Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ten Minute Tuesday (Episode 1)


Last week Rachel Balducci of Testosterhome hosted her first "Ten Minute Tuesday." I thought it would be fun to do, so I tried it today. Rachel's been busy and didn't end up hosting today, but I figured I'd go ahead and publish what I wrote anyway...because I didn't feel like editing it and making it into a "real" post. The idea is that you set aside 10 minutes and just write whatever comes to your mind. Here's what I came up with.
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Ten minute Tuesday starts right here, right now. I’m currently seated with Joseph in his booster eating lunch. We had a lovely morning. We went to mass and Joseph hardly made a peep! Amazing. He’s been much better at mass lately. I think it has to do with us praying the rosary with him each night. We just started doing this about a week and a half ago.

*break to hand Joseph another Pringle*

Will holds him on his lap from the beginning of the rosary through the first mystery then we let him get down and play. He usually stays right by us and plays with his rosary and my husband’s rosary case. The first few days were rough. He screamed and fought Will almost the entire time, but now he sits there fairly calmly. And we’ve noticed a HUGE improvement in his behavior at mass.
Not only does he rarely fight us at mass anymore, but he also somehow began to understand that he should be quiet and not jabber the entire time.

*break to hand Joseph another Pringle*

He still talks a little, but it’s hardly noticeable anymore. So, if you’re having issues with behavior at mass I would recommend this technique. Will learned it from Steve Wood’s book – I don’t remember the exact title…something to do with fatherhood.
After mass we took a short walk to the park near our parish. Our church has a nice little walking path just behind it that goes…

*break to give Joseph another Pringle…*

…through the neighborhood behind the church.

*break to hand Joseph his water*

…There’s a park that’s only about a 10 minute walk. I had never taken him before, but we found ti just the other day and I wanted to check ti out. Joseph seemed to enjoy himself and I let him walk part of the way back, which he LOVES doing because he can pick up sticks and leaves and pine cones and and and.

*break to give Joseph another Pringle + water only to have no idea what he’s asking for. He eventually settles for the Pringle.*

After our short walk and park excursion we headed home. It was almost nap time and I needed to get the laundry started.

Friday, September 21, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 44)

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 188)

1) Will and I officially started budgeting this month. I've been meaning to do a full post on it, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I haven't done a very good job with the food/household budget. I managed to spend about 80% of the budget within the first 2 weeks. Sooo, these last two weeks I have only been able to buy what we absolutely need at the grocery store which has been a good learning experience for me. It has definitely kept my impulse buys in check. And I have avoided Target like the plague. It'll be interesting to see how this last week of our first month with an actual set budget goes.

2) I've noticed recently that I have a horrible habit of interrupting people when they're talking. This is particularly the case when I'm talking on the phone. I don't know where I learned this habit (maybe it was just not corrected enough as a child) or why I do it, but I'm starting to get annoyed with myself - and I'm sure my friends are, too. My dear friends - I'm working on this. Please be patient with me :)

3) The whole napping situation is getting better. We've been working on getting Joseph on more of a set schedule and I think it's helping. I am at least able to get him to sleep in his crib now (after falling asleep in my arms or the car). This is a huge improvement from a couple weeks ago. Hopefully the situation will continue to get better and maybe one day he'll let me put him in his crib to fall asleep like he used to do.

4) Joseph is starting to love basketball. We got him a little hoop for his birthday and he loves to put balls in it. He also really enjoys playing basketball with his daddy. It's pretty adorable to watch.
A boy can never have too many balls.


5) We had our anatomy ultrasound this week and found out we're having another boy! We're very excited for Joseph to have a brother. Now all we need is a matching onsie that says "Little Brother."

6) Now that we know we're having a boy I spent the past couple days going through baby clothes trying to figure out if we had enough warm stuff for baby #2. It was a little overwhelming trying to think about what exactly we would need. Joseph was born in the middle of summer and I was worried we wouldn't have any warm stuff, but he had a fair amount of clothes that we can reuse. And today I went to a baby sale and filled out the winter wardrobe for both of the boys on the cheap. Man I love those baby sales.

7) Joseph's new hangout is under the changing table. He pulls out the drawers then crawls inside. The funny (irritating?) thing is he can get himself in there but can't get himself out, so I hear him yell for help getting out many times a day now.
Last night my husband thought it would be fun to leave him in there and just play with him. Joseph seemed to enjoy it....
Daddy stacked a bunch of toys on me!
Have a lovely weekend, and go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

"Dirty" Associations

Joseph recently learned the word "dirty." Well, he learned to say the word "dirty." We're still working on connotation. He knows that if I tell him that something is dirty he isn't to touch it (and he generally doesn't). But, if I say "yucky" he says back "dirty." Which, as we all know yucky and dirty aren't synonyms.

When I referred to his hours-old, browning, disgusting-looking, cut-up banana from breakfast at 3 o'clock in the afternoon (which he asked to eat) as "yucky" he immediately responded "dirty." All I could think was "weeeeeellll, not exactly, but I'll take it. And now I'm going to clean your tray."

When he began to grab at the lamp I said "don't touch that, you'll go directly into time out" he said "dirty." Again...close, but not quite. At least he associates "don't touch" with "dirty," right?

While we continue to work on his understanding of the word dirty I'll just revel in the fact that he has become so proficient at another new and exciting word.

Monday, September 10, 2012

The New Normal

Today marks day 1 of Operation Daily Routine. Joseph has been having serious issues with (not) napping for the past few weeks. It hasn't been pretty. He pretty much refuses to nap in his crib anymore. In my arms, the car or his stroller? No problem. But most definitely not the crib. I'm really unsure what caused the sudden change, but I sure want to fix it.
After consulting Facebook, my pediatrician sister and Dr. Ferber we decided he desperately needs a consistent daily routine. So, beginning today he has a set schedule that we're going to follow for a few weeks and see if it helps. If after a few weeks it still isn't helping we'll re-evaluate the situation.
And because I know you're dying to hear what this schedule is I shall post it below.

7:30am - wake up
7:30-7:45(ish) - breakfast
12:00 - lunch
12:30-1:00 - Joseph goes down for a nap
4:00 - snack
7:00-7:30 - dinner
9:00 - bedtime

Before coming up with this schedule the only consistent activity we had for him was bedtime. Hopefully this will help.
So far today has been - eh. He wasn't particularly happy about being woken up at 7:30 then didn't eat his breakfast very well because he isn't used to eating that early so he kind of munched on his breakfast for an hour or so before finishing it. Lunch and nap time have been ok, but he ended up sleeping on our bed again. I hope to nix this starting tomorrow, but wanted him to have at least one day getting used to going down at 1pm.
Snack is going swimmingly. But, the kid loves to eat so I wasn't worried about any of that.

Did I mention that it's just lovely outside today? We might go hang out outside for a while after snack.