Jack's 4 Year and Owen's 2 Year Wellness Visit

I'm about 2-months late getting the boys in for their annual wellness visits, but they were both sick around their birthdays so I decided to wait until Mary's next visit and knock it all out at one time.  It was an almost 2-hour long visit getting everyone's stats, answering developmental questions, and all three had to get shots.

Jack's 4-year stats:
Weight: 33 lbs., 3 oz. (21st percentile)
Height: 41.5 inches (68th percentile)

Confirming what we already know…long and lean.  This is why his jeans will be huge in the waist and super short in length :).  

Owen's 2-year stats:
Weight: 27.0 lbs. (31st percentile)
Height: 35.5 inches (65th percentile)
Head: 50.5 cm (87th percentile)

Both boys had to get some shots today.  Owen had to get two, which is more than normal at this age since we followed a slightly alternative schedule.  Jack had to get three shots to finish up in preparation for kindergarten.  We had the option to wait until next year to get these since he won't go to kindergarten until August 2016, but Jack said that he wanted to get shots like Owen and Mary.  I figured next year he might not be as willing of a participant, so I capitalized on his wanting to do it this time and got it over with.  Jack went first so he didn't see the other two cry and get scared.  Owen went second, and he didn't realize what was going on even though he watched Jack.  Mary went last to finish off the scream session.  It's always so sad to watch, but the boys were rewarded with a cake pop from Starbucks for being brave and well-behaved at a long appointment.

Mary's 4-Month Update

Mary turned 4-months old on January 5th, and her personality comes out more and more each day.  I'm a little late posting about it, because I wanted to wait for her 4-month wellness visit so I had stats to post.  Here is her 4-month photo:

She had her 4-month wellness visit today at 4 months, 9 days.  The stats are:

Weight: 14lbs, 8oz. (62nd percentile)

Height: 24.8 inches (63rd percentile)

Head: 42 cm (72nd percentile)

Compared to her 2-month stats:

Weight: 10 lbs., 3 oz. (45th percentile)

Height: 22 inches (50th percentile)

So, she's jumped up to another growth curve.  She's getting big so fast!!  She's our only baby that's had any rolls, and she's in a bigger percentile range than both boys at this age :).  

She got 3 shots today and got some girlie camouflage bandaids:

She's just now crossing into the 3-6 month clothing range, but it's been fun adding some new outfits to her wardrobe.  My mom made the hat she is wearing, and it was huge on her when she was a newborn.  I didn't think it would fit until at least 9-12 months, but her head has grown quite a bit.

On December 22nd Mary grabbed the rings on her play mat for the first time.  She also likes to aggressively swat at the giraffe.  She is just now starting to try to roll over, but she hasn't done it yet.  She tries to push up on her forearms and pulls her knees underneath her body now.

We've been slowly transitioning over to the crib from her swing and bassinet.  This has been a little bit of a challenge.  She was sleeping 10 to 12 hours straight each night for a couple of weeks in the napper part of the pack n play, and I was loving it, obviously :).  She also naps the best in her swing and will sleep for a long time.  Since she's getting close to outgrowing the bassinet I thought I would start trying out the crib.  The first three nights she ended up back in the bassinet within a few hours of bedtime since she wouldn't settle.  Her naps went from several hours down to 45 minutes to an hour.  She ended up being really overtired making it all harder.

I decided to break out the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit that I had used for Owen, and it has made a pretty big difference.  

I think it makes her feel a little more cozy and contained in a big crib, and it prevents her from having arm twitches that wake her up (same idea as a swaddle).  This is better than swaddling for Mary since she likes to suck on her hands, and she can still do that in this suit.  She has been making it all the way through the night in her crib ever since using the suit.  Since starting the crib transition she has started waking up 1-2 times per night again.  I don't know if it's related to the transition, the 4-month sleep regression, or a combination.  Some nights she'll do an 8-9 hour stretch, eat, and go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours.  Other nights she'll sleep two 5-6 hour stretches, but she usually sleeps a total of 11-12 hours.

I wanted to include one last picture:

Photo credit goes to Jack when he got ahold of my phone.

Jack's First Day at Preschool

Jack had his first day of preschool on January 8, 2015!  Since moving to Oklahoma Jack constantly talks about how he needs to meet friends.  He has made comments about how he misses his friends in California, but we are never going back there and he needs friends in Oklahoma.  We went on a preschool tour, and he cried so hard when we left saying he didn't want to leave, because he wanted friends.  So basically it was a dagger in our hearts that he felt so strongly he didn't have the friendships he wanted here in Oklahoma yet.  He's also been talking about wanting to go to school for several months now.  We hadn't sent him up to this point, because I would do things with him at home and really enjoyed having him around everyday.  We just reached the point now where we knew it was time!

Here he is beyond excited to head out for his first day!

It was a crazy cold day, so everyone was bundled up to send Jack off to his class.

Mary had a long-sleeved onesie, a fleece body suit, and 3 blankets on along with her hat, and she looked shocked when the cold wind hit her face with her little eyes tearing up.

When we arrived Jack sat with his class in the entry way of the church waiting to head upstairs to his classroom.

He was initially nervous holding onto my leg, but as soon as he sat down next to the boy on his left in the above picture he turned into his usual chatty Kathy self.  He was talking the little boy's ear off about his backpack and the snack in the blue bucket.  It was funny watching him as the kids lined up to go to their classroom.  Jack has really never had to stand in line before.  He got out of line to walk and talk to the kid in front of him.  I watched as he took off from the line to run up to the elevator button :).

Owen did not want to leave Jack at school.  I had to carry him out of the lobby crying repeatedly saying "Jackson? Jackson?"  He missed his play buddy.

When we picked Jack up the teacher said he really knew his stuff and participated well in group circle time.  They said you would have thought he had been there all year.  During rest time he laid quietly on his mat but didn't sleep.  Jack's rundown of what happened was super cute.  He said they played basketball, and he needed to get more practice.  They did head, shoulders, knees, and toes and that the teacher read them a story.  He said he played with friends but couldn't remember their names, and he and one of the other boys built a castle out of blocks together.  He also said he peed 3 times, and they had a small sink for him :).

Owen and I got some extremely rare alone time, which is so exciting for him as the middle child.  Mary was sleeping and Jack was at school, so it was all about Owen!  I asked him he wanted to do Legos, and he gestured his hand towards the playroom saying, "c'mon!"  We watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we ate lunch together, because he never gets to watch the show he likes since Jack chooses most of the time.  Owen's not super interested in tv, but he does love Mickey.  We were building a little plane together, and he fell off the couch landing on a piece of the plane that was on the floor leaving a pretty big gash in his head.

When we picked Jack up from school, Jack saw Owen and grabbed his face saying, "what happened to your face, buddy?!"

I got teary eyed on the way to both preschool tours and dropping Jack off, because it's just so strange not having him around all day, every day.  We're so excited for him, though, because he's a really social person who truly loves more structured learning.

Christmas

We had a really fun, quiet Christmas this year.  Both boys were really excited for Christmas and Santa's arrival.  One of our activities was to make a gingerbread house, and I was able to find a pre made one at Walmart where all you had to do was decorate it.  My mom had the exact same one at her house, and we decorated them together over FaceTime.  Her's was definitely more elegant than our toddler version :).

We also wrote letters to Santa and left them in a mailbox next to our gingerbread house.

The boys had fun both decorating and eating Christmas cookies.  Grammy Nichols sent Santa face cookies that the boys loved.  We also decorated sugar cookies to leave for Santa.

Jonathan was home for 12 days, and he's always got a project planned to keep busy.  One project was to make a little book nook for the boys.  We have this space near the top of the staircase that was kind of dead space that we didn't know what to use it for.  This ended up being the perfect solution.  The boys have loved having easy access to their books and bean bags. 

They boys of the family also got out for for some guy time a few times.  One of their trips was to lunch and the aquarium.

We got a little bit of snow one day that ended up being enough for a snowman.

When Jonathan's parents came out for Thanksgiving they brought two beds that have been in the family for a long time.  Jonathan's grandparents had them in their home, and Jonathan and his brother slept in them when they were growing up.  We decided to update them a bit and paint them.  One of Jonathan's projects was to use blue chalk paint for the bed for Jack's room.  Jack has officially been upgraded from toddler bed to big boy bed with his Paw Patrol comforter choice included!  The other bed is wrapped up waiting for Owen to get a little bit older.

 

We moved the tree into the living room on Christmas Eve night so that presents could be in the main living area.  

The boys were so excited to open all of their presents.

Mary was awake for a little while on Christmas morning in her cute Christmas outfit.  This outfit lasted about 15 minutes before she spit up all over it and had to be changed.

Both boys got remote control cars that they spent most of the morning playing with.

Here's Jack enjoying some of his Christmas gifts/projects.  I just can't believe how big this guy is getting!

The last day of Jonathan's Christmas break we went to the zoo.  It was a little bit chilly, but the boys had a lot of fun.  Everyone fell asleep in the car on the way home, which NEVER happens!

A couple days after Christmas we got another special package in the mail from Auntie Amy.  She gave Jack some cowboy boots that he is obsessed with.  He wears them with or without clothes at all hours of the day :).

It was a relaxing, fun break from the normal day-to-day where we got a lot of fun family time!  All the decorations are down now, and Jack is trying to comprehend the fact that we have to wait a whole year for it all to happen again.

One last thing I have to include, since family pictures don't happen often, is our family selfie.

It's always a shocker when everyone looks mostly normal :)