Peanut's Secret Weapon

The boys have started to have small battles over toys and attention. Anytime I pull out a newly unearthed baby toy for Peanut to play with, that toy becomes Little Man's new favorite toy. The treehouse toy, the train toy, the cloth book, the stacking bowls - you name it and despite Little Man having ignored those toys sitting in bins for well over a year now that Peanut seems to enjoy them he just HAS TO have them. Peanut on the other hand will grab toys out of Little Man's hands or knock down whatever Little Man is playing with if it happens to be within his reach. I try to explain to Little Man that all he has to do is move what he is playing with away from Peanut BUT then it would be moving it away from where I am as well. Oh the difficult choices my children face!

So the battles, small and not overly difficult, are starting with Little Man usually on the victorious size because of size, age, and the ability to run!

Today, the tides of war are turning. Peanut pulled out his secret weapon. He was playing with a toy on his playmat and Little Man went to take it out of his hands and BURP - HICCUP- SPLAT - Peanut spit up a little bit. Little Man jumped back so quickly and yelled "Mama, Baege is trying to spit up on me". I said, "well just stay away from him then". But Little Man reached in again to get the coveted baby toy (that he apparently just had to have) and BURP - SPAT, more spit up. He pulled his hand back as if he Peanut were spitting up acid. Again, he didn't get the toy and was scared of the spit up so he just found something else to play with. Later in the morning Peanut was playing with his train and Little Man reached in to push the button and SPAT spit up all over his hand. He cried and ran to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he came to me upset over the spit up I said "well, what did you learn" he said "Beage spit up on me and it no accident". I just laughed and looked over at Peanut who was smiling and drooling with a twinkle in his eye that seemed to say that Little Man may have won a few battles but he knew he was going to win the war!

Peanut Keeps on Growing!

Peanut is a VERY healthy baby boy! He weighed in today at a whopping 23 pounds 8 ounces and 27 3/8 inches long. The doctor was very happy with his sitting skills and his tummy pushing up skills (although we had to pry the table paper out of his mouth when she put him on his tummy). He giggled through his entire exam because of how tickleish he is and he showed off his two tooth grin multiple times. He has to see an eye doctor to make sure that his eye muscles are strengthening correctly and he might have a milk allergy. Although, if he has a milk allergy - it isn't stopping him from gaining weight and growing. He endured two shots and recovered quickly and slept the afternoon away. We get to start him on mashed vegetables and fruits here soon.

He is a happy, easy baby so far and is still taking 3 naps a day (although the last nap is only a half hour or so) and he is sleeping from about 7:30 pm until about 7:00 am. My absolute favorite part of the entire day is first thing in the morning, after hearing his morning coos, going into his room and getting his first thing in the morning smiles. Papa Bear and I fight for the privilege each and every morning. Oh how I love my Peanut!

A School Update

So Little Man has been attending his pre-school twice a week for two weeks now. His first day was a huge success because I was the co-oping parent. The second day was ended early because he missed me so much that he never stopped crying and after almost 2 hours of crying they called me to come get him. His third day he cried for 30 minutes and then had a great rest of the day and today he only cried for 12 minutes. It breaks my heart to leave him at school when he is yelling "Mama, no leave me! I want to go home and play with my toys!" I feel like the worst mom in the world while he is crying and the best mom in the world when I go to pick him up and he excitedly tells me all that he did. The first thing he tells me is what he had for snack. The next thing that he tells me is what bike he rode during activity time and then he usually sings me a song or two that they sang at school. I am not usually able to understand the rest because it is thoughts/ideas and moments told to me totally out of context. From what I have gathered from talking to his teacher, him and other parents here are some of the highlights.

1. He played with pumpkin seeds and went to the class garden and harvested a pumpkin.

2. Caught a cricket in the room, put it in a glass jar and maybe shook it a little to much - making it a not so hoppy cricket.

3. Learned how to glue things on paper - I was told he REALLY enjoyed the glue and that his entire paper was covered in glue. (so glad this mess was at school and not at home)

4. Sang Sticky Sticky Bumblebee - ok this one, I am not sure about. He has sung it to me twice and told me Mrs. H taught him but it wasn't anywhere in her curriculum so I just don't know.

5. Is now known as the class hugger. Has hugged Mrs. H multiple times and apparently has a little girlfriend, Ava in the class who holds his hand and he hugs all the time.

6. Painted with a feather, painted with corks, painted with brushes, painted with his hands and the kicker . . . with one of his classmate's hands. I don't really even want to know.

7. Sang to Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee - this might be the Sticky Sticky Bumblebee song with a little 2 year old confusion.

8. Played with rhythm sticks - this is a favorite for Little Man because he is allowed to hit the sticks as loud and often as he wants.

I am hopeful that next week he won't cry at all when I drop him off AND I get to co-op again next week so he is excited that it is soon his turn to have his mama stay with him!

Wordless (but not soundless) Wednesday

Semantic Stories

Last night Papa Bear stirred up a nice ground beef and mexican rice dish for dinner. Little Man was not diggin it and getting him to eat it was a down right chore. So Papa Bear says "Should we just give him some plain rice?" and Little Man chimes right in with "Yes! Yes! I want Airplane Rice!!"

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Today I brought out the safety scissors to work on teaching Little Man how to use them. There are some skills that I forget were ever taught to us because they come so naturally, but using scissors can be difficult for little hands. But he is good at shallow cuts along the edge of the paper and made a few continuous cuts too. He probably spent 30 minutes today working with his scissors. Later on in the day, while trying to open something to make a snack I yelled "Ouch!". Little Man, ever the nurturer, ran over and said "What's wrong mama, what's wrong?" So I told him that I got a papercut and he got his furrowed brow confused look on his face and said "No mama, you got a scissors cut. Scissors cut paper, right?" I could understand his confusion but I didn't know how to make him understand, so I just gave him a piece of poptart and he forgot all about it!

Mikey Likes It! (some of you won't get this reference)

Success! Peanut had his first meal of solids (rice cereal that was more soup than solid) at just 4 days shy of six month. For the last week, Papa Bear and I have felt guilty during dinner because Peanut was eyeing us with marked jealousy every time we put food in our mouths. We were trying to wait until his 6 month well visit next week, but I think he was just too hungry. So I mixed up a bowl of rice cereal to try again, this was my third attempt and I didn't really expect him to take to it. I expected him to look at the spoon like it was an alien and push the food back out of his mouth with a shudder and a gag but my to my surprise he opened him mouth to the spoon like a seasoned veteran and ate quite a bit. He followed his cereal up with a 4 ounce bottle of milk and then had a bath. He was out like a light at 7 after his last feeding. He was clean, content and rather rotund in his 12-18 month pajamas.

Oh and did I mention that he is an Eagles fan? ( We didn't let him watch the game today because we wanted to spare him that disappointment.)

The Airplane Park

Little Man loves all things that go, trucks, cars, trains and planes. So as a family fun activity we went to the Airplane Park this weekend. This is just a place near the airport where you can watch the planes take off or land depending on which direction the wind is blowing. And it was a good plan, but you know what they say about things not going the way you planned.

It started off well, we found a nice spot to lay our blanket down and get comfortable.

We even posed for a few shots together before the day went awry.

But then we learned that it best to go when the wind blows so that the plans are LANDING (engines being turned off) not TAKING OFF (engines firing up LOUDLY). With two little guys sensitive to loud noise our day went quickly south.

Peanut, even with his ears covered, was very scared of the loud sound and it didn't help that we were actually planning to nap him there. Even our Peanut can not sleep with that noise!

And Little Man hid his face in the blanket every time a plan came over head. He said that he wanted them to "coming in for a landing" so the could use their "quiet voices".

So we ditched the plan, vowed to only go back when planes were landing and went home to play in the backyard where planes taking off were no where to be found!