Friday, November 29, 2013

A Day with Peanut

Good morning, and welcome to a day with Peanut! ;)


No time to chat mom, get me out of here!

Out of the crib, trying to figure out what's going on. We've got a lot to do today, from getting ready for the day, eating, feeding the cats, and starting out our fun day. Better catch your breath there kid.

He's been into reading us books lately. It's mainly just 'choo choo', but every now and again he'll throw a twist in, like 'Cow' and sometimes if we read a story in a sing song manner he'll mimic it while reading. However this is a library book, so I was a bit surprised to see him venture into reading it himself after only a few days with it.

Well, I guess the boy is ready for breakfast! I was planning on french toast, however I neglected to make bread last night, sooooo pancakes it is!

 So this is how I may normally portray making pancakes. A picture with him with a spoon... or something... next to a bowl of ingredients, 'helping us.' Of course in reality, after 10 seconds he's bored and playing with his trains in the other room.

Like so :)

He doesn't even have a train here, he's just having fun running around and around the table going choo choo! He's great at having fun independently. So I can make the batter while waiting for daddy to come down.






There's daddy! Now that I have an extra pair of hands, the fun can really begin! Starting with a diaper change. Hooray Superman!!! Then they can play while I make the pancakes, hopefully giving it a little bit of time to cool before he remembers that he was hungry and hears me cooking :)












Chowing down on his breakfast of pancakes with Daddy. We ended the gluten free experiment yesterday, and so far things seem fine. And hopefully they'll stay fine, though we'll keep an eye out today just in case. I was very worried that maybe he has an issue like me when things improved quickly after we started him on the diet, but perhaps it was just all coincidence.

 Halfway through breakfast, Peanut ran out to the living room, pulled off his sock and started counting his toes. PRIORITIES!
 Time to get dressed, it feels like a sweater kind of day, but for right now we'll stick with jeans and an undershirt. Blink!
I suppose it's high time the cats get fed too. Peanut is good at scooping out there food and delivering it haphazardly to the top of the dryer :) He gets upset if he finds out we've fed them without him, he likes to scoop it, put the back on, and shut the cabinet door back up. The cats like to sneak food out of the bin while they wait for him :)


A video compilation of putting up the tree! Lights are good fun, lots of weird stuff to look at and play with. Plus there's XMas music, because we're so festive! He was intrigued by everything, but he had no clue why all this stuff was happening. Which, I mean, yeah. He was 15 months last year, he'd have no memory. So I'm thinking we spend a few days talking about Santa Claus!

 A giant box! With a cat in it! Quick, climb inside and play! He didn't know what to do when he got in, so he just stood there and looked at me for awhile, then demanded help getting out.

Checking out the XMas tree from a different angle.



So then I went downstairs and started uploading some vidoes and stuff, tasking Daddy with playing with Peanut for awhile. So a few minutes later, what do I hear? They're already outside shoveling. And I guess Peanut was being quasi helpful while I was still inside, but ah well, here we are as I get out there.

We've been working on identifying vehicle types (school bus, tractor, garbage truck) and lo and behold it was garbage day here! He was even nice enough to wave at us. Then we badgered the neighbor's family a little as they arrived to visit, and Peanut was very interested in what was in their vehicle. SMH.

 We're back inside, time for a snack on some peanuts! Gasp! Canabalism! He will say 'nuts' but not 'peanuts' yet. Working on it!

 Packed up tight in a light jacket and his Thomas train, we're going to the library! Unfortunately, even with two adults there, he was a bit too much to handle and I didn't get any pictures there. He likes to run from stack to stack playing peekaboo and laughing as loudly as he can as we desperately shush him and try to get him to read a book or play with a toy. Someday it will be easier and more enjoyable for us adults... someday.

 Back home again, looking outside with the kitty, admiring the decor. We've got Santa Home, Rudolph and Snoopy on the front window, and on the sliding door we have a Penguin and the words Ho Ho Ho. Clearance from last year on those guys, woo hoo!

Our library loots! We returned Pinocchio, so we picked up Castle in the Sky for tonight (Friday night is Movie night), a Santa Claus book, a Sandra Boyton book, and a few books by an author that I love.

It seriously took me forever to find a book just about Santa. Not a mouse pretending to be Santa, not a book about other Christmasy stuff, just a book about Santa. I kind of found one, at least he was the main character. Maybe all the good Santa books are checked out :(


At the bottom of our XMas box I spied a wind up Santa. Sure enough, he loved it as much as he did last year! Santa eats your brains!!!


So then it was time for lunch. And me realizing that I planned on making lunch which meant I needed to start BEFORE lunchtime. So I scrapped my plans, and threw some Smilies in the oven and opened up some canned fruit. Sometimes simple is best, right? While I did that and it was cooking, Boi decided they would cap off their festive morning by watching the Grinch Stole Christmas. It looks like he enjoyed it.





We always try to have him help by getting his plate/bowl out and putting it on the table for us.


Smilies and a fruit cocktail side, he really didn't end up eating very much anyways though, he never has much of an appetite when he has pancakes for breakfast.


Brushing his teeth, he loves brushing those toofs.

Saying goodnight to different things in his room, after reading Grandpa and Me and the Santa book. He wanted me to read, so no pictures there. Pictures always suck in the light of his room anyways, I'll try to grab the good camera for tonight, it's just a pain in the ass to try to keep it nearby right now and keep his tiny sticky hands off of it.


-------------------

Nap break over~! He didn't actually nap though, which has elevated his cranky level. So it took me a little bit longer to get back to you guys. But he's busy being productive with Daddy, so here we go!


This is what we walked into when we gave up on napping. Little stinker! Then we gathered up all our gutso and headed outside for the daunting task of finally hanging the lights. We've had bad luck this past month with it always been cold or snowy on Boi's days off, so today we just had to do it.

Look Daddy, I can hang the lights for you! You just hold me... and do all the work too? We went for a short walk after that, and played stop and go. Of course the one time he didn't want to stop was when a car was heading down the street... sighs.

We got the first string up and decided to contemplate the next one while watching Jeopardy, in the warmth. So we headed inside and started on dinner while it was on. Peanut, what's the answer???

No seriously Peanut, I don't know the answer! Boi got Final Jeopardy, but only because it was a sports question. Boo hoo :( At least I got Dinner prepped without being bugged too much! Except when I turned on the blender... but I was just asking for it then, Peanut loves loud noises.

Then Boi headed out to hang the second string. In the meantime Peanut and I feasted on potato pancakes and fruity jello. Deeeeeeelicious! I was going to make the cauliflower... but well that didn't happen. A lot of things not happening today! Tomorrow we'll make up on the lack of vegetables today.

 We kind of had a vision for the lights... it turned out ok. It wasn't long enough for one idea, and two short for another, so we  thought, what if the extra just hung in semi circles above the garage? Well it's a new string, so the end of it was all tightly wound up and didn't lay nicely. But we'll call it Art Inspired By Peanut.

Peanut wanted to run and play, but we just wanted to show him it. His response? 'Wow!'



Then of course when we took him inside and he THREW A FIT! He didn't want to come in that fast, and just be held out there. He cried and yelled and screamed, and it was all fine and dandy until he took it out on Kiara. She behaved beautifully, despite his yanking on her ear madly. Soooo we had a timeout to chill out and de-stress. And afterwards he very calmly laid around playing with his toys. So I guess it worked.


We had a bit of an interlude then doing a thing for Boi's family, drawing names out of a hat for gift giving. That took... a lot of takes. After 3 or 20 false starts though, and an intermission to snack on milk and peanuts, we got it done. It was clear though that he was completely wiped for the day.

So then we figured, it's movie night, let's put on Castle in the Sky...

That did not work out great. He sat for it great, but partially because he was falling asleep. So 15 minutes in we had to hit pause and find something loud and entertaining to do! He did watch the Grouch today anyways, so he's good on his movie technically. It's an hour before bedtime here, and with no nap, we're extra tired *yawn* me too!








Ho hum, what's left to do that fits our holiday themed day???


Why let's hang the stockings! Boi is missing his, as it managed to get dirty in storage, but we figured we could hang the other ones. Peanut had a blast helping with his blue hammer.

But fun times apparently can only last so long, and we opted to start bathtime. No girls allowed! He just actually likes shutting the door on me. It's so funny! I guess I can see that.

And have lots of bathtime fun. Right now he's been liking the showers more, so that's what we're doing here. Shower time!!

And wear our Thomas the Train robe as we brush our teeth. If we could get him to say 'Thomas' or 'Train' I'd be stoked. STOKED!

Read an extra fun Elmo book, the Freight Train book, then Happy Hippo Angry Duck, and then the Good Night Train. I really need to get a video of him reading Freight Train, he's starting to point out parts of the train on that one. 'bell' 'istle' 'light' and 'stack' :D

Plus look at those snazzy TMNT pajamas. No seriously, look at them, they're adorable.


Good night birds, Blue Jay, Torn House Finch and Cardinal. Good night letter L and baby Peanut. Good night Froggy, Dragon and Tree.


Look at your train blanket, let's pull that up over you as daddy refills your water.

We tried to get a video of him saying goodnight, but that just made him all sorts of upset. Took him 40 minutes to fall asleep even. Poor tuckered out kiddo :( But I think he's asleep now at least, a bit before normal bedtime. Obviously on no nap days bedtime gets bumped up to make up for the lost sleep. Now it's about 9:00, and I can finish this up, glare at Boi's cookies (not gluten free :( ) and we can get the house cleaned up and finish that movie. We start again tomorrow, of course just me and Peanut tomorrow after Boi goes into work. 4 days on until the next day off! You know we'll be counting down :)

Thanks for joining us!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Fun week coming up!

Playing with water in the sink
We have a lot of excitement coming this week, we're going to go see Dinosaur Train Live! We've got his friend C coming along with us too. So it'll be twice the fun (or crazy headache!) But Boi got the day off, so we'll have one more adult than child, so hopefully that will give us the edge so that we can all enjoy the performance. As long as it has a fair amount of 'train,' we should be good.

I think he is officially napping. I always wait 30-45 minutes after laying him down to go check on him... and sure enough this time there was poop. A quick diaper change though and he was out 5 minutes later. I asked him before naptime if he had to, he said no, and we even used the potty. Sighs, some day... some day.

The kid has three toothbrushes, but he only likes the blue one. But it's getting really chewed up... it's only been in the last few weeks that he's consistently mimicked us brushing instead of just chewing on it and sucking out the water. We always brush all his teeth first then let him do what he wants with it. He always gets up on his stool, first grabs out my toothbrush (sometimes he tries to give me daddy's) then he grabs the blue one, then I have him turn on the water as I get his toothpaste. After I do his, I brush mine, and he giggles and tries to copy my motions.

Today's motto is, have fun and clean up! We won't do anything that feels like work, but we're cleaning as we think of lots of fun games. We looked for D words today, the Dinosaur Train episode (gearing up his excitement and understanding for it) the dishwasher, a toy dog, his baby doll. Then I just made sure I spent a few minutes after he'd lose interest to straighten up things wherever we were while he engrossed himself in pushing a train or a truck around. And now I get to play a little on the computer! Yay!

Hmmm, I need to start thinking about what we're doing for dinner. I may just play it easy, open up a can of peas and make him a grilled cheese. Then I won't make a real big mess in the kitchen. Of course, I have some canned pumpkin in the fridge I should finish up... hopefully it hasn't been in there too long, I doubt it. I could make some pumpkin bread with that. If he's getting pumpkin bread, should he have grilled cheese? Well, I guess he'd just get some of that as a snack. Ok, well, I guess I like that plan. I want to use up that pumpkin, and he'd still get some fruit to snack on later tonight as we watch wheel. Then with any luck Boi will be home shortly after 8!!! I won't have to do bedtime myself, doo dah, doo dah! I suppose I should go empty the dishwasher so that I'm primed to have that kitchen clean before he gets home!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

All Aboard!!!

Peanut is branching out!!!! We've got him adding 'All Aboard!!' into his mixture of vehicle sounds. Actually tonight he used every babbling tone he had while playing. All I could do was shake my head and wonder what the heck that train was up to :) Ugh, though to get the video I have up to youtube to post in here, I think I might have to cancel my stream, it gets a little touch and go sometimes the way it is. So I'll post this tomorrow.

Well, I survived like a 24 hour type stomach bug. Yay! Boi and Peanut seem fine, he spent some time with Grandma while I got all the way back on my feet. Boi... well, he worked. Still is, as I type, I'll check on him in 6 minutes. Hopefully he won't be much later, otherwise I get to go to bed alone. Peanut just let out a cry, a singular one though, but that means he's on edge for when I go check on him. I'm always so paranoid he's cold, not even having (the world's safest!) space heater in there to keep the draft at bay calms me down.

He's going to be a bit longer... but I'm listening to a Joe Hisaishi concert, it's making me not very sleepy. Only 12 minutes left on that though, and I'm going to bed at 1 one way or another.

Peanut is very very very into his fork. Grandma said he flat out refused to use his fingers at dinner. I'll admit, I know I should let him try and fail, but sometimes I'll help him with getting more food in his belly by feeding him because he gets a little frustrated and wants to stop. He's really gotten the stabbing thing down though. For the longest time he'd use his fork as a spoon, but we've gotten past that. Still working on everything we were working on before, like saying the number 1. Stubborn cutie :D Ooooh, and his Thomas the Train underwear came today! I'm still hopeful that this winter sometime we can get it down. I just need him to comunicate a bit better and we'll go at it hard.

-edit- I guess I never got back to it, so here it is... really really late.


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

A video and other stuff.

This was taken a little while ago, but still in fall obviously. We're at a park that overlooks the train tracks, he likes it. He also likes the really old tall slide ><



He loves the park. We go for walks and he knows where they all are and doesn't like turning away when he's on the scent. Though we really only bike to the one above at the school. I mean, I've walked there with the stroller, but he and I never took a walk there. Maybe this spring we will.



And he loves to play in the lower floor (topless due to finger paints shown below!) Panoramic! I've cleaned since this one was taken. I may have cleaned just so future panoramics would look nicer, even ;)




















Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! He actually really got into the finger painting for once, so we'll have to try it more. I encouraged and help him get some of the more finger painty parts, but he was all about the smearing.

Right now he's yelling in his crib. Please go to sleep. Please go to sleep. Mama needs to work and she can't work if you're not sleeping!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Great Play Doh Experiment!

I see Turkeys!!!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah we're still not up for play doh. He liked it and all, but his favorite thing to do was to tear off tiny pieces and throw them behind him :/ However I made him a 'bat' and 'ball' with them (I guess more like golf club?) and he had fun hitting it around. He also found some leftover beans in the fridge and ran it to me saying 'beans!' which surprised me... as it's not really something we talk about. Beans are usually in stuff, I just had half a can left over from our Mexican eggs (which he refused to eat). I'm always pretty excited when I hear a new word! If you haven't figured that out yet ;)

Hey, it's a bunch of pictures of the back of his head! You can thank Boi for the post tonight, as he's staying at work tonight instead of coming home... yay... ah well, he has afforded me the ability to work at home for the last... almost three years now. That's pretty freaking awesome. The first year being pregnant (A WHOLE YEAR!!!) and taking care of him the last two years. I'm so grateful for that... but I wouldn't mind if he was home for a little more of Peanut's life.  Aaaaaaaand the cat just set off the printer. Great. Half the ink that thing has gone through is thanks to her. Sorry no videos... I'll try to get on that soon... tired, it's midnight.

He's about to see a school bus
What else... we went for a walk today. He's not too happy about my "if it's under forty degrees we can't walk to the park" rule. But I distracted him with pine cones and got us to make the first turn away, and then the school bus (SCHOOL BUS!!!) came and he chased it towards home. I got him a new app on the iPad, the Wheels on the Bus or whatever. He's very into buses, and when I told him it was coming (it was down the hill so hard for him to see for him at half height) his eyes got all lit up and begged for me to pick him up. It was an experience.

We also got to work on feelings words. He didn't repeat any back, but he had quite the range of emotions today, and I tried to focus on telling him what (I thought) he was feeling. Hopefully someday soon he will yell 'MAD' at me (I figured that was easier to say then 'Angry' or 'Frustrated')

Well, I'm not sure what else, what happened yesterday... he hung out with Grandma for awhile. Boi was home in the evening and we all hung out. That was good. Yeah... the rest is a blank. Oh, he did wake up at a more normal time, perhaps the curse of day light savings is over. KMFX!

Monday, November 4, 2013

November - A second Post!

Monkey Peanut!
Peanut was reading "But not the Hippopotamus" to himself this evening (to my glee as I had already read to him ALL OF THE BOOKS. TWICE.) In the book (if you don't know) the hippopotamus doesn't join in on any of the fun. Except at the end. So he went "babble babble no" "babble babble no" until he got to the end, where he went "Alright." It was so gosh darn cute! I think it was alright at least, ahhhh, kid, I luffs you.

I was bad mom this morning! Boi heroically rolled out of bed with Peanut this morning and I dozed off. For 2.5 hours. Yikes! But then we swapped and he got another 2ish hours of sleep too before he had to get up to work. I told him to wake me up after an hour or so (The amount of time it takes to have some snuggle time, diaper change, breakfast and whatnot), but he never complies and just lets me sleep. I always get him up! Of course, often it's because I've made pancakes... so not overly cruel. Peanut will EAT pancakes too. Like, devour them, bite for bite with his daddy. Then he won't eat lunch :((

Best Smile Ever
I've got this -> picture as my desktop wallpaper. I wish I had cleaned his face before getting the picture, but otherwise it's a perfect smile! His teeth here still haven't grown in, now he's teeth look complete... oh that's right. He let me pry my way in to see the back of his gums. I thought I saw something, but I felt zilch. So... we're nowhere on teething. If I ever get pregnant again I'll spend the whole 9 months FEARING teeth. I hear some kids barely acknowledge them. Everything... EVERYTHING makes Peanut freak out and not sleep. I love my sensitive boy, but c'mon... why couldn't you have gotten your daddy's pain tolerance?

Anywho, that's pretty much it. Is it bedtime yet? Maybe it's veg on the couch time and cross my fingers that he doesn't cry much tonight.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

November...

Peanut enjoying a walk
I need to get better at this, else I'll forget what has happened in his life! Ugh! Ok, Peanut! He's climbing and getting into everything, and teething (I think) like MAD! He can shimmy up his crib to open the door, so I had to move it.  He's saying some 2 word phrases, better then the one he was saying at his 2 year appointment (need help). So he'll say stuff like 'go down' for the slide, 'get down' to the cats, 'hi mom' to me :) And he's sometimes putting 'a' or 'the' in front of nouns, like the other day he said 'Oh no! The ball!' when it bounced away. We're working on getting him to respond consistently (to us at least) questions like 'how are you?' 'how old are you?' and the like. He still doesn't say his name, so that's a no go. We're also working on some physical things like jumping and hitting a baseball in a somewhat correct way. He's getting superb with silverwear, I've started putting a little milk in when he eats cereal, and it's a bit messy but not too bad.

7 weeks to 24 months

His birthday went ok... he was grouchy the day of, and his second party it was really windy up on Rib Mountain. We trudged on through though and had what fun we could! I tried to do less, but I still have a hard time with parties. Social situations are ick! And then to have him wake up in such a bad mood >< But the month was great in general, we had fun playing with his cousin, eating lots of treats, trying to do something extra special each day. Lot's of walks to the parks or long bike rides with daddy, lot's of fun in general.


ZOMG LEAVES!
Right now he's messing around with his blocks, he's got his train on the ipad cycling through while hitting buttons on the zebra... personally after waking up at 7 this morning with him after being up for an hour or two last night, he can do whatever he wants while I take a break to blog :) It's better then zoning out in front of the tv at least I think. Which actually we kept to a minimum today, a Thomas episode this morning, then half of sesame street after his nap. Waaay better then I thought it'd be when he woke up so early (yes, it still would have been too early without daylight savings time ending).

K's wedding
We went to the park today, still loads of fun in mittens and a hat. Plus with no one there, we had lots of fun exploring the tennis court and soccer fields. Food wins today too, I promised Boi pancakes, but then we had sesame chicken and spinach muffins for lunch. Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, they were going to install the frame for the chalkboard, but they forgot the compressor. I still fed them though ;) Whole wheat muffins, spinach in them, bananas in them, cottage cheese and another muffin for dinner, protein check. Plus I think I'm going to juice a few apples for us as a snack soon.

Now he's laying on the floor trying to say Piglet to the doll of him. Wait... and now Piglet is a train. Figures ;) He was a monkey for Halloween. It was a win to everyone along the way. The first half was really good, we went around the block, we kept missing the ambulance handing out candy though. Which is really unfortunate as he's gotten interested in safety vehicles lately. But then we decided to go a second block... and we started seeing older kids in scary costumes at that point. He was pretty terrified. We walked safely around the first one (the guy behind the mask was clearly very apologetic about scaring him, which was funny mix) but then a bit later some scary kids ran up behind him to get candy at a house we had just gotten, and turning around and right in his face... we carried him for most of the way home at that point. He was getting tired and very nervous about another scary surprise. The guy at the next house was nice, he was just standing outside and we said we were waiting a bit to put some space in between us so maybe he'd calm down, and we just stood around talking a bit.

Harvest Fest 2012 -2013
Hmmm, what else... his favorite foods right now are peanut butter, cakes/cookies/treats, 'elmo' (cereal), cottage cheese, and any kind of muffin I make. He's very touch and go on everything, one day he'll happily eat all his vegetables, the next day he puts his nose up to string cheese. So I try once a week to make vegetable and fruit muffins. Those are always a win, and for a day or two he's gets stuff he doesn't normally eat. His favorite vegetables are peas though. Figures, those are sweet. Canned though...

1 year and 2 year chair pictures
We just played a kissing game :) Kissing through the mesh on the back of my chair, and then normal, he had fun. And now he's moved on to counting. Still won't say 1, but he'll say 2-10. That's another thing we work on daily, focusing on the number 1.

And after another intermission of playing catch and blowing bubbles, I'm back! He's decided to turn on Sonic, he'll play it a little bit, his first video game <3 aside from iPad apps that is.


1 year and 2 year pumpkin pictures


So I'm looking at the ASQ 30 form, which I'm sure we'll need to fill out in April for his appointment. It's stuff they want to know if he can do at 30 months. Looks like some toughies will be 3 or 4 word sentences.. (he babbles sentences that sounds like "it's a ball!" but I think it's just coincodence sometimes when he does it, just using familiar sounds with a word he knows. But maybe in the next few months it'll sound more authentic.  Then they want to know if he will tell if you a picture of a dog is doing something, like barking, or a picture of a girl is running, or whatever. That we can easily work on. He'll hopefully have a few verbs down by then at least. Moving onto gross motor... he's still not doing a full 2 foot jump, he can pretend he is, but not both feet at the same time. And they'll want to know if he can stand on one foot, now that's something I can turn into a game :D Hmmm moving on... problem solving, will your child repeat two numbers back in order, like eight two. I can see that one evolving, but not the last one, have your child draw a simple picture and tell you what they drew o.O all he draws is lines. Sigh, ok, this one he's trying to do, putting on a jacket by himself. Just not very good at it. Also pulling up his pants from knees to waist... though it would help if he didn't have a diaper.

It's just good to know what some of the expectations will be in 5 months time. Too bad 'turns on tv and pulls chair right in front of it and stares' isn't one of them!!! And wow, this has taken an hour and a half, what with all the playing breaks. I guess maybe I'll remember to try again Tuesday? Maybe get a nice video up here then too, and fill in some more blanks.