Wild Child

I've been calling Gwen my 'wild child' simply because of her unruly hair. As most of you know, she didn't have much hair for a long time. It really started growing when she was around 18 months old. Now, it curls in the back and because it is so fine, it tends to go everywhere! Her bangs are especially bad and are always in her face. The problem is, she doesn't let me brush her hair, put her hair up so that it isn't in her face, or, because I wanted to do this the other day, cut her bangs so they aren't in her face. Boy can she scream! She covers her face with her hands and shouts 'no mom!'. It is impossible to do anything with her hair -- if I even come close to her with the intentions of touching her hair, she is running away. I wonder if she remembers that she had so little hair for so long :)

Crawling

Oliver is 7 months old today, and he decided to show it by crawling! This whole past week he has been successful at crawling maybe one or two steps (crawls?) at a time, but today, he has managed many and is moving around even more. Before this week, he was moving around by pushing himself backwards (we have laminate floor, so it is slippery!). The only problem with that method is that he tended to get stuck (against the wall, the furniture, the plants...). I think he is going to get into lots of trouble once he really gets going on the crawling! He's already managed to pull down my fig tree (which is in a big pot, and the plant itself is fairly big) -- luckily he didn't pull it down on himself! He seems to have some sort of facination for that plant :)

This week he also got his first tooth (front bottom), and the second bottom tooth is already coming out. It was a pretty rough couple of days for him (and me!). He's much happier today.

Mama's Boy

This is a title that I am sure everyone has heard of at some point, whether it refers to you yourself, a brother, a son, or just someone you know. I find it very interesting because my husband has been calling Oliver a 'mama's boy' for quite some time, and he is only a baby (under 7 months old!). I think there are definitely some societal influences when it comes to people dealing with baby boys versus baby girls. Oliver, although mostly a happy baby, crys more than Gwen did, and is really the happiest when he is being held and walked around. I think part of the reason is because he is more active than Gwen was (baby boys, I have heard, are often more active than baby girls), and likes to be on the move. Since he can't really get around on his own yet, he relies on adults to keep him interested. Honestly, I don't think there is anything really wrong with that, but my husband and father both call him a 'wussy boy' when he crys, and my husband doesn't want to cater to him by carrying him around. The funny thing is, he didn't mind carrying Gwen around (although to be fair, it is easier to carry a baby around when you only have one). So in comes the term mama's boy. Oliver is definitely more attached to me than Gwen was at this age. He generally turns to me for comfort when he's upset, and wants me to be around. I think men turn baby boys into the so called 'mama's boy' simply because they think baby boys should be tougher than baby girls and so don't comfort them in the same ways. So to me, it is a no brainer that these baby boys turn to their mothers for comfort! I think it is unreasonable to put these kind of stereotypes on babies, but how do you convince people to be different when these societal views are so ingrained in them?

Potty Training

Well, it's been a long up-hill battle at times, but Gwen seems to have the hang of it! I think we started potty training her in April, at which time she really wasn't very good, and have gone through lots of ups and downs since then. She would get really good for a while, and then go back to having accidents. Putting her in 'real' underwear, instead of training pants, seemed to help a lot, even though you have to be prepared to clean up accidents! I think she thought training pants were a lot like diapers though and it was easier to go in them then to go to the potty. For the past month, she has been doing really well, and even uses public washrooms now. We still have a couple of things to work on -- like not peeing in her training pants during her naps and night-time, but I can deal with that! She still has the occasional accident, but they are fewer and far between. She will even go to the potty on her own now. It is such a relief! I can honestly say that potty training is not fun! It is hard not to lose your temper when you are so sure your child knows not to pee on the floor, but does it anyway! She also peed a number of times on my bed, which made me so mad, but you just have to grit your teeth and explain to her that she needs to go on the potty, not the bed. I hear about people that have their kids trained in a couple of days -- I don't know how they do it! I'm sure it has a lot to do with the child though -- Gwen is very stubborn, and if she doesn't want to go to the potty, she won't! Rewards definitely seemed to help though -- there are stickers all over my house!

In the meantime, I will say that it sure is nice having only one child in diapers :)

Summer days

Well, we took full advantage of the warm weather yesterday and went down to the river to play. There is a spot that has tons of very soft, silty sand that the kids love playing in. Here are some pictures from yesterday!

Bats

We have had a bat house on our house for a couple of years, but the location didn't seem to be very good as it didn't attract any bats. Well, this summer, our big birch tree in our backyard 'mostly died', so we decided to cut off the branches but leave the trunk up so that we could move our bat box there. Well, I'm still not sure that any bats have moved in, but our cat decided to let us know that there are, indeed, bats in the area. Merlyn (our cat), is a very good hunter, catching things like mice, bugs, and birds (although I try to keep the bird hunting to a minimum by letting him out at night). I had never thought that he might catch something like a bat! The bat was still alive when we 'rescued' it from him and moved it to a tree (see picture). Unfortunately, it didn't survive the night. Does anyone know if the little brown bats here carry rabies, or if it is an issue? We have never gotten our cats vaccinated for rabies, but now I am wondering if I should!

Work

Well, it looks like I will be going back to work after all. Originally, I was supposed to be going back to work for the Prairie Conservation Forum -- which was okay because it was going to be only 15 hours a week, and from home. It turned out, however, that they didn't get enough funding (that seems to happen a lot in the field of biology!), and don't think they will have the money until January. All in all, that is okay with me because Oliver is only 6 1/2 months old. Well, the other day my very good friend called me and asked me if I was interested in working for her at Health Canada doing water sample analyses and such. She is being extremely accomodating, coming up with a work plan where I only have to be in the lab 13 hours a week and can work from home the remaining 12 hours a week (for a total of 25 hours a week). This job would be finished just before Christmas. Now don't get me wrong -- this a wonderful opportunity, but it was still a hard decision to make. I hate having to leave Oliver, even if it is only part-time work! The good thing is that my mother will be looking after the kids, and Gwen especially loves going to her house and playing with her toys. She asks to go to Grandma's house every day as it is! I expect that the coming few months will be very busy for all of us -- we'll see how well we all cope with it!