Dean at Nine Months
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Guess who loves crawling around nekkid as a jaybird? This boy HATES having his diaper changed. Whenever we place him on his changing mat, he starts to wail and buck. His screams are of an ungodly decibel. I need to two or three extra arms to hold him down and wipe him while he is smearing poopy with his kicking feet. It would take a sixth of the time if he would just hold still; I spend many minutes just rewiping areas. And, don't even get me started on trying to coax him back into a fresh diaper and those dreaded clothes. He can wiggle out of my grasp, flip over, and crawl away in less time than it takes to scream, "NOOOOOOO" in horror. When the little Houdini escapes he is always giggling and chortling in his naughty cleverness.
Dean loves to crawl under tables (dining tables, coffee tables, etc.). He's hit his head quite a few times but that doen't faze or inhibit him in the least. I'm glad he has a hard little skull. I don't know what's so amusing under there but he can amuse himself for a long time weaving in out of chairs. Sasha will join him and try to interest him in playing a version of "fort". I don't know that Dean has any clue what's going on.
Dean has continued to be sick with colds and earaches this month. We've had to put him on masses of antibiotics but his infections keep coming back. Our pediatrician has made a few comments about ear tubes in his future but I hope it doesn't come to that. Jimmy had them in his ear when he was little, too. Poor guys. Dean plays and fidgets with his left ear almost continually. I don't know if it's due to being bothered or out of habit now. Dean's poor health does play havoc with his sleeping; he often wakes himsel up with his cough. I don't know how he survives with the little sleep he manages to get. He hasn't slept past 4 AM for quite a while now. Once he is better, he is getting sleep trained!!!
Despite all, the mister is such a happy little guy. He is almost always in a good mood and quick with a laugh.....especially when I tickle/ kiss him on his chubby little neck. Who can resist such a yummy scrumptious baby?
Sasha at Three Years, 8 Months
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
This month, Sasha's preschool class' theme was storybooks. They did all the classics and then made artwork based on the books. The Cat In The Hat was definitely a hit. I have read it her a bunch of times but the teachers came up with the adorable project of making the hat. How cute is this? Sasha wore the hat for a couple of afternoons (baby wanted to play with it, too). Miss Rachel said the kids loved Puff the Magic Dragon the most, though. I can understand as I was obsessed with that song & book as a kid. I nearly scratched that record in half. Anyway, it put Sasha's preschool in a trance. Now, the teachers play it daily to calm the rugrats...whatever works, right?
Sasha loves me reading to her. She wants longer and longer books. We usually do 2-3 books (depending on the length) at naptime and night. Babygirl is insistent on picking them out and she has specific favorites (which are very different from mine- she whines when I reach for The Crayon Box That Talked or A Prayer for a Blueberry Girl). I've read the Berenstein bears and Sesame Street Books (espepcially Ernie's Big Mess) until I could cry/ throw up. Old Friends/ New Friends, Too Many Puppies, Copycat Ruby are also hits. Jimmy, Sadie, and I keep hiding the books we most detest but Sash is on to us. I think I am going to donate Tiger, Tiger. Grin. We are amassing a huge library. I get bored easily and Sasha is so tempted by the new and those Scholastic books are so cheap (plus, everytime I order, the classroom gets a new book!). It's a terrible trifecta. We will have to get psychological help for book hoarding soon! Maybe we'll wait until AFTER the VSNA bookfair.
Aunt Beck came into town and we decided to splurge on a special treat: Disney on Ice! What's not to love? Colorful costumes, showtunes, and FLIPS!!!!! Sasha looked shell-shocked the entire time. When we arrived at the arena, Sasha's eyes grew big and she wasn't able to utter a word. There were so many people and lights and twirly gizmos. And overpriced souveniers and food. Sasha conned us out of a huge popcorn and an Icee in a plastic Tinkerbell cup. Unfortunately the neon sugar ice didn't melt very well and it was too hard/ compacted to scoop or use the straw. I basically had to chisel ice flakes off for Sasha to inhale. The show was very fun. They went through all the holidays: a Christmas, Halloween, birthday, Valentine's etc. skit. Sasha was able to recognize a surprising amount of the characters (due to her Disney songs DVD, I think). My sweetheart was a model of good behavior (junk ood bribes work!). However, the kids behind us were terrors. A lot of whining. And, on the other side behind us, there was a fan boy who sighed in contentment when his favorite character emerged. Interesting crowd.
For all of January , I volunteered to make the play-doh for Sasha's preschool each week. Fortunately, the teachers provided an idiot proof recipe. We bought tons of dyes and scents and Sasha enjoyed picking the color and smell. We discovered during week 2 that mixing the red and blue dyes does NOT result in a lovely purple color. Instead, the kids in her class had to mold and shape with a brownish mauve-ish colored play doh. It looked like poo. BUT, it had a sweet licorice odor. And, it was our only mishap. Sasha and I had a blast making it; her favorite part was squeezing in the entire bottle of dye (I like bright colors!).
Sasha sleeps with this teddy every night. When she broke her bed railing, we decided to use this to keep her from falling out. I don't think she would be able to sleep without him. Aunt Beck had to loan us her Carebear when we were in San Diego. When Sash gets up early, she tells us that Teddy woke her. He is also scared of Big Bad Wolves and bears (ironic) and foxes. Before I go to bed, I usually check in on her. She is almost always curled up in a tiny ball right up against the wall and Teddy is squished up to her taking up 3/4 of the bed. I thought about trying to switch him out with something smaller but Sasha seems pretty content snuggling with him.
I am so glad the holidays are done with and we are back in the routine. It was quite a bother making up all those missed swimming and gymnastics lessons. I can't believe she's more than half way done with her school year. Slow down, slow down!!!!
