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:

5-Month Update and Brotherly Love

Owen turned 5-months old this month, and the time continues to fly by.  His 5-month picture is a little bit dark, because I forgot to take it until close to bed time.  The lighting wasn't great...  He also kept trying to get on top of the elephant and bite his face :).

Owen is a little roly poly!  I'll leave the room and come back seconds later to find him on the other side of it.  He would have rolled under the couch the other day if he could have fit.  He LOVES his activity bouncer.  He has been in it over an hour at a time completely content just bouncing and bouncing.  Jack never really liked the bouncer very much at this same age, so it's nice to finally feel like it was a worthwhile purchase.  Owen still can't sit up on his own very well.  He can hold himself up with his hands touching the ground like a tripod or sit up unassisted for a few seconds, but he still tips over.  He pushes up and locks his elbows.  He also pushes up onto his knees while his face is still plastered to the ground.  He just needs to link the two together, but he is definitely starting to put the skills together to crawl in the next few months.  His sleep is still pretty inconsistent, but he averages about 2-3 wake ups a night still.  We've had bad nights with 5 wake ups and good nights with 1 wake up, but those are still rare.  He can put himself to sleep for naps, which is nice.  I'll put him down for a nap wide awake, he cries/grumbles for about a minute, and falls asleep on his own.  I think that covers most of the current developmental stuff!   

We have not introduced solids officially, but Owen liked gnawing on this carrot while I was making dinner one day.    

I have mashed a little banana between my fingers and let him taste it.  He kept pulling my finger back into his mouth to have another taste.  He makes a little bit of a shocked face, but he seemed to like it.  We'll officially start solids at the 6-month mark, but it's fun to let him have small tastes of baby-friendly foods. 

This picture makes me smile, because he's just so cute in the little duck outfit.  He liked grabbing at the ducks on his feet.

Jack and Owen are continuing to strengthen their brotherly bond.  Jack always says Owen is cute, and when Owen cries he'll tell me "Owen sad."  Jack helps to grab a diaper for me during Owen's diaper changes sometimes, and he likes to lay in bed with Owen after Owen wakes up from his nap occasionally.  Jack has always been a very affectionate child, and he loves to give his little brother hugs and laugh with him.  Owen thinks Jack is hilarious, and some of Owen's biggest giggles come from watching Jack do his 'silly dance.'

The picture on the right in the collage below is at Walmart with Jack in the cart and Owen in the Baby Bjorn.  They laugh at each other throughout shopping trips.

We bought matching kids chairs for Jack and Owen recently, and this is them try them out for the first time.  This is one of my favorite pictures.

That about covers it, and I can't believe next month we will have a 6-month old and 2.5 year old!

4-Month Update and Enjoying the Great Weather

My blog updates have become monthly instead of being more spontaneous like in the past.  Well, Owen turned 4-months old last Wednesday.  I'm loving these monthly pictures, because I feel like they really show how much he is changing.  This month he didn't continuously slide down in the chair onto his back.  He was able to hold himself in a seated position.  

Owen had his 4-month wellness visit this past Monday, and the stats are in:

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

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

Height- 25.5 inches (75th percentile)

Head- 45.2 cm/17.8 inches (topping the charts)

2-month check-up (January 24, 2013)

Weight- 12 lbs., 4 oz.

Height- 24.25 inches

Head- 40.5 cm/~16 inches

He has grown A LOT in the past 2 months!  Here he is waiting on the doctor...such a handsome little man:

Recently I purchased the Baby Merlin Magic Sleepsuit for Owen.  I was swaddling him, and he was starting to break out of the swaddle while rolling around and getting a little bit tangled up in it.  He was also waking himself up more often, especially as he fell asleep, with the involuntary twitches that babies often have.  I would set him down to sleep, and his arms would swing and wake him up.  This suit helps to minimize those twitches to help them fall asleep and stay asleep.  It is also thick to act as a blanket.  It has actually helped his sleep quite a bit.  He went from sleeping 8-9 hours per night with two wakings to 11-12 hours per night with two wakings.  He also falls asleep easily after each feeding at night instead of taking some work to get him to fall back asleep.  Here's a picture of him trying it on for the first time:

I just had to include this picture, because it's one of my favorites.  Owen loves snuggling with his daddy in the evenings.

The weather has been particularly beautiful lately, so we have been spending the majority of our days on the back porch playing and doing little crafts.  I bring Jack's table out and his bins of toys so he can play outside.

We did a little art project I found on pinterest where you fill a ziploc up with paint and let them move it around.

Jack has also really enjoyed painting pictures and using his crayons.  He likes me to join in sometimes where he will tell me a letter, and I draw it on his picture.

Jack also really enjoys puzzles lately.  Most of his Melissa and Doug puzzles were too easy for him, so we got him this 24 piece piece transportation puzzle from Pottery Barn Kids.  He and Jonathan will look at the cover of the box, and Jonathan helps walk him through the puzzle.  He is really good at it, and his patience and attention span for it is a little surprising.

Jack's vocabulary has been exploding lately, and he says a lot of funny stuff.  Some of his words for things are made up, and we have no idea where it comes from.  He calls a fire truck a "who who truck."  We are guessing that comes from the wooeee, woeee of the siren maybe?!  If I leave the house in the evening I say, "I'll be right back" and say "I'm back" when I come home.  Now Jack says, "I be right back, Mama."  He will leave the room and then come right back in and say, "I back!"  He also likes when you kiss his boo boos when he gets hurt.  He has fallen on his butt twice and said, "Mama, you kiss my butt?"  My favorite, though, is that he tells me that he loves me when he goes to bed at night.  Two year olds can be difficult at times, but they are also super, super sweet!

3-Month Update

Today is Owen's 3-month birthday :).  He has gotten so much bigger and changed so much even since last month.  I couldn't pick just one, so here are 3 versions of our monthly picture:

                                                

I feel like we are finally falling into a really good routine that is working for us during the day.  Owen's nap times are becoming much more predictable, and he is officially napping in his crib instead of the swing or bassinet.  Once he starts rubbing his eyes, I can just rock him a little to get him drowsy and set him in his crib awake to put himself to sleep.  As far as nighttime goes, it's still rough waters a bit.  He was doing great for a couple weeks sleeping 5-7 hour stretches initially and then waking every 2-3 hours the rest of the night.  The last few nights he has been waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the entire night.  He doesn't like to fall straight to sleep right after eating, and he usually cries 2-3 times each time I try to put him down at night until he'll finally falls asleep.  Two nights ago was one of the most challenging nights I've had since he was born, and I only got 3 hours of sleep.  I felt like I had been hit in the face repeatedly the next day while still trying to have a normal day.  There are definitely benefits with your first child where you can nap with them all day after a bad night that don't exist when you have two.

Overall, Owen is a super happy baby and doesn't really cry that much throughout the day.  There are just lots and lots of smiles.

The past few days he has loved using his tongue.  He's always sticking it out and licking everything.  Today I was carrying him over my shoulder and he licked my cheek.

Owen is an extremely oral baby, which is new to me since Jack never put anything in his mouth.  Even while teething Jack wouldn't put teething toys into his mouth.  Owen always has his fingers, fist, burp cloths, Sophie the Giraffe, etc. in his mouth.  Owen also discovered his feet about a week ago, and he loves to watch them.  I'm just waiting for him to start sticking those in his mouth too.  Here he is on my mom's lap while she was out for a visit last week.  He was playing with his moose toy, holding onto a burp cloth, and clutching my mom's arm with his feet:

Owen is also very grabby.  He grabs the rings on his play mat and pulls them towards him.  He is also a crazy hair puller.  I have lost several chunks of hair in his clutches.

As far as other milestones, on January 31st Owen laughed for the first time, and it is so cute!  If you act like you're nibbling on his neck or chest he laughs.  My mom was watching Jack and Owen while Jonathan and I went out last week, and Jack was acting like a horse and getting on his hind legs to neigh.  My mom said Owen was laughing at Jack, and Owen laughing made Jack laugh.  I was sad to miss this cute moment.

Owen also rolled from belly to back while on his play mat on February 16th and from back to belly today, February 20th, while laying in his crib in our room while I got ready.  I have thought that his sleep might be getting interrupted by him practicing rolling since I always see is feet/legs sticking straight up in the air while he cries, and this new ability to roll makes me think I was right in my guess.  I'm hoping he masters rolling fully soon so he can stop practicing so much in his sleep and waking himself up.

As for what Jack has been up to, he has been OBSESSED with letters recently.  Everywhere we go he is identifying letters and reading them to us.  We'll be driving and I'll hear, "Y-A-W-E-N-O" in the back seat while he reads the One Way signs.  At Golden Spoon the other night he spelled out 'Golden Yogurt' reading the sign Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt sign on the wall.  He asks us to "play letters" with him where we stand on his letter rug in the play area and he identifies letters.  If you ask him his favorite letter, 9 times out of 10 he says "W."  Sometimes it's the letter "P."  Last week my mom and I were at Ikea, and Jack said, "That cool!" while running over to this:

My mom got him a Melissa & Doug letter puzzle that he likes to play with.  Under each letter puzzle piece is an animal or object that starts with that letter.  He can do the entire puzzle over and over again.  Besides the 26 tiny pieces that end up on the floor, it's a great activity :).  

Jack has also really been into his Mega blocks recently.  You can put him in a room with his blocks and have him play independently for quite a while.  Here he is hard at work:

One thing I've wanted to do with Jack now that he follows directions pretty well is to let him use the little cart at Trader Joe's.  I'm always afraid to do it, though, because if he takes off with it I don't want to have to run after him leaving Owen in the big cart alone.  While my mom was in town, I finally got to let him do it while my mom followed him.

His attention span lasted about 10 minutes with it before he started to get unruly, but it was fun to give him the chance to do it.

 I just wanted to include this picture, because he's so cute eating his pizza, or what he calls "pee, pee."

It's almost shocking to me how verbal Jack has become so quickly.  Right before he turned two I was writing down a list of all of his words just to make sure he was saying the average number he should be at his age.  Now a mere three months later he's speaking in short sentences.  Kids are really amazing...little sponges!  

We are continually fostering brotherly love and bonding.  Sometimes when Owen cries Jack will say, "It ok Owen."  Jack likes having Owen as an audience, so as Owen gets more interactive I'm sure they will have a lot of fun together.  Owen loves watching his older brother, and gets a huge smile on his face and yells out in excitement when Jack gets close to him.  

These two are so fun to watch, and I have really felt so lucky to get to stay home to watch both of them develop each day.