Easter

We had a fun and relaxing Easter which started with church in the morning, BBQ for lunch, and an Easter egg hunt in our house.  I didn't get a picture of the kids together, but here's Mary ready for church:

I put together some small Easter baskets for each of the kids.  Grammy Nichols got Mary her first Fisher Price dollhouse and a Jake and the Neverland Pirates play ship for the boys.  My parents ordered us donuts and pastries from a local bakery that we had for breakfast.  

After church we hid eggs in the house.  Some of the eggs had coins and others had little notes with clues on where they could find a small gift.  They boys had so much fun listening to the clue and then running to see what the surprise was.  Every time Owen found a prize he would come back screaming "Daddy!" in a high pitched squeal.

Mary's 18-Month Update

Mary turned 18-months on March 5th.  We had her wellness visit a few days later.  Her stats are:

Appointment Date: 3/9/16

Weight- 25 lbs. (60th %)
Height- 31.4 inches (42nd %)
Head Circ.- 48.1 cm (87th %)

I was pretty happy about her weight, because back at her 9 month appointment she had lost weight from the prior appointment and was in the 3rd percentile.  She has come a long way slowly working her way up the curve into a range similar to her brothers at the same age.

Mary is definitively our pickiest eater.  She won't even try most things including the majority of fruits and vegetables.  It would be one thing if she would try it and didn't like it, but she won't even put it in her mouth.  I'm so thankful for Happy Tot fruit and veggie packs, because they have been a lifesaver, along with smoothies, to make sure she gets what she needs.  She DOES like any form of carbs (all potatoes, bread, puffs, Pirates Booty) and most forms of dairy (yogurt and cheese primarily).  Jonathan gave her a chunk of milk chocolate last night, and the look in her eyes was like her life had been changed forever!  I really can't blame her for the foods she loves as they are the foods that I love the most, but who doesn't like fresh fruit??!!  She does like guacamole and olives, so that helps with getting some healthy fats in.

She's still the best sleeper of all 3 kids, so I guess she has to be difficult in another way just to make things exciting :).

Special Daily Moments

I haven't posted in two months, and I was trying to figure out what we did that was special in that time. There haven't been any major events, but that's kind of been the beauty of the past couple months.  We've just been having fun in our daily routine.  Now that Mary is 18-months she has integrated into activities with the boys more often.  It's fun to see the dynamics between them when they pair off versus when they all play together.

These two get irritated with each other, but they have their special moments as well.

Jackson is so sweet with Mary.  He loves playing chase with her, he does whatever it takes to make her laugh, and he likes to do underdogs for her on the swing.

I think they could live on the trampoline.  This was one of the best outdoor purchases that we've made.

Mary's a pretty tough little cookie.  She does not take anything from her brothers.  She loves to wrestle with them, and they're both pretty gentle with her.  Owen sometimes forgets that he's bigger, though.

This is one of the tricks the boys like to do with Jonathan.  They just started doing it on the trampoline and jumping off of his hands.

I love this picture from one of our zoo trips.  Jack makes a great statue, and Owen dances to the beat of his own drum :).

Jackson came home from school one day and said that his friend got a love note from his mom, and he wanted me to send one in his lunch.  It's so sweet!  He made me a similar note to my heart note, and I keep it in my wallet. 

Jackson is becoming a really strong reader and writer for his age.  It's almost shocking how quickly he's picking up on everything, and he's really learned a lot of it on his own.  If we try to help him he tends to get frustrated, but he will sit on his own working to sound things out.  We were driving to dinner one night, and he wrote this little story all by himself on the way.  It says, "This was the rocket.  I at the moon.  Today is a great day."

We had some box corners at the house from another project, and he created a ball track with them one morning.  This is one of them, but he made about 10 different configurations using elevated couch cushions.

Mary is one of the perkiest little people that I know.  She's full of energy, and she runs all over the house trying to find any way she can be mischievous.  

She makes me laugh so hard on the trampoline, because her running and jumping looks hilarious.  She also gets crazy hair static.  If we leave the back door open she bolts out to climb the ladder up to the trampoline.

 I just love this picture of her wearing Jackson's sunglasses.

This week is Teacher Appreciation week.  Jackson made a note for his teacher and teacher's assistant.

Owen's school crafts continue to be adorable.  Here are just a few:

Owen is also newly potty trained, and I use the word 'trained' loosely.  I was planning to do it over Spring Break, but he woke up one morning before the Spring Break with a dry diaper so I asked him if he wanted to sit on the toilet.  He peed on the toilet when I sat him down, and he's been going on the toilet ever since.  He's only had two accidents, and they were when he was just busy having fun and the urge struck too quickly.  It was basically a non-event switching over to underwear.  That was totally my kind of potty training.  I hope Mary took notes!

The Boys' Annual Check-Up and January Photo Dump

The boys both had their annual wellness visit on January 15th.  It's a couple months late, but I did it late last year as well.  It was just a typical visit with weight, height, blood pressure, and Jackson had a vision and hearing screening.  Jackson weighed in at a hefty 37 lbs (21st percentile) and Owen at 31 lbs (41st percentile).  Jackson has 20/20 vision and fantastic hearing.  No one had to get shots this time, which was great.  I knew Jackson wouldn't have to, but I didn't make any promises to Owen when he asked.  They both have vivid memories from last year's appointment where they both received immunizations.  Any time we go to the doctor's office they ask if there will be any "poking."  Here are the two patients in their gowns:

While waiting for our appointment all three kids had a great time in the waiting room.  

Mary watched two girls who were probably around 10 years old choreograph a dance in the middle of the waiting room.  She was mesmerized by them.  This is her just making sure I was still around while she watched.

We were happy to leave with a good check-up!

January has just been the usual school days and playing at home.  I was looking through pictures feeling bad that I don't have that many of Jackson on my phone, but it hit me that he's at school all the time so I don't have as many opportunities.

Mary and I get some great quality time on Tuesdays and Thursdays when both boys are at school.  She's also pretty accustomed to being in the car often for drop-offs and pick-ups (cheesy grin while snacking in her car seat below).  I love the picture on the top right, because she is using a drink holder as a bracelet.  She plays with a lot of boy toys, but she is always really excited to see the girls section in stores and to put things on like they're necklaces or bracelets.  

She's a little drowsy looking in the left picture.

Mary is so sweet with her little doll.  She carries it around and puts the pacifier in it's mouth.  When you hand her the doll she gives it a hug like in the picture below.

She can be occupied for a long time with a laundry basket.  There was also a week long streak of playing with a car seat box.  

She always tries to join in on whatever Jackson and Owen are doing these days.  The picture is blurry, but they were all doing ring-around-the-rosy together while I made dinner.

She loves playing with her little computer, and she thinks the animal sounds are hilarious (particularly the cat).  She's also started pulling this dog around.  She hasn't figured out how to pull it while walking forwards, so she just walks backwards all the time with it.

Owen is a busy guy as usual.  He loves doing his sticker books, eating snacks, and doing any project that requires tools.  

In the left picture below he's wanting me to smell him, because he asked me to put Jonathan's cologne on his neck.  He loves going to school so much, and the picture on the right is one of his crafts from last week.  I usually try to snap a picture of his craft right away, because he'll rip it up while we wait in the car line for Jackson.

I had about 10 pictures of Jackson in his winter gear.  He is a lover of cozy clothing.  One thing that makes me laugh about this picture is his obsession with coordinating all of his clothes.  He has a blue hat, a blue and green winter coat, and blue and green shoes.  The coat next to his feet is a blue and green light jacket.  He also has navy blue gloves.  He likes everything he wears to match.

Jackson also likes to set his clothes up for the following morning each night.  He picks everything out down to the underwear, folds it neatly, and places it on a shelf in his closet for when he wakes up.  Everything has it's place in Jackson's world.

Christmas 2015

We had a great Christmas and a lot of fun having Jonathan home for 13 days.  Both boys did a lot of fun things at school to celebrate as well.  The boys each brought home some adorable ornaments that they made at school.

Jack's class had a Christmas party where each parent contributed a snack.  Owen was excited to sit at a table with Jackson.

Similar to Elf on a Shelf, we found a gnome at our local garden store that we named Norman the Naughty Gnome.  We only did it for about 7 days, but it was a fun activity to do with the boys.  Here are pictures two of the things Norman did.  He TP'd our Christmas tree, read stories to the stuffed animals, dumped popcorn kernels on Jack's bedroom floor, shaved with Jonathan's shaving cream and put some on the mirror, took a bite out of our Christmas cookies, and a few other things.

We also did our second annual gingerbread house decorating on FaceTime with my mom.  I bought a little gingerbread village so both boys would have their own houses to do.  Last year Owen didn't get into it very much, but he had a great time decorating this year.

Auntie Amy made our whole family Christmas hats, and they were adorable!  The kids got a big kick out of them, and Owen even wore his out to lunch one day.  Auntie Amy also got the kids and me Christmas pjs.  Here are the kids in their Christmas gear on Christmas Eve.  After the kids went to bed on Christmas Even Jonathan and I wrapped their gifts, put them under the tree, put Santa footprints from the fireplace to the cookies, and I took one for the team and ate the cookies as "Santa."

Jonathan set up a tripod for our camera and got a family picture on Christmas Eve night.

 

Here are the kids playing with some of their gifts on Christmas morning.

Both boys got a new winter hat and sunglasses as gifts.  Here they are wearing them minus Owen's hat.

Both boys got slippers, and Jack got a robe since he is a man of leisure.  He loves anything snuggly.  Owen got his own real power tool since he really loves tools and helping Jonathan with projects.  He's gotten a chance to use it helping Jonathan build a birdhouse that's now hanging in our backyard.

We took the kids ice skating in downtown Tulsa.  I hung out with Mary on the sidelines while Jonathan  put his lower back to work helping the boys.  They both loved it, but it was kind of a short-lived activity just due to their ages.

Here are a few sibling photos from over the break.  Jack and Owen were riding a tricycle at the garden center, the kids playing together, and Jackson blow drying and brushing Owen's hair.

Jonathan wrapped Mary up in some Christmas lights when we were taking down Christmas decorations.  She thought it was so funny.

One thing we did that I didn't get a picture of was going to see a large Christmas lights display at a local church.  It was a little crowded and a long wait to get into it, but the boys loved it.

Mary's 15-Month Update

Mary turned 15-months on December 5th, and she had her wellness visit a few days later.  Here she is waiting to be seen by the doctor.

Mary's 15-month stats (12/8/15):

Weight- 21 lbs. (22nd percentile)

Height- 30.25 inches (44th percentile)

Head- 18.4 inches (76th percentile)

I had her at around 22.5 lbs on our scale two weeks earlier, but she had been having some tummy troubles for about a week before this appointment and was not eating very much.  I think she may have lost a little bit of weight right before this appointment.

One of the developmental questions the doctor asked was whether or not she could scribble.  I told the doctor that I didn't know, because I was usually trying to keep writing utensils away from her for the sake of our walls :).  That night we gave Mary a crayon to see if she could.  She had a lot of fun with the crayon, and she only tried to eat it a couple of times.

Here's a few pictures of Mary from her 15th month.

She's either giggling and running around the house being mischievous, or she's walking behind me crying and demanding snacks.

Her current favorite activities include emptying out our kitchen and bathroom cabinets and drawers as well as unplugging things that she can get her hands on.

The only major developmental milestone recently is that she transitioned from two naps per day to one nap per day.  She had been fighting her second nap for a few weeks before Christmas, but I was trying to hang on to it for my own selfish reasons :).  While the boys were on school break I decided to transition her down to one nap so I could play around with what time worked best to start the nap and then go to bed at night.  It's hard to have her down early enough that she gets enough time to nap before school pick-ups, but it's too late to put her down after we get back from school pick-ups.  She usually takes a nap from around noon until 2 or 2:30.

A Cute Mary Photo Dump

Mary hasn't been featured in many of the recent blogs, so I thought I would include a few collages of her in all her cuteness.  I don't know if I mentioned her recent walking milestone in a previous blog, so now's a great time!  Mary took her first 2 steps on October 18th, and then another 3 steps on the 21st.  On October 23rd she took 12 steps from the middle of the living room to the couch.  A day or two after that she was officially walking as her primary mode of transportation.  Now she just kind of wanders around the house following everyone around and grabbing toys.

This is not related to Mary, but I just have to share it.  It's kind of an unofficial milestone in a way.  Jack decided that he wanted to put up a sign on his door to tell Owen and Mary not to come into his room.  It says "Do not come in my room or bed   -Jackson."  I guess 5 years old is when you become territorial against your siblings :).

Now I'm caught up for Christmas preparation and the holiday!