Five-Months-Old

Once again I'm a little behind on the update.  The day before my first born turned four, Jackson turned 5-months-old.  ROLLING has been the big thing of the month.  All of a sudden one day my baby rolled over and since then there has been no stopping him.  The children were in the living room the day after he did his first roll and Jackson was on a blanket in the middle of the living room.  A man from PG&E was over looking at my air conditioner controllers and such and Ben kept telling me to come into the living room because he wanted to show me something.  I put him off for a few minutes telling him to hold on and mommy's busy.  When I finally made my way in there he pointed proudly at the kitchen floor and said "look!"  And there was my poor baby laying on his back on the hard kitchen floor looking rather uncomfortable with the hard surface under his soft head.  I mean the kid must have rolled a good four or five times to get there!

No doctor's appointment this month luckily so I'm not sure what his stats are, but weight problems are definitely a thing of the past.  My baby is chub-by.  We have a feeling he is going to pass up his big brother one day.

He also got his sleep schedule kinks all worked out this month.  Mainly the problem I realized was that he was waking up most nights soaked.  So I started doing a "twilight change," removing his wet diaper and replacing it with a new dry diaper without awaking my sleeping babe right before I go to bed, often times in his crib.  This has worked like a charm.  He stays dry and stays asleep until 7:30 am every morning.

Jackson continues to discover his voice.  He still loves blowing him some raspberries and now has added grunting to his repertoire of noises.  He mainly reserves his grunting for when he's annoyed, bugged, or frustrated- so usually when Ben is around. : )  Hahaha.  Ben loves his baby Jacky so much, which means that he is often right in his face, hugging on him.  Which Jackson for the most part enjoys.  But sometimes, and I don't blame him at all, it can get to be a little much for the poor guy.  But being the most easy going baby in the world he doesn't cry, he just lets out a loud grunt.  It's so funny.  And Ben knows exactly what it means now, so usually backs off- at least for a moment.  He really grunts when Ben is hugging him to tight or putting too much of his weight on Jackson (i.e. laying on him).  One day James and Jackson were in the bedroom and Ben and I heard Jackson let us some grunts and Ben turned to me and said, "daddy must be laying on baby Jacky."  I doubt he was, but then again I never asked James. : )

 Jackson continues to be such a content and happy baby- always smiling and never complaining.  He's happy in our arms with attention showered on him, and he's happy rolling around on the floor by himself.  We are just so blessed with this baby; he brings so much joy to our lives.  I was telling James tonight that I really think he is going to be a fun and funny kid.  Just something about the way he looks at us and smiles I can just see his fun loving, good-natured spirit shining through his eyes.  Can't wait to continue to discover his personality.

A Typical Day . . . Mostly

We started our day off with Kids Gym at the club we belong too (basically gymboree).  Ben gets to run around and get some of his energy out and have a great time.  Jackson and I enjoy watching and some alone time.

I usually pack a lunch for Ben to eat after his class and before mine.  It's funny how much more exciting lunch can be in a cool lunchbox.  And how much yummier a PB&J is when it's made to look like a slice of watermelon.

After my classes (spin and abs today), we headed to the library to return our overdue movies and books.  I have been so good lately, but those darn one week rentals on movies sometimes screw me up. The free library isn't always all that free.  Ben loves to play on the computers there and they have a lot of great educational programs- I wish I had all of them on our computer at home.  At the library we saw that they were having an outdoor movie on the lawn tonight (our second one of summer), so we headed home for naps.  Even I took a nap.  Heaven.

Jackson started his nap at the library. 

After we had a spaghetti dinner we woke up sleepy Jackson (at 6 pm) to give him a little taste of dinner.  I decided to start with sweet potatoes.  He made some crazy funny faces but I think swallowed a few bites.  I'm going to continue with just sweet potatoes this week and pray that he doesn't experience any digestive problems like with the carrots.  Ben was right there of course to help with feeding time.

At a little after 8 tonight we headed to the library again for the movie.  It's amazing how light it stays so late now.  They didn't even start the movie until 9 because it was so bright out still.

Daddy was there too.  Just no pictures of him this time. 

Ben was not being a good listener during the movie and kept being goofy the whole time and bugging Jackson so we finally left early.  I had a good long (he asked me in the middle of it how many more words I was going to say?) talk with Ben about knowing right from wrong and trying harder to be the best boy he can be so we can be a strong, happy family.  Hopefully this approach will work better than my losing it and putting him on what feels like pointless timeouts lately.  Seriously having a disobedient problem with him lately.  

Overall it was a good, typical day for us.  Glad to be getting back into our routine, especially with the gym.  Jackson's little tummy bug got me out of my good routine.  We have never been rigid parents with a rigid schedule.  If we want to do a fun late night event I just adjust nap time.  But a routine is absolutely necessary and it always feels good at the end of the day to have had a full, worthwhile day.

Ben's Art Party: The Birthday Boy

I really cannot believe that my baby is four-years-old!  I know everyone says it and I'm sure I'll say it every year for every one of my kids.  But time really does go way too fast with kids.  It was so fun this year watching Ben at his party because for the first time he was really, really excited for his birthday and party.  And also because of his relationships with his little friends.  We have finally been settled in one place for more than a year and he is forming such good friendships that it was fun to see him interact and share his special day with them.

Four things I love about my four-year-old:
(1) He's such a smart kid.  Traditionally speaking (ABC's and 123's) he seems to be right there with his peers.  But I think he is just so smart in an inquisitive way.  He pieces things together and makes sense out of complicated matters so easily.  James and I are always blown away by the things he understands, the language he picks up on from us, and the conclusions he comes to.
(2) He is such a great brother.  He loves his baby Jacky and ALWAYS wants to be with him.  He has never once complained about his little brother or the time he takes me away from him.  He talks to him all the time, tries to play with him, lets me know if he needs anything (when he wakes up, if he's spit up, if he has a dirty diaper.)  He loves that he can make him laugh now everyday- I can just see the joy it brings to him hearing his baby brother giggle from his silliness.
(3) He cares a lot about his friends.  If he hasn't seen someone for a while, he'll ask me about them and where they've been.  He always wants me to make arrangements with his friends' moms to make plans to see his friends.  He remembers little things they tell him and then he'll pass the news along to me.
(4) Although not nearly as much as he used to be, Ben still has a really soft spot for his mommy.  He doesn't give me nearly as much kisses and hugs as he used to, but he always wants to be with me (sometimes to my dismay).  Even when he is playing with his friends, like swimming today, he wants me to play with him- I know that will change very soon.  When we are apart, as in when he's at preschool or when I'm working out and he's at club kid, he always asks me about what I've been doing.  It's funny to me that he thinks of me that way- not even his daddy is always the greatest about asking me about my day.

Just love this big kid!

A Great First 4th!

This was a special 4th of July for us around here because it was Jackson's first one.  We started the day off with another first for him- his first bike ride.  Seeing him in his little helmet was so funny and he was such a trooper.  We biked downtown to the wonderful parade in our town.  Nothing like a good old parade to bring you back, I told my girlfriend that I felt like I was in a time warp.

I was just happy we ran into some friends because Ben was glad to have some buddies to sit with and enjoy the parade together.  His favorite part was the candy that the "very nice boy scouts" gave him.  Now he can't wait to be a boy scout so he can hand out candy to little kids at parades. : )

We were all pretty wiped out after our bike ride and the long parade, so after lunch it was time for naps.  Ben doesn't regularly nap anymore, but when we have a late night activity we make it a precedent that he has to.  He went down pretty willingly, considering that he must have been very tired after waking up this morning at 6:20.  His two and a half hour nap also was a testament of how tired he was.  Jackson was even more tired because he slept for over three hours (it was his only nap of the day).
 We then headed out to Sausalito to watch the fireworks from James' aunt and uncle's house.  They were out of town but extended an invite for us to come watch from their house (since this is our tradition just about every year).  You sure can't beat the show or the view.  Just gorgeous.  Jackson was awake for the show and both my boys actually sat with me and snuggled and watched the whole show.  It was completely and absolutely perfect.  Couldn't have been a better first 4th of July!

Ben's Art Party: The Little Artists

All lined up and ready to begin. 

 Taking a break for lunch.

 Showing off their masterpieces.

 A little messy water art before leaving.

Ben's Art Party: A Few More Details and Vendors

I ordered all of the PDF printables for the party from The Celebration Shoppe.  The PDFs were all emailed to me and I printed them off at my local Kinkos.  Such an easy way to pull everything together.

 These cute edible photos of the birthday boy for my "self portrait" cookies were sugar sheets that I got from this cute etsy shop.

My original plan was to get Ben's art work laminated to use as placemats for the lunch table.  But at $4.50/painting, it was obviously not in the cards.  Instead I pinned it all up to our big picture windows in the kitchen to showcase my little budding artist's masterpieces.  I ended up loving this so much more, and Ben felt really special with all of his art work highlighted.

This is a close up of one of the place settings, with another printable from The Celebration Shoppe.

And here is the whole table.  I simply moved the paint cans with fruit from the dessert table to the lunch table when it was time to eat.  I made all the kids pick and eat at least one fruit before they were allowed cake and ice cream- so cruel of me. Ha! : ) 

Ben's Art Party: The Activities

I planned four fun artsy stations for Ben and his friends and just kept my fingers crossed that they would a) enjoy them, and b) enjoy them for more than two minutes.  For the most part all were a success.  Most of the kids spent a good amount of time on each station and the timing of the party went almost as planned.  Ben was of course the most difficult one, demanding to move onto the next station before it was time too- but that's to be expected, right?  It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.
The first station was crayon making.  I had some already made up and left some crayons for the children to peel, break, and place in the mini muffin tins for cooking.  While the crayons were in the oven they got to color this picture of Ben as a little artist, done by Sandy Ford Design.

Then it was on to painting a canvas.  Most of the children really took their time at this station and created beautiful little masterpieces.  

The third station was sand art.  This one brought me back the most to my childhood.  I remember doing cool sand art at carnivals as a kid, and just had to bring it back.  I don't think any of the kids had done it before, so it was a big hit.

The last station was play dough.  I whipped up a quick batch of homemade play dough the night before and rolled them into ten balls.  The kids got to choose a food color to squeeze into their dough and turn it the color of their choice.  Then they each played around for a while with our many play dough tools and stored their dough in a little tin.

 It was such fun throwing a big kid party this year with great participation on behalf of the kids.  It was really rewarding seeing them have such a fun time, plus they got lots of creations to bring home in cute little bags to show mom and dad.