Posted by: ppernick | January 28, 2009

A ‘blocking’ issue

Getting a call from the daycare generally means one of two things: a quick followup to a morning discussion or come pick up your kid.  Not having had any questions the morning of Jan 8, I was a bit nervous when I saw the daycare number show up on my cell phone after setting up my laptop.  Unfortunately, it was the latter. More specifically “Your son was hit in the head with a block.  As a parent I would take my child to the doctor for potential stitches so could you come and take a look.”

I immediately pack back up my laptop and find my boss to give him a scrum update. For those unfamiliar with scrum, it’s a very quick daily update meeting.  Each person with an update has three questions to answer: what did you do last 24 hours?  What will you do the next 24 hours? Any blocking issues?  The entire meeting shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. 

I gave my boss my last 24 and next 24 and ran off.  Seems my co-worker finished my update for me at the meeting.  Any blocking issues? Yes, a block.

As for the rest of the head injury story, Simeon was just fine.  He did wind up with a staple in his head for a few days, but he’s a tough little boy.  He was done crying by the time we got to the car and only cried again when they cleaned up the wound and stapled it.  They quickly handed him a popsicle and I gave him some orange juice and that was it.  Considering we were long past lunch and naptime and he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, it’s no wonder he was starting to melt down.  I took him back to daycare for food and a nap and figured I’d see how he was when he woke up.  Even without any pain meds he woke up from nap a happy boy.  The only reason he’d wanted to go home rather than back to daycare was because I made the mistake of offering computer time.

Heck…the boy did better than I did.  I had to sit down twice to stop the lightheadedness and prevent getting sick.  At least I didn’t cry.

Getting the staple out was even easier.  I was quite nervous, but in the end it was nothing.  The doctor (or nurse) and I distracted him by talking about the sesame street characters on his shirt and he barely even noticed anything had happened.

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Posted in Daycare, Hospital, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | January 25, 2009

The family vacation

Trip highlights to write about later:

Realizing 9pm the night before our flight we don’t have Caitlyn’s birth certificate and still had almost all of our packing to do.

By the end of a day of flying: we’ve left behind multiple items for the kids either at home, in the car or on a plane, including Caitlyn’s diapers and formula and Simeon’s coat; worried we’d miss a connecting flight at the opposite end of the Atlanta airport and had to take 2 taxis to our hotel after learning the hotel shuttle had stopped for the night.

Simeon danced non-stop for 3 hours at the family reunion dinner and wound up eating somebody else’s leftovers only after the dj shut down for the night.

While waiting to get on the cruise ship, Simeon became a ‘man’ and peed in a bush.

Caitlyn started whole milk after we purchased a full can of formula and spent the cruise working on a new tooth.

After multiple notices that kids must be 100% potty trained to be in Aquanauts, we enrolled Simeon anyway.  By the end of the cruise we had 2 new pairs of shorts and a shipwide famous pirate.

It was absolutely adorable to watch Simeon play with a couple of local children at Altun Ha – running around, going up and down the little hill and holding hands.

I managed to complete the trio of items on the cruise ship bracelet: boogie board on the flowrider, rock climb and take Simeon ice skating.

Succeeded in my must-dos:  see some mayan history (Altun Ha) and take Simeon to the beach (the tide pools at Costa Maya were perfect).

Celebrated my brother’s birthday and Caitlyn’s birthday.  Although a little early, Caitlyn enjoyed a chocolate brownie covered in whipped cream.  She rightly covered herself in it and was nice enough to share with the waitress too.

Simeon not only watched a couple of the live cruise ship shows, but he did wonderfully – staying quiet, paying attention and clapping at the right times.

Simeon also got a much needed haircut on the ship – there was more hair on the floor than left on his head.  He shocked all of us when he chose an apple over ice cream for his sit still bribe.

After a visit with multiple grandparents, the kids received plenty of gifts.  We wound up purchasing an additional piece of luggage and shipping home 50lbs of bath products.

Although it’s not quite over, we’re over halfway through our 6 hour wait at the airport and hopefully we won’t have another exciting flight experience going home.

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Posted in Cruise, Family, Vacation

Posted by: ppernick | January 5, 2009

Caitlyn’s Corner

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. 

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Posted in Caitlyn, Development

Posted by: ppernick | January 5, 2009

Simeon Stuff

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!!

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Posted in Development, Simeon, Sleep

Posted by: ppernick | December 30, 2008

Channukah 2008

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.

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Posted in Celebration, Channukah, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | December 30, 2008

And for my next trick…

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.

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Posted in Caitlyn, Development

Posted by: ppernick | December 30, 2008

Winter Sports

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.

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Posted in Ari, Simeon, Sports, Winter Storm

Posted by: ppernick | December 16, 2008

Progress

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!

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Posted in Development, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | December 16, 2008

Escape Artist

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.

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Posted in Caitlyn, Daycare

Posted by: ppernick | December 13, 2008

Little sister

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.

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Posted in Caitlyn, Development, Siblings

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