my three little men - week 12

What a GREAT week we have had.  We started off with a fun-filled weekend in Lebanon and are heading into another fun-filled weekend with more family.  

Ivan Jude:  This guy is sporting his adorable Fox outfit.  He actually had one of these in size 3 months and is now sporting his 6 month one. There's just something about that gray and orange.  He's still Mister Smiley, too!  Doesn't take much to get him to crack a grin.

But on to the exciting news... he's been sleeping through the night!!!!  I nurse him for a late night dreamfeed (around 10pm) and then he's been sleeping til his morning wake time -- 7AM.  And boy does it feel good.

But that's not his only change this week.  He's been sleeping flat on his back in his crib.  On Monday, I thought I would try him out on his back AND without a swaddle.  The back sleeping went great.  It didn't seem to bother him at all.  The no swaddle was a differnt story.  He was failing his arms like he was trying to fly.  He's not ready for no swaddle yet.  However later on in the week he really starting noticing his hands.  Doing the cross-eyed stare and everything.  Maybe that means more arm control is coming soon.

He's still sleeping in our room at night because I don't want to trek across the house in case he decides to wake in the night again.  I'll probably give it a week or so to make sure it sticks.  He seems to like his crib and its been nice to move all his gear back into his room and get our room a little back to normal.

And in case you missed it, he's wearing cloth diapers.  I was hesitant to start up again, just because disposables are SO easy.  But after about a week, I remember that really they aren't too bad.  We're getting back into the cloth diaper groove.

Silas John:  Silas is sporting his adorable shirt from his Aunt Lorri.  I pretty much love anything outdoorsy on the boys because it reminds me of Jason.  And luckily, Silas lets me pretty much pick out all his clothes.  Isn't he cute?  And an almost read smile from him.... I asked him what his favorite donut was.

Silas still loves to do everything that Amos does and is getting much quicker at noticing when he's being left out.  "Me too!" is his newest catch phrase.  During our "school time" he likes to go and play until Amos starts doing cool and then he's quick to make it back over to the table for his share of the fun.  His molars have been giving him some trouble this week, but they are all in now, so I'm hoping for some better nap time.

We made it to the Bounce house this week, and he has much more fun exploring when they have the place to themselves.

Amos Jack:  I have no say in what Amos wears.  And usually if I suggest something, he wants the opposite.  Here are the pants he loves to wear because he can button and zip them by himself.  Does he look super old to anyone else?

He's starting to ask some really good questions about Jesus.  Jason answered a lot of questions about life and death and Jesus one night this week all from talking about a bone.  We can tell he's soaking everything in and giving it a lot of thought.  He also explained what LOVE means to Jason last night.  If he gets lost, he knows we will come to find him.  And if we get lost, he will come to find us.  He sure is growing up fast.

We had a blast seeing our family in Lebanon.  Nana and Papa were on vacation in Hawaii while we were there.

Emma loves the little ones.

 Meeting Great Grandma Musgrave!

cloth diapers 3.0

Here's Ivan in his very first cloth diaper.  Not quite as excited about cloth diapers the third time around, but essentially I'm now diapering for FREE, so I can get excited about that!  And I forgot how cute they look.  Bring on the cloth.

my three little men - week 11

I've decided that I want my weekly post to be a little more rounded, including a little bit about each of the boys.  Amos and Silas are at such a fun age, and I don't want to forget all the fun things they do.  So from here on out, consider this my three little men update.

We'll start with Ivan.  Here he is sporting his adorable smile, new carhart shirt from the grandparents and his plaid bandana from Rachel!  Oh and some new hair!!!

So I have to refer to my blog posts from the other boys to remember all the age appropriate things I should be doing with Ivan.  I'm normally doing good if I get his diaper changed before he's ready for another nap.  Apparently Amos was mastering the bumbo this week!  I guess it was time to break it out for Ivan.  He loved it.

Unlike his brothers, Ivan is NOT sleeping through the night yet.  In fact, he's only been stretching about 6 hours.  6 hours was great a few weeks ago, but I'm really ready for a full night of sleep!  He's getting over congestion, and we upped his reflux dosage again, so I'm hoping those two things will help in that department.  He just keeps reminding me that he's his own man.

He laughed for the first time this week!  Apparently he finds farting noises very, very funny!

Moving on, Silas John:  He's sporting his usual CRAZY hair and stretchy pants.  He only likes to wear jeans with elastic waistbands.  The others are "too small," he says.

Silas is sooo lovable.  He's been very huggy this week, especially in the mornings and after nap time. In fact, during those times, he refuses to walk down the stairs without me holding him.  We have this little routine where when I go into his room to get him up, he pretends to be sleeping.  Then I pretend to be sleeping and grab his blankets from him.  He loves it and if we skip it, he's in a bad mood.

He talks and talks and sings and sing and jumps and jumps.  Luckily he's a lot easier to understand these days so there isn't near as much guessing going on.  He's finally got the two foot jump down and normally does it when he's proud of something he's done.

He's testing all his two year old boundaries.  He's quick to repent because he hates being in trouble.

Amos Jack:  Sporting his pretty-much-too-small fire engine short and his hip gray pants.  Oh, and I can't forget the buzz-light-year sock!  I asked him to give me a real smile and this is it.

He's been growing up in many ways lately.  Recently he stopped wearing a diaper at night time.  That's created its own new problems adventures.  He does a pretty good job getting up on his own and then going back to sleep.   However, he then started using it as an excuse to stay up later and later.  We've just decided to cut out his official nap time, and make it more of an optional rest time.  It's hard to give up those hours to myself.  But if he doesn't need them anymore, then I'd rather he sleep better at night.

We've been focusing on one Bible story a week and doing some fun learning activities around it for the last several weeks.  We just finished up on Moses.  On Wednesday, Jason sat outside on the porch while Amos played.  Later, Jason told me that Amos was playing Moses outside.  He re-enacted the whole parting of the Red Sea and then came up to tell Jason about it.  On his way up to Jason, he remembered and yelled, "I forgot to ask for God's help."  Then proceeded to go back down and re-enact the whole thing again.  Some of it is sticking!

Our week wasn't too eventful, but we did have a fun Saturday with the Grandparents.  Can't beat swimming at the YMCA in the morning and then a Superhero Birthday in the afternoon.

 What good looking kids.

And we, of course, utlized the 70 degree day by a trip to the park.  I was so loaded down with two bikes, a stroller, and lunch that I didn't grab my camera!  Wish I had, but it'll just have to be stored in my memories.

ivan jude - week 10

When this guy is awake, he's pretty easy to get smiling.  In fact, I can barely look at him while nursing because he gets so distracted by smiling and flirting with me.  I LOVE IT!

He loves to stick his hands in his mouth.  At first, I thought maybe he did it because he was still hungry, but not true.  He just seems to enjoy doing it.  I sure hope its not because he's working on getting a tooth!  That needs to be far off in the distance.

I've been falling down on the job of taking pictures. Everyone told me it was going to happen.  Baby #3 just doesn't seem to end up with near as many pictures as the first kiddos.  Luckily I took way too many pictures of Amos, and still too many of Silas, so falling behind with Ivan still means a snap at leat 3 in a week!

 Profile shot of the hair loss, and new growth.  Love the big eyes and the sucked in bottom lip.  Classic.

 We've been amazed by how light his eyes still are.  By this time, both the other boys had very distinct brown eyes.  Not sure what color his are going to end up!

 Silas was reading Ivan a story.  Wasn't too sure about sticking his head in the lions mouth.  He's still been really loving to Ivan, but there has been more wanting to be held by Mama than usual.  I'm ok with the extra loving.

 Daddy stealing some afternoon kisses.  He's trying to get him use to the beard.

It's been nice to settle back into somewhat of a new routine.  We're finding our new normal.  In some ways, three has been easier than two kids.  It helps that Amos and Silas are so close in age and can generally play really well together.  I also like the gap between Ivan and Silas because Silas doesn't need me for everything.  We get to do fun things like pretend we have beaks and catch sour worms.  It doesn't take much, I tell ya!

And favorite picture from this week!  Who knows what Ivan's thinking!

It's funny because I'll look through pictures of Amos to find this week's picture and think that Ivan looks so much like him, and then I'll look through pictures of Silas and think Ivan looks so much like him.  I guess time will tell.  He's definitely a combination of them both.

ivan jude - week 9

Ivan started this week off by finishing up a growth spurt.  We had a lot of fun things planned for the weekend, but they all involved his ability to take a bottle.  Luckily, Friday arrived, and his growth spurt was over.  My wonderful husband took over Friday night and let me get out for a girl's night.  And after a week long growth spurt, I needed it.  I really was spoiled for my birthday because I also got the next morning off to get my haircut and have time to do whatever!  My whatever involved a little shopping - a new shirt and decor for the house and an Young Living Essential Oils party!  The day was full of new possibilities.

That afternoon, my parents came over to watch the boys while Jason and I went to Arkansas for my birthday date.

Ivan was a champ the entire day, but I'm not going to lie.  After almost a full day of not snuggling, I was very anxious to get home and nurse him that night.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder.  It was a very nice refresh for this 28-year-old Mama.

Ivan's been doing pretty good on his reflux medicine this week, but what I seem to be noticing now is that he is very sensitive to what I eat.  I have to watch it pretty closely or we both suffer the consequences later.

He's noticing his hands more and more and does a great job sticking them into his mouth while awake and playing.  He's still swaddled for sleeping, so no finger sucking yet.  And he still refuses a pacifier.  His night time sleep just keeps improving.  There isn't anymore constant grunting and he sleeps pretty soundly.  He's averaging about 6 hour stretches at this point, but I'm hoping soon we'll get closer to 8 hours.  Wouldn't that be nice?

He had his 2 month check-up on Wednesday.  The doctor said he looked perfect!  He's still a chunky guy weighing 13 lbs 7 oz and 23 1/4 inches long.  He definitely has both his brothers beat at this age.   He took his shots like a champ too.  And luckily they haven't seemed to affect him.

He definitely resembles his brothers but is starting to look more and more distinctly Ivan.

Today we were all able to get outside and enjoy the nice weather!  I would love it to feel like this year round.  Where do I need to move to make that happen??

month two

WE MADE IT THROUGH MONTH 2!  With every baby, month 2 is one of the hardest.  The newness is starting to wear off, and getting up in the middle of the night is just not fun!  (Unless your my sister, love you Amelia!)  My husband goes back to work and its a time of figuring out a new normal.  I can't say that we've got too much figured out, BUT, we're on the downhill to Month 3, our turning point.  This reflux thing is still messing with us, but Ivan has settled in to a pretty good eat, wake, sleep routine and is sleeping a chunk of 6 to 7 1/2 hours at night.  We've even ventured out on our a own a few times, but I prefer to just hibernate most of the first 3 months.

Favorite things:
Amos - Now that he is wearing underwear to bed at night, his favorite thing to do is come out of his room exactly 3 minutes after we close the door, because he must go pee.  He then comes out another 4 or 5 times before we go to bed.  Hoping the newness wears off at some point.
Silas - For Christmas, we got a new guitar and a new drum.  I think playing the guitar is one of his favorite things.  If there is music on, he needs to get his guitar to play along, and if Daddy has his guitar out, Silas will drop everything and go join him.
Ivan - ...milk...and faces.  He loves to be smiled at and will return the favor.  He's pretty content to just sit and stare up at me for his whole waketime.

ivan jude - week 8

So I got a little half smile out of him.  Even though he is now smiling all the time, I have yet to catch a really good one on camera.  My camera is always out of arms reach and who wants to get up and get it when this cutie is flirty with you?

Jason went back to work this week and I felt somewhat ready for it. I had planned out some new things to do with the boys and give them a little more structure and I had worked it all around Ivan's eating schedule.  Of course, come Monday morning, Ivan decided to grow again and has been eating around the clock since.  The first few days were really frustrating, because I wasn't sure what the problem was - reflux, growth spurt, milk supply, bad sleep habits.... the list goes on.  That's the newborn phase for ya!  By Wednesday I was pretty sure it was a growth spurt with possible milk supply issues.  Currently my supply seems fine, but were still in a funk.  I'm kinda just going with and hoping we get back to the old normal soon.  And God's teaching me through it.  His plans and purposes, not mine!

In other news, my family came over on Saturday to celebrate an early birthday with me.  And they brought Chinese!  As always, the cousins had a blast together.  Sometimes I can't believe how old these two are.  They were just the little babies everyone took turns holding.  And now look at them...

And here are the other goof balls.  They have a love hate relationship.

Ivan caught sight of his hand this week.  And definitely enjoys time on the activity mat or anywhere else he can just look up and gaze at something.  One of his favorite spots is in front of the mirror or looking out all our windows.

 Whoever decided to put those bears on babies' bottoms was a genius.  Amos and I think it's the cutest thing.  He always asks to see if Ivan has something on his bottom.

Well  hello handsome!

All and all, we've had a really great week.  Jason has left me a little something something each day for my birthday week and I've have felt much love from the people I love.  When asked what Amos was going to give me for my birthday he said, "I think maybe some of my old toys.  No wait, Mom's don't like toys.  Maybe a new couch."  Check!

Lastly, I started exercising again this week.  And, oh how I wish I could go back in time about 4 months and tell myself not to stop doing those squats.  Going up and down stairs has been torture!  Feel the burn!