Daley Ponderings

9/2 - NPD definitely pulling up (on bathtub) - see Mom's post of Maggie P.

9/2 - NPD, "ma-ma-ma" "na-na-na"  JDD is convinced it means "Mom"

9/2 - Joy, "2+3 is 5. [pause] I learned that in bed."  Subsequently also taughtherself other addition facts.

9/2 - Joy making bracelet with paper and tape. She pointed out to me, "I made the tape not so it would hurt you." She had made sure to place the sticky side facing away from the skin!

9/3 - Joy and JPD get their own bath.

9/4 - Joy figured out 2+4=6 at breakfast.

9/6 - JPD, "I doved under water, no." (Means "I didn't dive underwater.")

9/8 - Me, "Tomorrow, NPD has a dr appt."  JPD, ruefully remembering the doctor's office, "Lady poked me." Me,"Yes. Yes, she did." JPD, "Why?"

9/9 - Our kids like to count how many American flags they see on the way to karate (and other destinations.)  Joy, " 'Merican flag!".  JPD, "Merry gag!" (More)

7/6 - Noah is building a paperboard New England village.

7/6 - Jeremiah opened the cupboard under the kitchen sink with the TotLok. He was so proud of himself.  "There we go.  Open!"  (sounds like "deh-do. Opih!") He closed it and opened it several times, each time repeating his words with delight.  The very first thing he did with his newly opened cupboard was to take out the dishwasher detergent, squeeze the correct amounts into the two cups in the dishwasher door, close the little detergent door, and put the detergent back in the cupboard.  I'm sure he would have also started the dishwasher had I not been there to tell him it wasn't full enough yet.

7/7 - Nathaniel was doing pushups (hands and toes only on the ground) and Joy was counting them.  At one point, she said, "Six! You just have four more to go!"  And that session, he did twelve total (but that was, of course, after he got to her expected ten first.)

7/13 - Jeremiah had on the Jango Fett helmet and Nathaniel was getting worried. But then Jeremiah lifted the helmet and said, "Me, Nan'el!" and he was happy again.

7/21 – Joy, holding NPD, “You are my best sweetie ever.”

7/29 – JPD, “Open this door, please.”

7/31 – brass/organ hymn CD in car. Ryan, “It's like Grammy's church, but in the car!”

7/31 – same trip. Ryan, “Look! A wooden table in the middle of nowhere!” Joy, “My Dad goes there!” (No. Weare)

JPD answered how old he is correctly, at Shaw's before NY trip – and many times since.

On our Daley vacation in the Finger Lakes in New York, there was this great old-fashioned playground with merry-go-rounds, a big tall slide, and metal jungle gyms.  It was great fun!

8/8 – Joy wants to marry NPD

8/15 -  living history event in Hillsboro (not sure what I was going to say about this except that we went to it)

8/1 – NPD roll back to front, maybe the day before also

8/1 – JPD potty training day

8/7 – NPD on back, with soccerball. Dropped to right, rolled over to reach it.

NPD sitting if propped

8/18 - NPD crawl to sit

8/30 - Jeremiah was interested as usual when it was time to take communion at church.  I explained a little, and his reaction was very similar to the disciples' in Jesus' day: "Eat body, gucky."  "Eat blood, gucky."

5/6 - Jonathan is as tall as Mom!

5/7 - Faith, "Ramen numerals"

5/8 - Jeremiah, "Don't touch it."  I think that's his first three word phrase.

5/9 - Jeremiah was looking at the New Bible Dictionary that has a painting of the last supper (or something like it - Jesus in the middle with a few disciples around him). I think it was rather in the syle of Rembrandt, with lots of browns and off-whites, with Jesus a bit brighter. He pointed at Jesus and said, "Scary" (sounds like geh-wy".)  I never had really looked closely, but it did make him look kind of freaky...

5/9 - The girls and I went to our church's Mother-Daughter banquet. Afterwards, Joy said, "At church, I dreamed about hearts and ribbons and flowers."  I replied, "How did you dream if you were awake? Were they daydreams?" She answered, very confident and matter-of-fact, "I have dreams *all* thetime."

5/18 - Joy counted to 100, only needing a prompt at 50.

5/20 - Noah said, "assumination" when he meant "assumption".

5/21 - Joy counted the odd numbers to 99.

5/25 - Joy counted the evens to 100.

5/27 - Jonathan followed the Betty Crocker biscuit recipe on his own.  He mistook "shortening" for "thickening" so he used a cup of cornstarch instead of butter.  The biscuits turned out surprisingly edible.

May - Jeremiah says "mung" for gum.  Also, "now" for down.  Other words I can't recall at the moment he also pronounces backwards.

5/28 - Amazing baby Nathaniel sleeps 8.5 hours.  He consistently sleeps 6-7 hours at night.  Thisis such a blessing for me.

5/28 - Jonathan likes to exclaim with an "evil" laugh.  Jeremiah this time copied him, "Mwa-ha-ha-ha..." very cute.

5/29 - Jeremiah is starting to initiate going on the potty.

6/3 - Nathaniel can kick himself forward a few inches (on his belly and on his back.)

6/4 - Jeremiah recognized and named a circle.

6/4 - Nathaniel's first solid food.  Jeremiah fed him some tortilla chips. Thankfully, Faith observed and called me right away.  Nathaniel's gag reflex did its job and I got it out before he really choked.

6/5 - Nathaniel rolled from front to back.  The first time startled him and he cried.

6/5 - Jon went to the station to do his shift chores.  Faith, Joy, and Jeremiah went by themselves after him to help.  They came back the first time, Faith unsure of which direction to turn at a particular cross-street.  The second time, they made it successfully.  And Jeremiah kept his promise to hold Faith's hand the entire time.

June - Jeremiah likes to pick flowers for me, and he always lets me know that they are from "my yard". (Because we are not allowed to pick flowers from other peoples' yards.)

6/9 - Joy washed the kitchen windows on her own initiative. She started with water, and then I showed her the window cleaner and squeegee, and she did a nice job on the windows she could reach (lower panel).

6/19 - Jonathan and Noah have a discussion with Dad-o about geography and time zones, latitude and noon.

6/20 - Faith transposed Journey By Camel from C to G.  This included accidentals.

6/20 - Jeremiah counted, "one, doo, wee, doh"

Jeremiah says "way-way" to mean "this way" or "that way" or "the right way" etc.

6/20 - Jeremiah had a 12-inch ruler and went around measuring all sorts of things.  Each time, he would exclaim, "Inches!"

Nathaniel has said "Hi!" several times in the right context.  One time in the morning he said what sounded exactly like, "Please."

6/29 - Jeremiah climbed to the top bunk unassisted.

6/30 - Jeremiah climbed down from the top bunk unassisted.

Jeremiah consistently identifies the color blue correctly.

3/2 - I told Jeremiah I'd clean up the (play) food because he was still playing with the cars.  He came up to me, gave me a big hug, and said, "Thank you" (sounds like Duh-doo).  So sweet!

3/2 - Faith offered to ask Dad-o to walk them to Joyful Noise, "'Cause...I want you to have enough rest, Mommy."

Jeremiah calls Faith's headbands "crowns".

4/6 - Joy was counting, Jeremiah repeating after her.  After she got to twelve, he repeated twelve and then said thirteen on his own before she did!

4/8 - Pinewood Derby.  Noah won 2nd place in the kids' division. Jonathan got 5th.  Jon got 3rd in the adult division.

4/17 - Faith went to ride her bike at St.Mary's parking lot all by herself.

4/22 - Dropping Jon off at airport, trying to get gas, turning wrong way on Brown Ave, all the way down to Hudson.  Dunkin Donuts, directions even further south, then finally back up and at Lowe's with only Jeremiah and Nathaniel, lady at checkout "you have your hands full!"

4/23 - JPD can plug in toaster. "pug"  Also, "ow-coke" = artichoke

4/24 - Noah, "I was racing myself around the car.  We tied."

4/24 - Joy, about Nathaniel, "Oh!  He smiled so much, I think he loves me!"

April - Jonathan makes placebo potions.  The first one was for when someone gets mildly hurt outside - a poultice to rub on the hurt part to feel better quickly so you don't have to go inside to Mom.  Then he made drinkable ones - water with xylitol, almond and vanilla extracts, food coloring.  But then they sat around in jars too long and that phase was over.  They still do the outside one, though, because it's easy to make from grass and twigs and dirt. (:

Once again, we were blessed to have Grandma and Dad-o with us for a birth. Jeremiah was still too clingy on Mommy for us to be comfortable having him at the birth.  He did well completely away from me, but had trouble when nearby and I was unavailable.  That is exactly the situation a birth would be, so we decided that he should stay home with Dad-o when the rest of us headed to the birth center.

Once that was decided, we thought we should give the other sibliongs a choice. Do you want to watch the birth, or would you rather stay home? Faith chose to stay home.  She said her favorite part is holding the babay, and she could hold him when we got home.  She is a sensitive one and it was wise of her to want to avoid seeing her Mommy in pain.  The rest of the kids wanted to come.

Friday night, February 13, I had some mildy crampy contractions.  I drank some extra water and they stopped.  In the morning, we went to church (switched to Saturday because of impending storm Saturday evening into Sunday morning.)  In the bathroom, I discovered that those contractions in the night had done something.  This evidence was present throughout the day.

Sunday, February 15, contractions at 1:45am, 2:45am, 3:00am.  At that point, Jon went out to shovel the driveway which had 12" of snow already and it was continuing to fall fast.  We got ready to head into Concord in the snowstorm.  Normally, we wouldn't have gone so early, but Jon knew it would take much longer in the storm and we didn't want to take any chances.  We left our house at 4am.  The roads were "surprisingly driveable" - Jon's words.  The snow was all powdery and not slippery.  But it was hard to see the lanes.

I was quite aware for the trip, and had some mild contractions that started coming 5 minutes apart.  We arrived at 4:47 to an unplowed parking lot, but Jon drove in Beth's tracks and it was fine.

Once we arrived at the birth center, my contractions slowed down.  We were all able to get some sleep, except maybe Grandma and Joy because Joy was keyed up.  When I woke up in the morning, we tried to get labor going again.  I got into the birthing tub and Joy joined me.  That was a fun little special time with her.  Then we got out and dried off and tried walking up and down the stairs and around the center.

By 11:30am, it was apparent that my labor had paused.  So we headed home on cleared roads on a bright sunny, very windy day.

I decided to act just like normal for as long as it took for labor to get going again, but really hoping that it would be less than a week.

So we did regular restful Sunday activities, like take a nap and read books to the kids, go to bed on time.  (More)