Quick Update – Feb 2012

Saturday we went to Town Hall to see THEESatisfaction family concert.  Adin and Zane both enjoyed the music, Adin even got on stage during the performance when the band invited kids up to join them.  He was dancing a little bit and walking around the stage so he could get closer to the girls singing.  It was pretty cute and surprising that he did it.  We did have one casuality of the outing though, Adin’s digger went missing.  He brought it into the concert hall but when we got to the car we realized we didn’t have it.  I went back inside to see if I could find it but I couldn’t find it anywhere.  I called over to Town Hall today but it’s not in lost & found so I think digger may be gone for good.  Adin has been asking for it but understands that he was supposed to keep track of it and that we might not get it back.

On Sunday morning, Adin & I spent some time outside planting primroses he bought me for Valentine’s Day.  He was so excited to get them planted, he had his shovels out and dug most of the holes than watered the flowers.  After planting the flowers, it was time for us to head to swim class.  Adin has really been enjoying his new class and is learning a lot of new skills.  Zane is also enjoying his swim class and will be moving into a new level for the next session which starts in 2 weeks.

Adin and Zane’s preschool is on winter break this week.  Today they hit the play zone at Bellevue Square mall with some friends.  Adin got a bloody lip after jumping into another boy and whacking his face on the boy’s head.  During dinner tonight, Adin explained to me what happened and that he had cried for a little while but then had a drink of water and felt better so they went to look at 2 different toy stores.

Last week we started transitioning Zane to one nap a day.  He was taking his morning nap without issue but then did not want to take an afternoon nap.  He’d also get really upset, crying & screaming at nap time and bedtime.  It’s been going surprising well even with Zane dealing with a really runny nose and congestion which we think may be caused by teething.

Adin has been very defiant the past couple of weeks.  He’s been throwing food and pouring his drink onto the table or his plate during mealtimes, being rough with Zane and generally ignoring every instruction that we give him.  We hope that he works through whatever is going on soon since this behavior can be quite exhausting.

Oh the Drama….

The last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of big emotions.  It seems like Adin & Zane both are shedding tears on a daily basis.  Adin has been getting very frustrated lately with Zane interferring with his play and also wants whichever parent is with him to play & basically ignore Zane.  Zane on the other hand is enjoying his new mobility and likes to climb up & down the stairs.  He gets very frustrated when we try to keep him in the playroom and will throw a little tantrum if he doesn’t get his way.  Zane also is going through a mommy phase right now and wants to be with me whenever I’m home.  He gets mad and will yell & cry if I try to do something away from him.  The combination can be exhausting.  Who knew that boys were full of such drama?!

Back to a regular week

Last Saturday we were finally able to get everyone out of the house since the weather warmed up and our precipitation switched over to rain.  After breakfast we all headed out to Costco to replenish our grocery supplies.  Adin & Zane both enjoy trips to Costco; Adin was especially pleased that he got a few samples to eat while we were shopping.  Once we got back home, Doug had the fun job of putting everything away while Adin, Zane & I played outside for a bit.  While the boys were napping I took the opportunity to go to the gym – now that I have a membership again, I’m determined to get there 2 days a week!  On Sunday, Adin and Zane both had their swim lessons.  Doug has been taking Zane to his class which starts at 10:30 and then I took Adin over around 11 so we could all swim in the family pool until Adin’s class started.  Zane’s class is not as advanced as what he was doing in Waterbabies though Doug has been doing alternate things with Zane to keep with his level.  Adin’s class is going well – he’s picked up on the arm movements quite well.  There are 3 other kids in Adin’s class – two boys that are at least 5 by my guess and a girl that looks to be about 4.  One of the boys was kind of getting in Adin’s face during class this Sunday and trying to take a ring away that Adin had.  I really wanted to go over there and tell the kid to knock it off but Adin was basically ignoring him and didn’t seem upset by his behavior so I had to swallow my instinct to defend him and instead sat back to observe the situation.  After class I asked Adin how he enjoyed class and he said “good”.   We talked about some of the things that they did and he didn’t mention that boy bothering him so I decided not to bring it up.

Adin was excited to return to school this week.  On Monday and Tuesday they watched a short video of Eric Carle painting which Adin thought was great and couldn’t wait to tell me about when I got home from work.  Wednesday Doug was responsible for snack which was orange-cranberry muffins.  Apparently this was a big hit with the kids since he had Adin and 5 to 6 of his classmates helping in the kitchen.  Adin had helped Doug do some prep work the night before and was really excited about it being their turn for snack again.  Adin got another surprise on Wednesday when he got to bring the Eric Carle ’take home bag’ with him and spent Friday morning working on his Eric Carle collage.

Zane went to his class on Friday and had a great time.  He was walking all over the school and exploring everything.  Zane continues to do some walking on his own, walking holding onto our hands and crawling.  Sometimes he is really motivated to walk on his own and other times he really wants to hold onto our hands to walk & gets really frustrated if we don’t do it for him.  He’s always on the go and still enjoys getting into whatever Adin is playing with.  Zane also loves to climb and goes up the steps quickly.  He really wants to go down the steps walking which we strongly discourage!  Zane loves to look outside, play with light switches and open & close things.  He is very vocal and has a large number of words in his repertoire including hi, car, cat, gar (which is for garbage).  Like his big brother, Zane is fascinated with watching garbage trucks.  Anytime we say the word garbage, he looks out the window to see if one of the garbage trucks is coming.  He’s still a champion sleeper and eater.  Since we returned from Sacramento, Zane has been sleeping in until 10 am most days and then will take his afternoon from ~1 or 1:30 to ~4 or 5 pm.  He’s got a large range of foods in his diet now including chicken, lamb and eggs.  Zane really enjoys feeding himself and most meals we try to have things that he can eat on his own.  He’s really interested in using a spoon and will often take the spoon from us after we put food on it and put it in his mouth on his own.  We also will give him a bowl of food and the spoon to let him practice getting the food on the spoon.  Its hit or miss with that but he enjoys the practice!  Zane is completely off bottles now and drinks from his sippy cup and also from regular glass cups when in his high chair.  Zane still has a primarily happy disposition but does experience strong emotions.  He’ll throw himself onto the ground, crying & screaming when he’s frustrated.  He needs a couple of moments to do that and then will re-engage with us.  I have to wonder if this will increase or decrease as he gets older!

Adin & Zane also hosted a playdate with a few friends on Thursday and with Austin for a little while on Friday afternoon.  We don’t have much planned for the boys this weekend outside of swim class on Sunday.  Doug & I are escaping, I mean, going out on Saturday night which we are both looking forward to as having a meal without children is a luxury we don’t get very often!

Snow, snow, snow!

It started snowing here on Saturday afternoon when we were on our way home from a family concert at Town Hall in Seattle.  We have a couple of inches on the ground and the forecast is calling for more snow through Wednesday.  Adin has been so excited to have snow so we’ve been outside to play several times each day.  Sunday morning when he woke up and saw that there was more snow on the ground & that all the tracks he made the day before were covered up, he asked to go outside.  I figured there was no way I’d get him to do anything else so by 7:30 Adin & I were bundled up in warm clothes and playing outside.  Yesterday I had Zane out in the stroller while it was snowing which he thought was quite funny.  Today we bundled him up in his snowsuit and took him outside again.  He doesn’t want to touch the snow but did have fun riding on the sled with Adin and really liked it when Doug took him down the hill in the sled.  Adin has been having fun pulling the sled around, today he loaded up small meow (a stuffed animal that is really a dog but we call him small meow)  in the sled and we walked him around the neighborhood.  Adin also enjoys riding in the slide and he did surprisingly well holding onto Zane while Doug pulled them around.  Adin also had fun going down the hill in the sled with Doug.

Doug pulling Adin & Zane on the sled

Last week the boys were both back at school though neither one of them was feeling all that great.  Adin had gotten over his fever by Monday (he had a fever from Friday through Sunday) but still had a stuffy nose and was coughing.  At school he was fine but his mood at home wasn’t that great either!  Fortunately he seems to be completely recovered now.  Zane had a slight fever one day along with a stuffy nose and cough.  Zane still has a cough mostly during the night but that is getting better since we put the humidifier in his room.  Doug has also been sick and is slowly recovering.

The first weekend in January Adin & Zane both started their swim lessons at the proclub.  Adin’s class is more advanced then what he was doing at Waterbabies - doing some actual arm strokes both face down going forward in the water and on their backs.  He picked up on the technique right away and says that he is enjoying his class.  Zane’s class is pretty similiar to his waterbabies class so far (since the roads were still covered with snow on Sunday morning and he wasn’t feeling well we decided not to take Zane to his class this past weekend).

Our first Sacramento visit

We travelled to Sacramento to visit Grandpa, Donna & Grandma from December 27th – January 2nd.  The boys did great at the airport and during the flights.  Adin is such a travel pro by now, he explained the entire process of checking in, going through security, boarding the airplane and the flight to Zane.  He didn’t want Zane to get scared so thought it was his responsibility to explain how things go!

Friday we went to the Sacramento Railroad museum which Adin was very excited about.  There are a number of engines and train cars in one part of the museum that you can look at and go into.  Adin seemed a little bit overwhelmed at first since there was so much to see so we let him set the pace of how long he wanted to look at each thing and helped guide him to each of the different cars.  He even got to sit in one of the engines and pull on some of the controls which he thought was very cool.  After looking at the exhibits, we went upstairs and spent some time at the kids area which had 3 large train tables with lots of tracks & trains to play with.  Adin & Zane both enjoyed playing with the trains there.  After playing for a while, we walked through an exhibit of model trains and left the museum.  We went for lunch at the Flaming Grill.  Adin & Zane both had a blast sitting in the outdoor eating area.  Zane chowed down on the lunch that Doug had packed and Adin ate an entire half of the buffalo cheese-burger (and fries!) that I had ordered.

On New Year’s Day we all took the boys to a playground so they could expend some energy outside.  The other days of the visit, we spent at Grandpa & Donna’s house which had been stocked with fun toys for Adin & Zane.  By the end of the trip, Zane had mastered getting on & off a riding toy and pushing himself on it.  Zane also enjoyed pushing Adin while he was riding on the truck!

The weather was a little bit warmer in Sacramento than in Seattle plus we had sunny blue skies a couple of days which was nice!  The only drawback to the trip was that Zane did not want to sleep in the pack & play.  He would scream & cry anytime we put him into it.  For bedtime we were able to get him to sleep in it for a few hours but he always ended up in bed with Doug & I.  We gave up on trying to have him sleep in it for nap times so I ended up holding him so he would actually get some naps during the day.  Adin slept well in the air mattress and sleeping bag that Grandpa & Donna got for him.  It was the first time he had used either of those things so he thought it was fun.  He did tell us that next time we visit he needs a quieter place to sleep!

We enjoyed spending time visiting with Grandpa, Donna and Grandma & look forward to seeing them again in March.