Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
A Weekend of Firsts
Here is a picture of what we learned yesterday:
Can you figure out what it is?
Give up? William learned to climb up on the couch by himself! I'm not sure how excited the adults in the house are about this development, but he sure thinks he is hot stuff.
This one is a tough one! Here is what we learned today:
I found him like this when I got him up from his (no sleeping occurred as he was so busy) nap.
Did you figure it out? He can take his own pants off! Again, I'm not sure how excited I am about this new skill, but he sure thinks he is hot stuff. Another new skill is demonstrated in the above picture: lifting his foot off the ground while sitting. He thinks it is very funny to plunk it back down on the ground loudly and say "Boom!"
William and Daddy
Right before I took this picture, they were playing the "Stick out your tongue" game with each other. Very cute.
William's version of the victory dance on the successful summit of Mt Couch. Enough to make your heart stop. Please note: I was standing just outside of the frame of the picture and grabbed him as soon as the picture was taken. I'm going to have my hands full this week I think.
Can you figure out what it is?
Give up? William learned to climb up on the couch by himself! I'm not sure how excited the adults in the house are about this development, but he sure thinks he is hot stuff.
This one is a tough one! Here is what we learned today:
I found him like this when I got him up from his (no sleeping occurred as he was so busy) nap.
Did you figure it out? He can take his own pants off! Again, I'm not sure how excited I am about this new skill, but he sure thinks he is hot stuff. Another new skill is demonstrated in the above picture: lifting his foot off the ground while sitting. He thinks it is very funny to plunk it back down on the ground loudly and say "Boom!"
William and Daddy
We've noticed a lot more mimicking recently and whatever reverse mimicking is called. In this picture, he is hoping to make John open his mouth so he can poke around in there. So, William opens his mouth nice and wide so John will get the hint. You can see John loves this special game.
Right before I took this picture, they were playing the "Stick out your tongue" game with each other. Very cute.
William's version of the victory dance on the successful summit of Mt Couch. Enough to make your heart stop. Please note: I was standing just outside of the frame of the picture and grabbed him as soon as the picture was taken. I'm going to have my hands full this week I think.
Such a ham! Tada! I did it!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
What has been going on?
Yesterday there was a lunar eclipse. I wasn't feeling super great (thanks William) so I missed the details. Something about last eclipse...northern hemisphere....2010. Ask John if you're still interested.
Turns out it is actually more exciting to watch lunar eclipses on TV because of the speeding up time capabilities. I went out for a few minutes last night (clutching my gut) to admire the view. John was the photographer while I lay on the couch trying to summon up the energy to move to the bedroom.
Tonight I was feeling better, so I resumed my photographer role. The cabinet doors are complete (as is the crown molding)! The installation of the doors required the mallet hammer held here by Daddy's favorite assistant.
Hey! I want to HIT something with this besides my foot! I was impressed that he didn't have any trouble holding it. In this picture he had just finished swinging it and was reaching down to pick it back up again.
"Here! Let me help you with that one!" William and I finally had to go to another room and shut the door for John to get any work done. This boy is adamant about being in the middle of EVERYTHING.
The finished result! I think the doors look great! Great job John!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Cutting of the Curls
The curls have been cut. My heart has been broken. We took William to the Hairy Elephant today for his first haircut. He got to sit in a chair shaped like a Jeep while the stylist cut his hair. John came with to document the event so I could carefully study the haircutting process. It is possible I will attempt to cut his hair myself at some point in time. It is also possible I will never cut his hair again. Don't be fooled by the pictures of my outer calmness. I was holding it together for the baby.
A before picture
The cutting of the hairs
After the haircut: where is my baby? Who is this big boy?
More after pictures
Our first haircut certificate with the lock of hair and picture included.
I'm so sad. Off to cry...
A before picture
The cutting of the hairs
After the haircut: where is my baby? Who is this big boy?
More after pictures
Our first haircut certificate with the lock of hair and picture included.
I'm so sad. Off to cry...
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Missouri Birthday
After our 1st birthday party in Minnesota, I was tired. We came home and had a lot of running around to do. Originally, I promised some friends that we would have 2 parties:1 in Minnesota and 1 in Missouri. That way everyone would be happy. However, after the first party, I just got tired thinking about a second party. It would require I clean our house and figure out invitations, etc. So, I kept hoping it would go away. There was a little bit of nagging guilt, but all in all, I was happy to forget my promises. Last weekend, we spent a lot of time with my coworkers. They reminded me about that party and I agreed that we could celebrate the following Sunday. That would be today. After a week of running around and furiously trying to clean our house and dealing with a kid with literally the runs, I am above exhausted. But, we had a great time.
First up: The Health.
-William's personality slowly returned at the end of the week. Thursday I kept getting glimpses of a happy boy before the crab would return. By Saturday the flow of poop had slowed and the flow of smiles was back on track. He has returned to his regularly scheduled naps and the TV is off again during the day as we don't need it to distract him. He developed a little runny nose this morning that I am hoping goes away quickly and quietly.
Second Item: The House
- It is possible the house has not ever been so clean. With a few exceptions, all areas were cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, etc. Including a large part of the basement. Amazing. I almost wanted to take pictures because it looks great. But, it still isn't perfect and I'm sure among you all out there is a better housekeeper than I. You'll just have to use your imagination.
Third Item: The party
-We got a cake, a candle and some refreshments. We sang, ate and had cake. William was on his cell phone for the entire party. Everyone was very understanding about his poor manners. An interesting side note: For the past few weeks, William has been saying the word "ahhh" and "Uummm" very distinctly. I keep waiting to figure out what he is talking about, but it can be like deciphering an unknown language: Swedish? German, perhaps? Today we were all sitting around and visiting when William said it again and some brilliant party guest (no idea who, if you were there, go ahead and take credit) said "That sounds like the end of his name "will-iUM". It sounds like he is saying his name." My goodness other people are brilliant as is my child. Over the next few days we'll be doing some investigating the possibilities. Very exciting stuff over here.
Before guests arrive: wearing the It's Fun to Be One! crown. And he actually left it on! For a long time!
It's Fun to be One....and have a cell phone! Thank goodness we don't have to pay for his minutes!
Unwrapping presents! This BIG one is from Liz, Laura and Jeff. When they brought this gift in and set it down, William walked up to it and touched the picture of the balloon and said "balloon!" I was so impressed! It is kind of a developmental leap to see something real and translate it into a picture (By the way, it does NOT sound like balloon, more like "bah-lo". I just know if means balloon because we've had a balloon around the house for a week and this is what he calls it).
The cake
Singing...William is confused, but still on the phone.
Our family! Turns out I cleaned like crazy, just not our sliding glass door.
Checking out his piece of cake
Look at that bite! A whole fist full of cake.
The final mess. He smelled like cake this evening still after being washed off several times.
First up: The Health.
-William's personality slowly returned at the end of the week. Thursday I kept getting glimpses of a happy boy before the crab would return. By Saturday the flow of poop had slowed and the flow of smiles was back on track. He has returned to his regularly scheduled naps and the TV is off again during the day as we don't need it to distract him. He developed a little runny nose this morning that I am hoping goes away quickly and quietly.
Second Item: The House
- It is possible the house has not ever been so clean. With a few exceptions, all areas were cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, etc. Including a large part of the basement. Amazing. I almost wanted to take pictures because it looks great. But, it still isn't perfect and I'm sure among you all out there is a better housekeeper than I. You'll just have to use your imagination.
Third Item: The party
-We got a cake, a candle and some refreshments. We sang, ate and had cake. William was on his cell phone for the entire party. Everyone was very understanding about his poor manners. An interesting side note: For the past few weeks, William has been saying the word "ahhh" and "Uummm" very distinctly. I keep waiting to figure out what he is talking about, but it can be like deciphering an unknown language: Swedish? German, perhaps? Today we were all sitting around and visiting when William said it again and some brilliant party guest (no idea who, if you were there, go ahead and take credit) said "That sounds like the end of his name "will-iUM". It sounds like he is saying his name." My goodness other people are brilliant as is my child. Over the next few days we'll be doing some investigating the possibilities. Very exciting stuff over here.
Before guests arrive: wearing the It's Fun to Be One! crown. And he actually left it on! For a long time!
It's Fun to be One....and have a cell phone! Thank goodness we don't have to pay for his minutes!
Unwrapping presents! This BIG one is from Liz, Laura and Jeff. When they brought this gift in and set it down, William walked up to it and touched the picture of the balloon and said "balloon!" I was so impressed! It is kind of a developmental leap to see something real and translate it into a picture (By the way, it does NOT sound like balloon, more like "bah-lo". I just know if means balloon because we've had a balloon around the house for a week and this is what he calls it).
The cake
Singing...William is confused, but still on the phone.
Our family! Turns out I cleaned like crazy, just not our sliding glass door.
Checking out his piece of cake
Look at that bite! A whole fist full of cake.
The final mess. He smelled like cake this evening still after being washed off several times.
We had a wonderful time - Thanks to everyone that came to our party!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Better
Just quick, I think we are on the other side of things. Poop was less, crying much less. Happiness was around in normal quantities for all of us. Life is much more fun with less poop.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day! Warning: Lovliness not Ahead
I think I mentioned before that we were having rough week and we have been. I haven't been posting much because I haven't had anything really worthwhile to say except "Uggh". Poor William has had some poopy times as well. We are currently on day 7 of a viral stomach bug we picked up somewhere. I'll save most of the gory details for another time. Just know that on average I am dealing with 5-10 absolutely disgusting diapers per day. William SCREAMS and fights for his life during these diaper changes and has been very clingy and whiny in between. He isn't sleeping great and wakes up tired and very difficult to comfort, crying for about an hour inconsolably after every nap. For the past 6 days he has cried an average of about 6 hours a day total (previous crying= less than 30 minutes a day total). Because of the nature of the poo, laundry has become a full time job (use your imagination here). John is working a lot of overtime, which means I'm dealing with stuff mostly on my own during the day. It would be a huge understatement to say it has been a very rough week.
My Valentine's Day started at 5:35 am. William woke up screaming and crying. I left him for awhile to see if he would go back to sleep (he usually does) and I was pretty tired. I finally went to him after about 15 minutes to find he had a poopy diaper that had escaped his diaper, run down his legs and into his socks. Insert huge guilt here. I attempted to comfort him without actually touching him as there was poop everywhere and he smelled...terrible (Megan/Mom - remember that trip with Michael and the poop? It is worse smelling somehow). It became clear that the quickest and easiest way to deal with the mess was to put it all in the tub and try to scrub the human parts clean and leave the rest for later.
On a side note, William has decided he absolutely HATES bath time. He screams and cries the entire time in the tub while attempting all kinds of gymnastic tricks to climb out of the tub. If you aren't in the bathroom area, it seriously sounds like you are torturing him or abusing him in some way. We have tried a lot of things and asked for advice from many professionals (pediatrician, early childhood education specialist, my mother, other moms, etc). The ONLY way we've been able to do a partial bath in the last month is to fill buckets of water next to the tub, fill the tub with toys and let him play in the empty tub while we try to sneakily wash his parts. Unfortunately, there just isn't a way to wash his hair this way without getting water on his body. I haven't blogged much about it because we dread bath nights and keep hoping it will get better.
So, I knew it wasn't going to be popular to put him in the tub. So, at 6 am the crying/screaming turned into all out terrorized screaming. I did it as quickly as I could and scooped him out, leaving the bathroom smelling ...well, bad. [insert bad chocolate/valentine's joke here - I've been trying to come up with one all day with no success] We got dressed in new jamies and watched some Elmo and Sesame Street together.
The rest of the day was more of the same: pooping and cleaning up the poop and comforting a baby in between. Midday we took a trip to the doctor's office because of yet another yucky diaper with an interesting color:red. A gift for Valentine's day perhaps? The doctor confirmed it wasn't blood and sent a "sample" to a lab to be tested for something. The doctor also confirmed William appears to have a virus that should run its course within 7-10 days. ?!?!!WHAT?!?!?!?!?! I was not happy to hear there could 2-5 more days of this ahead.
My Valentine's Day started at 5:35 am. William woke up screaming and crying. I left him for awhile to see if he would go back to sleep (he usually does) and I was pretty tired. I finally went to him after about 15 minutes to find he had a poopy diaper that had escaped his diaper, run down his legs and into his socks. Insert huge guilt here. I attempted to comfort him without actually touching him as there was poop everywhere and he smelled...terrible (Megan/Mom - remember that trip with Michael and the poop? It is worse smelling somehow). It became clear that the quickest and easiest way to deal with the mess was to put it all in the tub and try to scrub the human parts clean and leave the rest for later.
On a side note, William has decided he absolutely HATES bath time. He screams and cries the entire time in the tub while attempting all kinds of gymnastic tricks to climb out of the tub. If you aren't in the bathroom area, it seriously sounds like you are torturing him or abusing him in some way. We have tried a lot of things and asked for advice from many professionals (pediatrician, early childhood education specialist, my mother, other moms, etc). The ONLY way we've been able to do a partial bath in the last month is to fill buckets of water next to the tub, fill the tub with toys and let him play in the empty tub while we try to sneakily wash his parts. Unfortunately, there just isn't a way to wash his hair this way without getting water on his body. I haven't blogged much about it because we dread bath nights and keep hoping it will get better.
So, I knew it wasn't going to be popular to put him in the tub. So, at 6 am the crying/screaming turned into all out terrorized screaming. I did it as quickly as I could and scooped him out, leaving the bathroom smelling ...well, bad. [insert bad chocolate/valentine's joke here - I've been trying to come up with one all day with no success] We got dressed in new jamies and watched some Elmo and Sesame Street together.
The rest of the day was more of the same: pooping and cleaning up the poop and comforting a baby in between. Midday we took a trip to the doctor's office because of yet another yucky diaper with an interesting color:red. A gift for Valentine's day perhaps? The doctor confirmed it wasn't blood and sent a "sample" to a lab to be tested for something. The doctor also confirmed William appears to have a virus that should run its course within 7-10 days. ?!?!!WHAT?!?!?!?!?! I was not happy to hear there could 2-5 more days of this ahead.
Our valentine: Holding still and watching TV.
Distracted by the heart
Although I did a lot of grumbling about wanting a nap, I managed to pull off some chocolate covered strawberries.
Showing off his kicking. Video coming soon (John)
More kicking
William's dinner: alphabet soup
Daddy made us fondue! Our valentine's day tradition continues! It was very very very good!
Yet another skill to add to our repitoire! Climbing! Here he is standing on the hot chocolate mix to gain easier access to the cans on the second shelf. I guess it was my mistake for pushing them further back on the shelf after he dropped one on his foot. After I put the H.C. mix up higher, I caught him pulling the cooler out and standing on it. The gate at the top of the stairs was also climbed upon today. How long do you think we have before he attempts the crib?
PS It was kind of a crappy (literally) day for me, but John and I enjoyed our fondue and strawberries very much. We also both enjoyed some WINE as William hasn't nursed for 3 whole days now!
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