I'd hate to see the lint that comes from one of those

I love it when Christian brings drawings home from daycare. I know some parents are afraid of asking their kids what the drawing is of because they might hurt the child's feelings for not knowing what it is. That is not the case with me...I always have to ask because Chris comes up with the craziest drawings, so there would be no way I could ever guess.

Here's his latest work of art:

Me: That's a nice drawing Chris, tell me about it.

C: It's three people.

Me: What are those black dots?

C: They have Giant Bellybuttons

Me: Did you forget this one? (I point to the one on the right)

C: No, he doesn't have one

I have a feeling the three people in this picture are (l to r) me, Christian and Jordan, but that's just a guess (the one on the left has flippy hair). My poor little Jordan must have come from an egg or something since he has no belly button. Either that or he's the one with the giant bellybutton. Perhaps Chris is trying to tell me something because I spoil JJ too much....cut the cord Mom, you're giving him a hernia.

See, I told you his artwork was entertaining. Although, I'm not sure what's more entertaining, what he draws, or how I interpret it.

Anyway, I get at least one drawing every day and I don't really know what to do with them anymore? I used to save them, but I've got enough of a packrat problem, so I don't want to keep doing that. I put them on the fridge, but then after a while, there's just too many on there.

One nifty idea I read about was to scan the drawings (or take a picture of it like I did for this post) and then make a photo book out of all the pictures. These are easy to make since there are so many picture printing websites now a days.

What do you do with your kids' artwork? I'd love to hear some ideas on this, I can't keep them all, but it breaks my little heart (or my giant belly button) to get rid of them.

Daycare Drama

Yesterday was JJ's first day at daycare, well, partial day. He was there for an hour and a half. The thing is, I didn't even know that it was until I got home.

My mom has been on vacation since the beginning of this month, so I took a week of to stay with the baby and then R took a week off. My original plan was to start taking him to the lady that watches Christian a little bit each day so he could get used to it. I chickened out and never did it though. This week, R was watching him and he didn't chicken out. He just dropped him off, went to do some shopping at the supermarket and then picked him up. Wow, cold turkey, just like that. Here I was analyzing how I was going to do it....half an hour the first day, with me there, a little longer the second day, with me there, but out of sight, a little longer the third day with me not there at all. I did all this planning in my head and he just dropped him off just like that.

He's not even one yet. I think Christian was one and a half before he went to the daycare, but unfortunately my mom just can't watch JJ like she used to with Chris. Her energy and patience just aren't the same.

I'm just glad I didn't find out about it until afterwards. Jordan cried the whole time he was there. Today he went again for the same amount of time. Again, he cried the whole time he was there. Jordan is really attached to me (total mama's boy) and it pains me to know he was bawling for all that time. My mom comes back this weekend. She's going to be watching him in the morning and then taking him to the daycare in the afternoon. I hope the crying doesn't continue. Please tell me it's going to get better. It just has to right?

Update on various Little Ones

The OB appointment went well yesterday except that I had a "full exam" that I wasn't expecting. I hate it when that happens cause I like to make preparations for those types of invasive exams. Little wiggly is doing great (HR 150-ish). I haven't felt any kicks/flutters yet, so (s)he's pretty well behaved. After 16 weeks the queasiness is finally gone. I was very lucky this time (and last time too) because the morning sickness was almost non-existent. The worst that I got was a car-sicky feeling whenever my stomach was empty which quickly went away whenever I ate.

I asked the doctor if I could ride the kiddie rides at the fair and she said that those were fine. I figure if it's gentle enough for a two year old, it can't be too bad right? And yes, THE FAIR is coming in two weeks and I can't wait. I'm salivating just thinking about all the yummy fair food.

I found out courtesy of bug guide that our little grassy friends from Monday are Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers. I need to stop touching (and letting Chris touch) little animals that I find out in the wild because those little guys seem to have "ample chemical defenses"...oops. I also saw these little parrots in the tree outside my office last week, but don't worry, I didn't try to touch those...I couldn't reach 'em.

Chris has an appointment for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow. He's been poking his stomach and saying "stomach hurts" for almost a week now, so the doctor felt it was best to check him and see what the problem is. At first I thought it was a phrase he picked up at daycare, but he's been saying it for too many days now. It may or may not be related to whatever illness he had this week, so let's see.

Speaking of phrases from daycare, he definitely got this one there. Whenever he watches TV at home and a commercial for a toy (any toy, be it Barbies or My Little Pony, or Transformers) comes on he used to say "I want it". That was fine and dandy for a little while since he didn't really connect that you can find those things in a store and buy them. Lately though, he says "I like it...I want it...Find it mommy" and he goes into his playroom to look for said toy as if he has it already. Oh boy, this is only going to get worse huh?

Feverish times and ABC's

I haven't gotten much work done for the past 5 days because CMan had been sporting a runny nose/fever/vomiting spell on and off since Friday. A trip to the doctor on Monday revealed nothing concrete, so she had to order some blood work. Poor baby, I hate it when they order blood work. After the visit we stepped outside and discovered these cute little friends in the grass. They were all over the place and Chris was having a great time picking them up. I just had to make sure he didn't squeeze them too hard.

In other news, CMan surprised me by singing his ABC's in the car the other day. Since then, I've been trying to get him to do it on film, but every time he sees the camera he freaks out and wants to play with it instead of doing whatever he was doing. I finally got a little spy cam action going on, but I got busted at the end...check it out:



Amidst the fever spikes, he also managed to go #1 and #2 in the potty again on his own (before bath time). This time I had stickers on hand. Yay stickers. I bought a grab bag of small toys so I can give him one whenever he goes; hopefully those will be a bit more of an incentive since he's got lots of stickers already anyway.

At daycare they were focusing on colors last week, so he's learned his colors now too. Speaking of daycare, his fevers were gone yesterday and he should be ready to go back to daycare today, but R has the day off, so I think he's going to keep him home one more day just to be sure.

Last but not least, check out the drawing he did by himself the other day.

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In Little Wiggly news, I've got a doctor's apppointment today, so I'll let you know how that goes too.

Updates of all sorts

We've been busy doing lots of fun stuff lately, so I apologize because the blogging has fallen by the wayside.

The Friday before last, my partner in crime Jenny, came to visit from LA. She was going on a trip with her parents, so unfortunately I only got to see her for one night. Although one night is barely enough time for us to talk and catch up, we made the most of it. We went to out to dinner and had fun goofing off with our friends Meg and Claude. Meg and I are going to LA in two months to see her though, so I'll see you in September Jen!

We will be adding another boy to our group of kidlets because I found out that my friends Lissette and Mike are expecting a little one in October. I found out a tad late though since she's already 25 weeks (prob 26 by now). She was waiting for the first trimester to pass before telling anyone and then after that, she didn't quite know how to tell people because so much time had passed. I wonder if she planned on letting people know with the baby shower invitation! Speaking of babies...my friend Lilli is due to have her little boy at the end of this month. She's got a poll going to see who can guess the date of the baby's arrival. I guessed the 18th, so let's all send some contraction vibes to her so I can win ok? Ha ha...sorry Lilli.

I've been feeling awfully creative lately, so I had a little arts and crafts session at home the other day. Since Cman likes to act like he's the king of the universe, I made a little crown for him to wear on his head. I'm also working on a little project for his birthday in September. I could have bought this item for $35, but I think it's so much more fun to make things yourself. Too bad you'll have to wait until Sept to see what it is (what a tease).

Christian had his first little coin operated vehicle ride in Walmart the other day. At first it freaked him out a little, but then he enjoyed the ride. He even found a little toy cow in the car.

The weekend before last we went to Dylan's first birthday party. There was a fun ball pit for the kids and I'm happy to report that Cman actually got in to play with the other kids...repeatedly! Woohoo! Yay for progress! You laugh, but I bet you it was the ball pit training that helped!

Unfortunately the area where no progress is being made is in the swimming pool. Whereas before he would get in the pool (and stay in for the whole class) and even go underwater, now he doesn't even want to go in anymore. The past 3 times that we have taken him to the pool he has only wanted to play on the steps or not even wanted to get in at all. I guess it was too much too soon; now we have to take it slow and let him get warmed up to it again. I don't want to freak him out so that he'll never want to go in the water again, so we have to take cues from him and go at his pace, however slow that may be.

The daycare is going fabulously. He doesn't cry anymore when Ren drops him off (neither does Ren..ha ha jk). He sleeps one two-hour nap now and that is a glorious stretch of time that allows me to nap with him or get important stuff done around the house (you know like scrapping and watching movies and stuff).

I haven't done a "words" blog in over a month because he's gotten to the point that I can no longer count them and/or remember them. He used to say one or two new words per day, but now he repeats things all the time, so I'd have to be walking around with a notepad in order to get them all down. Let's just say he's become quite a little parrot.

Speaking of parrots, we'll be going to a pirate theme birthday party this weekend, so adorable toddler pirate photos are forthcoming!

Mama's girl

Woohoo! Why am I so happy you ask? Well, for one, I'm eating cheeseballs...and two, my mommy came back from vacation yesterday! In fact, I was so distressed that she had left that I hadn't even mentioned it here (that isn't sarcasm, it's the truth). Yes, my mom was on vacation for like 19 days and that meant that we had to make alternative arrangements for Mr. Cman's care.

R and I went back and forth about what we would do. I wanted him to go to daycare for some much needed socialization, he didn't want to throw his baby to the lions, so he took the first week off from work. R stayed with Chris for most of the day, but he also took him to the daycare across from my mom's house for a couple of hours a day as well (so he can get used to it....Ren, not Christian). My mom was doing this too before she left, so it wasn't anything new to Christian. For the second week, R managed to take the days off as well since he had some unused vacation from last year (how is THAT possible you ask? the MAN does not like to take vacation...yes, weird...I know).

So the second week he took Cman to the day care for larger chunks of time: from like 9 am to 3pm. Chris cries when R drops him off (they probably both do), but he does that at my mom's house too, so it's all about the Daddy attachment and not so much about where he's being left. Other than that, it hasn't been too much of a tragedy. I can already see the benefits of him being there because he plays by himself more these days and doesn't really need me next to him at all times. The lady tells me that he feeds himself (I wonder how much he actually eats vs what ends up on his clothes) and he watches Sesame Street ("Emmmo") and he takes two hour naps and he gets lots of love from the other kids and he has a great time.

Now that my mom is back, he is going to continue going to the daycare, but my mom will be picking him up at around 3pm so he doesn't spend THAT much time there. I think it's going well so far. Yay!