Just browsing

I've been trying to post this for about a week or so, but have been having problems. Hope this works. Anyway, it's very cute how Sam intently looks through the farm equipment catalog. Jason suggested that we post a video of it. So here it is. It doesn't totally capture the intensity of Sam's browsing as we recorded him after he had already been looking through the catalog for a few minutes. You can get the general idea, though.

Bedtime

Last night Matthew was starting to act fussy and otherwise tired around 5:30. I was hoping he would make it until Jason got home from work, but then at 5:33 he let out a huge yawn, so I decided it was time for bed. He will have to see Jason another day.

We went up to Matthew's room and I put PJs and a new diaper. I then started the bedtime routine by reading a story. Matthew wasn't much into the story, but that's not too out of the ordinary. We then said a bedtime prayer and I shut off the light. The next part of the routine is rocking and singing Jesus Loves Me a few times. I was cradling Matthew when I started singing and rocking, and he started kicking, arching his back, whimpering and basically thrashing about as best a 7 month old baby can thrash about. I wondered if my instincts and read of his tiredness were off and I was putting him to bed too early. Partway through the second Jesus Loves Me, though, he went completely still and was out. He sure puts up a fight, but when he's really tired he is quickly and surely overcome. I placed him in his crib and went downstairs.

Jason returned home shortly and then we had a big dinner of leftovers accumulated through the week and some ooey gooey cake. Sam ate some cucumber, a little pasta and lots of applesauce and ooey gooey cake. We then played a little bit, but I could tell Sam was tired too as he was being more obstinate than usual and had gotten up early and didn't take a good nap. Sam started his usual routine of trying to stand on the couch and ottoman. This is a constant battle for us. Every evening he tries to do this and we still haven't figured out a good way to deal with it.

So last night I told Sam that if he stood on the couch he was immediately going to bed. He slyly looked at me and got on his knees on the couch. He started lifting up his leg to put his foot on the couch and smiled at me. Then he stood. "Ok, bedtime," I said. It was around 6:30. I picked him up and there was much screaming and thrashing about, and believe me, a 2 year old can thrash about a lot more effectively than a 7 month old.

By the time we were mid-way up the stairs, though, the thrashing and screaming had ended. We had an uneventful bedtime routine and Sam went to bed around 6:45. I guess he really was tired.

Random acts of Sam

This morning Sam went over to the basement door, opened it, and yelled "Mickey Mouse!" then he ran away. I closed the door and asked him what was going on. He came back over to the basement door, opened it, and yelled, "Mickey Mouse!" and ran away.

After Sam's nap he was cuddling with BaaBaa in the crib for awhile. I said that it was time for BaaBaa to go to bed as we had to go visit our friend down the street. Sam gave BaaBaa a big hug, placed him in the corner of the crib, gave him a baboosh, covered him with a blanket, kissed him and said, "I love you BaaBaa."

Tonight I was telling Jason about our day and I mentioned that Sam was really good today. I said to Sam, "Right, sweetie, you were good today?" He said, "Thank you."

I forgot to mention this earlier, but Matthew has two teeth now. Both bottom middle teeth have popped through, as the second one came through over the weekend. He's handling it like a champ, but drooling a lot.

Church strategy

Our new church doesn't have a nursery for children to attend while their parents attend church. When Sam was littler, I always wanted to keep him with us for church, although our old church had a nursery. I just didn't want to part with the kid and he was so well behaved at that time. All it took to keep him occupied during church were snacks and something to drink. Life was simpler then. Fast forward 6 months or so, and Sam is an all-out toddler, with the short attention span and antsy-ness that goes with his age. Sitting still for 5 minutes is a challenge, let alone a church service that is an hour or more.

So we have tried a number of things to make church successful. Our definition of success involves 1) Jason and I can worship with some focus, 2) Sam is relatively quiet and 3) Sam is somewhat occupied. Matthew really isn't much of a problem, although he has started talking a lot more lately. He also just gets excited and smiles and laughs at the people behind him. It's quite cute, so we generally don't try to contain his excitement too much.

So how do we negotiate a successful church outing? Well, we bring some books and a drink for Sam. We brought cars once, but that was a mistake. They are much too noisy on the wooden pews. I also tried to bring little animal toys, but Sam wasn't really interested in them. I tried loading up my bag with novel items (floss, chap stick, random junk from Jason's junk drawer, etc.) but he wasn't really interested in that either. We tried crayons and paper but that worked for about 1 minute, then he was on to the next thing. So we stick to books. Books with lots to look at. Books that Sam likes and have a lot of pages.

Jason does a really good job of listening to the sermon but keeping Sam occupied with the books. He turns pages slowly and points to various items on the page. Today was an especially effective. Sam didn't have to be taken to the lobby and he was pretty quiet. He didn't even say, "All done now" until an hour into the service. A few weeks ago, Sam said "All done now and started walking to the aisle 10 minutes into the church service. That was not a good day. However, today he waited until after communion. He really did show a lot of patience for a two-year old in waiting until an hour into church. Other than a short attention span, Sam loves Sunday school, so he is very excited for church to end so he can go to Sunday school. He loves Sunday school. He runs to Sunday school after worship is done. At least he enjoys part of the experience at church, and the worship for adults part is developing his self-denial and patience. Good virtues for a growing little man.

Need date night

During breakfast today I was telling Jason that I wanted to go on a date. We haven't had a date together since the middle of October. Not only do I want to spend quality time with Jason that doesn't involve sitting in front of the tv when we are both too tired to do anything else, but I'd like to have a conversation or just peace and quiet that doens't involve a discussion like the following:

Sam: Duck-orse! Duck-orse!
Me: Dinosaur? You want a dinosaur vitamin?
Jason: No, he means Duck-horse.
Sam: Duck-orse, duck-orse!

I'm usually right when it comes to translating Sam's talking, however in this case, I think Jason was correct. You may be wondering why Sam is saying Duck-horse. We have this barn toy that is magnetized so it sticks to the fridge and there are a bunch of farm animals, each in two pieces, with a separate piece for their front and back. The kids are supposed to try to match up the animals in the barn (one at a time), then the toy sings, "You made a match, look what you've done, you made a match, make a horse sound!" (or fill in whatever animal the child matched up). But if the child matches up a front of a duck with the back of the horse, the toy says, "A duck-horse, that's silly!" Sam was playing with the farm toy while our muffins for breakfast were baking.

It's not that I don't like such topics of discussion, I would just like some one-on-one adult conversation with Jason that doesn't involve such discussions. That's all. Some variety.

Addendum: (1:13 PM) This is a sampling of our lunch conversation:

Sam: cracker!
Me: cracker, please?
Sam: cracker, please
Sam: (takes cracker and smashes it on his head, in his hair. pieces of it crumble down his shirt and onto the counter)
Me: Sam, No! Don't smash the cracker!

Matthew has a tooth!

Today Matthew required a clothing change early in the morning (must have been around 8:30) as he couldn't limit himself to his diaper. I had done some laundry yesterday so I had some clean and freshly folded clothes in the laundry room and grabbed a change of clothes.

I cleaned up breakfast dishes, then the kids played for awhile in the living room. When I went over near the kids I smelled something yucky. Since it was around the time of day for Sam's morning BM, I asked Sam if he had a dirty diaper and he told me that Matthew pooped. Ok. Back to the laundry room. Another dirty diaper and another change of clothes.

After Matthew's nap we went to the Y. Things were fine until about 15 minutes into my workout I got paged. I figured it was for Sam since he had yet to dirty a diaper for the morning, but not Matthew as you already know what our morning was like.

However, when I got to the kid's center the staff member informed me that Matthew was very dirty. I looked over at my little guy who was sitting on the floor happily playing with something. His back was facing me and I could see a 4 inch stain on his shirt, above his diaper. Yuck. He soaked through his undershirt and his outershirt and was a mess. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought a change of clothes since I figured Matthew was done with dirty deeds for the day. I was wrong and Matthew was cleaned up and strapped into the carseat wearing only a diaper. I surrounded him with a cozy blanket and his carseat cover, so he was still warm, but the naked little guy was quite a sight all packed up in his carseat. I took Matthew's picture when we got home in memory of our eventful morning.

The staff member also asked if Matthew was teething because she said that frequent blowouts are sometimes associated with teething. I was so flustered by the whole ordeal that I forgot about what she had said, but later in the day I was playing with Matthew and he grabbed my finger to chew on it and, ouch, a tooth had broken through! So Matthew is 7 months, 3 days, and he has his first tooth.

The other picture is from Thanksgiving when Matthew tried on the new hat I knitted for Sam. Fits him pretty well too. I forgot to post it earlier, so here it is.

Hodge podge

I couldn't think of a cohesive topic to write about today, but there have been a number of things I've been wanting to write about so here is a hodge podge of recent happenings.

Matthew has taken quite strongly to playing at the ottoman. While he still can't stand completely on his own (he stands next to the ottoman, balances himself with his hands while my hands hover within a cm of him), he exhibits such joy at being able to play at The Ottoman. The squeals and laughs are continuous when he is standing next to his brother playing with cars.

Matthew's favorite time of day seems to be when Jason returns home. He saves his most expressive squeals for when he sees Jason's face upon returning from work. However, half the time, Matthew is already in bed when Jason comes home. Poor kid, he misses the highlight of his day.

Sam started playing today with a little RC bulldozer that he received for his birthday. He previously has been scared of it and it's sat on the shelf for over two months now. It has ridged plastic tires and spins around when it's not being directed with the RC and is probably one of the noisiest toys we have (thank you very much, David and Alicia). Today, though, he rediscovered the joy of his RC bulldozer and he played with it frequently. Toward the end of the day I was about to go crazy, but fortunately Sam stopped playing with it and after awhile something brought on the worst tantrum we've seen for awhile. By that time I was too tired to go crazy about the tantrum.

Speaking of crazy, today when I was getting Sam ready for nap, he picked up a small plastic basket, put BaaBaa in it and said that BaaBaa was going to nap in the crib (basket). I looked down at BaaBaa and thought, completely seriously, BaaBaa is going to outgrow his crib soon. I don't know what has happened to my reality.