I WANT that!

Dane is a super pointer! He points at everything now and either says "dat" (which I think means "that") or he said "yah" (which I think means "yes") The funniest is when the dogs are outside and he is pointing at the dogs through the window and yelling at them (or barking....hahaha!)

He also is getting bad habit which we are trying to break. If he has a hold of something - whatever it may be - and I take it out of his pudgy little hands he grabs on real tight and tries to not let me have it. Once I do get it from him he SCREAMS like he is so incredibly upset! I do not give him the item back, but I do say "we do not cry when we cant have our way" and i either give him something appropriate to play with, or I rub his back and tell him it's OK, and then I walk away till he calms down. I certainly hope that's the right approach - he doesn't cry for long and moves on quickly to something else. Hopefully this stage doesn't last too long!!

Going Banana's!

I had to redo the blog ( I accidentally screwed it up because I was messing around with the new blog templates and when I hit "preview" it changed everything and I couldn't get it back...ARGH!) so how do you like the new look? Monkeys for my monkey!!!!

I can kazoo - can you?

Monkey learned how to use a kazoo today! We got him one a long time ago and he loves to put it in my mouth so I can kazoo some of his favorite songs. Well today he was sitting on the floor playing and all of a sudden I hear him kazooing! He was laughing and kazooing! It was so cute! OF COURSE I didn't get it on camera....

He also has another ear infection/sinus infection. He got it on Tuesday - poor guy. Daycare called me to let me know they think he has pinkeye because his eyes were all goopy. His eyeballs weren't red - so I didn't think it was pinkeye, but in order for me to bring him back to daycare I had to take him to the doctor. I am glad I did because he has a double ear infection and an sinus infection! I didn't even really know he was sick! He does a really good job of hiding it...ugh, men.... :o) He is on Omnicef and is feeling better - in great spirits and his eyes are clear of the goop. He still has a nasty chest cough, but it's getting better too.

On Wednesday one of the ladies at daycare said "did you know your son barks?" Err.....no! Apparently he barks when he is at daycare?....I really need to either get Cora to stop barking so much, or separate the two of them! I think they might be misconstruing his babble for barking, but either way it's funny!

Today I was told that Dane likes to push other kids around on the little scooter car thing. They say he is a perfect gentleman and waits till they are ready to go and then gently pushes them around on it - so cute!! I wish I could set up a video camera in there all day and just watch him!!

It's official, I've had to throw away all the breast milk that I stored up. Even the most recent milk that I froze (Jan/Feb) made monkey's tummy hurt. It's either my chemistry, or the way I froze it. I've read that everything has to be sterile (well, I washed everything everyday, but there's no way to keep it sterile unless I would find a sterile environment to pump in at work, which is SO not the office in which I work) and that you have to freeze the milk right away. Well, I'd be at work for a couple hours after I'd pump, so the milk would be at room temperature before it was frozen. SO - needless to say, it could have been numerous things, but the end result is the same, it has to be pitched. It's pretty painful to throw away what I've worked so hard at hoarding - but if it's making his tummy hurt there is no sense in keeping it.

And besides, he is doing great at daycare with no bottle!!!! I was worried about that, but the ladies said it's like he doesn't even notice it's missing from his schedule. He is so good at going with the flow it's amazing!!

Comments....

Hey all, I have been having troubles leaving comments on your blogs - do you have troubles leaving comments on mine? I get "your request cannot be completed at this time, please try again later".....

Stephanie, I wanted to comment that it looks like you had a great birthday!!! That cake looks yummy! Happy Belated Birthday!

There were a couple of others that I wanted to comment on, but I just can't for some reason?!?!

Sorry!

Defense!! Defense!!

Is my monkey too little to learn some self defense? Apparently he is going to need it to protect himself from a bully at daycare. As I am sure you are already aware, he was bitten out of anger on Friday. Kids this age should not have the know-how to be doing anything out of anger, which makes me wonder - what is going on at his biters home? Luckily Dane is OK, and the bite did not draw blood. Had it drawn blood, the biter would been expelled (I asked why just because it didn't draw blood...biting is biting...and the teacher couldn't answer me). I was told that biting is not tolerated....um, the biter is still there so it IS tolerated in my book. One of the teachers said that this kid is a bully and they don't like him. For obvious reasons they cant tell me who it is, but I have my suspicions. When I hang out at daycare there is this one little boy that I always see pushing the other kids over. He is really big compared to anyone else in the class and honestly I think he should be moved into the toddler room. I do think that if Dane keeps getting hurt (almost every week I have to sign and incident report) we are going to switch day cares. It really sucks because I love the ladies at this center, but if the kids in Dane's class are bad, there is nothing that can be done I suppose. Anyway, my mixed feeling continue with this whole scenario. I've decided that since I cant figure out who I want to be mad at, I am not going to be mad at all. My monkey is OK, that's all that matters. Moving on....

We survived our first road trip!! Granted, it was only to Silver Bay, MN - which is about 3 hours away....We left in the morning and Dane slept the first 1.5 hours. Once he woke up I hopped in the back and fed him some snacks. He was great until he realized "hey, I've been sitting here for a long time!!" When we were about 30 minutes away from our destination he started to get crabby. I sang him some songs and let him play with whatever I could find in the backseat of D's car. We made it all in one piece!

We spent the day at the Smith's hanging out with their adorable new addition Isaiah. He is cute! He reminded me of how little Dane used to be, and it was weird holding him. I forgot how to be gentle! Makes me sad how much my monkey has grown up!

The trip home was great....we left at bedtime and Dane slept until we got to Duluth (about 45 minutes) There were so many street lights that it woke him up and scared him a little. I sat in the back with him and sung him some lullabies and he calmed down. Once we left Duluth the street lights went away and Dane was able to fall asleep. I climbed back into the front seat and I too fell asleep (sorry D!).

All in all it was a great trip and gave us a glimpse of what we are in for during our drive to PA! 3 hours is nothing compared to the 18 hours it will take us!

Age is just a number.....

Because it apparently means nothing when buying clothes for my monkey!

I received a $100 gift card for xmas (yes, I was supposed to spend it on me, but hey....) so I went to Kohls and bought Dane a whole bunch of P.J.'s as he grew out of all of his (they were all size 9-12 month). I bought him all 18 month thinking he would grow into them....whelp, boy was I wrong. Some of them are so tight I cant zipper or button them, and some of them fit perfectly, which means I will get about 2-3 weeks out of them. I should have bought 24 months, but that just looked so HUGE to me in the store!

I also bought him some summer outfits in 18 months, and like a dumba$$ washed them already and hung them up (cant return them now). Hopefully they fit and the P.J.s are just a fluke - oops! (hopefully baby #2 is a boy because he will have plenty of clothes that's for sure!)(and no, baby #2 is not even planned yet...so no high hopes mema and nanny!)

Dane is really into feeding me, or the dogs. Whatever he is eating he like to hold out so I can take a bite (not good for my diet, so I pretend I am taking a bite) and he is so happy when I do! He does this even with toys, if he is playing with or chewing on a toy, he will hold it out for me to play with or chew on....I guess I don't have to teach him that sharing is good behavior!

We almost made it a whole month!

We almost made it a whole month without going to the doctors office! Last time we were there was for monkey's 9 month checkup.

I took him in because he has been tugging and pulling at his ears a whole lot and just wanted to rule out another ear infection. Luckily his inner ear is not infected (yet). There is a lot of fluid behind his ear and the doc said that it could go either way. It could get better on its own (cross your fingers, eyes, and toes) or it could get worse. I just have to keep an eye on it. He said to make sure Dane is drinking lots of fluids and for me to put saline solution up his nose every time I change his diaper. Poor guy, if you've ever had to put saline solution up your nose it's not a pleasant experience.

On another note, he now weighs 22.5 lbs! He gained a whole pound in a month! What a little piggy! I think he actually grew too because all of a sudden none of his 9-12 month pants fit him anymore. They are all too short! He is now wearing 12-18 month jammies, pants, and shirts. He can still fit into some 9-12 month onsies, but some not. It all depends on the brand. He is still wearing size 4 diapers, but I might buy him size 5 to see if they fit better. I wish you could just buy one diaper of each brand and size to try them out. I have a closet full of infant size diapers because when he was really little we were trying out all kinds of diapers to find the best ones.

I have this lovely bruise on my neck from my vampire baby! When we were in the waiting room at the docs office Dane and I were dancing around and he leaned in to hug me and all of a sudden "CHOMP" he took a huge bite of my skin right above my collar bone. Boy did that hurt! I am trying to not make a big deal of it when he does it because he will only think it's funny and do it again, so I just say "OW - don't bite mommy" and I don't even think he realized he did anything wrong.

Not pumping at work is going great for me, not so great for Dane. I love the freedom of not having to bring all my supplies to work, and not having to clean and sterilize them every night, and then also having to ask my coworker to leave our office during "booby duty". Unfortunately for Dane, the frozen milk I have been giving him has been making his tummy upset. The milk is 6 months or less old and it has been in the deep freezer, but I don't think it's good anymore. He has had major diarrhea and some (sorry if TMI) stinky farts that puts our German shepherd Cora to shame! Luckily I have about 3-4 weeks worth of milk that is 3 months or less that I will use instead and just throw away the older stuff (I HATE to do that...ugh). I don't even think he needs a bottle at daycare, but they insist I bring one for him because just in case he doesn't eat what they are providing or whatever. I am OK with it, but once I run out of breast milk I am either going to have to pack my own snacks for him in case he doesn't eat what they are serving, or bring along a bottle of formula (gasp! I don't think that will go over too well with Dane, he HATES formula).

I am also on the fence with his whole morning nap too. At daycare they are able to keep him up until lunch time, but during lunch he falls asleep while eating. That to me is a sign of sleep deprivation?!?! I don't know how they keep him up, but on the weekends I am unable to. Maybe because there is more stimulation at daycare than at home? Either way, I sent a note to daycare stating that if he is tired to lay him down around 10, but don't let him sleep longer than 10:30. If he gets tired around 11 without having a nap, then just keep him up. I want him to still take his 1-3 nap and if they let him sleep longer than 10:30 he wont go down for his nap until 2 or 3. I dunno what to do. He does sleep 10-12 hours at night, so I don't think he is too sleep deprived, but I just don't like that he falls asleep almost every day during lunch time. Hmmm, maybe I will call daycare and tell them to disregard the note....ARGH!! I don't know what to do!! Well, maybe not...I think if he has been going this long without a morning nap, I dont want to digress.....ARGH!!

We are driving up to the north shore this weekend to visit Ken and Denice and their new little one Isaiah. I can't wait to hold him and it will remind me of how little Dane used to be!

To ween or not to ween

Man this is a hard decision.

Dane is eating table food so well that there really isn't a need for breast milk (as nutritional intake) anymore. During the week I nurse him first thing in the morning, then pump 6 ounces at work for his bottle at daycare for the next day, then I nurse him to sleep for his afternoon nap and then again at bedtime. During the weekend I only nurse him in the morning and before his nap and bedtime. I just think it's time to get rid of the bottle at daycare. (plus I'd really like to stop pumping...it's getting to be a hassle ever since I started sharing an office with someone! I have to ask him to leave every time it's "booby-duty" time).

This is a hard decision for me because I feel like I am letting monkey down for some reason. I don't know why, it's not like I am stopping breastfeeding altogether. I am just removing one of the feedings.

I talked to the ladies at daycare and they weren't very supportive. They like to have bottles on hand just in case the baby doesn't like whatever table food is being fed. But, Dane eats anything and everything.....Plus, I plan on bringing a box of snacks just in case (graham crackers, animal crackers, etc.) he is hungry in between breakfast - snack - lunch.

I also thought about how I am going to use up all the breast milk I have frozen (144 ounces). I think what I decided to do was just stop pumping at work, but still bring bottles of milk to daycare until all the frozen milk is used up, then stop bringing a bottle all together. If I start that tomorrow, then there is 6 weeks of frozen milk. In 6 weeks he will 11 months old and I am SURE he will not even want that bottle anymore anyway. The ladies say he really doesn't even finish the bottle during the day anyway.

My apologies. I am rambling and going back and forth on this. I must have called my sister 10000 times about this bugging her asking her what I should do. Ack!

Smugmug :)

We've finally uploaded some pics and videos to our smugmug website

Hartenstine.smugmug.com

Darren is still working on more videos, so check back daily! (the videos always seem to take the longest, dont they?)

Bandit and the two pugs

What is it with me and stray dogs? They seem to find me everywhere!!
A couple of weeks ago this georgeous huskey named Bandit wandered into our yard. Darren was out of town and I didnt know what to do. He kept coming on to our back porch and freaking Cora and Chai out. It was really really cold out and I felt bad for him, so I tried to get close to feed him and then try and get the phone number off his tag. After about an hour of this, I was finally able to lure him into our garage and got his collar off to call his mom. She came to get him and all was well. (The story was much longer....but I think I already told this story)
Well, thursday Bandit was back!He came right up to the back porch, I opened the door and said "Bandit, get in the garage" and he walked right into the garage. I called his mom and she came and got him - too funny! I told her to just program my number into her phone so when Bandit runs away to just call me because he seems to come straight to my house!

Yesterday when I was driving home from work I saw in the distance to little things running in the street. As I got closer I saw it was two pugs! I had to completely stop my car because they were in my lane standing there barking at my car. I got out to shoo them away and to see if I could catch one of them and look at their collar to call their owner, but they werent wearing any collars. Boy was it funny, they kept running in front of my car and parking their fat bodies in front of it and barking.....eventually I just decided to drive really slow and they moved. I hope they made their way back home, but it was quite comical!!

Can I wrap him in bubble wrap?

It sounds like a good idea to me! Poor guy has so many bumps and scratches on his noggin. I received two incident reports at daycare in the past two weeks! One time he got hit in the head by a rogue toy...and the other time he bumped his head on something. Sheesh!

The other day I went upstairs quick to grab something and Dane was in the living room playing. I thought he would be fine for - oh, the three seconds it took me to run upstairs and down again - but no, i was wrong! I hear and "boom" and "WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!". I run downstairs and he is sitting in the middle of the living room with a red mark on his forehead. I have no diea what happened, nothing was near him to have hurt him, but something did! He is fine of course. I asked the ladies at daycare if Dane gets more incident reports than other kids, and they said "oh my goodness - no!" Some kids are sent home with them weekly....even daily! I just wanted to make sure Dane isnt a klutz...ha!

He has completely deleted his morning nap from his schedule! Go Monkey! It was hard at first, but thanks to the ladies at daycare for keeping him up for me! He would usually take a 10-15 minute nap at 10:00, but I just felt that wasnt necessary. When he was taking such a short nap in the morning, his afternoon nap would be short too which would cause him to be so incredibly tired by 5:00pm. It was hard to keep him awake till bedtime. And Darren only gets to see Dane during the week after 5:00pm, and when he was tired and cranky (Dane, not Darren) it wasnt any fun for Darren to be around him...SO - it's a success! Dane will nap from 12:45 - 2:30ish...it's great! and it's his only nap during the day (I am knocking on wood this schedule sticks!)

We've picked our dates in which we are coming to PA. We will leave MN on June 9th and come back June 21st (or later, it all depends) We are going to have Dane's First Birthday Party while we are in PA so the family can come and see him! (and meet him for that matter!) I picked Blue's Clues as the theme - that is Dane's favorite morning show! His favorite afternoon show is Yo Gabba Gabba. We've moved on from the Wonder Pets I guess....

I need to get him a rocking horse of some sort. At daycare there is a rocking dog, and Dane just loves to sit on it and rock! He is really good at it too! Maybe he'll get one for his b-day?!?! He loves when I push him around in his car, he can even push himself backwards in it! I guess frontwards is a lot harder.

And in case anyone didn't know, I am from Lebanon, PA. There is a movie coming out called Lebanon, PA and it was filmed in my hometown and in my highschool! How cool is that? The link below is to the website.....

Lebanon, PA Movie Link