To Kyle and Katelyn's update page
She loves to hoist her feet up in the air and grab onto them with her hands. Although she's been able to hold things that are put in her hands, she can now reach out for objects to try to get them. She had Kyle in stitches the other day trying to grab a toy car on the table (she was sitting on my lap). She couldn't quite manage a full grasp but kept pushing at it and flipping it over in the attempt which was cracking him up. And where is her first tooth? She's chewing her hand all the time and waking up all night. She manages to get a foot and hand out of her wrap and flips herself over, and yes, starts crying (I'm sooooooo tired!). If you hold her in a sitting position on your lap and support her by letting her hold onto your fingers, she will launch herself forward while aiming her mouth at one of your fingers so she can chew on it! :o)
Kyle is doing pretty well with potty training. He had some accidents off and on, but has been accident free for one whole week. We still have him in his diaper at night, but often he is dry in the morning, and one time he got up in the middle of the night and woke Jeff up to tell him he had to go and needed help getting the diaper off. I think when he's been accident free for at least two to three weeks we might try removing the night diaper. Or maybe when Katelyn's tooth comes and she stops waking me up 3-4 times a night. I'm not sure I can handle a middle of the night bed change with her getting up that often.
Kyle has become ultra sensitive in the last couple of weeks. If Jeff or I tell him to stop doing something with our "serious" voices, he does this short scream and then runs off, only to come back about 20 seconds later saying that we scared him. Although we do sometimes scare him if we raise our voices enough, this is just a slight and stern inflection of our voices. So we try not to give him too much attention from it and calmly explain what we were trying to tell him and he usually gets over it quickly enough. It just happens like a dozen times a day which is driving us a little batty!
Kyle has still been absolutely wonderful with Katelyn, asking to play with her several times a day and giving lots of hugs and kisses. One of his favorite things to do now that Katelyn can grab a little better is to put her hand near his face and let her grab away. Then he yells out, "Mom, look, she's got my nose (chin, cheek, whatever she grabs)!" He still gets frustrated when he wants to play with us and we're holding her or busy feeding or changing her, but it is pretty minimal. Kyle also started potty training about two weeks ago, and he's been accident free for three days in underwear, so we're hoping he's well on his way. This does not include nighttime training yet, but, hey, baby steps!
Here are some of the cute things Kyle has said or done this last month:
- Camera Antics - He's started taking pictures with our digital camera. One night he was begging to use it and Jeff told him he might be a little to small. To which Kyle argued, "But Dad, I'm smart!" How can you argue with that? Once he was taking a few pics and he put a soccer ball and plastic ball together, shot it, and then proudly exclaimed, "Mom, I took a picture of my balls!" And last but not least, he was outside with our friend Shannon taking pics with her camera, and it just tickled her that he walked to the car in the driveway, aimed, and then yelled, "Smile, car!"
- He still tells Dad, Grandma or just about anyone who walks in our door, "Look, we have a new baby sister!" - even though she's been here quite a while now. Also, if he has playmates over or if he meets new people he will sometimes turn and point to Jeff or me and say, "This is my friend, Mommy," or "That's Daddy, my friend."
- He saw an ant in our house one day, and kind of ran away from it like he was scared and told Daddy to take it out of the house. Jeff took Kyle in his arms and told Kyle it was just a bug, it was no big deal, and certainly nothing to be afraid of. Kyle was still being wishy washy, so Jeff asked him why he was afraid of it. Kyle got a pensive look on his face and thought for a second, then threw his arms out and said excitedly, "But Daddy, I'm afraid because it will crawl on me and then get up into my nose!"
So what happened to "sleep like a baby"? Katelyn has the ability to sleep a lot during the day, but is fighting it as hard as Kyle did when he was little. Of course, I don't have the luxury of letting her lie on my lap for a bit after a feeding so she can really knock out since I have Kyle to take care of, too. Nope, she's not sleeping through the night yet, but I only have to get up once which isn't bad for breastfeeding. And trying to get two kids to nap at the same time - HAH! Usually I'm settling for a lying down on the bed feeding once a day in place of a good nap. But thank goodness Kyle does still need a nap or I think I'd just go insane! Anyway, in between the fatigue and Katleyn's fussiness, she is just becoming more and more beautiful to me! She has the most amazing little eyelashes and she started smiling a few weeks ago, which makes such a big difference when playing with her. Here favorite thing by far is her little playmat, followed by the swing, and dead last is the bouncer (which was Kyle's fave). And everyone knows I'm not the girly girl type, but oh my gosh, Katelyn is so cute in her little pink, flowery, girly outfits!
Well, poor little Kyle has finally got the idea that having a baby sister isn't always a good thing. Although Kyle behaved like a dream for the first 8 weeks, he is finally starting to act out some of his frustration at not being able to be the center of attention anymore. He finally started using phrases like "Mom, just put that baby down" or sometimes he tries to get Mom to hold the baby when Grandma or Daddy is holding her so they can play with him instead. "Mom, don't you want to hold that baby now?" or "Daddy, maybe Mommy can hold the baby now," are common pleadings from Kyle. The only good thing is he seems to take out his frustration on Mom and Dad, not on Katelyn. He still goes up to her and plays with her and says that he loves her many times during the day. He's also entered a Daddy phase. On the weekends, every morning, and every evening, only Daddy can help him with everything - getting dressed, getting breakfast, running bath time, and on and on. It's hard on Dad, and makes me feel bad because I do actually spend a lot of time feeding and calming Katelyn, so I know that is partly why he is shunning me.
When we have visitors Kyle loves to say in a loud, excited voice, "Look, we found a baby!" or "Look, there's the baby!" When they were both in their carseats, and Katelyn started spitting up, he cried out, "Mommy, she's spilling, she's spilling!" Also, he was asking Dad for juice one day, and Jeff finally said, "Kyle, what's the magic word?" to which Kyle replied, "Uh, Abra-Cadabra?", which cracked us all up.
Katelyn is a little eating, sleeping, and spit-up machine, but she's gaining weight so well that it is easy not to worry about the spitting up so much. I forgot how much newborns sleep, especially since Kyle was always about 2 hours under the average on sleeping. It actually makes it a little easier since she is very fussy when she is awake. It's much harder dealing with a fussy baby when you have a three year old running around needing attention and play time as well. Katelyn is extremely vocal when she is hungry or unhappy. On a crying scale of 1 to 10, she goes through each notch 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - then, BOOM, straight to screaming 10. But she's so sweet when she is sleeping, and all her little parts are just so tiny and miniature! And of course, after holding Katelyn, Kyle sudenly seems like he is super-sized, even though he really hasn't gained more than a couple of pounds and maybe four inches of height in nearly a year!
He talks about babies and continues to sometimes pat or kiss my belly to say "Hello" to the baby. He points out babies when he sees them on T.V., in magazines, or in stores as we shop. Sometimes he even points to his belly and refers to 'his baby' that is coming soon. We've also been trying to tell him that he will be a big brother to the baby, so now when he sees pictures of himself, instead of saying "That's Kyle," he says "That's my brother, Kyle". We took him to my doctor's appointment today and she did an ultrasound. It was more to check weight and figures and when we were trying to point out the baby's head and belly and such, Kyle just pointed to the screen and asked Jeff, "Is the baby wearing a shirt?" which cracked us up and when we told him no, he went on with "What about pants?"
1. When Kyle eats brocolli (and yes, we are happy that he even eats it at all), he picks up the little steamed floret from his plate by the tip of the cut stem. Then he proceeds to nibble at it like a squirrel, biting off all of the 'leafy green' part. He nibbles and then checks periodically to make sure he's not getting any of that horrible old stem. So when he's finished he's got a pile of tiny green stems about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. It's hilarious to watch him.
2. He likes to sleep on his floor. Although he has a lovely toddler bed, when we go in to put him down for a nap or when we put him to bed at night, he chooses to bring his pillow on the floor and lay down there right on the carpet with just a blanket over him. Of course, after he falls asleep we put him up in the bed. But if he wakes up in the middle of the night and starts wandering, we put him back in his room and he always flops onto the floor.
3. When he has his tantrums now - he starts out with the typical 'burst' of immediate crying, the jerky throwing of the head back and and wiggling of the body around on the floor move. And as we try to soothe him in quiet tones about how this won't help him, he'll stop crying, throw his head and arms back and stick out his tongue with a loud "Bleah" sound. And I'm sure you'd probably have to see it to understand, but it's just so darn comical that I have to cover my mouth because it cracks me up every time and I'm supposed to be sounding stern or at least unmoved by this tantrummy behavior.
Another perfect example: I'm trying to teach him to put his toys away when he's finished with them. And he's pretty good about it, although sometimes he grumbles, moans or whines about it and I have to be very patient while he sort of puts toys away but hems and haws at the same time. But sure enough, you mention at 8:30 that it's time to go put PJs on and go to bed, and suddenly every single tiny thing he sees out on the way to his him room gets a resounding, "Oh, Mommy, we need to put this away." "But Kyle, it's time for bed, we'll do it tomorrow." "Oh, but Mommy, we need to put this away right now." How do you argue that when you spend the whole day trying to get him to pick up after himself?
He is excited about Christmas this year, and one of his favortie things to watch is his Wiggles Christmas video. He also loves all of the Frosty the Snowman cartoons. He loves to sing Jingle Bells, but that is really the only Xmas song he's got down for now. Although he does sing just two lines of Frosty the Snowman over and over because he hasn't learned the rest of the song yet! Kyle did visit Santa and had his picture taken, and although he was very excited the night before and the morning of seeing him, he kind of clammed up when he finally saw Santa in person. He wasn't scared or anything; he was perfectly willing to sit on his lap, but just got very shy when Santa talked to him. He also loves the Christmas tree and likes to turn the lights on every day. Sometimes when he's not watching, I'll flip them off for a few hours (also when we leave the house). But whenever he notices them off he'll run over saying, "Oh Mommy, the lights, I forgot to turn them on!"
He is still really independent when he gets slightly hurt, too. The other day, he was playing on our bed and he threw up his arms with too much gusto which caused him to fall backward over the edge. I think he bumped his head slightly on the sideboard going down as well. But when Jeff and I reached for him on the floor to check him out and give him hugs and kisses, he still did his "No, stay Daddy, stay Mommy" thing (through little strangled sobs), and then immediately began to army crawl on his belly under the bed to ensure that we couldn't pick him up, saying as he went while still slightly crying, "I'll be right back." He crawled all the way to the other side of the bed and then ran into the opposite corner of the room. When I started to go over to check on him, he said "No, Mommy." I ended up crawling over on all fours with the bed hiding me and 'surprising' him with a "Boo!" which made him laugh, and apparently that was the extent of of his woe. It's kind of nice when he does this, since it's a sign that he really didn't hurt himself too much (if he gets a good bonk on the head or something, he does want Mommy and Daddy's arms wrapped around him), but it's also such an odd way to react to getting hurt. Most kids play the attention for all its worth. If anyone else's kids (or nephews or cousins, etc.) did similar stuff at this young age, please e-mail and let me know! I'm curious as to how common it is since I've never seen it before.
A really cute thing he did a week ago was at Grandma's house. I had dropped him off for babysitting, and Kyle looked at Grandma and said, in a very concerned voice, "Oh Grandma, where are my shoes? Can't find my shoes!" And as he's looking around him, my Mom said, "Kyle, sweetheart, they're on you're on feet." So Kyle makes this big bending over motion to look down and sure enough they're right there on his own feet. He looks up and smiles and says in this overly relieved voice, "Oh, thanks, Grandma."
He is singing songs like crazy! His favorites include: Bingo, Old McDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABCs, and Wheels on the Bus. He is also talking all the time, and starting to mimic Greg Wiggle by performing little magic tricks (or what he thinks are magic tricks anyway).
It seems like we also FINALLY got through to him about a baby coming. I'm not sure how much he understands, but we explained the best we could and I have gotten him in the habit of trying to talk about 'the baby' a little. In the morning, if I ask him to say good morning to the baby after he gives Jeff and I kisses and hugs, he will look at my belly and say "Good morning, baby" while he reaches down and pats my belly once or twice. Same at night.
We're having a little more trouble getting him down to sleep. He actually goes through the routine pretty well, but we used to be able to lie down with him for just a few minutes after lights out and leave him, still awake, in the room. But most of the time we have to stay 'til he falls asleep now. If I try to leave before that, he always comes out of the room looking for us with a big smile on his face, "Hi, Mommy. Hi, Daddy." Also, when I first turn out the lights now he immediately asks if we can "sit in chair, Mommy". So I allow him to climb onto my lap in the rocking chair for just 2-3 minutes. He always turns around so he is facing out and then asks for a pillow to be laid across his legs and then for the Wiggles blanket to be put over him completely, even covering his head, and he just sits there like that until I make him crawl back into bead. And often he asks for the blanket to be pulled up over this head even though it is like 77 degrees in his room! He is so funny sometimes we just can't figure him out.
Another interesting thing happens whenever he trips or falls but doesn't seriously hurt himself. Many kids take that opportunity to do a little cry, a little whine, Mommy hold me - but not Kyle. When he falls or trips and when I (or whoever) start to come over, Kyle puts out his hand in with a scowl on his face and says, "No Mommy. Stop. Go away." It's almost like he's embarrassed and doesn't seem to want comfort at all. In fact, it is very easy now to tell if he is really, really hurt because that is the only time he will come running to us crying.
Ah well, that is how it goes, and at least during the day he is still a little close to me. I try to sneak in kisses and hugs here and there, and only ocassionally am I banished away with a swipe of the hand and a "No, Mommy, stop it!" as he scoots over to get out of reach. He alternates between strange moods of isolation where he doesn't want me anywhere near him, not touching him or even looking at him (oh yes, he caught me looking at him during one of these moods and turned his head away, saying, No!"), and then suddenly he comes back to me, crying for me to pick him up and enfold him in my arms. I mentioned this to Jeff's father the other day, and he replied, "Well, it sounds like you have a boy on your hands." I laughed, thinking, could it really be that simple? It doesn't seem like any of our nieces or girl cousins were like this… Well, let's hope it's a phase. And after all, who doesn't love Jeff? Wonderful, patient, kind, fun-loving Jeff! He is an incredible father and certainly deserves all the attention Kyle is lathering on him.
A few cute things Kyle has done recently: My Mom and I were taking a walk and passed a gated house with an enormous Great Dane lying in the yard. Kyle stopped and looked at the dog, and my Mom asked, "What is that, Kyle?" To which Kyle replied, "Moooo. A cow!".
Also, today Kyle was waving goodbye to Daddy as he backed out of the garage. He saw that the neighbor across the street had their sprinklers on so he started to yell, "Don't hit the water, Daddy! No hit the water!" The look of panic and concern on his face just cracked me up!
On the other hand, when he is happy and secure he is, oh, so sweet! He is able to play a little longer by himself and can even get quite engrossed in simple activities (look for the cheez-its in the toes pic coming later this month). He still loves and adores the Wiggles, but Finding Nemo has been replaced by The Jungle Book II. He has also become infatuated with the idea of pouring. He loves to sit on the floor and poor water from one cup to another. The other day at breakfast he spent 10 minutes drinking the milk in his his sippy cup this way: he lay his spoon on the table, let the milk drip from his sippy cup onto it until it was full, and then picked up the spoon (carefully so it didn't spill) and slowly brought it to his moouth to drink. How can he be so patient with something like this, and so maniacally intolerant with everything else! :o)
Favorite books: "Yummy Yummy", "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie", "Colors"
Favorite things to say: "Up"; "Mine"; "Wiggle Bay"; "Stop It"; "No",
Favorite things to eat: macaroni with melted, grated cheddar; raisins; pizza, cake
Favorite thing to do: Run and jump on Mom's exercise mat, Use hamper rods as drumsticks; climb diaper changing table to try to get diaper cream
Favorite Toy: Wiggles guitar, Wiggles keyboard, Wiggles accordian, Wiggles finger puppets
Favorite video: watching Melissa's music video from Idaho - 2nd, any Wiggles video
Unfortunately, along with his 'snuggle bug' characteristics he has also become much more clingy, both in and out of the home. Which is kind of a good thing, because he was really a bit freer than I would have liked, running out across the park without a care of whether his parents were close by or not. It is not a good thing, however, when he is standing at the top of the stairs with his arms out, whining for us to carry him down instead of just going down on his own. Come on, Kyle, you've only been climbing up and down the stairs for nearly a year! Ah well, this too shall pass.
One of the sweetest things happened last week. Melissa, who came over 1-2 days a week during the past two months, decided that if she could have a wish it would be for Kyle to go to a concert of the Wiggles and actually meet them because he likes them so much. She was very clear on not just going to the concert, but actually being able to somehow have Kyle meet the Wiggles because she just can’t believe how often he asks for them. Bless her little heart!
Kyle seemed to be extra fussy and whiny this week. Gone are the days that we could take away an object and then pacify his frustration by giving him a different object. He knows and remembers now that we have taken something away, moved him from a room, etc., and he is not shy about letting us know how terribly upset this makes him! On top of that, he has become infatuated with Daddy this last month. I remind myself that he is with me all day, practically every day so I am just old news now. After all, I had my year of being “Mommy” and now it is Jeff’s turn.
Pretty much the same thing happened today (Monday) except I got to watch the whole process. He eats, wide awake and voracious for about 4 minutes. Then his eyes start blinking more often than necessary, and you can visibly see that he knows he’s getting sleepy. He starts to cram his food, knowing his time for eating is limited. All the while his eyelids get heavier and heavier until that last slow-motion downfall of lashes like curtains going down on a stage.
S-P-O-I-L-E-D
B-R-A-T
B-I-T-E
M-E-A-N
Can you use these words in a sentence? How about… The spoiled brat wants to bite Mommy, which is very mean.
Imagine and learn, it’s what we love to do. Come on everybody, you can do it too!
Just blowing off some steam. I think something is wrong with Kyle. He’s just been awful today. I feel like I’ve spent most of the day either telling him, “No” or scolding him for really making messes and doing stuff he knows he isn’t supposed to do. I’m exhausted, and it’s only noon!
Now, I watch my toddler as he carefully climbs into the folding chair we left out and sits, beaming at his accomplishment. His calves dangle back and forth off the edge a few times before he carefully turns himself over to begin the return journey to the floor. Stomach down and with nothing but a big diaper bottom showing, he eases his legs closer to the floor, slowly reaching out with one set of toes until he brushes the carpet, his telltale sign to slide off the chair and land squarely on both feet
Where is the little baby who struggled with fish out of water flopping attempts at rolling from back to stomach? Or what about the little creature attempting to cross the room using a combination of army crawling and bodily zigzagging in any direction that would muster forward movement? And just a few months ago, he was hobbling around at our feet – swaying, stumbling, and falling every five seconds like a little drunken monkey out on the town.
As I watch him jog across the room with ease, I can honestly say, with a sigh in my heart and the tiniest catch in my voice, “My little boy is growing up.”
