And just like that November slipped by. What happened, the sun went away and we became house bound. Jr. found his new obsession - video games. All he wants to do is play the iPod, the kindle, the Wii and the computer. I prefer that he play the computer because he plays PBSkids.org and learns about counting, the alphabet, shapes, colors and animals. We do our best to limit his time and keep him coloring, reading and doing puzzles. That big brain just needs to keep busy.
Graham is now so busy Ed and I can hardly keep up with the little bugger. He is in to everything. When Ed gets home, we are going to install a lock on the pantry door. He gets food out and either feeds himself or Selma. And then there is the rash. Shortly after Halloween, he got this rash. We have been to 2 MDs, 1 dermatologist, 1 homeopathic doctor and now the chiropractor. We are stumped. Just stumped. It doesn't seem to bother him other than when I put lotion or cream on it. I feel so bad about it. Everyone looks at me like - what are you doing to your poor baby. The big news about Graham is that he is big into talking. He can now say so many names and animal sounds. I am working on getting a video, but like I said, he doesn't like to hold still much. He is still such a snuggly sweet little guy though. He gives the best hugs weather you request them or not. What a little love.
We had a nice Thanksgiving, even the weather cooperated and we got out for a hike. Nona put on a fantastic spread, Tommy joined us and the boys actually ate.
We pass our time by having play dates - lots of play dates. It gives us something to look forward to on the weekends. You know, you have to eat or Seri can't come over tomorrow. You have to clean up your toys so that Lochlin can come over. I know we are so evil.
We call him the Blue Snowball.
Hey there Blue Snowball.
Photo credits - Cissie.
Jr.'s new obsession - ipod, kindle or Wii. I feel kind of bad about letting him play vids, but he is learning - right?
He didn't know that his hair was spiky. He would have never let me take his photo if he did.
Jr. and his girl Seri. We had a wonderful playdate.
Oh my isn't he so handsome. He must get about 4 million smooches a day.
I let them play with cameras. Seri's photos are here.
Their goal was to take photos of the bunny that lives under our deck.
I was trying to photograph his curls. He can't hold still for the life of him. We have now entered Mr. Busy Man stage.
Playing hunting on the Wii.
The climber. While up here he likes to dance and yell very loud!
And the kindle.
Playdate with Lochlin. These two had a BLAST! They play so nicely together.
It has been in the mid to high 90s the last few days and you know what that calls for? Dairy Queen. Ed Jr. got his very own ice cream cone for the first time. Needless to say he loved it, I mean seriously loved it. He sat still for so long and burried his whole face in it.
I forgot to mention how the Eds did without me last weekend. Well, they did just fine.
Ed is a great daddy, he took Jr. on tons of adventures, got him to nap and even got him to sleep without tears. The only rough patch was on Sunday morning at 6AM when Jr. woke up to look for his momma. He apparently searched the whole house for me. His spirits were good and when I got home and picked him up from his grandma's house, he was pretty happy.
In some unrelated news, he is such a great talker. Enjoy some videos.
Ed Jr. is a bonafidemomma's boy. Momma is his #1 primary word and I am his #1 primary person. Which, I am not going to lie to you is so charming and so irritating at the same time.
He won't even entertain his father in the vicinity of his bedroom at bed time. Mamma and baby sanctuary.
So this leads me to the story of my first night away from my baby EVER! My friend from WAY back was getting married in Billings. At first my mom was going to go with us so Ed could attend the wedding with me, but was unable to go, so Ed volunteered to stay home with his baby for one night. And I was outta here.
Well, I took Cissie with me. I think she needed a little vacation too. We stopped in Bozeman and ate sushi (yum). I made Cissie eat raw fish for the first time. She did not love it, but was brave non-the-less. Then we busted ass to Billings to hit my favorite store before the wedding. Marcasa another word for awesome clothes and a killer sales rack. Then it was time for the wedding. I released Cissie into the wild that is Billings with the car while I attended Aaron's wedding. The ceremony and reception were in the old Billings Depot - so cool. Cissie joined in the fun later and we did our best to tear up the dance floor.
Thank goodness the Rainbow bar wouldn't let Cissie in, so I could turn in at a somewhat decent hour. And just as all of my childed friends predicted, I barely slept. No, it wasn't because I was away from my baby, I think it was a hot noisy hotel room and a talking in her sleep roommate. . . and maybe I missed my family just a little bit. I did have to wake up at 6 AM and pump. Ouch.
After two delicious lattes and everything bagels, we were done with Billings and on our way home. It was a spectacular drive home and we again stopped in Bozeman to eat and hit the old navy for Jr. clothes. I was SO SO SO TIRED by the time I got home, but Jr. was so excited to see me he just couldn't bring himself to nap. I had to close the door to his bedroom and lay on the floor while he trashed his room. Let me say this, a hangover is bad, but a hangover and an active baby is hell on earth. Here he is emptying veggie booty all over the floor. I had to stop taking photos and spring into action when he started stomping it into the carpet. EEEERRRRR.
Early to bed for the both of us, and Monday it was back to normal, except for the surprise and way too short visit from Nanny. He was happy to see her, but he was NOT going to let me out of his sight, you never know, I could sneak off again.
For the first time in over 16 months Jr. slept through the night - for reals. The more I have thought and read about babies and sleep, I have determined that there are just some kids who sleep and some who don't. We had one that didn't.
Ed thought that with the long weekend we could take the opportunity to do some sleep training. We did it our own style, nothing out of a book. Our plan was simple. Jr. woke up every night between 11:30 - 12:30 and we would bring him to bed with us. He would then wake up every two hours or so to nurse. We were going to send Ed in to comfort and put him back to sleep in an attempt to eliminate the first night waking. We would deal with the second, third night waking at a later date. Much to our surprise, after Ed got him back to sleep the first time, there was no second or third night waking. He would sleep until 5 - 6 AM, at which time he was welcome to come to bed with us to go back to sleep until 7:30 - 8.
Oh, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Friday night, he cried/screamed/called out Mommy Daddy for over an hour. Saturday night it was about 40 minutes. Sunday night was less than 20 minutes. Monday night was barely 5. Last night he cried at 1 and again at 3, but neither time Ed went in there and he cried for only about 2 minutes and put him self back to sleep. He got up at 6:20 AM and I brought him to bed with me and he slept until 8:20 AM!
I am still anti-Ferber. I really should have recorded him crying/screaming so that I can have anyone who recommends letting them cry it out listen to the sounds of a truly heartbroken baby. Ferberizing our kid was a total last resort. We have tried many gentle ways to get him to sleep, and we were back sliding. Plus it seems that around 18 months kids start sleeping better, so we were ready for the next step even though it was ugly. When I say that I am anti Ferber, I am not judging others' parenting values, I am talking about us.
I owe my great night sleep last night to Ed. He is a tremendous father who would go in to rock his very angry baby back to sleep even though he was exhausted. Thanks Ed.
I HOPE the trend continues. I hope Ed Jr. starts sleeping consistently through the night for his sake as well as ours.
He is currently smiling at me and throwing his cheerios across the room.
While there are millions of things I love, I thought I would just pop in with a short list.
Jr. reaching up to hold my hand.
Jr. running to give me a big hug around the knees and he looks up and smiles at me.
Jr. leaning into his dad to get his goodnight kiss.
Jr. saying "Hi!" to Moe.
Jr. learning and saying new words. This morning he said EDWARD!
And even though it scares the crap out of me, I kind of love it when he climbs up on something and then stands on it balancing. He looks over to me and shows off how big he is. I get him down and he does it again. Last night he was standing on his trike seat.
I love waking up with him in the morning and not having to rush out of bed. He plays around on the bed while I SLOWLY wake up.
How much he LOVES books. I think BOOK is his favorite word. If you are ever tired, just sit on the floor of his room and read. . .
Sometimes when this whole mom thing seems so overwhelming, I just have to think about how it feels when he sits quietly in my lap snuggling me while we read or the feeling of his little hand in mine.
This weekend Nanny came to stay with Junior while Ed and I went whitewater rafting for the day on Saturday. We had promised that we would take Cissie and Kieran rafting, and thanks to his AWESOME grandma, I could go along.
I was pretty nervous. I haven't been on whitewater since I was just barely pregnant. That is almost two years ago. Suddenly something I had done hundreds of times seemed very frightening to me, now I have so much more to lose. But anyway, I knew that as soon as we hit the water all of my fears would wash away, and they did. I got a pretty sweet ride in the back of Fash'scataraft. Ed took the college kids down safely. All in all, it was an amazing day. Man did I miss my baby and we got home in time to put him to sleep. Junior had a spectacular day with his Nanny. They got socks, went to the farmers market, played in the back yard, napped and snuggled lots. He likes to swing in the bench swing with her and sing songs. She said that he was sweet and totally mellow all day.
She stayed most of the day on Sunday so I could hang out with her too. So nice. Thank you Nanny! The other exciting news of the weekend was the new addition to the family, Moe. I have a tradition in my family to name my pets after the Simpsons, so we tried on all of the names until we found one Junior could pronounce. I was lobbying for Bart, but Moe seems to fit much better. Moe came in this tiny cup, and he looked pretty sad, but now he is happy and swimming around his nice bowl. He likes his little Buddha buddy too. Junior loves to say "HI!" to Moe. And finally, and I hesitate to even mention it, but last night was another big night for the Coleman family. Bears V. Broncos. Cissie babysat while Ed and I went out for a big night on the town to watch the game. Even though the Bears beat the Broncos, I just want it to be noted that Kyle Orton, a total dud of a QB had a better rating than Mr. Fancy Pants, Mr. Totally Overrated, Mr. Keg Stand Frat Boy Jay Cutler. Congrats Chicago on a fine trade. Oh and FIL, your $5 is in the mail. You didn't even need the 2.5 points. The other significant event here was that Cissie put Junior to bed. This is literally the 3rd time someone other than Ed and I put him to sleep at night. He slept really well and only cried for a few minutes when she put him down. In fact, he slept and slept and slept and finally I couldn't stand it any longer, I snuck in and brought him to bed with us sometime after midnight because I missed him so.
Thanks Cissie.
Thanks Nanny. Oh and please enjoy a video of Junior's new GROWL!
Last weekend we celebrated what would have been Miles' 15th birthday and Grandpa Bill's 59th birthday. We had a big ole party down on the Missouri River where Miles loved to go hunting.
Ed tossed his ashes in the river and Miles floated away.
Junior partied his ass off. He loved playing in the Missouri and was pretty brave until it came to his momma floating him in the river. There were some kids there netting minnows for Junior and his new friend Vance. They were a big hit. You know that we need to get him his own fish for his room.
Ed tossed his ashes in the river and Miles floated away.
