Catching up

So much has happened the past month and a half. Birthdays notwithstanding, I feel that we have just been constantly on the go. The entire family has also been fighting off various colds and illnesses, so it's been hard to catch up.

Jack had pink eye several weeks ago. Then a week later, Violet got it. Then a week later, *I* got it. I told someone that if one of us ever gets it again, I'm going to make sure we all get it all at once. Three separate weeks of having to restrict our activities has been a little rough.

Otherwise, we've been keeping busy with our usual round of playdates at parks and friends' houses. Violet finally really started primarily crawling on all fours (instead of mostly scooting on her belly) yesterday. She's also started to pull herself up to standing on the couch and in her crib. Unfortunately, she's still not very good at getting back down. And yesterday she also climbed the two bottom steps of our staircase on her own. I guess it's time to really buckle down with the babyproofing.

Speaking of which, our living room has a big play yard fencing off Jack's trains. Violet sees him playing with them so often that she naturally wants to join in all the fun. Jack has been such a great big brother up until now, with really only minimal jealousy. Now that Violet is moving and grabbing toys, though, I am bracing for a lot more squabbles.

Violet has been an eating machine lately. Luckily for her, her two top teeth have finally come in to join her two bottom teeth. So now she can actually bite. Earlier last month, she learned the sign for "milk" and would make it when she wanted to nurse. Now, all she ever signs is "eat." I was hoping that meant that she wanted food, but I think it still means milk. She typically doesn't eat much of whatever I give her. I know she's done when she starts either handing the food back to me or tossing it on the floor. When I'm holding her, she tries to pull my shirt up or my collar down. The frustrating thing is that sometimes she'll be nursing and then she'll pull off, look at me, and sign "eat." I don't know if that means that she's not getting enough. I feel that maybe I'm not producing as much since I've been sick. I had hoped to nurse her as long as she wanted, the way I did with Jack, but she asks for it constantly. I'm not sure if I can keep up.

She's starting to find her voice and get really loud. She very reliably says "Mom!" when she wants me. Otherwise, most everything is "Ba!" "Ba" is "ball," but it's also the picture that's hanging over our couch and what she says when she wants to eat/nurse. I think it might also mean "brother" and "cat." She will often mimic what we say in her own baby voice. Otherwise, she jibber-jabbers quite a lot, and it's pretty cute.

So, I started this post about five days ago, but Violet is changing so quickly, it's hard to keep up. She is now able to climb the entire flight of stairs by herself, although we are of course right behind her just in case she slips. She received a little ride-on toy for her birthday. When we first got it, all she could do is go backwards on it, but now she can go forward as well. She's getting really fast. Gone are the days when I could set her down and count on her staying put for a few minutes. It definitely makes it (even) harder to get things done.

One nice byproduct of all this activity, however, is that she's starting to be a lot more consistent in her sleep. Most days, she will take a two-hour nap, although it typically takes a car ride to make her fall asleep. And she usually only wakes up once either really early or really late in the night to nurse, and sometimes she'll stay asleep all the way through with no wake-ups. I am experienced enough at this game to know, however, that by posting this that I have already jinxed it. I hope my adult children appreciate the sacrifices I make in the name of documenting their childhoods.

I think she is really proud of herself and all the things that she can do now. She is happier than ever, which I didn't think was possible, because she's always been such a sunny, contented baby. I love when she sees me when I walk into a room. Her face lights up, and she yells and clenches her fist, as if she's yelling, "Yes! Mommy's here!" It's the best fanfare a girl could ever want.

Aside from his territoriality about his trains, Jack has been mostly really great about Violet's hard-won mobility. He's so funny whenever she does anything at all. He gets so excited and always makes everything she does seem so impressive. Like if she hands us something, he'll yell, "Violet is sharing! She is such a good girl! She's sharing with me because she loves me so much!"

He has started calling her "Violey" and, somewhat oddly, "She," as if that's her name. He'll randomly exclaim to her in the car, "You're the best baby ever! I want to keep you forever!"

He is at a pretty fun age right now. He is so curious, energetic, and interested in the world. On good days, he is such a pleasure to be around. I am amazed at how busy he keeps himself, how much he enjoys everything he does. The flip side of all this, of course, is that he can be exhausting. He never wants to stop what he's doing, and he hates going to sleep. He is so passionate, impulsive, and impetuous that he gets himself into trouble. We are working on teaching him self-control, but it can be so tough for him.

He really is a sweet soul, though. I was so gratified, and honestly a little surprised, when his teacher told me that he is one of the kindest children she knows. True, he does seem genuinely distressed when his sister is upset or gets hurt. She has been bonking herself a lot more lately, because she still hasn't figured out how to sit back down after pulling herself up on furniture. When she does, she cries and Jack gets so upset. Once, she actually cut her lip and it was bleeding. Jack was wailing, "This is terrible!" Every time she gets hurt, he runs to draw her a picture to try to make her feel better.

A couple of weeks ago, our church had their "One Great Hour of Sharing" ministry. They sent the Sunday school kids home with a box to collect change, which they would then offer to less fortunate children around the world. Jack has been earning a few cents every time he fills up a star chart. Over the course of several weeks, he had accumulated over three dollars. When he brought the box home, he said he wanted to put all but fifty cents in the box, because he wanted to give a less fortunate child enough money to buy a toy car. We wanted to make sure that he knew what he was giving up, and he said, "I really want to do it!"

Another funny thing that he has been doing lately is every night he has Tom check under his bed for a sheep. I think he had a dream one night that a sheep was under his bed, and so now, he always asks Tom to check. I've been trying to get Tom to stop doing it without being asked, and one night Jack didn't ask so Tom skipped that part of the routine. Jack ended up waking up in the middle of the night and asking me to look. I told him that I would put a toy bear under his bed to keep the sheep away, and he said, "But what if the sheep eats the bear?" So I told him I would put a toy lamb that his aunt had brought him from Ireland under there so that his friendly sheep would keep all the other ones away. I think that's mollified him for now.

Finally, I just wanted to record this one story that's already been told several times among our playgroup set. A couple of days after Melody babysat Jack and his friends during their first sleepover, we were driving over to those same friends' house. Jack asked me, "How old is Melody?"

I told him that she was 28 years old. He thought for a few seconds and then said, "That's 10,220 days."

I surreptitiously checked the calculator on my phone, and, yep, 28 years x 365 days does indeed equal 10,220. I mentioned this to Jane, when we got to her house. She ended up bringing Jack in her car to pick Luke up from his preschool while I stayed at her house while the little boys slept. When she got back with the big boys, she told me this story:

While she was in the car, she said to Jack, "Jack, I'm 33 years old. How many days is that?"

She said that he thought for a moment and said something like, "Well, 30 years is 10,950 days plus three years is 1095, so... 12,045." She looked it up on her calculator, and, well, I'll let you guess if he was right or not.

Happy April, everyone!