Bubbles, Cheerios, and Snot-Sucking

Mornings have been better since Monday, thank goodness. I think that the car naps and our extra activities with visitors were what did us in last weekend. This week I've made it a point to be home for every nap, and he's been napping a little bit better each day. Now, of course, he has his 3rd cold, but so far it doesn't seem as bad as the last one was. His middle two teeth are also coming through (bringing his total to 6), but they don't seem to be bothering him as much as the fangs did.

Here he is the other morning while Kevin and I were loosely supervising him (Parents of the Year)...he got into the recycling which was/still is overflowing onto the floor. He really loves bottles. He rolled this one around for a while and put it in his mouth (as he does with everything).

 Chug, Chug, Chug

Just the other day I gave him a bubble bath for the first time, and he loved it! He loved to try to eat the bubbles off of his fingers, and I loved to make fun bubble sculptures on his unsuspecting head.

 Do I have something in my teeth?

Yesterday we went to JoAnn's (twice) for their 25% friends and family sale, and I picked up enough supplies to keep me busy for a while. I have material for Christmas stockings, curtains for the laundry room, and a few cross-stitching projects (one small, one medium). Now if I can just figure out a way to work on things while watching Lewis. There's always naptime.

Here he is, asleep after we got home from our second (late afternoon) trip. You can't really see it, but he had a little snot bubble under his left nostril. Poor buddy.

This was him a little later, during the Cheerio course, as I was preparing his dinner. He moved before I snapped the picture, but I'm posting it because I think he looks so much like Kevin here. I mean, you might say, Duh, he always looks like Kevin, but his expression in his eyes/nose and mouth/jaw area, especially, freaks me out. It's just like Kevin. And look at that shaggy hair!

Here is the smiley, chatty, and snotty monster enjoying his new favorite food: Cheerios! Sometimes it seems like he could eat them as his entire meal and be perfectly happy. His tray-to-hand-to-mouth success rate has improved quite a bit this week. I give him 5-10 minutes of Cheerio Time in the evenings before dinner while I get the rest of his meal ready. Last night, too, we added smashed peas.

DANGER! DANGER! on this next one. Peter lets out a big bark around the 1:01 mark, and you might pee your pants (like Lewis probably did) if you aren't expecting it.

We've started closing the hallway doors to keep the wandering beast contained a bit more upstairs. I was trying to get some video of him racing down the hall, discovering (again and again) that the doors were all closed, then turning around and crawling back to me, then going back down the hall and doing it all over again, but he was too fast! This was a still I got of an 'Uhhhh' look--like, Mama, what am I supposed to do with this current situation?

Yesterday we also went to Babies R Us to look for any sort of cold relief products that we don't already have. I found that Johnson's has a vapor-y baby bath made for babies with colds (with eucalyptus, rosemary, and menthol), so I got some of that. We tried it out this morning--it smelled like a spa. Yum. And again, bubble art. I'm not sure if the vapors helped or not--he did have a couple of really snotty sneezes during his bath, so maybe??

A Shark Fin

I also went on Amazon (after calling Whole Foods, Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart with no luck) and ordered a Nosefrida for him because apparently he is traumatized by the bulb syringe from our last bouts of snot-sucking--so far, so good! I had it overnighted because I was afraid we were in for a long weekend of snot-sucking and didn't want to wait until Monday. 

He still cries, anticipating anything to do with his nose, but it a) doesn't go into his nostril far at all and b) you do the sucking and can get out the goobers much more efficiently (and I still use the saline spray to soften things up beforehand). And there is totally a filter, so it is totally impossible to suck any of his snot out of the collection tube (and into your mouth--gross). A new must-have! Thank you, Swedes, for both the Nosefrida and IKEA. I love you.

Now I am off to get a much-needed haircut because a) it is wild, as always, and b) so that Lewis can't get ahold of it and pull it out by the fistful! Happy weekend!

Sleep, Revisited

Lewis woke up at 5:15am this morning. Inappropriate. Unacceptable. Obscene.

I mentioned we've been having some hiccups, and I think it's time we regroup, revamp, recharge our sleep tactics. I reread the pertinent chapters of our book this morning, and here is the plan:

Lewis needs to:

• Sleep for 10 1/2 to 11 hours at night (no more than 12...hahaha, won't be a problem)
• Sleep for at least 1 hour, twice a day (with a 3rd short nap, if needed)

Positives to be Happy About

• No more nighttime awakenings!
• Goes right to sleep at bedtime. Stays asleep until 'morning' (even though morning comes far sooner than the goal wake-up time)
• With early awakenings, Kevin and I have had time to watch our saved TV shows or Today, tidy up the house, cook full breakfasts (eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy) sometimes, and spend quality time as a family before Kevin goes to work. Sleeping a little longer would be nice, too, though.

Negatives/Areas Needing Improvement

• Is waking up before the 10 1/2 or 11 hour mark
• Is sometimes napping for only 30 minutes at a time (though he hit 1 hour for both naps yesterday and so far today)
• Has too long of a stretch between waking up from 2nd nap and bedtime (sometimes 2pm to 7:30pm)

Action Steps

• Stick to the 1 hour rule for naps--keep him in his crib the full hour to give him a chance to fall back asleep.
• Pay attention to cues during the day re: ready for naptime. Space them 2 to 2 1/2 hours from wake-up, then 2 1/2 to 3 hours from 1st nap wake-up, then possibly 2 1/2 to 3 hours from 2nd nap wake-up if 3rd nap is needed.
• Consider beginning bedtime at 7:15pm/Asleep by 7:45pm (Change from 7:30pm/8pm) to see if he will sleep longer in the morning. Maybe even 7pm/7:30pm.
• Keep going to bed early so I am better able to function so g.d. early in the morning.

And someone started pulling up on the kitchen cabinets and opening drawers, so it looks like we'll be installing drawer locks this weekend...

Happy Halloween!

This weekend my parents (and Maggie Moo) came down to stay, and we had a great weekend! We celebrated Halloween yesterday out at Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, along with Kevin's parents and his brother, Scott--I was looking for Halloween-y things to do and found that they were having a Halloween Walk with the Animals! It was an absolutely perfect fall day, and I'm glad we went.

They have an indoor exhibit area with snakes, frogs, turtles, owls, bees, fish, a squirrel (that was hiding), etc. Outdoors they have a bald eagle, black bear, elk, bison, bobcat, wild turkey, deer, and even a skunk!

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the house so Lewis could show his Grandma and Grandpa Carter his new skills. Mom cooked homemade potato soup and a peaches and cream french toast casserole (oh my!). Then they babysat for us this morning while Kevin and I ran a couple of errands and went out to lunch. Great weekend--so glad they came down!

Wearing Grandpa Carter's hat

Ribbit.

Ready to see some wild animals!

Check out who is sunning herself to the left of Lew's booty.

A Sleeping Beauty

Meow.

Wild turkeys (one put his tail feathers out)

Smooshyfaces

Resident skunk (who waddled and was very large and in charge--

she was overfed as a pet before ending up at Salato as an exhibit animal)

Frog Boy with Grandma Thompson

Trying to leap out of her hands

Lewis the Frog with all of his grandparents

This was his outfit for today--Mom had gotten him the 'Daddy's Little Monster' t-shirt, and I found the pants at Goodwill the other day.

Thinking he looks like Juni a little here...Em?

We found this walker yesterday at Goodwill to see how he'd do with it--so far, it rolls away from him, and he'd rather chew on the handle or play with the gadgets on the front, but we'll keep trying. For now, he seems good with walking around the coffee table.

His first time eating a 'real' apple was today! He's had applesauce to this point, but today I offered him some of my apple and he took a few nibbles off of it.

Yum!

Man Hands

I vant to suck your blood!!

(Can you see his vampire fangs up top there?)

Happy Halloween!

Up,Up,Updates

Feeding

We have been giving Lewis some Cheerios and cut up pieces of pasta or yogurt melts to try to encourage/teach him to feed himself. He has about a 10% tray-to-hand-to-inside-mouth success rate right now, I'd say. He LOVES Cheerios and tries SO hard to pick them up, but they usually end up in his lap or on the floor. Thankfully the dogs ALSO love Cheerios and have been hanging around at mealtimes the past week or so since the finger food effort began. The other night I found myself saying (and sharing) '1 for Lewis, 1 for Peter, 1 for Hattie, and 1 for me.' The dogs are so cute about it--they act like one single Cheerio is such a special treat that needs to be very delicately taken from my fingers.

Mom Group

I got word last week that the leader of our mom group from the hospital where we delivered had accepted a new job, so Lewis and I went last week to say goodbye and to thank her for all that she's done (and continues to do) for us. I meant to take a picture with her for Lewis' memory box, but of course forgot. I did get one of Lewis with his buddy, Josiah, who is 10 months old.

Sleeping

We tried shifting bedtime 15 minutes earlier to see if Lewis would sleep a little later in the mornings, but it completely and totally backfired on us. We were starting his bedtime routine at 7:30pm (asleep by 8pm) and he was awakening at 6:30am (which is the 10 1/2 hour mark, and we were shooting for 11 hours). We decided to try starting bedtime at 7:15pm (asleep by 7:45pm) to see if that would help him sleep later, but he started waking up at 5:45am. That was early and only 10 hours of sleep, so we are back to 7:30pm!

However, he has started to peep around 5:45am again, but doesn't seem to fully wake up until 6am. We obviously still have some tweaking to do. However, his naps have also been poor the past few days (30 minutes instead of the usual 45 minute, hour, or glorious, but rare, 2 hours, that we're used to), and I know his daytime sleep directly affects his nighttime sleep. A work in progress.

Swimming Lessons

Baby Splash is going well--we've had 2 classes so far with 2 different instructors and 2 very different teaching methods. The first was very structured, kept us going the whole 30 minutes, and took it very seriously (no baby ooohs and aaahs from her). The second, on the other hand, is all about the babies, very laid back, and didn't give us much direction at all. First lady wins for me. #2 is kind of how I envisioned the class would be, but since I saw #1's style first, I now expect #1 results, dang it.

And my parents just left from a weekend visit, so I have a bunch of pictures/videos to get posted! I'd started this post last week and just hadn't had time to finish it yet!

Keeping Us Busy

I took some videos the other morning of a typical morning at the ol' Thompson house. Some parts of the videos are a bit dark because they were taken early in the morning before the sun comes up.

First, this is Lewis crawling with a little pep in his step, then pulling up, and laughing/talking to himself a little.

This one is of him eating the table, as per usual, crawling away, changing course, pulling up/leaning over the magazine crate (that he fell into head first the other day) to gnaw on the wicker cube, heading over to Kevin (notice the corner bumper on the floor to his right--he's managed to pull them all off, either with his teeth or his hands), then he heads on into the kitchen. Next, he probably went to the dogs water bowl to have a little splash. He's all over the place!

And finally, Lewis' latest favorite thing to pull up on--the toilets (I just cleaned them, I swear, and we've since started leaving the lids shut and I have toilet locks for when he learns how to open the lid). In this, Lewis made his way into the bathroom at the end of Kevin's shower--SURPRISE!--(and Kevin didn't realize I was taking video, hence his 'Oh!' at the end). Nothing inappropriate/embarrassing, though.

So, needless to say, we spend A LOT of our time in the basement which is one big open room for him to roam freely and safely. There are times upstairs where he gets out of my sight, and by the time I get to him, he's already made his way to the end of the hall. Or to the dog bowls. Or the laundry basket. Or the dog's big wire crate.

He is a busy boy--if he isn't down on the ground exploring, he's in our arms looking around to see what he can get into next!

A Weekend at Home

We stayed in town this weekend and had a nice balance of relaxation and getting some much needed things done around the house.

Ben and Adie spent fall break down by Red River Gorge, so they stopped in on their way home Saturday afternoon for a nice visit. Two successful Goodwill stops and a tasty dinner at the new-ish restaurant up the street (Emily and Joe, still saving the Poutine for you!).

Saturday morning I was cleaning up, and Kevin yelled for me to 'Come, quickly' and 'Bring the camera!' Poor Lewis had gone booty up into the magazine crate. I should have knelt down and taken a picture from the side, but he was getting (understandably) fussy by the time I got one picture taken--just know that his feet were not touching the ground. He has also done this a few times in the basement with the laundry basket (with clean, folded laundry there to cushion his head).

Baby Got Back

Wearing Uncle Ben's hat, which I think is a size 8 like Kevin wears.

No doubt in Lewis' future.

I took this video sometime last week of Lewis standing and starting to move around more smoothly. He still wobbles a lot and falls a lot, but he is getting more confident/coordinated each day, it seems. It has been really fun to watch him evolve. Here he is harassing Hattie Boo who was happily asleep on the couch--she did growl around 0:24, but I'm not sure if the camera picked it up or not.

Kevin and I both had productive days today, switching off on Lewis duty. Kevin knocked out gutters, leaves, and mowing one last time, while I organized our junk room that was getting out of control. Goodwill stuff is loaded (thanks, Kevin!) and the junk room is no longer stressing me out.

This week is looking to be a little busy with running errands, and my parents are coming down this weekend, so we are looking forward to that! Hope everyone had a good one.

Consignment Sale Season Is Over...

And did it go out with a bang?!

This last sale had a 'New Mom' presale from 5-9 on Wednesday and then was open to the public Thursday-Saturday, 10-8 (or something like that). With that short presale time frame and Lewis' bedtime being 7:15 and rush hour traffic, I decided to skip the New Mom part. However, because one of the bridges is closed, they extended the New Mom hours to 11-9 on Wednesday. Whereas I once wouldn't have messed with it, I decided I should take advantage of one last New Mom perk (by the next round, Lewis will surpass the 12 month age 'suggestion' which I'll mention more of in a minute).

Lewis woke up from his nap at 10:30, so we hopped in the car and got there around 11:05, sort of by accident. I didn't mean to get there as soon as they opened, but it just worked out that he woke up when he did. Man, did I see some crazies by getting there when I did!! Crazed pregnant women, scooping up Pack n Plays and activity mats, being really annoyingly pushy and grabby and such. It was nuts!

I had one particular encounter with a mom and her daughter who was TOTALLY older than 12 months. Hell, she looked older than Juniper (18+ months) to me, so there is no way she qualifies as a New Mom. They should require birth certificates--just kidding, of course, but this lady was so rude! She was in my way a little, so I tried scooting around her stroller, nothing, accidentally bumped her and apologized, nothing, somehow knocked a book off the table and apologized and picked it up, nothing. I laughed to myself as I walked away from her. I saw her later chatting with some of the workers, and I decided there seems to be a whole unfriendly inner circle, and I'm not a fan. Snobby Knobbies, I'll call them (Floyds Knobs, Kevin's hometown, is snobbish in parts). Or Floyds Snobs, as Kevin calls them. Not a fan. Life is far too short to be so rude, lady. That's what I wanted to say.

Anyway, I have to go back there tomorrow. Not to the sale, but to the area. I scheduled an eye appointment to coincide with our original plan (and the eye doctor wasn't in today), so Kevin's parents are lined up to watch Lewis--instead of shopping after my appointment, I think I'll go for a pedicure instead.

Oh, and I had great shopping success. I found: 2 coffee table protectors (the elasticized ones, not the sticky ones), a few other childproofing items, a pair of Pediped shoes (for later), a pair of Stride Rite shoes (for later), a ball popper toy, a few books, and a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars (for later). Success--the childproofing supplies were my main mission, and I found just what I was looking for which rarely happens. So now we're set until the next round, 6 months from now!