Conversations from the Exersaucer

Dexter:  See, Erin?  This is how you move the ball.  And, look!  It spins, too!

Erin:  What the... ???

Buddy:  If I wait here long enough, surely that noisy baby will yak all over the floor and I can lick it up...

Erin:  OK, ok.  Can you 'splain that to me again, please?  What do you do?

Erin:  (hamster wheels inside her head spinning at 700 mph) ...

Erin:  EUREKA!!  That's AMAZING!

What can we say? We grow em tall.

We took both kids to the doctor on Tuesday.  John came, too, because Dex had gymnastics right after and I wasn't sure we'd make it in time.  So Dex saw the doctor first, and then he and Daddy high-tailed it out of there to go to Oxford and swing on bars and do somersaults (by himself!) and jump on trampolines and stuff.

Dexter was awesome at the doctor.  He did his vision and hearing test, and was super brave for the doctor.  Usually he screams when anyone looks in his ears.  This time we practiced, and talked about the doctor, and gave the promise of peanut butter cups if he was great.  And he was.  Great.  Definitely deserved those peanut butter cups.

He was also huge.  40 pounds huge, which is like 80th percentile.  John thinks he's skinny.  I think John's crazy...  He's also 42.9 inches tall.  Which is like 95th percentile.  Growth predictions peg him at about six-two or six-three when he grows up.

Erin was also a super-star at the doctor, even though it was WAY past her bed time.  She got a shot and didn't make a peep for it.  She stood up and showed the doctor how huge and strong she is.  She's growing lovely and looks like everything is fine.

She was 14.7 pounds, which is about the 55th percentile.  I'm not sure how she's that low, when she has chubby little legs and about seven chins.  And she's 26 inches tall, which is like 97th percentile.  She's solidly in 6 month clothing, and I put back most of the one piece summer rompers that Grandma picked out at the consignment sale this week, because one piece things and my kids just don't work well together.

The doctor felt some teeth bumps in Erin's mouth, and when I flipped her upside down this morning I saw a little white blister of a tooth nub on her top left.  Which is ridiculous.  Four months!  Teeth!  Really?  It may still take a while for that one to come in, but still.  Four months!  Slow down, teeth!

PS - Erin sucks her thumb now.  She's a lefty, at least in thumb sucking.

PPS - Look what happens at 6:30 AM!!!  Who knew?

Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dexter helped with his Valentine's for school - he wrote his name on the back of them, and he spelled out the names of the friends for me so I could write those.  It was tedious and kind of torturous, but we got it done.

He also said he wanted to get Daddy "80 peanut butter cups" for Valentine's Day.  I did what I could.  I'm not sure there's 80, but I might make Dexter count just to be sure.

Erin is dressed up in her heart gear.  Dexter doesn't have anything, so he's wearing his favorite red train shirt. He's mostly grumpy in the pictures I took this morning because I made him wear another shirt OVER his train shirt, and he could not see the trains.  Heaven forbid.  So our VD pictures didn't turn out awesome, but I think we may giggle at them later...

Be mine.  And try to look excited about it.

Exactly.  Excited.  Just like that.

Actually, that's kind of a million times better.

This is, I think, excited to eat the baby.  Or something.

Happy face!  So, so happy.

Hey, at least the baby is happy.

Balloons and train shirts improve the mood

Thanks for the heart balloon, Aunt Jeanne!

Dexter made this valentine for Erin, when Ms Michelle was here.  He just wrote "ER."  You know.  Erin's nickname.

Er thought it was delicious.

Have a love-filled day!

Four!

Nope, still not a post about Dexter turning four years old.  I am still a slacker.

Just a quick post with some pictures of the four month old baby.  :-)

Just a Few Pictures to Brighten Your Day

We're watching the Westminster Dog Show, and making Buddy feel mildly sub-par.  Sorry Buddy.  You're a good dog and all, but have you SEEN those cute Norwich Terriers?  Also we would like the Staffordshire Bull Terrier named BOB.  Awesome.

Fairly lazy day today.  One of these days we are going to make it to gymnastics class on time.  No excuse today, really.  We worked on Valentines this morning for Dexter's class mates (shoot me now - I am trying to get John to help him with the Valentines for the teachers), and then we decided maybe we'd get dressed, and by the time we got our acts together it was time to go.

Erin is wearing all her Valentine gear this week.  Dex doesn't have anything, so maybe we can dig out a red train shirt on Thursday or something.

Erin is sleeping in her sleep sack 100% of the time now.  Last night was her first night unswaddled.  She slept about the same as she did with a swaddle, so I suppose that worked out just fine.

Today Dex and I talked a lot about using your words and not your hands.  And then his teacher sent an email after school saying that Dex kicked a friend at school.  So I reminded him about how we had talked about words, and not hands.  He said "But I used my feet."  Oh, this boy.  Mr. Literal.  So I said that we use words, not hands, not feet.  He told me he had run out of words, so since he didn't have any more words he wasn't going to talk any more.  :-)  That lasted a good couple seconds.

Cute Stuff was GRUMPY today.  Grumpy grumpy.  Maybe she's not sleeping so well.  Hopefully she will figure out the sleep sack sleeping soon.

Fortunately she's usually so tired by 7PM that she gets goofy, and that's kind of fun.

Love how she holds on to a finger

The Long Hard Road to Freedom

Since she was born, Erin has been swaddled.  Not with flimsy-ass receiving blankets that you get in the hospital.  No, no.  We use the big guns with her - Miracle Blanket all the way.  And she's been a lovely sleeper.

And then she went and got all big and strong and Houdini-like, and I believe has determined that her personal challenge in life is to break free from every swaddle ever put on her.  For a little while it was just at night.  And I blamed John's swaddling job, because he puts her down at night so SURELY it must be his fault, right?  So I doubled up her swaddle at night - Miracle Blanket first, then a receiving blanket over top.

Then she was even breaking free from THAT.  So off we went to Wal-Mart to get a BIGGER piece of fabric, to wrap her up tight so she wouldn't break free.

Then she started breaking free at EVERY.  SINGLE.  NAP.  Even if I wrapped her.  I tried a few things (double swaddle, Woombie) to no avail.  OK, baby.  Screw it.  We're going cold turkey here, and going swaddle-free.

The first few naps she screamed and cried, and then screamed and cried some more, and then eventually fell asleep.  Which - what gives, baby?  You were breaking out of your swaddle, so you didn't like that.  And now you have freedom, and you don't like that, either?  Make up your mind, kid.

We're on Day 3 of swaddle-free.  She doesn't scream when I put her down for a nap now.  But she doesn't go right to sleep, either.  And she wakes up after 45 minutes and cannot get herself back to sleep.  But we're making progress.  Til she totally gets the hang of the daytime freedom, I'm going to keep her swaddled at night.  Because we need some sleep around here.  But I think in the next couple days she'll be swaddle free all the time, as she has been waking up at 5AM to grunt and wiggle and squeak and do her damdest to get out of that swaddle.

So right now at night she looks like this:

(I dunno why she's trying so hard to get out of this, because, really - who wouldn't want to spend the night wrapped up in soothing, comforting FLAMES.  Dex totally chose this fabric...)

And at nap time she looks like this:

Til she totally pokes herself in the eyeball and then she looks like this, only while crying:

Last week I also put her in the exersaucer for the first time.  The first time she was a little skeptical:

But she actually kind of played with the toys a little bit.  Since then she has had no interest in the toys.  She just hangs out in there, watching the goings-on of the house.  It's far more interesting, I suppose, to watch the constant running of her brother and her dog than it is to turn a silly wheel and listen to it rattle.

In other, non-baby news, Dexter seems to be (knock on wood) potty trained at night now.  He at least has worn his regular underwear at bed for the past two nights with no accidents.  We tried yesterday to give him high fives and tell him how proud we were.  I think his response was "Mama, do you like my train?"  So, yeah.  No big deal to him.  But very exciting for us.  Finally diaper-free with one kid.  Yay!

Dex has been a superstar at swimming, ever since I put his swimming report card in a baggie and sent it to lessons with him so he can read it.  He reads that it says he has to swim independently 15 yards with his face in the water, and damn if that kid doesn't just go right ahead and do it.  If it's written on a piece of paper, it must be law.  He's been awesome, and is moving up to the next level next session.

He also started gymnastics a couple weeks ago, and he LOOOOOOOOOVES it.  Loves.  So much.  And he is impressively good (I am biased).  But he's doing things I had no idea he knew how to do.  He liked it so much the first time he said he wanted to go back tomorrow.  And after his last class he said that "When I am 80, I want to be a gymnastics teacher so I can teach kids how to do gymnastics."  Also that week he said "When I am 80 I want to be a teacher so I can make the rules."  Apparently 80 is the magic age.  Which, SWEET!  I am still young!  :-)  I'll try to take the camera to class tomorrow to snap a few pictures if that is allowed.  I think I can pass the baby off to someone for a few minutes.

Looking forward to a fairly quiet week.  No preschool visits (we decided on a second school to send Dexter to in the fall).  No appointments.  Nothing going on this weekend.  Nice and boring.

Puppy Love

I owe Dexter a post about his birthday.  But the celebration went on and on and on and I have SO.  MANY.  PICTURES.  And I am tired and might also need some chocolate covered popcorn.  So, no birthday post for you yet.  Maybe I'll get to it before he's five...

I DO have, however, some pictures of Erin from this afternoon.

Oh, don't mind me.  I'm just hanging in my Bumbo, eating a ball.

Ah, isn't that nice?  The black fuzzy thing is coming over to say hi.  I shall greet him with my typical open-mouthed slobber face.

Wait.  Wait.  WHAT?  IS?  THAT?

Not sure I like this.  Not sure I like this.  Not sure I like this.  Not sure I like this.

It FEELS wet around my ear, but I can't see what's back there...

Look at me!  Now I'm clean!

Buddy loves the baby.  She tastes like chicken.  Or maybe baby spit-up.