Quick Update

Charlie is seriously the cutest little thing these days.  My friends gave me/him a little "Tickle the Pig" book when I was pregnant with him, and it is his FAVORITE.  We snuggle in the glider in his room and read it together before his naps.  He isn't saying a lot of words yet, but he says "Tickle Pig" every time I get it out to read it.

His favorite activity is currently stirring.  He loves playing in the kitchen with bowls, pans, tupperware... whatever he can get his hands on.  He likes to have an assortment of spoons and just sits there and stirs.  He'll pretty much stir anything.  Yesterday the garbage can in our bathroom was empty and I looked over to see Charlie "stirring" in there with my hairbrush.

He's starting to cruise a little bit.  Not confidently yet, but definitely enough to get to where he wants to go.  He can walk behind his push toy for a few steps, but pretty quickly gives up and goes back to the butt-scoot.

He's mimicking everything.  He's not saying many words, but he mimics what we say in terms of intonation.  The other day someone on TV was saying "SHHHHH" and he kept mimicking it back to me.  He wants to push the buttons on the microwave like we do.  Lots of things.

He uses his little pointer finger to point at everything he wants now.  He's at that frustrating age where he knows what he wants, but can't communicate it well to us so he gets really frustrated   There's a lot of grunting and fussing and whining.

We started with a new babysitter this week.  It's always hard at first.  Charlie won't nap for her, which causes a whole new set of crankiness issues.  Hopefully everyone settles in OK.  I think this one will be better than the last one, though.  She (the last one) didn't really play with Will and let him get away with everything.  So that was a problem.  Will still tells me he misses Miss Debbie, which breaks my heart :-(  I really hate the whole thing.  I have so much work to do, but a lot of times I can't focus because I'm worried about the kids being happy or getting into things they aren't supposed to.  I wish I could just find a sitter they love.  There's this whole bundle of anxiety and guilt about the whole thing that I'm always carrying around.  Ugh.

Will has been having a lot of issues at school hitting and pushing the other kids, so we've been working through that.  He did a lot better on Tuesday.  He's been hitting and pushing Charlie too.  I think it's a combination of just not knowing how to handle the frustration he feels with other kids being in his space and being tired . He stopped napping a few weeks ago.  I think it's the right move because bedtime is much better, but I think he still needs it some days so he's getting tired and cranky.

He's very excited about Christmas.  We went to see the trains at the museum last weekend, which he loved. We're going to try to go see Santa this weekend.  He mailed a letter to Santa a few weeks ago and got a reply in the mail yesterday.  We have an elf on the shelf this year named Elton.  Will loves coming down every morning and seeing where Elton "landed" from the night before.  He's counting down to Christmas using a cute Santa stocking calendar my mom got him a few years ago and an advent calendar with chocolate treats inside.

Pulling Up

Charlie finally started pulling himself up last week.  12 1/2 months.  I wonder if that's some kind of record for a normally functioning child.  When he did it the first time it was totally seamless and he gave me this look like, "Yeah, I've known how to do this all along.  You've just not given me a compelling reason to do it until now."  Unfortunately, his new found ability to stand in his crib is yet again wrecking havoc on his sleep patterns.  I got, what, two weeks of decent sleep?  Ugh.

Well, we love the little bugger.  Even if he is a slow learner and a bad sleeper.  He's pretty cute.

1 Year (plus a little extra)

My little guy turned 1 (almost three weeks ago - yikes!).  Yay!  I'm late in posting because we've been SO busy.  But better late than never, I guess.  I have mixed emotions about this birthday, as I'm sure all mothers do.  I love watching him grow up.  He's such a sweet little thing, and I'm really enjoying seeing his personality bloom.  I'm so sad to see him get bigger, though.  He's been such a cuddly, lovey baby and I'm going to miss that.  I also feel like I didn't really get to enjoy his babyhood as much as I would have liked (or as much as I did with Will).  I guess that's the nature of the beast when it comes to 2nd kids.  Knowing that he's almost a toddler, though, makes me think about how maybe I should have spent a little more time enjoying him :-(  I'm kind of glad this year is over, though.  It has been HARD.  I always figured that once you had one kid that adding another wouldn't have too much of an impact on your life because you're already in parent mode.  I had a lot more time for myself before Charlie was born, though.  Part of the problem is Charlie's minimal napping.  But bedtime also takes a lot more time in the evenings now that there's two of them, so I hardly have any downtime before I need to get to sleep and start all over again.  I have to get up earlier in the morning because it's almost impossible to get myself ready for the day in any kind of efficient manner once both of them are awake.

Charlie has matured a lot in the last month or two.  He has three teeth now (his two bottom middle and his top right middle).  He's eating a lot of table food, and has gotten really good at picking the little bites up with his fingers and getting them in his mouth.  When he first started eating table food he wasn't picky.  He'd eat anything I put in front of him.  It was great.  One of his favorite things to eat were peas.  Then he got sick for a week or two and lost his appetite and once he started eating again he was picky all of the sudden.  He still eats a most fruit, but I'm having trouble getting the veggies in him.  And without many teeth meat is a challenge.

I haven't really started weaning him.  We're cutting back (he's really down to only his morning feeding and nighttime now), but he still wants to nurse sometimes in the afternoon when he's cranky.  Id did start him on whole milk a few weeks ago and in the last week or so he's really gotten the hang of the sippy cup, so we're moving in the right direction.  I just want to make sure he's getting enough liquids other than breastmilk before we cut it out.  He's just a lot more immature than Will was a this stage and I don't want to push him.  I'm going to work on it in the next month or two.

He's talking a little bit.  He says a few words, but they're not consistent.  His three main words are:

Uh-oh (when he drops something - it's really cute to hear him say it)
Yay (he applauds himself for everything)
Eye (he likes to point at my eye and say it)

He says "da da" and "mama", but not really in the right context, which is kind of odd.

He's starting to stand a bit more, but still isn't pulling himself up.  He seems to have no interest in doing anything but his crazy monkey scoot.

He went through a 2 month phase where he wasn't sleeping very well AT ALL.  Up several times a night.  Not going back to sleep after he woke up, etc.  The last two weeks or so have been better, though, and he's back to sleeping through 75% of the time or so.  Naps are hit or miss.  Some days he takes two naps without a fight (although they're usually no longer than 45 minutes, and that's on a good day) and others he'll only take one and/or requires rocking or holding in order to sleep at all.

He's getting better about his stranger danger issues, though, so that's good.  He's enjoying people other than me (like getting excited to see my mom).  He's even letting some other people hold him... sometimes.

The babysitter that we've had since he was 3 months quit a month or so ago so we have a new girl now.  She's doing ok, but she's a little immature (she's only 18) and I think she kind of lets Will run the show, which I don't like.  Charlie seems to like her, though, so at least that's not an issue.  She's leaving for boot camp in February, though, so I'm still on the hunt for someone else.

Here's some pictures of the little man

Feeding himself with a spoon (although not well).  He's very independent about eating these days.

Birthday party pics.  Eating his birthday cupcake (he had no qualms about digging right in).

And here's a video of him doing his favorite thing: playing with pots and pans.  I think he's destined to be a percussionist.

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was pretty cold and rainy, but we still went out and trick-or-treated for awhile.  Will was a fireman and Charlie wore Will's lion costume from a few years ago.  They were very cute.  Will had fun getting candy, but he was scared of all of the lit jack-o-lanterns.  After about a half an hour or so he told me, "let's start heading home so we can eat some candy".

11 Months, Preschool, and Big Boy Pants

Well, I totally missed month 10 for poor little Charlie and here we are at month 11.  Only a month until the big 1st birthday.  I can't believe it!  He's still such a baby to me.  I felt like Will was so mature at this point.  It definitely puts it in perspective now that I have a preschooler to compare him to.  High points on the Charlie front:

1. He now has two teeth: both of his bottom middle ones.
2. He's starting to rebel against baby food.  This is a problem, though, since he only has two half-teeth.  He's eating a lot of puffs and bits of banana at this point.
3. He's been "crawling" for about a month now.  I'm using this term loosely, though, since it's not traditional crawling.  It's more of a scoot.   Or maybe a drag.  I'm not really sure what to call it.  He basically uses his hands (like in normal crawling), but instead of using his knees he propels himself forward with one foot and just drags the other leg underneath him.  It's pretty effective so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't ever bother to actually crawl normally.
4.  He's not pulling up yet and pretty much never stands.  Not sure what's up with that.  He can do it.  I've seen him.  He'll stand and play if there's something he deems worth the effort.  Most of the time when I stand him up, though, he just plops himself right back to his butt.
5.  The last 2-3 weeks of sleeping have been TERRIBLE.  I think he's slept through the night maybe twice during this time.  There have been several nights where he's up multiple times or is up for hours at a time.  I've done a lot of sleeping on his bedroom floor.  Not sure what's going on.  I've blamed it on everything: teeth, ears, growth spurt.  I still haven't figured out what's causing it.  Maybe there just isn't a cause.  I just hope it stops soon.
6.  He loves to wave.  He waves at everyone, but rarely at the appropriate times :-)  He also claps a lot.
7. He's starting to talk.  I think.  He's at that stage where every once in awhile he'll say something and you're 99% sure that he said it, but then he doesn't do it again for 2 weeks so you question whether you actually heard it or if it was a fluke.  Like he'll hear Tim and say "Da Da".  Or he'll drop something and say "Uh-Oh". Or he'll see you and say "hi".  He still calls me "Nuh-nuh".

Charlie's favorite pastimes right now:
1. Pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets

2. Chasing the cats

3. Trying to get into whatever Will is playing with

Sibling rivalry has definitely set in.  Charlie wants to do everything Will is doing.  Will gets annoyed and pushes him or yells in his face or hits him.  Sometimes Will wants to play with him, but that usually ends in him being too rough with Charlie and hurting him.  Another new "game" Will likes to play is to taunt Charlie with a toy.  He holds it up and when Charlie tries to get it he screams "No Charlie" in his face and grabs it away   It's exhausting.  

Will started preschool a few weeks ago.  He's done great so far.  The jury is still out on his teacher.  She hardly talks, even when I ask her about how he's doing.  I don't need a huge amount of communication, but I would at least like to know if he had a good or bad day.  Either she has some kind of social anxiety or she just hates me and/or my kid.  One of my friend's little boys is also in the class and she said she's having the same issue so at least it's not just me.  I guess that's just how she is.  Or maybe she just hates boys.  He seems OK with going, though, and I trust the school.  I guess I'm just going to have to press her to be more communicative.  

We're finally making some progress on potty training.  YAY!!!  He's pretty much completely trained from a pee standpoint.  We're still have some accidents when he gets really busy playing and doesn't remember/want to stop playing.  I have to stay on top of him about it.  Those really only consist of him peeing a little bit in his underwear and then making it to the bathroom for the rest so it's nothing major.  He even stays dry at nap.  He's dry most mornings too, but I've still been putting him in diapers overnight.  He's stayed dry at school every time I've sent him too.  Poop is another story, though.  Let's just say I've been spending a lot of time scraping poo out of under-roos and it's one of the least enjoyable things I've ever done.  I have no idea how to fix this.  He refuses to go on the potty.  I would be Ok with this (temporarily) if he would at least notify me and ask for a pull-up or diaper.  Instead he just goes in his pants.  And the worst part of it is that he seems to see no problem with it.

I've just committed to a big project for my business and my babysitter up and quit, which is adding a LOT  of stress right now.  Charlie is NOT ready to go into any type of daycare situation, nor do I want to put him there anyway.  Plus, I'm not sure how that would work with Will's preschool schedule.  It's just really hard to find anyone.  This project is big enough that I can't do what needs to be done in my down time (especially since Charlie only naps sporadically which means there isn't much downtime to begin with) so I need some kind of solution.  I'm just really picky about who I leave them with and it's hard to find the right person.  Being sleep deprived is really not helping with my coping skills either.

Houston, We Have a Tooth

Charlie's first tooth finally popped through yesterday.  It's his bottom right one.

This was a bright spot in the midst of the washing machine flooding the basement and the air conditioning going out, all while Tim is out of town.  It hasn't been a fun week.

The Moon: According to Will

Tonight when Will was supposed to be going to sleep he called me upstairs to look at the moon with him.  He was very excited about it because it was so bright and "beautiful"  It was "smashed" in the clouds.  He also said that somebody must have "drilled it up there for nighttime", and that when he was a "big man he would be able to reach it and touch it".  "But maybe he would need a big ladder or something."  Then he wanted me to leave his blinds open so that he could look at the moon from his bed while he was falling asleep.

I was very frustrated with him about him interrupting the million things I was trying to do so I could get to bed at a decent hour.  His innocence and sweet perception of something that we all take for granted made me stop and enjoy the moment, though.

Busy Boys

The boys have been very busy learning lots of new things this week.  Will's been working hard on riding his bike.  Yesterday he was able to do it all by himself.  Today we went on a walk and Will rode his bike the whole time.  He still needed some help getting up the hills and I had to keep a hold of him going down hills because he was going way too fast (he seems to have no fear).  He's doing a great job, though, and it was so fun getting out to do something active with him.

Charlie learned to wave this week.  Or at least his version of a wave...

He also got himself from his belly into a seated position on his own this morning and was VERY proud of himself.  I'm sure he'll be on the move in no time now.  Still no teeth, though...

Check-ups: 3 Year and 9 Month

The boys had their check-ups a few weeks ago (7/23/12).  It was Will's annual check-up and Charlie's 9 month.  Here's how they measured up:


Will
Height: 39 inches
Weight: 37 pounds


Charlie
Height: 29 inches
Weight: 19 pounds 1 ounce


I have no idea what percentile any of these things are.  I think Charlie was still 25% weight and had dropped to 75% height.  That's about as much as I absorbed and it may not even be right.  There was just too much going on to keep track.  Clothes flying everywhere.  Will turning the baby scale on and off.  Will trying to steal tongue depressors.  You'd think they would childproof the rooms a bit better in a pediatrician's office.  Just sayin... Will got two shots and a finger prick and Charlie got 1 shot.  There was a bit of crying for both of them.  Will perked up as soon as stickers were mentioned.

They did the Denver Developmental test on Charlie.  I feel like he's not doing anything he should be yet.  They said he was fine, but it still bugs me.  Will had teeth by now.  He was also using his pincer grasp to pick things up and standing and holding onto things.  And eating finger foods.  Charlie's not doing any of that.  I know all babies are different.  Yada yada yada.  I'm sure he's perfectly fine and normal.  It's just hard not to compare.  One thing Charlie IS doing, though, is sleeping through the night most of the time - a feat Will didn't accomplish until after his first birthday.  So score 1 for Charlie Bean!

Name Writing

Happy 3rd Birthday, Will!

I can't believe my baby is 3! We had a really nice birthday. On his actual birthday he tried out his new bike, went and played at a new park that opened downtown that has fountains to play in, and ate lunch at Skyline (his favorite) where he got to pick out some ice cream from the cooler since it was his birthday.  After his nap we went to the train park, ate pizza for dinner, and played some more.

Playing in the water at Washington Park

The next day we had a little party with family and close friends. I was a "digger" party, and I think he had a good time.  Here are some pics:

Ready to blow out his candles

Here are some updates on the little man:

- He still has no interest in potty training.  sigh
- We've started working on what sounds all of the letters make.  He can pretty much tell you what letter any consonant word begins with.
- I'm working with him on learning to write letters, but we haven't gotten very far.
- He still loves reading and books. He memorizes most of the books we get from the library within the first week or so that we start reading them.  He can pretty much recite them verbatim, which I think is pretty crazy.
- He can count to 20.   He can get all the way to 100, but you have to help him with 30, 40, 50, etc,. along the way because he forgets some of them.
- He's hesitant to try new things a lot, and when he does, he wants to give up quickly if he doesn't get it right away.  He's having a lot of trouble with pedaling the bike we got him for his birthday and it's hard to keep him motivated to keep trying.  I think maybe that's also part of the problem we're having with potty training.  Maybe it's just the age he's at??  I'm trying hard to make things fun and help him be more confident about them.
- He really likes organizing things.  That's most of what he likes to do with all of his trains.  Tim teases me that he gets it from me.  Tim's dad and step-mom got him a toy golf set for his birthday and all he wants to do is organize the balls instead of try to hit them.
- He's trying to be more independent.  He wants to put his own shoes on, take his shirt off at night, etc.  I get a lot of "I'll do it!" from him.  Yet he still wants us to spoon-feed him applesauce at dinner time...
- He loves to sing.  He sings a lot of songs from Thomas, especially when he's playing trains.  He also makes up his own words to melodies he knows.  He definitely got that from me.  Guilty.
- He's pretty good at sharing with Charlie and playing with him.  He's still a little too rough with him sometimes or will try to scold him for things that he thinks he shouldn't be doing.

Charlie is 9 Months

I've been horrible about posting lately because I've been soooooo busy.  With the two boys and trying to start this business I have virtually no downtime anymore.  Every minute that I'm not running errands, trying to take the boys to do something fun (pool, museum, zoo, park, etc.), playing with or caring for them, cooking, or taking care of the house, is spent doing work.  I'm trying to get workouts in 3-4 days a week, but those mostly occur after the kids are in bed at like 8:30.  By the time I finish that, wrap up housekeeping stuff, and maybe do some work I'm beat and it's time for bed.  I still feel like I can't get to sleep until 10:30 or 11 every night.  Then I'm up with Charlie at 5 the next morning.  If I'm lucky I get another hour of sleep after I'm done feeding him, but lately he's been waking up for good around 6 so I haven't been getting that either.  Ugh.

Anyway, this post isn't supposed to be a pity party for me.  It's supposed to be about my little cutie who is 9 months old today.  There's not a whole lot new to report.  I'm still anxiously awaiting the arrival of his bottom front teeth, which have been threatening to erupt for months now.  I wish they'd hurry up because he really wants in on the table food!  He's a good eater.  He's eating the gamut of fruits, veggies, cereal, yogurt now.  He's still very happy and laid back.  Up until this week he was doing a great job sleeping through the night.  This week, not so much.  He still is insisting on waking up to eat at 5am, though, which is not fun.  He's definitely old enough now that he shouldn't need to be doing that.  I think it's habit, and I think I'm going to have to force the issue soon.  No real signs of crawling yet.  He's constantly leaning WAY far forward to reach things, but that hasn't translated to crawling yet.  When I put him on his belly he'll stay on all fours for a bit, but doesn't try to go anywhere and hasn't gotten himself up on all fours yet.  

It's been unbearably hot here for the last month or so.  We've been trying to get out and enjoy the summer when we can.  We usually do our outings in the morning anyway so it hasn't been too bad.  I can't believe July is almost over!  We only have a month or so until will starts back to school.

I decided not to do a half marathon this fall.  The Columbus race is on Charlie's birthday so it was out anyway.  There is one in Indianapolis that is a few weekends after that, though, that would have been good.  Nobody else really seemed that interested, though.  And I decided to give the family a break on the running thing.  It really is a big time suck, and I don't like missing out on Saturday mornings with the boys during the summer when we could be going out and doing fun stuff.  Of course we never actually do any of that fun stuff, but that's a whole other rant...  Anyway, so I'm trying to focus on building up some muscle mass and stay on top of the running a bit.  I'll probably do the Thanksgiving day 10K.  At least that's some kind of goal.  And plan to do the Pig in the spring.  Although I'm actually getting pretty bored with that race.  Maybe something else might be fun.  I'll have to think about it.

My business is growing a bit, albeit slowly.  I'm getting a fair amount of business with helping people get set up.  I've only gotten one new actual bookkeeping client, though, and that's what I really need to be able to get a stable income going.  I'm sinking A LOT of time into this networking group I've joined.  I'm definitely seeing some results from it, they just don't seem commensurate with the time that I'm putting in.  I realize it's not going to happen overnight, though, so I'm trying to be patient.  Luckily the boys have really settled in well with the sitter.  She's great with them and very reliable.  Hopefully she sticks around!

Next up is Will's 3rd birthday next weekend.  Party planning is underway and we're on the hunt for a new bike for his gift!

8 Months

Poor little Charlie greeted the 8 month mark with his first ear infection, and he's been pretty miserable.  Will has gotten a lot of ear infections and I don't ever recall him having quite this much trouble.  Charlie is really fussy all day and sleeping HORRIBLY.  I'm running on day 5 of hardly any sleep.  Plus, now I've started with the cold the boys have (which caused the ear infection), and it's warped into some kind of really painful sinus thing for me.  Ugh.

This is all coinciding with my first week of being able to work out again post surgery, which is very frustrating.  My surgery went really well.  I was feeling really good after only a few days and pretty much back to normal after two weeks.  Tim's mom came to help out after Tim went back to work, mostly because of my lifting restrictions.  It was a really nice visit.  We all had a wonderful time, she was a huge help, and I know the boys both really enjoyed having her here.  I can tell that Will definitely misses her.  The other night when he was going to bed we were reading a book she got him for Christmas.  He said to me, "GG got me this book.  I need to fly on an airplane to England to tell her thank you."

So what's my cute little 8 month old up to other than keeping me up all night?  Well, he's very busy grabbing EVERYTHING he lays eyes on.  He's started scooting around on his butt a bit the last few days (mostly backwards).  He's still doing his weird little "jazz-hand" arm waving.  His hair is CRAZY.  I had to trim it over his ears because it was seriously starting to completely cover his ears.  I'm really trying to hold off on cutting his hair until he's a year, but the mass of craziness on top is getting worse by the day.  It's like he has a crazy comb-over hair piece up there.  He's dropped down to two naps a day, but they're still fairly short naps, which is rather unfortunate.  30 minutes of napping just isn't enough for me to get anything done, have quality alone time with Will, etc.  It's a good thing he's a pretty easy low-maintenance baby when he is awake or else I think I'd lose it.  He's started babbling a lot more.  There's a lot of "da-da", "ne-ne", and "ma-ma" noises these days.  He's eating all the standard fruits and veggies, and yogurt.   His bottom two front teeth have been trying to come in for a few months now.  They're about to pop through the gum (which may also be contributing to this week's fussiness).  I'm anxious for him to get some teeth so he can start some table food.  He's still a very serious mama's boy.  I'm going on an unprecedented long weekend away from my kids in two weeks (I'm going with a friend to another friend's wedding in Wisconsin) and I'm really worried about how he's going to do without me for that long.  I'm also a little bit worried about his I'm going to do without him, though, too :-(

I've been working a lot the last couple of weeks and just feel like I haven't been able to spend enough time with the boys.  I'm going to have to make sure to get some quality time in with them before I leave.  Will has started to have some separation anxiety issues.  He gets upset with the sitter comes and he cries whenever I leave (even when I'm just leaving him with Tim).  He continues to be really into music.  His latest favorite thing to do is watch The Wiggles while trying to play along with the songs on his guitar.

7 Months

Sitting Up!

Charlie has started sitting up on his own (reliably) this week.  I love this age when they can finally sit up and play!  He's so cute, and you can tell he's just so excited to be able to sit up and get in on the action.  He and Will play together.  Unfortunately, a lot of times that ends in Will knocking Charlie over (sometimes unintentionally, sometimes not).  We're working on that, though...

Will has started to play kind of rough with Charlie (poking or pinching him hard), steals toys from him, and yells in his face if he's crying.  I think some of the novelty of the new baby has worn off, and he's not a fan of having to share his toys or his mommy and daddy with Charlie.

I've been crazy busy lately.  I'm really working on growing my business.  I joined a networking group so I'm spending a lot of time with that, trying to get new clients, and working with the clients I have.  I got my first "real" client (outside of my parents) last week.  Yay!  I'm excited about it, but his stuff is a big mess so it's a big project to try and get everything cleaned up.  And I'm on a bit of a deadline because I'm having surgery for an umbilical hernia next week that will put me out of commission for a week or so.

I ran my 3rd Flying Pig Half Marathon a few weeks ago.  It ended up being the hottest one on record so I didn't get the time I had hoped for, but had fun anyway.  I was hoping to do a 2:10.  I ended up with a 2:18 (vs. 2:23 and 2:20 in years past).  I got to cross the finish line with one of my best friends, Karen.  I've trained for numerous races with her, but have never actually finished with her before.

Will is about to finish out his school year.  This preschool has been so wonderful.  I just love it there, and I think he really likes it too.  I'm feeling good about the choice we made to send him to the same place next year.  Here's a little video of him singing his new favorite song.

Charlie is 6 Months

First up, checkup stats:

28 1/4 inches long (95th percentile)
15 lb 13 oz (25th percentile)

He's a sweet little happy thing.  He's still not so sure about people outside of the immediate family, but he has taken more of a liking to my mom, so that's good.  He's been a bit later than Will on sitting up.  He's just in the last week started to be able to sit and play in the boppy pillow.  I think it will be another few weeks until he's doing it on his own.  He still loves watching Will.  He really enjoys playing in his exersaucer.

He's finally gotten on a pretty standard three-nap-a-day schedule (9:30 or so in the morning, 1:00 or so in the afternoon, and a short one in the evening around 4 or 5).  But it's really hard to keep him on schedule.  Between his naps and Will's nap I would never get to leave the house.  He's still not sleeping well at night.  Some nights he gets through (meaning he still wakes at 5 or 5:30 to eat so it's not like I'm getting 8 hours or anything here, people).  More often than not he's up in the middle of the night at least once, though.  The last 3 nights he's been up between 2 and 3.  Some nights he just needs a pacifier.  Some nights the only way I can get him back to sleep is by feeding him.  Sometimes if I feed him he'll sleep late the next day.  Other times he's still up at 5 (like this morning).  I keep telling myself that he's still better than Will was at this age.  I'm getting pretty exhausted, though.

We've started solids.  He's doing rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and squash so far.  He especially loves the veggies.  I tried avocado one day and I've also put some banana in with his cereal once.  He didn't do great with either of those.  I don't think he's quite ready for so much texture.  He seems to like the food and want to eat it, but he's having trouble keeping it in his mouth and swallowing it.  I asked the doctor at his checkup about it and he said it can take until 8 months for them to develop the coordination to pull food to the back of their mouth to swallow without spitting it out.  It's nothing to be worried about, I guess, but it sure does make for messy mealtime!

He's just so precious and sweet and cuddly.  I'm so lucky to be his mommy.  After Will was such a good baby I was really worried my next one would be a terror, but he's just the opposite :-)

Some Recent Will-isms

Will says and does some pretty amusing stuff these days. I thought I'd document and share. You know, for posterity.

1. The other day we were at dinner and Tim was drinking wine while Will was drinking milk out of a sippy cup. We look over at Will and he is mimicking Tim's every move. Tim swirled the wine in his wine glass. Will swirled his sippy around. Tim smelled his wine. Will smelled the top of his sippy cup. Then Tim took a drink and swished it in his mouth. Will did the same. Classic!

2. He had a little bit of a cold last week so his nose was runny. He kept running over to me all frantic and yelling that he had snot on his "mustache" and I needed to wipe it.

3. I made beef barley soup for dinner the other night. I put a bowl in front of him with two big pieces of stew beef in it. He looked at me very seriously and asked, "That poo poo?"

4. Background: when we went to my parents' house a few weeks ago for my birthday my dad let him color with permanent markers (which we refer to as "no no markers" in our house). Anyway, we had a book from the library about a little boy (Caillou) getting a new baby sister. In the book his mommy and daddy go to the hospital and Caillou stays at his grandma's house. So the other day Will tells me out of nowhere that he wants a little sister like Caillou. I said, "Really? How sweet!" He says, "Yeah, me want little sister so mommy and daddy go to hospital and me stay at PawPaw's house and color with no no markers". I guess that's as good of a reason as any to have another child...

There's not really a whole lot new with Will. We've made exactly zero progress on the potty front . I am glad to report that he's eating SO much better. We hardly have to fight with him on anything anymore. Even the beef barley soup he thought was feces he gobbled down without a word once I convinced him it was edible. I'm continuing to try to get him to try new things. I don't force him to eat everything. We had saurkraut the other night (which is one of my favorite things on earth) and he had to at least try it. He told me, "I no like it", though, so I didn't make him finish it. When I think about how far we've come it's actually pretty amazing. He still does get a cookie if he cleans his plate, though :-)

Things I Miss About Life Before Children

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. I love being a mom. But life before they were around seems like this distant, almost unimaginable utopia sometimes. When I daydream about those days (which I do occasionally) here are the things that top my seemingly endless list of things I miss.

Browsing in bookstores

Reading for hours

Naps

Doing crossword puzzles

Sleeping in

Naps

Sleeping through the night

Leisurely showers

Naps

Eating with two hands

Being able to work out or run whenever I want

Naps

Going out without having to add a $50 babysitting tab to the cost of the evening

Going out period

Naps

Brunch on the weekends

Did I mention naps?

Working in the yard for longer than 15 minutes at a time and/or without being harassed every 10 minutes by Tim about how much longer I'm going to be

Shopping for clothes for myself

Running an errand quickly (like without having to get 1 or 2 kids in and out of a car seat) - thank god for drive-thru's!

I try to tell myself that there will be plenty of time for all of that later, though, when they're grown and too busy for me. Then I'll be missing the days when all they wanted to do was wake me up at the crack of dawn with a huge smile and play trains on the floor.

Charlie's Baptism

We had Charlie baptized on March 18th. Tim's dad was able to come into town for it, which was nice. My cousin Ray and his wife Nakia are his godparents. He wore the same gown that Will did when he was baptized (and also that my father and I wore). Afterwards we had a low-key lunch at our house. It was nice.

March Pictures

Making biscuits with Munew for Mommy's birthday:












Decorating his Potty Chart (bribery works with him for eating vegetables so I thought I'd try that approach for the potty)

Charlie is 5 Months!
















Charlie and his cousin Nollie. She's almost as big as him even though she's almost 3 months younger!















Will loves PawPaw!

Chatting

I found my feet, Mom!

Will's School Conferences

I'm way behind on blogging. Things have just been crazy lately. I hardly have a minute to myself except for 30-45 minutes at night after the kids are in bed and all the housework is done. And then I just want to space out in front of the TV or go to bed early (since Charlie had a 2 week span of HORRID sleeping I'm still catching up from).

Anyway, I had a parent-teacher conference for Will the other week. I thought this was kind of funny when they told us about them. I mean, what could we possibly be conferencing about? What shapes he's stamping into his play-doh? Whether he prefers to sing "Wheels on the Bus" or "Twinkle Twinkle"? Turns out I was under-estimating the level at which they're evaluating my kid every day. They had a whole list of stuff (several pages) that they were monitoring developmentally. There were different items for fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social interaction, communication, shapes and colors, etc. He was doing well in everything except for following directions (he can follow one-step directions but seems to get bored and distracted when he's asked to do two or more steps) and communication. The communication thing surprised me. Apparently he hardly talks at school. WTF??? I seriously cannot get the kid to shut up at home. To the point where (I know I sound like a horrible mother here) sometimes I just want him to TO QUIET. He can be difficult to understand sometimes, but he talks a lot, lets me know what he wants verbally, uses multiple word sentences. I'm actually kind of impressed with how well he strings words together to generate thoughts. Not so at school, though. I guess he's just shy there. Apparently he's more like me than we thought...

Professional Pictures

I went and got pics of the boys done a few weeks ago. The intent was to do it when Charlie was 3 months and Will just turned 2 1/2, but that didn't pan out because Will got a bad haircut that had to grow out and had a cut on his face. So they turned into almost-four-month pics for Charlie.

I was disappointed because there was only one of them together that ended up being remotely acceptable, and I still don't really like it. There are definitely some cute ones of them individually, though.

Will was a total ham. He was posing and flirting with the photographer. It was really cute. I'm glad we got BeeBee and the Thomas boots in some of the pics since those are his very favorite things right now.

4 Month Checkup for Charlie

Charlie had his checkup today. We're a little early since he's not 4 months until next week. He's still long and skinny!

26 inches long (90th percentile)

13lbs 14 1/2 oz (25th percentile)

He also just looks skinny. He's not nearly as chunky as Will was at this age.

More Rolling

Well today Charlie rolled from back to belly twice. He doesn't like being on his belly so he gets himself over there and then gets all mad.

Unfortunately this means I have to stop swaddling him when he sleeps. He's been sleeping pretty vrappy at night the last week anyway. Hoping this doesn't make it worse.

Nap time has gotten a bit easier this week. I've been able to swaddle him and lay him in his crib with his pacifier when he is awake and he drifts off to sleep without fussing. This doesn't work all the time, but a lot. Just makes life easier. Hoping swaddling isnt too key of a component there.

Charlie Rolled Over Today!

The itty bitty guy rolled from belly to back today. He did it two times in a row for me. I stopped after that, though, because it was just pissing him off.

In looking back at old blog posts I think Will had rolled over long before now. The thing is, though, that poor Charlie hardly ever gets any tummy time. I'm always either holding him/carrying him or sitting him in his bouncy seat so he can watch Will and me play and I can talk to him. I remember when Will was little giving him tummy time every night and urging him to roll over. This went on for weeks and weeks and I was SO excited when he finally did it. Today, I put Charlie on his belly and he just popped right over to his back with hardly any practice at all. I think it just speaks to the fact that they'll do something when they're ready. Trying to push things early doesn't really do much good.

My Baby is 2 1/2

So what's up with my big boy lately?

He's become such a great eater. He eats everything we eat at dinner now. All the veggies (even kale), soup, tacos, meat, quiche, everything! Now, he doesn't always eat it willingly. We still have to promise cookies for dessert but, hey, it works. He also requires ketchup on meat. He loves meat, though. He thinks it's all chicken, but under that guise he happily eats chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and fish. We definitely still have some nights where he just refuses to eat, but those are rare anymore, and it's such a relief! He still will only eat a grilled cheese or peanut butter and honey (which he calls a "honey bear" because the honey comes in a bear-shaped bottle) for lunch, but I figure he's getting variety with dinner so I don't push it.

He's learned most of the lowercase letters and we're working on understanding that each letter has a sound as a first step towards reading. I don't think he really gets the concept of this yet, though. For awhile he thought all letters said "tuh" like a T. He's now differentiated that W makes a "wuh" sound, though, so I think we're making progress. He knows how to spell his name. If you ask him how to spell Will he says "W, I, L, nother L". He can't write any of the letters yet, of course.

He still loves singing. He sings to Charlie a lot. He sings to himself at night and at naptime when he's alone in his room. He has a "Farmer and the Dell" book that he loves to sing with Tim and me. We hear him reading it and singing the song aloud through his monitor a lot, which is cute. He also makes up little songs, which I'm sure he got from me since I sing silly things to the boys all of the time.

He's doing 2 three-hour days a week at the preschool down the street in their two-year-old program and loves it. He gets the social interaction and all of the activities without the daycare feel. We're in the process right now of having to register him for 3 year old preschool in the fall and I'm having a hard time deciding which one to send him to. The one he's going to is a very caring, fun environment. There's another one nearby that's better known for it's academics, though, so I'm torn which one would be better for him. Also, the idea of thinking about "academics" for a 3 year old seems bit ridiculous to me anyway. I'm sure he'll do fine wherever he ends up.

He's still really into trains and construction equipment. He likes to play cars a lot and build "high towers" with his blocks. We usually watch a half hour or so of TV in the morning and then again at night. He has lots of favorite shows (Barney, Caillou, Wiggles, Elmo, Fireman Sam, SuperWhy). He also enjoys watching the two Thomas movies we have and the Disney Cars DVDs.

We're in the process right now of the finishing half of our basement to make a playroom for the boys. I think that will be nice since the toys are TAKING OVER THE HOUSE. It's getting out of control. And it's really just Will's stuff at this point. All of the baby stuff is still packed away since Charlie's still little. Once all of that comes out we're not going to be able to move on the 1st floor.

I love him, but this child is wearing me out. It seems like everything is a fight lately (for instance, wanting to wear short-sleeved shirts in the middle of January). Also, he can't decide on anything. (First he wants toast for breakfast. No, wait! Cereal. No, toast. No, cereal. Definitely cereal. Why is there cereal in front of me? I wanted oatmeal! Cue meltdown.) The biggest hurdle currently, though, is the crankiness brought on by him refusing to go to sleep at night. We take him up to bed at 7:30, leave him in his room by 8, and some nights the child is still awake after 10pm. It is RIDICULOUS! Last week he was so cranky one day (after staying up until 11 the night before) that he was horrible at school. His teacher took me aside when I picked him up to talk to me about it. He had what she calls "busy hands" (only a preschool teacher!) all day and was pushing, hitting, kicking, and throwing things at the other kids. Apparently he even threw a toy car at a kid WHILE the teacher was scolding him for throwing toy cars at kids. We've tried everything to fix the sleeping - lights off, lights on, yelling at him, reasoning with him, laying in there with him to make him sleepy. It's just not working. SO FRUSTRATING!

I think part of the problem is that he's been napping later and later (especially after the time change). I'm not ready to eliminate the nap completely yet, though, because: 1) He still needs it. Without a nap on most days he is a horrible nightmare by 6pm and 2) Mommy still needs nap time. Having Charlie around is severely limiting my ability to get stuff done around the house and get work done. Even with Will in preschool a few hours a week I feel like I'm falling behind on everything. So I really need nap time. I think even if he doesn't sleep we're still going to have a "quiet time" up in his room every afternoon for an hour or so. The problem is that sometimes he ends up falling asleep near the end of the quiet time and then napping until 4:30 or 5. So now I'm just cutting off the sleeping at 3:30, regardless. If he naps, great, if not that's OK. If he does fall asleep I wake him up if it goes past 3:30. It's worked OK so far this week. He's still been awake until almost 9 a few nights, but it's better than 10:30 or 11.

We also had a nanny/babysitter start last week. She's watching the boys here at our house from 9-3 on Wednesdays and 8:30-11:30 on Thursdays so I can get some work done and really try to make a go of this consulting thing. Now all I need are some clients! It's frustrating right now because I'm spending a lot of time doing things to get the business going (as well as maintenance that's needed to be done for awhile but I haven't had time to do - like prep for taxes). The problem is that that none of that pays. So when she comes I'm barely billing enough hours to even pay for having her there. I just have to keep telling myself that it will pay off and I have to invest some time up front.

Anyway, her name is Debi. She has two grown sons and a lot of previous childcare experience. She's only been here twice so I'm still feeling her out. She seems to do well with them, but being the control freak that I am it's hard to watch someone else deal with your kids differently than you would. It's really hard because I'm sitting in the office and hearing what's going on and I never know when to intervene. I feel like I need to let them be so that she can learn how to handle the kids on her own. It's hard when Charlie is screaming or I can hear Will acting like a brat. It's a nice setup, though, because I can come out and eat lunch with Will and can nurse Charlie when he needs to eat.

Charlie is 3 Months

I know I always say it, but wow time has flown! It's like he went from an infant to a baby when I wasn't looking.

The poor little thing still has the cold Will gave him at Christmas. I took him into the doctor the other day and they gave him some antibiotics in case he has a sinus infection. The snot has turned from yellow to clear now, at least, which is a good sign. He seems to be less congested today so we may be on the upswing. I suppose that's the life of a 2nd baby... When they weighed him at the doctor he was 13 pounds 4 ounces. Big boy! He's in 3-6 month and 6 month clothes now.

He sleeps through the night most of the time, which is awesome! We definitely have some horrible nights, but I'd say 2/3 of the time he makes it to 5:30 or so. We've been giving him a bottle at night instead of me nursing him and I think that has something to do with it. It ensures he gets nice and filled up. This morning he didn't wake up until 7:30. Crazy! I had one of those moments where you wake up, look at the clock, and worry something's wrong. I ran into his room to check on him and he was sleeping peacefully.

He's a very sweet little thing. He LOVES attention. He can't stop smiling if someone is talking to him. He just wants to be in the middle of all the action. He loves to watch Will. He also likes to "talk" back when you're talking to him. Lots of cooing and babbling.

BeeBee

I've been meaning to do a post for a long time about Will's blankie. He's been in love with this thing since he was probably 6 months old and christened it "BeeBee" as soon as he could learn to talk. My cousin's wife made it for him when he was born. It's a green and yellow crocheted blanket. Here they are together, best of friends :-)