Monday, March 30, 2015 - Joy

I cannot even explain how much I have been enjoying Micah lately. We have been having a great time together coloring, talking, playing, holding hands, snuggling at bed time. He's a pain in the butt half the time, but still I can't get enough.

One adorable thing I've been thinking about is how generous he is. He will always give me the last bite of his snack or dessert regardless of how much he enjoys it. He offered me one of only two thin mint cookies I gave him after dinner last night. Of course, I had already eaten at least six myself and I declined his offer.

Here are some of the things I'm loving right now... Every night he tells me he loves me and to have sweet dreams. On Saturday afternoon I took a nap when he did but I stayed in bed after he was done napping, he came in my room and I helped him put on his pants and underwear and take off his diaper, then I told him that Dada was downstairs and I was going to sleep some more, he quietly left the room and closed the door but then peeked his head back in to tell me to have sweet dreams. He asked me yesterday if he understood correctly that little kids turn into big kids, big kids turn into grownups, and grownups turn into giants. He is a surprisingly good artist. He makes adorable A's which are right angles with a diagonal line connecting the two legs. He can write almost every letter of the alphabet, he can spell his own name, and he almost never writes letters sequentially when you tell him how something is spelled. He wants me to carry him everywhere we go, yes, I love that. He recently found a kids show, Peep and the big wide world, that he laughs out loud at. He completely loves his sister and has no jealousy whatsoever.

I am so lucky.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - So many tears

What a night! Penelope has been fussy all afternoon, basically just eating and crying. I'm really not sure what's going on. It was a beautiful afternoon though so when it was time to pick Micah up, we all drove up to the resevoir to walk a little bit. She was pretty good though still not really satisfied. In any case, it was a nice evening.

When we got home, Micah stayed outside for a while with Michael, he rode his bike around the block, played in the front yard, had a good time. He came in and watched a bit of tv after a while and when it came time to feed him dinner, shit hit the fan. He just broke down all of a sudden, nothing but crying. He didn't want to pick something to eat. After he did pick something, he didn't want to eat his food, he wanted glass after glass of orange juice, he complained that he was tired (it was after his bedtime and we were just trying to get some food in him before bringing him up). We finally settled on getting him some yogurt with protein powder just to give him something to tide him over until morning. He had already had some pretzels and some nuts earlier so he probably wasn't terribly hungry. When I got him upstairs for bed, he was crying because he didn't want to use the toilet, he didn't want to brush his teeth, the washcloth was too hot for washing his face, he was tired and wanted to go to bed, he was cold with his clothes off, I was being too rough as I speedily undressed him, he needed a tissue to blow his nose while he was laying on the floor naked and I was trying to get his diaper on him, it just didn't end. He finally settled down when we started to read Frog and Toad, and then we snuggled for a little while before I hurried downstairs to help with Penelope who was screaming her fool head off.

It seems like she's feeling lazy about eating lately, it's like she really really wants to eat but just can't latch, which is nonsense because she can definitely latch with no problem when she just calms down. I got her to eat and she lazily suckled for a full 30 minutes but I couldn't tell if she was really getting anything, sh she seemed like she was sucking only hard enough to keep my nipple in her mouth but not really to get anything out of it. Then she was quiet for a little while while she looked around the room, and then she went into screaming mode again. She calmed down when Michael put her in the carrier and bounced her a bit, but good lord was this a rough night! Hopefully the overnight will be better!

Monday, March 23, 2015 - Sleepless

Last night was a rough one. I went to bed around 10pm, Penelope wanted to eat at 10:15, and then I had to go in to Micah's room to stop him from crying 8 times between 10:30 and 11. The first two times I don't think he was really awake, the third time he said his leg hurt, then he said he had a bad dream so we talked about some good dreams he could think about, then he said his ear hurt. I ended up giving him Tylenol and at one point he said he heard a crack and it didn't hurt anymore but he still woke up crying several more times and Michael ended up sleeping in his bed with him for a while. On top of that, Michael handed Penelope off to me at 11:15 and she stayed up until 3am. First, Michael went in with Micah and slept in his bed while I cared for Penelope. Then he came back to bed and I kept trying to get her to sleep. Around 2am I handed her off out of frustration. Finally at 3am she was ready to eat and go to sleep. I hope we don't get many more nights like that.

It did inspire me to read and think about my plans for implementing some good sleep habits for Penelope though so I'm starting to get that going. Micah was 5 months old before he was sleeping in his own bed so I think it'll be a little while before we're ready with her. But it's good to have it in mind so that when the time comes we're able to recognize it and act on it.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - Happy Birthday to Me

Penelope cried the whole way home from preschool today. Not a huge surprise, my babies hate car seats. What was a surprise was the adorableness that followed. Micah started singing a song to her in the backseat: It's okay Penelope. You're okay. It's okay that you're crying. I know you're sad. You're okay. We love you Penelope. It's okay to be crying.

I've never enjoyed the sound of a crying baby so much before.