Big Feet

On Saturday I went to buy Ian a new pair of shoes or as he calls them "boots" (he learned this word in the winter). He now wears a size 8. This is the largest size in toddler shoes. sigh. I should qualify this a little his left foot is a size 7 and his right is a 7.5, putting him in a size 8 shoe. He got himself a styling pair of Vans with flaming wheels on them. He points at them and says "Bus" because I was singing "...the wheels on the bus go round and round..." when we were picking them out. Lots of fun. I wish they would make kids shoes in adult sizes. They are so cute.

He has recently started eating butter - straight. I will put a little dab on his plate so he can dip his finger in and lick. He will finish it all and beg for more but I have to hide the butter because I think if he eats too much this would give him a heck of a belly ache. He does this same thing with sour cream - that one I'm a little more lenient with. Aaron tells me that Mary had to hide the butter from him too. It's funny the little things that are passed on.

Why don't I learn...

I should know better than to jinx myself with a blog entry called blissfull nights... Ian has figured out that he can get up anytime in the middle of the night and get in bed with us. I'm ok with this as long as he isn't trying to sleep in my spot all night. He still roots around on my chest while he sleeps and in the process occasionally head buts me. ARGH! The problem is that I am too sleepy the last couple of nights to bother getting up and putting him back to sleep in his room. This is because of the above reason. Really just a vicious circle. Sigh. But that is just me. I can live with sleep deprevation. I'm getting rather used to it. The problem is that Ian doesn't sleep very well either. When he is tired he acts up and gets really devilish and won't mind. In fact he will get that glint in his eye when we ask him to stop whatever bad behavior he's practicing, and look us right in the eye and do it anyway. He was in time out three times during dinner yesturday. We have just started with time outs. I have a feeling they will be a part of our life for a long time... Ian is certainly Mr. Independent.

Blissfull Nights

I probably shouldn't tempt fate by heading an entry with such a title but Ian has been sleeping so well. This is the second night in a row that he hasn't woken up even once. Since we replaced the nightlight and changed which way his head points, things have been peachy. There certainly hasn't been any sort of transition period that I have read about and heard from other parents. It's pretty obvious that he was ready for a big boy bed.

We have seen the movie "Cars" now so many times that I hum the music at work and if pressed I could probably state the dialog verbatim. It's his favorite thing. After dinner, if we are just hanging around the house, he will point at the tv and go, "BEEP BEEP" insistently until we cave. If we try to put in another movie he gets upset.

I guess that's all the news I have. Pretty sad. Well, I guess it's a good thing that there isn't much to report on. Life goes blissfully along.

Ok Now He's Weaned

Or at least I think he is - I hope he is. We haven't nursed in over a week and he is just fine. I'm glad we went through with it. It makes night night time more enjoyable for me. He's more snuggly now. He crawls right up in my lap and wiggles around for a bit and then will settle down with his head right under my chin. Most nights he still wakes up once a night but I think I would miss that if it went away all together.

This is the weekend of the American Cheese Society meeting/conference and Aaron is high on mold. He's downright giddy with all the cheesy activities and people in town. Saturday night we have a hot date at the "Cheese Extravaganza"!! Woooweee!! More to come.

Big Boy Bed

While Whitney, Joe and Ashton were here we had to make the required trip to Ikea. To avoid having to go there again anytime in the near future we took advantage of the occasion to buy Ian a big boy bed. He did a good job of jumping on every bed in the place while shouting gleefully "Bed Bed" to test them for durablility and function. We picked one that expands from a shorter toddler bed to a twin size. He loves it! When we got it set up he spent a bunch of time nesting. He brought all of his trucks, trains and cars into the bed and set them up on both the head and foot boards. Then once he got them all arranged just so he proceeded to launch them onto the floor. The first night in the bed was a little rough. My theory is that it was because we removed the night light in the process and put the bed in with his head facing the opposite direction of where it was with his crib. After fixing this, last night he slept like a champ. It was so cute to have him get up by himself and walk into our room this morning and say "Hi". I'm sure it won't be so cute when it's 4am but this was a reasonable 6:30. We were already up and about (or at least I was).

Field Notes

Whitney, Joe and Ashton came and visited this weekend and we're having a blast. For those not in the know. Whitney is Aaron's sister, Joe is her partner and Ashton his son. We spent yesterday at the Field Museum of Natural History downtown. How can you lose with dinosaurs and little boys! Ashton's favorite thing was the baby dinosaur that he got at the gift shop. I think Ian's favorite thing was the kids playroom. That was a great area where kids could dress up, dig for bones, touch artifacts, play drums and all sorts of other stuff.

Ian went to the doctor on Thursday but not much came out of it. The doctor couldn't make a diagnosis because unless the hernia is bulging out they can't see it. So he is going to consult with our pediatrician about what she saw. He knows her because he fixed a hernia in her son which is why she recommended him. He is confident that she would know one if she saw one, so if she is 100% then we will schedule a surgery. But until we hear from the doctors we are waiting. Also Ian has a yeast infection rash so they said until that clears up, no surgery.

Qualms of Conscience

Last night went better - except putting him to sleep in the evening. He was all sorts of upset. It's hard to deny him when he is so obviously upset. Aaron and I had a long conversation after we got him to sleep as to whether we were doing the right thing. I don't want to deny Ian anything that is so easy to give and he so adamantly wants and as parents, of course we don't want Ian to feel bad. Ultimately though, we decided to continue trying to wean. Partially because we have come this far and I think there is a lot to be said for consistency. It's not good to teach him that when we say no, we really mean maybe. So whether we are right or wrong in weaning him before he wants to stop nursing, we have started down the path and so will continue. It has to happen sometime and Mom's biological clock is ticking. And things did go better last night. We might have reconsidered if Ian was up all night but he just woke up once. I will let you know how things go tonight.

Ian has his doctor appointment tomorrow and then all of us took a 3 day weekend because Whitney, Joe and Ashton are coming up. I'm looking forward to that. Our apartment will be a mad house with Ian and Ashton tearing it up! Then we can decide if we are really prepared for the possibility of two boys!

Cut Off and Pissed Off

Ian was a little ticked last night. He woke up every hour or two and wanted to nurse. I held my guns until 5am. Mostly he was content just to have me rock and sooth him and give him a sippy cup of milk. At 5am I was hit and sent Aaron in, Ian wasn't having it and got all worked up. By the time I made it in there he was throwing a mild tantrum and wouldn't even sit in my lap. He walked to the center of his room and cried and stomped his feet. I finally caved and let him nurse for just a couple of minutes to settle him down. Then he just fussed a little when I pulled him off and nestled in. Hopefully it'll be better tonight. I am determined to do this. I still think it's time and mostly this is about a toddler who is adamantly against any change in his life. He fusses and throws tantrums like this when we try to change his diaper or put him in PJs so why should I expect any less. Mostly he is accepting this rather well.

Not Quite Weaned...

So that last post was a little premature. Ian has figured out the vinegar trick. (I like that my son is smart, I just wish he wasn't smarter than me!) And so we nursed to sleep last night and I let him nurse for a couple of minutes in the middle of the night before pulling him off. So now I am falling back on the "No" method and letting him be pissed. He gets over it realatively quickly and I just feel like we were so close that we can do this. One of the reasons I think it really is the right time, is that he is very close to climbing out of his crib. I want him to be weaned before we get him a 'big boy' bed. The thought of him being free to wake me up in the middle of the night whenever he wants to nurse is a little scary. We keep trying and hopefully I can retract my retraction and tell you once again that he is weaned but I will wait until we are a week without before declaring victory.

On another note. Ian goes to the pediatric surgeon on Thursday. I don't know if I mentioned previously that we discovered the Wednesday before the 4th that Ian has an ingurnal hernia. This is apparently a defect from birth and is genetically passed (sound familiar Alan?). He has a hole in the membrane that keeps his intestines from falling into his legs. So the doctor looks at him on Thursday and confirms the diagnosis. Then we hear what the options are. I assume he will have a little surgery. This is not uncommon in little boys and the surgery is pretty non intrusive and I assume it is an outpatient procedure. I will keep you all updated as we know more.

Weaned!

It worked! Ian went to bed last night with only a little fuss. He tried nursing once but after tasting it decided that he didn't want it. And last night he slept - all night! But now I have to adjust. So I am awake at 5:40 am on a Saturday morning. Which isn't too unusual because I get up at 5:30-6 during the week. But... I am awake because I missed seeing Ian last night. A little. And also because I go to bed early since I am usually up in the middle of the night. So I've had my 8 hours - or close to it. Anyway I'm sure I will adjust to sleeping and am looking forward to it :-) Then about that time we'll see about Thing #2. Sorta a daunting idea. Are we ready to go through the last two years over again? I have to think it is a little easier the second time around. You have a little more experience and knowledge. I can change a diaper in my sleep and have many times. And maybe this time we'll get one that sleeps. Who knows. We just have always planned on having more than one. Mostly for Ian's sake. The idea of being an only child sounds a little lonely to me. But it may not be our choice. We will go through the process (YUCK) and see what happens.

I just thought about that last sentence and maybe I should clarify that I don't mean the natural process of trying to have a baby. That's a lot of fun! But I mean the process we have to go through - which is IVF. This isn't fun - it's invasive, expensive, painful and requires a series of shots which make me cranky.

Weaning!

So far, so good. When putting Ian to sleep last night, he tried to nurse 2-3 times and each time would pull away and look at me with this face that said "what's up with that?". Each time I would explain to him that, "Mommy's milk was getting sour because he was a big boy now and it was time to stop nursing. He was growing up and since he had been nursing for so long now, the milk was getting sour." He didn't get angry but just keep trying. After 3 times he must have gotten all the vinegar off because then he kept nursing. Then at the middle of the night feeding I did the same thing and he didn't try it more than once. We got to bed without much fuss and no nursing. He just drank the cup of milk I gave him and then we rocked and he went back to sleep. I'll let you know how things progress. Hopefully he won't even wake up tonight :-)

Weaning??

So I think that it is time to wean Ian. For many reasons: he needs his sleep and so do I, we want to have a 2nd child, and we are down to only 2 times a day and I think he might be ready. So starting tonight we start this experiment. One thing I read online is to put vinegar on my nipples so that he will not like the taste and choose to stop on his own. I am going to try it because otherwise I think Ian may have a big fit. Part of me feels guilty for weaning him before he stops on his own. But the idea that I turn 40 in just a few months is niggling at the back of my brain - I want to have a 2nd child before it gets too hard. Realistically, the longer I wait the harder it gets and since the first time was so difficult... That and I am just tired of nursing. That's the selfish reason that makes me feel a little guilty. Who knows... I have tried this half heartedly before and have never made it more than a couple of hours. I may just cave this time too. We'll see how the vinegar thing works.

The Zoo!

IMG_2074, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Stek.

It was so much fun to see Ian enjoying the zoo. My favorites were the gorillas but I think that Ian's favorite was the bears. He kept saying "more more". But really he was doing this at all of the exhibits. He would climb right up the fence rails and stand there and just watch the animals. I think it helps him understand the pictures in his books. Maybe. Maybe not. But he does a great gorilla imitation and his lion's roar is something to make you quake (not really - if you weren't his adoring parents, you probably wouldn't recognize it). It's so much fun to hear him start to talk.

Fourth of July

IMG_2041, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Stek.

We had a great 4th. About 10 people showed up to BBQ in our backyard which was a perfect number and a couple of our friends brought their little guy, Keith, so Ian and he got into all sorts of trouble together. Watching Ian play with other kids makes Aaron and I think about this idea of two. I really think that once they get through the first year or so that there really is something to that idea that they would entertain each other. For the most part I just hung out all day and Ian was self supporting. Well, Ruth (Keith's mom) did some helpful overseeing! The day was perfect, the food scrumptious, and the company good. It's surprising to here all of Chicago lighting off fireworks around you. It really sounds like a battlefield! No way to describe it and it when on well after I had called it a night. Ian tried his first sparkler. It took a little while but once he warmed up to it, he was all about it. We went to Brookfield Zoo on Sunday and had a blast - I'll save that for the next blog.

RIP Tear 1999-2008

We had to have Tear put down today after a long ordeal that started a little before Memorial Day weekend. The short story is that she suffered from kidney failure and subsequent liver failure. We had a bad experience with the first vet that we went to see in Oak Park but after a very trying Thursday back and forth with the vet we took her out of there and brought her to a seemingly honest, caring and practical vet this morning. She thought the best thing for Tear was to let her go. As much as she was a curmudgeon and not very personal, it was still a very hard thing to do. The worst was when I came back out and Ian opened up the towel and looked at me and meowed. It was like he was asking where the cat was. So sad.

Mmmm... Brownies

IMG_2013, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Stek.

Ian helped me make brownies the other day and discovered the joy of licking the beater. Childhood pleasures. Although maybe not such a childhood pleasure - it's still a favorite of mine! It's a testament of my love for Ian that from now on he will be the reciepient of the beater. mmmm...

Aaron and I have some time off this week. Ian's daycare is closed so we decided to make a week of it. Aaron has the week off and I have Wed through Sun off. I was originally looking around for camping or thinking about what we should do (always doing). Aaron had the wonderful idea of doing absolutely nothing. So we are camping out in the backyard maybe doing some looking for a new used car and some adventuring around the city, but only if we feel like it. We are going to have a couple of friends over to BBQ on the 4th and we bought some fireworks in Indiana (Krazy Kaplans!) on the way back from MI so that'll be fun. We might check out the Oak Park fireworks or the parade in the am since it is within walking distance. It all depends on how Ian is holding up. I have a feeling he will love fireworks! If he takes after his Mom and Dad that is! Happy Fourth of July!

Trucks, Trains and Talking

IMG_2032, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Stek.

Ian really started chattering away about the 19th of June. It just seemed like overnight he discovered that he could use words. Now he is picking up about 5 a day and speaking in short sentences. He is in love with everything that goes - so his favorite thing is to point out the buses, trains and trucks that he sees as we go down the street. The little voice in the back of the jeep that says "It's a bus!" with great enthusiasm. His German ancestory has come out in his pronounciation of 'truck', 'book' or any other word that ends with a k. It sounds as though he is speaking German because it comes out as a German 'uch' sound. It's very cute.

We bought him a big yellow dump truck as well as a wooden train because he was pushing around puzzle pieces of trucks and making engine noises. We thought it was time he entered the world of 3D and he's happy as a clam. Our apartment has become a highway and we have to be careful not to trip over the cars, tractors, trains, etc etc. 100% Boy.

Weekend at Grandma's

IMG_2008, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Stek.

Mary, I know you asked that I not go posting pictures of you online but this one was soooo precious that I couldn't resist. In spite of the illness we had a great time in Michigan that weekend.