5 Months!

Where is the time going? Didn't we just bring wee little Nick home a few weeks ago?  My guy isn't so "wee" anymore. This little cutie is putting on the pudge, and I love it, love it, love it!!!

Nick is very vocal now and has the best giggle (when we can get one out of him--he's stingy like his sister was). But, while we don't often get the laughs, he almost always has a big smile on his sweet face.

He's rolling over both ways now, and as of this week, prefers to sleep on his tummy. He can hold his bottle, but he's not usually up for the extra effort. He prefers to hold onto my fingers while I hold the bottle. He's still sleeping through the night, but is an early bird like his big sis--he's up 5am every day. Unlike Lainey, however, he's a breeze to put down at night. We put him in his crib at 7:30pm and he puts himself to sleep. Still my little dream baby!

Here's a little video clip of Nick enjoying a warm day in the back yard:

 

Drop that Phone

My friend, Nicole, sent me a food-for-thought article from The New York Times: "Resisting the Siren Call of the Screen: 3 Books Offer Ways to Cut the Cord, If Only Briefly" http://nyti.ms/15XcUhn.
After reading it, I had a good dose of Mama Guilt, thinking about my phone habits--especially around Lainey and Nick.

I keep my phone near when I get home with the kids, so Mark can text with his ETA from work or let me know he's missed his train stop and we need to come get him (I hope that was a one-time thing). Fair enough. A phone is meant for communication afterall. But, the problem is, if my phone is near me, I find myself sneaking peeks at email, Instagram, Facebook, blogs, etc. I probably spend between 10 - 15 culmulative minutes between the hours for 6-8pm looking at my phone. Not such a big deal, right? Except I have less than two hours of time with my kids each night--and much of that time is spent prepping their food, changing their diapers and clothes, and giving them baths--which means much of that time is spent cajoling or arguing with Lainey (Nick still lets me do as I please with him). Our time together playing or "just being" is very limited, so robbing even five minutes of precious face time with them is really too much.

Also, the constant web-surfing and email-checking is not a habit I want to instill in Lainey and Nick. I want them to value personal interacations and activities that require their imagination instead of a touchscreen. I want them to be comfortable with quiet, idle time, instead of needing constant entertainment and stimulation. Actually, I want to be comfortable with quiet, idle time again. I don't remember the last time I just sat quietly with my thoughts. If I want my kids to resist the "siren call of the screen," I need to set the example and resist that call myself.

So, starting tonight, I'm putting my phone and computer time on lockdown. If my babes are with me, the laptop stays shut and the phone is for calls and LIMITED texting only--and only with a very small set of people (if you don't share a bloodline with my children, you're going to have to wait until after 8:00pm ). I don't think a few hours of digital-free time will prove too difficult during the week, but the weekend will be tough. We'll see how I do...

Pearly Whites

Although our pediatrician said we could wait until age three, Lainey took her first trip to the dentist this past weekend. We've been diligent about brushing her teeth--and she finally has become cooperative in the process--but, a few weeks ago, I noticed her top teeth were greyish along the gum line and freaked out. Since she's on our dental insurance anyway, I went ahead and booked an appointment and prepared myself for the worst. We practically have to sedate Lainey at the ENT's office, so I envisioned screams, tears, flailing arms, and hard kicks. It was not helpful that I had to book the appointment during her nap time (or wait four weeks for another Saturday appointment that worked with our schedules).

I spent Friday night and Saturday morning prepping her by talking all about the dentist and showing her pictures of the doctors online, so she'd be familiar with their faces (only to arrive and find a new doctor that just joined the practice).

All my worry was for nothing. She did GREAT!!! She wouldn't let the hygeinist use the electric toothpolisher on her, but she did let the dentist scale her teeth without any struggle. I was floored!Perhaps the parade of gifts that were brought to her throughout the visit helped...stickers, a rubber ducky, a balloon. And when she was done, she got quarters to pick a prize from the vending machines (you know the little guys you see at grocery store entrances). Did I mention that she got to choose a DVD to watch on not one, but TWO, TVs in the examine room...one on the wall for when she was sitting up and one on the ceiling for when they leaned her back. Heck, I want to go to this dentist.

And as for my distress that we had neglected her teeth and they were rotting away, they were just stained from her Vitamin D drops. The discoloration came right off with the scaler. The advice was to have her drink a little water after she takes them. Easy breezy!



A smile this great must be protected!

Beach Time

After talking about it since Memorial Day, we finally got in some beach time on Sunday. The trip started off kind of bumpy...Mark left the house in his slippers (but, noticed just as we pulled out of the drive); we bumped the car behind us when parallel parking (and the driver was in it and not kind about it); we forgot to bring Lainey's toys (but, she made due with the caps from the sunscreen for digging sand and pouring water).

But, despite all that, we had a really good time. Lainey loved the sand and water, and Nick had fun kicking around on the blanket. If we can move out of these fall-like temps, we may try again this Sunday. 

Enjoy some pictures of the kiddos having a beach ball of a time!

Striking a Pose

Digging to China

Having His Fun in the Shade

Where did 4 Months Go?

Mr. Nick turned a whopping four-months-old last week. I can't believe how fast time is flying with this little guy. I swear I just brought him home a few weeks ago and now he's a smiling, laughing, roly-poly boy.

All is well with our best guy. He's still growing and reaching all his milestones. He can roll over both ways, push up on his arms, grab/pick-up toys, and best of all...wait for it...he's sleeping through the night!!! (Well, not last night, but the four before it). Now, if he could just have a talk with his sister...

He's just a sweet, happy baby, who loves to babble and pump his little arms and legs. And Lainey is still his most favorite person in the world! It doesn't matter what trauma she's putting him through, he just stares at her and smiles.

This guy...always smiling

House

I’m finally grabbing a few moments to write a post…

So, about the house…we’re in! But, still quite unsettled. We accomplished a good amount last Friday, because the movers were super fast, but things slowed over the weekend when both kids got sick and needed extra cuddles and attention from mom and dad. I’m happy with the house, but living in a two-story is taking some getting used to after having everything on one level for so many years. I actually was getting cramps in my calves earlier in the week from all the up-and-down. But, we’ll get a better routine down eventually…I hope.

Lainey loves the new space. She was adorable when we brought her home last week. She had been to the house a few times, but now it had all her stuff in it. She just kept pointing at things as saying “It’s Lainey’s [fill in the blank].”  We also bought her a play kitchen as a “welcome to your new home” present, which she played with pretty much non-stop over the weekend. I’m so glad we went ahead and got it, so she’d have some easy entertainment, because we are currently without cable or internet. That story is too long and aggravating to recount, so I’ll just leave it at “Comcast sucks.” In theory, we should be getting set-up this Saturday. Mark told me if the guy shows up and says he can’t do it, I should just call the cops. It hasn’t been as excruciating as I thought living without TV, but the internet thing has been hard. We have our iphones, but the internet runs better on wifi and some things just don’t cut it on a 2”x4” screen.

We’ve had a few other little snafus with the house, but we’re working through them. For instance, we are replacing all the interior doors, because a) they’re old and worn and b) when we ripped up the carpet, it left a two-inch gap between the bottom of the floor and the door. There must have been some serious padding under that stuff. Turns out all the doors in our house are 1 5/8 inches thick, but standard doors these days are 1 3/8 inches thick. They don’t even make 1 5/8-inch doors anymore. Our contractor thinks he has a work-around, but of course it will cost more money and there’s a chance that once he starts, it could be more difficult than expected and cost even more money. Welcome to home ownership.

On the very bright note, it is wonderful to have a yard and to be in easy walking distance of a few parks. And it’s even more wonderful to be able to roll the stroller right out of the garage and not have to lug it in-and-out of the car trunk or up-and-down the stairs. And can I get a shout out for central heat and A/C?!! Even though the temperatures cooled off so much this week that we’ve actually needed the heat at night, I’ll take heat that I can control with a push of a button, instead of cranking on a half-dozen radiators. And did I mention the garbage disposal…yeah, we’ve got one of those again, too!

Also on the good side is the people are VERY friendly. This also falls on the kinda-weird-I-don’t-know-how-I-feel-about-this side. I mean, I don’t want cranky, mean neighbors, but people out here are seriously interested in greeting us. Even walking to the park, a random dude stopped us to say “hello” and ask about the kids. I guess we’re just so used to living anonymously that we feel a little out of our element making small talk with every passerby. I mean people aren’t even this friendly back in Ohio. Maybe the slip Prozac into the water out here.

The commute has been fine so far. The morning is a little worse than the evening, which I was expecting to be the other way around. But, it looks like we’ve only added about 15 minutes each way, so nothing earth shattering.

 

So, that's week one on Loleta in a nutshell!