Since we've been home...

We have had an interesting week back in the REAL WORLD! In Mexico, there was this waiter by the pool names Luis who was FAB-U-LOUS and waited on us hand and foot.  Let me tell you, my friends: I want Luis to move in with me!  There have been several times this week that I fantasized about my little Mexican waiter (but in the fantasy, he is changing diapers and loading the dish washer and bringing me a drink-a strong one- and dealing with the crying it out......)

We've have a lot going on since we have returned... I'll start with Andy...
I am starting to wean Andy.  He was down to nursing about 3-4 times a day, and we have a trip coming up, so it is certainly time to wean the boy down.  I started on Saturday (we got home Friday night) at his afternoon nap time. I was nursing (most days) in the morning when he first got up, when he went down for afternoon nap, and before bed time.  He refused the bottle when I tried.  Wanted nothing to do with it.  Off to a great start!    I tried two different bottles and he was NOT having anything to do with it and was pulling at my shirt trying to get the goods. 
Meanwhile, we are having lots of issues with Cal going down too (more to come on that in a minute), so he was screaming his head off in the other room too.... not helping the situation.)
Thankfully, we started this process on a Saturday so Eddie was there to help me deal with the wild ones. 
He went down for his nap without milk and woke up cranky (I am sure hunger had something to do with it!).  He was also up in the night that night screaming for hours.  The next day, I tried and had the same results, including the night screaming (again, hours).  Then finally, he took the bottle after nap time, instead of before-- go figure.  That night, he slept through the night (but Cal was up multiple times....more on that in a minute...).  So then I realized that maybe I needed to alter my feeding times a little bit.  Well, that one time was a fluke because he has not had a bottle since then!  Just flat out refuses it and gets REALLLLLLY mad when I try!
Yesterday, I poured him some cold milk in a sippy cup and gave it to him in the morning.  He drank quite a bit... and then continued to drink it throughout the day and drank a ton with dinner.  Looks like we will be skipping a bottle all together...? 
Tomorrow, I am dropping another feeding...it'll be interesting to see how that goes.  I am dropping the morning feeding and am going to try a bottle again, but I am feeling doubtful that he will take it.  Any of you smart moms out there have any advice on this one?  I'd love to hear it!

at a birthday party for a friend of Cal's...such a big boy! I remember Cal wearing this outfit...

Other than the weaning, Mr. Andy is OVER baby food.  He wants nothing to do with us feeding him.  He is all about feeding himself big people food.  I was super hesitant to feed him solids because of his (lack of) teeth, but he seemed ready, so I started slow... he was ready.  He LOVES to eat!  He gets really focused at meal time and shovels the food in using his (left!) hand.  So far, he has had (and loved): strawberries, chicken, ground beef, avocado, cheese, bread (broken into really small pieces), ritz crackers, melon, pineapple, cheerios, hmmmm.... can't think of what else...

get. in. my. belly.  I will crush you, strawberry.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow after we drop another feeding.  Do y'all know if there is a certain amount of milk they have to get every day? Does he need to have milk at 3 set times a day?  Or is it okay to let him drink it throughout the day?

yummm....cupcake...

So, now on to CalBoy!

In Mexico, we would lay down every night with Cal to get him to fall asleep.  We just did this because it was a strange place and we were worried he would be scared to be in a room all by himself.  Well, we got home and Cal decided that he wanted to continue that trend.  It was ridiculous! We would put him down for bed time and he was screaming his head off for hours.  Not just crying.  SCREAMING.  Like flailing around in the bed screaming louder than anything I've ever heard come from his mouth.  He was doing the same thing at nap time.  So this craziness is going on across the hall while I am trying to shove a bottle into a screaming kid's mouth-- IN SANE.
I tried being sweet to Cal.  I tried yelling at Cal.  I tried ignoring Cal.  It was NOT working.  Monday night, he screamed himself to sleep (notice I am not writing CRY) and then woke up so many times in the night crying.  It was IN.SANE.  Finally, I gave in and went in there at 3:30-- he had been up since 3 and I was afraid he would wake up Andy (which he finally did-- the night that Andy decided to sleep through the night-- Cal woke him up at 6). Eddie finally got up at 4:30 and got in bed with Cal, trying to get some sleep.  Cal refused to let Eddie sleep.  He was tapping him on the shoulder, whispering to him, trying to tickle him... around this time, the thunder started and Hank started his normal freak out session.  Soooo, I wasn't going back to sleep either.  Eddie came back into our room at 5:15 and threw his hands in the air and was spent.  I took Cal to school on Tuesday morning after he had been up since 3am.  His teacher said he was fine, but I can't even imagine what a little pill he must have been!

Tuesday night, Eddie and I agreed that we HAD to break him of this little habit.  He started out screaming when we put him down, but quickly fell asleep.  The next day at nap time, I sat on the end of his bed, not talking or looking at him, and he fell asleep quickly then too.
Wednesday afternoon, he woke up from his nap a little warm.  By Wednesday night, it was a full blown fever.  He now has what Andy had while we were in Mexico.  He is great when the medicine is in him, but as soon as it wears off, he is burning up.  I am hoping we are on the tail end of it now... he was up 4 times last night... once at midnight with the fever, needing meds, once at 1:30 because he kicked off all of his blankets while he was in the midst of the fever and he was cold now that the fever was gone, and again at 3:30 thirsty, and then again at 5 wanting to go potty....

these pictures were from today...the medicine wore off while we were out running errands.  Cal was talking a mile a minute in the backseat and then it got really quiet.  I looked back and he was out.  I woke him up when we got home and carried him to the couch.  He fell sound asleep there and Hank decided to keep watch.

 Oh, and one last thing about Cal this week is his efforts to prolong going to bed every night/nap time.  He climbs up on the potty and claims he has to poop.  Then he pushes as hard as he can until he actually does poop.  This is great in that I have not changed a poopy diaper of his in a while, but bad because sometimes he will sit on the potty for a loooong time.  I took a really funny video of him going the other day and explaining to me about "more poop is coming! Can you hear it??" But I thought I was holding the camera high enough to cut out his "parts" but in some of the video, he leans back just enough that you can see 'em.  And I just can't do that to my kid (anymore).

That's about it for this week!  Eddie's parents came on Tuesday and left this morning, and Eddie's sister is coming tonight for the weekend.  After all of the activities we have had from 10pm until 5am, I gotta be honest.  This momma is SPENT!  I am going to watch the HEELS tonight and then I am going to crash.  Maybe tonight will be the night BOTH boys sleep???  PLEASE??? 

check out those teefers!!! We think Andy might be our braces kid...hahaha

 long post...can't help it.  I'm long-winded, always!

GO HEELS :D