Cheating with the fork

I apologize for all of the videos lately, but I have this bad habit of taking lots of video and then leaving it on the camera. I don't know why I never get around to downloading video to my computer. It's not like it's hard, I just never do it. For some reason I can download pictures like a madwoman, but video? Forget it.

Anyway.

For the most part, Johnny still picks up food with his hands when he's eating. Yes, I know I should be pushing eating utensils, but I don't care. I let him use a fork when he's interested in one and I don't push it when he's not. Honestly, it's WAY less clean up for me if I just let him use his hands. Hands generally don't become accidental food catapults... generally. That being said, this particular day Johnny wanted to use MY fork. Not his little fork, my large adult fork. So I let him try it.

His use of eating utensils a bit unconventional and kind of defeats the purpose of using said utensil, but at least it's cute.

Wanna wrestle?

This is how Daddy and Johnny play:

Cute, right? What's even more adorable is that after Johnny was done playing this game, John turns to me and says, "This is what I always imagined being a parent would be like. Wrestling and rough housing with my little boy is the best."

::heart melts::

Mimicry

Johnny has always been indifferent to what it is I'm doing. Unless what I'm doing is ignoring him. Then he's all over me. Well, recently I've caught him doing things that I do on a nearly daily basis. Like this:

Yeah, he's trying to use the can opener on that can of cream of mushroom soup (which actually has a tab to peel off the top, but I wasn't going to point that out). It took me awhile to figure out what he was trying to do. After he got a hold of the opener, he kept pointing to the pantry door asking me to open it. When I did he got out a can and then attempted to put the opener and can together saying, "Turn. Turn! TURN!!!" Hilarious.

Here is another of his recent antics in the kitchen:

Luckily he can't open the oven... yet. But once he is able to, at least he knows how to put on oven mitts.

A picture of me and Hank

I was looking through pictures from 2010 a couple of days ago and realized that I'm hardly in a single one. John makes a cameo every 500 pictures or so, but most of them are just of Johnny. So I promised myself to make more of an effort to take pictures of myself with my kids because I know I LOVED looking at photos of my mom and me from when I was little. It's just fun to see your parents when they were your age, you know? So here we go:

 It took about five tries to get this one taken and I still had to crop out all of the extra stuff. Perhaps one day I will take awesome cell phone pictures like my sister-in-law, Lisa. Seriously, she has awesome pictures of herself and Jack that I think she takes with her iPhone. My Droid Eris doesn't have a fast enough shutter speed to catch a good picture of a moving baby. Alas. For now, I try to take decent shots of myself and my kids with my rather large Canon Rebel, but hey, at least the quality rocks!

It's 8:45am...

 where is Johnny? Sleeping. The kid who hates to sleep is sleeping. As my husband says, "He's sleeping in like a drunken teenager!" This situation reminds me of a joke:

In the US they say, "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?"
In France, they say, "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your wife is?"
But in Poland, they say, "It's 10 o'clock...

....do you know what time it is?"

Ha! I love dumb Polish jokes.

Disclaimer: I may or may not be a little punchy from waking up so much last night.

My kid hates cameras

I've said a few times that Hank is all smiles all the time until the camera comes out. This is evidence:



He's all adorable and happy and then he sees the camera... cue personality shut down. I suppose he won't be quite the ham that Johnny is... at least for now.

Blog Hop: A Typical Day

I did one of these "day in the life" posts a few months ago when I was pregnant with Hank and, obviously, our routine has changed quite a bit since Hank was born. I tried to take a few pictures here and there to illustrate and then got sick of it... therefore there are only pictures of the first half of our day. Oh well.

6:30am: Hank wakes up, so I get up and we play for a few minutes before I hit the shower. Hank chills out on the floor of the bathroom while I get clean.

7:00am: Hank and I go downstairs to get some coffee and breakfast. I usually listen to my morning show (DSC, if you don't listen, you should) while eating and playing with Hank in his infant seat.

My favorite coffee cup. I used to feel guilty about drinking caffeine and breastfeeding, but this cup made a convincing argument for coffee. I now have a caffeinated drink almost every day.

 7:15am: Unload the dishwasher. I swear, with only three people eating real food around here, we go through a ridiculous amount of dishes. There are dishes to put away nearly every. single. day. But at least I can put them away while Johnny is still in bed, otherwise it'd be putting away dishes while trying to keep Johnny from smashing said dishes on the floor.

7:30am(ish): Johnny is ready to get up and makes it known by yelling as loud as possible.

7:35am: Johnny picks out his shirt for the day... this is a trial because he always wants his "Mater" shirt, which is usually dirty because he has worn it to bed a few times and also during the day a few times. There just comes a point where a T-shirt has to be washed. So he usually goes a little crazy when I tell him his Mater shirt is dirty and then finally picks a different shirt. Then I'm allowed to pick out his shorts. He couldn't care less about the bottom half of his wardrobe.

7:45am: Hank is ready for a nap, so he gets swaddled and stuffed in the ring sling.

7:47am: Johnny pulls me by the hand into the play room, where he drinks some milk and plays with trucks.

9am: This is when we usually do our leave-the-house activities like running errands, going to playdates, going for a walk, etc. This day, however, was a cleaning day. So I dusted and vacuumed the upstairs rooms while Johnny chased me around asking if I was "done" and Hank slept in the ring sling.

10:30am: Hank is awake, so I feed him, change his diaper, and put him down for some naked tummy time to give his little bottom a chance to air out.

11am: I finally get Johnny to eat something. He's never been one to sit down after waking up and have breakfast. Some days it happens, but this day it did not. So, Johnny sits down to eat an egg and blueberries while I sit down and eat some lunch.

11:20am: Brush those teeth! The brushing of the teeth is a variable in our day. It does happen every morning, but the when changes. Sometimes Johnny eats a real breakfast when he wakes up, so we brush teeth after that; other times he won't eat until some time closer to lunch, so we brush teeth then. I'm just proud that I'm able to brush AND floss his teeth every day. I'm an oral surgeon's daughter. Dental hygiene is important.

Normally I brush and floss Johnny's teeth while he's lying down on the changing table. That way I can hold his head with one hand and brush with the other... but it's hard to get a picture like that. So we posed in the bathroom.

 11:30am: We have some more play time. Usually involving the car, like this day. Sometime while we're playing, Hank is ready to sleep again, so I stuff him back in the ring sling.

12:30pm: This is about when Johnny takes his nap and our routine varies a little bit here. If Hank is really passed out, then I leave him in the ring sling while I get Johnny down for his nap. If he's kind of wakeful, then I take him out and put him in his crib where he usually cries for the duration of Johnny's nap time routine. Oh well, it sucks being the second child.

12:45pm: While Johnny naps, I usually do a combination of things. Play with Hank when he's awake, leave him in the ring sling when he's sleeping, blog, upload pictures/videos, clean up after our morning, make phone calls, or just lounge and read my book. However, I hardly ever sit down. Sitting down means Hank will most likely wake up... so I all of the above things while standing or walking around for two hours.

2:30pm: Johnny wakes up, usually crabby.

2:35pm: More playing in the play room, while I chase him around with a banana or some other form of food. Hank generally hangs out and watches Johnny and I play.

3:15pm: This is when I start to just kill time until John comes home. Johnny is usually tired of being inside, so we'll go out and run more errands or play out in the front yard. On this particular day we took a walk to the grocery store because Johnny kept saying "shop" and then led me to Vons. I thought we were headed to the local park, but Johnny knew where he wanted to go. Weird.

4pm: I start making dinner while Johnny plays by himself or tries vainly to get my attention by pulling out cooking utensils and pans and opening the refrigerator. Hank sleeps in the ring sling.

5:15pm: John comes home and I get dinner on the table... kind of. This is always a production because I'm trying to finish cooking, John is trying to get the table set and Johnny is trying to bodily and verbally force John outside so they can play in John's car. The five o' clock hour is a noisy and busy one in the Durso household.

5:30pm: Dinner is served! Hank watches us eat from his infant seat or is nursing. Johnny is trying to grab at our eating utensils and demanding more of this or that. John is trying to keep Johnny happy while attempted to eat himself and I am either nursing Hank, fetching different food for Johnny to eat, or eating myself. After dinner, I clean up while Hank chills and John and Johnny go play by the pool; Johnny is usually naked by this point.

6:15pm: I start getting Hank ready for bed by bathing him, giving him some time to air out, swaddling and then nursing him. John is attempting to get Johnny inside in an non-violent fashion with a few tears as possible.

7pm: Hank is down. John is reading stories to Johnny while Johnny runs around his room, pulls shirts of hangers, opens drawers and plays with the fan.

7:30pm: John exits Johnny's room whether he's asleep or not. If Johnny isn't asleep, he cries for a little and then settles down to play with Scout or to go to sleep. John and I then get to relax, which consists of cleaning up the kitchen, picking up Johnny's toys, then maybe watching a movie or surfing the Internet.

9:30pm: I dreamfeed Hank and then go to bed. Of course, my night consists of getting up to feed Hank every now and then, but for the most part, my day is done.

Obviously, there are an awful lot of breastfeeding sessions and diaper changes that go on during the day, but I felt it was overkill to include all of those. Not to mention even more boring than the things I chose to include.

Bumbo time!

Hank's head control, while pretty good for his age, continues to get better and better. I decided to challenge him by putting him in the Bumbo. He was pretty indifferent, just being smiley and sweet as usual. Or maybe that means he liked it. Whatever. He was happy while he was in it (but he's also happy while sitting in a pool of his own poop so his standards aren't exactly high).

And then, in the way of toddlers, Johnny was suddenly interested in the Bumbo after Hank sat in it.

I guess all of that tummy time is paying off.

Johnny's "big boy" room

John and I set up Johnny's big boy room at the end of May and I promised pictures... so here they are! Finally!

We managed to get the exact same crib as the one in the nursery on clearance at Babies R Us.

I know this one is dark, but you can see the window with the blackout curtains and the dark blue valence.

This is a ruler growth chart that John made. I saw it on Pinterest and asked John to recreate it, so he did!

Truck wall decal.

The theme of the room was "construction" so I got him bedding (just a crib sheet) with trucks all over it and the wall decals are all construction-related. The green truck with the pile of black dots? Took FOREVER to get on the wall. Worth it, though.

We don't spend a lot of time in Johnny's room because it gets really really hot, but the whole thing is child-proofed nonetheless. That way if Johnny ever climbs out of his crib while we're still sleeping we don't have to worry about him pulling the dresser over on himself. Because John bolted it to the wall. Genius.

Ode to the second child

Everyone always jokes about how the first child has thousands of pictures and albums devoted to just them, while the second child has fewer pictures and albums and each subsequent child has even fewer than the second. When I was pregnant with Hank, I told myself that I would do my best to keep that from happening.

Fail.

A couple of weeks ago, Hank rolled over for the first time. And I missed it. Hank was doing some tummy time while I was trying to keep Johnny occupied so he wouldn't keep pulling on Hank's head trying to get him "up". The next thing I know, Hank is lying on his back, watching Johnny and me wrestle. At first I felt a little guilty, especially as I remembered how stoked I was when Johnny finally rolled over. There were facebook posts, videos captured and pictures taken to memorialize the event. For Hank? Nada. Sure, I've tried to catch him rolling on camera, but he just won't do it.

This isn't the only thing he won't do when someone is watching... I swear he crawls when I'm not around. I (I mean, Hank) mentioned this is the 2 months old post and while he's not moving around with his belly raised and hands and knees moving in a coordinated fashion, he seems to be moving. Though I'm not sure how.

Here is the story.

I left Hank doing tummy time naked on his towel in the nursery. He was safely away from any potentially dangerous items, like furniture. As seen here:

I went into Johnny's room to get him up and dressed for the day. While putting on Johnny's shorts, I heard some crying from Hank's room. Not the I'm-sick-of-tummy-time-dammit crying, but the Oh-my-God-something-is-really-wrong-save-me! crying. So I go in there, and this is what I see:

Reenactment

Somehow, he had pushed himself off the towel and crammed his head under the ottoman. He was 8 weeks old when this happened, much too early to be this mobile. I was counting on him not walking until he was AT LEAST 9 months... looks like I'll be needed leashes much sooner than anticipated.

Note: No babies were harmed in the publishing of this blog.

Bedtime

Our family routine has changed quite a bit since Hank was born. One of the big things to change was John taking over Johnny's bedtime ritual... and boy is it fun to listen to the whole thing go down while I'm putting Hank to sleep. John has WAY more patience than I do, which is why it takes a good hour for John to put Johnny down.

And now, my husband's very first blog post!

Since right before Hank was born I took over the duty of putting Johnny down for bed, at first so Kelly could rest her very pregnant back, then so she could focus on putting Hank to bed.  Albeit sometimes frustrating, I really enjoy closing my evenings with some quality Daddy/Johnny time.  At first things were pretty easy; Kelly had a well established bedtime routine with a bath, bottle and blankee, but once we traded the bottle for a sippy cup full of milk, things got a little sideways...

You see, when Johnny was going to bed with a bottle we would do the bath, a little nakee time, get dressed, read a few stories, turn on Scout, turn off the light and sit down with the bottle.  By the time his bottle was dry Johnny was either asleep or in a sleepy, milk-drunk state in which he could be gently picked up and put to bed with little or no back rubbing.

Now that's all out the window.

I don't know if I can blame it on the sippy cup or Johnny's ever-changing toddler personality, but he is just all over the place at bedtime these days.  He's recently discovered the mirrored closet doors in his room; boy is it ever adorable!  He runs around naked, sticking out/sucking in his belly, making funny faces and giving himself high fives in the mirror.  The toughest part is convincing him to put on a diaper before he pees all over the place.  A few months ago Johnny was such a good deal maker:  "Johnny, if you sit down and put on a diaper I'll read you a book."  These days I spend about fifteen minutes watching him jamming stuffed animals into his crotch and running around with a big smile on his face saying "nooo, noooo!".  In the end he always comes and sits on his diaper, sometimes after faking me out a few times, saying, "Psych!" It can sometimes be frustrating and I would get mad, but he's just so damn cute!

Hank's 2 month doctor visit

Hank visited the doctor on Wednesday and did quite well, despite the FIVE (count 'em: FIVE) shots and one oral vaccination he got. He was pretty pissed about being pricked so many times, but after nursing for a short while, I swaddled him and stuck him in the ring sling where he promptly passed out. Passed out so hard, in fact, that he actually STAYED asleep in the car seat. Poor guy. He must have been pretty traumatized. That's why babies have such short memories though. Thank goodness.

So here are the stats:
Height: 25" - 97%
Weight: 13lbs 5oz - 86%
Head circumference: 16.2" - 82%

This is all pretty similar to Johnny at the same age, though strangely, Johnny weighed more than Hank even though he started out two pounds less... must have been all those nighttime feedings that Hank feels he doesn't need. The doctor also took a look at the ear that failed the hearing test (Hank's right) and said that it looks like there is fluid behind the ear drum still, so not to fret too much.

All in all, Hank is healthy, happy, and thriving.

Brothers?

I was looking through the pictures I have of Hank (the number of which is pitifully small compared to the number of Johnny I had taken by the same age) and I found this picture:

Which looks an awful lot like this picture:

Yes? Except that the second picture is of Johnny at about the same age as the one of Hank. 7 weeks-ish.

Some friends of ours that met Hank this past weekend proclaimed, "He looks EXACTLY like Johnny! It's like a replay!" Which prompted me to go back and look at pictures and videos of Johnny at this age and well, the evidence is above. They are definitely brothers. Looking back at all of the documentation of Johnny was a little weird because I barely remember him being that small and uncoordinated. It blows my mind that he was ever as helpless and tiny as Hank is now... so much happens in the first year and a half, it's hard to keep track of it all and commit everything to memory. Thank goodness for technology! If only I had been as good about blogging back then as I am now... but I suppose that's why Johnny has two almost completely filled-out baby books and Hank doesn't. Oh well!

Hank is 2 months old!

I'm 2 months old today!

As you can see by the evidence above, Mommy finally snapped a picture of me smiling. See, I'm a bucket of smiles whenever I'm awake (and not eating, of course), but the minute Mommy brings out that camera, I have to put on my model face. Which looks more like this:

I was going for "Blue Steel", but I think it looks more like "WTF, Mom?" I suppose I have to work on this facial control thing if I actually want to model someday. 

Anyway. I'm cooing up a storm these days and I have no problem hanging out on the floor while Mommy gets a quick shower in whenever she can. I still take all of my naps in the ring sling, though sometimes I'll fall asleep in the car seat... but only rarely. I still sleep a decent amount at night and even have a relatively consistent bedtime and morning wake up time. Even my feedings are pretty consistent from day to day. I attended my first wedding this month (Congratulations, JJ and Paul!) and had a blast dancing to the Black Eyed Peas from the sling. Other firsts include rolling over from tummy to back a couple of weeks ago and crawling!!! (<---kind of. Mom will fill everyone in on that later.) Yeah, I rocked my second month of life, what can I say?

Look who discovered his reflection!

Hey, is that... me?!

Damn, I AM cute, huh?

The Little Lamb swing we have has a little mobile with lambs and stars on it, but what Hank is most enthralled with is the mirror that is at the center of all the lambs and stars. He'll sit there for a good ten minutes and just stare at himself... then again, I shouldn't be too impressed because he sat and watched me fold laundry for about half an hour yesterday. I'd say he's a pretty mellow kid.

I love Mondays

When I was a teacher, I hated Mondays. Never in my life did I think that I would actually LIKE that dreaded day that meant a return to work with five classrooms full of kids who were just as disgruntled about it being Monday as I was.

Now? I LOVE them.

Yeah, it's great having John around on the weekends because he helps out so much, but the return to routine on Monday is just awesome. Especially because I feel well-rested since John does help me out so much on Saturday and Sunday. Johnny also welcomes the return to a routine and is always really well-behaved and a lot of fun on Mondays. Not that he doesn't miss his daddy, as evidenced by the fact that the first he thing he says when I walk into his room on Monday morning is "Daddy?"

For whatever reason, everything seems to work out better on Mondays. Johnny asks to eat when he's hungry and will sit in his high chair for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hank stays asleep while I put Johnny down for his nap. Johnny actually goes down for a nap. I almost always manage to get the laundry done and put away.

Yes, Mondays are magical. But that doesn't mean I'm not jonesin' for the weekend by the time Friday rolls around. Monday is definitely the highlight, then it's downhill from there... don't ask me why. I have no clue myself.

20 months

I'm 20 months old today!

I have completely left those teen months behind and am barreling headfirst into my '20s. Before I know it I'll be 2! Holy moly! 

Well, the last month has been full of talking since I know lots and lots of words. Most of these words are one syllable, but I can say "Johnny" and "Daddy". Any other multisyllabic words or phrases get turned into monosyllabic words (like "tank" = "thank you"). Some adults may not understand what it is I'm saying, but luckily Mom totally gets it. Someday I might put these words together to make sentences!! So far the only phrase I can say is "Hey you!" which would get me in trouble in places like restaurants if I wasn't so darn cute. 

As you can see from the photo above, I eat all kinds of foods now. I have enough teeth to take bites out of larger foods or eat things like ribs off the bone. I use a fork or a spoon occasionally, though I tend to get over it pretty quickly and eat with my hands. More evidence of my carnivory:

I take a nap almost every day now at about the same time and have even given Mommy a break by not fighting it too hard. Bedtime, however, is a completely different story. Go big or go home, right, Daddy?

Hank's SSN

For the first eight weeks of his life, Hank has been pretty much off the grid. As in, he doesn't have a social security number. While John and I are kind of tempted to keep it that way, we know it'll just be more of a hassle to get him one later in life when we sign him up for things like, oh, public school. So I'm doomed to play the government's game.

Unlike the hospital, at the birth center there isn't a person who does Social Security (SS from here on out, despite the fact that those initials have been taken previously by the Third Reich... I kind of think that's fitting considering what the Social Security Administration does, which is assign you a number so others can keep tabs on you) paperwork. Therefore, you have to go to the SS office yourself and apply for a number for your newborn after you get the birth certificate.

Last week, I picked up Hank's birth certificate and called the SS office to find out what I had to do to get a SSN for Hank. The automated message thing that I called was useless. It just said to bring a form of ID to the office and apply in person. So I packed up Johnny and Hank and headed to the closest SS office. I drove up and actually found a parking space in the teeny-tiny lot and got all excited because the parking lot fits, oh, maybe seven cars. "If there are only 7 people are here, I'll be in and out in a jiffy!" I said to myself.

I should have known better. This is a government office we're talking about.

I strapped Johnny into the stroller and put Hank in the ring sling, walked into the office. . . and looked around in dismay at the number of people waiting. All of the seats were taken and a good number of people were standing. However, I wasn't about to go through the rigamarole of putting kids back in the car without a SSN for Hank. So I got my number and then waited in line to check in.

And I waited. And waited. . . with my fussy newborn and irritated toddler. Finally I got to "check in". Mind you, this wasn't to actually get the SS number, it was to make sure that I was at the office for the correct reason.

This is my conversation at the check in window:

Me (handing over my numbered ticket and Hank's birth certificate): "I'm here to get a SSN for my newborn."

SS woman: "Okay. I need two forms of ID."

Me: "I have my driver's license and passport, will that work?"

SS woman: "Oh no, not for you. For your baby."

[shocked pause]

Me: "Really? He's only seven weeks old... what other ID does he have other than a birth certificate?"

SS woman: "Well, a shot record would work."

Me (frantically searching through all of the medical paperwork given to me at the birth center): "I don't have his shot record."

SS woman: "A certificate of live birth would work too. Or any kind of document with his name and birth date on it from the birth center will work."

Me: "None of these have his full name on them. They are just records of my labor and his birth written by the midwife, but none of them has his full name."

SS woman: "Then I can't help you. You need to bring a signed testimonial of live birth from your midwife. It can't be a copy, it has to be an original where you can see the pen marks."

Me: "So these 20 or so pages of records of birth and my labor along with the birth certificate aren't going to be enough?"

SS woman: "No."

Me: "[Insert choice swear word here]."

Really?!?!? TWO forms of ID for a NEWBORN?!?!?! He's been on this earth for seven weeks and he should, what? Have a driver's license? MAYBE you should put that in your automated phone service; you know, the one I called to make sure I had everything I needed? So irritating. Especially when SS is a joke anyway. Why do we need to jump through so many hoops so you can assign a number to my child to make sure that he'll be paying taxes? It seems that YOU should be jumping through the hoops for ME to make sure he gets a number. And don't you EVEN give me any crap about how it will pay off when he's 65 and gets his SS benefits because we all know that's a load of toddler poo. (Why toddler poo? Because I imagine that it stinks way more than bull poo.)

Rant over.

Summary: Social Security Administration? It blows.

Cutting of the hairs

I hate cutting Johnny's hair. Hate. it. He's super squirmy, so it takes about 30 minutes to buzz it and then afterward, his hair floats in the air since it's so fine and gets EVERYWHERE. In my eyes, in Johnny's eyes, in Johnny's mouth, all over the place. Then Johnny gets irritated because his eyes hurt with all of the hair pieces in them. And then there's hair all over the floor and furniture that takes forever to get cleaned up.

Basically, cutting Johnny's hair is not a pleasurable experience.


So, while I was getting a haircut last weekend, John and my dad took Johnny to get a haircut at the barber shop in the shopping center by our house.

Before:

After:

Yeah, it's a little shorter than I usually cut it, but he looks SO cute with a little crew cut. And really? $9 every 6 to 8 weeks is a small price to pay to have someone else cut Johnny's hair.

IB's Sandcastle competition

A few weekends ago, Johnny, Hank and I went to the Sandcastle competition in Imperial Beach with my mom, aunt and uncle. The weather was beautiful and the sand creations were pretty unbelievable! When we got there, it was around Johnny's nap time, so he took a nap in the stroller while we walked from our parking spot to the beach (about a mile) and then perused the festival.

We snagged some lunch from a restaurant and then folded up the stroller and put Johnny on my mom's shoulders so that we could walk around the beach and look at all of the sand art. I'm not exactly sure how it all works, since this was my first time going to the competition, but as far as I could figure, there were categories for the sand art and then in each category there were amateur and master teams doing their thing. It was pretty obvious which ones were done by amateurs and which were done by masters. Most were pretty impressive, considering I have issues getting sand to do anything I'd like it to do.

This is the sand creation that won the competition. It was a tribute to the troops and very impressive.

We saw about three-fourths of the projects when the tide started coming in, making the walking area much smaller. There were an awful lot of people there and the decreased walking area made it much more difficult to get around while carrying a stroller and a newborn. By that point Johnny was pretty done with sitting on my mom's shoulders and my uncle was done dealing with the crowd so we headed back to the boardwalk and walked back to the car. It was a really neat event despite the ridiculous amount of people. I think it would be even more fun with kids old enough to enjoy the sand creations.

If you want to see more pictures, check out this website: http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-ib-sandcastle-competition-2011,0,7437982.story

Tres años.

 

Three years ago today I married the greatest man I have ever known. He is my best friend, my partner in crime, my calm eye in the storm of life. Happy 3rd anniversary, John. I love you and the family we've made together!

The Daytime Sleep Situation

The nighttime sleep situation is still about the same as it was when I blogged about it last week. Except that now I put Hank down at the same time John is putting Johnny down... and I put Hank down drowsy, but awake. See, when the pediatrician told me to do this with Johnny, I looked at her like she was crazy. Johnny would never put himself to sleep even when drowsy. And if he fell asleep on the boob, I wasn't about to wake him up again. "ARE YOU MAD WOMAN?!?!" I wanted to ask, but I merely smiled and nodded. This time? I'm doing it and Hank actually falls asleep by himself in his crib around 7:30PM and stays there until midnight-ish. Yeah, it's awesome.

Daytime, though? It's a pickle. Hank's a snuggler, there's no denying that, so his favorite place to sleep is next to me. Therefore, I've been packing him up in the ring sling and letting sleep there. He actually has some nicely formed naps; one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening, like the books say babies should sleep. The only issue is that he won't go anywhere else. The swing? For a ten minutes, tops, and that's after crying for a good fifteen minutes (usually when I'm putting Johnny down for a nap or doing something else Johnny-related... I'm not having Hank cry it out at 7 weeks old). The bed/crib? He'll sleep there for a little while in the morning.

For now, this arrangement doesn't bother me for a few reasons.
1- He's still pretty light.
2- He's still a newborn and trying to get through the "fourth trimester" as coined by Dr. Karp.
3- It means that Johnny and I can go places without being tied to the house by Hank's sleeping schedule. I can't even imagine how pissed Johnny would be if we had to stay inside all morning while Hank was napping? Melt down doesn't even cover the degree of tantrum that would be going on.

And really? As a second-time parent I know that any bad habits I start now can most likely be broken later so I shouldn't sweat it.

Hi everyone!

Hank just wanted to drop in and say "Hi!"

The eyes are still blue!

I was trying to catch him smiling, but instead caught him...I don't know... grimacing?

So now that he's said his hellos, it's time for an update.

Last week Hank had his newborn hearing test. I know, I know, he's hardly a newborn anymore, so why is he getting a hearing test so late? Long story short: birth center could do it, but with our insurance it was easier to get it done with the pediatrician. The first available appointment was in August... and I called in June. Apparently they're pretty busy.

Anyway. This test is supposed to be done while the baby is asleep, so he just chilled in the ring sling while the lady attached the electrodes to his head and put the speakers in his ears. She conducted the test and the good news is he stayed asleep the entire time. The bad news is that his right ear failed the test. His left ear is totally fine, but his right ear didn't respond, which means we'll be back for more testing. The tester said that many things could be the culprit for the lack of a response: too much ear wax, fluid behind the inner ear, etc.

I'm not too worried. I know he can hear because every time he's sleeping somewhere other than me, Johnny will get close to him and yell "HANK!!!!" and he jumps and wakes up. Yeah, I think he'll be fine.