Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Originally uploaded by mskat

We're in a big language acquisition spurt. Little Man doesn't know the whole song, but he's getting close.

Been too quiet for too long

Just a quick update. Things here are continuing apace which is good. Boo is getting bigger and stronger and is a hair's breadth from pulling up to stand.

Little Man and family went to the NICU reunion at Huntington which was amazing.

Little Man is a walking, talking, growing, learning machine which I think is AWESOME.

One of my favorite things is the fact that he requests to sleep in the big boy bed. This is fine, but it also means he's able to let himself out of the big boy bed, which he does. And you hear his little padding feet walk to the door and scrabbling at the door. He lets himself out with such frequency. It makes me miss the crib.

A week ago, I had breakfast with a former co-worker. I had a dulce de leche and Noah, in his inimitable way, wanted wanted wanted some. I scooped some foam and gave him some. He was satisfied with foam until he wasn't. So I gave him some of the coffee. He had a couple of spoonfuls or more.

Katie rolled her eyes at me. Joseph raised an eyebrow and I just shrugged. Noah gets sugar off and on. He never gets juice. He's never had soda.

As a preemie, he had caffeine therapy for his breathing, but it was nothing big or long term.

I thought nothing of it.

The report from Noah's daycare and from Noah's speech therapist who sees him on Friday said he was OUT OF CONTROL. Not in a rude way and not in a bad acting way. But he had terrible case of the sillies and he was just sort of crazy funny.

Oops. I caffeinated my child. Bad Mommy. No Biscuit. Or at least no more coffee.

Empathy

Little Man has been getting language. It's pretty exciting and requires a great deal of repetition, patience and twice weekly visits from the Speech Therapist.

He has lots of nouns, which makes sense from a language acquisition perspective that he is getting the cognitive label for things.

Non-concretes are harder to teach. He understands Bye-Bye and LOVES to say it (and often blows a kiss to go with it). He knows when and how to use Please (and man, he's effective at getting what he wants). He sort of knows Thank You, or at least the Britishized Version he gets at daycare (Ta!).

I've been trying to teach him Love You and Sorry.

Today he was kicking when I changed his diaper and I told him, "Ow. That hurts. No kicking!" and he signed Sorry and attempted to say it.

My heart melted.

I love watching him learn.

Grandma got me a drum (moms are groaning)

Grandma got me a drum (moms are groaning)
Originally uploaded by mskat

Gift to be given only to a grandchild far away.

Why? Why? No really, why?!

We were just at CVS. Some girl was standing with her foot on the car window ledge and her other foot on the seat of her mother's car. Her brother was peeing on the car door and mom, mess that she is was ignoring both of them even when girl said, "He's peeing on the car."

I am tired. My son is sick. I just spent too many hours in the car through Orange and Los Angeles Counties. And I have zero tolerance for egregiously stupid public behavior. When I got into CVS, the boy was yelling in an aisle waving his penis around (he must be 4 or 5). Mom? No where to be seen. As I walked out I said to the boy, "You better put your penis away or someone might cut it off." That made him scream and run.

Long time not enough update

The thing about having a toddler is that it's almost impossible to get anything not toddler-related done. I almost miss the blobby stage where the baby just ate, slept and pooped in a 3-hour cycle.

Now, it's all about getting the toddler out and about because our toddler acts better while we are in public. At home, it's all about Little Man being all over the place undoing everything and causing havoc.

Sigh.

Anyhow, that's my roundabout way to ask for forgiveness for not updating more.

Sit and Stroll Giveaway

Debbie at Delicious Baby has a giveaway going for a Sit-N-Stroll. If any of you traveling types needed one, they seem wickedly cool.

In general her site helped me talk myself down from the stress of traveling with Little Man alone. Good stuff to read!

Things in My Son's Crib

For months, there was nothing in the crib except a bumper. Now, at 19 months, Little Man sleeps with an entire array of stuff including, but not limited to:

Fox in Socks (his fave. Loves to sleep with it)
a stuffed gargoyle (so cute!)
a baby bat
Cookie monster
Elephant
blanket.

At what points did SIDS stop being an issue? I dunno. About the time he was trying to use the bumper and heel hook his way out.

We're still here and yet oddly on hold

Things are crazy busy with work and home and work and walking baby and work and baby who doesn't feel so great.

So please stand by for an important actual update wherein I figure out what shoes (Stride Rite vs. Preschooligans) to buy and I think about toys for the holidays.