Mother's Day, Superheroes, and A Bit More

Mother's Day was particularly fun this year, because it's the first year that Jack really understood that it was a holiday.  They had been talking about it at school and preparing for a Mother's Tea singing program for several weeks.  Also, Jonathan marked it on the calendar for him.  To say that Jack loves holidays/birthdays is an understatement.  He looks for any reason to celebrate.  Jonathan woke up at 5:45 A.M. on Mother's Day to find Jack sleeping on the floor next to our bed.  He woke Jack up, and Jack said that he had come down to start Mother's Day.  He had Jack get into bed, and he just slept with us until his normal 7:30 A.M. wake up time.

Jack made me the top card the morning of Mother's Day, and he made the bottom card at school.

Here's the survey that he did at school.  I love that he views my best skill as cleaning :).

 

This morning his school had Mother's Tea where they served little desserts and drinks, and each of the classes sang three songs.  The shadow portrait was the gift to moms from the kids in Jack's class.

Owen and Mary were so patient with the program that lasted an hour.  Owen was occupied by eating way too many mini brownies, mini muffins, and lemonade.  Mary stayed happy until the very end even though she was so tired since it was during her usual morning nap time.  Jack did so great singing and doing all the hand motions.  I've watched the video a few times since we came home, and he makes me laugh so hard.  He was definitely the most "enthusiastic" of his class, and I thought he was going to dance his way out of the line a few times.  

Overall, it's been a fantastic Mother's Day celebration.  I didn't make any meals or clean a single dish on Mother's Day, and Jack camped out next to our bed from excitement to celebrate me…it doesn't get much better than that.

Last Tuesday was Superhero/Princess Day in Jack's class to celebrate all of the kids in his class being able to write their names independently.  Owen wanted to get in on the action too, so I dressed him up as well.  It was super cute seeing all the kids in their costumes.

Owen/Superman washed his motorcycle when we got home.  This is one of his favorite activities, and he was drenched when he was done (he spent about an hour washing it).  He didn't want to change clothes, so I dried his outfit and put it back on to pick Jack up from school.

With a bribe of gummies I was able to get Owen to pose for me.  When we picked Jack up from school, each child got a superhero cookie.  Jack picked the cookie that matched his costume.

We've had a series of rainy days here, and I was itching to get out of the house.  I took them to paint pottery.  The boys had a great time picking out their colors and painting star plates.  Besides the stress of keeping them from touching things due to the "you break it, you buy it" policy, it was a lot of fun.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Jack has shown an increased interest in helping in the kitchen now.  Friday night we made a homemade pizza together since it's a kid-friendly meal for him to help with.

Next week is Jack's preschool graduation ceremony.  He will still be in pre-k next year since he's a November birthday, but he'll be going full days, five days a week through the public school system.  So he is graduating from his current part-time community preschool program.  I'm so excited to see him in his little cap and gown!

Mary's 8-Month Update

Mary turned 8-months old yesterday, and I can't even believe how fast this first year is going!  Here is her monthly photo:

She's really become a more active member of the family instead of just sitting on the sidelines watching.  The boys love her so much, and she thinks they are extremely interesting to watch.    

They both love showering her with kisses and doing raspberries on her belly.

As you can see below she has her two bottom front teeth.  You can see the edge of another one poking through on the bottom.  She's constantly chewing on her hands and just about anything she can get a hold of.

Mary finally enjoys bath time and actually relaxes.  She went through a phase where she spent the entire bath screaming.  She also hated having lotion applied, and she laughs now when you do it…improvement!

She isn't a huge fan of her car seat, but she does pretty well as long as she has some toys to play with and chew on.  

I've strayed from the baby led weaning strategy and have gone to purees.  Mary was getting angry that she couldn't hold onto food well.  She would get upset when she couldn't get a piece of food in her mouth.  I tried purees and she was a total happy camper being able to actually swallow something.  She is a food lover for sure.  If you're too slow getting food into her mouth she starts crying, and she doesn't like to watch others eat while she's not eating.  I eat pretty much all my meals cold when she is present.

I would say her favorite food is egg yolk.  This girl can eat two 4-oz fruit packs and an egg yolk before I end the meal for her.  She would keep going if I let her, but I don't want her to get over-full and not nurse well.

Her most recent milestone is that she started waving on May 4th, so the day before she turned 8-months.  I was holding her watching the boys eat breakfast, and she started waving at them.  She then did it four more times before her morning nap.  I was able to get a short video of it.  She's a waving-machine now :).  She waves at people, the refrigerator, the window…she loves it.  She looks at her hand sometimes like 'what is happening? This is amazing.'

Springtime Fun and Relaxation

We've been enjoying the spring weather before it gets super hot here in Oklahoma.  The boys love to spend time outside, especially Owen.  Some days they just like to relax on the patio.

Owen loves doing 'jobs' around the house.  He used the baby walker to mow the lawn just like Jonathan does.  He just went back and forth over and over again doing his pretend lawn work.  

We made Rice Krispy treats for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  Both boys loved helping and licking the spoon.

They decorated them with sprinkles.  Jack generally does not like anything sticky, but he got over it for a treat.  

I always feel a little bit sad for Owen when Jack is at school, because he misses having a buddy in the house.  I don't think playing with me is quite the same for him.  Here is Owen among the chaos and destruction that he creates during his time playing by himself.  

It was community helper day at school last week, and they had a firefighter and police officer come speak to their class.  They also got to take a tour of a firetruck.  Jack came home with his stickers from the speakers.  

We had to get food for Izzy last week at the pet store, so it turned into a bit of a field trip for the boys.  They loved seeing all of the animals.  I also discovered a possible cat allergy in Jack.  As soon as we got into the cat section his nose was bothering him and he was complaining that his eyes itched.  He sneezed this huge sneeze that emptied his sinuses.  As soon as we left the cat section he was fine.

Owen has been waking up earlier than he normally does recently, so he gets tired earlier in the day.  He'll say "I need nap now"  when he gets really tired.  He couldn't take a nap until after we picked Jack up from school last week, so he laid down before we left to rest.

Jack has had a recent interest in taking silly pictures.  He wanted an impromptu photo shoot the other day.  There's not much I can really say about these besides he's a bit of a weirdo ;).  

Per usual, Jackson has been drawing a lot of pictures.  He drew this bike, and he wrote the word "GO" all by himself without any help!  He wanted to write bike under the picture so I helped him sound it out, and he was able to figure it out besides the silent 'E' on the end.  It's fun to watch the whole process of learning how to read and write.

I have been trying to figure out a way to incorporate Bible stories into our day-to-day routine, and I wanted to find something that would be easy to do and interesting to both boys.  I found this "My first Hands-on Bible," and it is great.  You read the stories, and it has little hands that stop you to do an activity or talk about something relevant to the story.  At the end it has different activities and talking points as well as a little prayer to help with explaining and retaining the story.  It's for ages 4-6, so Jack really gets into it.  Owen will listen and do some activities also.  I always wonder if Jack understands and how much he remembers.  One of the activities from the 10 Commandments story was to find the number 10 when you're out driving.  A week after we read the story he found a number 10 on a sign and referenced the story, so it was fun to see that he does remember what we read.  

Grandma Nichols came for a visit last weekend, and we had a lot of fun.  We made a trip to the Philbrook Museum where you can walk around in the gardens and look at different flowers and statues.  The boys love the statues and being able to run around freely.  

We're approaching Jack's pre-k graduation at the end of May, so there are going to be some fun end of year activities at school that we are looking forward to.

Mary's 7-Month Update

Mary turned 7-months old on Easter, and here is her monthly photo in her cute Spring-time cardigan :).

This photo is from a couple weeks prior, and her smile is hilarious to me.  She's such a little ham.

I took this photo this morning, but it was too cute not to post.  

 

Both boys love their little sister and are really great with her.  Jack shows a little bit more interest just because he's older, but Owen is really cute with her too.  Hearing Owen say her name is extra adorable.  Just today they both wanted to hold her.  Jack asked if he could hold Mary first, and they both were so relaxed with each other.  Owen said he wanted to "feed Mary" since Jack was using the boppy pillow, so he got to hold her too.  

They both like to join her on the floor, and Mary loves the company.  She's always very interested in what they're doing.  

We went to the park last week, and I tried to put Mary in the swing for the first time.  She just kind of slumped to the side and showed very little emotion.  So she's not really impressed with the park yet.

I've been super slow about starting solids this go around, but we have started letting her join in on dinner.  She loves sitting at the table with us and trying new foods.  She'll eat just about anything so far, and she's pretty straight-faced when she tries things.  She's never made a disgusted face, but she has gotten extra excited about a few things.  She's loved strawberries and egg yolks the most so far, but she's also liked mango, pear, apple, banana, and sweet potato.  She ate avocado but didn't show much emotion over it.  She liked chewing on a steamed green bean, but she wasn't really able to eat much of it.  I gave her a taste of cod the other night, and she seemed to like it.  I also gave her a chicken bone to gnaw on a few nights ago, and she was super excited about that:   

I gave her a piece of chicken, which she sucked on for a second, but she was more interested in the bone.

Here she is with avocado:

Baby led weaning is great, because I can just let her try things.  She also gets used to feeding herself from the get go.  It seems like she's been swallowing some of what she's been eating, but a lot of it gets chewed up and comes back out as she gets the hang of the whole eating thing.  I ordered these spoons called Num Num Spoons where she can dip it into things like yogurt, pudding, etc., and there are special grippers that help the food cling to it so she can start learning to use a spoon while feeding herself.  Those should be here tomorrow, so I'm excited to try it out with her.

On March 20th I noticed that her bottom front right tooth was breaking through the gums.  About a week or so later the other bottom front tooth started breaking through the gums.  So she has the top part of both bottom front teeth now.  Besides her always chewing on things, you wouldn't know that she's teething at all, so that's good she doesn't seem to be having any pain.

She continues to be a great sleeper.  She sleeps from about 8:15pm-7:30am (give or take 30 minutes on both ends).  She's generally up chatting still around 5:30 or 6am, but she will usually go back to sleep for a little while longer.    She was really grumpy and fought nursing on an every 3 hour schedule, so I spread them out to every 4 hours now and it has made it much easier.  She'll be hungry after 3 hours occasionally, but 4 hours is working well overall.

Mary is about as easy going of a baby as anyone could ask for.  The only thing that is somewhat challenging is that she just wants to be held constantly.  She doesn't like being on the floor for long with toys, and she doesn't like to be put in the bouncer or her bouncy seat for more than a few minutes either.  I usually try to do most of our dinner prep during her second nap, because she'll just cry wanting to be picked up the whole time I'm trying to make dinner if she's awake.  My lower back and neck have been hurting pretty badly this week, and my wrist was hurting on the arm I hold her on just from holding her so much.   

Easter and the Beginning of Spring Weather

We had a pretty casual Easter this year, but we wanted to make it a fun day for the boys.  A couple days before Easter we decorated bunnies and hung them on our back door.  This was a great craft for Owen, because it was easy to put all the stickers on to decorate the bunny.

Jack had an Easter egg hunt at preschool, and each kid in his class brought 6 filled eggs.  Jack was super excited to open up the 6 eggs he came home with that afternoon.

I was busy doing something in the other room, and he snuck his basket off the counter and hid in a different room.  I was calling out for him and he wasn't answering.  When he finally responded he was finishing up chewing something.  I asked him what he was eating, and he told me he was eating an apple.  Seeing as I had not given him an apple I had to question his story :).  I smelled his mouth, and the look on his face when he realized he was about to be found out was priceless.  He had eaten one of the chocolates from his basket while in hiding.  I had to turn around to hide my smile at how funny he was, and we discussed how it's not good to lie.  

On Easter morning the boys painted Easter eggs instead of dying them.  Owen was interested for about 1.5 eggs, but Jack really enjoyed it.

 

It was wet and a little rainy on Easter, so we did an Easter egg hunt in our house instead of outside as planned.  We filled a bunch of eggs with small toys, candy, stamps, and coins.  They had a great time running from room to room looking for the eggs.

The past month has given us some better weather overall for getting outside more often.  We've taken a few trips to the neighborhood parks.  

The boys built some houses out of sticks.  Jack said he was building a house for worms.  I asked what animal Owen was making a house for, and he said a cow.

When Jack is at school and Mary's napping Owen and I have fun in the backyard.  We kick around soccer balls and practice t-ball.  He looks like a natural in this photo:

 

Jack has started showing interest in making his lunch for school.  I set everything out for him last week, and he got it all organized in his lunchbox.  

The grass is turning green and the birds are always chirping, so we're looking forward to some great days outside trying to get out all of the energy that these two little boys have. 

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.