Easter 2008

Although today has been a low key, typical Sunday for the Hunt3, yesterday was our not-so-typical Saturday. We headed across the street around 9:45am to participate in the community center Easter egg hunt. Let me just say, as a side note, that I really appreciate being just across the street from a place like Miller Park. Due to some mis-publication of start time for the hunt, we were early. We had walked over there with no diaper bag, and worried that with the extra time, we may have a pooper. David just walked back home to get it. Then, I realized we forgot the camera, so I just walked home to get that. All with time to spare for the hunt. And, aren't you glad we got the camera? Check it out!


In the gym, waiting for ages 0-3 to be called.

Oh the anticipation!

And, they're off!

Good Idea, Bad Idea

I swear, I thought this was a genius idea I had! Set up the plastic on the floor under the homemade "water table" while I get some dishes & cooking done. It was great the first time I did it. The second time, it was great, until I let it go on too long. Eventually, it all ended up on the floor! Game over.

One thing that I can do to keep Vincent occupied and in a safe place is the exersaucer. Yeah, it's become his other eating spot. Now he has three: highchair, step stool, exersaucer. I think I have the only kid past 1 year old that will still go in that thing...for now. I'm glad of it, too. Keep those fingers crossed for me.

Here's an action shot with a strawberry.

Pacific Science Center

We visited the Pacific Science Center with Vincent for the first time this past weekend. Here are the highlights.

The dinos scared him.

Loved this car!

Born musician.

This was pretty cool, too.

Saw his first butterflies. Didn't kill any, either!

Spilled Milk & The Darn Cat: A two part post

Part 1

Our kid is pretty darn cool. Friday morning (I think), Vincent is having milk in his sippy cup. He spilled some on the floor. What does he do? He walked over to the stove, pulled the dish towel off the door handle, walked back to the spilled milk, wiped it up, and handed the towel to David. Yeah, I KNOW! (spoken in the tone of 'Monica' from the old NBC show, Friends) Pretty cool! I, unfortunately, missed it, but David hasn't had a chance to post & tell the story himself, so this is all just hearsay.

Part 2
Stella. This, is Stella.

Looks sweet and innocent enough, right? Wrong. Take a better look.

This is the face of mischief.

Tonight, she decided to go into Vincent's room after he had gone down for bed for about an hour and a half. His door was ajar, which normally isn't an issue. Not only did she decide to go into his room, but she jumped into his crib. I heard her, and got up to see what was going on. I noticed the open door, and when I peeked inside, she jumped out of the crib, leaving Vincent there, sitting up and apparently in shock or something. Luckily, she didn't do anything to him but scare him. It took us over an hour to get him back to sleep. This included lots of patting & rubbing on the back, bounching, rocking, and finally, nursing back to sleep. That darn cat!

Good Morning

This kid wakes up early. For a while there, he was waking up after 7am. This morning, just before 6am. I did try and get him back to sleep, and he was so sweetly resting on my chest, but alas, we ate breakfast & played instead.

While playing, Vincent was climbing on me, so I decided to take a picture of him. He was so proud of himself, putting foot up on my leg, like he just climbed a mountain.

Two Cups of Coffee

What is up with me? I woke up this morning and still had a headache! I headed straight to the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. Then, I made another cup this afternoon when Vincent (finally) took a nap.
The nap(s). I've been trying to keep him on two a day, simply because of fear of the unknown & laziness. I mean, it's work for me to get him to take 2 naps a day, but I know the routine. I have a sense of what our day will be like if he takes two naps. I have no idea what life with a one-nap-a-day baby is like. I mean, he's done it a few times, but mainly because our day is disrupted to begin with. I've asked other moms, whose babies are taking just one a day now, what their days look like. I think the transition will be tough, but when it's over, it might actually be nice.

I also wanted to send a shout out to the Mamas that went to Licorous with me last night. I had such a fantastic time with you gals, and time went by too fast! Thanks for the wine & laughs, but sorry there were no chocolate and fries, Billie.
This step stool is Vincent's snack chair. If he wants a snack or something to drink, he'll either go sit on this stool or try to reach up for his highchair. Most of the time, he just goes to the stool. The boy loves his snacks!
Vincent has been backing up and leaning against the front door lately. He seems to enjoy taking in the scenary of our living room. I took this yesterday after he was helping Bear talk on the cellphone.

Easter Eggs & Caffeine

Vincent learned about Easter eggs today. Well, at least the plastic ones with stuff inside. At first, I just put a few around the house and let him "hunt" for them. It was more like me pointing them out to him. He would get one & open it, so after a while, I thought, "Hmmm. I should put something in some of them." I put toasted o's in a few of them, and when he discovered they were inside, it was party time! Well, maybe not a party to most people, but for a one year old, it's pretty exciting. We definitely need to do something for Easter now!

As for caffeine, I've been drinking so much coffee these days, ever since I've started to nurse less. Yesterday, I decided to take a one day break. I had such a bad headache by about 4pm, and I even woke up with a headache this morning. Needless to say, I had a cup of Joe this morning. I'm an addict.

Parent/Child Center

I enrolled Vincent and I in a class at Seattle Central Community College this quarter. http://www.seattlecentral.edu/parentchildcenter/ It's at their Parent Child Center, and we attend class once a week. If I were really in college, earning credits and getting a grade for this class, I would say I'm doing poorly because our attendance is to low. But, that's not the case, so it's been fine that we've only been able to make about 4 classes this quarter. Couple of illnesses (see last post) & a vacation, and there were some school holidays in there, too. The few classes that we have gone to, we have really enjoyed. It's been beneficial to both Vincent and I. So, we're enrolled for next quarter!

During today's class, they opened up the water table for the kids. I think Vincent played at it the most & was probably the wettest out of the lot. He had a blast! When I went to change him out of the clothes, it was snack time & he really wanted some. I took off all his clothes, and realized his diaper was soaked, too. But, he was so interested in the snack that I couldn't take him away from it, so he sat there at the little table eating his snack in just a diaper. It was just too cute.

1st Quarter Review

Well, I guess this isn't quite the end of the first 3 months of 2008, but seeing that I haven't written much so far this year, I thought I'd catch everyone up on our year so far.

It's been a challenging year so far. In January, David caught a cold. For 5 days, he was pretty much in bed, resting. He did end up going to the clinic at one point to make sure it wasn't anything too severe, since he was running a fever one morning. In those 5 days, Vincent and I caught the cold, too. But, since David's test results came in fine, I figured there was no need for Vincent or I to see a doc as well.

February 4-11, the family goes to Kaua'i, Hawaii for a much needed, sun shining vacation. While there, David turned 30 years old. February 15th, I am still coughing, have apparently injured my ribs from coughing so hard, so I go to the clinic. The following week, David came home from work looking green. He had some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. I sort of felt a little bit of it a couple days later, but nothing as bad as he did.

Saturday, March 1st, my cough is FINALLY dwindling away, David feels good, Vincent has no cough, either. But, then, the vomitting started. Poor Vincent apparently caught the rotavirus. In short, it's a stomach bug that is common in children between age 1-2 years. We can get it as adults, too, but it doesn't affect us so much. We were fortunate to have a doctor come out to our place the next day to see him. It was so hard to see Vincent so miserable. He was also really hungry and thirsty. Luckily, we managed to keep him hydrated enough, though I'm amazed. We were told by the clinic nurse on Saturday to only give one teaspoon of clear fluid every ten minutes. I wasn't supposed to even nurse him until I was sure he could keep fluids down. It was awful! I'd give him a teaspoon of water, and then he would beg for more. I felt so bad for him. We switched to Pedialyte after an hour and a half of the water, but that made things bad again. Finally, I gave in and just nursed him. That was about the only thing he could keep down, thankfully. I should have just done that in the first place. Once he was keeping things down, we sort of had him on a BRAT diet. Rice would make him sick. He would hardly eat bananas. Bread was okay, when he was in the mood for it. And, he LOVED applesauce.

By the end of the week, Vincent felt much better, but I had been beat down. When he was feeling really sick, he was just very tired and wanted to be in my arms at all times. It wasn't so bad. I could put him in the Moby and walk him around that way. But, once he started to feel a little better, but still not very good, he was just cranky & hard to please. On top of it all, David was having a really busy week at work. That, coupled with lack of sleep, he caught a cold. Then, I caught it, just when my other one was about gone (but not quite!).

All during this time of Vincent's virus, our boy cat, Buster, started to act different. He was eating less than normal, and he would hardly move from any given spot all day long. I made an appointment at the vet for him, thinking that they'd tell me nothing was wrong. Nope. He had a high fever of 105. I guess if it hits 106, he could have brain damage! The gave him antibiotics and injected him with some fluid, and told us to feed him this (apparently delicious) wet cat food. He also had to check his temperature a few times. But, all his test results came back clear. They couldn't find anything wrong with him. He seems to be perking back up now, and we hope he'll be back to his old self by tomorrow...oh wait, I couldn't sleep, it's morning already...I mean later today.

Sounds like such a depressing start to the new year, huh? Well, it wasn't all bad.

Vincent started walking not long after he turned 13 months old. He's now what my friend, Toi, calls a "waddler." I love it! He's so darn cute when he has just had his diaper changed by Dadday, and he comes walking out of his room to find me. He looks so proud of himself for having a fresh diaper. And, it clear to us now that he can understand so much of what we say to him. Some words in English, some words in Mandarin. And, he has become better with his sign language. He has his versions of signing for more, want, please, and apple. If you say, "diaper change," he will occasionally sign for that, although, it doesn't mean one way or the other. And, from the photo above, you can see that he is learning to spoon feed himself. It's easier with stuff that sticks to the spoon, like applesauce and yogurt. But, he is starting to do it with rice. Yes, he can eat rice again.

Okay, I think I'm ready to head back to bed now. It's Monday. Fresh week. Fingers are crossed for healthy Hunts all around.