Welcome to the Main Family blog. It will try to capture the various asundry activities of our mundane lives, but with an attempt at making it seem not quite so mundane.
Delenn has had two nights of very restless, wakeful sleep. Yawn. She's
been very busy -- cutting her first tooth! Today we can finally see the
top of one of her bottom teeth starting to push through the gums. Good
work, Delenn!
We are now all healthy and are doing well. Logan's temper tantrums seem
to have subsided a lot--probably in large part because he has resumed
napping most every day. Usually Delenn goes down to sleep around noon.
This gives Mommy and Logan some quality time together to finish lunch,
play and then to read books and settle down for naps before Delenn gets
back up again. Delenn generally takes two naps now, though occasionally
still takes three. She's almost always on her way to bed around 6pm and
asleep by 6:30-6:45. She wakes up around 6:15am (give or take).
Logan has really been enjoying his Thunderbird rockets. That's his
favorite thing to play (and he enjoys the TV show too).
Now that the weather is cooler (gorgeous in fact!) Mom, Logan and Delenn
spend time outside most mornings riding bikes, swinging in the swing,
bouncing on the giraffe, and jumping on the trampoline ("that Bradon
gave me" as Logan points out). As you'll see from the pictures below,
Delenn has been enjoying the bike too. We put up a couple pictures of
Logan enjoying this same bike a couple years ago.
Last week, Logan identified every (capital) letter in the alphabet. Now
he has started putting a few three letter words together. DAD was his
first word in the "Word Whammer" magnetic letter game. (Mommy made a
sheet with about five words and their pictures [ie. DAD w/photo, COW
with picture, etc.] hanging next to the game. Logan simply had to find
the letters and put them in the correct order.)
Delenn has started having a bit of stranger anxiety. She tucks her head
into Mom's shoulder when people come too close. And, when a couple
friends have picked her up -- she's gone from smiles and giggles to
wails almost instantaneously. Once she's safely back in Mom (or Dad's)
arms, she starts smiling again.
Logan is becoming quite the conversationalist -- asking Daddy "How was
your day?" at the dinner table and telling "Mamma" "That was very nice,"
when she says hello to people on our walk.
In addition to the fun adventures pictured below, other events of note
include Delenn's becoming more boisterous and vocal when deciding she's
had enough fun time in a particular activity and is ready to move on to
something else. She's also becoming quite adept at forcefully reaching
out to grab anything that has gotten her attention. Beware if you hold
her, because the sudden lurch for things like your glass or plate of
food can catch you by surprise! Speaking of food and drink, Logan made
us laugh at dinner tonight by non-chalantly eating his cooked carrot
with a fork. What's so interesting about eating a carrot with a fork
you might ask? Well, in this case the fork was really a toy triceratops
that the boy smuggled onto the dinner table unbeknownst to his parents.
At about the same time both Mom and Dad happened to notice the kid using
the triceratops horns to skewer and chow down his morsels. Not the most
clean and sterile method of eating, but definitely creative! In
addition to that, Logan did a great job of paying attention during
'quiet' reading time today. After his nap (which he's been good at
taking for the past few days), Logan had something to eat and was
extremely good for the rest of the afternoon. Mom theorizes and will
test the fact that Logan may need food right after waking up from a nap
or he's a complete grouch and pain-in-the-butt... lately he's been an
afternoon terror and we now surmise it might be because we're holding
him off from eating until our 5:30 PM dinnertime.
Of other interests to note, Mom is reading a book called "Magic Trees of
the Mind". It's a book about the development of the brain. For
example, it explains that by the age of 6-8 months the frontal and rear
lobes are burning glucose and oxygen at a furious pace (an explosion of
synaptic connections) --which coincides with stranger anxiety and with
the baby's ability to engage parents, siblings, etc in an increasingly
sophisticated way. "Metabolic rates keep rising until the energy use in
a 2-year old is equal to an adults. Then THE LEVELS KEEP RISING until,
by age THREE, the child's brain is TWICE as active as an adult's." In
other words, there is a lengthy period of over-connectedness (of
synapses) in the brain. Then as the individual begins to become their
own person, the unused and unnecessary neural circuits die away. The
book goes on to explain that this over active brain corresponds with the
behavior of children and they experience the (highly distractable)
TERRIBLE TWOS essentially because they don't have control while they are
in this overconnected state. (People with schizophrenia have a similar
problem in that too many synapses are connected.) So, a decline in
connectivity does not indicate that one's learning ability is in decline
(remember when your biology teacher scared you with the statistics about
how many hundreds of thousands of brain cells are dying all the time?!),
but rather skills (such as language, physical coordination, etc.) emerge
as the overconnectedness of the brain is whittled down and shaped.
Anyway, all this makes us feel better that the temper tantrums are a
sign that the brain is doing what it should be doing (growing, maturing)
and Logan's behavior is NOT a reflection of our parenting skills (or
lack thereof). However, we're not sure now if we should push his
interests in certain directions so that the neural pathways for say
"golfing" remain and then lead him to be the next Tiger Woods and
relieve his poor parents from having to work the rest of their lives
(HA! :-) But perhaps golf is a bad example.
All in all this was a tough week. Logan had a runny nose last weekend,
but by Monday it had gotten worse. Although he did fine when we went
out for a couple hours in the morning (we wrote about that), he was sick
later in the day. He complained that he had a sore tummy and was
groaning and miserable all afternoon. When Daddy came home, Logan was
still quite unhappy. He only ate a few bites of dinner and then
snuggled up with Daddy to watch a movie until bedtime. When Daddy
finally lifted him up to take him to bed around 7pm, Logan threw up chunks all
over Daddy, himself and the kitchen floor.
The next morning (Tuesday), Logan had bounced back and was much better. We skipped Kindergym (and made a sock puppet for Kindermusik), but he did go to Kindermusik. Logan was fine for the rest of the day. Delenn had a runny nose. The kids were down to sleep by 7pm or so.
Mommy had a bit of energy and so tried to finish up a project from
Christmas (making and decorating our Christmas stockings). She and Dad stayed
up until after 11:30 and plopped into bed. Delenn woke up as soon as
Mommy lay down and was very hot. She had a fever of 101 degrees and
cried off and on all night long. Mommy fed her and rocked her and walked
her around. In fact, Mommy didn't get any sleep until Daddy took over
at 4am. He put Delenn in the stroller and walked all over the
neighborhood for a little over two hours. After half-an-hour of stargazing and staring at the full moon in the cool morning air, she seemed content enough to drop off to sleep for the remainder of the walk. Upon their return, Mom gave Delenn a little feed and then handed her back to Daddy. Moments thereafter, and twice now in two days, Dad felt the rush of a projectiled vomit launcher upon him. Luckily this time it was a heavy dose of Mommy's milk (where did that little half-pint come up with a liter of milk we'll never know!?) A quick cleanup and Dad was off to work, wreaking of something that would be unidentifiable to any passerbyers.
The next morning Mommy dropped Logan off at a friend's and took Delenn
into the clinic. She had an ear infection. Although she completely
spits out the antibiotics, she does seem to be getting better now.
By Friday we were back on the mend. Logan had a good time at playgroup
and was very happy to have his friend, Nicholas back in town (they had
been on vacation for a couple of weeks.) Saturday Daddy took Logan to
his swim lesson. They went to the swim teacher's house because her pool
is quite a bit warmer than the town pool (now that it's getting to be much cooler weather). Daddy said the water was lovely and Logan had a pretty
good lesson.
When Logan and Daddy were heading over to the lessons, they passed the
pedestrian bridge that goes over the Todd River. Logan surprised Dad by pointing it out and talked about their having gone to the bridge when it was dark and scary out. He said that Bradon was there and talked about the fact that someone threw something into
the water and it went through a sewage pipe and came out the other side.
That happened about five months ago! Good memory for a 2 1/2 year old!
Mommy had a nice afternoon on Saturday. She went to play field hockey
for a team in town. It's been nearly four years now since Mommy played,
but she had lots of fun! She had a couple really good plays (and a
couple of bad ones!), but it was great playing a team sport again. She
played half back and ran more than she has in years! By the end of the
game her calf had a Charlie horse of massive proportions (and it's still
bad today!), but it was worth it. She really enjoyed playing and the
other women on the team were very friendly. She joined the team and
will have games every Saturday late afternoon/evening. This will give
her the incentive she needs to run behind the stroller in the mornings
(Logan's often saying, "Faster Mommy, faster!"
Delenn still spends a lot of time watching her big brother. Meanwhile,
Logan takes great pride in making her laugh. "I'm giggling her!" he
tells us!
Friday was St. Patrick's Day. Mommy and Logan were busy over the course of the week (in the healthy/happy moments) getting ready for the
leprechaun's visit. Logan made a treasure box and a beautiful rainbow
so the leprechaun could find our house since he doesn't come to
everyone's home. Last night we left the treasure box under the rainbow
Logan had made -- and lo and behold, the leprechaun DID set up a
treasure hunt for Logan to follow. He followed the shamrock clues
around the house and found the treasure box with a couple small gifts
for him and Delenn out on the bridge on his climbing slide. Logan
declared at breakfast "I'm having a fun day."
We were then off for a walk through the neighborhood and play at one of
the local playgrounds. Logan had a lot of fun running up and down the
dirt hills where he and Bradon used to play a lot. Now we're back home
and have plans for a quiet, healthy day.... or so we thought. Logan had a tummy ache the previous night and into the day. With some stomach medicine, he finally was able to purge himself on the potty (only after much moaning and groaning and Daddy reading books to Logan while he sat on the potty). Earlier while taking our family walk, Logan had done his first semi-bowel movement accident in a long time, however he still did really well in only slightly losing it. Logan really has gotten down the potty training for poos, and has for some time now. We're still working on the peeing area, although it's coming along with no real accidents in a while now (only at night when he's sleeping).
Yesterday (March 12), Delenn turned five months old. While on the one
hand the time has gone by quickly, on the other it seems like forever.
We can't imagine life without her. Logan must feel the same because any
time Delenn is down for a nap (or if she's in another room) he asks
where she is.
This week we put Delenn in the Johnny Jump-up for the first time. She
quickly got the hang of it and was happily jumping up and down within a
few minutes. We also got a new highchair (from Intown Housing) and
Delenn now joins us for meals. She seems much happier being up to see
all the action. She has even taken to chowing down on a spoon (she
hasn't yet had solid foods, though).
BLOW OUT! Delenn had quite a doozy on Saturday... Mom had set her down
in her chair outside while playing with Logan. Daddy came outside and
got ready to pick her up. She had poo streaming down her legs. He
quickly took her in to change her -- and reported that she had poo
smeared on her back all the way up to her head! Yuck! And on the topic
of poos--Logan now exclusively poos in the potty. He even holds it
until we get home in order to go in the potty. The last thing he has to
tackle is peeing while we're out on the go (peeing in a potty regularly,
that is).
Both Logan and Delenn have come down with colds. Delenn was pretty
unhappy yesterday -- waking up early from her afternoon nap (around
1:30) and not going to sleep for the night until nearly 8pm. For a baby
who usually is not up for more than two hours, this was an enormously
long stretch of time.
Logan continues to impress us with his number and letter recognition. He
still wants to play the numbers/letters game several times a day. Not
only is the hallway covered, but much of the kitchen has letters (with
contact paper on the floor). He now recognizes a bit more than half of
the alphabet and the numbers up to 12.
Hopefully this isn't repeating what we wrote last week. Auntie Wendy
sent us some sign language DVDs called "Singing Time." Each show
teaches about 30 new signs -- but incorporates lots of music and kids
into the video. Logan and Mom really enjoy them. It's surprising how
quickly Logan catches onto the signs. We're trying to use some of the
signs in our daily conversations (Logan new about 6-10 signs when he was
a baby); hopefully that'll give Delenn some language skills in the next
year or so. Another one of Logan's favorite movies is called "Muzzy."
Muzzy is a creature from outer space who eats metal (including parking
meters). Logan enjoys the story (about a princess who loves the
gardener) -- and asks to watch it often. The catch? It is completely
in Spanish! It's appealing and he watches the entire segment. The show
includes the number up to 10, basic colors, basic greetings, some foods
and a few of the basic verbs.
Despite the kids' colds, we had a nice morning. After our walk around
the neighborhood, we ended at the big playground. Unfortunately none of
Logan's friends could come, but we still had a good time. We played
there for about an hour. Logan is getting to be a confident climber,
doing most of the more challenging parts of the equipment. Then we went
to the Araluen cultural precinct. First we visited the airplanes.
Logan was quite fascinated by the engines. Next we went into the small
natural history museum. There were all sorts of mammals, birds,
reptiles and spiders (stuffed, of course). Logan also liked the meteors
(we had just watched part of Disney's Dinosaur this morning so meteors
were fresh on his mind!). Our tour ended with a visit to the paintings.
I'm always surprised that Logan is so interested in the paintings, but
he insists on going into all the rooms (4 total).
Logan is now down for a nap and hopefully Delenn will go down soon too.
After work last Thursday we all walked over a few blocks away to pick up
our car from the repair shop. Once there, the kind woman at the front
desk commented on how our kids sure were growing up and getting big.
She also told Logan how smart he was by how he was talking. To that
Logan replied, "I want to see the mechanic." "I want to see the
mechanic that fixed our car." Taken a bit aback, the woman went into
the garage and grabbed Bruce, our mechanic. Upon his arrival, Logan
remarked, "Thank you for fixing our car, Bruce" and other happy and
cheery messages. Across the road, Logan and Dad then proceeded to enter
the mail demountable where we pick up letters received from the U.S. I
asked Logan to go find our mailbox (one of about 180 mailboxes).
Without complaining, he went over and pointed to our last name and said,
"There is our mail!" Luckily for Logan, his last name is not too
difficult, however Dad was still very happy that Logan figured it out on
his own.
Delenn is continuing to have issues with focusing on drinking from
Momma. Anytime there is activity or noise in the vicinity, she's got to
keep up with what is going on. And that means she can't be bothered
with a little thing like drinking. Well you know Logan isn't going to
be quiet for something like that, so Delenn finds herself fixated on her
older Brother (and other things) much of the time. Which in turn causes
Mom a painful nighttime of extra feeds to make up for it. On a bright
note, it sure is fun to watch Delenn giggle and laugh hysterically at
Logan, especially when he hops around. Today in the living room Dad and
Logan were playing a hopping game, jumping from shape to shape (circle
to triangle to square to star...) Delenn again was ticked pink by
Logan's hopping. Not by Daddy in the slightest, but only Logan.
At dinner Dad spent most of the time holding Delenn up away from his
meal. She likes to stand for long periods and she especially likes to
reach for anything and everything within reach on the table in front of
her. Needless to say, a spoon and cup placed especially for her were
there, and she always managed to (although quite awkwardly) bend over
and pick the objects up, sometimes transferring the object into her
other hand, and other times trying to stick them in her mouth. At this
rate, we fear for a kid that is mobile before she should be!
It has been quite a while since our last written blog entry. With Logan
trying to wrestle the mouse away from us, it's hard to find time to
write! We've put that interest to good use -- having him play some
computer games that help teach him to use the mouse and to hunt for
numbers (or letters) on the keyboard.
Logan is every bit the 2 1/2 year old. Sometimes he's bright, cheerful
and fun to be around. He impresses us with his letter and number
recognition and is very curious about words (asking us a hundred times a
day, "What does that say?"). One of his favorite games is the 'numbers
game' where he chooses a card and runs madly to the number/letter
written with contact paper on the floor (I think we put a picture on the
site below somewhere.) We got some new DVDs from Auntie Wendy and Uncle
Joe that Logan has been excited about. "Muzzy" is a funny looking
character who speaks in Spanish so we've all been watching that to pick
up a few words. It's amazing that Logan has no objection to watching
the cartoon even though it is all in Spanish. (We sometimes tell him
what's being said.) Logan and Delenn were also given a sign language
DVD set that is geared towards kids. We've added a number of signs to
our conversations already. We signed to Logan a bit when he was a baby
and hope that this helps Delenn in the months ahead.
There's another side to Logan that's not as pleasant. He often has a
terribly whiny voice -- and threatens to melt down over the smallest
thing. We must say a hundred times a day "Use your nice words." It's
strange to have such temper tantrums from him since his language skills
are so strong. He speaks in full paragraphs and can hold up a
conversation well -- telling us about his day and asking us how are day
was. He even knows when Mommy (or Daddy) have been upset with him and
asks "Are you good?" (meaning, do you feel better now?). People tell
us it's the "terrible twos," but it sure is hard to see your little one
SO upset about the smallest things. A "no" (for example, "No we can't
watch a movie until after our walk.") will send him into conniptions.
Another example--on Friday Mommy, Logan and Delenn went to the pool.
Logan wanted to be carried. Mommy told him he could ride in the
stroller or walk. Logan cried (and cried and cried) -- spent time in
the naughty spot (for throwing himself on the ground in the middle of
the parking lot) and cried some more. Finally, he pulled himself
together, walked into the building and then had a nice time at the pool.
Most days, Mommy's dinner has been interrupted by a sleepy Delenn who
needs a feed and needs to head to bed. Both Daddy and Logan tell Delenn
"Night, night little Love Peach." It's so cute it makes Mommy's toes
curl in delight! (Logan's nickname has always been "Pumpkin Pie.") Our
Love Peach is generally asleep by about 6:30pm. Some days she sleeps
really well -- only getting up once or twice (in the 12 hours she's
asleep) to feed. Other nights she's up 3 or 4 times.
We had a great day today (Sunday) - we went to the Telegraph Station for
a breakfast picnic (with McD's food). Tony and Logan hunted for dragons
while Delenn and Mommy mostly just hung out on the picnic blanket. Then
at 10:30am we went on the Ghan train ride which is up and running
regularly now. That seemed to have wiped both kids out as they are both
napping soundly. Delenn really doesn't nap for very long when we're on
the go, but the up side is she then sleeps longer in the afternoon.
We hope to post a few pictures up from our adventures today. You'll
find them below this entry in the next day or so. Hope you're doing
well!
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