Awkward Sleeping...Again

Buddy's quiet times are a work in progress. He loves them.  I love to hear him play out his stories and jump around. The problem is, he puts himself to asleep about the time Alice is due to come out of her quiet time. Sometimes I let him sleep, sometimes I wake him up and just go on with the day. This time, I let him sleep:

He's sprawled out on top of an overturned Lego table. He clearly has his blankie with him, so it was a planned rest. His face and arms were bumpy with carpet and blankie imprints for about 45 minutes after he woke up.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been rather busy.  We have had Susan's parents and one of her sisters in town.  We did a number of staycation things.

We rented Paddle Boats at the park.

We also went to the Children's Museum in Indi.

It's a...

...BOY! Now, my maternal "instincts" have been wrong 3 out of 3 times regarding the gender of my unborn children. You would think I had learned my lesson by now :) And unlike the shock of Buddy's gender revelation, I'm actually ready to take in this little guy right away. I love my Buddy. He has personally demonstrated to me that boys from my loins can be sweet and fun and hilarious and loving. All the sweet boys belonging to my awesome friends and family just wasn't a convincing argument on its own, crazy enough :) I'm not afraid of the boy stereotype anymore. I'm also excited to see Buddy interact with this new little fellow as a brother. I love that Robert will have a brother and a sister to bounce off of as he grows up. Alice, well, she and I are now in the gender minority. I kinda like that. She's girly enough to balance a whole legion of boys :)

What did we see of this little man? He was generally calm. My first impression of the fellow was seeing his hand resting up above his head. Dad said, "Oh, that's just like me, it's definitely a boy." Then his mouth was wide open for a while. The tech took the measurements she needed in a relatively short time. All, that is, except for a profile of his face and the all-important gender shot. The bitty babe was turned toward the tech and kept his secrets to himself until the very end.

He and this pregnancy are both developing smack-dab in the middle of "normal" range. The midwife, Vanessa, even termed it a little bit boring. I kinda like it boring at this stage in the game.

The best part, though, was that my parents and sister were present with me and Bobby at the ultrasound appointment. I was a bit worried that the hospital wouldn't let 5 adults attend the session, but the room was plenty large and our technician was chatty and fun.

We came back from the appointment and Alice shrieked, "Is it a GIRL?!" She was a bit disappointed at first (yes, there were tears), but appears to be recovering well enough. She can't think of one boy name.

And now that the kid's gender is known, it's all the more real to me. I'm itching to start preparing his room. Get Buddy potty trained. Settle on a bigger car. Pull out the baby clothes. Find a name...erk.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Yesterday was a very busy day.  Susan and I are not really social at all.  But Alice is very very social.  She threw her first party yesterday, just to have a party.  It was the opening of her museum.  It had exhibits like a children's museum.  She had dinosaur models to play with, chickens to look at, peas from our garden to pick, and several other things.  The party included dinner and she picked out the menu.  fruit salad, grilled hot dogs, grilled chicken, a star cake, pink lemonade, and two bags of barbecue potato chips.  She also invited about 30 people.  It was a wild and crazy time, but Alice was totally in her element.  I don't know if I have ever seen her so happy before.

Here are some pictures she and her friends took.

Sense of Humor

I've been trying to figure out why Buddy feels so different from Alice at this age. They say you shouldn't compare your kids to each other. I try not to. The reality is, however, that I never knew a 2-year-old could have a sense of humor until Buddy came along. This kid cracks me up. He actually makes up "jokes" that are largely rhyming words/sounds in place of sensible words. Or he'll replace words in a song with new words to make silly ideas ("I am a child of cocoa..."). He laughs and laughs about them. That makes us laugh about them, too. Alice has always been such a straight arrow, a literal person, where every word is the absolute truth. We've only just recently begun to joke around with her in simple ways. Buddy, however, plays around with words and meanings. Realities are flexible. It makes him more fun and also a little more difficult to discipline.

Enjoying an "exhibit" at the Spurlock Museum

Speaking of cocoa...

Grinning for Alice while he tickles an unsuspecting Mommy

The most interesting aspect of this personality difference is that it seems to swap when each child has something he/she wants in mind. If Alice wants to do something a certain way or at a certain time, I can usually approve the activity with only slight modifications (i.e. "Let's do that on the kitchen floor instead" or "We'll have more time for that after breakfast"). Alice usually doesn't resist the changes. Buddy, however, is completely consumed with the idea of doing that something a certain way or at a certain time and he is unmovable. A wall. Many, many tears and screaming fits later, I am getting better at asking him very specific questions about his plans and he is coming to accept a few of my modifications (i.e. "What do you mean, 'No, Mommy'? I don't understand. Is there something I can help you with?" or "You can say a prayer after Alice's turn is done" or "Yes, you can scoop your own, but I will hold the container"). It's such an interesting difference. He's able to express himself more clearly every time. Such a relief.

I actually love seeing how this little boy is different from his sister. Just as much as I love seeing how different Alice is from me. It means they have a sense of self. An individual essence. Robert still follows Alice around like a puppy, always asserting, "Buddy bung! Buddy bung!" (translation: 'Buddy come'), but this evening he did something new. Bobby was reading the kids some stories in the living room and I went outside to sweep the patio. Buddy came outside, picked up the second broom, and asked me to close the sliding door behind him, "Close door. Alice stay in. Hee hee hee." Sense of humor, sense of self. Love it.