On the Verge...

A friend of mine told me yesterday that Abram's naps shouldn't be going until 5:00 (this is when he usually wakes up).  I thought that she would tell me that it was because then he wouldn't fall asleep well at night - to which I was going to reply that he hasn't had any problem with going to be at 8/8:30, so I was ok with a late nap.  However, she warned me that if my children slept past 3:00 for their naps and went to bed too late, they wouldn't grow up tall.  I should mention that English is her second language and it was difficult to get much more of an explanation out of her, other than personal experiences she has had with people who put their kids to bed early and had nice, tall children. Let me tell you that I scoffed a little in my mind at that moment, because 1) it seemed strange that anything other than genetics would determine how tall someone would be and 2) I don't see any problem with the way Abram's schedule has been and it is personally wo

Late, late, late! But better late than never! Date: March 24th, 2013 Weight : Weighed her in the appliance section on the scales in the grocery store and she was about 8.5 kg, which is roughly 18.5 lbs.  I looked it up on the growth charts and that puts her right in the 50th percentile.  Talk about sticking to her growth curve.  Incidentally, I weighed Abram, too.  He was 11 kg (about 24.5 lbs), which is the 5th percentile for his age.  Also, quite a consistent kid.   Clothing size : 9 months.  The dress that I took her photo in is a 3-6 month from Gap, but I think it's just weirdly big.  My mom got it when she was born and I've been putting it on her every month or so to see if it would be the month it would fit her.  This month is the first time it doesn't look like she's swimming in it!   Feedings per day : 4 or 5 nursing, 3 solid food meals. Naps:  Maybe a bit more consistent recently.  Usually one at 10 and one around 2, but those timings fl

We had a hard day yesterday.  Well, I had a hard day.  Today, I am better, praise God.  But it was some fun stuff.  I will intersperse recent cute pictures of the kids to try and off set the  unfortunate images of illness that might enter your brain during this story... Thursday night started out like any other. Both kids in bed after having (a kind of light and early) dinner. If anything I would have thought that they might wake up early and hungry. I did not forsee Abram waking me up around 2:30 with the sounds of gagging coming loudly from his crib. When I ran to see what was wrong, he was coughing/gagging and I saw that it looked (in the dark) like he had thrown up just a tiny bit. He laid right back down and seemed tired and went right back to sleep. I laid down, praying that it was some weird fluke thing. I should do a caveat here, explaining that our friends/housemates had just all gotten over a night and day of what was determined to be food poisoning, since four of th

I am laying here in my bed at 1am listening to the sounds of my 11 month old quietly talking to herself after being awake in her bed for an hour. This child hasn't woken up five hours after going to bed since she was, maybe, two months old! She has been sleeping straight through 12 hours at night for about two months now, with a few rare exceptions when she woke up about eight hours in. But five hours!? And not going back to sleep!? She nursed and was definitely done and I've left her in there to try and put herself back to sleep, because at this point with this child, human contact would most certainly be counter productive. I'm sitting here thinking of all the reasons she could have woken up and then not be going back to sleep. She usually goes to bed at 7:30, but after waking up early from her nap, I put her down closer to 7. She normally eats dinner around 6:30 and regardless of what table foods she eats, I've always followed it up with a jar of baby food (which s

My two year old is just full of awesome little sayings that give me a window into the way his mind works and always make me smile. Here are just a few. -He's been asking me to do things for "a little minute". "Mommy, play outside a little minute", "Take a bath a little minute", etc. I think he is confusing "just a minute" and "a little bit". Yesterday he told me to get off the couch, put my phone down and play a little minute. Like those exact words. Cute AND convicting. -He uses "good idea!" a lot now, for himself and me. Like when he asks to play outside and I agree, he says "good idea!" Or I'll suggest something, like a craft project and while we are getting everything out, he says "Mommy, good idea!" -All prepositions are "uh", unless prompted otherwise. "Play uh Siena and Augie", "Do uh computer", "Pray uh me". If I ask him to say it again, he wil

Selah is coming up on 11 months old.  She is sometimes  crawling on her hands and knees, but mostly still army crawling, pulling up only in her crib, starting to eat table foods, babbling a few sounds (ma ma, da da, tha, tha, ya ya, noo, noo, etc), clapping and high fiving, and sometimes waving and signing.  By 11 months old, Abram was cruising around furniture, standing completely unsupported for small amounts of time, saying uh oh, walking in his walker, climbing onto and off of couches.  So I realize they are very different children.  Selah also cries significantly less than Abram did at this age and is over all much more passive. So when I begin to compare what his schedule was like at this age and what hers is like, I realize I probably shouldn't be. But I would so love to be able to know what my day is going to look like so that I could plan my life.  I've tried to get her on a schedule using the method of waking her up at a certain time every morning, which worked f

Daylight Savings baffles me.  Not the procedure, of course (although sometimes remembering to set me clock ahead at 2:00 in the morning was a little difficult...),  but the practice.  Only about a third of the world practices Daylight Savings.  Another third used to and the final third never has and probably never will.  We got used to it in America (having never lived in Arizona, but being a little annoyed when scheduling meetings with Arizonians) and now we don't have to worry about it here in the UAE, as they are a part of that final third.  This would be great.  It's so much easier with very young children not to have to deal with changing their sleep times twice a year.  However, now , we are wishing our families in the States were Arizonians.  Because Daylight Savings has made it very difficult for us to continue skyping with our parents who work during the day and  want to see their grandchildren and  want to go to bed at a decent hour.  We are now trying to figure out