Monday 31 December 2007

Still no teeth, but MAN is he a suck!!

Zachary is fully into the teething now. His little cheeks were red yesterday and he's drooling like CRAZY! He's also crankier than normal (still not too bad, though). He's not sleeping through the night anymore and he's harder to get down. Last night, after his 3am (or so) feeding he wouldn't settle, so I took him downstairs to try the swing. No go. So, I had to sleep with him on my chest on the couch so we could get some rest. Why are men so sucky when they're not feeling well?!

Saturday 29 December 2007

Zach was very glad to see the boobs!

And by that I don't mean Jean-Paul and I!

Jean-Paul and I got to have date night last night! Yay! We went out to dinner, saw "I Am Legend" then (courtesy of Uncle Darry - thanks for the voucher!) stayed at the Best Western near the city (pictured below). It was so nice to eat a couple meals (dinner and breakfast the next morning) uninterrupted by kids. And we got to sleep!! Without having to get up at all!! And we got to "sleep in" (a bit) - we had to make it down to breakfast by about 9:30 or we'd miss it. Then after we ate we crawled back in bed for a bit again and chilled (Jean-Paul slept again). We left just before noon ('cuz we had to) and went back home. The kids were very glad to see us. Especially Zach!! He gave a great big smile when he saw us. When I held him, he climbed up me and started gnawing at my shirt! I'm not sure it was me he missed!! He was looking at me like he thought we would never return, gone forever. He looked so relieved! Alexandria gave us big hugs and was very happy with the little box of "Fruit Loops" and mini jams/peanut butter/cream cheese that we stole, I mean, brought her.

And a big thanks to Nana and Grandpa for babysitting the kids all night - especially since Zachary didn't go to sleep until 12:45!!!There's the whirlpool we didn't get to use because they were having "quality issues". I'm not sure I want to know exactly what that means...

Friday 28 December 2007

Soon, I promise!

I'll get around to updating this blog soon. Really I will! There's so much to put on here I don't know where to start - Christmases (FIVE of them), Zachary's new tricks, and so on....

Stay tuned!

Saturday 15 December 2007

What a great day!

Thanks to everyone who came to our Christmas dinner today. I think it went off really well. (Sorry it was a bit late! Blame the damn big turkey. The roaster lid was open a crack....) Jean-Paul did a really good job cooking up ALL THAT FOOD! It was yummy. I hope everyone got home ok with the impending storm. The kids love their presents. And they were both pooped! (For Alex that was both figuratively and literally, unfortunately.....)

Thursday 13 December 2007

Alex's answer...

... to Zach getting into her toys!


As you can see, it didn't bother him much!

Another milestone


Zachary got into sitting on his own last night - and he was pretty proud of himself! (And Jean-Paul was actually home to see it! Rare these days......)

Friday 7 December 2007

I can't believe how caught up on gender the world still is...

From stores, to clothes, to McDonald's and even Santa!
It really becomes apparent when you have kids just how thick that gender line still is. After all we've been through and after all the "treat kids equally" and "don't treat girls any different than boys", it's still amazes me how much difference there is between "girls" things and "boys" things.

Go into any clothing store. Boys things are rough and tumble and girl clothes are frilly or cutesy - and usually pink or purple. Even the little infant diaper shirts or onesies have to have a bow on them! Toy stores are no better. The promo pictures are very biased (these are from the Fisher-Price website). Of course it's the boys that play with cars and dinosaurs and trains, while girls play with the kitchens and houses...
McDonald's still asks "Would you like the boy's toy or the girl's toy?" I try hard not to feed into it and respond with "The car, please." Then I get, "So, the boy's toy." It bothers me when they assume. One of their promos with either cars or dolls/bracelets. We were at the counter and the employee went to get the toys to show Alexandria so she could choose. The lady came back with only girls choices. Alex looked at them and didn't say anything. (She'd seen the toys in the display and knew there were cars.) I had to say to the employee, "I think she'd like to see the cars." At this point Alex isn't really affected by the labels. She just picks what she wants and doesn't know any different. Soon, though, she may feel like she shouldn't want the "boys" stuff, even though she may prefer it. It will be worse with Zach. What if he likes the "girl" toy better? Maybe he'd rather have a unicorn than a race car. I don't want him to feel as if that's not ok, because it is!

And Santa! Yes, even Santa... Alex sat on his lap and Santa said, "What would you like for Christmas? Dolls?" I just thought, oh man, et tu, Santa? Alex replied back, "I like dinosaurs."

I love Alex's mix of "girl" and "boy" preferences. She wants My Little Pony and dinosaurs. She loves her kitchen and her race cars. I hope will instill the confidence in her to continue following her personal preferences, no matter what society may put on her.

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Alex doing her best Clark W. Griswold impression

We're home!

A couple days later than planned, but we're home!

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Ditto

Same as yesterday's post.

Still at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Still at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Still had to have Zach sleep on/with me for the last half of the night.

I am starting to miss Zach's exersaucers and swing! Oh, and Daddy, too!!

Monday 3 December 2007

It's December?!

To quote the late, great Dr. Seuss:

How did it get so late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?

Stranded, but it's not so bad

Our stay with Grandma and Grandpa has been extended - by Mother Nature. High winds, snow squalls. Welcome to winter in Southwestern Ontario. We were to head back today. Nope. Not a chance. Not with two small kids. The buses are cancelled and TWO of the schools in town are closed (but not Grandma's - she's quite ecstatic about that as you can imagine).

Zachary is doing better. He's still got a bad cough, but he's not hacking all the time. It sounds pretty productive, so I'm hoping we're near the end of it.

So, Friday was the fever/emergency room night.
Saturday he wouldn't do anything but nurse. He didn't want to eat, but at least he was taking milk. Saturday night he wouldn't settle. He was fine only IF I was holding him chest to chest and STANDING. Not sitting and certainly not lying down. After two hours of trying to get him to settle - and starting to lose my mind - I got out the carrier and put him in it. At least my arms were free. They were starting to get really, really tired. He finally fell asleep and I was able to get some sleep (sitting up) for about three hours. He woke up and nursed again. Still wouldn't go into the crib, but at least he would settle on me in the bed. We both got (some) sleep.
Last night (Sunday - and still at Grandma and Grandpa's) was a bit better. He went into his crib around 8:30, but that only lasted a half hour. I fed him again, he settled down (on me) and finally slept (on me) for half the night. He nursed again and fell asleep on me. I was able to put him next to me and he slept that way for the rest of the night. He snuggled in and we ended up "spooning" for a bit, too. (Do you call it spooning when it's with your child????) So, got a bit more sleep than the last two nights. I'm still a bit fuzzy from lack of real sleep. I can't sleep well with the babe in bed with me (especially on me) because I wake with his every move.

We'll see what tonight brings.

Oh, and on another note, Alexandria is doing really well with the potty. She doesn't want anything to do with my telling her when she should go, but she's been making it there on her own. Only one accident here at Grandma and Grandpa's place - and that was within the first hour of arriving here. And she's wanting to go "commando" all the time now, too! (I think the bare bum is helping with the going potty, though, so I'm allowing it!)

Saturday 1 December 2007

A bloody lip and the emergency room

And, those two things were not related. We had a great first night at Grandma and Grandpa's! Alexandria was having fun spinning around on the floor until...... BAM! Face first into the hardwood. Bit her top lip and has a bruise on her nose that showed up this morning. Yes. There was blood. I think we've actually done remarkably well to make it to 3 years, 3 months and 9 days with no blood from our daughter. She's ok, though. Mommies and popsicles make things better.

Now. The emergency room. Zach's wasn't feeling great yesterday. Stuffy nose. Little cough. Nothing much. Around 7pm he had a fever of around 100F. We let him go in just his diaper for a bit and that seemed to help. We went to bed. He wouldn't sleep for more than about 45 minutes before waking up. I had him in bed with me for a bit to try to help BOTH of us get some sleep. Around 1am I took his temp again. He was up to about 102F. He wasn't settling anymore and he was just moaning. (A cute moan, but a moan nonetheless). Also, his coughing had started getting barky. I called the hospital emerg and, of course, they said to bring him in because they couldn't say much without seeing him. It was actually probably a good thing we were at the grandparents since there was no one in the emergency room and it was a fairly quick visit. He got a dose of something that starts with a D and we headed home with the advice to follow up with our family doc this week.

He slept in his car seat for the rest of the night (waking about every hour or so, but would go back down fairly easily). He's pretty tired and sad today. He's sleeping a lot (wish I was, too!!) Alex still has a bit of a fat lip, but she's doing ok, too.

Friday 30 November 2007

To Grandmother's house we go...

We're heading off to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a few days. Maybe we'll even squeeze in a visit to the jolly ol' fat man, too!

Wednesday 28 November 2007

From elation to frustration

If you read my previous post, you know what the elation was about. Well, later today I had to clean up poopy undies again.... Oh well. Two steps forward, one step back.... One day it will all be over. She's going up too fast!! Although I won't miss cleaning dirty undies, I sure will miss my baby girl. (I just have to keep telling myself to enjoy this while it lasts.)

And Zach's been sleeping, too


By the way, Zachary has been sleeping through the night for about a week and a half now. (With the odd time here and there where we might have to stick a soother in his pie-hole.)

We're having a Poopy Party!!


Yay! Yay! Oh, and did I say YAY!! Alex pooped on the potty! On her own! With no coaxing from me! She came over to me carrying the little pot and there it was. She was so proud! (She was going commando while she was playing. I'm sure that helped!) So tonight we are going to meet Lilly (and her Mommy and Daddy) and have Alexandria's "ice cream poopy party" at Dairy Queen.

(If someone had told me 10 years ago I would ever be this excited over poop - and not even my own - I would have thought they were crazy....)

Wednesday 21 November 2007

The "Yay" Day took a soggy turn.....

When I went to take Alex to the potty (right after my last post) it was too late. She said "I just peed". The potty lid was up, so I got excited that she peed in there. Nope. No pee in the potty. She was wet. So was the floor. The carpeted floor. Oh well. So it goes.....

It's a Yay Day

Yay! Zach slept through the night again last night! Two nights in a row!! *fingers crossed*

Yay! We're back with our T.O. doctor. Turns out they never received a transfer request anyway, so we're still on her patient roster. And we don't have to worry about transferring our records back. (Although I do have to go and get the kids' immunization records back from the doctor we're leaving..... Awkward....)

Yay! Alexandria ALMOST made it to the potty herself - without being told to go. She was at playgroup and went into the bathroom on her own and was putting the potty seat on when the floodgates opened up. Even though it ended with soggy clothes (and socks and shoes...) it was still a big step in the right direction.

Speaking of the potty, it's time a get her on the pot again now. Bye!

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Zach Update

We had our "6 month" appointment today (although he'll be 7 months tomorrow!). He got his shots, poor babe. He now weighs 6.6 kg - or 14 1/2 lbs. He's gone up, but he's dropped percentiles, so we go back in a little over a month to check in again. We're actually hoping to get back in with our doc in T.O. Jean-Paul and I are on the same page on this one. We're not really happy with our new doctor and we LOVED our old one. Hopefully she can take us back - although that does mean driving to Toronto for appointments....

I knew I was done when...

... I started arguing with a pillow. Yes. I argued with a pillow and the pillow won. Sad.

I have absolutely no reason to be this tired today. Zachary slept through the night last night! He finished his last nursing around 10pm, went down and stayed down until about 7:30. (Jean-Paul had to stick the soother in once). Not bad at all.

And Alex is doing really well on the no-pee-accidents front. As for the poop..... Still cleaning that out of her clothes about every other day. She's not even waiting for her "night-time" diaper anymore.... I'm trying to find the right balance between not being upset with her, but not making it an enjoyable experience for her either....

Friday 16 November 2007

Zach enjoying his Bumbo seat





Hi!

Thursday 15 November 2007

Good news and bad news

Well. Alexandria has gone close to week with no pee accidents. She still doesn't tell us she has to go, but we're pretty consistent with putting her on.

The last time she pooped was Sunday... Today's Thursday... That's a long time!
The good news? She finally went poop today.
The bad news? Guess.....

Monday 12 November 2007

3 days, 4 holes and 1 smart-ass response

We've now gone 3 days in underwear with NO accidents! Yay! (Still no #2 in the pot, yet, but it's a good start!) It's been over a full week in undies and Alex is doing pretty well. She's still not at the point where she tells us she has to go, we just keep putting her on, but she'll get there. (Somehow I don't think I'll be interrupting her Algebra class in high school asking her if she has to go potty).

Zachary was discovering (and in some cases rediscovering) the orifices in his face today. First it was nose, mouth, nose, mouth, nose, mouth a few times. Then he stuck his finger in his ear, tried to stick his finger in his eye and then decided his nose was the best one for now.

As for the smart-ass response? That didn't come from Jean-Paul. Alexandria is getting pretty good! She wanted to watch a Blue's Room DVD and I said "A little later." She paused and then replied, "A lot now." Gotta love her!

Friday 9 November 2007

This is SOOOOOO not fun!!

Two accidents (so far!) today. The first one I discovered by sitting in the wet spot on the playroom floor.... On the upside maybe Max won't pee there anymore!!

Second one wafted.... I am getting so tired of cleaning sh!t from underwear, pants and little girls!!

(Doesn't help that I'm still sick and would just like to nap! And that Jean-Paul is out all day and all night working today.....)

Thursday 8 November 2007

Today's Potty Play-by-Play

Alexandria: I have a poop in my diaper.
Mommy: But you're not wearing a diaper.....

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Back to the undies...

Alexandria decided to go back to underwear on Monday. I think she thought that once she peed, etc in her undies that they got tossed out - just like diapers do. So it was upsetting to her to think her My Little Pony underwear was gone. I had an idea that was the reason, so I had her help me with the laundry on the weekend. I made sure she got to take her underwear from the washer and put it in the dryer. When she saw the undies she said, "My underwear!". I explained that we wash those just like any other clothes. That night she thought she'd wear the undies to bed. She was told once she starts waking up with a dry diaper, she can wear them to bed, too.

So, anyway, Monday. She went to Fran's (daycare). No accidents! Tuesday. Went to Fran's. One accident (at naptime on Fran's duvet - sorry, Fran!). We'll see how today goes. The next big step will be getting her to go #2, too. She's been bribed with going to the store to buy more My Little Pony undies if she does.

That's the play-by-play on our toilet training adventure - or sorry, toilet "learning" as we're now supposed to refer to it!

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Maybe it's a mom thing..

..but I think Alex's artwork is pretty impressive for her age! She's come a long way in a very short time with her drawings. This picture is of a turtle (with no shell, apparently) and a fish. She's getting really good at faces, too.

Nooooooo!! Say it ain't s(n)o(w)!!

Yup.... it's the white stuff..

Saturday 3 November 2007

Today I learned that blue is the hardest marker colour to remove


I was sitting in the office and she was just outside in the playroom colouring. I could see her, but not what she was colouring. I'd look out and see the she was still sitting there, colouring away. When I went out to see what she was making, this is what I saw :0 !!

Friday 2 November 2007

A Zach update - This little piggy!!

The food is going better. He's getting the concept now. He still likes to hold something in his hand while he's eating, but it doesn't have to be in his mouth the whole time. (That was making feeding him a bit tricky!). He's actually opening his mouth when the spoon comes. He's leaning into the food to say "more". He's eating a lot at one time. He'll polish off a whole jar no problem!! Now if we can just get him to sleep through the night!!!!!He's definitely got some mobility now, too. (I'll post the video later). He can get up on all fours - with his head UP now, not buried into the floor! But when he tries to move from that position he goes backward. He's doing the "wounded soldier" and dragging himself forward. He'll actually push something away to chase it. It's cute. He's pretty proud of himself.

I think he knows the difference between the animals on his border, too. Ask him where the zebra is and he'll look right at it and touch it. Then smile his "I'm so smart"-proud-of-himself smile. Too, too cute!

Our Little Triceratops



Getting the hang of it. (Didn't take long, of course!!)
Not too sure about this house!
Look at all that loot!!

This is how excited she WAS about the underwear...

This was on Hallowe'en (after the trick-or-treating was done).



A swing and a miss


Well. We're back to diapers today....

I think the fact that Alexandria is sick is not helping. She's feeling like crap and I don't think she wants to take on this big thing. This morning we took her into the bathroom for her morning pee and she didn't want to. We told her to try and she sat down. Then she just started to bawl because she didn't want to go. She didn't want to wear underwear.

So instead of this being a huge battle (that she will win) we decided to let her go back to diapers and told her to let us know when she wanted to wear her My Little Pony and Dora underwear again.....

She's not going to go to high school wearing diapers..... right?

Thursday 1 November 2007

It didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped...

... but it's a start. Today was Alexandria's first day in "big girl underwear". My Little Pony underwear to be precise. The morning went fine. Lunchtime went fine. We were at the mall with the Paterson's for lunch and we spent some extra time in the mall afterwards. While in WalMart, I notices Alex was starting to walk funny. She had peed. So, off to the washroom to change. We changed her undies, pants and even socks..... Later in the afternoon she was busy playing when an aroma started wafting.... THAT was not a fun change!! (We're down one pair of underwear... It wasn't worth saving....) The after nap pee made it into the potty, but the after supper one didn't.

So, we're 2 for 5 today.... We hope tomorrow will be better!!

Monday 29 October 2007

NFB of Canada: Sauna Safety

Here is Jean-Paul's version of the previous video:


Sunday 28 October 2007

A little too long in the sauna....

Holy BLOWOUT, Batman!!

You know it's a doozie when you start taking off the shirt and there's poop on his elbow.....

Ya. It went all the way up from the diaper, up his back, into his sleeves and started to go down his arms. And, he did all this while STANDING UP in his exersaucer, so gravity was not working with him!!

(He had been stockpiling for a day or so..... At least it happened here at home!!)

Thursday 25 October 2007

A boobless Daddy

This is one of those "kids say the darndest things" kinda entries.

I was at my class tonight, so Jean-Paul was with the kids, as he is every Thursday night. Jean-Paul told Alexandria that he had to go feed Zachary. She replied, "But you can't feed Zachary, you don't have a boob."

Thursday 18 October 2007

Eureka!

Make sure you've read the previous entry first.

Today Zach discovered he doesn't have to make a choice! He's got TWO hands so he can play with BOTH at once!! Woo hoo!!

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Penis or feet? Penis or feet?

Decisions, decisions!! Zach doesn't know what's more fun to play with - his penis or feet. His feet still generally win out. However, the penis is a much rarer treat (only at diaper changes, really), so he does "seize" the opportunity when he can!

And here's some more cute, naked Zach. (We had to put him in his crib because he peed all over the change pad cover. A hazard when allowing him to "play free").

Saturday 13 October 2007

Another update

The last entry was about Alexandria and her current "why" stage. This post is about Zach. He can now grasp a ball and pick it up with one had. I think he surprised himself. He can also move around - slowly, but surely. He's not crawling, but he's definitely scooching! And, I mentioned teething earlier (http://monkeyngobo.blogspot.com/2007/09/three-of-us-are-teething.html), well today I can see white buds under his gums, so the teeth are right there. Won't be long. Also, it's almost time for "solids" (if that's what you call the goopy cereal they get). I think we'll try rice cereal Monday night. We'll see how that goes. Fingers crossed that Zach doesn't have any allergies, either. It was pretty easy going with Alex.