May 2007

05/31/07

Picture Smorgasbord...

Tommy took these last two.  I didn't do any cropping or re-touching in PhotoShop on them.  He's getting pretty good, eh?

Charlie's teething.  He's been waking up at 2 am to eat and then gnaw on my knuckle until he can fall asleep again.  I can just barely feel the sharp edge of one bottom tooth.  He's still remarkably good natured, so I'm not complaining.  We'll have to go out and try to find some different teethers over the weekend.  All of Tommy's hand-me-downs are too hard for a younger baby to hold.

05/30/07

Here is Tommy, all ready for his first day of school yesterday.  You may notice he has two plates of breakfast.  He decided he needed "lots of healthy food so I can be strong and smart and brave."  He had 2 scrambled eggs, ham, cheese, one bell pepper and one apple. 

As soon as he woke up yesterday morning he came into our room singing "Today is the day!  The first day of school!"  When he caught sight of himself in the mirror he made me immediately get out of bed and comb his hair.  "Kids who go to school do NOT have bed-head.  I need you to comb my hair right now."  Every 20 minutes, all morning long, he asked "is it time to leave yet?"  He was so happy when we finally got into the car.

We arrived and asked the way to his classroom.  He ran inside and never looked back.  After talking to one teacher for a few minutes, I had to hunt him down to say goodbye.  He acknowledged me, but didn't seem to care that I was leaving.  He was busy washing his hands (their first-thing rule) and choosing a table of activities, so Charlie and I went home.  Charlie and I played for about 30 minutes and then he was ready to take a nap.  He slept until I woke him up to get ready to pick Tommy up at noon, so I was on my own with a cup of tea and scones for most of the time.

When I arrived to pick up Tommy I had a chance to peek into the room as they were wrapping things up.  The kids were sitting in a circle and the teacher was telling one little boy to sit down.  Tommy had this horrified grimace on his face, I guess because he thought the other kid was in trouble.  It was pretty funny.  When they started singing, Tommy participated for a few minutes and then wandered off and sat in a laundry basket.  That's about what I expected.  He has next to no experience with circle-time, so it will take him a while to figure out what's expected of him.  The teacher I talked to said he did really well.  He listened and used the toilet and cooperated and "was a leader."  That's my boy!

Here are some quotes from Tommy about the day...

"Criss-cross applesauce is a nickname for to sit with your legs crossed."

"One boy wouldn't share.  He tried to grab the other kid's toy!  I told him he was supposed to share at pre-school."

"I had raisins and milk and animal crackers for my pre-school lunch (snack) at those two tables."

"I painted with animal feet on my paper.  I used a zebra.  Dip-Stomp!  Dip-Stomp!"

"My pre-school class has one daddy and two teachers."  (When I explained to him that men could be teachers too he was highly skeptical.  Just goes to show you how gender biased children's books and TV shows can still be.)

05/29/07

Today is Tommy's first day of school!  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

We had a wonderful visit with David's parents this weekend.  We went to the Natural History Museum (aka the Dinosaur Museum) on Saturday.  On Sunday, they took care of Tommy and Charlie while David and I went to Pirates of the Caribbean III.  Charlie cried a lot and Tommy stuffed a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet and got Grandma's clothes all wet while he was swimming...but other than that everything went well.  On Monday we had a nice lunch out and then David, Tommy, Grandma and Grandpa went to the Botanical Gardens while Charlie and I rested at home.  Monday night we had an early birthday party for Grandpa because Tommy's all about birthday parties these days.  Tommy ate two pieces of cake with ice cream and roped everyone into a game of musical chairs.  We spent a lot of time over the weekend cooing over the baby and acting out stories with Tommy.  Little Red Tommy Hood and Tommy and the Bean Stalk and Bunny Money are his favorites.  Of course, Grandma got to be Grandma in the stories.

05/28/07

David and I got to go out to a movie yesterday!  It's wonderful to have a baby who will take a bottle occasionally.  And it's exceptionally useful to have visiting grandparents.

05/26/07

Tommy says..."Please play with ME Grandma.  Charlie's turn is all done."

05/24/07

We're busy, busy, busy waiting for Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Mel to arrive.  Everyone has their jobs to do.  I'm cleaning up.

Tommy's taste testing the brownies.

Charlie's growing in his sleep.

05/22/07

Charlie is three months old today!

• He has brown hair and blue eyes.  He still has quite a bit of his longer, darker newborn hair and it waves and curls when it's freshly washed.  The new fuzz that's growing in is a lighter brown that might end up auburn like my dad's hair.  For a while I was thinking his eyes might turn green, but they're definitely blue.  They're really similar to Tommy's.
• He loves to laugh and gurgle and coo.  When he wakes up in the morning, the first sounds I hear are happy ooos and ahs.  He always greets me with a big grin in the morning, even after 11 hours without milk.  One of the best ways to get him to laugh is to tickle his lips with his toes.  He thinks that's very funny.  He doesn't have a big belly laugh yet.  His laugh is more of an open mouthed grin with an occasional giggle when he just can't help himself.
• One of his favorite places to be is on his changing table.  One of Charlie's baby gifts was a great revolving, musical butterfly that hovers over the changing pad.  He loves it.  When he's tired or fussy but not quite ready to sleep yet, we let him lie there watching the butterfly and listening to us talk to him.
• He's getting more into his play mat.  He's still not really trying to roll over, and hates tummy time, but he's much more likely to grab onto dangling toys and kick around now.
• His car seat is right next to Tommy's in the back of our car.  He really enjoys watching Tommy and looking out the window.  We almost always go out when he's being fussy, because he finds going out entertaining and sleeps easily in his car seat.  Tommy's job is to make sure the sun doesn't bother Charlie.  Tommy takes this responsibility very seriously.  He pulls Charlie's sunshade up when the sun is in Charlie's eyes and then lowers it when the sun moves so that Charlie can see out the window.
• We've been trying out some baby carriers, but Charlie's still not too happy about them.  He likes to be carried high so he can look over your shoulder while chewing on it.  He doesn't really like to be held while a person is sitting.  If you let him stand on your legs and talk to him, he'll stay happy for a while.  He loves to stand with just a minimum of support under his armpits (Tommy did this from an early age too).  He doesn't like to be cradled in the crook of your arm, and would really rather be in his bouncy seat or car seat so he can look around from a distance.
• He's a champion nurser now, but still doesn't want to nurse for comfort.  If his tummy is full, then he's done.  Amazingly (given our track record), he's even starting to take a bottle from David without too much fussing.  I go out and leave them with freshly pumped milk in the fridge about once a week.  He loves his pacifiers and usually falls asleep with one in his mouth.  So far, he hasn't woken up in the night missing it or upset that it's fallen out of his mouth.  Hopefully we won't run into that problem later.
• He's wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  It's nice to have all of Tommy's hand-me-downs ready for him, but I can't help feeling a little bad that he doesn't get any new, just-for-him clothes.  I don't think he cares though. 

05/21/07

Tommy and David went to see Shrek the Third on Friday.  (Tommy wore his Spider Suit to the theater, naturally.)  I'm ashamed to admit that we are purposefully eating McDonalds twice a week in an attempt to get an entire set of Shrek Happy Meal toys.  Yeah.  We're a little pathetic.  Last week Tommy insisted that David was Shrek, I was Ogre Princess Fiona, Tommy was Puss in Boots, and Charlie was Donkey.  Now Tommy has decided that he is Shrek and I am still Fiona, but my full name is now "Ogre Princess Fiona my (Tommy's) one true love."  Puss in Boots is our imaginary pet cat, and Charlie is our pet Donkey.  David isn't anything because he goes to work all day and Fiona can only have one true love, and that love is TOMMY-SHREK, not Daddy.

We took Tommy to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time on Saturday.  He loved it, and it was surprisingly affordable.  Tommy doesn't really like pizza, so he just ate a bunch of stuff off the salad bar.  I'd love to get all high and mighty about having the only three year old there eating tomatoes and cucumbers and cantaloupe and as many baby corns as possible for lunch, but I really had nothing to do with it.  Tommy has asked me if we can go back to Chuck E. Cheese about 78 times so far today...and I am not exaggerating.  I may have to tell him that they're only open one day a month to get him to stop asking.

We also signed Tommy up for Summer Reading at the library on Saturday.  He saw an inflatable guitar on the display table when we signed up and is desperate for that guitar.  I hope they have one available after we read a few more hours and go back for prizes.   

05/19/07

05/18/07

One baby and one Spider-Boy asleep in the car.  I knew Tommy wasn't suffocating in his mask as he slept because he was snoring.

New Spider Suit!  Guess what he's going to be wearing all day every day for the next week?  He has to take the mask off to eat, so we should occasionally see his face.  I hope his excitement fades by the first day of the preschool summer program.

05/17/07

I haven't really had much to say this week.  Things have been good.  Charlie's still sleeping like a champ.  He's even starting to take a few naps in his crib.  He naps a lot more often than Tommy did, so I still have to remind myself to give him a chance to sleep even if he's only been awake for 90 minutes.  He almost always sleeps 10 hours at night.  We are so lucky.  We put him to bed in the evening whenever he starts fussing.  I try to feed him or read him a book before we do that, because it would be nice to have a bedtime routine established for later, but if he's not hungry or too tired then he'll just cry the whole time until I put him in his bed.  Sometimes that's as early as 6:15.  I'm not really sure when he actually falls asleep because if he doesn't fall asleep immediately then he's content to lie there, looking around at his crib bumper, and sucking on his pacifier until he falls asleep.  We check on him occasionally, and he'll just grin at us.  If he fusses, it's usually because he's lost his pacifier.  If we pick him up or if I try to "top him off" with a little more milk he'll scream bloody murder, so we leave him alone.  He's almost never awake past 8 pm.  Then he sleeps until at least 5 am.  Sometimes he wakes up as late as 5:40.

This works really nicely for Tommy.  If Charlie isn't in bed by 7 pm, I always nurse him for the last time while David's giving Tommy his bath.  Then we switch, and I do the rest of Tommy's bedtime by myself.  We used to always do this together, but Tommy's decided he really wants me to do it.  I think he's getting less quiet, one-on-one time with me and is making up for it at bedtime.  Charlie's usually quite fussy after dinner, so Tommy plays alone with David from 6-7.  I think he's getting all the attention he needs - active playtime with Daddy and then quiet book and snuggle time with Mommy.  Tommy's been going to sleep earlier again, which is his way of catching up with sleep since he usually won't nap.  He's almost always asleep before 8 pm too.  Then David and I have time to ourselves from 8 pm until I go to bed at 10 pm.  I think Tommy was 18 months old before I was ready to start staying up until 10 pm on a regular basis!

In other news, Tommy's still playing with his friends Claudia and Duncan on Wednesdays.  Charlie does pretty well when we go over to their house, but it's a lot easier when they come over to our house.  The last two play dates have been really great (especially compared to that disastrous one at the beginning of the month.)  Tommy's starting his summer pre-school program at the Church of the Good Shepherd (UCC) on the 29th.  He's really excited about it, but we've been talking about it for so long that he'll probably be surprised when it actually starts.  Summer reading starts at the library tomorrow, so I'll sign him up for that and we'll try to go to some of the music and storytelling performances this year.  He's also starting swimming lessons in two weeks.  The Jewish Community Center near our house has convenient classes, so that's where we're taking him.  (No, we're not Jewish, but they don't care.)  Since he hasn't had any lessons before, I signed him up for the really young class.  Hopefully that won't be a mistake.    

05/15/07

Here's a question for you.  Would you like to be able to comment on this site?  I can easily switch to a real blog service instead of just doing it myself using our cable company's server space.  The downside?  The address would change.  The upside?  You could make comments on the posts and David might occasionally post too since it will be more user-friendly.  I'm going to run out of server space eventually, so I'll have to either pay for more space at Comcast or leave the archives here and pay to put new posts and pictures someplace else.  The cost per month for either option is minimal, so don't worry about that part of it.  E-mail me at sallyepp at hotmail dot com if you have an opinion.  I'm kind of worried that I'll lose readers if I move, since at least half of you are anonymous.  But maybe you'd follow and no longer be anonymous if you could comment?

His outfit says "And he was still hungry."  I guess that's about right.  Note that Tommy is in the picture too.  He wants to be in every picture I take of Charlie.

Tommy wrapped himself up as a present for me yesterday.  I got a fantastic new bag for Mother's Day, but this is an even better present.

05/14/07

I hope you all had a nice Mothers' Day.  I did.

They don't exactly cooperate simultaneously for pictures, do they?

05/12/07

I took some pictures of Tommy in his superhero cape, which was cunningly crafted out of a dishtowel. Then I asked him which picture he liked best.  This was his choice.

This is the one I like the best.  Our choices indicate something about the taste differences of mommies and little boys, don't you think?

05/10/07

Charlie Chiplets...

Little Piggies

We have heard our first baby giggle over here.  I was bouncing Charlie on my knee saying "quack, quack, quack" while Tommy was playing with his loud and annoying Lucky Ducks game.  It was a very small giggle, but Tommy and I both immediately noticed it.  Tommy was very excited and got a bit too intense about making him do it again.  It didn't work.

Charlie is content to lie on his back and watch the fish or listen to us talk or look at a single toy propped next to him.  His favorite toys are soft squishy ones like stuffed animals.  He doesn't want toys to be moving, so the play mat is not a place that he really likes and the mobile is just scary.   

He doesn't really like to be on the floor, so I worry sometimes that it's going to take a while for him to roll over.  He doesn't mind lying flat on his back or propped on his side, but he wants to be up someplace safe like on a bed or his changing pad or the pac 'n play.  I think it just feels too scary to be on the floor with a whirling dervish three year old brother romping around.  I can understand that.

He loves singing.  All you have to do to get him to smile is to sing to him.  Of course now that the BABY likes my singing, Tommy's decided he likes it too.    

05/09/07

Tommy Tidbits...

Tommy has randomly started using air quotes.  He doesn't really understand what they imply, but it's hilarious. In this picture, he's saying...  You lost your "crown" Mommy.  Sometimes he'll say... Let's go to the "store" Mommy.  I try asking him what sort of a store that isn't a store he means.  That just befuddles him.

Last night in the bath, David asked Tommy to do something that Tommy didn't want to do.  After a bit of fit pitching, Tommy stood up straight, made a salute and snarled "Yes sir!"  I have no idea where he picks this stuff up.

When Tommy gets hurt I always tell him that I'm sorry he's hurt.  I've always done this, even though it's kind of pointless and not helpful.  He's started calling me on it.  "It's OK Mommy.  (sob, sob)  You didn't hurt my toe.  It was the table."  Right.  Of course.

05/07/07

Thursday and Friday were much better days.  It pretty obvious when Tommy gets enough sleep.

Tommy got the idea to do makeovers someplace.  I had just had a shower, so I convinced pre-shower David that he was the best candidate for a makeover.  David grudgingly agreed and complained the whole time.  Tommy had fun though.

My Aunt Inga was in town this weekend and we had a nice breakfast with her.  Tommy absolutely loved her, and Charlie even woke up for a few minutes.

Aunt Inga gave Charlie this great caterpillar.  He loves it.

05/03/07

It's 8:30 am and Tommy's still sleeping.  Yay!  Hopefully this means he'll be in a good mood today.  He's been super grumpy this week.  He fell asleep on the couch at 4 pm on Monday and it's just gone downhill from there.  I tried everything I could to keep him from napping that late in the day, but I was trapped in the La-Z-Boy with Charlie on my lap when he dozed off.  I asked him not to fall asleep and he just covered his head with a pillow.  I turned the TV on. I turned the sound on the TV up really loud.  I even threw soft items at him.  Charlie screamed for 30 minutes just after Tommy fell asleep.  None of these things had any effect whatsoever.  David managed to get him to wake up at 5:30, but by then the damage was done.  It took him until 10 pm to fall asleep Monday night. 

Thus, he was super tired on Tuesday.  He ran around like a crazy, cranky boy in the late afternoon on Tuesday, so I was pretty confident he'd sleep well that night.  Nope.  He waited until I was nursing Charlie again and promptly fell asleep for another late afternoon nap.  He didn't fall asleep until 9 pm Tuesday night.  Then he was absolutely horrendous at his friend Claudia's house on Wednesday.  He was so tired and Charlie was cranky and I had spent every waking moment with one child or the other for three days.  We were all simultaneously self-destructing.  It was not the best play date ever.  At least I managed to keep him from napping yesterday.  It was a bit of a struggle to get him to sleep last night, but he collapsed angrily into bed at 8:10.  He's been sleeping for more than 12 hours now.  Hopefully it will help.  I'm ready for an easier day.  

05/01/07

Happy May Day!

See the archives for earlier entries.