Official Kindergartner

Peter has been sooo excited to start Kindergarten. To make it official, I got rid of his complimentary, cheap Ikea stool at the study room table and he moved up to the Ikea wooden stool chair.  I cleaned out his preschool activities cubbies under the table to make space for school supplies and de-clutter his horridly messy, preschool area.

I was also very excited that My Tech High is supporting Kindergarten this year! He has three required classes and a small tech allowance.  He're his academic load:

Language Arts:

  Reading -- Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

  Manuscript -- Getty Dubay book A

Math:

  Right Start Math level B

Drawing:

  Draw Write Now book 1

History:

  Story of the World Vol 1: Ancient History

  (I decided to skip Prehistory with him so he could do Ancient concurrently with Marcelo and because he had already been exposed to prehistory while Marcelo was doing it. He really got into it, for the last few time periods and became a expert at looking up the animals in the books. He really wore those books out).

Science:
  R.E.A.L. Earth & Space Level 1
 (Again, I decided to skip Life Level 1 to make the school day more doable and I thought it would be funner for him to do this with Marcelo).
Fine Arts:
  PeeWee Ballroom at Legacy Dance Studio (class was cancelled on the 4th week)
Other:
  Lollipop Logic 1
  Song School Latin 1
  Song School Spanish 1

Needless to say, being a kindergartner  has made him very happy and he got off to a great start with reading which is, of course, our main focus.

Preschool Graduation

Peter participated in the state funded, online preschool program, UPSTART with Rosy & Rusty. At the end of the program, he completed an evaluation to measure his progress which, for some stupid reason, is not shared with the parents. Here he is at his graduation ceremony after the evaluation.  His participation was not as spotless as Marcelo's but nearly so and he enjoyed it quite a bit.

Super Disgusting turns 3



Nap time

After his two year birthday, Peter reached a number of milestones including but not limited to biting leaving a full impression and climbing out of the crib (successfully without landing on his head). The past few weeks have not been very fun trying to get him to stay in the crib for naps and at night time. He does understand that he's supposed to stay in his room, and at first, he would open the door shyly and look out. If he happened to see my stern eyes looking back at him, he would dash back in and close the door. Now, he's gotten a bit confident. In fact yesterday, taking advantage of the fact that I'm laid up in bed with strep throat and thought I'd take a little rest while the kids were in Quiet Time, he snuck all the way down to the kitchen, climbed on the counter and stole the rock candy I got as a guest gift at the Museum of Natural History Gala. Despite my old age and feeble state of being, my sense of hearing is quiet keen. I knew exactly what he was up to just by the sound of it. So I was waiting for him as he came back up the stairs. Sadly, the rock candy had to go in the toilet (which was rather confusing for Marcelo later when he got up to go pee).

Today, I had better luck. Only one attempt to come out of the room. I was able to squelch it merely with my voice from downstairs, "Go back in your room." When I went to check on the quietness a half an hour later. I found him like this. I guess, I'll take whatever I can get.

"cracker"

So currently you say no more than three or four words regularly: mom, dada, yay, and caca. Your first real word was something like, "nanana", for banana but you lost that word when you kept growing new neurons I guess. Now, we've been struggling to get you to say two sounds together, like "u" and "p". You'll say the sounds separately but not together to form the word "up". There's only a handful of consonant sounds that you are willing to make and vowels are even harder. Whenever we try to get you to repeat a new sound, you get kind of nervous and clench your mouth and neck muscles. It's a mystery to me and the therapist as to why you do this. It's especially perplexing to figure out what the difficulty is in getting the words to come out because it's clear that there is nothing wrong with your hearing or comprehension of words.

Well today you were making your usual closed mouth sounds indicating you wanted something from the kitchen which we decerned was a cracker. I asked you to say cracker, but of course you don't say cracker, so I meant for you to sign cracker with your hands which you do know. That's all I was expecting and then from nowhere --"cracker"!

What?! You can't even say "up" but out of no where you come out with "cracker"! Ok, it did sound kind of like a non-human parrot voice, but you said it!

My little garden gnome

For Halloween, Peter was a garden gnome. No, this is not his costume. But I'm so far behind on his blog that ...

Here he is, a little creature in the forest at 8 months having recently learned to sit up unassisted. Also, sporting a new haircut from Mom and two bottom teeth.

7 months

We started feeding you baby foods towards the end of 6 months. I didn't buy too many prepared baby foods this time around. I decided it would be better to just make them at home. We still started you out on all the regular baby cereals. And here you are giving these little puffs a try. Pretty much the same reaction Marcelo had the first time.

Also, you can now sit up by yourself.

Pre cut hair condition

Before getting your first baby hair cut at 5 months, I snapped some pictures to document the state of your natural baby hair do. Although, you have some fly-away long hairs going on through the center top of your head and the stylin bald-mullet combo in the back, I gotta say, your hair was pretty good compared to this ... and this [Marcelo].

4 months

Here you are four months old. Didn't I just right the three month post yesterday? Again, I have no pictures of you this past month. You and your fellow cohorts have managed to take up almost all my waking (and non-waking) time with the many chores of being a mom. I sit here now on the bed, much too early in the morning because I've given up trying to go back to sleep after your morning pre-dawn feeding. You continuously pummel my left arm with your legs while spitting out your binky every twenty seconds only to demand it back immediately. You're not too keen on going back to sleep in the morning either. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you just like to make me think you might so you can keep me preoccupied with starting a task and calling me in to sooth you back and forth for a couple of hours.

At some point in the day, usually in the evening you end up taking a solid nap. Usually too solid and I have to wake you up to feed you. In fact, as a result, you've cut your feedings down to 4-5 times a day. We continue to supplement with formula here and there about 8oz per day and we are reminded how much more toxic things come out the other end when you have more formula. It's certainly a deterrent from formula feeding. Must produce more milk.

At Omi's house

As of the past week or two, you have been sleeping in your room in your own crib like a champ. No transition issues at all. Some say, I'm lucky that way. I don't know. It's probably just that I'm kind of a hard a** that way. Actually, I would have let you stay in our room longer, but one night, Ray alerted me to the fact that half your body was hanging off the moses basket so I thought best to put you in the crib rather than sleep with one eye open.

On June 3rd, you hit one of the first major milestones of infancy -you rolled over. Of course, laying on your tummy is generally not much fun at this age. It requires that you use all your strength to pick your face up off the floor so you started complaining right away. Something much more fun is bouncing like a mad man on the bouncy chair. You kick your left leg in and out like a Jane Fonda aerobics video from the 80's and you get the bouncer going at full speed. Sometimes, I'm afraid it's going to spring you right out of there like a trampoline.

You've been spending more time lounging outside with us on this convenient shaded chair which Marcelo didn't get that much use out of.

Even though you don't mind hanging out on your own for much of the day while I perform all those aforementioned mommy duties, there are times, you sing me a constant song of sweet whines and complaints telling me, "I just want to be held, mommy". I come and get you, you give me a great big smile and you snuggle up close on my shoulder. So sweet.

I knew this would happen. I didn't think it would be so soon. Your sister's influence has convinced you to run away to the Circus with her. I'll miss you.

-o-o-o-o-o
4 month Well Baby Checkup:
You got a LOT of vaccinations and complained very little. The next day, you got a fever and cried in a painful way that I had not heard before. It's the kind of thing that gives you a pain in your stomach while you consider all the possible things it could mean. Ugh. I don't like this part.

You are a tad underweight, under average anyway.
You are long.
Your head is almost average.

2 months

Don't the other ones' heads look gigantic!?(During this picture, Marcelo misinterpreted contact with baby Peter's flaling arms as a hostile show of violence which he immediately recipricated with a punch to the shoulder. Luckily it wasn't forceful enough to even register except with Sofia's alarmed eyes.  And we thought she was the brute in the family.)

Wow, those first two months sure go by quickly. In your second month, you have come out of your little newborn sleep-all-the-time routine into more of a oh-I-like-it-when-you-hold-me-all-the-time routine. No, not really. It's not like that all the time, but you certainly prefer to fall asleep cuddled in our arms more than by yourself. And, the binky game is starting to get a bit old. Yes, I appreciate that you find the binky soothing, but for Pete's sake, if you want it, then keep it in your mouth, man! Stop popping it out and then getting upset because you want it back. You think I have nothing better to do all day. Believe me, I wish I had nothing else to do all day. I'd be happy to sit on the couch and play the binky game with you for hours, but unfortunately, you are the last in line and there are others that are also making their demands --mommy, I want more milky, --mom, I went poop; I need help, --mommy, celo is playing in the toilet again, --mommy .... Yes, the joys of parenthood.

So, you started spitting up and vomitting. I made you some new burp cloths (2) and bibs (3). Yeah, that's all I could churn out in my spare time (that's a joke, the thing about the spare time). This isn't even making a dent in your copious supply of spit up. I need about twenty five more of each, but you may be twelve before I have time to make any more. Sure, I could buy some, but only my baby terry cloth / flannel bibs can absorb what you're dishing out. Plus, I don't like it when you look like a rodeo clown between the outfit, bib, blanket, and burp cloth that adorn you each day. So, I've only been feeding you on one side for a while which seems to have helped the spit up a little. Except now, sometimes it seems like you might still be hungry so we don't have a very good feeding/sleeping schedule established. I'm not looking for a big commitment here. If you would be willing to give me a consistent five hour stretch of sleep during the night though, I would really appreciate it.

At six weeks, you started smiling. This I'm very happy about. Sofia was not a smiler, I think her smiler was broken (maybe it was part of the thing where she wouldn't cry when she got vaccinated and I thought she had no feeling in her legs until she was eighteen months old). Your smiler works quite well. It only takes a little bit of ridiculous high pitched voice talking and it's activated. Sometimes you just do it by yourself. Imagine that! It must mean you're happy. Your cooing is not as strong but I have heard it here and there a few times.

You've discovered that your hands and arms may have more purpose than you originally thought. You love to grab onto the top of my shirt while you're nursing and also wack the cover up blanket out of the way or throw the burp cloth on the floor. I love this part! When you're tightly bundled in your swaddling blanket, you practice your leg kicks as it is the only form of protest available under the circumstances. Well that and spitting out the binky only to cry over it after. But just you know -we're going to keep swaddling you up mister until you start sleeping through the night. I'm giving you one more month to get on target here. Keep in mind you will be judged, scored, and compared to your previous competitors in this event. And they were quite good at this event, even with handicaps like Sofia's projectile vomitting and Marcelo's allergy induced rashes and itching.

The classic bath photo, cross-eyed and naked with the rubber ducky

The initial discomfort over bathing and diaper changing is well over now. In fact, when you decided you hated Ikea more than any other place on the planet and wouldn't stop crying in your infant carrier for two hours, I took you to change you and placed you on the hard plastic changing table in the bathroom where you were immediately soothed and halted the crying and whaling instantaneously. I guess you don't like the infant car seat as much as most babies do. You're usually ok in it when we're driving but it's not an automatic sooth-all like it has been with prior clients.

Sofia jumps at the rare opportunity to feed you a bottle. She was so proud of you and, I think, of herself when you finished it off.

It also appears that you may have gotten a bit of a cold. It probably came through Sofia from preschool although she had no symptoms (she's kind of a freak of nature that way). Marcelo got a fever, runny nose, and coughing, and then of course, Daddy bit the dust with all the symptoms and the ridiculous cracking fat lady voice. You're handling it pretty well though, just an occasional cough here and there, not enough congestion to interfere with nursing. But for no apparent reason, you've still decided you'd like to be cranky in the morning to noon time, going in and out of sleep and demanding to be held or to play the binky game. Hopefully this doesn't last too much longer. But being that you're a man, I guess we can count on you being cranky and demanding attention for pretty much the rest of your life, right. I get the feeling you will take after your daddy more than anyone else. And, I'm not just saying that because of the matching web toe either. We'll see, so far I've been pretty right about my predictions on the others.

You're just an infant and already you're giving me the look --mom, do you really have to take another picture of me?-- Actually, you were just quite tired and fell asleep a few minutes after this. But, I had to take a picture of your beautiful eyes during the only time of day when enough light comes through the window. I hope your eyes stay blue so we can have a varied assortment of eye colors. Sofia's eyes were like this for a long time and eventually they turned green.

1 Month

Yesterday, you marked your four week milestone by blowing out your diaper while we were out on a play date. Thank you. That was nice.  I changed you before leaving. I fed you as soon as we got there. I judiciously went to change you immediately following your feeding and what do you do to me --you blow yellow poop all over your furry pants and out onto your coordinating onesie with footprints from the Gap.

Today you are one month old and you have marked this important milestone by staying awake from seven this morning to three in the afternoon, fussing, and spiting up A LOT.  I guess the honeymoon is over.

Up until the past few hours however, you have been a model newborn baby.  You have spent the past month, mostly sleeping, alerting us occasionally that you might want to have something to drink with only the smallest gesture of fussing. You have breast-fed well and you have taken the bottle with breast-milk and formula without complaint.  You sleep well during the night, sometimes so well that we forget we still have to wake up to feed/change you.  Being changed and bathed is the only thing that you have protested but you're getting quite used to it now.

Here are some photos showing what you've been up to your first month in the world.

On your changing table with fresh band-aid from heel prick. Unlike the two before you, you like the binky and can actually manage to keep it in your mouth most of the time.

Sustenance

chunky face - skinny frog legs
the 4th day phenomenom: it takes about four days for my milk to come in during which you lose body fat apparently from the bottom up

You're not fond of the baths until I wrap you up and wash your hair over the sink

You look so tiny in Daddy's hands

At 14 days you broke out in a rash of acne but it cleared up almost instantaneously after your circumcision. Must have been the adrenaline.

I tried to get a picture of your webbed toes but they're pretty well camouflaged most of the time. You're like Sofia and the opposite of Marcelo in that your toes are all sprawled out like fingers on a hand.

You must have thought your sister was here to feed you

After thirty shots trying to get you NOT to look up at the ceiling or try to grab a free snack, we settled for this very serious portrait

2 Weeks

Today was your two week checkup and circumcision appointment. We made special arrangements so both daddy and I could be there with you. I was considering sitting this one out because I didn't think you would do as well as Marcelo, if the past two weeks are any indication. You cry pretty much every time we change your diaper. There have only been about three diaper changes without crying. We make every effort to meet your high demands by warming up your wipes and even putting a heating pad under your changing pad cover.

As suspected, you started crying as soon as we undressed you to check your weight. And although, I thought I was making every effort to hold the diaper above you while you lay on the scale, you managed to pee all over my sweater sleeve, the counter, and some children's books. Then you went for a second round on daddy and the assistant, finishing it off with a final round on the wall and floor for good measure. At that point, the three of us couldn't stop laughing and we were hoping you had a bit more left for Dr. Arnold, but I guess you had pretty much emptied your bladder.

You cried again for the heel prick. I let you recover with some comfort milk. And then, despite the sugar water and anesthetic, you cried heartily for the dreaded procedure. After that, you got some more mommy milk and then you kept having short little bouts of crying. In fact you're still whimpering in your sleep several hours later.

I tried to see if Dr. Arnold would separate your webbed toes, but I guess he didn't take me very seriously. Everyone seems to be quiet fond of this little anomaly.

But enough about the pain and the crying. Let's talk about your stats. You managed (barely) to gain back your birth weight at 7 lbs. 8.5 oz. (20th percentile); your head circumference was at the 50th percentile and your height, 21.5 in. was at the 90th percentile. Apparently, you grew 3 inches in two weeks. I don't think so. Clearly, they didn't measure you correctly when you were born. I never thought you were that short. We surmised that you were probably 20.5 inches when you were born.

Well so far, what we know about you is that you don't like to be changed, you don't like to take baths, you don't like the light in your eyes, you enjoy sleeping 99% of the time, and you like to pee every where. You've peed out of your diaper several times now. Oh yeah, the first time, it caught me so off guard, I couldn't stop screaming because you were hosing me down all over the place and of course daddy did nothing to stop it. That's OK, he's gotten hosed down a couple of times since.

--
How much you've grown:
Weight 7 lbs 8.5 oz (20%)
Length 21 1/2 inches (90%)
Head 37cm (50%)