Valentine's Day and Girls Weekend in Chicago

Jackson was really excited about Valentine's Day, which he calls Just Because I Love You Day, just as he's excited about most holidays.  His preschool class had a Valentine's party last Thursday, so we prepared little cards for his class.  I made his name traceable on the back of each card since it was such a small space to fit his name.  He did such a great job tracing his name legibly on all 15 cards.  I asked him if he wanted to take a break part way through and he said, "I don't need a break.  I don't get tired."

When he got home from school he emptied his box of goodies and picked out a sucker.  He was even willing to give Owen a sucker to show him that he loves him.

The next day Jackson told me that he wanted to make me a card.  He told me he wanted to make one because he loves me.  He said he loved me because I give him water as well as listing off a few other day-to-day things that I do for him.  It was so sweet that he listed things that seem like mundane tasks but obviously mean something to him.  The bear card is a card he made at school.  The card with all the hearts is the one he made for me at home.  It's a punching robot, another robot, and a bunch of "I love you hearts," in his words.

 

Mary and I left for Chicago Valentine's Day afternoon, but Jonathan and I made heart-shaped waffles for the boys that morning.  They also each got a dry erase crayon board and mini M&Ms.

Valentine's Day afternoon the boys dropped Mary and me off at the airport for our trip to Chicago.  Jonathan had Monday off of work, so we took advantage of a longer weekend.  Mary was a very good travel buddy.  She was easy to keep happy overall with only a few short crying episodes when she got tired.  In the picture on the left we were hanging out in the airport waiting area, and she was happy playing with her teething ring and a make-shift mobile with a teething necklace.  We had a row to ourselves, so on the right she is just laying in the empty seat next to me.

When we arrived in Chicago the temperature was 7 degrees with a windchill of -13 degrees.

I brought Mary to meet my Grandma in her assisted living home.  My parents and sister came long on Sunday afternoon.  On Monday morning Mary and I went back with my mom and brought my Grandma a chocolate shake :).  My Grandma met the boys a little under 2 years ago, so I wanted to make sure she had the chance to meet Mary as well.  Mary was full of smiles, coos and 'talking,' and grabbing her fingers.  It was a really sweet time.

One of the funniest things about our visit was how much attention we received from all of the residents at the assisted living home.  Mary was quite the popular little baby.  I think we met nearly everyone who lived there, and they would come up to tell us they heard there was a baby around.

Talking to all the women and men in their 80s and 90s is always such a reminder of how special this time in life is.  So many of them told stories of their children when they were babies, and I heard over and over what a blessing Mary is.  My Grandma asked about a rocking chair from her house that my parents now have at their house, and she was talking about how she remembers nights rocking my dad in that chair when he was a baby.  During this time of life that sometimes feels chaotic and definitely low on sleep, it is a nice reminder to slow down and soak it all in since time goes by so quickly.

Mary's 5-Month Update and A Month of Sickness

Mary turned 5-months old this past Thursday, but I just took her 5-month photo today:

Some of the major milestones for the month include:  

• Mary rolled front to back for the first time on January 22nd
• Mary rolled back to front for the first time on February 11th
• We moved Mary out of our bedroom into her own room this past Sunday, February 9th

This was Mary on the actual 5-month mark:

Mary woke up the morning of the 5th with a 103.6 fever as the final child in our home to fall victim to the flu.  When she woke up that morning her cry sounded different than usual.  It was this really sad, miserable sounding cry.  When I went to pick her up she felt like she was on fire.  Since her fever was so high we called the doctor and headed straight over.   They weighed her while there, and she weighed 15 lbs., 1 oz.

It was so sad seeing her so sick that I got teary eyed a few times.  It's definitely scary to have such a young baby be sick since you can't give her anything besides Tylenol.  The doctor encouraged using Tamiflu for all of the kids, but I've read things about Tamiflu that made me weary of using it.  The second day she was sick, any time that she was awake she was crying just from feeling miserable.

She was a little bit happier in the carrier.

She actually recovered faster than the boys did and was back to her happy self after about 2 days.    Here's a little picture collage of Mary being cute this month. 

The second week of January Jack's class had pajama day.  When I picked him up the teacher told me that he was the 'Music Shining Star' for his participation as well as the line leader for the day.   He was pretty excited about it.

After that fun day at school he missed the next two days due to a respiratory infection.  That cold was also passed on to Owen.  We had to go to the doctor, because Owen's cold turned into croup and Jack was having difficulty breathing.  Jack had an x-ray done to check for pneumonia, which he did not have.  Both boys were sent home with a steroid, and Jack had to use an inhaler at night due to difficulty breathing.  Mary caught a mild cold, but she avoided anything too terrible.

Jack was able to return to school after a week off.  When I picked him up from school the second day the teacher told me he had not been acting himself, he was out cold during nap time, and he cried when she woke him up.  When we got home he did not have a fever.  Within 2 hours it was up to 102.5.    His fever ended up reaching 106.4 the next day, so we went back to the doctor.  They did a flu test, RSV test, and drew blood to make sure that bacteria was not in his bloodstream.  He ended up having the flu and strep throat.  Within 2 days Owen had a fever of 104, and we were back to the doctor for him to see if he also needed an antibiotic for strep.  He ended up having the flu but not strep.  Both boys were pretty miserable with the flu lasting about 6-7 days.

Both boys were starting to look better and their fevers were gone, so we took a trip around the block to the park.

The day after this park trip is when Mary woke up with the flu.  We thought she had dodged it since their illnesses were ending, but unfortunately she got hit too.  The morning that Mary woke up sick, Jonathan turned back around from driving to work to come home and take care of the boys while I took Mary to the doctor.

Besides people being sick most of January, my mom came down to visit for a week.  She arrived just as the boys were getting over their respiratory infections, and the flu started in the last 2 days of her visit.  So, she got some good healthy days with them to play :).

I wanted to include a super adorable picture of the boys that Jonathan took.  He told them to say cheese for a picture for the grandparents, and this is what they did:

So, we're hoping the remainder of February is full of health and happiness in our home.  Jack is looking forward to his Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow.  Mary and I are leaving Saturday afternoon to go up to Chicago for the long weekend, so it's a boys weekend at our house!

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 :)