Our Parent/Teacher Conference

I had my first parent/teacher conference! Sure...Joaquin is only 17 months old, but it's never too early to start setting expectations around learning and development. We got a little report card for him from his teacher at daycare.

Here are some of the items that Joaquin got an 'A' in (A for Always):
--Climbs on any available object
--Stops and picks up objects
--Imitates adults
--Shows empathy (my favorite...so nice)
--Throws trash away!
--Knows own cubby
--Waves and says 'bye- bye'
--responds to music

Here are some of the items that Joaquin got a 'S' in (S for Sometimes):
--Points to named object
--marks with crayon, marker
--tries to sing
--makes animal sounds (he tries...i asked him last week what a dog says and he said "Hoo-Hoo"...then I asked what a cat says, and he said "Hoo-Hoo". So we're still working out the details on what the animals actually say)
--attempts to put shoes and hat on

Here are the items that Joaquin got an 'N' (N for Never). We've had a talk with Joaquin and we should see some quick improvements. I mean..it's not like any of these are hard....
--Enjoys new tactile experience (Joaquin hates painting-they only get him to paint if they offer him a brush!)
--Pulls pants up
--watches shadow
--puts simple puzzles together
--Shows hand preference
--Recognizes own art work.

I hope you all know that we don't take this too seriously - and it was a nice way for us to connect with his teachers on what he is doing. I asked his teacher what makes Joaquin unique and she said that he is very gentle with the other kids - and always gives hugs and kisses. He loves to be social but likes his alone time too and will sit and work on something by himself for a while. He loves loves loves to be outside. Pretty nice, don't you think?

So, if he never learns how to pull up his pants, I will still be a proud mama if he grows up and gives hugs and kisses, likes to be outside and is happy being social or spending time by himself sometimes. Hmmmmm...some people might be uncomfortable if he does those things without pants on......maybe we'll work on the pants thing.

Halloween 2009...may the force be with you...

Halloween was a lot of fun this weekend. We started Halloween festivities on Friday when our friends Dana and Ryder hosted a halloween preview playdate. Our playdates just get more and more exciting as our babies get older. It was a lot of fun - here's just a snapshot of the chaos.
We tried to get all the kids on the couch for a picture in their costumes but I got no good shots of that. I'm not sure what sort of magic photographer could get 7 16-month-olds who were all overdue for a nap to sit on the couch in costumes at the same time. But I'll be anxious to see what Jaxon or the Weils post!


On Saturday, we made a questionable decision to go to Ikea before trick-or-treating, so our little jedi-master almost napped thru all the daylight trick-or-treating. He finally woke up and i crammed some pasta in his mouth for dinner and got him outside just in time to get a few pics of Joaquin in his Yoda costume before the sun went down.
Tada!

Always two there are...a master and an apprentice....


Here we are on our way to trick or treat. Art held down the fort while Joaquin and I went out. We just hit a handful of houses since I don't really need the candy.

Joaquin was a quick study. After i demo-ed the process at a couple of houses, he took over and would walk up to the door and knock on his own. He eagerly dug into the candy bowls and wouldn't stop grabbing candy until I told him to. Other than the large amount of banana Laffy Taffys he came home with, trick or treating was a success. One of our neighbors had an after-hours party and we had a few more snacks before it was time for bed.

Getting ready for school

Joaquin loves getting ready to go to daycare in the mornings. Except putting a diaper on and getting dressed - that's a daily negotiation. We have a nice morning routine that includes a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, an Eggo waffle and some sort of fruit. While Joaquin eats his breakfast, I pack his little daycare bag. We have a little canvas bag that we bring his sippy cups to daycare in each day. When he sees that bag he gets very excited. When he's finally free from his highchair, he grabs the bag and throws it over his shoulder and heads for the door. He turns around to wave and say 'Bye!' or more accurately, 'Bah!'.

Joaquin takes saying and waving 'Bye' very seriously, and I laugh every time. It requires a stretch from toe to fingertip. His stance is like how you would stand if you were pointing at something really far away - he reaches forward and stands on his tippy toes and reaches his arm out as far as he can. His 'wave' is more like the motion you would make with your hand if you were milking a cow. He sometimes loses his balance when he waves bye because it really requires a lot of coordination.

Anyway, so Joaquin stands at the backdoor ready to go. I usually can finally convince him that we need to put our shoes on, and then he heads right back for the door again. When I open the door, he crawls down the stairs and walks over to the car- with the bag over his shoulder. He has the biggest smile and he is very happy to get in the car and head off to school.

Maybe this is one of those things that only Joaquin's parents will find amusing. Oh well. It's one of the daily pleasures we get and I don't want to forget his funny toddler behavior. I always wonder whether his mannerisms now will stick with him the older he gets.

OK..rambling complete. Thanks for listening. Over and out.

Libby
a.k.a "MAMA!"

Why I may look 5 years older than I did last Sunday....

A lot of you may know that we had a rough week! It started last Monday when Joaquin had a fever so I stayed home from work with him. That afternoon when I was trying to get him to take a nap he had a febrile seizure. At the time, I knew right away that it was a seizure, but didn't know that febrile seizures are fairly common among young kids when they have a fever (and I later learned that I used to get them myself!). I was in a panic and called 911. His seizure lasted no more than 2 minutes. Count off 120 seconds with your child in convulsions and it seemed like an eternity. Paramedics came into the house and made sure he was stable and we headed off to the Emergency Room - my first ambulance ride. We were there for 8 or 9 hours where they gave him an IV, swabbed his nose, throat, took blood and a urine sample, and did chest x-ray. They weren't able to identify any sort of infection or flu in the testing, and just chalked it up to an unknown virus and sent us home.

For the next couple nights we slept with Joaquin in our bed - although he was so sick he wasn't really sleeping and neither were we. If he wasn't on a steady dose of Motrin/Tylenol, his fever would jump back up to 103 or higher. His fever finally got better after 3 or 4 days. Today is Sunday, and he is finally back to his normal activity level.

Joaquin still has a little bruise on his hand and a small dot where the IV tube was placed. He rubs it and looks at it because he knows it doesn't belong - and Joaquin is always very concerned when something is not where it belongs. He sticks his arm out with a whine and we give it a kiss and a gentle rub. We are very thankful that he is healthy and has only a little bruise left from that scary day.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We drove down to Uncle Marc and Aunt Lindsay's today to go to a pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day and it seems like we weren't the only people in Chicagoland who had this idea. Here's me and Joaquin with Uncle Marc and Ryan - and we are ready to conquer.

We did go to a pumpkin patch last year with Joaquin. He was wonderfully slouchy and immobile then.

Today we had to run around like aggressive paparazzi to get a shot.
His favorite place of the day was the gigantic haystack that kids could climb on. This was just a giant tower of haystacks - kids were digging holes in the middle of stacks and creating tunnels - and running around. Now that Joaquin is confidently mobile, we are very aware of how social he is. He will run up to any kid and try his best to keep up with their play. Art was in charge at the haystack, and spent most of his time doing this:


Joaquin was in his element.


Joaquin and I went on a tractor ride and Marc and Ryan were a few cars back. This picture was taken moments after I stole this cow car from a dad and a six-month old baby. That excitement on my face actually the look of victory. I'm not proud of my behavior, but this was another free-for-all at the pumpkin farm. There was no line - and the tractor would just come to a stop, and you just had to fight the crowd for a seat onboard. I was polite the first time, but we quickly learned that being polite would not get you a seat on the train.


And there were pumpkins here too! Here's a few other shots from the day.



Thanks for letting us come along to your pumpkin patch, Ryan!

Fall in the air

It was a very pretty fall like weekend around here!

Joaquin looks like he's really on the move in this picture..In another month or so we won't be able to hang out outside and I'm not sure what we're going to do. We keep trying to show Joaquin how cool TV is...we've tried all the good stuff--Sesame Street, Thomas the train, Elmo...nothing holds his attention. Maybe by the time winter hits something will stick.

And this is pretty typical behavior. Periodically, a bit of dirt or debris becomes troublesome to Joaquin so he will whine and hand it to you.

Potato

It makes me happy that in my life it is perfectly understandable why there's a raw potato next to the fireplace.