Garrett: Twelve Months!

Well, we made it. We survived. I love this little boy to pieces, but oh my word does he exhaust me. I'm just glad he wasn't our first child because I think I might have been scared to have any more. Which would have been a shame, because siblings are just the best. Watching William and Garrett interact and play together melts my heart. Plus, you know, it keeps both of them entertained for at least five minutes so I get some time to myself--a definite luxury these days.

Height/Weight: At Garrett's well child visit, he weighed in at 19 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 28.5 inches. However, I'm pretty sure he's closer to 30 inches--we made a quick stop at the doctor a few weeks ago because we had to get updated stats for Garrett for his life insurance policy, and at that visit he was 29.5 inches. I'm quite certain he didn't shrink; he was just being way less cooperative at his well visit (although he took his shots like a champ and passed the rest of the check up with flying colors! Our pediatrician actually told Darrell and I that we are good parents and that he  appreciates us, which is a little nugget I'm definitely going to hold on to for a long time).

Wearing: Still in size three diapers. He pushes the diaper to its limit with some of his poops, and very occasionally wakes up wet, so he'll probably stay in threes until either of those issues gets more pronounced. He is fully in 12 month clothing--and even some 12-18 month stuff. I definitely dropped the ball on getting his wardrobe updated; some of his 12 month stuff is already too small for him. Whoops.

Eating: Weaning came up at the well visit, and the doctor made the comment that while I certainly don't "have" to stop nursing any time soon, we need to make sure we limit his liquid diet so that he gets most of his nutrition from solid foods. Darrell and I just laughed (we also laughed about the hemoglobin/iron test that they had to do--if they'd watch this kid eat a ribeye they'd know his iron levels are just fine). I seriously don't think this kid knows what "full" means. There are nights where he'll eat as much for dinner as William--and if you know anything about William, you know that he is a good eater himself. I love that my boys are good eaters and I certainly hope the habits keep up, but heaven help me when these boys are teenagers.

Sleeping: This was the main focus of our conversation at Garrett's well visit, and sadly (but not surprisingly) we left without any definite answers or solutions. The assumption is that his middle of the night feeding is his "favorite", which is why every time he stirs before the feeding (which we usually try to do around 3 AM) he gets worked up about the anticipation of the feeding and subsequently becomes very hard to settle back down. There have been a handful of nights where he has slept continuously until waking up for the feeding, but those nights have been few and far between. And it doesn't help that he seems to be an incredibly light sleeper who struggles (seemingly constantly) with teething pain--all of that adds up to frequent stirrings, which means frequent occasions of wanting to nurse in the middle of the night, which means frequent scream sessions when he discovers that he isn't going to get what he wants. Needless to say, I'm pretty much ready to be done with nursing if for no other reason then to see if it will help him sleep through the night. Naps have also been a little more rough this month, and I think it's because he's at that awkward transition stage from two naps to one nap. Some days we are busy in the morning and he doesn't get his morning nap and goes down fine for his afternoon nap (and even takes a long one!), some days he doesn't want to go down for either nap, and some days he takes two solid naps without any issue. The guessing game is a headache some days, but I'm definitely aiming to have the boys napping together around 12:30/1:00 come summertime because that timing works really well with a lot of the summer activities we like to do.

Likes: Dogs. Dogs. And more dogs. We were outside playing the other day (yay for playing outside in February!) and someone went past our house walking their dog. Garrett immediately started walking down the driveway and turned to follow them on the sidewalk. At Christmas (sorry if I mentioned this already, but I don't think I have...) he was obsessed with Darrell's uncle's lab--who, admittedly, was pretty much the sweetest puppy ever. Seriously though--if we ever lost sight of Garrett while we were staying at their house, all we had to do was call the puppy over and it was pretty much a guarantee that Garrett would come toddling along behind her. Lately this love seems to be extending to all animals. Pretty much the only stories I can get him to sit still for are animal stories--even better if the story includes the animal noises (which--by the way--he has started bringing books to us to read him. So adorable. Even if he only sits still for the first two pages). And thanks to some of the mild February temperatures, I can also say that Garrett completely loves playing outside. Which is just what I need--another reason for him to throw a tantrum during the day because (shocking!) we have to come inside at some point.

Dislikes: Besides being told what to (or not to) do? Being fed, for one. The only way I can use a spoon to feed him is if he has finger foods on his tray as a distraction. Otherwise it is game over and he wants the spoon--and the bowl of whatever we are feeding him--and he will do it himself. He's surprisingly adept with a spoon for a one-year-old, but we still end up with quite a bit of a mess.

Firsts: Started Kindermusik! And despite the fact that he will dance and bounce to the music when I play the CD at home, he does no such thing at the class. Figures. He's completely mastered going up and down the stairs (yay for no more baby gate!), but unfortunately he thinks that he can use his "turn around on my belly and slide down" motion any time there is a step or drop off. Like at the park when he is ten feet off the ground on the playground structure and he shimmies over to one of the openings and tries to "slide" down. Pretty sure I'll be making at least one ER visit this summer--because he is already fast enough on his feet that if I'm not watching him like a hawk he can put some serious distance between us (and get into who knows what kind of trouble). He's started picking up on some of the sign language we've been using with him--and not surprisingly, his first sign was "eat". He's since gotten pretty good with "milk" and "more", but despite our best efforts he has not figured out "all done". Go figure. He is also up to five teeth, which--as I alluded to earlier--has been a pretty awful process. It seems like he gets every single one of the "typical" teething ailments--runny nose, pain/ear tugging, foul poops/diaper rash, fussiness/frequent waking, low-grade fever, drool, drool, and more drool--but never at the same time, so the agony of cutting one tooth is stretched out over what feels like weeks. And believe me, we were very insistent at the well visit that the pediatrician be very thorough to make sure there wasn't some other underlying issue, but alas, Garrett got a clean bill of health (and "perfect" ears, no less, which admittedly we were a little disappointed by because we were kind of hoping an ear infection would be the culprit for some of the problems we were having).

Some day, when I'm less sleep-deprived, I'm sure I'll look back and miss Garrett's infant stage, but right now I can't help but look ahead to what I'm hoping the toddler years will bring: sleeping through the night and increased communication, which (fingers crossed!) will result in his temperament mellowing out a little bit. And if not, well, then I guess I'd had better buy some stock in a coffee and wine company--and invest in some legitimate hair color to cover up all the grays that he will be causing.

Garrett: Eleven Months!

Height/Weight: So far so good on making it through cold season without any doctor's visits (at least for this one). Hoping we make it until our well visit next month before needing to go back in and get updated vitals!

Wearing: Size three diapers and I (finally!) pulled up his tote of twelve month clothes. I probably could have done so weeks ago, but, well, I got busy. Now I just need to find the time to unpack the tote... Or just fish clothes out of the tote every day and put them in the closet after he has worn them. Whatever works.

Eating: Not even sure why I leave this category on here; it gets depressing to think about food and how much our grocery bill is going to be when these boys are teenagers. Since we've switched pretty much exclusively to table food, there hasn't really been anything that Garrett doesn't like--even things he didn't like as purees (asparagus) he gobbles up. We can still get him to eat some purees (which is good because he doesn't have all that many teeth yet), but the compromise always has to be that he also gets a little bit of whatever we are eating. And if you think he can't possibly know the difference, you'd be wrong.

Sleep: Still improving, and aside from a night or two, no consistent set backs. Maybe there is light at the end of this tunnel. For now, I'll take just one feeding a night (with occasionally one other wake up that requires us to go in and settle him down). Plus he goes down really easily for both bed and his naps, so I know things could be much worse there.

Likes: I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet or not, but Garrett definitely likes music more than William. He's already danced more than I think William has in his whole life. And aside from the standard "food" and "pushing Mommy's buttons", I can't really think of any other new or significant likes.

Dislikes: I like to think that he disliked the fact that Mommy was working two days a week, but considering he was always all smiles when we showed up at Grandma and Grandpa's house, I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case. He does tend to wake up slowly, which means he does not like it at all when William goes barreling into his room first thing in the morning to say hi and attempt to climb in his crib. And of course, because he dislikes being told what to do (or--as is more often the case--what not to do), he has already mastered the headshake for "no". Which means I'm already getting sass and he's only eleven months old (you think I'm kidding? He'll walk over to something he knows he isn't supposed to play with, I'll say his name as a warning, he'll look at me and shake his head, and then proceed to play with it anyway. Good times).

Firsts: Not really a first, but he has four teeth--I honestly don't remember when he cut the top two and if I mentioned it, so I'm mentioning it now. He has also started going down the stairs by himself (he mastered going up months ago), although he needs some help getting started. And last but certainly not least, he took his first steps on Christmas Eve! It was something that was a long time coming--I think back in October I predicted that he would take his first steps by Christmas--so I'm glad that he finally mustered up the confidence to take that first step. And he's actually been slower than I would have thought in transitioning from crawling to walking--but I think that's only because he knows he can go way faster if he crawls. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if he's practically running by his first birthday (ahh!!! So soon!!!), because his confidence is growing exponentially. Heaven help me this summer--taking these boys to the park will be an accident waiting to happen. Oh! I almost forgot! If you look at last month's and this month's pictures closely you'll notice a significant difference in his hairline--little man had his first haircut! It was nothing fancy, just Mom with a pair of scissors at home, but it was desperately needed. Of course, he now looks so much more like a toddler and not my baby, which is pretty much the worst thing ever, but I'll live. And as long as he keeps flashing that killer smile, I'll live with more than enough happiness.

A New Normal

A few days after we returned from some of the craziness that was our traveling over Christmas, Darrell made the comment about looking forward to getting back to our "normal" routine. But then William got sick, and "normal" got delayed. And then I found out that I was going to be working for two weeks longer than I thought, delaying "normal" some more. Finally, a few days ago, Darrell had an epiphany: Even once William gets over his cold and FINALLY starts sleeping through the night again, and even once I'm done working, we will never return to the same "normal" we were at before Christmas. Because inevitably, Garrett will start teething (again). And he'll be walking in no time. And sooner or later we're going to have to bite the bullet and start getting serious about potty training William. There will never be a "normal"--at least not one that lasts for more than a week--for a long, long time. And while I was mulling over this concept, and slowly coming to terms with it, I had a realization of my own. The concept of "normal" has been what has made some of Garrett's infancy difficult for me. Even though things have, for the most part, gone more smoothly than they did with William, I still found myself getting unnecessarily stressed and frustrated at times--and I realize in hindsight that most of that stress was self-inflicted. I was stressing over getting our lives back into a "normal" routine--and in my head, the normal routine that I was aiming for was the one that we had before Garrett was born. Sure, I knew that having a second kid would be a huge change and adjustment, but I just assumed that after we settled in to life with two we would settle right back to where we had been. And since that definitely isn't the case, I'd been feeling like we were still unsettled, and feeling unsettled makes me feel stressed. But if I leave behind the notion of "normalcy" that we had pre-Garrett, and let myself focus on just the present, I realize that things actually are going really well. And, arguably, we've settled quite comfortably into life with two kids. There's still a few pieces out of place, and I'm not sure how they will fit into our life as a family of four (this blog being one of them), but I'm giving myself some time and grace to figure that stuff out.

Garrett: Ten Months!

So apparently my last post was Garrett's nine month update. And considering I'm good two weeks late with this update, that means it has been well over a month since I've posted. Whoops. Turns out working and traveling and the holidays (and general life with two under three) is a bit chaotic and busy. And while blogging is usually what I do during my "me" time to recover and reset from the busyness of life, any "me" time I had in the past month was pretty much exclusively dedicated to baking. Which, really, I'm not complaining about. But I digress. Here it is--double digits and less than two months away from a one-year old!

We tried to get a picture without his hand in his mouth, but that wasn't happening. #Teethingproblems

Height/Weight: We made it through the first part of cold and flu season without any sick visits to the doctor, so no updated stats. Knock on wood that luck continues.

Wearing: Still size three--I was way overly optimistic last month when I thought I could move him up to fours. Definitely bought myself a few more boxes of threes (thank you very much Target deals and free delivery). He's slowly starting to fit into his twelve month clothing, but he's still mostly in nine month.

Eating: Have I mentioned before that this kid loves food? We started incorporating meats and dairy this past month, and both have been big hits. Safe to say I'm not raising a vegetarian.

Sleep: Still not great. Not as bad as it had been, so I'm really not complaining too much, but I'm also not happy (yet). Especially when friends/family tell me about their infants sleeping nine hour (or longer!) stretches at night. But, if these sleep battles have taught us anything, it's that Garrett takes being stubborn to a whole new level--which is definitely going to require some new parenting strategies. I think I will retract any time I called William stubborn because I'm realizing now that whatever he did was nothing compared to what Garrett does.

Likes: Clapping! He thinks this is just the greatest thing ever and lights up in the biggest smile whenever he does it. He's also starting to wave on command, which is pretty adorable too. He also likes being a raccoon, which is why we've named his alter ego "Meeko" (from Pocahontas). His favorite pastime is getting into EVERYTHING, including the toilets (so, so gross--and no, closing the lid doesn't help) and trash cans (while he usually likes to take things out, we have seen him put things in on occasion. So that's fun). He also puts EVERYTHING in his mouth--and 90% of the time I don't even know where he is finding the stuff that ends up in his mouth.

Dislikes: Oh, you know, he pretty much dislikes it whenever he doesn't get what he wants immediately when he wants it. Pretty standard, right? (Heaven help me when this child is a toddler)

Firsts: First Thanksgiving and first snow! Actually, that probably isn't true--I have to imagined it snowed sometime after he was born since he was born in February--but I guess this was the first snow we took him out in? It counts for something, right? And really, all he did was get bundled up and stand in the driveway with me while Daddy cleared the snow off the driveway--it was a pretty substantial snowfall so I didn't exactly want to sit him in it because it probably would have been over his head. And William (for whatever reason) is kind of freaked out by the snow, so we've never really gone out to play in it. Which I'm kind of okay with. I suspect I'll have plenty of snow-covered, freezing cold, and soaking wet boys in my future, so I'll take the indoor play while I can.

Garrett: Nine Months!

Height/Weight: 28 inches and 19 pounds, 1 ounce. Relatively speaking, he's leaning out a little bit, but he's still plenty big. He's a pound heavier than William was at this age, and half an inch longer.

Wearing: Still rocking the size three diaper, although we're running out of those so I may try moving him up instead of buying more. We'll see. For the most part, he is fitting perfectly in nine month clothing. Some pants are a little on the short side, which exposes his poor little legs while I'm carrying him around outside in this cold weather. I've pulled out a few twelve month pants, but most of those are super long. Go figure. We might just be rotating the same four pairs of pants that fit well for the next few weeks--and I may be doing laundry a little more frequently as a result.

Eating: No issues with this one and food. Sometimes he'll turn his nose up at purees, but usually only if I give him finger foods first. We're still nursing, and he's actually doing better nursing during the day (yay!), although making that transition wasn't exactly easy. He consistently eats three meals a day, and nurses first thing in the morning, once or twice in the afternoon, and once before bed. Usually he'll have at least one snack as well, but only because I'm pretty sure food is this kid's love language and it's the easiest way to buy myself five minutes to get something done.

Sleep: I think (fingers crossed!) that we're finally seeing some improvement here. I could write a novel about this, but the long and the short of it is that we finally accepted that Garrett's night feedings were not necessary for his health, but rather happening out of habit and routine. So, much to his dismay, we decided that it was time to break him of the habit. Doing so resulted in a few nights of way worse sleep for all of us (nursing and putting him back to bed was way faster than trying to soothe him without letting him eat), but he will now pretty consistently give us at least one five or six hour stretch at night. We still let him nurse once in the middle of the night, and sometimes his "morning" feeding is at five am, after which he typically goes back to sleep (thankfully!). Most nights he still wakes up more frequently than that--and he would certainly nurse if we let him--but we're slowly teaching him that night is for sleeping, not eating, which has caused many a tear (both his and mine). Thankfully, he's still pretty consistent with his naps, although he tends to take his longer nap in the morning, which I would love to change so that the boys are napping together for longer in the afternoon.

Likes: I already mentioned his love of food, but I'm pretty sure his other love language is climbing. He's already climbing on things that William never did, and trying to climb higher on shelves/toys than William ever did. So that's fun. He's already given himself at least two bloody lips as a result of his monkey-ness. He's also seems to enjoy music and dancing a lot more than William did at this age, so that's fun. I'm excited to start him in Kindermusik after Christmas. And while I'm not quite positive I can move these into the "like" column, he is definitely starting to show a lot more interest in books, which I am thrilled with. Granted, he'd usually still rather play with other toys than read a story, and the only time he shows interest in them on his own is when he's pulling them off the shelves, but whatever. It's an improvement.

Dislikes: This isn't exactly a new one, but I don't think I've mentioned it before--this kid hates getting his diaper changed. It requires entirely too much time lying still on his back, and he just isn't okay with that. Which means this mama dislikes diaper changes probably as much as he does.

Firsts: Aside from his first Halloween, I can't really think of any other milestones. Is that bad? I'm sure he had plenty, but oh well. #secondchildproblems

Wordless Wednesday

SoDak Life

Fact: When you live in South Dakota in the late fall/early winter, "nice" days can be hard to come by. So when you have a day where the sun is shining and the winds are mild, you get outside. Even if the air temperature is only around forty degrees. Because low temperature is nothing a few extra layers can't fix.

Admittedly, we've had a really, really mild fall so far, and we may even have a few more days with temps near sixty--and you can bet we'll be outside on those days as well. Because I know the days are coming where good ol' Vitamin D will be hard to come by. So for the boys' sake as much as my own, we're going to soak up as much of it now as we can.

On a totally unrelated note, I figured out why I couldn't access photos from my phone for blog posts, and I got the issue resolved (yay!). So hopefully I'll be back with a Wordless Wednesday post next week--which is fortunate, because with the schedule we have for the next few weeks, it might be all I can manage to slap a few pictures on a post and hit publish.