Rebecca and I have had a relatively quiet week at home but it still flew by! Rebecca is staying awake alot more during the day, especially in the morning. She might sleep a little in my arms during the morning. She wakes up when I try to put her in the pack and play. Moving her from my arms to a spot on the sofa tends to work better at keeping her asleep. We've been spending more time under her play gym in the mornings. She seems to be interested in it for short periods at a time. I remember Ben used to love it under the gym, kicking his legs back and forth as the music played. Maybe she's too young yet, but I haven't seen the excitement from her that I remember from Ben. With minimal morning sleeping though, she has been getting more sleep in the afternoon and into the evening, which is actually nice for when we get home with Ben so he can get more of my attention before he sits down for dinner.
We picked Ben up early from school on Tuesday, because Tara and Lauren were coming for a visit, so that Lauren could see Ben and both Tara and Lauren could meet Rebecca. Ben's teacher saw me at the door looking in the children having their afternoon snack and asked Ben if his mommy was coming to get him early today, to which he shook his head no. When he saw me though, he declared that he was "all done" with his snack of goldfish, so that he could get Bunny and Chicky and leave with me. Tara brought food for dinners and for Rebecca brought a very nice pink blanket, a monogrammed burp cloth, and bunny "lovey" for Rebecca. If she's anything like Ben, she and the bunny will be inseparable in a few months. Ben enjoyed having another child in the house during Lauren's visit, laughing at her and chasing after her some. With my help, they even got a game or two of hide and seek in.
Aunt Lacie came by during what was otherwise a fairly uneventful day on Wednesday. Rebecca hadn't slept alot during the day yet, but then ended up sleeping while the three of us were at Martin's for some late afternoon grocery shopping. On Thursday, Rebecca and I went to the post office to mail documents for my passport renewal. I'm making arrangements to go to Julie Dingman's wedding reception in Stratford, Ontario Canada. I spent most of my free time earlier that day figuring out what I needed for the application while Rebecca slept. On Friday, Rebecca and I went to the mall to buy Daddy's birthday present. He's always misplacing his gadgets, so I thought a charging valet would solve that as well as limit the number of loose cords we have plugged in throughout the kitchen and family room.
Daddy worked again this Saturday, but Ben, Rebecca, and I had a good day at home. Ben awoke between 5 and 6 am, and Daddy got up early with him to play, watch tv, and have breakfast was Rebecca and I stayed upstairs. It was super cold, so there was no outside time, but Ben and I played inside. Of course, he loaded and unloaded his dump trucks. Ben has started moving the rug from in front of the stove and playing directly on the rubber mat underneath used to keep the rug from sliding. I have no idea yet what he dislikes about the rug being there. Last Saturday Ben explored the drawer beside the dishwasher, but this Saturday he decided he wanted to collect items from the desk and put them into a gift bag (the kind with handles on both sides). He collected lots of pens, loose change, and other random items from the desk and carried it around the family room and kitchen, dumping it and reloading it several times, often times declaring a "mess" when it was dumped and usually needing help gathering the change.
Once Ben begins playing, he protests any requests to stop for a diaper change or to switch from his pajamas to clothes. But once he's laid on the sofa with one of his favorite shows on the tv, he usually forgets about whatever task he was working on just beforehand. He also didn't like stopping his playing to eat lunch. After getting him into his high chair, he pushed the noodles and sauce I'd made for him away. He also wasn't interested in the sliced apples. He finally showed interested in his yogurt, once I'd provided the right spoon (the blue handled one). He'd declared "no no" when trying to get his interest with another spoon, and I had a feeling from past experience that it may be the spoon that was the problem. Once he finished his yogurt he had 2 helpings of noodles and all of his apple.
Rebecca was in and out of sleep all morning. I tried to put have her nap in her crib for the first time on Saturday, even moving the monitor in there from Ben's room. I think she may have napped a few minutes up there but never got into a deep sleep before waking and crying out. We'll keep trying over the coming days to get her used to her crib and then eventually on a more predictable nap schedule. Ben, on the other hand, went right down for his nap after lunch and Caillou, sleeping for almost 3 hours!
Sunday was Daddy's birthday, and he spent the first couple of hours in the morning downstairs with Ben again, while Rebecca and I slept after being up together for middle of the night feeding. Daddy had hoped to sleep in on his birthday, but no such luck! After giving Daddy his birthday presents, which included Godiva dark chocolate from Ben and Rebecca, we all played together the rest of the morning. Ben adopted the gift bags as his own, putting his zoo animals in the "choo choo" bag that had previously carried the chocolates. I have a feeling that gift bag won't ever find it's way back to the closet. Ben had noodles and sauce again for lunch and then went down for his nap. Today though, it lasted only an hour of so. Once Daddy got back from the gym, surprised to see Ben up already, he took him for a ride to look at trucks and buses, which Ben is excellent at spotting and pointing out from the car! I had to wake Rebecca from her nap on the sofa to feed her while they were gone. Afterward we all went to Costco to pick up Daddy's car from getting the tires repaired, and Daddy went home with both children while I went to Kroger to get Daddy's birthday cake. I got home to find Rebecca sleeping peacefully still in her carseat. Ben and Daddy, on the other hand, had pulled out every pair of shoes from the rack in the mud room and lined them up in the foyer. I think Ben was quite proud of the collection he'd amassed on the floor. He has a bit of an obsession with shoes, interested in walking around in each pair, with no regard to whether they are ladies or mens shoes, except to point out that they are either "Daddy's" or "Mommy's".
After dinner, Ben enjoyed listening to Mommy sing "Happy Birthday" and "helping" us blow out the candles a few times. He doesn't quite get the concept of blowing on them to get them to go out but enjoyed it nonetheless. Ben also enjoyed the icing on his small slice of cake, having minimal interest in the cake itself. Scott commented that he was just like Daddy in that regard.
Rebecca has had an especially hard time settling down in the evening after Ben goes to bed. She falls asleep in my arms for only short periods of time and then wakes up unhappy. I'm feeding her on very short intervals which helps calm her down, although I'm not sure that it's hunger that has her upset. But she slept from around 11 pm to 6 am on Sunday night, which was a nice bi-product of the power feeding sessions. Ben didn't sleep that long at a time at her age, so getting 6 hours of sleep is a pleasant surprise.
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