March 2005

03/30/05

Yesterday was Tommy's 14-month birthday!  He's so different than he was at 12 months.  There are so many little anecdotes I could tell, but I always forget them by the end of the day.  I need to start jotting down notes during the day.  Although then I'd have to admit that I might be a little obsessed with this website.  Here are a few that have escaped the black hole of Mommy-memory.

• Playing in his stroller is suddenly fun.  He can almost climb in by himself.  I try to lift him into it before he gets himself into a dangerous position.  He plays peek-a-boo through the little window in the canopy and points to direct me as I wheel him around the house.  He kept pitching a fit yesterday whenever I tried to take him out, so he spent at least an hour in it.  I just parked him in various places, brought him snacks and toys, and finally let him watch TV while sitting in it.  I hope this is a short-lived phase.  I might have to start storing it in the garage.  (I have pictures, but I'm having camera trouble right now so I'll post them in April.)
• David introduced him to pickles.  He loves pickles.  Now there are two boys in this house with pickle-breath.  I'm so outnumbered.
• He can say Elmo and bye-bye.
• He's discovered smells.  It started when I bought coffee beans for my mom's visit. I showed him how to smell the bag and it was a strong enough smell that he figured out what I was talking about.  Then Mom showed him how to smell the mint in the back yard.  He's been trying to smell lots of things since then -- paper, rocks, leaves, flowers, food.  He puts things up to his mouth and breathes in and out of his nose really heavily.
• The other day he got a can of Pepsi out of the pantry and carried it around.  Every once in a while he'd pretend to drink and then say "ah!" really loudly.  I guess that's what David does when he drinks soda.  We haven't let him drink anything but water, milk and occasionally juice, but it's going to be really hard to keep him from picking up David's addiction when he gets older.
• Speaking of drinking, he still absolutely refuses to drink from a sippy cup.  It used to be that he couldn't figure it out since he'd never had a bottle and didn't know to suck on cups or things to drink.  Now it's just sheer stubbornness.  As soon as we hand him a cup with a lid the melt-down count-down begins.  He'll ask nicely (once) for us to remove the lid and gets really mad if we don't comply.  "Stupid parents!  Don't you know I drink from an open cup!  I'm thirsty!  Why do you keep sticking this spout in my mouth!  Ahhhh!"  I've just about given up, but David keeps trying.  I know it's a step backwards to go from open cup to sippy cup, but it would be so much easier if we didn't have to monitor his drinking.  He hardly ever spills while he's actively drinking from the cup, but almost always spills when he finishes drinking and starts playing.     

03/28/05

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with my mom.  We were sad to see her leave this morning.  Here are a bunch of pictures from Sunday.

Of course the Easter grass was more exciting than any of the goodies.

What am I supposed to be looking for again?

  Ah!  I found one!

I have no idea what happened to my hair, but the picture is cute enough to post despite the strange mop-top.

Clapping with Grammie

Socking with Daddy

03/26/05

Pictures with Grammie...more later

03/24/05

More proof that I am not a perfect mother...

Just so you don't think his diet is horrible, he actually eats tons of fruits and vegetables every day -- broccoli is his favorite veggie and grapes are his favorite fruit.  McDonald's is only an occasional thing.  We had to pick up Grammie Cartwright at the airport tonight.  Fast food means no kitchen clean up and I had it all ready for company by mid-day today.  I'll let you know all about the visit after the holiday weekend.

03/21/04 - later

Pictures from our trip to the park.

  Tommy loves to go down the slide.  He can do everything by himself...climb up the stairs, turn around feet first, slide down, land, do it again!

Tommy with Claudia Sinars, and her mom Cindy too (who, by the way, is expecting bambino #2).

Sand in your hands makes life grand

03/21/04

I forgot to take the camera with me to the zoo yesterday. We met David for lunch and then poked around for a while.  I figure we might as well use our yearly membership.  I didn't think I'd need the camera because I just took pictures there a couple weeks ago.  I missed a great shot though.  Tommy decided the metal sculpture of the komodo dragon was really interesting and kept running over to it and hugging its neck. He'd stretch his arms as far around it as they would go and then rest his cheek on it.

Vocabulary Update:  He says Tommy-versions of Daddy and again, says a clearly enunciated Yeah!, has a sign for more (I accidentally taught him the wrong one so ASL signers will think he's saying milk when he actually just wants more blueberries), and nods/shakes his head for yes/no.  He also might say bang and duck, but I'm not 100% sure on those 

He almost always sighs "ahhhh" very enthusiastically each time he sits down.  Mimic!  Do you think he's on to the fact that Mommy and Daddy are somewhat creaky and lazy?

03/19/05

Today is David's birthday.  I let him buy a package of aquarium plants to add to the fish tank.  He's getting a bit obsessed with the tank.  I guess we just had to add plants to it to make it more interesting to him.  He must secretly take after his plant-loving father.

Five things I learned this morning...

1. If you decide to put child proof locks on a cupboard because it's full of interesting food stuffs in non-baby-proof packaging, don't decide it's OK to let your toddler play in said cupboard while you eat a bagel in the other room.
2. If it's very quiet for more than five minutes you should go see what your toddler is up to.
3. Powdered hot chocolate mix does not brush off of fleece sleepers, it makes interesting clouds when thrown into the air, and turns into sludge when eaten.
4. If you have powdered hot chocolate mix on your kitchen floor, don't try to vacuum it up because the fine powder permeates the vacuum and trails across the carpet when you move the vacuum.
5. Letting your husband sleep in on his birthday is highly over-rated.  Helping his wife and laughing at his chocolate-covered son is an acceptable alternative. 

03/16/05

Don't worry.  Captain Pajamas won't let the fame go to his head.

In unrelated news, he learned how to snap his fingers this week.  Are 13-month-olds supposed to be able to do that?

03/14/05 - later

It's still snowing.  We're supposed to get 4-6 inches before it stops.  We were literally running around in the sunshine wearing shorts 48 hours ago.  This is very strange.  David had to take the boy out in the snow when he got home from work.  We are woefully unprepared when it comes to winter clothes so we just put him in lots of layers and only let him play for 10 minutes so the snow couldn't soak all the way through to his skin.

03/14/05

All together now.  "How did that happen?"

He fell on his face on the concrete Sunday.  Both his nose and forehead are scraped and bruised.  He still seems a bit punky so it must hurt.  Poor baby.

Here's the promised picture of the courtyard.  It's been SNOWING all day today.  Bummer.  I guess the 75 degree weather of last week was just a tease.

03/13/05

We had beautiful spring weather this week and weekend.  It was probably 75 degrees today.  We got lots of stuff done outside.  I'm going to have to be an outdoors person this summer since Tommy absolutely refuses to come inside unless he's lured in with promises of TV or food. 

Helping Daddy put together some flower pots in the front courtyard.  It was originally my project, but I have a black thumb and was getting frustrated.  Tommy ended up very wet and muddy by the time they finished.  I'll take a picture of the finished courtyard tomorrow.  I just forgot to do it while we were working on it.

Look at that blond head!  We're going to start an intensive hat-wearing program next week.  I wouldn't want his scalp to burn.

Playing with (and in) his mini-sandbox.

  He's still obsessed with the hyacinths. 

Ah the overalls without a shirt look...always popular with the cheerios-eating crowd.

03/11/05

Curses!  He figured out how to climb.  I was putting away the groceries and Tommy was running in and out of the slider between the kitchen and back yard.  I noticed that it had been a few minutes since I'd seen him, so I went outside to find him.  I found him sitting in the raised flower bed next to the hyacinths, eating the blossoms one by one.  They're like grapes!  Of course by the time I went inside to get the camera he was climbing back down.

03/10/05

We seem to have turned the corner on the sleep stuff.  It only took four weeks!  (I can't decide if that sentence should be read proudly or sarcastically.)  He sleeps from 7:45 pm to 5:00 am at night, from 9:00 to at least 10:30 in the morning and from 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.  The afternoon nap is still iffy, but he has done it successfully a couple of times.  We start at 2:30 so I'm sure he'll be asleep earlier than 3:00 once he really figures it out.  He consistently falls asleep in his crib on his own each time -- happily at night and for his morning nap and with less than 10 minutes of crying for the afternoon nap.

He wandered off yesterday morning and when I went to see what he was doing, this is what I found.  He's just looking up because he heard me behind him.  He's wanting to look at his books on his own more and more lately.

 
He spent at least 10 minutes playing with his Grandma-phone (my name for it) yesterday afternoon.  It's a little thingy from Radio Shack that Sylvia bought for him.  It has a picture and a recorded message in it.  He pushes the button over and over to listen to Grandma.     

03/08/05

He did it!  I didn't have to go in to him from 7:30 pm until 5:00 am both Sunday and Monday nights.  If you read my sleep training update, you know that this is a big deal.  He did wake up and cry out both nights around 4 as usual, but he settled himself back to sleep each time without either of us going in to comfort him.  I guess the pediatrician was wrong and he can go the full 9 hours without nursing.  I was so rested yesterday I vacuumed the living room, mopped the kitchen floor, did some shrub trimming (hacking?) and made dinner.  I don't know what life will be like if this continues.  J

This it Tommy's first pair of big-boy shoes.  His Robeez, although wonderful, just aren't practical on all the rocky xeriscaping around here.  They're navy blue Stride Rites in size 7.  No wonder he wouldn't wear the size 5 shoes I bought him from Wal-Mart for $3.  He's pretty happy now that he's figured out he can go off the grass onto the rocky parts of the yard without hurting his feet.

Some random tidbits...

• He figured out walking backwards this weekend.  He gets the funniest grin on his face when he does it.  He'll walk forwards away from something and then change his mind and instead of turning around he just backs up.  He's also been trying to jump lately, but his feet don't leave the ground yet.
• His favorite number is eight.  We have lots of counting books and he always wants to stop on any page that is for eight things.  I didn't realize he could actually identify the numeral until this morning.  We were paging through a big book that identifies loads of stuff and instead of skipping the page that has numbers 1-20 on it we looked at it for a little while.  I asked him where the 8 was and he pointed to both the 8 and the 18.  Pretty smart!
• This is one of those things that only parents will appreciate...and we find it pretty amusing that we're excited about it.  If you don't have children go right ahead and shake your heads at how strange we are.  Tommy usually poops around the same time every day.  We have to leave him alone in front of the TV for it to happen.  Well, yesterday I was sitting at the computer while he stood in front of the TV at his usual poop time.  I noticed that he was staring at me.  I said "Hi Tommy!" and he started pointing at his diaper and continued staring at me intently.  He wanted me to know it was time to pause Baby Einstein and change his poopy diaper.  Good boy Tommy!  Being this self-aware can only help when it's time to potty train him.    

03/06/05

Captain Pajamas learns about the science of static electricity...

03/05/05

Daddy teaches Captain Pajamas all about eating cookies for breakfast while watching Saturday morning cartoons (he doesn't usually get to eat cookies at all).

Here's a bunch of detail if you're interested in reading about our progress in sleep training Tommy.

03/04/05

He says "sssss" for snake and "ba ba" for sheep.  Just thought you'd like to know.  

03/03/05

We went to the zoo today with our neighbor Karen.  I'm pretty tired tonight so I'm just going to put up pictures instead of writing very much.  I will say that Tommy must have been pretty tired too.  He usually eats dinner really well, but tonight he wanted DOWN right away.  He spent the entire time running around the table, stopping for a carrot once each time around.  He was in that insane, over-stimulated state where he just has to keep moving to keep from falling asleep.  We let him go to bed early and he went to sleep immediately.  

It's really annoying that most of the barriers are at exactly eye level for kids in strollers.

There was a tiger sleeping right below this window.  He stopped to look at it every few minutes while he was running around.

He really wanted to feed the ducks and swan.  He can't throw very well yet so he would just hold his cheerios out for them.  The ducks are used to being hand-fed, so I'm glad none of them actually tried to take his cheerios.  He probably would have freaked out.   

I couldn't get him to look at the peacock behind him.  He was too focused on the ducks.

Check out my molars!  I'm a crazy-tired boy!

Sometimes I hide in Mommy's shirts.  It's dark back there so I have to run out quickly if I start dozing off.

03/02/05

We had a pretty good day yesterday.  I've been trying to DO more during the day to keep Tommy from getting bored.  I'm such a homebody; it's kind of hard.  It was very windy yesterday so we went to the mall instead of the park.  I let Tommy run wild in the Barnes & Noble children's area for about an hour.  He had a great time until the Princess Purse Incident.  He found a pink metal purse with Cinderella on it and a handle made of large beads strung on a wire.  He loved it.  Hey, if he decides he wants a princess purse I'm certainly not going to deny him (although David might roll his eyes).  However, the handle looked like it would easily break and those beads would be a big choking hazard.  He carried it around for a few minutes then I decided I should take it away before it broke and Tommy did not like that one bit.  I don't know if this counts as his first temper tantrum in public.  He only cried/screamed less than five minutes and then got distracted by a Clifford doll.  It was pretty embarrassing though. 

Rolling around on the floor before dinner. 

03/01/05

We think Tommy knows and says some words now.  I had a visit with his doctor for something else last week.  We happened to talk about the fact that he still hadn't said his first word yet.  She had been concerned about it at his 1-year check up and was following up on it.  Turns out we just didn't understand what counts as a word.  It doesn't have to clearly sound like the real word.  It just has to be consistent, we should understand what he's trying to say, and he has to intend communication by saying it.  I kept waiting for him to say "mama" or something like that.  Not our Tommy!  He definitely says Tommy-versions of "down" and "all done."  He has signs for both of these that we randomly came up with, and he does the signs while saying the words.  I think he may also say "grapes" and "bed" and something that either means "mommy" or "milk" (or both).  This is certainly not black-and-white enough for me, so I can't say when he said his first word or even what it was.  I just know he's trying to talk and mimics lots of words right after we say them.

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