Favorite Moments From This Period of Motherhood

Things are totally chaotic at our house most of the time.  I swear Jackson must be the loudest kid on earth sometimes!  But with all of the chaos there are so many sweet moments.  I wanted to take a minute to remember some of my favorite moments from this season.

Jackson

• Recently Jackson has asked me to rock him a few times.  We sneak into Ryan's room while he's sleeping and rock for a little bit and I absolutely love every moment of it.  It won't be long before he'd rather be dead than rock with me so I soak it up and store it in my heart for later.
• He is constantly asking everybody's name.  He asks the name of every fish on Finding Nemo and every toy on Toy Story.  He asks the name of the lady who checks us out at Kroger, the man driving the car next to us, the man who greets us as we enter church, etc.  It's so cute to see how much he wants to know everyone's name.
• I tell Jackson I love him all the time.  Most of the time he is too busy to respond.  But sometimes he says, "I love you too, Mommy."  Makes me smile every time.
• I love all of the conversations we have in the car.  We talk and talk and I have his undivided attention.  I love those conversations.
• Sometimes Jackson asks me to snuggle with him in our bed while he watches t.v.  Often times I'm doing something that has to be done or taking care of Ryan but when I'm not I LOVE to snuggle with him!

Ryan

• I love rocking this little guy.  He rocks on his side and looks up at me and touches my face and plays with my hands.  Sometimes I sing him "This Little Light of Mine."  When I get to the part that says, "Hide it behind a bushel...NO" he always looks up at me and giggles when I do the NO part. It's so cute.
• His smiles and giggles melt my heart.
• Every night before his bath when I'm taking him into the bathroom we stop and look in the mirror for a bit.  He smiles and laughs at himself like he's the most handsome baby in the world.
• I love the way he watches Jackson and giggles at him.  He is so excited when Jackson gives him attention.

I'm so thankful for these little guys!

Six Months

My sweet Ryan is 6 months old!!!  He is seriously the sweetest little guy I've ever met!  He had his six month appointment today.  Here are his stats:  19 lbs, 8 oz (85th %) and 27 inches (80th %).  He's has slimmed up a bit.  :-)

Here's what he's doing these days:

Most days he takes a morning, afternoon, and late afternoon nap. Sometimes he takes longer naps and only ends up with two. He's at an age where disruptions (like church and Tuesday morning class) really mess his day up. I try to keep disruptions to a minimum now so that he will sleep better.

He watches Jackson ALL the time. When I look back in the car he always has his head turned to watch Jackson. It's really sweet.

He started cereal on Saturday.  He ate it like a champ and seemed to really love it.  Firsts with Ryan are MUCH easier than with Jackson.  If you remember, Jackson cried the first time we tried cereal with him.

He is definitely not the good night sleeper that Jackson was/is. We are still working on this but it is improving since he doesn't have a cold at the moment.

He is grabbing for everything and putting stuff in his mouth.

He has only rolled over once. He does tummy time just about every day but has only rolled over that one time.

SPIT UP - what is it with my kids???? Ryan goes through 5-7 outfits a day. If we are good at remembering to use bibs he might go through 2-4 outfits and 3-5 bibs. This seems excessive to me but it's all I've ever known since Jackson was always wet from spit up too.  Jackson spit up consistently until he started walking. I'm afraid it will probably be the same with Ryan.

Smiles, smiles, smiles. I think he kind of flirts with girls. At Ladies Bible Class he was just staring at one of the ladies and smiling so big, batting his eyelashes. Over and over again. He is definitely a charmer.

Ryan does not like to be rocked like the traditional child. He only likes it if he's lying sideways with his head in the crook of your arm. When you try to rock him with his head on your shoulder he just stiffens up and his head bobs around. Makes me kind of sad but we have managed to find a form of rocking that seems to make him happy. Before naps I put his paci in and sing him songs and he just reaches up and touches my face and smiles.   My favorite part of the day with him.

Ryan is wearing size FOUR diapers already.  Geesh!  He wears size five diapers to bed.  Jackson pretty much wore size four until we started potty training him.

He still has grey blue eyes. They are so big and round and just perfect.

He smiles SO big when you go to get him out of the crib after naps and in the morning. He gets so excited.

We are so grateful for this little guy.  He is the perfect addition to our family!

First taste of cereal.  Mmmm mmmm!  I think he ate his fingers more than the cereal!

Here's a look back at Jackson trying cereal for the first time.  I'm still amazed at just how different they are! 

Happy Valentine's Day

I figured Valentine's Day is the perfect time to highlight the difference between boys and girls. 

Jackson had his friend Presley over for dinner the other day.  We captured a few moments from the visit. 

Here you see Jackson and Presley hugging.  Awwww....

Then we asked them to stand next to each other and say, "cheese."  This is where Jackson screams at the top of his lungs and Presley looks at him like he's crazy.

And he's off.  Enough with this picture taking business!

Last night we had our family Valentine's Day dinner at Cheesecake factory.  YUM!

Here's a picture of our Valentine's Day dinner from 2 years ago at Cheesecake Factory.  Jackson was 10 months old.

My two favorite Valentines sharing some brother time this morning.



MORE Snow!!!

We keep getting more and more snow!  It is absolutely beautiful.  I even ventured out into it today because it was so deep and fluffy. 

Even though it is beautiful, I am starting to get some serious cabin fever!!

Jackson has had about 4 accident free (#1) days in a row.  We have still been having trouble getting him motivated to go #2 on the toilet.  So, what's a mother to do?  I pulled out the big guns!  Actually, I pulled out one of his birthday gifts.  He won't miss one gift on his actual b-day will he?  :-)

I told him if he went #2 on the potty and didn't have any other accidents he could pick a car from the set of 4 I bought him.  He was salivating when he saw the cars.  It's amazing to me how a little car can be so motivating!  He earned The King and Chick Hicks so far.  He is in HEAVEN!  I know I can't bribe him forever but he's been doing so well and I think he just needs some motivation to get over the #2 hump.  I'll report back on how he's doing soon.... 

Sweet Ryan just chillin'

Jackson wanted to hold Ryan so I let him.  He's sweet for about 5 seconds and then he's ready to play.

Ryan is going to need to be one tough little boy to live alongside his big brother!

All About Jackson

There sure has been A LOT of snow and ice around here recently. Anyone else getting some cabin fever!?!?!? When Jackson woke up to snow the other day, the first thing he said was that he wanted to throw snow balls.



Jackson is enjoying playing in the snow in his new boots. I just happened to pick them up over the weekend.


Daddy and Jackson have enjoyed some quality time outside.  Please excuse the snot dripping out of Jackson's nose.


Laine decided to get down his skis and take a run around the block.




Jackson has quite the personality these days. His imagination is really taking off.  He sure is growing up a lot too.  For the past few weeks I've been jotting down some of the cute and funny things he says.  Here are some of them:


Talking to me:  "Hold me, Daddy's kind of scary."

Talking to daddy while they are wrestling:  "I'm a Porsche - don't break me."

"I'm getting so frustrated!"

"You have to give me a big hug."  When I asked why, he said, "because I love you."  Awwwww.

Over the monitor one night we heard, "Mommy, I'm sick.  I need medicine."

"I want to watch Yo Gabba Gabba.  That will make me happy."

"I can't go to the store.  I'm too grumpy and my hands are dirty."

"Let's snuggle."

"Please can I have some water to get the burp out."

"Dinaco's all mine!"

"Never, never leave me.  You will never, never leave me."  (I once told him that I'd never leave him and he repeats it often.)

He often responds by saying, "that sounds perfect."

"I need to blow my nose.  There's lots of boogers in my nose."

I overheard him telling one of his cars, "If you hit him again, you're going to time out!"

Every time we go on an overpass he tells Daddy, "be careful Daddy, we don't want to fall."

"Ryan went to sleep. He obeyed you."

"You're a good mommy."

"You sure are good at cleaning up."

"I've got snotsies in my nose."

"I need to wrestle daddy."  "I'm going to be Chick Hicks."