Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Bad News
I was planning on updating over the weekend, but on Friday I got very bad news. My teaching contract is not being renewed for the coming fall. Nothing I have (or haven't) done caused this. Our enrollment for the fall is low, so the administration decided they had to cut staff. I have taught at my school for seven years. I thought I would spend the rest of my career there. I am sad and angry and sad some more, but doing my best to try to focus on the positive. I may be kind of quiet for a while while I search for new work. Or I may need the distraction this blog provides. Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know what was going on.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Twelve Month Stats
The Bean had is 12 month check-up yesterday. Poor little guy --three shots! He toughed it out though. He seemed a little warm through the night, but didn't get feverish. One of the vaccines (measles?) contains a live virus, so he could show symptoms from that next week, we'll just have to keep an eye on him.
Of course, my favourite part of the visit was getting all his updated stats. Not much has changed. He's continuing along his growth curve, but is still on the low end of things.
He weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz., which means he was below the 1st percentile for his age. That's lower than last time, but the doctor didn't seem concerned.
He is 29.1 inches long, which is around the 27% percentile for his age. This is an increase in percentile.
His weight for height is below the 1st percentile.
His head circumference is 16.7 in. Which is about the 37th percentile for his age. That means he's smart, right?
We also got a requisition for another ultrasound to check on his pelviectasis and blood work to check on his iron levels. No appointments have been scheduled for those yet, though it shouldn't take long for them to get us in. I'll update with any news.
Of course, my favourite part of the visit was getting all his updated stats. Not much has changed. He's continuing along his growth curve, but is still on the low end of things.
He weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz., which means he was below the 1st percentile for his age. That's lower than last time, but the doctor didn't seem concerned.
He is 29.1 inches long, which is around the 27% percentile for his age. This is an increase in percentile.
His weight for height is below the 1st percentile.
His head circumference is 16.7 in. Which is about the 37th percentile for his age. That means he's smart, right?
We also got a requisition for another ultrasound to check on his pelviectasis and blood work to check on his iron levels. No appointments have been scheduled for those yet, though it shouldn't take long for them to get us in. I'll update with any news.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Birthday Recap
So, like most events in his life so far, The Bean got to celebrate his first birthday twice.
We first celebrated a few weeks early with Jen's family while we were in PA.
Grandma, Grandpa, Nan, Pap, (Great) Aunt and Uncle all joined in the festivities. We had my family's traditional hot milk cake and ice cream (!) then The Bean opened gifts. We've actually put aside some of the gifts that he received for Christmas and his birthday and don't plan on pulling them out until later in the year. We'll also continue to rotate what we have out for him at home so he doesn't get bored or overwhelmed.
After The Bean had a bath and went to bed we had a nice grown-up dinner prepared by Grandma. It was a wonderful celebration.
This past Saturday we celebrated at home. We had every intention of keeping things small, but it ended up being quite the shindig. Oma, her best friend, both my siblings and their SOs, Nana, (great) Aunt and three (second) cousins, a close family friend and her daughter, The Bean's best friend and his parents. That's 19 people. Good thing we were trying to keep it small... I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had invited "everyone"!
We had various things to snack on, a store-bought cake and a homemade cake that looked like The Bean that my aunt made. The kids played while the adults chatted. And, of course, there were more presents. This boy is set in terms of toys for the year!
We think that The Bean really enjoyed his birthday parties. He was smiling and social through both of them and crashed hard afterwards! We had fun celebrating and are looking forward to everything his second year brings.
We first celebrated a few weeks early with Jen's family while we were in PA.
Grandma, Grandpa, Nan, Pap, (Great) Aunt and Uncle all joined in the festivities. We had my family's traditional hot milk cake and ice cream (!) then The Bean opened gifts. We've actually put aside some of the gifts that he received for Christmas and his birthday and don't plan on pulling them out until later in the year. We'll also continue to rotate what we have out for him at home so he doesn't get bored or overwhelmed.
After The Bean had a bath and went to bed we had a nice grown-up dinner prepared by Grandma. It was a wonderful celebration.
This past Saturday we celebrated at home. We had every intention of keeping things small, but it ended up being quite the shindig. Oma, her best friend, both my siblings and their SOs, Nana, (great) Aunt and three (second) cousins, a close family friend and her daughter, The Bean's best friend and his parents. That's 19 people. Good thing we were trying to keep it small... I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had invited "everyone"!
We had various things to snack on, a store-bought cake and a homemade cake that looked like The Bean that my aunt made. The kids played while the adults chatted. And, of course, there were more presents. This boy is set in terms of toys for the year!
We think that The Bean really enjoyed his birthday parties. He was smiling and social through both of them and crashed hard afterwards! We had fun celebrating and are looking forward to everything his second year brings.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Twelve Months Old!
The Bean is twelve months old!
One! Can you believe it?
-The Bean seems to be transitioning fairly well to daycare. The daycare provider tells us that he likes it when the older kids sing during circle time and will stop to watch them. Today she told us that when they sang him Happy Birthday "he was so happy". I wish I could have seen him. The other kids really seem to have taken a shine to him. He even got a birthday gift from one of them today. It's only his third full day.
-He had been doing a good two naps a day along with about 12 hours overnight with one wake-up for a feeding, but with daycare the napping has been less consistent. His overnight sleep is still good though and last night he slept a straight 12 hours.
-He's still a good eater. Meats are harder to get into him, but we try to give him other forms of protein. I worry a bit with his low iron, but he doesn't seem to lack energy. He has had his first tastes of (homemade) banana bread, (homemade) cake, (homemade) cookies and ice cream and LOVED it all. The boy has a sweet tooth.
-Speaking of teeth, he seems to be cutting his eye-teeth. Possibly also the ones beside his incisors on the bottom. He's going to have a mouth full of teeth pretty soon!
-His babbling is starting to sound more and more like talking. He has been trying out some different sounds. He says "Mom"/"Mama", "Mmm", "Up" and "Uh oh". We have also noticed that he copying the cow and rooster noises his toys make, or will copy us when we make cow and rooster noises. He's aren't quite clear, but he says them consistently enough that it's clear that that is what he is doing.
-He is absolutely loving his new toys from Christmas. He got quite a few of the light-up-make-loud-sound things that I used to be rather opposed to getting him. But he really does love them. He crawls as fast as he can to get them. Especially the ones that play music. His favourite right now is probably the bus that Grandma and Grandpa got him for Christmas. He can sit on it while we push him around, he can push it himself and he can press the buttons so it makes noise. He has even figured out that every fourth time he presses the button it plays a song so he will rapidly press to get to the song. Clever guy.
-He has learned to put things "in" and "out" and has a lot of fun practicing this with his toys, with pots and pans in the kitchen, and wherever else he seems to be. "Open" and "closed" too. Oh, and he is waving "hi" and "bye" now and just in the past few days started blowing kisses. Just when I thought he couldn't get any cuter.
-He did really well with all the business and different people we were around over the holidays. Jen and I often remark what a good natured baby he is. We are so (so!) lucky.
-He also had his first real cold over the holidays. We were all pretty congested for a good week or two. Hopefully that's the worst of it for the season.
-He continues to be obsessed with the cat. When she allows him to get close enough, he either gently head-butts her or grabs her fur and yanks it. She tolerates him. We try to keep an eye on him when he's around her.
-He is getting big! His 12 month appointment is on Monday, so we will get all his new stats then, but he is starting to fit into his 12 month clothes (though he also still fits into plenty of 6-12 month sized things). I'm a little shocked that our baby who was in newborn clothes until he was three months old seems to have caught up. We'll see what percentiles he fits into, but I would be a bit surprised if he were still below the fifth.
I'm sure that there is more to update about, but it's after 10pm and I'm ready to call it a night. As of 10:51pm tonight our baby will be a year old. A year in which our lives have changed so much. A year filled with more love than we could have imagined.
Happy Birthday Baby Boy.
One! Can you believe it?
-The Bean seems to be transitioning fairly well to daycare. The daycare provider tells us that he likes it when the older kids sing during circle time and will stop to watch them. Today she told us that when they sang him Happy Birthday "he was so happy". I wish I could have seen him. The other kids really seem to have taken a shine to him. He even got a birthday gift from one of them today. It's only his third full day.
-He had been doing a good two naps a day along with about 12 hours overnight with one wake-up for a feeding, but with daycare the napping has been less consistent. His overnight sleep is still good though and last night he slept a straight 12 hours.
-He's still a good eater. Meats are harder to get into him, but we try to give him other forms of protein. I worry a bit with his low iron, but he doesn't seem to lack energy. He has had his first tastes of (homemade) banana bread, (homemade) cake, (homemade) cookies and ice cream and LOVED it all. The boy has a sweet tooth.
-Speaking of teeth, he seems to be cutting his eye-teeth. Possibly also the ones beside his incisors on the bottom. He's going to have a mouth full of teeth pretty soon!
-His babbling is starting to sound more and more like talking. He has been trying out some different sounds. He says "Mom"/"Mama", "Mmm", "Up" and "Uh oh". We have also noticed that he copying the cow and rooster noises his toys make, or will copy us when we make cow and rooster noises. He's aren't quite clear, but he says them consistently enough that it's clear that that is what he is doing.
-He is absolutely loving his new toys from Christmas. He got quite a few of the light-up-make-loud-sound things that I used to be rather opposed to getting him. But he really does love them. He crawls as fast as he can to get them. Especially the ones that play music. His favourite right now is probably the bus that Grandma and Grandpa got him for Christmas. He can sit on it while we push him around, he can push it himself and he can press the buttons so it makes noise. He has even figured out that every fourth time he presses the button it plays a song so he will rapidly press to get to the song. Clever guy.
-He has learned to put things "in" and "out" and has a lot of fun practicing this with his toys, with pots and pans in the kitchen, and wherever else he seems to be. "Open" and "closed" too. Oh, and he is waving "hi" and "bye" now and just in the past few days started blowing kisses. Just when I thought he couldn't get any cuter.
-He did really well with all the business and different people we were around over the holidays. Jen and I often remark what a good natured baby he is. We are so (so!) lucky.
-He also had his first real cold over the holidays. We were all pretty congested for a good week or two. Hopefully that's the worst of it for the season.
-He continues to be obsessed with the cat. When she allows him to get close enough, he either gently head-butts her or grabs her fur and yanks it. She tolerates him. We try to keep an eye on him when he's around her.
-He is getting big! His 12 month appointment is on Monday, so we will get all his new stats then, but he is starting to fit into his 12 month clothes (though he also still fits into plenty of 6-12 month sized things). I'm a little shocked that our baby who was in newborn clothes until he was three months old seems to have caught up. We'll see what percentiles he fits into, but I would be a bit surprised if he were still below the fifth.
I'm sure that there is more to update about, but it's after 10pm and I'm ready to call it a night. As of 10:51pm tonight our baby will be a year old. A year in which our lives have changed so much. A year filled with more love than we could have imagined.
Happy Birthday Baby Boy.
Monday, January 9, 2012
The New Normal
This morning at 6am we all got up. We brushed our teeth, ate breakfast, and got ready. We had some time to play together. Then we drove The Bean to his daycare, gave him a quick kiss and waved goodbye, heading off to our jobs.
Jen's maternity leave is over. She started back today. Same workplace, new position.
The Bean is in daycare full time.
I'm back to teaching the kids after a lovely two week break.
This morning I had a late start, so I got to stick around and carpool in with Jen, whereas most mornings I'll have to leave earlier and take the subway in to work, as the title of this post indicates, this is more or less the new normal around here.
It went well today, but still feels a little strange knowing that The Bean is with someone other than one of us. I'm sure we'll get used to it.
How many more days until the weekend?
Jen's maternity leave is over. She started back today. Same workplace, new position.
The Bean is in daycare full time.
I'm back to teaching the kids after a lovely two week break.
This morning I had a late start, so I got to stick around and carpool in with Jen, whereas most mornings I'll have to leave earlier and take the subway in to work, as the title of this post indicates, this is more or less the new normal around here.
It went well today, but still feels a little strange knowing that The Bean is with someone other than one of us. I'm sure we'll get used to it.
How many more days until the weekend?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Christmas Recap
We have had a very eventful few weeks.
Christmas was spent with both our families. We're fortunate in that our families celebrate on different days. My family has always celebrated on Christmas eve, Jen's on Christmas day.
My mom lives just over an hour away and we drove to her place mid-day on the 24th. My sister, her husband, my brother and his girlfriend all also came for dinner. Unfortunately there was a bit of a delay with dinner. Somehow the oven got turned off while the turkey was still cooking. The good news is that the problem was noticed early enough that we did still get to eat at a more or less reasonable time (after the oven had been turned back on and the turkey finished cooking).
Given the situation, my brother thought it would be a good idea to open gifts before dinner so that we could try to keep The Bean on his bedtime schedule. It worked out well. As the evening wore on, it was obvious that The Bean was tired, but he was a real trooper. I think he enjoyed all the excitement too. We had all agreed to scale back this year, but everyone seemed to really like what they received.
Because of The Bean's schedule, and also because he is too young to know any different, we decided to wait until the evening of the 25th to drive to Jen's parents. We stopped by my cousin's house in the afternoon to exchange gifts with them and my Nana. Last Christmas when we couldn't travel because of Jen's pregnancy, we had dinner with them. I really liked being able to see them on Christmas day again this year.
On the 25th left for PA at The Bean's bedtime and arrived just a little before midnight. After breakfast on the 26th we opened gifts. Jen's parents really go all out at Christmastime. Jen's big gift was a set of Henkels knives. She also got a few different cookbooks and some new clothes for work, among other things. My big gift from them was a sewing machine. (Yay!) Jen got me an antique letterpress box that I ADORE. Of course, The Bean was the one who REALLY got spoiled. It took him three days to open all his gifts! I've been pleasantly surprised that he actually seems to be playing with almost everything he received. Well, some things are meant for when he's a bit older, but everything that's age appropriate he seems to be enjoying.
The apartment has now undergone a reorganization to accommodate all The Bean's new toys. Maybe it's time to consider a bigger place!
Christmas was spent with both our families. We're fortunate in that our families celebrate on different days. My family has always celebrated on Christmas eve, Jen's on Christmas day.
My mom lives just over an hour away and we drove to her place mid-day on the 24th. My sister, her husband, my brother and his girlfriend all also came for dinner. Unfortunately there was a bit of a delay with dinner. Somehow the oven got turned off while the turkey was still cooking. The good news is that the problem was noticed early enough that we did still get to eat at a more or less reasonable time (after the oven had been turned back on and the turkey finished cooking).
Given the situation, my brother thought it would be a good idea to open gifts before dinner so that we could try to keep The Bean on his bedtime schedule. It worked out well. As the evening wore on, it was obvious that The Bean was tired, but he was a real trooper. I think he enjoyed all the excitement too. We had all agreed to scale back this year, but everyone seemed to really like what they received.
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| Being wished a Merry Christmas by Oma. |
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| A sleepy Bean playing with his new house. |
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| Won't The Bean and his uncle look cute together in their matching shirts? (Pure coincidence --the shirt was a gift from my mom who'd never seen The Bean's shirt.) |
Because of The Bean's schedule, and also because he is too young to know any different, we decided to wait until the evening of the 25th to drive to Jen's parents. We stopped by my cousin's house in the afternoon to exchange gifts with them and my Nana. Last Christmas when we couldn't travel because of Jen's pregnancy, we had dinner with them. I really liked being able to see them on Christmas day again this year.
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| Wearing the cutest Christmas hat ever --an early gift from my aunt. |
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| Petting the puppy in front of my cousins' Christmas tree. |
On the 25th left for PA at The Bean's bedtime and arrived just a little before midnight. After breakfast on the 26th we opened gifts. Jen's parents really go all out at Christmastime. Jen's big gift was a set of Henkels knives. She also got a few different cookbooks and some new clothes for work, among other things. My big gift from them was a sewing machine. (Yay!) Jen got me an antique letterpress box that I ADORE. Of course, The Bean was the one who REALLY got spoiled. It took him three days to open all his gifts! I've been pleasantly surprised that he actually seems to be playing with almost everything he received. Well, some things are meant for when he's a bit older, but everything that's age appropriate he seems to be enjoying.
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| Fueling up for some present opening. |
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| A drum! (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.) |
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| Watching Grandma play with his pots and pans. |
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| Having a picnic. |
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| Christmas cookie!!! |
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| Thomas the Train. Mama and Mom hope that he doesn't become too obsessed. |
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| The most fun thing to play with... a box! (Of course!) |
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| One of Mama's favourite holiday photos. |
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The New Year
I'm not really one to make a big deal out of the new year, but I am looking forward to everything 2012 might bring. 2011 was unforgettable. Having The Bean in our lives and watching him grow has been even more wonderful an experience than I imagined.
I have no resolutions. I do hope that I'll be able to continue to focus on the positive things in my life. I have so much to be thankful for.
Wishing everyone reading all the best that the new year has to offer.
Ours is off to a good start.
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