There has been a lot going on with William recently.  About a week and a half ago he learned to crawl.  It had been a struggle for her for about two weeks before that were he was stuck up on his knees or feet and then falling on his face.  We thought he'd be happy for a while once he crawled, but he immediately moved on to the next skill and yesterday he pulled up for the first time on a create of books at the library.  I turned around and there he was standing up!  Today he did it again a few times with our music table. He is getting good enough at standing holding on to a table that you can walk away for a little bit.  He likes being up where Natalie is playing, but he can't play with most of her things.  Either they are too small, too breakable, or she is too protective of them.  Its going to be a rough haul for a while I think.  He was already getting into trouble just crawling (getting stuck under the desk and TV cabinet and in corners), but now he is reaching for all sorts of things.  I guess I"m going to have to teach Natalie to put toys away as soon as she finishes with them.  I wish I could have her play in her room with the more dangerous items, but she isn't ready to go play on her own.  I also think I would miss her if she was in her room all day!  I am thinking that we could hook up the TV I took to college in her room with the built in VCR.  Then I could let her watch movies in there sometimes so she would play in her room alone.  She needs to work on playing in there without me.  It would let her play alone with the things William can't get into while also giving me some time alone with William.  She already gets time alone with me when he naps.  We often do crafts then.  I feel like if we could get the right arrangement of toys and furniture throughout the yard and house it would fix the problem.  I bought her a little desk and chair which she loves and we are going to move the picnic table outside.  It would be ideal to have the new desk and chair in her room, but she loves it too much.  I'm already thinking she will be sad when the picnic table is no longer in here for her to sit at, but we need the room in here and there is no seating outside.  I'm going to move the kitchen in her room and the play food and dishes because they can both play with that.  I think it will be hard to know who owns what toys for a while.  Until now, everything has been Natalie's, even William's stuff.  But he is going to start having favorite toys soon.  I just rotated some toys and it seems to have made both of them happy.  William got some new little sensory balls and the blocks from the shape sorter and he seems to like them a lot.  Natalie likes to play with the craft items we make.  Today we had a great moment when Natalie, William, and I were all playing with the instruments.  It was one of the first times when we were really all playing together.  I've also been wondering about bed time.  I'm hoping that at some point we can take the bath time together and make all of bed time be together so that William can get to see Mike for the reading portion. 

William's night time sleep is frustrating.  We are currently at four wakings a night.  They aren't especially regular, but do get closer together as the night goes on.  Just tonight, Mike went in when he cried at 845, which is pretty early, not even two hours after I left him.  He seemed wide awake, though most nights he's not.  Mike was frustrated and put him back down and we let him cry.  He was back to sleep within 10 minutes and his cry never got really bad (like the night we tried crying it out in the middle of the night).  I dislike letting him cry it out at night.  He is old enough to know that he went to sleep with me and miss me when he wakes up, but I don't want to cut off his nursing before he is asleep because he is so busy and distractable during the day.  Plus, he has no way to soothe himself.  Natalie sucks her thumb and has since about 4 months, which is when she started sleeping through. But it never stuck with William.  So when he goes to sleep, he has nothing to calm him.  At nap, he just cries.  The other day I went in to check on him at nap time and tried to help him lay back down.  He was resisting and eventually just slammed down onto the mattress like a ton of bricks.  I've tried putting a little blanket in there for him to chew since he loves cloth so much, but he doesn't seem to take to it much.  He does seem to like his seahorse that plays music though.  I just feel bad that he's in there, so small, missing us, yet he has no way to cope with that other than crying.  I've often wondered if he just needs to cry a little as a way of coping, but I still feel bad when its that angry cry and if it goes on more than ten minutes. 

Speaking of missing.  The last few nights when Natalie says goodnight to William, she's said she misses him in the night!  Its so cute.  I wonder if its because she hears him crying when he wakes up, especailly when I do his diaper (have to or he leaks).  Tonight I asked her if she would like a picture of William like she has of Mommy and Daddy and she said yes.  For a while, Natalie wouldn't say goodnight to William, but she has been doing it regularly now.  Sometimes she even comes in to his room for his book. 

As frustrating as William's sleep and nursing can be (today he bit me for the first time leaving a small cut), I do love putting him to sleep at night.  He often laughs as he's going to sleep.  So, he will be frantic until we start nursing.  He is fighting getting his diaper on trying to roll over.  He is crawling all over the bed trying to chew on the lotion bottles or rub his face on the pillows.  But once we nurse, he is happy and snuggles in to eat.  He usually gets very sleepy on the first side while I read to him in the dark.  Then, some nights, he lets go and giggles and smiles up at me all sleepy.  He'll touch my face and yawn.  Its so great.