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I knew I’d never get both kids’ updates done on time; Liam turned 4 months the day after Lily’s birthday, so second child syndrome strikes again!  But I did get some great photos of the boy yesterday while Lily was napping.  He was in such a good mood — smiling and laughing out loud.  The boy is a screamer, that’s for sure.  The other day at Costco he screamed so loudly that a clerk opened up a check-out line just for us, and let us by-pass all the other customers.  I have always been easily embarrassed in public, and these kids really put me to the test.  But when Liam is content, he is so much fun.  And I understand why people love the baby stage so much.  Lily was not often a content baby, and in retrospect, Bill and I feel really guilty that it was probably reflux-related, and we didn’t do enough to get that under control.  But even with the reflux under semi-control, Liam is just like his sister when it comes to drama.  Once his mood changes — whether due to hunger, sleepiness, or just plain boredom — he goes smiling to red-faced anger in seconds.

When Liam smiles, he smiles with his whole little body — his eyes, his little ears, even his fingers and toes curl in excitement.  He smiles at family and strangers alike — anyone who shows him interest (and many do).  He has ticklish spots that are guaranteed to get a laugh.

Liam was 13 lbs, 9 oz at his check-up (22nd percentile), 24 inches long (16th percentile), and head in the 39th percentile.  He is wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes — right on target.  He can roll from his back to his tummy, but is not yet rolling tummy to back, which I know is a direct result of not enough tummy time.  I always tell parents of babies I work with that, if a baby rolls back to tummy first, he hasn’t been on his tummy enough; tummy to back should come first.  We have had a hard time doing a lot of tummy time because of the reflux.  Being on his belly just makes him spit everything up, no matter how long since a feeding.  But we’re working on it, and he can hold his head up pretty well now.  If I put him in sitting, he can balance with his hands propped on the floor for a few seconds.  He reaches and grasps toys, loves to have his hands in his mouth, and is pulling his feet up to grab his toes.  And we think he has one or two bottom teeth starting to come in, but it may still be a while.

Like his sister, Liam’s favorite place is in Mommy’s or Daddy’s arms.  Other people’s arms are a good substitute — Papa, Nana, Aunt Jill, or even the concession stand worker at the zoo (hey, my hands were full with Lily, the stroller, snacks and drinks!).  I told Bill that I don’t know why we ever bought ANYTHING for these kids.  The bouncer, the swing, the Bumbo — all are shunned in favor of being held.  The carriers!  We have hundreds of dollars invested in slings, the Moby, the mei tai, and now the Ergo, and neither of the kids have liked any of them.  Even teethers take second place to Mom’s or Dad’s finger.  Bottles?  Still always questionable if he will take one well (and after such a rough start nursing!).  And, despite our urging, the pacifier looks like it will be a no-go with our second child as well.  But, we are used to all of this the second time around.  And, knowing this may very well be our last baby, each of these “inconveniences” is a little easier to tolerate, and even appreciate.  I will say that Liam tolerates everything just a tiny bit better than Lily did.  He is able to be content when put down for 10 minutes or so, sometimes.  So that’s a help when my arms are exhausted and I feel like I have a parasitic growth attached to me most of the day.

For some reason, we are a bit off the cloth diapering with Liam.  Early on, we just felt like we had too many other challenges to deal with the extra laundry (which is really the only difference from disposables).  And we just haven’t gotten fully on board.  It’s also a little tougher, because Liam is a heavy wetter, so he soaks through cloth diapers in a short time, resulting in a lot of changes and even a few leaks.  We never had that issue with Lily.  I’d say at best we are doing cloth 50% of the time.  My goal is to get back to mostly cloth — not just for the environmental benefits, but as a cost savings.  After all, we already had all the diapers from the first kiddo.

As for sleep, we feel pretty darn lucky.  Liam is a good nighttime sleeper, going down between 7:30 and 8:30, waking once to nurse (usually around 4, but sometimes as early as 11), and then sleeping until 6:30 or so in the morning.  He continues to be a catnapper during the day, but on most days, given all the right circumstances, he will take one long nap for 2-3 hours.  If I am VERY lucky (and work very hard to make it happen), I can get his nap to overlap with Lily’s, freeing me up for 30 minutes to an hour.  That’s about the best I can hope for.  It makes for a long day when there’s really no break from both kids.  I pretty much fall into bed exhausted an hour after the kids are down, most nights.  But I know it will get easier eventually.  Liam is still sleeping in the cradle in the room adjacent to ours.  We have experimented a bit with putting him down in the crib in his room, but the main concern is that, when he wakes crying, he will wake Lily in the room next door.  So we are still playing musical beds a bit — probably until he is sleeping consistently through the night.

Liam’s intially dark hair continues to lighten, and it looks like he could turn out to be blonde like Lil.  Boo.  I was hoping for a brown-haired child like me.  Fortunately he is amazingly adorable, so it makes it easier to swallow the fact that both of my kids are fair-haired.  His eyes are still undecided.  Lily’s didn’t really turn brown until a year, so it may be a while.  They look blue in some light, but are starting to get darker.  Basically, he is the boy version of Lily, and a bit chunkier.  Bill says we have extremely cute, crabby kids.  (Not always crabby, but always cute!)

And that’s Liam in a nutshell!  This age is such a fun time.  We’re past the unpredictability and sleep deprivation of the newborn stage, but we haven’t hit the mobile stage.  So I’d say we’re cruising along nicely, all things considered.  And to all those who told me I would LOVE having a boy — it’s true!  I really do.  I feel so lucky to get to experience raising both a daughter and a son.  So happy Mother’s Day to me!

Lillian Pearl is THREE years old today.  Unbelievable.  She is a big girl in so many ways, but Bill and I still call her the baby girl behind her back.  She won’t even let us refer to her as a little girl; “I’m NOT a little girl.  I’m a BIG kid!”  I see so much of my personality in her — stubborn, sassy, a stickler for accuracy.  I once told her, Lily, it is not okay to climb up on the trash can to get to the counter, and she said, “It’s not a trash can, it’s a recycling can.”  Bill is in big trouble on that front, because he already gets corrected by me all the time, and now this little pint-size blondie is starting to do the same.  I hide my snickering (and a little pride) behind my hand.

How can I give a concise ”update” on such a complicated and dynamic little creature?  We have so moved beyond a few statistics and bullet points to describe her.  Only those of us who see her daily really know her, as she is still a bit reserved in front of others.  (Although she did tell me recently after greeting some people at church, “I’m not SHY anymore, Mommy!”)  This child talks a blue streak.  And SINGS.  This has been developing over time, but now she is constantly making up little songs in the back seat of the car or just going about her business.  She also knows most of the words to a lot of songs, but she tends to prefer making up her own lyrics and melodies (although I do frequently catch her humming the ”Imperial March” from Star Wars).  We do laugh, though, because her singing is not quite ready for the stage.  Which is to say, her singing is not paricularly melodic, or even in tune, at this point.  But it is a JOY to hear.

Lily continues to love all things pink and purple.  She is a girly girl, and I’m totally okay with that.  We tried for as long as possible to provide her with gender neutral toys to allow her to make her own preferences.  And those preferences, very early on, were for all things girly.  (Perhaps the all PINK bedroom is to blame.)  But she so quickly developed her maternal side with her dolls, and it continues with her brother.  She is so nurturing, so tender with him, and really very helpful, but not overbearing.  She proudly tells strangers who indicate a passing interest that he is her brother and his name is Liam.  As for her favorite passtimes, I’m sorry to say TV tops the list.  We’re working on that, but we got in a bit of a rut with a newborn taking up so much of our time.  Now that we’re in a bit of a groove with the baby, we’re limiting TV, and I’m able to play with Lily more.  She still prefers to have a playmate, rather than initiate independent play.  She enjoys dressing up and all kinds of pretend play — cooking, going to the grocery store, taking care of her babies.  I guess she’s really just mimicking what she sees, because those activities are what fill my days.  She also loves books, likes to do puzzles (can do a 24-piece puzzle with a little guidance), and will color or practice her cutting and gluing skills for a short time, but sitting still is not her forte.  She wants to help us in the kitchen all the time, and we try to involve her when possible.  Bill has a lot more patience for that than I do; I’m usually racing to get lunch or dinner on the table before I have a screaming baby on my hands.

Lily has been completely potty trained during the day for a couple of months.  She stays dry for naps, but continues to wear a Pull-Up at night.  Part of this issue is that she still drinks a sippy cup (finally OFF the bottle!) of milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast supplement before bedtime.  So I don’t think we can expect her to stay consistently dry until we break that habit.  I have weaned her off of it at naptime, though she still asks for it.  I’m not in a hurry to do away with it at bedtime, though, because it gives me peace of mind that, no matter how sparsely she’s eaten that day, she’s getting some extra calories and nutrients each night.  As for the potty, Lily has started shunning the small seat that fits on the toilet in favor of just sitting on the toilet itself.  She can do the entire process herself.  In fact, she usually just trots off to the bathroom on her own when she needs to go, rather than announcing it or asking for assistance.  She will call for help if she needs it for number two.  Although it is sometimes tricky when we’re out, trying to find and navigate the perils of public restrooms, it is so amazing to be completely finished with diapers.  Although now most of her pants won’t stay up.

Even though I’d like to focus on the positive, Lily does give us a run for our money with her behavior.  Some days it seems she fights us every step of the way — getting dressed, coming to the table for meals, putting away toys, getting out the door.  Some days she just seems to wake up feeling whiny and ornery.  She’ll deliberately make noise around the sleeping baby, just because I’ve pleaded with her not to.  She’ll mosey right past the sippy cup on the floor that I’ve asked her to pick up.  But it’s the whining that gets to us the most.  And recently — the sass.  Sometimes if I tell her she needs to be quiet, she’ll say, “No, YOU be quiet, Mommy!”  So she finds herself in the timeout chair quite a bit these days.  I feel like Bill and I are still finding our way with appropriate discipline.  We have tried spanking on a limited basis, but feel like it seems to serve our own anger more than it curbs her behavior, and we don’t feel good about that.  Timeout is our current practice, but even in timeout that girl exerts her control.  She will push all limits — lying down or leaning on the chair, rather than sitting on her bottom; singing loudly; shouting her protests.  Those two minutes can be exhausting for everyone.  Oh, and my favorite little habit of hers is that, when reprimanded, she will mutter under her breath or just say, “Hmph,” noting her disagreement.  It is such a maddeningly ADULT thing — just trying to have the last word.

She is compassionate and spontaneously affectionate.  She wows us daily with her acts and words of creativity, kindness, and insight.  She is loving.

In short, Lillian Pearl is exactly what I hoped for in a daughter.  Even the challenging qualities are ones that I know will serve her well later in life.  Most people seem to think she favors Bill in her appearance, but her personality reminds me so much of me as a child.  I think that helps me relate to her.  I think the most wonderful part of raising Lily is my complete assurance that she is going to flourish and find happiness in life.  She is just so…solid.  My heart has never known a love like my love for my Lily.  Happy birthday to my sweet peanut girl!

Definitely seeing a sibling resemblance these days!

A couple of days before Easter, I gave Lily her first mani-pedi (which she loved) and did a dry run on hot-rolling her hair (which she did not enjoy so much) in preparation for Easter.  It was a fun time — “our girls’ time,” as Lily has taken to referring to any time that she and I spend without the boys.

On Easter, Aunt Jilly noticed Lily’s pretty pink fingernails and said, “Oh, I see you have your nails painted,” and Lily said, “Yes…’cause, sometimes…girls just like to be stylish.”  I don’t even know where she’s heard that term.  That girly is a crack-up.

It was a crazy busy Easter weekend.  Saturday we gathered with the cousins at my parents for egg decorating, and Sunday we rushed through Easter baskets and scurried to get scrubbed, dressed, and in our Easter best to church, which included Liam’s dedication.  The church egg hunt for the kids followed the service, and then we were off to my parents’ for dinner, the Easter Bunny egg hunt, and a clue-by-clue treasure hunt — a tradition my parents started for my sister and me, which they now continue for each of the grandkids.  No one napped on Sunday, and by the time we were headed home late that afternoon, I was pretty much finished with Easter fun.  Did I mention that I also threw together two made-from-scratch pineapple upside-down cakes before church?  And I hot-rolled Lily’s hair?  I love all the festivities, and I don’t know how we could leave anything out, but cramming so much activity into a short time makes for one tired and stressed mama.  I was especially anxious about Liam’s dedication, because it involved our family of four (along with another family — our friends, the Nelson’s, whose son Brady was also being dedicated) standing up in front of the church for a responsive reading and blessing.  I was worried about Liam having one of his screaming spells, but instead it was Lily who caused the most disruption — winding herself around my legs and under my dress, dancing with her friend Camryn (Brady’s big sister), and just generally being squirrelly.  Thank goodness our church is mostly like one big extended family, where my children are loved and cherished unconditionally, and everyone just smiled at the kids’ antics.  Especially after the silent prayer time, during which Liam did decide to start yelling.  Lots of laughter followed the “amen.”  I said my own quiet amen once both kids were shuttled off to the nursery for the remainder of the service.

Also on Easter Sunday, our boy turned three months old!  Today I had him weighed, and he weighs in at 12 lbs, 8.8 oz.  He has some healthy rolls and pudge in all the right places.  At three months, Liam smiles easily and has even started to laugh a little.  He gurgles and coos and makes the sweetest little baby sounds — more so than we remember with Lily (she is more than making up for it now).  Liam sleeps like a CHAMP at night.  He usually goes down around 8 or 8:30, gets up once around 4, back to sleep within 20 minutes, and then up for the day around 7:30 a.m.  He has even slept straight through until 6:30 a couple of nights.  Yesterday, both kids were still asleep at 9 a.m., and I had to wake them so that I could get Lily to school at 9:30!  Daytime naps are still a little scattered.  He likes to catnap for 10-20 minutes here and there — dozing off while nursing or when in the car.  Occasionally he will take a two-hour nap, but it never seems to coincide with Lily’s nap (which has become sketchy, too).  Liam likes to be swaddled when he is sleeping; we experimented last night with not swaddling, and he had a hard time getting back to sleep after his middle of the night feeding.  He is still sleeping in the cradle, but he was booted from our bedroom to the room adjacent, because he is a noisy sleeper.  I think once he is sleeping through the night consistently we will go ahead and move him to his crib in his room, but since it is on a different level of the house, it’s convenient to have him close for now.

We are still at war with acid reflux.  I really hate it.  I feel like it is robbing us of a peaceful time with our newborn.  It took us a while to get on the right medication, at the right dosage, since each change requires about a week long wait-and-see period.  We finally got on a regimen that seemed to be working, only to see symptoms resurface after a couple of weeks.  Turns out the dosage has to be upped from time to time due to weight gain.  So we started on a new dosage today, with fingers crossed.  Basically Liam just has a hard time with feedings and ends up screaming through a lot of them.  He also continues to spit up a lot, and he has basically been congested since he was born — a common symptom of reflux.  It’s hard to do floor time activities, because he just spits up continually when on the floor, and EVERY time he is on his tummy.  So I feel like his motor development is a bit delayed, since I usually opt for happy, dry baby over screaming, spit-up covered baby.  I am so looking forward to Liam outgrowing this, but that makes me sad, since we should be enjoying this time.  So boo to reflux.

In general, though, Liam is a happy guy whenever he is feeling well.  I love our “conversations,” when we take turns making sounds and smiling at each other.  We get to spend a little quality time together most mornings (when he is nearly always in a good mood) and during Lily’s naptime.  I can’t believe how fast he is growing and changing.  While part of me is always excited to see the changes and I look forward to him becoming more independent — sitting on his own, getting mobile — I have to remind myself to stop and cherish each moment, even the spit-up covered ones, because they will fade into the past all too quickly.

I have been trying to make note of some of the words Lily surprises us with from time to time, nearly always in the proper context.  Here are a few:

• Fragile
• Several
• Gorgeous (referring to Liam)
• Assistant (as in, “I will be Daddy’s assistant when he washes Angus.”)
• Project
• Delicate
• Ottoman
• Reflection (”I can see my reflection in this spoon!”)
• And, my favorite so far was just uttered tonight: Privacy.  “I need some privacy to put my jammies on.”

Also, a funny thing she said recently — I had just spilled something and, mindful to use G-rated language, was exclaiming, “Crumb!  Crumb crumb crumb!”  And she said, “Mommy, you sound like a hippopatamus chewing gum!”  This is in reference to Dr. Suess’ Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? in which Mr. Brown can sound like a hippopatumus chewing gum: “Grum grum grum.”  What was remarkable was that it had probably been weeks or even a few months since we’d read that book.  She has quite a memory.  Today while we were driving, she recognized the pediatric dentist’s office where we went for her first and only visit last month.

Oh, and while I’m jotting down amazing things Lily says for posterity’s sake, I must also make note of her fascinating ability to recognize and remember people’s relationships to each other.  She started taking an interest in this several months ago, when she started understanding that Ethan and Finn are her cousins.  And, despite the fact that my parents have always been called Nana and Papa in her presence, out of the blue Lily started calling my dad “Gampa.”  I asked her why, and she said, “Because he is my gandpader.”  (Interestingly, my mom is still Nana.)  But she calls them her “gandparents,” and will say when we see them, “Look, Mommy, there are your parents!”  She knows that Aunt Jill is my sister, and she now understands that my Grandma Graves (Mee-Maw) is Gampa’s mom, and Grandma Barker is Nana’s mom.  When asked, she can name all of my parents grandchildren, Ethan, Finn, herself, and Liam.  “We’re their grandkids!” she’ll say.  And she understands that all these relationships are reciprocal — for instance, after I told her Mee-Maw was Papa’s (Gampa’s) mom, she later said, “He’s her son.”  I find all of this remarkable, since she’s been saying these things months before her third birthday.  I just want to have these things written down, since this blog has basically taken the place of a baby book.  That little girl amazes us everyday.  (To which she would respond, “I’m NOT a little girl!  I’m a BIG KID.” — a refrain we hear daily.)

So today has been a better day.  First of all, this was the first really beautiful day we’ve had weather-wise.  Blue skies, sunshine, and 62 degrees.  I’d been eyeing the forecast all week with the zoo in mind, and today was the day.  i still get a bit nervous about heading out with both kids to manage on my own.  And it wasn’t without some bumps in the road.  I think we were at the zoo for a full hour before we saw an animal.  It took us that long to get everyone fed, to the bathroom, and content.  And we didn’t get very far — just a couple of the exhibits nearest the entrance and a stint at the playgroud.  But everyone enjoyed things more once I stopped trying to urge Lily along and just went at her pace (Liam was in the stroller, and I didn’t want to haul out the double stroller yet, so Lily was on foot and free to roam).  So, it was the boy’s first trip to the zoo!  And really, his first time outside for recreational purposes.  Until now, he’s been under a blanket as we hurried him to or from the car.  A little sad really, watching him squint in the sun and blink at the breeze in his face — things he has never experienced due to his winter arrival.

No pictures of this outing, as it was all I could do to get both kids and a stocked diaper bag out of the house — didn’t bother with the camera this time.  Hopefully we’ll get back to the zoo soon with Daddy, and document the trip with a few photos.

It’s time to eat those words.  Pretty much Liam is a carbon copy of newborn Lily.  We had a brief period in there around a month (lasted a week, maybe?) that things seemed to be going pretty smoothly.  We got the breastfeeding thing worked out, but he would easily take a bottle when needed.  Nights were pretty predictable, and Liam was a happy little guy much of his awake time.  But now?  Not so much.

We keep trying treatments for acid reflux (GERD, really), but so far we haven’t seen much difference.  We are on our second med (Prilosec), with fingers crossed.  But I’m not sure how any medication can be much good when he spits it up almost immediately.  When Lily was new, we treated her for reflux, too, but when the first medication didn’t do much, we just assumed relux must not be the issue, so we didn’t push for a different treatment.  We figured she was just a fussy baby.

But this time, I have been advised by friends who have battled reflux that we really need to keep persevering.  His cries simply don’t seem like typical newborn stuff.  He screams in the middle of feedings, and over the last few days has stopped taking a bottle.  He does better with breastfeeding, but will still often pull away screaming, or spits up 10 minutes later and start screaming.  Nothing really soothes him until he just wears himself out and drifts off.  I feel so helpless to do anything for him.  Yesterday I just broke down, crying for Liam’s obvious discomfort, and even regretful for not being a better advocate for Lily when she was probably going through the same thing.

We still see glimpses of our happy little boy, but now it is just for a few minutes, a couple of times a day.  Then his face will cloud over, and he’ll turn red and start screaming again.  And we are just worn out.  I told Bill yesterday that, when screaming is the constant soundtrack of your life, NOTHING is easy.  Putting on my coat has me cursing.  Tying my shoes is a chore.  I am frantic and on edge non-stop, and my patience with Lily is thin at best, which is not fair to her.  I feel terrible and guilty when I’m just praying for him to go to sleep so that we can all get a break.

So that’s where we are right now.  Just enduring.  I had so hoped for things to be different this time around, and maybe they still will be if we find a medication that works.  But when that is an unknown, it’s hard to see light at the end of the tunnel.  We are just taking it one day at a time.

I’m already several days late with Liam’s two-month update!  We went to the pediatrician last Friday for his check-up, and I saw a couple of brand new little ones there.  Could not believe how much bigger and sturdier Liam seems in such a short time!  But I don’t know when that happened?  I mean, it’s hard to see the changes on a daily basis, and then all of a sudden he’s not a tiny newborn anymore.  Since we are currently leaning toward not having any more babies, it’s a little sad for me when I realize — that’s it — I may never have a tiny little jello-y newborn again.  He’s a solid infant.  (But still a bit of a bobblehead!)

So.  The facts:  At two months, Liam weighs around 11 lbs.  I realize now that a baby’s weight can vary quite a bit over the course of a day, because we had a rented scale and I was weighing him routinely.  So, when we weighed him at home, he was 11 lbs 3 oz, but at his doctor’s appointment, he weighed in at 10 lb 15 oz.  That put him at the 30th percentile for weight.  Length was 22 inches (16th percentile), but our pediatrician thought maybe the nurse didn’t get a very accurate measure, because he thinks Liam looks more proportionate length to weight than that would indicate.  Noggin is 15.5 inches in circumference, which is at the 75th percentile!  But he doesn’t really look like he has a huge head.  He just looks perfect.

Liam eats around 4-5 oz at a feeding, about 6 times a day.  After all the breastfeeding issues we had early on, things finally fell into place — almost instantly — at around the four-week mark.  So, needless to say, I am so, so glad I persevered.  I really don’t know how at peace I would have been if I had quit, at least for a long time.  So now things are smooth sailing, and I couldn’t be happer about that.  He is even getting a bit faster with nursing, which is a blessing, because at first it would take over an hour sometimes.  We have continued to give him a bottle (of pumped milk) the feeding before we go to bed and in the middle of the night.  I have tried nursing him at those times, and he is just really sleepy, so I’m afraid he won’t get full and will wake again a short time later.  I am all about maximizing our sleep potential.

Speaking of sleep, I am pretty grateful for what we’re getting, but I’m definitely ready for Liam to decide he can sleep through the night.  The last several days, we have fallen into a *tentative* pattern of feeding around 8 or 8:30, then he goes down.  We will get him up to feed him again around 10:30, before we go to bed, to try to stretch the time until the next feeding.  Then he will wake around 2:30 or 3, and hopefully not again until at least 5:30 or 6, which is when we (or at least I) grudgingly get up for the day.  However, the last two nights he has slept for a solid six-hour stretch the first part of the night, which is great, because then he didn’t get up for the day until after 7.  Lily has been getting up between 6:30 and 7 anyway, so that has worked pretty well.  We’ll see if it lasts.  So, you’d think that 6 hours of sleep would feel pretty good right?  I wouldn’t know.  My body is still on Liam’s previous 3-4 hour schedule, so I lay awake last night, just waiting for him to wake to eat.  I know we’ll all get in sync one of these days!  Probably just in time for daylight savings time to through us all for a loop next week.

Liam is on medication for reflux, which we hope will help with his fussiness.  When I say fussiness, I really mean a lot of screaming and crying, often during or after feedings.  He spits up a TON, which means not only does he go through a few outfits a day, but often Bill and I have to change sometime during the day, too.  We’re talking projectile, and often.  That in and of itself is not reason to medicate, as medication will not have an effect on the spitting up, just the discomfort of it.  And it’s so hard to know if that is what is causing Liam’s unhappiness so much of the time.  He can go from happy and smiling to screaming mad in a split second.  Lily was pretty much the same way, and we spent a lot of her first year trying to figure out why.  She was on relux medication, too, and we never were completely convinced it made any difference.  So it could just kind of be temperament.  Still, that is a lot to explain to strangers at the grocery store who look at me like, “What is WRONG with that baby and WHY aren’t you doing anything about it?”

But he does have periods of content time, too.  When he’s happy, all is right with the world.  Liam started smiling soon after his one-month update.  He even kind of laughs a little now.  He coos and gurgles and makes all those little sounds you forget about since you last had a newborn.  He loves looking at faces and is starting to track faces really well, even turning his head to keep focused on his target face.  He is starting to reach for things a bit more, primarily to bat at toys in front of him.  When on his tummy, he can hold his head up for a few seconds, but it’s admittedly my fault that he’s not stronger with this (for shame, pediatric physical therpapist!).  It’s just been so cold, and our house is so drafty near the floors, I haven’t been too inclined to do a lot of floor time.  Just one of the many challenges I have found with having a winter baby.

And so we look forward to spring and getting outside!  The weather warmed up into the 50’s for the past several days, and I was able to take Liam to and from the car without a blanket covering the carseat.  I realized that he really hasn’t even seen the outside world, because anytime we have him out, he is completely covered.  Poor little guy.  But what wonders he has in store for him over the coming months!

Lily had her first visit to the dentist last week, and I was so proud of her.  We had talked a lot about what to expect, and we had even checked out a book from the library with photos of kids at the dentist’s office, so Lily would be prepared.  But I really wasn’t sure what would happen when the hygenist started trying to actually put tools in her mouth.  She was such a big girl.  Opened right up and they were able to do a full cleaning — which they said sometimes for the first visit or two it’s just an exam to let kids get acclimated.  Lily got to wear princess glasses throughout, and her favorite part was receiving a token after the exam to put in the “prize tower,” a variety of gumball machines with teeth-friendly prizes — no gum or candy.  My least favorite part was learning that, once her back teeth start to move closer together, I’m supposed to start flossing.  Seriously?  Could we add one more chore at bedtime to extend the routine to the one-hour mark?  Anyway, Lily and Mommy were all smiles when the visit was over, and we celebrated – as is the custom in our family — with a trip to McDonald’s.

And here’s the newest addition to the playroom:

I told Bill one day, “I can’t believe that, with your background, you haven’t set up a computer for Lily yet,” and within a few hours the computer station was all ready to go, complete with a mini mouse to fit Lily’s mini hand.  She, of course, took to it quickly.  She has experimented with the computer a bit before, but the mouse was too unwieldy.  Besides, we typically only use the laptops anyway.  So now Lily is using an old recycled laptop of Bill’s, plus an old monitor of mine, and Bill hooked up a regular keyboard and mouse.  Bill found some good kid-friendly games, and we’ve bookmarked a few websites (like PBSkids.org).  PBSkids is a great one because it has a feature where you can turn off all possible options except for the game — so kids can’t accidently close the window, or shut down the computer, or surf the web.  Anyway, Lily is happy to have her own “‘puter” now, and it gives us another option for something to do during these still chilly winter days.

(Oh, and Liam’s still around, too.  He just hasn’t done much that’s blog-worthy lately.  But he hits the two-month mark tomorrow, so I’ll dedicate a post to him then.)