Saben - 2 1/2 years

I've realized lately that Saben does so many quirky, funny things that I don't even remember to record them all anymore. So here's a little list in honor of him turning 2 1/2 a couple weeks ago.

• Every time I put Saben to sleep, I lay in his bed and sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Amazing Grace" (1, 2 & 3rd verses). Sometimes Saben sings along and that is my favorite thing ever. He knows all the words to all 3 verses of Amazing Grace that we sing, even if he is mostly off key.


• For a while now, Saben has liked to play this game where he says "I'm going to eat you" and then licks your face. He especially likes licking/sticking his mouth on our noses and he yells "gross!" before we even got a chance. He even grabs your face to hold it still while he does it.


• Saben always goes to sleep with a glass of ice water.


• Saben is madly, passionately in love with railroad crossings. (see below, it warranted a post of its own)


• This summer, Saben started chasing Roxxy around & around the table with his big metal truck. She ran because he would ram her with the truck if she didn't. Then he'd scream at her if she went onto the grass or too far away. It was so loud when he got the truck going that we had to make a rule that he couldn't chase her while we were still eating dinner.


• Saben is not to fond of insects. Lately he thinks everything is a bee & is going to bite him. We went to the park & saw dragonflies which he was terrified of. To try & calm him down I said "They won't bite you, they'll just kiss you!". So now he keeps telling everyone "The dragonflies kiss me!"


• When Saben is afraid, he covers his eyes with his arm.


• Saben's favorite meal is breakfast & he often eats two good sized bowls of cereal.
• Saben is a chatter box, more than most kids we know. He often talks about trains, but also very random things. When a visitor comes over and walks in the door, he will often "break the ice" by saying something like "There's the light!" or some other mundane observation.
• When Kyle tickles Saben they refer to it as "looking for crumb dumbs". Don't ask me, but Saben will point to his belly and say "There is a crumb dumb here" and then you have to tickle him there.

That's all I can think of right now....

Naps, etc.

It's taken Saben 1 hour to fall asleep for his afternoon nap two days in a row. He just talks & talks, sings, kicks his legs, etc. Could he be outgrowing his afternoon nap? Someone please shoot me.

I also officially HATE potty training. It almost grosses me out more than anything else, although being puked on is no picnic. Poop in a diaper is ok somehow, but when its rolling around in underwear, on the floor, on feet.... YUCK. I so desparately wish I'd done it before Annika was born.

Ok, lets see, something pleasant that I do enjoy.... how about right now when both kids are asleep at the same time? And any evening I manage to get them both in bed by 8:30pm?

No really, good things this week....Saben did pee in his potty twice on Wednesday, for the first time ever. (forward...) Then Thursday was pee on carpet & ball of poop day. (and back again....)

He also has no cavities, which we discovered after our 2nd early morning trip to the dentist. On the first trip we scrambled around but got lost and were 15 minutes late so they cancelled our appointment after we'd sat there 15 minutes. Sounds innocent enough, but carefully orchestrating nursing times to prevent screaming, scrambling frantically with your kids to get somewhere by 8:30am and then having it all be in vain is quite frustrating. Tears were certainly shed but I did refrain from tearing out my hair. (which is falling out quite well on its own, thank you pregnancy hormones)

I feel like such a wuss because it all adds up to grumpy momma, but seriously, millions of moms do this (two kids at once) all the time. In fact many deal with way more than I do. So what's the use complaining?

railroad crossing

Here is the promised picture of Saben's drawing of railroad tracks & crossing....

The line across the railroad crossing pole is the "X" for the crossing sign, but he lines it up with the pole so you can't see all of it. And I forgot to label it. And the circles on the crossing arm are the "little lights" that are mounted on the arms. Funny huh?

Annika - 12 weeks

Wow, we are nearing that magic marker, the 3 month mark. Or 12-14 weeks, when everything supposedly gets much easier. Things have been a lot better the last couple weeks, although its still been exhausting at times.

Annika has been regularly sleeping about 9 hours straight for the last 2-3 weeks and it has been wonderful. I am nearly positive Saben didn't sleep through the night that quickly.

Her naps & nursing are still challenging, but she is taking more naps than she used to, as long as I stay home most of the day & put her down as soon as she shows signs of getting tired.

Unfortunately she is a lot less "flexible" than Saben was and being out & about is a pain. She does sleep in the car, but wakes up everytime we get out somewhere. Then the countdown starts, we only have 40 minutes or so before she'll want to nurse again & try to go back to sleep. If she isn't taking a long nap, she still nurses every couple hours during the day, but I guess that makes up for the 8-10 hour breaks at night.

But we did manage to eat in restaurants twice this week as a family with no major meltdowns and she just started getting interested in her toys. She likes kicking the rattles in her bouncy chair and she really likes the blue monkey in her baby gym. In fact she much prefers the blue monkey to either of the rattles. Maybe she'll be my little animal lover since Saben doesn't seem to be leaning that direction....

Ding Dings

Trains are pretty cool, but Saben's new passion is for ding dings. And big lights. Yes, that's code for railroad crossings. The ding ding is the arm that goes down. He often impersonates them, kicking his legs or moving his arms up and down and saying "ding ding ding".

Today he had a straw & a cup lid - the straw became the ding ding & the lid was the "big lights" (the black ones on the crossings) Pretty much anything that is straight becomes a ding ding. Sticks, bread knives, our tv antennas, the strings on my hooded sweatshirt, all have been moved up and down accompanied by "ding ding ding ding".

We went to the Model Train show at the Lynden fairgrounds this weekend and he loved it. He spent about 25 minutes standing in one particular spot watching the railroad crossing arms go down whenever the the electric train went by. Which happened every 30 seconds or so. So much for kids having a short attention span.

Saben can even draw ding dings. He's been able to do the train tracks for a while, but after watching me draw about 100 railroad crossings, he finally has it mastered. I'd post a picture but I'm too tired. Maybe later.

My favorite things

My favorite baby products that I "found" this time around:

Bebe Au Lait nursing covers (aka Hooter Hiders) - I have absolutely loved having one of these, it makes it so much more relaxing to nurse in public places like restaurants, airplanes, etc. (The store I linked has free shipping, is mother owned, and has lots of cool products)

And Baby Legs as seen on Annika previously, so handy because you don't have to take them off to change diapers and keeps girls warm in all their cute dresses. Plus the patterns are adorable and remind me of the purple glittery pair I had when I was a kid. (The shop I linked is Kyle's cousin's online store - they have great shoes too!)

TJs

Trader Joes opened Friday and I missed it, I was out of town. Probably a good thing, I don't imagine dragging an infant & a 2 year old through throngs of rabid TJ fans would have been that fun. Maybe just sort of fun.

So we went Sunday and it was everything I had dreamed of, except that the parking lot suddenly looked way smaller and was completely full. My favorite part was the police car who had apparently been stationed by the store all weekend to keep an eye on everyone.

The best part for me was that this store had a bunch of favorites I haven't been able to find at the store in Everett. But now I am worried that maybe they just stock everything at first & narrow it down once they see what sells up here. So here's a plug for my favorites in the hopes that you go buy them so that this store will still carry them.

Dried Tart Montmorency Cherries - Excellent in oatmeal
Bagged Mache - a sweet, nutty salad green that is the nutritous equivalent of spinach (but tastier!)
Frozen chopped garlic cubes - perfect for quick stirfrys or for snacking on if you are Saben.
Pound Plus Bittersweet Chocolate Bars - excellent for baking these cookies and other goodies.

Fair

Can you guess what Saben's favorite part of the fair was?
(yes, I know it was a month ago, but how many times can I start posts by apologizing how late I am?)

Nope, no trains at the fair, was it the chickens? The huge draft horses? The miniature ponies? Maybe the cotton candy, snow cone, ice cream, funnel cake or pfeffejkes he ate? (yes, we go for the food all right. Now that I type it I can't believe how much food we bought and that doesn't include what we actually ate for lunch.)

Nope. The big moment when Saben shouted out with glee was when he spotted.... fireplaces. At the spa boothes. And everytime we went by he would yell again and demand to go see them. The good news is that we managed to finally pick out a hot tub while we were admiring the fireplaces and have been enjoying it in our backyard for the last couple of weeks.

So yes, Saben loves fireplaces & fires, second only to trains. He actually builds fireplaces out of his wooden train tracks & uses his blocks for firewood. I guess the next backyard purchase better be some sort of firebowl/chimnea.

Hiking

This is so late, but two weeks ago we went hiking up Heliotrope Ridge by Mt Baker. We thought Saben would probably enjoy walking for maybe 10 minutes or so, the trail is not ultra steep, but does have hills, roots & rocks to step up & generally heads upwards the entire time.


One hour later, he was still chugging along, and really into it, having the time of his life. He loved the climbing parts (steps for us) where he had to pull himself up rocks & tree roots. Whenever other hikers approached, he would actually grunt louder to make sure they knew how hard he was working. It was so incredibly cute and since we love hiking, we were estatic.


The trail finally got too steep and we loaded him into the pack & carried him until we reached about 5 minutes from the end of the trail which features an overlook to a Mt. Baker glacier. There is a stream crossing at this point and it was just a bit to sketchy to jump over with kids attached to your body. So we were stuck, 5 minutes from the end and couldn't really see much from where we were. ARGH!!!


Great view of the glacier, just over that ridge....

On the way down, we timed that it took us about 25 minutes to hike the length of section Saben did all by himself. That's two adults walking downhill.

Anyways, we all had a wonderful time and stopped at the Northfork Brewery on the way home for pizza. mmmm.....

Annika 9 weeks

Annika's first mini skirt.
(update: Annika's left hand is missing in all the pics because I was keeping her from tipping over with it. She definitely does not sit on her own yet!)

bodily functions

I do not kid you, every morning, the very instant I pour milk onto my cereal and sit down to drink my coffee, this is what I hear:
"Mommy, I pooped"

It is so appetizing to change a diaper right before you eat, and soggy cereal is just a special bonus.

I realize that I have also forgotten to mention a habit of Saben's that has been around for quite some time - handing people the green treats he finds up his nose. "Mommy, I have a booger!" as he thrusts his finger in your face.

The best was when we were sitting next to the bride (Kyle's cousin) at a shower and he actually managed to get one out without me noticing and then offered it to her while everyone was watching her open gifts. "I have a booger!"

Smiling

Smiles and the things annika loves at 9 weeks old:

• Annika smiled at 6 weeks almost exactly and just started giving huge grins at 8 1/2 wks. (I count the first smiles when I can see it in her eyes. Gas smiles don't go to the eyes)


• Her first smiles were all induced by standing. Everytime you hold annika up to stand her eyes light up and she gets so excited.
• Annika loves to watch my mouth as I sing. Singing to sleep doesn't help her out much, but if she's alert, she really enjoys it.
• Annika does not like her bouncy seat, play gym or swing yet. Sigh. She usually seems scared/overwhelmed by most toys or things dangling in her face.
• Annika loves any sort of baby massage, even though I'm just winging it. We also do some mouth stimulation therapy to help with her nursing and she loves it, even though my finger is poking and brush all over her mouth.
• Annika already enjoys Saben's favorite book as an infant "I Kissed the Baby"
• Annika loves the baby bjorn and on "bad nap days" it is the only place I can get her to sleep

Stupid bullet formatter.

recipes

I finally found time to add a few new recipes we have been loving this summer.

Annika 6 weeks, Saben 2 yrs - 5 months

At the beach

Wearing Mommy's dress & bonnet

Saben had to be bribed for this picture by including Percy (the train) by his knees

Babies

I was thinking last night that there are two things I've felt "this time around" that I didn't experience with Saben.

1. The pure bliss of holding a new infant in my arms. The contentment I felt right after Annika was born was amazing and for a couple weeks I thought "I really want to do this again, no way are we stopping with just two kids. I'm ready to get pregnant again right now!" With Saben I was just really nervous that any second something was going to go wrong or he was going to get colicky and it was still wonderful, but different not knowing what to expect.

2. However, I don't remember Saben causing me the encompassing anger and frustration I've felt while spending HOURS trying to get Annika to sleep. Now I've been thinking "No way on earth am I EVER going to do this again. Two kids is plenty and if this one doesn't fall asleep soon I am chucking her out the window."

The funny thing is, I would definitely say that Annika is MUCH harder than Saben was, but I vaguely have this feeling that I had a few tough weeks with Saben too. I just don't remember.

What is fascinating to me is that Kyle remembers all the hard parts with Saben, while I only remember the good parts. Part of the reason I write down the difficulties of raising my children is that I want to remember ALL of it and I have realized that somehow mom's brains (mine at least) are wired to forget just how exhausted and frustrated they were with their precious bundles of joy.

This last week was really really tough, Annika refused to nap unless she was in the Baby Bjorn carrier, hated being set down for more than 5 minutes and wanted to nurse constantly. Its not that she wouldn't nap, she just woke up after 5-20 minutes every single time. After I'd spent 30 minutes bouncing/rocking/nursing her to sleep. She wouldn't go to bed till 9:30 pm or so, which meant I had 30 min - 1 hour to myself each day and last night I was really losing it.

Then out of the blue, she slept from 10:30 pm till 6:30 am last night, napped 2 hours this morning and then fell asleep in her swing for the first time ever this afternoon. Hmmm.... this isn't so bad. In fact I could totally see us having just one more.....

Goodbyes

Last week I had to say goodbye to a very dear friend who moved 5 hours away. I met Andi 4 months after moving here at a home bible study. Saben was 9 months old and Audrey was just a tiny 3 month old. I didn't have a single mom friend in Bellingham and we walked into this warm bright house and met the most wonderful people - many of whom had kids close to Saben's age.

I will never forget that night, even though over half the people we met there have moved away. It was the friendliest, most interesting and warm group I have EVER met, and after months of worrying if I would ever find anyone I felt connected with in Bellingham, God brought all these amazing people into my life.

Andi was one of my first real "Mom friends", the kind I always dreamed of meeting once I became a stay at home mom. One who had kids the same age who would help ease the lonliness of being home alone all day.


Andi was all that and more, not only was she lots of fun to hang out with, she brought a wonderful perspective on motherhood. It was so inspiring to see the joy and passion she had for being a mom. I really admire her love of small beauties, her creativity around the home, her complete devotion to Audrey and the way she treasures and makes every moment of motherhood special.





After working in an office for years, getting used to being a full time mom was often hard for me but in some small way Andi helped me ease through it and learn to appreciate it more.

Of course being pregnant together was the most fun of all, we were practically pregnancy twins because both of us had c-sections and big babies the first time around. We also had the same doctor, had to decide on a VBAC vs. C-section this time and once we even got bitten by a bug on the exact same place behind our left ears.


Once we both had new infants, it was not quite as fun since we were both "trapped" in our homes, but we've managed to keep up via email, blog and infrequent visits.




It would have been hilarious to see Audrey & Saben grow up together because they are often nemeses. I think Saben is the only person Audrey has ever bitten and lately she was starting to physically push him around when she got mad. However, Saben is no innocent, last week Audrey pushed him and got in trouble and so he marched right up in her face, obviously trying to get her to push him again so she'd get in trouble. But they also had a lot of fun together and loved playing at eachothers houses.



Some of my favorite memories are of blueberry picking, going to the Everett Children's museum together, babysitting co-op, the valentine's day "party" Andi hosted for us, Andi hosting my 30th birthday while 6 months preganant and watching Audrey chase saben around the house trying get his ball and him screaming the entire time, even though he is much bigger than her. (that last one was at the Bates going away party) And of course the day Saben observed that Audrey has a tunnel instead of a pee pee.

So goodbye to our friends, we will always treasure your memory and can not wait to see you again.

sleep no sleep

Ok, I started this post DAYS ago, and every day it seems to change so I update it and then don't quite get around to posting it. Plus I read it and it is very boring so I try to make it more interesting...but who am I kidding, no one is going to find Annika's sleep problems/patterns interesting except me.

But when you are in the thick of infant sleep troubles, nothing is more important than how & when they sleep. You are obsessed.

So, I am going to go ahead and post it because it is funny and a good reminder of how crazy it is to have a newborn. And I will try really really hard to not go over every single detail of her sleep schedule every time I talk to you, but....no promises. : )

The good news: Annika slept 6-7 hours in a row the last 3 nights.
The bad news: I often can not get her to nap during the day for more than 45 minutes

Yesterday I put her down for "naps" about 12 times and she always woke up 10 minutes later until about 5pm when she finally slept for 4 hours.

Still, I know we have it pretty good since she doesn't fuss much as long as she is being held. There's always a way to calm her down as long as I don't mind her nursing 4 hours in a row or holding her constantly. Mostly she's just unpredictable, napping 3 hours one day and then not at all the next day. Generally she falls asleep for about 10 minutes and then wakes up again and she will do this 10 times in a row before I actually get her to sleep for any length of time.

I don't know how people with "colicky" babies do it, I am grumpy and exhausted from only getting 6 hours of sleep, I can't imagine less than that.

In other news, I managed to get mastitis Monday and it is very very awful. Luckily I got antibiotics and felt a lot better the next day.

Roxxy

My dog. Sigh.

She is so clever that she can tell when tomatoes are ripe. And then she picks them and eats them. Only knocking off 2-3 green tomatoes in the process. But she doesn't eat the green ones, just leaves them as evidence of her shenanigans.

Did I mention she also DUG UP all my carrotts, ate them and then puked them up in our yard?

She is adorable.

Good days & bad days

Its amazing how Wednesday can be completely awesome and I think to myself "I think I'm getting the hang of this two kid thing". We completed our first grocery shopping trip with all three of us, I got a ton done and made an awesome supper, Saben played happily all day, I had the energy to give him the attention he needed and Annika took a couple nice long naps.

Then this morning fell apart aproximately 3 minutes after I got out of bed. Saben whined & cried all day, the house was a mess when Kyle got home, I had a headache and was an emotional basket case, Roxxy made a mess of the yard (more on that later) and I didn't even have to make dinner but still got nothing done.

We seem to be on an every other day schedule, so hopefully tomorrow will be awesome!!!

Four weeks old

halfway through taking all these pics, a giant slug crawled out from under the blanket by Annika's feet. YUCK