Reaching Out

As I was buckling big sis into her carseat Friday afternoon, she reached out to grab little man's hand. She does this often - little man is her favorite distraction from any process. Usually I have to ask her to let go so I can finish loading everyone in the car. And then she can't reach little man anymore which is highly disappointing. Today was the first day that all three of realized little man had grown enough for big sis to continue holding his hand once everyone was safe and secure (the benefit of the small speedy hatchback!). Both kiddos were ecstatic! They laughed and giggled and grabbed hands across the backseat the whole way home. I know one day this will lead to the inevitable "he's touching me" and "she's on my side". But for now they are enjoying the first opportunity to connect across the space between their seats. As usual, I am amazed by their sweet communications!

8 Months

"Peek A Boo!"

I am amazed at the strength of little man's rolly poly body! Both of our kiddos are Gerber babies through and through. In little man's 8th month he accomplished maneuvering into a sitting position with ease, commando crawling around his playmat and bordering area, then actually crawling and forcefully pulling himself up when he is desperate to get to something interesting (like anything that is NOT baby proof). His crawling patterns are cracking me up right now. He doesn't seem to prefer lifting his belly yet even though he can. He only saves that method for speed. Of course he is also quite efficient at getting around by repositioning himself over in over in a sitting position.

"Stylin' in the Crib"

Noise is still the fascination of choice. He sits around with different toys banging them together, on the floor, and giggling maniacally at the cacophony of sound he created! Little man loves to study the details of toys as well, but once that focus is over it is back to creating noise.

This month we found even more things, other than big sis and the dogs, that brought out little man's contagious belly laughs. He loves his borrowed johnny jumper - when in the right mood he will laugh and jump in it forever. He is also ticklish! Big sis wasn't ticklish as a baby (although very ticklish now!). Little man collapses into giggles if you tickle his belly.

Little man is starting to be very motivated for something - and if you happen to take whatever that is away you might be met with some resistance aka WAILING!

"Where's the Beach?"

Ba Wa Va Ba Ba Wa - these are the random sounds he is "saying" these days. As of yet no real words or even sounds associated with specific actions. Although I could have sworn he has been saying "ba ba" when he sees his bottle or wants to eat. But he says it other random times too so I can't be sure.

This month little man was grumpy more often because of several teeth - now he has filled in his vampire fangs with the top front middle teeth. And there are two more pushing through on the bottom as well.

As mobile as little man is, he is also sitting still for "reading" - viewing/eating books. I am looking into expanding his reading material to a book new to us, "Baby Boo." We recently watched a video of another beautiful baby girl, little shrimp, who is about little man's age enjoying this book. (And she has the longest eyelashes which remind me of big sis at that age). Thanks for the recommendation little shrimp!

All this to say - another eventful, way too fast, month with little man. Can't imagine our world without him!

Final Note: Disco has been sick this week with the rest of us, he will return to his regularly scheduled photo duties when he is back up to speed. Until then I hope you can bear with the amateur photos from K (I'm trying!)

The Adventures of Action Man . . . On the Move

Mild mannered little man, secret protector of casa de B-M, transformed into Action Man this week. We will see if this new ability depicted below will be an asset in his fight for good. Or if it might just make him mortal enemies with a clean house . . .

Yoga Baby

Bis sis was awesome at what we termed "downward baby". Everyone has pictures of her viewing the world upside down. She is still loving yoga and enjoys a book of poses one of our friends gave us (thanks tallgirl!).

As little man makes his attempts at crawling (help!), he is doing some baby yoga of his own. And of course there are many twists, turns, and giggles as we try to catch little man's eye. I'm so excited he is a yoga baby - by far my favorite baby trick!

Routine

It was fun having extra time during the holidays. But everyone, except little man, seems to be having a hard time getting back to our normal routine. Disco and I drag ourselves out of bed each day for work. And big sis has cried on our way to school everyday for two weeks straight! Once we get there she just says "I want you" over and over again. It is hard finding fun things for her to think about to distract her from her anxiety over school - and after the first couple of days she saw through our lame attempts anyway. Smart girl. She knows this school thing means mommy, daddy, and little man go away. Since we have battled separation anxiety from her since BIRTH I can't say that I am surprised that we still have bouts of it. But it doesn't help my working mom guilt at all when she begs to go to work with me. Today she even told us "I am a big girl, can I go to work now?"

Of course little man, as usual, watches us and laughs at all of our angst. He can't figure out why we have the winter doldrums. I mean the world is pretty funny from his 7.5 month point of view. And daycare? That's the fun place where all the nice ladies just laugh along with him. And it is his personal gym where he can work on his "destruction routine" - the one where he eventually learns how to crawl and contribute to the wreck in our house. Sweet little man - we would probably all go insane this winter without him!

Spontaneous Bursts of Laughter

Right now little man's fascination with noise is fun to experience. He likes to hear noises and see where they originate. He loves to make noise with his toys, hands, and voice. And today that included random outbursts of laughter from little man. I guess it is a cause and effect thing as well - because he definitely waits to see your reaction. And you better laugh. How could you help it, though? Baby giggles are the best!

1040 Days

A friend of mine suggested taking note of our children when they reach 100 days or 1000 days old. She believed there was something special about these time points in our lives. And, as usual, I missed noting both for big sis. I remembered her suggestion this week, so I Googled big sis's age in days. I decided to make this random and acknowledge 1040 days.

She is so silly these days! And very temperamental. Today she broke down because her water wasn't in the sippy cup she requested. How was I supposed to know that the "squishy" sippy cup was actually the cup she refers to as "the Dora" cup on any other day?

Her imagination is also on turbo power lately - we are honored to be allowed in her imaginary world. And there is a constant request to "play with me". She is pretty fun to play with, if you are into taking orders from a 2 3/4 year old. No really, she makes me marvel at her thought process, curiosity, memory, kindness, and most of all her humor! I can't believe I have only known her 1040 days.

Rub a Dub Dub . . . Bye Bye Baby Bathtub

Little man has needed to leave behind the baby bath tub for a month or two. But I was reluctant for the following reasons:

1) I have been waiting on Disco to take pics of the hilarious process that is "bath time". Little man is huge for the baby tub, likes to turn on/eat the water faucet, tries to grab everything in reach, and stand up/crawl out of the tiny tub. Since Disco is usually corralling big sis during this process it has taken a bit of time to coordinate.

2) It is yet ANOTHER milestone that I was not ready to face - this second/final baby thing is hard on mommy.

3) The kitchen sink is SO CONVENIENT and I don't have to break my back to wash little man!

4) We tried little man and big sis in our big soaker bath tub a couple of times, but each time ended in a chaotic disaster

5) I kept forgetting to inflate the next tub.

Oh well, I gave in. Another baby item becomes garage sale fodder.

Little man is so big that he and the baby tub won't fit in the frame . . .

Little man takes it upon himself to add more water in the baby tub!

I spoke too soon . . .

Well . . . remind me never to write about little man when we think he has finished potty training. Because apparently when you make anything final THAT is when the disaster of all potty training disasters will occur! Disco and big sis were in the bathroom for at least 30 minutes cleaning the poo snafu that evolved tonight.

Disco was kind enough to provide the screenplay...

BigSis runs into the bathroom. Disco follows a little while later...

Disco: Did you have an accident?

BigSis: Yes

Disco: Oh, you peed on the floor. I'll clean it up. You go wash your hands.

BigSis: (at the sink): There's poop.

Disco: What?

BigSis: I pooped on the floor!

Disco: OK, don't move. I'll get mommy.

K. comes in with Little Man. K. turns around and leaves.

Disco: OK, let me clean you up.

Maggie (the dog): Don't worry, I'll help clean up.

Disco: Maggie, stop that! Get out!

BigSis: I need a bath!

Disco: OK, I'll clean this up. You stand by the bath.

BigSis: Look Daddy!

Disco: Leave the toilet paper alone. You're wasting it.

BigSis: Daddy!

BigSis puts half a roll of toilet paper in the potty and flushes. Disco lunges across the bathroom just in time to stop the toilet from overflowing.

K.: Can you turn the vent on? It's starting to smell out here!

Potty Training . . . Check!

Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas big sis stopped having accidents during the day. I have no idea the exact timing of it - it just seemed to occur as we carried on with our hectic holiday schedule. So I am going to call it official! There are still moments of surprise for her (like all day yesterday!) but somehow she has figured out how to catch herself so she can reach the potty. Unfortunately, the nighttime training will continue. But with our previous family history I am not surprised and that will just have to run its course - without worry.

Woo hoo for less money on pull-ups!!!!

Final Day of Winter Vacation

Today was a good day! Usually dark, gray, gloomy days bum us out - especially the last day of vacation. And I tend to have anxiety on Sundays (something about the transition between non-structure/structure and getting ready for the busy week ahead).

But today . . .was so SIMPLE. We all were in good moods. Church was nice (little man took a sweet morning nap in my lap during our turn working the nursery). We leisurely ate lunch together - which with two little ones is a monumental event sometimes! Disco gently encouraged big sis to take a nap and she took the bait. Little man dozed off shortly after big sis fell asleep. And then they both slept . . a while. So Disco and I enjoyed watching Entourage DVDs and reading until everyone woke up in happy moods. As little man and big sis played I couldn't help but think "I want to remember this day". They are at cute ages - I love watching their conversations, smiles, and giggles! We may be up until midnight tonight trying to get everyone down for bed. But it was worth a lovely day!

Happy Hiking New Year

Disco loves the outdoors (as do I). So today he began by saying "when little man gets older I would like to get out and hike on the weekends" and I replied "why not now?". We tried hiking a few times with big sis when she was a baby. It wasn't pretty! She was always grumpy about 50 feet into the hike. Apparently not much has changed - true to form she was wanting "up baby" about 50 feet into the trail. And in her defense it was a much harder hike for a 2 year old (leaves and big rocks cluttering the trail). So both of us were hauling kiddos rather than switching the baby bjorn back and forth.

A quick smile from Disco AND big sis

Here is your walking stick little man!

Little man just hung out as usual - laughing at big sis and taking in the scenery. I don't know if our crazy lives will allow much time for future hikes. But I hope so - we had fun during our 25 minutes on the trail (baby steps!). Of course both kiddos enjoyed adding to the "scat" we found in the woods. Big sis informed us that "this (pointing to the entire wooded area) is the hiking potty!" Thankfully Disco is a responsible hiker and we left no trace of our adventure.

7 month stretch

Little man is 7 months old now. Time continues to fly - and so does he. When you hold him he still wants to be "superman"! Today we FINALLY noticed the second upper middle tooth has barely pushed through - but I am sure we have a few more days of drool baby to deal with this week.

Little man is sitting well these days - it seems like he was more stable magically overnight. He has been desperately trying to get to a sitting position on his own - and he finally did it today as we were playing Twister with big sis. It seemed fairly accidental - he was actually bouncing back and forth on his knees at the time so I just thought he might be crawling soon. He sure gave us a "twist" (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!). With big sis we were so anxious for her to hit every milestone on time. Knowing this will be our last baby (unless someone upstairs has other plans for us) makes me want to hold onto each baby moment as long as possible. So I am not quite ready for the crawling phase. And also, I remember the path-o-disaster a crawling big sis made through our house - it wasn't pretty!

He loves noise and lights right now. He received a baby hammer that makes noises and lights up - it is the first toy that makes him laugh out loud! Food is a grand adventure these days! As long as little man has something to chew on in between bites (usually another spoon) he will sit for our entire meal eating and playing. And he hasn't found a fruit or vegetable he doesn't like! Which is shocking to me b/c even by this age big sis would only eat bananas, green beans, and sweet potatoes. She still is quite a picky eater - although she is expanding her palate a bit more these days as her inquisitive nature kicks in.

His smile is infectious and he smiles at all of us constantly! Big sis is still his favorite person to laugh at but when we zoom him through the air, bounce, or wrestle with him he gives Disco and I a big laugh. And peek-a-boo is becoming more fun for all!

My favorite thing right now is when little man is in your arms, he will reach down and grab your hand while you hold him. Usually, for me, he will rub his thumb along my thumbnail - just watching the world around him. It is probably part of his attempts at the pincer grasp, grab onto anything, or another way to explore through noise (he scratches everything and anything noisy is repeated over and over again!). But for me it is a sweet gesture which says "hey mom" - and then I just give him a gentle hug and kiss while we giggle at big sis and all her silliness!