Reading

Since bringing Cecie home, reading with Simon has fallen on the back burner. This is not something I'm proud of; it's just what happened. For the past few days I've been trying to focus more on him in hopes that a little more attention from mom will reduce some of his attention seeking at school, and reading books to him is a really easy way to do this (even if I have to tend to Cecilia at the same time).

So we're back on the book train.

Something I've been meaning to blog about for a while is that Simon has this weird habit of forcing one specific reading position on us. It looks something like this:

Notice his head is under Bryan's chin. This has been a requirement for Simon since little on...he just loves to have Mom or Dad's chin resting on top of his head while we read to him. If I try to put my head to the side of his, he will always take his head and move it under my chin. Every time.

I'm writing in the present tense, but really it's become a thing of the past very recently. This position is just not feasible anymore. We can't get quite comfortable with him on my lap and he is forced to sit next to me. I normally don't spend too much time feeling sad about him getting older, but sometimes it's just unavoidable.

I can no longer read to my son while he's on my lap, and I can definitely no longer do it with his big old head resting under my chin. This little quirk of his is no longer a thing. I'm going to go cry now. Or maybe go snuggle with him...

Results

Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment or call or text with your opinions on the spelling of Cecilia's nickname. It really helped Bryan and I make our final decision (okay, okay...Bryan was very much just along for the ride on this one). I think the reason I needed votes was because I didn't really love either of them....

Enter Cecie :)

Mistakes

Pretty much since bringing Cecie home Simon has been having trouble in school on and off. He's pretty much pushed every button he can think of from general attention seeking to spitting to bothering other kids to not listening.

For a while it was working well when he knew he wouldn't get to do anything fun in the afternoon if he misbehaved, including no friends and no tv. Conversely if he was a good boy, we would always make a point of doing something fun in the afternoon. The positive effect this was having seems to have worn off, though.

He's been pushing buttons at home as well. I just erased all of my examples because they are A) better off forgotten and B) are embarrassingly naughty so I prefer not to share all of them. To top it off, here was my conversation with him after I found out about his less than stellar day at school:

Me: Did you spit at school today?
Simon: Uh huh.
Me: Was that a good choice?
Simon: {Said awfully cheerily} No it was not a good choice. I just made a mistake; everyone makes mistakes, right mumma?


Right. If it's a mistake that makes it okay. I forgot. This is one small of what I'm talking about when I say he has an answer for everything.

So now what? Maybe he needs more attention at home. Maybe new rewards and consequences. Maybe it's a stage. Maybe all of the above...all I know is we'll keep trying and hope to see some positive changes that stick.

I was serious about those votes....

I requested votes. I did not receive many votes. Please vote:

Cece or Cici?!

This is important, people! :)

How Big is Cecilia?

SOOOOOO BIG.

Today we had Cece's two month check up. She is really almost three months, but Dr. Solberg felt it was more important to see his sister in Singapore over Cici's real two month birthday so this appointment got delayed by three weeks. I wonder what these stats would have looked like a few weeks go? I'm guessing they would still indicate she's a big girl!

Weight: 14 lbs 11 oz (97.56%)
Height: 24.75" (96.49%)
Head: 42 cm (95.14%)

The bottom line is that she's growing and perfectly proportional :)

{CC just doesn't look like a real name so I'm trying out Cece and Cici...votes?}

--

Bath time has never been my favorite. I don't know what it is, but there's something about a slippery floppy baby that just never appealed to me. Even as Simon got older I still never looked forward to bath time for whatever reason. You can see why it suits me just fine that Cece's hair shouldn't be washed more than about once a week right now, but soon enough bath time is going to equal hair time which is going to equal hours of time...oy.

So a routine has been born. Every Thursday night Cici is going to get a bath followed by Mom or Dad combing and playing with her hair. Eventually this is going to turn into a much bigger deal, so for now we will enjoy the ease of it and later on we will enjoy the challenge :)

I know I'm biased, but that face is beautiful...and have you ever seen a baby with hair like that?

I love that it looks like we are waving to each other :)

She looks a little dazed from the bathing experience.

Happy!

Feelin' All Misty Eyed

It's funny to think that 2 months and 2 days ago I was walking around the Betty Brinn Children's Museum with Simon on his 4th birthday, clueless about the call that would come in the 4 o'clock hour later that day.

There were a bunch of little African American girls there that morning and I remember checking out their hair wondering how in the world I would ever braid like that one day and wondering if my daughter would look like any of them. It's funny that sometimes I will see a little AA girl now and wonder if Baby Girl will look like that. Then I remember that Baby Girl has a name now and while I don't know what she will look like as a 2 or 3 or 4 year old, I know what she looks like at this very moment. The thought that all the waiting and wondering is now a living, breathing thing still makes me all misty eyed.

Something else that's been making me feel nice and sappy inside is that my best friend from 7th grade had her baby on Sunday. A perfect little baby girl. It's amazing to me that after almost two decades of friendship we still see each other often, we have babies just a couple of months apart and those babies are now "God Sisters." We chose her husband to be Cecilia's Godfather and they chose yours truly to be their baby's Godmother (insert huge smile here). The thought that we have such good friends in them and so many others is a beautiful thing!

They are both super excited about having to take a picture together.

Just fine.

Read this blog post. You will laugh...out loud...I promise.

There is one line that really isn't funny at all, but I'm copying it here because I want you to read it and imprint it in your brain if you find yourself feeling guilty about your choices or questioning how good of a parent you are or thinking you might not be doing things exactly right...

"Are you a good person? Then your baby is going to be just fine." :)