Carrots and peas

I have discovered a food that little man likes- the mighty carrot!  We started it right before xmas and he kept opening his mouth like a little birdy.  It's awesome and tuns hs poop inyo a really fun color.  We started peas two days after xmas, he was not pleased.  The yucky face was back.  So, tonight being the second night, I mixed it with carrots, not only for taste, but also to loosen the poop, it was super thick just as peas !!  Now, we can conquer pears, squash, peaches, meats, egg yolk, other veggies/fruits, bread products, and get rolling with finger foods.  Woo hoo!

Finally

Little man has been making some serious progress:

On Thursday little man got weighed and finally made it over 17 lbs! He was 17lbs 3oz. I mean, it was about time, we've been languishing in 16lb land for over 2 months.

Also, he's figured out sitting up, almost. He can sit up for a good 15-20 mins if he's engrossed in a toy or looking at something interesting. But he's still doing trust falls- where he will just fall over or in an attempt to go onto his belly, lands on his face!

He's a rolling machine! Essentially, he is wiggly and can squirm his way to what he wants. Very dangerous, but also very cute. It's so funny seeing them develop from rolling being a big production, to all casual and calm. And he loves jumping to his belly from sitting. Which in the past few days has gotten more steady. He occasionally will end up on hands and knees swaying back and forth. Hmmm, when will crawling start?

And our other big development has been food!! Little man is readily eating oatmealtwo times a day. One meal is usually plain while the other has applesauce, banana or sweet potatoes mixed in. Little man is not too into these foods, so we are moving slowly through them. Big guy was a little birdy with food, so I have to be more patient and creative. Funnily enough, little man loves my food, so maybe he will be more interested with self feeding. But his reactions to new flavors is awesome. He makes these dramatic faces and bodily shivers. Sometimes I just give him more just to see the faces. Cruel, I know. But he's finally liking apples and bananas. So, he'll get there!

4 AM

4 am is an evil time. What isn't happening at 4 am, you ask?

1. The sun is not up
2. It's very quiet
3. It's very dark
4. The cats think it's play time
5. I've been awake every day this month with a baby who has decided that it is time to be awake, regardless of dark, quiet and the cats!

Sadly, it's become a pattern, which then throws off the rest of our day. Naps have become bizarre and exhaustion sets in! For both of us. So, on Saturday morning, we went over to our library to elicit some written help on better sleep. I'll keep everyone posted on "the no-cry sleep solution." Why no cry? Well, mostly because anytime either of them makes a noise during sleep hours, the other wakes up!! Very frustrating to a tired mamabear.

The month that got away...

December got away from me! I was doing so well! What can I say, there is no excuse. I will say that we are 3 days away from Xmas and I'm already overwhelmed! Luckily, all Xmas shopping has been done for over a week. Little man is getting nada from us, but only because he will literally be swimming in toys from as eve with hubs' family get together. And will also be swimming in wrapping paper and boxes from big guy. And in my amazing motherly experience, those are endlessly entertaining to babies and maybe even next year.

I'm aware of just about all of big guy's gifts. Boy, is he in for some serious fun and joy! The big present from Santa this year is a fish tank. Which he asked for this summer. Santa has delivered. Then gmom Dino wrote a letter from Santa with instructions for purchasing his fish and other items the fish will need. We r putting in cash so he can buy this stuff.

He's going to lose his noodle. I just know it! It's really cool because this year he totally gets Santa, Xmas, writing lists, Xmas carols and everything else that goes along with this holiday. Even Hanukkah, he knows the dreidel song and all about gelt. The tooth fairy is making her annual visit and delivering toothbrushes, which gmom Dino explained was her desire to do good motherly work by providing them every big holiday. Good thinking!

I'm excited and it's going to be great! Wrapping presents has been challenging only because I can't do it when big guy is home. And little man has been giving me a hard time with naps. The other day he sobbed for an hour and a half in his pack n play during nap time while I wrapped. The good thing is I can wrap his presents in front of him because he won't remember! Ha!

xmas tree

On sunday we walked up the street to the local church and bought our xmas tree.  As in the past 6 years we have lived in this house, hubs walked it home.  This year was cool because big guy had gotten a wagon for xmas last year, so there was less cursing, less stopping and as hubs told me, less feeling sap becoming part of his person!  anywho, big guy and I were in charge of choosing the tree.  And as usual we bought an even bigger tree, completely by accident.  hubs would disagree, saying that I clearly have no spatial reasoning (true) and big guy is unreliable because he's a kid (also true).  but it's beautiful.  I will document it's unfurling, decorations, and more tree fun later, but I wanted to remember this snippet of talking to my child:

Big guy: Can we decorate it now?
Me: No, we have to let it depoof!
Big guy: Take a POOP???
Me: No, depoof. Um, let the branches come down so we can put the ornaments on.
Big guy: Oh, ok.

Does it make me...

A bad mommy if I actually had this thought while pouring lucky charms into a bowl this morning for big guy, "I wonder if I could write lucky charms a letter asking for a bigger marshmallow to cereal ratio... Probably couldn't ask for just marshmallows..."

I quickly decided that was a bad idea. But then I thought of one day over thanksgiving morning when I let him eat ice cream and bacon for breakfast. But it was a holiday, afterall!!!

Cute Pictures

My mom told me that in the span of a week, I had sent her the following pictures, which show the boys in cool weather, fall weather and then in snow!  See below for some serious cuteness :)

The apple

So, the weekend before turkey day, I was eating an apple and little man was in my lap.  For some unmemorable but obviously vitally important reason, I needed my left hand and thus little man and the apple had to share the right one.  I look down and there is little man gnawing on my apple!  He was really sucking on it and having a good time.  At first, horror!  Then, mental shrug, "eh" and just let him keep going.  Difference with child 1 and 2 I suppose.  He seemed ok the rest of the day and I just let him chew on them for the next couple of days.  Looks like apples are OK!

6 months!

Little man turned 6 months old on turkey day!  I can't believe it!  Half a year with this little man and it's like he's always been a part of our family.  On tuesday we had his check up with our favorite dr.  Dr. W of course loved him and praised how well he is doing. He is in the 89th percentile for height and 36th for weight.  To which she said that he will most likely be long and lean.  And since she was completely right about big guy being really tall, I'm taking her word for it.  Afterall, long and lean is a good thing!  He's doing everything right developmentally and she gave me the OK to start fruits, veggies, and another meal during the day.  yay!  Overall, a great visit.  Even the four needles were taken in stride, crying, but short lived.  We went home, where little man ate, pooped, and passed out!

academy of natural sciences visit or I'm a crazy woman!

The majority of thanksgiving break, we sat around at home and relaxed.  Finally, by saturday, big guy was starting to show cabin fever.  I took the boys on a brief outing to the petco so we could go talk fish and xmas.  We also stopped in the five below because big guy had $4 to spend and since we are practicing recognizing numbers, I let him spend it only if he read the numbers to me.  Big guy ended up getting a thing of candy canes for $2.49.  I had a deep conversation about getting something for a dollar, but he said he only wanted one thing.  Which is smart because he has change, but also because while the box is one thing, he actually got 12!

The next day we really needed to get out.  Since longwood had been such a success, I thought, the academy of natural sciences would be great!  Ok, I'm a crazy woman!  Mostly because, Longwood is outside and is a lot of long walks.  Academy was inside and much busier, though I was surprised at how few people were there when we first got there.  Little man, who should have fallen asleep in the car, decided to be awake the whole time!  And he was insanely grouchy, like screaming his head off if I wasn't holding him.  sigh.

Anywho, we managed a really great visit.  Big guy was in good spirits and was listening very well.  We went to the play area and enjoyed the sand.  Big guy also got to pet a legless lizard (not a snake) and a turtle.  We made a cool turkey picture with fun feathers.  Did you know turkeys are dinosaurs? And then visited the dinosaur area, following lunch.  It is also a big chocolate exhibition, so various parts of the museum smell heavenly!  I fed little man in the auditorium while it was quiet, for about ten minutes before a show came on about how chocolate was made and all these people came in.  grrrr.  Luckily, he ate well and pretty quickly but unluckily, he didn't stay asleep after I put him in his stroller.  oh well.  Oh, and big guy pet a hissing cockroach.

We then made it to the car and back home where little man took a lovely long nap.  whew!  And really cool is that big guy is going to have his 5th bday party at the museum, so it was fun to see what the kids will be up to at the party.

Turkey day

This year we stayed home for turkey day!  The past two years we have gone to NYC to see my mom and great aunt H, but with too many other things to consider, we decided to simplify and stay home.  HOwever, I did make a delicious feast!  Added to our fun was one of my former students, who is just awesome, came to spend the holiday with us and she brought yummy mac n cheese!

On the menu-
Turkey w/ gravy
Mashed potatoes
Roasted sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts
Cranverry sauce
Rolls
Mac n cheese
Dessert- ice cream, apple pie, pumpkin pie

It was certainly a lot of work, but everything turned out delicious!  Big guy only ate the rolls and little man had oatmeal.  But we talked, laughed a lot, and had a really relaxing meal.

Longwood Gardens

Last monday, it was nice out.  Since it was possibly the last nice day we would have until spring, I kept big guy home with us and we went to longwood gardens.  Little man had slept through the last visit, so I was hopeful with careful timing that he would see some stuff this time! We went to our weight watchers meeting at 10am, down another pound!  I'm within 5 pounds of my goal weight, but turkey day has since happened, so we shall see...

Anywho, following the meeting, we hopped in the car around 10:45 and drove down.  It's a long ride, and after big guy had a snack, they both promptly fell asleep.  Ah, success.  Of course when we got there, they both woke up, but that was OK, because I fed little man in the front with me while big guy hung out in the back eating part of his lunch. We got in and quickly made our way to the train display which is in a new location this year, due to some major remodels to half the grounds!  We ran around and talked trains, then parked on a bench and ate lunch (yogurt, carrots, apple, banana, chips) while watching trains.  Big guy got a new train book for free at the train gazebo, as last year's copy is pretty worn out.  Inside are all the model trains and accessories any kid could hope to have!

Following trains, we went to climb the tree house and checked out lights that were sporadically lit on the trees.  Since this was 3 days before turkey day, the conservatory was closed and the lights were being strung all around the gardens for the big xmas season opening.  But it was cool getting to see them setting up.  Next we went to the dupont house or the big, fat cat house as I call it. Since it normally has a big, fat cat outside, who this time was probably somewhere a little warmer.  We walked around and oohed the cool trees, decorations, and lights.  Then we went to the fountain show, which we saw another time before we left.

Following that excitement, I plopped little man in the stroller and we walked the grounds and peeked into the conservatory.  We then made another loop through everything before hitting the road around 2.  Little man fell asleep and big guy dozed.  When we got home, everyone had a snack and we had a really nice afternoon.  It was an awesome visit!

enough adventures update

My car had another adventure, this one without me.  The neighbor's dodgy fence fell on my car.  My poor car!  I took it to the shop given to me by the insurance and talked to the guy who owns the fence.  Full compensation... duh!!!  My car is ok.  Needed a new mirror and had some scrapes and bangs.  Most noticeably they cleaned the inside of my car which looked like a bomb had gone off inside.  As in they threw everything out, assuming that if it was on the floor and looked like trash it probably was trash!  And they vacuumed it and washed it.  even the tires were clean.  It doesn't feel like my car!  But I'm grateful it's ok and now I just need to keep it clean!