Sunday, January 17, 2016

10 for 10

10 things about Luke at 10  months

1) His hello is a mix of serious and nonchalant. He often tilts his forehead down, stretches out one arm slowly and then moves his fingers in a wave.  We think this is very cute.

2) He now says da-da-da-da.  I don't think he means his daddy, but we always act like he does. I still think he says "Hi" sometimes. This week it sounded like he said "ahh-duh" when he was all done nursing. Today it sounded like he said "nigh nigh" when I laid him down for his naps. So no definitive first words, but lots of new sounds.

3) His sleep was majorly disrupted over the holidays and I think he woke up at least once every night over our two weeks of traveling.  Thankfully he's returned to his 12 hour nights now that we are home!

He pulls up on the barricade
4) He pulled up to a standing position this month but then hasn't repeated it that I've seen. This is right in line with the baby quality we notice in him - he doesn't seem in a rush to grow up and we aren't in a rush to have it happen!

5) We are really seeing him develop connections with others. It was so sweet to see his excitement to see Ms. Larita after his break from school.  He always gets excited when he sees her.  I also love to see how he lights up when he sees Jack and Cora.  He also loves his school friends and doesn't look back when he's dropped off.

Luke at school with Ms. Larita and Addison
6) He loves to be put down so he can crawl around and explore. At school, he likes to find his favorite toy, a xylophone. At home, we've baby proofed our dining room, but he likes to leave these safe quarters behind and head straight to our shoe rack. More times than I'd like to admit, I look over and he has Cora's nasty Croc in his mouth - yuck!

Luke at the Library
7) Luke Patrol - Cora and Jack are really great about being aware of where Luke is and whether it's a safe situation. Our upstairs routine is to shut their bedroom and bathroom doors and let him crawl into and out of his room and up and down the hallway. He knows where the fun is and will always go straight into their rooms if the doors are open. There is so much danger in those rooms it's not even funny. Small jewels, rocks, LEGOs, books, uncovered outlets, small things, SMALL THINGS!

8) As good as Jack and Cora are about making a safe space for Luke, they also pose his greatest danger. There's the Jack pick-up, the Jack tackle, the erratic Jack shove, the flattening Cora hug, etc.

9) No one believes us, but Luke is our smallest baby and his length is at the 25th percentile. His weight is 65th percentile but something about his thighs and cheeks make him seem meatier than the scale says he is :)

10) Third babies don't get to eat table food as much as other kids, but Luke always gets two meals and sometimes even three a day :) He most often is eating melon, pears, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, bread, and dried figs. Some mornings he's interested in our oatmeal, other mornings he'll have none of it.  He's a very clear communicator. If he doesn't want a food, it immediately gets swiped off the tray.  He still gets most of his nutrients from breastmilk.

And that's our sweet little guy.

10 Month Photo Shoot

Sticker = Distraction

There is no way I'm looking at you when that sticker is back there.

Yes a book will distract me but I still won't look at you.

Hey Momma!

A Lutey Smile - scrunched up nose - so sweet!

More reading

Just over 21 lbs of loving

And in the end, the sticker, too, goes in the mouth

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Absolutely Crazy

Rather than bring this post around to the positive at the end, I commit to writing another post about how full life is and all the awesome things that I get to witness on a daily basis.

But this post is about the crazy. Mark it in the record books that we are in the trenches now. Surviving not thriving. A daily blitz. Sanity stretching craziness.  Living at the extremes.  You get the picture.

When we had Jack, I was so excited to have a baby that the challenges of transitioning to one child seemed all part of the adventure.  Transitioning to two was definitely more of an adjustment and the summer of 2012 was not easy. But, daggonit in hindsight, we were rocking the two kid thing.  I can't say I remember Cora's baby year all that well, but the two years after that now seem so rosy in retrospect. Calm and easy compared to right now.

Seeing that we have the world's sweetest, easiest baby, it's confusing to me how transitioning to three children could be so rocking this boat?! I'm going to cut us some slack and recognize that Jacob launching a new business, me taking on more responsibility at work, Jack starting Kindergarten across town, and the simple truth that 3 kids with 3 schedules at 3 locations is just a lot - all add something to this adjustment.

A brand new baby and newborn sleep patterns is always going to be hard. But we actually were in a lull in the spring while I was on maternity leave and Jack and Cora were continuing their happy existence together at Waldorf. Then summer came and we had some fun adventures. Then I went back to work and we started the weekly experience of needing to account for everyone, every day, in different places, different schedules, factoring in when Luke needed to be fed, who was picking up whom, with what car, did they have the car seat, were the bags packed, empty the lunch box, wash, repack.  And then we started inserting various illnesses.  Hand Foot Mouth.  The common cold. Strep. Possible pneumonia.  Ear infection.  Persistent sinus infection. Vicious unnamed virus. The occasional vomiting episode. Eczema.

And after about three months thinking that surely it would get easier once school started, once we got adjusted to the school schedules, once I got that project turned in, I realized that it probably isn't going to get easier this year. Most days feel like sprints. And we're too tired to keep track, but I estimate 80% of our nights are interrupted by someone's night terror, nightmare, shooting pain, etc.  (It's another post that 90% of those nights are being caused by one child. Hint: Cora)

Oh the piles
I remember a calmer, more mellow Courtney last year. Now I get downright anxious quite often. It's like someone's playing a trick on you when you don't sit down all day and yet everywhere you turn there is something else that needs doing: open the fridge (I need to freeze that milk), turn to the sink (those dishes need to be washed), walk past the stove (is that the oatmeal still out from breakfast), trip over the backpack (that needs to be unpacked and repacked), stop to answer child's question, remember there is a child pooping on the potty, and then realize you have no idea what you were about to do but know it was something...

Please tell me it gets easier!