Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Taking Bets

When do you think he will start walking?

Monday, February 25, 2013

Slime Trail

You know your baby is teething when they leave a trail of drool behind them wherever they go, not unlike that of a snail.



Friday, February 22, 2013

AKA My Other Child

I acquired a new child recently.
A sourdough starter! I'm calling it my child because I have to feed and water it regularly. In return, it allows me to bake fresh sourdough bread and other goodies (sourdough waffles!) pretty much whenever I want.
 
Not nearly as cute as my other children, but I think I'll keep it!



Thursday, February 21, 2013

Tiny Spaces

 I've been having a hard time getting Ryan to nap lately.

Actually, I've been having a hard time getting Ryan to nap since the day he was born. But that's not the point of this post.

The other day I put Ryan in my room for a little "resting" period. I knew he was tired and I was hoping he would at least sit on my bed and play quietly for a little while.

Instead, he unzipped the tiny compartment below the bassinet, climbed in, and fell asleep.
The bassinet is only a few inches from the wall, as you can see in the above picture.
He stayed asleep down there for 30 minutes!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Accidental First Step

Lucas took a step today.
Perhaps I'm just in denial about how quickly he is growing up, but I'm labeling the step accidental.
Lucas stood up in front of me and let go, like he's been doing a lot lately. But this time he took one small step forward and then lunged onto me.
He's working hard to catch up to his big brother!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Why?

I knew the days of Ryan asking "Why?" all the time were not too far off. And now they are here in full force! He gets a sly little smile on his face when he asks me, like he knows it's kind of annoying. And that just makes it all the more cute and less annoying.

Here's a conversation we had this morning:

Me: Ryan I don't want you jumping off the couch near the fireplace.

Ryan: Why?

Me: Because you might get hurt.

Ryan: Why?

Me: Because if you hit your head on the fireplace it would hurt really badly.

Ryan: Why?

Me: Because that's just how God made you.

Ryan: Why?

Me: I don't know. Maybe you should ask God.

Ryan: Oh. No, you ask God!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Meal Time

This is what meal time is like in our house these days.
What is it like in your house?

Thursday, February 14, 2013

My 3 Guys

Happy Valentine's Day to my 3 guys!



 Love you!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Finger Foods

This past week Lucas suddenly decided that he no longer likes baby food. He pinches his mouth shut and turns his head when I offer the spoonful of food, and if he does get baby food in his mouth, he often makes a face and spits some out. But it's not that he's uninterested in eating. He goes crazy for finger foods. When I put cheerios or Gerber Puffs on his tray, he starts flapping his arms in excitement and shoving them into his mouth as fast as his little fingers can grab them.

But a baby cannot survive on cheerios and puffs alone. So it's time for me to get serious about giving him finger foods. This is so much earlier than with Ryan. At 1 year of age he still had serious gag reflex issues and rarely ate foods with texture. I am excited that Lucas is such an eager eater, and I love watching him try new foods.

This morning for breakfast I gave him a little bit of jarred peach/banana/oatmeal baby food. When he lost interest in that, I gave him cheerios and egg yolk. The other night I gave him small carrot pieces that had been cooked until tender in a soup. Last night I made Cajun Chicken Pasta and Lucas absolutely devoured the seasoned fettuccini noodles. I need to get in the habit of cooking meals that all 4 of us can eat, rather than preparing separate food for the boys. Any tips on preparing and feeding finger foods to an 8 month old?

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Headboard Project 2.0

Back in August 2010 Adam built a padded headboard for our bed. Here is the link to when I blogged about it. http://nullybabyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/reason-873.html

I loved it and still do. For about a year now Adam has been suggesting that he build a frame to go around the bottom of the bed. This would solve a couple problems.....dust collecting under the bed and the dog sleeping under the bed. It would also prevent us from banging our shins on the dumb metal boxspring frame that is currently there. I never really understood the concept of what he wanted to build, but I finally gave him the "go-ahead" to build it yesterday.

 We bought fabric at 1:30pm, started cutting and building around 2pm (Adam cut wood, I cut fabric)

Ryan helped by supervising.


We padded the wood and used a nail gun to attach the fabric.
By 5pm it was finished and on our bed! It's hard to tell by the picture, but it's an actual frame that goes around 3 sides of our bed.

I love it! And I love how skilled my husband is with projects like this.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Weighty Wednesday: Goal!

I finally reached my goal! 8 Months after the birth of Lucas I have lost all 49 pounds I gained while pregnant with him, plus another 5 pounds. 54 pounds gone! It feels really good and I'm glad to be back to a healthy weight. I'm also glad that I don't have to do my Weighty Wednesday posts anymore. I will continue to post the occasional recipe because I love talking about food, but no more weekly weigh-ins.

At least not until the next Nully Baby comes along. Ha!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Hide and Seek

I've mentioned this before, but one of the best parts of parenting so far is watching my children learn and experience good things for the first time. 

One of these good "firsts" this week was teaching Ryan to play hide and seek.

It went a little something like this:

I hide while Ryan counts "1,2,3,8,9,10! Here I come not!!"

I count while Ryan hides in the exact same spot every time.

When I tell him to cover his eyes this is what he does.
Eventually he figured it out.

Kind of.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Lucas: 8 Months

Happy 8 Months Lucas!

This month involved lots of physical milestones for you: perfecting your sitting, crawling, climbing steps, and standing! No attempts at walking yet, but I know that will come soon enough.

Last month I blogged these words about you " I am loving this stage right now because you are generally happy, not mobile enough that I need to chase you around, no defiant behavior yet, and less crying and more sleeping than previous months". I just read those words and laughed because things change so quickly! You are so mobile now that I do have to chase you around. Sometimes I put you down, turn around for one minute, and then can't find you!

As for the defiant behavior? Well I'm definitely starting to see signs of it. Not necessarily defiance, but frustration on your part when your needs are not immediately met. You bang your highchair tray when I don't feed you fast enough, and you screech at the top of your lungs when I try to change you!

And the less crying and more sleeping? This month it was all about more crying and less sleeping. I'm not sure if it's because of your recent illness, or perhaps the strong strong separation anxiety you've developed.....but you officially hate your crib. You cry and cry when I put you down, and are often awake every 30 minutes during the night, screaming for me. I hope this is a short phase!

A new trick of yours is waving. You will sometimes flap your arms at people when they wave to you, and I've noticed you opening and closing your hand. I think it's intentional?

You do babble a little bit, and I've heard you say "Mama" and "Gaga", but for the most part you just screech. We've nicknamed you "Pterodactyl Baby". (I definitely just had to google that word for the spelling).

New foods this month included fish, strawberry, cheese, beans, and yogurt (including a couple bites of frozen yogurt).


You have 2 teeth on the bottom and the two top ones have just cut through. Hmm, maybe that's why you've been up fussing at all hours of the night?

You have become incredibly attached to me this month. You're fine playing near me during the day. But if someone else picks you up or take you from my arms, you flip out. You scream and cry and lunge for me, and immediately quiet down if I take you back. We're with each other almost 24 hours a day, so I guess it's understandable that you would be really attached to Mommy at this age, but it would be nice if you were happy with other people too!
I love you sweet baby Lucas! I can't wait to see what's in store for us next month.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Let's Get This Potty Started

Excuse the super cheesy title. It's all I could come up with. This post is about....you guessed it.....potty training! Actually it's about me asking for advice about potty training because I have no clue how to do it.

I didn't bother training Ryan before Lucas was born because I knew I wouldn't have time to follow through with it when Lucas was a small baby. I figured that once he was a few months old and we'd all adjusted to life as a family of 4, we'd start to get serious about potty training.  Well, Lucas is 8 months old now. I think we've adjusted. And Ryan is 2 years and 9 months old, with the big 3 right around the corner. It's time.

He is showing some signs of being ready. He loves to undress himself and take off his diaper. Oh wait, maybe this is just something all toddlers do? He also runs and hides when he has to take care of his business, and will sometimes tell me when he has a messy diaper that needs to be changed.

He has a little potty of his own. He knows that if he pee-pees in the potty he will get a candy. And we even have a seat that attaches to the regular toilet. We bought a package of pull-ups with cars on them.

We're ready. He's ready. Now how do we start?