Memory of the Day

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• Baby in House?
• Field Trip
• Cutting with Scissors
• Welcome Baby Sister
• Ready for Baby Sister
• Reading to Mommy
• Time to Wake Up?
• When the Music Moves You
• Apple Pie
• Carving a Pumpkin
• Starting Preschool
• Money Please

Baby in House? - October 28, 2010 (2 Weeks)
Is there really a new baby in our house? Nana keeps saying this since our new baby girl rarely cries that someone outside our apartment wouldn't even know there is a new baby in the house. We are very fortunate that she has a great temperament and she truly does rarely cry except to tell us what she needs. She doesn't like to be in a wet/dirty diaper and she does like to eat and sleep and so as long as we keep her on the E.A.S.Y. schedule, document when she's last eaten and/or slept it is fairly easy to predict what she needs next.

We really can hear the difference in her cries as well and so we generally can tell if it is her hunger cry or or discomfort cry. Some days, she is content sleeping for naps in her crib or baby swing while other days she may need extra comfort and want to sleep in one of our baby wearer products. My new favorite is the Moby wrap.

Overall, we are very lucky that our baby is so content and we are excited to see how our baby continues to grow and develop in the coming weeks.
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Field Trip - October 27, 2010 ( 2 Years 5 Months)
Our son went on his first school field trip today. Nana took him as it was a fairly rainy, cold day and Mommy didn't want to take 2 week old baby sister out in the rain. We actually thought the field trip was going to be cancelled which is why Daddy didn't go with Nana. Even though it ended up being a very wet, muddy field trip all of the kids had a great time.

We also learned why my son likes school so much...he has a group of older girls that play with him everyday at the playground. They all call him "cake" as when they first asked his name, he was making a mud cake and so he told them "cake" and that became his name. They all take turns "mothering him" and I'm sure he loves the attention. Nana had trouble getting pictures of just my son on the field trip as his friends were in every picture. (I had to crop out the other children in the pictures below.)

At lunchtime, all of the children, including my son, folded their hands to give thanks, and after thanks was over, my son raised his glass and did "cheers" one of our family traditions. I guess we can assume he does "cheers" every day at lunch at preschool. Please see some pictures of the special day.

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Cutting with Scissors - October 12, 2010 ( 2 years 5 months)
Mommy mentioned to Nana and Daideo they could start to show our two year old how to cut with scissors since he was going to start to use them in preschool. We figured it may take some time to teach a 2 year old how to use scissors. But once Daideo showed him how to pick up child scissors our son would not put the scissors down! He wanted to practice and practice cutting. He loved learning something new. He made Nana keep drawing a straight line on the notecard so he could practice cutting. After about an hour of cutting and Nana and Daideo told him that was enough practicing and they moved on to another activity.
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Welcome Baby Sister - October 11, 2010 (Birth)

The day had finally arrived! We would meet our baby girl. I cannot describe the joy I felt when I heard her first cry. It was wonderful going back to the recovery room and after they felt the anesthesia wore off enough, holding my baby girl for the first time. She was able to breastfeed immediately and she latched on great. We were able to spend some quiet time together just Erik and me and the baby while we waited for me to be able to move my legs due to the spinal for the C-Section before moving to the main room where grandparents could meet their new grandchild. Everyone was anxiously waiting to meet her.

When our son walked in to meet his baby sister for the first time you could tell he wasn't quite sure what to think. Then when she fell asleep he wanted granddad to put her back in her bassinet as that was where she was suppose to sleep. He was already being a protective brother.

As shown in the video, we thought the Celine Dion song, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" expressed our feelings about our daughter's birth. Although, words cannot describe the love we feel for our daughter and we know our love will grow each and every day.
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Ready for Baby Sister - October 8, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
We are all excited about the pending arrival of baby sister. She is like our son and doesn't appear to want to come out on her own...so looks like Mommy will be having another C-Section the day after her due date. We loved her due date of 10/10/10 but they won't schedule a C-Section on a Sunday, so the birthday will have to be 10/11/10.

Our son seems excited as well. When you ask him about the baby he makes a rocking motion with his arms as he says he's going to rock the baby, and he pretends to give her hugs and kisses. He also will pretend to cry like a baby as we explained that the baby may cry a lot at first since that is how she communicates to us. Our son has been moved to be behind the driver's side in the car as the infant seat takes up more room so it goes better behind the passenger seat. Surprisingly our son didn't seem to mind this move. The rocking chair has also been moved to Mommy and Daddy's room and there are various baby swings scattered throughout our apartment. We are going to appreciate moving to our new house after moving from our townhouse to an apartment. I think our son is excited for the baby to get here partly because of that...he knows that shortly after the baby gets here we will be moving to our house. When we drive through neighborhoods he says he wants a house.

I really can't believe how fast the time has gone with this pregnancy...and I'm looking forward to holding our new baby girl. I cherished every single moment with our son and I know how fast it goes so I'm looking forward to doing it all over again.
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Reading to Mommy - October 3, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
For awhile now our son will occasionally go get a book and turn the pages as he talks to himself about the story. I've enjoyed listening to him read stories especially recently as I'm now able to pick out most words he says and he is truly "reading" the story based on the pictures he sees. There are still a lot of words he adds that I don't understand but overall I can understand his stories.

He also seems to memorize books fairly quickly and after reading a book a few times if you skip over a section he'll remind you. For example, the one page has three different songs the animals are singing. I tried to skip over the ABC song but my son immediately started singing it, like Mom, you forgot one. It is also fun now when he can complete the sentence and participate in the books more and more.
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Time to Wake Up? (2 Years 4 Months) - September 24, 2010 - October 3, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
This week we decided to try an experiment and each night we told our son a different time to wake up the next morning. The first night we did it, Daddy came out and told me that he told our son to sleep until 10:30AM the next day. I laughed when I heard this and said, that is quite a stretch considering he normally wakes up between 6:30-7:30AM. But surprisingly the next morning he didn't call out for us until 10:30AM. The next night we told him to wake up at 9:30AM and the next night we said 8:30AM, 9:30AM, 7:30AM, ect and he repeatedly woke up within 5 - 10 minutes of the time we told him for a week straight. We aren't sure when he exactly woke up, i.e. if he woke up early and simply relaxed in his crib (as we were sleeping) all we know is that he would call out for us right around the requested time we had discussed the night before.

We would ask him, were you waiting until it was time to get up and he would say, "yes, clock" and point to his clock. I will be honest, I'm a little baffled at how this has worked especially since we changed the time on a daily basis as I didn't really think he could recognize all of the numbers on his clock yet. I'm not sure how he was doing it but it seems a little too much to be a coincidence for a week straight using various times. Either way, we are going to continue doing this and see if it continues to work.

For information on helping your Toddler/Preschooler sleep longer, please refer here.
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When the Music Moves You - September 25, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
We were running around shopping for some new furniture for our new house and so we stopped and ate at a fast food restaurant (a special treat for our son, probably only the fifth time he's eaten at a fast food restaurant). When we were finishing up, our son turns to us and says "I want to dance" and since no one was in the restaurant at the time, we let him get down to show us his dance moves.

I think we should all take lessons from our children and remember to dance when the music moves us.
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Apple Pie - September 22, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
Nana and our son made a homemade apple pie together. It was delicious! Our son was having a piece after his dinner when all of a sudden he stopped eating the pie. He went and hid under the dining room table. I believe it is fairly common for little kids to go hide when going to the bathroom and that was what our son was doing. We were all finished eating so we left the room to let him have some privacy. When we looked in the room again, he was eating some of his pie. So for the next 30 minutes he would take a bite of pie and then go hide under the table again and then when the time was right take a bite of pie and go hide under the table. It was quite comical, I guess the apple pie was just too good.
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Carving a Pumpkin - September 20, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
Nana came to visit and she enjoyed reading Halloween stories to her grandson. Yes, we realize it is still September but with the future delivery of our son's baby sister, the month of October could get pretty crazy so we started doing Halloween activities early.

Nana and our son also enjoyed drawing Halloween pictures together. So they decided the next step would be to carve a pumpkin. Our son was very excited to carve a pumpkin with Nana. We went to the store and we picked out the perfect pumpkin. Our son anxiously awaited to see what it was like to carve a pumpkin. Then the first step, open up the pumpkin to clean out the insides. Soon as we opened the pumpkin our son started screaming. He said it smelled and he was scared and we aren't sure exactly what he was scared of but I guess he just wasn't expecting what the inside of a pumpkin looked like. He eventually got over the "insides" and Nana moved onto cutting a "happy" halloween face in the pumpkin.

Our son liked the face that was drawn on the pumpkin. Then it was time to turn the lights out and light the pumpkin. As we turned the lights out, made an "Ooh" sound to look at the beautiful pumpkin our son started screaming again. He was very scared of the pumpkin, and/or the fact it was dark and/or the "Ohh" sound all together. He kept saying, "scared...scared...." So we put the pumpkin on the porch. He liked the pumpkin much better once it was on the porch. He would sit on the bench and look at the pumpkin he just did NOT like the pumpkin when it was in the house.

The next morning the first word out of his mouth was "pumpkin" he wanted to go sit and look at the pumpkin. He once again enjoyed sitting on the porch to see the pumpkin. So we thought maybe he was ready for us to bring the pumpkin inside. But as soon as we got the pumpkin inside he started to get upset again. I guess the pumpkin's home is outside, not inside the house. So as long as the pumpkin remained outside our son loved it! Please refer below for some pictures of the pumpkin carving experience.

Starting Preschool - September 14, 2010 - September 15, 2010 (2 Years 4 Months)
This week was my son's first week of preschool. He's been very excited about going to preschool. I've been explaining it to him for a few weeks about how he will go to preschool and meet his teachers and make new friends. He previously attending a Mommy and Me class, a preschool readiness class that I attended with him and he loved it. I explained that when he goes to preschool Mommy won't be going with him. The first time I told him this he said, "What?" but when I asked him if he still wanted to attend he said "Yes."

The first day my son did ask for me a couple times and they kept telling him that after lunch I would be there to pick him up so his response was "I want to eat." But he did well and when I picked him up and asked him if he had a good time he said "yes" and when I asked if he wanted to go back the next day he said "yes." Although, when we got there the second day he did turn and leave when we first arrived but then soon as they asked him to join in to play with the trains he was ready to participate. Once again when I picked him up he was happy to see me but as we got in the car he also was happy to share some of the things he did that day.

If you want information on other preschool activities for your preschooler, please click here.
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Money Please - September 10, 2010 (2 Years 3 Months)
Our son is starting to understand the concept of money. I first explained it when he rode on a ride outside Babies R Us. In a way it is hard to explain the concept of money now days as most of the time he sees me simply swipe a credit card, which he likes to help swipe the card and then sign the electronic box. Although the other day when I put him on the ride but didn't give him a quarter he immediately asked for some money please. Then today when we were in the library I let my son pick out two books to take home. When we got up to the counter he turned to me and said "Money please" and I was happy to explain that the library lets us borrow the books for free as long as we return them. He was excited that we could go back and get more books at another time.
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