A Month Older

This week the kids turn a month older. Elliot is now 17 months old and suddenly we are realizing that he is a toddler. Here is what he's up to.

• Talks a lot but still refusing to say words other than "doh" for "dog." When he wants us to do something, he leads us to what he wants or reaches up. When we say, "What do you want Elliot? Can you say the word? Do you want up? Can you say 'UP'?" he refuses to say it. When we walk away from him he tries to cry, makes fists, and pounds them in the air. It's kind of funny. We ignore these mini-tantrums; they are usually short-lived.
• Favorite toys are his sister's mobile and swing. He always signals to us to turn them on. Thank God for rechargeable batteries.
  
• Can "read" through books that are not board books without accidentally tearing the pages now. He's never been a destroyer (at least not yet).
• Runs instead of walks... everywhere.
• Likes to ride escalators.
  
• Likes to walk backwards.
• Has this "tic" where he pulls his shirt up over his belly. He does it all the time and it's really cute.
  
• Loves to be sprayed with the hose or run through fountains but not crazy about pools, even wading pools.
  
• Eats pretty much everything we eat.
• Doesn't smile or laugh much in public -- he doesn't want anyone to know he is having fun. When he is home it's another story. My mom tells me I was the same way as a toddler.
• Plays around other kids, not really with them, including at Gymboree class and playdates. But he likes to watch them.
• Will shove his way into the shower (with his clothes on) if we don't shut the bathroom door. He loves to take showers with us.
• Loves to play in the rain. Good thing we have had an unusually wet summer.
  
• Likes to grab and eat fruit out of the produce drawer in the fridge, especially plums.
  
• Looks at or points to Chloe's head when we ask him where she is. That is about as much as he acknowledges her. But he is very gentle with her when she is in her swing or bouncy seat around him. We have never told him he needs to be careful around her, he just seems to know.
  
• His four molars are about 1/4 of the way through, and he still has 5 other teeth to get (not including his 2-year molars). He still has "teething days" but not as many and they aren't as bad.
  
• Loves the colorful wooden tube puzzle on the play table at the Pottery Barn Kids store.
  

Chloe is two months old today, and here is what she is up to right now.

• Smiles at anybody who talks to her.
• Coos a lot and we love it.
• Likes to watch her brother play even though he basically ignores her. She smiles at him.
• She giggled in the tub the other night. We haven't heard it since but it was adorable. Can't wait for more of them.
• She is a fast eater. She can usually eat a full meal in 15 minutes. And she is chunking up just like her brother did as you can see by these chubby-faced photos. We love chunk.
• Her eyes are definitely turning blue, and so far her hair is staying dark brown.
• Right now she goes down for the night by around 7:30-8 with without much effort on our part. (The first 8 weeks required that we soothe her to sleep and it could take 20 minutes or 3 hours.) She wakes once in the night to eat, usually around 1-2am, and wakes up for the day around 6am. I haven't started dream feeding her yet but will do that in the next few weeks. That's when I feed her in her sleep around 10:30 -- just enough to tank her up for the night. I tried it a few times but it seemed to upset the rest of her night's sleep.
  
• She is a noisy sleeper and grunts and groans, especially when she has gas. She doesn't really wake up but she wakes us up. She is still in her bassinet in our room, but I foresee a move to her own room in the next few weeks.
  
• During the day she is a sleeping champ. She takes a morning nap, an afternoon nap and an evening catnap before her tub. For all of these, I can put her in her bassinet when her eyes are just getting heavy and she will fall asleep on her own. And we are almost there for bedtime too.

A few other tidbits...
I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Polon this week. Everything with me is fine and back to normal except for a few pounds to lose. We were chatting and I told him that Drew and I aren't sure how we got so lucky as to have two sweethearts for babies. He said the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I thought that was a nice thing to say. We do feel very blessed to have two healthy, safe and sweet babies. The only bummer about not being pregnant is not getting to see Dr. P all the time, he is a great doctor and a funny guy.

Our good friends Cory and Jennifer stopped by this weekend during their visit to Austin. They are living in London right now while Cory is stationed there for a work project. They are taking advantage of traveling Europe while they are there (aka living the life I used to dream of living). If you want to check out their travels, here is a link to their fab blog that Jennifer updates regularly.

The only bad news we have of late is that we had to say goodbye to our nanny, Stacey. She has been a big part of Elliot's life (and ours) for the past year. When she started with us last August, Elliot was just a chunky baby sitting in his Bumbo seat. She came by today one last time to take him to his Gymboree class. She is moving to San Antonio to start a new life. We will miss her so much and wish her a lot of happiness.

A Day in the Life

A typical day in the Mayer household...

6:00am - Drew gets up and goes to work, Chloe wakes to eat, we both go back to sleep.
7:00am - Elliot is bouncing in his crib so I go get him and we take a shower together. I get dressed, get Elliot dressed, and he watches Noggin and drinks his cup of milk. I clean up the house.
8:30am - Chloe wakes up. I change her diaper and put her in her crib to watch her mobile. I throw the diapers in the washer. Elliot gets boxes of food out of the pantry and puts them on the floor, then puts them back while I make his breakfast (scrambled eggs with cheese, waffles with peanut butter and yogurt). Elliot eats, I feed Abby, and I scarf down some oatmeal while Chloe sits in her bouncy seat on the table and watches all the action. She starts fussing so I feed her.
9:30am - I put Chloe down for her morning nap. Then I call Drew for a morning update while I clean up the breakfast mess, unload the dishwasher and let Abby out. I clean up the little Elliot messes around the house, and collect the kids' laundry to wash. Elliot is reading his books in his room.
10:30am - I drink a cup of tea (aaaah) while I read emails. I call the doctor to make my 6-week post-natal check-up (at 8 weeks postpartum... oops), and post an ad for a nanny to Craigslist (we are losing Stacey boo-hoo). Elliot is on my lap watching his Noggin videos on the web.
11:00am - Chloe wakes up. I get her dressed and take some pictures of the kids in her room. Neither are too happy about that. I hang the diapers to dry and throw in some more laundry while the kids hang out in Chloe's room and watch her mobile.
11:45am - I feed Chloe while Elliot dances around in the living room watching "Jack's Big Music Show".
12:00pm - Chloe starts to get fussy for sleep and I need to make Elliot's lunch, so I wear her in the Snugli carrier.
12:15pm - Elliot is in his high chair for lunch and Chloe is falling asleep, so I put her in her bassinet. Then I quickly eat some lunch too.
12:45pm - I clean up Elliot and the lunch mess while he plays with his toys in the playroom and poops his pants.
1:00pm - Change Elliot, read him some stories, give lots of kisses and he goes to sleep for his only nap of the day. Both kids are down now at the same time... yippee! Sometimes I get lucky, so today I take advantage by finishing my chai tea from earlier, call Drew and respond to a few emails. Then I paint the trim for Elliot's bookcase, finish the laundry I started earlier, dustmop the floor (Abby's hair) and send some videos of the kids over the internet to our families. Skim a magazine and work on a menu for the next week.
2:45pm - Chloe wakes up to eat and I change her. We hang out and have girl talk.
3:30pm - We hear Elliot talking to himself and bouncing in his crib. Chloe and I get him up, change his diaper and give him his snack (milk, cereal bar, goldfish and Cheerios).
4:15pm - Chloe takes a catnap, Elliot and I spin things together. I make a salad for dinner tonight.
5:00pm - Chloe wakes up and I feed her.
5:30pm - Drew comes home from work, Elliot and Abby go bananas. Drew and I catch up on our days, Drew changes into kid-friendly attire, makes a a tonic with lime, and takes Elliot outside to hose him down.
6:00pm - I feed Chloe, and she takes another catnap on me while our Super Suppers dinner is in the oven.
6:30pm - We all eat dinner together as a family, Chloe hangs out in her bouncy seat and smiles at us.
7:00pm - Drew wipes Elliot down and cleans up the dishes, and we all take a walk to the mailbox.
7:30pm - Elliot plays with his toys, Drew and I fold laundry, Chloe takes another catnap in her bouncy seat.
8:00pm - Chloe and I watch Drew give Elliot a bath and brush his teeth. Then I feed and bathe Chloe while Drew gets Elliot into his jammies and reads him bedtime stories. I get Chloe into her jammies.
9:00pm - Drew and I watch an episode of "The Office" on Netflix DVD. Drew does a little bit of work on his laptop while I try to settle Chloe to sleep.
10:00pm - I feed Chloe and she goes to sleep in her bassinet, Drew and I have a few minutes of time together without kids. We fold laundry and talk.
11:00pm - Nighty night.

Grandee & Hoppa's Visit to Meet Chloe

Grandee & Hoppa (Drew's parents) just spent a long weekend with us. We didn't do too much besides hang around with the kids. We ate some good meals and spent lots of time together. We did venture to Mozart's (fave outdoor coffeehouse at Lake Austin), Drew took his parents to the Blanton, a new museum at the University of Texas campus, and today we all took the kids to the Austin Children's Museum and out to lunch at Austin Java Company.

Elliot entertained the crew by running around the house. He is like Forrest Gump nowadays -- if he is going somewhere he is RUNNING. He also likes to march. The sweetest thing right now is that he gives lots of kisses. The other night I heard him wake up around 10pm talking, so I went in his room to give him a sippy cup of water. Without even looking for his sippy, he gave me about 10 kisses in a row and then took the sippy. Talk about melting your heart, that did it. He had his friend Hayden over for a playdate last week and had no problem sharing his toys. His books have been his focus at home lately. In fact when we are gone from home for a few hours, the first thing he does when we get home is run to his room and look through his books. It's almost as if he wants to make sure they are still there. Maybe he will be like his dada and be a big reader. Also E's 4th molar decided to start coming through so now he's getting all four molars at once, but has been in a fairly decent mood considering.

Chloe had the best night ever over the weekend. She had her bath and went to sleep at 9:30pm. Then I did a dreamfeed with her which is when I feed her in her sleep just before I go to bed. Then she didn't wake up again until 3am, ate really quickly and then slept until 7:30am. She woke up and ate, smiled at all of us for a few minutes and then fell asleep again until 11am. She slept on and off pretty much all the next day. What a sleepyhead! She smiles at anyone and everyone now and seems to be a very social little girl. She is so snuggly and adorable. Hard to believe she is 6+ weeks old now. (The knit hat is courtesy of friend Cathey Pabst. Isn't it adorable?!)