Cookies and Crayons

Dougie loves to wear shoes. He will open the cupboard and remove whatever shoes he finds there and start wearing them around the house. Normally, he grabs Daddy’s shoes because they’re the most accessible. Today though, he found my shoes.

He took a minute to get them put on.

He was a little unsure at first. This wasn’t Dougie’s first time wearing shoes with heels but they are normally a lot lower and he doesn’t try to walk too far in them.

It didn’t take too long for him to get the hang of it.

Look at him strut.

Dougie loves to sing. He sings on his own, he sings with us, he sings along with the TV. One of his current favorite songs is Twinkle Twinkle. He will sing it on his own entirely but only if he is completely alone (I hear him do it on the baby monitor). However, he was willing to do it as a duet with me. So, without further ado, I present Dougie and Mum singing Twinkle Twinkle.

I should explain the reason Dougie believes this song is a duet is that we previously would sing his part and he’d fill in the “star”, “are”, etc. We were told it was a good way to teach him words. No one mentioned the affect it could have on his singing career.

We had another appointment with the OB to see how things were coming along. The baby is doing excellently. She is over 3 pounds now and measuring a bit over a week ahead of where she should be. It’s very exciting that she is continuing to grow normally and look good. We’re not exactly sure when Dougie started to have his problems (it was later in the pregnancy than this) but every appointment we get a “normal” is good by us.

Of course, we got more pictures.

You’ll notice her head is almost normal sized now and looking normally shaped.

And, some feet.

Today, was the first day of Dougie’s SmILE program. Dougie was not thrilled to be out the door so early but he did really well once he got there. One of the little boys who did the program with him last term was in it again so it was great for him to have someone there he knew.

From SmILE we hurried back to Grapevine to go to Dougie’s private speech therapist. This is the first time we’ve done both on a single day so I was a bit worried about how he’d do. He was definitely worn down but he did really well at speech. We are going to be switching therapists starting next week (our current therapist is temporary and has to fill in for someone else – we’re crushed) so I was glad to have one last week with the current therapist while we transition to 2 therapies in a day. I’m going to try to make sure he gets to sleep earlier Wednesday night and that I get him up a bit earlier Thursday morning so he won’t have to get up and leave immediately.

We made a short stop at home for lunch and a quick nap for Dougie before I had to head out to a doctor’s appointment. I’d been having a few concerning symptoms with the baby lately so we just wanted to be sure there wasn’t anything to worry about. They listened to her and did a quick ultrasound and everything is right on target. It’s nice to not have to worry. We got a new picture of her as well – I think she’s getting cuter.

This is a picture of just her face and hands.

So, all remains well here. It’s going to take some adjusting to get used to our new schedule but at least Kindermusik doesn’t start for a few weeks so we have tomorrow off – well, except for the playdate we have scheduled.

Every night since we returned from vacation, we have had the same discussion. These discussions have all been spurred on by a fabulous gift Dougie received while we were there (thanks Miss Naz).

Me: Dougie, it’s time for bed.

Dougie runs off to grab his elephant

Me: Dougie, Eli can’t come upstairs. He has to sleep downstairs. You two can play again tomorrow. (This comes from experience – even turned off he will continually try to make it sing)

Dougie holds on tight to Eli

Me: Okay Dougie, play with Eli for 5 more minutes and then we’ll go to bed.

Dougie likes to help him move his ears.

Sometimes, he just likes to listen and watch.

A few cute looks to see if I’ll change my mind.

Finally, we hand over Eli and head to bed.

Tomorrow, there will be more singing about whether or not your ears hang low and wobble to and fro. Until then, ‘nite ‘nite Eli.

Dougie heard that Auntie Suz had hurt her ankle. He was concerned and immediately wanted to hop on the next plane to California. Though I’m sure she would appreciate seeing him – we suggested that perhaps he could help more in other ways. He reminded us of his skill at removing wine bottles from her wine rack but we still thought something less invasive would be a better idea. So, Dougie settled to make her cookies.

Daddy helped

Dougie was a bit confused about the adding the chips to the cookies part

Finally, he found a few for the mouth, few for the cookies method that seemed to work (our apologies if the cookies are a bit low on chips)

You can see how full his mouth is before he was willing to pour some

Why yes, he did resort to taking them back out of the batter (don’t worry, his hands are clean)

Stir stir, mix mix (don’t worry, Scott’s hands are clean too)

Once the cookies were done and cooled, we packed them up. Dougie thought the box we picked was a bit dull, so he decorated it.

Hope you feel better soon!

On Friday, I had another appointment with my OB. Things are going along well. I’m still down in weight but I had gained a pound since last month and so had the baby. We had another ultrasound and the baby was actually measuring a bit ahead – so everything is going well.

We got more pictures which are a bit grainy but you can sort of see her face.

I had my test for gestational diabetes while I was there. I failed the first test with Dougie and had to go back for a 3 hour test (which I passed) so I’m hoping to avoid that this time.

Today was the annual Grape Stomp at the local vineyard. As you may recall, we took Dougie there for the first time last year.

Unfortunately, Dougie had swimming this morning so he missed the harvesting but he made it in time for the stomp!

We had to wait a while before they filled the vat with grapes. Dougie hung out with Daddy and some friends from my MOMS Club.

At first, he watched them load the grapes into the destemmer.

Then he started to get a bit bored with the wait.

More bored.

It has GOT to be time to stomp.

And it almost was. They filled the vat and the kids got going. Dougie did a lot better this year.

At first, he tried to just get his feet out of the vat.

He kept pulling the grapes off but then he’d put his foot back in it and get covered again.

He stomped a little with Daddy’s help – you can see how thrilled he is.

He was all smiles again once we got him out.

He even talked his way into a lollipop from a friend of mine.

Overall, it was a great morning! I’m sure we’ll be back next year.

Dougie and I hit some of the back to school sales last week to get some cheap supplies. While we were there he picked out a coloring book. He’s never really been into coloring but 25 cent crayons will make you try anything. So, we tried it.

It started out innocently enough.

Dougie was super excited that there was an elephant in the book.

Then Dougie decided that perhaps he wasn’t being as efficient as he could be.

Oh yes, this is much better.

Sadly, the resulting picture was not the most conventional art but he sure had a good time coloring it!

Dougie has a doll stroller (he loves to push things).

Unfortunately, he seems to have missed the memo…

… that dolls are supposed to ride in it.

(pardon the jammies, the air conditioner hadn’t been working and we were trying to stay as cool as possible)