We recently returned from a week and half long trip to Florida. It was sort of a thrown together trip that involved staying in Orlando for a few days. While there we went to Seaworld and Aquatica. Both were a good time. We then headed to St. Augustine for the rest of our trip. Very relaxing!
The kids turned into total beach bums and enjoyed exploring the lighthouse, St. Augustine Alligator Farm, Old Jail, the Spanish Quarter, and Castillo de San Marcos (the fort). The slower lifestyle of Anastasia Island was much more in line with what we were looking for in a vacation.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Tooth
Jax also cut his upper left eye tooth ... you know, the pointy one. I think it cut through around March 18th. I say "around" because I really try to avoid getting too close to Jax's mouth or ever having to put my finger in his mouth because he bites. Have I mentioned the biting before? ;)
He speaks ... (finally)
Jax is an odd little bird. At a year old he was saying more than a handful of words .... pretty clearly. Then he started walking and climbing and opening drawers and doors and all other sorts of mischief and the talking stopped ... more or less.
Now at 21 months old he is starting to pick back up on the talking. His speech is not all that clear but he is making an effort. Jax is such a busy kid that any talking to him has to be VERY deliberate. When I say deliberate I mean we must grab him and hold him still and make him look at our face while we speak to him. I suppose this is paying off as he is starting to mimic the words we say to him.
He has picked up probably about ten words in this last week alone. Not all of them are said consistently yet but he has used them in appropriate situations.
Now at 21 months old he is starting to pick back up on the talking. His speech is not all that clear but he is making an effort. Jax is such a busy kid that any talking to him has to be VERY deliberate. When I say deliberate I mean we must grab him and hold him still and make him look at our face while we speak to him. I suppose this is paying off as he is starting to mimic the words we say to him.
He has picked up probably about ten words in this last week alone. Not all of them are said consistently yet but he has used them in appropriate situations.
Friday, February 29, 2008
20 months old
It is hard to believe that my squirmy little baby is now 20 months old. It seems like just yesterday that he was a tiny little thing that could do nothing for himself. Now though he is becoming quite the independent little guy. He must do everything for himself ... especially if he sees his sister doing it. He brushes his teeth, eats yogurt and oatmeal with a spoon (neatly), tries to put on his own shoes and jacket, and will go down the steepest and tallest slides HEADFIRST. He loves to run as fast, fast, fast as he can. Jax LOVES diggers of any sort and if he sees one while we are in the car I swear the shrieks of Digg-uh are probably heard for miles around.
He is so much fun. I swear we laugh every single day ... either with him or at him. :) He is just such a character. He loves to clown around and get a reaction out of those around him ... he seems to be a born entertainer. This does not bode so well for his first teachers in a school type setting. His favorite is to do something he knows from experience is funny and then as he is laughing he wiggles his entire body (like he is doing an upper-body only version of the twist) and shake his head all around at the same time. It is simply the cutest thing EVER!It has been a great 20 months my little stinker-boy!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
A little Houdini
I have never considered myself one to get totally worked up about something one of my kids does. Especially Jax .... there is just a certain amount of monkeying around that I have come to expect from such an adventurous little boy. However ....
The events of yesterday afternoon left me feeling a bit ... well un-nerved. Joe was off at ice skating lessons with Jaida. Jax was roaming about the upstairs .... mostly raiding all of Jaida's most prized belongings since she was not there to scream at him and slam her bedroom door in his face. I was also upstairs cleaning the bathroom. The power was out due to a wind storm. The power came back on and I left Jax upstairs briefly while I ran downstairs to re-start the washing machine. I have left him upstairs unattended many times ... there is a baby gate on both set of stairs, the bedrooms are kid-proofed enough that there is not much need to worry. Plus I was only going to be out-of-site a couple of minutes.
As I was getting the washing machine situation sorted out I heard Jax grunting and huffing a bit. I immediately ran back to the stairs and guess where I found Jax? On the outside of the railing that runs across the hall balcony. He was holding onto the spindles and walking along the ledge on the OUTSIDE of the railing. Basically standing on a 2 inch ledge ten feet above the foyer floor. Nothing other than the hard wood floor below him to break his fall. I was terrified ... especially since I could not reach him until I made it half way up the stairs. I ran up the stairs and grabbed him by the ankle and then made my way up to where I could grab his squishy little body and haul him down safely. My brain was running a mile a minute. The baby gate was locked in place and there are no foot holds on either the gate or the balcony railings for him to get him self up and over. Plus they are both just too tall.
As I surveyed the area and watched Jax as he grunted, pointed and lifted his shirt to show me the scrapes across his belly I realized he must have wedged his big Charlie Brown head between the highest point on the newel posts at the top of the stairs (where stair railing and balcony railing meet) and then he forced the rest of his body through the rails until he escaped onto the ledge. Seriously, do toddlers his age actually experience fear? Because looking down should have been enough to scare the living crap out of him.
Joe will be fixing the stairs tonight. Yesterday I would have never even imagined that a small human being could fit through such a tight opening.
This is the best picture I can find quickly of the area. Jax squeezed through that small area to the right of Jasper. The small gap between the two large posts with knobs on top.
The events of yesterday afternoon left me feeling a bit ... well un-nerved. Joe was off at ice skating lessons with Jaida. Jax was roaming about the upstairs .... mostly raiding all of Jaida's most prized belongings since she was not there to scream at him and slam her bedroom door in his face. I was also upstairs cleaning the bathroom. The power was out due to a wind storm. The power came back on and I left Jax upstairs briefly while I ran downstairs to re-start the washing machine. I have left him upstairs unattended many times ... there is a baby gate on both set of stairs, the bedrooms are kid-proofed enough that there is not much need to worry. Plus I was only going to be out-of-site a couple of minutes.
As I was getting the washing machine situation sorted out I heard Jax grunting and huffing a bit. I immediately ran back to the stairs and guess where I found Jax? On the outside of the railing that runs across the hall balcony. He was holding onto the spindles and walking along the ledge on the OUTSIDE of the railing. Basically standing on a 2 inch ledge ten feet above the foyer floor. Nothing other than the hard wood floor below him to break his fall. I was terrified ... especially since I could not reach him until I made it half way up the stairs. I ran up the stairs and grabbed him by the ankle and then made my way up to where I could grab his squishy little body and haul him down safely. My brain was running a mile a minute. The baby gate was locked in place and there are no foot holds on either the gate or the balcony railings for him to get him self up and over. Plus they are both just too tall.
As I surveyed the area and watched Jax as he grunted, pointed and lifted his shirt to show me the scrapes across his belly I realized he must have wedged his big Charlie Brown head between the highest point on the newel posts at the top of the stairs (where stair railing and balcony railing meet) and then he forced the rest of his body through the rails until he escaped onto the ledge. Seriously, do toddlers his age actually experience fear? Because looking down should have been enough to scare the living crap out of him.
Joe will be fixing the stairs tonight. Yesterday I would have never even imagined that a small human being could fit through such a tight opening.
This is the best picture I can find quickly of the area. Jax squeezed through that small area to the right of Jasper. The small gap between the two large posts with knobs on top.
Friday, February 01, 2008
My boy Jaws, umm I mean Jax
Yesterday while at work I get a call from Nancy. Apparently, Jax got pissed at his little friend Dillon and for no apparent reason bit him (fairly viciously). He bit him through his sweatshirt and still left a full ring of teeth marks and broke the skin in a few places ... THROUGH THE SWEATSHIRT, did I mention that part? Nancy admitted that she wasn't watching them that close at the moment since they seemed to be playing well. She heard the screaming and went running.
I was at work so there wasn't much I could actually do other than suggest she put Jax in time-out or remove him from the playroom. It weighed heavy on me all day. I am one of those parents that fully believes when you put your kids into daycare or any situation where they need to learn inter-personal skills at a young age you have to expect a certain amount bonking on the head, hitting, pushing and even biting ... it just goes with the territory. I do realize though that many parents are VERY protective and get a bit riled when their kid is biten or whatever. I guess I am just not one of them. Anyhow, later in the day Nancy calls again. I was not looking forward to her telling me all the horrible things Jax was up to. I picked up the phone anyhow. Apparently, when she went to change Jax's diaper she pulled his onsie up and right there on his back was a nice big bite mark ... no broken skin but a definite bruise left by a small set of chompers.
Is it bad that I feel better knowing that in at least this one instance Jax was likely biting out of retaliation and was not the aggressor?
I was at work so there wasn't much I could actually do other than suggest she put Jax in time-out or remove him from the playroom. It weighed heavy on me all day. I am one of those parents that fully believes when you put your kids into daycare or any situation where they need to learn inter-personal skills at a young age you have to expect a certain amount bonking on the head, hitting, pushing and even biting ... it just goes with the territory. I do realize though that many parents are VERY protective and get a bit riled when their kid is biten or whatever. I guess I am just not one of them. Anyhow, later in the day Nancy calls again. I was not looking forward to her telling me all the horrible things Jax was up to. I picked up the phone anyhow. Apparently, when she went to change Jax's diaper she pulled his onsie up and right there on his back was a nice big bite mark ... no broken skin but a definite bruise left by a small set of chompers.
Is it bad that I feel better knowing that in at least this one instance Jax was likely biting out of retaliation and was not the aggressor?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
I am the mom of the biter
I feel like I am apologizing to everyone these days due to Jaxon's need to bite when he is teething. His canines are starting to shift about to get ready to come in. Since teething is an agonizingly slow process for the Lamela-Rhea children I imagine I get to be labeled as the "mom of the biter" for several more weeks to come. He only seems to bite when he is teething. He has never biten during any other time. However, during this time the triggers are many ... everything from playful biting to biting out of frustration and no one is off limits, unfortunately. Any discipline regarding the biting just brings attention to the fact that he bit which seems to trigger him to bite more to get a rise out of everybody. It is very annoying.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Sleep you little TURD!
Jax was not the best sleeping little baby in the world. He really did not like to and therefore would not sleep alone. This meant he slept curled up under my arm and nursed on and off all night. He rarely woke all the way up at night ... instead he woke, nursed and went back to sleep. While this was a situation that worked well for him at the time I was rather happy when he outgrew the need. By the time Jax was a year old he was sleeping through the night (although he does like to wake quite early) in his own crib and in his own room. Since then he really does not wake at night ... not even when he is teething or has a cold. He will occasionally rustle and need a bit of patting to calm back down but that is about it.
I have often thanked my lucky stars that Jax was not like Jaida as a baby. Jaida was generally a great sleeper when she slept. She slept long and hard but if she did wake for any reason (26 TEETH!) it was a process to get her back to sleep. The process entailed much shhhh'ing, singing, humming, bouncing, rocking and walking the cold hard floors in the wee hours of the morning. Jax in the last three weeks (for some undisclosed reason) has decided to start waking in the middle of the night. When I say waking I mean really waking up as in greeting us by yelling "hi mama" or "hi dad" as we walk through the door. He also hands us his pacifier and points at the dresser where they are kept when he is not in the crib. It is never a good thing when he hands us the pacifier in the middle of the night because it means he has no intention of going back to sleep. It has gotten to the point where I refuse to take it from him in hopes that he will give up, pop it back in his mouth and go back to sleep. Miracles do happen, don't they? That is usually the point at which he throws the pacifier towards the dresser and starts screaming as loud as he can. That is also the point at which Joe takes over because it requires a bit of walking with Jax to get him back to sleep and well Jax is just way too big for me to carry like that for very long.
Last night Joe made many trips into Jax's room. Then the screaming started. Then I heard Joe finally give up and plop Jax back in the crib ... still screaming. He was just awake and was not going to be left in the crib. I finally took pity on poor Joe and drug myself out of bed to try to help. I sat next to the crib and held Jax's hand until he finally started to drift off to sleep. At that point he was still very restless and needed considerable shhh'ing. So I layed down in the toddler bed in Jax's room and for the next 2 hours shhhh'ed him every 10 minutes or so. Toddler beds are really small. I am very stiff and tired today. The boy BETTER sleep tonight!
I have often thanked my lucky stars that Jax was not like Jaida as a baby. Jaida was generally a great sleeper when she slept. She slept long and hard but if she did wake for any reason (26 TEETH!) it was a process to get her back to sleep. The process entailed much shhhh'ing, singing, humming, bouncing, rocking and walking the cold hard floors in the wee hours of the morning. Jax in the last three weeks (for some undisclosed reason) has decided to start waking in the middle of the night. When I say waking I mean really waking up as in greeting us by yelling "hi mama" or "hi dad" as we walk through the door. He also hands us his pacifier and points at the dresser where they are kept when he is not in the crib. It is never a good thing when he hands us the pacifier in the middle of the night because it means he has no intention of going back to sleep. It has gotten to the point where I refuse to take it from him in hopes that he will give up, pop it back in his mouth and go back to sleep. Miracles do happen, don't they? That is usually the point at which he throws the pacifier towards the dresser and starts screaming as loud as he can. That is also the point at which Joe takes over because it requires a bit of walking with Jax to get him back to sleep and well Jax is just way too big for me to carry like that for very long.
Last night Joe made many trips into Jax's room. Then the screaming started. Then I heard Joe finally give up and plop Jax back in the crib ... still screaming. He was just awake and was not going to be left in the crib. I finally took pity on poor Joe and drug myself out of bed to try to help. I sat next to the crib and held Jax's hand until he finally started to drift off to sleep. At that point he was still very restless and needed considerable shhh'ing. So I layed down in the toddler bed in Jax's room and for the next 2 hours shhhh'ed him every 10 minutes or so. Toddler beds are really small. I am very stiff and tired today. The boy BETTER sleep tonight!
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
18 months old
I am a little late with this entry. Things have been busy but mostly it was because Jax didn't have his 18 month well baby(kid?) exam until last Friday.
The stats:
Length: 32.25 inches (50%)
Weight: 24 pounds 14 ounces (~40%)
Head: 50 cm (>95%)
He is a very healthy little guy. It is funny that with Jaida whenever we had to fill out one of those developmental checklists she always fell slightly behind on the physical aspects ... climbing, balancing, jumping, etc. She is perfectly caught up now but then she was always a tiny bit behind. Jax on the other hand has had all the physical stuff listed on the 24th month checklist mastered for some time. Anyhow, Jax is healthy and developing just perfectly. The only concern I had was about his lack of actual talking. The doctor assured me that he falls in the totally normal range for both boys and second children as far as his speech. He says about 30 words and combines many of them into three word phrases. He understands everything we say and can follow semi-complicated directions from me so I know that he hears perfectly fine. I suppose that Jaida was so far advanced at this point that it is a bit hard to keep from comparing the two.
Jax seems to have caught Jaida's cold/cough which of course settled right into his chest. I gave him a few doses of albuterol in the nebulizer and that seems to be knocking it right out. This is all after about a week and a half of rather sleepless nights for Joe and myself. Jax slept through all the coughing just fine but we of course suffered.
The stats:
Length: 32.25 inches (50%)
Weight: 24 pounds 14 ounces (~40%)
Head: 50 cm (>95%)
He is a very healthy little guy. It is funny that with Jaida whenever we had to fill out one of those developmental checklists she always fell slightly behind on the physical aspects ... climbing, balancing, jumping, etc. She is perfectly caught up now but then she was always a tiny bit behind. Jax on the other hand has had all the physical stuff listed on the 24th month checklist mastered for some time. Anyhow, Jax is healthy and developing just perfectly. The only concern I had was about his lack of actual talking. The doctor assured me that he falls in the totally normal range for both boys and second children as far as his speech. He says about 30 words and combines many of them into three word phrases. He understands everything we say and can follow semi-complicated directions from me so I know that he hears perfectly fine. I suppose that Jaida was so far advanced at this point that it is a bit hard to keep from comparing the two.
Jax seems to have caught Jaida's cold/cough which of course settled right into his chest. I gave him a few doses of albuterol in the nebulizer and that seems to be knocking it right out. This is all after about a week and a half of rather sleepless nights for Joe and myself. Jax slept through all the coughing just fine but we of course suffered.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
A VERY Merry Christmas
While Jax had very little interest in doing the work of un-wrapping his gifts he certainly enjoyed playing with all the toys afterward. He especially loves all of the car toys and his new rocket ship. He also loves the little tool sets and we hear him exclaim "I fix it!" quite often these days.
We had lots of time off work so we had fun making/decorating/eating cookies. Jax mostly just played with his toys or got into Jaida's stuff. :)
We had lots of time off work so we had fun making/decorating/eating cookies. Jax mostly just played with his toys or got into Jaida's stuff. :)
Friday, December 21, 2007
It is a regular old Christmas miracle
that our son who has an un-ending amount of curiosity and energy has absolutely no interest in either the Christmas tree or the presents underneath. Seriously, what is wrong with this child? I delayed putting up the tree and the only pressies underneath are from friends and family because I just knew I would be yelling "Jax, get out of the tree" a gazillion times a day. I am happy to admit I was wrong ... the tree might as well not be in the house.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
New York City at Christmas
We recently returned from a nearly week long trip to the big apple. It was rather exhausting but in a fun sort of way. We saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The kids were all enchanted. Jaida's favorite part was when the Rockettes dressed as reindeer pulled Santa and his sleigh across the stage. Jax enjoyed all of the appearances of Santa Claus. We visited Fao Schwartz where both kids picked out a toy to purchase and Jaida was able to dance on the piano featured in the movie Big. Jaida and I ventured to the American Girl Place where Jaida picked out a new outfit for her Bitty baby. We spent time in Rockefeller Square and watched the brave people try to ice skate. We also braved Times Square at night which was an adventure. Generally, we did A LOT of walking. It was rather difficult as it was very busy and the stroller just got in the way. Poor Jax ended up strapped into his stroller most of the trip but he did enjoy running up and down the ramps in teh hotel lobby a lot. ;) It was a fun trip but we are all really glad to be home and are looking forward to Christmas.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
A toothy little fellow
Jax has been very busy cutting teeth along with other general mischief. The week before Thanksgiving we noticed he had two brand spanking new molars. Both of his upper one year molars popped through with little fanfare. Yesterday he had a rather cranky day at daycare and when I looked in his mouth I saw a brand new lower one year molar on his right side and his lower right lateral incisor FINALLY came through. His other lower one year molar is VERY close to popping through ... I would say in the next day or so. The ear tubes must be doing what they are suppose to be doing because he has had bit of snottiness with all these teeth but no ear infections. If I was superstitious I might feel the need to knock on wood.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Less than thrilled
At least he didn't start screaming immediately. He did like the jolly old guy from a distance though.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The frog prince
Jax LOVED everything about Halloween. The walking around, collecting of candy, socializing, and staying up late ... he had a blast.
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