Progress

After nearly 48 hours, I think the non-stop talking about being nice, sharing, hugging and kissing instead of hitting and biting is sinking in for Sean. I caught him sharing his afternoon snack with Monkey ("sherr wit ah-ah!"):

Sean lets Monkey have a cracker ("hab it, ah-ah!")

Misbehavin'

It's easy to get taken in by Sean's charm.

Who could resist this toast munchin'...

applesauce slurpin'...

utensil-wielding sweetie pie?But this guy is Trouble.
And he's got the papers to prove it.
Sean bit a friend at school on Thursday. There was a disagreement over a puzzle. Sean wanted to the puzzle and so did his friend.

There was shouting; there was pulling; and Sean ended it by biting his friend. Sean's teacher immediately removed Sean from the situation, gave him a little talking-to, and put Sean in the "Think Corner." Mommy had a chat with the vice-principal about the incident and we talked about ways to promote good behavior and how try to squash unwanted behavior. After the chat, she immediately reminded Mommy that this kind of stuff is just part of toddlerhood and that Sean has in fact, been bitten quite a few times in his short career at the school.

So he's not the first biter and he won't be the last. But we can work on ways to make sure Sean doesn't make this his go-to method of conflict resolution, such as reminding him that biting is not for friends, but for food. Like toast.

Week of Randomness

We've had an upside-down kind of week so far - and it's only Wednesday night!

Monday - President's Day - school was closed, so Mommy stayed home with Sean in the morning and Daddy came home in the afternoon. Sean seemed a little sniffly over the weekend but woke up on Monday with yucky eyes - pink eye again! So, we made our first trek of the year to the pediatrician's. We hadn't been there since December 23 - to get Sean looked at for pink eye (what else?) and because he received a really bad bite from one of his classmates on his back.

Tuesday, Daddy went on a business trip and Mommy took a trip to North Jersey to see her Mommy. Mommy got back in time to pick up Sean from school and go about a semi-normal evening routine. At bedtime, Mommy gave Sean his eye drops - which he was not happy about - causing Sean to curl up into a ball on his changing table saying "Not nice, Mommy!" over and over. Then he called for Daddy repeatedly until Mommy was able to distract him by reading his new favorite book, "Pinocchio."

Today Mommy woke Sean up super-early to take him to school which made him a tad cranky. Luckily he cheered up considerably when he sat down to eat his banana at breakfast. After Daddy got home from his trip and Mommy came back from work, we went out to eat for burritos!

Sean enjoying his own quesadilla:

Back in June 2009 when Sean was about the size of a burrito:

Pepper + weekends

It's nice to hang around the house on weekends. But I think weekends are a mixed bag for Pepper. Although I'm sure he likes having company around, perhaps he starts to get a bit annoyed when we're infringing on his napping-in-the-sun time. Seany can't resist playing with sleeping Pepper:

Inspecting Pepper's toes

"Night-night Pah-pur"

Pretending to give Pepper a cookie

Playing

Spending the winter inside with a toddler is a lot different than spending the winter inside with an infant. We've been spending a lot of time playing (or "pie" as Sean says) in the den/family room/play room, reading, crafting and playing. Some of our most recent activities include:

Putting toy spiders from our Halloween craft in "hyme ow" (time out) in the racecar:Adding to the animal collage - Daddy has a nature day-by-day calendar at work and each day he brings home a picture of a different animal for Sean to look at. We save the pictures and on the weekend, Mommy cuts out the animals and Sean "gooz" (glues) them on the paper. This weekend we embellished the collage with some festive stickers, as well:

Of course, Sean is always up for playing with his trucks. He especially loves to run laps around the room with the big truck - running over "cuhlgurs" (crayons), books, and whatever other unfortunate objects are in his way (even Mommy):

Happy Valentine's Day!

Playdough!

Sean plays with Play-doh at school quite often. Apparently back in Toddler A, Sean liked to eat the stuff, but now in Toddler B he knows that Play-Doh is for playing, not eating. After playing outside this morning (hooray for balmy 40 degree weather!), we came inside and mommy whipped up a batch of homemade playdough and Sean got to work:

Cutting out trees:

Sean likes to sing while he works: "Doo doo doo doo dooo...."Ninny the cat:

Squeeze!

It was time to call it quits when Sean discovered that Pepper also likes to eat playdough and Sean started throwing handfuls of dough under the table. Yeesh - what a team these two make.

Pepper Go Home

After daycare Thursday night, I couldn't move Sean from the foyer - he was too interested in going through Mommy's purse and playing with Pepper:

And introducing Sean's cinematography debut:

Riding!

Sean loves his rocking horse - it used to be Daddy's!

He even lets his friends go for rides:

...and he lets them ride under the horse, too.

28 Weeks!

And so begins the third trimester! I'm feeling pretty good except for demonic hip pain that started up early last week. I've been trying to combat it by walking, doing some prenatal yoga moves, and sitting with a heating pad, but I think the only thing that will make the pain go away is to have the baby. Which neither the baby nor Mommy and Daddy are quite ready for just yet. I got to the doctor on Monday, so hopefully he can help me out a bit.

Monday's appointment will be a doozy - the one-hour glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Ick. Yuck. Blech. I am not looking forward to that. Hopefully I pass and won't have to take the three-hour test in a few weeks.

Other than the hip pain, I'm feeling good. Huge like a Thanksgiving Day float, but good. I know I'm carrying differently than I did with Sean because all the tops I wore with Sean are way too short. And the maternity pants I wore with Sean are still loose around the waist. There are two pairs of non-maternity pants in my closet that still fit - they're big pants - but they fit and they're office pants, so that's a major plus. Although I would prefer to wear yoga pants and running clothes everyday.

Another difference between Little Sister and Sean's pregnancies is that I have not felt her hiccup - at all. Sean was a hiccuping champ at this point, but this little girl would rather constantly push her feet up through my ribs, so I guess that's a fair trade? According to the books, Little Sister is also practicing blinking and making breathing movements. She should be about 2.5 or 3 pounds and measure about 16 inches long - the size of a Chinese cabbage. Here's what she looks like from the outside:

We're starting to talk to Sean more about his sister (tister?) and where she is and what she's doing. Last night, when I was taking him out of his carseat, Sean accidently hit my belly. I told Sean to be nice to Sister and he leaned over and gave my belly a loud kiss (kiss tister!) and a big hug. Nice!

Hopefully another signal that things are changing is that we moved Sean into a new bedroom! We're hoping to have the babies to sleep in the same room, but Sean's room was too small for two babies, so we swapped the guest room and the nursery. Sean didn't seem to notice or care that he's in a new room, but maybe he'll get curious when a second crib shows up?

Lemon Love

It lives on!

"More?"