Frog and Toad Outtakes

Maybe the title is misleading, but i thought i'd do another post more targeted at family and friends to relate how the party actually went.  If you've stumbled onto this post looking for frog and toad party ideas click here.


When the boys first guest, arrived i told Henry he needed to greet his guest and welcome her to the party.  These formal social interactions often leave him him hiding his head but he jumped up, put his arm around her and asked if she wanted to play his new game (Kids On Stage).  After a few more kids arrived i asked if they were interested in decorating some frog and toad houses.  They were very enthusiastic and jumped into the decorating process with Nonna. 


Nothing lasts for long of course and they were off to play in the playroom with everyone else that had arrived at that point.  I moved a few of them outside for games and had a blast watching the kids play and make up their own bean bag toss games.  Silas headed out with us but didn't want to participate.  He seemed like he was freezing, but he refused to put on a coat and pretty contentedly sat with Nonna.

The kids seemed like they were getting too cold so we moved folks back inside for hot dogs which were ready.  All the parents were helping the kids get settled with their plates and i assisted one of Henry's friends.  She asked for just a plain bun.  I assumed she meant no ketchup or mustard, but no, actually she just wanted the bun no hot dog.  Okey dokey!


While all the kids were eating Silas grabbed his guitar and decided to do two complete songs for everyone.  Usually he'll sing a few bars or strum a few "notes" and then get shy.  This time there was so much hubub and no one drew attention to him and he performed two complete numbers.  He had the time to do this because he declared that he didn't want a hot dog at his party, he wanted to eat peanut butter and jelly after the party was over.  Okey dokey!

Then we herded the cats... i mean guests outside where they got to listen to a frog and toad story called the "corner" about searching for spring around every corner.  While Nonna was reading the story there is a part where frog (or is it toad) looks for spring but just finds pebbles instead.  Someone said something about pebbles could hurt us.  And someone else chimed in with an awesome non-sequitor about how cacti can hurt us also.  Then another little girl said, "actually i have a cactus!"  Somehow Nonna got them back to listen to the rest of the story and when they finished it was time for their own search for spring.

 
Silas helped me put out the clues which had the kids running from the front of the house to the very back and then back again.  We almost weren't quick enough and as usual i think i could have done double the clues and the kids would have liked to keep on hunting.  After it was over they continued to hide the flowers for each other.


I finally ripped them away with the promise of cupcakes and we went in to sing happy birthday and blow out candles.  Both boys seemed to love this part even though Silas looked a little freaked out about all the singing directed at him/them.

After cupcakes were done it was about 5:30-- two hours after the party start i was starting to relax and was handing out in the kitchen with lots of other guests.  Silas was there too and loudly said... "when is everyone going to go home?"  If that didn't give folks a hint i don't know what would and after a bit guests trickled out. 

Playground

Wow! Guess we haven't been to the playground in awhile! Today JT was going to be a little late getting home from work, so Henry and Silas and i stopped off at the playground. I sat and fed Silas the rest of the bottle he hadn't finished at Ms. Brenda's, and Henry very independently and very assuredly played on the playground. Just the last time we went to the playground a few weeks ago Henry still wanted me to stick close to at least the equipment and he wanted help doing things like going down the slide. Tonight not only did he repeatedly go down the slide on his own, he crawled UP the slide like it was no biggie. I also saw him scampering down this climbing incline thing and with only a little boost from me he climbed up two steps of an open chain-link ladder. Seriously, has JT been secretly taking him to toddler boot camp or something?

All of this bodes well for my plans to enroll him in a gym class this fall. I'm in the process of trying to determine if the (much cheaper) Parks district class is any good or if we should bite the bullet and shell out some bucks for the Little Gym or My Gym class. At least now i think we stand a fighting chance of him engaging at least a little with some of the activities-- and maybe i should even set the bar higher.

Silas is just moving along in his babyhood. It stands to reason that he *can* roll because if you put him on his back he rolls to his side and at other times he'll roll from his side to his stomach, but he's not doing full-on rolling much that we can tell. He is very excited for his jumper and has paid more attention to those toys than anything else to date. He's also starting to watch Henry more and seems fascinated by what he sees. I've been trying to draw Henry's attention to Silas when he's doing this so that they can start to develop more of a relationship. I think it won't be long before Silas is demanding Henry's attention and Henry will be excited for his big-brother role.

17 Weeks/ 2 Years, 3 Months, 1 Week

I think Silas' personality is starting to develop in a more robust way recently. He's still very mellow but he's also quite social. He'll coo and gurgle until he gets you to look at him and then he flashes this HUGE satisfied grin. It's fun to see him discovering cause and effect and nice that he's chosen honey rather than vinegar to test things out.

Although Henry was quite the happy baby by this time, i seem to remember him being much involved in his hands and his toys than Silas is. Give Silas a face to smile at and he'll choose it over whatever flashing, musical doo-dad you're trying to show him.

Henry is really into giving kisses now. He has been a good hugger for a long time but kisses have taken awhile for him to figure out. For the longest time if you asked him to give you a kiss he would hold his cheek out for you as if OF COURSE you meant that you wanted to kiss HIM. With coaxing he would occasionaly hold his mouth still and have it hover near your cheek, but in the past few weeks he has taken hold of the kissing sound and now asks to give someone a kiss whenever he's saying good-bye or good-night. It's very, very sweet.

Childcare Fall-Out

So Brenda is great, Silas is settling in wonderfully and Henry is as excited as ever to go to daycare. The only downside is the onslaught of immune-system busting colds that Silas is now getting and passing on to me. Before any one posts a comment or calls and says something like "wow, you're ALWAYS sick!," let me mention that this is akin to insulting someone's spouse. Of course they do annoying things and of course you personally are free to pontificate at length on these issues. It's not okay for someone else to talk trash about your significant others. Same thing applies here. Yes, i have the immune system of a Victorian invalid-- but don't you go rubbing it in my face.

So this all means that i'm sick with a relatively bad cold. Unfortunately it meant cancelling most of our weekend fun plans and having to really try to lay low while i get better. I had a doctor appointment today (unrelated to the cold) where the Doctor verified that mothers of small children are essentially always sick. He said the good thing was that my immune system would be stronger for it and in the long-run i wouldn't get sick as often as time goes on. That's great, but i'm dreading winter already and searching out a Chinese herbalist closer to home, as the one i had good luck with before is a tad far away.

The weekend wasn't all sneezes and misery though, Saturday we babysat Kerala for a few hours and attended the annual block-party for our street. Henry missed the bounce-o-line (naptime called) but did get WAY excited for the fire truck that came to visit. He got to sit in the drivers seat but was a bit freaked out, so no pictures of that. He was excited to examine the big tires at length, and i'll try to post pictures of that soon. They opened the fire hydrant for a bit and now Henry finally associates firetrucks with water as opposed to referring to all emergency vehicles as boo-boo trucks. (Actually he will call a police car a boo-boo truck and when you correct him he'll say "no, no, no, no" doing the tsking motion with his finger. At some point i think we mentioned that policemen tell you when you're doing something wrong.)

Silas' sleep continue to boomerang wildly. He no longer eats at night, but is still waking most nights off and on.

16 Weeks, 2 Days/ 2Y, 3M, 2 Days

We're moving right along here at little-boy Central. Sharp eyes may have noticed that Silas slept for 11 hours (read truly through the night!) a few nights ago. Unfortunately he developed a little cough that kept him up the next night, so now we're working on a) getting him totally better and b) getting him to where 11-12 hours is routine. The fact that we made progress so quickly without too many tears (on either side) is encouraging and really makes me think i'll have a full night's sleep before you know it. Of course when he slept 11 hours i was up wondering if he was still alive and in general not sleeping myself.

I've changed the sidebar to reflect Henry's continuing language development. It's less about new words and more about new phrases and how he's learning to put words together. He's very much into directional concepts right now; front, back, above and under are things he's constantly doing with his toys, utensils, Ralphs, you name it. He likes to talk through what he's doing as well which is super cute. I've noticed him doing more pretend play lately and making noises to go along with what he's doing.

He was playing in his play room the other day and he didn't hear me coming down the stairs. I paused and watched him pretending to heat water and pour a cup of tea and he was quite precise with all the different noises involved. He's also taken to toting a plastic iron with him to Brenda's after he saw me ironing clothes for one of the first times in his existence. It was like a light bulb turned on in his head when he realized he had his own version of the very same thing. Of course he makes his iron fly around and hides it behind the window shade, but still it's the toy of the moment.

Playgroup Pictures!

To address Kai's request for pictures from our weekend, i'm posting a few of Maia, Eva, Henry and Silas:

15 Weeks, 6 Days/ 2 Years, 2 Months, 4 Weeks, 1 Day

What a nice relaxing weekend! It flew by even though we were largely hunkered down at home, but it was so nice just to hang around the house and chill out. Saturday we enjoyed having one of my friends' from Guam over for a bbq. She and her husband have been in the Chicago area since college and have two girls very close in age to Henry and Silas. Henry and Maia had fun playing, but not really together-- they were pretty much the definition of "parallel play."

Sunday Henry took a power nap and i managed to get the mountainous pile of laundry all done and even ironed a few pieces. This caused Henry to figure out what his plastic iron is for and led to him toting it along to daycare this morning.

Silas has continued to make progress on the sleep front. Last night he woke up at 3 (before the 4:30 allowed feeding time) but once i got him back to sleep he didn't wake up to eat until 5:00. So, that's the new feeding time, which means tonight might be a rough one for me. 3 nights of 8+ hours for Silas have definitely helped me feel like i can handle it though!

I mentioned that i had finally gotten all our old photos moved over to Picasa. In the process i was able to go through and make some comparisons between Henry's baby pictures and Silas'. Here's the first in a couple looks at the two of them.

Photo Update

Just wanted to let you know that i finished the laborious process of transferring all of Henry's 0-6 month photos to the Picasa photo site. Everything is now in one place, so you can reminisce to your heart's content!

15 Weeks, 2 Days/ 2 Years, 2 Months, 3 Weeks, 4 Days

Now that i'm back to posting more regularly i'm trying to capture the little details that happend on our trip. One thing that i believe ranked right up there was all the new toys that Henry received. He was particularly into trucks (still is really) and was overjoyed at the "My first remote control car" that he received from Aunt Tammie. Henry had a great time with it and even got decent at figuring out how to make it go forward or back up when it got into a tight spot. One of his best new words was "my mote" which he would yell whenever he wanted to play with it.

Henry also got to enjoy "treats" much more with Nonna than at home. He helped Aunt Tammie bake a cake for the fourth of July and got to have a piece (which honestly lasted about 3 sittings), sampled popscicles and sno cones for the first time, and had his share of animal crackers.

I didn't witness it but by all accounts Henry helping decorate the cake was a hoot. They had frosted it and Tammie was trying to teach Henry how to shake sprinkles all over it. He would shake, shake, shake his head and them just dump the sprinkles all in one place. It actually wound up looking kind of like fireworks, and Henry was very pleased with his handiwork.

Silas had his best day yet with Brenda. She said she thinks it took him a few days to get used to all the noise and kids, but today he was just happy as a clam, didn't cry at all, and slept a lot and soundly. I'm hoping if he can get into a good nap routine during the day it will help our case at night.

He's moving along pretty well at night though. We're down to only one 4 am feeding, and i'm in the process of reducing it by 3 minutes every 3 days. He's still been waking up around 2, but last night after i gave him the pacifier he went right back to sleep and slept until 4 when he woke up to eat. Once we've eliminated his night feedings, i'm going to sleep downstairs and JT is going to soothe him when he wakes up during the night. Sweet uninterrupted sleep, you're only 10 days away!

15 Weeks/ 2 Years, 2 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

Today was my first day back at work and Silas' first day with Brenda. I think we both did pretty well. It definitely helps knowing that Silas is with his big brother at a place he loves and that we know provides good care. I still missed being with him all day, but it was definitely nice when i was getting Silas and Henry into the car and Silas turned and flashed me a huge grin. I guess he did just fine with naps, but he resisted taking his bottle for a little while. We haven't had any problems giving him a bottle so that surprised me. He got hungry enough eventually and hopefully won't give her any more trouble.

We made some good progress with Silas and his sleep last night. He fell asleep by about 7:15 and slept until 12:45. I'm following a plan where you keep moving their sleep and eating forward, but don't let them fall back. For example, Silas had his first nighttime feeding at 2 am the night before, so even though he woke up at 12:45 he couldn't eat until 2 or after. It took a little doing, but he went back to sleep after i gave him the pacifier and he slept until 4. That was great, but it also really ups the ante. Tonight he fell asleep by 8 but i can't feed him until 4 regardless of when he wakes-- i'll let you know how tired i am tomorrow!

Henry has been getting "tougher" the past month or so. He's still a sensitive kid, but he doesn't get scared when he hears the dogs barking next door, just talks about the "big rain" when he hears thunder, and laughs off minor falls. I think it helps that he's able to communicate so much more because he can talk through things and we understand what he's saying. In fact it's less about new words at this point and more about how he's combining them into little sentences.

We arrived home yesterday from vacation and i remember why i started trying to post frequently-- catching up when a lot of time has passed is very daunting!

I believe i last posted when we were heading to a baseball game. It was a minor league game about an hour away from my parents beach house-- the Shorebirds. Henry could have cared less about the baseball, but the big orange mascot bird (Sherman) was a huge hit. Henry was enamored with him and talked constantly about him when he wasn't in sight. "The Big BuBu" as Henry calls him was definitely a highlight of the trip.

A few days later we went to a model train show that was being held at the local fire department. They had several vendors selling things, and an extensive set-up of multiple tracks and all kinds of little things you could make light up and go like a ferris wheel, or the circus tent, or a water tower, etc. The last train Henry watched go around the track actually had smoke coming out of his stack, so he also talks a lot about the "hot choochoos."

For all the highlights of Henry's trip, Silas had several low points-- including two weeks of 4 hour max stints at night and excessive fussiness. Now that we're back home i've been working on putting him to bed in his crib for naps and nighttime and getting him to bed earlier. I'm also working on getting him on a feeding schedule so that hopefully all these things will feed into getting his nighttime sleep back on track. I'm not going to do anything too drastic since he starts with Brenda on Tuesday, but at least we'll be working to get his new routines established and hopefully go up from there.

JT also didn't have the best trip in that he got sick the second day he was at the beach and as of today he's actually worse that he was a few days ago. It started out as some kind of flu and then it seemed like it had turned into a bad head cold, but tonight he's been nauseous and having all kinds of stomach upset, so now it seems like the stomach flu. We're all doing our best to sanitize our hands because it will be a national disaster if i come down with it as well.

We had a chance to see JT's parents and some of our good friends the one afternoon we were in VA before flying back to Chicago. The Bane kids were there and although it took them all awhile to actually warm up to each other, they were having an amazing time running around the backyard collecting acorns by the time bedtime rolled around.

Summer Dispatch

Thought i would take a second to update the blog with some tales from our summer beach vacation. So far everyone is having a great time and becoming more of a beach kid each day. We kicked things off with Silas' first airplane ride, and the first one in which Henry was able to really talk about and understand what was happening. Henry did really well on the flight, especially since we accidentally left his carry-on with all the games and toys i had bought for the flight, in the trunk of the car. Silas slept basically the whole time, and we made good time getting our luggage, getting everyone changed and refreshed and into the car for the 3 hour drive on to the beach.

Silas has been a little fussier than normal and not sleeping all that great, but i'm hoping that since we're here for two weeks he'll settle into a new routine soon. We've been jet skiing (on the "boats" as Henry calls them), to the pool, the park and the beach. In just a few days Henry has gone from tentatively walking in the sand to playing along the shore getting his feet and legs wet. He's gotten several new trucks which he's very excited about and he can't get enough of Gran and Nonna's front-loading washer and dryer-- seriously, he watches them like tv.

My Grandmother and Aunt (GG and Aunt Tammie) got in yesterday and we're all off to a baseball game tonight!

3 Months 29 Days

We took a lot of good pictures today so it was hard to choose; but i don't think we've had any bath pictures up here before so i'm going with the one you see now. Henry has come a long way from the screams of bloody murder we used to endure during his bathtime. Somewhere along the way H started to at least tolerate the bath-- albeit with furrowed brow, now he genuinely seems to enjoy it. I'm planning to check into water babies classes for us to go to this winter (indoor pool of course!)

There really wasn't much to report on the sleep front and that is good news. He slept well last night and took three respectable naps today.

I'm not sure if i've mentioned that i've become addicted to buying things for Henry off of craisglist.org. Tonight i drove up North of the city to buy a jumper for him. I think he's going to like it because he absolutely loves standing up, but i could be proven wrong and then we'll just have this monstrosity to contend with. Either way i'll try to get some pictures.

3 months 28 days

Well i hate to admit it, but i think getting up at 6 am is really the best thing for Henry (although not necessarily for me!) This morning we put our new plan into action which consisted of JT getting Henry when he woke up at 6, changing him, and taking him into the bathroom while he showers. We already have a bouncy seat in there that i put him in while i shower so we just moved the routine up a few hours. I think things were going okay until Henry kinda fell over in the chair and JT had to jump out of the shower to right him.

He started crying at that point and i was awake so i fed him and we got on with our morning. I was worried he would have slept less and still not napped, but his first nap was almost 2 hours which helped me let out a sigh of relief.

We went for a walk after work, as today was a really pleasent break to the super-hot summer we've been having. Henry can face forwards in the carrier now and loves to watch all the activity of a city summer evening. He was sporting a new hat which i had to get some pictures of when we came home!

Truly 17 Weeks

I was a little hasty last night, Henry officially turned 17 weeks early this morning when thankfully he was asleep. He did just fine last night but today his naps continued to erode. He would only sleep 10-15 minutes and then cry for 30-45-- not a pleasent way to spend the day a month after we started this whole business.

I needed to drive out to the near-in suburbs this afternoon and when Henry fell asleep on the way home i decided to keep driving. I drove up North up a bit, got some gas, turned around and drove South to where JT used to go to school. H wound up sleeping a good hour and a little more-- he was still crabby this evening but chilled out in the front carrier and went to bed easily.

I talked to the sleep guy and we've decided i have to bite the bullet and start getting up with Henry at 6 to start our day. Our theory is that he winds up sleeping 14.5 hours or so at night which is in the range of what he needs for the whole day-- but then he's not old enough to go all day without any naps. So, starting tomorrow we're getting up at 6 and we'll try to take our first nap around 8 or 8:30 or so.

We'll see. We probably won't have immediate progress, but i'm sure eventually we'll get there.

17 Weeks

New pictures are up on the site-- enjoy, Okay, seriously, why can't Henry nap at home? We had this last weekend too where during the week he did well at Brenda's and then come Saturday he reverts to our first week of sleep training-- it's so frustrating!

He was exhausted by this evening after taking short 20 minute naps all day and went to bed early. Hopefully tonight goes okay as last Saturday night was the start of Henry crying throughout the night.

We didn't wind up going to the funeral today. JT was feeling worse and Henry had a fever most of the day from his shots so i thought it would be best to stick close to home. He was fairly chipper in between crying bouts and we got some pictures with good ole mom!

Enjoy!

Those Mean Doctors!

Henry had his 4 month appointment today and those mean doctors gave him three shots. He cried and has been running a slight temperatue ever since. Brenda said he slept a lot today but cried if he wasn't being held. When we got home tonight he seemed at least mildly happy. We practiced standing a lot (Henry's favorite activity as you can see from the picture taken last night)and he had a great time taking his bath. Then it was time to eat and off to bed. Hopefully he'll sleep well, because the last time he had shots he was up crying unconsolably all night (of course that was 2 days before his stomach surgery so i'm hoping we won't have a repeat.)

Henry is growing-- just in length and not that much in weight. He's now 25 inches long which is 2 inches longer than he was about a month and a half ago. He's 13 and a half pounds which is about a pound heavier. The Doctor said that he was definitely growing so she's not concerned but they will want to weigh him again at his next appointment to make sure he's continuing on a normal growth curve. Considering he was small at birth and then had a surge and then slowed down and had the surgery he's been all over the place so it's hard to tell which percentile curve he should be following. For now he's a pretty long slim baby. I'm going to try to offer him more to eat to see if he takes me up on it.

I found my feet!

Yeah, i'm feeling better! Still stuffy and phlegmy, but better. We all had another good night and Henry had a great day. I sent him to Brenda's with his rattletoe socks on and she said that he loved them and played with his feet all day. We got a few action shots tonight at home before his bath and he definitely seemed to enjoy them. He was worn out from all of that and headed to bed early tonight. I put him down at 6:30 and he fell asleep with just about one peep.

A good friend of our's father passed away suddenly two nights ago so we're heading down to Southern Illinois on Saturday for the funeral. It's about a 2 hour drive down, so we'll get to test Henry in the car for long periods now that he's so much better about sleep. Hopefully he'll be able to fall asleep without too much fuss-- otherwise it's going to be a long day for everyone.

3 Months, 23 Days Old

Sorry to say there's no picture again today. I'm still under the weather and haven't had a chance to take any new ones. Henry is doing just fine-- i'm constantly bathing myself in hand sanitizer in the hopes that he doesn't catch this cold that JT and i both have. Thankfully Henry actually slept last night and dosed with cold medicine, i was able to sleep too. I'm not better really but at least not worse.

I've decided that even though we feel like real parents, when i'm sick i just feel like i want my mom-- instead of having to be a mom. It's hard to feel completely terrible and know that Henry has no ability to cut me some slack and take care of himself.

Henry's been outgrowing several of his 0-3 month sleepers. I can't wait to find out on Friday how much he's grown. Hope to have more stories and pictures tomorrow!

3 Months, 21 Days

Today i'm dragging because Henry didn't do so well in the sleep department last night and i'm coming down with a cold. I didn't sleep very well last night because my throat was starting to be scratchy and I heard Henry at 1:30, 3:30 and then off and on from 5 am to 6:00. Seems like when he has a bad night he really has a bad night-- although it goes with his early personality traits of all or nothing!

Hopefully he'll sleep decently tonight and i'll get to bed early.

I received my new work computer today and was busy getting it all set-up this afternoon. I looked at the computer clock and was surprised that it was already 5 pm. I took a gulp of water and headed out to get Henry. I was surprised at how little traffic there was. When i got to Brenda's, she was holding Henry and was just getting ready to change him. Usually she has him ready to go in his carseat but i didn't think that much of it. He was fussy and just about ready for a nap. I wasn't planning on putting him down for a nap at 5 though, and just planned to put him down a little early for bed.

We got home and i was confused when the clock said 4:20. I checked a few other clocks and realized that the computer they sent for work was set to EST and that i had gone to pick Henry up an hour early. I called Brenda to apologize for just showing up unannounced and told her that i'm make sure to check the right clock when i dropped him off tomorrow.

Sorry guys, no picture tonight. Henry was a little cranky and went to bed early and i mentioned that i'm feeling under the weather. Don't hold it against me if i don't post tomorrow-- although of course i'll try!