Daddy's Nightgown and Random Pics

Here's Biscuits, all ready for bed in the same cozy nightgown that his daddy wore when he was this age.

This is Bears at that same age.  I think they look really similar in a way.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to put him in his dad's nightgown as well for this photo.  I really dropped the ball on that one.

And here's a pic of them side by side, both looking appropriately creeped out. Crept out?  Spell check is really making me doubt myself on this one. Too bad I didn't have this nice camera back when Bears was tiny.  This really makes the difference in quality look dramatic.

I originally purchased this hat for myself but Bears seems to have commandeered it...at least for the time being.

Bears doing his best impression of Uncle Matt

Finger painting

Photo Shoot With Biscuits!

Now...let me preface this by saying that neither of us have gotten much sleep lately.  I think the quality is pretty impressive, considering.

Naturally, I decided that the best outfit would be a sleeper that he outgrew months ago with our unmade bed as the backdrop.  Believe it or not, these were actually subconscious decisions but in retrospect, I can't imagine anything better.

My happy boy.  I love his sweet smile.

"who...me?   I'm just sitting here like a gentleman with my hands in my lap, see?  Agghhh stop looking at me!" *nervously fiddles with toes while staring suspiciously at me*

Project Yosemite

One of my friends posted this video on facebook over a year ago and Bears has been obsessed with it ever since.  I don't know how many times we've watched it...it's somewhere in the hundreds now.  It still hasn't gotten old though.  Guess that really says something.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Here's a clip of Bears watching it.  He gets pretty pumped every time.

And here's some Biscuits at bedtime

Nighttime Parenting

Just look at how pumped Bears is about bedtime!

We've been trying cry-it-out with Biscuits for a few months now.  With...less than ideal results.  When Biscuits was just a couple of months old, I started reading The No Cry Sleep Solution and dismissed it because (A) our issues were mostly with napping; his nighttime sleep had some issues but he'd regularly go 4-5 hour stretches between feedings and (B) It was impossible to implement the methods for no-cry napping without locking Bears away somewhere for several hours of the day.  Not really an option.  But now, Biscuits has developed some pretty good self-soothing skills for naptime.  What is an issue is the fact that he feels that he needs to nurse 6-12 times per night.  He's very adamant about it, in fact.  But it's just not ideal as far as either of us getting the sleep we need. and...I'm thinking that if cry it out hasn't worked by now, it's not going to. So I'm giving the No Cry book another go, since there should be no conflict with Bears in the middle of the night.  I'm so glad that Bears generally sleeps well.  I had no idea until now just how lucky I've been with him.

The first step that the author recommends is to make a detailed log of your night so that you can get a better perspective on any problems so that you can come up with the best solution.  Makes sense.  It reminds me of what they say to do in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child which worked wonders for Bears when he was little.  Except with that, it also served to bolster your courage for cry it out because you could see concrete evidence that your baby's getting more sleep.

I decided that I may as well throw the log onto my blog for kicks.  And add in other non-biscuit-related details, since I figure if I'm gonna bother to do this, I may as well make a full record of our nights these days to have something fun to look back on.  As usual, I've added a ridiculous amount of detail and this thing's so long that it's basically unreadable.  I encourage you to try though.  You'll be rewarded with a surprise twist at the end.  (SPOILER: there is no actual surprise twist at the end)  Now you'll just have to read on to figure out which is actually true.

8:00 pm: Biscuits falls asleep happy in his bed
8:20 pm: We've gone through Bears' bedtime routine and he's all tucked in.
8:25 pm: "HELLLP!" (coming from Bears' room) Ryan goes in to check on him.  Bears is desperate for help with getting all his toys out.  He's devastated when Ryan tells him that it's not time for toys but tries to settle himself back down to sleep.
8:30 pm: same thing happens
8:35 pm: happens again
8:50 pm: ...and again.  I suppose I could save some time and just and write that this keeps happening until about 10:15.
10:16 pm: Ryan and I decide that it's about time to head to bed and for some reason, we discuss this for about a half hour.  I find that I try and stall going to bed since nights with Biscuits are so...exhausting.  I know, there's not much logic to my reasoning but there it is.
10:45 pm: take Lucy out to go potty and have to physically drag her out in order to get her to pee in the freezing cold.  I like to go out barefoot so that she has no real excuse in feeling overly sorry for herself.  Again, the logic of this tactic eludes even me.
10:46 pm: Lucy starts whining and pacing around right after coming inside.  We try to figure out what in the world she could want to no avail.  We head to bed.
10:50 pm: I hear Lucy continue to whine in the other room.  ugh.  Hopefully she'll settle down.
11:15 pm: Just as I'm drifting off to sleep, I hear her whining again.  It occurs to me that perhaps she's been avoiding pooping outside due to the cold and may possibly poop all over the living room if I don't go and help her. (ryan would inform me the next morning that she'd already pooped all over the place but he'd cleaned it all up by that time so I never had to actually witness it...and by some miracle, never stepped in it in the dark) I open the outside door for her and she makes a mad dash out into the night.  She must have still been holding in some serious poops.  Knowing her, she could have been holding it for days in order to avoid the cold.  She does not return for a full 20 minutes.  Serious poops, indeed.
11:35 pm: I snuggle up next to Ryan in the covers.  I can't believe that we haven't heard a peep from Biscuits for a full 3 1/2 hours now.  Maybe all this sleep training and stuffing-him-with-as-much-food-as-he'll-eat-during-the-day is finally starting to pay off.  We've been doing a form of cry-it-out for a few months now and it's the hardest, most heartbreaking thing I've ever had to do.  But when you've got a baby who wakes up about 10x in the night to nurse, what choice do you have? I had decided 10 days ago to not, under any circumstances, feed him until 1 am. before that I was only trying to get him to go for at least 2.5 hour stretches but his crying just kept bleeding into the okay time to feed him and I worried that I was positively reinforcing all that crying. I've read that once they start sleeping solid for 5 hours, you're really on your way to getting them to sleep constant, solid stretches.  Feeling more optimistic than I have in at least a month, I start to drift off...
11:40 pm: Biscuits starts to whimper.  Okay, I think to myself. I can do this.  I just have to stay strong and hold out for a little over an hour and then I can feed him.  I get up to give him a kiss and let him know it's not time to eat yet.  He screams with his whole heart as soon as I do this.  He really likes to make sure that I know, in no uncertain terms, that a kiss on the cheek is NOT what he was after.
12:10 pm: he starts to calm down and drift back to sleep.  ah.  not so bad.
12:11 pm:  he screams with renewed vigor after his minute-long power nap.  I go to him, give him a kiss, and tell him it's not time yet.  His pathetic cries (of course) skyrocket to super sonic levels.  He continues to cry with all his might.
1:00 am: Even though it's time to feed him, I know that if I feed him right now it'll seem like I'm responding to his crying and it'll just undermine the whole thing.  But I can't stand laying next to him anymore so with a huge lump in my throat, I head to the living room to google 'infant sleep problem solutions' so that I can at least feel like I'm doing something useful.  In my deluded state, I foolishly click on the first few links instead of actually searching for legitimate research articles.  I know better than to just read forums where any random parent can passionately tout their opinion.  Normally I do, anyway.  But not last night.  I kept reading account after account of people saying with total confidence that letting your baby cry is the worst thing you can possibly do and if there was any justice in the world, child protective services would swoop in and save children from anyone who would attempt to abuse them in such a fashion.
1:15 am: By this time, tears are streaming down my face and I just can't take it anymore. As soon as he quiets down for around 10 seconds,  I rush in and swoop Biscuits into my arms.  He's so upset that it takes him a minute to calm down enough to nurse but once he does, he drinks like a starving man and drinks everything I've got within 15 minutes (approx 8 oz).
1:30 am: he's wide awake from either the trauma of so much crying or elation from finally getting what he wants.  Maybe both.  Either way, he's not gonna be sleeping anytime soon.  I lay him down in his crib and turn his various mobiles on, hoping that they'll entertain him till he gets sleepy.  He happily squeals at them for about 15 minutes but then starts making frustrated sounds.  I look over and he's somehow managed to reach one of the animals on his mobile and is frantically trying to stuff it in his mouth.  I put the mobile back in it's proper position and receive an outraged cry from him in return.
1:50 am: he continues to get more and more upset and anything that I can think to do for him just infuriates him further.  Sigh.  Guess I'll give in and try nursing him again.
2:30 am: He starts to get really calm while nursing and I put him down in his crib before he fully drifts off.  He falls asleep happily.
2:45 am:  I fall asleep for the first time that night.  It's bliss.
4:00 am: Biscuits wakes up, desperate to nurse again.  I nurse him for about 20 minutes and put him back to bed.
5:00 am: same thing
5:50 am: same thing
6:30 am: Biscuits wakes up, wants to nurse for about 40 minutes, and poops.
7:20 am: I change him and put him back in his crib, hoping that his mobile will buy me a few more minutes of sleep.
7:35 am: He's getting upset so I get his bouncer chair and put him in next to the bed.  He likes that much better but I'm too nervous that he'll somehow get tangled up and instead of sleeping, I just keep my eyes half open in bed.
8:00 am: Ryan wakes up and without saying anything, picks up the bouncer chair, takes it out of the room, and closes the door.  I love him.
I get amazingly uninterrupted sleep for a full hour.  Thank goodness.  It's just enough to help me feel like I really can face the new day.  I got just shy of 4 hours total.  Harder than most nights but not so rough as some.  I'd give it a 7/10. Still...I think it's time for a new plan.

Christmas with Bears 'n Biscuits

This was the first year that Bears was able to really get into Christmas.  It was some fun times.  Biscuits got into it as well by being extra jolly.

Prettiest Apple Ever and Randoms

I was walking through the produce aisle of the market and I stumbled upon this beauty here.  It was the most glorious apple I'd ever seen.  We're talking fairy tale perfect. And it was called...Rome. Could I dare hope that they had finally created an apple that was both pretty and tasty?  With a name like Rome, it seemed not only plausible but inevitable that this would be the most delicious apple of all time.

I rushed home, snapped a couple shots of it to document the gloriousness of it all, then greedily sunk my teeth in...

bleh.  Disgusting.  Possibly even more revolting than the ironically-named red delicious.  The skin was leathery, the meat inside dry and grainy..and the worst part was possibly the red that had seeped through the skin into the apple, making it look like I'd been biting it with heavily bleeding gums.

Bears was seduced by the looks of this one as well and really wanted to try it.  After taking a bite, he said "oh dear...it's old, mommy.  it's really too old." and handed it back.  He's never tried an apple before that he didn't like.

Well.  My hat is certainly NOT off to you, apple breeders.  Apple geneticists.  Whatever you're called.

Alright, here are some random things that Bears has said recently:

Mmmmm....shave cream!  I have whiskers, mommy.  GET ME SOME DINNERRR!!

Bears: Oooo...more creams!
Me:  is that safe, honey?
Bears: it smells like...it smells like safe!  mmm! SAFE! Smell, mommy.  Smells just like safe, you will see.

(talking on the phone to my dad)
Papa: Bears, do you wanna come up to my house to play tomorrow?
Bears: Oh, yes sir!  Right 'way sir!

Captain's Log

First off, why Captain's Log?  Well.  Because Mommy's Log is hopelessly depressing and Laura's Log sounds like a preface to a description of today's bowel movement.  No. Thank. You.  This is a different sort of log, luckily. Or maybe unluckily, depending on your preference. It's a chronicle of this morning's events. huh.  Guess I could have gone with Cudger Chronicles.  Ah well, no going back now. I decided to document the details of  a typical day in our life for two reasons: I thought it might help me get perspective and enable me to streamline things a little better in the hope that it would lead to less chaos and more spare time.  The second reason being birth control.  If I ever want to have another child, I must read this first so that I can remember what daily life is like with two tiny children. Side note - moms who willingly have more than two kids and/or work from home while juggling children just amaze me.  They really do.

It would seem that documenting the details of an entire morning leads to a very long, tedious read.  So be it.  This is a story that must be told.

9:00 - Bears and I have just finished breakfast. I apparently left fridge unlocked because I hear bears rummaging around in it, tossing various items out on the floor.  I've got to wait to address that because li'l Furious Biscuits has awoken for the day and has started sobbing for help.  Grab baby, run over to fridge to do damage control.  Start putting various condiments back in fridge; Bears begins to cry desperately for said items, particularly the peppermint creamer that he wants to drink straight from bottle.  I decide to compromise by giving him a bit of milk and creamer in a mug, using the last of the milk.

9:02 - change biscuit's diaper/outfit.  Bears grabs the poopy diaper and flings it across the room.  Poop everywhere. It occurs to me that I might have the worst behaved toddler ever and make a mental note to read more books on parenting. I leave baby on the bed to address this issue.  Bears is running/hopping/spinning like mad.  He loses control and falls head first onto Biscuit's forehead.  They both cry hysterically.

9:10 - Bears has calmed down and I've cleaned up the poopy splatters from the carpet and walls. Bears offers to take the (now sealed) dirty diaper to the garbage, which he does.  I tell him how proud of him I am and think to myself what a dreamboat he is.

9:12 - I sit down to nurse Biscuits who is still sobbing inconsolably. He begins to calm down.  ah. Peace. Bears comes over and begins patting him on the leg.  The patting starts to get a bit violent so I suggest that he go and play with his toys.  He actually listens (yay!)...well, kind of.  He goes into the kitchen, rummages around in a drawer, and pulls out a steel measuring cup. He starts banging it against the wall. I tell him to stop and he tosses it in the air, landing on his brother's head.  Or it would have if I hadn't managed to deflect it.  Phew. Warn him that he'll go to timeout if he throws again. I wonder to myself if I might, in fact, be raising a demon child.

9:14 - Bears hits me on the leg.  I put him in timeout (baby still latched on.  it's a bit of an awkward procedure).  Sobs.  Sobs.  More sobs.  I tell him that he can come out when he says he's sorry.

9:16 - He still hasn't managed to apologize.  I put baby down to go work with Bears.  Baby instantly begins to wail. I pick Bears up hug him for a bit, telling him that it really hurt my feelings that he hit and he needed to say he's sorry to help me feel better.  He says he's sorry and that he wants to hug some more. I'm a sucker for Bears hugs so this was a real treat.

9:18 - I go back to continue nursing Biscuits who's still wailing. Meanwhile, Bears has grabbed the milk carton that I emptied filling up his cup earlier.  He decides to try and pour his milk from the mug into the milk carton.  I see it happening from a few feet away and lunge  toward him (baby still latched on) to try and stop it but he's just too fast and has dumped the milk/creamer all over himself and the carpet.  He's devastated that he's lost all his creamer and starts shrieking about the mess and loss of his drink. I wonder to myself just where I've gone wrong in the parenting department, for surely I must have.  In this instance, I guess it was trusting him with a regular cup instead of going with spill-proof.

9:21 - Try to finish nursing but Biscuits is too distracted at this point and has lost interest. Bears catches a glimpse of the partially washed off grocery list written on my hand and says, "This says 'I love my Grandpa,' mommy." He points to a different part of the list and says, "This says 'I love my Diddum [grandma]' oh and I dooo! I love my Diddum so much!" I instantly feel so lucky to be raising such a sweetheart.

9:22 - Put baby down to go change Bears - baby cries loudly in protest the entire time.  Bears cries loudly in protest the entire time.  That cub does not like getting changed.  He asks for a bubble bath.  I figure that's a pretty good idea since he's soaked and sticky from the creamer spill so I send him, diaper-less, to the bathroom while I go to pick up Biscuits.  Bears excitedly proclaims that he's peed and grabs my hand to show me the area of carpet that he's peed all over.  Sigh. I tell him that he should only pee in the potty and he laughs like I've just told a hilarious joke.  I ask if he'd like to go on the potty and receive and adamant "NOOO!" I again wonder where I've gone wrong.

9:25 - I put him in the tub before he can pee on something else (which he was already attempting to do).  Begin filling up tub and adding bubble soap.  Bears immediately begins hopping about the tub with reckless abandon, nearly falling head first onto the faucet.  After I threatened to take him out and finally resorted to actually removing him from the tub, he agreed to sit down like a gentleman if I'd let him back in.

9:28 - Biscuits (who's been protesting being left on the floor this entire time) begins to outright scream at the top of his lungs for attention.  I settle him into his bouncer chair to see if he likes it any better.  In the 10 seconds that this has taken, I notice an ominous silence and look towards the tub.  I can't see Bears.  I crane my neck to see if he's smashed himself in the corner of the tub...but no.  I run towards the tub.  Oh God, he's under the water.
Nope, he's just floating on his back, with his face just barely peeking above the water and a terribly mischievous grin on his face. "I hiding from you, mommy, I hiiiiiide." My heart resumes beating in a somewhat normal fashion.

9:29 - Biscuits starts crying about being left in the chair.  I scoop him up and sit down by the tub with him in my lap.  Bears asks to play with my pink bath sponge but I tell him no (he sometimes still poops in the tub and I just wasn't in the mood to risk it.) I offer him the blue sponge because I don't use it as much.  But blue won't do. He begs for the pink one...and begs...and begs for it.  and cries about how he really neeeeeeds it. This goes on for 10 minutes.

9:40 - he finally stops asking for it and instead requests the scrub brush that's hanging on the wall.  I give it to him.  He says, "I want to help you clean, mommy, I want to help." He meticulously scrubs the entire tub and shower wall along with his teapot and tea cups. I tell him how proud I am of him and marvel to myself how I ever got such a sweet child. He continues cleaning and then proceeds to color with his bath crayons for over 30 minutes, giving me some time to actually pay attention to the Biscuits in my lap.  Such a dream.

10:15 - Biscuits starts acting sleepy so I wrap him up against my chest in his carrier and jostle him till he gets calm and groggy.

10:25 - I quickly put him down in my bedroom (which is literally a foot from the bathroom) and rush back to where I can see Bears since I'm still spooked from the drowning fake out. I start jotting down the morning's events while Bears is still happy in the tub.

10:26 - Bears gets water up his nose and begs to come out of the tub.  I take him out.  He thrashes wildly and begs to get back in.  I put him back in.

10:27 - he begs to come out.  I take him out, he begs to get back in but I'd rather not play this game indefinitely so I drag the now hysterical, shrieking, kicking, flailing crazy person out of the bathroom.  I attempt to dry him off and put him in a diaper, complete with safety pin (if there's no pin, he just takes it off and systematically pees in all the corners of our apartment.  sigh.)

10:35 - I give up on the idea of dressing him fully since he's thrashing wildly, screaming like a mad man, and trying to kick me in the face. I decide that perhaps a timeout is in order...and it's as much for his safety as it is for discipline. I may have needed a bit of a timeout as well since I was fighting a small urge to strangle him.

10:37 - He's sobbing hysterically so I pick him up and give him a hug.  After clinging desperately to me for a few seconds, it would seem that he couldn't resist a sudden urge to bite me and hungrily sinks his teeth into my arm (luckily not breaking the skin, just leaving marks). Back into timeout he goes.  I start wondering again how I created such a monster.

10:40 - He apologizes and I take him out. we snack on some grapes together and both calm down considerably.

11:00 - I put on some techno music and start prepping tonight's roast and then slave away at a delicious lunch consisting of Kraft mac n' cheese and 4-bean salad (from a jar) while Bears dances like a mad man to the music.

11:15 - Bears munches on lunch while I try to catch up on documenting today's happenings.

11:40 - Bears lets me know he's done by dumping all his food on the floor.  I let him out and he helps me clean the mess up.

11:45: I tell him it's time to sip on his fruit smoothie while we read some stories.  He knows that this is the first part of the naptime ritual and promptly hides under the table.  I'm able to bribe him into his room with some bunny grahams.

11:50 - oh no.  he'd pooped.  There is a struggle that goes on for a few minutes but I come out victorious with Bears in a clean diaper annnd those clothes that I'd given up on putting him in earlier.

12:00 - time to brush his teeth, put him in bed, and sing some songs.  There is another struggle.  After a few minutes, I win (ha!) and he's in bed.

12:20 - We sing songs and he drags about a million little toys into his bed but he's finally ready to settle down.

12:25 - I close the door and realize that both boys are napping at the same time.  What a treat.  Maybe I'll lie down for a bit...I'm so tired...

12:26 - Biscuits wakes up.  Ah well.

12:30 - We have some quiet, cuddly nursing times.  So sweet.

May as well end on that note as things rapidly go downhill from there. Ah.  Finally done writing everything down and it's only 10 pm.  Huh. So I do have some spare time after all. I'm liking this whole log idea...I think maybe going forward I'll just write the good stuff though.  Once is enough for this ridiculous kind of detail. Blast it but I'm tired.  Time to go to bed.

Talkin' with Bears

Today I was looking online at houses with Bears in my lap.  I had just pulled up a picture of a living room all decked out with fancy furniture:
Bears: I love that house, mommy
Me: what?  you love that house?
Bears: yup, it's pretty.  it matches. I love that house...I love you too, mommy, I love you.
Me: aww...you love me?  that makes me feel so good.  I love you too, sweetheart.
Bears: Yup, I love you, mommy, I do, I DO!!

This is the first time he's said that to me.  ahhh such the warm fuzzies.  :)

Lots o' Randoms

 Bears was very proud of the outfit that he picked out for himself that day.

 Bears decided that Lucy's whole body needed to be flossed and he very diligently spent 10 minutes flossing her all over.  Using Ryan's flosser.  It's just now occurring to me that Ryan may not be pumped when he sees this photo...

He decided that he needed to relax and suck on a bottle nipple while reading my kindle.

 This is from last spring.  It was the first big rain of the year and I could not keep that little cub out of all the puddles.

The photo that made me realize that maybe...just maybe Bears needed his first haircut.

 Said haircut in process.

 Post-haircut Glory

 I decided to take Bears' pic in the same spot that we did a "bears in the forest" photo shoot when he was a baby.  He's growing up so blasted fast.

 Hangin' in the parking lot

 Newborn Fox being laid down after an hour wrapped up on my back.

 Tiny boy wrapped up on my chest.  I can't believe how much bigger he's gotten already.

 This is his new favorite way to be carried about; facing forward with his toes in his face while sucking my thumb.  I don't see the appeal myself, but to each his own.

 I'll fightcha! Look at those fists of fury.

 This is probably my favorite expression that he does.  Look at that cute li'l pouty lip. I'm a little sad that I only managed to get half his face in the photo...or was I being artistic?  No one can ever know for sure.

Here he is crammed into his newborn fox outfit.  The first time I tried it on him he was swimming in it and I thought I had forever before he'd outgrow it.  Turns out that newborns grow ridiculously fast and I only had a couple weeks.  I wish I'd gotten it in this photo but the pants were only long enough to reach just past his knees.

New Lens

I had mentioned to Ryan that my favorite thing about fancy cameras is that you can adjust the depth of field (aka make some things in focus and other things blurry - the only way that I know how to make pictures look fancy) and he bought a lens that will let you lower the aperture all the way down to 1.8 (very little will be in focus, especially if you take pictures close up).  It is...amazing. Or rather, I know it will be amazing when I figure out how to use it.  So far, most of my pictures just end up being a blurry mess. Just so that you can see it's potential, check out this picture where the only thing in focus is Bears' eye.

 Also with this lens, you've got to be like 30 feet away from the subject to get the entire thing in so in just about all these photos, I'm doing all I can to fit Bears' whole face in.  And usually failing.

Ryan took all the shots from here.  I don't know what it is about this first one but I love it.  Something about the lines of his arm.

Bears kissing his best friend, the fire hydrant.

Running with reckless abandon just before...

...toppling over and skinning his knee.  Here he is kissing it all better.

Hanging out by Diddum's garden

Having some fun times with Aunt Caroline.

This is one of his favorite expressions as of late.  It's the face he makes just before covering his mouth with both hands, trying to contain his excitement.  I'm just sad that we didn't get a picture of that part.

While I was out with Bears, I was wondering why I never tried to take any pictures of stuff other than my kids when we were out and decided to take a picture of a cool looking leaf.  In the 3 seconds that I was distracted, Bears had bolted and nearly got to the street before I could catch him.  Ah.  That's why.