The time Hank broke his arm

Hank broke his arm. Most of you probably know this by now, but I figured I'd blog it for posterity... especially since I completely skipped his whole getting-stitches-in-his-chin experience last year. Oops.

Rewind five weeks. We're at one of the boys' favorite parks. We met up with a friend and her two boys and had a delightful time. Johnny was digging in the sand with his excavator, making sure other kids knew not to get too close to it because it was his. Hank was running around the park and then sprinting straight back when a kid got too close to his front end loader, exclaiming "No! Don't touch my earth-movers!" Even kids who were ten feet away and not even headed in that direction weren't safe from Johnny's and Hank's protective postures. Amy was snuggled in the wrap on my chest, sleeping, as per usual.

We did this for a couple of hours and then our friends went home. I, on the other hand, planned to stay for a while longer with the hope that a long car ride would induce a nap in one or both boys. The boys eventually abandoned their earth-movers, and decided to climb on the play structure there. Hank was hanging from a ring as he has done thousands of times before, but this time, Johnny pushed him pretty hard, and Hank landed right on his left arm.

Unfortunately, I didn't see it all happen. A very pregnant woman was packing up her sand toys and I bent over to pick up a few by my feet to help her out (I was just there and remember looking at sand toys on the ground and debating whether I should just leave them there...) and that's when Hank fell. I knew almost immediately that something was wrong. Hank is a tough kid. He's the kid that whacks his head on something, he says "ow", then shakes himself and gets back up to play. This time, he wouldn't stop crying. His wrist looked a little swollen, but not like you would expect a broken arm to look. However, he wouldn't grab my finger with his left hand and my mommy intuition was going off, so I made a command decision and we left for the ER.

I dropped Johnny off with John and Gail (my in-laws, thank goodness they were able to watch him!) and got John to meet me at Children's Hospital to help with Amy.

In the hospital exam room. He's so tough, this kid. Not crying about his broken arm, but definitely crying about the X-Ray that needs to taken.

A few hours and a lot of tears later, it was determined that Hank had a small, green-stick fracture in his distal radius of his left arm... his dominant arm. He had a cast put on and only asked me to take it off ten or twenty times before realizing that I had promised him chicken strips, fries and a milkshake at Smashburger after we were done. Not bad for a two-year-old with an uncomfortable cast.

He just got it off a few days ago and is doing great. We're still avoiding parks since the bone won't be up to strength for another couple of months and I'm supposed to keep him from climbing too high. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Good one, doc. Hank is... a thrill-seeker, to put it mildly. Keeping him off a jungle gym would be like trying to keep me away from raspberry chocolate truffle cheescake: someone's head would come off in the struggle to get to the prize.

Anyway. That's the story. Not all that thrilling, but we made it through four weeks of a cast without getting it soaked/ruined/broken. I call that a win.

Using the potty

Johnny has been out of diapers completely for over a month, so I think it's finally safe to say that he is DONE with diapers. Yay!!! ::throws confetti::

It wasn't a lot of fun though. See, around November of last year, Johnny tricked us a little bit by showing interest in the toilet and going so far as to strip off his pants and diaper, climbing up on the toilet by himself and peeing in it a few times. Without any coercion from us. None. Zip. I knew he was ready since his diaper was dry when we awoke in the morning and after any impromptu naps, but I didn't want to force him. So John and I patted ourselves on the backs for not being pushy and letting him do it on his own.

Then he stopped doing it.

Which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that he started peeing on everything else in the house. Oh, and he thought it was hilarious, which meant Hank joined in the fun.

People, there were a couple of months there that I was ready to duct tape diapers to my children.

I mean, what was I to do? They would run around naked for hours, and then pee wherever they happened to be. Sometimes Johnny had a little more premeditation and would pee on my shoes. Or the toy he didn't want Hank to have. Or Hank. Sometimes he would be considerate and pee on the floor of the bathroom (which is linoleum, thus it's easier to clean than the carpet in the rest of the house). They were completely capable of removing their own clothing and diaper, so I couldn't keep them clothed. I tried using a poster and sticker-incentive to get him to use the potty. It worked for a few days, but then he was over the stickers. So I just cleaned up each and every mess.

Finally, when we got back from our east coast trip, Johnny started wearing underwear full time, at night, too, and ever since, he's been great. There's a learning curve, obviously, and he's had a handful of accidents, but honestly? It's been pretty easy. He showed interest in wearing underwear and using the toilet, which, I think, has made the biggest difference. He has no desire to sit in wet underwear or pants, so he's gotten really good at telling me he has to go or even doing it all by himself. I do often have to remind him to use the bathroom since he'll get really wrapped up in whatever he is doing and will forget about it.

Ultimately, it went pretty quickly once he was ready to give it a try. I'm so glad I waited until he decided to do it himself instead of foisting it on him with one of those "three-day potty training programs" or something of that ilk. I can't imagine fighting with my kid over something that he will want to do on his own eventually if I just leave it alone. And now I have to remember that when I get sick of changing diapers for Hank and the baby... Hank will do it by himself if I just let him lead the way.

The first movie

I think it's rather well-known around these parts that Johnny and Hank are fans of the movie Cars. So when the movie Planes came out a few weeks ago, John suggested making an impromptu trip to the theater to see it. It turned out to be quite the experience for us all.

We walked in and the boys were captivated by all the neon lighting and movie posters. They stared at the display of candy and Johnny was so excited to push the button to put butter on our popcorn.

Staring at the cashier while we get our tickets

CANDY!

In awe of the theater

We timed it so that we would be walking into the theater five minutes before the movie began, thinking that the less time we spent in the theater, the more likely we could see the whole movie. Well, it was a good idea, but that meant the whole theater was packed. We managed to find three seats together, which worked well since Hank was not interested in having a seat to himself. So he sat in my lap the whole time.

For the first hour of the movie (including previews) they boys were enchanted. Hank sat in my lap and stared slack-jawed at the screen in front of him, soaking in all the colors, sounds, and characters and stuffing his face with popcorn. Johnny loved sitting in his own seat and preferred to have the bag of popcorn sitting in his lap so he had the best access to it.

The movie itself was... less than stellar. I already knew it wasn't going to be Cars caliber because it wasn't made by Pixar, just a subset of Pixar that produces mostly straight-to-DVD movies. The characters were pretty much doubles of the ones already found in Cars and the plot left much to be desired. But for 2 and 3.5 year olds? It worked out well.

Of course, once we were an hour and fifteen minutes into the movie (which was an hour and forty-five minutes with previews), the boys were asking to go home. They had had enough popcorn and movie time and were ready to move around. To be honest, I was really impressed they had made it that long, so I consider it a win. Though John was really bummed that we didn't get to see the end of the movie. So I guess we'll have to watch it when it comes out on Netflix. :)

Hank's first haircut

Before:

After:

Doesn't he look like a little man now? I swear, he looks a whole year older with short hair.

It's funny, with Johnny we took him to a special kid's salon for his first haircut. He sat in a seat shaped like a little car and held on to the steering wheel while the experienced stylist cut his hair nicely with a fade and everything. I snapped pictures of the before, during and after.

The second child? I held him while John buzzed his head with our clippers at home. Number 4 all over please. And really? HE LOOKS ADORABLE. And we saved $30. Win.

I made the switch to cloth.

I used disposable diapers with Johnny. And it was great. But I had a hard time with the waste (no pun intended) that disposable diapers generated. When Johnny was 8 months old, I even did a "test drive" where I received 15 different cloth diapers to try out to see if I liked any of the styles. In the end I decided that cloth diapering was just too much for me to handle. There's the washing, the drying, the stuffing and the time needed to do all of that. Each type of diaper has different washing instructions. Most diapers are supposed to be line dried and each diaper has a different insert that has to be put in just so. I was already crazy-overwhelmed with motherhood and decided that cloth diapering was not something I needed to tackle.

Then I met Darcy, who cloth diapers her adorable little boy and has since birth and she made the whole thing so much more accessible for me. Talking to her was real and I got immediate answers instead of having to search forever on the Internet only to come up with four different ways of washing your diapers. So, I bought my first diapers on craigslist just to try them out. And I found out that it's actually pretty easy once you get in the groove.

I've been cloth diapering Hank (except at night, we'll work with that soon) for a few months now and I'm loving it. I mean, I don't LOVE having to deal more with his poop on a daily basis, but I love that if I'm running low on diapers, I do a load of laundry instead of buying more at the store and agonizing over the cost difference between Vons and WalMart and WHY COULDN'T I JUST REMEMBER TO BUY DIAPERS WHEN I WAS THERE YESTERDAY?!?! <--- That happened to me a lot with two babies.

Anyway. So yeah. I like cloth diapering. And Hank does, too. I mean, look at this face:

Happiness is a butternut squash colored Fuzzi Bunz diapers

My favorite diapers: BumGenius 4.0 (it's a workhorse and my most reliable diaper) and the Fuzzi Bunz One Size Elite. The Fuzzi Bunz used to leak like crazy, so it wasn't my favorite, but then Darcy helped me fix that by instructing me on how to seal the diaper. Since then? I love them.

If you want to start cloth diapering, or at least try it part time, I recommend going on craigslist and getting four or five used diapers. Wash them in hot water a few times and then try them out. It took me actually DOING it to get over my hang ups and just go for it.

That JUST happened

In case you need a reminder, Hank is 9.5 months. Oh geez.

I guess I need to post something

I know. I've been gone. [insert excuse here]

So Hank is full-on crawling now. Okay, maybe not the kind of crawling you see those adorable babies doing on diaper commercials, but his crazy spastic crawl gets him where he wants to go. Which is always toward Johnny and whatever Johnny is currently playing with. Hank has yet to figure out how to move his hands and knees in sync and instead just randomly throws a hand here, a straight leg there, a knee out the side. It's actually quite adorable. However, this new ability to move means that he's squirmier than ever. This kid was already quite the handful when being held (my Uncle Charlie described it as wrestling with a 25 pound kettlebell), but now he's got motivation to get down. Which makes him fight all the more.

"Let me down so I can play with the stuff Johnny doesn't want me to have, MOM!!!" he seems to say as he arches his back suddenly as he twists away from you in an attempt to make you drop him. It certainly is a workout.

I don't have any video of him crawling, but I have a really adorable one of him showing off another of his new-found talents. Enjoy. (This was taken with my iPhone, hence the weird aspect ratio.)

Hank's food

I keep forgetting to post about Hank and his experience with solids! This is pretty old news by now, but I figured I'd share for the sake of keeping history.

So we started with homemade brown rice cereal on the day of his 6 month birthday. I probably made it thicker than I should have, but he did fine with it.

After a few days, we tried avocado:

Yeah, not a fan of avocado. But, we've found all kinds of foods he likes:
banana
mango
sweet potato
kale (I'm serious)
broccoli
pear
butternut squash
plain yogurt
steel cut oats

Sometimes he'll balk at a food we try for the first time, but after the three-day trial period he comes to like it.

I remember that I hated this stage of eating with Johnny. It was such a hassle to make his food and store it and then get it ready for him when he was ready. This time around? I've got it nailed. I try to make a batch of food every morning and then freeze it in an ice cube tray so that I always have a stash of food cubes ready when it's meal time. Now I'm actually enjoying it!

We have a tooth!!!

Finally, after weeks of teething, Hank has cut his first tooth:

Just in case you can't see it... because it's kinda hard to see.

This teething experience has been yet another piece of evidence toward how different kids (even brothers) can be. I remember Johnny being a little fussy when he was cutting teeth, but then a tooth would come out and I'd say, "Oh wow, look, a tooth. I guess you've been teething for awhile, huh?" With Hank? Totally different. About four weeks ago he started screaming when he got tired (and therefore, unable to be distracted from pain) and shoving his hands in his mouth while sobbing uncontrollably. Then he started chewing on EVERYTHING. His hands, my hands, wooden spoons, plastic toys... my nipples... everything. The poor little guy was absolutely miserable. But now at least we have some progress. Only 19 more teeth to go. In the first set, of course.

And now more photos since I rarely get my camera out anymore and whenever I do it's a party!

I throw my hands up in the air sometimes...

One of my favorite Hank faces

Forever a Mama's boy... well, at least for the foreseeable future.

Hank's first word.

I know, I know, Hank's only 7 months old and certainly not old enough to talk, but I'm going to take this one and run with it because it took Johnny about a year and a half before he would say this:

Yeah, he's a Mama's boy for sure.

Mark it.

We went to Target yesterday. Normally, this would not be all that out of the ordinary because I go to Target a lot (especially now that they have groceries!!!), except that this trip wasn't punctuated by Hank's screams and cries. We made it to and from Target without any crying in the car! Whoo-hoo! Granted, the trip is maybe 10 minutes long, but that's 20 minutes of car time. Rather substantial for Hank. He started to get a little antsy as we turned on to our street, but other than that he was an angel.

And finally....

... Halloween pictures!

Having two kids means that I get to do coordinating costumes!! However, since they're so little, and thus don't care much about Halloween, I chose to do something easy and cheap: The Super Mario Brothers! I made their hats using this tutorial and the rest (overalls and shirts) I either had already or got for cheap.

 Johnny didn't dig his hat (he removed it after the first picture), but he LOATHED his mustache. So I drew one one him instead.

Sad Mario.

 Hank, however, LOVED the mustache. But we had to take it off because he started eating it. So I drew one on his face, too.

I know, they have little Frenchie mustaches and not the big, bushy Italian plumber mustaches like they're supposed to have, but do you know how difficult it is to draw a mustache on a baby's face?? It's like trying "to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse" as Scotty from Star Trek would say. [NERD ALERT!]

Off with the hat!!!

Off with HANK'S hat!

Empty??

Aw, a picture of the brothers!

Scratch that. No picture of the brothers.

Halloween is fun!

The crew walking home from a wearying candy expedition.

My in-laws, John and Gail, joined us for the Trick-or-Treating event (which stopped at approximately three houses and then involved Johnny running down the street and toward the supermarket) and Gail took all of the pictures for us. Thank you!

Now... what do I do next year that doesn't involve hats? Or mustaches, for that matter.

---NEWSFLASH---

JOHNNY'S SLEEPING IN A BIG BOY BED!!!

It all started on Tuesday, when he kept climbing out of his crib at naptime. He was all out refusing to take a nap, despite being so tired that he was laughing and crying at the same time. So, I'd put him in his crib and leave. He'd climb out, run to the door and open it to find me standing there. I'd calmly pick him up, walk him over to the crib and put him in without saying a word, then I'd walk out. Then he'd climb out, open the door, etc. etc. etc. We did this... oh, maybe 15 times? Luckily, Hank was awake and happily cooing in the hallway, so I could spend time doing this. Finally, he gave up and I rubbed his back for awhile and left him to fall asleep.

That's when I told John it was time to upgrade.

So Tuesday night we went out to Target so Johnny could pick out some bedding. Unsurprisingly, he picked out Cars bedding, as you can see in the pictures above. John set up a twin-size mattress in the corner of Johnny's room and backed the crib up next to it for a side rail. Johnny took to it immediately. It took him awhile to wind down for actual sleeping, but once he got in bed for the night, it was pretty easy. I rubbed his back for a little longer than usual while I laid next to him, but then I told him that I was leaving, he said "Night" and I walked out. He didn't even cry.

I went downstairs where John was cleaning up (I know, I have an awesome husband) and told him he should be ready for a rather sleepless night since Johnny would be taking advantage of his new-found freedom and getting up a few times... hopefully only a few. I turned on the monitor in our room and waited for him to cry out at night when he woke up and was afraid because he didn't know where he was.

It never happened.

He slept the whole night in his bed (well, in his own room, at least), got up the next morning, walked out of his room carrying his Blankie and Scout and said, "Mom? Play?" like nothing had changed. Granted, I'm expecting him to explore his new freedom at some point, but it was nice that it wasn't his first night in the big boy bed otherwise, I'd have to rethink the whole new bed thing.

My little boy is starting to show me that he's not-so-little anymore.

Look what I found!!

 IT'S A FOOT!

Hank just discovered his foot and has a great time holding it and looking at it. Whenever he is lying down, in his infant seat or his swing, he curls over, grabs his right foot and marvels at it. I love babies that are easily entertained.

In the Bjorn

One evening a week ago, I put Hank in the Baby Bjorn facing out to see what he would think.

Our efforts to get Johnny in the picture resulted in Hank losing his hat.

Well, he dug it while we walked around, but the second he got tired, he lost his mind. Poor little guy was really overstimulated considering that he is usually snuggled up to me when we go for walks or out for errands. Taking a look at the big wide world when all you've known is your mom's chest is probably a pretty freaky experience. The overstimulation session led to a rather wakeful night, wherein I did most of my sleeping in the glider with Hank in my arms nursing.

Yeah, the Bjorn has been packed up and put away for a later date. Or maybe for the next child.

And just like that...

... he's that much closer to being a big kid.

The past weekend, John and I switched our kitchen and dining room tables. Our kitchen table was counter-height and difficult for Johnny to sit in a chair safely and eat with us. Our dining room table, however, was normal height. Thus, we decided to just switch our tables instead of buying a new one for the kitchen and selling the counter-height one.

Why did we need a lower table? Doesn't Johnny have a high chair? Well, he has been growing increasingly interested in sitting in regular chairs like John and I do. Last weekend we had lunch at Rubio's and since there weren't any high chairs available, he sat in a real chair. He actually did pretty well. So now, he sits at the table in a real chair with a real plate (that he has yet to throw off the table, though I'm expecting that any day).

2x Bathtime fun

A few nights ago, Johnny and Hank took their first bath together. Please view the pictures below and soak up the cuteness.

Johnny giving Hank a hug

My little boys holding hands. Adorbs.

Hank smiling!

"Okay, Hank, you can stop touching me."

At first Johnny was a little upset that Hank was taking a bath without him. So he tried to get in fully clothed, which is unusual for him considering how much he enjoys being naked these days. After Johnny got in, he kept telling Hank to get up; I think he's confused by Hank's inability to do everything he can. I suppose he's never really interacted with a baby before and, thus, has no clue what they are (well, mostly aren't) capable of doing.

Anyway. The bath was pretty cute with Johnny loving up on Hank for a good five minutes. Then he was over it and was ready for Hank to get out so he could play with the bath toys.