Monday, January 26, 2009
Ring-around-the-rosey
I'm working on getting the video, but here are a few pictures. Unfortunately the best ones are out of focus (but I'm posting them anyway). So this is Ben and his cousin Havyn who is 2 months younger than him.
And one of Jack playing in his swing...
And one of Jack playing in his swing...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tiger!!
I started showing the word cards to Ben and asking him "What's this word". Well, out of about 25 that I showed him yesterday he got "tiger", "wave" and "hi". Also when I showed him "smiling" he pointed to his teeth ("teeth" is not one of his words). Then today while he was swinging I showed him the word cards again, and again he got "tiger" right away. Soooo... after only 3 weeks of showing the DVD's and the word cards as much as possible he IS learning to read! Very cool!
I keep trying to get Jack to watch the DVD, but he is not much interested yet. I'll keep at it though. If I can get both kids reading by age 3 I will be very pleased.
Today was Eric's birthday party at the clubhouse at his apartment complex. Ben had a fantastic time playing chase and hide-and-seek with Aunt Aimee and Havyn. Rob took lots of pictures and I got some video of Ben and Havyn playing ring-around-the-rosey (a new one for Ben - he just learned it today).
Ben also slept until 8 am this morning!!! =-O Normally he is up without fail at 5:50 am no matter what time he goes to bed. I was very pleasantly surprised! He also did not take a nap at all today and was still very good - no whining or fussing.
Jack has been sleeping pretty consistently from 5:30pm to 4am - only waking occasionally for paci retreival or re-swaddle. He is still a very happy baby!
I'll try to get Rob to get the video of Ben into some format where I can post it.
I keep trying to get Jack to watch the DVD, but he is not much interested yet. I'll keep at it though. If I can get both kids reading by age 3 I will be very pleased.
Today was Eric's birthday party at the clubhouse at his apartment complex. Ben had a fantastic time playing chase and hide-and-seek with Aunt Aimee and Havyn. Rob took lots of pictures and I got some video of Ben and Havyn playing ring-around-the-rosey (a new one for Ben - he just learned it today).
Ben also slept until 8 am this morning!!! =-O Normally he is up without fail at 5:50 am no matter what time he goes to bed. I was very pleasantly surprised! He also did not take a nap at all today and was still very good - no whining or fussing.
Jack has been sleeping pretty consistently from 5:30pm to 4am - only waking occasionally for paci retreival or re-swaddle. He is still a very happy baby!
I'll try to get Rob to get the video of Ben into some format where I can post it.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
For Poppy
I was supposed to do this the other day after getting "tagged", but just now was able to get the pictures off of the camera. Candid shot of the boys:
Okay, now I'm supposed to go to my 4th picture folder and post the 4th picture and explain it.
Ugh! I think this was a 9th month belly shot of Jack.
Okay, onto some more interesting pics of the boys...
Ben likes to play *on* Jack more than *with* him.
But he's a good brother 'cause he gives Jack his sleepy bear and paci pretty often:
Chillin' with Daddy:
Okay, now I'm supposed to go to my 4th picture folder and post the 4th picture and explain it.
Ugh! I think this was a 9th month belly shot of Jack.
Okay, onto some more interesting pics of the boys...
Ben likes to play *on* Jack more than *with* him.
But he's a good brother 'cause he gives Jack his sleepy bear and paci pretty often:
Chillin' with Daddy:
Monday, January 19, 2009
Reading & Songs
I think it was yesterday that I was reading a book to Ben (Big Smile, Baby) - the one where you lift the flaps. Anyway, we finished the book and then he wanted to turn back through the pages. So, he stopped on a page and since 'baby' is one of the words in his reading DVDs I pointed to the word and said "What word is that?" to which he immediately answered "Baby!". =-O Coincidence? I donno.
Tonight we were reading one of the books that comes with the whole system. We again read through all the words, lifting them up to look at each picture that represents the word. Got done with that one and again, he wanted to flip back through. He stopped on a page and I said "What's that word?" and I could almost swear he said "Zip!" (and it WAS). I guess the reading thing is working (even though he doesn't pay attention to the DVDs all the time) so I'll of course keep doing what we're doing.
Lately I've been singing with Ben a lot. We do Itsy Bitsy Spider, London Bridge, Old MacDonald, BINGO, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or as Benjamin calls it "Winkle Tar"). He now requests them and if I start to sing the wrong one he says "STOP Mommy, STOP!"
I also try to get him to participate. When I sing Old MacDonald I stop at "and on his farm he had some ______" at which point Benjamin always enthusiastically says "PIGS!" with a big smile. He's also learning "If You're Happy and You Know It" from the DVDs, and tonight while I was making dinner I peeked in the living room and saw that he was doing the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse.
They just get cuter and cuter every day!
Tonight we were reading one of the books that comes with the whole system. We again read through all the words, lifting them up to look at each picture that represents the word. Got done with that one and again, he wanted to flip back through. He stopped on a page and I said "What's that word?" and I could almost swear he said "Zip!" (and it WAS). I guess the reading thing is working (even though he doesn't pay attention to the DVDs all the time) so I'll of course keep doing what we're doing.
Lately I've been singing with Ben a lot. We do Itsy Bitsy Spider, London Bridge, Old MacDonald, BINGO, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or as Benjamin calls it "Winkle Tar"). He now requests them and if I start to sing the wrong one he says "STOP Mommy, STOP!"
I also try to get him to participate. When I sing Old MacDonald I stop at "and on his farm he had some ______" at which point Benjamin always enthusiastically says "PIGS!" with a big smile. He's also learning "If You're Happy and You Know It" from the DVDs, and tonight while I was making dinner I peeked in the living room and saw that he was doing the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse.
They just get cuter and cuter every day!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday Doings
Ben had a great time at the birthday party today. The weather was nice, so everyone played outside for a bit. Max had lots of toy tractors to ride on, his dad Mike had built a "house" out of hay and they had a swingset with slide as well. Unfortunately we were in such a rush to get out the door that I forgot the camera. Sorry! Rob says Ben climbed up on top of the hay house and did great playing with the other kids.
Ben has still been waking up before 6am every morning even though he is going to bed no earlier than 7pm. I am beginning to think it's because of all these marathon 2 1/2 to 3 hour naps he is taking every day. We had to wake him up after only about an hour today so we'll see if that helps him sleep longer at night. I think tomorrow if it looks like he is going to sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours I will wake him up again. Maybe that will help him sleep in a bit. Sure would be nice!
He is also still taking off his pants and diaper in the evening and sitting on the potty by the fireplace for a few minutes (sometimes he will do this in the mornings too). Then he says "all done" (even though he hasn't done anything) and gets up and goes to get a new diaper out of the drawer and then hands it to me. Tonight he got 2 diapers out of the drawer and brought them in and said "This one or this one?" I pointed to one (they were identical) and he handed it to me and then went and put the other one back in the drawer. Funny! Hopefully this will lead to him actually USING the potty. I think it's cool that he is potty training himself.
Jack went to bed at 5pm last night and didn't wake up until 3:30am. Starting tonight he will be on all formula. I fed him last night at 3:30 but I'm not sure he actually got anything so he got a bottle at 4am as well. I also gave him some oatmeal today because he seemed to be having constipation issues and the oatmeal I gave him on the other days seemed to help. It helped today too - within a couple of hours. As long as it doesn't seem to be bothering him I guess I'll continue with the oatmeal for a week and then try something new after that.
Jack's eyes are still very blue. He is also in 9 month clothes now! It will be interesting to see how much he weighs at the next pediatrician visit which is next month.
Ben has still been waking up before 6am every morning even though he is going to bed no earlier than 7pm. I am beginning to think it's because of all these marathon 2 1/2 to 3 hour naps he is taking every day. We had to wake him up after only about an hour today so we'll see if that helps him sleep longer at night. I think tomorrow if it looks like he is going to sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours I will wake him up again. Maybe that will help him sleep in a bit. Sure would be nice!
He is also still taking off his pants and diaper in the evening and sitting on the potty by the fireplace for a few minutes (sometimes he will do this in the mornings too). Then he says "all done" (even though he hasn't done anything) and gets up and goes to get a new diaper out of the drawer and then hands it to me. Tonight he got 2 diapers out of the drawer and brought them in and said "This one or this one?" I pointed to one (they were identical) and he handed it to me and then went and put the other one back in the drawer. Funny! Hopefully this will lead to him actually USING the potty. I think it's cool that he is potty training himself.
Jack went to bed at 5pm last night and didn't wake up until 3:30am. Starting tonight he will be on all formula. I fed him last night at 3:30 but I'm not sure he actually got anything so he got a bottle at 4am as well. I also gave him some oatmeal today because he seemed to be having constipation issues and the oatmeal I gave him on the other days seemed to help. It helped today too - within a couple of hours. As long as it doesn't seem to be bothering him I guess I'll continue with the oatmeal for a week and then try something new after that.
Jack's eyes are still very blue. He is also in 9 month clothes now! It will be interesting to see how much he weighs at the next pediatrician visit which is next month.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday Updates
Today Emily was pushing Ben in his swing and counting as she pushed him. She said she made it to 8 and then had to cough, but Ben counted in her place "9.....10! Yaaaaay!" and started clapping.
Yesterday he pointed to 3 magnetic letters on the fridge in rapid succession and said "J, K, O" (all correct). Emily and I decided he has learned quite a bit, but doesn't perform on demand.
Yesterday when Rob and I got home from our "date", Ben was swinging and had a ball in his hand and very clearly said "Mom, look at this". I was impressed! I had never heard him use that phrase before. He is getting better with his speech every day.
I started him on Volume 1 of "Your Baby Can Read" because he seems to have lost interest in the starter video after not quite 1 week. I emailed the company to ask them if this is common in his age group and if it was okay to go ahead and start Volume 1 early, but I haven't heard anything back yet, so I decided if he watched any of the DVDs it would be better than him getting up off of the couch and turning the TV off as he has been with the starter DVD.
I also started Benjamin on Xocai healthy chocolate today. I'm hoping that after about a week of it I can take him off of the Miralax and start introducing the milk and other formerly "no no" foods very slowly and hopefully he will be okay with them. (Incidentally, I started myself on it today as well and gave some to Emily to try hoping it will help her knee).
I didn't give Jack any oatmeal this morning. It didn't seem to be making any difference except I felt like he was spitting up more. I'll wait another few weeks and try again. We switched from giving him 7 oz. of formula every 3 - 3 1/2 hours to giving him 6 oz. every 2-3 hours. Emily said he didn't do as many spit-ups today, so that's good. He is getting cuter and growing so much every day. Pretty soon he'll be sitting up on his own, then crawling! I can't believe he'll be 6 months old (already) on February 11th, and by this summer he will be walking!
Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for an old friend of mine's son (Max) who is turning 4. I'll bet Ben has a great time - he loves other kids, especially older ones. I'll try to take pictures and post as soon as possible.
Yesterday he pointed to 3 magnetic letters on the fridge in rapid succession and said "J, K, O" (all correct). Emily and I decided he has learned quite a bit, but doesn't perform on demand.
Yesterday when Rob and I got home from our "date", Ben was swinging and had a ball in his hand and very clearly said "Mom, look at this". I was impressed! I had never heard him use that phrase before. He is getting better with his speech every day.
I started him on Volume 1 of "Your Baby Can Read" because he seems to have lost interest in the starter video after not quite 1 week. I emailed the company to ask them if this is common in his age group and if it was okay to go ahead and start Volume 1 early, but I haven't heard anything back yet, so I decided if he watched any of the DVDs it would be better than him getting up off of the couch and turning the TV off as he has been with the starter DVD.
I also started Benjamin on Xocai healthy chocolate today. I'm hoping that after about a week of it I can take him off of the Miralax and start introducing the milk and other formerly "no no" foods very slowly and hopefully he will be okay with them. (Incidentally, I started myself on it today as well and gave some to Emily to try hoping it will help her knee).
I didn't give Jack any oatmeal this morning. It didn't seem to be making any difference except I felt like he was spitting up more. I'll wait another few weeks and try again. We switched from giving him 7 oz. of formula every 3 - 3 1/2 hours to giving him 6 oz. every 2-3 hours. Emily said he didn't do as many spit-ups today, so that's good. He is getting cuter and growing so much every day. Pretty soon he'll be sitting up on his own, then crawling! I can't believe he'll be 6 months old (already) on February 11th, and by this summer he will be walking!
Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for an old friend of mine's son (Max) who is turning 4. I'll bet Ben has a great time - he loves other kids, especially older ones. I'll try to take pictures and post as soon as possible.
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