The Fairies Stole My Child (and left a new one in his place)

So, Noah has NEVER been a paci baby. He wanted nothing to do with it - Mom was good enough, thank you very much. For the last week, though, ALL he wants in the entire world, at all times, is the paci. And nothing to do with Mom.

Noah has been sleeping through the night (roughly) since he was about six weeks old. For the last week? WAKEUPS. Many of them.

He used to light up when I walked in the room. Now, when Tyler comes home from work, he wants nothing whatsoever to do with me. Once he knows Tyler's home, he cries and cries until Tyler pays individual attention to him.

I just want to know where the fairies took the Noah who loved ME best, who didn't need a pacifier at all hours of the day and night, who was perfectly content to lie around and hang out with me. I really liked that Noah.

This Noah can roll over both ways, though, so I suppose there's that...

Six Months!

Our beloved guy is six months (and got 4 shots and one oral vaccine today to prove it)!

Noah's Stats:

Weight: 17 lb, 10 oz (58%)

Height: 27.75 inches (91%)

Head Circumference: 17.52" (75%)

At six months his sister was:

Weight: 16 lbs, 6 oz (60%)

Height: 27 inches (90%)

Head Circumference: 17.32" (78%)

I think it's funny that Noah is so much heavier than Natalie was but is still in the same approximate percentile for weight.

His diet consists of mostly milk from mom, with a spot of formula here and there. He's also eating three meals of solid food a day. He absolutely adores mom's homemade sweet potatoes and likes avocado too. This is in contrast to his sister who couldn't stand either! Also, she really liked bananas and pears, and he seems to dislike banana and to only tolerate pear. We feed him mostly oatmeal otherwise, because rice cereal seemed to clog up the pipes a little bit if you get my drift. We tried winter squash the other day but he's just not that into jarred food. Perhaps when I make him some homemade butternut squash he will like it better. We will see.

He sleeps quite well at night - generally 7:30 p.m. - 5 a.m. or so, a quick wakeup (a snack puts him back to sleep) and then back to bed until either 7:30 a.m. rolls around, or Natalie wakes him up ;) I want to sleep-train him soon because he doesn't *need* that 5 a.m. wakeup, but I am hesitant to do so with Natalie sleeping not that far away. We shall see how things progress.

In terms of temperament, he is still very easygoing though he certainly gets his desires known more and more as the days progress. He loves to squeal and shriek - especially in his crib when he wakes up - see sleep training above - and loves it when Natalie shakes jingly toys at him or Tyler plays guitar for him. Maybe he will be musical like his dad? He rolls from his back onto his tummy but has made no overtures whatsoever to turn the other way. It's not that he tries and can't do it - he has absolutely no desire to go back that way. Even if I turn him over when he's tired and protesting, he will roll right back over onto his tummy again. Oy vey, kid! So funny that before he had no desire to be on his tummy and now he has no desire to be on his back. He lays there on his tummy and spins his arms and legs wildly. This move seems intended to propel him forward, but as he is not Superman (to our knowledge), it just results in fatigue and frustration. He also isn't very into sitting up on his own. If we hold him that way for a few minutes, he kicks out with his legs until he gets onto his back and then flips over - you guessed it - onto his tummy. He quite likes the swings at the park, which is challenging because Natalie will only tolerate the swings for about 30 seconds before she is begging to go back on the "phwides". She's not quite old enough, in my opinion, to go running off on her own at our San Francisco parks so I try to keep her close. It's much easier if someone else is with us to help out - otherwise Noah just keeps getting the short end of the stick!

No teeth yet. Just the normal miserable hours while the teeth move around, but fail to appear on the surface. Thankfully, Natalie only has to deliver two more teeth and then she's done for a few years... Phew...

Both kids seem to like each other still. Natalie tries very hard to be helpful with Noah, which has its upsides and downsides. I can always count on her to give him a toy if he's fussy, but I can't always count on it being the *right* toy for his age. She really tries though. I try to walk the line between Noah's personal space and ensuring that the two of them enjoy each other and can become friends when the time comes.

And now he's been protesting in his crib for the whole time I've been writing this, so I should probably rescue him! A 45 minute nap won't cut it for much longer, buster! :-)

Happy Halloween!

We had very nice Halloween and hope everyone else did too!

Our little mermaid...















our little astronaut...















and Natty's specially decorated pumpkin!

Socks

First you see them...














...and now you don't!

Grocery shopping

Our little shopper at Trader Joe's! Pretzels, check.
Feta, check. Off to find the the ABC pasta...

Hmm, I wonder if I left my wallet in the car?

Guest Appearance

Our friends are more caught up on their blog posts than we are. Check out a few scenes from our trip to the pumpkin patch over the weekend!

Brain Change

This week has been a big huge week of emotional and mental changes for our guys. Things were the same-same-same and then all of a sudden both kids made huge leaps.

Noah learned this week how to link two mental concepts together... He all of a sudden has put together that when he wants something, he can reach out and grab it (and then taste it). Ergo, if he wants something that's further away, he has to roll over to get to it. It's been great but challenging, as he has been enormously frustrated when the toy won't fit in his mouth, or when he's been on his tummy too long, or when he gets tired. His squeals of rage are quite something. He's been learning this for a while but this week it was very obvious that he is moving along in his mental development. Very cool. Very challenging for Mom and Natalie, though, as now we need to make sure her teeny tiny toys are a safe distance away from our guy... and for Mom and Dad, as he is absolutely EXHAUSTED by bedtime every night and thus is quite a fuss budget. He has also been waking more overnight as he's working through these new concepts.

Natalie's changes are absolutely beyond huge this week (to me, the person who's always loved psychology). She has all of a sudden become afraid of things - the peach-faced lovebirds at the zoo, the vacuum cleaner again (even though 2 weeks ago the vacuum was a super-fun game), and... ?Reese? She still loves Reese but has begun to kind of whine and whimper when Reese gets too close to her. I have no idea what brought that little fear on, but she'd better work through it, 'cause Reese isn't goin' anywhere!! :-) She also has learned the concept of shame which is hard for me to watch. Whenever we think something she's said or done is especially genius, we have always laughed with delight and pride. But now she's started to be ashamed when we laugh, thinking we are laughing *at* her, even though nothing could be further from the truth. So we'll have to learn a new way of showing our pride, I guess. Lastly, she's good at pleasing Mom and Dad by picking up toys, being nice, playing well with others - when we can supervise her - but now she's also starting to learn how to meaningfully do the opposite - upset us. This is different from testing or tantrums which are so common starting around 18 months (or earlier)... now she absolutely knows what will hurt my feelings and can say it if she's feeling cranky. Like, she loves Daddy more... or doesn't love me at all... etc. etc. It's been interesting and poorly timed given my ongoing mourning for my own father, but a reminder that life goes on.

We absolutely love our kids so much. But I have to say that I am really eager for the weekend to arrive so I can take some much-needed moments to decompress from all the crying around here! :-)