Keeping Track of Lauren & Jack » June 2006 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Fri, Jun 30, 2006 11:00 PM
The sickness continues for all three of us. The cruel reality is that with this job, I don't ever get to call in sick! So today was a real struggle because I feel as bad as the kids do. I was honestly in tears about three seperate times. All I wanted to do was lay down on the floor and sleep for a million years. Lauren's throat seems less hoarse but her cough is worse. Jack's cough seems better but his nasal congestion is worse. And my nasal congestion is definitlety worse. So there we have it. Mike seems to have escaped the worst of it, thankfully. I tried a vapor bath tonight and Vick's vapor rub, and those seem to be helping Lauren sleep better.

I am so tired of being in the house, and I know Lauren is getting a little stir crazy. But I can't really take them anywhere, so it's very frustrating. I'm still trying to find indoor activities for the summer. I think I might join the science museum nearby which has a speacial kids section, as well as the aquarium. There's also a new place nearby called Kidzclub which is supposed to have indoor open play and also crafts. And I think I've finally figured out a swim class. So that should keep us busy for a couple of weeks. Once we're all back up to steam, that is.

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Thu, Jun 29, 2006 10:00 AM
Jack just took his first steps! Actually Mike said he did a few last week in Maine, but since I didn't see it, and he didn't repeat it, I felt like it didn't count somehow. But just now he was at the chest/coffee table, and he wanted to walk to me, but he fell over. So he crawled back to the chest, pulled himself up, turned around and tried again. And he took about 3-4 steps! He had the most excited look on his face, it was so cute!

Otherwise we are all sick. Despite my best efforts to use Purell every 5 seconds, we all seem to have a cold. The kids are both coughing a little, and Jack seems a little congested. Lauren seems to have a sore throat because she's kind of hoarse. She sounds like she's been smoking a pack of cigarettes! I found these great cold releif pops which are like lozenges but on a stick like a lollipop. Lauren thinks they are candy so it's easy to get her to suck on them. Otherwise they don't have fevers so I've given them a little cough medecine and degongestant. I bought Vicks vapo rub, just in case we'll need it. Hopefully it won't get that bad.

I turned in Lauren's preschool paperwork and first tuition payment, so it's seeming real all of a sudden. My little baby is going to school! I can't believe it! I think she's going to really enjoy it. I'm the one who will probably have a hard time saying goodbye. I'm just worried about potty training. I think I have to let her run around naked for a week or two. I was hoping that wouldn't be necessary, but we've got to get serious now. We have just over a month left to go.

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Mon, Jun 26, 2006 10:39 PM
After a humid morning we got the air conditioning fixed, which was such a relief! I can't believe what a difference it makes. And the house is finally clean which is also a relief because it looked like a disaster in here!

Jack took two long naps without resistance, so he was in a good mood. I guess he's glad to be back in his own bed. He did more one handed walking and also walked with the walker a couple of laps around the family room. He has a new-found interest in biting, which can really hurt. You think he's going in for a cuddle and then, chomp! When I chastise him he just giggles.

Lauren woke up late from her nap, so she was pretty mellow while I fed Jack dinner. I was on my own most of the day and evening, so everything got pushed a bit off schedule, but it was actually pretty calm. Once Jack was down to sleep Lauren and I had some fun with playdough and crayons. I really enjoyed playing with her, and she was very sweet for her bath/storeis/bed ritual, and for the first time in a long time, no screaming when she went to bed! Ahhhh. Now I think I'm coming down with something, I've got the sniffles. Of course!

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Sun, Jun 25, 2006 6:51 PM
Ok it's been quite a while since I last wrote. The weekend was busy getting ready for our trip to Maine to see my brother Peter, then we were gone for a week. I wil try to hit the highlights of the trip.

First of all, as always, I packed WAY too much, so we had, get this, 8 pieces of checked luggage! That's 5 suitcases, two car seats and one packNplay. That was one suitcase each and one for all the baby gear. Suffice to say we barely fit it all into the car. In retrospect I could have easily brought half the amount of clothing. But it was difficult, we were possibly going to the beach, but it also gets cool there, so I had to have all kinds of things, and we did experience everything from heat in the 90's to cool foggy 60's.

The trip out was actually not too bad. Jack was extremely fussy but then fell asleep for most of the trip. And thankfully it was a direct flight. My idea of putting our stroller into it's own bag so it wouldn't get wet turned out to be a real hassle, more trouble than it's worth. It was fun to see Lauren react to the whole concept of flying, she seems to understand it now and she was really excited.

We weren't sure if we would fit all our stuff in the full size car we rented, but our solution was to fill up the front seat and I sat in the back with the kids. The main problem with that was that there really was not room for me back there! I tried to take advantage of being back there by feeding Jack becuase he was very hungry, but it was a very messy situation.

Once we got to Peter's and got settled it was dinnertime and we got the kids off to sleep in seperate rooms, after a lot of crying. We set Lauren up with her little kids Aero bed in a corner and then barricaded one side with suitcases, so it was sort of a confined space. She was intrigued by her new-found freedom to get up, but mostly because we each tried staying in the room with her until she settled down. Big mistake! We soon discovered that we have to do what we do at home, which is walk out and shut the door and endure a few minute of screaming until she realizes that it's not going to work and goes to sleep.

So that was fine until she woke up in the middle of the night and crawled in with us in a double bed. There just isn't room for all of us in there. I finally decided to go downstairs and sleep in the bed in Jack's room. I was horrified to dicover when I got down there that he had thrown up, and pooped, not a lot, but the smell is unmistakeable. So by the time I got him cleaned up and changed and changed the bed etc, he was wide awake and not in the least interested in going back to sleep. So I basically didn't get any sleep to speak of.

It did get progressively better after that first night. The main problem (no pun intended!) was that the shades didn't darken the room enough in the morning, and we timed our trip just in time to coincide with the longest day of the year.
Otherwise we just had to keep our eyes on them every moment because Peter's place is full of beautiful things and definitely not babyproofed!

It was a nice week. We drove around the small towns near Peter's house, Ogunquit and York. We went to the Nubble lighthouse, and even just walking to the small cove near his house was a lot of fun. Suddenly it was already time for Peter to go back to work in Baltimore. We stayed on there without him for a few more days, which was a litle strange. Lauren kept asking "Where'd Peter go?" One day we visited with Grandma Elizabeth and Poppa Rooney, who planned a wonderful picnic near a shady playground which was realxing and fun, escpecially for Lauren. Another day we visited with Salle Selzter, (AKA Raven), who is a friend of mine from grad school. We had a nice lunch and walked around Perkins Cove. They both gave the kids some wondeful new books, which is so great because even though Lauren never seems to tire of the same old srtories all the time, I certainly was ready for something different to read to her!

Luckily we had no plans for Saturday, because Lauren developed a fever and vomitted a few times, and slept most of the day. It was rainly and cold outside anyway, so she wasn't missing much. But it made traveling today no treat. She was just not herself. And Jack seems to be feeling fine, but missed his nap, so he was intermittently cranky and screaming. At one point afyer we landed Lauren let out this blood curdling shreik, you would have thought she was being murdered. All beacuse she wanted out of the stroller. Ay yay yay!

Oh, I forgot to mention that our air-conditioning went out at home, so we returned to a hot and humid house. I was going to insist we go to a hotel, but it's actually not bad since we've had a lot of rain and that brought the humidity and temperature down. Hopefully we'll get someone to come tomorrow.

I've got to get some sleep. More later.

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Fri, Jun 16, 2006 8:31 PM
Today was crazy. After getting up with Jack and giving him his first bottle, I took Sadie to the new dog place for a required doggie daycare test run to see if she'd get along with all the other dogs. Then I ran home to take Lauren to playgroup at the community pool. Jack stayed home with Mike, which was so helpful, because it was his naptime, and I could really give Lauren my full attention. Someone said "Wow, you are so much more relaxed with just one!" Well sure, I'm not overly paranoid with just one wriggly screaming bag of energy!

We came back home for lunch, and then Jennifer arrived just in time to put them down for naps. I ran off and managed to fit in a haircut, a manicure/pedicure, a visit to the vet for a copy of Sadie's records for the kennel, and then back out to pick Sadie up. I got home just in time to feed Jack dinner, bathe him, and put him to bed. I felt guilty, I hadn't really seen him all day!

The funniest thing was arriving home to see Mike teaching Lauren to play video games on the TV. She was actually learning how to do frogger! It must be genetic, like father, like daughter!

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Thu, Jun 15, 2006 9:00 PM
I took Jack to buy his first real Stride Rite shoes, (well, sandals actually)and I'm shocked to see his foot is a 6 wide! Well, his right foot is measuring 5 1/2 and his left is measuring 5, but they recommend you get a half size bigger, so that means 6. Lauren is only about a 7!

I also had to take Jack to Labcorp for blood work, which I've been postponing since his doctor's visit, but finally just wanted to do it and get it over with. He was such a trooper! He hardly cried at all. In fact he cried more watching her apply the rubber tourniquet (sp?) than he did when she stuck the needle in. He's a tough little guy. He fell asleep in the car which is a rarity these days, and I even made the transfer inside without fully waking him, another miracle, only to have him wake up about 10 minutes later. Ugh!

Once they were both awake after naps I took them both out in our pool. I'd like do it more, because Lauren has so much fun, but it's challenging on my own. We all took a bath together afterwards in our big master bathtub to get cleaned off, and then thanks goodness Mike got home so I didn't have to contend with drying off two slippery babies!

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Wed, Jun 14, 2006 11:49 PM
Today I dropped Lauren and Jennifer off at the Library for story time while I went to playgroup with Jack. He got a lot more attention that way, and Lauren hadn't been to storytime for ages. Apparently she played very well with the other kids in the playroom afterwards. Of course it kills me to miss anything with her, but it was just an hour and a half. Jack did a lot of standing and he grabbed my pita bread right off my plate and started gnawing on it. He's definitley ready to feed himself! So he missed a morning nap but had an early afternoon nap, and actually took a short second nap, after much resistance later in the afternoon.

Tonight I went to my first scrapbooking club meeting and I think it will become my new hobby! I mean, it's great to have the photo albums here online, but I need real ones that the kids can look at too. I've decided to start with Jack's birthday and work backwards. I definitley need the structure of a regular meeting to get me to actually do it. I hope I can eventually get all the pictues out of shoeboxes! Wouldn't that be amazing?

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Tue, Jun 13, 2006 7:29 PM
Jack woke up SCREAMING at 6AM for no apparent reason, which was sort of alarming. I haven't woken up half way down the hall already like that in a while. Maybe it was weather related. It seems that tropical storm Alberto will pass us fairly unscathed. Just a lot of wind and rain.

So we've been stuck indoors which gets old day after day. During Jack's nap Lauren and I were doing some puzzle pairs, and I was amazed how she made associations between animals and their colors or textures. She just thrives when she has my undivided attention. I feel guilty I can't give her more of it.

Jack was doing more one-handed walking today, and he's getting that look on his face where he's excited about what he's doing and he's on the edge of a new discovery. He still keeps his other hand up, which is so cute, he looks like a little monkey!

We did manage a play date this afternoon with Taylor from down the street, which was the highlight of Lauren's day. Afterwards she kept saying how she loves Taylor. And did I mention that she told Jack she loved him this morning? It was just one of those many moments I wish I had captured on video. It would be good material for when their teenagers and driving each other nuts.

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Mon, Jun 12, 2006 12:23 PM
Some amazing things about Lauren from this morning. First of all, we were playing with playdough while Jack was napping and she asked me to make a turtle and a snake which she remembered I did before. But what impressed me was how she played imaginatively with them, having them chase one another etc. During this process I noticed that she's getting one of her back molars, bottom right. That explains a lot of chewing in that side. Also, she told her doll Hattie (so named because of her, uh, hat)that she loved her.

Jack is doing very well with the weaning. He drinks from the bottle with gusto and doesn't seem to miss the breast much at all. I think he knows something is different but he can't quite figure out what. Hopefully he will just sort of forget about it the same way Lauren did. I can't say I miss it yet. I had my first glass of wine in over three years on Saturday. Boy did it taste good!

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Sun, Jun 11, 2006 7:49 PM
It was a really busy Saturday. We went out to the beach to meet Mike's friends from Jerseyville, Genevieve and her mom Pam, and of course their two beautiful twin girls Pam and Irene! It was hectic but also a lot of fun. They have a condo that they visit once a year which is right on the beach so it's a perfect set up for all the kiddies. We were dreadfully late which was mortifying, and it put us all off schedule. But I think Lauren and Jack still managed to enjoy both the pool and the beach. Afterwards we put all four of them in the bath together which was so cute! They do not make it easy to tell those girls apart, they dress them identically in everything, even bathing suits and shoes!

The ride back was very long because there was a horrific crash on the bridge across the bay which kept us crawling for over an hour. At least the kids napped through it! It was only a problem because we were supposed to be going out to a play that evening. We made it back less than an hour before Jennifer got there. Then another disaster, we got lost on the way to the theater. In my own defense, the theater had the wrong address on their flyer! We made it there eventually. . . just in the nick of time.

Today was hard because I was just exhausted from so much pool time two days in a row. My arms feel like they're going to fall off! Lauren has a Wiggles fixation (I am getting so sick of them!) and Jack did not nap well, so I didn't get a break all day. I think I've hurt my back because I can barely walk now. . . Ouch!

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Fri, Jun 9, 2006 10:27 PM
We went to the community pool this morning for Lauren's playgroup, and since it was scorching it was certainly pool weather. I'm geting the hang of having them both in there at the same time. Lauren discovered the lane divider and kept paddling out to it and hanging on it, and Jack loved standing on the step and splashing in the gutter. I am just so worn out afterwards, but I can tell Lauren has such a great time that it's certainly worth it. I still have to figure out swim lessons. I guess we can't start until after our trip to Maine, but I could get them signed up so we're ready to go as soon as we get back.

Otherwise Jack seems to be doing well with both weaning off the breast and onto bottles of cow's milk. Today it was a mixture of about half formula and half milk, and he still takes it fine. At bedtime he seemed to be sort of looking for the breast, but he wasn't insistent. This was the first day without any breastfeeding at all or any pumping, and it seems ok with me too. I'm not engorged or anything, which tells me it was the right time to do this.

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Thu, Jun 8, 2006 3:10 PM
We had Jack's one year appointment with the pediatrician today. He's 25 pounds, 31 1/4 inches, 18 in head circumference. He's just about the same weight as Lauren, and he's gaining on her in height. He's slipped down to 75th percentile for weight, but still 95th percentile for length. He had fluid in his ear, but it was clear and uninfected, so hopefully that will clear up soon. We are going to go ahead and start weaning to whole cow's milk. I started already with 1/3 of his bottle this afternoon and he sucked it down no problem. Apparently we can feed him just about anything now, eggs, cheese, even peanut butter and honey. So that will help with more finger food options. I think we'll also turn his car seat around to face forward. Apparently the average for walking is 13 months, so technically he's not behind yet. I always thought it was a year, probably because it was about a week before Lauren's birthday when she took her first steps.

Both kids continue to enjoy the balloons which are still full of helium and bobbing around the house. The new cardboard blocks from Auntie Tatiana are also providing hours of amusememnt, building little towers just to knock them down with glee. Lauren has also realized that the puppy flashlight makes Sadie go beserk, so that was giving everyone a work out this evening after dinner. I don't know where she gets her energy, I'm exhausted!

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Wed, Jun 7, 2006 5:55 PM
Happy Birthday to our wonderful son! I can't believe a whole year has passed since he was born. It's gone by in a flash. He's really grown into quite a force of nature. He's a very determined boy. When he wants something there is just no reasoning with him. I know in a lot of ways this is a great strength, but I'd also like him to be able to go with the flow sometimes too. That will be the challenge in the coming year I think.

The birthday extravaganza is officially over since the birthday boy is sound asleep. He was briefly napping when everyone arrived for his playgroup party this morning, and I think the noise of everyone woke him up. He didn't sleep long enough so he was fairly overwhelmed and kept rubbing his eyes. I felt bad but I didn't want him to miss his own pary entirely! A lot of the kids played nicely with each other, and I was surprised they did not tear the place apart, considering that there were 12 kids. After being paranoid that there wasn't enough food, it seems that there was more than enough as usual. And the cupcakes and little individual tubs of ice cream were a great idea (which I got from another mom in our playgroup). It was so easy, no slicing or serving, everyone just helped themselves. Jack spread his frosting all over his face,and wasn't at all interested in the cake, which is sort of a releif. I though once he got a taste of sugar he wouldn't want anything else. And through some miracle I had enough goody bags at the end, which really is lucky since I was just guessing at the numbers. So all in all I would call it a success. No major meltdowns except at the end when they didn't want to leave to go home!

Later in the afternoon after naps we opened presents, just the four of us. As predicted, Jack was more interested in the tissue paper than anything else. Lauren was getting into it though, which is such a difference from her own birthday this year. I think we'll really have to do something special for her third birthday in January. Jack got some really nice clothes from Grandma Irene, and Lauren got a present too which was so thoughtful. She loved her beads and princess purse, and she felt included in all the excitement. We got her a sticker book, which only held her attention for a minute or two. We got Jack an assortment of clothes, books, bath toys and towels, a puppy flashlight, a little wind up car and a big dump truck. And of course the portable DVD player which Lauren immediately took possession of to "WATCH POOH!" I guess they'll have to share everything eventually anyway.

Today just proved to me even more that first birthdays are so much more about the parents than the child! Oh well, you can't say the day went by unnoticed!

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Tue, Jun 6, 2006 8:00 PM
Even though I've been anticipating Jack's birthday tomorrow for months, It still somehow got down to today for me to finally get everything together. I do tend to procrastinate, but I didn't get an RSVP from over half the people I invited until today, so it was hard to know how much of everything to buy. As it turns out, it looks like we'll have about 12 kids. We're just having a playgroup here at the house for a few hours, and I'm serving mini cupcakes and little individual ice creams. I'm decorating with baloons and giving party favors, but we said no presents, so hopefully people will just come and enjoy. At this age it's not such a big deal. I'm sure Jack will be more interested in the boxes and the wrapping paper of the things we got for him than anything inside them!

Jack's new big skill (which he loves to practice) is opening and closing doors. Today I saw him reach up on his tip toes, turn the handle, move back and open the door. It actually takes a lot of coordination so I was impressed! It's hard to believe that he can reach up that high, but now we have to be really careful.

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Sun, Jun 4, 2006 6:51 PM
Today I had an audition in Orlando, so Mike had the kids for most of the day. What cracks me up is what clothes he decides to put them into. It's just usually things that don't occur to me, often because they are way too big. He had Lauren head to toe in pink (not really matching), with a sort of fancy shirt paired with some very casual knit shorts! And Jack's shirt and shorts were both at least a size too big. But hey, don't get me wrong, I'm really just grateful they were dressed at all! And in all fairness, he usually dresses them very well.

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Sat, Jun 3, 2006 12:43 PM
My new nap tactitc is to put Jack down in the pack-n-play in the guest bedroom, which is in another part of the house. That way they don't wake each other up the way they do with their rooms right next door to each other. My friend Tatiana suggested this a long time ago, and now I'm wondering why I didn't do this ages ago!

It's also been an experiment to see how he does in the pack-nplay since he'll need to sleep in it on our big trip to Maine in a few weeks. So far he has cried for about 10 minutes before going to sleep. I hope in Maine we'll be able to put them in seperate rooms at least until they fall alseep. I got this Aerobed for kids for Lauren, which is actually pretty big, but she liked it a lot when we were checking it out in the living room. Of course she thinks it's a little trampoline, so we'll see if she'll actually SLEEP on it.

We went to our comunity pool for Lauren's playgroup on Friday, and luckily we left Jack home napping with Daddy. We had so much fun! I think Lauren's really going to be a good swimmer once she has some lessons. She paddles all over the pool, even going into the deep end. Of course she has her swimsuit with the floaty things in it, so she's not really swimming. But she's enjoying it, and it's just a matter of strength and skill before she's swimming for real.

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