February 09 mamas - they're not babies anymore! - Page 11

[AKislandgirl]

Gillian you do rock! Now I need to get off of my sitter and go do something productive!

[Vegan Princess]

Very impressive Gillian! I find my housework falling by the wayside more and more and Makenna isn't happy being confined to the safe living room anymore. That and maybe I'm getting lazier. LOL! Today I managed daiper laundry, the cat box, grocery shopping and sitting on the couch while Makenna napped on me for 2.5 hours!

Cindy

[starling&diesel]

Good on you mamas for being so productive!
Our house is suffering for all the nice weather. I just don't want to be inside! Plus, after a long shift at work, house-tidying is the last thing I want to do when I get home on days that I word. Thankfully, we run a pretty tight ship anyway, so it doesn't get too out of hand too quickly.

Esmé's current obsessions are things she's always been into:

• things that she can drape dangerously around her neck, such as scarves and blankets and scraps of cloth
  
• putting things into something and then taking them out, and then putting them back in again
  
• our cat and dog
  
• any cat or dog
  
• her auntie and grandma
  
• my boobs, and their whereabouts at any given time
  
• books
  
• my partner's wallet
  
• water ... playing in it, swimming, splashing, dumping, pouring, drinking, you name it

[Mal85]

I'm so glad the weekend is close. I've only had one daycare kid all week and I think Owyn and her are getting on each other's nerves. All they did today was bicker with each other. And it was raining all day so we didn't get to go outside. We did have game night with our friends tonight, so that was a nice ending to the day.

I've had a pretty productive week. With 4 kids here, I never could get anything done during the day, all of it was saved for the evening after they left. But with just Owyn and one little one her age, I've been able to spread everything during the day and relax in the evening. And I've gotten Owyn's room almost totally reorganized this week. It's nice not having to do it all at once. I've had a routine of breakfast, tidying, folding laundry and a little organization in Owyn's room while the girls follow me around and play with whatever I'm doing. Then we do lunch and I sit down for a little while when they sleep. I'm getting a lot done, but in a leisurely fashion. I like it.

[mckittre]

Gillian - you do rock!

My husband and I both work from home, and home is all one room, so juggling Katmai is kind of complicated. We have a schedule on the whiteboard to switch off every hour or two which of us is supposed to be distracting him, and which of us can put headphones on and get some computer work done. Household chores mostly fall in the times where I'm trying to entertain Katmai as well. Cleaning often falls by the wayside, but I cook a lot, have started lots of seeds for the garden, and of course we have no choice but to get wood and water. Lately Katmai has insisted on going to his grandma's for an hour or so every evening, which is helpful (he sees her come past, and cries until she takes him up to her house).

Mal and AK - can I get a bit of that shoe-loving magic this way? Katmai absolutely cannot stand to have anything (socks or shoes) on his feet. He can't get his shoes off himself, but will pull socks off within a second. He's OK once he's on my back (or walking outside, back when we were visiting somewhere not snowy), but if he's in the carseat he'll scream until the shoes come off. I ought to have stuffed him in shoes more when he was younger, I suppose.

Cindy - thanks for the bubble idea - I tried blowing bubbles for Katmai today and he had great fun popping them.

[Mal85]

Well, it's been something like 10 nights now Owyn has slept in her crib all night. Now, I keep waking up after a 7 hour stretch of sleep and can not for the life of me get back to sleep. I do feel pretty well rested, I haven't slept that long of a stretch since mid-pregnancy. I just wish I could sleep a little more. I am not an early riser, so waking up at 5:30 in the morning sucks.

Oh and DH just left for a 4-wheeling trip all weekend. So, I'm fretting over whether or not he'll get hurt. And I've never done the parenting thing by myself for several days, so I'm a little nervous.

[AKislandgirl]

Mal, I'm sure he'll be fine! You will too. Solo parenting isn't easy but you will find the time will probably go fast because you will be so busy!

DH leaves on Monday for a conference and will be back Friday. The following Monday he leaves for another week of training. I'm glad that he will be able to come back home over the weekend though. This is my warm up for summer. He'll be gone almost all of June. Then in August, Fiona and I will spend 3 weeks with my folks. I'm hoping she is less clingy during that trip. Last time we visited (just after Christmas) she wouldn't let anyone else hold her. I figure that at 18 months she's a different girl and we will be playing outside so much it will be easier. We shall see!

[justKate]

Mal, I'm jealous! In my rational mind I would love Aubrey to sleep for like 5+ hours at night, in her crib, but then when she does sleep more than 2 feet away from me I can't sleep at all because I miss her. We've been left to our own devices this weekend too--Huz went hunting about six hours away. I try to tell myself that he's an adult and can take care of himself, and that I should focus my worrying on Aubs. Still worry a little though.

I actually had to leave the room with him still freaking out because I was so angry. I actually went and had a shower . I know... Bad Mama

Nope, not a bad mama. Good that you're taking care of yourself, too! I'm glad your week improved after that. I know what ya mean about the babbling. We understand Aubs just fine, but I know she's not really saying words most of the time. Her new words are "hi," "dada" instead of baba, and "here." "Here" is funny, because she's constantly handing us things saying "here" and then taking them back. I guess I didn't realize that I say "here, look at this..." every time I try to redirect. I'm surprised she doesn't say "stop" or "ouch" yet!

She's also picked up a couple more signs--"up," "brush teeth," "all done" (which I think is really "get outta here" in ASL, but whatever), and a B- effort "please." If you're signing with your LO, have you seen this website? The author has videos of hundreds of signs. It's great.

Aubrey's primary interests right now are: music of any kind (but better if she can make it play by herself), emptying and filling things (especially if they can be rattled to make lots of noise!), cups/containers of any kind, and being outside.

We have news on the tooth-growing front! After six months of eight teeth, two molars appeared this week. It looks silly because the incisors aren't in, but after two pretty miserable days I'm glad they're through. Teeth are really overrated anyway....

[alaskaberry]

Tucker is not interested in signs. He shows me what he wants--if it's a diaper change, he'll go get a new diaper. If it's water, he shakes his sippy cup. For outdoor clothes, he goes and gets them. If it's food, he grabs it off my plate! Right now, he loves balls, books, wrestling with his brother...and pretty much anything ds1 is doing, he has to do too.

Getting warmer out here...I even saw a mosquito the other day! Eep.

Mal, you'll be fine. It will go by fast if you keep yourself busy. My main prob when dp is gone is letting the dishes and cleaning pile up, til I have to do a "super clean" the weekend before he gets back...and he still complains.

Mckittre, could you get a local, perhaps homeschooled child to come over and play with Katmai for 2-3 hours outside every afternoon?

Ok, I'm being lazy, time to start thinking about dinner!

[Vegan Princess]

My DH will be gone tomorrow through Sunday at a bachelor party. I hate staying alone over night but it's nice to know I'm not the only one. I'm a bit jealous that DH can go out and do something fun and be out for so long. Not that I have anything like this to do or really want to be away from DD overnight but it would be nice to maybe have the option. Maybe not. I find it harder to fill time on the weekend bc there are no story times and the other fun things are too crowded. Plus all my errands are already done. I think I may hit an earth day festival at the farmer's market tomorrow. It's suppose to be in the low 70s here. Yay! Today was gorgeous and we had fun at the discovery museum. It's right under the golden gate bridge across from san francisco with awesome views and some greats indoor and outdoor exploration for little ones.

Thanks for the signing site JustKate. We go to weekly ASL class and Makenna does use a lot of signs but lately the new signs are mostly accompanied by the verbal word anyway. So a lot of times she walks around saying the word and doing the sign at the same time. It is helpful though when she is using a word that sounds like another of her words...like apple...she says "bapple" which also sounds like "bubble". But she usually does the sign for apple too.

Cindy

[mckittre]

Interesting idea, alaskaberry.... I don't think there are any homeschooled children over 6 in town, but there are plenty of other children. The main problem now is that the entirety of outside is covered in feet of slushy punchy snow, which defeats the skills of a new walker. Maybe summer? Took him to walk on the beach today though, which he enjoyed.

justKate - I like that signing site, and also use this one. Fewer signs, but she explains while she does them, and shows her kid doing them too.
Katmai's still really into signing and is learning multiple signs per day (as fast as me, pretty much). He knows over 60 now, but his vocabulary definitely exceeds his coordination - a lot of them look the same as each other, or not much like the original. I can communicate with him wonderfully, but everyone else needs me to translate. They're super helpful though, because his verbal articulation is far more limited than his signing (he can say a number of one-syllable words that are mostly vowels, but I can't imagine him coming out with words like bubble and apple!). Some of his signs are accompanied by sounds, but the sounds are things like "fffff" for giraffe, "aar" for lion, and "sssccchhh" for fish - not very understandable without the signs. Though he did decide to start saying "hyena" today (sounded kind of like eeeeyaaa). I guess another one of his obsessions is pointing at and labeling things - especially animals and pictures of animals.

I was alone with Katmai for a couple weeks last summer while my husband did geologic fieldwork, and will be this summer as well. But it's not quite "alone" with a next-door grandma that Katmai adores.

[Everrgreen]

Originally Posted by Vegan Princess

We go to weekly ASL class

I'm jealous! I wish there were more programs around for Royce's age. There is nothing in my town! We have an early years centre, which you can drop in to play, but it's often older toddlers/preschoolers. They have an organized toddler group but I've been on the waiting list for it for months Other than that there is swimming at the Y. Our last swim class is next week and I would like to do something different. It seems most programs don't start until age 2 (even the library story time is for ages 2 and up). I'm hoping to relocate soon to my mom's town which is bigger and has more to do. But for now - I'm bored!

What sort of organized programs does everyone else do?

[mamamillet]

We do a weekly story time at the library. Its for birth - 2 and its great! thats the only organized activity we do. We do try and get together with other frinds at least once a week as well. There are other programs but they cost money and we can only do free stuff right now. We do have a zoo membership (gifted) so we go there weekly as well. Its realy close and has great kids areas!

[Vegan Princess]

I love my ASL class. It's basically a playgroup and three of my friends with babies the same age are in it (2 are from my birth class and 1 of them told me about it). It's a treck though - it's in the western edge of San Francisco and I live east of the city, across the bay.

Other than ASL class on Mondays, we have playgroup on Wednesdays with a group that has been together since Makenna was 10 weeks old. I just joined another playgroup on Thursdays but I don't know them yet. We have lots of libraries around with story times so I often hit story time on Thursday morning at 1 library and Friday morning at another. A third library has sing along on Wednesday afternoons but we are usually at playgroup then. My YMCA has baby gym on Tuesday and Thursday mornings that I sometimes let Makenna do. But I don't think she is quite old enough to truly enjoy it so I don't like to pay $5 for it. I usually work out then and the childwatch lady brings her to it half the time anyway. Those are our set activities for the week. Now that it's nice we will be going to the discovery museum more...but that is a good drive away. We got a membership for half the normal price so it was worth it. I try and stay out of the house a lot or I go stir crazy.

Cindy

[Mal85]

I wish we had some organized activities here. I've toyed with the idea of opening up a child center here in town with organized activities that Cindy listed. There is nothing here. We live in a tiny, rural town and there just aren't that many people. I'm not sure how much a center like that would actually get used. There is the library that has story time now and then. Now that it's nice out and I only have 2 kids here during the day, I really should find out when that happens. We could walk to the library and back, that would be great. But, other than story time, there's nothing to choose from.

[mckittre]

Not a whole lot of organized programs in a town of 300. We have a weekly baby/toddler swim (which we do most weeks), and there's a drop in all-ages playgroup (which I haven't really done, but Katmai might be getting old enough now). Not a big deal though, since I know who all of the families with similar age kids are, and can organize informal things easily.

What are nap times like for you guys? Katmai will go to sleep 8:30-9:30 and wake up around 8:30 (not straight through), but naps are all over the place. This week he had one day where he napped 11-2, another day 4-6, another day 2-3, another day no nap at all, another day two short ones.... I can't seem to get him into a consistent schedule at all.

[alaskaberry]

I don't go to organized play groups, but when ds1 was this age I had a hard time finding mama friends around my age...everyone was still baby-less. I met one mama at the park, I knew she would be a good match because all her kids were running around barefoot. But, most of the kids' friends are older or younger than them, it's more like I make a friend, then we have "playdates" which is just us hanging out together while our kids play.

There is an under 2's storytime here in Fbx, but I just don't trust ds1 to sit quietly for a baby storytime. I could sign him up for the computer, though.

Nap time: depends on what time he woke up/how much sleep he got the night before. So if he wakes up early (before 7, very rare), he naps around 11. Otherwise, he usually goes down anywhere from 12-3! He will still fall asleep at bedtime even if he goes down for a nap late, so that;s nice. But if he hasn't wanted to go down all day then tries to nap at 4 or 6 I just make him stay up.

[Vegan Princess]

Ugh! Makenna woke up for the day at 3 this morning!! She has been doing this lately. I think she's teething? Who knows. So she napped from 8:30-11 this morning. I wouldn't be surprised if she naps again later.

Usually Makenna goes down between 12 and 1 and sleeps for around 2 hours. She'll do about 30 minutes in her crib then the rest on my lap on the couch. The time has been shifting later and I definitely like it bc it gives me more time to be out and about in the mornings. I like mornings. I hate trying to fill the afternoon...this kills a lot of the afternoon.

Cindy

[AKislandgirl]

The only thing we have here for babies is Music with Mar. We really like it but the woman who runs it just had back surgery a couple of weeks ago. It will probably be another month before she starts up again. Everything else is for 3 years and up. I can take her to the pool which we do sometimes but the water is pretty cold and she doesn't love it. I'm struggling to find people with babies to hang out with as well. I'd love a weekly playgroup! I'm thinking of starting one actually. Sort of waldorf inspired... its been on my mind for a while.

[Mal85]

Owyn's naps are kind of all over the place right now as well. She's trying to cut down to one nap, but sometimes has a rough morning and needs that morning nap. If she sleeps in the morning, it's around 10 and lasts about 45 min-1 hour. If she's had that morning nap, she'll go down again in the afternoon around 2-2:30 and sleep about 2 hours. If she does one nap, then she goes down around 1-1:30 and sleeps around 2.5 hours. It's about 50-50 on how often she gets one nap and how often she gets two.

Yesterday, we were out shopping until mid afternoon. She got a 10 minute cat nap while I drove to a restaurant, so when we got home she was ready to play. She didn't go down for a nap until 4:30. Normally, I would have kept her up, but we had plans later in the evening and I didn't want her to be a bear for it. She slept until I woke up her at 6. I think she would have just slept until the wee morning hours if I'd let her. But I'd rather not get woken up at 3 in the morning for the day (yikes, Cindy!). That late nap is very, very rare though.