Skating

Ray recently decided that he wanted to start rollerskating again.  So he looked for local roller rinks and bought himself a pair of skates.  On this particular Saturday, he convinvced Maia she would like to go, so we all piled in the truck and headed across town.

We couldn't manage to get our hands on the wheeled "walkers" to help Maia learn , so she just had to dive in and give it a shot with daddy's help.  

Maia's skates didn't roll very well, but she tried.

Parker very much enjoyed standing on the edge of the wall and watching all the skaters go by.

How to Keep Her Busy

Chop Sticks. A bowl, a pickle jar and a pan lid.

I got to cook dinner. I also got to hear about 15 minutes of all the rock n' roll songs she knows.

Parker at 10 months

Ten Months. Wow.

What's Parker doing at 10 months?

We're seeing lots more social interaction: clapping, So Big, bouncing games, being upside down and giving zerbits.  He thinks it's hysterical if you put his paci in your mouth (I usually do this in reverse, putting the handle in my mouth).  He'll often try, now, to share his paci with you.

He's very ticklish, especially his feet.

He is cruising around furniture much more quickly, and although not yet standing independantly, he is starting to let go briefly.  He is strong, and is starting to get MUCH more determined, particularly when he has something in his hands that you are trying to remove from his grasp. He is strong!  He is starting to play and explore more independently, and given the opportunity, loves to follow his sister around.  He continues to be pretty tolerant of her brief but smoothering affections.
He is also (finally) in his own bed and his own room.  We're still working through the chronic ear infections, but he's generally capable of sleeping through the night.  I, however, couldn't tell you the last time I got a restful night, which makes it tough to parent.   He generally gets sleey during dinner, and goes down well around 7 pm.  The bad part is that he still wakes several times a night, and has lately started waking for the day at 5-5:30 a.m.

Have I told you about his thick, long lashes?  He's had these since shortly after birth!

Parker is doing well with self feeding and getting the hang of his sippy cup.
Other stats:
Teeth: 8
Clothes:  mostly 12 months
Shoes: not really wearing them, but extremely fond of taking off socks.
Weight: Approximately 20 lbs.

He's doing pretty well with his sippy cup, and has started feeding himself with a spoon. Once he has the spoon, he is not fond of giving it up. (See very strong as mentioned above).  Verbally - he's increasingly chatty, and seems to try to repeat syllables or simple words that you share with him.  For example, if you tell him "Uh oh!"  He'll grin and say "Uh Uh!"  and flap his arms. He won't, yet, verbalize "uh oh" on his own.


One Little Day

The weekend of the 10th we actually had one beautiful day. It got up into the 80s and felt like we'd skipped right over into summer, but for the fact that the trees and ground looked as barren as winter.

Shorts... flip flops... tricycles!

There was lots for Parker to look at, birds and bugs and a nice breeze...

not to mention big sister and her doll-toting tricycle.

What Parker did NOT care for was grass.  He would crawl to the edge of the blanket and put his little hand out into the grass. He'd immediately pull it back and just sit there looking intently at the grass, as if to say "What the heck was that!?"

I'm sure we'll cure him of that before the summer is over!

A Little Rain

April showers may bring May flowers, but this adorable little rain cloud just brings a little smile to my face.

All covered in Parker's handprints.

Got Tunes?

I found a pair of volume-limiting head phones, which I thought might be great for traveling.  Maia thought they were pretty great.  After she went to bed, I found my old (1G) iPod and loaded it up with some of her favorite songs.  It's always nice to have some quiet activities.

Swinging

Spring is having a hard time, er, springing. Several weekends ago, it was at least marginally warm enough to get outside and play.  Maia could hardly wait to play with her summer toys.  First, she took Parker for a spin in her car.

Then she begged to get the swing out.  It was still cool and breezy,  but tolerable.  So Maia swung first, happily...

... while Parker looked on.

Then it was Parker's turn, and he was delighted.

Tired

We are tired. I have lots of posts to catch up on, but a lack a energy, inspiration and brain power. We had a great visit with Tara, Dave, Aaron and Rachael over the weekend, and wish it could have lasted longer. However, Parker started with a cold and fever over the weekend, and we knew that it went right into an ear infection. Poor guy had his hands over his ears like he was in a recording session. That ear infection has lead to 3 doctor appointments this week, plus one for Maia who also spiked a fever (she is otherwise clear.) Too many sleep-poor nights. Too much stress at work. Emotions and frustrations and schedule coordination going on... Alas. No one ever said parenting was easy.

What?

What?  Is there something on my face?

Come here, mommy... give me a kiss!

Upgrades

So what were we doing spending all that time at Home Depot?  Well, since we bought the house, we knew that the kitchen needed some attention.   What to do first?  Well, as the sink randomly leaks water through the cabinet and onto the washing machine, the faucet seals all leak and the garbage disposal is on it's way out...  It's time to say goodbye to this eyesore.

We hemmed and hawed.  What do we want to spend?  Do we want to keep it simple, or buy stuff that we think will last us as long as we live here, and we'd still want to keep if ever we do get around to remodeling the whole kitchen?  This sink or that one? This faucet or that one?  Do we get a water filtration system, too? 

We made our decisions (no on the filtration system, we'll keep using our Pur pitcher).  We hired a subcontractor to do the work (since we don't have the necessary tools, equipment, knowledge or desire to do this ourselves).  His window was Friday afternoon from 1-6.  He showed up at 6:15 p.m.  He finished at nearly 10 p.m.

However, he did a nice job, and here is our pretty new sink!  Look how shiny!

So our cabinets now look a little dull, and I'm realizing how boring and awful our counter surfaces are....

but Look How Shiny!!!

It's extra deep, and you can fit a whole roasting pan in it, and the sprayer works, and the disposal is nice and quiet.  And it's somewhere I would actually feel comfortable bathing a baby (and I did).

Have I told you how much I love my new sink?

Art o' the Month(s)

I've been a little distracted with all the craziness, and found myself with Quite A Pile of Art that needs to be documented and moved along.   So at long last, here it is. Art o' the last 2 or 3 months! 

Unfortunately, there has been such a delay between when the art was done and me posting it, I don't remember the details of most of the "pwa-jects" as Maia calls them.

This was clearly a combination of brushstrokes and some stamped circles.

And Parker's contribution.

Glued construction paper circles.  I'm sure this had something to do with fine motor skills.

I love this one. Clearly fingers were important to the creation here.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the "ice cube" painting.  I believe this would have been done with some paint filled ice cubes.

Crayons and Construction paper.

Markers, and lots of "Ms"

Gluing triangles.  I know they've been working on scissors skills in her Early Preschool room (aka: EP), but I'm not sure if they've been cutting these shapes.  I'm thinking not, though.

Some more finger painting.

This one she definitely used scissors on, and then colored.

Phases

Parenting is full of ups and downs. Good phases and bad.  With Parker, we've gone through nearly 6-7 weeks of ear infections and teething back-to-back.  During that time, we've gotten a few good nights of sleep.  Little pockets of calm bookended by wakeful nights of up every 3 hours, or he gets to sleep (in our bed) but I don't, because he's kicking me all night.

Last night, we played cards with Kath & Andrew (long overdue) and I was sure I was going to pay for my relaxation by spending another wakeful night.  But we received the most fantastic prize!  Parker slept from 8:00 pm to 7:30 am without waking for a feeding, a rocking, patting, crying or anything else.  Maia, bless her, even slept in until about 7:15. She then, of course, woke Parker.  But what a stark contrast to the night before.

Friday night, we got a new sink installed (details coming!) and to keep the kids out of the way and just have more fun, I brought the kids to my folk's house for dinner.  The installer was late (very late) and so I stalled, and ultimately, Maia didn't get down until 9 pm and Parker 9:30.  Well, maybe Maia will sleep in.

Nope. Not only did she not sleep in, she was at my bedside at 5:45 a.m.  "Wakey wakey momma. I haff a poopy diaper. Get up! Get up!"  Children up, fed, changed, dressed.  Well, off to run some errands then.

We went to a McDonald's playplace for breakfast.  Maia did a pretty good job on her breakfast (Parker ate much of the rest of it), asked to go to the bathroom, but didn't end up going. Sat down for 30 seconds and said "No! No!  I don't have to go anymore!"    Fast forward to the "Okay, one more slide down" warning, at which point she crawls back down and announced "I have poopy in my undies, mom."  Sigh.

So after that enjoyable clean up (ahem), we continued with our errands: Home Depot, where Maia, who had been so good at breakfast, started refusing to ride in the cart, and didn't want to talk to Bekah, Jeremy and Gracie. She desperately wanted a balloon, but had a complete meltdown when the man tried to tie one around her wrist.   After leaving, we determined all other errands could be run by leaving the kids in the car, hopefully sleeping.  Maia slept for about 15 minutes, and that was it for sleep for the rest of the day.

Parker slept in the car for a while, but didn't take another nap for the rest of the day.  Between the two of them, by the end of the day, we were ready to ship them off to anyone who would take them. Frustration abounded.  Bedtime couldn't have come fast enough.  It was nice to blow off some steam by laughing a little over a game of 75.

Maia is generally doing very well with her daytime potty training (the above not withstanding).  What I'm not particularly fond of is her flip-flopping.  Is it the terrible twos?  Every day it's:
(said in a growly voice) "I don't want that!"
"I'll put it away, then."
(said in the most whiny tone) "I waaaaaant thay-at!"


When dropping her off at daycare, it's I don't want your kisses, mommy!  and when I say "oh, that makes me sad. See ya later then!" she's immediately running after me in tears because I left her without giving her a kiss.  And then she won't let go.   It leaves me in a tail-spin sometimes, she changes her mind so quickly, and with so much emotion!


I've told a few new moms recently that the best advice I now have for them is to remember "Everything is a phase.  The good moments, the bad. It's all a phase."

Monsters

As I'm putting Maia to bed one night last week, she tells me "I'm just sad an mad an angwy." I asked her why she was sad, mad and angry. She tells me "because of feelings." (Ha.) I asked what was making her feel that way and she said "Dose mean scawy monsters over dere." So we came up with some things she could do to get rid of those. We talked about saying "Boo" to them and asking them to go away, or taking "big magic breaths" and blowing them away.

As we did those things, she would tell me where those monsters were. "Crawling out da window!" "One bit da blinds!" "Now they're on my Wally!" (stuffed walrus) She clearly wasn't scared as we were doing this, but I'm just stunned! Is this how her mind is working right now? How does she know so much about monsters and have that kind of imagination so young?

I'll leave you with a photo of her at the Gardens. We went a few weekends ago to see the butterflies (just the two of us).

She started out wanting to hold the admission tickets, then she was extremely interested in the rocks in the Arid Garden. Once we got into the Tropicals, it was all about seeing the waterfall.  

I wanted to take a quick peek at the gift shop before leaving, where we ran into her friend Claire, from daycare.  Maia ran up and gave her a hug, and the two of them spent a few giggly minutes playing with the toys.

Parker's 9 month exam

Parker had his 9 month exam this week.  Outside of the ears, he's doing very well!
Weight: 19 lbs, 3 oz, 24th percentile
Height: 28 1/4", 44th percentile

I'd noticed that he'd recently gotten longer, and as rolly, cheek-a-licious and solid as he seems to me, it seems like he's slowing down as he approaches the one year (yikes!) mark.

We talked about the usual developmental stuff, and it was nice that he's now doing so many new things lately. The crawling, the pulling to stand, the cruising (gross motor).  The self-feeding (fine motor), attachment to momma, playing games like peek-a-boo and So Big (social); as well as the increased verbal (both expressive and receptive, he clearly knows his name, and is responding to verbal cues like 'No!')  He's not working much on standing independently, however, because he generally thinks he needs to jump. Fortunately, I mentioned this at a timely point in the exam, or he probably would have jumped out of the pediatrician's arms without her being prepared.   He does, by the way, now start to take some steps if you hold his hands and lean him forward while he is standing.  But he won't do the same if you give him a walk-behind toy. He'll just sit down.

But the ears. Alas, the ears are still not clear. After round 3 of antibiotics, he still has fluid.  So we're trying some Flonase to see if we can get him to dry out a bit.  We now have a rather complicated bedtime routine of antibiotic, change diaper, jammies on, suction out nose, saline nose, Flonase, pain med, nurse, cuddle, to bed (with a bit of whining once he's down, but he's learning how to settle himself to sleep).

So the plan is: back in a month.  If the Flonase and the reminder of the Omnicef don't do the job, then we're headed off to an ENT to see if we go through their bag of tricks or look at a more invasive step. 
Unfortunately, there is the possibility that Parker just has poorly draining eustachian tubes. There's certainly been a few people to whom he is genetically linked who have suffered with chronic ear infections.  I was fortunate enough not to be that kid in my family, and it seems Maia seems to have escaped it as well.   But time will tell.