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.

Monday: 17 weeks

Joshua is 17 weeks old!

His head is healing from all the scratches.  I feel as though he's been a bit grumpy this past week, but just a bit.  He's been enjoying toys a lot more.  Getting smiles from him is one of my favorite activities.

Isaac helped with the laundry today; he wanted me to take this picture and posed himself just so before I was allowed to take it.

We also had some serious bathroom issues today.  I don't know what was up with the boy!  Usually he still goes to the bathroom on the toilet most of the time.  Today it felt like it was only a few times.  Anyway, after one time that he did make it he must have taken his pants all the way off.  So he put them back on...inside out and backwards.  I just laughed.

This evening Isaac also was playing the piano and singing "Jesus loves me so much!"  It was probably the best part of my day.

Sunday: nap

Joshua came to take a nap with me.  After rubbing his head and getting him to calm down we both slept some more.  When I woke up, we were both in the same position...both arms up so that our hands touched our heads.

Saturday: head

I've found that Joshua tends to calm down more quickly if I rub his head. It has been rather handy these last few days.

Friday: more independance

This morning I told Isaac that when he wakes up he can just get out of bed and go to the bathroom; I don't need to tell him.  Well, everyone took a good nap this afternoon.  So good that I woke up by myself and was contemplating whether to get up or turn over when I hear the pitter patter of little feet running for the bathroom.

I waited for the normal "TREAT!" to come from the bathroom but instead heard the stool being moved.  Oh, he had a bowel movement.  Well, he's dealt with it before a few times so I waited some more to see what would happen.  He went back to his room.  He went back to the bathroom.  Now I'm rather confused.  He went back to his room and through the monitor I hear, "so much poop!"  I leap out of bed.

There wasn't really that much.  He had had a small accident and so had some on his leg, which he was trying to clean up.  But besides that he was rather clean.  He knew what he needed to do and was trying to deal with it.  I was so proud of him.  But also glad that I was there to help...he's not quite ready to deal with those accidents yet.

Thursday: bran muffins

Back story: we had previously made some bran muffin mix, so we just needed to put it in the muffin tins, add raisins, and bake it.  Joshua woke up (from a 2.5 hour nap without any wakeups...a first!) and needed to be fed, so I told Isaac to put in the muffin cups.

Then I hear silverware being rattled.  I figured if he really was putting the muffin mix in that was fine...what was the worst he could do?  Here's what I found when I came out of Joshua's room.  (Spoiler: I caught him just in time.)




And in case you don't understand Isaac-speak:
A: "Hey Isaac, what are you doing now?"
I: "Doing that thing now."
A: "What is that thing?"
I: "It's Sugar!"  (Important note: it's SALT)
A: It's sugar?  What are you going to do with the sugar?
I: "I'm going to pour some in [measuring or baking] cups.

But really, I was impressed with his initiative, even if execution wasn't quite right.  He also enjoyed putting raisins on.

I tried to get Joshua to smile, but he was having none of it.  This hat, courtesy Grandma Menkveld, worked very well.  It went over his eyes once or twice, but actually stayed on.

Wednesday: snow and friends

We went to play at Betsy and Ethan's house today.  We started by sending the boys on the deck to play.

Then we got some pictures of the younger two.  Leah really liked Joshua's toes.  (Joshua is doing a much better job in the bumbo than appears in this picture.  In the last two days especially.)

Joshua also got two good scratching sessions in on his head today.  It looked so sad.  So I filed his nails down and put on a hat.  I have several hats to try out...this one worked ok.  I'm also going to try itching his head for him a little more so that he doesn't need to do it.

Isaac used his two pictures of the day to take two pictures of the goldfish box.  It's the first time I've gotten a big one and he was so excited yesterday when he saw it.  (He also took out all the groceries from the bags and put them on the counter while I was feeding Joshua.  It was cute.)

Tuesday: snowday

There was a snow day today.  Normally they don't affect me much, but on Tuesdays they do.  (And it often seems like we have snow days on Tuesdays.)  So my morning plans were out the window.  So I suddenly had a free morning.  But no plans...which usually doesn't go so well for me.

Luckily, it went significantly better than I expected.  I got out the glue stick, scissors, and some colored paper and Isaac crafted for 1.5 hours.  (We did pause to sing some songs.) Then I got out the hole punch and he continued for another half hour.  By that time, we were home free.  Lunch, naps, and then Dad came over so I could get groceries.  (Side note: Joshua literally woke up 15 seconds after Isaac went to sleep.  Our monitor has a two minute audio history and I could not believe my eyes.  I did get a little sleep while Isaac was still awake though since he was in bed.)

(I know it's blurry but Isaac only wanted me to take one picture)

I love snow!

Monday: 16 weeks

Joshua is 16 weeks old today!

He had extra spit up today. :(  And has decided that raking his fingernails across his scalp is a good idea, so his head is rather battle-marked.  I try to keep mittens on him when he's sleeping, but sometimes they fall off.  And he did it once today while awake.

Isaac wanted to take a picture "of all of us" again today.  He set up the camera and the better of the two pictures looked like this:

I've tried to tell him that zoom doesn't work all that well but he doesn't listen.  And while his picture does technically contain all of us, we did one more.