Chunk - A - Lunk

As promised here are a few photos of Peanut in all of his chunky glory.  Clothed he is deceiving in his not as chunky look - but shed those clothes and you can see each ounce! Enjoy!  

Peanut Update - 2 months

15 pounds 12 ounces and 24 ½ inches long.  He also has a 15 ¾ head circumference.  He is off the charts for length and weight so we don’t have any percentiles to share other than FAT!  He has gained about 6 pounds in 2 months!

Amazingly enough these are the exact same stats that Little Man had at his 2 month appointment.  Other than that we don’t have anything to report.  The doctor said that he looks great and she has no concerns.  He took his shots like a champ and fell asleep (go figure) within a few minutes after getting them.  Oh, he did pee on her and spit up on her, so we were batting 100 on the bodily fluid count.

Peanut has started to come out of his shell, so to speak.  (sorry for the awful pun).  He coos and makes sweet sounds when he isn’t screaming at me.  His best cry is his tired cry. It is a staccato goat mew, like Mwa mwa and if I lay him down right after hearing that cry he sighs, sucks on his pacifier and goes to sleep.  He is sleeping mostly through the night now in 6-9 hour stretches and likes to be held close to our body.  His favorite thing is to be in the sling.  It holds him nice and close to my body and it takes him about 2 seconds to fall asleep in it, usually clutching my shirt to make sure I don’t leave him.  He definitely has a strong personality and knows what he wants (usually sleep) when he wants it.  He makes it known when he is bored and would like a change of scenery but calms down easily and quickly when you meet his needs.  I would say that he is a low needs baby as long as you meet those needs quickly! 

I will post pictures of his fatness later today.  We might even get to have a count the rolls contest!!

C is for Cookie

I have been working on pronunciation with Little Man whenever possible.  I know that he is only 2 but I know that he can say the sounds and just is lazy when it comes to pronouncing his words.  For example, he has the hard C sound but when he says Cookie he calls it Dokie or Cup is called a Dup.  So I say to him C C C Cookie and then I ask him to repeat it.  He does so easily and then when I ask him to say Cookie he immediately reverts back to Dokie.  I am not deterred because I have seen progress in a lot of words.  Elmo used to be Melmo and is now properly called Elmo.  Although, I do have to admit that I miss some of the cutness in how he used to say things I love to watch and see/hear the progression in his learning.  A few days ago, we were driving home from somewhere and I was working on his hard C again.  I said C C C (hear the hard C sound when you read this) Cookie, C C C Cup and he said C C C Mama, C C C Papa.  Ok so either he doesn’t get it or he is a smarty pants.  Probably a little bit of both.

 

By the way, as I type this post Little Man and I are having a battle of wills.  He took his blocks out, played with them, tossed them liberally around the living room and is refusing to clean them up. So instead of timeout because I don’t believe not cleaning up is necessarily a time out behavior I have refused to play any new games or take out any new toys until he cleans up his blocks.  He has now tried quite a few ploys to make me go back on this.  He has gotten “stuck” and then asked for help and then tried to make a game out of getting stuck.  He started to clean up his blocks by putting them in his tunnel to try to get me to play tunnel with him.  Any suggestions on how to get my 2 year old to clean up his toys without this fight?  And yes, I have tried singing, I have tried making  a game out of it, I have tried time out, I have tried taking the toys away.  The battle of wills continue, but I will prevail.  My will is stronger than his or at least has more experience than his does.

Uncle Mark, Get Set, GO

In attempting to distract Little Man while nursing Peanut, I asked Little Man if he wanted to race around the house.  He, of course with much enthusiasm said yes.  So I said, “On your mark, Get set, GO”.  And off he ran around and around.  Then when he stopped he said “more mama, more.” So I again said “On your mark, Get set, GO”.  And again, around and around he went.  Then he stopped and said “Uncle Mark, Get set, GO!”  And there we have it, that is how he starts his running streaks.  Uncle Mark, Get set, GO!

1,2,5,6

Little Man will not use the number 3 and 4.  He can count to 10, sometimes even 12 but he omits 3 and 4.  So we sing a song (from Sesame Street (thanks Italian Mom)) called 1234.  Obviously it goes something like 1,2,3,4 I love counting, counting to the number 4.  He looks right at me and sings 1,2,5,6, counting to number 5.  I think this is on purpose now, I think he is playing me.  I think that the crazy part is that he might even be smarter than me.  Maybe 3 and 4 are just extraneous numbers or maybe the omission is a symbol of how he is asserting his independence.  Whatever it is, I cannot get the boy to use the numbers 3 and 4.

The Future Mr. and Mrs. Little Man

I would like to formally introduce the future Mrs. Little Man!  She is everything that a Mama Bear like me could want in a wife for my son.  She is very clever and knows her own mind.  Often times she can be seen leading Little Man where she wants to go and he is happy as a clam to follow her.  But she is just as likely to walk next to him as she is to lead him, she will be a good partner.  She can take care of herself (as much as is possible in a 2 year old, but I can see her potential).  She loves Little Man and when she is in trouble or not having fun she often asks for him to come and rescue or play with her.  Most importantly she loves and respects me as Little Man’s mother and has already learned that I know best!  So with no further ado, I give you the future Mr. and Mrs. Little Man. 

Meeting Mrs. H

Today we had a classroom visit with Little Man’s teacher for next school year.  I told him that he was going to school again and he was so excited he literally started running around in circles.  Before we left he needed a diaper change, which is something that he usually runs from.  I told him that before we could go to school he needed his shoes on and his diaper changed.  When I next looked down he was laying on the floor with his diaper in this hand trying to tug on his shoes.  I knew then that he was over the top excited.  I put him in the car and he immediately looked next to him and said “Where is Baby LJ?”  I explained that this was a special Mama/Little Man time.  I thought that he would be as excited about that as I was but instead he told me that he missed Baby LJ and wanted him to come to school too.  I thought it was so sweet that he wanted “baby brother” to come too even when he was going to get some alone time. 

We worked on his teachers name all the way to school and by the time we got there he was totally ready to say hi to Mrs. H.  We jumped out of the car and as we walked into school he said “Mrs. H. hug me”.  I knew he was going to have a good time.  As he entered the classroom he said “Hi Mrs. Teacher H.”  Well close enough, right?  For 20 minutes he got to explore the classroom, interact with some of his classmates, feed the goldfish (this was the highlight), play at the water table and talk to his teacher.  He had such a good time it was tough to drag him out of there.  I love his teacher.  Mrs. H was so good with the kids and he immediately was comfortable interacting with her and even showing off his knowledge of sea creatures.   He impressed her with his correct identification of sea horses, seals and whales.  I found out that he will get to do things like hatch chicks, grow a garden, paint with fish (I think dead fish) and other cool stuff.  Papa Bear and I feel that we made a great decision enrolling him for this next school year!

Sleep Glorious Sleep

Peanut slept 8 hours last night without a feeding.  He went to bed at 8:30 and woke at 4:30 for his next feeding.  I did not sleep because I was halfway between way too excited that he was sleeping and totally overprotective and checking on him every hour because I am not used to a child that sleeps.  I am so so proud of him (and me).  And then he slept until about 7:30 this morning.  When I went in to get him he gave me a great big smile when I picked him up and then he gave Papa Bear and Little Man smiles too.  It was a great night and a wonderful way to start the morning.  My peanut is sleeping through the night at exactly 8 weeks!!!

Microstories

For those of you who are just joining us, microstories are moments or memories that don't warrent a full blog post, but that I still want to capture and share.

Week of May 17th

Two days ago Little Man walked up to me and bit me on the arm.  This is so out of character that I was speechless.  I just looked down at him and he bit me again.  Now the bite didn’t hurt and was not hard, but I felt teeth and I didn’t like where this was going.  So I said to him, “Why did you do that?” and he looked up at me and said “I’m going to eat Mama up, love you this much” and he held out his arms.  Well how could I reprimand him after that?  First, he is just repeating what I say to him all the time and second, how cute is that.  So I told him that he needed to just pretend to eat Mama up.  So he picked up my arm, pretended to take a bite and said “Mama happy now?”  I said that I was very happy and he said, “Up moon, back again” – which interpreted means Mama loves me up to the moon and back again.  Once again, how cute is that!!

Peanut makes us work for smiles.  To date, I have received 5, Papa Bear has gotten 1, Little Man got 1 and our friend Christina even coaxed one out of him.  But it is tough.  He is a tough audience.  So today I was having some face to face time and realized that what I need to be shooting for is a “not a frown face”.  He always looks so grumpy that when I get a pleasant face, even if it isn’t a smile – I should note the not a frown and be happy with that until he can give us more smiles.  So of course, I said this out loud to Little Man.  Well he smiled and ran off.  What did I expect, a reply?  A few minutes later he runs back into the room and says “Watch Mama, a crayon face” and he puts a crayon near Peanuts head and then says “Not a crayon face” and takes it away.

Peanut is trying his best to suck his thumb instead of taking the pacifier while I try my best to block his thumb sucking efforts and force the pacifier.  Today I put him down for a nap in his crib and popped the binky in.  He started sucking and then he dropped propelled it out of his mouth with such force that it went through the bars and out of the crib and he brought his hand up and tried to find his thumb.  His only downfall is that he hasn’t figured out how to untuck his thumb from his fist so he misses his thumb.  I popped the binky back in and told him that I will win this battle so stop trying.  He promptly closed his eyes and went to sleep. 

Tonight at dinner Little Man was procrastinating eating (as usual).  Papa Bear and I didn't want to wait for dessert (dessert is a special treat as I usually don't make one).  We thought that we would get the dessert out and eat it ourselves as an enticement for Little Man to hurry up and eat his dinner so that he could have some. (Plus, we really really wanted to eat it and waiting was annoying)  He had peas and corn and beans all over his tray to his booster.  I should also note that he didn't have a shirt on because he was "helping" me wash dishes and had drenched himself before dinner.  In desperation (since he was refusing to eat any dinner) he lunged for a piece of my double chocolate pudding pie.  He missed due to my ninja like reflexes but when he leaned back I noticed that he had gotten a pea stuck into his belly button.  It was there for the rest of dinner and continued to make us laugh.

Baxter the Mouse Returns

Before we left for our trip to DE, Papa Bear and I saw a mouse running through our living room.  After screaming like a little girl (me, not Papa Bear – although he did do a fancy dance when it ran right at him) Papa Bear set out the no kill trap baited with peanut butter.

I would like to note at this point that I am all for the kill trap because I think it is the same mouse coming back over and over again.  But Papa Bear is in charge or removing live animals from the house so although I have voiced my opinion, I am overruled.

The next morning a mouse was in the trap. Little Man was more than excited that Baxter, his mouse friend had returned.  But he was concerned that the mouse missed his mama and papa and wanted to make sure that he got home.  I was equally concerned that the mouse be returned to his home.  So he and Papa Bear went off to take Baxter, the pizza eating mouse friend, back to his home in the woods near the frog pond.  They walked all the way there and let Baxter(II) go (again).  After saying bye to his friend, Little Man discovered that the frogs were croaking in the pond.  He and Papa Bear “poked the frogs with sticks and made them CROAKY CROAKY” according to Little Man’s recap of the trip.  I had to discuss the pros and cons of letting Little Man poke a frog with a stick, but since I am not the player with of live animals as that is Papa Bear’s role, again I was overruled.

Fun was had, the mouse is gone in his home (for now) and no actual frogs were hurt in the poking during this story.

Tripping to Delaware

This weekend we took Peanut on his first out of town trip.  It was only a day trip, but it was an important trip.  He went to meet his Great Grandmother and his Great Aunt.  There are a lot of different parts to this story, to this trip so settle in for a long post.

 We packed up the car the night before and as soon as Little Man poked his head up in the morning we put both boys in the car and headed out. Peanut, yes you guessed it, slept the entire time (imagine that).  Little Man was so excited to see “MeeMom (grandma), Mommom (great grandma), Dumba (simba, the dog) and Aunt Cereal (Great Aunt Suzi).  He practically bounced in his seat for the 2 hour drive.  We packed a ton of snack distraction food and looked for trucks, cranes, diggers and bulldozers on the highway.  The highlight of the trip was the Big Tunnel.  Little Man has been through the tunnel a ton of times on his way to DE, but this was the first time that he registered what it was.  As we went through the tunnel he was mesmerized and excited.  As we left the tunnel he started making this noise of NNNNNN NNNNN NNNN.  I asked him what he was doing and he said “Big Tunnel, NNNN  NNN.”  That was the sound that he heard as we drove through the tunnel. It is amazing to me what we, as adults, don’t notice or take for granted.  Then the sound got annoying and we sang a song to try and distract him again.

 A quick note at this point in the story is that just as we got on the highway we hear Little Man in the back say “shoes off, shoes off”.  Well he didn’t have any shoes on, so I turned around to tell him that he didn’t have any shoes on and that is when Papa Bear and I (despite our careful late planning) we hadn’t remembered to bring him shoes.  We didn’t pack any thinking he would wear them up and we didn’t put him in any because we figured he would just take them off.  We did a quick u-turn, got shoes and thanked Little Man for helping us remember his shoes.

 Peanut was a darling.  He slept in his pack n play, a feat that Little Man never even attempted.  And he was so well behaved to meet his Great Grandma and Great Aunt.  It was so special to me that my mommom and my aunt who have played such an important role in my life got to spend quality, loving time with my youngest son.  Aunt Suzi held him and held him and kissed him and talked to him and kissed him again.  Mommom looked on while she fed the rest of us, played with Little Man and kissed on Peanut whenever Aunt Suzi let someone else near!  It was wonderful and despite the late night packing and early morning start, it was worth it. 

 Then we had the 2^nd worst drive home from DE ever!  The first is a Little Man story from a while back.  Anyway, I know this will shock all of you, but Little Man slept the entire way and Peanut screamed off and on for 2 hours.  And I am not talking about his cute goat like mewing cries, I mean turning purple and vibrating with rage cries.  It was awful and I spent 2 hours wrenched in half trying to hold a binky in and stay in a seat belt at the same time.  I will let you guess which one of those became more important to me.  Papa Bear was a champ as he navigated through traffic in the rain with a screaming infant and a stressed out Mama Bear.  But we made it him and all of us crashed in our respective beds until Little Man decided that he wanted to get up and see Mommom at 4 am. 

So that was our first (and probably our last for a while) out of town day trip.  If you have stopped reading this very long post, I don’t blame you.  But then you will miss this lead into the next post.  Baxter the Mouse (II) was captured in a no kill trap this morning.  And Little Man and Papa Bear are on a quest to take the pizza eating mouse back to his family in the woods.  Stayed tuned for more details about this adventure!!! 

Somersaults Galore

Little Man is an acrobat, gymnast, crazy man extravaganza.  There isn't a thing that he hasn't tried to jump, climb or flip off of.  Amazingly enough he hasn't racked up too many injuries (knocking on wood right now!!), but he still gives me a heart attack. Instead of trying to get him to not do these things, which would be an impossibility as I feel that it is built into his genetics (thanks mom) I am working on helping him do these things safely.  So today we worked on somersaults.  He loves doing them and will somersault across the floor, but he doesn't tuck his chin and lands flat on his back almost every time.  This means that there is more of a splat action than a rolling action.   

So our first attempt, he got into position and I told him to tuck his chin.  He did nothing and landed flat on his back, SPLAT.  I thought maybe he didn't understand "tuck your chin" so I told him to touch his chin to his chest.  This time he uncurled from the somersault position and started running in circles with his head down much like a dog chasing his tail.  He was trying to get his chin to his chest but didn't understand the simple act of lowering his chin, he was jutting his chin out and trying to puff out his chest and I guess thought that running in circles would help his cause.  So I tried another approach.  He again got into somersault position and I told him to lower his chin and touch his chest like this... and I demonstrated.  He quickly stands up, juts his chin out and touches it to MY chest.  For my last attempt at making somersaults safer for him I got him back into somersault position and told him to look at his bellybutton thinking that this would make him lower his chin to his chest without him even realizing it.  He reached down, pulled up his shirt and did a one handed somersault (without tucking his chin) complete with a splat not roll motion.  So I just gave up, he wins this round!

(Ok, tell the truth people, how many of you touched your chin to your chest while reading this post?)

Schools In for the Summer?

Yesterday morning was an exciting morning for us, it was the morning that Little Man got to see his school for the first time.  We never tell him things ahead of time because he still doesn’t understand the concept of time and would be dressed and ready for school at 2 am if we told him about it the night before.  So first thing in the morning we explained that we were going to go see his new school.  His face brightened and he said “Ride school bus”.  I explained that it was Little Kid school and when he went to Big Kid school he could ride a school bus.  This time he was going to have to ride with Mama and Papa.  He perked up even more and said “Mama and Papa ride school bus too!”  Once we finally convinced him he had to go in our car we went to the New Parents Orientation.  I was so proud of Little Man.  He went and played with the other kids without any protest.  He kept saying “my school” as he looked around.  It helped that he knew some of the kids there who live in our neighborhood.  All in all, my little boy is growing up and getting ready for school.  I think that this transition is going to be much harder on me than it will be on Little Man!

Zoo, Living Room Safari and Growing Up

I haven’t posted in a few days so here are some of the moments and memories that I wanted to capture.

Little Man and I went on a safari today.  As we crept through the jungle we pretended that we were the animals.  Now I am not sure about this jungle because I don’t know many jungles that have goats and dogs, but the jungle in our living room sure did.  But here is the thing, I always had to be the goat or dog and Little Man always got to be the monkey, elephant, giraffe, cheetah.  When I asked him if I could be the monkey he simply said, “No, mama is a goat, JaJa (he can say Jackson but still calls himself JaJa) is the monkey”.  Well there you have it folks, I am the goat and he is the monkey. 

So I have already talked about how big Peanut is getting, but tonight it hit home (again).  I must have left a 0-3 month sleeper in his drawer because after he spit up on the one he wore to bed I grabbed a sleeper in the dark to put on him.  I couldn’t button it.  He is currently in his bed with a sleeper unbuttoned from ankle to crotch with his diaper hanging out.  It is quite comical, but not worth waking a sleeping baby over!

 This weekend as part of Mother’s Day, we took the boys to the zoo.  It wasn’t the National Zoo – it was the Reston Zoo.  They don’t have a lot of big animals, but the animals get right close and personal.  Little Man had a blast and Peanut, well Peanut slept through it just like everything else.  Little Man wasn’t 100% sure about these animals that kept coming up to him.  When we went on the wagon ride, it was just me and Little Man.  Papa Bear was kind enough to watch Peanut (sleep) so that I could get some good one on one time with Little Man.  Since the introduction of Peanut, that has been hard to get.  It was awesome, I have missed my time with him.  At one point an ostrich appeared out of nowhere right next to us.  Little Man very quickly yelled “Bye Bye Ostrich, go to your home” which got a chuckle out of the adults on the wagon ride. The rest of the wagon ride he would direct the animals.  "Zebra stay stay stay" (he liked them because they didn’t get too close) and my favorite direction of them all “Camel no eat me please” as the camel took a nip of his hair.  We had the best time and he is still talking about it.  

Mama Got Out!

So normally my blogs are about the boys because this blog is all about the memories and moments that I should be putting in their baby books - but let's face it, this is easier and other people get to enjoy it too.  

But today I wanted to share a milestone for me!  I GOT OUT!  Yes, I left the house, went to the movies, read People Magazine while waiting for the movie, watched the movie (and ate popcorn and twizzlers) ALL WITHOUT A CHILD ATTACHED TO ME. As part of my Mother's Day gift, Papa Bear arranged for me to leave the boys with him for the afternoon while I got out.  Now, both of the boys slept almost the entire time I was gone BUT who cares, I got out.  AND Papa Bear organized my closet ( it was the out with the maternity clothes and in with the regular clothes transition).  Oh and Papa Bear made a special dinner that he prepped while I was gone so when I got home he still was in charge of BOTH BOYS (which is why I can blog in the middle of the day) and now we are going to go for a walk in the not raining, nice day.  

Seriously, to all the papa's in the world while it is sweet to have the kids make mama breakfast and shower her with hand made gifts - the best gift to a mama on Mother's Day is some time to herself.  

THANK YOU PAPA BEAR, I couldn't have asked for anything better than time to myself!

Oh and so this has something to do with the boys too.  I have to report that Peanut is starting to lose his baby hair which means that he slowly is starting to look like an old man with a receding hairline.  It isn't pretty, but he is still my butterball cuteness!

Here is a picture of the boys in twin shirts (which I had promised myself I would never to do them, but I couldn't resist because it is adorable and not as annoying when I am not the one being dressed up as a twin)

We are so cute!

I love my baby brother!

  All Done!

The Mess that Made A Story

Did you make that mess?

Me?  

       How could you even ask?

Ok, maybe it was me..

I didn't mean to do it

Sorry Mama

I LOOVE YOU!

Don't look at me, I didn't do it!

Micro Stories

There are things that happen throughout the week or day that aren’t quite worthy of a full blog, but are worth mentioning or I want to note for the future so I am going to call those postings Microstories and try to capture them each week or so…

 

Every day when Papa Bear comes home from work he takes Little Man outside for some running around before dinner.  Typically, they will ride one of Little Man’s bikes/trikes/big wheel type contraption of which he has many (more than he needs).  Earlier this week as Papa Bear popped Little Man up onto the curb he told him he was going to “pop-a-wheely”.  Little Man immediately returned that he wanted to “mama-wheely” instead.  Oh how cute he is.  Now when they ride bikes he goes through it all, Mama-Wheely, BabyLG-Wheely and Papa-Wheely. 

 

Last night at dinner, which was remarkably laid back and easy because Little Man was getting his favorite dinner and did not have to be cajoled into each, Peanut gave us his first smile of recognition.  He was sitting in his blue chair next to the dinner table and I looked down and said hi and he looked up at me and smiled (through his binky) right at me.  It made my entire day and I have since been caught trying to sneak up on him, appear out of nowhere to see if I can get another one!

 

Little Man received Elmo socks from his Aunt Carol and Uncle Lee in the mail yesterday.  They have since not come off of his feet.  When I asked what made him sleep so well last night, we agreed that it was the magic Elmo socks.  His feet just might turn red before he lets me remove them!  And yes, I am that mom that will let him wear them for 3 days straight because some battles are worth fighting and some are just Elmo socks.

 

I love Little Man’s resilience.  This morning we were playing with his blocks and we were building bird houses and very very high towers.  His tower had gotten decently high when it came tumbling down.  I waited for his dismay and all he said was “Almost, now try again”.  I was so proud of him and said that’s right we can always make it again.  He looked up at me with his wise 2 year old eyes and said “Mama make it this time”.  So I did because how could I refuse his cuteness.

 

The other day there was a sad event of a snail.  Papa Bear and Little Man were outside playing and came across a snail.  For what seemed like 20 minutes they watched and played with this snail.  All of a sudden Little Man stood up and promptly stepped on the snail.  He didn’t do it maliciously as he proved by his next sentence.  He looked up and said “Papa, snail no move?”  Papa Bear did a great distraction technique to avoid having to explain death and dying of a snail to a 2 year old.  But sometimes when we play in the yard, Little Man returns to the scene of the crime and says “Bye Bye snail, no move”.  So I guess he gets is afterall.

The Amazing Baby With No Neck

Check out Peanut in all of his glorious chunk.  I can't find his neck and he has at least 3 rolls I have to wade through to find his adorable bum.  He is 6 weeks today and could probably pass for 3 months from a size perspective.  I love all of his chunk and fat, so much more to kiss on and love.

Star Gazing

I have no explanation. I have a few ideas, but none that are backed by scientific fact so I hesitate to share them. What I do know is that both of my boys love to stare at the ceiling in my living room, in any room really. They just like to look up. It started at about 6 weeks for both of them. When you pick them up, they throw themselves back (so if you are new to holding babies, I wouldn't start with mine) and stare at the ceiling as if I had taped up a picture of Pamela Anderson in all of her plastic glory above them. Many theories exist, we have brown beams and a white ceiling and babies like contrast. (But infants at 6 weeks can only see about 12 inches in front of them so I am not sure that is the case). There is a position in the womb called star gazing where they are tilted back just like this and thus prefer that position out of the womb. (Except that they didn't start this behavior until 6 weeks so that kind of rules that theory out.) Whatever the reason, it is either genetic or environmental, it is either normal or very strange, it is either good for them or bad for them, but whatever it is - it is hard to hold on to them, so watch out!

Peanut

Little Man

The Peanut Scare (Part II)

When I was pregnant with Little Man I did all of the research for the top of the line safety equipment (I stopped just short of a diaper helmet to protect his head).  The most important to me was the monitor.  I had heard that a video monitor was too much (didn’t give you a great picture and you just ended up staring at a dark screen stressed out) and that a sound monitor was too little (you ended up checked every 5 minutes to see if the baby was breathing).  Ok, maybe you wouldn’t, but I would have.  So I found my monitor, it was a sound and movement detector.  If the baby stopped moving for more than 20 seconds an alarm would sound signaling that the baby had stopped breathing.  Perfect!  It fit all of my criteria without being way too over the top.  (Some of you might disagree with this, but whatever my kids, my neuroses, my decision.)  Well I can’t tell you if it really worked for me with Little Man because he might have slept in his crib all of 3 weeks his whole life.  We ended up co-sleeping (stop judging people) until he was 9 months old and then he moved right onto a mattress.  But Peanut loves his crib.  He prefers it to his swing and to his bassinet.  Ok, enough chatter, on to the scare.  So last night, or really really early this morning the ALARM SOUNDED.  That is right, Peanut’s monitor alarm sounded and I jumped straight out of bed yelling for Papa Bear and rushing down the hall.  It was the longest 10 steps of my life.  And what did I find.  Peanut had scootched himself up to the very top of the crib and was laying horizontal across the top instead of vertical (as I had laid him in earlier) so he was no longer registering on the alarm pad.  I rotated him and pulled him back into place earning myself a “Mwaaa” screech from the Peanut himself.  This one is on the move and already sending me into panics.  Let’s just say I didn’t sleep much the rest of the night and eventually just put him back in the bassinet next to my bed where I could keep an eye on him.  Yes, Mama Bear is overprotective and maybe a little over the top but it is my right and well, the facts are that I am just that kind of Mama.

When Mama Bear's Away.....

Papa Bear and Little Man will play!  Papa Bear is not known for his Mama Bear approved games.  He and Little Man have created games called Rocket Ball and Blast Off.  It does not go unnoticed that both times Little Man has chipped his teeth, Papa Bear was in charge (although I am over the trauma of it, well mostly over it).  

Tonight I was doing a friend a favor and babysitting for her kids so she could go on a date with her husband.  So after dinner, Peanut and I packed it up and headed out leaving Papa Bear and Little Man the run of the house for a few hours.  They had a blast together as always, but I did find this video when I returned that proves that Papa Bear and Little Man were not operating under Mama Bear Rules.  The rules that have been broken are as follows:

1.  No wagon rides down steps

2.  Helmet on when riding dangerous rides

3.  If you have to say the words "Hold On Tight" then stop whatever it is you are doing and ask yourself "Would Mama Bear say this was a good choice?" 

Ok so I made that last one up just now, but watch the video and you will understand why that has become a new official Mama Bear Rule!