2.24.2012

Important Thoughts 25.0



25.1: Maggie is just the greatest eater. She'll eat any finger foods I put on her tray; she's gobbled up black beans, grape tomatoes, butternut squash, egg yolk {hard boiled or scrambled}, mozzarella cheese, brown rice balls, avocado, and pasta with tomato sauce eagerly. She also, of course, loves any little dessert bits I share with her before Christian sees what I'm doing and gives me stern looks. Max likes to stick to the basics: fruit {usually grapes, blueberries and strawberries} and pieces of whole wheat bread crust are his favorites. If I sneak anything else in his mouth, he makes a confused faces and flaps the food off his tongue with his fingers. And speaking of eating...

25.2: Max is constantly exploring the possibilities of food. He's interested in the texture of everything, and likes to squish food in his tiny palm or rub it on his tray if he's not interested in tasting it. He also likes to get drips of baby oatmeal and yogurt from the corners of his mouth, feel it between his fingers, and then play with the hair behind his right ear. By the end of mealtime, that piece of hair is almost always sticking straight out, caked with dried oatmeal. I also found a whole Cheerio in there today.



25.3: I think my babies are moving towards having just one nap during the day instead of two. It's a huge bummer, because for the past couple of months we've been enjoying two coordinating two-hour naps. That's four hours of both babies sleeping, four hours of mama-gets-to-have-free-time. And it's been just amazing. The prospect of going down to just one nap and the fussiness that goes with trying out a new nap schedule is not appealing. It also brings up a lot of questions, like, how long would that nap even be? Would it mean that they would sleep in later in the morning? When would I get myself dressed and ready for the day -- when they're awake? Wait until they end up going down? Wake up early?? Any thoughts you have on baby naps would be appreciated!

25.4: I almost don't want to write about this, because it still hurts my heart to think about, but Max fell down our front steps yesterday. I can't emphasize enough how terrible I feel. I can see him in my head again and again, tumbling slowly down on the bricks. It was just the worst, and even more so because it was my fault. My stupidity and my neglect. He's okay now, other than a little scratch on his face and one on the top of his head, but I feel awful. How could I let that happen, when I'm supposed to take care of him, and when he's so afraid of falling? I know he probably has forgotten all about it, and that he still loves me and trusts me, but I think it a way that makes it worse.



25.5: Maggie is falling more in love with her Daddy every day, and I couldn't be happier. She's been a mama's girl for so long. It's wonderful to see her reach out her {tiny, squishy, dimpled, pudgy} arms to Christian, and sweet that she's so excited when he gets home. {On the other hand, she's now devastated when he leaves for work, which makes it a little harder for him to leave.} I think her first word will be "da-dee" -- she's already said it a couple of times, but won't say it consistently, so we're hesitant to claim that she's really talking for real. Max loves to play with his Daddy best, but he still comes to me when he's sad, and I love that. I know it won't last forever.

10 comments:

  1. So sad that Max fell! It breaks my heart to know Tate got hurt because I wasn't paying enough attention or accidentally put him in harms way. He hasn't fallen down stairs (probably only because we have not a single set of stairs in our house or outside of it), but he's tumbled off the bed more than once and keeps hitting his head on the sharp spots of our elliptical machine and he burned his hand while I held him at the stove. It happens. It sucks but it happens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my heart sank when I read max fell. I think it's harder on the mamas than it is the babies. Sawyer fell down our stairs inside onto our tile floor. I called 911 because I didn't know how far he had fallen. Isn't that awful?! I didn't even know how far! I was putting away groceries and I felt like CPS was surely going to take my baby. They didn't of course and he was fine. When they start to walk the falls happen more often, it gets easier. It's still sad but the gut wrenching feeling goes away a bit. You're a GREAT mama.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! You're right, it feels terrible when you don't know how far they fell either -- I'm not sure at what point Max started falling down our steps. I hate that.

      Delete
  3. Sorry Max fell and I'm glad he's okay. Ansley's fallen off our bed a few times and I felt awful. I LOVE the pictures of the kids in their fluffy snowsuits (for lack of a better word). Good luck with the napping. My daughter's always been a terrible napper (ten minutes at a time when she was little and one nap once she got to be about nine months) so I don't have any useful first hand advice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The doctor told me babies are made to withstand a few falls, don't sweat it.

    And I love that you feed maggie sweets and then christian gives you stern looks. Cary is always doing that to me for various things, and then I get all defensive and say something ridiculous like "leave me alone, she's my baby."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! I feel like that sometimes, too. Like, I'm their mother, don't you think I know what's best? But then I end up contradicting myself on rules for our kids all the time, so it's no wonder he ends up calling me out.

      Delete
  5. Ouch! Sorry about Max. That has happened a lot in our house. I can't possible keep up with all the day to day small accidents that happen. (especially now that I am pregnant with #5) I feel like a horrible mom sometimes. The twins are in a special education preschool the teacher even asks how my son gets his cuts and bruises. I explain to her every time what happens, BUT I have to remember I am out numbered and can't possibly stop everything. I try my best to get the major stuff and comfort the small things I don't see. Don't feel guilty b/c in a few months you will have three kids and be even more outnumbered.
    Remind yourself it will be ok and you are doing your best. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Babies getting hurt is the worst. C's fingers were crushed by W closing a door....I felt awful. But their bones and everything really are made to take falls like that. I was told - our nephew broke his arm (twice....in 3 months...) that baby bones and things don't actually snap. Anyway, it made me feel a little better. But yeah, being outnumbered is the biggest factor and it's hard but essential to cut yourself a break.

    On the naps: C&W started taking one nap a day for like 3 days at a time, the other days they took their two two hour naps. It fluctuates. I don't know how you do it with M&M but I just put them both in bed even if one's not really tired yet and they both go to sleep within a few minutes. So almost all of our naps end up being at the same time - sometimes one really just isn't tired at all and wants nothing to do with it. But that doesn't seem to happen often. Then right after they really switched to one nap they both had a growth spurt and took two naps again for a couple of weeks. But now I try and keep them awake, even if they're sleepy, until 11:30-12, sometimes they stay awake until 1, but it's a 3 hour nap. Sometimes 3.5. So yes, getting ready during the morning nap goes away, but at the same time it's really freed up our daily activity time. If I want to go somewhere we have longer in the morning and a rest in the afternoon. But it's still pretty flexible at that. They adapt fairly well. I hope that's somewhat helpful. I get ready while they do morning bottles. Have to be speedy but easier than while they're roaming about and trying to get into the bathroom cabinets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the nap wisdom! We are also doing it now where if one of them is tired I'll put both of them down; the alternative is to basically have NO time to yourself during the day, which I couldn't handle. They only had one nap today on accident because of a weird church schedule, so we'll see how everything goes tomorrow. Also, three to 3.5 hours?? I could definitely live with that.

      Delete
    2. Yeah - it's a total practicality thing putting them both down at once. Totally. Church is 11 a.m. now which is totally messing with our schedule. We try and give them a big lunch before we go to church (lunch at 10 a.m.....interesting) and then either just W or both will fall asleep for the majority of the first two hours. But then they get tired again around 5, and we have to let them sleep for an hour or so, and then they're just kind of grumpy/weird until bed time. But I can't figure out how to keep them awake first hour. They don't want to just walk around the back of the gym or play in the hallway, they want to be carried. But you can't sit down or they start fussing. And being carried is a great way to fall asleep. I often wonder why we stay for 2nd and 3rd hour - we're in the hallway most of the time or walking around and don't hear anything. I can't wait for nursery. Four months...

      Delete