It’s coming down good out there and the
whole state is under a winter weather warning (probably our
first of the season!). Alan went to work because we live so
close and he walks anyway. Lex and I just went outside to play.
All morning he’s been saying he wants to play in the snow, but
he refused to put on his snowpants. Silly boy. I ended up just
pinning him down and putting them on. He cried during, but
stopped immediately after and reached for his jacket. We were
outside for maybe half an hour, but the whole process killed
about an hour’s time :) Gotta love it — assuming you’re not in
a hurry! The snow is so deep he can’t walk without holding my
hand and even then it’s a lot of work. We walked up to the
neighbor’s house and played with the dogs and then I got out
the sled but by then he had so much snow on his jacket and
around his face that sitting in the sled wasn’t much fun for
him. He doesn’t quite understand the reasons for bundling just
yet. So I pulled him up and down the driveway and then he
decided it was time to come in. I even gave him a special treat
when we got in — warm chocolate milk in a sippy cup! I’m such
a good mommy! :)

PS. Happy
Valentine’s Day!

Actually, there was one item of note
today. I was doing yoga this afternoon and took my socks off
part way through. When Lex noticed, he got very happy and ran
over, sat down and started doing “This little piggy went to
market” on my bare feet. But the funny part was, instead of
“this little piggy” he said “mommy’s little piggy went to
market, mommy’s little piggy stayed home…” :) He cracks me
up! We play the game a lot on his toes (he loves it and asks
for it all the time when I have his socks off “do piggies, do
piggies”) and I rarely say “ate roast beef,” instead I say
whatever he ate at his last meal (“this little piggy ate
Cheerios,” “this little piggy ate bananas,” etc.) Alan says he
hardly ever plays the game at all. So the funny thing is, Lex
*always* says “ate roast beef” when he says it. Like the rhyme
is somehow embedded in his baby brain and it doesn’t matter
what we say, he knows the proper words. Why would a piggy be
eating roast beef anyway?? :)

I’m definitely carrying this pregnancy
lower than the last. It occurred to me today that maybe it’s
because Lex sits on my belly :) Maybe he’s doing his part to
help.

Not much going on lately. Always
busy, but nothing noteworthy anyway. We had Kaelen here again
today. Lex had fun for awhile then started packing up the toys
he brought. As if to say, “Ok, done with you now.” It was a
good day anyway.

Now he’s all bathed
(ate a marker so we had to take an earlier than usual bath) and
sitting in the living room reading books to himself. He keeps
telling me he wants to go to bed now, but then he changes his
mind before we make it all the way up the stairs. Up and down,
up and down… again, maybe he’s doing his part for this
pregnancy :)

That’s all for
now.

Yesterday I was doing yoga in the living room
and Lex was sitting in his little rocker behind me. He likes to
watch me do yoga :) One second he was sitting there happily and
the next he was on the floor in tears. I’m guessing he
attempted an Evil Knievel move in between. He cried for a few
minutes and quickly developed a nice shiner under his eye.

Later, after his bath, he was on the
changing table and decided he didn’t want to be still… ended
up falling over sideways and hitting his ear against the edge
of the dresser. Cried again for awhile. Ears are pretty
sensitive. He was naked and crawled up on me for hugs. He sat
on my belly crying while I tried to console him and secretly
prayed he wouldn’t pee all over me!

Today we went to a Tot Lot program at a local gymnasium.
One of the playthings they had was a thick gym mat, cylendar
shaped and about 2 1/2 feet high. There were soft stairs and
ramp up to it, but nothing from the inside to use to get out.
Lex spent most of the hour and a half playing on this thing. He
learned pretty quickly that he couldn’t get out of it, but he
liked climbing the stairs, crawling around the top of the
cylandar, dropping partway into the middle and pulling himself
out again, etc. Of course, right at the end he falls in — head
first. I was a little ways away chatting with a friend of mine
(slacker mom, right??) I saw him go down and ran over. There
were several other mothers right there with their hands on
their kids at all times. They gave me such a “looser mom” look.
One lady commented to the other about how the poor baby was
going to have such a
huge mark on
his head. I felt like saying, “Yeah, it will complement the
black eye nicely!” Instead I took him back to the bench where
he cried for about a minute over the pain and then cried for
several more minutes over the fact that his teething biscuit
was all dirty and I wouldn’t give it back to him. Once I got
another biscuit out of my backpack, he jumped off my lap and
ran right back to the toy. Crazy boy! I decided it was time to
go home and get lunch instead :)

Luckily he has no marks from the ear or gym floor… just
the black eye. I have a prenatal appointment on Monday and it
wouldn’t look good to show up with a black and blue
toddler!

Tonight we had our second visit from the
religious folks since we’ve been here. Welcome to the suburbs!
Today’s visitor looked kind of like Matt
Damon… not so bad really. Let’s hope the girl
scouts are as active come cookie time!

Question for the parents out there… how
long is too long to let a kid sit happily in their bed as they
try to fall asleep?

I ask because Lex
is up to about an hour these days. He used to fall asleep
pretty quickly, but now he jumps in his bed, kicks the wall,
talks to himself, tells himself stories, and eventually starts
playing with his doggie (it plays a lullaby), then falls
asleep. It’s interesting to listen to, really. He’s generally
very good about staying in the bed and when he gets up it’s
almost always to play with the baby monitor, so I’m not too
worried about distractions in his room or anything. He just
takes a loooong time to settle down.

We
haven’t changed anything in terms of timing or routine. He
still gets books before naps and a bath and books before bed.
He naps around 1pm (sleeping usually from 2-4pm) and goes to
bed about 8pm (asleep around 9pm). I guess bedtime has been
pushed back a bit because of the later naps. We used to try and
have him in bed by 7 or 7:15, but lately it’s closer to 8:00,
but he’s also sleeping later in the morning (7:00-7:30) which
is super nice!

So anyway. Sometimes
after 1/2 hour or more I start thinking I should get him up,
but I know he’s tired. I’m putting him down when I do because
he’s tired, not just because of the clock. And I think that if
I get him up I’ll just be putting him back down again in a few
minutes. Is that better or just more confusing for him? He is
such a silly boy.