DIY baby care

It has become clear why Ollie has not been interested in gaining weight, or digesting, or pooping more than once a week, or sleeping particularly well. He has instead chosen to devote himself entirely to: mobility. He does that rocking up on all fours thing babies do before they crawl. He flipped over from back to front earlier this week. He can scoot around backwards all over the living room, and between flipping and scooting he can go from safely near a wall to edge of the bed in 0.3 seconds. Aaron likens him to a remote control car that can either turn (he pivots on his belly) or move forwards, but not both at once. Dylan did none of these things for at least another 6 weeks, and was never interested in hurling herself anywhere in any case.

*****

I would say about 15% of the time it is now easier to have two of them. Dylan loves to do Ollie-care type things, and Ollie will watch her all day. Sometimes she jams the pacifier in his mouth with a little too much enthusiasm, or starts tucking his breathing holes under the blankie a little too thoroughly, but usually I don't worry too much about her with him. He was howling in his crib yesterday and was suddenly silent. I went to check on him and it was because Dylan was slipping him books through the slats and paging through them with him. She also likes to play "pumping." That's a good one.

*****

In other milestone news I think we're done with pullups at night for the big one. I told her she could wear underwear if she kept them dry for a week. She pretty much couldn't ever do it, so logically I put her in underwear anyway and she does fine 3 out of 4 nights. She sometimes wakes up wailing because she will have an accident if she doesn't go to the bathroom, so that's neurotic for you, but tidy.

*****

I am using my archives as a parenting manual. When do we switch car seats? When do we get all the big baby stuff out of the living room? What should I feed the baby when? All answered in my tediously recorded baby how-to guide of approximately three years ago.

*****

PST ahoy

We're leaving tomorrow on what will be our longest trip away from home since having kids, besides trips around New York State to see family. We should have internet most of the time so I'll check in as we go. We've been keeping Dylan up late all week to get her on west coast time. But tomorrow, first stop: Toronto.