Oh My Goodness

The pictures speak for themselves -- I am in BIG trouble.

So while snacking on some Puffs, our little man decided this afternoon that he no longer needed to hold onto the saucer because the puffs were MUCH more important. The end result . . . Standing on his own and very proud of it.

He's done this before but only for a few seconds - this time I had enough of a chance to grab the camera, get down on the floor and get him to smile at me. All before he realized what he was doing.

What is going to happen next.

Baking Together

Erin and I made cookies together for the first time last Friday. Erin has helped cook before and loves to help out in the real kitchen when we let her. I decided peanutbutter cookies would be a good idea because they are fairly simple and have some parts that Erin can really help with.

Erin helps mostly by dumping the ingredients into the bowl. She really liked scooping the peanut butter out of the measuring cup and helping to pack in the brown sugar. Of course she also like eating the ingredients. She dipped her finger into the peanutbutter, the sugar, the vanilla etc... She even tried the crisco and the flour though - ick. She decided that was enough dipping her finger in the dough.



She also helped to flatten the cookies with a fork onto the cookie sheet -- while continuing to snack on the dough because after all the ingredients got mixed together she decided it was ok to try again. I tried to get her to stop eating the dough telling her there wouldn't be enough cookies but that didn't seem to matter to her. What's the fun of making cookies if you don't eat the dough I guess.

Of course this was her favorite part - and mine too. Yummy.

Jeffrey the Fish

Jeff got to go swimming for the first time on Saturday - he is officially a Bubble Baby now. We signed him up for the same class Erin took when she was his age. Since our little man is a splashing machine in the bathtub I expected he'd love the pool.

Our trip to the pool started a little rough, mostly because Erin saw me getting ready with my swimsuit. She ran to her room and got her suit yelling, "Erin go swim! Erin go swim!!" Mind you last time Erin was near a pool she was terrified of it, so we didn't sign her up for more swimming this winter. I calmly explained that Jeffrey and mommy were going to swim and she might ask daddy to take her to the park. She did not understand one bit and was obviously devastated that she was not going to get to swim. Luckily it was warm enough that Tom did have the chance to take her to the park.

Jeffrey and I got to the pool early enough to give him a few minutes to play around in the locker room before getting him ready to swim. Once we headed out to the pool, we just hung out on the deck for another few minutes so he could get used to the sounds and echoes of the indoor pool. He was very subdued during the whole thing.

The same teacher who taught Erin's class was teaching this one so I knew the basics of what was going to happen. I got into the water with Jeff and bounced him around a little. I tried to get him to splash, but he wanted none of that. He clung tightly to me, but did not fuss. I expected either he'd love it and give us those big Jeffrey smiles or he'd scream bloody murder. Amazingly we got a middle ground. He stayed pretty subdued through the entire class.

I got him to do all the things we attempted including relaxing onto his back while I held him up. Apparently most kids hate floating on their backs. He also did Humpty Dumpty off the wall into the pool, floated with me on his tummy and some other stuff. I don't know that I ever got the big Jeffrey smile, but he did uncling from me and let me move him away from my body a little. He did about as well as any of the other kids in the class so I was proud of him.

Since Tom and Erin were at the park, I didn't get any pictures of him in the pool. There won't be a chance to take pictures again until the end of the class, so I'll share some then. Until then I expect he'll enjoy each class a little more than the last and we'll eventually get the big Jeffrey smile to come back out.

First Gymnastics Class

Erin had her first gymnastics class today - actually called Peanutbutter & Jelly. She had a LOT of fun running and jumping and playing with the balls. Tom was able to come and watch for a good part of it because the class is in the gym across the street from his office. He watched over Jeff while Erin and I played around mostly.

There are a lot of kids in the class, close to 20 I would guess. Erin does have 1 friend, Gio, who was there this morning. She knows him from play gym. Add 1 or 2 parents/caregivers with each child and it was less than organized chaos this morning. It seemed to me that many of the kids had done it before and were coming back.

Erin's favorite part seemed to be the balls. They had several foam balls around a big open gymnasium and she really wanted to just run around and pick them up. I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the options of things to do.

There was also a smaller room that had real beginning gymnastics equipment -- all of it toddler size. There was a balance beam, a high bar to swing from, some parallel bars to walk through, pads to climb around and tumble on and a vaulting horse to climb onto and them jump off. At first Erin just sort of ran around like a crazy child lost in a sea of people. She really just wanted to run and jump and ignore anything structured. She eventually tried the vault jump and the high bar with the "teacher". She really liked climbing the vault and jumping off it. She also liked climbing over this mountain of mats they had arranged.

At the end of the class the teacher brought out a parachute. All the kids sat in the middle and the parents spun them around slowly. Then the kids all got to crawl around while we made waves. All this was fine. The last part was getting underneath the parachute. The parents lifted it up and down over them -- this was NOT OK with Erin and she made a quick break from underneath. My guess is actually that she didn't like the puff of air that the parachute made in her face when it was coming back down (she's got an anti-wind thing going right now.)

All in all I think this is going to be great for Erin. It's going to help her learn to listen and follow directions while having fun. The teacher was trying to get them to do specific things atone point and Erin really only wanted to play with the ball, but there were very few children there who were doing exactly what the teacher asked. My guess is that eventually they might break the group into two and let one group have free play in the big gym while some other kids work with the teacher on the equipment. At least that's what I hope they end up doing. Either way it's going to be a LOT of fun for us all.

Jeffrey's First Swing

Yesterday was an unseasonably warm afternoon here and I decided to take Erin and Jeff to the park for a bit. As usual Erin climbed up to the highest slides and went flying down. There was another little boy who was a little older than she was and Erin copied everything he did. That included climbing up the climbing wall without be standing behind her. She really does think she is a monkey sometimes.

Jeffrey has been to the park several times, but this was the first time he was able to participate in any of the playing. I sat him in the infant swing and he had a blast. Erin even got involved and gave Jeffrey some gentle pushes. It was very cute to see her being such a "big sister" and showing him the ropes. (This is especially nice after our long week of big sister mean-ies which she seem to have developed -- right now even, she is sitting in time out because she was dragging Jeffrey across the floor by his arm).





Although his expression in these pictures leads you to think he'd rather have been hit over the head by his sister, it was very clear that Jeffrey enjoyed his first real visit to the park. I'm looking forward to many more trips out this spring and watching him grow into the true monkey we all know he is going to be.

And it starts...

...the sibling rivalry. Or is it jealousy? Whatever it is it is wearing me thin. Both the kids seem obsessed with each other and wanting to be left alone all at the same time. Each is certainly testing the boundaries of what the other will put up with.

The last few days have contained many segments of time out for Erin coinciding with screams from Jeffrey. She tries to play with him and share her things but she wants him to play her way and he just doesn't, or isn't capable of doing it. The end result is often that Jeffrey gets thumped over the head with some toy or pushed down from the table/chair/couch at which he was standing.

At the same time Jeffrey is equally obsessed with Erin. He is too young to have any sense of her personal space. He will try to climb all over her or stand in the way when she is watching Rocket. Or he will make a move for the baby doll Erin has just spent several minutes situating just so on the couch. End result is the same and Jeffrey is screaming on the floor while Erin is sitting in time out.

Part of me thinks that Erin wants to treat Jeffrey just like that baby doll. She wants to drag him by the arm into her room and sit him just so. She doesn't comprehend that he just won't sit like that or that he wants to go play with something else. Frustration ensues and crying generally erupts from everyone in the household including me.

So if you have a second try to send some calm thoughts our way as we continue on our journey through parenthood and childhood at the same time. I'm sure we are going to need them.