Second Son is Seven Months!

Second Son had a fabulous day! He slept well last night, was smiling and happy for his monthly picture (cute despite the crazy hair), was content nearly all day, napped through most of choir, laughed throughout dinner...really had a wonderful day other than his bath when he screamed like crazy. That boy does not like the water!

He also had chicken for the first time - his first meat. It was about one part chicken to four parts rice cereal, but he ate a huge bowl of it.

I took pictures this morning with his giraffe. I took pictures this evening, and even a movie, as he was playing with his washcloth and "singing." And I promise, really and truly, some of those will make it on the blog. Just not tonight.

Second Son Sleeps

Recently, Kansas Dad and I reached our limit with Second Son. He wasn't napping well, even if I held him. He wasn't sleeping in his crib at all at night. I would sit on the sofa, holding him, for hours before we went to bed. I watched a lot of Netflix, but nothing was getting done. You know, fun things like paying the bills.

So we decided to take action. As soon as Second Son's cold was a bit better, we prepared. We checked out Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition by Richard Ferber. Kansas Dad bought some wine and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, in preparation for a stressful evening. On Friday, I read a special nighttime story to Second Son (The Going-To-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton, of course), nursed him, then settled him in his crib while he was still awake.

He cried.

We followed the schedule in the book, going in and talking to him briefly. After an hour, he fell asleep. All in all, we considered it fairly easy.

On Saturday, he cried for less than ten minutes.

On Sunday, he cried for about two minutes before falling asleep.

Tonight, no tears at all!

Oh, the joy! The bliss! Wandering the house without a baby in my arms!

I'm nearly too exhausted to take advantage of it, but soon, very soon, I expect to start making a dent in the List of Things That Have Been Left Undone for Two Months. Hopefully I can tackle a good bit of it before he starts teething and stops sleeping again.

Random Tip No. 12

Don't read cloth diaper reviews unless you need to buy more diapers.

Now I really want to try the Duo Fab Fitted and have no excuse to do so...

Second Daughter-isms

Sleep is "beep." She puts her babies in her bed, turns off the lights and announces to us all that her babies are "beeping."

Finger is "ninger." At least once a day, one of her "ningers" needs a band-aid (so she says).

My is "I." Stuck is "tuck." "My tuck! My tuck!" (This cry is usually preceeded by her climbing into the baby's exersaucer.)

Read a Favorite Book Online!

One of my very favorite books can be read online for free! Check it out. I can almost guarantee you'll want a copy for your kids by the time you're done reading. (Read my review here.)

Random Tip No. 11

Consider carefully before putting your baby with a cold facing forward in the Baby Bjorn when preparing a meal for the whole family.

He will probably sneeze.

Second Son Plays Peek-A-Boo

Second Son has grown tremendously since I've posted regularly. He's sitting perfectly, only failing backwards when he's upset or excited and tries to kick his legs. He reaches for anything and everything, which makes preparing meals or doing anything while holding him quite challenging. Right now, as I type, he's sitting in the living room surrounded by train tracks, grabbing at the trains the oldest two are running around him. I love how Geo Trax electric trains always entertain little ones. They're fun for the whole family.

One of his new favorite games is Peek-a-Boo. He doesn't just laugh when we hide and say "Peek-a-boo!" He'll hide his face in my shirt while I ask "Where's Baby?" Then he'll lift his head, grinning like crazy, as I say "Peek-a-boo!" Hopefully Kansas Dad and I can manage to get a little video of it soon.

I'm healing and Second Son is learning to calm himself a little, at least early in the day, so things are nearly normal around here. We're almost at full lessons and a reasonably tidy household. Kansas Dad is still making dinner most evenings and we've benefited from a few storms that canceled our outside activities a few weeks in a row. Second Son has had a cold and refused to sleep on his own in the evenings so I've been holding him and watching a lot of Netflix, but he's on the mend. So I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel and hope to get back to posting every now and then again. As much as I enjoy my blog, it's near the bottom of my list of priorities (as it should be). But I miss it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Go Team!

Am I crazy? I just signed First Son up for a basketball team. It's a minimum commitment (two hours one day a week for less than two months) that just happens to be about ten minutes from where we have choir (on the same day and with perfect timing). Since team sports are one of those things hard to teach when the other team members are knee-high, it's a good fit for our homeschool here on the Range. Plus, I actually know how to play basketball.

But what on earth am I going to do with a four year old, a two year old and a baby for two hours while he plays?

My Small Successes XXXVII

I haven't participated in Small Successes since last September. I discovered my days went much better if I didn't turn on the computer until after the school day (and usually until after Kansas Dad was home from work), so most of the Small Success fun was over before I was online. (That's still true, but I couldn't resist this week.)

1. I'm not taking antibiotics anymore! I got sick just before New Year's Eve and it's taken a month to beat it, but that's all behind us now.

2. I made granola (from The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life with added wheat germ, shredded coconut and dried cherries, blueberries and cranberries; I don't post recipes from cookbooks, but you can find it here), strawberry sour cream muffins (those lovely blueberry sour cream muffins from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks) with some of our strawberries substituted for the blueberries) and banana bread this week. I haven't baked that much in months. (The banana bread is a little questionable since I put bananas straight from the freezer on top of the eggs and froze some of them, then First Daughter flung them around the kitchen when I said she could turn on the mixer, and then I realized as I was about to put it in the pans I forgot the sugar...but they taste fine. Quick breads are very forgiving.)

3. The last bit of our half a steer is the tongue, which is now defrosting in our fridge. We picked a recipe from The River Cottage Meat Book and will give it a try. (It has to brine for five days before we cook it, so it'll be a while yet.)

Of course, just when I thought I'd start to catch up after being sick for a month, Second Son caught a cold from the girls. With three sick kids, thing will still be kind of slow around here. Such is life with kids.

Read more Small Successes at Faith and Family!

Random Tip No. 10

Don't confuse the baby's oatmeal with the mama's cream of wheat at breakfast.