Wednesday: monitors

So we've been having some baby monitor problems.  Isaac's contact with the power cord is super twitchy and likes to disconnect if you breathe incorrectly.  Joshua's monitor has to be rather close (i.e., just outside our bedroom door) so that it doesn't randomly unlink.  So while both are working, it was rather annoying.  I'm already waking up for children, I don't need to wake up for monitors too.

So Ben did used his superpower of searching for electronics (that aren't crazy expensive) and found some cameras that would work and have computer/phone apps.  So now we have two monitors that we can control from our phones.  (There is a computer interface too, but it isn't quite as nice.)  We've only used them for one night, but I like them.  (I will warn you that Ben said he had to do quite a bit of fiddling to make everything connect correctly.)

There are more infrared lights, so we get a very good picture.  We can change the squelch threshold to be "just right".  We can move the camera (not that I foresee doing that much.)  We can take pictures and video.  (I was hoping Isaac would be funny tonight, but he wasn't.  I'm sure a video will come shortly.)  We can still talk through the cameras.  The downside is that my phone can only go about three hours while monitoring without being plugged in, but that really isn't too bad.  And I'll still keep the old monitors around for vacations.

So far, two thumbs up!

Tuesday: 3 months (13 weeks)

Joshua is now 3 months old!

He eats about every three hours (except at night, when it is closer to seven).  He is a really fast eater, which is really rather handy.

Sleeping is only ok.  He often sleeps well from 8pm until about 3am.  He's usually up a bit around that time.  He eats again around 6am and sleeps in the swing for another two hours.  He has really short naps (30 min) throughout the rest of the day, although the nap around 1:30pm will sometimes last two hours.

He's full of smiles.  For everyone.  He's becoming more aware of his surroundings, which has been fun to see.  He also has much better neck control this past month.

He loves eating his fists recently.  Sometimes he likes being held, but he also likes wiggling on the floor or in his bouncy seat...I feel as though overall he's a very easy going kid.

Monday: a few pictures

Joshua in the bouncy seat.  Joshua seems to enjoy this significantly more than Isaac did...which is rather nice.  He can watch what we're doing.

Isaac learned about the timer on the camera today and we took several group shots.  I really like how this one turned out.

Isaac also finished a 24 piece puzzle all by himself!  He did the outer border while I was out of the room and I watched him do the inside, but I didn't help or even talk him through it.  (Please keep in mind that we have done this puzzle many times.  He's quite familiar with it.)

Sunday: What?

Isaac's new thing is to say, "What?" or "What Mom?"

Except that he says it when I haven't said anything or have said something that he obviously understands what I just said.

It is super annoying.

Saturday: clothes

I started putting away Joshua's 3m clothes and pulling out the 6m clothes.  The 6m clothes are a bit long in the arms and legs, but they aren't pulling the neck down so much.  I was a little sad about it yesterday at nap time and started thinking that I should save my favorites.  As I was thinking about my favorites, about half of the clothes suddenly were saved and that isn't very productive.  So I think I'll save the baptism outfits and hopefully find a good home for the rest.

Joshua has been sleeping most of this week in the Woombie.  Yup, it is purple with flowers.  It is probably the only purple with flowers thing I'll ever use for my boys, but I bought it from a friend who only has girls.  I like it.  Joshua is still waking up in the night, but I feel fine just letting him cry for several minutes before getting up.  I think he's getting better at going back to sleep and there's been a few times I haven't needed to get up.

We went through several shirts today before I finally put a bib on him.  His fists are just so delicious!

Friday: tummy time

Today's photos were all snapped within a minute of each other, but I realized I had something to say about all of them...

"Look at how well I can hold up my head!"

Isaac doing exercises while Joshua watched.

Look at the cute polar bear on Joshua's pants. :)

Time to be done...Joshua rolled over.  (To be fair, I did put his arms up like that so it isn't a real by-himself roll over.)

Thursday: around the house

Here's what was going on around the house at about 4pm today.

Isaac drew me.  "I drew Mom."

I think it looks like he wrote MOM.  Today is the first time he actually said he was drawing things and not just lines.  It might also be the his first word.  (He drew me again on the other side of the paper and it looked like an M.  But really, more repetitions are needed.)

I had been feeding Joshua earlier and Isaac was entertaining himself.  In an almost too quiet way.  When I came out, four water bottles had been filled and put on coaster by the TV.

We have a plethera of stools around the house.  The laundry room has a big one for Isaac to help with laundry and a small one for the toilet/sink.

The kitchen has a black one that is a bit bigger than the blue one.  It is a little annoying, but it is handy in letting Isaac see what is going on.  It gets moved all the time.

 The last stool goes between Joshua and Isaac's room.  It is either used to watch Joshua get his diaper changed, put "baby marbles" in a high-to-reach funnel, or, most recently, to help him get in bed.

Isaac wanted his picture taken.

Joshua was happily playing.  We think he has a bit of arm control in that he can choose to flail his arms in an approximate direction.  Sometimes the flailing makes toys move.

I was drawing wood grain in practicing for the next quilt.