Birthday weekend with Sitty and Jagee

My parents came up from VA this weekend to celebrate Lu's first birthday. I think he wore them out.


On Saturday we went to Aunt Rosemary's for a visit, ate lunch at the old Willimantic Post Office, and got a case of Hosmer Mountain soda. Here are some shots from Aunt Ro Ro's river. Immediately after this picture was taken both of Lu's shoes fell and began floating away. Luckily Jagee was there to save them.


Tom got Lu a big red ball from Wal-Mart. After a bouncing tumble onto the hardwood, Lu's no longer aloud to play with it without parental supervision.



Lu also got a bubble blowing lawnmower from Sitty and Jagee. We've already had to hide it twice due to major frustration with subsequent meltdowns. He's learning though.

We celebrated the big One with cupcakes on Saturday night.




Recovering from the fun weekend.

P.S. Lu got his school pics taken on Friday. They said he did very well-parents weren't allowed to stay due to the added distraction.

Lu's Week in Review

1. The weather finally was nice and we enjoyed lots of time in the sun. Lu loves going down the slide at the local playground. Of course, I forgot the camera.


2. Lu has become attached to things...in particular, his taggy, stuffed animals, and many blankies. On Friday and Saturday he insisted on using his nuk the whole day! He'll also sit on our lap now and cuddle. Today he actually fell asleep on me while we were watching "Extreme Makeover". Not sure if he's teething and in pain or just wants some extra comfort.


3. Lu's waving hi and bye to people. He also gives me a nice round of applause when I get him out of his crib in the morning. Seeing as it's usually too early, I think I deserve it.

Here he is helping me sweep.



Our budding musician.

School Pictures

Lu didn't miss school pictures! Yay! They're rescheduled for the end of March. Let's hope he doesn't get sick again.

Waitin' for a bath

I just thought this was a cute picture.



We're back to pureeing Lu's food. I'm 90% sure that he's hardcore teething - on top of his ear infection. He started refusing any hard food which is unlike him. I'm hoping those teeth come in soon!

The sick-free streak has ended

Lu made it TWO months without getting sick. In the daycare world that's huge. Daycare called at 2:30p on Thursday saying I needed to pick Lu up because he had a fever. Since he's had a cough for a week and had been congested for two I made a docs appt. for Friday morning. Just a double ear infection. No pneumonia or bronchitis like I was expecting. So, he's on the antibiotics and should be good to go by Monday. The major downer is that he missed his school pictures on Friday. Grandma sent a cute outfit and everything (Thanks Grandma)! Or at least I think he missed pics. I'm hoping they rescheduled due to the Nor'easter.
Since we had two days of nice weather the daycare kids got to play outside on their playground. And since Lu just started walking this is the first time he actually got to play. It was the funniest thing to see Lu practically running across the yard....back and forth,back and forth. As soon as he saw me turned and went in the opposite direction. Ha! He knows it's time to go home. The yard was still pretty muddy so the soft shoes didn't hold up very well. I went out that night and bought him his first pair of big boy shoes (some cool sneakers that fit perfectly for two days and now he needs the bigger size 7) and he's doing pretty well in them. Lucius is officially a toddler.
Lu fell on the playground and got a scratch from the top of his head down to the tip of his nose. You can kind of see it in this picture.




He also got his first black nail (his index finger)2 weeks ago.

11 months and counting

Lu hit 11 months on Friday...the countdown to 1 year begins. Lu now likes to feed himself with a spoon or fork. We have to load it, of course, but he can stick it in his mouth and then hand it back to us for more. A couple of weeks ago I started substituting one bottle with a sippy cup and he seemed to be doing fine, until Friday. He cried and cried and wouldn't take the sippy cup. I thought he just wasn't hungry. After being Mr. Grumps for 2 hours I finally put the milk in a bottle and he took it right away. I had no idea he was attached to his bottle! I didn't think he was attached to anything! I mentioned it at daycare today and they said that whenever another baby gets a bottle Lucius is right there ready to take it for himself...and he would if they let him! So now he's refusing the sippy cup, unless there's juice in it. Guess I have my work cut out for me.
I tried to get some pictures of him sitting nicely in my old rocking chair. Yeah, right. The only time Lucius sits still is when he's drinking his bottle. He was standing up on it and rocking back and forth. Here are the attempted pictures.





About a month ago Tom and I moved our office out of the nursery and into our bedroom. Lucius finally has his own room--better late than never! We still have to hang some stuff on the walls though. Here's some video of the room and Lu walking around. He's now a walking fool!

Spooky Tunes

Lu hit two milestones this week.

He's been walking more and more. And randomly started clapping when we decided to take some video of his walking.


We also went to the "Spooky Tunes!" concert held in the Memorial Chapel at Wesleyan. The Wes.U. orchestra performed several scary pieces set to the story of "Beauty and the Beast". I'm pretty sure Lu didn't notice the music. He spent the whole time smiling and flirting with the family behind us. It was a little embarrassing when he tried to walk into their pew and started petting the older son. Tom quickly escorted him to the back of the chapel where Lu proceeded to pet a little girl that was prancing around.





This is in front of my office building (Judd Hall).

Too many cooks in the kitchen

Lucius loves playing with kitchens soooo much that he finally got one of his own. I've had my eye out for 2 months and finally found this one. I know, it's pink and purple but it was only $12! I couldn't pass it up.




I found out that Lu's impossible to put to sleep at daycare. I had no clue! He's great at home. He still takes two 2-hour naps and sleeps about 10-11 hours at night. I've gotten to the point where I can put him in his crib sitting up, turn the lights out, and leave the room and he'll fall asleep without a fuss. Unfortunately daycare doesn't have a separate room for nap time, thus if someone's up and having fun Lu needs to be right in the middle of it. However, they are impressed with his mad dancing skillz. And I haven't even taught him my signature move yet.

Social-ism

Lu was pretty grumpy over the weekend. I couldn't decide between a cold, ear infection, or teething. However, this morning I peered into his mouth when he yawned and saw two white spots toward the back of his mouth (molars??). His food intake over the past 4 days has definitely declined and he's been hitting himself in the mouth as if to say "Ow, I'm in pain!". But again, I'm just guessing.



I've noticed lately that Lu doesn't do well staying in the apartment with us all day (who would?). Mister cranky pants always makes an appearance. If we're out in public around lots of loud strange people he's wonderful. No crying or whining. I'm truly amazed at how two wallflowers could've produced such a social butterfly. His stranger anxiety last all of 30 seconds then he's off to explore and play with the other kids/adults.

He's hilarious at daycare and jumps right into the middle of all activities. The toddlers know to hide their toys when Woo-cius (or Lucy as one little girl refers to him) comes around.

I think we have a leader on our hands...oy vey.

Dad is hilarious.

Occasionally we can get Lucius to laugh hysterically. Oddly enough, both times have involved peas. If you look closely in this video you can see them flying out of his mouth.

Let it snow!

Yesterday was Lu's for experience with snow. It lasted all of 2 minutes.

"Hey, I'm outside and it's cold!"


"It's reeeeally cold and I can't move in my snowsuit." (You have to click on this one to get the good close-up on the bored face.)


"All right, Mom. Are we done?"


"Look. A leaf."


"Mmmmm. Snow is yummy."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I woke up to a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and homemade chocolate covered strawberries and bananas. Not a bad way to start the day.

Unfortunately we have some bad weather here so daycare is closed.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mom (Sitty)!
She's 70 years young today and going on her first cruise this Saturday. Hope you and Dad have a fantastic time!


This was taken approximately 45 minutes after Lu was born - still in the labor and delivery room.

Weekend Recap

Friday, February 9th 2007
Lu turned 10 months today! We also had an unexpected visit from Mom and Dad (aka Sitty and Jagee). Unfortunately, they were in town for Great Aunt Mary's funeral; however, Lu and I got to spend all Friday with them. We even got to visit Great Uncle Sammy and Aunt Gladys. Of course, I didn't take any pictures. Mom, could you email me yours?

Saturday, February 10th 2007
Tom, Lu, and I went out to Chili's for dinner. Lu was on his best behavior and ate a whole greasy grilled cheese sandwich.

Sunday, February 11th 2007
Nothing to report...so I'll report on last weekend. Lu finally outgrew his 12 month clothes. His long-sleeved shirts had turned into 3/4 length. Not very cool mom. Further, he couldn't straighten his toes (or his legs) in his sleepers so it was off to Once Upon a Child for some gently used clothes. I went on a shopping spree and dropped $11 in about 5 minutes. When everything's on sale for $1 - that's a lot of clothes.
Here's one of his new 18-month shirts:

Here's another shirt. Look at that cool dude!


Lu finally started using his sippy cup. In the next couple of days (or weeks or months) I might try putting his milk in it. Goodbye bottles!



Just being silly with his "You are my sunshine" chick.

Sleep?

I'm happy to report that I got 8 hours of sleep last night. We've been working on getting Lu to stay up until 7pm (yes 7pm)...which means he's been getting up a little later. 6a is MUCH better than 4:45-5a. We'll see what tonight brings.

I got forced him to take a few steps at daycare this morning. Everyone was very impressed.

Heck No! (I'll Never Listen to Techno)

When I was uploading Lu's video on YouTube I came across this video. It brought back memories of Alex (I think it was Alex) making his stop motion animation video in Mom and Dad's living room. I can only imagine how long it took Maldroid to do this Lite Brite one.

Picasa

I just started using Picasa (google's free picture editing program) and found out that some special effects are really easy to do. A lot easier than Adobe Photoshop. Here's a picture I was messing around with. Not the best example but you get the idea. I also used the selective coloring option for the bath time pics I posted a couple of days ago.



I'm still out a video editing program, but I just had to share this short clip (I broke down and used Windows Movie Maker). No, Tom isn't holding Lu in the video.

Pooh Bear

Lu loves his stuffed animals - especially pooh bear. He gives them lots of kisses and hugs. When Lu was sick I let him sleep with pooh bear...it was so cute when I'd check on him and pooh would be spooning Lu.



I finally found something that Lu doesn't like to eat - portobello mushroom burgers. He wasn't too impressed. However, he loves Boca's vegetarian sausage. Oddly enough they taste just like real meat.

~10-month check-up

Head = 46cm
Height = 29.75 inches
Weight = 22 lbs. 3 oz. (not as much as my arms have been telling me)

The doc said everything is lookin' good and Lu seems to be on track. He smiled and flirted with her throughout the whole exam.
She gave me a list of foods that he's not supposed to be eating yet and we've been pretty good about avoiding the typical stuff--nuts, honey, egg whites, shellfish. However, I did admit that he's eaten strawberries (oops, didn't know those were forbidden) and yogurt (oops, he's been eating that everyday for the past 2 months). Oh well...ignorance is bliss.

Full Moon

I completely forgot to report about our night out on the town. Tom and I went on an actual date last Saturday night while Lu stayed with a babysitter. We ate some Indian food and then saw Pan's Labyrinth (which I highly recommend).
Before we left we gave detailed instructions to Sepi (our fab babysitter and Tom's former co-worker) about how to feed Lu dinner, change his diaper, put him to bed,console him when he cries yada yada yada. Anyway, when it was time to leave I was expecting some tears (because he loves his Mommy, right?). So, I stood by the sliding glass door peering in, waiting for Lu to realize that I was gone. Well, it didn't happen. Tom starting yelling at me for trying to get him to cry and so we left. When we got home Sepi said he didn't cry once and that they danced and sang and had a great time. :( Tom claims that's great news and that's the mark of a securely attached kid. Seeing as he doesn't care when I leave as long as he has someone's attention and that he's happy upon my return I think he's more "un-attached", which isn't even a style. My co-worker thinks "flexibly attached" would be a better label. Oy! This is what happens when psychologists become parents.

Here are some pictures from the tub tonight.
 

 

 

Quick Update

Well, there's not really much to update. We're having the same computer issues again but I finally figured out that it's due to Pinnacle Studio. If I can't fix it, we may have to wipe the computer again and look into alternate video editing software. However, I just found out that Pinnacle bought out Steinberg which is the maker of the software program (i.e. Cubase LE) that Pinnacle is having compatibility issues with. So there has to be a fix right?! That's why I haven't been posting many pics or video lately. Hopefully, we'll be up and running again soon.

Lu is starting to free stand more and take a few steps. He has his "9-month" check-up on Friday(he's really closer to 10-months though). I'm interested to see how much he weighs. I'm having more and more trouble picking him up.

Wiped clean

We took the plunge and wiped our computer clean. It now seems to be working...so luckily it wasn't a hardware problem.
I've been going through old files on my laptop and came across these pictures. Thought I'd share.

Here's baby Ichabod. I can't believe he was that little.


Here's adolescent Ichabod.


Here's Tacit about 2 years ago.


The fake family (with nephews Cameron and Scott).


This is me 5 days before I gave birth. Yikes. Good thing I went a week earlier than my due date.

Mr. Potato Head

Lu's back to normal and eating up a storm. I can't cut the kielbasa fast enough. There's no doubt that he's a Sledjeski-Dinzeo...the kid loves to eat anything and everything. Here's some pics of him trying to feed himself mashed potatos.


1/18/2006

Just hangin' out and looking out the window (FYI, I think the sheen is vaseline...he has very dry skin).

1/19/2006

No pants and no video

This weekend Daniela asked me why Lu is never wearing pants or is always unbuttoned. Here's why:
1. It makes life a lot easier when he has the big D and needs his diaper changed every 10 minutes.
2. We're lazy.

Sorry I haven't posted videos/pics in awhile.
Here's why:
1. I had a near breakdown because of the &*^$%#^@ software I use for digital video editing (Pinnacle for those that are interested)would NOT render/burn to DVD. So, for the past 2 weeks I've been trying to correct the problem. I finally did by uninstalling and reinstalling the 3GB program (3GB means dealing with multiple disks and lots of time). Can someone explain to me why that would fix the problem?
2. After fixing Pinnacle we started having sound issues and slow processing on our &%*$^#% NEW laptop. We spent the weekend trying to figure that out.
3. I'm lazy.

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

We've been doing baby sign language with Lucius in the hopes that it would cut down on frustration and subsequent melt downs. Well, for the past couple of weeks Tom has been insisting that Lucius has been signing "all done" and "eat". To be honest, I don't really buy it.

Lu did make it in to daycare on Thursday (finally). I found out that two other infants had the same illness. He's doing much better - I'd say 98%. I never realized that I'd be so excited about poop and inspecting every one.

While he was sick I did teach him how to high-five...so we weren't totally unproductive.

Oh yeah, he's also teething...again. His fourth tooth on the bottom is coming in. That one makes 8.

Dancing

I finally got some video of Lu dancing. He loves to dance when Tom plays guitar.

Still sick

I think Little Lu is on the mend. He's been doing much better this morning, but I spoke too soon last time...so we'll see. Lu had a rough Saturday...it's days like those that I really wish we had a washer and dryer! Tom was also sick but is now eating again so that's a good sign.
On Friday Tom took some video of Lu's "first steps". Well, you can kind of see him take two steps at the end of the video below. Decide for yourselves!



On a much happier and more exciting note...
For those of you that were following Quinn's first 7 weeks, he is now home! Yay, Quinn!

January illness

Since starting daycare in September, Lu has been sick once a month. And I'm hoping yesterday was his January illness. Unfortunately, he had some sort of stomach virus or something. Luckily I am now well versed in the "ins and outs" of diarrhea and I knew exactly what do! I'm happy to report that things seem to be much better today. It amazes me that even when sick, Lucius still has plenty of smiles and endless energy to get into trouble.

To sleep, perchance to sleep.

Overall and relatively speaking Lucius is a good sleeper. Unfortunately, he's back to his 4:30a waking. And that's just too early for me. We did a mixture of crying it out, laying back down, holding our breaths and waiting. Then at 5:45a I finally got up for good and got him out of bed. I guess the time change in March will help things.

At least his smiles and laughs brighten my day!

Dancing Machine

Lucius started "dancing" on Saturday. He finally learned that he can bend his knees when he's standing. He's such a dancing fool that he shimmied right out of his pants!

Video

Here's a video of Lucius playing with various toys.