Monday: 4 months/18 weeks

Joshua is 4 months old!

Sleep: we've gotten into a nice routine - Joshua wakes up around 5am and will usually go back down with a pacifier.  He'll wake up again at 6am to eat, but goes back to sleep in the swing until about 8:30.  He'll take a short (20-30 min) nap around 10/10:30.  Then everyone is supposed to take a nap from about 12:30-2:30.  It sort of works.  Joshua takes two more short naps at 4:30 and 6:30, and then goes to sleep at 8:30.  I'll feed him at 11pm, but he's usually good at sleeping from 8:30-5am.

Eating - he's super fast.  It's rather nice since there are two kids.  When he's done he's done.

Alertness - he's quite alert, grabbing toys and giving smiles.  We've started using the exersaucer so it's nice to have another place to put him.  He watches Isaac a ton.

Rolling - he's started rolling onto his side, which means he spins around his head.  I'll often find him in a completely different orientation than I left him.

Crying - for the most part he is a rather happy child.  But the 5-5:30pm time he's usually rather grumpy.  And if he gets woken up from a nap too early.  He sleeps in his room with the door closed, but that doesn't mean that it is quiet.

(Sorry for the blurriness of some of the pictures - pictures turn out better with the flash but it is so hard to get the right look.  So I put it on burst mode but then the picture quality isn't as good.)

Sunday: finishing up Legos

Here are some of the last pictures from our Lego weekend.

The Legos expanded all weekend.

 The "barn" and "house" that I made for Isaac.  Both of them weren't finished, but they worked for the city anyway.

Isaac took some pictures of Ben and me.

Ben's castle grew.  It was slightly taller than Isaac.  There were even people trying to infiltrate the castle.

update: Isaac really wanted to play Legos on Monday too.  But we had put them away.  There were tears.  So I expect they'll come out again before too long.

Breakfast conversation

Isaac: what did we do last week
Amanda: um, we went to the library, and played with Ethan, and...yeah.
Isaac: no. What did we do last week?
A: what do you think we did?
I: bowling
A: we did that two days ago, not last week. Do you remember what else we did.
I: we went up some stairs.
A: yup. What else.
I: we went up some stairs again.
A: true true.

(There was a viewing platform for laser tag at bowling. He went up it twice. It must have made an impression.)

Thursday and Friday: pictures

My wonderful boys before leaving for Thanksgiving dinner:

Bowling after dinner.  Isaac was so excited to be bowling.

Joshua enjoyed some time with Grandma.

On Black Friday we stayed in our pajamas all day and played with legos.  Isaac didn't really put any together, but he liked finding some of the things that were already put together and exploring all the new pieces.  So it worked, but it will also definitely be put away after this weekend for a later date.

Near the beginning.

Middle-ish.

My finished forest.

I really liked this tree:

I started the forest as a home for some of the monkeys we found Isaac.  Unfortunately for the forest, the monkey had to go home right after the picture was taken.

Lunch break.

Ben's finished castle:

What Joshua thought of the whole day:

Thursday: Thanksgiving

Today, as I was sitting on a couch, holding a sleepy Joshua and watching the snow, I was filled with a deep contentment.  God has been so incredibly generous to me and it's hard to even put my feelings into words.

Wednesday: this and that

I brought up the excersaucer today.  We've put Joshua in it a few times, but today was the day he gets to be put in it more.  Isaac had fun playing with the toys; Joshua watched.  (Joshua did figure some out later.)

We went to the mall for the playground.  Isaac really liked looking out the window and finding me. 

 Both boys did, actually.

Isaac really wanted a snack this afternoon but since he hadn't eaten all of his lunch I told him no.  However, I did remind him that he had saved several "treats" from going to the bathroom that he could have.  So he had several of those, but not all of them.  Every time he puts something in his box I'm rather surprised.  The bottom was almost covered, but now it's only half covered.

Joshua needed his picture taken too.

Tuesday: today

Today was better than yesterday.  I know it didn't read that way in the blog post, but by the end of the day I was done.  Isaac was so willing to be helpful, but around 4pm I ran out of things to do.  I don't remember what we did after that, but apparently it was something.  We might have read some books.  He found these books (and there are several of them) that have too many words per page but still pretend to be picture books.  I've started just summarizing them (thanks to Aunt C's example) but still kind of dread them.  I will only read one per reading session but always feel a little bad about that.

Anyway, today I got out to get some groceries, everyone took a nap, Isaac had an accident free day, and I think I was just in a better mood.  And there are plenty of things to do tomorrow too.

Also, I'm a mom.  That is just a crazy thought, even three years into it.  I still picture myself as 25.