3.0 (beta)

I’m on a toy-making kick. Meet Yellow Giraffe, a special creation for a precious newborn girl.

And for Christmas, K2 and his cousin, Zion, received these fabric balls. They are age-appropriate for a baby who is starting to sit up and grab things; K2 dissolves into laughter when he captures his ball as it rolls up to him. The bigger kids like them too because they’re easy to grip and throw. Of course, the ball my sister made K2 this year gets five stars for the BEST design. Check it out here.

K2 is six months old today. Crazy. I’ve said this before on the blog, but it’s worth repeating: he’s such a different baby from E.

For starters, he’s still not sleeping through the night. You think to yourself, “She needs to try [insert book/method].” Trust me. We’ve tried it. Cluster feeding. Dream feed. Ferberizing. Crying it out. Best as I can figure, he has a crazy metabolism and actually needs to eat at least once at night. At this point, he generally sleeps from 7 PM until 3 or 4 AM. He eats and then sleeps until 6 or 7 AM.

On the subject of crazy metabolism, K2 eats ALL. THE. TIME. He nurses every three hours, and then eats solids three times a day. E was a picky eater when it came to solids. He loves ‘um all: squash, pumpkin, apple, pear, and rice cereal. No matter how much I feed him, he still fusses when it’s over.

In spite of all that great food, he weighs in at only 16 lb 8 oz (25 percentile). His height is 27.25 inches (75 percentile). His head tracks his height at  17.75 inches (75 percentile).

Unlike E at this age, he doesn’t sit up on his own. He’s also a big talker, jabbering away come sun or moon. He’s not a lone ranger like his sister; he delights in face-to-face interaction and literally breaks into a smile upon basic eye contact. So, sleep or no sleep, we’ll keep him!

O bright thing with smooth round bulb
How my daughter loves you.
Just two days from her birth
To you she became constant and true.

Sun, then moon, then sun again,
She kept you between lips pursed.
Hiding her smiles in mellow sedation
So, your existence couldn’t be cursed.

More and more she loved you
Waking at night if, out of her crib, you fell
Her parents, liking sleep, gave to her
Six of you and it worked like a spell.

Until she lost all six. Then,
her parents decided to give her only two
and deprive their daughter’s face of them
Except while sleeping. How new!

She’d lose them in the night and scream.
So four months later, her mother dear
Cut your bulbs clear off and
Showed her daughter with much fear.

Her face! That little girl!
When you she could not savor
To the trash she took you
with tears for her betrayer.

Puzzlement and horror
turned to deep despair.
Her little mind could scarce believe
You were no longer, for her, to care.

Twenty minutes she sobbed
Her mother held her tight.
Until she finally laid down,
Fell asleep. What a sight!

Her rosebud mouth, pink and sweet

Soft as she slept serene.

All night she slumbers now. Whoot!

Her parents still think it’s a dream.