Theo's new indoor shoes

Theo has a pair of hand-me-down soft shoes with elephants on them. He is about to outgrow them. This afternoon we got him a bigger, new pair of soft shoes (Robeez) with monkey faces on them. They are red and very, very cute. We also want to get him a pair of rubber soled shoes for the rainy weather and using outdoors, but no one ever seems to have his size. We'll just wait for the next shipment to come in and then get him some. Maybe by then his feet will grown. Right now he's too big for a size 4, but the size 5 shoes seem to have tons of growing room. The shoes we like are from a company called See Kai Run. They are soft enough to let his feet feel the ground, but sturdy enough to use for walking outside and in water! We'll keep you updated on any shoe purchases (boring, right?).

I wondered when this would happen...

Theo loves to open and close the washer door and look inside. Luckily the washer door locks when we're actually using it or I'm sure I'd always be cleaning up water. I heard a funny noise in the kitchen and came in there to find him throwing his tiny, red basketball into the washer. I had actually wondered when he would start putting toys in there. I'll have to make a mental note to always check inside before I throw clothes in. I wouldn't want to wash something that would fall apart!

So now he likes the water?

Theo had a birthday playdate with some of our La Leche League friends and our new friends, Michele and Lucas who just moved here from California. He had a great time watching Ruby, Matthias, and Sam play in the spray park. He acually wandered over there himself and played in the water. This was a shock to me because Andy and I took him there a few weeks ago and he hated it! Today he played in the water for about 20 minutes, loved it, and got completely soaked! I guess turning one means that you can start liking big kid things!

We're getting there

Slowly, but surely the house painting is being accomplished. Mom and Dad came up to help us again this weekend (thank you so much!!!). All of the main house color is on and the window trims are about 50% finished. We'll do our best to finish it up this week before Andy goes back to work all the time. We can always work on it on evenings and weekends for a while if we need to. It's been fun and the change is dramatic. I love driving up to our cheerful house (it was pretty dark and drab before). I'll keep updating you on our progress! Here is Dad and Andy finishing the last bit of yellow paint!

Rory and Theo take a ride on a rocket!

Rory is playing at our house for a while today. She is a month older (and a head taller) than Theo! They have had a lot of fun playing with his new rocket ship.

Naked bathrobe boy and other recent tales

Here is Theo in the starring role of our new production of Naked Bathrobe Boy. Nightly showings here at our house at 9pm! (the picture is kindof fuzzy...he runs so fast!)

We are attempting to nightwean Theo and know that a good bedtime routine will be helpful. I give him a bath around 8:30 or 9:00, read him a story, and nurse him in his rocking chair in his room until he is almost asleep. Then I lay him in his crib and do the back pat/shush routine until he's out. We started doing this on Monday night, so I guess it's only been 3 days. It normally takes about 10-30 minutes for him to be completely asleep. That's just the bedtime part. The nightweaning is a whole different process.

Supposedly it will take about 10 days for Theo to confidently sleep without nursing for most of the night. To be completely honest, he's been doing this on his own for a few months, but I want to make sure that it isn't always my fallback option. Here's the plan:

Days 1, 2, 3 Do whatever we normally do as our bedtime routine

From 11pm-6am, nurse him only to drowsy (not to sleep), pat him, and shush

him to sleep. Only offer him mamamilk if he's gone to sleep and woken up again.

At 6:01 (and any time after that), do whatever we normally do during the day

(ex: nurse him to sleep, nap with him in our bed, whatever, etc.)

Days 4, 5, 6 Do the same as days 1, 2, 3 except don't nurse him this time........we're supposed to

start this part tomorrow. I'm not sure how it will work, but I'll give it a shot. I'm

perfectly fine if days 1,2, 3 last for a while. I don't mind nursing him at night, but I

am just struggling with nursing him in our bed at night now that I'm pregnant.

My arms fall asleep, I have to worry about him falling off the bed, and I'm tired!

Days 7, 8, 9, 10 Do the same as the other nights, but don't pick him up. We can pat his back,

shush him, sing to him, etc. but we are supposed to have him stay in his bed.

We'll keep you posted! Oh, for more info on this, go to Dr. Jay Gordon's website. He has some very interesting ideas and I think that his methods are very sensitive to the changing needs of little kids. I know that Theo is small for such a short time and I don't want my temporary discomfort to overshadow a real need on his part. I just want him to be developing good, long-term sleep habits that give him plenty of restful, restorative sleep.

That's enough of all that! It's 10:00 and I have to go get myself ready for bed.

House painting and early celebrating

Some friends from BCS and our parents came to help us get started on our house painting. The hardest part was all of the scraping and sanding that had to be done before we could put on the primer. The house is now (after 2 days of very hard work and a lot of fun together) completely primed and the smallest side of the house is almost completely painted. We'll keep working on it and finish it at some point. It actually goes pretty quickly now that we're painting the actual color. It rained on Saturday night and Sunday, so we took a break from painting. Sunday was Theo's early birthday party! Our families were already in town, so we thought we'd celebrate a week early. Jim and Michelle and the kids and friends from here in Bellingham came to the shindig. Theo took a long morning nap and was well rested when everyone came. He, of course, didn't really get the whole present thing, but Deryck and Ashley helped him get his toys out of the bag and showed him how they work. We were given some really beautiful plants to make a birthday garden and will plant them later on this week. We want to finish that side of the house first. I don't want to get paint on newly planted plants. After the party our families went with us to Busara for Thai food. We had gone there with our parents while I was in labor (that's what we're doing in that picture where I have my hair in braids), so it was fun to go there to celebrate Theo's birthday. His actual birthday is a week from today. Here are a few pictures from the last few days.

More Walking!!

This is for my mom (Sarah's). She hasn't seen Theo in a month and has watched the other walking video wayyyyyy too many times! Sorry that it's a little dark. It's 8:30pm.

Our friends Heidi and John got married today! It was especially cool since John was in our wedding 7 years ago. Our anniversary is tomorrow! It was so great to see them take this huge step. Unfortunately, because of church and the wedding, Theo decided not to take any naps (he took two 15minute snoozes). He was a barrel of laughs at the wedding :~}

He alternated between fussing, walking, and charming everyone. My favorite part of the evening was when he decided to confidently walk from table to table (with us about 10 feet away) and smile at everyone. People would look at him, smile at him, and then look around thinking, "Where are this kid's parents??"

Enjoy the walking video