366.204 has a story

366.204 (jul 22)
This was bath night.  For some reason N was not at all interested in being in the bath, and we've been trying to ease him back into liking bath time, so Daddy let him get out of the tub even though he hadn't really been washed.  The boys share bath time now, so it was probably a case of Z not sharing the bath toys!

366.199 N's first haircut!

366.199 (jul 17)

We took both the boys to get their hairs cut, because Z's was ridiculously long and I was tired of having to take a comb with conditioner to N's hair to get the snarls out. That boy sees food as more of a beauty treatment than a life-sustaining necessity.

Security!

There's this fun little game that I accidentally created called Mommy Slide.  This consists of a child sitting on my lap then "sliding" down my legs onto the floor.  Works great for N!  Not so well for Z...he only slides about 2 inches before his feet hit the ground.  That never stops him, though, so it's a popular game.

For Grammy

The bedtime routine for N usually involves a bottle of milk, given to him in his room with the lights out, with the hope that it will help him settle down to sleep.  Lately he's been having a fairly large amount of milk as part of a fairly late dinner, so last night and tonight I put him to bed without the milk, just some snuggles with Mommy in the rocker before being laid in the crib.

Silver lining

Yesterday morning was a bit of a struggle for me.  I had gotten to bed later than usual and slept rather poorly.  N, having a sixth sense for when Mommy really needs the extra sleep, got up at 6. Just for context, he rarely gets up before 7:30.

366.72 has a story...

366.72 (Mar 12)

Growing like weeds

Yesterday I took the boys in to see the doctor.  N needed his 1 year checkup (complete with 3 shots and a blood draw, poor thing!), and Z needed to have blood drawn to check for celiac antibodies since there has got to be SOMETHING going on with that child.

Plop

Our elder statescat Earl is a jolly old chap.  Lately he's been feeling much more chipper, now that he's no longer fighting for his life, and downright feisty.

Linky

N's first appearance on my other blog

Everything's a competition

N seems determined to outdo his brother in just about everything he can possibly do.  He "cooked" longer, was born bigger, eats more, grows faster, etc etc.  I'd have to go back and see who got the first tooth sooner and all that, but he probably got that sooner, too, knowing him.  So I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that yesterday he decided to beat out his brother in yet another area...eye injuries requiring a trip to the emergency room.

Everybody wants to be a cat...

When I was young (between 5 and 10, maybe?) I had a thing about cats.  I really liked them, I wanted to have one, and really, I wanted to be one.  Cats have it MADE. There were at least two times where I KNOW that I "walked" around on all fours meowing...in public.  On purpose.  And let me tell you, an (old) asphalt parking lot is rather hard on the "paws," especially if you're wearing a skirt.

Up, up, and away!

N has been putting lots and lots of effort, every day, into trying to catch up with his big brother.  You could just see it in his eyes, while rocking back and forth on all fours, thinking "gotta learn to crawl, gotta learn to crawl, I'm missing all the good stuff!" only to fall on his belly yet again.

Playing catch-up

It's been a busy couple of weeks since Z came home from the hospital, which has led to a dry spell here on the blog.  Pretty much as soon as we had Z all settled and feeling better, we realized that our elder statescat Earl was NOT looking good.  He'd been losing weight, being pretty lethargic, nothing too alarming by itself but when it all added together we decided we should take him to the vet.  $1400+ later, we have a diabetic cat on several medications, daily insulin shots, and dietary restrictions.  We almost lost him, but he's getting back to normal for the most part.  Needless to say, that's been pretty stressful.  On top of that were a bunch of events taking place, a couple that were photography-heavy and needed to take precedence over the blog when it came to my computer time.

On solid ground

The general consensus on when to start a baby on "real" foods is 4-6 months.  Apparently their little systems can't really handle it before 4 months, and they probably don't show much interest before then either.  Our pediatrician wanted us to wait until 6 months on the basis of recent research regarding obesity (which applied only to formula-fed, not breastfed, babies) but was okay with us starting with a little cereal before that.  Well, by the time N was 5 months old, that child was RARING to go.  The highchair was still in the attic, so at mealtimes he'd sit on my lap while I ate...and every single bite I took was watched alllllll the way from plate to mouth.  Every last one. And then he started reaching for the fork/spoon, and reaching for the plate (catching it, more often than not, the fast little bugger!), and generally making a nuisance of himself.  So we plopped him in the bumbo chair, strapped a bib on him, and gave him what he wanted...real food!  If you can call rice cereal that.  It was organic, and whole grain, and mixed with breastmilk...and he ate that stuff like it was going out of style.  Loved it!  By the end of the first serving (maybe two tablespoons, total?) he had the hang of it and was looking around for more.

Sleep, beautiful sleep

Now that N is six months old, we've had to start thinking about sleep training.  He's not a BAD sleeper, per se, just...irregular.  Doesn't keep to a schedule.  So, since baths are now part of our must-do evening ritual, it seemed like a good time to institute a bedtime routine and move into establishing a sleep schedule.  Last night went pretty well, bed at 8, woke up a couple times but got back to sleep, woke up for a feeding at 11:30 then slept until 9:00!  If it weren't for how difficult it was to get him back to sleep after that feeding I'd call that a win.  Tonight he was in bed by quarter to 8, but woke up after about 45 minutes.  Let me tell you, that boy has LUNGS.  Didn't even need the monitor to hear him all the way at the other end of the house!  We let him cry, heart-wrenching though it was, and he got himself calmed down and back to sleep.  I neglected to check the clock so I'm not sure how long it actually was, but definitely less than 20 minutes.  Here's hoping tonight isn't too hard...

Doctored up

The baby, N, is a healthy little cherub.  Big fat cheeks, several chins, spare tires on the thighs, et cetera et cetera.  Never been sick a day in his admittedly short life.  So when he started getting little red spots all over, we didn't worry too terribly much.  Well, over the weekend we discovered that we're horrible parents for not noticing that he had a red rash allllllllll over his back.  Really bad looking.  After emailing the pediatrician some pictures and getting no definite "it's nothing!" feeling, he recommended we bring him in for a look-see.  And joy of joys, the diagnosis is eczema!  And not even the standard, run of the mill ezcema!  "Nummular" eczema is the disorder of choice, though the doc is not 100% on this diagnosis due to some irregular symptoms.  So for now we get to do twice! daily! baths followed by petroleum jelly.  Fun stuff!

Also:  this child is nineteen pounds at 6 months.  Nineteen.  Z was only TWELVE pounds at this age.  N also has three whole inches on him, 27 to his 24.  I think they'll be wearing the same size clothes by the time Z is five...