Mischevious

This is why I no longer have an herb garden :-)

Sleep Update

Jim posted in June our sleep issues with Bear. I would love to report that we now have a happily sleeping baby Bear who goes down on demand and stays asleep all night. But I can’t. Unfortunately Bear has been blessed with the stubborn gene and a really good set of lungs that I’m sure have been keeping up our neighbors. It was a big deal when we were able to get him to go to sleep without nursing at his bed time. It was awesome when we could get him to go back down without nursing after his first initial waking up somewhere around 10 pm. Even better was when we could get him to take his afternoon nap without nursing. Now we are trying to take the 2 am nursing away and he is not a happy camper. Unfortunately for him his momma is even more of an unhappy camper so he has to suffer. He started to pinch, scratch and pull at his 2 am feeding waking me up and keeping me in severe pain. I was willing to let him nurse as long as I could sleep through it. Once that stopped and I went for almost a week being woken up and kept up by his little shenanigans well, I was no longer playing that little game. So his crib got lowered and Jim and I switched sides on the bed and we do not have a happy little Bear from 2-4 am. It’s only been three nights and each change has taken us two weeks to implement so I’m suspecting we still have a few more nights of unpleasantness.

I came across an article in Baby Magazine this week that just made me feel better. I’ve been doubting our process and feeling like I should have sacrificed my sleep in the early months instead of now when he’s more stubborn and feeling guilty because he is so unhappy and has dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and feeling like we just did it all wrong. But this article basically says if you have a baby you are going to go through sleep issues it’s just the way it is. We all deal with it in different ways and there is no “right” way. Even if she’s wrong I like it and I’m going with it. I am blessed with a husband willing to do all the hard work because without him I'm not sure if we would be getting any sleep at all. It's almost (ok really) frustrating that Jim can put him down without there even being a fuss but if it's me he will scream and scream! He's got his mommy's number.

My other tactic has been to wear him out in the morning so he will sleep his whole nap without waking up. I will do just about anything to keep him awake in the car to get him in the house and put him to sleep in the crib! I've gotten them both so tuckered they have just fallen out a few times utterly exhausted and of course provided me with the cutest pictures!

Progress

The boys have not been very happy with my meals the last two weeks. Tonight was no different. Bear started doing his smack smack smack on the high chair sending all his food flying. The carpet is literally covered with his uneaten meal. Coop started feeding me his meal so I knew he didn’t like it. So a little later I pulled out their favorite- hummus. Bear would come up and only eat it if I gave him the spoon. He would take it and run off to eat it then bring me back the spoon for more. Cooper seeing this ran to the silverware drawer opened it, reached in, felt around and pulled out a spoon and handed it to me. He’s never done that before and I just cracked up.

Even bigger news: Bear has figured out how to drink from a straw. He has refused every sippy cup no matter the brand. I threw out a whole bag of cups he wouldn’t use. But yesterday he was playing with my water bottle and all of a sudden he was getting little sips in. All day I tried to get him to take sips from the water bottle to no avail. But tonight after their bath Coop was drinking some of my water and Bear comes over and starts blowing then sucking and getting sips of water. He did it over and over and actually enjoying his drink! When he was done he put it back on my lap looked me right in the eye and said, “Dat you.” A little while later he comes back pulls it down and takes a few more sips and says, “Got it!” That was the first I had heard him say that so I was tickled.

Not My Babies Anymore

Today was a day where I realized it’s time to do a little bit more of what I think is the hardest part of parenting- letting go. Coming out of the gym Bear was eager to get out of my arms and walk on his own. He is now just holding my hand and walking down the stairs himself! (He tries to go right behind Cooper and touch Coop’s head after he makes it down each stair.) I was so impressed with him and when we got home he wanted to walk where I used to carry him. He is getting so independent. Then I look up and see that Cooper is going down the big staircase by himself and out of eyesight! Fear lurched in my heart as I thought he might tumble down the stairs but he was fine and waiting for me to clap for him that he did it all by himself.

We made it downstairs to the apartment and I dropped our stuff inside and when I came back outside I saw Bear literally running towards a flock of geese screaming at the top of his lungs! Again with the panic in my heart. I had this image of them turning on him and chasing him and biting him. Instead he ended up splitting the flock in half and they avoided him carefully. Then Cooper, in a shocking twist, took off running at the other half and seriously chased one half of the flock way down to the end of the apartment. I had to call him back. Then I just sat there and watched them as they explored. Cooper is into picking berries off bushes and handing them to me. Bear started kicking the soccer ball. It was just one of those days where I realized (yet again) my boys are growing up. Then Bear started eating goose poop and I laughed because he reminded me he’s still my baby. Whew, I was getting worried.

Got It Like That

I just thought this e-mail from Katie about her almost 3 year old daughter, Emily, was way too cute:

Subject: Cute Story
When I say "who is my favorite baby?" Emily responds "Sully!" Then she proceeds to be Sully and I have to address her as Sully and she calls me Ms. Abbie. Quite an imagination!
Katie

Then-----
I talked to Chris today who has a 4 year old daughter, Carly, who asks about Cooper and Sully all the time and had to create a nickname for her baby brother Cason (she wanted to call him Bear). Our boys are creating quite a stir with the ladies already!!!

Ouch

If you read the last post, and I'm assuming that if you're one of those that check this regularly, you read about Cooper and his running at you and going "ooofff" as he rams his little head into your leg/butt/crotch. Well, I thought it was funny b/c he was doing it to Abbie and not me. This week, it hit home for me. I was sitting in one of the dining table chairs, and all of a sudden, I get this immense pain in my left kidney, kinda like a boxer hit me there. I turn around, and there's Cooper with this shit eating grin on his face. And I wanna say, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Instead, I just tell him its not nice to head butt people. I think all he heard from me was, "Wa-Wa, Wa-Wa, Wa-Wa". Then he turned around and went back to playing like nothing happened. Just weird. I think we're going to rename him Damien.

Oh, the other ouch to tell y'all about. We're trying to ween Bear from nursing to go to sleep. So we bought a second crib for him and put it up against our bed so he has a bed that opens to our's and that way, he can learn to sleep in his own bed while still being able to be touched by one of us to calm him. So, we get that set up and the first night, it works like a charm. After that, its been really hard on Bear. He screams for hours on end b/c he wants to nurse. His initial going to sleep at night is quiet and calm and he's down for the count. But at 11, about an hour after we've gone to bed and are just starting to drift into La-La land, he wakes up and starts screaming. So I scoot over to his side to try and calm him and put him down. If its Abbie, then he just wants to nurse. Last night was one of the worst we've had yet. He woke up and screamed, not cried, but screamed for an hour. I lasted about that hour, then turned him over to Abbie as the last ounce of patience I had seeped out of my ears. It was rough. Somehow, though, she got him down. I'm not sure how because I think I fell asleep. It's going to be a rough couple of weeks to couple of months as we work with Bear on all this.

Ooooofffff

Cooper seems to really enjoy running up to you and bouncing off his stomach saying, “Oooofffff.” Most of the times he’s laughing as he does it but from time to time when he’s mad he will put a little extra oooff in it and try to knock you over. He was mad at me for something tonight and took a running start and about knocked me over. “Don’t you oooooffff me,” I said. Without missing a beat he reached up and poked me and said, ‘Tickle.” How can you stay mad at someone so darn cute??

Growing Up

Perched

The Month of May 2007

The Month of May

Sully has learned to give us high fives! The same day he learned his first sign language- he did the “All done” sign when he was done eating. We were pretty darn excited. He is a walking fiend now. I even put his first pair of shoes on last week . He had them off before I could take a picture and every time I put them back on him he would get out of them. He got a brand new pair of sneakers for his birthday that tighten up so he can’t escape them! He just walks around the apartment now because he can. He is always carrying something with him. I find everything that should be in the bedroom in the bathroom, and everything that should be in the living room in the kitchen. It’s exhausting cleaning up after him! Yesterday they found my hot rollers and spent most of the day taking them out and putting each roller back in. I was cleaning up and I can’t find some of the rollers now.

Bear’s new game of the week is to hide the remote control under the stove. He and I literally race to get to the remote and have each taken a few dives to get to it. I’m not kidding when I say we race and he wins more than I do! When he does win he cackles and cackles and starts pressing all the buttons!

Bear has also figured out how to hold onto you and climb up onto the couch. Now we find him sitting in his little chair at his own will. A little disconcerting when you just assume he is on the floor. Speaking of will- I am amazed every day at this kid’s tenacity and stubbornness. Jim says he gets it from me but I think he has enough for the both of us. Temper though he gets from Jim. If he is hungry or he wants something he will pitch an absolute fit until he gets it.

Yesterday I took Cooper into his room to take his nap. I partially closed the door to read him his story and I heard the instant Bear realized we weren’t in the living room- this irritated squawk and then thump thump thump he came crawling on his fists and BAM slammed open the door, looked at the door like how dare you be closed. Then he pounded his way over to us and climbed in my lap to hear the story too. I laughed through the whole story!

Bear has graduated to the high chair now. It’s fascinating to me the differences in these boys. I mean Cooper was in the high chair at 5 months. He’d roll the high chair over to us asking to eat. Bear fought it and fought it ripping off the bib and trying to escape the chair in absolute fits. We had to pull out the restraints just to keep him in the chair! He’s adapted to the chair now but he doesn’t want mashed up food at all. He only wants the stuff he can pretend to chew on so no baby food for him.


Cooper’s new phrase is, “Hi Joe.” If he sees anyone he will call them Joe. My theory is he loves Joe on Blue’s Clues so everyone is Joe to him. In the morning he says, “Hi baby Bear. Hi Joe.” He is very good with his manners now. He will say, “Please, please, please.” If you don’t give it to him it’s, “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!” but he almost always remembers to say thank you! Coop is also our little tickle monster. He loves to tickle everyone. Last week he and I were at Whole Foods and he was mad that I had him in the cart. I asked him to please hold on while I put things on the conveyer belt and he reached out and well basically hit me. The shock on my face was clear and I did a sharp intake of breath. His face fell and then just as quickly he reached out and said with this huge smile on his face, “Tickle!” I thought it was a good recovery on his part.

Coop is a champ now with eating with his spoon. Yesterday we had a stew we were eating and I had some left so I pushed my bowl over to him. He took my spoon and his spoon and would eat from one to the other. If you try to help him he gets really upset and will only allow you to put the food on the spoon, he has to bring it to his mouth. We had just been commenting on what a great eater he was and how he never pushed himself back too far in the chair so that it would fall over. We must have jinxed it because out of nowhere he just kicked back and in slow motion the chair hit the wall and then he tumbled out the side and smacked his face onto the kitchen floor. Wasn’t his week because earlier Bear was walking and got going too quick and basically jumped onto Coop who lost his balance and bam knocked his face onto the cement floor on the balcony! Poor kid I had to pull out the ice pack twice in one week.

The beginning of the month Coop has started his head bob as his way of jamming to the music. Now he will spin around and move his legs with his head bob. Mostly gets dizzy but it is fun to watch. Coop is now practicing his colors. He refuses to say blue although he loves to say that everything is purple. For a while he would count to 10 but now everything is 2. And I mean everything. He is still all about the proper order of things. Toilet lids should be down, trash can lids need to be closed, and cabinets should be closed. Bear opens them, Cooper runs behind him to put it back. Must be the plight of the older child.

Dream House

We found our dream house today.

I spent the morning perusing Craigs List for a crib for Cooper. Given our stay has been extended a lot longer than we anticipated all of our stuff is in storage. It’s time for Cooper to get a real bed. I found a listing for a nice crib that met all m criteria and it was dirt cheap but she didn’t show a picture. So after looking at 517 other listings I couldn’t find another one so we had to make the 30 minute drive out to a town called Creedmor just to look at this bed. We knew we were getting there when we turned onto the dirt and gravel road and passed a somewhat disheveled man on a tractor with a few labs running in his yard. We pulled into an almost 5 acre lot surrounded by cattle fencing. First time I’d ever heard of it but it supposedly keeps the animals out. The driveway was lined with a cool log type of fencing and we pulled up to this gorgeous house. It is 3 bedrooms with a loft that overlooks a saltwater pool. Each bedroom is huge and has it’s own full bathroom. The pool has been designed to have a large section of just 3-4 feet and then a whole deep end section. (Did I mention there is a button you can push that turns the salt into chlorine if you want?) There is a huge playground and then a huge garage that has an office, a woodshop type place and it has a kid playroom with chalkboard walls. (I could home school in there!!!) And the master bathroom it was like its own bedroom.

I felt really bad for the woman because she had moved down here from Boston and the building of the house had wrecked her marriage so she has to put it up on the market in a few weeks. Doesn’t that just seem too good to be true?? Alas she is asking for about 200K more than we are looking to spend BUT we did some comps and she clearly doesn’t know the market so maybe just maybe when she gets a real estate agent and prices it right we can negotiate!!

Everybody think positive thoughts for us. Not sure if you can tell but I really want this house!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAR!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAR!

We had a big day for our little Sully Bear. We started the celebration a day early with Haley and Bebba with a late lunch. We kept him up a little bit later than he was used to and for the first time ever he just fell asleep in his high chair. So we softly whispered happy birthday to him with his “cake” and took some pictures to commemorate the special occasion. This morning we woke up and headed out to Chapel Hill to check out the area and see where Haley had moved to. We loved the little town of Carrboro. They have live music out every Sunday from 11-1 in front of Weaver Street Market. (It turns out I had been there back in college when I went to visit Cristina at Guilford. It was my first trip to a natural food market!) We watched a lot of people dancing to the music with and without hula hoops and having picnics really just a huge lawn full of people having a really nice time. Inside were some of the cutest shops set up sort of like the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA. Jim wanted to walk the streets of Carrboro so we started off and within a few blocks I started complaining of being hot (I was wearing all black and my feet were burning!) So we headed back, found a bench and fed the boys some lunch while listening to the music.

Haley was still shopping and buying out Target so we decided to drive around Chapel Hill a little bit and found an amphitheatre tucked away and played around there a little bit. We finally made it over to Haley’s new apartment complex and blew some bubbles while we waited and then she arrived so we got to see her nice new apartment. A nostalgic day for me as it brought me back to the days when Katie and I first moved in together. We made our way back home after purchasing some bathing suits for the boys. We got home and I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to take them swimming so we suited up and headed to the pool! It was packed with people and we were a little nervous because this was Bear’s first trip and Cooper hasn’t been a huge fan of the pool. First thing was the bathing suits with floatation devices built in were just too big! Bear was like a little turtle trying to roll around and move but not able to go anywhere. Bear took to the water with zero fear. I had to hold on to him before he went headfirst in the water. Coop got over his fear pretty quickly and then they both got in their little floats and floated for a long time while watching all the ruckus around us. Jim and I were tired so we came on home but Bear was insistent he still get to hold his raft all the way home.

The evening was hard because I knew we had to open presents and I just really missed having GiGi there. She had the innate ability to make every birthday so special and fun. Once Bear realized he could rip apart the bags he went to town pulling out all the tissue paper and of course the fighting over the toys began immediately. We bought an airplane for Bear since Coop got one on his birthday from Emily and they fight over it constantly but that didn’t matter because they both wanted this airplane too! As a matter of fact, Cooper took that airplane to bed with him.

It was a wonderful birthday celebration. Our little guy is one year old. It boggles the brain that we have another toddler now!! Happy Birthday Bear!

Bear Is Walking

Talk about a fun phase. Bear has been taking a few steps here, a few steps there but yesterday he walked halfway across the room. He just seemed to really get it. Today as we left Kid Kare we always say and wave bye to the women that work there he started doing that wave where he's really waving to himself. I'd forgotten about that but there he was waving bye.

His most favorite game at the moment is to pull all of the cubes with toys out and throw them around the living room. I've just about given up cleaning them up because as soon as I start putting them away he comes crawling right over to throw it all over the floor again. He is in that phase where he is just exploring everything. His new play area is the kitchen. He has to take everything out from underneath the stove and I find toys stashed in there all the time. Watch out for your toes, if you don't move he just opens it up right over your toes. I'll admit to a chuckle when I hear Jim yelp cause I know Bear has opened the drawer :-)

He now has his bottom two teeth. Jim had his chuckles every time I said, "If you bite me again we are done!" Should have more coming since he is ALWAYS chewing on his fingers. More than anything it's clear that Bear is ALL about some Cooper. Whenever possible he is crawling over Cooper, pulling Cooper's ears or basically just jumping on Cooper. I know when I hear Cooper cry it's because Bear has attacked. No joke I found Cooper writhing on the floor and Bear just sitting over him grinning. He must have been pulling Cooper's ears because they were beat red! Yet Coop just stays there instead of running away.

Maintenance came by to repair the screen Bear busted out of the back patio today! I'm thinking I should keep a tally of all the damage he does so later in life when he says he's an angel I can show him all the destruction he caused :-) I did cut his hair- just a little in the back. I draw the line with a baby mullet. He's got the fun mad scientist look now.

I won't even start in on his sleep habits. I've considered paying someone to come and get him to nap by himself if that gives you any indication. Other than that he is my angel who is about to turn 1!! I can't realy fathom that. He couldn't even crawl when we moved here it just doesn't seem possible. I can hear the thump thump thump on the floor- Bear is here for some attention!

Coper's Fun Phase

This is such a fun phase for Cooper. His favorite phrases are now, "What is it?" or "I love you." We get into "I love you" competitions and how many ways can we say it. Every day he just learns more and more and shows us how much he really comprehends. Today I wasn't paying attention and SpongeBob came on the tv. Just as I got up to change it Cooper came running and hid behind me from strange pirate man on the beginning of the show. He knows bad tv!

He will now do this huge head bob dancing to music. (Jim taught him that one.) When he is ready to go to sleep he just says, "nap, nap" and goes into his room and waits on us. The other day when I was dropping him off at Kid Kare they asked if I could hold him up front for a minute while they cleaned the train station up a bit. (By the way he is a train set freak! We have to get him one, he LOVES trains.) I called him back to give me a kiss so he comes back gives me a kiss and starts to run off again. They weren't done cleaning so I asked for another kiss. No joke he put his hand on his hip and waved and said, "bye"! It was so cute.

Everyone who gives us such a hard time about him eating his vegetables will get a chuckle to know that he now painstakingly picks around all his vegetables. Unless he's really hungry and then he will eat them. But if not it's wasted veggies. Coop is now over his avoidance of the camera. We went through a phase where he wouldn't look at the camera but now as you can see he says, "cheeeeeeeeeese" until you take his picture. His new favorite game is Peek A Boo. He loves to cover your eyes and say, "peek a boo", over and over and over and over and over. Or he takes the rice cooker pot throws it over his head and goes running around the apartment until he runs into a wall.

We only get temper tantrums these days if he's really tired and/or hungry. Then he likes to throw the trash can down or slam a door. His favorite thing is to wake up Bear if he's sleeping which goes over very well. He won't drink water out of his own bottles anymore it has to be my water bottle. That's all I can think of right now. Every day all day is really just fun to be a part of. There are times when I know he is talking to GiGi. He is looking above my head laughing, or just talking away and pointing. We were looking at pictures of her and he was pointing to her saying, "GiGi" and then to my picture saying, "a mommy." I'm not sure I could make it right now without these guys that is for sure.

Helpful Ain't He?

Proof of Cooper helping us carry the groceries in!