9 Months Old and Making Mischief

Oh yes, its that time. The time when the baby becomes a force to be reckoned with. And Matteo is hitting it right on track.

Truthfully, 9 months is one of my favorite ages. The crawling means he can get into everything but he is so happy to explore on his own. And I am starting to get glimpses of the kind of person he's going to become now that he has this independence. He's curious, determined, affectionate, engaging and fun-loving. It's so nice getting to know him. Even while he is eating sidewalk chalk, shoes and paper.

He is learning to pull up, which means I have to kick the baby-proofing into high gear. Or any gear. My house is currently not baby-proofed at all We had to move his crib down from the highest setting to one of the lowest - another milestone!

Also, much to my satisfaction, he has learned how to take a sippy cup. We let him try the straw cups that Sebastian and Collette use and he was able to figure it out pretty quickly. Now, whenever he sees them with their milk, he tries to steal it away. I'm sure this will be a recurring theme throughout his childhood, for better or worse. For now, I'm just glad that I can have someone else feed him. Plans are in the works for an adult-only weekend away to celebrate my big 3-0. More on that later. :)

As far as his schedule, things are still pretty much the same. Two naps, goes to bed around 6:30 and gets up around 6/6:30 in the morning. It can be hard to get him up from his first nap in time for the twins' classes but so far we have managed to fit it all in and not disturb Matteo much.

All in all, 9 months is looking great! He is still my happy little boy.

I think he is going to have Collette's hair. I was looking at pics of Colie from this age and her was only just starting to curl. As you can see in the chair picture, he is rocking the faux hawk - that's au natural, folks. He's going to need a haircut soon. Oy. My baby is growing up!!

My Mini Menaces

When the kids are being mischievous, Billy will call them "amenaza" which is how you say menace in Spanish. Lately, they have been total amenazas, but in the cute way, not the way that makes you want to send them off to military camp.

Example 1: After getting up from their nap, Collette and Sebastian decided to play in my room. They seemed to be playing nicely enough, bring me all of their fathers shoes, one by one. A minute or so went by without a shoe delivery and I wondered what they were up to. Just then, they both ran back to me (I was in their bedroom with Matteo) both soaking wet! I asked them where they got the water and they escorted me to my bathroom, hopped into the shower and turned it on. Lovely. Did I mention that they can open doors now?

Example 2: Matteo is getting frisky as well! He is now able to move forward in his walker. This allows him to actually go after things he wants. The other day, he zoomed up the art easel, pulled off the giant paper and started eating it. But he won't baby food - go figure!

Like I said - menacing, but in the cutest of ways. I'm really loving both of these ages. Not looking forward to the terrible twos...

I didn't want to jinx it

That's at least one reason why my Valentine's Day post is 2 days late. The other being that I am a bad blogger.

Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful this year. No exchanging of gifts. Just a nice dinner out with me and Billy. Cards to one another. Flowers. The kids did some crafts:

Collette's Valentine to Daddy

But it was Sebastian who made this a special Valentine's Day. He gave me the gift of going a whole day without crying. To be honest, I'm not sure if that was the first time or not. But it was the first day that I ever noticed that he didn't cry. So, either way, it was a big deal for me. Maybe he is turning some sort of corner, developmentally. His language is doing much better but he is still progressing at his own, slow pace. Or maybe it's just his age. In which case, I hope this is more of a permanent shift and not just one of those phases. I can deal with crying every so often but everyday, multiple times a day crying fits over (seemingly) meaningless things is hard on me. Oh ya, and him.

By the way, yesterday was also a no-cry day. He almost lost it over a new car puzzle during our EI session but held it together. We'll see how today goes. So far, so good.

***

On a separate note, thanks for your input on the preschool thing. More on that later.

And the crying continues

This is one of those times where I openly solicit advice from my dear readers. I wrote last week about Sebastian's crying, one of those , "oh, being a parent is tough, huh?" kind of posts. But now I seriously feel like I have a problem. Or I think I do. I guess I'm not sure - that's part of the advice I seek.

Like I said in that earlier post, Sebastian has always been a crier. And when you have a baby, its so easy to chalk it up to being a "phase" or just part of that age. But it seems like with him, we never get out of it. To a certain degree, I can accept this. It seems that he is a just a sensitive boy. And he is allowed to be sensitive. I took up the advice I got in the last post and am reading some books on highly sensitive kids. Its helping, but truthfully, not that much.

Basically, I feel like I am not cut out to parent my son. And I feel like he can't enjoy "normal" activities because he gets so upset. I have brought up the issue with EI (a few months back) and they actually suggested letting him have his pacifier when he got upset. They said its age appropriate for a kid his age to have a comfort object and if that was his, and it's the only thing that helps him self-soothe, we should allow him to use it. So, he gets his binky whenever he needs it at home, in the car and in his crib. But I simply can't bring myself to let him have it in public. As if it's the scarlet letter of incompetent parenting. And it's in these public situations where we find ourselves in trouble.

Two good examples: First, we have been doing an EI playgroup since March(ish). The playgroup is very low key and parents stay the whole time. The first half hour is open play, which goes over quite well. No surprise there. The last half hour is circle singing time and that's when the crying starts. 6 months in, Sebastian still cries (and I mean wails, not whimpers or whines) every time we get to the parachute. No matter how much I prep him or remind him of what will happen, he loses his shit every time. And I know what his issue is: he wants to go underneath the parachute. But that doesn't happen until after we shake the parachute and after we go on top of the parachute. So he cries and cries and cries until its time to go underneath. Often, he is too upset by that point to even go under. I have tried holding him in my lap, reassuring him that it will be time to go under soon. I have tried ignoring him. I have tried removing him from the situation. I have tried counting down until its time. But nothing has stopped his anger over this.

The other new fit-inducing activity is gymnastics. The thing is, he likes gymnastics. He likes doing the obstacle course, walking on the balance beam, going down the slide. He especially likes the trampoline. And this is where things start to go south. Yesterday, he was on one the little trampolines. I told him he could have ten jumps and then it would be the next girl's turn. I counted to 10 (very slowly, something we do all the time at home with turn taking and has worked very well) and when I told him his turn was up he got off. But then he immediately wanted to get back on, demanding that it was his turn again. I explained to him that he could have anotehr turn when she was done. No dice. I explained to him that there was another trampoline in the room he could use. I even brought him over there and told him he could have a turn. No dice. He was completely distraught and not able to recover for about 20 minutes. Additionally, he got even more upset while we were in the big room because he didn't want to wait for his turn on the big trampoline. Like the parachute, this is an activity we do every week. Part of me feels like he should be getting used to it.

I'm at a loss. He wants to do these activities and have fun but he seems to sabotage himself. And I try to help him cope but nothing I do seems to make a difference. It would be easier if it were just about him but he has a twin sister and I can't do separate activities with them. I feel like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. Lastly, it doesn't help matters that he is the only child acting like this. Others may cry from time to time but he is the only one who does it every time over the same things. It's hard to not feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Will we ever get past it? Or will we struggle with this at every stage of his development until he moves out?

Cry Me A River

Oh, dear Sebastian. I love you but lately, you are making my job as your mommy really hard. Not even lately. Always. You are just a tough nut to crack.

Since he was a baby, Sebastian has always been my fussy baby. Still a good baby but definitely the fussier of the two. He had to be held a certain way, had to be rocked for a long time, had to be swaddled extra tight. I even wrote about his fussiness back when he was just a wee one. When I watch that video of him as a whiny 8-month old, I feel like not much has changed. He still cries that exact same way.

He loses his shoe. Cry.
I wipe his snotty nose. Cry.
The food looks suspect. Cry.
I take too long to get him in the swing. Cry.
I give his sister the yellow spoon that he wanted. Cry.
I won't let him go in the car at 8:30am for no reason. Cry.
Waiting at the the top of the stairs while I bring the baby down. Cry.
He can't reach his binky that he just threw. Cry.
I go downstairs to go to the bathroom. Cry.
Diaper change. Cry.

So, wiser moms, is there a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel? Or will he be whining that his graduation cap doesn't stay on his head?

Toddlers are weird

Just to get this out of the way, yes I'm still pregnant. Yes, that means I am 41 weeks and 1 day along. Tomorrow (Monday) we will try for the third time to get me into the hospital to be induced. I have nothing more to say about it at this point. But rest assured I will put up a post right before we leave for the hospital, one way or the other.

Anyway, to the topic of the post: Toddlers are weird. This one is mainly about Sebastian. Not that Collette doesn't have her adorable quirks but Sebastian is exhibiting a few that I really don't want to forget:

1. He will only eat from the kiddie spoons with yellow in them. We have 4 plastic spoons that they use for their morning oatmeal (they scoop and hold better than their PBKids metal spoons) and two have yellow in them; the other two do not. I can't remember when started to obsess over the yellow spoons but trust me, those are the only two he will use.
2. He is constantly kissing inanimate objects. First it was pictures (I taught them both to kiss a picture of their daddy), then it was stuffed animals but now it has progressed into the random. Like the table. Or the floor. Or a cup. So odd but still, so cute.
3. At dinner, he refuses to eat anything on a spoon (even a yellow one!) - it must be finger food or fork food. If he sees a bowl and a spoon waiting at the table, he starts to cry. If I take what's in the bowl (meat, veggies, rice, etc.) and put it on a plate with a fork, he runs right over to gobble it up.

And I know this list will only get longer as the toddler months continue! What weirdness are your toddlers displaying these days?

Summer Outings and Stranger Danger

It's hot here. I hate the heat. I didn't always but now that I have kids and am home all day in central A/C that doesn't work well, I'm not diggin' it so much. Being pregnant doesn't help. Anyway, the point of all this, other than to bitch a little, is that I have been on the lookout for cool activities to do this summer, especially when its just me and the kids. Mother Nature does not save heat and humidity for the weekend, as I remember well from my working days.

Yesterday, after a long nap for all three of us, I decided we should try to do a nature walk in the Fells. I used to take the dog there all the time before the twins were born and I think we may have done some walks there when they were very small. Since they have been so good at listening (for 19 month olds) and staying close to me, I thought we should give it a try. With all those tall trees, you could barely feel the heat of the sun - it was so nice. The kids played with rocks and sticks, stayed on the path when I reminded them, listened to birds and had fun pushing the empty jogging stroller.

On our way back to the car, we passed a family - three teen/pre-teen girls and their mom. We all said "hi', exchanged pleasantries, etc. As they were walking away, Collette walked over to one of the girls, tried to hold her hand and walk off with her! Now, I'm glad she is so friendly with new people, but good Lord! This child is an abduction waiting to happen. Gotta love her free spirit. :)

One of Each

Having boy/girl twins, especially as your first children, is generally viewed as wonderful, lucky thing.  So many people tell me that they always wanted to boy/girl twins, then they'd be done!  Old ladies tell me how perfect it is to have one of each.  Experienced moms tell me how lucky I am not to have two boys, or two girls - their thinking being that boys fight too much and girls are catty?  I'm not sure but I get the comment a lot. 

Anyway, I do love having one of each.  But in our case, it goes a step beyong just gender.  We have one Soto and one Georgoulis, too.  Collette had her fathers face from day 1, there is no doubt about that.  But she is also a little salvadorena in the making.  I could give her a spread of all her favorite finger foods and the one she will grab first are the little red beans, a salvadoran staple.  She also likes cheese, which isn't in itself salvadoran but beans with cheese certainly is a "plato tipico," especially for breakfast.  And Billy is counting down the days until we can give her some ceviche.

Sebastian is a Georgoulis boy, through and through.  He doesn't look like me so much, but bears a strong resemblance to his uncle and grandfather.  He also has the Georgoulis temperament - total momma's boy.  It's better than it used to be but there's no denying he got the gene.  He is also a little flirt, which is another trait he must have inherited from my dad.  If things keep going this way, I will truly have my work cut out for me.

It's fun to see the two sides of their family play out differently in them.  And as they get older, I'm sure we will notice lots of new things, too, plus things that are theirs alone.

Besides looks, what do you notice in your kids that might be inherited?