Grant is, as we say in our house, on a rampage. He's like a little tiny monster, except in a good way. He seems to be saying his first words, which is kinda wild but really, it happens often enough that I don't think I'm losing my mind. He says Doggie, Dada and Mama, in the right sorts of contexts. Unbelievable. He'll be 10 months old in less than two weeks. Also, he's started taking steps between furniture, and we are quite sure legitimate walking will follow very soon. Lastly, his ability to climb the stairs is startling, and he can get three steps up onto a tiny ledge with his hands death-grip-white-knuckled onto the gate in the turn of your head. He's fast, he's fearless, and he's motivated. And he doesn't fall- thank god. When I try to get him off the gate, it takes all my strength to pried his tiny hands off the bars as he screams in frustration. And then no matter where I put him, he jets off crawling (thud thud thud thud) back the gate, climbs the steps, stands on the ledge and roars like a baby lion.
We're in trouble. :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Much better!
The last two nights were so much better. Thank god. Monday night Grant woke up once at 3am to nurse, and then got up at 6am. Cooper stayed asleep from 7:30pm to 6:45am, which is much more typical for him. And last night, Cooper woke up at 2am to pee, which obviously isn't ideal but I can't really complain too much about a kid that doesn't want to wet the bed, and then Grant got up at 4am to nurse for a little bit, and then Grant got up for the morning at 6am sharp. Overall, not perfect, but quite good.
Today Matt and I are fully rested and feeling so thankful that our kids are generally dependable sleepers. Sunday night's once-an-hour fiasco really was rough on us and I'm sooo sooo glad it is a highly unusual situation!
Today Matt and I are fully rested and feeling so thankful that our kids are generally dependable sleepers. Sunday night's once-an-hour fiasco really was rough on us and I'm sooo sooo glad it is a highly unusual situation!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Can we do that over?
Last night was rough on the edges. The kids went to sleep at regular times and in regular ways, and then...
Grant half woke up at 1am, cried a bit, but fell back asleep on his own.
Cooper woke up at 2am to pee, and was restless and whiney when he was done, and took a while to settle back into bed.
Grant woke up at 2:30 to nurse for about 20 minutes.
Cooper woke back up at 2:45 and freaked out for no obvious reason, and then got back in bed after a hug and a kiss.
Cooper woke back up at 3am and wanted to sleep with his horse costume in his tent. Whatever, goofball. Here is your costume. Go to bed.
Cooper woke up at 4am for no discernible reason and cried briefly before Matt got him back in his bed and he fell back asleep.
Grant woke up at 5am and cried for a minute before falling back asleep. Thank god.
Grant woke up at 6am and wanted to nurse (that's pretty standard). Matt murmured as I was getting Grant tucked in nicely to nurse under the covers, "Can we do this night over? Call it a mulligan and try it again? 'Cause that was pretty much torture."
Yup!
Grant half woke up at 1am, cried a bit, but fell back asleep on his own.
Cooper woke up at 2am to pee, and was restless and whiney when he was done, and took a while to settle back into bed.
Grant woke up at 2:30 to nurse for about 20 minutes.
Cooper woke back up at 2:45 and freaked out for no obvious reason, and then got back in bed after a hug and a kiss.
Cooper woke back up at 3am and wanted to sleep with his horse costume in his tent. Whatever, goofball. Here is your costume. Go to bed.
Cooper woke up at 4am for no discernible reason and cried briefly before Matt got him back in his bed and he fell back asleep.
Grant woke up at 5am and cried for a minute before falling back asleep. Thank god.
Grant woke up at 6am and wanted to nurse (that's pretty standard). Matt murmured as I was getting Grant tucked in nicely to nurse under the covers, "Can we do this night over? Call it a mulligan and try it again? 'Cause that was pretty much torture."
Yup!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Dang cute
Grant is getting ready to walk. We can see it in his eyes, in the way he's sort of half-stepping away from the furniture, and in how he's standing. I'm guessing we'll have a walker by December.
Cooper goes on kicks where he only want to read one book, like many toddlers do. The current book is our "Ten Little Mice" book, where a bunch of mice have fun adventures in the English countryside on the way back to their nest for the night. It is a lovely book that has gorgeous illustrations, fun animals like sheep, dragonflies, badgers and bees, and it encourages counting, and both Matt and I enjoy reading it. Oddly, one of the only things that Matt and I often disagree on is children's books- we have really different taste in kid books. I find this bizarre. But, both of us like the mouse book, which is awesome. On the last page, all ten mice are sleeping in their little hay lined nest, snuggled in with each other. And Cooper likes to close the book, put it back up on the shelf, and declare, "I going to sleep in my nest with hay like a sleepy mouse. Momma put me in the nest with hay like a mouse." So I tell him his blankey is his hay, and his bed is a nest, and I'm picking up a biiiiiig mouse. Sometimes, Cooper says "I a mouse and the mouse needs a kiss on the cheek for sleeping in the hay" so the big mouse gets a kiss, too. So cute!
Cooper goes on kicks where he only want to read one book, like many toddlers do. The current book is our "Ten Little Mice" book, where a bunch of mice have fun adventures in the English countryside on the way back to their nest for the night. It is a lovely book that has gorgeous illustrations, fun animals like sheep, dragonflies, badgers and bees, and it encourages counting, and both Matt and I enjoy reading it. Oddly, one of the only things that Matt and I often disagree on is children's books- we have really different taste in kid books. I find this bizarre. But, both of us like the mouse book, which is awesome. On the last page, all ten mice are sleeping in their little hay lined nest, snuggled in with each other. And Cooper likes to close the book, put it back up on the shelf, and declare, "I going to sleep in my nest with hay like a sleepy mouse. Momma put me in the nest with hay like a mouse." So I tell him his blankey is his hay, and his bed is a nest, and I'm picking up a biiiiiig mouse. Sometimes, Cooper says "I a mouse and the mouse needs a kiss on the cheek for sleeping in the hay" so the big mouse gets a kiss, too. So cute!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Moment of weakness
This morning, as with many mornings, the quest to get both kids in the car in a timely and organized fashion to depart for daycare got a little hectic. As I was clipping Cooper into his car seat, he got extra mad and did something he very rarely does- he intentionally screamed as loud as he possibly could right into my ear. It was awful. And instead of doing something smart about it, I just clamped my hand over his mouth and yelled at him to stop it. It wasn't my proudest moment, but it happened, and at least it made him stop screaming in my ear.
Both the boys were now clipped in the car, so to compose myself a little I went into the house and drank a glass of water and then got in the car to drive. Cooper was silent, petting his favorite blanket and looking out the window as we drove. Grant was happily babbling to himself and playing with the velcro on his shoes. About halfway to daycare, Cooper piped up.
Cooper: Momma, don't do that.
Me: Don't do what?
Cooper: That.
Me: I don't understand.
Cooper: Don't put your hand on my mouth. I don't like that.
Me: I'm sorry buddy, I got frustrated. You were screaming and it hurt my ear.
Cooper: I don't like that. Give me my blankey to help me feel better.
So that's Cooper. He's so stinking insightful that it makes me want to cry. It really amazes me. And next time, I'll give him his blankey instead of clamping my hand on his mouth like an out of control fool.
Both the boys were now clipped in the car, so to compose myself a little I went into the house and drank a glass of water and then got in the car to drive. Cooper was silent, petting his favorite blanket and looking out the window as we drove. Grant was happily babbling to himself and playing with the velcro on his shoes. About halfway to daycare, Cooper piped up.
Cooper: Momma, don't do that.
Me: Don't do what?
Cooper: That.
Me: I don't understand.
Cooper: Don't put your hand on my mouth. I don't like that.
Me: I'm sorry buddy, I got frustrated. You were screaming and it hurt my ear.
Cooper: I don't like that. Give me my blankey to help me feel better.
So that's Cooper. He's so stinking insightful that it makes me want to cry. It really amazes me. And next time, I'll give him his blankey instead of clamping my hand on his mouth like an out of control fool.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
What'd ya do today
Various answers from the last week or two of daycare to the question, "Cooper, what did you do today at daycare?"
"We went to see the horsies and horsie poops." (wasn't clear when he said it if this is a noun or verb use of "poops")
"Ate lunch. It was good."
"Played on the swing-sweat with Hillen." (Killian)
"Saw the two ducks that Shane got and roosters too."
"The kids sang the monkey song."
"Bob pushed Bill and took his pretzels and I cried and Bob got a timeout in the timeout chair and Bill ate the pretzels and was OK." (Bob, who is about 18 months old, is not really named Bob, but he sure does seem to be on the path towards becoming a bona-fide bully. Oddly, Bob virtually never bothers Cooper, but Bob does bother Cooper's buddy Killian quite a bit despite Killian being twice Bob's size and nearly twice his age. I guess he's quite specific about his victims.)
"We went to see the horsies and horsie poops." (wasn't clear when he said it if this is a noun or verb use of "poops")
"Ate lunch. It was good."
"Played on the swing-sweat with Hillen." (Killian)
"Saw the two ducks that Shane got and roosters too."
"The kids sang the monkey song."
"Bob pushed Bill and took his pretzels and I cried and Bob got a timeout in the timeout chair and Bill ate the pretzels and was OK." (Bob, who is about 18 months old, is not really named Bob, but he sure does seem to be on the path towards becoming a bona-fide bully. Oddly, Bob virtually never bothers Cooper, but Bob does bother Cooper's buddy Killian quite a bit despite Killian being twice Bob's size and nearly twice his age. I guess he's quite specific about his victims.)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
There is meat in your butt
Well, we are back from the trip to Ennis, and it was fun. I'm very glad to be home, though. I spent the time hanging out with a large group of friends, 5 toddlers, and a wild array of dead animals- so it wasn't so much relaxing as it was a big change from my normal routine.
Matt successfully shot and killed three deer, which was his goal for the deer. He didn't get any pronghorned antelope, but that's OK. They are much harder to hunt. Maybe he'll have more luck next year.
Cooper, as one might have suspected, was highly wary of the rotating collection of freshly gutted dead deer in the garage of our giant rental cabin. The first day he was willing to go in and "look at the animals" but then my friend Kristina was showing our other friend Dalit how to remove a certain cut from the deer and... well... Cooper freaked out. I think he thought Kristina was hurting the deer with the knife. Mind you, the deer had been dead for about a day or two, but Cooper didn't know that or understand it. He was screaming and crying and backing up into things- it wasn't pretty. The other toddlers were all poking the eyeballs of the dead deer with sticks and being yelled at to quit touching stuff, so the contrast was really amazing.
After I got Cooper calmed down and away from the deer, I explained to him that we hunt deer, and then once they are dead, you can get meat out of them with a sharp knife. He kinda thought about that and said something about how he didn't want to look at the animals again. A friend called out from across the hall "He's gonna be a vegetarian at this rate!" I laughed.
Cooper isn't dumb, though. He thought about it for a while. At dinner that night, he told me that he eats meat sometimes, and there is meat in deer. I agreed, and we dropped it. The next day, he talked about how there are dead deer in the garage, but he didn't want to go look at them, and they have meat in them and you get the meat out with sharp knives. I said that was right and that deer have deer meat in them, and that we eat deer meat. And I left it at that.
On the third day, Cooper put all the pieces together. He started talking about how all the deer in the garage were dead, and how they had meat in them, and how Daddy was gonna cut off their tails and their heads, and how the meat in them was deer meat, and that Cooper likes to eat deer meat, and its yummy, and he's gonna eat deer meat for dinner and that will be good. All in one sentence, like that. I agreed with it all and told him that the deer meat is all over the deer, especially in the butt of the deer. I thought he'd find that funny. I didn't get a response, so I left it at that. And then he wanted to go look at the deer, which kinda surprised me, so we went to the garage. Needless to say, I didn't have to warn him not to touch them. And we chatted about the deer, and how they are dead, and how then you get the meat out with a knife. And then he said...
Cooper: "Mommy, there is deer meat in the deers butts."
Me: "Yup! And we eat it. It is good."
Cooper: "I like deer meat."
Me: "I'm glad."
Cooper: "I have deer meat in my butt."
Me: "No you don't. You are silly."
Cooper: "YOU HAVE MEAT IN YOUR BUTT! THERE IS MEAT IN YOUR BUTT! HA HA HA HA!"
So just like that, it was a funny joke. He's amazing.
Matt successfully shot and killed three deer, which was his goal for the deer. He didn't get any pronghorned antelope, but that's OK. They are much harder to hunt. Maybe he'll have more luck next year.
Cooper, as one might have suspected, was highly wary of the rotating collection of freshly gutted dead deer in the garage of our giant rental cabin. The first day he was willing to go in and "look at the animals" but then my friend Kristina was showing our other friend Dalit how to remove a certain cut from the deer and... well... Cooper freaked out. I think he thought Kristina was hurting the deer with the knife. Mind you, the deer had been dead for about a day or two, but Cooper didn't know that or understand it. He was screaming and crying and backing up into things- it wasn't pretty. The other toddlers were all poking the eyeballs of the dead deer with sticks and being yelled at to quit touching stuff, so the contrast was really amazing.
After I got Cooper calmed down and away from the deer, I explained to him that we hunt deer, and then once they are dead, you can get meat out of them with a sharp knife. He kinda thought about that and said something about how he didn't want to look at the animals again. A friend called out from across the hall "He's gonna be a vegetarian at this rate!" I laughed.
Cooper isn't dumb, though. He thought about it for a while. At dinner that night, he told me that he eats meat sometimes, and there is meat in deer. I agreed, and we dropped it. The next day, he talked about how there are dead deer in the garage, but he didn't want to go look at them, and they have meat in them and you get the meat out with sharp knives. I said that was right and that deer have deer meat in them, and that we eat deer meat. And I left it at that.
On the third day, Cooper put all the pieces together. He started talking about how all the deer in the garage were dead, and how they had meat in them, and how Daddy was gonna cut off their tails and their heads, and how the meat in them was deer meat, and that Cooper likes to eat deer meat, and its yummy, and he's gonna eat deer meat for dinner and that will be good. All in one sentence, like that. I agreed with it all and told him that the deer meat is all over the deer, especially in the butt of the deer. I thought he'd find that funny. I didn't get a response, so I left it at that. And then he wanted to go look at the deer, which kinda surprised me, so we went to the garage. Needless to say, I didn't have to warn him not to touch them. And we chatted about the deer, and how they are dead, and how then you get the meat out with a knife. And then he said...
Cooper: "Mommy, there is deer meat in the deers butts."
Me: "Yup! And we eat it. It is good."
Cooper: "I like deer meat."
Me: "I'm glad."
Cooper: "I have deer meat in my butt."
Me: "No you don't. You are silly."
Cooper: "YOU HAVE MEAT IN YOUR BUTT! THERE IS MEAT IN YOUR BUTT! HA HA HA HA!"
So just like that, it was a funny joke. He's amazing.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Attack of the fall viruses
It has been a rather challenging few weeks. The boys succumbed to no less than three separate viruses in as many weeks. First, they got Hand-Foot-Mouth disease, which can be really serious but in our case was just annoying. Cooper had some rough nights, as well as one day of bad fevers. Grant had one day of fever and then a few nights of multiple wakeups- and Grant did get a few of the characteristic blisters on his fingers, too. Matt and I both seemed to get "adult" h-f-m disease, which is super mild and in our house consisted of being whiny and having a sore throat.
Then they both got a mild cold. It wouldn't even be worth mentioning except that Matt got it from them and was pretty well sick for two days, and both of them seemed to be running a "most repulsive nose secretion" competition. Ugh.
Then, Grant ran a fever for two days with no other symptoms besides being very sleepy and grumpy. He was eating OK and would perk up periodically, but it was clearly a serious illness. On the third day he seemed fine, and then bizarrely on the fourth day he broke out in a subtle but nearly full body rash. So I went to Google and voila, exact description of Roseola, one of the zillion not terribly severe childhood viruses that nearly all kids get. Sure enough, in another day, the rash was gone and Grant was back to his perky chirpy self.
Then I got sick. Not badly sick, but grumpy, sore throat, lethargic, that kind of thing. Blarg! I feel about 95% of total capacity at this point, so it passed really fast, but still.
It is worth mentioning that ALL of this took place in less than three weeks. So aggravating!
OK, done venting. Tomorrow we are off to Ennis (near Yellowstone) for a family vacation. 5 day weekend! YAY!!
Then they both got a mild cold. It wouldn't even be worth mentioning except that Matt got it from them and was pretty well sick for two days, and both of them seemed to be running a "most repulsive nose secretion" competition. Ugh.
Then, Grant ran a fever for two days with no other symptoms besides being very sleepy and grumpy. He was eating OK and would perk up periodically, but it was clearly a serious illness. On the third day he seemed fine, and then bizarrely on the fourth day he broke out in a subtle but nearly full body rash. So I went to Google and voila, exact description of Roseola, one of the zillion not terribly severe childhood viruses that nearly all kids get. Sure enough, in another day, the rash was gone and Grant was back to his perky chirpy self.
Then I got sick. Not badly sick, but grumpy, sore throat, lethargic, that kind of thing. Blarg! I feel about 95% of total capacity at this point, so it passed really fast, but still.
It is worth mentioning that ALL of this took place in less than three weeks. So aggravating!
OK, done venting. Tomorrow we are off to Ennis (near Yellowstone) for a family vacation. 5 day weekend! YAY!!
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