Fall Update

 Here is a little about what each of our kids have been up to in the last 6 months or so...

Rebekah:

• Recently started a once-a-week, two-hour pre-school class through the Columbus rec center. She loves it, although Andrew sorely misses her while she is gone for those two hours. All he does is ask for her. He looks so relieved when we pick her up. I think each time he doubts whether or not he'll see her again.
• Starting to read, write simple words. She also does some basic addition and counting. She can draw simple people too, which usually consists of arms and legs growing out of a face (the toddler classic)
• Loves to cook (or watch mommy cook). Right now she can't do much else other than stir, but she is so fascinated. Sometimes she even narrates what is going on and makes small talk to an imaginary audience. I really have no idea where she picked this up from--I have never watched a cooking show in my life and don't think she has either, but that is exactly what it sounds like.
• Since she will be turning four in December, we switched her to underwear in the beginning of September. For the first month, it was basically all accidents all the time. Did not seem to bother her, and she refused to use the potty unless it got her out of something, like sitting through church or going to bed. Finally she got to the point where she was (mostly) pee-trained (as long as we take her for 3 potty breaks in a 24 hour period, and at least now she is pretty okay with this). Still not poop-trained, mostly goes in her underwear.  So we've have had a total of one accident-free day since September.(And, yes, whatever you're thinking of suggesting, we've tried it. And we've also tried not doing anything at all, for extended periods of time.) She definitely has a little mind of her own But at least mom is no longer worried that she will have to start kindergarten a year late due to potty-training, as it seems there is an end in sight.
• She loves riding her little tricycle and has gotten really good a pedaling, especially around the park.
• Very good at making friends. When she sees a kid her age at the park, she will go up to them and say "Hi, my name is Rebekah.What's your name?" Sometimes they run away, sometimes they reply. She will say "Nice to meet you. How old are you?" Its really cute, although a little sad when they run away.  But Rebekah doesn't mind. She just runs after them, repeating her question. ("Hey, girl, what's your name?...")
• One of my favorite Rebekah quotes:  Me: "When you get bigger, you will be a mommy."  Rebekah: "When you get smaller, you will be a Rebekah"

 Andrew:

• Since summer, has basically made a complete switch from being a mommy's boy to a daddy's boy. First thing he wants to do in the morning is see Daddy. Daddy has to give him breakfast and get him dressed. All day long while he's at school, he asks about Daddy, talks about Daddy, points to Daddy's things and says "Daddy". When he comes home he runs from whatever he is doing to Daddy. It is adorable (although can be difficult on the two days a week where Scott's classes run until 9:00 or 10:00 at night so he doesn't get to see him...).
• Has gotten into reading lately, although it is hard for him to sit through a whole book.
• Loves his cars. He almost always has one or two in his hand. But, since he still likes to hide things, our car supply is being depleted (we don't salvage the cars that go down the sewer). 
• Great napper. He has about 2 hours or more a day, although we did go through a scare a little while back where he dropped his nap almost every day for about two weeks. But now he seems back on schedule. 
• Very intense little boy. Not sure how else to describe his personality. Can be very demanding but can also play on his own, but he is always very intense on what he is doing.
• He has mastered quite a few words (more than Rebekah at this age), although there are a lot of consonants he cannot make yet, so, while we know what he is saying, its not clear to anyone else.
• Super picky eater. Lots of things he used to like he doesn't like anymore. He will turn away even kid-friendly foods like animal crackers, yogurt, bananas, ICE CREAM, etc. In fact, there is nothing I can always count on him to eat (most kids seem to have at least one thing they will always eat).  What he likes depends on the day, and some days he doesn't eat much of anything. I mean that quite literally. I would be a little less worried if he weren't 3 percentile for weight (and average for height)....

Now for some Halloween costumes: Rebekah was Rapunzel...

And Andrew was a pumpkin, although we couldn't get him to stay in his outfit long enough to get a picture, much less go trick or treating in it. This despite the fact that we picked out the least intrusive costume for him that we could (it was basically just a vest that he wore over his orange shirt). When we went trick-or-treating, since he wouldn't keep his pumpkin on, Rebekah decided that Andrew must be going as a "shirt". And that is what she told everyone (I"m Rapunzel, and Andrew is a shirt")

 Here is a picture from apple-picking, more are on facebook.

And this little video of the two of them dancing, which by the way they totally initiated. And I managed to only video the tale end of the whole thing, which, of course was the least cute portion, but at least you can see Rebekah spinning Andrew to the ground.
What an adorable pair!

Pictured above are our two little cuties at Easter time. Update on their cuteness:
Andrew loves taking things out of containers, shelves, buckets, and he also loves putting things in places, although usually not where they originally belong. Sometimes he has climbed into the kitchen cupboard so far that we could close the door on him. Every once in a while we'll find his pants in the blender, or a sandal in the broiler. This last week he did an Easter egg hunt with the blocks--he was being very high maintenance/clingy all morning, to the point where I could not even walk around without him pinning himself to my leg, and then all of the sudden he got quiet for a while. I could hear him moving around, and he sounded busy, but I was enjoying the quiet so I didn't bother him. When I finally looked to see what he was doing, he had been taking his Mega Blocks and hiding them in various places around the house. GOOD hiding places too. I kept finding them in strange places. By the next day, there were some I still hadn't found so Andrew just went and found them all for me. Smart little guy.
He also likes playing soccer. Not just playing with the soccer ball, but kicking it. Just kicking--he never touches it. Even if it gets stuck somewhere, he doesn't grab it with his hands, just tries to get it free with his foot.

Rebekah continues her fascination with Disney princesses. For a while Rapunzel was all she could think about. She likes to act out various scenes, particularly when we are playing the soundtrack we got from the library. I'm not sure how she does this, but when she is listening to the background instrumental peices in the soundtrack, she actually knows what section of the movie they are from. One time while we were listening to the soundtrack, she found me in the kitchen and covered my mouth with the sash from a white bathrobe and tried to tie it around my head. Of course, this is the part where Flynn Ryder climbs up the tree and sees Rapunzel gagged. She also likes to act out the part where Rapunzel realizes she's the lost princess (first she lies down on the floor, looks up in amazement at the ceiling, stands up and staggers around, then hits the dresser. All right on cue with the music).
She also likes to assign us different characters from Disney movies. For instance, she is Ariel, Andrew is Flounder, Daddy is King Triton. Or she is Meg and Daddy is Hercules. And who am I? Take your pick of the villains. In case you hadn't noticed, the mother figures in the Disney movies are all either psycopaths or dead. Lately, I've been "Mother Knows Best" (which is what she calls Mother Gothel from Tangled) and I unfairly keep her from letting her life begin. Thank you, Disney.
The two of them are at a precious stage right now--one of my favorite things is watching them play together. Rebekah likes to hold Andrew's hand and walk him around the house, play peek-a-boo with him, etc. Andrew just loves following Rebekah around and playing with whatever she is playing with. They can entertain each other for quite a long time, and they get each other giggling and squealing so easily.
As for us, we are still planning on all heading out to Arizona on June 1, where we will be for Scott's internship with Intel. Not exactly looking forward to the plane ride with Andrew, but at least it is a non-stop flight! We will keep you all posted.

Family Pictures

Long Overdue Update

So we are finally getting to updating our blog for the first time since Thanksgiving (and yes, that was a lame entry). Feel free to peruse all the pictures below and make some educated guesses about the content: gingerbread house making, cookie-making, etc. If I am feeling particularly ambitious tonight we might get around to adding little captions, but I think most of them pretty much speak for themselves (unless any of you are wondering why Rebekah, age 3, was allowed to go to a Valentine's Day Sock Hop. Answer: it was at the library, she went with her dad, and they did the hokey-pokey).
So now we get on to the important stuff. Here's a little about what our kids have been up to lately:
Andrew:
*Walking: After months of his unique, patented "monkey walk" (in which he would "crawl" on his hands and feet, no knees touching), he is starting to walk more like a biped. Right now its about 60%/40% (human walking/monkey walking), but I think that is mostly because he can basically run when he does his monkey walk and thus get to his destination faster. As soon as he figures out how to run like a humanoid, he'll be at 80/20 (running/walking).
*As you can imagine, he's quite active. Always into something, always frantically grabbing for something or trying to climb on something, whatever. Except that when you put him in a stroller and take him outside, he is eerily calm. Just sits back and soaks it all in.
*Trying to potty train himself (or something like that): we are not sure what is going on, but often he will go all day (ALL DAY) without a single wet diaper, depsite drinking quite a bit. Then we put him down for the night, and when we go get him in the morning, he is soaked, as is his bed, sheets, blankets, etc. His diaper is literally disintegrating and little diaper remnants are all over his body. I thought that maybe he just doesn't like having a wet diaper on so, under that theory, I once tried putting him on the potty before we put him to bed; he just squirmed and twisted around.
*He has got a high tolerance for pain (and low tolerance for not getting what he wants). He will bonk his head (sometimes pretty hard) and the kid cries for maybe 10 seconds. I once took him to the doctor for a routine checkup and the doctor informed me he had an ear infection (although I hadn't noticed anything unusual). Teeth coming in? Not a problem. But you try to change his diaper and he wails. Open the front door but don't take him outside, game over. It takes a while to get him to calm down. Whenever I change his diaper, he contorts and twists his body around, right now I can still pin him down and get the diaper on somehow, but not sure how much longer that will last... (my ability to pin him down, that is. He gets stronger every day).
*Taking one nap a day: which is anywhere from two to three hours. I love it.
*Adores his sister: follows her around, laughs at her when she's being silly. Whenever she is not around, I ask him where Rebekah is, and he bolts to the stairs and goes right up to her room.
*Eating exclusively from one of the following basic food groups: bread with cheese, vegetables with cheese, cheese, and fruit. But he will not drink whole milk, not with chocolate in it, or sugar in it, or vanilla, we've tried everything. He will drink a little strawberry milk if it is warmed up, but only in small sips. Doesn't matter how thirsty he is. If he doesn't like it, he won't drink it. Same thing with food: he went from eating basically any solid food I gave him to refusing all baby food almost overnight; then he went from eating any table food I gave him to refusing anything other than the aforementioned food groups.
He is a quirky little guy with a lot of personality. So easy to get him to smile and he has such an infectious giggle. His monkey walk cracks everyone up at church. I think I am going to miss it.
And now a little on what Rebekah is up to these days:
*Princesses (Ariel, Belle, Rapunzel, Jasmine, Tiana, Cinderella, Aurora): this is her current obsession du jour. I am not sure exactly how she got hooked on them, but kudos to the Disney marketing team. You start with a Cinderella toothbrush (gateway drug) and the next thing you know you've got a shelf full of princess DVDs, soundtracks, the piano music, the books and the figurines.
*She is a very polite little girl. She says "excuse me", "thank you" (sometimes "thank you very much"), "bless you". My favorite is when she talks to inanimate objects (Rebekah while trying to move a kitchen chair past the trash can: "excuse me, trash, excuse me" or while rummaging through the drawer looking for a flashlight: "excuse me, tape; excuse me, markers")
*You scared? She is always asking everyone around her if they are scared of things. "Mommy, you scared of fire?" "Daddy, you scared of the Beast?" or my favorite "Mommy, you scared of butter?" Then we say, "no I'm not scared. Are you scared?" Rebekah's answer: "Yes, I'm scared of butter".
*She is very concerned when others get hurt or are crying. She always wants to comfort whoever it is. I also love when Andrew is crying and we can't get him to calm down. Once our usual efforts fail, she'll say "Andrew needs a nap".
*Potty training: she is still in pull-ups (princess pull-ups, of course!), but is down to about one "accident" a day. She ocassionally even goes all day without any accidents. Its taken her some time to start to get it but she's made a lot of progress. She still will only go when we take her and has trouble telling us when she has to go, but she's improving.

As far as the rest of the family is concerned, Scott is going to Intel for an internship this summer, and after some back and forth between Arizona and Oregon, it looks like we will be in Arizona. But we want to make sure its final before we arrange anything in terms of housing.

And now for some more pictures:
Andrew's cuteness:



Andrew's birthday:


And for Scott's birthday, here was my first attempt at a "real" cake (nothing from a box or a can): chocolate raspberry cake with ganache. Andrew got the same one since I had so much left over ganache from Scott's cake.

Valentine's Day Sock Hop

Valentine's Day Cookie Making

For Valentine's Day me and Rebekah decorated cookies for daddy and our friends. Here is her happy face when we were all finished

Here are the cookies.

Here is the messy part

Thanksgiving 2011

This Thanksgiving we visited the Blood family--two grandparents, ten kids, five in-laws, one fiancee, and eight grandkids.
Rebekah had a lot of fun playing with her little cousins and all the barbie dolls, as well as riding around in the wagon.

Family Pictures

Balancing Act

Andrew showing off some of his tricks!

Love brings kisses

When we put Rebekah to bed, one of the rituals we practice is singing to her. Many times she'll request a certain song to be sung. Two songs that she always requests from Daddy are "Families can be together forever" and "Love one another". A few night ago, while Scott was singing Rebekah "Love one another", Rebekah decided to grab Daddy by the cheeks and give him a kiss on the lips every time Daddy sung the word "love". It was a sweet moment. She loves her Daddy, for sure.

Here is a video of Rebekah reading from a few months back. Also, a video of Andrew smiling. He smiles and laughs a lot, especially when watching Rebekah, but whenever the camera is on, he turns the laughing off...tricky little boy.

Andrew hiding in the closet

Actually, Andrew isn't hiding in the closet...he's sleeping in the closet!! About 2 weeks ago, Scott was at his wits end. He had been bouncing Andrew all day and was in a lot of pain. At about 7:30pm, he decided to just put Andrew down in his crib because he couldn't bounce him anymore. An amazing thing happened...he slept for 5 hours! Since that night, Andrew has made tremendous progress with his sleeping. We've been able to put him down between 7-8:30 and he has only been getting up once at night! Two nights ago, Andrew decided that getting up with Daddy once a night was less valuable than his sleep, so he's decided to sleep through the night until 6:30am! We understand it's just 2 nights in a row, but we're extremely excited and take what we can get for sure! This Sunday morning, Scott decided to push the envelope and put him down for what we guessed was his "morning nap time". He cried for 8 min then feel asleep! He is making fantastic strides in his sleeping habits and we're so appreciative of all the prayers that have come our way. We feel very blessed and fortunate right now! Thank you!

Mother's Day

Here's another funny story about Rebekah. As you know, the only way we can get Andrew calmed down when he is fussy (and the only way to get him to sleep) is to bounce him up and down. Well, Rebekah has a habit of throwing out all her bears from her crib before she wakes up and always puts them back in before she goes down. The other day, when she was putting her bears back in her crib, she "bounced" each of them for a little while to get them to sleep before putting them back in. She also did this with her blankets...so she will forevor think that babies, animals, etc. go to sleep when you bounce them.
Meanwhile, Andrew had been more or less the same this past week (and even had a night where he was up every hour on the hour) and then Saturday night, after having a remarkably non-fussy day, he slept from 10 until 2:00 and then from 2:30 until 7:00. One caveat is that since he is still only sleeping while holding him, he did wake me up three or four times during that last stretch but since I was able to get him back to sleep without nursing him, I count that as a continuous stint. I could not have asked for a better Mother's Day gift. Needless to say, I was overjoyed and, given that Rebekah had turned around very quickly around 11 weeks old, I started hoping we were at a breakthrough with Andrew (I distinctly remember we were having some rough nights and then, all of the sudden, she just decided she wanted to sleep through the night, waking up only once around 3:00, and she never looked back after that). So last night Scott took him for the first part of the night and he tossed and turned with Scott until 2:00 and was up about every hour and a half from then on out. Part of me feels like a jilted lover and part of me is just grateful that he gave me that one night of rest. Meanwhile, I am wondering how on earth I will be able to get back to work in two weeks given that post-colic babies are not ready for sleep-training until around 4 months. We may cheat and start early if we get desperate enough....we'll keep you posted. Happy Mothers Day all!

Boucing with ease

Oh how we love our new fitness ball! Although out workout isn't exactly orthodox, it does the job! Our arms have received a much needed rest now that we just have to hold him and bounce away...and while doing so, strengthening our abs, quads, and lower back...thanks for the new workout, Andrew!

"no cool car"

Back in March we posted about Rebekah's infatuation with "cool" cars. This past week, Rebekah and daddy were walking back from the park as numerous cars drove by. Rebekah did her usual identification of the various cars, saying, "it's a car....it's a car...it's a cool car...it's a car". By now, daddy has phased out the identity markers knowing that a "cool" car will be an expensive one, and a "car" will just be a "normal" one. To daddy's surprise, Rebekah gave a certain car a unique identification. Daddy heard the words "no cool car". As daddy looked up to see which car Rebekah was talking about, lo and behold, it was a PT cruiser (sorry Steph). Proof that Rebekah really DOES know what she's talking about.

First, a funny story about Rebekah, then we'll get to Andrew...Scott and Rebekah were at the playground the other day (I was at home holding Andrew, naturally) and, according to Scott, a little two year old boy who was there came up to Rebekah with his arms out. Scott assumed he was going to give her a hug, but instead he got really close and planted a kiss on her lips. Rebekah was stunned. She walked over to Scott and sat on his lap for a little while and then looked up at him and said in a bewildered tone: "Kissed a boy?"

Andrew is still sleeping in 2 hour increments at night and needing to be held all the time to sleep. There are times when he is awake where we can put him down for 10 minutes or so but not while sleeping. His naps are very irregular and short and he often wakes up every 10 minutes during the nap and needs more soothing to get back to sleep. At the peak, around 6-8 weeks he was crying/fussing about 4 hours a day (usually about an hour and a half during the day, plus another 2.5 hours at night.) The only thing that soothes him during this time is vigorous bouncing. And he will not accept mechanical subtitutes--we HAVE to be holding him or he screams. If we stop bouncing, his crying escalates, and usually, even if we sit down (but still bouncing), the crying still escalates. During the day, he will not go to sleep without getting some fussiness in and without lots of bouncing. (We recently purchased an exercise ball that I bounce on while holding him, which has given my biceps a break, although it is quite the workout for your abs. I have no idea why I didn't think of it earlier.) We also cannot get him to sleep during the day unless we bounce him like this (and his fussy spell usually ends with him faling asleep; although sometimes he sleeps for 10 minues and is up again, fussing). He settles down at night between midnight and 1:00 but still only sleeps in 2 hour increments. Scott suggested he might have colic, especially given that since he would be crying a lot more if there weren't two of us at home and we had to put him down more and/or if I didn't have the resources to spend all day holding him, bouncing him back to sleep when he wake up every ten minutes, etc.

Colic is unexplained crying, which most babies have, but at an extreme level, at least 3 hours a day for 3 nights a week for at least 3 weeks in a row. I originaly did not think Andrew had colic since my understanding of colic was a baby that screams for 6 hours straight at the same time every night, and Andrew's longest spell at night is "only" about 2 or 2.5 hours. I wasn't counting all the daytime fussy spells; however, I started doing more reading on the subject (I got the book Your Fussy Baby by the Healthy Sleeping Habits Happy Child author, who has done a lot of research on infant colic) The author says there that you should add up all the time they spend crying for no reason and if it is more than 3 hours, they are colicky. There are also a lot of other features of colicky babies that describe Andrew well--they tend to have short, irregular naps, are easily startled, are difficult to get to sleep, and they usually have very unsettled sleep when they do sleep. (Apparently, only sleeping in someone's arms is not unusual for colicky babies). They also do not start sleeping for 3 to 4 hour stretches at a time until much later than normal babies and the fussiness ends a lot later than in normal babies. About 15-20% of babies have colic. It is harmless and he should outgrow it in 3 to 4 months. They also take longer to learn to self-soothe, so the author doesn't recommend letting them cry as part of sleep training until they are at least 4 months old. No one knows what causes colic but most of the scientists/researchers agree it is not a stomach or digestive issue, which is what a lot of people believe. And, as an update to the last post, we have definitely ruled out any food intolerances since I got the stomach flu again and was on a jello/gatorade diet for long enough to know for sure this time that his fussiness is not related to my diet. (There should be a limit, by the way, as to how many times you can get the stomach flu during the newborn stage...)

We went to the doctor twice this week for Andrew (and saw two different doctors, although the first one was technically a nurse practitioner). The first one was for his two month checkup--he's very healthy, gaining weight, he's moved up to 35th percentile. When I told the nurse practitioner about his sleeping patterns and fussiness, she could not get over the fact that I slept while holding him and lectured me on how unsafe that is. She then asked if we had ever tried putting him to sleep in a car seat, instead of a crib. That was the point at which I realized we were not on the same page. I went home and we renewed our efforts at putting him down, but all this did was create frustration and more bouncing and less sleep.

We went back in to the doctor a few days later for something unrelated and this time saw our regular pediatrician, who was asking about his sleep. She agreed that he is colicky and said that he would start to settle down sometime between 3 and 4 months, so really we just had to wait it out. She was a big fan of the Weissbluth book Healthy Sleeping Habits Happy Child and agrees that with colicky babies, you really should not let them cry for too long as part of sleep training until they are about 4 months old, since, although no one knows what causes colickiness, they seem to be "neurologically unsettled" until the fussy period is over and really are not able to learn self-soothing skills before then. When I asked her about how he would only sleep in our arms, she said that she had seen that before and that usually it starts to resolve itself when their fussiness goes away and they start sleeping a little more soundly. I told her about my schemes for trying to teach him to sleep on his own (as well as the things we had tried already) and she said that for right now, we should just do whatever gets us the most sleep and worry about teaching him to sleep on his own when the fussiness goes away, around 3-4 months. Around the time the fussiness drops off, he should start sleeping better and more soundly and we should start then to again try to put him down to sleep on his own.

So needless to say, this visit was much more helpful. I am also happy to report that Andrew has had two nights in a row where he slept for more than 2 hours, although the latest twist is that I cannot seem to get to sleep when he is sleeping or get back to sleep after he wakes up, so now I am actually more tired than ever...I think my brain is just really confused as to what its supposed to do after being so sleep deprived for so long that it will take time for it to get better. I am also surprised at how many other mothers say they had this problem too--and they agree that the only thing worse than not being able to sleep because you have a crying baby is not being able to sleep when you have a sleeping baby.

But we are starting to see Andrew's little personality and his big, handsome smiles. He is a sweet boy when not fussy. Above is a recent picture.

Andrew at 5 and half weeks

Here is our handsome little Andrew at around 4 or 5 weeks (can't remember when we took those pictures). He is much cuter in real life.

As an update from our last post--after getting better at sleeping on his own at night, he has regressed to not only not sleeping on his own at night to not sleeping on his own at all. He might give us a 45 minute stretch at night and a stretch of a half hour during the day where he sleeps on his own, but that is about it. So I have a couple of different positions figured out where I can fall asleep holding him and not worry about smothering him, which I rotate through since one kills my back, one kills my neck and shoulders and one kills my hips. During the day I carry him around until my wrists hurt and then strap him into a sling until my back hurts. I also usually hand him off to Scott so I can go run while Rebekah takes a nap and also for the last night stretch (from 5:30ish to 7ish) so I can sleep in my bed. He still sleeps in 1.5 to 2 hour increments, but that is the least of our worries right now.

BUT, I feel very fortunate because Scott is here so he can take care of Rebekah while I take care of Andrew, but I can't imagine what I would do by myself.

Another good piece of news is that when we went into the pediatrician for his one month checkup and the pediatrician listened to him breathe and asked us some questions, she was able to diagnose him with laryngopharyngeal reflux and prescribe him with some medication. This explains why he would fuss at all different times of the day (not just "fussy time" at night, although he would cry the most during that time). It also explains why he would work himself up into painful screams in which he would arch his back, screech and scratch his face because he was so angry. He would do this almost any time of day after I fed him--this was totally different than Rebekah; she only got like this a few times (usually it was more of a cry than a scream) and she was pretty calm during the day. It also explains why he would pull away while nursing and nurse on and off, crying in between.

He has been a different baby since we started giving him his medication. He still fusses at night (from about 10 until 12:30 or 1:00) but doesn't really get worked up into full-blown screams anymore. He also is much calmer during the day and still fusses sometimes but it is usually only for a few minutes right before he falls asleep.

I also noticed when I got the stomach flu and changed my diet to crackers and jello for a while that he seemed much better within 24 hours of my changed diet. I mentioned this to our pediatrician, who told me to try cutting out citrus/acidic foods and dairy to see if that helped, since food allergies/intolerances is also associated with reflux sometimes. I cut the dairy first and it did not seem to make much of a difference; after that, I cut tomatoes/oranges/choclate and other foods that show up on "do not eat if you have heartburn" lists and it did seem to help, although it is always hard to tell with babies since they change so much from day to day. I never though I would be one of those moms that is always associating what they eat with their babies' behavior, but I figure that it doesn't hurt to cut a few things out of my diet for a while and then try to re-introduce them in a few weeks.

Fortunately, most of the above took place before family came to visit for the baby blessing, so he was pretty calm while they were here. (It was also nice to have some other people to pass Andrew off to while he slept so that I could feel like a normal person).

This Wednesday he will be 6 weeks old and this Saturday will be 6 weeks from his due date. According to Dr. Weissbluth (Health Sleeping Habits, Happy Child), things stop getting worse (in terms of sleeping/fussiness) and start getting better at 6 weeks, or 6 weeks from the due date if the baby was early (which is why you never want an early baby).

It seems that all I talk about when people ask how he is doing are his problems (e.g., see above), but after going to church yesterday and talking to other moms about all his newborn issues, it made me realize that it could be much worse and that while Andrew isn't the best sleeper, there are a lot of things he does well:

• Nursing: other than the pulling away and fussing before we treated him for reflux, he really has been a good little nurser. While talking to another mom at church (whose newborn is having serious nursing issues), I remembered the issues I had with Rebekah. We've been lucky in that we've not had to deal with any major nursing issues this time around.


• When he gets up at night, he's not up for too long--usually only for about 45 minutes to an hour, which really isn't that bad.


• He stops fussing around 12:30 and is usually asleep for his first stretch of the night by 1:00 This is much better than Rebekah, who fussed until 1:30 or 2:00 and then went to sleep around 2:30. (Of course then she would sleep for 6 hours by herself after that... some nights I wouldn't mind making that trade).


• He deals with tummy time pretty well and started rolling over on his 4 week birthday. He's rolled over quite a few times since then.


• I have another adult (Scott) here to help. This really makes all the difference in the world.

As for Rebekah, she is doing so many funny things that its hard to keep track. I wish I could spend more time with her than I do because she is such a character right now. One thing she has figured out how to do (without any coaching from us) is to identify expensive cars. She always points out cars when we go to our complex's garage or go for a walk, but when she sees a Jaguar or a BMW or another type of pricey car, she will point it out and call it a "cool car". We have no idea how she can tell the difference already.

She's also very cooperative and quite the peacemaker when she plays with other children. Going to nursery every week is the highlight of her life, and her nursery teachers always talk about how happy and helpful she is. Sometimes I look at her and Andrew and can't believe how blessed we are. I love being a mom!