Adventures at Naptime

I will be the first to admit that having two children share a bedroom in a small apartment is not much fun. Henry and Molly love it, me not so much. One issue is that someone is always sleeping. Molly takes three naps a day and Henry takes a long afternoon nap. Their naps do not really overlap (oh the horror!) and then bedtime comes pretty early. It is hard to get clothing put away, clean the room or just play in there.

The bigger issue is that Henry is constantly waking Molly up. The poor girl cannot get a good nap because he is so noisy. The hallway to the bathoom runs right next to her crib and he is always dashing down the hallway screaming "Pee pee coming out! Now!" If not that he is kicking a ball down there or coming to look for me screaming "Ma! Where are you?" at the top of his lungs. Even when he is trying to be quiet he isn't. He walks into the room to take his nap whispering "Tip-toe, tip-toe" in a very loud stage whisper.

He knows he has me backed into a corner because if I yell at him I wind up waking her up myself. He takes advantage of this to the full extent doing all sorts of hijinx as he is getting into his bed. He blows me kisses, blows Molly kisses, makes a big production of getting settled into his bed, he talks to himself or sings...It is all I can do not to blow my top.

Recently, he told me that Molly woke up because of the air conditioner, which he calls the wind. He told me "The wind woke Molly up. It blew her up in the air and she was flying around!" Pretty clever but I still wanted to strangle him :)

This child will eat anything!

Henry never put anything into his mouth. Molly, on the other hand puts everything into her mouth. I am constantly fishing things out that she has eaten. I realized I had missed some snacking last week when I fished a dried leaf out of her diaper. Gross.

On the Move!

Not only is Molly adorable, she is also thoughtful AND forward-thinking. She waited until the exact hour that Grandma arrived to start crawling. She has been army-crawling, scooching and contorting herself into all different positions for weeks now, but no traditional crawling. As soon as my mom walked in and sat down she busted a move on the floor. Of course this made Grandma extremely happy.

Henry Funnies

I wish I remembered to write down all of the funny stuff Henry says on an average day. Here are some recent ones:

He doesn't really like to give hugs and kisses anymore, it is so sad. If we force him, he gets all goofy and tries to lick us. We must have said we want a kiss, we don't want you to lick us or used the word tongue a lot because now he tells us he wants to "tongue kiss." Can you believe that?

We were at the park recently and Henry didn't have his swim shirt on in the sprinkler area. His little friend reached over and goosed his nipple. When we got home I said "Henry, it was not right that Yuxin pinched your nipple." He looked at me and said "Henry needs to wear a shirt!" Pretty funny.

He now knows all about calling my bluff. I recently told him that if he didn't take his nap his friend Gus could not come over for dinner. He said "OK, you need to call Gus's mommy." to let her know that we were cancelling.

We were in the park recently and Henry was riding in the stroller. I heard Henry pipe up "Mommy you need to say hi to that lady." It was another mother pushing a stroller towards us. Apparently I am a little chatty on our rounds

Me and My Girl

This one is older, but cute. Whenever I am holding Molly in the bathroom I always catch her smiling at me in the mirror. I tried to catch it on film one day

Photo Catch Up

I have been remiss in posting photos lately. As soon as the monsters I mean children go to bed I crash on the couch with a dazed look in my eyes. There aren't many good ones of Henry because he either 1) Makes a goofy face 2) Runs away 3) Is half naked or in his underwear. Potty training has turned him into a frat boy.

This is what naptime looks like when two siblings share a room. There should be a picture of me with smoke coming out of my ears right after but I digress.

Here is one that shows Molly's changing hair color. It looks like her hair is falling out but it is really growing in blond. She is sitting in the pillow fortress created for her by Henry so that she didn't get hurt. Of course he didn't include himself and his flailing limbs in the "Risks to Molly" Category.

Henry giving his new wheels a spin in the apartment. We have ditched the tricycle and are bypassing training wheels by using a balance bike. It has no pedals and the child pushes with their feet and coasts. It is made of wood to be lightweight and not injure them if they fall. This one is called the Skuut and it is pretty cool to see a kid this young riding a bike

This one of Henry isn't that clear but it is one of the better ones.


This is our first beach trip of the season and Molly's first trip to the beach

Update

I promise to post new pictures soon before Grandma (a.k.a. Laaahma) sends the goon squad after me. Here are the recent happenings:

• Molly is fully up on her hands and knees now and rocking back and forth. I anticipate her becoming a crawler very shortly. This should be interesting babyproofing this time since we now need to take all of Henry's toys into consideration. Her current M.O. is "If it is not a toy, I will shove it into my mouth."
• Molly hates babyfood with a passion. Cereal, purees, you name it. She gags and purses her lips together. She swats at the spoon. She does however, want to gnaw on pizza crust, corn on the cob, Baby Mum Mums, Fruity Cheerios...really healthy. At this point, Henry was eating homemade organic food. Molly is stuffing bachelor food down her little gut. I even let her hold a french fry recently to keep her quiet. Ah, the shame.
• I decided to give pastina (little star shaped pasta) a whirl just to see what she would do. I covered it in butter and she inhaled an entire bowl. Apparently she just wants real food. Not that I blame her.

Diaper Free!

Henry, not me!

Henry is ending his first week in underwear. It is going shockingly well; he is very committed to the cause. He is wearing pull ups at night but he has gotten up at night to use the bathroom on his own and is waking at the crack of dawn. Let's hope his little bladder grows soon for sleep's sake.

I was dreamily thinking the other day..."Ahh, we are DONE with diapers!" And then I remembered my little diaper wearing six month old will probably be using them for another two years. These children really have impaired my mental faculties.

My Prescription

Everyone needs a two and a half year old in their life and they would feel a lot better.

Despite the imfamous challenges, I think it is a pretty magical age. One unintended benefit is that they keep you very active. Go Go Go should be Henry's middle name. I always joke that I should be much skinnier. I put the blame squarely on his shoulders; he is always encouraging me to stop at Starbucks when we pass. "Mommy need coffee?"

They speak well enough to make their needs (ahem very) well known and to even inject a little humor. I know I am biased, but Henry is pretty hilarious. Yesterday he put his toy stethoscope up to Molly's chest when I was changing her, listened for a minute and then said "Thanks Dr. Henry!" He then collapsed into a fit of giggles and said he needed to "Call Dr. Lew" (Dr. Lewis, his pediatrician) to tell her his joke. He loves to ask me if I need a stick of gum after I use the bathroom (his potty training reward).

They put a magnifying glass onto your best and worst qualities as a person. I beam with pride when I hear Henry talk to Molly. He tells her he loves her, and that it will "be OK, Henry and Mommy are here" when she cries. He is always telling me "Mommy, be very careful." I am mortified to hear him say "Molly stop!" when she is crying with impatience about something.

They are so positive about everything. He says "Mommy, yum yum!" about his food. Every time we walk to the park he says "Mommy, it's a beautiful day!" even if it is cloudy. He declares everything as "Perfect!"

Yesterday I took him to the Museum of Natural History since our cooperative playgroup was cancelled. He was so good; he listened really well and we had a lot of fun. He ran from exhibit to exhibit say "Wow!" and "Mommy what's that?" When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he told me "the quiche!" He was hungry so we stopped in the little cafe. Since it was a very limited menu I was forced to get him a $10 slice of quiche. Thank goodness he ate it huh?

Happy Half Birthday Molly!

Wow, Molly turned six months old today! Shocking, isn't it?

She is such a wonderful little baby; she is so happy and literally never cries. Everyone we know comments on how sweet she is. She is quick with a smile, lets all of Henry's friends hold her without complaint. When she is tired she stuffs her chubby little thumb into her mouth to let us know, we lay her down on her side and she puts herself to sleep.

She popped two bottom teeth recently, ending her teething drama. Even through that she rarely complained. She is content being schlepped too and fro, as long as she is being carried. She lets out a mighty protest as the indignity of riding in the stroller. My favorite times of day with her are when she first wakes in the morning and when Henry is taking his nap. We lay in my bed facing each other and she talks in her little baby language, blows raspberries at me and lets me squeeze her and smother her with kisses to my heart's content.

We had a great day today celebrating her six month milestone. Henry and I baked her a cake yesterday which I decorated last night. We bought her two balloons (a cupcake and Elmo balloon, picked specially for her by her brother) and invited two of Henry's friends over for a little party. One of Henry's friends has a baby brother so that counted as Molly's guest. We all made paper hats and had a fun time singing to Molly and eating cake. She was a little alarmed by all of the festivities but gamely grabbed the cake like the party girl she is.

We love you Molly!