The Life of Rob & Jess Plus Two: sleep

Dear Andrew,

I can't believe it! You are six months old. YOU.ARE.AWESOME. That's all I really need to say. You have really just done more of the same this month. You are SO CLOSE to having two bottom teeth. I can see them right there, but they haven't poked through yet. I give you just another week and I think they will have grown in. You seem to tolerate the pain pretty well; just lots of drool and things in your mouth.

You sit on your own moderately well. You will tip over after about 3-5 minutes, but you are really getting the hang of it. What is most impressive is how much you love playing on your tummy. You'll just roll yourself right over and grab whatever toy you can find. In fact, I've put you on the play mat only to walk away and find that you've rolled over, did a 180 and scooted yourself off the mat. It's pretty impressive for a baby who can't crawl. You're pretty cute when you try to move-- it's more a whale approach right now. You'll get it though, soon!

When big brother puts his attention on you, you just laugh and laugh! He makes you giggle like crazy. It's great to listen to you. This is the first month that I heard you just down right make big belly laughs. And all because of big brother.

You still smile all the time and are generally happy. You will sit and play, or jump and play for about two hours before you start to get fussy. You bounce from activity to activity very well and don't mind do anything where you can watch big brother. We go on walks with big brother to park and you like strolling and watching brother play on the park. We also put you in the swing an you really liked it! You had a way better demeanor than big brother did on his first swing!

You went to the rodeo where you were a model spectator. You sat in DD Nana, T-Pa and Aunt KK's lap and were perfectly content to chew on some "chewelry" and watch the heifers walk around. Again, you are awesome!

You've been sleeping like a champ with no wake-ups in the middle of the night. You roll around really good in your crib and fall asleep with little to-do. This in of itself makes you amazing. Momma is so lucky and counts her blessings every night. Thank you baby boy.

You gave the entire household a bad stomach bug. It kept big brother home from school for four days and mom and dad home from work for four days, too. It was terrible and you were patient zero. I hope you don't do that again!

Oh wait, probably the biggest change this month is the addition of your helmet! We just got it on March 25th.. so we've been adjusting your head to the helmet. So far, you don't seem bothered by it at all and you are your same ol' happy self. I know its going to work wonders and you'll be out of it soon enough!

So, let's see... at six months you:

Sleep from 8-6:30 on weekdays and 8-8 on weekends.
Take one really long nap (>2 hours) in the afternoon with two shorter naps beginning with the one in the AM (1 hour-ish) and a catnap in the evening, usually on the way home from school.
Love sleeping on your tummy-- heck, you like just being on your tummy in general.
Eat 5, 6 ounce bottles during the weekday and usually 4, 6 ounce bottles on the weekend.
Love eating foods! You've just about figured out the whole "eating off a spoon" thing and love eating. You get so excited and just start chomping. We've tried oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, apples, squash and pears. So far, so good! I'm going to get you some puffs this week and we'll start seeing how you like those!
Wear size 2 diapers, though my next shipment of diapers are size three! Growing boy! Poop 1-2x/day.
Like your jumper, but for the most part your favorite thing is to sit in someone's lap.
Don't seem all that interested in standing, yet.
Smile all the time and think big brother is hilarious
Like being tickled
Chew on anything-- we always keep teething toys around with you!
Suck your thumb and the pacifier has pretty much gone by the wayside.
Wear 6 month clothes
Have curly hair-- at least on top! We'll see how curly it is once it starts growing in more.
Did not like taking your pictures in the bluebonnets-- maybe next year!

We love you baby boy, always and forever.

At the rodeo-- always smiling.

Best picture we got at the blue bonnets.

Your new helmet! So cute!

You were not having your pictures. This is the best one we had!

Dear Parker,

How can it be that you have turned TWO?! I look at you and think, where did my baby go? The saying is definitely true: the days can be long, but the years are short. My oh my! You’ve changed so much in the last six months and even the entire year. Months 0-12 are mind blowing, but so are months 12-24! You have definitely turned into a little toddler and you know how to assert yourself… mostly by saying, “no.”

Your language has exploded! You speak pretty clearly and can string up to 4 words together, but it’s usually 2-4 words. As a side note, after going home for the 4^th of July and having everyone else try to understand you, I realize you pretty much talk like a 2-year old… only your mom and dad understand you….but hey, I think you talk great! You have mastered saying your favorite animal.. elephant.. correctly. You can pronounce all syllables now and you can thank your dad for that… he spent many hours practicing with you. I’m so proud of what all you can say and every day you say something new. You know that Green means Go, and Red means Stop. You also know what a stop sign is…. And when you see other signs on the road, you call them “yellow stop sign”, etc. It’s pretty adorable. You just talk and talk and talk.

You’ve started role playing and you will feed your elephant your snack. You can stack up to 8 blocks together at a time but you still get great joy out of knocking them down. Per usual, you love to be outside. You don’t mind that its 100 degrees outside, ever. Though, you now say, “sun bright” or “sun hurt eyes.” But, you refuse to wear a hat. I think its because daddy never wears a hat. Sometimes you will wear your ‘shades,’ but not for very long.

We’ve had lots of visits from DD Nana & T-Pa and we even took you to Sea World and stayed in San Antonio. You had so much fun. The sea lion show caught your attention and of course you liked Shamu. You were such a trooper. That was your first overnight hotel stay and you did great. Though, daddy didn’t like how we all pretty much had to go to bed at the same time! But, oh well. You slept great and had so much fun. We did this trip over Mother’s Day weekend.

You are definitely cautious and you like to watch for a while before doing anything new. You don’t like for us to really help you, but need to figure it out on your own. You aren’t a climber or anything like that, but you do like to jump on the trampoline and run around like crazy. SO MUCH ENERGY.

You have your own real tool set and you love to help daddy “fix it.” You work on the power washer with daddy and the lawn mower. You also love to help daddy “lawnmower,” “weeder” and “bo bo” (blower). You could do that for hours with dad. I hope you and your daddy will always be this close and that you’ll always love doing yardwork!

You like most any toys that you can build with and trucks as well. We recently found this YouTube Twenty Trucks channel that has fun kid songs to all sorts of trucks. You are able to identify the following trucks: cement mixer, garbage truck, dump truck, food truck, crane truck, concrete boom pump, fire truck, ambulance, digger (excavator), and bulldozer. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but as we drive down the road you are always pointing them out to me and mom has definitely learned a few lessons as it relates to trucks.

We rented a condo and stayed at the beach in Galveston for a long weekend. The weather wasn't that great as it was pretty cold and windy for a good part of the trip. But, you didn't seem to mind. We just strolled up and down the beach with the wagon. You didn't particularly care for the water, but you didn't mind being in your swim suit while it was cold. Your favorite part was the foot washer coming in from the boardwalk. You through the biggest fit every time we left the foot shower. You did great on the overnight vacay!

Daddy also built you a sandbox, but you don't play in it very much. It requires lots of participation from me or your daddy and we don't particularly care for playing in sand very much.. so therefore, you don't play in sand very much.

You are a very good meat eater and will eat pretty much anything if we call it chicken, steak or sausage. Your favorite foods are steak fajitas with refried beans. You can eat refried beans like you’re a trash compactor. It’s quite amazing. You don’t care for any vegetables and you are even picky with your fruits… you will eat blueberries or strawberries and sometimes peaches or apples. It’s real hit or miss with fruit. You also like cheese and of course YOGURT. You eat yogurt every day.

We just enrolled you in gymnastics class and you are CRAZY in that class. You run around like a person who just found out he won a million bucks. But, you smile and laugh and have fun. You do nothing the teacher says and lose focus in about 5 seconds. BUT, I have discovered you are picking up things from gymnastics because at home you will try to do a forward roll, you can do a straddle, you can do a pike, you jump and can do a tuck. So, you are paying attention, but you won’t do it at gymnastics. You love the trampoline the most. On side note, on July 7^th you finally did the trapeze at gymnastics! This is a huge win because it required you going up there all by yourself and letting the coach help you.

Most of all, you just really, really love your daddy. You love doing anything with him and he puts so much energy into playing with you. The love is mutual kiddo. I love watching you two together and you’re so smart because daddy is so patient with you. He has the patience of a saint with you. You two are always laughing and he teaches new things to you all the time. I fully believe you’ll be building engines with him by the time you are 5.

One of your current phrases is “Better” but it sounds like “Betta.” If you get hurt you’ll ask me to kiss your boo-boo and then will look at me and say “Betta.” It melts my heart. You also say “I love you” and will generally repeat anything we say.

You are going to be a big brother! I know it’s going to be a tough adjustment for you, but you will be a great big brother! You will teach him so much and I can’t wait to see you two become best of friends. You haven’t really figured out that mom is going to have another baby, but you will soon! J

Here are a few more fun facts:

· You wear size 5 diapers, but mom plans on potty training you in July.
· You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and typically have a snack in the AM & PM
· You sleep from about 8:30-8:30 on the weekends with a 2.5 hour nap and you sleep from about 8PM – 6:30 AM on the weekdays with a 1.5 to 2 hour nap at daycare.
· You wear size 18-24 M clothes—2T is still a little big with the pants being very long.
· You are 37” inches tall (90%) and weigh 30 lbs (70%)
· You tell me when you’re ready to go “night night” if we’re reading too long and all mom has to do is drop you in the crib, tuck you in your blanket with your animals and off to sleep you go. I love this about you. You’re such a great sleeper!!
· You love your elephant still and its definitely your security object.
· You love stuffed animals and pretty much one of your animals is your favorite animal at some point. My favorite saying is “Pooh Bear” when you talk to Pooh. It’s so sweet sounding.
· We just moved you into a bigger room, but we have left you in your crib. I don’t see why we should mess up a good thing.. so I’ll wait to put you in your big boy bed for probably another year or until you figure out how to climb out. We’ll see!
· You know your colors, can recognize letters a through f when you see them, know that numbers exist, but I can’t get you to really count in the right order. You know all your animals as well as their sounds.
· You know the ‘abc’ song and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”—though you won’t actually sing them. If I pause somewhere during the song you will tell me what the word should be.
· We are conquering your fear of water and you have mastered the water slide at our favorite water park, Noah’s Ark.
· The only game you will play on the iPad is Peak-A-Boo barn which lasts approximately 4 minutes.
· You like to help mom cook and you kneel on the stool at the counter and help me stir and pour.

We love you baby boy, always and forever. I pray that you always be this sweet, smart boy with heart of gold. I can’t wait to watch you become a big brother in the next 2.5 months!