Growing Pains

If you look really hard, you might see some shiny, sharp, white protrusions in Allie's bottom gums.

We think this could be one of the clues in her recent cranky-day habit.

Those 1st teeth (popping through last Thursday and Friday) are so exciting, but a little scary while nursing. She loves to clamp down when she's done, and it hurts so much more with those little sharpies!

She has been super fussy lately. I've been blaming it on the rice cereal traffic-jam that keeps occurring in her colon. That, and boredom. So a third excuse sounds great! The teeth popped, prune juice for the bowels, and lots of bike rides with Allie toting behind in the stroller to combat boredom. Hopefully we should get our happy girl back soon.

Growing up is so hard and painful. Good thing she's a cutie!

Capturing Moments

Jackson, Allie and I walked home from the library this evening after an early dinner. We had a heat wave come in a few days ago (jumping us 40+degrees in one week), and it was definitely hot today. [Side note: spring and fall always seem to come in with an abrupt 40+ degree temperature change around here. It's almost as if some higher being suddenly tilts the earth, lurching us into the next season.] Though hot during the day, this evening was 80 degrees with no direct sun or humidity, and epitomized comfort. Jackson was singing as he rode his little balance bike down the sidewalk. I could see Allie's chubby little feet kicking the air while she sat in the stroller. The sun was setting, and the lighting was perfect. I felt a peaceful heaven-like calm, and teared up with extreme gratitude. It was incredible, and I wanted SO terribly to capture some of it on camera. But alas, all cameras were sitting at home.

I am a firm believer in not photographing all events. Memory is incredibly powerful, and more depth-filled than pictures. But, I guess I'm also an artist, and was sad to not take advantage of such perfect lighting and poses. Live and learn.

Thankfully we had plenty of other camera worthy moments this week, and often it was nearby. These would not be the artist's best, but great moment captures.

This is how we found the little Miss on Tuesday morning. Poor girl has been congested since October, so I usually put her in her carseat at night so she doesn't wake up from a stuffy nose. Apparently she must have had some exciting dreams and was bracing herself for for the wake up call.

 

We made it downtown to go see the cherry blossoms on the tidal basin. Perfect weather, perfect blossoms, and the most gorgeous colored booger came out of Allie's nose. She was still batting those eye lashes and giving us flirtatious grins. Oh it was hilarious. 

 And then she struck this lovely pose,

and made me relieved to know she'll have to work a little to maintain her beauty in life.

Allie wasn't the only one looking fabulous for photo's this week. We attempted to get a family pic, and these are the results:

(Jackson was practicing his tree-hugging skills)

Apparently Jackson is not ok with strangers taking our picture. Ah, the memories.

We did capture this precious moment...

..for which I am grateful because the camera was not easily accessible, and I almost missed it. But it was captured.

A not-as-low-key-as-normal Easter

Despite my low key holiday nature, we did ratchet it up a bit this year. There were no recycled gifts from grandmothers--I actually bought my child a present, full price. We went to a little egg hunt (those eggs did get recycled by the Easter Bunny), and Jackson and I dyed eggs. We tried to decorate them before dying, but dropping the eggs into the colored water was much cooler than coloring on them. I was still impressed we did it. Did Jackson eat the eggs? err... he helped shell some of them for sandwiches. But there was no consumption.

He did consume the sweeter Easter basket tradition. The kid found his basket within minutes of learning there was a basket for him to find, and this little video completely captures his current personality. Insane excitement, random discoveries, and slight awkwardness swooped into a little talking shrieking human.

Post-Easter, we managed to have one day of the heavenly weather we usually get in April. We took advantage with an ad hoc photo session--complete with ugliest background, the cutest little girl, and our high energy resident toddler.

 

This happened to be Allie's first grass eating experience. She is definitely one to watch when exploring things with her mouth. She has lips of steal that do not open for finger sweeps under any kind of condition. 

  

 And this is how she feels about me taking the grass away before it gets into the mouth...

 Maybe next year we'll let her eat candy, and she won't have to be forced into such extreme measures.

Solid...

...Water,

We thoroughly enjoyed the post-spring equinox snow we had. By far the best of the year!

Soap,

Apparently we've never let Jackson take a bubble bath. He had to do it himself by pouring all the shampoo into the tub. 30 min later he was still thrilled by the bubbles.


and 7 months.

Celebrating her 7 month birthday, Allie decided to sit up. Literally on March 21st she stopped falling over. She also chose that day to eat 3 different foods--but only if they were solidly chunky. Now about getting that solid poop out of her body. (Apparently this is a regional issue since prune juice was sold out at Target... goodness!)

Autonomy vs. Shame

We are definitely in the midst Erik Erikson's psychosocial development phase of Autonomy vs. Shame. At least with Jackson. This weekend he seemed to push every boundary he knew of with great autonomy. It was certainly enough to run me ragged and leave some scars on his friends. Thankfully he carried plenty of shame along with his mistakes, which made me feel a little hope for his future as a functioning person in society. As soon as he knew he was in trouble, he'd run to one of his 10 favorite hiding spots throughout the house. Sometimes I cared, sometimes I didn't. Always I was just tired or finding the balance of policing and injury prevention and letting him figure stuff out on his own. 

I really only got pictures of the cute autonomous stuff. Instances where I tried really hard not to laugh so he wouldn't be inspired to do it again and again.

On my stressed mamma day (Tuesday), I really wanted him to take a nap--for the safety of himself and all those involved in his life. This is what he looked like after an hour and a half of trying. Oh my cute. 

We explored plenty with this little whale. Apparently the whale got bored of all the imaginative water. "And then, the whale went SPLASH!" with arm movements showing me what "the whale" did. Again, desperately holding the laughter in.





The good news was he ate plenty of healthy food this weekend--including most of this can of black beans. He insisted on eating them from the can, in the kitchen, on a chair. Each detail was tied to a tantrum if it wasn't executed.

Allie didn't want to miss out on the fun. I felt like all weekend she was screaming, "don't forget about me!"

We tried many ways to deal with his massive amounts of curious, aggressive energy. We employed a trip to the track (where completed a 400 meter dash with two breaks and no walking), a bowling excursion and a little bike ride. Videos of latter two to enjoy. Sorry-- no videos of the tantrums that happened afterward.

Not Quite Mom...

For a number of weeks, Jackson has taken to using the phrase, "no, not quite." He says it with the sweetest, thoughtful tone and never inserts "yet." Obviously he hears us say it all the time, but his application of this parrot phrase have been phenomenally creative, and oh so cute. 

"Would you like to have lunch Jackson?"

"Not quite Mom. I'm playing"

-------

"Jackson it's time to to preschool bud."

"No, not quite. There's no preschool today."

------

"Jackson, do you need to go potty?"

(Sigh) "Not quite."

-----

"OK, go climb in bed Jackson."

"No, not quite mom. I need to eat my dinner."

-----


This is all part of a larger stalling phase he's embraced with great talent. Mostly it comes out in that last situation, at bedtime. Somehow 8:00 seems to be the magical time of hunger, a sincere desire to slowly clean up all toys, and go poop in the toilet. The "not quite" part still makes me laugh, but by 8:30 I start turning into mad mama when we're still working on putting his blankets on.

I suppose we should a) not let him do these things--though I like that he eventually eats his dinner, cleans up toys and poops in the toilet--or b) move up his bed time. With the crazy time change of last week that we're all still adjusting to, this bed time move up could be difficult. I can only imagine Jackson looking out the window and sighing, "not quite mom. It's not dark yet." But, to get a happy mama, we are quite going to have to. 

Aliens and Allie

Remember how Allie used to love to chat?

She now converses, but only with one consonant and syllable: Ba. Oh it's hilarious when she gets her jaw going up and down as she does her "ba ba ba."  Reminds me of these classic characters from Sesame Street:

Our aliens Allie and Jackson:

 How cute!