Turning the corner

I don't know what it is, but the past few days with B have been a lot more pleasant. I think it's a combination of a pernicious diaper rash clearing up (if I had that going on on my girl parts I'd be pretty oppositional too) and maybe the fact that I am encouraging B to do more big kid stuff. As part of my plan to stop underestimating his abilities, I have been asking him to do things, and amazingly, he does them! Here are just a few:

Put unwanted food in garbage

Take sippy cup out of/put into fridge

Give me dishes to put in sink

Open and close gate to yard

Open and close car door

Climb in and out of car seat unassisted

Open packages we get in the mail

Find his sippy cup in the car or in his room 

Pick out which pajamas he wants to wear

All of this may not mean much to you if you're the type who have been doing things like this with your kids since they were babies, but to me this is astonishing. He can do stuff, and he actually listens to me! It's a Festivus miracle. 

As Bumpus grows in his comprehension and abilities, so does young Teddy. Now when I put him on the floor when I shower, when I come out he's wiggled all the way across the room. He is doing his darnedest to flip over. And he requires a lot more time to hang out and look at things - he's starting to hate being in the carrier in the house, which is a major problem for me. I'm not sure what to do instead - if I leave his swing or bouncy seat around, B will get in them and break them (I swear he almost destroyed the swing the one time I made the mistake of  leaving it out), and I'm not too keen on having T in anything on the floor like that with B running around. The other day Bumpus almost took T's eye out with a plastic recorder; I don't trust them being within reach of each other unless I'm right there officiating, and even then...But now more than ever T is screaming and straining against the carrier, and honestly, my back has had it. This morning I was able to leave T on the bed while I made breakfast for Bumpus, but usually he gets fed up and wants to be held. Again, not sure what to do about this. 

Thinking about T getting bigger, heavier, and needing more from me, all while B is still two, scares me a bit. The newborn stuff was easy because he just slept all the time. Now he actually needs attention. This should be interesting. 

Actually got good sleep last night - at the first waking (about 12:30 am) I just brought him to my bed and left him there, then he didn't wake again until four, then a bit around six but we didn't get up for the day until 9:30, which was awesome. But then tonight he woke at 9:45 to be fed. It's so all over the place, I don't know what, if anything, to do to get better sleep. I am going to try this sort of hybrid approach - letting him sleep in my bed the second half of the night, if he sleeps for longer stretches. Some people have recommended putting him to bed later so instead of him sleeping 7-12 he can sleep 10-3 or something like that...but I started putting him down early because he was so tired and cranky, and he always falls asleep right away which tells me he's genuinely ready. But it does suck that the hours he's up and hungry and raring to go are those wee hours of the morning where I count on being able to sleep. It's too bad we don't live on a farm where we could all happily be up for the day at 4 am!

Here are some rare non-selfie shots taken of us at a street fair today. I can't believe that cutie pie is actually my baby! Crazy!