The Seminaras: Parker 15 Weeks - A Week of Transitions

This was a week of transitions. For Parker this was adding thumb sucking and sleeping on his belly to his bedtime routine. And sleep training paid off - from waking 1-3x a night to sleeping through the night by the end of the week. This was accomplished by coaxing him back to sleep in the middle of the night instead of feeding him. We also woke him at 7am setting his "clock" and put him to bed at 8pm same time as big brother. Since he likes to flip over to his belly we stopped swaddling his lower half letting him sleep in just his pajamas. This was Parker's first week of daycare going part time half days for 3 days of the week. He had a bit of an adjustment the first day - learning to feed from a bottle and sleeping around noisy babies - but by the second day he was happier with the slow flow nipple and had adjusted to the noise. And he's developed a new skill, reaching for and holding objects in his hands. He reaches out like he's holding up the number 4, with his thumb tucked in, but is quickly getting more coordinated and gets those fingers wrapped around a toy. Now to get the elbow coordinated so he can get the toy in his mouth!

It was also a week of transition for Brady. We had already started talking about moving him to a toddler bed, and had waited hoping to finish potty training, but with Parker rolling around in his co-sleeper it was time to move the boys to their new rooms. This week we got all the toddler furniture and painted the room to make it Brady's room, and we picked up new bedding to make Brady's old room Parker's room. Brady had transitions at school too. After watching another classmate, he peed standing up two different days - what an accomplishment! It was also his last week in the EPS 1 room with Ms Sam and he will move to the EPS 2 room with Ms Cristina next week. We'll miss Sam, and how she took such great care of our son teaching him his ABCs, how to count from 1 to 10, colors (even if he calls red pink), and days of the week (his fav is Tuesday, no idea why), but know it's time for him to learn new skills in EPS 2. These skills will include tracing letters of the alphabet and learning how to check in/out of group play.

Mom had her transitions as well. This was her last week of maternity vacation. Mom and Parker enjoyed the time together snuggling, playing on the play mat honing his new reach skills, and Parker gave Mom her one wish for the week to fall asleep in her arms one more time. With Parker in part-time daycare Mom had some time to herself to get ready to return to work, including cutting 4" off her hair. While she is sad that this will likely be the end of her last maternity leave, she is excited to return to work in a new job with a new boss and see her co-worker friends.

Having two small children makes you realize how much time you had before with only one. While you used to be able to hand off the baby to your spouse to workout, run an errand, write in the blog, etc, now it's when you can work it in around kid stuff - usually before they wake up or after they go to bed or you may get lucky at nap time. The boys seem to have opposite schedules - when one naps, the other is awake and vice versa - keeping Mom and Dad busy holding, feeding, or chasing at all times. It is crazy at times, but we wouldn't want it any other way.

But what a great summer. From Parker joining our lives, to celebrating Grandma Reggie's retirement from PSU and spending time with our northeast family, to Parker starting to move and Brady getting potty trained and learning how to swim - it was a great 4 months!