April Wobblers

[MinEaston]

Thought I'd start the thread this month (I really should be working but I'm procrastinating).

Anna is just past 13 months.

It was a beautiful weekend and we spent a good bit of time outdoors. I think Anna has inherited DH's allergies, as she had a bit of a stuffy nose Saturday night and yesterday. But it didn't seem to affect her disposition too much. The time change hasn't really affected her either. I put her to bed a bit later (by clock time) last night and she slept the same amount. Only with the clock changes, it was 7am rather than 6. Much happier mama!

[Katie-Did]

DS - Aaron, 15 months

We had a good weekend. We took Aaron to his first parent-tot swim time at the YMCA. He has loved being in the water since he was about 6 months old, but this is his first official class. He LOVED it! For the first 10 minutes in the pool he didn't stop laughing, shreiking with glee and kicking/splashing. I think the other parents thought he was a bit nuts. They sang songs, played games, etc. MY DH was hoping there would be a bit more instruction, my MIL taught baby swim classes when my DH and his siblings were small, and my DH likes the idea of Aaron doing more swimming. But I was just happy to see Aaron having such a blast in the water. He slept well the rest of Saturday and Sunday too!

We've been enjoying the time change. We took the opportunity to push Aaron's bedtime from 7:30 to 8:00, and he's been sleeping until 7:30 am, which is nice too.

[aprilbride]

Me: Claudia, 31
DH: Paul, 37
DS: Elliott, will be 1 on the 21st!

Challenge ahead: Eartubes The poor little guy has had way to many ear infections in his short life! We took him back for a re-check on Friday and the last one is still lingering, so we've been refered to the ENT. I need to call this morning and make an appt. I know it's the best solution but I'm really nervous about the actual procedure....Anyone with experience?

We're also trying to wean him off the bottle and at school they've started to replace the daytime bottles with cups of whole milk, which seems to be working fine. I don't think the morning/evening transition will be as smooth.

Other than that, Elliott is doing great! He's such a funny little guy, very active and social. Eats like a champ, sleeps well. I'm hoping that the time change will permanently work in our favor and keep him up a little later, sleep a little longer in the morning, so far so good:-)

Hope everyone else is doing well! Happy Spring!

[JenZen]

Me: 28
DH: 38
DS: Gabe, 15 months
Baby on the way: 10/18/06

Big weekend for Gabe. He got his first big-boy haircut, which was sort of traumatic. He cried a good chunk of the time. Also, Gabe is officially off all bottles. We got rid of the last bottle about a week ago, and Gabe didn't even notice. He was pretty much done, anyway. It got to the point where he was just playing with the nipple and not drinking, so I ended that. Now, he just gets a sippy cup of water before bed.

Gabe is still teething. I hate to think how many are coming in at once, because he's ultra-sensitive.

katie-did - neat to hear about you water baby. Makes me think I should take Gabe swimming this weekend for something different.

Here's a pic of my little guy getting his haircut:

http://images.snapfish.com/34672%3C964%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3237%3E%3A%3C4%3E2%3B9% 3EWSNRCG%3D323362%3C295727nu0mrj

[EmilyK]

Me: 27
DH: 28
DS: nearly 13 months

We're having a hard time getting him to fall asleep at night, though once he's asleep, he's fine. We all had this nasty cold that originally came from him, but it's lasting the longest with a hacking cough for him. It's the worst at night, so I spend a lot of time waiting for him to cough again to assure myself he's still breathing. :( Poor little man... at what point do we need to get him back to the dr? He doesn't have a fever.

Everything else has been going pretty well... still not walking, though it's been a lot of "almost there" moments. :) He just needs to get up the courage to take those steps.

We went to get some pictures done (his 1-year) yesterday. We were SO happy with how they turned out! I can't decide which ones to post, so I'm just putting them all in here (sorry if it's Gavin-overload):

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/p6b8fad07d707edbccb9164dce146d1d6/ef95077d.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/pf03d5d6753f921077b684200d0d6f7a6/ef950483.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/p08439ecce17d744e1ead8f474ac0ec10/ef9503e3.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/p6dd073b12dd22610cb6e9f9bd9e4ca72/ef95053e.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/p10a06190716eed6e2c643c9126488c9e/ef9506ab.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/pd016886c013356c4845f6ea95d25a380/ef9505eb.jpg

Jen, Gabe is so cute getting his big-boy haircut! Congrats on the bottles!

Claudia, sorry to hear about the tubes... I hope the appointment goes well and the dr. can give you some reassurance about them.

Katie, the pool sounds like so much fun! You must have a little water-baby on your hands!

MinEaston, how was Anna's day today? Glad to hear the time change isn't messing up her schedule too badly.

[jphilg]

Me: 32
DH: 32 next weekend
DD: 9.5 months....

...but I think that we're Wobblers these days, more so than New, so I'm hopping over to this thread. Hi!

Saskia is just learning learning learning every day. In the past two weeks, she's started clapping, crawling (although it is still sort of a commando crawl), and some new consanant sounds. She pulls up all of the time and spends as much time as DH and I can spare walking around holding our finger. She cruises the length of one object, but hasn't crossed the void (heh) between, for example, the couch and the coffee table. But she's cruising all day. Places to go.

I'm just so amazed at how toddler like she's become, all of a sudden. She's just not such a baby anymore!

I'm trying to soak up every droplet of her babyness that I can.

Jen

[rmg_CA]

Can I stop in and say hi?! Oh it has been so long!

Me: 34
DH: 37
DS: One on the 21st!

Oh how this year has flown! I lurk often but it is hard to keep up with this board these days. I don't have the same kind of time I used to at work, so can't surf the net so much. I do try to keep up in the evenings, after Nicholas goes off to sleep.

I just love the pictures of the other babies, it's so fun to see how everyone is growing. Gavin is such a cuttie, I don't know how you'll pick from the photos. I like the last one with the bunny. It's like he's saying, "Hey bunny! I'm coming up to get you!" Jen, I love the haircut picture too! And oh you brave soul, with a baby on the way! :D

Our boy is having a tough time now. He had a cold with chest congestion and ear infection about 3 wks ago, which came back a few days after we stopped the Amoxicillin. Then he got sick again and had another ear infection, which the doc said was the same one returning since the Amoxicillin didn't kill it, but only weakened it. So he gets switched to Keflex on Thursday, but isn't getting better by Saturday and still had a fever from Friday night. So we call the doc on Sat morning and they switch him to Augmentin. So yesterday, he's finally getting back to himself and even went to daycare today. Well tonight I get home and he's got a funky rash on his forehead (I put mousse in his curly hair over the weeked :rolleyes: so I thought it was that). So I start inspecting further and he's covered in this red, blotchy rash. We call the doc and she says to give him Benadryl tonight and see if the rash is gone by morning. If not, maybe it's something else. If it's gone, our boy's got a penicillin allergy (like me!).

According to my dad, who'se also an MD, we got one free ride on the Amoxicillin the first time he took it, and now on this second time, that's when you see the allergy. I guess we'll see where we go next in the morning, but I hope his ears don't turn back into pain for him while we hold off on the antibiotics while we figure this out.

And on the fun part of things... he's such a fun boy. He's very chatty and is just about ready to walk. He walks around things and will stand back and look around with just one hand on things. He's also having fun calling our cats, who he calls "Da," and chasing them around. He's a pretty good eater, but hasn't been over the last week because of his ears. I just love this age! He's also big on handing things to me, which just makes him giggle.

Claudia, (first of all, happy birthday to Elliott!!) about the tubes, I was talking to my dad about ear infections (he's an ophthalmologist, not an ENT, so this is for what it's worth) and things yesterday and he said sometimes they're all that works to prevent hearing loss. In the 40s, before antiboitics to treat ear infections, hearing loss was so common that they offered classes in public schools on lip reading. Two of my mom's brothers took those classes (they were born in late 30s to early 40s) because they had hearing loss from chronic infections. I was asking him about how eardrums heal over when the tubes aren't necesssary anymore, and he said that they basically stick a piece of cigarette paper on the eardrum to provide a support, and then the eardrum will grow again over the paper. He said it was the funniest discovery, but they've been doing this (with the cig paper) for decades now. Hopefully, you'll get more perspective from your doc as things unfold for you.

Well, happy spring to everyone. I'm loving the more daylight as it gives us more fun time when we get home at night!

After we figure out the rash, I think we'll start thinking about whole milk. Yippeee!

Robin

[fancyn]

Me: 27
DH: 33
DS: 14 months last Friday

Hmm...Not much new on our front. Nicholas has finally tamed his tantrums which is wonderful and the time change hasn't effected him at all. In fact last night he slept from 7 to 7:15 (which made me late to work :o ). His new tricks include walking backwards, running, a "happy dance", and spinning until he falls. The vocab is just amazing and all is great right now. :) Plus, he's become quite the mama's boy which melts my heart. He's really into giving kisses and wanting to snuggle more. DH is working the night shift for the next couple of weeks so I'm taking this opportunity to heart. Oh, and he got yet another tooth over the weekend. :eek:

Mineaston - let's hope Anna's doesn't inherit DH's allergies. My DH has them bad too, and I'm hoping the same. FWIW, they do make children's Claritin. :o

Katie - I meant to tell you that you've got a big guy on your hands! :) I'm curious to see where DS will compare at his 15 mo. appt. I think we're signing up for swimming "lessons" too! Glad to hear that they are do-able. How's the small town adjustment going?

Claudia - poor Elliot. Your little guy has had such a rough time with those ears. :( If the tubes will eliminate them, I say go for it!

Jen - cute hair cut pic! I'm waiting as long as possible - DS has such thin blond hair, I'm afraid he'll look bald if I cut it off! Congrats on DB#2!!

Emily - those pictures aren't overloading at all. He's such a cutie that apparently has quite the personality.:D Did you take those at Penny's? Hope he's feeling better today!

Jen - Welcome over here! Isn't the transition from baby to little person amazing. Good to "see" you!

Robin - Drats, allergic to penicillin? Let's hope not. I hope Nicholas is feeling better. I just noticed he and Elliot share a birthday!

Happy April!!

[aprilbride]

Thanks for the reassurance about the tubes, everyone! I know it needs to be done, I'm just worried about Elliott being put under..I have a really hard time with it so I'm hoping he won't take after me in that regard. He's been on so many rounds of antibiotics (which I think are so over-prescribed in the first place), we obviously need to find a better way of dealing with these ear infections.

Robin, so nice to "see" you! I've been wondering how you are all getting on. I'm so sorry to hear Nicholas is having a hard time! I'm really hoping Elliott's 2nd year will be a lot less eventful when it comes to illnesses. Are you having a party for Nicholas's 1st Birthday? We're planning a big one, probably overboard but oh well..I've decided I'm going to give him parties until he decides he doesn't want any!:-)

Emily, those pics are sooo cute! I love his outfit, he looks like such a little man!

Hi to everyone else..I've been working on this reply for hours now and can't seem to get my act together:-( I need to get some work done..

[NMG]

Me - 25
DH - 24
DS - 13 mo
DD - 30 mo

Hi guys! I've been lurking for the past few weeks, but haven't responded much - too much to do/say and too little time to get it all done. Not much new on this end - Mikey is communicating a lot better between words, pointing (and grunting :p ) and the few signs he knows (drink, eat, more and all done) which also seems to lessen his tantrums. He's also getting more into actually letting me read to him as opposed to me tryign to read and him grabbing the book and "eating" it. Oh and last night in the tub him and Tesa were playing with this little Dora slide and he was pretending he had a car and was driving it up and down the slide making vroom, vroom noises - it was reallyl cute and I've never seen him do that before! There imaginations are just amazing (Tesa and I have been having "tea" while she fixes my hair - and she's been pretending to be a doctor and will take her babies in for a check-up :D ) Mikey is def a mama's boy (which is nice most of the time), but hard other times - exp because Tesa gets upset when she thinks I'm paying more attention to him than her.

Katie - that's awesome that Aaron loved his swimming lessons. I think at his age, they're more interested in getttinghte kids used to the water and being comfportable in it instead of teaching them to actually swim. I've been thinking of getting passes at the highschool pool for the fam this summer. Both kids love the water!!!
Claudia - My friends son had to get tubes put in when he was about 9 months and they have helped tremendously. He had non stop ear infections and all antibiotics they tried did not help at all :( They had a few propblems with the one tube falling out of place but have fixed it since and it's been great for the whole family - exp the munchkin :D
Emily - Gavin is too cute!!! I really love the one of him sucking his thumb and the last one of him checking out the bunny.
Jen - Gabe looks like he was having fun playing with all the different brushes!! Tesa had her first haircut in the fall (I think) and surprisingly did really good - of course they just sprayed down her hair instead of washing it, but I think that worked better! Mikey's still pretty bald, although I'm finally seeing some strands of hair - I think he's going to be a blonde. Congrats on that little one on the way!!!! Did you guys just find out???
Robin - I hope your little man starts to feel better. I'm alergic to penicillan too and I remember having to take this gross banana flavored meds instead - yuk - so hopefully you're little one's not allergic.
Fancyn - Sounds like Nicholas is having a ton of fun right now!!
Got to get back to work - hope everyone enjoys the rest of their day!!!

[Katie-Did]

For those of you who have already found regular babysitters, I have a question. How much do you pay them? We're going to start having a teenage girl over a few afternoons a week for Aaron to get used to her with the hopeful goal that my DH and I can leave him without it being so traumatic for him (not to mention the babysitter!). The teenager wouldn't name a price (I remember doing the same thing when I was babysitting). I'm offering $4 an hour when I'm home with them, then $5 an hour while she's solo. Does this seem fair? Other moms I've talked to have told me that I'm being generous, but it's not even minimum wage. Surely taking care of my child is worth more money than flipping burgers, right? I wanted to get your thoughts...

On other fronts, the adjustment to small-town life is going OK. Thanks for asking, Nancy. I've been taking Aaron to a play group on a semi-regular basis, but most of the kids are older and the moms haven't been very warm and welcoming. But Aaron has a good time, so I'm trying to go just for him to be around other kids without having big hopes for finding friends there for me. I'm hoping that I'll find some other mommy friends when we're at the park and community pool a lot this summer.

NMG - I totally agree that the main goal for kids this age is just to let them play and be comfortable in the water. But my DH and his siblings were all swimming by themselves by 2, and he would love to have another early swimmer in the family. When we were in Louisville (where we moved from) we observed an amazing instructor who was teaching 18 month olds how to survive in the water. The would be on their bellies and paddle a bit, turn over onto their backs to breathe, and then go again until they got to the wall. Most of them were crying the whole time they did it, but they did it. He told us that more kids die in water accidents than car accidents (sorry for the morbid thoughts!)

I love the pictures and the stories about how fun the wobblers are! Aaron has been telling "jokes" and then cracking up at himself - too funny.

[Chelle D]

Hello All!

Me- Michelle, 30
DH - Jesper, 32
DS- Maxwell - 11 months

On our front, things are about the same. I don't know how you all have babies that sleep so long at night. Maxwell sleeps about 10 hours at night and has 1-3 hours worth of naps during the day and still screams and will not go down for naps. Because he wakes up so early, he still needs a morning nap. I am hoping once he switches to one nap, he will sleep a little longer.

Other than a few small sleep issues, things are going well. He is really trying to walk, but clunking himself most of the time. He will cruise around furniture and then decide to "dive" to something too far away and then we get another bruise :rolleyes: :o

We did decide to go to visit family in Denmark next month so we are leaving the day after Maxwell's birthday. We will be there 3 weeks. I am not so nervous about the plane ride anymore, but am more and more nervous about living with DH's family for 3 weeks in a foreign country :eek: I thin it will be tough. It's hard to live with someone else for 3 weeks anyway, but whem you add that I don't really know them, don't speak the language, and have a 1 year old, I am a little (okay, a lot) stressed!

Katie - We pay our sitter $4/hour so I think that you are paying a good rate. Most of the time when we have a sitter though, she just has to play with Maxwell an hour or so, then put him in bed and then just wait for us to get home. Maxwell also gets watched by a friend one day per week and I also pay her $4/hour. She suggested $3 when we started this, but I thought $4 was better.

Well, DS is yelling and yelling in the crib.....ughhhhhh

[aprilbride]

Katie-Did, regarding the babysitter...I'm thinking that what you end up paying depends a lot on the individual situation, i.e. where you live, the babysitter's background, age, experience etc. Our babysitter is a college student studying to get her PHD in Child Psychology, she has a lot of experience with children and works part-time for the County helping Autistic kids. Considering all of those things and the fact that she works for me when I need help with events at the office and I've known her for a while, we offered her $7.50/hour (she didn't name a price either, so I had to suggest one). Mainly she babysits at night when Elliott is asleep, so there's really no work involved. If she was to come over during the day I'd even be inclined to offer her $8/hour. DH and I both agree that it is worth the peace of mind....

[jphilg]

Wow....around here the going college-kid babysitter rate is $10-13/hr; I have a teenager who I pay $7/hr. But I really think it is a regional thing, varying with the cost of living generally.

[gertdog]

<delurking>

Our college-student babysitter is getting $10/hour. But that's not why I stopped by! I have a question for the experienced moms- when did you notice that spitting up tapered off in your babies (if they ever were spitter-uppers)? Ryan has been the spit-up king from day one. He's approaching six months and still spits up pretty often (a few times a day, though some days hardly at all). Now that he's eating cereal, sometimes the spitup is pretty, er, thick. It doesn't bother him at all, and our pediatrician hasn't been concerned (last time she saw him was at four months). I'm just wondering when it more or less goes away. Thanks!

[Celadon]

Stephanie, This is probably not what you want to hear, but our Ada is 9 months and still spits. It gets better, then worse, then better again. Honestly, it can be really annoying. Everyone told me it world stop when she sat up but it didn't. We actually took her to the doctor last month and the doc said (yet again) that this was nothing to be concerned over. He called it a "laundry problem." So, we just deal with it. I will say that it is slowly getting better, but she still probably spits up 5-10 times a day. (And yes, with solids its gross.) Anyway, sorry I can't offer good advice, but I can understand your frustration! Sue

[EmilyK]

Stephanie, with DS it finally went away (for the most part) at 11 months... if he gets too tired, he spits up more.... too hot... etc. It's been nice now to not have to have him wear a bib the entire time he's awake. Of course, on Sunday after we had his pictures taken, he threw-up (when they're totally on solids, it's more like vomit) all over DH and the chair in the stuido. :rolleyes: It was hot in there, so I think that's what got to him. I'm convinced that the little flappy thing that keeps their stomach contents inside is just a little too weak, and when he gets over-tired, he can't control it as well. That's my completely-non-doctor opinion. :p

re: babsitters - we don't use a babysitter in the evenings, since we don't do anything on weeknights and my family visits often enough that they watch him for us if we want to go out on the occasional weekend night. We pay our full time babysitter $130/week if that helps. Daycares around here are anywhere from $160 - $200 per week, so I think her rate is really great!

[NMG]

Katie - Wow! That's amazing that those babies were learning to swim so early!!

Babysitting - I have to agree that its prob more of a regional thing. We pay our babysitter $200 for 4 days/week for both kids for all day (she's a certified from the state for childcare and preschool) - but then again, we kind of lucked out. Daycare centers run about $135-$200 for a full week for 1 child in my area. We got lucky on the night babysitters too, I have a friend who I watch her daughter when they go out and in exchange, she watches my kids - usually 1 of the grandparents watch and never want any $$$ - there is also a girl up the street, a friend from highschool that is a pediatric nurse at Childrens in Pgh and never wants any money, but we usually give her between $20-$40 for an evening - depending on how long we are out.

Natalie

[gertdog]

Thanks for the thoughts on spit up! (Such a fun topic.) I don't mind as long as it's only a "laundry problem" but I'm sure not looking forward to banana spitup!

Reading the daycare rates here makes me want to cry. The cost of living here in NJ is just ridiculous!

Back to the New Moms thread... thanks again!

[Katie-Did]

Thanks for the thoughts about babysitters.

This morning it was 9 am and Aaron was already bored. :rolleyes: I thought it might help all of us to share our toddler entertaining tricks for when their toys get old to them. For me it's pulling out kitchen stuff - cups, bowls, safe utensils, etc. Aaron loves to stack and sort, so there's lots of things we can do with that. I also keep tupperware where he can get to it, along with 1 kitchen drawer that I didn't latch full of safe things for him (my days of organizing based on type of equipment is gone!). It sometimes makes for a big mess to clean up at the end of the day, but he loves it. What are some of your non-toy ideas? We're also trying to get to a point where we can rotate toys, but we haven't built up enough of a stockpile yet.

[fancyn]

Wow this thread has taken off! Late to the game but here ya go:

Spit up: Nicholas tapered off at around 10 months but still has an occasional one, esp. if he's eaten/drank a lot of dairy.

Sitters: I only use family, because I don't know anyone else and I'm not sure if I could trust anyone else...in my home or with my child. :o As far as daycare goes, we pay $190 a week. At 18 months it drops to $150. :rolleyes: We're contemplating having another baby next year and the thought of two in daycare depresses me and my wallet. :eek:

Bordom: I too usually whip out the kitchen stuff or have him "help" me clean or cook or do laundry. All else fails, we head outside. We'll even look for rocks, birds, etc. I'm curious as to what everyone else does too.

[sweetpea]

dd: 17 months
new pics! www.earmstrong3.photosite.com/emma

regarding boredom: we have a fabulous local library--sometimes we walk there if it's nice enough--about 1.5 miles one way--and it's great. they have a great kids room with a big blow up dinosaur so whenever emma wants to go she does the sign for play and say "ra ra ra" :) we went on monday and we went today too! we also like to go outside and "find" things--airplanes, birds, play with sidewalk chalk, balls and i let her walk down the sidewalk exploring with me a few steps behind. we also hit the kitchen and i let her help me make cookies or something-she loves to help measure and stir and if i'm in a good mood i love it too :rolleyes: and if all else fails we get out of the house--go walk around in target, etc. just get out of the house in some way.

[NMG]

sweetpea - those pics are so cute - I exp love the one of Emma in her sunglasses and hat!!!

boredom - Like the rest of you, I give the kids pots, pans, wooden spoons, plastic containers, etc - sometimes they "play music" with them and others they take the containers and sneak spices out of the pantry (now that Tesa can open doors :p ) and they cook in their little playschool kitchen which is in ours or Tesa helps me stir stuff or helps add ingredients. We also have one of those farm magnet things that play music and you can match up the animals that they love to play when I'm in the kitchen. We have a covered back porch that we go out on and play with chalk (even when its raining its nice to go there and Mikey has finally started drawing with the chalk and not eating it!!) or we get the little bikes, lawnmowers, etc out and play around under there too. They both love to play catch or kick the ball so that's one of there favorites to do - inside or out! Puzzles, books (Tesa now likes to read me books or make up her own story to books we get from the library froom looking at the pics), playdough and coloring!

[JenZen]

alternative toys - I also let Gabe into my cooking stuff. He loves the pots and pans as well as the measuring spoons, cups, etc. He's got a thing for my steamer because he can open and close it. Otherwise, he likes the travel accessories out of the bathroom like the toothbrush holder. Any type of container is basically a hit, including the tea kettle. Scarves are good. My hair accessories usually keep him entertained.

When he's outside, he loves picking up stones, pinecones, sticks and branches. He dumps everything in his dumptruck and hauls it around the yard.

[sweetpea]

thought of another one: my undies :) you can see a picture of her wearing my undies around her neck. not sure the appeal, but when i open my undie drawer she goes "aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" and makes a beeline for them...she's odd!

[aprilbride]

Happy Friday!

We had an ENT appt. this morning and Elliott is getting tubes next Saturday. The ENT (whom we love!) really put me at ease about the whole thing and ensured me that Elliott's ear problems should be non-existent afterwards, he can even continue his swim classes, just has to put "ear putty" in his ears beforehand. I feel much better about all of this...

Elliott has really been trying to walk over the last few days..he holds on to one hand and toddles along, it's to cute. Maybe he'll walk by his first birthday:-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

[fancyn]

Claudia, glad you're at ease with the tube thing. Think of all the time and money you'll be saving from not visiting the doctor every other week! ;) Plus, you're little man will be in an awesome mood all the time now. :) Elliot still has two more weeks to figure it out..all it takes is that first step by themselves and there's no turning back :p;)

Not much new to report. Nicholas has another cold again - thanks grandma. ;) He did cut another tooth yesterday. Quick question - does/can teething affect their appetite? DS has been eating great at the sitters and nil at home.

Have a great weekend everyone!

[MinEaston]

Claudia, sounds like everything is going to go just fine with Elliott!

Alternative toys: Anna likes to play with my silicone mini-muffin trays. I often will put a cheerio in a few of the cups, and she moves them around or eats them. A ping-pong ball with the cardboard tube from a paper towel roll kept her entertained for a while (under supervision, although the ball is too big to get in her mouth). This morning, I had to have her in the bathroom while I took a shower b/c DH is away. She was playing happily with her tub toys (she doesn't touch the toilet, thankfully!) when I went in. It was a quick shower, but when I opened the curtain, I found why she'd been so quiet. Who knew that toilet paper could be so much fun? The roll didn't look noticeably smaller, but the quantity she'd pulled off was quite impressive. I couldn't help but laugh and wish I'd had the camera. Of course, until I dried off I couldn't get it away from her. :rolleyes:

Nancy, teething can very much affect appetite. Anna ate very little at my parents on Weds and daycare on Thursday, but has been a little piggy ever since.

[EmilyK]

MinEaston - careful with those after-shower-bathroom pictures... I've seen some where the mom thought the kid was doing something SO cute and snapped a picture, only to notice later (after showing everybody) that you can see her naked reflection in the mirror, too! ;) :D

Nancy - we definitely notice a change in his appetite when he's teething. He also won't swallow his food if his throat hurts. When we were fighting strep, he would get mouthfuls of food, but not swallow.

Claudia - I'm sure Elliot is going to feel 100% better once those tubes are in! Glad you found an ENT that you really like, too!

Our little man is doing just fine these days. Our sitter called yesterday at noon to tell me I had to come pick him up, because she thought he had pink-eye. She said she had to clean green goo out of the corner of his eye twice, he was rubbing it, and his eye was red. When I got there, she pointed out the eye she thought looked bad. I should have taken a picture - no redness, no goo, nothing. I couldn't see any difference with his eyes. Even today, he's perfectly clear. If I had taken P/A to get him, I would have been so ticked. I assume he just had an eyelash or something in there, because nothing is wrong. The dr. called in a prescription for us, so at least we didn't have to take him into the office. Again. :mad:

On an angry note, we woke up this morning to find out that some idiot(s) egged our cars and our house. <sigh> Had to call the police to come out and look at everything, in case there's damage to our cars. We took them to the car wash, which didn't take off the egg... DH had to wash the cars in 39 degree weather. :( There are tiny cracks where the eggs hit, but nothing too bad looking, so we aren't going to bother filing an insurace claim. Not worth the deductible or the record. I hate this crud... we seem to be the only house to get hit, and we have no idea why anybody would do this.

[Katie-Did]

Emily - What a cruddy thing for someone to egg you! I hope it's an isolated event.

We had a good weekend. We took Aaron swimming again on Saturday morning. He had a blast again, even "swam" through a hoop under water and asked for more! (My DH pushed him through and then grabbed him a second later). He gets thrown off of his nap routine on Saturdays, since he's so tired after swimming he fell asleep on the way home and ended up only sleeping from 11:30-1:00. He's typically still taking 2 naps, for an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. He was fine the rest of Saturday until about 5 pm and then he struggled to make it to an early bedtime. On Sunday though I woke him up after 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning, and he took a 3 hour afternoon nap!

I hope you all had good weekends.

[RunnerKim]

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd jump in here. Jamie turns 1 tomorrow - where has the time gone?!

Nancy - teething was the only thing that affected Jamie's huge appetite. He has 12 teeth now (all 4 molars) and he'd hardly eat - he'd do okay with yogurt which he loves but other things which he noramlly gobbled up and were soft (banana) were still mostly ignored.

One of the best things I've found to do with toys is to rotate them so that there's something "new" -- I try to do this but basically end up with stuff moved out to the garage and forgotten about for awhile. A box can provide a lot of entertainment too. Jamie knows which cabinets have the pots in them and his favorite thing seems to be to used pot lids as cymbols. Otherwise it's taking magnetic letters off the fridge and throwing them down the set of 3 stairs out of our kitchen. Oh here's the best entertainment - a dog water bowl. :rolleyes:

Emily - that is horrible about your car!! Sounds like you have bored teenagers in your neighborhood.

We ran out of formula this weekend so have switched Jamie over to cows milk (2% since his doctor okayed it and that's what we have Lainey on) and off the bottle. They were giving him his formula in a sippy cup at daycare for a couple of weeks anyway. I wasn't sure how the bedtime bottle would go but we just offered him a sippy cup with water in it and he might have been a little harder to put to sleep (within his range of normal, so can't say for sure) but he didn't wake up earlier than normal. Whew. We did it cold turkey like that with Lainey and it went fine but I didn't expect it to be quite so easy with Jamie.

We're working hard on his signs for more and please. He knows more and all done but while he was visiting the wobbler room at daycare the teacher said he gets too worked up to use them (he eats a lot and isn't very patient). There's a backlog of moving kids up so he probably won't officially be in the wobbler room for another month or two but they have him sit at a table in the baby room and are talking about switching him to sleeping on a mat too. It makes him look so grown up.

He's still cruising but trying to takes steps, so I think it won't be too long before he's walking.

His 1 year appt. is on Wednesday - I think his weight gain has really tapered off and I expect he'll be around 25-26 lbs.

Kim

[MinEaston]

Wow, Kim I can't believe Jamie is 1 year old already. That goes for everyone. I can distinctly remember watching for all the birth announcements last spring while I was on maternity leave too.

We had an uneventful weekend. DH was out of town so my parents came over Fri night and most of Saturday, but I was on my own with Anna otherwise. It went just fine but she was not happy at all when I took her to daycare (usually DH takes her, but he'd come straight home last night from his trip with an extended cab pickup and a boat on a trailer behind it, and I don't think he could have gotten into the driveway and back out again!). I hope her day is going well. DH is not home tonight either. Tomorrow evening will be the first evening in a week that he'll be home, and I really hope she will be happy playing with him because I have a ton of things to catch up on.

She's doing quite well on the eating front and has been having cow's milk during the day (hooray, no more pumping at work), and nursing first thing in the AM and last thing before bed. She is really picking up signs quickly now and is starting to make distinct sounds for different objects. She does a mean imitation of a duck, and uses the same sound whether it's a rubber ducky, a duck decoy, or the real thing. She also quacks at robins and other birds. :rolleyes:

Not too much else going on. It's finally getting to be spring here and will be getting warmer each day this week.

[sweetpea]

wow! you all are busy and our little ones are getting so big...emily, i repeat myself from the DVD thread when i say that i can't believe someone egged your cars and house--so pointless. :(

just had to pop in and let you all know a secret :) for breakfast this a.m. i made cream of wheat, well when we were little we always had coco wheats, so i added some ovaltine to it and put some frozen raspberries (from FIL) in it to cool it off for DD (17 months)--wow! she was scraping the bowl clean. literally. i know ovaltine has sugar so i only put enough in to get some chocolate flavor and the raspberries are so good with the chocolate! she was loving it! plus ovaltine has lots of good vitamins too! of course, emma never has a problem eating, though i did find out today, purely by mistake, that she does NOT like feta cheese :o

[EmilyK]

Amanda, the cream of wheat concoction you made sounds REALLY tasty!! We've been experimenting with Gavin and fresh fruits - he loves the stuff! He DOES like feta cheese... it amazes me what the kid will eat (and enjoy). I was going to try him with blue cheese crumbles, but didn't know if that would be "okay" or not.

Lately, we're struggling with him proclaiming "ah dah" and clapping his hands (all done)... we know he hasn't really eaten much and he's not really that full, he just has decided he wants to go play instead of eat. As it is, we struggle to get him to take in enough calories to not lose weight. :( If you don't let him down, he will start sweeping his hands across his tray/cupholders and throwing food on the floor (and gets very agitated). AND, we've had a couple of nights where he ends up overheating in his room and screaming at the top of his lungs, making his drink sign (he makes a sound with it, which is how we know he's doing it) in there. He'll chug 1.5 glasses of water/milk and then go back to bed. I think he might still be hungry, but we can't force him to eat. DH feels like we should make him finish his meals, because he wants him to understand mealtime is when you eat. I'm so torn on this...

[Katie-Did]

Emily - That sounds really tough with Gavin's eating. I highly recommend looking at the chapter in "Child of Mine" about feeding toddlers. I think you'll find it relieving to read, especially if you're worried about Gavin's small size. I'm not sure if you've already looked at the book, or have time to read it - so if you want me to give a quick summary of what I remember let me know, but it's a worthwhile read for sure.

We had a fun morning. Since my DH is a pastor, Monday is his day off and my favorite day of the week (a change from most people, I know!). We went on a short hike this morning. Aaron was in our backpack, which he liked once we got going. I remember him doing that when we used it last summer too - feeling unsure but then liking the view! It was a short hike, since we weren't sure how he would do in the backpack now that he's so mobile. Aaron especially liked splashing a bit in the creek and picking up leaves, sticks, etc. when he was hiking like a "big boy."

[RunnerKim]

Emily - have your read any of Ellyn Satter's books? I have Child of Mine and highly recommend it for feeding advice as Katie-Did does. Her books have been recommended by several people on these threads which is how I heard about it. Your library probably has it, I eventually bought my own copy because it's good for birth through childhood and I refer back to it on occaison now.

What I like about it is that she makes eating pretty straight forward and simple. Parents have a job and kids have a job. The parents decide when meals are and what is served (for over a year). The kid decides if they're going to eat and how much they'll eat.

I really don't think there's any way to force a kid to eat when they don't want to - you're setting yourself up for a power struggle that's only going to turn him off eating even more. Personally, I'd handle your situation by letting him be all done when he says he's all done, but then absolutely nothing (but water) until the next meal/snack time. He learns meal times are for eating but you're not getting in a power struggle at the table. The other thing I'd be careful of is how much milk and juice he's consuming. It's much easier for a kid to drink their calories than eat. Milk consumption is something my pediatrician has a big issue with (she had 2 patients need transfusions b/c they basically only drank cows milk and didn't eat food). I think 12-16oz is the max she likes to see a wobbler/toddler drink of milk. (I'd only give him water in between meals - i.e., at night when he's getting thirsty). I know that's easier for me to say because I'm not struggling with his weight gain issues.

Kim

[EmilyK]

We only occasionally give 2 oz. of juice diluted with water (usually when he seems a little more "plugged up") and water otherwise. We've set a limit on milk at the sitter to 16 ounces. He doesn't drink cow's milk, but soy milk... another issue: soy milk is lower in fat than whole milk, so we now add butter to everything. :rolleyes:

I checked out Child of Mine from the library when Gavin was around 4 months old, but never got to the chapters about toddlers. Looks like I'm going to have to check it out again or buy it.

When he was into the dr. office for strep throat a few months ago, he was 19 lb 5 oz... then at our 1-year appointment at the end of March, he was 19 lb even. I don't know if it was because he was allowed to sit on the scale the last time instead of lay on it, but it worried me that he was lower after several weeks of eating like a piggy. When he starts to eat less, I freak out that he's going to lose even more. The child is close to dropping down into the <5th percentile. Maybe I am worrying about this too much, but how much butter can you possibly add to a little guy's diet? :o We joke about melting it and adding it into his soy milk :eek: :).

[MinEaston]

Em - you've gotten good advice. I wouldn't really worry too much about his eating, and I just read that chapter in Child of Mine about toddler eating, and I'd have to echo what Kim said about not forcing eating.

As you know Anna too is quite small (19lbs even and 27" at her 1-year visit) so I find myself worrying about whether she's eating enough. But everything else is going well, like sleeping, playing, being happy, so I figure it will work out. My SIL has a 2-year-old that only broke the 20lb mark around her 2nd birthday.

Which reminds me of the efforts SIL made to get more fat into her DD's diet. One day, apparently, her DD saw slices of cheese on the table, asked for some, and happily ate them. Only they were pats of butter. :eek:

[aprilbride]

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Elliott is turning one next Friday, I can't believe it!

Over the last few days I've been trying to replace Elliott's morning bottle with a cup and he won't have anything to do with it. If I give him a bottle he'll drink it all:-( I wonder if I need to go cold turkey as well...he's still getting a night bottle, I"m sure that'll be an even bigger challenge.

We took him in for his first haircut over the weekend! He did great:-) Looks very cute as well...

My parents are coming on Sunday for three weeks, I'm excited!

Only challenge ahead is the appt. for tubes on Saturday...

[NMG]

Kim - Happy 1st Birthday Jamie!!! :D
Emily - At Tesa's 2 year check up, she was only ALMOST 25 lbs - she is very tiny (although she seems to have hit a growth spurt in the past few weeks since her pants are finally getting shorter!). I still don't think she's gained much in weight - I think she's only growing taller! Mikey has stopped growing (weight wise) as fast after he started walking - he went from the 85% to the 50% or 45% (somewhere around there). Did you guys ever figure out who egged you??? I still can't believe someone did that to you :mad:
Aprilbride - Good luck with the tubes - I'm sure Elliot will be fine :)
Nancy - We had (and still are considering he has 3 molars and 1 other tooth that just popped thru and his gums are extremely swollen right now :( ) a problem with Mikey and eating when his gums/teeth were bothering him - we actually decided to give him peanut butter and jelly sandwich's (we have NO peanut (or other food) allergies in our family) so that he would stay fuller longer. He didn't want to eat because it hurt, but he was so hungry! I have also been giving him plain oatmeal and sprinkle a lilttle brown sugar and raisins in it - he gobbles it up faster than anything I've ever seen him eat!!
On another note - Mikey had a rash on his back that moved to his upper lip and left cheek on Sun.......I took him in to the docs yesterady since it was spreading - it ended up being caused by a viral infection. The doc said his rash should go away within the next 2-4 days.

[aprilbride]

Wow, we've been a quiet bunch!! Hope everyone had a nice Easter! My parents came in from Germany yesterday so we had a great day. Elliott got way to many goodies from the Easter Bunny and there are two suitcases full of presents sitting in the guest room for his Birthday!

Elliott had tubes put in on Saturday and it all went well. We had to be at the hospital right at 6 and he was the first patient, we were home by 8. It was a quick procedure and he did well, other than waking up from being knocked out very cranky and staying that way until we got home and he got a good nap in. I'm glad it's done!

The little man is so close to walking, I"m wondering if he'll take his first unassisted steps this week. He's also been obsessed with going outside, he constantly goes to the front/back door and points to outside...DH took him for a spin in one of those covered cart thingies you can buy for a bike and he loved it.

Hope you are all well!

[MinEaston]

So glad to hear the tube placement wasn't too bad!

We had a nice Easter and a fairly quiet weekend overall. We took Anna to one of the local Easter egg hunts on Saturday morning but of course we were there 2 minutes too late and *every single egg* was gone. Apparently the courthouse lawn was covered and they were all over the bushes, but we didn't see a single one left. Ah well, she's rather young still anyway. My parents put a few eggs in their yard (with cheerios or goldfish crackers inside) and she had fun picking those up. She looked really cute in her yellow easter dress, but she lasted about 5 minutes in church and then my parents took her outside to play in the yard.

Claudia - did you get a helmet for Eliot to wear in the bike trailer, and what kind? My parents bought a bike trailer and I'm going to find a helmet but don't know where to start. Of course, being in a small town we're limited on our shopping options, but we do have a nice bike shop as well as Walmart :rolleyes:

[aprilbride]

DH ran out yesterday morning to get a bike helmet at Walmart:-) Target was closed...I don't remember the brand he bought but apparently the one he wanted they didn't have....this one is from 0 to 5 years and still pretty big on Elliott. He also hated having it on. DH put him in the cart with it but Elliott got pretty upset so we took it off and he just rode the bike up and down the street a couple of times. So we'll definetely have to get him used to the helmet!!

[Chelle D]

Hey all! I am just getting back to catching up here too. Something must have hit many of us to have us be so quiet lately!

Kim - Happy Belated Birthday to Jamie! I was just thinking about you and Jamie a few weeks ago and wondered how you were. I always think of Jamie because he was the other "big" baby on the baby thread for awhile. Maxwell is slowing down weight-wise too. At 9 months, he was 26 pounds+ and I don't think he has gained much. At about 7-8 months, he got into a 2T (with the pants being rolled a few times) and he will probably stay in that size through the summer.

Emily - As you have read through the last year, I have the opposite problem and worry about that all the time. I feed Maxwell tons of fruit, which he loves more than anything. I did not give in on the nursing, but I did start him on 2% milk during the day last week so that cut some calories as well. I guess what I am saying is that all of our precious little ones are different. Gavin will eat when he is hungry and you are doing a great job. From you previous posts, I know you are very concerned about the health of your entire family and you prepare very good, healthy, food. Gavin will eat what he needs. He is cute as heck and he looks great in all the pictures I have seen. Unless there is a major health concern I would not worry too much about it.

Okay gals, I am envious of all the signing going on. What book do I need to get to start doing this? I have been fairly "anti-book" so far because all of the infant books I was looking at confused me :) I like the idea of being able to have Maxwell tell me what he wants though. Thanks!

We are doing well here. Preparing for Denmark and preparing for Maxwell's first birthday party is making the days busier than usual. We got his passport in the mail...too cute! We are getting excited to go, and I am still stressed about it all, but trying to keep a positive putlook. I know most of the trip will be great and I am so happy that DH's family will get to spend time with Maxwell (and us).

[Katie-Did]

We have had a busy few days! Aaron went swimming again Saturday morning, then attended his first Easter egg hunt that afternoon. He picked up a few eggs, mostly for the novelty of them. He loved being around the other kids and being outside on a beautiful day. Sunday was a busy day with church (he's finally getting OK at being left in the nursery!) and then attending another Easter gathering.

I'm glad to hear that Elliott did well with getting the tubes put in.

About signing books - we just have a board book that has pictures of small children doing the signs and a description underneath - it's called "Teaching Your Baby to Sign" by Lora Heller. There are lots of books, videos, etc - but we've found that the 15 or so signs that we've all learned from this book have been enough so that Aaron can tell us what he wants. He loves to look at the book and practice the signs. If we have another baby I might learn more because it would be neat to see more of what he's thinking.

[MinEaston]

Hey folks, I found an online signing reference that looks interesting, here's the link to where you can browse the signs themselves

Baby signing (http://signwithme.com/002_browse_signs.asp)

[aprilbride]

I haven't really given signing much thought but I'm wondering if I need to...Elliott sounds like Jamie regarding his eating, he eats a lot and is not very patient, especially at dinner time. It would probably go a little smoother if he could "communicate" better....But, I am worried that it's to much since I'm also trying to teach him German. Do you guys think it would be to confusing? English, German and Signs?

I'm starting to wonder if I'm out of my mind throwing a big birthday party on Saturday. I think we're up to over 20 adults and 10 kids varying in age from 6 months up to 5...yikes. The weather is supposed to be in the 80's and I'm counting on everything to happen outside, we'll see...since it's also my birthday I'm throwing in some alcoholic beverages which just might come in handy with all the crazyness. Thankfully my parents are here!

Chelle, have fun in Denmark! I'm considering taking Elliott to Germany by myself in September for my Grandmother's 92nd birthday...I'm still on the fence but I think it would be worth it, even though the 10 hour flight has potential to be very challenging with a then 16 month old!

[Chelle D]

Claudia - I had not thought about language confusion. I think it will be okay though. DH is speaking Danish around Maxwell, as long as I remind him and push him :rolleyes: I think the signs will come before most of the language, other than a few words here and there. Is your DH German as well, or does e speak it? We have a harder time because I do not speak Danish and DH is not very good at trying to speak only Danish around Maxwell. I am hoping he picks it up though. It would be nice and I think it would help me a little as well.
I also hear you on the big birthday party. We are having about 30 adults and about 10 kids from 5 months-4 years, with most of them being 1 year-olds from my ivf gals. We are doing it at our church so that should be nice. We are doing a train theme and I am copying Molli's train cake she did for Charlie last year. I am making "train wheel" sandwiches (tortillas rolled with various things and sliced), meatballs (a Maxwell fav), and a fruit salad (the kid LOVES fruit). I enlisted family to make a couple different pasta salads and a veggie tray. I am also making a Toddler snack mix - combining Cheerios, Gerber fruit puffs, and those graham cracker sticks. It should be fun. A couple days ago, we were all in Toy's R Us and I spotted a blow-up train. DH put that in the cart so fast :) Maxwell's nickname is "Bucket" so I bought all different kinds of sand buckets and filled them with train whistles, a train bath toy, and a small box of Cheerios for the under 3 crowd. The under 8 crowd is getting a bucket of sidewalk chalk, a train whistle, and scented bubbles. I even made little strickers and tags to put on it all.....yeah, so I am going overboard !!

[aprilbride]

Okay Chelle, I'm in good company then:-) Our theme is "East Indian", don't ask why, I just saw it in a magazine and loved it, so everything is kind of centered around Elephants...I bought a whole bunch of "Barbar" books that we'll give to Elliott's buddies at daycare, we even "installed" a playground in our backyard so the kids would have stuff to do...complete with pool, Little Tykes swing/slide and a sandbox my dad brought from Germany. Our favors for the party will be elephant cookies, same ones that will decorate the main cake. DH's best friend's fiancee is Indian so she's making Tandoori Chicken we'll BBQ later on in the day and Naan Bread along with rice and peas. If someone had told me we were going to do this last year I would have told them they were completely out of their mind. Oh well...blame it on motherhood, right?:-) Makes me a little nutty...

DH doesn't speak German, so it's hard. I really have to work hard to remind myself...luckily Elliott reacts to a few German sentences which made my parents very happy!

[MinEaston]

I meant to weigh in on the language discussion yesterday. My mother is from Argentina and I grew up speaking Spanish first. DH understands some words and has taken a couple of beginner conversation classes, but is far from speaking it. So I try to at least introduce the vocabulary. Since my parents watch Anna 2x week, she gets her spanish lessons then. (My dad is a gringo like DH, but after years of exposure can make himself understood). It's hard for me to converse in Spanish with her at home, because of DH.

Anna seems to understand the familiar phrases no matter what language they are in (english, spanish, or "sign"). I think at that age they just soak it all up.

I know a couple where the dad is German and the mother is Brazilian. They speak english to each other but each of them speak their native tongue to their daughter. She does just fine!

[jphilg]

Did any of your little bits go through a "Terrible Ten-Month" phase? I've had this lovely, easy-going baby for 10 months, and now she's a cranknugget about 70% of her waking time. I don't think it is a tooth....

I've wondered if she's really frustrated because she wants to walk so badly, but can't, or if she's bored out of her mind, or....? But this has been going on for about 5 days now, and I don't know if I should just deal with it, or if maybe there is something I could fix or change.

Thoughts?

[RunnerKim]

I think 10 months is considered a normal fear-phase for babies. They're become enough aware of the world and other people that they're making attachments and caring about who's around them and where they are. Lainey was very clingy at 10 months; Jamie not quite as bad but I do remember thinking it was the "10 month" point with him too. Hang in there!

Chelle - you can probably find a baby sign book at your library or even look it up on the internet. I only start with the more and all done signs. Then add in help and please and there must be others because I think Lainey used about 10 regularly. There are many different books/videos out there, i have one by Joseph Garica. I would only suggest that you get one that uses ASL (American Sign Language) because then others that use signs will know it. We just try to use the sign whenever we say the word. They use signs at our daycare. I think it really helps with the frustration level. It's funny but I'm pretty sure that Jamie will sign that he's "all done" with something when he's finished it but not mean that he's all done eating - more that it's all gone.

We have a bike helmet for Jamie - it fits his head decently. I don't recall specifically but it's a smaller age range than 0-5 yrs. It's smaller than the one we have for Lainey (3.5 years). We haven't had nice enough weather for DH to take the kids out on his new bike (DH's birthday gift). I'm looking forward to him taking the kids on a nice long bike ride :D

Kim

[zippy478]

I haven't been around much lately. Trying to find a job and not having too much luck. Also waiting for bar exam results so that's a little stressful, too.

Anyway, Zachary had ear infections pretty continuously from the beginning of Feb. and has finally gotten the all clear but I have a sneaky suspicion he is coming down with something else as he's got another runny nose, kind of runny diapers at times and a red mark on his bum with a white circle in it - almost like a yeast infection. I've been putting desitin on it but it doesn't seem to be helping. I'm not sure what it is and it kind of bothers me because I know when I wipe him, it hurts because of the way he reacts. Anyone have any ideas for me?

As far as food goes, I'm going to check out that book. I have First Meals but I need more ideas for how to mix things up. I feel like he is pretty limited in what he'll eat and I know it's my fault so I want to change it before it gets to be too late and he becomes a picky eater.

He is finally walking. He started walking around 16 months and now he won't stop. He gets super frustrated when we stop him. He is also doing really well feeding himself, albeit a tiny bit messy sometimes. But, he likes to do it himself and sometimes will not start eating unless we let him feed himself.

Hopefully I can hang out here a little more now....
Maura :)

[fancyn]

Morning all - it's been a while since I've checked in due to a crazy busy month! Maura, yeast infections look like little pimples according to my ped's office. Nicholas has had one twice now. We were instructed to put Lotrimin AF four times a day. Takes 2-3 days to clear up. HTH!

OK, here's our situation... :o :mad: I'm at a loss. Nicholas is 14.5 months and the past two weeks has done a complete 180. According to our pediatrician's nurse and the sitter, he's hitting the terrible two phase at one, which is 1-2 years early. The office says they've only seen one other child do this. He's throwing tantrums, hitting, biting, being down right malicious and vindictive...apparently for attention? :confused: When he gets mad and throws things, they go in time out. When he's getting into something he's not supposed to, he's removed and redirected, only to go back and punch/slam/hit it. Once again, this is not a communication issue at all. The ped. recommended several books and mentioned a psychologist. :mad: Excuse me, my child is not mental, just too smart for his own good. Until I get these books read, I'm asking for any advice you all have. I'm not a yeller, I'm not a spanker (though it's happened a couple of times) and I don't want to be either. I do have quite the back bone, so he doesn't get away with anything. I just want to get this under control before it gets out of hand. Can anyone relate or know of a child that this has happened to???

ETA: We've tried time out, but it doesn't seem effective b/c he can't relate the punishment with the crime if that makes sense, esp. when he has no concept of time yet. :(

[Laura]

OK, here's our situation... :o :mad: I'm at a loss. Nicholas is 14.5 months and the past two weeks has done a complete 180.

Delurking to say that both my kids hit the "terrible twos" around 15 months. It seemed to me to be a frustration on their part with a lack of communication skills. My kids are much older now (14 & 16) so signing wasn't something that was done with children who could hear back then (at least not to my knowledge). Have you tried signing with him? I found the tantrums eased up a little once they were able to communicate a little more, but we still had tantrums in their twos. I just wanted to share that this is not uncommon, and the recommendation of a psychiatrist seems a little extreme. But that is just my opinion. Now I have to worry about them driving on their own. The challenges along with the joys never end.

[zippy478]

fancyn - thanks for the info on the yeast infection. He stayed at SIL's house last night so I'll check that when I get him later on today.

As for your dilemma, maybe start jotting down when/where/what's happening when he throws the tantrums? See if there is a pattern or something that is initiating it? I've just recently had my boy start to throw minor tantrums and it's usually out of frustration. I agree that the suggestion of a psychiatrist seems a little extreme. I don't have any other suggestions for you - maybe some of the more "seasoned" moms can help out, too. Good luck and hopefully it passes quickly!

Maura :)

[fancyn]

Laura, thanks for delurking! :) We don't do signs because DS has quite the vocabulary. He can tell me when he wants something - water, milk, snack, cheese, banana, hungry, poop, potty, bath time, catch, outside, books, blocks, ball, night-night, bye-bye, all-done, more, etc. He talks extremely well for his age and understands almost anything that comes out of my mouth. :rolleyes: That's why I dont think its a communication issue. It's more of a power struggle of who's the boss and who's going to win the battle. Right now he sees me as bad guy, and DH is the good guy. It's so weird. He only acts that way with me and the sitter. It's like a female authority figure type thing. It's like he's trying to buck the system, and see how much he can get away with and how far he can take things....sigh. I hope this passes soon too!

[zippy478]

Just another tip of advice....be consistent. Figure out what you're going to do when he acts like that and stick to it...collaborate with the sitter and DH on it and get them on board, too. He will eventually learn that it's unacceptable behavior and hopefully sooner rather than later for your sanity's sake. Good luck!

[RunnerKim]

Nancy,
My daughter went through something similar but doesn't sound like it was as extreme. She would only hit me - rarely DH. She was under age 2. It soundsl ike you're very consistent with consequences, so keep that up. At that age, I found it helpful to give limited choices. Do you want to put your left or right shoe on first? Do you want to do it or should I? I also gave 2 minute warnings for when something was happening. (we still use that to this day). 2 minutes until I leave (when dropping off at daycare); 2 minutes until time to put your coat on. And it was 2 minutes. DH set his watch and it would beep and I looked at my watch and tried hard to make sure it was really 2 minutes.

Lainey was a little older (which can make a lot of difference I know) and was't acting out quite as much as you mention but I thought I'd throw it out there.

How much sleep is Nicolas getting? Could that be contributing?

Kim

[LaraW]

Nancy, my DD is not quite 2 1/2, and she hit the "terrible twos" at around 15 or 16 months. I don't think its really all that uncommon.

One thing that we have done is to ignore her tantrums, for the most part, whenever we can. She has a large vocabulary too, and we will remind her to "use her words" to tell us what she needs/wants.

Nicholas may be too young for this, but it is something that has started to work for us recently, is to just put her in her room and tell her when she can talk in a nice voice she may come down. It has kind of worked like a non-punitive timeout, and it gives her a chance to settle herself down. It doesn't always work, but sometimes when she is upset, she will go up to her room on her own to settle down.

I have also experienced the tantrums and not minding for me, but Natalie will mind others, like DH or a friend or pretty much anyone besides me. I attribute this to the fact that she feels safest with me, that she knows that no matter what, I will always be "Mommy" and so she can misbehave as much as she wants and I won't leave. Never mind that she still gets timeouts or whatever with me, but I won't leave. Maybe this is what is going on with Nicholas in regard to your sitter and you?

I think there is probably a certain amount of testing limits - I know that behavior problems with Natalie really increased after her baby brother was born, and she'd pick the moment I was feeding him or was carrying him in the carseat or whatever to run away from me or do something equally bad. I had some success with offering a small reward (a sticker or small toy I'd brought from home) for doing "x" behavior (walking nicely and holding my hand). She was a little over 2 when I did that, and so Nicholas may not be old enough yet for that to work.

[fancyn]

Kim, Maura, Lara, and everyone else, ((((thank you)))) I seriously was about to lose it the other day. Kim, he is down at 7 and up at 6:30 or 7 with a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. The sleep thing does play a role in this - when he's lacking things seem twice as worse. Another thing I forgot to mention in my first hasty post, DS was sick last week and would wake up in the night. DH was the only one he wanted. It took snuggles and a sippy of milk to get him back down. That is now another issue that we're confronting. He's gotten into such a routine with DH coming in, he keeps waking. DH and I argued at 4 am. about whether or not to go in. I finally said to him," Sorry to inconvenience you and your sleep, but deal with it now or you get up with him every night until he's 3!" The first night it took 1.5 hours of crying (doesn't really bother me :cool: , but DH... :rolleyes: ). Last night he finally slept through so hopefully today is better. As far as the tantrums go, I just walk away and ignore them until he settles himself down. The other night one lasted 15 minutes and DH hadn't made it home from work yet. He stood at the top of the stairs shaking the gate and screaming for Dadda. It hurts my feelings to be quite honest.... :(

[RunnerKim]

Nancy, when Lainey wakes up in the middle of the night she calls out for Daddy. I think she does this for a couple of reasons 1)DH is a bigger sucker than me, especially in the middle of the night and 2) DH is often still awake and when I was pg he pretty much handled all night time things. Lainey was a great sleeper until some point when she started waking up at night and needing to be sat with for awhile to go back to sleep. DH handled it until I finally said enough. If I'd been the one getting up it would have stopped a lot earlier. I need my sleep and i just don't have tolerance for it. DH didn't mind so much and would just go sit with her.

In addition if she is mad or frustrated, she wants whichever parent is not there or not being "mean" at the time. If that parent isn't home then she really wants them.

Try not to take it personally. ((()))

Kim

[rmg_CA]

Hi all,
Just here to delurk for a few minutes to say hi and wish Elliott a happy birthday! Nicholas is one today too. We went for pix today and he's zonked out for a three hour nap. His naps are all over the place now, two when he's home, one long one at daycare, it's hard to predict from day to day except when he gets cranky.

I can't believe how fast the last year went. I look at my little guy and sometimes I can see his little baby face in some of his expressions, and sometimes I see such a little boy. He's going through such an eating phase right now too. Last week at his daycare, we're switching him to their food and they noted on his report "Nicholas ate the school today! He enjoyed it very much!" We laughed about it the next day - they meant "school lunch" - but it was also truthful to how much he's been eating. He's also wanting to drink from a cup lately and makes noises for some of whatever we're drinking. I've been giving him water from a cup and he does great.

We're having a party for him tomorrow too. It's the "boys little one" theme from Birthday Express. I love that place, everything came out so cute. I even ordered him a little plush crown to wear, and he had pictures in it today. We're with you Claudia, we're up to about 25. I'm here to search for white sangria recipes, we're going to have a bit of alcohol too.

Well all's well, just wanted to say hi.

Robin

[food girl]

Happy birthday to Elliott and Nicholas! Can it have been a year already??

My poor Anna just had a little birthday get together with family and we only had cake, coffee and milk. This was partially because Mommy had been out of commission with a bad, bad gi bug for days and partially because Mommy and Daddy had just read “Born to Buy” and got freaked out. Has anyone else read this book? Yikes!

The other parties sound like fun, Indian food sounds yummy right now – I must be getting better.

Lisa

[fancyn]

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ELLIOT AND NICHOLAS!!! Hope you had great parties!! :)

Just wanted to drop in and say thanks for the advice and sympathy!! This weekend DS stayed at the IL's because of a wedding I was in. Of course he was an angel for them. When we picked him up, the tantrums immediately started - but he was tired and so were we. :o Fingers crossed he wasn't rotten for the sitter! :p

[aprilbride]

Happy Belated Birthday, Nicholas!! Hope you guys had a great party! I'm finally getting a chance to check in, the weekend was crazy! We had a fabulous time! The party was soo much fun..our little playground was done just in time, all the food turned out great and the kids had a fantastic time playing. Elliott behaved so well with all the kids around, I was a proud mama! I'll have to post some pics.....I'm still off today and tomorrow so I'm relaxing and organizing my new kitchen cabinets:-) They were put in on Friday (talk about last minute) and are still missing doors, but hey, it's a start. The extra counterspace came in very handy as well on Saturday.

Robin, I'm having a hard time grasping that Elliott is one as well. I've been thinking back a lot on what we were doing at this time last year and it seems like it was yesterday. Now he's pretty much walking and just so much fun. He's turning into little Mr. Personality. And he's been sleeping consistently until 6.30 am, which is such a nice surprise:-)

Well, back to organizing my cabinets. Post some party pics when you can, I'd love to see Nicholas!

[JenZen]

Hi all,

I haven't stopped by in a while, so I'm way behind on this thread.

We're still getting over a stomach bug at our house. Gabe got it first, and then DH, and then me. Talk about icky. I'm so tired of cleaning up puke and poop. Plus, I'm feeling downright tired with being pregnant on top of everything else.

Gabe also got all of his eye teeth in when he had the flu, which made the week extra fun. However, we're all back to normal now, and he's such a hoot.

He's talking up a storm! Every day, he adds at least one new word to his vocabulary. Last night, it was "whale" as he watched Baby Einstein. So sweet to hear him say words!

I'll stop by later. Just wanted you to know I'm still around.

Jen

[NMG]

Happy Belated Birthday Elliott and Nicholas!!! Hope your birthdays went well!!!
Nancy - Tesa was just like Nicholas at that age (and she could speak extremely well so communitcation wasn't the issue with her either). We still have control issues with her (she's a little over 2-1/2 right now) and honestly one thing that does work pretty well with her is I put her in her crib for time-out - no toys, no books, no drinks, nothing - for at least 5 mins. If she is still hysterical after 5 mins, I wait until she is calm and ask her if she's ready to come down and be nice. The majority of the time this works (although we are going to be switching to a big girl bed in the next month, so I'll have to think of something else). Over the weekend, her and Mikey were playing and she starting kicking him, I told her in a calm voice twice to stop and she did for a min, then gave me an evil eye and kicked him right in the face - 10 min time out for that one - she's a good one for testing her limits at everything. She's a pretty sneaky little girl and it worries me for when she is older, but we're trying to work with her right now on those issues. She's getting a smidge better at telling us why she is angry or sad, but usually it's not until after her time out. Sorry - I really didn't have any advice for you other than I'm pretty sure I understand what you are going thru - and yes, Tesa wants Daddy when I'm the one doing the punishing. The only other thing is I find it a little insane (no pun intended) to take a 14.5 month old baby to a psychologist.

[aprilbride]

I finally got to read last weeks posts and the "behavior challenges" are a timely subject:-))

Nancy, which books did your doctor recommend? I'd be very interested in reading up on a few things. Elliott for a while now has ignored "no" and usually giggles when I say it while continuing to do what he shouldn't, i.e. taking CD's out of the CD rack. I've started to use the word "stop" instead of no, but that doesn't seem to work either. I know he knows what it means but chooses to ignore it. If I remove him, he just goes back, if I put him in time-out for a minute or two in his playpen he'll go back. So I finally just removed them. I'm not confident that that's the right thing to do...my philosphy would lean more towards "let him touch it and play with it until it looses its appeal" but when he does something that could potentially end up hurting him, it doesn't work either. So what to do? He just turned 1 so he doesn't talk yet but he points and sometimes I just think he's to clever for his own good.

[MinEaston]

Oh yeah Claudia, I have a "too clever for her own good" kid too. Anna (14 months now) knows there are certain things she shouldn't do, and will test the waters by coyly looking at us over her shoulder as she does it. I say no, and then often pick her up and redirect her. She now will sit down on the floor and cry if something happens she doesn't like (for example, pulling her away from the firewood holder).

There are some things I have moved out of reach. Like the toilet paper from my bathroom (see my earlier post about that). Our knick-knacks from the coffee table. More because I don't want to have to chase after her all the time. She has been really good about books on shelves, thankfully, since DH is a bookworm and we have an extensive collection. We're also trying to teach her to put things back after she's taken them all out. Which she generally does now (like my plastic containers).

I've been considering getting "Happiest Kid on the Block" - anyone have it? Thoughts?

[fancyn]

NMG- more reassurance is always needed - thanks!

Claudia - several of the books recommended to me were:

The Strong Willed Child
How to Behave So Your Child Will Too
How to Discipline with Love (not quite sure the exact name)
I also picked up several more that I can type up when I get home. I even got the additional book on tape for the top two so DH and listen to it on his lengthy commute. :D
I'll let you know what I think when I'm done! :)

Mineaston - I think several moms on the Toddler/Preschooler threads have read these. You might ask over there too...I've not read it.

[sweetpea]

i'm still around too :) just posting to say adios for a bit--we are moving tomorrow (so fun to do all this packing/moving with an 18 month old!) to a temporary place while our renovations at the new house get done :( i am not patient about this whole process so i could use happy thoughts/prayers. DD is doing well but is a bit out of sorts lately with the lack of attention b/c mom is busy packing the house by myself. DH is traveling quite a bit which adds to the stress and DD had an ear infection last weekend (decided to not do antibiotics this time--she was feverish but otherwise okay--just tired of pumping her full of antibiotics for ear infections). We will be without internet/email for a while but i will return once things are up and going! oh and if you want to see the renovation blog: http://360.yahoo.com/aarmstro9

[NMG]

Sweetpea - Good luck with the move! Everything will come together for you and will be back to normal before you know it :D