Luci and Nicholas at 11 Months
7 Comments posted by Kristi on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 12:00 AM
Loud and Louder have changed quite a bit since last month. Nicholas is commando-crawling just like his big sister did when she began moving around. It's no longer safe for me to plant him in the center of the living room floor, leave the room for a few seconds, and trust that he'll still be sitting where I left him upon my return. He is moving quickly, and has rolled himself into the fireplace twice, which means we really should re-erect Shawshank, and yet we're only going to be in our house for a few more weeks, so it really isn't worth it. We did, however, erect a portion of the fence in front of the fireplace because CPS generally looks down on soot-covered babies.
Luci isn't as interested in crawling. She's still inching and rolling herself along, which frankly, is fine with me, because I'm having a hard enough time keeping track of one semi-mobile baby. When both are fully crawling, I'm going to need to look into cloning myself.
This was also the month where some cute baby milestones happened. Luci began clapping about three weeks ago, and often gives me a giant smile and a sitting ovation when I walk into a room. And just within the last week, my most well-behaved child moved even higher up on the mama-love scale by saying, "Mama." Now if she would only learn to sleep through the night. More on this later.
She continues to find new ways to torment her brother. She delights in pulling Nicholas' hair, stealing his toys, and hitting him with any toy within her reach. When they are in their side-by-side stroller, she quite literally leans forward, and stretches over to his seat to yank on his hair and swipe his binky. She is hard-core, and when I'm not trying to protect Nicholas from her attacks, I'm laughing at my tiny future pro-wrestler.
Nicholas began "talking" this past month, and when he isn't wailing, now says, "Dada" and what sounds like "Papa." He is just starting to go from laying down to a seated position on his own. Both babies now wave bye-bye as well.
The sleeping issues are still a nightmare. Luci will go a few days to a week sleeping through the night (as Nicholas has for months now), and then she'll have several days in a row where she's up and wailing. Sometimes I relent and nurse her, simply because I know it will get her back to sleep, and I am exhausted, but I really want to avoid this, because it's more than likely creating a bad habit.
But naps are even worse, and I am in need of any and all advice you might have to share. Here is their schedule: They are generally up between 6:30am and 7am every morning. I put them down for their morning nap around 9am, and they generally take a decent morning nap of between 1.5 and 2 hours. The afternoon nap is a complete joke, however. Depending on when they get up from their morning nap, I put them down between 1 and 1:30pm. This nap is sometimes less than an hour long, and probably averages just over an hour. Isabella has "quiet time" during this time, and I desperately need this time to work, but as soon as I start working, someone is up. They are terribly cranky and out-of-sorts in the afternoon as a result of not napping well, and I must work very hard to not run away from home during this time.
What am I doing wrong? Isabella, never a good sleeper herself, had an opposite napping schedule. Her morning one was very short (an hour or less), and her afternoon one was 1.5 to 2 hours.
Plans are underway for the big first birthday bash. The theme is the same as their Halloween costumes this year (which I am making-what is WRONG with me?), and I'm keeping it under wraps for now, but I'll just say that with these two being who they are, there is no more perfect theme than what we're using.
I figure it's time to introduce Likes and Dislikes for the twins, so...
Luci
Likes: Throwing toys, physically attacking her brother
Dislikes: Bananas
Nicholas
Likes: Books, Biting, Boob
Dislikes: Sharing his mama
Teeth Count: Luci 0, Nicholas 1
Word Count: Luci - "Dada," "Mama", Nicholas - "Dada"
Diaper Size: Huggies Size 3
Clothing Size: Some 6 months, but mainly 6-9 months
Loud and Louder? Oh my heck, I neary spewed peanut butter toast all over my screen when I read that. SO funny.
I love your kid updates - I CANNOT believe that they are 11 months already? I mean really??
Come to think of it, my 'baby' will be F*CKING TWO in April. I had to put his name down this week, at the playschool where his older brother is currently. He is scheduled to start next September.
Egads. I'd better go and pick out old age homes for me and the hubbs soon. Yikes, I haven't even picked a country to LIVE in yet, and I've got one foot in the grave already, if I keep aging at the rate that my kids are growing.
Dang. I've just gone and downright depressed myself. THANKS Kristi.
;)
I love these updates too. I can't believe they're almost one.
You won't like my nap advice, but I really think it might work. A lot of kids give up two naps around one. I would wake them in the morning after an hour. I think it might help them take a longer, deeper, afternoon nap.
Sorry the sleep situation is such a nightmare. So, so hard.
Got nothing on the naps. But dear they're cute. Sending good thoughts your way. YOU made it through 11 months! You're doing great!
I really can't believe they are nearly one!
RE: naps - I might try keeping them up for a little bit longer in the morning (what time will you have to take Isabella to preschool anyway?). And, like Mom24 suggested, wake them after an hour. By the time Isabella gets home from preschool, they can all have lunch together, and the twins could take an afternoon nap while Isabella has her quiet time.
They look so sweet and happy in all of those pictures! I wish I had nap advice. Little Elvis is beyond exhausted today, but I'm just listening to him fuss and bounce on the monitor. No rest for the weary here - and right now it's just one!!
Good luck with the birthday party and the move!
Wow -- going on 1!? Can't believe it. They just get more gorgeous all the time.
I remember the a.m. nap going away on its own & then having one good afternoon nap. I'd go with the advice the others have offered -- what's the ped say?
Oh aren't they just the CUTEST?!?! Love the pictures, likes and dislikes.
The nap situation is a tough call. My son always naps more in the morning. Even now that he's down to one nap, he's ready to take it at 11 am (after only being up a few hours). My savior in the sleep department was the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth. SAVED. MY. LIFE. Maybe you can find a cheap used edition on Amazon.com, and read it in all your spare time. :)