Break through

When I pick up the boys from Kindercare, I go to Andrew's room first, then Owen's room. After doing the opposite a couple of times when Owen first started at Kindercare, it was very clear to me that Andrew didn't like it that I was holding Owen when I would go to his room. Now Andrew gets some time alone with me and he can tell me about his day and what he is doing when I pick him up. Then together we go and pick up Owen in his room. Usually when we get into Owen's room, Andrew goes straight for the toys and plays until I gather up Owen's bottles and his daily report. But today, Andrew saw Owen sitting on the floor and went right up to him and gave him a big hug. Awesome.

Growing family

Little Nikolaos is here! Can't wait to see a picture of the littlest cousin.

Andrew 34 Months

Did I do that?, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Thank you 34 months for giving us a break. Andrew has mellowed a bit from last month. I think getting Andrew back on his regular schedule combined with effective discipline helped Andrew to manage his behavior much more successfully this month. I am so relieved. Thank you everyone for your valuable advice. It helped so much to have a couple of more tricks in my bag to help manage his behavior in a really positive way.

But life is funny (not ha-ha funny, but funny) as Owen is now soundly sleeping through the night, Andrew is now having a hard time going to bed. Andrew's least favorite activity is going to bed. Even after several stories at night and some good snuggle time before lights out he does not want to go to bed. He's talking a lot about spiders and monsters so I think he's scared to go to bed. I'm not sure where the fear is coming from, whether its the movies he's watching or if he's having bad dreams. Eric and I are committed to getting our bedroom back so we will be going though the crying with Andrew again. We will also be upgrading his nightlight.

Andrew is talking a lot! Here are some of thing things he's saying:

"Your name is Leslie?"
"Your name is Eric?"
"What's going to happen?!?!!"
"It's going to crash!!"
"I'm going to Disneyland"
"Oh, I spilled!"
"I need to check my email"
"Owen went pukey-pukey!!!

Yes, he speaks in exclamation points.

He can have conversations now too.

Andrew really loves riding his tricycle. If it not raining, we'll go for a spin around the neighborhood a couple of times a week.

We're still working on potty training. He's successful about once a week. If he goes in the potty, he gets a jelly-bean. If he goes a couple of days in a row, he gets Emily. I predicting potty training success around June.

Andrew's favorite things continue to be Thomas the Tank engine related. I had to take a Thomas catalog away from him because he kept trying to get the trains out of the catalog - and you know that wasn't happening, and seeing so many train possibilities in the catalog were making him a bit crazy. (Maybe I should get a Thomas training potty, hmmm.)

34 months is better than 33 months, but we are ready for the next challenge!

Owen 10 Months continued

Yes, Owen sleeps through the night now. And all it took was for me to fly to another state and to a place where I could not hear the Ferberizing. Thank you very much Eric and Jennifer for teaching our sweet, sweet baby that a crib really is not a torture device. This week the bed time routine goes a little like this: play until 6:30, then bath time with Andrew, get into jammies, have a bottle around 7:30, then a story (or five) with Andrew and at 8:00, Owen goes into the pack-and-play for the night. Owen usually cries for about five minutes and then he's asleep until 6:00 am. I really don't think I can adequately describe the joy that this milestone brings to my heart. All I can say is that my passion bucket for sleep is full.

In other exciting Owen news, he is really getting ready to walk. He loves to play and walk with his push cart. He can also walk a few steps while one of us holds just one hand. I am reaffirming my prediction that he'll be walking by his first birthday. (Which, OMG, is just two months away!)

Owen is really bored with baby food. He displays an interest in our food that I don't remember seeing in Andrew. Now Owen usually gets some of our food at mealtime. He likes pizza, chicken Parmesan, fruit, rice & beans, bagels, frozen yogurt and sushi rice with soy sauce.

If I had to pick a favorite time of day for Owen it would be bath time. As soon as he hears the word "bath", I could put him at the bottom of the stairs and with excitement of a kid at Christmas, he would climb up each stair, crawl across the hallway and climb up and over the edge of the tub and plop right into the water. Not that he has ever done that. Ok, just one time he crawled over the edge of the tub and went head first right into the water. If I had to pick a really panic-inducing moment in parenting, it would be that time he did that. He's fine, I'm still not quite over it.

Now that Owen can cruise around with the push car, he is a little less insistent on being picked up, so that has been a really nice development for Eric and me.

He is a smiley and happy little guy. He likes a lot of interaction with people, but can now happily play with toys on his own (as long as those toys aren't too close to Andrew).

Owen 10 Months

Hey there, walker!, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Owen sleeps through the night now. The End.