Rainy days and playdates

The past few weekends have brought us lots of rain and time indoors. What a great time to see our friends with children! Fae has had a play date almost everyday of the past two weekends (sorry, no pictures.). Today we spent the day at home with the kids and we're exhausted.





Noah and daddy got to enjoy the jumper while Fae and mommy played with dolls.

**Binky Update** - Fae is over the binky, in fact she is ok with giving Noah his binky. The downside to not having a binky is that she hasn't found a way to soothe herself so her tantrums are more "energetic" than before.

Bye, Bye Binky!!!

BINKY BEFORE

Fae has, so far, gone over 24 hours without her binky! On Sunday, before her afternoon nap, we took a snip out of her favorite binky.

BINKY AFTER

When she woke up from her nap, she, as usual, requested her binky. We gave her the snipped binky. It was interesting to see her look of confusion when she put it in her mouth (she didn't notice anything was wrong with it until she did this.)

Fae: "Oh. It's broken. Someone broke my binky!"
Tina: "Uh oh. What should we do with it? Should we throw it away?"
Fae: "Yeah."
Yoel: "OK, we're throwing it away," as he steps on the garbage pail lever to lift the lid and toss the binky in it -- making sure Fae can clearly see that her binky has been "thrown away."

We also did some preparatory work before this. We gathered up all of her binkies (which were stored in a nightstand drawer next to her bed) and hid them. Her nightstand is now empty. This is to prevent her from falling back on a different binky which would eventually become her new favorite binky.






Now, every time she asks for her binky, we remind her that it was broken and she told us to throw it away. We have been doing very well with using Gummi Bear Vitamins as a distraction. Costco sells them for around $10 per jar of 200-300 and we have 4 varieties: Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Omega-3, and Immune Booster (with Echinacea.) Each Gummi Bear only has about 1.5 grams of processed sugar. She gets 4-6 Gummi Bears each day between distractions, bribes to get her to sit on the potty more frequently and as rewards.

This morning, she did go looking into the garbage in an attempt to find her binky. And then, just before her nap, she saw Noah asleep on the couch with his binky and had a meltdown because she wanted her binky. The meltdown was more indicative that she was just tired and ready for her nap -- and Yoel had no problem getting her to lay down in her bed for naptime.

We are very proud to say we have a binky-free Fae now :-)

Meltdown...

Fae having one of her infamous meltdowns and, this time, pulls all of the books off of her bookshelf.

Noah is bigger and longer.

We finally made it to our "4-month" visit .. at 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days! Noah received 4 shots and the Rotavirus vaccine which was given to him orally (by mouth.) He cried for a moment after getting the shots and then got over it. Must be a boy thing.

Length: 24.5" (10th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs 5 oz (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16" (5th percentile)

Mommy, you have ...

beard.

Ugh.. that's not something you want to hear from your kid, especially when you're a woman. I was curled up with Fae in her Toddler bed (because I'm so petite ...) and talking to her when she pointed to my face and said,

"Mommy, you have beard."

Yes, there are some little hairs on my face near my mouth that could be construed as a mini-beard (or, mustache.) I guess I'd better take care of that ...

Where's Kenya?

Fae asks that a couple of times a day.

Kenya's gone to a new home. We adopted Kenya out to our (animal-loving) friend, Tana. We've found that the birds haven't been getting the attention they were previously used to since the arrival of the Homo Sapiens cubs ...

Why?

This week Fae has entered into the "Why?" stages. Almost every statement is responded to with a "why?". It's fun, for now, to respond to her with something that she can understand.

Noah gets a taste of Rice Cereal.

Shaheena, Noah's babysitter, is currently giving him a bit of rice cereal in the mornings. We've also decided that he will be totally on formula (Similac Organic) when he's not with me (during the workday) and breastfed when he is with me during the evenings and weekends.

NYE 2007 @ the Holly Farm

We spent NYE with friends at a venue called the Holly Farm in Carmel (Valley), California. We had a lot of fun playing Bocce Ball, preparing food (fresh Dungeoness crab, steaks, salads, Chilean Sea Bass), playing Guitar Hero and just a little drinking .. adults only, of course.