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!