Movin' up in the world

I’m sorry – I’m going to admit it – babies really aren’t THAT much fun when they are really really little. Don’t get me wrong – they are cute and nice to hold and you love them because they are yours. But, really? All that they do at that age (and, we’re talking like birth to 6 weeks) is sleep, eat (and, eat and eat and eat and eat), pee, poop and cry. Now that Alex is 6 months old? I love it. He is at such a great age:

1. He is sitting up all on his own. I LOVE the fact that I no longer have to find a place to put him when I need to put him down. I think that he probably spent at least 18 hours a day in that damn bouncy seat before he could sit up. But, where else was he going to go? I mean, I can only do so much while holding him. So, now – I can just plop him on the floor, surround him with toys, and leave him there perfectly content while I get stuff done around the house.

And, then, when he gets lazy, he just falls backwards...

2. He laughs and smiles constantly. He is just too funny. And, what is really cool is that Avery can make him smile and laugh the easiest out of all of us. Here they are with Dad on the couch watching tv last night – as you can see, Avery was kind enough to share one of her babies with him.
3. He has become a pro-jumper! We brought up the jumparoo this weekend (and, retired the baby swing, which I’m still hanging onto even though Josh’s comment was, “Do you know anyone who needs one because we will never use this again.” I am still holding out hope that, some day, we will win the lottery and be able to put an addition on the house and buy a new SUV so that we can afford another baby, but sssshhhhh….he doesn’t need to know that right now) and he loved it! They have one at daycare and he has gotten really good at it, so we thought that we would put him in ours. I’m psyched because this is yet another thing to occupy him for a while. Here he is with Avery who apparently thought that she could just bounce him like a basketball while he is in this thing. Don't worry - she didn't do it too hard.
4. He eats normal food- so far, he has tried carrots (which he liked!), peas (which he REALLY didn’t) and green beans (which he thought were ok). It’s fun introducing him to new foods and watching his face – he is VERY dramatic – shivering, puckering, locking his lips shut. It’s pretty comical.

5. He has really started babbling and squealing a ton. He talked to one of his toys for a good 30 mins yesterday. It was too funny.

Avery is also moving up in the world. This weekend, we attempted to not wear a diaper during nap time for the first time and she woke up dry!!!! It’s funny because she has been potty trained for so long (and, was potty trained at a really young age), but she VERY rarely wakes up with a dry diaper after nap time and after bed time. But, I figured, it’s time to at least give it a shot. They say that it is more of a mental thing in terms of staying dry while sleeping and that they will do it when they are ready. However, knowing Avery? She knows damn well that she has that diaper on, so she pees in it because she knows she can. We’ll see if this theory holds true.

Not only are the two kids moving up in the world, but so is mama. This last weekend, we went to a bday party where they had about 5-7 of those huge blow up castles for the kids to jump in. Back in the day, I would have been scared to let her jump in there for fear that some big mean scary 5 year old would smoosh her. But, I was very good! I let her run around and bounce around and do her thing and, go figure, no injuries.

She had a great time and I got over my fear and realized that she is big enough to do these things now.

That’s about it on our end. We’re still constantly trying to figure out what we can do with them in the winter on the weekend. So far, we’ve attempted gymnastics but they didn’t have enough kids for a Saturday AM class, so it was cancelled (does NO ONE work during the week anymore? Who are these moms who can take their kids to gymnastics any other day of the week besides Saturdays? Moms who I’m jealous of, that’s who). Then, we attempted Kindermuzik, but THEY didn’t have enough kids for a Saturday AM class, so that was cancelled (seriously?????). And, then, we attempted to take her to a children’s museum in Dartmouth, but apparently that no longer exists and has been replaced with a YMCA. Clearly, we’re not having much luck with this. This last weekend, Josh ended up at Barnes and Noble with Avery while I stayed back with Alex while he slept. Which, wasn’t the worst option, but will get to be an expensive one shortly. Ok, I have a consolidation to tie out, so I should be going (did I mention that I’m jealous of those moms who are currently at gymnastics while I’m tying out a consolidation??).

Yeah, but it is so beautiful down there...

That is typically what people say when you tell them that you live in the LC. Right after they say, “Woah! You are in the middle of nowhere!” Typically, this doesn’t bother me. It is actually part of the charm of living there. However, when you have errands to run? Or, when you just want to get out of the house for a bit? It is rather obnoxious. I have found that, recently, I have very little energy on the weekends to get motivated to do anything. And, unfortunately, given Avery’s nap schedule, we have to get motivated in the morning if we are going to do anything because she goes down at 1230. And, she wakes up around 230, so by the time we get motivated after the nap, it is easily 3/330 and there isn’t enough time to do much of anything. So, all of this coupled with the fact that anywhere we would want to go is EASILY 30 mins from our house makes it very difficult to get motivated to do anything. Then, add to that the weather (20 degrees lately) and you’re screwed.

However, this all being said, I had reached my limit by Sunday morning this weekend and decided that Avery and I needed to get out of the house. So, we had a little girl’s morning (oh – forgot to mention, Alex goes down at around 9 am, which makes it impossible to bring both of them with you).
So, it was just us. We had a really nice time – we went to Petco, which, to Avery was like going to a zoo/aquarium. She loved looking at all of the animals . And, yes – we went to Petco to get litter for the cat who has returned. Surprisingly, he has been great ever since he got home. But, I think that he is still a bit freaked out, so it may not last for too long. Anyway – we went to Petco and then it was time for lunch, so we went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. Turns out, Avery would have been just as happy with the salad bar and didn’t need the pasta that I ordered for her. Lesson Learned. Although, I have to say, I wasn’t all that impressed with Ruby Tuesdays (I’m not sure what I really expected – clearly it wasn’t going to be a gourmet meal, but my turkey burger was LESS than impressive), so I doubt we will be returning any time soon anyway. After lunch, we went to Target to get her a new puzzle. She has really gotten into puzzles and is really very good at them. Opa taught her to match the colors and I’ve taught her that the straight edge needs to line up with the edges of the puzzle. She’s really catching on! After our adventure, Avery napped and then we baked a cake with my new Kitchen Aid mixer that my parents got me for Christmas (we're still working on keeping our eyes open for pictures). Apparently, owning a kitchen aid mixer doesn’t immediately make you a good baker. The cake was a bit dry, to say the least. This may have had something to do with the fact that I added the flour in the wrong order or that the chocolate wasn’t quite melted when I added it to the batter, but I swear the real reason that it was dry is because the directions told me to bake it for way too long.

On the Alex front – he must have overheard us say that we were going to let him cry it out this weekend if he woke up too early, because he slept great! Granted, it was relatively short lived, as we have had a few early mornings this week, but I think that we are slowly getting there. I have determined that his internal clock is a bit messed up. And, I know this because, even if he doesn’t wake at 3 AM? I do. Because, that is when I’m used to waking up. So, clearly this has to be his issue as well. So, that is our focus from here on out – we need to try to figure out a way to break him of this habit.

He is doing really well with sitting up on his own. Although, I have to be honest – about 2 seconds after I took this picture, he fell backwards and totally slammed his head on the floor. He wasn’t thrilled, to say the least.
We have also started to give him cereal. He was also less than thrilled about that at first, but has started to get used to it. We gave him a stick of cucumber and a bean this weekend to let him play around with them , which is exactly what he did. Lexi is using this “Baby-Led Weaning” theory to feed Annabel, so I thought that we would give it a try. Basically, it says that you shouldn’t feed them anything with a spoon and that you should allow for them to experiment with real food on their own. Apparently all of this will lead to a less picky eater and fewer food allergies. Considering the fact that we cut blueberries in half up until Avery was 2 years old, I’m clearly not mentally prepared to give Alex a chicken leg to let him gnaw on it at the age of 6 months (yes, this book says that you can do that). So, I’m kind of doing something in between. He will still get pureed food, but I will also give him things to experiment with. I think that we will try some pureed carrots this weekend - fun times in the Holland household! Is it sad when pureed carrots are the most interesting thing in your lives on the weekends? I know that you will probably all lose sleep wondering how he likes them. I’ll try to post soon to let you know…