Poop.

You know, they never tell you how long you REALLY will be dealing with wiping your children's butts when you get pregnant. If you have two under two (or multiples), you'll hear "you'll have TWO kids in diapers!!!" like it's a huge undertaking.

But they never say "you'll have to be wiping the butts of everyone under 5 years old!" regardless if they are potty trained or not.

Ugh. I'm really tired of wiping the butts of three children all at once. It's awesome.

In other unrelated news - Karl got tooth #7 in yesterday. The Captains Wife commented her baby girl, about the same age as Karl, has all ~16~ baby teeth in. Had I not had Ella, I'd be floored by the news, but even still, I am quite impressed. Ella had all her teeth, excluding her two year old molars, by her first birthday. The molars soon followed. With Allison, she was completely toothless on her first birthday. Her two year old molars are still not in. Ella has 4 more teeth than Allison still. karl seems to be taking the middle ground, getting teeth on an average schedule.

I got video of Karl running yesterday. But he's naked so I can't put that up for all to see. A baby butt is okay, butthe video contained it all. He's so super cute running.

Run, Karl! RUN!

My little boy, the baby who just started walking, is now a track star. He puts his arms out for balance and then takes off running. ~So~ cute.

And the other day, he got his 6th tooth in.


What are your baby's recent milestones?

Walking.

I've been told by many people "karl will just suddenly take off walking and surprise you." I've nodded politely to each person replying "yup, maybe!" while I kinda rolled my eyes.

But now I must admit "they" were right.

Last night, Karl just changed his mind about crawling and decided walking was his thing. This morning too. He's now walking about 80% of the time.

Just like that.

Hrm.

Karl is so smart!

My kids constantly surprise me with what they know. When Ella came home one day from daycare and wrote her name, I was flabbergasted. When Allison counted to twenty in Spanish, I was floored.

Today, Karl was the one who shocked me by showing me he knows his eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

He was in my lap while I was sitting on the couch and I asked him, "Where's Karl's nose?" He immediately pointed to his nose and gave me a big grin. Next up was his mouth where he stuck his fingers in his mouth. His eyes and ears followed. Then I asked him where mommy's nose was. A tiny little baby hand quickly pinched my nose.

I had no idea he knew this. We spent the weekend at Tom's parent's house and I heard his mom going over eyes/ears/nose/mouth with him. I guess that was enough because he's got them down pat.

Amazing. Who knew a little baby touching his nose would bring me such joy?

What are all your little ones doing now? What's their newest trick?

Take of the lens cap Stupid!

Yeah, that's me trying to capture Karl's first steps on camera. But the prolem is immediately remedied, getting said milestone! Yay!

Go Karl!

First Steps!

Karl took his first steps today.

The first I missed, but he walked to grandma. Then tonight, he took a step from the couch to me. Yay!

Way to ~go~ Karl!!!

Happy Birthday Mr Karl

We had karl's first birthday party today. Tomorrow, his real birthday (and I'll post the obvious pictures we all do on these days).

Oh my.

He stood today all by himself. He's my only child who wasn't walking by 1. What a slacker. ~wink~

Much Better.

Thank you for all the well wishes! Karl is doing much better. His fever broke yesterday afternoon and has so far kept it normal for today. He is still acting a tad bit cranky, but he's back to playing instead of snuggling. While I loved the snugglebunny I had, I'd rather him feel better.

We have an appointment with the ENT tomorrow morning to talk tubes for Mr Karl. I hope to get his surgery scheduled asap so we can get him as comfortable as possible as soon as possible. I'd like to say I'm not nervous, since I've been through 2 sets of tubes with Allison, but I'm still very anxious.

I remember back to when Allison got her first set of tubes and they let me hold her while she went under anesthesia. When they then took her from me and told me to go wait in the waiting room, I couldn't hold it together. I started bawling. I went to the waiting room, grabbed a tissue, picked a magazine and sat down. By the time I opened the first page, the surgeon was already back in the waiting room telling me she did wonderful. So I know it's a simple process and I know it's quick as can be, but I find myself pretty nervous about it all.

On a cute note, Karl is ALL ABOUT giving kisses right now. He started giving kisses months ago, but it was very hit and miss - way more missing than hits. Now, when you look at him and ask "kisses?" - he immediately comes at you with an open mouth. I absolutely adore it. Oh, and he'll also respond to "love?" with laying his head down on your chest while he lets you cuddle him. I just love this stage of development!

milestones, milestones, milestones.

Karl can walk on anything he can pull himself up on. If the thing moves (like a walker he can push behind) he will walk with it. He won't let go to even stand on his own, but if he can stand up on it, he can walk around or with it.

Allison is hitting her stride from being "alone" during the day without Ella. At first she would just sit around bored, but now she's taken up a lot of pretend play or she'll play with her little brother.

And now for the biggie. Ella can READ. She's got about 50 "sight words" (words she knows by sight) in her back pocket and can do a damned good job at sounding out words she doesn't know. This AMAZES me. I mean, I knew she'd learn how to read, but already? She's amazing. (I'm sure all other mommies of kindergartners say the same thing, but still.)

No cruising allowed.

Karl is starting to cruise around the furniture. Not much yet, but he'll take some small sideways steps before sitting down and crawling to where he wants to go. My guess is he'll be walking by the 1 year mark. He'll be 10 months old next Tuesday, so he's got 2 months to learn it. And he seems to be on the same time frame both girls were on.

I can already see one major difference between him and his sisters. This boy is a climber. I ~have~ to strap him the grocery cart when we go shopping because if he can stand up, he will. I have images of him falling out of the cart when my back is turned for 2 seconds.

I wonder if this is a difference between boys and girls or just the normal differences between babies. Only time will tell.

The Clap

heh.

Add Clapping to that last post. He figured it out while grocery shopping and that's pretty much all he does now.

Newest Milestones

Really for my records ...

Pulling up to standing in crib - Oct 1st
Crawling 99% on all fours - Oct 6th
Sitting up from crawling position - Oct 8th
Pulling up to standing on pretty much anything - Oct 9th
Saying "mama" and thinking he means it - Oct 9th

Wow. He's not going to be my baby for long.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' (part 2)

My immobile baby boy has spontaneously found he doesn't need to ~crawl~ to get somewhere, he just needs to ROLL! Heck, crawling is for sissies!

Heh. Over the past 6+ years (~gasp~!) on the ttc/preg/parenting boards and blogs, I have heard the stories of many babies who will roll to get places, but my girls never did it. They both crawled by/at 8 months and walked by 12 months. But Karl, oh my dear little karl, wanted to show me how the old adage "every baby is different", still holds true.

He is also starting a bit of the army crawl, but can't make it more than just a few inches until he gets frustrated and simply rolls to where he wants get. He can, however, spin on his belly in full circles.

I'm getting a bit sad on him growing up. I was carrying him this morning and realized that he is freaking HEAVY. Per the home scale, he's 18.5 lbs!!! Woot!

(during the weigh-in, it hit me just how much extra weight we moms gain really is. I gained 50 lbs with the each girl and what? Jeez, I can't remember now. 25-30 pounds I think. Well, my gosh. That's ~a lot~ of weight. I can't believe that I had a few "karls" in extra pounds on me. In fact, with the girls, I had an Allison ~and~ a karl in extra fat/fluids on me! Wow. Really puts extra weight in perspective.)

Anywho, back to what I was saying. Karl is growing up. He turned 8 months old yesterday. And just for my own records (will be boring for anyone else to read), here is a little list of things he does right now and has been doing ...

~ Rolls to get places.
~ Army crawls a few inches.
~ Spins on his belly.
~ Says the constanants dddaaadddaaadddaa and maaammaammaa (but not saying any of those actual words) and he "sings" to himself.
~ Puts his arms up to be picked up.
~ He's starting to want mommy over anyone else. He used to put his arms out for anyone, but if I am holding him, he sometimes won't want to go to someone else, actually holding onto me tighter. I'm sure this is due to me being a SAHM and having me most of the time as his sole caretaker.
~ Graduated to the big bathtub using his bath ring. He's been using it for awhile, but I can simply sit in the bathroom now without holding him at all.
~ Will NOT lay still for diaper changes.
~ Pulls himself up to his knees in his crib. Has not pulled himself up to his feet yet on any stationary object (but will do so holding onto mommy or daddy)
~ Eats biter biscuits, wagon wheels and yogurt melts. Starting to make his food chunkier too. LOVES carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and all fruits. He also his enjoying his mesh feeder, cantaloupe and grapes are among his favorite foods to chew on.
~ Sleeps 11-12 hours straight at night still. 7:30p-7a seems to be his most common pattern. Will sometimes wake up early (5-6a) to nurse, but he'll go right back down.
~ As like his sisters, he also goes to bed very easily (knock on wood) in his crib. When it's bedtime, I can simply lay him down in his crib, wide awake. He'll cry sometimes, but it doesn't last more than a few minutes.
~ Loves his excersaucer, jumper and walker. He can MOVE in the walker!

Rollin, rollin, rollin ... (and a thought about missing 'firsts')

There are some things about being a working mother that gets missed. The "worst" are the firsts. Today, when I walked in from work close to 530pm, Ella tells me "Something happened today, but we're not going to tell you because you are going to freak out."

heh. Yeah, she said I was going to "freak out".

Before I'm even able to question it, Tom walks in the room (he is home about an hour before I am) and says "Karl rolled over today!".

Yay! Go Karl!

My mom watches the kids on Mondays (and they are in daycare Tues-Fri) and she had him laying on a blanket on the living room floor. He's been really happy laying on the ground lately - I realized the other day I always had him "in" something, be in a swing, bouncy seat or his little gym. I've been putting him on a blanket to find a very satisfied baby for a very long times. I had seen him rolling on his side, which I got a picture of the other day, but he picked today to do the full back to belly roll-over, complete with propping himself up on his elbows in triumph.

When I said missing his first are the "worst", I said so in quotes because honestly, it doesn't really bother me to have missed it. It's still exciting to me to have him reach a milestone and after all, the next time I see it will still be the first time for ME.

I knew I would be a working mom when I was pregnant with Ella. I didn't know I would actually ~like~ being a working mom until I was bored out of my mind not even half way into maternity leave. Even so, I thought about the aspect of missing a first and before it happened, it broke my heart to think about. It actually took me missing a milestone first to understand it wouldn't be the end of my world. Think about it - even if I was a stay at home mom and I saw a first during the day, my husband would most likely miss it because he'd be working to support us. So while the world of working moms cry about missing particular first, how come the world of working dads isn't calling it an epidemic?

Sure, being there for the very first time is a bonus. But seeing it later that day or even days later is still really exciting. I kind of liken it to knowing the gender before the baby is born. Hearing the "it's a boy!" at the big ultrasound is pretty exciting, right? Do you think it makes the actual birth any less exciting? I mean, does anyone who already knows the gender respond to the doctor pulling an actual ~baby~ out of your body and exclaiming "it's a boy!" with an "eh, yeah, I already know. lame." Of course not. It's still exciting as hell to get that baby boy laid on your chest.

Okay, I understand how some people want that to be a surprise at birth, but not much else pisses me off more than people who judge those who do find out the sex as ruining anything. In fact, I think finding out the gender at the big u/s (or other test) stretches out the excitement. I found out the genders early and I got to live on cloud nine twice - first making all the "it's a boy!" phone calls when we first found out and second, making all the "karl's here!" phone calls after the delivery. Hey, if someone else doesn't want to go this way, fine with me. But don't tell me I've ruined anything about my children's births. And lucky us, we get to bring home a baby in a gender specific outfit to a gender specific nursery. (heh, forgive me, but I ~hate~ gender neutral things! Now, I don't believe boys need to wear blue and girls need to wear pink - I cross the gender rules all the time. But all clothes/decor being yellow and green. Y.U.C.K. Personal opinion of course!)

A few really hard days.

Karl is sick. Nothing terrible, just a simple stuffed up nose, but a severely stuffed up nose on a 5 week old baby can be major.

What is today? Um. I actually have to look. It's Thursday.

Tuesday afternoon, I noticed a difference in my little man. He was staying awake way longer than normal. Didn't bother me too much, as I had slept the night before, so I wasn't in need of him to nap. Evening came and he stayed awake and fussed. Then nighttime came and no sleep. He'd fall asleep for 5, 10, even 15 minutes and then jolt awake and cry. I couldn't quite tell what was wrong, except he was overly tired and ~something~ was bothering him.

It was in the wee early morning hours of the day when I could hear his breathing pattern. His nose was stuffed up. He couldn't breath. Babies breath through their noses and when this does not work, it majorly fucks up their day. He'd fall asleep and when he got clogged again, he'd get his oxygen cut off and jolt awake as he gasps for a breath. It broke my heart.

He finally fell asleep and stayed asleep past the 15 minute mark at 5:40am. It was the FIRST time I laid my head down to sleep. Ella woke me up at 6:45am. Awesome. 1 hour and 5 minutes of sleep. Time to start the day.

All day yesterday was the same. Karl was ~so~ tired. His eyes were shot. He was fidgety. And he couldn't breath through his nose. I did all the things I should do. Snot sucker. Saline drops. Humidifier. Propped him up. It only works for short periods of time. And although he'd fall asleep each time, within 2 hours, he'd be gasping for breath again. I asked the pediatrician if I could give the poor kid some nose relief with benadryl, but he's a tad too young. Poop.

At 12:30am this morning, being awake for 41 of the past 42 hours, I was able to fall asleep. I slept right next to him (he was in his basket on the bed) so I could get to him and suck out the snot as quickly as possible, change him, feed him and let him pass out again. Wait 2 hours. Repeat.

The last 'episode' was at 530a and he fought sleep a little bit until it encompassed him again a little after 6a. It's been 2 hours now and I'm waiting for that poor little gasp.

I went into so much detail to get to this one little thing though. Around dinner time last night, after hours and hours of sleeplessness and Karl feeling really, really, really crappy. After holding a distinctly different looking baby, a baby who looks miserable, in my arms while he cries and screams and tears roll down my face because I can't help him, he was sitting next to me having a rare quiet moment.

The simple phrase of "peek-a-boo" and a blanket flash over his face produced the most ~beautiful~ thing ever. It spread across his face without warning. Our very first, REAL, honest-to-goodness, smile.