Socialization 201

One of the bigger benefits I see to having Little Miss is that there will be another little person in the house to keep Little Mister company. I enjoy playing with him and I know he enjoys playing with me, too (mostly as evidenced by the way he refuses to go down for naps at home, even when he's exhausted; there's just too much to do). But really, I lack the imagination and the energy to keep up with him sometimes, and I'm sure another kiddo will be a far more suitable playmate. Even if it is a girl. :)

This leads to my biggest fear about the idea of having Little Miss. Aside from the obvious front-running fears, like ensuring that she has ten fingers and ten toes, and never getting a good night's sleep ever again, and having this labour drag on even longer than the last, I worry about the first several months of Little Miss's life and what effect it will have on Liam: that time when everyone tries to convince him of how much fun it is to be a brother when all the while, all she does is cry and poop, keeping us tied up with her and leaving him neglected.

Even assuming that we are not doomed to have a high-maintenance baby this time around (something I feel is bound to happen, because Liam was just so good and surely the universe needs some balance), by comparison to him she will really just be a vegetable for the first six months, unable to give chase or kick a ball back or follow his instructions when he is busy bossing her around (and if he already likes to tell Chad and I where to sit to eat our dinner, surely she will soon take the brunt of his bossing behaviour).

Siblings are definitely a benefit, at least in the long term, and I will be able to stay mindful of the fact that no matter how hellish the first year may be on him, all the years after that will be better for it. Unfortunately, I don't think Liam has the understanding of time and relativity that would allow him to concur. I can only hope that because he's so young, he doesn't remember being an only for very long.

Socialization 101

On the weekend I took Liam down to the Early Years Centre, where they were running a performance called Tom’s Amazing Cats. It was billed as a puppet show, but the ad in the paper also said not to attend if you are allergic to feathers or fur, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. We met Liam’s little buddy Autum there (and also ran into most of the rest of our baby group – the OEYC really does suck you in!) It did indeed turn out to be a puppet show, but the last cat on the bill was a real live cat, and there was also a live bird involved. These parts grabbed Liam’s attention a bit, but mostly he and Autum were too little to care what was going on at the front of the room. Autum spent most of the performance cheerily announcing to her parents that she was leaving and then walking away, and Liam spent most of it breathing down the necks of the people seated in front of us – for some reason he really seemed to want to be a part of their family. They really did not pay much attention to each other.

It was funny to me to see how he interacts with other kids, and especially kids he does not know well or at all. I am used to seeing him around the group at Cindy’s but even then, I often see or hear things that surprise me. For the most part Liam is happier to do his own thing than he is to join in a group activity. Since both of his parents are like this as well, that is not the surprising part. It’s the stories about his getting involved with other kids that make me laugh. For example, there is one girl at Cindy’s who plays mother hen to Liam, often to the point of driving him crazy. This is the same girl he bit a couple of times last summer, and Cindy said both times he had simply been pushed too far and she didn’t blame him for sticking up for himself. I was surprised, then, to recently hear about how close the two of them have become. Recently, he’s even developed a new naptime routine. Liam still sucks his thumb and twirls hair when he’s sleepy. He’ll twirl my hair if we’re at home, but after getting his hair cut a couple of months ago, there wasn’t enough of his own hair left to twirl. So now when he gets tired at Cindy’s, he’ll go park himself next to his little friend, suck one thumb and twirl her hair with the other hand. And she totally lets him.

Of course, things aren’t always all rosy at Cindy’s house, either. Another thing Liam likes to do is go get everyone’s shoes for them before we head out somewhere. A few weeks ago he was doing this at Cindy’s house, when one of the kids objected and said “No, Liam, those aren’t your shoes!” as he picked them up from the boot tray by Cindy’s door. In no time at all, his lip was quivering and the tears were rolling. Little Mister was dealt his first crushing blow by some little punk who didn’t understand that he was just trying to be helpful. Every time I see this kid now, I want to knock his block off for hurting Liam’s feelings. I guess that’s the momma bear instinct coming out in me.

Finally

Ever since Christmas I have been lamenting the lack of snow and itching to get Liam outside on his new sled. Finally this week, we got what I was looking for. It was only a couple of inches and the grass is still poking through, but it would have to do.

This past weekend was also our company social club’s trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls. I think this place looks like a hoot and would have loved to go, but two things were holding me back: first, Liam may still be a bit too young to really take advantage of the facilities; and second, would I really want to be waddling around in a bathing suit in front of 100 of my coworkers in my current state? – I think not. I took Liam swimming over the Christmas break, and was mortified enough to run into a few people I knew for an hour at the community pool. It seemed safest to skip this weekend’s getaway and plan instead to go next year.

Cindy’s family did take advantage of the trip, and so she requested an early pickup on Friday afternoon. The snow began falling Friday morning and from our 5th-floor vantage at the office, it was quite a mess outside. I think my coworkers were a little suspicious that after a month of complaining about the lack of snow, I suddenly had a valid reason to take off early on the very day it finally arrived. Whatever. (Can you tell I’m in wind-down mode?) I picked Liam up, took him home, and with the benefit of a few hours to go before it would get dark, we stayed outside to play. Trouble was, he didn’t want to have anything to do with the sled. In fact, he was grumpy in general. We went for a walk, and when I started heading down the street in one direction and he wanted to go the other, he started to cry. Then he cried because he decided he didn’t want to walk after all. When I offered him the sled as an alternative, that was no good either. Ben the Golden Retriever came out from 2 doors down, and that perked Liam up a bit… right up until Ben chomped down on the stick Liam was dragging around and broke it. More tears. He was in a foul mood and nothing was going to change that.

When Chad came home I lamented Liam’s lack of interest in the sled. We took him out yesterday to try again. We conspired against him by planning to go for a walk around the block, a distance he can only half cover on his own two feet. Sure enough, by the time we got to the halfway point he started dragging. We offered him the opportunity to ride home in the sled. He protested, but we plunked him in and then Chad took off with Liam in tow. That was all it took: add some speed and a little thrill to the mix, and suddenly Liam was hooked. We didn't hear any more protesting until he protested going back inside when it got dark. (I may also have heard Chad's weary bones protesting a little as he ran laps around the yard with Liam + sled in tow, but my ears may have been deceiving me.)

We're supposed to get another 2" today. I can't wait.

Desperate times, desperate measures

Lately I have fallen out of the habit of reading Dooce every day, but I checked in yesterday, and I’m glad I did. It seems Dooce has been getting some hate mail recently regarding her non-potty-trained 3-year-old daughter. The Coles Notes version is that her daughter has some pretty severe toileting aversion issues, and so at this point getting her to go at all, anywhere, is a major accomplishment. Who cares whether it’s in a diaper or in a potty.

I was thinking about this last night when I was in the shower. With Liam. Although we have managed to sneak the odd bath in here and there, and sponge bathe him now and then in between, he still has a major bathtub aversion. It still puzzles me that he enjoys running upstairs and getting out all the bath toys and filling up the tub so much, and then refuses to get in, instead dragging his pajamas out and asking to have them put on posthaste. Anyway, with Liam overdue for a good scrubbing last night, I decided to take Mandy up on her suggestion to try the shower instead. I think he was a bit baffled about why I was getting in the shower during his bath time, but once he was in too, he thought it was a hoot. He didn’t object at all to being hosed down and shampooed. Having water streaming down his face didn’t bug him one bit. We didn’t even make use of any toys, aside from sticking all the non-slip animals to the floor of the tub first. He found it amusing enough just to be there.

I hope this doesn’t backfire on us. I am not prepared to do this every night, especially when I have some place to go or something to do. Ideally, I would like to steer Liam back toward baths as opposed to showers. In the meantime, though, if this is what works, then this is how we’ll manage. I am all for the elimination of tears and frustration. So maybe we have the bath problem solved, at least temporarily. Now, if we could just do something about the night waking. Liam was up at 4 a.m. this morning, and we are all a little bit bleary eyed today.

(This photo was taken after the Teddy Bear Picnic at Cindy’s house this week.)

The Liam shrine

When we started pulling Liam’s new room together before Christmas, we also turned our attention to a few other areas of home improvement that had been overlooked for far too long. One of those was our upstairs hallway. We used to have a collage of travel photos hanging on the wall, but I had taken those down and built a couple of gallery ledges to put up in their place. Then I couldn’t figure out how to mount the ledges to the wall, since the ledges are straight and it turns out that our old-house-wall is not. After months of having nothing but holes in the plaster to look at, Chad finally took matters into his own hands, made a trip to the hardware store and rigged up the shelves as you see them today.

Although we have random photos scattered around the house – family stuff in the living room, our travel photos relocated to the rec room etc. – these are probably my very favourite photos of all. And it’s probably no surprise that Liam plays a significant role in each one. There is one of our wedding photos, and one of my nephew, Henry. There is one frame for which I just had a mat cut, that needs a new photo in it; the old photo you can see peeking out from behind is a collage of Liam that used to be on Chad’s desk at work. Everything else is Liam front and centre.

Of course, in a couple of months time, I will have to replace exactly half of the Liam photos around the house with pics of Little Miss in order to avoid the second child syndrome that Megan keeps telling me she suffered. The problem is, I love all these photos. I love the ledges exactly as they are. I would be sad and hard pressed to decide to take any of them down.

I just had a more recent photo of Henry printed, one that includes his parents, but I’m not sure I really want to take down the one that’s already there. I don’t know what I’ll do when I capture a new favourite of Liam, because I am out of space (at least, nearly; and I have to save that one frame for Little Miss, I have to). Before Christmas I thought I might do a mixed media shelf, have some photos on display along with a few Christmas ornaments or other seasonal items. It never happened. The photos won out; I couldn’t put any of them away, even temporarily.

It doesn’t help matters any that Chad hates the look of a wall covered in picture frames. I often don’t like the way it looks either, but it’s different when they are my photos of my family. If I had free license to never take anything down but just keep expanding… maybe that would make it easier… I just don’t think that will be the case. Sooner or later, something will have to go. I will fight it kicking and screaming the entire way.

Oh yeah, and a PS to the potential next tenants of our house after we are gone: I will leave the ledges behind for you. For one thing, they are custom made to neatly fit exactly along this wall. And for another thing, I never did get around to filling and touching up all the holes on the wall from the collage that used to hang there. You’ll need some stuff on the ledges to cover them up. It’s working out well for me.

Spitting image

Recently our local newspaper started up a weekly feature called (something along the lines of) “Grandma and Grandpa’s Pride & Joy” – a full-page spread of kiddie pictures sent in by doting grandparents. Dana and Bruce sent this photo of Liam in a while ago, and it figures that the paper would publish it when they aren’t here to see it! (Never fear, we have saved a copy).

A few coworkers, etc. who saw the paper have commented on it, but the oddest experience came on Saturday morning when I was at my yoga class at the gym. A woman who I recognize as being a fellow classmate (though I don’t even know her name, and I wouldn’t think she knows mine) came up to me and said that must have been my son in the paper this week – she could tell because he looks exactly like me.

There are similarities between us, sure, but I still wouldn’t consider Liam to be my spitting image. The red hair, for one thing. And when I go to yoga class, it’s with raging bedhead – I don’t have the ‘fro going on like Liam has in this pic. Still, it was kind of neat to have a virtual stranger see a connection like that.

But, at Chad’s family Christmas get-together, the aunts and uncles were commenting on how seeing Liam running around took them back 30 years – doesn’t he look exactly like Chad did at that age? So I ask you – how is it possible to have it both ways?

This is the most snow we've had all winter, so we're going to try to make the most of it

This is what Liam was up to on Sunday while I was setting up a belly shot on our back porch. The accuracy of our local weatherpeople, it must be said, is disheartening. The forecast has called for snow all month long, and yet we never seem to get any. Sunday was supposed to be a whopper of a snowfall – and this is still how it looks outside, even today; you can’t see the snow for the grass. We had the sled out, and Liam dragged it around the yard for a bit, but never really got the full effect. Being the smarty pants that he is, he then went back to the garage and dragged out some of his beach toys instead. Ironic that we live in Canada and he’s better off playing with beach toys in January than a sled! The forecast for the next two weeks only shows two days during which no snow will (supposedly) fall. I’ll believe it when I see it, and if we do get a doozy of a snowfall sometime, I may need to take a vacation day to stay home with Liam and enjoy it lest it all disappear by the weekend.

31 weeks

If life is fair, then this week will start out with a whimper instead of a bang. We all need to recuperate a little after the weekend. Poor Liam's teeth are bothering him so much. His cheeks are so red, he looks like he's just gone through a chemical peel. He's up several times at night again, which means that we are, too. As a result, we're all dragging. (Well, at least Liam and I are. Chad is still on Cloud 9 after watching the Bears land a spot in the Superbowl. He's a lifelong Bears fan, and this is one year that I can't dog him for it.)

As far as the teeth go, I am braced for it to be another several weeks before they come through and Liam gets some relief... though I really hope not. He's not sleeping well, he's cranky, he's got gastrointestinal issues and a fever... poor dude. Thank goodness this is the end of teething for us... well, at least for another 6-8 months.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We are 95% of the way there in terms of getting the nursery revamped for Little Miss. Her name is up on the wall (making the room off-limits to visitors!), the bedding has been changed out (some of it, anyway) and the closet has switched over from blue to pink. I am trying to restrain myself from shopping until I can sort through Sydney's hand-me-downs, but those items are still in Stratford and I'm still here with a little girl clothing itch that needs to be scratched. :) When I was in Toronto last weekend we received an early baby gift from Steph, Mike and Henry, which has also been unpacked and distributed around the room to further girlify it. I never thought I would be the type, but I am liking the way it all looks.

On the weekend we made a trip to London, and I found a few catch-all baskets with pink and green ticking liners to replace the blue hatboxes that were there when the room belonged to Liam. Stocking these baskets with Liam's old baby toys has piqued his interest in them again, and suddenly all he wants to do is stack rings and shake rattles. Another outcome of this trip was that we ordered a double stroller. It should be here in 3 or 4 weeks, which will be none too soon.

I'm still looking for some girly photo boxes, and also a new shade for the nursery lamp. If the green one here were available as a shade only (since the base is nearly identical to the one we already have), it would be on its way to our house in a heartbeat:All that's left is to decide what to do with the empty wall space - I am still undecided on ordering the prints I love versus doing a French memo board sort of thing.

Never fear, Liam is not left out. This week we finally ordered him a rug and a duvet cover for his new room, and got around to hanging a print on his wall. A memo board may work well in his room too; we can use it to corral all the artwork he brings home, if nothing else...

The demise of Bath Man

I'd be willing to bet that when you logged on today, you were expecting to see Yet Another Bathtub Photo (since those are the only recent ones I seem to have). Well, you're wrong. At this point I fear there will never be another happy bathtub photo again.

Despite the fact that Bath Man has been around for almost as long as Liam himself, Liam's love affair with this event has suddenly come to a grinding halt. Once upon a time, he raced up the stairs as soon as he was finished eating dinner, waited impatiently for us to start the water, enjoyed chucking anything he could find into the tub to play with (including such items as cordless phones and snow globes, items that have since hit the trash bin) and then happily stayed in the water until he was well past being pruney. I don't know what changed, but this week he has been on a full-out bath strike. Sure, he will still charge upstairs, load the tub with bubbles and toys, and act like he is getting into it. And then, if you try to get him into the water, he will strike up a bloodcurdling scream.

I could understand this if he'd recently been burned or had a near-drowning experience, but nothing like that has happened. It's seemingly out of the blue. After about 4 or 5 bathless days, I told him that last night was non-negotiable. He seemed to play along well enough, until his ankles hit the water; and then he cried like he has never cried before. I gave him the fastest scrubbing-down in the west and had him out again in under five minutes, but he cried the entire time he was in the tub. Probably not a great way to make him want to get back in again.

Maybe this is a preview of things to come; I know boys aren't supposed to like baths... I just didn't think it would happen so soon... and so suddenly. Anyway, Liam's not looking so photogenic these days, so here's a photo of my sister's cute family from last weekend to tide you over. Henry looks pretty freshly scrubbed in this picture. Enjoy it while it lasts!!

Least said, soonest mended

Yesterday, Little Miss and I had our biweekly visit to see Dr. Bailey (which was actually more like the 7 Month Wrapup, seeing as that we missed the last one. I didn’t mention this transgression, and neither did she.) So what shall I dish first, the good news or the bad?

Well, on the good side, the heartbeat is still high and girly – 152 bpm – very consistent. Little Miss is head down, which is a sigh of relief. I passed the glucose test and blood pressure and weight are doing fine. It’s all sounding good, right?

Then I said something about having toes wedged in under my ribs on my right side, making me extremely uncomfortable from time to time. Dr. Bailey gave me a mildly alarmed look and said, “Really?” She did some belly manipulation, and was able to confirm that the baby’s back is on my left and legs and feet are indeed on the right. And then she said that if I was already getting toes-in-my-ribs syndrome then this baby is going to be huge. Not exactly what I wanted to hear.

When I said just that – that I’d like a nice medium-sized baby please, reasoning that bigger = more painful – she went on to say it’s nothing to worry about now that epidurals are here, and she extolled their virtues to me once more. I am still surprised that she is as pro-epidural as this. I am not against their use in some circumstances, but I definitely don’t plan to arrive at the hospital at the first twinge demanding to be hooked up.

To put this in context, I have to remember that she also initially said Liam would be gi-normous, and then revised that estimate down to pin him as a pipsqueak before he was born. And he was 7 lbs 2 oz, which I think is about as average as you can get on the baby size spectrum. There’s still lots of time left for further revisions. And, maybe Little Miss isn’t really a whopper – she could just be really, really tall. Long and skinny. Yeah, I like the sound of that.

Bathtub flotsam & jetsam

Honestly, does anyone *need* this much stuff in the tub? We’re at the point now where there is no visible water surface left – it’s all covered in floating plastic bits and pieces, and further lathered with bubble bath. And, even with all this to keep track of, he somehow knows when a piece or two is missing. He simply won’t have a bath without every last bit of it.

Unfortunately this week, we have been going through some nighttime growing pains. I think Liam’s teeth might be bugging him again, but there is also the problem of the newfound freedom he’s discovered in no longer being helpless to get himself out of bed. Last night, no exaggeration, I must have put him back in bed twenty times after finding him wandering the hall. Finally I gave up and brought him into bed with me (where I was struggling to keep my own eyes open long enough to make sure he was settled for the night), let him fall asleep there (which took all of 2 minutes) and then transferred him over. Two nights ago he was up several times in the middle of the night, so I had thought he’d be tired enough to welcome the chance to go to sleep. Apparently not!

In addition to nighttime problems, we also now have morning problems. Sleeping in his crib, Liam would almost always wake up around 5:30, let out a feeble cry for 30 seconds, then go back to sleep until 7. Now, he wakes up at 5:30 and comes into our room, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to start his day. Lying down with him in his bed to get him back to sleep sometimes works, but more often doesn’t.

This may end up working out well for me, because my gym attendance has been pitiful lately, and it’s starting to take its toll. I have resolved to start getting up early again to fit it in, because I know I won’t do it at the end of the day. If Liam gets up at 5:30, he is only jumping my alarm clock by a little bit; it’s Chad who will have to be out of bed an hour earlier than planned to accommodate him.

Between last night and this morning, Liam slept 2 hours less than his normal last night. I’d be willing to bet he spends most of today at Cindy’s snoozing. I hope this isn’t becoming a habit.

30 weeks

On the weekend I made a quick (up and back within 24 hours) trip to Toronto. This was a working trip (in the sense that I was doing some photos), so rather than subject Liam/Chad to six unnecessary hours in the car and banishment while I was trying to remember how much depth of field I would get at a given aperture (do they publish charts somewhere for use as quick reference?), I made the trip solo.

When I got home at 6 p.m. last night, Liam was having his nap. It seems that he has too much fun with Dad to take his nap at 1 p.m. the way he does with Mom. Either that, or Dad is just a big pushover!! It sounds like they had a great time together, between a breakfast at McDonald’s, time at Playland there and then an afternoon of football (Liam can actually identify a football game on TV and Chad said he really did spend some time watching the screen. I think Chad is proud but me, I am not sold on this being a good thing.)

After he got up from his nap, he was out of sorts for the rest of the night – he filled the tub full of bubbles and toys and then threw a fit when we went to put him in, etc. I expect it will be an early night for him tonight which will allow me some time to sort through the aforementioned photos. There are some great shots and some absolute stinkers, which I suppose is to be expected; I actually took the time last night to write down some pointers from what I learned from the experience. Thank you to the Hamiltons, because it was at your expense! – and I should have something to show you within the next day or two.

One more Liam story for you, because I still can’t get over this: on Saturday I was rummaging through the fridge before lunch, trying to find something for Liam to eat before going out for groceries, and I wondered out loud what to fix him for lunch – and Liam, not missing a beat, said clear as day: “Grilled cheese.” Maybe I should stop being so surprised when he understands and can engage in a conversation. Maybe I sell him short sometimes. Anyway, lucky for him, there were exactly two slices of bread left; and so we split a grilled cheese sandwich before heading to the grocery store.

This photo was not coached in any way

Verbal assault

O crib, I hardly knew ye

All week long I’ve been expecting Liam to revert to baby-dom and want back in his crib, but every night he marches into his new room and climbs into bed without so much as a backward glance. Finally last night I had a chance to move some more of his things over, and that included prying the wooden letters that spell out his name off the wall, with a heavy heart, and moving them as well. *sniff* It seems like just yesterday that we were putting them up. I’m glad that he’s adjusting to the change so well (and so far in advance of D-Day, so that hopefully there is no reversion), but where on earth did the time go?

I made the mistake of checking out a new book the library had on display this week, one devoted exclusively to decorating nurseries, one that was published in 2006 (not 1976, which seems to be the golden era of our local little library, judging by the amount of material that dates back that far). It does make me want to go buy a whole new suite of furniture and painting supplies. I’ll fight the urge; look how short a time Liam used the room – it still seems brand-new.

Anyway, with Liam 95% gone, the time is right to launch Project Frill. I may not be picking up any paintbrushes or selecting upholstery fabrics anytime soon, but I can get my fix in other ways. First steps: checking out the complete lineup of 3M adhesives for something that will get my finished letters up on the wall without ruining the paint; and stripping off the blue flannel crib sheet, to replace it with one in pink. Captain has moved into Liam’s new room along with him (spending both day and night curled up amongst the quilt and duvet), so I don’t think I’ll have to keep chasing him out of the made-up-but-unoccupied crib like I did before Liam arrived.

Book worm

29 weeks

Liam took matters into his own hands last night and moved himself out of the nursery. After brushing his teeth, he went into the new room, rummaged around in a bin for a book, and then climbed into bed. I took it to mean that he wanted to sleep there, and he did. After reading the book, I turned out the light and that was it - we didn't hear from him again until this morning. I can't believe it will always be so easy to put him to bed and have him stay in bed, but I am going to try to make some progress on getting the rest of his stuff moved into the new room this week. I am also going to start a more serious search for a duvet cover. I am thinking red chambray, but have only seen them at Pottery Barn and am not sure I want to pay Pottery Barn prices for yet more bedding.

Otherwise, I have 85 emails to catch up on at work. I had been dreading coming back to work - it's hard to get motivated to be involved when you have one foot out the door already - but I really do enjoy (most of) my job and in a way, it's nice to be back. Lots of interesting stuff going on.

I did, however, realize when I checked my online calendar this morning that I had a doctor's appointment last week that I missed. Oops. Seems I am now into the biweekly visits rather than monthly, and totally forgot about it. I will call up today and apologize but I'm not sure how this type of thing is handled - are they going to ding me for it? Can they do that when it's an OHIP-paid visit? (Or, as Chad asked, will they just confiscate the baby?)

More baby shoppin' talk

Tomorrow I am headed back to work (work... what is that... where do I work again? What do I do? - this has been a nice long break!!) I think I have 8 weeks of work left, which is much more than I would like at this point, but I also know it will zip right by. I really feel like we are in the home stretch and there is lots to do between now and the time I go off.

One of those things that needs to be done is getting ready for baby #2 - I mean, really getting ready. Liam has been napping in his new room for the past few days (with varying degrees of success - sometimes he goes down easily and sometimes he gets right back out of bed to carry on with his day). I think we'll start him sleeping there at night soon, too. We may go through several nights of having him get up a million times, but it's bound to happen sooner or later - might as well be sooner.

His new room is set up enough to be useable. We haven't moved over his clothes or all of his personal effects, but we're getting there. As the nursery clears out, it leaves me thinking more and more of what remains to be done for #2 once #1 is officially out. I was reading a message board I frequent last week and this very topic came up - "What's new for Baby #2?"

Here is one of the answers that was posted. Believe it or not, it read a lot like the others:

Double stroller
Co-sleeper
Wipes warmer
Lots of clothes
New crib bedding
Nursery stuff
Pea in a Pod Pouch
Mothership diaper bag
New cover for the infant carseat
Changing table
A second swing
Bumbo

Ummmm... ok. What do I have new for #2? An outfit to bring her home from the hospital, a blanket for those newborn photos, and as of yesterday, a picture frame with a pink mat and a pink gingham nightlight for the nursery. Not much else. And, I don't plan to get that much else... certainly not as much as the rest of the world! Yikes! We have saved all of Liam's stuff and most of it is still in terrific shape. There are a few wants and a few needs of course... and now that we are in the home stretch... yowza, we have to get moving.First up: the double stroller. I have been going back and forth on this one. Part of me was thinking in a few more months, Liam won't want anything to do with a stroller. Then I tried to take him for a walk one day over our break, meaning I had intended for both of us to walk - and he cried and cried until I figured it out and got the stroller out. So now I am thinking we definitely do need a good double stroller, one that I intend to take out for a lengthy power walk every single day this summer, one that will serve us well on a full-day trip to the zoo. There is a total dearth of good double strollers on the market. You can get something flimsy and hard to manoeuvre, or a good solid off-roader that will cost you a fortune. I think we have decided to suck it up and go with the latter... maybe I can eBay it in a few years time??

I am also looking into a sling. We have a Snugli that Liam used just a little, but I'm thinking the whole hands-free aspect will be that much more important with #2. And, I want something girly. I am debating between this pouch sling: And this Mei Tai:

Liam's diaper bag has just about had it, so we'll get a new one... just not sure what kind or what style yet... I once saw one in pink camouflage that I think would be cute... need to see if I can find it again. And then, of course, there is the clothes issue... there is definitely a LOT of cute girl stuff out there. The other day I dug out Liam's newborn stuff and pulled out anything with a semblance of unisexness to it... but I will of course need some frills. The new Gymboree lines are adorable. How cute would this be on another (hopeful) redhead? I was also rather hoping those prints from Land of Nod would go on sale after Christmas. Not so. So now I either bite the bullet and order at full price, or find something else...

The first little trickle of success

This morning Liam peed on the potty. Never mind that he'd given me his poop cue and then peed instead; it was still a celebration-worthy event. I can see this being a very time-consuming process though. First he decrees that he has to go. Then we have to make it upstairs, with him lollygagging on each step. Then it's off with the PJs and diapers. Then he sits, and I read a couple of books to him while he thinks about it for a while and finally produces. We were late getting to the pool this morning as a result. I guess that's the sacrifice you make to hopefully get your kid out of diapers by the time he's off to college, right?

PS - this photo is for my dad, who said at Christmas that he thinks Liam is losing his red-headedness. Pictures speak louder than words. I think you're wrong.

Oh, the irony of it

This afternoon I found myself out shopping simultaneously for a potty chair, a new change mat and a new diaper pail (although I didn't pick up all three). I think the time is right to at least introduce Liam to the potty and get him used to the idea. I'm sure it will still be a while before he is fully trained... hence the need for the new change pad and diaper pail... to go in his new room. It seems like a shame to have to pick this stuff up with the hope of training him looming on the horizon; but I have also known plenty of 4-year-olds who haven't been toilet trained, so to think we're going to get there in the next month or so before he makes the permanent move to the new room is laughable at best.

If I have to satisfy my shopping urge with toileting products, then so be it, because I certainly won't be satisfying it with this auction. This is the Christmas tree ornament I saw in a Pier One catalogue and had wanted to buy for Little Miss. Originally priced at $10 US, marked down to $7.50 US after the holidays, I thought for sure I could get one on eBay for cheap. Ummm... not so much. I'm not sure what makes this thing such a hot commodity, but even with a few hours left in the auction I am pretty sure I won't be making a bid.

Happening right now, even as I type

Liam is taking his first nap in the big-boy bed. (First intentional nap; he inadvertently fell asleep there once before, and then nearly fell out upon waking with a start, so he'd been banned from sleeping there in the meantime until I could mooch a bed rail off Megan and install it today.) If all goes well then we will try a few more nap test runs and then start moving him over at night also, and if that goes well, then it's bye-bye nursery for Liam... which will be my chance to girlie it up a bit. You know Chad will love that. :)

(Liam is sleeping on top of the quilt and underneath a duvet, which he seems to love. I might need to find a matching duvet cover and make it part of the permanent deal.)

28 weeks