The Harvey Family: October {2014}

This has been a good month since the weather is starting to cool down a little, FINALLY! It's been nice to get out of the house and spend some time outside and not worry about burning and sweating immediately. It's still much more pleasant in the shade, but at least we can get out to the parks and playgrounds and having Brett in the carrier is bearable (although he wants to get down on the ground now and move around).

As far as my diet, I'm still eating the same thing every day but Brett seems to be doing pretty well when I stick with it. For breakfast I have an egg, bacon, and avocado sandwich with a banana. For lunch I have a ham, turkey, and avocado sandwich with pop chips and Enjoy Life sugar cookies. For dinner I have breaded chicken breasts, rice, and green beans. For a snack during the day I'll eat an apple and pineapple or a slice of bread with honey. I also drink apple juice which keeps my blood sugar up. I'm hoping he'll start to be able to handle more foods here soon, as his gut continues to mature. He nurses quite a few times during the day (and pretty much all night long) and I normally pump 1 time during the day (so I can have the option to leave the house in the morning and spend some 1-on-1 time with Blake).

This month Brett:

started giving me hugs and pulls out my hair. He has gotten a lot stronger and more coordinated with his arms and he'll wrap them around my neck or arm or the big bars on his gymini.
started out whining constantly. Either he's been uncomfortable or just wants to move so badly that he can't settle down. Blake went through this phase too and it could've been for the same reasons. He seemed to settle down once he started rolling and crawling more so hopefully Brett will too.
did better out of the house. Doesn't seem to whine nearly as much when we're out and about (as long as he's not in the car). He loves looking around at everything whether we're just at the store or at an activity for Blake and he'll be content in the carrier, at least for 30-45 mins.
rubbed his eyes when he was tired. He's started showing more signs of being tired and it's really quite cute when he rubs his eyes. He still takes 3-4 naps during the day so he has to be rocked to sleep quite a bit.
switched his toys from hand to hand. Has really gotten good at his hand eye coordination and he'll grip toys with one or both hands and pretty much everything goes straight into his mouth if possible. He's also gotten pretty good at moving toys from one hand to the other and even letting go and watching them drop.
could sit with only a little support. His upper body strength has really increased and he can keep himself in the sitting position if he is holding onto something with just one hand. He can't quite keep himself sitting up yet but he's getting close. If I have him sitting in front of me he can keep his balance if I hold onto his legs. The exersaucer has really helped his upper body strength and has got him wanting to spin and twist his body all the time... it makes it quite difficult to hold him!
got worse with sleeping. Whether it is tummy troubles, getting a cold, or something else, he went through a couple weeks where he would wake up every 30-60 minutes at night and the only way to get him back to sleep was to nurse him. It was worst for 2-3 days and then he started letting me get 2 hour stretches at least. Thankfully, things seem to be moving in the right direction toward the end of the month and he's showing signs of getting a little better at putting himself back to sleep with some of his wake ups in between sleep cycles.
took on average 3-4 naps a day. He still won't sleep unless he's being held so it is tough to get anything accomplished while he sleeps. His early morning and late evening naps are usually short and the mid day nap is a couple hours (sometimes broken up by needing to eat in the middle).
would listen to Scout lullabies as he went to sleep. This has become part of his sleep routine and his Scout the dog stuffed animal (previously Blake's and we still haven't reprogrammed it) plays some nice soothing sleep music that really calms him down for naps and sometimes at night.
finally got his toes in his mouth. I wasn't sure he was going to be flexible enough to get his toes all the way to his mouth but he finally managed it.
laughed when I tickled his belly. He's gotten quite ticklish and it has become our night time routine for me to tickle his belly before his bath. He'll laugh and laugh and now he's starting to expect it as soon as I get his shirt off. One time I almost forgot to tickle him and he started laughing which reminded me, haha.
loved to teethe on my fingers. His favorite things to teethe on right now are fingers, the little letter chain links that Blake used to love, and washcloths/burp cloths/clothes.
continued to hate his car seat. As soon as the straps are tightened down he usually starts fussing. The best chance for a decent car ride is having it in the early morning. It seems like once he starts crying there isn't anything that will distract him enough to make him stop, sometimes The Wheels on the Bus will.
started pushing buttons. We have a couple free standing toys sitting on the exersaucer to make it more fun and one of them is an electronic remote control that plays music and he'll push the buttons (sometimes with his arm by accident) sometimes on purpose and make noise. He also figured out how to make the Baby Einstein iPod/music box play songs when we hooked it onto his carseat.

This month Blake:

sung The Wheels on the Bus constantly. He loves this song and has learned to sing almost every part. I guess I need to get it on video if he'll let me.
liked listing things. "Look at all these things in the refrigerator; the milk, the eggs, the juice, and all of those things." When I told him it was bath time and I needed to take off his clothes he said, "my shirt, my shoes, my socks, and my shorts."
got better at doing his 12 piece puzzles. He still has trouble with the difference between corner, edge, and middle pieces but he at least knows how to orient the pieces right side up and will match up the actual pictures on the pieces and that's how he puts it together.
wanted to be Daddy for Halloween. He doesn't like watching movies so he doesn't recognize a lot of the characters that we see costumes for at the store. He also doesn't have a very good imagination and doesn't like playing pretend so he didn't really understand the idea of dressing up like someone else for Halloween. When people would ask him, he'd say he didn't want to be anything. Finally he started saying he wanted to be Daddy but then he didn't want to wear clothes like Daddy wears so it took a while to get it figured out.
has been in such a fun stage with all his talking and excitement about life. He went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time when his cousins were in town and he had such a great time and was so excited about the whole process of getting tickets.
loved having his cousins (his friends) in town. They got to do all kinds of things together and Blake couldn't stop talking about them and what they were going to do next. Even after they left to go back home he wanted them to come with him to his weekly activities. It only took a couple days for him to get attached to his cousins and it definitely helped that they're girls and little older than him, that seems to be who he gets along with really well.
discovered the show Bob the Builder and he's pretty obsessed. It's actually a really educational show and I don't mind watching it myself.
made me laugh when we were playing basketball in the playroom and he was shooting with one hand and kept missing short, I told him he should try using 2 hands and then next shot went much further. He ran over to me and said "You're a genius!" Thanks for noticing my son. ;)
got his upper 2 year molars so he's all caught up on teeth finally.

Pics:

Blake teaching his brother how the laptop works. Love this!

Brett was able to meet a lot of friends at our playdate.

Snuggling some friends.

His favorite toy on the blue exersaucer since he can get it in his mouth.

Fingers are the next best thing.

He'll get a neck one of these days.

The chunk.

When his cousins came to visit, Blake got to experience Chuck E Cheese. Blake and "his girls" riding the carousel.

Shooting some hoops with Daddy.

This is what deep concentration looks like.

Nana and Brett.

Blake's favorite game. All you had to do was pull this lever...

And push the button, and out came tickets.

Grandad with Brett.

Me and my uninterested boys. Maybe next year will be better, haha.

Oh Blake.

Such a cutie even if he didn't want pics taken.

He could barely hold this one so we had to get smaller ones.

Our tradition of individual pics with Blake. I love this one of us!

And Daddy and Blake.

Then we did some pumpkin painting for the little ones.

"Ta-da!"

Love these hugs... as long as he isn't grabbing fistfuls of hair.

Blake helping me make pancakes... that later turned out to be a terrible thing for us all to eat.

Brett sitting on his own and playing with the zoo. I had the boppy and brown pillow for support since he hasn't quite mastered it.

First stroller ride in the double stroller. Brett was so excited to be sitting next to his brother but neither of them really liked their first outing.