Baby M started crawling for the first time last Friday (6/22). I was enticing him to move forward by placing a toy in front of him, and to my surprise, it worked! Then last night, he pulled himself up into a standing position by grabbing onto the edge of his crib. My baby's been keeping busy! He's also been keeping mommy and daddy busy! A few nights ago, he pulled a placemat from off the table where his baby food was sitting and the glass jar went shattering across the kitchen floor. SIGH! I can see this one causing havoc wherever he goes already.
I was running late for work yesterday and rushing to get out of the house. As I was about to put the two munchkins in the car, big sister K insisted on taking a picture with her little brother. I am so glad I acquiesced, otherwise I would never have been able to capture the photo below. I think this was God's way of telling me to calm down and focus on what's important in my life.
Maybe I should've started big sister K on drum lessons instead of piano lessons. We left some recent purchases of toilet tissue in the foyer, and big sister K took it upon herself to line them up side-by-side and pretend they're a drum set (kids' imagination... gotta love it!). What's ironic is if you look at the video below, there's a box holding an actual drum set on the left-hand side. We bought it for big sister K weeks ago (will be her birthday present in a few months time) and never put it away. We're lucky big sister K hasn't noticed the box and started asking about it.
My apologies for the shakiness in the video. I was holding baby M while filming and trying to prevent him from snatching the camera.
Call us crazy, but MH and I took big sister K and NH (her son) to Sesame Place on Thursday in 100 degree weather. I had already taken the day off and we scheduled the trip weeks ago, so we went as planned and dropped the little siblings off at daycare that morning before heading out. Despite the heat, the kids had a great time and didn't want to leave.
Baby M had his first sick visit to the doctor this past Monday. Over the weekend, he developed a fever and threw up a couple of times. My poor baby was up the whole night going into Saturday (as were M and I). The acetaminophen we gave him did little to relieve his fever and M ended up making a trip to Walgreen's at 3am to pick up some ibuprofen. Baby M finally got a good four hours of sleep at 4am once the medicine kicked in (also probably because he as exhausted from all the crying).
Our plans to enjoy Saturday as a family went by the wayside as we were forced to divide and conquer: I stayed home with baby M while M kept big sister K entertained outdoors, where they spent the late afternoon at the North Brunswick Youth Sports Festival. Baby M was able to sleep through the night on Saturday for the most part, but still woke up cranky and refused to eat. We canceled our trip to Chinatown and postponed Father's Day celebration with my parents to the following Sunday.
The pediatrician diagnosed baby M with coxsackie virus (also known as hand, foot, and mouth disease). He painted a very bleak picture for M, saying the fever could spike up even higher, the vomiting and loss of appetite could continue, and the infection may last anywhere from 3-10 days. Fortunately, baby M was fever-free after Sunday and was able to hold down his milk (though he didn't eat much). He probably could have gone back to daycare on Tuesday, but we kept him home another day just as a precaution since we didn't want him getting any of the other babies sick.
As big sister K was getting ready to go to sleep tonight, this is the conversation that followed (our typical bedtime routine for the most part):
Me: Good night K. Jo tao*.
K: Good night mommy. Jo tao.
M: Good night K. Buenos noches*.
K: Good night daddy. Buenos noches.
[Pause]
K: But I didn't say good night to baby.
Me: Baby is already sleeping. How about you say good morning to him tomorrow instead?
[Big sister K gives me a sad face.]
Me: Okay. Come on.
[We go into baby M's room and stand by his crib, where he is sound asleep.]
K: (whispers) Good night baby.
[Big sister K walks back to her room and goes to bed.]
*Translation: "Jo tao" means "good night" in Chinese and "buenos noches" means "good night" in Spanish.
We took big sister K for her very first haircut on Saturday (I've always cut her bangs at home prior to that). Since M was planning on getting a haircut anyway, we decided to make it a family trip and have his barber cut big sister K's hair (the barber supposedly cut children's hair as well). Let me tell you, that was a BIG mistake... and I mean HUGE. Big sister K's bangs were cut so choppy, short, and uneven that it was irreparable (and the barber had the nerve to criticize my attempt as hairdresser!). My only consolation is that big sister K's hair will eventually grow back and that she is still cute no matter what her hair looks like (sorry, that's motherly pride for you). I took some before and during pictures of the cut, but was too traumatized and upset to take any after pictures.
Baby M started blowing bubbles with his lips recently (well, it's really more like him just spewing out saliva). Sure, I went "awww" the first few times he did it, but after 10 minutes of spit coming out of his mouth (and landing on me if I happen to be carrying him), it's not so cute anymore. It's especially annoying when I'm trying to feed him. Baby M is already a difficult (and messy!) eater to begin with (he starts crying and won't eat after a few bites), so this new "game" of his certainly does not help during mealtime.
Big sister K has been asking to go to Sesame Place, so we finally went this past Saturday. The few days leading up to it has been great - every time she was about to misbehave, we'd use that as leverage and ask her, "Do you want to go to Sesame Place?" and she'd immediately obey us. I guess that only worked to a certain extent though, because Friday night was extremely challenging as we tried teaching her how to spell her colors. She refused to pay attention and definitely tested our patience beyond belief. We were exhausted and it got so late that eventually we just sent her to bed. The next morning, she woke up on her own and the first thing she said to us was, "I want to spell my colors by myself." She then went downstairs, took the book, and started spelling all the colors out loud. Afterwards, she came back upstairs for me to test her. When she got them all correct, she says to me, "Now can we go to Sesame Place?"
Big sister K had a bit of a cold, so we didn't let her do any of the water activities at Sesame Place. Still, she had a good time watching the parade, Elmo's World Live, and the new "Let's Play Together" show in Abby's Paradise Theater. We left the park early enough so that we'd get home in time for dinner. On the way out, we saw Zoe and had to let big sister K take a picture with her. How fitting that she happened to be wearing her Zoe shirt that day!
We went out to Chinatown on Sunday and actually made it somewhat on time to service (first time in a while!). We only stayed in the sanctuary for worship though, then headed upstairs to the nursery. Big sister K joined the other kids for the beginning of Sunday School, but started crying while practicing a song for Father's Day, so she didn't stay for the actual lesson. After church, we went over to M's mom's place. Everyone hung out there while I paid a visit to the dentist to take care of an abscessed tooth (I am now on antibiotics and was reassured that taking the medicine is fine while breastfeeding).
On Monday, big sister K woke up crying because she had another bad nosebleed (her fourth or fifth one this month). I kept her nose pinched and was able to stop the bleeding, but both kids had a cold, so we decided not to go strawberry-picking. Though we didn't do much, I feel like the day wasn't as relaxing as I would've liked it to be. Then again, I guess it's hard for any day to be relaxing with two kids around.
