He's only getting up about once a night now! He goes from 8:30 to about 2:30, 3, and then usually doesn't get up again until around 6. A few times - not enough times to call it a trend yet - he's been going from 9 to 4:30! Yippee. He still sleeps in the car seat, because he does not seem to like being put down. I still have to be very careful about putting him down to sleep because if I "fumble the handoff" he wakes right up and it can take forever to get him to go down again. His fussy days are so bad it's unbelievable! When he wants to be held all day and can't sleep - Argh.

Stealth Baby remains a bit fussy in the evenings. Truly, the one thing that appeases him is to be put in the big 'off-road' stroller (the one with the shocks) and be pushed around the cul-de-sac. This is not a bad thing - heck, any sure thing that makes a baby happy is a good thing! But, trying to keep the other two out of the street and such while walking around with a baby is a little tough. It also means that Hubby and I have very little time alone to talk. One of us is watching Pumpkin, Kenny, and Precious while the other one is walking around with Stealth Baby. But he's happy, and that's what matters. We don't know what to do when it rains!

Stealth Baby had his two month Dr. visit on Wed. the 17. He continues to be an outstanding baby! He now weighs 15 pounds 9 oz and is 24 3/4 inches. (Over 95% in both categories.) I told the doctor I was disappointed because my personal nursing goal was 16 pounds. The Dr. just laughed at me! The nurse said he didn't look like a breastfed baby at all because supposedly breastfed babies earn less weight. This has certainly never been the case for my kids!

Stealth Baby got a ton of shots! This is always very sad because little babies are never expecting anything to hurt them. So he's delighted because I'm right there holding his hands and smiling at him. And the nurse is wiping his one leg with a cold antiseptic cloth. I could tell from his eyes when she put the first shot in - they got all big and surprised and he started screaming with his 'I'm scared' yell - which is the worst yell of all, that high pitched scream. So I pick him up and he quiets down pretty quickly. I put him back down and start playing with his hands again and he's still pretty happy. . . but the minute the nurse started wiping his other leg with a cold cloth he began screaming again! He knew what was going to happen! Babies are so much smarter then we think! Of course, he screams his fool head off every time I change his diaper before feeding him, as if this has never happened before instead of after every nap. Fuss, mommy picks me up, mommy changes me, I get fed. I guess he's trying to hurry the procedure up a little.

Pumpkin's life. Pumpkin's compatriot in crime is Kenny, who does not have the most with-it parents. Consequently, Kenny is kind of a negative kid. Actually he's a really negative kid. There is no other way to put it except to say he has an unhappy outlook on life, and is argumentative and such. This drives Hubby and I bananas, and we tended to yell at him when he did 'bad' things. Like, he whines a lot and always wants whatever toy Pumpkin is playing with and then he'll come over with a toy and be like 'na na na, I have X and you don't have one.' Stuff like that. So Hubby and I were negative with him. Well, one night Hubby took Pumpkin to soccer and Stealth Baby was being himself so I'm outside with Stealth Baby in the stroller and Precious darting around -- and there's poor Kenny left to his own devices. So he runs over to me and is truly being darling. So I read him and Precious a story, and then we play together drawing with chalk. (To be cruel, which I later regretted, at some point I asked him to get his mother to play with him, and the uncertain look on my face made me really regret that.) Then Pumpkin came home and Kenny's older brother James came by - and Kenny became bossy and argumentative again. James treats Kenny very dismissively and there is clearly a pecking order in that family - with Kenny at the bottom. Well, things really came to a head that very evening. I asked Kenny to help me pick up the chalk and I'm carrying Stealth Baby into the house when I hear screaming. I whirl around and Pumpkin and Kenny are fighting over the chalk case and as I literally scream at Kenny, "You put that down" I hear him say to Pumpkin (with tears in his voice) 'she asked me to help!' He looks at me terrified - meanwhile I have his words ringing in my ears. He wanted to help and I screamed at him! So I walked over to him and gave him a hug and said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you Kenny. You are right and I should have let you pick up the chalk." (You know how it is, you instinctively protect your own kids.) Boy did Kenny look surprised that I apologized to him! That night I told Hubby that we have to make a concerted effort to be very nice to Kenny and treat him with the same respect we treat our own kids. Needless to say Hubby was not to 'in' to this idea. But I said to Hubby, if Kenny's always getting yelled at and put down by his parents, and then we yell at him too, then he is never going to realize that there is another way of talking to people! Believe it or not, my little experiment is having limited success. Whenever Kenny is particularly grouchy I'll say to him, "Honey, that's a very negative attitude, could you ask nicer?" Or, "If you ask nicely and don't whine, people are more likely to do what you ask." He seems to be a little happier in our yard anyway. He also really likes to help - like this afternoon, for example, I asked Kenny to pick up a pillow for me and Pumpkin beat him to it. Kenny looked sad until I said, "How about if you pick up the blanket?" In all honesty the blanket never made it to the couch, but he tried and was obviously very happy to be included. He's trying anyway.

Precious's life. Precious has entered the shrieking stage of the terrible twos. My goodness does she expect to get her way! She has this long, very piercing shriek, and also a fire engine siren wail - EEEEEooooooEEEEEEoooooEEEEEoooo (breath) EEEEEooooo etc. She has also entered the 'run away from mommy' stage, which is amusing when she's headed toward Kenny's doggies and terrifying when she does it in a parking lot. She rarely does a lie on the floor screaming, which I vividly remember was a favorite of Pumpkin's, but she uses 'real tears' much more often (and effectively) then Pumpkin did. Plus she does the 'toddler dance' (with fists tightly clenched stomp your feet up and down while screaming) quite well. I don't remember Pumpkin doing that. He would always lie on the floor, usually in a very public place, and scream. The only way to get him to stop was to basically pick him up and carry him through the store. Of course, I was pregnant with Precious at the time, which just added to the joy.