a walk in the park

Watching a passing train

Safe in mommy's pouch

Little dreamer

Does Tobey need a haircut or what?!

april update

I feel that I haven't done much posting of the day to day lives of my kids because I have been so busy with several things.  This week I've been taking care of some things for our HOA, which I am now the secretary of.  (Tip:  Never go to an HOA meeting because you feel it is the right thing to do.  You will be elected to an office.)  We've also had several things going on with the dogs.  Miles:  Poor guy has a torn ligament.  Basically it is the equivalent to a torn acl.  The vet recommends surgery, but we don't need to rush into it.  I'm still gathering information about alternatives, if possible.  He's not using his bad leg much, but he seems to be getting along just fine.  However, he is on pain killers so that might be why.  Penny:  She had some strange allergic reaction to something this week.  She was swollen all over her body, and she looked crazy!  It looked like she had little bubbles all over her body.  It gave me the hebe-jebes.  The vet thinks it was either something she ate or a reaction to something in the environment as opposed to a sting/bite since that would be isolated instead of all over her body.

Anyways, I've been a little busy.

Playing in the dog crate

Painting his step stool (which I plan to repaint)

Swollen face...it got worse later

Crazy swollen spots all over her body...they looked even crazier in real life

jonah bear is 6 months old!

Yay, we made it to a half-year!  And we love our Jonah Bear so much that words can not describe it!  He has been such a blessing and a joy for us.  This month he has really become more aware of the world.  He is always watching what is going on and looking around trying to find people.  In fact, it's become quite a challenge to nurse him because he is always looking at toys or for Tobey.  He loves solid foods, and he's eaten everything we have offered him so far:  bananas, avocado, rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, prunes, nectarines, plums, butternut squash, chicken, and yogurt...just to name a few!  Jonah likes to roll around and play with his toys, he enjoys the exersaucer, and to stand.  He'll chew on his toys for a long time too or just look at his mobile.  He doesn't really like to read books yet because he just wants to put them in his mouth, but hopefully that will come soon.  He's not crazy about the car or the stroller, but hopefully that will change soon too.  We were also able to get him unswaddled at night.  And once that happened, it only took a couple of weeks before he figured out how to sleep through the night!  Last Thursday, April 18th, was the first time he did...so right at 6 months.  I didn't even have to do anything for him to do it...he just figured it out!  He's also going down for his naps without nursing now...yay!  I'm trying to do a schedule of a nap at 9am and one at 1pm.  If he doesn't do long naps, I do a third one at about 4pm.  I've been nursing him when he wakes in the morning, after the two naps, once before dinner, and once before bed.  But like I said, it's been a challenge to nurse him because he is so interested in everything and prefers solids so I'm going to start pumping and adding milk to his cereal instead of water.  The doctor didn't sound concerned that he preferred solid food because he stayed on the same growth curve so hopefully this will keep him growing at the same pace.  In fact, the doctor had no concerns at all about him.  He's just really doing great!

Height:  27.76 inches (89%tile)
Weight:  17 lbs 0 oz (40%tile)
Head Circ:  43 cm (40%tile)

6 Months - 4/17/13

Prune Face!

jonah is 6 months old today!

I'm too tired and busy to do his 6 month update, but here is a picture for now:

Hey guys, brothers don't shake hands.  Brothers hug.

the unswaddling of jonah

I've been really nervous about unswaddling Jonah for a while now.  You'd think it'd be this big, horrific change for them that they would protest as long and as hard as they could.  Tobey did do fairly well with his unswaddling, but I thought that was a fluke since Tobey became a thumb sucker.  But my children never cease to amaze me.  We unswaddled Jonah last night, and he did fabulous.  Today I had no problems with his 2 naps either.  In fact, he slept longer than he normally does.  I'm so happy to have that over with, and I am so happy it went well!  :)

a nice day to play outside

We play outside every day that we can, but today was a particularly nice day.  We were outside for 2 hours in the morning and another 2 hours in the afternoon.

Tobey playing with "his dog"

easter 2013

Not much to report for Easter 2013.  We went to mass in the morning, and Jonah was very upset, probably the most he has ever cried in his life.  I ended up sitting in Lyke Hall with him until he napped and nursed.  All three of my guys wore suits and looked sharp!  The Easter Bunny visited our house while we were at mass so Tobey was able to hunt for eggs and baskets when we got home.  After naps, we went over to Adam's parents' house for hanging out and dinner.  Terri had planned several fun games, but no one won much of anything with their scratch-off tickets.  We also took lots of pictures that day.  Here are some of the best.

After mass

Tobey's eggs

Coloring eggs

Tobey and "his dog"

Checking his candy

On the hunt

Bunny ears on a garbage truck

Me and my little

What's in that egg, Tobes?

Jonah likes Miles, too.

Pals!

Me and my little man

Me and my boys

Just playing

Reaching for something with Aunt Gina

jonah's first haircut

Yes, we gave our 5 month old a haircut.  His bangs were just out of control.  I was sad to see his hair get trimmed because he lost that signature look he had, but he is very cute without those crazy hairs in his eyes.  He did very well during his first haircut.  He just smiled like always.  I made sure to keep a lock of his lovely blonde hair.

Before

Almost ready

Laughing while getting his hair cut

Still laughing

Checking out his new do

No more crazy bangs!

swim class update

Tobey made it through his first week of swim lessons!  Yay!  He made a lot of improvement from his first lesson to his last.  He was still crying before class and during class, but not as much as he was originally.  Plus, he said he had fun afterwards.  I even heard him saying to the teacher, "I want to go first!"  He participated in everything and was only lacking in a few areas to be moved up to the next level.  The main thing he needs to do is go underwater for 5 seconds.  But Tobey can blow bubbles, float on his back assisted, jump in assisted and go underwater, use a kickboard and noodle assisted to paddle around, and he can do the wall walk (choo choo) and climb out by himself.  He is signed up for six more classes over the next six weeks so hopefully he'll be plenty ready for the pool this summer!  Here is a video.

when will the questions end?

Here is a sample of some of the questions my 3-yr-old asked me this week: What kind of knife is this? (A green one) What kind of trees are in the woods? (ummm, pine trees maybe) Why is baby food in jars? (Because otherwise it would be more of a mess than it already is) Do grapes come from grape trees? (No, grapevines, like the song, "I heard it through the grapevine") What is a vine? (they are like this thing (me pointing to a plant)) How many minutes until we get there? (1 minute) How many minutes until we get there? (1 minute) How many minutes until we get there? (59 seconds) What shape is my poop? (Poop-shaped) ...And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

spring break '13

I didn't blog much during March, and that is because we went on a trip to Florida for 10 days!  I decided that I really needed a break from everything, which meant blogging too.  We started off by going to Orlando and spending the night at my sister's.  We hung out the next day and went to the UCF/UF girls' volleyball game because my friend's husband is the coach...I think Florida won.  Then we drove to Fort Myers that night.  Both boys did excellent in the car, btw.  Then it was a week of just relaxing and hanging out!  Jess, David, and Ezra joined us for the second half of the trip.  Some highlights include:  finding some gold jewelry in an old box of mine and taking it to a Cash for Gold place (made $131), taking Jonah to the pool for the first time, watching Tobey play at the beach, hanging with my mom and dad and aunt Becky boo, and spending time with my best friend Jennifer and her family (we also had a good laugh at several of the things that I found in those old boxes).

Oh, and I can't forget the incident...  One day we had Tobey taking a nap in one of the bedrooms.  He was talking for a while, but then he was all quiet.  So I decided to check and make sure he was sleeping.  When I opened the door, I heard some mumbling in the corner.  I walked over to the noise and found Tobey completely covered in sunscreen!  When I asked what he was doing, he said he was "getting ready to go to the beach."  Ha!  See the picture below.

One bad thing about the trip was that both boys were not feeling too well.  Jonah had a runny noise, but Tobey ended up with a nasty cough.  Part of the trip he slept in my parents bed with them due to lack of space (which he would NEVER do with us even though we would love to cuddle with him), and my parents said he was coughing in his sleep but never woke up.  Weird.

Okay so pictures are better than me just telling about the trip so here they are:

Father/Son breakfast in the park

Splash park with Mimi

Tobey was cold on his bike ride with Adam...he looks like ET to me.

Ezra liked the splash pad!

Tobey was just a little cold again...

Just playing with his feet

Found something he liked to do at the splash pad...play with his new truck

First trip to the pool

Likes his new suit from Gaby

Poor little Jonah...

He's okay!  He's used to being picked on by big brother!

The sunscreen incident

He's so proud that he was able to get ready for the beach.

The three boys wearing their suits from Gaby

Ezra, looking like a little man

Tobey was very busy getting water for the moat going around his castle.

My little blue-eyed angel!

Ezra liked the beach and didn't mind the freezing water.

Guess it was so much fun, Tobey couldn't resist.  He really loved the beach and didn't want to leave.

Sisters and cousins