Ever since the moment we started testing Caleb for his delays, he seems to have begun picking things up a little more quickly. Granted, he still has the delays, but his skills are absolutely developing, slowly but surely, and he's growing by leaps and bounds right now!
I stayed late after work to say good bye to a friend who's moving out of the state while Ben picked the babies up and brought them home. As soon as I got home, I was greeted with some exciting news about Caleb's new tricks. He was sitting up with Grace and Ben in the play area and when Ben put him down on his tummy, within about a minute, he was pushing himself up with his arms and rotateing himself to the side to reach for toys (rings, of course!) that weren't within his direct grasp. Then, he started kicking each leg seperately up and down while he moved his arms in an army crawling motion, one and then the other! He hasn't figured out how to pull or push himself yet, but he's getting the motions down! Before today, his "swimming" was more like a dolphin kick rather than resembling a crawl, so I was really excited to see that he's picking up some new sensations and muscle memory.
Grace was extremely excited to see me when I got home, and completely lost it when I walked away to change after saying hello. I think from now on, if I come home after they are already there, I'll sneak back to change before seeing little miss priss. I hate that she cries so hard when I leave, I want to avoid as much of that as possible. I know that separation anxiety is completely normal, but with the limited time I have with my little ones, I want to make it as happy as possible for them (and me!).
We played in baby jail and the babies had some fun standing up and tackling me together. Right before bedtime, we had both of them on the ottoman and Caleb was having an absolute blast playing with Grace as she reached into the diaper bin, pulled out several diapers at a time, and handed some over to her brother for some good ol' diaper chewing (of course, when they actually started trying to chew the diapers, they had to be taken away...). He would reach up for her and flap his arms like crazy as she crawled up to the bin, pull herself up to reach inside, and pull out the diapers on top of him.
They played for a while together and then Caleb started focusing more on his crawling attempts. He is definitely starting to get frustrated by his lack of ability to move. I can tell how badly he wants to get up and do what his sister can do. He stares at her all the time and gets really excited when she's moving around anywhere near him. Then when he's on his tummy and trying to "swim", he seems so desperate to make it work for him. He's reaching up for me if I'm in front of him and flailing his arms and legs so fast...when that boy actually starts crawling, it's going to be a crazy house around here. He's gonna be FAST! And of course, Grace is gonna be FEISTY!
We fed them some harvest veggie purees and then some apples and apricots, and tonight I gave both Grace AND Caleb some puffs to munch on. Caleb can't figure out how to get them in his own mouth, so I helped him out by popping one in his mouth to see what he'd do. It was so cute to hear him actually crunch down on it with his front teeth...as opposed to Grace's silent gum smacking as she attempts to gum the puffs to death before promptly spitting them out. Caleb kept one puff in his mouth, chewing, for several minutes. I saw it tucked into one of his big cheeks...I have no idea how it didn't completely dissolve by that point!
We had such a fun evening, with really no fussing or crying to speak about! Quite the different picture from yesterday evening (and most bath nights for Caleb). Of course, it can't all be fun and games now, can it? Unfortunately last night was my night for baby duty and about an hour after I finally fell asleep, I was awaken by Caleb's "angry cry". I checked on him and he just seemed half way awake and mad about something. He was slamming his legs down over and over on his crib, but he wasn't feverish and he shouldn't have been hungry at that point. He didn't have a dirty diaper...so I was stumped. I put my hand on his chest for a long time and he would calm down a bit but then get angry again. He started having a little bit of gas, so I assumed it was just a bit of a tummy ache and as his cries turned into that obvious tired cry, I let him fall back to sleep on his own. About thirty seconds after he stopped crying and I was finally starting to relax back into bed, Grace woke up and started crying. Usually I can give her a binky really quickly and she'll fall back to sleep, but last night I searched for a good two minutes for that binky in the dark before I had to give up and leave the nursery to get a new one. This set her off and she started full-on screaming. By the time I got back with a new binky, I was done for. I'm guessing she assumed I was leaving her to try to sleep without a binky and just wasn't happy about it, but she had full tears streaming down her face and was doing that sniffling cry that makes it hard to breathe. I gave her the binky and she quieted down, but when I turned to leave she started bawling. So I stayed with her for another several minutes to get her calm enough to let me walk out but by the time I got back to bed, Caleb had decided he wasn't having any of this extra noise and disruption of his sleep, so he started crying again.
Two hours later, they both finally fell back asleep. It was almost 2am, I was exhausted, and I was losing it. I've never been so angry at our cat before in my life. Just about anything was setting me off at that point, and a cat who meows next to the nursery door when I finally get both babies to calm down and start to doze off is pretty much the end of the world in those groggy moments. Ben wasn't exactly immune from my wrath at that point either, unfortunately. I needed sleep...and no more crying.
When Caleb woke up hungry at 4:15, I was exhausted and delirious. Luckily this has all become second nature so I can easily get out of bed, warm the bottle, empty a packet of probiotics into it, and then pick up the baby for a quick diaper change and then a sleepy feeding on the couch. I can guarantee you that I fell asleep for at least a minute or two as I held his bottle in his mouth with my chin.
Have you ever been so tired that you can't sleep? My mind started racing as soon as I slipped Caleb back into bed and all of the work that I have waiting for me, my massive to-do list, was just haunting me as I tried to contemplate falling back asleep. There was no point. I got up, went to the computer, and spent the next two hours trying to catch up on some work I've needed to do. At 6:30 I went to lie down for 5 minutes before it was time to get ready for Caleb's helmet appointment and work.
Ben fed Grace when she woke up, but I got to get her out of bed and play with her for a couple minutes before passing her off to Daddy. I wasn't going to get much time with her today, so I wanted those cute first smiles of the day to hold onto. I packed Caleb a diaper bag and loaded us into my truck to head to the appointment about ten minutes late (per usual).
The helmet appointment was frustrating (again, per usual) and I left with the recommendation to try it for one more week and then discontinue using it if we still felt like the fit was so bad that it was impacting his eye contact. They tightened the helmet a bit (we just have to pull it tighter every time we put it on him) and shaved off some of the front so it doesn't go so low on his face when it's sitting in the right spot (it still drops down all the way to his nose when it slides up in the back, but it's a little better). They also shaved a little bit down around the ears so it won't hit them like it has. We were at the 15 minute appointment for over an hour. BUT, I got some adorable pictures of Caleb playing in this little red car that I just love. He was having a lot of fun as I pushed him around in it making that famous "VROOOM!" sound that he loves.
All in all, a very busy but memorable day! Now I just need a good night's sleep. I'm guessing they'll be awesome tonight...it is Daddy's night. ;)
 |
| I love this picture. It's one of my favorite new games- tackling Mommy! |
 |
| And look, Caleb actually tried to pull a Grace and smack his sister in the face! It's just a love tap, right Gracie? ;) And Caleb driving...      |
No comments:
Post a Comment