Good Weekend!

Josey has managed to stay dry since Friday, and is quite proud of himself, as are we, although I thought it wasn't supposed to be such a big deal anymore... Hopefully it was just a phase and it won't happen again.
Now the very exciting news: Roanen finally figured out how to walk last night! Russ wouldn't let him drop to his knees and he took a step towards me, then 2 back to Russ. It was like a lightbulb went off in his head and we spent the next 30 minutes having him walk back and forth and cheering like crazy everytime he made it. He got so excited that his legs would try to walk while he was being held and when he'd get going he'd scream "EEEYAAAAAAA!" the whole way. Unfortunately the battery on the video camera was dead so we'll have to practice more when it's charged.

I Don't Need This!

Josey has slowly been regressing back to a non-toilet trained state over the past month or so. He went quite a long time with no accidents at all, then he'd pee his pants once in a while, then he was peeing his pants about once a day, then the past week or so he's been peeing in his pants more than he has been going in the toilet. To top it all off, this morning he pooped in his pants (fortunately he was still wearing his overnight pull-up so clean up was easy). This is really the last thing I want to be dealing with right now with the move coming up, especially since he really doesn't care that it's happening. He'll even tell you he doesn't have to go, then pee his pants 30 seconds later. We're torn between rewarding him for not having any accidents all day or punishing him for having one. Right now he's not even close to being accident-free so we've been giving him timeouts every time he does it. I don't know whether this is a reaction to being stuck inside all the time, or to the move, but it's driving me insane and I want it to stop!

No Such Luck

Turns out Roanen's longer sleep stretches were a fluke that lasted about 5 days. He's now back to waking up every 1 1/2 to 3 hours and ending up in our bed in the very early AM. I'm completely sick of nursing him but he won't have anything to do with being comforted any other way. Once we're in the new house we're going to set up his toddler bed instead of the crib and I'll try to lie down with him and comfort him without nursing.
On another note, a while ago Josey was reading "Berenstein Bears New Baby" a lot and kept telling us he wanted a "girl baby" named Pear Coconut. Now all of a sudden he has decided that he wants a "brother baby" with "lots of black hair like Kiernan". Have I mentioned that I'm partial to bald babies? In fact, my first thought after giving birth to Roanen was not "Thank God it's over" or "Oh good he's healthy", it was "Thank God he doesn't have any hair". Yes, I am that shallow.

No More Skating

We have had to take Josey out of his skating lessons since he was getting increasingly unhappy and staying on the ice less and less time every time we went. He was getting really good and not falling very much, but he still got upset, especially when anyone tried to get him to stand up on his own. For now we'll just take him to public skating and let him skate on the lake and maybe by the fall he'll want to take lessons again.

Space Invasion

Josey is having issues lately with invading others' personal space, mostly Roanen's. For some reason he feels the need to stick his hand in Roanen's face or mouth, and sometimes if he's sitting up higher he'll stick his foot in his mouth. Naturally Roanen freaks out so he's been getting timeouts every time he does it. Also at Toybus Josey wants to run into people all the time either with a ride-on toy or with his body or arms when he's running around going crazy. There are a couple of boys who think this is funny and will play along and wrestle with him, but most of the kids (particularly the girls) get really upset. He also gets really excited during song time and either makes extra large gestures to songs so he can intentionally hit someone with his hands, or will jump up and run around the mat screaming at the top of his lungs, which usually causes one or all of the kids to follow. If I pull him aside he has a fit and screams bloody murder while trying to get away and won't listen to what I'm saying. It's not an attention issue, because he doesn't care if anyone is watching, and it's not an attention span issue, because as soon as snacks and storytime comes along he sits down and doesn't move or say a word for the whole time. I may end up taking him home as soon as he acts up next time, but I don't know how that's going to work considering I have to try to get two kids into snowsuits and out the door. Hopefully he'll learn to calm down, because I feel like everyone thinks I'm an awful mother for raising such a hyper and aggressive kid.

I'm holding my breath

For a while, Russ was doing Roanen's bedtime routine and putting him to bed instead of me nursing him to sleep. Roanen would have a nurse in the livingroom, then give Josey and me kisses goodnight before Russ took him into his bedroom for some stories. Roanen would then put his head on Russ' shoulder and fall asleep before Russ would put him down in bed. He adapted pretty well to this, going from screaming and banging on the door for 20 minutes to no crying at all in less than a week. One night Russ was even able to put him into bed without him being asleep. He was still waking up fairly often at night, and usually ended up in our bed by 2 AM, but I figured we were doing well since I wasn't having to nurse him down. Unfortunately Roanen began getting really fussy again for some reason about a 2 weeks ago, and Russ had enough of it a week later and declared that he would have nothing to do with putting him down anymore. So we went back to nursing to sleep, and although his first sleep stretch usually isn't any longer, he has had a sleep stretch of between 4 1/2 hours and 6 1/2 hours every night, and has even stayed in his own bed all night 3 times. With our luck he'll be sleeping through the night completely right before we move, then the move will totally screw him up and we'll be back to waking up 500 times a night. But I can hope...

True...

Yesterday afternoon Josey and Roanen were jumping around on the couch and fooling around. Josey informed me that he and Roanen were being "diarrhea" and that I was going to be diarrhea too. I asked him if he even knew what diarrhea was and he though about it for a moment before saying "It's one pain in the ass!"

Ouch!

Although Roanen is much steadier moving around now (not walking yet, but cruising and climbing like a madman) he still takes the occasional bad tumble. On Wednesday morning he somehow managed to fall and smash his top right front tooth (which had emerged completely) back into his gum about halfway. It bled on and off for the rest of the day, and I ended up taking him in to see the dentist to make sure all was going to be ok. He assured me that he'd seen it before and it was most likely to grow down again normally with no damage to anything. We're keeping an eye on his gum for any infections, but it looks ok so far. It does seem to be a little tender, so we're being careful, but hopefully it'll turn out ok.

Nasty habit

When Josey was younger, he learned that if he was particularly drooly or he'd been crying, he could open and close his mouth, making a weird sound like "Mwlaaaaaa" and he could produce large, nasty, goobery bubbles. He does it quite regularly, and I usually get ticked off and grab a paper towel to wipe inside his mouth so he can't do it anymore. This morning Roanen was playing and talking to himself, and I was shocked and disgusted that he was sitting around, absentmindedly going "Mwlaaaa" and making bubbles. Like it's not enough that one does it??

Future NHL Star

I signed Josey up for skating lessons with CanSkate at the arena in Eganville, despite being warned that he might be a little young. The first class was a little hard to watch, considering he couldn't even stand up for more than a couple of seconds without falling. There also weren't enough helpers for the younger kids and the woman helping him wasn't paying much attention, and at one point left him alone sitting on the ice for a few minutes. It was kind of heartbreaking and I can't even watch the video of that first lesson because it bothers me to see him so helpless. Fortunately, by his second lesson, he miraculously stopped trying to cross his feet all the time (probably due to the fact that he was wearing snowpants and couldn't cross his feet...) and was staying up for much longer periods and actually skating small distances on his own. This weekend he was out on the lake at the cottage which is pretty much one big skating rink thanks to the rain, and he did really well. He was using his hockey stick and shooting the puck into the net. He also didn't fall very much. The only issue he has is that he can't stand up on his own after he falls because it requires a lot more balance and skill than he has, but that will come with time I suppose. He'll be going twice a week until the end of March so I imagine he'll be a pro by then :)

Here's one I forgot

I just found this scrap of paper with info about Josey at 21 months:

• obsessed with trucks, tractors, large equipment, fire engines/ambulances (makes screaming siren noises)
• looked down at my cleavage quizzically for a while when I was holding him, then started sniffing like it was a stinky bum
• repeats words that are said, and has started saying 2 words together
• sometimes pees on the toilet during the day or around bathtime
• loves all of daddy's tools and will play with nails, daddy's drill and a board all day
• counted "one, two" on Nov. 7/05 (counting nails)