Home again

We made it home from Charleston, SC, with fairly little stress... except for the small detour on 395 through DC... ugh. That was all me. Missed the exit from the HOV lanes to 495...But DJ did great, and Elektra was an angel. The only time she fussed was when she blew out a diaper and was uncomfortable. DJ fussed when he was hungry; this year we must've had enough toys on hand to keep him fairly well occupied.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time again with Damian, Jenn, Leo, Andy and Mike. We stayed at the same ocean front beach house on the Isle of Palms as last year, but this year with one more occupant! Elektra slept in a pack-n-play in our room in the corner. DJ's pack-n-play was in the walk in closet again. It was funny to listen to him wake up in the morning and start banging on the shelves like drums and also push on the french doors that separate the closet from the rest of the master bedroom. And unlike last year, I didn't need earplugs to sleep as both kids slept very well at nights.

DJ loved having Leo around, and was trying to say his name by the end of the week. It kind of sounds like E-O, but hey... it's an effort! We also think that he made more effort to speak words because Leo speaks so well. We think "ka-coo" is trashcan, "bwaba" is bottle (or his cup), "shoos off" for taking his shoes off, and the letter F is now something he points out along with the letter D (sometimes he says E).

DJ also tried to imitate Leo whenever he could. Leo would jump on the couch, and DJ would do his darndest to launch himself on to the couch. Leo would get jello legs (and not walk) and now DJ does it. That said, Leo started squealing like DJ does when he's excited, much to Damian and Jenn's chagrin.

Damian and Jenn are trying to work on Leo's manners (please, thank you, you're welcome), and Leo had plenty of opportunity to practice. One time, DJ gave back one of Leo's toys to Leo - unprompted by any of us - and Leo was so stunned that DJ gave him back one of his toys (to a 3 year old, there is no giving up a toy that you have in your possession!) that he needed to be prompted to say thank you. Leo did very well using the magic word during the week.

We went to Patriots Point again, to see the USS Yorktown. The kids walked tons of stairs. They were so tired that they neither wanted a decent lunch and both napped really hard that afternoon. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, with temps in the mid-60s.

We also took a trip to the Charleston Museum one day, and we ran errands another day. On Friday, I took DJ out to the College of Charleston's athletic fields (which are next to Patriots Point) to run out some energy. We also walked out to the beach even though it was really cold with the wind whipping off of the ocean. The day before, Steve had taken him out and shown him that it's not ice he's walking on but sand. Steve picked up a shell, scooped some sand, and let it fall out of the shell. Well, DJ picked right up on that, and insisted on picking up sand every 2 steps until they got back to the house. When I took him out the next day, I showed him a shell, and he remembered exactly what Steve had shown him (every 2 steps...). DJ also wanted to run out into the ocean, which I stopped him from doing. He stood there and watched as the waves came in, and the foam would gather at the water's edge. He's going to LOVE the beach when we go to Wrightsville in August.

Most lunches were eaten out (Chick-fil-A FTW), and most dinners were eaten in. Kudos to Andy and Steve for being our grill masters. We have learned that if you're going to light a charcoal grill on an ocean front deck and expect it to stay lit, then you need to pour 1/2 a bottle of lighter fluid on the coals. On the other hand, if you take said charcoal grill out of the main path of the wind, make sure it's not near the house's dryer else the laundry room and master bedroom smell like lighter fluid. ;-) Andy and Steve cooked marinaded london broil twice and chicken breasts once to perfection. The garlic bread, on the other hand, wasn't so garlicky... (need to add garlic next time!). The toaster settings are in minutes, not in a scale of dark to light so 5 != medium. Instead 5 = minutes... yes, Mike learned that the hard way for the rest of us when his toast came out unrecognizably black. And it can't be vacation if you don't set off the smoke alarm at least once, in our case, the morning of departure. ::snork::

Although the drive is brutal, we look forward to doing this again next year! Back to unpacking...

DJ words

Dj has been pointing to things and trying to name them more often without prompting. Some of the words we've heard from him lately include:
Meow, sssss (what a snake says), ney (what a horse says), sish (fish), kwaka (cracker), shoos (shoes), baby, DEEEE!!! (DJ's name), TEEE!!! (three), ock (rock), moo, ooooo (what an owl says), grrr (what a tiger, lion, and bear say), vroom (what a truck and car say), beep (what a car does, but this one is hard to elicit when you try to prompt him for it), mama, daddy, ayia (yiayia), papou, we think he said Leo's name, keys (both what's on a keyboard and the items used to unlock/start things), wawa (we think this is water), nana (banana), here-oh (here or here you go), eye, ice (current favorite word), eeaf (leaf), coo (cool or cold), bawa (bottle - which we think he means as his cup), choo choo (train), twa-ka (we think this is a new word as of today for trashcan), hi (and we think he's starting to learn how to use it correctly), and tick-toc (what a watch or clock says). At least that's all I can think of right now.

Elektra the Steamroller

It's official! Elektra is rolling over! And of course, she couldn't roll over the easy way (belly to back). Oh no. She had to go from back to belly. I was out with DJ at the Charleston Museum (first museum in the country - established 1773) while Steve stayed home with Elektra and I got a text that she'd rolled over. Sure enough, after I got home with DJ, I watched her do it with my own eyes. It's still effort for her, but clearly, we can no longer just leave her on the changing table!!

Our kids seem to reach a milestone every time they come down to Charleston!

Posted pictures

As promised, I posted a picture of Elektra eating solids and one of her bath experience.

Happy happy joy joy!

DJ hadn't seen Grace in a week and a half, at least. Either he was sick or she was sick or something.

Yesterday, they finally got to see each other again, and DJ made it very clear how happy he was to see her. He hung onto the gate, jumped up and down excitedly, squealed with glee, and shook his head in outright crazy happiness. Eleanor said it was really cute to see him so happy to see Grace. Clearly, he missed her.

Elektra's first solid food

Last night, Steve and I fed Elektra her first spoonfuls of rice cereal.

As to be expected, just about none of it stayed in, and she pushed the spoon out of her mouth with her tongue to boot. In fact, I am not convinced she swallowed any of it. But she sat in her high chair like a trooper, had pictures taken of her, and got all around messy. It was great!

I'll post pics when I download them from the camera. (edit: done!)

However, at 2am this morning, she was awake with gas. Was it from the rice cereal? Not sure. But I changed her diaper, gave her a 4 ounce bottle and just as she finished that, she had a poopy diaper. Changed her again, and found that it was quite the poopy diaper so she must've been feeling better after that. I put her back down in her crib, and she went to sleep almost immediately. I, on the other hand, was awake for at least another 20 minutes. Ugh.

DJ, our little Curt Schilling

DJ has reached the Throwing Stage. He's throwing everything. Not only is he throwing everything, he's throwing things at people as well as onto the floor. Elektra has been his favorite target so far, but Grace, Steve and I have not been overlooked.

And of course, as one quickly discovers, one cannot reason with a toddler. I put him in timeout over the weekend when he hit Elektra in the head a couple times, and he thought I was playing. I used my sternest Mama Voice, and even that didn't work. Clearly, this is for attention, but I'm failing to see how, even when I'm playing with him very specifically, it's not enough attention for him not to throw things.

Yesterday, at day care, he threw something near Elektra, so I put him in my lap, told him he should say "sorry" to Elektra (he can't say that yet, but may as well start having him hear the word) and give her a kiss. Oh he didn't want to do that. It took my asking 3 times for him to finally give Elektra a kiss.

He also threw a book at Grace and konked her in the head. I took him to Eleanor's couch, sat him down, he fussed to be let go, and Grace came over to see what was the fuss. I told him, again, that he needs to say "sorry" to Grace and give her a kiss. At least the kiss to Grace was more easily extracted as I only had to ask once. ;-)

At some level, it seems like he's trying to give these things to people, but he's launching them instead of giving them. There are other times when it's clear he's doing it for attention. I'm not sure how to tackle this yet, but hopefully, we'll get through to him soon before he hurts someone.

Humpty Dumpty...

...is now DJ.

Yesterday morning, Steve and I went into DJ's room to get him ready for day care. Steve put down the crib rail, and I turned my back to figure out what DJ was going to wear. Steve left the room to go make his coffee.

At this moment, DJ decided it would be a good idea to see how far down the outside of the crib he could reach. Sure enough, he reached... and reached... and reached... until he literally flipped over, head over heels to the floor out of the crib. I heard a boom which made me immediately turn and look, and I saw DJ on his back on the floor starting to cry.

I immediately picked him up as he's wailing, and Steve came in grinning. GRINNING! Dude! Our toddler just fell out of the crib!!!! This is no time to be grinning!!! Apparently, Steve saw the whole thing happen. DJ only fell a foot and a half, and he landed on his back, not his head. So clearly, DJ was more scared than hurt, but he let us know he wasn't happy for a good 5 minutes.

Then there was the, "You were in the room with him!" "I was picking out something for him to wear!" "Ok, no more leaving the crib rail down, though you'd think he'd have learned his lesson... maybe." HA!

By the time I got him dressed, the tears were dry and DJ was smiling and laughing. I'm sure that's not the last time he's going to fall out of the crib....

Elektra's 4 month pediatrican appointment

Yesterday, I took Elektra to see her pediatrician for her 4 month appointment. She weighed in at a hefty 16 pounds 4 ounces and 25.25 inches long. That puts her in the 90-95 percentile. Interestingly, she's nearly a full pound and a quarter inch smaller than DJ was at 4 months. Yet she feels longer to me than he was.

As it turns out, she wanted no parts of the exam. She was starting to get ansy before the doctor came in, so I'm wondering if she was hungry and the exam just made it all the worse. She fussed and cried even swatted at the instrument he used to look in her ears ("Good motor skill development!" he said).

She's been cleared for solids, too. Rice cereal and the yellow vegetables until she's 6 months old.

After all that was done, she got 5 vaccines, and she really cried at the technician then. By the time we left the office, she was calm and quiet and checking out the world around her. She fell asleep in the car on the way back to Eleanor's. So was she hungry or just exhibiting her personality, no idea....!

Elektra's 1st bath

She hated it.

She was fine with being naked. That was all fine and good. But being laid down in the infant tub was a whole other story. She started to cry... not fuss, cry. I quickly put warm water over her, and although she stopped crying, she still fussed. We didn't have her in the tub 5 minutes and she'd already started crying again. :-( Yep, she hated it. And of course, we have pictures. ;-)




We'd been able to get away with not giving her a full out bath for this long because she's been a really clean baby overall. Little sponge baths have been more than plenty for her.

Then, this morning, I spilled an entire bottle of milk on her. I had to change her outfit and wipe her down with a wipe all over so she wouldn't be sticky. Then, I got a call from Eleanor that she'd blown a diaper up the back and spit up down her front at the same time so she was in yet ANOTHER outfit.

So much for having a clean baby. No more baths any time soon if this is going to be my luck!!!

DJ update

DJ went to the doctor yesterday. While in the waiting room, DJ enjoyed watching the fish and the bubbles in the fish tank, and he'd also say "rock" which came out as "ock". He also watched all the other kids intently, especially the ones who were causing a ruckus, looking at them with studious concern. Despite being so incredibly tired because Steve had to wake him up from a nap to bring him to the doctor, he was a very good boy while we waited.

Once we were called back and DJ was weighed (29 pounds, 13 ounces!), we let him run around the examining room to his heart's content. When the doctor came in, he was fine until it was time to look in his ears and mouth. That's when the tired DJ came out and he did all he could to keep the doctor from getting a good look.

Dr. Nguyen said she didn't see any signs of infection, so no antibiotics for him, though clearly he's fighting something off. This is a good thing as he's building antibodies. She said that she's been seeing a lot of what he has, a fever for 3-5 days, and then potentially break out into a rash when the fever breaks. Apparently, it's a baby/toddler thing, and even my dad had mentioned it on Sunday night that this might be what would happen. We are to keep giving him Tylenol (and we get to up the dosage since he weighs 30 pounds effectively) to help keep him comfortable more than anything. Besides, we think he's also teething his last teeth, his 2 year molars, so the Tylenol will help with that, too.

Since he effectively had no afternoon nap, he went to bed at 6:30pm, and slept 12 hours. He woke up crying once or twice in the middle of the night, but went back to sleep pretty quickly. I got up at 2:45am to check on him, and he wasn't exhibiting any signs of a fever. So I didn't wake him to give him any Tylenol then.

This morning, he still didn't feel warm to me, though the thermometer said low 99. I gave him some Tylenol and took him to day care because I know he'd love to see Grace. Naturally, with it snowing today, schools are closed, so Jeff kept Grace home with him. At least DJ gets to play with his favorite Sonny and Eleanor. I'm hoping he naps a couple of times today because he still looks very tired, and is still a little fussy and willful. He was eating a good breakfast and sucked down his milk so I think that'll help his mood, too.

Feeling hot hot hot

Saturday night, Steve and I went to the WDCR Awards banquet for the 2008 racing season. It's always a good time, getting back together with friends we haven't seen in months, talk racing, and get excited for the upcoming season. Plus, with my being a member of the Board of Directors for the region, I have some politicking to do (shake hands, kiss babies, as it were). This would be impossible to do if we brought either (or both) of the kids. Thankfully, Grandmom came to the rescue! She came over at 3:30, and watched the kids for us while we were gone.

At 9pm, the banquet ceremonies had just ended and steve got a text from his mom... Call now. Uh-oh. DJ had a fever of 100, and he was wailing. We left immediately. By the time we got home, the Tylenol must've kicked in because his temperature was reading normal and he was back to sleep. Whew. Tyelnol FTW.

DJ slept the rest of the night but Sunday when he woke up, he had a fever near 100. Administer the Tylenol. Check. DJ ate a good breakfast, and played for a little while. But then, out of seemingly nowhere, he melted down. He was inconsolable. After about 5 minutes, I picked him up, and carried him to his crib. He laid down, and we didn't hear another peep out of him for an hour and a half.

He woke at noon unhappy. We tried giving him some lunch, no go. Fever was back up to 100, administer Tylenol. Steve put him back down for another nap. He lay in crib for probably half an hour and then wanted out. We let him play until around 3, and then put him back down for another nap. He slept until 6:30pm.

At that point, he was burning up. There was no mistaking that he had a high fever. Sure enough, it was in the high 102s. Administer Tylenol, now now now. Cool washcloth to his forehead. No panicking yet, it's not 104. Called Dad... do I need to panick yet? No, not until his fever hits 104. Try giving him a cool bath. Good idea! So after dinner, DJ got a cool bath. That brought his temperature down to normal. So we let him play for an hour, and he was clearly feeling better. His temperature was back up to 100 when we put him to bed, but I think that was because he was climbing on and off the couch during that hour of play.

I checked him at 11, before I went to bed, and no sign of a fever. Whew. Set an alarm for 2:45am. Checked him, 101. Dangit. I woke him up to give him Tylenol and being the good little boy that he is, took it and went back to sleep.

At 5:45am, he felt fine, but I didn't take a reading. At 7:15, he still felt ok. But we decided to keep him home from day care, much to Grace's (and Eleanor and Sonny's) disappointment because she didn't get to see him most of last week.

Steve is home with him right now, and he had a temp of 99.8. Tylenol. Check. I called the pediatrician, and he's supposed to go at 2:50 today. I was concerned as that's right during his normal nap time, but.... Steve already texted me to tell me that by 9:15, DJ was already back in bed and napping. Poor little guy definitely isn't feeling well.

Roll roll roll your boat....part 2!

Elektra was getting some all-important belly time on Sunday, watching DJ play in front of her and, as always, keeping an eye on the TV whenever she could. Then, all of a sudden, she rolled over from her belly to her side in one fell swoop! I was surprised that *she* wasn't surprised to find herself in a different position. In fact, she just continued to play, reaching out for a toy and trying to put it in her mouth.

I put her back on her belly to see if she'd do it again, but no go. By that point, she effectively face planted, being tired from the amount of belly time she'd already gotten.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about baby rolling, it's no surprised she rolled from belly to back first as it's easier for the baby to tuck their shoulder under the from that position to start the roll. Yay Elektra!

Laughter!

Last night, while I was changing Elektra to get her ready for bed, I tickled her under her chin. I was rewarded with a full on laugh!

One, two, TEEEE!!

Eleanor has told me in the past that DJ likes to count 1, 2, 3, but I didn't hear it for myself until a couple days ago. They were walking down the stairs together and Eleanor would count each stair, "one... two..." and DJ would squeal in delight, "TEEEE!!!!!" So now we count 1, 2, teeeee! whenever we can.

Last night, I taught him what a watch says. Tick tock! :)

Tis the Season for sickness

It is most certainly winter, and that means sickness. The whole family caught something ugly and passed it on to both the Boyers and the Cheevers.

DJ and Elektra started with colds last Monday. That Tuesday, I caught a 24 hour stomach bug (evil!) and by this past Sunday, both DJ and Steve had caught it, too. DJ must have felt better the next morning because he was happy, energetic and had good color in his face. Steve, on the other hand, was laid up on the couch the entire day, sleeping close to 18 hours. As for Elektra, you'd have never known she wasn't feeling well because she was a happy girl no matter what. She slept a ton over the weekend, but she's still a little stuffy. I still have a cold and my appetite hasn't fully returned, but I'm definitely past the worst of it.

Then I found out yesterday that on Monday night, Grace caught was DJ had the night before and then gave it to her mother. I feel badly for Nadia... expecting to deliver her baby any day now and vomiting.... ugh! That's horrible. And to top it all off, DJ and Sonny caught the rest of the stomach bug yesterday and Eleanor caught it last night. DJ was so worn out yesterday, apparently, that he curled up in Eleanor's lap in the morning and fell asleep in her arms. And then he took an afternoon nap later. He hasn't taken 2 naps in 3 months! Despite all that sleep, he was rubbing his eyes during dinner, so I gave him a long hot bath, and he went right to bed. He woke up 12 hours later.

I hope we all get past this ugliness soon... makes for misery!!

DJ and the Munchkin and his hat

On January 3rd, we celebrated Dave's 40th birthday with quite the bang. In the morning, we attended a brunch at my mother-in-law's house and that evening, we feasted on some of the best crabs I've had in a long time at Uncle Kenny's. Many thanks to Yiayia and Papou for watching the kids while we feasted at Uncle Kenny's! There's no way we could have picked crabs and kept up with kids!

While at Carole's, Elektra was immediately scooped up by someone to be held while DJ started wandering. The next thing I know, I saw DJ holding something in his hand. It looked like a ball, a white powdery ball. Hmm. I went to investigate. I discovered it was a powdered sugar Munchkin (from Dunkin' Donuts), and DJ was carrying it around like one of the plastic balls from his ball popper toy at home.

So I picked him up, showed him the "ball" in his hand, and told him to take a bite. He looked at me, confused, like "Why would I take a bite of a ball, Mommy?". So I told him to take a bite again. He slowly put it to his mouth and then got a taste of the powdered sugar. YUMMY. He quickly took another bite and shortly thereafter, the ball was gone. And there you have it, DJ's first donut.

This morning, it was very cold outside... 18 degrees or something ridiculous like that. Ok, so Minneapolis had it way worse, like -40 degrees or something but for us, 18 degrees is as cold as we usually get with no end in sight. DJ doesn't know that it's cold outside. But he asked for the red cap with the pompom on the top that his cousin Spiro gave him. He pointed at it and talked to it. So I confirmed, "Do you want to put on your hat?" DJ got excited, his sign for "Yes!" And on it went, and it stayed on the entire car ride to day care. I thought that was really cute that he wanted to wear the cap. :-)

Squeal!

During dinner, while DJ is in the high chair, Elektra is sitting in the swing facing him. Last night, DJ was squealing and lo and behold, Elektra would squeal back!! I couldn't believe it!! She was really trying to communicate with him!

You can tell that she's matured because behind those bright eyes of hers, you can see that she's so much more aware of what's going on around her and wants to absorb it all (as well as be involved in it!). She's also trying to grab things that are hanging in front of her and her intensity while doing so is really impressive. She was very busy trying to grab at stuff when I went to pick her up from day care today; she was doing that for at least 20 minutes and she still wasn't done playing with that when it was time to go. Good stuff!!

Roll roll roll your boat....

Elektra has been working on rolling over this last week. I noticed it on Sunday while we were watching the football game. She was on her back, on the playmat, with her head on the playmat's pillow. Next thing I know, she's nearly on her side, but not quite.

Eleanor and Sonny both said that she was trying to roll over at day care yesterday, too.

This morning, she had her neck craned to look behind her at the light near the changing table. In the process of doing that, it nearly put her on her side again.

Typically, a baby learns to roll from tummy to back first because it's easier. This little girl has no interest in trying to roll when she's on her tummy, at least she hasn't so far! Either way, at least she's trying! Hooray for a developmental milestone on its way!

Sucker!!

Ok, so that title sounds much more sinister than it's meant to be.

Last night, Elektra slept in our room in the pack-n-play and DJ slept in her crib so that he could get a full night's rest. At 3am, we woke to the sound of fussing and then mumbled fussing. Steve was concerned at the second sound and relaxed when I said, "She's sucking her thumb." It's actually to the point where she really doesn't want the pacifier, she wants her thumb instead. She woke up again around 5:30am, no fussing, just thumb sucking. Unlike DJ, she'll probably be able to put herself back to sleep without my needing to go into her room. We'll see.

On another note, she fussed about going to sleep last night. At first we tried feeding her. Nope, wanted no parts of the bottle. Then we tried the swing in front of the tv. Nope, wanted no parts of that either. Laid her down in the pack-n-play, was fine until we left the room. So I picked her up, and sat down on the living room couch with her, with her facing the tv. Insta-quiet. In fact, she fell asleep within 10 minutes. So she wanted to watch the tv, but she wanted to be held by one of us. Go figure!

Happy 2009!

Holy moley, it's 2009 already!

Last night, DJ went to bed early. With no nap, he was a really tired boy. I didn't even get a fuss of protest when I left his room. He actually got to sleep in his room because Dave and Nancy went to a friend's house in Annapolis to spend New Year's Eve, and they stayed there overnight. If he didn't sleep there, he was going to go in Elektra's crib because there was no way he was sleeping in our room again, Mr. Oh Look, Mommy and Daddy Are In The Room Now So It's Time To Play!

Elektra, on the other hand, wanted no parts of going to sleep. At least not at 8pm. Or 9pm for that matter. Finally, I decided to put her in the swing so she could watch some tv (college basketball). She spent the first 20 minutes talking to it, and then out like a light! She woke up for some reason about 40 minutes later, talked to the tv again, and then out like a light, again. The transfer to her crib was uneventful.

We were in bed before the new year rang in, though we were sure to know it was 2009 with our next door neighbor, Steve, blowing off fireworks in style. He's hilarious when it comes to fireworks. A complete pyro!

I woke up at 7:30 (so much better than 6!), and DJ was already squealing his head off. Time for me to go get him and start his day, I suppose. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May it be a healthy and happy one!

Dave and Nancy are here!

The East Coast Steaks welcomed the West Coast Steaks yesterday! They are here for the week and we're happy to have them here with us! We're sorry they couldn't bring Brillo. He would have given our weather wimps a run for their money!

I picked up Dave and Nancy from the airport after work. Carole was already at the house and Don arrived right after we did. I immediately started preparing the big old chicken I had bought for dinner while everyone else helped to watch the kids.

As the chicken finished roasting, many renditions of Rock Band were played. Steve and I had downloaded a compilation of The Cars tunes, but I think it's time to download some more fun stuff. What a ball!

We didn't eat until after DJ went to bed at 7, and that was after putting him in the pack-n-play in our room so that Dave and Nancy could have his room. I feel bad... I'm not convinced that air mattress is all the comfortable, but we gave the bed set to Carole so that DJ could have his own room... Oh well.

We opened gifts after dinner, and hit the hay at midnight. We had just settled down to fall asleep when we heard... rustle... rustle... stand up... Daddy!

Oh boy. Literally.

So Steve picked him up and laid him down in the bed between us even though we know this doesn't work, ever. DJ lay there quietly with us, occasionally kicking me gently and sucking on his pacifier. Then I felt his little hand reach for mine. I held his hand until he pulled it away to then start tapping Steve on the shoulder. Tap... tap... tap tap... tap tap... tap... tap...

Although amusing, it was time to put a stop to this. "DJ, it's time to go nee-ta-ta (night night), so Daddy is going to put you back in your crib (well, pack-n-play), ok?" I gave him some time to absorb that, and told him again, just to emphasize it. That's when he rolled over and decided it was time to play. Yeah... no.

Steve laid him down in the pack-n-play, and we got resettled under the covers. Rustle... rustle... rustle... stand up. Of course.

We try to stay very still hoping that he might decide to go back to sleep on his own. Then I feel him start patting my feet and he said, "Mama." How did he know those were my feet?! He repeated this a number of times trying to get my attention. I didn't react and eventually he laid back down on his own.

But then he started talking. It figures. "Daddy do." "Mama" and a whole lot of babble. Eventually he fell back to sleep and we finally got to sleep. I have no idea how long that was, but I definitely got less than 6 hours of sleep last night!

Look who's talking!

Elektra!

The Little Girl has been sleeping a ton lately, and I figured it was just a growth spurt. It still may well be, but yesterday she broke through with making noises with various pitches in one string.

She talked a ton yesterday, trying out her new "toy" and boy did she get a reaction from me. And in return, I got tons of smiles and talking.

AND, the best part, Ii heard a laugh!! She hasn't laughed again yet, but that was a preview of what's coming!

Christmas 2008

It's come and gone in a hurry. I swear it was just yesterday that I was still shopping. Oh wait, I was....not for gifts but for sugar.

I knew I had to make two desserts for each of the houses that we'd be visiting on Christmas, Yiayia's marshmallow cake and baklava. I had the butter out to soften for the cake and I started to measure out the sugar for the baklava syrup. That's when I realized I might not have enough for both desserts. Uh-oh. Even if I had figured it out Christmas Eve, no one was open after 6pm, so I'd have been in the same bind.

So DJ and I went out in search of sugar. I knew the Kleins Supermarket would be closed on Chrismtas Day but I thought that maybe the Safeway might be open for a few hours. No such luck. But sometimes, a 7-11 has odd things other than snacky-snack-type foods, and our local 7-11 had a few boxes of sugar. Perfect. The men that were hanging out in the 7-11 were drinking coffee, shooting the breeze, and all marveled at DJ's hair wishing they all had hair like that and reminiscing of the time when they did. All in all, pretty hilarious. 7-11 FTW on Christmas Day.

When we got home, it was time to open gifts. DJ hasn't quite figured out what opening gifts is about, so I spent time trying to show him that he can rip the paper off. He did enjoy taking the tissue paper out of the gift bags and then stuffing it back in them. ("What has baby found? Another piece of tissue paper! Wave it all around! " from the Wrapping Paper Romp book) On a side note, DJ also knows that Santa says "Hoooh!", and we read a picture book about Christmas a number of times this month. I'm hoping that he'll get what gifts mean by his birthday in March but I think he'll be all about Christmas in 2009.

Elektra, meanwhile, hung out in the swing watching us open gifts. Steve spent most of his time taking DJ's toys out of the packaging. What is it with packaging these days that requires brain surgery to extract the toy?? Didn't the old addage use to be that the choice words were dropped in toy assembly, not toy extraction from its packaging?

After toys were unwrapped, we watched Wall-E on blu-ray. Boy is Pixar making a statement with that movie but very good nonetheless! Anyway, DJ sat, literally sat on the floor, and actually watched the first half an hour of Wall-E. He never has an attention span for TV, so this was quite remarkable! During the parts of Wall-E I had seen, I prepped the baklava and after the movie was over, baked the cake.

Both DJ and Elektra had lunch and went down for naps early. I finished the cake and the baklava and sat down to take a breather before all the real craziness would begin. Sure enough, DJ woke up early from his nap, so let the craziness begin.

We got to George's house an hour late. This was after the baklava leaked on me in the car. ARG! I had wanted to drop it off to Tim's on the way to George's for exactly that reason, but we couldn't reach Tim by phone to confirm that we could do that. At least it was a tasty ride to George's.

George had a great feast prepared. Deep fried turkey (which was prepped in a brine the night before), spanakopita, ham, new england clam chowder, salad, Greek potatoes, cranberry sauce, asparagus, bread and Greek stuffing, and hors devours, including garlic stuff kalamata olives. Awesome! Everything was delicious, especially the deep fried turkey! YUM! Dessert included pumpkin custard, marshmallow cake and assorted cookies.

Gifts were exchanged by all and then Steve and I were off to Tim's house with the leaky baklava and all. Unlike George's, Tim's house was a zoo of people, as to be expected with this family! DJ and Elektra got tons more gifts! By 9:15pm and 4 million flights of stairs later, DJ was exhausted (but he still wanted to continue to climb the stairs!). We packed the kids in the car and headed home. Both children went to bed without nary a fuss, and both were still sleeping when I left this morning. I hope they're being good for Steve today!

The day was exhausting but wonderful. Merry Christmas!

Reaching, grabbing, and laughing?

Last week, I heard the toys on Elektra's car seat toy rattle. Since the carseat was sitting still on the kitchen table, I assumed that she was waving her arms around and haphazardly hitting the hanging toys.

Well, you know what they say about assuming. ::sigh::

It's clear now that she's *trying* to reach and grab for stuff. We saw it when she was in her carseat, but we've also seen it when she's in her crib. There are toys hanging from the crib rails that she can reach. When she goes to bed at night, she's not always asleep when we lay her down, so we'll hear her rattling the links until she goes to sleep.

We also think that she's trying to not just make cooing sounds to get our attention, but she's trying to have a conversation with us. She's already trying to imitate how our lips move and make noise at the same time. To boot, she's close to laughing. Laughing comes around the 4th month, so it won't be long before she not only smiles at us but also laughs. Can't wait!

Overall, this little girl has been so incredibly pleasant. She rarely fusses unless she's beyond hungry or wants help getting to sleep. Her "I want attention" fusses are little short "bwah!" sounds, and they are quite cute.

DJ still loves his little sister. "Baby" as he calls her, is very much on his mind. The first word out of his mouth in the morning when I go to get him out of his crib after "Daddy" is "Baby". He doesn't pay attention to her that much when he's playing with his toys but if she fusses, he'll come over to see what's wrong. He'll also give her some of what he's "cooking" to taste if he's being a chef. Meanwhile, she loves to watch him. Her eyes follow whatever he's doing if he's close enough for her to see him. She's been smiling at him unprompted. It's very cool.

BIG Train

Today, I met Damian, Jenn, and Leo at the B&O Railroad Museum. DJ was quite wide eyed at first and then I heard "ooo ooo!!" like the sound a train makes. Good boy, DJ!

The B&O had a nice train garden, sponsored by two local model train groups, one setting up a large train display and the other setting up an "N" scale train display. Both were very large in the amount of track they laid out and the settings they created. DJ watched both very intently.

We also walked around to see the historic trains. I don't think DJ really understood the scale of what he was looking at, but he had happy feet nonetheless. There were some very old and VERY big trains there... it was neat. I know I've been to the B&O museum before, but I'd forgotten how big the trains are.

We also took a ride on a train down historic (not necessarily scenic!) track. They had 2 engines, one on either end of 2 cars of a marc train, to go down and come back on. DJ was standing on the seat, looking out the window at the world passing by (and not strapped in a carseat). So both DJ and Elektra had their first train ride today. :-)

Toothbrush != Hairbrush

The last time we went to the pediatrician, he told us that we should be introducing DJ to the toothbrush. Needless to say, we forgot until sometime last week.

I pulled out a small toothbrush for him and showed him that it goes in one's mouth. I gave it to him, and he tried to brush his hair. I grinned, and tried to move his hand towards his mouth, but he turned his head away and tried to brush his hair again. So then I showed him that he can chew on it, but he'd have none of it. I tried to get him to put the bristles only on his front teeth, but that must've tickled because he turned his head away upon contact.

He knows to comb his hair with a comb, but the brush? He'd never seen that before and yet knew that a brush can be used to brush one's hair. Smart little boy!

Elektra has found her thumb!

Over the last few days, Elektra has been stuffing her hand in her mouth fairly often. I think she's been looking for her thumb and I think she found it today! She still takes the pacifier fine, but she's also looking for (and finding) her thumb more regularly. DJ is a pacifier boy when we were convinced he'd be a thumb sucker. Will we have a thumb or pacifier baby in Elektra? Time will tell!

Elektra's first snow

Yesterday, the first snow of winter fell, and Elektra got to watch it fall from the sky. She looked out the window from the kitchen for a few moments. Of course she has no concept of what she was seeing but hey... it's her first snow nonetheless!!!

DJ's Words

DJ is definitely starting to vocalize more. Sometimes he says the same words consistently, and other times it seems like he tries to say the word and then doesn't say it again for a long time. We (Steve, Eleanor, Sonny and I) have heard him say a whole slew of words. The ones he says consistently are:

Daddy, Baby (for Elektra), fish, shoes, ding (as in, the toaster's done), moo, Yiayia (comes out as Ayia or Yiayia... depends), grrrr (his favorite stuffed tiger says grrrr), uh-oh, and cracker.

Other words in his vocabulary that he's said but doesn't repeat often or on demand: Mama, Papou, Eleanor, Sonny, sun, hi, woof, vroom (as in, a car goes vroom), beep (as in, the alarm system on a car goes beep).

Also, we've heard him string a couple of words together. They aren't perfectly clear, but we think we've heard: "Daddy look!", "Daddy do.", and "Here you go."

He also communicates with signs. Pointing, of course, being his primary sign of what he wants, but he'll make a sign for "more", "wash hands" and to play the drums (his current favorite activity with Daddy).

Our little boy is communicating, for sure!

First night without baby

Last night, we decided to put Elektra in her crib in her own room to sleep. We moved the baby monitor out of DJ's room into Elektra's room as well as all the blankets she has. We put her to sleep in there at 9:30pm, and I heard her via the monitor about 2:30am. I got up to feed her, and put her back to sleep in her crib at 3am. Usually she's awake for a little while after she eats, and she makes noise which keeps me awake. With her not in our room, I got to go back to sleep fairly quickly and didn't wake up again until Steve's alarm went off about 3 hours later.

This is a milestone for us... no more baby in our room. I'll pack the Pack-n-Play today so that we can reclaim the space in our room. We booted DJ out of our room at 8 and a half weeks, and apparently, without really thinking about it, we did the same with Elektra. Now we just need Elektra to sleep through the midnight to 6am hours instead of the 9pm - 3am hours!

7 Hours!!!!

WOW!!!

7 hours!!!

In a row!!!

I had forgotten what 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep feels like. The last time I got to sleep like that was sometime in August, I believe. And that was on a good night since I was in my last trimester.

So Little E was fussing by 6:30pm last night, but she had just eaten at 5pm! I put her in the snugli and she calmed down long enough to warm her a bottle and get DJ to bed (Steve did that since DJ hadnt seen much of Daddy all day.

By 7:30pm, I was feeding Little E. By 8:30pm, she'd eaten 7.5 ounces!!! Woah! She usually only eats 3-4 ounces! She had fallen asleep on the bottle, so I put her down in the bassinet.

At this point I thought I'd try an experiment. Usually we wake her up around 11pm to top her off, but I decided to see how long she would sleep instead. I was in bed by 8:45pm and the next time I heard her (she sleeps in our room and I am a super light sleeper) was 4am. Rock on Wayne! Rock on Garth!

Don't get me wrong, I wanted to keep sleeping. But I didn't feel nearly as horrible as I usually do waking up after only 2 or 3 hours. In fact, I actually felt half decent. Of course, I went back to bed after I fed her, and when DJ got up less than 2 hours later, I wasn't feeling so hot.

Makes me wonder, does the number of ounces she eats equate to the number of hours between feedings? Remember, time starts when you start a feeding, not when it ends. So 7:30pm to 4am = 7.5 hours. Maybe there is something to that. I'll have to observe more...

Anyway, I'm not certainly looking a gift horse in the mouth. We're on our way to normalcy... soon.

Sentences for DJ?

We think DJ is starting to string words together!

Both Sonny and Eleanor have heard DJ say what we think is "Daddy look!" Steve and I heard this, too, on Sunday, when DJ came into the bathroom to investigate the noise... my filling his duckie tub for his bath.

We also think he's saying "Daddy do!" when DJ wants Steve to do something. For example, tonight, DJ handed Steve a book and said, "Daddy do!" Steve took that as "Read the book to me, Daddy!"

Way to go DJ!

Elektra's 40 Day Blessing

Yesterday we took the kids (wow, it still sounds weird to say "kids") to church. We caught up with my parents and my sister and her family drove down from Lacaster.

Elektra was dressed in pink so everyone in the congregation could make no mistake that she is a little girl. ;-) DJ was in khaki's and a sailor sweater; he looked quite the toddler.

Steve took DJ to the nursery so that DJ could play for a little bit. Then my father took DJ up for communion. At first, DJ turned his head away from the spoon, but took the communion spoon when he turned his head back. Good boy! Then he stayed with us, with Cheerios being a key factor in keeping him sitting still...

Elektra, meanwhile, slept through the whole thing. She even slept through her blessing. At least she didn't spit up on Father Dean. Poor DJ, he's so doomed to do pennance as an altar boy for that... lol Interesting note, DJ was walked around the altar for his 40 day, but Elektra was not. ::sigh:: someone in the higher ups must have said something to Father Dean about no women in the altar area. Oh well.

So nothing too notable but she's now been blessed!

She's officially part of the familiy

On Tuesday, I had a dinner party to attend and rather than leaving Steve with both kids, I took Elektra to my parents' house so they could get some grandparent time in. During the last few weeks, Elektra has been very needy during the 6-9pm hours, eating almost 9 ounces during that time in small snack-like meals, and she really wants to be held. I didn't want to subject Steve to having to handle both a demanding toddler and the one time during the day when the baby is demanding, too. Besides, my parents were thrilled to watch her.

So when Steve got home with DJ, I had long since left so the house was empty (except for the dogs, of course). DJ came in, and said, "baby", but obviously didn't see Elektra. Then he actually searched the house for about 10 minutes, saying "baby" repeatedly. He was disappointed when he didn't find her!

When Elektra is in the infant car seat, he comes over to her, smiles at her, pats her gently, says "baby", and also lays his head gently against her. It's really sweet!

So it's official: DJ has accepted her as permanent, and actually misses her when he doesn't see her!

DJ's official first haircut

Last night, Steve suggested that we check out a hobby shop in PA and since it would be really close to my sister's, go visit her family, too. So this morning, we packed the kids in the car, and took the scenic route up into PA. I didn't go in the hobby shop because I needed to feed Elektra, but we didn't spend long there. We continued up the scenic route through Lancaster City and got to my sister's around 11:30.

When we arrived, she suggested we go to where her kids get their hair cut to get DJ's hair cut. Why? Because it was very long, it was getting in his eyes, and we have no idea where north of Baltimore City there is a place that cuts kids hair.

That said, we love DJ's hair. It's a beautiful color, and it has these awesome curls. We're afraid that cutting off the curls would mean the end of the curls forever, so we've been procrastinating getting his hair cut.

But it's long and in his face. So we agreed to the appointment. The place was full of flat screen TVs and PS3's with which to entertain the kids. We were offered a Baby Einstein video to try and keep DJ occupied while he got his hair cut. The beautician use a spray bottle to wet down his hair and used scissors the entire time as we asked for her to keep the hair relatively long. She took about half an inch off all over his head, and a little more on his bangs.

DJ wasn't happy about having someone futsing with him. Worse was when Steve held his head still. Oh the boo boo face he gave us for that! I pulled out the fruit snacks and that kept him busy and happy which allowed for the beautician to finish quickly.

It turns out that the curls seemed to stay, getting a little curlier because some of the weight was taken off. DJ looks a little more "girlie" because of the cut, but his hair is definitely out of his face now! My sister sent me pics of the event, so I'll try to get them posted.

And even though I have some locks from when I first cut his bangs in the bathtub, we got far more locks at this haircut.

Jealousy!

Yep, we think we saw our first official "I'm jealous!" tantrum from DJ yesterday.

We were all in the kitchen. Steve was making something on the stove, I was feeding DJ dinner in his high chair, and Elektra was in the bouncy seat on the table next to us. Elektra started to fuss, so Steve came over to pick her up. He picked her up, and DJ watched him like a hawk. When Steve turned his back to him and walk away with Elektra, DJ started to bawl. So Steve put Elektra back down, took DJ out of the high chair, and picked him up. Crying nearly insta-stopped. Meanwhile, I picked up Elektra, and DJ didn't even blink at me. ::sigh:: I see where I rank. ;-)

Pediatric Ophthalmologist

DJ went to see his pediatric ophthalmologist today. Without even dilating his eyes, she could tell that he wasn't crossing his eyes at all. I chose to have his eyes dilated anyway today so that she could check his refraction. Turns out that his farsightedness has been cut in half. Now he's only a +2.5, much more normal for a child of his age. Her comment was that his likelihood of needing glasses any time soon is nil. Yay! So she's asked to see him again in 2 years.

As for Elektra seeing her, since we aren't seeing any signs of a clogged tear duct, we don't anticipate her needing to see Dr. Collins unless we start to see signs of crossing.

Meanwhile, DJ walked all the way from the car to the doctor's office, holding my hand the ENTIRE way without wanting to pull away from me once. He did awesome in that sense! While his eyes were dilating, he wanted to wander the hallway, which he did happily. Apparently that wore him out because he wanted me to pick him up and he kept pointing to me where he wanted me to take him. Look out, here comes the Mommy Taxi! After we were done with the doctor's appointment, he walked all the way back out to the car, albeit slower than the walk in. He wasn't in his car seat 5 minutes when he fell asleep. He was pooped!

Our Little Snotnose update

DJ came down with a cold late last week and passed it on to the family. Over that weekend, he battled a pesky fever and was all in all quite the clingy (for Daddy) fuss. By Monday, the fever had broken for good, and he seemed much more himself, except for the river of snot running from his nose. Here we are, a week later, and his cough has broken up significantly but the snot remains. He's sneezing a lot less so he's kicking this cold out the door sure enough.

DJ, as all toddlers it seems, *hates* to have his nose wiped. You have to hide the tissue until the very last second when you snatch his nose in between your fingers and wipe else he'll turn his head away and/or run away from you to avoid it. The best case scenario for DJ to have his nose wiped is to wipe it on your shirt on his own terms. Oh yes, there is no fuss then!

Otherwise, DJ has been much more himself lately i.e. relatively happy, go-lucky. The meltdowns have been less frequent and last less time overall. The meltdowns we're seeing now are more in line with what we would expect of him as a toddler, so hopefully that means we've turned the corner with him regarding Elektra in his life (and ours for that matter).

This coming week will be fun for DJ... well, ok, not really. Tomorrow, he goes to see the pediatric ophthalmologist for his 6 month post-surgery check. At the same time, Dr. Collins will be looking to see if he's crossing his eyes (which I don't think he is) because he's more far sighted than the average toddler. Better to catch (and fix) something like that now than find it later!!

DJ will also be going for his 18 month check with the pediatrician on Thursday. I know, he's 19 months at this point, really, but the doctor couldn't see him when we took Elektra in for her 8 day appointment as he was squeezing her in that day. We'll be taking Elektra in, too, for her 1 month check. Yes, shots will be involved for both children, so I'm not going to this appointment alone. If Steve can't go, I'm recruiting my dad to help out with this one. Elektra will be fine; it's DJ that concerns me. In the past, he's done great with shots. But as he's gotten older, he's tolerated them less and less, so... yeah, this won't be pleasant. In fact, I remember his first shots at the pediatrician's office. When he started to bawl, it completely broke my heart; it felt like I was making him cry on purpose! But it's for your own good... that old cliche. Go figure.

Hmmm. Time for my flu shot, too. ::sigh:: At least I won't cry when it's administered. ;-)

Sharing

DJ has already learned to share. Well, I say that tongue and cheek, but he has shared his cold with Elektra. So at 3 weeks, Elektra has her first cold, light fever and all. DJ is coughing which Elektra isn't, but both are sniffling and sneezing. Break out the humidifiers and Tylenol (for DJ).

Steve's coming down with the cold now and how can I not get it being as sleep deprived as I am?? I haven't felt any symptoms yet, but I'm sure it'll hit me soon enough.

This has made for quite the crazy household. DJ has decided in the last few weeks that he's not interested in 2 naps a day anymore. This is really a disappointment for us as we could use the downtime but now that he's sick, HE could use the downtime.

Friday, we kept him home because he had a fever. He napped in the morning, but no afternoon nap and was in bed by 6:30pm.

He woke up his normal time on Saturday, still with a light fever, and took no naps. Oh that made for a rough day, especially for Steve, as DJ was very, very clingy with Steve. Despite the clinginess with Steve, I took DJ to the grocery store, for a car ride (to try and get him to nap... yeah that didn't work) and for a long stroller ride. Despite no nap, he was surprisingly easy going by the time dinner came, and was a really good when it came to going to bed.

Today, we heard DJ wake up at 7am, happily talking to himself. About 20 minutes later, when I went to go get him, I found him asleep again. He slept until after 9am. Clearly, that was his morning nap! By mid afternoon, DJ was quite clingy again, so I took him for a stroller ride down our street. About 20 yards from home, I found him asleep in the stroller, so I brought him inside and put him in his crib. He woke up in the transfer, but he's gone back to sleep since. He so needs the rest...

Of course every time I would take DJ to go do something, Elektra would wake up and want to be fed or held or something. She's been eating only about 2.5 ounces per feeding and sometimes, she's hungry 2 hours later and other times, she'll sleep the full 3 and I have to wake her up. Last night, despite the humidifier in our room, she was struggling to breathe, so I brought her into our bed and propped her up against our pillows to let her sinuses drain. That seemed to help her, and she settled down a little. I still didn't get more than 2 hours of sleep in one shot, but she didn't ask to eat again for 4 hours. She's actually been a lot easier today than she was yesterday, going right back to sleep after she eats instead of fussing for an hour or so then falling back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Steve and I are both happy for the peace and quiet. Steve's getting some rest on the couch while watching the football games, and I'm going to clean up DJ's toys and then lay down again myself.

::sigh:: Sharing colds. Of course it's the first thing we share as a family...

Meltdown

Holy meltdowns, Batman!

Poor DJ. I think he's stressing and it's coming out in the form of explosive meltdowns. On Monday and Tuesday, he melted down when he didn't get to do what he wanted, and was completely inconsolable until we put him to bed. In fact, we had to put him to bed early. Last night, he was fine - despite no nap! - until bed, but at 10pm, woke up in complete meltdown mode. It took rocking him back to sleep for him to calm down. He woke up again at 1:45am (this was brief), but the 4:45am meltdown was outright screaming for at least 10 minutes. I know he's sick with a cold so he's not feeling so hot, but he did this at day care, too. He woke up out of nowhere in complete meltdown mode and was completely inconsolable.

Between all the stress of Elektra showing up into his life + growing into a full blown toddler, we're going to have to find a way to help him cope. Poor guy....

It's Bottle Time

During Week 3 of DJ's life, my body couldn't take the lack of sleep anymore and I came down with a cold. This convinced Steve to go get a can of formula and start bottle feeding DJ until I had built up a supply of breastmilk that we could also bottle feed him. That couldn't have been a better move; DJ took to the bottle like a champ, wolfing down formula like it was going out of style. Lo and behold, he also started sleeping more than an hour at a time, too.

Here we are at Week 3 of Elektra's life and although I think I'm in better shape than I was with DJ, I have started bottle feeding Elektra. There's a learning curve to feeding for babies. It took a good number of days for her to figure out how to latch on to the breast, and so it's no surprise that it'll take her the equivalent number of days to learn how to take a bottle.

The upside to her taking a bottle is that now Steve (or anyone else) can feed her, too. The downside is that she doesn't fall asleep on the bottle so we have to take the time to help her fall asleep. This will cut into sleep time for me during the late night hours. Nevermind that I have to pump at every feeding. Today was teh first day I started this with her so my dilemma is: do I breast feed her during the late night hours or do I strictly bottle feed/pump instead?

There are other issues, too, like, what happens when she hits a growth spurt and I'm not making enough milk? Typically, if I were breastfeeding exclusively, she has a way of telling my body to make more. But if I'm pumping, my body won't get that message. Also, I have heard stories of babies not liking the bottles they were offered if they didn't transition to bottles until later. We have too much invested in these bottles to have her reject them!

So we'll see how this goes.

Currently, Elektra is a happy little girl sleeping on Daddy's chest, and Daddy is a happy man sleeping on the sofa. It's the way life should be. :-) Unfortunately for them, I'm going to have to wake up Elektra in about 25 minutes for her next feeding to stay on the 3 hour schedule... Sorry!!!

Elektra Update

Elektra went to see the pediatrician today for her 8 day checkup.

To recap: she was born 7 pounds, 15 ounces. When we left the hospital 2 days later, she had lost 5% of her birth weight, but we weren't told what that measurement was. So... if I've done the math correctly, when we left the hospital, Elektra was down to 7 pounds, 9 ounces.

Today, when we weighed her, she was 8 pounds 5 ounces. Wowzers, girlie! In what was effectively 6 days, she gained 12 ounces - 2 ounces a day!! I suppose that does explain the copious number of diapers we've seen, which has been at least 1, if not 2 per feeding. ;-)

The doctor was *very* pleased with this weight gain, and gave me the go-ahead to stretch night time feedings from the usual 3 hour interval to a 4 hour interval. YAY!! An extra hour of sleep for me!! He said to continue the 3 hour interval during the day to try and combat the day-night reversal newborns tend to go through.

It's 9:15pm right now, and she's hanging out on the couch, on her side - having put herself there as I laid her down on her back, wide awake, moving aorund and kicking and such. Good girl! We want you to sleep tonight!!

Anyway, the doctor found her to be healthy and thriving and all is good. She fussed at him when he looked at her ears, and he said, "Oh I know, such an invasive procedure." LOL

She had another blood test done, a repeat of what they did in the hospital, as a double check for a laundry list of things. They do this with all babies at least 8 days old. The assistant who usually takes care of DJ, Evonne, said, "Sorry, Elektra. This will be the first of many unpleasant experiences you'll have here." We laughed because she had told me at another appointment for DJ that one time, she called the name of a 10 year old boy to begin his appointment and at the mention of his name, he started bawling. Poor boy and poor her!

Her next appointment will be in 3 weeks for her 1 month appointment. DJ will be joining her for his 18 month appointment (though at that point, it'll be effectively his 19 month!). That should make for an interesting appointment....

Parents of 2

Talk about a challenge, and the challenges haven't even started yet.

The evening I got home from the hospital, Steve picked up DJ from day care, came home, cooked dinner for us while I fed DJ dinner, and of course when it was time for us to eat, it was time for DJ to play. So Steve ate while I watched DJ, we put him to bed, then it was time to feed Elektra, then I got to eat. Or something like that. The point being, the life of being parents of 2 young children is going to take some coordination. And we're going to have to figure this out in a hurry.

For one, we have a full fledged toddler testing his limits. I think he's done the worst of his teething which was messing with his mood, but that's definitely not the reason he's being, well, a toddler.

The food wars: how picky is he eating? Right now, fairly. Boy do I miss the days of when he was just turning a year old and he'd eat anything we'd give him and then some.

The throwing wars: he wants to throw his cup every time he drinks from it. He always wants to throw food that he "doesn't want". Sometimes he's doing it for the attention (which we try to not give him when he throws stuff), and sometimes he's doing it because he really doesn't want it. He's been throwing "throw-able" (i.e. not always balls) toys, not necessarily AT anything or anyone, just in general because he can.

The couch wars: His want to be on the couch is fine, in general. But we get nervous when he's on the couch and the dogs are on it, too. Usually we boot DJ from the couch and let the dogs be in their spot, but occassionally we have to do the opposite. This is more for the dogs' safety than for DJ's.

Toss in the fact that he seems to be moving away from having 2 naps a day to 1, and so we're battling a tired toddler all day, despite a long nap in the afternoon.

When I say "we", I don't mean just Steve and me. I also mean Miss Eleanor. She has the brunt of his antics day to day. Yikes.

Couple aaaaaaall of that with the relative demands of a newborn and ta-da!!! It's quite the zoo here. Generally, Elektra is very low maintenance. Yes, she eats every 3 hours but otherwise, right now, she's sleeping between meals. She's willing to just hang out in the bouncy seat while the world moves around her, and basically give us our hands free to handle DJ. Really, like DJ, she's been wonderful so far. :-)

Stories from the last few days

As my sleep reserves are quickly depleted, I figure I should jot down some of the stories and thoughts that have come up over the last few days.

After Elektra was born, another anesthesiologist came in to take out my epidural. He introduced himself and said, "We specialize here; Dr. Dominguez puts in epidurals and I take them out." It was so dryly stated it was brilliant. Hilarious!

Elektra has been talking to her food source the last few feedings. Literally, while she's eating, she's been groaning almost the entire time. She's communing with the boob, I guess. :)

Elektra also likes to sleep with her arms up over her head. She likes the rest of her to be swaddled but like DJ, she wants her arms to be free! DJ didn't sleep with his arms over his head; he would instantly roll over onto his side - from Day 1. Now he's an any-which-way sleeper.

The pediatrician came to talk to us about Elektra's check up on Wednesday. We commented that she's breastfeeding better than DJ did. His comment was that "For the first 24 months, girls are smarter than boys". Steve said, "Some people would say it's longer than that." Dr. Boscia came back with, "I'm only guaranteeing the first 24 months." lol

It turns out we were destined to have a girl. The roses in our front bed - which are over 50 years old as transplated to this house from the previous owner's mom's garden - are all blooming pink flowers this week. We've had many different colors bloom the last few blooming seasons, but these are ALL pink. Amazing.

Oh, gotta go... a little someone is HUNGRY!!

We welcome Elektra Lynn Salisbury!

6am did arrive sooner than later on Tuesday morning. We left the house with DJ and packed bags at 7, got to Eleanor's a little before 7:30, dropped off the soon-to-be big brother, and headed for the hospital. Knowing the end was near was wracking my nerves - gee, only bringing a new little creature into the world, but also comforting that I could finally start the process of healing my body and start to figure out how the family dynamic would work.

We checked in and were sitting in the waiting room to be taken back when my dad came to find us. It was nice to see him as it was a really nice distraction from what was immediately in my future. Only a few short minutes later, a nurse came to get me and down the hall we went to begin our journey of two kids in our life.

We had a gi-normous birthing room, apparently the VIP suite, according to Aunt Elaine, who dropped in to see us as well a couple hours after the induction process was started. I guess it's good to know certain people, though it's not like we asked for that room!! Heck, I didn't even know it existed.

The nurse was new to the OB team, having done heart work before, so she was learning all the procedures necessary for OB. But she was sweet as can be, very personable, and frankly, I didn't mind at all that she was "learning" on me. There was not a doubt in my mind that this induction would be routine. And even if it weren't, Dr. Hunter, from my OB's (high risk) practice, was the attending OB, so all bases were covered.

After the initial paperwork and medical history was covered, they started my IV. By 9am, Dr. Hunter came in, told me she wasn't staying up all night for me (wink) even though they work 24 hour shifts, gave me a pelvic exam (4cm dilated), and broke my water. Merconium in amniotic fluid, check. Just like with DJ. That means we'll need an attending pediatrician, too, when the baby is born. They started the pitocin, and then we got to wait.

By about 10:30am, I was starting to squirm with my contractions. They were 2 minutes apart, 1 minute long, and I really had to concentrate on breathing just to get through them. By 11, they asked if I wanted an epidrual (yes, please!), and Dr. Dominguez came in to do that.

Now Dr. Dominguez was just as hilarious as Dr. Hunter with comments such as "a vaginal delivery is a failed c-section!" and other such one liners. He was fantastic, though, administering the epidural itself. He talked me through absolutely everything I'd feel and what I shouldn't feel as he was doing it. By 11:30, he was done and I was starting to feel relief. I had another pelvic exam (5cm now), a catheter inserted, and now it was time to relax. I sent Steve to get himself some lunch since at this point, there was absolutely nothing he could do. Even moral support wouldn't be necessary as the contractions I was feeling were literally disappearing in intensity by the minute.

I took a nap sometime after noon-ish, after Steve got back from lunch, and at about 1:30, I woke up. The attending nurse, a different one from the morning because mine was in helping a delivery next door, looked at the fetal monitor and then looked at me and said, "Do you feel anything different?" "Well, no... I don't really feel anything, actually." She said that there was something about the readings on the monitor that made her think that maybe I was fully dilated now, so she went to go get Dr. Hunter for another exam.

Sure enough, not only was I ready, apparently, the baby was already crowning! Um, yikes?! Dr. Hunter told me that I was going to have this baby in a hurry. I thought she was teasing me from earlier but when she didn't waste any time getting into her scrubs, reality hit me over the head that she wasn't kidding. She said I really needed to push and push hard because she didn't like what she was seeing on the monitor, that when a contraction would hit, the baby's heart rate would drop. Else she would need to use forcepts. Eek, no forecepts! But I couldn't feel anything... the epidural, unlike with DJ, was still going strong. With DJ, I could actually feel when a contraction was coming and how I was pushing. This time, all I could do was what they told me and visualize what I was doing, hoping that it was the right thing. I started pushing at 1:50 and by 1:59pm, Elektra Lynn came out screaming.

Steve and I couldn't believe it. She is a girl. We were so convinced that she was a boy that we didn't know what to think besides, OMG. She's just beautiful. Our little girl weighed in at 7lbs, 15oz and 21 inches long... a whole pound lighter than DJ, but the same length. And boy does she have some long fingers, toes, and feet! She screamed at us for about half an hour (how dare you evict me from my nice warm home?!) but after that, she either slept or was checking out the world. Not a fuss from her.

My dad stopped by to see us on his way home from work which just so happened to coincide with Elektra's birth. So he got to see her first by complete chance. This actually worked out well later since then my mom and my sister could come and see Elektra after DJ went to bed since he was going to stay with them that night.

After I was stitched and cleaned and the room was cleaned, Steve and I got to hang out with our little girl for a while in the relative calm after the storm. We were waiting for my epidural to wear off, basically. At about 4:30, the nursery came to get her and my mother-in-law arrived 2 minutes too late to see her then. So she and Steve went out to dinner while I was moved to post partum to wait out the rest of my epidural.

That night, my mother-in-law, mother, and sister came to visit. DJ was with Papou. The rest of my stay was fairly uneventful, though Steve brought DJ to meet his little sister the next afternoon. He was wearing his Big Brother shirt that Eleanor gave him. So cute!

When he came in, DJ first found the balloon in the room to play with. I tried to pick him up to give him a hug (holy cow he's heavy!!!) but he pretty much pushed me away. The balloon was far more interesting, of course. LOL Steve picked up Elektra and I picked DJ up, and we showed her to DJ. He just stared. He didn't reach out for her, he didn't say anything, he just watched her. I took his hand and stroked Elektra with it and said, "nice baby. nice elektra. gentle baby." After about a minute, he was done. Time to go explore. Steve put Elektra back in the bassinet and then she started to fuss. DJ heard the fuss, and stopped what he was doing to listen. "Do you heard the baby crying, DJ?" I picked her up this time, brought her down to his level, and let him watch her fuss. This time, his attention was captivated a little longer, as this little thing actually DOES something. Again, his attention span didn't last THAT long, so Steve decided to limit the exposure and just take him home. Good idea, Daddy.

On Thursday, I got to come home. Elektra did great in the car, and she did great last night. Steve and I, on the other hand, had to figure out how to handle DJ and her and dinner all at the same time. Hmmmm. This will be a challenge, for sure, and it's a really good thing DJ has a relatively early bedtime else we'd be really up a creek. While I was putting DJ to bed, Elektra apparently had the enormous diaper we had been waiting for in the hospital. Well, we know she's good to go in that department now, too!

Elektra did great last night overall. She'd sleep a couple hours at a time after feeding, and that gave me some rest, too. I'm still totally exhausted, and my body just hurts overall, but all this shall pass. I'm waiting for my milk to come in, and that won't be long either. DJ saw his little sister this morning while he was still in his crib. He looked at me, pointed at Elektra and said, "Ba Ba!" Baby! That's right!! DJ's Baby! Eleanor and Sonny yesterday gave him a picture of Elektra to carry around, which he did, saying "Ba Ba" the whole time. Steve took DJ to day care (as I am not allowed to drive for 2-3 weeks), and I'm now home, alone with the dogs (who are re-fighting for alpha status because a new little one came home) and Baby Elektra.

It's almost time to feed her, so more later.

Baby Salisbury to arrive tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day. Having it "scheduled" like this is actually a little unnerving. It was almost easier the first time, not knowing what is coming (in terms of post partum) and when since DJ was early. There were other nerves that I had at the time, but those were the first time parent nerves. Those are all gone. Now it's the second time nerves - how will DJ react? How will this change the family dynamic? etc.

Tonight, I started to get anxious. I guess it's because I have time to think. I have to remind myself to stay in the right now, and then the anxiety goes away. But I can't help it. ;-)

It's 9:30pm now, watching the Jets-Chargers Monday night game, and recording Heroes. Thinking about heading to bed, even if I don't fall asleep immediately. 6am will be here quite early tomorrow.

Little Baby Salisbury - we're going to meet you tomorrow whether you want to or not!

Baby Status: downgraded

Thursday night, when I wrote my last post, I could have sworn that I was on my way to full on labor. I was feeling significant pressure every 10 minutes for 30 seconds a piece for hours. Figuring I was on my way to full on labor, I went to bed at 9:30pm to get some rest assuming I'd need the energy sooner rather than later. Steve came in to check on me a couple hours later and I was definitely still feeling that enormous pressure.

Sometime shortly after midnight, though, everything calmed down. I was grateful to be able to get comfortable and get some rest for the rest of the night. Then again, I've felt nothing like those Thursday night feelings since.

In fact, on Friday, I stayed home from work (sick day) thinking I was really close and as the day went on, I actually started to get concerned. The baby wasn't doing much wiggling or moving. I could still feel it move every once in awhile, but it's activity level was definitely less. In retrospect, I have to guess the baby was getting rest from all the activity from Thursday night.

Yesterday (Saturday), the baby was back to its wiggly self, and so my stress level about the baby's well being has significantly decreased. At the same time, though, it's clear this baby is perfectly content where it is and has no interest in coming out into the world for us to meet it.

So everyone hang tight. We'll be meeting this baby on Tuesday.

Baby Status: Upgraded!!

Upgrading Baby Watch status to Baby Warning.

Ok, so I was wrong about what I've been feeling. Apparently, what I've been feeling has helped dilate me, but they aren't contractions. I'm 3cm dilated already. With DJ, I was in relatively painless labor all day, then painful contractions hit me just after dinner time, and by the time they saw me in the triage room at the hospital at 1:30am, I was only 3cm dilated at that point. My comment at the time was, "That's IT?!" This time, it was, "REALLY?!"

But since I'm not in active labor, I'm home right now, waiting for active labor to start and/or my water to break. That could be in hours, that could be in days. Either way, I'll be induced on Tuesday if the baby doesn't come before then.

You'd think I'd be running around trying to get all the last minute things I want to get done, finished knowing that the end of the pregnancy journey is near, but no... i'm sitting on the couch like a lazy lump.

I'm taking a sick day tomorrow so I'm not going in to work. This makes me happy... today, all I really wanted to do was be home laying down, so hopefully I'll get to do that some tomorrow. It's only 9pm and I already want to go to bed. Maybe the baby is trying to tell me something, eh? Maybe something like, "Get some sleep, Mommy. You're going to need the energy sooner than you think!"

Status: Baby Watch

We are still on Baby Watch status, though it would be nice if Dr. Khouzami upgrades that to Baby Warning during my weekly appointment with him today.

Clearly, our predictions for the baby's birthday (September 9th (steve) September 15th (me)) have long since come and gone. This baby seems to like Mommy's perverbial nest as it were. I haven't seen one sign of labor yet except for the settling down in the birth-ready position. That makes sitting in any position other than leaned back rather uncomfortable, for sure.

I asked Steve to come with me today to my appointment with Dr. Khouzami because now it's probably time to start talking post-prediction date options. How long do I wait before we consider inducing? How big is the baby and when does that factor into forcing me into having a c-section instead (which I really would rather avoid)? What's involved with both? I don't really want to make a decision - if I have to - without Steve's input. Besides, I'm not convinced I'm thinking all that clearly at this point anyway.

I also really want a massage. I want to ask the doctor first if I'm allowed before I schedule an appointment. My shoulders, lower back and legs could use the tension release!! A nap would also be a killer thing right about now, but going home and laying down just isn't an option for as much as it should be at this point! So I'm settling for having my feet propped up on the computer under my desk. ::sigh::

Speaking of work, at this point, I'm pretty much stagnant at work. They can't really give me anything to work on since we don't know when the baby is going to come. I have finished what I was assigned, though I'm going to reread what I wrote after I've finished writing this to see to proof read it. Honestly, there hasn't been enough time elapsed between when I wrote it and now to really proof read it well, but I may as well try.

I think that's news from here. Heh, that's not even really news.... ;-)

Steve is the happiest man on the planet

When Steve got home last night, DJ was still in the high chair, trying to rebuckle his high chair buckle. This is DJ's current favorite thing to do - buckle buckles. Upon walking in the door, Steve exclaims, "DJ!" DJ looks up at Steve and says, "Da Da."

Pause.

Steve starts dancing around the kitchen. I give DJ huge amounts of praise.

Just to confirm what we really heard, Steve said to DJ again, "DJ!" And to our delight, DJ looked up from his buckle at Steve and said, "Da Da."

This morning, we tried it again, this time while I was getting DJ into his outfit for the day. Happy Dance from Steve followed quickly thereafter. And apparently, DJ demonstrated this for Miss Eleanor, too.

"Da Da" is the happiest man on the planet. DJ just made his month. :-)

Restless

I remember the week before DJ was born, DJ settled down into my pelvic bone nice and solidly. There was no mistaking the distinct feeling of pressure in a spot where there hadn't been pressure before. I remember people asking me all throughout my last two months if I was uncomfortable, and I could honestly say I wasn't, until that week. I couldn't get comfortable no matter what the position, laying down, sitting, propped up... it didn't matter. Getting out of and into chairs was a challenge. Walking down stairs would seemingly knock the baby's head against my pelvic bone, sending a ping of an uncomfortable sensation through my body with every step.

But what I don't remember is being restless.

I have reached the stage again where the baby has settled into my pelvic bone, and I'm most definitely uncomfortable in the same ways I was with DJ. But this time, I'm having very restless dreams when I settle down for the night to sleep. When my alarm goes off in the morning, I feel like I haven't slept a wink. I know I tossed and turned all night, and there was nothing relaxing about laying in bed except that the belly has been supported by my pillows and my muscles are less tired. And because I'm basically awake all night, I now feel how often the baby is moving around. The belly gets uncomfortably tight as the baby flips from side to side or tosses an elbow or knee at the walls of my uterus. I also feel every kick to my relatively full bladder, and those kicks usually make me wince.

I have read that restlessness is a "symptom" (i use this word loosely as it's not really a medically sanctioned - for lack of a better term - symptom) that labor will be starting soon. The problem is, I also wonder how much of it is really just my being ready to just start the process of no sleep and healing from the pregnancy.

Another supposed "symptom" of labor starting soon is nesting. I started nesting last weekend. I put all the laundry away, cleaned the kitchen, gave my mother-in-law all of the bed linens for the queen size bed set we gave her, etc. It helped me settle down my brain of my "list" of things to do. Still, the bathrooms need to be cleaned, the kitchen needs to be cleaned again, we need to pull out the bassinet (not that that has to be done before we go to the hospital), and we really should vacuum one more time. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the basement disaster organize itself but if wishes were fishes, I'd never go hungry.

And, as part of the nesting process, I started to pack my bag for the hospital. I think that's the other sign that I think the baby is coming sooner than later. Nevermind that I'm a planner...

I have a gut feeling that the baby will be here in a week or less. My inital prediction was September 15th. So we'll see!

Ok, so it's been a month...

Yes, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I was insta-swamped at work (typically when I blog) upon return from vacation, and it really hasn't slowed down until recently. I got my one project for the year into production (all my other projects were canceled or put on hold until next year), helped with one other project and wham-o, that's all she wrote. Anyway, have lots of updates....

DJ has done lots of things over the last few months, including saying his first few words. "Na na na" = banana. That has evolved over time to "Ana na na". We thought "awa" or "awer" = Flower was his first word, but everything lately has either been "ba ba" or "awa" (ceiling fans and lights are "awas" right now). He's also said "a play" = airplane though I haven't heard that again in a long time. It's interesting. He seems to say words once that sound REALLY close to the right word, and then we don't hear it again for forever. For example, he said "eh nor" for Eleanor, "ba ba" for baby, "abbi" for rabbit, etc. Now he has said "moooo" pretty consistently when you ask him what a cow says or show him a cow. And we think he's said "woof" when he hears/sees a dog.

Even if he can't say a lot of words, he knows a lot of what you're telling him. "Want to go bye byes?" and he goes right to the door. Asking him to blow a kiss will usually prompt him to put his hand to his mouth and actually send a kiss in your direction. "Where's (insert name of person... Mommy, Daddy, Eleanor, Sonny, Grace, Grandmom, Papou, etc)?" and he will look for the person. What really cracks us up is when the person isn't in the room, and he gives you a look of, "I don't know....". "Do you want (insert meal name)?" or "Are you hungry?" elicits an immediate run to his high chair. In fact, he'll go to his high chair if he wants something completely unprompted, too. He'll also give you his shoes if he wants to go bye byes or outside unprompted. And of course, there is always pointing as he will point to what he wants as well.

His coordination has clearly improved as well. He's almost running, and he's putting Duplos (legos) together with ease now. You only need to show him how to do something once or twice, and he remembers how to do it. He buckles his carseat, is starting to feed himself with a spoon (yes, it's a mess, but he's getting pretty good at it!), and is a master climber - if he's tall enough.

DJ has also been very sweet with the dogs. He's very gentle 99% of the time he interacts with them. He generally doesn't pay them much mind, but he's always entertained by them.

Speaking of being entertained, he will sit and watch - without as much as a wiggle - Steve fly his remote control planes and drive his remote control cars around. He'll point to the plane and "name" it as it flies by, too. Steve pulled out a Lego train today and DJ barely moved from my lap watching the train go around. He would talk to it and wanted to put stuff on the cars to have the train carry around the track. I have some pictures, so I'll see if I can post them soon (DJ is up from his nap, so I need to go get him momentarily).

DJ also still loves to open/close doors. He likes to put things in/out of boxes and other containers, and he still loves being outside. He claps when he's proud of himself for doing something, and waves bye bye when an electronic toy turns itself off and says "bye bye". Hilarious!

On another note, baby #2 is 3 weeks (or less?) away. I'm definitely ready to start the next phase (labor, delivery, post partum healing, lack of sleep, and eventually have my body back) to get through it already. But I'm not sure I'm quite ready yet for the seemingly enormous change of family dynamic that a second baby will bring.

This pregnancy really hasn't been any harder than DJ's pregnancy was, thankfully. My lower back gets sore fairly quickly, which I don't remember from DJ's pregnancy, and the doctor attributes that to it simply being my second pregnancy and my muscles and such are not as strong as in the first pregnancy. Laying down relieves that soreness so that's good. I'm also carrying the baby a little differently than DJ. This baby seems to be sitting a little lower in my abdomen which has allowed me to sit on the couch (instead of the glider chair) comfortably, even now. When I stand up, gravity pulling the baby down reminds my bladder that it's full. This actually is a real boon... I can sleep through the night still which I couldn't at this stage with DJ.

And this baby has been *feisty* in utero. Feisty!! The wiggles have been exactly that, wiggles, not kicks. DJ kicked, this one wiggles. So we'll see how feisty a personality this baby has! This baby has also gotten the hiccups a lot more often in this last month than over the whole course of the pregnancy. Wonder what's up with that!

So if I don't blog again any time soon, you know it's because I'm caring for a newborn! Can't wait to meet you, Little Wiggle Worm! ;-)

Vacation 2008

Greetings from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina!

Steve, DJ and I are here with my family - my parents, my brother's family and my sister's family - enjoying the company and the change of scenary. It's been nice to be some place other than home, even though the vacation is not exactly restful. Chasing a very active toddler around in a house that is not exactly baby-proofed can be draining! DJ's had his share of bumps, bruises, and scratches this week despite our best efforts, and he is challenging his limits every moment that he can!!

We drove down Friday morning, and we got here in 8 hours, which was fantastic timing considering we're dealing with a 16 month old toddler and an 8 month preggo. And we didn't even break speed limits much - 10 over the limit, max. DJ did great; he took 2 hour and a half naps which helped our timing a lot. We took a couple of breaks to get him out of the car seat so he could walk around and get some energy out. Those were well timed with potty breaks and leg circulation stretches for Preggo.

Despite DJ being very active throughout vacation (and boy does it take effort to keep up with him), he has been an angel of a boy. He is obedient and despite the fact that he's teething (canines), he is a really happy boy. We've only had a couple of instances where sleep periods have been interrupted by poopy diapers, the construction guys next door, or teething and despite his lack of sleep, he's still generally not a huge fuss. In fact, he's a perfectly tolerable fuss. :-) He's adjusted to the new house with no issues, he sleeps in the pack-n-play great, and he eats really well. What more could we ask for? NOTHING!

DJ has had his first official beach and ocean experience, too. The first time , I took him out to the beach by myself. His aunts, uncles, godparents, and cousins were all out there, too, so it wasn't like I was being a daredevil or anything. DJ didn't fuss, not once, while we were out there. His cautious self came though, as he hung on to me very tightly for the vast majority of the time. He had no issues with the feeling of the sand under his feet and between his toes. In fact, he didn't even blink at that. But the ocean, now that was another issue. Again, he didn't fuss, but he wouldn't let go of me. He was tightly attached to my shirt as the waves would come up over his feet. He never left my side, in fact, but took in all the sights, sounds, and smells in stride. I picked up some wet sand and he pulled it out of my hand and played with it. He also got his first taste of salt water as a couple of the waves hit us pretty hard and splashed him in the face. He was smacking his lips tasting the salt.

I knew he was done with it all when he asked me to pick him up and he didn't "fish flop" or "surfboard" to get down. So we walked all the way back to the house with DJ holding my hand the whole way. He handled the non-steady surface of the sand with nary a thought, and was completely exhausted by the effort. He really did do fantastically.

Otherwise, DJ has been happily entertained by his cousins, and all of his attending and adoring aunts/uncles/godparents/grandparents. We've had to train the cousins that DJ is not a toy, and I think we're getting through to them... slowly. It's really neat to see DJ light up when he sees them, though, and that's really cool. He's warming up to my brother and his family since he's not seen them since December, and that makes me happy.

Steve and I aren't getting that much rest, but oh well. Dj is getting us up at 6am. Yikes. And I'm not sleeping because I'm 8 months pregnant (and boy did the belly grow in the last few days... ). It's nice to be here with family. We really missed it last year. I never would have been granted the time off with this week being so close to my return from maternity leave.... should remain a non-issue next year. But next year... how are we going to deal with 2???

Heck, we're not even sure how we're going to deal with 2 in 8 weeks..... ;-)

Kicker vs Wiggler

When DJ was in utero, he was known as "the soccer player". He even received a kids sized soccer ball as a baby shower gift.

This little baby inside me now is a wiggler. Steve is dubbing the baby "a gymnist". We both wonder what it is this baby is doing in there... backflips?!

I remember DJ being pretty active in the womb. This baby is, too. DJ was also an early bird; I'd wake up to a state of semi-consciousness in the morning, and so would DJ, kicking away. This baby is, too.

Looks like we're going to have two very active early birds for kids. :-)

Father's Day weekend update

On Friday, I took DJ to the doctor because the fever was not letting up and his cough was sounding worse. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics. Apparently, said antibiotics are bubble gum flavored, and DJ *fusses* when he sees it because he wants some and fusses when he doesn't get anymore because he wants more! Hmmm may medicine always be this easy to administer!

He's definitely feeling better; his appetite was voracious and he was in a fantastic mood all weekend. On Sunday he slept big time. He didn't wake up until after 7:30am, then he took an hour morning nap, went back to sleep an hour and a half later for a 3.5 hour afternoon nap, and then went to bed 2 hours after that. Clearly he's fighting something off, but the antibiotics must be helping him as his cough is sounding like he's bringing up stuff out of his chest.

On Saturday night, we went to Steve's cousin Shane's graduation party from high school. This is a huge milestone for him as he has Cerebral Palsey. He even walked across the stage to get his diploma (with a walker). Good for him! We couldn't stay long as the party started at 6 and DJ was tired by 8pm.

On Sunday, we had my parents over for dinner since they are leaving today for a 2 week trip through Europe and don't have food in the house. Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day, except for when we watched the next door neighbor's black lab mix, Tink, jump their 4 ft fence because she was bored and wanted to take a tour of the neighborhood. That was a hoot!

DJ was sick

DJ caught a really nasty cold from Grace, who caught it from one of her younger cousins who thought it would be a good idea to lick Grace from chin to forehead in one sweep.

The cold was pretty standard, except that it just wasn't going away. On Thursday, it stopped up DJ so badly that he actually vomited mucus. EW.

Friday I kept DJ home, and he wanted no parts of eating, and didn't keep much down if he did eat anything.

Saturday, he got a really nasty fever and it took almost all morning/afternoon to get it to break. He was a complete clingy fuss, two traits very unlike him so you know he wasn't feeling well. We spent the entire day trying to get him to drink liquids, and we think that the mucus started to finally thin out such that his appetite started to come back. Phew.

Sunday he was in a generally good mood, his fever was pretty low if non-existent, and ate well. But Sunday night, he did not sleep well. He was up every hour to an hour and a half, and we have no idea why.

Monday he went to day care, ate great, but didn't really find his energy until the afternoon, probably because he'd gotten in a couple of good naps in. He barely ate dinner (he did want some of Daddy's grilled cheese - yum!), but slept like a complete rock for 11.5 hours.

He woke up in a great mood today. And when we got to day care, he immediately snaked Cheerios off of Grace's tray. Then, when he got his first taste of cereal, he actually fussed that he wasn't getting it fed to him fast enough. He hasn't fussed about that in *months*. Seems to me like he realized he was behind on the calorie count so FEED ME!!!

Looking forward to Miss Eleanor's report when I go to pick him up today. I have a feeling it'll be pretty positive.

DJ's new trick - climbing

DJ is learning how to climb on furniture. Miss Eleanor has a low futon that he's learned to climb on and now he's figured out that he can climb on the white chair in our living room. This, of course, brings him new access to things he couldn't reach before. Fabulous. It also means we have to be extra vigilant with him until he consistently gets off the furniture "the safe way" (backwards).

In the process of climbing the futon, apparently, DJ managed to get ahold of a cordless phone and pulled it down on to himself. Wham-o, one bruise on the forehead, and one black eye. I'll bet he screamed bloody murder. He must've realized how much it hurt because he was even "willing" to sit and have ice put on it for 5 minutes. Despite all that, his teething, and the head cold he has (which I think he's giving to me), he's been in a fantastic mood.

The Evil Vacuum Cleaner

Eleanor had told me some time ago that DJ is not a fan of the Dustbuster. In fact, she's demonstrated to me how he reacts. She uses the Dustbuster to clean up the food DJ has thrown overboard, and he starts to fuss almost immediately. He gets a very worried look on his face, too. Clearly, the Dustbuster scares him at some level.

Today, we decided to see how he'd react to the vacuum cleaner. I started in the back hallway and vacuumed both that and DJ's room. When I turned off the vacuum, Steve called out from the living room that DJ had been fussing, and even teared up. I was surprised to hear this since I wasn't even in his sights (and neither was the vacuum for that matter). Is it just the noise is so loud and droning?

To vacuum the living room, Steve sat on the couch with DJ on his lap. I brought the non-running vacuum cleaner over to DJ so he could see it while it was off. He touched it, but very hesitantly. I turned it on away from him, and proceeded to vacuum the living room rug. He fussed and had a very concerned look on his face the whole time, but he didn't cry.

I brought the vacuum back over to him and then turned it off so he could see it turn off. Although he wasn't pleased overall, he didn't seem traumatized. He definitely didn't want to let go of Steve for about 5 minutes afterwards either!

We'll have to work on the vacuum fears slowly. Good thing we stink when it comes to vacuuming regularly. ;-)

The 5 o'clock Sillies

I try to get to daycare to pick up DJ as close to 5pm as I can daily. Usually, I get there closer to 5:15.... which is a bummer because I like to spend as much time being able to sit there and just watch him play for awhile. Playing with Grace and a set of toys other than the ones at home leads to different reactions to things and I like to observe that.

When I arrive, I come in, sit down on the floor, and then DJ gets "The 5 o'clock Sillies". He becomes one big enormous gigglepuss who, if he could run, would, but can't so walks as fast as he can all over the room. He'll play hide-n-seek from behind the curtain and from behind you, do the "back up" where he turns his back to you and then backs up until he runs into you and has no choice but sit in your lap, he runs into your arms giggling... it's just mayhem!

More days than not, The 5 o'clock Sillies turns into DJ tripping and falling and knocking his head on something, ending The Sillies with some tears and cuddling. But it's just so predictable... maybe it's because he's showing off because someone new is there to watch him (our little extrovert!) or maybe it really is that he gets an energy boost right around 5pm. I have no idea, but it's adorable!

Recently, The 5 o'clock Sillies have also started to become the 7:00 AM Sillies. When I go into his room and start to figure out what he's going to wear, he starts to run around in his crib, play hide-n-seek from behind the bars and the diaper holder, and giggle like no other. When I go to pick up him to put him on the changing table, he's been "running away" from me giggling hysterically.

I could have had the worst day and that so puts a smile on my face!

Weekend update

DJ was one babbling little boy this past weekend. He just had a lot to say and not enough time to say it all! "Ra" became a second favorite syllable, and he also spent time stringing multiple syllables together, usually of the same sound e.g. "ra ra ra" but he'd use inflection to go with it. He may not be saying anything coherent to us, but he certainly thinks he's getting his point out!

I gave DJ a bath last night before bedtime, and one of his new "toys" to play with in the duckie tub is "pull the washcloth off the side of the tub" and then try to put it back. He will spend at least 10 minutes a bath playing that game with me. I'll finish bathing him, rinse the washcloth, and drap it over the side of the tub to dry. Instead, he pulls it right off... and then promptly tries to put it back up there. Of course I help, and he immediately pulls it off again. For added adventure, if he gets the washcloth in his bath water, he'll usually fling it around first, soaking me in the process!

DJ is also very happy that Daddy's back is a little better; DJ and Daddy rough housed a bunch this weekend, much to DJ's immense delight. :-)