I Love 2-year-olds :)

I truly don't understand why people talk so badly of the "2's." Its true that there are rough times. Two year olds are testing boundaries, figuring out the world, and learning at astounding rates. I LOVE having a 2-year-old. I love our little Lady :) Abi amazes me every day with the things that she knows and the things that she says. We were at Kris' parents tonight and Abi saw something that Nana had - I guess it was a leprechaun playing the bagpipes and from the other room I heard, "Nana, is he playing the bagpipes?" How on earth does she know anything of bagpipes??? I can't keep up with all her learning! She knows all her letters (capitals and most lower case), can count to 20 (only missing 13 and 14), counts backward from 7-1, can do puzzles by herself, knows her way around the i-pod/i-pad much better than I do, memorizes books and "reads" them back to me. He imagination grows daily and keeps me in awe. I wish that I could remember every single moment... Reminds me that I need to keep up with the baby books and her "cute sayings" book... I'm so far behind and its so hard to catch up!!!

Sleeping Troubles :(

I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever get sleep again in this house... Abi was a harder baby in that she screamed for 4 months and never took more than a 45 min nap till she was 1 1/2, but tough times seem to be dragging on this time. The best thing the first time around was that Abi slept through the night at 8 weeks and never stopped so we were at least getting good rest at night. At just about 4 months Daniel was finally able to make it through the night without having to get up and eat at 4am, but he doesn't "sleep through the night." We are up with him anywhere from 3-7x's a night putting the Nuk back in and trying to get him comfortable to fall back to sleep. Often he still wakes up at for an hour or so at a time around 3am. What is that all about??? I finally had a thought a couple weeks ago - he was sleeping absolutely wonderfully during the day. He was taking 2-3 naps and his afternoon nap was 3-4 hours long. So I thought that maybe he was sleeping too much during the day and that was why he was up so early in the morning thinking he was done sleeping.... Having this genius thought I started waking him up from his naps so he would take just a 2hr nap in the morning and a 2hr nap in the afternoon and a 45min evening nap - but they say "never wake a sleeping baby!" What am I doing??? Seemed to work for a couple weeks in that he wasn't thinking he had to stay awake so early in the am (though still up several x's at night.) Now - we've just gotten to the point where he is still up multiple x's at night and will only sleep 45 min at a time during the day - he hasn't had a good nap in days... I don't even know what to do anymore. We have another issue - its a bundling issue... The only way to get him to sleep is to still bundle him. BUT - you have to leave one arm out so he doesn't freak out, lay him on his right side with a soft blanket by his face and a pillow behind his back so he doesn't roll over. He's teething so he wakes up and sticks his hands in his mouth and takes the Nuk out and then can't sleep. He's strong - the second he's at all awake he's all tangled in blankets and completely unwrapped... Tried leaving him unwrapped and he just plays and cries because he can't get to sleep that way... I feel as though I have no idea what I'm doing. We've been trying solid food. Little Man thinks that he's starving to death at his very tiny 17lbs 4oz, and can drink 8-9 oz of formula at a time. He's the same size at 4 months that Abi was at 6 months and drinks as much as a one year old. He has NO desire for solids though. I've been trying for almost a month now and it just ends with him crying and me frustrated. I finally thought that if he didn't like cereal, then maybe he'd like it better with fruit in it. He likes it but has no clue that he has to open his mouth to get it in and then thinks it isn't fast enough. So far I haven't been able to get more than a couple bite in before breakdown. I'm frustrated - but I love my son. I'm struggling, he's struggling - we all are... He started teething in earnest and is proving to be much more tough on him than it was on Abi. He's obviously in pain often and it makes me sad. Nothing seems to help it much either. Sadly I don't think any teeth are close to coming in - I can't see anything yet. I'm partly sad because after a few rough months in the beginning he had turned into a really happy little guy with a great personality... Teething has made him pretty miserable and the happy times have been fewer and farther between. I hope that once he gets a couple teeth in he will get a break to be happy again. Its been a rough couple days and I need an attitude adjustment... I've reached the point in sleep deprivation where I have had a headache everyday for a couple weeks, I feel like I'm in a constant fog, and I can hardly keep my eyes open during the day. I feel like things would be easier If I could just get ONE full night of sleep. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep seems like a dream straight from Heaven... ...and a complete impossibility. I'll keep hoping and praying...

Haha!!!

So... Yesterday Kris Dad and wife were coming to visit. He went out to buy coffee as we had none and left it on the counter. A little later He was doing dishes while I took a shower and Abi pulled up a chair to the counter to play. About half an hour before Kris' parents were supposed to be here, I went to put on a pot of coffee... but there was no coffee to be found. We searched the entire house for about half an hour turning everything upside down and inside out. Assuming that Abi had done something with it, I asked her where it was and her response was, "Its in your box, Mamma." I believed her but didn't have a clue WHAT box and she didn't seem to be able to show me so I decided that she must not really know. Well... after probably 45 min of looking in every single place in the house - Kris found it. It was INSIDE a cereal box in the cupboard. I had looked in the cupboard, but that box didn't look like it had ever been touched!!! I wonder what she was thinking when she did her clever little deed... :) MAN I love that kid!!! :)

4 Month Pic of the D Man!!

Once again its almost time for the next months pics and I'm just getting around to these! :) Here are Daniel's 4 month pictures!!! He's so stinkin cute :)

They said it would go faster the second time around. "They" were right - I totally can't believe Daniel is almost five months old!!

3 month pics etc...

Since Daniel will be four months old on Saturday and it will be time to do pictures again... I figured I should resist the urge to nap and post these pictures which are now a month old!! This first one is before the hair-cut. Poor little man is loosing all his hair in rapid order!
And this is right after his very first haircut! He looks like a totally different boy! I was afraid that I wouldn't like it, but I really do - I think its cute!

Once again I am in awe of just how quickly the time goes by. I can hardly stand that my little man will be 4 months old on Saturday! Yet - at the same time... I've come to realize that infants are VERY hard and I actually start to have a lot more fun right about this age! I sure love my babies!

Daniel has become a really good napper for the most part. I feel that I've finally got him figured out in that regard. He has this little soft "bear-blanket" that he turns his face into and somehow the softness puts him to sleep! Night time is another story... I feed him around 7:30 and put him down. He sleeps wonderfully for about 5 hours and the he's up at 1am, at 3am and at 5am... Usually its just a pacifier check, a re-wrap and back to sleep, but it still means me being up several times a night... By 5am I have to feed him and then he goes back down till about 7:15. Some nights, though, he is up for an hour at a time and I have no idea why... Oh, how I long for a full night's sleep!!!

Its been a rough week at the Milo house... We got another foot of snow and what do you know - the snow-blower died! All the snow combined with the lack of insulation in the attic has cause terrible ice build-up and the rain gutter on the front of our house is being torn right off. We've had some ants in the house that we couldn't seem to get rid of as well and finally had to call an exterminator yesterday... I hope that is the end of that! This is all frustrating and disheartening. I find myself a little down trodden and yet at the same time I'm amazed by God's faithfulness!! We just got our taxes done last week and found out we'll be getting a wonderful return. God's timing is amazing. Hopefully we'll be able to use the majority of that, though, to spend on a newer and larger vehicle. We really need something bigger and want to get it before we have any more trouble with Kris' car!!