A week ago, I was kicking back on the beach in Santa Barbara. Oh my, how I wish I were there right now. It almost feels as if I need another one of those weekends. I think I do.
I haven't had a chance to write and even right now, there is a hamper full of laundry waiting to be washed, 3 loads of clean clothes that need folding, a bedroom and bathroom that need cleaning, a salad that needs to be made for tonight's BBQ and 2 kids who both are not falling asleep.
Yet here I am, taking a moment for me. Lovely.
2 days after Ryder cut his first tooth, he cut his second. Exactly the same as Kai did, only 2 weeks earlier. He is about to venture out in crawling territory, but the kid is so incredibly top heavy (23 lbs. at almost 7 months of age, wearing 24M. clothes) that he has a hard time getting himself in motion. It's funny to see. It reminds me of Kai at this age. He hardly crawled and went straight to walking. I have a suspicion that Ryder might do the same.
Other than that, he is loving his solids. I find myself so much more laid back with him than I was with Kai. As much as I would love to start making my own baby food (all organic, just like I did with Kai), it is just too much at the moment. Besides that, my freezer is popping out of its seams as it is, as it is filled with frozen breast milk, which leaves hardly any space for the grown-up food, let alone frozen baby food. As soon as he can, Ryder is going to enjoy our 'human' table food as I am already soo done with the jarred version. However, in the 2 years between the two kids, Earths Best has come out with a ton of new flavors, which makes this process just a tad more exciting. If not for the baby, then at least for mom.
On Wednesday Kai finally made it to the dentist. All went well; everyone (including dad and the dentist) survived and Kai walked away with a cool robot and a Sesame Street electric toothbrush. The pay-off for him? Ice -cream. Something he made sure he reminded daddy of all the time while he was in the dentist chair...gives a good impression on our parenting doesn't it? Except for the bedtime sippy, we are now a sippy-cup-free-house and are transitioning to regular cups. Obviously, this leaves mommy mopping and cleaning a bit more than she would like.
These days naps are hit or miss for Kai. He will gladly play by himself in his room for 2 1/2 hours after which the afternoon is usually a bit challenging as he is tired, but when he sleeps, he sleeps well. However, he tends to prefer the floor over his bed. Really?!?! David contributed it to the fact that "he is a boy". That's it? Oh well, he has the choice of sleeping on the floor or his bed. If he prefers the floor, then I assume it has something appealing his bed doesn't have. Whatever-that-may-be.
Finally, potty training. Or should I say "Potty Training Refusal"? Potty training isn't really happening in this household and it looks as if we're still a long way off. I finally got Kai to sit on his seat by giving him 1 M&M's. I put it on the sofa. It worked. I put it on the toilet lid. It worked. I opened the lid and put in on the seat. It didn't work. And that's where we're stuck. On the toilet seat. He will not sit on it. I can offer him the entire bag of M&M's and he still will run away screaming. I'm seriously starting to think that maybe I'll be training both boys at the same time in a couple of years... :-0
And then there is Monday...this upcoming Monday...the day-after-tomorrow... The day that I am returning to work. Sigh... I'll only be teaching 1 class in the morning on Mondays - Thursdays, so it's not bad. I'll be back by 10am, but it does mean that I will not be there 4 out of the 7 days to see Ryder's bright and smiling face when I walk into the nursery. It'll mean that I won't be there 4 out of the 7 days to sit with Kai on the sofa while he watches Sesame Street and Curious George. I'll miss it. Then there is all the extra work that comes with work: grading assignments, keeping track of attendance and dealing with students who think they don't deserve a certain grade. Ah, the things we get to look forward to as the Fall semester fast approaches.
On that note, I am going back to my housework. Kids are still not sleeping, so who knows how long I actually have until all hell breaks loose and they request their immediate release from either crib or train table.
Oh, and the Friday Faves...they'll be back next week. I am sorry for skipping this week, but with this only being half of what happened this week, I just didn't get to it.
I would almost say I feel guilty for not having written for a few days, but I am not going to. Why would I have to apologize? Isn't this blog for me? In the past few months of blogging I have discovered that there I get great pleasure and satisfaction out of writing, yet I also have come to a point where I feel I 'should' be writing every day. 'Should' according to whom? The only person who thinks I 'should' write daily is me. No one comes banging on my door if for a day (or a few days in this case) I haven't shared what has been happening on my front. So, I am not going to apologize for not having been present. I am simply going to catch up.
The photos above are of both boys at 6 months old. (Ryder on the left, Kai on the right).
Ryder has finally mastered the art of sitting up. For the longest time he was 'sorta' able to sit up, but because the poor kid is so top-heavy, he would fall over within no time. Now that he has discovered the joys of sitting up, there is no stopping and though he still at times tumbles over, he enjoys it. At the moment he is still often surrounded by pillows to break any kind of tumble, but soon he'll be able to 'fly solo' I think.
He is just such a happy boy. Loves to giggle, loves to play and discover new games. It is beautiful to see how simple games can bring so much joy to a baby. It is such a joy to re-discover the world through my children's eyes.
Other than that, he is loving his solids. Breakfast, lunch and dinner have become a new experience: what used to be papa and mama helping Kai out, bribing him and at times enjoying a bit of food themselves, while Ryder made it perfectly clear in his swing that he did not appreciate being left out of these daily recurring events, has now turned into papa bribing Kai to eat, while mama feeds Ryder (who seems to have an insatiable appetite and goes through one jar of food after another).
The 'at times enjoying a bit of food themselves' has turned into papa eating while Kai decides how important his yogurt is (yogurt comes after we actually eat some dinner), whereas mama has to maintain a steady pace in the spoon reaching Ryder's mouth as any delay is cause for alarm (on Ryder's behalf).
Unfortunately, we have taken a step back in sleeping over the past few weeks. For several months Ryder slept through the night like an angel. Oh bliss!! All of a sudden that stopped and he has started waking up anywhere between 2-5am. Milk is the only way he will go back to sleep. For all our sanity (mostly for mine as the others hardly notice anything during the night) I have given in. I am now slowly reducing the amount that he consumes in the hope that he will soon drop the waking up all together and will return to blissfully sleeping through the night.
The reason for his wakings aren't quite clear to me though. He does have a pretty full diaper when he wakes up (despite me changing it when I go to bed), but not to the point that it wouldn't hold him until 7am. It could be having reached the milestone of sitting up, it could be he's on his way to reaching another milestone, who knows. I remember this happening with Kai as well, but regardless, I am ready for sleeping through the night again.
On Friday we got together with my best friend and her daughter. We hadn't seen each other for a long time as they just returned from a 3-week trip to OH. Kai missed his girlfriend and was over the top excited to see her again. When we went over we discovered that that day she had started potty training. "Oh yippee!!" said the little voice inside of me. Kai would be able to see that his best friend was "going potty", hopefully that will encourage him. And yes it did...on the way back he asked for "MMS" [translations: M&M's]. I told him that if he would pee on the potty he would get one. I went out and bought them, showed them to him. They are in his own special cup. And that's where the story ends. They are in their cup on the counter. Silently. Abandoned. Praying for attention. But other than mommy walking by trying to withstand the temptation of devouring the whole cup with candy, they are severely falling short in the attention they are getting from my toddler. Do M&M's go off?
Being a single child, I have never had the experience of a sibling (obviously). David often mentioned the "Big Brother Power" that Kai would have in Ryder's eyes. I always thought that would manifest once Ryder was a bit older, but it at this point, it already exists. This video shows perfectly what I mean. I love the admiration that Ryder has for Kai as he looks at him in awe. It warms my heart and I hope that as they get older and Kai becomes of aware of the magical power he holds over Ryder, he will put it to good use (in addition to the inevitable mischief he will be getting Ryder into. Afterall, boys will be boys).
Well, that was it for catching up on part of the weekend. There is so much more, but I really have to sit down and do some work now. I start teaching again at the end of the month and given that we are going to use a new text book, I now have the 'privilege' to spend my afternoons re-working my lectures. Not really what I had in mind, but c'est la vie. I have to start early as I really only have a couple of hours a week to work on it given the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day.
