Miles and the extraction

For a few months now, I have been talking to Miles about taking away his binky because he is a big boy. We started putting one binky at a a time in the trash on trash day to go bye-bye in the trash truck (one of his favorite things). And then I told him that when he had one more, we could go to a store to put his binky inside a new animal. Sometimes he would get really excited about it, telling me he wanted to put binky in a giraffe or elephant or hippo. Sometimes he would tell me that we should put Hannah’s binky in the animal.

Two weeks ago, he had his last binky and I thought it would be a good idea to at least take him to Build-a-Bear to see what it was about before we made the final extraction. But while we were there, he was so excited, that he told me he wanted to put binky in a puppy. So we did it. Chris wasn’t quite on board with the whole idea, but Miles is almost three, so I knew we needed to do it.

I have never seen him love a stuffed animal so much. I couldn’t get a picture that wasn’t blurry because he was hugging it and swinging it side to side.

And then we went home for naptime in which he didn’t nap, but it was hard to determine if he wasn’t napping because of the binky or just because it wasn’t a nap kind of day, he’s been having more and more of those lately.

The first night was definitely hard. He screamed for Daddy for about an hour before I went back in there to calm him down. And every night since then has been fine, but naps were a bit harder to come by. He went 8 days without a nap before I finally suggested to him that he take a nap in a pack n play just like at grandma’s house. That’s all it took. He only did that for a few days, and since then, he takes naps as regularly as he did before.

Tantrums have gotten a little worse because I think there’s still a little bit of residual emotional trauma going on, but he’s almost three, so it’s part of life. He has become a mouth breather at night, so we use a lot more chap stick now. And, I think his teeth have already started to come down a bit more.

But major parenting milestone accomplished.

Siblings

We have really enjoyed watching Miles and Hannah interact more and more as she gets older. I especially love to listen to her squeal at him in the back of the car as he sings, or yells, or makes faces, or sometimes throws things at her. Every time I try to take a picture of Hannah, Miles insists on being in it, but he hasn’t really figured out how to sit still next to her and not look like a goof. But I’m looking forward to when they can play together all day and keep each other entertained. Like ALL day.

Hannah: 7 months

 

Food: eating lots of solids, cereal puffs, and yogurt melts (the remnants of which you see on her shirt).

Sleep: Mostly two solid naps during the day, and then goes to sleeps about 7 pm to 7 am (with two, sigh, feedings in there).

Transportation: still only rolling over to get around

Hobbies: drooling, giggling at Miles, chewing on anything within her reach, being cute

And now, folks, I am caught up on Hannah's updates.

Hannah: 6 months

Way back in January, Hannah hit her half birthday. A think we might have let her have some ice cream that night, but any digital proof of such trip is on Chris’s phone.

At 6 months, Hannah had mastered sitting up (for the most part). I just had to make sure she was always sitting on the carpet so that when she fell over, her head had somewhere soft to land. Her rolling over is still her only mode of transportation, but she would definitely prefer for me to just move her to where she wants to be.

She is absolutely enamored of Miles and everything that he does. And he loves to make her giggle, which sometimes means we have to go into the hall at church because they both get kind of loud.

Sleeping at 6 months has finally leveled out probably because I finally got around to making her cry it out to get herself to sleep. I was kind of tired to going in there every five minutes to put her pacifier back in. It only took a couple of days, so I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to it. She now takes two naps per day: 9 am and 1 pm. She sleeps with her binky an  her pink elephant blanket, which she usually rubs her face in.

She eats like a champ! Annoying so, actually. She is very demanding for her three meals and precisely the right time. Sadly, it still hasn’t made her sleep more at night.