This Little Piggy

Just Had to Brag

I've somewhat neglected Clara's little milestones these past few months, so I thought a Clara post was in order. She's getting so big and learning so much lately. Here's just a few things she's been working on.

-- She started counting to 100 last month. She gets around 120 and starts to get confused, but I think she actually counted to 200 a couple of weeks ago. She doesn't yet recognize numbers over 20 though. Anytime I've pointed one out and asked her what it was, she wasn't able to tell me.

-- I've really been impressed by her understanding of basic math. There have been several instances when we've talked about something mathematical and she picked up on the concepts immediately. She can do basic addition and subtraction very quickly, but hasn't done any on paper, so she doesn't know her symbols yet. And Chris was talking about her and Robert's ages. He told her when she turned 5, Robert would be 1, and when she turned 6, Robert would be 2. At this point, Clara picked up on the pattern and took it all the way to "When I'm 10, Robert will be 6." I was shocked. She did it without thinking. I can't even do it without thinking about it. Oh, and Chris had her counting by even numbers the other day and she figured out the pattern in no time. If she indeed is a numbers kind of girl, she got that from her daddy. I, in no way, shape or form, contributed to a working understanding of numbers.

-- She still loves letters and asks how to spell things all the time. She also is into rhyming and pointing out words that start with the same letter. I haven't been able to get her to sound words out yet though. She resists when I try to have her sound things out. I'm in no hurry to teach her how to read so I don't push it. I know it'll just click one day.

-- She knows her address, and what city, state and country she lives in. We're working on her phone number.

-- She's learned several memory verses in her Sunday school class and has no problems at all rattling them off. They're also learning the books of the New Testament right now.

-- I've been amazed at her coloring abilities lately. It was only a few months ago that she was scribbling all over the page with a single color. Then she started trying to color right, but still way out of the lines. She started using different colors around this time also. She recently started staying in the lines better, but still didn't pay much attention to using appropriate colors. In fact, every single item on the page was a different color. Well, today she colored this picture. Overnight she became an awesome colorer. She colored the leaves green and the strawberry red and she colored all the sections of the curtain the same color and used a different color for the window frame. I was amazed when she showed me. (She gets her stellar coloring skills from me by the way.) I still love to color.

-- Her drawing has become more detailed lately too. She uses different colors now. She still just doesn't have a clue what to draw and really only does people. I try to coax her into drawing other things, but she just won't or if she does, it's completely indistinguishable. (She gets her lack of creativity and artistic ability from me by the way.) All I ever drew was houses and flowers. I still only draw stick figures.

-- Clara is a wonderful big sister. It's great having a set of hands to distract and entertain Robert for a few minutes when he starts fussing. She always says that God gave us the best baby and that she loves her Baby Robert.

Cuteness

I wanted to take Robert to get professional pictures in this sweet little outfit that Travis and Justin passed on to him. I decided that since I have an awesome new camera and a grassy front yard that maybe I should save myself the headache of going to get professional pictures made. He wasn't real cooperative until I had my lovely assistant Clara come try to make him smile and then I got a couple cute ones out of him.

I'm loving the little curl he's got going on one side of his head. Pure cuteness.

Five Months

--Robert weighs in at about 16.5 pounds this month. He's in 6-9 month clothes, size 3 shoes and size 3 diapers.

-- His eyes are looking more and more brown and he has an adorable curl on the side of his head that refuses to be tamed.

--He loves bathtime and can soak me with all of the splashing he does. He's now trying to sit up in his bathtub, so I'm afraid bathtime will be frustrating until he's sitting on his own.

-- He is still exclusively breastfed and we plan to introduce solids at 6 months. He's starting to grab at our food and drinks while we're eating.

-- He found his feet the day we left for Pecos. He's not nearly as interested in them as Clara was hers at this age, but he does enjoy them for a few minutes at a time and has been known to take a nibble while in his sling.

-- He is no longer swaddled and still has trouble staying asleep because of his startle reflex waking him up. He only sleeps a few hours at night before waking and then spends most of the rest of the night in bed with me. He wakes around 7:00 and is smiling and happy.

-- Naps are erratic, but that's my fault. It's hard to schedule 2 naps when we've got places to go and people to see. Sometimes they're in my lap, sometimes his crib, sometimes in bed with me, sometimes his carseat, and he occasionally skips a nap. I do need to be a little more consistent in this area.

-- He's better about the carseat and stays quiet about half of the time now.

-- He flew on a plane for the first time this month and had his first Easter. He also gave his first kisses. No one else would recognize them as kisses, but Mommy knows. While we were in Pecos, Bia was holding him and he leaned toward her cheek with his mouth open and planted one right on her cheek.

-- He puts anything he can reach into his mouth and still soaks multiple bibs a day. I think he's started to experience some pain due to the teething. He gets really frantic and upset sometimes while he's chewing on something and only nursing will soothe him.

-- He loves his jumperoo now. He couldn't quite get the hang of it before, but now that he has, look out. He's a jumpin' fool. He also got to swing for the first time and loves it too. It's very relaxing for him and he's even fallen asleep in it.

-- He rolls over anytime I put him on his back and he's not too interested in sitting up. He just falls right over and doesn't even try to stay up. If he's standing in our laps, we have a hard time making him bend his knees to sit.

I Know, I'm Gross

Just in case you didn't believe me that he's been a little snotty as of late.

She Cracks Me Up

I came across Clara's Christmas dance recital video just now as I was taking all the videos off the camera. Be sure you have your volume turned up. I still laughed the whole way through. The girl doesn't have a single self-conscious bone in her body. I keep telling myself that's a good thing.

Snippets from Playtime

~Clara loves her brother~

~I think the feeling's mutual~

Sleep

I know you're wondering how it's going with our new sleeping arrangement. Fortunately, Robert has adjusted quite well to sleeping without being swaddled. I even awoke one morning without a baby in my bed! That hasn't happened in a couple of months.

Unfortunately, the last couple of nights have been bad. Robert's been a sniffly, snotty, stuffed up mess. He's waking frequently from not being able to breathe well out of his nose. The first night he was stopped up, I brought him to bed after his fourth awakening. It was 11:45. He fussed and tossed and turned the whole night. Last night was more of the same. Plus, it takes him forever to go down for the night.

Before the sniffles invaded, he was going down easily for nap and bedtime. Hopefully he'll clear up soon so we can get back down to business.

Easter

Tanya and the kids came to Pecos on Friday night and Tim, Linsey and Brody got there Saturday. The kids dyed Easter eggs and decorated cupcakes on Friday night and then we went out to the farm on Saturday for lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Mason lives out at the farm now and he spent a lot of time cleaning it up for company. He even put up swings for the kids. It looked great. The Dominguez kids joined us for the egg hunt. Thank goodness we had 4 extra hunters. The amount of treats the Easter bunny left was insane. Each kid had their trusty "overflow bag" for when their bucket was full. This year he also brought CapriSuns, goldfish, animal crackers, peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks and quarters.

This next picture is a little blurry, but it was too cute not to share. Joe put all of Clayton's candy in this huge bag and Clayton insisted on dragging it back to the house by himself.

We were all frantically running around before church on Easter, so we didn't get a group shot of the kiddos. I did manage to snap one of Clara and Robert in their matching outfits. I took Robert's bib off just long enough to get a picture and look how soaked he was.

This was the best we could do for a group shot after church. Grayson refused to sit, which is why Tanya jumped in the picture. All you former Pecos church people, do you notice anything different? Yep, new pews and carpet. No more orange carpet and green pews and now there's only one aisle down the center. It looks really nice.

Since all of our festivities took place the day before, we came home for sandwiches and naps and said goodbye to all of our cousins who had to return home.

Not Too Shabby

Robert did in fact fall asleep at 8:15 last night after 1.5 hours and four attempts. I'm actually kinda shocked it took only four takes. He woke at 11:15. I got him down at 11:30 and he woke right back up. I nursed him again and when I put him back down, I stood above him and caught his arms each time they flung up, placing them back by his sides every time. I also had to stop his head from rocking back and forth. I did this probably 5 times in the first two minutes he was asleep. I'm really wondering if this is normal for an almost 5 month old. He went down at 11:45 and only slept until 12:30. I must've been in a pretty deep sleep when he woke because I couldn't even entertain the thought of getting him back down, so I brought him to bed for the rest of the night.

It's Gonna be a Long Night

Robert was sleeping great around the 2-3 month mark. I was consistently getting 7-9 hour stretches out of him at night. Well, the last couple of months have been less than stellar. I usually get 3-5 for the longest stretch, 1-2 for the second stretch and then he comes to bed with me where he nurses on and off until he wakes for the day sometime around 7:00.

He's also been swaddled this whole time. I knew it was getting close to time to unswaddle, but frankly I didn't particularly want to think about that transition. Every time I've attempted it, it hasn't gone well at all. Last night he made up my mind for me. When he woke around 2:00, I found him on his stomach, still swaddled. He used his neck muscles to hoist himself over. Little toot.

So he's obviously no longer safe in a swaddle. At naptime today I tried (unsuccessfully) for two hours to get him down unswaddled before I finally gave up. Bedtime is going on one and a half hours now. We're on attempt number four. Actually, he's been quiet in his crib for a few minutes now, so maybe he's asleep.

I'm not a big fan of crying it out (at least not at this age), so I picked up a copy of "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" and put into place some of the author's suggestions tonight. So far so good. I'm thinking I won't follow it to the letter until he gets used to being unswaddled though. I really don't think he can put himself to sleep right now with those wild appendages of his. The kid is freakishly active. He can be almost asleep, or sometimes even completely asleep, but when I put him down, his eyes pop open, legs start kicking, arms start flailing and he furiously whips his head back and forth.

Anyway, my point is, it could very well be a long night. Wish me luck!

I Should Be Unpacking

The kids and I just got back from our trip to Pecos last night. I flew by myself with them for the first time and thankfully both flights went off without a hitch. I had a game plan for the flights and it worked seamlessly.

I packed all of Clara's stuff in her small rolling suitcase which she carried on. She also had a backpack with coloring books and a few toys. I had a diaper bag filled to the brim with anything I might possibly need and Robert's stroller and carseat I checked at the gate. That left only one big suitcase with all of Robert's and my stuff to check. Did you know the price went up on your first checked bag? Yep. Now it's $23 if you pay ahead of time. That hurts. $50 just to get my stuff where I'm going and back.

Anyway, I made sure Clara and I had nothing on that we would have to take off to go through security except for shoes. No belts, bows, jewelry, change, nothing. I threw everything up on the belt, pulled the carseat off the stroller, folded up the stroller, pulled Robert out of the carset, flung the carseat up on the belt and we walked right through without even holding up the line. I was quite proud of myself.

We hung out for a while and then I got gate claim tickets for both the stroller and carseat. I put Robert in the sling and then put the carseat in a plastic bag so it wouldn't get dirty or torn, put it back on the stroller, and then put Clara's suitcase in the stroller. We hit the bathroom for a diaper change and potty break. When we went to board the plane, I was able to get the carseat off and the stroller folded up with Robert still in the sling with nary a problem.

He nursed and played but never slept and Clara did pretty well also. She was very interested in the safety brochure and asked all kinds of questions about what was happening in the pictures. When I told her the lifevests are in case the plane crashes in the ocean, she decided that sounded like fun and asked if we could crash in the ocean. She wanted to know what the non-smoking sign was and when I told her, she kept wanting to know why she couldn't smoke. Oy. This went on for a good 30 minutes.

And then she needed to go to the bathroom. Of course. She wanted to touch everything in there and I noticed the "please return to your seat" light was on so I hurried her up. Good thing because we hit some turbulence and it was rough for a few minutes. Clara enjoyed it though and was laughing and saying "Wheeee!" while everyone else was looking at each other with a nervous laugh.

My mom picked us up at the airport and we headed to get some lunch at Cracker Barrel and do a little shopping before driving back to Pecos. Robert finally fell asleep on the way to lunch. It was after 1:00 and that was his first nap of the day. I'd say he did excellent for not having any sleep all morning.

Chris' New Toy

Chris just got a new lens in the mail today and I think it's going to be a favorite. The pictures come out so crisp and clear. I'm excited to see what great shots we'll be able to capture with it.