Stand

It's daytime, and our happy baby is back!  Here's our big strong standing boy-

Oh my.

Our darling Heiko is giving us a run for our money.  He has learned how to pull up to standing, and he literally cannot stop practicing his new skill.  It is so exciting to see him learning so many new things so quickly, but this one is really throwing us for a loop.

During the day, this skill is so much fun.  It provides us great entertainment and gives us such joy!  When the sun goes down, however, it turns evil.  The urge to stand takes over Heiko's body, grabs onto the lime green bars of his crib, and pulls our sleepy baby up.  Maybe horses and elephants can do it, but our baby can't sleep while standing.  So by the time his legs lock, Heiko is completely awake and he screams and cries for us to come get him.  Then when we do, he is so mad about being awake that he just continues to cry and fight the sleep that he wants and needs so badly.  After an hour or so of Jonas and/or I trying to get him back to sleep (J is having more luck with this part... H is going through a mommy attachment thing right now, so he just wants to stare at me instead of fall back asleep... more on this later), he finally passes back out.... only to be awoken by the standing bug again a couple hours later.

This is night 3.  We are running on very little sleep and very large headaches.  I have a super cute video compilation showing off the fun side of Heiko's new skill, but I'm too exhausted to post something cute right now.

Sigh.

Neighborly Love.

The 4 year old boy who lives next door, Declan, is absolutely head-over-heels in love with Heiko.  Every time he sees Heiko outside, he runs over to say hi and squeal and love on him.  Heiko loves Declan, too.  He smiles so big at his big buddy's silly dancing and lightning speed peek-a-boo.  Declan is so gentle with Heiko, and loves to ogle his little sausage toes and precious little hands.  He will very delicately brush his finger across Heiko's soft cheeks, and kiss the bottoms of his chubby feet.  It is the most precious thing.

Declan also gave Heiko his first nickname, Heikey (said in a little squeaky voice), which has now evolved into Heiks or Heiksey.  He is the cutest.  It is so neat to see the special little relationship these two have.

Here are some pictures of Heiko + Declan time this afternoon.

Hugs.

Don't worry Dec, Heiko still doesn't have any teeth.

 Big buddy + little buddy.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day with my little family.  I am a lucky lady to have such a thoughtful and loving husband, and a beautiful, perfect baby boy.  Being a mother and a wife to those two boys is an honor.

Heiko has the two best grandmothers around.  They have helped us tremendously in our parenting adventure, and they give Heiko heaps and heaps of grandmotherly love.  So, we made a little Mother's Day video for Nanna and Grandma!  We think others will enjoy it too....  =)

Hello Mini Jonas

Am I right?

8 Months!

Heiko's 8th month has been quite eventful!  The highlights include:  crawling , sitting, and a solid sleep schedule (which we are going to completely destroy when we travel to Germany for 2 weeks at the end of the month...).

The scoop-

-21 pounds.  Big.

-Still no teeth.

-Crawling/creeping faster and further.  About a week ago he realized that he could crawl further than just across the living room; now he crawls all over the house!

-Sitting up by himself!

-Eating things that require chewing.  Well, mushing is probably a better word.  He eats puffs and sometimes little chunks of banana.

-Great pincer grasp.  He can pick up his puffs between his thumb and pointer finger or first two fingers almost every time!

-Understands object permanence. 

-Loves swinging.

-Loves being outside.

-Loves his mesh feeder.  These things are such a genius invention.  You put a piece of food (we usually do a big chunk of melon) inside this little mesh bag, close it up, and the baby can just chew and suck on it to get the juices and little pieces out of the mesh.  Heiko would suck on one of these things all day if we let him.  They are going to be a huge asset on the plane to Germany.

-Loves shoes and feet.  Now that he can crawl to the things he wants and likes, we have discovered Heiko's love for shoes and people's feet... especially Jonas' old beaten up brown flip flops.  

-Perfected a sleep schedule!  H sleeps through the night most of the time, from about 7/7:30 to usually 5:30am.  Every once in awhile he gets extra hungry and wakes for a night feeding, but that is pretty rare now.  Also, this week we have FINALLY gotten a nap schedule down!  Ana started putting him down around 9 and 2, and it's working really well.  He stopped the 30 minute cat naps he was giving us (and Ana), and is now napping for about an hour and a half twice a day.  It's so wonderful.  He is such a happy boy.

-Heiko is still eating like a champ.  Some of the new foods he has tried recently are:  zucchini, squash, chicken, peaches, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and yogurt (the jury is still out on whether he is ready for dairy or not).  This week we start kale and blueberries.


I have less than 3 weeks left until summer break, and we are leaving May 31st-June 14th for Germany!  We are so excited, but also so scared of what lies ahead with the 10 hour flight and 8 hour time change.  Wish us luck!

Here's our big growing boy.