Milestones. I do such a terrible job of documenting them and that has to change! So here goes nothing:
Yousef is, as I mentioned in my last post, beginning to strand words together to make very simple sentences. The maximum number of words in a sentence that I can actually understand is three! Yay for talking! The other day, we were sitting playing in his room while Lana slept in hers. He ran to the door to close it, but as he went, I said "No, oofy, Leave the door open!" (in arabic). He proceeded to make a gesture with his hand (put all five fingers together to make a cone shape) and said "Mama, no ifta7 bab!" (mom, no open door!) IT was the cutest thing ever! I laughed so hard, so of course he did it over and over, until I no longer found it funny. Haha, kids will respond to all kinds of attention, even the negative.
Speaking of responding to attention, Yousef has been giving us a very hard time sleeping lately. I feel like we are Ferberizing him all over again! For almost a week he was waking up in the middle of the night screaming and a few times threw up. That passed, and I thought, ok, we can sleep again! Then he started deciding to stay up late (I'm talking 2 am) and on top of that wanted to eat waffles as a midnight (*ahem, PAST midnight*) snack! I kept thinking, this can't be good. He'll get used to needing to eat at this time every night. So I started changing him, reading a few books, saying prayers, and putting him to bed. For a few nights he would lay there for 15 minutes, then start screaming and crying. For the next few nights, he would be crying before we even put him in bed. And I'm talking the screaming at the top of your lungs, hurting-the-throat, kicking-your-legs, and breaking-your-heart kind of crying Tonight, his dad took him to sleep in the guest room. *sigh* Praying he doesn't get used to that! *This too shall pass* <--repeat!
I think all this crying may be stemming from one thing: I've started weaning him from a bottle (finally!). It better be gone by his 2nd birthday! We are using a soft-tip sippy cup (for milk only, everything else he drinks normally). As great as it is, it seems to be causing him a lot of frustration.
And even though he is having a hard time with those few things, including eating normal meals, Yousef has found a few things he likes: whole grain waffles, fresh-fruit homemade popsicles, ranch dip (sometimes eaten directly with a spoon, gross), just about anything sweet (God, help us!), and moonwalks at our local indoor inflatable playground! At $5 per entry for him, we'll be frequenting there a lot! Once he turns 2 the price goes up, but hey.... he slept like a BABY the day we went:) SO worth it!
Lana is now officially three months and 2 days old. TIME FLIES! My little sweet pea has picked up some rather idiosyncratic habits. For one, about a week ago, she started needing to grab a fistful of her hair in order to fall asleep. Sometimes she likes to twirl it and grab it repeatedly (almost like she's scratching her head). It's too funny. The other habit, I'm not so happy about. Yesterday she put herself to sleep THREE TIMES. I know, you're thinking, are you crazy? She put herself to sleep and you're upset?!?!?! Well, yes.... because she sucked her thumb to do it! Oh boy that is one habit I despise, so we're going to go ahead and nip that one in the bud. I will keep trying to give her the pacifier. Usually she will accept it at night to fall asleep, but I have to keep my hand on it firmly in order for it to stay in place. Yay me!
Baby girl has finally started to push up on her arms during tummy time and is gaining better control of her neck. Although she does still have bobble-head bouts where it uncontrollably bobbles around. It's too funny! She has also mastered the social smile, mashaAllah. She loves smiling at me and her baba and Yousef!
It's been a joy to watch them both grow, al7amdulillah. I pray to Allah everyday to continue to bless us and to protect them!
Yousef is, as I mentioned in my last post, beginning to strand words together to make very simple sentences. The maximum number of words in a sentence that I can actually understand is three! Yay for talking! The other day, we were sitting playing in his room while Lana slept in hers. He ran to the door to close it, but as he went, I said "No, oofy, Leave the door open!" (in arabic). He proceeded to make a gesture with his hand (put all five fingers together to make a cone shape) and said "Mama, no ifta7 bab!" (mom, no open door!) IT was the cutest thing ever! I laughed so hard, so of course he did it over and over, until I no longer found it funny. Haha, kids will respond to all kinds of attention, even the negative.
Speaking of responding to attention, Yousef has been giving us a very hard time sleeping lately. I feel like we are Ferberizing him all over again! For almost a week he was waking up in the middle of the night screaming and a few times threw up. That passed, and I thought, ok, we can sleep again! Then he started deciding to stay up late (I'm talking 2 am) and on top of that wanted to eat waffles as a midnight (*ahem, PAST midnight*) snack! I kept thinking, this can't be good. He'll get used to needing to eat at this time every night. So I started changing him, reading a few books, saying prayers, and putting him to bed. For a few nights he would lay there for 15 minutes, then start screaming and crying. For the next few nights, he would be crying before we even put him in bed. And I'm talking the screaming at the top of your lungs, hurting-the-throat, kicking-your-legs, and breaking-your-heart kind of crying Tonight, his dad took him to sleep in the guest room. *sigh* Praying he doesn't get used to that! *This too shall pass* <--repeat!
I think all this crying may be stemming from one thing: I've started weaning him from a bottle (finally!). It better be gone by his 2nd birthday! We are using a soft-tip sippy cup (for milk only, everything else he drinks normally). As great as it is, it seems to be causing him a lot of frustration.
And even though he is having a hard time with those few things, including eating normal meals, Yousef has found a few things he likes: whole grain waffles, fresh-fruit homemade popsicles, ranch dip (sometimes eaten directly with a spoon, gross), just about anything sweet (God, help us!), and moonwalks at our local indoor inflatable playground! At $5 per entry for him, we'll be frequenting there a lot! Once he turns 2 the price goes up, but hey.... he slept like a BABY the day we went:) SO worth it!
Lana is now officially three months and 2 days old. TIME FLIES! My little sweet pea has picked up some rather idiosyncratic habits. For one, about a week ago, she started needing to grab a fistful of her hair in order to fall asleep. Sometimes she likes to twirl it and grab it repeatedly (almost like she's scratching her head). It's too funny. The other habit, I'm not so happy about. Yesterday she put herself to sleep THREE TIMES. I know, you're thinking, are you crazy? She put herself to sleep and you're upset?!?!?! Well, yes.... because she sucked her thumb to do it! Oh boy that is one habit I despise, so we're going to go ahead and nip that one in the bud. I will keep trying to give her the pacifier. Usually she will accept it at night to fall asleep, but I have to keep my hand on it firmly in order for it to stay in place. Yay me!
Baby girl has finally started to push up on her arms during tummy time and is gaining better control of her neck. Although she does still have bobble-head bouts where it uncontrollably bobbles around. It's too funny! She has also mastered the social smile, mashaAllah. She loves smiling at me and her baba and Yousef!
It's been a joy to watch them both grow, al7amdulillah. I pray to Allah everyday to continue to bless us and to protect them!
