This post is a couple of weeks old, but I’m going to save everything that’s happened since for another post. We just got busy and I never managed to finish this and post it on time!

We had a lovely New Year’s Day three-day weekend home together, with a babysitter here for a few hours one day so we could get some stuff done.

Sam continued sleeping in the crib for naps and in the evenings before we went to bed:

And playing during the day:

On New Year’s Day, we had a chilly family bike ride to Kenilworth Park! It was Sam’s first time on the bike! His legs didn’t reach the footrests but he didn’t complain.

It was old hat for Ari and Andrew!

Andrew loves running with A. on the bike. A. ties him to the back of the bike. Andrew was running full speed, pulling on the bike, the whole way there and back. I would have loved to photograph them from behind and get a video, but I was too worried about staying upright with Sam!

Later, some screen time. Ari was playing a cool game where you feed fish certain numbers of dots by combining bubbles with different numbers of dots to make the right number.

The next day, wearing new clothes before going out for bagels:

At the bagel shop:

Some shots of our rooms, to show how things look now. We just keep the giant boxes of diapers and wipes in the middle of the room! (#secondbaby?)

Ari enjoys his little CD player station with music CDs and audiobooks. He has blocks, train stuff, and outgrown clothes under the bed.

His stuffed animals have exceeded the capacity of their shelf, so they have a spot in the corner now.

I’m now just tossing the larger plastic dinosaurs in that corner, too, along with some soft and chunky books that don’t fit on his bookshelves.

We keep library books on the little table and books we own in his closet.

Books, puzzles, and toys that aren’t safe for Sam are in the closet.

Baby-safe puzzles, stuffed animals, and electronic and musical toys are on the shelves under the changing table. Both of their clothes are in the dresser.

In our room, we love our functional open shelves and laundry drying rack even though they look super messy! Also, blankets in the crib and hanging on it are not really safe, so don’t do as I do. I was just trying to keep Sam from staring at the bars of the crib instead of sleeping. Also our room feels cold sometimes, and I don’t want him in a swaddle wrap or blanket sleeper or anything that would restrict his movement, because I feel like he’s strong and capable of keeping a blanket off his face, but only if he can move freely.

Our bedside tables and lamps have been scattered around the room, unfortunately. We love our new king-sized mattress on the floor! We also had to find room for the dog bed next to it, since it used to be where the crib is now. Of course, the dog prefers the new mattress, as well. (It’s such a big bed that when A. tells Andrew to get off of it, he just slinks over to the other side of me where he thinks A. can’t see him and I’ll protect him!) I still find myself cramped in the morning with children on both sides and a dog where I would like my feet to be.

When I put Sam down to sleep, I turn on the ocean sounds on the sheep, grab the pacifier, and sit on the foot of the bed and nurse him until I think he’s stopped eating. Then I pull his mouth off of me and put the pacifier in it. The kid really likes to suck while he sleeps! Then I stand up and place him in the crib on his side, patting or holding him or rubbing his back and saying “shhhh” when he rouses from the movement. He usually turns himself onto his stomach and settles back into sleep, and then I leave and shut the door! Sometimes, I leave while he’s awake and let him fuss a little and go to sleep on his own. He’s doing really well at that! I’ll write more in another post about sleep, one of these days.

After our three-day weekend, I had a day at work, then a day home with the boys, then two more days at work, except I had to stay home the last day because Ari was sick.

On a day at home, I gave Sam some rice puffs along with some kind of purée. He played with the puffs but I think they mostly went on the floor. Also, he took both of the spoons I was using to feed him…

A. took this photo of the ADU progress while I was at work:

Then we took these photos when I was home – rebar!

Sam on the floor:

Ari was sick so he actually took a nap:

So did Sam, at the same time! I got to brush my teeth with no interruptions!

Back to the floor:

He was seven months old that day, so we had our photo shoot – so many great pictures!

Somehow I chose this one:

As an addendum, here’s a photo of Ari that A. took when I was at work one day in December. Awwww!

A couple of funny things Ari was doing at that time:

Whenever he was unhappy about something, particularly if we’d denied a request, he’d say, “Look at my face!” and dramatically poke out his chin, purse his lips, and furrow his brow. This probably came from his school, where if one kid hurts another kid, they ask the aggressor to look at the victim’s face to see how they made him or her feel. They also will say, “I can tell from your face that you are feeling…”

The other way that Ari was dealing with disappointment, anger, or frustration at that time was by frowning at us and saying, “Mmmph! I’m going to walk away!” and then dramatically stomping off until he realized we weren’t taking any action to change that situation.

At the end of the week, Ari expressed some sadness and anger about his dinosaur toys having had body parts chewed off by Andrew a long time ago. He said, “I wish I could grow up to be a dog and Andrew would grow up to be a kid and I would chew all his things. Mmmph.”

“I want to grow up to be…” something is a popular phrase with Ari right now. Sometimes he says something that sounds reasonable, such as a librarian, but other times it’s “Raffi,” or an animal, or “a baby.”

At seven months old, Sam was working on moving around and was getting pretty good at moving backwards. This resulted in a lot of frustrated crying when he was reaching for something in front of him!

Okay, that’s it for now and I’ll catch up more later.