Ben loves to practice counting. His counting has morphed over the past month or so. He used to say, "two... three..." Then he included a few more numbers - "two... three... five... six!" Then it changed yet again, to "Two... five... six!" Then he started adding a "t" to the end of all his numbers - toot, fite, sit. Silly boy :)
Don't get me wrong - he does know the other numbers. He can repeat them perfectly, and sometimes says them on his own. We practice counting to ten regularly, and lately he's even been including the number "memmen" (eleven). He's just not so into counting beyond "sit" on his own.
Until today. Just a few minutes ago, I was upstairs packing the boys' stuff for our weekend in Va (we're leaving tonight at bedtime, hoping that they'll sleep the entire way and transfer to beds fairly easily). Ben was downstairs with Logan and Grandpa and came upstairs to find me. When it was time to come back downstairs, Ben and I held hands, and I asked if he could count. Well lo and behold he counted from 1 to 9 all by himself. He didn't repeat the numbers after me. He didn't need any prompting. I was so proud of my little boy!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Surpassed
Some diaper background - Ben is in a size 4 diaper night and day. He's never had any problems with his diapers leaking or being too small. On the contrary, the 4's still look a little big on him - they go way up his belly and his back. We only just moved him into 4's a few months ago. Logan is in a size 3 diaper during the day and a 4 at night. The size 3’s are really too small on him, so we’re just trying to use up the 3’s from the last package we bought. We started putting him in 4’s at night a few weeks ago because he kept waking up with pee-soaked PJ’s – because Logan loves sleeping on his stomach at night, the pee all goes to the front… and at a certain point the darn diaper just won’t soak up anymore pee, so it leaks. It’s actually quite funny – in the morning his diaper is completely sodden and waterlogged and heavy in the front, but the back is bone dry, just how it came out of the package.
Anyway, a few times in the past week, Logan's 4’s have leaked at night. So yesterday I did something I have never done in my two years of being a mommy – I bought a size 5 pack of diapers. I think it is hilarious that the 5’s are not for my almost two-year-old, but for my barely 8 month old. Hilarious!!
And wouldn't you know - this morning, though the front of the size 5 Cruiser was full, my precious baby's PJ's were lovely and dry :)
Anyway, a few times in the past week, Logan's 4’s have leaked at night. So yesterday I did something I have never done in my two years of being a mommy – I bought a size 5 pack of diapers. I think it is hilarious that the 5’s are not for my almost two-year-old, but for my barely 8 month old. Hilarious!!
And wouldn't you know - this morning, though the front of the size 5 Cruiser was full, my precious baby's PJ's were lovely and dry :)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Maternal Instinct
I've never had much of a maternal instinct. Actually, I will even take a risk and go one step further to say that I don't think I ever had a maternal instinct at all. As a young girl, I never had a desire to be the Mommy when we played House. (I always wanted to be the baby, so everyone would coo over me and say how cute I was. Can we say "insecure"?) I never played with a Barbie. The only Barbie I ever owned was given to me by an acquaintance at my 11th birthday party. Clearly she didn't know me very well. I'm pretty sure I gave poor Barbie to my 5 year old neighbor (seriously, what 11 year old plays with Barbies?).
I never dreamed of my wedding day, and never fantasized that I would some day have a beautiful baby with my Mr. Right. That's not to say I thought I'd never marry. (Um, actually at a few points in our high school career Amanda and I thought we'd never meet our dream guys and thus never get married, so we vowed that if we were still single at age 35 we'd become lesbians and have a deep meaningful relationship with each other. Luckily, I met Steve and she met Greg.) So, I always knew, or assumed, that marriage and babies and kids would be in my future... I just wasn't looking longingly towards it - especially the kids part.
Even I did meet my Mr. Right and knew that babies were a distinct possibility for me in the future, my attitude towards current babies was unchanged. I never enjoyed holding other people's babies. As a matter of fact I avoided it at all costs. When we met a new baby I was content just smiling at it from a few feet away. Of course I thought they were cute and I was always ecstatic for the new parents... I just didn't want to be directly involved in it. The thought of holding the baby brought no excitement into my heart. Is that weird? And I feel like babies and kids could sense my lack of maternal instinct too. Stephanie told me that when she told her son Zack, who was then 4, that I was going to have a baby, Zack said, "But Catherine doesn't like babies." Seriously.
I was knocked off my feet when I found out I was pregnant with Ben. I was absolutely terrified - I had no idea what to do with a baby. When people asked me how my pregnancy was going and how I was feeling, I said it was going well and I was feeling great. I said that I was one of those people who enjoyed pregnancy. But, looking back, I think that what I was enjoying was the fact that I wasn't having to face down my fears right at that moment. I had nine months to get used to the idea. And it was the same with Logan's pregnancy. Again, I was terrified - even though I had already raised one baby for over a year. Both times, the reality of what was happening - becoming a mother to an actual baby - didn't hit me until I heard that first cry. It was the most surreal thing I had ever heard. One wasn't more surreal than the other - it was a tie. It wasn't any less surreal or crazy with Logan as it was with Ben. To sum up, the feeling is along the lines of, "Holy cow - a helpless, human being baby just came out of me, and now I am responsible for its well-being for the rest of its life, including the first few years when it can't do anything."
It's a really scary feeling. Especially for someone who doesn't have a maternal instinct.
Anyway, I'm telling you all this because tonight I realized that I do in fact have a maternal instinct. After I put Logan to bed for the night and came downstairs, he started to cry. I do believe in "Cry it out," and I usually give it 5-10 minutes before I investigate. Typically, he is able to soothe himself within about 2 minutes. Tonight, though, it actually passed the 5 minute mark. I watched him on the monitor - he had his paci, he wasn't stuck on his stomach... I thought I'd give it another minute - after all, he wasn't crying his "in pain" cry, so I could tell that nothing *really* serious was going on. He quieted down again, but let out another brief cry, so I went to investigate.
As I entered the room, I was overcome by the smell of poop. The poor little guy had made a huge poop! I have no idea how it happened so quickly, in the minute between closing his door and coming downstairs. I cleaned him up, sat with him in the glider for a few minutes, and put him back into his crib. He rolled over and went to sleep within just a few minutes.
I know this might seem silly to some people, but for me it was monumental. I was able to detect when my baby was uncomfortable, and I made it right. I was right! I fixed it!
I never dreamed of my wedding day, and never fantasized that I would some day have a beautiful baby with my Mr. Right. That's not to say I thought I'd never marry. (Um, actually at a few points in our high school career Amanda and I thought we'd never meet our dream guys and thus never get married, so we vowed that if we were still single at age 35 we'd become lesbians and have a deep meaningful relationship with each other. Luckily, I met Steve and she met Greg.) So, I always knew, or assumed, that marriage and babies and kids would be in my future... I just wasn't looking longingly towards it - especially the kids part.
Even I did meet my Mr. Right and knew that babies were a distinct possibility for me in the future, my attitude towards current babies was unchanged. I never enjoyed holding other people's babies. As a matter of fact I avoided it at all costs. When we met a new baby I was content just smiling at it from a few feet away. Of course I thought they were cute and I was always ecstatic for the new parents... I just didn't want to be directly involved in it. The thought of holding the baby brought no excitement into my heart. Is that weird? And I feel like babies and kids could sense my lack of maternal instinct too. Stephanie told me that when she told her son Zack, who was then 4, that I was going to have a baby, Zack said, "But Catherine doesn't like babies." Seriously.
I was knocked off my feet when I found out I was pregnant with Ben. I was absolutely terrified - I had no idea what to do with a baby. When people asked me how my pregnancy was going and how I was feeling, I said it was going well and I was feeling great. I said that I was one of those people who enjoyed pregnancy. But, looking back, I think that what I was enjoying was the fact that I wasn't having to face down my fears right at that moment. I had nine months to get used to the idea. And it was the same with Logan's pregnancy. Again, I was terrified - even though I had already raised one baby for over a year. Both times, the reality of what was happening - becoming a mother to an actual baby - didn't hit me until I heard that first cry. It was the most surreal thing I had ever heard. One wasn't more surreal than the other - it was a tie. It wasn't any less surreal or crazy with Logan as it was with Ben. To sum up, the feeling is along the lines of, "Holy cow - a helpless, human being baby just came out of me, and now I am responsible for its well-being for the rest of its life, including the first few years when it can't do anything."
It's a really scary feeling. Especially for someone who doesn't have a maternal instinct.
Anyway, I'm telling you all this because tonight I realized that I do in fact have a maternal instinct. After I put Logan to bed for the night and came downstairs, he started to cry. I do believe in "Cry it out," and I usually give it 5-10 minutes before I investigate. Typically, he is able to soothe himself within about 2 minutes. Tonight, though, it actually passed the 5 minute mark. I watched him on the monitor - he had his paci, he wasn't stuck on his stomach... I thought I'd give it another minute - after all, he wasn't crying his "in pain" cry, so I could tell that nothing *really* serious was going on. He quieted down again, but let out another brief cry, so I went to investigate.
As I entered the room, I was overcome by the smell of poop. The poor little guy had made a huge poop! I have no idea how it happened so quickly, in the minute between closing his door and coming downstairs. I cleaned him up, sat with him in the glider for a few minutes, and put him back into his crib. He rolled over and went to sleep within just a few minutes.
I know this might seem silly to some people, but for me it was monumental. I was able to detect when my baby was uncomfortable, and I made it right. I was right! I fixed it!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Code Brown
For those of you lucky enough to not know what "Code Brown" means, let me clarify - it's when your kid poops in a place other than his diaper or a potty. In Ben's case, it mostly means it's happened in the bathtub. We used to get Code Browns pretty frequently when Ben was around 12 months old; conveniently for me, a lot of them happened in my last month of pregnancy when Steve was gallavanting around southern New Hampshire, so I got to clean Ben, the poop, the toys, and the tub all while having Braxton-Hicks contractions. Lovely.
After months of a Code Brown-free Ben, we thought we were out of the woods. We had one 2 weeks ago, though. It was an unusual Code Brown in that it happened after Ben had been bathed. Steve was getting Logan into PJ's and Ben was running around naked - which is the cutest thing ever, really - and I was doing something extraordinarily useful that I can't recall right now. I remember going to collect Ben from Logan's doorway when my eye caught something odd on the floor. "What's that brown toy on the floor? I've never seen that one before...?" Then I heard the unmistakeable sound of Ben's poop-grunt and saw his arms flapping the way they do when he's pooping, and another "brown toy" fell to the floor. Ick. At least we have wood floors. I shudder to think what people with wall-to-wall carpet would do in these situations.
I thought that Code Brown was a fluke. But tonight it happened again - in the tub. The thing that's such a pain about having a Code Brown in the tub is that you immediately have to get the kid out, because if they inadvertently take a sip of the poop-tainted water they could get pretty sick. So the first step is to rinse the kid off as quickly as possible with fresh water, get the kid out of the tub, wash each and every toy that was in the tub at the time of the Code, and wash the entire tub. Oh, and at some point you have to reach in, get the piece(s) of poop, and flush them down the toilet. Usually I let the tainted water drain so the poop is easy to grab with toilet paper.
Code Brown - definitely one of the most unpleasant things about parenting.
After months of a Code Brown-free Ben, we thought we were out of the woods. We had one 2 weeks ago, though. It was an unusual Code Brown in that it happened after Ben had been bathed. Steve was getting Logan into PJ's and Ben was running around naked - which is the cutest thing ever, really - and I was doing something extraordinarily useful that I can't recall right now. I remember going to collect Ben from Logan's doorway when my eye caught something odd on the floor. "What's that brown toy on the floor? I've never seen that one before...?" Then I heard the unmistakeable sound of Ben's poop-grunt and saw his arms flapping the way they do when he's pooping, and another "brown toy" fell to the floor. Ick. At least we have wood floors. I shudder to think what people with wall-to-wall carpet would do in these situations.
I thought that Code Brown was a fluke. But tonight it happened again - in the tub. The thing that's such a pain about having a Code Brown in the tub is that you immediately have to get the kid out, because if they inadvertently take a sip of the poop-tainted water they could get pretty sick. So the first step is to rinse the kid off as quickly as possible with fresh water, get the kid out of the tub, wash each and every toy that was in the tub at the time of the Code, and wash the entire tub. Oh, and at some point you have to reach in, get the piece(s) of poop, and flush them down the toilet. Usually I let the tainted water drain so the poop is easy to grab with toilet paper.
Code Brown - definitely one of the most unpleasant things about parenting.
Monday, August 4, 2008
More Weekend Update
Hm, so the blue and the underlining seem to have gone away. No idea how I did that, or if it was even me who did it. Oh well! I guess I'll continue on.
Have a great day!
On Saturday morning, when Steve and I heard the boys stirring at 6:30 - about half an hour later than usual; we got to sleep in! - Steve made the executive decision that we would go to the diner for breakfast. He got the boys up and ready while I prepared Logan's babyfood/breakfast and loaded up the diaper bag with all the necessary supplies - food, bibs, diapers, water and powdered formula in case Logan finished his bottle, snacks for Ben in case the food took a while to arrive, toys for Logan in case of boredom, etc. It's amazing how much stuff we need now just for a simple breakfast out. When I just have take one of the boys out by myself (not that that happens very often) I just take my regular purse with either a bottle and burp cloth or sippy cup and snack trap in it - it's so much easier. Anyway, the boys had fun at breakfast. They were on opposite ends of the table so they couldn't get into trouble with each other.
After breakfast, we decided to take a trip to the grocery store. It was actually a great time to go - it was still so early that the store was relatively empty. This was Logan's first time sitting in the cart!
(Hooray! I figured out how to move the pictures!!) As you can see, Logan really enjoyed the shopping cart cover. While Logan and I shopped, Steve and Ben got some treats.
Because who doesn't want to snack on a Munchkin while grocery shopping? Ben suckered Steve into buying that bouncy ball for him. I think we've accumulated about a thousand balls in the past few months. Ben is obsessed.
We managed to get the two-kid cart - the one with the car in the front.
Steve thought it would be fun to put Logan in the car with Ben. Ben didn't agree. Imagine Ben saying, "No baby! No baby!" and trying to push Logan out of the car...
A few minutes later, though, he had warmed up to the idea, and decided to share the car.
Have a great day!Weekend Update
We had a pretty good weekend. Steve was able to get most of his work for Friday done in the morning, so he was able to spend the rest of the day with us, which of course was a nice treat. He and Jessica (my mother's helper) took Ben into town to get a haircut - his hair was getting so long, it was ridiculous. He was really starting to look like a girl. Anyway, after they cut Ben's hair they put some gel in it and spiked up the front.
Hm. I'm obviously still having difficulty with putting pictures into the blog. They keep going up to the top of the text, and I can't move them, and when I try to move the text to where I want it, it shows up blue and underlined...? Argh. I guess this'll be it for now, and in the meantime I'm going to try to do some learning!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Fun with the Mobile
I'm watching Ben on the video monitor right now... he is so stinkin' cute. We put him to bed about an hour ago, and I've thought for the past hour that he's been asleep. A few minutes ago I thought I was going crazy because I swore I heard "Rock-a-bye Baby." So I hit the "video" button on the monitor, and there's my boy - wide awake - standing up, turning on his mobile, and lying back down to watch and listen. When the song ends, he stands up again, turns the knob to make the mobile start up again, and lies back down. God, I love him so much.
He just did it again :)
He just did it again :)
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