Happy 8 Months Oakley

Our baby boy is 8 months old now. So fast! He has two bottom teeth with another on the way. He tries very hard to talk. He has conversations in gibberish. Since we aren't fluent in gibberish, we don't yet know all the genius ideas he's sharing with us. Oakley finds his big brother to be the best comedian on the planet. He also laughs a ton when you tickle him. Oh so ticklish! Don't let the luscious curly brown hair fool you-- he has an apple-size bald spot on the back of his head where hair is growing in blonder and straighter. There's nothing he doesn't want to stick in his mouth. Everything must be tasted...especially cell phones, remote controls and daddy's fingers (which leads to a pain-induced yell when Dave's fingers get stabbed by two never-been-used teeth). Oakley gives open-mouth kisses with gobs of drool. He also presses his forehead against yours and closes his eyes to show affection. His favorite thing to sleep with is a light green knitted blanket that was handmade for his brother. Oakley sleeps all night long, wrapped in or clinging to the blanket. He gets angry when you try to dress him, buckle him in the car seat, and when you take a remote/cell phone/other expensive non-toy away from him. He has the softest skin God ever made and his fat rolls fill me with joy. Happy 8 months to our Oakman!

Oakley signed!

I'm giddy over this. Oakley successfully did his first sign language today. He signed 'mommy' while he was sitting on the floor looking up at me. The sign for mommy is a wide open hand and you tap your thumb to your chin a couple times. I've been signing mommy to him for months. This afternoon he was getting fussy on the floor and wanted me to pick him up. I was sitting on the couch watching Dave's news and I heard Oak whine a bit so I looked down at him and then he opened his little hand, fingers wide and brought it to his chin twice. I freaked out, nearly jumped out of my skin I was so excited. It's so cool to see an infant communicate with sign language. They first seem like these little blobs that don't understand anything except using ear-piercing screams to get their way, and then suddenly they bust out with sign language. We've also been working on signing "more" "all done" "hungry" and "daddy". I should teach him the sign for "momma gonna take a nap so silence please".

Guess Who

Played two games of Guess Who with this cute competitor this morning. I won the first round and he won the second. He hates losing but he was composed and smiled and said "wanna play again?" Much better than the screaming fit he used to do when he lost at anything. I think his competitiveness is great and we encourage it but being a poor sport is not cool. I'm happy he's not acting like John McEnroe anymore.

Everyone sleeping but me

I've been lying awake for two hours so maybe blogging will help me fall back asleep. Davey woke up crying around 2:30am. It woke up Oakley and me, but luckily I'm the only one who didn't go back to sleep right away. Davey was back asleep within minutes. Oakley squirmed and babbled a little in his crib and went back to sleep. I like watching them sleep through the video monitor. They're so sweet and little. Oakley has improved 100% on his napping and sleeping schedule. He now has at least one great nap every day that lasts about two hours. Some days he also gets a shorter second nap. At night, he sleeps in his crib from 10pm until 8am. Nighttime feedings have been eliminated for about a month now. It's so wonderful having his sleep under control. From four months until six months, we were really struggling with his crying and not sleeping. I think the zantac and my diet changes have helped hugely. Oakley still gets very needy in the evenings though. If I don't hold him before, during and after dinnertime, he typically cries and screams. If he hears my voice in another room, or sees me walk away from him, he cries/screams. Not even Davey can entertain him during this time of day. It's a bit frustrating when I want to cook dinner or sit down at the kitchen table to eat with Dave and Davey, but I know like everything else this is just a phase and so I hold him. I don't try to train him to get over it or let him cry himself to sleep. Although sometimes, like last night when I'm trying to peel shrimp and cut cilantro and also help Davey with things, I just don't have enough hands. Oakley had to cry for about 15 min on the floor. When I finally picked him up, silence immediately. He calmed and turned happy. So he's a mommy's boy, I guess. But I know the day will come when I'm not rockstar mommy status to these boys (please not until they're off at college) so I try very hard to appreciate this now.

Seeing Our Chicago Family

I hugely regret that I didn't get pictures with every person we saw on our visit. Everyone made such an effort to see us and we appreciate you all so much. Here are some of the pictures Dave and I took on our phones. But these weren't all the lovely faces we got to see. I just talked a little too much at times and forgot to take more pictures. I'm sorry to Auntie Kris, Auntie Dee Dee, Auntie Kerry, cousin Jim (who Oakley puked on, sorry again!), cousins Maggie & Ben.

Seeing Mike, Kath and little Cami with Colie

Auntie Colie

Uncle John and Aunt Pat

Great Grandma Genny

Uncle Rick

Cousin Julie

Davey and (new best bud) Cousin Richie

Auntie Reenie

Poopin on the Road

Parenting is Real...so I'm gettin real on the blog. Gotta do it. I have a bad memory and I'll forget this when I'm old and I want to remember this... and Davey should too. So we're driving to Chicago with the boys. Most of the drive is rural and of course Davey realizes he has to poop when we're around absolutely nothing. Grass and trees are the only things in sight. Here is what we hear from the backseat, "I have to go poop! Right now! I have to go poop right now!" When he has to go, there is zero warning, zero built-up. From the very moment he lets you know... it's a frantic emergency and lives are on the line. We offer him a tree. That is the best Dave and I could come up with. We say "Buddy, there's nowhere to stop except a country road. You can poop on a tree if you want." Exact words. He said, "Monkeys don't poop on trees." (actually I think that's exactly where they poop) So this goes on for a few miles. We explain over and over that there's no toilet but we can stop and he can poop outside the car. He's not keen on the idea (naturally), he keeps yelling things at us like all he needs is to convince us and we'll suddenly get a toilet for him. He says "the poop is coming! It's coming out! It's coming out right now!" Or, "the poop is jumping up and down!" (our favorite line) We stayed calm because really what could we do. We take the next exit and stop on empty road with one farm house. We tell him it's okay to go in the grass and we get him set up so he can squat and hold onto the car door. He doesn't get the concept of getting in the poop position so he just stays standing and grunts. Big Dave and I stopped quietly chuckling to ourselves and we bust out laughing. This was not going to happen. The stop wasn't a total waste (hehe) because Davey said he didn't have to go anymore and could wait until we drove to a restroom. We eventually made it to a toilet and Davey went successfully. Yes, that's another thing... we figured out the key to helping him go in a public restroom. He won't go if you're looking at him. You have to turn your back to him and then he can go. So combined, the way to Chicago and the way home, we stopped seven times just for Davey to use a restroom.

More Easter Pics

Watch: Easter egg hunt

The Easter Bunny hid four dozen eggs for Davey to find... and filled them with candy, crackers, and coins. This is our backyard. In the first video, Davey is hunting, and the second video is afterwards when he's opening the eggs.

Best Easter Bunny Ever

I found big Dave rifling through boxes in our basement crawl space. He was down there for a while digging through stuff. He came out beaming with a big smile. I said "whatcha doing." He showed me two coins he dug out of a box and said "I want to put these in Davey's Easter eggs". They were two half dollar coins. I thought, yea that's pretty cool, but it got way better when he told me that he got the two coins when he was a kid from the tooth fairy. Dave has kept them for 25 years and now wants to give them to our son, as the Easter Bunny. I hope Davey never spends those two coins.

Passed out watching hockey

He fought a hard fight. He battled sleep like a lion but alas, sleep won. We let him stay up passed bedtime to lay in our bed with daddy and watch the Blue Jackets in the playoffs. He finally fell asleep around 10:45. Guess what though... He'll still wake up before 7am tomorrow. Someone's gonna need a nap.

Easter Bunny

Hoppy Easter! We took the boys to see the "Real Easter Bunny" at the mall and it went really well... nobody screamed. In fact, the boys were great and adorable and smiled. Here are the pics... and manana we're hunting Easter eggs in the backyard and I'm excited. The Easter Bunny is putting Twizzlers, Smarties, and money in the eggs (nickles and dimes... this is a thrifty bunny) (oh ok maybe bunny will sneak in a buck or two)

 

 

Where's my nanny?

I woke up this morning feeling awful. I don't know what it is but I feel a wickedly painful headache with neck pain and waves of nausea (not pregnant). Might be a migraine. So this is me laying on the playroom floor while the boys play. Every loud noise they make hurts my head and Davey is going for a world record on the number of times he can say mommy. Where is my nanny? Where's that awesome luxury so I can drag my butt back to my bed, curl up under the covers, and close my eyes in silence. Davey can tell I'm not myself. He walked over, laid down and snuggled up right next to me and said, "I'm sad that you're sick." My heart melted.

Measuring Up

Davey is using his tape measure to find out how big (or not big) baby brother is. When Davey was measuring Oakley, he asked him, "How many inches do you weigh?" They'll be sizing each other up many times I'm sure. Today was the first that Oakley managed to wiggle his way to, and destroy, one of Davey's Lincoln Log houses. Davey took it pretty well, but he was understandably upset that brother knocked it down. I explained that Oakley didn't mean to really, and that Davey should expect this will start to happen more often until baby brother learns that destroying things upsets big brother. I know this is an explanation I will repeat a million times in the next year.

the Boys at Breakfast

Here are the boys after they finished their breakfasts this morning.. Davey ate his cottage cheese and yogurt with cinnamon and Oakley ate sweet potatoes. Now they're just hanging around looking cute, and waiting for their playdate with friends Graham (3 yrs) and Michael (2 yrs).

Boogers, eggs, and nose hair

I'm know I'm going to regret posting this but I'm going to do it anyway. One day when I'm old and thinking back to when my boys were young, I want to remember the hilarity and honesty I faced while raising them. So last night, I'm laying with Davey in his bed and my nose was stuffy and Davey says "Mommy you have a booger in your nose." So I laughed and grabbed a kleenex and wiped. Then I tilted my head and asked him, "How's it look?" He said, "It looks good. Now I just see hair in there." Then he leaned in, sniffed my nose and said, "And it smells like... eggs." Eggs. I belly laughed so hard. Every day I worry about my appearance and wrinkles and extra weight and in an instant my son got me to laugh at my embarrassing flaws. I do have nose hair and boogers. (and nostrils that smell like eggs apparently?) He's right... to find humor in ourselves. Because news flash Crystal, no matter how hard you try to fool others and yourself, you ain't perfect, girl. And regardless of my increasing wrinkles and nose hair and extra pounds, I am loved. By a three year old boy who thinks I'm pretty awesome in spite of all that.

We Love Daddy!

It's a good thing we have big Dave in the family. Tonight after dinner, Davey asked me "Mommy why do the days and nights keep coming and coming?" I answered without hesitation, "Because that's the way God made it." (an answer I revert to if I'm stumped by his question or in too big of a hurry to think of a better answer). Well, thank goodness for big Dave, who took the time to get one of Davey's toy balls and a flashlight and demonstrate how the Earth rotates and revolves in relation to the sun and moon. I think both of our answers were accurate, but hubby took the time to show Davey the science of it. Davey is curious about so much, and I love that his daddy is always willing to give him the answers, even if it's 10 o'clock at night and he's tired.

Oakman of Many Faces