What Beth's saying

I've mentioned that Beth is talking a lot, pretty much non-stop these days. Some of her favorites right now are:

"Beth no like that!"
"Do all by self!"
"Beth watch Doh-wa!" (Dora, the tv show)
"Are you my muder?" ("Are you my mother?" from the book)
"Mommy hol' Beth." ("hold")
"Beth have fever"
"Beth got boo boo"
"Oh no, oh no, Beth fall dooooooown!" (accompanied with a big dramatic fall)
"Uh oh, car comin'!"
"My mommy my mommy my mommy!" (usually followed by a big hug!)


She has been helping me a lot around the house with chores, it's really nice to see a sneak peek of what might be coming up in the future when she's a "big kid." She's actually started taking showers now, maybe once or twice a week! She really liked it at the hotel we stayed at during our trip to the beach, and she's asked a few times since then to shower again. She's such a big girl!

Luke is our little grabber- he reaches for everything these days, it seems especially at food. I feel like such a tease when I'm holding him and eating, because he seems to think every bite is going for his mouth. The boy is almost 5 1/2 months old, I suppose it's time for us to start thinking about starting him on solids! I definitely won't start him until he can sit up though, we'll have to graduate Beth to a booster seat at the table so Luke can take over the high chair!

We've started a night time routine for Luke now, in an effort to regulate his sleep a little better. He takes a bath, we put on pajamas, some nights (when he's not screaming!) we'll read a little book or two, and then we'll nurse and rock for awhile. I suppose it's sort of working, if nothing else Ryan and I have it in our heads that this is the way we'll be doing it for him to try to help him sleep better. I've made a conscious effort with this kid to not obsess over sleep, schedules and naps. I do make an effort to be proactive about putting him down for naps (before he gets so exhausted and worked up that he refuses to sleep) and now we're putting him down pretty consistently between 6:30-7:00 pm. He also naps four times a day, usually 40 minutes each nap but occasionally (like when I have to go somewhere!) he'll go for as long as two hours.

Both kids have new swimsuits, and we're getting ready for summer weather. The pool opens on May 9, only a month away! Hopefully Luke will be sitting up pretty well by then, I know he's going to love the pool since he loves his baths so much now. Beth is also going to have a blast this summer, she's at such a fun age right now!