Josh the Energizer Bunny

Our children are all what I would politely call high energy. We have yet to have a baby that is content just to laze in the stroller and happily watch the world go by. No, all of ours have to be right there in the thick of things, doing their part to keep the universe off-kilter. I find this interesting because while I am admittedly high strung, Aaron is so laid back that not even a rapidly approaching Mack truck could cause him to quicken his step when crossing the street. It's all good with him, ya know?

And yet, when it comes to the approximately 456 gazillion different combination of DNA that our genes can produce, the spaz trait is apparently highly dominant over the chill trait. Which means that we have a 0% chance of producing a child that is mellow, which is apparently exactly the same chance that we have of producing a child that is female.

The latest child to give me a run for my money is sweet Baby Josh. Still sweet, but no longer baby really, he is evidently trying to make the case to change his name legally to Hell on Wheels. The kid is EVERYWHERE. If there is a physical challenge that presents itself, Josh is happy to tackle it and will often go searching for it. Recent antics have included:

• Scaling the baby gates before he even knew how to get up the stairs on the other side of the gate once he got over it. A climber - yay!
  
• Trying to squeeze his whole body UNDER the baby gate after we raised it a few inches in an attempt to keep him from trying to go OVER it. He was foiled by Drew (who told on him) and his chubby little tummy, which trapped him halfway through, ala Peter Rabbit under Mr. MacGregor's gate.
• Climbing onto the rocking chair in the nursery and rocking the crap out of the rocker (standing, facing backwards) just to the point where it almost tipped over. And laughing the whole time about the thrill of it.
  
• Attempting to walk down the stairs. Even though he still prefers to crawl on level ground.
• Walking up slides at the playground. Even though he still prefers to crawl on level ground.

And the list goes on and on. His complete and total lack of fear or ability to moderate risky behavior combined with my hearing loss means that I literally have to keep my eyes on the kid all day long. Because when he's sky diving off the arms of the sofa, I'm not gonna hear it coming from the kitchen.

Even more awesome is the fact that he is quite possibly the world's WORST daytime sleeper (although I suppose I can feel grateful that he is an awesome nighttime sleeper). Whereas most babies his age sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day, Josh only sleeps in 45 minute stretches, once, sometimes twice, a day. This leaves a lot of hours where he is roaming around in public (i.e outside the safe confines of his crib) and needs to be supervised. By me.

Not only does he not sleep, he doesn't seem to need the sleep and rarely melts down over lack of sleep. This week, he has has gone almost every day without napping until 4 pm, at which point he snoozes for about 45 minutes. He then comments for another 45 until I feel bad that he's yapping to himself trapped in a crib and I release him from the cage crib.

Secretly, I am jealous because I've always felt that sleeping, along with eating, is a GIANT waste of time. When I think of the increased productivity I could achieve if I gave up all forms of refueling, I get positively giddy with excitement. So I'm thinking the kid may have a real gift. Now we just gotta figure out how to channel it....

Josh Walks. Or So I Heard.

Once again, it's been way too long since I've posted updates of the boys' antics on this blog. Truth be told, I am so lazy that I have abandoned blogging for greener pastures where my musings are limited to 140 characters or less (namely, Facebook and Twitter). My name is mud all over the blogosphere, including Deep South Moms, where I'm so delinquent in posting that I'll probably be evicted from the site sometime this week, and Baby Bunching, where everything I write lately is uninspired and crappy. I am, however, excited to attend a blogging conference in a few weeks, which I hope will fuel a burst of creativity and reverse my tendency to conduct all communication in the form of perfunctory status updates.

The erosion of my writing skills aside, one of the main reasons I started this blog was to capture the milestones that are so glaringly absent in the baby books of my second and third children (and really, the first after about the age of 9 months). So today's milestone of the day is (drum roll, please).....

Joshie took his first steps!

I would tell you exactly how it went down, but I can't. Because I didn't see it. Yes, the sole living witness to Josh's tentative foray into the big boy world is his brother Drew. What kills me is that I was literally sitting across the table from Drew, right in the same room when it happened, but the dining room table was blocking my view of the Caboose. Who walked for Drew, but refused to walk for me a few minutes later. Not that I'm bitter or anything.


See how much more interesting and succinct the Facebook version of this story is?

Cara cannot believe that Drew just saw Josh take his first steps and I missed it!!!"

Joshie's First Word!

Joshie's been babbling non-stop in an effort to make his voice be heard among the chaos for months. He and I have long conversations where he knows exactly what he's talking about, but I'm totally in the dark. He also frequently shouts and gestures and issues non-sensical edicts to his brothers.

I've been trying to encourage his verbal skills by providing some coaching and teaching him to "Say Mama!", but the little bugger just grins at me and says, "DADA!" Since he's never actually used this word in connection with Aaron, I've decided it doesn't count as his first word and it's just his super special way of saying, "Mama" to keep me entertained.

But today he decided to start speaking our language!

In case you were wondering, his first word was "bye", and not "shut up, you jackasses", as I predicted it would be.

Josh Goes Psycho

Josh is teething, which is not fun. But on the bright side, at least I know it this time. Believe it or not, I failed to recognize the signs of teething in both of the other boys until we were WEEKS, maybe even a month or so into the process. It is one of the low points of my parenting career that I found my (pregnant with Drew, very morning sick) self screaming at a fussy 9-month-old Cade, "What is WRONG with you!?!??!" Only to realize a few days later that what was wrong with him was that he had two teeth simmering under the surface of his gums. Oops.

I didn't do much better with Drew and questioned why was waking up 15 times a night for two weeks before I realized that (duh!), he also was teething. I will say that teething manifested itself in different ways in each of the boys, so it's not entirely my fault that I didn't recognize it the second time around. But still, I felt pretty bad about being so clueless, especially since because they were so close in age Cade had just finished teething about 5 minutes before Drew started.

It turns out that practice doesn't necessarily makes perfect when it comes to motherhood, but it does hone your maternal instincts (even if it also dulls your intellect somewhat). This time around, I recognized the signs of teething right away and put Josh on a nice steady dose of Motrin to ward off sleepless nights and incessant fussing. Which is a good thing, because it turns out that one of his unique teething side effects is split personalities.

At his last feeding tonight, he was fussing intermittently, alternately refusing to nurse and then subsequently devouring the breast. I figured he might need to burp, so I propped him up on my shoulder. He then proceeded to go all Hannibal Lecter on me, grunting and clawing at my face, while trying to nurse on my nose and cheeks. It was so comical that I had to laugh. Really hard. So hard, in fact, that I scared him and he started crying again. I finally got him calmed down enough to begin nursing again, and he immediately went from being fussy to being Chatty Cathy. He would nurse for a few minutes, then "talk" to the boob, telling it (apparently) baby jokes and then laughing raucously.

All righty then, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. As long as you keep sleeping through the night, I don't care how crazy you are during the day.

Josh in Action

Life has been pretty hectic lately. Fabulous, but hectic. It appears that I had forgotten how much work is entailed in having a baby in the house. It also turns out that having three children is twice as difficult as having two, not merely the 1.5 times as difficult I was expecting. But we're finally starting to get settled into thing, for real this time (I think I said that a few months ago). Josh is settling into a decent sleep schedule instead of screaming intermittently all day and then pretty much from 5 to 11 pm continuously. Mercifully, we've discovered his "off" switch - snuggling him up against a soft, fluffy blanket with a lamb head that Aaron's mom sent for Cade. Neither of the other boys really took to "Lamby" (Cade was already smitten with "Lovey" - I'm not sure what it is with my kids and blankets that have animal heads), but give Josh the lamb and a pacifier and he's good. Even better, he's finally reached the stage where when the pacifier falls out, he can find his thumb. Baby able to suck thumb=more uninterrupted sleep for mom and dad.

Our video camera conked out on us about a month ago and we are using an old-school one that doesn't allow us to get videos online. But I took this using my new Crackberry (LOVE IT!) and thought I would make my first attempt at getting video on the blog so everyone can see how big Joshie is getting! Apologies in advance that it is a little grainy and also a little too long for anyone except the grandparents to see through to the end. In case you're wondering, he DOES roll over before it finishes. Now for the show - fingers crossed that when you click on it, it actually plays...

For the Grandparents

And now, because I know the grandparents will be ticked off that I have time to post pictures of my stupid cupboard but not my baby, here is a picture of my baby.