Buddies

Having our children relatively close together, it was our hope that the kids would be close enough in life stages that they would be able to be friends. Since Lucas was born, Elise has been a wonderful big sister. She brings him toys to play with, reminds him that has cannot eat the remote control ("because it's not soft"), "helps" change his diaper and reminds us to feed him when he is crying. But even though she says things like "Lucas is my best friend", for the first ew months they didn't really interact all that much. Let's be honest: a newborn is just not all that exciting to a two year old. He just lays there, sleeps and eats. She comes over to wherever he is laying, says hi to the baby, and then runs along to conduct her very important two year old business.

Ever since Lucas started sitting up, however, it's a whole new ball game. Suddenly, Elise is realizing that Lucas is not just a sleepy little guy that eats all the time - he's a playmate and a real friend. She can play ring around the rosy (sorta) with him. She can play Little People with him (although she yells at him a lot for trying to eat the Little People). She can play pat-a-cake and This Little Piggy with him. It's like having another baby doll, only she can get this one to laugh and she still gets to call all the shots.

Ellie's new found interest in her little "brudder" is not unrequited. Lucas is also much more enamored by his big sister. He has always been interested in watching what she's doing, but in the last few weeks he has come to think that Elise is the second coming of Johnny Carson. She doesn't even have to do or say anything specific, all she has to do is look at him (or in his general direction) and carry about her business and he laughs and laughs. He is not just tolerant of her cuddles and hugs and face pats - he loves them! Everything seems to be more fun when his big sister is around.

For a few weeks now, Lucas has been going to bed around 6:30pm. He tends to get cranky about a half an hour before bed, so we begin his bedtime routine which starts with a bath at about six. This can create quite a time crunch on the days we can't pick up the kids from daycare until 5:30. Sometimes it's just impossible to get his bedtime routine started before he kicks into cranky-tired mode. On the days we are unable to start bedtime early enough, he cries and cranks all the way through his bath, even though he usually really likes bath time. It was beginning to get really stressful to rush from work to daycare, then rush from daycare to home, and rush through Luke's dinner to get him in the bath so that he wouldn't just scream for his half hour bedtime routine.

So one night, in order to streamline our hectic evening, Marty suggested that we give Lucas and Ellie a bath at the same time. This small thing has been a life changer! Not only is it a time saver to bathe both kids at the same time (thus eliminating a two hour stretch of bedtimes for us), but they also entertain each other to no end. Elise spends the whole bath time making Lucas laugh (which distracts her while I wash her hair, which she hates) and Lucas spends the whole bath time laughing with his sister (which distracts him from the fact that he is tired and ready for bed). Evenings had become a dreaded time of day for us because of all the rushing and the tears, but this one little thing seems to have made all the difference.

Ellie calls Lucas her "little buddy" (i.e. "Hey, whatcha doing, little buddy?") and there could not be a more appropriate phrase. I am sure that the fighting will come with a fury in time, but for now, they genuinely enjoy one another's company and we are soaking up every minute of it.

Not So Invisible Man

We used to joke that Lucas was the Invisible Man because he was so laid back, you could just plop him down/carry him around and not hear a peep out of him for so long you'd forget he was there! You could seriously carry about your business for an embarrassing amount of time before remembering he was right there with you. Well lately, Lucas is doing more and more to make sure that you know he's around.

First of all, he has become extremely chatty. He's been babbling for a while, but he does it much more often and much louder than before. He almost always has something to say! Also, he is suddenly finding his big sister absolutely hilarious. All she has to do is laugh, talk move...whatever and he chuckles and chuckles. Of course Elise thinks this is great and is constantly hamming it up for him, trying to keep him laughing.

He has also become extremely grabby. Similar to babbling, he's been grabbing at things for quite a while, but now he is much more determined. He literally lunges for things out of no where, like he's going in for sneak attack, which is both hilarious and terrifying. This sudden lunge-grabbing has had disaster written all over it, as I usually walk around with him on my hip, multi-tasking (as only women can do). Now, as I walk and try to do things, he's picking up things off the counter, grabbing at the food as I am preparing it, reaching for the coffee as I pour it...it's all very dangerous, but luckily he has not hurt himself yet and I am now being much more careful about what I do while I am holding him.

He also shoves every single thing he touches into his mouth (whether it's someones finger, Ellie's head, a toy or whatever other random thing he is touching) which makes 90% of things in our house (and on my body) covered in this gross drool/snot mixture (his nose still runs constantly). It's like he's trying to be an apprentice to a slug, leaving his little trail everywhere he goes. No wonder everyone in this house keeps getting sick. I was just telling someone the other day that I have completely given up trying to not have schmootz on the shoulder of every shirt/jacket/sweater that I own. He gets me with his drool-snot nastiness every time I hold him, and with his grabby nature, putting something on your shoulder to protect your clothes is utterly useless. He just picks it up and drools all over it then throws it on the ground and goes right back to drool-snotting on your shoulder. He has also started disliking having his head being covered when I am trying to discreetly nurse him somewhere out and about. He constantly pushes the blanket off of him, as though refusing to be invisible.

In other developments, the sleep training seems to have worked! We had 3-4 extremely challenging nights, with lots of tears and anxiety (for Mommy and baby) but we made it through and since then any time he has woken up in the night (very few times) he has gone back to sleep relatively quickly and without a meal. Hurray! On the downside, when we first got him back to sleeping through the night, he was waking up every morning around 5:00am, ready to go for the day. That was almost, but not quite, as exhausting as waking up in the middle of the night. But luckily most mornings he wakes up around 6am. Much more manageable. He is also getting into a pattern with napping and is going down for naps much easier now that he's figuring out a way to soothe himself to sleep. He's getting to be such a big boy!

Happy Easter!

Our little Easter Bunnies

Ellie-isms February and March

There are four different colored candles sitting on our window sill and Ellie pointed out that there was one for each of us. She said she wanted the purple one, and that Lucas wanted the green one. She asked me which one I wanted, and said I'd like the blue one, to which she responded "Ok, you're the boss lady." (I promise I have never called myself this!)
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We were heading into the Museum one day and it was so windy it was difficult to walk up the ramp. I told Ellie it sure was windy to which she responded "Yeah, it really is a blustery day!"
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We were discussing what Ellie was going to have for a snack that day and she said she wanted some strawberries. I told her, "You've had too much fruit today. No more fruit." so she said "Well, hot dog is not a fruit."
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Out of no where, Elise points out to us "Humpty Dumpty was not being really careful."
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Elise was whining one evening that she didn't want to take a bath. I told her she didn't have to take a bath right now, but she'd have to take her bath when Daddy got home. She responds,
"But he's not home quite yet."
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I gave Ellie a piece of french bread and she was looking at it in an odd way, so I asked if she wanted me to cut the crusts off. She did, so I cut off the crust and handed it to her, and she exclaimed "Mommy, you did an excellent job!"
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Ellie asked Marty to play with her, but he was washing the dishes, so she asked me, but I was folding the laundry. We told her we'd play with her in a little bit. Marty came down a few minutes later and Ellie was sitting with Lucas, playing with him. Marty said "Are you playing with Ellie? That's really nice, Lucas!" Ellie jumps up, " That's really nice ME", she corrects.
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Luke was wearing an outfit with a picture of a wolf on it and I pointed out to Ellie that Lucas' middle name is Wolfe. I said "His name is Lucas Wolfe Molloy. His middle name is Wolfe. Do you know what your middle name is?", to which she reponds, "Is it kitty cat?"