WilsonAtHome: January!

If you are wondering why we've been so delinquent on these posts, it's due to our less than steller internet connection. We have gone from wireless to connected directly to the cable modem, and we still disconnect periodically!

Enough said about that; time for updates! Caden is still amazing us everyday. We have full conversations with him. He loves telling us what he did or a story out of a book or DVD. His pretending has also become more complicated. His cars and trucks talk to each other and play games. He pretends certain cars are the cars from Disney's "Cars" movie (did you get that, I even confused myself!). They are always the same ones, they all have certain tasks (i.e., Ramone paints the other cars, and Doc fixes them) and he remembers them all. It's really remarkable. He has also learned the fun of really playing with others. Right now the "others" consist of family members, but we are hoping that he will soon branch off to playing with others. We've instituted a "special time". This is a specific period of time (governed by a timer) were Caden receives our full attention and we play whatever games he picks (no phone calls, no laundry, no brother:)). He loves it and asks for it all the time! It does not replace all the normal time we spend together during the day, it is just a time that can't be interrupted. So far I've been able to schedule them during the beginning of Brody's naps, so it works out well!
Caden has also started to share with Brody... a little. He'll gladly bring him things like passifiers and diapers. He will share his own toys with prompting and rewards from us. We are working on positive reinforcement now so that when Brody starts crawling, we don't have World War III on our hands. Some moments are better than others... tonight when I was reading the boys a book, Brody placed his hand on the top of it. Caden kept reaching up and removing his hand (it wasn't covering anything, Caden just didn't like him touching it). We had two playdates with his friend Maggie this weekend. He did well. We had a few incidents, but you can tell that he is starting to get it!

Brody is doing really well. He smiles all of the time and laughs every now and again (especially when he's tired). He's really a great baby (from a maintenance stand-point - all babies are great)! His nights have gotten a little erradic, but I can't complain... I've never had to get up with him to stop him from crying. I just get him when he starts getting fussy, and nurse him in bed. I've been keeping him in bed with us for the duration of the night (he normally sleeps in his swing) to start the "swing weening" process. So now when he wakes up, he sees me or smells me and ends up nursing a lot more. Consequently, he has to poop much earlier and starts fussing, grunting and "talking" at around 4:00am. I am exhausted. I'm going to try to put him in the co-sleeper... I'm just afraid he'll do even worse there. I think he's ready to start sleep training soon. Darren and I just have to formulate a plan and stick to it.... I wrote that a few days ago, and since that, Brody has been doing much better. In fact, last night he slept from about 6:30 to 4:30, and right back to sleep until 6:45. I hope this lasts, but these things have a way of going back and forth!

This was good timing, because yesterday was my first day back to work. It wasn't too bad! Darren and I are back to trading off time at work and time at home again. I went to work in the morning and was home by 11:30am. Darren left around 1:00pm and was home by 7:00pm. We have to work on shorting our turn-around time so Darren can be home sooner, but it's gone well so far. I was worried about Brody because he has only taken the bottle a few times, but after refusing it a couple of times yesterday, Darren was finally able to get him to take it... and today he didn't have any trouble at all! Yesterday I could only do 3 hours at work, but I figured it was a start! Today I lasted the entire 4 hours. The fact that I enjoy my work, the people I work with, and that Darren's such a terrific dad made the transition a lot easier! The fact that it's only 4 hours a day help out too!

OK, enough writing; onto the pictures: