Kids Update Week 6

Eleanor:

• She is definitely in the middle of The Period of Purple Crying, and had been consistently fussy in the evenings from around 6-10pm.
• Her growth spurt is finally over and that means that we have been having longer sleep stretches at night, which has been nice. She tends to fall asleep every night around 10 pm (after hours of being awake and fussy), and will wake for the first time anywhere from 1-3am. Then she is usually up again around 6am and 8-9am (then every 1-2 hours after that during the day).
• She still HATES pacifiers and gives me the most priceless look of disgust any time I try to give her one. Its actually pretty funny to see her face. I wish she would take one though because she wants to suck on something during her fussy period, and she doesn't really want to drink milk, but she will only suck on my nipple. Since she can't do both things, it results in a lot of screaming or sometimes puking when she drinks too much milk and gets too full. Either scenario is unpleasant!
• I did finally get her to take her first bottle though, which felt like a major victory. Maybe that means I could theoretically leave her with someone else at some point!
• One thing that is cute about when she nurses though, is that she likes to hold my finger or thumb while she nurses. Its a comfort thing and I find it absolutely adorable!
• When I was pregnant with her I used to feel this weird shuddering or shaking sensation where her feet were on occasion. Now I can actually see that whens she stretches, her foot will shake while she does so. Its so funny to see what I was feeling for months on the inside!
• All of a sudden, she has gone from pooping once or twice a week, to 4-5 times a day! Unfortunately she HATES being in a poopy diaper and will wake out of a deep sleep and start fussing if her diaper is even slightly dirty. The only upside to that is that maybe that trait will make her easier to potty train? In fact, she hates sitting in poop so much, that every time I go to change her diaper, she gives me a big smile as soon as I set her down on the changing table. This kid knows whats going on!
• Her lip shivers when I pick her up.

William:

• Can say please and thank you and has learned that saying these will get him what he wants so he often says "please" and "thank you" together to cover all of his bases when he wants something (see video below).
• He continues to say many more words these days. My new favorites are: "pack hoe" which is his version of "back hoe," "par truck" (fire truck), "taxi" and "hawm" (home).
• He will look at the camera and smile while saying, "cheese!" But only if I agree to show him the picture immediately afterwards. 
• He can use plurals appropriately. The other day he found his stuffed puppy and exclaimed, "puppy!" Then he found the other two back up puppies that we have and ran around with all 3 saying, "puppies!"
• He is terrified of bees after being stung for the first time this summer. Unfortunately he thinks that all bugs are bees and every time he sees any bug, he yells "bee!" and runs in the opposite direction.
  
• He is just starting to identify letters and shapes. He regularly points out stars, and surprised me the other day by pointing out the letter 'Z' that was above a sleeping character in one of his books. 
• He adamantly refuses any and all help getting up or down stairs, even when there are no rails. That being said, he is pretty proficient and really doesn't need help most times.
• He walks around exclaiming "oh no!" all the time, in this tone of voice that suggests that the greatest tragedy has just occurred. In reality its something like he spilled his juice, he ate all of his pizza or his water cup is empty. It is both hilarious and adorable how utterly concerned he sounds.
• In the above picture, he is sitting in a box. Whenever I have a big enough box around, he will climb in. He has done this from the time he was around 8 months old (at that age I would put him into the box), and once he is inside, I sing, "you're a baby, a baby in a box!" repeatedly, while he grins and laughs. This time he actually repeated after me, "Baby! Box!" It was pretty cute.