Sitting Pretty

Peanut has a new perching place!  He loves to be in the exosaucer or the jumperoo.  He hasn't figured out how to play with the toys in front of him, in fact, he tends to keep his arms tucked into his seat.  BUT he can watch Little Man jump around and play with the toys.  He loves the vantage point that it provides and he likes being on his feet (sort of, only his tippy toes touch).  So he has graduated from the swing to the bouncy seat to the exosaucer.  Boy do they grow up fast.  Here are a few pics of him enjoying his perch!

Chunky Kid Comparison

My boys, at least as infants, are fat and I love every last ounce of that fat.  It means more places for binkys to hide and more places for milk to collect.  It means putting diaper cream in fat rolls to keep the moisture rashes away and it means that age appropriate clothing look like torture devices and that most people think that they are a lot older than they actually are.  It means that they out grow infant car seats by 5 months and that they exceed weight limits for seats, bassinets and other infant toys long before they should.   It means I can't find their ankles nor can I find socks that don't cut off circulation to their cankles.  But that is my normal, I only know fat babes and what it means most to me is that I have more to kiss and squeeze every day.  

Here are my two boys at the exact same age, in similar poses (in fact, I think I am inadvertanly wearing the same shirt) so you can see them in all their chunky glory.  So who do you think is chunkier.....????

Little Man

Or

Peanut

Peanut Update - 3 months

Tomorrow Peanut will be 3 months old and at some point when I have a free minute (ok, I never have a free minute but maybe a few seconds) I will be switching his clothes out AGAIN.  As he turns 3 months, I will be putting away the 3-6 month clothing and bringing in the 6-12 month clothing.  It became clear tonight that I had to bite the bullet and make the switch when I tried to put on his 3-6 month pajamas and the neck part didn't quite reach the edge of his shoulders.  His girth (which there is plenty of) and his length have exceeded the recommended weight requirements and I must once again face the fact that he is growing up, or at the very least getting bigger.  

He is now sleeping at least 9 hours straight in the night and still giving his smiles away to me and Papa Bear.  He has caught his first cold, courtesy of Little Man but it hasn't slowed him down...from sleeping all the time.  

Prediction time - I predict that at his 4 month appointment on July 27th that he will be 19 pounds 14 ounces.  Anyone care to make a guess...I will give a prize to the winner!

Pictures of Papa's Day

We had a fantastic day and we are all exhausted from all of our fun, especially Little Man.  He.....

Swung

Spun 

Hopped

Climbed

And Dug!

Peanut, slept...

and just generally hung out!

Happy Papa's Day

Today is Father's Day or as Little Man says "Happy Papa Day!"  We started the day by making chocolate chip strawberry whip cream shortcakes. And Little Man could finally tell Papa Bear the secret he had been keeping for a week.  I asked Little Man, "What did we get Papa for Papa's Day?" and his simple and confident reply was "Me, Mama we got Papa me!"  It was so endearing and sweet, but the truth was that we had made a garden stone with handprints and footprints of the boys and a coffee bean grinder that he had been asking for.  So I reminded Little Man of the gifts and he got so excited once he remembered that he wasn't the only gift we were giving Papa Bear.  He jumped up and said "Coffee Coffee Coffee for Papa".  So upstairs we went to give Papa Bear his delicious breakfast in bed and his coffee coffee coffee and garden stone.  Peanut, well, he woke up long enough to give Papa Bear a big cheesy smile for Papa's Day and then promptly went back to bed.  We are off now on a day of family fun and I am sure that I will have pictures to post at the end of what promises to be a fun and exhausting day.  

Photo Friday

Random Anecdotes

Little Man has a flip-page book that he loves to read before bed.  Each page has an animal and it says "Who says baa baa" and you flip open a flap and there is a picture of a sheep.  Well we got to the page where it says "Who says Mehh Mehh" and he is supposed to say "goat" but instead he shouts "Bealge" (which is his nickname for Peanut).  I guess he hears his goat imitation a lot too!  

He also has this "You have a new baby" book by Dr. Sears.  It is Dr. Sears so it is very attachment parenting and it talks about how the baby nurses with mama and how mama wears the baby in the sling (all of the things we do) but it also talks about co-sleeping which we don't do (mostly because Peanut wants his crib and isn't happy anywhere else) and in the co-sleeping section there is a picture of the dad sleeping and Little Man points at it and say "Papa says SNNNNN ZZZZZ".  I said, "Does Papa snore" and he says to me "Really really loud".  And there you have it, he complains all the way from his room about it!

I am not sure if it has been noted in this blog, but Little Man originally named Peanut "Max" and for a while would not accept that it wasn't his name.  Well the other day at the doctor's office the doctor asked him a few questions and here were his answers:

1.  What is your name?  Answer: JAJA

2.  How old are you? Answer: 2 (return question: "How old are you?" The dr. didn't answer)

3.  What is your brother's name?  Answer: MaxLJ Bealge

4.  Does your ear hurt you?  Answer: No my toe hurts

5.  Can I look in your mouth?  Answer: Yes, No, Yes really really fast

I thought it went fairly well considering he was being asked these questions by a doctor he had never seen before.

Happy Anniversary and A Long Long Day

Today Papa Bear and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary...with doctor's appointments, nebulizer treatments, emergency EKG's, albuterol inhalers, naps, McDonald's and early bedtimes.  Boy, how times have changed.  Only 3 years ago, we celebrated our anniversary with a fancy french dinner in Old Town and then watched fireworks (that were just coincidently going off on our anniversary)  Today, the hacking cough of our 2 year old broke my heart and the lack of attention I was able to give my 12 week old filled me with sadness.  

We barely even got to see each other today as we had to split our time between kids so that I could spend 2 hours at the doctor's office getting Little Man the treatment that he needed to be able to breathe.  To sum up the illness quickly (because it isn't the point of the post), Little Man caught a virus about 10 days ago that has progressed into an upper and lower respiratory infection and bronchitis.  When we got to the office this morning Little Man's oxygen was at 72% (way too low) and his pulse was 180 (way too high).  He had an EKG to make sure that he was having and normal sinus rhythm and a nebulizer breathing treatment to help him be able to breathe.  They gave us an albuterol inhaler to treat him every 4 hours for the next 2 days and then we go back in. It was a long, scary day.  But we got through it as a family, Papa Bear and I got through it as partners.  He put Peanut down for a nap and watched him while I was at the appointment.  We talked on the phone at intervals through the appointment and I was able to stay calm with his help and strength.  He let me nap for a while in the afternoon holding Little Man in my arms with no recriminations, knowing without me having to say anything that I needed to hold my baby for a while.  He took Little Man out to get his prescription and got us a very unhealthy dinner of McDonalds because it always makes me feel better.  I put Little Man to bed while he rocked Peanut.  We might not have seen much of each other, but we were in sync, we were a team and we made it through a long day together.  So we might not have celebrated in the ways of the past, but we certainly pulled from all 9 years of our time together to get through the day.  I couldn't ask for a better partner, a better friend, a better father for my boys.  Happy Anniversary.

Takes A Lickin' and Keeps On Tickin'

Sorry it has been a few days between posts.  Little Man has caught an awful bug that he has so thoughtfully passed on to me (and all of his friends) that has lasted over a week now.  He has an antibiotic now so hopefully he will mend quickly.

Over the last week or so Little Man has tried to prove his new superpower of invincibility.  (and no judging on parenting as you finish this post, we do our best)

1.  Papa Bear has finally set real traps instead of those humane traps for Baxter the Mouse Part 4 or 5 or whatever we are on.  Unfortunately, he has only trapped Little Man.  Let me explain.  During the day, the traps are set behind locked doors in closets that Little Man does not have access.  However, at night Papa Bear sets out the traps in the places where the mice have been seen cavorting.  As the sun rises, so does Little Man and Papa Bear removes the traps to a safe location when he and Little Man come downstairs.  EXCEPT when Little Man scurries past Papa Bear to pick up the trap and set it off on his fingers.  Proving his invincibility, Little Man just grunted and held his hand up to Papa Bear for the trap removal.  Yes, I know it could take off fingers, Yes I know that it could have maimed him, Yes I know that all traps should remain behind locked doors at all times due to Little Man's lightening quick reflexes (or the slow ones of Papa Bear at 5am).  But no harm was done AND no mice have been caught either!

2.  Little Man, Peanut and I went to a park near our house for some afternoon fun.  Peanut was, yes you guessed it, sleeping in the stroller which left me free to really get down and play with Little Man.  So we set up an obstacle course on the playground and started running it in loops.  We would run up the slide, across the bridge, hop down the step, run around and around in circles (maybe this was where we went wrong) and then slide down the little slide and then we would start it all over again.  On the third circuit Little Man must have forgotten about the bar the ran across the top of the slide. (On the first two circuits he grabbed onto the bar swinging himself slightly to his landing spot.) SO up he went and then DING, the bar at the top of the slide clipped him right across his forehead and down down he went.  I jumped up that slide so fast and picked him up and he just rubbed his head and said "Mama moved really really fast".  I gave a shuddered laugh and said "Yes, mama moved fast alright - you ok" He nodded due to his invincibility and kept on going.

3.  Little Man decided he wanted to climb up on the window sill.  So he moved his chair over to the window and put a box on top of his chair and climbed up on the chair, up on the box and then spiderman clung to the window sill.  I found him like this as he was screaming "Stuck STUCK, MAMA help me".  I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him. I said, "Are you stuck?"  He yells, "YES".  I said, "well what did you learn?"  He said, "No Climb on windows".  So I rescued him before he needed to prove invincibility and instead just proved his spidey powers.

No Words Friday

Monsters Under the Couch

There are monsters in our living room. They mostly spend their time under the couch but occasionally can be seen just laying on the floor. In order to get them to vacate the premises, Papa Bear or I have to scare them away by yelling go away Monsters, go away. Then we go to the front door, open it and shoo the Monsters out the door. The next step is the most important, Little Man runs to the window and yells “Bye Bye Monsters”. Sometimes they are nice monsters and sometimes they are scary monsters. They don’t have names except the description of nice or scary. When spotted I can always tell if they are of the nice or scary variety by Little Man’s position. If he stands on me, not letting his feet touch the ground, they are scary monsters. If he starts to creep forward while telling me about them, then they are the nice monsters.

I have no idea where he came up with the concept of monsters under the couch, but to him, it is real. It could be from reading Where the Wild Things Are because we talk about the nice monsters in that book or it could be from an episode of Curious George where George thought that things around the room were monsters when he saw them in the dark and he learned that they only look scary until you know what they really are. If it is because of Curious George, I think Little Man only caught the first half of the concept. Whatever the reason, Papa Bear and I will continue to vanquish the monsters that live under the couch or lounge on our floor for as long as we need to.

Milestone Moment (10 weeks 4 days old)

June 6, 2009 around 6:30 in the evening we got to hear Peanut’s laugh for the first time.  He sounded like a dying donkey or maybe a sick goat since he does seem to like channeling a goat, but to me it was a beautiful sound!  We had just returned from a long, but fun day at Hannah’s 2^nd birthday party and Peanut was laying on his playmat smiling at the lights and sound star (which is a really obnoxious baby toy) and something about the star’s obnoxious sound and/or lights must have struck him as funny because we were treated to his braying (wait, I said dying goat, not donkey, right?) mewing laugh.  He proceeded to grace us with another 20 minutes of smirks and smiles, which we FINALLY were able to capture on camera.  We are having to work less and less to get those beautiful smiles, in fact this morning I got one just for saying hi to him when I got him out of his crib.  (oh and another note for the milestone moment is that Papa Bear, Little Man and Mee-Mom were all there to witness it too making it all the more special)

To continue on with Peanut updates, he is still sleeping in 6-7 hour stretches at night, waking only once to eat and then sleeping until 6 or 7 depending on how loud Little Man decides to be when he wakes up.  I know I could make him drop that on night feeding, but Little Man has been running a fever for a few days and so I want him to get well before I let Peanut holler for a bit in the middle of the night.  (Ok, for those of you who know me well I know that you are laughing right now.  You are right, I probably won’t ever let him holler for even a minute, but on my blog I am boss and I can pretend, so let it go).  He holds his head up well, except for when he is tired.  He loves to track Little Man and be held by Papa.  He grasps toys if you put them in his hand, but seem bewildered by their existence and movement when he moves his hands around.  When he is in a especially happy mood he coos the sweetest sound (minus any goat like mews) and bicycles his legs. 

I can’t believe he was born only 10 weeks ago, I can’t imagine my life without his goat like mews and precious smiles.

Growing Up

This post has a little of everything, so pardon me if I am all over the place.

Yesterday, after Papa Bear got home from work, we had to run out and get some errands done.  One of these errands brought us to the Bowman's house.  As we pulled up, Little Man started his excited chant of Play with Hannah Play with Hannah.  Christina offered to take the boys for us while we ran errands so Papa Bear and I could have some time to ourselves.  I asked Little Man this questions "Do you want to stay and play with Hannah or go to the store with Mama and Papa?"  He replied "stay and play with Hannah!".  A few months ago he would have refused to leave my side.  But he got out of the car, walked into Hannah's house and said "bye, mama".  I was proud of him and just a little sad.  We kept Peanut with us for feeding reasons, but it was like not having any children with us at all.  Other than one explosive poo, which we are so used to it was barely even a consideration, Peanut was all smiles and coos as we shopped and went out to dinner.  Papa Bear and I marveled at the relative calm of only having one child with us and we ate in peace and graced with Peanut joy.  When we went to pick up Little Man, he was eating a popsicle with his best friend and not missing us at all.  Amazing how grown up he is already.  Again, I have to say I am so proud and just a little sad.  

The Timeout Dilemna

Little Man has us in a timeout dilemma.  First, he doesn’t seem to actually mind going in timeout so I am not even sure it is an effective punishment.  Sure, sometimes he says “no timeout, no”, but most of the time he runs over, does his two minutes and then pops out.  We thought that it wasn’t being an effective deterrent to bad behavior but  due to the fact that he has started putting himself in timeout we know he at least understands the point of a timeout. 

 

This past weekend, we were all playing/working in the garage and he threw a ball into the street on purpose.  I got up and got the ball and said to him “please don’t throw the ball into the street anymore, it isn’t safe and I would like to see you make a better choice next time.”  (We talk to him a lot about making good choices).  Anyway, a few minutes later Papa Bear comes in and I hear him say to Little Man “Did Mama tell you to get out of timeout?”  I see Little Man standing up from the timeout spot in the garage and I said “I didn’t put him in timeout, did you?”  Papa Bear responded in the negative so we asked Little Man why he was in timeout.  He said “throw ball in street, bad choice mama”.  So he had put himself in timeout.  Yesterday while at a friend’s house he threw something that I has asked him not to throw.  I didn’t consider it something to put him in timeout for (especially since he hadn’t had a nap all day and was running on fumes) but he went ahead and put himself in timeout. 

So he understands right from wrong and good choices and bad behavior and even puts himself in timeout when he makes a bad choice or has bad behavior.  He says he is sorry for whatever he did when he gets out of his self-imposed bad behavior.  All of this (which rare and totally surprising) is confusing to say the least.  He has taken away our first line of behavior deterrent with his self-imposed timeouts.  We are still trying to figure out what to do with all of this and how to effectively parent and help Little Man make responsible and good choices.  But when he doesn’t you might find him in a timeout of his own choosing??!!

Stuck in the Middle

Yesterday, as we do on most Sunday's, we had a family day.  We went to this shopping center that has a water fountain feature that the kids can play in.  Little Man loves it or at least he did until his traumatic moment.  

At times the water disappears luring the children into a false sense of security that they are not going to get wet.  The children wander around looking down the holes for the water and then ALL OF A SUDDEN the water springs to life again and the children squeal in delight while the adults looking on crack up at the one child that got caught unawares.  Little Man had been playing for a while and had gotten brave.  When the water disappeared for a moment he wandered into the very center of the feature.  This is the dangerous area because when the water reappears it is with great force and ferocity.  Needless to say, Little Man became trapped by the raging water. I could see him start to panic, I saw his little legs lock up and he bent over and stuffed his fists in his eyes to block the water.  I heard his cry and tried to yell to him to just push through the water to come to me.  

Now I know that all of this sounds very dramatic but to tell the truth, I was laughing the whole time.  I did feel bad for him but I knew he would be ok.  A lady next to me felt so bad for him that she urged me to just run in a get him.  I looked at her and told her she was crazy, I didn’t want to get wet and while I had a change of clothes for him I certainly hadn’t brought one for myself.  As soon as the water receded he ran to me.  I led him back to the area where Peanut (who was sleeping, no joke, he really was sleeping – I know it is hard to believe) and Papa Bear were waiting for us .  We stripped him out of his soaked clothes and put my hoody on him to help him warm up.  He loved getting to wear my hoody and the attention from everyone around.  He also loves to tell his rendition of the story that goes something like this…”I got stuck in the middle and mama no help me.  I got stuck in the middle and then I got to wear Mama’s shirt because I got stuck in the middle then I ate dinner and got a cookie.” 

This is a picture that I pulled off of the website of the water feature to show you where he “got stuck in the middle”.  We didn’t have our camera at the time or we would have tried to capture his terror for posterity.