nap strike

I fear that my nap times have come to an end. We are on day 5 of Elizabeth's nap strike. This is the longest one yet. In the times before she would scream the whole time or not be content she is now perfectly content to read books in her crib with her stuffed animals for an hour! She's a bit of a brat in the evenings, hitting her brother and throwing tantrums more readily but she's starting to mellow out.

I am still getting my alone time, just can't count on a nap anymore - which means I should probably go to bed earlier!

nursing

Josiah has decided he will not be taking milk from a bottle anymore. This has happened three separate times now. First for Chris, then my mother-in-law. I thought, secretly, that they were just not doing something right. Yesterday I was proven wrong. My friend, Amy, was over watching the kids and Josiah did the same for her. She tried for 20 minutes, then I tried, then I tried putting it in a sippy, then putting it in a different kind of sippy. It was all to no avail, and more dishes were added to my already full sink!

This behavior is a little perplexing to me, especially since he's had no problem taking bottles as recent has 2 weeks ago! It was nice to be able to go out for the evening and not worry about how the little guy (and the one watching him) was getting along. I don't know how this will effect our already very few date nights. I like our date nights. Perhaps we'll just have to modify them for awhile.

While I'm on the subject of nursing, Josiah likes to nurse. Elizabeth was a very different baby. I used to joke that she didn't care HOW she got fed. Nursing, bottle, sippy cup - I probably could have fed her intravenously and she would have been happy. The girl just liked to eat (and still does). Of course it was a good thing that she wasn't picky because after finding out I was pregnant with Josiah, when she was almost 9 months old, my milk supply dried up and she was completely weaned at 10 months of age. Josiah would probably be VERY upset if I suddenly stopped producing as much. Fortunately that's not the issue . . . there is an issue with his teeth though. I did not know that having a baby with teeth hurts when you are feeding them - even if he's not biting down. Elizabeth only had her bottom two teeth the whole time I was nursing. She got the top two at 11 months. Josiah has his bottom two teeth, one of his top teeth and the other one just poked through today. I'm really hoping it will get better!

feeding Josiah

Josiah has not been interested in much baby food yet. Every time I tried to feed him pureed baby food he would gag and then cry and refuse to eat more. I was doing some research on Wholesomebabyfood.com and came across Baby Led Weaning. I found it to be very interesting and while I don't agree with it 100 percent it opened up my (often rather closed) mind to new ways of introducing food to Josiah.

I found out the other day that Josiah likes avocados and he likes artichokes. I mash a little on my finger and give it to him. He does pretty well. Tonight I tried a new food, tofu, and he really liked it. I also gave him cooked peas and cooked apple pieces instead of pureeing them. He liked both a lot more and he didn't even gag!!

I am learning that what worked with Elizabeth may not work with Josiah and I have to be flexible in order to figure that out!

clean house, clean mind

It's the start of a new month and on the first Monday of the month we get our house cleaned. I forgot that today was the day for our house to get cleaned so last night I was making a list of all the cleaning I needed to do . . . and knew deep down inside I wasn't going to get to it all! Then I got a reminder call from my house cleaner and "aaah", I didn't need to stress! It feels so good to have a clean house! Now I just need to try to keep it that way the rest of this month.

peekaru

I purchased a peekaru vest from my good friend Amber over at Heavenly Hold. It is the perfect addition to my babywearing. We got it just in time for a trip to the mountains/snow. Josiah was so snug and warm! I was looking for something that wasn't big and bulky, could be used in COLD weather but also would be good for the more temperate climate of Southern California. I couldn't be happier w/ my purchase and little Josiah loves it too! The ONLY thing I would add to it is a way for their little hands to be free when facing forward . . . but otherwise it's great!

bedtime

Elizabeth and Josiah are in the same room now. We moved Josiah in three nights ago and first of all it's AMAZING to have our room all to ourselves again! Secondly the change has been a lot easier that I thought. Ellie is still in a crib but we gave her new bedding - sheets and a fitted comforter the second night Josiah was in her room. Ever since then she wants to go to bed as soon as he is in bed - putting her p.j's on and brushing her teeth is a breeze! She isn't even bothered when he cries. We were trying to put Josiah down first and then once he's asleep put Ellie down but last night we could tell he wasn't going to go to sleep right away, so instead of waiting for him to fall asleep we put Ellie down with him awake - and crying. She did fine! We did put a cd on, Sleep Sound in Jesus by Michael Card (thanks mom!) to help drown on the noise and they both did great! Josiah is still waking up twice at night, but that is going relatively smoothly as well. Even when I didn't get in the room fast enough last night and Ellie woke up she had no problem going back to sleep.

Right now Josiah is crying off and on and I can hear Ellie talking in her crib - we'll see if they keep each other awake or I can get them both to fall asleep with out needing to pull Josiah out to rock.

The goal will CONTINUE to be one kid asleep before the next one goes to bed, but I know that won't always be possible!

Do you like Lara Bars?

I do. They are such a yummy treat and the best thing about them is that they have only a few ingredients and no preservatives. However they aren't cheap. A friend of mine sent me a link to a recipe for making your own lara-type bars. Wow are these YUMMY! I made some a few weeks ago - Ellie loved them, I loved them - it was great! I made more tonight. Check out this LINK if you are interested in making some yourself!