Favorite (baby) Things - The Lovey

I was thinking that it has been a while since I've posted any baby things. When I first started this blog, that was one of the things I wanted to do -- keep a record of our favorite baby accouterments for future reference. At any rate, here is our "lovey" installment of favorite things.

Children will, naturally, choose something for a lovey that they like. Different children have different aesthetic preferences (in my completely unscientific opinion) and each will soothe him/herself differently. Eleanor, after a couple of months of protest, took a serious liking to the pacifier. Henry, despite our best efforts, only took the paci long enough for me to write this post and hasn't been interested in it since. However, both children have found something to snuggle with at night.

Eleanor picked out her Blankie and Dear Giraffe. (I'm giving them proper names, because that is what they deserve.) Blankie was a small blanket made from the leftover yarn from a lovely sweater and hat set made by our longtime neighbor, and baby-shower-hostess extraordinaire, Mrs. P. Now, I should mention that after 2.5 years, Blankie in no way resembles the small fluffy orange blanket that we received. However, that is because it has been so well loved through good days and bad.

The day Blankie was received:


Blankie (the orange one in the foreground) in a recent photograph by Eleanor:



Dear Giraffe, or Giraffey as he is sometimes known, was a gift from Uncle Bobby. I will never forget the day that she first set eyes on Giraffe, it was like love at first sight. She fell right on top of him and started gleefully laughing. Giraffe is a Gund stuffed animal, and though somewhat floppier in the neck and worn looking, has held up remarkably well to all of the stroller rides, diaper changes, and carseat time that Eleanor has dished out.

Eleanor with her two favorites in the new big bed:


Henry has only recently settled into his lovey. Thankfully, he really seems to like his own little giraffe. I had tried several different things, a small sized blanket that I made for him, various stuffed animals, a wooden rattle, but nothing really held his attention. Then, while we were shopping for our double stroller, I saw this little thing -- a sort of giraffe head on a soft cloth blanket body -- and decided to give it a try. I figured because I thought it was so cute he would surely ignore it completely. Much to my surprise and delight, he actually thought it was cute too. Funny that both kids have latched on to giraffes, could that be because I like them? Anyway, Henry's is a MiYim organic toy (I know, I'm a greenish yuppie), and it is really sweet. I don't have any pictures of him with it yet but it looks like this, only slightly more loved:

Midnight Adventure

We had a nice weekend planned in Shenandoah at Big Meadows Lodge. We traveled out on Friday, stopping along the way to let the kids have some fresh air and a nap in the stroller. Skyline drive was lovely, as usual, even with a little bit of rain. I even saw a black bear in the woods as we drove along. We arrived at Big Meadows in the early afternoon and checked into our room. I would say this is really where the adventure began. We entered the room (#13), adjacent to the main lodge by way of a steep narrow staircase. It was basically the attic, though it did have a fireplace. And, instead of the two adjoined rooms the woman on the reservations line had mentioned it was one very small, extremely hot room with a double bed.

We managed to get everything sorted out. The heat was on, so that got turned off. The adjoining room was actually #14 -- equally small but with two twin beds -- across a landing of four stairs. While not ideal, we figured that we could put the kids in one room and I could sleep with them. At least that way Vince could actually get a bit of sleep after a long week of work.



We played around all afternoon at the playground and near the lodge. We saw some deer and the view from Blackrock. We had dinner at the Wayside, which included some amazing sweet potato fries with maple butter.

Then bedtime arrived. We had taken every possible measure to make the hotel room feel as much like home as possible, including bringing every blanket and pillow from Eleanor's bed. We got them down to sleep after some cajoling and everything seemed to be going fine. Until, someone from the lodge came in and wanted to check room #14 for a lost article from the previous inhabitants. Ugh. Henry was wide awake wanting to see what was happening and Eleanor was a bit unsettled by the whole thing as well. Needless to say, the gentleman didn't find anything other than two tired babies.



So, at this point, I was starting to get a bit frazzled. I really try hard to roll with the punches but I just wanted this to be a nice retreat from everyday life at home and it was starting to get all muddled. Henry did manage to go back to sleep, as did Eleanor. I climbed into bed shortly thereafter not knowing how long I might have until everyone was awake again. Turns out, not long. Eleanor woke up worried about her daddy and needing some water, which in turn woke Henry again. Then, Henry make the executive decision to stay awake for several more hours. By 12:30 am, I went across the landing to ask for Vince's help. We looked helplessly at each other and decided to drive home for fear that with Henry screaming we might never be allowed to come back.



We packed up the car in record time, tossed the keys on the reception desk and hopped in the car. Eleanor half asleep and shaking in the cool night air as I carried her to the car said, "Its so dark." Right she was. Henry was instantly asleep in his seat and Eleanor was able to get a bit of rest as well. However, Vince and I kept our eyes on the road. In his words we were in an "animal obstacle course". After passing a possum, myriad deer, two bobcats (or some such animal -- hard to tell in the dark but definitely cat-like), more deer and nearly hitting a sweet fox with black socks, we managed to make it back to 211, the main drag back towards the city. We decided to take a "direct route" to 66 instead of following 211, which ended up being a long-cut instead of a short-cut. I have never been so happy to see 66 in all my life. In fact, driving on a virtually traffic free 66 at 3 am was actually almost enjoyable.

We made it home into our comfortable beds and were happy to wake up in a familiar place. Yesterday involved lots of sleeping and thankfully, Henry obliged us last night with an all-the-way-through sleep. Hooray. We'll just have to try again another time for a weekend away.

Sleep Henry and Smile

Henry is sleeping fairly well these days. Though there are still moments when he has to be carried around until he finally gives in. Grandaddy is especially good at handling this particular situation.



The good news is, though he still wakes us at night, when he does wake up for the day or from a nap, he is usually in such a good mood. Makes me smile to come into the room and see his cute little face light up.

The New Arrivals

The two new arrivals in our household have been keeping us up late nights and generally trying every last ounce of our patience. For some reason, they are unexpectedly difficult, maybe because they came just at the same time. I suppose we should just be thankful that they have come at all, but sometimes in the middle of the night when Henry is screaming we all mumble bad words under our breath (or occasionally out loud). So, here are the new arrivals as they make their first appearance:

Quote of the Day

Eleanor came out into the living room at about 7:15 this morning (very late for her) and declared, "I had a GREAT nap." If only Henry had slept so well!

Can't Write. Too Tired. OK, just a little.

Henry and Eleanor (mostly Eleanor) kept us on our toes last night. So much so that I am too tired to actually put together any coherent thoughts. Yet I'm writing anyway. I know, makes no sense.

I just wanted to make a few notes on Henry's developmental milestones. He's recently, in the last week or so, started rolling from back to front. He is able to sit like a tripod for a bit and even sit up straight for a few seconds at a time. Won't be long before all of that is old hat. He is raking with his hands and it even seemed (maybe just due to my overtired stupor) that he was trying to use his pincer grasp this morning. Everything is going straight into his mouth, including some new foods. We've moved past rice cereal and he's tried banana and pear. Seems to like the pear a lot.

And, while I'm at it, a few funny turns of phrase that Eleanor has been using lately. She says "really" all the time: really tired, really cold, really funny, really scary, etc. Another favorite is "maybe": maybe this one, maybe just one more, etc. She is working on sorting out her pronouns as well. She still says "You are really heavy", instead of "I am really heavy", when I am carrying her and she wants me to put her down. She has, however, wrapped her mind around the concept of "mine", even though she still says "mine eyes" or "mine giraffe".


So, to wrap up this sleep deprived babble, I thought I'd put up some pics of Henry and Eleanor, each at about 6 months, just for fun. I don't think they look much alike:





(Would you look at the hair on that girl?!)

Photos of One and the Other

I took this picture of Eleanor the other day because I thought it was hilarious and adorable that she had fallen asleep with her book. Then, to be fair to Henry, I took a boatload of pictures of him being cute too. Here are a few:

Hooray for Sleep! (Part 2)

Henry slept for 9 hours the past two nights. He wakes up with a huge, well rested grin on his face. We will hope that this good sleeping sticks around at night, and that his daytime naps stretch out a bit. It is amazing how a predictable routine, which includes lots of sleep, can make everyone happier and less stressed.

A Nightlight for Henry

We recently got a nightlight for Henry and it is the most fun! After looking at lots of different night lights, I settled on the Mobi TykeLight (in green) for several reasons.

1. It is portable. I love Eleanor's nightlight, it was mine when I was little. However, it is in her room and isn't movable since it needs to be plugged in. Also, it is the shape of a rather large and unwieldy old woman's shoe -- the one who had so many children she didn't know what to do. The TykeLight is a very clever design, it sits on a recharger during the day and then at night you just pick it up and set it where you want it to be. Lately it has been sitting in the hallway, guiding me to Henry when he is ready to nurse. Eleanor gets a kick out of it too, she usually picks it up in the morning and brings it into our room.

2. It has two light settings. The settings are not all that different but if a little extra light is needed in the middle of the night to clean up some sort of mess or another, the TykeLight does the job. The only complaint I have is that when it is recharging on the base you cannot turn it on. However, if the power happens to go out, the light automatically goes on -- a nice feature in our house where we lose power at least once a week (maybe a bit of an exaggeration).

3. It is cute. I know, very vain on my part, especially since Henry could care less.

The Pacifier - Love it or hate it, it's working for us!

I know that pacifiers are a controversial topic but, in my opinion, they are great. Here are our experiences with the paci:

Eleanor was so fussy when she was small. We tried everything to calm her down the first few months, including several different types of pacifiers, which she vehemently rejected. At about four months, for whatever reason, we offered the paci to her again and she decided she LOVED it. The Mam paci to be specific. From that moment on, she used it for bedtime and nap time and for rare occasions during the day such as sickness or long car/airplane trips. It has soothed her (along with Giraffe and Blanket) on many occasions and I am thankful for it. I know we are getting to the phase where she really should give it up, but I find myself wanting to hold on for just a little longer because it comforts her.



Henry is at least as fussy as Eleanor, if not more so. I don't know why we thought that baby number two would be easier -- maybe because we had done it before or maybe because we have seen friends with babies who are calm and happy from early on. Not the case though. We love our little howler (yes, he as graduated from squeaker to an official howler) but I was hoping that he would take to the paci a bit more quickly than Eleanor did in order to give him, and us, some relief from the constant colic-y wail.



We tried the Mam pacis with him but he did not seem to think they were that great. And, I had some reservations about getting him hooked on them. When Eleanor was little, she managed to get it stuck sideways in her mouth a couple of times and I lost a lot of sleep worrying that she was going to choke. Also, they have several parts, which I always worried might come apart and, again, pose a choking hazard. More recently, I have been reading about Bisphenol-A (BPA) a chemical used to make plastics for products including baby bottles, sippy cups and pacifier shields, which also sort of freaks me out. (There seems to be much dispute over this issue but here are some examples of the resources I've been reading: blogs - click here and here, news media - click here and here.) I was a worried first time momma with Eleanor and now I am just as much of a worry wart with Henry. So, I decided to try another kind of paci, the Soothie, for him. It is large and round (eliminating worry #1), all one part (eliminating worry #2) and made of silicone (eliminating worry #3 - as far as I can tell). I am sure I'll come up with something else to worry about, but for now I feel rather at peace. He seems to really like it so far. I am hoping this will lead us to more peaceful days and nights. Maybe it will.

Hooray for Sleep!

Last night our little Squeaker miraculously slept from 9:30 pm to 3:30 am! And then, after nursing, until 7:15 am! I think that kids know just when the sleep deprivation is really getting to their parents and they kick the sleeping in just before the parents totally lose it. In this case, I think we also had a few helpful little things that made our Squeaker sleep better.

First, he is one month and one week old now, which means he has gained some weight since birth and probably doesn't need to eat as frequently. We will find out how much he weighs at his two month check up in 3 weeks but I have read that after babies reach 12 or 13 pounds, they are more likely to sleep better.

Second, our friend Sarah let us borrow an Especially for Baby inclined sleep positioner to try out. We thought that maybe since our Squeaker seems to get fussy after feeding that he has a bit of reflux and the slight incline might help. It seems to be working very well after two nights of use. We have a mountain of baby and toddler stuff but this is one thing that we never bought -- so thank you Sarah!

Third, we have been reading a book that Vince's aunt gave us as a gift for our Howler. It is called Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping your Child go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy by Kim West and Joanne Kenen. This book was a good guide for us while we were teaching our Howler to sleep and the same techniques seem to be coming in handy with the Squeaker. Like any parenting advice there are probably a million ways to do it but we have taken what we like from her practices and made them our own. I think the things that have worked with the Howler and now seem to be working with the Squeaker are: putting him down drowsy but awake, nursing upon waking instead of nursing to sleep, and keeping to some sort of a schedule.

We are most likely not out of the woods yet in terms of night wakings but I think this is a good start. And, there is nothing like several consecutive hours of good solid sleep to make the parents feel refreshed and capable!