Shaking off the cobwebs

Weeeelll, looks like it's time to dust off the old blog. I have a long 2011 ahead of me. Let's hope for the best.

xoxo,
G.

Monkeying around

One of the few Jon and Kate Plus Eight episodes I ever saw involved one of Kate’s brood waking up in a poopie mess. I’m talking poop up the back, in the crib, everywhere. They were young, still toddlers, during this episode, but I remember thinking, “Oh god, I hope that never happens to me.” Nothing makes me want to puke faster.

Well, in the past 24 hours, Monkey has more than deserved his nickname.

Last night, right before bed, he had a poopie. As I was changing his diaper, he reaches down, grabs his diaper (yes—with poop STILL in it!) and flings it over his head. I almost passed out. Poop hit the side of his head, and a giant turd landed right next to his ear. Visions of a future GG Allen quickly filled my head. Fortunately, Jon was there to help with the mess, but had he not been there, I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done. Dunked Jordan in a bath of antibacterial gel immediately, no doubt.

And then this morning, we had a surprise poopie diaper. Once again, Jordan managed to writhe in all manner of ways, making cleanup a colossal mess. Into the wash goes his bedspread.

Once all was said and done, though, I realized that I had overcome perhaps one of my biggest fears as a parent – cleaning up toddler poop. Not cute baby poop; that’s totally different and quite honestly, pretty manageable.

Sweet dreams

We’ve reached yet another milestone with Jordan. We’ve transitioned to a big-boy bed.

After several near-misses with him climbing out of the crib, Jordan’s escape attempts led Jon and I to go on the hunt for a toddler bed. We perused through Ikea and Jordan tested a few beds, finally settling upon a white bed, low to the ground, with sheep on the headboard.

He was so excited about his big boy bed, so Jon and I kept our fingers crossed that he would sleep through the night. And he did, for the most part. We only had to get up twice. Jon got up at 1 pm (Jordan’s pacis were on the floor) and I got up at 4 am (he was just scared).

The past two nights, however, have been great. He’s slept through the night and actually making him go to sleep has been much easier than it has been in the crib. Talk about being lucky! We usually read two books (lately, the selection has been from "Brown Bear" and "Mrs. McNosh and the Giant Squash" or "Binky."). He'll try to negotiate a glass of water or juice or his deeses (yet another hurdle we'll have to eventually overcome). But once is said and done, he's good to go.

Next step and the one that we're quite frankly dreading -- taking the dees (aka: paci) away. Baby steps.

The Negotiator

Lately, Jordan and I have added a new ritual to our bedtime routine—negotiating. Actually, it’s more him telling me he needs to do something and then not doing it.

At school, they’re potty training him, so he knows what going to the potty means. He also knows it’s a great way to get out of going to bed. The past couple nights, it’s gone something like this:

Me: Ok, night night.
Jordan: Poop?
Me: You have to poop?
Jordan: Yeaaaahhhh….
Me: Ok, let’s go poop.

He then happily bolts out the door the minute I open it and goes straight to the living room to play. No poop. So I pick him up, bring him back to his room, and start to put him in his crib. To which he responds, “Poop?”

sigh.

“You really have to go?”

“Yeaaahhh…”

This time, he actually goes into the bathroom, but just sits on the toilet, gleefully swinging his legs. No pooping. So, it looks like my kid has mastered the art of bullsh***ing. Great.

The Late Show at CVS

There comes a point in every parent’s life when they make the dreaded midnight run to the pharmacy.

Believe it or not, I’ve played this scenario out a million times over in my head, even before Jordan was born. I always made sure to strategically pinpoint where every 24-hour pharmacy was located. Fortunately for us, we have a CVS at the corner of our neighborhood. So when the time finally came this past Sunday night, it wasn’t too far of a trek.

Jordan’s been dealing with the worst ear infection known to man. It started on Friday and we haven’t been able to give him antibiotics because we’ve been trying to collect a stool sample. That in and of itself is a whole separate story, but to make it short, he had bloody stools last week, raising a red flag. Since then, however, he hasn’t had any more gastro issues, so we’ve been left with this ear infection.

So there we were, Sunday night, trying to soothe a writhing, screaming toddler. We had given him ibuprofen just four hours before and someone had once told us you could administer Tylenol after four hours of ibuprofen. I scrambled to the kitchen, knocking bottles of medicine over desperately trying to find the Tylenol. Nothing. At that point, Jon and I knew what had to be done—one of us had to go to CVS. I picked the short straw and hauled my bleary disheveled self over to CVS.

Going to CVS at midnight is sort of like venturing to the very bottom of the ocean, where light doesn’t hit. You see all manner of strange creatures. There was the old lady in the bathrobe talking to herself. There was the strange-looking man dressed in all black perusing the candy aisle. And while I was in line, there was a harried, red-eyed woman in sweats, hair standing on end. We looked at each other and chuckled. We were both holding infant Tylenol.

Jordan's lullaby

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. Sorry for the blackout. Regardless, I feel it important to document small (and monumental) milestones Jordan’s been making.

As he approaches his two-year-old birthday (!!!), he has so far learned how to sign certain phrases, such as please, thank you, butterfly, boat, among others; he can clearly identify who his nana/baba/ mimi/papa are; he can identify his colors and if you ask him how old he’ll be, he quickly says “Dos!”

He’s accomplished a lot in just a year.

But probably my favorite thing he’s learned so far is how to sing. This is a feat he only recently embarked upon. Jon and I discovered his inner songbird one day when we put him down for a nap. Usually, we put him in his crib and he’ll get a little whiney before he falls asleep. On this particular day, we both sat on the couch, anxiously looking at the monitor to see when he would eventually slip into slumber.

Suddenly, we see the red dot light up. Great, we both thought silently as we looked at each other. But then Jon stopped, and turned up the volume on the monitor. There, radiating from the monitor’s speaker was the voice of a little angel. Ok, I’m being melodramatic, but truly, when we heard him chirping along, we almost cried. It was the cutest damn thing I’ve ever heard. And where he picked this skill up, I have no idea. In fact, he continuously amazes us with skills he’s picked up from God knows where. His little brain is like a sponge. As soon as he hears or sees something, he’s quick to imitate it.

Every day is an exciting day with him. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Getting there...

Jordan's starting to get a handle on this walking thing. He isn't quite walking on his own just yet, but we bought him one of those push toys, where he stands behind it and moves forward while holding on for dear life. At first, he was a little weary of it. Then once he got up on it, he took a few wobbly steps. Well, he finally got his sea legs and man does he take off on that thing. It's hilarious to watch.
He still hasn't busted out with any more teeth, which has completely perplexed Jon and I. We thought for sure we'd see more teeth with the way he's been drooling. He also hasn't been eating very well. That also might be because we've been feeding him "third-stage" foods, or baby food that's kind of lumpy. I'm thinking he's not so keen on the baby food and is ready to launch into full-blown adult meals because he eats table food just fine. So far, he's munched on broccoli, crackers, avocado, beans. Pretty much anything we put in front of him. But when it comes to the baby food, it's a fight.
The other thing we're both excited about is his first swimming pool experience. Even though the water's too cold still, Jon's already bought him a little swimming suit. It's really cute too. We can't wait for summer to get here!