Merry Christmas, Conrad!

Merry Christmas, Conrad. Your own personal mini-me!

[Here's the background ... Every year for Christmas, my family rotates names for Christmas. (We have 8 kids in our family so it makes things much simpler.) This year, as part of Conrad's present, we gave Eric a mohawk. OK, I have to admit that it was a little unplanned ... our clipper was charging in an accessible location ... Eric started it, and I finished it; hence the comb-over, which Conrad has been calling the CoMo. And just the day before I had been at Costco chatting with this lady in (a very long) line. I was telling her something, I can't remember what, and she said, "Just wait until he cuts his own hair."]

Food! Feeding my family drives me nuts!

This is a vent-post. I love cooking, but I really detest cooking for my children. This is because a) they prefer plain chicken to delicious things like Avocado Mango Chicken, and b) even when they do like it, they only eat a bite or two. I end up throwing most of what I make away. Eric is just learning to express himself pretty well, and today came up with, "Mommy, this pasta is really good." And then ate one bite of chicken, two bites of pasta and a cooked carrot cube--you know, the kind from the mixed vegetable bag. Oh, and one section of a Clementine.

And gone are the days when Mikey indiscriminately stuffed whatever he could get his hands on into his face. Now Mikey, less than a year old, is becoming a very picky eater. And he has the manners of a monkey (typical of toddlers/pre-toddlers). When he doesn't like something, or when he's done, or just when the feeling hits him, he flings whatever food is on his tray onto the floor. And somehow he makes a circle around his highchair on the floor. Tonight he spit out the chicken that I thought I had managed to sneak into his mouth and tossed it on the floor. Here he is showing off his new eating apparatus (ie his teeth).

What's the difference between a walrus and an otter?

Sam's preschool is a co-op. That means that I get to go and hang out with them 6 or 7 times a year. This last time, Sam happened to also get the show and tell bag. They put something in the bag and then they answer questions and sometimes give hints so that the other kids can guess what it is.

So he told me that he wanted to take his walrus (one of the dozens of stuffed animals we have). This one has been in a closet for a while now and he's just taken it out and it's become the favorite for the time being. So I prepared him on the way to school ... Where do Walruses live? In the north pole, etc.

So here he is giving clues. The kids try to guess. He says it lives in the north pole. One girl asks, "Is it a crocodile?" They are more and more stumped and finally he says that it has big teeth. Well, two big teeth. OK, says Miss Audine (his fabulous teacher), is it a walrus? YES! says Sam, and pulls it out the bag.

Miss Audine looks at it and says, "I think it's an otter." Sam doesn't know what to say for a few seconds and then says, "Well, his name is Mr. Walrus." If you click on the picture, it will blow it up and you will see the looks on their faces. It's pretty funny.

That's what kind of mom I am. The kind of mom that lets her kids go to school without any socks (because all 150 socks are in pile to be matched) and doesn't notice that her child is taking an otter to school instead of a walrus. Oh, and by the way, we don't have and never have had a walrus, and I saw the otter many times the weekend before. I just don't notice minor details like that. Ah well. We do have a lot of fun together. :)

Harry Potter

I am a big Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books at least twice. I love the books because they have so much depth--character development, themes of life, death, prejudice, friendship, fear, love, loyalty. The last time I went to the movies was a year and a half ago, to see Harry Potter 6. And tonight I went to see the first half of Harry Potter 7 at the Henry Ford IMAX. I thought they did a much better job of showing the personal struggles this time, maybe because it is split into two. And I'm really glad it is.

How to Eat a Pepper

Eric is the king of carbs. I have a hard time getting him to eat meat, eggs, etc., but he loves anything carby. Including vegetables. I remember the first time we went to McDonalds and he was upset because I hadn't given him some lettuce from my salad.

One day, I meant to cut up some pepper strips for dinner, but forgot the pepper on the counter. (As you can see from the picture, and it's a large pepper, much bigger than the palm of my hand.) I came accross it later and it looked like this, with bites taken from every angle.

Conference Weekend

Isn't it great to be able to watch General Conference in your living room? It makes things so much simpler.

This afternoon, Sam was excited as we went on a website, to see a picture of the prophet. We printed out some flashcards that someone had done of the prophet and 12 apostles. Later, we were talking and I said to Sam, "Do you know I love you?"
Sam: Yes.
Me: Do you know that I love you a lot?
Sam: No
Me: Why not?
Sam: Because sometimes you yell at me.
Me: Well, sometimes I get frustrated and unfortunately, I'm not perfect.
Sam: Well I have an idea. Maybe every morning when you wake up you could look at one of those pictures of those prophets and that would remind you not to yell.

While I was putting the baby to bed, Sam wanted to play Wii. He wanted me to play with him and I told him that I would if I got the baby to bed soon enough. When I came downstairs, he said, "Oh, now I have to change it from three players to four players." I said that there were only two of us. He said, "Two of us and the two missionary dogs." Two of his beanie babies, the pig and the snake, were the "missionary dogs" and they got to have their turns too. When their turn came, he would "help" them make their shots. The snake had to use his nose, Sam explained, because he did have arms or fingers.



When I bought a whole bunch of like-new beanie babies at a mom2mom sale years ago for $1 each, I had no idea how many hours of fun they would bring us.

First Meal!

So tonight was Mikey's first meal--as in the same meal we had, just blended into tiny bits. He had golden mushroom pork with apples, rice, and mixed vegetables and seemed to enjoy it. (I get my dinner plans from www.e-mealz.com. It's great--for $5 a month, they post a week's worth of meals that you download, complete with a shopping list. With my plan, they are linked to the sales that Kroger has going on. They are pretty good, and although sometimes they aren't our favorite, not ever having to think about what's for dinner is worth it.) He has been eating for a while, and loves cheerios and fruit and veggies, just like any baby does. I was amazed at how quickly he figured the cheerio thing out. The first day, he spilled them all over the floor trying to grab them. When he finally got one in his hand, it was in his fist and he couldn't figure out how to get it out, just how to lick his fist. Within a week, he was grabbing them with no spilling, putting them in his fist, and then opening it into his mouth. Seems so simple, but I'm amazed at the complexities that our brain has to figure out. (This is a picture of him after Sam fed him his prunes.)


He is a very happy baby, although also very stubborn. He is also big. I took him to the doctor a few weeks ago and he weighed the exact same as Sam did at 15 months. And he is in 18 month clothes. Eric is still comfortably in 2T. He'll probably slim down once he starts moving, so I took some pictures so I could remember his chubbilicious thighs.


Ivan calls him the Baconator.

Back to School

I can't believe it's September already! And it feels like it. Last Wednesday it was 91; today it's 69. Fall is in the air.

I'm pretty relieved actually. It will be nice because Sam will be in preschool M-F so I'll get to spend a little one-on-one time with Eric while the baby sleeps.

Speaking of school, Sam just finished reading his first book by himself--the classic Seuss Hop on Pop. It was fun to watch him read it (we had never read it before, so I knew he hadn't just memorized it) and try to sound out the words. It brought me back to my own beginnings and I'm excited about the new world that will open up for him.

Not that Sam needs any new worlds, since he creates them in his own mind. He read F-A-N-T-A somewhere and asked me what it was. I told him it was a brand of soda pop. Later he told me that Fanta is the land where all of his dogs live and they can do whatever they want. They just sit around all day and drink soda. And when we were reading Hop on Pop, he read "he" as "hey". I told him that it was "he" and he said, well "hey" is how they say "he" in Fanta. So I never know when it's going to be brought into a conversation.

Here is a picture of the party we had for his dog whose name is Big Brother (and who Sam refers to simply as Big, as in, "Big really wants a birthday party today.") We made a cake out of starburst and skittles left over from last Halloween.



His other new word is "beefaroni boat". I'm not sure where he got the word beefaroni, since we don't eat anything close to that. A beefaroni boat is a huge container ship and whenever we are driving on Lakeshore and we see them, the kids both start yelling, "look at the beefaroni boat." (We live about a mile from Lake St. Claire, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie, and is big enough that you can't see to the other side.)

Sam still loves to cook--especially salads and soups. A few weeks ago, he wrote out the recipe for "Sam's World Famous Soup." Here is a picture of it. He started with onion, carrot, potato, then ran out of room so moved to the top and sides for radish and tomato (I think?).


He really does most of the chopping (except the onion) and cooking himself. Maybe I'm a bad mom for letting my 4 yo "play" with knives and hot stoves, but at least we have some tasty dinners! Speaking of things a mom should not do, right now Mikey is chewing on a Staples receipt, so I'd better go.

Earth-shattering News!

Last night I slept seven hours and forty-five minutes in a row!!!! It's been a while since that has happened. I was so excited and encouraged that there may be more nights like this in the near future.

But since blogs without pictures are boring, here are a few gratuitous ones:



Oh, and our new favorite things:

Wild About Books by Judy Sierra. If you're into books, this is a fabulous one. Here's the review: PreS-Gr. 2. In this rollicking story, librarian Molly McGrew accidentally drives her bookmobile into the zoo, and then the fun begins! The animals draw close to listen to a Dr. Seuss story, and soon they begin stampeding "to learn all about this new something called reading." Many picture-book authors who try their hands at rhyme have less-than-stellar results. Here, the best part of the book is Sierra's handy way with a rhyming text that not only scans properly but also is both clever and full of images that will amuse children ("Tasmanian devils found books so exciting / That soon they had given up fighting for writing").

And my kids' new favorite song (we listen to it ALL the time) is from Dog Train, by Sandra Boynton. I can totally understand why adults would like it, but kids? It's called, "I Need a Nap."

Fun with Remodeling

Here are some pictures from the recent remodeling. We laid the carpet ourselves. As we were unrolling it, Sam was rolling around on it. Remember that excitement from when you were a kid? I started rolling around on it too, while Ivan and his dad looked at me like I had lost my jelly beans.




And this is Sam scaling the mattress mountain. He did this about 30 times, climbing up and rolling down. And then started walking along the top like a billy goat, at which point, with visions of him falling on his head, I put an end to it.



About 3:00, Sam asked me to open a can of corn. When he finished it around 5:00, I realized that I had forgotten to feed him and that that was all he had had all day. I think he was happy though. A few days ago, he asked for a can of corn and some tuna fish for lunch.

Oh, and a trip down memory lane for anyone in my family ... I found some things that I've hauled around for years packed in an "orange box". This (well, not this exact one, but a series of them over many years) was my suitcase for the first 18 years of my life. I used them to visit all 48 of the continental United States.

A Roof Over Our Heads

I have some friends who are DINKs (Double Income No Kids). They bought a new house in a posh suburb of Detroit a few years ago, in an area with the best schools. The house has four bedrooms. They have one room for them, one as their dog’s room, one as their office room, and another as their yoga/exercise room. And they have a full finished basement with an entertainment room. It is beautiful, but I couldn’t help thinking about the irony that someone with a bunch of kids could really use that space, but couldn’t afford it because they only had one income. But the ones who had the income couldn’t have the kids. And another great irony is that now that I feel that this is one of the most important times for me to be tapped in spiritually because of the impact I am having on my little boys at this crucial time in their lives … it’s so hard to find the time to do the things I need to stay tapped in. Any insight, anyone?

On to other housing thoughts …
We have a beautiful little house in a suburb of Detroit that feels like you are back in the 1950s. The main streets are filled with little shops, you can walk to school, parks, the library and the grocery store. Ivan walks to the barber to get “an education, not a haircut,” and talks with Russ the Barber and his assistants about life, people, politics, etc. Our friends’ daughter walks to the corner candy store with all the kids on her street every Saturday to buy a little treat. You run into people you know at the grocery store at 10:00 at night, but it is still fairly fluid (people moving in and out) so I haven’t felt any small-town social politics, if that makes sense.

But our house was built in the 1950s and it is a little small. It is large for a bungalow but the top floor is an apartment, complete with living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom for Ivan’s parents. (Separate enough to feel like we live alone, but close enough that Sam, who wakes up at 6:00, can go up to grandma’s house on his own, and wait for me to wake up at 7:15.) The main floor has our living space with two smallish bedrooms, and then we have the basement. So, I was thinking, two bedrooms=2 parents+3 kids=no problem. But there was a problem.

I had these romantic ideas about being crammed in a two bedroom apartment--“Oh! People in New York and Europe do it all the time. I’ll feel like I’m living in Europe!” Not so much. In addition to tripping all over our coats, bags, etc., and not being able to walk to the front of my bed without walking sideways, there was the most pervasive question of the last five years of my life: how do I get my kids to go to sleep and stay asleep. Sam has slept in the kitchen or living room at least 75% of the time for the last two years because no matter what I try, they are on different schedules and can’t sleep together. (And I’ve read at least 15 “how to get your child to sleep” books.)

Once Ivan got the new job and we knew that we would be here for a while, we had someone (actually a recommendation from Russ the Barber) put in some electrical and can lights, strengthen the wall between the two rooms, and paint the ceiling black. We were going to put in a drop ceiling until we realized that anyone of above average height would hit their head on the ceiling. It actually looks really cool. The black covers up all of the inconsistencies and gives the illusion of height. I think I’m going to get little stick-on stars for the ceiling so I feel like I’m out camping under the stars every night, in complete comfort.

We got a carpet and had the walls painted a light tan and it has a nice feel. So now, in addition to a little empty space in our bedroom, I have padded carpet, an actual desk for my computer (instead of the top of my dresser), and all my books on bookshelves in my room, instead of in storage. And it feels so cozy!

The Best Husband in the Whole World

Last week was a tiring and stressful week for both of us. Friday was Ivan's last day at work and he passed the ceremonial stapler on to his friend Matt. He had a lot to finish up and worked hard to finalize every thing.

To top it all off, our kids were really sick last week with the stomach flu. So Eric, who has been my champion sleeper for almost the last couple of years woke up at least every night, screaming because he needed a diaper change and sometimes his sheets changed. One night, we hadn't done the dishes because we were up late moving all of our basement into the center of the rooms (another story) and went to bed late. At 3:00 Eric woke up and it took both of us to take care of them. Because he was screaming, the baby woke up to be fed. So I went to feed the baby, and Ivan said, "I'm going to go do the dishes." And he spent the time while Mikey was eating to clean the kitchen.

The next morning, I told him how much I appreciated it and he said, "I did it because I love you and I didn't want you to have to wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes." Awwwwwww ....

How to Get Your Kids to Eat Vegetables ...

So ... on one of those super crazy days, I fed the kids but didn't have time to eat. So while they were taking a bath, I took my dinner in to the bathroom and ate while they were in the bath. I was eating carrots, celery, snow peas, red pepper strips, etc. when Sam said that he wanted one. I gave him a couple and then he said, "Mom, pretend I'm a little fish!" So I broke little pieces off and threw them into the tub. And he gobbled them up.

I can't decide if this makes me a bad mom with all those germs floating around or a good mom because my kids eat their vegies. On the other hand, no matter what I do, they both drink the bath water anyway, and now at least they're getting their "5 by 5"!

Sam's Last Trip

One of my favorite parenting books is called Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides. It's all about play--how it helps kids to develop, why it's important, what they use it for, how to do it, etc. It's full of useful tips, like pretending that you are animals as you go to bed. So when I say it's bedtime, and Sam says that he doesn't want to, then I say, "do you want to go as a polar bear or a possum?" and inevitably, it's a possum and I carry him hanging upside down from my waist to his bed.

One of the major points in the book is that kids use play to deal with stress. So if a kid is in the hospital or has a serious injury, he will play doctor to try to manage his feelings, etc. Since Ivan has been traveling for his job for the last three years, often gone for 3 weeks at a time, 8-10 months out of the year, one of Sam's favorite games is to go on trips. He pulls all the suitcases out of the basement and packs them up, and goes to the pretend taxi (often I am the taxi driver), drives to the pretend airport, and then he flies to Pretend Spain or Pretend China or Pretend Mexico or Pretend France. Whenever he can, he recruits friends to go with him, so here's a picture from a few weeks ago.


His best friend moved last month and now he's pretend moving, so it is infuriating to me because I'm constantly unpacking, moving his boxes, putting everything away, and once I found a can of corn and some rotten bananas in Ivan's lunchbag that Sam had packed for his trip. Since Ivan was in Korea, no one opened it until I noticed a bunch of fruit flies hovering in that direction. When Ivan was home for December and January, Sam stopped playing this game, but as soon as Ivan left again, so did Sam. Understanding why he's doing it and how it is helping him helps me to be a little more tolerant when I trip over all of his suitcases.

So now for our exciting news ... Ivan just got a new job with a company called Energy Conversion Devices. He will still be doing auditing, but almost all of the work will be from the home office in Rochester Hills, MI (another suburb of Detroit, so we won't have to move). ECD is in the alternative energy field. Right now, they mainly manufacture Solar Panels, but they are in an expansion phase and are branching out to alternative energy products. Ivan is excited about the industry, the people he'll be working with, the potential for growth and mostly the chance to be home.

I think that one of the most interesting things is the founder of ECD, Stan Ovshinsky. He invented an environmentally friendly nickle metal hydride batteries, the technologies that led to R/W CDs and DVDs, amorphous silicon semiconductors, LCD screens and a whole bunch of other things. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_R._Ovshinsky#In_popular_culture)

Anyway, all of us are super excited and are incredibly happy about this good news. And hopefully I'll have less mess to clean up as Sam stops traveling too.

Getting Things Done

Sometime in March, it started to get warm and I mentioned to Sam that we could start to plant our garden. He was soooooo excited! I explained to him that we had to prepare our EarthBoxes, plan out our garden, figure out when to plant everything, make sure we had all the right seeds, fertilizer, etc. He did not understand why it had to be so complicated.

Later that week, we took the earth out of our earthboxes because it had fallen below the screen and the water would not be able to get out (leading to moldy plants). Ivan's dad and the boys took all the dirt out, put it on a tarp, let it air out for a few days and put it back in.


Meanwhile, I found that the average last frost in Michigan was 5 weeks from that week, and peas weren't supposed to be planted until the next week. I told Sam we would have to wait a week. Sam, who still doesn't have a good concept of time kept saying, "Mom, can I go plant our peas now? One day, he came in and said, "Mom. I planted the peas." He had put them in the dirt in the tarp. I though, "Oh well, we have plenty of pea seeds." Later they loaded the dirt back into the Earthboxes.

The next week was really bad weather, so we didn't get the peas planted. Then I kept forgetting to soak them to germinate them. Once I did soak them, but took them out to plant them, forgot about them and they dried out. Then I lost the seeds. So here we are, at Michigan's average last frost, and I have yet to plant any peas. But one day, I was going out to the garage and noticed tiny green shoots. Some of Sam's peas had made it, and we will soon have delicious peas :)


I feel like my life is like that sometimes. I wait and plan and try to get everything done perfectly and worry that it won't be right when what I really need to do is just have that childlike faith, jump in and do what I can and trust that I'll end up with some peas.

Eric's Hobbies

Sam loved to play with this firetruck, but always has the animals from the Little People ark or zoo driving around. Eric's drivers are always inanimate objects such as marbles, other cars, or his beloved binkies.

Eric loves his little brother.

Eric loves to eat red peppers.

Eric decided that the fireplace grate was his "chair". At first I tried to keep him out, but after a while, all of the ashes had already rubbed off on his clothes and body, and since we don't use it much, I didn't care. Until one day, when he pulled the entire frame off trying to get in. He doesn't try to get in anymore.

Finally, Eric's dancing obsession. Now that he's speaking, he's also singing a lot. Here, he is dancing and singing to Inside Out's version of Once There Was a Snowman, while chewing gum and wearing glasses.

Last day of winter

March 30 was the last day of winter here in Michigan.  Actually, anyone who lives here will tell you that just when you think that winter is over, you will get another snowstorm.  But since the temps have been in the 60s, 70s and even 80, I choose to believe that spring is here!  So this was Mike's first (and last) day in this hat, and I thought it was cute. 

Mike just had his two-month checkup.  He's 90th percentile for head and length and 97th for weight.  Since our other two were quite a bit smaller, we love having a baby with such cute cheeks.

My Little Sugar Addict

Things have been pretty busy around here. I really miss my mom. But, things have been pretty busy. Please forgive the stream-of-conciousness posts. This is the only attempt I am making to keep in touch with my scattered family and friends, and to record some of the events and personalities of my kids. I have a friend who writes in her journal and in each of her kids' journals every day. Amazing. She only gets 4-5 hours of sleep at night. I applaud her. I need a solid 8 hours (I've been getting 6-8).

Sam

Sam is a Sugar Addict. All my kids are. (I think most kids are, actually.) The other day I was reading scriptures and it was talking about how the Lord wanted the children of Israel to keep his commandments and he would give them anything and everything. I told Sam this, and he said, "Oh! Maybe he could give us some sugar."

A few weeks ago, it snowed. It was such a huge snow storm, but the perfect packing snow. Sam went out to play while I snowblowed. I got out the snowblower and got it going and then headed down the driveway toward a big chunk in the middle of the driveway. Sam got a horrified look on his face and said, "Mom! My snowman!" I picked up his chunk and put it on the porch. Later, Sam and his grandpa built another snowman.

Other Samisms (that I want to remember) --

After singing Home on the Range I mentioned that cowboys ride horses. Sam rolled his eyes and said, "Cowboys don't ride horses." Me: "What do they ride?" Sam: "Cows of course." Oh, to be four where life is so simple and cowboys ride cows.

Last night the boys were playing on a climbing thing in our backyard. Sam ran in. "Mom! Eric was climbing up and I was trying to help him, but he wasn't so talented and he fell." I thought the "wasn't so talented" was a funny way to put things.

Eric

Eric's language skills are really improving. He copies everything we say and repeats words of things he wants over and over (and over). This week, he said his first prayer on the food (which he does with a really high pitched mouse voice). And I've noticed him saying "thank you" a lot and even "please" when he really wants something (like gum).



Eric also LOVES a bath. He gets in the bath and jumps around, lays down, goes under, drinks bathwater, etc.

Mikey

Mikey also loves a bath. He will stay up and stop crying no matter how tired he is for a bath. I can't believe he is six weeks old. It seems like a blur. He is smiling at us now. Oh, what a sweet reward everytime we see one. And he has become very efficient at eating, especially at night. He wakes up once or twice, gulps down some food in 10 minutes or so, and goes right back to sleep. Needless to say, I am very glad about this.

And finally ... All the boys on a Saturday morning ...

Annual update

Sam is a funny kid—so creative. One day this week, he told me that he was going to have to stay up really late that night so that he could brush his teeth for a really long time. Here’s our conversation (me in italics):

Oh?

Yes. Because in order to go into airports you have to have really minty breath.

Is that right?

Yep. My puppies told me that. You have to have really fresh (comes out sounding more like “frosh”) breath. One of them was going on a trip to China and he stopped at pretend McDonalds Burger King for a hamburger. So his breath was very hamburgery. And when he tried to get in, they said, “Your breath is hamburgery. You can’t come in here.”

And Sam proceeded to tell me all about airports, trips, puppies, and hamburger breath. The thing I really love about this age is that all of this stuff is real to him. It reminds me of the Siamese cat (Skippyjon Jones) who thinks he is a Chihuahua. If you haven’t read those books, it’s worth the 10 minutes the next time you are at a library or a bookstore. The prose is melodic and the stories will put a smile on your face.

Sam and Eric really love their brother. If he's crying and I can't get to him immediately, I often find both of them trying to console him. Eric likes to give him things ... his beloved hippo, other stuffed animals, and once even half of a banana.

Eric has had a rough week. For the past two weeks, he has been crabby, clingy, and miserable. It coincided with my waking up from the postpartum stupor, so I just attributed it to not spending enough time with him over the past month and a half. But he’s also had a bad cold, and it wasn’t until I caught it and realized how bad I felt that I realized that something else might be going on. Since it had been at least 10 days, I took him to the doctor, who thought he might have a sinus infection. Some motrin and antibiotics and the next day, he was like a new child … back to his adorable self.

Eric’s hippo also had a tough day this week. One morning, Sam yelled, “Mom—Eric took off his diaper.” Eric only takes off his diaper when he has pooped, so I ran into the room where Eric was running around with poop on his bum and his diaper on the other side of the room. I chased him around and he ran around and then sat on his best friend, his hippo. I caught Eric to clean him up and Sam took the hippo to the laundry. We washed him on hot, and put him in the dryer. It was then time for Eric’s nap and he wanted his not-quite-dry hippo, so I pulled it out of the dryer. My mom and I were finishing something up, and then I picked up Eric and his hippo. The hippo was pretty wet on the bottom and I thought it was odd that it would have dried so unevenly. My mom investigated and, sure enough, there was a tell-tale line of drips from the toilet to where Eric was playing.
Eric also love to wear glasses and we finally found a pair that he can’t break 

















Mikey is a very sweet baby. At four weeks old, he pretty much likes to eat, sleep, take a bath, get his diaper changed, look at the picture of the beautiful women in our living room, and be held. Unless he’s swaddled, sucking on his pacifier, and trying to put himself to sleep, he wants to be held constantly. And he’s been really lucky to have his grandma here to hold him, tickle his feet, and give him baths (in between doing all the laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, and generally saving my life). We’ll miss you, mom!