I have a couple of stories that I want to share but have not gotten around to posting so I am going to just roll them up into 1.
Chris Likes Pudding
Chris and Michelle came over for dinner a while back. Leif and Ayris have lots of fun playing together. After dinner was done we naturally moved on to desert, pudding! Ayris and Leif both wanted to sit with Chris to eat the pudding, this left Chris with no hands of his own to eat his pudding. No problems there! The kids loved to share…
That went on until all of the pudding was gone. I wonder if Chris still likes pudding or if he has had enough?
Leif’s Silly Faces
Leif is such a little joker. He loves to make us laugh. He will tickle out feet to get a giggle, or do a little dance to get a chuckle. But his favorite is the silly face. Leif does these all of the time, just out of the blue. We will be eating dinner and Leif will wait for one of us to look at him and then he will cross his eyes and stick out his tongue. It is such a funny thing to see. Leif just learned this all on his own, we never made funny faces at him to make him laugh, Leif just thought this up on his own one day. He has been doing these faces for a long time and it’s always fun to see him do one. That little kid just loves to make people laugh.
Teething Schedule
Kalven has broken through with tooth number 2. Right next to the first tooth. He now has the front 2 bottom teeth. The fast paces schedule that Leif followed for teething seems to be applied to his little brother. Sorry, no pictures yet. Kalven still likes to stick out his tongue every time we open his mouth but as soon as we get a chance we will post a picture.
It is so fun to watch kids grow up.
Kalven is really into toys. He does not have any favorite one but he likes them all. If he is in his round bouncy thingy and is getting upset I can usually distract him with a new toy, usually gives me an extra 5 min. Last night when I was feeding Kalven he was getting really crabby so I distracted him with a fling “oooooblblblblooooo” spoon. Kalven does not know what an airplane is yet so you only have to make some sounds and move the spoon around in front of him, he will get distracted and probably start laughing. That’s what happened last night, when he laughed I stuck the spoon in his mouth and he finished all his dinner. The other day Aleece showed me something really fun with Kalven. When he is laying on his back you hold your hand up above him so he can see it, then when he notices your hand you wiggle it a little. Kalven will start giggling in anticipation because right after that you reach down and tickle him!
Leif is just a wonder also. He is starting to be more gentile with Kalven and sometimes even asks to hold him. Potty training has not progressed much past just sitting on his little adapter chair, he just is not interested yet. Bath times are lots of fun. Leif gets all excited and will run up to the bathroom and pull his cloths off. Sometimes he likes to have Kalvens little baby tub in the bath tub as a tub in a tub arrangement. Leif will let us know when he is ready to get out and sometimes he can even get the towel down (we hung a hook at Leif height for his towel) . After baths we are trying to settle the kids down for bed so we like to read a book. Most nights Leif will grab his blanket, a pillow, and a book and go sit on the couch by himself and read with the book on the pillow and the pillow on his lap.
And that’s a typical normal day lately.
Kalven can crawl. Kinda.
This week Aleece has brought out a lot of our baby toys from storage. Kalven just loves the new stimulus, so does Leif. We have a lot of toys that Kalven can use laying on his back. We also have lots of toys that can be held in a hand, even by a 5 month old. Kalven usually drops toys all the time and sometimes Leif will pick them up and give them back, but mostly Kalven is on his own. Kalven has been able to roll over when he wants to for a little while now, he just usually does not want to. But with the new toys coming out there is more motivation to roll over to get that dropped toy. It usually takes Kalven 10, 15, 25 min or more to get all the way over (his arm is usually in the way and he does not always remember to move it) but eventually he gets it. Sometimes he gets so excited that he got over he moves his arms and legs all at once, resulting in a backward moving kid. Yes, Kalven is crawling when he moves backwards, I guess. Kalven is starting out just like Leif did, when a toy is in front of him he knows he can move he just does not get it that his movement is in the wrong direction.
I love watching the kids grow and learn, it can be really funny sometimes.
Kalven has just broken gums on his first tooth. It happened sometime while he was sleeping. I know because last night before bedtime it was not poking through.
I usually let Kalven chew on my fingers because he likes to chew on his own hands, but lacks the ability to know where his gag reflex starts. Kalven will chew on his own hands with so much enthusiasm that he ends up sticking them too far into his mouth and ends up gagging or sometimes spitting up a little. So when he wants to chew right after he has eaten I let him chew on my fingers, he is happy and I can make sure he does not gag. Last night after dinner Leif, Kalven and I were settling down getting ready for the kids bed time. Kalven wanted to chew like mad, I let him have my finger. Kalven has been acting like he is teething for a few weeks now so I always pay attention to what spots seem to bother him the most. Last night it was all smooth gums. This morning I felt a little bit of an edge where there was none before. After a little wrestling I was able to look in his mouth and saw the faint white line of a tooth just below the surface.
If Kalven is anything like his brother Aleece and I are in for about 8 month of straight teething joy.
I am of the opinion that if you are going to have one kid you really should have two or more. When you have that first kid it is challenging and a little frightening. You do a lot of worrying with the first, worrying about their health, worrying about how they are progressing, worrying about their happiness…and so on. Oh you have tons of fun with the first kid, but there is so much new ground to break that sometimes you wonder if you are enjoying childhood along with your kid. When you have a second kid you really get to enjoy the childhood. There is a lot less worrying going on because you have already gone through it all once. You also get reminded all the time that you should not worry so much with the first one or you will keep missing out on the fun of childhood. Face it, anyone can act like a child at any time of their life, but when you act like a child along with your kid it’s so much better.
Update on Leif and Kalven:
Kalven loves his new foods. So far he has liked everything. He can roll over if he really wants to, but that hardly ever happens. He usually does not want to roll over that bad because someone will attend to him eventually. He is really getting into toys now. He loves to sit under his arch thingy and reach for all of the dangling stuff.
Leif usually likes to be the big brother. He will climb up on the side of the changing table when Kalven is getting changed and talk with Kalven. Leif also likes to hold his brother, but his method of holding Kalven is much like his method of holding the cats, he lays on top of them and giggles. But when it’s time to watch his favorite shows, Curious George or Clifford the Big Red Dog or Word World, he does not want to be disturbed.
So, the holidays are over and the kids are back in school (well not our kids they are too young). Life is getting back to normal. I do have some pictures to share though…
Charlie decided he wanted to snuggle with Aleece and Kalven when they were watching TV.
We got the jumper out of storage and put Kalven in it, he loves that thing. Leif made sure to show Kalven all the cool features.
Leif loves helping me assemble stuff (check out his previous help). Here we are putting the new toy box together.
Leif got a gingerbread man cookie making kit as a present. He loves to decorate!
Aleece is starting back to work this week. She is going to be working at the Green Mill in Eagan. Not sure what her schedule is going to be, but it will be mostly nights. Stop by and visit her some night, she would love it!
We have been giving Kalven “solid” food for a few weeks now and he just loves it. Now I put solid in quotes because what he gets is basically a pureed version of whatever he is eating. This is exciting for Aleece and I because Kalven has has some acid reflux since he was born. The reflux leaves Kalven spitting up a lot, and I mean A LOT. He was on some anti-acids to decrease the amount he spit up, and they worked pretty well. At Kalven’s 4 month checkup the Dr. told us to try moving to solid foods and discontinue the anti-acid medication. So far (knocking on wood) the solid food has worked, and an added benefit is Kalven LOVES his new foods. So far he has had rice cereal, sweet potato, and peas. Sometimes Kalven gets so excited to eat that he gets upset that we are not shoveling it in fast enough. One time I was trying to keep Kalven happy and was scooping food into him so fast that when I looked at him I thought he had a big nasty booger hanging out of his nose, turns out I had actually missed his mouth a little while giving him some pureed peas and ended up smashing a bit up his nose. It actually looked kind of funny, probably gross to someone that does not have kids, but I have seen worse.