Jonathan is Five Months (and five days) Old!

Dear Jonathan,

I'm sorry I missed your actual monthday! We were on vacation in Disney! In fairness, I did take your picture on your monthday, just didn't get a chance to sit down and write about all the fun things you are doing lately.

So here it is...

This month, you have become master of the rollovers and can maneuver yourself around and around to get toys on the floor. You sit up straight and very well, though sometimes you still kerplunk sideways if something catches your eye on either side. Fom there, you generally continue right into a belly position and push yourself up to look around as if to say, "Yeah. I meant to do that."

Just the last couple days, you've been working on your army crawl to reach toys. I know it's not long before the all fours rocking starts and then you're off and life as we know it will only get more challenging. (sigh) Stop with the growing up, huh?

Also this month, you've discovered you love real food. The funniest thing is when you see the bowl and spoon come out and you immediately start "chewing" even before any actual food comes near your mouth. You do know you don't have to chew puree, right? Anyway, you love your cereal and all the fruits and veggies you've tried. I was only feeding you solids sort of sporatically for awhile there when we had extra time in the late afternoon, but then you started getting all worked up if we sat down at the table to eat and didn't include you. So I started you on breakfast (cereal and a fruit) and dinner (cereal and veggie). You grab at anything and everything on the table too... we've learned to keep our plates at a safe distance.

You took your first airplane ride this month and were a great little traveler. If you weren't sleeping, you were smiling and looking around. Turns out, you are the portable baby I always thought was just an urban myth. You just go to sleep wherever you are when you're tired without even fussing about it. Then, just as easily as you went to sleep, you pop your eyes open when you're done, look around and smile at everyone and you're good to go for another 2-3 hours. Seriously. I didn't believe this kind of baby existed until you came along! I had heard rumors, but discounted them as completely untrue. At any rate, you're our easiest-to-travel-with baby yet, so good job, buddy!

You've really discovered your toys lately and I realized I should probably start getting some more down from the attic for you. You love to hold things up and inspect them closely and then attack them voraciously with your drooly mouth. Nothing is safe from your paws lately. The Legos are going to need to go UP HIGH.

No teeth yet... but I suspect you are working hard on one!

You're still a happy little guy who just loves life! You think your big brothers are fascinating and I can't wait until you can get up and run around with them... er... wait... yes I can. Stay little, okay?

Love,
Mommy :)

The Stats:
16 pounds
24 inches or so
Size 2 diapers
26-32 ounces a day of milk -- depends how distracted you are while you're eating
Nighttime sleeping -- still up at least twice to eat without really waking up... then up to play around 4a.m. We've had some long stretches here and there, (11-4'ish) so I'm hoping some progress will be made in the next month or so... I hope I hope.

Five-month side-by-side

Like Dominoes...

Simon has succumbed to the icky cough now. (sigh) That means he's now had something for the last three and a half weeks. First a cold before we left. Then that turned into an ear infection while we were there. Now THIS.

Frick and frack. When will it end?!

At least he's still on the abx for the ear infection so maybe he won't get any OTHER infection from this new bug. Gotta find the silver lining where I can, right?

One Plus to Sick Dr. Visits...

... we get bonus weigh-ins! Jonathan is 16 pounds even! :o) I wish I could get an official length... the misread one from the 4-month visit is still bugging me. LOL!

So yeah, our littlest is sick. :( Respiratory thing. May or may not be RSV, we didn't opt for the swab because there was no point in waiting around to confirm it. Treatment is the same anyway... vaporizer, Tylenol for fever, keep an eye on his breathing. (which is currently fine) Poor guy. Though he seems mostly in good spirits despite being sick. Having a bit of a sleep issue though.

I'm having a major case of deja vu. We took a Disney trip the January of Simon's first year and he came home with a similar bug. Gr. I think I may be DONE with going to Disney in January. TOO many germs. Seriously, our flight down was full of hacking children who sound just like J does right now. (so it's really no mystery where he picked it up)

Can it please be summer now? Please?

In All The Excitement...

With all the chaos of the trip and being away from home and whatnot, I neglected to post about Jonathan turning five months old. (took the pic though)

...AND that I hit my latest pumping goal, which was to last through this trip ...

I will do the monthday post when we get home sweet home tomorrow and as for the pumping -- onward to six months, says I! Heck, if I could last through pumping this last week in Disney park bathrooms, airport bathrooms and rental cars, I can surely hit the next goal which doesn't involve any of the above! ;) Oh how nice it will be to pump in the peace and quiet of my living room when we get home!!

Stuck in Paradise...

So yesterday things started looking not so good weather wise at home. We were supposed to fly out today at 1:45. The weather report deteriorated as the evening went on and we made a tentative decisions at midnight to change our flight out to Friday. The decision was sealed early this morning when Southwest offered the opportunity for anyone with a flight today through tomorrow at 1p.m. to change their flight free of charge. The customer service agent I spoke with on the phone actually said, "Don't wait. Last time we issued a weather advisory like this, a lot of people waited until their flight was actually canceled. Our flights filled up for a solid week." Okay, yikes. Sold. Change it.

Then we extended our rental car and our resort stay by a day and booked a night at a hotel near the Orlando airport since our flight out on Friday requires us to be at the airport by 8:30a.m.

So here we sit. I should be thrilled. It's warm and sunny. We have a whole extra day to go to the parks tomorrow. And today, we took the older boys to the Walgreens clinic and found out Simon has an ear infection and Ben has bronchitis and a sinus infection. So they'll be all medicated and on the mend by the flight on Friday.

All good things. And yes, I am very much counting the blessings. If we had tried to get out today (and we could have -- that original flight was one of the only ones from Orlando to squeak in before they canceled everything), we'd either be stuck at the BWI airport hotel I had booked as a backup or driving home on treacherous roads. It's definitely for the best that we are here.

Yet, I honestly am yearning for my house and my bed. And our poor kitty cat must be so lonely... a neighbor is checking on him and feeding him but he must miss us!

Not to mention, our van is, I'm sure, buried in the airport parking lot.

Oh, and Simon has the runs from the antibiotic for the ear infection. And he's REALLY tired and cranky.

And so is the baby tonight.

I just want to go home now. :(

Epcot Day!

We hit Epcot by ourselves this morning.... my BIL and SIL didn't do parks today and my other BIL, niece and MIL and FIL went to Animal Kingdom. (we're forgoing AK this trip due to lack of time) So anyway, it was just the five of us.

On the way to Fastpass Soarin', I noticed there was no line for the 5-in-1 character meet and greet. Tom was a party pooper about stopping, but I knew the kids would appreciate it, especially Simon. So he went off to get our FPs and the boys and I met Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. :)



This was where Jonathan grabbed Pluto's whiskers and wouldn't let go. I went to walk away and Pluto was still attached.


Infatuated with Minnie


No pants Donald


And, the Goof


Off to the Seas with Nemo where Ben got to be shark food


Simon was afraid to try it...

But Jonathan got in on the action...


Then we took the clam shells down to see Turtle Talk with Crush. :) Always funny. ;)


The boys rode Journey into Imagination while Jonathan napped in arms outside. (no complaints from me, I got to wolf down a Mickey ice cream bar in peace) Then I met back up with them so they could play in the pavilion for awhile.


After that, we let them play at Innoventions while I fed Jonathan and changed his diaper and by then we'd been there five hours, so we headed back for some rest since the boys were going back out for a late night at MK with Nanee and Pap. :)

Our ride this time... what a lifesaver.


Ben and his beloved Stitch


Stopping for a pic in front of the ball on the way out. :)

Flight, Settling in and Magic Kingdom

My little flyers --




Ben and Anastasia getting ready to head out to Magic Kingdom yesterday morning. Clearly, Ben still has not learned how to smile normally... LOL.


Jonathan's first monorail ride!


Tom and the big boys headed for Main Street USA


While sitting outside of Pirates (Jonathan had fallen asleep), I inquired about the Pirates dress-up thing. They had TONS of openings, it's something we've never done and I knew my two costume-fanatic children would have a blast, so we splurged for it. So glad we did too. It was amazing and SO cute. Very well done and Ben and Simon thought it was way cool. :o)

Getting assigned his pirate name -- James Kilkidd


Spinning the captain's wheel to get assigned HIS pirate name -- Ned Sharkbite


THe Book of Names


A little unsure about what's going on...


REALLY unsure about what's going on... but holding it together well because he REALLY wanted the eyepatch.


Checking out the pirate ship tattoo she just put on his hand...


Getting facepainted



The finished product


High fiving daddy for a job well done


Arghing and Aye Mateying and sword fighting outside ;)


Ben posing. LOL!


Better pics of the faces... very weird to see my six and three-year-olds with facial hair, I have to say!




Baby J hanging out in the villa -- he is wearing an outfit that was ony of my absolute favorites of Ben's and Simon's. He wasn't goign to get to wear it otherwise because it's so far out of season... yay for warmer weather. :)




A glimpse of the teen years...


Anyway, so that's that... the boys also got to play on the playground here at the resort and we had dinner here last too at the little on-site restaurant. Everyone was pretty beat and we all passed out again at 8 last night.

Today we are off to "Epeecot" (as Simon used to call it) and then who knows... this is the most unplanned-out trip we've ever taken. LOL! We kept it loose because we didn't know how Jonathan would be. Turns out, he's the easiest baby to handle in Disney of my three (which I didn't really see coming until after the travel day when he was so awesome). He just takes it all in, falls asleep in the Ergo, wakes up, eats a little and looks around some more. No overtired freakouts, no overstimulations... nothing. He's just going with the flow. I never used to understand how people stayed in the parks all day with young babies... NOW? I get it. We could have stayed from open to close last night easily with him... it was the rest of us who were done!

Jonathan's First Flight...

We just flew in from Baltimore and boy are our arms tired.

Ba dum bum.

Forgive me. I am so punchy right that I am just plain stupid. That's what three hours of sleep plus a seven hour travel day will do to me.

I did want to document Jonathan's first airplane ride though. He was a model passenger! He spent the first half of the flight looking out the window, chewing on his fingers and smiling at everyone around us. Then he just passed out in his carseat and slept through the second half of the flight, the landing, luggage retrieval and rental car pickup. I could not have asked for a better traveling baby... he wins the award for this one!!! The nice people at Southwest gave him his "My First Flight" certificate for the baby book too... yay!!

Ben and Simon did equally well. They totally handled their own carryons all through the process, were fantastically cooperative going through security and great little flyers. Not a peep was heard from them. Can't say the same for the five-year-old sitting two rows back. My ears are still ringing.

We left our house at 6a.m., took off at 9, landed in Orlando around 11:30 and were having lunch poolside (um... it was a little chilly for that, I must say) by 2. Spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around my inlaws' villa and finally at 5:30, gained access to ours. Going to bed now because we. are. all. FRIED.

Hitting Magic Kingdom in the morning. So hopefully there is a good night's sleep in store for everyone tonight. GOodness knows we need it.

It's 1:30a.m., Why Not Update My Blog?

Currently paying for the fact that Jonathan slept from 7p.m. -12:30a.m. He's been up since then wide awake and ready to socialize. He still hasn't grasped the fact that I am a mean mommy and do not socialize between the hours of 7p.m. and 6a.m. Instead, I keep him silent company in his room while he stares at his crib aquarium, rebinkying him every so often until he passes back out. He seems cool with this arrangement, though tonight, he has some unusually long staying power. Gah.

So yeeeah... what else. Let's see.

- Mostly packed and ready for Disney, save for a few last minute items. Also need to remember to print boarding passes tomorrow morning. Sort of wishing we had decided to fly out tomorrow instead of Saturday, since Ben is going to miss practically nothing at school tomorrow, especially since they will most likely go in late... but hindsight 20/20 and all.

- All three kids have had colds this week. Simon started it and seems fine now. Ben had the worst of it, but today seemed on the mend, thankfully. Even more thankfully, Jonathan seems to have only had the six-hour version, (yay breastmilk!) though at night he coughs here and there. Colds, I can handle. But so help me, if anyone barfs or develops an ear infection in the next 24 hours, I cry uncle on this trip. We'll just cut our losses and go another time!!!

- I am cold.

- Working my way through The Office on Netflix during the awake nights lately. Enjoying it. Never watched it before now. It's nice to not have to wait weeks and weeks for plot payoffs like the Jim and Pam romance. Should have watched Lost like this too.

- Simon has been hilariously funny lately and I have been posting his quips on Facebook. I need to go back and round the all up to post here. Quite the comedian, that one... sometimes without realizing it.

- Jonathan has mastered sitting up... except for when he gets excited and throws himself backwards. ;) He also LOVES solid food, but is the hardest one of my babies yet to feed because he gets SO excited that I have to hit a moving target the entire time. Sometimes he actually dives TOWARD the spoon and I'm scared he's going to impale himself on it. (as much as someone could possibly impale themselves on a rubber-coated baby spoon, I suppose) So far, he's tried applesauce, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and clementines both in the mesh feeder and baby oatmeal. Nothing hasn't been a hit. And now if we sit at the table and DON'T feed him, he gets extremely ticked off.

- My peanut of a near-seven-year-old started rec basketball two weeks ago. (I realize at this age/level, the size thing doesn't *really* come into play, but still, I find it amusing that he SO wanted to play basketball and truly, he is THE smallest kid out there on the court and it's a 5-6 age group) He LOVES it. Not only that, the kid is GOOD. Gotta credit daddy with that one... he plays with him ALL the time at Nanee and Pap's house. He's REALLY good! So funny. Must get some pics next time we go. It's especially amusing how preoccupied he is with the "uniform", which is a reversible basketball jersey. He'll actually stop mid-court and reverse it during practice. Tom gets SO annoyed with him when he does that. ;)

Hrm. Jonathan has decided that my mere presence isn't cutting it anymore. Off to try more milk... LOL. (sigh) He'll sleep through the night one day, right?

You're Stressin' Me Baby....

(points to whomever can identify the source of my post title, by the way) ;)

So we're leaving for Disney soonish. Like in a week. I'm so stressed out about the trip that if I start thinking about it at night, I can't sleep, despite the fact that I am incredibly sleep deprived right now.

I'm less stressed about actually BEING on the trip itself, because that always works out okay... and more stressed about getting through the airport with three children and all of our crap. We have no help this time... no extra, childless people traveling with us. They'll be there when we GET there, but that is no help to us on the actual travel day. (sigh)

I've been strategizing and planning. Trying to figure out how best to maximize luggage space and condense our stuff down to only bare necessities. We are renting booster seats from the rental car place for the older boys so we don't have to lug their seats through the airport, or uninstall, fold and bag them up while the shuttle driver waits for us.

Today I bought a side-by-side umbrella stroller after agonizing over how best to transport the kids through the airport and the parks. Last time, we just bought a single umbrella snd the boys fought over it when they got tired of walking in the parks. This way, I figure the baby can either ride or I can wear him in the Ergo and one of the other two boys can ride if they are tired. Also good for hustling short little legs through the airport. I considered bringing the Sit and Stand, but once I dug it out, I realized it's just WAY too big and heavy to drag with us... plus, Jonathan is old enough that he isn't going to want to be confined to his infant seat in the parks. I'm sure he'd rather be sitting up or hanging off of me so he can look around. So that was out. Double stroller it is.

I also got the boys their own pilot cases (small, wheeled suitcases) because they will absolutely HAVE to be responsible for transporting their own stuff to check-in and to the gate. It's just too much for Tom and I to deal with. Also got them duffle bags because those are less awkward than suitcases and we can easily pile them on top of our big suitcases on the luggage cart.

Oh and this time around I have to figure time to pump into the equation as well as getting through security with a breast pump, an infant, an infant seat, a stroller and bottles of milk. That's added to the two older ones who will need help with their shoes and putting things up on the belt and walking through the metal detector. All while annoyed frequent fliers huff and puff behind us. Yep. That should be fun.

Have I mentioned I absolutely HATE travel days? It would be different if it were just Tom and I. (gosh, I'd feel so FREE and unencumbered) But the sheer amount of stuff and the speed at which we have to move that day with all the kids is just insane. Can't wait to have it over with...

The Real Deal...

We were waiting for pizza to arrive tonight, so we killed the time giving Jonathan his first taste of oatmeal. (I skip the rice cereal because I'm still traumatized from giving it to Ben, who had a bad reaction to it) Anyway, the gang was all here, so it was a good a time as any...

First bite -- seriously, somehow he knew exactly what to do with this. He opened right up for the spoon!


Then he tried to take over control of the spoon... seemed to be trying to get it in there faster.


This isn't bad!


Yeah, I'll just take the whole bowl, okay?


Anyway, it was a success. He didn't eat very much, but he seemed to enjoy it. We'll try again tomorrow!

First Foray Into Real Food...

For the last week or so, I've been letting Jonathan taste little bits of mushed up banana off of my finger. The first time he tasted it, he looked at me like, "Really?! Where has THIS been for the last four months!?" and then shoved my finger so far back into his mouth he gagged. Yesterday, I pulled out one of his Christmas presents, the mesh feeder... I shoved a little bite of banana in it and gave it to him in the hopes that it would buy me a few minutes to work on dinner.

He loved it! I gave him some more this afternoon while Simon and I were having lunch and took some pics.

Still haven't given him cereal or baby food yet... but maybe soon. I just haven't had the time to set it all up and give it the time (and photo documentation) it deserves. LOL! Also not sure I'm ready to add it into my crazy daily routine just yet. I think he'll take to it quickly though, from the looks of this!!! ;)

Nomnomnom...

Another One to File Under "Life with Boys"

When one of my children yells, "My pee pee isn't working!!" from the bathroom, it means there will be a LOT of cleanup for me later. Hate when they lose directional control... gah. For the record, I have learned that this isn't something they really grow out of. Ever.

So Sweet....

Everytime I open the refrigerator, I find at least one of Jonathan's teethers on the lowest shelf just inside the door. Took me a few days to figure out which child was putting them there. Turns out, Simon gathers them up and puts them there throughout the day "so Jonathan always has cold ones to chew on."

(cry)

Aww...

I love that our mailman knows us well enough to know there is a baby in the house and that he's considerate enough to knock quietly when he leaves a package. I just cringed when I heard the front door open because Jonathan is napping in his carseat at the bottom of the stairs... but the mailman just barely tapped on the door and left the package. How sweet is that?

This is Going to Bug Me...

I was measuring the boys on their bedroom door this evening and Ben wanted Jonathan to get in on the action, so I stood him up, put a pencil line over his head, measured and he was about 23-1/2 inches.

Odd. He was supposedly 25-1/2 inches at the doctor's today... but I chalked it up to him not really standing up straight maybe (although he seemed pretty straight to me).

Curiosity got the better of me, so I laid him down and stretched him out. NO way is he 25-1/2 inches... in fact, he comes nowhere near the 25-1/2 line! Not even close to the 25-inch line! I did it four times, stretching him as straight as possible without pulling his leg out of the socket and I'm getting somewhere between 23-3/4 and 24. Even if I didn't get him stretched out perfectly (and again, I think I did a pretty good job), I wasn't an INCH AND A HALF off. Sheesh.

How did the nurse misread it by that much? What do I put in the baby book now?! Gah. Sometimes I *really* wish I weren't so anal. LOL. But really, this is going to bug the heck out of me.

Four-month Doctor's Appointment...

Well, actually, more like 4-1/2 months now. I hate when my kids get off their doctor schedule! Throws off the entries in the baby book. Yes, I'm anal.

Anyway, so Jonathan is doing well. The appointment was kind of quick and rather uneventful. He did ask how the sleeping was going and I just laughed. Dr. B did tell me I could try NOT feeding him at all between 10 and 6, brace for a week or so of hellish nights and he's confident the overnight sleeping would happen shortly thereafter.

Umm.. no! Thanks, but no thanks. I can't imagine NOT giving my baby food if he's crying because he's hungry. That's just mean. :( Maybe it would work but yeah, couldn't stomach it. I'm fine with just feeding at night him until, like his brothers, he drops the bottles by himself which I'm confident he'll do by nine months. So whatever.

He asked what he's doing lately and I somewhat sheepishly mentioned the rolling back and forth, he also witnessed for himself the independent sitting and the love of standing... I'm just *so* paranoid he's going to call me out on the belly sleeping, which is what I chalk up a lot of the early physical miletones to... But so far, so good... if he suspects, he hasn't said anything to me. Tralala...

Weight and length weren't really news, since I weighed and measured him a week or so ago here at home. But for the records, here's where we are now-- At 4 months:
your child is 15.5 pounds, and that is
at the 50th percentile for weight.

your child is 25.5 inches, and that is
at the 48th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 16.25 inches, and that is
at the 16th percentile for head circumference.

Where this child got the small head, I don't know. His brothers both sport gigantic noggins.

Tons of various shots today and the icky oral rotavirus thing, which he didn't appreciate, especially since he had just fallen asleep when the nurse came in to give them. Poor baby. But, he recovered as soon as it was over and passed out in his carseat. I thought for sure since he was up from 8:30 - 11:30, AND stabbed in the leg multiple times, we'd get a good afternoon nap but that is not proving to be so. (sigh)

Lastly, he gave us the green light for solids whenever we want... the Dr. tossed out that perhaps it might help him sleep more at night. Doubt it. Didn't help the other two. LOL. But we'll see. It's tempting to try... I picked up the cereal at the store this morning and a few stage one veggies and fruits. So maybe we'll experiment.

Anyway, he's now squawking soooo off to rescue him from the crib. Maybe the long nap will come later. One can hope...

A Milestone Kinda Day!

Little man rolled back to front just now! I missed it too because I had run to the bathroom... left him in the living room on his back, returned to find him on his belly reaching for a toy! Gah!

Today's Milestone....

Jonathan has discovered something neither one of my other boys ever discovered (that I remember!).... raspberries.
Must get a video because he is quite pleased with this newfound skill. Thbbbtttt... thbbtttt.... thbbbttt!! All day! As if there wasn't enough drool coming out of him, now we have the raspberries drool on top of it. ;)

Graff Dairy Update...

So, the pumping.

Still going.

It's kind of just part of my daily routine now and mostly doesn't bother me... except when I have to be somewhere during a time when I'd usually pump and I have to juggle everything around to work it out. And getting up at 11 or midnight... notsomuch a fan of that. But anyway...

Fun new discovery. My milk apparently has too much lipase. which is the enzyme that breaks down the fats. (this really only comes into play with stored milk, doesn't affect the fresh from the tap stuff) Anyway, I kind of suspected this because I have thawed out a couple of test bags from the freezer for a sniff test over the last few months and they smelled weird... sort of metallic. Then two days ago, I smelled a bottle that had been in the fridge for 24 hours (only 24 hours, mind you!) and it smelled like vomit.

Yeah. Awesome.

Jonathan has only had fresh stuff so far. The oldest milk he ever gets is from the pumping session prior to the most recent one, but generally, his bottles are MAX, a few hours old.

As for the stored milk -- I've read that the stinky stuff is okay to give them because it's not actually bad... the lipase has just started digesting the fat in the milk and makes it smell like various things -- namely metal and/or vomit. I hear it tastes like those things too, though it gags me to think about trying it and gags me to think about my baby drinking it.

So... I dunno where to go from here. I'm not sure if I'll ever give him the stuff in the freezer? I guess I'll just pump as long as I can stand it and figure it out from there.

It's always something!

Learning Curve...

Background :
Simon had a tiff with little boy at school on Tuesday. Nothing horrible -- just the other little boy wouldn't let SImon up the stairs on one of the things on the playground and eventually pushed him down. Simon set off The Simonizer (the patented Simon alarm) and just kept yelling and screaming until the kid cried and a teacher came over. This thrills me to no end, not that he made another kid cry, but because it means he didn't push the kid back... or sit on him. Instead, he used words... unintelligible words, but words nonetheless.

Anyway, so Tom and I have spent the last 48 hours praising him up and down and all over. "You used your words! That's so great! Yay yay yay! Rah rah words!!!"

Fast forward to this morning...
We pulled into school at the same time my sister-in-law pulled up with my niece. I turned around before I got Simon out of the car and prepped him for his interaction with his cousin (because these notoriously go poorly). We were going over the script... how he would say hi back and not scream in her face or push her and how he'd be nice and yada yada blah blah... he nodded that he understood, thought for a moment and said, "I said please, but it didn't work."

I thought he was referring to an incident that occurred on New Year's Day where he wanted a basketball Anastasia had and ended up pushing her down in order to acquire it. So I said, "When you asked Anastasia for the ball before you pushed her?"

He replied, "No. To the boy on the playground. I said please let me up the steps, but he kept shouting NO."

Then he got quiet and said, kind of sadly, "I used my words.... but they didn't work. My words didn't work."

I almost cried. :(

I then explained that he just needed to keep using his words because that's the best way to do things. That if words don't work, that he should just tell a teacher or a mommy or daddy and they'd help out. I also explained that his words won't always work because his friends are three and three-year-olds are ALL still learning to use their words. LOL.

I wish he'd understand if I just said, "Three-year-olds SUCK. Things will get better when everyone turns four. I promise."

Incidentally, he wasn't unkind to his cousin this morning and even played nicely with her under the stairs while waiting for the preschool doors to open.

Amen.

A. MEN.

Up on Two Feet...

My littlest has discovered he can do the following --


It started when he pulled himself up from my lap on a diaper box yesterday and now this is all he wants to do. He does that thing where he won't bend his knees when you try to sit him back down.

It's fun that he's getting so sturdy, but he's still at the stage where he doesn't quite grasp the idea that if he lets go, he's going to freefall sideways or backwards. Gah.

Also, here is some gratuitous cutness. :o)

Tips from Simon

"You never brush your hair with a toothbrush!" (said while brushing his hair with a toothbrush)

So, It's a New Year...

I had some kind of weird aches/chills. hit by a truck non-fever illness all day New Years Eve. Crashed in the late afternoon and took a 2-1/2 hour nap and then still went to bed at 7p.m. So that was fun. By the end of the day, I thought for sure it was mastitis somehow minus the pain. But by New Year's Day, I felt almost myself again, just tired and was 100% fine by that evening, so now I just think maybe I had a quick flu-shot version of the actual flu. That happened to me a few years ago on a year I got a flu shot too... I felt so horrible for those twelve hours though. Gah. Makes me glad I DID get a flu shot!

I did get to ring in the New Year since I was up at midnight pumping. Didn't turn on the tv, but did see everyone post Happy New Year messages on Facebook. Wahoo. First time in YEARS I've actual been up at midnight for the change over!

I still haven't put Christmas pics up here yet. Oops. Facebook is screwing up my blogging system, because I almost always post the pics there and then forget that I haven't put them here. May get to that today. :)

Ben was kinda forlorn about starting school again today, but I think secretly, he was happy to be getting back. Plus, he was excited to tell his friends Santa brought him a DS. ;) So cute. He also was excited because he was headed back with his schoolbox all refreshed with newly sharpened pencils and unopened gluesticks, as per the teacher's request. He's so my kid. ;)

Simon seems happy to be back in routine again too. And Jonathan, well, he's napping, so I guess that's his stamp of approval. He was none too pleased to be carried out into the cold this morning to take Ben to the bus stop though. Poor kiddo. :(

So anyway, here's to a new year, a fresh start and hopefully more sleep in the upcoming months. :)