CO's Journal

It'll cost you...

2012-01-17T19:56:00.004-06:00

I frequently make Corin "pay" for things in kisses. He asks for favors and they are granted for the price of a kiss or hug.

He took a nap this afternoon. We knew this meant bedtime would be rough. Sure enough, he's been awake and sneaking down to see what we are up to downstairs. I went up to ask him to stay in bed. He agreed.

He asked for a glass of water. I suggested he go get one. Giggling he says, "But you just told me to stay in bed." I acknowledged my mistake, told him I would get him one. He says, "And will it cost a kiss?" I had to giggle as I agreed. I got my kiss. He got his water.

When he was done, I took the glass and told him goodnight. He asked me to put the glass away and come back. When I went back, I told him I was going downstairs. He caught my shirt. "It will cost you a hug and kiss to get downstairs." Laughing, I gave him a hug and kiss. With his arms still around my neck, he said it would cost another hug and kiss. This went on for 5 or 6 hugs and kisses until both of us were laughing.

I finally got away, but I must confess, I wasn't trying that hard at that point. I love that kid and his sense of humor.

Shoes

2011-11-28T11:31:00.001-06:00

Today, he tied his shoes for school with absolutely no assistance from me. Fortunately, he thinks his Chucks are harder and said I could still help him with those. *whew* Guess that keeps me from being totally obsolete.

This has been a long road for him. He has a hard time working through something that he doesn't "get" the first time through. That made the many week process of shoe tying a very long and frustrating experience. He's got it now, though.

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Legos

2011-09-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

Corin and Legos is like Ryanne with books. Both are far beyond their age levels, ability wise.

Corin has had a few sets for 4 & 5 year olds. He typically finishes them under an hour. He's currently working on one that's 7+ and it's taken him 1.5 hours with probably another 30 minutes to go and has been a totally independent process. The 9+ set he worked on took him a couple of days, but he also made some substantial errors. (Fixed by mom and dad, but they did keep him from progressing and required some maneuvering by us to fix.)

I haven't been able to figure out if it's sheer number of pieces that makes it take longer or if it's actual building difficulty. Pieces definitely makes for a longer process, but there's some correlation by Lego to piece counts and age range as well and I don't totally understand that.

Books are easy. Raw page limits are the answer for now. This Lego thing is going to take some work.

Sir talks a lot

2011-08-25T18:16:00.001-05:00

Corin talks. A lot. Nearly incessantly. The bonus of being in the car with him is that there have been some real gems.

He keeps asking where Chrys has stashed the cats' "glitter" box. Chrys says that does make him feel a bit better about changing it.

Tonight at dinner he was observing the healing progress of his road rash.
"Some of it has turned to skin. You guys are a genius."

Good to know that our son has observed what our friends noticed many years ago. We share one brain. Guess some things never change.

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Religion

2011-08-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

Corin has gone to a mother's day out that is housed by a church for 3 years. While not heavily religion based, they do have a weekly bible lesson and there is always one song in their programs about g-d or jesus or something. I don't fight it. I think it's good for them to be exposed to those things. I firmly believed he was too young to really get caught up in it so I wasn't worried.

One day, Ryanne was in the back seat pretending to be a zombie. Her intent was to scare her brother. Unfortunately, he had no idea what a zombie was. He asked me.

I explained that it was someone who died and then came back from the dead.

"Ooooohhhhhh, like Jesus. They told me about that at school."

Yes, son, Jesus was a zombie.

Picking a family

2011-06-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

Corin was telling me tonight that when he was a baby, he decided that I should be his mom and he would be my kid. He said he really liked me and wanted to be in my family. I asked him if he really liked daddy and Ryanne, too.

Apparently, it was just me. He did concede that they are ok to be stuck with, though.

Two wheels != No brakes

2011-04-08T07:22:00.001-05:00

I have been growing increasingly frustrated with taking Corin to soccer on his bike. He is painfully slow. Tarl inflated his tires and that got better, but really he was starting to get careless with training wheels and was going to end up hurting himself.

So...Corin has learned how to ride pretty well without his training wheels. He spent a weekend playing with Ryanne's 12" bike and was getting pretty stable, but couldn't start unless he got a rolling start from the top of the driveway.

Tarl took him riding and the bike fell over, but he managed to get free.
"Very good, son. That's called ditching. Can you say ditching?"
"Bitchin'"

We put him back on his little bike and he learned to stop and start without falling over. He seemed to have a handle on it.

We took him to soccer. The way home has a large hill to get to the tunnel that goes under a busy street. He's done it dozens of times, knows how to slow down, etc.

Apparently two wheels means he doesn't have to slow down anymore. He slammed into the wall. He bruised his face from forehead to chin. He bruised other things I can't post to the interwebs. He was a mess.

Good news is that he got back on the bike after a few minutes and rode home. He insists on walking down that hill now. That's my cautious little guy.

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Spelling

2011-03-06T21:35:00.001-06:00

Gamma Ree has gotten the kids balsa wood airplanes. Corin was playing with his when I picked him up on Friday. As Gamma went to take it, he directed her to write his name on it so Ryanne wouldn't use it.

"It's C-o-r-i-n. Don't forget."

Sibling brutality

2011-02-20T08:34:00.001-06:00

From Chrys:
"We were playing Star Wars...and I had the light saber"

And that's when she hit him in the face with the snow shovel.

There was some blood. Dr. Aunt MK says it's not broken. Still looks a little sore.

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S-top

2010-12-07T22:21:00.000-06:00

Today he was telling me how T-O-P spells top. "Tuh ah puh. Top."

I asked what sound s made.

"Ssssssss"

I asked what S-T-O-P spelled.

He pondered it for a minute. "Ssss top. STOP! It spells stop."

Then we got to a stop sign. He went ballistic. "S-T-O-P spells stop. That says stop. Stop, mama!"

Yeah. He's awesome.

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Grateful Heart

2010-12-07T22:02:00.000-06:00

I have been participating in the 30 days of a grateful heart challenge posed by the wonderful, Jote. Today is day 7.

Today, the gratitude is for my little man. He is so laid back and patient. We spent most of the day at Ryanne's school or in a meeting and he never once complained. He kept himself entertained, off in a corner. He came to me for hugs and lovin' when he needed it. When I missed him, I needed only say his name and he was there beside me with a huge grin on his face. Most people didn't even realize he was there.

It blows my mind how relaxed he can be, how self-sufficient. I love knowing that if I need to go someplace, he can usually go with me and I can get done what I need to get done. One of the other moms calls him her super volunteer. He is helpful when we allow him to be and loves to be allowed.

We have been at the holiday shoppe where all of the other siblings that have come in have wandered around and messed with stuff and asked to buy things yet he sits quietly and plays.

Toe trimming

2010-12-04T09:27:00.001-06:00

Trying to get rid of the talons, but he doesn't want to sit up for it.

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Spelling

2010-11-23T18:51:00.000-06:00

Pretty much everyone has been working with Corin on letters and sounds, etc. Today, Chrys taught him how to spell "TOP" and I was working with him on the sounds.

We also talked about "UP".

Chrys: What does "u" say?
Corin: Oooo.
Chrys: It also says "uh".
Corin: uuuhhhhhh
Chrys: What does "p" say?
Corin: puh
Chrys: Say them to together. Uh Puh
Corin: Uh puh
Chrys: What does that spell?
Corin: Uh puh. Uh puh. Octopus!

I spy

2010-11-19T17:23:00.000-06:00

I taught the kids to play I Spy when they were bored in the car one day. It's been a great source of entertainment.

Tonight Corin was by himself as we head to dinner.

"I can I Spy my nose," he says with his eyes crossed. (To my knowledge the first time he's done that.)
"When I I Spy my nose, I can see two yous."
"My eyes really hurt when I I Spy my nose."

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Independence

2010-11-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

My little man is clingy. Not bad clingy. Just not confident alone yet.

Today I was going to the bathroom at Kenny's. We go there often enough that he's comfortable and knows the people. He still usually comes with me. This time he opted to stay at the table.

I asked him if he knew where I would be. His response...I am watching you fingers.

This kid slays me.

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How soccer camp made me a better parent

2010-07-26T10:00:00.005-05:00

We all have those moments when our kids, our normally fiercely independent kids, cling to us when we try to leave. Corin seems to do this the first day at any new place. I have long been of the camp that you dump them into the arms of the new caregiver and run. It was easier for them because it was quick, the proverbial ripped off bandage. Then the pressure is on the new caregiver to console them and reassure them that it was only temporary. I have always had faith in the caregivers that I've left him with to work with him to get him settled. Having been one of those caregivers with other people's children, I have found it relatively easy to console the kids that were left in that manner. Today didn't work that way.

Apparently soccer players aren't naturally nurturing. They stood and watched as my child cried and ran for me. Instinct was to take away things. "Alright...you don't stay, we don't get your cleats you want so much." I mean, why does he need cleats if he's not at soccer camp? Right, because he'll need them for soccer practice in another month. Oh well, we'll deal with that later. "Ok, you can't have the jerseys, ball, shorts, socks, bag, they gave you. They have to stay here. They're only for campers." Yeah, we paid for them...they're ours. There are no refunds for soccer camp, even if your kid has a melt down and quits the first day. Worse yet, his meltdown is upsetting his sister and she's clinging and crying.

That made me stop. She's empathizing with him and I'm trying to get away. It made me reconsider my tactics. The goal is to get him to stay. To have him be confident. To get him engaged enough to stop.whining. I felt the frustration creeping back.

Wait. Why is he whining? He's scared. He's nervous. He's the youngest one there, and I'm pretty sure he knows it. Everyone's calling him "little guy". That's got to suck for someone on the brink of 4 that wants nothing more than to be a "big kid".

I got down and gave him a big hug. I told him it was scary to be the little one in a new place. I reminded him how much fun he had at yoga camp once he started playing. We talked about how he didn't have to participate in any 'performances' that he didn't want to do. He didn't have to introduce himself to the group in the circle.

Finally, they started kicking the ball around. Goals. He could do those. I told him I would sit on the bench and watch him kick goals. He did. He was smiling, running around, discussing things with the coaches.

I sat through freeze tag. He came over angry because someone tagged him. We talked about how the game is played. We talked about how that let them kick the ball through his legs to unfreeze him. We got through another water break and he went back to the game without stopping by to talk to me.

Now, I ran. Not quickly, but I didn't make a big deal about my leaving. He was engaged and I didn't want to draw attention to the change. I walked to my car. Ryanne screamed at me from across the field, asking what I thought I was doing and I frantically waved hoping she wouldn't get his attention. I got to the top of the hill before the next water break. I saw him notice that I was gone and I hid behind the tree and watched, bracing myself for the frantic meltdown. Instead, he got his water bottle, drank, and then went back to playing. He saw me crossing the street to my car and, again, I braced myself.

Then he smiled and waved goodbye. GOAL!

On anatomy

2010-04-25T08:37:00.001-05:00

Chrys: Please be gentle with mommy. She's fragile.
Corin: Mommy is made of meat. She's not fragile.

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Clean

2010-03-10T19:33:00.001-06:00

Ryanne and I were cleaning her room today. Corin got bored watching us.

He said he was going to clean his room. Ok.

He came back 20 minutes later and said he was done. I didn't expect much.

Turns out I need to raise my expectations. That photo above. He did all of that. By himself.

Those bins. They're actually pretty organized. Cars. Planes. Little animals.

Whose kid is this?

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Miscommunication

2010-02-01T15:51:00.003-06:00

I took the cats to the vet today. Corin helped me load them up.

On the way to school, he was talking about Preta and how she died. He understood that I was taking them to the vet.

On the way home, he asked about the cats. I told him they were at home.

"Are they alive?"

I could do nothing other that sit in silence. Finally, I managed to say, "Yes. Why?"

He went on about Preta going to the vet and being dead and that I took the cats to the vet. I was flabbergasted.

Once we got home, he got really excited every time he saw a cat. He keeps telling Ryanne that all of the cats are alive.

I really think he thought I was going to have all of our cats euthanized today. I don't know if that's more disturbing or the fact that he didn't seem terribly upset by it.

Tracing

2010-01-22T20:09:00.001-06:00

I realized a few days ago that I hadn't been working with Corin on letters or anything the way that I did with Ryanne. Such is the plight of the second child, I guess. He's been taking an interest in seeing his name written and 'reading' things so I decided to have him trace his letters.

We did the C together. With the O, I gave him the instructions to trace between the little lines...he did that, but not in the way I intended. We corrected with the R and he did the last two by himself. I'm impressed.

I guess I'm not too far off since they started having him trace "f" in his Friday school today. Hooray for instinct.

Engineer at heart

2010-01-10T17:02:00.001-06:00

Corin has a milkshake. He's been drinking on it for some time. He's gotten to the bottom of one section and has been sucking air for some time. We keep suggesting he move the straw.

"But the cup is too big"

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Sweet tooth

2010-01-09T23:33:00.001-06:00

The boy has a crazy sweet tooth. He's always after cookies or ice cream or something. Thankfully he'll take applesauce in their place most days.

Today we were unloading all the girl scout cookies from my car. He walks in and stares at the boxes of Peanut Butter Sandwiches. "Are all of the orange ones for me?"

Uh...no, sweetie.

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Favorite things...

2009-11-14T10:55:00.002-06:00

Corin has always loved stuffed animals, but hasn't shown any interest in attaching to any one in particular. Until MewShoo. We've had this cat for some time, but he never really showed much interest. Now, though, "she" is his beloved cat. She has personality, likes, dislikes, activities. Usually she lives in his bed and waits for him to come to sleep. Today, she ventured out with him. They have been playing together all morning, after he showed me how she stretched and made a tunnel with her body.

He is also obsessed with the color orange. We had a long discussion when we were going to ride Thomas about painting Thomas orange. I didn't think that was possible. He thought it was mandatory. While there, we stumbled across Murdoch, who happens to already be orange. Voila! a new favorite was born.

Dinosaurs are very, very cool. We'll see how he feels after we see them up close and HUGE at the Walk with the Dinosaurs show next weekend. Right now, he wants to watch Dinosaur Train on PBS whenever we're home at 9:30. It's not too bad, but I don't think it should have replaced Reading Rainbow. :)

Legos...he and MewShoo are building Lego buildings for her to play and live in.

He's always building something, whether it's a huge train train track so that every train can drive on it or a huge Lego building to house another toy (or train). That's my boy.

Little artiste...

2009-11-05T08:57:00.002-06:00

I seem to have gotten my little artist in Corin. He was, I thought, eating breakfast. Then, I hear him washing his hands lamenting that it's stuck. I wonder what's stuck. I go in to find his hands COVERED in bright red marker. Few spots on his face such that it looks like he was beaten.

I ask what he's been up to. He says he made his chair beautiful.

Oh yes...he did.

With Sharpies...

That photo of him...after I'd washed off what I could.

Thomas

2009-10-09T23:39:00.002-05:00

Corin is in some serious love with trains. Thomas is in Burnet this weekend (about 1 hour away). We pulled RC out of school a bit early and drove up there to ride.

All day today...
C: "Mommy is Thomas orange?"
M: "No. You know what color Thomas is. What color is he?"
C: "Blue. Are they painting him orange?"
M: "Doubtful. Thomas is supposed to be blue."
C: "Orange is my favorite. Thomas should be orange. I want them to paint him orange."

The drive was pretty funny. We were riding along pointing out the cows, goats, emus (NOT emos...), horses. The kids were "moooo"ing at the cows. Chrys pointed out some flowers and Corin starts screaming "Aaaaaahhhhhh". We were confused. Then Ryanne said, "Cows eat flowers," and Corin started screaming again. We agreed that was the noise we would make were we being eaten...

Once there, we stopped by the gift shop. Corin really wanted Spencer, but they didn't have any. After the potty, they had put out more Spencer that "goes by his-self" and we got that for him. Then, we had to see Thomas so we knew we were boarding the right train. We took the quick ride out and back. Corin talked about Thomas. He lamented Thomas' blue-ness. It was time for pictures and he wanted nothing to do with it. I have no idea what we got. We tried to get his picture with the Murdoch sign (he's the orange engine, which Corin was very excited about), but even that was too much for him. He put about 75764578365 stamps of Thomas on a sheet of paper. He kind of shut down after that. I think it was all too much for him. He's a happy, happy boy, though.

Thin skinned

2009-10-09T09:07:00.002-05:00

Seems like it's going to be a regular thing for the boy to crack his head open.

The kids were playing outside with the hose yesterday. They were climbing all over the soaked slide/playscape. I hear a tumble and crying and expect very little. I go outside and he's sitting on the ground saying his head hurts. I picked him up and there's a trickle of blood coming down behind his ear. Sure enough, he's split his head again. I can only guess that he hit the edge of the screen door that was standing open. Ryanne says he slipped off of the steps on the slide.

Oy.

It stopped bleeding quickly. He was totally coherent the whole time, whereas last time he was falling asleep. Looking at the cut, it would be one of those that the doctor warned us would likely do more damage to staple it shut than it would help. Given that, I opted to slather it in antibiotic cream and slap a bandage over the side of his head.

This morning, it looks like it's much shallower already. He'll likely have about the same size scar as he does from the one we had stapled (and we won't be out $1200 and 3+ hours of our lives). He's still sporting a bandage, but it could probably go away later today or tomorrow. Guess we'll have to hide that side of his head when we do pictures at Thomas.

*sigh* At least he got his hair cut yesterday so we don't have to wait another long time to get it done when he was already overdue.

Scar

2009-09-02T18:50:00.002-05:00

Corin is all boy. He runs, jumps, tumbles and... damages himself. He's got a few scars, like the one on his forehead from bashing it into the table.

This one will put the others to shame.

It was the first day of school. It's about 1:00. I'm done exercising. I grabbed a quick bite to eat. He's in full-on "I need to nap but I won't so I'm going to go crazy instead" mode. He's jumping on the couch. This is normal. He's jumping from the half-wall to the couch. Again, it's normal. He's jumping from the narrow back of the couch to the couch. This is unnerving. He's getting closer to the table. I ask him to get down before he bashes his head.

He decides to dismount and try to get extra style points.

SMACK!
Crying.
Blood.

I end up sitting on the stairs with him on my chest calling Chrys to come get us and take us to the ER. We went down to Dell Children's and OMGTheyRockMyWorld as far as ED's go. We were in and out in a couple of hours. He had about a 1-1.5" gash in his head. It took 6 staples to close up.

We got the staples out yesterday. It seems like the left side was very nicely closed. There's barely a line where the skin meets. The right is very scabbed over and may not fare as well. I guess we'll see.

Boys. Oy.

Well-check...and penis talk

2009-08-19T15:07:00.003-05:00

Corin's three year well-check was today. He's 38" tall and 34.9lbs, both 75% for his age. HIs blood pressure was 96/50.

We met with the NP for the first time today. She checked him out and pronounced him healthy. She was a bit concerned that he only nurses once a day and drinks only a bit of milk. Then, we talked about his love of cheese and yogurt and everything was ok.

She retracted his foreskin more than I was comfortable with, though. I've seen him retract it quite a bit and it doesn't change the color. She did it and it turned purple/red and angry and he was trying to move her hand. She mentioned that we needed to retract it to clean it every day to stretch things out and clean. He does a bit of that in the tub every night so I'm not concerned. She said we needed to do it. I'm not really comfortable with retracting his penis myself because I don't want to pull it back further than it's comfortable for him. I don't mind encouraging him to clean things and clean what he can get to, but I'm not ok with me doing it because that's not what I've been told about intact penises. My understanding is that they will fully retract as he plays with it and ages, not as I stretch it out a bit every night. Just not comfortable with her. If you have to qualify 'forcibly', I'm not a happy mama.

Oh well, I was going to go doctor shopping since Chrys and I just got a letter from our doc that she was leaving. That's the second one in the last 3 years so time to look elsewhere.

2009-08-02T08:02:00.000-05:00

8:02 on 8/02. Happy 3rd birthday my beautiful boy.

You are turning into such an amazing person. You talk a ton. You are very active. You seem to be good with the potty training (no dirty underwear in over a week). You still nurse once or twice a day (morning and the occasional nap). You still nap occasionally but not daily. You have a little set of friends from school and the Y. You are beginning to tell stories about your day and about the abstract. You still cuddle. You are fiercely independent. You tug on your ears when you're tired.

You amaze me. I love you.

What's better?

2009-07-12T22:17:00.002-05:00

Flyder or Glider?

Personally, I'm pretty smitten with the word flyder. It conveys the meaning as he understands it. A paper airplane that flies. Daddy calls it a glider so we have to put the -der on the end. He doesn't know the difference between flying and gliding. It works. :) Plus, he sounds cute saying it.

Voices

2009-07-10T16:37:00.001-05:00

Corin has developed play voices. He has a deep man voice and a squeaky little girl voice. He uses them both during various play times. It's really cute. If I can figure out how to get the recording off my phone, I'll upload it.

Didn't expect that...

2009-06-15T15:43:00.002-05:00

Today, Corin figured out that he could retract his foreskin. He wanted to know what was inside.

M: "Your penis."
C: "My peemis is inside my peemis?!"

Yeah...so we talked about the difference between foreskin and penis. I guess I need to keep an eye on things now that he's playing with retraction.

What is it with my kids and their sexuality this week?

Potty tales...

2009-06-09T21:05:00.003-05:00

Two days before Memorial Day weekend, Corin decided that he needed a new diaper every hour or so. It was the *tiniest* bit wet and he couldn't tolerate it. I had previously drawn a line in the sand that Memorial Day weekend was our weekend to potty train. I had the potty train in 3 days booklet and a mission. We started Saturday morning and he did pretty well. Sunday was full of accidents and by Monday he seemed to have pee down.

Problem was that he didn't poop at all on Monday. He only pooped a bit in his underwear on Sunday. On Tuesday, I took him to a play scape and within 5 minutes, his underwear were full. We continued to slide down the hill of despair with regards to poop training. I think the biggest problem is that he, unlike Ryanne, doesn't have super clear signs that he's taking a dump. It just sort of comes. He says he can't feel it. He doesn't mind it being in his underwear any more than he minded it being in his diaper. He says he's the only one that poops (and somehow I've lost our copy of Taro Gomi's Everybody Poops).

Yesterday, I tried the technique from 3 day again...still wouldn't finish what he started in his underwear. Today, I left him nekkid.

I was watching him play and suddenly he runs for the bathroom yelling "Mooooom, some poop fell out of my bottom on the carpet." Sure enough, there's a small pile. We run to the bathroom. He finishes. I clean. He looks at me with great pride, "MOM, I felt the poop."

Announcing Eureka seems premature....so I'll merely whisper, "finally".

Tato-head

2009-04-29T15:56:00.001-05:00

One of Corin's favorite things to do is put on somebody else's shoes (mine, daddy's, Ryanne's) and wander around the house proclaiming, "I'm a Tato-head!" as loud as he can.

Dentist

2009-04-18T23:47:00.002-05:00

Corin had his first cleaning the other day. He actually let me put him on the table and allowed himself to be drawn into the cartoons and headphones. He went from a death grip wrapped around my entire forearm trying to pull himself from the table to gently holding my hand down by his hip. They got everything cleaned. We have to watch his molars - they're very ridged, like mine and will hold on to anything he puts in his mouth. If we can keep them clean, no biggie. If we can't, he might get cavities back there, like I did.

So far, looks like both kids have my teeth and not daddy's. Let's hope that holds!

It's hard being two

2009-04-01T22:57:00.003-05:00

Mostly because it's really hard to only stick up two fingers when people ask you how old you are. Usually he has to ask me for help and I fold his fingers over and catch them with his thumb. When he tries to do it on his own, he uses one hand to mimic that motion - folding fingers over and trying to get the thumb down in time to catch them and keep from them popping back up. He's successfully done it on his own one time. Luckily I had my camera.

He's on the right track

2009-03-31T21:02:00.002-05:00

We were wandering around the Y. Ryanne wanted water. I suggested the fountain. Ryanne started to throw a fit about wanting water in the bottle, not the fountain. Corin looks at her, "Sewiouswy, Ryanne? Sewiouswy?"

Thank you Grey's Anatomy for that piece of vocabulary that I have now passed down to my son... Oops.

Lessons learned

2009-03-07T20:09:00.002-06:00

1) Corin is apparently allergic to fire ants. At least, that's what I think made him start breaking out in hives on his trunk about 30 minutes after he was bitten on his hands.

2) Corin (thankfully) is one of the many that gets REALLY sleepy when given Benadryl.

These are not lessons that I was really looking forward to learning...

But daddy's in Texas...

2009-02-20T20:13:00.000-06:00

We're in CT visiting Auntie C and Uncle L and their new bebes...

Today, we were driving down the road.
C: "Mama, geek!"
M: "Geek?"
C: "Geek on da wa-da"
M: "Geek on the water? Oh, wait, geese? You see geese?"
C: "No! Geek! Geek on da wada"
M: "Goose, you see one goose. Or lots of geese. Not geek. Geese."
C: "Geek, mama. I see geek."
M: "Alrighty, then, but I promise daddy's not here."
C: "Daddy in Aus-in. I see geek."

I hate pottytraining

2009-01-24T23:57:00.003-06:00

"Mommy, I peeing"

As you're standing there peeing on the table (or carpet or merely your diaper) is not entirely useful information...

Thirty seconds notice is really all I ask. I can run pretty fast when bathrooms are involved.

Scootin' along

2008-11-10T22:46:00.004-06:00

I put Corin on the scooter today. Ryanne has been riding hers for almost 3 years and rocks at it. He's a bit older than she was when we started her, but already gets the concept much better. My guess is that it's paid off for him to be able to watch her ride it. He scooted along. He would occasionally try to balance. His steering needs lots of work, but that's why we want him on it.

Now, if I can just convince him that falling over isn't the best part of the ride.

No Dragon!

2008-11-03T23:08:00.002-06:00

The kids have this Lego dragon that came in a Duplo castle set. It's red and has some fire that it can breathe. It has teeth.

The other day, Corin peed on the potty (YAY!) and was wandering around the house without a diaper on. This has become less of an issue lately so he spends a bit of time doing it in the morning.

He found the dragon and was playing with it on the bathroom floor. I was brushing RC's hair. He was opening and closing the mouth of the dragon.

Suddenly I hear a scream, "NOOOO Dwagon. OW! Dwagon. No dwagon"

I look at him and he has his penis stuffed in the dragon's mouth. He has snapped the dragon's mouth shut on the tip of his pemis (penis). Did I mention the teeth?

He's getting very agitated and yelling at the dragon. I told him to open the dragon's mouth and take his penis out. He pulls on his penis. "OW! Pemis tuck!"

I lean down and open the dragon's mouth.

Corin looks at the dragon and says, "No bite pemis, dwagon. No bite me. Huhts."

Oy. I just about choked on the laughter.

Reflections on the 2nd year

2008-08-22T20:26:00.002-05:00

I've been meaning to write this for days now. He's almost another month older than 2. TIme with him is going by so very quickly. He grows and learns more every single day.

His language has totally exploded. He speaks in sentences of 4-7 words. He learns dozens of new words every day. He is definitely in his sponge phase.

He eats. He will go days with only a bite or two and days where I glimpse the hollow legged teenager he will become.

He argues. He is strong willed. So much more than I expected from how laid back he was in his early days. Stubborn doesn't begin to describe it. Dedicated to the task at hand.

I've started seeing tantrums and boy can this kid throw a doozie. He's not hitting his head against the floor and practicing faces, but he's also much easier to set off.

He's cuddly. He is my snuggler. He's a mama's boy and I don't want that to ever change. He loves to sit in my lap. He loves to give kisses - on the lips, on the hand, on whatever part he can reach. He hugs...man, what hugs.

I feel so lucky to have him. He's an amazing boy, no longer a baby. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

Poor, tired kid

2008-08-22T16:06:00.001-05:00

Corin's nap/sleep schedule has been such a mess, ever since we went to Phoenix and even a bit before. He's waking up late, napping late, taking forever to fall asleep.

Yesterday, he went without a nap. It was awful. Today, we were playing with friends until 3 and he promptly fell asleep in the car.

We got home. He woke up. He came inside and asked to be put down. He sat on the floor with the cat. He laid down. I went to the bathroom.

I came back out and he's passed out. In the middle of the entrance to the living room. The cats have no idea what to make of him.

I need to snap a picture before he wakes up.

Oh, and...

2008-07-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how stinking cute he is? This was in the car on the way to gymnastics. He's wearing his "Wawee" (Wall-E) sunglasses and has his "boo boddle" (blue bottle of water) in his lap. He was totally mugging for the camera.

Trains

2008-07-24T14:37:00.001-05:00

Corin is slowly taking over Ryanne's die-cast train collection. As you can imagine, this is causing some hardship in our house. :) Ryanne hasn't noticed most of the individual trains disappearing as I really think she can't remember which ones are hers and which aren't. She notices the big things, though, like the nice carrying case she got one Christmas. We've doubled up on a few important ones - like Gordon and Thomas.

Corin, however, is amassing a rather impressive set of track and buildings/cases for them. He's got the Roundhouse, the Quarry, the train wash and the coal mine. They each came with a few pieces of the plastic track and will close up and hold a few trains with the track. I think they're part of the Take Alongs series. I managed to find quite a few of them at the resale store and bulk up the collection.

He lines up them on the floor, the edge of the table, the edge of the box spring on our bed. It reminds me of a story Grandma G tells about Chrys and his cars on the babysitter's 'seamless' carpet. :)

He loves to drive them around. He sits and hollers "chugga chugga chooo". He knows the names of Thomas, Percy and Gordon. He's not bad with Duncan and Oliver. I think those are all of the engines we have right now.

Grandma G and I may have an outlet for those Lionel cars in a few years. We'll see if the fascination lasts. I suppose he is somewhat genetically wired to love them, though.

And now...

2008-06-25T09:31:00.002-05:00

He's talking. And talking. And talking. He uses multiple word sentences. He tells stories. He tries to sing songs - My favorite is "keen up da body" (clean up everybody).

He is *obsessed* with trains. It goes beyond anything sane or normal. He really loves the die-cast Thomas trains (take-alongs, I think). He's borrowed Ryanne's case for them on a semi-permanent basis because his collection now outnumbers hers. He takes that train everywhere. Literally. He will sit and play with them for a seemingly irrational amount of time. He seeks out the aisle of Thomas at Target. He wanders from box to box just oohing and ahhing over them. If we walk by a display of them, he has to stop and look. He's learning the names of them - thomas, puhssy (Percy), duntin (Duncan), dohdon (Gordon) - and doesn't get them mixed up.

He's doing gymnastics once a week. His favorite things are the trampoline and the rope that he can swing on. He loves running down the trampoline and has amazing balance. The rope swing is a thrill. He knows the difference between "Ry-yah nastics and Towin nastics."

He still loves helicopters and planes. He'll point out just about every airplane that flies by the house or the car. He even recognizes the "wowd" of them flying overhead when he can't see them.

Speaking of things loud, we've entered the non-loud phase. Hand dryers, vacuum cleaners, inflatable jumpers, yelling - he doesn't like it. He'll cover his ears and whine.

He's still nursing quite a bit, but it has cut back since his 18 month appointment. He's down to 3-4 times a day, I'd guess. It's much more tolerable for me. He's a very squirmy nurser, though.

He's still in 2T clothes. Some of them need a belt to keep them up because the little guy has no hips and still has his baby belly. At this point, we're outgrowing things by height and not weight. Hopefully he's still gaining enough for the ped to leave me alone, though.

He loves to eat - especially lightly cooked vegetables. He'll seek out the peas and carrots in fried rice. It's less of a struggle to get protein into him (especially beans), but he's not much for fruit.

Now, if he just slept through the night, life would be so much easier...

Little boy

2008-05-17T21:04:00.004-05:00

He's not a baby anymore. He is firmly in the realm of toddler. He's got all of his canines and molars. We're waiting on the 2 year molars, but hopefully we get a little break before those hit. He's insanely active - running, jumping (with both feet) and he's mastered swinging on the rope in the last week. He relishes anything that garners a "whee" - swings, slides, hills in the car. He is putting together 2 and 3 word sentences, with remarkable clarity. He adores to "Hahg" (hug) and "tiss" (kiss) more than just about anything.

He's amazing. And, thankfully, still cuddly enough to keep me from missing him being a wee babe.

Teef

2008-04-15T20:27:00.002-05:00

We have the tips of the lower canines. They both popped through over the weekend - which explains the crazy degree of crankiness, obscene diapers, drool and snot that we've been experiencing.

I'm going to miss the little gapped smile. He's losing the last vestiges of babyhood all too quickly.

PoP!

2008-03-07T21:02:00.002-06:00

That would be the sound of my ER cherry. Don't worry. Everyone's fine.

I've never been to the ER. I've been to the minor emergency clinic a half dozen times. I've been to the doctor on a semi-emergency basis a couple of times. Never the ER, though.

Then...I had a boy of my own.

Today, we went to Auntie J's house for a play date. He and Mol were doing their standard stand on the table and yell "HI" at the poor, poor goldfish. Then there was a crash. And screaming. And blood. Inside and outside his mouth. I immediately thought the worst - bit through the lip.

We left Ryanne there. We drove to the ER. Chrys met us there. We waited for.freaking.ever.

He had a slight temp - discovered rectally...his first time. Oy, was he pissed. He was 26lbs14oz with his clothes on, but no shoes.

He was impatient, especially when I wouldn't nurse him without the ok from someone there. Once I was cleared to just try it and see, he was much calmer. He ran around like a crazy man, but stood perfectly still when the doctor came to examine his mouth. No tears when being looked at. No complaints. Very laid back. Lots of compliments on how patient he was.

Superficial facial laceration on the outside. Big, freaking hole on the inside that "will heal surprisingly quickly so we don't suture it." We were given a prescription for antibiotics to give him "just in case," but we plan to forego that in favor of the antibacterial properties of the breastmilk he drinks a dozen times a day.

Hopefully this won't become a regular event. Turns out, I don't like the ER any more than I thought I would.

Well, it was a good run

2008-02-29T20:33:00.002-06:00

Corin has played with hiking his foot up on the edge of his crib now and then for some time now. He's never done more than hike a leg up and fall back down, though.

Well, now he's figured out how to reliably climb out of his crib. He did it twice on the way to sleep tonight.

It's been nice having him stay put. We'll have to come up with a new strategy to get him to stay put.

*sigh*

Look-alike Meter

2008-01-26T18:50:00.000-06:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Two more

2008-01-15T12:28:00.000-06:00

Corin popped teeth 10 and 11. The tenth was the upper right molar and came out about 10 days ago. Number 11 was the upper left molar and popped through at the end of last week. He's going to be an eating machine very soon.

Communication

2007-12-21T16:09:00.000-06:00

He really doesn't run around the house screeching all day. It just feels like it.

The other day, he decided that he needed to start addressing his sister. He's settled on "Ahhhhhh Seeeeeeee". It's crazy cute.

He also now says
milk, done, down, water, please, some, this, bite, kiss, hug

He carries "weemee" the lemur around with him most of the day and sleeps with "mo-tay" the sock monkey. In general, though, he adores stuffed animals.

He blows kisses, makes several animal noises (but prefers Elephant, especially since he uses it to ask for the Elefun game that RC got for her birthday - loves that game.), and is quite persistent and effective in communicating with grunts, pushing and pointing when all else fails.

Well, that's settled

2007-12-21T16:07:00.000-06:00

He's not allergic to peanuts.

I've been having mostly meat and cheese sandwiches lately. Corin will wander over, sit in my lap and take bites off of them. Today, I ran out of meat so I made PBnJ.

I was sitting there eating my sandwich and he reached for a bit. Before I realized, I let him have one. He came back for several more.

Now, if we can just get him over the tomatoes, we'll be good to go.

Tooth the ninth

2007-12-21T15:54:00.003-06:00

Has finally made a rather sudden appearance. Lower left lateral incisor so he now looks less lopsided...on those rare occasions that he actually smiles to show teeth. Have I mentioned how awesomely he pouts?

That complicates things

2007-12-17T17:21:00.000-06:00

Little stinker has figured out how to open doorknobs. It's not a huge issue because all the ones to outside have covers on them that even RC hasn't worked out yet (and I count my blessings on that every single day).

Inside, though, there were a few places I liked him being unable to access. Luckily he's still slow so there's time to catch him when he does it.

Right now, though, he's royally ticking off RC by going in and out of the bathroom as she tries to use it. Heh. Go sibling torment.

Molar

2007-12-16T21:17:00.001-06:00

He's finally got tooth #8. His first molar came in last week. It's the lower right. He's a wicked chewing machine now.

Winner

2007-12-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

Tonight, we went bowling as part of a Y promotion. They offered free bowling with 4 lanes per time slot. We grabbed one of the earliest ones and the kids, Gamma Ree and I went down there.

Corin adored it. We didn't turn on the gutter bumpers, but they did have a ramp for the kids to use to push it down the lane and get some extra speed. Corin loved pushing it down the ramp and clapping. He got pretty decent at it.

He was the only one of us to break 100. Go figure.

15m Appointment

2007-11-25T16:51:00.000-06:00

Corin has his 15m appointment this week. He was 32 1/8" tall (80%), 25lbs7oz (65%), with a 48.8cm head (90%). He comes by the big head naturally - my dad and Chrys both have above average head sizes. This was the first appointment where his height percentile was above his weight percentile, and you can see it in his appearance. He's still stocky, but not near what he used to be.

He got his HIB (Hepatitis B) and DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccines. That was a new combo vax. He also got his flu vaccine. He goes back for a booster in 4 weeks since this is his first one. If I didn't work at the Y, I wouldn't worry about flu, but the stuff that comes through there is crazy.

The doctor pronounced him above average since he's already throwing overhand (his aim is truly impressive and he's got great distance, too) and using TONS of words. He was climbing all over and that amused her. He didn't cry much at the vaccines which made the nurse feel better.

Tooth #7

2007-11-19T08:23:00.000-06:00

Upper right lateral incisor made its appearance over two weeks ago. We have a molar on the horizon, too. Finally!

If you're going to buy one

2007-11-19T08:06:00.000-06:00

We had our first instance of having to buy two of something to avoid conflict. Ryanne had a 'color pad' (magnetic drawing pad) in the car that dates back to living in Japan. It keeps her quiet and occupied on most of our trips. It's easy to clean up and mostly all stays together (pen and pad, at least) so there's no searching for pieces to make it work.

It's been getting pretty abused - stepped on, dropped, etc. It's missing all of its stamps. It's cracked and has to be pushed back together periodically. It still worked, though, and she was happy with it.

Recently, Corin wanted it. Desperately. She wasn't in the car so I let him have it.

When I got it back, the magnet from the pen was gone. It was small so I wasn't terribly worried about him passing it, but I was concerned about his sister not having anything to color with in the car.

Off we went to Target. It dawned on me, as I looked for a new pad with him, that if she had one, he was still going to want one. Fortunately, they make a younger age pad (shorter cord, bigger stamps, more recessed magnet) so now he has one, too.

They sit back there quietly playing with their pads - trading stamps, trading pads, talking. It's bliss. Even if it was twice the price.

Going to join the Navy?

2007-11-17T07:57:00.000-06:00

Corin was walking around with his little tractor this morning. He had RC's Hello Kitty cup on the seat. I think he was giving it a ride. It kept falling off. He kept getting stuck. He was getting more and more frustrated.

After about the dozenth fall of the cup, he says "Dom-meh." I look at Chrys.
M: "Did he just say..."
C: "Yes."

Just now, he was beating on the door of the shoe closet (where we keep games). "Dom-meh. Dom-meh."

Maybe he means elephant... Surely my one year old doesn't swear like a sailor already.

Run away

2007-11-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

We have a runner. He got through the legs moving faster with no actual increase in velocity stage and made it to real running. He can get to the street faster than I can grab my purse out of the car. I need to restructure my car unloading routine.

He also loves to "Dummm" (jump) off of things. This involves bending his knees and then walking off of any elevated surface. Grace be damned.

Two to One Conundrum

2007-10-19T09:24:00.000-05:00

Corin is in that yucky state where 2 naps is a bit too much and one isn't quite enough. Yesterday, he got two naps, slept through the night, and was up this morning at 5am. The day before, it was one nap, up a half dozen times at night and up for the day at 5:30am.

I think I prefer the 5am and sleeping all night. Neither is as nice as two naps, sleeping through and getting up at 6:00 to 7:00, but I didn't like that much when it was happening.

Honestly, I don't remember how this transition went with Ryanne. I think it must have been easier. Maybe my rose glasses just have a fresh sleep deprivation polish.

He's getting roughly the same amount of sleep either way. The one nap is 1.5 hours long. The two naps are about 45 minutes each. I like them lumped together because the day is easier to plan, but I don't like getting up through the night.

I'm just tired and cranky. Unfortunately, he is too.

On teeth

2007-10-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

Tooth #6 (upper left lateral incisor) cut through over the weekend.

He went to his first dentist appointment today. She said his teeth looked good. She found all 6. He wasn't too keen on the whole somebody prodding around in his mouth thing, but he didn't fuss about it. He *really* wanted pictures (xrays) taken of his teeth like his sister got, though.

Tooth #5

2007-10-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

This one snuck up on us over the weekend. It's his lower right lateral incisor. We were looking for the upper left one since we've seen it coming and Chrys caught sight of this one. I think we'll have the other 3 in the next week or two.

Monkey redux

2007-09-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

He's gotten up her chair onto the kitchen table now. My life just got *much* more exciting.

Add to that his innate ability to pick the *moment* I start peeing or pull my shirt/pants off to crawl under the door to a changing room/bathroom stall and it only compounds my joy.

Here I thought he was my cautious one. HA!

How fast...

2007-08-18T22:14:00.001-05:00

We accept new things as normal. I look at pictures of Corin from just a month ago and I don't recognize him. I think I've seen him without the hair for longer than I was willing to admit. The short cut suits him.

Though I do miss the strawberry blonde that the ends had turned.

Corin can...

2007-08-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

Turn off a light switch with marginal success at turning it on
Drink from a straw
Wave bye bye (but not on command...no way is he doing it on command)
Clap (again, not if you ask)
Tell you what a cat says (Ma-ooooowwww, Maow, MaaaaAh)
Crawl up the stairs frighteningly quickly
Butt bump down the stairs (thank goodness)
Climb pretty much anything that's level with his waist or lower (with increasing ease)
Click his tongue (sometimes when he's trying to call a cat)
Give kisses (big, sloppy open mouthed ones... and occasionally a closed mouth peck)

Amaze me every day with new tricks, understanding and affection. He's a cuddler and I *love* it.

First conversation

2007-08-18T22:00:00.000-05:00

Today, we were cleaning up around the house. Chrys and Ryanne had gone upstairs to clean up from the Great Cat Puke Day of 2007(TM) while Corin and I hung out downstairs.

Corin's wandering around. He hears the Spot Bot and wanders over to the stairs. He looks over at me.

C: "Da-ee gon?"
M: "Daddy went upstairs"
C: (waves) "bye bye" (begins crawling up the stairs)
M: Where are you going?
C: "Da!" (and keeps right on crawling until he finds Chrys)

He checked in, found him, and then went back to the stairs to make his way down.

I suppose it could all be in my head, but that's a lot of coincidences and well timed babble.

Stats

2007-08-05T15:58:00.000-05:00

He's 30 inches tall (50%), and 23lbs 1oz (55%). His head is 47.4cm (75% - big, like his daddy's). He got 4 shots - prevnar, hep a, mmr and (to my dismay) chickenpox.

The chickenpox vax perplexes me as it did with her. I put it off with her for a while, but eventually caved. As much as I'd like to believe that they could be exposed to it naturally, I wonder how many people there are that really don't vax against it.

I don't know...the whole delayed/no vax thing drives me nuts. As much as I don't want to fill my children with things they don't need, part of the reason that they don't need them is because so many people have had them. So much of what we vax against is not eradicated world wide. Just because it hasn't popped up in the US doesn't mean it doesn't happen anywhere and people, who aren't vax'ed, can't bring it back to the US with them. I like the idea of delaying to make sure there are no sensitivities, but neither of them have shown any problems and, truthfully, I don't want the hassle.

I default to sheepdom. I vax my kids on the schedule the state suggests. I, then, hang out with many women that don't and beat myself up whenever they discuss benefits or delaying or possible risks from vaccines, etc.

We'll see what happens when they hit me with the HPV vax for Ryanne, though. I'm still uneasy about that one.

Reflections on the first year

2007-08-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

In some ways, it's gone by much faster than Ryanne's. I think I got to enjoy more of it, though, since my life was calmer. I felt more at ease in my 'skin', too, than I did with her.

I'm sad because it's the planned end of my baby days. I'm also excited about what lies ahead. Ryanne has gotten to be so much more fun as she gets older, in different ways than I ever imagined. Corin is following closely in those footsteps and creating new paths of his own.

He amazes me every day with what he has learned - climbing (omg - the climbing), new words, kisses, hugs, pointing. He is gentle, yet truly a boy in so many ways. He loves to push things around - cars, chairs, his sister. He loves to climb - the piano stool, chairs, the dollhouse, the stools in the bathrooms. He *loves* to cuddle.

He's sleeping better - 11ish hours at night (no wakings 7pm to 6-7am) and two naps (1x 1ish hour at 9am and 1x 2ish hours at 1pm). We finally caved to some crying it out because I couldn't cope with hourly wakings and him slamming me in the face while he slept with us. His head is HARD!

He's finally eating just table food. We slowly transitioned, one meal at a time, and he decided it was ok as long as everything is small enough. It's certainly less messy that purees being spit back at me. He's not picky, but he still doesn't eat much. He nurses a lot...a whole lot...and I have a feeling he will for some time.

With his hair cut, he is so much the image of his father. They are both very handsome.

His one year appointment is tomorrow so I'll post those stats then.

We have a portrait appointment this afternoon and we'll do his one year and Ryanne's 3.75 year pictures.

Life is good. I can't believe it's his birthday. I can't believe my dad didn't meet him. I'm glad he met so many others.

Transformation

2007-08-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

From baby...

To toddler...

*sniff*

Lord of the tantrum

2007-07-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, he had the worst fit. I didn't manage to get him out of the car seat still asleep and it caused a 30+ minute melt down. Screaming, thrashing, throwing himself on the floor.

Turns out, Corin has the worst diaper rash he's ever had. The poor kid wouldn't let me carry him on my hip yesterday because it spread his cheeks too far apart to be comfortable. Diaper changes are scream fests.

He's got about 1/4" of butt paste on there and that seems to keep him pretty calm. If only that was the girl's excuse.

Tooth #4

2007-07-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Appeared on Monday or Tuesday. There's debate over how much of it could actually be felt on which day. As expected, it's the upper left tooth to complement his upper right.

On with your day.

You know your feet are wide when...

2007-07-13T16:56:00.001-05:00

Your mama has a hard time squeezing them into crocs.

I went to Stride Rite and had him measured over the weekend. He's a 4.5W - a full size larger than his sister and *wide*. Looking at his square little feet, the wide wasn't a surprise. He's been in Robeez (and Target's knockoffs), but even those are a bit tight in the elastic.

I got him a pair of sandals. They weren't wide, but they were a size up so the woman thought they'd be ok. We got him home and there were little red marks on his feet where the straps were. Clearly too tight. Plus, he was having a hard time dealing with the length and they were stiff, especially for early walkers.

So, they'll go back.

Since the goal was something that he could wear with all of the rain - leather shoes + rain = blech - he now has snazzy Mickey crocs. He's doing just fine wandering all over the house in them. I took them off and he got mad at me. I think they're a win.

Horror is...

2007-07-12T10:06:00.000-05:00

Finding bright red in the day's first diaper.

Until you realize it's just one of the foam letter Ps from his sister's latest 'craft'.

Then it's... some odd cross between disturbing and hilarious.

I don't think Ryanne ate anything weird in the time I was changing diapers. Of course, she didn't have a three year old leaving a trail of fun and interesting things to eat either.

Corin's 11 month pictures

2007-07-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

Check out the long hair. It will be gone for the next set. :(

http://homepage.mac.com/melia/PhotoAlbum7.html

Top o' the mouth

2007-07-05T12:14:00.001-05:00

I finally feel tooth #3 poking through - upper right top. Thus begins the era of hurting me as well as himself when he bites while nursing. I must say I wasn't terribly looking forward to this.

He slept through all of the loud fireworks last night. Fell asleep at 6:45 and was fussy, but not waking as a result of all of the booms. It amazes me how well he can sleep.

Lots to say

2007-06-24T10:42:00.000-05:00

Corin is amazingly verbal. RC said a lot and early, but he's blowing my mind (and that of many others - we get questions about him 'talking' quite a bit). Here's a quickie list of words I've heard him use correctly.

Yesh - Yes
Ah Dah - All done
Ayah, Ayan - Ryanne
Mama
Dada
Cah - Cat
Hi
Mo - More
Duh, Uck, Guk - Duck
Nini - Sleep
Nah Nah, No No - No
Nilt - Milk

He also responds to bye bye with a wave and yay with a clap.

Toddler

2007-06-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

I have to come out of my denial. My baby is growing up. He's lost much of his baby face. He looks more like a little boy every day.

He's also, about a week ago, figured out how to stand up in the middle of the floor. With this conquest, he's walking pretty much full time. He seems to crawl if he's tired or playing, but it's certainly not the norm.

I can't believe how fast my time with him is passing by.

Fever

2007-06-08T20:42:00.001-05:00

Corin has had diarrhea for a few days now. I wrote it off to teething. Yesterday, he spiked a bit of a fever (98.3 under arm, so within the 'normal' range for an infant, but a bit warm) to go with it and started being super clingy. Tonight he was up to 101.6 under arm which is very close to our 103 point where we actually give something to break it.

Since he seemed to be getting worse and was going to sleep in his crib where he won't be constantly monitored by us, we dosed him with Tylenol. We typically don't give anything to break a fever. Ryanne's been through a few now and done just fine. She's typically done with them in less than 12 hours. I'm still learning him, but hope this doesn't set him back.

I just want my happy boy back. Mostly because it's fun to listen to him meow at the cats - something he learned on Wednesday at Alice's house. Tonight he told Preta - "hi cah. m-ow." With the ow being like you hurt yourself and said OW. His language skills are MOST impressive, but that's another post entirely.

9 month appointment

2007-05-17T22:34:00.001-05:00

Since I keep forgetting...

Key points: 20lbs 11oz (75th percentile) and 29" (also 75th percentile). Head circumference was 46.25 (75%).

She's crazy impressed at his language development and pointed out that she's seeing more and more problems as it seems society is forgetting how to teach children to talk.

She marveled at his cruising around the room with her stool. She said he was strong, personable, and very healthy.

He got one vaccine - his last(?) hepatitis B.

Steps to toddler

2007-05-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

Let's see...May 11, Corin decided it was easiest to walk from the ottoman to the table rather than sit, crawl and stand. This was, maybe, 4 steps. That's been happening pretty consistently. If things are just a couple of steps away, he'll walk, thankyouverymuch.

Today, though, he wanted the 'hot dog' (octagonal pylon that gets put on it's side such that kids can use it to do handspring like motions or roll it as a walker) at Little Gym. He was pulling on my hand trying to get me to help him walk over to it. I would go a little way and then no further to keep him out of the way of the other kids.

Then he let go.

He must have taken about a dozen steps almost running after his teacher and that hot dog. He wanted it BAD...and caught it. Repeatedly.

Now, it's easier to taken a half dozen+ steps, fall down and then crawl. We're in trouble when he figures out how to stand up without help. For now, he's building stamina, balance and speed. Quickly.

I think I'm going to be in trouble soon.

Leaps of monkeys

2007-05-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

Corin can now clap (4/22), drink from a straw (4/25), take a real definitive step before realizing it and sitting down (4/28) and push a box around so he can climb on top of said box in the kitchen to try to grab things off the counter (5/3).

Guess which one mommy's most excited (really!) about.

Toof the second

2007-04-20T21:14:00.000-05:00

Lower left front tooth cleared the gum yesterday. He's refining his bite and tear on anything that gets close enough to his mouth. Consider yourselves warned.

First step

2007-04-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

Today, he lifted a foot and threw himself at me. It wasn't really walking and he certainly didn't want to repeat it. It's still a step...

Time is going by WAY too fast.

Mouths bleed a lot

2007-04-17T20:08:00.000-05:00

Today Corin was trying to get into the CD changer (this is an hourly challenge for him). I moved him to the side. He got hold of the TV stand and was watching me replace the tape on the CD box.

He lost his balance, I guess, and the next thing I heard this resounding thunk and he started screaming.

I grabbed him and was looking at his face trying to find the red mark. There was nothing. Then he opened his mouth to scream again and there was blood - everywhere.

Then Chrys walked in the door.

From what I was finally able to see, with Chrys' help, there's this tiny little cut on the inside of his upper lip. Man, that was a lot of blood, though.

I guess like father, like son. Chrys charmed me with his bleeding head and now Corin's got me with his lips. :)

Talking?!

2007-04-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

Corin has this string of things that he consistently babbles.

Chrys is "ada".
I'm "ama".
He says "nini" when he's tired.
He'll call after the cats "cah".

One night as I tried to put him to sleep, he heard the jingle of cat collars. "Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hihihihihi HI CAH".

A few nights later, Chrys was rocking him to sleep. Chrys had his eyes closed and Corin was watching him. "Da Nini (giggle)".

Could he seriously be doing 2 word sentences already? It seems crazy early since neither of us really remembers Ryanne even talking much.

Maybe we're making too much out of babbles. Maybe we are just more tuned to interpreting sounds we hear a lot due to our time with Ryanne. Maybe Ryanne constantly talking right in his face is making him develop a bit faster.

Standing and stair climbing

2007-04-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week - poor 2nd kid, I don't know the day anymore - I looked over and Corin was scaling the stairs. He had it down. At this point he has the stamina to cover the bottom half. I need to figure out how to gate spindled stairs.

He's also proved to me in the last day or two that he's capable of standing on his own for 5+ seconds at a time. It's getting longer and longer and he's doing it more and more. He still isn't ready to make the leap to steps across a void, though; he'll fall to the ground and crawl. His falling is very controlled.

Physical milestones abound. Some talking, too, but more on that later.

It runs in the family

2007-03-31T22:33:00.000-05:00

Corin's been chowing down, too. He'll pretty easily down 3x 4oz jars of food a day. We've heard verbalizations that sound like more ("mah") and all done ("ah dah") at appropriate times.

He's sleeping a bit better when he gets lots of carbs for dinner (read as most of a stage 3 jar (6oz) instead of just stage 2 (4oz)). We've gone from a max of 4 hours back to 6-8. I mean, his friend is sleeping that much... Yeah...

He'll cruise across structures instead of just along a single item of furniture. He'll jump from the easel to the ottoman to the couch, all of which require a little push to get across the gap. And he's toying more with standing. Today, he pushed himself up on my knee and then stood up. He looked really excited, wobbled back and forth a few times and then sat. I suspect he'll walk pretty early like his sister did.

He's already getting crazy fast at crawling. I need to figure out how we're going to baby proof the stairs, and soon.

Fang

2007-03-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

Lower right front tooth has broken the surface.

That is all.

Baby's first black eye

2007-03-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

Ryanne was trying to get one of her books away from him. She pulled so hard she ended up spinning around 360* and smacking him in the face. He has a swell gash on his cheek and the bottom of his eye is a little black and blue.

I'm sure it won't be his last. Not the way these two horse around with each other already.

On the flip side

2007-03-13T10:13:00.000-05:00

He slept until 8:20 this morning...

Too bad Ryanne didn't.

I hate daylight savings time

2007-03-12T19:26:00.000-05:00

It's his bedtime and he's WIDE awake. Could that be because it's still bright inside? This sucks.

Chrys is putting him to bed because he bit me. Teeth suck, too. Hmph.

First word?

2007-03-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

As I've said before, Corin is entranced by our cats - Minuit especially.

Today, he turned around and I was petting her.

"[lots of excited babble]" pause "CAH" "[lots of excited babble]"

I thought, "Hmm...was that on purpose?"

He crawls over to her and she walks away. I put him up on the chair next to her. He starts excitedly crawling toward her. "Cah Cah CAH"

Guess that answers that.

Self-feeding

2007-03-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

Corin is making terrific progress on his pincer grasp. He can now pretty easily get the puffs (cheerio sized) from the table to his mouth. We had been relying on the wheels since he could bite off of those without getting frustrated. The puffs were getting lost in his palm.

What's funny, though, is watching his other fingers when he's busily concentrating on the thumb and forefinger.

Sometimes he gets stuck because one of the 'extra' fingers ends up getting stuck in his nose. He tries to insert the food, but the extended 'extra' finger hits the nose first, goes up a bit, gets uncomfortable and the food hasn't hit the mouth yet. This is awkward, but humorous to watch.

Other times, he forgets how far in he needs to stick the food and ends up gagging himself on an extended finger as he shoves the puff into the back of his mouth. This is terrifying as I suddenly worry that he hasn't 'chewed' it enough and is choking.

He's come so far, but has some fine tuning yet to do.

White lines

2007-03-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, nothing. Today, white line in the gum. There's bumpy and we can feel the ridge under the gum. There will be a tooth by the time we go to Midland next weekend. Maybe by tomorrow at the rate he's going.

He's been semi cranky, SUPER snotty and biting the world for weeks. Finally we will have something to show for it.

Finally got 'em posted

2007-03-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

Now that my .Mac is working again...

New pics of Corin and Ryanne are on my .Mac page. There's last month's and the month before on the current and archive pages. I'll try to get this month's up when I get them emailed to me again.