cleaning Abigail's room

what an eventful day! I skipped the gym and cleaned Abigail and Brady's rooms, Brady made lunch for himself and Elizabeth, and Andrew found his feet (they were previously lost)... so much excitement to be had!

the biggest success of all though was that Abigail and I managed to get her things and her homework done by 4:35 without any anger or head butting or power struggles! we typically get home around 4:10 and her list of things/homework takes about an hour and 45 minutes to do... sometimes longer.  so for this to be done in 20ish minutes is nothing short of a miracle.  WOOHOO!!!

no training wheels

this week, abigail's friend, lucy, learned how to ride a bike without training wheels.  it literally took her two or three days to learn and abigail thought it was pretty cool.  so friday night, i borrowed a pedal-less bike from a friend so abigail could practice her balance.  well, she rode it for 20 or 30 minutes friday night and then maybe another 20 minutes this afternoon before i told christopher to take the training wheels off of abigail's pink bike. 

now we just need to fine tune her starting and stopping skills.

for anyone looking to teach their kid how to ride a bike without training wheels, look into a balance bike like strider or wee ride that doesn't have pedals.  it literally took abigail less than 24 hours to go from zero experience without training wheels to riding all up and down our street.  i've heard people swear by these bikes.  now i'm a believer too.

my kid is turning into a real girl.

brady at 9 months

happy nine months, brady boy!

here's the best i've got for a 9 month run down...

sleep... it's improving!  i can't even remember the last time i swaddled brady.  at least three weeks ago.  probably just right after i wrote his 8 month post.  there was a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to sleep well without the swaddle, but since then, it's been so much better!  i'm not sure if it's dropping the swaddle or increasing solid foods during the day (or likely a combination of the two) but brady has been sleeping longer and longer stretches at night.  if he wakes during the night... it's just once (normally because he needs a diaper change) and three nights in the last week, he's slept a full 12 hours without waking at all!  keep up the good work brady boy!

brady is awesome at sitting and really great going from sitting to stomach.  he walks his arms forward and looks like he's about to take off crawling, but really he just slides onto his belly and then just rolls wherever he wants to go.

as of two days ago, brady can army crawl!  he only does it when he really really really wants something (normally my phone but occasionally for a toy) and it's hilarious to watch.  he looks like a wounded soldier in battle.  his right arm stays tucked under him while his left arm does more reaching which gives him the wounded look.  and he's so intense about it but he moves at the speed of... molasses.  i need to get a video before his crawling evolves.  kids grow so fast, hopefully i don't miss this.

like i said last month, clothes are all over the board.  everything from 3 months to 18 months.  diapers are still size 2 during the day and size 3 at night.  poop is awesome because he pretty much never has blowouts but the downside is that his diapers aren't smelling like roses (outkast anyone?).  i really don't know how but abigail's poop didn't smell at all at this stage... brady's definitely does.  some days he only has wet diapers, and then some days, i'm changing dirty diapers every few hours alllll day long.

brady still has the best laugh ever.  and getting him to laugh is the easiest thing ever.  sometimes just eye contact, sometimes making a suspenseful "i'm gonna get you!" kind of noise... you don't even have to touch him.  he also thinks fake laughing is hilarious.  like if you literally say "ha ha ha ha ha."  although real laughing works too.  especially when abigail is laughing... then brady will laugh too.  other things that make him laugh... tickling him (anywhere from head to toe.  behind his ears, in his neck, his chest, back, sides, under his arms, thighs, legs, feet... i'm not sure i've found anywhere that he's not ticklish), attacking him with stuff animals, tossing him in the air, faking like you're going to drop him, pushing him over and then catching him before he hits the ground.  really, if he knows you're playing with him and you have a playful energy, whatever you do will get a deep laugh and it'll go forever... or at least however long you continue to do what you do.  it's positively intoxicating.

brady still has no teeth and absolutely zero signs of teething.  no drool, no fussiness, no chomping on everything in sight (he'll mouth stuff but he's not going to town on it), nothing.  it is wonderful.  and he's got the cutest gummy smile. hopefully he gets teeth eventually so he can start eating more real food though.  nursing is still going great (he never tries to bite me... i totally anticipated that happening by now) and although he's super easily distracted, i just make it a point, when we're home, to always nurse him in the glider in his room and abigail is amazing now at not interrupting.  ever since i explained to her that brady has trouble eating when she's around, she wants to do whatever helps him so she'll go play by herself and if she does come in, she opens the door really slowly and quietly, sees brady is still eating, and then quietly closes the door and tiptoes away without saying a word.  the sibling love between these two makes me so anxious to see how they'll get along when they're a little older.

brady really likes to eat food.  he loves loves loves cheerios.  i think because they're so quick and easy for him to feed himself.  he prefers to feed himself but most of his "i-have-no-teeth" food options aren't really easy finger foods.  so, in the mean time, i try to occasionally give him things he can feed himself (like raspberries) and more often than not, try to get him to let me spoon feed him.  he likes the food, he just wants to put the spoon in his mouth himself... after inspecting it himself.  jarred peas and green beans are his favorite veggies, and he likes sweet fruits like applesauce, mashed pear, and jarred peaches.  real fruit is sometimes a little too flavorful i think.  or maybe he just doesn't like the tartness?  he'll eat fresh kiwi, peaches, raspberries, etc. but it normally takes him three or four bites to get into it.  my favorite food to feed him is boiled egg yolks.  i boil a bunch of eggs at a time, and then i go ahead and peel all of them and separate the whites in one container and little egg yolk balls in another container (whites for abigail, yolks for brady... works great!) so they're so simple to just crumble and stir in with jarred food or baby cereal or mashed up anything.  quick and cheap and easy way to bulk up his food with some fat and protein.  and from what i can tell, it adds good flavor.  my other favorite food to feed him is bananas.  because it is also quick and cheap and easy and it's one of brady's favorite foods so i know he's not going to be finicky about eating it.  my favorite is to cut slices into quarters and feed him with a spoon but of course his favorite is to feed himself.  but really, i love the convenience of being able to throw a banana in my purse along with one of those little take n toss (although i never toss) baby spoons and we're good to go.  one other thing to mention is that i can't get over how much this kid eats.  for having such small percentiles, he really puts the food down.  tonight for dinner he had half an avocado, a handful of mashed raspberries mixed in with baby oatmeal, more raspberries just thrown on his tray that he fed himself (abigail started him with those... she actually gave him grapes first but i took them away... how many times do i have to tell her, you can't eat grapes unless you have teeth!), and a jar of green beans with an egg yolk and oatmeal cereal mixed in.  i swear he was in his highchair all night long.  it was well over an hour.  and it ended with a hose down shower in our kitchen sink.

k, that's all for now...  brady, we love you so much and think you're awesome blah blah blah... basically, you are the best little bundle ever and i love you so much i get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about your smile.  there's a reason i creep into your room a million times a day to see you sleep.

i just can't help myself.

"high needs" in vs out

tonight, i was talking to a friend about how brady is about 8.5 months old and he's at the point where he's been out about as long as he was in.  i said something like "the strange thing though is that pregnancy was such a breeze and it just flew by and these last eight and a half months have felt like ffffffffoooorrrreeeevvvvvveeeeeerrrrrr."  don't get me wrong, i love my kid, but holy cow, it's been a really, really long 8.5 months."  my friend has a difficult baby like brady so we can relate.  but tonight i just keep thinking about that.  so i finally did the math.  turns out, today exactly, brady is as old as the number of days i was pregnant (well, kinda... the first two weeks of pregnancy are a freebie because the moment you conceive, you're already considered two weeks along... but whatever).  let's be honest here that being pregnant was way easier than actually taking care of a baby.  and i really loved being pregnant so we can also be honest that being pregnant was also frequently more enjoyable than taking care of a baby.  but, still in complete honesty, i anticipate the next 8.5 months to be way more awesome than the previous 17 months... so there.

brady has not been an easy baby at all.  in fact, according to this article about the 12 features of a high needs baby*, brady is as "high needs" as they come.  apparently "high needs" is the politically correct term for that kind of baby.  i read this article and it was as if someone wrote that article specifically about brady.

like this...

Along with their unpredictability, these children show extremes of mood swings. When happy, they are a joy to be around; they are master charmers and people pleasers. When angry, they let everyone around them feel the heat.  

"When he is happy, he is the happiest baby around, but when he is angry he is the worst baby around. He is still that way, sunshine and smiles, anger and daggers. He has no middle emotion." 

The child's unpredictability makes your day unpredictable. Do you take him shopping and risk a mega tantrum when his first grocery grabs are thwarted, or will this be a day when he is the model shopping cart baby, charming everyone at the checkout counter?

i mean seriously!  how many times have i called him bipolar?!  that's why!  he only knows the two extremes of emotion.  i've always said "he's never just quiet, he's only laughing or crying.  thankfully, this is not the case anymore.  well... not as much.  he's still very much bipolar (although thankfully the percentages have shifted and he's now happy and laughing far more than he's fussy and crying) but he's really evened out into a pretty well adjusted kid!

but that article describes his newborn days so perfectly.
1. "intense" - like how he screamed for the first three hours after he was born and every nurse that came in commented on how loud and angry he was.  and they sent us home with five or six of those green pacifiers.  with abigail, we were sent home with zero pacifiers.  brady, they just kept throwing those our way.
2. "hyperactive" - basically, his body didn't have the ability to relax.  his whole body was always flexed and tense, back arched, squirming and wiggling.  i know now that it was from the pain of reflux but holy cow was it exhausting to try to hold him.  and my whole body would ache after trying to feed him because i was trying to contort myself to keep him latched.  i remember sprawling out after nursing him, my whole body completely spent.
3. "draining" - i think of this more like everyday he would completely suck the life out of me.  he took everything i had to offer, and still wanted more.  sucked me dry until i literally had nothing left to give.
4. "feeds frequently" - with abigail, she refused to nurse more frequently than every four hours and it was hard for me to imagine when other people told me their newborn liked to eat every two hours.  with brady, it was like he hated nursing but wanted to do it all the time.  at the height of his difficulty (thankfully for me, while my mom was in town) brady was two weeks old and would nurse so frequently than in a single hour, i couldn't tell you how many times he'd eaten.  even now, i nurse him about every 2.5 hours (when he wakes and before he goes to sleep), plus give him solids.  and he puts down a TON of food.  lunch today was almost an entire avocado, almost an entire pear (abigail got a few bites of each), and oatmeal cereal with a hard boiled egg yolk mixed in.  for a kid barely on the charts.  i'm realizing now that he just requires more food, and more frequently.  thankfully, feeding him tons during the day has directly correlated to longer stretches of sleep at night.  i think the kid was just hungry.  really really hungry.
5. "demanding" - like the article says, it was never a request to be held or be fed, it was positively demanded.  if i had a dollar for every time i said "i feel like a slave to my child."  he was truly a slave driver.  constantly cracking a bull whip.  and he sometimes (wait for the "unpredictable" bullet point) still is.  when he wakes during the night with a dirty diaper and i try to change his diaper before i nurse him, you better believe he is going to scream bloody murder during that entire diaper change... right into that baby monitor.... which i'm sure christopher appreciates.  so now i nurse him on one side, change his diaper, and then nurse on the other side before putting him back in his crib.
6. "awakens frequently" - i actually don't have that many memories of this because i could never get him to sleep in the first place.  but i do know that even the very slightest thing would wake him up and that he wouldn't transfer from my arms to a crib or anywhere else and that his naps were super short and his night time sleep stretches were frequently only an hour.  so umm, i guess i do remember this part after all.  but really, before i started him on zantac... he never slept.  awake for hours and hours and hours on end during the day.  and i remember so many sleep deprived nights where brady "slept" in the moses basket next to our bed and i could go three hours straight just putting a binky back in his mouth after he'd spit it out and cry.  i was doing that about every 15-30 seconds... FOR HOURS.  all. night. long.  then maybe we would sleep for 30 minutes.  but then it was the binky game for a few more hours.  and then back to day time when i was just up and bouncing his crying self all day.  i remember finally looking at the clock one afternoon and thinking, "how could it be?!  it can't be this late in the day!  he most recently woke up before noon!  that was four or five hours ago!"  if he does poorly in school, i am going to attribute it to his severe lack of sleep during those formative newborn days.  i couldn't figure out how to follow an eat play sleep routine when he would constantly eat, never play, and absolutely downright refuse to sleep.
7. "unsatisfied" - how many times did i cry (with brady) in frustration that nothing i did was working?!  i could try every trick in the book and it was just not enough.  no matter how swaddled, bounced, binkied, nursed, etc. that baby was... it just wasn't enough.
8. "unpredictable" - go back and read blog posts from the early days if you want examples but basically, the only thing constant... was change.  the same thing never worked twice and my mom frequently referred to this challenge as brady's "secret combinations."  trying to figure out which combination of things and in which order... next to impossible.  next to "bipolar," "unpredictable" is actually the word i used most to describe him.  brady's like a box of chocolates; you just never know what you're gonna get.
9. "super sensitive" - brady always noticed even the slightest change in lighting or temperature or sound or the way i was holding him.  he was definitely easily bothered and being around him was like walking on eggshells.  i remember my mother in law coming over and, seeing me holding him, saying "well, he doesn't look too fussy right now!" as she smiled at him.  just that she made eye contact with him and smiled at him sent him in full hysterics.  unpredictable and very sensitive.  the times that i took brady to therapy for his arm, the therapist always noticed how perceptive he was to sounds.  she would comment on it that he obviously noticed a sound from the hallway... normally something i didn't ever hear or notice but the therapist caught a ton of those at every appointment.  also, if i was holding him, i couldn't speak in anything above a whisper or he would start screaming.  you wouldn't really think so, but this was hiiiiiiiighly inconvenient.
10. "can't put baby down" - it wasn't just that he needed to be held.  but he needed to be held by a human, that was standing up, and in motion, that would offer a variety of bouncing, rocking, etc changing on a dime, depending on what brady was in the mood for.  a swing wasn't enough, and neither was a bouncer.  and a sling wasn't either.  none of those things can change every ten seconds.  so even though i had one of the most gorgeous newborns to ever grace this planet, i have so few pictures of it because i could never put the kid down.  although the few times it happened, i took a million pictures.  my mom really got in on it too.  "quick!  he's not crying!  take a picture!"  if he could be put down for 15 to 30 SECONDS without crying, my mom and i celebrated.  that meant that he wasn't crying in my arms, and that the crying didn't start even when he was out of my arms.  though neither of those things really happened more than three times a week.  but ohhh, he was so gorgeous.  he still is, but it's pretty rare for a new baby to be as beautiful as he was.
11. "not a self-soother" - i remember the doctor asking me how brady was sleeping and i said something like "i can sometimes get him to sleep if i double swaddle him (in this very particular way with certain blankets and certain pj's) and have it be really dark and hold a binky in his mouth while cradling him in my arms and bouncing in this very particular way while it's absolutely silent except for me making really loud shhhh-ing noises but then i can't put him down or stop doing any of those things or he'll instantly be awake and screaming again.  and i remember being so proud of that until my doctor made a comment about him being picky about his sleep environment.  ha.  this goes back to him not wanting a swing or a bouncer or anything else (although he did do very well with a carseat when it was in motion)... he needed a human... and about fifty other things, all part of the secret combination, to be happy not miserable.
12. "separation sensitive" - if by some miracle, i could get brady to be content in my arms, he would immediately go into full blown panic mode with even the slightest change (walking on eggshells much?) occurring that might indicate that i was about to leave him in any way.  if my body tensed in a different way, he would sense that i was about to place him in his crib/carseat/swing/bouncer/someone else's arms and he also learned to recognize his bedroom and dark rooms in general to the point that if i had him quiet and content in my arms and i walked upstairs, he would start crying as i stepped over the threshold into his dark bedroom because he sensed that i was about to place him in his crib.  even now, he's really great playing independently, but does best when i'm either always in sight or never in sight.  if i have him playing in the great room and i'm putting laundry away or cleaning around the house or doing anything that requires me to go from room to room, frequently coming and going from his sight, he's going to freak out and fuss the whole time.  it's like every time i leave he thinks i'm never coming back.  DUDE!  I ALWAYS COME BACK!

so as difficult as a brady was as a baby, i am grateful it has made me so appreciative for the kid he is today.  he's got his fair share of fussiness but he smiles so so much and it is so easy to get tons of those real deep belly laughs out of him.  people always comment on what a happy baby he is and i typically just smile and say "he's come a long way."  i know people don't think twice about it when i say that, but for me, it's special.  he really has come such a long way.  as a mother of just abigail, i would have looked at my current self with pity like "your child nurses how often?!  and still doesn't sleep 12 hours at night?!  and needs a binky 24/7?!"  but my experience with brady makes me grateful that even though he still nurses frequently, it is enjoyable for both of us.  and even though he doesn't sleep 12 hours straight at night, he's only waking up once and often has an 8 or 9 hour stretch in there... getting over 12 hours total.  and even though he has a binky in his mouth more often than not... he is happy!  forget the secret combinations... binky = independent, happy baby.  it's straight forward and we love it.

i really love this kid.  he has taught me so much and really, he is the most gorgeous, laughy kid everrrrrr.  raising him is like continually unwrapping a present and he's only getting better with age.  i'm so excited for all the days we have ahead of us.

*i found this article through this blog post... which really could have been written by me, it soooo perfectly described my own experience.  like word for word. almost... there are some minor exceptions.

8 months for brady!

happy 8 months, brady boy!

 

here's what brady has been up to this past month...

brady has mastered sitting!  he went from not sitting at all, to sitting for long periods of time within the space of about a week.  right now, he's working on gracefully getting out of the sitting position and within the last day or two has shown significant improvement.  i'm normally not looking exactly when it's happening, but from what i can tell, he does a sort of tuck and roll to get from sitting to laying on his back.

which only lasts for two seconds because this kid rolls like nobody's business.  the first several times he rolled, it was in his crib when he was fully swaddled.  within a day or two he was occasionally rolling back to belly but i never seemed to catch it.  and since then, it's been constant rolling all over the place.  i think it's just been within the few days that he's been rolling as a means of getting from one place to another.  i can put him sitting somewhere, leave the room for two minutes, and come back to see that he's five feet from where he started.  abigail thinks it's especially cool when he does several rolls in a row without stopping.  i'm loving the rolling because it makes him so happy and really keeps him entertained.  the only downside is that he'll get stuck under the coffee table or roll into the brick fireplace.  like yesterday when he was in his room and rolled all the way over to where i have his fan and he was tugging on the cord.  glad i found that situation before he pulled a fan on his head.  so many hazards with a mobile child.

brady got his first haircut.  which was really just a trim of the hair around his ears.  but still... i'm counting it.  speaking of hair.  it's lightening up.  in pictures it frequently looks dark, but if you look at the actual hairs on his head, they're all just as blonde as abigail's.  we'll see how that turns out.  

brady loves his binky.  he always has a binky when he sleeps in his crib and most often has a binky when he falls asleep in his carseat too.  and very frequently when he's just hanging out.  he is super stealth about getting it in his mouth too.  sometimes i'll be holding him and holding a binky and somehow he gets it off my finger and into his mouth without me even realizing it.  or now that he can roll, he just rolls on over to his binky and pops it in his mouth.

which brings me to one of my favorite things that he does... spits his binky out.  if there's something he wants in his mouth, he spits his binky out with such force!  i first noticed it when he was hanging out on the floor of his bedroom after a diaper change.  when i leaned over to pick him up, out popped the binky, propelled a foot away.  it kept making me laugh out loud so one night i showed chris.  "watch this.  he's hungry and ready to eat.  when i pick him up, he's going to spit his binky out as fast as he can... maybe before i even get my hands on him, but definitely before his body leaves the floor."  and then it happened... just like i said it would.  the only part of that that makes me sad it that i know he just sees me as a food source.  it's not like he stopped crying because he wanted me to hold him... it's just because he wants to nurse.  and he does it every time he wakes up during the night too.  and even though it's not as funny, he'll do it when i put him in his bumbo that has some food on the tray already.  or if he's sitting in his bumbo with his bib on and he sees me bring a jar of food over to him, out pops the binky... right into the catcher part of the bib.  seriously cracks me up.  although how so am i?!  when it first started happening, i kept thinking to myself, "i never remember abigail doing this!"  and then i realized... oh, it's because she never had a binky in her mouth.  this kid... he's mastered the binky.

as far as size... his onesies are size 6 months (they're carters though... and carters clothes magically fit for-ev-er).  he almost never wears sleepers because it's so hot but the ones he has... i thiiiink they're 9 months.  some clothes are 6-9 months and HUGE.  but he's got a handful of things that say 18 months that fit him great.  and the outfit he wore today?  size 3 months.  so basically, sizing in baby boy clothes means next to nothing.  he's wearing a size 2 diaper during the day and a 3 at night.

speaking of night time, that size 3 diaper still frequently leaks during the night because he still wakes up a million and one times and needs to nurse before he falls back asleep (except for an hour ago where i heard him wake up and cry for two minutes and he actually fell back asleep before i went up to check on him).  there's really no "normal" because every night is different.  this kid is the epitome of unpredicatable.  but, if i had to find a method to the madness, he frequently goes to bed between 8 and 9, sometimes wakes up during the 11 o clock hour, very often wakes up around 2:30 (give or take), and a lot of times again betwen 4:30 and 6:30, and then gets up for the day sometime around 10.  so a good night means he only wakes up that one time at 2:30, and a rough night means he wakes up at midnight, three, and five.  every time he wakes during the night, i nurse him.  at least half of the times he wakes up, he needs something else (normally a diaper change (when do they learn to stop pooping during the night?!) and/or a reswaddle).  it's always quick.  naps are good.  he goes down without a problem and sleeps for 1.5 to 2.5 hours.  it used to always be 2h20 (like to the minute sometimes) but ever since i started weaning him from the swaddle, it's varied.  normally he just takes two naps during the day, but if we started the day early or are out late and not home for a normal bedtime, there's a short (like an hour... give or take) evening nap in there.  i know i shouldn't, but lately, i've just been keeping him awake way longer than i should because he's actually happy.  so even though i know he'd go down great for a nap after a 2 hour wake time, i'll keep him up playing with abigail and myself because he's happy and it just seems more fun to not have to worry about napping yet.  i'm so much more lax about napping and schedules this time around.

nursing is so fast.  like five minutes.  and he never needs to be burped.  he rarely burps, and if he does, it's completely on his own.  spitting up is virtually nonexistent.  he doesn't do the windshield wiper thing while he nurses, but sometimes he yanks at my tank top strap while he nurses and pops it.  i'm not a fan and he knows it.  if abigail is around when i try to feed him, he will not eat.  will. not.  she is the ultimate distraction.  so when they wake up at the same time, i normally go to her room and tell her i'm going to get brady and that i'll be back in a few minutes.  that way i can make sure he gets a good first feeding.  it's tricky timing wise and whatnot, but it's worth it to go the extra mile eliminating distractions.  he's got good ears.

solid foods are going really well.  i never need to straight-jacket him anymore.  after the first several times i did that, he got the hang of things and realized that he preferred not to have his arms tied down.  since then, he his table manners have improved dramatically.  brady always eats in his bumbo.  one of these days we'll transition to the high chair but right now the bumbo is easiest (complete opposite of how things were with abigail).  he eats everything i give him but there are some clear winners and losers.  he really loves peas and green beans.  LOOOOVES.  like if i get distracted while i'm feeding him, he starts grunting at me with an open mouth.  from what i can tell, he's not a huge fan of the jarred dinner type meal foods.  stuff like "turkey vegetable medley" or "sweet corn and rice."  so i'm not sure if it's the combination of flavors, the texture, the meat, the rice, the corn...  and he didn't seem that keen on avocado.  but he really likes everything else.  squash, carrots, mango, sweet potato, peaches, applesauce.  applesauce it actually how i get him to eat other stuff he's not crazy about.  although tonight i gave him tiny chunks of peaches on his tray and when he slowed down in his enthusiasm for getting them in his mouth, i started putting a chunk of peach on a spoon with a little bit of green beans, and he was all over that.  as far as rice cereal, i've only done oatmeal.  i almost always mix it in with jar foods (or whatever food i've mashed up... like pears) to make them thicker and easier/less messy.  food is always room temp or slightly warm.  he's not a fan of cold anything.  also, he loves puffs.  i just use them to keep him occupied and give him practice with his coordination, but he's getting good enough that i'm already paring back because i know they're just flour and sugar.  giving him chunks of peaches tonight almost felt mean though, they're so slippery and tricky to pick up.  way more difficult than the puffs that stick to even the driest of tiny fingers.  oh... and the kid loves hummus.  like the rest of us.

as far as temperament.  when he's happy, he is the happiest kid i've ever seen in my whole life.  the smiles and laughs are out of control.  just making eye contact with a mischievous face will send him into a fit of giggles.  he loves the suspense of watching my hand as it comes to tickle him.  and he's ticklish on pretty much every inch of his body.  my current favorite is pinching his thighs, but he laughs just as hard when i go for his belly and his neck.  under his arms, his feet, his back, his cheeks, and every other random place (i'm pretty sure abigail has tried them all at least once) yields laughter of some sort.  it is absolutely incredible.  i love tickling him before naps/bedtime.  it's like he's slap happy or something because he can't stop laughing but he can't stop rubbing his eyes either.  so he's just laughing so hard while he's taking out his whole face with his sleepy fists and i just delight in every bit of it.  within the last few weeks, i've noticed that he wakes up super happy in his crib (there's a good chance he's done this for a long time and i've just never noticed) and just hangs out and babbles and coos until i come get him.  he's tolerant of abigail's vigorous affection, loves being in his carseat (probably more so than being held) and is just overall a really really happy baby.  he still has his moments when he's just plain angry at life but it's getting more and more infrequent and when it happens, it's almost always accompanied by a very good reason (normally a short nap or just lack of sleep in general).  when he's crying, it's often within four minutes of his laughing and me telling him that he's the happiest baby ever.  he only knows how to go zero to sixty.  there's a reason i call him my bipolar child.  he only knows the two extremes.  thankfully, he's on the super insanely happy extreme way more often than not. 

i know there's tons of stuff i'm leaving out and hopefully i'll come back and add more to the post later (and pictures and links to the stuff i've already written), but as of right now, this is my snapshot of brady at 8 months.  he's so great.  it is positively remarkable the transformation that has happened since he was born.  i am in awe of this sweet little spirit.  and so insanely impatient for him to grow up just a little more.  he is going to be a crack up... i'm sure of it.

no swaddle!

just in case you're completely enthralled with this fascinating swaddle business, i didn't want to leave you hanging a second longer than necessary.  

here is the update:

 

 

monday nap yesterday was his first time swaddled with just one arm and he fell asleep just as he would completely swaddled.  monday night, same deal... didn't seem to even notice he wasn't in a full swaddle.  and so today, same deal for nap times... went to sleep without a peep and slept a full length nap.  didn't have trouble transitioning at the 45 minute mark or anything!  

so tonight i was putting him to bed and thought to myself, "maybe i should just see what happens if i put him down for bed with no swaddle at all."  so i did.  i propped him in the upper left corner of his crib so that he head was in the corner and his back was to the bumper (from what i can tell, he prefers to sleep on his side) and walked out of the room.  and he didn't fuss.  and then after ten minutes i was dying to see if he had truly fallen asleep.  after i finished brushing my teeth, i went up to check and OH MY HEAVENS IT WAS REALLY TRUE!  he'd fallen asleep just perfectly without a swaddle!

 

i'm still in shock.  let's hope the good luck continues!

Kicking the swaddle addiction

i've gotten my kid addicted to so many things that lately, i've been stressing and strategizing about how to work all these things out.  ideally, before he goes to college, i would like him to be able to sleep through the night, without a binky, and without a swaddle.  those are the three nighttime addictions.  he's almost 8 months old.  i am not proud of this aspect of my parenting him.

when abigail was about this age, i knew it was time to wean her from the swaddle.  it wasn't a problem though because she was already a great sleeper and didn't need a binky so really, it was just the swaddle.  with brady, there are just so many factors in there!  if i'm going to wean him from the binky, is it better to do that when he still has the comfort of the swaddle?  or if i'm going to let him cry it out at night, do i need to ditch the swaddle first because the crying would lead to him busting out of the swaddle and then not being able to fall back asleep?  or if i wean him from the swaddle and he has free arms, maybe the binky won't really be an issue because he can put it back in if it falls out or just gum his fingers for comfort?  there are more scenarios than i would have anticipated.

well, the swaddle will be the first to go.  because i really don't have too much against the binky.  it's working for now.  it's not broken so i won't fix it.  and sleeping through the night?  unless it's a crazy night like last night where i was so tired i wanted to die, i'm pretty happy to run upstairs for a few minutes to nurse brady.  i use the baby app on my phone so i can sleep exactly how long it takes me and it's literally 5-8 minutes from the time he wakes up until i'm back in bed.  but the swaddle?  the swaddle is a pain.  it takes time to do, and only i can do it (meaning, my honey can't put brady to bed) tight enough and even then, if he wiggles enough, he can get out, and all the layers (since he's double swaddled with a swaddleme and a miracle blanket that wraps around a million times) get really hot.  AND the ultimate swaddle deal breaker?  he keeps rolling over.  abigail always rolled over in her swaddle but it wasn't a concern because she was perfectly happy being the little beached whale baby that slept swaddled on her belly.  brady rolls over and he's ticked.  and it sounds like he's going to suffocate in his crib bumper.

i've tried the one armed swaddle before and it didn't go well... so i didn't have high hopes for it this time around.  but i guess brady has matured in the last two months because it's going much smoother than anticipated (knock on wood).  the first time was for his afternoon nap and he fell asleep just great with zero fussing!  he only slept 1h15 but that could have been a coincidence since his sleep was sooooo off from yesterday (sunday and family get together stuff for my niece's baby blessing) which definitely affected his night time sleep and morning nap as well.  his evening nap was in the carseat while we were out.  so the second time with the one arm swaddle was tonight for bed.  went to sleep with zero fussing!  we will have to see how tonight goes and tomorrow's naps!  i'm strangely excited about this.

first nap with one arm out.  practically sleeping on his twisted side belly.

don't look at this picture too long or you'll get a headache.  so blurry because it was taken in a pitch black room.  this was going to sleep for the night... second time with one arm out..

i reread the "swaddle saga" post i wrote when abigail was about this age and dropping the swaddle with her.  i remember it being difficult and dramatic but rereading it, it seems super quick and easy like the transition only lasted a day or two.  i can't imagine that i left out major details because i'm always so longwinded.  i honestly think she was just so easy that this was probably just a huge hurdle to jump [because nothing else was] and so it was difficult at the time and i remember it as being super challenging.  also, i'm semi laughing that i wrote in there...

"anyways, she went down at 9 and the night was not anywhere as bad as i was anticipating although i know it wasn't christopher's idea of fun.  up at 11:45.  up at 2:15.  up at 6:30.  up at 10:45.  i let her sleep in since we were up for about an hour each time.  but really, i was very pleased with it all." 

it's only funny because that insanely rough no swaddle night for abigail is still better than what a lot of brady's nights now are.  i think he woke up at least four times last night.  maybe five.  seriously, how can his daytime sleep be so awesome and his nighttime sleep hasn't improved at all?!  such different kids.  like how abigail had such a terrible awkward bald spot on the back of her head (the pictures in that post show that it's even more obvious than how i had remembered it!) from thrashing her head back and forth in her carseat and while she slept and brady has nice even hair all over.  

also, it's a good thing i don't often go back to reread old abigail blog posts to compare her to brady because it is depressing with how crazy easy she was.  except that it's awesome i even had a baby like that at all (she was one in a billion).  i just had to look back about swaddling to see if my 2011 self had any insightful advice for my 2013 self.  it's fun to see how accurate or skewed my memory is. like in this link... i remembered that she was still happy when she rolled onto her belly but didn't remember that she would sleep like that for her whole nap... and i remember that she was an insanely good sleeper but i had forgotten about the time i put her down for an evening nap and she never woke up.  that post says that i put her down at 5:30 and that she never woke up so i had to wake her at midnight to feed her and change her diaper and then she slept another 8 hours until morning.  ask me the last time brady slept 8 hours.  

i have no clue.

two very different babies.  so wish me luck helping brady drop the swaddle.  and if you want to pray that dropping the swaddle will actually make him so much happier more comfortable that he will miraculously sleep 12 hours straight and be so happy and self soothing that he doesn't need a binky... well, i won't stop you.

also: in somewhat related news.  today was the first time brady rolled from back to belly... well, without his swaddle.  obviously, he's done that before.

the birthday day

happy 3rd birthday baby girl!

i would have loved to do something extra super special for baby girl's birthday today but with us getting in town late saturday night and not having sunday to prepare anything and monday night being family home evening and baby girl's bff elle out of town... it just wasn't gonna happen.  we semi celebrated at the hilliers for a sunday dinner but there was no cake, and it was just a few small presents.  i really don't mean to sound like i'm complaining, i only say all of that because i'm not quite sure how much a three year old comprehends birthday celebrations.  like i don't think she really got the picture with our sunday shindig even if it was really really fun.  all day sunday though, we kept prepping her.  "how old are you?" two.  "yes, and tomorrow when you wake up, it will be your birthday and you will be three!"

she did great.  this morning i heard her wake up and when i went to get her i said "happy birthday baby girl!!!  how old are you?!?!"  "i'm three!!!"  adorable.  since it was too cold to go to the pool and too windy to do anything outside actually, i decided our day should consist of no crying and just doing whatever baby girl wanted to do.

want a bath?
yes.  but i don't want to wash my hair.
fine by me... it's your birthday!

let's eat breakfast!
i don't want to eat breakfast, i'm not hungry.
want watermelon?
yeah!  and i want yummy cheese eggs too!
excellent... i can do that for you!  how many would you like?
umm, two.  and i want this toast too.
well then you shall have it all... because it's your birthday!

brady slept the majority of the morning so baby girl and i got a lot of one on one time.  she had a fun bath, picked out whatever she wanted to wear (poofy dress), and played in the playroom.  we cleaned up the ball pit (i told her i was going to clean up all the balls and it was all "oh.  i'm gonna help you!") and she did some trains, some driving in her car, some baby dolls, some hammering with her tools to fix her car, and asking me to throw the aflac duck and smash it into her face (video to come).  we both had a blast.  we also watched some thomas together and hung out with brady before it was nap time.

almost every inch of my house is covered in suitcases, clothes to be put away, dirty laundry, and a million other things that just materialize out of nowhere... and instead of attending to any of it, i spent the whole day focusing on baby girl.  i didn't multitask and do laundry or housework while she watched tv or played in the playroom and i didn't talk on the phone, text friends, or browse the internet while she was playing.  i gave her my full attention and y'know what?  she was perfectly well behaved and more hilarious than ever.  baby girl, sorry this was a special birthday thing and not the everyday thing i should do for you... i promise i'll do better.

this precious girl never left my side (remember the wind?  we were always in the same room as each other and pretty much never more than ten feet from each other) and it was amazing.  i should do this for my birthday too!  anyways, she went down for nap around 2:30 and was fast asleep until almost six.  you can tell she's still wiped out from our trip (she woke up at 9:45 which is late for a kid that's been hanging out on the east coast for three weeks).

check out that tan!

"mommy, can i take pictures of brady?"

"i'm a big girl baby!"

while she was napping i tossed up a few balloons and streamers and gathered some presents from around the house.  really we were only intending to give her a bike and the $5 thomas umbrella i picked up a month or two ago at walmart... but it looked pretty sad and lonely on the fireplace (tradition) so we shopped the house for a few more things and baby girl was thrilled to pieces with her birthday puzzles, games, coloring pad, mickey mouse notebook, bike, and thomas stuff.

when she came down the stairs and saw all the birthday stuff, her face lit up.  she immediately ran to her bike, hopped on, and started riding all over the place.  she's really good at it because she rides elle's all the time.  christopher convinced her to take a break to open her other presents and it was so precious seeing her unwrap everything.  she would be so serious and intent and telling me every time she ripped the paper and then she'd see the toy inside and get such a huge smile on her face.  she played a bit with each of her presents and then rode her bike around the house again.  while she was riding, christopher asked her what her favorite thing was and we were both fully expecting her to say the bike.  ummm, "i like all my thomas ones!"  what?!  her top pick was the thomas umbrella.  she really is my mini me.  when i was really little i had a kid sized snoopy umbrella and i absolutely adored it.  that was actually my inspiration when i saw the thomas umbrella at walmart.  so, i'm sure she probably likes/will enjoy the bike way more but i found it humorous that she told honey her favorite was the umbrella.  especially since he was skeptical when i told him i bought it for her.  two points for me!

then we ate grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner (because i knew she would really enjoy that and because our fridge is almost completely empty and i'm procrastinating this whole "cooking dinner" thing as long as possible) and went around the block and got our mail and hung out on the driveway while baby girl pedaled to her little heart's content.  but then the sun was going down and baby girl's first crying of the day was when i made her get in the car so we could go out for gotcha.  what's up with that?!  she loves gotcha and it didn't matter how many times i said "we're going to get ice cream and all of your birthday stuff will still be here when you get back!" she was still distraught.  i insisted though and i'm pretty sure she's forgiven me.  also, she eats so slowly she didn't even finish her ice cream and the remainder of it is in our freezer.  so now i know that when it takes her an hour and a half to eat breakfast, it's not because she's trying to kill me or drive me crazy, it's just because she's really my daughter and can find a way to "savor" something eighty times more slowly than everyone else present.  sometimes hanging out with her is like watching home videos of myself as a kid.  when we were growing up, my friend lisa always finished her food before i was even done chewing my second bite and she always asked why and how i could eat something so slowly.  actually, she still does.  weed, if only you were there to see abigail go three minutes straight without taking a bite and then at my promptings, merely dip her spoon in melted ice cream and just give it a quick lick before dipping it again.

and then brady was getting fussy so we all went home and honey and baby girl played with puzzles and games and stuff a little more before bedtime and she was out like a light.  except that as i was saying goodnight she made mention of having another birthday tomorrow.  hmmm.  once elle gets back in town i'll have to plan a little friends birthday party for baby girl.  and because she's been talking about it for months, it'll have to be thomas themed.  anyone want to help me out with that?!

thanks for the diaper liza!  baby girl was sooo excited to find an elmo diaper in her drawer tonight!

i can't believe my little girl is three!  baby girl, i love you so much it hurts.  happy birthday!