NuNu and Grandpa visited this weekend with big fun in tow including a trip to the orchard, canoeing the Concord river, a ride on the swan boats in the Boston Public Garden followed by PF Chang's for lunch, ice cream at Bedford Farms, and let's not forget there were some new toys sprinkled in for good measure. Thanks to the parents for a fun visit and help with the kiddos! Did I mention we ate [too] well? Hopefully we all get back on our diet wagons with success ;)


Some of Owen's take for the weekend...a cowboy outfit, made complete with Owen's birthday hat from Mommo and Daddo.







Asher is not completely fuss-free, we definitely have some crying when he's tired or hungry, as it should be! But the last couple of days he's had some more significant crying jags in the evening (and not even that bad mind you) and it caused me to realize just how much less fussy he is than Owen was! Wow. Of course maybe it's because I actually have *some* clue about the difference between hungry, tired, uncomfortable and overstimulated now and can respond more appropriately than I did the first time ;) I think Asher's recent fussies must be related to the 6-week fussiness peak that I've read about. And since he's 6 weeks (or 5 weeks 3 days according to EDD) today, maybe that means we'll only have a week of it total! That's not too bad.

Asher is committed to trying to injure both of us in the middle of the night. When I am burping him after feeding, he is really, really intent on holding his head and neck up as high as he can and trying to look around. I do not turn a light on at all when I'm feeding him, so I don't know what he thinks he's trying to see. Then, he gets tired or can't control himself anymore and his head comes crashing into my cheek or chin and it hurts!! Sometimes he lets out the most pitiful, sad-sounding cry after we've collided and I've tried to tell him he's bringing this on himself, but he doesn't seem to understand ;) I also try to keep it from happening, but it's difficult when I'm tired and not thinking that hard myself. Asher's liking his gym, and also loves looking at the sky outside. Other than that, he's still sleeping quite a bit and I'm not sure what else might be going on in that head! We haven't had any more really smiley days like that one I mentioned a while ago.


Daddy and son catching a TV show. Uh-oh. One of the new channels we can receive over the free digital airwaves has A-team reruns. Between those and the Wall Street Journal [which I recommended someone get him for a gift, oops!] I may have lost Reuel forever ;)

Here's a couple of Owen funnies from the last week:

Reuel was trying to teach Owen some early reading skills like letter sounds, and some simple phonics and spelling at breakfast time.
Reuel: C. A. T. Cuh. Ayh. Tuh. Cat! Hey Owen, how do you spell cat?
Owen: [Wrinkles up nose and sniffs the air]
Can you figure out what Owen was thinking? I guess 2 year olds really can't be expected to know what 'spelling' is!

Owen has really zeroed in on voice inflections that adults have (or maybe just his mother?) while speaking, and is a really good mimic. One of my favorites is when he's listing things. Today we were making a peach cobbler together and Owen says matter-of-factly, 'We need peeeach-es. [pause] And ciiiinamon. [pause] And suuuugar. [pause] And buuuuter. [pause] And a spoon! Hearing a recording of this is needed for full effect.

Driving in the car with my Dad after taking an unexpectedly tight corner that deseated a few of us, "Grampa turned really fast!", accompanied by my mother's not-so-muffled chuckles.

Brother love!

What an afternoon!

Well, we spent all day at the Smiths and had a grand time. Owen rode a real big boy bike with training wheels and pedaled and steered and everything...and thought he was the cat's meow. Asher slept from 8:45 am to 4:45 pm straight with some scant feedings in the interim. Yikes, we might be in for it tonight, or it might be the best night ever with such great naps, who knows. In other Asher sleep news, sleeping in the carseat at night rather than flat on his back in the bassinet has suddenly transformed Asher...he is entirely easy to put down, falls right asleep, and sleeps at least 4 hrs at a time. Wow. I tried putting him down in the bassinet again just to see if it was a fluke...nope! Just won't settle down in there.

So. Owen didn't take a nap today and needed to go to bed early. Asher slept all day and woke up right as the three of us arrived home and needed to get Owen in bed. Of course! Asher was *ravenous* having pecked at his meals all day, so after getting out some peanut butter and jelly and a bagel to make a quick sandwich for Owen I parked myself on the kitchen floor to nurse Asher and figured Owen wouldn't die if he ate a plain bagel for dinner. Lo and behold, while I'm paralyzed, Owen proceeds to push his stool across the kitchen retrieving a knife and then commences making his own sandwich :} Seriously! He did it all...opened the jars, spread his sandwich, got a banana. There was jelly bomb residue left around the kitchen after the fact, but hey, he really helped out in a pinch! I did have to squeeze in a picture or two when Asher took a nursing break. He also (under my verbal direction) got a sippy cup and brought me the milk and Hershey's syrup for some chocolate milk. And put away the jars, milk, etc. when he was done! (Did I mention that when I came downstairs from getting dressed this morning he was alone in the dining room putting away his duplo blocks all by himself! I gave him a mini Hershey bar for that.)







Well, between the big-boy bike riding and making his own dinner Owen was feeling pretty full of himself. So what does he do completely spontaneously during bathtime but stand up suddenly with a peculiar look on his face, tell me he needs to pee-pee, let me take him out and dry him off and then sit on his littly potty and go...first time. :O Now to the early potty trainers who mastered this all long ago, what's the big deal...well, if you'd seen the magnitude of the tantrums surrounding attempts to encourage the potty around here, you'd understand that this was a bit miraculous. I am probably the only mother in the world who's instant internal response was, 'Oh NO! Does this mean we are going to have to stop suddenly and find bathrooms whenever and wherever we go? Shoot!' But I guess it has to happen sometime, and my son appears to be potty-training himself, which isn't all bad.

What a growing-up day. Good thing I have another baby :)

First smile today!

Asher gave me a couple smiles today at 5 weeks, 1 day! Yippee! At first I thought I saw one flash by, but didn't trust that it wasn't just a random happenstance. Then, it was undoubtable! I was too busy enjoying them to actually capture one well, but you might see some hints of one beginning or ending in the photo shoot below. The smiles were accompanied by some yelpy vocalizations that were ever so scrumptiously delightful.















(This is my favorite Asher picture of the day ;)

Debbie's visit

Forgot to mention a while back that Auntie Deb came for a very fun visit. For several days afterward Owen said, 'Aunt Debbie's sleeping' every morning at breakfast, hoping she was still in the back room. We got not a single good shot of her visit, but here's the best we have! And we're praying for her adjustment and success at her new position at Johns Hopkins!!



If this picture doesn't describe Owen's attitude toward his brother (generally; as long as Mom's attention isn't *too* divided), nothing does!


My fantastic boys!

I captured a sort-of 1 hour nap today (while subconsciously listening to the sounds of Owen not napping over the monitor), and got something like 5 hours of sleep last night (though not in a row). I feel like a million bucks! So, I feel like trying to scour memories of recent days from my brain and record them.

Today we took Asher to the pediatrician for a checkup at 5 weeks. 'Perfect!' was Dr. Hoder's diagnosis. Owen was extremely excited about this visit (because it wasn't for him), mostly because of having read 'Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor' about 5 gazillion times recently. In the car on the way to the office he was talking about looking at Asher's eyes and nose and ears with a special little light over and over. And lo and behold, Dr. Hoder offered to let Owen hold the special little light and change it from white to green...Owen was in heaven. Asher, on the other hand, got the 2nd installment of a hepatitis vaccine, and was none too pleased. Believe it or not, he reacted worse to that shot than Owen ever did; I was surprised. He can get *really* mad if he wants to, and screams so hard that he loses his voice in the middle of each jagged cry. And he turns purple. The nurse felt terrible, and one would think that a pediatric nurse was used to these things! It's funny that Asher is overall much less fussy than Owen was but when he does have a temper flare, it is out of nowhere and very dramatic!

The big news of the visit was that Asher weighed in at 12 lbs 10 oz. Yes, that's right. He's gained 4 pounds in 5 weeks. Yikes!! I knew he had grown, but that's absurd. Owen grew similarly crazy fast, but I thought Asher would be a bit more conservative, having started out a pound smaller and all :P I was assured that it is no problem for him to be so big, but I am of course stressed that some sort of seeds of childhood obesity or later diabetes are being sown. I do feel that there's a point in his meals where he could probably be done, but I offer him more and he takes more. But I do this for good reason, because it seems to help him go the full 3/3.5 hrs between meals. Harumph. Maybe they're right and it's just how he's programmed to grow; after all Owen is a relative peanut now and he was a mammoth baby months 0-6. The one difference is that Owen was 95th%ile in all categories...head, length, weight. Asher is 50th% in head and length, 95th in weight!

Owen has been doing overall really well with the adjustment to Asher, lessening his whining significantly, and we start to see hints of an ability to get through a disappointment without resorting to an inconsolable tantrum. However, bedtime has become a bear. Owen absolutely hates being confined to his crib, but he is completely uninterested in trying out the big boy bed also in his room. So we have a whole lot of crying about getting in the crib, and then sometimes over an hour of fussing/moaning/tantruming about going to bed once he's in. Ah, not fun. We have (had) a firm policy of not returning to his room after bedtime for most of his first 2 years, and it served us well, but now he is creative enough to get us back in sometimes. This does lead to some cute moments too. Tonight I just watched/listened over the monitor to Reuel going in after hearing Owen complain that his shirt was 'sorta wet' and 'needs to put in washin' machine!' Owen was very happy to get Daddy to go in and change it for him, then he laid down and asked to be sung 'Morning is Broken' and 'Yellow Submarine'. Reuel apparently sang him versions of these songs on the one weekend I was out of town and he was hitting a dry well trying to think of toddler tunes when they had bedtimes together for a couple nights. Owen has never asked me for these songs, just Reuel, and Reuel never sings them with the same lyrics twice as far as I can tell.

A few phrases from recently...

'Mmm! Putatoes wif stwahbewwies in dem!' in reference to mashed redskin potatoes donated post-Asher by a wonderful friend.

'You wearing your comfy pants today!' in reference to sweatpants fished out of the back of the drawer for a rainy 60's August day.

'You don't like dat man (or replace man with many other nouns)! He scawes you!' while holding hands over ears (the universal Owen sign for not liking something). Owen always says 'you' when he means 'I' or 'me'.

Oh, so many more, but can't think of them.

Owen's absolute favorite thing to do right now is to help give Asher a bath. It's a wonder Asher hasn't drowned or gotten an eye infection from Owen dripping bathwater in his face as he tries to wash his hair (he absolutely can't resist attempting to wash his hair, even when we restrict it to a parent job). Very cute.

Owen has gone through a phase recently where he is extremely standoffish and retreats to the far corners of the house, (or the room if we're out) whenever a non-family member comes over or has a conversation with us. Then, he warms up within about 10 minutes. Just in the last couple of days he seems to be experimenting with friendliness and is being warmer right away. Today Mrs. Eleanor came to lunch with us at Lincoln Lab and Owen was happy to hold her hand (and was fascinated with the bandaid on her hand) and then during lunch he would reach over and just gently touch her arm and look at her. Funny! Even funnier, he is experimenting with showing other kids affection. At church on Sunday I was volunteering in the toddler nursery and Owen was there with me. Toward the end of the session I caught him over at the snack table standing with his hands gently on another ~18 month old's shoulders, Owen's face right at his cheek, and he was planting the most gentle, intimate little kisses on his cheek. These were no dive-and-peck kisses. They were slow and unashamed. It was absolutely shocking on the one hand (not only to me, but poor little Boaz looked like a deer in headlights!) and beautiful and adorable on the other. After seeing how this scene was going to pan out (Owen was apparently the alpha-toddler in this duo, Boaz was just biding his time til the smooch session ended, and Owen was in no hurry) I told Owen gently that he first needs to ask other kids if they want to be touched. But it seems like a crime to put a damper on such innocent affection (especially after the months of hair-pulling...I am all for kissing!!).

To end, we are still enjoying a freezer full of great food from Mommo and friends. Here's some not-edge-of-your-seat footage (but there are some good Owen laughs at the end) of Owen and Reuel enjoying some of it:
http://vimeo.com/6351364

Asher's current night schedule:

~8-12 sleep
12 eat
12:20-12:50 require interventions to return to sleep
~2 wake, not hungry yet, sometimes in discomfort prior to pooping, sometimes unexplained
2-2:30 require interventions to return to sleep
~3:15 wake and eat
3:30-4am require interventions to return to sleep
~5:30 wake and fed reluctantly (he's not really all that hungry but at this point no one has the energy to try to soothe him to sleep until he is)
~5:30-7:30 really restless sleeping, waking/rustling every 5 minutes or so.

What the heck?! No one is getting any sleep around here. It's actually deteriorated from the early days when there were some nights where he was doing at least solid 3 hr stretches. Reuel wonders about a milk allergy, but he doesn't have any 'classic' symptoms of that (like blood in stool, hives) And did I mention Owen isn't napping? Owen was a BAD sleeper, but at least he went right back to sleep after being fed at night. I had no idea this could happen! It's the same during the day, so it's not just day/night swapping I'm afraid. He just does this grunty squirmy thing every few minutes after you put him in the bassinet (or even if you hold him) and if you don't pacify him through it for nearly a half hour, he ramps up his crying and can't settle at all. Sigh! He's really a lot easier than Owen, except for this nighttime stuff!

:)

I feel that I may have achieved some sort of motherhood feat today. I would definitely feel proud if I were on my own. As it is, Debbie is here with us (yay!), so I really can't justly demand any kudos for handling things brilliantly. But, all the same, I just finished an afternoon of cleaning and cooking (sort of) for a dinner party, followed by nursing one child while attempting to get the other one to #2 on the potty at the same time. Debbie had to rescue us a bit at the end of the latter event, when things did not go as smoothly as desired. But still. Life is going to require quite a bit more energy in the near future! I hope that translates to automatic baby-weight loss, but I fear that may be one more thing to add to the to-do list; somehow there is always time to snack :P