Catch Up - September & October

These past 2 months have gone very quickly. Back to school for Joseph, Dad arriving for a visit on Sept. 14 and leaving on the 28th. Mom arriving for a visit on the 30th and leaving October 16th. And of course, it's budget time at JHHLS with the customary bloodbath.

School DaysAfter the Montauk trip Katerina started going to a daycare center for socialization (Sept 12) 2 mornings a week and the Rising Star program in Ardsley for Chinese language (Sept 16) on Saturday mornings. Her daycare program is for 2-year-olds and has only 3 other kids in the class. One of the kids, John, is an adoptee from China and is in our playgroup that meets at Kathy Miller's house. The first week or two she was fine going to school; just a little whimpering when I or Constantin would leave. But she has become increasingly upset each time we go to the school. According to teacher Laurie, she's fine when we leave, but now when we turn the car into the lot she starts with the "No, No, No". This morning, 10/31 she started acting out at home and was throwing fits about everything after I mentioned we were getting dressed for school. It's too bad she missed the Halloween parade. I am trying to get her into the Briarcliff Nursery School which I much prefer and should hear in January if she's been accepted for next fall. We are currently attending a Mommy & Me class at BNS on Saturdays, after Chinese class, and supposedly that will give us more of an edge of getting in. Can you believe we have to think of these things for a 2-year-old?? We decided to discontinue swimming lessons until the spring or summer and replaced the time slot with the Mommy & Me class.

Joe's Birthday Party - September. 22
Katerina experienced her first birthday party and was quite delighted with the candles and the singing. Joe's birthday is the 22nd and we had a nice dinner & cake. He celebrated on Sunday, the 24th with his friends, brother, and grandmother and we had another cake. He is 17 now. We gave him $ to put towards a new iPod nano.








Mom's Birthday Party - October 1
Mom came up for a visit on September 30th and we celebrated her birthday that night at La Panetiere with Lou, Dale, Bobby & Susie, and again the following night at home. Katerina once again enjoyed the birthday cake and candles and has begun to sing the song or some facsimile of the song.

















Autumn Moon Festival - October 6
We celebrated Autumn Moon festival at Kathy Miller's house. Although we could not see the moon that night - too cloudy - we did eat mooncakes. They sound better than they taste! There are many different ways to celebrate during the Autumn Moon Festival but "whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them. "

The nicest celebration I read about on my Yahoo Listservs was an FCC group in South Beach Florida who went out to dinner and then walked 10 blocks to the beach holding balloons and lanterns and with glow sticks inside. At the beach, they released the balloons to send good wishes to the birth families in China.



            Katerina's Birthday - October 13th
Yes, it was finally Katerina's birthday and she was primed for candles, singing, and cake. We did so on her birthday, Friday night with just us and then had a birthday party for her on Saturday. It was kind of a last minute idea to have a big bash and we invited family, of course, her playgroup, Chris, Kate, Tess & Finn, George & Deb. We re-arranged the dining/living room so that there was a big play area for the kids. All told, we had 6 kids (not counting Finn) and 12 adults.


Birthday Friends:  Katie, Sonia, Dani, Ally






















Fall Fun
Had a few opportunities for fall fun over the past month. On the morning of Katerina's birthday party, we attended an open house/fall festival at the Briarcliff Nursery School. On the day after, we went pumpkin picking with George & Deb, Mom & Aunt Susie. On Oct. 22 we attended a "Build your own scarecrow" event to benefit White Plains Hospital pediatric waiting room. At home, we carved 2 jack-o-lanterns and painted pumpkins.

Health & Behavior

Speech: There is progress, but not as much as I had hoped. She's starting to put 2 words together and getting good at the word, please. "Open please", "Up please". She's also fond of saying "Stop it" when she's not in the mood for something like tickling.

Growth: She is 30.5" and 21.5 lbs. She is starting to grow out of the 6 to 12 & 9 to 12-month clothes. Doing very well in 12 to 18months, but your straight 18months or 18 to 24 months are too big. Her shoe size has grown from size 3 to size 4.5 or 5.

Sleeping: She's been great going to sleep at night, although she stays up for quite a while "chatting" with her crib pals; Elmo, Chickoree Chick, and Baby Tad are still her favorites. She really really loves anything Elmo! Basically, we put her in the crib after story time somewhere between 8:30 and 9pm. On occasion, she is still up at 10pm. She wakes between 7 and 8. She has still been taking a 1-hour nap in the afternoon up until recently because it's been too cold for Nancy to take her for a walk in the stroller, which lulls her to sleep.

Behavior: Someone must have told her that she's now 2 years old because the terrible two's are upon us. She is very obstinate and throws a minor fit when she doesn't get her way about anything. I'm not sure how to best handle this. I keep reading that we should choose our battles and that toddlers need to be able to feel in control, but what about the making of a brat where they think that if they throw a tantrum they can get what they want? I really need to research this carefully, because I think the way it is handled now, will set the stage for a long time to come.

Naughty Stool: One of her favorite tricks is flinging food off the high chair or table. We have decided to focus on correcting this particular behavior and have begun putting her on the "naughty" stool when she does it. It's amazing how quickly she understood what the naughty stool is all about. She knows she must sit there and she now whimpers, keeps her hands in her lap and waits to be released. We have her sit for 2 minutes - I read the time should = the age and then we have her say I'm sorry, give her a hug and a kiss and she helps clean up the mess. It seems to have diminished since we've invoked the naughty stool and when she does it, she does it with full knowledge that she shouldn't. She looks at us with a defiant face, flings the food or drink and then gives us a "so there" look. And it's off to the naughty stool.

Eating: We are trying to introduce new foods with iron. I think she's ok with protein because she has a lot of dairy; cheese, milk, pudding. She eats a tremendous amount of fruit, some veggies and she continues to love macaroni and cheese, any kind of pasta and rice. She's hip to the mix up the meat with rice or pasta and proceeds to push the meat to one side. We tried lentils one night and she tolerated them. The doctor emphasized that she should be eating meat, chicken, and spinach for iron.

Other Activities
10/7 - Nancy & I took an Infant/Toddler CPR class
10/17 - Went to Baltimore for a 2-day conference. The first time away from Katerina overnight.