Peek-a-"Bah!" "BUH-bow!" "Ki-chuh" and kazoos!

On Thursday of this week, I was busy cleaning up the kitchen and making goodies for us as well as for a friend who just had twin boys. So, I set out to keep Bennett busy in the kitchen (KI-chuh!) for a little while. He's really into stirring and spoons right now!

We had such a fun Father's Day!

This morning Bennett discovered something amazing. Almost 2 years ago, friends of ours - both Oberlin alums - were married here in Bloomington. They had audience participation in the form of kazoo playing to...I think it was the recessional? It was a blast! Anyhow. Bennett found my kazoo this morning - it's been living on a shelf in the living room. He then made various noises while he had it in his mouth and, of course, discovered the wonder of the kazoo!

Generally, he walked around with it like this:

But I did try to teach him to use it "correctly":


We also planted our garden today - during which we set up Bennett's inflatable pool so he could hang out. Afterwards, bubbles were mentioned...so of course Bennett started saying repeatedly, "BUH-bow!" Matt brought out the bubbles and - you can tell from this picture (Matt can post a higher-quality version on the Picasa account) - Bennett was thrilled!

At the beginning of the month, Bennett and I went to get my regular kidney labs done, and the woman checking me in played peek-a-boo with Bennett. She would duck behind the desk and pop up and say "BOO!" He loved it! He started saying his version of "boo" - "bah!" So today we played some quality hide-and-seek. Every time he's getting ready to duck (or just look away) he shouts "BAH!" And then when he "re-appears" he shouts it again - and of course laughs and laughs and laughs.

We're having fun over here, and we're about to take our show on the road! We'll be leaving on Friday for a 10 day road trip....wish us luck with the 1-year-old in the backseat!

We'll be in Oberlin on Friday night, then onto Rochester for Saturday and Sunday nights. Monday through Thursday we'll be in Princeton, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we'll be in Ocean City. Monday we'll make a stop over in Pittsburgh before returning to Btown on Tuesday.

Too pretty to be a boy?

Back in March, when we were in Florida, these two older ladies (like, my grandmother's age) asked us whether our child was a girl or boy. We answered "boy" and they went on and on about how he was "too pretty to be a boy."

Well, now you can judge for yourself because we've put him in pigtails. I think we'd have a pretty adorable daughter!

We had a hard time getting him to look at the camera because he was obsessed with a little travel alarm clock he found.

Attack of the Happy Baby!!!

Priceless.

It might be time to cut his hair...

Busy busy busy!

It's been a busy week or so around here!

Last weekend we trekked up to Traderspoint Creamery, where we enjoyed their Free Cone Day (the ice cream was good, but I still haven't had anything that compared to Miller's Ice Cream near Oberlin). We also got to see chickens and cows. It was fun, though Matt and I agreed that we need to find some farms that do tours and stuff nearer to us!

Bennett sat around in his underwear (it's actually a very trim pull-on style diaper. I love these!!) looking out the window with Boomer.
It rained for a couple days, and I needed something fun to do with Bennett in the house that didn't involve making a huge mess (because I was determined to get the house in some semblance of order before we left for a roadtrip the next day!).

My solution was to inflate his pool and set it up in the living room. It was actually really awesome and now I want to build forts with him every rainy day!

You can't see it, but he's got a prune in his hands here....

Obviously, prunes and pools are really fun!

He kept "dancing" on it - the bottom was kind of bouncy. So fun!

I SEE YOU!!

Matt and Bennett enjoying the "fort" -- we tipped the pool over so it baracaded them in.

"Why is Daddy stalking me?"

Thursday we left for Tennessee to see a friend of mine and her 11-month-old daughter. Everything I read said it was a 7 hour drive. With Bennett, it took 10 hours going and about 9 getting back :-)

Bennett's got his popper - he's ready to hit the road!

We went to a cute children's museum while we were in Tennessee. There were lots of little things to pick up, carry around, and scream about when a mom tried to take....

We're back now, and it's obvious to Matt after our absence how quickly Bennett's skills change and develop. His words are clearer and there are more of them. And he's really starting to imitate sounds as much as he is capable. Tonight he kept pushing buttons on one of his (thankfully few!) electronic toys that makes sounds of an elephant, a dog, and a bird. He kept trying to imitate the dog and elephant. He just made his sign for bird at that sound, though.

Ok, I stink at this blog-updating thing

But I'm surprised it's only been a month since I last updated. I will try to be better, but here are my excuses....

The past month has seen in Bennett an explosion of skills and an increase in separation anxiety. One of those skills is closing my computer and pushing it aside when he wants me to play with him.

Another is definitely talking. He's got several signs and several words (both are generally a little modified since he doesn't have all the consonant or vowel sounds and he doesn't have astounding fine motor control in his hands, either :-)). I'm trying to encourage him to use words, gestures, and signs instead of crying, grunting, and throwing tantrums. So, now he says, "up" when he wants to be picked up (though frequently is sounds more like "bup" or "pup"). Who in their right mind could update a blog when their child comes over, closes their computer, shoves it aside, and holds up their arms saying "bup!" Yeah, I can't resist. I pick him up and abandon the blog, the dishes, or whatever else I was trying to get done.

And then there's the separation anxiety we've been dealing with. I took him to the gym's childcare pretty consistently for a couple weeks - for 30-60 minutes at a time - and he got better while actually in childcare (he'd cry when I left, but i'd come back and see him playing and enjoying himsel until he saw me and started crying again). But the clingyness after childcare was unbearable. As an experiment, I went a few days without putting him in childcare and the clingyness improved - he was still clingy, but not AS clingy. Tried taking him to the gym and NOT putting him in childcare, and he would not let me put him down while we were there - which isn't even normal for him anywhere we go. He usually will go explore.

So now I'm trying to take him to the gym and do fun stuff so he associates the place with fun and not just separation. We'll try childcare again in a few weeks.

Let's see...what else is going on...

A couple weeks ago we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum, and yesterday we went to Traderspoint Creamery for their Free Cone Day, and Bennett enjoy the cows and the chickens there. The ice cream was also quite good, but Bennett wouldn't try it! If you want pictures of those things, you should check out Matt's Picasa photos or mine on Facebook. If you need links to either, comment and I'll add links here. I am in a hurry to get this thing finished while the child climbs all over me....maybe I'll upload photos directly to the post later....

Busy busy!

Bennett's first trip to the ER!

All's well. Bennett had been coughing Friday and Saturday nights, and I thought perhaps he had allergies. As the day went on Sunday, though, he got more and more clingy and sensitive, and was coughing more and more. He crashed for a nap at 6PM, shortly after we'd called the pediatrician to report that he had a productive cough and a fever of 100.0. At 7:30 he woke up with a barking cough, crackly breathing, and was sort of gasping for air after coughing and crying fits. He had a fever of 101.6, so we called the pediatrician's office again and were told they were done seeing patients for the day, so it was off to the ER.

They were really quick getting us triaged, and heard a slight bit of wheezing in Bennett's lungs. A respiratory therapist was in our room very shortly to give him a breathing treatment, croup was diagnosed and a chest x-ray was ordered. I was handed two syringes - one of Motrin and one of Tylenol - to give him by mouth. I don't think he got any of either - he spit most of it out amidst much screaming and gagging, and then vomited the rest on me. Good times!

So, since the oral medicines were such a fantastic failure, the doctor ordered the oral steroid be given as a shot. More screaming, but at least we know he actually got those meds.

The chest x-ray was "questionable" as to whether Bennett had pneumonia or not, so we were sent home with a prescription for antibiotics. Oral, liquid antibiotics, to be squirted in his mouth. Right.

The doctor told us to pick up fever-reducing suppositories, but there were no suppositories for the antibiotics! She also said that he'd be find no matter what, just try to get the antibiotics in him.

So I've spent the day trying every suggestion from pretending to take them myself, to blowing in his face, to putting a teensy bit in yogurt, to putting the stuff on my nipples.

I've succeeded in dicouraging him from drinking from his sippy by putting the meds in there, discouraging him from nursing by putting the meds on my nipple, and making a lot of sticky messes. He has been refusing solids for a few days, so the yogurt was a bust entirely.

He's definitely feeling better, though. He's coughing up lots of mucous and spitting it out wherever he happens to be standing, and he's not quite as clingy. He's back to his normal, refusing-to-nap self!

He's got it all figured out...

Bennett has entirely figured out the bath time routine.

I should start by explaining the first bit. We've been putting Bennett on a potty at almost every diaper change since he was about 8 months old. We don't consider it potty training, per se, but more like getting him used to the potty and also giving him some time to air out. He sits on his potty and we read books with him. For awhile, it was the ONLY place he'd sit still and read. I got the idea from a book called Diaper Free Before 3, which I highly recommend. In any case, the first day we tried it, I had said to Matt, "there's no way he'll sit still. I expect to put him on it and for him to immediately get up and crawl away, which is fine. Whatever." Well, we've gone through STACKS of books with him sitting there. And he actually pees with some consistency - especially right after naps. And when we got to the "grunting" stage of poops, we started whisking him away to the potty and getting his diaper off quickly so he can poop there (which, by the way, is MUCH easier to clean up than a poopy diaper!).

So, anyway. Bath night. Daddy gets his pants and diaper off and puts him on the potty. He pees within SECONDS and then pops up and walks right over to the bath tub. Daddy turns the water on and Bennett looks at him and raises his arms. No. Not to be picked up. To have his shirt taken off! He then "helps" Daddy take his shirt off before banging on the side of the tub as if to say "LET ME IN!!!"

He's done this a couple times now. Hilarious!

One Year Old!!

I can't believe it. Bennett is a whole YEAR old!

I've been playing the "this time a year ago" game for about 2 months now. At 10:07PM on Sunday, March 29, 2009, Matt once again yelled, "It's a BOY! Hi, Bennett!" Just for the heck of it this time, though.

So, on Sunday we had a playdate/party in celebration of Bennett's first birthday. We had about 30 people here! 10 or so were under the age of 3. Matt made crackers, sourdough bread, and a yellow cake with orange lemon butter cream frosting. I made a sugar-free carrot cake with sugar-free cream cheese frosting. And, no, I didn't use Splenda :-)

Bennett enjoyed his birthday cake, as you can see in these pictures.





We had such a wonderful time with our friends, and Bennett was a wonderful host, despite his refusal to take a nap all day! It is just so amazing to see how all of our friends' kids are growing and changing - alongside our own changing son. Bennett and the kids really close to his age are starting to (sort of) play together.

Oh, and we neglected to get a picture of him in his Team Carlson birthday shirt before we set him up for cake (you can see a little of it in the pictures above....it got pretty messy!). Oh well! He has at least 6 months to wear it before he outgrows it. And there will be another one next year!!