Park and Beach Days

The weather has been beautiful, and we've been enjoying a lot of time outside recently.  Jack needs to be outside to get that toddler energy out, and I think it's just good for all of us to get a little bit of Vitamin D.

Last week we went to the Irvine Regional Park where we rode the train, fed the ducks, and played on the playground with my friend Heather and her son Cole.  Jack is obsessed with the train and talks daily about getting a ticket and riding the train.  He also had a blast feeding the ducks pieces of bread:

Later in the week we went to his favorite park.  It's a multi-level park that has 3 or 4 different playgrounds so we generally don't go anymore since it's impossible to supervise him well enough while pushing a stroller.  Last week I put Owen in the Baby Bjorn and took Jack, because I know he loves it. Once again he proved his amazing climbing skills:

He climbed up this entire thing without any help.  I stood under him to catch a possible fall since I know the one time I don't is when he'll lose his footing, but he made it up without problems as usual.

This long Memorial Day weekend has been a lot of fun.  On Saturday we went to Laguna Beach and walked along the water.  Jack got soaking wet being hit by some pretty big waves at his low stature.  We were there with Jonathan's friend Chris who took this picture of the guys. 

It's a little hard to see, but it's still a super cute picture.

Here's another one Chris took of our family of 4...a rare picture :).  We couldn't get a nice one due to lack of cooperation from the little ones, but I feel like this is a more natural depiction of the family.  I'm not sure what exactly Jack was saying, but he was thinking and trying to decide something with his finger up to his face saying, "Mmmm..."  Owen wasn't a fan of his hat, because he would stop crying when we took it off.

Today we went to the park, and Jonathan showed Jack how to climb a tree:

I mentioned in a previous post that Jack is currently BFFs with Mr. Tato and that my parents recently sent us 150 pieces for Jack to play with.  We definitely do not have all of them in the house, but more and more are making their way in.  Jack can sit independently for the longest time working on Mr. Tato.

 Here he is with one of his creations.

Within the 150 pieces there are around 6 bodies to play with, so Jonathan and I have also gotten a lot of Mr. Tato time.  It's actually a fun activity and a way to be creative making a bunch of different funny characters.

6-Month Update

Owen turned 6-months old last Monday, and I remembered to take his monthly photo late in the evening again:

He's getting to be quite the little chunk a monk.  After his good photo he got playful snuggling with his stuffed animals.

 Owen had his 6-month wellness visit this past Wednesday, and here he is waiting for his shots:

Here are the stats and comparison from 2-months ago:

6-month check-up (Wednesday May 22, 2013)
Weight- 17 lbs., 2 oz.
Height- 27 inches
Head-  44.5 cm/17.5inches
**He's following along his growth curve

4-month check-up (March 25, 2013)

Weight- 15 lbs., 4 oz. (65th percentile)

Height- 25.5 inches (75th percentile)

Head- 43.2 cm/17.0 inches (topping the charts)

As you may notice, he is pretty much fully blonde now besides the ends of his hair around the sides.  His blonde is not quite as white blonde as Jack's, but he's definitely blonde.  He looks so different than when he was first born with a ton of dark brown hair.  Such a funny change!

As far as developmental milestones go:

• He can sit up unassisted for a short period of time, but he doesn't want to do it.  Every time I try to practice with him he pushes onto his back or stomach so he can move around the room.  He prefers to be laying down so he can roll around the floor over to objects.
• He rolls ALL over the place!  I'll set him down in the middle of the floor, go get something out of the kitchen, and he'll be on a totally different side of the room.  He rolls over to the toys he wants to play with.
• When on his back he pushes off his heals to propel himself towards things, and when he's on his stomach he tries to push off the floor with his toes and knees.  He wants to crawl sooo bad!
• He hasn't been sleeping in the sleep suit for a few weeks now.  I stopped using it primarily because he couldn't roll over to his side or stomach easily, and he would get really angry in the middle of the night since he prefers to sleep on his side or stomach.  It was also getting a little warm in our house, even at night, for such a thick suit.  
• He LOVES baths!  Initially we were using the Nuj bath seat in the sink, but we started giving him full baths a few weeks ago.  There were two initial bath experiences where he screamed the whole time, but I finally got him eased into it very, very slowly where he figured out it's quite relaxing.
• On May 6th, 2013 I noticed his first tooth breaking through his gums...his bottom right tooth.  He went through a period right before I noticed the tooth where he was waking 4-5 times a night.  Once the tooth broke through he went down to twice per night.  I'm hoping all of teething won't have such a dramatic impact on sleeping.  I think the tooth next to it is getting ready to make a breakthrough soon.
• He still regularly wakes up twice a night.  The doctor was telling me that he should be down to once a night by now.  I can handle twice per night, but any more than that makes me a little frustrated.  I'll probably start to try some night weaning to get him down to once sometime in the near future, especially since he and Jack are going to be sharing a room.
• He has tried a few different foods including egg yolk, carrot, banana, pear, and avocado.  He threw up 6 times in an hour a few hours after eating egg yolk for the second time, so we're going to hold off on that for a while just in case he has a food sensitivity or allergy as recommended by the doctor.  I decided recently that I'm going to do the baby led weaning strategy for food introduction this go around.  He's extremely oral and interested in what we're eating, so I think it'll be a good method for him.
• He can drink out of straws and a sippy cup, but he usually just spits the water out of his mouth once he gets it out of the cup.  
• He has really started to find his voice.  He yells out all the time, and he will straighten his arms by his side locking out his elbows and clenching his fists while he lets out this guttural yell that is hilarious.  
• He is absolutely not a snuggler when he's sleepy.  When I finish feeding him before bed and/or naps he immediately kicks off the side of the nursing chair, arching his back, and screaming until I put him down.  I used to think I'll just enjoy this snuggle time with him in the middle of the night to try to be positive about being up in the middle of the night, but he does not want anything to do with it.  On the plus side, he knows how to put himself to sleep, because it's really not possible to nurse him to sleep.

And here is one last picture of the little cutie:

I can't believe he is already 6-months old.  The time is flying by so fast!

First Haircut and Fun in the Sun

I wanted to get one more blog post in before Owen's 6-month update.  On May 8th Owen got his first hair cut.  It's so funny to me, because Jack didn't get his first hair cut until around 18 months or so since he didn't have hair for a long time.  Owen's bangs were starting to get in his eyes, and his hair was going over his ears at a mere 5 1/2 months.  Big brother went first and had a crazy meltdown, but Owen took it in stride.  Here's all 3 of us in the chair.  

Owen sat in his car seat during Jack's haircut since Jack was NOT having a good time.  He's never flipped out before, but I guess 2.5 years old is when you get a fear of haircuts.  Jack was screaming trying to roll out of my arms.  The girl cutting Jack's hair was spraying the water bottle, and Jack was dripping snot and tears all over me.  Jack's super fine hair was in my nose and mouth.  I told Jonathan that it was like wrestling an alligator in the rain while someone blew feathers/dandelions in my face.  I had hair in my throat for about 2 hours after we left.  Quite the experience!  Owen just watched and relaxed on the sidelines.

Here's the little man with his fresh look:

We've had some record high temperatures here, but overall the weather has been beautiful (as usual, really).  Summer is definitely in the air.  This past weekend we went to the mall to enjoy the weather.  It was just a great family day.

Jackson has really been honing his climbing skills recently.  The boy can climb just about anything on a playground.  He called this netting the 'spider web.'

Jackson officially turned 2.5 years old two days ago.  He's changed so much even since his second birthday.  He talks constantly, and he's gotten a little bit demanding in his old age.  When he's upset he'll tell me, "Mama, get out room," "Go to room and close door," or point at me yelling "No!"  He also has the beginnings of a competitive spirit.  Whenever he finishes anything whether it's a game or not he'll yell, "I did it.  I win!"  My favorite, though, is that he recognizes his mother's addiction to caffeine.  He asks me most afternoons, "Mama, you need co-ee (coffee)?"  He must be able to see me hit the afternoon slump.  His favorite toy is currently Mr. Potato Head who he refers to as 'Mr. Tato.'  He has started projecting how he feels onto Mr. Tato where he'll tell us Mr. Tato is hungry or wants to watch tv when that's really how he feels....so cute!  He also talks to him, and he'll have Mr. Tato talk back to him saying, "Jack, do you wanna...."  I'll have to get a picture of the BFFs for the next blog.

Last weekend I participated in the Color Run of Orange County.  It was a great time, and I got to wear an outfit that was outside my normal personality.  I live with all boys, so there aren't many tutus in my life :).  Lucky for me it was more about having a good time than running fast, because I didn't train for a 5k.  

I was a little nervous that Owen would freak out while I was gone since he won't take a bottle, but everything ended up working out really well.  I fed Owen at 5:45am and put him back to sleep.  Owen usually wakes up sometime between 6:30 and 7:30am, but that morning he woke up at 8:30!  Of course the day I'm not home to sleep he sleeps in.  I was home by 10am, and he did totally fine without me.  

Fun at Home and Swimming Weather

We've been having a lot of fun at the house lately.  I'm trying to stick to some form of a schedule for Owen's naps to try to get him to sleep better at night, so we don't stray far from the house to make sure we're back in time for the next nap.  Luckily, both boys like being at home either playing with toys inside or playing out on the porch.  Owen has been getting some good floor time trying to strengthen those crawling muscles:

I try to do some sort of educational activity with Jack every morning, and I like to get Owen in on the action as much as possible.  Owen likes rolling the blocks and playing with the beads on the abacus looking thing.  I downloaded some preschool apps for Jack to work on numbers and letters.  He really got into tracing letters the other day.

I was having some 'alone time' in the shower the other night, and Jonathan was in charge of childcare.  During that time, Jonathan took pictures of Owen in a bunch of random spots in the house for his take on "Elf on the Shelf."  Here are a few of the picture of Owen being a good sport.

It's been back to swimming weather here, and there are several heated pools in our neighborhood.  Jack and Jonathan have had a lot of fun swimming in the evenings after Jonathan gets home from work.  Last summer Jack was still not a huge fan of the pool, but it's amazing the difference a year makes.  He LOVES the pool, and even likes jumping into the pool into Jonathan's arms.  It might be time for swim lessons.

We got a huge pool noodle and shark backpack for Jack.  Here he is excited to go:

And a little bit better picture of the adorable backpack before a late evening trip to the pool: