15 months

Fifteen months means

sleeping better (not every night but most)
sudden onset of snits- including a big bottom lip (is that biological or what?!?!) and throwing oneself to the ground

at least 11 teeth
still little on the "charts" <5th -75th="" circumference="" for="" head="" p="" weight="">because he's so little it means he gets to wear all his cute little clothes for much longer!

hugging Mum lots
signing for a number of things but mostly using that "eah" sound
loves his baths- started "swimming" in the tub

Oh, and climbing. lots and lots of climbing- always wanting to be bigger!!!

at Nasja's birthday party

13 months

What 13 months means

lots of cruising around on furniture
Taking 2-4 steps- (12 have been counted on occasion...) it is still so much more efficient to crawl
climbing stairs- if someone has forgotten to close the gate
practicing "uh oh" just like his cousin
eating every kind of food
signing for Pat-a-cake song
overcoming bad cold/cough- incredible snot sneezes
going to bed without nursing for both naps and bed-time
delighting in doing things that he knows are "wicked"!
delighting in being called a scamp and a scallywag.
more clingy to Mum
7 teeth
darling giggles.

winter?

Today
Timo got a new tooth (#7).
I picked a large number of apples from a neighbor who had a sign out saying neighbors welcome to pick.
I realize the need to reduce the amount of exasperation I seem to have these days. Mostly because I am tired of hearing that tone of voice back from my daughter.
I made Lasagna in the morning. (unheard of early dinner preparation)
We went to the Roosevelt Roundup at the kids' school and it was a super fun carnaval!
Ami won a pie in the cake walk.
I taught an ABM floor lesson class.
And yes. It snowed.

St Paddy's day

Today was fun. I don't have much time to write so this will be point form.
St Patrick's day
*Ami is disappointed that the leprechauns didn't come in the night (I'm not sure what they are supposed to do or how you know they came. . . )
*Ami makes his own version of muffins for breakfast- no formal recipe- they turn out pretty good actually!
*I go to the auction house to put some absentee bids on some items of interest- I'm getting obsessed with auctions.
*Timo starts long sounds- one breath, one long sound
*Timo also has really fine small motor skills- both hands- as he explores his world
*Ami's friend Emily comes over for a playdate
*Ami loses his tooth- he had a total snaggle tooth for 24 hours.
*Ami personally understands the Burns quote "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!" - nothing terrible but a lesson well learned...
*I organize a parishioner to help with moving an electronic organ from GoodWill to our house for Ami. I bought it last week ($24.99) and have been keeping it a secret until today. I had hoped to keep it a secret until it was installed in our house but that didn't work out. It has lots of buttons- not many seem to affect/change the tone like they say they will but it is fun and he can say that he has an organ now and he can practice on it. I will get a video of it ASAP
*Ami tells me that he wants to be a famous composer when he grows up. Like Bach
He also wants to be a famous musician and artist.
*Mimi has an unimportant day except that she has 2 accidents with her elevated (high) chair.
*We finally put Mimi's tooth under her pillow tonight (it fell out in January) as Ami put his under his pillow too.
*Ami asked if they could have allowance. I said yes and then asked him how much he was thinking of. He suggested 17 cents.
*everyone wore green so that we wouldn't get pinched by leprechauns. :)


as a side note.... Yesterday Martin picked up Mimi from school on the Xtracycle. Apparently it was a big hit and everyone wanted to know about it in the parking lot of SUVs....

more bathing cuteness

This little video is here so you can see how cute my life is and hear how chaotic it is too. Seems Timo has found his feet- about a month after his cousin Miho! Of course in this bathtub how could he miss them!?!?!

Mysterious milestones

When we left the room, Timo would be lying on his back. Mysteriously when we returned to the room we would find him on his tummy. Mimi and I spent quite a long time trying to film him doing his new trick. He kept not doing it. Mimi had the idea to leave the room and keep the camera running to see if he would do it when we were in the kitchen. Mimi was sure that he was just shy about doing his trick. 

So here is the footage of our time stirring the spaghetti!

He hasn't figured out the next milestone yet. Reversibility!

the latest

We have a case of the sick going through our house right now and Ami is the most effected by it. High temperatures, the H-F Chest, coughing, grogginess, lots of sleeping and a fair dose of whine.

Martin had a particularly busy weekend this weekend because the Dean is away. M got to perform his first wedding yesterday which was very special for him. He thinks that he got a few eyebrows raised and some conceptions shattered when he mentioned in his homily that we lived together before we got married.
It snowed a bit this morning which makes everything brighter and cleaner.

Mimi went to see a play with some folks from church yesterday. It was really short notice and when I asked her if she would like to go (without me or Martin) she said "Yes, I am brave". That about sums her up! She has been very brave these days with a hard visit to the dentist and then getting sick and all. I just wish she would stop asking if I have a baby in my belly. I guess my poochy tummy is giving her the WRONG idea!!!!

"Mimi is so fun to look at!"

Timo is totally cute these days. He likes to blow bubbles and he just beams when Mimi is near. He is really good at going to sleep by himself during the day. He seems to have avoided the cold but who can say. All I know is that he still wanted to nurse every 2 hours in the night last night. I think I have had enough of that.

I got some items at the auction yesterday which I am very pleased about. It will mean better storage for books and kid things. Now I will need to get some storage situation for all my ABM props. I worked on a little girl from Grand Forks a couple of weeks ago and she will come again this week for three lessons. I need to find a few other kids to practice on so I can really learn ABM!

Ami was presented with an award for citizenship at his school (Citizen of the Month... there were about 5-8 citizens from every grade). He was very pleased with it and Martin and I and Mimi and Timo were all there to cheer him on at the assembly. He is wishing his life were different these days. Maybe things will be better when the cold/fever is gone.

see you next year

What I did on the last day of 2011.
-Julia and Travis visiting us from Vancouver
-I made breakfast (bran muffins), lunch (chicken soup) and dinner (pot-roast and pumpkin pie) all before lunch. (Julia did help in the making of the soup)
-Timo did lots of sleeping. I did a lot of leaking.
-Ami worked on the house he is making in the back yard (spending quality time with Martin)
-Mimi played with Travis a lot! (puzzles, drawing, giggling)
-Got my hair cut (what a relief! makes me feel much better) at the salon at 14th and Grand (3 min walk from our place).  It is a "non tipping salon" have you ever heard of such a thing?!?!
-Martin got his hair cut too.
-Started in on getting more boxes out of my office- put some in the attic thanks to Ami and Martin.
-Looking forward to NOT moving for a while although I am not inspired to unpack boxes lest we end up needing them packed some time soon (feel a bit burned by all the moving in the past 6 months...)
-I am officially no longer Ami's favourite parent (he announced this fact yesterday but told me today that he doesn't want the baby around anymore because he takes up too much of my time... does he like me or not, I'm getting mixed signals)
-Took Julia and Travis to Trader Joe's.
-Martin will preach at the New Year's Eve midnight mass and we will watch fireworks and drink champagne from the "chapter room" at the cathedral this evening
-Thought about how crazy 2011 was which makes me even crazier just thinking about it.
-Glad to be in a leap year next year.

Happy New Year!!!

3 kids at Christmas

Christmas Day 2011

A happy day that included opening stockings from Santa (stuffed animals = big hit!) and a walk in Manito Park. You will have to trust that Timo is in the stroller! Later in the afternoon we went sliding on the hill in Manito Park. It was perfect sliding conditions and elicited many infectious giggles.

bath time

Warning: The cuteness is overwhelming.

I can't seem to remove this non-video, sorry.

Christmas Eve widow

I suppose it will be like this from now on. Sitting at home alone on Christmas Eve. Holding down the fort.  New understandings about my own childhood and my Mum's life. Listening to the "neighbor's" carillon belt out the (hopefully) last concert of questionable christmas music.  Have Mercy Please! Stockings are hanging by the fireplace (empty) as fussy baby has not fallen asleep (woken up by belled "Away in a manger" ironically), gifts not yet wrapped, house is a mess, dog hasn't been walked...
3 kids finally asleep (at least I hope). Time for me to write this moment down.
Pray there is no "after-midnight-mass" "music".

Best moment today - seeing Timo fall asleep in Mimi's arms at church. Oh for a camera. She was so proud.

8 Weeks/2 months

Timo is now 8 weeks and a day. Well he was when I started this post. Now he's closer to 2 months.... Hard to believe he is growing so fast and the days just keep ticking by. He is doing a LOT of cooing and conversations these days, his little mouth is just so darling when he is talking. The video shows the lip-smacking he has been trying out. I am so glad that I caught these few seconds before my memory card ran out of room. He was doing this the other day but i really haven't seen him smacking like that for a few days now. . . too cute!!

He still screeches like an eaglet sometimes- mostly when I am trying to brush my teeth at night and he is in bed with his dad- torture i tell you!!! He seems to need to scream a bit before he falls asleep and nursing seems to still be his preferred way to start his night time slumber. His morning naps are aided by a dog walk or a trip to take Mimi to school in the car.

Timo is now sporting cloth diapers- three kids definitely makes the investment in the diapers even more glorious. He seems way bigger, longer, and he's getting chubbier. He is solidly in 3-6 month clothes (probably aided by the bulkier diapers!) He has had his first cold with lots of snotty noses but he's not too stuffed up which is nice.

I got him a little bath called a wash-pod (here's a picture of it from the internet- none from my camera yet....) I got it from "Other Mothers" which is the Abra'kid'abra of Spokane with better prices!

 

He LOVES having a bath in this thing. It feels so much safer to me than the traditional "bathtub shaped" baby baths. He feels so relaxed in it and he is highly alert.  I love it that he can have a bath in front of the fire in the living room- just like "old-fashioned" days!!

Mimi is Timo's best friend. She hauls him around as much as she can get away with and she is pretty good at putting clothes on him and is very interested in putting diapers on him too. Our diaper change table is quite high so I don't think it will be happening for awhile! She has graduated to carrying him around a bit (when i am feeling zen about it all). She burps him and says all the things I say when I do that- "there's a good boy" or "that's what we are looking for" etc etc. I get to find out what i say!

We are starting to get a nice rhythm to the day and surprisingly he has decided that sleeping during dinner preparation is a good idea. Of course I am jinxing myself for writing it here. Or maybe by purchasing all sorts of preparation-time-saving dinners. Or maybe I am just lucky so far.

He definitely does not get attended to at the first squeak or even the 5th which I am choosing to believe will make him a stronger, more independent soul!