New Camera!

Yeah! I finally bought a camera! So now I can post pictures of kids! Here are some. I need to work on my photography skills...

Sleep

I was a super stressed out mom with Caleb. Now I've moved to not so stressed with Annika. Also I think Annika has a more easy going personality and has naturally developed sleep habits. I tried and tried to get Caleb on some sort of schedule when he was little and had the hardest time. So now he falls asleep going on a walk in the stroll (winter, spring, fall and summer), and has developed a late schedule of going to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 and waking up somewhere between 7 and 9. It works. I finally gave us stressing about it. But now Annika is a typical early to be, early to rise baby. She usually goes to sleep somewhere between 7 and 8 (only tonight Caleb happly running and shouting through the house woke her up around 7:40) and wakes up happy as can be between 6 and 7. That leaves my mom and I little time to get things done that need to be done without kids around. So this morning I woke Caleb up at 8:10. He was not ready to get up and told me to turn the light off, go out and shut the door. The light was the sun so we couldn't turn it off. I did leave and shut the door but then he was upset because it was light and he was tired and it was "still night" and thus not supposed to be light yet. It was pretty funny hearing him tell me to leave. :) He's a lot like me in that he takes a long time to fall asleep at night and is always begging me to stay. Then when he wakes up he wants to still sleep. That's totally how I am, why is it that it is so hard to get to sleep at night and then in the morning so hard to get up and out of bed?

This weekend Andy came down to visit.  We decided to take an outing and went up to Sandy where we caught TRAX, rode to Salt Lake, had lunch downtown and then rode the frontrunner train up to Roy and back.  Andy's sister and her kids did it a few weeks ago and we thought it sounded fun and Caleb would like it.  Caleb did like it, but got bored of sitting still (no surprise).  At one point on the frontrunner he told Andy, "I need you to sit still."  Passengers around us started laughing.  It was pretty funny.  Annika was really good and hardly fussed at all.  Caleb ate well at lunch and both of them really were good.  All of us were pretty tired and I got a headache, but the kids were really, really good.  My parents also enjoyed the time off and went to the mountains together.

Andy also brought another car load of stuff down and Caleb said, "Thank you for bringing these toys to me, Daddy."  I thought it was so cute!  Andy got some cute pictures of the kids and maybe he can post them.  I really need to buy a camera.  Maybe tomorrow.

Annika is eating food now.  She's had oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, carrots, honeydew (which she really loved!), and prunes.  Yes, poor little girl needs the prunes.  I didn't know that bananas cause constipation and fed her a ton of them.  She had such a tummy ache!!  I felt so bad!  So we've been feeding her prunes.  

Annika also loves toys.  Caleb took a while to get interested in toys.  Maybe it was that I had all my attention on Caleb so I thought it took a long time for him to be interested in toys.  Then with Annika began thinking that it would be a long time before she was interested in toys.  Whatever it was, she really likes toys.  She can sit up pretty well on her own and loves to sit on the floor surrounded by toys and play side by side with Caleb.  Andy brought her little jumper think down and she likes to jump in it as long as someone is smiling at her and telling her what a good job she's doing. :)  So much for a sitter...oh well.  She's also started doing this motor sounding thing with her lips and tongue.  I will try to get it on video.  It's so cute!

Grandma Evie sent a package of clothes and they are so cute!!  Caleb loves his kayaker shirt and has worn it twice even though it is long sleeved and Annika looks so stylish.

Milestones

It's been forever since I've written so I thought I'd just jot down a few developments.  

Annika grabs things now.  She is especially interested in food and will go crazy at mealtimes trying to grab plates, food, silverware and anything she can get her hands on.  I've let her try cantelope although she just got the juice.  Since I hadn't wanted to introduce solids until at least 6 months this was very premature and not such a smart move on my part if I'm going to keep denying her all the interesting food she smells.  Today she was determined to get my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It was so funny to see the focused look on her face.  I felt bad that I had to whisk it away

She has also stopped sucking her thumb and started taking a binki.  My dad wanted her to have a binki while they were here and so even though I told him she didn't really take them, he bought some and we tried them out.  Surprisingly, she took them and now prefers the pacifier to her thumb.  There are pros and cons to both thumbs and pacifiers.  She's still an amazing sleeper and a generally happy baby so I'm not complaining either way.  She also loves to suck on other people's fingers and chins.  Yesterday I realized she gave me a hicky (sp?) so I don't think I'll let her do th

at as much any more...

Caleb continues to amaze people with his verbal abilities.  He seems to be adjusting really well to the changes in his life.  He follows my dad around and does whatever he does.  He pretends to use a shredder, work with compost, and lately pick up dog poop.  The other day we went to the park with these two girls who live next door and he was scooping up bark and calling it dog poop.  I tried to persuade him to call it something else like popcorn or something, but to no avail. He has very impressive melt downs and if something happens that isn't the way he wants it (the craziest things sometimes) he will howl so loudly that I'm sure you can hear him down the block.  He is an intense little guy.

We've been up to visit Aunt Alisa, David, Mary and Grandma Evie while they are in Park City a few times and Alisa got these cute pictures of the kids.

Annika is on her tummy more these days but still shows no interesting in scooting, rolling over, or any other sort locomotion.  Perhaps I should put some food out of reach for her on her tummy... :)