Thursday, February 26, 2009

Bear's Business

The sleep has gotten better, but Bear is still not back to sleeping through the night. I can't even count how many times I've had to tell myself this over the last year, but I need to get it in my head--BEAR WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE A GREAT SLEEPER! He's 13 months old now and it just seems like if he were going to miraculously change, he would have done so by now. The way the sleeping is going right now is livable, I suppose. Bear gets tired at 8:00 pm (almost on the dot) every night now. This is a welcome change, because this gives me an opportunity to get some awake time away from him. Previously, he was going to sleep as late as 10 pm and I was just worn out by that point, so the only time I wasn't with him was when I was sleeping at night or when he was napping (a very short hour and a half). Anyhow, it takes about a half hour to get him to sleep (also a welcome change), during which I read him a book (3 times only!) and then pat his back until he falls asleep. Sometimes he cries, sometimes not, but he's getting much better about accepting the fact that he IS GOING TO BED IN HIS CRIB. He generally wakes up about 3am and is unfortunately awake for 30 to 45 minutes. I have started getting used to this, I guess, because I sometimes wake up before he even cries out. The problem is that I can't always go back to sleep after rocking, patting, soothing, etc. for that long of a time. Hopefully I'll get used to this as well.

He's recognizing more words and it seems like he learns something new every day! The only phrase I can think of that I didn't mention in my last post is "lie down", which is what I say when he tries to get up at bedtime. He responds by doing just that, so I'm assuming he knows what I mean. He's also been answering us when we ask him questions, with either "yeah" or "no". I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what he's saying, but at least he recognizes that that's how people answer questions!

He's begun dancing (so cute!) to his toys that play music. He cracks me up trying to entertain us--he'll dance for a few seconds and then look back at us and wait for us to clap before he starts back up again. He does the same thing when he plays his little piano. He has (just now!) started playing peek-a-boo, too. I have read that kids would enjoy this game from a very early age, but he always just looked at me like I was nuts when I tried to play with him. Now though, he understands to hold the blanket in front of himself and to take it away when we ask, "Where's Barrett?". He laughs a lot, so I'm assuming he likes the game now!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Changes

We are definitely going through some changes with Bear lately! They aren't really that big of a deal, I guess, but they sure do feel like it in the moment. I've had so many moments in the past few weeks where I feel absolutely lost as a Momma.

The biggest change is probably his sleeping habits. He's decided that he no longer wants to fall asleep the way he has for months and months. In the past, he's been in love with Baby Einstein DVDs and has fallen asleep while watching one for many, many nights. He would sit right next to me under a comfy blanket and just go to sleep! I would then put him in his crib and he'd sleep (mostly) through the night. This all started to change around Christmas, when he got a nasty stomach bug that kept him up for much of the night for about a week. Then, he started teething, so he didn't get back to sleeping through the night and was waking multiple times in obvious pain. Now, he's still not back to sleeping through the night, but he's only woken up once for each of the past two nights and I've been able to get him back to sleep relatively quickly. Hopefully we are on the way to getting him back to the WHOLE night soon! I'm kind of tired! Oh, but bakc to the way he falls asleep (I kind of rambled, sorry.)--He now wants to be rocked and read to until he falls asleep. The only stinky part about that is that he wants the same book read approximately 38,000 times in a row. If I stop reading, he cries out in protest. So, I read. The good news is that he's been going to bed earlier at about 8:30 or so. The bad news is that he's been waking earlier, too, at about 6:00. I can deal with this, but I need to get used to it. That is, if he'll let me get used to it! It seems like lately whenever I get used to anything, he's been kidding all along and wants it an entirely different way the next time.

Other changes include: eating habits, talking (sort of...I don't think the words are recognizable to anyone but me and Max), gestures (waving, clapping, etc), walking (he took two steps toward me!). I suppose he's probably on the way to becoming more independent, but he sure is confusing right now! I can feed him something one day and he loves it. The next day, he acts as though I'm trying to poison him. He goes from knowing sign language for a few words to just clapping whenever he wants anything, leaving me entirely clueless! Some days he'll act as thought he's really interested in walking and other days he'll go jello legs on me when I try to help him.

We're having pictures taken of him today and I'm really hoping that the bruise on his forehead doesn't show up too much. Wish us luck! He's not in too great of a mood right now, but hopefully he'll cheer up before 10:00. We'll see.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Best buddies

I'm not planning the wedding yet, but for right now, Barrett and Kaitlyn are the best of friends! Of course it helps that Kaitlyn's mama and I are pretty good friends, too. Kaitlyn's mom, Nancy, is the president of the MOMS club I'm always yammering on and on about and I'm the secretary, so we get to spend lots of time together. We also work out together and we call each other when our husbands are out of town or are busy with work and can't be home with us. It's so nice to have a friend with a child close to Barrett's age! I think Barrett is comforted by Kaitlyn's presence in the gym nursery and if we are at a group outing, they usually gravitate toward each other. It's also nice that either child will go to either me or Nancy!

We had our most recent playgroup at the Play Place, which is basically a huge playroom. It costs $6 per child and is so worth it! The kids played there for nearly 2.5 hours! Kaitlyn and Barrett had a good time on this spinning toy:


The Play Place has bins of dress up clothes, so of course I had to embarrass Barrett. He's such a ham for the camera, though, I don't think he minded:


After naps, we headed to the park. We've been having some very nice days lately!

baby baby