Back at it

Today was my first day back at work - a day I'd been dreading and a day that, when my leave started back in January, seemed like eons away.  But, in fact, the 18 weeks I had off flew by so fast, and I was in denial all the way up until I actually arrived at work today.

Luckily it was a low key day, where I was able to sit in on a long Q3 planning meeting, which was a great way to find out what's been going on, and then my team took me to lunch.  I was finally able to get into my computer later this afternoon, which allowed just enough time for my Outlook account to sync and me to file everything away.  And to top it off, my boss brought me some bright pink peonies, which helped brighten my day and my desk.

I definitely got teary eyed as I left Cole this a.m. but he gave me lots of big smiles as I was kissing him goodbye, and I knew he'd be in good hands with Corey today, before going to daycare for the first time on Monday.  And I'd told Jackson today would be a hard day for me, so he promised me 25 kisses and 25 hugs when I dropped him off at daycare, and he followed through which made my day.

I got several cute texts from Corey and Cole today, keeping me updated on what they were up to.

Snuggles with Daddy

Checking out the trees while Daddy runs

Play time

And here's the smiley face I came home to:

And one other thing that brightened my day was my Cole notebook that Corey made on Blurb.  Loved seeing Cole's little face all day.

4 Months

Cole is 4 months old today - 121 days, a third of a year - and I can't quite believe it.  My maternity leave is coming to an end this week (I go back on Friday), and I think it went MUCH quicker this time around.  I'm enjoying every last moment alone with my munchkin, sneaking in as many cuddles as I possibly can.

Stats:

• Length: 27" (98%)
• Weight: 15 lbs, 7 oz (50%*)
• Head: 16 3/4" (60%)

Cole's latest and greatest:

• Adores his big bro - showers J with lots of smiles and his full attention when he enters the room.  (Jackson loves Cole as well.  He loves to be the one to wake him up in the morning, help out however needed, give him kisses, etc.  He returned from a weekend in Yakima with my parents and the first words out of his mouth when he walked in were "Where's Cole?"  Upon finding him, ran up to him and gave him a gentle kiss on his head.  Melted my heart.)
• Loves to stand (with support, of course) just like Jackson did at this age.  
• Started playing in his Exersaucer and likes it for short periods of time.
• Does great in his Bumbo for extended periods, and has even started sitting in it on the table while we eat dinner.
• Still loves his play mat and reaching for the dangling toys.
• Has been very chatty/vocal lately.
• Has been doing quite a bit of tummy time, and on several occasions has rolled from tummy to back, but it may just be a fluke since it hasn't happened again recently.
• Continues to bust out of his swaddle occasionally, but isn't yet ready to be completely unswaddled (rubs his eyes and flails around, and then cries when he can't fall asleep because of previously mentioned actions), though we did make it partway through one night with one arm out before he busted out completely, frustrating himself.  So, we'll deal with getting rid of the swaddle once he starts rolling over from back to tummy, which I think is still pretty far off.
• Has slept all night numerous times throughout the month, but is currently going through a rough patch.  I've read about 4 months being a big development period, which often leads to rough sleep for a few weeks, so hopefully that is all this is.  He's been tougher to get to bed (wakes up several times screaming after being put down, and then wakes up and is wide awake kicking and chatting in his crib around 4 a.m.).
• *Stopped his overnight feedings the day he turned 3 months (either sleeps through the night or if he wakes up, seems very sleepy and just needs a bit of help going back to sleep vs. needing food).  His weight is in the 50% and while this isn't typically cause for concern, the doctor wants to monitor it, since he was previously 75% at 2 months, and 90% at 1 month.  She didn't say that we needed to start the overnight feedings back up, but did want us to come back at 5 months for a weight check.  In the meantime, we may do some late night feedings before we go to bed to try to help up his weight a bit.
• Continues to take short naps, but awakens tired.  Sometimes we are able to get him back to sleep.  If not, we add in another nap (he is ready for another nap very soon after getting up, rather than his normal 90+ minute awake time window) or move up his next nap.  This past week though, we got several 1-2 hours naps out of him!
• Giggles when you make funny noises.
• Enjoys looking at himself in the mirror.
• Has been reaching for and grasping objects that come within arms length more and more.
• Loves feeling and clasping soft things, like his loveys.  For awhile this month, we swaddled him with one arm out during naps to help transition to no swaddle, and something that would help comfort/settle him, would be giving him a lovey to hold.  

Schedule:

• 6:20-7:00 - typically wakes up within this window
• 7 a.m. - first feeding (7-9 oz)
• 8/8:30 a.m. - first nap 
• 10:30 a.m. - second feeding (6-7 oz)
• 12 p.m. - second nap
• 1:30/2 p.m. - third feeding (6-7 oz)
• 3 p.m. - third nap
• 5 p.m. - forth feeding (5-6 oz)
• 6:30/7 p.m. - fifth feeding (has been 9 oz lately)
• 7/7:15 p.m. - bedtime (though we're in the process of moving this up to 6:30 - he is just way too tired by this point, after waking up from his last nap between 4 and 4:30).

He starts daycare on Monday, so I'm sure we'll have lots to post about in terms of his development and schedule next month.

If you're interested, Jackson's 4 month post is here.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing a wonderful Mother's Day to our fabulous moms and of course my grandma.  We are so lucky to have them in our lives, and to have all their love and support, especially as we raise our own family.  We couldn't do it without them!

We were able to celebrate with all the moms over brunch in Suncadia.  It's the perfect halfway point between Yakima and Sammamish, the food was yummy, and everything went smoothly (mostly meaning our boys cooperated and were happy kiddos, making brunch very enjoyable).

The weather cooperated as well, making it possible for Jackson to get some park time in, and for Corey and Jackson to grill up dinner.

I was completely spoiled with a back scratch in bed first thing this morning, lots of cuddles from both boys, kisses and hugs from J, a hand delivered card from J right after he woke up, a hanging flower basket (which J helped pick out), brunch, dinner made by Corey and J, and a complete car detailing.  (I'd wanted my car vacuumed and dusted, but Corey went all out and had Tru Experience, a mobile car detailing company, come out on Friday and complete transform both the inside and outside of my car, making it look brand new!)

I am so thankful and honored to be a mama to my boys, and I love them to pieces. And I'm so grateful to the moms in my life for setting such great examples for me.

Here are some photos from our fun day.

Got lots and lots of these smiles today.  And how cute is Cole in his cardigan onesie?!

My mama role models

Best our family photos seem to be these days - Cole trying to eat his shirt, Jackson chewing on his hand. Sigh.

It's hard work being so cute, and helping hand out cards and gifts at brunch.  He tried to tell us he didn't fall asleep in the car...but photo evidence doesn't lie.

Lots of snuggles with this boy today...one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon.

These two whipped up a delicious dinner, and I didn't have to lift a finger.  Love, love, love!

First time Cole has joined us for dinner at the table (rather than sitting in his swing or bouncer near the table, or being held).  So fun!

Bedtime Lullabies

Though we typically sing to Jackson before bed, he often sings to himself after we leave the room.  I've mentioned this before, but thought it was worth mentioning again as it continues to occur almost nightly, and his list of songs to sing has expanded as he learns new songs at school.  The volume has gotten louder over time, and he may be up singing song after song anywhere from 30-60 minutes.  Let me just say...that's a lot of lullabies, and often requires new iterations of existing favorites (like 'the animals on the bus say "moo moo moo'", which he came up with last night).

 

[Note: It's not really 79 degrees in his room - the temperature reading on our monitor just runs a bit high.]

Happy Birthday, "Gwamma Linda"!

Happy birthday (yesterday), Mom!  You are a wonderful mom, wife and 'Gwamma' and we are all beyond lucky to have you in our lives.  Thank you for all of your support, thoughtfulness, and kindness, and most of all, your love for us and our kiddos.

With her birthday falling very close to Mother's Day each year, she typically gets joint birthday/Mother's Day celebrations, so we aren't actually celebrating with her until this weekend when we all meet up in Suncadia for Mother's Day brunch.  But even though we couldn't celebrate with her on the big day, we found ways to help make her birthday special yesterday.  This included:

Two phone calls from Jackson, who wanted to sing to her (video of the first call below).

And an MMS from Cole, wishing her a happy birthday.

She was thrilled to hear from both of her grandsons and can't wait to see them this weekend.

Back in the Pool

Swimming lessons started back up for Jackson yesterday and they went great.

We decided to enroll him at the YMCA since it was right near our house, and they had room in their beginners class.  (Tiger Mountain Aquatics was a 30+ minute drive, and didn't have room until at least the fall in the next class up.)  He's been excited about going again and, like our Sesame Street Live outing, kept asking all morning if it was time to go.

His last swimming class had the kiddos in the water with parents, but this class was a beginners class for kiddos only.  He was a little nervous as he approached the pool alone but quickly warmed up and got right in.  When we signed up, they recommended bringing goggles, which we thought was a brilliant plan given his dislike of water getting in his eyes, but we tried to get them on him several times at home and there, only to have him say they were hurting his hair.  So, he hasn't yet experienced the benefits of goggles.

It was so fun to be able to watch him throughout the class as a spectator since, last time around, I was in the water with him.

Bye, Bye Bink

We've officially said bye bye to Jackson's bink!

Jackson used his pacifier at naptime and bedtime for over two years and was very attached to it.  I don't think I've ever seen him sleep without it, other than the rare nap in the car here or there.

I mentioned recently that, since moving to the next class at school, he no longer used his bink for naps there.  We continued to discuss when he thought he'd be able to get rid of it at home as well, and settled on May.  That said, after trying unsuccessfully to get rid of it in January, I didn't have high hopes on the follow through this time around.  (Long story short from the previous attempt: we packed up his bink and gave it to the "Bink Fairy" and gave him Dora and Swipper stuffed animals to sleep with (from the Bink Fairy) only to listen to him cry and scream that night for several hours, which made me cry, which finally resulted in the Bink Fairy returning the bink until he was more ready.)

I reminded him this past Wednesday that the following day was May 1 and the first thing he did, unprompted, the next morning was get up and throw his bink in the garbage.  We weren't sure if he would change his mind throughout the day, but that night, when he normally would have grabbed it and popped it in (right after videos, just before cuddles), he simply turned to me and said with a smile, "No more bink!".  That was two nights ago and he fell asleep both nights just fine - after lots of singing and talking, just like any other night.

So proud of him, and thrilled to add this to his list of growing accomplishments over the last few months.

Sesame Street Live

This year, we got Jackson just a few larger gifts for his birthday.  One of them is a LeapFrog tablet, which he loves. The other was tickets to Sesame Street Live, which was showing this weekend at Comcast Arena.

He's seen some Sesame Street Live stuff on YouTube, and he's been so excited to go (I even heard him telling one of the teachers at school the other day as I dropped him off that he wouldn't be at school on Friday, because he'd be at Sesame Street Live).  Today was the big day.  Gramma Joan watched Cole, and Corey took the day off, so that we could make this a date for just the three of us. All morning, he asked how long it was until we'd be able to leave, and the entire drive up there, he asked how many minutes left until we arrived.

Upon entering, the souvenir lines weren't long so we checked those out first, and of course didn't come away empty handed.  Jackson picked out a CD that included all the songs from today's show, which he was thrilled about.

The show was 90 minutes long (including a 15 minute intermission) and I wasn't sure he'd last since he'd never been to a show or movie before.  He was entranced for the first 30 minutes and then started asking when we were "going to go to the restaurant" (we planned to grab lunch afterwards), so at intermission, we picked up some snacks.  For the final 45 minutes, he did fairly well but started to lose interest unless there was singing and dancing on stage, or the characters were walking around in the audience (we had great seats, putting us right in the middle of all the action, and even earning him high fives from both Cookie Monster and another character (not sure who it was)).

Regardless he must have enjoyed the show --- as he's already asked if we are going again.

Life Lately

When we're not celebrating third birthdays or Easter, you might find us:

Dancing to favorite songs.  Nearly a year later (see last year's Conga video here) and the same dance moves are in full force around here.



Playing with birthday toys.  Jackson was truly spoiled for his birthday and has been thoroughly enjoying all of his new toys.

Watching out for Cole.  One recent example: We hit a red light on the way home from school the other day.  Cole started to fuss.  J felt the need to tell me, "Mom, Cole's crying.  Can you get his bink for him?".

Playing at the park.  

Opening doors.  Jackson is seriously UH-bsessed with doors right now - opening them, shutting them, locking them, and asking whether they're locked or not.  Doesn't matter if it's our doors, a door he sees or passes somewhere, our neighbors' side garage doors, etc., he wants to know if it's locked or not and regardless of the answer you give him, he wants to know why.

Reading books.  One of Jackson's new birthday books is The Hungry Catepillar.  In true Jackson form, he's memorized it quickly and likes to read it to us before bed.

Coo'ing/talking. Cole is learning to coo and has been talking up a storm, and it's just about the cutest thing you've ever seen.  Of course, he only does it until he sees me pull out my phone, so unfortunately no videos...yet.

Making funny (or maybe scared?) faces.  Poor Cole has to endure my awful singing, funny faces and funny noises all day long, but I just love his responses and I can't help it.  Sometimes, when I'm lucky, I get these sorts of faces: