Good with the Bad

1. The bad news was that on Thursday night Ian's first stretch was less than 4 hours long, and to make matters worse I stayed up until 9:30pm (such a party animal!) to work on a photo book of our trip to Florida (had a coupon for a free 20 page 8x8 custom photo hardcover book from Shutterfly). This meant that my first stretch was less than 2 hours long. It has really been frustrating me lately that I have to go to bed so early in order to get about 7 hours of sleep on average (compared to my usual 9). Last night I went to bed at 8pm because I felt I had to, and so of course Ian decided to sleep more last night, LOL. The first stretch was 7.25 hours long. WOOHOO! That's the longest he's slept in a row in many weeks. Please do it again, Ian!

2. Potty training didn't go well yesterday At All. She never used the potty. The good news was that she didn't have any accidents past 11:00am that I had to clean up. She did go during her nap (but I've been putting a pull-up on over her underwear during her nap), and I think she peed during her bath in the evening. She had three accidents in the morning, and I guess if I tried to find the good in that I'd say it was that only one was on the carpet. I really, really don't like potty training. I bought some Hershey kisses and dum dum lollipops for her yesterday. Hopefully we'll have a reason to open the bags today.

3. I gave Ian his first cereal last night. He didn't like the taste At All (I am posting the pic of him smiling, but I could post of a pick of him grimmacing with the first bite, LOL) and of course it kept coming out. With Nadia I had to work on some fruit first and then swtiched to cereal, veggies, and then more fruit. I will probably do the same with Ian as he wasn't keen on the baby oatmeal. I know it takes time for them to learn how to swallow solid food. Ian's growth spurt has definitely come to an end. The good news is that yesterday he didn't want to take a bottle much At All. The reason that was good news was because he much preferred to nurse! Way to go, Ian! Nadia started to show a strong preference for the bottle (over me) at 5 1/2 months. I am soo happy that Ian has the opposite opinion.

4. The good news is that Nadia is making a lot of progress with learning how to drink from a glass. I have found yet another reason to LOVE the bib Lucia gave me. It holds the milk quite well. The bad news is that it's still really hard to get her to drink water, even from a sippy cup. Also, she's not happy that I'm only letting her drink milk with her meals these days.

5. The bad news is that the brown hair Ian was born with has now almost totally fallen out. I do not like the bald stage. He's following the same pattern as Nadia - brown hair at birth, hair falls out, and new hair is blonde. We shall see how long both of them stay as blondes. I can't wait until Ian's hair grows back in.

6. I haven't had time to shop at yard sales lately, and they're definitely "in season" now. It's difficult enough to shop at CVS with two under two. I am not even going to attempt it if there's no shopping cart involved. Beth loves yard sales, and she stopped at one yesterday that had a lot of baby stuff. She was very excited when she stopped in and gave me a big pile of toddler girl clothes that she got for me (I'll pay her back what she paid). Unfortunatley, she thought Nadia wore a size 5T. Nope she wears 24m/2T and in fact can still wear size 18m pants. I plan to take most of what Beth got to church on Sunday as Nadia's friend Abby (who recently turned 4) probably does wear size 5T. I saved a few things for the future, and a few things did fit. The bad news was that as Beth was leaving, Nadia said "bye bye mama." She has been calling Beth "mama" lately. I don't like it At All. It hurts my heart. She spends on average three hours a week with Beth. I guess it's just like her calling elderly strangers at the grocery store "grandpa" and "grandma."

7. Lately it's been very easy to put Ian down for his naps (most of the time anyhow). I put him on his belly, pat him on his back, and he's out. The bad news is that almost all his naps are 30-40 minutes long.   Last night after his first stretch he would not go back in his bed. I tried until 4:20am, then Paul tried, and then he was in Paul's arms until 6:30.