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I’ll do a different post for all of our Halloween merriment after the festivities, but for now here’s an update on how things are going around here in general.

It’s Henry vs. the Teeth here at Fort Brand…

Last toothless smile picture

He has sprouted three teeth this month!  A solid effort.  Grumpy nights, still fairly happy during the days.   He’s definitely enjoying rolling all around and babbling.  He is also a solid sitter now.  He sits and lowers himself down to roll with relative ease.  He cannot get back up to sitting, however.  He is very interested in getting into crawling position, but we have yet to see any scooting action.

He is such a little heart-warmer.  Obviously he’s incredibly adorable, but he is also so easy during the days.  When company is over he really mellows out, observing the scene.  Whenever Lloyd’s in the room he definitely calms down, so absorbed in watching his brother and waiting with bated breath for a bit of recognition (he gets it every now and then).

He’s 7 months old now and weighs 20 lbs and 5 oz.  (that’s just starting out 12 month clothes in retail-language).

Lloyd has had an excellent month.  Even though there are still tantrums and whiny days, in general he’s been a real joy.  Some new phrases are “I guess so…” and “Of course!”  He says things out of wishful thinking like, “Of course you’re not going to work, Dad” to Greg when he’s getting ready to head out the door in the morning.  It’s sweet.

At a school field trip

His talking is so amazing.  The other day I was working in the office and he was going outside with Greg and he opens up the door, waltzing in saying, “Okay Mom, Dad and I are going to go play!”  It really almost made me tear-up because it was a sentence an 8-year-old could have said.   He really does use the proper “me/I” grammar about 60% of the time.  He floors me… so many adults aren’t even at that percentage!

On a bakery-run with Dad.

Lloyd’s imaginative play has made huge progress.  Listening to him talking to his toys, giving them voices, is my absolute favorite thing.  At first it was very interesting because he was using his toys to play-out interactions he’d had with his friend Libby or us.  Then it became purely imagination.   One day I told him my knee was bothering me (I’m old, get over it) and he plucked out some fluff from the carpet.  “These Mrph Mrphs will make them feel better!”  It took me a while to stop asking him to repeat himself and to understand that he made up a new word just for fun.

For Greg and I it’s been a fall of work-challenges.  Greg’s still very busy working in Dexter and overcoming various obstacles.  I’m doing fine with my work-load but am struggling with the fact that the children are essentially tandem-napping so I always have one little squirt awake.   It’s meant conquering some work after they go to bed and in general operating on less sleep.  I have to remind myself that this baby-toddlerhood is just a brief moment in time.   Next fall Henry will be 18 months and Lloyd will be in preschool!  I work everyday on overcoming the insubstantial stresses and appreciating the good (the great!) in this funny, crazy house.

Things are calming down here as fall arrives.  We’re getting into more of a routine as Henry settles into something of a nap schedule (about 3 naps a day, each at least 45 minutes long).   If you can believe it, Henry is already 6 months old!  It’s gone by so fast.  He weighs just shy of 19 lbs and is growing nicely.  He’s in the 76th percentile for weight and over 100th for length.  Our lean machine!

Henry has really been enjoying his baby food.  We’ve been doing rice cereal for a while, but have now brought out all sorts of fruits and vegetables.  Combinations of pears, prunes, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, spinach, peas, and pears.  He’s liked everything and begged for more!  We’re trying not to get out of hand so that he keeps getting most of his calories from nursing.   Now we’ve switched from rice to a whole oats/barley mix.  Yum…?

He doesn’t have any teeth yet, although it certainly seems like he’s making progress under the gums.  In truth he’s had a bit of a difficult month.  Lots of restless nights, caused perhaps by his teething and digestive issues as his body gets used to new foods.  But he is still having fun during the days.  Lots of barrel-rolling around the living room, and a lot more engagement with his toys as he has learned to reach and grab with precision.

Lloyd has been doing great.  Socially, he’s really turning a new leaf.  This past month I’ve seen him run around and really play with kids his own age and that has been amazing.  He’s also much more interested in his little brother, waiting patiently for Henry to run around and play with him.  : )

The good news is Lloyd has finally stopped saying, “I’m sad!” or “I’m just a sad boy!”  But the bad news is is that he’s replaced it with, “I’m a little nervous.”  Womp womp.  It’s a cover-all phrase that he dishes out whenever he’s uncomfortable or just whenever he doesn’t want to fulfill a request.  It’s heart melting the first time you hear it, then you understand it’s just another example of him trying to manipulate his minions!

Another new phrase is, “Where you come from?!” whenever he sees someone he hasn’t seen in a while.

Lloyd has not resumed potty training… we’ll try again in November.  He HAS started a formal playgroup organized through Dexter Community Schools called “First Steps.”  It’s mostly just free play in a classroom setting, but there’s 15 minutes of singing and stories and listening to a teacher.   The parents attend alongside their children, and the kids are aged 18 months – 3 years.   It’s like a pre-pre-school.

So that’s what we’re up to!  Hope everyone who reads this is doing well.

These boys are changing, growing, unpredictable, but always lovely.

August was another amazing summer month… with one glaring annoyance – MOSQUITOS.  The gallinippers came in a huge swarm worthy of a bad sci-fi flick!   We would run to our cars and still get bitten at least five times each.   Lloyd spent a good portion of August looking like he had chicken pox.  I spent our free-time oscillating between applications of repellant and hydrocortisone cream and trimming the kids’ finger nails so they wouldn’t cause so much damage with their constant scratching.  It really was hideous!  Luckily things seem to be improving now that we’ve cooled off a little bit.

We had a couple celebrations here in town – the first being our local holiday called “Dexter Daze.”  There was a parade and craft booths in town.  I had my first garage sale, and it was a success!   The next week was Greg’s birthday!  We picked up Zingerman’s for a special dinner, baked peanut butter cookies, and gave Greg lots of presents including a new flip-cam and this fancy tool!

Then it was off to Pittsburgh to visit Aunt Alison, Uncle Paul, and Unkie Brent!  Grace and Jerry joined us, and entertained Lloyd for the entire car-ride- both ways, bless ’em (Greg and I took Henry)!  We continued celebrating Greg and we also went to multiple playgrounds, the zoo, some fun restaurants, and the Children’s Museum.  It was a busy, wonderful weekend!  We really had a great time.

Lloyd is doing very well.  There are a lot of “I can do it all by myself!”‘s around here : )  For a while we were making great progress on potty training, which was very exciting.  However, Lloyd has decided he’s not too into it anymore so progress has stalled.  I hope he gets back on board again soon, because he was really doing a great job.   It hard to remember that even though he is so smart (and so BIG) that he is still a really young dude and there’s no rush.  We’re still stuck in the “I’m SADDDD” phase that has been a big part of our summer (and spring? I don’t really remember life before this phase) and it’s been punctuated by asking us (everyday), “What makes YOU sad?  What makes you happy?”  I don’t know why this kid finds being fake-mopey so fun, but it’s just his favorite thing.  Luckily whenever he’s not saying “I’m just a sad boy” he is exuberant and full of joy, so I think we’ll keep him around.

Here’s a movie of him being his merry self.

Henry turned five-months-old on the 26th.

I can’t believe how fast it goes… This past month he perfected rolling over.

(Here’s a movie of him rolling at the beginning of August).

A great part of him rolling like a pro is that he gets to have more control over his sleep.  We had kept him in his bassinet at bedtime, where he doesn’t have room to roll, so as to keep him safely on his back for sleeping.  Now that he can roll over and back, he’s allowed to sleep on his stomach if he chooses, which meant it was time to get out of the bassinet and into his crib!   He’s still in our room, as the only other practical option is moving him into Lloyd’s space.  That’s the plan for the future, but not until Henry is better at sleeping through the night.   He was doing a great job sleeping straight through from 8ish to 6ish, but now we’ve regressed to a couple of nighttime wakes.  Not sure what’s going on there, but we’ll roll with it.

Henry has been eating rice cereal for almost the entire month and will soon be enjoying real baby foods.  This has been very fun and necessary, because – much like his big brother – this boy is HUNGRY.

What are we doing? Eating?

That was good... Is there more?

Food is my favorite!

Henry also loves to eat his feet and gets into fits of mirthful babbling.

And lastly, both of the boys had doctor’s appointments this past month.  They are both off-the-charts huge at 38 and 18lbs, although they remain perfectly proportional relative to their heights.   And of course they are both the visions of health and beauty.  Thanks for reading!

It’s been a busy, hot summer here in Dexter!  We’ve had a visit with Grandpa Jim…

We celebrated Father’s Day. (Thanks, Greg, for being the world’s BEST dad!)

And we went to the beach in South Haven for a week…

Henry is four months old now!

He gives big open-mouth, globby smooches I call CPR kisses.  He giggles and is much more interested in toys and books.  We got the Exersaucer (a.k.a The Over-Stimulation Disc) back from my parents and it is a big hit.  At first Henry was a little leery – just sort of focused on staying upright.  Now he spins himself all around, going from toy to toy and trying to grab them and get them into his mouth.

Lloyd plays on the outside, and Henry plays inside…

Henry is amazing at night-time sleeping.  95% of the nights in the past two months he’s slept from 8:30pm – 6:30am.  His nap issues are getting better.  He gives me at least two naps a day and they are usually over 45 minutes.   The first nap is even starting to happen at the same time everyday.  It’s been a challenge for me to get back into the unpredictability of babies.  I don’t even need a clock to know what time of day it is with Lloyd – he’s hungry and sleepy at the exact same times everyday.  I’ve gotten used to having a strict schedule – but it’ll be a while until Henry falls into a pattern.

Henry is a very WET baby – drooling and spitting up all the time.  He just started rolling over the past couple of days.  He can do back to belly and can do belly to back if we tuck his arm underneath him.  He has a lot of mass to control – over 17 and a half lbs!

He’s almost shed all of his birth-hair…

Here’s a movie of Henry giggling while I nibble on his armpit.

Lloyd is doing great – he had a major transition this past month – he moved from his crib to his Big Boy Bed!  He switched over really easily.   I can’t believe how fast time flies.  Now Lloyd is truly a kid, not a baby, sleeping up high in a twin bed.  We have a little inflatable bumper that goes under the fitted sheet that prevents him from rolling out – another million dollar idea I didn’t come up with… boo!

Here’s a movie of Lloyd first getting into his Big Boy Bed!

Lloyd remains obsessed with dinosaurs, but he has now expanded his interests to bugs and marching bands.  Oh, Lord, the marching bands.  He carries a drum around and beats it with a stick as loud as he can and demands we march behind him as he parades throughout the house.  He LOVES singing the Michigan Fight Song.   He belts it out anywhere from 10 – 100 times a day.  He even hums it or buzzes it with his lips.  Another fan!

He’s also really into tearing apart the couch…

Lloyd is also working on his flirting.  Probably about five times he’ll say, “Mommy/Daddy – you are beautiful and pretty and nice and smart and a cutie.”   And he made this movie for his friend Irene Dwyer on her birthday. I believe the lyrics to the Irene song are “Irene / Oh Irene / Love me…”  Considering Irene is his betrothed, we’re thrilled to have this documented.  : )

Other Lloyd-isms:  “Let’s have a conversation!” “Thanks, hun!” “You CAN, Mom!  I know you do…” (a response for when I tell him I can’t do what he’s requested) and one time he pretended to bite his shadow and said, “I ate my shadow and it was me” WOAH.  Deep, man!

Greg and I are currently obsessed with “A Game of Thrones.”  It’s a series on HBO and also the first book in a series called “A Song of Ice and Fire.”  Greg’s already read the first four books, and I’m on the third.  The fifth comes out this summer… exciting!  Check them out if you like epic nerd fantasy fiction like The Lord of the Rings.

Anyway our boys are playing with some thrones of their own.  We’ve been putting Henry in the Bumpo Seat.

And Lloyd enjoys it too…

True story: We waited to put Lloyd in the Bumpo until he was about 4 months old and 100% consistent and capable of holding his head up nice and erect.  Woops – turns out by that time his thighs were too fat to fit into the seat!

But most excitingly is the fact that Lloyd is starting to experiment with potty training!  He’s peed in his potty three times this past week.  We’re not pressuring him and just letting this experimental phase take place on his terms.  It’s really awesome to watch him try and succeed!