Polar bear club

New Year's Day, Inman Park has a Polar Bear Club at the neighborhood pool. Bob thought I was crazy, but I thought this sounded like a fun idea. They even have an "Ice Man Triathalon" where you bike around the block, run around the pool and then "swim" across the pool. The water is about 40 degrees, so not many actual put their head in the water but just wade across.

I don't have a bike and thought that Colin's tricycle would take to long to ride around the block, so I just ran the bike part of the triathalon -- I wasn't the only one to do this. But besides that, I did it and got a shirt too! BRRR - that water was cold. Luckily, it was only 40 degrees outside, they've done it when it's been colder. Yeah, I know it's rare down here in Atlanta, but it happens.

Speech therapy??

Before our Omaha trip at Christmas time, Nathan had a nasty cough so I took the boys to the pediatrician to make sure Nathan was good enough to go. He was. But while we were there, Dr. K (our nickname for our pediatrician) asked how Nathan was doing in the the talking department. At the 18-month appointment, he was a little behind, and she mentioned the possibility of speech therapy.

So during this visit, Dr. K asked how many words Nathan was saying. "Umm ... define words", I say because he does have some words, but we are the only ones that can understand them. And most of them sound like "daa", and "pau". Maybe I'm not giving him enough credit though.

Now I'm not crazy about the speech therapy idea, because he is showing improvement (or is it that we are working with him a lot more to improve his speech before his 2-year appointment). But the main reason I'm not concerned about his speech is that he is puzzling so much. Let me explain, I've read that the developing child will sometimes excel in one area and other areas of development will lag as a result. In Nathan's case, he is using so much development energy into doing his puzzles that his language development is lagging. Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I mean the puzzles that he does are amazing! He is currently working on a US puzzle and also an interlocking puzzle. The interlocking puzzle is the first one that does not have a picture of the solved puzzle under the pieces, so he needs lots of help with this one. But that doesn't stop him from trying. As I'm typing this right now, I can hear in the monitor wooden puzzle pieces clicking away as he tries to put it together (I'm assuming he is working on the interlocking puzzle right now -- no way of peeking in and checking!) Of course Nathan is suppose to be going to sleep right now, and he eventually he will.

Links to Matt's blog

From Matt's Blog:
Progress Report, in which a three-year-old imparts writerly wisdom to me
http://matthewsrotundo.livejournal.com/13772.html

More from Matt's Blog:
Heck, this is better than a fortune cookie
http://matthewsrotundo.livejournal.com/4080.html

Santa, snow & Atlanta

Colin informed us while we were in Omaha that Santa doesn't go to Atlanta because it doesn't snow there.

I hope he doesn't tell his friends in Atlanta this!

Mom spit

We have all seen someone do it -- moms who spit on their napkin or hand and clean their little ones face.

Well, here I was at my mom and dad's house and Colin had a dirty face that was driving me nutso! I grabbed my napkin, spit on it and wiped Colin's face. Colin gave me this look and said, "Mom, what was that?!" I explained that it was the universal cleaner called 'mom spit'.

That started it, I then found out that my dad hated 'mom spit', and his mother did it to him all the time! He hated it so much that my mom was not allowed to do this to their children (my brother, sister and me). Reflecting back on my action, I realized that I rarely do this and usually use a baby wipe. But this time I was trying to conserve baby wipes. We were running low this trip and had already been to Target several times and was not interested in making yet another trip to Target to get more baby wipes.

Now I know not to spit on my kids -- especially in front of my dad!

No more cribs for Nathan

We have been thinking about transferring Nathan to the big boy bed, and actually moved Colin's old toddler bed into Nathan's room recently. We bought bunk beds for Colin with the plan that eventually Colin and Nathan will room together. So far the bunk beds are not put together, so Colin is sleeping on the big mattress on the floor.

So before the trip to Omaha, Nathan slept in the big boy bed once when he was very very tired. The first day we were in Omaha, we put Nathan down for his nap in the pack-n-play. We went outside to play in the snow with Colin and didn't think anything about it (see previous blog!). Next thing we know, Nathan comes crawling upstairs to see everyone! Guess he can climb out of the pack-n-play!! So the rest of the trip Nathan slept and took all of his naps in the big boy bed. Grandma Mary has short little beds that Nathan can climb up, so that worked really well.

I remember the transition for Colin took a little longer. He would sleep at night in the big boy bed, but napped for a couple weeks (maybe just a week -- who remembers for sure) in the crib. Last night was the first night that we were back, and Bob put Nathan in the crib at one point. A little while later, I hear crying and then there is Nathan opening the door to his room. I guess he climbed out of the crib too! So there will be no more cribs for Nathan. Not if he is climbing out of it.

Luckily, Nathan is very responsive to what we tell him. Last night, after he climbed out of the crib, Bob gave him his puzzle and set up the big boy bed with all his stuff (bear, Nemo, the blue pillow and pacifier), and told Nathan when he was done with his puzzle to go do bed. A while later when all was quiet, we peeked in and Nathan was tucked into his bed under the covers and everything, sleeping like a baby!

Snow!!

For the holidays, we go back to Omaha where the grandmas and grandpas live. During this trip back to Omaha, we got to see the white stuff ... snow! Now, this is a real treat, because the last couple of years, it didn't snow at all. I don't know about the whole "global warming" thing, but it really seems like it snowed a lot more when I was a kid growing up in Nebraska.

So anyway, Colin was absolutely thrilled to see all of the snow and couldn't wait to go play in it. Poor Nathan was sick and didn't get a chance to experience it. But I figure there will be lots of time for Nathan to get his chance. Heck, this is Colin's first time and he is 4!

Bob and Colin head outside and before you know it, there is a snow ball the size of a small country for the base of the snowman. The snow is absolutely perfect for snowman making. It's a little wet and deep enough so you don't get all the grass in snow ball (I hated it when that happened to me when I was growing up!) The snowman turned out very nice.



While Bob was completing Mr. Snowman, I'm following Colin around with the camera and Colin just lays down in the snow and starts making a snow angel! I was shocked ... where did he learn to do that? Or are snow angels just something that is instinctive to do when you are a little kid. I wouldn't think so, but here he is doing it!


After the snowman, it was time to do some sledding. This time was just down the small hill (I really hesitate to call it a 'hill' though!) in the front of Grandma Mary and Grandpa Jerry's house. Grandma Mary had a couple of plastic sleds that Bob and Colin used. Bob would slide on his stomach with Colin laying on top of him! I'm just so thrilled that I got an amazing picture of this as they were flying past me!


Colin had a couple more adventures in the snow during this trip. One of them was sledding down a very, very steep hill with Bob and Uncle Ian. Colin even got to see it snow when we returned to Kansas City for the flight home.