11+1 is 12

Mui Mui hit 11 months last weekend!
OK, we don't really celebrate all the monthly birthdays, but the 11^th month is kind of like the warning sign that this baby, who was moved from newborn, to infant, is now on the cusp of becoming a one-year-old toddler. She's climbing and standing pretty steadily on her stubby little legs (I promise not to say that to her when she's in High School), and I predict she'll be walking before her first birthday. Now any parent can sympathize – it's hard to see your child, who used to be small enough to cradle in a forearm, get so big that you can pull a minor muscle group lifting them. It might be a feeling of seeing them grow more independent, where they won't need you to carry them around anymore to get somewhere (but still need you to feed them). But it's also a little depressing to know that you can never go back. The memory of you having to support their neck when you held them won't happen again. And it'll be replaced with supporting their arms for their first steps, or balancing them on one foot when they put their shoes on to go to the park.

I don't want to grow up!

But it's never good to live in the past, so I will save these words and pictures and accept them as rapidly passing memories and look forward to what these two will teach me as they, and I, get older.

6 Months Later

I read somewhere that 92% of the blogs on the Internet aren't updated. Although I've fallen into that statistic for the last 6 months, I have good reason to! With Mui Mui around, we needed more space for scooting, crawling, and toys, so we packed up the kids and relocated to a suburb where they can roam free. In Suburbia, we've now got a room for everyone, a dedicated play area within our four walls, more than one bathroom, and a lawnmower.

The following are the top five most stressful things in anyone's life:

• Having a child
  
• Moving
  
• Starting a new job
  
• Getting married
  
• Getting divorced
  

We've accomplished the first two of the five in the past few months (and don't plan on the other three). Personally, my handy man resume has slowly been growing, so I'm learning as many new skills as the kids at this point. I've established a daily schedule, gotten used to the commute, and will make the best use of my commuting time to update this when I can. It's especially important now, since Suburbia is much farther than where we used to be, so keeping up with the kids will be tougher for people who used to see us in person a lot more.

Mui Mui has just started to crawl as of last weekend, and that changes everything. (She decided to crawl on the first weekend we've ever left her overnight, so we missed her first strides.)

We have the new place baby proofed somewhat, because big brother was never one to get himself caught under a falling object or inserting small, sharp objects in his mouth. Mui mui, on the other hand, has the reflexes of an overweight ninja; although she's not too quick on her feet yet, her chubby arms face no wind resistance when swiping silverware off the table. I've already found her playing with electric cords, and pushing her hands through the slats of a safety gate. She's already been voted "Most Likely to Break Something and then Eat It" in the household.

Brother and sister still get along, but more tug-a-wars happen now since she's learned to grab things from Gwo Gwo. He will also provide an early warning system to keep her out of trouble, by screaming "No, Mui Mui!" whenever she's nearing a danger zone, "Back, Mui Mui!" when she gets too close to his trains, or "Mui Mui's coming!" when she leaves the family room. Now Gwo Gwo isn't speaking in full sentences yet, especially compared to those two year old females he's been meeting (I should clarify meeting in person, not online). We believe it's a little below average for him in his toddler evolution, but he's certainly trying to speak. He knows his alphabet and letters, and repeats pretty much anything he hears now. He can recognize and recite the alphabet, and count from 1 to 10 (in two languages). The sentence he uses the most is "I do it!" but he doesn't put together words as aggressively as he should be for 2.5 years old. We do see progress every day, as you can see him really thinking and trying to understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. He did use an adjective the other day, when driving in the car (that's the only way to get around in Suburbia), he screamed out "Dog big!" from the back seat.

For the next few months, we're planning on shopping for a bigger car, and getting ready for Mui Mui to turn one year old. I'll also do a little catching up over the past few months, because even though I took a break from typing, I haven't stopped with the camera and video taping.

Sick of It

Every child will get sick eventually, and there's very little any parent can do about it but be prepared. We had a vicious circle of germs in our family earlier this month, and it all started at the library with a simple kiss from a two year old girl to our first born. Now whether this girl likes younger men, or why she's kissing strangers in public places is none of my concern. What that little Jezebel did was infect my son with a nasty cold, that had him sniffling through a box of tissues every 24 hours. We did our best to keep Gwo Gwo from infecting Mui Mui, but even teaching him to kiss Mui Mui no higher than her feet, was not a strong enough preventive measure to keep the germs from her little nose, and she was sniffling and sneezing a few days after. So what can you do to prevent having to quarantine your own family? Unfortunately, asides form constantly washing hands and surfaces, very little. Think of getting sick as a vitamin which makes them stronger. It kicks up their antibodies and immune system, so it isn't an entirely bad thing. The best you can do is be prepared. Even though medicine can't cure the common cold, The following should make things more bearable on their road to recovery:

• Little Noses – saline drops that get shot directly up the nose to lessen congestion. Read the directions on the box of other brands; this brand doesn't ask you to keep them on their back for any extended period of time after application. Once you try and apply it, you'll understand why this is important.
• Infant/Toddler Motrin – this is recommended by our Pediatrician as a more effective fever reducer than Tylenol. It comes in either infant (under two years old) and toddler (over two) dosages.
• Pedialyte - the Gatorade of baby drinks. Give them plenty of this to keep them hydrated in case of forceful expulsion of fluids (i.e. vomiting and/or diarrhea).
• PediaCare Gentle Vapors - it's a menthol room vaporizer and nightlight in one. Very effective in filling up a room with soothing "blend of aromatic ingredients," but the bright blue nightlight you can't turn off, can keep a curious toddler up at night. Plug it in behind a piece of furniture to hide the light – the scent should still be just as effective.

Even with all this, baby germs are not confined to babies. One of the things worse than having a sick child is being sicker than the child you have to take care of. And worse than that Is to be the nursing Mom, who can't take anything to alleviate her sickly symptoms. So what Daddy took was:

• Airborne – who knows if this stuff really works. You take these dissolving tablets made out of all natural ingredients to prevent cold germs from taking root. They've worked for me in the past (or did they?), but not this time. And if they're all natural, why does it say on the label to not take it if you're nursing?
• Nighttime Tylenol Cold – sleep is the most reliable crutch to help you get better. Taking any sort of nighttime drug early enough in the nighttime to knock you out so you get at least 8 hours of straight sleep will probably be more beneficial than anything.
• Juice – lots of it, to keep your fluids intake high, and keep up with that Vitamin C. Of course, take juices high in Vitamin C; carrot juice probably won't be as beneficial.

Hopefully, the family will be back on its feet, or crawling, or doing tummy time, in no time.

Silent Nights

Two and a half months now, and we've begun sleep training Mui Mui. What is sleep training, you ask? Mommy learned it from a very thick book with lots of words in small print, called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." To sum up the book, sleep training is basically letting your baby cry until they fall asleep. Then they'll get used to not being picked up, and learn to fall asleep on their own. The book advises that sleep training begins after 4 months, but it says if you're a very busy parent, you can begin at two months. Since our toddler keeps us just the right amount of busy to qualify as "very," we began the training a week ago.

It sounds likes such a simple thing to do - let the baby cry until they fall asleep is much easier then pacing the house with her in your arms until she falls asleep. No pins and needles, sore wrists and elbows, back aches, or risking dropping the baby because it's 3 AM and you're falling asleep while standing up. (Just pretend that's in the book and not something I actually experienced.) But when you actually begin sleep training, and hearing your baby cry and scream and wail with more tears than would fill a baby sized sponge, it seems easier to just carry her for just one more hour until she turns into a limp log of pink fuzz and fat in your arms.

After a couple of nights already, she seems to be getting better. First she started falling asleep on her own, usually in an automated swing or vibrating bouncer. Now when she's in her crib, she can cry for ten minutes instead of twenty, but not consistently. But as we learned from sleep training the first one, he now sleeps almost on cue, with no fuss or resistance. The road is hard, but the reward is worth it.

Perhaps it's her holiday gift to us, but last night was the first night she slept for six straight hours. And as I write this entry this Christmas Eve, I would like to wish all you readers out there with our family's rendition of a Christmas classic.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Baby's Firsts (Again)

Needless to say, we've been busy. Two times the babies can mean twice as much fun, four times more work, and half the amount of sleep.

With Mui Mui around, we are reminded again of many of the things we learned the first time around, that we conveniently forgot. I've heard that the painful memories, like childbirth, are actually naturally minimized in the memory, because if people remembered how difficult it is to have a baby, everyone in the world would be a single child. We forgot that newborns don't sleep through the night, have very messy diapers, and can be very loud when they cry.

Mui mui is now six weeks old, which marks a very important milestone. A six week old baby noow sleeps for longer periods than every two hours, so we've just been reminded in the past couple of days how pleasant it is to only have to wake up 2-3 times throughout the night. This means (slightly) easier days for Mommy too, so she can concentrate on the very active 19 month old dinosaur roaming the rooms of our home now, who is eating, growing, and thrashing about for most of the day.

Which leads to a first for Lucasuarus: Yesterday evening, he had his first time out when he refused to eat his dinner.

We ended up sending him to sleep without supper, which is something I've only see done on TV. He woke up exceedingly hungry this morning, of course, so we'll see if he learned his lesson tonight during dinnertime. Oddly, I realized, his time out actually freed us up to do other things, which was rather convenient.

Finding the time to write more is especially challenging during the holidays now, so I hope all you readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our little turkeys are appropriately stuffed, and we're hoping to all get enough sleep to sustain us to the new year.

New Topic

As I mentioned in my last post, we are indeed expecting a new addition to the family. I just figured that i need to keep this blog fresh after 18 months, and what better way than to incorporate a new topic of discussion.

With that said, I'd like to introduce Olivia Song, freshly birthed this past Monday morning, 10/12, at 5:34 AM.She's a little plump at 7 pounds 2 oz., born an ounce heavier than her big brother.

I'm a bit slow thinking right now now to write more, as we were all quickly reminded how new babies have that "must-eat-every-two-hours" rule. Mommy's been extremely tired on a 24 hour basis, while Daddy's been doing double duty during the day watching the original Baby, who is now more appropriately the Big Brother.

The two of them do get along fine so far, which is the most asked question since we've gotten home. We've been trying to get our first Baby used to being around other newborns, but those newborns always get returned to their original owners by the end of the day. But he's yet to exhibit any jealousy so far, and we do our best to spread the attention and hugs equally between babies.

Contraction Reaction

I'm sitting in front of the laptop, recovering from information overload from varying opinions on the whats, whens, and whys of contractions. For all you loyal readers who know me, you already know that Baby is not going to be an only child sometime soon. Seems like it's sooner than we thought, as Mommy is having those pains that hurt enough to keep her from sleeping, and coughing from acid reflux to boot.

What Daddy is trying to figure out is whether the pains are contractions or Braxton Hicks, and neither of us remember anything from this same situation 18 months ago.

What I've pieced together from many inconsistent sources including my own long term memory, which is the most unreliable source of all, are the following facts:

• Contraction pains are in the back, and false labor pains (a.k.a. Braxton Hicks) are in the front
• If they're inconsistent in duration and frequency, they're probably not true contractions yet
• 411 = a way to remember the best time to head to the hospital. 4=contractions less than 4 minutes apart; 1=contractions lasting for one minute; 1=all for at least one hour
• You can't speak a full sentence through true contractions because of the pain

To help with the timing, I found this site called ContractionMaster.com, which is coming in very handy. (Also available as a downloadable application, which is a bit easier than following your wife around with a computer to see when her contractions are beginning and ending.)

While we try to figure this out, here's a little preview of what's to come: