"Yo, Elmo!"

Hopefully this story will translate well since it's being written and it won't make my child sound like a brat! :) We've been working with Karys lately on how to ask for things properly, partly based on the story you're about to read. For anyone that doesn't know, Karys is being seen by a speech therapist for some speech delays. One of the things she can't do is repeat after you if you use too many words. For example, if I tell her to say, "May I watch Elmo, please?" she'll say, "Elmo, please!" So I've been shortening it and having her repeat, "May I," "watch," "Elmo, please." and now she remembers it all and can say it by herself. We just started having her say this much because I used to accept her just saying, "Elmo, please." Or, "Juice, please." So here's the funny story:

There have been a couple of occasions where Karys wants something and when she decides she wants something she will not give up on it. Usually she just repeats herself over and over, even if I've said no or not now. So on this particular occasion she wanted to watch Elmo. So she said, "Elmo, please." I think I just ignored it at first so she kept saying, "Elmo, please. Elmo, please." I probably finally said, "No, not right now." But still, she kept going: "Elmo, please. Elmo, please." And when she didn't get the response from me she wanted she goes, "Yo! Elmo!" (If this makes her sound bratty, it's not meant to...it was totally hilarious!!) I really have no idea where she got the word, "Yo!" but it cracked me up. Although after thinking about it for awhile, I have one place where she might have gotten it. If you don't watch "Sesame Street" daily like we do, you might not know about a new segment they have called "Murray Had A Little Lamb." There is an orange monster on "Sesame Street" now whose name is Murray and sometimes he and his little lamb go and visit different schools (ex. karate school, ballet school, etc.) and the segment has a theme song. It starts out singing, "Murray has a little lamb..." to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," then breaks out into a rap that goes, "Yo! Murray has a little lamb who wears a little bow..." That's the only place I can think of where she would've heard someone say "Yo!"

*Disclaimer: She does not get what she wants for saying, "Yo! Elmo!" just in case you thought I might let her have anything she wanted for being cute/funny. :)

*Second Disclaimer: This story was intended to make you smile/laugh. Hopefully it did that and nothing more. :)

Schedule vs. Routine

I guess one of the goals of being a parent is to grow and change in how you parent. Always learning more, aiming to not make the same mistakes, etc. In growing and changing, I'm learning hands-on that what works with one child doesn't necessarily work with every child. With Karys, I found out about the "Babywise" method of sleep-training. By 8 weeks she was sleeping through the night and eating at 3-hour intervals throughout the day. It was a perfect schedule. I thought it was flawless.

...And then came Zane. I really tried to set him on a schedule like I did with Karys. I REALLY did. By 8 weeks, when he was still getting up at 1, sometimes 2, times a night, I was discouraged. I kept hearing of friends with babies around his age (or younger) who were already sleeping such long hours at night. And I gotta say, I was envious. But still, I pressed on, attempting to follow the schedule I had set in my head. And then, one night when he was about 3 months, he slept...ALL NIGHT! And then he did it another night! And then...another night! It might've taken him an extra month from what it took his sister to start sleeping through the night, but he did it! And he might not eat at exactly the same time every day, but he does eat at approximate times. I've always followed the "Babywise" strategy of "Eat. Play. Sleep." in that order and so I'm learning that it's less important to follow what time it is as it is to set up a predicable routine. He does things in the same order every day...but not the same time. And it's working for us. He's a sweet boy who's really never fussy unless he's tired. He eats well (obviously!) and when he's sleeping, he's the most peaceful baby.

So this schedule-oriented mommy, who loves knowing what time things are going to happen has had to mellow out. Big time. But I can't become a better mommy unless I'm willing to bend when needed. Thank you, Zane, for teaching me how to adjust. :)

Extremes

Everyone's probably going to get tired of me talking about this, but I just can't believe the extreme opposites I have in children! Zane is very big for his age (not just weight, but length as well) and Karys is just not! Granted, she hasn't always been quite the featherweight that she is now, but still. At 3 months Zane is about the size (perhaps bigger!) that Karys was at 6 months. I know for sure that at 3 months Karys still fit into 0-3 month clothes, although there were some 3-6 month things I started pulling out because I wanted to have her wear them and I was ready for a change in clothes! She wore 3-6 month clothes until she was about 8 months, I believe, and then moved into 6-9 month clothes which she wore past the age of 1!

Zane, on the other hand, moved out of 0-3 month clothes at about 6 weeks and now at 3 months, he's getting close to moving out of 3-6 month clothes!! He has a few 3-6 month outfits that just really don't fit him anymore at all!! Just to show the difference (I'm not sure how well you can tell it just from pictures) here's a picture of Karys sitting on a couch at 3 months and Zane sitting on a couch at 3 months. Hopefully you'll be able to see what I'm trying to show...he's SO BIG and she's SO LITTLE. :)

Karys:

Zane:

Two Thumb Suckers!

It appears that both of my kids are going to be thumb-suckers. Obviously Karys has been ever since she was 3 months old. But Zane started it as well last month and seems like he will continue it. Thankfully it's not something that bothers me!! Now that I go back and look at the pictures, it appears that Karys was a little less than 3 months when she started thumb sucking. So I guess they were both about 2 1/2 mos. when they started it. Either way, here's a picture of Karys in her early thumb-sucking days:And here's Zane:

I have to admit I think a thumb-sucking baby is one of the cutest things ever!! :)

I Have A Good Excuse...

...for not posting anything lately. I haven't had batteries in the camera to be able to take any pictures! :) Ryan prefers using rechargeable batteries but every time I want to put them in the camera they're not charged, so while I was at Target yesterday I chose to buy some regular batteries so I can get some pictures taken!

We've had a little bit of craziness going on at our house lately. Although at this point, I think things are pretty much back to normal. A couple of weeks ago, Zane developed a cough. The first day it wasn't that bad, but it got progressively worse. He developed the cough on a Thursday and that evening we headed out of town to spend the weekend at my parents' house. It ended up being really good to be with so many other people because we had a lot of help with our sweet little sick baby. Every time he was fed you just had to sit with him with burp rags nearby because he was going to cough so hard that it gagged him and he threw up. It was a pretty difficult weekend. On Monday I was able to get an appointment with our doctor (which was pretty remarkable in itself...usually the day I call she's booked up and I have to see whoever is available). They did a swab on him for the flu and RSV. His flu test came back negative, but he did come back positive for RSV. We were given prescriptions for breathing treatment meds and a cough medicine. Those first few days I felt a little overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything I was supposed to do for him: breathing treatments 3 times a day, cough medicine 4 times a day, give him PediaLyte between feedings to help loosen up congestion, remember to feed him in the first place!!!...just lots to do and remember. But he gradually started getting better and although he still has some lingering congestion every once in a while, we're pretty much back to normal.

Here are some new pics that I took today (now that I have batteries for the camera :)

We started putting Zane in the Bumbo seat a few days ago because his head control has gotten really good, and the strength in his upper back is really good. I wanted to take his picture looking really happy in his seat, but it turned out more like this:

I saw this shirt Zane is wearing a while back at Target and thought it was so cute. Ryan's always using the word "rad" and it just seemed like Zane needed this shirt. But since it really wasn't necessary, I didn't buy it at the time. However, yesterday it was on clearance so it suddenly became worth it to me. :)

And since I was scouring clearance items at Target, I found this shirt for the Elmo lover in our house for only $2!! Doesn't she look so happy wearing it? :)

"Video, Please!"

This story is too long to post as a facebook status but it's too cute not to be shared so here goes. This morning I figured out the best way to workout: get Karys to do it with me. :) I moved the furniture around in the living room to get myself set up to do a Biggest Loser workout video and told Karys we were going to do this together. I even pulled out my 2-lb. weights for her and told her those were her weights. As the video went on, she stood next to me and tried to do what they were doing. After awhile she got tired of that and sat on the couch watching me for the rest of the time.

After her nap and all evening she'd periodically ask me, "Video, please?" I didn't even realize she knew what the word "video" meant since I usually call them "movies" but I kept telling her she could watch a video after she ate dinner. After dinner, she enthusiastically asked, "Video, please?" I asked her what video she wanted to watch and she went to our entertainment center and pointed to one of the doors that holds DVDs. I opened it and saw that her VeggieTales SweetPea video was in there so I held it up and asked if she wanted to watch it. She told me no. I looked down in the cabinet again and saw the cover for the Biggest Loser video we did this morning. I held it up and asked if that was what she was talking about and she told me, "Yay, video!" :) I told her she didn't really want to watch that. :)

Second cute story: The last few nights Karys has been difficult getting to bed at night. I don't understand what it is because she's not taking naps that are very long but she lays in bed for the longest time and doesn't fall asleep until after 10! She's also been crying when I leave the room and telling me, "Rock." Now keep in mind I sit in her room and rock her for a good 10 minutes or so before putting her in her bed. A few times I've fallen for the tears and rocked her a second time, but tonight I told her that I was going to rock her and whenever I put her in bed she wasn't going to cry. It didn't really work...but I didn't cave and rock her a second time! She cried at the door for a few minutes, saying, "Rock!" and we'd periodically hear a few tears. One time Ryan went in to tell her to quit kicking the wall and she told him, "Rock!" So about 45 minutes after this all began I went back into her room to put Zane in his bed. When I walked in, I heard her say, "Rock!" I looked over at her bed expecting to see her laying there but then I caught her silhouette sitting in the rocking chair rocking herself! :) I just died laughing!! It's like she was thinking, "Fine. If you won't rock me, I'll just do it myself."

To Sleep or Not To Sleep... :)

That's the question I'm asking these days!! I'm starting to wonder if Zane will ever be a good sleeper. :) Poor guy...he just gets so hungry!! This kid is an eating MACHINE!! It's so interesting to see how different he is from his sister. Just today I fixed him a 5-ounce bottle because he consistently doesn't make it 3 hours from one feeding to another. 5 ounces!! He's only 6 weeks old!! :) Oh well, he seemed to be happy with it! It will be interesting to see how that translates tonight...will we get more sleep at once, or won't we? I remembered that at this point Karys was sleeping so well--almost through the night. I went back and found this post that proves what I remembered. Zane still gets up twice in the night. For example, last night he ate at 10:00 and then woke up to eat at 2:15 and then again at 5:45. It's starting to get exhausting!! :) However, with all that said, I'm so thankful for this sweet baby boy and I'm trying to slow down with him more than I did with Karys and really cherish every day, every stage, all of it. He's such a sweet boy. :)

BUT the hard part is that with our house being as small as it is, I don't really have a good place for him to be where I can let him cry a little bit to see if he's actually hungry or just waking up out of habit. If I leave him in his and Karys's room he'll wake her up, but even if I just leave him in the living room we're all in such close proximity to each other that he'll bother everyone!! Oh well, everyone sleeps through the night eventually, right?? ;)

Just a couple of cute pics:

The other day he woke up early from his nap SCREAMING so I finished out his naptime cuddling with him. I guess it could be worse. ;)

Karys loves her baby brother. She's never really asked to hold him, but she does love kissing on him and giving him toys of hers to play with. But on this day I offered to let her hold him and she decided she wanted to. :)