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).

Bye Bye Paci

I have alot of things to catch up on here, but for today I am focusing on Bentley and his pacis.

Bentley is paci free! Yes I know he is 7 days away from being 3 years old, but I like sleep. I was not looking forward to many nights of sleeping struggles. The paci had stayed in his bed since he was 9 months old, and it was the first thing he would look for when we laid him down. I always kept 3 or 4 in there so he could easily find one in the middle of the night. The result of that was he had to have one in his mouth and one in each hand.

We started by taking away all but one. He got a hot wheels car for each paci he threw in the trash. After a week of only having one paci, we took him to the store and let him pick out a stuffed animal to trade for the last paci. He wanted to trade but he kept changing his mind when he would actually hand me the paci. Finally I had to tell him that was it and his paci was going bye bye (after back and forth for close to an hour). He cried like he lost his best friend and just looked devastated. He cried at first when we laid him down but I told him he didn't have to go to sleep but he needed to lay down and be quiet. He was quiet and eventually fell asleep.

It's been a little over two weeks and it has been HARD. He has taken a nap maybe 3 or 4 days, depending on how well he slept during the night. Some days he spends 3 or 4 hours in his bed just playing, but never falling asleep. And if he does take a nap, he then has a hard time falling asleep that night. Thankfully he's only had problems in the middle of the night 3 times, but they were all for many hours. Twice he had a mysterious foot ailment that was forgotten by morning, and the other night we both rubbed his back until he was asleep 10+ times only for him to wake up as soon as we left the room. He ended up crying for over an hour asking for "that" (which is what he called his paci). I hope it gets better soon and he goes back to his normal sleeping. He is a much happier and more obedient boy when he gets good sleep (and mommy is much more patient when she gets good sleep).

I'll be doing this again in a few years because Chance is now addicted to his paci. I don't like messing with sleep. If it works, I stick to it. Chance is also still swaddled for naps and night for this very reason, even though he is getting too big for it.

Chance Laughing

I have not been able to make Chance laugh, but Paul and Bentley can do it very easily. So I watch, video, and get jealous that they can make him laugh. Every time he gets so tickled that he gets the hiccups.

Photos by Bentley

Occasionally I get distracted while taking pictures of the boys and leave my camera where a little boy might be able to reach it. If he is in his toy corner being very very quite, I know he has something he isn't supposed to have (usually my cell phone). Recently I found him with my camera, lens cap off, power on, and several pictures taken. How do they know how to work these things? He almost always calls my mom when he gets my cell phone, or sends my sister a text message. Anyway, I thought I would post a couple of his pictures.

                            

3 Months

Time is flying by even faster the second time around. I'm slightly behind on the 3 month post, but these pictures were taken 10 days ago, when he turned 3 months. At 3 months:

• 15 lb. 11 oz. (need to measure length)
• wearing 6 month clothes and size 3 diapers
• still sleeping great, but also still swaddled at night
• smiling and laughing more and more every day (but very hard to catch on camera)
• trying to put everything in his mouth
• still not taking a bottle, but taking a pacifier sometimes (which I've decided to stop offering because I'm still trying to figure out how to get rid of Bentley's)
• finally enjoying a little bit of tummy time and lifting his chest up off the floor
• had to get 2 shots, but only cried for a second
• looking more and more like his mommy

This is how we have to get pictures of him smiling or laughing. If he sees the camera he just stares at it and will not smile for anything. He loves it when I play with his feet or Paul makes funny noises at him.

Recap

Paul and Bentley went to see Toy Story 3 today. I didn't get to watch because it was very loud and Chance was not happy about it. Paul said he did very well and just sat and watched.

Apparently there was a monkey who was not a good monkey. Bentley likes monkeys so I think it bothered him a little. This is what he told me about the movie: "Ooh ooh ah ah taped up dog." Translated to: The monkey was taped up by the dog. He talked about it for a good 30 minutes, and also demonstrated how the toy monkey clapped his symbols together while saying ooh ooh ah ah.

Chance is 3 months old now. Three month pictures and post coming soon.

Impromptu Photo Shoot

Neither boy was being very cooperative so this is the only good picture I got.