Life in the Boonies

Frank wakes up in the morning and will come to our room to snuggle.  Then he tells me to go downstairs and make him breakfast.  I tell him I’m still waking up and I need to take my shower first.  Other morning after snuggling he said to me “mommy, you’re all done waking up.”  Frank talks and sings and it is amazing the stuff he says.  He recites lines from some of his favorite books.  Recently it is “I’m dirty” and “Bats at the Beach”.  One morning we were discussing daddy’s coffee and asked if Frank wanted some.  Instead of saying “no it is yucky yucky” his usual response, he said “no because it is ‘bitter and nasty’”, as a quote from the Enormous Crocodile.  We’ve packed most of the toys away so now he plays with the piano alot.  He put all kinds of books on there, not just the music notes, and says “mommy, do you know how to play this one?”  If I play a song he knows, he will say that is “…” and not this one.

Frank is finally doing an actual somersault.  Before he rolled to the side instead of over.  He loves to jump off the stairs.  First it was from 2 steps.  A few days ago it was three steps.  Just yesterday he attempted 4 steps.  I couldn’t look but he did it.

Frank is potty trained for pee but not yet for poop.  He can pull his own pants down, pee in the big toilet standing up, pulls his pants back up and flush.  Daddy is now teaching him to also lift up the toilet seat.  He always poops in his diaper during nap time or first thing in the morning.  This week we are working on no pooping in the diaper.  So he did it 3 times in underwear.  And 2 times in the potty!  Keep on trying.

We are fighting monsters.  Frank says there are monsters in his room whenever it is quiet time or bed time.  We are only partially convinced he really believes that.  Mostly I think he says that to delay or get out of going to sleep.  He doesn’t seem scared and if you try to help him he just talks and talks and laughs.

Frank is starting to play with people at the park.  He played with a boy we never met before and kicked the ball back and forth with him.  A few days later there were 2 kids in the tennis court playing ball and Frank went in and played with them.  He followed them around for awhile too and kept throwing the ball to them even though they were done playing.  He still sticks to me but he is getting better at meeting new people.

Frank counts/recites from 1 to ten.  Just a week ago he started to count in chinese too.  It usually goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, set, go and then zooms down the hill on his trike or do something.  In real counting he goes up to 5.  A nice grandma at the park asked him how many balls he had and he said correctly 3.  At the park he pointed across the street and said, mommy look, four cars, and there it was, 4 cars.

Two teeth - bottom center.  First one came out the first week we were visiting grandparents in WA.  He also caught a cold on the airplane so it was a miserable 2 weeks for him and us in close quarters.  Second one was much easier.  Slight complaining and not eating well.

Cruising along furniture.  Often does the bear wall crawl, especially at parks.  Save those knees =).  Walk a few steps holding mom’s hand.  Climb up the stairs.  Backs down the stairs.  Loves crawling under the coffee table and back out or under the chairs and back out.

Eating mixtures of veg with cottage cheese and baby cereal for lunch and dinner.  Breakfast is fruits with yogurt and cereal.  He is getting bored of it all.  When he sees me eat, he kicks his little legs with excitement and when I don’t share, he throws a tantrum.  I gave him piece of bagel on morning and then went to help Frank in the potty.  Upon returning the bagel was no where to be found.  He wanted another one.  Nursing only 4 times a day now.  It was 6 until the 6-month checkup showed he was dropped to 5% weight and the doctor suggested to nurse less.  Now he is learning to use the sippy cup.  He likes Frank’s cups and was actually drinking from the straw.  I saw the surprise on his face when he got some water out.

Lots of babbling.  Mama, dadadadada, and stuff.  He claps his hand when happy.  Knows his name when I call him.  Loves to play hide and seek with me.  I peek out behind the corner and he laughs and comes crawling.  Loves to chew on Frank’s cars, puzzles, and take down the tracks.  It annoys Frank most of the time but sometimes we play the “Timmy is the monster that knocks down everything”.

2 naps.  Sleeps usually from 7:30pm to 6am.  Occasionally wakes up at 5ish and gets nursed back down til almost 8.

Loves the taste of paper.  Postcards, magazines, envelops, plain paper, he wants them all.  Sometimes they are stuck to the roof of his mouth so it takes a bit of digging to get out.  I remember Frank gnawing on the board books but not eating paper like this.