Friday, June 17, 2011

I have a walker!




You heard me right! Or, read me right?

These boys have taken so much longer than their brother did to walk. Hank is still not walking. When they were ten months old, they were able to hold on to our hands and walk with no problem. When that happened, I thought it would be a matter of a few short weeks before they were walking.

By their first birthday, they were walking by holding on to only one hand. They were champs, pros even! I expected them to take off any second.

Then they turned 13 months, and nothing changed. Fourteen months. Fifteen months. Still waiting.

I started to worry something might be wrong with them. We went to a party last weekend, and our friend's 1-year-old son was already walking, and my babies, who were obviously older, were not. It was kind of disheartening. What if they just decided it was easier NEVER to walk?

Then, yesterday, we were all hanging out in the living room (minus Mitchell because he's at his dad's) when Harry stood up in the middle of the room. He's been doing this a while, but he usually just stands up and sits down over and over again. This time, he just stood there a while and then kind of lurched forward a little bit and fell. Then he got right back up. I encouraged him to walk toward me. He looked at me, but I was kind of far away. So then I encouraged him to walk toward his dad.

He took two steps and threw himself at the couch.

I was so proud. I've never been so excited about two little steps.

From there, he just kept going. Today, he was going back and forth in the living room. Right now, he's getting a lot out of it. We all clap and tell him how amazing he is when he's walking. He's not yet using it as his primary means of getting around, but he does it a lot for the claps and hugs and excitement.

Hank is taking it all in. I was hoping if Hank saw Harry do it, Hank would just take off and walk. But it hasn't happened like that. I suppose he'll start when he's ready. In the meantime, I'm just comforted knowing that there's really nothing wrong with them. They just prefer efficiency.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Nap time.

The boys are going through sleep transitions. This means I'm going through sleep transitions, which is frustrating.

In short, Harry needs more sleep than Hank. He takes more after me, so that makes sense. I need lots of sleep. For an adult, I sleep far more than is normal. I'd sleep 16 hours a day, every day, if I were able. I can't function on less than 7 hours a night, and that's pushing it. I need 9 to be in a good mood.

My handy dandy sleep book says they should be sleeping 14 hours a day right now. Twelve hours at night and then one two-hour nap during the day. My book says this should have started at about 12 months.

At 12 months, they were taking two two-hour naps a day and sleeping 12 to 14 hours at night. We were putting them to bed at 6 p.m., and they were sleeping until 7:30 a.m. when we'd let them. That worked fine for me.

At 14 months, it stopped working for them. It was obviously time to go down to one nap a day because they were waking up at 5:30 a.m. We're morning people, but that was too early for us. We needed them to sleep until at least 6 a.m. So I consulted the sleep book and decided we'd go to one nap a day and put them to bed at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.

It was rough. We've just now readjusted, and I'm so frustrated with the fact that Harry seems to need more sleep. Hank wakes up first, but Harry gets sleepy first. Right now, Harry needs sleep so bad, even though Hank could make it the rest of the day without any. They had shots today, and I had to wake them up from their nap to take them to the doctor, so I figured when they got back, they'd need more sleep, but Hank is fighting it and keeping Harry awake.

I'm starting to wonder at what age I should give up keeping them on the exact same schedule. They're becoming such little individuals. On the other hand, I don't want to make it any harder for myself. Sleep is important in my house. I don't want to screw it up.

Hank needs more play.

Harry needs more sleep.

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