These days…
E has been dumping all of his toys into an empty laundry basket, and then crawling inside. He’ll sit in there and play with his toys or read books for longer than he’ll do anything else at this point. Every time I try to clean it up during the day, he’ll come home from daycare and within minutes he’ll be back in that basket.
You’ve done a lot of growing this past month, and I finally feel like I can say that I know you a bit. While you’re getting more and more content playing alone, you’re still happiest hanging out in our arms. When I do set you down to play, you’ve started to bat at toys and grab a few even. You’re getting frustrated that your hands don’t work the way you want them to, but you get so excited when you actually grab a toy.
You suck on everything, especially your fingers. You often have at least three fingers in your mouth at a time, and recently you’ve started sucking on your arm. Whatever you can get. (And when you can get one of our fingers, you go for that too!)
There’s not much I like more than baked goods. Let me rephrase, they must be good, quality baked goods. There’s nothing more disappointing than eh tasting baking. Not worth my time. But good cakes, cupcakes, muffins… so good.
Since it’s birthday season, I’m thinking back on Tom’s recent birthday cakes!
We’re still figuring out what Easter will look like for our family, but this year is making me very excited for the future. E is old enough that he understands egg hunts now, and they’re my new favorite things. We don’t hide the eggs very hard, but he loves running around finding them, and now that he knows that they’re filled with treats, he’s extra excited.
There are certain things in life that I have an irrational (or maybe not) hatred of, and that make me incredibly angry. And I’m always puzzled when other people don’t seem bothered by them. One sign that Tom and I were right for each other, was that we tend to agree on which things we hate.
One of them? Those wire, ventilated, closet rack systems. They usually come standard in any closet, and they’re the absolute worst.
Sorry G, but we have entered the period of the year where most of our family birthdays occur! It starts of with my mom (and our cat!) and ends with E’s birthday almost 2 months later. In between there are sisters and aunts and friends, as well as both my and Tom’s birthdays.
All that to say, Happy Birthday (TODAY!) to Tom!
A few random stories that I want to remember, but aren’t really related beyond that:
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E has a new(ish) teacher in his room, and he has slowly but surely winning her over. She’s pretty quiet, so it’s taken me a bit longer to get to know her, and get a read on her. She was asking me a few questions about him recently which left me wondering if she was worried about his speech. I was talking to Tom about it, and mentioned that she kept asking about what he can say, and seemed surprised that he couldn’t say his name. To be clear, Tom and I aren’t worried. But the conversation led me to believe that maybe she was.
Here’s something that surprises no one with kids: The first three months are HARD. Really hard. It’s pure survival mode, everyone is crying, no one is sleeping, and this blob that you’re spending every second of your day taking care of, doesn’t thank you at all.
And then you hit the three month mark. And things start to change.
Before I had children, baby-proofing seemed like a one time thing you did. Your house wasn’t safe, you baby-proofed it, and now it was. Instead I’ve learned it’s an almost constant state. First you move things out of reach, and then what they can reach changes. They learn to climb, and then more things need to be moved or secured. We’ve done a pretty good job, but it’s getting to the point where we need to do another pass through the house.
First up? Our bedroom.
Language is powerful. Nothing reinforces that more than having children. Suddenly you’re watching what you say around them or how you say it. Aware that they’re taking in everything, and learning from you. Words can also dictate behavior. E learned a new word recently, and it’s completely changing how we spend our weekends.
The word? Outside.
I saw it stopped at the cross street ahead, and started hoping. As it slowly pulled out, I got excited and sped up just a tiny bit. Pretty soon we were side by side on the road, me purposely matching their speed, and it hit me. Wow we do weird things for our kids. Still, I called out to E and told him to look out his window, and got exactly the reaction I was looking for. “Bus! Bus! BUS BUSBUSBUS!” Yes, I was in the passing lane, speed matching the slow transit bus on the drive home from daycare so my son could see his latest obsession.
A lot of little things happen around here, and it’s hard to keep up. And since my brain is so fragmented anyway, here’s a brain dump of a post. Random things we’ve done or things that are floating around in my head. Enjoy!
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Baby G has this thing he does, where every time we go to lie him down after we’ve been holding him, he gets this terrified look on his face and his arms flail up like he’s afraid we’re going to drop him. He totally does not trust us. Every single time. He is not someone who can hide his expression, and his expression says “Holy cow I’m falling and they’re not going to catch me!”
Time for an update on our kitty! Thank you to everyone who reached out or listened to me vent about this whole process. It was horrible while we were going through it, but looking back it was so worth it.
It was three long weeks of 2 treatment and isolation and life just not being normal. First she went away for treatment, which was weird because she’s never been boarded before, so I’m not used to being home without her. I thought this was going to be the worst part, but luckily I have two little humans to keep me distracted. E only asked for her a few times, and we were able to distract him pretty quickly.
Then she came home, and we were told to keep her in isolation for two weeks, and definitely keep her away from any children since she was still slightly radioactive. This is when it got bad. She could tell we were on the other side of the door, and so she cried and screamed and scratched at the door for the first 24 hours she was home. Between her and the baby, no one got any sleep that night. It was horrible and ripped my heart apart.
Hello! It’s me, a fully functioning adult, and I’m here to talk about things besides the tiny humans that I live with. I know, crazy right?
I went back to work this week. It’s a little weird because it’s 6 weeks earlier than last time, and I keep expecting myself to be at the same spot that I was when I went back to work after E. But it’s only been 10 weeks since I gave birth, and it was my second pregnancy and labor was harder on my body this time, so I’m not quite the same. I am feeling great, but not 100% “normal” and I’m still searching for clothes that fit. Maybe I’ll never get exactly back to where I was, but I need to keep reminding myself that it hasn’t been THAT long.
Is 21 months a thing? I did 3 months updates for the rest of this year, so I guess I’ll continue it here, but don’t expect a 27 month update… maybe I’ll do every 6 months after the 2 year mark?
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 33 inches (Estimated)
Weight: 25 pounds (Estimated)
Teeth: 11? (It’s getting harder to check!)
Words: 30+ (list below)
Favorite Things: turkeys, elephants, trucks, baby shark/row row/wheels on the bus, art projects of any kind, the color orange, his iron pills, baby brother, being tickled
Nick Names: Goober, Snortle-pig, Lovey
Height: 23.5 inches (76th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs, 15 oz (87th percentile)
Head: 16.25 inches (97th percentile)
Special Outings: First time with all 4 of us in the car (to get oil changed haha), Burlington Mall, First snow angel, Mama’s dr appointment, PetSmart
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Raina & Zaida, Nicole, Stephen & Alice
Loves: Sleeping, pacifiers, big brother, staring into the light
Hates: The cold, being hungry, tummy time
When we first brought G home, E kept pulling the blanket off of him. At first we thought it was an attention thing, but we realized it was more that he needed to see the baby. The whole baby. He needed to see that it really was a tiny person we’d brought home, and not just a crying head.
And it’s continued. He loves to point out his own eyes/nose/mouth, and then point to the same body part on the baby. He’s learning that the baby is a person.
It’s fascinating watching a tiny human learn how to talk. Some words will randomly appear with no sign of where they came from. Others are fought for. Practiced over and over.
Apple? Randomly popped up one day and never left. Dad? We’ve been working on that for MONTHS. He’s finally getting there, but there are still some days that Tom gets called Mama or nothing at all. But the days where he gets out a “da!” is worth it.