Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Monday, May 23, 2011

Product Review: Fresh Food Feeder

Yummy watermelon!
Lucas is finally old enough to use his fresh food feeder which I got at one of my showers from his Aunt Nicole. This product is pretty awesome - you can put fresh fruit inside the little mesh bag and then your baby can munch on the fruit without the worry of choking! It took Lucas a little while to figure out how to use it because the opposite end is a great teether and he would become preoccupied with that and forget about the mesh baggie. But now he has figured it out. So far he has had pear slices, bananas, and watermelon and made a glorious mess each time. I guess that might be the downfall...this product is not for the faint of heart when it comes to cleaning! You will inevitably find fruit (chunks or juice) EVERYWHERE! But it is totally worth it :)

I would be interested to hear from other mommies what else you have put in the feeder and suggestions for cleaning the mesh bag. It does take quite a bit of soaking and massaging to get all the banana goo out of the mesh.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

#3 Have one of my dogs become a Canine Good Citizen

Archie and me after the test for the beginner class
Archie and his awards

Archie and I have been taking training classes at a local dog training club (www.adtc.us) in hopes of earning his canine good citizen certificate....and after a few months of dedicated time, he did it! CGC is a program put out by the AKC promoting responsible dog ownership and good doggie manners (www.akc.org/events/cgc/program). There are 10 tests Archie passed in order to gain this honor :)


1. Accepting a friendly stranger

2. Sitting politely for petting

3. Appearance and grooming

4. Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)

5. Walking through a crowd

6. Sit and down on command and staying in place

7. Coming when called

8. Reaction to another dog

9. Reaction to distraction

10. Supervised separation


Archie has also passed 2 training classes (beginner and pre-novice) with 3rd place and 1st place honors. Some of the above tests are harder for Archie than others (specifically reaction to another dog and walking on a loose lead) and all of the tests can become more difficult within a new environment. So, I guess he will always be a work in progress - as all dogs are :)

And of course Lucas likes to pretend he is a dog...or maybe this is just a result of him having as much interaction with dogs as he does with humans.




Thursday, May 5, 2011

Man's best friend








Lucas loves to interact with Lizzie and Archie...probably because they follow us around all day long! I was interested to see how they would react when he became more mobile. It turns out Lizzie loves him and will just relax back and let him crawl, pinch, grab, etc. Archie is not so sure about crawling Lucas. He will just get up and run away whenever Lucas is within 5 feet. Poor Archie hasn't been able to nap peacefully since Lucas began crawling!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Beach Days





We had a wonderful and eventful weekend...we are under contract to sell our house! This economy is anything but a sellers market and Ross and I had decided we would prefer to sell our house rather than be landlords. Either way was a lose situation for us and the unpredictability of renters (upkeep of house, paying their rent, finding renters, etc.) was not something we relished. It turns out that Lucas's room was the number one selling point for them - they have a 5 week old son and have similar themed nursery decor. In some ways I am secretly glad his room will remain the same but jealous some other little boy will get to enjoy it. Oh well! Time to move on...Now we can truly enjoy our last month and a half in the coastal carolinas doing what we should be doing...going to the beach!



We have a pop-up sun tent with spf 50 fabric for Lucas and we were surprised at how long he stayed inside playing with his toys and the towel. When he finally decided to venture out and he touched the sand for the first time the look on his face was priceless. He had a great time playing and crawling in the sand. I think we will have many more fun beach trips ahead of us but we may be leaving each time much sandier than we did before :) Any ideas about how to prevent sand burn from him crawling on the sand....or rug burn for that matter?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

A Lesson in Self Discovery

I have always understood that as babies develop they begin to discover different parts of themself. In fact my parents often tell the story about my older sister discovering her hands and how she would stare at her fist or fingers for hours on end. You can imagine (and remember) my delight when Lucas discovered his feet..I posted about it and told all my friends about his new curiosity. It was during one of these boastful lunches that a dear friend of mine, Heather, said, "Just wait until he discovers something ELSE". I was shocked at this little preparatory note because I am from a family of girls and never would have thought about such a discovery. Well, I am here to tell you that Lucas has discovered yet another part of his body and it has turned diaper changing time into an olympic sport. I had mastered holding both legs but now I need to hold his hands too! And goodness gracious- his little hands are fast and unpredictable!

So this brings me to a topic of discussion of vernacular. I have been using Lucas's self discovery as teachable moments - telling him names and making up songs to describe function so he can learn about the human body (you found your feet! You use your feet to stand, walk, and run!). But when it comes to his boy parts I find myself at a loss...on the one side I immediately think to rename them a more baby-appropriate term (like peepee) while on the other side I think it is important he learn the proper term. In fact, some of the baby education classes at the hospital stressed the importance of teaching children the proper terms for private parts for the extreme reason that if they were ever abused their "story" would be heard loud, clear, and accurately. To avoid function conversation I was saying "every little boy has one" but now I realize this will lead to a conversation about what little girls have - possibly too soon for comfort. And why am I so squeamish about this?!?!?! I was pre-med and took classes in human sexuality in college but now this 16 lb 7 oz munchkin has left me speechless! What is a mom to do?!

In case you haven't figured out what I am talking about...check out these pictures of Lucas playing with his balls (which by the way - are fabulous toys that encourage creeping/crawling and fine motor skills).