Bean and the Boy

Our most recent happenings in the H household have been, well...challenging.  It seems like Bean has suddenly realized the down-side to having a little brother.  Why the change?  Boy is suddenly incredibly mobile and into everything which, more often than not, includes Bean's things.  I don't know that she is necessarily possessive over all that is hers, but more than likely just doesn't like her things being slobbered on.  Which Boy is certainly good at, being a champion teether and all.

So I've suddenly found myself becoming a referee.  I'm not sure this new title is going to end any time soon...

Another "fun" thing is that Boy has suddenly found his voice...meaning his scream.  I've never heard a kid shriek as loud as he does. 

So the scenerio goes like this:  Bean is playing quietly.  I put Boy down long enough to do something, which is also long enough for him to get into whatever it is that Bean is playing.  Bean starts to scream.  She yanks whatever Boy has grabbed out of his hands.  Boy starts to scream.  Referee.  Repeat cycle.  *sigh*

It was incredibly therapeutic to go through my pictures this evening and find some gems.  It reminds me that not everything is screaming and fighting all of the time.  So enjoy the rest of the pictures...

As I said, Boy is getting into everything which definitely has it's advantages.  For instance, he can now get his toys out by himself.

Boy's gag reflex has continued to be a problem.  It is certainly trying my patience to have him so slow to learn to eat real people food.  I did, however, learn that if I give him his more solid baby food on his tray, he finger feeds it to himself and then doesn't gag quite as easily.  The result is this lovely mess, which I'm not sure is any easier to clean up, but at least he is getting nutrition!

Now that Boy isn't as fragile, I have started bathing him and Bean together.  This is possibly the best part of my day.  Boy loves splashing in the bath--so much so that whenever he hears the bath water running he makes a beeline for the bathroom.  Bean loves being able to suds up and rinse Boy.  So, win-win.

Bean also loves giving Billy-cat his baths.  Billy doesn't like his baths nearly as much as Boy does.  I took advantage of the millisecond I had after rinsing Billy before he tried to escape the tub to snap this picture.  Love it.

We decided to pull Boy off of his super-expensive formula and try sensitive formula again, which Boy ended up tolerating really well!  Our success was so good that I decided to try to put him on Soy (which we had unfortunately stocked up on before we realized it would be a problem--I wanted to use it up before it expired.)  Apparently Boy has a Soy allergy because within a few hours he was vomiting everything up and refusing all of his bottles.  Not fun.  He took an awesome nap and we tried the sensitive formula and he did a lot better.  S offered to take us out to dinner that night; I was worried that Boy would throw up when we tried to feed him.  He inhaled saline crackers during dinner and was a perfect angel the whole time!  After dinner we took the kids to see a fountain (we had to explain to Bean why there was so much money in the bottom of it.  Then I had to give her a penny to throw in as well...)  So what started out as a not-so-great-day ended up being really great!

I left our pantry open just long enough for Boy to get inside and pull himself up.  Of course I had to snap a picture.  Immediately after this picture was taken he pulled down a basket of vegetables and scraped up his nose.  Way to go, mom!

We needed to get out of the house one evening so I asked Bean if she wanted to take her dolly Lisa for a walk.  So she got her stroller and I put Boy in his and we went out for an evening stroll.