Monday, January 31, 2011

Fruit!

He started with cereal at 4 months old. It seemed to me that he wasn't ready for solids at the time, because he was pushing the food out of his mouth. His tongue was moving more like it does when he drinks from his bottle and then it hit me, we thicken his formula with rice cereal so if it tastes the same to him why wouldn't he try to eat it the same way. So we tried Oatmeal, and Boy, Oh Boy was he ready! So we moved on to veggies, Green Beans, Carrots, Squash, Peas. He learned to love them all.

And today, he discovered Fruit. His first fruit- Pears. It was paired with Oatmeal. He loved it. Here he is lunging at the spoon.
And here is what he looked like as he waited for the next bite to get close enough to lunge for.
He was definitely a happy boy. Maybe in a few more days he will get to try something else. Bananas maybe! (well that is if I can keep J from eating all the bananas.)

Fun with Potties, Puppies and Underpants

We went to Ikea on Saturday and picked up 2 potty chairs. I wanted one for upstairs and one for downstairs so that I wasn't constantly trying to remember where the potty chair was. I figured we would buy two of the same color, but when J made the choice, he chose one of each. So now we have one RED and one Green Potty.

I am really glad I checked out "Potty Training Boys the Easy Way" from the library. It has given me some good information and ideas AND now I have a plan. We are having 1 hour potty training sessions. Yesterdays session was pretty amazing. Today's is going great too. The sessions start with a question. "Do you want to wear your big boy underpants for a while?" If the answer is NO we say, "Okay, maybe Tomorrow." If the answer is a blank stare then ask a follow up question, "Do you want to sit on your potty today?" or "Do you want to take off your diaper for a while?" Then you potty train for about an hour.

Today there was a blank stare and then a request to put a diaper on the "Baby Dog" Scout. I asked if Scout wanted to put on some underpants, and the answer was a resounding Yes! Pretty soon I noticed that "Baby Dog" was sitting on one of the potties and so I asked if J wanted to also sit on the potty. YES! He earned 3 stickers! One for sitting on the potty, one for going #1 in the potty and one for wearing underpants.
He sat on the potty for 20 minutes, using the extending swiffer to get toys and other items that were within reach. "Baby Dog" ate breakfast while on the potty.
After they were done with the potty chairs they both put on matching underpants! YEAH J!
About 10 minutes later J had an accident. It was very confusing to him. After we got everything cleaned up he started walking toward a diaper that he had gotten out for baby Dog. I thought he was going to ask for the diaper to be put on, but to my surprise he picked up the book "Danny is done with diapers" the first page says "A is for Accident. Adam had an Accident. It's alright, Adam" I asked if he, J, had had an accident today, "Yeah...it's Okay". Better luck next time. Oh, and before we read the book (3 times) we put on dry underpants. After the hour was over I asked if he wanted to put his diaper back on, he said No.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Happy to be Me

I finished a few more file folder games, this one is called "Heart Pattern Match Up" and J is pretty good at it.
I discovered this week that I am ready to be a Potty Trainer. I have the courage! For a few months now we have kept a container of candy on the counter in J's bathroom. He knows the rules, if he sits on the potty for 3 minutes he gets a piece of candy and if he goes #1 or #2 he can earn additional candy. Lately he has been getting 2 pieces of candy quite regularly and over the past couple of days I have noticed that he seems to have control over when he goes. This is one of the main reasons I suddenly have more courage. I also have noticed that he stays drier longer during the day and then gets wetter during long naps and at night- this leads me to believe that he is holding it and then when he is asleep it all comes out. I am tired of changing sheets every-time he wakes up in the morning or from naps in the afternoon. That tiredness lead to more courage. I decided to put him on the potty before he sleeps and last night he sat down and within a few seconds he began to pee! I praised him so much, he was smiling so big! This morning I went to him immediately when he called and put him on the potty and he went again- unfortunately he still needed his sheets changed. Can't win them all.

(Here is a picture of J with the "Tato Head" he built this morning)
So, to continue our story, J went potty at 6:30, he tried again at 7 more to get candy than out of a real need to go. I checked with him every half hour and he told me that he didn't need to go. I asked him to tell me if he needed to go, especially if it were #2, he told me he would, we practiced what he would say. At 8:45 he told me he wanted to take a bath (he had just given his "Baby Elephant" a pretend bath) and so I told him if he would sit on the potty while the tub filled up that he could take a bath. I was really happy because his diaper, the one he had been wearing for 2+hours was totally dry! I was hoping that he would go #2, he didn't. At 9 I put the baby down for his nap and then I heard J say "Uh-oh". I found him standing next to something brown and floaty in the tub. I told him that he didn't get any candy because he didn't go in the potty, he was sad. You win some, you lose some, right?

So here is the plan. We need a chart, some stickers and some pull ups and underpants.
I also need to get the books I requested from the Library- "Danny is done with Diapers" for J and "Potty Training Boys the Easy Way" for me. Then we change the candy disbursement. J will get a sticker to put on the chart if he sits on the potty, an extra sticker and a piece of candy if he goes #1. We will get pull ups! And if he goes #2 he gets to wear real underwear! YEAH!

So how long is this going to take? I hope that he is regularly wearing underwear by his 3rd birthday, which is in 2 months. Can we do it? I hope we can!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Craftiness

I am making file folder games for J, it is taking me a while. I am almost done with the very first one- Mitten Match. I colored all the mittens (well, I didn't color the white one) then I cut them out and glued them to corresponding colored construction paper and then trimmed around the edges. There are two gloves of each color, one of them has the color written on it.
I glued the blank gloves to the file folder then I covered the file folder in contact paper- front and back- and trimmed the edges. Then I covered the gloves with the color names on them in contact paper and trimmed their edges as well. Each glove has a small circle of Velcro and J and I both had fun matching the mittens. There is also a little pocket on the back where the loose mittens can be stored. I am pretty happy with this game, I am excited to make more of them.
I have also been making baby food. It started because I was out of baby food but I did have a butternut squash. So I cooked it and tossed it into the blender and it magically turned into baby food, really yummy baby food that Baby B LOVED. I took a look around the freezer and found some more frozen vegetables, so for the last week Baby B has also been feasting on Carrots and Green Beans. And he he doesn't know it yet but he will soon try some Peas- He will LOVE Peas too.
I froze the pureed vegetables in some ice cube trays that a super nice neighbor gave me. Each morning I take out 3 cubes for each of the babies meals, by the time he is ready to eat they are usually perfectly defrosted.
And here he is, my sweet little solid food eater. Sure, he doesn't look super happy here, but believe me, he LOVES his food.
I know he loves food on a spoon because anytime he sees a spoon now, he opens his mouth. My favorite moment from the last week came when he saw me holding a pretty big serving spoon and assumed that he would soon be eating. Sweet baby!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

See Kate Run

So I have a dirty little secret. I have a second blog. That's right, One is just not enough! Well my second blog is about my health, my weight and all the joy it brings to me. It is about how I am going to change my destiny. How? By getting healthy. I just posted about my goals for this year and rather than copy and paste to this blog I decided that I would let you all know about the other blog, that way if you wanted to take a look at it, you could. Some of you already do! Hooray for you!

So here it is. See Kate Run (also known as seekaterunrunkaterun.blogspot.com)

Just so you know. I post my true weight on here (when I am a good little blogger) once a week. Watch me Shrink! Hopefully. I also post my true feelings about weight loss, exercise, eating habits.......So if you want to feel good about yourself, or you need a virtual buddy to help you do the same thing I am trying to do, stop on by and visit.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

This weeks Happenings.

The Boys Grew up!
And they got glasses, big noses and facial hair!
Cousin A came to play. Here I am showing how I can care for 2 babies at once....well, you can kind of tell that Baby B is not really all that pleased that he is not the only baby being held by his Mommy, but he got over that, eventually.
Baby B may be 4 months younger than his Cousin A, but he is an inch or 2 taller AND has 5 pounds on her too. That's right, I make good linebackers, linebackers that may never ever, ever play football.
And, for the piece de resistance- I put Baby B down in the corner of the couch this morning so that I could finish getting ready for church, when I came back into the room I saw that J had joined his brother on the couch. Ken snapped this picture for me. Don't I have handsome boys? I love that their heads are together, it is like they are plotting how they will make their mother's day wonderful!

Monday, January 10, 2011

I am my own Grandma!

In the mid 80's I got a doll for Christmas and I still have her. J recently found her and now she is his "Baby". For a while he would just play with her at home, but recently he had to take "Baby" with him as we ran errands. That is right, on a recent Friday, had you been at Advanced Eye Care you would have seen J caring for his baby, that day she was swaddled in his blanket "Ditda". He even sleeps with the baby doll, and last night he slept better than he has in weeks, SO I am thinking that the doll has a calming influence on him.

Here is J and "Baby" dancing
J feeding "Baby"
My two sons, and my granddaughter. Baby B had been alone in the play gym and J put his baby down to play too. Then J decided that he needed to lay in-between the two babies. It was fun to watch.
This morning J was deep into his pretend play with his baby. When they woke up, his baby needed a bottle. I helped him get one. He sat next to me and fed his baby while I fed my baby B. Then he changed his babies diaper and put her down for a nap. A few minutes later he stood by the bedroom door and said "Oh! Baby Crying!" I told him it was okay, that he should let his baby cry for a little while and maybe she will go back to sleep. He said "Otay" and walked away from the door for about 15 seconds and then ran back saying "Baby Crying, Baby Up!". I helped him get his baby out of the crib-where he had placed her for her nap- and he continued to mother her. After her nap she played with toys, it was cute to see him take her from toy to toy in the play corner, her little fake doll hand being pushed around so that she could play with the toys. I felt pretty good watching him pretend. I felt good about my own mothering. After-all, I am sure he easily could have said "Baby want to watch Elmo?" or "No Baby, that's not for Baby" but he didn't he was a competent and loving parent, I hope he learned how to pretend to be competent from me.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Grumpy Gus!

On Wednesday the baby was Grumpy! He was a Grumpy Gus. He wanted to be held and if not held he wanted to be near me. It was a great day for the sling. It kept us both happy, or at least it kept us from crying.
Both the boys had horrible nights on Wednesday night. WHY? We asked. Why, on the night before Ken's Lasik are they boys waking up and screaming so much. Well, we had an idea why J was awake so much- he had eaten a few extra gummy vitamins and he had a tummy ache. But why was Baby B having such a hard time. I spent time with both boys that night. I think I was awake from 1-4 AM. The next day the baby took amazingly long naps, both at home and at Grandma's house where Aunt Abby took care of the boys while I drove Ken to and from his Lasik Eye Surgery. That night as we were feeding the baby I noticed there were flakes around his ear, it looked like liquid had dried there. Upon closer inspection he had an ear full of stuff that didn't look like it should be there. I remembered that he had felt warm to me earlier in the day, and he still felt a little too warm, so I took his temperature. 101.9. I gave him some acetaminophen and put him to bed. The next morning his temp was still above 100 and he still had gunk in his ear and since we were headed to Ken's follow up appointment for his eyes and wouldn't be too far away from the pediatricians office we decided to have B's ear looked at too.

Little J had quite a few ear infections and I thought I had gotten really good at reading the signs. J would be clingy- B had been clingy. J would have a fever a few days after getting a runny nose, B had a fever and a stuffy nose. J would wake up screaming what I came to refer to as his "Pain Cry" it was very recognizable to me, B.....I am not sure that the crying I heard on Wednesday night was any different from his normal "Excuse me, I am awake and no one is hear to pick me up Cry".

I was a little late in catching on to what was happening, but I was correct in my suspicions. Baby B had an ear infection, a double ear infection in fact. The good news, the left ear was not as bad as the right. The bad news, his right ear was crusty and full of junk because he had a perforated ear drum. This made me sad. The doctor said not to worry about it too much because "In some reasonably civilized countries piercing the eardrum is the routine treatment for ear infections." He also told me that even if I had brought him in a day or two earlier the eardrum still would have burst, I countered with "That may be, but I would have held him more and tried to comfort him more rather than let him cry it out." Ugh.

So Baby B has been on Antibiotics for 2 days and this is what he looks like now. He is a pretty happy kid, no more Grumpy Gus for us.
Now I have a whole new set of worries. With his first round of antibiotics he has also shown us how different he is from his big brother. As a baby, and even now, J never had problems with medications. As long as you gave it to him slow enough for him to swallow, he took his medicine with the least amount of trouble possible. Baby B seems to have found a new love of vomiting. I have asked him several times over the past few days if he has decided to become bulimic. We started out giving him his medicine the way we always had with J, filing a little medicine dropper with the proper amount and squirting it into the side of his mouth. Nope, Baby B would throw up. I thought maybe it was gaging him so I got out a medicine feeder that used a bottle nipple. That didn't work either, he threw that up too. We called the pediatrician, explained exactly what we were doing and the results we were receiving. No rash, no difficulty breathing, just vomiting. We were told to split up the doses even more, instead of 2 per day, give 3 smaller ones per day, feed him a little, give him the medicine and then finish the feeding. What happened, well it worked the first time, the second time he threw up and then the 3rd and 4th times it worked again. We have started to just mix the medicine with a small amount of his formula- he has figured out that he doesn't like the pink formula. Smart Kid!
But he is getting better, I am sure he will give me many more opportunities to recognize his "I'm Sick" signs and maybe some day I will be a professional at tricking him into taking yucky flavored medicine. In the meantime, I will be giving baby B extra cuddles to make up for the ones I should have been giving him last week.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Rollin' with my Homies


"Time moves on wings of lightning; We can not call it back."-Robert B. Baird-
And WOW, this week has flown by! Here are some pictures of Christmas. Baby B wasn't so impressed with all the presents that magically appeared under the tree overnight, but J sure was!
Here are my boys wearing their new Giants gear. Scarfs (or Scarves?) for every boy, a brand new hat for J, a hand-me-down hat for baby b and new fleece socks for Ken. Also pictured- Baby B's Blankey! Isn't it Cute. Cream may not be the best color for a little boys blanket but the Lion looked best against the cream.
This was the year of Ball's for J. He got a Basketball, a Football and a baseball and glove! He can say basketball and football, but so far I have only heard him call the baseball a "Happy Ball". He likes to play with all his balls, right now playing consists of sitting on the floor with Mom or Dad and rolling or lobing a ball back and forth- unless Baby B is nearby then playing means throwing balls at the Babies head.
Other than Ken being home on Monday, this week was not amazingly special- just your average week. I managed to avoid cleaning- which I should not have done, I really need to clean- but I did manage to come up with a few more projects for myself. I am really excited about them. I am going to make some File Folder Games for the boys, hopefully they will help keep J occupied on Sunday Mornings, WHILE helping him to learn Colors, Letters, Numbers and Matching! YEAH! I also discovered my new favorite place- it is called "Copy That" (formerly McKinney's Copy and Laminating) If you are a Primary Chorister and live reasonably close to American Fork- Check them out- they are right next to Seagull book! Why do I love "Copy That" well for Years and Years and Years they have been putting together Church Art that goes along with Primary Songs. We are teaching 10 new songs next year and thanks to "Copy That" we are ready to teach 6 of them!!!!

Now, let me tell you about my littlest Homey. Baby B did something AMAZING yesterday. He rolled over. I didn't see it happen. I had him in the Kitchen with me as I attempted to clean and make lunch. I left for a minute and when I came back he was on his stomach! I flipped him back onto his back and within a few minutes he showed me exactly how he got to his stomach. (after-which I flipped him over and he rolled over again and I flipped him over...he eventually told me he didn't appreciate my meddling.) The cutest part of his rolling is how much he arches his back while he is in the process of rolling. Here is a picture of it. OK, maybe not the best picture but believe me, there was a point that I thought his little feet were going to touch his head. SUCH A TALENTED BOY!
P.S. I weighed him this morning. 19.4 pounds!