Play Time

We  went to a friend's house yesterday and hung out with their kids.  I used to nanny for the boys, they are so big now!!  We reminisced about how I used to take naps with Peter when I was pregnant with Ingrid.  That was by far the best part of being a nanny while being pregnant--nap time! 

But now the boys are huge and they have a baby sister added in the mix!  Greta and Otis are exactly a week apart! 

It's interesting talking with Sally about developmental differences in Down's kids.  Greta is getting her first tooth just now.  She is sitting but not crawling.  Just little things that I take for granted with Otis getting bigger and getting mobile!  But oh, she is the sweetest thing.  And her brothers just love her so much!  We had so much fun, I hope to see them again soon!

A Lovely Weekend

It was a perfect weekend of sun and family.  Otis has been crawling...backward.  He ended up under the couch and got mad.  Ingrid got new tennis shoes and wore them to bed Friday night.  Silly.

Otis decided not to take a nap Saturday morning, so we walked over to soccer with Brendan and Ingrid.  That is hilarious-- tons of preschoolers running around, a coach trying to get them to listen.  Ingrid is so social, just runs right up to the other kids and starts talking.  She loves it!

We had a good day yesterday, too.  A sunny afternoon outside with the family when we know the sun is going to go away soon, we have to take advantage of it!  Otis was having fun chewing on leaves and sticks.  And snotting everywhere.  Still.  Are we destined to have runny noses all fall and winter??  He was on a no nap streak and stayed up all afternoon, which does not make for the happiest baby around. 

And now it's back to school, and back to sewing.  My halloween felt garland got onto the front page of etsy yesterday morning so I've had orders for them like crazy!  I will be spending Otis' naptime watching last night's Breaking Bad and cutting out orange and black felt circles!

Sickly

Today Otis was not having a good day.  He was all snotty, cried at the drop of a hat (which is really unlike him) and just did not feel well.  I was so tired by the afternoon, all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Ingrid went to sleep right away.  Otis, however, got a second wind as I changed his diaper.  He was blowing raspberries, kicking his legs, yelling and screeching.  Good lord.

I worked on him, though, fed him and rocked him and sang to him, and lo and behold he fell asleep.  I got up gently, put him in his crib ever so softly, where he stiffened out and started screaming at the top of his lungs.  So I got him back in my arms, he immediately calmed down again, we rocked and he was snoring wee baby snores.  Again, go put him in his crib and he freaked out. 

*sigh*

It was one of those afternoons.  I even tried to lay down with him in my bed but he was not having it.  So after two hours of this b.s. we went back into the living room.  He sat on his blanket with his toys and looked up at me with the saddest teary-eyed, snotty nosed face and I just had to take pictures.  My poor sickly.  Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight and take naps tomorrow. 

Go, go, go, crash.

On the way home from the park today, this happened:

Ingrid has never slept in her stroller until after she turned two.  Now if we're out for a bit she'll conk right out.  She is so not ready to give up her naps but she has to be in her stroller or the car for it to happen.  How frustrating.

But look at this:

So cute.  So calm, so quiet.  I went inside and cleaned up the living room while she slept it off out in the beautiful day.  Unfortunately she woke up crabbier than before...Oh well, it was a nice half hour.

An Update

Things are going well around here.  Ingrid and I have gotten back into a nice rhythm again, having fun together and getting along instead of me yelling and her throwing tantrums.  They're still there, but much much less than in the past couple months!  Our days are so nice and mellow, I honestly feel so lucky to have this be my life.  We get up and eat a little here and there all morning, lounge in our pjs and color, play with play dough, play with her Fisher Price guys.  We get dressed and go to the park or to the store, we go to the library, we play some more. 

Naps are a thing of the past, I don't even try to have her rest anymore.  She just wouldn't do it, and instead of fighting her and getting pissed off every afternoon, I just put her in the rocking chair with her blanket and let her watch TV while I pass out on the couch.  And I refuse to feel guilty about it.  There is a part of me that wishes we were a family with no TV, or even watching less, but we are not that family.  We all like to just sit and veg sometimes.  And sometimes we don't.  We all like to read and learn things, too, so I'm not going to feel bad about the time we do spend watching TV.

I had my 16 week midwife appointment and am loving the office I go to.  We've met with three different midwives so far and I like each one.  The visits are so short and they are so not worried about anything that it puts me at ease.  I don't have to give a urine sample at each visit like I did at my last doctor, and they never ever question me if I decide against a test.  I hate when I have made a decision not to do something and the doctor questions me why.  Just coz, 'kay??  It's really nice to just go in and listen to a heartbeat and have them measure my uterus.  Even after the bleeding scare at 11 weeks they aren't too concerned, which is nice.  I don't want to be made to feel like I have to put my life on hold because I'm pregnant, or like I have to worry about every little thing.  It's awesome because I remember the doctor last time always saying be sure to stay away from XYZ, it's bad for you while you're pregnant.  Making me feel like if I ate a tunafish sandwich I'd be harming my baby beyond belief.  This time around it's "don't eat a pound of salami in one sitting and you should be okay."

We have our next ultrasound in two weeks, at which we hope to find out the gender.  We did with Ingrid and I loved it.  She was Ingrid within a week of finding out it was a girl.  When she was born we welcomed her into our lives but we already knew her, does that make sense?  We have a boy name picked out--Otis, after my greatgrandpa (really we just liked the name and then my mom told me it was my GG's and I thought oh, cool!)  But just like last time we have NO girl names!!  Any suggestions?  I'm not fretting too much now, as we may not even need one (something is making me think this is a boy.)  But any suggestions to go with Ingrid would be appreciated!

So there's that.  Life is good and simple and lovely around these parts.  As it should be.