Baby John: 22 Months

Sorry about all the different fonts and some weird formatting in this post. Blogger was being weird!

Baby John will be 22 months on Tuesday. In a few short weeks, he won't be baby John any more!

I don't know where to start about John. The first year of development was quite impressive: In a mere 12 months going from unable to hold your own head up to walking and talking is a feat. I'd say the second year is more nuanced but equally impressive. He's doing so many things now that I couldn't possibly discuss them all. I am constantly impressed by how observant he is and how much is memory is developing.

Happy (late) Valentine's Day!

He's not super verbal but he's picking up new words all the time. Most of them you'd be hard pressed to understand without the help of a translator/mom. For example "buh" could refer to a bear, bath, book, boat, ball, bird or bowl.

He's putting words together. Most of these inchoate sentences orbit around the central theme of wanting more food. "Muh sees" (more cheese), "muh cuca" (more cupcakes- we've gone to a lot of birthday parties recently), for example. He also loves to "doh bye bye" (go bye bye.)

And speaking of him wanting more food, several years ago I was watching an interview with Reese Witherspoon and she was talking about how your children's needs supersede your own and if your kid wants your bagel then you have to give him your bagel. And, at the time, I found that curious. I was kind of like, "why would you have to give all your food to your kids?" NOW I KNOW. It is impossible to eat in peace when your child is standing at your feet whining for your food even though he just ate a full lunch and you are hungry. John has a very sensitive food radar and he knows when I'm trying to sneak snacks in the kitchen. So, I do a lot of my eating when he's sleeping!

I would say that we are in the very early stages of potty training. About a month ago he made it known that he understands what "tee tee" is when he abruptly got down from the kitchen chair and ran over to me urgently declaring "tee tee!" I should say that he was sitting on the chair sans clothes or diaper. I wasn't sure what he was telling me so I went over to the chair and saw that he most definitely had just "tee teed!" on it. Now, he does not fail to make it known when anyone in the house has to visit the bathroom. We're not really doing much active potty training because I know when I have the new baby in a few weeks I won't have much time to devote to it. But we have checked out a few potty time videos- watching videos in which children sing about poo poo and tee tee was one thing I never pictured myself doing back in my single/childless years. We also bought him a potty chair which he loves to sit on while saying "tee tee." But he has not yet tee teed in the potty and he's equally interested in dragging the potty seat around the house and putting toys in it. Both of the latter, we're actively discouraging!

There is one crucial misunderstanding that must be cleared up before potty training can commence in earnest, I think. And that is poo poo vs. boo boo. Right now he has the two confused. I don't think he has any idea what poo poo is. But every time I change his diaper he gleefully announces "tee tee!" and then, his countenance changes to that of concern while he solemnly says "boo boo" while pointing to his head (where he had a boo boo in the past). So, he associates tee tee and boo boos which isn't exactly the connection that needs to be made! (If anybody has potty training advice, please, don't hold back!)

It's also really cute that whenever he hurts himself he will come to me saying "boo boo," and asking for a kiss to make it all better.

One thing he loves to do is climb up on our bed during the day saying "nigh nigh" and asking for a blanket.

But do you really think he intends to take a nap? Let's take a look:

No! And I'm like "child, don't toy with me!"

He also loves to stack all sorts of objects. Here is one of his more impressive structures. He's always very proud to show us his "tas" (stacks).

I feel like there's so much more I could say. Hopefully I'll be better at my updates and then I won't have to combine 3 months worth of development which has all blurred together!

Back and Bigger Than Ever

Hi everyone! Wow, I really fell off the face of the interwebs. And it wasn't just my blog that didn't get any attention. I have hardly been online at all. It started in mid December when I was in a mad rush to finish Christmas gifts. Then in January, our computer broke and it took a while to research what we should get, buy a new one and get it up and running. Peter has a laptop that I've used but it is quite an infuriating machine. The web browser on it crashes frequently. It is a mini laptop and the keyboard is way too small for my apparently Andre-the-Giant sized hands. It would take me forever to type anything when I had to delete every other letter. Also, Peter had to use it most evenings when I would normally write posts. Most recently I've been slogging my way through my pre baby #2 to-do list which keeps growing as I think of new tasks that, despite the fact that many of them have been sitting unfinished for months and years, I feel compelled to complete right now. So with that perfect storm of factors I definitely got out of the routine of blogging. But I have missed it! That, and my life and this pregnancy has been largely undocumented, which I kind of feel bad about. So I hope to get back into it. Thank you to those of you who have expressed concern about my lack of communication or have let me know that you miss the posts!

So, for an update, I'll start with me. Here I am today at 36.5 weeks:

Dear New Baby,

Please don't think that my lack of photo documentation and rumination about you and the miracle of pregnancy this time around is an indication of my excitement to see you. I'm very much looking forward to snuggling with you and kissing your face! It's just that your big brother requires about 1,000 times more attention than you do at this point. And since you lack the ability to protest the fact that you are being neglected, I find myself prone to tend to the child who has, in his almost two years, learned many loud and messy ways to let me know when he needs attention. Sadly this is the lot of second and all subsequent children: less personal parental attention than the first child received during his only-child years. However it also happens to be your lot as a second child that you will have the greatest big brother ever. I think you will find him to be a barrel of fun and I know he will love you. He already frequently says "hi baby" to you while patting you fondly. He also gives you hugs and kisses a lot. He won't even give me hugs and kisses. Never mind that I am the one who was in labor for 30 hours to bring him into this world. So you can really consider yourself special! It won't be long now until you will be here and, I promise, I will take more pictures then. If I can help it, I won't leave your life a black hole of documentation as I have done with this second pregnancy! I can't wait to see you!

Love,

Mama

This pregnancy has been nearly identical to my first one. Thankfully, it has been very easy, especially once I got out of the queasy, zombie-like haze of the first trimester. Since the pregnancies have been similar, do you think it means that this is most likely another boy? I think it is a boy but I'm not nearly as certain as I was with John.

At this point in the pregnancy, all of the helpful lay obstetricians of the world are are at the ready with their prognostications about when I'll have the baby and the gender as well as plenty of comments about my size and waddling. Even my actual OB does not purport to have nearly the insight of many of the people I meet at Target on a given day!

I've stayed pretty active exercising with this baby but as of this week, with one month left, I'm pretty much toning it back to just doing the elliptical and swimming. It is getting harder to move quickly. And forget bending over. But overall I feel excellent. I'm sleeping well, albeit with an average of 40 pillows.

I hope to post an update on the World's Greatest, Cutest, Smartest Big Brother later this week!

How to Wear Pregnant Lady Out

I suppose it doesn't take a lot to wear a pregnant lady out. But I've been enjoying so much more energy these days (second trimester, I love you!) that I wonder if this would have worn even Lance Armstrong out.

I go to a playgroup every Thursday morning at 8:30 am. That's early, I know, but we started in the summer when you would spontaneously combust if you were out doors after 10 am. We usually meet at the park. Given the chilly weather lately, coupled with the holiday season being in full swing, I thought it would be fun this past Thursday to take a break from the park and meet at my house to decorate Christmas cookies.

Usually about 5 or 6 of us plus kids will show up to the playgroup. But this week everyone came out! We had 12 moms and 12 toddlers running, sometimes crying, playing, crafting and decorating all over my house! I loved it and from what I could tell, fun was had by all. But, let me tell you, it took me a good two days to recover from this little shin dig. It's not that it was difficult to prepare; all I did was bake some cookies. And the mess afterward was surprisingly less than you might think given the combination of toddlers, icing and sprinkles (though the more I looked around my dining room, the more icing smears I detected!). Nevertheless, the hustle and bustle required several naps to recover.

John before the party started. He still has a cookie in his mouth and he's signing "more."

Decorating snowmen with stickers.

Target has these really great snowmen decorating packages. The snowmen and stickers are foam. Since everyone couldn't decorate cookies at the same time, I was looking for something else that the kids could do that would be simple, cheap and not make an intractable mess. This was the answer! The package cost $5 and stickers are self-explanatory. They did get everywhere but they were perfectly easy to sweep up!


As you can see, some children (ahem, my own) did not quite catch on to the finer points of cookie decorating. But all quickly became proficient at the cookie eating involved! Some of the older ones did enjoy the decorating. One little 2 year old spent at least 15 minutes painstakingly decorating his cookie bite-by-bite.

John did not make it out of his pajamas for the duration of the party. When you expect people at your house at 8:30 am, some things just don't get done! The toilets were clean and the cookies were done! That's what's important!

I used this recipe from i am baker for the sugar cookies and icing. Delicious. I love that blog.

Counting Petal Page

A little about me: I am Leslie, I have a blog called, creatively, peterandleslie.blogspot.com. Peter, being my husband. Our son, John, is 18 months and we are expecting another baby in April.

I was excited to participate in the quiet book swap because it is such a cute idea. But also because I've been wanting to learn and grow in craftiness (like, arts and crafts, not deception!). I have a sewing machine which I have used but, until recently, was not very comfortable with. I thought that doing this would give me a goal and force me to overcome at least part of the learning curve that I had been using as an excuse for not doing more sewing projects. I'm definitely glad I did it because I do feel much more comfortable with my machine. I can thread it now without having to read the step-by-step instructions each time! I'm by no means an expert (I even attempted to sew on the velcro sticky dots which is a no no!) but I've got the confidence to try more projects. Not to mention, I've got 18 other adorable pages coming my way!

I will say that a good motto for doing something like this is: "Don't forget: it's for 18 month-olds." Meaning, details like perfectly straight seems will not necessarily be appreciated by the target audience. So, have fun!

Materials:
2.5 yards Pellon Peltex 70 ultra firm stabilizer
Pages of stiffened felt: orange (2), light blue (2), yellow (1), green (1)
Sticky velcro dots from Hobby Lobby 75/pack (2) and 15/pack (1)
Miscellaneous: thread, sharpies

Inspiration:
Serving Pink Lemonade
I used the template from this blog, deviating very little. I modified her instructions in that I didn't fuse the felt pieces onto the pellon; I only sewed them. I don't know if fusing would add stability or some other benefit. With 20 pages to make, I was going for the most streamlined process I could manage! I also wrote the numbers onto the flower petals rather than fusing on felt numbers. Again, with 20 pages, I thought that cutting out the numbers for all those petals (160 in all!) would be prohibitively time consuming.

Assembly:

1. Cut the Pellon into 20 8.5 X10 sheets.

2. Trace the individual template pieces (flower petals, stem, flower pot and flower center) onto the stiffened felt and cut out.

3. Sew flower pot, stem and center of flower onto Pellon. The flower pot functions as a pocket, so leave the top open only sewing around the sides and bottom.

4. Trace flower petals around flower center with sharpie

5. Apply velcro sticky dots to each flower petal (soft side of velcro) and within each traced flower petal (rough side of velcro).

6. Write numbers 1-8 on each petal

6. Voila! Finis!

I didn't document the assembly process but here is a picture of the finished product where you can see all the components.

Lessons learned:
Overall, you can't go very wrong with this (I don't think! I'm open to feedback from the other quiet book swappers who might have critiques of my page!). But it would be ideal to use sew-on velcro as the stick-on kind will not hold up very well long-term. I intend to reinforce mine by hand stitching each one on. Had I had more time (much more time!) and resources, I would have used the sew-on velcro. But as it was, that would have been too time consuming and more expensive than the sticky dots.

Since I live out of town, I didn't get to go to the swap in person but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's work. Here's to (hopefully) many quiet minutes of quiet, well-behaved children exploring their quiet books!

Quiet Book Swap

I recently participated in a quiet book swap. Here is an explanation of what a quiet book is and here is an explanation of a quiet book swap.

The swap was coordinated by Laura, a blog-friend that I went to A&M with. She asked each of the participants to write a blog post about the making of our quiet book page. Each day she'll be posting on her blog one of those entries which will detail a different page and how it was constructed. There will be 18 in all, plus a post about the cover. It will be kind of like a tutorial for making your own if you ever wanted to do so.

I thought this was a great idea. You'd have to ask Laura how difficult it was to coordinate but if you're inclined, it would be a fun project to do with friends!

I'll post the entry I wrote about my page here tomorrow.

Just so you know, making one of these does require some equipment. Most pages required sewing. But, if you can get your hands on a machine, this is very doable. Another of my friends who participated had never sewn before. She borrowed her mother in law's machine and made an adorable page with a puppy on it!

Also, if you have a baby who's not quite of age to appreciate the activities on these pages, that doesn't mean it's too early to make one if you want to. I've realized that crafty projects like this are much easier before children get mobile! Of course, you can still do them after the kids begin running around like crazy. It just means you just have to carve out time during naps or after bed time. I still try very diligently to nap when the baby naps! So take advantage of the time when you can sit the kids in one place and they can't toddle away to Timbuktu while your head is turned for a split second!

Thanksgiving Tree

Several years ago a friend of mine posted on her blog about a Thanksgiving tree she'd made. Each day in November she and her family would write something for which they were thankful on a paper leaf and stick it onto the tree. I fell in love with the idea and I knew that I wanted to do something similar when I had kids (though it's not a bad idea for anyone to do whether single, married, childless etc...). There are so many variations of this around the inter webs that you really can't go wrong.

But I wanted to do something that I could do the prep work for one year and then use the pieces year after year. Here is what we ended up with:


Last year I had a family friend from church, who is a carpenter, cut this tree out of plywood. I had intended to use it last November. But, as I was learning at the time, when you have children (or possibly just when you're me) sometimes things that you think will only take you 10 minutes will actually take you a year to get around to (I had this problem before children too so I can't totally blame it on John although he makes for a convenient excuse. ;o) )

This year we stained the tree, Peter installed hooks and I cut out and laminated what seemed like approximately 7,000 leaves, poked holes in them and tied ribbon through the holes. We wrote what we are thankful for on the leaves with dry erase markers so they can be erased and used year after year. If there are any special ones that I'd like to save I can use a permanent marker and put it in a scrapbook.

My goal was to do this each day in November. We got around to it once. (In all fairness we didn't have the tree in working order until about the 15th and then I went out of town on the 21st!) But it's a start! John's still too young to recall any of this so we're having a few practice years!

I have big plans for the tree. I also, in coming years, hope to use it as a resurrection tree leading up to Easter and possibly an advent tree as well.

I'm looking forward to when John will be able to participate more and we don't have to guess what he's most thankful for. Though we did guess for him this year and I'm pretty sure among his top three are his mama, his lovie, and bananas (bananas might be number one but I'm just vain enough to put myself first).

I think this is such a fun way to cultivate thanksgiving and contentment! There are so many things to be thankful for that a leaf for everyday in November wouldn't even begin to cover it!

"But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise." Ps 79:13

Entertainment for Minutes On End

I've been combing through the book Slow and Steady Get Me Ready to get ideas for toddler activities. It's a book of weekly preschool activities for children from birth to age 5. There are 260 activities total. Someone gave me the book when John was very young. I have not by any means followed the program week by week. I've done probably less than a dozen of the activities with John. For the last several weeks, though, I've been following the schedule more closely because he's becoming much more interested in simple preschool activities. I've been researching things to keep us busy and out of trouble!

Today, I was pleasantly surprised to find that some common household objects provided John with minutes of endless entertainment (bearing in mind that 15 minutes to an 18 month old is like an hour or more to the rest of us) and, I'd like to think, an opportunity to develop cognitive and motor skills:

Spice Containers

This activity isn't directly from Slow and Steady but since I've been looking through the book, some concepts from it were in my mind. Just marvel at all the things that these spice containers can teach us (or, at least, can teach you if you are an 18 month old):

• The containers can demonstrate the concepts of big and little
  
• The tops can demonstrate open and closed
• You can practice fine motor skills by opening and closing the lids and also attempting to screw them on
• You can match the correct lid to the correct container
• You can drop small objects inside, also developing motor skills, while discussing what fits and what doesn't

I mean, really, is there even that much to do at Disney World!?

I started writing this post back on the 18th and since then, he's gone back to these several times to play. I love things like this that are 1) economical, 2) simple, and 3) hopefully developing skills and knowledge.

I feel like a year ago I would have been at a loss to come up with something to do with spice containers to entertain a toddler. And now I'm all, "what can't you do with spice containers?!" It takes a special kind of knowledge to see so many possibilities in a spice container. I don't inherently possess such knowledge but I'm getting better! The best person to be around to develop such an appreciation is John because he's not old and sophisticated enough yet to realize that spice containers aren't spectacular. Maybe he'll never get to that point. Instead I hope he keeps his sense of wonder and curiosity about the world!