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.

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.

Birthday month!!!

Happy September! We had a quiet first day, a walk and a trip to the store, plenty of play. Peanut said hair and car today, hair was new, maybe car too. I thought there was something else but I can't think of it. 

We did have fun on the deck, I'm going to decorate in really fun since we don't have rain in the forecast. I just have to wait for the chalk to dry :/

I'm hungry, so that's good for today.

Boi's Birthday Week

I'm awful, Peanut is sitting on the floor next to me playing a counting game on his iPad. But I have so much prep to do, and I'm procrastinating by looking up recipes. That's right, it's birthday week! Boi's birthday week that is. Mine was pretty damn good, I had to beat down some stress and a severe introvertism flare up, but at the end of the day I was a happy girl.

Peanut's gone through a lot of change lately. He's got 16 teeth now (just cut 2) and grew a half an inch. Yesterday's new thing was meowing at the cats, today's new thing was sitting on the chair and saying 'around' to get me to spin him. :) I love that the new stuff is coming faster. He's such a great kid, and he rocks at throwing, climbing, stepping down off of high things, running, and he really wishes he could jump, just hasn't quite figured it out yet. He can kind of do it, but it's more of a running jump, not a push off with both feet jump.

Oh yeah, Boi. Tomorrow morning is strawberry banana pancakes. I'm going to make the batter tonight so the flavors can really seep in. Then I'm making homemade pasta dough tonight too, and tomorrow we'll have that for lunch before work, which I will send him off with zucchini bread... which I'm also planning on making tonight.... ok, if one has to go, it'll be making the pancake dough tonight. Oh yeah, I'm going to cheat for half a day. It's so hard to stay wheat free all the time. I'm best off without it, but I can't make this stuff and not sample it.

On Wednesday we're actually celebrating. I might make pancakes again... I don't know, I haven't figured out a second breakfast. Maybe a fancy egg dish, I can try the maple souffle. Then we'll have Grandma B's fluff somewhere in there, and I was thinking ratatouille. I got the eggplant at the farmer's market and the summer squash appeared today (Thank you Herc!). If it wasn't so stupidly hot, we'd have chili for dinner. But 90 degree weather doesn't sound like chili, so I'm thinking corn on the cob, it should last two more days I think? I'll make lots of pasta dough so we can always have a side of some herby pasta. I also plan on putting happy post-it notes up all over the house, make him keep pulling them down from everywhere and get happies.

He's in bed now, a little earlier then I planned, but he spilled his milk, then sat in it, so his diaper was soaking wet. Rather then put a new one on for 20 minutes... I had to really drag out story time though, as he wanted out of the tub 5 seconds after he got in. So I let him run around and we read 3 loooooooong stories.

This was from Friday, we were playing catch. Turns out Peanut just wanted to officiate though.

Zombie Baby...

Zombie baby doesn't need eyes to eat your brains... So that's all.

Fun Times 'Down South'

What a nice 3 day weekend! Especially after such a stressful week. It all started off when our walking buddy IR, Peanut and I went up, sort of around and back down the mountain. The most intense I've been in a really long time, especially with throwing my back out and dealing with leg cramps. Alas, all weekend since I've been hobbling around until they get stretched out, so every time I stop moving for a bit, they start to hurt. But we had some great swimming and sand fun at Pike Lake, then visited with FIL, slept like crap, then the next morning went to Madtown and hit up the farmers market. Loads of fun, didn't get much (we got there late) but still some fresh pasta, some golden beets, oyster mushrooms... and a yummy mango smoothie.

Then we took off for the zoo. Peanut was fascinated with the seals. I recited the seal part in the 'Is Your Mama a Llama' book and he could not get enough of them swimming around. Even the giraffes were nothing. We rode the carousel and the kiddie train, he adored those, fed the goats, squee, fun! And then it was clear he was fading fast. So we decided to head to Blue Mound while the getting was good. He pretty much napped the whole time we were there. We took turns wandering up towers and poking around while the other person kept their eye on him in the car. Life with kids. So we didn't get to see much, and my legs were aching, and apparently I was burning, so we didn't stay too long. We'll have to go back next year to see the Cave of the Mounds.

I suspect he's growing, he had another rough night last night and has been extra clumsy. He's out with Boi getting a few odds and ends at the grocery store and getting a new fuel line for the lawn mower. Maybe it didn't like getting extra cold in our non-insulated garage. Making potato and kohlrabi soup tonight, got something special in mind for dessert. Taking it a bit easy this weekend on the food front, but I'll make sure the boys eat everything up so that tomorrow we're back to clean eating.

He's getting better and better at mimicry (when he wants to of course) like we told him he was eating pasta and he repeated it back, and I asked him to say sandbox to open it up and he did his best again there. It's pretty exciting, it feels like we're on the cusp of some really great talk breakthrough. Though I'm sure we'll just continue on in the normal fashion :)

The lawn mower broke again :( But the boys took a bike ride and I perfected a video, which I will be happy to share with you. It's 'the best' of his videos from August thus far. With some editing, I'm sure you don't really want to see more then like 20 seconds of Peanut spitting into the sunlight ;)

From the road

We're on our way to Madison from Milwaukee today. I've been strong with soda, but exhausted this morning from Peanut crying half the night I caved to half a can. If only I liked coffee! Oh well, work in progress. 

Peanut had fun yesterday, I messed up and took us to a state forest instead of a park.... But oh well.

Here he is as my riding companion yesterday. Rear facing still so I have to climb back, but front seats are so two years ago ;)

And playing at the beach :) I'll get videos up later, but my phone charge is low. I just meant to post yesterday and I didn't. So expect a good one on Sunday!