Helping Daddy

Matt removed the last of the vinyl in our house last Saturday. Yippee!  Walter absolutely loves, loves, loves tools and loves to help out around the house, so he wanted in on the action.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Play with your food!

My kids traditionally don't love eggs, but I make them about once every one to two weeks just because I think they need an opportunity to get used to them. The other day I saw a post on facebook about doing a "quick dye" to boiled eggs to make it more colorful and appealing to kids. I thought that was a good idea, but I tweaked it for my kids and my temperament. I boiled eggs (usually the kids only eat about 1-2 bites of a boiled egg) and gave them markers. Dean didn't want to peal his artwork off, but I promised him that I'd take a picture of it and that sufficed. The kids LOVED drawing on their food. The real test was would they eat it? YES! Dean ate his WHOLE egg and Walt got through about 3/4 of his!!! Crazy.

"No, that's a daddy"

Tonight I was reading the boys a Halloween book with flaps. Each page was a door you opened to find different trick or treaters in costume. On one page it said, "Who's behind the door?...A mummy!"

Walter replied, "No, that's not a mummy! That's a daddy!" hahahahaha. Cracked me up.

Walter's the big 2

Yesterday [by the time I'm posting this, his birthday was last week!] was Walter's 2nd birthday. It was pretty fun. For breakfast I made him puffy oven pancakes at his request. In the morning we had swimming lessons. During his nap Dean and I made his birthday cake and some party hats. We ran a few errands in the afternoon, and when we got home Dean was in total melt down mode. Both of the boys have had a little cold, and Dean was complaining about his nose being raw. He was whining and crying so much I asked him to go lay down in his room. As I was making dinner, he fell asleep.  I normally wouldn't let him sleep so late, but I welcomed the silence.  We woke him up to have dinner. Walt said he wanted sausages and french fries, so that's what we had (plus veggies and dip).During dinner he had a birthday call from Grandma and Grandpa Waterman, so that was fun. He even said his ABCs and counted to 11 for them.  Today he was pretending he was on the phone with them and started singing happy birthday to himself. =)

After dinner we opened presents and had cake. He got:
HABA basic block set.  I have really wanted a good wooden unit block set, and this did not disappoint. Walt's still in the "knock over" stage, as opposed to the building stage, but we've had hours of fun already.  These blocks are heavy, smooth, and really well cut and made. I wanted something that wouldn't ding or splinter or have paint flake off, and it really is a fantastic set.

A "grabber" from Dean. He told Walt weeks ago he was going to buy him a gun, and that's all Walt would talk about in connection to his birthday. So I was surprised when Dean picked out the grabber. He was sure it was the perfect gift. He contributed 27 cents to the purchase.

A robot plushy from me, requested by Matt. I started this 2 days before his birthday because I was having some motivation issues, but I got it finished by 1am on his birthday. I think it turned out really cute. He likes to take it in the car when we go places.

A very last minute squeeze ball gun from us. When we were running errands before dinner, I slyly picked this up since Walt couldn't stop talking about the gun he was getting for his birthday!  He loved it. (Though they've already ruined all but 1 ball from chewing on them.)

I bought some punch balloons, which he loves. He also got cards and presents/money from grandparents. It was fun. 

Dancing to the music card Grandma Brasfield sent.

For the cake I made a double layer velvet cake (sans red) with cream cheese frosting. It was good. I attempted my very first "decorating" of a cake as I tried to put a robot on the top.

I let the boys play until 9 since they had late naps. They had lots of fun. Dean kept saying, "Thank you Walt for getting this for your birthday. Dean really likes this." hahaha.

What is Walt like at 2??
He's speaking in sentences nearly full time.  Some of my favorites include:
"Where you going mommy?" usually followed by "Where you going Dean?" and "Where you going Walter?" or "Going with you mommy? Dean and Walter going with you?"
"Dean did it."
"Bye Daddy. I love you!"
"May please take off my shoes, mommy?" (When we're driving around in the car.)
"May be excused?" (from the table)
"I so hungry mama. I sooo hungry." (all the time! Seriously. He is a bottomless pit. Kind of. If I feed him snacks, he doesn't do great on his meals, so I try and not give him too many snacks in between, but it's hard to resist his persistent pathetic voice!)
"Do you like [...]?" Some that caught me off guard were "Do you like ABC's mama?" and "Do you like dogs?" He loves dogs and animals, but I've never been much of an animal person.
When I ask, "Who wants some (Isagenix) shake?" He usually yells, "I want to!"
He'll bring me a book and say, "Read a book to Dean." and I"ll say, "To who?" and he'll remember and say, "To ME!"

Some misprounounced words that I love are:
Coom-coomer (computer)
Bananaid (bandaid)
Pock-i-pul (Popsicle)

He's starting to get bossier and is constantly mimicking me when I tell Dean to do something.  "C'mon Dean!" "No, no Dean!" He knows what he wants and realizes that Dean often purposefully takes what he wants, and he's starting to fight back and get made about it. They fight CONSTANTLY with a few breaks of good playing together. He's even recently been experimenting with "swatting" me and Dean on our hands if he thinks we're doing something inappropriate. Sorry bud. That gets a time out. He gets into everything, especially if it has to do with food or sweets. He is in love with gummy vitamins (never again am I getting those! He asks for them 20 times a day!) and he also loves and asks for Isagenix chocolate snacks. They're these little waffers that you can eat while on a cleanse. He thinks they're candy. I don't mind giving him 1 or 2, but he'll honestly climb up onto the counter, open the non-child proof lid, and try and eat as many as he can stuff in his mouth without me catching him!

The only TV he likes is They Might be Giants Here Come the 123s and ABCs, though he prefers the ABC's. He'll sit through a Curious George, though, if Dean's watching it. Most everything else he tries to turn off every few minutes.

He's very good about returning his cups to the sink, something Dean's never done.

He'll ocassionally start singing songs out of the blue. "ABC's" being the most frequent, but he'll also bust out with Twinkle, Twinkle, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. He'll always choose "I am a child of God" and the "Hello" song at home evening.

Overall he is just as cute as can be with a few tantrums here and there. He's a very loveable, loving child, and will often give his stuffed toys hugs and kisses before he'll part with them to go into a store or church or some place I don't let him take them.

I really love that little boy.

Accessorizing

my lady bug watch

I have never been one for jewelry, really. Ok, I take that back. In high school I did wear big gaudy "play" type necklaces and earrings (I had a big yellow heart necklace with a little guy inside that I called my "boyfriend". I honestly took one of my senior pictures with it on, I'm too lazy to scan it right now, though). And rubber duck earrings. And a plastic lady bug watch. Oh was  I awesome.

Anyway, I have only ever worn 2 rings in my life (My CTR ring given to me when I was in the 7th grade. I still wear it. And my wedding ring.). I wore the same pair of earrings (Celtic knots Matt gave me before he left on his mission) for 9 years until one of the backs fell off last year and I had to replace them with some dragons we got at the Scottish Festival.

Last year when I had my wardrobe revamp, I did purchase some dollar jewelry store necklaces, but those get broken lickity split since the clasps are so crappy. I decided I do like wearing certain necklaces, I just am still too cheap to buy much of anything for fear it will break.

I purchased a beautiful turquoise bead necklace from India with a clasp that was very Walter proof off of Overstock. Unfortunately I'm not one to remember to read details when I buy online, and the necklace was 28 in. long. I have a short neckline and body as is, and the necklace itself weighed 2 lbs. because it was so beaded, plus it was nearly twice as long as I expected!. It was beautiful, but it engulfed me. I was so sad. I couldn't return it because shipping would have basically ruined it for me, so I gave it to one of my friends. She in turn brought over a lot of her old necklaces that she didn't really wear much anymore. Dean was in heaven! He had to try every one of them on.  It's been nice to have a selection and I have, in fact, been wearing necklaces a lot more lately (largely influenced by Walter's begging. "pretty neckas" while he pats my neck.)

Unfortunately, these too have broken easily in the hands of Walter (who loooooves necklaces). When I was telling a friend about it, she suggested I get some Mardi Gras beads for him. I actually had some in a box from years ago, and I was able to find them easily. He's enjoyed having his very own beads. On one afternoon, Walt wanted to wear underwear like Dean, a necklace like mom, and he raided the winter box and found himself a hat and one glove. Since it was getting too hot for his winter hats, I finally got him some summer hats.  He does love to accessorize.

Hat!

After we chopped Walt's hair, he took a sudden interest in hats. It was during the cold snap here, so I think his head was just plain cold without his hair. For days he insisted on wearing a hat. It's gotten warmer, and he doesn't insist on a hat every day now, but he still wears one if he finds it.

He is SUCH a hilarious kid these days. His vocabulary is huge, and he's parroting whole phrases now.

The other day when we were out getting quotes on car repair, he kept thinking we'd see daddy walk into the shops. I kept telling him that daddy was working. The rest of the day he said over and over in a sad voice, "Dada working."

When we were at a friend's house grinding wheat, he found a real kitty toy thing (you know, the cat that moves it's head and looks like a real cat and meows) and was DEVASTATED at having to leave it. I told him to say goodbye to the kitty and he sadly waved to the cat, "bye bye kitty."  As we drove home he'd periodically break into tears and say over and over, "Kitty. Kitty. Bye bye kitty."

He is very good at cheering. If something good is going on, he'll start yelling "All right!!" and punching his arms in the air in celebration.

He loves, loves, loves necklaces. If I am not wearing a necklace, he pats my chest and says, "Neckas, neckas. Mama pretty neckas." until I get one. He wore 3 strands of Marti Gras beads around today since he insisted on having a "pretty neckas" too.

The other morning when I was changing Dean's night diaper, Walt looked down and exclaimed, "BIG POOP!" And he was right.

He occasionally asks to go pee on the potty, so I'll put him up there, he'll pull his shirt up (like Dean so he doesn't pee on it), and looks down. He'll stay there a few seconds till he declares he's "Ah dun."

He loves "anmals" (animals), stuffed and real. Most animals are just called "anmals", and the majority of them say "moo" right now (though he knows a lot of the other sounds), but he does a pretty fierce whinny when he sees a horse.

He is fascinated with robots and guitars, and he insists on having one or the other on his shirt for the day if they are available. I tried putting a car shirt on him this morning, but he only wanted a robot. He also loves singing Robot Parade by TMBG. In fact, this morning as I was taking Dean to the bathroom at 6:30, I heard Walt in his crib belting that song out in the dark.

I love when he says, "Oh Gosh!" He's very good at the "sh" and actually says is for most ending "s" sounds. Like, "Yesh!"

Here's a recent video. He's in a hard stage to capture since his attention span is short and he's usually distracted once I get the camera out. I got the camera out because he'd been cheering, but by the time I got the camera, he'd stopped. It took some coaxing by Dean and me to do it again. The last 15 seconds are the best. I love how he says "STOOOP!" when he's all done.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Walt's first hair cut

While we've trimmed his bangs a tiny bit, we gave him his first real "big boy" hair cut today. As in cut off his curls. It was a little sad, but his hair was getting long and stringy. It would look cute for about an hour after bath and then it would just get to be a tangled mess.

last night's bath so you could see all his bangs and bruises. He's added two more already today.

before

After, eating a chocolate as his reward.

This one totally makes me think of my bro. Nate when he was a baby.

"Hole-jew"

Walter is in such a fun stage. He has a couple of phrases that he uses a lot, but he's also copying a lot of what we say.  In the last few days he's changed from saying "upandown" to "hole-jew" (Hold you) when he wants me to pick him up. He's getting better at saying Dean, and he talks about daddy all day. Any time he sees something he thinks is associated with dad, he'll point and excitedly say, "Dada! Dada!"  Sometimes he'll even say stuff like, "Dada shoes!"

Some of the funny/cute things he says:
Oh boy!
Oh ma(n)!
Bye, bye dada. Yuvyou.
Hamma (Hammer)

At church yesterday he kept straddling the arm of the pew and made engine revving noises like he was riding a motorcycle! I don't know if that's what he was really doing, but it sure seemed like it. Sacrament meeting feels like an hour long wrestling match with our boys.  Neither of them are game for just sitting there with activity books  or toys (it helps for a few minutes, but the boys just have ants in their pants!), and twice in the past few weeks we've had to chase them up to the front and retrieve them. The first time Walt started heading up during the Sacrament prayer and Dean followed after crawling. Walt thought it was a fun chasing game and made it all the way to the Sacrament table before Matt got to him. Dean thought it was a fun game until Dad made them stop, and then he wailed as Matt took them to the foyer so the deacons could actually pass the Sacrament! I have to admit, I laughed. It was that or get really embarrassed for normal little boy behavior. It happened again yesterday when the choir got up to sing a special number. Walt thought it would be fun to follow everyone up. I followed him to grab him. Dean followed us "to do it like Walt."  Kids.

He still loves to climb. This week I found him sitting in the bathroom sink, getting into everything he wasn't supposed to. (On a side note, he dumped an entire bottle of shampoo on one of our fabric couches this week as well. Luckily it's one I got for fairly cheap, but still, the damage toll rises!) Yesterday at one point I heard him crying a distress cry from our laundry room. Since I've been painting, I had our big ladder down and leaned up against the wall in the laundry room. He climbed to the second to top rung and couldn't get down! I'm so glad it didn't topple over!

Walter is almost positively left handed. He ALWAYS draws and eats with his left hand. (Matt's a lefty.)  He loves, loves, loves markers, but unfortunately still likes to put them in his mouth as well as draw with them. He is a master with a fork and will NOT let me help him one whit with eating. I do still cut up his food, but he has to spear everything (including peas!) all by himself. He is as good as Dean is with a fork, though his spoon technique needs a little more work with liquids.

 His hair's getting a bit long and scraggly. The curls are still cute, but I think we're just about ready to give him his first "big boy" hair cut.  It's so much harder with curly hair though...

Here's a funny (to me at least) video of us trying to put our kids to bed last week. It's long, so I don't blame you if you don't watch. =) Walt kept climbing up on Dean's train box and flipping over the headboard of Dean's bed.  Of course when we get out the camera it takes a little coaxing to get it on video since he just wants the camera.  It's a little slow at the beginning, but I think the end's pretty funny.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

The squeal of delight

Once I ran out and got the proper batteries for this ball popper, their excitement was hard to contain! My absolute favorite part of the video is the first few seconds, so if you only want to watch a smidgen, that would be it! Walt's reaction to it is just priceless.


Walt's ball popper from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

"Let's send Walter away!"

We have had a fun, longstanding morning routine (when we're not out running) of "pushing dad's car out" when Matt goes to work. Dean has done it for a very long time, and now that Walt's getting bigger, he's started joining in on the fun. The boys get so excited to say goodbye to dad and help push his car out. Dean has been pretty angry about having to share the responsibility often saying things like, "No! Only one kid pushes!" or "Don't let Walter push!!"  This morning after we pushed dad's car out, Dean said, "Mom, let's send Walter away!" When I asked him where he thought we should send Walt, he said very reasonably, "To Grandma's!"  I was surprised he came up with an answer, and a pretty smart one at that. He's obviously thought this one through. I told him that I would miss Walter too much to send him away, just like I'd miss Dean too much if we sent him away.

It was a hard transition to 2 for him. He had lots of issues with bringing a new baby home, and I don't think we handled it very well. New parents, crazy postpartum mom, 2 boys under 2. We did what we could, but the sibling rivalry persists and gets stronger it seems. We have good moments of sharing and caring and love, but it seems like the moments filled with frustration, anger, and jealousy are increasing the more mobile and able Walter is.

They constantly fight over me. Who gets to sit on my lap at church or during books. Who I hold. They HATE sharing my lap and end up whining, crying, and/or hitting each other when I try to do both.

Any good book suggestions or church articles that have helped you out on this topic anyone? Or your own tips?

Halloween Eve 2010

With Halloween being on Sunday this year, we did some of our Halloweening tonight. We will carve pumpkins tomorrow after church (Matt was really sick today).  We went to the church for a Trunk and Treat night.  While I agree it's much safer and a lot more consise, I do think there' s a little something lost by not knocking on people's doors and walking the neighborhood. Matt says we might do a little tomorrow night in our neighborhood, but I don't know if I'm up for it and the boys have WAY more than enough candy already.

I made Walter a Charlie Brown shirt by cutting up an old black shirt of mine and appliqueing it onto his shirt. Unfortunately I could only find long sleeve shirts in the right color, and my sewing machine won't do sleeves that small so I couldn't cut them.  At least it wasn't roasting hot. Somewhere in the 70s I think. He was on my hip the whole time at the church. About half the people got that he was Charlie Brown. The other half said he was a bumblebee. Whatever. I thought he was a cute Charlie Brown.

This was a candid shot of him being so excited to go trick or treating.

When I asked Dean what he wanted to be for Halloween, he said a builder. Not Bob the Builder. Just a builder. So I set out to make him a good builder's tool belt. It took us forever to find a hardhat, but we finally did in Target's role play section.  I got a $1 flannel shirt from Kid-to-Kid and we were set. He already had tools. I really wanted to get him the Dough and Melissa wooden tool box so we had lots of screws to put in his belt and so he could use his tool box as the candy bag, but I couldn't justify the purchase since he already has 2 regular tool boxes.  Instead I made them little trick or treat totes today during their nap. I was very pleased with the final size and how cute they came out.

Aren't these darling??

Walter wasn't sure about all the people, so he was clamoring at dad's knee.

After

I decided to dress up last minute.

Walter at 15 months

My baby is growing up! With his blond curly locks and his brilliant blue eyes, he gets lots of attention and comments from strangers and friends alike. 

Poor baby had a rough morning yesterday. He woke up at 5:45. He was completely distraught when I left him in the nursery for my institute class. We were only there for 1/2 hour because of our doctor's appointment, but he was seriously on the verge of passing out when I got the boys. Poor kid had to stay awake a whole hour longer for his doctor's visit. Everything looks good except I have to do yet another blood draw to see if he's still anemic. This will be our 5th or 6th!

Walter's Stats
Weight: 24 lbs. 11 oz. (53%)
Length: 32.5 in. (87%)
Head Circ.: 18.75 in. (64%)

What is Walter like at 15 mo.?
He is in such a fun stage. He's constantly learning new things, it's easy to make him laugh, and he knows what he wants!  I love that he will snuggle right up to me, he'll rock with me, and he still loves helping his mama. He will not, however, snuggle up or hug Matt! He likes Matt a lot, and is always excited to see him home from work, but I guess he can sense that Matt's not a hugger/snuggler! He loves blankets spread out on the ground (it's crazy hard to keep him off Dean's time out towel when Dean's in time out! that causes extra problems to say the least) and hugs and loves on stuffed animals and puppets. He's really good at growling like growly animals. His favorite way to get from here to there is running! He loves tooth brushes and carries them all over the place. He also loves getting into my "personal items" drawer in the bathroom and as a consequence, there are tampons randomly scattered throughout my house.  The other day when we had some friends here, he came into the living room from my bathroom, had three tampons in hand, held them up high, and said, "TA-DA!!!" Good thing I don't get embarrassed easily! It was pretty funny.

He has been "saying the blessing" at meal times (he folds his arms and starts mumbling incoherently -- SO cute). He loves, loves Dean and watches him like a hawk. He copies so many of Dean's mannerisms and behaviors.  He always wants to play in the front of the car and is very disappointed when I take him straight in the house without letting him play first.  He loves the outdoors, and he's quite good at entertaining himself.

He likes to do actions with songs. Here is his latest "trick", rolling his arms. I still remember when Dean figured out how to roll his arms (right about at this same age), he was so proud of himself and found the new movement hilarious. It's fun to see these kids grow up.

Snack time!

The other day while I was showering, Walter decided he wanted a snack. So he got himself one.

Imaginary Tools

Dean doesn't have imaginary friends, but he does have imaginary tools.  Every single time we read the book Tools (one of his favorite "classics" that we own), Dean has to collect every single tool off of every page. He holds them in his hands until he can figure out where to put them.  Once I had him in night shorts that didn't have pockets, and he asked me to put "not night shorts" on him so he could put his tools away. 

Tonight as we were reading books before bed, he was taking the shapes out of one of his library books, and what did we notice Walter doing? Picking off all the shapes off the pages!  He loves Dean and watches him so much. It was funny to see him taking imaginary tools and shapes just like Dean.

My little drunken sailor

I no longer have a baby. Walter is a toddler! And he toddles all over the place like a little drunken sailor. He has been walking exclusively for a couple weeks now, but my computer can't handle the videos from our new video camera, so I haven't posted much about it yet. I'm actually posting this from Matt's computer while he's otherwise engaged.

Walter is opinionated, and knows where he wants to go and what he wants to do, and he does not feel compelled to wait for me. When I'm trying to change his diaper, he wriggles away, gets up, and RUNS with a wicked laugh as far away from me as he can get. When we are at the park, I have to watch him closely because he just wanders wherever he thinks looks interesting. Definitely an independent boy!  When we picked up dad today, Dean said, "Dad, Walt is an escapee boy."  Haha. My biggest concern is that he'll walk into a fire ant hill since they don't take care of them that well at the parks here. 

He loves making noises right now.  He clicks his tongue, makes chomping noises for emphasis while eating, and points and jabbers for whatever he wants (usually anything up high) if he doesn't have a word for it. We've been working on animal sounds and he likes to growl like a bear, roar like a lion, pant like a dog, and "who" like an owl.  His vocabulary now consists of: mom, dad, up, no (probably his second fav., right behind mom), more (sounds like mo), milk (sounds like a drawn out "miii"), on, and night night (usually accompanied by a wave. He uses this for goodbye as well). 


Here's a video of him walking and playing in the mud/rain we had during the tornado rains a couple weeks ago.

And here's another video of him helping me rearrange our bookshelf.

Arg. It won't let me load the one that showcases his walking skills.

Walter at 1 year

Well, we took Walt to his 1 year check up last week, and while I haven't been blogging much, I figured it was a good milestone to record.

The good: he's right on track with all development. After talking to the urologist he doesn't have to have surgery, though we'll check back in a year to make sure. After talking to the ENT, he doesn't need tubes in his ear, though we'll have another check up next week to make sure he's still in the clear.

The bad: he's anemic. He was at 10 mo. and he was still anemic (though a little less) at 12 mo. We weren't very good about giving him his iron supplement, so we're trying to be much better. She said if he fails it again next month, we'll have to do other tests and junk. boo.

The stats:
Weight: 23.12 (61%)
Height: 30 3/4 (75%)
Head Circ.: 18 1/2 (65%)

Some things about him at this stage:

He LOVES to climb.



The dismount from the table.
He's pretty good at getting down from his climbs, though he screams for me occasionally.

He HATES having his diaper changed.
If he knows I'm coming to change him, he crawls as fast as he possibly can as far away as he possibly can! I generally have to grab him and bring him back to where I'm changing him 3-4 times during 1 diaper change!

A recent development is that he takes his diaper off if I don't put shorts on him immediately.
I've found him naked (and covered in pee -- no poop thankfully) after more than 1 nap! I never once had that happen with Dean!

He still loves food. He generally eats all of his food PLUS whatever Dean doesn't eat of his! (Not to mention all the food he gleans off the floor!!) He probably eats twice as much solid food as Dean. I mean, the kid ate Chinese stir-fry with assorted veggies and fish tonight.
Ate it and loved it.

He throws up if I give him too much milk at once, so I can't ever give him a full sippy.

I can still get him to take a nap at church if I have him in the ergo and cover his head with the little shade thing.

He often buries his head on his bed or on the floor either when he's tired or acting shy.

His eyes are the most brilliant blue.

He loves to feed me and will put whatever I'll allow in my mouth.

He's very close to walking. He's constantly standing up in the middle of the room to do things. The most successive steps he's taken on his own was 3-4, and he was going a bit diagonal. =) He'll frequently take one step and then go down to finish crawling.

His words: Mom! Mom!! No, no, no, no. Dad. Yeah. He shakes his head yes, no, and shrugs his shoulders. He waves goodbye. When he wants me, he beckons me with the "come here" hands (the reverse wave).

He really tries his darnedest to keep up with Dean.
Here he's trying to climb out of the tub, but Dean's doing his best to help keep him in!



Here's a video of him climbing on top of the picnic table. Silly kid.