5 Months/29 Months

I had considered skipping this month's updates and just waiting until next month, especially since Sarah and Noah are both going in for their check-ups, but I figured I should stick to the program, lest I fall off schedule completely.

So, Sarah. It didn't seem like much was happening with her this month, but in the past few weeks she's made improvements in sleeping and eating solids.  For one, she's actually swallowing some solid foods these days, even if it's just a little.  I know it's still early, so I'm not concerned about how much she's eating.  I just want to make sure she's getting in the practice time so that when it really does matter, she knows what she's doing.  I never really thought about it when Noah started solids, but it's crazy to think that Sarah really just doesn't know how to eat food!  So far she's had a taste of rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, and pear.  Noah loved pear, but Sarah seems to like the pear the least.  Every time I put some in her mouth, she cringes.  She doesn't seem to like solid foods in general, but the pear definitely seems the least tolerable.  Her sleeping has become, if not better, a bit easier on me.  She seems to be getting better at falling asleep without my assistance.  She still needs the pacifier, and I use the sleepy sheep sound machine (I'm not sure how useful it really is, but we have it, so I just use it), but often, especially if I get the timing right, I can put her in the crib with the paci and sleepy sheep, walk out, and she'll go to sleep on her own.  If she cries, I let her cry for 15 min or so, then go back in to give her the paci again, and that usually does it.  In the beginning, I was holding her to put her to sleep for every nap, and I worried about weaning her off that.  I tried the cry-it-out method a few times, but her crying always seemed to just keep escalating and it sounded like she was being tortured, so I ditched that.  But it seems like we're slowly moving towards being a more independent sleeper.  She is still waking up at least one or two times in the night to nurse, with the longest sleep stretch being about six hours.  Sometimes she'll do more, but it doesn't happen often.  Overall, a month of good progress though.  In the gross motor skills area, she can roll pretty easily from tummy to back, but otherwise doesn't really like being on either her tummy or back.  Haha... she's more of a jumperoo kind of gal.

As for Noah, since he's older, there isn't as much going on on a month-to-month basis, but I have noticed that he has become much more obedient in the past couple of weeks.  Peter was pretty busy at work this past month, so I was alone with the kids a lot more than usual.  I was worried about having to deal with the two of them alone, especially during the dinner/night-night time, but with Sarah becoming a more independent sleeper, and Noah following instruction better, it was semi-manageable.  Exhausting for sure, but manageable.  On the flip side, he's also become MUCH better at pushing the boundaries, and as a result has also been driving me mad.  I wonder if Noah sensed the anxiety in me when Peter was busy with work and just decided to be more cooperative.  He's not quite two and a half yet, and often I just assume he doesn't understand things, but maybe I underestimate him.  Last night I got so mad at Noah; he was just pushing all the right buttons, doing everything I didn't want him to do and then laughing about it. When Peter came home, I just needed to take a break.  But when I was putting Noah to bed later that night, I told him I was sorry for being so impatient, instead of being his usual silly, rambunctious self, he got really quiet and seemed to really understand what I was saying.  Then we hugged it out for a long time. :)  Sigh.  Still such a little baby, but growing up so fast!

Finally, a fun video of Noah "reading."  This guy is such a little ham sometimes.

4 Months Old/28 Months Old

I have been delinquent in all areas this past month, including blog entries.  My computer overheated and melted a few weeks ago and things just fell apart from there!  Then there were Christmas festivities, we were out of town, then New Year's festivities... We were finally able to get somewhat back to normal life today.  We stayed home all day.  Tomorrow, Noah goes back to school again.  Celebrating the holidays and seeing family is fun, but it can be rough with little kids.  Poor Sarah hasn't had any kind of normal nap schedule for the past week, and even took most naps either on the go or in the Ergo.  Tomorrow will be another on the go day for her since Noah's going to preschool and I need to get an oil change.  Anyway, on to the updates.

First, Sarah.  At her check up, she was 24.5 inches tall (~60th %-ile), weighed 16 lbs (~90th %-ile), and had a head circumference of 16.5 inches (~73rd %-ile).  In short, she's a little round nugget!!!  I love it. I'm not sure if her temperament now is any indication of how she will be in the future, but if it is, she will have the sweetest disposition ever.  Is that bragging?  Hahaha...seriously though, I'm just in disbelief all the time because Noah was not like this.  Noah wasn't bad tempered, or even particularly difficult to handle, but Sarah just seems so much sweeter.  Maybe it's her eyes.  Or is it just a girl thing?  I have no idea.  All I know is that it's amazing to see how different they are - and yet look almost identical, especially when Sarah's wearing Noah's hand-me-downs...haha!  As for sleeping, Sarah continues to wake up 2-3 times at night unfortunately.  I only feed her that first time she wakes up, and she's pretty content waiting until morning to eat again, but I dread the hours between 2:00 and 5:30.  Sometimes she wakes up and goes right back to sleep after I give her the pacifier, but sometimes she is wide awake and will not go back to sleep for at least an hour.  I can't figure out what causes this... Sometimes Sarah naps too little during the day, sometimes she naps too much during the day, but neither seems to have any direct correlation with these annoying night wakings.  The only thing I've been able to come up with is irregular sleep schedule.  Unfortunately that can't be entirely avoided since Noah's preschool drop off and pick up times occur during both of Sarah's naps, and with two kids it's just impossible to live by their sleep schedules since that pretty much means I'd have to be at home all day.  Even if I didn't want to go anywhere, I still need to buy groceries!  Oh well.  All I can hope for is that she'll adjust eventually... I wish babies were just born ready to sleep like adults.

Sarah is starting to sit better in the Bumbo and has been having fun in the jumperoo.  She doesn't seem to like tummy time that much anymore, but she can hold up her head steadily for a while.  Not much rolling though... Poor Sarah doesn't get a whole lot of playmat time because I'm constantly dragging her around in the carseat.  Oh, the plight of the second child.  Maybe her nightly wakings is her way of getting back at me.  As for solids, I started giving Sarah some rice cereal in the past week, but she didn't seem to be a fan.  It's still early, so I'll just keep trying a little each day.

On to Noah.  Still rascally.  His personality continues to develop to the point where I don't feel like I can properly capture him in these little updates anymore.  The main highlights this month are his inability to be obedient, his difficulty in letting go, and his care for Sarah.

I don't know what is going on in his head, but everyday he deliberately ignores/disobeys things we ask him to do.  I give him time outs, and he cries, and then when I ask him why he got a time out, his response is usually, "I no listen Mommy."  Or sometimes he'll out of the blue say, "I no listen Mommy, I get time outs."  I'm starting to think the time out thing might not really be working...haha!  Sometimes he's on super good behavior and does exactly what I ask (and I'm usually quite shocked), and other times he just does whatever he wants.  I also sometimes employ the "counting to three" strategy.  Strangely, this works very well.  I'll say, "do I have to count to three?"  And he'll yell, "no!!" and then do what I asked.  Sometimes he'll say, "No say one two three!!!"

We've also found recently that Noah seems to have a hard time letting go... There are three recent incidents that Noah talks about all the time.  The first is this one time when I brought him to one of those indoor playspaces.  I let him play, then I sat down in the cafe area with Sarah.  After 5 minutes, he wanted to come out.  I asked him why he didn't want to play, and he said, "I no want play...I miss mommy."  Since that day, he'll randomly say, "I no want play...I miss mommy," always referring back to that day.  The second is a recent scary encounter with a dog on our floor.  A few weeks ago, Noah had run out into the hallway when the UPS guy came and Peter had opened the door to receive a package.  But the UPS guy also had to deliver a package down the hall to an apt where a dog lives...and the dog ran out.  Noah was really scared, and Peter picked him up and he was fine.  But everyday he says something like, "Dog running hallway... Daddy carry me."  He was so traumatized!  The most recent incident was just before Christmas when Auntie Juna and Uncle Dan came to VA to visit.  Uncle Dan had hurt his ankle and since that day, Noah can't stop talking about Uncle Dan and how he hurt his foot.  He's always saying, "Uncle Dan get owie...hurt foot," and puts his fingers together to show the impact.  I don't know if these incidents were just really memorable because they are so different from what happens in his daily life, or if they really were that traumatizing!  He didn't cry when we went to the indoor playspace or when Dan got hurt, and he doesn't cry or seem scared when he recounts any of the incidents, so I don't know.  It's a mystery!

Noah continues to be a great older brother to Sarah.  I'm not sure when/if they will start fighting, but I'm enjoying and savoring the peace for now.  When Sarah cries, a lot of times Noah will run over and start gently patting her and say, "don't cry baby, it's ok...don't cry..." and then tries to give her a hug and a kiss.  Sometimes he will bring his toys over and try to share them with her or dangle her toys in front of her the way Peter and I do to entertain her and get her to stop crying.  And sometimes it works!  I don't know how one boy can be so disobedient and at the same time so sweet.  The best is when out of the blue he'll say, "Mommy, big hug."  I'm not sure if he just needs a big hug then, or if he thinks I need a big hug, but it's nice either way. :)

1/9 - I had to add this edit: Just a few days ago, Noah started recounting another incident.  He had choked on some clementines a few weeks ago at my sister-in-law's house because he had too many pieces in his mouth and he was running around the house like a crazy person.  We tried to explain to him over and over again that he couldn't run around with food in his mouth, that he couldn't eat too much at once, and that he could choke again.  We weren't sure if he was really taking any of it in, but a few days ago, all on his own, he started saying this monologue: "What happened noona's house?  I running.  There's oranges.  I keep choking.  I no breathe."  Since then, he's repeated it multiple times every day, particularly when he tries running around with food in his mouth.  I'll tell him to stop running around with food in his mouth, and then it's, "What happened noona's house?  I running..." etc.