ILX Parenting 3: Back In (Potty) Training

i bet! does he live near you?

No, not at all: my sister lives in Michigan near my parents and I'm in NYC. Dunno when I'll see the neph again, but he really was a pleasure at Christmas hols. We basically fought over holding him for long periods.

Take 2:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2216781656_745486514d.jpg?v=0

he's cute now but I bet those eyes = superfox by late teens

He definitely got the eyelashes from his dad, those starry eyes don't run in MY family.

okay, we are beginning to think babies got swapped at the hospital - beeps doesnt like spaghetti OR cheese. WTF? if she had her way all she would eat is squash and sweet potato.

also, she took two unassisted baby steps toward PP about 10 days ago. YAY! nothing since though.

I was holding a sweet potato in my hands when she did that.

Don't want to count our chickens, but Ava & Lulu seem to be emerging from their latest bouts of snotdom. (Only today a neighbourhood mum emailed that her youngest was suffering from hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and Ava has had the mouth symptoms (so did we, actually), but nothing else...so maybe she's about to embark on another viral journey of misery altogether).

Here's Ava planning world domination...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2299/2237341375_d1202f2c20.jpg

Molly was having such a good time pointing to all these kid pictures that we thought we should put this new pic up there:
http://i29.tinypic.com/15y68gi.jpg

What a star. (Who is MONSTER CAT back there?)

That's Jake, he was just hanging out. And he's not really all that big, it's just the perspective. (You should see Abe, for instance -- THAT one is a monster.)

I've been taking terribly grainy photos with my film slr.... here's aidan a few weeks ago:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2322/2237864522_bf06248749_b.jpg

Happy Pamcakes Day!

(The Boy flips out)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nedtrifle/2245019332/"; title="The Boy flips out for Pancake Day by Ned Trifle, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2245019332_17d5d1572f.jpg"; width="375" height="500" alt="The Boy flips out for Pancake Day" /></a>

Darnation...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2245019332_17d5d1572f.jpg

Have I mentioned your son rules? And a cook at that, he is in fine company.

a recent pic of da gyrlz:

http://www.appelstein.com/ea.jpg

Esther has insisted on wearing that velour dress EVERY DAY for the past couple of weeks, btw. She gets very upset when she hears it's in the wash.

I should also mention that I'm going to a dad's Valentine's Day brunch at E's preschool this weekend. I am more excited about this than just about any rock show I've attended for the past few years. Seriously.

Some pics from December:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2039/2245311012_56fbe68481.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2314/2244516659_9ce7d10db6.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2089/2244515243_ab0270cefc.jpg

Okay how is it that all your kids are so REDONK?? Especially that chipmunk on the right, he's amazing...

I know not what REDONK is. He definitely has the chipmunk cheek thing going on there though.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2114/2244519233_a0f536ec82.jpg

REDONKORATED

i wish i could see that but no flickr at work :(

guys, im looking for a toddler carseat for beeps and ive decided on the grace safeseat step 2. the question is, which material to get it in. a lot of them have the shiny material which is supposed to reduce heat but some epoeple in amazon reviews etc say it actually seems to make their kids sweaty. does anyone have any experience with this stuff in summer?

grace = graco, of course

http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/images/2008/02/14/img_7243_6.jpg

Charlotte expressing her freedom of choice.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2265942331_d37f5d91fa.jpg

Ok, I've been off ILX for a while now, but decided to come back and plaster this pic of Liesje on the parenting thread. She's almost four months and NOT READY for sleeping through the night AT ALL. Most evenings/nights she wakes up every couple of hours (three to four, sometimes two). It's driving me completely bonkers tbh. I can handle the days (or rather daaazzzzeee) but nights? Meh. Double meh with urgh on top. Ophelia slept through at 2,5 months. I know I shouldn't compare, but when most books tell you that the majority does and when I visit Kind&Gezin (Child Care Organisation) every f*cking mother raves about her kid sleeping through at 1,5 months (I know I am exaggerating) then I want to SCREAM: WHY NOT ME??? I AM F#CKING OUT OF MY F#CKING MIND.
Clever me also taught Lliesje that going to sleep with a pacifier is lots of fun so now she wakes up and cries for a pacifier. Better than thumbsucking, I know, but not good for added sleep deprivation. Last night I completely lost it as she woke up at 9ish, half past midnight, 2:30 and so on. *sigh* And on top of that Ophelia has a urine infection again which meant that she slept with my husband a couple of nights and then one night with us. Slept? Well, no, she was in bed chattering away most of the time.

But all in all I am doing pretty fine. Completely in love with both my kids. I love how they look at eachother and then Ophelia says:"Liesje SMILES!" Brings tears to my eyes, it really does.

I've been *training* Ophelia the colours after hearing the kindergarten principal say that in the last year of kindergarten still don't know the colours. I was obsessed with O knowing all the colours. Now she goes around pointing at all objects saying its colours. Oops. :-) Next step seems to be counting. She's really up for it. Yes, I'm convinced my kid's SUPAHCLEVAH. :-)

BTW that's a sweater I knitted. This is why I'm not on ILX so much anymore, too busy nursing and knitting. :-)

Ahhh, her crown's slipped off...

All our kids are superclever!

It's "slanted and enchanted". :-)

Nice one, Alex. I think I've posted the pic of E wearing my energy dome, freshly signed by Mark Mothersbaugh at his art opening in STL.

My wife and I are going to the cinema tonight! We have a babysitter! The babysitter is a fellow mum! How did I swing this major reallocation of resources? Made sure the film was about a baby! (It is "Juno".)

New (not great quality) photos of Alice:

Dinner
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2365/2269172141_0bd1abb8b2.jpg?v=1203197754

Pudding
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2269172147_acce564a15.jpg?v=0

Post-prandial listening?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2368/2269172145_cef2ba0244.jpg?v=1203197824

Ava turned three last Thursday! We have kept her birthday celebrations going on for a full four days with staggered gift-opening and a weekend barn party at Godstone Farm in Surrey (with 30-odd guests, three of whom were also celebrating b'days). And how does she react to this extravaganza of presents and cake?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2166/2269564197_9a9352e587.jpg

I don't mean to single anyone out, but Michael -- Ava is so photogenic that it's palpably terrifying. Seriously, every shot of her looks like something by Mary Ellen Mark. Good lord.

It's true. Have you not considered selling her into a child-modelling career? She could bankroll the lot of you :)

Seriously - that "world domination" shot? That's a fuckin' album cover if I ever saw one.

You are very kind. I suppose we could submit an image to an agency, it couldn't do any harm. If they wanted her to be the acceptable face of chemical weapons exports, we could always say no. Unless the money was amazin'.

Just so Tallulah doesn't feel left out, here she is as some kind of Dr Seuss character:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2269568965_fd30e2696d.jpg

E after a busy Valentine's Day:

http://www.appelstein.com/postvd.jpg

aww..yay for love!

It just gets better and better doesn't it?! At the minute anyway! I can't believe that Aidan's 6 months already.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/2273473463_5e234117bc.jpg

We're getting adventurous with the food, the other week he tried a vegetable pakora, and gnocchi with pesto is a firm favourite

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/2252717661_ab625f4e45.jpg

wow! beeps is still eating squash from a jar. mostly because, besides chocolate pancakes, thats about all she likes.

once again, i wish i could see these flickr photos at work :(

Hey Alice's daddio with the fruit posing gave me an idea - we should all do THEME photos. Like someone picks a theme and we all take photos of our kids around that theme. It could be holding something or being somewhere or doing something etc. Could be fun?

BTW - AlexinNYC absolutely OTM. Also Lulu is the epitome of a 'gap baby' model too

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2321/2258212846_7862ca039d_m.jpg

Can I just say: going to the doctor is GREBT. We discovered she had water in her ears (as she has a mild cold) which caused pressure, hence waking up more.

Also, hey, SWADDLING ruls and so does putting a baby in a seperate room.

Result: MUCH more sleep for baby and parents.

HURRAH.

Also, no ferberizing needed at all (for mommy). Daddy forgot to swaddle and had to ferberize.

BTW very tempted to breastfeed exclusively till six months. VERY tempted. She's almost 4 mo now!

If you can do it, do it!

Time for more pictures...

Owen rocks out
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2005/2280266275_b5015e93b7.jpg

Happy Ben
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2097/2281052998_18e4a56d60.jpg

Hanging out on the couch
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/2281053196_f08ef253d6.jpg

cute!

its beeps' birthday on sunday! yay!

we've got the forward facing carseat and cow's milk ready to go. good riddance to spending $54 a week on formula. weee!

yay for beeps hitting that milestone! perhaps you should celebrate with some babe disco:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7254296.stm

featuring my fave pull-quote of the day: "some people actually borrow kids to come here with"

Happy birthday Beeps! Howie's birthday was on Sunday. He has been in the forward-facing seat for ages now, he is one tall baby. No cow's milk for us, though, as he is allergic to it. Luckily he has no such problem with breastmilk, although he has recently started sticking both hands down my top when he's hungry. Note to self: teach the boy some table manners!

Growing up:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2293728990_1ea22e2674.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2037/2292945397_57b90cd7e1.jpg

edith looks like shes making coffee for a friend off camera who is telling her a juicy piece of gossip. so beautiful!

and happy birthday, howie! ive wondered for some time if beats should be in a front facing seat (she was 31.5" (79cm) at 9 months)but the websites i read were so insistent about not putting kids in a front facing seat until theyre one that I put it off. she is spilling out of the rear facing seat and her feet are squished against the back of the seat. seems more dangerous to be squished in to me but im too scared to make those kind of decisions myself. anyway, its going to be fun being able to chat to her in the "conversation mirror".

do you have any birthday pics, Meg? did you have a party? we're just having some family over.

that baby disco sounds like fun! here they have an annual "daddy daughter ball" where the dads dress up in tuxes and the daughters wear gowns. no moms allowed. so cute. beeps can only walk a few feet before she falls down so she might have to wait until next year.