Anna 9 mo. Thor 2 1/2

It's been a long time since I last posted... so much has changed, grown, transformed.

Anna is growing and maturing so quickly!! Such a cute, demanding, transforming age. She is working on standing alone -- she can pull up to standing easily and then let go and balance for a few seconds. She crawls like wildfire. Gets into everything of Thor's, follows us around the house, loves to crawl outside more than anything. I wonder how soon she'll be walking? A month? Two months? My guess is around 11 months. A lot like Thor in the way she's so physical. So mobile. Wants to be down, trying to move, rather than held.

She's got 6 teeth now. Got ALL FOUR top teeth at once! Whew. That was painful I think. Hopefully she'll take a teething break for a little bit.

Unlike Thor, Anna is an impolite nurser. Hee hee. Nursing has been harder with her. For one thing we keep getting thrush... that's painful! Also she pinches and scratches really bad. She squirms like crazy, and isn't super interested in nursing for comfort. She just wants her food. Thor was so different. Such a polite, cuddly nurser and loved to nurse for comfort. Anna has me thinking... OK, can I make it to 1 1/2 for her??? Not sure... at this rate I'm hoping she'll wean early, even though I do believe it's so important to nurse for at least 2 years.

Thor. Incredibly verbal lately. It's great to hear the way he's becoming so intelligent, aware, and vocal about it. He uses completely full, gramatically correct sentences. "I would like a bottle of milk, please." Or, "I would like to offer mama some orange juice." He's also started talking about remembering things, about why things happen, and about his feelings. "I'm lonely." "I no like it."

Thor is what I would call completely weaned, although he does still ask to nurse occasionally. I just say no or distract him. I'm all done. It still makes me giggle when he says, "Mama. I would like a tiny nurse. I DO want it." Poor guy. I usually say, "I know buddy, we all want a tiny nurse!" :)

The big struggle is still Thor being too rough with Anna. Since she has been mobile, he's been pushing her, knocking her down, hitting her with things, etc. This has been one of my biggest challenges so far -- how to deal with it. Because sometimes it feels like my entire day is spent telling Thor to "Be gentle" or else protecting Anna. And I've been working on my patience and trying to find ways to deal with the rage I feel when he hurts Anna, my baby! It's hard. Hard hard hard. No other way to say it.

Some good news... Thor is well on the way to being potty trained. He did it all by himself! One day I looked over and he was just peeing in his potty! No need for pushing it, rewards, bribes! :) Yay, I knew it could be done! :) Good job Thor!