A Little Bruise...Or Two

Ah, we used to tell other parents how lucky we were that Bubeaner had no interest in climbing.  It was true until a few weeks ago.  Then suddenly, things changed.  He is climbing on everything: the beds, the couches, the chairs.  In fact, he will climb on any little thing that can give him a few more inches in height.  This means that he is also into everything.  Counter tops are no longer out of reach.  And it also means an increase in falls and bruises.  Almost every day he has a new bruise, usually on the head (a draw back from being top heavy), or scrape/cut.

Dad watching the pre-game show with his babies.

Sunday Bubeaner fell from his little blue chair while trying to show off for his godfather.  Uncle Jeff tried comforting him as a nice, big bruise (and bump) appeared on Bubeaner's forehead.  Yesterday, he fell on his bottom.  And this evening he tripped while running around the bedroom and bit his tongue.  Sigh.  We used to joke about getting him a helmet for protection.  Now we wonder if we should wrap him up in bubble wrap.  We are convinced these scares are giving us gray hairs.

He did not appreciate us interrupting his reading time.

Bubeaner has also made great strides in talking in both English and Spanish.  He's turned into a little parrot mimicking every word/sound we say.  He particularly loves to repeat everything, E V E R Y T H I N G, Dad says.  Dad had to be VERY careful while watching the Cowboys game.  Bubeaner is still a little shy about talking in front of other people but even Meme'Licia and aunt Pau have heard some of his new words.

Enjoying a good brunch after church.

Morning is the only time he eats well sometimes having 2 morning meals. 

And the shyness has turned into separation anxiety in regards to people.  Bubeaner was pretty open to strangers despite being shy mainly because of his NICU stay and being exposed to a lot of people through church and friend groups.  But suddenly something changed.  He had no problem being dropped off the first time at the church nursery.  He didn't even want to leave at the end of mass.  But the second time we left him, this time at our old church, he cried a little then settled down.  The third time it was a little worse and so on.  Today he even cried when going into gym class.  And it took him almost 10 minutes to settle down during his swimming lesson.  It no longer helps if he can see Momma.  He wants to be within touching distance.  Even at home, Bubeaner will cry if Momma steps outside without him.  We are at a loss as to how to help him through this.

Finally getting some swimming done with coach Morgan 

As to Bubita, she continues to grow and thrive.  She simply adores her big brother.  She smiles the moment he comes into her line of vision.  She's even reaching out to touch him now, which he loves.  Yes, Bubita is now reaching out to grab things.  And she's getting better at actually making contact.  Of course, it helps if it is a large object.  We love watching her.  Bubita will look at an object then get this look on her face (we call it determination) and then her little hand will start making it's way to the object.  And when Bubita makes contact, good luck trying to pry it out of her little fingers.  The girl has quite a strong grip.  Meme'Licia and Momma have lost some hair to her as of late.

Having a heated conversation with the flying bear.

 (She looks like Bubeaner's twin in this shot.) 

She is also turning out to be a talker like her brother.  Well, Bubita doesn't suffer from the Talking Disease that runs in our families; she's a little more discriminating.  But she does have some long conversations nowadays.  And she's making more sounds than just goo and coo.  We love the intense look she gets when she's talking with us.  Her eyes get so big and excited.  Half of her conversation is through the expression in her eyes.

Enjoying a pre-dinner conversation with Momma.  

She's still having some reflux.  We still struggle emotionally with giving her medication.  Of course, it does not help that it's extremely frustrating to get her to ingest the medication.  We tried multiple styles of bottles and nipples and even using breast milk versus formula.  We even attempted to entice her by adding dark Karo syrup to her bottle.  Nothing worked.  Most of the medication usually ended up being spit up or remained on the bottle.  We finally had to give up and give it to her using our fingers feeding her immediately afterwards.  It's the only way we found to make her take it.  Sigh.  On the bright side, her BMs look a lot better and she is still able to go without a bib most days.  It took us a while to get to this stage with Bubeaner.

Our Summer Garden

Good luck finding a prettier little blossom. 

 
Bubita also continues to sleep through the night.  Lately she's been sleeping almost 12 hours going to sleep sometime between 645p and waking up at 6a.  She's pretty consistent on her wake up time of 6a just like Bubeaner.  She wakes up in a good mood too smiling and cooing.  But, unlike Bubeaner, she goes back to sleep until 9-930a.  She's still eats every 2 hours with a little bit of a cluster feed right before bedtime.  The last few days Bubita has been even taking a long afternoon nap of 3-4 hours.  We are optimistic this means she is settling into a more "regular" routine.

We just adore how she looks in bright colors.