Lenore at 23 Months

23 Months Old

aka Here Come the Twos
aka Just realized this is the third time she's worn this sleeper for a monthly picture. 

And then sound asleep for 3 hours. Yay, Lenore. :)

She was mad about something pretty much from the time we walked in the door from school, all through lunch, and now (trying to) nap. It has been one of those days. She still has a runny nose, so that could be part of it. Hopefully she feels better after she sleeps (and stops crying!). Mama's patience tank is running low.

What she's doing this month:

• Whatever Bubba (Lewis) is having to eat, she must have the same. She is copying most everything he does, especially when it comes to food.
• She's been sick the past few weeks. It was a runny nose, then a few days of fever, then more runny nose. The doctor thought it's probably a sinus infection, so she is finishing up antibiotics now (and still has a runny nose). 'Tis the season, I know. Kevin and Lewis and I all woke up sneezing the past few days with the changing of the seasons.
• Naps have not been as good the past few weeks. What once were solid 3 hour afternoon naps have now sometimes become 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps. Sometimes she wakes up around 3pm and goes back down until 4pm, but more often, it seems, she's up at 3 and stays up (and isn't happy about it, understandably). Hopefully she gets back into a better routine soon.
• Something else that she does (she literally just did as I was typing up this post yesterday), is open the freezer drawer, get out what she wants (i.e. an ice cream sandwich), and unwraps it and starts to eat it all on her own. I need to get a lock on that drawer.
• Still wearing 2T and 3T clothes. I did jump up to size 5 diapers, finally. The 4s still fit, but were starting to get a little snug.
• Current Tooth Count: still 20

Ch-Ch-Changes and General Updates

I have a job. I wasn't looking for one, but I had entertained the idea of having one for the past 6-9 months. When I was approached about one at the kids' preschool, I decided to say yes. It's very part-time (11-12 hours/week), but it's still a shift in our schedule, nonetheless. I am an assistant teacher in the 3-year-old's room. Lenore hangs out with me the first 15 minutes, then she goes to her class for 3 hours while I work. She helps me in my room for the last 15-30 minutes, and we head home for lunch, nap, and pick Lewis up at the bus stop. It really couldn't be more ideal. I'm still getting used to the new schedule myself and to teaching/loving/parenting these extra 15 kids three days a week, but I think it will work out well.

Lewis is in Kindergarten and loves it. His bus picks up at 8:24am (ish), and returns at 4:10pm (ish), so we spend quite a lot of time apart Monday-Friday. He still comes home from school SO very tired and SO very hungry. I'm not sure what he is eating while he's at school, but I've heard it can take 6-8 weeks for them to adjust to such a long day. I usually give him 30-45 minutes to chill when we get home from the bus stop, and then he does his homework while I'm making dinner. He has homework Monday-Thursday and gets Fridays/weekends off. He is getting really good marks for behavior every day, and he seems to love and respect his teachers and their rules.

I had hired house cleaners in the spring to help me, and I just let them go at the end of the summer because I thought I could definitely get a grip on things once school started for Lewis. I was supposed to have Wednesday-Friday mornings 'off' or 'free from children' to make doctor's appointments or clean the house. Then I got offered the job, and there goes my grand plans. The dog hair is everywhere, and I constantly feel like I can't get anything completed from start-to-finish. I'm always interrupted, and that just messes with me/my sense of accomplishment. Let me tell you, nothing feels as amazing as coming home to a totally clean house*. (*Which was accomplished with no children present, no mess-makers underfoot, no frustrations on my behalf.) I think I just talked myself into it, so I'm probably going to have to call and hire them back.

Lewis is in swim lessons again. He's taken the Beginner and Intermediate(preschool) levels, which were a tad disappointing. I don't mean to be critical, but I felt like they were too easy on him and didn't make him learn how to struggle through and learn how to *really* swim. Now he's in the Advanced (preschool) class, and it is a bit above his current level, but I think they're going to let him stay in. Just in the span of one class, he was able to swim with his face in the water, take breaths to the side, use a forward stroke, swim on his back, and try to do backstroke. Granted, his instructor was supporting him through most of those things, but he was actually having to work hard and seemed to be clicking more than the other classes did the entire time. 

Lewis is in soccer through the Y for the first time. He'd done a program through his preschool the past two years, but that was more skill-building than actual team play. He's only had one game so far and seemed to be running the wrong way for most of the first half. Kevin told him which goal he should be heading towards, and he got the hang of it more in the second half. :) He's having a lot of fun with it.

Lenore is the same. Bossy and hilarious. She HAS started hitting me in the face, which is not cute. I'm wondering if she picked it up at school and/or is doing it at school. I need to ask her teachers.

Kevin broke his big toe last Friday. He'd volunteered to be in the dunk tank for a work function, and it happened sometime in the course of those 30 minutes. He thinks it might have been from slipping on the ladder to get back on the seat, but he isn't sure. He, of course, proceeded to split firewood with my dad all the next morning before going to Urgent Care for an x-ray. He has to wear a special shoe for a few weeks and will hopefully be fine after that.

The owls are back in our woods. I can't wait to have consistently cool overnights (next week!) so I can sleep with the windows open again. I love our house and neighborhood so much, especially when it's cool enough to leave the windows up. The bugs are deafening, too--I love it.

Ta-ta for now.

Lewis the Truest, Vol. XXV

Back with another Lewis the Truest, the 25th installment (wow!):

After bedtime one night, I heard him yelling out for Kevin, then me, then crying, which is unusual:

Lewis: I'm scared. I had a little bit of a bad dream. Who is Bigfoot?
Me: Where did you hear about Bigfoot?
Lewis: On my Kindle.
Me: He is a made-up creature. He is not real. Try to dream about something real and happy.
Lewis: I'll have beautiful dreams.
Me: Ok, have beautiful dreams, buddy. Good night.
Lewis: I'll just dream about riding on trains.

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Randomly, while looking out the window/riding in the car one day:

Lewis: My favorite things are long trains, long fire trucks, and Southwest airplanes. Because they have two of my favorite colors.

It just cracks me up, the things he has on his mind. And it warms my heart, the simplicity of it all.

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Sitting at dinner, talking about our different hair textures. How Lenore and I and even Kevin have wavy/curly hair, but how Lewis's is straight and thick as molasses:

Kevin: Our hair is kind of the same.
Lewis: Yea, except mine doesn't have that thing.
Kevin: What thing?
Lewis: That triangle thing.

LOL. He was referencing Kevin's receding hairline. :)

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Driving back from a mom-and-Lewis outing, he said he wanted to tell some jokes. The subject matter is a perfect snapshot of our lives right now:

Lewis: What happens if a train poops on the tracks?
Me: What happens?
Lewis: Another train runs over it and falls over it. HA HA!

Lewis: What happens if an earthquake poops on McDonald's?
Me: What happens?
Lewis: McDonald's explodes.

Lewis: What happens if a plane poops on a car while a car is driving down the road?
Me: What happens?
Lewis: It tips over!

Vehicles, natural disasters, and poop, that's what he's about. Vehicles and poop are kind of expected--natural disasters come from discussing safety drills at school the past few weeks.

Lenore at 22 Months

22 Months Old

What she's up to this month:

• She's in school and loving it. She's made a few friends in class and knows her way around the playground, according to her teachers (read: she's wild). She does get a little sad when I leave her in the morning, but I know it will get better/easier. She will see me in the hallways during the morning and say 'Mama!' but not run to me, which I think is pretty good for a not-quite-two-year-old. Her teachers keep saying she cracks them up, which I take as a good thing.
• She thinks her name is Sissy.
• She's very big about knowing where everyone is and what they are doing. As we are driving to school, she will ask where Dada is, where Bubba is, etc. She's always checking in on her little family flock. Even when we are just sitting at the dining table, she will go around and say all of our names.
• She's also started saying 'my' cup or 'my' whatever. And she'll say Dada's cup, Bubba's cup, Mama's cup, etc.
• She loves/is obsessed with Dinosaur Train. I turned the TV on PBS one day when it was on, and she's been hooked ever since. 'MY DINOSAUR!!!' is her request.
• She has started walking up and down the stairs with more confidence the past few days. Walking upright on her feet instead of scooting down on her bottom. She will still scoot if there's no handrail or wall to hold onto for support.
• She is still napping well, but we have had some time crunches with school starting. On days when she goes to school and I go to work (W/Th/F), we get home around 12:30 (or a little past). I try to feed her lunch and get her down by 1, but she doesn't always fall asleep right away. Most days, she is still sleeping at 4 when I need to grab her to get Lewis from the bus stop. I hate waking her up, but I can't leave her (though the thought has crossed my mind!). 
• She's still showing interest in going potty but hasn't gone yet.
• She continues to express what she wants, either verbally or physically. She will grab your arm or pant leg and pull you to where she wants you to go if you don't listen to her the first time. :) 
• As I think about it, she's really a lot more verbal this month, and we are communicating both ways, which is always helpful. I get what she is saying, and she (mostly) listens to what I am saying.
• She is wearing 2T and a few 3T clothes.
• Current tooth count: still 20.

Lenore at 21 Months

21 Months Old (in my outfit from 1983)

RIP Old Dog. You're officially MIA. I contacted the owner of the condo we stayed in on vacation, and he contacted the other people who had stayed there since us, the property manager, and the cleaning staff. The dog is gone. :(

What she's doing this month:

• She likes to sit at the computer and 'take notes,' I will call it. She takes a piece of paper and un-caps a highlighter, then makes dots all over the page. And sometimes on her outfit, too. Pen on her arms. I thought highlighter would wash out easily--turns out I was wrong.
• Mealtimes are a mess. She likes to move things from container to container. Or the other day at lunch, it was from the table to the floor. Bread, cheese, turkey, methodically dropped on the floor, piece by piece.
• She has a particular way of eating sandwiches...traditional ones and sandwiched cookies and sandwiched crackers. She opens them and licks the contents (making a huge mess). I keep showing her to take bites, but it's not her natural instinct.
• She does not like being told No. I could see it going one of two ways...either she'll be tough and won't take No for an answer, or she'll be a brat. I really hope she isn't a brat. Can I say that? I just did. I can just see it going that way, and I hope it's just a phase.
• She is in an I-can-do-it phase. For instance, she can climb up on the dog bowls, reach the banana tree, pull off a banana, and open it. She will do that a few times a day, but she only ever eats about half of one banana--the rest she tries to give to me (and I can only stand so much banana/day). She just does it because she can, not out of hunger. At least bananas are cheap.
• Kind of along those lines, I noticed that she has started relying on Kevin and I to carry her down the stairs. Once I realized I was doing it, I stopped, and we've had some battles. She has stood at the top of the stairs screeeeaming for many minutes. Eventually she will come down, either enticed by going outside or to the basement or to eat or drink something.
• She continues to be fearless. She will run up to me full-speed and expect to be swooped up in the air (which I do). She will confidently step off of things (stairs, tables, fireplace, etc.) into my arms, fully expecting that I will be there to catch her. I guess I have been there, up until now, but she could really take a fall if I'm not there or not paying attention. Definitely keeps me on my toes. I am still planning to get her into some sort of tumbling class this fall because I think she'd really enjoy it.
• Speaking of fall, she is starting school in a few weeks! We decided to go ahead and put her in the Twos class, even though she misses the cutoff by 29 days (cutoff is October 1, birthday is October 29). The director said that most of the other Ones are quite a lot younger than her, so we are skipping Ones. She will do Twos (starting when she's almost 2), Threes, Fours, Pre-K, then start Kindergarten (in public school) when she's almost 6. We were also going to just do two mornings a week, but we've decided to do three instead. She does so well there, and we love it, and I know she loves being with the other kids.
• She continues to show some interest in the potty, but she hasn't gone yet. She has asked to sit on it a few times and mimics Lewis's standing-to-pee posture sometimes.
• She loves SHOES! She tries to put her own shoes on and loves to try on other people's shoes, too. She also loves bracelets, purses, sunglasses, etc. and has started playing dress-up a little.
• She has been showing some interest in dressing herself. We went shopping the other day, and she got some PJs and a swimsuit. Immediately, she had a leg through the PJ bottoms and her head through the swimsuit top. A budding fashionista, for sure!
• Along with that, her love for Minnie and Mickey continues to blossom. She picks them out of a crowd and just stares lovingly. It was a set of Minnie PJs and a Minnie swimsuit that I bought for her because she was SO excited and she caught me in a moment of weakness. ;)
• We've been seeing a LOT of Monkey See, Monkey Do this month between Lewis and Lenore. The good, bad, and ugly.
• Current Tooth Count: still 20, but I can feel her two year molars way way in the back! They're on the move.
• She's currently wearing 2T and even a few 3T items.

Lenore at 20 Months

20 Months Old

So many funny/notable things about this picture, which are totally indicative of how life is going these days:

a) WE LOST THE DOG! The dog I sewed for Kevin, the dog that we've taken all of these monthly pictures with, has disappeared. We didn't look super hard, but it isn't in any of the usual spots, so I'm calling it lost. I'm sure it will turn up tomorrow. 
b) This picture is late in the day (post-bath, pre-bedtime) because we had to wait for Kevin to get home to use his phone to take a picture. The Apple people fixed my phone (it had a twitching screen), but they also broke my phone (the camera and flashlight aren't working since the fix). And, yes, I could have used our camera, but that, too, was broken the last time I tried to use it. I think it got sand in the lens mechanisms on last year's vacation, if I remember correctly.
c) I guess that's all. We are definitely still getting back to our routine since vacation last week.

What she's up to this month:

• She and Lewis are going to camp this week at preschool. I wasn't sure how she would handle a longer day (5 hours vs. the usual 3), but she has been doing well! They eat lunch there, and then she goes right down for nap after I pick them up. It has made her naps a little later (2-5ish), so bedtime has been a little later each night this week. I still put her down by 7:30, but she's been up chattering to herself until 8:30-8:45ish. We'll get back to our regular nap schedule next week (1-4ish).
• Otherwise, it has been much of the same! There aren't many new things happening this month.
• She does say Thank You (her version of it) after I give her something (i.e. her water bottle, usually). I didn't realize she was doing it until she'd been doing it for about a week.
• Her fits have been getting stronger (emotionally), when they occur (which still isn't very often, but they do occur). I had forgotten how utterly helpless/frustrating/angry/etc. I could feel until she threw a huge fit the other night over a tortilla. I'm talking 30 minutes of screaming/crying/needing held/throwing herself on the ground/etc. All while I was trying to finish dinner and end the day without losing my #$@^. I hadn't felt that way since Lewis was around this age, I guess. Hopefully we all make it through as peacefully as possible.
• She did great at the beach! She loved to sit in the shallow water and let the water come and go around her the first few days. Mid-week, she would walk around holding a hand in the slightly deeper water. Then, as the days went on, she got more and more comfortable and liked going out in the bigger waves (in my arms) to get splashed around. She did well in the sand, too--she wouldn't stay still for too long, but for a little bit.
• She started sleeping with a small pillow at the beach--I'd packed one for the car, in case her head was falling to the side, and she took to it as a comfort item for her crib. She's never slept with a pillow until now.
• Wearing mostly size 24 months/2T now (some of her 2T cotton shorts are snug in the waist).
• Current Tooth Count: Still 20!

Some outtakes of her advising me on what she'd like me to do, as per usual. She wanted the footrest up for her pictures, so the footrest went up:

 Put the footrest up!

Stinker Queen Lenore, on her throne

Lenore at 19 Months

19 Months Old

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UPDATED 6/1: She still has a small perforation (hole) between the left and right atrium of her heart, but it's pretty small. That is the Atrial Septal Defect portion of her issues. The doctor said that we should come back to have it checked in another year, and he's hoping it will have closed itself up by then without having to do anything to it (which is what he said a year ago). He said that they usually close up by the time kids are 2 or 3 years old, but it just depends.

He also said that her pulmonary valve looks great (so no more Pulmonary Stenosis, which was the report last year, as well). And her heart is normal-sized, which is great. He said we shouldn't be concerned, but of course I'm a little disappointed it wasn't an all clear report.

I thought of a few more things she's doing this month, too. She legitimately helps me unload the dishwasher. Primarily the silverware--she'll hand it to me, one-at-a-time, as I put it away in the drawer. She will grab a few other dishes, too. Such a little helper.

She also has started announcing her poops, so I have a feeling potty training will be a lot easier with her than it was with Lewis.
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What she's up to this month:

• She has sass! We have known this, but she's really asserting herself this month and has opinions on things. She might shake her head and say 'Nah nah nah!' Or steal a toy and take off running (from Lewis) like her life depends on it. It's usually funny. Occasionally, she doesn't want to get dressed and bucks and screams, but that's not very often.
• She LOVES to be outside. She loves to walk the dogs with me (riding in the stroller). She loves to walk the mower down the road. She loves to walk down the neighbor's driveway and into her backyard (only rarely).
• She loves pointing to the parts on her face and my face. Nose, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, etc. It's usually when we're saying goodbye at nap time or bedtime. I'll get down to give her a kiss in the crib, and she'll stick her finger up my nose and start through her list of parts.
• She loves the same books, over and over again. Her favorite this month is one that Kevin actually got her for Christmas, I am a Bunny. We found it in on the bookshelf in the basement a few weeks ago, and she instantly fell in love. It's fitting because her class at school was the Bunnies, so it was meant to be. She has nibbled the corners and the cover has fallen off, but it's still readable.
• She has really clung to comfort items this month for nap and bedtime. She sleeps with I am a Bunny and a Winnie the Pooh book, plus two stuffed animals, and a couple of pairs of her PJ pants. She will drag one of the stuffed animals (a hot pink monkey) around the house sometimes, too, and even wanted to take it to dinner the other day. (Lewis never took to comfort items, really.)
• She will say 'Ooo-ooo-aah-aah' like a monkey, too, which is adorable.
• Naps and sleep are going well. Twelve hours at night, plus a 3 hour nap (most days). We will be able to have a more consistent nap schedule this summer with Lewis out of school, which is good. She was starting to have trouble taking a late morning nap because it was too early.
• She notices when I paint my toes a new color, so I painted hers for the first time last week. She sat surprisingly still in the stroller while I put on one coat. In the time it took me to run inside to get the dogs to walk, she had smudged a couple of them, but not bad for the first time.
• She is much stronger on going down the stairs safely this month. She slides down on her belly, and I feel like I don't have to be right on top of her now. I still like to be below her, just in case she misses a step, but she's had no incidences so far.
• She is still wearing a few 18 months clothes, but leaning more towards 24 months.
• Current Tooth Count: SO MANY! She got 8 new ones, finally, so I guess the total is 20.