Grayson is now 5.5 weeks old (the pictures below were taken on his one month b-day) and he is still huge. This big guy is proving to be a pretty easy baby (thank goodness!) in that he sleeps so well at night that I am able to function really well during the day (a good night sleep is pretty much the best I could ask for from a newborn). Harrison and Annelise seem to be adjusting well to the addition. For the most part they are pretty good with him and try to be helpful (though, Annelise shoving the paci in Grayson's mouth usually doesn't help pacify the little one). They both love their little brother and don't miss a moment to show him off to anyone who will listen. I like to show him off, too, because he is just so darn cute:
Grayson is growing so much and has recently started smiling! Baby smiles make all of the hard work worth it. We go in for his next well-visit in 3.5 weeks.
In other news, Harrison and I have been taking about 20 minutes each day to learn letters or work on fine motor skills (he seems to be a lefty, but still doesn't have a clear dominant hand, and, in either case, his fine motor skills are lacking). We've been working on recognizing letters and their sounds in alphabetical order (because it's easier for me to keep track this way) using the BOB books and so far his letter recognition has really taken off. He even suddenly recognizes letters AND numbers that we are not working on. We've learned only A-F, and if you ask him what letter a word starts with that begins with one of those, he can tell you (he still has trouble remembering what C sounds like, and, a couple of times, he got confused between the A and E sounds). Side note: we are working on short vowel sounds and the "kah" sound for C only, the other sounds will come later. So, I know my son is probably not unique in his intellectual skills, but I sure am impressed! As far as fine motor skills: we have strung beads, built tall towers out of small blocks, removed and stuck small stickers, experimented with a variety of writing utensils (chalk, large and small crayons, dry erase markers), and (the most difficult) began working on scissor skills by using scissors to cut play-dough. If you have any other ideas, we'll be happy to play whatever games you can think of.
Annelise has been learning lots of new words and phrases (though, about half of what she says is still a mystery to me). Her first phrases were "What happened, .....?" (she always states the name of the person she is talking to when she says that), and "I got it" (which she says whenever she is going to "take care" of something, especially things that she is not supposed to do, like: pick up the baby, fill her own cup, take off her own diaper, etc). Speaking of taking off her diaper, I am hoping this is over now, but Annelise "had" a phase where pretty much every time I went to get her up from sleeping or bed, she would have her diaper off, and if it was a poopy diaper, then poop would be all over herself, sheets, and crib railings. It was terrible! We started putting her to sleep in onesies, but she figured that out. Then we used packing tape on her diaper...it took a while, but soon the diapers were coming off again. We tried both, the tape and the onesie, and we even taped her onesie up a a "suspender-like" fashion. She never figured that out, but we were running out of tape, so, based on some advice, I went to Children's Place and bought out their thin footed zip-up pajama selection. We put them on her and safety pinned the zipper. By the next day she had figured out how to put her arms into the sleeves and get her diaper off from inside the pajamas. Now, the sleeves get rolled up and the pj's zipper is safety pinned so that any extra material around the neck area is pinned tight, too, and so far no issues. I am also much quicker to get her if I hear a peep in the morning or after nap (she doesn't usually cry when she gets up, so I have to really listen for her...I'll even go in and check on her every few minutes around the time she is normally up). Usually, Annelise is my crazy, full-of-energy, wild-child, but she is pretty well-behaved (because she hates to be in trouble), but these poop-filled days were really making me go insane, so I'm really, really hoping we are passed this. And one day, for payback, I will tell her future boyfriends how often I had to scrub poop out of that girl's hands and mouth (yuck!).
Besides the poop-scapades, I am really enjoying my time at home and not really looking forward to going back to work, but it's an evil necessity. Luckily, I like my job (I just like my kids more).
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