Perhaps, our mystery child is finally looking a little bit like his Momma?
Perhaps, our mystery child is finally looking a little bit like his Momma?
I think that AJ has the cutest laugh!
Dear Anthony,
You are actually 5.5 months as I write this, because the last few weeks have been rather busy!
But I needed to sit down and let you know what a ball of sunshine and love you’ve been to us! You are such a joyful, easy going baby (except at bedtime….more on that later). You nurse whenever, wherever. You are a punching bag for your brother (he’s trying to “tickle” you, so no hard feelings, k?). We can make you laugh and giggle by doing next to nothing. You love to be held by anyone, and you also love sitting in the bouncy chair, observing everything going on around you. I can’t stress enough what a wonderful joy you are to have around!
You pretty much exclusively co-sleep with Mommy now, going on about 6-7 weeks. This new habit has definitely cut into Mommy’s sleep, but (shh), secret, she doesn’t mind as much as you might think. She knows that in the blink of an eye, just like your brother, you will be a rambunctious toddler pushing her away 🙂 Plus, this also means you are nursing a TON and gaining weight like a champ! You are in 9-12 month clothing now (WOWZA!).
When you do sleep by yourself in the co-sleeper attached to Mommy’s side of the bed, you always roll over on your tummy and snuggle your cheek up with your fist. It’s pretty adorable. Sometime we can soothe you to sleep by rubbing or patting your back (I say SOMETIMES, because you prefer to exclusively fall asleep nursing, which means that Mommy spends 2-3 hours every night running up and down the stairs to go coax you back to sleep…NOT efficient, to say the least!).
You can’t quite sit up yet, but you’re almost there. During tummy time, you push up and try to inch around. You hardly ever stay on your back for long before you’ve rolled onto your tummy. You are grabbing onto everything around you, whether it be Mommy’s fork at the dinner table or the shirt of whoever’s holding you. WHAT a death grip! Mommy has to keep your nails cut at all times because you are able to inflict serious damage with those claws!
We’ve decided not to start you on any solid food for as long as we can possibly help it. Since you weigh a ton, poop and pee constantly, and still have yet to be sick, I don’t think anybody’s too worried 😉 You nurse 6-8 times during the daytime for about 5-10 minutes, and then off and on all night (Mommy’s not counting then, because she’s trying to sleep, despite all of your acrobatics!). We already knew you didn’t like pacifiers (you made that pretty clear within a month or two of being born), but you’ve also decided that you won’t take a bottle. Luckily, Mommy’s work schedule allows her to be home to nurse you every 1-2 hours when she’s working, so it hasn’t been too inconvenient. Actually, it’s been a time-saver, since Mommy doesn’t need to clean bottles or pump!
You and Gregory already have the funniest relationship! You watch him intently, and the moment he pays attention to you in the slightest, you giggle. He kisses your belly, and you laugh hysterically. On the flip side, when he has a temper tantrum and does his classic shrieking, you burst into tears. Loud noises are extremely startling to you (your grandparents say that Mommy was the same way, don’t worry, you ‘ll never grow out of it). When you cry, Gregory says, “Baby Wee! Baby Wee!” and tries to pat you, or goes and gets one of us.
Little Wee, you are kind of a big deal around here. If I could only pick one memory from this month, it would be your vivacious belly laugh that goes ON and ON! We all love you so much, and we love the happiness and joy that your personality brings to all of us!!
Love,
Mommy
It was always our desire to finish off the summer with ONE last camping trip. It was previously scheduled for the weekend before school started (our anniversary weekend), but we postponed it at the last minute. As you might know by now, we love camping and the outdoors. If you are wondering and want to know where we get our camping tips from, then visit campingfunzone.com.
Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and drove 2.5 hours to Wheeler Gorge, a campground right outside of Ojai (a small town 30 min. inland from Santa Barbara, for those who don’t know a lot about CA). The day was pretty sunny and hot, which would have heated up the vehicle if not for the cover that we had bought last week. We got them here at a reasonable price and also found it to be smooth, durable and coated to prevent sunlight to seep in excessively.
Quick travel tip for those with young kids: we try to always leave early in the morning, before they’re accustomed to being up, because they are sleepy and do well in the car. My analogy is this: you harvest honey in the morning, while the bees are still dozing, right? So that you don’t get stung?
Although the Shelbys were also set to join us, their daughter got super sick last minute and they ended up spending the weekend nursing her back to health 🙁 But we did get Ben!
Overall…the campground was a LITTLE too hot for my taste and I ended up spending most of my time on the Camping Chair for Bad Back as I was exhausted from setting up the tent and other things. It was a good thing that we actually got to implement some very vital things that we read on Camping Console. It was over 90 during the day, and only cooled off to around 75 at night. We didn’t even end up sleeping inside of our sleeping bags! Practically, this worked out well since whenever we camp (or whenever else, for that matter!) I co-sleep with Anthony and don’t use covers in order to be safe. So it worked out well for me!
Also, the stream wasn’t deep enough for swimming, just minor wading, which was a bit of a bummer (although I had Anthony strapped to me in the Mei Tai the whole time, so I’m not sure how that would have worked anyways…?). G LOVED the river. As in, “throw me in some cold water, Dad! I’m totally DOWN!!”
One other minor hiccup…Gregory pulled a stubborn streak of steel and decided that he would NOT sleep. Seriously. We thought it might have been because he could hear us talking around the campfire, but when we all transitioned to the tent around midnight, he STILL wouldn’t sleep! What on earth? I’ve never seen him so stubborn. He glared back at Jesse and directly disobeyed him for over an hour, as Jesse tried to be firm without also letting G wake up the entire campground with his high pitched screaming. I fell asleep in the middle of it all…when I woke up around 6, his pack n play was empty, so I started searching the tent for him. I found him curled up into a ball, no blankets, in the corner of the tent. I think somewhere in there Jesse must’ve given up and let G “do his thing” until he dropped…which he *eventually* did!