Mother's Day #2

For the past couple of years, we've gone to the Zoo for Mother's Day brunch, but it was a bit hard on us last year (what with pausing to nurse every few hours and the weather being chilly.) This year (especially since Dean's grandma can't get around very well right now) we decided to have

brunch at our house. Dean's goal was to replicate the Zoo's brunch, so he prepared a lot of batter and fruit the night before, and set all the non-moms to work fixing it when they arrived. Us moms got to relax and play with Robin (in a few years, we'll put him to work, too.)

It was very yummy, and was nice not to have to change diapers all day.

Here's Robin giving me a Willow Tree statue called "Child's Touch."

Later on, Dean, his sibs, and I played croquet while Robin refused to nap (he cried for a L-O-N-G time.)  Kathy had to leave her shoes at our house because Robin had snuck them into his room before his nap, and we didn't want to disturb him to get them out.  That evening, Dean cleaned out my car for his gift to me.  All in all, it was a great day!

18 months old and loving it

I guess I've been a little lax in posting lately, so it's time for a few updates. Oh, and people have been lax in commenting, too. We like hearing from everybody, so please let us know what these posts make you think about from time to time!

A few more words: Robin's vocabulary has expanded a little bit--not fast enough for impatient me, but that doesn't diminish the fact that he's definitely learning.

New spoken words: (we're up to 9)
fish (sounds like shh)
oink (okay, it's more of a snort)
baby (about two days after he started saying this, I had a book out with lots of pictures of babies in it, and he was getting a big kick out of flipping through it, pointing to babies, and saying "baby."
He started babbling "no," but hasn't used it in context yet

New signs: (we're up to 7)

cheese
hat

He's getting really good at identifying things. We can look through most of his books now, and ask him to point to a certain animal or object, and he can find lots of them. It's so awesome to watch him learn! He doesn't have colors yet, but we're working on them.

He's much more assertive these days, and he's certainly good at communicating in non-verbal ways. A big thing he does right now is grab for our hands, grip a finger, and lead us where he wants to go. Then he'll either point to what he wants (a door opened, a toy/book/food that's high up, etc) or he'll grab a toy or book and hand it to us. If he handed us something, he'll next show us where he wants whatever-it-is done, by pointing or patting a chair or something. He's still very much into books, so we go to the library regularly--and like all kids, he's learning by repetition, so we get to read the books over and over (and over and over and over and over) again.

I learned today, though, that he definitely needs more peer time, and more chances to practice sharing. I know kids don't grasp that concept for a long time, but I want him to get more practice at it. He took a book away from another kid at the library today, and continually tried to take a puzzle away from another. Since he hasn't done that sort of thing before, I felt a little surprised and embarrased. I have been trying to get together with some friends with kids more often (I met a friend at a McDonalds playplace yesterday and Robin had his first Happy Meal) so this is just more motivation to step it up a bit. (Normally I never go to McDonalds, but we needed an indoor play area since it was so chilly, and we wound up staying much longer than I'd expected, so I decided to just do lunch there.)

Robin's favorite place to read these days is in the coat closet. I guess it's nice and cozy in there. Now that he's found it, we have to go in there at least once each day to read.

He's started going down slides by himself. He even went down the big slide at our park by himself once (although it's not something he's decided to repeat. He can also hang on to zip lines and monkey bars for a short while, supporting his own weight. He also likes playing with his bucket and shovel at the park. I've already decided that Dean and I will get him a sandbox for his next birthday.

He likes trying on his Daddy's glasses. He looks so funny, and he always makes this same face when he's got them on. We think he looks like the old man in the cartoon "Up."

One, Two...

One, Two
Buckle my shoe
     C'mon Robin, time to get your shoes on!

Three, Four
Shut the door
     Mommy's going to lock the door, we're going for a walk!

Five, Six
Pick up sticks
     At least one for every house we pass.  There are awesome sticks ALL OVER this neighborhood!

Seven, Eight
Lay them straight
     Picking up sticks isn't enough, we must stop and play with/arrange/draw in the dirt with them!  Again, once for about every house we pass

Nine, Ten
A big fat hen goose!

     Did we remember to bring any lettuce today?  Let's feed the geese!  Those three sure are bullies, I wish we could feed the two weaker ones more often.  Look Mommy, the goose took the lettuce right out of my hand!  Ouch, it nipped me!  What fun, can we do it again?

These geese live about a block and a half away from us, and it has become part of our routine to go visit them whenever we take a walk.  A few months ago I finally met their owner and asked whether it was okay to feed them.  He talked a lot and had a very roundabout way of getting there, but eventually he told me it would be okay to bring them lettuce.  So we often do!  They even recognize us now, and come running up to the fence whenever we appear, hoping for some food.

I honestly can't think of any other possible origin for this rhyme, can you?

I Spy

Robin and I went to the library on Tuesday, which we've been doing every few weeks lately.  Next month, he should be old enough for their story time, and we'll probably start going weekly.  But for now, it's been nice to get some fresh books from time to time.  We had to return the one that has been, so far, his favorite.  It's called "Where Does It Go," and it's got five pages with lift-up flaps.  The first page says "Here is a baby," (with a picture of a naked baby from behind,) "Here is the baby's diaper," (with a picture of a diaper,) "Where does it go?"  You lift up the flap and it has a picture of the baby wearing the diaper and is says, "On the baby's bottom."  It does the same thing with a hat, shoes, teddy bear, and book.  We probably read that book to Robin more than ten times a day for the first two weeks that we had it (he slowed down last week.)  It turned out to be a great learning opportunity, because we started asking Robin where the items went, and he was readily pointing to the locations of the first four (he never quite grasped the concept of where the book goes, "On the floor so the little girl can read it.")

While we were at the library this Tuesday, Robin grabbed a book off the board book shelves and handed it to me (okay, so he did that a lot, but this book in particular...)  It was a simplified, board book version of the "I Spy" books.  Each page has only two items you're supposed to find, and there aren't very many items in the picture, so they're relatively easy to identify.  I hadn't expected Robin to find the items, but I started reading it to him anyway.  I pointed to the picture on the left, showing him the item he was supposed to be looking for, and then asking him if he saw it again on the next page.  He didn't get all of them, by any means, but he pointed to quite a few of them!  Well, of course, I had to check the book out at that point!  At home he found even more of the items, and when we got to a page that had a door on it, he ran to the front door and pointed at it, and then ran to the garage door and pointed at it.  Later in the week, when we came to the page with a telephone he would point to the picture, and then get up and dig through his toybox until he found his Fisher Price telephone.  It's so awesome to see how much he learns!  Now, if he could just get the language thing down...

Although on the language note, he's definitely saying "teeth" now (sounds more like "th," but hey) and on Tuesday he also started signing "eat."  So we're making some progress.  I thought perhaps I should keep a list updated here on occasion, to help myself (and everybody else) see his progress.

Robin's spoken words:
Mama
night night
uh oh
quack
hi
teeth

Robin's signed words:
milk
more
all done
water
eat

Buried in my laundry

Happy Easter

Robin got spoiled for Easter this year. The Easter Bunny came at home, of course, and left a chocolate bunny and some other candy, but then it just kept coming.

At my parents' house, Robin got to go on an Easter Egg hunt, with eggs full of chocolate and goldfish crackers (kudos to my parents for the crackers, a nice way to break up the sugar.)

He also got some candy, some plates and bowls, and a bunch of toy gardening tools from Grammy and Grandpa, and then some more plates and bowls, a flashlight, a toy frog, and more candy from his Aunt Kat. Sugar Overload! Actually, he didn't eat too much on Easter (unlike some of the kids of Dean's coworkers, from what we heard on Monday) and now he's got lots of new toys, and candy to last a long time (gee darn, he'll probably have to share. Not that we didn't get plenty of candy ourselves...)

Playing with snow in the bathtub

Playing out in the snow

At Grammy's, and then Great Grandma's birthday parties.

We finished up our swim class last week, and Dean took last Thursday off so he could attend one. Robin really warmed up to the water by the end. He still hates being on his back--we can't get him to float on his back, he'll curl his legs up above himself (which would cause him to sink if he were unsupported) and fusses when we try.

But he enjoys himself otherwise, and will leap forward into the water from a sitting position on the edge. We made a new friend, too, who we will hopefully meet with from time to time. It hadn't occurred to me to keep going month after month, but I guess some people do. And it was good to get out of the house and spend time with other moms (and dads) and babies, so we may sign up again.

Lastly, here we have Robin helping us to decorate eggs. This first photo is Mommy showing him how to gently lower the eggs into the dye using the wire lifter.

And here's Robin showing Mommy a much faster (and more fun) way to do it.

And teaching Daddy how it's done, as well.