April 2005 mams May thread

[JustVanessa]

Well I didn't see one so I though I would start our very first toddler thread!!!


Can you believe our little guys are all one now? Its so hard to believe.
We had friends over for dinner last night and they brought their 2 year old and he is soooo much bigger than Byron. Its hard to see how fast they grow until you see them next to a bigger kid

Clay- I am glad your brother is ok....how very scary for you and your family.


ACK! Byron just swolled a big chunk of foam....gotta run...bye mamas!

[mighty-mama]

Hey mama's..

Sorry I missed some of your little one's b-days. I hope they all went well. Things have been good here. Noah's doing great, he's starting to run, and getting hurt a lot. I think sometimes he's feet forget to move w/ his body. Thank goodness for the arnica gel. He's also needing to totally feed himself. He also has an addiction for cottage cheese! It's so weird. He'd probably eat it w/ every meal if I let him. He also loves chili and cranberry sauce. Hopefully he'll always stay adventurous.

Things have been crazy here, we've decided to head back home to NJ. Our house goes on the market this Sunday. We're going to be staying w/ my FIL and then buy a house next Spring in Pennsylvania. I got Jack a job at a correctional facility, where I used to work. It's only 3 miles from the PA border and houses are 100k less. So I'll still be able to be a SAHM.

I hope you guys are doing well and I miss you...

(Wombat, I'm so glad to hear you brother is okay) I hope now he can come home and never ever have to go back..

[wombatclay]

Heyla Mighty-mama! Good to hear things are working out...and if you're in the PA area who knows? I might actually meet you IRL. :l0l

This is such a crazy age...Laia has re-discovered that her feet fit in her mouth and the real adventure is trying to keep those toes/shoes/boots/etc OUT of her mouth. She ate rabbit kibble today as well. Sigh...

[AEZMama]

How sad! No more babes threads! It's going to take some time to get used to being in the toddlers thread!

Jess-so glad to hear all is going well for you and that you are headed back "home". I'm hoping that we will soon do the same. Someday. Unless my dad and his gf decide to move south to retire, then maybe we'd move closer to them. We'll see. YAY that you can still SAH with Noah the brave!

Clay-you know Andrew is rediscovering things he did as a babe, too! It's too funny. Their quirks must cycle!

Well, off to get dh's clothes ready-the owners are coming tomorrow and he wants to look sharp.

Nighty night mamas@!

[speedknitter]

Hey mamas its neat to be over here now! Julie is walking about 8-10 steps at a time now, still a little unstable but really starting to get the hang of the walking thing...so cute! Of course she's got the bruises to go along with it

Our birthday trip back east was great, she did awesome on the plane rides and had a great time meeting everyone, she was quite the little social butterfly. She never adjusted to east coast time, so we were up until about 1 am every night!

Gotta run, just wanted to check in and say hello. Glad to hear everyone is doing OK.

[wombatclay]

Laia can find her nose!

For weeks now she's been able to locate nose/eyes/ears on other people and it's one of the easiest ways to pull her out of a fussiness...just ask her where mama's nose is and she gets distracted from the tantrum. but if you asked her where her nose was or where Laia's ears are she'd just look at you and smile.

Well, something clicked the other night since she shoved her finger right onto her nose and started chanting nose! nose! nose! From there she moved to ears and eyes, but it was just too cute.

Baby's got a nose!

[AEZMama]

Yay Laia!!! My nose seems to be Andrew's scratching post these days.

Welcome back Susan-glad to hear your trip east went well. Must have been great to see your families and have them meet Julie!

Wow-our little toddlers are just moving leaps & bounds these days! Dh is looking forward to running around the playgrounds & baseball fields with Andrew, molding his future baseball star !

I'm so excited because Andrew is happily surprising his physical therapist with his range of motion in his neck, so these great stretches we do for his torticollis are really working wonders...and he has a blast doing them! I even think he was showing off for dh at yesterday's session. When he'd finish reps, I'd clap and cheer but Andrew would look right to dh to see if he'd cheer, too. It was too funny.

Do your dc's have a particular place in the house that is their favorite to be in? Andrew seems to have fallen in love with our front entry...the exact place dh wants him to never touch because that's where we all step with our shoes. It's so funny-no matter how many times I move him to appease dh, Andrew crawls right back there!

Happy Humpday Mamas!

[JustVanessa]

My son has a foot fetish.........................


Byron has started trying to suck people's toes. If you have bare feet, watch out. He also LOVES to play with shoes. Its hilarious. He will play in the closet by the front door (with all the out of season shoes) for up to half and hour at a time.
Mighty-mama- Byron will still let me feed him but he has to have his own little fork going too. I stick the food on and he can use the fork to get it to his mouth.

Byron sure has turned into a super little eater. He will eat anything....except kiwi : For breakfast today he ate a whole egg and 2 pieces of bread!!! That is crazy...I only eat 2 eggs and 2 pieces of toast. He also loves applesauce and bananas. And any kind of meat. I am so thankful that he isn't a fussy eater.

Well off to veg for a bit before bed
Chow mamas!




PS check out the link in my siggy for a new pic

[mighty-mama]

Vanessa

Noah has a foot fetish too. He also loves to pull up my shirt and give my belly raspberries. He only does this w/ me, he must love all my belly rolls

I had chemo today, boy it stinks, I can't wait for it to end...

gotta go, daddy and Noah are home, and he's not happy.

[AEZMama]

Oh Vanessa-That picture of Byron made me smile! He has such a great, expressive face and smile! What a cutie!

Jess-how long do you have to do your chemo for?

Sorry for those of you still experiencing cold/cool weather, but we have been taking advantage of our near 90F days here and Andrew is such a little fish. He no longer wants to stay in his covered floatie, he wants to be in my arms or jump on my lap in the water. He's taken to being on his back (fully supported by my arms) and kicking like a mad man. It's also a great way for him to get to the right level of tired so he will just go right down for a nap when we get back.

[wombatclay]

Mighty mama! How are you? I was thinking about you this morning...

Laia just moo'ed! Mike is off camping this weekend and I just have to share, even though it's really silly.

We have this little Thomas the Tank Engine book that Laia has recently latched onto (she wants us to read it over and over and over...). Anyway, on one page it says "They stopped at Elsebridge where a spotted cow moo'ed". And I always do a long drawn out mooooooooo sound.

So this evening Laia brought over a different book (one with pictures of animals) and when she turned to the "farm animal" page she pointed right at the cow picture and Mooooooooo'd! It was hysterical, and she had such a little goblin grin when she did it. Too cute.

Less cute is the fact that there was a stabbing right in front of our house this afternoon! Well, actually, right across the street, but still! The police blocked off the street and everything. Apparently there was a fight at a club last night and this was "pay back". Two guys are in the hospital according to the breaking news page of our local paper. I know I'm safe, but with Mike away I'm already a nervous wreck and this really doesn't help me feel secure! (I have no idea how single moms cope...it's been one day and I'm a mess)

Laia calls...be well all!

[wombatclay]

thought I'd bump us up a bit...

How is life treating you all? Any silly stories of toddler fun?

[speedknitter]

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Hey there! I am sooooo glad it is Friday! Work has been tough lately, our business has been struggling, and my DH has had to take a "real" job that involves a lot of travel He leaves again on Monday to go to China for about 4 days. We just keep reminding ourselves of all the frequent flier miles he is racking up and the fantastic vacation we are going to take sometime soon!

Wombat I can totally sympathize with your terrible neighborhood event. About 2 weeks ago we had a shooting at a bar that is about 1/2 block from where I work. It was someone's birthday party gone wrong, 3 people were killed and 3 people injured. Granted it was very late at night (early AM) but it still leaves me a little uncomfortable with the neighborhood. But, hey, I don't think anyone is going to mess with a lady who has 2 mastiffs!

Julie is really getting the hang of the walking thing...she takes about 8-10 steps now! She picks her target and goes for it! Of course she has some bruises to show for it, she's got a nice shiner right on her cheek right now, everyone keeps wanting to rub it off, looks like a grease smudge

Mighty-mama hope you are doing well. I also have a good friend IRL who is going through chemo too, and her husband and son both shaved their heads in solidarity - very sweet.

Take care all and Happy Cinco De Mayo!

[AEZMama]

Susan & Clay-I soooo know how you both feel. When I was pregnant last year we had a rash of robberies/gang shootings in our area-one in the complex next door to us! For about a week, there were massive helicopter searches-I felt like I was in "Boyz in the Hood" or something. Dh wouldn't get home until late at night, and I wouldn't leave our place after 4pm. I would just go into full fledged mama bear mode-and still do. We just have to keep our wits about us and keep those instincts sharp!

Congrats to Laia for her mooing! Andrew has made the connection between the hand wave and "buh-bye". He does it when someone comes to the door, all morning when dh picked him up, at the pool with our neighbor and her dd. He seems to think he's the mayor or Miss America now! It's sounding fairly clear, so I'm hoping that we can get him pronouncing things well so he won't need surgery for the soft palate.

Susan-get thee to your local health food store/Whole Foods and get some arnica tabs or arnica cream for Julie's bruises. They will magically disappear! Arnica has done wonders for Andrew's scrapes and bruises. YOu can even get the dried flowers at Latino markets and can make it as a tea if you'd like for her. I have to start to load up for when Andrew really starts cruising. I'm so jealous Julie is walking! Our neighbor's dd is 11 mos and walking like she's been doing it forever. Well, for nearly 2 mos. now she has!

Looking forward to chicken flautas tonight for Cinco de Mayo! Mmmmm! DH & I have been laughing because the same people who are against immigration are going to celebrate a Mexican holiday!

[JustVanessa]

Well I have a few minutes to post while Byron tortures the cat who is trying to hid in the shoe closet
He discovered yesterday that his index finger fits perfectly into his right nostril. He spent about 5 straight minutes sticking it in, pulling it out, looking at it in amazement....then repeating the process.
We wound up going to emergency room Thursday night. Turns out Byron has a double ear infection. I think probably b/c his immune system was weakened from that bad stomach flu he had 2 weeks ago.
Anyways the doc said that he needed antibiotics b/c the one side looked really bad.
AEZmama- What is that stuff you gave Andrew after his runs of antibiotics to make his gut all good again? Byron is going to need that b/c he already has diarrhea from the drugs.
I always said if Byron got an ear infection that I wouldn't treat it right away, but its a whole other thing when your baby wakes up screaming at 10:30 and doesn't stop until after 3 am.
Clay- Yikes! I live in a small town where nothing like that happens. I have lived here for over 4 years and there hasn't been one murder. How very scary for you.
Susan- bummer about your hubby being gone alot. I know what its like to not get enough family time.

Well off to figure out dinner
Chow mamas!

[speedknitter]

Have y'all seen or tried this?
http://www.gerbercanada.com/en/produ.../lildipper.jsp

I picked up a pair at Safeway earlier in the week and Julie can use it really well! The gal at the checkout said her daughter used it and it worked great too for getting them to learn how to use a utensil...pretty cool!

AW, poor Byron! I hope he is feeling better soon. Emergency room trips are no fun - BTDT

[wombatclay]

I hope Byron feels better...ear infections are no fun! And yay for Mayor Andrew!

Those dippers look neat...do they work for "solid" solids, or are they more for "soft" solids like applesauce? IKEA has some fun child utensils and Laia really likes the spoons...they're really shallow and wide so she can get stuff off of them.

Ithaca isn't a bad town...and it's not that large (under 100,000), but recently it's been less crunchy granola and more "wanna be gang". I'm not sure what's driving the change, but I'm really not happy about it. Ah well, Mike will be home tomorrow night and I'll sleep a bit easier.

[speedknitter]

I have just used it for soft solids like pureed veggies, yogurt, etc. She eats most everything else with her fingers which is fine for now.

Thanks for reminding me about the Arnica, Ursula! I have some gel that I got when I twisted my ankle when I was pregnant, I will try it on Julie's cheek shiner.

[AEZMama]

Hey Vanessa-I gave Andrew Country Life Maxi-Babydophilous (baby acidophilous). If Byron can eat yogurt, you can just give him lots of yogurt-that should get his little gut back in order. Otherwise, you can mix the baby acidophilous in any of his drinks-total of a 1/4 teaspoon per day.

No problem Susan! You actually reminded me that we are on the last dregs of our cream and I have to get more and have it ready! I've seen those dipper things, but I couldn't figure out how they were used! I actually was wondering why babes would use corn on the cob holders! Andrew's so darned lazy about drinking or eating, he leaves it all up to me.

[JustVanessa]

Just a quick note
Byron has plastic baby forks and spoons and we let him hold one while we feed with another one (for things that he can't self feed yogurt, applesauce, soup etc) He is quickly figuring out how they work. If I put a piece of bread or egg on the fork he is holding he can get it in his mouth off the fork...all by himself! I think for us those things would be a step back. They do look pretty neat though.