Total Stud

Cash is a real stud! he had his 18 month check up yesterday (a little late) and was a rockstar. Besides absolutely hating everyone in there - he always passes with flying colors! He really doesn't enjoy being there and Chandler had to take him until I could get there a few minutes late. I missed the weigh in but could hear him screaming down the hall - they are just measuring his head but you would think they are cutting off his limbs. The funniest part (that i missed) was when Cash wouldn't cooperate on the scale and the nurse had to weigh Chandler and then Cash and Chandler and do the math! i'm sure Chandler wasn't too happy about that one but the nurse didn't say anything. We met with the doctor and she was very happy with how Cash was growing - a whole 4lbs since his last visit (he now weighs close to 30lbs). Dr. Glasser calls him Fred Flinstone because of his giant feet. We did the autism screening and he passed that test. She asked us all the usual questions and we easily answered them all right. So we get to keep doing what we're doing. Cash is about in the 80th percentile for height and weight but he is very well proportioned - just a big kid which i lose sight of sometimes because we aren't around too many other 18 month olds. The dr. wants us to consider flossing Cash's teeth - yeah right, i just got him to let me brush his teeth without biting me recently.

He got a shot and a clean bill of health and now he doesn't have to go back until he is 2 and hopefully then he will understand a little bit better that these people aren't going to hurt him with that little tape measure.

kissing Cash

Cash loves to kiss now. MOstly he loves to kiss Slider but every now and again he will give us a kiss. The funny thing is that he always gives his kisses in pairs. If he kisses mommy he has to kiss daddy and will search him out until he can close the deal. He is the same way with high fives - both people get one, no matter what.

Cash can say "bless you" when you sneeze. He loves to read and will give up any toy for a chance to sit on your lap and read a book. His favorite books are alphabet books that show a bunch of different pictures representing a letter. He can go through the entire alphabet and point out his favorite things.

Airplane

Ball, banana, boat, bike, baby (shhh) - he's really good a "b" words and knows almost all of them.

Car, car, car, car, car

Doggie

Engine (vroom, vroom)

Fish

Gorilla (he tickles his armpits and says, hoo hoo hee hee)

Hat, hat, hat, hat

Motocycle

and the list goes on and on.



I think he calls his blanket "bath" - i need a few more nights to confirm this but at the end of the evening i ask him if he wants to go upstairs and he says "bath". We go upstairs and he runs directly to his bedroom door saying 'bath' and then i open to the door and he runs to his bed and grabs his blanket. we'll see.

new pictures

"Hello out there!"

Smiling for the camera

shouting something...

waving to the camera

Funny boy

Cash makes me laugh all the time...
For the first day Cash hated getting the drops put into his eyes but recovered quickly after we were done. Now, 3 days later, he actually thinks it is really funny and it makes him laugh when i even pick up the little bottle to administer the drops. I'm amazed by this but he actually lays down and looks straight up and starts to giggle. We're pretty lucky because this could be really bad.

Brothers Don't Shake Hands, Brothers Hug

Another boy for the Martin clan. The chromosome test looks at the sex chromosomes also and its a boy for sure. Although we sort of knew that because the last ultrasound we had it was pretty clear. Cash will have a little brother so the boys just keep on coming!

Also something to think about is all the one-sex families we have:
Judy - 2 boys
Mike - 3 boys
Nick - 4 girls
Marilyn - 3 girls
Rob - 2 girls
Jason - 2 girls
Elizabeth - 2 boys
Carolyn - 2 boys

YAY!!!!!

Finally got the first set of test results back and they came back NORMAL! This is only the first and smaller test called FISH. It tests a small number of chromosomes (13, 18 & 21). The full panel tests all chromosomes and test for all possible defects and diseases. We'll have the 2nd group back in 10-15 more days but since we were only at risk for chromosome #21 we feel pretty safe that we will have a healthy baby come December.

Poddy

Sylvia called last week and wants to begin potty training Cash. I think he is too young and this process will just be very long and drawn out if we do it this way. I was planning to start potty training him after 2 years when he was bigger and older and could do more himself. If we started now he would need a lot of assistance, pulling down pants, getting onto the seat, etc.
Sylvia has a very kind approach so i'm not concerned about that (especially after reading an article about a father who strangled/shook his daughter because she peed her pants). She just thinks that he is smart enough to get it. And he is. He does get it - sort of. He can tell you when his diaper is wet or dirty. Hearing him say the word "Poddy" is hillarious. And every time Chandler or I go into the bathroom he runs behind us shouting PODDY and then likes to hand you toilet paper and help you close the lid and flush. Although he is an "after the fact" guy and can't tell us he needs/wants to go poddy but instead knows what uncomfortable feels like with a wet or dirty diaper. If you ask him where his diaper is he can show you. If you ask him to pull down his pants (i always explain that mommy is the only one who should ask you to do this!) he can try to do this but ends up just tugging at his shirt mostly. So overall I would say he gets it but I don't think he is ready to try in earnest.
Another reason he is so "into" it is because he is at daycare with two older kids who have started using the potty and he sees that happening. I don't want to hold him back but i also want this process to be really smooth and painless and feel like if we waiting 6-8 months we could do it in a week as opposed to starting too early and it taking months and months. I'm going to talk to Sylvia about it but I always feel like i have to walk a very fine line when i disagree with her because after all, she is taking care of my love bug!

Cash has conjunctivitis - yuck. poor baby. got him drops from Urgent Care this morning. He has to stay home for 2 days.

UPDATE: Cash is healed. We kept him home from school yesterday and mommy stayed with him at home. it was pretty fun. we just played and made a huge mess. He took a really long nap so i could get some work done. He did take my blackberry apart when i wasn't watching and i had to call my help desk to figure out how to get it back together - that was fun explaining. The whole time he was "sick" he was actually feeling ok. He played and was in good spirits mostly. Back at school today so now I have to find new excuses for Sylvia as to why I'm not agreeing to start potty training.

Cash is an amazing swimmer

We spent a lot of time with wet hair this weekend. Which was good because it was about 105 or higher each day. Thursday night we went up to the park and played in the fountains. It took Cash a long time to warm up to the idea of the water shooting out of the ground but once he did he was laughing hysterically and getting all wet. We went up again on Friday morning but that wasn't as much fun because there were so many kids there and the local day cares drop van-loads of kids off with minimal supervision (i even got to do my first "mean mommy" thing and had to grab some kid by the arm and walk him over to the daycare lady and tell on him - he was splashing Cash and Chandler right in the face on purpose!). We also got to see some mermaids on Friday and had dinner out at a hotel. Cash really likes to dip his chips but discovered not all salsa is friendly and got into some hot stuff - that didn't go over well.
Saturday was Chandler's big race. He finished in 30 minutes and ran the whole way - he placed pretty high in his division (Clydesdale - hee hee). That morning Cash also woke up really early - 4:45am. I don't think he felt very well because he had a bit of a runny nose. We met Chandler and Reece for breakfast after their race and on the way home Cash fell asleep and took a pretty good nap. After his nap we all packed up and went to Aunt Marilyn's house to swim and bbq for the 4th of July. Cash had a really good time and was into everything - although Rylie did not like him touching "her stuff". He really liked to get in the pool and even pushed away from me to walk up and down the steps of the pool. We went home after dinner, Cash fell asleep in the car. An hour later Cash was awake and we all went out to watch fireworks in the car - we actually caught a really good show! Cash was awake until 10pm!!
That was good because he slept in until 8am the next morning. We did our usual Sunday stuff, waffles, played outside, Sams Club, etc. Cash took a nap and then after his nap we went to Marilyn's again to swim (Chandler stayed home this time). Cash went right to the pool and i held him by the tummy and he put his feet out and started kicking. He would also put his face in the water and can blow bubbles. He doesn't mind getting wet at all and liked to put his head under the waterfall. He's pretty fearless - which is scary too. We spent almost all afternoon in the water. He kept wanting to swim all around. He fell asleep in the car again and this time slept all through the night.

false alarm

no amnio today. the membranes aren't fused yet and it makes it too dangerous to do the procedure so we'll wait a week and try again.