Bye-Bye-Binkie

Had I known,  I might not have done it.

Sam didn't like his pacifier when he was first born, but I kept offering it to him because research showed it might help reduce his risk of SIDS.  Once he turned one and that risk became almost zero he was fairly attached to it so I decided to not get rid of it right away.  With each passing day he became more and more attached and soon it became clear it wasn't going away on its own. 

We worked on getting rid of it in baby steps, starting with Mother's Day Out this fall - no binkie at school this year.  Next came no binkie on the couch, it had to stay on the bed.  Once he started sneaking it out of his room, hiding it behind his blankie, I decided I'd had enough!  We put binkie away with the promise of ice cream if he made it through the night.  That first night went great and we stopped for ice cream on our way home from MDO the next day!  He hasn't asked for it since.  That went MUCH more smoothly than I thought it would.  Pheew.

Bunk Mate

I've been waking up to a new face, lately.

Sam's been waking up a lot at night these past couple of weeks. We think his last molars might be coming in.

Even though he's quite the flipper, flopper and kicker when he's asleep, it doesn't bother me too much. Poor Daddy has to sleep on the couch, though. There's just not enough room for three, especially when one sleeps slideways...

Turtle (posted 3/27)

This turtle is magic.

It's been a gift to me as much as it's been to Sam.  He loves his turtle - it shows him the moon and the stars on his ceiling - and it's made naptime and nighttime a breeze.  Thank you cousin Hollie. Thank you.

This Is How My Baby Sleeps v.2

Remember

this

? Well, now my baby sleeps like this.

Each night, Sam asks for all his "bwankies". We have three right now - his original white hospital blankie, his green blankie from Cousin Hollie that we've always had around just in case we couldn't put our hands on the white blankie, and his airplane blankie that Granny Nell gave him for Christmas. It's BIG and velour and has already caused many a sibling-squabble between Sam and Sophie when she up and decides on any given day that it's now hers to put her stink on.

This is often how we find Sam when we check on him, all wrapped up like a baby-burrito, sweaty and snoring.  Brian and I always let him sleep like this until we head off to bed, then we carefully unwrap him and scoot out of his room before he wakes up and sees us!

And what happens when little boys sleep all wrapped up like a burrito?  MAJOR bed-head!

A Little Snooze

It was Sunday afternoon.

We'd been out to McKinney for church, which always wears us out.  A trip to the Celina Pumpkin Patch was planned for the afternoon.  But first, an impromptu nap was in order.

Wake Up Call

Mama loves naptime. But getting Sam up after a nap is fun, too. Here Daddy has filmed us getting Sam up from a nap on two different days.

Gram noticed the other day that Sam likes to "take roll". Maybe he got some teacher-gene from me. Whenever he wakes up he runs down the list of whoever is not in the room. In these videos it's Mama and Woof-Woof. When Sam and I get home from running errands, he calls for Woof-Woof and Dada from the driveway. As soon as Gram gets him out of the car at her house, he asks for Pops and Andrew. He likes to know where his fans are!


Wake Up Call from Sara Straka on Vimeo.

Sweet Baby

Snapped this naptime pic the other day. So peaceful.

Just in Time

These moose jammies from Great-Great Aunt Carol came just in time. Sam was busting out of his ducky jammies.

(note: My child does have sheets. On this particular day, both sets were in the washer/dryer, I'm sure you can guess why.  And he normally doesn't sleep with a crib full of wooden blocks and fuzzy critters, but for some reason we just needed them that day)

Look at those moose ears!  Speaking of jammies and cute things to put on baby feet, check out Sam's snowmen.  They were a gift, along with a fleece Santa blanket, from one of Gram's collegues.  Just wook at those widdle baby swippers!

This Is How My Baby Sleeps

This is how my baby sleeps.
How can this be comfortable?