#oneundertwo #oneovertwo updates

Obviously, we were all waiting with baited breath for some updates on my kids.

I just need to say...I have some cute kids. 

I know I'm being repetitive, but these ages are just SO much fun. Royce is finally at that interactive baby stage he just loves being sung to, funny faces, and attempting to grab toys, and Dalton is just constantly communicating and now he actually wants to get my attention to tell me things. It's amazing.

Dalton

Age: 2! We've officially moved into measuring his age in years. No one really says their kid is "one", it's always 14 months or 20 months, etc. But once you're two, you're just two, maybe two and a half, but no one wants to hear that your kid is 26 months or whatever.
Weight: 27.5 pounds
Height: 33.5 inches
Clothing: Awkward stage - 2T clothes slide off his flat little butt (clearly he didn't inherit that from me), but most 18 month things are getting tight.

One size fire chief hats still fit great

Diapers: We use disposables overnight and he's solidly in size 5. We've been dealing with horrific diaper rash lately that makes me want to burn all the diapers, but then I remember the alternative is potty training, and then I think maybe diapers aren't so bad (except they are).
Eating: Some days he subsists on milk and air, other days he eats all the things. Yesterday I brought avocado egg salad and triscuits to the zoo for us to share for lunch, and I got about 3 bites. He ate the whole thing! I put four eggs in there! He was still hungry when my friend gave him a muffin like 20 minutes later. One thing that I'm really proud of him for is that he will try anything we give him. Our philosophy is that it's our job to serve it and you don't have to eat it, which is currently working well (and like all parenting, if it stops working, we will figure out something else).
Cool stuff he does: Walking up and down the stairs without holding on to anything like a pro, jumping, throwing away trash (so far he's pretty accurate with what qualifies as "trash") talking more and more (this probably won't cease to amaze me for awhile), especially using two word phrases and "no", which he just learned to say about a week before his second birthday. He had it practiced to perfection within hours of learning it. I know it will get old very fast so there's no need to be all "just wait", but right now the way he says it is the cutest and it's nearly impossible not to laugh every single time.

He also just had his first dentist visit!

Adjustment: He is completely obsessed with Royce (still), kisses him all the time, runs over to give him his pacifier if he cries, helps pick out his clothes, hands him toys and wipes him up (just randomly grabs a baby wipe any time he can and says "wash wash" while rubbing it all over Royce), tickles his feet, brushes his hair, and, just recently tries to imitate sounds and actions Royce makes. He's been randomly licking me and Eric, which we thought was so weird. Just tonight he started doing it right after Royce had grabbed my arm to gnaw on it, and I finally put two and two together and realized he's doing it because he sees Royce constantly putting our fingers/arms/any body part he can get into his mouth!

Obsessions: Any vehicle but especially fire trucks, lawnmowers, Mickey mouse clubhouse songs (he got a Mickey that plays the songs for his birthday and he barely put it down the whole weekend), eggs, cooking, playing in the sink.
Sleep: God help you if you wake this child, which we have to do, every weekday morning. You would think that love of sleep would apply at bedtime, but no, we're pretty sure he doesn't know that he can just lay down and go to sleep without at least a couple token yells to let us know he's not happy with it. He loves his bedtime routine though, and happily turns off his light and generally lays down and talks to himself for a bit after his angry period before going to sleep. His ideal sleep schedule is something like 8pm-8am, but we leave for work around 7am so...still working on that one. Naps are hit or miss, sometimes he takes one at home, sometimes he doesn't, if he does it's usually around an hour or so. Daycare naps are much better and more consistent.

Overall, he's just amazing.

Royce

Age:  4 months, 5 months on Thursday
Weight: 14lbs, 5oz at his last checkup - probably at least 15 by now!
Height: 24.5 inches
Clothing: With the exception of a few stretchy/big outfits, he's in 6 month clothes. I just put away all his newborn stuff (finally) and cried. It all seemed impossibly tiny already and even though it was just a few months ago, I couldn't imagine Royce fitting in to them ever.
Diapers: Royce seems to do much better with cloth so I don't even remember the last time I put a disposable on him, daycare uses size 2s for him.

Eating: Royce gets three 4oz bottles at daycare, and he usually has all 3, although some days just two. I sat with my fingers on the keyboard for a minute trying to figure out what to say about nursing frequency, but there's no rhyme or reason. I nurse on demand when we are together, so sometimes he goes more than 3 hours and sometimes not even an hour. He's nursing more often at night now - 4 month sleep regression? Daycare starting? Growth spurt? Who knows, he's a baby. The doctor says he's growing well, so, whatever, it's working!

Somewhere around 6 months we will start solids. We've been putting him in the bumbo to join us for dinner, and he definitely enjoys it and is starting to eye our food!

Toddler hand photobomb

At Royce's four month checkup, the doctor said to me "isn't it amazing that's all from you?". And I agreed, but didn't really think about it at the time. When I got home, it sunk in, and it is pretty incredible. A year ago, he was a ball of cells in my belly, the side of an apple seed (if that). Now he's over 14 pounds of baby chunk, grown completely, entirely from my body. Nothing else, I've been solely sustaining him since he existed. On one hand, it's the most mundane thing - we often say "everyone's done that", but being conceived, grown, and born is one of very few things that literally EVERYONE has done. On the other hand, when you actually see your body create a person - it's pretty incredible.

ALL ME

Sleep: We tried this new thing with Royce where we had him nap in the room that is actually entirely designed just for him (designed = he had a crib and his clothes are stored in there). I'm sad to say that he's pretty much past the point where he can just catnap wherever. He's old enough now that he is noticing and observing his surroundings, and while that makes his awake time much more fun, it also means I can't just stick him in the ergo or the bouncer and assume he'll fall asleep and I can just go about my business (usually, playing with Dalton).

Our daycare was on vacation last week, so my parents graciously came all the way down to Maryland (from NY) and watched our kids all week for us. On Sunday, Royce seemed tired and ready to nap, so I thought, what the hell, let's use that crib that's in his room. I'd put him in there a couple times before to try it but he had never really gone for it. He seemed fine with napping there, so that's what my parents did all week, and now I guess we've officially transitioned to the crib? He is still in the rock and play at night, despite the fact that his feet are almost hanging over the edge. He likes it and I don't want to mess with a good thing. His room is on a different floor of the house from ours, so I don't plan to put him in his crib at night until he's sleeping through the night, because I don't need to be going up and down the stairs at 2am.

At night, he has a similar bedtime routine to Dalton, and probably most babies: bath, massage, songs, pjs, swaddle, book, sometimes he nurses (depending when he last ate, sometimes he isn't interested), and down he goes, somewhere between 7-8, but I'm starting to notice the closer we can get it to 7, the better.

Milestones: This happy little guy now laughs! He rolls from belly to back all the time, pushes up on his arms, grabs toys, and is so so close to rolling from back to belly.

Not a newborn anymore. At all.

Obsessions: Royce now LOVES the exersaucer and screams with excitement when he is in it. He is a music lover and gets a huge smile whenever he is sung to, even though my voice is certainly nothing to smile about. He takes after his dad being a people person and just lights up when strangers compliment him in the grocery store. 

TL:DR These boys are the absolute best, I love them more than anything in this world and they make me smile pretty much nonstop.