A Smorgasboard

Operation Get the Kid to Sleep Through the Night (GTKTSTTN) Part 2:

I read that you shouldn't try to spread daytime feedings out until 9 consecutive hours of nighttime sleeping is established. So we have been hoping for several days to go to a more regimented daytime feeding schedule. Which is fine in theory, but if Sprout eats at night, he is not hungry in the morning. Even if he eats at 1 a.m., he's not hungry at 7. Which makes it basically impossible to get enough food in him during the day.

Last night Daddio got up with him at 4:30 and managed to soothe him back to sleep without feeding him. Then Sprout woke again at 5:30 and Daddio gave him a bottle (that's close enough to normal breakfast time). So today will be Day 1 of trying to feed on a regimented schedule. If he lets us.
Babies are cute when they sleep. He normally doesn't take a pacifier, but it was part of Daddio's 4:45 a.m. dedication to Operation GTKTSTTN.

Stuff to do While Laid-Off, Volume 2:

1. Take things to the thrift shop:
2. Make stuff. Sprout outgrew his 0-6 month sleep sack, and I didn't want to spend $30 for a new one to get us through the winter. So I made 2. My total expense was $18 for 2 yards of fleece, 2 zippers, and a spool of thread. And a couple of hours.
This one is definitely imperfect, but it will work. The other one (which I haven't taken a picture of) I took more care in lining up the zipper, and I did the sewing in a slightly different order which made it easier.

And a Little Man story:

This morning when I dropped him off at school he washed his hands, went to get a baby doll, and brought it back to where they were playing with trains. The teacher told me that he carries a baby doll around with him at all times. He doesn't really play with it, but it's always with him. And sometimes he puts the baby in time-out for kicking.

It's extra funny because these are plastic babies, not cuddly at all, and they're always naked. The baby he chose this morning was a boy baby. I don't know that I've seen anatomically correct baby dolls before. I bet it's hard to find clothes for a baby boy doll.

Operation Get the Kid to Sleep Through the Night

Or Operation GTKTSTTN. I'm a sucker for a catchy acronym.

If you're one of those folks who think that letting your kid cry in his crib is cruel, you might want to click away now. I'm one of those folks who thinks making Mommy get up every night for more than 6 months is cruel, and in nobody's best interest. And we sleep-trained Little Man, and look how well he turned out. Hmmm. Long-term effects of this method still to-be-determined.

Plus maybe if we feed him less, Sprout's growth will be stunted. I have some cute 3-6 month clothes that are a good 3 inches too short in the legs (and he's only 4 months!). Maybe I'll also give him coffee. And cigarettes! Those will stunt his growth, right?

Sprout, in his 9 month pajamas.

Alright, on to Operation GTKTSTTN. Other than a few pleasant surprises, Sprout gets up once a night every night. Around 3 months Little Man settled into a pattern of waking up at 3:00 every night, which was fine. Predictable. Then I think we sleep trained him at around 4 months with success. This kid is random. Sometimes he's up at 1:00, sometimes 5:00. He eats a bottle and goes back to sleep (blessing - he goes back to sleep easily!)

But the last few nights he's gotten up twice - once before midnight, and once around 5:00. This is not okay. The first time he gets up he's very hungry and the second time he just wants to hang out. I'm not quite sure what to do with this observance, but information is good, right?

I'll let you know how Operation GTKTSTTN goes. I'll also let you know what it is, once I figure that out.

Why We Keep Him

This afternoon Daddio obtained tickets to the basketball game, so he took Little Man.
The people next to them left early. Daddio claims it was because of Little Man's prolific toots.
Tonight at bedtime I told LM to say goodnight to Daddio. He said, "Goodnight! Thank you for basketball." Sometimes I could eat him, he's so sweet.

Which reminds me of a story. In a post about our trip to Georgia last month I alluded to a temper tantrum in Costco. On the way home he just screamed. "I don't like Georgia!" etc. Then, in the midst of his angry rant, he yelled, "I need a MILKSHAKE!" My mom muttered, "Yeah, that's gonna happen." You have to laugh or else you'll cry.

Food & General Cuteness

At his 4 month appointment this week we got the green light to start "solid" food with Sprout. Doc thought it might help both his spitting-up and his nightly waking.

The instruction is to start plain old rice cereal, and when he gets the hang of that to introduce fruits and veggies one at a time. He is not impressed.
And here we were at 4 months with Little Man for his first rice cereal adventure.Recently several people have told me they look alike. I beg to differ. The Sproutlet, you'll notice, is not sitting up in the Bumbo seat. He is a lazy Bumbo sitter. He slouches all over the place in that thing, so I wound up holding his forehead up while trying to shovel in cereal.

I had prints made of our professional photos. I put a couple in our stairway (the most recent photo there had been from LM's first birthday - oops), but I also made this small arrangement with which I am in love.
Yes, I did just post a picture of pictures. To make up for it, I will feed you this delightful bit of cuteness.

Stuff to do While Laid-Off Volume 1

Did I not mention that I was laid-off? Oh. Heh heh. Yeah, well. I've been wanting to add a "What to do While Laid-Off" feature to the blog for a few weeks now. And today I learned what my new career should be!

And so, with no further delay, Stuff to do While Laid-Off Volume 1!

1. Take personality inventories. My company paid for these.I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It called me an ESTJ, which is Extroversion (vs. introversion), Sensing (vs. intuition), Thinking (vs. feeling), Judging (vs. perceiving). As you can see above, I'm not strongly E, S, or J. Which is a little frustrating. I took a "Career Focus" class a few weeks ago and had similarly frustrating results. I was very even, very average. Nothing to point me in a specific direction.

Now, this is small text but it's the interesting part. I've always joked that I should be a carpenter. I like assembling things. I like having clear results for my work. I like doing something that lends itself to mastery (or as they say at Company Where I No Longer Work, I like being the "Subject-Matter Expert"). The "perfect" match for me according to this is "Firefighter, correctional officer, security guard, police officer." Har. I'll sign up for the police academy tomorrow. But also high up on the list, at 99% match is cabinetmaker, and at 94% match is carpenter.

I also took the Strong Interest Inventory. This was even more frustrating as I was very mid-line on almost all results. Other than the one that says I should do "Building, repairing."
So that's it. Honey, I'm moving to Vermont or some place that values artisans, and I'm going to be a carpenter's apprentice.

If only I were footloose and fancy-free, but no matter what I do it will require paying to have 2 kids in daycare. So unfortunately that has to factor in to the "what I want to be when I grow up" conversation.

2. Another thing to do while laid-off: Knit!
I'm not yet skilled enough to make fingers for my mittens. So they're fingerless.

What do you mean it looks like I've had that nail polish on for a month? Look, I'm unemployed. Don't judge.

When He's Good

Daisy just ate a pumpkin muffin for breakfast while I rolled the garbage to the curb. Anybody want a dog?This is the second time I've used this recipe, but I alter it. 100% whole wheat flour, and half sugar, half Splenda. This time I decided to make the cream cheese frosting. Little Man approves. It does make these more of a dessert than a breakfast, though, and what I really want is an on-the-go breakfast. So I think next time I'm back to no frosting.
In other news, Little Man is back! He still has is Mr. Hyde moments, because after all he is 2 1/2. But we no longer feel like "oh my gosh, what happened to my kid?" I think he's just gotten to where you can reason with him to an extent. For example, he used to not negotiate. At all. There was no, "If you eat your chicken, you can have dessert." It did not work. He'd rather not eat dessert and get his way on the chicken. And probably also cry about the dessert. But recently he's gotten it. And he is starting to get that he can't always be the center of attention. Last night we devised a method where if I can't pick him up when he wants to be held, we'll high-five instead. I don't know if this will hold up, but it feels like progress.

Lately he's been saying "I'm sorry, Mommy" in a very sweet way. I was a little confused, though, because he'd do it when he hadn't done anything wrong. If I made a mess, or Daisy knocked something down, he'd say, "I'm sorry, Mommy." I was a little concerned that he assumed he was going to get blamed for everything, or that everything was his fault. The other night I was trying to move one of his puzzles and it fell apart. He said, "I'm sorry, Mommy" and I asked, "Sorry for what?" "Sorry that you broke my puzzle." Then I got it. I think this is the beginnings of empathy.
Could it be possible that Fabulous New Daycare and their kinder, gentler ways are rubbing off on him?

Last night we sat down for dinner and he said, "Thank you for cooking dinner, Mommy Daddy." (The "and" is implied. He also says "Ernie Bert.") Where does that come from in a 2-year-old?! I don't care, I'll take it.

The Giraffe

We had Sprout's 4 month checkup today. He's still in the 69th % for weight. His head is catching up to his brother's - it's in the 95th %. And his height is off-the-curve. Now he could be Sprout, Spout, or the Giraffe. I'll take a 4 month picture with the sock monkey sometime when he's not covered in spit-up. Maybe never.

He had 3 shots today (they were actually out of one vaccine) and Little Man came along to get his flu shot. Little Man did great. Sprout was very offended and sad that someone was poking his skinny giraffe legs.

This evening I kind of rushed the boys out of school because I was running behind. So when we got home and sat down I asked Little Man, "Can I have a kiss?" He said yes, and I told him I love him. He said, "Can I have a lollypop?"And, as promised, professional Halloween pictures! I'm posting the low-res versions here. The way this photographer works is that she charges a session fee, then we get the edited high-res images to print on our own. She does recommend we print them at a certain place (with very reasonable rates). To honor her request, please don't print these off the blog. Just let me know if you want any printed, and I'll send them to you! These aren't all of them, but a sampling.

The photographer knew exactly how to get LM to smile - tell him he couldn't smile. Here he is trying not to smile before he knew she was joking.
I love the pushed up sleeves here. This is a pure Little Man thing. Daddio isn't sure that LM will want to be immortalized with ruffles around his neck. But I say, that's the peril of being 2.
I understand the eternal dream of a good picture of 2 kids together. We didn't get any of those. I think it was just too bright for Sprout outside.
American Gothic, Halloween Baby Style.
I like this face.
Roar! (Most of them I like the best in color because the colors were so great that day. But I think this one looks cool in B&W because his eyes look great and you can see that dimple)Another not-good picture of them together, but I had to show you Sprout's outfit.