I swear - L's speech has taken off! In the last few weeks, amidst sleep disturbances, separation anxiety, and the dawn of the terrible two's, L's vocabulary has increased dramatically, as well as his ability to string words together to form sentences (well, mini-sentences but still). He now knows how to say his name. It sounds like the "uuuuttaaa," but it's his name. He also says fruta (another version of uta), pan, walk, sit (or did I include this one in the last post? I can't remember), Pluto (funny story w/this one, stay tunned). He has been talking non-stop, chattering up strangers in his attempts to communicate his awe, frustration, or experience with anyone willing to listen. This was particularly true in Disney.
We came back from Disney a few days ago, thanks to J having his new days off coincide with his old ones, leaving him with a string of 8 days off in a row (okay, so he had to take one day off to connect the old w/the new, but still). We saddled up the car with necessities and went on our merry way. Thankfully, the trip went well with the only bumps our own tiredness and L's newfound battle between independence and dependence which is the apparent reason for the infamous terrible twos. We got to go to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (previously MGM Studios) and Epcot, and we went to two character dinings - dinner in Epcot's Garden Grill and breakfast in the Polynisian's Ohana Restaurant. Yummy! And L had a blast with all the characters. It was hot, humid, and busy, although not as busy as July and early August tend to get. We were still ablt to ride some rides (er, sorry for lack of words here...) and enjoy some times together. And L learned to say Pluto, although at first, it sounded like P-U-T-A then P-U-T-O. Now it sounds like Uto, sans the P. We were laughing hysterically at this, but by the time we got home, L was saying the "Uto" so we couldn't have him say the major faux pas.
That's about as much as I can write now as L's urging me to go sit and play with him (mama, sit. mama, siiiiiiiiiiit. MAMA, SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT). Anyone who's ever seen Family Guy (the episode where the baby is going "mama" over and over again until the mom finally says "what?!" and the baby laughs and says "hi" - or something like that) will understand.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Cheese! Oh no... bobo!
Those are some of L's new words. His vocabulary has been rapidly expanding, and this includes repeating words we say. We now have to be very, very careful with what we say! The other day, when I was about to take a pic of him, he turned around and gave me a cheesy (pun intended) smile and said through gritted teeth: cheeeeeeese! J and I laughed so hard. He also calls cheese, well, cheese. Oh no, oh wow, and all right are his other faves. Whenever something falls (or he drops something), he opens his eyes wide, put his hands up in a semi-shrug, and says: oh no! Bobo is from the bobo brothers of Go, Diego, Go - currently his absolutely favorite character and TV show and the theme of his 2nd bday party. Other words include: mains (manos - hands), up, down, outside, sit, meme (deme - give me), alla (there), this, amen, milk, Go, Diego, Go (although it sounds more like, ga-da-ga), paper, happy, abre (open) and probably a bunch more I can't remember right now. He also says a bunch more that I don't know what they mean. And, he can name (not just point to when asked) his eyes, nose, mouth, and toes!
Another major milestone was reached yesterday. L's crib was converted to a toddler bed! The guard rail that was ordered in Jan finally came in, and yesterday we decided that we would convert it because of some sleep/crib aversion problems we were having. A little background - sleep problems have become serious over the last month. It's becoming more and more difficult to put him to sleep, both at night and for nap time. Granted, this last month has been chaotic as far as routine is concerned because there have been changes. I am no longer working, but he was still going to daycare two days a week. J's schedule changed so L wasn't seeing daddy in the mornings anymore and we had to go to sleep earlier on the days he worked. We went on mini vacations twice this month. And it seemed like he got a small cold (no runny nose or fever, just some phlegm and a little cough). So all that was a recipe for interrupted sleep. He won't sleep through the night anymore and putting him to sleep was a struggle and getting worse by the day. Nap time, when at home, was also bad. Oh yea, and Memorial Day weekend came where daddy had to work midnight, 12-hr shift for 4 days in a row which had us going to Abui's house during the day. More change in routine. One of those days he outright refused to nap and then was so overtired at night that he had night terrors for the first time ever.
So, yesterday was the climax where I tried to put him down to sleep his nap but he was not having it. I resorted to the cry-it-out method because frankly I'd had enough and he wasn't falling asleep any which way (not with rocking, or holding or anything). It tore my heart out but it needed to be done. He spent the next hour and a half crying! It was horrible, but towards the end he quieted down and when I went to go check on him, he'd fallen asleep standing up! He really hated the crib. When daddy came home (and after extensive research online while he was crying), we decided to change his crib. Would you believe that the first thing he did when the front part of the crib came down was jump in the bed and say nite-nite?! (oh yea, another word lol). We then installed the guard rail; he's not too crazy about that but he tolerates it better than the crib. He woke up twice last night; the first time (around 11:30 pm), I just went in and patted him on the back and he fell back asleep. The second time (around 3:30 am) he wouldn't go back to sleep so he went to bed with us.
Nap time today was much better. After a little encouragement, he was in bed laying down, and I rubbed his back. He fell asleep almost instantly and slept one hour. At the hour he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. Okay, not the 2 hrs he used to sleep, but I can deal with 1 hour. We'll see how tonight goes. I'm re-reading out Sleepeasy Solutions book I'd bought when he was months old.
On other news, I created a new blog that is mainly photos we take and writings I do. It's my "creative" blog so to speak: http://musingsofwriterwannabe.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy it! I've sent in a few things to contests, and I'm slowly writing away. We'll see how much I can get done this summer. J is doing well in his new supervisory position although it wasn't quite what he expected. But everything is working out just so. Thank God for that! Hasta pronto!
Another major milestone was reached yesterday. L's crib was converted to a toddler bed! The guard rail that was ordered in Jan finally came in, and yesterday we decided that we would convert it because of some sleep/crib aversion problems we were having. A little background - sleep problems have become serious over the last month. It's becoming more and more difficult to put him to sleep, both at night and for nap time. Granted, this last month has been chaotic as far as routine is concerned because there have been changes. I am no longer working, but he was still going to daycare two days a week. J's schedule changed so L wasn't seeing daddy in the mornings anymore and we had to go to sleep earlier on the days he worked. We went on mini vacations twice this month. And it seemed like he got a small cold (no runny nose or fever, just some phlegm and a little cough). So all that was a recipe for interrupted sleep. He won't sleep through the night anymore and putting him to sleep was a struggle and getting worse by the day. Nap time, when at home, was also bad. Oh yea, and Memorial Day weekend came where daddy had to work midnight, 12-hr shift for 4 days in a row which had us going to Abui's house during the day. More change in routine. One of those days he outright refused to nap and then was so overtired at night that he had night terrors for the first time ever.
So, yesterday was the climax where I tried to put him down to sleep his nap but he was not having it. I resorted to the cry-it-out method because frankly I'd had enough and he wasn't falling asleep any which way (not with rocking, or holding or anything). It tore my heart out but it needed to be done. He spent the next hour and a half crying! It was horrible, but towards the end he quieted down and when I went to go check on him, he'd fallen asleep standing up! He really hated the crib. When daddy came home (and after extensive research online while he was crying), we decided to change his crib. Would you believe that the first thing he did when the front part of the crib came down was jump in the bed and say nite-nite?! (oh yea, another word lol). We then installed the guard rail; he's not too crazy about that but he tolerates it better than the crib. He woke up twice last night; the first time (around 11:30 pm), I just went in and patted him on the back and he fell back asleep. The second time (around 3:30 am) he wouldn't go back to sleep so he went to bed with us.
Nap time today was much better. After a little encouragement, he was in bed laying down, and I rubbed his back. He fell asleep almost instantly and slept one hour. At the hour he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. Okay, not the 2 hrs he used to sleep, but I can deal with 1 hour. We'll see how tonight goes. I'm re-reading out Sleepeasy Solutions book I'd bought when he was months old.
On other news, I created a new blog that is mainly photos we take and writings I do. It's my "creative" blog so to speak: http://musingsofwriterwannabe.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy it! I've sent in a few things to contests, and I'm slowly writing away. We'll see how much I can get done this summer. J is doing well in his new supervisory position although it wasn't quite what he expected. But everything is working out just so. Thank God for that! Hasta pronto!
