Some more pictures from the beach

More pictures from the beach...

Papou, the Tickle Monster.  Elektra would then ask, "Again?"

Pure, unadulterated happiness!

DJ at the beach.

DJ playing in the "really, really big sandbox (and bucket)".

Elektra coming over to play with the bucket.

Elektra, the sun-kissed baby with Yiayia Elektra and Nouna Sophia.

Elektra and Sophia playing with an iPad.

DJ during dinner at the Oceanic Restaurant.

Elektra vs. The Greek Yogurt

A picture is a thousand words... taken while at Wrightsville Beach, August 10, 2010.

Beach Day 2

Today's beach adventure ended early for Elektra.  She just wanted no parts of the beach.  She dug in the sand for a few minutes, then wanted to sit on Daddy's lap on his beach chair.  I tried taking her out to the very shallow part of the ocean, and she freaked out.  She ran back up to Steve, and asked to watch Word World and Thomas.  Of course she could watch neither as we didn't have our iPads with us.  Then she asked to go home.  Yiouch.  So Steve took her home to the pool.  It turns out she not only had an early lunch but she was also down for a nap by 12:30.  She's having a rough day, I guess.

DJ, meanwhile, immediately started digging in the "really really big sandbox!"  He had a good time digging, and he'd take his watering can to the water and fill it without asking us for us to help him.  He'd just go down to the ocean, fill it, and come back.  Sometimes, he'd let the ocean "chase" him back towards the beach, laughing the whole way.  After a few rounds of that, he looked up looking for us, and realized he was farther away than he wanted to be.  He came over to us, and then went back down to the water. 

After Steve took Elektra back to the house, DJ and I walked down to the water, and then sat in it where the waves had to wash up to us.  He sat in between my legs, and the waves washed over us, and DJ was putting sand on my legs, in the bucket, picking up shells... he had a grand old time.  He sat there with me for over 45 minutes, and he didn't want to go home.  Though then when he realized he was hungry, he said he wanted to go get some "Yunch."

Home we went, showered off the sand and salt, and had a good lunch.  As a reward, DJ go to eat a Krispy Kreme for dessert.  He fell asleep for his nap in under 20 minutes... he was cooked.

Wrightsville Beach 2010

It's already past mid-week here at Wrightsville Beach.  Vacation is going to be over so fast!!

This year, we are staying in a new house, and it is spectacular.  We actually have an appropriate number of rooms for people!  We are staying in a room with 2 queens.  DJ is sleeping in one, and we are sleeping in the other.  He's been sleeping pretty well, though we aren't sure if it's because he's just that tuckered out, we're in the room with him, or if it's because he's in a big bed.  Whatever the case, he's doing a great job sleeping.  Elektra has her own room with the pack-n-play, and after the first day, has been a dream child... hanging out in her crib after she wakes up, and sleeping for many hours.


The house also has a really nice outdoor pool which we have been using extensively.  Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we took the kids to the pool in the morning because the tide has been high in the mornings and because the pool is completely in the shade (yay for no sunblock application!).  Elektra wants no parts of being carried out into the pool, though she was willing to sit on a raft with me on Tuesday.  She sits on the edge, fills her watering can, pours it out, and refills it.  She'll also kick her feet in the water ("kick kick kick!").  DJ didn't want to go out into the middle of the pool either until Tuesday, when after a raft ride with me, he asked to be carried out.  He kicked his feet like a big swimmer, and did a great job.  Otherwise, he's been thoroughly enjoying the $5 water cannon from Walmart and filling/refilling his watering can.

On Wednesday, we decided to take the kids to the beach in the morning.  It's quite the ordeal to get them (and us!) ready, but out we went.  DJ was excited to play in the really big sandbox, and he did take right to it.  Once he decided he wanted some water for his watering can, he went down to the ocean without really fussing, and filled his can!  Thio Steve and Spiro found lots of sand crabs to put in a bucket, and DJ played with those, too!  By the end of the day, I picked him up and carried him out into the waves.  He I explained what the waves were doing (breaking) when he asked what all the white bubbles were.  He would laugh every time a wave would break on us, and he genuinely had a great time... even said himself that it was fun!

Elektra took to the really big sandbox, too.  She took off running for the water and when the first wave splashed over her ankles, she WAILED.  We figured out that the lack of footing was really freaking her out, so we made sure that she was in some solid footing each time we took her to the water.  At the end of the day, Steve carried her out to where DJ and I were, but she had mixed feelings about it.  She would laugh because DJ was laughing, but she really wasn't thrilled about being in the middle of the water.  Refilling the watering can was always a good trick to get her to come in the water, though. 

The kids were exhausted by lunchtime, and were in bed for naps by 1pm.  They got up shortly before 5PM.  During nap, DJ was plastered up against me, and I saw him wake up a few times, look at me, and go back to sleep.  At one point, Steve and I switched spots and when DJ opened his eyes and realized I was not next to him, he quickly looked to see with whom he was cuddled.  As soon as he realized it was Daddy, he shut his eyes again and went back to sleep for another half an hour.

We went out for dinner that night, and the kids had enormous appetites.  DJ put away a metric ton of corn bread, popcorn shrimp, broccoli, sweet potato and homemade potato chips.  Elektra also put away a lot of corn bread and chicken strips.  Then they both helped us put away Rita's frozen custard treats.  :-)

Otherwise, the kids are having a ball playing with their cousins.  DJ really enjoys eating his meals with his cousins, and we think he's been eating better because of them.  One of his favorite vegetables this past week has been shredded carrots.  Elektra is still mostly boycotting vegetables, par usual. 

Both Steve and I have gotten some naps in (when the kids are napping), and it has been a fairly relaxing week overall.  I'll post pictures when I get them off of other people's cameras.

A Poopy Voicemail

Yesterday, I received a voicemail from DJ (with prompting from Eleanor and Sonny):

Begin voicemail.
"Go now.  Say, hi."
"Hiiii!"
"Tell her what you did."
"I poopied!"
"In the potty.  (pause...)  Tell her!"
"I poopied in the potty!  It was a big poop and a little poop."
"Alright, tell her you'll talk to her later.  (pause...)  Say, I'll to you later, Mommy!"
"I talk to you later, Mommy!"
"Bye."
"BYEEEE!"
End of voicemail.

Hilarious!!!

Strange Bedfellows ... Again

Thursday night, as I was saying goodnight to DJ, I asked him if he was going to come sleep with us. He said yes. At least he's honest!

At 12:30, I heard DJ open his door, but I was too tired to get out of bed and then I didn't hear anything until my alarm at 6:15. I crawled over a sleeping Steve and sure enough, there was DJ, sleeping on the floor next to Steve. He had brought his pillow, Tiger, and his blanket. It was so cute!

Friday night, Steve went to bed early, and closed our bedroom door (not latched) so he could have some quiet. When I came to bed around 12:30, I went to confirm the basement door was closed, and nearly tripped over DJ who was sleeping in the hall outside of Elektra's door. I guess he didn't want to come into our room since the door was closed.

It was so cute.....

He was solidly asleep, so I picked him up and put him back in his bed. He whined, and that woke up Steve, so then both of us were up consoling him. He went back to sleep, but woke up again around 5:30. At that point, I just let him come to bed with us.

::sigh::

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A Parenting Milestone

No one said potty training a boy would be easy. In fact, everyone says that potty training a boy is hard. DJ is no exception...he's the epitome!

He's doing great, though, especially if you can stay ahead of him. He has not had a pee accident in over a week, which we think is fantastic. He has even asked to go pee first thing in the morning, having held it all night and not going in his diaper!

Poo accidents, on the other hand, we've not been so lucky. His first true poo accident came on Sunday. The "damage" was minimal, and his underwear was washable. No problem! We were hoping that would be his be big moment where he figured it all out, but not so much, On Monday, he had a cleanable accident at Eleanor's during the morning. When I went to pick him up, we noticed he was squirming a little. So we asked if he needed to go potty, he said no, so we didn't argue it. He got into his car seat, I strapped in Elektra, and then I smelled it.

"DJ, did you got poopy in your underwear?"

"Yes."

Aw, $#!+.

Well...at least he was honest.

I take him back into Eleanor's to change him. It was every bit a grand mess. I thought about trying to salvage the underwear. Then I thought better of it.

With that decision, I officially reached a Parenting Milestone: I threw out the first (of likely many) pair of toddler underwear.

After cleaning him, I asked DJ what it felt like to have poopy in his underwear (and frankly, sit on it, but I didn't actually ask that).

"It felt like mud."

"This is good..." I think to myself.

"Did you like the way that felt?"

"No."

"Excellent! NOW maybe the lesson will sink in," I think.

Yeah, well, who am I kidding? This is a toddler we're talking about here.

Sure enough, DJ had another poopy accident in his underwear. This pair required soaking, so we will see if they are worth keeping.

It also sounds like I will need to buy stock in Oxyclean before this is all over!!

Wall Writing

I do not mean "the writing on the wall". I mean "wall writing", as in what human males do when they don't manage to urinate IN a toilet, on purpose or not.

DJ has officially joined the not-so-elite club of wall writers. I'm pretty sure it was an accident. But then I think about the circumstances, and I'm not so sure.

I had kids by myself last (Friday) night. I was in the process of cooking dinner when DJ came to me and said he needed to go potty. Naturally, this was right when I needed to take the food off of the stove. I dumped the pasta unceremoniously into the colander, and went to help DJ.

Meanwhile, Elektra had started to get mad a few minutes earlier because I told her Daddy wasn't home. So when she found herself on the other side of the gate from DJ, her full blown meltdown began. I quickly pulled down DJ's shorts and underwear, sat him on the potty, and went to address Elektra's meltdown figuring DJ can pee without my hovering over him because he's been doing such a good job with it this whole week.

Then the phone rang; caller ID said it was Eleanor. Elektra was still wailing, but I decided she was just having a tantrum and would ignore it. I went to answer the phone, and came right back to the bathroom while still exchanging greetings, expecting to find DJ still not having gone pee. Instead, when I arrived, DJ said, "I did it, Mommy!" That's when Eleanor heard, "Ohhhhhh.... Yes... you did do it."

DJ had not held his penis down when he started peeing. Ok, that usually results in a little mess on the floor just in front of the toilet; no big deal. But on top of that, he had to have pushed as hard as he could because the stream not only hit the rug in front of the toilet and part of the shower curtain beyond the rug, but he also hit the far wall of the bathroom, clearing the entire width of the bathtub. We are talking a good 4 - 5 feet!

Wall Writing. There it was, just as Steve had predicted shortly after DJ was born. I don't think the wall writing started intentionally but when he saw some pretty fun results, I have to think that he just kept on going!

I was still on the phone with Eleanor planning what would be today's (Saturday) activity when I told DJ to sit there one more minute. I ran to put Elektra in her high chair and give her milk hoping that it would calm her down (it didn't...she didn't calm down until she got her dinner to inhale). That's when I turned back around to go back to DJ, and saw, instead, DJ trying to run around in his room with both his underwear and shorts still around his ankles.

Two thoughts went through my head:
1. He didn't wait for me to come back. But being that I didn't say that explicitly, I couldn't be mad. Plus, was it more than a minute? To a toddler, the answer is "absolutely"!
2. Why didn't he pull up his underwear/shorts??? He knows how!! Needless to say, the sight was hysterical.

Shortly thereafter, dinner was served, and the world settled back to a normal pace.

Only then did I clean up Aisle 1.

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Accidents Happen

At home on Monday night and on Tuesday at daycare, DJ had an accident. He was just so engrossed in playing that he completely forgot that he needed to go potty.

In the case of Monday night, he'd just gone potty not half an hour before, so this surprised all of us. No rugs were harmed in the making of that potty training session.

On Tuesday at Eleanor's, he was having such a good time playing in the sandbox (and consequently, drizzling sand onto Grace's head/hair) that he didn't notice that he needed to go. It was completely immaterial that DJ (and Grace, for that matter) needed a bath because of his accident ... because was completely covered in sand!!!

But on the positive side, he has been coming to our room in the mornings and asking to go potty when he wakes up. And he goes successfully! He has been wearing diapers only for naps and bedtime. In fact, last night, he wanted no parts of underwear OR his diaper!!! So he ran around nekkid. :-)

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Potty Training

We have spent the last couple of weekends working on trying to potty train DJ via the no-diaper method. Most people's reaction to this method is, "Wow, that could get messy!" And while this is true, it's not like we don't already have not-so-house-trained-dogs that have marked the house when not watched like hawks....so what's a little human marking in the grand scheme of things?

Back in May, I got DJ some Cars underwear, and we tried on a pair one night after I thought DJ had successfully urinated in the toilet. To be fair, he had gone, but he just didn't go all the way, apparently. Ten minutes later, there was a nice puddle on the living room rug, and we had a very upset toddler on our hands. Steve cleaned up DJ, and I cleaned up the rug.

We gave potty training a rest for awhile, but still would talk about it with DJ and would still ask him if he needed to go. 99% of the time, DJ would say no, and every once in a blue moon, he'd say yes. His saying yes, however, was no guarantee of actual success.

Two weekends ago, however, I decided to try no diaper at all until he went on the potty, and then he'd get to wear underwear as a reward (along with getting to use toilet tissue, flushing the toilet, and getting star stickers). Every once in awhile, we would ask DJ if he needed to go on the potty (as a way to remind him to think about it), and he'd vehemently say "NO!" Then if he thought he needed to go, he'd then ask us to sit on the potty. But if he didn't have a bodily function immediately, he'd want off the toilet immediately. This resulted in going to sit on the potty 5-6 times in a 10 - 15 minute period before he'd actually accomplish going on the potty. But eventually he'd get it! Amazingly, we had only one very small accident, and a near bowel movement accident that Steve prevented. For having a bowel movement on the potty, he got a big Cars wall sticker! He was very excited about that!

What this exercise proved was that DJ could very much control his bodily functions, but either was trying to use potty training as a power play or he was just too busy to think about it.

This past weekend, we tried this technique again. DJ had no accidents during his waking hours, but the naptime and overnight diapers were full. Frankly, just that is a win that he did it two weekends in a row.

Because of our success and because his daycare girlfriend, Grace, is recently fully trained, Eleanor suggested we tell DJ that he's going to her house on Monday (today) with underwear on, and that he is to go potty on her potty all day, both #1 and #2. I also sent a number of changes of clothes in case of accidents, and apparently, DJ did great. Unfortunately, he had a full diaper after nap, but otherwise, he was clean all day! Plus, while he was in the bathtub tonight, he stopped playing and told me he needed to go, and he did!

We have lots more to do, but we're on our way! Cross your fingers for no setbacks!

So that's what sleeping through the night feels like!

Last night, I told DJ that although I know how much he likes sleeping in our bed, he should stay in his car bed until the sun wakes up.

Much to my enormous surprise, he did!! He must have heard me preparing my lunch in the kitchen this morning because that is when he opened his door and said, "I didn't get out my car bed until the sun woke up!"

Good boy, DJ!


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The strangest bedfellows... Continued

As expected, Friday night, DJ came to our room at around 2:30AM, pillow and Tiger in hand. In fact, he was so determined to sleep with us that although I got out of bed immediately upon hearing his door open to try and get to him to put him back in his own bed, he had apparently run to our room - in pitch black darkness - because I nearly ran him over before I even got to our bedroom threshold.

I decided not to fight it, and let him curl up in between us. He slept until about 7AM, and then played and whispered until about 8:00. He and I talked and interacted until 8:30 when we heard from the Other Country (Elektra).

At least we got to "sleep in", if you consider a little boy in bed with you truly restful (not).

Last night, at about 3AM, DJ woke up crying. This time, he was waiting at his door for me, and of course, asked for Daddy. When I told him Daddy was sleeping, he wailed even louder. But finally I got him calmed down, and he did go back to sleep. An hour and a half later, he was out his door, and down to our room in the blink of an eye, pillow and Tiger in hand.

It took him awhile to get settled this time, so he probably only slept another true hour. And like Saturday morning, he played and whispered to himself (and read a new Bearenstein Bear book about manners) until about 8:00.

When will I get to sleep through the night again??


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No storms make for not-so strange bedfellows, too

Last night, DJ was a little more hesistant than normal to go to bed by himself.  It wasn't storming outside at all; DJ just didn't want to go to sleep by himself.  In fact, as DJ was saying good night to Steve, he asked Steve if he was going to go to his bed, too.  We thought that was an odd question, but didn't really think anything of it.

I put DJ to bed, said goodnight, and left his room.  Two minutes later, we heard his door open.  I immediately went to put him back into bed, and I saw him walking down the hall towards our room with Tiger, his blanket, and his pillow in hand.  I took him back to bed, said goodnight, and left the room again.

About 10 minutes later, we heard DJ's door open again.  I was on the phone with my sister, but I went in there anyway.  He was pretty upset, as he really wanted Daddy.  My sister could hear him, and told me to suggest that Sophia and Spiro were already in bed, too.  DJ replied (of course), "Why?"  But it did serve to calm him down a little.  At that point, Steve came in, and spent 15 minutes in his room with DJ to help him fall asleep.

We went to bed around 11pm.  At 6:15 this morning, my alarm went off.  During the snooze cycle, Steve's phone, which was in the living room, beeped with a text notification.  I heard a text come in because we now leave our bedroom door open to listen for DJ and to let him come to our room when he wakes up in the mornings.  I nudged Steve to wake up and go get the text.  As he got out of bed, he swung his legs off of the bed, and paused.  Then he stepped onto the floor carefully, looked at me, and then amusingly pointed to the floor next to the bed.

Sure enough, there was DJ, asleep on the floor, curled up next to the bed with Tiger and his pillow.

We asked him later if he jad come into our room while the sun was still asleep, and he said yes.  We have no idea when he came in because truly, neither of us heard him.  He even shut his door which prevented me from hearing the drone of his humidifier which usually wakes me up.

Steve picked him up and put him on the bed with us.  Although he fussed at first, he settled down again when Steve lay down again.  I guess we'll have a nightly visitor for whom we'll have to listen!

Thunderstorms make for not-so strange bedfellows

A sure fire way to go have a little boy materialize in your bed is to have God send thunderstorms when said little boy isn't sleeping well.

First, Steve spent over an hour in the car bed with DJ last night to try to get him to sleep.  DJ doesn't really like to go to sleep by himself to begin with but when you throw in a good old fashioned thunderstorm, or even just a lightening (no thunder) storm, DJ really wants company then.

Around 1:30AM, the storm came back, and DJ woke up crying.  Steve went to get him, and that's when DJ came in to our room with his pillow and Tiger.  We put his pillow between ours, DJ crawled into bed, let us cover him with the blankets, and he settled right down.  He only wimpered a few more times when a couple of lightening flashes came through the windows, but otherwise, he slept great.  He really didn't move much at all, so I did get some sleep with him there.  And I think he would have kept sleeping if my alarm hadn't gone off!  Boo hoo for it not being a weekend so that we all could have slept in!

Croup update

DJ slept through the night pretty well last night, only waking up once at midnight.  His cough sounds wet and rough, but he's generally in a pretty good mood.  He also didn't have a fever all day yesterday, and doesn't have one today either.  I haven't seen him sneeze today, so maybe he's starting to beat this thing.

Elektra woke up only once at 11PM last night after her initial "vomit" incident.  Otherwise, she slept well, and hung out in her crib until after 8:30 this morning.  I haven't heard her cough yet, but I could hear her breathing was a little congested when I was changing her diaper.  She has a very mild fever (99.3) as compared to yesterday's 100 fever.  I didn't give her any Tylenol, so she seems to be beating that on her own.  She's also sneezing today which is what DJ was doing yesterday. 

All in all, despite going to bed at 10PM and getting woken up at 11 and midnight, I had a pretty good night's sleep until 6AM when DJ got out of bed... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Elektra has the Croup

It's official.  Elektra now sounds like a barking seal. 

We put her to bed about an hour and a half ago, and then I heard her hacking up a lung to the point where she'd vomited (saliva, but I had to change her sheets nonetheless).

I've got the humidifier cranked in her room, and hoping she sleeps well tonight...

Man the kids have had a rough summer!  First strep, now this!

Co-Sleeping

DJ asked to go to bed before 8pm last night.  We were shocked.  So I got him ready for bed, read him a book, and wondered if he had a fever, which he did (~100).  Despite the early bedtime, he laid down in his car bed and went to sleep almost immediately, or so it seemed.

An hour later, we heard his door open.  It felt like his fever had worsened, so I gave him some Tylenol and his cup of water, and he seemed to be satiated enough to go back to sleep. 

An hour later, we heard his door open again.  This time, Steve went in and lay down with him.  20 minutes later, I heard the door open, I heard a small fuss, some rustling, and then Steve says to me, "DJ is sleeping in our bed tonight.  I'm going to bed.  Goodnight."

Oh.  Ok.

Sure enough, when I went to bed, DJ was plastered up against Steve, sound asleep.  He actually slept pretty well, only waking up 2-3 times to cough.  And similar to when dogs used to sleep in our bed with us, Steve and I both ended up on the edges of our king sized bed....

DJ slept in until 7:30 this morning, which is a whole lot better than the 6AM of late.  I think it helped that it's been overcast/raining today.  DJ even asked if the sun was awake he was so confused by the overcast.

We haven't had a kid sleep in our bed with since before Elektra was booted to her crib at 8 weeks old.  To be honest... it was kind of nice.  I'd better not get used to it.  :-)

Wrongfully Accused

Author's note: This post isn't directly about the kids, but it's about their (missing) socks.

I'm missing a sock!  Where did it go??

The answer is the same every time because I have no other reasonable explanation:  "The dryer ate it."

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to declare that we, as a society, have wrongfully accused The Dryer for losing our socks, rendering pairs as singles and therefore, worthless.  I got so frustrated with the number of unmatched socks that I even went as far as putting the kids' socks in a lingerie bag to keep the dryer from eating them.

Despite my actions, I always had my doubts The Dryer was eating socks.  So for years, I kept the single socks, figuring I'd find them sometime. 

That time was last night.

For some reason, when I put Elektra's laundry into the washer, I felt the need to clean the rubber door seal inside the washer drum (which keeps the water from coming out of the washer's door).  When I pushed down on the rubber seal, I discovered that it's not actually attached to the washer drum, just the outside of wall of the washer.  This makes sense, if you think about it, because the drum needs to spin as it washes, and so the rubber can't be attached else it would rip.  But I never thought about this before, so I never looked.  When I looked last night, oh my, was I surprised.

Lo and behold, there were 10+ kid socks between the washer drum and washer's outside wall, underneath the rubber door seal.  I found socks from when DJ was a newborn that I thought were lost.  At the time, I'd do a load of laundry, come up with an unmatched sock, and think that I was going out of my mind due to the lack of sleep. 

No... no...The Washer was eating them. 

I just stood there, stunned at my discovery.  I found myself thinking that all this time, I've been wondering why our washer smelled a little moldy, and so I'd run a light load of whites with bleach to help with the stench.  Now I know why!!!

Meanwhile, I ran the socks through the laundry with a whole lot of soap and on a high cleaning cycle.  Unfortunately, some are permanently stained, but the more recent losses (now finds!) are just fine! 

So all you dryer-haters out there, it's NOT The Dryer's fault.  The Washer is the real culprit.  I'm going to go put The Washer in Timeout for letting The Dryer take the blame all this time and not fessing up instead!

The Croup - Update

Just a quick update -

Last night, DJ slept fairly well, though he woke up twice.  Each time, it was pretty easy to get him to go back to bed, and he wasn't upset or coughing or wheezing... just awake.  The second time, I told him to go back to bed because the sun wasn't awake yet.

At 6:30 this morning, I heard his door open.  I went to go get him, and he says to me, "Mommy, I can come out now.  The sun is awake."

Why yes... yes, it is.  I can't argue with that!

Steve says that Elektra now has a high 99 fever as of just before naptime, so we'll see if she comes down with it, too.

The Croup

It plagues our son.

Awesome.

He sounds like a goose when he coughs.

We had heard a cough coming late Monday night, and Steve heard it getting worse on Tuesday.  By Tuesday night, DJ was working really hard to cough.

He went to bed normal time and slept about 2 hours.  Then he woke up, coughed, scared himself, cried (which made it worse), scared himself, cried some more (scared himself some more...) and woke up Elektra.

Awesome.

We'd calm DJ down, then calm Elektra down, then one would start wailing.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Awesome.

This went on for a few hours last night.  Eventually, we had to ignore Elektra because she would cry to get us to come into her room.  Once we ignored her, she went to sleep on her own.  DJ truly settled down around 2 AM and got in about 4 hours of sleep which, clearly, is all we got, too.

Steve took DJ to the pediatrician today while Yiayia stayed with a sleeping Elektra (thanks for the last minute pinch-babysitting, Yiayia!), who took a 3.5 hour nap!  Making up for last night, I guess.  The pediatrician gave DJ an oral steroid (only one dose is administered), I think his cough has already calmed down.

In fact, we know the steroid has kicked in because he ate 3 whole stalks of broccoli, at least half of Steve's large cherry snowball and then he came home and asked for pancakes... of which he ate 7!!  He pounded them down.

Hopefully, the steroid doesn't keep him up most of the night, though, because he didn't sleep well last night, at all, and he only got an hour and a half nap today before he had to go to the pediatrician.

Everyone, except for Elektra, is going to bed early tonight!!!!!

A couple of Elektra pictures

Upside down!

Elektra put Mommy's hat on backwards!

Elektra's growth spurt

Elektra must be going through a growth spurt.  Sure, she's feeling tons better from the strep throat she had last week, but I don't think that is what's going on here (I could be wrong, of course).

In the last week, she's eaten like a horse and in the process, she has been putting down the protein like it's going out of style.  For example, she had 1 and a half eggs - with melted cheese - for breakfast this morning.  She's asked for yogurt every meal and snack and when we haven't had yogurt, she's eaten cottage cheese.  And after eating a bowl of that, she's then had steak/chicken/some other protein on top of that! 

In addition, she's been taking monster long naps.  Each day this week, she's had at least a 3 hour nap, if not longer.  Today, she had a 4 hour nap by the time I woke her up (she was dead asleep!), and she's still clearly tired!  On Thursday, she had a 3 and a half hour nap, and then asked to go to bed 2 hours later.

Finally, she's been communicating even more than she already does.  She very clearly said to me one day this week, "Where did DJ go?" I was shocked, and then she said it again.  This morning, she said, "There's the sun," pointing at the sunbeam in our backyard that she could see while eating breakfast. 

I claim Growth Spurt!

Potty Milestone!

I know, this subject is not very... appetizing, but it's important to those parents/care givers changing diapers day in and day out.

Just before bedtime, Steve and I noticed that DJ was squirming uncomfortably and was going to go hide.  I asked him if he needed to go poopy, to which he said no, of course.  Steve and I insisted, and off I took him to the bathroom.

As I took his diaper and shorts off, he asked to see the poopy in the diaper, something he's been asking the last few times I've changed his poopy diaper.  Since he hadn't gone into his diaper yet, he had nothing to see and showed him the empty diaper.

I sat him on the potty and talk about squirm squirm squirm squirm squirm.  He just couldn't sit still while sitting on the potty.  Fuss squirm fuss fuss squirm somem ore.  Then he'd ask for Daddy.  More fuss and squirm and fuss fuss fuss.  Daddy brought him his iPad, and DJ watched a few videos and otherwise played around on it.  Although I was thinking maybe it should be a reward, I was shown that it got him to stop squirming so I didn't argue.  He wasn't thinking about what he was doing... bonus.

Next thing I hear, "I did it!  I did it, Mommy!" 

By golly, he did do it!  Then we had to try wiping.  I was so surprised about his actually going, I hadn't really thought through how I'd get him to help me wipe him.  Nonetheless, he got to flush and be very proud of himself.  He got 4 star stickers just for that.

Do I expect this to continue?  No time soon, but it's a start in the right direction!!

Eat Mor Chikin

I took the kids to Chick Fil-A on Thursday, and they were walking around with cow hats to put together in an effort to promote Cow Appreciation Day... a day to come to Chick Fil-A dressed like a cow and get some part (or all - depending on how your elaborateness of your cow costume) of your meal for free.

Since the hats were free, I couldn't pass up the opportunity, of course.  Steve spent 20 minutes putting one together, and here are the results:

MOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Elektra's latest words

twee (tree)
gurt or gogurt (yogurt)
rice
hole
foot
Yiayia (Yay for Yiayia!!) - she said this at the doctor's office last week
nana (banana)
ah-wer (flower)

She also knows some of her Thomas The Tank Engine (boy does she love her Thomas...) characters:
Thomas (she's known this for awhile)
Bert (Bertie the Bus)
Peecy (Percy)
Sheep (James --- why sheep, no idea, but I cannot get her to say "james")
Hat or Top (Sir Toppam Hat)
Ah-ry (Henry)

Rebellion

When DJ took a toy away from Elektra (a toy car), she belted out "CAR!!!  CAR!!!!!!"  She progressively got louder and louder in protest of DJ having both cars.  Finally he gave it back to her, and she went back to playing nicely by herself (but next to DJ). 

Although it's not Spiro's "war cry" when Sophia took toys away from him, it's the same vein!  Someone is learning how to protest verbally!!

DJ's first Orioles game

Our friend Jill invited us to join her at last night's Orioles game, and she had enough tickets to take both of us and DJ.  So Elektra stayed with Papou while we took DJ to the game.

The seats were fantastic - 6 rows up from the field, first base side.  But they were in the full sun, and so it was HOT.  Plus, the air wasn't moving at all, and that's when we realized that we couldn't go out to the car to get our sunscreen.

The first thing take Steve did was to take DJ to get a new hat "like Daddy's" and a foam finger.  Steve says DJ picked up the foam finger and said he wanted it.  What Daddy can resist that request at his son's first ballgame??

Then we bought a couple bottles of water.  DJ happily snitched from both of our bottles.

We also got him (and Elektra!) a commemorative cup.  He drank out of and played with that for a good few innings in between walks up to the concession stands.

He ate fries with us, and he had a cup of vanilla Carvel soft serve.  He inhaled that.  I'd forgotten how good that stuff is, and wished the bricks and mortar stores were still around.

We stayed until the end of the 6th inning.  We were surprised he lasted that long; it's not like he was watching the game.    To our immense surprise, there were a lot of kids there his age and younger, so we were definitely in good company as parents concerned with overheating (and b-o-r-e-d) kids.

At one point, we were walking to the concession stands and one of the ushers asked us if we had sunblock for DJ.  When I said no (experience is what you get right after you need it), she sent us to the First Aid room.  When we walked in, the place was mobbed.  I'm thinking... it's only the 2nd inning!!  What were you people doing??  Anyway, we got him some sunscreen for his face, so he didn't fry.

Here are some more pictures from the day.

Mommy and DJ

Walking to the car from the O's game with Jill.

In the car on the way home from the O's game.

The best part, the Orioles beat the Nats!!

The Swimming Pool

Steve was at Target last week and saw a "baby pool" for $30.  It now lives on our deck.

We filled it last week, and it also instantly filled with bugs.  Disgusting.  So we emptied it, cleaned it, refilled it, and put a mosquito net over it.  That also allowed the water to warm during this week's heat wave. 

Yesterday morning, the kids got to take a dip in just their swim diapers.  I attached the hose to get the "waterfall" part to work, and the kids had a blast!!  DJ splashed and kicked in the pool, and Elektra tried to imitate him as best she could.   The only issue is that the waterfall introduces cold water directly from the well, so after about half an hour, I had 2 blue kids.

I also pulled out their new watering cans, which they both loved. 

Cross-eyed?

The Pool

The Waterfall

Snowballs

Tonight, the kids ate fantastic dinners. Both ate grilled chicken strips, DJ pounded down coocumber (cucumber) and brah-key (broccoli) while Elektra ate lots of broccoli.

As a treat, we took them to the local snowball stand called Queen of Ice (owned by Palmisanos) where a couple of our autocross friends work.

Having already tried Skylight (a standard child favorite - and not just my children!), I gave DJ a choice between raspberry, strawberry, and watermelon. He asked for raspberry, which is also one of Daddy's favorites. So it worked out that both parents got raspberry, and both children pounded it! Elektra kept saying "Have some?" and DJ would ask politely (when prompted), "May I have some more snowball?"

The first time we took them to the snowball stand, DJ took to it pretty quickly, but Elektra didn't really want it. This time, both children loved it.

Hooray for summer snowballs!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Riding Elektra's bike...together!

Imagine our surprise when we found that both kids were trying to ride Elektra's bike - and not necessarily fighting over it!

Elektra counting to 10

I've been having fun with Elektra when she's on the changing table, including counting to 10. Steve captured this on video tonight. Enjoy!

Elektra's latest phrases

* Give kiss (including having Moopy (Snoopy) and Nunny (Bunny) give each other kisses)
* Put on shoes
* Go bye byes
* More milk
* A-peas (yes, please)
* Bless you (at the appropriate time, even!)
* Have boon (spoon) or ork (fork)
* How are you?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Jumper and Posing

Elektra knows how to pose for the camera.  She was wearing a jumper that she was handed down from a friend of ours, and I wanted to get a picture to send our friend.  So I asked Elektra to smile for me, and smile she did.  Check out the poses!

Smiling for the camera!

Toe tap pose!

Front pose!

DJ's 3rd Birthday Party

Yep, I'm that behind on my blogging.

We held DJ's 3rd birthday party on March 26.  Earlier in the week, Eleanor had asked DJ color icing he wanted on his birthday cake, and DJ said, "Orange."  Seriously?!  So I kept quizzing him over the course of the week... "Do you want brown icing?"  "No."  "Do you want blue icing?"  "No."  "Do you want white icing?"  "No."  "Do you want orange icing?"  "Yes." 

Ok, orange icing it is, and it was orange icing I made.

This was cream cheese icing dyed orange with yellow and red food coloring.  This icing got put on cupcakes (I admit, I cheated... it was box cake... I was fighting strep throat, so I was running out of energy in a hurry).

After I'd made the icing, I got worried.  I didn't actually know if DJ would like the cream cheese icing because he hadn't had it recently enough.  Luckily, DJ loves to sing "Happy Birthday" and loves cupcakes, and his cupcakes had orange icing on them that the cream cheese icing was a non-issue.

DJ enjoyed his cupcake immensely and the leftovers were just the "treat" we needed to encourage him to eat ALL of his dinner the next few nights.  ::grin::

DJ received TONS of awesome gifts for his birthday, too.  Everyone was so generous, and he loves all of them!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Who needs a pillow...

... when you have a stuffed blue dog that's as big as you!! 

Thanks to Spiro and Sophia for giving Elektra this before she was even born!

This was one morning when Elektra had been sleeping for 14 hours!!  To be fair, she was fighting off a nasty cold...

Watermelon Boy

My mother-in-law brought a watermelon for all of us to share for dessert last night.  I've been unsuccessful in getting Elektra to eat it (no idea why), so Carole thought that giving her a way to hold it might give her some incentive, so she left the rind on the pieces.

Between watching DJ chewing down on it and a new toy to eat, as it were, Elektra ate her fair share, including a little rind.  Crunchy.  

But what really cracked us up was how much DJ was eating. He couldn't get enough!!!  He loved eating the watermelon with his hands, and the real evidence of this was not just in the pictures we do have, but also in the fact that we had to change his shirt....  He was soaked around his collar and then some!  

And no, he didn't eat ALL of that, but he ate at least 2/3rds....!

Strider Bike - update

DJ has been riding his orange Strider Bike around the living room since the week after Christmas.  He's loved it, and we could tell he's been itching to go faster.  When the weather finally got warm enough, we took him outside on his bike, and he faithfully wore his new helmet, too.  And not to be outdone, Elektra got to ride her tricycle, too.

We had DJ try slaloming cones (like a good little autocrosser!), too.  And for those of you paying attention, yes, it's an open slalom.

Since the weather got more predictably warm (early May), I try to take DJ out for a ride on his bike every night after dinner.  Tonight, he hit a milestone... he picked up his feet and glided, balancing on the bike for a good solid distance.  He went from the last part of our driveway across the street, and up the neighbor's driveway entrance without touching the ground once! 

WAY TO GO DJ!

Sah-chah!

Routinely, Elektra will go through roll call.  Mommy!  Daddy!  Nunny! (her bunny)  DJ!  Baby! (her Bitty Baby doll).  Now she's added herself to roll call: 

Sah-chah! 

To her, it sounds like "Elektra".  She has no idea she just nicknamed herself for life!

Elektra wearing DJ's bike helmet... backwards.

I'm back!

I apologize for the lack of blogs... life took a turn for the outrageously busy, and blogging, both for my family blog and another blog I've been authoring, suffered for it.  I also switched to Facebooking from Tweeting to handle my one-offs.  I'm also hoping that I will find a nice blogging app for my iPad (!), and maybe that will help me blog "on the run".

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.