Playing, Sitting, Eating, Sleeping

Your Toy, My Toy

The boys have started vying for the same toys. It is most often Alex who looks longingly over at his brother’s toys and then tries to steal them. In fact, you can sometimes create a loop by giving Dom the toy Alex discards to steal a new one from Dom. Suddenly, Alex wants that toy. It is new and shiny and must be better since his brother has it. Sometimes, the tides are turned, and it is Dom stealing from Alex. So far, they haven’t truly clashed over a toy, as the one being stolen from doesn’t really seem to mind.

Who will win this contest of wills for the crinkly book?

Sitting

Alex continues to love sitting up on his own. He practices all the time – especially when he’s on the floor playing and when he’s put down for a nap in his crib or wakes up from one. He can go from his belly or back to sitting in the blink of an eye unless some pesky obstacle (like a toy or boppy) comes between his behind and the floor.

Dom has not yet mastered sitting up on his own. He does like to practice getting on all fours with his feet under him, and sometimes he looks like he might either sit or take off crawling. We’re still waiting to see where he goes with it. However, he doesn’t expend as much energy keeping himself in a sitting position, and when he accidentally topples, he is quick to get upset and cry for someone to help him sit again.

Dom: Mom! I fell!

Eating

The boys ate A LOT of sweet potato tonight. I made more than I thought they would eat, but I was wrong. While both boys cleaned their bowls, Dominic continues to dominate in the field of eating. He takes his eating much more seriously right now. It is the rare bite of food that escapes back out of his lips with the help of an errant tongue, and you have to keep an eye on him because he’ll eagerly open his mouth for more food before he’s even swallowed all of the previous spoonful.

Alex: A sweet potato face mask is good for the pores.

Alex continues to take each spoonful of food in stages – a little in, a lot out, a little more in, etc. He was making it especially hard on Papa to feed him sweet potato last night by quickly moving his head back and forth while being fed. Usually, he would take a bite and then look over at his brother while he squished the avocado right back out.

A New Trick

When Papa and I put the boys to bed tonight, Alex started shaking his head from side to side (like he was saying “no”) while he waved his arms and smiled. He got a really big kick out of it and did it multiple times. What a cutie!

Alex: I think I could get the hang of this!

Sleeping

Tuesday night, Alex slept through the night, and Dom only woke up once – when he had a big poopy diaper. I cleaned him up, nursed him (yeah, shame on me), and got him right back to bed. Wednesday night, both Alex and Dom slept through the night. WooHoo! Yesterday, Alex took a 3 hour nap for his second nap (and didn’t need a third one) while Dom took three hour-long naps.

Last night (Thursday), I stayed up to work and pump after their 10 PM sleep-nursing. Unfortunately, Dom woke up at 1:40 quite upset. He woke his brother who immediately sat up in his crib. With a little encouragement, Alex resettled and went back to sleep, but Dom had a difficult time completely falling back to sleep.

Papa

The boys sure love to watch and play with their Papa, and he was teaching both of them to slap his hand with theirs (low high-fives) yesterday. I love to watch them as they gaze at him adoringly. Tonight, while sitting on Papa’s lap and watching some Sesame Street songs, Dom even started dancing a wee bit and singing (vocalizing) along. He’s been quite the chatterer of late. Alex has also been “talking” more.

Dom and Papa practice their low-fives!

Next Food?

I’m still trying to decide what food to feed the boys next, and I’d like to buy some of the spinach and carrot baby food in bulk (I’ve read it’s better to buy those instead of making them because they test for the nitrate levels in the baby food). Anyone know a good place? Sam’s? Online?