Family Fuller

Chuck and I went out for the first time since we have been back to Seattle. We found a local high school student to baby sit on Friday night. I kept Colin up all day so he would go to sleep easily for her. He usually sleeps about 2 hours in the afternoon and it was a struggle to keep him up but he was pretty good natured the whole time. Once we put him to bed he literally feel asleep in about 20 seconds. The baby sitter said Holden cried a bit and she rocked him but all in all it was easy. We went out to dinner at a local pub and then down to our old haunt Fremont for some dessert. Fremont is so different I couldn’t even tell where I was half the time. It was definitely nice to get out though - we are hoping to make it a regular thing.

Other than that we haven’t done all the much this weekend - it has been raining the whole time (and pretty cold, in the low 50s.) Yesterday we had to be out of our house for awhile so our landlords could show it to new renters. We went to a new coffee shop that had lots of toys which Colin loved, then to the toy store where Colin found a cool little red fire truck. Today we had a very unsuccessful trip to the mall - just couldn’t find what we wanted. Chuck’s feet are too big and they didn’t have any shoes in his size. My feet are average size and all the shoes I wanted were sold out. The boys have been very agreeable and well behaved all weekend - it’s been great!

I always have these random things Colin said or Holden did and they just don’t seem to fit anywhere in the story of what we have been up to so I am starting a “Tidbit” section at the end of posts so I can remember all these cute and funny things.

Tidbits:

• Colin’s pronunciation of some words:
  • “Com-pee-ter” = Computer
  • “mech-che-ches” = Messages, as in “why do you need to use the computer?” Colin “I need to check my mech-che-ches”
  • “steep-e” = steep, as in “wow Mommy, this is a steep-e hill” any time we drive around here
• Holden’s mysterious spit-ups - we will hear and see Holden spit up but then we can’t find it anywhere. The other day he spit up while I was holding him. Both Chuck and I heard it hit the floor and I swear I looked and wiped up for 2 or 3 minutes and I just could not find it.
• Holden’s had little rug burnt knees from army crawling on the carpet
• Colin was rocking in a little rocking chair at the coffee shop and he said “Look mommy I am rocking”, to which I replied “yep, you are just rocking away.” He looked at me with confusion and said “No I’m not I’m staying right here.”
• Here is a little video of our backyard tennis lessons:
• Here is another video of Colin naming the first 11 or so presidents (I had to put this one up especially for Lighthouse Grandma, who will really love the end). I should note that during this video I have Colin’s presidential place mat and Colin keeps looking up at the computer screen watching himself because we were recording with the webcam.

If this blog is going to be a good and true chronicle of our parenting life then I guess I have to include the bad with the good, and right now I could use a way to express my frustration with my 3 year old.

I will start by saying that most (well maybe half these days) of the time Colin is a great and incredibly fun child. However recently he has times when he is just a little terror. This morning (a day off from preschool) I told him he had to get dressed, he said no. I told him he could stay in his PJs for 10 more minutes then he had to get dressed. Ten minutes later he refused. I said we can do this the easy way (you help me change your clothes) or the hard way ( I change them for you). He chose the hard way. He screamed and kicked and I took him to his room to cool off. I shut the door and he just starts screaming “Open the door. Open it now. NOW!! OPEN IT!! MOMMY DON’T CLOSE THE DOOR - I WANT IT OPEN NOW!!!” Then he proceeds to scream and cry and throw things around his room. Holden is also crying at this point. It takes all my will to not just open and door and start screaming at Colin. The throwing things becomes too much so I go in, put him on his bed and tell him throwing and screaming isn’t acceptable, he must sit here for 3 minutes. I leave to deal with Holden.

He sits there but then gets up and continues to scream and cry - but at least he isn’t throwing things. After I have Holden calmed down a bit I go back to see him and tell him if he is ready he can get dressed now. He starts screaming again. At this point I just feel guilty and I hate to see his little body heave and cry. I feel like crying. I leave until he is ready to come out. Finally he does and we talk calmly about it, he goes to get clothes and gets dressed. This is about 30-40 minutes later. However he is still upset and still a bit weepy. Now I feel really guilty. I hold him on the couch (all while still trying to deal with Holden - oh and on the phone about the whole house/inspection/contract issues that keep coming up). Finally at 11 AM he just falls asleep on me - very weird as he normally doesn’t take a nap until about 1:30. Then Holden falls asleep on me too.

This is a pretty typical morning, although today was particularly bad. Colin generally refuses and says “No” to pretty much everything I suggest, even while doing it. I say “OK, time to go to preschool.” - “No I don’t want to go to preschool” - “Colin we are going, its fun - let’s put your shoes on” - “No, I don’t want to put my shoes on (while he is walking to the door to get them and putting his coat on)” He automatically says “No” even if he wants to do something.

He is so defiant I sometimes wonder if something is wrong. Granted, he is 3, very smart and our lives have been in complete turmoil for the past 2-3 months and he has a semi-new baby brother. Still, it is so hard to deal with - you just never know if you are going to get ornery/grumpy Colin or really fun, happy Colin. I am usually exhausted by the end of the day.

Any older (and wiser) parents out there are free to tell me this ends at some point and that all kids go through this Or current parents can tell me they are in the same situation….uh oh, he is awake…got to run.

The first day of preschool for Colin was not really representative of how the past week of school has gone. I have tried to take him back a couple of times and leave and he freaked out. Screaming “Don’t go. Take me home, I want to go home.” He also keeps saying he doesn’t want to go. The teacher thought it would be best if I stayed so that is what I did today - dragging poor Holden along with me. We stayed and just sat in the library area. Colin probably talked to me 2 times in 2 hours, so he obviously didn’t really need me there, but he wanted to know I was around. One time when he couldn’t see me he laid on the ground and started crying, but I went and reassured him I was there.

I wanted to just leave, because I figured he would get over it, but the teacher said that they way he was “shrieking” when I was going to leave wasn’t good for him or the class. I am not so sure about that, but I will try it her way a few days and then I might have to just go - like a band aid, one motion, right off.

Other items-

Chuck was using the magnetic writing toy the other day, spelling words and Colin would read them. Like Dog, Cat, Colin, Holden, etc. Then Colin says “Daddy write ‘philharmonic’” - keep in mind the toy is about 5 inches across and the word “Colin” barely fits.

Holden made his way completely across the room today in an army crawl/roll motion. He is close to really crawling - I just hope he holds off until we are in our new house.

We had the inspection on our new house and a few minor issues came up. There are other issues we already knew about - knob and tube wiring, old plumbing, etc. We are getting some estimates to fix the problems but we don’t think it will stop the sale of the house or anything.

The house is located in an area called Loyal Heights, which is just north of Ballard in North Seattle. It is just a couple blocks away from Colin’s preschool and elementary school. It has 3 bedrooms/2 baths, with a partial basement and great yard. Here are some pictures:

This is looking down the street facing south. Our house is down across from the white car.
;

The front yard (I just realized I didn’t take a picture of the whole front of the house)

The front porch and side yard

The living room from the front door - notice the mirror over the fireplace, just like in our A2 house.

The dining room off the living room

The kitchen - kind of an awkward, long shape - but it has a dishwasher!!!

Basement family room. The water heater and washer/dryer are to the right.

Basement shop/storage room.

Colin and the backgammon game.

Colin’s room/office off the kitchen. We are hoping that Colin and Holden might want to share a room in a little while, then we can have an office.

Hallway that comes off Colin’s room.

The boys bathroom

Holden’s room

Hall to our room

Our room

Our bathroom

Backyard and garage - I didn’t get to take any more pictures because the boys were falling apart at this point in the inspection (see next photo after the backyard)

They were both so tired by the end that they both fell asleep - Colin right on the floor

We are very excited to move in - probably in mid/end of October.

Holden is going to be 7 months old tomorrow - he seems much older to me. He has always seemed older. He looks like a pretty big boy, but he is really just in the 60% for weight and height. He has always seemed to be very aware of his surroundings just like Colin.

“Being cute is a full time job”

He can sit up now for quite awhile - really as long as it takes for him to notice something and flop down to get it. He scoots around pretty well - a combination of army crawl/role to his side squirm. He seemed to find his tongue yesterday morning and has been really into sticking it out lately. He also discovered he can bang things, which he loves to do in his high chair.

Eating has been going so-so. He will eat a few bites of cereal but then just wants to whack the spoon around. He loves sweet potatoes and will usually eat a whole bowl of those. Cheerios used to be a favorite but they have lost their luster in the past couple days.

Sleeping is alright. He goes to bed pretty well and then wakes up once a night - started at 4 am but it has slowly been getting earlier and earlier, so last night he was up at 12:30 and then 5 AM. What a sneaky little guy.

He is having some pretty bad separation anxiety, only from me. While I go to preschool with Colin on Friday mornings he stays with a nanny and that has not been going well. She said he pretty much cried for 3 hours today…ugh.

He still gives the sweetest smiles - it makes you feel like the most special person in the world when he smiles at you.

New fleece vest - do we live in Seattle now or what?

We had our inspection yesterday - I will put up a full house post with pictures tomorrow!

Today started out great - it was Colin’s 1st real day at preschool. I dropped him off at 9, told him I was leaving and he put out his cheek for me to give him a kiss. That was that. Holden and I came home, got a little work done and read Dr. Seuss’s ABCs. Holden loves that book. He will sit and listen to it without grabbing (well not grabbing that much). We went to pick Colin up and got there a bit early, enough to see him coming in from the playground:

He is holding the teacher’s hand - already schmoozing. Apparently he had a great time. One parent said he got a bit sad at one point and just sucked his thumb for awhile - which he does at home too. We got some lunch and came home. He was in a great mood. Then he wouldn’t take a nap and he had his 3 year check up at 2:30.

What a huge mistake to schedule a doctor appt. in the middle of nap time. I cannot even explain how difficult he was - his worst behavior in a long, long time. He screamed bloody murder for about 20 minutes. Didn’ t want to get weighed, measured, ears looked at, eyes, etc. The doctor and nurse were trying to be so nice and he was SO stubborn. That is normal for him, he won’t give in no matter how nice people are to him. It was terrible. Then we got into the car and this was him a few minutes later:

Both boys fell asleep and so I went and parked and got out my knitting. Sat an knitted for about 45 minutes with a great view (thanks to Kristin for the great idea!):

After Colin’s nap we headed downtown to get me a TB test for preschool and then picked up daddy. Colin was really happy after his nap and a delight the rest of the night.

In other news, we found a house, made an offer and it was accepted! It is a great place, two blocks from preschool, ranch style - all bedrooms on one floor yeah! As a huge, and unexpected, bonus it has a second bathroom off the master bedroom. Our inspection is Thursday, hopefully everything will go a bit better this time around.

Check out Chuck’s post below - we have video!

Since I promised my Mom we’d start in on this, I wanted to be sure to start adding some video to the blog. In this one Colin decides that Daddy is much more talented than he really is (not that I’m going to challenge him on it, for now):

Colin’s love of Mozart has now moved him onto Beethoven. He will routinely request “the basses one” - which is Beethoven’s 5th. He really loves the very beginning so I keep having to start it over and over again. We must have listened to it 15 times this morning. He also loves Moonlight Sonata. He requests this over and over as well. We probably listened to it 20 times yesterday in the short car rides we were on, and it is a bit of a downer so it can get to you after awhile. Once he is done with the Beethoven he asks to hear “Ein Kleine Nachtmusik” - said just like that.

I pretty much know nothing about classical music. I could recognize songs but could not even ventured a guess about who wrote them. Because of Colin I am getting to know a lot more. Like his preschool teacher says “They teach us more than we teach them.” Which is very true because a year ago I could not have told you any moons of Jupiter or who was the 11th president of the United States.

On that note….Colin hates to wear pants these days. Whenever we get home from somewhere he immediately takes them off. He is always walking around in a diaper. He is also fighting his naps, but it is hard for him to make it all day without one. Just now I put him to bed and he comes to his door “I need my pants so I can be cozy to go to bed.” So I let him out to get them and he says he also needs his 2 cars and his violin. He goes back to his room and says he needs a lot of hugs and kisses, so I give him hugs and kisses. Then he says “It’s too dark to sleep.” I reply “It’s daytime, it’s not dark.” Colin “It’s too light to sleep” Me: “I think it is OK” Colin “It’s too cloudy to sleep” - I had to walk away from that one. We will see how long he lasts in there. Man oh man is the day long when Colin doesn’t take a nap.

Today is Colin’s 3rd birthday - I can’t believe he is already 3. Now he can legally play with all his “3+” toys he has already been playing with for a year

We started the birthday day by dropping Holden off at this woman’s house that I am doing a nanny share with for the days I work at the preschool. I will be working every Friday, so myself and 2 other woman share a nanny for 3 hours to watch our younger ones. Then it was off to another slow start day of preschool. Colin seems much more comfortable there. He started at the sand table but then migrated back to the science area again. Then he went to the “Block area” to build a dinosaur museum “like the one they have in New York.” He was so busy he completely forgot to even go to the snack table. Tuesday will be the big test, that is when I drop him off by himself.

We went to pick up Holden and apparently he didn’t do that well - cried for 45 minutes. He has a bit of separation anxiety right now. He was fine for the first 15 minutes until he realized I was gone. I am sure it will get better over time.

Next we went to the grocery store - QFC, Colin always insists we go there because they have kiddie shopping carts, which he kept loosing all over the store. We got some more cake decorating supplies (M&Ms) for Colin’s second birthday cake. Then we went to McDonalds for a little birthday lunch, of course Colin only really wants the french fries and apple juice.

Later, I baked the cake while both Holden and Colin decided they were not going to take naps. We went out to dinner at Zeek’s to get some pizza, both boys behaved wonderfully and it was a good time. We stopped on the street for about 15 mintues to listen to a little music trio play - Colin loved that.

We had cake and presents, of which Colin’s favorite was a lighthouse Thomas train track that Grandma and Grandpa Fuller sent him. Colin has started calling them the “lighthouse grandma and grandpa.” He brought the lighthouse in his room that night and just played and played - you can tell how much he loves it by how we found him around 10PM:

In fact this morning when he got up he didn’t immediately come and wake us up, he brought the lighthouse out into the living room to play - thank you grandma and grandpa!!!

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Colin had his first day of preschool Thursday morning. It was a slow start so I was there and the kids only went for about 1 1/2 hours. Colin loved it. He went right to the science corner to play with the bugs, then on to the fake kitchen to make a few meals, then on to the real snack corner. There are little pitchers there so the kids can learn to pour their own water - Colin loved that. He was going around to all the other kids like a waiter saying “Would you like some more water?” most of the kids just stared at him. He told me he was playing restaurant. He has a new little friend Matthew who he requested sit right next to him and he kept filling his water glass for him.

Holden came along with me to preschool on Thursday because I didn’t have a babysitter. He was really good the whole time and liked watching the big kids.

These pictures are from our new camera - which is great.