Life in the Boonies

Frank is starting to feel the little brother’s presence more as Timmy is mobile.  Often Frank screams “No Timmy!”  Timmy gets to Frank’s toys and books and we are not ready to share unless it is on our own terms.  That means sharing with Timmy Timmy’s toys.  Frank likes to help bring toys to Timmy but not have Timmy go after his.  We are working on not screaming.  So the next best thing was to drag Timmy away from the vicinity.  One morning I saw Frank dragging Timmy by both legs.  Timmy kept trying to scoot forward but to no avail.  I wanted to see how they resolve it so pretended not to see in case Frank thinks that is acceptable behavior.  Timmy didn’t cry and Frank didn’t scream so all was good.  If all incidents can be that easy, just looking the other way. One time Frank did pretty good where he took away his toy but proceeded to give Timmy a bunch of toys that belonged to Timmy instead.

Frank likes to play with Timmy.  We were getting ready for our camping trip so we put up a play tent and Frank was in there doing his bulldozer puzzle while Timmy was chewing on an electronic book.  I hear the book music and thought it was Frank.  They played nicely side by side. One time Frank wouldn’t let Timmy on his mat so I took Timmy and moved to a different room telling Frank Timmy doesn’t want to play with him unless he shares the mat.  Frank eventually gave in cuz he really wanted to play with Timmy.

The new thing with Frank is piling.  He makes great big piles of stuff.  First it was on the floor.  I have to make a mat for him using a blanket.  Then he empties all the toy bins and dumps everything on that blanket.  Then we advanced to the table.  We make a tent by putting a blanket over his table.  Then he dumpts all his books and toys under the table into the tent.  Then one day daddy made a tent on the couch by putting the blanket over the back and using a broom as a pole.  Then everything got piled on the couch.  You would think the blanket is a culprit but now we have a play tent and there are no blankets in there but all the books are.  And at camp, while everyone else played ball, Frank swept a big pile of dirt and grass under the table.  One thing for sure, he is focused and dedicated at the piling task.

Frank sings many many songs.  He even changes the words sometimes.  He often quotes stuff from the books we read.  If I quote something, he can pick out the book that it came from.  He also talks in sentences.  We are working on the pronoun me and you.  He still says mommy carry you but when I ask him carry who?, he corrects himself and says carry ME.

Since we let Frank sit with us at church there has been two funny incidents.  One time Pastor John was demonstrating something and he took a twenty dollar bill, crumbled it up, threw it on the floor and stumped on it.  When we returned home, Frank did the same thing to the one dollar bill grandpa gave him.  Another incident was when Pastor John was telling us a story and when he said then we called the doctor…  Frank leaned over to daddy and whispered “and the doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the bed.”

Timmy just turned 6 months old!  He is eating everything orange.  Breakfast is 2 apricots.  Lunch is 2 cubes from a selection of carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potato with some milk and 2T of oatmeal.  You can’t much tell which ones you are picking except the carrots are darker orange than the others.  Dinner is 3 cubes instead of 2.  Just yesterday we switched it up and he got half an avocado.  Most of the time he leaves nothing behind. With all that going in, his stool looks like it came from an adult.  We cut out rice cereal in case that makes him constipated.

He nurses 6 times a day.  Takes 2 naps, 9am-ish and 2pm-ish.  First one usually lasts 2 hours and second 1 hour.  Sleeps through the night from 7:30ish to 6:30ish.  Timmy scoots everywhere and gets into everything.  He is getting ready to crawl where he gets on all fours and rocks back and forth.  He does little mini push-ups and is almost standing while pushing on my tummy or leg.

Timmy definitely knows who his mommy is.  When I walk into the room he looks at me and immediately needs me to pick him up.  He plays fine until he sees me and then if I ignore him he starts to cry.

Timmy has a very strong grip.  He can hang on to the back of the chair and you have to pry his little fingers open one at a time.  He likes to grab on to chairs, especially the kitchen ones since they have nice round pegs that fits his hand just right.  Speaking of strength, his gums are also worth mentioning.  He is now leaving marks on my shoulder and arms.  I don’t feel any teeth yet but those gums are not to be trifled with.

Aside from the foods he enjoy at mealtime, Timmy also likes to eat paper.  Daddy says comes from a long line of paper eaters, namely himself.