Helen's First Loose Tooth

Helen has a loose tooth AND a new tooth coming in quickly behind it. The new tooth, thankfully is normal shaped and appears healthy. Now, we've been encouraging Helen to wiggle her loose tooth!

Veggies

We have struggled to find veggies Walker will eat. He's pretty strong willed and will not eat them, even if a treat is promised afterward (reminds me of someone I know:). But these last few zucchinis of the season were a hit. Probably a bit because of their small size and the ranch dip. I tasted them and approve. Don't mistake this look for disapproval. He actually ate all of these, this is just a new face he's learned to make.

Outside

Walker also has a blast outside and asks more than the girls ever did to go outside. Of course, right now it's more grunting and pointing but he KNOWS OUTSIDE.
Many days, we are at the park 2-3 times. He loves to climb and is learning to slide.

Ba-na-na

This morning, Walker woke up with his usual hunger. As we were standing in the kitchen preparing to strap into the highchair, Walker pointed to the bunch of bananas on the counter and said BA-NA-NA! I was thrilled! Now, we've not been worried about his speech in particular, but I do think the girls were speaking more words by now. Of course, I shrieked and freaked him out so when I asked that he repeat to Poppy, he just gave his shy grin instead.

Previously, he's clearly pointed to a bird in his favorite book with Poppy, and said clearly BIRD. But has not repeated that with me during reading sessions. He has no problem with the word ball, which when he says it, sounds like BAHL. In fact everything round is a BAHL to Walker.

Today was a very communicative day, he was rubbing his belly for hungry and scratching his hips for pamper change. Plus a few other hand motions I could not quite make out, I have to learn his sign language as well.

Updates

So many updates:

Walker stood by himself for 10 seconds.

Carys lost her second tooth.

Helen gave a dance concert in the basement, western style.

I've got a few pics, I'll upload as soon as I can.

Another First-Tooth Fairy Where Are You?

Carys has had a loose tooth for a few months now. After almost a year of talking about it (because one of her school mates lost one at 4 yrs!). She finally managed to wiggle the tooth free tonight without tears. According to her she was in the closet when she finally managed to break it loose and heard a "crack" (her words). She showed me and I must say I did not expect my stomach to feel so queasy, but it did. So I offered to try to pull it out-eek. Napkin in hand, I tried to yank it halfheartedly, I admit. Carys was adamant, I was not to yank it (OK, no problem) but I could pull it. So we agreed she could continue to wiggle it until it fell out (it was literally hanging in her mouth). After playing with it while I cooked dinner, it came out without a frown.

So she's on cloud 9, Helen is happy for her and a little jealous of the impending tooth fairy visit, and I'm glad I did not have to do minor surgery before dinner. We made a little tooth purse for it and currently, it's under her pillow with a little baby Carys tooth waiting to be exchanged for some tooth fairy goodness.

First Grade for Carys!

Carys is officially a first grader! We started the morning alone reviewing some of her baby pictures. I'll have to put some here b/c I was not blogging at the time and she was such a little doll as they all are. We had a breakfast taco breakfast and the entire family walked Carys to her first day of school. We all had a little tear in our eye and lump in our throat this morning after she filed in the school building with the rest of her class.

Carys was quick to inform me that they did have snack and they did not do math. It was a short day so I think they just gave them all a tour, accounted for their school supplies, and the kids got to make name tags for their desks. Her teacher seems to be a more seasoned veteran, I'm a little glad for it. I think Carys will need some quick assessment to make sure she stays challenged and does not lose interest in reading and her other skills she's been developing.

Tomorrow is her first full day, we'll see how the family fares once we are in full swing. For now, the kids are in bed, her lunch box is in the freezer and I still have breakfast taco fixins to pull out in the morning.

Carys' first loose tooth

Carys has a loose tooth on the bottom. She's been waiting for a few months for this occasion, some of her younger friends have already lost teeth. She now never fails to remind me when she's eating something that it bothers her loose tooth. At the moment, she has banned all hard foods from her diet that would require her to bite and hurt her loose tooth.

Walker has begun eating table food. It's been a while since I've had to monitor our diet to include soft foods but I'm slowly recalling what passed for baby table food. Here, he's getting some reduced salt peas and a little help from his assistant. I had to shoo his assistant out of the area after she encouraged him to try more than one pea at a time.

Walker on the Move

It's about to get MUCH more interesting around our house. Walker is now scootching off his blanket and rolling about the living room. He was very interested in the floor speakers and I'm sure he find MUCH more interesting stuff in the girls room. Hmmm.

I Saw a Tooth

Walker has not been sleeping well and I thought it may be from traveling but Poppy called it and Walker is teething. Now we can actually see one cutting through so hopefully he can sleep once this is through, until the next one!

Carys Graduated from Kindergarten

Happy Graduation my dear Carys. You won't remember these days as well as I do but they are super sweet. I love you and thank God he lent you to me.

Gusto

Now that Helen's sleep situation is improving and her mood is much happier, she is enjoying her days.

Living with the well-rested Helen, I've determined she has gusto (vitality marked by an abundance of vigor and enthusiasm). Whatever she does, she gives it 100%. She plays hard, laughs hard, runs hard, fights hard and cries hard.

A Few New Developments

Walker is getting ticklish on his back behind his shoulder blades. His laugh is more like grunting right now.

Walker can grab his binky when it's in his mouth and pull it out, he can also put it back in. He also thinks this is quite amusing and the rest of us agree.

Helen is blossoming in her montessori class. She said she did the hard work today (what we call work other than practical life)

Helen is beginning to recognize others around her in a very caring and friendly way. She is quite sensitive to others.

Helen is continuing to vocalize her Japanese, in this case, she is actually using real words (as confirmed by Carys)

Carys is beginning to create craft projects on her own. She is usually inspired by things around her but quite creative.

Carys said she wants to become a teacher, an English teacher.

Carys is beginning to try to use her words more in class and ask the teachers for words she does not have. We are encouraging this more, she does not have the confidence with the words she does know yet.

More Pink Please

Walker looks very pink, he blends in with his surroundings.

In the Jungle

Walker hates to be set down so I try to vary his environment to see if there's a place he likes better than another. This is not it, yet. I can't recall when babies start to like these playmats. The girls loved theirs and they love this one. Maybe it's something you are born with? If only I could wear the play mat, he would probably be happy with it. Interestingly, the only place I've found that he consistently tolerates is his bouncy seat in the bathroom while I take a shower. I think this is wonderful, at least I can take a "relaxing" shower while he kicks back and takes a quick catnap. I can't decide if it's the running water or the sea foam green color in the bathroom. Maybe he'll be a jungle baby after all when he gets a bit older.

Hefty Boy

Walker is now 12 lbs, 12 oz. He gained a little more than 4 lbs in 5 weeks. So our Pedi has said he was overfed. I was a bit surprised b/c he seemed genuinely hungry when I fed him and did not spit up a lot but the weight gain is significant. Not that he's on a diet, but the Pedi said he could go 6-7 hours straight overnight without feeding. This sounds great to me but Walker does not agree with this assessment. We've moved him to his room and so far, I've been able to stretch him to 4.5 hrs b/n his last evening feeding and first night feeding. Since we have a tiny house, we had a few miserable nights while working on this. Walker has also rejected the binky and we are continuing to try to convince him of it's usefulness for comfort sake (his and ours).

Basically he's a sweet little baby who is satisfied as long as he's being held and rocked. He loves motion and closeness. Pretty normal.

Flu Shots

Just another reminder to get your flu shot. We've all had ours now. The girls and I got ours today. Carys was VERY upset to have a shot today. Reminds me of myself, I used to be TERRIFIED of shots. A sticker and a sucker go a long way in the healing process.

Construction Paper, Glue Sticks and Scissors

The girls spend a LOT of time with construction paper, glues sticks and scissors. Helen LOVES cutting paper. She's had a few close calls but is pretty good with the scissors. Then she glues the bits on more paper or bags them for next time. We've added other elements like jewels and cutouts from magazines. I need to take more time to have cut outs from magazines and show them how to make collages.

Carys was in a building mood and was making a house until she became frustrated that she did not know how to put a roof on. I think that ended this session for her but it kept her busy for a good while.

Halloween 2008

Carys and Helen had a great Halloween (these pics are from their Walkathon parade last week- pre surgery). Helen was a trooper and went trick or treating and did not fuss when I told her she had to wait to eat her candy. I did bring some hershey kisses to ease the candy moratorium.

We had the usual clan there with the little kids getting bigger and ready to trick or treat too, Silas, Kerala and Claire. It was a kids chaotic paradise. Carys totally got away with eating some candy I would not normally allow. I have a feeling once we have three, she'll try to take advantage of the chaos a little more as little kid would. I'll have to work with her on that.

In the end, we went home with a smaller amount of candy than we have had in past years (I was happy about that).