a pinch of whimsy.: a bit about my babies

beatrice

-she recently has decided to tell people what they smell like. it started one day when she buried her face into my cheek and said "mmmm mom you smell like BUTTER!" the next day, she picked me a flower and said "smell it mom! it smells like BUTTER!!!" so later that night with my family i asked her what each of them smells like. grandma just smells like grandma apparently. abby smells like butter (quite the compliment!) brad and papa smell like beard. and when we asked if sanjay smelled like butter too, she said "ehhhhh...no. you smell like....BLACK!!!" we thought it was pretty funny.

-she also thinks it's funny to change words to songs now. the other day we told her to sing our version of ta-ra-ra-boomdeeyay for my grandma and she sang "ta-ra-ra-boomdeeyay i'll take your pants away, if you're still standing there, i'll pee on there!" (that last line is supposed to say "i'll take your underwear" still potty humor but that other line is completely he own invention. so weird)

-she LOVES annie the musical. she goes around singing "tomorrow" almost constantly and it's the first thing she asks for when we get in the car. if i'm too tired of it, she then asks for taylor swift. i can stomach that better than hearing "tomorrow" a zillion times.

-she is TERRIFIED of flies. like obnoxiously scared of them. a fly got into our car yesterday (and that freaking thing would NOT GET OUT no matter how many windows i had down and no matter how strong the wind was pulling at it. i will kill its entire family for this) and she screamed literally for an hour, the whole way from provo to sandy. and not just like crying but like bloody murder, freddy-kruger-is-going-to-kill-me-right-this-second screams. it was ridiculous. i may or may not have yelled right back to just BE QUIET THAT STUPID BUG WILL NOT HURT YOU! CHILL OUT! it did not help. they push you to the breaking point, those toddlers.

-i found an alternative to TV in the mornings while i'm feeding oliver! bea LOVES playdoh. i kind of already knew that but we threw out her playdoh before we moved bc it had mostly all dried out but auntie abby made some homemade playdoh recently and it's been a lifesaver. bea will play with it for hours and i am sooooooo grateful.

-she still remembers everything. like stuff from when she was way too little to remember stuff. i can't recall anything right now but the last memory she pulled was from when she was like one or something. but my mom brain can't remember what it was. i was beginning to think she had a photographic memory but then i remembered that she STILL can't tell the difference between yellow and blue and was like "oh she really can't remember everything."

-she went to a princess ballet camp last week and absolutely loved it and keeps asking to go back. luckily the studio offers a performance based preschool at a very reasonable price so i think we may enroll her in that...

-she really hasn't skipped a beat with bringing oliver into our family. he was in and now he's out and she's not shocked or mad or confused at all. i'm not saying it's my parenting or anything but i think it helped a little bit that we watched so many pregnancy development videos and the actual labor and delivery diagram video tons of times. she totally got there was a baby in there and that it was eventually coming out. she has her own way of dealing with things too. we had a sweet moment the other day, she woke up from her nap but wasn't ready to really do anything yet. still a bit groggy. so i left her room so she could wake up more. she wandered into oliver's room alone. i left her there for a while but then wondered what she was up to and i walked in to find her rocking in her old rocking chair and just staring off into space. i snuggled up next to her and told her i used to rock her in that chair and soon when ollie sleeps in his own room i'll rock him in it. she told me she remembered i used to rock her in it, and that we used to read books in it with daddy. then she said "you had a baby tummy but now he is out. can i show you?" and she lifted up my shirt and poked my doughy stomach and said "see? no tummy. he's out now. he's baby brother." i can't really explain the emotion of the situation but it was a tender moment with just the two of us. i love that she takes time alone to ponder and process things. i think she misses our alone time too, but instead of acting out, she is turning inward and processing it in her own way.

-she is soooooo hyper now. mostly just between the hours of 5 and 7 -_- she goes nuts and just laughs and rolls around like a loon when we try to get her ready for bed. she "forgets" that she's not allowed to jump on the couch, "forgets" how to say prayers, and "forgets" that it's bedtime. and usually i "forget" to be patient with all of that. working on it.

-bea loves to be the center of attention. we were all talking one morning and the conversation shifted to ollie and she said "hey! can we talk about ME please?!" it had us laughing pretty hard.

-no judgement zone, but she got signed with an agency here in utah that will represent her for free and just take a commission if she gets any work. they said that most of their 2 year olds get a job like every other month and so i guess we'll see. bea has a unique look for utah, whereas in the east she was just another jew girl. so who knows. what do we have to lose? and now i have a ton of cute pics of her from my friend/favorite photographer so it's basically a win anyway. i mean look at these!

i mean come on. so cute. definitely gonna have to buy some cute frames now...

Oliver

-it's always harder to write about such new babies bc they're kind of bumps on a log for a while but he is starting to get a personality and we are enjoying him quite a bit. he smiles if you makes silly faces or tickle his chin and is starting to really hold his head up super well! he is a strong little chunk. his neck is virtually invisible though because his million chin rolls cover it up. dude is a CHUNK.

-he still likes to be swaddled and held tight in order to fall asleep. one arm behind his head, one on top across his legs. proper weight distribution or sleeping doesn't happen. i thought bea was a particular kid but he may give her a run for our money.

-he likes nuk pacifiers more than hospital green soothies. who knew? kids are all so different.

-he sleeps all the way through the night! 8-6/6:30! wahoo!

-boy can eat. he eats up to 6 oz at a time on the regular. and now that we switched his bottles and formula he is way less gassy and poops at least once a day! yayyyy!!!! and man are his poops STINKY! same with his farts. he is alllll boy.

-he has his 2 month check up on monday. i can't believe it. the days go slow but the months go fast. he just turned 8 weeks this past monday. i'm ok with him growing up though, whereas i mourned the days lost with bea. i just can't wait to see what the next day holds with him. i'm loving seeing him grow too much to mourn the fact that he's no longer so little. and let's be real this boy was never tiny, so there's that.

-speaking of which, he's outgrown his 0-3 month clothes and is on to 3-6 months! at 8 weeks old! crazy.

-he LOVES baths! you can visibly see him relax in the tub and it's so sweet. he loves getting water poured over his head and loves just sitting and soaking in his tub. bath time is so sweet for us and luckily he is often stinky so i bathe him a LOT.

-he got the spit up gene after all. it manifested itself a bit later with him. i don't know if he spits up as much as bea did (let's be real, NO kid spits up as much as she did!) but he has plenty of really bad spit ups per day. makes for a lot of laundry. and a lot of baths. i may have to buy some more burp cloths too.

-he pretty much hates the car. i ALWAYS make sure all of his needs are met before i put him in the car (fed, changed, soothed) and he still will scream once he's clicked into the seat about 60% of the time until he just falls asleep. then he sleeps for the rest of the ride. until the car stops for any reason and he starts screaming again. it makes getting out kind of stressful but i'm working on ignoring it. bea used to love the car so i'm a little baffled but hopefully he grows out of it soon.

-he LOVES my grandma! she came to visit from california this past week and she held him pretty much the whole time and he was always so peaceful and calm when she was holding him. he smiled and cooed at her more than anyone else ever. it was so sweet.

-he is smushy and adorable and i cant wait for him to get even more smushy! he is getting fatter and fatter each day and i cant wait for him to be covered in chunky rolls. fat babies are the best babies :)