Sept. 25/04 It's been another busy week. John has started at Angela's house (the babysitter). On Tuesday, he didn't cry when I took him there, however, got a time-out for bupping the baby, Luke. When I asked him why he had a timeout, he replied, "No bup baby". He didn't want to go there on Wednesday. From the minute he woke up he said, grandma!. I said, "No, we're going to Angela's house". He said, "No Angela's house." I had to pry him from my leg and hand him to Angela. He was absolutely fine a few minutes later, but managed to give himself a black eye by running into her coffee table. When I asked him what happened, he answered, "Bup eye table, Angela's house." Anyways, it's going to take him a while to get used to this babysitter thing. Thanks very much to Uncle Brad and Auntie Cathy for the fisher price zoo. He loves to play with animals and is enjoying them very much. Uncle Wade, Auntie Cindy and Marla got John a sea turtle and reef fish stuffies. He seems to like them. He's still obsessed with these animals! Yesterday, John went to his first real birthday party. He was convinced I was leaving him there so clung to me for a while. Then he started to enjoy playing with the toys. He didn't like when the twins' grandparents arrived dressed like clowns. This scared him. He's also not used to having so many people around making so much noise. This kind of freaked him out. And then when they brought out a Nemo cake (reef fish), he didn't want to cut it apart. He cried again! All these traumas of being 2! Next weekend is John's party. I decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches, because these are John's favourite and maybe some kraft dinner. Mom's making a sea turtle birthday cake and cupcakes, in case John won't let anybody cut apart the cake! You never know! Sept. 11/04 I'm back to work and John is pretty much settled into his new routine. He's still going to bed way too late, but hopefully by the time daylight savings time ends, he'll be in bed by 8:00. The newest craze is sea turtle. He says it a thousand times a day. We have electronic flashcards on the DVD for Baby Einstein and we have to watch it constantly. He also likes the reef fish and the dolphin. He fixates on something and will drive you crazy with it. Today we went to Ivan's house to see the animals. He's become much braver with dogs and horses too I might add. He didn't want to stay in the house, but go constantly to see the horsey! He loved the trampouline too, but it made me very nervous! You have to move constantly to prevent him from falling off! A couple of weeks back, mom and I took John to the fall fair. He loved the animals there too! His interests are pretty much playing outside, Andrew's jeep, sea turtle, his cars, trucks and trains, and his kitties. He can say Callie now and it was cute the other morning when he said "Sea turtle Callie!" He was showing her the sea turtle. He also gives her his little plastic toy animals to play with. She accepts the toy rats and mice quite readily and has also been seen carrying away his snake in her mouth! Aug. 18/04 It's just about the end of summer. I can't believe how fast it flew by. The weather never really did get hot this year. Today felt like a true fall day and it's supposed to get down to about 4 degrees tonight! John's busy, busy as usual. His eye teeth are dropping down a little more this week, so he's been a little "testy" at times. He really likes playing with playdough right now and I spend all my time making little kitties or balls or something else with the playdough so he can squish them. He's trying so hard to say so many words. They are starting to sound like conventional words now and he can link them together...ie. blue ouf (Blue dog) or daddy seepy (daddy sleepy). He's turned into a real mom's suck over the summer and is going to have a serious awakening soon. We are supposed to go and visit with our babysitter Angela next week. She is going to take John at her home daycare a couple of mornings a week to give mom a break from babysitting and to help John with socializing and getting used to more caregivers. She's a wonderful lady and it's great because Lhea, our friends' little girl also goes to the same sitter. She and John play very well together (usually). Mom made John a very sweet quilt for his bed. It is a city with roads and airports and vehicles. He likes to look at the pictures and point to the various items with his usual (ah?- what is it?) It's a beautiful green colour and she backed it with flannel so it's very cozy. We have to go to grandma's just about everyday, because he bugs me about it until we do...he'll say gramma, oo oo ah ah...he wants to go to grandma's and watch his monkey show. August 6/04 We just got back from John's pediatric cardiologist app't in Winnipeg. It was a super app't. To begin with, John fell asleep in the car on the way to the app't. When we arrived, we suggested that they echo him right away because he was sleeping and if left to wake up, he would freak out. So the cardiologist echoed him while I held him on my lap on the table. It was an awkward position for me, but the doctor was fast and John stayed asleep. The doc said his pulmonary valve leaks (all repairs do), but that he shouldn't need any surgical intervention for a long time. We don't have to go back for 3 years now! This made our day! John was a overall very good on the trip. He was content for the most part in the car and we made good use of the portable DVD player to keep him entertained. He loved the ball pit at the playland in McDonald's in Kenora. He also loved the escalators at the mall, the "shower" pool and the kittens for sale at petland. We took him to the zoo as well, however, I swear he liked the kittens at petland more! He did love the little jeep we rented at the zoo to push him around. He is totally obsessed with vehicles - buses and jeeps the most! At night now, he likes to hold his little bus while he's going to sleep. This isn't the cuddly lovey I would have imagined him holding, but hey, if he goes to sleep, bonus! He went to sleep really easily in the hotel and even went down for a nap without too much complaining. We were glad to get home and John really wanted to go to Grandma's and watch oo oo ah ah - his einstein world animals movie! He's talking more and more everyday and No is quickly becoming his favourite response to any question - especially "Do you want to brush your teeth?" or "Is it night-night time?". He shakes his head and says "no". Can't blame him. It's still really hard figuring out what he'll eat. He's just so scared to try anything new. He loved the banana crepes at the restaurant this morning. He wouldn't try the whipped cream though! - silly boy. © 2004 Derek Kennedy

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