Memorial Day walk

Birthday Videos

A couple videos, courtesy of Ben.  First, Jack opening his big present from us: his own Nintendo DS (with a Pokemon game, opened later).



This is apparently what happens when you are the son of a gamer who shares all his stuff with you.  In his defense, he was super excited about the game when he opened it.  Neither gift was asked for or expected by him.  So I think his response was caused by bafflement. We had a good laugh though.

Here is the new (old) wagon being put to work immediately.

Jack's Birthday

Oh, what a day it was!  We had donuts and presents for breakfast, a party at lunch, and pizza and movie for dinner.  There were a few meltdowns, as expected, but I think he couldn't have asked for anything more.  Well, more presents.  He can't get enough.  But besides that. 

Tons of photos on my flickr page, but here are some favorites.

Presents in pajamas.  That's Ben's old wagon that his folks restored for Jack.  I had one just like it!




At the party, Pin the Spider on the Web



Oh no!  There's a robber!



Got him with our spiderwebs!



Undead Robber!



Got him good.



Every last drop of silly string was used.



Thanks to Amanda for these great shots.

Sam was thoroughly confused when he woke from his nap.  Poor guy kind of got the short shrift during the party.  Luckily I had lots of helpers to hold him.  Ben protecting his lawn. 

Sam and Henry playing "together" as 8 months olds do.



As requested, a chocolate cake with cherry ice cream inside. 










Patience was running low by 1 1/2 hours, but they stuck it out through the present opening. 



It was a really fun party. I enjoyed having so many of MY friends there too.  Almost none of the moms or dads knew each other.  For the record, Jack's friends at the party were Nora, Parker, Ellis, Adam, Ella, Hazel, and Olin. 

After a short quiet time, we relaxed in the cool and empty backyard.



Pizza, more cake, and "Everything is awesooooome!" 





Happy (early) Birthday, Jack!

Journal updating

Some other things I meant to write about and haven't gotten around to:

• For the moment, everyone is healthy.  Sure, Sam is teething, and my cough and rib pain are still there.  But there are no runny noses and I'm off all drugs.  
• Sam finally cut a third tooth.  It was the tiny lower left incisor.  That means the biggies in the front top are still pushing out.  They look so painful.
• Sleep is better, but not great.  We are doing the cry-it-out method for night and naps (like right now, when he woke after barely an hour).  It sucks.  I hate not being able to go fix and soothe him.  We also give him benedryl for tooth pain on some nights, and of course he sleeps awesome after that. NYC next week will mess him up again.  Maybe in June we can finally settle his sleep issue?
• Ben is totally Hank Hill about our yard.  It's beautiful.  We planted a tree and some bushes and I transplanted some flowers from my mom's garden.  Some of the irises even bloomed!  
• Molly's FHS is pretty bad.  We've tried all the simple fixes, with the exception of regular play time (I'm too busy, but I'm trying to get Jack on it).  The only other thing we can try are serious drugs.  Not only do I want to avoid the cost and side effects, but the effectiveness isn't really known.  Wish I could do something for her though.  
• I'm really excited for NYC next week!  I haven't really mentioned it.  I'm taking Sam with Amanda, my folks and their friends, to chaperone a group of kids.  It should be a blast.  
• Amanda and I went to see the musical Once last week. First, it was great fun just to go out with my sister in dressy clothes.  Second, it was a great show.  Not one I would want to see again.  But funny, well done, good music, creative story-telling, etc etc.  It was a really nice evening out.

Slice o' life

Here's some videos and photos from the past couple weeks. I figured I'd better post them before the big birthday tomorrow.  Did you know tomorrow is Jack's birthday?  I've only been reminded seventy gajillion times today.  (psst, it's not really his birthday.  That's the 28th.  But we are having the party on the Saturday before, and I don't want to tax his little brain with the concept of celebrating earlier than the actual day.  Kid can't tell a Thursday from a Saturday anyway.  So if you wish to call to tell him Happy Birthday, the 24th is it this year.)

You might see glimpses of my beautiful new walls.  No poopy brown anymore! I love them!  The art is a work in progress still.  Bit by bit.   

I'm down to the last sleeve on this sweater.  Can't wait to block and wear it!  Maybe by NYC? 

I spied the boys playing while I cleaned the kitchen.

Neighborhood walks and practicing the trike. 

Cute outfit on a chilly day. . .

Someone is a camera hog.

Quick (poor) pic of the finished wall. I didn't like the extra yellow accent wall, so I repainted it gray and then hung the hat rack by the door. 

Sam likes yogurt apparently. 

Another reason for his nightly baths. 

Taking the boys out on the "chariot.  It's a Joovy Ultralight 1.5x stroller.  The front seat is regular, the back has a bench and standing platform for older children.  I freaking love it.  We went to the grocery store on this trip.  We go there a lot. 

Drawing pictures for his teachers on the last day of tumbling. 

I was not expecting a full report card.  He actually did fairly good. Though, they recommend repeating this level before advancing.  He's going to be in a summer time preschool-like class next month.  I'm not sure if we will do tumbling again.  It was fun, but I like giving him lots of different classes.  (Clearly, Amanda, you do not give your kids enough stamps on their grades.  Jack got FIVE different stamps, and his name written in silver glitter pen.)

He has struggled to hop with both feet together the whole session.  A couple weeks ago he finally made it down the trampoline doing bunny hops.  You can see him cringing his upper body to keep it together.  His teachers were sincerely proud of him, and so was I!

Pre-birthday room cleaning.  This is everything I dumped out his bed. 

Lunch with Pokemon, the latest obsession.  He explained that Ash wears his hat like this in battle, and his pose is what Spider-Man does after he beats a bad guy. 

Bathing with Sam has completely turned around Jack on baths.  Used to hate them, now loves them.

Grocery trip #6,412 for the week.  Or so it seemed.

I came downstairs to this:

And this never ends (again, camera hog had to join in)

Library looks

Glad I threw on a cardigan. Sam pooped all over his clothes right before story time.

I tried to get jack to help in the bathroom by throwing out the diaper, all wrapped up in clean papers. "Um, no. Jesus doesn't want me to carry diapers and get my hands dirty."

I think that's a fib. But he came home from Sunbeams where they talked about hearing and he said "Jesus says not to put small toys in my ears." Savior, and safety expert.

Man Cold

I really appreciate this.  I'm not sharing it to complain about my husband (although everyone I ask agrees that this phenomenon is true).  But I truly relate to her question "But what about me?"
Being sick when your a parent just sucks. 

Let's go to the mall!

Cutespeak

Some adorable things Jack said today:

• "I am freaking about this." I can't even remember what this was in response to.  His manner was very non-freaked. 

• "I did good in sacrament singing, right Mom?  You can see all the mommies from up there.  I singed when I saw the pictures.  But sometimes I couldn't see the pictures.  So I smiled at you instead.  That was good, right?"

• Driving to the pediatrician, Jack says "I think Sam's not sleeping because he has bad dreams, right Mom?"  When we were waiting for the PA to see Sam about his sleep troubles "I think he not sleeping good because his heart is broken." Sob!  (Sam is fine, btw.  Ear infections ruled out.  More teething meds approved.)

• Sam sneezed.  Jack hollers "Mom, Sam blessyoued all over my arm!"  

Sam is 8 months old

Really?  Another month has passed?

Seriously, this guy is blazing through infanthood.  Or it seems that way because I'm only half conscious with sickness most of the time.  Either way, Sam is bigger and better than ever.

No real milestones to report this month.  He has a great raking and pincher grip.  He blows raspberries at me when I talk to him, most likely a glimpse into his teenage years far in the future.

He refuses to get in the crawl position.  In fact, his flipping from tummy down is so fast, I can't even get a picture any more.

He rolls well enough to get into trouble, so I have to keep an eye on him.  The other day, while I was in the bathroom, he had rolled off his play mat, into the media center, and was about to gum on some cables. 

I wish I could say sleep is better.  As you know, we had a solid 3-4 weeks of hourly wakings.  I did some modifications and got him to sleep through the night again.  But now, after about a week of that, he's back to waking up a lot.  Maybe its the drippy nose?  I can always come up with an excuse for the sleep, but once one problem passes another one starts.  I want a permanent solution.  Grrrr.  I tell him this, and he blows me a raspberry, punctuated by his signature "ah-tscha" babble.

Still no more teeth.  Isn't that weird?  He got those two at an early 4 months, and nothing new for the next 4 months.

He makes those teeth work for him, though.  He's as crazy about food as I said last time.  He loves everything I give him.  I usually do raspberries or bananas with oatmeal for breakfast.  Then he nibbles on whatever he can handle of our dinner.  Loves tortellini.  If I'm lucky, he spends lunchtime napping so I can actually enjoy a meal to myself.

He's trying to grab the camera here.  This is also what it looks like when he pulls your hair / grabs your glasses / grabs your earrings / scrapes your nose / or pulls your lips.  I see this image a lot.

I love you, Sam.  Now go to sleep and stay that way!