Sausage

I've talked before about how wonderfully plump my baby boy is, but at six months old now we may have achieved peak fatness...so much so that the whole family has taken to calling him the sausage. My three year old daughter has particularly embraced the name and really will call him nothing else, except on occasion the little sausage, sausage man, or just fatty fatty. We just had his six month check up with our doctor and he weighed in at a whopping 20 pounds 7 ounces and measured 27 and a half inches long. He came into this world at 7 pounds 10 ounces so in six short months he's gained about thirteen pounds. Not too shabby. He's not obese or anything close to that, just very zoftic. So referring to him as the little sausage has just come naturally, and everyone seems to get a kick out of it. Now his clothes have even become his sausage casing and his car seat has become his bun! He is just so soft and squishy I love it, and he really loves to be naked in all his sausagey glory which is a fantastic sight. I'm sure as he starts to move around more and learns to crawl some of his glorious fatness might start to disappear, but for now he is our family's sausage man, and we wouldn't have him any other way.

Miss Independent

As of late my three year old daughter is really becoming quite the independent young lady...she just insists on doing everything by herself. It started off with the potty, where she no longer wanted daddy to help her up onto the bowl or wipe, which I must say is not half bad. But I still have to get in there after one of her ginormous poops or else she is walking around itching her bottom all day. At this point she doesn't even use her stool but likes to climb up all by herself just holding the toilet paper roll, which I'm sure one day will simply give way and she'll take a header right into the toilet... I should probably reinforce that thing. Her budding independence is not limited to potty time, she is also making her mark in the kitchen, helping out with baby brother, getting into and out of her carseat, taking off and putting on her own clothes and shoes, helping daddy with the laundry, climbing into and out of her stroller, and tackling all the big kid stuff at the park (no more baby swings for her). It is really awesome that she is learning to do all these things on her own and I am fully encouraging her independence, but on the same note it kind of makes me sad that my sweet little baby girl is already trying to grow up. It also makes me kind of sad that all the things I mentioned above went from taking five seconds to accomplish to taking forever!!

From Zero to Stinky : The Evolution of Poop

WARNING: This blog may contain material not suitable for people with weak stomachs or people with an overly sensitive sense of smell!

It all starts with that stuff that resembles what your dad used to use to repave the driveway with when you were a kid, the black tar poops. I remember when my daughter was born and we were in the hospital freaking out when I first saw that stuff come out of my new baby girls tiny little tooshie. And then trying to change my first diaper with her bottom covered in that stuff, it was like glue, and I was so nervous if I wiped to hard I could hurt her...it was just a mess, literally. Now six months ago my son came along and although I was way more confident in my poop changing abilities, but that didn't make getting that tar poops off his little bottom any easier , especially with those two little balls getting in the way. Next comes the mustard seed poops, which don't really carry much of a scent but they just look really weird. Those are the breast milk poops, but when you start throwing a bit of formula into the mix is when things start to get a tad more interesting. It still amazes me how my little baby boy can turn a few measly ounces of formula into a seven pound liquidy caramel poop diaper. My daughter is almost three and a half now and has been potty trained since about three months before her third birthday, and although I don't have to deal with her poop filled diapers anymore, I am the official wipe master. And I have to say my little girl drops some serious bombs, I don't even know how she fits these things out of her tiny little toosh. And the smell, my goodness she turns grilled cheese sandwiches and carrots into the most massive stinky turds you've ever seen...or in my case smelled. But back to baby boy, he is now six months old and onto solid foods, so the evolution of poop continues. We tried to get him to eat that rice cereal and oatmeal stuff about a month ago but he just wasn't having it, so now so far we have given him sweet potatoes and carrots, which he is totally loving. But the poop mass index in those diapers just continue to grow in size and stinkiness as his meals do. For example today he ate a six ounce bottle of formula and a whole jar of the sweet potatoes for lunch and about a half hour later produced what looked exactly the same in his diaper. I probably could have scraped it out and put right back in the jar and no one would know the difference. Well I guess the smell could give it away, and they do smell something fierce. I really only had about a three month window of no diapers between when my daughter was potty trained and my son was born, but that was a sweet three months. Hopefully just about two and a half more years of giant poop filled diapers and I'll be finished with them forever, although I have heard it's harder to potty train boys so maybe three more years. Wow that is an awful lot of poop.

A Phase?

A few weeks ago I wrote about waking up at two in the morning to find my three year old daughter standing creepily at the foot of our bed, well it happened again last night, and it totally freaked me out yet again. Maybe not as bad as the first time but still, slight heart attack. This new wandering episode has coincided with what I'm hoping is a new little "phase" that she is going through. The don't listen to Daddy and say really mean things to Daddy and take three hours to put me to bed at night phase. Okay I'm actually praying it's just a phase because as Popeye would say "I've stands all I can stands and I can't stands no more!" The not listening I'm kind of used to because although she has always been a good girl, she never listened all the time, and the mean things she says sting a little bit, but she is three and just testing the boundaries of her little world. But our nice bedtime routine which has gone from half an hour or forty five minutes to two or two and a half hours is just not going to fly. The routine has actually stayed the same but the past few nights we have just ended up having to repeat it three or four times. My little angel who would never even get out of her bed by herself is now traipsing right out of there before we can even get the door closed. And as every parent knows those precious few hours we get between when the kiddies go to sleep and we go to sleep are pure gold, and absolutely necessary to retain any kind of sanity. So if this isn't a phase we might just have to get her some kind of cage, alright that's a tad extreme but with me staying home and my wife working full time we really need those few hours of alone time each night, a few minutes are just not going to cut it. I guess we shall just have to wait and see what happens...but she was a little sniffly today...maybe a little dose of benadryl?!

The Tattler

Every Tuesday morning I head to the gym where my three daughter has ballet class at the kid's club and baby boy gets to hang out in the baby room with all his girlfriends. It is definitely one of the highlights of my daughter's week and I have to say that without the kid's club I would have probably lost my mind quite a while back. All the people who work there are just absolutely fantastic and so great with my kids, and for those two hours a day when we go I always know they are in good hands. My daughter just loves getting into her little tutu and learning new dance moves, but the most important part for her is without a doubt getting her hands stamped at the end of each class by her teacher. But a few weeks ago when I picked her up after class she only held up one stamped hand instead of two, and with the saddest little look on her face said, "Daddy, I only get one stamp because I didn't listen to Miss Jenna and I get time out." I was a little shocked but I thanked her for being so honest with daddy and told her we needed to work on her listening skills at dance class. So before the next class I made her promise to listen to everything teacher said and do as she was told and she would be sure to get her two stamps again. Which she did and was so proud to show them off to me when I picked her up that day, and I was really proud of her. Now when I picked her up after class today she ran up to me and immediately showed off her two glorious hand stamps, and then without skipping a beat points at this other little girl whose daddy is picking her up from class and says, " Daddy, Molly only get one stamp and she get a time out." After having a little inward chuckle I tell her that it's not nice to tattle on other people, and that maybe Molly was just having a bad day. So I apologized to Molly's dad and then headed home to work on my new project with my daughter, no more tattling.

CVS = crack for a three year old

Last week my three year old daughter was on spring break from preschool, which as I mentioned before totally sucked for daddy. I do love the time I get to spend with my daughter every week but those days when she is at preschool are when I can really get things done around the house. To compound the fact that she was on break her and my little guy both got sick, and for the fourth time in as many months my daughter's little cold turned into an ear infection, this time a double. So when Monday came I was so ready to send her back to school, but since she still had a slight fever instead the three of us got to take another trip to the doctor's office. Luckily my daughter is a very good patient once the doctor actually gets into the room, but before she shows up it's a total free for all of jumping onto the scale, spinning on the stool, and grabbing tongue depressors and cotton balls out of the little jars... which becomes a lot harder to control when I also have baby brother to contend with. But at least with all these doctor's visits I am able to get a little stockpile of free formula samples. Anyway after the doctor determined that both ears were infected we're off to CVS to get her prescription filled, which is where the fun really began. That place is really like crack for my three year old, she is just completely surrounded by everything she is obsessed with in there, candy, lip stuff, and toys. All conveniently located right at her 39 and a half inch eye level. And of course on top of the fact that she keeps running away from me to grab the nearest pack of dum-dums or skittles flavored lip gloss, brother starts crying for his bottle/nap time. Wouldn't it be awesome if at that point the pharmacist showed some sympathy and rushed her medicine right out to us, instead we wait another twenty minutes even though there is only one other customer ahead of us. I really had to muster every ounce of daddy patience not to start either screaming at my daughter and making a huge scene in front of the whole store or just giving her her first ever spanking right there. Instead I dragged her away from the lip stuff and candy over to the toy section, where I even was willing to bribe her with a seven dollar beanie baby panda. And that worked for five minutes, until she spotted the nifty value pack of lip gloss with every color/flavor of the rainbow that she just had to have. She tossed that panda to the ground and went for it, and when I put my foot down and said no way she turned on me and screamed, "Daddy, you ruined my life!!" Where does she even come up with this stuff. Luckily at that point the pharmacist finally gave me the nod and I picked up the medicine, picked up the now two screaming kids, and high tailed it out of there!

My birthday present

My birthday was this past Friday and for my birthday I decided the present I really wanted was a baby boy who did not wake up two to three times a night, but just kept on sleeping right on through it. Unfortunately you can't just blow out your candles and wish for this to be so, you have to make it happen yourself. So Friday night after a wonderful birthday date night with my beautiful wife, we decided to ferberize our little baby boy. It's kind of crazy that it even came to this, because at three months old he was actually sleeping through the night, but then he decided to turn things around at about five months and start acting like a normal baby. He starting waking up two or three times a night, and we would give him a bottle but he would only eat one or two ounces, so I knew he wasn't really hungry. So without even doing any research on the internet or reading eighteen books we ferberized, with our only knowledge of the subject being to let the little man cry it out and not pick him up. Which in our case is especially difficult because we are still sharing a room with baby boy. I am sure having to hear your child cry and scream bloody murder no matter where they are is not easy for anyone, but when they are doing it five feet away from you I know it is really hard. And in that extremely long hour of bawling my wife and I both had moments of weakness, but luckily we were each able to convince the other not to give in. In my wife's case it was a lot harder because she is still breast feeding in the mornings and evenings so she not only had to try and sleep with ear plugs in and a pillow over her head, but also while holding her boobs at the same time so they would not explode. But we did get through that first night, and the past two nights as well, each getting a little bit easier. The second night he cried for about forty five minutes and then last night for about half an hour, and all we have to do is get up and shove the pacifier back in his mouth a couple of times. So even though it is taking a bit of work I am getting a wonderful birthday present, almost a full night's sleep!

Freaked out

So it's been a rather trying week for me, both kids sick and my daughter is on spring break from preschool. Which actually blows my mind, I mean it's a private preschool so why the spring break, and they even have the nerve to charge us for the week. But I guess my daughter was getting pretty burned out from all the story time, finger painting, nap time, and play time, she really could use a little rest. How about giving me a break! If I had my way no breaks!! Anyway it has been a long week, but at least spring has finally sprung here in Chicago and the weather is beautiful, so sick or not the kids and I have at least been spending most of the week outside, finally. I really don't mind the cold weather so much, just the length of the Chicago winter is what really gets me down, especially when you're cooped up in the house with two kids. Baby boy is almost six months old now and just finally getting to experience the world outside our little condo. So I thought I had my three year old pretty tired out yesterday, after letting her run around at the kids club at the gym all morning, and then at the park all afternoon. But apparently not, because for the first time ever my wife and I were awakened at two in the morning by our little girl in our room standing creepily at the foot of our bed holding one of mommy's journals saying, "Will you read me this book?" Now don't get me wrong, it was not the first time we were awakened by our little angel at two in the morning, she has never really been a great sleeper and has awakened us many many times before. But for some reason which I was always very thankful for and never ever questioned she would never leave the safety of her little bed, until last night. And for some reason seeing her standing there in our room at two in the morning just completely freaked me out, my heart practically jumped out of my chest and I flew out of that bed. After some careful explaining of why she should never sneak around in the middle of the night I think I had her convinced not to do it again...I guess we'll just have to wait until tonight!