First Solids?

Can I put the "eats fruit" sticker in his book now? 

Five Months Old

Adam is 5 months old today!

I think he's getting used to these photo shoots because he's now posing for the camera like he's hot stuff.

He is now officially laughing - tickles on his shoulders and his thighs are sure fire ways to get him giggling. 

He can roll over with no problems now - any direction.  There have been a couple times I have left him on his blanket for a couple minutes and returned to find him across the room and stuck up against  his bouncy seat.  Oops!

He is bringing objects to his mouth now but gets extremely frustrated if he drops them.

  Holding him while eating dinner is starting to become a challenge because he's grabbing anything within reaching distance.

Sleeping is the same...Poor Mom is tired.  Adam won't sleep longer than 4-5 hours at a stretch.  Bootcamp is coming...So he better enjoy his late night feedings while he can still get them.

And finally the biggest change this month is that I returned to work about a week ago.  As everything has been this time around, it was a much different experience.  I want to say it was harder than it was with Owen, but for so many different reasons.  With Owen, I was having such a hard time adjusting to being a mom, that I think it was helpful for me to get back to work in order to give myself a little bit of a distraction.  Also, Owen was such a cute baby and the love of my life, but let's be honest...babies are kind of boring.  Work provided some mental stimulation that I had been missing as well.  Finally, we left Owen with our good friend Tracy when Steve wasn't home (which wasn't that often) so I felt like he was in good hands without me.  The hard part was just getting over my extreme anxiety around him being away from me. 

This time around, I didn't have the anxiety about returning to work...I had more sadness that the time I had spent at home was really enjoyable and that it was over.  Adam was such a happy and easy baby - and I had already experienced what life with an infant is like, my days were not as filled with as much anxiety and worry as they were with Owen.  And, having Owen home with me made the days go by so fast and each day was always a little different.  I'm not going to say they weren't stressful or exhausting, but the time passed so much more quickly than it did the first time around.  And lastly, we hired a temporary nanny to watch the boys.  Leaving them with a person I barely knew was really unnerving and made me extremely uncomfortable.

So I was sad to go back, but the boys have been doing great without me.  And the best part is seeing how happy they are to see me when I get home (you would think the best part is getting to each lunch as slowly as I want...or holding a conversation with someone without being interrupted once...or using the bathroom by myself...but nope, it's coming home to their perfect little faces!)

Case in point...see below.

Happy 5th Month Birthday, Adam!

Don't Talk To Me About It

What do you get when you combine a language explosion with the Terrible Twos?  Well, today I got to hear a new phrase over and over.  It went something like this...

Owen: "Brrrraaarrrrrraaarrrrrrrrraaaarrrrrrrr!"
Me: "Ooh!  I hear a train!"
Owen:  "NO MOM!  It's just a train.  Don't talk to me about it."
Me: "What did you just say????"
Owen: "DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT IT!"

Fine.

Mother's Day 2011

Today was my third Mother's Day but my first as a mom to two children so it was extra special.

Steve was working, so I spent the day with my two boys and Nana.  We decided to have a celebratory lunch at The Rainforest Cafe (one of Owen's favorite restaurants) and spend the rest of the day just hanging at home with the kids.  I am looking forward to the day where my children understand the meaning of the day and get into it, but for now - they just think it's like any other day and that's fine with me.

I had asked Steve not to get me any gifts because I feel like I need to pay off the very pretty gift I asked for (and he gave me) for Adam's arrival just a few months ago.  Nana gave me a beautiful Glassybaby candleholder and a big strawberry planter filled with strawberry plants.  I gave Nana an IOU for her Glassybaby since I dropped the ball this year.  We both exchanged cards from each other and the kids.

We took a few photos to document the day - although we were both basically wearing pajamas.  As Fred Armison impersonating Joy Behar says, "So what, who cares?"

Then after Nana left, I entertained myself by taking some photos of the boys together and then thought I could take a better self portrait of the three of us by using my timer on my camera.  Here's how they turned out.  I can't stop laughing about the second one...I love how despite me trying to shove Owen out of the way, I'm still smiling at the camera.  Like I thought somehow that photo would turn out well. 

After the day was done and the kids were in bed, I gave myself the best present I could ask for on Mother's Day.  I made it a point to hold both boys and rock them in my arms while they were sleeping.  I do this everyday with Adam, obviously, but I haven't done it with Owen in months.  I took him out of his crib and snuggled with him in the rocking chair for a few minutes.  Just to remind myself how fast this time has been passing and how soon it will be before I can't do that anymore.  If this is making you tear up at all, I challenge you to read the book Love You Forever.  Such a horrible book.  I have no idea how you can read that to your child without bawling.  Anyway, we had our very own Love You Forever moment.  And that was the best present in the world.

Night #3 With No Paci - A Songfest

I have to say, overall - the missing pacis have not been too much of an issue.  Well, I should say Owen hasn't been screaming and crying asking for one.  However, I have noticed that the times he normally relies heavily on his paci, not having one has made him behave a little differently.

I felt very sorry for him when our nanny showed up for her second trial sitting day.  Poor Owen was nervous to have her here and would normally use his paci as a soothing device but he didn't have it.  I could see him trying to cope with his uncomfortable feelings but struggling.

His mood has been SOUR the last few days.  I think without his paci, when he gets ticked off - it is harder for him to calm down.  I have been dealing with a whiny, moody, tantrumy mess for the past few days.

The biggest change has been bedtimes.  Tonight is night #3 without paci and it has been taking Owen FOREVER to fall asleep.  I'm not sure he knows how to soothe himself to sleep without one yet.  And without paci in his mouth - this is what I have been listening to the past few nights.  It's long - but it gets pretty good in the middle.  I love how he corrects himself during Old MacDonald ("Wait, that's not right!")

This is a long video, but it's not nearly as long as the 1.5 hours he'll typically go.  And of course, I missed the cutest song he sang tonight.  He (on his own, we've never done this) changed "muffin man" to different family members.  These were the verses I heard:

"Do you know the Adam, Adam?  Adam, Adam?  Adam, Adam?  Do you know the Adam, Adam who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Do you know the Michael, Michael?  Michael, Michael?  Michael, Michael?  Do you know the Michael, Michael who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Do you know the Audrey, Audrey?  Audrey, Audrey?  Audrey, Audrey?  Do you know the Audrey, Audrey who lives on Drury Lane?"

Thanks For The Memories - Darcy Read Preschool

Preschool is hard work!  For Owen's last day of class, we are supposed to present him with a "memory book" of all his artwork and photos from throughout the year.  I am not artistic and I don't really understand how you are supposed to put these huge paintings he has done in a little binder - so I decided to go with what I know.  Shutterfly photo books.  Here is a link to the finished product.

Please don't tell me if there are misspellings or grammatical errors.  I don't want to know.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Another Sticker In The Book - First Cereal

It went pretty much as expected - only two tiny bites before big time gag.  It's an acquired taste.  But at least he got to use his new fancy spoon from Nana!

The Paci Fairy (aka: She Devil)

The Paci Fairy visited our house today.  There was a lot of tears.  All of which were mine.  But here is the full story:

We have been talking about taking away Owen's pacis for about a year now.  I took him to the dentist right after his 2nd birthday expecting a big lecture from her about how he was too old for one, but to my surprise - she said they recommend children stop using them by age three.  Three???  That gave me a whole additional year to procrastinate the take away!

So, that was September.  When November came, that seemed too close to the big arrival of his little brother and all the books and online advice say not to make any major changes to routine right before or after a new baby arrives.  So that took care of November, December, January, and February.  March came and Steve went back to work - so we decided that would be the only big change for that month.  April came and that's when Steve and I began seriously discussing the end of the pacis. 

So to start the process, I ordered some children's books on the Paci Fairy subject in the hopes of easing Owen into the idea via bedtime stories (in the end, he never read the one book that I bought and the other book never shipped.) 

Next, we had to come up with a majorly awesome gift that the Paci Fairy could bring that would be worth exchanging the pacis.  We decided that a good present would be a blue garbage truck.  He has been coveting one for months since the real garbage trucks that come every Tuesday are blue.  He only has green and orange ones and those just don't cut the mustard when you are reenacting the whole "garbage day" scene with the correct color garbage cans, but the wrong color truck.  I searched the stores and online to find a blue garbage truck and can I just say, they are hard to find!  I ended up special ordering one from Walmart and had it shipped to a local store and today I received the email that it arrived.

So, I had in my mind that this Paci Fairy thing would be a very orchestrated event where Owen would leave his pacis somewhere for her and then magically the pacis would disappear and the super, awesome gift would be there instead.  However, this is how it went down today...

We spend the morning at the park having a grand ol' time.  Got home and started discussing what we were going to do with the afternoon.  I suggested to Steve that he go pick up the garbage truck at the store so we could think about doing the Paci Fairy thing sometime this month.  He suggested we do it today.  I suggested we should probably discuss the idea with Owen since we haven't yet to see how interested or freaked out he would be at the idea.  He agreed.

So I broached the subject with Owen. 

Me:  "Hey, Bubba?  Do you know that there is a Paci Fairy?  She told me that if you give her all of your pacis, she would bring you a BLUE garbage truck!  What do you think?"

Owen:  "Get garbage truck now?"

Me:  "Well, I think she is going to come tomorrow."

Owen:  "No, get garbage truck now?  Go to the store and get garbage truck?" (He knows that whenever we don't have something he wants - we say we have to go to the store.)

Me:  "Uh, well...uh, ummm, uh, well - ok.  I think she said once she has your pacis, she would leave the truck at the store for you."

So we found a shoe box and ran around the house gathering all his pacis and putting them in the box.  Owen put every one in the box himself.  Then we ran outside to put the box under a tree.  Then Owen and Steve went to Walmart to pick up the present the Paci Fairy left for Owen at Customer Service.  Only I forgot to email Steve the confirmation email, so he went to the wrong Walmart and had to go to two stores to get it.  That Paci Fairy sure is a pain in the rear.  You'd think she'd know where to leave the dang present, but no...she makes you run all over town trying to find it.  Anyway, while they were gone - I took a few minutes to cry, but then I dashed around the house taking pictures of the event and making a thank you note from the P.F. on the computer (which, he never read but it's still going in the baby book) which I left in the place of the paci box since we had no gift to leave there.  Seemed weird to have it disappear with nothing left in it's place?  But, like I said, Owen didn't notice the note, didn't want to go get the note when I pointed it out, didn't want to read it when I brought it in, so it was pretty much pointless except for my need to have it all make sense somehow.

Owen rode the whole way home with his big blue garbage truck in his lap and never let go of it the rest of the day.  He asked about his pacis at bedtime and when we said we didn't have any, he asked a few more times - a little whiny - but never cried and never freaked out. 

So in the end, it wasn't the vision I had for the moment we said goodbye to pacis forever.  But, maybe this way was better.  The disorganization and franticness of it all kept it from becoming bigger than necessary.  However, I was not prepared to never see my baby with his precious paci again.  And I couldn't bring myself to throw them away.  They are still in my closet, in the box, with his paci breath all over them. 

Four Months Old

Adam is officially a four month old.  I won't say that time is flying by because I say that every post.  But it is.

We went to the doctor today and the doctor said he is looking great.  He gave us the green light to start rice cereal anytime between now and 6 months.  Adam was much happier to see the doctor than his previous visits - he was all smiles until he got the two shots (one in each leg) then he got a little sad.  This was also the first appointment Owen tagged along to.  I was a little worried about how to juggle both of them and be able to hear the doctor, but a portable DVD player with The Wiggles did the trick.  And actually, while the doctor was examining Adam, Owen was right next to him listening to every word.  The doctor even let Owen wear his stethoscope and listen to Adam's heart.  And, when Adam was done with his shots, Owen kissed his boo-boos.  So cute. 

Yesterday was the first day Adam had 100% formula.  I've been weaning him for the last month and he's now drinking 6 ounces of formula every 4 hours.  At night, he has been sleeping about 6 hours for the longest stretch and that's only been the last week or so.  He is sleeping in the pack and play next to our bed and he generally sleeps on his tummy for the first four hours and then stirs which is my cue to turn him over to his back and he'll sleep another two hours that way.  Then he'll take a bottle and sleep another 3 hours or so.  We've been going to sleep around 11pm and waking up at 8am.  Not bad!

He's not very scheduled during the day yet, but since we are now on a nice bottle routine - I'm expecting the sleep routine to follow.  However, having Owen around really messes with his routine (compared to when Owen was this age - there were no two and a half year olds to disrupt his sleep schedule.) 

He's still a very smiley boy.  We have heard a couple giggles but those are harder to get out of him.  He LOVES his big brother.  If Owen is in the room, Adam will be staring at him and smiling. 

Car rides have become much better.  If he has a full belly, he usually falls asleep in the car or will be happy to play with his butterfly toy.  What is it about the four month mark that makes them happier in the car?

He is a rolling over fool.  You can't put him on his back without him flipping over to his tummy.  He can roll from his tummy to his back, but it's not nearly as easy for him.

He is getting very good at holding objects, but he isn't quite sure what to do once he has them.  If there is something he wants within reaching distance, he'll easily grab onto it and then he sort of spastically moves it to his mouth.  But, then it seems like he doesn't necessarily want the toy in his face but can't figure out how to move it away. 

Adam is generally a very easy baby!  He still likes the yoga ball, but he also would be happy to just be held and walked around.  I spent the day at my friend Allison's house yesterday and was so happy to just sit on my lap and take in the sights and sounds of a new environment.  And when he was tired, he just put his head on my chest and fell asleep.

So here are the official four month stats: 

• Weight: 14 pounds, 12 ounces (45th percentile)
• Height: 25.75 inches (78th percentile)
• Head: 16.6 inches (47th percentile)

Happy Birthday, Adam!!!!