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!

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!

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.

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!