One!

Simeon has his very first birthday today! To celebrate, we flew home from visiting Grandma Ellie and Grandpa Larry. Well, they also hosted a party for him yesterday with lots of cousins -- many young ones -- and he heartily enjoyed that, although he had to go to bed in the middle of it. We made sure that he got his birthday song, though, and chance to blow out the candle. It turns out Michael blew the candle out, since Sim doesn't seem to have practiced that skill yet, but we'll see about next year.

Lately, Sim has been growing and developing by leaps and bounds. Here are some of his latest accomplishments:

 

--combat crawling at the speed of...well, I guess light would be an exaggeration, but he's fast!

--eating lots of things...most of which he’s supposed to eat, but not all.

 

 

--signing lots and lots of things…his favorites are “potty” and “dog.”  “Potty” is definitely the very favorite.

 

--saying words, too, including “dog” and “potty,” but also many others.

 

--learning how to open cabinets in the kitchen…much to his mother’s chagrin. 

 

--playing peek-a-boo and laughing hilariously about it.

 

--screaming (for fun) in small, enclosed spaces, such as an airplane…yeah…

--attending his first wedding since he was in utero.

Today we turned his seat around in the van.  He seemed pleased, but also a bit confused. 

 

His sisters were quite excited about the whole thing.  He proceeded to fall asleep.  It had been a long day with only a short afternoon nap. 

It’s been a very full year, and it seems to have flown by.  I can’t believe how big he’s gotten.

Oh, and I forgot another recent accomplishment:  he can climb stairs.  When we left for our visit, he could only do one.  Now he’s figured out how to keep going, but, of course, not how to remain up there…he always tries to sit down and would tumble backwards down the stairs if we weren’t right there.  It looks like another gate is going up in our house.

We’re just beginning to discover this sweet baby’s personality.  We love him with all our hearts.

 

It’s hard to believe he’s only been with us for a year – on the outside.  It feels like he’s been here forever.

We look forward to many more happy years.

Noise levels

Yet another thing about Sim that is different:

I turned on the electric hand mixer today to mix some cupcakes (feast of St. Pio, you know!). Hannah has finally made peace with the hand mixer and doesn't mind it...too much. Naomi has made peace with it...as long as she has her hands over her ears.

Simeon, sitting on the floor, playing with the bowl and spoon I gave him, looked up at the first sound, grinned from ear to ear, and started babbling...probably about how awesome the hand mixer noise is.

Potty! Potty! Potty!

Simeon and I were at a baby shower today, and "Potty!" was what Simeon told everyone. Repeatedly. He had fallen asleep in the car, and when he woke up and I brought him in, I took him to go potty. He seems to have really been impressed with the bathroom, because when I took him back out, he signed potty and said, "Pa! Pa! Pa!" at every opportunity. I don't know exactly what it was about the bathroom there, but he loved it. It did make things somewhat confusing for me, since he sometimes indicates that he needs to use the potty by signing "potty" and saying, "pa," but this time, he was just trying to tell people about something that interested him.

Of course, nobody who talked to us understood what he was trying to get across, so I kept having to explain (since everyone asked, "Oh! What's he saying?"), "He's saying potty." Many people there knew about Sim's potty usage, but it's still funny to see someone who can't even say the whole word, "potty," get so excited about the bathroom.

He often gets on a kick of signing something over and over and telling everyone about it. It's just that it's usually "dog" or "ball" or "eat" or "Dada." Lately "telephone" has been added to the list, too. But today, it was "potty."

But we're OKAY!

This morning we have some cousins over to play. After breakfast, we had four lions, stalking their prey. Then we had Borrowers. Now we've got Paul and Maureen and their pet lion cubs, and their ship has been sunk. They're on Lonely Island, and are trying to negotiate how to get back. The tugboat is not really in shape to take them back, apparently. One suggestion is that they might swim back, "With a BABY?!?!" says Hannah -- Maureen -- incredulously. Then she changes her mind. She's going to swim home. Paul says it will take her a year. He's done it before. Oh, and then he changes it to a year and a half, because they have the baby...it takes longer to swim with a baby, you know.

But the good news is that Michael and I haven't been affected by the shipwreck.

Oh, and it seems that the kids have built a new boat, now being portrayed by the front porch.

Tales that teach

I've recently needed to address some difficult behaviors in Hannah. This is never fun, of course, for either of us. Okay, it's not fun for the rest of the family, either. But I've discovered one tactic that works very well: storytelling. Hannah will settle down for a story even if she'd just been screaming her head off at me...which is, of course, hypothetical, since my sweet kids wouldn't ever raise their voices...

But I digress. I've invented a farmer with 50 dairy cows, 30 sheep, 20 chickens, and 3 horses. He and his wife have 3 small children who aren't old enough to help with the chores. This poor man has had some very difficult times getting farm help. He can't take care of all that milking on his own, so he has to have someone. The first hired help was pretty good, but then started showing up for work later and later, and one Saturday, when the farmer had taken his family to visit their grandparents (fully trusting that the hired help would be there to take care of the farm) the help didn't show up until after 3 p.m.! Needless to say, he didn't last.

Today, a new hired hand decided to play baseball when he was supposed to be milking. When the farmer asked him to return to his task, he threw the ball at the farmer's head (luckily the farmer has quick reflexes and ducked in time) and then stomped off to the barn, angrily finishing his chores, but upsetting the cows quite a bit. He was let go, too.

This farmer has been VERY helpful to me, despite his difficulties in hiring good help.

I've also invented a town with 2 bus drivers -- they switch off days. The one occasionally falls asleep at the wheel and drives off the road, and many people in the bus get injured. Naturally, the mom in our story decides to stay home on the days that this driver is in charge of the bus, even though it only happens sometimes. Hannah was most indignant when the occasionally careless driver offered to drive the mom around in an attempt to convince her that he wasn't such a bad driver after all. "Hannah, do you think the mom took her kids on the bus with him?"
"NO!!"

Hannah is a junky for stories, verbal or written -- they calm her down and allow her to focus on something besides her feelings of ill-usage. When I use them to illustrate why certain behaviors are undesireable, she seems to get the picture much better than if I only tell her what the problem is and how I would like it fixed.

Naomisms

Because she doesn't always scream. Sometimes she says hilarious things. Right now, here are some of them:

Washclosh or washcosh-- I can't describe how fantastically cute it is when she says this!

Sibby baby -- a nickname for Simeon

"You're joking! You're joking!" -- said whenever something isn't going her way. For example, if I say to her, "Naomi, if you don't stop climbing on the back of the couch, you will get a time out," this is her response. It's also her response to bedtime, nail clipping time, and any other thing that she doesn't like. She most often uses it at times when I'm not even thinking of joking.

CD on tape -- Naomi is used to CDs. I recently introduced her to the tape player we have and the children's stories on tape. This confuses her quite a bit, so she often asks if she can listen to the CD on tape. Technology!

Snow White or Snow Christmas -- What she calls White Christmas, which the girls have been watching in 30-minute increments. They're about 2/3 of the way through and are loving it, but Naomi can't seem to keep the title straight. It's darling. Of course, it's going to take another 2 weeks to watch to the end at the rate we're going (about 1/2 hour once a week), but they don't mind.

Kyouston -- What she still calls Houston.

"I'm tired! I'm too tired!" What she says whenever she doesn't want to do something you ask her to do.

"My mama's name is Mama and my dada's name is Dada." Someone was asking her about her family and their names. She'd already covered Hannah and Simeon and thought that the person should know about her parents, too.

Sometimes, we are that family.

You know, the family at Costco with the crying, screaming 3-year-old? Yes, sometimes that's us. That was us yesterday.

I used to occasionally wonder why people took their kids out when they were hungry or tired or had something that was clearly wrong with them, whatever it might be. That was before I had kids of my own. She was not hungry, or tired, and what was wrong with her was that I wasn't doing everything exactly as she wanted.

Unfortunately, we've been that family a lot this week. I'm not sure exactly why it's happening, but it's definitely wearing on me. I suppose that the fact that it's wearing on me so much is good news -- we're not always that family; I'm not so used to it that it doesn't bother me any more.

We'll try to keep it to occasionally, and those times will be good times of humility and remembering to pray for the other moms I meet whose turn it is to be the moms in that family today.

She's had some experience with this.

This morning, Hannah needed to go upstairs to make her bed and get dressed.

"Naomi's still up there in bed and she's cranky this morning, so..." I paused, attempting to find the right way to phrase it.

Luckily, Hannah knew what I was trying to get at: "So leave her alone and don't talk to her unless I really, really have to, right?"

Water babies

I took the kids to the pool today. The indoor one, since it's low 60s and overcast after being in the 80s and sunny for several days. We all had a great time. At the beginning of the summer, I got in the pool with 3 kids, all of whom stayed within 3 feet of me the whole time they were in the water. They were even quite clingy. Today I got in the pool with 3 kids, and I had to keep a good hold on Simeon -- even he was trying to get away!

Hannah was swimming everywhere, and I had to tell her a couple of times that even though she thought something wasn't a dive, it actually was, and that there is NO diving in the shallow end. "FEET FIRST!" She didn't appreciate that much, but she didn't allow it to spoil her fun, and she did figure out how to go feet first. Naomi jumped in repeatedly by herself, going under water and coming up with a big grin. "I'm going to jump higher next time!" She also wanted to get toys from the bottom of the pool, especially after she saw Hannah retrieving them. I held her hand for that, since she has a hard time actually getting to the bottom of the pool if I don't help, but she grabbed the toy and came up grinning each time. Simeon was dipping his own face in the water and then sitting up, sputtering and laughing. His full body kicks may be part of the reason he fell asleep so easily at naptime.

The showers were a far cry from the beginning of the summer, too, when both Hannah and Naomi cried and even screamed a bit when I was trying to get them to shower off. It took me a while to convince them to get out of the shower this time. Simeon kept lunging for the water, too, trying to get as much of himself under it as possible.

It's great to see them all enjoying the water so much. I have always loved swimming and am pleased that they're loving it, too! Besides, it's much easier to have the difficulty of getting them out than of getting them in.

Gratuitous cute kids photos – State Fair Edition

We learned something new

yesterday. That is: a butter knife used from the inside will open the bathroom door should it get stuck shut.

I was in the bathroom, trying on a new skirt. I had closed the door, but when I went to open it, it was stuck. The door wasn't locked, but the knob was no longer in communication with the little piece that keeps the door closed. So there was no way to retract it.

Another thing we learned: old doors were made to resist any and all attempts to open them without the knob. After I had gotten the hinge pins out (that was exciting and required tools to be passed through the bathroom window...luckily the bathroom HAS a window!), I realized that the door couldn't be taken off its hinges unless...it was open...Heh heh. Attempts to "card" the door open were also futile.

We also learned: Michael and I are not panickers in this type of situation. Despite the fact that I was locked in a bathroom with no really good way of getting out (the window, while good for passing tools through, is in a high and awkward spot for trying to climb through, and it isn't very large), and despite the fact that it was fast approaching bedtime, and despite the fact that I was locked in the ONLY bathroom in the house and we have three kids who might at any time need the potty, Michael and I didn't panic. This is helpful, since panic and clear thinking (such as might be needed to think up new ways to try to get out of the bathroom) do not go well together. Also, I don't think any of the kids realized that anything was amiss. Most helpful in a tricky situation such as this.

After several attempts at other solutions -- which took probably half an hour to try -- I figured out that a butter knife will open the door (once the butter knife is passed through the window to the bathroom occupant), we put the kids to bed, and Michael again dismantled the doorknob. He found out what happened, which is not supposed to happen according to the design. The only thing Michael can figure out is that the mechanism is worn from years of use and so will slip over a lever when it's supposed to be pushing it out of the way.

Needless to say, the knob remains dismantled until Michael determines whether he can fix it. We do not care to learn right now whether any of our kids panic when they're locked in the bathroom.

Michael is awesome

I've mentioned this before, and I've posted other things that should probably give you the hint that he is...but I find I have to say it again. And I'm warning you, I'll probably need to say it again in the future. Because I keep finding proof, and it's my job to keep you posted.

No, this is not about Micheal's awesome review at work last week. I could have told his manager that was the case. I was, of course, glad that his excellence is being acknowledged by others, but that's not what I'm covering here today. Although it is fantastic.

It's also not about how, after some newly-licensed teenager hit the mirror on our car (parallel parked at the side of the road -- not in our neighborhood, where the roads are somewhat tight, but near karate, where there were still two open lanes to get through) and somehow managed to break the mirror's mechanism without breaking it off the car, Michael figured out how to put the mirror back in and get it to work. That was pretty darn awesome, too, because I don't think we'd have gotten away with a very small bill for that little repair at the shop!

THIS is about how Michael took the workings for the doorknob off the bathroom door (which hasn't actually worked since we moved in...and probably not for a long time before that) and without instructions, since it's an old door -- probably original, which means 1916 -- fixed the dang thing! The bathroom door used to only remain closed if it was latched from the inside...well, or if we moved the trash can in front of the door from the inside. Those solutions were great! If someone was in the bathroom. But now...we have a very curious, quick baby of almost a year. He loves the bathroom. He can pull up. We needed a solution for this, since I sometimes have to complete tasks that take more than the 3 seconds it takes him to get from wherever I set him down to the toilet. I mentioned this to Michael recently, and asked whether we could get someone to replace the door.

And Michael had pity on his wife, chasing an almost-one-year-old out of the bathroom several times a day, and fixed the doorknob without instructions. As he was fiddling on the inner workings of the knob, he said, "Yeah, a spring flew out when I opened it up. I think that was from the lock. I don't think I'm going to be able to get that working again. But I guess that's not too bad, since we don't have the key."

OUR BATHROOM DOOR STAYS SHUT NOW. EVEN WHEN NOBODY'S IN THERE. I don't have to worry about Sim playing in the toilet. Or with the plunger. Or with the training potty. Or with the trash.

Once again, Michael is my hero.

Imagination

is something that Naomi has. And she isn't too clear on the boundaries between imaginary and real. For instance, at the zoo today we rode the carousel. In front of us was a little girl with some costume wings on.

"That little girl has wings," said Naomi, "I bet she can fly. Maybe she'll fly after she gets off the carousel."

Blackberries!

Well, we’ve made it to blackberry picking time!  And we went picking the other day with some friends.  It was great!  We got a bunch of blackberries and we’re going to try to bribe Michael to make a pie.  We also ate a whole BUNCH of blackberries while picking, if you can believe that. 

Blackberries are the coolest, because they are noxious weeds.  This means that if they’re in your yard, they are ridiculously difficult to get rid of.  It also means that you don’t have to PAY for blackberries when you pick them because they grow EVERYWHERE.  You just have to be careful that you choose to pick them in a place that doesn’t spray them with nasty chemicals…since they’re noxious weeds and all.

 

Simeon has enjoyed most of the picking expeditions this summer, but he really loved this one.  He managed to convince everyone to feed him.  He had me, Hannah, Naomi, and the three friends picking with us all feeding him berries.  This included the little girl who is not yet two.  In fact, she probably had the most fun with it.  And I can tell you that there is not much cuter than an almost-two-year-old feeding an almost-one-year-old blackberries. 

Simeon also learned to sign “Please” on this expedition, because  I apparently wasn’t bringing to the berries fast enough at lunch time, and he needed a way to speed things along.  I can tell you that there is not much cuter than Simeon, with hands and face covered in berry juice, signing “please.” 

Okay, we get a lot of cuteness around here. 

Hannah had prepared for the expedition by using heavy paper stock and her tape (yes, her birthday tape!  She’s on the third roll.) and paper towels to make little baskets for herself and Naomi.  She had made her basket the day before.  When she realized that I wasn’t going to leave for picking at 7 a.m. and  that Naomi didn’t have a basket, she had time to make another one.  Then she made a big one in which to empty the little ones. 

There was another family who came and picked near where we were picking.  They spent a good deal of time instructing their children not to pick – Mommy and Daddy were going to pick – and telling them that no, they couldn’t eat the berries now, they had to be taken home and washed.  I was somewhat amused, since the kids no doubt looked over at us, with 4 kids and 2 adults picking, everyone eating berries as they picked, and a steady stream of berries being fed to the baby.  Hmmm…how do we join their picking party? 

 

Hannah was glad when this family moved on, since they were picking our berries.  I couldn’t convince her that berries in a public park – particularly unpicked berries in a public park – were not really ours. 

This was Naomi’s first experience with picking blackberries, and I thought the thorns might deter her.  Not a bit of it – once she was warned about them, she was very careful, but she wasn’t about to slow down.  She did get upset when her basket got knocked over and the opportunistic tendencies of the other kids led them to start eating her berries.  But really, who could blame her for that? 

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  MMMMMM…summer brings some good things. 

Signing

Simeon’s baby sign vocabulary is growing.  So is his spoken vocabulary.  He now says Mama, Dada, ball, and pat-pat-pat.  He signs nurse, please, ball, dog, all done, music, potty (but only when someone else is going), clap-clap-clap, bye-bye, duck (or bird), yummy, and probably some others that I’m forgetting. 

Sometimes his signing is humorous.  For instance, the other day I saw him crawl across the floor, pick something small up, put it in his mouth, look across at me and sign, “Yummy!” very vigorously.  When I fished it out of his mouth, I discovered it was a small piece of plastic.  Yummy, indeed. 

We went to the zoo the other day.  We saw some ducks.  Simeon signed dog over and over about the ducks.  He signed duck about the hippos – or was it something else?  Not about a duck, though.  He signed dog about the African wild dogs, though, so that’s good. 

When we went blackberry picking, it was at a park that has a farm in it, so naturally we went to see the animals.  He signed dog about the chickens.  He really, really liked them. 

I was sitting with Sim on the swing on the porch, swinging and watching the girls play.  We saw some people walking by, and Sim signed dog.  I realized that often people walking by have dogs with them, so I sign “dog”…which Sim now uses for anyone walking by. 

Leave the tuna ALONE

Michael made lunch yesterday.  I suggested tuna.  Hannah began to eat hers and made a funny face.  “Umm, this tuna tastes funny.  Mama, is there something in the tuna?”

I referred her to Michael, because I didn’t know. 

“I put mustard in it,” said Michael, “that’s how my mom made it when I was young.”

Mentally noting that Naomi was probably not going to like it, I said, brightly, “Oh, mustard, you like mustard – you put it on your burgers.”

Hannah’s response, “Well, it’s okay.  I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get food poisoning.”  Who can blame her?

I tasted the tuna and decided I’d have something else…it was not mustard like we put on burgers, but the spice.  Which is fine, but I don’t prefer it in my tuna, apparently. 

Naomi put a bite of tuna in her mouth and immediately began crying.  She didn’t like it. 

Michael began to feel ganged up on.  “I guess I’ll just let you make the lunch next time.”

“You can still make the lunch, just don’t put mustard in the tuna.”

“Okay, unadulterated tuna next time.”

Later, he was preparing some peaches for the kids to eat.  Naomi, with a concerned voice, “Did you adulterate the peaches, Dada?”

I don’t know how that would work

Hannah is pretty darn good at identifying plants.  We were out picking blackberries the other day (more on that later…) and she found some bamboo among the berries.  Weird, but there it was. 

She was clearly thinking about it on the way home:  “Mama, can we plant a little bit of bamboo?”

I hedged a bit, thinking about how bamboo spreads like wildfire and takes over entire neighborhoods within seconds of being planted.  “Maybe.  Why do you want to plant bamboo?”

“I’d like to attract any pandas that might be around.”

…"Oh.  Well, pandas don’t really live in our area except in zoos.”

Hannah paused only briefly.  “Well, maybe gorillas then.”

New ideas for the petting zoo

We went to the zoo today with some friends.  We were discussing the petting zoo, which is part of the Family Farm section of the zoo, and Naomi wanted to know more.  What kind of animals?  Our friend described some – sheep, goats, etc. 

Naomi:  What about tigers?

Dear Zoo,

We would like to suggest that you put tigers in the petting zoo.  It would liven things up a bit. 

Sincerely,

Concerned zoo members

Sim and the potty

It may be a bit hard to see in the photo, but Sim is playing with the Fisher Price potty.  This is by far the most popular part of the set we have.  Every kid loves that potty.  I think I’ve mentioned this before. 

Naomi, who also loves the Fisher Price potty, is now almost completely potty trained.  Praise the LORD!  We were beginning to wonder if we’d ever be able to say that.  Sim is very excited about it, as you can see. 

Sim has actually helped with this.  Because of the difficulty we’ve had with Naomi, I decided that something had to be different with Simeon.  I didn’t want to end up with another 3 1/2 year old who had no interest in going potty.  So I started to research elimination communication, which is basically a fancy way of saying, “Watch your kid and when he needs to go, take him to the potty.”  I got a book from the library, called Infant Potty Training.  Interesting ideas.  The author said that people generally start this process between 1 and 4 months. 

Well, even though Sim was about 9 months at the time, I decided to give it a go.  It has worked really, really well.  Overall, he probably uses the potty for over 50% of the times he goes.  Our aim wasn’t that he be totally potty-trained by a certain age, but that he realize that using the potty is a normal part of life.  We’re there. 

I should mention that we have not embraced what’s often called “diaper-free” living. I don’t have the time, energy, interest, or any of the other things that might be required to clean up messes around the house because of misses from a diaper-free baby.  I also think that Michael would not have been willing to try it.  I could be wrong.  Of course, I wasn’t willing to try it, so I didn’t need to try to convince him!

Also, Sim’s potty progress inspired Naomi to begin her potty-training adventure, so we’re getting two for one.  We’re not really sure why, but the fact that he was using the potty was what really seemed to get her into using it.  We didn’t ever pressure her with the information – potty training and pressure don’t seem to go together well – but she was definitely aware that he was going potty.  We don’t need to know why, we’re just glad! 

Sim doesn’t have the same qualms that Hannah does about “pit potties”  -- he’s willing to use them.  And he’s willing to use other public restrooms (try asking for a restroom for your 10-month-old some time – it’s very amusing!), friends’ restrooms, whatever.  On our recent camping trip, he learned about the great outdoor men’s room, too. 

Michael began by thinking this whole process was somewhat odd, but has been supportive and helpful.  Come to think of it, I began by thinking this process was somewhat odd, but, heck, it’s working!  And we’ve decreased our diaper usage and increased our chances of completely potty training easily.  Who can argue with that?