We spent some time outside this afternoon before this coming week's deep freeze. I won't say that Matthew appeared to be enjoying himself, but he was definitely less perturbed than when we had previously gone outside to play and there were a few hard earned smiles. Sam enjoyed playing with his skid loader (or snow plow as he calls it, it's beside Sam in the picture) and he also ventured out into the deep snow and climbed up the 5 foot mound of snow by our mailbox and excitedly touched the mailbox. He also went sliding down the mounds of snow along our driveway repeatedly although the sliding was really quite slow and involved much exertion on his part. Sam has really "warmed up" to playing in the snow and it took some work to get him into the house.

When we got in the house I worked on extracting Matthew from his outdoor get-up and Sam insisted upon undressing himself. However, not only did he take off his coat, boots and snowpants, but also his pants and diaper. He struggled with his shirt for awhile, but had difficulty getting it over his head so he gave up and settled for going naked from the waist down. Since we were going upstairs for baths shortly, I let him run around as "naked boy!" (as he proudly calls himself on such occasions) for a bit.

While I was getting Matthew ready for his bath, Sam announced that he had to pee, and he went to the bathroom, grabbed his pee pee cup and relieved himself, then dumped the contents into the toilet and flushed. Now if we could just get him to do that in the toilet rather than the pee pee cup. All I know is that someday he will be potty trained, how and when, I am not sure yet.

The kids took uneventful baths other than Matthew was perturbed by Sam's taking over his tub. Sam is not really very good at sharing things, in particular cars and the bathtub, and insisted on trying to push Matthew to one end while saying "No, Matthew!" and gently patting Matthew's bottom. We finished up, then went downstairs for dinner.

Dinner was veggie pizza (with crescent rolls, cream cheese and spices, topped with assorted veggies and shredded cheese) and hot dogs. I really should have done dinner before the bath, but wasn't sure if Matthew would be up for a bath after dinner as dinner was closing in on 6PM. Matthew loved the veggie pizza. He is sometimes a picky eater, so I thought I'd combine veggies (his least favorite foods) with bread and cheese (his favorite foods) and it worked like a charm. He ate 1/6th of a 9x13 pan of veggie pizza. I couldn't keep up with his demand. He'd grab handfuls of the tiny pieces and devour them quickly, then protest when he ran out, giving me the evil eye while I'd cut up more pieces. I tried giving him a few pieces of hot dog, but he did not want to have anything to do with hot dog, he only wanted veggie pizza. He'd shake his cream cheese-covered hands and bits of shredded carrot would fly off and then he'd dive in for more veggie pizza. Sam, on the other hand, picked at his veggie pizza after covering it with strawberry Nesquik. Yuck. He ate a whole hot dog, drank a little milk and then went off to play. Unfortunately, Matthew's cream cheese covered hands were not limited to the table and putting food into his mouth, they of course went into the hair. Matthew never seems to touch his hair other than when he's eating. Why that is, I have no idea. He then got a second bath involving a very wet washcloth and went to bed quickly after that. 

New bed

Sam and Matthew switched beds yesterday. Sam's was a regular crib, while Matthew's was a 3-in-1 crib, so we took the cribs apart and switched them and now Sam has a toddler bed of which he is very proud. There is supposed to be a toddler rail which goes along the side of the crib, but it didn't work and will require some special work by Jason. But Sam has taken 1 nap and slept in it for 1 night and thus far, it's been good. He loves it (and has some nice bedhead to show for his good sleep last night which isn't totally captured by the picture) and Matthew seems to be getting along ok in his new sleeping arrangement too.

I also had to snap a pic of Matthew after he enjoyed his blueberry muffin and most of Sam's too this morning. It's really not too messy and hardly a piece fell on the floor. Matthew is a very hearty and pretty clean eater.

Matthew's favorite activity

While Matthew has a number of favorite activities (eating, playing cars, singing, reading, scooting), nothing seems to elicit such joy as when he is playing in the laundry room. I used to just run to the laundry room on my own and put clothes in the washer or dryer or remove them, but I took him in there one day and now it is a favorite activity.

I'm not sure exactly why he likes it so much, but the doors to the washer and dryer have sturdy, nice handles and Matthew can easily hold on to them and stand on his own. And he stands for a long time just laughing and looking around him and laughing and bouncing up and down.

The handles/doors are also reflective and he loves looking at himself and his mommy on the mirror-like surface. Yesterday we were playing in the laundry room and he looked in the "mirror" and giggled, then looked at me, then back into the mirror and back at me and over and over. It sure seemed like he was wondering how his mommy could be in two places at once.

After he has tired himself out by standing at the dryer door for too long, he crawls around on his belly to the shoes and boots. For some reason he really likes shoes and unfortunately, really likes chewing on them. I have to be quick to get them away from him after he tires of playing with Sam's velcro straps and decides it's time to chew. Who knew the laundry room could be so much fun? I never thought I would ever write those words or think such thoughts, but Matthew has really breathed new life into my laundry routine.

A new nap routine

Well, Sam has gotten over his fear of getting out of the crib by himself during his naptime. So we have a new nap routine. Now, Sam still gets tired early afternoon, around 1 or so and generally asks to take a nap. We go upstairs, sometimes I carry him and other times he walks on his own. We then retrieve BaaBaa from his sleeping area on the shelf in the closet and get to reading a few books. We then sing some and Sam climbs in his crib, while I am commanded to remain in the reading chair. If I follow him crying and screaming erupts. So I just sit there while he throws some books in his crib and then tumbles over the side of the crib. I then approach, cautiously. Trying to get Sam to lie down is unfruitful, so I just put his blanket over his legs, suggest that he takes a good nap and leave his room.

The next half hour to hour, Sam plays, reads and talks to himself in his room. He doesn't leave his room, but I can hear him running around, talking and jumping in his crib. If left to his own devices, (which I've decided is the way to go at this point, how do you force a kid to sleep?) he eventually naps when he wants. And then he naps for 2-3 hours.

Matthew, of course, is awake for most of this time. He has been taking a 1-2 hour morning nap (or 3 hours, as he did today), and then a quick pick-me-up late afternoon (around 2 or 3). We spend time playing in the kitchen or reading books and he's very good about playing on his own while I perform chores or shower or write a blog post, as I'm doing now. Such is the changing nature of our "routine" with two small children.

15 minutes (and more) on a Friday morning

We had pancakes for breakfast. Matthew partook in the better part of an entire 5 inch pancake while Sam ate one and a half. I ate the bits of what they didn't and had some cereal and an orange which didn't seem to interest my little breakfast patrons.

After cleaning the kids up they set off playing in the living room. They were quite content, so I decided to have some coffee and enjoy their good moods by sitting down to read some of David Copperfield, of which I have less than 100 pages remaining of the more than 700 page book. I felt somewhat guilty as the floor was sprinkled with bits of pancakes that had fallen from their plates and the table was sticky with syrup, but I knew the kids' contentment would be short-lived, so I took advantage of it. And the kids happily played by themselves. Matthew squirmed around on the floor playing with whatever happened to be in his way and Sam, of course, played cars. They mostly played alone, but occasionally side-by-side with cars on the floor. Sam really seems to tolerate Matthew very well and I hope that continues, although I fear it may not as Matthew gets older and increasingly wants to play with the same toys as Sam.

Only once during about 20 minutes did I have to intervene in any way in their play and that was when Matthew wiggled over to the fireplace. I had to issue my first serious utterance of "No" to the little guy as he was trying to touch the fireplace. I've said no to him before, but mostly for Sam's benefit such as when Matthew would grab BaaBaa during our morning playtime on the bed. I would tell Matthew "No, that's Sam's BaaBaa," hoping that Sam would notice the respect shown for his prized possession, and also not feel like he was the only one being told "No" all the time. So, Matthew, at almost 9 months, has heard his first of many, many "no" commands. It will only increase.

This state continued for almost a half hour when I decided it was time to clean up. The kids continued playing happily and we had a peaceful and enjoyable morning at home. We decided not to venture out into the frigid MN temperatures.

Transition

This morning Matthew woke about 6. We hung out upstairs while Jason got ready then headed downstairs for breakfast. Sam was still sleeping. I turned on Sam's monitor and set Matthew at the table with some toast and banana. At around 7:30 Sam started making some noise so I went up to his room to get him. However, upon opening his door he was completely still, eyes shut, apparently still asleep, so I just left his door open a bit and went back downstairs. Minutes later, Sam crept down the stairs and came into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. "I come downstairs!" he exclaimed. I think we've entered a new phase of our crib to bed transitioning.

For naptime, I rushed through our naptime routine with Sam and he got into his crib and I covered him with his blanket. Matthew wasn't napping and he tends to get fussy if I leave him anywhere for too long, so Sam's nap routine gets abbreviated when Matthew isn't already napping. Matthew and I then went to play on my and Jason's bed. I read a few pages in my book while Matthew entertained himself with the stitches on the quilt on our bed. I could hear Sam's crib creaking in the next room and then I heard other noises in his room. It sounded like he was doing something to his bookshelf (which in on the wall which is between Sam's room and mine and Jason's). It then sounded like he was opening and closing the drawers of his changing table. I then heard his door handle, but it didn't sound like he opened it. It also sounded like he was running around some. After a few minutes I took Matthew downstairs and when we went by Sam's room his door was closed I didn't hear any other noise other than some of his mumbling.

His mumbling went on for some time and at around 2PM (after he had been in his room for almost an hour) I decided to check on him and convince him to nap. When I got into his room Sam was sitting in his crib, half naked, reading some of his books. He had taken off his pants and diaper. Ok. I guess he didn't want to wear anything on his lower half. I thought that would be ok and tried to get him to lay down. He then insisted on getting a new diaper (the one he had taken off was completely dry) and putting back on his pants. I acquiesced, and then he got back into his crib for nap. And he did nap for the next 3 hours.

15 minutes on a Tuesday morning

The kids woke a little after 6. After some lounging around in the bed, grooming and other things, Sam went downstairs with Jason and they enjoyed some frosted mini wheats together. I brought Matthew down later after we had groomed and prepped ourselves (or rather, I groomed and prepped both of us). Matthew went into the booster seat and I gave him some Cheerios. I made some oatmeal on the stove.

7:17. After awhile Sam started crying and fussing in the corner of the kitchen. I went to see what was going on and found him standing on his stool and pointing and begging ("I want some!!!") for something in the corner countertop. I thought he was referring to the crescent roll, so I was almost ready to submit to his request when I discovered he was pointing to the Reeses Pieces. After a quick "No" Sam erupted into some more serious protestations and crying. I tried to appease him by offering apple juice. He agreed and quieted down. I poured some juice and went to prepare my oatmeal.

7:19. Matthew was happily eating cheerios in his seat. I finished my oatmeal prep (add some cream, brown sugar and cinnamon) and went to the table.

7:20 Then Sam erupted into screams and crying. I set my oatmeal on the table and went to Sam and saw his cup of juice spilled all over the floor in the corner of the kitchen. I started cleaning that up with a towel when Matthew erupted into screams and crying.

7:23. I went over to him and saw my bowl of oatmeal partially on him and mostly on the floor. My new, carefully prepared bowl of oatmeal. I've found the only satisfactory way to make oatmeal is over very low heat on the stove. Low heat for 15 minutes or so with frequent stirring to prevent scorching. I went back to the kitchen grabbed a wet washcloth and wiped off Matthew. Sam came over to the oatmeal mess, then got his digger/dozer and started riding toward it. I sternly insist that he goes the other direction. He starts crying.

7:25. Then I returned to the apple juice, not knowing quite how to clean up the oatmeal. Sam follows me, still crying. I tried giving him more juice but he would not be appeased. I successfully wiped up the apple juice and returned to the oatmeal.

7:27 Matthew was still crying. I hugged him for a bit, then returned to the oatmeal mess. Using the apple juice towel I pushed clumps of oatmeal back into my overturned bowl on the floor. I briefly entertained eating it still as I had just mopped the floor yesterday afternoon. Yes, I had just mopped the floor yesterday afternoon and it had now succumbed to apple juice and oatmeal. I declined to eat the oatmeal, opting instead to eat Matthew's dropped cheerios from the floor and his booster seat. Life has come to this.

7:30 Sam was still crying. Matthew was still crying. I grabbed the mop and mopped up both areas quickly, then picked up Sam. We went over to Matthew (still crying) and the kids stared each other down briefly as if assessing who was going to win the war over mom.

7:32 I set Sam down (with much protestation) and picked up Matthew. I then sat down at the table and picked up Sam. So there was one child on each knee. Both stopped crying. Then we watched the Life is a Highway music video on the laptop for some relaxation. 15 minutes on a Tuesday morning. Later Sam spilled his other glass of juice. And Matthew had a blowout.

The family table

Now that Matthew is eating table foods we have him join us for all our meals. He sits in his booster seat and we push him up to the table and put little bits of food in front of him. He then usually picks around the veggies and finds whatever bread or fruit. Only when the bread runs out does his try peas or carrots or whatever other veggie he has. And sometimes he just protests when his bread runs out and won't try the veggie. This is so different from Sam. Sam would eagerly eat whatever was placed him front of him for a long time. It wasn't until he was much older than 1 year that he would reject foods. But Matthew is a different story. I think we have the beginnings of a picky eater, but we will try out best to give him plenty of opportunities to develop a palate for a variety of foods.

Anyway, last night (I was going to write about this last evening, but did not for some reason) for dinner (or supper for my family) we sat at the table and I cut up some small bits of chicken and rice casserole for Matthew and placed it before him. He was not interested. Not at all. He didn't touch anything or really even look at it. But he decided to join in our conversation. Matthew would say, "Ah ah ah ah ah ah" and bob his head and upper body up and down. This is a favorite activity of his. I think he likes how his voice sounds different when he bobs up and down, plus he always gets a reaction out of us and especially Sam. It must have been quite a sight to see me and Sam bobbing up and down saying, "Ah ah ah ah ah". For awhile the only conversation was Matthew bobbing and saying "Ah ah ah ah ah", then Sam laughing and bobbing and saying "Ah ah ah ah ah" in return. We all had a lot of laughs and I thought about how much our table conversation had changed since Matthew's joined us.

I want to be on TV!

Last night after Matthew was in bed and before Sam went to bed we were watching a program on HGTV about RVs. They were following a few different families at an RV show and showcasing a variety of RV models. After a bit into the program, Sam said, "I want to be on TV." We weren't sure if he was talking about TV or RV, but after some back and forth we figured out that he wanted to get in the RVs on TV. We unsuccessfully tried to explain the concept of TV to Sam, which only resulted in whining and crying that he still wanted to be on TV.

So tonight Sam again started talking about how he wanted to be on TV. This time he wanted to be at the football game we were watching. Jason got out the camera and used the video function to get some video of Sam. Then Jason hooked up the camera to the TV and played it. Sam lost it. He cried and wailed that he wanted to be on TV at the football game. It was not a pretty sight. The crying and whining was intense and we again unsuccessfully tried to explain that the football game was very far away and he couldn't go to it. How the heck to you describe TV to a two year old? We apparently didn't do a very good job.

Thumper

Matthew had some signature Kirchhoff hair during his bath tonight, so I just had to get a picture of it. All it took was a quick swipe of a towel, and it was perfect. I guess that's how Jason does his hair too. And we got a nice smile out of the kid too, as sometimes it seems we can only capture his grumpy look. But he's pretty smiley around Jason, and since Jason took the picture, maybe that's why he appears so happy in it.

Now Matthew's nickname used to be the reluctant napper, but he's moved beyond that and mostly naps ok these days. So now his new nickname is Thumper. Like the rabbit in Bambi. I don't remember much about Bambi, other than I have a strong memory that my dad really disliked it. I do remember Thumper batting his foot loudly on the ground too. At times at night, Matthew likes to slam his legs down in the crib repeatedly. Whether he's on his back or on his stomach, he manages to lift his legs up as high as possible and slam them down. It's really pretty strong. I wouldn't want to have any of my body parts beneath his legs when they come crashing down. Not only does he have strong legs, but he just generates so much force!

In the early evenings while the kids are in bed, but Jason and I are still awake, we turn on their monitors so we can hear how they're doing. We don't sleep with them on as the kids are right down the hall, but when we're downstairs I like to hear what they're up to. Matthew's monitor has this "voice recognition" feature where it will be completely silent unless there is a vocal sound, then the monitor will essentially pick up the vocal noises and turn on. It's nice because then you don't have to hear their crib creaking or their white noise machine or static. So there will be times when we hear this thumping upstairs, but hear nothing through the monitor. That is noteworthy in two ways: Matthew is an amazingly loud thumper and the monitor works really well with the voice recognition feature.

Sam's favorite music video

Sam has seen the movies "Cars" once, a few months ago. But he is obsessed with everything Cars. He was somewhat obsessed with it before then as he had some Cars merchandise prior to seeing the movie, but now it is a flat out obsession. And he got some die-cast Cars toys for Christmas which he absolutely loves. They are played with daily, multiple times a day, are carried up the stairs and back down and he'd probably sleep with them if we allowed it. Anyway, occasionally I pull up a music video on YouTube with Lightening McQueen and the other Cars characters in it...he loves it too. It's a fun video, so I thought I'd post it here for your enjoyment as well.

Out in the snow again

My computer's desktop picture is the one that I posted a few weeks back of the two kids out in the snow. Matthew has his old miner face on, while Sam has a goofy smile. Both kids assumed those roles again today. It took all of my available tricks to get even some semblance of a smile out of Matthew while Sam happily made snow angels, rolled in the snow and used a toy skid loader to plow the driveway, at least a very small portion of the driveway. Matthew didn't cry or fuss, but he certainly was not enjoying himself. Jason says that when Matthew's "playing" outside, the best word to describe his face is "pxxxed". Inappropriate word for a family-oriented website. And he certainly did not like being forced to make a snow angel. He really puts up a fuss getting all dressed up for "playing" outside, so I wonder if the restricted movement of his snowsuit and unavailability of hands and feet are responsible for his sour attitude. But Sam had a great time. He did not want to go inside, so we were outside for close to an hour. We pulled Matthew in the sled down the street a ways, and otherwise played in the freshly fallen snow on our driveway. Matthew mostly sat on my lap while Sam played, although he was content for a while in the sled while I did some shoveling. The only noises Matthew made were some angry growls as he had his baboosh to muffle any more significant complaints.

When we returned to the house Matthew was sour while I was getting him undressed, but when I put him in the jumperoo so I could start making dinner, he happily jumped away and was quite cheerful. Someday I will know more about his state of mind about being outdoors, but for now I am left to my own imagination for figuring out baby behavior.

Climbing out of the crib

I wrote a few weeks ago that Sam started climbing out of his crib. That trend has continued. He climbs out of his crib multiple times a day these days. However, he only climbs out at the end of his nap or in the morning when he gets up and he doesn't climb out until I've come in his room to greet him. I come into his room in the morning with my usual, "Good morning, Sam!" And he gets excited and stands up and then insists upon getting out of the crib on his own. The same thing happens after his nap, but more often he wants to be carried out of his crib and brought downstairs. I really can't believe it. I was thinking that when he first started climbing out of the crib that it was going to be a big problem and he wouldn't nap and he'd be coming down the stairs multiples times an evening. But that hasn't happened. We had to start putting BaaBaa to sleep in the closet these days as otherwise Sam would climb in and out of the crib and carry him around everywhere. Sometimes Sam just climbs in his crib and jumps around a bit, then climbs out.

I read somewhere that you should wait to move kids to a big bed until they ask for it. So one morning Sam and I were laying in Jason and my bed while Matthew was still sleeping. I asked Sam if he wanted to have a big bed sometime. He said, "Yes." I asked him if he wanted a bed like Mommy and Daddy's. He said, "No, too big." I asked him if he liked his crib and wanted to keep sleeping in it. He said, "Yes." So for the time being, Sam is staying in the crib of his own volition.

Matthew's recent accomplishments

• He is basically crawling or army crawling to almost where ever he pleases. Life becomes much more interesting at this point...
• He is fully eating table foods and meals with us. Over the weekend he showed particular interest in grilled cheese sandwiches. 
• He can clap. When the kids were taking a bath Sam started clapping and Matthew, much to my surprise, started clapping too. He excitedly took turns clapping with Sam and squealing/squeaking in delight. He makes the funniest sounds to show excitement. I will have to video record it sometime. Matthew claps with almost as much gusto as he eats.

Sam's current favorite book

I was going to post a picture of the two kids taking a bath together as they've started doing that lately. Matthew loves it and Sam seems to enjoy it too. However, yesterday when I tried to post the picture the camera battery was out, and today, I left the camera (with a recharged battery) in Matthew's room, and of course, he is asleep.

So I'm going to write about Sam's favorite book. Sam goes from favorite book to favorite book quite quickly, usually for a few weeks to a month, then he moves on to another book. Sometimes he has more than one favorite too. He has two books that we've been reading a lot lately and one is Richard Scarry's Cars, Trucks and Things that Go book. I bought it for Sam for Christmas because it has a lot of different vehicles (drawn, not pictures) in it and thought it would keep Sam occupied for a long time. Well, I was right. Sam is quite occupied with it. Not only does it have hundreds of vehicles in it (some are realistic like an army tank and others are made up like a pickle truck) but each of the pages has a tiny bug (likes 2-3 mm) on it called Goldbug. And there are 69 pages. So we search for the tiny bug on each and every page. We flip from page to page searching for Goldbug. Sam doesn't even seem to care much about all the vehicles, he just wants to find Goldbug and then he gets very excited when he finally finds him or when we point him out. Last night we read it for a half hour and only stopped because I was fatigued by it although Sam would have kept on reading it. Tonight we read it a lot too. I certainly was correct in that this book is engrossing for Sam, and we'll see tomorrow how it works for church.

It was Matthew...

I can't remember if I've already written about this, so if I have, please disregard this post. Anyway, Sam has started blaming Matthew for things which he clearly didn't commit. It first started last week and has continued on this week too (and I'm sure will continue for a LONG time). Last week sometime I came into the living room and smelled something foul. I asked Sam if he had a dirty diaper and he said, "No, Matthew poopy." I wandered closer to the two children and determined that it was obviously Sam who was poopy and not Matthew. I asked Sam again if he had a dirty diaper and received the same response. Sam, at 27 months, has started trying to pin the blame on his baby brother. He lied. Outright lied. And it wasn't just a "No, I'm not poopy," kind of lie, he shifted the blame to someone else which actually makes it two lies in one statement! So he's not such an angel after all (clearly proven by events of this morning which I am not going to write about). How oft Sam falls from his angelic heights and reminds us of his humanity.

Megablocks

I'm sure in a few years I will be able to post pics of the kids' block-building competitions, but for today you will have to deal with Jason and my attempts to out-do one another in building Megablock structures. Sam got some for Christmas from my sister and her family and we've had a lot of fun with them lately. We already had one bag of them, so now we have two (160 blocks) and Jason saw a posting on Craigslist for 500 blocks and we probably would have purchased them if they weren't about 30 miles away from us.

So anyway, we decided to build some structures and see what we could do. We didn't lay out criteria for what made a structure better than the other, but we probably should have. I went first and quickly worked while both children were hanging out (in other words, I was distracted) and Jason built his structure while I was upstairs with them giving them baths. We came down the stairs and Jason triumphantly presented us with his creation. Despite the lack of judging criteria, I must admit that Jason's is spectacular.

At least mine includes a nice picture of Matthew too.  Jason and Sam built quite a large parking garage with the blocks and Sam had a great time driving his cars in and out of it. Jason called Matthew "The inspector" because he would scoot, roll or pull himself over to whatever was being built and pull it down as he was testing its sturdiness.

Is this child for real?

Sometimes I ask myself that. Most times I do not, but there are times when I wonder if Sam really does have angel wings (as Ken and Cheri like to tell me based on his stellar behavior when he visits them). Today was one of those days. It started off with church. We actually were able to stay in church the entire time, Sam sat pretty well on my lap or Jason's most of the time and rarely made a sound. He didn't say "All done now!" until we were almost done, so that was pretty good. After church Sam played with some of the other children while I visited with some other ladies and Jason talked to some other people too. Neither of us had to pay much attention to him because he just played and ran around without causing any problems.

As a side note, when Sam was ready for his nap today Jason asked if he could take Sam up. Sam said, "No, you watch football, Mommy carry." So Jason's time of favor was apparently short lived. Jason followed Sam and I up the stairs and Sam said, "Daddy downstairs, you watch football."

Anyway, back to Sam's angelicness. Tonight we went to the grocery store. Matthew was already in bed, so it was just Sam and I. Sam loves going to the grocery store. First of all, we got a car cart. Sam stayed in the cart the entire trip until I asked him to get out and grab a cucumber. Lately he's been sticking his upper body out the windshield area of the car cart and leaning out. I don't have a problem with that. When we got to the checkout, Sam helped put the groceries on the conveyor belt, then he went to the end of the checkout area, and started loading up the checked-out groceries in shopping bags.

When we got home Jason brought the groceries in the house and I started putting them away. Sam came over to the counter and grabbed some empty pop cans and said he was throwing them away. He then went to the garage door, opened it and placed the pop cans in the recycling bin. Then he came back and I asked him if he wanted to help put groceries away. I felt like Cinderella's evil stepmother, except that he was so excited to help out. I would place food items on the floor so he could reach them better, then he would grab something, run to the pantry or fridge, put it away and come back for something else. He got a big hug when he was done and after he went to bed (with Jason which involved some crying and thrashing about) I just shook my head thinking about what a good boy he was today. Days like these are precious and help to offset the sometimes crazy days when there are more downs than ups on the toddler roller coaster.

6PM on a Saturday night

We're going to start with a very happy Matthew. Yes, it was 6PM and he was still awake. He took a late afternoon nap which gave him some energy to happily press on past his normal bedtime. Which was fortunate because he joined us for dinner tonight. He sat in his booster seat at the table with us, feeding himself tidbits of whatever food I put on his tray. Yes, he was eating table food. Yes, he was feeding himself. The child who didn't like anything but milk a month ago is now eating with us at the table. Matthew had been happily eating pureed foods and baby cereal until we visited my family in Iowa and Grandma Sue fed him bits of pancake which he ate with gusto. That emboldened me to try more "solid" foods with the kid. Meaning foods that had some substance and texture to them, rather than pureed stuff.

So earlier this week I gave Matthew some fork-mashed pears. He loved them and had no problem mashing them with his gums and getting them down his throat. Then I decided to see if he could feed himself and I broke up pieces of rice chex and placed them on his tray. He relatively easily grabbed the bits with a pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger) and put them in his mouth. I mixed up some pureed sweet potatoes thickened with baby cereal and he really wasn't interested. He wanted to feed himself. Yesterday he tried some oatmeal muffin. Again, no problem. So tonight he tried some crescent roll and peas. The peas were a bit of a problem as they kept on rolling around and were difficult to grasp, but other than that, the kid is now eating with us at the table. Big change from a month ago.

Fast-forward to 7PM. Matthew was in bed and I was reading Sam some books before he went to bed. My handy husband was putting up tile in our kitchen for a backsplash. When I finished readings a few books I told Sam it was time for bed, time to see BaaBaa. When it comes to bedtime (and I guess most other activities) Sam has strong parental preferences. He prefers Mommy to Daddy in almost every area, including putting him to bed. Jason and I take turns putting him to bed, but on Jason's nights Sam generally cries for Mommy and thrashes about. He's been doing this for as long as I can remember and although at times he doesn't cry, but goes more willingly, he always asks for Mommy. Until tonight. We finished the books and Sam went over to Jason, hugged his legs as he was placing some tile on the wall and said, "Carry" which means that he wants Jason to take him to bed. This is the first time this has ever happened. I was shocked and Jason was confused. I said, "Sam wants you to take him to bed." Unfortunately, Jason's hands were all goobered up the thinset for the tile and he couldn't take him. Poor Sam. He didn't thrash about and cry when I took him up to bed instead, but it was a sad moment for me as he couldn't go with Jason.

Anyway, Sam got dressed then we read some more stories. We got a book with lots of animals in it for Christmas from Ken and Cheri (actually Matthew got the book, but Sam is enjoying it too) and read that. It's a large book, when opened up it's probably 2 feet across and about 1 foot tall. And there are like 20 different animals on each page. We talk about them and occasionally, Sam finds an animal he really likes. So he opens his arms wide and leans over the book and hugs it, saying, "I love prairie dogs!" or whatever animal he fancies at the time. His other favorites tonight were a mouse, deer and ...I can't remember what else. It was rather cute, though.