Milestones Galore

Hey Y'all! 

Thought you might like to hear about the exciting things we have going on around here!

Dutch is smiling, cooing, and getting more and more alert with each day. He's not as good a sleeper as Buddy-Man was, but he's not eating during the night, which is nice. The "crib training" is a bit more of a challenge though, and more often than not he ends up in bed with us at some point, usually between 4 and 5 when I give up going back and forth to retrieve his paci every five minutes. I'd like to allow him to "cry it out" a little more, but since his room is right next to Buddy Man's, I'm hesitant as I don't want his crying to wake his brother and then they are both up all night! We're spending more and more time on his tummy though, and at times it looks like he's about to roll right over. He's trying really hard, and I think it'll be soon, but gosh I'm not ready for him to be mobile already!! :-) 

Buddy Man is learning to be a very helpful big brother. He's voluntarily helping me pick up his toys and even putting things on the right shelves without me showing him where they go. His favorite thing is to put the legos back in a basket, though! Yesterday he was intent on being the one to give Dutch his paci every time he dropped it. That was fun, but Buddy Man got a little frustrated when Dutch wouldn't cooperate by opening his mouth or latching on or spitting the thing out right away! Buddy Man also helped to burp Dutch and then wipe his mouth when he spit up and tried to help feed his little brother, though the bottle angle didn't quite work out the way he hoped. But the biggest news of the day is Buddy Man went pee pee on the potty!!! Yay!! Yesterday, I brought him in the bathroom while I gave Dutch a bath. Took Buddy Man's pants and diaper off and had him sit down. Well, he got up after about 30 seconds, walked three feet away from the potty, and went all over the floor, then declared "messy messy!" at the puddle! Thank goodness I'd taken the rug out of the bathroom before all this happened! So this morning, right after breakfast (and a big cup of milk!) we went upstairs just the two of us, took the diaper off, turned on the tub faucet for "inspiration" and after about two seconds, Buddy Man was going! I don't think he really realized what he did, but he fed off my excitement, and he loved dumping his potty into the big potty and then flushing. He also liked doing "washy washy" to his hands when we were all done. I'm still going to take things slowly… We'll go sit on the potty again after lunch (before nap) and again before bathtime and see how it goes. I plan to get through this box of diapers for Buddy Man (we still have another huge box of size 4's but I guess I can save them for Dutch to use) and then investigate training pants or pull-ups so we can move on to the next step!  In case you're wondering, this is the potty we purchased, after I polled my trusted advisors (aka Facebook mommy friends, my mom, and my MIL).  I decided to get a potty chair so I could keep it in any room of the house, as well as travel time as necessary (like to my mom's house next weekend).  I also didn't feel like Buddy Man was quite ready for a stool and seat on the big potty since we don't have a good place to hang on and climb up in all our bathrooms and since he was a little scared the first time I tried to put him on the normal potty.  We may graduate to something along these lines after he gets the hang of a potty later on...

UPDATE: Buddy Man did it again after lunchtime!!! This time took a bit longer, and finally I had to "demonstrate" but he did it!!! :-)

Either way, here's a little video of Dutch trying to roll, for your viewing pleasure!