Lux and Nick's Online Journal

Honeymoon is Over

We are seeing signs that our sweet, complacent boy is a lot feistier than we were giving him credit for. Now that he is nearly four months old he is a lot less willing to simply sit in his swing or bouncy chair while we have all the fun. Lux used to like to be held in the sitting position. Nicholas prefers to stand - his legs seem unbelievably strong.

Actually we are really enjoying watching Nicholas's personality emerge. He is a happy kid who really likes to laugh. He lights up when he sees his sister. He loves to attack certain toys - really giving them a work out as he grabs and twists and bites. He has learned that he has to speak up when he wants something - which means a lot more crying, but more times than not, when he complains it is because he is hungry, dirty or tired. Hardly ever does he cry when it is not very obviously one of those reasons. Fuss yes, but not really cry.

We now put Nick to bed at around 7:30. It takes him maybe 15 minutes to fall asleep, but he does it all on his own. Lux usually goes to bed about an hour later, and we have made tremendous strides in her sleeping. She hardly wakes up at all in the night anymore, and if she does, she generally stays in her bed and doesn't need more than a few kind words or a pat to help her back to sleep. This is a huge change from a few weeks back. Sadly, we can't really enjoy it, as Nick, who once slept so well, has been waking up more than we would like. Lately he wakes at 2 am. Since he last gets fed at 11 pm, this is too soon. We try not to let him eat again until at least 4 am, unless he is really starving. But we never know what to expect. Sometimes he'll sleep until 6 am, but sometimes he wakes every hour between 2 am and 7 am. He also can be quite noisy, kicking about with those powerful legs of his and getting angry that his bear has escaped him, which sometimes wakes Lux and doubles our troubles.

Nicholas is old enough now to use the activity saucer for short periods of time, and seems to like it. He also enjoys his Gymini, and Lux likes playing with him in it. She also likes to move him around the room, which she does by pulling him by the feet. Nick seems to like that just fine.

Some of his favorite toys are the ones that Lux had little to no interest in when she was his age. For example, he loves a little "tag blanket" that we had been assured that all children would love, but that Lux didn't really give a second look at. He also likes a few of her old favorites, including a silver rattle and the parrot from the Gymini.

Lux's sleep habits aren't the only thing that has improved lately. In the past few weeks, in fact, she has been just a really great kid to be with. She has been well behaved on shopping excursions, helpful cleaning up toys at home, more patient, always caring and sweet with Nick, and always checking to make sure we haven't forgotten him. After months of refusing to kiss us, she has started to do it again - she calls it Mwah now (after all, that is the sound you make!) and often gives Nick a good Mwah and makes sure that Paul gives Mwahs to everyone before he leaves for work.

We have been going to a lot of baseball games this summer - Bowie Baysox mostly, but also a Nationals game with our friends Matt and Maya and their daughter Alexandra. Lux really likes to go and seems to enjoy watching to the game as much as meeting the mascots and eating peanuts. Nick has been great at being flexible and portable, but as his sleep schedule becomes less fluid, we realize our already limited social life will be further curtailed, at least until next summer.

We had a visit from Deepto and Jacquie and went out to a lovely restaurant to celebrate Jacquie's return to the US, this time for good. Lux stayed home with Emily and seemed to have a good time in spite of a few tears when I left. Nick came along to the restaurant and flirted for a while, fussed for a while (we took him to the courtyard) then slept for most of the meal. It was ideal, really. We also went to a Baysox game that weekend, but sadly didn't get to stick around for fireworks as the zero-zero tie lasted into extra innings. We topped off the weekend with the first birthday of the Bradley Class birthday season - Alexandra's. They set the bar with a Jump for Joy (or Moon Bounce or whatever they are calling them these days) and an Elmo sprinkler. Lux discovered a love for brownies and playing with Playdoh.

Our Father's Day weekend was crammed full. Lux was thrilled that on Saturday we were going to two parties. T? she kept asking (T is her word for cake, and now that she has gotten into the birthday party swing she assumes all parties will have cake. Luckily she isn't choosy and any baked good will do, so usually she is right). The first party was the neighborhood block party, with the best turnout in years. Lots of new families and new kids in the neighborhood. We ate some good food (well, Paul and Susan did, Lux learned about Cheetos and ate the tops off of two cupcakes) and socialized. If we hadn't been certain before that Nick is one big kid, we met a baby who was born three days after him and looked like he was half his size. Nick could have literally eaten this baby.

After naps we went to Michele and Darryl's for a little wine. This was particularly nice, because Kris and John had brought their children Jordan and Kyle, who are 3 and 2. Lux was a little shy at first, but was soon really enjoying playing with them. We really liked seeing how well she could play out of our sight with them. Lately she has been a bit clingy in public and at parties, and not super about playing with others, prefering to stay with us. We're not sure if this is because she isn't in daycare, or if it is because of the upheaval Nick's arrival caused or if it is a phase or is just her personality. Lux also got to watch Jordan on the potty, which was really interesting for her. I'm not sure she understood that kids her size could use it too. (Potty is a very big deal around our house right now. Lux likes to talk a lot about it. In fact, her first five word sentence was "Dada read Elmo potty book?")

On Father's Day we tried to let Dada sleep in a little bit, then went out to brunch at the Royal. Lux has gotten really good at going to restaurants lately, too. She particularly enjoys our local Chinese restaurant and the brunch at the Royal was a good deal because she got her choice of items from the buffet. Then home for nap and the whole family hooked up with Aunt Karen for a day spent at the Red Cross Alexandria Waterfront Festival. It was a lovely day, cool for this time of the year, sunny, and we just hung out eating and drinking and listening to music. Lux liked to watch the carnival rides and really had a great time running around and taking it all in. She also discovered she loves cotton candy. We suspect that the fact that she ate nothing but spun sugar and popcorn all day could have been why she was under the weather on Monday.

Lux is also getting quite empathetic. Yesterday she accidently scratched Susan's cornea. While we are downplaying her role in the whole thing, she is quite concerned about the eyepatch and the medication, asking "Mama sick?". It is very sweet. And luckily the scratch is healing well.

This week Paul leaves for 10 days in Scotland, so we'll so how well that goes with Susan home alone with both kids and no relief. When he gets back we'll be busy getting ready for Lux's birthday and a visit from Grandad and Janie.

posted by Susan @ 1:16 PM