The boys are back in town

My cousin Robin came down last night for a quick trip to pick up her boys, Luke and Seth, from Wisconsin.

I love Robin. We always laugh when we're together, stay up too late and she usually brings up at least one childhood memory that I'd forgotten ages ago.

Robin has an incredibly calming quality that we needed today when we had Will, Luke, Seth and a wailing Charlie in the van. She did offer a new technique for calming Charlie down: She had Seth say a little prayer for baby Charlie ... less that 5 seconds later, he stopped crying. Who knew?

The boys had been in Wisconsin all week so we didn't have a ton of time together but Luke, Seth and Will had a pretty fun game of hide-and-seek at our house (despite Will having a nap-deprived meltdown).

Still, I can think of at least 10 places I'd like to go next time they're in town, which I hope is very, very soon.

And I'm not just saying that because Robin watched my boys so I could take a shower AND fix my hair (but that was a sweet bonus!)

Moral fiber

One day a few months back, Will saw me eating a Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 

These are the bars that my mother-in-law introduced me to along with this advice, "Make sure you drink a BIG glass of water with that." Despite their candy bar-like taste, they contain 35% of your daily fiber. 

Anyway, Will, who inherited my love of sweets, spied me eating what looked like a treat and quickly asked for a bite. 

I gave him a little piece and then explained -- in his terms -- that the fiber could wreak havoc on his digestive system so he couldn't eat any more than that. 

Will recently spotted Scott eating a Little Debbie Nutty Bar and asked what he was eating. 

When Scott went to give him a taste, Will cracked us up when he said, "No thanks. I really don't want to get the poops." 

If only we knew Photoshop better

Here are two shots of Clary with Will and Charlie. In the first, Charlie's expression is priceless, while Will looks like we just asked him to brush his teeth. In the second, Charlie appears to be passing gas and Will is expecting Skittles.

If only we knew Photoshop and could combine the boys' "good" faces ...

Charlie and Grandma Mumu

The view from Grandma Clary's couch

That's how you do it

For a long time, Will was reluctant to speak on the phone, uttering "fine" and "good" or "I don't want to talk" when prompted. He's been getting better in the past few months, though, and really good in the last couple weeks.

The other day my mom called and Will asked to speak with her - unprecedented. He had a nice talk with her, while holding the mouthpiece flush against his cheek.

After handing the phone back to Jana, he says "Mommy, you have to talk into this end so you sound louder" while pointing at said mouthpiece.

Next week's lesson: practice what you preach.

Happy boy

If you've asked lately how Charlie is doing, we've been likely to tell you that he's eating and gaining weight well, getting closer to rolling over, and smiling and talking a lot more. Here's a video of it. It might not seem like much, but when you're with Charlie every day this constitutes a monumental development from where he was several weeks ago. It's exciting to Jana and me, as you can probably guess by the tone of her voice.

Sleepyhead

Last night Charlie slept seven hours straight, from roughly 9:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. He was then up for an hour-plus while eating, and slept two more hours until about 8 a.m. This continued a trend that had started earlier last week.

Very nice! Charlie sleeps well on his tummy; in his car seat; in a swing; and while being held.

Unfortunately, we need him to sleep on his back at day care -- it's a liability issue that has to do with preventing SIDS. We went through the same thing with Will, and frankly, it was really stressful for Jana and me.

We will spend the next two weeks working to get Charlie more comfortable sleeping on his back. He did it for a half-hour stretch yesterday afternoon, and hopefully we can figure out a pattern and a swaddling technique that works.

If you have any suggestions for how to help Charlie learn to sleep on his back, by all means, post them here. We want to do the right thing and help our son sleep as safely as possible!

Domo arigoto, Mr. Will Tappa

Earlier this week Will and I were in the basement and Will was playing with a robot. I called him Mr. Roboto, after the classic Styx song, and started humming the lyrics. Will seemed interested, and began repeating after me. Realizing I really didn't know the whole song or, really, any of the lyrics, I sought them out on YouTube and found the lyrics.



Jana thought she should impart some of her favorite music in the form of Particle Man from They Might Be Giants, which Will really enjoyed.



Afterward Will said "Mommy, I love your music because all your songs are great."

To which I said "Did you like my songs Will?"

"They were ... okay."

Ouch for me and ouch for Styx! It wasn't a stretch to think Will might like They Might Be Giants; they produced the theme songs for kids shows like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Higglytown Heroes.

We'll see what he wakes up singing tomorrow.

How much is that baby in the window?

Charlie was in fine form this afternoon. His curls were piled high on top of his head and he was smiling big enough to make that dimple on his right cheek pop out. He kept uttering those baby classics "goo" "coo" and "aahhh."

That's probably what prompted an older man at the grocery store to say, "I'll give you $100,000 dollars for that baby. What a fine specimen!"

I was a little taken aback, and just said, "No thanks." He then offered me the same amount to just rent the baby. Well, that was just weird so I gave a worried half-chuckle and got the heck out of there.

Anyway, I told Will and Scott today, "Some guy offered us $100,000 for our baby today."

Much to our surprise, instead of asking how many water balloons that might buy, Will said, "Wow. That would be enough to cover our house."

Ah, his father's son.