First time sleeping in the crib

Napping in the crib for the first time. He slept in there for 20 minutes today.

Quote of the Day

Austin finished drinking his milk at dinner and said,

"Ahhh, that's good for your bones. Right, Mom? Do you have bones?"

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday was Austin's Easter egg hunt at school. He's been looking forward to it since last week and called it their "Easter Party." Willis and I happened to be heading there at the same time and I saw him on the road, I was coming from home and he was coming from work. I wanted to get there well before the egg hunt, but mixed up the time so we both arrived just after the Sea Stars class had hunted for their eggs. Austin's basket was already full of eggs by the time we got there.

After egg hunting we went inside to sing happy birthday to one of Austin's classmates then the kids strung Cheerios onto a string to make necklaces. Austin got busy stringing right away but only put a handful of Cheerios on before telling me he was done.


The Sea Stars sitting under their name cards to sing happy birthday to Tyler before making Cheerios necklaces

We ate and Austin jumped in the jumper and ran around with his friends while we chatted with other parents.



Austin's first Easter egg hunt was in the Angel Fish classroom, he was six months old.
Austin's second Easter egg hunt was in the Gold Fish classroom, he was one and a half.
(Last year we were in Hawaii so Austin missed the egg hunt with the Sea Horse class)


Austin opening his eggs and collecting his goodies

First time in the crib

Jackson is quickly outgrowing his bassinet so I thought I'd start getting him acclimated with the crib. Here he is playing and watching the mobile in the crib for the first time.

Jackson's Two-month checkup

Jackson's measurements at two months:
wt: 12lbs, 10oz. (75%)
length: 23 1/4 inches (55%)
head: 15 1/4 inches (20%)

Jackson is a whole pound and a half heavier than Austin was at two months old! (length and head are the same). Dr. Goldin commented on how chubby Jackson is and said we don't have to worry about nutrition or whether he's getting enough milk. :)

He still has some sebhorrea (cradle cap) on his face, head, behind ears and on his neck.

Developmentally, Jackson is cooing and smiling as he should at this age. At three months he should be exhibiting midline skills and at four months we should see him grasping, mouthing and turning.

He got his first vaccinations today. One oral vaccination and three shots in his thighs. (He is sporting his shot bandaids in the pic above) He cried a second after the shots went in and fell asleep after I dressed him and picked him up. He was a little more irritable than normal during the day and cried louder and angrier than usual if he woke up. But, he snoozed most of the rest of the day and seems to have slept it off. He was in a better mood when he finally got up in the evening. I was relieved that he didn't have any other reactions or fever from his shots. He goes back at four months for his next checkup.

Overheard

Oh, my black phone is ringing! (picks up black toy phone) Hi, Dad? Today I'm working on my phone. But, Daaad.. Did you know I went to Disneyland with Mom? And den I put away my clothes (he had just put away the pjs he just took off) and brushed my waist. Okay, bye!

Conversations with Austin

A: Um, Mom. Listen to this word, Boo-yah!
Me: Where did you hear that?
A: Coach Brad. Coach Brad says that.

Wordless Wednesday - Studying

First day of school

Today is Jackson's first day of day care. He is in the Sand Dollar class at the infant house about a block away from the main building.

Austin woke up in a good mood early this morning. He sang me some songs while I was feeding Jackson, he changed his clothes all by myself, entertained Jackson when I was getting ready and even shared the toy he was going to take to school with Jackson. Such a sweet and helpful big brother! Willis helped me load our things in my car before we left. Feeding/changing Jackson and worrying about spit up (which went down my back this morning) was what I had to worry about the most. It was a great collective effort for my first morning dropping off both boys at school.

I dropped Austin off first. He "helped" me carry Jackson's car seat on our way in, handed his teacher his daily sheet and went to sit down at the breakfast table while I put his things away. I gave him hugs and kisses and he said "bye" and waved to me as I left. We even blew each other a kiss right before I walked out the door and out of sight. He's my big sweetheart!

Then I drove Jackson to his class. His teacher, Ms. Shanelle, showed me where everything is and I hung around to watch Jackson playing with the exciting new toys. He played with the activity gym, his teacher read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar, showed him the ball maze then put him in the play box with some sensory balls. He also got to meet the other two babies in his class, three-month-old twin boy and girl. He was content and played on his own for a long time before licking his lips, yawning and telling us he was hungry with some complaining cries. Ms. Shanelle got him a bottle and I stayed just until after he started drinking his milk.

Mom and Dad

Last month we went to a meeting at Austin's school. I was chatting with one of the other moms and she asked me if Austin has started calling me "Mom" yet because her daughter has started to call her "Mom." I said no and thought he probably won't shorten to "Mom" for a while. Well, a week ago I noticed he started pronouncing "Daddy" like "Datty" then it became just "Dad." And he started calling me "Mom." When he wants to tell me something or wants my attention he says, "Mom. Mo-om. Mo---om. Mom. Mom..." He still goes back to "Mama" and "Daddy" but seems to get a kick out of calling us these new names - Mom and Dad.

Independence

As Austin is getting older, he is able to so much all by himself. He can turn on/off the bathroom light using his step stool, go to the potty on his own, wash hands, pick out his clothes, change his own clothes, take off his nighttime diaper, wrap it up and throw it away, get into his chair at the dining table, cutting bananas with his little knife, take his dishes to the kitchen, clean up his toys, put on or take off his shoes, button shirt buttons, etc. He still likes help with some of these things sometimes but he's becoming pretty independent. And I'm trying to get him to start his routines (like the morning routine, etc) on his own without us having to remind him. He even wants to do things on his own that I'd prefer to do for him, like getting his vitamin C out of the bottle.

Quote of the Day

Austin gets so excited when he sees the color blue. This morning I showed him a picture of some origami fish in all different colors and he exclaimed, "Oh! B'oo! B'oo's my favowite color!"

Negotiating

I checked on Austin at naptime on Saturday. He wasn't sleeping so I went in to tuck him in again.

Me: Austin, how come you're not asleep?
A: But, I'm thirsty.
Me: Okay, you can take a drink from your cup. One sip.
A: How about three sips?
Me: Two sips.
A: One sip!

And he only took one sip. I guess his negotiation skills need a bit of work. :)

Thomas Pajamas!

Austin got these Thomas pajamas as a gift. I kept thinking they were way too big for him because they are 4T so they have been stored away. Lately his 3T pajamas have been getting a little small so I pulled these out and washed them. I had him put them over his fitted pjs as an extra layer. To my surprise, they fit him just right (The shirt maybe slightly snug over another shirt). He loves them and even buttoned a couple of the buttons all by himself. He said, "I loove Thomas and James and Percy!" (The characters that are on the pajamas) Watching him run around in these flannel pajamas makes it feel like he's wearing Christmas pajamas.

Sticker for baby

Austin was playing nearby and found some of his Thomas and friends stickers. He asked, "Who wants a sticker?" then put stickers on the back of each of our hands. When it was Jackson's turn he said, "Here's a sticker for baby, it's a James sticker." :)

It took quite a while to get a clear picture of the sticker because Jackson kept moving his arm, but I finally captured it.

Smile Jackson!

I love when Jackson looks at me with his big smiles. I talk to him and he responds with a big open mouth smile. But, the moment I look away to grab my phone to try to capture a photo, he always stops smiling. But, this time I finally caught one! :)


He usually calms down during diaper changes. This was taken right after a diaper change and he was relaxed and full of smiles. :)

Puzzles

Austin loves puzzles. He's starting to tackle ones with smaller pieces and more complicated pictures. He got a United States of America puzzle for a big brother present last month. It has the outlines of the states under the pieces so you know where to put them. We helped him in the beginning, but now he can put it together all by himself. And he's learning the names of the states.

He holds up California and says, "This is the state we live in! California!"

Yesterday, he put the puzzle together but was missing one state. He called out, "Where's Kentucky?" (And that was the correct state he was missing)

This morning while putting the puzzle together he came over to me and asked, "which shape is orchestra?" I think he meant Oregon. :)

Six Week Checkup

I went to see my doctor for my six week post baby checkup. I weighed in at 134 lbs., back down near my pre-pregnancy weight. I worried about taking Jackson with me since Austin cried through my entire six-week checkup after he was born. As I expected, Jackson was asleep and completely quiet until I went into the room. He started crying just before the doctor came in and I had to feed him to keep him happy. Other than that little delay, my appointment was quick and she said everything looks good. I went up to the lab to have blood drawn to test my thyroid and then we were done.

My doctor had asked how heavy Jackson is. I hadn't weighed him since he was four weeks old so I decided to take him to Torrance Memorial bookstore to use their baby scale. According to their scale, he is now 10 lbs, 15.3 oz!

We made one more stop at Babies R Us to make some returns and we tried out the mother's room.

Jackson and I had a fun day out together, unfortunately Willis didn't have such a great day. We came home to a sick Willis who had gone home from work earlier in the day with a fever. :(

Hi! I'm six weeks old today!

Jackson is growing so fast! Within the past couple of days he has started to go a little longer between mealtimes. He has always been the one telling us he's hungry every 2-3 hours but he sometimes lasts four hours now. He has lots of tears when he cries. He is getting better at grasping things (mostly accidentally though) when they're near his hands. Sometimes when I'm carrying him he hangs onto my necklace, hair or shirt. When I put my finger to his lip to see if he's hungry he uses his hand to try to push my hand into his mouth.

His newborn clothes are getting tight so I've started putting him in some 0-3 month clothes. I kept thinking, "Oh no, those are way too big." But, some things fit him already! (mostly footed sleepers and bodysuits)

He still sleeps most of the day but he can stay awake for a couple hours at a time. Most days if we're home, he's awake for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. If we go out he sleeps more.

Nighttime hasn't really settled down yet. Our usual routine has been: Put Austin to bed, I feed Jackson then get ready for bed. Willis takes over and I go to sleep until it's time to feed Jackson. Then Willis goes to sleep while I feed and put Jackson to bed. Then I try to go to sleep.

I continue to try to get Jackson comfortable with sleeping in his bassinet. Sometimes he sleeps 5 minutes before waking up, sometimes 20 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour (if we're lucky). But, needing to burp, spitting up or wiggling his hands out of his swaddle usually seem to wake him. When he sleeps in the swing I usually hear him grunting/complaining every once in a while but the swaying usually lulls him back to sleep. He doesn't always seem to get a smooth continuous sleep, so maybe that's another reason that he gets up so often?

Car rides can sometimes put Jackson to sleep but he wakes when the car stops and cries. If he's hungry, he will cry for the rest of the trip. Austin likes to tell him, "It's okay baby, I'm here."

In the first few weeks at home, Jackson used to cry when having his diaper changed, but now changing diapers seems to calm him.

Jackson also seems to like bathtime. Baths are at the kitchen sink in the baby tub. He doesn't complain if it's chilly and he has never cried, even when I might be taking too long. He just starts shivering, then I know I need to finish up.

Quotes of the Day

I picked out some warm-up pants for Austin to wear today and as he picked them up to put them on he asked me, "Are these sweaty pants?"

I made chicken fingers for dinner tonight, during the meal Austin kept referring to them as,
"finger chickens!"