My Dani

Finally, some good shots of my girl. Most of the time when I try to snap the pictures there's either too much flash, too little, or I am just a second late and miss the good shot and get stuck with something that doesn't show how cute she really is. I finally succeeded the other night!

Tidbits

Apparently the trainset we got for Jack for Christmas is still a hit. Today he was practicing his numbers in Spanish. (He loves this--he is a big nerd!) With help he got to thirty (treinta--pronounced train-ta) and got stuck. I tried to help him and he repeated, "Train-set-a!"

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We think Jack is getting his molars in because he keeps sucking on his hands. He does it until his hands get all drooly and prune-like and we tell him to take his hands out of his mouth. He does, looks at his hands and then says, "Yucky!" and seeks one of us out to wipe his hand on our shirts. I told him that it was rude so now he says, "That's rude," as he wipes the drool on us.

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Jack got pink eye this week and needs eye drops. At first he fought them, then he whimpered. Now, I swear he is just trying to make us laugh so we can't put them in. While trying to put them in before bed a couple of nights ago, he said, "Oh no!", "I'm so handsome," "Mommy say, 'Almost done!'", and "This is ridiculous!"

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The other day, Jack and I were eating breakfast. He looked at me and said, "Dani stinks." (And she was not at all smelly.) I don't think he truly loves her yet!

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I took Jack to the doctor for his pink eye and cold. And I learned that he hates elevators. I mean he cries during the entire ride and before if he figures out what you are doing before you get him in. He got so upset that we took the million stairs instead. He hates elevators almost as much as he hates sheep. He's going to have a heart attack if there is ever a sheep in an elevator!

New Pics

GO BEARS!

He looks like a P.E. teacher!

Looking like she did something wrong!

Tummy Time!

Here are a few recent photos. I can't seem to get many good ones of Dani. She is just not as photogenic as Jack. She's WAY cuter than her pictures and then there's the issue of her hair. It's so greasy! When she gets a bath, it's this soft poofy hair. The day after it's the same but at the end of that day and on, it looks like she is sweating! I don't want to bathe her daily, as I don't want to dry out her skin and because she's not exactly doing anything to get dirty. Oh well, she's still a cutie pie!

Wimpy, Wimpy, Wimpy and other News

I enrolled Jack in a music class Thursdays. I wanted to do something just with him so he could still feel special and get special Mommy time without Dani around. I was all excited because he is really into music and dancing and Mommy so I thought it would be the perfect combo for this class. More like the Perfect Storm. It started out fine. We got there and he was curious about everyone and everything. There was a little piano mat on the floor that the kids could play. He went up to it and started happily playing, even when the other kids were also playing. One of the girls turned it off and Jack turned the mat over and announced, "I fix it!" I thought, "wow, he's matured. At Kindermusik class a year ago, he just cried the first two times!"

Well, the teacher started class and started the music and my outgoing, funny toddler turned into a crying, wimpy mess. He didn't want to partake in the activities, he didn't want to touch any of the instruments, he only wanted to hold me. He got off of my lap, tears running down his cheeks, pointed at the door and said, "Mommy, go home!" Oh and did I mention that MY kid was the only one crying. So here I am KNOWING that my kid is the coolest kid in the room yet everyone in the class thinks he's the biggest baby in the room. Then I started thinking. . . They probably won't want to sit by him because he's so lame. He'll never make any friends in class because no one wants to be friends with the kid that's crying all the time. Anyway, earlier in the week when I was talking about pre-schools, Paul had asked me what the point was. We now both see what the point is! We can't have him sitting in high school math class and crying uncontrolably, even if that's what I did! Hopefully he'll start enjoying it soon!

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A day after the blubbering music class incident, we had friends over for Paul's birthday. ONe of our friends brought over their son, who is one year older than Jack. They had a GREAT time and Jack was nothing like he was in class, which was encouraging because there was a large group of people AND children! So he made his first friend--it was the first time I had seen him actually PLAY with another kid. They stacked Legos together and played with his train set. Maybe there is hope for him yet!

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In Dani news, we have finally found something to help the poor baby--gripe water. It's herbal and I was originally skeptical and hesitant to give her something that wasn't really "medicine". However, after my pediatrician suggested it and my OB-GYN said she gave it to her daughter, we gave it a whirl. And got a brand new baby! It is such a relief to see her happy and not always in pain! She's still a little colicky from time to time but NOTHING like she was. I bought a second back up bottle already because I don't want to be without Dani's new magic potion!

We All Scream For. . .

Tonight at dinner:

Jack: More noodles!
Me: Not until you eat some meat. Eat your meat.
Jack: Hmmmm. . . How 'bout ice cream?

Yay for Colic!

It is said that 1 in 5 babies get colic. Well, we got one. Poor Dani seemed to have colic a few weeks ago but it went away and we thought it was related to her getting the milk protein out of her system. Since then she had been much better, though she still was pretty fussy when she was awake. Last night, she screamed her little head off for hours. There was nothing we could do to calm her down. It is getting so frustrating because 1) she feels so bad and there is nothing we can do to help her and 2) we can't engage her like we want to. We try to talk to her and sing and are able to do so many times but often she is so upset that she will calm down for nothing. It not only makes things hard for her and us but also for Jack. It's hard to pay attention to him and engage him when we have a baby we are trying in vain to comfort who is screaming in our ears.

He got up late from his nap and that is kind of when she started. He was very good as she hollered through his television show. But after a couple of hours, he had it. He threw down his monkey Jo-Jo and screamed, "OH, DAMMIT, BULL$#&@!" At least it sounded like "bull$#&@" though we aren't sure where he got that one from. I had to cover my mouth so he wouldn't see me laugh. How could I yell at him when we all felt the exact same way?

A Big Week at the Soto House

This week Dani smiled for the first time! She matched her brother, who smiled 1 month and 6 days from his birthday, exactly. On January 4, she smiled at the ceiling fan. On January 5th, she smiled at me. I don't know what to make of this.

After much difficulty, Jack decided to take a nap in his big boy bed on January 7th.

Are we too ambitious to go full tilt into potty training mode next week? For Jack, not Dani. We'll give her a little more time.

Thank you, Crayola!

Today I left Jack in the living room briefly as I went to the kitchen to get a drink. He was playing with crayons by himself peacefully. Since it is rare that he plays by himself, I left him in there and grabbed a snack too. I peeked into the living room a couple of minutes later and saw him spitting things out of his mouth. I walked over and found half of soggy green crayon on the table. I looked at Jack who was taking little green bits out of his mouth. He had green drool running down his chin and his shirt was covered in green. He looked at me and said, "NO EAT DA GREEN!"

New Dani Pics

Shapes

Jack knows (can identify and say) the following shapes: circle, triangle, rectangle, heart, star, oval, square, octagon, rhombus, semi circle, crescent, parallelogram and trapezoid. He loves making me draw shapes and then saying them. A couple of days ago, Moose and Zee were talking about shapes and we paused the TV and quizzed him. The semi circle was in a position that he wasn't used to seeing it in. He pointed at it and said, "NOT a trapezoid!" How I wish I could have given that answer in my high school geometry class!