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!