Texts to Will

I've fallen out of the blogging routine (not that I ever have a routine going), but I figured what better way to get back into it than to not put any thought into things in any way whatsoever. I introduce you a finely curated sampling of my text message thread with Will, where you know I like to give him ALL THE UPDATES on the daily happs at the Casa Del Brez. (Disclaimer: we both laugh out loud A LOT---our lives are just so cRaZy---and fervently believe that spelling and grammar have no place in text messaging.)

When your dad is the prosecuting officer.

When our dogs realize they live in a minimum security prison. 

When life hands you spoons.

I have a thing for pillows. Unfortunately Ace does too.

The dog did it.

Midwest winds be like.

Saint JPII and I have two things in common: tattered t-shirts and love of cookies.

I have a well-founded fear little Will's first words will be imitating me 

yelling at the dogs for eating poop . . . 

or for eating underwear.

Neighborhood watch.... On the lookout for sitters. 

That about sums it up.

What else is going on here? Will's 28th birthday is tomorrow, so I'm making preparations for the big day, assuring his every request is met, i.e., baking funfetti cupcakes . . . with sprinkles. Last year was kind of lame because Will was taking the bar exam the whole day, the year before that was pretty much the worst ever because he was away at field training (no phone/Internet + a week delay on even receiving letters/cards!), and the year before that he was doing the law review write-on competition. Basically, he can't remember his last fun, relaxing birthday, so the bar is set low, real low. Hope we can top them! 

5 Months

Just look at that beautiful bronzed beach babe. Well, this future Baywatch lifeguard turned five months old on Saturday, so let's recap the past month. In this installment, as usual, I discuss all of little Will's favorite activities: 

• The eats.
• The sleeps. 
• The poops. 

Let's begin!!!!!!!

EATS. Believe it or not, I finally slowed my roll and stopped tracking feeds. Milestones for me, not so much him. He eats anywhere from 6 to 8 times a day, with typically between 2.5 to 3.5 hours between feedings. He is still a pretty distractible nurser during the day. He took pumped bottles like a champ on vacation, but we're gonna need to put a damper on that lest he decide bottles are way more convenient than receiving the goods straight from the tap. He's been fussier than usual while nursing lately and I think it's because he was spoiled at how quickly milk came out of the bottle. Impatient for food, most definitely my son. 

In turns of solids, I gave him a taste of banana yesterday because he seems really interested in our food when we eat meals. After getting over the initial shock, he seemed to like the taste, but wasn't interested in swallowing. He was way more interested in playing with the spoon. I'll try again in a few weeks probably. I'm not in a rush to start him on solids because (a) everyone recommends waiting 6 months, and (b) poop. I need not say more.

SLEEP. My love language. After the 4 month sleep regression, we've only seen improvement. He's consistently only waking once per night to eat at about 1:30am. One time he took his night feeding at 10pm and slept 8 glorious hours straight! He's up EARLY for the day, usually around 5am, but most of the time I can get him to snooze a little more. Bedtime is around 7pm. I let him sleep and don't wake him for a dream feed.

He's napping again! We'll usually get one or two really good naps per day that are over 1.5 hours long. His other naps are typically about 45 minutes long. 

More importantly, he's falling asleep easily. If you read his cues and put him down at the right time, all you need to do is draw the curtains, turn on the sound machine, and plop him in his crib (on his tummy). He sucks his middle two fingers and is down for the count. He's OBSESSED with the middle two fingers and rejects all pacifiers now. 

He's a certified tummy sleeper. I fought him for a few days, doing the old fliparoo, but he consistently went back on his tummy. So I started putting him down on his tummy. Touchdown tummy. Every once in a while I'll go get him in his crib and he'll have rolled onto his back. Not usually though.

POOP. The other day, he didn't poop at all. Not a once. I'd heard legends of these magical breastfed babies who go days without pooping, but I didn't believe it. Not with Sir Poops a Lot over here. But it's a real thing! Not only do we not have to wipe his butt every diaper change, but we also got to stop using Desitin on his poop-induced rashy bum. This makes cloth diapering a million times easier. Thank you, my little chunk man, for slowing down the poops.

What else is he into these days? Besides wearing hats on that giant head of his? After spending time with my niece, I am more aware of odd little things about Will that I thought were just common to all babies, but now I know they are not. Things like, he LOVES to have his farts squished out by bicycling his legs. I tried this on my niece who was not amused in the slightest. Also, he just CANNOT sit still in your arms. If you are holding him, you need to be bouncing him on your knee, playing with him somehow, or just up walking around. Unless you're watching this weird children's video. But Molly was equally as hypnotized by that strangeness. However, she will sit still otherwise, which is pretty nice. The crazy differences between them warrant a separate post in and of itself, which I will get to soon because the pictures are outrageous. So. Many. Rolls.

Overall, he still has the same personality from when he was a month old, just amplified. And fatter. Way fatter. (Not that that is a personality trait, but it just permeates his being.) He is still the curious, chatty, busy body that he was at one month, two months, three months, and four months. (See what I did there? Clicky the links for Baby Brez deets of past.)

Ye Olde Rat Tail hangs on by a thread.

He's currently chewing on an empty toilet paper roll in his Bumbo (pleading the fifth on how he got his hands on that), so I should probably get back to that mothering thing . . . 

I Survived!

Remember those t-shirts in middle school that said "I survived . . . [enter embarrassing event here]"? Did you survive Splash Mountain? Jurassic Park, maybe? Sometimes things got pretty serious and read things like "Hurricane Andrew" or "Snakehead Fish." Go ahead pretending you don't know what I'm talking about, but I know you sported one in middle school. 

Well.

I survived this:

With two dogs and a baby. (Wooo, she crazy!)

We watched the USA soccer game Thursday afternoon (talk about mixed emotions), packed up the car, and drove through the night to Maryland. 

Complete with USA power braid.

We arrived at our destination 5:30am on Friday. It actually wasn't so bad. Once it was dark, all the needy creatures slept and it was quite the enjoyable drive until Will decided he wanted to listen to the 90's heavy metal/alternative Pandora station. My ears are still ringing. However, upon arrival, we finally met our adorable niece, Molly, and took a solid 3 hour nap. So basically we got a full night's sleep anyway. 

Wink.

The cuteness of #babyville has been heavily documented on Instagram, so fret not. 

Will is def in the same t-shirt as the photo above leaving our neighborhood. We aren't messing around.

On Sunday, we ditched our canines and packed things up yet again, this time headed to the oasis that is Ocean City, Maryland.

I credit my old law school friend, Justin, with this gem of a haiku: 

The cases of beer

Have been replaced by diapers

Late 20s beach day

I'm off now to Sunsations to get my new t-shirt made. "I survived a 14 hour drive with a baby and two dogs" on the front. Sweet haiku on the back. 

USA flags on the sleeves.