Blanket Surfing

My little grommet.  Looks like he's about to pop up and hang ten, right?  Or maybe he"s just trying to prone out?  I wonder if he's a goofy foot?  Whatever he's doing...he's pretty cute.

My Little Parrot - A Rude Awakening

We all know kids mirror their parents.  Their words, their actions, their emotions.  And we have found ourselves surprised at things that come out of Owen's mouth that are a direct copy of things we have said out loud either to him or to others.  Usually it's a reminder to watch what we say, because he doesn't miss a beat. 

Like my previous post where I felt like I needed to write down cute little Owenese words and phrases before he stopped saying them, now I feel like I should write down funny phrases that he says that I know are a direct copy of things we say to him.  Even if I'm not exactly proud of myself.

- Playing on our new cordless phone and shaking his finger at me: "Just a second, I'm on the phone."

- Taking the computer mouse out of my hand: "Let me check something real quick."

- At a traffic light behind a car: "Goooooooooooo! Arghhhhhhh."

- Calling me from upstairs: "Hey Babe!  Baaayyyyyyyaaaaabe!  Hey Babe, come upstairs!"

To be continued...

First School Photos

Wow.  This is a perfect example of how Owen seems to have aged 10 years over the last 3 months.  His preschool class did school photos a few weeks ago and I have been (im)patiently waiting for them to arrive.  Steve took him to school that day and his report back to me was that "Owen did great."  I have no idea what that means, but I took it to mean that Owen did not trash the photo set and at least sat where he was supposed to sit for the pictures.

Knowing that I can NEVER get Owen to look at the camera and smile - I had just hoped that he wasn't making too much of a goofy face in the picture.  I was blown away when I opened the envelope today at school.  We got him to pose, look at the camera and smile!  And twice since he did it in the big class shot too!  Now please answer me, how is my little boy in school photos?!?!?!?

A Cute Twofer

Can you fit a 2 1/2 year old who is in the 98th percentile for height in the same baby bathtub with his brother? 

Yup.

Rock And Rollin' Over

I thought my blogathon last night was going to be enough to catch me up and give me a blog break for a bit, but when a milestone happens - it must be blogged!  I mean, if it deserves its own STICKER in the calendar, it definitely deserves a video and a bloggity blog.

Here is Adam rocking and rolling over.  I love that both my boys like to do things the hard way.  Both did back to front first - both did it at 13 weeks! 

So far, Adam only does it when he is mad.  You will see that I had to hide behind the couch a little so he would think I was leaving him (otherwise he would just lie there and smile at me.)

Crapstorm

Even though this is my blog and I can swear if I want to - since I am using this as a pseudo-baby book, I feel weird about using foul language in my posts.  However, if there was any day to swear, today would be it.

Also, I would guess that my brother would be surprised at how little I have written about poop in this blog.  He thinks I talk about it too much, so he might have expected me to write about it more.  Well today is the day because it has become extremely blog worthy.

Owen, poor Owen, has been a little "backed up" for a long time now.  About a week ago there was a complete system fail and nothing was coming out for a few days which resulted in him refusing to eat which resulted in a trip to the doctor.  The doctor confirmed he was backed up (or as I like to call it - "constey") and prescribed Miralax. 

We got a few doses into Owen right before Steve left on a four day trip and then the first day I was home alone with the kids - the flood gates opened.  The first day, I was so happy to see that the medicine was working I didn't mind all the clean-up.  Plus, Nana was over most of the day so we were able to juggle diaper changes.  The second day (today) was NOT my favorite.  Owen had a total of four baths today all due to me not being able to contain the "situation" with just wipes.  Adam was not super happy with all the baths because that meant he was sort of tossed to his bouncy seat each time Owen needed a diaper change.  So today was filled with poo, bath, screaming, more poo, more bath, more screaming, again - poo, again - bath, again - screaming, one more poo for good measure, one more bath for good measure, and lots more screaming.  Oh and let's not forget the laundry.

So is this something I should blog about?  Maybe not.  But I had to live through it and now I feel like sharing because it was pretty gross and sharing makes me feel like I didn't go through it alone.

On the plus side, I brought my camera upstairs during Owen's 3rd of 4 baths and got some pictures I really liked.  I love how my camera is so good at freezing water in motion!  And I'm not going to say out loud that the picture of him spitting water out of his mouth is kind of symbolic for the whole reason he was in the bath in the first place.  So maybe sharing these cute photos will distract you from the story a bit.  Maybe.

**PS: You'll notice two big scratches on Owen's face in some of these photos. This is because Owen has been taunting Pearl over the last few weeks with many, many, many warnings from Dad, Mom and Nana that Pearl would eventually get mad and bite and/or scratch him. But, Owen either didn't believe us, understand us, or thought that if she went after him - he'd be quick enough to evade her attack. Not so. She made contact yesterday and he was not pleased. I thought that would teach him to leave her alone but tonight he was back at her. I'm not sure what to do at this point?

Mummy Loves Me

But not enough to put me in seasonally appropriate hand-me-downs.

April Fools!

Today is April Fool's Day and I am so happy that I finally, FINALLY "punked" Steve.  I've never been able to fool him about anything (because I'm a horrible liar) and today I finally did it.

I asked Michael if he could Photoshop a picture of a fake dog onto a photo of Owen's chair we keep in our living room.  He said yes and the photo to the left is the finished product.  I emailed it along with a semi-believable story to Steve.

Steve knew I was having lunch with my friend Rebecca today, so I decided to use her as my lie because I had absolutely no reason to leave the house today in order to stumble upon a puppy and Steve would have known that.

So here is the email I sent to him and that he fell for - hook, line and sinker.

From: Laura S
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 14:28:17
To: Steve S
Subject: don't kill me

Sooooo...Rebecca came over today and apparently Hans brought home a puppy last week and they can't keep it because their cat is going crazy. She brought it over today to show me and Owen was so cute with it, I told her to leave him here and we'll "try" it for a few weeks.  His name is Spikers, but we can change it. :)

He just seems so at home here!!!! Charlie is in love.

Steve called me and after I told him that he got punked, he actually seemed disappointed!  But a puppy is seriously the last thing we need right now and I can't believe he thought I would have taken that on when I can barely handle the living creatures we have now.  I'm preparing for next year's retaliation.  It will probably be a real puppy.

Three Months Old

All I wanted out of Adam's three month photo was a smile - and I got it!  As Vicki on the Real Housewives of Orange County says, Whooo-hooooooooo!

No obligatory stats this month because we get to skip the doctor this month.  He seems to be growing though (if you couldn't tell from his cute little leg rolls) because we have officially retired the 0-3 month clothes and we are now into the 3-6 month size and to be honest, they are pretty snug!  I did tear up a little retiring those clothes because the first time I put them into the retired bins, I thought to myself "better put these away because I might get to use them again."  This time I thought, "should I save or donate because I probably won't get to use these again."  Sniff.  Sniff.

Anyway, moving on...Adam is a very cute three month old.  He is very smiley and we are very close to laughing.  We are using the yoga ball less and less, but he still likes it to fall asleep with.  But, when he's not tired and not hungry - he is content to sit on your lap and look out at the action.  He LOVES his family.  When he is cranky with Mom, all he has to do is look over at Dad or Owen and he is all smiles.  He is starting to hold big conversations with Mom and Dad too - lots of imitation when we say "ohhh" or "eeeeee."  Our bedtime routine now consists of a recap of our day and it's one of the highlights of mine.

Speaking of bedtime, arggghhhhh....this boy does not like long stretches of sleep.  I'm giving up an hour of sleep tonight to catch up on this blog, but boy is it a precious commodity.  I'm hopeful things will change soon - at least before I go back to work!?!?

Month #2 is in the books and we're on to #3.  I can't wait to see what is in store for us...I haven't been disappointed yet!

My Baby

Today at preschool I brought my camera to try and make up for the six or so months Owen missed this school year.  I discovered that at the end of the year, parents are supposed to create a memory book for their child made up of their art projects, photos and collections from the school year.  Since Owen is lacking in art projects, I am going to try to take a ton of pictures and make up for lost time.  This photo isn't the most artistic or beautiful shot, but I love it.

Sometimes I catch myself looking at Owen and thinking, "when did he get so grown up?"  I'm sure I'll think that a billion times more as he grows up but right now I'm in awe of the changes I've seen over the last few months.  This particular photo illustrates how a mundane, everyday task like washing your hands at the sink seems so amazing to me that now he's mastered it.  3 months ago, I was wiping his hands with baby wipes and now he's marching himself up to the sink, turning on the water, squirting the soap, washing his hands, rinsing his hands and turning off the water.  The only thing I help him with is getting his towel for him but it's only because he can't physically reach it!

Things like complex sentences, potty training and preschool are now part of our daily routine.  Tantrums are bigger and badder than they have ever been.  Emotions like embarrassment and pride are now felt and I recognize them immediately just by looking in his eyes.  Naps are becoming shorter and sometimes not at all.  Bedtime stories are becoming longer with multiple paragraphs per page (Curious George is currently our favorite.)  His preferences for food, toys, activities and pretty much everything else is becoming QUITE clear - especially with his ability to voice his opinion.  I have heard "Mama no talk." twice in the last two days now when I have been telling him things he didn't want to hear.  He loves routine and for things to be the same as the time before...Debi babysat for him last night and it was a nice feeling for me to leave him with someone new knowing that if I forgot to leave clear direction on how things should be, Owen would let her know.  This turned out to be true when I returned home after Owen was in bed and Debi told me she left his bedroom door cracked after she put him down and he called her back up to remind her to close it.  He is now directing us in the car which way to drive to certain places (the park, the trains, cookies at coffee houses and the street where all the speed bumps are near our house.)  When he wakes up in the morning or after nap, instead of crying we hear him calling our names.  This is just a sampling of things that were not happening even three months ago and now are just routine. 

Because he's growing up so fast, I have been hanging on to all the things that make him seem younger.  Especially his Owenese vocabulary.  Here are some of the things he's still saying that make me smile every time I hear them.

• Hebbey-tot-ter (helicopter)
• Pupcake (cupcake)
• Muffin Man (play-doh)
• Ah-choo (kleenex)
• Crunchy (carrot)
• Alligator (elevator)
• BeeBeeBean (well, he used to call his bunny BeeBean, but he changed it to Bunny a long time ago - I've since convinced him that Bunny's name is now BeeBean, so it's come back but he is now calling him BeeBeeBean.)
• Back-up Bunny (the name of the extra Bunny we have that we use when BeeBeeBean is in the wash or accidentally left in Dad's car.)
• Ding-Ding (railroad crossing)
• Captain Dinosaur (Captain Feathersword on The Wiggles)

Stop growing up so fast, Owen...it's killing me. 

Jack and Diane (I Mean, Adam)

Adam's first "friend" is a boy named Jack.  Jack's mom is a co-worker of mine who I got to know better when we discovered we were both pregnant around the same time. 

Jack is about 2 weeks older than Adam.  Now, since we are both on maternity leave, we get together once a week for a "play date" (which is more for the mommies than the babies because really, babies don't play.) 

But here they are looking like best buddies.  Only thing cuter than one baby is two babies.

Cradle Holy Cap

So, Owen never had cradle cap.  He had flaky skin when he was born, but never on his scalp.  Adam has had a pretty major case of it but it hasn't flaked at all.....until today.  I've never really seen cradle cap before, but Adam's head was covered in what looked like kind of scabby skin that just wouldn't come off.  I was fine to just leave it alone because you couldn't see it through all his hair and it didn't seem to bother him at all.

Today though, all that scabbiness exploded into a headful of huge flakes that could not be combed, brushed or shook out.  Well, that's not really true - I could comb out a ton (my bathroom sink was completely covered in them) but they just kept coming and every pass of the comb would just knock a whole bunch more loose.  I kept saying to myself, "Babies aren't gross, but this is REALLY gross."

So when Nana took Owen down to Kent Station this evening  for dinner and trains, Adam and I ran to Babies R Us for some emergency cradle cap treatment.  It is basically lotion that you are supposed to massage into the scalp and leave on overnight and wash out in the morning.  Well, guess how hard it is to massage lotion into a scalp covered with thick, luxurious hair?  You just have to use 3 times the amount, but it can be done.  Not without a little cell phone photo documentation though.  It definitely doesn't seem to bother him!

Grasped An Object?

I keep a daily calendar for Adam's first year just like I did for Owen.  It comes with these little milestone stickers like "first tooth" "said da-da" "ate solid food" -- and I hate them.  I hate these entries in their baby books too.  Because....when kids start doing something, it's usually not very convincing at first and I never know if it "counts" enough for the books.  Rolling over and walking is sort of the only thing that is black and white. 

Right now, I'm looking at the one titled "grasped an object."  Adam has been spastically reaching for things lately and if his hand happens upon something graspable, he grasps it.  But it's not like he's seeing something he wants and going out to purposely get it.  Do I say he's grasped an object?  Or do I wait until I hold something out to him and he takes it from me?  Whatever...I'll just blog that he's kind of grasping things and then it's documented.  Here he is trying to get a piece of his cute little giraffe toy.

Brudders

Owen has been getting extremely good at stalling before bedtime.  He usually is just throwing out darts to see which one sticks.  Tonight, he asked if Adam could get into bed with him.  I think he was expecting me to say no, because when I said, "sure!" his face looked simultaneously confused and excited.  This resulted in him sprinting upstairs, letting me get his pajamas on him in record time, read a quick book and then scurried up his crib wall and leaped into bed.  I put Adam in there with him and they were so stinking cute, I had to take some pictures.

Joke was on Owen, though, when he realized his stall tactic put him in his crib so there was no getting out once photo time was over. 

You have much to learn, young grasshopper.

Back To Real Life - Part I

Steve returned to work on Tuesday, leaving me alone with the boys for 3 and a half days. I was pretty nervous because:

• I have done nothing for myself for the last 10 weeks
• I have done nearly nothing for Owen for the last 10 weeks
• I definitely have done nothing for Steve for the last 10 weeks
• Adam has been going down for the night around 11pm and waking up 2 or 3 times per night
• Owen has been waking up at 7am which is about 1 or 2 hours earlier than usual
• Owen requires lots of attention and assistance during the day
• Adam still prefers to be bounced on the yoga ball quite a bit

So instead of being responsible for 1 person, I will suddenly be responsible for three. Steve is still in charge of himself, but I took over for everyone else.

Now, Steve is home and everyone survived. Looking back, I think the week went as expected. Some of it was easy, some of it was hard, nothing was insurmountable. I was very nervous about not getting any adult interaction, but luckily Nana came up Tuesday and Thursday evenings and I took Owen to preschool on Wednesday so each day had some kind of mental break for me.  But I'm also very happy to have Steve home and I wish it was for longer than 2 days.

The positives for me were getting some confidence that I can handle both kids by myself (although it may be awhile before I take them out of the house alone unless it's to preschool - Owen has a hard time leaving fun activities and I have a hard time wrangling him with Adam hanging from the Bjorn.) I also was able to get some chores done that I had been neglecting. But probably the biggest positive for me was reconnecting with Owen. I have been a benchwarmer in the parenting game for the last 10 weeks and on Tuesday, it was my turn to move up to a starting position. Owen tried to challenge my authority a bit and I had less patience than usual since Adam was usually screaming in the background, but even with a few timeouts and a little bit of tears we seem to have a better relationship than just a week ago. He still accidentally calls me "Dada" quite a bit, but I'm also getting a lot more hugs and kisses too.

All in all, a successful first step on the way back to real life. Next up is to find a nanny everyone likes and then for me to go back to work. Thank God I have 10 more weeks to gear up for that.  I'm sure enjoying my time with these two...

Thomas The Train And The Rainy Day

Sounds like a good book title, doesn't it?  The past few days, weeks, months have been cold and wet.  We try to get out and train watch as much as possible but the weather and sickness has made it fairly difficult lately. 

Steve (the most imaginative dad in the world) decided to bring the train tracks indoors for Owen today.  The tracks are the perfect width for his Thomas Ride-On and Steve made sure to create a train crossing for the correct location of his "ding ding."  Although he used painter's tape for easy removal, I have a feeling this might be a semi-permanent fixture of our house now.

Halfway To Seventy

Today is my birthday.  I was able to celebrate twice - once over the weekend with Nana who made me one of my favorite dinners (stewed chicken) and cake (sprinkle.) 

And today which is the actual day.  I have been given tons of gifts today that were very unexpected...I got to go with Owen to preschool and he gave me the gift of pee-peeing in the potty in public - on a regular potty!  Adam has given me the gift of sitting in his bouncer while I eat a meal for the first time since he's been born.  And Steve is going to drive all the way to Seattle to get me my favorite pizza that I haven't had in years.  It's a great day. 

But how could it not be a great day when I get to spend it with my favorite people?

Two Months Old

Another month gone by.  Where are they going?  I have no clue.  Your second baby does seem fly by so much faster than the first.  Probably because your first baby requires that you split your attention so much you feel like you're only getting about 50% of the time you had with your first.  No matter what the reason, I am wishing time could stand still a little bit for both my kids.  They are each growing and maturing before my eyes and sometimes it's a little scary!

Adam went to the doctor today and had to get 3 shots (poor baby!)  I made sure to take his monthly picture before the doctor's appointment.  Here are the obligatory stats:

Weight: 11 pounds, 4.5 ounces (38th percentile)
Height: 23 inches (51st percentile)
Head: 15.5 inches (34th percentile)

So we know he's growing!  They did a prediction calculator for his final height and he's clocking in right at Dad's height (5'11") so Owen will tower over all of us (he is predicted to be 6'2"!)

Sleeping is still less than I would like.  We had a couple days of 6 hour stretches and I got really excited, but we've reverted back to 4 hours being the longest.  However, he seems to be getting much more comfortable on his tummy and in his pj's so hopefully he'll start to stay asleep a little longer in the next few weeks.  I am looking at his one month post and he was only sleeping 2 hours then, so if we are going to double our longest stretch every month - that is great with me!

I've also started giving him formula at night - just as a "top off" right before bed.  Sometimes he drinks it and sometimes he doesn't and I haven't seen that it affects how long he sleeps.  However, it's not hurting anything and I will most likely be transitioning him to 100% formula when he's 3 months old (like I did with Owen) so this is a way to get him used to the formula and the bottle slowly.  He drank 3 ounces last night, so I think he might like it.

During the day, he is getting more and more alert and happy - but we are not done with the yoga ball yet.  Last night and today at lunch were the first two meals he has allowed me to eat while he sat in the bouncy seat.  He still hates the car, but he has started cooing!  I love that sound.  I also love to watch their faces really try to get that sound out from their head to their mouth.  And he is a smiling fool.  Loves to smile at Owen and us and last night, he smiled for a long time at himself in the mirror.  He must have liked what he saw!

I bought these stickers to put on Adam's shirt each month for his monthly photo. They are designed to look like iron-ons, but they are just stickers and you are supposed to "stick and click." I questioned if they were lame or not when I bought them, but I have been looking for new things to do with Adam that I didn't get to do with Owen and this was one of them. I am really liking them though! I think they are going to be really fun when I have all 12 months to compare.

I can't believe he's two months old.  9 weeks to be exact, and I'm coming up on halfway through my maternity leave.  Maybe it's time to start playing the lotto so I can win and quit my job!

Happy birthday, little Adam.  I love you so much.

Pete's Dragon All Over Again

A famous story of my childhood is how the first movie I cried over was Pete's Dragon.  And that I cried for weeks.  Poor Pete, who had a crappy childhood and found a friend (or some might say a HERO) in a dragon named Elliot.  As soon as life got a little better for Pete, Elliot took off.  Yes, he left to go help other needy children and yes, if they had made a movie about THOSE children, I might decide they needed Elliot's help as much as Pete did.  However, they didn't make a movie about those faceless, nameless children.  They made a movie about Pete and I was on his team.  Just because he found a new mommy who owned a cool lighthouse, doesn't mean that he didn't love his dragon and would miss him every single day?!?!?

Ok, I could go on and on about this movie.  This is why I don't watch it anymore.  However, we had a little moment here today that caused me some PTSD flashbacks of my Pete's Dragon depression.

Owen has been visited by the Sleep Fairy ever since Christmas.  She has been coming to our house leaving treats (it started as chocolate and then quickly changed to gummy vitamins) while Owen is asleep.  She leaves a treat in a red box that is kept in our dining room and when Owen wakes up, he runs to check the box.  She had started coming right before Adam's arrival in the hopes that she could help Owen transition a little better into being a big brother. 

Today, the Sleep Fairy box broke and we took that as a sign that she is sending a message that she won't be visiting us anymore.  Now that Owen has accepted Adam as life as usual - he doesn't really need Sleep Fairy's help.  So today, we explained to Owen that she has gone to help other little boys and girls who need help sleeping.  She said that Owen has been great at picking out his own M&M colors when he goes pee-pee in the potty, so she knows he would be just as good at picking out his own vitamins.  Owen wasn't phased by this information and went on about his day (he prefers picking out his own vitamin anyway.)  Meanwhile, I went and cried in the corner.  Bye, bye Sleep Fairy.  Stupid dragon.

Charlie The Wonder Dog

Another day in the snow and look what we discovered Charlie can do!



Oh, and Owen is still cute as a snow bunny...