Wakey Wakey Momma! It's time to cry wolf!

For the past several nights monkey has been waking up at midnight and two am. No idea why - but I'd sure like to figure it out! He cries his loudest shrillest cry, so I go to him, try and calm him down, but he reaches his cute little hands out of the crib and hugs me and says "momma"...so, before my heart rips out of my chest I pick him up and cuddle with him on the glider. He snuggles in and starts talking to me. We have hours and hours of conversation! Once my back and butt start hurting, I put him back in his crib and he screams and screams. I say "good night" once again, close the door and he immediately falls asleep. Could this be separation anxiety all over again? I know I shouldn't go in to him, but this is so out of character for him that I don't know if something is really wrong (poopy diaper, teething, etc.) until I go in and check.
Ugh...I cant wait for him to start talking for real... :o)

it's 6, not 4

Monkey has SIX teeth coming in, not FOUR :( poooooooor guy. Luckily it really isn't phasing him too much. As long as i keep him pumped full of ibuprofen and teething tablets. I also make sure he has plenty of things to chew on and keep him busy playing.

Yesterday we asked him how old he was and he held one finger up - where did he learn that? It was so cute! He also knows where his belly is, head, ears, nose, feet and eyes. This kid I tell yah....

When i push him on his bike all i have to say is "ring your bell" and he starts ringing it - and when we are playing/swimming in the pool all i have to say is "kick your feet" and he does! Its amazing what he understands. No wonder kids his age get frustrated that they cant speak yet. He KNOWS what we are saying, he just cant communicate it back. Of course, he is learning more words each and every day!

When i took the tour of the toddler room I was informed that some of the kids only a few months older than Dane are already pooping in the toilet! Holy Cow! So, now anytime Dane is pooping we are saying "do you have to poop?" so hopefully he "gets it" and we can start putting him on a training toilet. Don't worry - we wont rush it, but hey - if we can get him to do it why not?

It's Official

As of September 7th, Dane will be moved to the big boy toddler room at school! Maybe now the teachers can stop mumbling about how is has been ready for the toddler room since 11mos....haha! In actuality, some of the teachers were in tears over this. They are going to miss my little man, but at least there is a giant window separating the two rooms and they can look in on him from time to time.
Dane isn't the only one in his class to transition - his little love triangle is following him. Brady and Ava are coming with him. Brady is Dane's BFL (buddy for life) and Ava is the girl they both fight for her attention. OMG its so cute....
We will be given a tour of the new room and a run down of the daily activities. The only major change i notice is that the kids sleep on cots instead of in cribs. Dane doesn't take naps there so it wont really effect him. They also allow the kids to use forks and spoons (monkey uses them at home) and allow the kids to drink from a cup and not a sippy (again, he does that at home). But, i am sure after the tour i will have more insight into how much different the infant rooms are from the toddler rooms!
My big boy is growing up sooo fast!

Another one bites the dust

Our little monkey was sent home with yet another incident report....he bit another kid....yowza! Honestly I think I am more worked up about it than anyone else. The teachers could care less..well, they care, but there is nothing that can be done and it is completely normal. It's just yet another reason he is ready for the toddler room!
We finally got to go out in the pool yesterday - after a week long hiatus. It was just too darn cloudy and windy, but yesterday and today it's been hot hot hot and sunny! Did I mention it was hot?!?!
I decided to throw Chai in the pool to see if she could swim....nope.....she sunk.....to the bottom.....and then freaked out. It was sooooooo hilarious! She didn't think so....

I love to eat with my feet!

This morning I gave Dane a bowl of cheerios to eat while he watched Mickey Mouse Club House.....I am eating my own cheerios as I mess around on Facebook, and look over at him and he is picking up cheerios with his toes and eating them!! What a goof!!!

He also learned a new word last night...."cack oooor" (cracker)....For snack last night we had saltines and kept saying "cracker, do you want another cracker? are you done with your cracker?" and things like that and I guess he picked up on it! Just now he pointed to a box of Nilla Wafers and said "cack oooor mama?" GOSH his mind is like a sponge!! Guess I need to start watching what i say.....ha!

Last night we were sitting in the living room playing and all of a sudden he goes into other room and comes back and throws - and i mean THROWS - his shoes at me and says "ou ieee" (out side) ACK! So another word he learned out of the blue!! Plus, the fact that he knows he needs shoes to go outside is just incredible....

I wonder what we are going to learn today? :o) We are going shopping for a new bed, probably going to go with a sleep number....so maybe by the end of the day we can get him to say the word "bed" !!

I changed it!

I changed the background - let me know what you think!!

Now onto changing the pics....they are so old, but it's nice to reminisce about how little Dane used to be!!

Oh Geez

Here I go again, slacking when it comes to the blog....
I just think there is SO much going on, and it's SO beautiful outside I don't think to sit down at the computer and type...but, since you've bugged me (just kidding!) I will blog....
Here we go!!
Since it's been so long, I don't know where to begin. I guess I can start by saying that I didn't even notice that the picture I use for the background isn't even available anymore, so I guess I have to start looking for a new blog template!
Monkey is doing FANTASTIC! He has 4 teeth coming in all at once, his two bottom molars and two other teeth on the bottom. They keep coming to the surface and going back down. Some days he can handle the pain and others he just cant deal - who can blame him?
He LOVES going in the pool - oh yeah, we bought a pool! It's 12 feet in diameter and about 2-3feet deep. It goes deeper, but we only filled it up to about Dane's chest. I put arm floaters on him and he just walks around playing with toys, its so fun! I straddle the floating raft and put him on it to and bounce up and down - saying "ride em cowboy!" he has so much fun it gives him the hiccups every time. He has only pooped in the pool once thank goodness, and thank goodness for filters, chlorine, and the skimmer. Sheesh - that was a fiasco in itself! I had the wrong size swimmers (the diapers that are made to get wet) on him and it just kinda fell out into the water - GROSS! But its all clean now!
I bought him a tricycle - its so fun to push him around in it! It has a handle that i hold on to that steers the bike, so we use that when we go on walks instead of a stroller. He likes to ring the bell and pretend he is "driving".
He is learning more and more words - and can usually repeat what we say but takes him a bit to associate what the work means to the item. He does say and associate banana (nana), pizza (pizza), water (wah), dog (dog), no (no), taco (taco), bye bye (bye bye), hi (hi) and a few others. He still signs "more" and "eat", but usually only has been signing "all done". When he wants something he will point at it and say "aaah?" and we know what he wants. Oh, he can say "ball" too, and "shoes". He will actually give me his shoes and hat when he wants to go outside and play! What a little man....
Daycare almost every day keeps telling me how ready he is for the toddler room - it's getting to the point that i think they are complaining...but i cant make September come any faster! Its their rules, not mine. If i had it my way he'd be over in that room already...it's bigger and more fun things to play with. They also use utensils over there, which he uses at home but not currently in the infant b room. So, to keep consistent with home it's preferable to be in the toddler room. An added bonus is that when he moves to the toddler room, daycare cost decreases! Woo Hoo! I am not sure by how much, but any decrease is good for me! The ratio for teachers to kids goes from 1:4 to 1:6 - so they need less staff, which means less $$.
Anywho - we are completely enjoying our summer so far and i hope everyone is too! Sometime before the end of summer I'd really like to get to the zoo - i think monkey would enjoy that!!

Slacker!!!

Yep - that's me! Its almost been a month since I've written a blog....oops!

So much as happened in a month.....we spent a wonderful two weeks in PA with family, we had an absolute blast! I loved watching Dane play and interact with my sister's three kids. They got along splendidly! I cant wait for our next trip back, or they can take a trip here! *wink *wink :oP

All is going well with mister Dane...he ended up weaning himself from breast milk while we were in PA. He wanted nothing to do with it, which was hard for me at first, but now that I haven't been breastfeeding it's really nice! I don't have to wear tops that are conducive to it, and I can now eat (and drink) what I want! I also can now diet the way I want too...only a few more lbs before I hit my pre-pregnancy weight!

While we were back in PA Dane cut two top molars! Luckily it happened while we were staying at my sisters because he was too busy to notice the pain. When we left her house to go to Darren's moms, he wasn't as active and started to notice the pain and was super cranky (which is totally acceptable!). I kept him pumped full of Tylenol and it seemed to keep the pain tolerable for him.

I think he has officially started his terrible twos though...I know, I know, he is only 14 months old - but he throws temper tantrums left and right! I was discussing this with his teachers actually today and they said that he is the youngest toddler they've ever met (they have said that to me on many occasions actually) and that he is hitting milestones in record succession. He threw some temper tantrums before, but nothing like he does now. He arches his back, throws his head up, lays on the floor and just wails! I just ignore it of course, but sometimes its just so frustrating I walk away from him and count to 10. I know its a stage and we will get through it, but sheesh!! That's why i guess they call it the "terrible" twos!

He has also learned to walk (well, sit and slide) down the steps! I don't think we need to keep the baby gates up anymore (unless we don't want him to go up or down of course). He does really well getting up and down that sometimes I lose him! I looked away for honestly a split second yesterday and he was already upstairs in my bathroom! The little bugger!


Oh, and one more thing to mention, he loves coloring in his coloring books and on the sidewalks with chalk! He's my little Picasso!! I am going to buy him some of that writable soap for in the tub. Actually, i DID buy some but it melted in the car...oops!!

Dane's Lawnmowing Service

Anyone need their lawns mowed this summer? How bout your leaves raked? Dirt Shoveled?

Call 1-800-WILL WORK 4 BANANA'S

We are having SO much fun so far this summer!! Dane loves to push his mower around the yard, and loves to watch daddy push his mower around the yard!! We go to the playground almost every day (there is one in our neighborhood) and monkey loves to swing (of course)!!

One Year Old!! Oh My!!!

Can you believe my little monkey is now a TODDLER? *sigh* where has the time gone?

We took him in for his one year check up yesterday (I know, I know, mean mommy and daddy getting him shots for his b-day) and he is 24.7lbs and 30 1/2 inches tall. He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. What a big boy! He passed all his tests too (basically just questions that i had to answer, like if he is picking stuff up, walking, talking, etc.) and the doc said he is excelling in all areas for his age!! Woopeeee!! But we already knew that :o)

So, a funny thing happened at daycare.....As you all know, Dane has been bitten a total of three times (that I am aware of) at daycare. Once by a boy and twice by the same little girl. The third time he was bitten I was extremely upset - asking what the heck is going on at this facility that my child keeps getting bitten? They told me that they haven't had biters in over a year, and for some reason this age group of kids that he is in just seems to have biters. My main concern - not only of his safety - but is that he will learn that biting is OK. WHELP, he learned that biting.... is..... OK..... Wouldn't you know it, as I was sitting there playing with him and another little girl, this little girl went to take the toy away from Dane, so he leaned down and bit her arm! I was so shocked! I loudly said NO BITING and tapped him on the back. He immediately starting crying because I've never yelled at him like that before and it startled him. I don't think the little girl even noticed she was bitten. There was just a lot of slobber and small indentations on her arm. (I plan to check her arm out when i see her next for bruising, because every time Dane has been bitten it was hard enough for bruising).
Anyway, I didn't want to be like "I told you so" but that is exactly how I felt. He learned that biting is OK, so now i have a biter on my hands. Now, i completely understand that kids will be kids, and at this age everything is oral and most of them are teething, BUT - biting is not OK. I am just so beside myself about this.

Anyways, Monkey has learned to blow on his own food to make it "cool"! I guess from watching me blow on his food, he mimics me, and before he takes bites he blows on his food - how cute!

He hasn't learned too many new words, it's still mama, dada, nanoo (banana), pizza, dah or dog, dat (that), mieee (mine), woof, dayee (doggie), yah (yes). He has started to sign too - they gave me a "cheat sheet" today to start working with him on some signs, but he already knows the sign for more and done (of COURSE his language revolves around food...haha!)

We leave for PA soon - yippeeee!! It will be great to see the family and have them meet Dane!