Autumn 10 month update

Autumn is doing great and a sweet precious little laughter. She loves to laugh at everyone and makes herself laugh out loud all the time. She can eat Cheerios and American Cheese and I just started her off on mini-ravioli (carrot and cheese) which she LOVES. She is cruising but still nowhere close to walking (Sean disagrees with me on this one.) I say it will take her another month + to make that happen on her little narrow feet. She is now 31 inches tall which is off the chart in height(2 inches taller than Ronin at the same age) and 18.14 lbs - 50% (2 lbs lighter than Ronin.)

Continued potty-training fun

So last night Ronin takes off his diaper and goes into my bathroom. I hear "Oh no oh no oh no. Mama I'm a peein'! I'm a peein on the floor. MOMMY!" I run in and see a drop on the floor because once he sees he is doing it - the peeing stops because he scares himself. I explain that it is okay. He is learning to feel the peein' feeling. "Mommy I have accident. My penis is spillin'. I'm a peein' and a spillin'." I pissed myself with laughter.

A day at Grandma's

Ronin and Autumn spent the day at my mom’s yesterday. Ronin was so excited that when he woke up in the morning he told us to wake up Autumn so they could head on over. As soon as they arrived Celina (the Nanny) carried Ronin into the house. Of course he would walk but she hasn’t seen him for quite some time so I think she wanted to make sure to get some extra squeezes in. Once inside Ronin proceeded to eat my mother out of house and home - breakfast was a bowl of Cheerioes (that he wanted to share with his sister,) a banana and a fruit bar. An hour later he has a juice box and fish crackers. Then lunch was pizza and red grapes and another snack of bagel cream cheese and water. By the time he came home – his belly was sticking so far out he said “Ronin ate too much at Vovo’s.”

Ronin and Autumn crawled all over her kitchen floor and played outside until the “tunder and lightening came” since there was a big storm Ronin had to ensure Autumn’s safety and told everyone to “come inside and be careful of baby Almond.” At one point I think my mom stepped on Autumn finger and when she cried – Ronin ran over and said, “not nice Vovo. Must be careful of baby Almond. She little.” Mom apologized and all was well again. Ronin walked Spike with Mom outside and then found Mom’s stash of holiday toys. He proceeded to take them out one by one and tell my mom that he needed all 4 – one for daddy, one for mommy, one for baby Almond and one for Ronin.” If he left any behind then “they would cry” and “all toys should be together.” Autumn went off for her nap per usual and Ronin rested on the couch with a pillow, a blanket and a curious George to cuddle. When Sean picked the kids up they didn’t want to come home.

When I came home - Ronin says "what I have for you?" Which means "what do you have for me?"

He takes my purse off the counter and looks inside. “I see books for you!” We had to immediately sit on the kitchen floor and read If a Pig has a Party. He loved it! I definitely need the 3rd in the series. Now Ronin is telling everyone that he is having a party for his birthday and he loves balloons. "I love balloons, love balloons, I love love love balloons. And cake!" That is his new song. He wasn't so thrilled with the other book about Mickey (confused that the character wasn't a mouse) and was afraid and thought that since Mickey was baked into a cake he would be hurt in the oven. "That is scary mommy!" I am loving the complex thinking going on inside of Ronin’s head.

Autumn milestone:
September 9, 2008 – Autumn stood up. She didn’t use any other object to stand. She just stood up on mom’s patio in order to get some more attention from mom, Celina and Ronin.

Cruising and swim class for Ronin

Autumn

Autumn is now actively cruising the couch and on Saturday she pivoted her foot and stood by herself for about 5 seconds. Then she realized what she was doing and instantly sat down on her bum. She smiled and giggled and crawled as fast as she could over to me and started jabbering. She was clearing telling me what she had just done and wanted to know if I had witnessed it. I told her yes and she seemed thrilled.

Ronin

Ronin and I started Advanced Parent and tot class at Wings Over Water. Ronin loved it. We started with him sitting on the wall and waiting for me to tell him to jump in. He listened well and told everyone in the class that he “listened with his ears.” There was two children in the class older then him and two children who were younger. Ronin sang the ABCs for everyone and applauded himself with gusto. Ronin also blew bubbles in the water and even went underneath the water 2x. There was one actively that was clearly his favorite – they asked each child to climb onto a red mat that was floating in the water. Ronin climbed and stood up and walked across the suspended mat. He asked to hold my hand and when he got to the end – I told him to wait and he said, “mommy I wait for you” and then I told him to jump. He jumped with all the glee a little man of 2-1/2 can muster and I caught him in the water. After swim class Ronin and I went out for breakfast where he ordered “a bagel cream cheese and a red cookie.” He also told the waitress, “I thirsty but I have a juice box. It’s okay.” When we got home he told daddy “I went to swim class and had a lot of fun. I jumped and played and splashed in the water.” When I asked him if he wanted to go back he said “YES, we go for mommy-Ronin time. Special fun!”

Yellow Submarine and Praying Mantis

We all live in The Yellow Submarine. Sean and I exposed Ronin to this Beatles classic. We were a tad concerned about how Ronin would respond to the blue meanies but he was so enthralled – he watched the entire movie. We had to replay All Together Now about 6 times and Ronin learned the words quickly so he could join in the singing. Ronin jumped up and danced to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Autumn couldn’t take her eyes off her brother.

Labor Day Weekend was packed with “a lot of fun!” We went swimming in the deep end of the pool with a white and orange beach ball, played in the local playground and created a pirate ship and pirate treasure that we had to steal back from the piggie pirates, collected berries from trees “that are not to eat. Berries make tummy hurt!” We had to remind Ronin of this so he wouldn’t eat the berries. After his bucket had a good supply – he would go traipsing off to “feed the birds the berries!” Ronin also enjoyed going “grocery shopping with daddy to buy snacks and mangos!” And then there was the praying mantis. On Monday morning when I took Autumn out for a stroll (she squeaked as soon as she saw the stroller – she LOVES to be outside) a praying mantis fell down on our doorstep. I immediately called the boys and told them to come and see it. It was well over 12 inches long and very cool. It appeared to have decided that it wanted to live on our doorstep and stayed there all day. Last night before Ronin went to sleep – we all say goodnight to the praying mantis and wished him well finding his home that night in the dark. Ronin wanted to have him come inside and live in “Ronin’s house” but we told him he preferred it outside with the other bugs ‘like caterpillars, centipedes and spiders.”

Talking side-bar: Ronin is talking nonstop. He likes to sing “How much is that doggy in the window, twinkle twinkle little star, ABCs, and wheels on the bus.” He counts to 10 all the time and it now working on 10-17. Sometimes he still thinks his forehead is a neck and visa-versa but that will change soon. He is also listening much better now and crying less and likes to do things “MYSELF! (like take off his sneakers, shorts and diaper and “throw the yucky diaper away in the garbage.” He also said, “Mommy, go sit on the blue chair with Leno.” And “Mommy, make baby almond happy, she cry now. She is hungry and needs a bottle of milk!” These are top sentences and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

Back at the playground …Autumn got to swing in a baby swing that she loved once I would kiss her forehead every time she came my way. She also loved to crawl in the tall grass and squeal at puppies that came by to say hello. Autumn is deeply attached to Ronin and wants to touch and play with him nonstop. Once he has had enough he says, “baby Almond, now it time to leave Ronin alone!” So we try to separate him from her to give him a small break every now and again. Autumn is now cruising along the couch and eating cheerios and puffs that were once solely Ronin’s. She can also say mama and dada and some sound that is specifically for cat. She also expresses certain interest in different stuffed animals and shows a preference to ducks.