Growing Up Nehmer: 2010

Forgive me friends for I have slacked. It has been 3 months since my last update!
I guess I have just been too busy, too tired, and a bit too lazy! I have been enjoying watching the relationship between Ben and Emma flourish these past few months. Ben has become my right hand man!
So much going on since August 2nd of my last update. Where do I begin? Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When we read we begin with A B C, when we sing we begin with Do Re Mi (do re mi) the first three notes just happen to be... Do Re Mi... Sorry, I just had to do it....
Let's start with Emma. As of my last update, it was the first night I had put her in her crib for the night. I laid her down that night while I put Ben to bed and she fell asleep. She didn't wake up for about 5 hours. This was 8 days shy of her turning 3 months old. I was initially going to start putting her in her crib at 3 months but as of that night I figured, why wait? So for about 10 days, she would go down around 9:30 and not wake up until about 4am. Then I would feed her and lay her right back down and she would sleep for about another 3-4 hours. 9 days later, she started to sleep through the night and has ever since. Now she goes down around 8 or 8:30 and doesn't wake up until about 7am! Not too shabby to have a 3 month old sleeping about 11 hours straight every night. She also sleeps most of the first half of the day alternating between long and short naps and feedings with a little play time with big brother! My kids are such good sleepers!
I am still adjusting to sleeping in a bed rather than the couch. I will say that my body feels so much better after this 2nd c-section than after the first. It's almost as if the 2nd one reversed all of the problems I had after the first one. I had numb butt for almost 2 1/2 years and now it's gone! It really proves what a terrible spinal I got with Ben!
Well, now at almost 6 months old, Emma loves to smile, giggle, watch her brother, talk to daddy, put EVERYTHING in her mouth, screech and squeal when not getting attention (thata girl!), sit up assisted and play, roll to her side, and suck her thumb! Yep, I said it, she is an Emma suck-a-thumb, taking after her momma, a former Jeni suck-a-thumb. Daddy was a thumb sucker too! So, after Ben being a Nuk kid, it's kind of a relief to not have to wash and stick that Nuk in her mouth every 30 seconds but I wonder how long she will suck her thumb for. It took me at least 5 years and a lot of threats from my mother to quit. I don't know how many times I was told that my mom was going to put this terrible tasting mediciny stuff on my thumb to make me quit! It's so nice to have a self-pacifying child. That means no pictures with a goofy Nuk in the mouth for this child. I couldn't stand that with Ben, every picture his Nuk covered up his beautiful smile! Emma is still growing fast and is still off the charts in height and weight. She is now wearing mostly 9 month clothes and some 12 month. I am constantly going through her closet and trying things on her one last time before packing it up for being too small. So sad to see such beautiful clothes only being worn once!
It's funny to see the differences between Ben and Emma during babyhood. Emma will put anything possible in her mouth whereas Ben never put anything really in his mouth but his Nuk. We never had to worry about the small things laying around because he never attempted to mouth them. Emma is very verbal and Ben was always pretty laid back. She screeches so loud and piercing that the dog has to run out of the room and Ben ends up looking at me with his head cocked and one eyebrow raised. I swear that either my eardrum or my eyeballs are going to pop at any second! Also, I used to have to nurse Ben for like an hour at a time because he would constantly fall asleep after a few minutes of nursing and Emma doesn't fall asleep until she is totally done (I love that, it's so much quicker!). Ben took to eating cereal like an old pro and Emma is taking her sweet time figuring it out. I always thought that we were going to be too spoiled by how easy Ben was and I was right. Emma is much more high maintainance but she is still a fairly easy baby. She is very independent but loves alot of attention (hmm, sound familiar?). Another difference is that Ben always has and still loves to be face to face with mommy. He is still very touchy with me in that way. Emma on the other hand kind of pulls away if I touch her face with my face too much...like I said, independent!
Emma is now discovering her fingers and their movement. I love to watch her wave at herself with her little chubby fingers in front of her face as she contently follows the movement with her eyes and her mouth is open with intensity. She loves when mommy sniffs her feet and tummy and when I tickle her armpits and sides. Sometimes she just starts cracking up when I am changing her and not even touching her! She just has such a good sense of humor! She is a good eater, sometimes too good, and I can breastfeed her anywhere to keep her content. The other day, I breastfed her standing up and holding her in the International House of Pancakes bathroom stall. I have become a pro at feeding on the go! We also started giving her cereal a couple weeks ago. She loves to eat! I can't give it to her fast enough and I am anticipating giving her veggies and fruits when she turns 6 months. She watches us so intently when we eat as she licks her lips and gawks with her mouth open!
She just started rolling over on to her stomach about 2 weeks ago. Both my kids have been late rollers, crawlers, and walkers and I am fine with her being a little less mobile for a little longer! The difference this time is that she has a big brother that she wants to try to keep up with!
Emma's happiest moments are when her brother is around. Did you ever hear the saying that you choose your parents and your brothers and sisters before you are born? I believe it. Emma's face lights up the second she lays her eyes on Ben. She giggles at him for no reason and she will not take her eyes off of him. It's as if Brad Pitt just walked into the room! The other day we were all going upstairs and Ben walked up in front of us and she watched him and giggled the entire way. All he was doing was walking up the stairs! If he comes any where near her, she reaches out her arms and hands and wants so badly to touch him. She wraps her fingers around his face and head or grabs his clothes if that's the closest thing to her, whatever she can do to be in contact with him. He always giggles because it tickles, which makes her giggle and touch him more. It's quite the giggle fest! They are either going to be the best of friends or teasing siblings (picture the older brother who points his finger one inch from her body as she says, "Mooommmm, Ben's touching me," and he says honestly, "I'm not touching her!" because technically he's not...just teasing!
Benjamin has gone through quite a few changes in the past few months. He started with his baby sister being extremely jealous. He is now only moderately jealous with a bit of interest and intrigue. He is still very concerned when, "baby sister cry" as he puts it. I just ask him to go talk to her and he slowly kneels down in front of her within inches of her face and says, "baby sister" and starts talking softly to her, showing her things and trying to get her attention. He can be so sweet with her...when she is no threat with mommy and daddy. He does like to give her big hugs now and he likes it when "she" chases him around to tickle him.
Ben has really become mommy's little angel again...for the most part. His language has really taken off, he loves to talk. Sometimes I have to ask him to STOP! He repeats almost everything we say to him over and over until we say, "Yes, Benjamin," and he replies with, "Yes, Momma." He has become very polite, in his own way. He will pretend to burp and say, "Scuse me." Or if he walks past you he will say, "Scuse me momma." And if you give him something, he covers both sides of the manners by saying, "Thank you welcome Momma." Although his speech definitely needs a little tune up, his language has become much more recognizable by others. I pretty much always know what he's saying because I am with him all day. Some of his sayings crack me up though and I much prefer his version to the real version. He loves to hold a candle up in front of him and sing Happy Birthday, or as his version goes, "Happy Tursday to you...". Ben can already count to 13 and then he goes right to 17 and he is very good with color relations and matching. He knows names of colors and recognizes that a red apple is the same as a red shirt but sometimes forgets that that color is called red. He can group things of the same color together and actually prefers things that look the same to be together. We recently purchased a Wiggles Memory Matching Card game and he sits and studies the pictures over and over. He can put the two matching pictures together but doesn't get the memory game part of it yet. If you are familiar with The Wiggles at all, you know that there are four main guys and each of them wears a different colored shirt. Since Ben is such a Wiggles extremist right now, he associates everything with the Wiggles and their shirt colors. If he sees anything red, he says, "that's Murray" because Murray wears the red shirt. Or if he sees something purple, he says, "that's Jeff" because Jeff wears the purple shirt. He does that for EVERYTHING! Everything in our house is named after a character based off of it's color! He also likes to line things up in a row like lining the cards up (all facing the same direction) across the living room. He will line puzzle pieces all in a row along with other toys too and everything has to be in a straight line. He is still so OCD!! He is very good at puzzles too and is fairly patient to keep trying until he gets it right.
Benjamin did real Trick or Treating for the first time this year and he was a pro at it! Although he refused to wear his costume, he was so enchanted by all of the costume wearing kids around him. His favorite was a boy dressed up as a grandfather clock! We passed him a couple times around the neighborhood and he had to stop and watch him until he was out of site and then he looked for him the rest of the day. What is it with little kids and clocks?? After the very first house that cousin's Charlie and Alaina went up to and he just kept walking, I had to show him the ropes by taking his hand, following his cousins up to the door, telling him to say Trick or Treat (which sounded more like "tricker drink!) and to say Thank You to everyone. I thought for sure he would yell no and run away but he went house after house running up to the door. I would tell him to say Trick or Treat and then say Thank You and he continued to say it each time. I was amazed that he didn't give up after awhile. He just kept going with his nose running and licking the snot off his face, his hands and cheeks were cold and he kept going! Now I have a nice little mommy stash of candy!
We have been trying to keep the busy boy occupied. We have filled our last few months with trips to Monkey Joe's so he can bounce and go down slides with daddy, a trip to Grandma and Grandpa Nehmer's up north (he still talks about that trip daily!), an afternoon at Great America, and lots of trips to Grandma Karin's to run around and play with the dogs. We have had a couple visits with our friend Payton Mansukhani (Kathie Kopitzke's son) who has become Ben's best friend in only 2 short play dates. Payton lives in California but that hasn't stopped Ben from talking about him constantly! I had to print some pictures of him playing with Payton just to satisfy his longing to be with him. It just seems surreal that Kathie and I have known eachother since we were newborns and now our little boys are playing together! What a special blessing.
So we took a chance and brought Ben to Great America back in August to see how he would handle it. We were disappointed that some of the major attractions that I thought he would love were closed like the old fashioned cars and the train that rides around the park. We were lucky that they had The Wiggles play area. He lasted a good 4 hours at Great America and we were lucky that Emma slept about 3 1/2 hours of it! That made it so much more enjoyable. We can't wait to try it again next year!
Well, we are excited about the upcoming months. By Christmas, Emma will be 7 1/2 months and Ben will be turning 3 shortly after the new year. Ben is at the perfect age where he now understands presents and the excitement that comes with it. I am excited to celebrate the holidays with my two wonderful children, even as hectic as it is with both of them wanting constant attention! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and are ready for some cold weather ahead. I hope Ben will let us put his snowsuit on this year so he can get outside and play!
Thanks for checking in and putting up with my long updates! I had a lot to catch up on!
Happy Fall!!

Enjoying the last days of summer.

Fun with cousin Charlie!

3 Months old in August!