Ridiculously Overdue Recap: A Crafty Thanksgiving Completed

So waaaaaay back in November, I told you all about some Thanksgiving crafts we did with BB and my nieces B and K - you can revisit them here and here.

Well, on Thanksgiving the kids used their crafts to tell the Thanksgiving story to the adults during dinner. It was such a sweet presentation - B really took the lead and guided K and BB through the storytelling, and the adults all laughed and enjoyed the show (and the abundance of cuteness).

Pilgrim hats and mayflower pictures


The littlest pilgrim


Native Americans making their special entrance




Showing off their "fish"

I love this next series of photos - take a look at SS







Our family on Thanksgiving


Eating Thanksgiving dinner


SS wearing the turkey shirt that I made for BB's first Thanksgiving

Okay, one Ridiculously Overdue Recap post down, "thankfully"!

6 Months Old

At 6 months, everywhere we go, everywhere, people comment on SS's big, blue eyes.

Everything goes in his mouth. SS can pull his pacifier out of his mouth and then put it back in. And he just started grabbing his feet.

SS rolls from tummy to back and back to tummy and ends up in a completely different spot than we left him, but he hasn't quite realized that he can transport himself to places and things that he wants yet. Although I hesitate to say that, because the other possibility is that he just doesn't want anything that badly yet - he really is a content little baby. Perhaps if there was some kind of machine that doled out kisses and cuddles, he would be more motivated to move himself, because he does love kisses, like breaks-into-big-smiles-when-you-kiss-his-cheek loves kisses, but as is, he is happy to lay on the floor and grab his feet and roll around just for fun.

SS is getting loud. He makes loooooong loud sounds when he is heading towards sleepy, not unhappy sounds, he's just chatty. It's hilarious. One night at dinner J said that SS was being loudly talky, and BB laughed - when BB stopped laughing, SS made the same noise, and BB laughed again, so SS made the same noise and BB laughed and J told me and we thought Oh no! We have two of them! Because BB loves to get a laugh too and will repeat himself to keep us laughing. I had assumed that SS and BB would be very different in personality, but this is something that makes me think they actually might be a lot alike.

Though one definite difference between BB and SS is that SS will smile at anyone who smiles at him - he is such a smiley baby, while BB made you work a little more for a smile. BB would take his time to observe people before he warmed up to them, but SS just grins right back.

SS remains a cuddler. His whole face just lights up in response to physical attention.

SS is still a comfort sucker - he loves his pacifier and falls asleep with it. He went through a stage where falling asleep for the night was a good hour-long saga of drifting off, pacifier falling out, baby freaking out, pacifier reinserted by mama or daddy, repeat, repeat, repeat, until J and I figured out he hates the dark. Even the nightlight was not enough for him. (He also cries at night when we are in the car because it's dark.) So now we turn on a soft lamp and he falls asleep much more easily. And we also remembered that BB had a little crib attachment that played music and lit up (like this) - it had broken in storage, so we had tossed it and forgotten about it. So we went to a resale shop and got SS one for $10 (LOVE resale!), and he is falling asleep easily again.

I feel like SS is right on the edge of so many developmental changes - soon he will be sitting up, babbling real sounds, teething, and tonight we are going to feed him his first ever solid food. But right now he's still just my tiny baby, all mama-milk fed (which I am very proud of because with BB we had to supplement with formula starting around 4 1/2 months). He's still soft and cuddly when you pick him up, not muscular yet.

Today at the doctor, he measured

27 inches long - 75th percentile

13 lbs 8 ounces - 2nd percentile

Yes, he is down to the 2nd percentile for weight. I laughed a little, because BB did the exact same thing and now he's really big for his age (everyone thinks he's already 3), but of course part of me worries a little too. He only gained 1/2 pound in 2 months, but he grew 2 inches longer. Our pediatrician said that he'd rather see this than the other way (overweight) and didn't seem concerned. I told him how many ounces I think SS drinks a day (based on how much I pump/he eats on days that I work) and Dr. Bean said that's the right amount for his size. Plus, SS is happy, plays, naps well and even has some chunk on his thighs - he is a healthy boy, it's just genetics. I reminded myself that today he wore his first 12-month outfit, because the length is perfect for him. He's a noodle, just like his brother and daddy were. I always say that my babies look different than other babies because they have necks, and when I told J's mom she said "Awww, that's how J was when he was a baby, he was my little turtle guy".

So that's SS at 6 months old! I am so excited to feed him his first bites of food tonight!

Happy 6 months Boo Boo Bear!

Reindeer Games

This is NOT a Ridiculously Overdue Recap (ROR) post, this is actually current news -

For Christmas, SS got a small stuffed reindeer toy from his Aunt Shawna.

We opened it and SS saw it, smiled at it, grasped it between his two inexperienced hands and fumbled it towards his mouth while leaning forward, eager to make the two connect. Everything goes in the mouth. SS gummed the reindeer's face while we all joyfully watched and declared that he was giving the reindeer kisses.

SS seemed to especially like his stuffed reindeer - it's one of the first toys he has really connected with, and so we started taking it with us everywhere so SS always had his little friend to smile at. A couple of weeks after Christmas I took the boys on a walk around the neighborhood to the park - I put both boys in the double stroller and packed up snacks and a blanket and I stuck SS's reindeer in the seat with SS to play with in the grass. In an effort to turn the walk into some real exercise, I decided to power-walk every street in the neighborhood on the way to the park. BB played for a while and then I power-walked every street on the way home too. A full 30 minutes of exercise + playground time for BB + fresh air and sunshine = successful day!

I had to work the next day, and the day after was a Thursday - I remember thinking "SS's reindeer isn't in his crib, where is it?" but figuring it must be downstairs. On Friday when I put SS in his crib for his nap I realized I still hadn't seen his reindeer, so I started looking for it. I asked BB if he had seen SS's reindeer and he said "Yeah, upstairs!" I said "Where?" And he said "Upstairs!" again. I said "Show me!" and he jumped up with me excitedly following him - he brought me over to the staircase and pointed up the steps, like I was asking him where upstairs is. Cute. He wound up taking me to SS's crib, where of course I already knew it wasn't. After I really looked everywhere and couldn't find it, I decided it must in the car, but J had taken our "kid car" to work that day so I couldn't look yet. Once J got home, I sent him out to the garage to find the reindeer, sure that he would bring it inside, but J came back in empty-handed. Suddenly I was panicked. The last time I remembered having the reindeer for sure was when we took it to the park 3 days before, so I jumped in the car and drove down to the park, and then drove around the neighborhood searching for it in the dark, shining my headlights onto the sidewalks along each road, since I had, of course, power-walked every. single. street. Oh cruel irony. This was all to no avail - SS's reindeer was lost. Really lost. Possibly never to be found lost.

I was so sad, sadder than the practical side of me thought I really should be. I mournfully woed to J about how it was the first toy SS really connected to and I carelessly lost it and what kind of mommy am I? We only had it for two weeks!

I prayed and prayed that we would find our reindeer, and in hopes we could at least buy SS a replacement, J and I started combing through the baby section of Target, and then after 3 Targets we checked Ebay and the Carter's website, all while hoping the reindeer would turn up in some random location. But he didn't. We broke the news to J's family and joked about putting up "Missing" posters around the neighborhood.

A couple more days passed and I just couldn't let it go. I realized that if the reindeer had indeed fallen out of the stroller on our walk and someone had found it, they had nothing to work with, no way to return SS's beloved reindeer. And once again, the thought about Missing posters came to me, and I just couldn't shake the idea. So even though it seemed silly, I knew I had to do it, to feel like I had made every effort. I had to actually make and post little Missing posters around the neighborhood. At first I was going to print out pictures of SS with the reindeer to put on the posters, and then I realized that I needed to just get this done right then otherwise it was never going to happen, so even though it was BB's nap time and I was breastfeeding, I grabbed some markers and drew a picture of the reindeer for the posters. Then I threw the kids in the double stroller and we briskly walked around the neighborhood, taping up the fliers. I felt both silly and accomplished when we got home and I put the boys down for a nap. But I was finally at peace with my reindeer-recovery efforts.

A few hours later I was cleaning the house and my phone rang - it was a strange number and I was in the throes of frantically-cleaning-house-while-the-kids-nap so I didn't answer. But the mystery number left a voice mail, so I curiously checked it - I had completely forgotten about the posters. A huge smile stretched across my face as a woman said "Hi, I'm B, and I found your reindeer!" I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. THE POSTERS WORKED! Some snippets from B and I's conversation include "I have a 15-month-old, so I totally understand," and "My husband thought it was a school doing an experiment to see if someone would call" (apparently my artistic talents measure up to an elementary school level). I was totally spazzy on the phone, saying weirdish things half-explaining the story, because I was so elated. I know I sounded like an overly-caffeinated weirdo. (I jabber when I'm excited or nervous.) Later that evening, our reindeer was home, and we reunited SS with his special toy.

B and I ended up chatting about mommy stuff at our front door for a good 10-15 minutes (by then I had brought my excitement down a few notches to a level appropriate for a stranger (after squealing with various family members and making a big facebook proclamation)). And then B and I ended up running into each other at a different park the next day. So maybe I will even make a new friend out of our reindeer caper. When I ran into B, I remembered to ask her where she actually found the reindeer, since I had forgotten to ask that in my spastic, overly excited state. She said that she had seen the reindeer for a few days in a neighbor's yard, so when she saw the poster, she went and grabbed it out of their yard and called us. She is our Good Samaritan.

This is SS's thank you:

Ridiculously Overdue Recap Alert

Between the holidays and New Year’s resolutions and a toddler trying to give up his nap and a cuddly baby filling my heart with every open-mouth grin, I’ve been so busy living life that I haven’t been blogging about life. So I’m going to try to catch up and post some Ridiculously Overdue Recaps alongside some current event posts.

I, like zillions of others, am attempting to use the new year to make some positive changes, including applying some structure of J and my’s daily schedule, as any semblance of structure that was previously there was destroyed by the survival-mode I go into over the holidays. I really want to get up before the kids, so that I can have time to read the Bible and set my heart right with God, get showered and dressed for the day, and run on some days – because J is also going to be working out bright and early before he heads into work, I will need to run even brighter and earlier, and if I do that, it means I will have some time I can set aside for blogging on those mornings before the kids are up, which excites me. Of course, this is all in an ideal world where I can actually get up when my alarm goes off, which I have yet to do since we set our new “family schedule”. I always think “If I could just not sleep, imagine how much I could get done!” but alas, sleep is essential to sanity. So we’ll see what happens – I might just be putting the kids into the gym childcare until it’s warm enough to run at the foreign hour I have designated to do so on the family schedule. That's actually what I tried out today - I used a guest pass to try the YMCA, as their childcare setting is more desirable than my current gym's (the workers are background checked, fingerprinted, CPR certified, etc.). All that to say, I MISS BLOGGING - it's my virtual family scrapbook, and I want/need to make time for it.

Anyway, some Ridiculously Overdue Recap posts to look forward to? A Crafty Thanksgiving, Completed (yes, I'm that behind), SS's dedication, Christmas, a random photo dump (doesn't that sound gross? What's a better way to say it? ) etc. - many of these are half-written drafts (the photo dump draft is titled December Dump, but that sounds so wrong), SO without further adieu, I'm going to try to actually write and complete an entire post!