August 2008 mommies

I have never actually tried showing Ethan a moving. On the other hand I suspect there will be a time that I will struggle to get him away from tv so why encourage it now!

Way to go Erin with the ball! Ethan is addicted to his. It was his first word! And he is quite skilled at it. Last Sat he was kicking a ball on the deck of a beach restaurant and I heard someone ask: "how old is that child?". No interest though in toys like trucks and cars etc, but loves his scooter.

So Ladybird I am going to suggest that you bring Erin's scooter with on the playdate - because as you well know sharing is not part of the vocabulary at this age! Fortunately we have quite a few balls around so that should not be a problem.

She spends by far the bulk of her playtime outside. Either going for walks, picking all (!) the flowers on the pavements or fields, playing at the park, riding her scooter or kicking a ball. There's been a lot of soccer talk in the house lately and ever since, she's been kicking her ball a lot more. She seems to be getting rather good at it. Who says girls can't play soccer?

Katz, we have also been struggling with those back molars. They are taking forever to cut.

Erin also wakes up during the night most nights, at about 3am then just wants to sleep with her mommy. She takes about an hour to settle back to sleep then, although she doesn't talk or try to play then - she's just restless for an hour trying to get back to sleep She actually slept right through from 19h30 to 06h45 for 3 consecutive nights and I'm still in shock about that. Funny how one still wakes up even when they're sleeping...?

Lori, Erin loves puzzles. She does seem to be a bit advanced in that area, as she's been doing (and loving) puzzles for about 6 months.
She also loves the telly and would happily watch the whole day if she were allowed. But I limit her to approx an hour a day. Just to give me some space as well, although I do have to watch with her... At the moment, she absolultely loves the movie, Homeward Bound. She talks about it constantly and wants to watch it every night. No more Barney or Teletubbies (thank goodness, if you ask me).

Hey Katz
Ethan is not that interested in TV - probably a good thing but will watch a little bit of teletubbies and Barney - with the latter he is only really interested in the bits where they sing and dance!
I have been giving him books and crayons to colour - he loves writing in fact - whenever he sees a pen, he wants to "colour" as he calls it. This morning he was lying on his tummy on the floor "colouring" on a random piece of paper while I was packing his bag.
I have also introduced the wooden puzzles a while ago, but he only recently started to pay attention to them - maybe because he now figures them out. I think I will ask people to buy him puzzles for his birthday.
He also loves books - not really interested in the story at this stage, but we identify objects, animals, etc.
I would love to hear from the other moms as well.

oh the little ones are growing up so quickly . What sorts of stimulation do you give the kids. Havana watches tv for about an hour a day , but still having trouble sleeping and i noticed that he back molars are now trying to cut through , its not pretty and painful for me with the lack of sleep

Hi Ladies
Jewel I have also learned that should not stress too much about their eating habits at this point. Ethan goes through phases where he would fininis his food and then ask for more and other times he won't touch it at all. I keep remembering what the midwife told me when Ethan refused to drink from a bottle and I was stressed out about going back to work. She said that babies (and I guess toddlers) will not commit suicide through starving themselves. So just holdout until they are ready for food.
Ulandy - what a co-incidence - the two Es . Ethan was actually born a week early. Anyway I give him parmalat's first growth milk and he finishes two 250 ml bottles a day and sometimes ask for another bottle at night. At what point do we stop the bottle feeding and start giving them milk in a mug/cup?
As for the napping - Ethan stays with my MIL and she has no problem putting him down, but with us over weekends its altogether a different story. Sometimes his dad wil actually rock him to sleep, but if I am really at my wits end I take him for a ride in the car. Not the best method but it works..

yes, this is such a great age! I just love her to bits. My childless friends often remark on how much more Erin and i are bonding now than in the beginning. Not that we weren't before, mind you, I just love that she has more of a personality now. And then some, of course

Potty-training? we are taking a break from that. But I feel no pressure, we can try when she's ready. She lets me know before she makes a number two, but she won't go sit on the potty to make it. Oh well.

Erin eats really well, I must say I've never really had problems in that area. She goes thru phases where she won't want to eat, but then again don't we all? She likes veggies and thinks cucumber is the greatest snack ever. Next to cheeeeps, as she calls it
I find that I don't push her to eat, and she is welcome to tell me "no, thank you, mommy" when she's had enough. And she does in no uncertain terms! Some nights all she'll eat is rice, other nights only peas but hey, it all counts. I've read that one must look at their diet over the course of a week - not over a day and this creates much less stress when one sees that actually, over a week they ate rather well. Even when they won't touch the spaghetti bolognaise you so lovingly prepared.