Park and Rec

At the park, Miles still plays by himself or says, "Mama, mama" to get me to follow him up the playstructure or down the slide. (He's climbing the ladders now to get up to the taller levels, almost on his own but you have to spot him.) We bring a big bag of sand toys and a dump truck to the park which he almost always ignores but all the other kids play with them so it's not a waste, plus it makes for good bartering on occasion. I wouldn't say he's shy - he always waves to another child or adult upon prompting and doesn't avoid them, and sometimes he'll play catch for a few minutes, but usually it takes either a toy or an older child to get his attention.

Yesterday there was a 2-year-old boy with a plush Mickey Mouse doll that Miles was very interested in. Inexorably drawn to, in fact. I was on the bench feeding Parker so I couldn't follow him around, but the boy's grandmother was with them so I figured I would watch and see what happened. Miles never grabbed the doll - he just wanted to look - but it made the boy really nervous. At first the boy and the doll would go down the kiddie slide, and Miles would stand at the bottom, smiling, as if to say, come on down Mickey, I'll catch you! Then the boy decided to just hang onto Mickey, and started walking away. Miles followed. The boy picked up his pace. Miles started jogging. The boy ran around the park and Miles ran too, blissfully unaware that the boy was getting anxious. I called out to the grandmother, who for some reason was unable to just tell her grandson to chill out and share, that Miles thought this was a game (Jason taught Miles to play Tag over the weekend) and just wanted to look. I've never seen him grab a toy from anyone except Parker. If anything, other kids usually grab toys from Miles and he doesn't mind. After a couple of laps around the park, Miles gave up and went to inspect some plants.

He had more fun at the swings. An older girl, maybe 6 years, was swinging on her stomach and kicking at the bark. Miles watched her for a minute and then did the same thing, which was fine by me since I had Parker in my arms and wasn't sure how I was going to lift him up onto the swing with one hand. He watched everything this girl did and would try to do it. She lifted the swing over her head and let it fall down, clanging side to side, and he did the same thing, really proud of himself. Miles starts pre-school in two weeks and will be one of the younger kids in the class, so I'm curious to see what he picks up on. Likely a mix of mad skillz and OMG-where-did-you-learn-that behavior.

Parker turns a corner

Last night Parker slept until 5am! I heard her on the monitor at 3am, and it may have taken me a while to wake up because the sound was muffled. She sounded really far away, and when I was fully awake, I realized it was because my pillow had fallen on top of the monitor. I was paranoid that she might have been crying hard for an hour, but she was mostly just grunting. It did remind me however of the story that my mother-in-law told me about their old neighbors, the deaf parents who had five children and swore that they all slept through the night from birth...

Anyway, by the time I opened Parker's door at 3, she had already fallen back asleep on her own, so I lay down on the mattress in her room. The next time she woke up was 5am, so I fed her then. It would be so nice if she learns to sleep through the night on her own without having to be Ferberized. She will be easier to sleep train than Miles since she is already occasionally able to fall asleep on her own without being rocked, but it's still hard to hear your baby cry, even if you know it's just for a couple of nights.

Miles, on the other hand, woke up sobbing hard last night around midnight. I heard Jason go try to find out what was wrong, and Miles just kept crying, which he never does. Jason got him calmed down without ever figuring it out, but this afternoon I noticed there was a little bit of blood stain on his crib sheets from Miles chewing the inside of his cheek. He must be getting new molars or something. Doesn't seem to be bothering him today. He went down for his nap just fine but then kept chatting to himself for an hour. I could hear him count up to ten, then continue with 11, 12 (one of his favorites), either 13 or 14, then he was quiet for a couple of seconds and jumped to 20. Miles was also doing the alphabet - sometimes he makes it all the way to z, but usually he repeats F-G! F-G! F-G! I often hear him laugh on the monitor -- I would love to know what he finds so funny, but we'll never know.

Vertigo

Today while I was feeding Parker, Miles was finding things to do on his own. I had to stop myself from continually suggesting he do this or that, because it's good for him to learn not only how to play by himself, but to come up with entertainment ideas. One of them was to spin in a circle. He does it by bending his head down slightly and to the right, as if leading the rest of his body with his head. After a couple of turns, he'd stop and look up at the ceiling or off into space, watching the room continue to spin. That must be pretty trippy for a toddler, not knowing if the room is actually moving or not. He either thought it was something I was doing, or he's just used to having to ask permission for everything, because he kept making the sign for more, and I'd tell him, "Sure, go ahead and spin more if you want."

Parker at 2 months

Parker turned 2 months old on July 26th! She's 25 inches tall and 15.5 pounds -- off the charts for both height and weight. I found it interesting that the doctor and nurse both reassured me that this was no indication that she was going to have weight issues as a child. We're not worried about it. In fact the extra bulk will help her hold her own against Miles.

Parker gets up once at night to eat. It's not quite as great as it sounds because she still usually wakes up around 1 or 2 and needs to be lulled back to sleep in my arms. But she is ok with going back to sleep until 4 so soon she'll figure it out and just wait until 4 to wake up to begin with.

Parker still prefers being held to anything else, including her crib, bouncy seat, and swint. Baby gear continues to fascinate Miles. He's mastered buckling the baby car seat, bouncy seat, and his high chair. (We're being careful not to teach him how to unbuckle.) He kneels in front of the bouncy seat, switches on the vibrating button and says "Vvvvvveeeee" for vibrate, which is what he learned from his phonics video. He likes to sit in them even though he's not supposed to, and will reluctantly climb out when caught. I suppose they're just too tempting since they're so close to the ground. Plus the swing has lights across the top, and Miles will climb in and put his face right up to them and watch as they flash. We think this may mean he's going to be a raver when he gets older, or whatever the equivalent will be for his generation.

Speaking of things that start with V, we've successfully lessened the attachment Miles had to the vacuum cleaner. It's now back in the laundry room except on cleaning days. Miles likes to go say Hi to the vacuum - he stands in front of it and waves, then points to the handle, hose, cord, light, wheels and filter - and for a while I was letting him but we really shouldn't because there's all sorts of cleaning products in the laundry room.

Parker is just beginning to find her thumb on her own, which is very exciting since it means that she will be able to put herself back to sleep by sucking on her thumb soon. I think her sleep is already improving a little bit. The plan is to sleep train at 3 months, which is a little early but she's so big that she should be able to handle it. We're trying to establish her bedtime ritual but we're not very consistent... yet another example of how we're either more lax or unable to do everything for her that we did with Miles. Going to the doctor's office today and getting official, medical confirmation that she's doing well relieved some of my guilt at least.

Other developments - Parker smiles a lot and shows off her dimple, can lift her head up 45 degrees when on her stomach although she doesn't get nearly as much tummy time as she should since you can't leave her unprotected on the floor for too long with Miles around. He's mostly very affectionate with her, and part of his bedtime routine now is to say "nite-nite" to "kar-kar" by putting his head on her shoulder. He likes to touch her hair, pat her tummy, and tickle her toes by squeezing them. I may be projecting my own feelings onto her, but it seems like she gets a little nervous when he approaches, like Oh boy, what's he going to do to me now... Yesterday though he was very sweet. I put her on her stomach, and Miles fetched toys for her to look at and gently patted her head.