Tasty Ears

One night C was fascinated with Nick's ears and kept trying to "eat" them. He was at it for several minutes; I got only a small portion of it on video.

Trash to Treasure Creation #4: plastic bag handbag

 

Some of you may recall the earlier plastic bag shoulder bag I made and posted a while ago. I still use that bag quite often. I've received several compliments about it. It's a lot sturdier than I expected it to be. Yesterday, I decided to try making another bag with some solid-colored plastic bags I've collected. It's smaller, more of a "handbag," and just big enough to carry my wallet, coin purse, cell phone, keys, and a pen.

 

While the first bag spoke more to my practical side, this bag is definitely a more fun-loving, stand-out piece that I think I will enjoy carrying around with me.

I need to collect more colored bags now so I can make these for friends :)

Critical thinking of a 3-year-old

This morning, I was out in the kitchen and heard one of my windchimes ringing in the living room as something hit them. I knew from experience that Z must have thrown something at them, and coming out into the living room I noticed right away the plastic hanger which must have been the culprit (he’d been playing with this hanger on-and-off all morning). I scolded him, but then I decided to try reasoning with him, helping him to think critically about what had happened.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: What just happened that was wrong?

 

Z: (pointing to the chimes) Those things just rang.

Me: Yes, but that’s not wrong. What happened that was wrong to make the chimes ring?

Z: I threw the hanger.

 

Me: Do you think it was a good choice to throw the hanger?

Z: No.

Me: What might be a better choice next time instead of throwing a hanger?

Z: (thinks for a moment) Throwing something soft at them. (meaning the chimes)

Me: …well, yes, that would be a little better…

Nick and both laughed at this point.

Z is always throwing things and rather than discourage all throwing (because I realize sometimes he just can’t help himself), I try to dedirect him to find something soft to throw. So, it makes sense that he would come to the conclusion he did, though it was not quite the conclusion I had been hoping for…

Eight Months (plus a day)

C turned eight months yesterday! He has really taken off this last month...

He is crawling now! He actually has been since shortly after my 7-month post. Just the "army crawl," not up on his hands and knees yet. Also just this past week he figured out how to get himself into a sitting position all my himself. He is all over the place now, and he is FAST! Watch out, World...

We've had some pretty rough nights as he continues to teethe. Plus the last week we've all had colds/sore throats and C hasn't escaped it, either. For the last few nights he's been waking up several times in the middle of the night needing to nurse to ease his sore throat. Then of course I've been having to change his diaper in the middle of the night because the increased nursing means he wets himself more often. Hopefully the sore throat will be gone soon and we can all get more restful sleep.

I bought a Toy Story Alien costume for him for Halloween that said "18 months- 2 years" on the label, so I figured it would fit him fine. Then, the day before Halloween I found a Tigger costume in one of the Halloween boxes and decided to try that on him instead (it looked warmer than the alien costume). It barely fit him (the legs and arms were a little too short). But it's a good thing we had it, because later in the evening on Halloween I decided to try the alien costume on him just for a change, and we couldn't even get the second arm in. It was long enough, but just made for a much skinnier baby, I guess.

It's been nice the last month or so, as C's finally able to be placed in the child seat in a shopping cart. Makes shopping in general much easier; though I still try to grocery shop when Nick is home to watch the boys because it's just easier and quicker that way.

We've continued to slowly give him solid foods, and he's started making the connection between Nick and food now whereas before he knew only I could feed him. When the rest of us are getting settled for dinner, he'll look squarely at Nick and say "Na!" which is his way of asking to be fed. It's pretty cute.

He really likes his daddy in general. The other day, the boys were all playing together on the living room floor when Nick got home from work. C whipped around and saw his daddy and immediately started crawling right to him.

It was already a rule in our house before C became mobile, but once in a while I still have to crack down on the boys to keep their Legos and other smaller toys out of the living room. We've even started putting the gate up sometimes to keep C out of the boys' bedroom so they can still play with their toys. For the most part things have gone pretty well, but once in a while we still catch C with a book or a toy in his mouth that shouldn't be there; or leaves, which get tracked in on shoes or on the stroller wheels. We've been vacuuming the floor at least once a week, sometimes twice. Oh, the joys of having a mobile baby...

He likes to grab peoples' hair; I just got mine cut really short to help prevent him pulling my hair so much. Z keeps getting his head too close to the baby and then starts screaming when C grabs a chunk of his hair and won't let go. I'd have more sympathy if I weren't already always having to remind Z to keep his head away from the baby (he still tries to head-butt him a lot).

Still no more teeth. He's tried to bite me a few times while nursing, though. Ouch.

That's all. I think...