Some Thoughts on Toys

My mom saved TONS of books and toys from when my sister and I were little.  At one time I might have thought this was a bit excessive but now, as a parent, I'm pretty grateful.  When you watch my kiddos play with stuff that's a few decades old you have to realize that they just don't make toys like they used to.  Sounds pretty cliche but it's true.

Check out the toy Esther has below.  I don't even know what to call it--a little spinning activity center, I guess.  There's a dial to turn, buttons to slide back and forth, a little bunny on a spring...and (gasp!) no lights or electronic sounds.  And yet my baby (and my preschooler) like to play with it.

Sometimes simpler is better, you know?  Mom and I browsed the toy store this week looking for birthday gifts for Austin and I was a bit frustrated with how few non-battery-operated choices you have these days.  Not that lights and sounds are always bad on a toy, but I think flashy toys should be the exception, not the rule.

Gotta add one thing...has anybody else read the Sesame Street books?  My mom must have two or three dozen of them; we were part of one of those clubs where you got a book or two each month.  Well, they're great!  At least, we think so.  Austin sure loves them.  It's funny, we have only watched Sesame Street on TV once or twice but he knows all the characters...the old ones, anyway.

Thanks, Mom, for maintaining a full basement so my kids could have such great stuff when we visit. :)

Nine Month Old Esther

• At nine months and a few days, Esther weighs 16 pounds 9 ounces (9th percentile) and is 27 3/4 inches long (49th percentile).  She is our long, skinny girl.
• I have been trying to introduce Esther to more finger foods.  (I think I have a tendency to be too cautious about this.)  She has had Ritz crackers, bits of banana and watermelon, pasta, rolls...my goal is to expand this list greatly in the next month.
• Esther is down to four nursing sessions a day.
• This was another rough month, sleep-wise.  Lots of night waking, sometimes for brief periods and sometimes for hours.  Esther just likes to snuggle with Mommy and Daddy in the middle of the night, I think.  And we have tolerated that much more than we ever did with Austin.
• Esther proved herself to be an awesome car traveler this month when we drove to my parents' house in Missouri.  She amused herself for hours just playing with toys in her carseat.  Hardly fussed at all.
• Esther also proved herself to be kind of a clingy Mommy's girl on that trip.  It took her half a day to warm up to my mom and at least another day to allow my dad to hold her without crying.  My parents remind me that I was totally the same way.
• When strangers talk to Esther (while I am holding her), she lays her head against me and holds on to my shirt.  She'll look at the people, but it is clear she wants to feel secure with me.  Sweet baby.
• Esther loves loves loves her brother.  He talks baby talk to her, and they sit and laugh at each other.  The pure love they have for each other amazes me.
• Esther loves necklaces.  On other people, I mean.  She likes to play with them and chew on them, if allowed.  It occurs to me that this is not new this month; I've just never thought of it before as I wrote my monthly post.  Plus, I hardly ever wear jewelry so I only notice it when we're around people wearing necklaces.
• Esther still doesn't like being on her tummy much so crawling seems a long way off.
• I think my baby girl is the sweetest in the whole world.  I am one blessed mommy.

Crafts

As I think I've mentioned before, Austin has not historically been into crafts.  He's agreeably done a few projects lately, though, and I think they're awfully cute.  I like this new phase.

He made this at MOPS and was soooooo proud of it.  I think the teacher presented it as an alien but Austin calls it his "man."

We made this at home.  I got the idea from the Totally Tots blog, which I found recently and love.

He made this windsock at the library today.  It may be the first time he's ever wanted to make the storytime craft.

Upside Down

Practically guarantees a smile

Regression

You might remember me posting waaaay back in January that we were potty training Austin, and I reported that on day 3 things seemed to click.  And I wasn't making it up, he really seemed to get it and for a few days I went around (proudly) thinking that we had a potty trained two year old.

HA!  Pride goes before a fall, as they say.  It wasn't very long afterward that Austin started having a lot of little accidents: he would run to the bathroom but not until his underwear were a little wet.  This happened once or twice a day and as you can imagine it was pretty frustrating for me.  It was especially irritating that it didn't seem to bother Austin at all.  He pretty much stopped ever telling me he needed to go potty, although he would go if I told him to.  So I got pretty good at telling him to go at the appropriate times and some days we managed to stay dry.  I didn't like it but I thought things could only get better.

HA!  Little did I know.  About a week ago Austin started making puddles of the kind not seen since day 1 of potty training.  The I-didn't-even-try-to-make-it-to-the-bathroom kind of puddles, and to top it off he doesn't tell me afterward, I just get to discover him with soaked pants.  This has happened once a day nearly every day in the past week.  And again, he doesn't seem the least bit bothered by this.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Okay, since I can't scream out loud I just had to get that out.  I AM SO FRUSTRATED!  I feel like we are doing all the right things but it's gone from bad to worse.  After two months, we're definitely not going back to diapers but life feels pretty ridiculous.  Based on what happened the first week we were training, I really do think he can recognize his body's signals; I guess it's just not that important to him.

When will this end?

Dinner

I should probably feel some guilt about what I fed Austin for dinner tonight.  If you can even call it dinner, which is debatable.  Our town's new convention center/athletic complex (the KCAC) opened this afternoon with a public event, and this being a smallish town it was THE place to be.  Seriously, I probably saw 40 or 50 people I know including my dentist, numerous friends from church, and the friend who brought her kids to my house for a playdate this morning.

Anyway, this event included free food.  Food such as giant muffins from our brand new Giant Eagle grocery store, all kinds of Utz brand chips (a regional brand that is the official snack food of the KCAC), and cake.  Austin and I shared a bit of everything.  But that's not all.  The Meadows Frozen Custard opened for the season today and, well, we just had to go--it's been four months.  If you've tasted it you understand.  And since it was BOGO free, I figured the simplest and cheapest thing was to just get two kid-sized cups and give Austin his own.  Which he nearly finished.

So that was Austin's "dinner."  Like I said, I should probably feel guilty about it...but I don't.  I think having a second child is definitely mellowing me out a bit.

Little Bookworm

This is what I found when I went in to wake Austin up from his nap this afternoon.  He is not supposed to get out of bed but how can I not be endeared by this scene?  I don't know if he actually looked at the books or if they just served as comfort objects but I love it in any case.  Austin has enjoyed being read to for quite some time but lately he has started looking at books on his own.  This warms my heart so much because if there is one worldly thing I desire for my children, it is for them to love books.  (Insert contented sigh here.)