Talking and Singing

These days T loves to talk. "Ah-Mah-Mah-Mumumum..."and on and on... It is really cute to just see him go on for ages entertaining himself with the noises he can make. He also started clapping yesterday, which is exciting, now that he's getting more coordination, I hope to start teaching him a few signs. They helped so much with K, and I often wish T could talk and tell us what was up!

He is also growing like a weed. We pulled out a bunch of K's old 12-18 month clothes to re-supply T's wardrobe since he's been growing out of everything so fast! Some are still too big, but that's good because he'll have room to grow, but some of them are already tight!

K is really into singing the last few days. He asks for Itsy Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the bus. He loves the part about the babies on the bus and when the moms go "Shh, shh, shh" so he requests it again and again...

I found a book for him at Value Village that was about trains. Actually, it's just a train, but each page is a picture of the car on the train. He now knows "Engine", "Sand Car" (and I'm amazed with how clearly he says this one), "Cattle Car", "Dining Car", "Sleep car" and "Caboose"! I could hear him last night in his room going "Engine... Caboose!". He's also been reading "Good night Gorilla" a lot lately and last night when we tucked him in and I said "Good night" he said "Good night Gorilla!". He can practically read the whole thing himself now, and describes even the pages with no words with his own description, either in words or actions, it really is amazing to see him develop!

Time for Clean Up!

I'm so proud of K this morning, he's learning to clean up! He wanted so badly to play with a drum set, but I told him he had to clean up the blocks and trains he dumped on the floor first. We worked on that off and on for about half an hour, with me reminding him that I'd let him play drums if he just cleaned up first. Finally I went and helped, he had done most of it already. By the time we finished, he had changed his mind and wanted to play with a magnetic alphabet and number set. So I gave him that and he played happily while I worked in the bedroom, changing sheets and cleaning. Then he put it all away and gave it back to me and asked for his alphabet cards! Wow! We have been working on cleaning up at night, making him clean up all his toys before he could get dessert. The other night he didn't do anything and totally freaked out when it was bedtime and he didn't get his cookie! I rescued him though and got him to clean up the few toys in his room, and then he had a cookie. But, he has been really good about making sure we "Kweem up!" after dinner since! I hope it's sinking in!

We've also started swimming lessons for both boys. Well, again for K. But last Saturday was T's first lesson! He doesn't seem too impressed yet, but at least he's not screaming the whole time like some of the other babies there! You'd just think for a babe that loves bathtime so much, that splashing in the pool would be better, but apparently not. At least not yet.

T also cut his second tooth this week. The first one is still coming up, and now the second has just come through. I think he's still got more coming through though since he loves to shove anything he can chew on as far back in his mouth as they can go!

Lately we've all been sick off and on, the colds and things are making their way through the household. I hope it lets up soon, we have lots of work to do in the next few weeks!

We have teeth!

Well, Tiernan does now! His first tooth, bottom right (his right) has cut through today. And it has made for an exciting week! Last week I was at the docs for a check up and asked her to look at Tiernan as well since he started with a nasty cough the night before. She said he had Bronchitis and gave him some antibiotics to take for the next 10 days. So we started that and he started having "digestive issues" that involved many frequent and stinky diaper changes. Poor guy. And then all week this week he's just been grumpy as can be, making me want to pull my hair out or run away from home or have my reproductive abilities disabled. At times, all three! At least now we know what the issue is (or at least one of them) and today has been better. No fewer grump attacks, but at least I can help him out now that I know what's going on.

Kenton has taken to singing his ABC's now. He wants to sing them, but doesn't really know the words, so he just goes "W X Y Z, na naw ABC, nex... sig a me!". He's also showing much interest in the potty in the last couple of days, wanting to sit on it (and sing ABC) now and then. So that's progress! I don't really want him to learn and then back track when we move, but I think it'll stick more if he's initiating anyways.

Today we were having lots of fun setting up a fort with the couch cushions! He loved it and called it his castle. I don't really like doing it with our couch, but he saw it at his friend's and loved it, so I didn't want to say no. Once we've moved we'll probably be getting gifted a couch from family to use in the kids' play area, so they can use that one for forts to their hearts content.

Pbbbtt...

Tiernan's newest trick is raspberries. It's especially funny since he will repeat them to you if you do some for him!

Kenton randomly counted to five the other day! It just surprised Jon and I since we knew he knows his numbers (well, to 10, let's be reasonable here), just not really how to count. Does that make sense? But, he just up and counted off the fingers on one hand one day when we were sitting on the couch. Just goes to show you once again how much they learn even when you aren't teaching!

Another new game we've invented is Body Parts. Apparently this is great to do while waiting for some family members to finish a meal. Kenton loves to point out body parts ("CHIM!" - chin, "Eboos" - Elbows, etc) to show off what he knows! Of course this only works with what he can show above the table, but he's getting really good at things like the difference between lips and mouth.

And I took Kenton to his first movie today! We went and saw Planet 51. I hope he appreciates in later years how much time I spent choosing his first movie at the theater! Probably not, but one can dream. The choices were: Alvin and the Chipmunks (Uh, no), Princess and the Frog (which I enjoyed, but figured Kenton might not appreciate that factoid in a few years, like at cootie age when girl stuff isn't cool), or Planet 51. It was pretty funny, for older kids and adults, but I don't think he really enjoyed himself as much as I'd hoped. Oh well. It was worth it just to watch him get folded in half trying to sit in the theater seats! And we ate popcorn, drank pop and juice and I even snuck in a small container of mini M&M's in my "purse".

Finally, some more reading we've been doing. We borrowed Dog's Colorful Day from the library, as well as Dogabet. Then there's Canada 123 and a couple others we haven't gotten to yet. I really would like to do something fun with Dog's colorful day, but I need to tape it back together first! Kenton got a hold of it when I wasn't looking and ripped a page into three pieces! I'm sure it's not the first library book to have such a fate, especially in the kids section, and it won't be the last!

A lesson in listening.

On Thursday we also did some colouring. I wrote out our names for K, and we named colours. K was having fun but also had to think really hard! I had written out our names in different colours and was asking him what colour the letter was and he'd name the letter instead. So the poor guy was confused when I said "No, silly, what colour is this?". Eventually he got it, but you could almost see the wheels turning as he was trying to figure it out!

Friday we had playgroup in the morning, which went really well. K started to get out of hand, running through the one room where all the babies (all around T's age) were laying on the floor playing. So I took him out of the room and sat him down and explained he can't run through the room like that. I don't think he understood me, but whatever the reason, he did calm down after that. Well, long enough to get packed up and go home!

We had an exciting potty day on Friday too. Not in a good way. In a messy way. Let's leave it at that.

Friday we read Alphabet City. It's a collection of paintings of the city, but there's shapes in the pictures that look like letters. I picked this one up from the library, cause K often does this, points out letters in ordinary things! He loves this book, and found most of the letters right away. Some I'll let slide, like Q was hard for me to see too(I honestly still don't see it, but it's the picture where Q should be so...).

This weekend I picked up more supplies for crafts and projects. We're going to finish our Valentines and get those shipped out this week. I also bought some Bleeding Art Tissue (got the idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog). And HA! to the crazy lady at Michael's who said they don't carry it, I found it! It lives with the regular tissue paper. I want to try to use it and make our own version of pages from Color Dance, showing how colours mix to make other colours. Update - apparently we had to stop for some colouring time and I tried it out, not working the way I wanted, but I'm hoping some watercolour paper might work better to do it on. We'll see. I also need some kid free time to try it out first, so I can get the kinks out.

K and I went out yesterday and bought some Thomas undies. With his wanting to wear his Cars underwear so bad the other day I hope that maybe wearing his absolute favourite character right now would help. The only size they had left was 3X though, so right now they're rather huge, but they haven't been washed yet. Some of his other undies are almost too small now after they got washed so I'm hoping these will shrink enough. And if not, that a stitch or two in the sides will help them stay up. So far all he wants to do is wear them over his Pull-ups and carry an armload of Thomas undies around!

Also, K was getting restless here so I quickly made a "sewing" project for him. I've been wanting to do it for a while, so I had the stuff, but I just punched holes in a square of craft foam and gave him a shoelace to "sew" into the holes. I don't think he's ready for this yet, I showed him how to do it, then gave it to him and he just ripped the laces out, making big rips in the foam! Maybe when I have more time to sit with him and do it we'll try again. Or I may need to glue two sheet together to make it stronger, one thin sheet might not be sturdy enough.

Enough about K, time for a T update! He's loving sweet potatoes and is eating up a storm! He also seems to be sleeping lots the last few days, so maybe a growth spurt is happening here! He is really enjoying bath time at the moment, especially since we've started putting him in the tub with K. The two of them are having a blast together! The giggles at bath time make it hard to want it to end (though bedtime right after is nice...quiet...)! Speak of the devil, I think he's up!

We have pictures!

While we were out yesterday, I had all the pictures from the camera put on a DVD (and we got an extra since they were doing buy one get one!). So I can finally update the old posts with some pictures. Unfortunately, we're still not functioning for new pictures.

But, quick run-down so I can go do pictures...

Tuesday we played more of the Feather Game, first doing the secondary colours (green, purple, orange and pink. Pink, cause we had some pink feathers in the pack). The pink and orange confused him and he kept getting those mixed up, but he did pretty good I think! Then we did the primary ones again (and again). I think we'll do them all together next time and see how he does.

Yesterday I had an appointment, so we left early and went to the library for story time. K didn't want to listen to stories so much as run around playing with the foam letters, grabbing the librarian's story time tools, and try to play with the other kids. So we snuck out of the story time room halfway through and went to play with the trains instead. Which distracted the kids at a daycare that were sitting right there trying to read a story, but not my fault they sat beside the train table!

But, we did get a few books about colours and the alphabet. And a couple Thomas DVD's, for something new. I hope to go through the books with K this week and work on our colours some more while he's interested.

T has been sitting up a lot lately. And trying to stand. Oh boy. He's doing well with carrots, which reminds me, I need to make more!

Okay, I'm off to add more pictures to the blog now!

Weekend wrap-up!

The weekend was pretty calm, we did much running around shopping, cleaning and then just hanging out at home. It always seems that no matter how much time you think you have, there's still not enough to get everything done. Or enough energy, but that's another matter I think.

K has been enjoying his train set we found at Oma and Opa's so much that when we had found another (cheap) kind on clearance this week, we decided to come back and get it this weekend for him. Of course when we went back, it was packed up on a pallet ready to go back into the warehouse, but Jon managed to wiggle it out (and probably totally wreck the structure of the pallet!). Needless to say K was thrilled, as well as nothing gets by that boy. Jon had bought it ahead of us and wrapped it in two bags so he couldn't see until we wanted him to. He still saw it and asked the whole way home about the trains! When we got home, he didn't want to do anything but play with his trains. He refused to eat Pizza even! We did strap him down and he did finally eat, but it was all business and let him back at his trains! He plays with them non stop. NON STOP. So that's good.

I finally convinced Jon that T is ready for something more substantial than cereal in his solid food diet. He seems to be doing fine with the wheat now, we just backed off a bit and tried again even more slowly. So last night he got his first taste of carrot puree. And ate the whole thing! He rather seemed to like it and I'm sure he'll gobble up another cube for lunch!







This morning T seems to be about an 8 (out of 10) on the Giggles scale, and K I haven't had a chance to try yet. He's busy playing trains.

Feather Game

K and I did more fingerpainting yesterday, they turned out quite well I think. He's getting over the fact that you're supposed to get your hands dirty! So that was a nice distraction after lunchtime.

I also made up some frames out of craft foam. They're for my Oma and Opa, so I put the kids' names on them. The idea is they'll be able to put them on their fridge, and it will help them remember their great-grandchildren's names. Okay, okay, so we gave them unique names, but at it'll also just be a nice addition to the Valentine's pack we're making up for them. After he woke up from his nap, I got K to help me put some foam stars on the frames. We worked on naming the colours as he picked them out and stuck them down. Today we may put some glitter on them (cause we can!), and then try to print out some pictures to put in them.







While looking through a bunch of homeschooling sites for crafting ideas, I made up a learning game for K. I came up with it while trying to figure out what to do with the multicoloured crafting feathers I bought so I'm calling it the Feather Game. I took some leftover plastic cups from his birthday and put pieces of coloured construction paper inside, making each cup one colour (I was going to glue the paper on the outside, but this seemed like too much work at 10:30pm). So there's a square of blue in one cup, then red and yellow. I counted out five feathers for each colour, and the idea is to put each feather in the matching colour cup! It honestly took me five minutes to make!



This morning we tried the Feather Game. At first, K was more interested in grabbing the cups and pulling out the paper. Then I started to show him the idea, taking a blue feather from the pile and putting it in the blue cup. He did a few, and then decided to dump them out, then knocked the cups on the floor. *sigh* Okay, so I grabbed the feathers and gave them to him one at a time. This worked much better, but he still only had an attention span long enough for two or three feathers of each colour.



I had also thought that making him run to put the feathers in the cups would be a great way to burn some energy while staying inside and playing the game. So, I put the coffee table on the far end of the living room, and the feathers on the floor at the other. I showed K that we were going to run and put the feathers in. He got all excited. "Fast!?" he says, and runs over to the feathers, grabs a handful and runs to dump them all in one cup. Okay, so it's a work in progress. Plan B. I took all the feathers and sat holding them at the other end of the living room, giving him one at a time.



This plan was working out. So well in fact, that he had taken a yellow feather and dumped it in the closest cup, which was a blue one. When he went back with the next feather (a red one), he put that one in the red, then took the yellow out of the blue cup and put it in the yellow cup! I was so proud of him! It shows me that he is learning his colours, as well as rules for games. However, he still only has a two to three feather attention span!

Pizza and Puffs

Saturday we had a recurring request for "Pee-pa" (pizza) all day from K. So, Jon got sent out with K to get some pizza making supplies. They bought some Pillsbury pizza dough, the mozzarella and some pepperoni. K and I assembled the pizza, he was right in there, didn't want to miss anything. I hadn't even gotten a chance to invite him to come help, he was right in there. Of course, the most important part was "testing" all the bits to make sure they were edible. The cheese, pepperoni and even the peppers we put on had to be tried. He kept pulling it off the pizza to eat it too! Finally, we got the pizza made and he was rather happy to eat!

That night was another milestone as well, we had arranged their room so both boys slept in one room! It made for a much better nights sleep for me the last two nights, I must say. So far so good, we woke up Sunday to K peeking into the crib and talking to T, and T was "playing" with the aquarium toy in there, turning it on and off with his feet. I think he may have been a bit bored in the bassinet honestly, he seems much happier with the crib and a few toys to wake up to! Today K woke up and came out of his room, and T is still sleeping!

We've introduced wheat cereal again the last couple of days and T seems to be doing fine. We have cut back on the amount, just sticking to about 3 servings of 2 tablespoons each, as well as trying to slow him down when he eats it! He just wants to eat it all and eat it - NOW! So, by giving him a few spoonfuls at a time and then waiting a bit, it seems to have made his tummy happier and then he's full at the end instead of screaming for seconds.

This past week I did make a bunch of pureed baby foods, some carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes. I'd like to wait another week or so with the wheat and then hopefully this weekend we can start T on some "real" food! I'd also like to make some chicken puree to add to some of his veggies once he's ready for that.

We went to the museum on Sunday, they had a Robert Munsch display there that I thought K would like. It was really neat with a bunch of hands on displays about writing and reading. K's favourite was a bunch of big foam letters with velcro on them that he could stick to a wall covered in felt. We lost him a couple of times, he ran away so fast, but he ran right back to that display! It had us parents enthralled too, there was so much to look and and try (which explains how we lost him I guess!)! There was also a display on diamonds that was fascinating, but kids were getting hungry. After stopping for a bite to eat, we continued on to the dinosaurs and bugs, then it was time to go. I did buy a few Munsch books in mini form, they are about two inches square, I thought they'd be great for keeping in the diaper bag, to read to K those times when you have to wait at appointments or the restaurant or something.







After that, we went to the mall to do some errands and just get out of the house for a bit. K got to ride the train (for free! They're not even asking if he's over two, they just stamp his hand. I'm not complaining!), while T and I went searching for cereal for him cause we left it at home. On our way out, there was a really neat ad display. It was like a big screen covered in pictures of M&M's, and as you touched it, the M&M's bounced out of the way! It was really neat to watch the kids play with it. Eventually it turned into Cadbury chocolate that oozed down from the top, and you smooshed it out of the way, and then it was a sheet of ice that melted as you touched it and then the water underneath rippled wherever you touched (some fruit drink ad). I'd never seen anything like it!

Day Ten - setting up the crib

This isn't exactly a project for today, but it's very important anyways. We've had the crib for T set up in K's room for ages, but T's still been sleeping in the bassinet in our room. So enough's enough, we need T to sleep in the boys' room now, especially since he's just getting too darn big for the bassinet.

So we put the mattress lower (and turned it around, darling husband had the front at the back when we moved it), set it up and I worked on getting clothes organized. Since T was in our room, he was using a couple of our drawers for his clothes, much easier than running back and forth all the time. But it means putting the clothes back in the boys' room. And organizing them. So we've been working on that all morning, the boys are down for naps, and then hopefully tonight, both of them will be sleeping in their room! Yay!

Lately, K has picked up on the fact that I call his Dad "Jono" (a family nickname I started using as well). It's pretty funny cause when he can't get his Dad's attention by saying "Dad! Dad? Daddeee!!", he now goes "Jono!"!! Sounds like "Ja-o", but pretty funny nonetheless. So it was funny today to hear him, when his Dad picked him up to go to his room for naptime and he's going "Jono! Jono!?"! He also asks a lot lately "Daddy at work?", which is just cute to hear.

I love making T giggle and laugh. His laughs are so brief it prompts me to do it over and over just to hear it again! One of his favourites is when I "eat" him. No, really, I pretend to nibble at his tummy, sides or the sides of his neck and it makes him howl! It's so much fun!

One that's good to play with both the kiddos is helicopter tickles. I don't know if that's a real game I picked up somewhere, but since I can't remember, I'm taking the credit! It's best when they're both with me, usually on the couch and I twirl my hand, starting way up in the air and coming down, pointer finger out. I make "helicopter" noises and then quickly dive in and tickle one of them with my hand. They think it's great cause they never know who is going to get tickled next! It gets the best squeals out of them too! And since it's best with both of them there, it's something we can play together, paying attention to both of them at the same time.

Day Seven - Hulking Out

Today is Banana Bread day. I pulled 5 frozen bananas out, the recipe calls for approximately six, but I don't want to go downstairs to the freezer to get the sixth one, so five will have to do.

But, first things first. We need glitter. And Rice cereal. Which brings me to my title.

T's been having some issues the last few days. He gets so worked up that he ends up crying so hard Jon calls it his "Hulking Out" face. He gets all red in the face and is working so hard on crying as hard as he can to try and get his point across, but we can't figure out what it is. At this point, we figure it might be the wheat cereal we started him on on Monday. I hope not. The other option is teething, or I guess maybe a poop/gas issue (which would make that two options really, but who's counting?), but taking the wheat cereal out of his "diet" and seeing if that helps is the simplest solution at this point. The problem with this is I've just fed him the last bit of rice cereal in the house this morning. Good thing we're headed to WalMart for glitter today.

K's just getting up now, I can hear him in his room. Yesterday he was up around 6:30am, it's about twenty after nine now and he's just getting up. Guess he needed the sleep. Which is fine with me cause I don't need a grumpy/tired two year old in a store, that's a combination for a headache right there. Especially when he knows this store inside out and can tell you from any department that the toys are "THAT WAY!!".

Guess I better let him out and feed him.

Free arms and broken resolutions

Yesterday and today I am trying a new thing with T's sleeptime. Instead of holding him until he's fast asleep, I've been putting him down when I know he's tired and going to fall asleep, but not asleep yet. I remember reading somewhere that this is supposed to be good for the baby to learn how to put themselves to sleep, but mostly I'm just happy to have extra free time where I'm not holding him, waiting for him to fall asleep and then hoping he stays asleep when I do put him down. So far it seems to be working well.

On the K half of things, he's been waking up with a barking cough since yesterday. The first time I wasn't even sure that's what it was since I barely heard it, but after his nap yesterday it was definitely there. He still seemed fine otherwise, just a touch more grumpy, but okay. Today he is barely hungry, but requesting lots of juice. I figure at least he's getting something into him, so there goes one parenting resolution: less juice.

And the second parenting resolution for the New Year consisted of less TV. As in, stop playing it all day. Well I'm sorry, but when a poor little guy comes up and asks pitifully for "Turtles?" (Ninja Turtles), in that I'm-losing-my-voice-I'm-coughing-so-hard voice, and then when that's done "Again?", who can say no?

No!

K and T had a pretty good day today, T slept most of the day and was starting to make me worry! Around lunch time K was getting antsy and I told him I was going to go make lunch. He got all excited and asks "Coni!?" "Yes" I tell him "We are having macaroni. But I have to pee first." "NO! Stop! No pee!" he screams, followed by the fall to the floor-type tantrum. Oi.

K has also been into the "testing" himself phase lately. He'll smack his head on the table a few times in a row, then stops to rub the now sore spot and go "Ow...". Well, duh! Today he was playing around, kneeling on the floor. I swear I could see his thought process, like I want to see what happens when I do... this! And flung himself face first into the floor. He jumped up right away and onto the couch with me for cuddles, crying on my shoulder. About a minute later he stopped crying and wiggled out of my arms, leaving snot prints on my shoulder. I noticed the snot prints had some blood in them, but since he wasn't bleeding from anywhere and seemed fine I let it be. I did try to take a look, but he wouldn't let me either so I have no idea what happened exactly, but he's okay.

Vaccinations and Santa's visit

Yesterday we had Tiernan's four month shots. He weighed in at 15 lbs 5 1/2 oz. While we were waiting for him to be weighed, Kenton was running around, meeting new kids that were coming in. He went up to one mom holding her one year old son and told her "Down!". He wanted the boy to come down so he could play with him, lol! By the time we went in for Tiernan's appt, he was getting hungry so of course was quite grumpy to begin with. I pulled out a rather fuzzy Sophie the Giraffe from the diaper bag, wiped her off and let him chew on her while he had his shots. This time he cried the whole time and then cried off and on the rest of the day. Kenton got the better deal, he was quite happy to have a couple of oreos I had in the bag!

Then we drove out to West Ed to do the rest of our Christmas shopping. Both kids were passed out shortly after leaving the clinic so they had a decent nap on the way. We tried to get some shopping for Jon done before he met us there, but only managed a couple of things before he showed up.

After some dinner, we went to go see Santa. It was nice the line-up was short and we got to see him rather quickly. Kenton seemed eager to go see him, when Jon went to take him for a walk while we were waiting, he turned around and came right back. Then of course once we put him on Santa's lap, he freaked out so the whole family ended up in the picture. We weren't planning on it, so Jon and I look awful, but at least the kids are happy! Santa said he has lots of Thomas engines for Kenton!

Kenton and Tiernan's "Fast" days

I'm starting this blog as a way of keeping track of and sharing with others the kids' days, cute and funny and maybe sometimes frustrating moments. The time goes by so fast, I'd like to have a way of coming back to remember those moments!

Let's see, today started out and Kenton and Jon were supposed to go swimming but since we all slept in too late, that didn't happen. Kenton didn't seem to notice as he was all too happy to play in the tub later anyways. So he spent the morning playing with his toys nicely while Tiernan practiced his rolling over on his playmat.

Tiernan's started rice cereal recently since he has been so hungry even after having just eaten. He's been doing pretty good with it, swallowing most of what goes in his mouth and seems to have no troubles with it.

Kenton then spent the afternoon chasing Morris around and has now picked up a new saying "Kitty a- bite!", which probably comes from me repeating endlessly "Kenton, Morris doesn't want to play, he will bite you!". Unfortunately Morris doesn't seem to have the brains or maybe just the will to move to a safer location where Kenton can't get to him so he has taken a few swipes at Kenton. Most of the time this results in Kenton getting scared, coming to me and crying for a bit and then going back to chasing the cat. He's gotten scratched a few times, and one close call but nothing serious... yet. I sure hope one of them smartens up soon. I think if it was warm enough for Morris to be outside at all it wouldn't be so bad, but they've both got cabin fever and are driving each other nuts.

Then while Jon was outside shovelling snow, I got Kenton dressed to go out and sent him out the backyard with Jon to get outside for a bit. About five minutes later they came in cause he wouldn't keep his mittens on and it was too cold for him to be without. Then everyone decided it was better inside and came in for some hot chocolate, cookies and video games!

Later we started to decorate a store bought gingerbread Santa Sleigh kit, but got interrupted by Tiernan waking up. Kenton's help in the decorating consisted of making sure the candies were safe to eat!