10 Months

I am trying to keep a monthly photo of Jack to chronicle the differences, but I'm done. I don't know how people do it, some even weekly.

The latest installation had me get this picture. Don't ask me how. Also don't ask me why I put a pale red head on a couch this color with that wall color and never bother to use the natural light in the mornings.

Standing, or jumping?

Here is his face being forced to sit still.

 Bobby has mastered his scooter, except for the stopping part needs some work. I better invest in some more shoes though.

10 Months

Likes

• trashcans
• toilets/toilet seats
• unrolling toilet paper and pulling tissues out of their boxes
• charging for open doors to the outside
• electrical outlets and nightlights
• the computer printer
• the door stopper springs with removable plastic tips and sharp screw nails
• standing up
• bathing and all water
• meat
• food
• whatever toy his brother has

Dislikes

• eating with a spoon
• sleeping through the night

Bobby is good. He is a great brother, if not a little aggressive. He wants to help Jack stand, gets mad when Jack tries to knock his buildings down or take his toys, but he also has never been so excited to play with baby toys and get in Jacks way too. Bobby threw a mango for Jack to catch. Last night he said, "God bless Batman"

I'm ready for August

Grandsons, a photo by sld78 on Flickr.

9 Months

Let's talk (again) about how awesome Jack is. Because he is, so you should come visit him. Easy check up and 2 shots today at his well visit. About 21 pounds, so a bit bigger than Bobby was, but very normal and on his growth curve. He is an active and strong baby. So freakin happy. Only wants to pull up, can get around fast.  Loves the trash can, the toilet, the tv wires and Bobbys nightlight and outlets. Eats everything he is offered, and if you're not fast enough, what you're eating too.

Just a boy and his pizza

He is sleeping well in his crib, goes down easily, is fond of his blanket. He wakes a couple times a night still, but goes right back down after being fed. He LOVES the bath, and will charge for it. He wants to explore the outside so badly. I can't think of anything he doesn't like.

This is my normal

Sometimes it's hard to strap him in the carseat. He doesn't know how to drink out of a bottle. Rick watched both boys from 6am-2pm and Jack did well without me. (So did Rick) He has a top tooth in, but just one. And it looks huge, so the other one better hurry up.

What I have to do with him while I pee.
Look at those mischievous eyes.

 He loves his brother and his brother loves him.
So right before this, I dropped my phone in the bathtub (it was bound to happen) and I thought it was fine, but apparently the microphone has suffered a bit. So it's worth turning up your sound.

Friends!

Easter

We love our friends here. Both the kids, and even better for me, their moms. This is the bunch of usual suspects. They're the best, are like us, approach parenting the same way and we all have a good time.

The lovely little Eleanor

Troy and Liam are just 1 month older than Bobby and every time we get on the freeway, Bobby wants to get off at their exit. And although, he never shows it, he likes them immensely and has a great time. Words can't express, so I won't try.

Our buddies, Troy and Liam

Goofy goobers at breakfast

A sweet moment

Bobby seems to like school once he's there, but he doesn't seem to like getting there.  He does have fun and plays a lot, but I can't say much else.  In 8 months, he's brought home 2 pieces of art. I know that's not his thing, but nothing at Christmas time, come on. He likes his little buddies, and there seems to be some boys boys that he plays with mostly, no surprise there. (I don't know who this kid looking at me is) I'm sure the moms are all friendly, but we just haven't clicked in the few minutes we see each other at drop off.

Hat day at school

There are several Stroller Warrior babies right at Jacks age, and a ton in the 1-2 year old range. Jack is the active baby of the group so far.

Such the ham

Bristols face just kills me

This was right after Jack whacked her on the head

We ended up living on an awesome street. There are 2 other 3 year olds, two 2 year olds, a 1 year old, then another five kids between 6-10. It's nice to be able to walk out front and find someone to play with right before dinner when I'm the most tired or we all need a change of scenery.  Jake is 2 months older than Bobby and they are trouble together. They will run back and forth between houses and we are all able to give each other breaks when needed if someone needs to cook dinner or Jack is sleeping etc. They played on Saturday for at least 5 hours non stop. And then both woke up asking about the other.  We want to buy a house for sure, but are in less of a rush because we'd have to leave our street!

Violet waiting on them in helmet and tutu

Leading the bike posse

Strider buddies

I just want a nice picture, but as you can see, Jack does not stay in one place ever.  And if he does, it is not at ground level.

 

But it's okay because he is the cutest. We hang around a lot of babies and they are pretty cute, but Jack is the coolest too. 

He is definitely getting that older infant forehead full of bruises.  He is the best. He claps all the time. He just started waving. He can spit raspberries. I think he is getting a top front tooth, or at least i saw some blood there, but now that I think about it, he could have smacked his gum on his lower tooth, but he sure was awake enough last night to warrant teething.

He has zero interest in toys that are on the floor.  And nothing you hand him either. He only wants Bobbys toys! Must. have. Bobbys. toys.

He loves to charge for the tv stand and the bathroom. And the lego table and the outside doors and anything else where he could get hurt. Here we go!

March

Big developments in Jacks world this week.  Yesterday, he decided to start crawling. He's been so close forever, but finally figured out how to pick up his arms and get it done. He'd been getting around the room pretty well before though. And if that wasn't enough, as I was sitting on the floor with him, he up and pulled himself up to standing on the toy shelves. Then he pulled himself up on the soap holder in the bath. Too much. Then instead of nursing him to sleep and ever so carefully putting him in bed, I put him down and walked away. He SCREAMED as if being stabbed, but before I could even get to the monitor in the kitchen, he was asleep. So, this could be huge for my mental health. I had been having a lot of mommy brain from the lack of sleep. Jack has figured out how to cluck his tongue in his mouth and he loves it. He also wipes his hand up and down across his mouth while making noise and makes the ah,ah,ah,ah,ah and cracks himself up. He is a great baby and so happy and easy going and there's not much else to say.

Put himself in there somehow

Bobby is a pretty cool kid too. He is highly temperamental and short fused, but I'm willing to overlook that for the good. We try to limit his screen time because he is obsessed with tv, so I put a screen lock on the ipad. He would punch at a it a bit and sure enough one day, I hear, "1 1 1 1, it works!!!!"  So, I change it, couple days later, "1 2 3 4, I did it!"  So don't let this kid near your ATM card if you have an easy pin. shoot.
He is really into patterns and making them and finding them.  He likes to read still, but is obsessed with the page numbers in books and always points them out.  He can almost count to 40 smoothly, the transitions cause some hiccups though ...28,29, twenty-ten... and he still doesn't like 14.  His writing interest comes and goes, he is more interested in the shapes of letters in the bathtub or with blocks, rather than writing with a pen. You can see his interest in reading though and he is associating more and more letters with the sounds they make. He will spell out letters then say "dinosaur" for example, even though it's usually not the right word exactly.

Jack and I got up at 5:15 the other morning, and a few minutes later out toddles Bobby and tells me, "You can't play now, it's the middle of the night" I was not successful in getting him back to bed though. He also told me, "Have it your way" ! We know he's a sponge and copies a lot of what we say and do, but it kills me nonetheless. Especially in the car, telling me how to drive or getting frustrated with red lights (oops) It's cute though.

I think they'll be friends (mostly)

I will say this. I regret being mean to Carolyn and understand why Elizabeth treated me like she did. All the little brother wants is what Bobby has, he gets up in his business and drives Bobby nuts. It's a little mutual as far as Bobby also has to be suddenly really into the toy that Jack will be playing with. I try to tell Bobby that everything we have is both of theirs, but there is still a lot of "your toy" "his toy" going on. Sharing will always keep me on my toes. They have some good moments though.

Even though our winter only means 50 degrees, we have been hit with the normal colds and such. Bobby woke up this morning with a nasty cough and glassy eyes, so he's had a rough day.  He's eaten nothing today, so we'll go to the doctor tomorrow. Jack is pretty hoarse and has been snotty and had a low fever on and off for about 2 weeks.

.

Bobby is getting his days of the week down. At least the names of them. Also knows the first 10 months. They are followed by Devember.  He is great at tracing all the letters and can write a lot of them by himself without seeing it first. He is really good at throwing the frisbee. He does have a bit of a speech thing going on - using his tounge in teeth when he shouldn't and not using it when he should. th/f, s/z. we'll see where it goes. He said this today,
    B: Some people die sometimes.
    Me: Oh yah, like who?
    B: Jesus.
Alrighty, what else are they teaching you at school?

Happiest baby ever

 Jack got his second tooth. He likes to swing and take baths. Really easy going. He finds it totally hilarious whenever Bobby is yelling or crying. He can drink through a straw! He rocks on his hands and knees still. Rolls a bit more frequently. Does not enjoy being in the running stroller very much.

Second child syndrome

Blogger is kicking off my videos, so see them here.

January

This kid is a human garbage disposal.  Nothing he won't, or hasn't eaten. He is well up on his knees and starts to rock, but if he lifts up his arm, he eats it. These kids have nailed tag teaming their naps and night sleeping. It's unbelievable actually. On one of the rare occasions Bobby actually naps, it's pretty much guaranteed Jack will wake up 10 minutes after Bobby is down. And then Jack has started staying up at 4am and when he finally goes back down at 5/5:30, boom, Bobby decides it's time for an early day. Not fun stuff.

Bobby is doing well. Three has been up and down, but while he still has his moments, he's pretty fun and funny. He says such adult things, "I think so," and Does that sound like a plan?, and when he falls, "I'm fine" He's really into rhyming and we're trying to learn the days of the week and the months. He has this lego vampire and he calls it the Umpire and neither of us wants to correct him. Its head glows in the dark and so Bobby waves it around, probably trying to make ghost woooo ooooo sounds, but really sounds like a monkey instead. He has been jumping on the trampoline almost every day.

when he goes potty by himself...

It is surprisingly hard to get a blog post up these days. We are doing well this winter.  It's about 40 degrees some mornings and boy are people cold here. Our blood has thinned too and it's pretty funny to see these people ready to bust out the heaviest clothes they have.  That or they just keep wearing shorts and flip flops.  Had to talk about the weather to get the old pen rolling...

What else, Bobby is doing great. Same old 3.5 year old stuff.  He's a bit of a pill but I won't get into that. Just easily frustrated and doesn't listen.  He is great to Jack and I could easily write a lot of what Elizabeth has written about the baby. Jack loves his big brother. I feel like I will have to work hard on keeping him alive from here on out.

He was sitting really well since right at 5 months. He doesn't spend a lot of time on his back or belly, so he doesn't roll over often, he tries hard to get up on hands and knees, but hasn't made it all the way there, but just like Bobby, he is strong.  We revisited his Jonny Jump up thing that didn't really click when we first got it, but he definitely figured it out this time around. Of course, now the goal is to keep Bobby from swinging him around like crazy.

He also has the first sliver of a tooth peeking through.  He has figured out how to eat.  He likes the mush I give him (blender up some stuff to get him iron) and the bites of all real food I would give him, but I had also let him feed himself the big pieces of food so that got gnawed on or turned to mush, but he has figured out how to open his grip up and get the food in his mouth.  So much so that when I went into the kitchen, he shoved almost a whole cut up meatball in his mouth.  He likes everything as far as I can tell. We worked a sippy cup a bit today too.

Jack LOVES the bath. Which is too bad, because I hate giving him baths. He starts bucking up and down and making all sorts of noises as I run the tub and when Bobby is in it.

He is, however, sleeping horrendously. The last two nights, he would go down at 7, wake up at 8,9, 10 and then I went to bed and who knows what happens after that.  It really is a blur even when I make the effort to look at the clock. I hope that's a combination of growth spurt and teething pain, but this could also be the kind of sleep pattern that forced me to have Bobby learn how to put himself to sleep.

Well, turns out if the boys are asleep and Rick is at work, I can actually get some rambling done. Sleep is looking good, we should make the 7-10pm shift quietly I hope.

Six Months

Time is flying, but I don't really mind that he's getting bigger and more fun. He is about 17.5 pounds with a big head! He is so happy and easy going. He's definitely a mommas boy, but he loves to look at his daddy, just not be babysat by him alone.This is a bit of a drag on my movie date plans, but it's okay.

We had a pretty good visit with Cash and Cooper.  Their whole trip was probably 48 hours door to door, but we were very happy they came to play with us.  The boys got along pretty well and were typical hooligans, with usual 3-4 year old sharing and tired issues.

Christmas Part 2

So many photos taken, so few work out...

Cookie decorating....Mmmmm

Who made the baby wear a Santa hat?

I don't expect the kids to look at me, but come on Clauses!

At least Comet behaved

There were also carolers, a puppet show, petting zoo, horse rides, and crafts which we did, and tree lighting and a movie we didn't stay for. The next morning, we finally got our tree up and decorated. Good times.

Playing with this guy is the reason I burned our last tray of Christmas cookies.

He will not play with any of his rattles or teethers, but if he sees a book or his socks, he will mouth the hell out of those things. He loves to eat paper, sheesh. 

Christmas, part 1

We are finally in the spirit of Christmas after Thanksgiving was so early, but since then it's been go go go. We have been opening our chocolate advent calendar, putting our felt ornaments up and doing our book advent calendar, so Bobby is always asking if it's the next day yet. He is a trip and loves LOVES seeing all the lights and inflatables on house and around town.

One book per day

We went on a Santa cruise, because, why not! It was 30-40 minutes and didn't leave the harbor, but we talked to Santa early and got to enjoy the boat ride.

Then there were tree lightings in the two adjacent towns and our block party.  It was such a gorgeous morning, but ended up drizzly by party time, but didn't phase anyone.  There was a huge bounce house, a lot of potluck dishes and tons of kids, the same 4 three year old boys we went trick or treating with. And Santa even came after his surfer fire fighter day job was over.

Next up more festival/tree lightings and the boat parade.  And the ice castle on the Queen Mary (Carolyn, you should come to that) Ho Ho Ho!

Poor Jack

Consider this his baby book, because that sure isn't getting done.

And I don't know if it's pre-teeting, normal sensory baby desire, or actual interest in food, but he puts everything in his mouth, (duh, like every baby) but he is really grabby at my food. So I give him food and he gums it, but how do i get him to swallow some?