7 weeks

Notice the smile on Jack's face... I love my boys!

29 months!

I can't believe that we almost have a 2 1/2 year old! This post will be brief but at least it will be relatively on time. We've had a good month. She's finally adjusted to Baaaaybee Gak's permanent status in our home and is in a good mood most of the time. Of course, we still have moments where we are reminded that she is, in fact, a 2 year old, but most of the time, she's great.

Stats: She's just over 36 inches and 30 lbs. She still wears the same size 8 shoes that she wore last summer! She wears mostly 3T clothes, with a few 2T and 4T mixed in.

Sleeping: She sleeps for roughly 12 hours at night (about 7:30-7:30) and takes a 2-2.5 hour nap during the day. She is back to going down very easily for naps and bedtime (it took a few weeks after Jack's arrival for this to come back).

Eating: She still eats very well... nothing has really changed in this department.

Playing: She still loves jigsaw puzzles and can now do her 12 piece puzzles without assistance. She loves to do this while I am nursing, which works really well. She also loves playing with her dolls and stuffed animals. Somehow, they seem to find their way into the swing, bouncer, car seat, play mat, and crib. She enjoys playing with her duplos and really likes to pretend. She carries on a lot of one-sided conversations with her dolls, animals, duplo people, and Baby Jack, of course. She plays well independently, probably the best that she has since we moved here in November.

Potty: I'm so thankful that she is potty trained, but the hardest part is using public bathrooms when I have the two of them by myself. We get the job done, though. She's done a great job and has had zero accidents aside from a few during nap time. She does wear a diaper at night, and our best guess is that she pees once during the night (like you really care, sorry!) because she goes within the first hour of waking up.

Challenges: It is usually a challenge to wash hands, brush teeth, and change clothes. We are constantly trying to be creative to entice her to be "cooperative". Hopefully we will make some progress on that during this month.

Funny sayings:

(handing me her toy phone)

E: "It's for you, Steph! It's Pop!"

E: "My vitamin fell down."

Me: "Where is it?"

E: "It fell on floor."

E: (with a soft perplexed voice) "I might have given it to Boss?"

E: "What are you doing Daddy?"

Mike: "I'm cleaning the kitchen."

E: "Who's coming over?"

(on the monitor while she was rolling around in her crib)

E: "The ceiling is all OVER the place!"

We joke that Elise has a potty mouth because she is always talking about the potty and her related functions. She is still very proud of her potty skills and likes to brag that she kept her panties dry (and give the status of everyone else's undergarments).

E: "I kept my panties dry. Mommy kept her panties dry. Daddy kept his underwear dry. Boss kept his fur dry (she came up with this on her own). Baby Jack did NOT keep his diaper dry!"

A few pics

5 weeks

Serious little mama...

Holding "Baaaaybee Gak" with the help of the Boppy pillow

And that's all I have time for! I'm trying to learn the art of going to bed earlier and it isn't quite working. Mike is in Baltimore until tomorrow and it is a little hectic being outnumbered. I'm so thankful that he isn't deploying again while E and J are young. The last few days have been successful though... he found a great house for us to rent and I got both kids fed, bathed and in bed before 8!

Jack is 1 month old!

We had a great first month with "Baby Gak". Elise is hilarious and talks to him in a baby voice. I'll have to upload some video of the two of them sometime soon.

Stats: He had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and weighed almost 10 lbs, so I'm sure he's a little over 10 lbs right now (2.5 lbs over his birth weight). He is about 22 inches long (1.5 inches over his birth length). I packed up his newborn clothes about a week ago, and he's been wearing 0-3 month or 3 month clothes, depending on the brand.

Diapers: I switched to cloth diapers exclusively about 2 weeks ago because we were having poop and pee leakage issues, and they've been great! I highly recommend the Bummis Tot Bots Easy Fit diapers. They will fit a toddler (Elise is about 36 inches and 30 lbs) and a baby. I think Jack was close to 9 lbs when we started using them. They are easy enough for any random person to correctly changethe diaper, and all you have to do is throw them in the laundry every other day. It is way easier than washing poop stains out of clothes and car seats! Mike and I are both very pleased with them. I've even had success with them at night, though I imagine once Jack is sleeping 12 hours, he will need a disposable at night. I change him at every feeding. He wears size 1 in a disposable.

Eating: He has started to establish a fairly predictable schedule...most of the time, he eats within 15 minutes of these times (and always RIGHT when we are about to eat dinner)

8 am, 10:45 am, 1:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm (and 1-2 times at night). He is still a great nurser, so much so that we rarely give him a bottle because it is a hassle (and he sleeps the same whether he has a bottle before bed or not). I have been pumping one side after his morning feeding, but I don't see much of a point in storing up milk when we're going to be moving at the end of July. I do want to make sure that he has a bottle often enough that I know he will take one if necessary, so he gets a few ounces every few days.

Sleeping: He's usually asleep for the night between 8:30-9 pm. Last night, he woke up at 4:30 am to eat and went right back to sleep. That is the longest stretch that he has slept in his crib, though he has done 7-8 hours in his bouncer several times since he was 1 week old. I no longer let him sleep in his bouncer at night, though he does sleep in it sometimes during the day. He has always slept well at night.

Naps are another story. I try to follow Babywise but it is a lot harder to do with two kids! Sometimes, I'll have to give him a feeding in two different sittings because I also need to do something with Elise, like put her down for a nap, take her to the potty, fix a meal, get her up from a nap, etc. We almost always go somewhere in the morning, so he takes his first nap in the car seat. The rest of the day is a challenge for me to get him down without nursing him to sleep or bouncing him to sleep. I usually have to try several times before he will actually stay asleep. I think I might be keeping him up too long for his waketime. I am trying to decide if it is worth the space and money to invest in a swing. Elise hated them so we never got one for her, but she was easy to put down from an early age. Thoughts? It is just hard for me to devote a lot of time to getting him down for a nap while she is awake.

Playtime: We alternate between the play mat, bouncer, someone's arms, and floor while he is awake. He doesn't mind tummy time but he doesn't do much either. He's started smiling responsively, cooing, and tracking us across the room this week.

We love this little guy and are so thankful to be a family of four!

3 weeks

4 weeks