christygraves's Xanga

Aaaagh! I want my nights back!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:54:04 GMT

I had no intentions of ever potty training Olivia until she was 2 1/2 or 3. Of course, Livvy had different ideas and we began potty training a few months before her 2nd birthday. The idea was a novelty to her that lasted a few weeks. Then, she resorted to being "too busy" to potty and we switched her back to diapers. I was unconcerned and figured we'd try again later.

Then, a week or so ago, Livvy started waking up in the middle of the night wanting to pee and have her diaper changed. I guess this is a good sign but dragging your child to the bathroom 3 times a night and changing a diaper 3 times a night gets old quickly. I've tried ignoring her (I know - I'm a bad mommy), but she just keeps screaming, "Mama - pee. Mama - pee. Maaaammmmaaaaa peeeeeee." This, in turn, wakes up our son, who is then inconsolable.

Sigh.

I don't feel like there's an end in sight since she's still not interested in potty training during the day.

Sippy Cup Fun

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:32:13 GMT

We decided to take the doctor's advise and wean Andy from a bottle. He seems to really like whole milk, so no problems there. The problem, though, is that he won't hold his own sippy cup! This kid is so stubborn, he'll lean forward with his mouth open and expect me to put the sippy cup in there for him. I'm not really sure what to do.

My husband and I have refused to hold it for him - we figure he'll grab it when he's hungry/thirsty enough. This is a good idea in theory, but when we're home with him all day he won't drink anything, and he just eats more bottle (which we do hold). So overall, this is a bad solution.

You might wonder where he got the idea that someone should hold his sippy cup for him in the first place. Well, we've had visitors in town and they hold it for him. (*sigh*) Anyway, I'm sort-of in a dilemma. I'm trying to decide if we should just hold the sippy cups until he's totally off of the bottle, or if I should stick to my guns and not hold it for him. I fell like if I choose the first way, Andy will want me to hold his sippy cup until he's 2 and if I choose the second way, he'll never stop taking bottles. LOL

Anyway, I'm off to Wal-Mart tonight to buy some different types of sippy cups. Maybe he'll magically hold a straw one or something! I'll take any advise anyone has to share..... :)

Well-baby visits

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:42:58 GMT

Andy has gained weight! He now weight 17 pounds and is 28 inches long. That puts him in the 0th percentiile for weight and the 5th percentile for height. He's getting bigger though. We can even switch to whole milk, so that's exciting. I'm gonna try to have him off bottles by the end of November.

Livvy is 27 pounds (54th percentile) and 34 1/2 inches tall (66th percentile). Just your average kid. She can start having peanuts now, so I'm sure she'll love peanut butter. They both got flu shots and Livvy got the H1N1 vaccine. That flu is going around like crazy here, so I'm glad she got it. I wish they had one for Andy too.

Happy Birthday Andy!

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:24:09 GMT

Andy turned 1 today. Oh my, how time flies. We looked at pics of Livvy's first birthday and there's just such a big difference between our two kids.

Anyway, Andy's at such a cute age. He pulls himself up on furniture, people, toys, walls, etc. and cruises around, although his main method of transportation is crawling. He has stood up in the middle of the room before, but that is not a normal occurrence. He also LOVES holding our hands and walking, although we're still waiting for his first steps.

The nice thing about Andy's small size is that he seemed to stay a baby for his whole first year. Livvy seemed like a toddler already at one year old, but Andy is still just a cute little baby. And I do mean little. He still wears 6-9 month clothes, some of which are a little big on him. His hair is not long yet, but it's finally growing. He even has a few curls on the back of his head!

As for talking, he says lots of repeated syllables such as "dadadadada" "mamamamama" (his favorite), "bababa," "lalala," etc. He talks fairly often and is not afraid to make his voice heard. A loud scream from him is common if he doesn't get what he wants.

We had a great day that involved the pumpkin patch, train rides, playgrounds, grandparents, birthday cake and presents. Hooray for Andy's first birthday!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:37:00 GMT

My baby girl turned 2 today! I love her so much. She got lots of puzzles for her birthday which is great because she loves them. She also got more books and a few outfits. Not too many things, though, so that was good. We have so much stuff already!

One thing Livvy likes to do is sing. She sings her "ABC's". Well, sort-of. She carries the tune and gets some letters right, but other times it's just random. It's cuter that way though! She even recognizes 4 letters - "A", "O", "M", and "W" thanks to Sesasme Street. She tries to count, too, but she goes, "One, two, three, eight, nine, ten." HAHA. It's so cute! She also sings the Barney song and recites the poem, "Rain, rain go away. Come again another day."

Other than that, she's just great! Of course, she has her moments and definitely throws tantrums. She's a little bit spoiled, but maybe that's just how all 2-year-olds are. If she wants something and it really doesn't matter - she just gets to have it. There are rules, but only about important things.

Anyway, she just went to bed (her bedtime is 7:30) with Dora, her dolly, her chewie (a receiving blanket), a sippy cup of water with 3 ice cubes, and her cover - LOL. I think she collects more bedtime items each month but it's not worth arguing about!

Text Messaging

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:56:08 GMT

I feel like I'm the only person alive who doesn't text people. I consider myself pretty up-to-date with technology and stuff, it's just I can't seem to get into texting. First, I can't seem to get past the silly shortening of words like "r u " rather than "Are you." I realize that you can only text something so many characters long and that typing this "r u" is way quicker - I just can't bring myself to do it. Also, I guess I just call people when I need to tell themselves - even if it is only a quick thing.

And, as a college professor, I have students texting ALL the time and it drives me crazy. I tell students to not use their cell phones during class, but I don't enforce the policy. It's college and I hope that my students will respect each other. Yes, for the most part, the students are fairly discreet about texting and it doesn't always distract other students. But sometimes it is distractful and obnoxious.

Anyway, most of my friends, colleagues, and family use texting. I just haven't gotten there yet. How long before I give in? Who knows. But for now I just can't do it yet.

I guess the point of this post is to figure out if there is anyone else out there who does not text message still. If so, please let me know so I feel less alone in my boycotting of this technology. :)

Time for Potty Training!

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:07:16 GMT

I am in no hurry to potty-train Olivia (who will be 2 next month). I know some people want to get their kids out of diapers as soon as possible, but I find diapers pretty easy and convenient. I'm not really looking forward to having to find a public restroom everywhere we go. Apparently what I want does not matter anymore though.

Livvy has shown an interest in the potty for about 4 or 5 months. We got one of those cushy seats you put on top of the toilet for kids to sit on. She would sit on that sucker 6 times a day for about a week (never peeing or pooping). Then, she got sick of it and moved on to something else. However, last week she looks at me and says, "Mommy, poop." I asked her if she had to go poop and if she wanted to sit on the potty. "Yup." So we ran to the bathroom and she proceeded to poop on the potty.

Hooray!

The next night she pooped on the potty again. The next day she peed once. And today, she'd peed once and pooped once.

Hooray!

But now, I need to get on the ball. I'm off to Target to buy some pull-ups. And I need to talk to the sitter about potty training. Like I said, I had no intentions of starting this now, and I have no idea how I'll finish it, but so far so good.

How did you potty-train your kids? Did you start the process or did your kids?

Livvy stopped thumb-sucking!

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:57:13 GMT

Olivia has sucked her thumb for so long - probably since she was 2 or 3 months old. I didn't want to force the issue with her, or turn it into a power struggle, so we've never really said anything. But lately, it had gotten to the point where she was sucking her thumb non-stop all day long. I decided that it could no longer turn into a power struggle since she couldn't suck her thumb any more than she'd been doing.

The baby sitter has an 16-month-old boy who has a "chewie." It's just a receiving blanket that he carts around with him everywhere - I don't even think he really chews on it. So, one morning when Livvy woke up, I got out a "chewie" for her. I told her that she wasn't going to suck her thumb anymore because now she has a chewie! She was pretty excited and she very rarely sucked her thumb that first day. When she did, we reminded her about the chewie and she stopped.

Ever since that first day, she's forgotten about the chewie and she no longer sucks her thumb. That was waaaaay easier than it should have been! :) I'm just so happy she stopped! She does chew on her fingers now which is still a little annoying, but she's not sucking her thumb.

Scrawny Baby

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:29:08 GMT

Today we took Andy to the doctor for his well-baby visit (we're almost a month late, but that happens). It turns out that he's having weight gain issues. He's always been around the 5th percentile for weight, but here's some stats:
April 21 - 13 lbs 4 oz
June 22 - 17 lbs (not official - he was weighed with a diaper on during an ear infection visit)
August 13 - 15 lbs 11 oz

So, he's most likely lost weight these last 2 months - and he's only gained 2 1/2 pounds in the last 4 months. He's no longer 5th percentile, nor even 1 percentile. Andy is so far below the curve it's just crazy. We're talking no where even remotely close. Needless to say, the doc had a little chat with us. We're supposed to add extra formula to his bottles and try really hard to give him solid foods with more calories. And he's going in for another weight check in a few weeks. Apparently, I was also a scrawny baby which seemed to relieve the doc a little bit - these things are hereditary.

I'm not really worried about our little guy. In terms of other developments, he's doing fine. I think what happened is that he learned to crawl and pull himself up on things and he's just burning a ton of calories. He's yet to be super interested in solid foods and he's completely distracted during bottle time. He doesn't cry or act hungry ever, so who knows.

Anyway, he's jumped to 30th percentile for height and he cut his first tooth (lower left) today! Hooray!

Blogging under Protest

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:47:15 GMT

Tonight I'm blogging under protest. I feel the need to write down an update about my kids, but I really don't have the energy. Lately, I've been keeping up with most of my friends on Facebook, and writing an actual blog seems like so much work. Anyway - here's my update:

Andy is at that crazy crawling stage. He crawls to everything. You can't take your eye off him for more than a second and you lose him. His favorite exploits include that gross area behind the toilet (which I do clean but still), and any cord he can find. Our house is pretty baby-proof but you just can't get rid of all electronics! He also loves the dog food and any papers he can find (bills left on coffee tables, etc.). He pulls himself up on everything and is a master at stair-climbing which scares the crap out of me. Luckily we don't have stairs, so I only have to worry about this when we visit people!

Andy is eating solid food 3 times a day now, but he still has no teeth! He's also not into all types of foods, and will not eat at all if he doesn't like it. We're still giving him 4 bottles a day (two 6-oz bottles during the day, and 8-oz before bed, and a 7-oz in the morning). That early morning bottle sometimes happens at 4 AM. You would think that at almost 10 months old he would sleep better. I've tried crying it out, but Andy is CIO resistant. That method worked fine for Livvy, so I guess that just goes to show that every baby is different!

Livvy is a talking machine. I tried to count how many words she knew, but between people, animals, and food I lost count! She sometimes surprises me with the words she knows. And she can even string them together so we can understand her! The longest phrase she says is "Mama, more (insert some type of food or drink here) please." She's a fan of saying "uh-oh doll" when she drops her dolly.

Livvy's favorite things to do are whatever mommy is doing. So she gets the mail with me every day and I tell her what can be thrown out. Before we change a diaper, she gets the diaper, wipes, and cream for me. She gets her own rag when I'm cleaning and she "helps" me mop the floor. And of course, she still loves books. I feel like we either read to her or build a tower out of mega blocks with her.

So I guess you could say that our kids are at fun ages!