ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

We've definitely found poor sleep comes before a leap. Also, speech has more or less disappeared in the last month while F's been getting to grips with walking.

Heh xp

Ivy is full speed ahead with the babbling that has the rhythm and cadence of human speech but is actually utterly nonsensical, which just amazes me every time. She was helping Jeff brush his teeth this morning, which is like her favorite thing right now, and when they finished, she ran-toddled up to me and started babbling excitedly, which sounded like she was probably telling me about the awesome tooth brushing assistance she just rendered except there were no actual English (or Spanish afaict) words uttered.

But then, at the same time, there are plenty of words she actually knows but won't use, such as when she wants a drink of my water (ie always), even though she can say not only "water" but also "agua," she just points and goes "Ma ma ma ma ma." And when I say, "Water. Can you say water?" she opens her mouth like a baby bird and leans towards the glass. See also: milk, kiss, cracker, snack. It's all just pointing and "ma ma ma ma."

Like I actually have said, "Use your words."

D is walking like a champ, almost breaking into running at times, which leads to fun things like taking a header into the TV console and getting a bruised line on his forehead. J is standing but not quite walking yet. Both of them are chatty as HELL and J often does sing-songy stuff and can match pitches we give him. J is totally embracing sippy cups and D hates them with a fiery passion. They're both eating practically everything we put in front of them, which is nice, except for when J gets bored and starts playing the "how much food can I drop on the floor" game.

xxp: oh that sounds so familiar; they'll bust out a word and you're like "ooh say that again" and it's all "DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA *raspberry*"

xp: "Use your words" is supplanting "no" as the most commonly-used phrase in our house

I was feeling quite proud of the advancement mine's made in eating (still early days) but now he's discovered blowing raspberries with bottom lip out, while eating. Sending food quite an impressive distance!

Nora's sleep has actually been getting a bit better over the last few days; night before last she slept from 10pm to 2am, which amazed Em.

I mean this with love and empathy

but

lol

Mrs. Life took both the kids to see Jurassic World this afternoon. I was pretty worried about our little one. As I've mentioned before, you never can tell what she's going to be cool with. Fine with zombies from Walking Dead; totally freaked out the other day at a Powerpuff Girls ep. I was worried because in the trailer, there are a lot of dinosaurs that get killed by the main predator. And she definitely knows about predator/prey relationships, like our cat kills house mice and she finds their corpses, but on the other hand she's a big dinosaur train fan, which really soft pedals all that stuff.

So I anxiously awaited my wife's report. Would they have to leave early? Spend the whole movie in the hallway while my son finished watching? Will she still love dinosaurs?

"She had a real blast. Really liked watching the people get eaten."

hahaha awww

it is said that sleep disturbances often presage developmental milestones

This is curious as Cecil was sleeping like a real asshole for about a week and a half there during which time he went from half-assed getting up on all fours to dragging his legs to suddenly being able to crawl incredibly fast and go from sitting to crawling without any hesitation. It was kind of amazing to see, and now he's sleeping much better.

Downside of this is that he REALLY wants to put his hands in the dog's food and water dish and the dog, who has been very good with him, REALLY does not want him or anyone other small animal to go near her food. She's done this with other dogs who have come into our house, and is the same with the suddenly mobile baby. She knows we will rain hell down upon her for growling or biting at him so her only recourse is to lick him when he starts heading into the kitchen and she can't understand why he isn't giving back the proper dog signals and keeps charging on.

Poor dog.

Em and Nora are away for a couple of days with Em's mum to see relatives. wtf is Nora gonna be doing when she gets back?!

Pam was suffering with labyrinthitis the other day and there wasn't much in for dinner, so she gave Ava & Lulu a list, some money and a time limit and sent them to Sainsbury's. It's only a 3min walk, crossing a quiet cul de sac. They did well! I thought it would be 20 boxes of Jaffa Cakes and Lego minifigs but they apparently excelled. So grown up. Conflicting feelings about this independence!

Oh wow.

That's so cool!

It is! WTG Ava and Lulu. It gave me some feelings, though.

Even my husband can't so that, so well done
/90s detergent ad

LOL

haha

We moved to our current apartment about a year ago, didn't really meet our neighbors before the winter came and kept everyone indoors. This summer, however, Evie has really thrived in terms of befriending all the kids on our block. It's crazy how social she is and unafraid of just walking up to other kids and initiating play, especially given how generally unsocial me and Sarah are. She has a little gang now of all the kids in her age range and as soon as we get home she rides her scooter up and down the block until they come out and play. This in turn forces us to begrudgingly meet and chat up the parents, which is probably a good thing.

That's awesome. About E. Probably not as awesome for you, although it's good to know the parents of the kids your kid is going to hang out with.

Oh they're all nice. Since she's going to the neighborhood school for kindergarten in September, it'll be cool that she already knows some of the kids there when she starts (though none of them will be in her grade).

what the
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CIxTVVGUcAA1q-A.jpg

For when you've got to wash your perineal area after child birth due to a tear or episiotomy. You can't wipe.

I'm more weirded out by this item:

http://babyrecs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/the-windi1.jpg

It's the opposite of a butt plug.

That explanation does not un-weird me out.

butt-spout? yep still weird

I'm alarmed that the Fridet Momwasher is being sold to us by Frank Sidebottom.

Em put Nora in the cot and went for a shower and came back and Nora was standing up

Holy shit.

GAMECHANGER

I put mine in the cot and went away and when I came back he'd finally rolled back to front, for the first time. I was really confused to see him on his front. He's been trying for ages but his big head keeps getting in the way.

Maybe that's what all the crappy sleeping has been about?

Anybody have any first plane ride tips? One short leg from our regional, short layover, then a four hour Seattle to Chicago flight. Have a pretty regular daily schedule now so all this is new.

How old is he now?

Assuming toys, pacifiers or feeding on takeoff, hope for sleep, etc. Mostly worried how to handle things if he loses his shit in an enclosed metal tube.

He's 7.5 months now.

Good advice I got:

Pack an extra entire outfit for the kid and for you/the missus
Give him a bottle/pacifier on takeoff and landing to help with the pressure change
Bring a stroller and then gate check it
Quiet toys. Ivy loved these Indestructibles books so they were useful

What really worked for us, though, was sitting in front of a family with three rowdy toddlers/preschoolers so nobody even noticed when Ivy cried a little bit because the kids behind us where so raucous.

We're flying to Delaware in August and I'm a little anxious because Ivy is no longer the chill baby she was the first time she flew.

Also - Chicago? Playdate?

There's not much you can do if he loses his shit. Be prepared to walk the aisle with him if you can. Practice deep breathing/self-calming techniques so that even if he's losing his shit, you can hang on to yours. Remember that you and K are on the same team and try to have each other's back.

Carl we're there from the 18th to the 21st, staying with k8e and family but will certainly be amongst the other yoopers and consuming beer in public, so yes.

I also can look mean and intimidating while k looks sweet and innocent so we can good cop / bad cop as needed for people giving us evil stares.

I feel like with little babies, especially little babies as cute as Cecil is, people will be more understanding if he's fussy.

Talk to me in mid-August about how people react to toddlers who are adorable but also have recently started doing this HIGH PITCHED SQUEALING thing whenever they don't immediately get their often completely inscrutable way.

Here's Atti and Ivy in baby jail together:

http://www.ivyheath.com/Year-Two/Fifteen-to-Eighteen-Months/i-6s3fj49/0/M/IMG_9164-M.jpg

Burp well after the feeding on take-off and landing, otherwise there's likely to be puking (up to a couple of hours later).

When F was really tiny, there was a very well-heeled old couple at the next table during our first lunch out en famille. They were reminiscing about travelling the world when their kids were young so we asked if they had any advice for us, as we'd be flying the following weekend. The husband, in this plummy posh accent, said: "if you hear somebody behind you tutting, fuck'em!"

Anybody have any first plane ride tips? One short leg from our regional, short layover, then a four hour Seattle to Chicago flight. Have a pretty regular daily schedule now so all this is new.

― joygoat, Friday, 3 July 2015 18:32 (51 minutes ago) Permalink

See if you're able to reserve some type of baby bassinet/cot. We just did a flight from the US over to Europe and we booked our seats next to a wall that has hook-ons for this removable bassinet that they put on during the flight.

Checking for bassinets on our next flight. rn I just need an infant friendly edit of Treme that has all of the wonderful New Orleans brass band music silenced.

mute with closed captioning on?

I had never seen one of those before but there was a baby across the aisle sleeping in one on a flight to Tokyo last year and I was super jealous and wished they had adult sized ones.

How is there room for a baby bassinet in a coach airplane aisle? I can't even get my mind around it.

And is there a harness you can put over the seat in front of you to hang a toddler from?