Kidsongs

 

Leland is obsessed with a couple of KidSongs DVDs that we have.  He brings them to me and then shakes his hips, which is his way of asking to watch one.  Then he sits there for 30 minutes without moving (which is a big deal for this kid) and watches it.  They also have many of the episodes online, which is awesome. 

The best thing about this is I remember watching these as a kid, so naturally I remember all the songs and sing along. 

Leland dances to them too.  The bottom photo shows him moving his head with a song. 
His favorite is the Circus one -well the part with the Dalmatians- he laughs every time he watches it.

While we still try and limit video time with him, I think it is great he likes these over a cartoon.  Especially since all they do is sing and dance.  

Tis the Season

We decided last minute to get a tree last Saturday, a real tree.  Then we spent the night decorating the tree and the house (we have minimal decorations).

The tree smells wonderful.  It is pretty awesome having an actual tree in your house.

Surprisingly the cats and the toddler have stayed away from it for the most part.  I am hoping I don't eat my words later down the line.  I would love to wrap some presents and get them under the tree but I feel that may be pushing the limit.

Wordless Wednesday: 18 month photos

Photos taken by Bebe Bella 

Full night sleep

It is official.  Leland is night weaned, after 19 months of nursing when he pleased at night (also known as the after hours breastfeeding cafe).

Leland was sick last week and must have been really tired and not feeling well because two nights in a row he didn't nurse until morning.  Like sun shining morning, not 4 am morning.  So I quickly pounced on that and didn't look back.

I didn't want to push him into night weaning, I wanted it to be more on his end.  But seeing that he really could do it, made me realize he needed just a bit of a nudge from me.

The third night, he was feeling better and wanted that 4 am feeding back.  Instead I gently told him "no milk right now" and rolled over and fell back asleep.  He wasn't so keen on falling back asleep but after some crying he got the message quickly.  It wasn't too bad on my part because it was 4 am and I was tired, so I was pretty out of it during the crying.  The next couple of nights he continued to wake up say "mama" and sign milk, but minimal crying happened.  I continued to say "no milk right now".

Now I can see the light.  Or I am just getting plenty of continuous sleep.

We are now down to three nursings a day- wake up, nap time and bed time.

Biii

I don't think I have discussed Leland's obsession.  In general it is all animals, but specifically it is the bison.  He says bison constantly throughout the day.  He has a book with the bison in it, a stuffed bison, and we recently found a bison ornament for the tree (and a bison figurine will be in his stocking this year).  I think it is cute because it is such a random animal to be obsessed with.

The obsession started once we went to the Nature and Science Museum.  They have dioramas of animals and Leland loves to run around them and look at all the animals.  For some reason the bison became his favorite.  Now when I ask if he wants to go to the museum he keeps saying "bii, bii" over and over again until we get there and see them.  Then he moves on to signing seal and making their noise.  While we walk around and see his other favorite animals (the bears, the seals, the moose) he randomly interjects a "bii" so we always make sure to see them again on our way out.  He also loves watching the video about bison and hearing their sound.  

We also have the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge and they have real bison!  We haven't seen them yet though.  Next weekend we have a wildlife tour scheduled so hopefully we will see some.  I can only imagine his excitement of seeing living bison.   

And every time we go to the zoo he asks to see the bison, and I have to keep repeating that there are not any at the zoo.  So Denver Zoo if you need a new animal to consider, consider the bison.