Birthday cookies for breakfast :-)
Happy birthday Alan!!
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Tag Archives: Milestones
Mommy Manicurist
Eve and I have been talking about painting her nails in an effort to help her remember not to chew on her fingers. It’s an experiment. This morning seemed like a good time and she was super excited. I dug out some dark polish (so she would notice it before sticking her fingers in her mouth!) and a sparkly top coat and she was an excellent customer!
After I dropped her off at school I went to CVS and bought some nail polish remover, as well as some pink and purple nail polish. I figured polish that wasn’t 10 years old might go on more smoothly and look nicer! I’ll let you know if this little experiment works. :)
I put the “Milestones” tag on it. Does your first manicure count as a milestone?
EVENING UPDATE: She came home from school with the polish about three quarters off already. She said she picked it off, which is conceivable considering the age of the nail polish and the sparkly top coat. However I found her with her fingers in her mouth many times this evening, so we put the new nial polish remover to good use and we’ll try again another day.
Teeth
One thing I wanted to do on this blog but never did was make a list of milestones and dates down the side. Something quick and easy to scan. So far hasn’t happened and probably never will. Sigh. Anyway, I do want to keep track of the teeth, in case it ever matters. On Tuesday Lex lost another tooth. That’s five total now. This one was his bottom tooth, just to the right of the two front ones he lost first. He was eating a bakery bagel. Part way through the bagel he quietly tapped me on the arm and handed me a tooth. It was loose, but nowhere near as loose as the top front ones that hung on for so long. They make cute tooth fairy pillows… I was going to post a picture from Pinterest but the Internet is being annoyingly slow tonight that will have to wait for another day.
A tooth!
Lex lost another tooth this morning! The front right tooth. One of those wiggly, sticky-outy ones :-) He refuses to flash a toothless smile for the camera though.
A little milestone
There are lots of big developments going on around here. Both kids are rocking at their swimming lessons, growing stronger and more confident each time they get in the water. Lex has three wiggly teeth, one of them is super wiggly! Eve can write and spell “I love you mommy” all by herself :) But one little milestone occurred to me this week that made me a little sad. I can’t remember the last time one of them came into our bed at night for cuddles. They used to come in every night, at least one of them, sometimes both. Usually I’d pull them in to bed to snuggle. When I heard shuffling by my bedside I’d reach out my hand and rub their head first. A sweet touch secretly designed to clue my groggy self in as to who’s standing by my bed. A trick that lost it’s effectiveness towards the end as Eve’s hair grew in. Then I’d pull them in for snuggles or sigh and get up and put them back to bed (what was I thinking!) But now I can’t even remember the last time one of them showed up for midnight cuddles. Sigh. A sweet, sad little milestone.
Lex’s first blog post
Lex makes great “creations” with blocks and Legos and paper and all sorts of things. Often he’ll take pictures of his creations. Even more often I’ll take pictures of them! Sometimes I remind him about the blog and offer to let him post his pictures. Tonight he took me up on the offer! What you see below is Lex’s first blog post. Exciting, huh?! He wrote the title and picked the photos to use and together we uploaded them. By that point it was getting late and we had a game of Life to play before bedtime, so he narrated captions to me and I typed and navigated the WordPress interface. I’m an old pro at that! He was pretty excited about the whole thing. Someday you may see more from him! :)
I had him write down the number of each photo he wanted to add, instead of flipping between programs as I normally do. He worked so hard at it. He's so cute!
French braid!! (kind of!)
I braided Eve’s hair tonight! It’s pretty messy and not very sharp, but it’s a braid! Wheee… girls are great! She likes the curl at the end the best. :)
Muscle development
I am super proud of Lex today. He’s had a serious burst in muscle development lately. Development and interest. I’m sure one is driving the other.
Within the past few weeks he’s learned how to do cartwheels (not sure who taught him), how to go across the monkey bars, hand over hand, how to hang upside down on the bar with no hands, and just today he started riding his bike without training wheels! I’m sure there is more in there, but those are the big things that come to mind right now. It’s so amazing to watch.
At the beach yesterday he was playing on the playground and kept yelling for me to watch him. When I finally did (sorry Lex, I was busy) he zipped right across the monkey bars. There were eight of them I think. Hand over hand and across he went. I’ve seen him kind of do the short ones on our playset, but I’ve never seen the long ones! He did it over and over yesterday. Today he was on the swingset and I saw him hanging upside down, no hands, just hanging out.
Just hanging out
A couple weeks ago he started doing cartwheels in the living room. They aren’t perfect, but he has the general hang of them. We were practicing at the 4th of July party and I think his cartwheel is better than mine.
No, there is no video of me doing cartwheels ;)
This afternoon we were riding bikes and then sat on the porch to take a break. I told him that Grandpa Tom is coming over in the morning and that he taught four kids how to ride without training wheels! (Right? My memory isn’t great so forgive me if that’s wrong.) I suggested maybe Grandpa Tom could help him learn too. Lex thought for a moment and then decided that today would be a better day. Sweet! We went out to the street, I held the back of his bike for a few strides, then his shirt, then he was off on his own. Full of confidence and smiles! We practiced a few times with me holding him briefly, but then he decided he no longer needed my help. With just a few minutes today and a small handful of other brief attempts, Lex is now officially training wheels free!
Sorry for the bouncy video, I was running along beside him.
He practiced his starts, stops, and turns for awhile this afternoon before we had to call it quits. I’m hoping he’ll show off his new skills tomorrow :) He is so proud of himself and I am too! My little baby is riding with the big boys now!
My neighbor down the street said “You realize tomorrow it will be the car keys, right?” Slow down!
This makes me so happy I decided to link up to this week’s Happiness Is… blog hop :)
Lex’s six year check up
We had an awesome visit to the doctor’s office today. Seriously. Lex had an appointment at 9:15 and he chose to go to school for an hour first instead of just going in late. The surprised me a bit, but it worked out well. He happily left with me when I came to pick him up. He did an awesome job at the appointment. He behaved well, he cooperated with the doctor and did everything she asked him to. It was just awesome. Then, to top it all off, he happily went back to school! He was chatting with everyone along the way, on the way out telling people where he was going and on the way back telling people that he was growing well and very healthy. It was adorable and by far the smoothest part of my day! How often can you say that about a doctor’s appointment.
His stats are all good: 50lbs (73rd percentile and up 8lbs from last year!) and 44 1/2″ (31st percentile). I, and the doctor, think there was a measurement error last year. His record said 44″ at his 5yr checkup, but we all agreed he’s grown more than 1/2″ this year. My oh-so-formal pencil on the wall measurement system had him at 42″ last year and 44 1/2″ this year. I think that’s more likely. She agreed.
Somewhat unrelated to the doctor visit, but very related to his turning six, Lex had a new milestone yesterday. He actually spoke on the phone!!! I had Alan on speaker phone and Eve was talking to him. Lex ran over to see what was going and then he started talking too! Right at the phone! :) I doubt Alan could understand what either of them were saying because they were both talking excitedly and over one another, but nonetheless Alan was excited to hear Lex’s voice over the phone! He is growing up.
I was just reading some posts from when he was three and four years old… I get lost in my own blog sometimes. I can spend hours, seriously, reading about what happened in my own life, in my own house, years ago. I mention this only to say that Lex really, truly, has come a long way. There are so many posts about struggles with him. Fighting. Yelling. Pure exhaustion. He is such a sweet, nice boy now. He was then too, but it’s different now. Minor issues still, but nothing, nothing!, like it was before. I feel like I’ve weathered (or conquered?) a storm and now have a beautiful, nearly calm sea to explore. I truly am fortunate.
Mr. Independent
Lex has entered a new phase of independence the past few days. Will it last? We shall see. He has been protesting bath a lot lately (gently, not forcefully, luckily for me) so a few days ago I told him he was dirty and needed to get clean and I gave him a few choices on how that could happen. When I mentioned a shower he jumped at the idea. Since then he has been taking showers on his own. He can do the whole thing without help. It’s pretty amazing. I wondered when the time would come to switch from bath to showers and it seems, like many things child-related, you just know when it’s time. Or they just tell you :) Yesterday was a super busy and exhausting day and Lex started to meltdown around 5pm when we were cleaning up outside and heading in. I gave him the option of helping us clean up, or heading in for a shower. He ran right in. By the time I got in (after more cleanup and chit-chatting with my friend who was visiting) he was done and stepping out of the shower.
He also has taken to making his own breakfast and dinner. As long as dinner means sandwiches, bagels, oatmeal, and/or yogurt. He still needs a bit of help in the kitchen and makes a bit of a mess, but he is motivated and learning! As part of our summer activities I’m going to have cooking or “kitchen” sessions and I think (hope!) he’ll enjoy them. I’m getting excited!