Summer Bucket List Week 1

Last week I realized that JJ would be starting school in 4 weeks and I had spent most of the summer telling the kids to leave me alone so I could get (fill in the blank) done.  It was generally worthwhile activities: cleaning, Primary stuff, a shower; but I didn't want them to remember this summer that way.  So with 4 weeks to go I decided that we would try to do one fun thing most days.  I have been faithfully pinning activities on Pinterest, I figure I would have plenty of options.  So here is a run down of week one (but not in order because Blogger hates me.)

Tuesday's activity was making homemade Jello pudding pops.  The recipe I found was one large package of Jello pudding, 3 cups of milk, 1/2-1 cup powdered sugar and 2 cups of Cool Whip.  We filled 10 plastic cups and froze.  If I do this again,  I will cut the recipe in half,  but still fill 10 cups

Jack loved it!!!

Thursday we made GAK: 2 parts cornstarch, 1 part water.  If you are not familiar with it, it hardens  when you touch it and play with is, but turns to liquid when you leave it alone.  JJ thought this was a great science experiment and asks to do it everyday.

Monday's activity was blowing paint.  I watered down paint and they blew it with straws.  We did this one outside, although they did a pretty good job of not making a mess.

Wednesday was shopping so we didn't do anything fun.
Friday we put food coloring in cups of vinegar and then dropped it into pans of baking soda.  This was so fun.  But after this, I stocked up on baking soda.  It takes a lot, but the boys played for more than an hour.  So worth it.

Fun! Fun! Jack is One!

Ah, one.  It's my very favorite birthday.  It's the beginning of so many great things.  Don't get me wrong, I love my babies, and there is nothing better than the sweet smell of a baby cuddled up, but I don't do sleepless nights well.  And the lack of personal space and personal time. And I just love my toddlers.  Learning to walk, talk, manipulate the world, I love, love, love it!  So here's my cutie patootie. 

Jack loves to wrestle with his brothers.  If the two older ones get on the floor, Jack makes a bee-line for them, and piles on top.  This is him on top of JJ.  Jack doesn't talk much(well, not actual words, but he jabbers constantly), but he makes sounds for his brothers.  Especially if they are downstairs or outside and he is trapped in the living room with me, he will stand at the top of the stair or bang on the screen door and yell Wa-Ya for Ryan and Ja-Ja for JJ.  He will occasionally say Momma, but only when he is in bed and wants me to come get him.

Jack got a Mickey Mouse for his birthday and loves it.  

 

These are just cute pictures of Jack being happy and smiley

Jack is learning so many things.  He can climb up stairs, and can go down one or two before he loses his coordination and usually falls over.  He's taken several steps on his own and can stand himself up.

 

We finished nursing in May.  He was my easiest baby to wean, I just gave him a bottle and he was fine.  He refuses to eat baby food altogether, but doesn't eat a whole lot of other food either, so he is following in his brothers footsteps. He likes oatmeal with brown sugar, mini-wheats, bread, macaroni and cheese, and I recently discovered he will eat freeze dried bananas. And that's about it. Oh, and ice cream, let's not forget that.

He is really good at imitating sounds. Screaming, crying, whining, if someone is making a sound, he wants to participate.  He also mimics facial expressions really well.  He especially likes to make faces with his dad.

And this is proof how much Jack loves his ice cream

Jack is 11 months May 5th

Not a lot has changed this month from last. Jack had his first Easter and found two eggs. He of course was perfectly happy playing with egg, didn't care that I ate the candy.

He has become such a climber, this fireplace hearth is his favorite thing to climb on (you can see it's not too high).  He just sits there, watching TV or just surveying the situation.

Don't be alarmed by the pacifier.  He is not anymore attached to it than any other toy.  He just likes having something in his mouth.  In fact, he found the magnets for the Magna-doodle and he sucks on those like a pacifier.  However, I did once try to substitute these green hospital pacifiers with another cute pacifier and it was completely rejected.  So I guess he does have some standard.

He is obsessed with the safety gate.  He will not leave it alone.  I'm always a little worried that he'll push hard enough to take a ride down the stairs.

He has recently tried climbing the gate.  He is a crazy climber.  I thought Ryan was bad, but Jack is worse.  He has stopped eating baby food altogether.  Only stuff he can feed himself.  And ice cream.  We've been outside more and more and he loves to swing, jump on the trampoline, and play in the sandbox/eat the sand.

10 months old on April 5

I was just going to combine the last two months, but there are too many pictures, so these will be separate posts. I try, I really try to keep up, but things just get in the way and before you know it, your son is almost one. So here we go with his 10 month update.

He has a great smile, as you can see.  Below, you can see his favorite seat for watching his favorite show,  Mickey Mouse.  All I have to do is say the words Mickey Mouse and he starts laughing, waving his hands and trying to get down.  If he's already down and nothing is on TV, he goes over to the TV stand and starts banging on the doors and looking at me and babbling.  I know exactly what he's trying to say, "Hey mom, turn on Mickey."

He also loves doors.  Opening and closing.  He especially loves when the pantry is open, because he can often scrounge up a goldfish cracker or chocolate chip.  The down side is that he often closes himself in a room.  We will hear banging and screeching and realize Jack isn't around.

No new teeth this month, and his first word was definitely momma.  He also says hi/hey.  He loves to follow his brothers around, especially Ryan.  Those boys can get him laughing hysterically.  I've taken him outside a few times and he loves it out there, surprise, surprise.  He is especially enthralled with the sandbox.  He crawls everywhere and gets into everything.  He had ice cream for the first time this month.  Oh, my, that kid loves ice cream but shhhh, don't tell his dad.  I get in trouble every time I give him some.  He doesn't like baby food anymore, even stuff he used to like, so ice cream is about all the regular food he'll eat.

This is a picture from our last trip to the aquarium before it closes (and reopens in a bigger building).

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things, and so Jack, I'm sorry. I'm sure I'll make it up to you one day.

The cake that almost wasn't

Don't look too closely at the cake. Also, notice that this post was begun more than a month ago.  Anyway, I almost didn't finish the post, but I think I'll need this one day to lay on the guilt.  Just a refresher, this is JJ's cake for his birthday.  We had decided on a dinosaur theme and purchased the cake pan almost a month before his birthday.

Friday before his birthday, JJ went to the doctor for a skin infection.  Monday before his birthday, Ryan was at the doctor for an ear infection, so I didn't get the cake premade, I just figured I'd do it Tuesday, the day of his birthday.  So Monday night, after a trip to the doctor, helping the sister I visit teach pack and move, and watching and feeding my neighbors kids dinner while they went to the hospital with their grandma, I started not feeling so good.  I recognized the symptoms as mastitis: achy bones, fever, nausea, vertigo.  Not good.  I woke up at 4 in the morning so sick.  I knew I needed something to eat, so I started to make my way down the hall.  I only got half way when I had to get down and crawl into the kitchen.  Now, I did consider calling for Jeremiah to help me, but to call loud enough to get his help would wake up all the boys, and I just didn't need that.  There was a banana sitting on the counter that I could reach from the floor.  I ate it.  Then, I laid on the kitchen floor for about 20 minutes until I felt like I could get up without passing out.

Needless to say, Tuesday morning wasn't going well.  We had planned to take one of his friends and go to the local bounce house warehouse and luckily he was fine with postponing the trip until another day.  But when I suggested we just get a cake from Costco, the waterworks appeared.  I'm a sucker for my kids, so I explained that I would try my best, but no promises.

Luckily, after several doses of antibiotics, I felt a little better in the afternoon.  So slowly, slowly, and with so many breaks, I managed to make, cool and frost the cake.  It looks terrible.  I just wanted to get it done.  He was so happy with the cake.  Can I say I'm glad I persevered and did it? Not really, but when he is a teenager and claims I don't love him, I've got a great story for him.

How did he get to be 5!!!

Here he is in all his 5 year old glory. He is soooooooooo excited to be 5. According to him, there are so many more things 5 year olds can do. He woke up March 1st very disappointed that he wasn't 5. It took a lot of explaining about how days work.
But the day finally arrived. All he wanted was a green trick bike. If you are familiar with the Froggy series of books, in Froggy Rides a Bike, he gets a trick bike, with a bell, and a horn, so that was the birthday wish (green, of course because it's his favorite color). Luckily, we were able to find just the right one and he couldn't have been happier.
The party theme this year was dinosaurs, complete with dinosaur party hats.

And a green dino cake. With no candles, "because candles freak me out." The kid does not like fire in any form.
Some facts about Jeremiah. He loves school. He was the first in his class to count to 100. He practiced and practiced at home and they had a mini celebration at school when he did it. His handwriting is improving and his name usually stays on the line now. He is starting to read words and is really good at spelling. His almost photographic memory helps a lot with those skills.

He was the star student at school a few weeks ago and we had to put together a poster. These are some things he wrote about... His favorite food-chicken nuggets, fries, and root beer. Favorite animal-lemurs. Favorite color-green. What he wants to be when he grows up- a Farmer (he has this all planned out; what animals he'll have, what he'll grow, etc.) His one wish- to go to Hawaii and have his picture taken in a lava tube.

I also got the chance to go into his classroom and spotlight him. The playground aide told me right before I got there another boy got in trouble and lost his snack privileges. Jeremiah went and stood next to him and told him that he would share his snack with him. That is so typical of Jeremiah. He doesn't want anyone to be sad or upset. He will give up his favorite toys to anyone who wants them, especially if they are crying.

He also has great determination. Riding his new bike has not been easy, but he works, and works at it. He is determined to figure it out and he has always been this way.

I so appreciate him and the great big brother he is.

9 months old

Here we are again. Jack is getting so big and getting into everything. He's got the army crawl down and gets around great. Twice he has headed for the kitchen and we've found him right in front of the stairs, so the gate has made it's reappearance. He can sit himself up and he got two more teeth for a total of 6.

At his doctor's appointment he weighed 18 lbs (24%) was 28 3/4 inches (63%) and had a 18 1/4 inch head circumference (84%)
He continues to prefer playing on the floor, our little excer-saucer is used more often by Ryan now, than Jack.
Here he is trying to crawl on his knees, but not successfully.
And he got his first trim this month. I didn't think he really needed it, but dad insisted he looked like he had a mullet, so I obliged and trimmed it up.
He babbles all the time and recently has started saying "momma", sometimes when he's looking at me. I'm calling it his first word for now.

He does better and better with his eating. And he has, so far, managed to avoid falling off of a counter or a bed, unlike his brothers. I think he's been watched over, because the powers that be know he's getting enough head trauma from his older brother.


He sleeps through the night which I love, but he only takes two 45 minute naps during the day, so I just don't get as much done as I would like.

He's gone outside a couple of times when the weather has been nice and he loves it. He will really love this summer.