Archive for May, 2008

15 Months Baby!!

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Ian-mo15 Ian-mo12Ian had his fifteen month check up on Thursday. I know I’m a little late posting about it, but I’ve been busy the last couple of days. Ian is off with Nana this weekend, so I have a little more time to play on the internet before going to pack.

Anyway, he had is doc appointment. He weighed in at 24 lbs which is actually less than what he was at his 12 month checkout, but only by 3 oz, so it’s not bad. My guess, his diaper was a little fuller than it was this time. He has grown, he’s now 31.5 inches long. This all puts him in the 50-75 percentile for his weight and the 50 percentile for his height; the doc said he’s more proportionate regarding his height:weight ratio. His head is 19.75 inches, which is in the 95 percentile. My little man’s brain grew by an inch!! I’m hoping that is good. He received more vaccinations during this visit, but I was told that after his 18th month checkup, he’ll be done with vaccinations for awhile. He received the Haemophilus Influenzae (type b HIB vaccine), DTap (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis), and Pneumococcal (PCV). Just a side note, I found these handy vaccination schedules over at the CDC. Overall, the doctor said Ian was developing well. He had Ian do a running test; well, I think it was more of a test to see how well Ian walked, but Ian kinda ran to me instead. Everything looked good, and since we’re worried about Ian developing Asthma since both of us had it, the doc checked and there isn’t any sign of it at the moment. The one thing the Doc did want to mention is to make sure we use suntan lotion on Ian when he’s outside. Even if he’s out for 15 minutes, we need to hit the exposed areas. He’s pale right now, so he’ll burn easier.

While at the doctors office, we did find out something troublesome….Ian can open doors now. The exam room door had a latch handle (the type where you push down to open) and Ian figured out how that works. While we waited for his vaccinations, Ian decided it would be a fun game to escape the room and have mama run after him.

In the past three months, Ian has started clapping his hands on demand or when he knows something is good. His balance has also been improving remarkably. He’s even started trying to run, but he’s not quite there yet. If he gets going too fast, his head gets farther than his body and he ends up falling. Plus, he’s climbing anything and everything. He can easily get on any piece of furniture (end tables, chairs, couches, dinner tables, etc) and he has no problem getting down. Although, there are times he doesn’t realize he can’t simply walk off the furniture. He still has his four teeth, bu the has been teething something fierce, so we’re hoping for some more soon. The doc did say he saw them, but they weren’t broken through yet.

We’ve also started a new sleep habit for Ian. Well, he didn’t have much choice in the matter, so he didn’t take to it right away. Basically, Ian hadn’t learned how to fall asleep on his own since I was always rocking him to sleep, so we started the Ferber Method. It means we stick Ian in his bed and let him cry himself to sleep. The first night was a little rough, but it’s going fine now. Ian cries when I go to put him in his bed, but once I get him in, he generally goes right to sleep. He may talk or whimper for a bit, but he doesn’t do it for long. We’ve even started doing this for his naps and it generally takes him a little longer to go to sleep, but that’s mainly because he doesn’t want to and he wants to stay up and play. Overall, it’s going good.

Speaking of sleeping, Ian’s nap habits have changed. He’s now officially down to one nap a day. He started skipping naps around his 1 year birthday, but I really wasn’t enforcing it since he wasn’t doing it every day. Now, it’s uncommon if he wants two naps, so we’re doing one naps only now. Ian’s been fine with it. He gets his nap around noon and he sleeps for about 2 hours, depending on the day. There are times he sleeps for only an hour and other times he out for 3, but it depends a lot on how he’s feeling. While he’s teething, he doesn’t normally sleep for very long, but I don’t really give him Motrin before his naps, so he gets woken up by the pain sometimes. He gets teething tablets, but they only work for so long it seems like. There are times when it seems like he’s getting tired at night, even though he had his afternoon nap, but he really doesn’t want to go to sleep. This just makes it easier to get him to bed at night, so we’re not really worried about it.

Ian did make his first trip to the Zoo in April and he loved the petting area. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time there, but I know that I’m going to have to find some in the area to take him to. We’ve also been spending as much time outside as we can. It’s been a little hard since the ground outside our apartment building has become a doggy toilet (the complex is working to correct that or so they say), but we’ve been going to different parks whenever we’re able. Ian is really loving the chance to be outside, so I know he’s going to love the backyard when we get a house. Now we just need to get our own toys for out there.

That’s pretty much what has been happening the last couple of months. We’re starting to get into the summer months and this year it’s going to be a lot different with Ian. This time last year, Ian was barely sitting up and moving on his own, so it was pretty much quiet. Now he’s running around and wanting to get into everything, so I have a feeling we’ll be a little busier this year (getting a house notwithstanding). Our Mom’s Group has plans to spend our meetings at different parks and at the zoo this year since we can’t have them at our usually meeting place, so Ian will definitely get his time outside in.

1st Place!

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A friend of mine started a photo contest with the focus being on ones kids. Well, this last theme was pictures with their aunts and/or uncles and I submitted one for Ian. Guess what, he won first place. It’s just a fun contest with about a couple dozen other participants, so there really isn’t anything to gain out of it, but it’s still fun. The picture was taken last September, so he’s a little young in it, but I do like this picture with Lori and Jayson.

Me & You

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We went to the park today and found a pleasant surprise…there was a car show going on. All of these old classics were all over the place and it instantly made me thing of Grandma and Grandpa Smith. Ian wasn’t so sure about it at first. We tried playing on the tot lot, but with all the cars around and all the different people coming and going, he kept getting distracted and didn’t want to play much. So we roamed around the car show and he saw a car that he really liked. He kept going back to it and checking out the wheel axles. I’m not sure what the car was, but it looked like the picture.

Since the park was pretty much a bust, we went to Border books to find some new Touchy-Feely books but they really didn’t have any I liked. They had some Ian doesn’t have, but I wasn’t crazy about the feely parts. All of them pretty much had the same words that we already have – fuzzy, scratchy, rough, etc. But one did have a touch I haven’t seen before – rusty. I do want to get him the That’s Not My Robot and That’s Not My Monster, but I haven’t come across them in Barnes & Noble or Borders yet. We did end up leaving the store with some new books, so Ian still made out.

When we got home, Ian was being a little clingy and while it was annoying, once we started listening to what he was saying, we figured out he was saying “Me”. He was just going walking around me, holding his arms up so I could pick him up, saying “me me me me”. I finally did pick him up (I was trying to make dinner at the time) and Jesse & I started pointing out what “me” was. We were pointing to ourselves and saying “ME” and then we started doing teh same thing with “YOU”. We didn’t think he would pick it up that quickly, but when Jesse pointed to me, Ian said “YOU”. We haven’t been able to get him to say it again, but he’s starting to pick up words and repeating them back to you. He’s getting mama and daddy down, but he’s still not doing it on command. He knows who we are and what we want when we say the words, but he’s not repeating them yet. However, he is picking up different words and repeating them at odd intervals. He may not repeat what you say when you say it, but he’ll do it eventually. With that said, everyone needs to start watching what they say around him. Jesse & I know we have to work on it, but this is everyone else’s warning.

Sleeping & Blocks

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So it’s been close to two weeks since we started the Ferber Method and it could be better. I don’t think this was the perfect time to begin this, mainly because Ian is doing some major teething. Up until three nights ago, he was sleeping pretty much all night, with some nights going 10 hours straight without a whimper. The first night was the roughest, with Ian crying for about 20 minutes. After that, if he goes past 5-10 minutes, then it’s a rough night. He’s getting the idea and calms down pretty quickly. There were even a couple of nights where I laid him in his crib and he went right to sleep.

However, the last three nights he has gotten up exactly six hours after he went to sleep. How do we know it’s been exactly six hours…easy, the Motrin wore off. We weren’t sure what was going on the first two nights. Ian would get up around 3am and we couldn’t get him back to sleep. He wanted to be held and comforted and we did do that, to an extent. By the third time where he wouldn’t sleep, I would end up picking him up and rocking him for a bit. He would fall asleep instantly, but as soon as I put him in his crib, he woke up. We finally figured it out that he was getting up when the Motrin was running out (it’s only good for 6-8 hours) and he’s gums were hurting him again. We gave him Motrin the first time he woke up and we got him back to bed and he was out within 5 minutes. Needless to say, we’ll have Motrin on standby tonight.

We’re thinking, that once this tooth [these teeth] pop through, he’ll actually sleep through the night and everyone will be happy. Now if only I could get him to take more than an hour nap. He needs it, but he keeps waking up and I have too hard of a time getting him back to sleep.

In other news, Ian picked up all of his blocks tonight. We’ve been slowly teaching Ian to pick up his toys by asking him to help us. Usually he helps us until he wants to get them out again. But tonight, Jesse made him do all of his blocks by himself and he turned it into a game. It was so cute. I was in the laundry room and I could hear Ian giggling like crazy, so I went and grabbed the camera.

CJ & Ian at the Park

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Trish & CJ came up and spent some time with us at the park. It was our first picnic lunch and it went better than I thought it would. Ian did wander more than eat, but once I could get his attention to eat, he sat down and dug in. However, I’m thinking next time, we start with the playing and then do lunch. Let them wear themselves out first so they’ll sit still long enough to eat.

Horsing Around

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Mama & Ian

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Another day at the park…

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Cars & Parks

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It was raining the other day when we got home, so instead of unbuckling Ian while I was getting wet, we undid his straps while we were still in the car. He can get himself out if need be, and we pulled him into the front of the vehicle with us. He had a blast checking out all of the dials and buttons.

Yesterday was so nice, although a little chilly, that Ian and I spent the afternoon at the park. Why be cooped up in the house when I had the car after all. For some reason, Ian had more fun picking up all of the wood chips and placing them on any surface he could find. He also liked putting them through anything as well.

Reading is Fundamental

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I saw this posted on on one of my author sites:

The 2009 proposed U.S. budget calls for the elimination of funding for Reading Is Fundamental’ s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program. The program distributes free books to 4.6 million children and families and runs reading encouragement programs in 20,000 locations in the U.S. RIF President and CEO Carol H. Rasco says, “Unless Congress reinstates $26 million in funding for this program, RIF will not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children … Since its founding in 1966, RIF’s programs have played an important role in improving literacy in this country.” Visit RIF’s Web site, to see how you can take action.

It would be a travesty if this program was canceled. Promoting reading to young children is essential. It’s my belief that if children don’t get exposed to books while they are young, then they won’t want to read later on. My public library has weekly storytimes and he received a free book each time he went. I started taking him when he was only 5 months old and he loved going there. He was always interested in the books and even after 10 months, he loves to read. He’s constantly bringing books to me and wanting to sit and read them together. If we hadn’t started going to those storytimes and reading to him at home, would he have that love today?

If you want to help save the Reading Is Fundamental program, then follow this link. Here you can write to your senator or representative using the pre-made letter. It is important to read to young children, so please write in and tell Congress how important this program is.

I wrote in…are you going to?

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Reading Is Fundamental wrote:
Thank you. Your involvement is vital to reinstating RIF’s federal funding. Building and fostering productive relationships with Congress is the only way to guarantee that RIF is around for another 40 years.

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