Teh!

Nick has an emphatic new word for yes: "Teh!" I think this started yesterday. I'm finding it easier and easier to understand him and he enjoys saying things like "Teh!" and being understood. I really think if you all had been here this morning you would have agreed that he also said, "Mmm, mmm, I yike 'at, mmm, mmm, I yike 'at," when I was pouring his cereal and raisins. I was shocked at the way it sounded exactly like a regular sentence! Then I was shocked again when he said exactly the same sounds again!

We have had a pretty miserable week of sickness and doctors. I'm thankful that Xander's strep throat/scarlet fever doesn't bother him anymore due to the quick-working antibiotic, but our colds are weighing us all down. Xander will be going to school for the first time this week, and it's Friday. Tomorrow we will all go to his soccer game. I hope we make it and don't infect anyone else with cold germs! Yesterday I tried to disinfect everything Xander had touched while he had strep. It took all day! And thinking about how they used to burn everything after scarlet fever, I have my doubts whether I got everything. One thing I did throw away: the "beluga whale" that Xander got attached to. It's the body pillow I used when I was pregnant with Nick and for some reason he adopted it into his bed as a beluga whale. It had to be positioned just right. He was missing it and sad when I told him where it had gone, but the amazing part was he just accepted that it had to go because of the sick germs on it.

We've been transitioning Nick to one nap per day. He was taking two poor ones, or one nice long one in the morning and one short one in the afternoon. But we have to pick up Xander in the middle of a nice long morning nap, so I felt we had to make the transition pretty quickly. He gets up at 7:00 (I wish he would eventually sleep in a little more ;), sits in the car to drop off Xander, sits in the jogging stroller while I run, and then I try to do a little entertaining of him while cleaning a little. We're in the fussy stage (plus he got his 15-month vaccinations a couple days ago, a tooth a couple days before that, and he has a cold and cough), so it's a lot of work to entertain him right now. I've been using signing time videos and Yo, Gabba Gabba! sometimes. He loves to be outside, so that helps. So he's been going to nap at 11:30ish while Xander's been home, but he'll have to make it to 12:15 today since we pick up Xander at 12:00. Then I will try my utmost to keep him in naptime until 3:00, then we have learning activities and outdoor time and more independent playtime. He's been having to go to bed between 5:30 and 6:30 which I dread since there's the chance of him getting up at those times in the morning, but really he's been doing awesome and waking up at about 6:30. Okay, that's not awesome, but it's fine for now and I fully expect him to regularly make it to 7:00 when he's used to the whole thing. He's only 15 months and I kind of wanted the two naps still, but one long one will be better than trying to arrange everything around two short ones.

Erik had a chance to take a week of vacation and he chose this week. Unfortunately it was a rough week around here. He helped me a lot when I was sicker. I'm glad it started out with our birthday celebrations for him, but then there was sickness. He did get to go golfing with Justin one morning but it rained on them almost the whole time. He's been gone two nights at the Hostel in the Forest for some relaxation and reading and shoveling manure on their garden.