...has been... weird.  No, weird is not the right word.  It's been... unpredictable, fun, challenging, crazy, tiring...  it seems like SO much is happening all at the same time.  Some days (like today) I am pulling my hair out and using every last ounce of patience with my toddler.  Today was just one tantrum after another.  And I found myself constantly saying "no no no".  I hate days like that. 

When I have days like today, I sometimes question myself.  Is every toddler like this?  Am I not giving her enough attention?  Is she too tired?  Bored?  Am I not disciplining her appropriately? We don't really do time-outs per se... basically if she's getting too upset or starts throwing things/misbehaving/not listening, we remove her and we go into her room and we sit on her pink rug until she calms down (or 1 minute, whichever comes first).  We don't just stick her in a corner and leave her alone, we sit with her and she usually calms down quite quickly and just wants a big cuddle, and then we talk about what she did wrong or why she had to come into her room. Well, today, after one of her many incidents of misbehaving, I turned to her and said "Riley that is NOT the way we blah blah blah" and she let out a big scream, and went running down the hall and into her room, sat on her pink rug (without me telling her to), and came back out when she was calm and totally happy.  It was awesome.  Exactly what we've been trying to achieve with our version of "time out."  She was getting too overwhelmed, and she gave herself a little break, time to calm down, and came back out totally happy.  It's things like that that make me think, yeah, maybe I do know what I'm doing (sometimes) after all.

Our biggest battle lately has been with the pack 'n play (port-a-cot).  See, Jackson doesn't spend much time laying on his back on a flat surface (i.e. floor), mostly because it requires careful and constant supervision, and me telling Riley to be careful and not to poke him in the eyes, and "no sitting on him" and "his hands are actually attached to his body" etc etc.  Also, he's been spending too much time in the rock 'n play, so I finally set up the pack 'n play in our lounge.  Well, Riley is DYING to get in it, and she's not allowed (she's too heavy for the bassinet part and the whole point is to keep Jackson safe from Riley and allow him some semi Riley-free space).  The phrase we hear most often lately?  "Get in dare?"

Now Jack Jack?  He thinks his new hangout spot is pretty darn cool. And, it comes with friends.

But of course, he still likes his old spot too ("baby seat" as Riley calls it).

We'll see how "safe" he ends up being in his pack n play.  Riley can still reach him, and we all know she likes to share her toys with him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he still ends up covered in puzzle pieces. We shall see.

Now, part of the hope with setting up the pack 'n play is trying to get Jackson used to laying on his back, in hopes of soon transitioning him into his crib.  Jackson has been a less-than-awesome day time sleeper these days.  BUT, I know it could be worse.  He's pretty easy to get to sleep, usually a little bouncing or walking around and he goes to sleep, but he will not stay asleep if I put him down.  And even if I hold him, he sometimes wakes after only half an hour (if Riley doesn't wake him first).  It's pretty rare that I can put him down and sneak away, and usually if I do manage to, he's in a place that is less than safe to leave him... like the edge of the couch.  But just LOOK at those chunky little legs, I LOVE them!  But of course, I can't leave him sleeping on his side like that at ALL, he rolls onto his tummy and basically just borrows his face into whatever he can find.  Less than ideal, clearly.

On Sunday, Mark took Riley to soccer, despite the fairly cold weather.  He always gets a little excited when he gets to dress her for the day, and here's what he came up with:

Apparently she kept that hat on the entire time!! Later in the afternoon, Mark was trying to get a workout in, which clearly becomes much harder once you have kids.  I was feeding Jackson, so Riley was hanging with daddy, who was attempting to jump rope on the patio.  I'll let you guess how long that lasted before Riley requested to "have a turn, daddy?"  So he improvised.  And she loved it.

Anyway, I guess I should be going to sleep, as I'll be getting up twice tonight to feed the little guy. :)  So many more things to say, things like... I've lost 5 more pounds (yay!), but have many more to go (boo!)... and many more pictures to share, but they will just have to wait.  And can you believe Jack Jack is 12 weeks old tomorrow?  (Sorry, there won't be a 12 week post, since he turns 3 MONTHS next week!)

And we celebrated by going on a little adventure around the inlet by our house.

Can't believe my little buggy will be TWO in 2 months.  I may have already started planning her party.  Who am I kidding, I definitely have already been planning her party. :)  Some people might think birthday parties at this age are silly- I clearly don't feel that way, just you wait and see...

Okay so... 22 months...

At 22 months, Riley is hilarious.  When we're at home, she never stops talking.  90% of the time it's actual, understandable words and sentences.  The other 10%?  Total gibberish.  As in, just random syllables used as filler.  Basically, she's talking up a storm.  She bargains with us, and she repeats every single thing we say.  She randomly yells out "Oi, Mark!" like a real kiwi baby, which makes me laugh every single time.  She's starting to get a New Zealand accent, which is really only heard in some of the words she says.  For example, words like "says" which I pronounce like an American (sez), Riley pronounces it more like"saze" like her daddy (and all kiwis, according to him, although I'm still not convinced).  She pronounces "pegs" like "peegs," which is very kiwi-like, but she pronounces eggs like I do.  There are lots more words like that, but it's hard to tell if it's just baby pronunciation or actually kiwi pronunciation- things like "cah" for car.  She says rubbish instead of garbage, and I'm sure there are more that I can't remember at the moment. 

Some of Riley's favorite things at 22 months: Jumping (on trampolines, beds, couches, you name it...), playing outside, swimming, wearing mommy and daddy's shoes, her "pay pay" and "gray grays" (paci and blankie), her baby brother, painting, playdoh, watching home videos of herself, riding on the swings, Mickey Mouse, dogs (actually, all animals, really), pretzels, and her daddy.  She drinks from a big girl cup and uses her fork and spoon like a pro (well, a messy pro, I suppose...)  Sometimes she uses her right hand, sometimes her left, but I'm thinking she shows preference towards her right.

Riley surprises us every day with new sentences.  She remembers things from months ago.  She repeats some of the phrases that we don't even notice we say (apparently I say "goodness" and "there we go" quite frequently... and now so does Riley).  She speaks in sentences and we can have conversations with her.  Some of her fave things to say include: "you did it!" "don't do that" "oh no, not working, needs new batteries!" and "good sharing, Ri Ri."  One example of how she is paying more attention than we think? The other day, she goes "hey!! no flies on peanut butter sandwich! shoo fly!  get 'em!" and she smacks her sandwich in attempts to swat the fly away.  Apparently she's been watching me trying to swat flies. :)

She can count to 17, and has a really good concept of numbers and quantity.  She knows 10 is more than 5 is more than 2, etc.  She knows she wants TWO cookies, not one.  She knows the difference between bigger vs. smaller, long vs. short, and many other opposites.  She recognizes her name when she sees it spelled out, and she sometimes can spell it correctly if you ask.  Changing her diaper can still be a battle, but not as much of a battle as brushing her teeth.  Yikes I can't wait until that gets easier.  Someday.

She loves to read, and has memorized so many of her books.  Her current favorite book is a Mickey Mouse book, and she asks for "Cowboy Mickey," "Mickey and the Firetruck," and "Mickey and the Pet Shop" most nights (three different stories in her book).  She likes to read to us and to Jackson, and she's starting to be more open to sitting still for new books, although makes it very clear when she's not interested by slamming the book shut and saying "no mama, don't do that."

Riley loves having little friends to play with, although if she can't remember their names, she calls all little girls "Ashley" after one of her little friends from our coffee group.  She is pretty darn good at sharing, and has never once hit or pushed another kid- I don't even think she's ever taken a toy from another kid either.  Part of my hesitation in putting her in any sort of preschool setting is the potential for her to learn these less-than-awesome behaviors from the other kids around her.  But so far she does extremely well in the social skills department.

This month her sleeping has been less than awesome.  She started waking at 4:30am for a few weeks, and just wouldn't go back to sleep.  Now she's been sleeping until 5 or 5:15 usually, which is still really freaking early.  Her naps have been fine, although just in the past few days she has discovered that she can get herself our of bed BEFORE she's taken a nap, not just after nap. So we've been having a few battles with that.  Let's hope it's short-lived.

She's really starting to get into pretend play, and you can see her imagination starting to develop.  That stick she was holding (below right) was apparently a "crocodile" and we searched and searched to find "one more crocodile, mama?"  She loves having tea parties and playing with baby dolls and pretend food. She is constantly talking to Mickey Mouse on the phone.  She loves to drive her cars around the house. She can build her 9 block ABC tower (as tall as she is) all by herself.  She likes to have all her toys (puzzles, peg board) completed, and we frequently hear "oh no! missing one piece!" or "missing two pieces! pieces, where are you???"

She is a total daddy's girl right now.  She asks about him all day long, she gets sad when he leaves, she snuggles with him and he makes her laugh and laugh and laugh. When I told her daddy had to go to work to make money, she thought about it for a second, got quiet, and then her face lit up as she said "daddy go to work, make money.  Daddy making coins!!!"- she's been really into putting her coins into her piggy bank, so she was stoked that daddy would be "making coins" by going to work. She also knows that coins make the fire engine outside the grocery store work, so the thought of daddy bringing home coins is very exciting.

Happy 22 months little munchkin!!!  You are as gorgeous as ever!

Another week older!!

Actually, not that much has changed since last week, so I won't do a full update, just mostly pictures.  I'm sure you won't mind.

A few things that have changed?  Sleep.  We officially stopped swaddling him last week, and he is sleeping SO much better at night.  We got one almost 7 hour stretch the other night!  And when he wakes at night to eat, now he goes right back to sleep.  Although, for the first time in a while we also had a few nights where the only way he wanted to fall asleep at bed time was laying with me, nursing to sleep.  And so we went with it, I brought him out on the couch, turned the lights off, and nursed him to sleep.  And then snuggled with him for a little while before putting him into his bed.  After a few days of that, he went back to being just fine going to sleep in his room.  We still start him out in his room every night, and bring him in with us when we go to sleep.

BUT. He's become a pretty horrible independent day time sleeper.  He still falls asleep pretty easily (being bounced or walked around), but needs to be held in order to stay asleep for more than 15 minutes, and even then, often wakes up after half an hour.  We had a few days where his longest sleep was like 45 minutes.  He still sleeps really well if we're out and about, and will sleep in the car seat or stroller or front pack, although I'm not sure I like the Beco carrier we have, and am trying to see if I can find a better one (ergo maybe?).  We did get a baby k'tan which I love!!

He has found his hands, for real.  And he has started self soothing by sucking on his hands- he even put himself to sleep the other night by sucking on his hands.

He's still a champion eater, and a very big little boy.  Not sure how much he weighs, we'll find out next week, but he's pretty solidly in 6 month clothes these days.  Woah.

He smiles at me all the time, and he LAUGHED for the first time today!  Oh man it was such a good sound, and the funny part was, he laughed at me playing with Riley as I was throwing a ball at her and yelling "I gotchoooo!"  (It was a squishy ball, all innocent fun, I swear...)

He has started to show a preference for being held by me over all other people, which I remember happened with Riley around this time as well.  But what can you expect, he knows I can give him what no one else can... :)  He really enjoys trying to stand, and is trying to sit up!  If he's even slightly inclined, he tries to lean forward and do a sit-up!

He's still hit or miss with the pacifier, and if he doesn't love it by 3 months I think we might ditch it altogether.  Sometimes he takes it, but sometimes he gets so mad when I offer it.  And also? He is still incredibly loved by his big sister.  She doesn't share all her Mickey Mouse puzzle pieces with just anyone...

Happy 11 weeks little boy!

I've had a few people ask me when/if Riley will be going to preschool.  The thing is, at this age, a traditional preschool is really just daycare.  And there is nothing wrong with daycare, in fact, day care can be a wonderful thing for children, but I'm a stay at home mom... there really is no reason for me to put my child in day care.  It's pretty expensive, and it's not like I need to put her there so I can work... Taking care of Riley (and Jackson) IS my job.  I had a lot of people suggest that I put Riley in a preschool for a few hours a week before Jackson was born, just so I had a few hours with only one little baby, but it just didn't sit right with me.

For one, I really enjoy spending my time with Riley.  I don't want to just ship her off somewhere so I can be "free."  Would it be so easy to just have one little baby (Jackson) at home instead of a baby and a toddler? Sure. But it just didn't seem right at this age to send her somewhere without a real NEED to do so.  Instead, I started trying to come up with the weekly themes for our "tot school" that you may have read about on the blog.  We don't do this every week, and some themes last for a couple of weeks, but I enjoy it, and Riley really enjoys it, and it's basically totally unforced learning that is just following her lead and her interests (with a little bit of my guidance).  It gives me a bit of extra motivation and means I am constantly searching for new ideas and activities for her.  

And I come across all kinds of ideas for her, things like this, our "tray of fun."

One tray of random things we already owned led to many activities.  She liked dropping the little googly eyes in the bowl of water.  She strung the wooden beads on a skewer stuck in playdoh.  She used the ice cream scooper to transfer pom poms from the bowl to the egg carton.  The fun lasted for quite some time!  Great for fostering creativity, imagination, fine motor skills, learning and sorting colors, sensory play, etc...

Then there are the never ending art projects. One of the most heard phrases around here is "do painting!!!"  So painting we do...

Of course, sometimes, my "fun" activities I plan for her are less than successful.  My latest stroke of genius?  Playing with colored bubbles.  Sounds fun, right?  Well... the idea was, fill clear containers with different colors of bubbles, take a straw, and blow blow blow until you get huge colored bubbled foam!  Fun!  Well, not so fun when all your toddler wants to do is SUCK through the straw, not BLOW.  Totally didn't think about that.  So what was meant to be a totally fun activity ended up going something like THIS:  Eesh.

Not to worry, we quickly abandoned ship and decided to go back to good old fashioned blowing bubbles straight from the bubble wand.  Crisis averted.

But recently I decided I wanted to try something else with her.  While there are tons of things we can and do do at home, and we do have some activities we do each week (music class, kindy gym, coffee group), I felt like we needed something more.  So today I signed Riley up for the local playcentre- basically a preschool co-op.  Today was our first day, and it was a total success.  Riley LOVED it.

So what is a co-op, you ask...  Basically the co-op is based on the premise that a parent-education nursery school is the ideal environment for feelings of self-esteem and self-worth to flourish- an ideal environment for kids to develop confidence, think for themselves, solve problems, explore and learn.  Parents give their time and energy to build this culture for the children.  It might sound a little "fluffy," but I think it's actually a fabulous thing for the little ones. 

So now Riley goes to "school" one day a week for 3 hours.  I will be there with her (and so will Jackson), but not necessarily WITH her all the time.  There are so many things for her to do there, and other kids for her to interact with.  She's one of the younger ones (probably more 3 year olds than any other age), but she had a blast today.  In the 2.5 hours we were there today, she did the following: used homemade purple playdoh to make shapes and "cookies," which she decorated with all colors of glitter and sprinkled with "frosting." She painted using brushes and her fingers, and she painted MY fingers.  She built a tower with wooden blocks.  She used her very own scissors for the first time.  She washed her own hands at a sink at her own level.  She sat at a table with 10 other little ones and ate a snack and drank from a cup.  She played in a sandpit, jumped on a trampoline, went on the swings and slides and tunnel and through an obstacle course.  She played in the water table with yellow dyed water.  She "cooked" a sandwich with pretend food, and talked on the phone, and put five baby dolls to bed.  She read stories and she hung out with other moms and toddlers.  She basically had an absolute blast.

I didn't even bring my camera because I had Jackson with me, and I had my hands quite full (since the parents are quite hands on in this co-op setting!), but trust me, we had a blast.  We call it "school" and Riley can't wait to go back to "kool!"  And for me, it's just what I was looking for for her at this age- TONS of great toys and resources, unstructured play with other kids her age as well as some slightly older and younger, opportunities for her to explore and create and play, a community of like-minded adults there to foster the right kind of learning environment for the children.  I'm not just dropping her off and leaving her, Jackson can come with me, she's getting to interact with new kids and has the chance to explore and learn and play in a great environment, and I get to meet some new people as well!  Oh and in case you were wondering, Jackson was basically the perfect baby the entire 3 hours.  He slept in his car seat for the first hour, woke up and ate, stayed awake for a short while, and then slept in the Beco carrier for the rest of the time.  Thank you Jack Jack for being a superstar.

Anyway... I always thought I loved having a BABY, but seriously, having a TODDLER is such a blast.  The learning, the fun, the imagination, the things she says, the ideas she gets, what she finds funny... seriously it is the best thing ever.  I mean, come on, what is not awesome about this??

We had a very busy, but very good weekend.  Riley's Nana and Grandad came over this morning, and we had a fabulous morning.  It started with a trip to the local coffee shop where Riley got her very first "fluffy" (steamed milk) with marshmallows, followed by a trip to the playground AND to feed the ducks.  We made it home in time for nap time, where Riley slept for ALMOST 4 HOURS.  In fact, she slept so long, she missed out on a beach play  date with a neighborhood friend.  But not to worry, once she was awake, we packed her and Jackson into the car and headed out to the inlet in hopes of maybe meeting up with them.  They weren't there, but Riley sure had fun anyway.

In the past, Riley has not really liked the water.  It's COLD, and she has never wanted to even touch it really.  But today?  The girl LOVED it.  She wanted to walk back and forth, she searched for shells and crabs, and she did not want to get out!!

We headed over to the boat sheds to take a few pictures, while Jackson was sound asleep in his stroller.

I love how brightly colored the sheds were!  Riley was very unsure about walking up there, the wood planks were a bit too spaced out for her liking, and you could see the sand about 6 feet below, so she preferred to stay low to the ground.

Once we got home, we got a surprise visit from Riley's failed playdate friend, Gemma!  She lives just down the street, and she's about a year older than Riley.  It was SO funny to see Riley have a little playdate.  She did not stop talking the entire time, and she even became a little bossy!  Not in a mean way, just so excited to have a friend over to play with her!  She would say "Gemma sit here," "Here Gemma, jump on the trampoline," "Gemma, build this tower," and then when Gemma would do something Riley requested, Riley would say "Gemma you did it!"  I got some pretty funny videos of the two of them, I think we're going to need to start having 1 on 1 play dates more often! And yes I know my daughter is never wearing pants!!!

I want to remember these days.  What life is REALLY like with these two little monkeys.  I tried to look back and see what it was like when Riley was 10 weeks old, and I only had vague notes that seemed a little sugar-coated.  So I wanted to record what life is like, in words and pictures, for one whole day.  24 hours.  Normally I find these kinds of posts painfully boring to read, but I'm hoping lots of pictures will help with that.  And it's more for my own record anyway!

The day: Thursday April 19, 2012.  Jackson: 10 weeks 2 days old, Riley: 21 months and 3 weeks old

This first part doesn't have any pictures because it was the middle of the night!!
2:30am Jackson wakes for a feed (his last feed was at 11pm)... he's finished in 10 minutes and back in his rock n play and fast asleep
5:00am Riley wakes up (so painfully early), and Mark goes into her room and lays with her until she's "allowed" to get out of her room (5:45).  She plays happily, while he sleeps on her bed... typical. :)
5:30am Jackson wakes to be fed- 10 minutes later he's done and back asleep
5:50am Mark gets up with Riley, makes her breakfast, comes and gets Jackson from me, and I get 40 minutes of uninterrupted sleep while he gets ready for work!

6:30am... my day starts!!!  I roll out of bed and come into the lounge to see THIS:

Ri jumping on the trampoline, watching "Choo Choo Mickey Mouse" while Mark gets ready for work.  Meanwhile, Jackson is getting tired and wants to be fed, so I feed him while Riley bounces away (at 6:45am.) Normally Jackson is still sleeping at this time, but today he was already awake.

7:00am... after some milk, some shushing and bouncing, the little one falls asleep in my arms.  I hold him for a few minutes then slip him into his bed so I can get some breakfast.  Such a lovely sight- precious little baby, sleeping in his bed, all by himself (well... he was out in the lounge with me and Riley).  Oh and side note- we JUST stopped swaddling him (as in, last night was his first night sans swaddle), and we put him in a sleep sack instead, and he seems to LOVE it.  Last night was his best night of sleep so far!

7:15am We have to take advantage of the time when Jack is asleep, so Riley and I have some uninterrupted reading time while the baby snoozes away...

Can you spot the sleeping baby...?

7:45am.  After a short nap, Jack Jack is awake and joins story time, until he gets fussy and we move on to singing songs.  Riley requests I sing "Wheels on the Bus", "ABCs", and a bunch of Wiggles songs... At around 8:10am Jackson wants to eat AGAIN (this child is constantly hungry!!), and Riley takes advantage of me being occupied and wanders the house until she finds a paci that she has stashed away.  She has a secret stash in her bedroom!

8:20am  Once Jackson is done eating, it's time to play!

8:45am Jack lets out his "I'm getting tired" squawk, so I work on getting him to sleep.  While I'm doing that, Riley is busy playing with her toys- namely, putting all her dolls to "bed" in their own green toy bins.   She later added blankets to each of their beds.

8:55am Jackson has fallen asleep, but is restless and fighting it, so I try putting him in his swing in his room, which calms him, but he doesn't fall asleep.  Then he does a massive poop, which explains why he wasn't sleeping.  Then he wants to eat, although it seems more of for comfort than out of hunger.  Once he's calm and happy, we give up on nap time for the moment and decide to go with some sibling tummy time instead.

Around 10am Riley starts to act crazy, which is a sure sign she's getting tired...

Jackson has to hang out by himself for a few minutes while I get Riley ready for bed, and he sure does look cute!

10:20 I read Riley a story and say goodnight, then come back and work on getting the littler one to sleep. He goes right to sleep snuggling with me, but is woken 20 minutes later with another massive poop.  I change him and he goes back to sleep while comfort nursing.  I get to watch TV and relax while both babies snooze away!!  For 2 hours!

12:40pm Riley wakes up!  She comes running down the hallway with her paci and blankies, and uses her negotiating skills to convince me to let her watch Mickey Mouse.  I wasn't going to let her watch any TV, but she was just too darn funny, I couldn't resist.  She goes, "Mama, watch choo choo Micky mouse TEN times, okay?"  When I laughed and said no, she came back with "watch it FIVE times, okay?"  I said no again, and she demanded SIX times!  Finally she said "watch it ONE time, okay?" and I gave in to her demands.  And it kept her happy (and away from her sleeping brother) for 15 minutes while I made her lunch. :)  And yes she is still in her PJs!

Meanwhile Jackson continues sleeping, although I didn't feel comfortable leaving him on the couch while I made lunch (hellooo high chance of baby rolling off the couch...), so he gets transferred back into his bed.  I don't like having him sleep in there for all his sleeps because I worry about him getting a flat head, but sometimes it's inevitable. Lucky for me, he stayed asleep!

1:15pm... Riley is eating lunch (she requested a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, AND a quesadilla), and Jackson is woken up by a massive poop blowout, requiring all new clothes!  Once she was done eating Riley was happy to entertain him while I got him something to wear.

1:30pm Feed the hungry baby, followed by some tummy time and Riley demanding to hold him!  Then we send Riley outside to play in the sandbox and burn off some energy.  It's too cold and windy for the little guy and he starts to get tired, so I work on getting him to sleep.  He goes to sleep without a fight (2:15pm), only to be woken about half an hour later by a loud toddler coming inside from some outside fun.  Bummer.  Once he's awake, I change yet another massive poop, and Riley uses this time while I'm occupied to search for an ipad and have some alone time in her room.

3:00pm Pictures and play time with my babies!!!  Jack is all smiles, Riley plays with my hair and we talk about the difference between long and short, and she asks for a ponytail.

3:30pm Feed Jackson... again.
4:00pm Pile the babies in the car to go pick up daddy from the train station.  We stopped for a treat before heading home, and Jackson slept the entire time. And I know, her seat belt clip needs to be higher, my husband is less than awesome at buckling her in (this was his handiwork), so you can go ahead and blame him.

4:45pm We get home, get the babies out, and I start making dinner.  Meanwhile, Mark catches up with his babies.

Riley the master tower builder built that tower all by herself!  Once she finishes building it, she likes to kick it over.  Also?  She has added "Go, Dog. Go!" to her list of books she has memorized, but she calls it "Hot Dog Go."  Makes me laugh every time.

5:30 pm We eat dinner, then I work on getting fussy Jack to sleep.  I let him sleep for 20 minutes, then wake him at 6:10pm for bath time with the babies.  We've been putting the babies to bed a bit earlier since Riley is waking up so. damn. early.  And in case you can't tell in the photo below, Riley is trying to "help" bathe Jackson by dumping a huge cup of water on his head.  This was followed by a big splashing tantrum on her part.  Jackson was unfazed...

Once clean, I get Jackson out, dressed, and into his room to be fed.  He's out by 6:45pm.  Meanwhile Mark gets Riley ready and in bed.  Usually she goes right to sleep, but on this night she decides to get out of bed! Mark goes back in to get her to sleep, and ends up falling asleep on her bed while she plays for an hour!  Finally I go in there and kick Mark out, read Riley one more story, and she goes to sleep around 8pm, over an hour later than normal.

Once both babies are in bed and ASLEEP, we watch some TV, do some computer stuff, I edit photos, and then I go to bed at 10:00pm since I know Jackson will be up a few times in the night.  Sure enough, he's up just after 11pm, eats for less than 10 minutes, and goes right back to sleep!  The end of our day!

Ya know, because if I don't share these with you, they just sit on my computer. :)

(1) Her hair.  OMG her hair.  It took her 19 months to get hair, and now it's a wild curly fluffy mess.  It can't be tamed.

(2) The way she plays with this new toy (which is AWESOME, by the way, go buy it for your toddlers, you won't regret it.)  The little pegs stack on top of each other, but when they get too high, they tip but they don't fall over.  And Riley gets surprised every time.  She stacks them and when they start to tip, she holds on and says "noo!!! falling over!" mama help!"  and I tell her that "it's okay, just let go slowly and see what happens" and so she slowly lets go and when they tip, but the tower doesn't break, she goes "OOOOOOH!!!! yay!"

(3) Her love for her brother.  She "read" him this baby Einstein story, which doesn't actually have any words, but she made up her own story and showed him all the pictures.  He loved it, naturally.

(4) Her sense of style.  Girl can accessorize...

(5) How she posts up on the change mat EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I change Jackson's diaper.  Without fail.  She gets as close as she possibly can without actually sitting on his head.

And about a billion other things.  Oh and?  She got her first new tooth since her first birthday!  The other one is coming through any day now, so let's hope that teething is the reason for her suddenly waking up at FOUR A.M. for the past week.  That little detail does not make it onto the "awesome things about Riley right now" list. 

I won't be doing weekly posts for that much longer, but things change so quickly these days, I like to be able to look back and see what he was doing at each week! And how cute he was, of course.

So here's a little of what he's up to:

Sleeping (night time):  Ahhh sleep.  How I miss a solid night's sleep. It has been... YEARS.  Literally.  But enough about me...  Jackson goes to sleep every night around 7.  Some nights it's 6:30, sometimes it's closer to 7:15, but somewhere pretty close to 7.  Every single night he has a bath with Riley, then we go straight into his room with the lights off, I sit with him in the rocking chair, turn the white noise on, feed him, and sing him the same song every night.  He falls asleep while feeding every single night, and I hold him for a few extra minutes because I love the extra snuggle time!  Then I swaddle him up and put him in his rock 'n play in his room, and he's out like a light.  He stays asleep for 5-6 hours, wakes to feed, and all bets are off after that.  Some nights, he goes right back to sleep for a few hours.  Some nights he will go right back to sleep but then wakes if he's not being rocked or walked or bounced... some nights he just fights sleep altogether.  Sometimes he will sleep if I bring him in bed and hold him, sometimes he wants to be swaddled and sleep in bed next to me, sometimes he needs to just lay next to me and be nursed to sleep... we just haven't quite figured out the best way to get him back to sleep and to STAY asleep after that first wake-up.  He never has a paci during the night- he just won't take it.

Sleeping (day time):  Lately he has been super easy to get to sleep during the day.  But his sleep length is all over the place.  And sometimes he won't stay asleep if he's not being held, and sometimes he's just fine sleeping independently.  It's just a mystery.  Take yesterday for example:  For his morning sleep, I swaddled him and put him in his swing, and he fell asleep on his own and slept there for an hour.  For his next nap he fell asleep while nursing and slept for 30 minutes while I held him.  His following "nap" was more like 3 hours in and out of sleep... 45 minutes in the swing, then fed, then straight back to sleep being held, then sort of fighting sleep, awake a few minutes, back to sleep, etc...  He took a few short naps in the car while we were out and about, and then another short nap being held.  And then it was bed time.  The day before yesterday, he slept for almost 2.5 hours in his car seat.  Today he hardly slept except when he was held or in the car seat (after riding in the car, we don't just put him to sleep in his car seat).  So we just never know what's going to happen.

Eating:  This boy LOVES to eat.  If he could, I think he would probably be attached to me all day long.  And some days, it seems like he is! In fact, this evening for some reason he woke up way earlier than normal, so I nursed him while laying down on the couch and he just stayed attached to me comfort sucking for well over an hour.  Some times during the day he wants to eat after only an hour and a half, sometimes he'll go for 3 hours... it depends a little on how well and how long he sleeps.  He still takes a bottle pretty well a few times a week.

As long as he's fed and well rested, he's a pretty happy, easy going little guy.  He smiles a ton, and is totally interested in everything that's going on around him.  He LOVES his big sister, and watches her constantly.  Although, how could he not, since she is pretty much always in his face.  This little "game" they are playing below kept Riley entertained (and giggling up a storm) for quite some time.  She put the ring on his head, he would move and it would fall off, she would burst into hysterical laughter, and repeat. He was a total trooper.

The ultimate sign of love and acceptance by Riley, seen below left.  She handed him her most precious blanket ("gray-gray") and said "here Jack Jack, have gray-gray..." and in the next breath said "good sharing Ri Ri." 

He is getting so so big.  He's in 3-6 month onesies, and 6 month sleepers.  Pants and sweaters are mostly still size 3 month, I don't know why pants seem to run so big!  We've graduated to size 2 diapers, although mostly just because we went through our big stash of size 1-2 and now we have tons of size 2 that we brought back with us from the US, and I don't feel like buying more until we have to.

He makes the cutest little cooing noises, and he still does well with tummy time. He is constantly trying to stand up, and loves to kick kick kick his little legs.  He is really discovering his hands and likes to get them in his mouth, so we're trying to find a balance between having his hands free so he can suck on them, while not letting him scratch up his entire face.  It doesn't matter how short his nails are, he always scratches himself!

He still LOVES bath time, and he's back in the big tub with Riley every night.  As soon as we set foot in the bathroom he is just super calm and happy, and he never ever cries in the bath, even if he was crying before we put him in.  Getting OUT of the bath is another story...

His skin is looking fabulous these days, and his cradle cap is almost gone, although it seems to come and go so we'll see.  He loves to be held upright, and loves to sit propped up in his boppy seat.  Every single time I put him on the boppy pillow Riley runs over and wants to lay right next to him.  He is constantly getting squished and bumped and poked and he almost never ever cries, I think he's just so fascinated with Riley he doesn't even notice she's squishing him or yanking on his arms.

One thing we've found quite tricky with him is regulating his body temperature... we get some really cold mornings here, so we have the heater going and dress him warmly, but it's hard to get him just the right temp- he hates being hot, and prefers to be warm, but gets really upset if he gets too hot.  And since we swaddle him at night, we have to be careful not to dress him too warmly or he overheats big time.  And no matter what the temperature is, he gets SO hot in the car if he's wearing anything other than a short sleeve onesie- even if it's freezing outside.  So needless to say we're constantly adding and peeling off layers, depending on how hot or cold we think he is during the day.

He's overall a pretty awesome baby (albeit exhausting between the hours of 1 and 5am), and we love him to pieces.  And Riley loves him more than you can imagine, I can't wait until they really start playing together and interacting a bit more!

Oh man.  These kids crack me up sometimes.  Okay, most of the time...

Jack Jack is just full of smiles these days.  All he needs is a little attention and BOOM.  Smile.

He's also discovered he has a tongue.  I mean, he's always stuck his tongue out, but that was more of a hunger sign than a realization that "oh hey look what I have in my mouth!"  90% of the pictures I took of him in the past 2 days look something like this:

But then I was able to sneak a few of these in there:

And a little video for you, because, you know, some things are better shown through videos.  What you are about to see: (1) Riley has learned a new little monster voice which she uses frequently, but only with the phrase "go see _____"  (2) The girl talks constantly, and the clip of her doing her shape sorter is just a little glimpse  (3) You're about to hear her newest favorite food-related phrase.  It's awesome. and (4) Riley has about 15 of those "That's not my ______" books, and she loves to read them to us, and it's pretty funny to listen to her pronunciation of some of the adjectives.  Enjoy.