Bringing You Up-to-Date News in One Sentence
It was really really hot and then we all got sick.
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August 30, 2008
August 27, 2008
Sunday at the Symphony
We had a busy weekend - most of which I don't remember at this point. There was a bouncy house extravaganza birthday party to attend and a concert by the Silicon Valley Symphony at "Discovery Meadow." Simon picked up a free recorder (Target sponsored the event). He wishes it were a trombone.
Here is Adlai grooving to the music and drinking heavily.
Did I mention he likes water? He likes water. He likes water a lot.
August 25, 2008
The Week the Boys Grew Up
One thing is for certain, last week both boys grew up.
Simon is now enjoying his seventh accident free day in a row (except the one intentional time when he was angry). Sometime in the middle of last week he turned a corner and decided he didn't want to be asked, poked or prodded about using the toilet - he just wants to take care of business himself. So that streak of lightning running through the hall just before the bathroom door slams shut? That would be Simon. Around the same time he started showing an interest in choosing his clothing, bathing himself, helping out around the house, etc. I'm not sure we are ever going to get used to Simon doing things on his own. Ten years from now when we marvel at our teenager wandering off to use the toilet? Humor us. It's been a long, hard trip.
Simon isn't terribly happy about changing classrooms. He nearly cried both times he was picked up last week because his closest school friends, Tessa and Lisa, are only in the afternoon class while he is in the morning. Matthew has made a concerted effort to schedule playtime with Tessa and Lisa at the park twice a week, which we hope will make the transition easier. On the positive side, Simon has many friends in his new class and one friend, Ashwin, even graduated to the next swim level with him in swim school. We bought Simon goggles this weekend. He doesn't like to hold his face under water and, not coincidentally, is the only kid who doesn't wear goggles. Although he protested the purchase, something snapped in his brain after we brought them home and he spent much of Saturday in the backyard wearing nothing BUT the goggles. I've got photos, but they'll stay private.
Adlai is a different person this week. He crawls over to where he wants to be. He spends much of his time chasing after Simon but will come after me if he is hungry or wander into the kitchen while Dad is cooking. He is particularly fond of pulling up to a stand and will crawl from one piece of furniture to another trying out his new skill. He is very graceful in getting up and letting himself back down and slithering like a snake while under a chair taking care not to bonk his head. He's interested in cruising and, we suspect, will be walking while holding on to chairs any day now. Matthew lowered the crib to the lowest level after he started standing while grabbing on to the rails.
He's also become Mr. Personality. He rocks out to music - bouncing himself up and down, kicking his legs, or rocking himself back and forth. He's started the "I'm going to make myself REALLY dizzy by shaking my head back and forth very fast" thing Simon was so fond of back in the day. His favorite things to do for people are to show off his clapping, and to sing while waving the back of his hand over his mouth to make vibrato. He can do all the motions in the book "Pat the Bunny" - sticking his finger in the hole, touching the touchable things, and playing peek-a-boo with Paul. If he doesn't want a food that is coming toward him he grabs a cheerio really quickly and purses his lips so nothing else can be forced in. He's been getting better at the finger foods - cooked carrot pieces, sliced blueberries, smooshed peas, and brown rice - but he still prefers the faster "spoon" method. His second tooth (lower front right) broke through over the weekend after a very long, sleepless night.
Adlai enjoys being in water and splashing and being splashed a lot more these days and he has an unfortunate habit of yelling at the top of his lungs when he sits in a high chair. We've had to remove him from several restaurants lately to spare those around us. Sometimes he yells because he thinks it is funny, other times he yells because he wants to be taken away. In the car he has a quieter version of the yell that he uses to sing along to the music (especially if he sees Simon singing).
Adlai, the miracle baby, can play by himself for an hour or more - crawling over to take a toy out of his toy box and carefully manipulating it to find out exactly what it does before crawling over to get another toy. He seems to have a particular fondness for musical toys, trucks, and balls. He likes to zoom trucks back and forth and to grab and chase balls once they've escaped his grasp.
I really expected Adlai to be a lot more baby lumpish at this point and not so much like a little boy. Matthew reminds me that I was equally fascinated by Simon around eight months which is, not coincidentally, when we decided having a second baby was a good thing to do. This time it is just nice to watch him grow and to know that pretty soon the pump will be retired forever. Holy cow, doesn't that sound nice? We should have a party to celebrate. A dairy party with cheese and ice cream and pudding...
3 months and 3 weeks to go
August 22, 2008
Separated at Birth?
Matthew has often said that Adlai reminds him of The Incredibles character, Jack Jack. Now I'm starting to see what he means.
To see Jack Jack in action click here
August 21, 2008
First Day of the School Year
Simon is now among the "big kids" in preschool.
(sent via MMS)
August 20, 2008
Simon and Adlai
Adlai has recently taken over Simon's sippy cups. Want to cheer up a cranky Adlai? Give him a sippy cup full of water and watch him drink.
August 19, 2008
Adlai at Eight Months
Hey, we were up early this morning (as usual)! What fun! Nothing better than being awake before the sun is up! Here is what we did. I'll upload the photos after work...
(YouTube is taking a while to process this video - it will appear, eventually.)
And here is the Boppy Photo Collection
August 18, 2008
Happy Eight Months
A.B. Kagle has been around for eight months today. Unfortunately, I had to work late and then in the madness of pumping, getting everyone fed, bathed, read to, and put to bed, there wasn't time for adding to the Boppy Photo Collection. Tomorrow. Sorry, A.B.
He celebrated by adding lunch to his solid meal plan and by being given a bath by Simon. When Simon pours water over him it is the funniest thing ever (according to them). There are years of laughs ahead of these silly boys...
August 17, 2008
Kagledom Weekend Report
It turned out to be a very productive, expensive, and developmentally aggressive weekend. First off, we are the proud owners of eight new tires, four new funky rims, and we have proper alignment. Oh yes, we do. And I'm almost the owner of a new laptop - purchased online - so I can update this site and check email from home without needing to give this thing 5 minutes to respond to every action I take. Why the big splurge? Necessity.
Perhaps it would be best to start with Simon's weekend and end with Adlai's...
Simon had a pretty crappy weekend. Friday we attended his end of school party, the house of his friends Connor and Neil (around the corner) went up for sale, he found out Calvin won't be going to his preschool anymore and that Teacher Laura won't be his teacher. Soccer ended. By Friday afternoon Simon was in emotional collapse. He was tired and mean and mean and very very mean. Saturday was much of the same. Here he is, on Saturday, trying to crawl back into the "egg" from whence he came:
We took him around the block a few times and he introduced himself to every neighbor in sight and, at the park and the Farmer's Market, he asked every person around if they would play with him. Clearly he feels he needs to make new friends - it's a shame neither kids nor adults respond well to a four year old walking up to them and asking if they will play.
Today he was somewhat better. He'll have school every weekday morning starting this Thursday and, I imagine, will be less lonely. On the bright side, swimming was ending yesterday and we couldn't find an opening in his class so that would have been yet another end. However, he unexpectedly graduated to the next level so we managed to capture the last slot open for Fall.
Adlai had a pretty amazing weekend. He started out by learning how to clap, he pulled himself into a stand for the first time (and fell from the stand and bumped his head for the first time), learned how to give "high fives" and chose his political party.
Here he is standing (before the fall):
Here he is, being given the option between a red elephant and a blue donkey:
The end.
Clarification: The donkey is in motion because that is the animal he chose (he chose it twice, actually).
More clarification: Even though Simon was being a real pain we did remove the bag before he sufficated. We're good parents that way.
August 15, 2008
Show, Not Tell: Clapping
Adlai learned to clap yesterday. At first I thought it was unintentional but now he does it when you ask!
August 14, 2008
The School Year Ends
Today was Simon's last day in the 3 to 4 year old class at his preschool. After a week long break, he'll be in the 4 and 5 year old room with some new teachers, new toys, and his favorite school toilet nearby. (I only mention this because the boy has developed an unfortunate fear of public toilets brought on by an automatic loud flush experience at IKEA.)
Thanks to Darienne for the photo!
August 13, 2008
Show, Not Tell: A Favorite Pastime
Show, Not Tell: Crawling
August 11, 2008
Operation More Sleep
So Operation More Sleep isn't really working out. Put Adlai to bed two and a half hours later than usual and he sleeps for an hour more in the morning - to 5:30 instead of 4:30, mind you, but an overall loss of an hour and a half. I think we'll give it one more night and then go back to putting him to bed at 6:30 pm. This experiment has, however, caused me to think about how much sleep he needs/gets overall. Simon needs between 11 and 12 hours a night to function properly. Adlai only gets about 10 hours at night and spends roughly 2 hours a day napping. So really, the total amount of sleep they get is the same. Sort of an interesting reality check: Simon was a good napper and a bad night sleeper. Adlai is a bad napper but a relatively good night sleeper.
This past weekend we spent some time at a Las Madres 2007 Group carnival. It was hot and the average age of the kids seemed to be about 10 months. And it isn't that 10 month olds aren't terribly exciting human beings but, um, carnival games for 10 month olds? Maybe you see where I'm going. Let's just say it was a very age-appropriate experience. Adlai and Simon both enjoyed a half hour of story time with a Children's Librarian and then we left.
Speaking of story time, Adlai, like his brother, loves books. His favorites include anything with pictures of babies, Boynton books, and his animal sounds book. He always falls into a fit of hysterics when we make the sound of a pig. Snorting is very very funny. He will crawl over to listen to a story and paw at the pictures and stare intently at the words and, if given the chance, chew on the covers. Yum.
I probably also should mention that Adlai is very very cute. I'm not sure his cute behavior gets captured enough in these parts but holy cow is the kid adorable. He's very big into facial expressions - going from serious to inquisitive and then to disbelief and right into scared and then back to angry before he gets the joke and starts to laugh. He also is a big hugger and, if tired, will let us know by laying his head down on us or the Boppy. You can almost hear him say "Look guys, I'm tired. Snuggle me then put me to bed. Please?"
August 09, 2008
Sleep. Oh yeah, that's what it feels like!
Grammy was here for a couple of days and we explained that she was in for a rude awakening (literally). Adlai always wakes up between 4 and 5 am and Simon wakes up between 5 and 6 (unless we can keep Adlai quiet - not an easy task). And then something fairly incredible happened. THEY SLEPT IN.
Well, the truth is, Adlai was up for several hours in the middle of the night crying Thursday/Friday. We couldn't calm him down until administering Tylenol so we assume it was tooth number two - coming in next to tooth number one (bottom front). Last night he didn't fall asleep until 9 pm (usual bedtime is 6:30) waking up at 5:30 for a snack, falling right back to sleep, and waking again at 7:30.
Those two paragraphs really don't deliver the magnitude of this event so I will now yell. WE SLEPT IN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE SOME TIME LAST YEAR OR MAYBE EVEN THE YEAR BEFORE. (Simon was up earlier but has learned to entertain himself in his room for as long as humanly possible -30 minutes or so- before coming out. He also sleeps longer than Adlai.)
It was nice.
Tonight we put them to bed an hour later to see if we can have a repeat performance.
In other Adlai news, he is suddenly obsessed with climbing up on things and has been trying to straighten his legs a bit - clearly trying to stand. He's much better at sitting back on both knees than sitting on his tush which seems like a difficult (even backward) way of going about things. This evening he identified and then crawled over to the only uncovered outlet in the living area. He's been pretty darn cranky these past few days but a cranky Adlai is still very easy to deal with. He doesn't know how to push our buttons and we hope to keep him that was as long as humanly possible.
August 06, 2008
Lunch
August 04, 2008
A First Tooth
is on its way in.
August 03, 2008
Kagledom Weekend Report
I'm going to be selfish and try to make this a quick update. The boys are asleep and there are things to clean and there is free time to be had.
Saturday we hosted high tea for a fairly large group of our preschooler friends, their siblings, and parents. As you can imagine (if you have been to our small home) there was a bit of chaos but we all seemed to have a good time - especially after we let all the kids loose in the backyard high on sugar. Darienne took some great photos. I hijacked the ones of our boys and posted them on Flickr. Here's a beautiful one of Adlai getting a boo from Matthew...
Today we had a lot of errands to take care of - lowering the crib being one of the more important line items. Adlai started pulling himself up on things this week and now sits back on his knees and holds on to support items with only one hand. We also bought him some whole milk yogurt in an attempt to add some fat to his pre-bedtime diet. For the past week he has been waking more and eating more and it seems impossible to keep him satiated. In the wee ours of this morning he nursed for 45 minutes and then drank nearly 8 ounces of milk and then nursed again. The process took about 2 hours. We'd like some sleep - eventually.
Today wasn't all work - Simon's friend Connor came by for a visit and the boys painted themselves with chalk after swinging themselves silly. Sorry, I didn't get a good photo of the chalk boys but I did capture little Adlai staring out the window wishing he could play with Simon and Simon wishing he could play with Adlai...
More photos on Flickr! (As always.) Good night.