· Piya's Perspective · 

Caitlyn is also getting big.  Almost one year old already…hard to believe.

It’s cute how she seems to idolize Simeon.  Whether or not he’s paying attention to her.  Whether or not he’s trying or has already succeeded in tackling her.  She is very interested in what he is playing with and laughs at almost everything he does and says.  In some ways this is bad - he’ll talk gibberish or be way too hyper and rough and her laughing is basically a signal to him to keep doing this.

Caitlyn has reached the stage of putting in and taking out.  She spent 10 minutes or so the other day with a bowl, a sippy cup lid and part of a playdoh piece.  I think she only stopped because I picked her up to get dressed for bed.  She also loves doing this with all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. Whereas Simeon focused on one or two cabinets (which is the point where I moved all of the bottles and kid plates and such into the interesting cabinet), Caitlyn goes for any and all of them.  We have quite a bit of babyproofing of the kitchen to finish up.  Ari picked up a couple of things yesterday to hold the two-door cabinets closed and Simeon easily pulled it off.  If it’s that easy for Simeon, it will be pretty easy for Caitlyn in a few months too.

She didn’t manage to meet my expectation of walking by end of year, but she’s starting to stand up for a couple of seconds without holding onto anything.  Walking is not very far away.  She’s already proven she can climb the steps and does quite well cruising around the furniture.  She especially likes pulling herself up on the trash and recycling cans.

The girl is a monster eater.  Although I haven’t seen her put anything in her mouth after a dumpster diving session (thank goodness), she has attempted to see if the cat food is as good as Maggie makes it seem.  Aside from not having seen her turn anything down, she seems to have acquired her brother’s love for blueberries and added on a taste for quesadillas. We ordered a kid’s quesadilla at Agua Verde the other night.  The kid’s portion was a huge half quesadilla and I think she ate 3/4 of it, along with some beans, rice, formula and a taste or two of Simeon’s soup.

We are officially in trouble.  Caitlyn’s first recorded word: bye. 

Both kids are growing so quickly…it’s hard to believe Simeon is 3 years old and how much he keeps developing.

Yesterday morning, Ari was kind enough to try to get me out of the house for a workout, but I discovered I didn’t have any workout clothes, so Ari went in my place.  Before I packed up the kids and headed out, I convinced Simeon to do something other than play on the computer.  In doing this I discovered some fun options for Simeon when we fly to Florida later this month.  He loves writing/drawing and loves numbers and letters.  So, for the trip I’m going to print out some connect-the-dot pictures and maybe even some mazes and matching games.  I don’t think he’s quite ready for color-by-number, but we could potentially try that too.

A little bit later, as I was getting ready to leave the house, I bent down to talk to Simeon and felt a pain just above my knee.  When Simeon asked what was wrong, I told him I had an ‘owie’ and he proceeded to give it a kiss.  Quite a few kisses actually.  In the evening, on the way downstairs for his bedtime show, he discovered my knee still hurt.  He made me stop so he could give it another kiss.

His next sympathetic moment was later that day.  We sat and watched Finding Nemo. When Nemo gets taken away Simeon was extremely upset.  His voice was clearly distraught and he was close to tears. He even looked a bit teary-eyed at the end when it Dori and Nemo are in trouble.

Within the last month or two, we have discovered just how important naps are for Simeon.  It wasn’t until my sister-in-law made a comment soon after moving out here that I looked up information about night terrors.  One of the triggers: Fatigue.  Sure enough, if Simeon misses his nap he wakes up crying – about 2-3 hours after going down.  I do my best to wake him up – generally getting him to go to the bathroom.  He’ll ‘wake up’ 2 or 3 times in total before sleeping the rest of the night.

I have started working on convincing Simeon not to crawl into mommy’s and daddy’s bed early in the morning. For the most part the plan has been pretty successful.  Friday morning, I asked him to go back to his room and read books.   He said ok then went back to his room and turned on the light. Then, after cleaning up the 3rd floor playroom on Friday (it’s actually a usable room now!), I moved the playmat with streets and buildings to Simeon’s room along with his cars.  Saturday morning, when Simeon showed up at my bedside, I asked him to play with his toys in his room.  Again, he said ok then went back to his room and turned on the light.  Later, I moved some additional toys into his room.  Sunday morning, he was waking me up at 6:30am then, upon request, returned to his room for an hour before coming back.  Woohoo!

Potty training has been going really well too.  He still has accidents, but the key is to make sure he stops in the bathroom at least before and after car rides.  His teacher told me this morning that he even went to the bathroom without prompting one day last week, and the few days he’s been great about telling me has to to go before pooping.  In fact, now that I think about it, he even told me he needed to go before peeing yesterday. And the big breakthrough?  He was dry when he woke up this morning!!

An extremely belated Happy Channukah (and Merry Christmas).

This year was the first year that Simeon was able to really participate and understand the holiday.  They did a few things in class, which helped too, including singing the dreidel song.  Simeon mixed up a couple of holiday songs though, and would sing “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel, I made it out of town.”  He did pretty well at pointing out the different letters on the dreidel - though he tended to spin it until he got the letter he wanted – and counting the chocolate coins.  He was always more than ready when it was time to pick out the candles for the menorah – we just had to stop him from blowing them out and making a wish the first couple nights.  He wanted to follow along in the siddur (prayer book) and/or his little Channukah book when we sang Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages).  And he was excited to open both his and his sister’s dreidel containers and count the Channukah gelt they received[1].

All-in-all, a fun holiday.  I look forward to next year when Caitlyn can start to participate. 

[1] Ari and I seem to be adopting the tradition I grew up with.  Unlike many families who open presents every night, we did presents on the first night and that’s it.  Instead, my dad would give us a silver dollar and a 2 dollar bill on the first night and silver coins (50cent pieces and/or quarters) the rest of the holiday.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the 2 dollar bill or dollar coins this year, but I made sure to give the kids quarters each night and Simeon enjoyed opening the containers and counting the coins.

Seems Caitlyn can escape from more than just a room.  Recently, I put Caitlyn in the baby papasan so she could drink her milk reclining and I could get some other stuff down around the house.  In my attempt too keep her safe, I buckled her in.  Next thing I know, Ari is attending to her.  She was literally crawling out of the chair.  Only one leg still restrained by the belt.  *sigh*

She’s also perfecting her exit – crawl away quickly, stop and turn head when name is called, display huge smile, wave and say ‘bye’, turn back around and continue to crawl away quickly.

Seems Channukah likes to attract ugly weather.  This year, along with the huge windstorm, we got dumped on.  At this point, I can’t even remember when it started, but over the span of a week or so we were practically snowed in and forced to venture out on sled.

Unfortunately, Caitlyn didn’t have much opportunity to experience her first snowy winter because of a nasty cold.  We did, however, do our best to let Simeon have some fun.  Granted, he was more interested in playing baseball (even in the snow) than building a snow man, but we did go for a few sled rides.  Couldn’t even convince him to swing at a snowball.  I did manage to get him to sit down in the snow for a bit with his shovel and pail (note to self – need to get a good kid’s snow shovel…). Hopefully the next snowfall will allow both kids some good wet playtime.

Along with sledding, Ari and I introduced Simeon to ice skating.  We met up with D & J in Bellevue at a little ice rink.  Ari and his brother took Caitlyn across the street to the mall[1] and Simeon and I went ice skating with D & J.  J was not having much fun, spending more time on the ice than on his feet – so one time around was more than enough for him.  I may have been able to get Simeon to go around again, but I messed up.  I forgot to get Simeon into the bathroom before putting on skates and by the time we made it around he was soaked.  So the boys had a snack and played at the nearby playground while D and I talked.

I think I’m going to try and get Simeon to another ice skating rink this next weekend and actually get more than just a picture of a boy sitting on a bench with wet pants and ice skates. 

[1] How sweet is my husband?  He surprised me last night with some gifts from Lush – including a nice massage heart.

Simeon was dry all day yesterday!  Seems his teacher freaked out a bit when she realized that she’d forgotten to put a pull-up on over his underwear for nap, but he woke up dry.  He finally leaked after we got home, but still…woo hoo.  We’re making progress!

I think we’re going to have all kinds of fun as Caitlyn gets older. 

Apparently, before I came to pick up the kids from daycare last night, Caitlyn took the opportunity to dart out the open door when the teacher poked her head out to ask a question.  When the teacher called to Caitlyn to come back, Caitlyn paused, turned her head, smiled, then promptly took off further.

I keep feeling that Caitlyn isn’t getting equal air time on the blog.  Simeon is going through uncharted toddler territory.  He is starting say things that must be immortalized and laughed at in the future. Meanwhile Caitlyn is going through all the stuff Simeon went through 2 years ago. 

Thing is, it’s just as interesting and fun to watch as it was the first time around.  The look of recognition when she sees Ari, Simeon or me.  The cries when a ‘toy’ is taken away.  The infectious laughter when somebody (generally Simeon) does something silly.  It all brings a welcome feeling of warmth.

In fact, the added complexity of sibling relationship gives it a new perspective.  I’m quite glad the two are so close in age.  Caitlyn seems to look up to her big brother.  She understands that whatever he’s playing with is the toy to have.  She tries to get his attention when he’s at the computer.  She laughs at Simeon’s silliness and actually seems to enjoy (at first) when Simeon tries to play with her.

It’s been fun watching for differences between the kids’ preferences and personalities.  Caitlyn is much more interested in using taste as a means to inspect something.  Whereas rug fringe would call out to Simeon, Caitlyn is drawn to the dishwasher.  While Simeon looks for drum sticks, Caitlyn prefers the microphone.

Then there’s her relationship to Ari and me.  I’m the one she goes to when she’s hungry (which for the bottomless pit happens quite often).  Ari is the one that can get her to bed with the least fussing. 

I may not post as much about Caitlyn (which I will try to fix going forward), but watching her develop is no less interesting and fulfilling.

We took the plunge on Monday.

Simeon is now only wearing pull-ups for sleeping and underwear otherwise[1]

Monday, I came home with a huge amount of laundry to do.  He managed to get his clothes wet even wearing the pull-up…twice.

Tuesday wasn’t too much better, but I wound up not washing anything.  Got home, climbed out of the car and discovered I didn’t have the bag with me.  That colored my mood for the rest of the evening, unfortunately – sorry, Ari :(.  I then took Simeon with me to Fred Meyer to pick out more underwear since most of them were at school…we came home with Diego Baseball underwear – two of his favorite things.

Although Tuesday night’s bad luck continued for me[see previous post], It seemed to be a better day for Simeon.  Only went through two pairs of pants and stayed dry all evening.  Woo hoo!

A quick talk with his teachers last night and this morning clued me in to a potential trigger.  It seems that even successfully peeing before sitting down to breakfast and lunch, he wets himself at the table.  Strange this doesn’t happen for dinner and I have no idea how to change this other than potentially time.

The quick teacher talks also included a suggestion for getting Simeon to listen.  In order to get him to listen and obey, I have learned to get down to his level, make him look me in the eye, tell him what we’re going to do and make him repeat it back to me.  Hopefully, this will help them too. 

[1] One exception is afternoon playground time.  They appear to be putting a pull-up on then too.  They have been putting on the pull-up and then underwear on top.  I have requested they reverse that.  A) because the pressure from the underwear may be causing some of the leaking through pull-ups and B) I want Simeon to feel the ickiness of wet underwear.

First, I woke up late.  Then traffic caused it to take twice as long to get to work. The extra 30-40min was too much for Simeon and he was soaked when we got there[1]  – I had to change him. Discovered Caitlyn didn’t have shoes and that she was wet – had to change her. Then there was work. Not only pressure to get fixes for a site launched to production (that’s definitely not ready), but I keep sending the same bugs back to be fixed and continue to fend off new items getting added to the sprint. And to make it all the better, it’s my boss / scrum master that’s putting the pressure on me[2]. And there’s renewed and more aggressive pressure to start working on automation at the same time.  Then, somebody managed to hit one of main pet peeves[3]. And, to top it off, Ari and I have a minor dinner miscommunication – not horrible but it didn’t help my mood. Aaaaaahhhhh![4]

[1] Though maybe this was a good thing.  He really didn’t like the feeling.  At least I noticed this time and was able to empathize with him.  Last week he leaked and I didn’t realize it.  He had a melt down all the way into the classroom.  This time he knew I understood the problem and didn’t fight me at all – just walked – er waddled – uncomfortably.

[2]Hint to boss: why don’t you work on getting the devs to better check their work before telling me it’s fixed and ready to retest. 

[3] Do NOT try to explain something to me by taking control of the mouse – especially without asking first. I will not learn how to do it myself if you simply do it for me. 

[4] Whew…that feels better.

I will do my best to post about the long Thanksgiving weekend.  However, since I don’t have time to write all of that right now, I’ll stick with the short don’t-want-to-forget-this post.

Last night, I made sure to do webcam with as many grandparents as I could.  While on with my parents, Caitlyn was in the exersaucer playing with her plush ball while Simeon was dancing to music. 

When Caitlyn dropped the ball, I asked Simeon to pick it up and give it back to her.  He immediately found the ball, set it in front of her and continued dancing.  This happened a few times.  In fact, he even started returning it to her without me asking.  Finally, he picked it up and just before setting it down in front of her, he paused, set it on the exersaucer behind her and faced her her with a *there – I don’t want to have to do this again* look.  Then immediately went back to his dancing.

She continued watching smiling and laughing as he danced and the ball remained on the exersaucer within her reach.

It’s always feels good when you’re given reason to brag.

It’s been a couple weeks since Simeon transitioned[1] to the green room.  The first official day that he was with the green room he managed to show off his math skills.

Every week, the kids work on a Weekly Reader sheet.  On the back is an exercise for numbers or letters. This particular week, it was counting feathers on turkeys and circling the correct answer.  His teacher made a point to tell me she was surprised at just how well he did and that he was on level with the older kids.  Yay!!

While in the red room, his teacher pointed out his tendency to go too quickly when counting. He gets so excited, he counts much higher than the actual number of objects; so we’ve been working on slowing down.  He’s doing so much better at this – as evidenced by his success on his first weekly reader in the new class.  He’s also pretty good at counting to 30.  He skips 13 and 15, and needs a hint for 20 to 21, but he otherwise can successfully count to twenty-ten.

Now, if I can only slow him down when he’s talking, maybe we’ll start to understand him better.

[1] Transitioned… The transition is usually a week long, increasing the amount of time by an hour or two a day.  K and Simeon were so excited to be moving up - their transition was a day.  They spent 4 hours in their new class the first Monday; and, by Wednesday I wasn’t even really seeing the red room teachers anymore except in passing.

It seems Simeon’s friends are already noticing his little sister.

First was his friend J who was putting on his shoes while I was putting away Caitlyn’s bottles.  Although I can’t remember exactly what his comment was, I distinctly remember him asking ‘why is she a girl?’ Stifling a laugh, I said “I didn’t really have a choice, that’s the way she came.” And he simply replied, “oh.”  His mom was also amused and noted that he does only have brothers.

Then, it was Simeon’s friend L.  As Simeon and I were getting ready to leave, L let me know that he liked Caitlyn’s hair.  Running into his mom a week ago yesterday, I do remember her telling me that L was talking about Caitlyn’s hair over the weekend.

The development continues.

Waving:  While gathering Caitlyn’s bottles before getting the kids last week, I ran into J&T’s mom (J is in Simeon’s class, T will soon be in Caitlyn’s).  When I ran into her a bit later near Simeon’s room, I was told that Caitlyn waved to her.  Within the last few days, I actually saw this feat.  While on hands and knees, if you wave to her, she will smile and then (sometimes) raise her hand up as if she’s waving back.

Clapping:  Very cute!

On two feet:  More and more often she’s pulling herself up on anything and everything she can.  Still on track to meet my expectation of walking by end of year.

Teeth:  Felt something sharp this past weekend.  Can’t see anything yet (especially when she’s just as good as Simeon was at not letting you get a good look) but I can definitely feel a tooth or two coming in.

Haircut: Got her first haircut about a week ago – did pretty good.  From shaggy to china doll. I think she was extremely happy to be able to see again.

And yes, I did save some of the hair.

Daycare stuff:  She’s getting more comfortable.  A little less separation anxiety when I drop her off.  The daily sheet I get when I pick her up shows she likes eating – as apparently evidenced by Ari, Ian and  Rebecca this weekend when she probably ate a toddler size portion of rice and beans.  I’m sure being around at least one walker at the daycare is encouraging her to work on that.  And…just as her brother, she loves to smile.  I get comments on that (and her hair) just about every day.