Christopher's Baptism

Boom!

We had a great Christmas here. Even though Daniel does not really understand the concept of Santa, he loved all the new toys. Here is a little video of him playing with his Grampie. Daniel loves having all the family around to pay extra attention to him. I love having the family around to help and just to have company.

Christopher is a great baby so far. It is amazing how different he is from Daniel. I knew that they would be different, but I did not realize how different they could be. So far he has spent most of his time eating and sleeping. He seems quite mellow, and only cries when he is hungry. He has dark hair and a darker complexion than Daniel has. He is also much smaller than Daniel was as a newborn, although he has already grown a bunch. He was 7 lbs, 2 oz, when we took him in on Monday. The doctor said that his weight in the hospital must have been incorrect because there is no way that he gained almost a pound in three days. I'll be interested to see what his weight is when we go back on the 4th.

The first couple nights were a bit rough. I'm not sure if it was because Christopher was getting up more or because Matt and I had totally wiped the memories of what it is like to have a newborn from our mind. We still had to muddle through all the middle of the night supplies. Between diapers, wipes, burp cloths, ointment, blankets, and little hats, you really need a lot of stuff at 2 am. Christopher is also a little spitter. One night we each had at least 2 outfits. The last couple nights he slept like a champ. He went down at 11 pm, woke up at 3:30 am, then again around 7 am. I can't really ask for more from the little guy.

Our week continues to include momentous events. Today we purchased a new car to replace the TSX that I totalled a few weeks ago. We decided to get a Toyota Sienna. It is quite the step moving to the minivan, but I must say that the car is quite beautiful. Tomorrow is Christopher's baptism. It will be his second time to church in his short life. I will post more pictures soon.

Christopher Joseph Lee

Christopher Joseph Lee was born on December 18, 2009, at 8:31 pm. He was 6 pounds 5 ounces and 19 inches long. Here are a few pictures of all of us. Daniel seems to be gaining interest in his new brother, but is mostly interested in all the new baby stuff that has appeared in our house.

A Week to Remember

This week is going to be memorable if nothing else. Not many people wreck their car, turn 30, and have a baby in a week. That's right. I wrecked my car on Saturday and turned 30 on Sunday and will be having a baby by Friday. It is looking like the car is totaled. Thankfully Daniel, baby, and I are all fine. No injuries and very minor bruises. My ego might have taken the biggest bruise. I'm thinking that this might be a sign that the Acura TSX is not the right car for a mother of two. I think my next car will be some sort of family friendly vehicle. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to shop for a car right now, but I'll think about that another day.

Sunday was a much better day than Saturday. Everyone spoiled me for my birthday, and I was able to take it easy and enjoy the day. Matt picked out the sweetest little Willow Tree ornament for me from Daniel. It is a mother holding her little boy exactly the way Daniel likes to be held. Matt also kept the cake making tradition alive and made an excellent birthday cake for me. Daniel really enjoyed watching Matt mix the cake, and he particularly liked the licks!

Ok, so the baby part. No baby yet, but he is going to be here soon! If the baby does not come by Friday, I have an appointment to be induced at 11:30 am on Friday. Things are still going fine, but if I am pregnant much longer I won't have any shoes left that fit. I think I had to put three more pairs in the too small pile this week. That's alright, not too much to complain about since I only started feeling really pregnant in this last month.

House Projects

We've finally started working on our upstairs rooms. Here are a few pictures of the new and improved accommodations.

This is the baby's room. I must confess that I'm totally in love with the paint color.The playroom.
More playroom.

More playroom with the desk that Peggy painted (it used to be lilac) and Daniel's art from Little Builders.

Blizzard

We are in the midst of my first blizzard ever. Since about 6 pm last night, we have gotten about 16 inches of snow. It's still snowing and it is supposed to get much colder and windier. Matt actually had a path cleared for me to get out to go to work today. It took me less time than a normal day because I was the only person who decided to go to work today. When there were only about 20 people in my office at 10 am, I decided to come home since Daniel's daycare was closed. Don't worry, I've already heard it from many people that a woman in my condition should not be driving to work in a blizzard. Here are some pictures of all the snow and of our Christmas tree.

Daniel's hiding at the top of the driveway with the snowblower. Notice the mailbox in the foreground.

The snow is almost as deep as Daniel is tall.There is almost a foot of snow on top of the handrail.

Life of a Toddler

It must be incredibly frusterating to be a toddler. At least that is what I can surmise from my little guy. Daniel had a relatively rough morning with lots of no's and tears. He was very mad that I would not let him play in the sink before swimming, and he was even more mad when he could not take his raisins in the pool with him. Well, I was just assuming that he was in a bad mood or not feeling quite right or some thing like that. But after the last few hours, I'm thinking that he just has some big things going on in his head. Let me explain, in this morning with all the tears and frusteration, Daniel did some big things.

First, he did amazing at swimming lessons. We are transitioning to the next level at swimming. This is a really big deal because Mommy is no longer part of the class. Well, today he did the lessons by himself, and I did not even have to put on a swimsuit. He listened to the teacher and sat on the step and waited his turn. Really quite amazing acomplishments for Daniel.

Then we went to the grocery store where he started telling me things in sentances. Yes, Daniel did insist on wearing his hat and gloves and holding his raisins the whole time we were in the store, but at some point he took one of the gloves off and put it back on. Then he said, "Daniel put on glove by self." I can't wait to see what else he wants to do by himself. This will be another source of frusteration, I fear.

Last thing he did was sleep in his bed for nap. Now I know you all think that he sleeps in the bed every night, but the sleeping in the bed did not last too long. It was maybe a week before he started getting out. He has not slept there for a long time. We try every night, but he just can't seem to fall asleep in the bed. So we have this routine where Daniel tries to sleep in the bed twice, but he gets out and comes to the door (where we have a gate). Eventually, he goes in the crib and is asleep within about 30 seconds. So he sleeps well, and he goes to sleep happy. I can't bring myself to force him to sleep in the bed at this age. Maybe this nap is a sign that he is ready to make the switch. He has been down for over 2 hours and had no problem falling asleep.

I guess Daniel is just a little like me in that change and times of transition make him a little emotionally unstable. He dives right into the next thing, but it always comes with a few little speed bumps he has to get over.

Pregnancy Update

On Wednesday I'll be at 37 weeks. I can't believe that No. 2 is almost here. By the way, that is this baby's in utero name - No. 2. Many of you have asked about the pregnancy, so here is the scoop. This pregnancy has been easier than the last one. I am weighing in 10+ pounds less than I was with Daniel at the same point. The reduced weight gain has helped me to be more comfortable. Generally, I'm feeling fine. My hands and feet are super swollen which stinks. They have been swollen for a while and seem to be getting worse. Writing with a pen hurts these days. Just like the last pregnancy, I'm eating Maalox tablets like breathmints. I guess that's what happens when a baby is smooshing your insides. This baby has been more active than Daniel was. Maybe it is the reduced padding. You can really see this baby move sometimes.

Matt and I keep discussing how we feel somewhat unprepared for this baby. Matt keeps saying that we have not done anything to prepare for this baby. I told him that putting up the Christmas decorations was preparing for the baby :) In all seriousness, we have not done much to prepare for the baby's arrival, but I've done a few things. Matt was suprised to find out that there are clothes in the baby's closet and diapers, too. It is nice that we have most everything from the first time around. The biggest thing we are missing right now is a crib. Daniel's initial fascination with the big boy bed wore off, and he sleeps in the crib again. We are going to be borrowing a crib for a little while until Daniel makes the transition. I don't have the heart to force him into the big boy bed at 20 months.

So we will see what the doctor says on Wednesday, but I think the baby won't come for a couple weeks yet. I'm at a pretty similar stage to where I was with Daniel at this point, and he waited until 1 day before his due date to come.

Wearing mittens is a must for banana consumption

So how did we end up in a situation like this?

Well, I'll tell you. So yesterday after feeding Daniel dinner I was sitting in the kitchen, and Daniel came up to me with his hat and wanted to put it on. Then he came up with the gloves and wanted to put them on as well. Hat and gloves are not really necessary for our house, we do use the heat, but there was nothing particularly wrong with him wearing them either. Then Daniel insisted on climbing up on the stool and was begging to eat a banana from the fruit bowl. At first I kind of resisted letting him eat more since he had already eaten a good dinner, but then I reconsidered. He was probably hungry, and he did eat a good dinner, so I let him eat the banana with the gloves and hat on. He ate almost half of the banana and then shared a few bites with Matt and I. Matt totally cracked up when he walked in the kitchen and saw Daniel doing this. We are slowly but surely learning to go with the toddler flow.

Toddlerhood

We are in the full throes of toddlerhood at the Lee house. Every day I find myself wondering if Matt and I are doing the 'right' things as parents. Luckily Daniel is a fairly happy, curious, and fun kid, but all that curiousity does not come without a need for direction. We have also entered the stage where Daniel really wants to do things like adults. For instance, he would really like to be able to put his shoes and socks on without help. Unfortunately maneuvering his foot into his sock is not something he will master for a long time. This leads to much frusteration.

Another recent development is that Daniel likes to remove the tops to his sippy cups. On one hand, he can manage to drink more than half of whatever is in the cup without spilling or getting distracted. The problem is that the last third usually ends up getting dumped in his lap or on his tray. Not really fun for Mom. This top issue has resulted in more than one meal getting cut short.

Here is a cute picture from Daniel's daycare's Thanksgiving celebration. He really enjoyed showing 'Gamma' (Matt's Mom) all of his friends cubbies and naming all of the people who they belonged to.

A Few Pictures

Last weekend we headed to Waukesha for our godson Jack's baptism.

Here is a picture of Daniel with his bat. He loves the bat. Unfortunately, it has to have frequent time outs since he can't keep from hitting Mommy with it. And to add to the equation, he got a hockey stick yesterday.

Daniel and Lola in the wagon for Halloween.

The trick-or-treaters leaving our house.

Daniel with his buddies Elisabeth and Christopher from across the street.

When Daddy Watches Daniel

Matt is very willing and very good at watching Daniel, but the events never come without a story. I had a meeting at work on Wednesday evening, so Matt go to pick up Daniel and do dinner. I made it home just before bedtime. Well, when I arrived at home I noticed that the changing pad was on the kitchen table. Since it usually resides in the upstairs bathroom I suspected that something was up. My suspicion was that it had to do with messy diapers. Well, I asked Matt why the changing pad was downstairs he said that he would have to give me the whole story after we put Daniel down. I'm thinking, what happened? Matt and Daniel both seemed in rather good spirits, so what could have happened?

So here goes the story. Matt gave Daniel some Cheerios while preparing his dinner. At some point he turned around because Daniel was saying, "Nose, nose, nose, ouch, ouch." Daniel had pushed a Cheerio up his nose a little bit. Matt thought that he needed a tool to help extract the Cheerio, so he dashed upstairs to get the tweezers. By the time he got back down Daniel had shoved the Cheerio much further into his nose and the tweezers were not going to work anymore. Matt, doing what any good parent would, started calling people for suggestions. The first was to go to urgent care. He did not want to do that, so he called the doctor across the street who had a suggestion. Lay Daniel down, plug one side of his nose, blow in his mouth, and duck from the Cheerio flying out of his nose. Thankfully the doctors suggestion worked. Unfortunatelly, the Cheerio hit Matt and fell on Daniel's mouth. Then he ate it :) What a kid!

Games and Daylight Savings Time

Daniel and I started playing a simple game yesterday. Now keep in mind that he is 19 months old when I describe the game. It goes something like this: I sit on the floor in the living room with my legs outstreched. He runs to the other side of the room. I count to three and open my legs. He runs into my arms and screams with glee. We then repeat this for about 20 minutes. I did not realize what a hit this game was until he asked to play the game again tonight. He said, "Game!" and motioned toward the living room. When I acknowledged his request and said we could play he started trying to jump and made a bunch of excited noises. He is getting really close to jumping, but can't quite get his feet off the ground enough. He puts so much energy into jumping that often he ends up falling down. We are still trying to get the momentum going in the up direction. Maybe we will have to get some of the game on video.

Daylight savings time is a special treat for parents of toddlers. Unfortunately, toddlers don't understand the numbers on the clock. Over the past week, we had been moving Daniel's schedule back since he was waking up at 4:45 am! We had shifted things enough that he was waking up closer to 6 am. That is until the clocks arbitrarily switched on Sunday. Now we get to go through the whole process again. I feel like we are doing sleep training for an infant again. Thankfully, he seems to be fairly receptive to our efforts. Now if I could only get my body to allow me to sleep until 6 am without waking up in anticipation for him to wake up, I'll be happy.

Halloween

Here are a few pictures of Daniel in his Halloween costume. Following in his parents tradition who were both clowns when they were 2, he was a clown. Peggy made him an adorable costume. This was from his daycare party. Today we went to a Halloween lunch and are going trick-or-treating tonight. Should be fun!

Pumpking Patch and a Suprise Nap

A few weeks ago, we headed to the pumpking patch. Daniel liked all the pumpkins and the mud!

Mom, I've got it!

It was a windy day.

Daniel with his pumpikin. So serious.

What about this one, Daniel?

Daniel fell asleep on Matt at the beginning of the Notre Dame game a few weeks ago and stayed there for almost the whole first half. It was the quitest half of Notre Dame football I've ever lived through with Matt.

Locked Out!

Daniel locked me out of the house today. I couldn't believe it. We were playing on the porch, he went inside and closed the door, and then he locked it. Just like that, I was locked out. Luckily Matt was home and the garage door was open, but otherwise, I would have been in trouble. I didn't even know he was tall enough to reach the lock. I better hide a key somewhere right away :)

Big Boy Bed Update

Daniel has chosen to sleep in the big boy bed every night except one since we brought it into the room. We had a bit of a rough patch the first night between midnight and 1 am, but other than that, he has been sleeping wonderfully. This must be a big milestone for me because I think about it all day every day, and I want to tell everyone about it. Maybe I just need more hobbies or something.

Now I have been thinking that Daniel is quite safely contained in his room when he sleeps with the gate over the door. Well, I might have to rethink that. This morning Daniel was playing in our room and in the hall and the gate was still over the doorway to his room. Well, I go to check on him in the hall and he is holding the gate and moving it from the doorway to along the wall where I keep it when it's down. I'm not quite sure how he got ahold of the gate, but I couldn't help but laugh at him 'putting it away.'

First Haircut

We went to get Daniel's haircut this week. It was getting a little shaggy. You would think that he sat still looking at the first picture, but there was no chance of him sitting in the chair. Most of the haircut took place with Daniel in my arms. The girl did manage to get all sides cut before we had to make a quick escape. Thankfully Peggy came along to take pictures otherwise, there would have been no chance that I could get one. The first picture is a before shot and the second two are almost after shots. I'll have to take another one soon of the finished product.

I've also included a couple pictures from our trip to Florida last month at the end of this post.

Big Boy Bed

We are going to try to get Daniel to sleep in a big boy bed instead of moving into the world of two cribs. My plan is to have a twin mattress on the floor and the crib both available in Daniel's room until he is ready to give up the crib. Over the past few weeks, I picked up linens for the bunk beds, and I picked out a mattress for Daniel. Matt's parents were kind enough to pick up the mattress and deliver it today. We set it up in the corner of the room and put the new sheets and comforter on it. Daniel was excited about the bed right away. He climbed up on it and laid down on the pillow. I was sitting on the bed, and he came over and kind of pushed me off. He wouldn't even let his monkey hang out on the bed with him. Outside of the sharing issue, I took these all as good signs that he liked the bed. I'm not quite ready for him to sleep in the bed since I don't have the room totally toddlerproofed and we don't have a bedrail yet.

Well, it came time for nap, and Daniel went straight to the bed. He got in and laid down on the pillow, so I decided to give it a try. He fell right asleep. He slept in the big boy bed for 1.5 hours quite happily. I tried to snap a picture of him sleeping in the bed, but with the dim light and no flash and my nerves about waking him up, it did not turn out clearly. I'm sure you get the idea. He was so cute, but so grown up looking. While he was asleep, I went out and bought a bedrail.

I'm sure this is just beginners luck, but it is an encouraging start.

Update: Daniel insisted on sleeping in the big boy bed tonight. I put him in the crib and he kept walking around looking for a way to get to the bed. He then asked to be picked up and proceeded to point at the bed until I put him down in it. He went down without a sound. We'll see how the morning goes. I told him he needed to call for me and couldn't get out until I came. I seriously doubt that he will remember that advice 11 hours later after a night of sleep.

18 Months Old

Daniel turned 18-months old this week, and Matt turned 29. We have been enjoying the fall so far, but it is going to be unusually cold this weekend. It is amazing to see Daniel learning new things everyday. His most recent request is, "Up, up, up..." It is nice to have him need us, but I must say my belly is starting to get in the way a bit. Here are a few recent photos with stories.

Daniel and Matt reading this morning. Daniel insisted on having the bat and ball with him for the story. He loves his bat and ball!
Daniel watching the Verona homecoming parade. I think he was watching the dance team here.

Some nice person gave him a pencil. I thought it was a better choice than the lollipops. It only took him a couple minutes to bite off the eraser and give it to me as a gift. Afterwards he amused the neighbors by collecting trash and putting it in the bin. He is quite the good citizen.

Daniel loves Sesame Street. I think he would watch four episodes a day if I let him. He stis on the couch for almost the entire hour. He likes to stand for Murray and Elmo, and he goes up to the TV and waves goodbye to the characters during the closing credits. It is amazing how he actually sits still for the show.

Daniel is fascinated with rain. This was his first opportunity to 'feel' the rain. The only problem with letting him do this is that I now have to chase him down to prevent him from running out into the rain when we are getting in or out of the car. The kid loves water whether in the bath, at swimming lessons, rain, or puddles. I have a feeling that I am going to have to have lots of spare clothes around during the wetter parts of the year.

Hey You!

Life with Daniel is pretty nice these days. He is still a very busy boy, but he is so interested in things and can do so much more on his own that it's a little less exhausting. It is also really fun to hear all his new words. One of the more recent additions is, "Hey you!" He will repeat it back to us over and over. He even got to say it to Aunt Kelly on the phone today when we called to wish her happy birthday.

Now that we are down to one nap a day consistently, he is going down for naps and bed like a dream. It makes life easier to have a good sleeper. I would say that meal times are one of our more challenging times of the day. He rejects much of the food that we offer him and won't eat veggies to save his life. It also feels like some days he eats nothing. I guess that's just part of toddlerhood.

I've been so bad at taking pictures recently. I decided to just take some everyday life ones today.

Daniel insisted that he needed to use the big fork for his oatmeal this morning.

He had to concentrate extra hard to make bites.

Here he is enjoying sitting at the dining room table.

Carrying his music sticks at the music class this morning.

Digging for dinasour bones.