Our kids are Ridikolous

Do any of you love 30 Rock as much as Matt and I do? It is one of my favorites on TV right now. Also, since we download it, it is a nice short 20 minutes, because we don't have to watch the commercials.

Anyway...

All this to say, a few weeks ago, LL Cool J was on 30 Rock, and his character's name was Ridickolous, a famous, fictional rap producer.

Ridikolous is one way to describe our kids. We use the term when they are not being their most endearing, but most annoying.

e.g. Yesterday, Nolen would not go down for any of his naps. Matt said to me on the phone, "Your baby is Ridikolous."

Oddly, you will see that most of the time this term is applied to when the kids are NOT sleeping, which is more common around here than I'd like to see, frankly.

NOW, onto the story.

Last night we were awakened to Carter crying at 1:30. After a few minutes (and shaking my head with shock that it was Carter waking me up in the middle of the night, not Nolen), I went in to see what was up. I can't even begin to dissect the events that unfolded after that point. All I can tell you is that Carter eventually settled somewhat at 4:00 am. 4:00 am people. He was not sick. He was not feverish. He was just up, and worked himself into a frenzy.

Then, Nolen got up for his feeding at 4:00. This woke Carter up.

The earth is against us. Or, at least our kids are.

This, is why you don't have more then 2 children people. They will conspire against you, people. Just ask Elmer and Amanda!

Nolen's 6 Month Stats

Nolen went in to the doctor yesterday. She was a nauseating 8 months pregnant, but barely looked 5! Good larry, if only I looked that good at 5 MONTHS. Although, I am guessing she isn't carrying around almost 10 pounds of baby in her belle.

Nolen was sick the day of his appointment, so he didn't have to get his shots. If you ask me, he either was:
a. faking the fever and stuffy nose
b. letting kids at daycare cough on him
c. he was using the whole thermometer/light bulb trick (thank you Ferris!)



Stats:

Weight- 21.6 lb (97%)
Height- 27 1/2 inches (90%)
Head- 18 inches (95%)

for comparison, Andrea's daughter, Kayla is almost a year, and the same weight as Nolen, and I think an inch longer (why is it when you stand, you are taller, and when you are immobile, you are long?)

Carter @ the same age:?
bah. Forget it. This is Nolen's post. If you are really interested, look back!

Happy Birthday Tante

Kirstin is 29 today...as I turned 22 this year.

Carter thought it was important to wish his Tante a Happy Birthday!

I wan duck!

Carter has a favorite video on YouTube.

Funky Duck. The request Carter will make is, "I wan duck. I wan."



Carter has many request for things he wants. Below is a list of his wants:

-I wan to hol baby (I want to hold the baby)
-I wan to fee baby (I want to feed the baby)[he will either try to get the baby food and feed Nolen, or lift his shirt to feed Nolen]
-I wan layle bug (I want the lady bug toy)
-I wan po po (We think this can either mean Purple or purple play doh)

Ah.
The list of wants.
I hear these get bigger and more complicated.

Dirty Songs

I think the hardest part of having kids and being from a generation that curses openly in songs is that enjoying your own music is difficult with little ears around. The other day I was listening to Ben Folds Five, innocent enough, I thought-but I was left trying to figure out if I should sing over top of Ben belting out "Give me my money back, give me my money back, you B..." or just skip over the song. I skipped over the song because Carter is so good at repeating everything now-I didn't want to make it an incident.

If I was in range of the stereo, I guess I could have done this:

Hugh (Nolen) Heffner

 

Sleep Tight-not so much these days

Who shall I start with first? Carter or Nolen?

I guess I can start by saying that we went shopping for a toddler bed at Ikea this weekend. Why you ask? We have known for a while now that Carter can climb out of his crib, but being the "Oh so compliant child" that he is, he has not really done so. However, putting him down for his naps as of late has been difficult. He just doesn't seem sleepy. What is a good solution for boredom and idle hands? CLIMBING out of your crib and missing your nap. Now, luckily this has not happened during a time when I am alone with both the kids, because I am not sure what I would do with Nolen screaming in the next room. Our solution to this point has been to allow Carter to try to go to sleep on his own, and once he starts climbing out-staying in the room with him. I think it is a matter of him not being sleepy at 1:00 any more, but rather 2:45. Quite a time difference, and quite a quick change I may add. So odd.

You may be asking, how is a toddler bed going to solve this. We hope that it will prove to be less of a challenge to get out of, for one thing. In addition, once Carter climbs out of his crib, he has a harder time getting back in. Also, I am hoping the change will freak him out enough to ride through this odd period of what I like to call, "Not giving my parents a break while I am napping" phase.

As for Nolens. He has learned to roll. Let me clarify. He has learned to roll from his back to his front-which frankly seems to be harder than the other way. He can't go from tummy to back, which is really just gravity. BUT, with Nolen, he likes to make an effort, why let gravity take its course when you can grab the bull by its horns and do it yourself...with the intensity of 10,000 burning suns?

"Rolling? I thought you said this post was about sleep?!" It is. Nolen has been a sketchy sleeper, but every week he is getting better and better. This week has not been great. Nolen usually wakes up at around 2:00 and 4:00. Usually he can go back to sleep-USUALLY. When he doesn't it is scream-a-poluza. This week, Nolen has been waking up and rolling. BUT, he can't get back on his back-which tires him out and frustrates him. To add insult to injury-he also usually is right on the side of the crib when I go to him so his little head is banging the side of the crib rails.

Kiddos.

What R U goina do?

Martin Scorsese, watch out.

OK, OK...these are just more kid clips. But, they're pretty cute.

"BooYa, and PoPo" What on earth are we teaching these kids?


Carter Playing With Toys. Nice Toys. Beside Uncovered Outlets. Can You Believe They Have Made it This Far?


This was Nolen just last week. He is already able to pick things up and hold them better now then he was only 10 days ago! Crazy!

Photo Updates

 

 

 

 

Turtle Time

There have been so many changes with the kids over the last few weeks, but since I have started working again, and Matt has been working more hours then he has in a day, our blog posts have been the least of our considerations. Do not fear. We have been taking photos and vids!

Just the other day I went to get Nolen in his crib. It was wee early in the morning, and he was crying. BUT, he sounded scared. That was an odd cry for him. When I got in his room, he was on his tummy! Flapping his arms and legs like a mad man. The reason the title of this post is Turtle Time is that Nolen is quite good at rolling from his back to his tummy, but he can't figure out how to get himself back down. This is very frustrating for him, and scary for us. He now knows to lay his head to the side, but in the beginning he would just smush his face into the ground. Good lard!

Nolen is so strong though, he will learn the rolling back to his back soon enough. I do fear that crawling, or some sort of mobilization is not far behind though. He is so strong. He can pump his little legs and arms and get quite a distance just by doing that.

Adding to this, Nolen also is getting better at grabbing at objects, and pulling them to his mouth. He understands now that if he sees an object he wants, he can swipe at it, and maybe catch it in his hand, then pull it to his mouth. Ah, the joys of re-baby proofing. Our compliance with this was hard enough when it was 2 adults and a baby, but now with Carter being a messy toddler...[sigh]. There is no way to keep up.