9 months strong

Oh, poor neglected second child. I have blog posts in the works for his other months, well maybe one or two of them,  I mostly comprised of list of things that I want to talk about but just never got around to sitting down and writing. And now Mr. Man is nine months old.

 And he is amazing at nine months. We still call him tank but he's actually pretty little. He looks massive until you put him by another baby, then he's tiny; so maybe he's tiny tank.  He's in nine month old clothes and size 3 diapers. He's only 27 inches tall and only 17 lbs. 13 oz. but he is so awesome.

He's an eater, all day all night. About every three hours or he gets hangry, he likes his solids too.  Haven't found anything that he doesn't like yet and he always wants to eat when someone else is eating. If you have a snack he better be willing to share or face the wrath of tiny tank.  And he's a food critic. He talks the most when he has something in his mouth he loves to shriek and squeal and babbling talk he loves to do it most when he's eating. Both solids and milk which is kind of funny.  We did have our first biting incident now that he has two teeth. He did not like the response of being told no and being put down on the ground. Thankfully he hasn't bitten again since.

 He's not much of a sleeper, mostly because he wants to eat instead. He still gets up two to three times a night.  We started to sleep train him, Ferber style, and he goes to bed without a fuss now for the most part. When he wakes up in the middle of the night we give him a few minutes to try to sort himself out. But he usually just ends up screaming for the entire time. At some point I'll have to night wean,  The part of night winning is increasing food during the day and he already eats every 2 to 3 hours plus solids during the day. He sleeps in his crib all night which is a big change from previous where he would need to be in our bed or at least in our arms so that's a big improvement even if he's still getting up.

 He is strong. Walking is imminent, he can stand unassisted,  he can walk when you hold his hands. And he loves to climb on things. We never anchored our furniture to the wall for E,  but we're going to have to with tank. Because he will climb anything and everything. He's been going to Little gym class and he loves it there. One  of his favorite things to do is crawl. Everywhere as fast as he can.  He gets into a lot of mischief at home. Especially since there are lots of toys left out by a certain 3 1/2 year-old. One of his favorite things to do is eat paper or stickers. He has a special noise that he makes when he has paper or stickers in his mouth it's sort of a NumYummyYum noise that he doesn't make when he's eating food.

He like to play games. The standards like peekaboo and this little piggy of course,  but he also likes to play fetch with himself. Whatever toy he has he'll throw them and crawl across  the floor to get it. He also has a little game where he will tell his head to the side and smile and stare at you until you tilt your head back and then he'll pop up and then fall back down expecting you to do the same, it's very cute.

 He loves other people. He loves to smile at people laugh at people and be held by people even complete random strangers. And of course strangers love to hold him because he so happy and, of course, the hair.  The hair is almost grown back to link it wasn't like that at three months ago. The curls are still gone, which makes me a little sad, but he still has a really good hair for a nine-month-old.

 He loves bath time in the pool and would spend all his time in the water if we let him. He does not like being in his playpen when people are out of sight or being alone in general. It is not like getting his diaper changed or putting on clothes.  He does not like being strapped into his car seat.  He does not like it when mommy takes the paper or stickers out of his mouth. He did great on his first airplane flights only fussing a little bit and sleeping for most of the flights.

E's wisdom: sadness

hey mommy, when you are sad your heart splits apart.
But you can fix it with cuddles and hugs.

Baseball fever

We had another first for E. We got to take her to her first major-league  baseball game. Her uncle is a huge baseball fanatic and was in town visiting. The Astros just happen to be playing that afternoon. She spent the morning with her uncle watching baseball videos  mostly videos of the mascots. The Astros mascot is named orbit and he's based off of the Phillies mascot name the Philly flyer. E very proudly can do the Philly flyer dance where the Philly Flyer shakes his belly around vigorously. 

E was super excited to go to the game. When we got there we found out that the roof was open and our seats were right in the bright sun. It was hot and it was sweaty; the remedy for that is of course a giant putple snow cone.  E charmed the people around us by shouting encouragement to the team "you can do it!" "He did it". "Hit the ball!"  And just in general being a super well behaved kiddo. 

Tank also continue to charm people with his luscious locks. As we were trying to get a swaddle blanket over his head to keep him cool a couple behind us handed us a toddler size Astros baseball cap and told us they had bought it for their son and we could borrow it for the game. About 20 minutes later they told us they were leaving and that we could keep the hat.  So Tank is well on his way in following in his big sisters footsteps of getting lots of free stuff for being cute. 

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 All throughout the game E was looking for Orbit. Every time she went into the shade to get a drink or to go to the bathroom and cool off Orbit would appear somewhere in the stands. By the time she come back he disappeared again. Uncle Rune even went on an Orbit finding mission, and came back with a guaranteed sighting time; the seventh inning stretch.

Of course since Tank had a hat E wanted to get a hat. And she wanted to play in the big kids play area. By the bottom of the 5th the game was starting to drag and it was getting really hot so we went to the gift store and the big kids play area. E got a bit scared because the play area was filled wi crazy big kids, so we didn't stay long. But it was just long enough for us to miss the grand slam play that won the Astros the game.
At the 7th inning stretch, Orbit was finally spotted by Ms. E, and at that point we were all pretty hot and tired so we called it a game and headed out.

E has already started asking when we can go back to go see anothe baseball game. 

Just another day...

Today was just another day...

 Another day of waking up early after not enough sleep, making food, changing diapers, shuffling kids around, playing Dinotrux,  brushing three-year-old teeth, trips to the library, a little too much screen time.  There was nothing outstandingly awesome, but I want to remember.  It was outstandingly awesome and it's just another day-ness.

 It was a little bit extra awesome because we had the day off from school. And thankfully we are far enough north that the flooding wasn't too bad in our area. The water came up about 2 feet onto our front lawn and flooded the floor mats of our car parked on the street. But today was beautiful.  I am so thankful for where we live, that were not dealing with the crazy flooding or scary things that happen in other parts of the town. And I am so grateful for the extra day I got to spend with my kids even though it wasn't anything spectacular.

 I want to remember the ordinary things today: playing with Tank's hair and stayling up into a kind of Mohawk. Snuggling with E and reading lots and lots of stories. How she came back repeatedly during storytime at the library to give Tank hugs and snuggles just because she loved him.  How she danced and try to tickle the librarian during the sing-along part of story time. How she was so careful of the other little kids at story time because she's one of the big kids there now.   How in the middle of one of the sing-along songs she gave the little girl next to her a big giant hug. The way she says hello to everyone because she's friendly, ans she always wants to know their names. The way she yells at motorcycle riders who don't wear their helmets that they're not making a good choice. The fact the Tank ate his entire bowl of baby oatmeal for the first time. the way Tank's hair smells after having washed out all that product since it needed to be shampooed three times.  E holding my hand as I sang her special verse in the Puff the Magic Dragon song where she goes to visit Puff.  E whispering to me I love you very very very very very very much and I love tank very much too and daddy. E asking about why the cars went under the water because she saw a video of it on a tablet; how she was concerned for the people in their cars in a naïve child-like way but didn't really understand the danger but understood that it was a scary thing.  The way Tank talked and talked and talked and talked today both when we went out to lunch, and then tonight when he was trying to not go to sleep. The boy has a lot to say.

 It was just an ordinary day. And I hope I never forget it.

Death and Pets

"Mommy, that's the kind of puppy I want, when daddy dies."

"Ms. Elaina got trapped in the slime and no one can rescue her so she died"

"Mommy, when you're dead, you don't eat ice cream anymore"

"I'm sending the bubbles up to V. like the balloons."

These kinds of comments are pretty much a daily occurrence.  My 3 year old has learned about death.  This is entirely my fault and for tragic reasons.  I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but haven't been able to.

Back in December a former student of mine, a wonderful, bright, funny, talented, 10th grader and her amazing sister were in a car accident and for V (the 10th grader) it was a fatal one.  I was the first of her teachers to find out and it happened during Winter Break.  So the responsibility of telling everyone, making contact with the family and such fell to me for the first while.

It was heartbreaking and terrifying and I'm still not able to verbalize what it means to me to lose a student in such a way.  But the event also had an effect on E.

I had to go to the funeral.  I wanted to go to support her family, since I was one of the first school people to respond to the accident and show up at the hospital.  Plus I really love both girls, like I love all my students and I wanted to be there for the surviving sister.  But, the funeral was the same day as a Texans playoff game that Ken had tickets to.  Maybe I should have gotten a baby sitter.  Maybe I should have just stayed home, but in the end I took both kids with me to the funeral.  Thinking I would be able to distract E with the tablet.  I told her the very basics.  V had died.  We were going to a church to remember her and be there to support her family.  E didn't ask many questions.

But E is incredibly empathetic and aware.  Once emotions started, the tablet lost all interest.  She wanted to know what was going on, why people were crying, how V died.  She was very very very well behaved and whispered all her questions and accepted simple answers and several "I'll explain later"s.  She was even very well behaved when we went to the burial site.  She participated in the balloon release (because 3 year olds can't be around balloons without getting one) and was fascinated by the heavy machinery that was there.

And once we left, the questions started to flow.  Now I'm agnostic and Ken is Christian so I tried to answer her questions with information from both sides.  Though most of her questions were not so much about what happens after you die.  (Mommy's answer: some people believe that the energy that makes you up goes to Heaven and lives there.  Other people believe that your energy is sent back out all around the world and becomes part of the world again.  But your body doesn't work anymore.  You don't move or talk.  And you never come back)

Now, death is just a part of her play.  I don't know how firm her grasp is on it, but she brings it up in play, which tells me she is processing it.  It seems like such a heavy subject for such a little girl.  Sometimes I feel like a bad mom for having exposed her to it so early.

But really most of the time she links death and pets.  I think she's processing both things which leads to darkly comical statements like those above.  But she really wants a pet and know's it most likely won't happen while Daddy is around.  So she's experimenting with ways to get pets

So far she's come up with Daddy dying and her going off to college.

"mommy, when I'm bigger and go to college, I want to get a real pet.  a kitty and a puppy. and I will live in my own house"

"daddy, when I'm 28 I will go to college and have my own house with a kitty and a puppy, and I will be able to drive"

Really though, my 3 year old is planning out her college life for when she's 28.  How did she get so old thinking so quickly?

Tank at 4 months

mommy combed my wet hair...
it got crazy again once it dried

Somehow I missed 3 months.

In the last two months this little guy has turned from a needy baby lumpkin into a little ball of personality.

Everyone still remarks on the hair...because how can you not, but the second thing everyone remarks on is how happy he is.  He is just a happy guy 95% of the time.  He only cries when he's hungry, lonely, or dirty.

His vital stats at 4 months are:
14 lbs 13 oz (32%ile)
24 inches on the nose (6.3%ile)
16.9 inches (80.5%ile)

He seems so big to me, especially when he's next to E, but he's actually turning out to be a little guy.  Pretty short, pretty light and he's got a pretty big head.

He's gained fantastic control of his head.  He can track things across the room and all around the room. He's also getting great control of his hands.  He can grasp objects and twist his twisty rattle.  He likes to hold onto his wubbanub while he's falling asleep and he can maneuver it around to suit his needs.

He rolled over from tummy to back several times early on, but seems to forget how to occasionally now.  He's getting pretty close to rolling onto his tummy from his back, he's gotten up on his side a few times.

He loves to bit and chew and is a drool monster.  He started really drooling around 3 months, It got so bad I had to start sending drool bibs to school because they were having to change his clothes just because he was soaking them in drool.  He loves the bite and chew on things, especially mommy and daddy's fingers.  And he's not sucking on them, he is genuinely biting down.

He also had his first nasty cold/upper respiratory infection.  Viral.  He was so miserable and snotty.  He had to get a chest x-ray, which is a horrible experience.  He also had his first ear infection and first round of anti-biotics.

He still loves to watch his sister.  She can elicit laughs out of her like no one else.  He seems to really like the other babies at daycare too.  I was there at drop off and put him near L (a 7 month old little girl) and he just laughed and smiled and she was happy to see him too.  It was very cute.  

He sleeps in his bassinet to start out the night, and usually gets up 2 times a night.  Sometimes he wants to sleep with mommy after getting up to eat, and sometimes mommy kind of falls asleep while nursing him so he spends some time bed-sharing, though I really try to move him back to the bassinet as often as possible.

We were out on a family date for ice cream the other night and there was a table full of high school boys next to us and I kept juxtaposing my little boy with them and it's so hard to believe he will be one in the future.  I hope he's still just a happy, sweet guy then too.

Tank at 2 months

Tank at 2 months:
13 lbs 2 oz (71%)
22.88 inches long (44%)
16 inch circumference head (89%)

So, he's big, short and has a big head, though not as overly large as his sister's.

he likes:
cuddling
"talking" to his family
"playing" with his Yeti
Watching his big sister do anything, but especially watching her dance
being outside
being in his carrier
Playing in his ball pit

He does not like:
wet/dirty diapers
being in a room alone
being down in his bouncy seat when everyone else is up at the table.
His carseat
He can:
hold his head up
smile
coo
hold his binky in his mouth with the back of his hand
sit up in his bumbo seat for a few minutes at a time
grasp objects, mostly on accident, but kind of on purpose
track objects across the room
he does this little happy jig when he sees someone and knows he's going to be picked up.  It's kind of a combination of crazy arm and leg flail and whole body wiggle.

He burps and farts like a frat boy.  Though you really have to work for the burps.
He spits up a lot, and by a lot I mean both frequently and copiously.
His hair is indescribable.  Pictures don't do it justice.  It's slightly curly.  It's super soft.  It has light tips like we gave him highlights. He has a cowlick right in the center of his forehead that gives  him this perfect little superman curl.

Daycare Day 1 Done

Today was Tank's first day of daycare.  E's first day ended in tears.  I'm happy to say that Tank's was not so dramatic.  Granted he was a 2 minute walk away from me, where E was a 30 minute drive and the longest I was away from him was just over 2 hours.  But it went well.

I dropped E off at 1030.  She ran in and her teachers said "Oh, E welcome back, we missed you!"  one of her little friends piped up "I missed you too!"  and she tossed her backpack in the middle of the floor and was happily playing.

I didn't drop Tank off until 12, because I wanted to show him of a bit.  I fed him at 1130 and then got ready to hand him over.  He promptly spit up all over me, smiled, and went happily to his teacher.  I'd planned on just going over to the daycare whenever he needed feeding so I told the teachers to text me if he seemed hungry, otherwise I'd come over in 3 hours.

An hour later I got a text saying he was hungry.  Now he'd eaten only an hour before.  At home the lad goes 3-4 hours between feedings so I knew there was NO WAY he was hungry.  So....I ignored it.  An hour later I got another text saying he was hungry. This time I went over, knowing there was still no way he was hungry but wanting to check on him and there was a break in the schedule anyway.

He was happily sitting in a bouncy chair, not crying, not frantically sucking at his hands, just chilling.  I decided to try to feed him anyway.  He ate for about 3 minutes and then popped off and looked up at me and smiled.  And stuck his tongue out at me and gave me the biggest grin possible.

The little stinker was not hungry at all, he just wanted mama.  Not that I really minded.  I remember wishing E would show that she was happy to see me.

I got another text saying he was hungry right at the end of the day.  By the time I got to the daycare, he was zonked out asleep...obviously not hungry.

Despite the frequent texts, the day went great.  E was happy to be back.  Tank did great.  My schedule is going to be pretty slammed so I will probably not be able to go feed him.  This makes me a little sad, but it won't be a big deal to pump at night and send him with a bottle.  It will be a bit of an adjustment, but all things are.