Parenting Check-in April 11

[karlamo]

Hi Parents!  It's Monday.

What's new this week?  Anything to report?

QOTW: Would you rather eat an entire chocolate cake in one sitting or do 1,000 sit ups in an hour?

[serpentine85]

Nothing new. Little S was well enough to attend her swimming lesson this morning. She was tear-y until I took her to sit in the shallows whilst we waited for the previous class to finish. After that, it was all smiles and giggles. Unfortunately, the lesson is about 30 minutes and S's tolerance for structured activities is about 20. Ten minutes before the end, she pops her head on my shoulder, sucks her thumb and refuses to participate - which leads to a cold, miserable baby. Just what I want to be dealing with single handed on my birthday. Next time, A takes her to class and I get the lie-in

[karlamo]

serpentine85, HB! In R's swim class we had 2 kids fall asleep in the water.

L is going in for forgery tomorrow for his tubes. They were able to squeeze us in which is a relief because he was tugging on his little ears all weekend. Both my wife and I will be there with him and R is going to daycare. The procedure itself takes 10min but the recovery is 1-2 hours depending on how he does. He can't breastfeed 4 hours before the surgery. I have no idea how this is going to go because I've never told him before he couldn't eat when he wanted.
He is pulling to stand on his own and is weight bearing on his legs which is impressive given his size. He desperately wants to crawl but doesn't want to be on his stomach. He now protests diaper changes which is just peachy. Between him and R, diaper changes may be the death of me. Please dear lord, let someone be potty trained soon.

R is 2; half dolly, half demon. The other day he took some bird seed and started running after the birds saying, Eat, Eat, Eat. haha. I swear we don't do that at home to him.

QOTW: Give me the cake!

[kh826]

serpentine85 - Happy Birthday!

karlamo - Good luck to you and little L tomorrow. I will be thinking of you all. Please let us know when you can how everything goes. Fingers crossed for a quick recover and NO MORE ear infections!
***************************************

William is 22 months & Lucie will be 11 weeks tomorrow.

Lucie has made some decent progress this week with head control.
J texted earlier to tell me that she had two good tummy time sessions this morning, and she got her head up on her own several times before getting mad and freaking out (which is progress).
We have also been really trying to get her upright more (propping her in chairs, on the couch, holding her sitting up or over our shoulders in a way that forces her to hold her held up more).
Admittedly we didn’t do a lot of that in her first 2 months of life.
It was easier and safer for her to be on her boppy or in her swing, and when we held her we often cradled her in our arms which obviously doesn’t encourage her to hold her head up on her own at all.
We are really trying to work on this every day to help her strengthen her neck muscles, and we have seen some small progress in the last 2 weeks or so, so I am feeling cautiously optimistic that if we are diligent she will be just fine.

She has started grasping for toys more and bringing them to her mouth.
She rolled from tummy-to-side-to-back one time last Friday.
J had her doing tummy time and she was so mad to have to be on her tummy that she just rolled her little self right over. Oh man, we are going to have to watch this one!
She hasn’t rolled again since, but we’ve got our eyes on her to see when she will. I feel like she might do it again soon.
She has been eating a TON lately. Definitely a growth spurt going on.
We need to get her bigger PJs. The problem is, the 3 month size is too short for her, and the 6 month size is good for length but she is SWIMMING in them otherwise. We have one pair of two piece jammies, and we need to get more. The footie PJs just don’t work for her because she is so long.
She is starting to drool more, and she has her hands in her mouth constantly. I think full blown teething could happen at any time now.
So far she has a super pleasant personality, and she is very go-with-the-flow.
She is way more laid back than William, but when she doesn’t like something (like being on her tummy – she let’s you know ASAP)!

William is such a cool kid. I just enjoy him so very much.
His new thing is to stand on a stool in the playroom and look out the window at the cars and trucks. We live on a busy street by an intersection, and he watches cars, trucks, taxis, buses, etc., and will stand there watching and narrating what he sees for seriously long periods of time.
Yesterday it was really sunny and the glare made it hard for him to watch out the window, so he requested sunglasses and then stood there wearing his sun glasses for a solid 30 mins. It was hysterical. It is also our new way to try and contain him. If we say “Can you see if there are any cars and trucks out the window?” – he runs over and climbs up on his stool and is usually occupied from anywhere from 5-30 mins. It’s great!

His new thing when Lucie does tummy time is that he wants to do it too.
We have to put one blanket for Lu and one blanket for him on the floor and they each go on their own blanket. He lays on his blanket and says “tummy, tummy, tummy time!” and then he likes to encourage Lu and tell her “Nice job, Wucie!” – it’s pretty cute. He can’t say Ls very well yet, so he calls her Wucie.

He has been obsessed with eggs lately and has been asking for a hardboiled egg with every meal. I am wondering if he is telling us he needs more protein, or if he just really likes eggs right now… Either way, he has been eating 2-3 eggs a day. I guess there are worse things. The kids has still never had a cookie. He has zero interest.

We are continuing to work on gentle hands and gentle feet. Diaper changes are also a mess at our house too. I like the “half doll half demon” way of putting it, karlamo. That really captures William well, also. He is so unpredictable, but the amazing moments are frequent and the awful moments are fleeting, so I just focus on the positive and we try to redirect the crap out of him the rest of the time. I’m pretty sure it is all normal 2s stuff, but man is it ever exhausting!

I think we will be buying a potty once we move into the new house, and see if we can perhaps get him interested in potty training. We won’t push it, but part of me thinks in a couple of months he might be ready. We shall see…

Overall, life with 2 under 2 is crazy, but awesome. We have a routine now, and everyone is surviving and mostly happy. Go team! HAHA 

QOTW: Oh, definitely the cake. No question.

[cetcar]

M was 11 weeks last Thursday. She's still giving us tons of smiles and just recently has started 'talking' for longer periods of time. The other night CET put her down (she had a bottle because I had a drink and we wanted some more time to pass before I fed her) and she wasn't quite asleep. Instead of dozing she laid there, eyes wide open, just looking around and practicing 'talking.' CET and I just sat there and listened. It was so sweet. I just love hearing her voice.

She's really enjoying looking at faces and facial expressions. She likes the word coconut, almost always gives up a smile. She's reaching for toys and sometimes brings them to her mouth. We have a black and white picture of a baby on a foam block and she loves it. Her eyes get huge and her arms and legs go wild. Just recently sometimes if she's crying during a diaper change, just by talking to her or showing her one of her crinkle toys she stops and starts smiling.

Last week we started using the ergo more and she loves it. I love it too! It's such a sweet feeling. We went for a walk when it was drizzling which was great because it wasn't too bright and she could look around. Otherwise she has to wear a hat.

We're really trying for the milk bar to be closed from 11-5 at night. Most nights she will wake up once, we give her a pacifier and she falls back to sleep until 5-6:30 then she will eat and sleep again. Last night she wasn't as good- pacifier around 3 but she didn't go back to sleep. We rocked, changed her diaper and reswaddled. Twice we were able to put her back down but it only lasted a few minutes. Finally at 4, we caved and the milk bar opened early. She ate and then fell back to sleep around 4:45.

My college roommate and her husband are visiting. It's been so nice having an extra set of hands this morning. Being able to take a shower without listening for M is now a luxury.

QOTW- I (CAR) would probably choose the sit ups and then have a slice of cake afterwards. I'll have to ask CET what she would choose.

[sdfonz619]

Mila is just a week shy of 7 months! As of this weekend, she has been working towards graduating from inch worming her way around, to being up on her knees and forearms and sort of propelling herself forward. Not quite what I would consider crawling yet, but she is definitely getting close. The best is when she gets up on her knees and forearms she squeals with delight! For awhile, she stopped rolling from tummy to back but has started up again and is all over the place. A speck of tooth number four broke this weekend as well and we are hoping the rest of it will break through soon so she can get some relief. Food wise, we tried steamed pears and carrots this weekend both of which she seemed to love.

QOTW: This is a hard one, but I'd have to say cake all the way!

[2brides]

C was on fire last week! He was selected as the 4th grade representative (among 75 4th graders) for the regional science fair and scored the only goal in their soccer game this weekend. I'm happy for him because sometimes G's involvement in so many things: school play, dance, etc bring him more accolades and overshadow C a bit. G has taken it really well and we've praised him being gracious.

QOTW: cake all the way. I'm not sure I could do 1 sit up. ☹