Long, Long, L O N G Day

It appeared today would never end.  Our days are usually limited to at most one major activity outside the home a day.  And we try to spend at least 1-2 days at home with no outings; this does not include walking to the park or enjoying the nature trail just "car" outings.  Experience has taught us that more than that tends to make for cranky babies, and parents too.

Today's schedule:

1. Bubeaner's Gym class
2. Grocery shopping (unplanned stop; out of toilet paper and other items)
3. Rush home to eat and get kids to nap (Bubeaner fell asleep in car before eating)
4. Appointment with Dr. Z (make sure kiddos only suffering from allergies)
5. Grocery store (forgot toilet paper!)
6. Rush home, change Bubeaner into swim trunks for make-up lesson
7. Dinner
8. Bathe babies
9. Bedtime

It was exhausting.  But Bubeaner and Bubita were amazing. There was only a little crankiness during the second grocery store stop from Bubeaner and some complaining from Bubita for being back in the car seat after rushing from the grocery store-home-swim class.  Bubeaner even enjoyed his sushi dinner.  His favorite was the miso soup loving what he call "panecitos" (tofu squares).  Bubeaner gave up on the spoon and used a straw to drink it.

Bubita was quite a trooper.  It cannot be comfortable to spend so much time strapped to the car seat.  Sometimes it is just necessary.  During Bubeaner's gym time, she stays in the car seat because usually she's finishing up her morning nap and later because it's a safe place for her.  Bubita is pretty mobile and would not stay put otherwise.  This is one of the reasons we are trying out a gym class for infants next week.  We'll see how Bubita enjoys it.  We assume it will not be a problem since she currently loves to crawl around, climb on anything she can and cruise along the furniture.  It's good to see him enjoy some of the simple pleasures of childhood playtime.

Bubeaner will also be trying out a gym class with a new coach next week.  This particular class is immediately after Bubita's (if we decide to enroll her) which would eliminate the need for an additional outing a week since it's on a different day than Bubeaner's current class.  However, we are not in a hurry to transfer Bubeaner if the fit is not right.  Bubeaner has come a long way from his shy demeanor and cautious class participation.  He was actually complimented today on how well he socializes with other kids and participates in class.

At our doctor's visit we found out the kiddos have not gained much weight from their last visit... actually even from their last well-child check up.  Bubeaner weighs 29+ pounds and Bubita weighs 16+ pounds.  It's pretty strange to us considering how much they actually eat on a daily basis.  They do appear to have gotten taller but we won't know for sure until their next well-child check up.  As to the coughing, sneezing, nasal drainage, et. al?  Dr. Z assumes, from lack of any other symptoms, that the kiddos are just dealing with some nasty allergies.  They are now to start taking Claritin on a daily basis along with using the saline rinse several times a day.  Bubeaner and Bubita are probably the only kids under 3 that know about saline rinses.

Thursday Activities

We finally made it back to the Thursday church group after months.  Battleing with colds, travel and other things made it difficult to go.  Bubita had absolutely no problem staying at the nursery.  Bubeaner whined and fussed a little despite being eager about going on the way there.  He did not cry for long.  Soon he was entertained playing with the trains, cars and horses.  Thankfully, neither kid was upset about leaving either.

They were treated to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  It was a win-win situation.  Bubeaner got to play and wear himself out at the playground bound to take a long, long nap afterwards.  He loved it.  Bubeaner immediately made friends with a little boy bonding over naming the different kinds of cars in the drive-through line.  They were later joined by another little boy and a little girl.  Bubeaner is communicating so well these days.  Of course, he also wanted to share some of his favorite words with his new friends.  Imagine the shock of hearing Bubeaner's favorite hockey word (He heard it a lot at the last hockey game and t's NOT "puck") drifting down from the playground being repeated by all of the kids.  O! M! G!  Our kid is THAT kid!  It reiterated a couple of things: 1) Bubeaner is not going back to another hockey game for a while, and 2) it was time to leave.  Thankfully, non of the other mothers were in the play area.  Wonder who will get blamed for their kids' new vocabulary word.

Bubita also enjoyed the excursion.  She loved getting all the attention and cuddling from the nursery staff.  She was even pampered by the restaurant's staff.  And after nursing, she was eager to join the boys playing.  She was so eager to play she walked to the playarea holding on to only one hand!  She did great.  One mom suggested Bubita might only be a week or two from walking on her own.  And considering how fast she's been improving it might be possible.  She started the week walking holding on to both hands, moved on to standing using the hand-held walker but not being able to control it, to using the walker to speedwalk across the playroom to now walking holding only one hand... all in less than 4 days.

Of course, her temper tantrums have also "improved" with time.  The girl can scream!  It takes strong determination and will power to ignore them especially since they have become more frequent.  Bubita is determined to make her point be heard.  Thankfully, they usually don't last too long once she realizes no one is paying attention.  Then she just goes back to her sweet, easy going attitude.

We have been working on counting with both of them using flashcards along with "baby channel" programing and regular toys.  Bubita is mainly working on her animal names.  But Bubeaner is actually leaning to count.  He was doing a great job counting up to ten (that's how high the cards went).  We though he was rote counting, but he was also able to count when the cards were shuffled or when asked about a random number of items.  Bubeaner can count!  But only up to ten.  After that he just goes a little crazy with the order; he's pretty fond of the number 16.