Great Mama & Great Grandpa!

My grandparents began a cross-country trip back in December when they came down to Houston for Joseph's baby blessing. They continued on toward Virginia with many stops to kiss and visit grandkids along the way. In the middle of April they began their trip home -more than four months since they left their home in Arizona!- and on their way home they passed through Houston once more! We were delighted to have them visit and it was fun to think back on how Joseph was just a newborn last time they were here.

We had some fun adventures downtown during heavy rain, when water on the feeder roads rose to the height of the freeway. We were on a mission to get some cowboy boots for my grandpa, and since we felt it nearly cost our lives to get down there, I decided to get some boots for Scott and I too. If you are ever in Houston and need to look the part, pick up some boots at Texas Junk Company. They have literally hundreds to choose from. In each size.

That night we attended a western themed church party and ate some of the best brisket I have ever had.

Ian played under the table while Great Grandpa fixed the clock.

Bye Bye Binkie

After my mom left the boys and I all took a few days to mourn. For Ian, this manifested itself in his unwillingness to nap. He would cry for an entire two hours at each nap time and not sleep at all. This from a kid who has happily laid down for his regularly scheduled naptimes every day for the last 2 years. It was bizarre. And so frustrating.

And during his two hours of crying he would soak his shirt with tears, and chew on his binkie. And on day two of this, he chewed the tip right off. When I went to get him up, he explained to me that "Ian sad because" his binkie had "Bonked" and had "Broken. Down."

For the last year Ian has insisted on one particular binkie, and accepted no substitutes. Even the right brand and nipple type in new patterns and colors made the binkie invalid. And since MAM apparently discontinued The Binkie we were left with no other option. 'Try the Internet,' you say. 'The Internet has everything.' Alas, even the Internet failed us this time. And fearing that the day would come that we would be without any more binkies, I have for months stopped the mother of every child I have seen with this binkie, and after following every lead, I have come up empty handed.

And so when I saw that The Last Binkie on Earth had a hole in it, I know we were in for some wailing and gnashing of teeth. Since Ian had bit the hole himself, he didn't question it or show any resentment -- he just accepted that his binkie no longer did what it used to do. Seeing this, I decided to allow Ian to decide if he wanted to keep it around or not. So that night I clipped his "broken down" binkie to his shirt as always, and watched as Ian pitifully held the binkie to his mouth as he tried to fall asleep.

We've taken the "broken down" binkie to the zoo, the doctors office, to playgroup, each time with it clipped to his shirt as usual, but lacking all the usual comfort it once provided. He still asks for it at nap time.

Don't get the impression that this was an easy transition -- Ian continued to cry for two hours during each naptime and for more than an hour at bedtime. And he would wake several times a night crying when he couldn't reinsert his binkie and fall back to sleep. He simply couldn't do it without the binkie. If I could have gotten a hold of a new binkie I would have thankfully abandoned our Bye Bye Binkie plan. We even took a trip to the store in hopes of persuading Ian to accept one of the new binkies MAM created. No go.

And the worst part of it all was that Joseph began sleeping through the night the EXACT day that Ian stopped. I cannot describe my dissapointment and desperation at this occurance. Now while Joseph slept peacefully, I listened to Ian scream and pulled my hair out.

On day 8 Ian finally fell asleep at naptime. After silently rejoicing, I spend my few moments of calm and quietude cleaning up around the house. And during this effort I emptied a diaper bag and found The True Last Binkie on Earth -- we had one more the whole time. Had this binkie turned up a day sooner, there would be no post about all of this -- I would have certainly given him the binkie and postponed this fight for another day. But since he was then taking his very first nap, I place the binkie on a high shelf and knew that Ian's days with a binkie were officially over.

All Sorts of Good Stuff Happening

My mom came out for a visit last week. She teaches interior design at a college in the SF Bay Area and she spent her entire Spring Break out here with us. There are few things I get more excited about than a visit from my mom. She is so much fun and so helpful with our boys, and all things design. Plus, lots of chocolate always arrives with her, and stays (for a very short time) after she heads home.

Ian ran off with her suitcase and packed some essentials for his own trip.

Grandma loves to snuggle and rock her grandsons. Ian playing with an early birthday present.

I love building tracks. I've been known to continue playing even once Ian has moved on to something else.

During my mom's visit we ate lots of fried southern food, BBQ, some amazing lobster sandwiches at my new favorite place, Blue Bell ice cream and several pounds of chocolate. Each.

We also painted some subtle stripes on a kitchen wall.

A better picture is needed; there are now cool items in the boxes.

And we made purses using some of the suitcase full of fabric she brought. By 'we' I mean she gave me lots of design and fabric options and then she made it happen using her skill at the sewing machine. I LOVE how they turned out!
The designer at work. Notice how photogenic she is, even after midnight!

The purses!

We also shopped for home decor (she has radar for incredible deals) spray-painted stuff, laughed about funny memories, made some new memories with the grandbabies, and ate some of her famous smoothies.

One night Scott went on a scout campout and we stayed in for a girls night. Here is some of the snacks we indulged on while watching a movie. Twelve cheesecake squares are absent from this picture because I had already eaten them all!

We sure wish my dad could have come out too. Ian loves that Home Depot truck "dat Gwampa 'made' for us". That orange matchbox truck is the first thing he asks for each morning and it travels in Ian's little fist wherever we go.

In other news, several weeks ago I stopped swaddling Joseph during his morning nap. It took him about 30 minutes to fall asleep that first time, but ever since he's gotten comfortable holding a bunny and a blanket as he drifts off to sleep. And he sleeps much better now that he can retrieve his own binkie.

And the night my mom left, Scott and I began 'Sleep Training' Joseph. Until then Joseph was waking to eat at least 4 times a night. And it was getting worse every week. He's almost six months old. I know. It was ridiculous.

We figured it would take several weeks for Sleep Training to work its magic, since his habits were pretty bad. We didn't bother waiting for a weekend, because we figured we'd be working on it for several weeks. However, using the Ferber method Joseph ate only twice that first night, and only cried for about 30 minutes total. The second night he ate only once, and cried for less than 5 minutes. And by the third night, he didn't eat at all, and awoke only once or twice with hardly any fussing at all. Scott and I are ecstatic about his quick improvements. And not unlike our experience with Ian, Joseph has become even more good-natured, charming and giggly since getting better night-time sleep.


The only sad part about all this is that Ian gave up his binkie the first night Joseph slept through the night. Which means that although Joseph slept, Scott, Ian and I did not. We had been planning to continue Ian's binkie use, but were unfortunately forced to stop it abruptly. And I don't think the timing could be much worse. But parts of this experience have actually been pretty funny, so I will post more about it soon.

And lastly, Joseph has begun to sleep on his tummy. While I still put him on his back to sleep, he settles himself onto his tummy at some point in the night. To me this marks his departure from 'new baby' status into the stages of later infancy. He must really be growing up!

Joseph's Locomotion

Today Joseph refused to drink a bottle (not unusual), but when I set it on the floor in front of him he went after it. He is getting closer to crawling! Also, Ian opened and consumed no less than 4 packages of fruit snacks while I took this video. 

Next week Ian turns two, and Joseph will be 6 months old! Wow. More pictures coming soon!