Nathan - 3 1/4 year summary

Wow, I just looked back at my 3 year summary of Nathan and it was very detailed! I doubt this one will be as long-winded, but I only have to cover 3 months instead of a whole year this time.

Nathan has adapted very well to our new town and new way of life. He loves when Daddy is home in the day to play with him. His favourite activities with Peter are wrestling and hockey. Could he be a more typical boy? I have really seen his sense of adventure and his willingness to take risks expand this summer. I think it's healthy and most of the credit for this goes to Peter, too. I tend to be really nervous when he tries new things (like climbing monkey bars) but Peter encourages him to try.

Potty training is still going well. He has very few accidents overall and tells us more often than not when he has to go. Unfortunately he still can't get up on the toilet or pull his pants up very well without us. He can get his pants and underwear off, so that's progress.

Nathan continues to test his boundaries, but I do think he is obeying a bit more than he was 3 months ago. That may just be wishful thinking on my part, and he still oversteps his boundaries with Hannah more than I would like, but he seems to be playing better with other children.

We tried putting Nathan in swimming lessons this summer. We started out with a class where he would go in by himself. He can touch in the shallow end of the pool and loved swimming with Peter and I, but when it came time to go in with his class he screamed and cried very hard. We tried every morning for a week to get him to go with his class, even going so far as getting in the pool with him, but he would not budge. Halfway through the two-week session we switched him to a class where I got in the water with him. Although the content of the class was a bit below him (it had kids from 6 months - 3 years old in it), he did much better socially.

His swimming skills have dramatically improved over the summer. With Peter's schedule and the close proximity of the pool to our house, we have taken the kids to the pool many, many afternoons this summer. Nathan has become a little fish. He loves to go underwater and even enjoys challenging us to see who can stay under the longest. He can do a front float and will open his eyes underwater and has started trying to do a sort of doggie paddle when Peter prompts him. I think the next thing he needs to work on will be a back float ... probably next summer. We will try swimming lessons again next summer, too, and hopefully they will go better.

We also enrolled Nathan in a local VBS (not the one at our church as it was for ages 5 and up). He went with one of his best friends and the first day was rough. Peter ended up staying the whole time. The second day I went with him and stayed, but was out of sight for about 90 minutes out of the 2 hour timeframe. Wednesday he stayed on his own but by Thursday Nathan was really tired. I think all the 'new-ness' was really exhausting for him and he just broke down when we got there on Thursday afternoon. We ended up coming home after the opening time on Thursday and then he stayed on his own on Friday afternoon. I'm glad he did a few days on his own. It gives me hope for him in the future!! I see so much of my own reticence and shy nature in him it's scary. I really hope it's something he can overcome as I am only too familiar with the limitations it places on a person.

We have gotten out of any kind of structured learning time for Nathan this summer. It is something I want to start up again, though, so hopefully with fall right around the corner I can get myself organized.

Nathan seems to be excited about the new baby. He will often come up and hug or pat my belly and say what the baby is doing inside my belly. It is really cute. I hope he's as excited once the baby gets here!

One of Nathan's new favourite words is 'irritating.' A strange word for a 3 year old (and he often uses it incorrectly), but it must be something Peter or I say with some sort of regularity. There's another one, too, that I can't think of right now.

Nathan is no longer napping. It was a fairly easy decision once he started laying awake in bed until 9 or 10 every night. As soon as we cut out the naps he started falling asleep promptly at bedtime (somewhere between 7 and 7:30). I found it really stressful when he was taking so long to fall asleep at night, so losing the afternoon time is worth it to me. He still has 'rest time' in the afternoon, where he can take a few toys and books into our bed for an hour. He seems to enjoy that time to unwind and it gives me a chance to rest, too. The reason he is in our bed is because very soon (within the next week) he and Hannah will begin to share a room. Since Hannah is (obviously) still napping in the afternoon Nathan has to have his rest time elsewhere.

To work on in the next three months:

• Establish at least 30 minutes of learning time per day, 5 days a week.
• Teach Nathan to undress and dress himself. It may not be perfect but it's something I've been slacking on.
• Establish a few (maybe 3) daily chores that he is responsible for. At the moment I'm thinking - making his bed, brushing his teeth (in the morning - we do it at night), and tidying up his room before bed.
  

Where have I been?

Through text conversations with two people today I was reminded that this blog has been neglected. So ... I thought I'd come and at least post something, even if it's nothing really well thought out or composed.

Our month has been fairly uneventful thus far. I can feel the third trimester draining my energy more each day, but as long as I remember to rest in the afternoon when the kids do and in the evenings after they go to bed I seem to be able to keep up.

Here are some of the highlights of what we've been up to this month ...

Swimming Lessons
We signed Nathan up for swimming lessons. They were every morning for two weeks at the outdoor pool just down the road. We signed him up in a preschool class for ages 3 - 5. He went the first day ... and wouldn't get in the water. It wasn't the water that was the problem, it was the whole atmosphere of having to go in with new kids and without Mom or Dad. We tried for 4 days before admitting defeat and taking him to the parents and tots class. He loved that, but Peter and I were still worried about his hesitance to leave our side. The swimming part he did really well. He loves to go underwater and has even started 'swimming' a bit unassisted. It's messy, but at least we have forward floating :)

VBS
We signed Nathan up for VBS for this week. After our experience with swimming lessons we weren't too sure how this was going to go. Yesterday, Nathan started crying as soon as we entered the church building (it's not at the church we attend, which didn't help). One of his friends is also going to this VBS and we had hoped that would help somewhat. It may have, but Peter still ended up staying for the whole time. Today I took Nathan. I still stayed for the whole time, but after the first few minutes left the room and he stayed with his class. He did so much better today that I'm hoping to leave after the opening time tomorrow. I'm so glad to see progress!

Garden
The garden is growing really well. There are obviously a few things I will do differently next year. I am going to try a different variety of spinach as I wasn't very happy with the yield of the kind I had. I will plant more lettuce, beans, and carrots. I finally got one of my three trellises up with netting for the squash and some cucumbers. One of the other trellises is up but the netting is not finished and the third has yet to be constructed. I can't wait until they are all set but it's getting late!

Stitching
I have been doing a very small amount of stitching lately. Not much to report.

YNAB
What has been taking up most of my free time is playing around with and reading about a new budgeting software I downloaded and eventually bought. It's called YNAB (You Need A Budget), and after using it for the last month I love it!! Peter and I have made multiple budgets throughout the years but this is the first software I've seen that seems to work the same way my brain works. I also love the methodology behind the software.

Hannah
Hannah is still not walking :( I'll do a summary post for her around the first of August so I'll leave the other details for then.

Visitors
Last Friday night my aunt and uncle came for a visit!! It was so nice to see family. The drove from the east coast and stopped in for a night on their way to visit my cousin several hours away. They arrived in time for supper Friday night and headed out early Saturday morning. We had a great time visiting and playing games. Nathan talked about them all day Saturday - so cute!

Well, that's about all the typing I can handle for one night ... I'm out of practice!

Popsicles

The weather here has been so nice the past few days. It makes me believe summer is really coming!

It had been raining for so long that as soon as the sun peeked through we spent almost every spare minute outside. After a few days of that I made myself at least do my daily cleaning before we headed out yesterday ... the house was starting to look pretty neglected!

Anyway, after the bathroom was cleaned top to bottom we headed out to the little pool in the backyard. The kids had a blast playing in it until we got worried about sunburns and decided it was time to hop out and re-apply some sunscreen. At that point we gave them each a popsicle (Hannah's first time having one to hold by herself!) and they had a blast dripping all over the place. I'm so glad we were outside.

Peter took the opportunity to do an informal photo shoot. Here are a couple of my favourites ...


There are many, many more pictures on our flickr site.

Nathan - 3 year summary

I know it's cliché, but I can't believe Nathan is already 3 years old!! Despite this disbelief, it also seems so hard to remember life before he was here. I was just talking to Mom the other day and saying how I do remember it being difficult to adjust to having a baby - Peter and I were married for almost 6 years before he came along and we were very used to being out all the time. Once that period of adjustment was over, though, it seemed like he had always been part of our family and I know neither of us would have it any other way.

Since birth Nathan has been a very laid-back kid. In general, he adapts well to change and that has been a great quality this past year! I always say that he is introverted like me and laid back like Peter. I'm sure that's an oversimplified summary of his personality, but it seems pretty accurate most of the time.

The biggest change in Nathan over the past year has been in his speech. He was slow to start - hardly speaking before his second birthday - but has quickly caught up. He speaks clearly in complete sentences and seems to have an unlimited vocabulary. He picks up new words and phrases all the time - it's amazing! He speaks so that others can understand him most of the time, although a few words, like 'helicopter' and 'umbrella' still give him trouble.

Nathan loves to look at books and to be read to. I think he would sit all day and be read to if someone would read to him for that long.

Nathan is generally very sensitive. Things will stick in his mind and he will get scared. As a result we are very careful what we say and what we let him watch. In January he somehow fixated on pigs and had nightmares about them and was scared to go to sleep for weeks. He still talks about the pigs and how he was scared of them during that time. He is also very affected by the moods of the people around him. I think this is something he gets from me ...

In the past few months Nathan has begun a workbook on tracing. It has really helped his fine motor control and will hopefully prepare him for printing. His absolute favourite 'crafty' thing to do right now is play with stickers. He loves them ... I can't even put into words how much he loves to take stickers off the page and stick them on another page. The funny thing is he sticks them all one on top of the other! No matter how many times we show him differently he still does it that way. Oh well.

Nathan is just about potty trained as far as using the toilet goes. He is not yet able to pull his pants down or up independently, or to get on or off the toilet by himself. He will sometimes tell us if he has to go to the washroom, but often we have to take him at regular intervals. We have just started night training and so far so good (4 for 4 dry nights). Potty training was really much less of an issue than I thought it would be, although perhaps starting late helped it go more smoothly. I am sure there are many accidents in our future, but I hope the majority of them are behind us.

Nathan is obviously eating table foods. This summer he has just started trying salad vegetables such as spinach and lettuce. I hope that by involving him in our vegetable garden he will be more open to eating more vegetables. He is not a bad eater, but he is still more picky than he was at a year. In our household, however, the kids eat what we eat, and since I love to try new recipes, he is constantly exposed to a wide variety of foods.

People talk about the terrible twos, and I didn't really see them until about 2 months before Nathan's 3rd birthday. In fact, I'm thinking we might be dealing with the terrible threes instead. Nathan really seems to be testing his boundaries, especially when it comes to how he relates to other children. He often pushes Hannah or takes toys from her, and tries to do the same when playing with kids from other families. It is so tiring to referee this all the time and very frustrating, since when I ask him what he was doing wrong he can describe it to me perfectly! I keep hoping that if we are consistent with his discipline that he will eventually stop these behaviours.

I never tire of Nathan's hugs or his need to 'cuddle' on the couch. I very much wonder if physical touch isn't his primary love language. He has always been cuddly and when he plays with other kids he always wants to be very close to them ... something we are working on. Something to watch for as he grows ...

Nathan has grown up so much in the last year - I can't imagine what he will be like by the time 4 rolls around!

Bath time fun

A few months ago I started bathing Nathan and Hannah together most of the time. I never thought I would do it but I tried it when we were staying in the hotel and they had such a good time I couldn't help it. Bath time is now in the mornings with our new schedule, and although we don't get to it every day (sometimes the kids sleep in and we skip that part to get back on track) they love having their baths together.

They don't, however, love having their hair washed. *sigh* Nathan used to be fine laying back in the water, and as you can see from the picture above, he doesn't mind laying on his tummy on his own terms, but laying on their backs causes both of them to tense up. And heaven forbid I get water in their eyes! I would like to use the handheld shower sprayer as I find trying to get the soap out with just a cup takes forever. It is a 30 second job to wash their hair with the nozzle, but both of them flip out when I turn it on. I think I'll keep working at it, though. It will be worth it in the end!

I think both kids would stay in the tub forever if I let them. I just realized the other day that it's a great source of sibling play time. At the moment if I put them in a room together to play, they end up each taking a separate toy and playing with it, but in the tub they splash and play together. It's so much fun to see them having fun together.

Weekly Round-up

This was another good week for our family. We continued to use our schedule, although admittedly I was not as strict with it this week.

Nathan
Nathan continued with his tracing book this week. He still loves it and is getting into more and more complicated lines. He seems to be less enamoured with puzzles lately, although we did wake up to him having finished one while we slept this morning.

His potty training took one step forward and one step back this week. He started on Wednesday telling me when he would have to pee. This saves countless trips to the bathroom every day! I still make sure he sits before his independent play time, before rest time, before bed, and before we leave the house, but other than that he tells me if he has to go. The step backward is that he will not poop on the potty anymore. He pretty much only goes in his diaper first thing in the morning. I think the best solution for that will be to switch to underwear at night. He generally wakes up dry in the morning so I think he's ready for it ... I'm just not sure I am! I think we'll wait about a week and then start with that.

Nathan sleeps during about half his rest times at the moment. I really thought he was done with naps, but I'm glad I was wrong. This week he ripped up a book during one of his rest times ... as a result all books have been removed from his room for the time being.

Hannah
Hannah completely weaned herself from the bottle this week. She is now drinking a full straw cup of milk at lunch and one at supper, so she is getting enough milk. She still has her soother and likely will for a while. She seems to rely on it quite a bit.

Now that her night sleep is back to normal, I tried her in cloth diapers at night. I had tried about a month ago, but it was in the middle of her teething / ear infection / flu bit and I couldn't be sure if she was waking from one of those things or from the diaper. So far so good with the diapers at night. I'm so excited to be using all cloth except for when we travel!

I've mentioned before that Hannah did not enjoy standing ... at all. She seems to have changed her mind this week. On Friday she just decided that she was going to start wanting to stand and will even try to walk if I hold her hands. I am so excited about this development and will probably focus lots of energy helping her learn to walk independently!

We tried sitting Hannah on a toy car she got for her birthday yesterday and to our surprise, this is what happened!



She loved pushing herself around and chasing Nathan on the car. So much fun.

Peter hired a babysitter and we went out to dinner and movie Friday night. We hadn't gone out without the kids since February, so it was very nice to have some couple time! We saw The Bounty Hunter, and it was actually much better than I expected. The theatre here in our small town is brand-new and it's so cheap compared to going in the city - it cost us $25 for two tickets, a large popcorn, and two pops!

Goals
My housekeeping skills have been pretty good for the last month. For some reason I've been able to keep the house presentable pretty much all the time. I'm not sure what the difference has been but I hope it sticks around! One thing that wasn't working is the cleaning schedule I outlined here. I tried to think about why it wasn't working and I think it's because I had to be all over the house every day for my cleaning. With the kids it's nice to be able to focus on one area so the kids can stay in one spot while I work. So, I decided to make up my own schedule that has me focus on one (or sometimes a few) room(s) per day. Once I see how well it work I'll post what I'm doing :) I did manage to follow the schedule for Thursday and Friday, though, and it seemed good.

As far as the money goal goes, we spent little except for a deal we got yesterday (post to follow in a few days). Since it will save money in the long run I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm going to work with Hannah on her walking for this week.

Happy Mother's Day!

Nathan and his puzzles

Sometime this fall Nathan became enamoured with puzzles. He had received a few of the wooden ones with the pieces that are cut out and fit into the holes as gifts for his first birthday, and then for his second birthday he got a round floor puzzle and a wooden Cars puzzle, both with inter-locking pieces.

Both the floor puzzle and the Cars puzzle have about 12 pieces and he became proficient at each of them. A few weeks ago Peter bought him a 46-piece Thomas floor puzzle. He did really well with it his first attempt, although it requires him to stay on task for much longer than he has for previous puzzles. The section of tracks initially gave him a bit of trouble but now he can pretty much do it all on his own. Here he is after a successful completion ...


As a math-lover myself, I love to see him so involved in a puzzle and to see how he works through the placement of the pieces. Thankfully he talks to himself non-stop while he works so I get lots of insight into his thought processes :) Interestingly, I have noticed that his natural approach to puzzles is not the way adults would do it (or at least how I would do it). When faced with a jigsaw puzzle I first turn over all the pieces, then find the corners, then the edge pieces, etc ... He looks at the pieces until he finds something he recognizes - usually a face or main piece of one of the trains - and then looks for other pieces that go near that one. He's starting to recognize what corner an edge pieces are, but it has taken a him a long time to figure out that they are different from the centre ones. Maybe eventually he'll start using that information to help him solve the puzzles.

I think the 46 piece puzzle is about the right level of challenge for him right now. It is difficult for him, but not enough to be frustrating. It will be fun to see how his logic changes as he is able to do puzzles with more and more pieces.

Beginning a vegetable garden

Between all the work of building our last house and getting some grass in, I did not have a chance to plant a vegetable garden, although I always wanted to. Now that we've moved to a house that is basically finished, although renovations are in progress I decided that this is the year to give it a shot.

After googling tons, talking to a few local people who have grown successful gardens, soliciting tips on facebook, and chatting with my Mom to clear up a few things that had me confused, I finally got to get my hands dirty today (March 22nd). Yes, it is still way, way too early to be thinking about planting outside here in Saskatchewan, but today Nathan and I planted peppers and tomatoes in peat pots. I also want to start a small indoor herb garden (it is impossible to find fresh chives anywhere within a hundred miles of here!), so we also planted rosemary, parsley, and chives. I haven't had much luck with plants in the past so hopefully I can be more diligent with these.

Nathan helped me with the planting. He had a blast!

I have figured out what I want to plant in the garden (other than tomatoes and peppers) and have planned the layout. The plot I plan to use is 5 1/2' x 30' so I will put an aisle down the middle and have a 2' wide row on each side of it. There seems to be about 4" of good soil in the bed already but the soil under that is really hard so I will be building it up (How much?? Any ideas?? I was thinking if I had 12" - 15" it might be good)

The part of gardening I find most confusing is how to improve the soil before planting, so I am very open to suggestions. A local gardener here said to use equal parts of peat moss and (composted) manure ... and I think for the size of the garden I need just under 15 cubic feet of each. Does that sound right to anyone who's gardened in the past??

I'm sure there will be many more posts on this topic in the future. Here's a picture of our little greenhouse.

Nathan - 25 months

I would like to keep monthly updates of Nathan (and future kids) after they hit a point where each week there is not enough to update :) Since Nathan is obviously past that point (although his learning capacity at the moment is staggering!) we'll start with monthly updates now.

Skills Learned
Nathan learned how to open doors (with doorknobs that turn) this month. He's only done it once so far, though!
He has started to hold a crayon / marker more correctly this month. I have been helping him hold one and trace letters during our structured one-on-one time in the mornings.

Interesting Vocabulary / Speech Patterns
'Okay' (said slowly, emphatically, and with a pause between the 'O' and the 'kay') was a fun word that Nathan learned this month.
I also love when he says 'Hannah happy.' It makes me happy :) Just the inflection in his voice.
He learned the word 'splash' on our first day at the lake this month ... while throwing rocks into the water.
He also has learned how to say 'Yep, Mama' this month and knows what it means.

Training / Correction
We were working on Nathan doing what we instruct him to do this month. I really started working on this about 10 days ago. He's always been fairly obedient but, like a normal toddler, often ignores us when he wants to do something different than what we tell him to. I was tired of repeating myself a million times so decided to require a 'yes, mommy' from him when I tell him to do something.

He has mastered how to say the phrase 'yep, mama' and will say it about half the time when prompted. He was really good at saying it the first few days but then he started to understand what it meant. Now if he doesn't want to do something he'll resist saying it.

Eating
Nathan tried raw vegetables for the first time this month! For a long time I only gave him cooked vegetables because of choking hazards, and when I started trying to introduce raw ones he stuck his nose up at them. I've been consistent in offering them whenever we have them (which is very often in the summer!) and he finally ate some lettuce and peppers this week. We found out carrots are still too hard for his teeth, so I'll grate those next time.

Nathan also started eating both apples (without peeling / slicing them first) and corn on the cob this month! He *loves* corn on the cob and will eat 2 ears whenever we have it.

Potty Training
We haven't officially started training Nathan yet. This month I bought Potty Training 1-2-3 by Gary Ezzo and bought Nathan some training pants and regular underwear. Nathan used the potty twice. We plan to start really training (but still casually - we're not going to try the intensive 1 day plan) within the next month.

Miscellaneous
Nathan and Peter went to see Bob the Builder in a play / musical this month. He really enjoyed it and it was nice for he and Peter to get to experience that together. Here is a picture of his face while he watched.


And him hugging the kitty:

Progress?

I realized as I was running the other night that I'm up to running for a total of 15 minutes! Wow - how did that happen? It's still in 3-minutes spurts, but it's progress. I'm still at 3.5 mph for the walking portion and 6 mph for the running. I also leave the treadmill on an incline of 1 just because I remember reading once that it better simulates being outside. This week I walk for 2 minutes, run for 3, and repeat it 5 times.

I had been getting quite discouraged because, until a few days ago, I was still up a pound from what I had lost that first week. However, about 2 days ago I hit that weight again, and this morning I was down another pound - yay! I now have 9 / 14 / 19 pounds left to lose depending on which goal I'm looking at :) It's nice to be in single digits for my first goal!

Nathan finally started saying 'yep, mama,' which is close enough for me! I was playing with him this morning getting him to repeat what I said, and I slipped in 'yep' then 'mama' as the next word, and then we did the two words together. I really find sometimes he doesn't seem to know how to do two words in a row if he doesn't do them separately first. So far I'm not sure he understands the implications of saying it back to me after an instruction, but we'll keep working on that.

We have a house showing tonight, so this morning has been busy with cleaning. Thankfully the upstairs is all done and the downstairs just needs a bit of tidying up and a good sweep. It will be nice to have a really clean and tidy house for the weekend!

Ooo ... I keep forgetting to mention that this month now has 11 posts ... my previous maximum for any single month was 9! I've already passed the total number of posts for 2008 - very sad.

Overwhelmed ... plus some 'to dos'

I ordered 4 new books the other day. This is unusual for me in that I hardly ever buy books. I tend to borrow from the library or friends instead (Peter calls me a book-moocher). Anyway, having used my Babywise book until it is showing signs of wear I figured ordering a few more from the series might be helpful. I ordered Babywise II (5 - 12 months), Toddlerwise (1 - 2 years), Childwise (3 - 7 years), and Potty Training 1-2-3. They arrived on Tuesday and I have skimmed through all of them. As a result I am on information overload!!

My first impression is that Nathan is kind of in 'no man's land' with the -wise series. The Toddlerwise book really focuses on 12 - 24 months, while most of the stuff in Childwise focuses on after the child can understand moral reasoning, which they say starts around their third birthday. I'm a little disappointed none of the books deal specifically with the age 2 - 3 (perhaps Preschoolwise would?) but there are enough things in Toddlerwise that I'd like to try and do that I'm sure we'll have lots to work on, in addition to preparing myself mentally for the work that will be required when I get to Childwise stuff.

The two things that stuck out that I'd like to work on right away are: 'yes, mommy' and hand folding. 'Yes, mommy' means that when I instruct Nathan to do something (eye contact is important here) that he will reply with that answer and then go and do what I've instructed. I'm trying really hard to use the word 'instructed' instead of 'asked' since I tend to end my instructions with '... okay?' Although Nathan's response lately has been and emphatic 'Okay' (a new word for him), I don't want him to ever think that what I'm telling him to do is optional. I'm working hard to instructing rather than asking. I started yesterday trying to get him to respond with 'yes, mommy' but I'm not having much luck at the moment. He will usually do what I tell him to but has not yet said 'yes, mommy.' He will often say 'please' since I think that's what he thinks he's supposed to say. We'll keep working on it ... any tips are welcome!

The second thing I want to work on is when Nathan is starting to lose control. The books say that at those moments I should tell him to fold his hands to get back some self-control. I was very skeptical of this ... it sounds a bit ridiculous! Having read some success stories and figuring there was nothing to lose I tried it at lunch today. Nathan had decided not to eat (natural consequences coming up when he gets up from his nap and is hungry I'm sure) but he was required to stay at the table while I finished. He started getting upset and repeating 'down, down ... ' over and over. I showed him how to fold his hands and told him to do that to get back his self-control. To my amazement, as soon as his hands were folded he calmed down and sat there smiling sweetly at me until I finished (in just a couple of minutes)! I really hope it wasn't a fluke!

Those are the two ideas that stuck out from Toddlerwise that I wanted to implement immediately. I'm sure there will be more when I re-read it more carefully. There is so much in the books that I want to make sure to do (the content is great while the editing is *terrible* - worst books I've ever read for grammar mistakes!!) that I definitely have to read them several times.

One more note on Nathan ... remember me mentioning in another post, just a short week ago, that Nathan hadn't figured out how to open doors yet? Well, I think I jinxed myself. He figured it out today. So far he did well and went right to sleep at nap time ... we'll see if additional training is needed in when it is appropriate for him to open his door and when it's not.

First day at the cottage

We spent our first day at the cottage for the this year (first of many for me and the kids - I'm hoping to spend lots and lots of time there this summer) today and we couldn't have asked for better weather! It felt like a day in mid-summer. That made it very hard to leave at the end of the day, but we enjoyed the time we did get to spend there. The guys spent the morning getting things put back together after the high waters of winter and the afternoon playing with the sea-doo that Mom and Dad bought last year. Even Nathan got his turn.


There were quite a few boats out today considering the time of year. Every time one would go by Nathan would point and say 'boat.' Can't you almost see the 'b' sound on his lips in this picture?

He wasn't as fond of the waves the boats made, though.

When he wasn't pointing out boats in the water, Nathan was picking up rocks from the beach and throwing them into the water. Each time one landed he would say 'splash.' It was too cute. The bigger the rock the better he liked it!


We are back home now after a wonderful day with family. I'm a bit sunburned but thankfully the kids are good. Nathan was so wired from the day that he didn't even fall asleep on the way home. Hannah basically didn't sleep while we were there so she's due for a good sleep tonight.

On the way to the cottage Peter and I had a good discussion about what's important to us as parents regarding faith, education, and physical health (the idea to talk these things through came from here). I don't want to do 'accidental' or reactive parenting, so I'm really excited to have some steps to take to reach specific goals. Now for the implementation :)

This and that

I don't really have a theme for this post, just a few random things I wanted to remember for the future.

Nathan is at such a fun age (really, they've all been fun except perhaps the first three months). He's getting to the point where he can 'help' me with cooking and cleaning things, which is great as it means he's not upset if I'm doing that stuff instead of playing with him. As you saw in a previous post he helped make chocolate chip cookies last week (we've been making a lot of chocolate chip cookies for house showings!) and this week he helped make pizza. I gave him the leftover pizza dough and he patted it out before his nap. We put it on a pan to let it finish rising while he napped. When he got up he spread the sauce on the crust and we put it in the oven for 7 minutes (I always start cooking my crusts before I load them up with toppings). Then while I put the toppings on the two big pizzas he was supposed to put them on his ... but he decided he would rather eat the toppings instead so I had to help him. It was so fun to watch him get excited about making his own supper! I'm excited to do this more often with him as he grows. I figure I'm doing his future wife a favour if I get him familiar with the kitchen now ;) Hmmm ... what's next ... laundry? lol.

Well, despite my excitement over losing 2 lbs and despite my continued efforts on the treadmill I have managed to gain back a pound this week. *sigh* I keep reminding myself that in the past it has taken a month to see any real results from a workout plan, but it's still discouraging. I started week 4 of the walk-to-jog plan yesterday, where I have to walk 3 minutes, then jog 3 minutes and repeat that 4 times. I've been walking at 3.5 mph and jogging at 6 mph (for my own records later). I find each workout very challenging but it's amazing that I haven't quit on any of them yet. Yay!

School is continuing on. Next week marks the halfway point of the course. I finished up one of my four assignments this week. Our major assignment is a group project that we've been working on fairly steadily. I'm really hoping things will start to come together on it over the next week. I don't want to be worrying too much about it after Peter leaves.

Hannah has been doing great sleeping overnight this week! She slept until her wake-up time two out of the last three nights and the other night she slept until 5:30, so still a fair amount of time from her 10 pm feed. Hopefully I don't jinx it by mentioning it here!

Dunkaroos for breakfast

Why did Nathan have Dunkaroos for breakfast? (For the uninitiated, Dunkaroos are little snack containers with cookies in one compartment and icing in which to dip the cookies in a second compartment.) This is not normal breakfast fare at our house but this morning was special - Nathan used the potty for the first time ever!

We've been slowly easing into the idea of potty training since we know we have a big move coming up and it's not the best time to go at it hard core. We typically just get him to sit on the potty when we think of it and don't stress about it too much. He loves to sit on the potty when he's fully clothed ... not so much when his diaper is off.

This morning when I got him up I could tell he needed to pee (his diaper was almost dry) so I told him if he would sit on the potty I would read him his favourite book of all time, The Topsy Turvy Kingdom. It is a long book so I hoped while we were reading it he would just go, and he did! It was so funny because he looked down with a puzzled look just before he went.

This is uncharted territory for us. Should be interesting! I'm still not going to stress about it until we're settled at Mom and Dad's, but at least now he knows what he's supposed to do on the potty!

Current schedule

I've spent some time over the last month or so trying to find a schedule that works for our family. During the first month of Hannah's life I found that I was too often neglecting Nathan during the day, so much that he would get bored eventually and start getting into stuff he knows he is not allowed to play with. He's such an 'easy' toddler and is great a amusing himself but he still has limits on how long I can let him play by himself. I began reading a blog that talked quite a bit about what categories of activities a toddler should have in his day and started to think about how to make it work for me.

The constant in our day is that Nathan naps somewhere between 12:30 and 3:30 for 2 hours. I also knew I needed Hannah to be on a 3-hour schedule and that I wanted some one-on-one time with each of them throughout the day. A new thing I added to Nathan's schedule is called 'independent play time.' This is a time for him to play on his own in his room. It will help him learn to play without me always interfering and fixing things for him when he gets stuck. The first day or two of this were tough, as Nathan would cry when I would shut the door and periodically pull at his door handle (as an aside - thank goodness he hasn't figured out how to open doors yet!). This only lasted for about 2 days, though, and now as long as he has his favourite toys (his cars and little garage) in his room he smiles as I leave. Yippee! He does independent play for 90 minutes most mornings.

Here is our current schedule, but it is always subject to change!

7:00 am --> Up and feed Hannah, Nathan up and dressed, breakfast for Nathan and I. Hannah goes down for her nap somewhere between 7:45 and 8:00 am.
9:30 am --> One-on-one time with Nathan.
10:00 am --> Independent play time for Nathan in his room. Get Hannah up to eat. Tummy time for her.
11:00 am --> Nap for Hannah.
11:30 am --> Independent play time ends for Nathan. We usually do some laundry right after this since we're already upstairs.
12:00 pm --> Lunch for Nathan and I.
1:00 pm --> Nathan goes down for his nap. Hannah up to eat.
1:30 pm --> One-on-one time with Hannah.
2:00 pm --> Hannah down for a nap. This is my own free time :)
3:00 pm --> Nathan up from his nap. If he's really tired I'll let him sleep a bit longer.
4:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat. Independent play time for her (usually either in pack and play or on activity mat). She goes down for her nap around 5:00 pm.
4:30 pm --> Supper preparation, supper, clean up.
6:30 pm --> Nathan bath and jammies.
7:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat, then bath.
8:00 pm --> Both kids in bed. Sigh of relief :) haha.
10:00 pm --> Dreamfeed (wake Hannah to eat, diaper change, and straight back to bed).

I had to make this schedule so I can do it by myself, since Peter is heading away in less than three weeks. Otherwise I would have put both baths at the same time and we would have done them together.

My original schedule had their naps / independent play time overlapping much more so that I had 3 1/2 hours where they were simultaneously occupied every day. However, I felt that I wasn't getting enough one-on-one time with either of them when I did that, so I like this schedule better.

I just ordered Babywise II, Toddlerwise, Childwise, and a potty training book by Gary Ezzo so when they come I'm planning to start adding in other elements to Nathan's day. I've read a few of them on the blog I mentioned above but wanted to get a basic schedule down first.

And ... starting to potty training with Nathan after we move. Fun, fun! At least I can do it in the summer where fewer clothes need to be removed. lol. I'm sure there will be many posts dedicated to this effort in the coming months. If anyone has any tips I would be grateful to hear them.

Making cookies

So much has happened since my last update ... but I don't feel like recapping it all right now. I'll just mention a few of the major things then move on to what I wanted to write about today :) First, we had a little girl on April 1st (yes, I know, April Fool's baby, but I couldn't 'hold out' that extra hour as Peter requested when it was time to push. lol). Her name is Hannah Grace and I can't believe she's almost 2 months old already!

Second, Peter has accepted a new job that will require him to go away for training for 6 months (he leaves at the end of June). This means we will be selling our house (as we will be relocating at the end of that time) so I'm going to go home to live with my parents for those 6 months. As well, I have officially quit my job since we won't be here when my maternity leave is up, and I am working hard to finish my Bachelor of Education courses by the end of the fall. More details on all that stuff in future posts :)

This morning Nathan (he's 2 now!! eeks!) and I made chocolate chip cookies. It was my first time having him 'help' with cooking and it was so fun. Actually I did try one other time but it was a disaster - he fell off the chair he was standing on!

Here is my favourite picture from this morning. He has just noticed the chocolate chips in the dough he is supposed to be stirring and is on his way to pick one up and eat it. Too cute!


Of course, the best part of making cookies is ...


... eating them!

Two weeks old

Wow, how time flies! Today was Peter's first day back to work since Nathan's been born. It was so nice being home as a family for the past couple of weeks and this was our first taste of getting back to the 'real world.' It went well, but it was nice to see Peter after work.

I don't really have much to report. Nathan's growing before our eyes and I'm trying hard to savour every moment. Here are a few more pictures, since I know that's what everyone really wants to see ;)

Oh yeah, this picture was taken during Nathan's first week.


When we went back to the hospital for his 3-day checkup he was more jaundiced than they like to see, so he had to sleep in this special bed at home for a few days.


Dressed for his first Sunday at church ;)

For all my stitching friends - I haven't even had mine out in the last two weeks. I've been too busy admiring my sweet little boy!

There are lots more pictures on my flickr account (link on the right-hand side).