Sleep

For the last 2 weeks, Timothy has been sleeping from 7 at night (we moved up his bedtime) to 8 in the morning. He normally wakes at 6am wanting a bottle and then goes right back to sleep.

Daddy does "nightime routine" with Timothy every single night. Timothy comes and kisses me, and then daddy and Timothy walk into his bedroom, and Timothy walks over to his mattress on the floor and lays right down. David sings a couple of songs, and prays, and turns out the light and shuts the door. Timothy goes to sleep on his own.

He also takes around a 2 hour nap a day in the early afternoon, but sometimes he's a fussy boy and needs a morning nap, too.

I was just reading a couple of articles on "sleep and your toddler" because I was worried 15 hours might be too much sleep. Every kid is different, though, and when Timothy is awake he GOES! He certainly always has an agenda!

But reading those articles made me realize how blessed we are that Timothy goes to sleep so well. There's no crying, no rocking, no desperate pleading...we've had the same routine for almost a year and he's used to it. He knows right what to do!

ExploraZone on Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning Slideshow

Walking

Yesterday, daddy refamiliarized himself with the How to Make your Baby Physically Superb book by Glenn Doman. We've been using it to more or less guide us since Timothy's birth.

David said, "Let's see...we're doing good with picking up and grasping objects. We're starting brachiation, so that's good. But we've got to get him walking more. This says our goal is to have him walking 1/2 mile on a flat, smooth terrain in 18 minutes at 18 months old."

Timothy will be 18 months old in a little bit over a month. So we took him to the park today. In 16 minutes, he went 1570 feet (between 1/4 and 1/3 mile).

We are not disappointed a bit. We've still got a month to get him up to a 1/2 mile. Today, he kept leaving the sidewalk to go walk off into the muddy woods...sigh! And it was COLD and he got his feet wet and he had to look at every little stick and rock and acorn (as he should)...but he wasn't walking the entire time.

We're just so proud of him - he's such a hard worker!!

On a different note, Timothy got some dinosaurs for Christmas that he's really taking an interest in. Next week, I want to start a unit on dinosaurs if I can pull it all together. I made dinosaur Bits (now I just need to print and laminate), we already have a couple of dinosaur books but we'll go to the library and get more, I'd like at least one homemade book on dinosaurs, and I've added several dinosaur videos to our Netflix list. Then maybe I can talk David into going to the Science Museum to see fossils of dinosaurs! I'm envisioning us making our own fossils out of plaster of paris. Maybe some dinosaur words? We'll see if it all comes together...:-)

Updates

Well, for some reason I've been trying to upload pictures for the last 2 days and I can't.

SOOO I'll tell you about some progress we're making...

Violin - We bought the book by Suzuki, Nurtured by Love, as well as the first practice book and CD. We're going to *try* to buy David a violin locally before we buy one online (shop local). We're going to look for a local violin teacher, and if we can't find one we'll put out an ad at the college.

Mandarin Chinese - Blockbuster is sending us Early Start Mandarin DVD. We are at a stand-still finding a teacher since the college is out on break.

We also made a new communication sheet. This isn't a checklist, just a way for us to keep track of what we accomplished each day. If we do half the things on this list each day, we're doing well.

Today We Did....

Math
Equations
Sequences
Problem Solving
Numerals
Counting
Coordinate Geometry

Reading
E.K. Words
Kitchen Words
Hallway Words
Homemade Book
Writing Words
Letters
Commercial Book
Book on Tape
YBCR

Encyclopedic Knowledge
Bits
Computer Bits
Tweedlewink

Music
Instruments
Classical Music

Physical
Walking
Running
Log Rolls
Forward Rolls
Balance Beam
Brachiation
Swimming

Practical
Pouring
Opening and Closing
Buttoning
Buckling
Carrying a Tray
Sensory Bin/Sandbox
Eating with Utensils
Olfactory
Drinking out of a Cup

Other
Science
Art

A Quick Video Post

We just woke up from a nap and it was RUN to ExploraZone time!!

Here's a quick video of what Timothy did when he first got in...

What Timothy is Waking up to...(ExploraZone)

We turned the garage into a messy, squishy, ooey, gooey, play area for Timothy (we're calling it ExploraZone).

It has:

A 10-foot adjustable height brachiation ladder

A sensory area with sandbox (and 150 pounds of play sand, shovelvs, funnels, sifters)

A reading wagon

A ball roller

A science area (right now just a table)

An art easel (Christmas present)

Picnic table for fingerpainting, crafts, etc

Cartesian Plane

It's not so pretty, but Timothy will be able to play play play. The other day when he played in the flour in the house, he had a BALL - I know he's going to have a great time in our new EXPLORAZONE!!

What TIMOTHY is waking up to...(Playroom)

Christmas on Mommy's Side

Christmas on Daddy's Side

Merry Christmas!

How to Keep a One-Year-Old Occupied for Forty-Five Minutes