A Little Winter Cabin Fever

I think we have finally turned a corner this week into warmer weather, but the past month or two has left us with a bit of cabin fever.  Jack has had so many days of school cancelled from inclement weather, and we have had to find activities to keep busy in the house.  Jack has always been really interested in drawing, and his pictures continue to get more intricate.  He draws several pictures a day, but this is an example of one:

His finger is pointing to a duck in a pond.  Below the pond to the right is a sun and a moon with another duck walking around.  Below the duck in the pond to the left is a princess with her cone shaped hat and veil flying in the wind.  He always draws these busy scenes which tell a story he comes up with.  He's so creative, and it's fun to see how he views things through his pictures.

He has also found an interest in coloring, and I have been waiting 4 years for this day.  I really find coloring enjoyable, and I have been hoping that someone would find an interest in it soon.

He did a great job coloring inside the lines, and he added the storm clouds and rain above Curious George.  He asked me to show him how to draw a star, and he did really well copying mine.

Jack always wants to play games in the morning when he wakes up.  He's had a lot of fun with this spelling puzzle.

We've also played a lot of picture bingo, because Owen understands and is able to play the game as well.

Owen wakes up pretty late each morning.  If you would have told me in the first 13 months of his life that he would sleep as well as he does I would have told you that you were crazy.  He goes to bed at around 8:30pm and sleeps until at least 9:30am, but there are days he won't wake up until 11am.  Plus he takes a 3-4 hour nap!  On the days he wakes up super late I just give him a giant brunch since he is between two meal times.  Here was plate number one, and he ate even more after this:

We've had some decent snow storms that have given the boys an opportunity to play.  Since we no longer live near the beach, the boys use their sand tools for digging snow.

Unfortunately the weather cancelled Daddy Dinner at Jack's preschool.  Jack came home from school one day with a coaster that they made for the dads as a gift for the dinner night.  His picture was adorable:

This past weekend Jonathan took the boys to a monster truck show while Mary and I enjoyed girl time at home.  Jonathan said Owen was scared at first since it was sooo loud, but he enjoyed it once Jonathan put his hands over Owen's ears.  They both had a lot of fun, and Jack continues to talk about the trucks smashing the cars.

After Mary's doctor visit today I took the boys for haircuts since Jack has school pictures tomorrow.  They both did a great job and no one had a tantrum!  Jack is a little gamer and enjoyed the free arcade games in the front.

The weather this week looks pretty good, and I'm hoping this is truly the beginning of spring weather.  I'd like to get a little bit more Vitamin D and spend some time at the park getting little boy energy out.

Mary's 6-Month Update

Mary turned 6-months last Thursday, and here is her 6-month picture collage:

We went in for her 6-month wellness visit today to get her stats:

Weight: 15 lbs., 6 oz. (37th percentile) **this was a big percentile drop from last time
Height: 26.4 inches (74th Percentile)
Head: 43.4 cm/ 17.09 inches (76th percentile)

As seems to happen to all of our children, they become long and lean with larger than average heads!

Mary's skills continue to get stronger, and it's fun to watch her little personality.  She is still willing to do some tummy time and play with her toys.  She is in love with the keys in the picture on the right.

She likes the bouncer for about 5-10 minutes at a time only.  I usually put her by our front window so she can look out at the bird feeder.  She really doesn't like to be in any sort of baby contraption (bumbo, bouncer, etc.) for very long.  She pretty much just likes to be held.  The only other semi-acceptable substitute is if you put her on the floor or couch and give her direct eye contact while talking to her :).    

Like her mother, she is not a girly-girl and does not appreciate bows :).  A few people told me that if I want her to wear bows then you need to start young.  So far it's not going well.

The newest thing we have been practicing is sitting up unsupported.  She can sit up for a few seconds without any help, but she does really well with the boppy pillow around her. She sat upright on the floor for quite a while today with the slight assistance of the pillow.

Sleep has been going well (knock on wood), and she has been sleeping 11-12 hours straight each night.  About twice a week she'll wake up crying to eat around 4-5am.  I feed her before bed, and she goes down awake and puts herself to sleep pretty quickly.  For the past week she's been waking up between 3:30 and 5 am, and I can hear her chatting to herself in bed over the monitor.  About 5-10 minutes later she'll just fall back to sleep.  If she doesn't cry then I don't go up there and assume she's not hungry, just in the mood to talk.  

     

Here's a couple more pictures of Mary being sweet and enjoying some face-to-face time.

I'll be starting to introduce some foods soon.  I'm going to stick with the baby led weaning strategy that I used with Owen instead of purees.  I'm just trying to get myself mentally prepared for the mess that comes with learning to eat :).