34 Weeks

I love this face!
 

Santino says the word Yay. Oftentimes it sounds more like the letter "A" however.

 

Lately he seems to be trying to wave. In general, he's also is doing a lot more motions with his hands.

 

I've been teaching him a couple words in sign language: more & all done. To do the sign for all done, or finished, you hold your hands up starting with your palms facing in and then turn them facing out. Well, the last couple of days he appears to be trying to sign this.

 

He gets around by crawling or by walking on all fours. Yep...he almost looks like a little monkey when he does this.

 

This past weekend, Rob stayed home with the boys on Saturday and Sunday afternoon while I was able to get out on my own. I love my boys, but it was a lot of fun to get away.

 

Santino fell asleep on Rob's chest both days. The little guy was tuckered out. Apparently he's not napping enough, but he's not too keen on the idea of taking a 3rd nap in his bed. He'd rather have Papa hold him. I can't blame the guy.

 

Lately I've been taking advantage of Santino going to sleep much earlier at night than he used to. Maximus follows soon after and then Rob since he gets up so early in the morning. So now I have a little more time to myself. I will be sleeping soon tonight however, because I'm tired.

 

Have a good week everyone!

 

Firsts

Aren't they cute?

Last Saturday I took the boys to Target. This was the first time that they sat next to each other in a shopping cart. In the past, I would put Santino in his car seat in the basket area of the cart, while Maximus sat in the front.

Honestly, it didn't even occur to me that Santino was now old enough to sit in a shopping cart by himself. It's only been a little over a month that he's been able to sit up on his own. So, when I was shopping with Grandma LaLa last week and she suggested sitting him in the cart, I looked at her and it was as if a light bulb went off. "REALLY?" I thought. Yep. He can! Thanks, LaLa! Why didn't I think of that?! haha...

 

Santino has been having fun crawling through cardboard boxes lately.

 

Maximus is starting to look so grown up! Wait a minute!!!

 

Last Sunday was another "first" for the boys. They got to take a bath together.

 

Gotta love the shirts, huh? "If you mustache...I'm the little (or big) brother." These were gifts I got at Santino's baby shower.

 

Spring is upon us...we've had some beautiful days of sunshine, but now we are back to rain, with some sunbreaks. On Tuesday, I caught this rainbow behind our home.

 

Whenever I see this in the sky, it reminds me that God ALWAYS keeps His promises.

 

I am putting my rainbow in the clouds as the sign of the agreement between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and a rainbow appears in them, I will remember my agreement between me and you and every living thing. Floods will never again destroy all life on the earth. Genesis 9:13-15 (New Century Version)

 

Have a great weekend!

33 Weeks

Tonight when Rob was lying on his side on the floor, Santino grabbed a hold of him and pulled himself up into a standing position! Oh my goodness! I think he'll be walking soon!!!

 

Overall, Santino's sleep is great at night compared to what it's been in previous months. He goes down between 7:00 and 7:30 at night and gets up in the morning, usually between 6:30 and 8:00. He's been waking up at night and will sometimes continue to cry off and on for 1-2 hours, despite my efforts to console him. But since I started getting up to feed and change him again, (once or twice a night), the crying has curtailed and we all get better sleep.

 

I've noticed recently that Santino is doing a lot of clicking and smacking sounds with his mouth and tongue. It's cute hearing this.

 

On a side note, I wanted to mention something about the blanket that I used in this week's photo. Earlier today, when I was over at my parents' house with the boys, I asked my mom if she had a blanket for Santino to lie on. I'm so glad she suggested to use the one photographed here. Growing up, I always remember this being one of the blankets we would use if we were in the living room. My Mom crocheted it before she was married, some 50+ years ago. Purple has always been her favorite color. This will be a fun memory for me to tell Santino & Maximus about someday.

 

Have a great week everyone!



Fun Day

I had a fun day with the boys, Rob's Mom, and my nieces. They came out to visit and we celebrated Maximus' birthday. Between Rob's travel recently and everyone being sick, it just didn't work out to get together last month.

 

So, Grandma LaLa treated us to lunch. We went to McDonald's and M had a blast going down the slide there! Oh, and he was so excited to get Lincoln Logs from her and Grandpa BoBo. Thank you!!!

 

Grandma LaLa (Rob's Mom) with the boys & their cousin Sydney.

It's so difficult getting kids to cooperate with a camera. At least it makes for fun viewing.

 Here are some photo collages of the boys from this week.
 

 

 

 

xoxo



Giggles

Yesterday Maximus got Santino giggling. I love the sound of children laughing, don't you?

 

Today I took Santino in for some immunizations. Poor baby cried so hard. He now weights 16 1/2 pounds and is 27" in length. His head circumference measured 17".

 

At Dinner tonight Maximus grabbed a potato chip off his plate. In a matter of fact tone, he said, "Mama, I'll give you one chip and that's it. No more."

 

Thanks, Maximus. LOL...

32 Weeks

I've been talking about Santino being on the move for a while now, but over this past week I can say he's now officially and consistently crawling on all fours. This baby is into everything!

 

He's always trying to open up drawers. He likes crawling towards Rob's computer and crawling over the bar that's on the floor of the baby gate, to get into the kitchen. He'll go under the dining room table & chairs and he likes to go into the bathroom.

 

He's been in the stage, for a while now, where anything and everything goes into his mouth. Santino really likes Maximus' house slippers. If they're laying on the floor and in his vicinity, he'll get them and put them in his mouth. And if Maximus is wearing them, Santino likes to chew on them. We have to keep an eye out for that. haha...

 

A few days ago I decided it was time to ditch the tub that we put Santino in to take a bath. It was getting too dangerous giving him a bath in it, since he would try and sit up in it and move around like a wild man. Now it's much easier just bathing him in the regular bathtub. Maximus enjoys helping me give Santino a bath. M will help by grabbing a wash cloth out of the drawer. He also enjoys when I fill up his water container so he can dump water in the tub (or onto Santino). Maximus is always eager to find Santino bath toys to play with as well.

 

Santino has a good appetite most days. A couple times last week he was eating much more than normal. He had about 4 - 5 Tbs. of dry oatmeal and/or rice cereal mixed with water, 14 - 16 oz. of baby food and I nurse him 4 - 5 times a day.

 

This last week he's doing better in the sleeping department. There's been about two or three nights where he's slept all the way through, (around 11 or 12 hours). Some nights, he'll wake up a time or two. Sometimes he'll be awake for only a few minutes...other times a couple hours. Last night he had a bit of a rough night.

 

Santino takes 2 - 3 naps a day. The majority of the time it's only two naps. Those are anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. Lately he has been averaging about 2 1/2 hours total in naps a day.

 

My life has become increasingly busy with these two boys. I have a hard time believing how fast they are growing. It's a lot of fun. And sometimes...not so fun. Yep! Sometimes it's tough. I lose my patience and get frustrated. But, despite all of that, it's so worth it. I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!

 

I am blessed!

The Moon

Maximus enjoys the book, Guess How Much I Love You. We say this phrase to him all the time and he'll say it back.

 

Today when he was playing on the floor with Santino he said, "I love you baby so much...to the moon."

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Happy Friday

Don't even think about messing with me! Do you see my earring? I'm one tough dude!

 

All smiles - notice Santino's teeth poking through?

 

Playing side by side
 

Santino is always trying to crawl into the bathroom.

 

Tonight he was crawling on the table. Repeatedly. Going after Maximus' pancakes & water.

Rob had to keep pulling him back across the table.
"Oh Maximus...that looks really good!"


"No fair, Mama. Why can't I have some pancakes?"

 

During lunch today, Santino was sitting in his high chair and Maximus said, "I love that baby sitting there. He got a funny face."

 

Since Rob has been so sick lately, (3rd round of antibiotics in the past month), Maximus will say to him, "You got to get better Papa. You need to go lay down and rest." Or he'll say, "You need to eat something Papa."

 

That M is a thoughtful boy. Oh, but there are times when he'll push my buttons...when he's goofing around and I've asked him to do something one too many times. Then he senses my frustration (or a possible time out coming) and he'll come over to me and give me a hug and say, "I love you, Mama."

 

He also knows how to melt my heart when he tells me I look pretty. Or if he asks for something and adds, "pretty mama" at the end of the request. For example, "Can I have some cookies, pretty mama?"

 

Here he is getting all cozy with his animals and blankets.

 

It's pretty hard to resist that face!





The Life of Boys

 

This is a typical playtime scene in our house. These boys like to be rough and tumble, but they also have a very sweet and tender hearted side.



The other day Santino was playing in the dining room and next thing I know, he's chasing after a toy underneath the table.

One of Santino's favorite things to do is chew on tags. Maximus was the same way when he was this age.

This was a candid shot of Maximus I took last week. He reminds me of a little man in this photo. He's looking at something we received in the mail.

Today I let Maximus watch some Curious George (again) because I needed to go upstairs and put Santino down for a nap and wasn't sure how long it would take to get him settled. When we get to the main menu of the DVD, Maximus always says, "I'm playing the drums!" He's so silly...I don't think he even knew I was videoing him.
 

I hope you're having a good week!

31 Weeks

Look at those toes!

Your regularly scheduled programming is now in progress...I took this photo yesterday but didn't get this post done until today.

I'm not gonna lie...last week had it's ups and downs with the sleep training. As I mentioned in my last post, Rob was gone on business for a week, so I figured it would be the best time to start it.

There were some days that were easier than others. And tears...yes...there were tears. I'd put Santino down, tell him "night night, it's time to go to sleep" and then leave the room. Almost as soon as I put him down he would start crying. I'd come back at timed intervals if the crying continued or got worse. When I'd go in to console him, I would talk, sing, make shushing noises, and pat/rub him; however, sometimes this only made the cries escalate after I left. He wanted me to pick him up, but I tried to avoid doing that, because I didn't want all of my efforts going bye bye.

A few times I did cave in and pick him up. There were also times that I let him cry it out and I wouldn't go back in the room until he either fell asleep or the attempt had been futile. Eventually I switched to a different method - The Sleep Lady Shuffle. Basically, you comfort and soothe and then instead of leaving the room, you stay in the room until they fall asleep. You sit close to their bed at first for a few days and then gradually go further away so you're out the door.

I haven't stuck to any one particular sleep training method, but have used a combination of a few. I'm sure as time goes on, I will tweak things more. The challenge in all of this was keeping Maximus occupied in the process. Of course I couldn't spend limitless time waiting for Santino to always fall asleep, so I just adjusted to what worked for us. Needless to say, M was and has been amazing. He was able to entertain himself...and yes, I did resort to videos and TV. (He's REALLY into Curious George right now).

In order to make sure that Santino only slept in his bed for this process, we stayed home the entire week, to avoid him falling asleep in the car. Plus, he's been sick...actually all of us have been, so it was best to just stay home. My parents helped out. They live only 2 1/2 miles away, so they were able to run errands, brought food over, went grocery shopping and came over for dinner one night. Rob's Mom was in contact with me too, so it was nice having her support as well.

My goal through all of this was to get Santino to self soothe and go to sleep on his own without me holding, rocking or nursing him. Believe me, this wasn't and isn't easy for me to do. BUT, I know we will ALL be sleeping a lot better. Last night was the first night that Santino EVER slept through the entire night. He slept almost 12 hours, which resulted in the most sleep that I've had in over 7 months. He didn't do so well with his afternoon naps today. One of them he refused to nap. I think it's going to take another week or so to really get this pattern set for him, but he's adapted well, all things considered. Now, I just need to adjust to this new set up.

Yesterday I changed Santino's sheets to the owl print seen in this photo. When I put him down for his nap, he kept looking at them. He knew they weren't the solid grey sheets that were on his bed before. Observant little fellow.

Besides sleep, Santino continues to be on the move. Yesterday he got into a sitting position all by himself. He's into everything. He loves being on the floor surrounded by a bunch of toys. You put him down and he doesn't cry unless he's stuck, wants a toy he can't get, or he's tired or hungry.

His second tooth is starting to come in. It's the lower right front tooth. Soon he'll be ready for a big T-bone steak. LOL...

Well, I hope I didn't bore you "to sleep" with all of this talk. :)

Sweet dreams!

Stay Tuned...Your Regularly Scheduled Program will Return Tomorrow

The boys playing together

Santino's Weekly post will be "broadcast" tomorrow. But in the meantime...I took this video today of Santino. He's almost crawling & walking at the same time. Or shall we say, "crawlking?"

In other news, Rob was gone last week on a business trip and got home late Friday night. He was so sick and stayed in bed all weekend. He's slowly getting better. Sleep training has been rough at times. I'm hoping for a tear free night.

Lately we've been talking to Maximus about the time and having him look at the clock. To encourage him to get ready for bed faster, we'll say for an example..."Okay, when the big hand gets on the five, then it's time to go to bed." It becomes almost like a game then. We try and get everything done before that time. I've found that it works well. It's cut way back on the stall tactics.

Tonight when I was getting M ready for bed I kept reminding him that we needed to hurry up.

Me:  We're running out of time. We need to go to bed soon. 
Maximus:  I don't have time...it's coming over here...it's coming in a little bit...I'm waiting for my time.

Well, your time is here Maximus...and I still hear you on the monitor. Go to sleep, sweet boy!

Night Night Everybody!

Chicken - It's What's for Dinner

Hi Folks, I've got some very exciting news to share with you today. I've been selected to be the new spokesman for the International Eat Chicken Everyday Campaign.

 

Say...WHAT? Santino!!!

 

Still Shredding

Before Maximus could even walk, he would crawl over to our paper shredder, pull himself up and attempt to shred a piece of paper. Early on, we discovered this dangerous obsession of his and took measures to keep him from harming himself. At first we started turning the shredder off when not in use, then we unplugged it. And finally, when he got smart and tried to plug the cord into the outlet, we moved the shredder downstairs into a closet. 

M on his 1st birthday - really wanting to shred!

 

Today, when I asked M if he wanted to help me shred some paper, he jumped at the chance and insisted on carrying the bag of paper that needed to be shredded downstairs.

 

He's been helping us with this task (supervised of course) for quite some time now.

 

In the closet were some toys that he hadn't played with in a while. So naturally, when he saw them, he wanted to take them ALL upstairs.

 

The lawn mower was one of the toys he discovered. My parents gave this to him a long time ago.

 

After carrying it upstairs by himself, he returned with the lawn mower, now wearing a hat.

 

M:  I'm going to lawn mower, mama.

Me:  You're going to cut the grass? You can pretend.

M:  No

M:  No, I'm going to lawn mower...because it's dirty.

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Here's another funny thing he said today when I got him up from his afternoon nap. We have a space heater in his room that sits on top of his dresser. Occasionally an orange light will come on. When this happens, he'll always asks us why it lights up.

 

The light came on today.

 

M:  I like the orange light. Does it come on when it's stinky? (he was referring to his stinky room)

 

In other news...I'm on day 6 of sleep training for Santino and things are going well. It's been challenging at times, but I feel like I've got this under control. Santino has been sleeping in his bed since Saturday and overall he's sleeping MUCH better. Yay, Yay, Yay!

And on that note, I'm off to bed myself.

 

 Video of Santino on the move

 

 

Happy Weekend everyone!