Fun Times

The below is a random compilation of pictures from my phone over the last couple of weeks that I wanted to make sure were captured.

 Reid very happy with himself after he made it through the barricade I had created for him to stay out of the bathroom.  Oops!  I guess crawling under was not accounted for in my plan.

 Micah watching his show after nap time, and Reid joining in.  We moved the ottoman close to the couch to keep Reid away from the actual iPad so as not to bother big brother and his show. 

 Reid has started talking a little, as well as waving bye-bye, and this is a video that captures a little of those fun stages he's encountering.

Micah and I have been enjoying some alone time, with me making an effort to spend a bit of concentrated time with him...one day this week we did puzzles and hot chocolate.  yum-my!  Funny, the first time we did hot chocolate was watching Polar Express, so when I first mentioned having hot chocolate as our "snack" Micah went searching for the movie, haha.  I was impressed with the work he made and effort he put forth in putting these puzzles together, as they were definitely the hardest puzzles we've worked on together.

"Mmm, mmm delicious!"

Reid taking advantage of big brother sleeping and mom giving him some alone time :)

Our other activity we worked on this week was with our numbers.  Micah had to count the number of beans in the plastic eggs and then find the right plate to accompany them.  Numbers 1-10 weren't a challenge for him, so I moved on to numbers 11-20...he did pretty well with those, but definitely needs more help with all of those numbers. 

Micah really enjoyed our focused activities this past week, and I'm wanting to do better about giving him that concentrated time moving forward.  I committed myself to being more diligent about working with Micah and creating activities for him.  Since we decided against preschool for next year, I want to try my best to bring that learning experience here in our home.  I know I can't provide the social experience for him, but I can work on activities that challenge his little brain and help to keep him from getting bored.  We'll see how realistic it is moving forward, but if I can come up with a few activities and then pick a couple each week to do, I'm hoping it will keep Micah busy and learning, and thus give Reid a break from big brother's wrath :)

Big Boy Haircut!

Reid is now on his 4th haircut!  This one is probably my favorite, overall, and also the shortest that he's had.  I actually used the clippers, which helped to get a bit of a uniform look and him and Micah are now on the same guard, which is just crazy :)  How is it my baby boy and my toddler boy are getting essentially the same haircut...how is that possible?  I'm continuing to grow in confidence with Reid's hair though, and am still grateful to not be paying someone else for it (especially since we're on our 4th one so far, haha).

I got out Baby Einsten's for Reid, and no surprise, Micah became captivated...he always did love Baby Beethoven, and loves when I turn it on for Reid.

 

 

I also wanted to show off his new do :)  And try and capture one of his favorite past times in our house right now - playing hide and seek with the kitchen curtains.  

Micah did not want to miss out on a couple pictures of himself, and wanted to make sure I captured the paint in there as well, silly boy.

Love my boys!

9 months!

Well, another month and come and gone.  Time is not slowing down and Reid keeps growing and becoming more and more adorable...if that's even possible!  It's been another fun month with Reid, mixed in with two teeth coming in, but our happy, smiley boy is such a joy to be around.  The first 3 pictures below are with Reid wearing that same outfit that Micah did at 9 months (unintentionally!) and after I looked at them, realizing there were some similarities in positions and facials between the two boys as well.  At Reid's 9 month appointment, the doctor looked at Reid, then Micah, and said "Wow, Reid, you're just a mini version of your brother, aren't you?" And while I don't think they're identical, they are quite similar. 

I know the pictures are similar - he's just so smiley in all of them!  It's great. :)

Doctor stats:  18.9 pounds (35%), 28.75 inches (75%) and 17.75 inches head circumference (50%)

Things to remember:

• How you got teeth number 3 and 4 this month, #4 coming in over the course of a day from start to finish...not a great time for you, and about the only thing that can cause you complete neediness
• How you really started saying "Dada" and "Mama" with some knowledge of who you're talking about
• How much of a Momma's boy you are.  You haven't made it through nursery one time yet, unfortunately.  And if I'm ever in the room, you're close by :)
• How you and your brother have moments of sweetness and pure joy in laughing with each other.  You light up when he's in the room, and as long as he isn't antagonizing you, you're all smiles for Micah.  You also tolerate your brother's pulling you around by your legs (at least for a little while...)
• How you have started scooting along the couch this month...reminding me I need to get the walking toy out so you can start using that to assist you in walking!
• How you finally started sleeping through the night!!!!  What a glorious shift it has been for your Momma now that we're both getting a pretty decent night of sleep.  You tend to go down around 7pm and wake around 6ish in the morning.  
• How much you love table food...you hardly eat any baby food anymore and just love almost everything we put in front of you!  
• How much you love to play hide and seek with the kitchen curtains :)

We love you sweet Reid.  We love your easy going, happy and smiley demeanor.  We love your overall contentedness and ability to go with the flow with our crazy little family.  Happy 9 months!

Pet Store Fun

This is from late December, but I am finally figuring out a new way to load pictures and videos that are making it soooo much easier.  I know the video isn't shot the best (ie, you might have to turn your head) I just love Reid's laughing here, and Micah's excitement as well.  These were some pretty active kitties, I tell ya!

Reid and Grover :)

Love this little boy's laugh!  Stay little, baby Reid...

Story time

Micah loves books.  He loves cooking.  And he loves art.  The other day, I caught him "reading" to all of his "friends"  while it might have been my suggestion originally, it was so cute to walk by his room later on and hear him reading stories.  Love this kiddo!

And a day wouldn't be complete without some practicing of his words/letters.  He can successfully spell all of our names, and can also write his own name fairly well.  We are having fun, and he is learning more and more as the days go by. 

I have decided to not send him to preschool next year, for a number of reasons, but I also want to make sure he's getting the social interaction he loves.  I have therefore made a commitment to signing him up for park district classes at least once a week to essentially give him one day of "preschool".  But that way it's on my time frame, my topic choice, and gives me more flexibility if I need to skip a session here or there.

Micah just had his first park district class last week in which I left him alone.  While he goes to nursery without us every Sunday, this was the first time I had left him in that setting and it was actually a bit weird/hard.  Just another sign to me of how big my "baby" is getting to be!

Happy 35th Birthday Christian!

While Christian is not a big cake person, I knew that Salted Caramel anything might get his approval :)  Thanks to pinterest, I was able to secure a pretty good recipe, and ended up making cake, frosting and caramel from scratch! On top of that, I made both cupcakes (which I poked holes through and drizzled caramel in to make sure the flavor was throughout the cupcake) and cake pops (which I have never made before either) and my labor of love was about 5-7 hours or so when all was said and done.  That's over a couple days, doing a little here and there, or Micah helping me make Daddy's cake...but it was definitely not a quick task.  Thankfully, I can say I think my efforts here paid off. And I think Christian would agree.  ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Happy 35th Birthday to the best husband and amazing father.  I'm honored that I am your life partner and look forward to being with you for 35+ years to come.  I love you, honey!
 

#4 is here too

Within a week of tooth number 3 making its appearance, number 4 decided to show up too.  And #4's timing was over the course of a day, truly.  It was in the morning that I noticed just the tiniest little spot where the tooth had broken the surface, and by the time Reid when to be that night, it was all the way across!  I have never seen a tooth come in quite that fast, during the day no less, but let's just say that Reidees was quite needy and fussy due to his pain and discomfort. 

Thankfully we have made it through those two teeth and are seeing a much happier and content little guy.  What a joy he is and a blessing to our family!

All on his own!

Micah went poop!  It's amazing the things that this blog has become this month, but I guess potty training a kid kinda does that, huh.  :)  But Micah came to me, told me he had to go poop, and then proceeded to do it!  Huge progress and I know that, given time, he'll be using the potty like a pro.  And then we can finally say "bye-bye diapers".  What a momentous day that will be. 

Maybe 90% there?

It's been 2 weeks since I first started training Micah, and 9 days since I officially quit training him, lol.  Well, Micah decided he wasn't ready for me to quit, so he has continued going on the potty even though I put him back in diapers.  I would say over the 9 days that he's been doing this, he's clean and dry about 90% of the time.  So much so, that his wake up time has shifted about an hour (now at 6am vs. 7am) because he's aware he has to go potty and is calling or me...ugh!  I had to remind myself that I wanted this :).

Our biggest issue has become pooping, and I'm realizing that's not too uncommon.  He's gone 2 times so far on the potty, once in the bathtub (apparently his birthday gift for Christian, haha) and a couple of time in his diaper.  I think there's some fear to doing it on the potty, for whatever reason, so he's holding it in at times and therefore causing him to become constipated...so when he does try and go is starts to hurt him.  I'm sure he'll get over this sooner than later, but it makes me concerned about going back to his big boys until there's a little more regularity.  I did think of picking up some training pants because I think he's done with diapers at this point.

I'm so proud of how well he's done through this process and have to remind myself of that when he does happen to have an accident.  We will get there and pretty soon I'll be asking where's my little boy that needed my help a lot more than he does now?

Sleeping through the Night!!

I know I might be jinxing myself in writing this, but I truly believe Reid has dropped his last feeding during the night.  He has slept through the night for 6 days straight, with the wake up time varying between 5:45 and 7.  He now starts the day eating somewhere between 6:30 and 7, but we're there.  Praise the Lord!  It's been such a long journey with this little kiddo, and I am so grateful to be getting a decent night's sleep...I can actually stay up past 10 pm, which is usually so rare.  Ironically, his first full night was the day I decided to start potty training Micah.  Reid must have just known I would to be rested this week, haha.

He also has been the happiest, sweetest little boy this week - which I attribute to not only sleeping more soundly, but not having the pain of that tooth coming through.  Seriously, just so, so happy. 

We're also officially at 3 nursing sessions a day now.  I'm not sure when I got to that point with Micah, but wanted to make sure to document it with Reid for reference.  He'll nurse when he wakes, then eat breakfast an hour later, then nap.  Sometime soon after he wakes from his morning nap (usually) he'll eat lunch play a little bit, and then nurse before his afternoon nap.  After his afternoon nap he'll get a snack of some sort, and then start dinner on the earlier side to help his through late afternoon.  He's usually starting his dinner while I'm beginning to make it for the rest of the family, but he loves to self feed, so it works perfect.  His appetite is so big for table foods, it's like I can't feed him quickly enough, lol.  Reid also eats pretty much everything I put in front of him (aside from actual baby food - he's not a fan of that consistency for sure!) and scarfs down frozen peas and carrots, bread, blueberries, pears, chicken, ham, etc.  He loves cheese too, but has had a bad diaper rash after our 2 cheese encounters, so I'm wondering if there's some type of sensitivity to it, which I plan to ask the doctor about at his 9 month. 

That's about it, although I know it's alot.  Reid is growing up so, so quickly and learning new skills daily.  I really love the stage he's in right now and know it's only going to get better :)

Say it Ain't So

Could it be possible that I gave up too soon?

And what are the chances that Micah's 2 year molars came in this week?  The same week I decided to try and potty train.  That would explain the fever, the disrupted sleep, the lack of appetite, the dehydration, the hands in the mouth and the overall crankiness the second half of the week.  Seriously, the timing is just uncanny.

Lo and behold, after I gave up yesterday and put him in diapers, he wakes up this morning dry.  He then proceeds to tell Christian (as I was gone running already) that he needed to go potty.  Christian was fixing breakfast and told him just a minute, and he even had to wait a little longer.  And then he went.  For a long time.  Then before lunch he runs up to me and says the same thing, and he went again (all the while maintaining a dry diaper).  He slightly resisted before nap time (probably because it was my prompted versus his) but he did end up going, again.

After nap we were off to Monkey Joe's to play for a little bit and then out to eat at a fabulous Indian restaurant Christian has discovered.  When we got to the restaurant Micah comes up to me while I'm looking at the menu and tells me he has to go potty.  We head to the bathroom, and he went!  He also had very little wetness in the diaper that had been on him since he went down for his nap. 

All this play-by-play of the day to say, maybe he is ready?  Or at least certainly heading in the right direction fast.  And maybe he really was just dealing with 2 year molar pain, on top of trying to learn potty training and it threw everything off.  And maybe I did just give up too soon.  Whatever the case, I'm just taking his lead right now.  It seems to be the best of both worlds, if he still comes up to tell us when he has to go potty but does it wearing a diaper so as to avoid any accidents that could happen.

Ah, the joys of parenting that always leave you wondering where the next road in the journey will take you and what you'll think looking back on where you've been and where you're at.  It's a wonderful, exciting albeit frustrating ride that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I surrender, raise the white flag, give in, give up, throwing in the towel...

Whatever way you want to say it, I have officially, 5 days after beginning, decided to put the brakes on this potty training thing with Micah.  Don't know whether I'm giving up too early, but I realize I don't have the patience with it right now after 2 days in a row of complete meltdowns which caused a full bladder to explode...on our carpet!  And while those were our only accidents in 2 days, it's two days too many at this point. 

Yesterday, we went out for our first errand, and he stayed dry the entire 1 1/2 hours we were out (awesome, right?).  He also had the biggest, longest tantrum I've ever had out and about with him.  Thankfully we were in BuyBuyBaby so I think everyone was a little more understanding, lol.  To his credit, he had a fever the night before and was definitely on lack of sleep - which I have learned Micah does awful with.  Still, meltdown continued the entire drive home, getting him inside, and for 10 minutes at the bottom of the stairs while I went upstairs to get lunch going for both boys.

Sure enough, I came down to find him in a puddle (more or less) and I was just so frustrated because he had done so well out and about.  I even made him sit in it at lunch to help him understand he does not want to be wet, until about half-way through he said, "Mommy, I go to potty."  He woke up dry from his nap, but hardly went all day and I think it's because he was dehydrated.  I kept pushing liquids but he wouldn't drink.  He had yet to poop since the morning before and I didn't know what else to do.  BUT, I had said a week and going back and forth because he was seeming to start to grasp and we continued on the course.

Enter this morning.  A bit of a fight to go on the potty, but he did and did want to wear his "big boys."  He was in quite a mood though, and I am really trying to get him to work on being gentle with Reid and not taking toys away.  We had another meltdown begin and I placed him in his room to calm down.  Five minutes later I went in to find another puddle and I was so mad at this point because I know had the meltdown not begun he would have gone on the potty.  I put a diaper over his wet undies and went to get stuff to clean up, came back in and found him poopy.  In his undies which were under his diaper.  While I was actually happy he had pooped because it had been a long time for him, I just decided I'm done.  He definitely learned something this week, that I know...and he didn't want to put the diaper on, still wanted to wear "big boys", but I told him I think it's time for diapers again because he's just not ready yet.  I tried to stay calm, though I was super frustrated by what ensued (as he's been a pill the last two days, more or less). 

I said I'd give it the week, right?  I did that and I do think he did so well this week.  As I wrote in an earlier post, I just question whether he's physically able to hold it like he needs to and be able to be trained to be successful.  I'm just taking this week as a learning week and feel we will both be better prepared when we go to start again. 

Seeing that we've been cooped up in our house the whole week (aside from yesterday's 1 1/2 hour excursion) and the temps were in the high 40s/low 50s, I decided it was time to go out for a little run with the boys after Reid woke up from his nap.  Micah and I both needed to blow off a little steam, I think...and as long as Reid was bundled up, I'm sure a 3-4 mile run couldn't hurt him :) 

 

View from my run.  Not bad for being January 11th.

 

Who couldn't love this little face, seriously?  Actually reminds me a little of the below pic, which was Micah around 5 months.

 

 

Nice and warm for Momma to get some much needed exercise.  And it didn't hurt having a little chatterbox with me on my run to help pass the time :)

Writing this while the boys are sleeping, I have to say I'm feeling refreshed and relieved.  Glad to be closing the potty training door for a little bit and praying the time I decide to do it again goes over more successfully and pleased to have gotten a run in while pushing the boys outside in early January in Chicago.  Life is Good.