Oliver and Martin

Hi!!!!!

Oliver at tae kwon do. He did well at his first paid class. We were able to get him into the costume (with some cajoling, but he put it on). At first he didn't participate much, but he didn't run to us either. And then they brought out the obstacle course. He LOVED that. He was first in line and he kept cutting in line to do it more. They had to crawl, then run between pylons, jump over some small pads, and then do a punch. He was pretty good at it to.

Martin is another water baby. We had him in (and around) the pool for an hour each day of the weekend. He goes underwater and comes up smiling, and not sputtering at all. He has no issues getting his face wet. He also loves to play in the outdoor showers (but funny enough, he isn't crazy about the shower in the bath).

Go read my craft post. But I thought I'd do another post, as I know some people (who are in Paris right now!!) are needing a grandson fix.

Update on Oliver and Martin

First off, I apologize for no pictures. Joe's added new servers and I have no idea where the pictures are. But good news is the website should be back soon. Bad news, no new pictures until I know where they are!

Oliver
Oliver did another Tae Kwon Do lesson this morning. It went much much better, so we have signed him up for lessons. It looks quite fun, and will be good for him. We have moved him into a group swimming lesson, with 2 other boys here at the complex. That's going well, and will be easier on the pocketbook.

He's becoming more and more independent. He likes his "privacy" when he's using the washroom, and wanting to do more and more himself. He wants to walk to school (as opposed to the stroller) and carries his own backpack.

Martin
Martin is choosing to walk pretty much all the time. He rarely crawls, just to reach for something. He's showing a sense of humour, as he will after dinner, take his bib, and hide behind it. It you say "Where's Martin?", he'll pull it down with a big grin.

He's loves to ride the tricycle (since Oliver is always on his Lightening McQueen toy), and crawls onto it frequently, and then yells at us to push him around. He has a new tooth, so he has 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.

Quick trip to Hong Kong

I made a quick trip to Hong Kong, leaving Sunday afternoon and returning on Monday night.

When setting off, I went to give Oliver a hug, and he ran over and said "I love you" with no prompting. So sweet.

The flight was good. I read up on Islamic finance and listened to Garth Brooks. Probably not a combination that happens every day.

Hong Kong sure has a lot of neon. I remember arriving in HK after our China trip and being very impressed with it, and happy to see so much English. Now, HK seemed to be very Chinese. Guess, its all a matter of perspective.

The conference went well. My session was not well attended, but was very interactive, and good for the participants. I also sat on a panel and that went well also.

I already had my boarding pass for the flight home, so when I arrived at the airport, I went straight in. I saw that there was a flight boarding for Singapore, and I got on it! So I arrived home 2 hours earlier. I watched the Sex and the City Movie. It was really good. I laughed. I cried (luckily I had the row to myself). It also didn't seem to be censored.

Then Tuesday morning, when I saw Martin again, he gave me a great big hug and rested his head on my shoulder. Sigh.

Redang

We arrived this afternoon after being delayed for about an hour. We fly from Seletar airport which is the old army airport, which was the smallest airport I've been to, until I landed 90 minutes later in Redang.

Redang is an island in Malaysia. And that's the end of my knowledge.

We finished check in around 5 and headed straight for the beach. Its beautiful soft talc like sand, very shallow as the tide was out and what I thought was perfect light (not so perfect when we reviewed the pictures, lots of shadows). So I made Joe go get the camera and take these pictures. Here are some edited ones. I should really start doing that, it didn't take him long.

Martin's birthday party

What a great day. It all started last night when we gave Martin his birthday present. A ride-on Lightening McQueen!!

The biggest challenge has been keeping Oliver off of it, so that Martin gets proper turns. Martin just loves it though.

They today, we called Grandma and Grandpa on the webcam, after having a pancake breakfast. The quality wasn't great but we got to see each other. After Martin's morning nap, we went and got the boys hair cuts.

Oliver was quite stressed during the whole process, but he didn't cry. Martin was very relaxed and curious, and didn't flinch when they used the clippers on him. Both boys sat on my lap. We then ate lunch out.

Martin then had his afternoon nap, during which we got things ready for the party. We borrowed a gazebo from a neighbour, which worked out quite well. Basil made lots of food (but her and Joe forgot to put out half of it!!). We had a good turnout, with lots of people coming.

I dressed up Martin and Oliver for the party. Here are my handsome boys.

And here we are getting ready to blow out the candle on his cake.
The kids had a great time running around, and now they are asleep in their beds. A very fun and exhausting day!

Happy Birthday Martin!!!

How quickly time flies, I can't believe my baby boy is ONE year old. He's really quiet sweet, quite a happy boy. He's very independent, and wants to do things himself, from feeding himself, to trying to comb his own hair after a bath. He is quite vocal, and says "mama" and "dada" but usually only when he wants something. He has a high pitched scream if you don't feed him fast enough, but giggles when you make a funny face at him. He still loves to nurse and will cuddle into position on my, and wrap one arm around me, and give me little pats on the back. Oliver is the most interesting person in the house, and he loves watching him.

Here he is, one year ago, at 5:40am after a very quick and easy labour. Though I still would have liked drugs, now I have bragging rights. ;-)

Here is a beautiful picture of him, with his big beautiful brown eyes.
Showing off his teeth. He got 6 in one month! And was a real trooper and didn't complain.
Here are some recent pictures. He's big enough to ride the little trike.

Martin loves to plunk himself down in empty chairs. I was thinking I'd have to get rid of the bumbo, but he still uses it, so it will stay. He loves to play with toys, especially cars, and usually has one in each hand.
Since he's now walking, he has to wear shoes when we go out. This is the first time wearing them. He chooses to walk about 60% of the time now, and is really quite stable. He'll be running soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTIN!!

WE LOVE YOU xoxoxoxo Mommy, Daddy & Oliver

Update on Oliver and Martin

Oliver!!

His swimming has gone to the next level, and he's able to dive down to the bottom of the pool on his own power. He even brought back up his plastic truck that sunk down there! I'm teaching him how to do somersaults in the water.

Our neighbours moving out gave us their old bike. He loved it, and is a natural on it (unlike his mother who learned to ride a bike, at what 9?).
Martin!
He's turning into a real toddler, as he chooses to walk about 50% of the time. He's actually quite stable and good at it. He is always full of smiles, and has lots of friends to play with during the day, so that's nice for him. He's starting to "play" and will take a toy airplane, and fly it around.

He's cute even when making a mad face.

10 days short

I'm 10 days short of my goal of exclusively nursing Martin. Ever since he started going to sleep on his own (KNOCK ON WOOD) and sleeping through the night (KNOCK ON WOOD), my pumping production has fallen dramatically. And then yesterday I was sick and didn't pump at all, and since I was so dehydrated, I didn't even get full, so I figure, I might as well stop pumping now, rather than bring production back up just to stop in 2 weeks.

So Joe bought formula last night. I'll still nurse when I'm around, but I'm done with the pump (yeah in a way).

P.S. Happy belated anniversary to Mom and Dad.
P.P.S. Olympic craft update later tonight.

Sleep Training update

So last night, went okay, all things considered.

He cried for about an hour from 7:30 - 8:30. Then from 10:00 - 11:00. He then woke around 4:30, but settled himself back down in about 20 minutes, he never really got up too awake.

But to go in and see him screaming with tears streaming down his face, certainly breaks your heart. Joe gave up at around 10:30 and hid upstairs with earphones on. I continued trying to cross-stitch (going up every time my kitchen timer dinged it was 15 minutes) and then ripping out the cross-stitch mistake.

Nap time was semi-successful today. Morning nap, Basil ended up patting him to sleep - but not holding him, so it was kinda okay. This afternoon, I gave up after 45 minutes.

Today, we had to increase the time before going in by 5 minutes. So I nursed put him down, set the timer for 10 minutes, and haven't gone back in yet as he's quiet. Knock on wood.

Sleep Training

Bah humbug! I hate sleep training, even though I know it should be done. Poor Martin.

I'm using the "Ferber" method. The book explains it this way. Every night you fall asleep with your pillow. Now imagine if in the middle of the night, your pillow fell off the bed. You'd pick it up and go back to sleep. But say, someone took it. You probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

Now Martin has always fallen asleep being held or nursed (though we were good at the newborn stage, but naturally fell out of it). So when he has tiny night wakings, it's like his pillow is gone.

Now, you could learn to fall asleep with a pillow. But it would take a couple of nights, and you'd probably be fussy about it too. Well, that's what I have to teach Martin, how to sleep without his pillow.

The book says to put them in the ideal sleep situation (i.e. dark room, bed, etc), then leave. After 5 minutes if crying, go in for 2-3 minutes, don't pick up and then leave (whether still crying or not). Then go in after 10 minutes, then at 15 minute intervals for rest of the night.

We've been at this for 40 minutes now. Poor Martin. Luckily Oliver is a solid sleeper, as is Martin's neighbour who is already asleep (I went next door to warn them we were doing this).

Update on Oliver and Martin

Oliver
Oliver's imagination play has really exploded. As you can see above he's playing superhero, with a pillow case cape (my idea) and safety goggles (his idea). He was also playing with a stuffed animal this weekend "My Baby" and taking it out on his trike, which he called his Baby's stroller. He took his Baby to play at the playground on the slide, and did some elaborate stories with him.

He's recently started to get interested in dinosaurs, as a friend bought him so toys, and I found the book that Mom bought him a couple of years ago. When I said that Grandma bought the book he said "Thank you Grandma!! Why doesn't Grandpa doesn't buy me anything". To which I said "Grandpa doesn't like to shop. He likes to do things like go to the Air Show with you."

Martin

He's walking!!!! He can do a couple of unsteady steps between people. In fact, he did 3 steps on his own tonight, while I had my back turned getting out the video camera. He's growing and getting taller, I just had the crib lowered, as it looked like he was going to climb out soon. He's eating well and still not sleeping great. He's now 11 months old. He's quite vocal, with "baba", "mama", "dada". He often plays with the other children in the complex. His favorite thing to do is to go swimming, he just grins ear to ear when he's in the water.

Update on Oliver and Martin

Oliver

Oliver is doing well. He's not complaining of any pain from his stitches. He wanted to see them in the mirror the other day, so I held him up and he said "where is it?". I guess he was expecting something more dramatic.

He's suffering a little bit of jet lag, waking up pretty early (6am), but he's in good spirits and talking up a storm as usual.

Martin
Martin has cut another tooth on the bottom. So that's 3 on the bottom and 4 on top. He took to shrieking at dinner time when we were in Waterloo, but thankfully that seems to be done. He's starting to sleep a bit better, but he's up early also. Still no walking.

Update on Oliver & Martin

MartinNO! Seems to be Martin's new name, at least that is what Oliver is always calling him. Martin is very inquisitive and Oliver's toys are especially interesting. He's standing with support quite well, and can move along a table while still standing (i.e. kind of walking). He also walks while pushing a walker toy.

He's enjoying food a lot more now, he prefers veggies to fruit, and he's quite lucky, as Basil makes him fresh baby food every day, so he only gets jarred on Sunday (when she's not working). He still doesn't sleep through the night. He's a pretty happy, smiley boy, and while I was bemoaning the fact that he got teeth, they just make him cuter.

Here is Oliver displaying his big blue bus that he picked out himself for being potty trained. It is certainly the favorite toy du jour. He talks a lot (don't know where he got that from) and his imagination is really taking off. He routinely makes up interesting stories. He very much likes to know the "rules" of things, and will often ask why, and if he can do something. His manners are getting back on track (they fell to the wayside there for a bit). He plays well with others, and is getting a lot more social. His favorite activity is still swimming.

Joe is busy with a lot of work from different sources. He was sick quite a bit in April, so he fell behind, but now he's feeling better and is always working away.

I'm good. On the last couple of inches of the baby blanket. You know how I feel about the last couple hours of a project. I hate them. I hope David Cook wins American Idol. Though I wouldn't buy his music. But I don't buy music anymore, as I never listen to it.

New pictures are up!!

New pictures are up on www.joeandjill.ca, in March, April and Crafts.

There are quite a few pictures of Martin (so no worries, Auntie Lana, he has lots of pics on his own). We did a couple of photo "sessions" with Joe taking tons of pictures. I tried to pick out the best of the best.

Enjoy!!

Update on Oliver & Martin

Oliver!

Oliver is doing really well. He's a typical 3 year old. He's getting a lot more interested in letters, and is often asking what the different letters are. He has an imaginary friend "The Little Monster" who is sometimes a she and sometimes a he. The first thing Oliver told me when I saw him after school was "The Little Monster went poop in the potty at our house", so the Little Monster is toilet trained. Good to know.

He's pretty funny. I've been taking a course this week, so I told him I was at school. The first thing he asked me when I picked him up was "Did you have a nap today at school Mommy?".

He's started calling me "Mom". His volume level has gone through the roof, so we need to work on the concept of the "indoor voice". He talks constantly, and has picked up a big of a Singaporean accent, especially when he says phrases his friends at school say.

Martin!

You might be able to see Martin's tooth in this picture. Look closely on the top. Or else it's just saliva glare, not sure. He's very mobile now. Still doing his try to walk with one leg, drag the other leg crawl. I should take some video of it this weekend. He has 3 teeth coming in right now. He's eating more food, he's a little bit picky, but we are working on that. He's a very messy eater, or else I'm a very messy feeder (it could be me).

You don't have to worry about us not taking any pictures of him. The current card is 95% pictures of Martin by himself!

Brothers!
Oliver and Martin are interacting together a lot more. It's nice too see. Although most of it consists of Oliver telling on Martin and telling him no.

A tooth!!

Martin is getting his first tooth. Upper right front. Sigh, the days of gummy smiles will soon be gone. To be replaced by toothy grins. Yeah!

Oliver's first trip to the Dentist

Oliver had his first trip to the dentist this week. It went really well, as it lasted all of 5 minutes where he looked at his teeth and proclaimed all was good. He thought the spacing in his teeth was good, but I said, that won't last as genetics are against him. Though Joe never had any work done, so maybe we'll save some money.

We also had doctor checkups. The doctor is really pleased with both boys. She's impressed that Oliver knows his colours so well (I'm surprized by that, he's known them a while) and she said we should start teaching him letters.

She also thought Martin was physically acting more like a 8-9 month old (he's 7 months), she's pleased with his weight gain, and we were both impressed with how little he cried over his shots. The first one, he didn't even cry!

Oliver funny from tonight:
"I have a rubber band. I'm going to put it on". He puts in on his wrist. Then you hear the "snap!". "Ouch! That was painful".

Some of life lessons you need to learn on your own.

More about Martin

Yes, another Martin post. Hey, if you don't like the subject matter, go to a different blog!!

He crawled today. Forwards, traditional crawl method. And is working hard on pulling himself up into a standing position when possible.

Happy 7 month birthday Martin!!

Today Martin is seven months old!! How time flies.

Today, he pulled himself into a standing position in his crib. He's still not really crawling, but can get around.

He's got a very busy social life already. Today his friend William is coming for lunch and then he has Ashley's birthday party tonight. His social life is better than mine.

Happy Birthday Martin!! We love you.

Update on Oliver and Martin

Oliver

Oliver is doing pretty much the same. He's a pretty sweet guy. The past couple of nights he has helped me bathe Martin, and will rinse him off with the shower hose. He also wanted to read Martin stories one night, which actually meant that Oliver held Martin in the big chair and I sat on the kiddie chair and read stories.

He also got Tiffany and Sofya (9 year old neighbours) to bathe him one night and kept telling them "one at a time!" (He must have learned that at school) and he got both girls to wash his bum!

Martin
Martin is still a pretty happy baby. I haven't seen him crawl yet, but Basil said he did today. He likes to play with his toys on the floor. He isn't sleeping well (he's awake right now, after 3 unsuccessful attempts to put him down), and is waking up multiple times in the night. I really need to dig out the baby book on that one. He's started rice cereal, not sure if he likes it, he cries a lot during feeding, but when you do manage to get the food in him, he seems to like it.

He's still super cute.