Just when you think you know it all...or a least something...Ah, forget it.

So after having two kids, you have a few tricks up your sleeve, a few tools in your belt. Then you have Number Three and God thinks it's funny that you think you know what's going on. 
This week has been momentous in the life of The Babe.  He has gotten tooth #2, learned how to crawl AND how to pull up to his feet. He has been very close to crawling for some time now, he just hasn't been able to put it all together.  Who woulda thought that something as simple as a stuck toy would make the gears click? 

Now that he's officially mobile, he has decided that he's going to venture out into the big, wide world: The Kitchen. He only crossed the threshold into the kitchen twice before, even though he could army-crawl very well.  Today he is my shadow at the sink. 

At our old house, there was a small, definite path to and from the kitchen.  One gate and three closed doors later, the Family Room was a baby-safe area.  Here at the new house, the space is slightly too large for a gate, so here comes Babe.  Luckily, there is a pocket door at the top of the stairs, so I don't have to worry about that. 

I remember Maddie learning how to crawl. I got home from work and Ryan showed me mauled pink rubber ducky.  He had let her chew it as a "treat" when she would crawl correctly.  He was SO PROUD!  It took her longer to crawl than Owen, maybe 8 or 9 months because she could roll everywhere so well that she really didn't care to learn.  I don't know where she gets her stubbornness from.  Owen is at the age where I can't remember anything from Ben.  I was in a cast and miserable and I know I wrote some stuff down, but poor kid, mommy was not in her right mind.  I do  know that he was earlier, closer to 6 months.  Owen splits the difference of everything Maddie and Ben did.  Maddie got her tooth at 6 months, Ben at 8, Owen at 7.  I could have predicted it. 

The Babe is also not sleeping quite through the night. His sibs were by and before 6 months.  So I'm still feeling the sleep deprivation.  He actually slept better at 3 months!
He doesn't eat baby food.  Nothing pureed or mushy.  I felt bad about not making it myself for Maddie and Ben, and when I do make it for Owen, the kid won't eat it. Huh. So much for Mommy guilt.  He also learned his pincer grasp on Thursday. Now he can feed himself, which is awesome.  Here we come, Cheerioland!!

 It's amazing how cool it is to watch something you made grow into a person.  It's frustrating, challenging, exhausting, but at the end of 18 years, maybe we'll get a break.  And hopefully we've done a good enough job that we won't have to worry.  Or not too much.  Who'm I kidding? I will never stop worrying!!

Elusive sleep

(It might as well be called the "elusive 2 seconds to do anything" post, as it took me 35 minutes to get beyond the title, but that's another post!)

Getting a baby to sleep is a delicate operation of skill and silence. While the baby is tired, it may fight the inevitable closing of the eyes for reasons unknown. This leads to much fussing, crying and thrashing around. After what may seem like hours of patting, bouncing, 'shhh'ing, feeding, changing and anything else you may come up with in desperation, the baby's eyes flutter closed. At this point, you may feel like praying desperately (something like "Oh, please God, let him stay asleep!:), but prayer rarely works, since God has "been there done that" and he thinks this is funny.
Now comes the elaborate dance to lay the child down. If you are standing, the baby will immediately recognize the transition to a sitting position, no matter how careful you are. If you plan on laying the infant down, you now have to walk the 20 miles it seems to take to get to the younglings room. Every step creaks, every noise is magnified. When you finally get to the crib, you realize that the position you are holding your offspring is counter intuitive to laying them down. Your arms are wrapped around the child in a way that will jar them to wakefulness. You will stand there for a few minutes, working out this complicated procedure and finally coming to the conclusion that you will " just do it and get it over with". This rarely works, unless the infant is deeply asleep, which infants rarely are. Most likely, you will have to set the child down on your arms as they are holding it, and them slowly slide your arms out. Your sweaty skin will stick slightly to the baby's skin, but this won't be an issue. You are finally free, the baby is quiet. You sigh in relief, smile at the tiny person who has just so recently been the cause of much irritation. It's easier to love them when they're sleeping. You turn, and your first step hits that one squeaky floor board in the nursery. The fruit of your loins awakens and wails, and your long journey begins again.