Sick Babies

Mommy's been sick with a sinus infection for over a week now. It finally just feels like a cold which is a huge improvement. On Thursday night, while trying to fall asleep breathing through my mouth even after "nettying", tossing and turning and being awakened by someone else's snoring in my bed, putting in one ear plug to try to make things better, I was then awakened by another person snoring, this time outside my bedroom door. I get up to confirm it was Neko wheezing away. I must have startled him awake because next thing you know he was coughing up a storm in the classic croup styleand making that high pitched "stridor" sound they warn you about so I wake up Trav and blast the shower while putting a call into the doctor at 12:45. Between the steamy shower and walking outside in the cold air we finally got his breathing to settle and he went back to sleep. On Friday we went to the doc and she confirmed croup and prescribed prednisone and also diagnosed an ear infection (and teething). She gave another scrip for amox but said we didn't necessarily need to fill it if he seemed to be handling it well, which he was. Friday night was a rough one. First, we had to cancel our evening plans to bring the kids to my parents' house and go to Trav's Jiu Jitsu Christmas Party. Bummer. We NEVER go out. But between my feeling like crap and Neko's being sick, it was the best bet. Chinese food and Elf were our alternate plans. We went to bed around ten and then by 11:30 Neko was up, rebinked, up, rebinked, up, screaming his head off, holy cow!!! Now the tricky thing is that he's been on and off screaming his head off in the night for awhile now. Sometimes we think it's just his "pattern" but now I begin to wonder how long his ear has been infected and if it's been teething (Keller never really "teethed"--he just got cranky so we don't really know what teething looks and sounds like...) But anyway. Eventually, Trav got him to calm down and slept with him on his chest on the couch and I got a nice little stretch of uninterrupted sleep (4-5 hours? May not sound like much but between being sick and awake because of that and then add a sick baby, not much sleep going on...) So by mid-day Saturday, Keller was getting a raspy voice and his croupy cough reared it's head during nap. Lovely. Saturday night, 12:30, Travis on the couch with Neko again, Keller begins wheezing so loudly from his crib. Stridor again. In the shower with him, sounds horrible, call the doc, go outside for a few, inside, still no good, thinking about ER, doc calls back and is calm and seems to think it's just standard croup symptoms, gives us the go-ahead to give him Neko's Prednisone and by the end of our call, Keller is breathing better. What a scary thing though. Luckily he was a little chatty as he started feeling a little better. By the time all was said and done he was thinking we were going to "play toys" but alas, he got one more story and song, some medicine, a "cuemidifier" and put to bed. Sheesh! Sunday night, Neko's up again with "the screams"...is it his ear? is it his teeth? The Hyland's Teething Tablets seemed to do the trick the first time he was up. But 2 hours later when he was up again, not so much. Nor did walking the floors, swaddling, being held...I couldn't even sit down to hold him. Finally, I gave him some Motrin and within 10 minutes he was out. What do you guys do when you have/had a baby screaming his/her head off in the night? Do you assume teething? Earache? I just don't know. I guess maybe I should call the doc again tomorrow to see if I should fill the scrip she gave me "just in case"---I just don't want to give him Amox if he's just teething...ugh! Kids!! Luckily they're both in good spirits during the day (well, maybe the bigger one is a bit "irritable" to be nice...) But better now than the weekend. We also missed my cousin's Christmas party on Saturday which was sad because she had arranged the firetruck Santa to come to the house and had already set up the gifts for the boys to be given to them:( Keller would have loved that, but, maybe next year...

So that's what we've been up to around here for the last week. Ahhh, lovely germs. 'Tis the season!

6 Months and Other Things (creative title, eh?)

On a daily basis, things happen or things are said and I think to myself, "I've gotta write that down" or "I need to put that in the blog"...and then it never happens:( That's life though I guess, especially with two little people around:) And so begins the catching up (quick while Neko sleeps and Keller is somewhat content under his play-table-blanket-fort).

Keller is doing a great job with his "potty training"--He spends all his time at home with underpants on or with no pants at all. He is excellent about getting to the potty in time for pee and he loves the part about getting a "tweet" which could be anything from a chocolate chip, a cookie, cranberries, a granola bar piece, popcorn, a lollipop, or fruit leather. He really doesn't much know the difference between healthy and not healthy so we just mix it up... Only on occasion in the past couple of weeks has there been an oops with pee. The other morning I was back in my bedroom with Neko and I hear Keller in the front/living room saying "what's in my underwear?" I knew what this meant but was in the middle of changing Neko so I stayed put. A few seconds later I hear Keller again, getting closer, what's in my underwear? what happened? and I look up and there he is in the doorway with his underpants down at his ankles having walked all the way to the bedroom that way. It was just pee so it was "cute"... We cleaned it up and all was well. Now poop is another story! He only just started doing poop on the potty 2 weeks ago and is doing pretty well. He doesn't like just sitting and "waiting" on the potty. He prefers running around and playing like a lunatic until the very last second when we see and hear a Keller running to the bathroom, usually with no pants on saying, "I'm gonna go poopy on the potty." And again, he generally makes it in time, although sometimes a little poop bit might occasionally fall out on the way to the bathroom during the mad dash (kind of funny, actually!) So, we're getting there. Still diapers when we go out, although he did go peepee on the potty at the library last week, which was great. I need to get a potty for the car now...I understand Ikea is the place to get the little cheap one? I get overwhelmed just thinking about going there, but I really should just go and get over it.

Aside from poops and pee, Keller is loving the whole Christmas/Santa thing. He had no problem sitting on his lap and taking his picture with the big guy. He's a big fan of the Muppets and John Denver Christmas album and can identify when Rolf or John "Denber" sings. He also can state that "John Denber is an honory (honorary) Muppet" like his Daddy taught him. We also just recently went to a "real" shoe store to get measured and all and he's a size 7! Oops, sorry I've been squeezing you into the 5s, little boy. Bad Mommy! They were just temporary, though...How cool was it to be able to RUN in the store!

And so Neko...What a big cutie little boy he is! Six months old next week! Where does the time go? He is a big sitter-upper guy and is officially doing the "backwards scoot" landing him in some strange places, particularly corners or under chairs! He is like a little monster grabbing anything he can and sticking it right into his slimey little drooly mouth! No wonder his brother is afraid of him! Neko can't wait for Christmas because then he can start eating big-boy food! Although I feel a little like he's ready NOW, but if Santa doesn't bring the kid food then he'll have nothing under the tree. Poor kid... What else, SLEEP. Okay, so it seems that he's now up at 5:15/5:30 for his voice/speech lessons. He wakes up (still in the kitchen, still right outside our door) and will talk and talk and talk until he starts cranking or until we can't take it anymore and one of us gets up to "bink" him. This will give us another 20-30 minutes after which Trav will usually turn him onto his belly which may then get us to 6:30 when I feed him. Then he's up in our bed until like 7:30 talking more while I lie there exhausted wishing he was sleeping so I could sleep a little more. So mornings around here are a little rough and starting earlier than I'd like. I'm hoping that solid food may help hold him over longer? Teach him to sleep later? Something, please! 7:30 is a perfectly fair wake up time, Neko, okay?? Once he gets to that point he's moving in with his brother. (unless the bassinet collapses first, which I hope isn't the case, but I think we're pushing it!)

So times up. Neko's still sleeping, but in the time I've taken to write this post, Keller has peed, yes, after all that praise, in his underwear, I've wiped and sprayed the floor. He has eaten a banana and smeared his banana hand on the lightswitch, which I've also wiped. He has banged his head on the wall behind the couch after jumping like a madman right beside me, I cuddled him, rubbed his head and told him about accidents happening when you do things like jump on the couch (whose mother lets their kid do this anyway?). And Bo Bo has been locked in the bedroom after barking ferociously at the oil man, who apparently automatically renewed our service contract although we weren't planning on using them this year. Oh well. Such is life. The post is done. I'm sort of caught up. Did I mention I'm sick today? Hope it's not strep.

5 Months!!

Yes, 5 months as of Sunday since little Neko came into the world. You may not know that though since I never posted his 4 month blog entry...bad mommy:( I kept meaning to...Where the heck does the time go? I'll cut myself some slack and recognize that two little people live here and while I pop on and off the computer here and there throughout the day, I never have time to really linger, no less the time or focus needed to accomplish a post. Yes, a blog entry IS an accomplishment in my book!

So Neko. He's still very cute and he's still a chub-a-lub! He is happily sitting up these days with the help of the Boppy pillow in the event of a little too much wobble. But really, every day he has been sitting more and more confidently which is nice because as good for babies as "tummy time" may be, it's also a bit restrictive. Right? And yes, Neko needs his tummy time still because he is NOT rolling at all (neither did Keller until I think 7 months and we blamed that on his having been swaddled that long...Neko's not swaddled so there goes that theory!) We're not worried about the rolling thing though--all in good time!

Neko spent his first several months being the epitome of an "easy" baby. We tried not to talk too much about it but he slept most of the time and was generally happy and slept through the night fairly early on. I'm remembering our Cape Cod week when he'd go to bed at 8, wake up at 5:30 for a nursing, and go back to sleep until 10! That was fantastic!! And then by the end of September I went to a "fussy baby" focus group...They don't tell you what the group is about, they ask you "screening" questions and the woman who screened me had asked if my baby was very fussy, somewhat fussy, a little fussy, or not fussy--when I responded "a little" she told me they were looking for at least "somewhat" babies so she let me change my answer;) I figured I could still help out the study based on Keller's fussiness as a baby---anyway, I collected my $120 thank you and then my very own not-so-fussy-baby begins to fuss. Yes. He is now almost borderline fussy, sometimes. When he's not giggling/cackling/laughing or chewing on something!! It's like we really have to get him to bed before he's too tired because, man, can he scream when he's overtired (we think it's the overtired scream...) No bink, no cuddling, rocking, bouncing, swaying, shushing can touch him when he's in that zone. It's terrible because no one wants a baby to be that sad and then I get all out of sorts because there's nothing I or we can do...he's gotta just ride it out sometimes.

Then there's the bink thing. I hate it. But he doesn't. He quite likes it a lot! And it is a little cute when it bobs up and down as he is sucking away on it. But I don't want him dependent on it. And I especially don't want to get up in the night just for the purpose of "re-binking"---Which brings us back to the sleep-through-the-night thing...He was sleeping from about 8:30 until 7:30 for a good while, completely uninterrupted. But then something changed and he has been consistently waking up between 3:00 and 4:00, we've tried letting him work through it and get himself back to sleep...he used to find his thumb or rebink himself or suck his hand...but he is no longer getting himself back to sleep (or wait, are we just not giving him enough time to?) And so now at 4am when he wakes, he gets rebinked. And then again at 5:30 and then around 6:30 I'll feed him and he'll sleep until about 7:45. Not ideal. Those nighttime/morning interruptions are rough and I know we need a plan of attack but I'm not sure what that should be...I feel like I'm not "supposed to" feed him once it is established that he can make it through the night...and as for giving him time to fall asleep on his own thing goes, it's much quicker to just rebink him. Who knows. But alas, we signed up for this. We just happened to be lucky that Keller slept through the night easily (once we worked through the bumps...I should check back on the blog and see when he evened out...) Ahhh, babies. Gotta love them!

Not such a fan of the Bumbo...neither was his brother...(although now Keller prefers to hear his nighttime stories while sitting in the Bumbo...silly kid!)

So more positives on Neko...he smiles at his big brother and his big doggy:) He babbles. He loves watching the "twinkle star" on his tummy time jungle gym blink on and off...He's a big grabber--I love watching him going in for the pounce...eyes lock on a target--book, toy, glass, brother, etc. and the whole body leans toward it while those big chubby hands grab away. Poor Keller got his hair pulled pretty darn good today, he's in trouble with this little brother of his!

He likes to look at books while he's on his belly, big board books that can be propped open in front of him, he swats at the pages, very fun:) He likes the exersaucer, but not for too long, and he has been enjoying his hanging bouncy chair that hooks in the doorway...he's quite the jumper!

And to close, I'll share that he is one slimy little drool monster! While Keller needed bibs on all the time because he was a spitter-upper, Neko is only now requiring the use of a bib to accommodate all of his drool. Those hands are in his mouth all the time and when they're not, there's a dribble of drool hanging off his lower lip anyway! Grosseroni!! Our slimy little lovebug! Can't believe how quickly he's gotten so big. He's no longer a "little" baby...bittersweet.

Double Dragons!!

Li'l dragon and big dragon.

Trick or treat! Thanks to hand-me-down costumes (thank you Chase and Madelyn), our boys were able to have coordinating Halloween costumes:) We did as much as wear Keller's costume to the library for story time and then head out for a big 20 minutes of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We weren't quite sure what time was too early so we waited until 6 and walked all the way down the hill to kill some time first and figured we'd hit the handful of folks we know on the way back up. Our first stop was to some neighbors who have a little baby Neko's age and a 3 year old. They seemed glad to see us because their little guy was refusing to put his shark costume on. He eventually gave in and was ready to head up the block with us, but not before Keller took a bite of his very first candy bar...a Three Musketeers. He was holding it out saying "What's that, what's that, Mommy? Open it..." and I figured, it's Halloween, he's going to taste the forbidden fruit soon enough anyway and the poor kid hasn't even eaten dinner yet, he must be starving! And so he started with little bitty bites and in no time had gobbled it up (a little one) and was holding out another candy, "Open this, Mommy..." We managed to keep the rest nicely packaged, played with them when we got home, and they've been all but forgotten (by everyone except me who begrudgingly has been eating them all up!! shhhh....) When we made it all the way up the hill to our house we ordered our traditional Halloween Chinese take-out (General Tso's Tofu and Broccoli) and gave out handfuls of candy to the three groups that came through. Where the heck was everyone this year? It was a nice introduction to Halloween for Keller and a nice mellow night for us here. Costumes are already washed and in the attic!! Now I'm looking forward to decorating for Christmas (isn't that what you're supposed to do right after Halloween?) Okay, we'll wait until after Turkey Day....gobble gobble!!

All ready to go Trick-or-Treating!

Running down the hill.

Mmmmm, candy!!!

Randomness!

Before these cute little nuances go away and I forever forget them, I need to just get them down here...

Keller loves to sing these days. I'm amazed at all the songs he knows, well, mostly knows! He'll sing in his crib before he goes to sleep and we sing before every nap and bedtime. Now he wants to sing in the stroller and in the car, too. He'll say, "Sing to me." The other night at dinner he was telling Daddy to, "Sing a song" and then Mommy had to and then it was "Everybody now..." and so me and Trav and Keller sang our hearts out at the dinner table followed by the oh so important, "Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!" I love my little singin' man!

Some words do get a little lost in translation, such as:

Baa baa black sheep, ha-na-na-na wool.

...H I J K enenenen P...

Now my know my ABCs...

...like um diamond in the sky...

I know there's more, I'll have to listen for them.

Have I written about how Keller is always saying "only bigger" about Neko whenever we joke about Neko doing something like, "Neko's going to drink your milk..." Keller will say "only bigger" meaning that Neko is clearly not big enough to do such a sophisticated thing as he. This goes for everything...sitting in the high chair, riding the bike, eating dinner, using a fork, etc. Poor Keller is going to be all out of sorts once his baby brother starts "catching up" to him! For the time being, it's still very cute.

Keller is in the midst of a big-time nail biting habit! What the heck! Those little fingers of his are being drawn right to his mouth as if there were a magnet pulling them together. As a teacher, finger-in-the-mouth kids always kind of grossed me out...germy germy germy, bleh!!! And alas, I have one, at least for the time being! When we leave the library, grocery store, doctors office, I immediately Purell his hands in the car and remind him that I just put "chemicals" on them so he can't put his fingers in his mouth. Then we immediately wash hands when we get home. He doesn't seem to like the taste of the "chemicals" so we may be on to something. We'll see how long this lovely habit lasts. The good thing is that I no longer have to fight to cut his grimy fingernails anymore!!

Neko is sitting up! Well, sort of, for a little while at least! He likes the novelty of it and accessibility too, I think. He's not much a fan of the Bumbo for more than about 2 minutes, which is how Keller was, too. And so we'll just keep practicing the sitting up thing. He loves the exersaucer which I try not to use too much so that it remains novel when I really need to get something done! and he does like to be held more and more as of late which was really hurting my back because it's not just the sitting and holding thing, it's the standing, walking kind of holding. And so I bit the bullet and pulled out the big gift card from my former students/families...the end of the year gift from my pre-Keller year, and I ordered an Ergo Carrier as per recommendation from a couple of friends. It's MUCH better on the back than the Bjorn and the sling, although I did put Neko in the sling yesterday to make dinner because I haven't yet taken the time to learn how to do the hip hold on the Ergo. The sling is easy for that and also the side-sleeping thing that Neko likes too, although Neko is not as into sleeping in the sling as Keller was. Too confining. He's not the swaddle kind of kid that Keller was. Trav will disagree since he's a big fan of knocking Neko out by slinging him. Hey, whatever works!

I almost quit my soccer team a couple of weeks ago. I left before the game was over after being at my wits end after being complained at incessantly by a couple of players. Not my idea of fun and not the way I like to spend the one time of week that is set aside just for me. I was really upset, not so much at the players but at not having another "thing" that I could call my own right now. Everyone wants, if not needs, Something to call their own, a hobby, a pastime, something they're good at, something they want to get better at, etc. Over the past few years I haven't had so much. And once you take Work out of the equation, it gets even more important to have Something that is your own. I decided to finish out the season on this team but will most likely join the Over 30 league, which I should have done a few years ago when I really began to recognize how my playing wasn't quite fitting into the competition level of my current league. I was being stubborn because the game times fit my schedule better;) But anyway. I'm on the hunt for a new hobby, or to get back into an old one. TIME is such an issue for me though. When I have time to spend on myself, I want to use it just-right! Do I drive to New Haven for drum classes again? I'd be more into that if I had someone to do that with. Do I at least get my butt to the gym. I'd rather do something a little more social though, I think. Do I appease my pesky husband and try out the Jiu Jitsu thing? Who the heck knows. In the meantime, the plan is to freeze my butt off tomorrow morning playing soccer and maybe get some soap made this weekend. Those are two good things for me!

Pictures to come. Sounds like the big boy is waking up and I didn't even have my nap time tea yet!! Yikes! "Mommy wants to take Teller out!" What Keller repeats over and over when he wakes up...At this very moment he's saying, "Don't liiiiiiike it, don't liiiiiike it, Mommy." This could mean anything. His arm might be sticking out of the top of his sleepsack. The "guts" could be coming out of his stuffed green bean's head, or a string might be unravelling from a stuffed animal. What is it this time??? Always an adventure!

All About Me...

So, I get bummed out when I am all set and ready to go walk Gramma D's dog and collect my big $10 payment and when I call to tell her I'm coming, she's not home. While in reality, we have a very loose agreement as to walking days, it's like when I can go, I gotta go now, or else someone's going to poop their pants, need to eat, need a nap, etc. Yesterday I was gifted with nice long naps and rather than rushing everyone out, we skipped the walk. Today, I purposely put Keller down early so we could take a nice long walk when he woke up now that the sun is out, but alas, no Gramma D. No $10, unless it works out that we go a little later...wait and see.

Toning sneakers? Really? Do I need these? Might I as well have them if I'm going for walks anyway? Will they save me my $21 per month gym-that-I-don't-use fee? Will they make my legs look hot? Will they help me drop that last 10, yes ten, pregnancy pounds? The advertisements make me think so, which brings me to....

Money!!! I've been calculating my bank statements and dividing up expenses into groceries, gas, and yes...Target gets it's own separate calculation...okay, well, it goes into the "household expenses" category which might include a CVS/prescription type payment. I'm going to play a game with myself starting today and I'm going to avoid going to Target unnecessarily and see if I can save some money this month. There's just always Something that I can develop a need for, or that could make our house more organized, or that was such a deal, or that I should "stock up on"-- And really, I'm not that bad of a shopper in the grand scheme of things especially considering that I return almost half of everything I buy, but still, I think I can spend less. Even with groceries...I'm not a very "organized" shopper so therefore I have to "run in" more frequently to pick up a couple of things which leads to picking up other things while in there, yadda yadda...Wouldn't it be a great idea to "meal plan" and buy what I need all at once??? I've done that a couple of times, well, maybe once...

Should I switch my health insurance to the one that doesn't cover maternity expenses and save us nearly $300 per month? Sounds like a no brainer, but, what if...??? Not likely. Hmmm...

I may have made a new friend in the neighborhood with a little boy. We had our first "date", I mean playdate yesterday. Nice enough gal (and I don't say that about just anyone;) I'll have to "Friend" her...

What else. That's it for now. Oh, yes, one more thought to put in writing. I'm thinking I'm going to grow my hair long enough to then cut it (sorry Trav) to donate it to Locks of Love. Something I've wanted to do for a long time but have not done because of fear of change (short hair on me?) and fear of divorce. I'm ready for change and am fairly confident that the marriage is stable enough to weather two kids AND short hair. It grows back AND gray hairs are still donatable!! Phew!

Okay. No longer about me now. Small boy obstructing my view of keyboard and smaller boy begging to get out of his "hole" ie. exersaucer.

The Busy Toddler Turns Two!!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Look at all those teeth in there!! Keller's first two bottom teeth poked through just the week before his first birthday last year and the rest were very slow to follow...Now he's got his "eye" teeth (if that's what they're called) poking through both on top and bottom. I'll blame that for his seemingly increased stubbornness!! (and whininess??? who taught him that???) But anyway...

So two years old! He's been practicing putting up his two fingers saying "I'm two" but if you catch him off guard and ask how old he is he'll respond "I'm six"---ummm, not quite, little boy! He continues to be quite a character around here, making up songs, changing words to songs, playing the guitar to his favorite Twinkle Twinkle tune and today's song of the day seems to be the alphabet song...I'm totally impressed at how he knows almost all the letters in the song to be able to sing it! I asked Trav the other night what we can do to capitalize on his sponginess, his crazy memory of details and songs and books and whatever you tell him pretty much. Trav said we should get "surgery" books and law books to read to him before bed. That or the "My Baby Can Read" program...but I'm honestly not into the rush to teach your kid to read and I know nothing about that program. And so Trav and I decided that we'll just continue doing what we do:) It was a joking conversation, with a grain of truth to it, but the reality is that we both want Keller to do what he does best, be a kid, in a world of test scores and higher and higher academic standards. His time for all that garbage will come. For now we'll sing Twinkle Twinkle and make up songs about BoBo and trucks that "Backup" and anything else we can possibly think of to sing about.

No, we haven't cut his hair yet...love the little fly-away wings he has and the humidity curls in the back---so he's a little scruffy, but man, it took him long enough to grow his hair, why cut it now??? and still there's only just a little in the front! I do think about cutting it, but then the thought goes away...all in good time! So Mr. Hammy Ham is a constant goof around here:) He loves his toolbox that Neko gave him in the hospital. He is always fixing things from plants to trucks to BoBo to you name it! Screwdrivering, hammering, measuring, sawing...he's a jack-of-all tools! And even today when we went to the firehouse for a tour, there were the big red trucks and real live firemen that were so cool, but even more interesting apparently were the guys up on the ladder fixing the ceiling or whatever the heck they were doing. And Trucks are huge! Not just in size, but in coolness to this little boy. Digger trucks, scooper trucks, cherry-picker "blueberry" trucks, dump trucks, oil trucks!!! Wowwee Wow Wow!! Lucky for us, our neighborhood has been full of them all summer long and the neighbor next door is an oil guy who stops home with his big truck a couple of times a day to walk his doggy...Trucks and Tools are the best right now. Oh, and music, instruments, songs, singin' mans...noisy drums and stand-up bass and violin (Keller holds a couple of those big leggos under his chin and plays the violin with them:) And when I think to myself that we should get him some instruments (or ride on toys, etc.) I then think to myself how much better it is that he "invents" his own toys or puts what he has to new uses. Really though, of all the toys he has, he honestly only uses a handful of them for all kinds of purposes. I like that:)

While Keller spent the summer in the backyard playing with water, he is now into the sandbox that his cousin Samantha passed down to him. A couple bags of sand and a sifter and a bulldozer truck and a shovel or two and he's good to go! This is our afternoon routine lately (when it's not raining!) He gets up from nap, has a snack and either we go walk "Gramma D's dog" Becky, or we go play out back, which we do after walking Becky anyway...I do want to start being a little more "active" with him though as he's generally content to sit in the sandbox or just sort of putz around the yard. We brought the soccer ball outside the other day and have been running around out there a little more. Occasionally the bikes go in the driveway but he doesn't spend too much time on them when outside.

My little pooped out angel after a busy day playing with his cousin Piper and BeeBee. Is it not the cutest thing to watch his little eyes struggle to stay open in the carseat long past his naptime. So sweet to see my busy baby boy fall fast asleep within minutes of driving! Even sweeter that I can now officially transfer him into the crib when we get home!

Neko's 3 Months

Neko's bassinet is still in the kitchen! Hmmm, when will it be the right time to officially move him in with Keller (is that the plan???? I don't even know!)

Well, almost four months at this point!! But since I had only just posted his two months update, I allowed myself additional procrastination time!

To begin, we are blessed. We are blessed with two beautiful and healthy boys, busy, happy, chunky and content baby boys. They are my world. At two different places, with two differing personalities, with two sets of needs, with twice the amount of love for each. How did I get so lucky?

I think I say daily when I am looking at Neko, "You are such a sweetie" and he so very totally is in every way. Goes to sleep by around 8:30 now, often falls asleep on his own, sometimes needs the bink, sometimes spits the bink out and babbles and babbles and gurgles and talks and talks to himself or any mommy or daddy face that might pop over his bassinet for a peek. Yes, still in the bassinet! Big grins before bed. Big grins in the morning...7:30 wake-ups or 8:30 or 9? The occasional 10:00 wake-up if he falls asleep after the 7:30 feeding. Then another nap a couple of hours after waking up. Keller and I get some morning time together alone while Neko naps...

Neko LOVES his bink. It takes the edge off when things are not just right. It tells his brain that it's time to sleep. It "pacifies" him in ways that we never saw with Keller. It just does the trick, most of the time. And I worry about it even though I shouldn't. He's still on that big green Soothie one though I did read that it shouldn't be used after 3 months (thanks Becky for bringing that to my attention). I reluctantly bought a different brand but I have yet to open the package. I will. But I think I'm trying to pretend that my son doesn't "need" the bink. I have in my head that binks are "unnatural." However, in reality, if all it takes is a little silicone nipple to suck on for a few minutes here and there to make a little guy so content, then why should I deny him that? The kid loves to suck, as many kids do. And I'll deal with the break-up when and if it becomes "a problem"...stop overthinking it, Lis...it's a freakin' pacifier, there's an aisle full of them because they are a useful invention!!!

And so, happy baby. Happy in the morning when he wakes up. Happy to get his diaper changed. Happy to look at his Daddy, he loooooveeeesssss to look at his Daddy with a big gummy smile and twinkles in his eyes. So sweet:) He loves storytime at the library because we do If You're Happy and You Know It and he loves when I clap clap, stomp, stomp, and hurray his little arms. He goes with the flow, sleeps on the go, in the Bjorn, in the carseat, on our bed, in his bassinet. His oversized Chicco carseat sits in the big basket part of the grocery cart with Keller in the front seat. He stares up at his little caterpillar friend hanging on the carseat handle. He smiles and coos at him. He makes me smile and coo at him smiling and cooing!

He's a scoochie. He pushes himself around on his belly, not to travel, but because he's kicking and, well, scoochie. In the rare event that he's on my bed on his back unattended (which doesn't happen anymore...) he has been known to scootch the length of the bed as he pushes back with his feet. Yup, that was a big surprise to see. It is time to get the exersaucer down from the attic now that he's getting a little more mobile. Even the Bumbo seat is no good because like Keller, he just tenses his whole body and practically falls out of it by "straightening" himself. Oh, little babies and keeping them busy and occupied while also keeping the little toddler busy and occupied!! Next post: The Busy Toddler Turns 2!!!! Coming soon!!

The Cape

Finally I get around to posting my Cape Cod pictures! We had a great time, although now it seems like it was so long ago! We left on the last Friday of August and joined Amy, Chris, Nolan, Nina, and Fenway for dinner, a sleepover, breakfast, and a lazy morning and then were on our way for the last leg of our trip to Wellfleet. We arrived by 2, got our beach sticker, and moved in to our new cottage. It was a different cottage again this year but it was a good find, especially for the "end of season" deal we got for it. A nice quiet location, wooded property, a trail to the marsh and bay, screened porch, deck, two bedrooms and it wasn't "damp" which is a fear of mine when renting a cottage online...

Keller enjoying his toast on our first morning there.

Keller heading down the trail to the Passaro-favorite, Duck Pond.

Keller actually allowed Neko to touch him for this photo!

Every day after breakfast, we (either Travis or I) would take Keller for a walk down the path in the backyard. Here he is picking cranberries. He loved exploring what was around and welcomed the opportunity to get out of the house. The parent that stayed home was allowed a little quiet time with the littlest boy who mostly slept through vacation. He (Neko) would go to sleep by 9, wake at about 5 for a nursing, and then sleep until 9 or 10! How awesome was that!! And so even though Keller was up at 7 every morning, we tag-teamed getting up with him, making breakfast, and taking him out for a walk. But I'll tell you, vacation was still a lot more exhausting than it once was...and I loved it. I loved how new and exciting everything was to Keller. He just rolled with it all. Last year I had bought a Cape Cod board book and we had been reading it to "prepare" for our trip and he would literally recite parts of the book...Like the cranberries were actually "cranberries that float" (cause that's what the book says). "Cape Cod here we come, we're off and away, zoom over the bridge and we'll have a great day!"

More cranberries.

The path to the bay from our backyard...

I just love these shots...They are so very "vacation" to me, the pure joy on my little boy's face:)

So the bay behind our house was really only swimmable at high tide and in the mornings when we'd go for walks it was low tide so we got to check out the HUNDREDS of fiddler crabs that would hang out down there. As we approached they would all scurry sideways into their holes or else keep scurrying into the marshy grasses for safety. And you could hear them...I never thought of hearing crabs, but alas, when there's a critical mass of anything I guess there will be noise, too.

Keller making goofy faces at the camera.

Awwww, me and 2 of my 3 (or 4 if BoBo counts) boys...

Little Neko at the beach.

Little Keller loving the outdoor shower....ahhhhh, so nice!!

This was our last beach day, on Thursday. We went to Gull Pond on the Eve of Hurricane Earl...preparing to slam into Cape Cod Friday afternoon. We had decided that we would leave Thursday night at bedtime because our cottage was essentially on a peninsula and I had visions of Hurricane Katrina and a pit in my stomach going over the whole should we stay or go, wait til tomorrow, big long lines of traffic, blah, blah, blah, boo. We enjoyed our beach time even though it was short and after nap and a little breezy. The boat rental guy on the lake was pulling probably 20 kayaks across the beach area to take out of the water so I said to Keller, how many boats are there? Let's count! And he ran right into the water to touch each boat to count it...it was funny but he nearly got taken out by all the boats passing by!

We did some good pond hopping this year...While we know and love Duck Pond, it's kind of a hike to get down to (well, a couple of minutes and a lot of crap to carry) and gets pretty shady and a bit crowded since the beach has eroded. We went to Great Pond one day which we hadn't checked out officially and with that one, you walk down a bunch of steps that dump you directly into the nice clear cool water. We had to walk through the water, nearly mid-calf, to get to the beachy area. I really liked that pond...it was a good find, but not really a find because we've known about it all along, just never actually went to it. Then we did Gull Pond on our last day as I mentioned above. Gull Pond has a dock that I literally was able to walk Keller out to. Kids were having a blast jumping off the dock and parents could just be standing out there keeping an eye out. All of the ponds are just great for kids and the water is just so inviting for Mommies and Daddies, too! I look forward to being able to kayak across Gull Pond to the Sluiceway which is this beautiful Caribbean-like connection of Gull Pond to another pond that we happened upon last year. "Each day on Cape Cod, you'll discover some more"

Nooooo!!!! Don't want too come out of the water!

The bittersweet drive home.

We left the cottage at 9:30 pm on Thursday and Keller was sound asleep before we made it out of our little cove area. Both boys slept the whole way home and there was not the slightest bit of traffic. And Trav and I spent the last day of our vacation (Friday) sitting on our couch in our very own cozy cottage and waited for Earl in the comfort of our own home. Earl never showed. Bummer. Would have been nice to have enjoyed that last day and morning and ritual breakfast stop, but alas, we were home safe and sound and now we begin to look forward to next year!!

A Belated Two Months

So I took the pictures on time for Neko's two month photo shoot (well a day late) but I just haven't sat down to do the blog thing...go figure! He continues to be a very even and dare I say "easy" kind of baby. He eats well and sleeps well and does anything els really matter? He will typically eat every two to three hours during the day, sometimes more frequently, then he power-eats beginning around 6 and by 9 orso he goes down for the night! At the two month mark, he was getting up at 4 or 5 to eat again, but now he's down till 7/7:30---thank you little peanut! I sometimes get him from his bassinet and he's smiling to greet me even! What a sweet little boy he is:) Let's see if I can remember the doctor's stats...I remember that he's a half an inch shorter than Keller was at two months and an ounce more...13.7 pounds I think...90% for weight, 50% for height. The doctor said we make good babies and implied we should have more. Two is good though!!
Neko found his thumb a couple of weeks back, which is great for a little guy who loves to suck:) He smacks away on his hand in the morning but remains content. His little hair is accumulating on his bassinet sheet, the bassinet of which remains in the kitchen since the 6 week mark. He's a noisy noisy sleeper, snoring now on my lap as I do the one-handed-typing trick. It's been great that he and Keller are managing to give me overlapping naps in the afternoon---I hope that keeps up!
Other things I jotted down to remember were Neko's chattiness. He'll talk away to you now on the changing table or one your lap if he's propped up to face you. He can go on and on chatting and laughing those big gummy grins! He has on multiple occasions rolled from his belly to back, he scooted clear across the bed to get to me on his belly one night, crazy!! and he's well into his size 2 dipes! He loves to play "Clap hands, clap hands, till Daddy comes home..." especially the "Yayyyyyy!!" part at the end!

He's just a little delight to have around!

Uh-Oh

On the changing table last night I asked Keller if he had fun playing with the little girl at the park. He said, "Yes." Then he follows up with, "Not a penis." And he's right, the little girl does not have a penis. We've been talking about how he's a boy and Daddy's a boy and Neko's a boy and BoBo's a boy and Mommy is a girl. When we see other kids we've been differentiating between boys and girls. He's also been sitting on the potty here and there so he's very aware of his penis. And this morning when I told Trav about our conversation he quizzed Keller and he got everyone right and followed up with all the boys saying that they have a penis "cause he goes peepee." So he's learning I guess. I just have a feeling all of this knowledge of his is going to embarrass the heck out of me sometime soon...

These Are Days...

I've been really enjoying our family summer fun this year:) We've managed a handful of little adventures that I'm always wanting to do but find it hard to actually make things happen. Let's see...I'd say the summer kicked off with our trip to the hospital to get the baby to bring with us on our adventures;)

We hunkered down for a little while, and made our first venture out on the Fourth of July to my parents and then to Trav's aunt's for BBQs. We celebrated our anniversary on the beach here in our lovely town, hit the sprinkler park a couple of times both alone and with Justin, Jackie and JoJo, and took Keller to the lake which he LOVED fearlessly splashing around in.

Cheers to Us! Fourth anniversary, two kids later...

Keller "Cheers-es" his water and Pad Thai

We went for a hike with BoBo and some friends (Tupper and Jo) at Lake Mohegan in Fairfield. We took the family to the Willie Nelson show at the Ives Center in Danbury and enjoyed lawn-seats along with all the grandparents who also happened to have tickets to the show.

BoBo and Keller both love their Tupper!

Neko seemed to enjoy his very first concert...A musical legend, at that!!

Keller has fun at the concert sitting on his Papa's lap (note Grandma and her binoculars in the background;)

We visited with Elise, Maribeth, and Gretchen from college along with their families/soon-to-be-husband. We had a pizza picnic with friends and Trav's sister's family before heading out to the Easton Carnival where Keller went on his very first rides...Dumbo and the Magic Carpet Slide. We had an impromptu visit for a swim and dinner with Abby and Shan who were in town briefly at my parents' house. And on Sunday we motivated to get up and out (sort of) early to go to the Podunk Bluegrass Festival in East Hartford which made for a perfect summer day---beautiful weather, sunshine, clouds, a breeze, the sound-man offering to share his shade tent with us, a dirty little boy playing on the baseball field, festival food, a sleeping baby, oh, and the music, yes, the music:) I love me some bluegrass music on a hot summer day, or any day really! Keller learned about some of the instruments (and how to tip a lawn chair;) and Travis and I finally managed to acknowledge each other after both children were strapped into the carseats and we could manage to catch our breathe before departing for home! Family Fun!!

While getting out and doing all of those things has been wonderful, it is equally wonderful to just hang out in the backyard with the itty bitty pool, the hose, some buckets and balls and splash around before dinner.
I'm loving all of these moments with my family. I'm loving all of these memories we are creating. While the boys are still too young to remember any of what we've done this summer, I know that I will look back on both the adventures and the every-day moments with joy and fondness one day, missing this beautiful young family that we are, while hopefully celebrating the beautifully "grown-up family" that we will one day become.

These Are the Days....

Keller spent quite a bit of time engaging with this box in varying capacities:) Trav and I would say, "Go play box." Or Keller would say, "Mommy play box with Teller." We'd color, cut, hammer, nail, screw, measure, play cars, etc. in or on the box. A fabulous toy, really. Got plenty more use than any other single toy in the house!

Mr. Silly Goose. I'm fairly certain that it was dinner-in-the-hair that made it stand up like that!

It has been the summer of trucks here on our block. Bulk trash dump trucks and front loaders, cherry-picker to cut down the neighbors tree, fire-truck and ambulance a few doors down, cable guy in the cherry-picker bucket in our front yard. It's a good thing Teller has his hard hat handy at all times!