Tuesday, May 15, 2012

22 month / 9 month update

Calan loves riding the train at the mall. For a dollar, it is a great treat. 
Maisie all dressed up in the outfit her cousins picked out for her when they spent the night. 
Another month has come and gone and the next is almost over. Time is flying by, but I have no complaints. Life is good. The babies are good. We are good.

What a difference a month makes? The month of March was hell. The month of April was heaven. Life is really settling into a good routine. The calm before the storm, right? Not sure when life will become topsy turvy again, but right now, I am loving the flow. 

As for the kids, I am going to try to keep things based on just 22 and 9 months because the last two weeks have been crazy busy with things, but I will share more of that during the next update. 

So here's what the kids have been up to:

Sleeping
  • The kids are officially sleeping in the same room through the whole night. At the start of this month, we tried and had to abort due to colds and bad sleeping, but we tried again and haven't looked back. I was determined. It was time and I needed to get Maisie out of our room. I just can't sleep well when she is making any noises, and she would not put herself back to sleep because she knew I was there. I have been amazed at how much the kids sleep through one another. Maisie falls asleep just fine when Calan is having a "crib party" rocking and singing to himself at night, and Calan sleeps through Maisie who about once a night cries out, but will either fall right back to sleep or just needs her pacifier. For nap time, I still have Maisie upstairs, but that is my choice. I think that it works better for us right now. 
  • Calan has become a little energizer bunny at night. We usually put the kids to bed around 7:30, but he can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours to fall asleep. I use to try and get him to lay down, but I have found that does not help the situation. Usually if I just leave him alone, he finally does go to sleep. Though when he gets bored singing to himself or rocking, he tends to start calling for Maisie. While I find it adorable, I do go in then and lay him back down. Nap times have become a breeze. I put him down around 12:30 and he is usually out pretty quickly and sleeps till at least 3. For how much I struggled with nap times, it is amazing to me how well he sleeps now. 
  • Maisie is my sleeping champ (for the most part). With her in her crib, she is sleeping much better at night. Usually, however, she does cry out once each night. It seems to be a startled cry like a nightmare or something like it. Usually just giving her a pacifier and laying her back down does the trick. Not really sure why she does it or how to get her to break the habit, for now, luckily, there is any easy solution to comfort her. Maisie is a great napper and always has been. Maybe it is a second child thing. If we are home, she naps from 9 till about 10:30 in the morning, but is perfectly OK skipping the nap if we are out and about. She then sleeps from 12:30 till at least 3:30. If she missed her morning nap, she goes from 12 till 3:30. I never worry about her getting enough sleep or being rested. But to make sure that both kids get a good nap, I have them nap in different rooms. I don't see myself changing that anytime soon. It works for us. 


Eating
Maisie tryout sweet potato fries, an easy favorite. 
  • Both kids made huge strides in eating over the past month. Maisie is eating more solid foods and Calan is eating without a fight. 
  • I had to resort to a little bribery and timeouts to get Calan to eat his food. He loves bread and most fruits, but was avoiding anything he didn't want and just saying "all done." I now do not have to even use bribes and usually just a threat of a timeout solves any eating issues. I am not the mother that thinks that he needs to eat everything on his plate, but he does have to at least try everything. Dinner times have been way more peaceful and he is sleeping better and rocking less at night because I think he was hungry. 
  • Maisie has been doing great eating. I still have not giving her a ton of solid food basically because of laziness on my part, but what I have given, she has done fine with. She loves sweet potato fries and bananas. She has had toast and some strawberries. I did try to give her some scramble eggs, only to find out she is allergic. (Yea, that was fun.) So far she hasn't had any reactions to any other foods. When she is a year old, we will have her tested. She will most likely grow out of the allergy. 


Activities/Milestones
The kids looking through their Easter baskets. Cheerio filled eggs were a huge hit. 
  • Maisie had her first Easter. Both kids liked their Easter baskets. We went to church, had brunch with Bob's mom, and then headed over to Bob's dad's for dinner. Nothing crazy, but fun nonetheless. 
  • Maisie is now pulling herself up like a champ. She has just begun to transfer between items standing up like from the ottomen to the chair. She is crawling all over the place and usually crawls right to my feet and climbs up me to be held if I am in the room with her. 
  • Maisie is still lacking vocal vocabulary. She is pretty quiet most of the time, but I have heard her say "i, i, i" a few times and "mmmm" and if you do a cough noise she repeats the noise. She just enjoys observing the world. 
  • Calan's vocabulary keeps expanding. Funny things are starting to come out of him. Like if he is eating something he actually likes he says, "mmm, that's good." Or a couple weeks ago, I said "thanks, honey," to bob for something and Calan said "thanks, honey," most of the day. Pretty cute. 
  • Calan is finally saying other colors than blue when asked, so he might not be color-blind after all. 
  • My sister and her family came to visit in April and the kids really enjoyed playing with their cousins who are 9 and almost 12. And my nieces loved playing with the babies. It was great to see my kids playing with their family. The last time we saw them, I was pregnant with Maisie and Calan was almost 1. A lot has changed in a year. 


Schedule
I really revamped and worked on our schedule this month and that has been a huge help in keeping the peace in our home. If you have a toddler and not on a schedule, I highly recommend starting. Life really is a lot easier when they know what is coming next. 

7/7:30 a.m. Wake up/ Maisie bottle
8 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Maisie pack-and-play time (independent playtime); Calan and I chores. (Calan loves to sweep and clean up.)
9 a.m. Maisie nap time. Calan room time. And I take a peaceful shower and get ready. 
9:30 a.m. Calan TV time and I get coffee time. 
10 a.m. Calan and I play (usually with his train table)
10:30 a.m. Maisie wakes up and the kids play together
11 a.m. Maisie bottle; Calan either free play or TV time depending on his mood. I get lunch ready. 
11:30 a.m. Lunch
12 p.m. Play outside or story time or free play inside
12:30 p.m. Both kids nap. 
3 p.m. Kids start to wake up. TV time fore Calan if Maisie is not up yet. 
3:30 p.m. Blanket time and snack time for both kids. 
4 p.m. Depends on the day. Sometimes learning time, sometimes errands, sometimes outside play time. 
5 p.m. Prep for dinner
6 p.m. Dinner time
6:30 p.m. Bath time
7 p.m. Daddy time or TV time
7:30 p.m. Bedtime


Overall
What a great month! We still had some lingering colds, but nothing like March. The kids are starting to act like siblings and that is pretty fun to watch most of the time as long as Calan isn't hurting his sister. Another month done and this month is almost over already. Summer is just going to fly on by. 
Calan has become increasingly interested in Maisie and wants to know where she is at all times. He probably says her name 100 times a day. Cute ... yes; Annoying ... Absolutely. 


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