Keys

Poor John. In Denmark we would let him play with our keys when we returned from a trip out. All the doors in our little flat had key holes and he could entertain himself for about a half hour pretending to unlock doors.

And then we arrived in America and suddenly key rings included rubbery buttons that were just perfect for chubby little toddler fingers – as John discovered early one morning when he climbed silently out of his Pack ‘n’ Play at 6:00am.

A loud car alarm went off. My Dad got up to investigate a minute or so later and found John standing at the door, keys in hand, brow furrowed with concern.

“HONK,” John said imitating this new noise that was just introducing itself into his Toddler World. “HONK. HONK.”

Now his old fun toy is off limits. Poor John.

Happy Mother's Day

The question is which one will be John and which one will be James?

One for the Children

James is making up for his runt-like birth weight by putting it on at an incredible rate:

Birth: 6 pounds, 10 ounces
1 Week: 8 pounds, 2 ounces for a gain of 1 pound, 8 ounces
3 Weeks: 10 pounds, 5 ounces for a gain of 2 pounds, 3 ounces

Even though he started life weighing over two pounds less than his big brother, he weighs just as much now as John did at three weeks. His little face is all chubbed out complete with double chin and his skinny little newborn legs have filled out. This combined with his propensity for nursing all the time have scored him some new lovable nicknames like: Little Piggy, Wilbur (think Charlotte’s Web), and Chubby Hubby.

James is sleeping well as far as newborns go; he usually goes to bed around 8:00p and wakes up at 11:00p, 2:30a, 5:30a and 8:30a. Sleep deprivation is just a fact of life for me these days but, if we’re lucky like we were with John, he’ll be sleeping through the night in a few weeks.

I really enjoy seeing how different James and John already are. James likes to be swaddled up tight to sleep where John couldn’t stand it; James is such a cuddle bug where John needed his space; and, perhaps because he was smaller at the beginning and greatly dislikes being on his stomach, James has rolled over from tummy-to-back three times. About a year ago I had a friend back home who told me he rolled off his parent’s bed when he was a month old and, being a freshly educated (and arrogant) student of all things related to child development, I basically suggested that he must be wrong and he should call his mother so she could set him straight. Shows what I know.

Meanwhile, since James’ arrival, John has suddenly aged and gotten at least 50 pounds heavier. In the last 3-4 weeks he’s picked up many new words and jabbers conversationally with other people and on his play cell phone. He’s always generally been a friendly child but now he can say “Hi!” so when we’re out walking he’ll wave and say “Hi-ee! Hi-ee!” to everyone he meets. The elderly Danish people he encounters on our numerous daily walks eat this up.

John is my big helper – he knows how to throw away James’ diapers in the diaper pail and is pretty good at bringing me things while I’m nursing James if I need them. Michael bought a small wooden car and truck puzzle for him and he really enjoys working that. He’s also very into his daily walk and will stand near the door shortly after breakfast (or sometimes shortly after he gets out of bed at 6:00a) saying, "Waaa-ak! Waaa-ak! Waaa-ak!" The kid likes his exercise.

Brotherly Love

This may be a bit premature but a number of people have asked how John is adjusting to having a new brother, especially given my trepidation leading up to James’ birth. With a little over two weeks of Big Brotherhood under his belt I’m happy to report that John seems to be adjusting really well and doesn’t seem to be acting out toward Michael or I either. No poop smearing yet.

First thing in the morning, John demands to know where "bebe" is and wants to kiss and hold him. When I put James on his stomach for "tummy time" I'll prop up one of the Black on Whiteor White on Blackbooks in front of him to look at (a simple girl's Baby Einstein). John has started copying me by propping up more of his own books in front of James. And this morning I woke up to John pushing James around in his imaginary race car.

For people that really love us, here is the super-long YouTube video of John and James meeting for the first time.

Not a Raisin

I'm working on a write up of the events surrounding James' birth but life with a newborn has been slowing me down. Until then, a little something fun from dinner tonight:

After he finished his dinner John held James for a few minutes in the infant bouncy chair Michael had set up earlier that day. Michael, Rachel and I were still finishing dinner shortly thereafter when John walked around the table toward me, a puzzled look on his face, holding something out in his chubby little fingers for me to take. He hands me what looked like a gooey raisin, and I stared at it for a minute before I realized I had just been looking at the gooey raisin an hour or so before when I was changing James' diaper.

John had picked up his brothers umbilical stump where it had fallen off unnoticed and tried to eat it. Not finding it to his liking, he pulled it out of his mouth and, like all things he finds distasteful, presented it to me.

Yummy.