Mac had his 2-year well-child visit today and checked out great with a clean bill of health! For those who are keeping track, he measures at 29.4 pounds (55th percentile), 33.5 inches tall (30th percentile), and that head still measures at 19.5 inches around (85th percentile). The doctor raved about his strength, health and development. Not much more that was newsworthy except that at 2 years old, Mac got to use the “big boy” scale to get weighed and stood up for his height measurement!
Mommy made me a cake, and my Nana and Papa and some of my aunts, uncles and cousins came over for dinner, cake and presents! Thank you especially to Oma & Opa and Auntie Clare for sending presents for me even though you couldn’t be with me. I love them all!
It’s been busy around these parts, to say the least. But I wanted to take some time this weekend, just a week before Mac turns 2 (what?!), to write about some updates.
First, a list of Mac’s new words! This will probably be the last concrete list, as he now actually seems to try just about anything we ask him to. And when I say he can say words, it doesn’t mean he’s saying the words clearly, but usually the first syllable, enough so we can understand what he’s trying to get across. And if he knows the sign, that accompanies the word making it easier for us to understand. New to us in the last several weeks are, in no particular order: please, off/on/out/open (they all sound alike), fish (loves to watch Finding Nemo), more, water, milk, mommy, daddy, up, bath, baby, guitar, no (we avoided it as long as we could), orange, Nana, choo-choo and rub-rub (what we call his lotion and vaseline treatments); and more recently he has added: bye bye, help, Tigger, Pooh, mittens and hat. He’s even learning that (if we’re patient enough not to prompt him) he needs to put “more” and “please” together to get more, or “up” and “please” to get picked up. One of the cutest things I’ve seen in the past weeks is watching him count down to start a Wii Fit game. I started doing it - 3…2…1…Go! - along with the game, and now he tries to do it too!
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Mac is also becoming more and more independent each day! I’m sure that will help US as his little brother or sister comes along. He’s been putting his own laundry down the chute for over a year and has helped put dishes away. Now he can take off his own winter gear (coat, hat, mittens, and even boots this past week!) and hang up his coat on his little hook, put the mittens in the coat sleeve, and throw his boots - or shoes - on the pile where they belong. He puts his hat either in his coat sleeve or in the bench where the other winter gear is kept. He can put his coat on himself (thank you, Jo, for the “toddler flip!”) and tries to do his hat and mittens. This past week he started to want to put his boots on himself, which he can start but not quite finish on his own. He can almost get his pants all the way on himself, so dressing on his own may not be far behind. He’ll pile his dishes - put his cup and utensils on top of the plate - when he’s done eating, and often he’ll hand it to one of us. He even does a better job of brushing his teeth each night - practice makes perfect! He also continues to do a pretty good job putting away his toys when asked. Oh, and don’t try to peel a clementine in front of him - he’ll throw a fit! He can do it himself now…
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His interests have progressed into more of the fine-motor skills these days. He loves to color and do puzzles, and now he builds with his blocks instead of just taking them apart! And he loves to sing and play his guitar with Rick!
Mac is learning his animals too, and we’re working on shapes. He can point to (usually), when asked: cow, horse, dog, cat, and of course, fish! He also loves to sing (go figure) but isn’t yet able to keep up with the words of the songs he knows. When he hears the Alphabet Song or Old Macdonald (known in our house as “E-I-E-I-O”), he’ll make sounds to the beat, but there are no words there yet, except the E-I-E-I-O part. He can also do most of the actions for the songs we’ve been singing seemingly forever! He used to just do the “wheels” of Wheels on the Bus and the “spider” of Itsy Bitsy Spider,but now he can do almost all of them! We’ll probably keep adding from Aunt Jo’s wide selection…
The kid loves his routine, as I’m told toddlers often do. But he seems to be flexible as well, thank goodness.
How will he handle his little brother or sister? We’re not sure, but we’re hopeful. He seems to be very compassionate by nature, concerned when he hears a baby crying. He will point out any baby he sees, say the word and do the sign, with a big grin on his face, but when it’s up-close and personal, he doesn’t seem so sure.
The poor guy has such sensitive skin. His dry skin got so bad a few weeks ago we took him to the doctor and got a medicated cream for what turned out to be a flare-up of eczema. That worked wonders, and we’ll continue to try to now keep it at bay with twice-a-day “rub-rub” applications. No sooner had the eczema cleared up, then he got terrible diaper rash, possibly from teething. That didn’t get much better because he wouldn’t stop messing his diapers (stubborn kid), and then he got another rash on his leg! We took him to the doctor for that one also, which turned out to be a partially fungal, partially bacterial infection. Poor kid! We left that visit with two medicated creams and an antibiotic. That is clearing up now as well. We’ll really have to watch his skin as the seasons change and into the summer. Everything should be able to be kept under control if we make sure to eliminate the possible irritations.
Stay tuned for pictures of our 2-year-old next week!
It all started last week with the beginning of my school break. Jeremy’s work is slow right now too, which usually means lots of family time over the holidays. We had his family parties the two weekends before, one at our house and the other at a cousin’s. Mac got to meet LOTS of Elferings! Monday I had to catch up with all my last-minute shopping and errands (yuck). Tuesday we traveled to Sauk Centre to visit Jeremy’s grandma for the day and had lunch there. Wednesday, Mac and I had breakfast with Roxi then ran one more errand before naptime, and that night Mac stayed at his Grandma’s while I took Jeremy to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre to see Oklahoma! for his birthday. That night was also the start of all the snow we got over the next few days. We woke to several inches, so Jeremy cleared the snow while I finished our wrapping and got us ready to go to Roxi’s for our traditional Christmas Eve gathering of seafood, presents and movies. Unfortunately, with the snow delay, we only got a few presents opened before I had to leave to get to church to direct the children’s choir. Jeremy and Mac joined me at church, then we all headed back for the rest of our evening. Mac had a blast, and it was great to sit back and relax! We all stayed up past our bedtime and were glad when Mac slept in the next morning.
Christmas morning was also relaxing, though more snow had fallen overnight. We opened stockings, had some breakfast, opened more presents, played with some of Mac’s presents, and finally Jeremy went to try to clear the snow again. Unfortunately, this time it was too wet and heavy for the snow blower. Poor guy had to shovel it all. Mac and I went out to see if we could help, but it was pretty heavy… Mac liked playing in the snow though! Later that day, my sisters and their families came over to join us for movies and games. Some short videos are below, and at the bottom of this post is a longer video of part of Christmas morning.
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The next day the busy-ness continued as we packed up to head to Madison for a week-long visit. This time my sisters and their kids were going for part of the time too! We headed out as soon as we had things at the house cleaned up and ready, around Noon. Mac was very excited to see his Nana there to greet him. We had a quiet night with my mom and dad, then started to watch a movie, but it got too late to finish since Sunday promised to start early and quickly as Jeremy and I got packed up for yet another road trip - this time to Green Bay for the Packer game! Jane was originally going to go with me, but at the last minute she had work to finish, so Jeremy generously agreed to spend his birthday at Lambeau Field with me. Nice, huh? We had a great time and enjoyed a great game!
Monday was the first day I felt like I could just sit and relax all day, and it was fabulous. By the end of that day, all who were planning to be in Madison had arrived, and we enjoyed a nice dinner all together after some of the crew went bowling. Mac seems to really enjoy playing with his cousins, aunts, and Nana and Papa, and he certainly loves all the attention! Today we even took a little field trip to Olbrich Gardens where they had a holiday model train exhibit. Mac sure seemed to like that! Tonight we’ll have our big family Christmas dinner and then open our presents before watching the Badger football game. The rest of the week should slow down a bit, and parts of the MN crew will start heading back on Thursday. We’re staying until Sunday (weather permitting) and plan to visit some friends in the meantime. I’m trying to savor every bit of this vacation!
I finally caught some new things on video last week! It helps to actually have a weekend where we weren’t scurrying about… I did not, however, take time to edit them to be pretty, so forgive the raw footage.
Mac loves to help us unload the dishwasher. We take out the breakables and sharps, and he prides himself on putting away the utensils. And if he can reach one of his plates and/or forks, he will take those out and put them on the table (he can’t reach that cupboard). He can’t reach the drawer where the utensils go, but he puts them in the drawer below. At least we know where to look if anything is missing!
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Mac has also finally started saying a few words last month. I mentioned this in my last post - his first word was “ball,” but now he has even more! On this video I caught his first few words - ball, cheese and shoes. He can now also say “yes,” and apparently can ask for “pop” (thanks, Jo).
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Mac LOVES to play basketball! Any kind of ball is ok, actually. I caught some of his playing on video too, but this one is longer, again because it’s not edited yet. You can even catch some of his other antics - like a “Go Pack Go” cheer when he hears it. He also can signal “touchdown” and “first down,” though those aren’t shown well here. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?
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Mac’s personality is certainly changing these days. He has a lot more temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, for one thing. But he also has moments of sheer joy and others of being an amazingly good boy. Sometimes he’ll put away his toys the first time we ask, other times he’ll scream and holler instead. He’s still learning his manners and doing quite well at remembering to say (sign) “thank you” when he’s given something. It’s not much of a mystery anymore what Mac is trying to communicate. He uses his pointing a lot these days or just grabs our hands and pulls us. I’m told these are all typical toddler behaviors, the ups and downs, and we try to deal with them as consistently as possible. We will soon need to practice some more strict discipline measures, though, because those tantrums can be accompanied by hitting, and he’s taken to some shoving as well. Time-outs, here we come!
Meal times can sometimes be a struggle, and other times be a great family moment. The one thing Mac never seems to forget is that we pray before we eat. Ok, so he usually starts eating first, but as soon as Jeremy and I sit down with him (or one of us if only one is home), Mac stops what he’s doing, puts down is cup or fork, and puts out his hands. It’s just precious!
The next thing I have to try to capture on video is his singing. During one of his videos, they sing the alphabet song. And he tries to sing with them! I had to ask my sister if they do anything with that song at daycare, because I couldn’t believe he’d learned it just from that video - we don’t watch it enough. She confirmed that he hears it probably once or twice a day there. And last week he was playing with a farm animal See-n-Say, and when Old MacDonald played, he sang the E-I-E-I-O part! Even more amazing is when another toy plays that music - without the words - he does the same thing!
No, we didn’t attend any fancy parties this year, but we did have two very exciting milestones over the past two days!
Yesterday, Mac finally said his first word: BALL. We were sitting on the couch looking at a book where I was asking him to point at the kitty, puppy and baby. He did really well. Then I asked if he could say “baby.” He did the sign! However, we don’t do that sign with him, so the only place he would have learned it is from his My First Signs video. I asked him to “say” it again when Jeremy came into the room, and he did! So then I was trying to think of other words that might also be on that video but we don’t do the signs for. I said, “Mac, can you say ball?” And he did! He SAID it! I asked him a few more times, and he repeated it. But we wanted one more little test. I pulled a ball out of his toy box, showed it to him and said, “Mac, what’s this?” He said BALL! So that’s it, his official first word is ball. We’ll try to get it on video as soon as possible!
Our other exciting event was Mac’s first “trick or treat” this Halloween. Our very generous neighbor offered for us to use one of the adorable costumes she’s been saving up, so Mac dressed as a cow! He carried his own little pail for his candy and even rang the doorbell himself where he could. He was sure to say (sign) “thank you” also when he got some candy (which is more than I can say for some of the kids who came to our door - what is happening with kids these days?!). At one house he was given the choice of what to take - instead he took something out of his pail and put that in the basket!
I haven’t had a lot of free time lately to catch everyone up on Mac’s latest tricks & milestones, but I have tried to keep track of them, though for the most part dates are lost. There are only two dates I made note of: September 9th, he got out of his crib (but not again since) and mastered drinking out of a straw; September 22nd, he took our two big pillows in the basement, piled them up near the light switch, and proceeded to climb on them to turn the light on and off; and September 25th he learned how to eat an ice cream cone (thanks, Aunt Jo).
Mac will almost always, when asked, give hugs and kisses, high fives, and now (thanks to the tutelage of Uncle Al) give “fist bumps.”
He knows what “night night” means and will sometimes even go to his crib on his own. When I put him in bed, he’ll even reach up to give me kisses before he lies down.
He now signs for water, though like “help,” it’s not quite the right sign. He very often now will grab our hands to take us to what he wants. That includes things like when he throws his ball where he can’t reach it or wants his milk from the refrigerator. He also signs “thank you” when prompted, so we’re pushing the manners pretty hard right now.
The kid will throw just about anything he can pick up, and we’re trying hard now to squelch that urge and limit the throwing just to balls. When he started going to volleyball practice with me, somehow he picked up on the fact that the hoops around the court were meant to have balls thrown through them. He’ll keep on trying to throw a volleyball through those hoops - it’s just adorable! He’ll also try to throw them over the volleyball net… And this past week, Jane took some of the toddler activities out of her attic, including a little basketball hoop. Apparently he just can’t get enough of it!
Mac is starting to show signs of being a very good helper. Besides the chore of throwing his laundry down the chute, at which he’s a pro by now, he helps clean up his toys when asked (usually), and loves to help put away the dishes from the dishwasher. Basically, we take out the dangerous, heavy and breakable items, then we let him at the rest to see what he’ll do. He usually takes the silverware and puts it all in a drawer just below the silverware drawer (which he can’t quite reach yet), and he’ll put his plates on the table. The cutest thing is to watch him take out his cups and the little ziploc-type containers that get water in the edges, and reach them up as close to the sink as he can get, and shake them - just like I do! Amazing how much he learns by watching.
Mac loves to run and dance, too, both of which are pretty entertaining to watch. He’ll push the button on a toy in the kitchen that plays music, and boogie down until it stops. It’s hilarious!
Mac has become quite conversational in the last couple of weeks. He points more and seems to be trying to communicate in a different way. I’m hoping this means words are not too far off! He still has not spoken his first word.
All in all, Mac is still just a delightful kid. Sure, he can be stubborn and cranky, but we know we’re very spoiled with such a good boy. He may whine and complain when we tell him “no” or “stop,” but he stops what he’s doing. He may not like to be told he’s “all done” in a room or with a toy, but he does stop. He seems truly happy and joyful in his playing and interacting with others.
Amazed once again. When you want to go boating and all your babysitters are either out of town or with you on the boat, you have but two choices - don’t go, or take the kid with you… so we took him, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, as always. And as has happened time and time again, our wonderful little boy amazed us yet again with his tolerance for something new and very different.
He didn’t even fuss when getting his life jacket on this time! He’s been on docks before, and pontoon boat rides (and the ferry boats at Disney), but never a faster boat. We figured he’d probably be ok, but he was even better that we had hoped. He sat nicely in laps when required and only briefly fussed when given a limit to what he could do or where he could go - nothing different than when we’re at home, actually. It helped tremendously that his Aunt Jane was with us, as she is amazing when it comes to entertaining a little one with nearly nothing to work with! Her brain definitely works in a different way than mine: rope + water bottle with a clip = water bottle zip line! Seriously - amazing - thank you, Jane! Jeremy did a great job navigating the traffic and dealing with the typical Lake Minnetonka crowd (not so smart, to be nice). Jane even got a skiing run in! And we weren’t sure how Mac would handle the idea of Jane getting in the water and him not being able to, and actually, the only tough moments were when we were coming around to get her and he couldn’t see her. As soon as I moved him where he could see her, he was fine. What a compassionate little boy he will be? And at one point he was trying to drink while we were on some bumpy waters, and he hit his mouth and it hurt. But he was fine after the few minutes it took to calm down again. Jeremy even let him sit on his lap and play with the steering and buttons a little bit - he LOVED that! He seemed just mesmorized by the waves and the wake, and the water. We had such a wonderful time we’re going to try it again today!
We’ve really been able to relax this weekend, and it’s been a refreshing change from previous years. Fall is busy in our household with school starting, volleyball, and Jeremy’s schedule getting so busy. This year, however, because we started school a week before Labor Day, we were off Friday and have a nice 4-day weekend. So instead of scrambling to finish last-minute items to be ready for students - that was last weekend - we get to enjoy the time off! Mac and I enjoyed a day together on Friday while Jeremy was working, and yesterday we had some fun together all three of us! Today we’re looking forward to taking the boat out for what might be one of the last times we get it out this year, and tomorrow we might do the same. Mac gets his first ride on our boat - watch for pictures!
And to get caught up on all the other goings on…
We left off in my last post with our cabin trip and the allergy news. We spoke to the pediatrician again for some more information about the dog/hive reaction, and he did confirm it could have been the saliva - either a stronger reaction would be expected from saliva versus dander, or something the dogs ate contained another allergen. Either one could cause the hives, and we (in the end, not counting the panicking part) acted appropriately. The weekend was really nice and relaxing and a great opportunity to get to know Jeremy’s friends better. The boys spents some time playing their games while the girls got to know each other and played some of our own, and we also all played some games as a big group - 10 in all, not counting the three kids. Although it was a tough weekend to be gone, just before workshop week, I have to admit it was a welcome required rest once we got settled! Mac seemed to also enjoy his time playing in the lake, on the beach, in the sand, and with the other kids. He sure slept good!
And after that, the stress began… workshop week! It started with a day-long training on our new standardized testing system. This will be an incredibly good tool for our teachers and looks to accurately report on students’ progress and abilities. It was a long day, and we hosted it at Blessed Trinity - no big deal except it is a computerized test! So I had to make sure everything was working as we hosted 40 individuals from about seven different schools. It went great! Jeremy worked that day too, and Mac got to spend the day with Grandma!
Tuesday our teachers attended another day-long workshop on scaffolding instruction, but I did not have to attend since I’m not a classroom teacher. I had a great day with Mac, working during his naptime, and then took him to a 6-month follow-up in the neurobehavioral development study at the U. It was fun to see how he reacted to different toys and activities. He certainly is concrete-sequential. He likes things he can put in and take out, and things that seem to have a logical base. His favorites seemed to be anything like a ball and a board with holes into which he got to put pegs/dowels.
Wednesday was a full workshop day and the first day all our staff was together. We got through numerous business activities, celebrated Mass with the staff members of all three parishes, and enjoyed lunch together before our afternoon portion of the meeting. Jeremy worked again, and Mac went to daycare - all his friends from last year and summer were there! I worked until about 4:30 finishing up some student computers at our Penn campus.
Lucky for us, we worked so hard on Wednesday, that we didn’t have a faculty meeting on Thursday! I worked at home in the morning and during Mac’s nap, then Mac and I joined Roxi, Robin and Paige (Jeremy’s cousin & her daughter) at the fair! After a few hours there, we joined Jeremy and Robin’s husband Dirk at Big Ten for dinner where Mathew works. It was a busy fun day!
Friday I didn’t have to go in to work either, but I worked at home again. Mac was such a good boy! He played nicely on his own, and then I’d take breaks to play with him once in a while. He let me get almost all my work done, and after his nap we joined the relatives again at Roxi’s for dinner.
Saturday we got together with the relatives for a round of golf (9 holes - and yes, we took Mac with us!) and a BBQ.
Sunday the three of us went to the fair, where Jeremy would argue Mac’s favorite is the Moo Booth (or whatever they call that all-you-can-drink milk stand).
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And then began the first week of school! Mac went to daycare on his “regular” schedule again, and Jeremy worked as well. It was tough for all of us to get up early, all week, but we made it. I started volleyball practices on Monday also, so I wasn’t home until about 4:30. My friend Lisa is again helping out by picking up Mac on her way in, so he got to play during my practices Monday and Wednesday and has done pretty well so far. Tuesday after school I had a meeting to introduce the Penn teachers to the new testing system, with the help of two teacher who also attended the training the week before. The whole week was filled with lots of student data issues and processes, as per usual for the first week of school. There are lots of places I need to get data and lists set up, and with people still registering the first week it makes finalizing lists a bit tricky. But we made it! Usually by about the third week things settle down and I can start concentrating on more instructional issues. Volleyball is off to a great start with almost the same exact team I coached last year. They are a terrific group of girls who work well together and most importantly like to have fun!
