It’s hard to compare Vivienne with Joseph as a newborn. I’m used to not having a life already, so that makes it all seem so much easier. Of course Vivienne sleeps much more in the day than Joseph does, so that seems easy as well. I am able to nurse her without pain, so not only is feeding her easy, it also means I can calm her at the breast if need be so we don’t have the long crying bouts we had with Joseph. The nights are not easy as Joseph is still no used to her cries and wakes up upset and refuses to sleep and when he finally does Vivienne is up again, but that is getting slowly better, so hopefully this phase will end before we reach our limits. Amazingly, they sometimes nap at the same time in the afternoon and we can catch up on a few winks, which helps. Though that is the case mostly because Vivienne sleeps longer stretches during the day than at night, she’s still young. We will very much miss Grandma, who is willing to get up with Joseph at 6am and let us sleep with the baby a bit longer.
Vivienne’s birth splotchiness is gone and she is so beautiful! I’m enjoying this time with her and the family very much. She passed her birth weight on day 6!
I was all excited to start this baby with EC (Elimination Communication) early on and create an intimate bond between me and my baby that included output as well as input and I was thrilled that from the first two days Vivienne made it quite clear when she had to poo in the night so I’ve been consistently catching all her night-time poos (usually three) in a bowl, which I empty in the morning and I just throw on a new diaper right from bed because there’s very little mess. This was thrilling until the number of consecutive nights of only getting sleep chunks of less than two hours started catching up to me. I’ve starting trying to ignore her cues (fussiness and grunting) at night in hopes that I won’t have to sit up in bed and take care of her, but she will have none of it. She knows how nice it is to be rid of her excrement rather than sit in it and will wait until I finally decide to put her on the pot to go. It’s happened too many times that I’ve waited and then she’s gone right away on the pot for it to be coincidence. I’m hopping that she’ll soon not poo so often so I won’t end up cursing the day I learned about EC. Interestingly, I’m not as good about catching her day-time poos. It is also fun to see how much Stephan has grown as a father. He takes care of Vivienne like a pro and is more relaxed about it. He’s even happy pottying her and has already caught a few day poos.
So as babies go Vivienne is an easy baby. We couldn’t have hoped for things to go better than they have. We are profoundly thankful, though of course still tired as birth and infant care is never easy!
Tomorrow my mother arrives. When she leaves we will be a family of four (God willing and the creek don’t rise). Life will never be the same again. That’s a bit scary, but we’re going to have a fabulous time!!
Dec. 24-26: In my 7 Thanks I said as much as that we had a wonderful time around Christmas with family but got sick took most of the week to recover, but recover we did, thankfully.
Dec. 30: I must acknowledge that official “sit-down” homeschooling has begun with Joseph. He loves his alphabet puzzle so much and he loves the alphabet so much that he will often get out his colored pencils and a piece of paper and beg me to write the (upper case) alphabet for him to identify. He likes it when I write the letters in a random order and let him identify them one at a time. In other words, he likes being quizzed at 1 ½!
Jan. 1: Gotte D. came for lunch and we all enjoyed it immensely. I had false labor at the start of her visit, but fortunately that was as exciting as it got.
Jan. 2: Stephan and I cashed in on a voucher from his folks to watch Joseph while we celebrated three years of marriage a night early. We went into Lucerne and enjoyed a dinner out. We got dressed up with heels and tie. I figured it would be the last time in a while. What a three years it’s been! It feels like a lifetime and we had fun trying to recall pre-dating and dating life. Even marriage without kids seems like a distant memory. One thing can be said for sure about how long we’ve been married: not long enough!
Jan. 4: Today I sat reading on the couch while Joseph played with Legos. Next then I knew he’d put every Lego away in the box, put the lid on and put the box back in the shelf where it belongs and then casually turned to something else. I do a lot of picking up with him, and he sees me pick up after myself right away (usually), but somehow it still amazes me when he initiates it himself!
-Today he also did the whole alphabet puzzle by himself (with me watching and cheering him on). The alphabet puzzles is always the first toy he goes for in the morning and after naps. He takes that out and then asks for the number puzzle he got for Christmas saying “hum.”
Jan. 5: Today Joseph pointed to the 9 in his number puzzle and said “nüün” to Stephan and then turned to me and said “nine.” He repeated this, obviously very proud of himself.
-I let (!) Joseph play with a tack and paper that’s on my desk. He successfully pushed the tack through the whole that was already in the paper.
- He’s started to let me know he needs to go potty by walking to the bathroom, grabbing a book and sitting on the pot with his clothes on. We’ve started working on getting his pants off himself, but there’s a ways to go yet. So far he’s waited to go until I’ve helped him get his clothes off. EC has been very on/off and hit/miss. I’m relaxed about it at this point and just potty him when I can and leave him in diapers or training pants otherwise.
Oct. 27th: Joseph says “ice” for “lights.” He says “spices” and I can’t transcribe it, as with most of his words. He gave me a kiss unasked for for the first time. He found Daddy’s stash of paper for recycling (piled under his desk) and he put it in the recycle spot one piece at a time without any prompting! We’d been giving him paper to put away for a while now, but this was the first time he did it on his own. He can put books back in their shelves.
29th: I spent a lovely day in Holderbank where we have missionary friends. Stephan looked after Joseph, was it was lovely to just relax, enjoy good company and good food. What a luxury!
31st: We live in a Catholic canton so Stephan got the day off and we were able to visit the Swiss grandparents. Stephan and I got to spend some romantic time at the Basel Herbstmesse (oldest, biggest, longest, etc. etc. fair in Europe or something like that) while Joseph enjoyed visiting the zoo for the first time! Again, talk about pampering . . .
Nov. 3rd: I’ve been experimenting with making our own peanut butter since it is rather pricy here. From a bag of peanuts in the shell I made a batch for half the price the store sells at and we all liked it. If only I could find unsalted shelled peanuts it would save a lot of the work.
4th: Joseph signs “play piano.” His signs are getting quite accurate. It’s fun to watch! More words: mouse, fish, squawk, and tea. The last two are from a British book from V that is one of his favorites. In the end they have a scrumptious tea and Joseph always supplies the last word. (Now he has many such words he supplies in various books, I doubt I’ll write them all down.) This morning he woke me up by giving me a kiss and then giving my belly a kiss! How can you be upset at that?
7th: Joseph officially doesn’t crawl anymore. Of course he can, but walking is his preferred mode of transportation. That means he’s slower at stairs, but is much more like a little boy than a baby. Where did the time go? It’s the shortest years and the longest days . . .
He signs “bread” and “banana.” Swimming time is going very well. I’ve been saying “one, two, three, jump” and letting him jump from the side of the pool into my arms. Today he supplied his own “one, two, three” (with only the three sounding anything like the number) because he couldn’t wait for me to count to jump in. I’m still working on teaching him that he shouldn’t get in the water without me there. Pool time takes a lot of vigilance! He can also consistently swim when I launch him from my arms to the stairs and pull himself out. He is good at catching himself when he falls so he doesn’t hurt himself – even if it is slippery inclined tile. This session he accidentally fell head-under twice and came up without a cough for any sign of surprise.
“Hot pot” and “pepper” sound similar, and both sound like “Bappe” (Daddy in Swiss German) but he still says “Mama” for Stephan and me. “All gone” sounds like “kaka” which is also his word for “cracker.”
9th: Joseph says trash (“ksh”) while holding a plastic bottle. He wants to throw it away but I point him to the recycling. Since then he grabs trash whenever possible (and mostly he’s right!) and throws it away in the kitchen trash, opening and closing the door appropriately. What a help!
10th: Joseph says “poo” when he needs to go #2. That’s a great help, as he can usually wait until we can get him to the potty before he soils his diaper/underwear/whatever he’s standing over. Said “bath” (ba). He got out the AquaDoodle and then came to me saying he word for house/mouse/mouth (“auf”). He was clearly asking me for something. I then guessed he was saying “mouth” and by that he meant he wanted the AquaDoodle pen which we don’t let him put in his mouth. I was right. What a smart dood!
He can blow into a tissue. (Yes, we’ve been sick.)
12th: We visited D+A S. It was a great pleasure, but oh, how a new place is so tempting for a toddler to explore!
13th: Joseph walked down three steps without holding on to anything.
14th: Joseph is now a help with laundry, and not just in spirit. He can empty and load things according to instructions. He doesn’t always follow, but he does enough to be counted a help since I can hang up laundry while he fills the washer with the next load. What fun!
At dinner he asked for some cheese (signing) then he held his piece of cheese out to me and said “chs” (cheese) and then turned to Stephan and said “ka” (for Käs – cheese in Swiss German if I knew how to spell it). He’s used German and English words before, but this was the first time he showed us that English is Mommy’s language and German is Daddy’s. Raising a bilingual baby is amazing! He understands as much of what Stephan tells him as he does of what I tell him – even rather complicated sentences. I don’t know why it amazes me.
He knows his body parts in German and when we read the book that talks about them he points to each part, including his bottom. So cute!
15th: Tante A gave us some money to spend at the fair on Joseph. We bought a wooden Alphabet puzzle. Joseph loves it. He knows a number of letters from his signing book, but needs prompting from us to say the letter before he can say it. However, the other day he picked out the “I” and said “eye” and he’s done it a number of times since.
He says “muesli.”
He says “ppph” and does a very good “potty” sign if he notices he’s peeing. Unfortunately, he doesn’t use the sign much when he needs to go. I have to read other clues (taking off the diaper, hopping off my lap, suddenly getting still, grunting).
Notes from Stephan:
Says “ma” while holding a fist to his mouth for “mommy milk.” Says “please” (psh). Climbs up on chairs and then tables and beyond . . .
When it’s time for the Bible readings and prayer he becomes very excited, holds his hands in the air and says “maaaay!!!!” for “Praise the Lord.”
He blows kisses.
He loves to pick up the pot after going and walk it to the bathroom himself. This is a dangerous affair, but he often makes it there without spilling and then dumps it in the toilet as well.
13th: Joseph has two 2-year molars breaking through.
-He moves his index finger (right hand) back and forth and hisses at the back of his tongue to sign that he wants to brush his teeth, which he has to do every morning when Mommy brushes hers. We brush his teeth with paste every night, but maybe he knows better. In any case, he now gets it twice a day, once with and once without paste.
-We took a walk wearing no diaper and split pants we got from China (curtsey of Stephan’s coworker). Well, I wore normal pants, but I also didn’t pee in on the sidewalk. It was embarrassing. He didn’t give me any sign, just started peeing after we’d come up out of the underground passage that goes under Seetalstrasse. At least he didn’t pee in the tunnel! Split pants work, though . . .
That was Joseph’s first time crossing under and over the street. I let him go where he pleased, with proper traffic instructions, of course. He had a grand time!
-Joseph knows the names of all the farm characters on the cloth memory set that Gotte Diana gave him. He can say something similar for all of them, but when asked, he can find whatever you ask for. We did get a video! Up in the usual places (though most of you have seen this already).
-Joseph makes a beautiful sign for food now – it’s exactly right!
-I like to take Joseph for walks where he’s free to roam (off the main street). Once we took a 1 ½ hour long walk and he walked the whole way! (I’m too pregnant to carry him far.) He needed some coaxing and encouragement to make it home, but he did it!
16th: Joseph says “bushi” (which means baby in Basel German) when pointing to my belly. He says “I’m a whale” which is a line from one of his books. He points at one of the German library books and says “bagger” which sounds a bit like “kaka” but it’s clear what he wants (it’s a construction book). She says “shoes” and “socks” which sound like “shish” and a short “ah” respectively. The first thing he does when he comes out of the bedroom is go directly for his shoes saying “shish” and asks me to put them on. He wares them all day and would go to bed with them if he could.
17th: Joseph adds “tongue” and “baby” to his vocabulary. Baby is particular clear.
-Joseph is a fish! He’s been jumping off the side (from sitting) and into the water for a while without trouble now and I’ve started guiding him to the steps (underwater) and letting him crawl out. He does well and asks for it frequently. Soon I’ll try letting go a little before his hands reach the steps so he has to swim a bit to get there. He can run all around the baby pool and does well when he falls. He can do the slide by himself (belly down, feet first) and stop himself before his head goes under water. Today he walked up the slide holding on to the edge and fell and ended up on his back. His face was still out of the water, so I let him struggle a bit. Unfortunately at one point in the struggle his face went in and he got a big breath of water. Usually he recovers quite quickly, but this time I almost started to panic, but before it even looked like he was back to normal breathing he was back at walking up the slide again! He has no fear! That’s good – and bad. I’m happy he loves the water and doesn’t freak out when he gets some water, but shouldn’t he learn his lesson? I learned once again that often his cries are not over the accident, they’re over his purposes being frustrated - so he wants to try again!
18th: Joseph signs “please” now (both hands brush against his tummy sideways), which is lovely before he’s started saying “na na” for “yes please” and it sounds awfully close to “nei nei” which means no. If I’m not sure what he wants and say “If you want it please say ‘yes please Mama’” and he says “na na” I then tell him that sounds like “no” and to please say “yes please” at which point he’ll either do the real sign for “please” or his old sign (hands clapping, or index to palm). This is a great improvement to thinking he’s said no and then getting cries of frustration when we don’t give him what he’s thought he’s said “yes” to!!
-Today after I Swish+Swiped the bathroom Joseph tore off a bit of toilet paper and rubbed the toilet seat and lid before tossing it in the toilet – just like Mommy does!
-New trick found! If he doesn’t want to eat (why doesn’t he want to eat?) if we give him a fork to eat with suddenly all his food becomes edible. He loves every kind of food, the trouble is, it varies on the day, so I have no idea what he’ll eat at any given time. He favorite food one day is detestable the next, the food he spurns today he’ll gulp down tomorrow. What’s up with that?!
-We still do our Bible readings mostly consistently after lunch, which is when the BCP has us read part of Psalm 113 to start. We’ll tell him we’re about to praise the Lord now and he’ll come to sit in our laps and will put his hands in the air saying “praise the Lord!” (I can’t transliterate yet). Every time in Psalm 113 we say the word “praise” I raise his arms enthusiastically. Sometimes he does it on his own. In any case – he loves it!
-His favorite bedtime book is “Goodnight Moon” and when we talk about the “quiet old lady who was whispering ‘hush’” he always turns around and puts his face close to mine (since I always whisper the ‘hush’ close to his face). Tonight Daddy was reading the story to us and when the time came Joseph sat up and put his face nice to his and a burp came out! We’re no good at controlling our laughter, but Stephan’s much better than I am! I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve – I think I’ll have to adopt Barbara’s “Just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean I think it’s funny” line.
19th: Joseph likes to carry his potty to the toilet to dump it out. This makes me nervous, but he’ll have to learn sometime!
-It’s been mentioned on the videos, but Joseph loves “In the Night Kitchen” in German (we only have it in German). He has three favorite phrases from it that he says over and over throughout the day. Picture teenagers quoting moving lines to each other – he loves quoting with us! He goes “aaaaaahhh” for “Ruhe da unten” and “ti ki tiii” for “kikerikii” (rooster crow) and “mi, mi, mi, mi, mimmhhh” for “Milch, Milch, Milch für den Kuchenteig.”
-EC is hit or miss. He doesn’t say when he needs to pee or poo we just have a good clue when he needs to poo and some clue if he needs to pee and we’re paying attention. He does sometimes say he needs to go (and we can tell) but often it’s as he’s going or just after. Anyway, I hope to be more consistent with the new baby and see things don’t go better. Still, we’re glad for what we’ve done. Wouldn’t it be lovely if he got the idea down before the baby came . . . ?
-Today after swimming he tripped when walking to the stone stairs and bust his lip on the lower step, poor thing. After some blood and tears all was better again.
-I can’t keep up! He fills in the last word “hot” in his Monet book “This garden has a shady spot for reading books when the day is . . .” He says “apple” in the right place for “The Hungry Caterpillar” and he’s making other connections. I think that’s why he’s started asking for the same book over and over again . . .
-The alphabet song doesn’t have anything to do with letters to him. He loves the alphabet sign book PJS gave him and once each Stephan and I tried to sing the song while doing the signs. He got a very serious look on his face – to him, that song means he has to stop what he’s doing soon and do what we want him to!
28th: I realize that Joseph signs “train” and “siren.” Both come from the “Baby’s First Noise” book that Grossmutti gave him (and where “airplane” was learned). I wonder how many other signs he does that I haven’t recognized yet. I wonder with words as well. My observation skills are lacking and I don’t know how to train them!
7th: Joseph consistently says “may” with a short vowel (rhymes with “re”) for “mommy milk.” That’s a good word to have! He’s walking more and more and while he still crawls, he will mostly choose to stand up and walk somewhere rather than crawl. He knows most of his face parts and likes to point to them on himself or me when I name them. He says “eye” fairly well. When I show him bits he always tries to say the last one I’ve shown. It’s so cute! Try “California” or “ring-tailed lemur” with a 15mos old tongue!
10th: Joseph goes from sitting to standing with a shoe in each hand (one knee to standing without support). Joseph still LOVES books. The main reason why he fusses in the day is because he wants me to start reading or doesn’t want to stop reading. I now have a spot on the couch where I sit and when I sit there he can bring me books to read. He scrambles off my lap the moment a story is finished and rushes to find another one. Then he brings it to me with the quick in-out breathing of one very excited little boy!
He says “wow” when he’s peed on the pot – in imitation of my enthusiasm, of course. He walks to the bathroom, lifts the lid, flushes (he can reach on his own now) and lower the lid softly. He still doesn’t tell us often when he needs to go – or we haven’t figure it out yet. Today (12th) he said “banana” for pot, but because he used the same word as banana and the bananas hang on the same bit of furniture the pot is (don’t ask) I didn’t realize he wanted the pot until – well, you know.
On the 8th we finally found shoes that will fit his feet. It’s getting cold and wet here and even I won’t let him out barefoot. They’re pink, but he loves them anyway. Two days later as we’re getting ready to go out and I don’t know where his shoes are I ask him to go find them for me. To my surprise (why does it still surprise me how smart kids are?!) he remembered that in the morning he’d been playing with them and had brought them into the office. He looked at me and thought a bit, then marched right into the office and picked up a shoe and brought it to me!
He knows “belly-button” in German. I was reading the body-parts book to him and when we got to the belly-button he lifted up his shirt and stuck his finger in his belly button! Daddy’s around enough for him to know a good bit of German! Stephan reports he knows “eye” in German as well, but he knows plenty more than that!
12th: Last night Joseph slept from 8:30pm to 6am without needing anything: no songs, no breast, no nothing. Wow! I woke up plenty, but how nice to just worry about myself!
Today we had another swimming date with birthday-buddy A. Joseph became positively hyper, kicking and moving his arms in the big pool and then exploring all over the kiddy pool. He’s getting good about keeping his head above water when he falls from standing and then getting back up again. It’s hard to watch him and know the right amount of intervention. Often he can fall and even have his face get submerged without any trouble. But sometimes he doesn’t hold his breath in time. He’s still alive so far . . .
I can’t keep up with all the new things he can and does do. He’s really taking off! It’s such a pleasure to be his mommy. We’re still learning about “no” and obeying, but he has made so much progress! When we go for walks and he walks down the wrong path I can call him back again and he obeys – not without some hesitation, but I’m pleased that he often makes the decision to obey. It must be such a struggle between doing what he wants and choosing to listen to Mama. If he needs a little time to make that decision, I’m happy for him to have it when it’s not critical, and he can tell by my voice when it’s really dangerous. I think I’m okay with the idea that learning to obey immediately comes gradually and can be better enforced with an older understanding. It’s funny, though. Whether he behaves well in public or poorly I’m frustrated that it’s not a true representation! We had coffee at our pastor’s house the other day and Joseph obeyed us right away when we asked him to shut the drawer he’d discovered. He shut it and went to something else and the pastor and his wife were very impressed. Stephan and I were quick to point out that that doesn’t always happen that way . . .
Dates are not always accurate, as in some of the things Joseph started doing well before I finally wrote them down, but they’re not more than a month or so off.
Aug 16: Joseph points to things he wants and then asks for them politely by signing his “please/I want/yes/etc.” sign of clapping his hands. Is that his first sentence? This was also the first day back from vacation and we went right back into EC and had no misses (just one in his diaper after his nap). The following days weren’t so good, but he hasn’t forgotten everything.
Aug 23: Joseph is in an annoying phase that shows his understanding of the forbidden. When he does something he’s not supposed to he says “nei, nei, nei” (German “nein” for no). On the one hand, it gives me a clue if I’m in another room that he’s doing something naughty, but on he other, he still does the thing he’s not supposed to! Yet phases come and go quickly, now (Sept. 4) he is much better at obeying my vocal commands, though he still needs constant reminders. Funny how just a few months ago it seemed impossible to teach him to obey. Something worked, maybe!
Joseph has added a number of signs and words to his vocabulary. His sign for cheese (he’s a Swiss boy!) is to rub his palms together in the direction of his fingers back and forth, which is not far from the real sign, which is more of a twisting motion. He makes a tired sigh and places his hands on the sides of his head to say “nap, bedtime, sleep, etc.” It’s so cute. He signs a sort of “finished/play” sign when he is done eating and wants to get out of his highchair. This is nice because he doesn’t do as much standing up in his chair as before and we can tell him to sit down and tell us if he wants to get out of his chair. He sort of signs read, but it’s not so clear. Sometimes it’s like his clapping (which is sometimes a finger pointing to his palm rather than clapping) and the sign for cheese one after the other, which looks a bit like “read book” but it’s not consistent. What is consistent is that he always wants us to read him books when he’s on the potty.
Spoken words are still behind, but he now says amen after we pray. It sounds like “may may” most of the time. It’s SO cute!
Aug 26: Joseph climbed in and out of his stroller. He’s now quite good at it and is getting rather bold with his adventures. He loves being out of the apartment and climbing around on the stairs or in the gravel out front. Often I can read a book while he does this but he can never get enough of it, asking to go outside almost as soon as we come in from being outside for a long while.
He’s walking more and more, but he’s still quite cautious about it. He waves “hi” and “bye.”
Aug 29: He’s gotten more snuggly with age, which I must say I appreciate. He’ll rest his head on my shoulder and give us hugs. It was hard caring for him so much and getting so little physically affection, so I am very much enjoying this stage where he’s happy to just sit in my lap for a few minutes.
Aug 31: At the end of our family Bible reading today Joseph said “amen” with us and it was so cute that Stephan wanted to hear it again so he said “And all God’s people said . . .” (we used to do this in middle school, the answer was supposed to be “hush” and it was to get our attention – it worked) and without skipping a beat Joseph said “minyum minyum!” I don’t know if I’ve written it, but it has long been his word for food.
In the other news, I brought back a dairy making kit from the states and I’ve been having fun experimenting with different products. I’ve made butter and butter milk, yogurt, lemon cheese, sour cream, and mascarpone with moderate success and so far only the cream cheese and the kefir has been a flop. It’s somehow very fun and satisfying to make staples like butter and yogurt yourself.
The garden continues to grow dandelions at an impressive rate. It’s been a cold, rainy June, so I’m not sure how great that is for my other plants. We shall see, we shall see.
June 4th Joseph started putting shapes into the shape sorters. Since that day he hasn’t been as successful, but it still keeps him occupied. With him starting to put things INTO other things, that means soon we’ll be able to teach him to help clean up with us!
We went to a play group the same day and had a great time even though rain kept us indoors. Joseph loves being around other kids and their strength and roughness doesn’t seem to bother him. Since we were out for a short time I had him in cloth diapers, but had no intention of doing EC, but about halfway through he come to me fussing and he didn’t want food or to nurse so I thought maybe he needed to pee. He was still dry after several hours from when we left home so I decided to give peeing in a public toilet a try. He’d never been interested before, but this time he went like a pro! He stayed dry until we got home that day, too. Nothing like that has happened again and we’ve had plenty of down EC days, but the successes are more fun to report.
June 5th we had a reunion meeting for PEKiP folks. Unfortunately, the two older babies couldn’t make it, but it was great fun to see the other babies and mothers and to share experiences again. Everyone was surprised Joseph wasn’t walking yet. I’m not sure if the babies remembered each other, but they did enjoy each other.
June 7th Joseph took his first steps! He grabbed my skirt to get up off of the potty but once he was standing the skirt was not supporting him anymore, but he didn’t know that and took a step or two toward me. I praised him but he didn’t know what I was so excited about! That same evening Stephan was holding his hands as Joseph walked and Stephan let go and Joseph stood for a second then took a step before Stephan held his hands again. So far, no repeat performances or interest. He is interested in walking if we hold his hands, though. Now after he goes to the potty we walk together to the bathroom where he lifts the toilet lid (he’s only supposed to do that when we have something to dump – maybe a complicated rule for a 1-year-old) and helps flush. He finds that great fun.
He now has eight teeth: four on top and four on the bottom.
June 8th both Joseph and I woke up a bit sick. That evening I lost all my food but Joseph got away with only the snuffles. He’s been sleeping a lot and we both are on the mend.
June 11th I finally sent in our taxes. It always seems to take longer than expected – I started months ago! They’re sent under the wire (over seas folks have until June 15th), but they’re done! Now we can enjoy our first guests at our place in Emmen. They should arrive any minute now, so I’m signing out and it will probably be another two weeks before I touch base again. Thanks for your faithful reading anyway!
May 10th Joseph was standing at the coffee table when he took both hands off to clap for me. He stood a few seconds before he realized what he was doing. He still doesn’t like to stand alone and only does it if he’s tricked or surprised into it.
May 15th while at the pool with Daddy Joseph crawled to where there’s a slide in the kiddy pool area and at the top he turned out and slid down backwards on hands and knees.
May 16th he crawled up and down a whole flight of stairs all by himself.
Joseph now consistently holds our hands when we pray together before meals.
May 18th I think Joseph signed potty while in his high chair. He went when I put him on, so maybe it was real. He can now get off the pot without tipping it over all by himself (though sometimes he doesn’t work).
May 20th Joseph was standing holding on to a ruler I was also holding on to. I let go and he stood for quite a few seconds while I praised him. It seemed to be the first time he knew he was standing alone. He still isn’t very interested in it though. I’m not sure why I’m so excited about him walking, but ever new skill is just so exciting!
Today I let go of his hand and he took one step forward before falling. It doesn’t count so much because it’s my encouragement and not his interest, but I just can’t help myself . . .
Last Thursday Joseph turned ten months. I can’t decide if that’s long or short and I certainly can’t remember when he suddenly took off learning everything. I made some notes on these days:
April 30th Joseph opened a metal pencil case by himself. He climbed up two flights of stairs up to the top of our building, and quickly. He added a fourth word to his spoken vocabulary, at least I was fairly sure of it. (Mama, Papa and “nein” being the first three).
May 1st Joseph worked his way backwards down three stairs. He also played peek-a-boo with himself in a floor-length mirror. He stood up close to the edge and rocked to the side to “hide” and rocked back to show himself in the mirror. So cute!
May 3rd Joseph carefully stepped into one of his toy boxes (only about five inches tall) and squatted down. I thought it was cute until I thought maybe he could be peeing. I checked and sure enough, the damage was done. It seems he’s pretending to be a cat. Maybe I should clean out the potty and leave it in his reach and see if he’ll crawl over and squat on it himself when he needs to go.
We also started communicating with sings. I’ve been spotty introducing signs, but today he figured out that clapping his hands means “more.” It’s fun playing with him because I can use the “more” idea in a variety of situations, but then again he has a desire for more that tries my patience! He loves anticipation games like “this little piggy” and the like and will ask for more and more and more.
And it’s official. There is no doubt that Joseph added “dots” as his fourth spoken word. He asks me to show him the dots by saying “da” with the air stopped at the end (so it’s not “dah”). If I show him the dots he will say “da” and if I ask him while he’s playing “Joseph, would you like to see your dots?” he’ll stop what he’s doing and say “da!” After I help him do his summersaults he’ll look up at me and say “da” since often we look at dots after doing summersaults. Somehow this really amazes me, but it’s clear as day! Lest everything sound perfect, it seems to us that he hardly looks at the dots. He loves them, but he often looks at me or at stuff around us. I imagine when he looks at me he’s still taking it in, but otherwise it seems hard to believe. Well, at least it’s easy, doesn’t take much time, it’s clearly enjoyable and it taught him a word!
The day after I blogged about how great ECing with Joseph is I missed nearly every one of his pees for two days. Things have been improving ever since, however and now we’re back to a pretty good average.
Joseph loves clapping his hands, especially with people.
He is increasingly aware and coordinated. He crawls around obstacles to get to his desired destination. I first observed this April 20th when he saw me open the balcony doors and he crawled as fast as he could around his toys to get outside. If I close the doors before he gets there he throws a fit. I’m learning how to balance real needs with fits. It’s not always easy to tell when he’s hurt and when he’s just made he can’t have something.
And speaking of crawling, he goes FAST! We need to get a video of it someday. He’s still not interested in standing or walking without support.
He pushes buttons. When Daddy helps Joseph brush his teeth Joseph gets to turn the bathroom light on and off (it’s a button).
Joseph likes being on the balcony and crawling outside of the house. When he’s on a surface he doesn’t like he’ll lift his right knee up so that only the foot touches and then gingerly crawl using his right foot and his left knee/foot. It’s terribly cute.
I’ve been enjoying working on our garden. I have no clue about gardens and all the instruction books confuse me more and fail to give the basic instructions I think I need. Despite not knowing what to do and taking too long researching and getting nowhere, I’ve finally just started trying things and whether it’s right or not I’m having fun with it. I’ve worked the ground to our 170 sq. ft. garden entirely by hand (and with hand tools). It’s starting to look tamed and I’m proud of how I can grab 15 minutes or so of time when Joseph can entertain himself to work on it. I’m also trying to grow parsley, chives, marjoram, and cherry tomatoes from seeds indoors. We don’t get that much sun, so we’ll see how it goes. The chives and marjoram are sprouting already after just a few days! It’s so much fun to grow stuff! It’s almost doesn’t matter if I get a good harvest.
You’ve been warned.
Despite a rather long break from ECing with Joseph because of preparing for the move, moving and traveling in Ireland, Joseph hasn’t forgotten how to use the potty. In fact, he quickly surpassed his previous skills and it still amazes me what he can do. I marvel at it, really. Our nine-month-old baby crawls to me saying “mamama” in a fussy tone when he needs to pee. Then he waits until Mommy gets it and puts him on the potty where he does his business. I might add that his favorite position is holding his hose, which I’m not sure is a good thing or not. Mostly he keeps it pointed downwards, only once he got a surprise . . .
He doesn’t go #2 as often as before, which means that I can tell when it’s about to come and usually it’s in the morning so we catch it right after he wakes up. But sometimes he can wait for me if I’m lazy getting out of bed. Amazing. It’s still amazing to me because sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes he happily poo on the floor smiling up at me or he’ll refuse to use the potty even though it’s been two hours. At those times no sooner do I take him off the potty than he goes on the floor! It’s times like those that I realize he’s just nine months and that would be considered normal, but I get frustrated because I know he has control at least sometimes. Now I’d say he has control and is willing to communicate most of the time. That’s incredible! I’ve gotten bold. The other day we only missed one pee from wake-up to 2pm. Yesterday I went shopping with Joseph in the sling on my back wearing no diaper. We were gone an hour and toward the end he got fussy and I felt something warm and wet at the small of my back. As soon as we got home I took him out and realized it was just my sweat. I put him on the potty and he went! I’m really enjoying that he can communicate rather clearly about his need to go. It’s no longer just a feeling (though that plays a part, too). If I’m not sure I show him the potty and ask if he wants to go and if he smiles and reaches for it then he goes but if he doesn’t putting him on it is futile! I’ve started signing more with him, but not as much as I should. If I’d be signing from the beginning I’m sure he’d be starting to sigh by now. But there’s no better time to start than now!
I think I’ve failed to mention elsewhere that he is very stable on his feet now. He shows no interested in standing without a hand grip, but he is very able to lower himself down to a comfortable position. He can catch himself when he falls and he knows where the edge of the bed is and how to slide off sideways. Being a Mom is an amazing job!
February 17th Joseph’s top right tooth finally broke through. It had been swollen for a week and we were all happy when it finally came!
I finally overcame my fear of Joseph choking on food thanks to YouTube. I’d heard of “baby led weaning” from an acquaintance here and was intrigued but scared that if you gave a baby a piece of food big enough for him to hold he could bite off a dangerous chunk and choke. What finally pushed me over into trying it was that Joseph has been unhappy during meal times and very interested in our food. I did a little research and watched a few six-month-old babies handling food on their own on YouTube, which calmed my fears enough to try it. I brought up the high chair and Joseph sits very happily with us at the table munching on and experimenting with whatever we give him. We’ve been doing this for a week or so and I’ve really calmed down about it. Joseph handles the food like a champ and loves it! He’s eating a whole orange wedge (Feb. 13), though usually he just sucks the juice out. He loves oranges and it’s the best for teething! He’s also gotten bread crusts, onion(! He loved it!), tomato, couscous, and whatever else we’re eating that isn’t too spiced (the doctors concern when I brought up table food was that it had too much salt). His diapers haven’t gotten too interesting yet, but I’m sure they will. ;)
For quite a number of weeks now Joseph has remained dry during naps and peed on the potty right after waking up. We are thrilled and amazed at this ability. On the other side of things on the 9th he peed on me while on my hip for the very first time and then did it again later the same week. Maybe I’m over-confident or maybe I’m missing the cues. In any case, we have ups and downs but are still glad we’re doing diaper-free time.
That’s it for now!
Jan. 6th was Joseph’s six month appointment at the doctor. He didn’t like the shot, but did well anyway. He weighed in at 9250g, was 69cm long and his head had grown to 45.5cm, if it’s at all accurate. He was crawling all over the place so it was hard to pin him down. The doctor was pleased with his motor skills, but he didn’t see the half of what Joseph can do. He had some diaper rash I got in trouble for, but our routine got all messed up over the holidays, so that’s my excuse. We made sure to have lots of diaper free time after our guests had left, but we’re still fighting it. :(
Mom came with us to the appointment, which was fun!
Jan. 12th Joseph successfully peed in the potty after having refused to do so for several days (by peeing on the floor right after sitting on the potty). He celebrated by jumping up and tipping the potty all over the bed . . .
Later that day I saw he’d found an individually wrapped Toblerone in the basket on the table. I watched his second cousin Quin’s video of her grabbing a duck and then checked on Joseph again. He’d opened it and was happily sucking on the chocolate! He was not happy when I took it away. So much for not giving him sugar . . . and then a few days later on Bappe’s watch he got a hold of a sample Laeckerli package and opened it, too! No matter how vigilant you are he always gets into something!!!
Jan. 13th Joseph successfully pulled himself up to standing position using the rocking chair. This means he grabs the support bar and then the seat while the chair this rocking back and forth. This was the first thing he did that morning and completed the task while I was in the bathroom. There are surprises every turn!
Jan 16th Joseph found a lid and entertained himself a long time by picking it up and letting it drop to the floor as he watched it wobble and settle down again. I find this fascinating for some reason.
He likes dirt better than banana (that’s for you, Gina). Couscous isn’t so bad. Of course chocolate beats all . . .
He appears to remember a bit of what is not in sight. In any case, he repeatedly heads down the hall for the plant he likes to climb up on and eat. We don’t let him do this that often, and maybe that’s why he always goes to it.
Today we had PEKiP for the first time in four weeks. All the babies have grown so much and now there are three in the group who are crawling (the two 8-month-olds and Joseph). Joseph climbed the foam steps like they weren’t even there so at home I tried him on our steps by placing his feet two from the top and his hands one from the top. Once he was interested enough, he crawled up and into the hallway with little difficulty. Now if he only knew how to break a fall . . . but the PEKiP teacher did show me other ways to help him come down from standing in a way that will hopefully guide him to do it himself soon.
When we first got home from PEKiP I noticed his diaper was dry and since it had been over an hour I put him on the potty. He’s been peeing on the floor right after sitting dry on the potty lately, so this time I determined to sing and play with him until he went. At one point he chewed on my finger and I felt a tooth! Somehow this is very exciting. I think it’s on the lower right, but he won’t let me look.
We were still on the potty 15 minutes later and he started to get fussy and no pee had happened. I gave up and let him stand holding onto the hamper. I put the bowl on the floor next to him thinking “I know he has to go. Maybe he’ll start as he’s standing.” Sure enough a few second later, and much to my surprise despite thinking it might happen, he started peeing. I aimed his hose at the potty and he was a bit surprised at the noise and the stream (he had a partial view) but kept going a full amount. He’s such a boy! We both had a good laugh about that.
If placed in a sitting position (tripod) he can hold it for a while.
In the other news, Mom showed me how to bake bread while she was here. I’ve been experimenting and made Zopf for the first time yesterday. The husband approves, so I say it was a success. I’m excited to bake more!
But that’s not the news you want to hear about! This morning I put a naked Joseph down on his tummy and after fetching my breakfast I came back to a Joseph with his cannon pointing upwards! He seemed chill but after I heaped praise on him he seemed very proud of himself. I wish I could have been there to see how it happened. We learned at PEKiP that often babies will achieve milestones during the class because movement is easier without clothing so they simply have a better chance when they are naked in class. I keep him naked sometimes to try to figure out this EC thing, but I suppose it’s also very good for his development. I looked into the development charts to see when that’s “normal” but not surprisingly they only mention back-to-side and back-to-tummy movements. I wonder where it used to be in the charts.
Later on in the day I had him on his back playing with his mobile and wearing only a folded cloth held together by a Snappi when he rolled onto his side and back a few times. So much in one day!
He’s discovered his feet, though mostly by feel and not often by sight. Daddy was the first to see this discovery.
He has a stuffed dog named Scout that has a USB connection to the computer so he can be minimally programmed. The other day he managed to reach out and push one of Scout’s paws so that bedtime music would play. He did this five times that day! I’m not sure bedtime music is what he’s after, but the other functions are on the upper paws – poor Joseph!
He doesn’t just scoot his arm forward now, he can lift it off the floor to reach for a toy (this is all when he’s on his tummy). He can really lift his chest and head well off the ground and is mostly happy on his tummy, though he does still get tired sometimes.
I finally had the courage to try the wool diaper cover. Somehow the idea that cloth was water resistant didn’t sound like a recipe for success, but it works really well. The cloth diaper can be quite soaked but the wool cover doesn’t wick any of it out onto the bed. I haven’t tried it overnight, but it works quite well for daytime purposes.
And speaking of caring for the lower end, just when I think EC is more bother than it’s worth I have a good day. This morning I made myself get out of bed when he woke me up at 7am because I thought he had to pooh. Often I figure I’d rather change a dirty diaper then get out of bed when I’m so tired, but this time it paid off. Also during the day I noted that after eating he will pee every twenty minutes 3 times. This pattern happened twice and each time I managed to catch one of the three pees each time and I feel like I’m starting to see some signals and understand when he is too distracted to pee on the potty even though he has to go.
Feeling brave fresh off these discoveries I decided to go grocery shopping with Joseph in the sling without a diaper. I meant to bring a towel along, but I forgot . . .
Joseph went on the potty just before we left at 1pm and he stayed dry until I took him out at 2:30! He went a little on the potty but not much. A little while later I tried again and he went the full amount. I was proud to catch that one! But enough of pee.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that he can hang from my thumbs on his own for a few seconds now. Sometimes his hold is very strong and I can hold him up for 5 seconds or so! He loves pulling himself up from lying on his back and seems to enjoy hanging well enough. My PEKiP teacher suggested I do the same with a wooden spoon and after getting him used to the idea of gripping it he can now use it instead of my thumbs for standing and he even hung from it for half a second. Okay, Joseph is calling me. Time to play with the little guy!
