Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Jackson...

I know there are so many things I need to update on from the holidays, but I had to write real fast and inform everybody that our little guy is growing, and just rolled over for the first time! Woohoo Jackson!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

3 months old!

Jackson is 3 months old today! Time sure does fly! Here are some updated pictures of our "little" guy, as well as a bit about what he's up to these days.

Jackson loves bath time with his big sister. And Kathryn equally enjoys it! She loves to help wash his piggies and dump water on him when we're not looking!
Jackson has a naturally occurring mohawk!
Getting better at tummy time...working on those muscles!
Hanging out with his big sister...
Sleeping in the sunlight...
Still likes to be swaddled to sleep...
So handsome in my hat!
Jackson is such a little joy to us! He is quite the talkative little guy, and babbles, coos, and blows bubbles all the time. He also laughs a lot too, and has been for weeks! He's very ticklish and will giggle when we tickle him, but will also laugh when we do something funny. He is very interactive with people. He is sleeping pretty well, at least at night. We have recently started putting him to bed around 9:00 or so, and the past few nights he's slept until 5:30a.m.! Although some would consider that sleeping through the night, I don't count it as such until he's sleeping through MY night! :) He's getting closer and closer to it, I think! As I mentioned, he does still need to be swaddled. In fact, his hands are becoming more and more of a problem these days when sleeping if he's not swaddled. I've been trying to get him to nap without the swaddle, but it never turns out well. I've also been trying to get him to nap in his crib, but he's still not very good at that yet either. The longest stretch he's given me in his crib was about 30 minutes... (He still sleeps in our room at night.) During the day, he still eats every 2-3 hours, although his nursing sessions are starting to shorten to about 8-10 minutes long. The kid can belch like a grown man, can be heard filling his diaper across the room, and snores so loud I sometimes can't tell if it's him or his daddy! He's quite the miniature man! :) His fussiness is much better than it was, and although we still have plenty of nights where he cries pretty intently, the duration of his crying sessions has shortened dramatically and they occur less often. Praise God for that! When he is particularly fussy, he tends to calm down when we sit on the exercise ball with him and bounce. He still loves his swing, and spends a good bit of time in there for his naps. When he's awake, he likes to have people around him, and just yesterday was happy as can be but then burst into tears when I walked out of the room. We can hardly believe that three months have passed, and look forward to what the next three months have in store for our sweet boy!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Blessings...

The past couple of days have had their good points and their not-so-good points. Being a mom of two little ones so close together can be tough. But, this morning in particular, I have also had some sweet moments that I wanted to relay, mostly just to help myself as I seek to keep a good perspective when things get tough. In the midst of poop on special outfits, times when both kids were crying (no, screaming) for 10 minutes at a time, not being able to put the baby down without him crying, being tired, overwhelmed, frustrated, and cranky, I have been able to have these blessings, which overshadow all the previous mentions:

-tight hugs from Kathryn where she squeezes so hard she grunts
-sweet smiles, coos, and giggles from Jackson
-rocking the baby to sleep in my arms
-Jackson sleeping in his crib in his room for 30 minutes (the most he's ever done in his own room!)
-tracing Kathryn's hand, then saving the paper because she did such a good job drawing in the fingernails
-baking brownies with Kathryn
-reading a story to both kids on my lap
-rocking both kids and singing Jesus Loves Me over and over again

On those days where I feel like all I do is wash dishes, do the laundry, fill sippy cups, feed little mouths, wipe butts, discipline, and struggle to figure out who I am anymore, may I never forget or take for granted these sweet blessings in the small, everyday things.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

23 months!

Kathryn turned 23 months on Friday, but I've been having trouble loading pictures, so am just now getting around to her post! I know, it's kinda crazy that I'm still doing monthly posts for her, but she's doing so many new things that I couldn't wait until she turned 2 to post all she's been doing! She's really loving taking care of her little brother, and copies what she sees me doing with her baby dolls sometimes. Last week Jackson was having a particularly fussy day, so I was wearing him in the sling a lot. Finally Kathryn came crying to me with her baby and pointing at my sling. So, I made her a makeshift sling from one of her blankets. As you can see, she took her job very seriously!She also had her first coloring uh-oh, on the lamp! Of course I had to take a picture of it, after telling her we don't color on things besides coloring books and paper. Even as I'm typing this, she sees the picture and is telling me "Uh oh!". Thank goodness for Magic Erasers...got the crayon right off and the lamp is good as new!
She still loves to help me cook, and I can't even heat up a mug of water for tea without her dragging the kitchen chair over to help me!
She likes to taste along the way as she cooks! I promise if we make food for other people, I watch her closely so your food isn't tried!

One thing she really likes to help with is salad. It's easy for her to help me with that too because it's not hot or juicy, so if she spills, it's easy to clean up. She likes to put all the cut veggies in the bowls. Of course, we usually end up with salads missing our tomatoes and cheese because she steals them from our bowls and eats them!
She also helps set the table. Somehow only one fork made it to the table this night...
As I mentioned, she loves to help me with Jackson. Some of her favorite jobs include: getting his paci, telling him "shhh!", burping him, rubbing his back, holding him, getting his burp cloths for me, helping me change his diaper, and taking baths with him.

Her language is also really coming along. Some new words include: ice, comb, buddy, ball, brrrr, boo, two, go, bubbles, and I'm sure others that I'll have to post later! She loooooves singing, and is often singing along with any music that's on or making up her own songs. Of couse I can't understand what she's saying, and sometimes it's just humming, but she loves music (especially her kid music). I am starting to hear her get some words correct in some songs. She also recognizes tunes, which I think is really cool. She'll push the music buttons on her toys until she hears the songs she wants, usually The Itsy Bitsy Spider or Bingo (those are some favorites right n0w). She still will only let us sing Jesus Loves Me at night before bed. If we try to sing any other song, she shakes her head no until we stop!

She is generally a pretty good kid. Of course, at this age discipline is a constant thing anyway, and she has her good days and days when she tests us. She still sleeps really well at night (as long as she's not cutting new teeth), going to bed between 7:30 and 8:30, and sleeping about 12 hours. Naptimes are a little different. She'll go down for her nap anytime between 12:30 and 2:00 depending on the day and what we're doing, and sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours. The average is about 1.5 hours, and I'm happy if I get at least that long out of her. Any shorter and she's pretty grumpy for the rest of the day. She loves taking her bath at night, especially when Jackson gets to join her. She likes trying to wash him and pouring water on him when we're not watching her closely enough. Poor guy takes it like a trooper! She's really into coloring and reading still, as well as her abc's and counting. When we write letters, she'll often start "writing" while saying "S" over and over again. She'll also say "A" and "buh" for B. She can count to two, and makes up words for the other numbers. She also walks around saying "Mama" all the time, sometimes to "ask" me something, sometimes to get my attention, and sometimes just to be saying something I think. I hear it probably 34,587 times a day! Just in the past few days she's been jabbering more in a different way. I really think she's on the verge of a language explosion. It's still hard for me to imagine her talking to me in sentences and answering my questions (and asking her own questions, too!). I can't believe the next time I do one of these posts, she'll be two years old. Thank You, God, for such a wonderful, fun, sweet little girl. May You work in her heart to continue to draw her to Yourself, that she may live for You!

Friday, December 05, 2008

Then and now

Kathryn at 2.5 months old:


And at 22.5 months old:

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Thanksgiving

I thought I already typed this, but it's not showing up, so here goes again! Well, we had another wonderful Thanksgiving! We started the day with a yummy breakfast of regular and chocolate chip pancakes (and eggs) and enjoyed the Macy's Parade. Then Kathryn helped me make some pumpkin pies before going outside to help her daddy rake the leaves. The girl loooove to play in the leaves! She of course had to do her classic lay in the middle of the leaf pile pose. Then we enjoyed dinner at Aunt KK's house. On Saturday to Sunday we got to visit with my parents. I didn't really take any pictures there, though...too busy having fun! Enjoy pictures from the day!