Eat, drink and be merry

So our little man has been trying new foods left and right. I started him on baby food the week he turned 6 months. He's always been a very hearty healthy eater but my previous attempts at baby food were met with lots of gagging and nasty faces so I held off a bit longer then I did with all the other kids. I have come to learn that he LOVES any and all fruits but HATES most veggies. In fact, the only ones I can actually get him to eat are sweet potatoes and squash. All other veggies are met with gagging, crying, and lips locked shut! This little one makes so many silly faces. I just love trying to capture them all.

 

PEAS 

 

1ST GO AT A SIPPY CUP

 

LOTS OF BITING THE SPOON & REFUSING TO LET GO

 

SQUASH

 

MANDARIN ORANGES

SWEET POTATOES



Happy 7 months Jax!

" 7 MONTHS ALREADY?!"

Oh my! It doesn't even seem possible. Can you really be 7 months already? I know people say this all the time but it feels like I just brought you home from the hospital.


Boy this journey to motherhood a 4th time has really thrown me for a loop. My son, you are quite the handful. I may have said this here on the blog before but I'll say it again. If you had been my first baby you would have been an only child. I've often thought that maybe you had colic. Around your six month birthday it seemed to hit its peak and then you looked to be mellowing out a bit. I was thrilled with this up until two weeks ago when I could feel that familiar chaos creeping back up on us. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt or a new teefer coming in, but you're just not happy.

Eating: You are quite the eater as we can tell by your thigh chub. At 6.5 months you weighed 18lbs 15oz and were 29 inches long. Big boy! At 6 months we started you on jarred baby food. To be honest most days you could care less about it. You're shaping up to be a pretty picky eater so it's a bit frustrating. We started with sweet potatoes and you loved them. Then we did pears and those were also a hit. Then we tried bananas and twice you broke out with red cheeks so I think we'll steer clear of those for awhile. Then in no particular order we tried peas (hated), green beans (hated), carrots (liked), prunes (liked), mangoes (liked), country garden vegetables (hated), blueberries and apples (liked). Notice a pattern? You, my son, do not like vegetables. I've considered trying to make my own baby food so that we can try things like cauliflower, avocado, broccoli etc. etc. We shall see how it goes. You are now drinking 7 oz 3 scoops formula. That's watered down 6 ozs. You're constipation is still a minor issue so we're keeping with the extra ounce of water. Your eating schedule looks like this most days:

     5:00am- 7 oz bottle
     9:00am- 1 jar of fruits/yogurt and 7 oz bottle
     1:00pm- 7 oz bottle
     5:00pm- 7 oz bottle
     7:00pm- 1 jar veggies
     8:00pm- 7 oz bottle

That totals 30 ounces of formula a day. I'd like to cut that down a bit as you start eating more baby food. You have tried Walmart brand baby Mum Mums but they don't seem to dissolve as quickly as I remember the name brand ones so I'm very weary about giving them to you. I've had to fish them out of your throat a couple times. Much too scary for Mommy!

Sleeping: This is a bit of a touchy subject for me right now. My awesome sleeper has recently disappeared and the bags under my eyes have reappeared! Your big sister hasn't helped matters either. I put you both to bed by 8:30pm. Most recently you've been stirring around 12:30am but I don't usually go in to soothe you. Luckily you fuss, toss and turn a bit and roll to the side and fall back asleep. Then by 3am your sister is crying and searching for her binky. I go in to help her as quickly as I can so that she doesn't wake you up. She goes back to sleep without a fight. If I'm lucky I get to sleep until 5am which is usually bottle time. Some nights like last night you wake up one or two more times but fuss for a minute or two and drift back to sleep.

I'm totally in love with your recent attachment to sleeping with the Cat in the Hat stuffed animal I bought for your nursery when I was pregnant. When I first bought it my intention was to sit it on a shelf somewhere just for decoration. When I got it and realized that it's arms and legs where so thin and flimsy I realized it would never sit up nicely so I put it at the bottom of your crib. A couple weeks ago when I was putting you to bed I handed it to you and you immediately cuddled up to it and hugged it tightly. From that moment on you were in love. Every time I hand it to you you start kicking your feet and mushing your face into it. I've always hoped to have a baby that used a lovie or a stuffed animal and you seem to be that baby.

Diapering: You are now wearing size 3 diapers. I've considered buying size 4 diapers for nighttime, but have managed to avoid that by not changing your diaper and putting you in your PJ's until right before I put you to bed.

 

Clothing: It makes me sad to admit that you fit nicely into 12 month clothes. You can even pull off an 18 months shirt. Shopping for fall and winter clothes has been an adventure. Every stores clothes seem to run a bit different which makes me have to try everything on you.

     Carters- Currently you're wearing size 12 months. Onesies fit great and the pants are a bit big, but
     doable. I'm hoping you continue to fit into 12 months for fall and then when it gets even chillier
     you'll probably need 18 months.
     Old Navy & GAP- Currently you fit into 12-18 month shirts comfortably, but 6-12 month pants.
     Anything that can be worn baggie and that I want to fit you for awhile I buy in size 18-24 months.
     Children's Place- Currently you're wearing size 9-12 month jeans and 12 or 18 month shirts. The
     shirts will fit for awhile, but length wise I will have to be buying 12 month jeans for late fall.

So as you can see shopping has been fun!

Bath time: Sometime around 5.5 months I bought a bath sling that made bath time much easier. It allowed me to bathe you with Alexa. This was great until I realized that the bath sling took up 3/4 of the tub and left little swimming room for Alexa. We made the most of it until this past week when I dug out the bathtub ring. You have been sitting very well lately so I knew you could handle it. Like I suspected, you love it and bath time is now a blast.

 

Outings: Our outings have become much more enjoyable with some of your latest milestones. The first milestone that made everything easier recently was when you learned to hold your own bottle. This now means that when we're out shopping I can easily hand you your bottle when it's time to eat. I don't have to do the "one handed double stroller push" which is next to impossible (especially with the stroller malfunctions we were having). The second milestone that made outings easier was learning to sit up unassisted. I can now sit you (with the shopping cart cover) in the top seat of the shopping cart. This makes you much happier. You love being able to see everything going on around you. Oh yea and we have officially switched our sit and stand snap and go stroller into just a sit and stand. You love your permanent seat in the front. We also bought a new single stroller for days when I feel like torturing challenging myself and letting Alexa walk. You enjoy how comfy it is and even fell asleep in it on our last mall trip.

 

Awake Time: This past month we added two new pieces of baby equipment to our baby arsenal. We bought a used walker and piano exersaucer. You love them both and spend quite a bit of time in them. Your favorite by far has to be sitting in the walker and pushing backwards outside. You LOVE being outside! If there's ever an especially cranky time of the day I can cheer you up with a quick walk in the stroller or even just by sitting outside on the porch in our chairs.

As I mentioned before you are an excellent sitter now. You rarely fall back anymore and playing with toys has a whole new meaning now. I've had to invent in some more baby toys for you to sit and play with. Rattles and chew toys will just not suffice when you have learned just how fun it is to sit and play with musical light up toys.

We have seen you roll. We do know it's possible, but it is definitely not your favorite past time. You haven't quite learned that by rolling you can get to the things you'd really like to explore. Soon buddy, soon. You have made some advances towards being able to move around. The other night after bath time I dressed you in your PJ's and left you to play in your room on your belly. When I walked back in you were up on your knees rocking back and forth. You have learned to push backwards and can back yourself into a corner like a champ. I'm in no hurry for you to learn these things. I want to enjoy each and every stage of your development.

I have noticed you have started to find your voice. Most of your life your noises have consisted mostly of crying. Ugh! But lately you've been screeching and yelling more. I often say to you "Babababa" or "Dadadada" in hopes of hearing you copy me but not yet. You do copy me though when I blow raspberries and you think it's hysterical. You love sticking out your tongue too!

Well Jax, or JJ, or Jackson, or buh-eee whichever you prefer, you are keeping me on my toes, but I couldn't love you more. Your smile and your dimples get me every time. In fact I hope you don't soon learn to use those dimples against me. I melt with every smile. I love looking into your brown eyes and seeing bits of myself. It's been awhile since I could do that. I love you munchkin!

Firsts

 FINALLY growing some hair!

8-13-12 (25 weeks)

 

 First time rolling from back to belly

8-21-12 (26 weeks)

 

 First baby brother battle wound (bitemark from Lexa)

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

 Pushing up with his arms for a better view of the world living room

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

First taste of sweet potatoes 

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

 First taste of watermelon

8-25-12 (26 weeks)

 

 Holding his own bottle full time now

8-25-12 (26 weeks)

 

Sitting up alone

8-26-12 (26 weeks)



26 months

My baby girl is acting more and more like a big girl these days. Most recently she has started putting two words together and it makes her seem so much older. Every once in awhile Abby catches Alexa in a copycat mode and she can get her to copy just about everything she says. The latest has been Abby trying to teach Alexa to answer someone who calls her name with "What Mommy?" It cracks me up every time.

Abby: "Alexa?"
Alexa: ".........."
Abby: "What are you supposed to say?"
Alexa: "Whutt Sitsy?"

Abby: "When Mommy calls you what do you say?"
Alexa: "Whutt Momma?"

My girls.

Some of the other things that melt my heart with all of the cuteness...

     -Every morning she follows me into the bathroom. I get my contact case and solution out and put it  on the counter. She says "Tontacts?" And I say yes and she puts her finger on the top of my contact solution and then puts her finger to her closed eye and pushes her finger into her eyelid. I standby and laugh...that is of course after I put my contacts in and can actually see her!

     -If I threaten her with time out she immediately stops doing what she's doing and says "Saw-eee" aka sorry.

     -She loves blowing bubbles in her milk with her straw bowl

     -The first word out of her mouth every morning is "Baby?". Then we go into my room to see baby sleeping in the cosleeper.

     -Anytime someone gets her or if she does something wrong to them she says "Ki?" aka kiss and kisses their boo boo or just kisses them to make them happy again. Recently when she has had an accident and wets her panties she comes up to me and says "Saw-eee" and kisses me.

     -She loves to play doctor with her doctor kit. She brings me the doctor coat and says "Doc-terw PEP-perw" Once when we were in the grocery store I was going over our shopping list. One of the things on the list was a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. She immediately repeated after me. Since then when she wants to play doctor she says Doctor Pepper.

     -Every time we go to the Marple 10 shopping center she sees Petco and screams "Feesh" because she wants to go see them.

     -She has started saying "lah-ouu" for love you

     -She is obsessed with her PipSqueek Markers. She loves to draw on her "pay-pah". She has filled an entire marble copybook in one week!

     -She has taken a real liken to her kitchen set and shopping cart this month. She cooks food and brings it to us to eat. I love watching her imaginative play!

Some other Lexa facts:

-I'm buying her size 3T clothes for fall
-She wears a size 5 diaper at bedtime and naptime and a size 2T/3T pull up when we go out in public
-No longer sits in the high chair. She uses the booster seat that Mom Mom bought her for her birthday.
-Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Mou), Yo Gabba Gabba (Dabby), and Sesame Street (Melmo)
-Steals Jackson's mimi's every chance she gets
- Is putting two words together "What Momma?", "Hi Baby", "Baby Cat"
-Can drink using a regular cup
-Weighs 30lbs
-Naps for 2-3 hrs everyday
-Had her first visit to the aquarium
-Says "huh?" after everything I say and it drives me BONKERS!

 This is the face she makes when she's pretending to nap

 

 Her first haircut....Mommy's Hair Cuttery

 

 My little gymnast! She loves doing tumbles and cheer pyramids

 We spent the day at the park with friends and she's finally beginning to play with her friends instead of just alongside her friends.

This little daredevil kept going down this slide head first even though she slid so fast that every time she fell onto the ground!

 

 

I find myself laughing at this little girl all day. She is just generally a very pleasant and happy little girl. Everyone loves spending time with her! Sometimes I still can't believe she's two already because I'm still waiting for the terrible two's to kick in. She's a real keeper!

Breakfast photoshoot

I have to say I'm totally obsessed with learning how to use my new camera in manual mode with no flash. The one thing I've learned is that our house has really crappy lighting! I have however found an amazing place to take beautiful pictures in the morning. That place is our dining room table. It also happens to be a time when Alexa is pretty distracted and lets me take lots of pictures without her making her famous camera face. Read sticking out her tongue!

Crazy bed head!

Milk bubbles

PRUNES...yum!

Nothing better to do at 2am then update the blog

I should know better...no searching pinterest before bed. It gets all the creative juices flowing in my brain and makes it almost impossible to sleep! I'm researching (that's what I call it when I waste time on pinterest) ideas for Cindy's Very Hungry Caterpillar themed baby shower. I've volunteered to be in charge of the decorations and I'll probably volunteer to be in charge of the games too. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy planning parties?

We've been keeping busy. Will that ever not be the case?



A whole lot of this going on around here...

A lot of this seemed to help until his teething necklace showed up in the mail...

Now we have tons and tons of this.I love this happy boy!

I'm trying to make blogging in bed on my phone a new habit for myself. It seems that that's the only time I get to update these days. I have to say though that seems to be changing. This past week has been brutal with Mr. Jackson. I've really struggled to find happiness is holding an 18lb baby 10 hours a day. Fortunately we have reached a happy place with him. On Thursday I checked the mail and happily found that my friend Kristen had sent us her extra amber teething necklace. Now I must admit that I had my doubts but we were desperate for something to work. I mean this boy would never learn to roll over or crawl or sit if he only spent time in our arms! I put the necklace on him immediately. He looks like a little surfer dude and I love it! By Friday morning I was noticing a difference. He was actually content being in his exersaucer. As the day progressed I was able to put him in his jumperoo and he actually smiled. Every day he seemed to be a little bit more pleasant. And today? Well he has been a perfect angel! He hung out in his saucer, jumperoo, high chair, and playmat. He just played and it was amazing!! Thank you creator of the amber teething necklace. I owe you one!!

The chaos continues

I sat down two days ago to make a to do list. I filled up two notebook pages front and back. It seems the list never gets smaller. I cross something off and add two more. I used to pride myself on being organized but I'm learning that life with four kids is anything but organized and little by little I'm becoming ok with that.

Summer vacation is coming to an end. It's time to hit those summer reading books hard and complete those math packets. The big kids haven't been asleep before 11pm in almost two months. I don't fight them too much about it because they always sleep until 10am or later. These next few weeks will be filled with finishing up some things from our summer bucket list and just enjoying our time together. They're growing up too fast and I have to make the most of these days we have together during the summer.

Alexa is doing amazingly well with her potty training. I bit the bullet and invested in some pull ups for potty training on the go. I also bought a travel potty and I try to remember to frequently ask her if she has to use it when we're out and about. She is pretty good at asking to use it herself. She is still wearing pull ups/diapers during nap an bedtime. I just don't think she's capable of conquering that one yet. When she wakes from her naps she let's me know her "panties" are wet and then says "nap" and tilts her head to one side as she tries to explain that her panties are wet because she was sleeping. God I love that kid! I've been enjoying her so much these days. She is quite the comedian and keeps us all smiling. She has just started saying "lo-ouh" for love you. And it melts my heart every time. She has also been saying "sar-ey" for sorry. Too stinkin cute!

As for my Jackson boy...he's been giving me a run for my money. This past week has been awful. He's been drooling up a storm and just ALWAYS unhappy. Sometimes I wonder if he'll ever smile again. He wants nothing to do with his walker, his play mat, his bumbo or anything other then my arms. He even bumped it up to an extra annoying level when he decided that he not only wanted to be in my arms but wanted to be walking around. He does know I have three other kids and a house to run right?! On July 31st I put my finger in his mouth to feel his gums and sure enough I felt a sharp edge of his first tooth coming in. It's hard to believe that the pictures I'm taking these days could be the last images of his toothless smile. Yesterday I received a nice present in the mail for him. My friend Kristen had sent me her extra amber teething necklace for him. I immediately put it on him and today I feel was a bit better. He didn't need to be held all day and actually cracked a few smiles. I'm not fully convinced that it's a miraculous recovery but every bit of improvement is success in my eyes.

I finally treated myself to something I've been wanting for awhile. I went out two weeks ago and bought myself a new camera. It's a Canon Rebel T3i and it's the new love of my life! I bought two great books on photography and have been reading every night. I'm excited to really learn to use this thing! I regret not getting a better camera when Alexa was born but am so thrilled to have been able to get one now.

So my eyelids are getting heavy and my thumbs are getting sore from typing on my phone. I think it's time to turn off the light and get some shut eye. Jackson will be awake for his morning bottle in ummmmmm 4 hours. Thankfully he'll go right back to sleep afterwards.

Potty Trained in 3 days?

Today Alexa turned 25 months. I think it's safe to say that I should stop counting her age in months from here on out, but for today's post I feel like it's necessary to point out that she JUST turned two! I've been toying around with the idea of potty training her for a bit. About two months ago I started brushing up on my potty training skills and debating on what reward system I wanted to use when I did bite the bullet. After messing around on the internet I took Alexa with me upstairs to take a shower. I usually don't do this but since pee pee was on my brain, I took her diaper off and told her to sit on her potty while I showered which she did very willingly. When I was done I checked the potty and there was no pee pee to be seen. I got dressed in my room and Alexa stayed in the bathroom. A few seconds go by and I hear the little pee pee jingle playing. Her potty is amazing and it plays a pretty catchy little jingle every time she pees in it. I thought for a second that maybe it was a fluke. Before I could walk to the bathroom she came walking into my room wiping herself with a towel. Boy this kid is observant...well, sort of. I wipe, but never with a towel. I digress. Yay! She did it! You would've thought she had graduated college or saved someone's life. Nope. Just pee. My heart swelled with pride. I immediately went to the store and bought a 3 pack of Gabba panties. That was a joke. She wet all three in a matter of two hours. Feeling a bit discouraged I vowed to wait until after her birthday. Fast forward two months to July 3rd. I was ready to try again. I knew we were going to be hanging around at home for a few days. I figured this would be a great time to bunker down and get'er done! I put Alexa in panties and every five minutes I asked her if she had to go potty. Occassionally she would say no but more often then not she would say yes and sit on the potty. There were a whole lot of false alarms but every once in awhile she actually went and what better to reward her with then popsicles?! She loved it...so much so that I'd often find her sitting on the potty pushing even when she didn't have to go. She even cried a few times when she couldn't push anything out. After going thru a few too many popsicles I changed up my tactic. Day two was filled with lots of mini m&m's. Every time she went pee pee she helped me count out 10 m&m's. Awesome! She was peeing like a pro. By the end of the day we had our first poopy in the potty too! Wooooo! Me and both big kids did lots of potty celebration dances that day. Now she's only in diapers at naptime and bedtime. She occassionally wakes up from naps dry but I'm not confident enough in her ability to hold it yet. We'll give that a little bit of time. I bought a pack of pull ups too and we use those when we're out in public just in case. I still tell her they're panties though so there's no confusing them with diaper. I'm just so proud of her! She is defintely the youngest of the kiddies to be potty trained AND the quickest!

Party planning is my passion!

I admit it...I'm a party planning junkie! Months before the kids birthdays roll around you will find me scouring the internet looking for ideas. My pinterest "Party" board is one of my favs!! This year I struggled with deciding whether to do a "Yo Gabba Gabba" theme or a "Goggie" theme. She loves both things equally. I knew I could find plenty of premade Gabba decorations but I'd have to make the doggie themed ones. Which theme won? Doggies of course! I couldn't pass up the adorable puppies I found on the Create a Critter cartridge....a super cute dalmation and light brown terrier. I started gathering ideas in April and worked on things little by little. As always I had more ideas then I was actually able to bring to life.

Front Door

Favor Table

Back Door

Archway between living room & dining room

Outside Table Centerpieces

Lexa's Party Shoes

Dessert Table
Brownies, Pawprint cupcakes, Pupcorn, Choc covered pretzels, Fruit cups, Fruit dip, Pink waffers, Rice crispy treats

I'm so sad. I didn't take any pictures of the backyard in all of it's pink and purple prettiness. We had four round tables set up with pink and purple tableclothes and lots of balloons. I decorated Alexa's high chair with pink and purple streamers and a big dalmation taped to the front of the tray. Super cute!

I didn't have very many crafts or games to do this year. I had quite a few people find out that they couldn't make it last minute and quite a few of the guests were too young to participate in anything like that. Next year I'm sure it will be a little more exciting. Most of the little kids spent their time playing in the water table and the sandbox. The adults spent time chit chatting and eating. I feel like I raced around like a crazy woman the whole day but I enjoyed it all. Alexa had a blast pouring water on her head, opening her presents, playing with her new chapstick and eating sweets! Sounds like a great 2nd birthday party for my birthday girl!!

FRIENDS: Ebby, Ryan, Alexa and Richie

She had sooooo much fun dumping water on her head

Llama Llama Misses Momma from Mommy, Daddy, Abby, Nate and Jax

Doctor Kit from Kristen, Tommy and Ryan

This is the face she made the whole time we sang "Happy Birthday"



Puppy Pound

And when it was time to go home the guests each got to pick a puppy, puppy chow (cocoa puffs), puppy vitamins (gummy bears), a leash and collar and a tennis ball for the puppy (or the owner)