Another month of survival...

The Harmans have made it another month...I say this because some days are certainly challenging. I jinxed myself saying that Bailey was sleeping through the night last time, because shortly after she went back to waking up a in the EARLY hours of the morning. Now (fingers crossed) I think we have hit some sort of a night schedule and she is consistently sleeping 10-11 hours!! WooHoo! The daytime is still a mess and often contains multiple melt-downs by at least 1 of us. For example, I just had to wrap Bailey tightly and dance erratically for her to calm down and go to sleep...thanks to her, I am too tired to even think about working out at the end of the day.
Brett is still doing a great job of being a big brother and mimics us trying to console his 'Babee'. It's adorable but we still have to remind him to be 'gentle'!
We attempted our first road trip to Ohio for Easter weekend. We were pleasantly surprised how nicely both kids were on the way there to be completely demoralized on the way home with 3ish hours of high pitched screaming and numerous stops to make sure everyone was ok. But we made it.
A few highlights of the last month:
Brett's head went through our wall (literally) while jumping on the bed...does the song "no more monkeys jumping on the bed' mean anything to you Rob?? But to Brett's defense, he didn't cry - he saw the hole and said "uh oh"
Brett had a very successful 1st Easter egg hunt at Grandpa/Grandma Wood's house
Aubrey and Brett held hands (without prompting) in the car coming home from dinner.
Josie and Brett are still so stinking cute in their affection for each other.
Brett started a gymnastics class - 1st time was disastous!! 2nd and 3rd have been a little better. There's something about rules and structure that he is resisting...I wonder who he got that from??
Bailey is smiling more and follows Brett around the room.
While packing the car to come back from Ohio, Brett put his toy cup in the exhaust pipe of our car...we only discovered because Brett was mad that it was stuck.
Bailey seems to have a tolerance for Brett's crazy antics...I found them (during Daddy's duty, I might add) with Brett completely covering Bailey with his toys...I couldn't even see Bailey! There were trucks and mirrors and blankets all over her!
Bailey is gaining weight like a champ!
Apparently Grandpa Wood is the baby whisperer...he was able to quiet the wee one multiple times and get her to nap
Brett and Daddy sing and dance to "no pants" nightly

Oh yeah and Brett has learned to say "NO" and does so quite often!

Mommy log

Last week Rob came home after work and asked me what we did that day...which was nice but off hand I couldn't think of anything substantial, nothing seemed to stand out. What did we do? The day seemed busy? So the next day I kept track...
This is a day at Harman House:
I changed 15 diapers
I washed my hands more than 20 times
Fed or made meals 10 times
Changed clothes 5 times (we had a slight disaster with baby #2)
Ran up and down the stairs 10 times
Gave 1 bath (please see above - disaster)
Emptied dishwasher and cleared sink for said bath
Wrote 3 Thank you cards one handed/standing up...harder than you think. Try it
Did 2 loads of laundry (again - disaster)
Went to the grocery store
Read 7 books (Hooray for Fish 3x)
And sang multiple renditions of: 'I'm a little Tea Pot', 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', 'ABC's' (which by the way is the same tune as the previous), and Brett's favorite 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes'

This was all before 5pm because then Rob was home and I stopped paying attention.

Burp Bailey!

Wrestling's done - YAY! I mean...City Champs again! :)

Yes, Rob and his wrestlers won both the 5th/6th AND 7th/8th CPS Wrestling Championships AGAIN! With 40+ participants, the Howe Jets had 21 wrestlers in the finals with 17 kids winning first place. As the coach's wife, I was not only proud of their medals, but they also improved tremendously in their sportsmanship and behavior. It was wonderful to witness their success and maturity. That being said...it's also wonderful to have my husband back!;) Brett particularly has been excited to have more time at home with his daddy.
Bailey's 10 weeks now - WOW! Her doc said she was doing well at her 2 month appt. She was 12 lbs 9 oz and 23 in. Ironically identical to Brett at this age...only she is in the 90% for weight and 75% for height! Apparently the range is different for boys and girls. Daddy's new nick name for her is '90'. I'm hoping this will change before she starts to understand! Bailey's sleeping pretty well at night, she does 6-7 hours consistently and then another 3-4 in the morning after eating. The days unfortunately are not as predictable...some days are great and peaceful, others are challenging. For those of you who warned us that Brett was 'too easy', you were right! Bailey is helping us brush up on our parenting skills! We attempt multiple things to calm her down each day; walking, sitting, rocking, swaying, dancing, going for a drive, walking in the park, bouncing on the exercise ball, and sometimes just laying her beside Brett as he sings to her. Thankfully these fussy days of are becoming less frequent. Bailey is starting to smile and coo more and certainly knows when her brother is around. We are anxious for the spring and warmer weather to go outside a little more. We were spoiled with 3 nice days this week to enjoy the park across the street...I love that I can say there's a park across the street:)

Harman family fun and Wrestling Champs!

Bailey sleeps through the night!

While I have 1/2 a minute, I'll try to update both the Harman babies. Bailey has slept 7 hours the last 3 of 4 nights! This is two weeks ahead of what Brett did and we thought that was amazing! Granted, she has some very unhappy, cranky hours before bed but we're hoping that will soon pass. We head to her 2 month appt on Tuesday so we are excited to see how the doc says she's doing.
Brett is still a VERY loving and involved big brother. He loves to hold her and pat her back. So much so...we have to watch him like a hawk now. Apparently at 21 months he doesn't know that he can't just pull Bailey off the couch or walk around holding her... we are working on it. Every once in a while, he'll be upset and point the floor saying "baby", meaning put Bailey down. But really, he hasn't been too jealous of the attention that Bailey gets.
Brett is still very much into trucks and now has extended the obsession to any transportation vehicle, thanks to a new book daddy got him. Brett is talking more but uses a lot of random sounds for things consistently...which is fine for me to understand him but I'm sure to others it sounds a little strange. For example, he growls for trucks..and now cars, airplanes, helicopters, etc., he says something very similar for shower, shovel and wrestle, he says 'yah' for socks and 'yeah' jacket. I have no idea how he got to those but I know what he means. We also just discovered that he's saying "BE-ta" for Brett. Once I figured it out, I realized he talks about himself often and usually correctly.
I was struggling with him the other day, he kept pointing at me and grunting and I couldn't figure out what he wanted...he finally pointed and then ran his hands back through his hair...I had just pulled up my hair and apparently he didn't like it. I said "oh, do you want mommy's hair down?" he laughed and once I put it back down all was well. He's done this 3-4 times since so I guess he's prefers girls with longer hair?
Brett thoroughly enjoys watching wrestling with daddy and they have 'practice' every night before bed. Last week at Rob's kids' meet Brett got to run out on the mat after they were done. Brett was thrilled and laughed hysterically as he threw himself on the ground and tackled daddy. Rob says he'll be fine even if Brett doesn't wrestle but obviously this early interest makes daddy very happy.
Naptime is over...back to being mommy

More Feb