Skuutin’!

Sidewalk art

We’ve been spending a lot of evenings in the front yard drawing with chalk. Our walkway kind of looks like picture frames, so it lends itself well to drawing. Below is riley’s latest picture, followed by some from a while ago…

Sibs

Little Tokyo

Falling asleep

Riley was taking a while to fall asleep tonight. Among the things she said:

How come Charlie has a loose tooth and I don’t and she’s younger than I am?

How long before a new tooth comes in?  (Uh… maybe 2 months?)  How many weeks in a month?  (4)

1 month plus 1 month equals 8 weeks (giggles)

Riley plus Damon equals 6

Two Rileys plus Damon equals 11

Homophone

This evening I was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Riley before bed and had the following exchange…

Elise: (reading) “‘And when Lucy was tired of eating, the Faun began to talk. He had wonderful tales to tell of life in the forest.‘ (pause) Riley, do you know what ‘tale’ means?”

Riley: “Yes, it’s a homophone! It’s like what an animal has on its butt, like a mouse or a cat or a dog, and it’s also a story. It sounds the same but it means two things and it’s spelled differently.”

I made her repeat it again for Sage because I was so impressed. She is going to be totally set for SATs in 14 years. She said she learned about homophones from her teacher, Lerenik. Her preschool is pretty great, they really have making-learning-fun figured out, and Riley loves it.

Update

I wish we were better about updating about the day to day stuff the kids do. They go through phases so quickly and the funny things they say and do get replaced by new funny things. We’ve been taking lots of pictures and videos because if there is anything I’ve learned about raising kids its that even the most memorable memories fade if they aren’t recorded.

Damon has become a force to be reckoned with. He’s a total sweetheart, but he knows what he wants and is not shy about letting us know. He doesn’t have a lot of distinct words yet, but he understands what we say, and will often repeat words pretty clearly. One of the cutest things he does is say goodbye to different things. At night before bed he like to say good night to things too. When it is my night to put him to bed we read books, then turn out the light, then have a drink of water (Damon never lets me skip this step), then go over to the window and draw the curtains. Recently Damon noticed a streetlight outside the window and was transfixed. Now he like to stare at it for a little bit very night then say “night night light” and wave his little fingers. Very sweet.

Damon is OBSESSED with trashcans, especially the big ones outside. When he sees one off in the distance he gets super excited and we have to go investigate. After, when we’re walking away, he’ll wave and say “bye bye trash.” We used to let him look inside, but I started to feel weird about wandering around the neighborhood looking in everyone’s trashcans (it’s so sad, the recycling and green waste always have trash in them, what’s wrong with people?). Also, trashcans are really dirty. Anyway, he really likes to peak inside then say “yuck” or “bleh” and stick his tongue out. Pretty cute. Wednesday is trash day around here, so we always try to go walk around the block on Tuesday night so Damon can see all the trashcans lined up on the street. Sometimes it take a whole hour just to get around the block, between all the dogs and trashcans and plants we have to stop and investigate.

Ahh yes, dogs. This is sort of a point of contention in our house. Riley is still deathly afraid of dogs, even the little tiny ones that are hardly bigger then her foot. Damon, on the other hand, LOVES dogs. Really really loves them. When they lick his face he sticks his tongue out and tries to lick them back. He knows all the dogs in the neighborhood, and most of them seem to like him. My new tactic with Riley is to have her take deep breaths and say “I am not afraid I am not afraid I am not afraid” over and over when a dog is coming near. Sounds corny, but seems to work. She’s starting to be okay with the little friendly ones.

Mostly Riley and Damon get along pretty well. He obviously wants to play with whatever Riley is playing with most of the time, which is tricky. When they play together though it’s so sweet. Damon recently learned how to tickle, so now one of his favorite things to do is look for your bellybutton then poke it, expecting you to jump up and giggle. riley is a really good sport about this for the most part. Unless it’s first thing in the morning… Damon always wakes up before Riley and he loves to run over to her bed and jump on her… unfortunately she doesn’t really love it and usually says something along the lines of “Daaaammmmoooon! I need some space!”

They are still sharing a room, which seem to be working out okay since Damon mostly sleeps though the night. If he wakes up crying Riley just comes and sleeps in our room, which she likes anyway. As soon as he’s old enough for a bed we’re planning to get bunk beds… I can’t wait!

We have lots of pictures uploading right now, more to come soon!

My birthday

I was looking back through pictures on my phone today and came upon these from my birthday (which was waaaay back in April). Riley and I decided to make a rainbow cake (because we both love rainbows). It was great because the cake was for me so I didn’t have to worry about what anyone else thought of it. We made a lemon cake and used food coloring to make the batter 6 colors:

Frosted the double layer cake with delicious home made chocolate frosting:

Decorated with LOTS of colored sprinkles (don’t be fooled, there was a lot of careful thought put into the placement of each kind of sprinkle):

Add candles:

Sing!

Delicious!

Birthdays are more fun with kids!

One!

Our Damon is one year old! He’s a delight. Full of smiles and energy. For the longest time he was a totally chill baby, but not anymore. He still has a pretty chill disposition, but he’s found his voice and likes to jabber away, sometimes at the top of his lungs, and he’s always on the move. He does sit still sometimes, to investigate a toy for example, but mostly he wants to keep on moving. At this point, he can keep himself amused for a long time if there are toys around. He does like to take hug breaks pretty frequently though, where he’ll crawl into your lap and give a quick hug, then just as quickly he’s off playing again. It’s kind of like a little check-in. I like it. One of the nicest things about Damon though is how excited he gets when you pick him up. He literally trembles all over. Or if you’re holding him and Riley runs up (for example), he’ll scream and tremble and shake his hands in the air. He definitely knows how to get excited.

Anyone who has visited our house knows there is no shortage of toys, yet somehow Damon’s favorite things to crawl around with are spatulas and toothbrushes. One particular favorite is a blue and purple Dora the explorer toothbrush he got as a hand-me-down from Riley. If he sees us brushing our teeth he will literally go crazy until he gets a toothbrush to chew on as well. I would say it bodes well for his dental hygiene, but given his habit of chewing on the toothbrush, then crawling around with it in his hand, dragging on the floor, I’m not sure there’s really any “hygiene” to speak of.

[Still loves to swing]

A few weeks ago I had a classic working mom episode (or maybe this happens to all moms?). I had a tough week with Damon. We had traveled a bit and I was having trouble getting him to eat and nurse and nap, and I felt like I was always making him cry. When we came home I had a couple busy days at work, and by the end of the week I had convinced myself that Damon didn’t like me. We have a wonderful nanny, Yolly, and I told myself, how could I possibly compete with her? She’s been taking care of babies for 20 years, she’s a professional for god’s sake! My dad was visiting at the time. I came home from work early one day, and in response to a simple, “How was your day?” i burst into tears about being a bad mother and Damon not liking me. He just laughed. Then apologized for laughing. Then laughed again. After a while he managed to convince me I was being ridiculous, and he reminded me that we had almost the same conversation long ago about Riley when she was this age. That night I ended up being home alone with the kids and had a great night with them, a perfect night really. Nights like that make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

[Dinner with Dad]

I do have to admit that I am pretty clearly not number one in Damon’s world though… that position is definitely Sage’s. But I’m a pretty close #2, and I have to say, being second best after an awesome Dad is not so bad.

What else to report about our little guy… Well he’s definitely a good eater (and actually not really a ‘little guy’ as a result). Last summer we traveled with friends of ours, Michael and Jewelin, and we were really impressed by how they could just feed their daughter (who was maybe 15 months at the time) from their plates, whatever they happened to be eating. So when Damon started taking solid food, we let him sample whatever we happened to be eating… which of course meant he quickly lost interest in the little bottles of baby food. He’ll eat anything… hummus, chicken tikka masala, spinach lasagna, spicy almond noodles… there’s almost nothing he’ll refuse. Except cold straight-from-the-refrigerator food, he doesn’t like that.

A few months ago, when Damon started consistently sleeping though the night, we moved him into Riley’s room. So far it’s worked out really well. Sometimes he’ll wake up and cry for a little bit at night, but most of the time Riley sleeps right through it. We taught her to just come in to our room if he wakes her up. Mostly they both sleep really well though. Damon wakes up some time between 6-6:30, then typically Riley comes to sleep in our room while I nurse Damon in their room. Sage and I switch off days sleeping in…

I went back to read the blog from when Riley turned one, and am kind of amazed at how different the kids seem already. Damon gave up the pacifier months ago. He also started drinking cow milk just recently with no problem, and doesn’t seem to notice the sudden lack of bottles. With Riley this all seemed like a BIG DEAL. The weaning process still feels like a big deal though. I’m down to twice a day (morning and night of course). My pump parts have been slowly falling apart, and a few days ago my last breast shield sprung a leak… so I decided it was time to retire medela. God I hate pumping. But nursing is nice. In the morning, Damon nurses and somehow simultaneously smiles at me and it’s just amazingly cute. In the evening he snuggles in and nurses to sleep. This week I’m planning to stop… I’m sure it will be no big deal… but I am a little sad to lose that connection. It’s a very familiar feeling from 4 years ago with Riley. I’ve learned from watching my friends though that the longer you wait, the harder it is to wean, so this is the week to do it.

[Gardening… Damon loves to play with dirt… and sometimes eat it]

[Damon drives the Tesla]

[Finger painting]

Tomorrow is Damon’s birthday and we have some big festivities planned… We took Riley to a toy store to pick out some presents for Damon, and baked him blueberry muffins. We have a birthday table all planned out for him even. Good times… I hope he enjoys it!

Damon!

(As I am about to write the 1 year post for Damon I realized we never actually posted this entry… oopsie)

Damon learned to crawl when we was about 9 months old. It’s funny watching this video now, he’s gotten so much faster over the last few months.