Grace is 6 weeks old! Unbelievable! We're all still here! This also means, for those who care, that I've been nursing for 6 weeks. Grace gets a bottle of pumped milk occasionallyand goes back and forth just fine which I am VERY thankful for! It allows me to be less tied down and allows for some flexibility since she still eats ever 2-3 hours... occasinally she'll go longer but mostly only when we're in the car or she's fallen asleep in her swing. When she gets to that 4 hours though and wakes up WHOO_HOO she's frantic! I think she likes the more controled flow of the bottle better so i'm really trying to limit the bottle usage. We've given up limiting the paci usage though. :) As I re-read babywise in the past few weeks I realize that most of the really regimented stuff in there I didn't do for Tyler and I'm not doing with Grace. I'm sorry but when you have a toddler it's just not as easy to put a 4 week old down alone in her crib, awake and walk away and expect her to fall asleep on her own. You also really can't let them cry too long for fear of waking the other one! We'll do more "cry it out" stuff when she's much older but for now, i'm enjoying rocking her or letting her sleep in her swing- what difference does it make? Maybe i'll pay later. :) Tyler LOVES Grace. She can definately get on his nerves but he really loves her. It makes me so happy when he tries to help or comfort her. His methods never work and usually cause more distress right now, but he's trying. He likes to stand by her head when she's in the playpen and sing her the ABC's or Wheels on the Bus or hum the Thomas tune. He also tries sometimes to give her a paci which would be fine if he was a little more gentle... and didn't try to do it while she's dead asleep in her seat or something. He likes to hold her too and so often times I let him just becaues I know it's 3 minutes he'll sit still!! His volume has been on high pretty much since she came home and even higher lately so I wonder if his cold and congestion are causing him to not hear well. (my mother-in-law's suggestion) We are working on our 'talking voice', 'inside voice', wisper voice'... whatever you want to call it but to no avail so far. He loves to ask why and pretty much demands that when he's talking to you that you turn and look at him and repeat what he's said or answer him right away. It's funny when I'm not tired and short tempered... unfortunately i'm most often the later. He's so independant about some things but so dependant about others. I like feeling needed but I wonder what Ishould be pushing him to do on his own more. We're not sending him to preschool this fall so I do'nt worry about it... i do wonder though. He's also developed an instant crying skill since Grace came home. I htink he feels if she's crying he must also... and louder. he's not near as bad when Gary gets home b/c he usually can get the attention of one or both of us, but when it's me alone forget it. "use your words" is my new most often said phrase. Our least often used word has suddenly become "crap" becaues Tyler has picked it up and uses it well, and in context. His car wheel falls of: "oh crap" he says with a tilt of the head and roll of the eyes. You can laugh. it's quite funny but of course i can't encourage it. He's also started saying Gosh which he got from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I don't like it but it's better than crap and I try to ignore it. The new neighbors are hoodlums and say every bad word in the book so on nice days when we open the window you can hear them all... I know one day Tyler's going to trip and fall and yell out "Oh F---" (fudge... except I didn't say fudge... ha ha! Great Christmas Story line!). Then what do I do?!?!?! The landlady was over th eother day and the skateboarding guys were next door conversing with thier four letter word vocabulary and she acutally yelled at them. I wonder if it's in our lease not to use profanity at the top of your lungs... i could SO get them evicted! LOL!! So the past two nights Tyler has done the CUTEST thing- I'm seriously going to get it on video one of these days... not that I'll know how to share it but still.. Anyways a long time ago I got Goodnight Moon from the library and as boring as it is, he loved it. He demanded it every night for the 4 weeks we had it and so shortly after we returned it we got it for him. I can't remember what event it was for but for some reason we bought it and we've read it before bed almost every night since. Lately I've been also reading him a section out of a Precious Moments Bible stories book i had when i was little. I'm sure he doesn't get any of it but i'll do until we decide to buy the story bible i saw at the bookstore a few months ago. So the night before last I had him try to read goonight moon to me and he 'read' the ENTIRE thing minus like 5 words! I was so impressed and it was so cute! So last night he started again and I yelled for Gary to come listen and Tyler did it again! Right now he's dancing around the house to "his music" which is a mother goose CD. Let me just say that these things are not all that uplifting. Right now he's listening to Pop goes the Weasel. The little one is stirring so i'm off! Happy Monday!