Archive | December, 2007

28 December 2007 ~ Comments Off

Will’s doctor appointment and child development.

We went to the doctor yesterday at 3:30 for Will’s cold.  The doctor prescribed antibiotics for him because of the color of mucous in his nose.  Thankfully he didn’t think his lungs sounded bad yet, and didn’t seem worried about the cold at all.  He checked ears and throat as well, but didn’t mention that there was anything of concern there.  I have the same cold, and now I am wondering if I should have asked for antibiotics as well.  I am having trouble shaking it.  It makes me just sick enough that I don’t feel like doing much, but not sick enough to stay in bed, if you know what I mean.

On a side note, Will now weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz.  He has gained 4 oz. in the last month.  We measured his length at home the other day and I think he is about 28 in. long, which means he has grown 2 whole inches in the last month!  No wonder he is growing out of his 6-9 month clothes despite the fact that his weight gain has slowed down quite a bit.   He fits into some 12 month clothes now and he is only 5 months old.  I checked the development charts and he is still 97th percentile for height, but his slowed weight gain has dropped him closer to the 50th percentile.  I don’t know what the doctor’s will think about that at his next well child exam.  I know that Elise did the same thing, though probably earlier than Will has (starting out high on the charts and then dropping drastically).  He (as was she) is obviously healthy and strong.  He doesn’t roll over still.  Well, he technically CAN roll over (he’s done it twice), but apparently doesn’t have a desire too.  He doesn’t spend nearly as much time on the floor as Elise used to do though.  He can now push up on his hands and has the strength to sit up, just not the balance yet.  He’ll sit well while being supported, such as in a shopping cart or high chair.  He can also stand if balanced by someone.  So he is definitely strong enough for his age.  I imagine the rolling over will come soon enough, instead he seems to be concentrating on hand and eye coordination.  He’s getting very good at grasping objects, often things he is not supposed to be grabbing.  He is quite the little gentleman though.  The other day while shopping with me at Wal-Mart, he reached out of the sling I had him in and placed his hand on the cart as if he were helping me push.  Then when I carried the bags in from the car, he reached down and grabbed them as well, not to put them in his mouth as he usually does, but held them just like mommy as if he were helping to bring them in.

Well, enough bragging about Will.  I guess I should brag about Elise as well.  Despite the many 4 year old issues we are dealing with (mainly arguing, throwing fits, and just plain not reacting well to things she doesn’t like) she is doing really well in her other developments.  We haven’t kept up with school over the holidays, but will start again in a couple weeks.  Before we stopped, she was doing much better with her numbers and had started reading 3 letter words really well.  She loves reading and that is usually the subject she requests to do before anything else.  Her hand eye coordination is also developing well.  Playing the wii probably has helped that, as well as dance class.  She still loves dance and follows instructions very well in class.  On a plus note, I’ve never had a discipline issue with her while at dance class.  At least not a major one.  She seems to thrive there and is really interested in learning what she is supposed to.  She turns 5 in another month; it doesn’t seem possible that we have been parents for 5 whole years.   And then again, sometimes it feels much longer than that.

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27 December 2007 ~ Comments Off

Christmas ‘07

Well, here we are, smack dab in the middle of holiday letdown. It helps this year that the transition from holidays to non-holidays is slow. John had off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He’s back to work today and tomorrow, but then will have next Monday and Tuesday off as well for New Years. So, the letdown is not felt by me as much as it normally is.

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Christmas Eve Eve (the day before Christmas Eve), John went to church while I stayed home with the kids. I had a cold and hadn’t slept well, and Will also was getting sick with a cold. That evening we opened our stockings while eating homemade doughnuts. Then I got sent to bed so that John and Elise could set up my Christmas present. That was fine with me as I was exhausted from my cold which seemed to be getting worse.

Christmas Eve is traditionally our day to celebrate Christmas so that we can split Christmas day between both families. Once I got breakfast started we exchanged presents between John, Elise, Will, and me. I was very surprised to find an electric piano as John’s present to me! I really like it and am now encouraged to commit 15 minutes a day to practicing playing (just as John has already committed 15 minutes of each of his days to learning the guitar). Perhaps we can play duets next Christmas. :) Elise got too many presents to list. That evening we had invited both our families over for soup and games. Will was happy and took great naps, but was fighting a high fever most of the day. Elise went home with Nana and Pop to spend the night.
Christmas day John, Will, and I got up early and headed to his parents for our traditional Christmas morning routine. This year we were joined by the newlyweds, Megan and Doug.

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We enjoyed the Lein traditional Christmas breakfast: scrambled eggs (made by Pop), sausages, and cinnamon rolls. Then we opened stockings before retiring to the living room to exchange presents. Will slept through most of that, but at least his fever seemed to have disappeared. When he woke up, he had a great time taste-testing all of his presents.

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After lunch, games, another nap for Will, and a rest time for Elise, we headed to my parents. Shortly after arriving we sat down to yet another present exchange. This time Tio (Herbie) shared the ribbon from his presents with Will.

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I think that Tio is convinced that Will looks just like him.

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Elise tried on one of her new dance outfits and wore it for the rest of the afternoon. We all played games, including some new ones that were given as presents. By the end of the day, everyone was tired, but perhaps no one as much as Will.

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The day after Christmas we had a laid back day at home where both Elise and Will enjoyed some of their presents. Here’s Elise playing her new Disney Princess game on the wii.

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And here’s Will enjoying his new tummy toy.

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Late in the afternoon John and I dropped off both kids at my parents house so that we could go on a date. We ate dinner and watched August Rush. It was a great time to get away and we had some good conversations on some of our goals for the future. We went home by way of mom’s house so we could pick up Will. Elise spent the night and I’ll pick her up later this afternoon after I take Will to the doctor. His temperature is up again today, though not high and now he is coughing. I figure I might as well take him in before another holiday hits.

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06 December 2007 ~ 1 Comment

Will’s first meal.

Well, not really his first meal, but the first one that involved a spoon.  He’s been unhappy at mealtimes unless he can sit in my lap.  And then he started grabbing my food.  Yesterday he succeeded in getting his fingers coated in sugar and then found out that he REALLY liked that!  I decided we needed to do something just to keep him busy during mealtimes.  I bought some rice cereal today and borrowed a high chair from my friend Laura.  He loves the high chair, but wasn’t too sure about the cereal.  I’ve posted several pictures so you can follow along with the experience.
firstmeal1.jpg “Oh, are we on camera?  I was just checking for sugar.”

firstmeal2.jpg “What’s up Daddy?”

firstmeal3.jpg ”What’s all the excitement about?”

firstmeal4.jpg ”Oh food!  I’ll take that. . . ”

firstmeal5.jpg ”Eew!!! What in the world is that supposed to be?”
firstmeal6.jpg “Never mind, I don’t think I’ll eat after all.”

firstmeal7.jpg ”Well, maybe just one more bite . . .”

firstmeal8.jpg ”I don’t know about that other stuff, but this bib tastes great.”

firstmeal9.jpg ”Look, Mom, I wiped my face clean.”

firstmeal10.jpg ”Hi there!  Aren’t I cute?”

firstmeal11.jpg “Yep, this bib is great.  How come you don’t put these on me all the time?”

firstmeal12.jpg ”Oh, you’re still taking pictures?  Here’s a smile. Bet you think I can’t smile any bigger, huh?”

firstmeal13.jpg ”Ha ha, fooled you!”

firstmeal14.jpg ”What!  There’s more?”

firstmeal15.jpg ”Mom!  You’re taking pictures of this?”

firstmeal16.jpg ”Hey, I’ll take over here.”

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01 December 2007 ~ 2 Comments

New pictures of Will and Elise.

I thought it was time to show off pictures of the kids again. Here are a few of Will outside at our friend’s house. He was being entertained by Laura’s daughter Lilli:

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And here are some I took today of Will and Elise. Will will sit on the couch fairly well by himself, though sometimes I’ll return to find him face down in an awkward position. He is getting more coordinated with his hands and loves to grab toys (or in this case a blanket) and stuff them into his mouth. Sorry for the bad quality on the one with the smile, but he wouldn’t smile with the flash because it startled him.

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Today in the car Elise and I were talking about growing up. Elise has somehow developed this concern over growing up. Last time I talked to her about it she said she didn’t want to grow up because she didn’t know what she would look like. So today, she brought up the subject again.

“Mom, what will I look like when I grow up? Will I look the same?”

“Well, you’ll look a little bit the same, but not exactly. Everyone changes when they grow,” I replied. I figured from our last talk on the subject that Elise liked how she looks now and was afraid of changing too much. So I asked the next question thinking that I knew her reply, but it turned out I was completely off.

“Do you like the way you look now, Elise?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, Elise?”

“Well, when I look in the mirror, I just sometimes think I don’t like my face.”

I’m completely stunned at this. Is this normal 4 year old thinking? “Well, I think you are pretty Elise. I really like your face.” Not only does her thinking take me by surprise, but I think she would be hard-pressed to find anyone that would tell her that she isn’t pretty.

“Don’t you ever think you are pretty?” I add.

“Well, I think I am pretty when I wear my flower dress.” (This is the dress she has on in the previous pictures. I had made her take it off to go out on our errand because it was cold.)

“Yes, you do look pretty in that dress, but you look nice even when you are not wearing a dress.”

“Mom, do you think that when I grow up I will look like you?”

“Well, not exactly. But you might look a little bit like me. Everyone is different. Do you want your face to look like me?” I ask almost fearing the answer.

“Yes” she replied.

“Thank you,” I return, relieved.

“I would also like my face to look like Aunt Lizzie’s.”

“Well, you are related to Aunt Lizzie. You might look a little bit like her.”

“And I like Mandie’s face too,” she adds.

“Well, you are related to all of them because they are your family. So you might look a little bit like each of them.”

I’m not sure where all this is coming from, but Elise definitely puts a lot of thought into these things. Sometimes she comes up to me with a really sad look on her face and just blurts out something she is worried about. Other times she comes to me and tells me that she is thinking something that she doesn’t want to think, but she can’t help it. These are usually scary things. I am working a lot with her on how to control her thoughts. I know that she probably will struggle with this just like I did and still do. If dealing with this early means she will learn better how to control her own mind, then perhaps all this is worth it. I think the advice I give her is something I should use more often in my thought life as well. Here it is: Elise, when you start thinking something scary or bad, stop thinking that thought and pray for Jesus to take it away. She complains that this does not work, but the other morning she came running into my room so excited because she hadn’t had bad dreams. Dreams are another thing that we deal with on a regular basis. Also, scary music. . . I try to teach her that when it comes to music it is only scary if she makes it scary in her mind. It is all up to her. We’re still working on that.
Oh, and to those that are keeping up with Elise’s 4 year old life goals, she has now decided that she will be a ballerina that gets married.

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