We have a crawler!

B has officially started to crawl on all fours as of July 4, 2009! It amazing how far they can come in just a couple of days. I remember that P didn't start crawling until he was almost 9 months old and then waited until he was almost 15 months to walk. For some reason, I don't think B will wait that long to walk. He is such a mover and a shaker.

B has also mastered feeding himself finger foods. He loves Cheerios, watermelon, Happy Baby Organic Puffs, and Mum Mum's. He will eat almost anything, except bananas and squash, he is not a fan of those.

We also did a trial run at the babysitter's last week. Both boys went for two days in a row. B has never been to a babysitter besides family, so I was nervous how he would react. But he was just fine! I should have known he would be ok, he is such a happy, go-lucky baby. He even took a bottle for her, of course it had breastmilk in it. I have tried before to leave him with my mom for a couple of hours while I am out and he will not take a bottle of formula. Period! He will take one sip and spit it out. So, apparently breastmilk is the key to my little man's heart. :)

*P and Papa C checking out the pond at GiGi's house*

P also said the word "pool" yesterday! We were at my uncle's for the 4th and he has a pool. P just came out of no where and said "pool!" Now I know he can say "P" words and there is no excuse why he won't say "please." We have been trying to get him to say "please" and "thank you" for some time now and he just refuses to say them. He has never tried to repeat us or imitate us using words at all, but I figured by now he would be saying them.

*P and cousin K watching a video on the cell phone*

In other news, I start back to work tomorrow. It is a bittersweet feeling, I am excited to go back and get into the routine again with adult conversation, but at the same time I will miss my babies tremendously!!

The explosion!

Our garden has definitely taken off rather well, a little too well for me being the gardener. I usually kill everything as soon as I plant it. But I guess my luck has changed for this year.

I had to take out an entire row of cucumbers and give them to my inlaws because they were getting so big that they were overtaking my jalapenos and green onions. I still have 7 cucumber plants left, which is probably more than enough. I also counted how many green tomatoes we have on our plant tonight and I got 21! Good thing I LOVE fried green tomatoes and regular tomatoes or else we would be in trouble. The green onions are coming along, I have already harvested about 8 or so and ate them up. The radishes I also harvested and ate all of them as well.

*Green Onions*

*Tomatoes*

I also planted an eggplant plant this year and I am very curious to see how this thing grows. It is getting tall but I haven't quite figured out yet how this heavy eggplant is going to grow on this tall plant without weighing it down. But, I may be surprised!

*Eggplant*

I think the thing I love best about my garden is that is it all natural. All of my plants are growing so well and all I used was organic soil and compost. You don't have to use a bunch of chemicals to get the results that you want. I can't wait to harvest more of our veggies!

A quick update

Wow, it feels like forever since the last time I blogged. Let's see, what has happened in the mean time?

P broke his arm and yes, I feel terrible about it! Those Target shopping carts will get you every time. The good news is, he only needs to have his cast on for 4 weeks. That means, it comes off 2 days before we leave for Mississippi to see dad. Which also means, P can swim while we are there!! I was so worried about that. We got a condo on the coast and I was hoping he would be able to enjoy the water and the pool.

P has also been talking so much more. He now says, "Look, mama, look!" Although it sounds more like "wook, mama, wook!" He says "brother" and will call people their names. However, he seems to think that all males are "papa" and all females are "nay nay" and he will ask where they are constantly. He will also bring me my phone and say "papa", which means that he wants me to play a video of daddy.

B has been doing great! He is maneuvering himself all around and is just about crawling. He can get up onto his hands and knees from his belly and he rocks back and forth. He will even hop his knees forward when he rocks. Now he just needs to get the arms and the legs together and he will be off. I can't believe that he will be 8 months old in about a week. He is growing up too fast! He has been babbling so much, he loves the "ba ba" sounds right now.

I have decided to return to work. I start back next week at my old job. I am nervous about B going to the babysitter for the first time, but I know that he will be in good hands. I have been working with both boys about setting a daily routine for naps and bedtime. So far, it has worked out pretty good. B is also getting much better about sleeping in his crib. It is much less of a fight now and he sleeps a good portion of the night in his own room. Now, if I could just sacrifice some sleep and feed him and put him back to bed instead of bringing him to sleep with me, he would probably sleep all night in there. That is my goal for this week.

We also got a new Canon camera. Our old point and shoot camera was starting to produce blurry pictures no matter which setting it was on. We received a $100 gift card in the mail from Dell, so I got us a new, better camera with it so I can capture the boys "in the moment" instead of 5 minutes after the moment has passed. :)

First harvest

I got my first harvest out of our garden. I picked a few radishes today when I was out checking the garden. The cucumbers have about taken over the garden, I may have to purge some for the sake of the other plants. One of the cucumber plants has also started to creep out of the garden into the yard! Yikes!

On the move

Ever since B started to sit on his own, he has been trying to move. Just recently, he has started to get on his hands from the sitting position and move himself around. He just does not sit still anymore. When he is on his tummy, he scrunches his knees up and lunges himself forward. It won't be long now before he is up and crawling. I tried to get a video of him doing the scrunch, but all I could get was him moving from the sitting position.

Last night, he was laying in bed with me and he was lunging for his pacifier. He moved all around that bed. In fact, today I went to get him after he woke up from a nap and he was facing the opposite direction in the bed. Even more reason to move him back to his crib.

Speaking of his crib, the transition is not going so well. He is a very persistent little guy about sleeping next to mommy. Nap time seems to be the hardest, he is just not a fan at all of being put in the pack 'n play. For bedtime I can usually nurse him in our bed and then once he is asleep I move him to the pack 'n play. It's especially frustrating when he will only sleep for maybe 20-30 minutes in his crib, but will take a 2 hour nap in our bed. But I keep trying, hoping one day it will be easier and work.

I have also introduced a sippy cup to B. He has figured out how to get the water out of it and loves to play with the cup. It has become a source of entertainment.

Two steps forward and two steps back...

Good news on the solids, B has taken a good liking to them now. Turns out I'm not really starving my baby after all. :) He is doing so much better with eating pureed baby food. We skipped the stage 1 foods and went right to stage 2, his preference, not mine. Although, some foods are hard to find in the stage 2, so I will buy stage 1 so that he can try them. He still refuses any sort of cereal. I have tried rice, oatmeal, and mixed grain and he is not a fan of any of them. Fine by me! He also loves the texture of table food, so far we have tried peas, green beans, carrots, black beans, bread, and sweet potatoes. It is so funny to watch him "chew" the food up. And don't worry, I do squish the peas and the black beans before giving them to him. :) He has also been a little picky about some foods. He is not the biggest fan of bananas (I don't blame him, gross!) and mixed veggies. But he will chow down spinach and potatoes and prunes like they are going out of business. Silly baby!!

We are also having some sleep issues around here. I have been putting B to bed in his crib, in his room and then once he wakes up the first time I bring him to bed with me. So far, this has worked out fine, he nurses and we both go back to sleep. Plus, since hubby has been gone, it's just me and pork chop in a king size bed, I put him on one side and I sleep on the other until my presence is requested again. Now we are to the point where mommy's boob and mommy in general are the only things that will make B go to sleep. And he is waking up a lot more during the night, it has become nursing for comfort instead of nursing to eat. I remember this stage very well with P, it was right about 6-7 months. This is when I transitioned P out of our bed and back to his crib. The only difference is that P's crib was in our room back then and B has his own room. So, I decided to set up the pack 'n play in our room so that I can transition B to his own bed, but he is still in our room and he won't be as likely to wake up P during the night. Tonight is the first night, so we'll see how it goes.

It's official!

B is sitting up completely on his own now, with no support! He is such a big boy, I can't believe he is just about 7 months old now. He has also started to scoot himself around when he is on his belly. I have this feeling my life and house are about to really be turned upside down. With two mobile children who love to get into everything! :)

On another note, we are very much enjoying having daddy home for a while. The boys think dad is the best thing since sliced bread and I am enjoying the almost vacation like feeling of having help with the kids and the house. B thinks dad is totally hilarious at all times and P is loving having dad as a jungle gym again.

We are having issues with P taking toys from B and also with P scratching B when he gets mad. B has some good battle wounds from his older brother, but he seems in good spirits. Hubby and I have discussed perhaps not taking the boys on the 4 day leave next month, depending on how well P handles this one. We know that at 2 he is not yet able to fully understand what is going on with dad leaving and then coming home and then leaving again. If he does not handle it well this time, we are not sure that we want to put him through that again in a month. But on the other hand, both dad and I'm sure P want to see each other. It's a hard decision to make.