Is "rotating" a milestone?

A few days ago, I went into the nursery to retrieve Grant from a nap and found this:


What's so strange about this picture? I put Grant down to sleep with his head at the end of the crib (about 90 degrees to the left). I remembered back to the time when Evan started to "rotate." I went into his room to feed him in the middle of the night and found his head 180 degrees in the opposite direction! Being that I had never seen him do this whilst awake, and this was my first child, I freaked out! How did he get like that? I started to convince myself that his room was haunted and that the spirits moved him in the middle of the night. Although, I'm still not sure exactly how it happens, I now know that the nursery is not haunted.

Life with Evan...

...is non-stop. Just ask G&G Terreri who spent a few days with Evan recently. I often tell people that, in the mornings (no matter how early), Evan is 0 to 60 in two seconds flat. The two seconds being the time it takes him to get out of bed and cross his doorway. His non-stop-ness is not so much activity as it is his voice. The kid talks ALL THE TIME. It's as if he's narrating the world around him, play by play, checking in with me (or whoever else is unfortunate lucky enough to be standing around) for affirmation.

Don't get me wrong, he's a really good kid. He says please, thank you and even excuse me on a regular basis. Melt downs are becoming few and far between. And nowadays, his level of comprehension is so great that we can actually start to reason with him. And when that doesn't work, our fail safe is, "it's broken."

Lately, I've been tickled with some of the things that Evan does. For instance, last night, when he caught Jason & I standing near each other, he grabbed us both in a big hug (albeit at knee-height) and said, "famiwee!" It was so cute and sweet and totally surprising! And today, he was pretending to change the diaper of one of his stuffed toys (actually, it's a Teletubby. I know, I know, don't say it. But it was a gag gift from my college days). I asked if he was going to feed "Tubby" and he pretended to nurse him. Ha! I thought it was adorably funny. I'm sure later in life, he won't find this story as amusing. We're also in the stage of Pete & Repeat these days. He'll go on streaks of copycat-ing everything we say. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but it's only a matter of time before he repeats the wrong thing.

And one more funny story to leave you with.... I found out today, that at the ripe old age of 2, Evan is embarrassed by his mother. As I was singing along to one of his CDs in the car, Evan said "Go away, Mommy." After explaining that it wasn't nice to say that, but instead he could tell me to stop singing, he said "Ok. No singing Mom." And there you have it.

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Stuff we do when we're not at home

This past weekend, we took a trip to Hilton Head to visit "Grandmon [Soon] & Pawpaw" and spend some time with our friends Kevin & Amanda. It goes without saying that Evan had a blast and came home exhausted. Jason and I also had a great time, and came home feeling a little more rested and revived. Grant is Grant. He came home and was just as happy as when we were not at home. A few pics from the weekend...

Grandmon set Evan up with his very own cooking show. We're hoping to sign a deal with Food Network.

Mommy & Evan (doesn't he look sweet? don't let him fool you!)


My two boys


Kevin & Amanda steal a pose with Grant for this year's Christmas card


Evan started every morning with a swim and breakfast by the pool, courtesy of Grandmon


Grant learns to love the water


And last but not least, we have a picture of Daddy & Grant

Stuff we do at home

Just a few of the things that happen in the Terreri house when both boys are home...


Chillin' in the Bumbo


Snack time


Swinging


Tummy time


"Hangin" out in Mom & Dad's room

Cute pics

Nothing much to write here, just some pictures of my cutie pie boys.

Grant fought his afternoon nap until bed time. I don't know how I'd get anything done without my sling!

New activity

This idea was stolen directly from my creative friend Emily Poulin. She gets about an hour of free time by letting her little girl Maggie (who is almost the same age as Evan) play in the sink with water, soap and various kitchen utensils, bottles, etc. Sounds so simple, but the amount of pleasure it brings to a 2-year-old (and therefore, Mommy) is amazing!

Blogger posting logic

It seems as if every time I post something that one of the kids is not doing, the very next day, he does it. For example, right after the post about Evan not going #2 normally, he started doing it, and right after the post about Grant not sleeping well (which he's doing again right now), he started sleeping great. So, following that logic, here's my list:

I'm NOT well rested. Grant is NOT sleeping through the night. Evan is NOT tired of listening to his kids music CDs. We are NOT millionaires and have NOT won the lottery. Our lawn is NOT mowed right now. The house is NOT clean. The laundry is NOT folded.

I could go on, but let's see how this goes first.

Trip to DC

Last Friday, Grant & I travelled to DC to see family, friends and for a meeting at my office. Grant was mostly a great traveller on his first airplane ride and hopping from house to house. He met for the first time his "Nana" and his Aunt Rachel and Uncle Nathan. We also spent some time with Uncle DJ & Aunt Heather, and our friends the Rincons, the Poulins and the DiSciullos (there are of course other people we wanted to see, but time just didn't allow!). It was a very busy but fun trip! Everyone oogled over Grant and was disappointed they couldn't see Evan (especially Grandma!). Grant spent his first whole day away from Mommy while I went to my office. I learned two things that day--Grant definitely drinks more than 3 oz in one feeding, and I am SO glad that I don't have to pump milk in an office everday!

Nana, Uncle Nate & Grant.


Aunt Rachel & Grant.




Aunt Heather & Grant--their dog Bailey decided to jump in at the last minute. He was very intrigued by, but a little unsure of Grant


A quick pic of Evan to show that his hair is SLOWLY growing back in (and it's still blonde, yay!).

Updates, etc.

I realize that I sometimes don't follow up on certain issues written about in previous posts. So, (if you care) read on to get an update. Otherwise, scroll down to some new pics.

Potty training - I know you're dying to know how this is going. It's going about as smooth as a bottle of gritty Metamucil. Ok, it's not that bad, but we are still working on going #2 like a normal person. And, from what I hear, there is no easy fix, but "it just takes time." Fan-tas-tic.

Evan's haircut - It's growing--on Evan and on me. Maybe we'll do this cut again, but about 1/4 inch longer. It is nice for summer. And everyone else seems to think it's cute. Or they're just being nice.

Grant's sleeping - We've had our ups and downs with this one. One week he sleeps great, the next he's up 2-4 x a night. Thankfully, after Evan moved into his new room, Grant finally got a room to call his own--with his own crib. Prior to that, he had been sleeping in his car seat (what, I didn't post about that? It must have slipped my mind). He now sleeps in his crib every night and wakes up only once or twice to be fed. And, just like Evan, he sleeps in the swing for most of his daytime naps. I can't live without that thing!

Evan's asthma - From what we can tell, he seems to have outgrown his asthma--yay! We were told that we won't really know until the cold season sparks back up. However, he has a cold right now and so far, so good-- no wheezing.

Grant's personality - For the most part, he's an easy and happy baby, just like Evan. But, we have noticed that he is slightly more needy--wanting to be held more, hard to settle down sometimes, etc. In his defense, however, his cries are sometimes left unanswered for longer periods than when Evan was a baby. That's because our super-needy 2-year-old demands so much of our time!

Brotherhood - Evan still really likes his little brother. He greets him in the morning and says goodnight, and even asks about Grant when he's not around. He likes to remind me--often--that Grant is crying or that he needs a diaper change. Grant also seems to enjoy getting to know Evan. He loves to watch Evan while he plays. And there have even been times when Evan can soothe Grant after a crying jag. Now, that's what I like!

Ok, enough chit-chat. Here are some pics.


Grant's new sleeping quarters.

A very sleepy Grant who doesn't want to be put down or else he'll cry.

"Just a little off the top..."

Some things in life are better left up to the professionals. A hair cut is one of those things. What started out as, "Let's buy a set of clippers with all of the guards so we can give Evan a hair cut," ended up like this:

















"Cue ball" was not our intention. No, it's not shaved, but it's pretty darn close! Turns out, the set of clippers we bought wasn't supposed to be for cutting hair, but for trimming. And, turns out that half way through the hair cut, they ran out of a charge. It was near dark outside and past Evan's bed time. So, then we tried to use our hair cutting scissors to trim the top. Jason tried. I tried. It was hot outside. Evan was a sticky, hairy mess. It didn't look great, but it didn't look horrible. Our options were to either wait to take him to the salon the next day or to use Jason's clippers (with a very small guard) and buzz the whole thing. Believe it or not, I was actually the one that said "just go ahead, buzz it." I mean, it's only hair, right? It'll grow back.

Oh please let it grow back soon.

The coolest room EVER

After two weeks of hard work, Jason and I finished Evan's new "big-kid" room. We are so pleased with how it turned out. And despite my initial hesitation on painting the walls "Buzz Lightyear Blue" and the closet "Sonic Boom Green," I now love the colors! Below are some before and after shots.

Before:




After:

I'm no Michaelangelo, but I did paint the giant bug on the wall. This photo shows the leaf canopy over the bed and cool green bookshelves from Ikea.


Another view of the bed that shows his awesome bug lights and bright curtains. (Note to Grandpa Terreri: Don't worry, we are going to fix the exposed wires hanging from the lights.)


Bookshelf, desk (thanks Aunt Nellie!) and cool coat hangers--if you look closely, they are dog tails.


Quite possibly Evan's favorite part of the room--the kid is obsessed with lights and fans!


My construction paper bug art.


Bug art up close.


Sonic boom closet.

So many pictures, so little time

Grant spends a lot of time these days on his play mat, batting toys, cooing and squealing, and playing on his tummy. Can you believe he is 12 weeks old already?




This picture reminds me of a similar picture of Evan.

Evan likes to join him on the mat.


Here we have a picture of the infamous "suckers for poo poo." We've gone through a lot of suckers lately. Evan is doing so well with potty training.


And I leave you with a picture of Bullit--up close and personal.

Potty update

No pictures (do you really want to see pics of this?), just an update to say that Evan is about 93% complete with potty training. He's near perfect when it comes to pee pee in the potty. He wears big boy underwear all day except naps and bedtime (and even then he usually stays dry). And the other 7% is.... well, you know.... we're working on it. The latest trick is to bribe him with suckers. The words "suckers for poo poo" have been said in this house a lot lately. Gross, I know, but when it works, it's great.

Grant

Evan's first helmet