Onesies

Does anyone else get frustrated trying to put a baby into a onesie? I want to know what the heck designers are thinking. Here you have a baby that can't support it's own head or body or control the direction and movement of it's arms and legs at any time. She can't sit up on her own let alone hold her own body weight. Yet they are expected to hold still and cooperate while you try and figure out the jigsaw puzzle of snaps that are up and down the front and legs of the outfit.

Rylie kicks like crazy so trying to get her in the outfit is a challenge by itself. But then I have to try and match the snaps together and the snaps along the legs are again challenging by itself, let alone with a kicking baby that won't hold still and keeps kicking her legs back out of the outfit. She gives me about 10 seconds to get it right then will explode with frustration wanting to be picked up. More times than not I can button the snaps across the chest and a couple on the legs but that's all I can get to, leaving her diaper totally exposed. Or the snaps will just be awkwardly mismatched.

She's even had an outfit or two that have actual real buttons in the back. Again, babies can't sit up on their own yet. Am I supposed to lay her down on her face while I try to work the buttons with two hands?

My idea of a onesie is a t-shirt you can pull over her, done. No snaps, no buttons no trying to puzzle together which snap goes where or trying to balance her in one hand and work buttons together in the other. Maybe tape the t-shirt between her legs so she doesn't roll out of it. Or better yet, VELCRO! Space age technology can't be wrong.

Diapers finally got it right a long time ago - no more safety pins. Come on baby clothes designers, jump on board!

Preschool

I started a preschool this fall so that I could stay at home with Daniel and Rylie, but still keep up some teaching and make a few extra bucks. I have absolutely loved my class of 6 kids. I think I have found my real niche in teaching!! Here are a few pictures of our newly made over den to preschool. We discovered some really cool magnetic and chalkboard paint-- so all of the black areas are magnetic and you can write with chalk on them. Lots of fun!

Daniel's bed

After we converted Daniels crib into a toddler bed he became obsessed with filling his bed with everything in his room, books, stuffed animals, toys, blankets and whatever else he could find. Well, he kept falling off his bed during the night. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt saying it was because he was still just adjusting to a toddler bed, but then I would see his bed piled high with stuff which left very little room for him. We finally got him a twin bed so there would be plenty of room for him and everything else.

Here are a some pictures of him I took the other day while he was just waking up from his nap. This is about half of the amount of stuff he typically puts on his bed. We had to get rid of most of his stuffed animals, his books - all 3 shelves, several of his blankets including the comforter that matched his pillow case.



At least he seems comfortable:

Walker for Rylie

Rylie is almost at the point now where she can start walking. Almost but not quite. We got a new walker for her to try out. Right now she just sits in it and plays with the flashy gadgets. But in the mean time Daniel know exactly what it's for and can really appreciate it. He figures he might as well use it until Rylie is ready. He's a little too big for it as you can see but he sure likes it anyway.

Thirsty?

I walked in and saw Daniel with this drink. It's as big as he is. He went with Heidi to the doctor and as a treat they stopped by Sonic on the way home. I think it was Heidi's drink but when she handed it to him for a sip it then became Daniels. I don't think Heidi drank much of it after that. Just look how happy he is!

Lederhosen

I asked Daniel what he wanted to wear to church and he picked this out of his closet. I guess this was handed down to us from Heidi's family, they lived in Germany for a few years when she was a little girl. All he needs is a hat and a beer mug and he'd be all set.

He had these on for church today. He had quite a few compliments.

New swing set

Daniel is just too big for that little swing set we got a few months ago, so we finally got him something a little more enjoyable. He immediately learned the word Push!

Heidi put this thing together almost entirely by herself. I started to do it but quickly ran out of patience. The diagram of parts was backwards and you had to use a decoder ring to identify each part listed in the instructions and which container it was located in. They had additional bags with parts that were labeled with their own mysterious part numbers that were not listed in the instructions or the identifier chart. The instructions were lacking and left out little details like which side to attach the slide and teeter-toter to; they only fit on one side and are not interchangeable. We got it wrong the first time. The only picture we could use for reference was a small black and white picture and "may or may not have been the same model we purchased." And just to make sure this was not an easy, cheerful experience, over half the bolts provided were too short so we had to go to Ace Hardware and replace them all with 1/2 inch longer ones.

Frustration levels were high. We used a lot of guess work and cussing. At least I did. Whoever "engineered" this assembly needs to go to IKEA and take notes.

After blood, sweat and tears, here it is. And after seeing Daniel swinging with his mouth gaping open in wonderful excitement, it was all worth it.








Rylie was content of course with the baby swing.


watch for the gaping mouth!

Desitin

Daniel has always reacted to anti-biotics with a bad diaper rash, this time is no exception. I guess he decided it was time to reapply, so he didn't bother asking he just unfastened his diaper and took the liberty to self-apply:

A massive lump!!?

We had a horrible scare last Friday. While we were eating dinner Heidi noticed a huge lump under Daniel's left ear. This thing was bulging, it was like he had a golf ball stuck in his neck and half of it was sticking out. I've never seen a lump so huge. We were so shocked, how long had it been there? where'd it come from? how did we not notice it before? What is it!? and of course all you can think of is the worst case scenario - it's cancer, it's a tumor, it's a cancerous tumor...

We immediately called our pediatrician and took him to urgent care. Two extremely long hours later after the blood test results came back they determined that it was neither cancer or a tumor. He hadn't been feeling that well the last few days but none of had, we'd all been feeling kind of sick but no one else had a gigantic lump on their necks either. They told us that he did have an ear infection and most likely he had an extreme case of swollen lymph nodes. Yea, you can say that again, did I mention golf-ball like in size?

In layman's terms, he has an infection. They gave us anti-biotics and it should go away within the next 10 days or so.

So, we've been trying to get him to take his anti-biotics but it tastes nasty. First we tried to give it to him straight not realizing how nasty it really was and he was quick to let us know, he was not going to take it. Then we mixed it in with his juice and he drank it once but caught on to our trick and now he won't drink juice. We mixed it with some chocolate syrup. "A spoon full of chocolate syrup helps the medicine go down...!" 

We thought that was a safe bet for sure, what kid would refuse an offer to drink chocolate syrup? Daniel, apparently. I asked him all excitedly, Daniel do you want some chocolate!? He bought into my enthusiasm and had a happy look of anticipation and kept repeating the word "chocolate" after every time I would say it. After Heidi secretly mixed in his medicine we tried to give him a spoonful and he took one look at the syrup and said NO! Then after every time I would enthusiastically ask him if he wanted chocolate he would very adamantly say NO! jeez, you'd think it was nasty medicine or something. Smart kid.

In the mean time the swelling already looks like it's going down, and we're still trying to work on getting him his anti-biotics, namely, taking this dose back to the pharmacy and demanding them to make this stuff taste delicious for crying out loud!

I thought I would document this rare event and take a picture of his lump. I could not for the life of me get Daniel to NOT look at the camera. He has to be looking away for it to be the most noticeable. He was just having fun the whole time. I finally got a couple but it just didn't show up very well on camera. Well, here was my attempt:

More hilarious Daniel

I need to carry a notepad and pencil around my neck so I can keep up with Daniels hilarity. Here's a few more things he's done or said recently:

1. On a long ride home from Mesa Rylie was screaming a fit in the car because she hates her car seat of course. To Daniels credit he really tried to be patient and understanding with her. He offered her his blanket, a toy that plays music and tried to talk nicely to her to calm her down. Then I saw him go SSHHH to Rylie holding his finger to his mouth obviously finally reaching the end of his patience, then he put his fingers in his ears saying to himself "la la la la..." in the classic gesture of trying to ignore an annoying person. I swear I didn't teach him how to do that!

2. Daniel kept asking for an apple: I want apple, I want apple, I want apple, I want apple, I want apple; just like that, in a very obnoxiously repetitive manner. Just to be certain I understood him correctly and be modestly sarcastic I asked, so you're saying you want an apple?

Then Daniel replied: NO! I want chips.

3. We had a contractor over to patch a crack in our bathtub and Daniel didn't see him when he first came in and started working. He went to investigate the noises he heard and came back walking around the corner of the room looking at me with a puzzled look on his face and said pointing back at the bathroom, (paraphrasing) Hey, there's some guy in our bathroom!

4. One evening he was bouncing around the sofa throwing the sofa pillows off just having a ball (I've exhausted my efforts at trying to get him to stop doing this) and he suddenly stopped and looked at the tv. He watched part of a TGIF commercial then turned to me, pointing at the TV, and said "Daddy, yummy!" (It was that outdoors BBQ special, I would agree, yummy!)

5. You can make up your own story here:

By the way, we've concluding that trying to keep Clean, Dry clothes on Daniel takes way too much effort. Today he went through 2 outfits in Heidi's honest effort to clothe our child. I think we should just put a tiger stripped diaper on him and call him Mowgli. He has already painted his face with Heidi's lipstick, he's ready to assume the role.

Rylie talking

One evening a few days ago we were driving home from Mesa which is about a 30 minute drive to our house. Rylie hates her car seat so screamed most of the way home. I think she finally stopped with about 5 minutes to go. After we got home she was happy to be out of her car seat, I think she was talking to Heidi about her terrible experience and was trying to discuss alternative modes of transportation:

Bathtime fun

Rylie absolutely loves Daniel. When ever Daniel will pay a little attention to her she just smiles and laughs with him. This is a video of Daniel taking a bath and Rylie was just laughing with him.

Words a plenty

Daniels vocabulary has expanded incredibly over the last several weeks. It's just amazing to see how fast he progresses. He keeps pulling out words that I never would have guessed he knew. He even tries really hard with more than one syllable words. I think he understands what communication means and really wants to make himself understood.

Here are a few words that have surprised me:

"pete-a" - we were reading a Scooby Doo book and saw a picture of a pizza. Daniel loves finding and identifying things in books. His favorite books are the I Spy series. He's really good at finding those hidden things.

chic-ken - I asked him one night what he wanted to eat. I thought he would point to something or say cheese or apple which I was used to, but he caught me totally off guard when he said Chicken. So he got chicken nuggets that time.

"ah-ah-awson" - he learned the name of his cousin and best friend. So now we constantly hear Orson this, Orson that. If we don't mention Orson in our family prayers then he's sure to point it out. That goes for blessings on the food too.

Turn - We put together a swing set in our backyard and he of course was helping. He put the screw driver next to a screw in the pole and said "turn." Wow - his understanding is sure expanding.

Mickey Mouse - he can tell us which cartoon he wants to watch - Mickey Mouse or Einstein.

Push - He learned the word push when he wanted a push on the swing.

He doesn't always get the word right, which is my fault, not his. Like instead of saying cat he will say "meow." I'm sure that's because I over emphasize the sounds animals make. You have to do something to make reading books fun!

And when I read a book with him, sometimes he is trying so hard to learn new words that he will repeat the last word of everything I say. And more recently he's been putting 2 or 3 words together to make sentences.

When he wants to go visit Orson he says "Orson Car Me" which means: I want to go in the car to visit Orson!

Sometimes mommy will be holding Rylie and Daniel needs some mommy time, so he will point at Rylie and say "Daddy Rylie" which means: give Rylie to Daddy so you can play with me now.

Grammy House Pool: lets go to grandma's house and go swimming!

Rylie rolling

Rylie started rolling over almost a month ago. She just seems so anxious to get up and see the world around her. Here are a couple of videos of her rolling over. Honestly, unless these are your kids or grand kids, you'll probably be bored sick watching this!

Spiders

As a follow up to the Fly epidemic post a while ago, the flies have pretty much disappeared now. I think we have spiders to thank for that. I made a comment in that post that I liked spiders as long as they were eating flies.

The flies are gone now so my opinion of spiders has changed. I was walking around in my back yard and noticed quite a few little brown spiders. When I started really paying attention I noticed they were all in the grass as well as the rock border around the far end of our yard.

Some were harmless little jumping spiders no bigger than a lady bug, but others were a little bigger, about the size of a water spider, except these were skating my yard, not water. Then I noticed the webs in the trees. Granted there were quite a few dead bugs caught in those webs which warranted a grunt of satisfaction, but when I saw this hanging between a bush and a tree, I drew the line:






You can't really appreciate it's size from these pictures, but I wasn't about to hold up a quarter for size comparison, I was afraid I might lose a finger, or arm. It was about the size of a half dollar. After I killed this one I closely inspected the tree next to it and found another one.

I killed that one too. The spiders have now over-stayed their welcome. I discovered webs all over our back yard in the trees and bushes and low ground cover.

David Arquette in Eight Legged Freaks came to mind:



It's time to do some killing this weekend.