11 Months

It's hard for me to believe Chance is almost a year old.

He has taken a couple of steps here and there, but he is a super speedy crawler so that is what he prefers. On carpet he crawls with both knees down, but on a hard surface he will crawl on one knee and one foot. It's pretty funny to watch.

He drinks all his milk from sippy cups and refuses to eat baby food most of the time. He will eat a few bites of whatever we are eating and could eat his weight in cheerios, puffs, and graham crackers.

We are in AR visiting now so I can't really comment on his sleep. He has been spending the second half of the night in the bed with Bentley and me. Before we left though he was sleeping great, waking up once for some milk, and taking two 1.5 hour naps.

He weighs about 22 pounds and wears 12-18 month clothes. His 8th little tooth just poked through. My sister gave him his first haircut and it makes him look so much older.

He is a very easy going baby. He goes with me pretty much everywhere and is content to sit in the stroller or on my lap munching on cheerios. He likes to make silly faces that make us laugh. He is also very sensitive and doesn't like it when Bentley tries to play with him (which usually means taking the toy he has). He loves his brother though and tries to copy everything he does.

Paci Free Zone

Chance was a paci-addict, but the pacis were starting to cause some trouble. At night he would stand up in his crib and throw his paci as far as he could across the room. Then he would stare at it and cry. I would give it back to him and this process would repeat over and over until he finally fell asleep. I tried putting 3 or 4 pacis in his bed and he would throw them out one at time.

A couple weeks ago he started waking up 3-5 times in the night and needing my help to go back to sleep. The "paci game" as we called it was not very much fun at 2 a.m. After a couple days of this I had an idea: He is already sleeping horribly, why don't I just take his paci away. Brilliant! I kept this bowl of pacis handy knowing I would give in very easily, especially in the middle of the night.

It has now been 2 weeks and I think it's safe to say he is done with pacis. He wakes up once or twice at night, but I'm ok with that. The only real difference I've noticed is he puts anything and everything into his mouth with no paci there to block. I'm so happy this worked out because Bentley's sleep still hasn't recovered from taking his paci away.

Last picture with paci:



9 Months

Chance is a very busy 9 month old. This is what he is up to:

• He is 20 lbs. 14 oz. as of today. He is wearing mostly 12 month clothes and some 18 month clothes and size 4 diaper.
• He eats a lot, but hates veggies. I have to mix one part veggie with 3 parts oatmeal to tone down the taste to where he will eat it. He loves all pureed fruits and does well with feeding himself table foods. He can drink from a sippy cup, but prefers not to.
• He is finally crawling!! One day Bentley spilled some Cheerios on the floor and the next thing we knew he was crawling towards them. Apparently he is motivated by food (something Bentley was never and still isn't). This made it hard to get him to sit still for pictures. He kept coming after the camera. He is also pulling up on anything and everything.

• He is sleeping quite a bit better. He still has trouble getting to sleep between bedtime (7:30) and 10, but the last couple nights he has slept from 10 to 7 without waking up. That is a huge improvement from last month. He takes two naps and those are no problem thankfully.
• He had his first ambulance ride (and hopefully last). Long story short, he choked on a sticker. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking back to how I felt. I had to call 911. The paramedics came to our house. They could not get it out of his throat, but on the way to the hospital he was able to swallow it. It's hard to baby proof with a 3 year old around, but you can bet I am going to be so much more careful now.
• He still loves to be held and would sit on your lap forever if you let him. He gives kisses and will whack you in the face if he gets excited.
• He "talks" all the time and mainly says dadadada. When I tell him to say mama he just laughs. Stinker.
  
  
  

February in California

I grew up having four seasons, fall and spring being my equal favorites, then winter, and summer my least favorite. Here in Southern California we only have two seasons: summer and a sort of springy time. By springy time I mean you may need a jacket after dark. Of course I am exaggerating here, but I'm one who doesn't really like being hot.

So anyway, it's February and this is what we did today.

We had an afternoon of hunting sea shells, building sand castles, eating sand (Chance was the only one brave enough to try it), and walking along the shore. This will probably be our last summer here so I will try not to complain... too much.

8 Months

Chance at 8 months old:

• He is finally showing some initiative to crawl. He has always hated tummy time, but he is now leaning forward on his hands from a sitting position and rocking. He tries to get out of reach toys but usually ends up falling on his face.
• He has 1 tooth. I thought they always came in pairs, but I've been proven wrong. He has had this one tooth for a couple weeks and its pair is nowhere to be seen.
• He is eating all pureed foods and cheerios, puffs, baby crackers, or anything that is easy to gum.
• He will not drink out of a sippy cup (or bottle). He just likes to chew on it.
• He is now sleeping unswaddled (yay!!). I have worried about this for months, but he just decided he was done with it and has been sleeping just fine. I can't really comment on sleeping for this month because he's been sick and sleeping with me. I might have created a different sleeping obstacle with that one.
• He still loves his big brother and thinks he is just the greatest. I can't wait to see what it will be like when he can actually follow Bentley around. I'm not sure Bentley will like that so much.
• He always wakes up happy and would stay that way all day if all I did was hold him. Anytime I walk by him or look at him on the floor he will reach his arms up to me and it just melts my heart.

And because I never posted his 7 month pictures:

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.