March/April '05 Thread #4

[Colesmom]

karen- i love Judy's take on the whole thing.  not sure i could add much to that.

ankie-i'm not sure about the nights affecting naps hon.  sorry.

here are my pics from today.  you can see her son in the background of the one of cole in the tube.  he's a little chubber. Cole LOVED this tent/tube thingy they had.  must get a mini version for him. 

btw-cole went down in 5 minutes, no crying.  a couple of whines maybe...woo hoo.

[Carter'sMama]

Good evening everyone!!!

Thanks for the advice on rice vs soy.  Luckily I only have to give it to him for the day feeds as I will continue to bf in the am and at night.  So, I will try a sippy cup (thanks Ankie).  My ped did get me an appt with the allergy specialist for a skin test to see if he still has these allergies (I guess alot of kids out grow them).  We have only had blood tests so far and he said they aren't always accurate!  Fingers crossed girls for my little man!

Traci - thanks for the picture of the nursery!  I absolutely LOVE that room!  It must have taken you forever to do. I thought it was either you or Andrea.  I can so picture you in the rocker in the middle of the night!!  Well, not any more of course!!!

Richelle - I am so glad that you are both ok (relatively ok I mean).  Good job on the quick thinking!  I agree with Nikki and Judy ... men are wimps!  I would easily take pain over injuring my child!!!

Here's some pics of Carter's room and then one of our family room (when we moved into the house and then after I redid it!)  When we moved into the house that we are in ... EVERY room had some pink in it!  The kitchen counter tops and floor were pink, both bathrooms floor to ceiling were pink and all 4 bedrooms too (with turquoise carpet .. yum!).  Carter's room was floor to ceiling wallpaper with butterflies and clouds  .. so nice for a little boy eh?!  :shock:
Not sure why we bought the place but I must say every room has been redone except the bathrooms so far.  Oh ya ... we bought it cause of the huge garage for DH and the huge backyard with built in dog run for Boss!  I was just left with the pink palace!!  :roll: 

[Carter'sMama]

Oops ... the pics of the family room didn't turn out.  I will try them again tomorrow!!!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

OK, back for a proper post! 

Richelle, that is so scary!  So pleased to hear that you're both ok (well I hope you're getting a bit of TLC for your injuries).

Loving the pics, wow, those nursery's are just awesome, Danielle's is just looks like a regular bedroom pretty much with a few cool things in there.  But definitely not decked out.  Traci, I've got a very similar pic of Nathan in a little pop up tunnel and it looks really cool with all the colours around his head.

Hugs Ankie, there are regressions like others have mentioned, so work through it so as to not undo all your hard work.

OK, so I've made an observation, and kind of going back to those articles, but the play one in particular where there was a statement in there that I found interesting.   It also pertains to letting our lo's touch our precious things in our house, and that they eventually get over the need to fiddle and play with it.  I've just realised that it's the same as EVERYTHING in Nathan's day.  For example:  He has these plastic bins for all his toys, one day I showed him how turning them upside down and lining them up would be a good stepping stone kind of thing to do ( :roll: )- well everyday for about the next month he did this (used to drive me nuts because it meant all the toys got dumped on the floor) - BUT, it stopped once he'd got it out of his system.  At the moment he's going through a phase of dumping all puzzles and games in a big pile on the floor, it was driving me nuts, but this got me thinking that once he's "done it" for whatever *his* number of times is, it will cease on it's own.  He used to trash his bedroom at naptime but doesn't anymore.  So I guess it's just a reminder, that whatever they do, they WILL get over it when it's boring and if we always try and hinder them doing stuff the desire will be there for longer, probably just the same as playing with a toy everyday for 2mths and then it doesn't get touched again because they've sussed it out.

[Olivia's Mommy]

Just a quick hello while DH is putting Liv to bed.

JUDY--LOL at Zoe...how funny!

ANKIE--sorry to hear you're struggling with naps too. Whenever Liv goes through wacky nights, it usually affects her naps, too. I'm hoping you're near the end of it (but not nearly as much as you are, I bet!)

TRACI--love the pics! Adorable room...is that wallpaper or did you paint? Cute pics from your day. Looks like you guys had fun.

CATHY--Love the room! So much better than butterflies!

Sorry to cut it short, but must go clean up the kitchen...it's a mess from dinner.

[Colesmom]

hi cathy-the specific colours are Whipple Blue, Dijon, Raspberry Truffle and...drawing a blank here...Grasslands...they are Benjamin Moore. Also, I have a trick for the paint technique.  I'll share it here in case others are curious.  btw, only that one wall is patterned so it didn't take that long.  The whole room would be too much as it's VERY small. 

you start with the base coat.  then tape off your pattern.  the space between is just the width of the tape, nothing fancy.  The trick to having clean edges is to paint the base coat over top of the tape so that anything that is going to bleed under the tape is the base coat colour...not the deeper, darker colours, kwim? then you paint your other colours, wait for it to dry and peel tape.

okay, this thread is about babies, right?

nikki-I'll have to go read that...was that one of the things bec posted?

i forgot to mention, cole didn't cry before his naps in the car today either.  my little boy is growing up.  before today i can remember ONE time that he didn't cry before going to sleep(okay, maybe a couple others in the car)  And I can only remember ONE time where he woke up babbling/playing, not crying :roll:  Today he cried in the morning for a second, heard him babble and then started crying again. I would LOVE it if he played in his crib for even just 15 minutes once waking.

[Erin M]

Richelle - scary stuff!  Hope DH gives you some extra TLC tonight for sacrificing yourself for Sophie!  Love the house!  Great pics - your house looks so clean. 

Cathy - Carter's nursey is great!  Maybe post on the food allergies forum with your rice/soy milk question for more info.  (Contrary to what we all think sometimes, there really are other boards on this site  :wink: ).  Hoping your tests come out well when you get them done.

Kate - love the house.  I most certainly do not think you're being paranoid by blacking out the address.  Sure none of us would stalk you, but other people can most certainly check it out as well.

Jo - great picture as well.  Can't believe how big Fraser is getting - and what a cutie!  You look like you're having a great time.

Traci - great picture of Cole in the tunnel.  You'll have to let me know if you like Photoshop Elements - I was thinking of getting it.  As for the teeth, Katie was up once last night, I put some Orajel on her gums and she went back to sleep.  Oh yeah, I was going to tell you, when Katie is up because of teeth (when I have reason to suspect teeth because of how she's been acting), I give her some Tylenol and put some Orajel on her gums.  I'll rock her for as long as I do for a winddown (I sing her winddown song to myself in my head) and put her back in her crib more or less awake.  Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes I have to do some PU/PD or take her out again if she gets upset.  Anyway, so far (fingers crossed) it has worked for us and she's contined being an independent sleeper when her teeth are through. 

Karen - it really seems to me that your parents seem focused on their "duty" and aren't going to say no to your brother.  I think you have to talk to him and just point out how your parents will need the money in the long run (or tell him that they'll have to move in with him if they're running short on money later on because they spent it all on him) - and see if he can tone it down.  Tough situation though - you kind of have to say your piece and be done with it because otherwise you might end up with permanently hurt feelings.

Judy - your girls make me laugh (I hope they make you laugh too, at least on most days.) - it's so interesting to watch their personalities develop and watch them work through things. 

Nancy - nice job on the resizing LOL!

Nikki - I could use a laptop right now - I'm trying to watch TV ("Lost" is on) and type at the same time - the TV is behind me - I really need eyes in the back of my head for this one!  And thanks for answering all my various questions - I'll keep an eye out for Rachel Hunter!  BTW, what made you suspect Celiacs with Nathan (I'm sorry if you've answered this a million times already!) - it seems great that you caught it so early.

Roz - sorry things are a bit poopy right now.  Hope they get better soon!  Good luck with the financing!

Andrea - sorry about Taylor Made.  It was such a good name too!

Ankie - more ((hugs)) - stay with it girl!  We're all rooting for you.  Maybe Kate can make up a cheer and you can imagine her saying it in the middle of the night!

Goodness, we're having a thunderstorm right now!  In the middle of the winter!  It's super windy which always freaks me out as we have a TON of trees and I'm always waiting for one to fall on our house.  (We're had them fall near the house already twice since we moved in, so it's not an impossible thing!) 

Katie has a nasty diaper rash poor thing.  I keep thinking I've just about got it licked and then I miss a poopy diaper because we're going somewhere or she slept through it and it gets bad again.  *sigh*  What were those tips again people were giving Richelle a week or so ago?

OK enough already - WAY too long of a post!  Here's some pics of Katie in her nursery!

[Little Bear's Mum]

Yay, I"m back, not sure how long before Daniel wakes so there's a couple of things I need to say/want to say first.

Andrea, how about Taylored for Little Ones (T4LO's for short) or are you not allowed Taylor in the name at all? I thought of some other ones like Taylored to Fit but then thought they might not fit exactly on some bubs, so you'd get in trouble by a stroppy non-bw sleep deprived mum!!  :wink:

Ok, I did it, I refered BW to someone. I couldn't keep quiet. It's my neighbour who's daughter is 10months. Was sleeping thru, started waking and it becoming a habit. She said her DH suggested they CIO, and so they did last night for 30 mins. I asked if she went to her at all and she couldn't. She said she's going to try again for the next few nights to see what happens. I said if she doesn't have any luck I have a book she may like to borrow with  a different approach. Briefly explained about PUPD and that you're reassuring them even though they may cry and it might take a while the first few times it should help/improve. She's only been doing it a few nights and so hopefully whatever she does it won't last too long, but I've said obviously it's up to her and her husband, but if she'd like to borrow the book she's welcome. I've suggested she needs to read it before trying it out, to ensure she's got the technique right. Oh dear, I hope I didn't sound to pushy, I don't think so. But my hear ached for her little one when I heard she cried so long.  :cry:

Karen, I'd go with talking to your brother, just the two of you, so it's not to confrontational. And I can't recall who suggested it, but if you do, try not to make personal statements against SIL to be, but more about the situation.

Oh, Daniel's woken up, gotta go for now. But I'll be back I'm sure.... :wink:

[Judy]

Nikki that is so true about them needing to get things out of their system.  Sarah's just coming in to her time for dumping all puzzles and games in a heap on the floor - if only it'd have been further spaced from when Zoe got over her need for the same. I'd have liked a year without it   And suddenly every single day she must empty all the clothes out of her dresser so it was really interesting to read in that article to just comment 'oh wow look at this' (paraphrasing) and clean it up.  Although I don't even always clean it up I just brush it aside figuring it's just going to be out tomorrow anyway :roll:  It's very interesting though isn't it because it's obvious that they're learning something of value - makes no sense to us but it really does to them.

Erin, yeah I laugh at my girls a lot.  The other day Sarah climbed up on my desk while I was nursing so I couldn't reach her properly.  She wanted to move my papers (which is why I wanted to reach her) and instead of moving them to the side she started to toss them but I grabbed them first and moved them to the side.  Well she chuckled, grabbed them again and one by one flipped them over her shoulder going "weeeeeee".  I just laughed which made her giggle with glee and keep doing it :roll:  It was so funny though.  She's a real comedian she makes really funny voices on purpose to make us laugh or if you point to an animal in a book - say a cat, she'll say it goes mooooo and then laughs hysterically.

Ok baby naps.  Gosh these girls are such a tag team I tell ya.  For a few weeks Kaia's been having a 30min morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.  Hannah slept longer in the am and it was a dice roll whether she had a long or short pm nap.  Suddenly now for two days Hannah is sleeping 30minutes on the mark and Kaia sleeping for 1.5+ hours??  I don't get it because I do nothing different - just accepted Kaia's short naps.  But days like today I think "man!  If there were just one of them I'd be having an awesome nap day!!" not so imply I don't want them both - I do!!   So Hannah had three 30min naps - and for her last one she was actually snoring she was so tired and I was in and out of her room a couple of times. Oh and the early waking - it WAS Kaia for weeks and now she's sleeping right through Hannah's screaming at 5am :roll: and Hannah' much harder to convince that she should still be sleeping.

Zoe is so excited about her strength and ability to pick up these girls.  It's driving me mad.  The moment I sit them on the floor she is picking them up to stand, walking off with them, putting them on her lap or at the very least she V's her legs and sits right behind them holding them.  If they lie down she sits them up, moves them around. It bugs the heck out of them - mostly I think because she digs in her fingers - she doesn't know how to hold them without squeezing with the ends of her fingers (even though I should her the red marks she makes sometimes).  But man I'm getting to the point where I'm saying very exasperated to her "Would- you -just - stop- bugging - your sisters!!"    Not the nicest way to go about it.  It's no wonder they are taking longer at physical accomplishments than the older two - they don't have a chance to do anything.  Maybe they need to realize if they crawled faster or started learning to walk they could actually get away!

OK I'm off to bed.

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Judy, Nathan's only tried to lift Danielle up a few times, and not recently thank goodness. 

It was reading the bit about the drawers having all the clothes dumped out that got me thinking too Judy, it happened with his books and then when he'd got bored of all that he made his way through 2 packets of disposable nappies and unpicked EVERY SINGLE velcro tab LOL! :lol:  Fortunately that only happened about 3 times, obviously the number of nappies tired his fingers out pretty quickly LOL.  I used to just pick everything up as well - mind you if you leave everything out she's not getting the chance to get it out of her system, but equally maybe she'll forget about it if all stays out for a week...

Traci, it was this site:

http://www.naomialdort.com/articles.html

[solnme]

Hey, hey...

Ankie - Steady Eddie!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!  You just have to climb over all the  before you see it.  :wink:

Karen - can empathize with you over the whole future SIL thing.  My bro married his wife's childhood friend!  :shock:  :shock:  :?  Very ugly situation. The 3 of us used to work together and I could see it coming.  I never really said anything but at the same time but didn't fake my feelings and stayed out of the situation. (didn't attend the quicky wedding)  Anyway, 3 years later and I've never seen my brother happier.  I never would of guessed it aould turn out like it has.  She's actually pretty sweet and I'm glad I didn't alienate myself from them by telling them how I really felt at the time. 
Don't have any advice for you but just thought I'd share.

Nikki - which articles are you talking about?  I've been away for oh-so-long.

Richelle- Dang!! What a blessing you have such quick reflexes. 

Lovely homes eveyone who's posted pics.  It looks like you had a lot of fun decorating.  I can't wait! 

So the finances came through smoothly. I'm such a stress freak, I always anticipate the worst so I'm prepared or pleasantly surprised.

Sol skipped the pm nap again today after plenty of wind down and just in his window.  I didn't fight him and we ended up having a great afternoon on the floor.  AND he went down in 3 mins tonight he was so exhausted. 
Win Win situation I think!

[Arwyn's mom]

Nikki, thanks for the article on play... here are my two bits.

I strongly feel that play is becoming a frowned upon activity waaayyyy too early. For example... the Lamaze brand & Leap Frog company makes "educational" toys" for 0+ months. (Don't get me wrong, I like the toys they make, we have a few ourselves... this is just an example.) I know that the "textured" caterpillar Arwyn has will teach her there are different textures... but so do her clothes, the recycling box :roll: , the different blankets/towels/throws we have in the house. So... first thing is that the toys we are consuming drive us towards what I think of as "multi-tasking" play. It is no longer good enough to have a toy bus, it is better to have a bus that has the letters of the alphabet on it, 3 different sound options, with 3 different characters in it that do something different with each option, etc. (Can you tell, we have this toy?)

Second thing, play is conspicuously absent in schools. I am a firm believer in that playing is a child's job and that at least part of the day, in the early primary grades, should be devoted to play. Playing is the most natural way to learn, and given the appropriate toys, will foster imagination and creativity without much intervention from adults. It would be nice to see that children in schools have an opportunity to play as part of instructional time, not only during break times, where they are often unsupervised in the same number ratio as in the classroom. I truly believe that play will connect what is being learned in a structured environment to real life. And we all know that those "ah-ha"s we make for ourselves are things we tend to remember longer and better.

Okay... I'll stop there. I can go on forever about this. The type of toys nowadays and play in schools. Get me on a soapbox and you can't haul me off.  :roll:  :oops:  :wink:

Michelle... meant to say a long time ago... yup, rude Ts alright... sent the link to DH and his comment was... consider the likely demographic.

Andrea... Poop about the name. I was thinking about A.T.A. for the initials in all three of your names... but what would it stand for?? Art, Taste & Apparel? Something along those lines is what I was thinking. If I come up with something else, I'll pass it along.

Traci... CONGRATS on the independent sleep! Way to go, COLE! You give me hope, woman, you really do!! I love your nursery, I don't know if I told you the first time you posted that pic. Also, very cute pictures from your visit today. That tunnel picture is great! BTW, I think they sell those kinds of tunnels at Ikea.

Kate... waiting for your chant/anti-jinx song & dance for me to picture during those mid of the night PD sessions! Oh... BTW, thanks for the picture of the arch. I have never seen it, I know it exists only because the sign for St. Louis is in the shape of the arch. And your play area and Nikki's looks like ours... Arwyn has taken over the entire dining room (we don't have any furniture in it).

Erin... diaper rash... Arwyn only had one bout of it, right when she was newborn. What we did was to dry her bum REALLY well, sometimes with a hairdryer, before applying a THICK layer of medicated Penaten cream to it. When it had cleared up a bit, we continued to make sure her bum was really dry and then used vaseline on it for a couple of weeks. It never came back.

Judy... your girls crack me up. I can picture the sheets of paper flying over the shoulder!!! And you are so GOOD about it all, keeping your sense of humour and good nature. I would be screaming. :roll: And... I love the "I'm not giving you any ideas but..." comment!

Roz... can't wait to hear all about the new house. BTW, where is it? In town or the burbs?

Wow!!! All the pictures of rooms in your houses!! It feels like I'm visiting! My house, is not clean enough for pictures. :roll: And Nikki & Kate, I don't mean full of toys... it is a messy, disorganized mess that I am too embarassed to post. :oops:

And all the nurseries are beautiful!!! DH and I didn't do anything special... Arwyn has stick-on Winnie the Pooh characters and a border above the window and closet. Basic white crib, plain unstained pine futon, beech coloured tall bookshelf and two dressers that didn't fit into DH's & my room :oops: . Just mis-matched stuff... not nearly as coordinated as the nurseries I am looking at on this thread!!

Okay... the part you have all been waiting for. It took me 14 minutes to put Arwyn down and I didn't stay the 20 minutes  :oops: but she let me know all about it by waking up 5 minutes later and needing me to be there for another 15 minutes. So... total of 30 minute PD tonight, with minimal patting and singing. Roz... light is flickering, just enough to entice me to continue forward. *Sigh*

Sorry this post is so long. I was so behind on saying what I wanted to say to everybody. Okay... off to hold my breath that Arwyn doesn't wake before DH comes home and to pray that she sleeps through the night. She has already stirred 3 times and put herself back each time so... we'll see.

Nighty-night!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Ankie, I agree about the playing and toys.  I've always tried to find toys that are minimal and not a push-the-button type.  For Nathan's first birthday he got a box of wooden blocks and a trolley and a little people garage - all of these toys allow for creativity, aren't limited, can be a toy from age 1-4 as his development changes - his trolley's been a lawnmower, gets walked along the road to collect treasures, amongst other things, the blocks - well he's just coming into his element with those and the little people garage was good for driving all sorts of things over and around.  I think we only have a couple of electronic music type toys, and I've noticed they have such a short life as far as usability and not a lot of imagination required.  Nathan's now getting into funky tunes, so has actually taken over Danielle's toy phone and dances to the rhythm.  :lol:

After re-reading that article I think the bit I must have been referring to above was probably down further in one of the other articles.  Never mind, I couldn't find it.

[hayes]

Yow just caught up after a long time... real quick post.
Karen don't want to hold the mailing any longer Ben's b-day is April 1st.
more later ladies.  Have a great day night.
macaire

[Judy]

Nikki wrote:  DH did the same to Nathan a few months back when he was squirming in DH's arms being silly, accidentally kicked DH in the nads and he dropped him on his forehead!

ROTFLMAO