"Wud" is great :)

Josey is having trouble with saying his Ls, and also his Vs (if they're not at the beginning of the word) so now that he tells us he loves us it comes out as "I wud you". It sounds really cute, especially when he says it spontaneously. A couple of days ago I put my hair into braids and when he finally noticed he was absolutely delighted and said "Oh Mommy! I wud you! I wud your hair like that!"

Rude Boy!

We've been having some issues with Josey either totally ignoring people when he's spoken to, or else being extremely rude. I first noticed that he was acting funny when we were at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. Normally he'll say hi and wave to everyone he sees, or else give a big smile, but when someone talked to him, he got a disturbed "Who the heck is this stranger" look and walked away really fast. Not such a big deal, but at Carlingwood last week a lady came up to us and was talking to Roanen (who is now Mr Happy in public), then noticed Josey was behind him in the stroller. When she talked to him, he gave her a really nasty (not even cute nasty) look, disgusted curled lip and all, and snarled at her. Afterwards, when we told him that he should be nice and smile at people, he said "No - I make my angry face!" Later on he said he made his angry face because "People were touching my brother". As if this wasn't bad enough, he was nasty to my grandmother when she came to visit, and slammed the door at her, then refused to talk to her. This happened a couple of times when she came over, including an incident where he told her to go away really rudely. Needless to say she was devastated, and stopped coming over for a couple of days because she was upset about it. (As an aside, Roanen was making up for it by climbing up on her and hugging her really sweetly whenever she came over) We ended up having a big talk with him about how he needed to be nice to people, and especially Mom because she was very sad about how he was treating her, and he went over to her house and hugged her and told her he loved her. Since then, he's been trying really hard to be nice to people, and is even going to meet Daddy at the door, which he hasn't done in a while. When I was talking to him about starting his skating lessons, he asked who was going to help him learn to skate, then said "I not going to be shy with those ladies, and I not going to be angry with them", so maybe he really is learning something.
On the topic of respect, Josey has also surprised us by teaching himself to shake hands when meeting someone. I think he really pays attention to the fact that Russ shakes hands, so he's been doing it too. At Russ' sister's place this weekend, I asked him to say hi to his cousin Ryan and he said hi, then picked up his hand off a chair and shook it. Cute!

For now, anyway...

Josey came up to me last night with a huge grin, gave me a big hug, then said "Mommy, Roanen is my BESTEST friend!" Of course, this morning he was back to shoving Roanen to the ground backwards by the face, but they love each other. Really.

Sign to your Babies!

Roanen has really caught on to the idea of signing lately, which is helping his frustration issues. When he starts screaming in his highchair, I just ask him what he wants and he remembers that he can communicate a little bit now. He knows "all done", "more", and sometimes "hungry". He may also be telling me "sleepy", but I'm not sure. He bangs on his ear around naptime and bedtime, but I didn't put the two together until recently, since I really hadn't shown him the sign much. Maybe he's just a genius child. Probably :) He's also saying a couple of words now. He says "Da" for dance, and does a little baby dance, and when we put the Christmas tree up he was saying "Yai - tee!" for "Lights - tree". Now he'll say "Yai" for any kind of light too. And he sort of says "Kitty" and "Fishy". Won't say mommy or daddy, so we know what his priorities are.

Failed Sleep Training

On Saturday night I decided I would put my plan of just putting Roanen into his crib, and lying him down every time he stood up until he eventually fell asleep. It went way worse than I expected, with him becoming violently upset and I ended up just nursing him to sleep once again, with my nerves completely shot. Other than the fact that he's got a nasty temper, it seemed to be a problem that he sleeps on his tummy. Whenever I'd try to lay him down, he'd just bend his knees and go instantly into a crawling position instead of lying straight. I tried to put him on his back a couple of times, but he kept kicking his legs through the bars of the crib and twisting and I was afraid that he'd break a leg. I think the next step is to just try to give him a bottle at bedtime (maybe get Russ to do it), then give him a bottle when he wakes up in the night. He's getting up about every 1.5 hrs now, and usually comes into bed with us sometime after 1:00, where he either fools around and talks, or wants to nurse constantly, which kills my back. Anyway, it's not fun and I'm hoping he'll grow out of this like Josey did. I'm not counting on it though since he's way more attached to me than Josey was, but I can dream...

The family that gets sick together stays together...

We just had a lovely couple of weeks with e ach of us getting sick in turn. First Roanen got a fever and starting puking and continued doing so for 48 hours. He refused to eat anything and just wanted to cuddle for 2 days straight. This is something I've never had to deal with since Josey has always been such a healthy kid. Then again, I should have expected it with Roanen being our "defective child" as the doctor likes to call him. As soon as he got better Russ started feeling ill and had to stay home from work. Then Josey got a fever and was crying and complaining that something was in his throat and it was hurting him. We couldn't see anything, but he made himself cough so much that he ended up throwing up a little. He also talked loudly in his sleep for 3 nights and during his naps and Russ ended up having to sleep with him. I walked on eggshells for an entire week figuring it was inevitable that I would catch something since I had been puked on 6 times, changed and wiped seemingly endless diarrhea covered bums, and slept in the same bed as Russ, but I never got a stomach bug. On Monday, however, my bones and joints really started to ache and my throat got sore. I figure I ended up with strep throat and am only getting over it now, 4 days later. I'm actually glad that I got this, rather than being stuffed up or having stomach problems because this was a lot easier to deal with.
On the behaviour side, Roanen was an absolute pain in the butt after he started feeling better and screamed bloody murder every time I put him down. Not only that, but he wouldn't just sit on my lap, he wanted to be walked around (and even then he still cried sometimes). Fortunately after his worst weekend ever, on Monday morning he played on his own and with Josey for a couple of hours without whining or needing to be held. I think it was a reward for not killing him when he was being such a brat. This week he's been pretty good, although I'm getting really sick of him taking forever to nurse to sleep, then having short naps and waking up at least 3 or 4 times a night. He's also been trying to wake up REALLY early (yesterday he didn't go back to sleep after 4:15 AM) and fooling around in our bed until Russ gets up with him, cursing him the whole time. I'm working up the nerve to begin using the Baby Whisperer methods again, which involve putting him in his bed at naptime and bedtime, and laying him down every time he stands up until he finally falls asleep. This is also supposed to be done if (ok, who am I kidding here - it's not an if, it's a when) he wakes in the middle of the night as well. This is sure to cause hours of violent screaming for at least a week, which I really don't want to deal with. Of course, I don't want to deal with night wakings, or repeatedly unlatching him just to have him freak at me when I put him down either, and I don't think he'll grow out of night wakings as easily as Josey did. We'll see how it goes...

Signing

After about 5 or 6 months of signing "all done" to Roanen when he's done eating or finished his bath, he is catching on a little bit. Yesterday he looked intently at me when I did it, then raised his hands and opened and closed them like a wave. Once he really starts doing it I'll probably add in more signs like hungry, more, and again. Just the basics, like we did with Josey and maybe it will take some frustration out of Roanen's apparently awful world.
I may be on to something with Roanen sleeping too. When he naps later in the afternoon he goes to bed about an hour or so later at night (around 8 PM) and he ends up only getting up about 3 times a night and seems to sleep more deeply and go down easier too. Might be just a coincidence, but we'll see. I do like when he goes down at 7 PM though, because it gives me so much free time in the evening since I'm generally exhausted by 9 every night...
Josey has now asked for puppies at our new house. I just toilet trained a 2 year old, I don't need pee and poop all over my house again.

The Move Issue

I think I may have figured out Josey's problem with moving. We forgot to mention to him that we're not just leaving everything behind and moving into another house with different stuff. I noticed that when we talked about moving he would grab at something - his bed, the chair, a stuffed animal - so I finally clued in that he was scared of losing all his stuff. Now that I reassured him that he can bring anything he wants (within reason - he informed me that he wanted to bring the basement and that we would have to dig it out) he seems happier and says "Yay! We got the house!" a lot. Today he's been carrying around a printout of the house listing, so maybe that's a good sign.

Our Budding Realtor

Since we've had a market analysis done on our house, as well as shown it to a few people, Josey has picked up all the skills needed to show a house. This afternoon he insisted on carrying a stool around, dropping it in the middle of every room, climbing up, then pointing to the ceiling and saying "This ceiling new".
We've also broached the subject of moving to him a few times, and surprisingly enough he's not very happy about it. He gets grouchy and says "I want stay here in our house", or "I not want to get new house". I really wasn't expecting this, since he's usually so adaptable and easy, so I hope it doesn't last because God knows I don't want this process to be any harder than it has to be. Not even the promise of a sandbox and weekly visits to Toybus seem to make a difference, although he did ask Russ for a pony at the new house today. He might settle for a goat though, because Daddy said absolutely not. We've got time to get him used to the idea, so hopefully there won't be any problems by moving day.

They'll hear about this when they're teenagers...

As we were driving this afternoon I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the boys smiling at each other and holding hands across the middle seat. Now I can tell them when they're 16 and 14 that they really did love each other once.

My Genius Child

Ok, so kids in general have amazing brain power and he's probably not a genius, but this was pretty cool anyway. On Sunday morning while I made breakfast I put on a CD I got a few weeks ago. It's part of a kit called "Learn Italian with your Children" and consists of 3 CDs with word repetition and songs, and some activity books. It was pretty cheap at Costco and I thought it would be a good idea to expose the kids to some basic Italian before we take them to Italy so I got it. We listened to it a few times, but Josey pretty much balked at repeating anything and didn't really want to pay attention (which I expected - he's 2). We hadn't listened to it in a couple of weeks, but when I suggested putting it on, Josey agreed and said "They gonna start with "Bondonno"? (Buongiorno, or hello) So my mom was right when she said he would absorb it with it just playing in the background when he didn't seem to be paying attention. Kids are neato :)
On another note, last night around 12:30 Josey came into our bedroom and said he had to go pee, which is a first. He's fully toilet trained during the day, but still wears a diaper at night and it usually gets pretty wet by the morning. I've heard that most kids take until they're almost 4 to be night trained, but maybe it's happening early. It's good that he's recognizing it, anyway. It may have something to do with the fact that he's been questioning why he has to wear a diaper at night and commenting that babies wear diapers.
And finally, the boys seem to be getting along much better. There's not nearly as much pushing and knocking down, so Roanen is enjoying playing near Josey much more. However, Roanen has developed quite a temper, and will shove or try to bite Josey if they try to play with something at the same time. He's also having mini freakouts when I take him away from something, particularly the dishwasher, which he has an obsession with. Gee, I don't know where he'd get that temper and single-mindedness...

New stuff - yay!

Ok, now I can record stuff as it happens in something better than point form :)
Roanen may have turned a corner in his seemingly unhappy existence and has been quite content to play on his own and around Josey for the last couple of days. He still gets fussy once in a while, but I can actually get stuff done without him crawling after me and clinging to my leg, crying constantly. Knock on wood, but I finally feel like things are a little more normal. I can't wait for him to start walking so I don't have to lug him around everywhere, especially outside.
Josey's behaviour is also better, which I've decided is a reward for not killing him last week when he was a complete demon for 7 days straight. I had a horrible guilty mom moment at my mom's, though. Josey hit me, so he got a timeout on the landing going down to the basement (he won't stay in the corner so I have to put him down there and close the door. It's glass so he can see out - I'm not mean enough to just toss him somewhere where he can't see anything...) I waited an appropriate amount of time, then opened the door and asked him why he got a timeout (our usual ritual to make sure he understands why he's being punished) and he refused to answer me and screamed wildly for me to let him out. I told him he could come out when he calmed down and told me why he was having timeout, then closed the door again. This repeated itself several times, until he finally calmed down and told me why, then got a big hug. As usual when he gets really upset, he said he wanted to go to sleep and snuggle with me, so I took him up to our bed and lay down with him. After a couple of sniffles and sighs, he turned to me and said "Mommy, I sorry" and gave me a hug, then proceeded to say "My don't like myself". How's that for awful self-esteem in a 2 year old. Of course, he was his happy old self again in about 3 minutes so hopefully he doesn't have any serious issues, particularly none that were caused by me ;)

Some of my old notes - finally!

Josey - approx. 10 months

• says "Dadadadada"
• wrinkles his nose, smiles, and breathes in and out of his nose really fast
• loves bellies! Sticks his fingers in belly buttons, and will grab around waists and suck or zerbert bellies
• loves grabbing faces and necks and putting his mouth (or teeth now that he's got some) on them
• very charming to strangers; will stare at them until they smile, then will put his head on my chest and smile, pretending to be shy. He then leans way around me and plays peekaboo with them
• as soon as he sees the nursing pillow or me lifting my shirt he starts grabbing at me saying "heh heh heh"
• likes standing up against things and slamming his chest, chin, or both on them. He also likes banging heads, especially with Dad
• he's a real ham and will do anything for a laugh or a reaction; he even goes so far as to slap himself repeatedly in the head and laugh each time

Josey - 13 months

• has stopped breastfeeding and is now sleeping through the night most nights now that he's in a toddler bed
• drives cars and trucks around and makes very realistic engine noises

Josey - 14 months

• gets very excited when dad comes home - will wave with both hands at the door until he sees him, then shrieks "Daddy!"
• loves smiling at strangers and trying to get them to pay attention to him
• loves walking on his own in malls or outside. Daddy has taught him that sticks and puddles are fun
• has decided that he hates getting dressed and will cry like he's hurt whenever I try
• practicing his mad look - sticks his lips out and wrinkles his forehead, which is really funny to see
• loves putting his head down on the cats
• gets stuck climbing the gates and screams bloody murder in frustration, then gets right back up when I take him down
• says "cheese", "hot" (whispered "hot-ee), "Daddy", and can sign "hungry" (chews on a finger), and "again", and waves and blows kisses
• puts his pointer fingers and thumbs together to make be sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and puts his hands together and rocks for "Out comes the sun"
• one morning after I asked him if he was hungry, then got distracted, I found him in the kitchen eating a stack of bread that he had pulled off the counter

Josey - 15 months

• gives kisses (sometimes with tongue) when he's feeling generous
• loves boy things like trucks, cars, and blocks
• tried to make some animal noises like horses, cats, dogs, cows, horses, pigs, ducks
• has very good fine motor skills like removing marker caps and putting them back on, and placing very small objects in little holes
• takes kleenex and "blows" his nose making a honking sound

Josey - 16 months

• knows which key starts the car and can put it in the ignition
• can climb up cut out steps in the side of the play structure and likes to go down the slide backwards on his tummy
• starting to be much more vocal and uses different sounds
• can point out different animals in books

Josey - 22 months

• strings words together: "Daddy's big broom", or my favourite: "Hand Poo On"

Josey - 24 months

• saying broken sentences "Bambi on Grampa's wall"
• still loves his Little People, reading books, tools, helping Daddy do stuff
• getting very defiant - will watch your reaction as he's doing something bad like coming near the baby after he's been told to leave him alone. Tries to hit or kick Roanen if he feels like we're going to take him away from him
• likes watching shows or movies on tv, like Poko or his Berenstein Bears DVD
• sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

"Teeko, Teeko, Eeta Ta, How a wunna a-a-a, Up-a Up-a Up-a Up-a Up-a...(this can trail on indefinitely until he remembers there's more to the song) Ky" Repeat all over and over

• knows most of the alphabet, especially if someone else is singing it he'll sing every couple of letters and mouth the rest
• loves going to Toybus and plays really well with other kids. He especially loves singing time and watching the other kids do the actions to songs he doesn't know
• is now in his new bedroom and bed. We had some trouble getting him to start sleeping in the bed at night because he was constantly asking for "old bed", but is ok with it now, especially since he helped daddy take apart the old bed - "old bed gone"

Josey - 27 1/2 months (this is out of order)

• acting up a lot, throwing tantrums and not being happy with anything that is done for him or to him
• doesn't like getting his diaper changed, especially if it's poopy, but does not want to go on the potty except to pee once in a awhile
• says "please" and "thank you" although he needs to be reminded sometimes
• getting comfortable with other kids, but expresses it through hugging, grabbing, and flailing his legs at kids
• does not want to play on his own much
• likes smiling at Roanen to make him smile back, but still gets aggressive - kicking him or covering his face, etc
• has a good bedtime routine: bath, pjs, stories, snack, brushing teeth, then a song, but still needs someone sitting in his room until he finally falls asleep (which sometimes only happens after a lot of fooling around)

Roanen - 3 1/2 months

• hates the car! We had to stop 5 times on the way to Ottawa because he was screaming hysterically
• has slept through the night (9 hours straight) a couple of times, but mostly gets up once to nurse then goes back down to sleep easily
• naps very well during the days - sometimes sleeps up to 3 1/2 hours straight in his crib
• crying peaked at about 3 months, then slowly lessened. He's still quite fussy around dinner time, though
• loves when his legs and arms are moved - "dancing", especially when Russ does it, and will stop crying just about every time for it
• very happy and smiley - coos a lot and blows raspberries

Josey - 25/26 months

• speaks very well, but still signs "hungry" and makes a kissing sound for "thirsty"
• likes doing "Cheers" with everything that is the same - drinks, Rice Krispies, feet. He had his first bath with Roanen and was very excited to see that Roanen also has a penis: "Cheers penis!"
• has started saying "thank you" after every time he says "no", whether it's appropriate or not
• loves playing at Toybus, especially playing and singing "Sleeping Bunnies"
• sings his ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Head & Shoulders, and knows a lot of words to the Grampa song and others
• likes sitting beside Roanen on the big chair and says "One Two Boys!"
• gets on the bed in an arch and says "Tunnel!" - tries to go over top of Roanen and says "Roanen in tunnel!"

Roanen - 7-8 weeks

• gets very fussy and cries pretty much inconsolably
• will not nurse if he's not hungry, unlike Josey, so he can't be settled down that way
• sleeps on his own for 20 minutes to an hour in the AM, then 2-4 hours in the afternoon
• goes about 3 hours at a time for the first ocuple of stretches of night sleep, then 1.5 to 2.5 hour stretches thereafter
• very smiley when he's in a good mood, which usually doesn't last very long - does not like being put down very much when he's awake and will fuss even in the swing

Roanen - 8 months (yes, I failed to record a large chunk of his infancy - it was pretty much a blur of not sleeping and lots of screaming)

• having mostly short naps (around 30 minutes) but will sometimes go 1 or 1.5 hours
• eats TONS of food of varying tastes and textures - generally has no problems with new foods
• likes flirting with people now and everyone in public remarks that he's such a happy baby
• can sit on his own quite well and is starting to pull himself up to standing on things
• army crawls very well and pushes himself up on all fours and rocks
• will play by himself for longer periods of time, especially if he's outside on the deck, but becomes very agitated if Josey starts harassing him, or if he decides he wants to be held
• has developed a really annoying whine
• likes jumping on laps or in his exersaucer
• wakes up a lot at night (4-8 times) and needs to be nursed back to sleep - ends up in our bed most nights
• wakes between 5 and 6:30 in the AM
• says "A-dadadada"
• gets very excited when he sees Daddy and loves being rolled across the bed
• loves looking at himself in the mirror or in photographs - makes out with his reflection in the mirror, tongue and all :)

Josey - 2 1/2 years

• saying lovely things like "Hey cat! Come see that friggin' baby!", "How my get that friggin' sock on?", and "Oh Twap! (crap)"
• plays pretend a lot. For example, a dialogue between two grapes:

Grape #1: "Oh no! One monster gonna get me! He gonna eat me! You run away!"

Grape #2: "Ok, my run away!"

Grape #1, being eaten by the Josey monster: "Aahhh! He eat me!"

• uses nail clippers like a cell phone
• exhibiting obsessive compulsive behaviour like starting completely over from the beginning if he has a problem with something, and lining things up in perfect rows
• really likes Duplo and makes "tractors"
• pays very close attention to his food and notices when he has eaten it into the shape of something (Roanen's teething cookie into the shape of a bone and his toast into the shape of a dog - and they actually do look like them)
• mostly toilet trained. He only wears underwear (doesn't like training pants and will pee in them) and tells us when he has to poop and almost always when he has to pee - he'll have one or two accidents a day

Josey - 2 yrs 9 months

• telling us every time he has to pee and poop! (from about a month ago). He's still in a diaper at night, though, and it's usually pretty soaked in the AM
• starting to go to bed on his own without someone in the room - his naps have been like this for a while and as of Oct. 14 he has gone to bed on his own 3 nights in a row and gets better at it each night
• says "Nice day outside!" at least once a day regardless of the weather
• getting very good at his "please" and "thank you"s and is starting to figure out "sorry" and "excuse me"
• not very interested in colouring or playing with playdough for any extended periods of time , although he will make "faces" now when he draws. He makes a circle with two little dots for eyes, a big smile, and sometimes a forehead or hair.
• loves being active and playing outside
• still quite agressive with Roanen. He'll grab, kick or squeeze him, but will also sometimes hug him very gently or play nicely and share

Roanen - 9 months

• loves finger foods, especially Cheerios, and gets mad if there isn't something he can eat himself on his tray
• pulling himself up to standing and starting to cruise
• might be trying to say "Kitty", and sometimes says something similar to "Teddy".
• screams extremely angrily if something is taken away from him, or if he's in a bad mood and Josey dares to walk by him
• crawling on all 4s very well now
• gets very excited to see Daddy and hugs him tightly while pumping his legs as a greeting when he gets home from work
• eats mass quantities of food and is now over 20 lbs.