Zane: A 6-Month Summary

(Disclaimer to all of the second-, third-,etc. born kids: I do take pics of Zane by himself, but this is a pic I took for Father's Day and it's one of the more recent ones...and I really like it! Just didn't want anyone concerned that he's always in pics with Karys and never by himself. :)

I'm not good at blogging about my kids' development monthly like some people are. Maybe I'd like to be, but oh well. We took Zane today for his six-month well-check and it seems like a good time to fill everyone in on what I think you should know about this cute little guy.

First things first...results from our doctor's appointment.

Weight: 21.2 lbs. (94th percentile)

Height: 27.75 inches (88th percentile)

I don't have Karys's height and weight from this age in front of me right now (and since both kids are napping, I don't want to go get it out of their room!) but if my memory serves me correctly, she was 15 lbs. some-odd ounces at 6 months. I don't remember her height, though. So, obviously he's considerably bigger. :) Oh, and he's only 3 lbs. less than she is...as in, right now!! :)

He is still wearing 6-9 mo. clothes, although some of them are starting to get a little snug. The crazy part is that whenever we run out of diapers, we're going to be buying size 4 next time!!! Karys probably started wearing a 4 sometime between 18 mos. and 2!!

Okay, there's more to know about Zane than just what size he is. Here's some things I'd like you to know.

*He loves his sister. And she feels the same way about him. He laughs so much at the silly things she does for him and whenever I put him in his high chair to feed him, she'll bring him toys to play with while I'm getting his food ready.

*He sits up by himself! He just started that about 2 weeks ago and has really gotten it mastered. One of my friends told me that she thinks the bigger babies learn to sit earlier because they have a more supportive base with their bigger bellies. :) The doctor told me today that there is truth to that, but the bigger babies are also slower to crawl because they have more to move around. :)

*I like to call him "Zany Man." And I do it so much that Karys calls him that most of the time, and Ryan's starting to say it too.

*He's such a pleasant baby. He's really not fussy, unless he's tired. He's so content--he loves to sit with his toys and play or just observe what's going on around him.

*He'll eat whatever you'll give him. :) So far he's had cereal, avacado, applesauce, banana, and green beans.

*He can be reserved with his smiles, but Karys can get great smiles from him all the time and I can get them most of the time. :)

*He takes a great afternoon nap, which makes it so great for me!! He'll take a nap for about an hour in the morning, but then in the afternoon he'll nap for about 2 1/2 hours (and it coincides with Karys's naptime!). I learned that if I try to wake him up from the afternoon nap (so that he'd feed on an every 3-hour schedule), he'd just fall right back asleep. But if I let him nap pretty much as long as he wants, we're good!

*He sleeps really well at night! I've been trying to keep him from taking a short catnap in the late evening (usually a 30-minute nap around 7:00) and then just feed him around 8 so he'll fall asleep and go straight to bed. He'll usually sleep until after 7 the next day. And if he wakes up in the 6:00 hour, I can put him in the swing and he'll go back to sleep for me.

*Most important thing for you to know: I don't know what I'd do without my little man!! :)

She's A Witty One! :)

If I don't write this down right now I'm going to forget it and then I'll be sad that I never remembered to share my funny Karys stories. :) Both of these stories happened today...she must've been in a really good mood and was feeling quite witty!

I learned from a wise friend that the best time to fix a little girl's hair is while she is eating breakfast. So this morning I was trying a new style on her and it required 3 rubber bands. I had them sitting on the kitchen table and Karys picked one of them up and was playing with it. When the time came that I needed it I was holding her ponytail in my hand and the rubber band was nowhere in sight. Slightly irritated by this, I looked around the table saying, "Aarrgh, Karys, why do you always do this to me?" She was looking around the table trying to find the rubber band too and then said, "Under table." Now I was even more irritated because I had to let go of her ponytail to get down on the floor and look for the rubber band. I'm looking around and getting really aggravated because the rubber band is nowhere to be found which means I'll have to go back to the bathroom to get another one. At the time that I stand up to go get another one, my witty child holds up this rubber band in her hand! While I can't remember exactly what she said, it was something to the effect of, "Look, Mommy!" She'd had it the whole time!! Not only that, she knew exactly what she was doing because then she said, "Funny!" :)

The second story happened at my sister-in-law's house. She has a basket of school supplies on her kitchen table and Karys found an Elmer's glue bottle in it and pulled it out. I told her to put it back and she looked at the bottle and said something I didn't understand. I told her that was "glue" and I thought she tried to repeat me, but didn't get it right. So I drew the word out so she could hear all the sounds, "Gllllluuuuuue." To which she goes, "Cooowwwwww." :) She had been pointing the cow on the Elmer's glue bottle, not the actual glue bottle itself! :) It really cracked me up!

"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? :)