- Shortly before Christmas, Paul got a job offer! It's for a design agency called HUGE in Brooklyn, NY.
- Andrew and I flew to Rogers, AR to stay with Paul's sister, Lindsey, and her husband and baby while Paul finished up some things in Vancouver, WA and drove our car across the country. We're still there until February 6.
- With the help of several missionaries, friends, family, and especially some last-minute save-the-day work on my parents' part, Paul converted our Vancouver condo from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom and we found a new renter within a week of posting the ad!
- We found an apartment to rent in Jersey City, NJ. It's about $300 below our budget, so we're super excited! It's two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen with a dishwasher (!), living room, and dining room.
- Paul started his new job yesterday, and even made it in to work this morning despite 18 inches of snow. You gotta love public transportation!
- Andrew had a hard time adjusting to sleeping in a pack-and-play again, and in a different house, here in Arkansas, but he finally slept through the night the last 3 nights in a row. Hallelujah.
- Andrew has been talking more and more. He is also really into labeling everyone and every animal he sees in a book as a momma, a dada, or a baby. He loves playing with his 10-month-old cousin Jeffrey, here in Arkansas.
Tanner Family
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Big Update
I haven't posted for so long, here is a rundown of what's been going on with us for about the last month:
Thursday, January 13, 2011
2010 in Pictures
January
Andrew's first balloon
Battle Ground, WA
February
Andrew and great-grandfather "Papa Jim"
Newport News, VA
Carolyn's mom, Susan, and grandfather, Papa Jim
Newport News, VA
March
Andrew hamming it up in his booster seat
Pittsburgh, PA
Oh, how he loved his peas!
April
Andrew enjoying the playground
Pittsburgh, PA
May
Preparing our yard for our first garden!
Pittsburgh, PA
Andrew and Carolyn at the park
Pittsburgh, PA
June
The family at Falling Water
Mill Run, PA
Andrew tastes dirt
front yard, Pittsburgh, PA
July
Paul and Andrew at the WWII memorial
Washington, DC
August
Visiting with Paul's sister, Lindsey and her baby, Jeffrey
Rogers, AR
The family at Carolyn's high school reunion (Class of '00)
Battle Ground, WA
September
Andrew relaxes on the front porch
Paul's parent's house, Brush Prairie, WA
Andrew loves Grandpa and Nana's cat
Carolyn tries out the camera's tripod
Andrew still loves a good playground
Vancouver, WA
October
Carolyn and Andrew at the BiZi Farm pumpkin patch
Brush Prairie, WA
Andrew found a pumpkin just his size
Andrew with his Aunt Bonnie on his birthday
Andrew in his Halloween costume
November
Andrew at Frenchman's Bar
Vancouver, WA
Andrew in Grandpa and Nana's driveway
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Funny Andrew Stories
Story #1
Our friend Varnali visited us all the way from NYC last weekend! I'll have to post more about her visit with some nice photos and everything when I get a chance, but I wanted to write this funny little story before I forget.
Varnali and I were up in Andrew's room reading to him before bedtime. We have a book from the library all about animals and bugs you see in the spring. So, I was asking Andrew to point to the bunnies' tails. He pointed to the tails in the book. Then he felt his bottom to see if he had a tail. Then get got up off my lap and walked around to Varnali's back and inspected her bottom very seriously to see if she had a tail. It was pretty funny and cute.
Story #2
The other night I was sitting at the dining room table doing something on my computer and my father-in-law asks me from the kitchen "Carolyn, has someone been stabbing these bananas? They have all these stab holes in them." I just started busting up laughing. Andrew likes to stand on a chair at the kitchen counter so he can be involved in what I'm doing while I cook. The bananas and the knives aren't kept too far from each other on the counter. (Yes, I know, I need to get those knives out of Andrew's reach).
Our friend Varnali visited us all the way from NYC last weekend! I'll have to post more about her visit with some nice photos and everything when I get a chance, but I wanted to write this funny little story before I forget.
Varnali and I were up in Andrew's room reading to him before bedtime. We have a book from the library all about animals and bugs you see in the spring. So, I was asking Andrew to point to the bunnies' tails. He pointed to the tails in the book. Then he felt his bottom to see if he had a tail. Then get got up off my lap and walked around to Varnali's back and inspected her bottom very seriously to see if she had a tail. It was pretty funny and cute.
Story #2
The other night I was sitting at the dining room table doing something on my computer and my father-in-law asks me from the kitchen "Carolyn, has someone been stabbing these bananas? They have all these stab holes in them." I just started busting up laughing. Andrew likes to stand on a chair at the kitchen counter so he can be involved in what I'm doing while I cook. The bananas and the knives aren't kept too far from each other on the counter. (Yes, I know, I need to get those knives out of Andrew's reach).
Andrew's First Sentence
Andrew's expressive language is definitely expanding exponentially. It seems that every day I hear him say a new word or two. He also started identifying words in the songs I sing to him before bed. So in the middle of "Hush Little Baby" I'll hear him say "baby", "mama", and "woof woof" (for the dog named Rover that I'll buy him if the cart and bull I bought him turn over. For a long time I've been trying to get him to put too of his common words together into a sentence. "Night-night Daddy", "Bye-bye Nana", or "Hi Mama" are all things we've tried to get him to say. Well, a couple of weeks ago he finally said his first sentence. Drum roll, please...
"No more poop."Said during diaper changes, of course. Yep, I've got good blackmail material. Although, it seems to be pretty normal for toddlers to want to talk about bodily functions. The first sentence my Grandma Olive heard me say? To my doll who had just fallen off the swing and onto the ground, "Did you wet your pants again?"
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Andrew's Birthday
Ok, this is super late! Andrew's birthday was October 23, but I got really behind on my blog in October and early November.
We had a fun family birthday party on Andrew's birthday where we carved pumpkins, made caramel apples, watched Andrew open presents, and ate yummy birthday cake. Both sets of Andrew's grandparents were there, along with his Uncle Bill and Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Bonnie, and cousins Liam, Alex, and Melanie.
We had a fun family birthday party on Andrew's birthday where we carved pumpkins, made caramel apples, watched Andrew open presents, and ate yummy birthday cake. Both sets of Andrew's grandparents were there, along with his Uncle Bill and Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Bonnie, and cousins Liam, Alex, and Melanie.
Check out the cute (and easy!) Barrel-O-M&Ms cake I made:
Here's the cool pirate ship on the night sea pumpkin that Paul carved
Andrew enjoying his birthday cake (and hamming it up a bit)
Andrew showing off his new car bed (though he had not interest in sleeping in it at the time)
Cousin Alex is Buzz Lightyear
Andrew playing with his new Mega Blocks set with his Aunt Bonnie
Andrew's new panda takes a ride on his new scooter
Cousin Melanie loves the scooter, too
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Words of Wisdom, Part 2
I wanted to add this to the bottom of my previous post, but then decided that it deserves its own post.
In the midst of the difficulties we've been having with Andrew's sleep habits, I keep remembering these wise words spoken by the president of our church, Thomas S. Monson:
"Never let a problem to be solved become more important
than a person to be loved."
This was from a talk he gave in the November 2008 General Conference of the church, "Finding Joy in the Journey." What an excellent talk full of inspiring stories and important truths to remember amidst all the changes that life is bound to bring! You can find that article here: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=92764bb52a73d110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
In the midst of the difficulties we've been having with Andrew's sleep habits, I keep remembering these wise words spoken by the president of our church, Thomas S. Monson:
"Never let a problem to be solved become more important
than a person to be loved."
This was from a talk he gave in the November 2008 General Conference of the church, "Finding Joy in the Journey." What an excellent talk full of inspiring stories and important truths to remember amidst all the changes that life is bound to bring! You can find that article here: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=92764bb52a73d110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
Another Sleeping Update
I'm sorry if this talk about Andrew's sleep habits is boring to the small group of you out there that read my blog! I just want to record this stuff so I can look back later and see how it all unfolded, and I'm just lousy about keeping a journal so I'm recording this on my blog.
I got Andrew a night light, and it seems to have helped. He still wakes up during the night since I got it, but only once or twice instead of multiple times. The bedtime routine has improved--now once he gets into bed I can close the door almost all the way and just reassure him that I'm still there and stand/sit right outside his door for 3-5 minutes or so, then ever-so-carefully and silently close the door once he settles down and seems to be going to sleep.
Unfortunately, he still isn't napping very well. He takes about a 30 minute nap every other day. Today he slept 30 minutes, then was able to go back to sleep for another 30 minutes because Paul went in and lied down with him. The other inconvenient thing lately has also been that he's waking up earlier every morning. First it was 6:45, then 6:24, 6:12, 6:06, 5:30, and today it was 5:18. We can sometimes get him to go back to bed, but it's usually just for 10-30 minutes and then he's up again. I've been trying to move his bed time earlier to compensate and in the hopes of getting him better-rested. One key thing that "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says is that the more tired a child is, the harder it is for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. It's counterintuitive, but when a child stops napping enough and/or wakes up too early in the morning, you should try to get them to bed earlier at night. It's been hard to get him to bed early because I just haven't been very organized about dinner time this week (what I'm going to make, when I start making it, etc). Tonight we got him to bed just before 7, so hopefully that helps. I'm going to aim for 6:30 tomorrow night.
Just another note, for future reference: I think the chance to daylight saving times contributed to all this.
In the end, I know that this phase will pass soon and we'll settle into a comfortable sleep pattern again eventually.
I got Andrew a night light, and it seems to have helped. He still wakes up during the night since I got it, but only once or twice instead of multiple times. The bedtime routine has improved--now once he gets into bed I can close the door almost all the way and just reassure him that I'm still there and stand/sit right outside his door for 3-5 minutes or so, then ever-so-carefully and silently close the door once he settles down and seems to be going to sleep.
Unfortunately, he still isn't napping very well. He takes about a 30 minute nap every other day. Today he slept 30 minutes, then was able to go back to sleep for another 30 minutes because Paul went in and lied down with him. The other inconvenient thing lately has also been that he's waking up earlier every morning. First it was 6:45, then 6:24, 6:12, 6:06, 5:30, and today it was 5:18. We can sometimes get him to go back to bed, but it's usually just for 10-30 minutes and then he's up again. I've been trying to move his bed time earlier to compensate and in the hopes of getting him better-rested. One key thing that "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says is that the more tired a child is, the harder it is for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. It's counterintuitive, but when a child stops napping enough and/or wakes up too early in the morning, you should try to get them to bed earlier at night. It's been hard to get him to bed early because I just haven't been very organized about dinner time this week (what I'm going to make, when I start making it, etc). Tonight we got him to bed just before 7, so hopefully that helps. I'm going to aim for 6:30 tomorrow night.
Just another note, for future reference: I think the chance to daylight saving times contributed to all this.
In the end, I know that this phase will pass soon and we'll settle into a comfortable sleep pattern again eventually.
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