Fetch!

So, today is Seth's 16 month birthday. I don't think I even told him or the kids, which is odd, since we tend to make a big deal about monthly birthdays around here. I meant to get pictures of him and do a Dear Seth post, but it will have to wait, because it turns out it's really hard to get pictures of a one year old who is in constant motion and whines constantly for you to stand three feet in front of him and move backwards slowly so he feels comfortable trying to walk towards you.

He doesn't want to walk in front of someone holding hands, he wants to walk towards someone. Which means you have to walk backwards in front of him, bent over and holding your hands out to catch him before he face plants, which happens pretty frequently. If you sit down or, god forbid, expect him to sit down, he whines uncontrollably and says "Help! Help! Help!" all while holding his arms up to you and circling his hands at the wrists wildly. I don't know why, but it does make it all look much more dramatic when he does the hand circling thing.

So, point is, it's pretty much impossible to do that and hold a camera and take a picture at the same time. Not that I didn't try, mind you. Just didn't work too well.

But you know what did work well? For one of the first times ever, I am loving a McDonald's toy. It's some Nerf target shooter, and it shoots out these little...thingies. Seems pretty simple, but Seth was obsessed with it and we literally spent half an hour before bedtime playing fetch. He brought me the dart thing (it's not a dart, but I don't actually know what it is, so...dart is what I'm calling it), inserted it into the holder himself, which made him very proud, then waited impatiently, bouncing up and down on his knees, until I shot it across the living room floor, at which point he crawled after it really, really fast.

Then we did it all over again. He probably crawled twenty feet to pick it up and twenty feet back to do it again about fifty times. He definitely got his cardio in tonight, and the best part? I did not hear one single peep from him when I put him to bed. It may have to become a nightly tradition!

I feel kind of bad about essentially making him play fetch, although he was really into it. Have you ever done something to your kids to get them to eat/sleep/give you peace and quiet that you're vaguely ashamed of? I mean, you shouldn't be too ashamed, especially if it worked, but I want to know what it is! Tell me.

More interesting news from the OB today, but that will have to wait until my next post. I am beat.

UPDATE:

I had no idea that November 17th was also Prematurity Awareness Day. Please head on over to my friend Trish's blog to read about her son's fight for survival. Seth was nowhere near as premature as her son, Robbie, but he had his very own unique fight due to Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Jace went through the same thing. Both boys could not breathe on their own, even though they were 7 lb 10 oz and 7 lb 6 oz, respectively. They both needed 3 doses of surfactant, something that the March of Dimes helped to develop that mimics a natural secretion of the lungs that allows them to expand. They were sick, sick kids. Most people hear about a 34 or 35 weeker and say "Oh, they're fine! That's not really a preemie." But it is. 34 weeks is not term. 35 weeks is not full term. Even though some babies are born at that gestation and do just fine, others just plain don't, and I happen to know two of them personally. But seriously, check out Trish's blog...her words touched my heart tonight.

And if you're feeling led to help preemies and their families, a really cool way to do it is by volunteering to help out Survival Mode Parent, an organization very close to my heart. How hard is it to take an hour out of your day to help out a parent who has been stuck in the NICU for days or weeks? So cool.