Ketchup

Tina had to work late today, so I picked up the boys and took them to dinner. I was going to take them to Craig O's, but Xander said "I want a hamburger. Can we go to McDonalds, Daddy?" So I changed destinations en route and we went to the Golden Arches.

Xander got his hamburger happy meal and shared his fries with Duncan (who also got some chicken nuggets of his own). When Duncan saw his brother dipping the fries in ketchup, he pointed and grunted that he wanted to do the same thing. I held the little tub of ketchup for him and he delicately dipped a fry in and took a little taste... then wanted more. Being the hard-ass that I am, I told him "No double-dipping" and left him to chew on his fry.

Xander, however, was not content to leave it like that. He held the ketchup for his brother to dip into time and again. It was really very cute.

Other development

Twice this week I've gone to check Xander before I went to bed and his light was on and he was sleeping on the floor. Once he was sleeping up against the door, so I had to get down and push him over before I could open the door enough to get in. I put him back to bed both times and he seemed to settle down quickly. I'm guessing that he is asserting some new independence by getting out of bed after we tuck him in, but he is being good and staying in his room, so we are not making an issue of it.

Bye Bye Baby

I'm finally accepting it - Duncan is no longer a baby.

I had been resisting this because Duncan is my last baby. Also, I thought he would drink and eat better with the bottles and baby food. But one day I finally convinced myself that there was no evidence to support this and he might actually drink more from the cup. Feeding him the baby food was also such a high maintenance cry fest, that it would definitely be easier and make meals happier if we just gave him table food.

So, when we started to run out of the bottle liners, we decided not to buy anymore and start the transition to sippy cups. We ran out of liners three days ago, and Duncan has had all cups since then. It has been going well except for a little crying when we try to give him the cup at bed time.

The transition to table food is going great. Duncan eats what we eat, just chopped up and he is so excited to be getting table food he eats better than his brother some times (we do not have to bribe him to eat his veggies).

Another development which may or may not be related to the other changes is that Duncan has started resisting his morning nap this week. I was worried at first that he was going to be grumpy during the afternoon, but then my Mom suggested that he would sleep better at night if he did not take a morning nap. And Duncan has been sleeping through the night this week!

So, Duncan is making a lot of positive progress, but I still miss my baby.

A new car!

I bought a new 2005 Honda Accord LX yesterday. Finally traded in my Saturn after having to call roadside assistance last Wednesday because the key wouldn't turn in the ignition.

I had to get white because all the neighbors all have white cars and I wanted to fit in... :)

I blow the dandelion seeds into the air...

On our nature walk Sunday, we found some dandelions to blow. The scene reminded me of the scene from my favorite childhood book, I am a Bunny. We read that book to Duncan every night and he loves to blow the page when we get to the dandelions...

Nature walk

This afternoon, we decided to get out of the house and walk around the greenbelt at Circle C Park. I used to play disc golf there all the time, but I haven't played in a couple years. The course looks very different.

While we were all out walking, we took frequent breaks, one of which you see pictured. The weather was mild but humid and Xander insisted on running alot.

It made for a nice change of scenery. Everyone was tired and hungry when we got home, though!

Sponge

Last night while Xander was brushing his teeth I was singing "Daughters" by John Mayer. I like that song even though I don't have any daughters and never will. Maybe it's the part about "Boys, you can break" that makes me like the song. When I got to the chorus I sang "Fathers be good to your" and Xander sang "Daughters". It was so cute and I'm always amazed when he does something thing that points out how much of the world around him he really pays attention to and absorbs. My little sponge.

Spontaneity

Yesterday we took the boys to get their haircuts at ToysRUs, but we were 30 minutes early. We didn't know what to do to kill 30 minutes, but I remembered that there was an entrance to the Barton Creek greenbelt just down the hill from the ToysRUs store. So we ended up hiking to Barton Creek and enjoying a beautiful Sunday morning. Xander got to indulge in his favorite pastime: throwing rocks into the water, and we all had a very nice time.

After haircuts, we went to lunch at Red Lobster (it's Lobsterfest, you know), and Xander ate a good part of a lobster tail. Duncan mostly enjoyed the french fries, but kept insisting that either Tina or I offer him water from our straws.

It was a lovely day.

Pasghetti and emmalade

Grandpa came over tonight to take us out to dinner. Xander loves his grandpa. Xander insisted that grandpa to sit next to him in between Xander and Duncan's car seats on the way to the restaurant. Being the doting grandpa that he is, he happily obliged them.

We went to Johnny Carino's and the gang ate well. Even Duncan got into the fun, but he just likes to copy his brother. When Xander got crayons and started coloring, Duncan pointed and grunted until he got a crayon of his own.

Xander pronounces most words well, but there are a few that he stubbornly pronounces his own way: spaghetti and lemonade become pasghetti and emmalade.

Sick

Duncan is sick again. Not fever sick, just runny nose-congested sick. He is usually such a happy baby, but he is so grumpy when he is sick and he just wants to be held and walked around. Also, if we give him the decongestant, he does not eat and we are always worried about how much he eats.

Yesterday afternoon when he was grumpy, I put on Baby Einstein (thanks, Anjamma) and that made Duncan soooo happy. He plopped right down on the floor in front of the TV. I tried to move him to the couch so he would not have to look up at the TV, but he slid off the couch and sat back down in front of the TV. Xander still likes to watch Baby Einstein also.

Sleeping

Duncan at 13 months still wakes up once a night for a bottle. Bheeshmar and I take turns getting up. I'm starting to get pretty tired of getting up at night. I remember Xander stopped taking a night bottle around 4 months when I returned to work (but Bheeshmar would say differently). However, Duncan is our last baby, so we have been spoiling him and giving him a bottle whenever he wakes up. Also, he is so little (he is off the bottom of the weight chart - 18 lbs at 1 year) and is such a high maintenance eater/drinker we are always trying to get him to eat more, so we hate to stop feeding him the one bottle that he usually finishes with no fussing. Also, also, he is so cute at night when it is just me and him in the dark - I am going to miss that a little.

Last week he slept through the night 4 times. And not the "through the night" that the baby books talk about which is really only sleeping 6 or 8 hours straight. I mean he slept from 7:30 pm until about 7am. I thought that we were finally over the night feedings and after a year and a half I could start sleeping normal again. I was wrong. He still wakes up. Grrr.

Once he hits 20 pounds, though, I'm going to start trying to stop the night bottle. We'll see how that goes.

Yummy soup!

Just so you don't think everything we do is bad...

Yesterday afternoon we had to play inside AGAIN because the weather was still wet and cold. We were watching Spirited Away and Xander was playing with the pots and spoons. He was making Mardi Gras bead and ping pong ball soup. Of course Duncan wanted to play too, so to avoid a fight I got Duncan a pot as well. He looked so cute trying to play like his big brother, mixing the beads in the pot.

Then the scene in the movie came on where the soots are putting the coal in the boiler for Kamaji and I remembered when Xander was little and just starting to say words he would say "hot" when this he saw the bright orange-red fire of the boiler. He learned this early because he always wanted to be held while Daddy was cooking to see what was going on and we were constantly having to tell him not to touch the pot/stove because it was "hot".

Now Duncan is starting to say words and he also loves to watch Daddy cook. I told him that the fire on TV was hot and he looked at the TV and said "ha". Very cute.