To my little boy at almost four months old...

Gator, you're growing up so very fast. You're almost four months old. You've been able to roll over from your belly to your back for about a month, and from your back to your belly for a couple of weeks.

Being able to roll over at will opened up a whole new world to you. We put you down for anything and you immediately work on getting into a position you like. It's great when we want you to sleep, not so great when we want you on your back for a diaper change.

Finding new sleeping positions that you think are oh so comfortable, and being able to shift your way around to play with cribside toys means you've been been sleeping through the night sometimes. I am THRILLED with this development of the past week. You don't necessarily sleep that whole time, but I'm very happy that you wake up, play with your aquarium toy or shift positions, stuff your thumb in your mouth, and soothe yourself back to sleep. (Could you give your sister a few tips on this self-soothing back to sleep thing??)

You've been pushing yourself up on your elbows and knees with your belly off the ground. You can do an inchworm crawl around and do a remarkable job of rolling, flipping, and inching your way toward your target. Your hand-eye coordination has improved a lot in the past week or two and you're delighted to capture toys and even bring them to your mouth to chew. The world is full of new things to discover when you can twist and roll into all sorts of positions with different views and things to reach for.

Your newest skill is attempting to pull your back up off the ground, like you're about to do a sit-up. You are so very strong. Which is good, because your sister sometimes wants to treat you like an interactive baby doll, and she only weighs ten pounds or so more than you do and her embraces worry your mother.

It just doesn't seem possible that this big boy was in my belly four months ago. Or that my boy who keeps filling his infant car seat more and more was dwarfed by it when we brought him home from the hospital.

How did he get so big so fast??

A light in the darkness of insanity...

Every now and then, Violet says something incredibly sweet. I changed a stinky diaper and got her dressed for the day when out of nowhere, she announced, "Mommy, you need hugs. And kisses!" and proceeded to give me what she thought I needed. 

Usually, two and a half is a really frustrating age for both of us. But this extra verbal ability leads to some really nice exchanges sometimes.

She tells me about her days, and it's always interesting to learn what sticks out most in the filter of her young mind. Events like her grandparents getting a new vacuum cleaner (red!) can be incredibly exciting. 

She's just recently started to tell me that she loves me, and this morning was the first spontaneous "you need a hug." I appreciated it so much. 

Sometimes she's very caring and motherly. She gets concerned when I'm tired or upset...sometimes. Other times, she's completely oblivious. She also wants to comfort her baby brother, but she's not so great at holding him and soothing him yet. Like in the photo here, from when he was five weeks old. She still likes to touch his eyes and tries to manually open and close the lids, like she can with some baby dolls. He's not a fan of that. He does love to watch her play and try to entertain him in other ways.

I'm looking forward to many more sweet moments as they grow up. And my babies are growing up so very fast...

Let's make these moments last...

Time has been flying by recently. Summer will be over before we know it, and I feel like we've barely gotten to enjoy it. And more importantly, my baby boy, the little one that should be my last baby, is growing up soooo fast!

About two weeks ago, Gator figured out how to roll from his back to his belly. His new mastery of rolling around opened up a whole new world of sleeping positions to him. He's now sleeping MUCH BETTER on his own, thank goodness, thanks to finding a comfy position and his thumb.

The new sleeping position means he's peeing out the front of his diapers, which were getting smaller and smaller, as you can see from this very recent photo. It's time to buy some size 3s! We might start doing cloth at night, since I can customize the aborbancy of those.

My little boy continues to amaze us with his movement abilities. Last night I found him in his crib with his belly off the mattress, up on his elbows and knees. This morning he was doing an inchworm crawl in there. 

He's also getting better and better about grabbing things. Grandpa's chest hair and Daddy's arm hair aren't fans of this. But he's really enjoying playing with toys that rattle and crinkle and seems to grab them purposefully rather than as a happy accident. 

Slow down, you move too fast. We've got to make this moment last. Feelin' groovy...

Jump Jump

Violet just finished an exuberant dance. It consisted of a whole lot of jumping and some spinning. She gets so excited when the theme songs for PBS Kids' shows come on. This dance was to "It's a big big world..."

We've been busy lately and the kids have been doing a lot of fun things. Look for a flurry of blog posts soon as I try to capture thoughts and memories before I forget.

Why Super Why?

Do you know why my daughter has decided this Little People figure is "Super Why"??? It's not one of her usual PBS shows, but she's apparently seen it or at least a teaser for it a few times. A quick look at their website didn't enlighten me.

Talk Talk

If there was a language consisting of coos, breathy sounds, gurgles, and sputters, Gator would be quite the talker! He tries really hard to get into the conversation these days.

Like his sister, he's let out a breathy "hi" sound after hearing it from an adult. It's pretty amazing to see!

And just because you were dying to know, the loose, flabby skin on my belly hung over the trackpad of the laptop on my lap and tried to edit this post. If I wasn't so tired from being sick, that'd light a fire under me to get out and exercise.

The "B"s vs. The Bees

Hubby was trimming bushes when he started jumping around and yelling all sorts of "colorful" words...much more than his usual potty mouth. He'd irritated some bees. One stung his ankle and he avoided another one that landed on the other leg. He got extra venom since we didn't immediately realize that there was a big stinger embedded in his ankle.

Violet was intrigued and didn't see to understand that it HURT Daddy. When he went back to finish clearing brush, she got a lot closer than I wanted her to. I was relieved when she headed further away from the bush...until she started running toward me screaming and swatting at her neck. Which had something dark on it. A bee. A live bee that was attached by the stinger to the delicate skin on her throat just under her jaw.

I panicked. I was holding Gator, closer to the danger zone than I wanted to be if I was going to set him on the grass, and I needed two hands. Violet was flailing around and grabbing at her throat and moving her head so she was crushing the bee more. I know from childhood experience that a bee in that kind of situation will keep stinging or even biting as it keeps feeling threatened.

Hubby got our daughter to lay down in the grass, tilted her chin back, and quickly removed the bee as I sort of freaked out at seeing my little girl screaming in pain that had made my usually stoic husband yelp and cuss in pain.

We got my little girl inside and her dad held her head so I could remove the stinger from her neck. She had a few stings, including two distinctive sting marks, one with a stinger still in it. Hubby was concerned with her first exposure being a multiple exposure and being on her neck, where localized swelling could compound any allergic reaction that could affect the airway.

She had Tylenol and is not happy but seems to be shrugging it off a lot better than her dad is. And we have a very funny-looking half-trimmed bush.

In other news, Gator is three months old today. Reflections on that coming soon.

Two years old...

...is the answer you receive from my daughter when you ask her what her name is.

There's a lot of pronoun confusion going on too. Overall, she is much more talkative and we're enjoying being able to communicate with her fairly well.

The best baby food there is...

Gator dining al fresco at 19 days old

Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week with us! 

Violet had many eating issues as a newborn, breast or bottle, and Gator was a natural but we've still had obstacles. Nursing a baby isn't always easy, but I've found sticking with it to be so worth it in so many ways!

These two sites are great resources for breastfeeding questions and issues:

La Leche League

KellyMom