They keep growing and growing.

Loki recently had his 18 month check up.  While he has grown taller in the last 3 months, he has gained no weight.  He's actually gained no weight in the last 6 months, but they say he is still O.K.

We've made in-roads to him sleeping through the night, as long as I don't care when he wakes up.  Good think I'm a morning person.

Right now, Loki loves anything having to do with trucks, cars, planes and dancing.  Put on some music and show him a book with an airplane, and he'll be happy for a good long while.

Words so far for Loki at 18 months:
beep (means car), bup (means truck), airplane (he says this clearly, go figure), geeene (Jeanne), welcome (means thank you, Jeanne got these two confused for almost a year, which I think is hilarious), this (he will point at something or bring me to something and say 'this'', when he wants something specific), up, down, open, close, "All Aboard!", choo choo (means train), efant (elephant).

Jeanne has been growing taller and taller too.  I had thought we would have plenty of clothes for the coming fall for Jeanne, as I bought her all 3T clothes last winter, and they were all large on her.  I was fine with rolling the sleeves up and the cuffs of her pants knowing she could wear them all the next fall/winter.  Well.....that isn't happening.  All of her shirts and pants are too short on her, in both the arms and legs.  So we have to go get all 4T clothing for her.  Yay.

In other news, it seems we are liekly to visit our family in Missouri for Thanksgiving.

Some pictures:

Playing with Marbles, each kid treats them differently.  Jeanne organizes them.

And makes a marble run for them using train tracks.

Getting ready for bed with Grandma.

Baby Rave or a.k.a glow in the dark bath time.

Loki's 9 month check up.

December 21st was Loki's 9th month.

He is 29" long and weighs 18 pounds 10 ounces.  His weight dropped from the 50th percentile to the 25th, but he is thriving and healthy.  The Doctor and I spent most of the time talking about sleep or lack there of, and she seemed to repeatedly suggest just letting Loki cry and leaving him alone.  Eh.
Perhaps its easy to suggest when it is:
a) not your kid
b) not in your ear
c) you don't fear the screaming to wake your toddler

Yeah, I'm posting this video again.

I love you Loki.

Bye bye baby.

Loki is over 7 months old now, and I am having a hard time putting him down.

Well, I write a lot of posts about sleep and lack there of, and if/when you are a parent of a young child sleep is a big concern and topic of discussion.  Do they nap? How long?  Do you hold them or rock them to sleep?  Do you just lay them down when they are tired? Do you let them scream themselves to sleep?  You get the point.  Sleep deprived parents find all sorts of ways to make their child go to sleep as quickly as possible and as painlessly as possible.

I've held the same philosophy with Loki as with Jeanne, but the speed at which I would move onto the next 'stage' is much fast with Loki.  Basically that means I learned to put a sleeping child down, lest I teach the child to *only* sleep in my arms.  I think I've done fairly well with Loki and I can get him to sleep quickly.  He doesn't rely on nursing to fall asleep, but does still like to be held.  Lately I've been putting him down within 2 minutes of him closing his eyes, thus he's very sleepy but not completely asleep yet.  The next *stage* is putting a open eyed but sleepy baby down.  But I can't seem to do it.

I know I am physically able, but mentally I am having a real hard time.  I know Loki will be my last child, and I am already blown away at how quickly the baby months are gone.  Well, honestly, I'm really glad the first 5 months are over, they were so painful for the whole family, but that is another post.

Loki is rolling around at such speeds and determination, he can reach any part of the house in mere moments. His hand eye coordination ability increased rapidly, I think he mastered most of it just this past week.  He is actively *trying* to mimic our sounds, but is having difficulty there.  He is aware, observant, and shows us he understands our sign language and our words.  He is not a little baby anymore.

I know the next stage is crawling/walking and then communication.  Even if his speech is stalled, as is common in second children, we sign so I expect he will sign, just as Jeanne did.  He will quickly grow out of his "Baker Baby face" and his unique Loki features will begin to shine through.  I am sure his smile will be his best feature.  He has an amazing smile, it always makes me feel.  Feel is the right word, he makes me feel everything more intensely.

Hindsight is a "B".  Regardless, I have two healthy, intelligent, children who have changed me fundamentally.  I love and cherish them both and want to provide all I can for them.  My children have a father.  They have a father who loves them and wants them to become fabulous, however they choose.

My daughter is losing her baby face entirely, and is taller than some 3 year old's on the playground.  My son is growing so quickly, I just don't want to put him down. I want to rock him to sleep.  In my arms, close to me, so he can hear my heartbeat, and I can listen to his calm breathing.

In and out.
In and out.
In and out.
In and out.

Loki, in utero

Jeanne in utero

I love you both dear babes.