I thought that was cool. He starts in March.

Whit- the cake is adorable! And the invites too. We got Noah a ball pit/obstacle course and he loves it.

Tandis- they are so cute! Are they identical? They look like it, but I can't tell for sure.

[Kanga]

whit - those party invites and cake are sooo cute! Crossing my fingers your dh gets relocated.

shimmer - Yay for mama, but so sorry you are feeling so sick. You're all probably going to think I'm awful, but sick kids are easier for me than being sick myself. Of course I'd rather be sick than them, but sick kids are hard and I'd even rather take that then myself being sick.

Carseat - You don't need to turn around your dc just because their legs are squished. Rearfacing is 40% safer than forward facing. When they start running out of room for their legs, they can either put them straight up on the seat, drape them over the sides, or cross them Indian style. There hasn't been a report anywhere of broken legs or hips from rearfacing, but there's plenty of reports of spinal/neck injuries from forward facing. As long as they are under the weight limits of the seat and their head is 1" from teh top of the shell, they are good to go. My 2.5 yo is still rearfacing...I can take a pic if anybody wants to see it. She never complains about her legs, and trust me, she definitely would if it bothered her! While it looks uncomfortable, so do the zillion of other ways she positions herself while playing, sleeping etc for long periods of time. Kids are much more flexible than adults.

[littlemia]

Tandis- aww, they're so cute.

Whit- sounds like everything's really coming together for Z's parties. Wanna plan Claire's? ;) I've done nothing so far.

Shimmer- glad to hear his communication is coming along. Claire seems to be on a similar track to Noah and I'm hoping she'll pick things up in the next month. That's great news about the new daycare. I know you weren't happy where you were. Hope you feel better soon; that sounds like one nasty, nasty virus.

Question- How many hours are your babies sleeping per 24 hours?

[betsyboop]

Littlemia- Millie sleeps for about 12 hours at night and roughly 2 hours during the day, give or take. So 14 hours total.

Grinding teeth- Anyone else's baby do this? Ugh, now that Millie has more substantial teeth, she does it all.the.time. Ahhhh!!! It's like needles on a chalkboard to me- it gives me shivers everytime I hear it. Anyone know when she'll give it up/how long this phase typically lasts? I can't wait for it to be over.

[shimmerstar]

Grinding teeth- Noah does this occasionally and I just tell him to "STOP". I hate that sound so much. I have a thing about teeth. If he keeps doing it I try to distract him or even put my finger in his mouth for a minute. Ugh.

Sleep- Noah also sleeps 12 hours at night and takes about a 2.5 hour nap, so usually 13-14.5 hours.

Kanga- I would rather be the sick one, but ONLY if no one else is sick too. It seems like every time I'm sick, dh gets sick too and I end up overextending myself. But I don't think you're horrible.

Birthday pictures!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2275337667_0e4a6e0466.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2276134476_57c55ed676.jpg?v=0
Decorations

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2338/2276141744_44af693c1d.jpg?v=0
I was fairly happy with the cake. The head of the guitar turned out great, but the neck kept crumbling.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2048/2275419241_19f90c6f82.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2258/2275448957_bb154a2917.jpg?v=0
He loved the cake!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2393/2276174554_6e7c6cdda1.jpg?v=0
I just think this picture is funny. Talk about paparazzi!

[miaclear]

Great pictures Shimmer...looks like a success of a party.

Grinding teeth...I've caught A doing it on ocassion but it's not a habit.

Carseat....I plan on keeping him rearfacing long after his first birthday. He's not really scrunched up yet though.

Sleeping ?.....A sleeps about 11-12 hrs a night, and 2-4 hrs during 2 naps. So total....13-16 hours.

[whitlockan]

thanks all for the compliments on the cake and invites. I honestly cant wait for it to be over. I always todl myself I was not going to be one of those moms who puts way to much time and stress into it but I just dont know what happend, I am stressing myself out over every single detail that really wont matter in the end! Its as bad as my wedding...arhg!

Shimmer great party! Such a cute idea and the paparazzi so darn adorable ecsp going with the rolling stone/rock theme. Is that a straw sippy? We have the straws but never seen the nuby with the handles like that only the long sport ones or insulated ones. What ball pit and obstacle course did you get? We have the little tikes cozy cottage but I saw a little tikes obstacle course but was afraid he was too little for it, after seeing him at the park yeseterday I bet he'd love that one! Feel better and yaya for the new school!

Kanga can I take you up on the offer to see a photo of your DD RF, any great articles on how much safer it is that you can direct me to? Thanks I am really hoping he gets this!

little ha-ha as much as I'd love to I cant wait for it to be over!

Hours of Sleep 10-11 hours at night (he wakes up at 2:30 am to nurse real fast but then is back down - up at 5:00ish to nurse sometimes goes back down other times does not). Naps - 2.5-3.5 hours during the day (2 1-hour long naps and 2-25-30 min naps).

Grinding teeth okay I probably will be the worse mom in the world for saying this but DS did it all the time, one day when I held him I would just hold his chin (not with any great pressure) so he couldnt do it and can I say one day of doing that it has since stopped, he did pick it back up but I did it again and gone again, it works for us and doesnt hurt him and he doesnt think its a game so its all good. I just cant stand that sound, it makes my teeth hurt soooooo bad! **he tends to try it again everytime he is teething**

[betsyboop]

Whit- We have the same sippy that Noah is using in the photo. They sell them at Target (at least around here they do).

[shimmerstar]

Yes, it's from Nuby and we got ours at Wal-mart.

[happy1nuv]

shimmer - great pics! looks like a fun party!

sleep - hmmm, you don't want to know. He goes down at 7 - is up a TON at night and lately has taken to getting up at 5:30 for the day. He takes 1 - maybe 2 naps during the day for 45 min tops... so total a day: 10 1/2 at night (if you dont count all the ups/downs - and usually one will last about an hour) and 1 1/2 during the day for a grand total of about 12 hours. Hmmm, i dont think he's getting enough. (Dude - more importantly - IM not getting enough)

[ieducate]

sleep: Julia usually goes to sleep around 7:00-7:30. She will sleep until 2:00-3:00am, drink an entire bottle, and then usually go back to sleep until 7am. This is on a good night. We have some nights where she is up multiple times, starting at 9:30pm, and there are times where putting her back to sleep is a real drag. She takes 2 naps during the day...the first one is usually about an hour and the second one can be anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours. (It depends on what we do during the day). So overall, she gets about 11 hours at night and about 2 hours of naps during the day. Total: 13 hours. It isn't bad, but I could really do without the waking in the middle of night. I have not had ONE single sleeping through the night since last December when I went into the hospital. We are going to start trying to Ferberize her (again) this weekend. We tried it months ago and it didn't work, but now that she doesn't really need the extra calories at night, we are going to try again. Wish me luck.

Grinding teeth: Yes, JR does it on occasion. It irritates me and I will usually say "STOP" firmly until she stops. She also seems to do it more when she gets a new tooth. It doesn't happen often enough to really upset me, but I hate the sound. Sometimes she does it in her sleep...which means there is nothing I can do about it. I was also a teeth grinder when I was little (according to my mother).

Carseat: We have a regular carseat now...no longer using the bucket, but it is still rear facing. JR is not 20lbs yet, which is the minimum for forward facing, but honest I don't think we will turn her for a while even once she reaches 20lbs. I don't think she cares about being rfcing and I think it is safer. We will probably wait until she is closer to 25lbs, and I would like to see her a bit taller too before she is turned.

Shimmer: Great pics. The cake looks awesome. Sounds like the party was a hit. I love the paparazzi pic. :)

[ieducate]

Laugh & Learn ~ after 1,2,3,4...10 it says "wasn't that the best, I would love to count again."

Mrs.K...thank you for the info. It really was driving me crazy. :)

[miaclear]

I had a sad moment last night when I realized that soon I'd be moving this thread over to the toddler section :( DH is confused how a 1 year old is a toddler already. I personally agree....I think a 1 year old is still a baby.

Speaking of which I just heard mine doing his new screaching of joy from his room. Naptime is over. Pretty good nap....I got to watch Jericho, sweep, change kitty litter, unload the dishwasher, wipe down the kitchen cabinets. And before I get him I'll go put on my makeup for the day. It's Aaron's 11 month birthday today so he'll be sporting his monkey onsie while I snap pictures of him next to his sock monkey :)

[MarriedaGoalie]

I did a lot in regards to birthday party planning yesterday.

Activities
Coloring - Sesame Street.com has some wonderful coloring pages. I am going to print them out the full size of a paper and provide crayons. I am going to print out each letter of CARTER's name and also the #1 coloring sheets that they have and spread them out all over.

Pin-the-candle-on-the-cupcake game
I bought this... I thought it would be great because you can take the #1 off and reuse it.
http://images.birthdayexpress.com/bexpress/assets/product_images/E7513.jpg

Puzzles
I bought three Sesame Street puzzles to spread out in the room, so the kids can put them together.
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/assets/product_imagesl/HAS-49440school.jpg
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/assets/product_imagesl/HAS-49440outdoors.jpg
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/assets/product_imagesl/HAS-49440portrait.jpg

Party Favors

I bought these boxes to put all the favors in...
http://birthdayexpress.speedera.net/images.birthdayexpress.com/bexpress/assets/thumbnails/E2282FB.jpg

and these favors to put in the boxes...

Zipper Pulls...
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/assets/product_imagesm/DW-3805316-1.jpg

[MarriedaGoalie]

Twisty turny game...
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/assets/product_imagesm/DW-3081480-0.jpg

And for Carter to wear during his party, I got this romper (with his name on it, but the one I got him is Cookie Monster and not Elmo).

http://birthdayexpress.com.edgesuite.net/images.birthdayexpress.com//bexpress/assets/product_images/278544.jpg

and this hat...

http://images.birthdayexpress.com/bexpress/assets/product_images/FW00124.jpg

these plates...
http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/28640.jpg

these cups...
http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/28641.jpg

and these napkins...
http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/28638.jpg

[Brink]

Screaming - ok, so miaclear reminded me by her post about screaching. Is everyone doing this? Aimee never had a high pitched screach. Kristi doesn't seem to want to do it either, but Katie has found her voice. She screams all the time (she is enjoying it) and tries to get you to scream back at her. Aimee is in tears when she does it and says "make her stop mommy" and "katie scares me". Poor Kristi just covers her ears. How do I make this child stop screaming (escecially since she enjoys it)?

[littlemia]

Sleep- Thanks for the responses. Claire doesn't have a real consistent schedule so it's hard to tell, but I think she's only getting 12-13 hours. I guess that's not awful but I'm going to try and see if I get her to sleep a little more.

Grinding teeth- She was doing this bad a couple of weeks ago. Hasn't been doing it lately but unfortunately has moved on to a worse habit of making herself gag several times a day.

MAG- that romper and hat is cute!

Unwanted behaviors- am I the only one who is having little success getting my child to stop biting, grinding teeth, gagging herself, climbing, etc.? Saying stop or no, putting her down, ignoring her, and redirecting don't seem to work very well. Is this something that should get better with maturity?

[whitlockan]

brink oh poor aimee, kirstie is just letting her know who is in charge even though she is the big sister. We were once there, thankfully its gone for the most part but sometimes we do have our screaming competitions, its sort of fun.

unwanted behaviors hmmm your not the only one I am sure! No, Stop barely work, Z laughs and continues to do it, the best thing, I say No firmly once and just stare at him, he constantly looks up and looks down and looks up and back down, thinking I know I am going to get in trouble is it worth it. It works sometimes but at least he knows what is not wanted. They are still babies, so they are going to explore and push there limits regardless. I dont punish him just to be sure he is aware, that the best you can do, in my opnion. Redirecting him is useless once he is on a mission you cannot distract him he is bound and determind, VERY strong willed.

Update:

The biting when nursing is OVER but now when I try to leave for work he cries his head off, its so hard he only wants me right now and its really starting to offend DH. This morning he sat and pounded on the door crying so hard, once I closed it. I felt terrible but if I would have stayed and picked him up again it would have only made it worse.

[Kanga]

unwanted behaviors - dd1 never listened at this age, and dd2 doesn't seem to either, though she's not much of an explorer so that helps. Sometime soon after 12 months, babies go through a developmental leap and are suddenly able to understand what you're saying. After dd1 went through that, she listened so much better.

[deelcie]

Sleep I think Reikke is getting about 15 hours/day more or less. She STTN ~7 pm -6 am, 1 morning nap for about 2 1/2 hours and 1 afternoon nap of about 1 1/2 hours.

Grinding teeth, she only has 2 bottom teeth. No teeth to grind!

Unwanted behaviors, the biting during nursing has stopped. It only happened maybe 3-4 times. I told her "No biting! Biting hurts!" a little more sharply than I intended to (b/c damn, that hurts!) and she would look surprised then cry. I've only told her "no" for other things a couple of times (going after the toilet paper) and she would just stop, sit down and look at me all surprised. Then she'd just move on to other more interesting things.

So impressed with all the 1st b-day party planning, I have barely thought about it! We'll probably go with a St. Patty's Day theme since that's when her b-day is (poor thing will prob. be so sick of that theme by the time she's an adult). If anyone has any ideas.... :)

[MrsKinnison]

Sleep ~ Ollie sleeps from 8pm-6am, nurses then goes back down until 7:30/8. At work he takes a morning and afternoon nap each for one hour, but home he sleeps for 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

No ~ I have a good friend who is in child development and has owned a child care center for 20years and she told me that as frustrating as it is, it is really a good thing developmentally because they know what to do to get us to react, kind of like a game, and why they love it so much.

Grinding teeth ~ Ollie just got his two top teeth so no grinding for him, but ironically DH woke me up this morning because I was grinding my teeth!

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday Ashlyn! (a little belated)

Okay, I feel a little better about Claire not stopping when I say no. I actually wouldn't expect her to if I didn't read about parents who make it seem like you just tell them to stop and put them down or redirect and then they stop. Well, maybe it works for their kids but not mine. I'm glad to hear that a developmental leap wrt receptive language comes around 12 months. I keep reading about these babies who at 9-10-11 months can understand all sorts of things and follow commands and well, we're not there yet but I guess some of these kids are just advanced.

[betsyboop]

Has anyone else's baby dropped their second nap yet? Millie has been resisting one or the other of her naps for a few weeks now. At first we were blaming it on her cold, but she's 100% better now and has been for at least a week. Today will be Millie's first official day as a 1x per day napper and I'm trying to decide when to put her down... Maybe right after lunch??

ETA- Oh, and of course this totally messes up the timing of her birthday party this weekend. It is scheduled to be right between her morning and afternoon naps, which is probably exactly when her new nap will take place. She just couldn't have waited 1 more week; figures:p

[MarriedaGoalie]

Well, it's official. The rugrat is 11 months old as of yesterday. WOAH! :eek:

http://images31.fotki.com/v1097/photos/1/1116680/5946799/022408019-vi.jpg

[danalou]

I still can't believe all of our babies are approaching the one year mark!! Where has the past year gone as it seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital welcoming our newest arrival.

Married - Great picture of your little man!!

[Kanga]

1 nap - we are still usually at 2 naps, though the morning one is getting shorter and shorter. Occasionally if she wakes later than normal and we have morning plans that get us out of the house, she can do one longer nap but that's pretty rare. I can't wait for the day she goes down to one on a regular basis.

[miaclear]

Nap....I thought about a month ago he was trying to give it up. But that was shortlived. He's strongly a two nap a day baby. About 9:30 and about 2:00, for an hour to two hours each. When it does happen I'll miss my morning time, but it will make it easier to get out of the house. Right now we have about a 3 hr window max.

I think we're getting a cold. Cold #3 exactly since he was born. Runny nose and cough are in full force. I was going to try out a strollerfit CORE class tomorrow where they do babysitting right there. Looks like I'll have to postpone that one.

[shimmerstar]

Naps: Noah has been on one nap since a few weeks before his birthday. He would take them at about 830 and 1230. Now at school he takes one at 1130 and usually goes until 2. I like it better. Occasionally I will make him take a second one if his first was early or short.

MAG- I think he and Noah look alike in that picture. It must just be that Noah makes that face sometimes.

Mia- I hope Aaron is better soon and doesn't get an EI. We are on our third one.

Speaking of, he was taken off omnicef because he was getting what looked like hives again! :eek: He is either going to have to stop getting sick or stop being so reactive to the medicine! We are going back tomorrow to check his ears and be put on a possible third ab.

[Kanga]

whit - I haven't forgotten about the carseat picture...we've just been either snowed in, freezing cold, or sick kids so I haven't had a chance yet, but hopefully today if they get the roads cleared in time for our playdate.

[goldengbridge]

Thanks LittleMia for the birthday wishes! I appreciate them!

Here are a few pics from Ashlyn's party last weekend. Also, she started walking last week and hasn't stopped since!

The birthday Princess
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday014.jpg


http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday017.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday031.jpg

Her cake:
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday006.jpg

Opening presents
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday039.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i125/prugh12/Ashlyns1stbirthday047.jpg

[danalou]

Goldenbridge - It looks like Ashlyn had a great time at her birthday!! I love the giant cupcake by the way as we are doing mini ones for everyone and the giant one for DD!!

[littlemia]

A little late on this one, too, but Happy Birthday, K!

Goldengbridge- that cupcake cake is really cool. How did you make it?

[goldengbridge]

LittleMia- I definately DID NOT make that cake! A local bakery where we get all of our cakes made it .We had a lot of compliments on it, thanks!

[Tandis]

Happy belated birthday K!

and Happy belated birthday Ashlyn! It looks like she had a fantastic birthday - did you make the crown, or buy it? We're thinking of doing a princess theme for the girls, so of course they need a crown!

[Kanga]

Whit - Here are the pictures of Daytona rearfacing. For links check out www.kyledavidmiller.org

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_1889.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_1890.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_1892.jpg

[goldengbridge]

Tandis- We got the crown and shirt that said birthday princess at Babies R Us!

[MrsKinnison]

Happy Belated Birthday K & Ashlyn!!!!

Ollie started really walking yesterday, exactly 2 weeks before his birthday. It's exciting, but sooo sad at the same time. I'm just not ready for my baby to be growing up!

[MarriedaGoalie]

I got Carter's invitations made today... what do you think?!

http://images35.fotki.com/v1131/photos/1/1116680/5965404/invitation-vi.jpg

[littlemia]

Yay, Ollie!

MAG- those invitations are really cute! We're having our party the same day and time.

[danalou]

MAG - The invitation is too cute with the birthday cake and all!! What a great way to capture the pure joy of childhood and a birthday cake!!

[danalou]

Kanga - Thanks for the website for the Kyle David Miller Foundation as it is a great resource!!

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday, Millie!

Not sure if they're still reading but Happy Birthday Hannah (Nanner) and Madeline (Sherb)!

[betsyboop]

Thanks, littlemia!

Here are some pictures from her party

The outfit
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/bugs1234_2006/DSC_2098.jpg?t=1204728102

MIL feeding her cake since she wouldn't eat it on her own
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/bugs1234_2006/DSC_2129.jpg?t=1204728150

Enjoying her new toys
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/bugs1234_2006/DSC_2145.jpg?t=1204728198

A photo of the banner I made with a picture of Millie from each month of her first year (yeah, I'm holding the camera crooked:rolleyes: )
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/bugs1234_2006/DSC_2159.jpg?t=1204728445

Millie in her 1st birthday shirt
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/bugs1234_2006/DSC_2170-1.jpg?t=1204728618

[Tandis]

So my girls turned one yesterday. Their official party is Saturday, but of course we had to do something for them on their actual day. It was my parents, us and my niece, but my girls got to experience cake and really, that's all that matters, right?

<pictures removed>

[betsyboop]

Tandis- Very cute! I just noticed the shoes they are wearing- I used to have the same kind with the bell thingy covering the bow. Funny.

[Tandis]

Those were a birthday gift from my parents. Of course they have no trouble at all putting that stupid bell on, whereas I end up tossing it across the room and just let the girls untie their shoes :rolleyes:

But the girls love them. In fact, they've taken to stomping their feet just to make the bells ring! :)

[miaclear]

Awww.... I can't believe all are babies are getting so big. I'm so ready for another one. BUT I'm going to wait at least through summer.

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday, Audrey and Veronica!

Great pics Betsy and Tandis. Looks like a good time was had by all.

[danalou]

Great pictures Betsy and Tandis!! I love the cake shots as you have to wonder what is going through their little heads!!

Tandis - I noticed the rear profile of what I thought was an English Bulldog - Do you guys have an English Bulldog??

[Tandis]

Wow, you're really good to be able to tell that from the rear profile! That's Ruggles - she's my parents dog, and yes, she's an English Bulldog. :)

[Tandis]

Dollface - I don't know if you're still around or not, but if so, Happy birthday Davin!

And early Happy Birthday wishes to Buffy's Morgan and Kindermom's Henry!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D

[danalou]

Tandis - Yeah it is pretty easy once you have been around that breed long enough as they have a pretty distinctive look!! How does Ruggles do around the girls as our dog loved my nephews?

[MrsKinnison]

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY Millie, Hannah, Davin, Morgan, Henry, Madeline, Audrey & Veronica!!!!

Mag ~ I know I'm a little late, but I love those invites!!!

Ollie's party is this Sunday. I did decide to go with the balloon theme and sent out these invites (with a poor edit job to erase my address & phone)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2279/2322133637_e18688bdcc.jpg?v=0

Ordered him this "party shirt"
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2380/2322956510_ebdd49870c.jpg?v=0

And these plates and decorations including matching balloons and streamers

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2223/2322133223_91f2b9a617.jpg?v=0

We're having almost twice as many guests as we had originally planned, which is great that so many people are excited about it, but I could really use help with food ideas???

There will probably be 16 kids ranging from 9mos to 12yrs ~ has anyone done a pinata and if so what did you fill it with?

We certainly didn't plan it this way, but we've (as in me :)) has gotten a little carried away, but it is so much fun, he only going to be one once, and we aren't having any more kids, so I figure why not!!! I only wish I had known this would happen and would have given myself more time to plan :p

[MrsKinnison]

P.S. It sure is quiet over here. Did everyone go over to LJ. I never joined because everyone seemed to be back here, but I kind of miss you all so if I need to move I will. Someone just might have to hold my hand as I'm never good with change.

[danalou]

MrsK - The party looks like it is coming along really well and that is always a good thing!! I would say about 75% + of us have basically made the switch to LJ (danalou). I keep up with most of the other March Mom over there, but I still try and pop over here when I have a direct question or comment. I must admit that I miss the whole community feeling that we use to have in our board!!

1st Birthday Party - DD's party was this past weekend and it was a really nice party. I have to post a link to the pictures as they are right protected from the photographer

http://storybook.smugmug.com/gallery/4484697_YVHDt#263823200

[miaclear]

Mrsk.... I love the simple theme of balloons. I know eventually the party themes will be so character driven keeping it simple now seems like the thing to do :) I'm over on LJ and I know quite a few others are over there. It's not the same kind of setup as here though. It's a good place to journal but if you want a specific question answered coming here is the better option IMO. I still check here multiple times a day :)

On LJ I'm miaclear if there's anyone who I haven't friended yet let me know.

[Orion]

I'm still around too...this pregnancy is kicking my butt right now so I've been a huge slacker with posting. M/S is horrible right now and I am utterly exhausted. I can't wait for the second trimester to kick in and get some of my energy back.

Dalton turns one on Thursday! I can't believe my baby is turning one...where did the year go? We are just having a small family dinner that night with cake (homemade by yours truly). Nothing fancy but very meaningful to us.

I'm also on LJ (orionbelt) and I'm usually pretty good at keeping up there although, as I said before, the m/s and exhausting are kicking my butt right now.

[goldengbridge]

Orion- CONGRATS! I missed your announcement! Is it twins?????

[betsyboop]

MrsK- I'm on LJ too with the same user name. We also had a lot of people over for Millie's party and we ended up doing potato chips with dip and tortilla chips with salsa for munchies and then eggplant parm, a spiral ham, tossed salad, rolls, and this potato casserole that my mom makes for the meal. Then I made cupcakes and served them with ice cream.

Danalou- Wow, you took a ton of photos! I think we only took about 8 pictures of Millie's party:(

[kindermom]

MrsK - I am on LJ as madelynsmom (kindermom was taken!). I am just really busy for the most part right now. It is my busy period at work as well as for DH.

We had Henry's party this weekend. Instead of cake and ice cream with the FIL and SMIL, we ended up with about 25 people at the house! All but 2 people came to celebrate. It was crazy.

We served...
Steak and chicken sandwiches with a variety of toppings and breads
Macaroni salad
Coleslaw
Pasta salad
Chips (sunchips, plain chips, pretzels)
White cake with strawberry whipped cream filling/frosting
Devil's food cake with whipped cream frosting
Devil's food cupcakes with chocolate whipped cream frosting
Chocolate and vanilla ice cream

I will post a link to some pics once I upload them.

[Orion]

Orion- CONGRATS! I missed your announcement! Is it twins?????

Oh my goodness, I hope not! I go for my u/s on Tuesday to date the pregnancy but I think that I am about 9 weeks along now. I really hope that we see only one heartbeat at the u/s...I just don't think I could handle four under three! :eek:

[miaclear]

Orion...I was wondering if I had missed something too. I think the confusion came in your signature where it says "Double :eek:"

[Tandis]

MrsK - We were originally planning on having fried chicken, cheesy potatoes and an antipasto salad for the girls' party... that was eventually canceled due to the weather and rescheduled for March 30th. But that's besides the point. At one point, we changed the menu to rigatoni and meatballs, tossed salad and garlic bread, because it's cheap and easy to make - plus it feeds a lot and everyone likes it. My SIL did pulled pork sandwiches, with potato salad and chips for her son's party last November. Probably the easiest thing to do would be sandwiches with salad and chips, or something easy that would feed a lot.

As for the pinata, personally, I think it might be a little soon due to the choking hazard from candy, but I noticed you have older kids invited. If there are more older kids, than little kids, then it might be a good idea just to keep them entertained.

And as far as LJ goes, I'm tandis1 over there if you decide to join, but I prefer it over here. There is good for journaling, so there is more sharing of personal life, and I now feel like I know people better, but overall I like the community aspect better.

ETA: I think it's quiet over here because we've lost a lot of "members" from our pregnancy days. There seems to be only a small amount of us posting anymore, and everyone else has gone off to other places. It's kind of sad. I miss a lot of the women who used to post.

[Kanga]

cc vs lj - I keep up with both. I'm Kanga3033 over there.

oops baby is up, I'll be back topost more later.

[MrsKinnison]

I was thinking of something other than candy, but I'm not sure if that would work or not... bubbles or cars or something like that. Maybe little bags of animal crackers? Or maybe I should just skip it all together...

[Kanga]

food served - we did a taco bar with Chi Chi's corn cake (from a mix), spanish rice, and chips and salsa then cake obviously.

Pictures from Cami's party

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_2049.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_2040.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_2029.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m135/Liz_Adams/IMG_2066.jpg

[shimmerstar]

I love seeing all the pictures of our toddlers! I am on lj but keep up with both. I just haven't had a lot to post lately!

[Janey]

I love seeing the pictures of all the parties. Our babies are turning into toddlers before our eyes!

K's party is this coming Saturday. Her birthday was two weeks ago, but my grandmother passed away five days previous to her birthday, and her funeral was a week ago today, and with all of the goings-on surrounding that, I decided to delay it a week. We're having the party at my folks' house. It looks like there will be about 20 people there. We're just planning on having it "Catered by Costco" -- chips, potato salad, croissant sandwiches, veggie tray, fruit. We'll have cake from a local bakery, though -- the same cake that we had for her "Zero Birthday." ;)

We happened to have a nice day on her actual birthday, so we took her outside and took some photos of her. B snapped about 100 pictures.

(photos removed)

[miaclear]

So cute Janey! Thanks for sharing :D Are you still blogging over on LJ? I'd love to friend you.

1 year pics....we are doing these on Saturday. I've been debating back and forth about where to have them and what DS should wear. If we do them at the house here I can get some cute shots of him playing with some of his toys. He'll be more comfortable and easier to please with the photographer. But our house is small and the options for backdrops is limited. If we do them outside we'll get some great shots in some neat locations. It might take awhile for him to warm up to the photographer. And do I dress him in something hip and funky? Or something more baby like? Knowing he's going to be 1 I want to keep him a baby for as long as possible. Oh the possibilities.

[danalou]

Miaclear - I would stick with something classic and timeless as I prefer not to date the pictures with funky clothes. We had DD is three different outfits for her 1 year photos (hot pink tutu, purple dress and then white shirt and jeans)!! As for picking a location that is a tough one as they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Have you considered a park as I know how much he likes the park. You could do some on the play structure and then some on the grass -> just a thought!!

Betsy - We had a photographer come to the party for $50 and it was great as she took way more photos that we could have ever taken that afternoon!!

Party Food - We opted for the easy route and had pizza, breadsticks, tossed salad, snack mixes, mini-cupcakes, jones soda, 2 liters and water bottles.

Janey - The outdoor photos are too cute!!

[MarriedaGoalie]

Aww... Janey!! She's too cute!!! :)

[whitlockan]

Ok I am such a bad journal buddy.....I will post as much as I can in the time I have...

LJ: I tend to do a lot of journaling over there....a lot in my book being once to twice a week......pm me and I'll send over my ID.

(xposted from LJ):Well 13 days my little guy will be ONE, yes O-N-E......anyways I found a great place to get a hair cut and it was by far the BEST experience ever, pleased both myself and DH. We went to a real barber - no kiddie place, no girlie place a real mans barber place.....DH was so happy about that and I was just happy I got an even haircut! We got in they pulled out there camera, one of the ladies takes pictures of the entire process and they put them on a cd for you, we got a certificate that says "First Haircut Certificate: This is to certify that Zachary has bravely met all of the requirements of recieving their first haircut and has graduated from babyhood on the 10 day March in the year of 2008 Ceremonies took place at: location- XYZ - Signed by his barber" So darn cute its all official I'll have to scan it in. They have a labled plastic bag for the baby hair they give you at the end. It was great...here are some pics.....

Picked him up from school and off we go to get our haircut **notice how tall he is**

*removed*

Kanga thanks for the picture of the seat, mine just doesnt look nearly as keep as yours so I dont know how this will work. It seems to be a running joke at DH's job, one of the guys asked when Z could go FF and his boss inturrupted with "momma aint ever going to let him" its rather funny but DH did admit it was the safest...ha! Love the Tutu so cute....great party!

Janey/B] those are great! So adorable!

[B]1st brithdayAnother reason I have no time I have put too much time and effort into his birthday party. It started out as something small and cute now it has evolved into a massive project......I dont even want to talk about it, I am a bit disappointed in letting myself get so obessive with it. Anyways we have having lunch and this is what were serving:
Frog Legs (pigs in a blanket)
Frog Eye Salad (pot salad or mac salad)
Chips and Fly Dip (black bean dip)
Frog food (Veggie Tray)
Swamp Scum (organce juice concentrate frozen, lemon lime soda and lime sherbert - may leave out the dry ice for the fog effect)
Frog Juice (lemonade)
Water
Cake and fly ice cream (mint chocolate chip ice cream)

It doesnt mesh real well but it goes with my theme so I dont care at this point. Were serving around 45ish....ARGH His small one is this weekend 25ish....then next weekend the fun begins

No real games, we only have a few older kids the rest family so I am printing out frog facts for the tables, I have a dozen frog beach balls from OT and creating a swamp for the 3 little kids and then a game of guess how many jelly beans in a jar.

1st year pictures: we took a stab at them on Sunday and it was a nightmere he was fine but wanted to play with the camera instead (we went to PP) this kid needs to be in a natural enviroment where he can run and play, climb and be himself. I have found a few photographers I LOVE and that capture the style I'd like to go with but they have a min order of 1500, DH will not go for this considering how much I have already put into his birthday party, I am sort of nervous to even ask but I think I mise well....not doing our "family" photographer again to far away and we had an issue.......took 8 months to get our prints dipped and matted. ARGH!

I always just put him in simple clothes, jeans and a polo or something.....

Dana 50.00 are you serious! Man I wish I lived in the middle of now where and its not so expensive for simple things......

I feel like I am constantly chasing him.......
This kid is starting to get crazy. A few things we have mastered at this point:

1. Flushing the Toilets
2. climbing in and out of the bath tub (mostly uses upper body strength but did move the scale in front in hopes of getting some help, its so funny to watch) oh and some mornings we have him playing in the bathroom if I am getting ready and DH is showering, so frustrating because he constantly tries to climb in it and needless to say water gets everywhere!!
3. turning on the bath water
4. opening doors (as in tall enough to reach the handle and turn the door knob - apparently this morning he was turning the main door to leave when daddy was taking to long getting ready to leave for school, he tried 3 times (unsuccessful since the deadbolt is too high) so he gave up and took DH's sandles to him and was shoving them in his face.....as you can tell everything is done at child's pace or so he thinks......
5. is almost strong enough to open the refridge and oven - time to keep the oven locked (our controls are on the back of the stove so we are good on that front)
6. blowing kisses
7. cleaning up....he will pick up anything off the floor thats not his toy and brings it to you to put up....rather funny

and soooooooooo much more.........

playing with toys and all his new ones.....not on the list because well thats not fun......oh welcome to toddlerhood!!!

If I missed anyone sorry....I am trying to catch up in every location....

[MrsKinnison]

Janey ~ K is beautiful! And can I say how jealous I am that you have grass and flowers. At the rate we are going it will be June before all the snow is gone.

Whit ~ Z's little boy haircut is so adorable! And is it me, or does Barber John kind of resemble Vin Diesel in a weird kind of way??

Party food ~ I so wish we could do pizza. It's easy and a croud pleaser, unfortunately DH is lactose intolerant and can't resist pizza if it is there. Life would just be too miserable for all of us going that route. I think I'm just going to do a meat platter, veggie platter, chips... keep it simple and stop stressing about it :D

Pictures ~ thank you for reminding me, I can't believe I forgot to make the apt... I am doing it right now. We have a friend a PP so we go there and I've got a jeans and sweater outifit I've been saving for the occassion.

[betsyboop]

Miaclear- I love that I was just replying to your LJ post where you said your house is 1800sqft and here you say that you have a small house. Is this some sort of "everything's bigger in Texas" reference?? :D

Cute photos Janey, Kanga, and Whit!!

1 year photos- We got a free sitting and 8x10 offer at Kiddie Kandids, so we went in and I really liked them. She wore the peach tutu oufit from her birthday party.

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday Morgan, Mackenzie, Cami, Davin, and Henry!

Party food- I've never hosted a party before, so I'm doing it the easy way and having subs, chips, a vegetable and fruit platter, and cake and ice cream.

Janey- Very sorry to hear about your grandmother. Love the pics of K.

Kanga- Great job on those cakes!

Whit- Z is into some really scary stuff. The bathtub thing would really freak me out. I try to keep Claire out of there so she won't try to get in; we have enough problems with her climbing.

[MarriedaGoalie]

Well, I gave in and got a LiveJournal screen name. It is the same as over here. MarriedaGoalie

I miss everyone posting over here so much, though! I hate posting blogs... I would rather just post responses to entries and such. Oh well. I will "go with the crowd"! :(

[whitlockan]

Thanks everyone....

Mrsk Totally agree!!!

Happy belated and upcoming Birthday to all......I cant keep up....

[miaclear]

Miaclear- I love that I was just replying to your LJ post where you said your house is 1800sqft and here you say that you have a small house. Is this some sort of "everything's bigger in Texas" reference?? :D


haha...oh yes. Everything IS bigger in Texas. And EVERYONE does try to keep up with the Jonses. At least in the suburb I live in. It drives me crazy cause I never felt that way when I lived in Minnesota or Wisconsin. Granted I wasn't a full fledged adult when I lived in those states so maybe I was oblivious. IMO 1800sqf in my suburb is on the verge of small. But I do realize there are plenty of places where this would feel like a grand castle.

[Kanga]

haha...oh yes. Everything IS bigger in Texas. And EVERYONE does try to keep up with the Jonses. At least in the suburb I live in. It drives me crazy cause I never felt that way when I lived in Minnesota or Wisconsin. Granted I wasn't a full fledged adult when I lived in those states so maybe I was oblivious. IMO 1800sqf in my suburb is on the verge of small. But I do realize there are plenty of places where this would feel like a grand castle.

Ha ha, I had no idea your house was that big. Around here thats average I think. I had pictured you in a 800 sq ft shoebox kinda like what we're living in now.

[Brink]

Mariedagoalie - I added you as a friend over on LJ.

[MrsKinnison]

hahah, our house is 1800sqft and in my mind it's huge!

[kindermom]

We are at about 1600 sqft and I thus.ink it is perfect for the 4 of

[whitlockan]

ha ha - I think I am the odd man out. I live in a shoebox, 1000 sq ft ready to scream. We were considering 2200 sq ft townhouses still way to small for all of us. I come from the country in Indiana where 3000 was average and raised in 3500 sq ft, most are older, my dad builds as a hobby so ours was new but to me for a family of 4 thats about right.....my dad just bought the local historic mansion its 4800 sq ft, I love to share this story but he was telling me the size of the kitchen.......its the size of my entire condo :eek:!!!!

[whitlockan]

see now I feel guilty for being so far behind I am going to over post......progress on the party.....

Here is a sneak peak for our frog theme party this weekend and next weekend, if you think these are down right cheesy and ugly please tell me, I suck at crafts and this was a huge undertaking to create and such a last minute idea...orginally going to paste the picture on just the green circle and I had the stack of construction paper in front of me and the light blub went off and had to try it:

Honest opinions please......

to many hours later the photo banner:

http://pics.livejournal.com/seebwifeweebmom/pic/00017kpw/s320x240

[Tandis]

Whit - I like the photo banner. Where in Indiana are you from? My Mom is from Lafayette and I still have a lot of family in the area.

Kanga - Cami is so cute - love the tutu!

Janey - My condolences about your grandmother. Your daughter is adorable - so much hair! Think she can share some with my girls? I swear, they're going to be three before I'll even be able to use a barrette!

House size - My house is a little less than 1000 sq. ft, and we're hoping to add on in a couple years. If nothing else, then to just add another bathroom! (we currently only have one - some how I'm thinking three females in a house with only one bathroom won't work out) ;)

Speaking of which, has anyone given any thought to potty training? I know we're all a couple years off, but something I was reading today mentioned that around 18 months you should start keeping a potty chair in the bathroom so they get used to it being there. My bathroom is small - like you can sit on the toilet while brushing your teeth, and your knees hit the tub. We barely have room for the clothes hamper, so there is absolutely no where to stick a potty chair. Anyone else in the same boat? Is there an alternative place we can stick one?

On a funny note, though possilibity TMI, when I was little, my Mom kept mine in the Living Room. It had a tray on it, so I was able to sit on it, while coloring and watching "Sesame Street." I also ate lunch there. But at least my parents didn't have problems potty training me. Actually, they had a hard time getting me to give it up. Eventually Santa had to take it for his reindeers. :p

[Tandis]

How does Ruggles do around the girls as our dog loved my nephews?


OMG - they are *best* friends! Ruggles will let the girls do anything to to her (pull her ears, give her hugs and *kisses*, stick their fingers in her mouth, etc.), and they reward her by sharing their food. :D She sleeps in their room during naps, and keeps an eye on them whenever they leave the Living Room. For instance, the other day my parents were looking for V, who had crawled away while they were taking care of A. My Dad noticed Ruggles standing in the hallway, looking into the bathroom, then looking at my Dad. Turned out V had gone exploring the bathroom and Ruggles was making sure she was okay.

You know the dog "Nana" from the Disney movie of "Peter Pan"? Yeah, that would be Ruggles.

[danalou]

House Size - Our house is 1100 sq ft and it works fine for the three of us right now!! I can see how an additional child would really put a kink in our space, but it might have to do for a bit. The housing market is just crap by us and we bought right before the crash!!

Tandis - That is too cute about Ruggles!! I will have to see if I can dig up a picture of my parents dog with my nephews as she was the same way. I really think she thought they were her responsibility when they were over!! I haven't thought about the potty, but you bring up a very good point about the future location. I am still amazed by the amount of stuff that comes along with a kid!! I would really like to start at around 18 months as if we have #2 I would like DD to be potty trained before the arrival!!

[Kanga]

Potty training - I think elf's designed our bathroom. You could do your business, wash your hair and brush your teeth all at the same time. We have a potty chair in the living room and a toilet topper in the bathroom. When company comes over, we move it to the bathroom. Maybe you could move your hamper to the bedroom and put the potty chair there instead? Our main play area is the LR and it's on the main floor. The only bathroom is upstairs so unless I want to go up and down the stairs a zillion times a day, a potty chair in the living room it is. We started training Daytona when she naturally woke up dry or mostly dry from naps and overnights around 13 mo old. We'd rush her to the potty first thing in the morning and after naps and usually she'd go. I just need to quit being lazy and check dd2's diaper first thing in the morning instead of dozing off for a few more minutes after she wakes. As I was getting furhter along with dd2, I slacked off, but still kept it up somewhat so it was familiar to her. After dd2 was born, we kicked it into high gear. This was also the time she got into the copycat stage and started holding it for a couple hours at a time (which Cami is doing now). She was about 17-18mo old and we'd take her on somewhat of a regular schedule. After we knew she was confident in her potty skills we let her go diaperless as much as possible at home. Around 20 months she was 100% trained while diaperless but had accidents as soon as she was in underwear or diapers. So at 23 months we had nothing going on and I decided to go cold turkey to underwear and ditch the diapers. The first 2 days she barely made it in time at all, but something clicked the 3rd day and by the end of the week she was pretty much potty trained with about 1 accident/week after that.

We've started a little bit with Cami but I need to be more consistent with it. She has had 1 #2 on the potty but thats it. Mostly a fluke since she was red faced gassy and grunting - gee can't imagine what might come next;)

[betsyboop]

House size- We have 1008sqft, but only 2br and 1 bath which is why we are selling. There would be nowhere to put another crib if we had another baby in this house (Millie's room is full, so they couldn't even share).

Potty training- I honestly haven't given this any thought yet. Though it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have the potty in the bathroom just so she can get used to it. Tandis- I was also going to suggest moving the hamper.

Ooops, gotta go catch the baby!!

[Janey]

You know the dog "Nana" from the Disney movie of "Peter Pan"? Yeah, that would be Ruggles.
LOL this cracks me up. We have a cat named Macaroni who is the same way. K crawls all over him and that's ok with him - he looooooves 'his baby.'

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2298660889_4726e00947.jpg?v=0

Miaclear - I friended you on LJ. I run hot-and-cold on posting there. I go for a week or so without posting, and then I'll write three in a day. Kinda like here I guess. ;)

[betsyboop]

I'm back to finish my post-

Does anyone else's baby do this? We switched Millie over to the sippy cup about a week ago. We did it cold turkey because just giving it to her occasionally didn't seem to be working- she was just taking like 1 sip and then playing with it. Anyway, now we have this problem that she eats and drinks like a bird during the day (she's an extremly picky eater). We put her to bed at 8 and then for the past 2-3 nights, she's woken up at 8:45 screaming because she's starving. The only way to calm her down is to give her a bottle, which she gulps down. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get her to eat more during the day?? She's just so disinterested in food and milk. Ugh.

[shimmerstar]

Potty training- I wouldn't say he's trained, but Noah mostly poops on the potty at home. He will get our attention when he has to go, but uses diapers at school. We are NOT ever getting one of those little bucket potties- that's gross to me! We just got a little seat and have been putting him on since he was 3 months. Mostly because we would rather do that than change diapers. I have heard that you can start at this age, but expect it to take longer all together. I have no idea if that's true.

The past three days he has peed on me when I took his diaper off, so I'm starting to try putting him on for pees too.

Talking- he is finally starting to say some stuff. He will say mama, dada, up, milk (guk), more, and good. He will repeat almost anything we say. I think he was talking for awhile but I just didn't understand him! Oops.

We took him to Chuck E. Cheese for a fundraiser tonight. He loved it! He was excited about the singing animals and liked the games and rides. He also liked the fun dip that he won with his tickets- he didn't want to give up the stick! It was cool, cause I thought he would be so bored, but he's just like a kid now and loves to do stuff like that.

I love the stories about the animals. He loves dogs but we don't have one of our own yet.

[Tandis]

I was also going to suggest moving the hamper.

Unfortunately, our "hamper" is actually a tall, narrow trashcan - and it barely clears our bathroom door. But I'm going to keep that in mind, because that might be our only choice.

Wow, I can't believe some of you have already started with the potty training! I was thinking we would be in diapers until they were closer to three - not two! :eek: DH is going to be so excited.

Janey - That is too cute with your cat :D The girls love our cat, but she mostly ignores them.

Betsy - How many snacks are you giving her during the day? Granted, my girls don't have a problem eating, but they get snacks at 8ish, Noonish, and 6 pm, which really helped once we cut down on their formula intake. Maybe offer her more finger foods at various intervals throughout the day and see if that helps. That said, V has been up the past three nights at midnight for a drink of water, and A was up last night at 10 pm because she wanted more milk. So snacks don't always help :rolleyes:

Shimmer - Gee, I thought they'd still be too young for Chuck E. Cheese, but you're right, they are turning into kids now. Funny how it's hard to remember that.

[kindermom]

Tandis - What about just getting the little cushions for the actual toilet? You can keep a stool nearby (in the tub even).

[goldengbridge]

I'm pretty sure the point of getting a potty out around 18 months is to get them used to seeing it and sitting on it. Most kids IMO are not ready to actual train at 18 months. Andrew was potty trained at 2 years 10 months. Granted girls are usually earlier than boys. Most kids that I know through friends and family are trained between 2.5 and 3.

[littlemia]

Happy Birthday Dalton and Ollie!

Potty Training- We were just talking about getting a little potty in the next few months. I don't expect that we'll have any success with potty learning until much, much later, though. She doesn't seem to care or even notice when she has a full diaper.

[happy1nuv]

We've been in stomach virus hell... for some reason, the boys just won't get 100% better...

potty: remind me to post a pic of how MY boys use the potty (I'm so proud!)

Happy Birthday to all the 1 year olds! (im sorry i missed all of your birthdays...)

:)

[Kanga]

potty training age - Daytona was 100% trained at 23 months, though she's definitely the youngest by far in our mom's group. Had I been more consistent (read not pregnant then later sleep deprived with a newborn) I probably could have gotten her trained earlier. I think most people start at the earliest around 18 months and don't expect anything until 2.5 or 3. And by starting I mean having a potty seat out and occasionally sitting on it.

[MarriedaGoalie]

House: Our house is about 1350 sq. ft. and it is just fine. I think having vaulted ceilings helps a lot because it makes it seem a lot bigger. It is 3 bedroom and 2 bath with a 2 car garage. It works great for us right now. I do wish we had a spare bedroom, but I can deal with it. For what we paid for it, I think it is great!!

Whit: Your picture things are so cute!! I have to start looking into that... I have to figure out what I am going to do with Carter's pictures to show them off at his party.

[whitlockan]

**removed**

One party down........

DS HATED the cake, as you can see in the slideshow DH tried to feed him any part of it and he wouldnt take it.......it was sort of disappointing really. Anyways you can see from the slideshow how the events happend....until the cake part I got out of order but gave up on it after messing up 3 times.

The other bad part of the whole thing, about an hour or so after playing in the grass (teh only change) he got a fever, runny nose and started puking so I really think he has some sort of allergy ecsp since he was fine a few hours after we got home.

Potty Training ahhh yes I cant believe we are thinking about this already the only thing that concerns me is the fact that he is in diapers until he gets to about 2 yo then they work on it in that room 100%. You guys might find this funny but I put him on the seat last night and dh was like what are you doing boys dont sit on the seat....UM HELLO he is certainly not going to stand up and whip it out! Too funny! Oh and he will jsut have a soft seat for ours I am not cleaning one of those nasty things! EWWWWWWWWWWw

[shimmerstar]

Whit- those decorations were so cute! He is adorable.

Noah is talking a LOT more now. The other day my parents dog came to visit and he said "dog" right out of the blue! Today I asked him if he had to potty and he said "no".

He is a lot of fun, except at night when he wakes up at least once and screams bloody murder for 30 min to an hour. There is nothing wrong that we can figure out. He just wants to go and play. It's terrible. I try to rock him but he fights me and my arms are sore from trying to hold him!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2324/2340387715_12ff2af274.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2406/2340382183_cbed34abc9.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2129/2340385159_4f87f6c9d2.jpg?v=0

[betsyboop]

QOTD- Can I ask how much milk per day the babies who are on whole milk are drinking? I'm not sure if Millie is drinking enough. Man, she is one tough cookie on this eating/drinking thing! Also, do your babies drink anything other than milk in any significant quantity? Can you break down the total daily fluid intake for your baby? Thanks:)

Shimmerstar- Noah is such a big kid now!

[shimmerstar]

I'm not sure how much milk he gets at school, but I'm guessing not more than 2 cups. He gets 1/2 c in the morning and about 1c in the car after school from me. Then he has 1/2 c at dinner. If he wakes in the night he gets a little bit too. So, at the most, he takes about 4.5 c a day. That seems like a lot, but we just got off formula. He also has about 1/2 c of juice and 1/2 c of water a day.

[Kanga]

Milk - Daytona only drinks water and on occasion watered down juice. Once we ditched the bottle she decided she didn't like milk. Cami still nurses several times a day so I don't worry too much about her liquids, but we always have a sippy of water out for each kid. I'm of the mindframe that if they have it available they'll drink as much as they need to when they need to.

[kindermom]

Milk - Henry gets about 6 ounces at day care. He nurses before I leave for work. And he nurses 2-3 times when I get home. I would guess he takes in about 18 ounces. Around the house he drinks water. I would guess he has about 4-6 ounces a day. Our NP thought that his intake was right on target.

Development - So on Tuesday I was telling the NP that Henry was still not talking much. He never babbled, only said gaga. By Thursday you could not shut him up. Now he talks to anyone and everyone including the cat. It is amazing how all of a sudden boom. He also had 2 more teeth pop through since last Tuesday. Not bad, right?

[whitlockan]

whole milk/water/juice no advice we havent had any of it yet.

shimmer thanks! Cute pics.....love the hat! Thats awesome he is getting the words down and I love the fact he does know how to sign. Do you think he is having night terrors?

kinder be careful what you wish for....ha-ha. Thats great! How many teeth, we still only have the same 4 with 2 tops barely peeking through.

Cross posted from LJ:
Much needed party recap......
We decided to leave for VA on Thursday night while Z slept, thankfully we were able to get the dogs boarded that afternoon. As much as I hate driving at the wee hours of the night it was just going to be the easiest, we arrived around 2:00 am, I drove the entire way and suprisingly did not get tired. Thankfully Z didnt wake one time so we made excellent timing....not one stop!

Friday - Z and DH got up around 6:00 am I continued to sleep since DH slept the entire drive down, they came back to bed an hour later and we all slept until 10:00 am it was so nice! We got up and started our errands around 12:15. Groceries, new camera - ours was doing some random stuff and I thought no better time for a new camera so we got a Cannon powershot 750 or something like that....LOVE IT!! Took everything over to his sister's house - where we were having the party and then hung around for a while before we went back to his mom's house.

Saturday - we had to leave by 8:30 made a few stops along the way, ballons, cake and veggie tray then began cooking around 10:00 - apparently food coloring changes the cooking time it took almost 45 min to cook pigs in a blanket! You want to talk about amazing timing, between me, DH, his sister and my niece we finished at exactly on the dot 12:00 and thankfully DS took a nap at 11:30 so we just woke him up from his nap, it was amazing! We cut the cake and finished presents by 2:00.....I cant believe how smoothly it all went and how on time/track we were, it was incredible I love good timing. The sad part was though DS hated the cake, touched the icing and really was not interested but he gave it a lick and then HATED it, did the shake thing like if you got cold chills or something, DH tried to get him to eat a piece and he wouldn't in a way we were so happy because mother in law is always trying to give him somethign sweet and full of sugar so just goes to show her he doesnt like it so give up. The other disappointing part, about 45 min after the party, Z started puking, got a fever and was sneezing and had a runny nose, the only thing that changed that entire day was he played in grass, which he has never done before. I will mention it to our ped but I am almost certain it was an allergy because the rest of the night he was so sick and didnt recover until we got back to our house.

Sunday - we got home around 12:00 and he just played the rest of the day with his new toys....he got so many of those wheel pal tonka truck things and the msot annoying dump truck, it clicks everytime he pushes it. But I will say he has figured out the concept without anyone showing him, it came with 3 "rocks" and all last night he was dumping them out of the bed with the lever thing.

Party #2.....
I havent seen my parents in 8 months so I am getting really excited about going home this weekend, it will be all to short of a visit but I am still so pumped. It will also be Z's first plane ride so of course we will document that entire process. I am just so excited, Friday cannot come soon enough!

School news.....
There had been tons of drama in old moos - his class - I truely disliked one of the teachers or lack thereof and we were always in the directors office talking to them about it, since the lead teacher left they finally hired an awesome person. We get our much needed feedback just like in young moos and she told us anything we want him to learn let her know and they will incorporate it into the daily lesson plan. Here is the bad part about her (actually good but...), she confirmed the fact we think he is beyond bored in that class. When I showed up last night she pulled me aside to talk about Z's behavior he exhibits the normal rough play of a 1 year old boy but he is a bit overly aggressive. *pause for background* they moved a ton of kids over way to early they are just learning to crawl and to move to that room you have to be already crawling ready to walk, pulling up to standing and on solids none of these are and they moved Z over the last week of October because he was doing all of that and met all the other requirments for that room *continue* She caught him climbing on them, sitting on them jumping up and down, and pulling hair. She did mention that Grace (another advanced little gal about 18 months old though) was the only one he actually played with but she thought it was because he is where she is in terms of development but once I gave her all the other background info she felt so much better that he was not just being a bad kid and that he was indeed beyond bored in that room - bored of the enviroment, toys and of course the development tasks right now he is well past that. She is going to make other lesson plans for Grace and Z to keep them entertained and then bring out the cots so they can hopefully get transitioned to the older room before June. Hmmm guess thats the negative part of having an advanced kid in a development center like that.....boredem.

Z.....
Well he is actively working on words, he has some syllables down and some basic almost words. I dont even now how to type them but he can communicate when pointing and saying this one thing the equivlent of: whats that, he has dog down (can identifiy any dog other than his own), he knows when he eats something good to say mmmmmmmmmm for yummy(dad taught him this), if he goes some a place he knows is off limits he will turn to you and basically ask permission, he has "here" down. Other non-verbal communication - he of course waves bye but now by rotating his wrist, when he wants to nurse and I am at his level this is funny but he comes and buries his face in my chest and keeps bunting it and tugging until I give it up, if you say night time he walks to his room for bed and finally he understand all commands: open mouth to brush teeth, no, stop, give/bring it to me, almost has down pick up your toys (he picks them up when you ask him to help but once you finish he takes the bucket of trucks and dumps them over his head...hahaha), come here, close the door (mainly he loves to help close the dishwasher,closets and luandry room - he learned it from helping me with housework) where are you...most of the time he turns around he comes to us. One thing that botheres me and we talked about at school last night is the fact he never comes to me and says mama or even dada, he does it once in a while for instance this weekend I had him and Jerry went outside he wanted down and cried at the door dada he certainly knows who we are but just never really identifies us with a verbal "name."

Okay I think thats it for now........

[kindermom]

Whit - That brings us up to 9. He has the top 4 and bottom 4 and one molar. He is currently working on another molar and his two eye teeth. He is miserable. Oh, and I am not wishing for the teeth. Can you say biting?

[betsyboop]

Ok, just as I thought. Millie is not drinking enough. I think she takes in about 16oz of milk per day and nothing else (to drink, that is). I'm just not sure how to get her to take in more... It's hard enough getting that much into her. :rolleyes:

[kindermom]

Talk to your ped. This is a perfect question for them. I know that the older they get, the less milk they need. 16 ounces does not seem that low. But then again, Millie has had some weight gain issues.

[Orion]

Sophie didn't drink a lot at this age either and we've had eating/weight issues with her just as you do with Millie. I was always told not to force them to eat/drink anything because it will just make their eating/drinking habits worse. We let Sophie eat when she wants to eat and drink when she wants to drink and she is a very healthy little girl. She is still only in the third percentile (and it is sometimes a struggle to keep her up to the third percentile) but I notice that when we stress about her eating/drinking she won't eat or drink but when we have the 'I don't care' attitude, she eats like a horse.

[Tandis]

Betsy - My girls drink 8 oz in the morning, and 8 oz. before bed. The rest of the day they drink water. My parents give them milk in their sippies for breakfast and lunch, but they probably only drink about 4 oz. or less during the day. They get water with their snacks.

So really, they're probably only drinking a little over 16 oz of milk a day, therefore I don't think Millie is that far off.

[littlemia]

Be back later but wanted to say to Betsy that there's a thread in toddlers (I think) about whole milk consumption. They shouldn't get too much whole milk because it can block absorption of certain nutrients. We're not on whole milk but Claire is still on mostly a liquid diet. She gets about 30oz of breast milk a day and a little bit of solids.

[betsyboop]

Oh I guess I wasn't totally clear. I'm thinking she's dehydrated, not that it's necesarily just milk consumption that's the concern. She doesn't really drink water and I even went against my own rule and tried giving her some juice. But she hated it, even when I tried watering it down.

Orion- Thank you for posting that. It made me realize that I was being too pushy with the sippy cup and that I need to chill out a bit.

[Tandis]

How many pee diapers does she have? Has it decreased any?

[betsyboop]

Hmm, I don't know. I usually just change her diaper randomly, like I'll think to myself "it's been a while since I changed her, I better go do it now." I have never been able to notice when she pees. However, I have noticed her poop has gotten harder and comes out in these little pellets (sorry if this is tmi). It reminds me of what they were like when she had the feeding issues and ended up needing formula.

[littlemia]

Betsy- Is she still on formula?

Shimmer- way to go Noah! His language development has really taken off in the past month or so, hasn't it?

Kindermom- It's amazing how they can have developmental leaps basically overnight.

Whit- checked out your pictures. Looked like the party turned out really well. Sorry he didn't like his cake.

Tantrums- Is anyone else's baby starting to throw little tantrums? Claire has started throw little fits (kicking and screaming) when she doesn't get her way. I'm going to be in for it when she's a little older.

[shimmerstar]

littlemia- He has totally taken off. I was worried that he wouldn't talk, or wasn't very smart, but he's proving me wrong now.

Tantums- Holy lord! He acts like what I thought a two-year-old would act like. The other day I kept him home from school (spring break) to get a hair cut. It was a nightmare. I think he was bored, but I can't play every moment! He was screeching, falling on the floor, following me around and just was very unhappy. Nothing I did could fix it. I tried to put him down for his nap two hours early, that's how drained I was. It didn't work though. Once we got out of the house he was an angel. For the entire afternoon. Then he fell asleep in the car, and was up until 11.
I could never, ever be a SAHM. Luckily he seems to like school a lot.

So yes, we are getting the tantrums too. Also, he throws everything at me! He is definitely opinionated. ;)

I am off to the doctor because I think I have strep throat again!

[betsyboop]

Littlemia- She's on 1/3 formula 2/3 milk. I'm just trying to use up the rest of the last can of formula (which I bought literally the day before the Dr gave us the go ahead to switch to milk) otherwise she'd be on 100% milk now. Though over the last 12 hours or so, her poop has gotten softer, so maybe things are improving.

Tantrums- Funny, I was just telling Dave last night that I think we're starting to see some primitive temper tantrums from Millie. Yesterday, I was trying to get a photo of her doing this weird "downward facing dog" position that she does sometimes. But every time I took out the camera, she would come rushing over to investigate what I was up to. When I wouldn't let her play with the camera, she kept doing this crazy wailing/scrunched up face/twisting and flailing her arms thing. Luckily, it only lasted like 30 sec each time.

Shimmerstar- Sorry you had a rough day with Noah. Maybe he's more used to being around lots of teachers and kids all day so it was a little boring to just be the 2 of you?

[kindermom]

Tantrums - Oh geez yes. I just noticed this week, now that Henry is starting to feel better that he is beginning the phase of "throw myself down on the ground and screm" tantruming. Hopefully he will learn quickly that hardwoods and tile hurt and thus put an end to this,

[shimmerstar]

Betsy- I think that's exactly it. But geez, this kid used to entertain himself for an hour!

Kindermom- That cracked me up! I have told Noah a few times "see what happens when you act like that? You hurt your head". :p

[betsyboop]

Happy birthday, Claire!!

We just got word that a friend of Dave's from college and his wife just had a baby girl on the 19th. I actually got teary thinking about how big Millie is compared to their baby and then I almost lost it in Target picking out a congratulations card for them (you know how all those cards talk about how wonderful having a baby is, etc...). Geesh, I think I'm getting ready to have another:eek:

[Tandis]

Happy birthday Claire!

and

Happy belated birthday Aaron!

[littlemia]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. We went to see Mr. Richard (http://www.mrrichard.net) (local children's musician) this morning and she loved it. We've been a few times before but this time I brought her up front and she was clapping along to the music (not in time, but still). The only thing was he had a band this time and we were a little too close to the drums. I hope I didn't hurt her ears permanently. Now I get to spend the rest of the day and night preparing like a madwoman for her party. I can't believe she's a year old. I've only cried once today but I keep looking at her and getting all teary. It's been such a tough year but also a wonderful one.

[danalou]

I hope everyone had a great Easter and a Happy Belated Birthday to all!!

I was wondering if everyone would be willing to share their feeding schedule/routine with me? A bit of background -> DD is one about 50% whole milk & 50% EBM during the day in bottles at daycare. She refuses a bottle at home if I am around as she would rather nurse. I have made it well past a year and I would like to wean her. I am thinking we will have to go cold turkey as the sippy cup is a play toy (I want to eliminate the bottle from the picture as she does well with the straw sippy cups and it would just be another thing to have to wean from in the end). My questions center around when to give her milk in the sippy as I BF in the morning and before bedtime. Do I replace these BF sessions with a sippy cup feeding and then offer the milk at all feeedings as we are doing now?? I guess I am just confused and not sure how to make the next move and that is why I am still BF as it is easy and comfortable for both of us. In the end I know that this is a good choice to wean her, but it is just such a confusing and challenging time!!

TIA girls as it is really nice to know I have other women I can ask about this types of issues!!

[shimmerstar]

Danalou- I don't know how much help this will be, but we just gradually stopped feeding Noah bottles. He is completely on table food and milk now. The last bottle to go was the bedtime and middle-of-the-night bottles. It really hasn't been bad at all. He didn't seem to miss them and likes his cups too. You could try every week just feeding her one less bottle if cold turkey sounds too harsh. :)

I posted in LJ about Noah possibly chipping his tooth, but now I'm not sure if it is or not. He was sent home from daycare today, along with 7 other kids in his class because of a hand, foot, and mouth epidemic. My sick time is officially down to 0, and dh has a hard time getting to stay home. :(

[betsyboop]

Dana- We ended up having to go cold turkey with Millie. At first, we really wanted to keep the morning and evening bottles (mostly for us because it's the only snuggle time we got!) but she outsmarted us and started fasting all day when we were offering the sippy and then chugging huge quantities of milk from her 2 bottles/day. So we ditched those 2 bottles about a week or so ago and she adapted just fine. I'd say it took her about 2 days to get good about drinking from the sippy full time. We use those Nuby straw cups with the handles in case you were wondering.

Routine-
8:30- get her out of bed and head down to feed her breakfast (about 1/2 a waffle)
10:30- snack (about 1 jar of pureed veggie or fruit)
1:30- lunch (about 1/2 a grilled cheese sandwich, some yogurt, maybe some apple (I peel a whole apple and just let her work on it)
3:30ish- snack (handful of veggie booty, freeze dried apple, arrow root cookies, etc)
7ish- dinner (whatever we're having)

We give her milk all day and usually she has about 2-3 8oz sippies full.

[danalou]

Shimmerstar - Thanks that helps!!

Betsy - Do you just keep the sippy out for Millie all day or do you offer it just a meals/snacks?

[betsyboop]

I keep the sippy out pretty much all day. We even take it in the car.

[Kanga]

weaning - neither one of us are ready to wean completely yet, but I'd like to get to the point where she doesn't need to nurse so we're trying to wean down to 2-3 nursing sessions a day. It's been a sloooow process though but that's fine with me. I'm starting with the easiest ones to get rid of first which are the middle of the day ones for us. Last to go (and not for another year or so at least) will be right after waking. When she wants to nurse, I try to hold her off as long as possible. If I think it's a "i'm bored and there's nothing else to do so let's nurse" then we move on to a new activity or go outside if it's nice. If it's hunger then I offer her a snack, which is usually fresh fruit. She's still getting over a nasty stomach bug so she hasn't been eating much and nursing lots more so weaning has kind of gone out the window for the time being She also fractured her arm last night so she hasn't been her normal self lately. More on that below.

Cami fell off the couch yesterday afternoon. She wasn't acting herself but as I was calming her down she fell asleep. I thought maybe she was a little sore and after her nap if she wasn't back to her normal self. Well she woke up from her nap and couldn't or wouldn't use her right arm to crawl. So off to the ER we went. They took x rays of her right arm and she has a buckle fracture just above her wrist on one of her forearm bones. She has a splint (sometimes called a soft cast) on now and will need it on for two weeks. Then we have to see the pediatric orthopedic surgeon and go from there. I assume he'll take more x rays then decide if she's needs to have it on longer or can take it off for good.

She's been acting like herself for the most part. She was really pissed off last night and for a little bit this morning because she couldn't crawl or pull up to a stand to walk (the cast keeps her wrist from bending) but she's now got that figured out. Not nearly as fast as she used to be but maybe that'll give her the extra push she needs to walk full time rather than stop after a few feet because crawling was faster:) We can't let the cast get wet so no real baths for the time being, just sponge baths. Last night I felt like I had a newborn again! She couldn't crawl, would only nurse and not eat solids, couldn't give her a bath and woke up several times to find a comfy spot for her arm since she usually sleeps on her stomach with both arms underneath of her.

[ieducate]

I posted this on my journal too, but I thought that I would post here as well. Hope everyone is well. I haven't been on here to post in a while, but I read al the posts to stay up-to-date. :)

Well, JR seems to be sleeping well these days. I think we finally got past all the waking up multiple times in the night. I think!!! She does on occasion wake up once a night sometime between 1:30 and 3:30am, but last night she slept from 8pm until 6:45am. We let her play in her crib until about 7:15am. Last Tuesday night (when we were in Cleveland) she slept 13 hours. Of course, she had zero naps during the day as we were flying and getting unpacked, etc. at my mother's house. Anyway, she has been doing a great job. I just haven't figured out what to do about that once a night waking when it does happen. I haven't figured out how much time to wait before going in. I have been giving it about 10 minutes to see if she can fall back asleep. Most of the time she does not, and we have to go in, rub her back, and check her pacifier situation. Okay, so that is the other big problem that we are dealing with now. Now that I have gotten her to sleep well through the night (most of the time) I want to break her of needing the pacifier at bedtime. She no longer uses it during the day when awake, she ONLY uses it when sleeping...even for naps. She always needs to have two of them...one for her mouth and the other for her hand. How do I break her of needing it at all? I think that sometimes that is what wakes her up (and often keeps her up) at night. She wakes up unable to find one and freaks out. Often they are on the floor because she tosses them out of her crib. Any suggestions on how to break this habit? I don't want it