It’s amazing how quickly babies grow. I swear Cam was just born a few weeks ago and here he is 4 months old already. I saw a TINY baby at the mall this weekend; he couldn’t have been more than two weeks old. For some reason it’s strange to see babies that are younger than Cameron. I guess it’s because I still think of him as a little baby. Good gosh, I’ll probably never let this kid grow up! Although I don’t guess I can really stop it!
Cam had a good checkup this morning. He now weighs 15 lbs, 10 oz which is in the 50-75th percentile. He is 26″ long which is in the 75-90th percentile. The doc said that he looks great! He is very strong and is rolling all over the place! He did receive three shots which he, of course, did not like but he calmed pretty quickly. He’s sleeping it off in my arms right now. Yep, I stayed home from work to be with him after his appointment. He had such a rough time after his 2 month shots that I figured he would need his mama today!
I’ve realized recently that we’re reaching a new stage in our parenting careers. Up to this point our main charge has been keeping our children safe, both physically and emotionally, by providing them food, shelter and, of course, unconditional love. This pretty much still cuts it for Cameron but Lily is approaching (or is already there) a new realm; she’s become a little person. I know, I know, she’s always been a little person but lately her personality has really started to come out and she is very aware of the world around her.
I feel like she is doing a pretty good job with understanding how she fits into the world and how her actions impact those around her. Over the last few weeks she has started to retain the talks we have when she is in time out or why she lost privileges for misbehaving. She is already policing us by telling us to take small bites of our food and to say please, thank you and excuse me when we forget! We’re working with her on respecting Cameron and his personal space and belongings. It feels a little silly at times to make her ask Cameron if she can play with his toys or use his blanket but I think we’re better off starting this now. Otherwise, we might find ourselves a year from now with a boy who is frustrated because his big sister walks all over him and a girl who doesn’t understand why all of the sudden she can’t play with whatever toys she wants or do whatever she wants to her little brother. Ah, sibling love!
This whole parenting gig was kind of tough at first but things got progressively easier as Lily got older and became a little more self-sufficient. It seems that we’re circling back to a more difficult phase’raising a ‘good’ person. Up until now the rules of life for Lily have been pretty simple; play nice, don’t hit, be polite, etc. These are pretty concrete, black and white rules that she seems to grasp (at least most of the time). While these rules lay the framework for raising a ‘good’ person there is so much more I want to teach her. I want her to respect herself and others, to love her family, to be caring to others, to be a good friend and so many other qualities that I’m sure I can’t even think of yet. How do we instill these more abstract values in our children? I know there is more to it than just telling her to ‘do these things’ but the quantitative part of my mind wants some kind of checklist to make sure we don’t forget any important lessons. This is where that How to Raise Children handbook would come in handy! When I start thinking about this stuff too much I realize that I’ll drive myself, and my kids, crazy if I’m constantly looking for moral lessons in their experiences. So, I remind myself to just enjoy each day and, hopefully, set a good example for her.
Cameron has been reaching a number of milestones lately! It’s very exciting to watch him grow into more of a little person with his own personality.
1. He is starting to consistently get his hands in his mouth. He will, on occasion, get his thumb into his mouth and kind of chew on it.
2. He has started sleeping with his arms unswaddled at night. I feel like this is a big step for him since he has always LOVED the swaddle. The fact that he can now sleep for several hours at a time without his crazy arms waking him up is a good thing. Also, with his arms free he now has the opportunity to put the above mentioned thumb sucking skill to use. Since he has never shown any interest in a pacifier we’re hoping that he’ll use his fingers/thumb to self-soothe eventually.
3. He has started taking short naps in his crib. This one kind of counts as a milestone for Lily as well. She finally decided that she wanted to sleep in the big-girl bed (toddler bed) so we were able to put the crib in Cam’s room.
4. He’s rolling over! Late last week he discovered that he can roll from back to belly! He’s not always happy when he gets to his belly and since he hasn’t really mastered the belly to back roll we end up hearing his SCREAM all through the house!
5. He is loving blowing raspberries! I remember this with Lily too. It’s like he’s discovered a new secret language and he’s amazed when we speak it back to him! Like his sister, Cameron seems to have an absurd amount of saliva so his newly discovered skill often leaves him covered in drool and spit bubbles. It’s still cute though!
We tend to get sucked in to a lot of reality TV in our house. One thing that most of these shows have in common is that at some point during the competition the participants will be faced with the challenge of eating something disgusting to either win a prize or advance in the game. Fear Factor is one show that immediately comes to mind with contestants being offered such delicacies as spiders and worms. Ewww! You would think that we were having our own version of Toddler Fear Factor last night during dinner when we asked Lily to eat a green bean.
She was being particularly fussy about dinner last night and didn’t want her noodles, chicken, yogurt or green beans. Eventually, she requested cereal. We told her she could have cereal if she took a bite of everything on her plate. She eagerly went after a bite of yogurt and then not so eagerly ate a noodle but REALLY didn’t want to eat a green bean. We found the smallest green bean on her plate and encouraged her to eat it. The darn thing was probably no bigger than my pinky fingernail and she still balked at the idea. We finally got her pumped up enough to give it a try. She was seriously taking deep breaths to prepare for the challenge. Jason popped the bean in her mouth and we told her to CHEW, CHEW, CHEW! She did; all the while making a terrible face until she finally swallowed the foul bean’and then she shuddered! We were very proud of her for tasting the green bean and presented her with a bowl of Rice Crispies for her efforts.
We’re going to make an effort to eat more vegetables. Since this could be kind of a struggle with a toddler we’re turning to deception! We received a copy of Deceptively Delicious for Christmas and I’m very excited to try out some of the recipes. The gist of the cookbook is adding pureed vegetables into foods that kids already love in such a way that they don’t even know the veggies are there. I actually already tried to make one dish even before having the cookbook. I had a printout of the ‘Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes’ recipe and decided to give it a shot. FYI: I am NOT a chef and really just kind of bumble my way around the kitchen. The recipe pretty much calls for adding some sweet potato puree to pancake mix’pretty simple. However, there were no instructions on how to make the sweet potato puree (there are instructions in the actual cookbook’just not on the printout I had). Who knew that you needed to cook the sweet potato prior to making the puree? Well, maybe you knew that but I did not. I measured out the ingredients and then placed some chunks of sweet potato in the blender and hit the puree button. I pretty much ended up with sweet potato splinters. I was just about to add these shards of sweet potatoes to the last of my pancake mix (which, by the way was a combination of two different kinds of pancake mix since I was running out of regular mix) when I realized that it just didn’t seem right. So, I finally heeded Jason’s advice and microwaved the rest of the sweet potato for a few minutes in hopes of cooking it enough to get a respectable puree. It kind of worked, but I ended up adding water to the sweet potato in the blender to get a more liquid consistency. The pancakes actually turned out pretty good despite my incompetence in the kitchen. Lily gobbled them up! We’re going to try the Mac ‘n Cheese next and hope that our sneaking in of veggies will reduce the ‘episodes’ of Toddler Fear Factor that occur at dinner!
Why does it have to be so dang hard to find a pair of ‘professional’ shoes that don’t cost a fortune and are somewhat comfortable (don’t have a heel of 2+ inches)? I seem to be on a never ending quest to find these shoes. I’m not asking for much; one black pair and one brown pair. I don’t think my requirements are too strict. Basically I want something that is stylish and professional and CHEAP! Maybe this doesn’t exist. All of the cheap shoes are clunky and ugly and all of the cute shoes are expensive and painful! I think my days of walking around in tall heels are long gone after turning 30 and hauling two kids around…nevermind that I’m already on the tall side so I don’t really need/want the extra height. Oh, woe is me!
I did manage to find a pair of black shoes to fit my specifications…or at least close enough! I also purchased a pair of brown shoes but I now think they are lacking in the style department so they’ll be going back. Also, I’m pretty sure my feet have grown. I’ve been a size 9 (yeah, yeah, I have big feet) forever but I’ve had to purchase these last two pair of shoes in a 9.5. I guess my ass isn’t the only thing that has gotten bigger since having kids! I’m hopeful that I can at least get back down to an ‘acceptable’ pants size in the next few months but I’m afraid that my even bigger feet may be here to stay!
We’ve added pictures from December to the Photos page. Just click the link to the right. A word of caution…there are 86 pictures in the show this month. We’ve been busy!
