Friday, October 12, 2012

I'm back... (like the real NFL referees)


Sorry for the prolonged absence everyone. The learning curve from the new job is starting to level out, which means I have a little more time to spare for the blog. I do it all for you, Followers.

Let’s start with Aiden – because he’s the baby of the family and probably won’t get to go first in many things in life thanks to his older sister. Can you tell I sympathize with him? Yeah, being a middle child will do that. Anyway, he has grown up so much in the last couple of weeks I just can’t believe it. He’ll be six months old next week, which I’m still trying to come to grips with.

He’s rolling over at will… and by that I mean often, especially in bed. Just like his sister did, he prefers to practice his new tricks in his crib when we put him to bed at night. There was one night last week where he simply would NOT go to sleep because he apparently was having way too much fun flipping over and then whining until we came to his aid. No tears or anything, just the hey-guys-I-flipped-over-and-I-don’t-want-to-flip-myself-back-so-come-get-me whining… which immediately turns to big smiles the second he sees our faces appear over his crib. The good news is that I think he’s over the novelty of it now and goes to sleep fairly quickly after draining his bottle.

On that same subject – we’ve been on a roller coaster ride trying to get him to consistently sleep through the night. We tried the just-let-him-cry-it-out method when he turned 4 months old, and for the most part it worked. However, every once in a while he would still wake himself up in the middle of the night (usually somewhere between 2-4am) and would want to eat. Lately, he’s been waking up and rolling over, which just pisses him off more and results in us having to get up and roll him back over. By then, he realizes that it’s been 6-8 hours since he last ate and he screams at us to feed and change him. This hasn’t gone over very well with the slew of houseguests that we’ve had in the last month or so. All of this has resulted in Mommy B just getting up and feeding him so he’d go back to sleep – and letting everyone else go back to sleep as well. We tried to let him cry it out again last week, and he cried for damn near an hour before Mommy B finally got up and fed him.

These early morning feedings have been wonderful for Mommy B who has to get up at 4am anyway and go work 12 hours. BUT, this week has been a different story. A few nights ago, he woke up around 1am but quickly (within a couple minutes) put himself back to sleep without us intervening. He woke up a couple hours later, and did the same thing. While it still woke us up in the process, it was a good sign that he was re-learning how to put himself back to sleep without having to eat. I could tell from his tone that he wasn’t starving – it was more of an I’m-upset-that-I’m-awake-because-I-don’t-want-to-be whine. It’s amazing how you can tell that type of thing from across the hallway at 2am, even being half asleep. Anyway, the last couple of nights have been nothing short of amazing. He’s been going to sleep about 7pm and we haven’t heard a peep from him until 5-6am the next morning. Ahhh parenting.

What’s next? Oh yeah, the boy is tall. I believe they still refer to them as being “long” until they start walking, but you get my point. If I stand him up next to Alli, he’s already up to her shoulders. And Alli appears to be pretty average height based on the other kids I see in her class, but we’ll have to wait for her official measurements in the coming weeks. She goes in for her two-year (eek!) check-up and he goes in for his six-month check up soon, so we’ll be able to get official stats soon. Either way, Aiden is our lil’ string bean – long and lean.

The funny part about is that not only is he one of the younger kids in his class, the fact that he’s “skinny” makes him look even more out-of-place. He just happens to have some chunkers in his class. I’m not kidding, some of the other kids have rolls on their rolls… we’re lucky to get a second chin. I know it all evens out by the time they hit 2 or so – and I can’t wait to see his measurements and percentiles. He definitely feels like he’s gotten thicker since we added more baby food to his diet. The fact that he’s already onto the Stage 2 baby foods and plows through 3-4 containers of it a day might help with that too. I joked with his teachers that I have to constantly bring in food for him (much like with Alli), and yet he appears “smaller” than the rest of the kids in the class. They joked back that the funny thing is that he eats more than them. I guess he is my kid after all.

He’s gotten so good with his head and body control that he’s now doing the “cliff-hanger” when I carry him around. That means instead of lying flat against my chest with his head on my shoulder (or head up), he now wraps one leg around my stomach area and turns his whole upper body around so he can look outward (instead of over my shoulder). He’s actually started to use one arm to push himself out away from me so he can look around. While it hurts me to have my boy cuddle with me less and less, I know it’s an important step in his development. I recall it wasn’t long after that point that Alli started crawling.

He is quite the observer as well. Nothing makes him more content/calm than walking around outside. Especially now that he can look around so easily, he loves to just take things in. His teachers told us that sometimes they’ll put him in a chair or bouncer by the door that leads outside because he loves watching the older kids run around outside. Now, don’t get the impression that they just stick him in a chair by the door all day long – he’s usually on the ground gnawing on some type of toy when I pick him up. Speaking of the bouncer, I walked in with Alli yesterday and the kid was going nuts in it. I’m talking full-on, total leg extension bouncing. And when he looked up and saw us come in, you should have seen the smile that came over his face and how much the bouncing increased. I didn’t want to take him out of it because it looked like he was having so much fun. I was so proud to see how well he’s doing developmentally and physically. Those other kids may outweigh him by a few (okay, maybe a dozen) pounds, but he sure can move!

And he’s still Mr. Smiles. Goodness does this kid smile! He literally smiles all the time, it’s so crazy to see. I can smile at him from across the room, and he’ll make eye contact and smile back at me. When I’m getting him ready for his bath at night, I’ll tickle him and smile and he just giggles and smiles right back. I can’t wait until he gets really ticklish so I can get some good long laughs out of him.

Good for today? I think so. Update on Alli coming soon…

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