Danielisms

I keep meaning to blog about some of the cute things Daniel says and does but never seem to get around to it.  I know though that before long some of them will disappear and I don't want to forget them.  So, a few favorites:

- He sees me eating granola bars in the morning and will ask for "mommy giyaga" or "mommy binoma."  Once Kevin tried to feed him a granola bar and Daniel refused to take it from him, saying "Mommy take it."  Once I held it he was happy to eat it from my hand.

- Speaking of granola bars, he likes to eat them in the wrapper.  Break a piece off to hand it to him and he might eat it, but more likely than not he'll put it back in the wrapper and eat it from that.  He's the same way about eating bananas, they have to be in the peel.
- We make smoothies on weekend mornings but he calls them "foamies." (which is actually kind of logical, on accident!).  Even though the one we pour in his little cup is the exact same thing as what's in my cup, he wants Mommy's foamy instead.  Likewise, pancakes on Mommy's plate are also more appealing than the ones on his plate.

- When I'm giving him food he'll ask "more, Mommy."  Sometimes it comes out as "more mommies."  I've told him he just gets the one.  He'll also ask for "more daddies" if Kevin's feeding him.

- He loves to wash his hands and use wipes.  Do I have the only 2 year old clean freak?  This child will run to the bathroom, drag a stool or chair over to the sink and climb on up.  If you leave him to his own devices he'll stay there turning the water on and off for 10 minutes.  And whenever he catches sight of the tub of diaper wipes he'll try to climb up to get it too and if I try to distract him from that pursuit he'll wail "I need wipes!"  In fact, a wipe to play with is his "prize" when he successfully uses the potty.  (Needless to say, I handle the functional wiping details)  Speaking of wiping, he also likes to clean the table top after he eats, and of course likes to wipe his hands if he gets food on them.

- He wore sandals every day during the summer and, as you might imagine, they got a little sweaty.  One night I was sitting at the table feeding him and thought, yuck, what is that awful smell?  I realized it was my little boy's feet!  I said "P-U, stinky feet!"  He enthusiastically repeated it that day and now says it whenever I take off his shoes.
- The other day when I took off my shoes he said, "I wipe Mommy's feet," ran to the bathroom, and returned with some toilet paper and wiped at my feet.  Um, thanks...

- He knows his colors and can correctly name them most of the time, but if you give him a "pop quiz" and ask him what color something is, it's either blue or yellow.  I blame myself a little-I talk to him about how Daniel has yellow hair and blue eyes so I guess those are the colors that come to mind.
- Just in the last week he's started saying "I need to sit up" if he's lying down or slouched.  Guessing he must hear that at school!
 

 

Daniel's 26 month update

School

A few weeks ago Daniel had his first day of "real" school.  This was somewhat anticlimactic given that he's already been there since July for their summer session, but one significant difference is that he's now required to be in dress code, which includes blue pants or shorts and a white or red polo shirt.  Other than that, not much change for him.  His class is really small right now, just him and 3 other kids, 2 of whom also have at least one parent who works at Microsoft.  He adores his teacher and the teachers who do afternoon extended care and talks about them a lot, and he also really likes his classmates.  He's obviously quite happy there, given how much he talks about everyone, and while he's always happy to see me in the evening when I pick him up, he's sometimes sad to leave the school.  The decision to start him in school and leave him in the care of non-family members was not one we made lightly, so it's gratifying to see that he is so happy and thriving there.

 

They must sing a lot at school, because now Daniel loves to sing at home.  So far we've heard "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Jesus Loves Me," "Alphabet song," "Row, Row Row Your Boat," and a few others.  He sings to himself a lot and is happy when we join in.

 

The school also offers age-appropriate gymnastics classes every week.  I expected Daniel to enjoy those and he definitely is.  Here he is showing off his somersault technique.

 

 He also recently started a basketball skills program at school too, so it'll be fun to see what he learns in that. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.

Potty training update
For the past 2 weeks we've been sending him to school in underwear rather than diapers.  The first week he had several accidents a day but this week he made it most days with 1 or no accidents.  The past 2 weekends we mainly kept him at home and just in undies, but now he has gotten pretty good at getting his clothes and undies off and on, so this weekend we kept him clothed around the house.  We also took him to run errands, to dinner at a restaurant, and to the church nursery and he stayed dry everywhere.  While I'm sure we have a few more weeks or months before he stays dry all day every day, he's consistent enough at this point that I consider him largely daytime potty-trained.  He's still got room for improvement but I'm quite pleased with his progress so far.

As for night-time training, we're still at the starting point.  The other night he had a dry diaper in the morning for the first time ever, and as soon as he woke up he told Kevin he had to go.  He not only held it through the night but knew once he woke up to wait for the potty.  We'll wait for him to do that a few more times to know he has the ability, then start putting him to bed in undies.  That may happen next week or not for another month or two, we'll see how he does.

Big boy bed!
In the meantime, in anticipation of that transition, we moved him out of the crib last week.  We started out by placing his crib mattress on the floor to see how he'd do outside the crib rails.  He was excited by the change and slept quite well for several nights.  So, Saturday morning we bought him a twin bed and some new sheets and moved the crib out.

He is quite proud of his new big boy bed and excited about it.  And yesterday he napped for 2+ hours on it-a big deal given that he doesn't nap much these days.  Last night, perhaps because of the nap, he took awhile to get to sleep but otherwise did pretty well.  Today hasn't gone as well though-a restless nap time (not so unusual) but then a hard time getting to bed tonight.  Might be a one-off, but I think once we get back to his school week routine he'll do fine.  He almost always falls asleep right away after a day at school.  He has proven to be a child who handles change quite well and has always been a good self-soother, but still, it is a big transition, so I don't expect it to go flawlessly.  His enthusiasm is encouraging so I'm confident we'll get there.

Bye-bye high chair
Last week we also transitioned Daniel from his high chair to a booster seat.  He had been wanting to sit in a regular chair so this was an easy transition for him.  He likes being able to climb up into his seat on his own and buckle himself in, which is also handy for us.

Speaking of high chairs, while he may be ready to say goodbye to his dining chair he now enjoys climbing up onto our barstools.  This means the counter is no longer a safe place to put things we want to keep out of his reach.  Funny to think how when he was a newborn everything in the house was safe, then as he's graduated from rolling to crawling to walking to climbing, less and less of the house is now out of reach for him.  He keeps us on our toes!

Haircut
The other day I took Daniel to get his second haircut.  It went well, but he got ticklish when the stylist tried to use the trimmers!

 

 

 

20 weeks already?

Halftime

Wow, how did we get here so quickly?  Somehow we're already halfway through this pregnancy.  It has definitely gone much faster than the first time.  For one thing, we've got a toddler now, and he does a pretty good job of keeping us busy between school, potty training, and amusing antics.  Also, last time around we were busily getting up to speed researching birth plan options and baby gear and putting together a registry, so a lot of time was spent thinking about and planning for Daniel.  This time around, we aren't doing a registry and we already know the birth plan we want, having done this before.  So while we certainly think and talk about Honey Badger baby a lot, we aren't really focused on preparing for him/her.  So, after the queasiness and fatigue of the first trimester faded away it was easy to just get on autopilot and let the weeks pass.

 

Another reason the past month has gone by quickly on the pregnancy front is that my allergies have been doing such a good job of taking my attention   This past week they developed into sinusitis, which is even less fun than it sounds.  Fortunately it seems to be running its course but the ragweed season can't end soon enough for me.

 

Last week we had our 2nd trimester anatomy scan sonogram and got to see HB up close.  S/he is developing beautifully, measuring just a few days behind my due date (but right on track with the later due date I've got in my head), but no areas of concern.  The sonographer looked at the below-waist area to make sure all was in order there, but I looked away when she did.  Actually, I didn't trust Kevin not to peek so I looked back at him to make sure he wasn't looking ;)  We asked her not to tell us what she saw but she said she felt pretty confident she could tell the gender.

 

After the sonogram we met with an OB, per the practice's requirement that midwife patients see an OB at least once during the pregnancy.  At this point we learned that our trend of "everything looks good but" midway point sonograms continues.  With Daniel, the concern was "bright spots" on the heart and brain, which ultimately turned out to be normal variances.  With this pregnancy, the baby him/herself is fine, but the concern is that the placenta is a little low on the uterine wall.  It's not really a concern at this point but ultimately if it failed to move up it would block baby's exit thus requiring a C-section. 

We'll have another sonogram early in the 3rd trimester to check, but it almost certainly will resolve by then, as over 95% of cases do.  The good news of course is that the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor.  The bad news is that there's nothing to do but wait and hope.  It helps though to remember that last time we were in this situation the issue ended up resolving, and it almost certainly will this time.

 

Aside from the sonogram, we had another big pregnancy milestone this week.  I was sitting on the couch and could feel HB squirming around and kicking.  I could feel it so much I thought maybe Kevin would be able to feel it too, so he put his hand on my belly and sure enough, he could!  It was around 23 weeks before we could feel Daniel's kicks so it's fun to get to feel HB sooner.

 

Haven't really had much in the way of pregnancy symptoms lately, though I've noticed that coughing triggers heartburn for me (which means this last week has been extra fun).  I'm mostly, but not exclusively, wearing maternity tops at this point, but maternity pants are still too big.  My regular pants still fit so I'm in those and can still button them and wear a belt.  I'm surprised to still be in regular pants this far in, but I'll take it.  I'll credit a combination of higher carry position and lower pre-pregnancy weight...thanks running!

 

Here are a few 20 week pictures.  Ignore the cheesy expression.

 

The shirt says "Future Aggie" pointing to the belly. We were dressed to watch the game!

 

For comparison, here's a current shot alongside my 20 week picture with Daniel.  Comparing the two, I look smaller this time and am still in regular pants with belt, whereas at this point with Daniel I had just moved into maternity pants (but had had to use a Bella band with my regular pants for several weeks prior).