Whiny Complaints

Skip the Toddler Bed?

Jen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:40:27 +0000

I'm hoping experienced parents can help us with the question.

We're leaning toward just transitioning Jesse straight to the full size bed we have in the guest room. My thought is to just have it on the floor without the frame. That way if he falls out, it's a shorter drop to the floor. And we can always get side rails if he falls out too much.

What did you do?

When They Eat Things They Shouldn't

Jen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:55:55 +0000

Jesse has adopted a book from Beau's office that when in the basement he carries around. It's an old hardback that is missing the dust jacket. The linen cover is a lovely aqua color.

Yesterday he decided to gnaw on the spine. Quick thinking Beau snapped the picture below.

When I got home, I went up to get him from his nap to find this blue stuff around his mouth.

Silly boy.

18 Months

Jen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:41:26 +0000

How did the past 18 months go so quickly? Amazing.

Jesse is a great kid. He's active, playful, sweet, independent, smart, hilarious, outgoing, stubborn. I mentioned independent? Yeah, he's all boy - no hugs, no kisses, no snuggles. He wants to run around and do things on his own.

He's got a high pain tolerance. He seems to have a healthy fear of heights - he gets to the top of the stairs and is all about going UP, but isn't so excited about coming back down and won't do it. But that's just a matter of time.

Remember when his only word was Dat? Now it's Up, although he will use signs for specific things:

Are you hungry? He gives the "more" sign.

Say please. He gives what we call the "dog scratch" even though he knows that isn't the real sign. But we accept it and try to correct him. I figure he's independent enough to stick with the dog scratch.

Say thank you. He gives a really cute, open handed thank you sign. It looks more like he's blowing kisses.

I mentioned a while back that he will go to the stairs when asked if he's ready for a nap. He still does that. The new part is when asked if he needs a diaper change, he will go to the stairs as well. And when asked if he has a poopy diaper he will say, "Oop." Potty training will begin after we get back from California - we think he may be ready.

He goes in for his 18 month old check up at the end of August. We have a popular pediatrician who happens to be taking most of August off for vacation. So the real stats will be posted at that time.

The Jesse Show: Tormenting Annie

Jen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:36:29 +0000

Feeds Himself

Jen — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:43:32 +0000

Since Jesse has started to show an interest in feeding himself with utensils (he prefers our flatware over the toddler utensils we have), I decided it was time to buy him some transitional utensils. I got the "kiddie cutlery" - rubber handles with stainless so that he can hold it well but he thinks they're big boy utensils.

So last night was Jesse's first try with the kiddie fork. He knew just what to do and while he needs to work on his coordination a bit, he did great and managed to feed himself most of the bowl of mashed cheddar potatoes with summer vegetables.

Here's photographic evidence:

Jesse and Mr. Kitty

Jen — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:29:48 +0000

Post vacation video of Jesse playing with Mr. Kitty. It may be boring for non-family, but you can see how much he's grown.

The Hacking, Sneezing, and Copious Amounts of Snot

Jen — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:15:54 +0000

We think Jesse picked up a cold bug while riding in the cart at Wegmans last week. What we thought was mere teething symptoms on Thursday and early Friday, turned into full-fledged cold symptoms on Friday night with a marked increase in his nasal mucus output, sneezing, a slight dry cough, and general crankiness. Yesterday brought a continued increase in the mucus and cough, which progressed to a nicely phlegmy cough by this morning.

We believe this is his first real cough, although now that I think about it we bought a humidifier last winter because of a cough he had then. Anyway, he has struggled with eating and coughing at the same time, resulting in many choking scares for us. But he seems to be figuring it all out and he managed a pretty good breakfast this morning. We do think he's lost some weight though.

Fortunately he's sleeping well at night, including a 13 hour snooze last night. We put him to bed very early (6pm) and he pretty much slept through until about 7am. And he's already down for a nap. I figure he'll sleep a lot today.

Puts a damper on Father's Day. We had planned to take Beau and my Dad out for dinner after church last night. We didn't even go to church last night since it didn't make sense with Jesse's germs. We're going to rain check that dinner next weekend instead. Beau has parking duty this morning at church and then he's getting a day of rest with no nagging from me to do anything other than lounge around in his recliner.

Happy Father's Day!

New Choppers

Jen — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:42:46 +0000

It's been a while since we saw evidence of new teeth in Jesse's mouth. His eight front teeth are fully in and showing signs of requiring braces in his adolescence. He's got Mama's gap teeth and overbite, but at this point they are simply cute. We'll see how that carries as he grows older.

He went through a heavy drooling phase a couple of weeks ago that seems to have dried up. So I tickled him last night while changing his diaper and putting him into his pjs to get a chance to investigate his gaping maw while he laughed.

The report?

His incisors are showing signs of imminent break-through on the top and bottom. He's got one molar up top for sure that has cut through and might have one on the bottom, too. I had a hard time keeping his mouth open long enough to get a full look.

It might explain his post-vacation diaper rash. Other kids get whiny and fevers and don't sleep well. Our kid gets diaper rash when he's cutting teeth.

Disney Trip Pics

Jen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:20:38 +0000

I took no pictures in the parks. I'll post what I get from my dad and Denis - they were the ones who took pictures in the parks.

What I did take were on the drive down and back and at the resort pool.

Jesse taking a walk at a gas station - looking cool in his ball cap and sunglasses (that he hates).

Jesse in the condo ready to go to and at the pool with Beau. Jesse didn't really enjoy the experience in the pool at all.

Denis took this one with my camera - Jesse sleeping in the Ergo at one of the parks - it may be at Epcot, but I can't remember.

On the drive home yesterday - with MooMoo on his head, which he seemed to prefer for some reason.

Crazy, cute kid.

New to the Jesse Lexicon

Jen — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:20:17 +0000

OK - we noticed it the other day. We say OK a lot. The best example of his OK-mimicry was when I was talking to my mother on the phone the other day. She said OK in response to something I said and then I heard Jesse, in the background, say, "otay." We cracked up.

breakfast - Also in that phone conversation with Mom the other day, she informed me that he had said breakfast to her. This morning after I changed his diaper, I picked him up and asked if he was ready for breakfast. He said, "befas." I took that as a yes.

please/thank you - We've been working on his manners. It's still rather hit or miss, but on occasion we'll hear "peas" when we ask him to say it before giving him whatever he wants. And he's starting to say "tanoo" when we prompt him. Cute.

yes - it's still usually "dat," but we're starting to get the occasional "es" when we ask yes/no questions.

no - (in the form of vigorous head shaking) I'm surprised he isn't saying the word at all since it's an easy one. But we get a lot of head shaking when he doesn't want something. I'm waiting for the first declaration of no, though.

He is also waving bye-bye without prompting. And he definitely talks to us - full on sentences of gibberish with expressions and everything. He's clearly trying to communicate. I just wish I spoke his language.

He's a cute one, our 16 month old.

Dat!

Jen — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:32:38 +0000

Jesse's new favorite word is "dat." He uses it for everything from Dad to yes to light to duck.

Mama: Where's Dad?

Jesse: Dat!

Mama: Look at your duck!

Jesse: Dat!

Mama: Would you like a cookie?

Jesse: Dat!

Mama: That is the light.

Jesse: Dat!

It's as hilarious as it is frustrating. I know he gets frustrated when I clearly have no idea what he's saying. I was changing his diaper when he started "dat"-ing.

Mama: What?

Jesse: Dat!

Mama: Duck?

Jesse: Dat!

Mama: I wish I knew what you were trying to tell me, buddy.

Jesse: Dat!

On the other hand, there are words he says well like when we pray before meals and he says "amen" after we do. Very cute.

The First Allergy: Sunscreen

Jen — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:23:06 +0000

Turns out that Jesse is allergic to something in regular kiddie sunscreen. I noticed a mild rash on his little legs on Saturday when we were on the way to church. So yesterday we experimented by only applying the sunscreen to one leg before his early morning walk with Daddy.

Upon their return, his leg was a little more rashy than the other one, so our suspicion was confirmed.

One quick search on the internets and I discovered that this is quite common and found recommendations for two over the counter sunscreens for sensitive skin that should work for him - either Trader Joe's or Neutrogena. So I'll stop at Trader Joe's on my way home from work tomorrow to get some for him because we're not spending all day, every day for a week in the hot Florida sun with him not protected by sunscreen.

Update at 15.5 Months

Jen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:38:48 +0000

Stay tuned here for the Doctor's Report later this afternoon, where we will get confirmation that our kid does not really weigh 35 pounds (yet). I'm guessing he's 26-28 lbs. We'll see how wrong I am later.

In the meantime, we were discussing Jesse's sweaty little feet (poor kid, gets that from me for sure) and Disney and we have decided to get him a pair of sandals for the summer. Because otherwise we'll all be miserable - he with his sweaty, swollen feet and us with the sour smell of his sweaty little feet. Yes, friends, toddlers can get stinky feet.

I'd really love to get him a pair of these, but alas they don't make them in his size (he's still too small) and they're just too expensive to justify. However, next summer - I'll make the case. I'll probably just go to Target to see what they have on sale. Even full price there will be pretty cheap.

So the other day Beau was feeding Jesse some banana and asked him if he wanted more? Jesse put his little fingers together in the sign for more and I was shocked. I didn't know that Beau had started using the signs again. That was the first time Jesse did it back, though. Pretty cool. He knows all done as well and gets confused when trying to signal that he wants more. So we get a lot of all done-more at the same time. Cute. I dug out the sign language book again to start learning/teaching some new words so that we can communicate better. That was the plan anyway.

Finally, we had a nice day at Beau's Sis's home yesterday to celebrate Orthodox Easter. I had kept Jesse awake through his normal morning nap, thinking that he would sleep on the way up and then be good to go for the afternoon. Instead, he didn't fall asleep until we were about 20 minutes from her house. I was going to sit in the car with him for another 15 minutes or so to try to get him more sleep, but he woke up. He did well though and charmed all of the family and guests. And on the way home he fell asleep with about 35-40 minutes left in the drive. I opted to put him straight to bed instead of battling through dinner. He had eaten a late lunch. He didn't argue a bit when I put him in his crib, just curled up, hugging his blankie and slept until his usual 7:00 am or so.

Anyway, stats will come soon - his appointment is at 2:20pm.

[UPDATE 4:50pm]: We stopped at Microcenter to buy a printer/scanner for Beau on the way home. We got it on sale - bonus!

So the Doc came in and said, "See, look here. I wrote 'pleasant boy' last time you were here. That's not the norm; I don't usually make editorial comments like that." Good start.

Height: 33.75 inches - that puts him off the charts tall. His current height just shy of the 50th percentile for average 2 year olds.

Weight: I was close. He's 25 lbs even. He's still averaging about 1 lb per month. He's slightly above the 50th percentile.

Head: 18.75 inches. Again in the slightly above 50th percentile range to match his weight.

We got quizzed on his diet, which seemed to please the doc. We left out that he's already eating peanut butter - no need to ruin a good visit. I made the decision to press ahead with peanut butter for a number of reasons. The main one being that there is not a single person in either of our families with peanut allergies, so it's unlikely that he would have one. As I told Beau in the car - he's way more likely to have a milk allergy or an allergy to corn or nitrites since we have folks with those allergies in the family. Also, he was exposed to peanuts a few times inadvertently as a younger baby with no ill effects. And I got tired of feeding him grilled cheese every day for lunch.

He's generally healthy. On track developmentally. The Doc called him "fun" today and "pleasant" again, marvelling that Jesse didn't freak out when he walked in like most kids his age and also didn't really fuss much when he was examined.

He got two shots and did fuss during that process, but I would too with three big people holding me down and a couple of pin-pricks in my thighs.

We gave him animal cracker and milk afterward and he's konked out for an afternoon nap.

The First Official Haircut

Jen — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:44:16 +0000

W all needed a haircut so yesterday we decided to all go to Cartoon Cuts since they cater well to kids. Jesse went first and was incredibly traumatized, but the stylist was great to keep going even when Jesse was screaming-crying and wiggling to get away. He's got a cute haircut and looks more like a little boy.

We followed up the family haircuts with lunch at Chik-Fil-A, where Jesse chowed on chicken nuggets and waffle fries and managed to drink milk from a real straw quite well and to his great delight.

Also, I think he's starting to look more like his Dad. This was proved when Beau pulled out old photo albums to look at his baby pictures. I'll have to scan a couple to post - Jesse looks just like he did as a baby. What's amazing is that he looks just like me as a baby, too, at times. So he's a good blend of us both. It's cool to see it.

Climb or Poop?

Jen — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:56:36 +0000

I knew it was a matter of time before Jesse started two things:

1. Climbing out of the crib.

2. Removing his diaper and playing with the poop.

The question was only about which one would occur first.

We have a winner!

Playing with poop.

It got to be about 8:30am this morning and we realized that Jesse hadn't made a sound to indicate that we was awake. And this was later than he normally wakes up. So Beau headed up first to check on him and as I was on my way up the stairs I could hear him groaning, "Oh no!"

I walked into the room to see Jesse sitting in his crib, surrounded by his blankies and with a very soaked and dirty diaper next to him. And poop all over the place. Guh-ross.

Beau put him in the tub while I cleaned up the crib. Fortunately the poop was solid and he didn't smear it too badly. But it was bad enough.

This is what happens when your toddler no longer wears zippered footie pjs to bed. Today, I'm on the hunt for lightweight footie pjs in his size because it is still cool enough at night for him to wear them. And I don't want to deal with a poopy crib every morning. It's bad enough dealing with a poppy dog crate every morning already.

[UPDATE Sat 4/19]: The mystery of Jesse's silence was solved yesterday at the time of his nap. I got back down to the basement after putting him in his crib and just a few minutes later I realized I couldn't hear the music playing through the monitor. So I looked the receiver down here and all looked fine. then I trekked all the way back up to check the monitor in his room - it was turned off. Then on my way back down I noticed that the receiver in our bedroom was not lit up - it was also turned off.

Turns out Beau turned off the monitor in Jesse's room the other day - the story why is too long to tell. He has no recollection of turning off the receiver in our room, but I didn't do it.

So now we're wondering just how long Jesse was awake in his crib waiting for one of us to come get him before he finally got bored enough to strip off the diaper and start playing. It could have been a good two hours judging from the time he woke up this morning. Poor kid.

Not The Grass, Thanks!

Jen — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:17:27 +0000

I know I'm not the only mom who thinks her kid is special, but some things are just a marvel to me. Take last evening, for instance.

We had finished dinner and I was cleaning up, so Beau took Jesse outside to play for a bit. This was the first time the boy had been on grass (it sounds like he never gets out, but he was an infant last spring/summer and then we had winter). Anyway, he didn't seem to like it much. He didn't want to touch it with his hands at all and he kept one leg raised above the blades as much as he could. I think the blades of grass tickled his little ankles.

When I got out there he was seated. Beau picked him up and he held his feet up, not wanting to put them down. He did eventually, and then he stayed planted with his hands upraised to avoid touching the grass. When he lost his balance, he was great at compensating and keeping on his feet without having to move his feet, often squatting to regain his balance. He did land on his butt eventually, but managed to go down without using his hands and he kept his hands up in the "Don't shoot, mister" gesture.

I went back in to finish the dishes and when I went back out he was standing on the bottom step leading up to the deck. He had made his way over there and decided he preferred it, inspecting the weeds under the deck from the safety of the flat, not prickly wooden step.

Too cute.

35? No Way

Jen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:25:53 +0000

Jesse has gotten heavier in the past couple of months. This is to be expected, of course, but even Beau commented that it's getting harder to schlep up to his room from the basement when carrying the kid.

His next appointment isn't for a while (I still need to call about that), so we decided to try to figure out how much he weighs. Beau got on his scales with a pre-bath Jesse and made note of the weight. Then he handed Jesse to me and weighed himself sans kid. The difference?

35 pounds!

I'm convinced that he can't weigh that much really. Right?

I mean at his 1 year check up he was 22.5 lbs. How has he gained 13 lbs in two months? If I were to guess I'd say he's about 30 lbs, but that's still a huge increase.

We need to measure his length.

Can you tell I'm a bit panicked? *deep breaths*

The thing is he's not fat at all. I mean he's got chubs on his thighs and his face is filling out, but he's a long, lean boy.

I'm calling his doctor right now to make that appointment for his next check up. This is crazy.

[UPDATE]: 15 month check up is scheduled for April 28th. We have a popular pediatrician - that was the first available date after Jesse turns 15 months on the 16th.

Picture Pages

Jen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Jesse has figured out that the camera flash is uncomfortable for his eyes. That's yogurt on his face.

After I turned of the flash I got this cute shot. It was one of many really blurry shots because he doesn't ever sit still.

The other day I managed to get some cute shots.

And then one of me holding the Sleepy Baby, who is so tiny and sweet compared to our bruiser. He drooled on my arm. I didn't care.

His Version of Talking

Jen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:07:58 +0000

He is such a little show off towards the end when he knows I've got the camera.

Yeah, He's Been Walking

Jen — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:39:59 +0000

So apparently I forgot to mention that Jesse is walking. He's been walking for a while now - he did walking-crawling for a bit and then decided that he likes walking, so he pretty much just walks.

Really, he's always preferred to be on his feet. Even from birth. He was breech after all, so it makes sense.