Happy Halloween!

The kids had multiple Halloweens this year. Starting on Friday the 29th, they were to dress up for the Halloween Parade at daycare. The challenge: the heat! It runs very warm in the nursing home, so putting the kids in the outfits I would put them in for trick-or-treating was just setting them up for sweat-fest 2010. So Parker got a onesie, and was chilling in the ball pit when I took this photo quickly before I left for the day. Maia and I went out earlier in the week to see what we could find on the cheap for her to wear at daycare. I gave her a few choices, including some princess and fairy outfits. She happily chose the witch!

So I'm told they both did great. Parker was quiet and wide-eyed with 3 of his friends in the quad-stroller. He gave lots of smiles.

Maia, I'm told, did a great job with her trick-or-treats and manners and was very excited.

On Saturday the 30th, we got ready to trick-or-treat with Adrian and Lydia in Kath's neighborhood, which opted to schedule their festivities on the 30th instead. Maia and I made a bag together...

... which I proceeded to leave at home in the hurry of getting out the door. Oh well. At least I remembered the costumes!

Tiger Parker, Butterfly Maia

Parker, Lydia, Maia, Adrian

Adrian's costume included a knife in his chest, which apparently took a bit of ingenuity to get it attached. It looked pretty cool.

Speaking of cool: it was cool out. In the 50s during the day, so dipping down into the 40s as we walked. Parker was fairly well bundled, and did well, as long as we kept moving.

And Maia decided to enter the home to chose her candy at the first one we went to. Fortunately, they were grandparents, and people Kath knows. She did a great job remembering to say "Thank yeeeeeuuuww!!" and "Happy Ha-oh-weeen!"

Maia started to get pretty tired around her bed time, and ended up finishing up her festivities on Ray's shoulders. After all that cool weather, once we got back inside, we all started sweating.

It was well-past Maia's bedtime, but she wasn't going to head out without getting some candy in her belly!

What to choose?

We had considered taking her around our neighborhood on Sunday the 31st, but it didn't really work out with our messed up schedule. We'd had lunch together, belatedly, for my mother's birthday (the 25th), and Maia got down for her nap very late. We also don't have a large number of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. Maybe 30 kids. Perhaps next year. It really would be a good idea for us to meet some more of our neighbors!

Parker's 4 Month Exam

Today was Parker's 4 month exam with the pediatrician. I knew Parker was getting really big, and kept remarking that he feels like he's a lot older child to me. Six months.. seven months... just BIG.

When we got to the pediatrician's and she was running behind due to a computer malfunction (Ah... EMR - electronic medical records). So we went ahead and did the big weigh in.
Height: 25 1/2 inches - 64th%
Weight: 17 lbs - 81st%

SEVENTEEN POUNDS! I'm not trying to compare my kids... but Maia weighed 19 lbs at 12 months, and weighs less than 25 lbs now. Whew! I sure am glad I chose the bucket car seat that goes up to 32 lbs instead of the ones that are outgrown at 20 lbs. That said, the average baby doubles their birth weight by 5 months (which would be over 19 lbs), and triples it by 1 year. So if that holds true, Parker will be 27 lbs, and perhaps 31 inches by 12 months.

Anyway. The appointment.

Rather than keep us waiting even longer, the nurse gave Parker his immunizations. He did nicely with the oral dose, and didn't even flinch with the first injection. The second one lead to approximately 20 seconds of crying, and he was done. I fed him anyway while we were waiting. So everything else looks great. He's a perfectly healthy, thriving kid. He's found his groove on the growth chart and has fallen into his own pattern. Seems to be pretty on-track with the milestones. We always try to mention keeping an eye on the hips for Perthes disease, since Ray had it as a kid, although Parker is much too young to worry about it, and there's absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent it.

He, like Maia, also has a little issue with sensitive skin, and developed a mild rash while we were there that didn't seem to be any sort of allergic reaction to the immunization. I suspect it had more to do with his bare belly rubbing against my sweater. It was gone by later in the day just as quickly as it had come. He may also have some mild reflux (he's quite spitty), or perhaps a very mild milk protein allergy... but neither of these issues bother him, so we won't try to "fix" anything at this time.

In the mean time: slow down, kid! You're supposed to be my tiny, cuddly baby!

Parker Did It!

He finally managed to roll over back to tummy!

I think this may explain some of the fun we've been having with him not sleeping, as well. Usually the moment I put him down, even if he's drowsy, his little legs will shoot straight up in the air, and he'll start rolling to his side. Most of his night time sleep has been restless and has ended in some co-sleeping out of necessity. Even swaddling won't help him keep himself from moving constantly and waking himself up. But he's such a cuddle bug, that after about 10 minutes of close contact, he'll stop moving (and whacking me in the face with his flailing arms) and start to relax and sleep.

Unfortunately for me, I'm still a fairly nervous co-sleeper... and I tend to position myself so that the baby is as safe as possible, which generally means I (and Ray does this too) am fairly uncomfortable and do not sleep well. Which is sort of not the point of co-sleeping. But Parker sleeps better, and at least we get some sleep!

Autumn Fun

Sunday was a beautiful, mild day, so I thought I'd take the kids out to get some pictures in the leaves. I'd hoped to get a few of the two of them together.

Maia wasn't particularly interested in laying still, and Parker was determined to eat the leaves. So I let them just do their thing.

Maia was excited to play with her outdoor toys for the first time in a while.

And even more excited about raking!

While Parker was happy to eat some pumpkins.

Oh!

Maia chose her own Halloween costume(s) this year. A lovely pink butterfly.

4 little pumpins, sitting on a fence...

And Maia sang me a song or two.

What a beautiful day!

Could it be... ?

Some highlights from the weekend. Maia eats lunch, including her "special treat" which is Ella's Smoothie Fruit puree in a pouch. I love them, she loves them, but they're expensive, and I prefer to keep them for when we're out and about. Which is why I gave it to her on a Saturday that we were staying in all day cleaning.

"What is it, Maia?"

"Leaves falling down."

How cool is that!?!

So. Potty training. I've been stressing about it since before Parker was born, and then decided that it would probably be easier just having two in diapers than to do a very regimented potty training schedule. I just didn't have the energy, and, well... she's a little opinionated. Not to mention, she flat out refuses to poop in the potty, even though she's been successfully peeing in it since last winter.

Which brings us to a minor breakthrough. While shopping for Maia's Halloween Costume last weekend, we were at Burlington Coat Factory and it just happened to occur to me to stop by the underwear section and talk about how when she decides she wants to use the potty all the time, she'll get to wear undies like these!

Well. That quickly became "I want undies. I kin have them, please mommy!" So we talked a little more, and it seemed like she was starting to put it together. So I let her pick out two packs, and she was very excited, and held them in her arms while riding in the cart. We didn't get started with them last weekend, but she asked if they were done with the laundry a few times during the week. But with only 2 hours awake time, max, between getting home from daycare and going to bed, it just didn't seem worth it to start potty training during the week.

She didn't forget. Maia asked to wear underwear every day this weekend, and since it was cool out, we made use of all the Babylegs legwarmers we have (almost all of which I've purchased from one of my fave sites: http://www.babysteals.com/).

She actually did very well! She had one minor accident (as mentioned in previous post), and she told me about it, so I was able to find and clean up the small puddle. We did change her into diapers for her nap (which she was NOT excited about), but we forgot to take them off for a while after her nap, and she didn't ask right away. Still no pooping in the potty, so those morning diapers are HORRIBLE. However, you can see her becoming more aware of being wet diapers, and how different underwear feels with the little pliés she does. I like this idea of letting her take the lead, because it was pretty non-stressful. We could probably stand to be a little more diligent (i.e., not leaving her in diapers in the morning, or after nap) and we still have to figure out the pooping issue.

Could it be a potty trained girl is in our near(ish) future? We shall see!!

Adventures in Eating

Let me tell you a story. The scene: A 1990 Ford Escort hatchback, red, on Wolf Road in Albany, NY. Circa 1998. While discussing possible places to go for dinner, I suggest we get Thai. Ray is incredulous, and claims he's not eating that, er, stuff. I'm bewildered. Why? Peanuty, spicy noodles and rice and chicken... what's not to like? It's like Chinese food, but more to your taste! It's nice, I tell him (dooming myself to now over 12 years of this on-going joke). "Nice?" he asks me, "Nice!?!? Furniture is nice, people are nice. Food is not nice!"

Despite Ray's good friend Gino's encouragement along with mine over the years, Ray flatly refuses to try Thai food. Sounds gross, he doesn't want to, you can't make him.

Over the years, he has learned to try some new things and has surprised himself in some cases by really liking them. I actually made him chicken satay with peanut sauce from a cookbook when we lived in Clifton Park, and he liked it... but still he was reluctant on the Thai food. Until now. And I'm not exactly sure what convinced him. But it was actually his idea a few weeks ago, but we didn't have a menu, so I picked one up last week.

One of the first times I ever had Thai food was in Toronto, at a restaurant I no longer recall the name of, on New Year's Eve with my family. It was a flat price with a pre-selected menu of foods based on the size of your party. So you tried what they brought you, which was quite an impressive variety. The thing that stuck with me was this amazing yellow curried potato dish.

So I review the menu, and find a yellow curry dish with potatoes and order that. Ray finds something that sounds interesting to him and orders that, plus a chicken satay with peanut sauce. For Maia, I order a sweet-and-sour chicken (not fried, that's nice!) and rice.

Ray's assessment? Okay, this is really good, and I should have started eating this years ago. It's not better than Chinese food, just different. And the satay? This is the bomb.

Maia was doing well on her sweet and sour chicken... she loves rice, and was doing alright eating her chicken, until she looked at my dish. "Whatchoo eating, momma?"

"Chicken and potatoes and peas and onions..."
"I wan ta-patohs"
"Okay, it's a little spicy, but not too much. You try one and tell me what you think."
"I want more ta-patohs please mommy!"
Maia helped me eat my potatoes, and when I couldn't find any more, ate a bunch of my chicken and completely ignored her own sweet food in favor of my spicy food.

And Ray liked Thai. Finally. Now that we try not to eat out any more. Oh well! Maybe we'll have to figure out how to make some at home. Hmmmm... wonder what Penzey's might have for us...

Cleaning with Two Kids

Working full time, we have a pretty crazy schedule. By the time we have dinner, play a little, clean up dinner dishes, get kids in bed, wash bottles and lay out clothes and dinner ingredients for tomorrow... it's generally about 10 or 10:30 and we're done. There's just not much time, or perhaps more specifically, energy, to get other cleaning and organizing done. Fifteen minutes here and there...

This week was particularly bad, as Ray was tied up with horrible neck pain for most of the week and found it difficult to hold and/or play with the kids, or do things around the house that he's so good at doing. And with an infant, I rarely get uninterrupted time to complete a task (at least not until Parker is sufficiently asleep for the night.

So here is what cleaning is like on the weekend. Ray is cleaning downstairs, Maia and I are cleaning upstairs. (And before Ray cries foul and says this isn't exactly how it happened, he's right. Who on earth would remember the order of all of this? )

Feeding Parker. Instruct Maia to pick up toys.
Maia picks up 2 toys, pulls out another in it's place. Redirect and remind: putting away!
Parker spits up, have to find a wipe.
Maia still playing with toy I told her to put away.
Ask for listening ears and try again.
Put Parker down for some tummy time.
Help Maia clean. I get through books, she manages to put 2 more toys away, but pulls out 3 books.
Get frustrated (she can do really well, but today, not so much with the staying on task).
Parker is done with tummy time and is whining loudly.
Flip him over, play with him to get him happy.
Ask Maia if she's hungry or thirsty (often, for her, contributes to her ability to listen and stay on task). Nope.
Try again. Some progress. Reward progress by taking a break and reading 2 books. Parker needs a diaper.
I move on to kitchen (determined that I will have to clean up remaining toys when Maia takes a nap, but will continue to encourage her). Countertops are full of papers and bottles and dishes.
Organize bottles to wash.
Wash 2 pieces.
Parker's fussing and Maia just peed a little in her underwear.
Put Parker's paci back in.
Bring Maia to potty.
Put new undies and clean dress on Maia.
Suggest coloring.
Get coloring station set up.
Play with fussy Parker.
Clean up pee on carpet.
Wash another bottle.
Realize that Maia is chewing, but has no food.
Remove crayon from mouth.
Remove crayon from hand, remind that crayons are not for eating, are not food.
Give Maia towel with non-toxic cleaner to clean off the crayon all over the table. Pick up colored paper from the floor.
Time for lunch. Make PB&J. Pour milk. Clean up.
Cuddle Parker to sleep.
Put Parker in pack n play.
Clean Maia's sticky hands and face.
Try potty (success!).
Put diaper on for nap time. Convince 2 year old of necessity of diaper during nap time as this is her first day of underwear.
Wind down with cuddle and singing.
Put child to bed.
Return to bottle washing. Water is now tepid.
Hot water. 4 more parts.
Music coming from bedroom: Maia is playing with doll house.
Escort child back to bed.
2 more parts.
Parker is awake.
Put 2 year old back to bed. Again.
Change Parker.
Daddy puts 2 year old back to bed. Again again.
Put Parker in swing.
Finish washing bottles.
Start unloading dishwasher.
Maia still up. Daddy gives up, lets her out of room.
Maia tries to "help" unload the dishwasher.
Trip over Maia at least twice.
Give Maia specific tasks that involve not being in the kitchen. She complies.
Finish emptying dishwasher.
Feed Parker.
Watch Maia take out books that were put back.
Require 5 more toys away before they can be read.
Read book (yay!)
Tummy time for Parker.
Go to bathroom. Get cheered for my success. "Yaaaaay! You diddit! Kin I flush now?"
Retrieve whining Parker.
Snack time for Maia. Cut apple.
Reload dishwasher.
Apple finished, clean sticky child.
Work on paper piles while I eat a quarter of the apple.
Maia arrived with the remaining apple quarter which she has obtained by putting her tiptoes into the groove above the mechanical panel on our dishwasher and reaching over the edge of the countertop.
Re-clean sticky child.
Give up on cleaning and play with kids. Whew!

Gettin' Pretty

My hairdresser is a grandma without grand kids. Her son, and only child, passed away 10-12 years ago, and so she likes to enjoy her client's kids when she can. She specifically asks me to bring in my kids, and has since I was pregnant. She loves to play with them, and snuggle, and find out how they're growing and what they can do. She had been seeing Maia every couple months since she was born, but I hadn't brought Maia since before Parker's arrival.

This time I (perhaps unwisely) thought I'd try to bring both kids for my overdue haircut. Parker was actually fairly content in his car seat for most of the time, but when he decided he'd had enough of the car seat without it moving, and maybe he was hungry, he decided to scream until the receptionist (who has a 3-year-old at home) picked him up. Then content once more.

Maia was, no surprise, BUSY. Verbally and otherwise. She sits on my lap during the shampoo and asks a million questions. "Whass she doing? She washing yer hair? She all done? She have a shower for your hair?" She had very little interest in the activities that I'd brought for her, so it was creative solutions by myself and my stylist. That said, Maia did very well and was quite well behaved until it was time to go.

She wanted no part of leaving. She was spraying water on a towel and that was a lot of fun. So we saw a 30 second, typical toddler tantrum with the arching of the back and kicking of the legs so you can't pick them up (or hold onto them if they're already in your arms). That was followed up by her typical: "I lay down right here," fingers-in-mouth, sulking.

So, my stylist asked Maia if she could comb her hair. This bought me a minute to get Parker in his car seat, pay and get my next appointment scheduled. When I came back to collect her, she was having her hair blown "dry" and loving it. We play games with the hair dryer at home, too, so there was really no fear there. So my stylist thought... well, let's see if we can make her hair extra pretty... and pulled out the curling iron to flip her little curls up. Maia did a great job, fearless as usual. She even sat relatively still, and was fascinated.

Parker waited patiently. Again. (Notice the absense of socks. Those are generally a casualty of Droolfest II: Getting My Toes To My Mouth. It's wet sock-land these days!)

There. All Pretty. "I get my hair cut momma?" I think we can be fairly confident she will handle her first hair cut (which I think may be soon) without significant fear. Yay!

And rest assured, I will bring a real camera, instead of using the poor quality camera on my phone.

Not So Much With the Apple Picking

We had the best intentions. We wanted to go apple picking with my sister and the puddles, and thought about pushing it back a bit so we could make sure we could pick Mutsus. YUM! We did our research, and discussed the pros and cons about going this weekend versus that weekend. In some ways, it turns out it was fortunate we postponed the plans, as Kathleen ended up in the ER on the other Sunday we were considering, with an emergency appendectomy. She's doing well, by the way.

So. Having checked various orchard websites, it appeared that the U-Pick place to go was Schwallier's (we went there when Maia was a baby, too). Mutsus were due to pick the Thursday before we went, and Granny Smiths the day before. I used these reasons to convince Ray that he wanted to go with us, particularly since Kath was recovering from surgery, and it'd be nice to have more adults with all those kids, as Kath is on lifting restrictions. So we pile in the car, and head north to the orchard, looking forward to Mutsus fresh off the tree and cider donuts. So Andrew decided he would go too.
Kath and I went inside to find out where to find the Mutsus, while the guys and the kids hung out by the goats. We were directed to an elderly, hearing impaired man to ask about picking the Mutsus, which we were pronouncing "Moo-tsoo" and he could not figure out what we were talking about. He called over a young woman who turned out to be his granddaughter, and so we asked her. Oh, she said, "Muh-tsoos, grandpa!" Well, for all that hassle he could have just told us what she did: Because of the early frost and the way the growing season went... they were no longer doing U-Picks. They'd ended the week before. Did they have Mutsus in storage for sale? Nope. Not a one. Sigh.
Ah, well. We'll go have some more fun with the kids, and pick out our pumpkins. Let's go! Hard-of-hearing Grandpa stands in the gift barn and gives free apples to everyone while they stand in line for donuts. So at least Maia was pleased with her apple (which she did NOT want to let go of!) And she searched the pumpkin patch, apple in hand, and found this little green one.

Lydia thought the green ones were cool too.

And Parker was just enjoying some outdoor time.

Adrian, on his way to the tweens, had his ipod on while searching for his pumpkin.

Andrew and Ray joked around a lot.

And Ray took some lovely pictures. It was a gorgeous day. Cool, but sunny.

We got our pumpkins and loaded them up in the wagon... which Maia wanted to help with.

You could try your hand at "milking" a cow.

Emily, Parker and Kathleen.

While we were choosing our pumpkins... this "cow train" went by several times, which appeared very exciting to Maia, and she repeated (ad nauseum) "I want to go ON that!" "Whass dat mommy?"

So they went: Maia, Lydia and Adrian. A train of garbage barrels fitted with seats pulled behind a 4-wheel ATV, over bumpy orchard trails.

There was some discussion between siblings about whose cow was better.

And they were off. I'm told Maia screamed happily and laughed a lot. Then the opportunity to play in a sandbox full of field corn.

A good 1/2 a cup of which, incidentally, came home in Maia's diaper. I wondered why she was so squirmy while we were eating lunch, she doesn't usually try to reach down her diaper. While the kids were playing here, we went to go get donuts and... believe it or not, they don't use cider in their donut recipe. An orchard without Cider Donuts?!? They had "cinnamon donuts" which were good (still warm), but not cider donuts. So two major disappointments, even though it was a great day to be outside with the family and we had a good time.