The Harvey Family: February {2015}

This month Brett:

has decided to make diaper changes are no fun. He wants to wiggle and squirm and twist all over the place which is especially challenging when he poops. I've been trying to keep music playing for him with either Scout or singing. It also helps to have a toy or 2 for his hands and I keep a toy bin near his changing station so we can rotate toys and have new ones for him each time. He also has started grabbing onto my arms with his legs... he's quite the monkey.
was waking every hour in the mornings so we had to start sleep training. We tried this a couple times last month but had no luck. This time I guess he was more used to the drill and I also started a new bedtime routine with milk, teeth cleaning, and story before rocking to music and getting put in the crib. It took a couple nights but he started sleeping for longer stretches fairly quickly. Naps on the other hand have been much more difficult. He started being really squirmy for naps in the rocking chair so I figured it was time to move his naps to the crib as well. We started this once he'd been sleeping at night in the crib for a week. This was a little sooner than I had planned on but it is something that had to happen. He takes 2 naps a day now and most of them have been rough in the crib. For the first week he'd cry for 30-60 minutes before finally falling asleep and then he'd rarely sleep longer than that. At night he seems to be most comforted by his glowing seahorse and paci that he plays with. He's still waking up at night 2 or 3 times to eat and hopefully we can lower that down soon.
rests his head on things when he gets tired. Since he's been doing better with sleeping on his own, I guess he's been able to lower his anxiety a bit and can rest his head on the floor or pillow or whatever for a few seconds before jumping back up and continuing on with whatever he was doing. This child never stops moving, just like his brother.
has dimples near his ears so I can see when he smiles from behind him. I've been trying to get a picture of them but his smiles seem to come and too pretty quickly.
loves the metal clip on his paci holder more than the paci or toys I attach to it. I use the paci holder to attach toys to the shopping cart cover when I take him grocery shopping with me but he always seems more interested in teething on the metal clip than the fun rattle teething toys I put on there for him. In fact he loves metal on any of the "toys" we have around the house. I guess most of the ones that have metal aren't really meant to be kid toys but he likes them the best.
pulls up on tool bench and pulls out the tool drawer. This seems to be one of his favorite things to pull up on. He grabs onto the little handle that is part of the vice and pulls himself up and likes to pull out the tool drawer and find all the little tools and trinkets hidden inside.
got another 2 teeth. The first one surprised me because it is the one next to the top front tooth on his left side, not the front one. The one on the right side came in next... I've never heard of this and hope that the front ones will come in next and that his teeth are developing ok. It looks like he'll have the front 8 teeth fairly soon so maybe that is part of why he's been a little extra fussy lately.
stands for a few seconds on his own. It is funny to watch him pull up on things and hold a toy with both hands before he realizes he's not holding onto anything and then sit down. He's even starting to turn and lunge toward other things after he's been standing on his own for a bit. It seems like he's so close to walking but I guess we'll just have to wait for him to have that moment where he's courageous enough to try to take a step.
bangs things together. He loves banging whether it is his hand on the highchair tray or a toy on another toy or even my nursing pad on my face. He is curious to know what things sound like when he bangs them together.
likes playing with balls. He almost reminds me of a puppy sometimes when he'll throw a ball then get all excited and crawl after it, then pick it up and shake it until he throws it again. Rattle balls and golf balls seem to give him the most fun with this game since they'll bounce around off the walls for a while.
helps me turn pages to his night time stories. I started explaining to him how to do it one night and then 1 or 2 nights later all I had to say was "turn the page Brett" and he'd grab it and pull it to the other side just like he was supposed to. He seems to pick up on things really quickly.
does pretty well with the word NO. We mostly use it for "no eat" when we don't want him to put something in his mouth, and "no touch" if we need him to leave something alone like the vertical blinds in the playroom. Of course he has to test his limits a bit but for the most part he is pretty good at listening and remembering for a short time.
has been doing this sweet/funny thing while nursing. He pops off and stands up on my legs and puts his hands on my shoulders and nuzzles his face against mine and then gives me a huge smile that sometimes comes with the big head lean back. Then he'll dive back in for more milk.
went to the doctor for his 9 month checkup and everything seemed great except he isn't saying "mama" or "dada" yet. He is making lots of talking sounds and says "hi" and "hey" so the doctor wasn't worried at all. He weighed in at 19 lb 10 oz (33%), measured 28.5" long (56%) and his big ol' head was 18" (69%). The doctor said his teeth order is perfectly fine and that his other vampire tooth would be in soon (and it broke through a couple days later).
started to be able to relax in the car a bit. He's been going out on trips a lot lately and seems to enjoy getting out of the house and seeing new places. As long as we aren't out too long and go too many places, making his exhausted, he does pretty well. He likes having a toy in his hands to either teethe on or play music with.

This month Blake:

has imaginary machine friends. Since he watches How It's Made a lot, he has machines on the brain a lot. He likes to pretend that we have those same machines in our house and likes to pretend where the control panels are that turn them on and off. Then he started creating machine friends that he would introduce to me and invite over for "snacks". He also likes to give them interesting names like Icker and Bicker, Wong and Jong, etc. A lot of the time they are a family of robots and the mom and dad and brother have rhyming names.
me: (to Blake) "What do you want for dinner; chicken, a hot dog, or what?" Blake: "What. I want what for dinner haha." (Devilish grin and laughter.) Isn't he a little young for this joke?
told me "You need to vacuum this place" the other day. He is so matter of fact about a lot of the things he says and it is so funny how he throws in our brand of sarcastic humor and I don't think he even realizes he's doing it.
seems to enjoy going to preschool still but isn't very forthcoming when we ask how it was each day. He loves to talk and will talk your ear off about many things, but when it comes to school he just clams up. He'll say they didn't do anything at school and he didn't have a favorite activity, or if they went to music class he didn't sing any songs.
is still sleeping in his crib and that is his safe place. He snuggles up with his pillow, 2 teddy bears, and blue blanket each time he's in there. He will still stand up and yell for someone if a trash truck or lawn crew makes enough noise to wake him up though.
is starting to love his little brother even more. He wants him to come with him when he goes to a different room and asks where he is when he isn't there with him. He even calls him his "friend baby Bretty".
rides on the back of the shopping cart. I let him do this one time because Brett was in the front and from then on he wanted to walk or hold onto the cart like a garbage man. He is normally pretty good so I really don't mind.
knows where we live. He knows the name of the street that we live on and tells me every time we're driving home. He also wants to know the names of all the roads in our neighborhood leading up to the street we live on.
makes a machine gun sound a lot. He's not trying to make a certain sound, he just likes to be loud. He really does enjoy the sound of his own voice

Pics:

He was so cute chasing the ball around the kitchen floor.

Getting his basketball grip down.

Those cheeks.

Exploring brother's tool bench.

Monkey butt.

He will "pose" for half a second then ask to come see the picture on the back of the camera.

Trying on Mommy's visor.

He spotted me and has to come try and get the camera strap.

The weather has been so gorgeous that we had to go play outside in the evenings. The grass is a good place for Brett since he can practice walking and fall in the soft grass.

This is what normally happens when I try to take his picture. Once he spots me he comes crawling at full speed.

Hey mom, there you are again!

Earning his keep around here.

Closeups of my cuties. <3

Look at those baby blues!

Nice outfit buddy.

Brotherly love and Blake isn't even choking Brett this time.

Someone likes to play with his paci in his mouth now. Doesn't fall asleep that way but also plays with it in the crib before he falls asleep.

Well hello Mr. Ankle-biter.

Just making a little snack in the kitchen.

Counting down the days until birthday time on the white board in the kitchen. We counted down the second half of the month to try and get him a little excited about the whole thing.