Time for updates!

Things are movin' and shakin' around here... Marcus is crawling like a little maniac and of course, he ALWAYS bee-lines for whatever prohibited thing is nearest--his favorites being anything with an electrical cord, night lights, dog food dishes, and the stairs. I am working to train him on descending the stairs properly, but he is in too much of a hurry to stop and back down, so he typically crawls at full speed (which is surprisingly fast) straight for the bottom. Sigh. It's exhausting to spend longer than about 10 minutes with him. :) But he is awfully cute, and doing very well now that his tubes are in. We suspect that he has already had another ear infection, based on the goop that was seeping out of his ear, but thanks to the tubes, we were all able to sleep thru the nite.

Speaking of sleeping thru the nite, we are working with Marcus to get him to give up the two or three bottles that he typically drinks between bedtime and morning...and he's not especially happy with us for doing it. We have had to resort to a modified Ferber method, and it triggers my PTSD from the nites in the Omnigon Pit of Despair when we had to do it with Zac, so it's pretty painful. Fortunately, Chris is amazing and has been working with M, and really, he's a quick study--not nearly as stubborn as his big brother, so we're doing pretty well in the sleep department all things considered.

We also had to move the crib mattress to its lowest setting because Marcus is such a daredevil that I wouldn't put it past him to attempt to climb out already--especially when he was so disgruntled with us for not picking him up when he demanded it. The beauty of that move is that now we have to change diapers on the floor (poor second child, we never purchased a changing table for him) which really makes every diaper change an adventure not to be soon forgotten. :)