Superhero Obsessed

So my child is officially a boy. He is completely obsessed with superheroes. It all started when he watched an episode (or 2....or 25) of Spiderman and his Amazing Friends (from back in the DAY...thanks, streaming Netflix!) with Daddy. He now lives most of his days as Spiderman or Iceman, with Daddy being whichever one he is not. I am lucky enough to be Firestar, and Liam is always "the monkey," stemming from when he was a monkey for Halloween. It's fun to throw in other people from time to time and ask who they are. Tito Tommy, for example, is "a goat." Auntie Jenn got upgraded from an Ugnaut (from Star Wars) to Wolverine. Score. When we're out in public, he is constantly ice freezing people or throwing his webs at them, and it's pretty cute to see. Two weeks ago when we were in the playground, there were two kids there with Spiderman outfits on and Eli followed them everywhere, completely mesmerized. I can't WAIT to give him his Spiderman outfit for Christmas... I think he's never going to take it off. :)

With the superhero obsession comes more kicking, punching, "pow"ing and I was struggling for a little bit about whether or not it was ok to let him get into this stuff now. I was about to try to shield him from it, but it's really fun and cute to see him and Mike playing together, bonding over their love for these guys. I bought him a little kid comic book and Mike was so excited to read it to him. And, as Mike put it, he's a boy...this is how boys are... this is what boys are into.

So now, I spend a lot of time as The Vulture or The Green Goblin, chasing Eli around and freezing myself when he webs me. And he squeals with laughter. Memories. Priceless.

Brothers

We are SO lucky that these boys get along (for now, at least!). Eli is SO super sweet with Liam. He's constantly giving him hugs and kisses. In the morning, he always wants to go see Liam and give him a kiss, and he gets very upset if he can't give him a kiss before he goes to bed. When Liam wakes up from a nap and Eli's already up, Eli says (with great excitement): "OH! Liam's AWAKE!"

Today, I got my first taste of what it will be like when they try to play together. I was playing Legos with Eli and put a few in front of Liam. (The big ones). He was having great fun flinging them around.... when Eli ran over and said "NO Liam!" and took them away. Sigh. And so it begins!

But then later, when I was making dinner, a sweet moment came. Liam was screaming his head off and I couldn't get over to him (mid-cooking). I asked Eli to go over and tell his brother it was going to be ok. Eli ran over and said "It's ok, buddy! It's ok! We're making food right now for you. It's ok!" Lol... of course Liam wasn't getting any of what I was making, but it was so sweet to hear that. :)

I think one of the great benefits of having them so close together is that Eli just accepted Liam as part of his life. He never asked us to take him back and was never, ever jealous of him.... he just accepted him as his brother. I love that. :)

Liam is 5 months old!

Dear Liam,

You are 5 months old today!!!! You've changed so much in the last few weeks and are really starting to interact a lot more with the world. Here's what's going on with you right now:

-When you went to the doctor 2 weeks ago, you were in the 3rd percentile for weight. A few days after the appointment, you hit a crazy growth spurt and have wanted to eat every 1-2 hours. This has been going on for more than a week, and last time I weighed you, you had gained 12 oz in one week alone! Normal growth for your age is 4-6 oz a week. So you're definitely catching up!

-This also means that you're not sleeping as well as you used to. For a few weeks, you were sleeping a glorious 7-9 hours a night!!! I think that contributed to your little-ness, though, since you were missing a few feedings, so now I make it a point to get up with you when you start to fuss at night. The past week, you've been going down at 8pm, getting up again around 11, then up around 2, 4, 5, and for good at 6. Mommy's pretty tired!

-Your naps have also become much shorter (25 to 45 min), though for the past few days, you've been taking 3 hour naps in the late afternoon.

-You are definitely in size 2 diapers now, but since we still have a bunch of 1's laying around, we're squeezing you into them.

-You're wearing 3-6 month clothes right now. If we put on just the 6 mo. clothes, they are definitely really baggy on you.

-You still have old man hair... bald on the sides with a crazy little patch of bangs in the front... but your hair on the sides is starting to fill in more! After you get a bath, you have the cutest little fuzzy hair!

-Unlike Eli at your age, you couldn't give two hoots about the toy cow or rooster or pig we have attached to your car seat. You absolutely prefer the yellow chick. I don't even try to give you the other ones anymore. You also love this basketball rattle we force onto your wrist, and little velcro animals I put on your ankles. You are BIG into playing with your feet right now (for the past week) and if I put you on your back, you ALWAYS have your feet in your hands.

-You are ALMOST able to sit up unsupported. You can do it for a few seconds if I balance you right, but you still flop over to the side in a heartbeat. About half of the time, if you are leaning forward, you can push your upper body back up again.... but this morning, you were leaning over trying to suck your toes!

-You LOVE tummy time and spend at least 50% of your mommy-is-not-holding-me time on your belly. I put toys in a full circle around you, because for the past two weeks, you can turn yourself all the way around. You're very good at reaching for things (especially the blue wipes container, cause it's crinkly!), and can now really "Swim" on your belly.

-You strongly dislike when I put your little Santa hat on you, though I've been able to get a few really good pictures of you by making you laugh while wearing it.

-You like to watch the cats go by and today you reached out and tried to grab Riley!

-You LOVE watching your big brother do anything. If you don't realize he's there and then see him, your face lights up and you can't stop smiling. If Eli notices this, he comes over to you and gives you hugs and kisses. He REALLY loves you.

-You've been sticking your entire fist in your mouth and sucking your fingers and drooling A LOT...and yesterday, when I looked in your mouth, I saw a very teeeeeny tooth starting to pop through!!!! If I'm facing you, it's your left bottom tooth coming in first. I'm not ready to stop seeing that adorable gummy smile!

You are an absolute joy, Liam, and I love you very much!!! We're so lucky to have you in our family!

4 month growth spurt

Wow... a lot of time has passed since I last wrote. Liam has taken to taking super short naps, so I don't have as much time as I once did to sit down and keep up with the blog. Now that he's bigger and demands more attention, I've also been slacking in keeping notes on cute little things (or ugly things) Eli says. I'll try to recall as much as I can from these pat two weeks.

First of all, Halloween came and went and was a ton of fun. We took the boys down to Maryland and on Halloween day went with my mom and my cousin Emily to Butler's Orchard, where they have a huge, huge halloween fest type thing. We had a lot of fun last year and even more fun this year since Eli was older. We literally could have been there all day, but with two kids who need to take naps, we shortened it to about 3 hours of hay fights, hay rides, huge pumpkin slides, a corn maze, pumpkin searching, castle climbing, goat/pig feeding and more. It was a ton of fun and I'm so glad we decided to go on Halloween. When the boys were napping, Mike and I carved some pumpkins. Eli woke up near the tail end and was excited to see what was going on, but not yet old enough to participate.

After a quick dinner, we got suited up and went out trick-or-treating while my mom held down the fort, handing out candy to the little ones. We did one giant loop in my mom's neighborhood and Eli had a lot of fun. I carried Liam in his monkey outfit, and since it was a little too big, I don't think he could see most of the time. One lady told me she thought I was holding a giant stuffed animal. He was happy to be out and about with us, though, and it seems that whenever we are out somewhere walking with him, he's quiet. Eli got the concept of knocking on the door, but every single house we went to, when they opened the door, he tried to go inside. He didn't quite get that he was supposed to say trick-or-treat because he was just SO excited to get the candy. He also didn't get that he was supposed to only take one and had to be reminded every single time. If we'd prompt him with "what do you say?" when someone opened the door, he'd say "Trick or treatin!" He insisted on carrying his bucket himself and wouldn't let us touch it. About 3/4 of the way through, Mike convinced him to dump out the bucket (Mike asssssuuuuuured him he would get it back when we got home) and he was much happier then. :) All in all, we probably hit about 25 houses or so and were out there for a little over an hour. It was a perfect night and we had a lot of fun. Eli LOVED being Buzz lightyear, and still asks to wear the costume every single day.

Liam's (somewhat belated) four month check-up was on November 3rd and while he looks healthy and everything sounds great, he's super, super little. He dropped in weight from the 42nd percentile at 2 months to the 3rd percentile at 4 months. I assured her he was eating enough and thought maybe it was because he had been sleeping a 7-9 hour stretch at night and therefore missing a feeding. She strongly suggested I supplement him with a little formula and after thinking super hard about it, I decided that we'd start giving him one 4 oz bottle of formula at bedtime and we'd up his ounces on the days Mike feeds him as well. This plan worked great for about 3 days and then he hit a CRAZY growth spurt and now wants to eat EVERY HOUR. No joke. I'm stuck on the couch because all he wants to do is nurse, nurse, nurse. He used to sleep from 8pm to 4am and then again from 4:30 to 6:30. Well, now he goes down at 8 and wakes up at 10, 2, 4, and 5 to eat... and then he's up. Eli has also decided that getting up at 6am is a good idea. Thanks a whole lot, daylight savings time. Needless to say, I'm a wee bit tired. This is also why I get NOTHING done after the kids go to bed. My long list of "I'll do that tonight after the kids go down" gets thrown out the window the second I tell them goodnight. I collapse on the couch and do only mind-numbing activities like watch TV or hang out on Facebook. We'll see how long this little growth spurt lasts!

Two days ago, I braved the playground by myself with BOTH boys out of the stroller for the first time. That meant that I couldn't follow Eli everywhere and had to hope that he wouldn't try to go down a tall pole himself. (He didn't). It was a GORGEOUS day and we ended up staying for three hours! Success!!

Eli's temper and two-year old will continue to surface for much of our days and boy, it's not pretty. Today and yesterday were pretty good days and mean Eli has only showed up a few times...so it gives me hope that nice, sweet Eli isn't gone forever. If he disagrees with something I say, he tells me to "STOP TALKING!" or "STOP SAYING THAT!" or "YOU'RE NOT MAD! I'M MAD!!!!" Sigh.

Ok - much more to say but both boys are sleeping and Mike won't be home til late tonight (marathon mommy day).... if I have a chance of making it, I need to get at least 15 min of sleep in. This is about the time when Liam wakes up, screaming. Wait for it...wait for it..... Wow...still quiet! I'm out!

A morning with a two year old

So these are actual conversations ("MOMMY! STOP WRITING!") I had with Eli one morning, most of them within an hour. It is quite maddening how my sweet little angel can turn on a DIME (I have no idea why that's a phrase) and turn into demon/angry child. Frustrating, to say the least.

Eli: I want lunch.

Me: It's not lunchtime, it's breakfast time.

E: NO! It's not breakfast! I want DINNER.

.....

Me: Stop touching that.

Eli: NO! I am NOT touching.

....

Me: Eli, I'm cutting your nails next. (Was cutting Liam's)

E: NO! You do NOT!

...

E: I want to watch Thomas (we were watching another cartoon).

Me: Ok, give me the remote so I can change it.

E: NO! I'm STILL WATCHING!!!!

.....

E: I want to watch THIS one!

Me: You need to stop whining.

E: NO! I am NOT WHINING. This is NOT whining.

.....

Me: Let's cut your nails.

E: NO! They're NOT long. They are OK. *runs away*

*I then put the clippers back*

E: NOOOOOO! I want to cut my nails!!!! I want LUNCH, mommy!

.....

E: I'm done watching Arthur.

Me: Ok. You're done watching Arthur?"

E: Yes.

Me: Ok. Should I turn it off?

E: NO! I'M STILL WATCHING!

....

Me: Mommy needs a break.

Eli: You do NOT need a break.

.....

Me: Mommy's very tired.

Eli: You are NOT tired.

....

and my personal favorite:

Me: That's not nice.

Eli: That's not not nice. You don't say that. You don't get mad. I'm gonna get mad.

.....

Sigh. I'm getting better at handling these little conversations. I always take a deep breath and tell us that he's not being nice and I want him to be nice. He protests for a minute but then usually turns back. Sometimes I can joke around with him or tell him I want to see his happy face and that will work.

Also, for some reason Eli has developed a crazy Brooklyn accent. I have no idea where he gets it from because Mike and I for sure don't talk like this and the people in my neighborhood sure don't.... Like, for barn, he says "bwarn" and horse is "hawrse." It's funny and I wonder if he'll grow out of it.

His cutest thing of the week... he now gets on his motorcycle and tells me that he's looking for a parking spot (cause we have to do that several times a week in the car). He then "finds" one and wants me to ask him where he parked. He then always replies with "over by the train!" lol.

I'll end with this. It's October 29th (Happy Birthday, Rachna!) and it's SNOWING. WHAAAAAT?

Thing I never thought I'd say

Haha... there are many moments each day where I say things and stop and think to myself...wow, I can't believe I just said that.

Here are a few from this morning:

-I don't need to change his sheets. It's just pee. It'll dry.

-I've only worn these socks for 2 days. I can wear them for one more day.

-It's just a little bit of throw up... I'm sure it will dry.

-Hey LOOK! A GARBAGE TRUCK!

:)

Liam

Now that Liam is pretty much recovered from his cold, we've been letting him cry it out at night. A book I read said that babies are really able to start self-soothing themselves at 4 months and that's a good time to start letting them try. It's been going GREAT. He cries his head off for about 5 minutes, and then that's it! He was consistently kicking himself out of his miracle blanket (and then getting upset that he was out of it), so I bought him a Halo Sleepsack/swaddle combo... LOVE IT! No more cold leggies! :)

He is having biiiiig babbling conversations with me these days and I LOVE It.