Dalton's 18 Month Well-Baby

Weight: 21 pounds, 13 inches (fully clothed with poopy diaper)
Height: 32 inches
Head: 20 inches

The appointment was relatively non-eventful...he looked good, developing on or ahead of schedule. Although we don't let him use a spoon much and she got on me for that. It's the mess factor that keeps us from letting him do it much. But now we've got doctor's orders. I'm sure he'll do okay. He manages with a fork quite well.

He had to get one shot and it was sad. His reaction this time just seemed utterly shocked that someone would do that to him. It made me feel awful. Because he first he was like, "What the heck?" And then he realized the pain, poor fella. What a crappy part of your job: giving shots to cute little unsuspecting children.

As far as his weight goes, she said, if he had been weighed nekkid like he should have, then he's probably fallen on the charts. But I guess she was pretending like she didn't see it. She didn't refer him...just for some more blood work to make sure the stuff that was wonky last time was better. Easton is due for more labs too, we didn't get it done yesterday, we'll have to go another day...I'm not looking forward to it.

Anyhoo, that's the scoop. Sorry for no pictures this time. I gotta go make Easton take a nap. He's been up since 4:30 this morning. Grrrr.

Today's Post

So, I said I'd do a separate post about our celebratory trip to Chuck E. Cheese's and here it is.

Although I should also backtrack to Wednesday night because I got to go have some fun. Ellis's mom invited me to join her sort of spur-of-the moment for coffee. So, after dinner I went and met with her for some decaf at Starbucks. We shut the place down (okay, it was only 9:00) but then we stopped to chat even more outside. I didn't get home till nearly 10:00 which was lovely. We got to chat about all kinds of things and I just always think it's nice to get away for a bit.

Jason said the boys did perfectly. And even Easton who had recently begun saying things like, "But I don't want you do leave" even when he was with Jason was mid-headstand when he told me, "See ya, Ruby". It gave me hope for preschool the next day and I almost said something to Ember about my hope given his farewell but didn't finish my sentence. Didn't want to jinx it--and I didn't! Whew!

So that wraps up Wednesday and then yesterday right after school we went straight to CEC like I said...


I bought $10 worth of tokens and turned 'em loose. For a long time we were the only people in there. The place isn't all that big and so I just try to keep tabs on them and let them do their thing, although Dalton obviously needs a lot of help.









At one point I was helping E play a game that he wasn't quite tall enough for so Diddles wandered off. When I went to find him he was here:






At around this point in our visit I began talking to another mom. She was there with 3 small children and I had to be rude and nosy and ask about it. She had twins that just turned a year old, and then another son who was 18 months older. Wow. When those twins arrived she had THREE KIDS UNDER TWO. And we were talking even more and she was on bedrest for 10 weeks with those twins. She made it to 36 weeks ("term" for twins) but I couldn't imagine. She had a toddler at home, trying to do bedrest for 10 weeks. And her twins were huge when they were born. One of 'em was nearly 6 1/2 pounds!!! Okay, that's enough about that lady.... Sorry. Moving on...

Easton then asked to go check out the animatronic Chuck E. He said, "He likes me!" I said, "Dude, it's a robot."


Dalton, however, NOT a fan. No way.

I took a video but unfortunately the sun is too bright in the window so he's all dark and you can't see much. Oh well. Remember how he was with Red at Red Robin? Well it was like that.

After the tokens were gone we cashed in our 105 tickets. Easton picked an inflatable pirate ball worth 80 tickets for his baby. Then he got himself a 10 ticket lollipop and some other tiny toys. He ate half the sucker and passed it to Dalton to finish. He's a sweetie-poo, I tell ya.

We came home and Easton said he wanted to take a nap...but in my bed. He went and tucked himself in and I went to check on him. He said, "Mom, could you turn off that lamp so it could be dark so I could sleep?" He was pointing to the window. I said, "Honey, it's the sun...I don't have fancy curtains like you do." (He has room darkening ones.) So, he gave up on the napping and had his regular ol' quiet time.

Afterwards I had the crazy idea to try the tie-dyeing I saw Adam and Skylee do with their moms. I should've read the directions before I told E about it. He was just too excited and wanting to touch everything and just get started already. I don't blame him, it was stupid of me. So I didn't know we'd have to soak the shirts first...so he had to watch a TV show with Dalton while they soaked. Then I had to put all the rubber bands and stuff on. Then I had to mix the dye, try not to get it everywhere, strip the kids and we all headed outside. But I couldn't let the kids touch anything because it was already getting everywhere. Dalton kept walking places he shouldn't have without shoes so he'd need rescuing. Easton was climbing the fence in his underwear and I'm trying to do this fun tie-dyeing project with dye all over my fingers despite the gloves and it was making a mess and I have no idea how any of it will turn out because I didn't know it had to sit in plastic wrap for 12 hours before I can unwrap them to then let them DRY. Ack! Oh well.


The boys busied themselves in the sandbox when they realized I wasn't going to let them have any tie-dyeing fun. Poor kids...






While the boys like the sandbox, we really do not spend much time playing in it AT ALL. The mess is often just too much. Especially for Jason. :) I had to stick both boys in the tub again to get off all the sand. E's underwear was full of sand. D's hair...

It's just a mess. A fun mess, but a mess nonetheless. It was a messy messy afternoon.

After their bath we went to pick up a couple things for dinner from the store and came home to eat.

Today is Dalton's 18 month well-kid visit. Pray that he has not fallen any further on the weight chart. If he does his doctor is talking about referring him to a specialist at Children's Hospital and we don't want that. Well, obviously if something's "up" we want to know, we just don't want anything to be up to begin with.

I'll try to update with that later or tomorrow. :)

Easton's 1st Solo Day of School

OH MY GOODNESS, YOU GUYS, IT WENT PERFECTLY!!!

Easton did AMAZING! What an answer to prayer!

So, this morning he woke up on his own, both boys did, actually. He drank his juice and watched a very short show. While I nursed Dalton and got him dressed, Easton got himself dressed, brushed his teeth, and made his bed. He was excited about school once again. In a great mood the whole time! Woo hoo!

We headed down for a quick breakfast:




Easton had a poo right before we left, not that his bowel habits are something I regularly blog about, however, I was just really glad that he pooped before he left. I have this fear that he's gonna poop at school and sit in the bathroom, rump in air, calling and calling for someone to "come wipe my bottom!!!" like he does at home. However, I don't think wiping his tush for him goes along with Montessori's self-directed philosophy. :)

Anyway, we hopped in the car...Easton's been doing his own buckling ever since I went to see Mamma Mia! with Lauren.

He's been doing the chest clip forever, but started the bottom part earlier this month. I buckle in Dalton then check E's work and we're off! What a time saver!

Then we arrived at school, this was the last picture I got though. :(


We walked in, he hung up his backpack, I signed him in and the assistant teacher was there waiting to greet us. I was like, "So do I just say goodbye?" as Easton was already taking off inside the classroom. She had him come back to give me a hug and say a quick goodbye and he went right back inside. No hesitation. Nothing! I was so impressed and quite surprised, to be honest. I could not have asked for it to go any better (other than him remembering to say goodbye to me on his own, perhaps!)

The teachers ask that you be very brief and let the children get to their work and all that. So no sitting around chatting or observing what was going on. E went on his way and I tried to peek back in the window, I saw him walk by, still doing just peachy and then he was out of sight again so Dalton and I went to the "cry room" they had set up for the parents.

There were two sweet grandmotherly types waitng with coffee, cookies, and tissues. They offered us a seat and light conversation while we waited the hour for our kids. Only 4-5 moms were in there. One mom was in tears. I didn't recognize her from Tuesday at first until one of the grandma's asked about the tears and she explained how naughty her kid is and how she's so nervous about how he's gonna do. THEN I remembered (and foot in mouth moment) who she was, "Oh, you're Anthony's mom". They left on Tuesday after just 6 minutes of Anthony being difficult and non-compliant. I felt bad that it came out the way it did but she wasn't mad or anything.

We all sat and chatted some more. I got compliments on how good Dalton is. I learned the mom of one of E's classmates works at Sweet Tomatoes. A few moms had recommendations for churches for us to try...that sort of thing. About 20 minutes into the hour Mrs. M appeared in the door of the room with Anthony. :( He had to go. Not sure if he's gonna get to come back or not but we overheard the conversation slighly about how he just wouldn't listen or cooperate. Poor Mama. I think she's a single mom. I'm sure she was so embarassed about it all. Poor thing.

Awhile after she left another mom and a two year old came in. That two year old has really bad food allergies so they brought their own toys to make sure they were safe for her son. They invited Dalton to play but I was like, "He just ate some of these peanut butter cookies." But the mom had us wash his hands really well and she inspected his clothes for crumbs and then Dalton and Sam played cars while that mom and I chatted.

Eventually the hour was up and we all congregated with the others in the hall outside the classroom. Through the window, I could see Mrs. M doing another storyboard tale and Easton was in the front row just paying good attention, sitting legs crossed just like he was supposed to. No signs of having done any crying. Whew.

The assistant teacher opened up the door to the classroom and Easton's eyes met mine and he just lit up but stayed on the rug like he was supposed to. Mrs. M called the children one by one as she recognized their parents. At E's turn he got up and shook Mrs. M's hand and walked right past the other teacher to come greet me. She had him come shake her hand still. It'll take some getting used to. He was happy to see me and we had a big hug and I told him how very proud I was of him.

I wanted to hear alllllllllll about his day and tried to engage him right away. I asked if he got to pet Chocolate and Butterscotch and he said,
E: No just one of them was out.
Me: Which one?
E: Ummmm, Chocolate.

Me: Did you do work?
E: I did two works. The strawberry one was not hard.

Me: What was your snack?
E: Crackers and juice again.

He told me how they didn't go to the playground this time. Anthony seems to be the only other kid whose name he knew and he told me that Anthony was spilling his works and smacking his arts (?) and that he was naughty.

I tried to get him to tell me about any friends but he doesn't know anyone's name and asked me to tell him their names. I tried to find out more about his work but all I heard was a frog one.

It is very hard for me to not know what he's been up to and not get to talk to his teachers about it later. I knew this was how it would be, of course, but it's still very strange to be at stay at home mom who is with him nearly all the time and the times I'm not I have Daddy or Gramoo to fill me in on what went on, funny things he said, nice things he did...all that.

I am so so so proud of my big boy! I can't tell you how pleased I am with how it went today. We went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate (it wasn't a bribe, we never talked about it till after school today). I'll have to share those pictures later (maybe tomorrow). I want this post to be just about his first day of school.

Yay, Eastie Boy!!!

Just a Wednesday

Yesterday after quiet time, Easton entertained Dalton with our train bubbles from Tiny Town:










And then we went to the library again. Some of the books and movies we'd requested were available so we went to get 'em. That's always fun. I love the library.

Sometime in the evening, after Jason was home, Dalton took a spill off the couch. More like he wanted to do tricks like Bubba and launched himself over the arm of the couch, knocking his head on the coffee table on his way down. Lovely. He got so upset and threw up all over himself and Jason. Needless to say, we were paying attention to D, cleaning him up and calming him down. All of a sudden, Easton appeared in the kitchen with a Batman band-aid all ready to go for his brother. He wanted to help. We put the band-aid on Dalton's belly as tears welled up in my eyes. He's such a great big brother. For so very many reasons. Love those boys!

Anyway, today we didn't have any plans. So, this morning while snuggling with Easton in the big bed, I asked him what he wanted to do. He didn't come up with much. But then after breakfast he headed upstairs and I called up, "What're you doing, Buddy?" and he shouted back down, "I have to get some clothes because we're going to the museum!" So I went with it.

We went to the museum:


Easton's expression as he races to the "emergency" makes me giggle:


The boys spent a very long time playing together in this little "cottage" they have:






Look who else climbed up all by himself!


Easton was asking to go to McDonald's and I decided I could go for some fries so we made our way towards the exit...stopping first on this:


However there is a playground adjacent to the Children's Museum parking lot, and the boys were wanting to play for a few minutes. Easton was eyeing some monkey bars. He doesn't know how to make himself swing over to the next rung, so I'd have to give him a push to get him swinging. We had fun with it. Meanwhile, Dalton climbed up on this car:


Bubba wanted to join him, Dalton was not a fan of that idea:


Then we spied a tire swing. They were both up for that:




Here is video of both the monkey bars and the tire swing...please excuse my very obnoxious sound effects.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When Dalton was done he was trying to let himself down, but he didn't do so great and fell to the gravel, getting a mouthful. I tried to help him get it out but it's hard, he was gagging a few times. :( Once I was satisfied that there were no more large bits to choke on, we headed for the car where I had some milk to help him wash the grit down. Yum. Can't wait for that diaper!

So, finally we were on our way to McDonald's. I decided to get the boys a chicken nugget Happy Meal. I knew Dalton liked McD's fries and Easton had agreed to try the nuggets "but I think I should dip them in some honey". Easton is largely a vegetarian. He's eaten a handful of nuggets in his 3 and a half years, but he survives (not thrives, survives) on a mostly vegetarian diet. Did you know that nothing at McDonald's is vegetarian? Not their fries and not even their salads. But that's beside the point. Because Easton ate a whopping 2 nuggets!


And Dalton ate one too! Plus D likes their fries as I said. (E is not a fry guy.)


Then the boys got to play for a bit. Easton brought his new Happy Meal toy in with him. Somehow Dalton is the one with it later:

Right after I took that picture, Dalton's foot stuck under him causing him to fall head first. I caught him, though. Whew!

After that we came home for nap and Q.T.

The end.

Eastie's First Day of School

So far so good.

I had to set my alarm this morning to shower and start breakfast (chocolate chip muffins) before going in to wake up my preschooler. At 7:10 I went in to rouse him. He was in great spirits the entire morning. Whew! I put him in front of the second half of Handy Manny with his juice while I finished getting ready and then brought him his clothes. Daddy helped him get dressed and sent him downstairs for breakfast with me:


What's that green thing, you ask? His full body "bib". I put him in an old shirt to protect his school clothes from the melted chocolate in his muffins, a clothespin keeping it from gaping too much:


It ended up being just E and me for breakfast. We sang songs to the tune of "Just the Two Bills" from Little Bill. It was fun.

He's not used to eating quite that early at all so he didn't eat too much muffin and didn't even finish his juice (which is unheard of). So, with a little more time left I sent him upstairs to brush his teeth and make his bed.

We're awful and we really only brush their teeth at bedtime. But I know we SHOULD do it in the mornings too. Perfect time to start. I came upstairs to find him brushing away like a good boy:




And then in to make his bed:




He was in such a good mood all morning. It was wonderful. He seemed so excited about school.

We said goodbye to Daddy and we were off!


Here he is walking in for his first day:


We hung up his backpack outside the classroom and we signed in. His teacher remembered his name no problem. She directed us to his name tag where all the children were already starting to color their name tags:


Nobody was being particularly social yet, not kids or parents. Oh well. We moved over to the big globe rug to start some circle time:


A cute little boy sat next to us so I told Easton to say, "Hi what's your name?" and he did. And the little boy was very shy but we met him and his mom.

Mrs. M went over some things like, "please sit criss-cross-applesauce" and "when you hear me turn on this music box, it means its time to come sit at this rug". We sang a good morning song, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She took attendance and each kid was to say, "I am here". Alphabetically Easton S is somehow last so by the time it got to him he knew the routine and did great! I wasn't sure, sometimes he can be a total wonk but he did just as he was supposed to. Yay!

We went over all the days of the week and months of the year before the kids watched her place today's tile on the calendar and then we all recited, "Today is Tuesday, August 26th, 2008". Whatever. If I ever have to write a check I'll know who to ask what day it is. :)

Then Mrs. M got out a big rope for the kids to hold onto while she took us on a short tour out to the playground. I guess for this age that's what they need to know how to stay in a line when walking through the halls. She took us through the library, past the other classrooms (where we saw our neighbor Ben in his class!) and then out to the playground. She gave the kids a few rules like: sand and sand toys stay in the sandbox and the monkey bars by the slide are for kids 4 and older. Easton is already talking about how after his Batman birthday party he can go on those monkey bars. But there is plenty of other stuff for him to do:



We made sure to introduce him to other kids as they sat by him on the swings.

Mrs. M had a bell she warned them she'd ring when it was time to line up to go inside. When we heard the bell, Easton was the first to line up:


He did great and then it was snacktime! Half a graham cracker and some apple juice (which E is really not a fan of):


The teachers showed them how to clean up their spots, complete with wiping it down with a sponge. Impressive!

Then the kids all moved back to the globe rug for a felt board story that had Easton giggling and shouting out along with the story:


After the story Mrs. M mentioned how next time the parents wouldn't be coming during class. Easton glanced over at me nervously so there is no telling how he'll do on Thursday.

He shook both teachers' hands on the way out and we actually got the paperwork for their first fundraiser of the year. What the heck? And then we came home. Dalton was still sleeping! We told Daddy about the morning and then sent him off to work. At around 9:30 I went to wake D and he was out cold. It was nice though because he was so snuggable and soft. Like he was a baby again. After his breakfast we headed out to Wal-Mart and then back home for some lunch.

Gramoo called to find out how today went and Easton was excited to talk to her to tell her himself:


Now it's quiet time for both boys as Dalton currently has no interest in sleeping. He's not tired after waking up so late! I'm working on it, though.

So...as I said: so far so good. We'll see how Thursday goes!