Birthdays and Half Birthdays

This month we celebrated Bentley's 3rd birthday and Chance's half birthday. I know parents say this all the time, but I really can't believe he is three. The last year has been so fun. Of course we had the occasional "terrible twos" tantrum, but overall he is laid back and easy going. He has his checkup next week, but by our measurements he is 37 in tall and 28 lbs. He is tall and skinny. He recently started eating a LOT, but has only gained about 3 pounds in the last year. He is a great big brother and loves to make Chance laugh. 

At his 2 year checkup he was referred to speech therapy. We have been going since April and he is talking soooo much now. We understand about 75% of what he says. We just figured he didn't talk much because he has a quiet mommy and he spends all his time with me. It was always so hard for me to talk to him all the time when he didn't respond.                      
                           

He is doing great now with no paci. A couple nights he had a mysterious foot ailment that only appeared at 1 a.m. and would get miraculously better in the morning. I almost took him to the ER one night because he was even limping on it, but Paul talked me out of it because it didn't hurt when we touched it or squeezed it. Either something weird was going on or he's a really really good faker. Now we're just thrown off by daylight savings time. Both boys want to go to bed at 6:30 and wake up at 6; not really my ideal schedule.

We are working on potty training, but trying not to force it too much. He will go several days doing great and then have a day when he wants to wear diapers. We are out of diapers now and I'm refusing to buy more so hopefully we figure it out. I always said my kids would be potty trained well before 3 years old. Ha!

At six months old Chance is a snuggler. He doesn't spend much time on the floor playing because he just wants to be held. He has rolled from belly to back a handful of times, and never from back to belly. Now that he can sit up his favorite thing to do is sit with me and Bentley and play blocks or whatever. He's been getting some baby food mixed with oatmeal, but it's not really his idea of fun. He won't eat any baby food not mixed with oatmeal. He does finally take a bottle occasionally though. I haven't seen any signs of teeth yet, but he drools what seems like gallons daily. He has his checkup the same time as Bentley next week, but he weighs about 18 lbs. He's going to be the same size as Bentley before too long.

I would say that his sleeping is pretty good. He was a much better sleeper a couple months ago, but he still does okay. He sometimes has trouble staying asleep between bedtime and 11 or so and will need rocked several times. After that he usually wakes up to nurse once and then up at 6:30 (again, way too early for me).