Dorian's World

It's been awhile since I posted pictures of Dorian's "things." I bought some lovely African things for his room in London at Camden Market. We bought a lot of new items for him at the White Elephant Sale last month. You may recall we bought most of our baby items there last year. It's this awesome sale the Oakland Museum puts on every year - incredible secondhand items for dirt cheap. This year's finds for Dorian included:

wooden table & chair
easle/chalkboard
legos
art supplies
magnets for the fridge
wooden ABC tool & math tool
books, lots of books
potty training toilet (we plan to train him in May when James returns from tour, right before I hopefully start school and when Dori is 18 months old)

We moved his room around when we returned from England. We broke down the crib and he now sleeps on the mattress on the floor. We put up the tent set his Nanna and Granta bought him for Christmas. We made sure everything was at this level. The whole room is completely safe for him. Actually, the whole house is. We were inspired by our friends Kate and Nathalie who did the same for their children (it's the Montessori way), so we've pretty much had it completely safe for him since he started crawling around.

We have started "locking" him in his room for naps and nighttime (only done this at night tonight). We're trying to get him to fall asleep on his own in his room. He now naps for 3 hours in his room! He sometimes plays a bit first, and turns his music machine on and off quite frequently. We're going to buy him his own little CD/radio player soon so he can learn how to use a real one. He loves music so much. He does cry himself to sleep quite often, but he can do it. Today for his nap, he fell asleep curled up in a ball by the door. It was very sweet. But tonight, he managed to get himself into his bed! He cried for almost an hour and was at the door for much of that hour, but he got into bed to sleep!!! He is getting so much better at sleeping! We're going to be there really soon. And his development has been amazing the past month. He is so grown-up.

Have a look at his world (the tidiness is not just me - he does put his books, crayons and blocks away and we're working on the rest).










A trip around his room...

Dori currently loves...

Feeding himself with utensils.
Drawing.
Sitting at his new (secondhand - $8!) table - he can even get on to and out of the chair himself, even though it's still a bit big for him.
Playing in his new playhouse - it was a team effort. Kelly brought the box home from work; James cut out the door and windows. We plan to help Dorian decorate it next week-end.
Bye for now, folks!

Fabulous Day

Dorian slept wonderfully last night! Down at 7pm - even put himself to sleep. I lay next to him but he didn't need cuddles or anything. He just slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep. He slept until around 12 or so, then came out of his room and climbed into bed with me. Okay, I had to pull him up into bed but he's so close to being able to climbing in...then I won't need to wake up at all during the night. He fell right back asleep as soon as he got into bed with us. Then he slept straight through until just before 6am. A little early, but we'll take it!

I let James sleep in this morning and fed Dori breakfast and played with him for about an hour. As soon as there was a break in the heavy rain we've been having, I took Dorian on a very long walk and to two sessions of Gymboree. By the time we returned home, it was lunchtime. The three of us ate together which was nice - we haven't been able to do much of this lately. Dori's lunch was followed by an unusual midday bath - he insists on feeding himself right now, which we think is a very good thing, but it does mean mealtimes are very, VERY messy. He got chocolate ice cream EVERYWHERE. Yes, even there. I don't know how he managed to do it. After his bath, James got him down for his nap and he slept for THREE hours, uninterrupted!!!! Maybe we should do a bath before nap time every day? Nah, it was more likely the previous night's sleep (remember, sleep begets sleep!)

Then we took him to our friend Renee's house so she could watch him while James and I interviewed at a preschool from 4:30-6:30 (more on that another time). Apparently, Dori was great. The other toddler, Rowan, wasn't too happy with Dori trying to play with all his toys but Dor was a champ and took the bullying like a pro. Then we came home, fed him dinner, and James put him to bed so I could try to get a bit of schoolwork done today. It took longer this evening. James said Dori kept being close to falling asleep so he would get up to leave the bedroom and would find Dorian just behind him, practically sleepwalking (or "sleep following") him. He did this a few times before finally Dori stayed asleep in his bed around 8pm. Fingers crossed! We seem to be having more good nights than bad now (last night was definitely the best yet).

I had the best day with Dorian because I was rested and he was rested. I love days like these. Love them! I feel renewed. I love being a mom! Boy, motherhood brings out the bipolar streak, doesn't it?

Just look at our happy, rested, little chocolate-loving guy (what's not to love?):

What a difference a year makes!

The below pics were all taken one year ago this week.

Is this not the cutest child you've ever seen?

Eating out.

Eating at home.


Playing at Gymboree.




Playing with his friend Ethan.



Aren't Ethan and his dog so cute? I can't wait for Dori to have a puppy soon (my parents are getting another dog).

role reversal

So, I just tried a new appraoch to nap time. Given he loves to copy what I'm doing (computer, writing, dishes, playing guitar etc), I thought I would pretend to fall asleep. In his room, I lay on the bed and gave an oscar-worthy performance complete with yawns; tossing and turning; and, ultimately, snoring. It was more like a coma really. I 'slept' through Dorian sticking his fingers up my nose, hitting me on the head, shouting at me and tickling my toes. Eventually, he realized I wasn't going to be woken. He went over to his music box and started his bedtime music. Then he bought a book to the bed and sat up with it on his lap, 'reading' aloud. Next he gently put his face next to mine and then finally he left the room! It was amazing. It's 2:30pm and he still hasn't taken a nap but I feel ready for one!

So many changes!

Alright, I cave. I have been on strike for the past week because this blog is supposed to be more of James' responsibility now that I'm back at work and in school (and because this blog was started for the benefit of his family in England). However, to be fair, I never actually told him this. :D Plus, he was away all week-end with the band and now he has the cold I had last week. So, we'll let him slide this time. Poor guy had an allergic reaction to DayQuil on top of the cold yesterday - he was covered in itchy, swollen hives. No fun.

Dorian has now been off the boobs for 9 days! The changes in him have been incredible. I wish I had weaned him months ago. Actually, no, I wish I had never nursed him at all (not really, but oh my god, he is a different kid now). He is starting to sleep for the first time. We had a 5 hour stretch last night...in his own bed!!! Then he woke up and came running to our bed so I pulled him into bed with us and cuddled him and he fell right back asleep for the rest of the night! No milk or cottage cheese or anything during the night for the past few nights. And...wait for it...he took a 3 hour nap today with no interruptions. This is huge! He went down easily tonight too - no crying.

The sleep changes are AWESOME and hopefully will be here to stay. But the biggest changes have been developmentally. He has turned into a different child over the past couple weeks. He is talking like crazy! Most of it jibberish, but still. He is talking ALL THE TIME and he obviously thinks he's saying something because he'll talk while he's pointing to things or in response to something we've said or when he wants something. It is incredible. He was in the BEST MOOD EVER today. Seriously, no crying, no tantrums, just a happy, happy, happy child. If he was like that all the time, I wouldn't have been so eager to return to work. I could easily be a stay-at-home mom with a kid like he was today. It was a total change.

He is dancing to music all the time now. He starts bopping his head when we read any rhyming books. He giggles. He is very cheeky. He knows when he does something he shouldn't be doing because he always looks over at us, waits for us to say "no" and then chuckles hysterically. He roots around in the fridge and picks out what he wants to eat for every meal (he always picks healthy stuff - his favorite foods at the moment incluce any kind of fruit, avocados, cottage cheese, cream cheese, fruit-flavored yogurt, broccoli, Weetabix cereal, waffles, pancakes, ice cream, and tofu). He can almost feed himself with utensils...he can do it, but we still have to put the food on them usually. He can hold ice cream bars and eat them on his own. He can drink out of his sippy cup or a small cup with a straw on his own. He draws (scribbles) using pens and crayons. He loves playing with playdough. He plays the recorder beautifully, and of course, still loves to play his piano and guitar. He "reads" to himself and to us all the time. He loves spending time with his grandparents and will happily spend the whole day with them - no separation anxiety or mama's boy anymore. He gives us hugs, kisses and high fives depending on which one we verbally request. He understands so much now. He points to his nose and mouth, and to ours. He sings. He has moved up a level in Gymboree. He is the smartest one, even though he's the youngest. Seriously! There are things they have the kids do and he gets it before the others do. It's amazing. He also always wants to be the first to do things and he watches the teacher quite often, even when he should be sitting down with the other kids (see the pic below). He climbs up stairs and ladders and goes down slides. He is very serious when he is learning something new. You can tell he is really thinking about things. He is obsessed with my dad. He cries when he leaves, much like the way he used to cry when I left (he doesn't cry when I leave anymore, only when my dad does!) He loves James' shoes and feet for some reason and was desperate to get James' Docs on today. There are so many things I know I'm forgetting to mention. He is just such a grown-up boy now!!