something to be thankful for

Stan went to bed at around 10:00 last night, so when scott and I went to bed at 12:30 i thought i had about another hour until the first feeding. well, after i woke up and fed him and went back to bed and as i was getting in bed I looked at the clock, i saw that it was ..... six thirty! So i got all cozy and went back to sleep. i woke up the second time all on my own ahd the room was warm and bright. I started listening, and in after a while i heard stan playing in his crib. what time was it? nine fifteen. It was the best night we ever had.

Yell Tide Glee

It would seem to the untrained I (pause for laughter), that Stanley is learning how to yell to people across the room. To do so, he locks in his gaze on someone at least four feet away, and then he holds his arms wide open, like the guy from Creed. He then takes his arms and sort of waves them inward, and a little "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!" comes out of his mouth. It's sort of as if he's using his arms as a bellows for his lungs. He also leans forward at that moment, perhaps to get his diaphram involved. I'm learning a lot by watching him do this.

The counterpoint to my assertions about his yelling is that he may simply be learning how to yell, and not really aiming it at anyone specifically. That's possible, I admit. And that's okay, because he's learning to yell--something we will undoubtedly tell him not to do by the time he can understand what we're saying.

"Stanley, it's not time to use our yelling voice."

OR

"Stanley, there are times to use your arms as a bellows, and there are times to just let your lungs to all their own work."

We'll see which is more effective, when that time comes.

Bath Story

Stan with Dad on the way to the bath

Bath o' Rama begins.

Even a noble soul must take a bath now and then.

This isn't so bad.

Wait a second...

Bath o' Rama reaches the Drying Stage.

Stan resumes pre-bath activity.

"I will now sit and place a variety of toys in my mouth. You may observe, if you wish." 

The Sleeping Sitter

I think the experiment with Stanley is a success. We have given ourselves permission to ignore a greater amount of him crying, which in turn allows us to sleep better. Stanley stops crying before that threshold is reached, and falls back asleep. Thus, we are sleeping more! It's exciting because we are sleeping more!

Stanley is really sitting now. Today I set him on the carpet and had him sit for a while. He fell to the side and bonked his head on the little mirror he was enjoying. He seemed pretty upset about that.

So I built a "safe place" by positioning four pillows around him, so no matter in which direction he fell, he would fall onto something soft. He only fell once after that, and actually cried while sitting up because he was tired of it.

So we're happy about his progress, though we have it from reliable sources that Robyn is already reading at a fourth-grade level! Dang it!

look at me! 

stan has sitting skills! 

stan in his favorite chair 

not much to report

well, I can't really say how things went last night with our plan to let stan cry himself back to sleep because I slept through the whole thing. I was just so tired from him getting up every 45 minutes for 3 nights in a row, and I think my subconcious knew that I didn't need to listen for him, so i didnt' even wake up between 1:30 and 5:45. I don't know how long he cried, or how hard. But I do know that i had my first four hour and fifteen minute stretch of sleep since stan stopped wanting to sleep without me two weeks ago. Once a night, i can do. Twice a night is even ok, but it really was getting rediculous and worse by the day, er, night. Hopefully it was a success and he will experience a long and happy future of sound, uninterrupted sleep... and so will I.

All You Care To Fuss Buffet

Stanley is going to be angry with us in a few hours. We have decided that he needs to sleep through the night better than he does, and that we've been too quick to get him when he starts fussing. We hit a crossroads of sorts this morning, when Stanley started fussing just a half hour after Julie had fed him. After we picked him up, he just sort of snacked for a minute and then cooed and played. He has us under his thumb.

So here's our plan: we're going to let him fuss for a half hour or so, then pick him up if he's still crying. We hope that we will be able to restore him to his former self, which used to sleep from eleven-thirty until six-thirty. Those were the days! We'll see how it goes. Stanley Banley is a wily one, and he may win this battle of wills (or lungs, depending on the side you're on).

the fairest one

Stan's new favorite activity is to hold a mirror above his face and smile into it. It's really cute. I'll try to get a picture of it and post it.

I don't need Stan to pull my hair out...

I'll pull it out myself! He has been crying and crying for like three days. It all started tuesday when we were on the Tuesday-Thursday Walk With Friend and Baby. We were an hour away from home, and he started crying. He cried and cried, and the only thing that would make him stop was me carrying him, so i carried him for an hour, passing him from arm to arm and steering the stroller with the other hand. From time to time i tried to set him down in the stroller to rest my arm, and the instant i set him down he started crying every time. And he hasn't stopped since then. Not only that, but last night and the night before he's woken up at least four or five times. Alan and Shannon came over tonight and thought it was teething so they recommended tylenol. Hopefully that will help.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Stanley has chosen to not acknowledge the Daylight Savings change, and just fall asleep at 8:30 as if it were 9:30. There is great benefit in this. Julie fed him after he fell asleep and I was able to write. Now we are sitting in the long room, and he is long since gone to sleep. We might have a normal existence after 8:30, which is much, much better than the 11:30 bedtime we were routinely getting from him. I'm glad, Julie is glad, and Stanley doesn't know the difference!