Christian: 5 Months

Somewhere along the way I lost my teeny, tiny baby and now there's this big boy in my house.

A big boy who can wear shoes. I told David that although these little shoes (his first pair!) are a little too big for him right now, it won't be long before we're saying "remember when his feet were so tiny he could wear these little things?"












I held a sleeping intervention for Christian last week and didn't go to him when he woke up for the first time one night (he'd only been asleep for about an hour and a half, I knew he wasn't hungry). He cried and cried, but after that he only woke up once more to eat, and then slept until morning. He did the same thing the next night, but with no crying. The past few nights he's been getting up twice, but I will take it (for now).

I tell you, I feel like a new person with all this sleep I've been getting! It doesn't hurt my face to smile! If you call me on the phone, I might not even feel like shredding something in your ear! (You can read this post here to know what I'm talking about.)

How funny that getting up ONLY twice makes me feel like I could run a marathon.

Nap time is still not so good. I've been following the advice of one of my favorite sleep books, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child so I know that someday he will just give in to the pressure and sleep. Do you hear that, Christian? Just give in to the pressure.

Otherwise, as a 5 month old Christian:

*Finally rolls front to back, so now he can roll himself all over the house.

*Wears some 0-3 month clothes, but mostly size 3 months and a few 3-6 months. 6 months stuff is still gigantic.

*We are done swaddling because of his rolling, so now he has to wear a pink sleep sack to sleep in. Most baby items that I knew we would use for multiple children are gender neutral in color, but every so often something very girly slipped through. But Christian looks good in pink, as noted here with this pink diaper:












*He got his first kiss from Brynner.












*Sleeps in his crib in the nursery. This means I need to get busy and fix up the nursery all boy-like.

*Chews on his fingers and hands and my fingers and baby toys. He can grab stuff, too. So talented.

*Likes to stand up.

*Is becoming super chatty and squeals like a girl.

*Thinks I'm the most hilarious person to walk the planet.

It's true buddy, I am.

And The Winner From Last Night is...

...Christian! With 7 wake-ups to Daphne's 3. Good job Christian! And, Daphne only woke up crying hysterically twice. The other time she woke up and sang approximately 37 rounds of 'Old McDonald Had a Farm' (did you know Old McDonald had pumpkins? He did. A pumpkin here and a pumpkin there.) and she carried on a long and interesting monologue on how her Ducky Duck is a toy and not for eating.

Never a dull moment.

Who Wants To Buy Me a New Face?

Last night was one of those fun nights where Christian was up 3 times (normal for him), but Daphne wins the prize by getting up 4 times. Only one time did her waking coincide with a time I was up feeding Christian, otherwise she saved it for when C was sleeping.

I love it that my kids are such great sleepers.

Excuse me while I go Scotch tape my eyelids open for the day.

Scrawny but Healthy

Christian turned 4 months and Daphne turned 3 all at about the same time and so we were able to book their well child appointments together.






















I kind of forgot about Christian's 2 month appointment (read: lazy, didn't feel like going, etc., etc., etc.,). I got a call from his doctor's office saying "we noticed Christian is late for his 1 year appointment, so please call to schedule soon." I really felt the love with that one.

Anyways, it was quite exciting to see that Daphne is 0.01 on the percentile chart for height and Christian is 1 percentile for weight (read: my children, the overachievers). He's 70th percentile for height and weighed 11lbs 12 oz.

At least now I know why Christian still wants to eat every 3 hours at night. Although wouldn't it be SO great if he stopped doing that?

Daphne was IN LOVE with the little hospital gown she got to wear (read: she cried when we took it off and wanted to take it home with her). I've never known anyone to be so happy to wear a hospital gown.

A Snow Day

This morning Daphne got up, looked out the window, and wanted to go out and play.

Her first 'real' snow day.






















('Real' meaning she actually wanted to go play in it. The 2 feet of snow when she was born doesn't count.)






















Christian was there, too, but it was hard to take a photo of him while he was in my arms. I wanted to lay him down, but ice pellets were falling from the sky and I figured he wouldn't really love getting hit in the face with frozen bits of water.






















We wish it would snow a whole bunch.

Even More Cooking (AKA: I {Heart} Pinterest)

Have I mentioned that Daphne is super into doing projects right now? Like cooking? I find myself spending a bit of time in the evenings planning projects for the next day. Suddenly I feel like a teacher again. Maybe I should buy a teacher planning book! I sure did love those things.

Anyways, today we made banana snowmen, which I found (surprise!) on Pinterest. How many times do you think Pinterest will be mentioned on the blog this year? I guess one zillion times.

I made Daphne the first snowman so she could see what we were doing. Mine looked exactly liked the picture linked above, minus a face. It was 5:30PM and I was too tired to come up with face ingredients. Body, arms and buttons seems good enough to me. (I realize 5:30PM does not seem late enough to be so tired, but it is very late when you've been up since 2:30AM with The Boy Child Who Will Not Sleep.)

Apparently to Daphne my faceless Frosty was not good enough, so she gave him bulging eyeballs and a Pinocchio nose. Freaky. (Seriously, just focus your gaze on the bulging eyes and imagine that snowman coming at you in the night...)















When she was finished she took great delight in telling me that she ate Frosty the Snowman.















In Christian related news, his rolling has put a serious crimp in our sleeping (and was the reason he couldn't sleep after 2:30 this morning). Then today he napped not one minute. I thought he was rolling a bit early so I looked it up today and sure enough, it's typical to start rolling back-to-front at 6 months. Front-to-back usually comes first around 5 months.

Goodness, son, I'm glad you excel in rolling, but let's just go back to napping, yes?

Next Up: Crawling

Look at what this little dude can do:





























































I love him for his ability to learn new things, but we have been working our tails off trying to get him to sleep well.

Now he's all "I love my new talent, I will practice every chance I get!"

So he's comfy in his bed, swaddled tight in his straight jacket blanket, rolls over, face plants in his mattress, can't move and starts crying a muffled cry.

It's not relaxing for him or me.

I forgot about this part of sleeping issues...learning a new talent and having it interfere with sleeping.

Babies. Always throwing us for a loop.

Cooking with Daphne

**Update:
We recommend the frozen chocolate banana treats that we mentioned making in this post. Delish.













**Original Post:
There is a reason Daphne's Christmas tree ornament from me this year was in the shape of a little tart pan: this girl loves to cook.

























Sunday we made pizza, Wednesday we made guacamole, this morning we made trail mix, and this afternoon we're going to make these yummy things that I found on Pinterest.

And we do it all while wearing matching aprons.

Christian: 4 Months

Right now the boy is lying in his bed loudly protesting nap time, so suffice it to say that sleep is still not going well. I think I would give a kidney to sleep a 5 hour stretch some night. 8 hours and I would probably die of pure happiness. Even 3 hours would put a spring in my step.

Other than being a wretched sleeper, Christian is pretty much perfect in every other way. I had heard of folks who said their babies only cried when they were tired or hungry but since my experience with my first baby was pretty much as opposite from that as possible, it's pretty amazing to now get live with one of those babies. He still smiles often, laughs easily, and makes me thankful everyday for his easy going personality.

I'm most thankful that even though he's tired from refusing sleep with all his might, he manages to stay happy during the day. It's hard to be tired beyond belief and then have to care for an overly tired and cranky child, so the fact that he can look at me with his red rimmed eyes and still muster up a smile warms my heart.

I would have 10 more babies if I knew they would be just like Christian. He's pretty great.

Our Christmases Were Merry

I didn't get it, though.























Christmas Eve was a 49ers game.

















Christmas Day Daphne discovered what stockings were all about. Christian took the longest nap of his life and missed opening stockings, eating Christmas breakfast, and opening gifts. I'm glad he didn't notice that he had no stocking or gifts.
















Monday we dressed like elves and other festive folks.























Wednesday we played crazy tourists and ate at the Carver Cafe. Twilight, anyone? We bought t-shirts, because that's what tourists do. The food is really good, though, so I think you can go there even if you don't like Twilight.

Now our tree is out and the lights are down and Daphne is asking for more Christmas parties. Apparently 5 parties weren't enough for her. Or they were just enough to make her think we should establish a weekly Christmas party habit.