To this...
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Working at the car wash!
With our extremely mild winter and probably very short spring, the pollen has already attacked our cars. Luckily daddy had a little helper today to wash the cars. It's amazing how quickly things go from this...
Nicholas LOVES playing outside, so we are going to take advantage of the time we have now before the mosquitoes take over.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Updates
Nicholas was rather funny this week. He was coloring a Valentine's Card he received from Gigi and Pawpaw and all of a sudden he says "Oh good coloring Nicholas!" Then after dinner he had rice krispy treat for dessert. I don't think he's ever had these before because this was the first time I've ever made them. He picked it up and ate a few bites but wasn't fond of how sticky it was, so he took it upon himself to fix the issue so he could finish his treat.
Our favorite Nicholas vocab recently was when we went to dinner last weekend with some of Gabe's extended family and it was at a local Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. Well, we kept asking Nicholas where we were eating and he finally said at "Holla Water." It is too funny! His responses to conversation have been a hoot too. He recently will respond with "What you say?" even though he clearly knows what we are talking about.
Just last week, was Nicholas' first time to blame someone else for something he did. We were up at Mimi and Pop's house for dinner. Nicholas had been playing with Meagan and Abby but the girls had since come into the living room where we were all talking. A little bit later, Nicholas walks in with a piece broken off a cup he was playing with. We asked what happened and Nicholas responds, "Abby broke it." Of course we knew she didn't because she was sitting in the room with us. I really tried not to laugh, but it was rather unexpected to hear him blame someone else.
As an update on the big boy bed, Nicholas has been a champ sleeping through the night with no issues and has not gotten up at all after getting in his bed. That has been such a relief and we even said the other night that it almost seems like he sleeps better in his bed versus the crib.
We have had a few more successes last week with potty training, but I'm still not optimistic of that being complete for many more months.
Today our friend Zac surveyed the land for us. One step down, about 4,587 more to go... We are set to receive our first bid from a contractor tomorrow. We are praying that he will give us good news so that we can have the dream become a reality.
Finally, Gabe had a major change at work this past week. He is still at Regions, but now in a completely different department and building. I'm so proud and happy for him and this new position. All the hard work he has put in the last 9 years is paying off for him.
Our favorite Nicholas vocab recently was when we went to dinner last weekend with some of Gabe's extended family and it was at a local Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. Well, we kept asking Nicholas where we were eating and he finally said at "Holla Water." It is too funny! His responses to conversation have been a hoot too. He recently will respond with "What you say?" even though he clearly knows what we are talking about.
Just last week, was Nicholas' first time to blame someone else for something he did. We were up at Mimi and Pop's house for dinner. Nicholas had been playing with Meagan and Abby but the girls had since come into the living room where we were all talking. A little bit later, Nicholas walks in with a piece broken off a cup he was playing with. We asked what happened and Nicholas responds, "Abby broke it." Of course we knew she didn't because she was sitting in the room with us. I really tried not to laugh, but it was rather unexpected to hear him blame someone else.
As an update on the big boy bed, Nicholas has been a champ sleeping through the night with no issues and has not gotten up at all after getting in his bed. That has been such a relief and we even said the other night that it almost seems like he sleeps better in his bed versus the crib.
We have had a few more successes last week with potty training, but I'm still not optimistic of that being complete for many more months.
Today our friend Zac surveyed the land for us. One step down, about 4,587 more to go... We are set to receive our first bid from a contractor tomorrow. We are praying that he will give us good news so that we can have the dream become a reality.
Finally, Gabe had a major change at work this past week. He is still at Regions, but now in a completely different department and building. I'm so proud and happy for him and this new position. All the hard work he has put in the last 9 years is paying off for him.
Monday, January 30, 2012
First Dentist Appointment
Nicholas has never been much of a fan of having his teeth brushed, but will usually allow us to do so without too much struggle. Despite our best attempts, Gabe and I noticed a brown spot on his lower bottom tooth. It wouldn't go away and I was worried that it could be a cavity, so I decided to schedule an appointment for him at the dentist. Our local dentist recommended pediatric dentist Dr. Vann in Trussville. I am so very glad that they did because he was great. Obviously I was worried that this was not going to go well at all, as most first dentist trips tend to be. So last Thursday, we walked in and they had Finding Nemo on, which was a hit right from the start. Dr. Vann talked to Nicholas and explained that all he would do is just brush his teeth.
Nicholas sat in my lap and let him brush his teeth without any problems. Luckily, Dr. Vann told us he did not have any cavities. Nicholas does however have pretty bad staining that he said was pretty normal for kids his age. Dr. Vann recommended starting Nicholas on fluoride toothpaste saying that to use such a minimal amount that he wouldn't be able to swallow anything and harm him. He also recommended limiting juice between meals and switching to sugar free juice.
Nicholas also has a pretty big overbite thanks to his sucking on his fingers. Of course he also recommended that we work on putting a stop to this. So we have started a plan of action. The only time he ever sucks his fingers is when he has his blankie. We have started to limit blankie time telling him he can only have it at bedtime/naptime. It seems to be working pretty well so far, but this is not going to be easy battle to conquer as Nicholas is really attached to that blanket. If worst comes to worst, Dr. Vann told me that they do carry a product that we can put on his fingers that tastes really bad and will help him stop.
Nicholas sat in my lap and let him brush his teeth without any problems. Luckily, Dr. Vann told us he did not have any cavities. Nicholas does however have pretty bad staining that he said was pretty normal for kids his age. Dr. Vann recommended starting Nicholas on fluoride toothpaste saying that to use such a minimal amount that he wouldn't be able to swallow anything and harm him. He also recommended limiting juice between meals and switching to sugar free juice.
Nicholas also has a pretty big overbite thanks to his sucking on his fingers. Of course he also recommended that we work on putting a stop to this. So we have started a plan of action. The only time he ever sucks his fingers is when he has his blankie. We have started to limit blankie time telling him he can only have it at bedtime/naptime. It seems to be working pretty well so far, but this is not going to be easy battle to conquer as Nicholas is really attached to that blanket. If worst comes to worst, Dr. Vann told me that they do carry a product that we can put on his fingers that tastes really bad and will help him stop.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Dirty Jobs
Too bad I didn't have Mike Rowe from the show Dirty Jobs here today. He could have helped when this evening I discovered what Nicholas decided to do. If you read my previous post, you would know that just recently Nicholas started to put his hand in his diaper after he "dirtied" it. He had never (to the best of my knowledge) done anything with what was on his hand until today. So several days ago, in an attempt to figure out why he was doing this, I googled the toddler issue to see what I could find. To my horror I read all sorts of stories about kids playing with their own poo and putting it in various places around the home. Ironically, I told Mimi just earlier today that thankfully Nicholas hadn't done anything of the sort. I spoke too soon...
So as I was baking some brownies and heating up leftovers for dinner. Nicholas was (I thought) playing in his room. After not hearing him playing for a few minutes I checked on him. The door to his closet was wide open with - you guessed it - smeared all on it. Nicholas was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere throughout the house and called his name but didn't hear a thing. Finally I found him hiding behind the door to his room.
At this point I remembered something from my google search the other day. While I was reading the horrific stories of "dirty jobs" and how parents dealt with the situation, I remembered one effective technique that many parents used. They put their child in the bathtub and would run a cold shower on them. Granted I didn't get into the reasons why this worked because honestly I didn't think I would have that same problem. Well I did put Nicholas in the tub and ran the shower. I didn't run cold water though since he has had a cough all week and that just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. He immediately didn't like it and said that it was hurting him. I let him stand in the shower for a minute while I worked on clean up efforts. Who knows if this technique will work or not, but I am going to be overly aware of anytime Nicholas even thinks about making a dirty diaper, because I'm going to be all over it like poo on the closet door...
I did go a little easy on Nicholas even with the situation because he has been sick all week. His cough became so persistent that I took him to the doctor on Wednesday. The doctor basically said he had a dry cough and also a slight ear infection in one ear (his first one). He prescribed him some medicine and gave him something at the doctors office for the infection. While we were there, they decided to go ahead and give him a flu shot. Nicholas weighed almost 32 lbs, but my guess would be that has decreased as he has eaten very little this week with all the sickness. Thankfully he seems to be getting better and has definitely caught up on his sleep.
Needless to say I don't have any pictures to post on this entry, as I don't think the readers would appreciate that. For those reading this, could you please just say an extra prayer that my son will soon be potty trained?? I just don't know how many more dirty jobs (inside and outside the diaper) I can take.
So as I was baking some brownies and heating up leftovers for dinner. Nicholas was (I thought) playing in his room. After not hearing him playing for a few minutes I checked on him. The door to his closet was wide open with - you guessed it - smeared all on it. Nicholas was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere throughout the house and called his name but didn't hear a thing. Finally I found him hiding behind the door to his room.
At this point I remembered something from my google search the other day. While I was reading the horrific stories of "dirty jobs" and how parents dealt with the situation, I remembered one effective technique that many parents used. They put their child in the bathtub and would run a cold shower on them. Granted I didn't get into the reasons why this worked because honestly I didn't think I would have that same problem. Well I did put Nicholas in the tub and ran the shower. I didn't run cold water though since he has had a cough all week and that just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. He immediately didn't like it and said that it was hurting him. I let him stand in the shower for a minute while I worked on clean up efforts. Who knows if this technique will work or not, but I am going to be overly aware of anytime Nicholas even thinks about making a dirty diaper, because I'm going to be all over it like poo on the closet door...
I did go a little easy on Nicholas even with the situation because he has been sick all week. His cough became so persistent that I took him to the doctor on Wednesday. The doctor basically said he had a dry cough and also a slight ear infection in one ear (his first one). He prescribed him some medicine and gave him something at the doctors office for the infection. While we were there, they decided to go ahead and give him a flu shot. Nicholas weighed almost 32 lbs, but my guess would be that has decreased as he has eaten very little this week with all the sickness. Thankfully he seems to be getting better and has definitely caught up on his sleep.
Needless to say I don't have any pictures to post on this entry, as I don't think the readers would appreciate that. For those reading this, could you please just say an extra prayer that my son will soon be potty trained?? I just don't know how many more dirty jobs (inside and outside the diaper) I can take.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Big Boy Bed
We have considered moving Nicholas to the double bed that is currently in his bedroom. On occasion we would lay down with him in it (if he gets up early in the morning or something) but he's never been there for an entire night or nap time by himself. He even received some Toy Story sheets from Santa this Christmas. The only reason we've been a bit hesitant about this transition is because he does extremely well going to bed and we didn't want that to change. It had to happen sometime so we tested the waters today during nap time. Nicholas went down with no problems and even took a 3 hour nap. Hopefully tonight he will do just as well.
Here is Nicholas after his nap with his Toy Story sheets and all his "animals."
On a different note, Nicholas' commentary can be so random and funny. Here are a few recent LOLs:
I was driving him to Mother's Day Out one morning and out of the blue he says "Good driving Mama!" He told me again on the way home that night. I do pride myself on being a good driver, but didn't quite expect a 2 year old to notice that...
Then recently as he was saying his bedtime prayers, he threw us a curve ball. Normally his nightly prayer is "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything. I love you. Amen" Well one night recently his prayer went: "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything. I want some milk." Even though this was way out of the ordinary, I will say that he will usually ask for milk at some point before bedtime as a stall tactic. I just love this boy!
One unfortunate thing recently that I'm sure everyone wants to know about is the decision for Nicholas to stick his hand down the back of his diaper after he has "dirtied it". Just today he walks in the living room, shows me his hand and says "I have poo on my hand." I really hope this is not a trend that sticks. Gigi, ever the optimist, thinks that potty training might not be far away. I'm going to hope that she is right, but we shall see. Our favorite is when we ask Nicholas, "Do you need a new diaper" He replies: "No, I feel better."
And I need to give a special shout out to "Uncle Bumbles." His gift of Rocket from his favorite TV show Little Einsteins made an impression on Nicholas. Just this week he was playing with it and said "it from Uncle Bumbles." I was very impressed that he remembered who gave it to him. Although his all-time favorite gift from Uncle Bumbles is blankie. It will be a tough day when he will have to give that up.
Here is Nicholas after his nap with his Toy Story sheets and all his "animals."
On a different note, Nicholas' commentary can be so random and funny. Here are a few recent LOLs:
I was driving him to Mother's Day Out one morning and out of the blue he says "Good driving Mama!" He told me again on the way home that night. I do pride myself on being a good driver, but didn't quite expect a 2 year old to notice that...
Then recently as he was saying his bedtime prayers, he threw us a curve ball. Normally his nightly prayer is "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything. I love you. Amen" Well one night recently his prayer went: "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything. I want some milk." Even though this was way out of the ordinary, I will say that he will usually ask for milk at some point before bedtime as a stall tactic. I just love this boy!
One unfortunate thing recently that I'm sure everyone wants to know about is the decision for Nicholas to stick his hand down the back of his diaper after he has "dirtied it". Just today he walks in the living room, shows me his hand and says "I have poo on my hand." I really hope this is not a trend that sticks. Gigi, ever the optimist, thinks that potty training might not be far away. I'm going to hope that she is right, but we shall see. Our favorite is when we ask Nicholas, "Do you need a new diaper" He replies: "No, I feel better."
And I need to give a special shout out to "Uncle Bumbles." His gift of Rocket from his favorite TV show Little Einsteins made an impression on Nicholas. Just this week he was playing with it and said "it from Uncle Bumbles." I was very impressed that he remembered who gave it to him. Although his all-time favorite gift from Uncle Bumbles is blankie. It will be a tough day when he will have to give that up.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We've had a wonder Christmas season! We started off by taking Nicholas to Zoolight Safari at the Birmingham Zoo. Nicholas was way more interested in the few animals they left accessible than the lights they had set up everywhere. It was really cold when we went, but he loved petting the animals. The zoo membership was definitely a good birthday idea on our part.
We then celebrated the Davenport family Christmas a few weeks early. Lots of good food and good times. I was most proud of the gift I found for Brad. I felt it was very appropriate and will need to purchase another one for Ryan with his three girls.
We both took the entire week before Christmas off, so we headed down to Mobile to visit with Gigi and Pawpaw. The entire time Nicholas was Pawpaw's shadow, but I don't think he minded at all. A few of his favorite gifts were a Cars mat from Ryan and Nancy and the nap mat that Gigi made for him.
We also has fun visiting with some of both the Thompson and Allenbach clans. Nicholas enjoyed playing with second cousins Carter and Emma. Carter and Emma did a wonderful job singing Away in a Manger for us. We tried to get Nicholas to chime in, but he wasn't interested.
We got back home Christmas Eve in time to make cookies for Santa. Nicholas helped but then didn't understand why he couldn't eat the cookies that we were TRYING to leave for Santa.
When Nicholas woke up Christmas morning, we got him and asked if he was ready to see what Santa left him. When we got in the living room he says "Where's Santa?" We had to explain that Santa visited last night while he was sleeping.
Some of his favorites from Santa were his tent and play-doh sets.
Finally the day after Christmas we celebrated with the Martin clan. One of the highlights of the evening was the gift that we gave Uncle Robert. He opened his gift from us to discover an empty box. Apparently I had wrapped not only an empty box, but a box inside an empty box. I couldn't believe it. Thankfully Gabe ran home and grabbed his actual gift. Ahh good times!
We both took the entire week before Christmas off, so we headed down to Mobile to visit with Gigi and Pawpaw. The entire time Nicholas was Pawpaw's shadow, but I don't think he minded at all. A few of his favorite gifts were a Cars mat from Ryan and Nancy and the nap mat that Gigi made for him.
We got back home Christmas Eve in time to make cookies for Santa. Nicholas helped but then didn't understand why he couldn't eat the cookies that we were TRYING to leave for Santa.
Some of his favorites from Santa were his tent and play-doh sets.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
2 1/2 Years Old
It's hard to believe that Nicholas is 2 1/2 years old now. He definitely keeps us on our toes. Here is what he has been up to...
Some of our favorite vocabulary includes:
Do it again - do din digain
Holy Moly - moly moly
Uh oh spaghettios - uh oh spitigos
Stephanie - nephie nephie
Lightening McQueen - Lightening Aqueen
Thumper from Bambi - Sumpers
Kangaroo - Kangakoo
Tater tots - Tootie tots
Whatcha doing? - Whatcha donut?
When he's hungry he says - Something a hungry?
He is now counting correctly all the way up through twelve, but then says fourteen for thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. His alphabet tends to skip around a bit, but it's too cute.
His favorite TV show at this point is Little Einsteins (aka Little Einteins). In fact, thanks to Little Einsteins and the portable DVD player, we had a very successful trip to Mobile for Thanksgiving (and will hopefully have a good one for Christmas as well).
Whenever he sees any female whether it's just a character on a TV show or an actual female Nicholas will say "Like you mama!" He does the same for Gabe when he sees a male. On the way to church one Sunday, Nicholas was looking at his kids bible and saw a picture of Jesus and said "Like you dada!" We got a kick out of that one.
Nicholas cracks us up when he corrects us with what we are saying. We'll say "look there's a dog." To which Nicholas will reply "No, it's a dog." One day I went back and forth with him because I pointed out a frog to him in a book and he kept telling me "No, it's a froggie." Apparently my proper term of "frog" was not correct.
He is also very independent. When I offer to do something for him, often times he will say "No - my do it." In other words, "I've got it mom."
We are really trying to be patient with the whole potty training thing, but I would really love it if he was trained by his third birthday. That being said, I've been reading up on tips and techniques. I purchased a jar which I promptly labeled "Potty Treats" and filled it with M&Ms. So far he just wants the treats and not the potty. So no M&Ms for Nicholas yet. Then I read about another technique to let kids go au natural around the house - the thinking behind this being that they won't want to pee or poop just anywhere and will want to use the potty. Well lets just say this REALLY didn't work with Nicholas. I basically let him go commando for about 15 minutes and had to clean up several different spots where the floor was sufficient and he didn't feel the need to use the potty. After this experience, I will keep Nicholas in diapers at all times.
We are really looking forward to Christmas this year. It will be interesting to see how Nicholas reacts this year compared to last year.
Some of our favorite vocabulary includes:
Do it again - do din digain
Holy Moly - moly moly
Uh oh spaghettios - uh oh spitigos
Stephanie - nephie nephie
Lightening McQueen - Lightening Aqueen
Thumper from Bambi - Sumpers
Kangaroo - Kangakoo
Tater tots - Tootie tots
Whatcha doing? - Whatcha donut?
When he's hungry he says - Something a hungry?
He is now counting correctly all the way up through twelve, but then says fourteen for thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. His alphabet tends to skip around a bit, but it's too cute.
His favorite TV show at this point is Little Einsteins (aka Little Einteins). In fact, thanks to Little Einsteins and the portable DVD player, we had a very successful trip to Mobile for Thanksgiving (and will hopefully have a good one for Christmas as well).
Whenever he sees any female whether it's just a character on a TV show or an actual female Nicholas will say "Like you mama!" He does the same for Gabe when he sees a male. On the way to church one Sunday, Nicholas was looking at his kids bible and saw a picture of Jesus and said "Like you dada!" We got a kick out of that one.
Nicholas cracks us up when he corrects us with what we are saying. We'll say "look there's a dog." To which Nicholas will reply "No, it's a dog." One day I went back and forth with him because I pointed out a frog to him in a book and he kept telling me "No, it's a froggie." Apparently my proper term of "frog" was not correct.
He is also very independent. When I offer to do something for him, often times he will say "No - my do it." In other words, "I've got it mom."
We are really trying to be patient with the whole potty training thing, but I would really love it if he was trained by his third birthday. That being said, I've been reading up on tips and techniques. I purchased a jar which I promptly labeled "Potty Treats" and filled it with M&Ms. So far he just wants the treats and not the potty. So no M&Ms for Nicholas yet. Then I read about another technique to let kids go au natural around the house - the thinking behind this being that they won't want to pee or poop just anywhere and will want to use the potty. Well lets just say this REALLY didn't work with Nicholas. I basically let him go commando for about 15 minutes and had to clean up several different spots where the floor was sufficient and he didn't feel the need to use the potty. After this experience, I will keep Nicholas in diapers at all times.
We are really looking forward to Christmas this year. It will be interesting to see how Nicholas reacts this year compared to last year.
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