Swimming Fun

Jackson finished his second swimming session over the weekend, and I couldn't be more proud of him.  He's come a long way in the last nine months - last summer, he wouldn't go anywhere near the water, even with a candy treat bribe.  Then, he surprised us by enjoying his first set of lessons with me in the water with him.  We took a bit of a break and changed venues to be closer to home for his next set of lessons, which put him in the water by himself with the teacher. This didn't phase him a bit. 

While he isn't quite ready to advance to the next level, his teacher said he enjoyed Jackson's eagerness to learn, his smiles and how much progress he made over the two months.  And even in the last two weeks, his confidence grew significantly and he wound up doing head bobs all on his own (something he hated before and never would do willingly for fear of getting water in his eyes...and yet we could never sell him on the benefits of goggles).

I put together a fun video of snippets from a few of his lessons.  Again, it doesn't seem like much, but this is definite progress, and we can't wait for more lessons later this year.

Weekend in Review

We had a lovely weekend - a perfect mix of playing, relaxing, being productive (housework, yard work, and errands, oh my!), and exercising. 

Here are few photos and a video that sum it up pretty nicely. 

Daddy/Cole time. I just love how he grasps and gazes at faces.

Attacking Sophie

J and I checked out Central Park in the Issaquah Highlands...a fun new park to add to our weekend park rotation

He just loves books

"Does this shirt make me look chubby?"

Love that she enjoys laying in the sun just as much as we do

My sous chef while making dinner tonight

Lots of relaxing and cuddling

 

Somehow he already knows how much better real food is than pureed food

And while I didn't think to get any photos of it, Jackson spent hours playing with a new app Corey downloaded for him - Moose Math.  It teaches kiddos counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry, etc. while giving them a chance to earn rewards to build a city.  J just LOVES it. I'm not kidding - he spent at least three hours playing it today alone.

5 Months

Happy 5 months to Cole!

Cole continues to amaze us with his happy diposition and all of his big smiles.  We all just adore him.

Here are a few notables at month 5:

• Continues to adore his big bro
• Is really starting to grab/grasp things within arms reach - necklaces, faces, shirts.  My favorite is when he gazes at me and then grabs my face.
• Continues to enjoy time in his Bumbo and Exersaucer
• Really goes to town on his play mat, moving all around, playing with all the toys
• Loves to kick his legs and they never seem to stop moving. I joke that it looks like he's a River Dancer.
• Rolled from tummy to back a few more times, and back to tummy once or twice, but not consistent by any means yet
• Continued to bust out of his swaddle, so we started using the Magic Sleep Suit to help transition into a sleep sack.  This has worked out really well - no more middle of the night wake ups when he's busted out of his swaddle, requiring his pacifier to go back to sleep (and then several trips for us to put it back in).  After a few days in the suit, he also started sleeping through his 4/5 a.m. awake period.  In the nearly three weeks since then, he's been sleeping in this, he's slept 10.5-11.5 hours straight at night.  (Thanks for the tip, and loaning us the suit, Natalie!)
• We did a little sleep training in the evening --- he always puts himself to sleep but often wakes up crying about 45 minutes after we put him down.  Sometimes we could bounce him just once and he'd go right back to sleep, but other times it took many trips in to get him settled back down, and back to sleep.
• We started doing a dream feed before we go to bed, to help get an extra feeding in to keep his formula intake up.  At his 5 month weight check, he was still in the 50% and the doctor was happy to see he hadn't dropped percentiles.  We'll likely get rid of this soon, but during the week, he doesn't drink quite enough at daycare yet to be able to completely drop this.
• Has taken some longer naps of 1-2 hours - he typically does at least one of these per day on the weekend and once a week or so at daycare.
• Can sit unassisted for a few seconds at a time.
• Tried purees for the first time - sweet potatoes and pears.  He mostly just pushed the food right out of his mouth, but would then smack his lips and intently watch us eat.
• Is drinking between 38-40 oz. per day
• Loves to stick his tongue out
• Loves chewing on his toes
• Intently listens and looks at the pages of the few books we read before bedtime
• Is taking after his big bro a bit, and drools a ton during the day - between that the spit up (which continues), we go through MANY bibs each day.
• His hair is finally filling in on top.  Still months out from rocking any sort of mohawk

Out of the Mouth of J

Jackson continues to crack us up with the things that come out of his mouth.

Eating dinner the other night, Jackson was sampling some the salad I'd made (well, mostly the croutons, which he decided he liked).  He kept saying, "I want more coupons!" thinking that's what the croutons were called.

J has heard Corey thank me for making dinner so many times that he now says, all on his own, "thank you for making dinner!, Mom" multiple times nearly every dinner.  It's the funniest when he doesn't even like what we're eating.

With some of his birthday money, Jackson bought himself a Little Einstein's DVD, which he'd seen and enjoyed at school.  He calls it "Little I'm-stimes" every time.

He's known his days of the week for months now, and is now interested in months and dates.  He received a Story a Day book from the Shawvers for his birthday and J loves looking for the appropriate month and date each night before bed and almost always remembers on his own.  When he doesn't, he will ask, "What June is it?" (meaning what date is today?).  He also pronounces certain dates very funny - for instance, the "first" is "one-fumph" (like the dates that end in "th", but because he has a hard time with the "th", it becomes an "f" sound).

When asking what a song or book is called, he says, "What's this song/book called about?"

After we get the boys in Corey's car each morning, I give them kisses and tell J to have fun and be a good boy at school.  This morning, Jackson responded, "Be a good girl!"

He and I were talking about how we have to try to go potty before bed so that we don't wet the bed.  He mentioned that he goes in bed sometimes (very rarely, but he wears a pull-up still to avoid a big mess).  He then asked, "Does Daddy go potty in bed sometimes?"  I sure hope not!

He's quite the chatterbox and takes after his mama --- he gets home from school and doesn't stop talking until after he's in bed for the night (something I did, which my parents like to remind me about).  As exhausting as that can be, I love it because I know I'm guaranteed to hear tons of cute stuff every single day.

First Taste

Because Cole wasn't gaining as much weight as the doctor would have preferred at his 4 month check-up, they advised against starting solids.  Their thought was that he could fill up on those and then drink even less, and at this early stage, solids are really just for practice more than anything and all nutrition should come from his formula.  So, when we took him in for his 5 month weight check and he hadn't fallen behind on weight, they gave us the all clear to try some solids.

I'm not going to lie, we may have given Cole the tiniest taste of mango sorbet a few weeks back (we went out for froyo and he was eyeing every bite we took).  He seemed startled at first but then kept smacking his lips and watching us eat.  And the other night, Corey gave him a super small piece of his pizza crust.

But tonight was his first official solid tasting (i.e. more than a single tiny bite).  To help involve Jackson, I let him pick out a few jars of food at the store over the weekend.  Then we let him feed Cole his first few bites.  While the jury's still out on whether Cole likes sweet potatoes, Jackson had a blast being the helper.

Father's Day 2014

Wishing our amazing dads a very happy Father's day.  We are both so lucky to have such great role models in our lives, who have supported, encouraged and loved us unconditionally.

And a big Father's Day shout out to the best daddy our boys could have ever asked for.  Corey is such a patient, fun, kind, caring, and smart dad and these boys are just so blessed to have him in their lives.  I couldn't do this parenting gig without him - he brings patience, calmness, support, perspective and most importantly humor, to our role as parents, and helps make the fun times even more fun, and the tough times more bearable.

Jackson asked for a haircut "just like daddy's" but given his cowlicks, a few modifications needed to be made.  I can't believe how much older he looks!

Cole enjoyed helping Jackson open Corey's gifts.

Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with a cute and fun gift for the boys to give Corey.  Let's just say that painting with a four month old is a bit messy to say the least, especially when trying to rush and complete the project before daddy gets home from work. But, both kiddos had fun, and that's all that matters.

While it was a fairly relaxing day, including a bit of sleeping in (one of his wishes for the day, though he definitely didn't take full advantage) and a brief nap for Corey, it was also a productive day and included a haircut for Jackson and a few chores around the house.  We rounded out the day with a Starbucks breakfast and Din Thai Fung take out for dinner. 

Looking forward to all the fun times the boys will have with their amazing daddy throughout the next year.

Spring Pageant 2014

Last night was the Rainbow School's Spring Pageant and we couldn't wait to see what the Green Class had in store for us.  Joan and my parents joined us, as did Cole (who did great and thoroguhly enjoyed watching everything around him,, even thought it was way past his bedtime).

What a difference a year makes!  Jackson was so shy and clingy before last year's pageant, but he was so excited about the big event this year.  He knew exactly what songs he'd be performing (Make New Friends, If All the Raindrops..., and This Little Light of Mine) and even practiced them while on the toilet a few times.

Once on stage, he got a bit shy, but did a great job remembering the words and singing along.  I just can't believe how much bigger and older he looks this year.  Where did my baby go?!

Corey captured some great shots of the show:

And here are videos of each song...

(Almost) Role-y Cole-y + Giggles

Cole's rolled from tummy to back a few more times (still not consistently), but we haven't been able to capture it on video.  That said, he hasn't rolled over from back to tummy yet, but recent developments in the last week or so have him making some progress there.  I just love how he grabs his feet and ankles and tips right over.  (And don't mind Jackson's big feet here...my goodness.)

And, I just can't get enough of these giggles.