Sippy Cups and Holding Our Breath

In my recent post about firsts, I neglected to get everything in because so many new things had happened in recent days. SO I am playing a bit of catch up and trying it get it all recorded before Little Man starts school on Thursday because I know that there will be stories a plenty come the end of the week.

Peanut is drinking from a sippy cup at less than 6 months! We figured this out kind of by accident, but it is going to be a bonus to switch him to a sippy cup as soon as possible because it is easier for him to feed himself that way and we will have an easier time of it when we wean him later on. Last week during dinner, he finished his ice cube quickly and to try to avoid freezer burn around his mouth I gave him a sippy cup of water instead of another ice cube. I thought that he might chew on it or play with it but the next thing we new was that he was drinking it. Just sucking it down as if he has always used sippy cups. He wasn't thrilled with the fact that it was water instead of milk but he drank anyway. So now in addition to his ice cube he gets sippy cups of water at times and soon he will get his nightly feeding in his sippy IF I can convince Papa Bear to give up that precious bonding bottle time every night.

Another mentionable moment is Little Man putting his face in the water in the pool. He has blown bubbles in the water all summer but he started holding his breath and dunking his head (with the occasional inhalation of water) this weekend. It was Sunday on our back deck but it might have been initiated because he started his winter 8 week swim lessons that he has done every fall/winter since he was 6 months old. He was very proud of himself and we are hoping that it means he will get even more brave during swim lessons this year! (Mommom, this is another video) Oh and yes, at the end the video does end as Little Man declares that he is going to take his underwear off and we thought that we would spare any viewers a surprise ending!!

Why I almost have a heart attack on a daily basis

Oh the life of a mom with boys (not that girls aren't just as active, I just don't know since I don't have any). I recently read a blog where a mom talked about the things you never thought you would ever say and then you have kids and you hear yourself saying thing like "Little Man, stop climbing up the railing naked, you are going to get splinters where you really don't want them" or " Get down from that window sill and how did you get up there in the first place?!" Little Man gives us scares on a daily basis, climbing walls, railings, tables, you name it. He jumps off anything and has no fear. We caught a bit on camera.

Scared yet?? Does it look like he might land on his face??

Well, he pulled it out and had a stellar landing. But he doesn't always land on his feet and I always hold my breath.

Oh the life of being a Mama Bear of boys....while it may be a little scary, really who can resist this face....
Or this one...

More Firsts for Peanut

Some firsts that need to be mentioned...

Peanut thinks he is ready for table food, but in hopes of holding him off until his digestive system thinks so too, he has been enjoying ice cubes. We bought the mesh feeder for Little Man, but he never took to it so it went untouched. We were excited to see it get some use. It is one of his favorite things and cries when the ice cube has melted and we take it away. He gets one every night at the dinner table now and loves it.

Peanut went for a swim. I know the summer is over and we had pools and beaches a plenty but either the water was too cold for him to enjoy it or he was sleeping (not that I am complaining). So before lunch Papa Bear put the pool up on our deck, ran the hose from our tap so we could make the water warm and the boys got to play in the water. At first Peanut wasn't that into it, but after a while he was splashing and playing and eating all of the toys!!

Peanut has really taken to the jumperoo. So much so that we had to move it up from the playroom to the family room so that he could be in it more often. He can be fussy and all it takes is putting him in it and off he goes! (Mommom, this is a movie, not a picture so don't forget to push play to see Peanut jump jump jumping)

Pray for the Goldfish

We had our "meet the teacher" session yesterday to help Little Man be more comfortable when he starts his 2 day a week school next Thursday. In theory he was very excited but in actual practice it took a little coaxing to get him in the door. But once in the door he was fascinated by all of the toys that he could play with. He flitted from one area to the next, putting baby dolls to bed, playing with airplanes, making pizza for Mrs. H. He loved the class pets (2 goldfish) so much that he picked up the large glass bowl and tried to carry them across the room causing me to jump up to try to rescue them and Mrs. H calmly with tons of teacherly love say "well Little Man, hold on tight to them". He proved his love for the goldfish, his crazy 2 year old strength and his potential to harm any class pet. The good news is that it took a lot more work to get him to leave than it did to get him to go in and again, in theory, he is looking very forward to school next week. I foresee a few tears next week, I am not sure if it will be him, me or the class pets in tears!

Not to Toot Our Own Horn or Anything....

....but Papa Bear has declared Little Man a musical genius already. Today, Little Man, Papa Bear and Peanut were hanging out in the kitchen when Little Man decided to show Papa Bear how he can play the "empty paper towel roll". First it was a flute and then it was a trumpet. Being a trumpet player himself, Papa Bear recognized Little Man's expert mouth position and motion (we have no idea what this is technically called). He ran downstairs and got his trumpet and sure enough, Little Man can play. To me it just sounds like rude noises coming from a brass instrument that is larger than the boy playing with it. However I know nothing about music/instruments and am completely tone deaf myself. All musical talent passed down to the boys comes entirely from Papa Bear. He plays the bass guitar, trumpet and piano at various levels. And as the resident musical expert of this house, he said that there are grown adults who can't make the proper mouth position and blow into the trumpet in a way that actually produces the noise. But Little Man can!!

The Waning Days of Summer

We are still trying to keep our days filled and Little Man busy as the summer comes to a close. That has been difficult because I am not nearly as much fun as the beach, sand and waves were so I am still getting the repetitive plea of "go to beach house, mama!" It doesn't help that my creativity and energy are somewhat lacking so our art projects, usually more thought out and planned, seem to just end in a mess which leads to play time in the bathtub which means at least an hour of time filled up. The finger painting leads to making hand prints which on this fine day, led to making belly prints, which led to painting ourselves instead of the paper. Which of course led to "go in the house, arms in the air, don't touch anything and straight to the bathtub mister!!"

But even though, as you can see, Little Man has no trouble making a mess he still doesn't like BEING messy. Today I had to put some hydrocortisone on a rash on his leg before nap. He insisted on changing from his shorts to pants so that he "doesn't get his sheets messy". There is no doubting that he is my kid!!

Peanut is all smiles and toothy grins these days. He does little baby crunches when you put him in a recline position and likes sitting up more and more. He is an eating machine and loves his nighttime bottle with Papa Bear. When he sees his bottle being warmed up he leans into Papa Bear and all but rips the bottle from his hands. He laughs at gross boy sounds reminding me that I am the lone female in a house of boys (also reminded of this when Little Man forgets to put the toilet seat down!) and loves to grab my face between his two pudgy hands and laugh out loud.

Making Handprint Beach Mementos

To make beautiful (at least in this Mama Bear's eyes) lasting momentos at the beach. Go to Home Depot or any hardware store and pick up some quick drying plaster of paris. Collect shells on the beach or purchase shells from a store down at the beach (we used a coupon to get free shells if we purchased $10 worth of fudge). Have your child make a hand or foot print in the wet sand (at low tide so the waves won't get it.) Have your child put shells in the print and then pour in the plaster. Let stand for 20 minutes or until dry and.....

Little Man's Hand

Peanut's Foot