Lucas Charles Crouse » January 2006 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Tue, Jan 24, 2006 9:46 AM
We are really trying to rein in our budget lately.
It seems like out of the blue the cost of living and paying for private preschool has gotten a bit out of control. Now, I admit I am not the greatest financier and Phil and I have been living the past few years like we did when we were single -- we see something we think we need and we buy it. Not that we were buying extravagant things, but sushi every Sunday night adds up and with me working part-time we are really noticing a difference.
But I really got an insight into my CRAZY thinking while at the store the other day. We are going to try Amanda on lactose-free milk for a bit because she seems to be having some issues since we've been introducing her to whole milk. Well, I come to find Lactose-free milk is about $2 more/half gallon (not sold in gallon) than regular milk. I was thinking, great, as if groceries weren't already expensive. I always gasp a bit when I put fresh blueberries or strawberries into the cart in the winter -- $4.99 for 4oz of the blueberries that Lucas can't do without.
Anyway, here I am gasping at the $2 difference in price for milk and then I am about to go over to starbucks and spend $3 on a cappuccino. What????
No more prepared coffee for me... I'll have to stick to drinking tea at home.
And speaking of drinks... if you go out to eat and no one orders a drink, the bill will be considerably less.

Amanda seems to be doing a bit better on the Lactose-free milk, so we'll see if it's worth the extra $2 :)

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Mon, Jan 23, 2006 9:23 AM
Bust A Move!!!
So we were driving to Luc's preschool today and I had NPR on the radio. I changed it to see what music was on 93.1 FM and it was "Bust A Move" so I pushed the button to put on one of the kid CDs we have.
Well, Lucas said, "Mommy, put it back to the song we had." I asked him to repeat himself, which he did. I pushed the button back to 93.1, sure that that wasn't what he meant, and said "You mean this song?" He said "Yeah!" and started rocking out to Bust A Move. What??!!! He must get his musical taste from my dear husband:)

Speaking of my dear husband, he was such a dear yesterday and watched the kids for me while I headed off to L.A. to do the matron of honor thing for Jessica's bridal shower. I met up with Dana and Jess and we had a lot of fun just shopping for the shower. I really enjoyed myself.
Phil held down the fort at home, bless him, and he did an awesom job. He said the kids were great and he even took them out to lunch. Amanda decided to give him a bit of trouble at naptime, but when I got home nothing was broken and no one was crying... that's a good sign.
Anyway, I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have such a wonderful guy like Phil.

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Wed, Jan 18, 2006 7:31 PM
Amanda seems to think I need a binky.
For the past few nights, right before I put her to bed, she takes out her binky and tries to stuff it into my mouth. She thinks it is so funny when I shake my head. There's no way I'm putting that thing in my mouth!
She loves to do things like feed me from her plate, so I think it is sort of an extension of that.

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Wed, Jan 18, 2006 1:44 PM
Just wanted to write a few notes because when the kids do something I always forget.

A few nights ago Phil built a huge tower out of Lucas' blocks. For the past two years, if we even got close to building a good size tower, Lucas' favorite thing was to come up and knock it down -- he loves that. I guess I should say, loved. That tower was standing for three days and Lucas walked right past it multiple times a day with barely a glance. It was finally toppled over by Amanda this morning. I guess Lucas has passed the torch on to his little sis.

I'm always telling folks how much Amanda eats. She has a very healthy appetite. As an example, where is what she's had so far today.
Nursed this morning, had 3/4 waffle, 1 whole banana, 1/2 slice cheese, 4 ounces milk, 1/2 cup macaroni and cheese, 1/8 an avocado, 4 teddy graham cookies and about 8 grapes. She was reaching for more grapes, but I cut her off.
I'm sure she'll eat a yogurt this afternoon and then have a good helping of dinner.
She has also nursed mid-morning, will do so again this afternoon and before bed.
Whoa! She eats way more than her 3-year-old bro.
I guess all this food is brain power. She is so excited with one of her first clear words: ball.
Wherever she sees one she gets very happy and says "ball" over and over again. She is also good at taking a bit of direction when I tell her to put her toys in the basket and show her, she will help me put away toys by getting a few things in the basket. The only problem is then she wants to take everything out again. She knows a few simple signs we have taught her. One is putting a hand to her mouth for eat. We've been working on this for a while when she is eating. I say "eat" and put my hand to my mouth and she copies me. This morning (it was probably just a coincidence) she awoke from her nap and we played for a bit. After a few minutes she put her hand to her mouth and looked at me. When I asked her if it was time for a snack she nodded yes. She also blows the air (it is her attempt at sniffing) when we see flowers. Oh, and she is so cute trying to do the hand movements for itsy, bitsy spider when I sing the song. Of course they aren't even close, but she is trying to imitate me.

I was recently stating that Lucas has known all his uppercase letters for some time now, but lowercase were much more difficult, except for those letters that look like their big siblings -- u, v, w, etc. Well, today he knocked my socks off by recognizing a few others -- r, g, i, a, n, and l. The littl "e", "d" and "b" give him a bit of trouble. I guess we are getting our money's worth at his preschool:) He is speaking in nice compound sentences at times and can usually count to twenty, although he occasionally misses 17 or 18.

This afternoon he did not want to go down for his nap so I told him I would build a fort in his room for him to sleep in. It was sort of a mistake. I built the fort, but it wasn't up to his specifications. We had to spend quite some time altering it so it was exactly as he wanted it. The thing collapsed a few times and I was sorry I offered, but we eventually got it all set up and he is now sleeping with his doggy safe and sound in the fort.

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Mon, Jan 16, 2006 12:44 PM
Amanda had her 1 year checkup today.
She is 30 inches tall and weighs in at 22 pounds and 1 ounce.
Everything looks good but we are just keeping an eye on her reaction to whole milk. She is drinking about 4 ounces a day now and I've noticed a change in her diapers. So we may have to switch to lactose free milk if things continue as I up her milk consumption. I'll probably try to eliminate one nursing session over the next week -- right now she is still nursing 4-5 times a day. Over the next few months we'll try to wean completely unless she objects.
Doctor said she is also very bright -- what is she really going to say, though, but I'll take it. She said she's ahead of the curve on many things.

Both kids had to get some vaccines (Lucas had to get caught up on some because he was sick at his 3-year appt.) and both kids had to get a t.b. test. I made the mistake this time of giving Lucas a bit of warning. BIG MISTAKE! Poor little guy. He did great otherwise and he gets three marbles in his jar.

There was a time I never could have imagined going to the doctor for these types of visits alone. I remember when I just had Lucas and that was tough enough. But now Luc is getting so big and he is really maturing. He rarely has tantrums and is getting so much better about eating dinner. We also attached a new handheld faucet to the bath so he can wash his own hair. It is working a bit better than the cry-fests we would have before.
All in all, life is getting somewhat easier around the Crouse Haus.
Listen to me... I may be singing a different tune tomorrow, but for today I am very please with how things are going.

Oh yeah... Lucas will have to be out of his preschool on Feb. 1 because we just got a letter that they are upping his tuition by $90/month. We just can't do it, so we're looking for something else.

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Sat, Jan 14, 2006 7:38 PM
I can't believe it... my baby is one-year-old! How did this happen. Why haven't I figured out a serum I can give her to keep her my baby forever? The time is really going by much too fast. And when I take time to look at Amanda and then look at Lucas, I notice how much he is growing too. He is getting to be too big for Mommy. It kills me when he will occasionally throw out an "Okay, Mom." Who is this Mom person and what has she done with Mommy?

We had a nice day for Amanda's birthday. We met with Grandma Agoura, Aunt Kerri, Ben and Abby for lunch. Of course, Amanda was a great eater. Then we went back to Grandma's house for cake, a balloon and a present. Amanda loved getting messy with the cake and eating the frosting. That picture is on Grandma's camera.
We got back home and had a quiet dinner and then Phil got home around 6:45 and we sang happy birthday and had cupcakes. Again Amanda was really digging getting frosting everywhere and I was trying not to go crazy as she did so. I was also worried how that much sugar would affect her. She was up a bit more last night and had some interesting diapers, but other than that she seemed OK.

We headed out to Ojai today to celebrate Caroline's birhtday (which is on the 15th) and to sign to Kevin and Amanda. The kids had a nice time. This time, I put a candle on a muffin because I didn't want Amanda to begin thinking this cake thing is going to happen every day. We also found out that LeighAnn's sister-in-law was in labor and was going to deliver her first child today. So, Kevin will share his birthday with a cousin. January is quite busy for this family.

We got home and Phil turned Amanda's car seat around and the kids just played around outside. Amand figured out how to stand up all by herself (without holding onto anything) on the 12th, so now walking is a snap. She is doing all sorts of animal sounds and today she said "ball" fairly clearly.

I'll try to get some pics up tonight.

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Wed, Jan 11, 2006 1:30 PM
Things are back to normal here at the Crouse Haus.
Amanda slept through until 6 a.m. today and Lucas slept until 7. We've been having fun reading and going to the park in between my work. What a difference from yesterday. When Phil walked in the door last night at about 6:45 p.m I was so happy. He took over for me so that I could put Amanda down and finish up some work.
He then did the dinner dishes, cleaned up the toys and put Lucas to bed. What a great hubby I have. I know he doesn't enjoy the "toiling", as he calls it, but he will always pitch in when he can see that I've reached my limit.

Some things that Lucas likes to do right now:
Put all of his toys in Amanda's playpen, cover it up and pretend it is a buried treasure; put all of his cars and trucks down for a nap; watch Toy Story; play basketball out back; make Amanda laugh.

Some things that Amanda can do now:
Play peek-a-boo by putting something up to her face and then moving it away; say tree, cheese, duck, dada, mama; she can do the proper animal sounds when you say elephant, monkey, cow, duck, dog and cat.
She is not into being fed at all, so we are really struggling with coming up with healthy finger foods. She's becoming picky, though. Yesterday I spent almost an hour making this "chicken ball" that kids are supposed to love to pick at. She just smooshed it and wouldn't put any in her mouth:( That's the main struggle... the time spent preparing foods in an attempt to figure out what she'll like.

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Tue, Jan 10, 2006 1:50 PM
How can two days be so totally different.
Yesterday was such a wonderfully non-eventful day.
The kids were both angels, I had time to keep the house relatively tidy and make a great dinner (which Lucas didn't eat). I sang and danced with the kids, we went shopping for a birthday present and then had fun playing out in the yard. Nothing big happened, but everyone was happy.

Fast forward to this morning. Lucas is still being pretty well behaved, but Amanda has turned into the screamer. She woke up at 2:30 and then again at about 6 a.m. and wouldn't go back down.
She absolutely refused to eat breakfast and then proceeded to throw fit after fit if something wasn't happening as she wanted it to -- and who the heck knows what she wants because she can't talk. The house is a wreck and I don't have a fabulous dinner started.
How can this happen? Same house, same kids, same me....?

Right now Amanda is very difficult to feed. She is still nursing 4-5 times a day (fine) but she absolutely refuses to eat anything off a spoon -- she won't allow us to feed her. She'll only eat foods that she can pick up. Well, great, chicken enchiladas aren't exactly easy to grip. I'm back to preparing three different breakfasts, lunches and dinners. More than half of my time seems to be spent deciding on meals, preparing them and cleaning up and then getting ready for the next one. Oh, I long for the days when I will prepare one thing for the whole family. Tonight it will be pasta salad for Phil and I and hopefully for Amanda and then plain spaghetti for Lucas.
Although I'm sure Amanda will object in some way and I'll have to search for something else to feed her.
Well, the little monster is awake after sleeping for only about 30 minutes. I better go get her. She seems to think she doesn't need a morning nap anymore either.

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Tue, Jan 3, 2006 1:37 PM
Lucas had his 3-year checkup today and his ear recheck.
He is 32 pounds and 39.5 inches. Doc said he is doing very well -- in terms of speech and recognizing colors, shapes, letters and numbers. His writing ability is not great (making circles and straight lines) but on many other things like counting, recognizing letters and his speech, he is above the curve.
He still has a bit of an ear infection and something going on in his chest. The doctor thinks it is probably a touch of the bronchitis that I had, so he's back on antibiotics. Hopefully this will be the last dose for a while.

Amanda's ears are not infected, but she still has some fluid there... so we're just going to watch her.
She is eating like a crazy person these days and walking all over. I'll give you an example of what she can eat for dinner... last night she had:
a piece of american cheese, 4 strawberries, a handful of grapes, about 1/2 cup macaroni and cheese and about 1/2 cup of beef stew!
And that was just dinner! She also had a full breakfast, lunch and two snacks. Her checkup is in two weeks, so I'll be interested to see what she weighs.

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Sun, Jan 1, 2006 10:25 PM
Last night we had a nice, mellow New Year's Eve.
We started off the night at Tom and Kerri's annual party. Lucas had a great time playing with the other kids and Amanda went to sleep in the portable crib. Phil and I actually got a chance to visit with some people. There was some great food and Kerri put together a fun White Elephant gift giveaway. It was really nice to be out after being sick for so long. We decided to call it a night about 10:00 because Lucas was starting to zone out. We got home and tucked the kids in bed (they went down so easy!) and Phil and I rang in the New Year with a champagne toast.

Ice Skating!
Today we decided to go out to the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks today, but when we arrived, it was closed. Instead we trekked across the street to "The Lakes" to grab a bite to eat. We first watched the ice skaters and Lucas became excited and said, "Mommy, I want to ice skate."
I was a bit nervous because this was coming from the kid who cries on his big wheel. But we decided to let him try. So he and Phil rented some skates and took off on the ice. Lucas had an awesome time! Phil held on to him the whole time and they went round and round. I managed to snap two pictures before the battery on my camera
died:( I'll post those soon.

So far 2006 is great. Amanda is walking more and more and Lucas is really using his imagination to play. He likes puzzles and reading with the new book that Grandma Agoura got him for his birthday.
He also loves playing with the big firetruck he received from Grandma and Grandpa C.
I'm really looking forward to this next year because I think Amanda and Lucas will be able to play a bit more together. She'll be much more independent of me and hopefully I can calm down enough to enjoy these two beautiful gifts I have.

One more thing we're looking forward to is soccer for Lucas in February. He starts Feb. 25 for 6 weeks. It should be a blast.

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