Yesterday I was doing yoga in the living room
and Lex was sitting in his little rocker behind me. He likes to
watch me do yoga :) One second he was sitting there happily and
the next he was on the floor in tears. I’m guessing he
attempted an Evil Knievel move in between. He cried for a few
minutes and quickly developed a nice shiner under his eye.

Later, after his bath, he was on the
changing table and decided he didn’t want to be still… ended
up falling over sideways and hitting his ear against the edge
of the dresser. Cried again for awhile. Ears are pretty
sensitive. He was naked and crawled up on me for hugs. He sat
on my belly crying while I tried to console him and secretly
prayed he wouldn’t pee all over me!

Today we went to a Tot Lot program at a local gymnasium.
One of the playthings they had was a thick gym mat, cylendar
shaped and about 2 1/2 feet high. There were soft stairs and
ramp up to it, but nothing from the inside to use to get out.
Lex spent most of the hour and a half playing on this thing. He
learned pretty quickly that he couldn’t get out of it, but he
liked climbing the stairs, crawling around the top of the
cylandar, dropping partway into the middle and pulling himself
out again, etc. Of course, right at the end he falls in — head
first. I was a little ways away chatting with a friend of mine
(slacker mom, right??) I saw him go down and ran over. There
were several other mothers right there with their hands on
their kids at all times. They gave me such a “looser mom” look.
One lady commented to the other about how the poor baby was
going to have such a
huge mark on
his head. I felt like saying, “Yeah, it will complement the
black eye nicely!” Instead I took him back to the bench where
he cried for about a minute over the pain and then cried for
several more minutes over the fact that his teething biscuit
was all dirty and I wouldn’t give it back to him. Once I got
another biscuit out of my backpack, he jumped off my lap and
ran right back to the toy. Crazy boy! I decided it was time to
go home and get lunch instead :)

Luckily he has no marks from the ear or gym floor… just
the black eye. I have a prenatal appointment on Monday and it
wouldn’t look good to show up with a black and blue
toddler!

Tonight we had our second visit from the
religious folks since we’ve been here. Welcome to the suburbs!
Today’s visitor looked kind of like Matt
Damon… not so bad really. Let’s hope the girl
scouts are as active come cookie time!

Question for the parents out there… how
long is too long to let a kid sit happily in their bed as they
try to fall asleep?

I ask because Lex
is up to about an hour these days. He used to fall asleep
pretty quickly, but now he jumps in his bed, kicks the wall,
talks to himself, tells himself stories, and eventually starts
playing with his doggie (it plays a lullaby), then falls
asleep. It’s interesting to listen to, really. He’s generally
very good about staying in the bed and when he gets up it’s
almost always to play with the baby monitor, so I’m not too
worried about distractions in his room or anything. He just
takes a loooong time to settle down.

We
haven’t changed anything in terms of timing or routine. He
still gets books before naps and a bath and books before bed.
He naps around 1pm (sleeping usually from 2-4pm) and goes to
bed about 8pm (asleep around 9pm). I guess bedtime has been
pushed back a bit because of the later naps. We used to try and
have him in bed by 7 or 7:15, but lately it’s closer to 8:00,
but he’s also sleeping later in the morning (7:00-7:30) which
is super nice!

So anyway. Sometimes
after 1/2 hour or more I start thinking I should get him up,
but I know he’s tired. I’m putting him down when I do because
he’s tired, not just because of the clock. And I think that if
I get him up I’ll just be putting him back down again in a few
minutes. Is that better or just more confusing for him? He is
such a silly boy.

I decided to take up knitting again. I’m
poor though, so instead of buying yarn and stuff, I tried to
make due with what I had. Like it? Wrong yarn and needles for
the project, but I think it came out ok :) Now let’s all hope
for a baby with small hands and a tiny head (for multiple
reasons!). I made a sweater for Lex as a newborn, but the head
hole was too small too. Not sure I trust these baby patterns…

In other baby news, my belly is huge
and this kid is active!! Alan was reading The Great
Cookie Thief to Lex last night and I reclined in the
papasan chair for a bit and baby went wild. I was watching my
belly and could see the movement. Not even full-belly moves,
but very specific kicks and bumps. It looked like there was a
creature in my belly (there is!) trying to get out (not yet
please!). I showed Alan later and baby did a good job of
bouncing around for him to see too. What a fun baby!!

Today was a very tired day. I’ve had a headache
in my neck, jaw, and head all day and I can’t seem to kick it.
Lex was rambunctious, rebellious, silly, playful, and overtired
all day. He even fell asleep in his highchair at lunch!! I kid
you not. The movie below would have been perfect if I’d gotten
it about 30 seconds earlier when he was still trying to lift
his yogurt spoon into his mouth… as he fell asleep.

Tonight ended in a showdown. Lex started screeching for no
apparent reason. He is hard to discipline sometimes because
he’ll do something you don’t want him to (screech at the top of
his lungs) then immediately go back to adorable mode. He
screeched in the tub, I asked him if he wanted to have a nice,
quiet bath or get right out of the tub… he screeched again,
so out of the tub he went. Same situation on the changing table
and in the bathroom trying to brush teeth. I had to pin him
down to get those pearly whites peanut buttter-free tonight! It
came down to a choice between bedtime stories and more
screeching… needless to say he is in his crib now and very,
very angry. It sucks. We had to put him in the crib because he
wouldn’t stay in the toddler bed. I ended up in my bed crying
right along with him. A good time was had by all :/

I know I can chalk the whole thing up to
“overtired toddler” but that doesn’t make it any easier
really….

Alan just went up to give him
a hug again and Lex asked to sleep in his new bed, so Alan
moved him. Now he’s up there playing with his doggie (it’s a
music box toy, he loves it) and yawning. I think he’ll be out
in a minute. I hope!!

I’m going to go
crash on the couch now. Maybe the headache will finally go
away…

I have taken on another baby for a few
days. His name is Kaelen and he’s 6 months old. I figure it
will give me some 2-baby practice at a time when I’m coherent
and not totally sleep deprived. Today was our first day. Kaelen
came over after my doctor’s appointment (more on that below)
and he and Lex have been intrigued by each other. I think Lex
likes having Kaelen’s toys here more than actually having him
here. I have to confess I was very happy that Alan came home
for lunch and helped me get them both down for a nap. Kaelen
needs to be rocked to sleep and each time I got him close, Lex
would start making noise. Hmm… we’ll have to figure out a
solution to that situation. But now they are both sleeping and
mommy gets a little break. Yay!

Lex and
I went to see the midwife this morning for my 31 week checkup.
All is well. I was getting worried about my weight gain because
I feel huge these days, but so far I’ve only
gained 13lbs! Yay! I gained 33lbs total with Lex, but she said
that if my weight gain continues as it has been, I should be
under 20lbs with this new one. Double-yay!! :) All is well with
baby, of course. Good kicker, good heartbeat, belly measuring
right on track. No news is good news, right?