Friday, June 27, 2014

swimming lessons

Jamie just finished 2 weeks of swimming lessons. Before they began, I didn't realize how much he feared putting his head under the water. It was a real struggle for him at the beginning and made parts of the lessons difficult, back floating in particular as he wasn't willing to put his head all the way back in the water. However, we were truly amazed at how much he improved in just two weeks. By the end he was putting his face in even when he didn't have to, just for fun. He's also willing to jump in without someone catching him (with some sort of flotation device on) and got lots better at kicking and just feeling comfortable on his own in the water. He's still not comfortable with back floating but he's doing way better than at first. The one thing he wasn't ever willing to do was jump off the diving board. They let the kids try on the last couple days but Jamie would only go out as far as the railing, then turn around and head back. He's pretty scared of heights so I frankly would have been shocked if he had jumped. He did end up going off it twice while his teacher was holding him. He said he liked it but I'm not sure if he really did. Overall, though, it was clear he enjoyed the lessons. We were so proud to see his improvement! We're probably going to sign him up for another session later in the summer so he doesn't forget everything he learned.

 
 
 
 
That's as far as he got on his own. He didn't jump at all that day.

Grabbing rings off the bench on the last day. He was perfectly willing to stick his whole head under to do it. Such a difference!!

 
 

After the last lesson, we went out for lunch at a new burger place by campus. They had really good burgers and also delicious frozen custard. So fun!

 
 

Jamie with his animals, take 2

Recently we were looking at some pictures from when Jamie was a baby. When he saw this one, he decided he wanted to recreate it.

So here he is, 4 years later.

And just for good measure we put Jacob in there too.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Jacob at 3 months

Jacob was 3 months old on Monday!



At 3 months, Jacob can:
  • lift his head quite well while on his tummy. He can even do it without crying for a few minutes.
  • grasp objects
  • clasp his hands together
  • suck on his hands seemingly on purpose
  • laugh, though we've only heard it a tiny bit so far! It's so cute I almost died.
  • stay awake in the car
He likes: 
  • sucking on his fists/fingers
  • watching Jamie
  • floor time with someone looking at him and talking to him
  • his stuffed monkey
He does not like:
  • when anyone washes behind his ears in the bath
  • tummy time after a few minutes
  • nursing when he's not hungry (polar opposite of Jamie who would have nursed 24/7 had I let him)
  • bedtime lately
  • when Jamie suddenly yells near him
  • getting too tired


At 1 month, Jacob was 11 lbs, 15 oz. 
At 2 months he was 13 lbs, 9 oz. 
He doesn't have a check up at 3 months, but according to our scale (if I weigh myself with him and then without him and subtract), he's around 15 pounds now.
He wears size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes which are fitting far too well for my taste.

He only naps about 40 minutes and can only stay awake an hour to an hour and a half before getting tired, so he ends up needing about 5 naps a day.

Night sleep was going amazingly well until a couple weeks ago. He would go to bed relatively easily around 7:30, sleep until at least 3:30 or 4, nurse, and then go straight back to sleep. A few times he slept until about 5 and one beautiful night he slept all the way past 6. But then he got a slight cold/cough that woke him up more often and now, even though that's gone, he continues to have a hard time going to sleep at bedtime, wakes up earlier in the night, and thinks 6 a.m. is the time to get up for the day. In spite of that, he's still a better sleeper than Jamie at this age, so I'll take it.

He's not reaching yet but he seems to be on the brink of it.

He makes the cutest noises. I love when he "talks."

He's not super smiley but when he's in the mood he has the cutest, biggest grins.

He has gotten very slobbery of late.

He seems to be getting a little bit ticklish, which is adorable.

More pictures from this month:
 
 

  And just for fun, here are both Jamie and Jacob at 3 months.

Monday, June 23, 2014

birthday interview

A couple days after Jamie's birthday I gave him this little interview. Some of the answers are not true (his favorite holiday is unquestionably Halloween, not Valentine's Day), but they're just what he said at the time. I put his answers in blue.

How old are you? 3. Me: How old are you? Jamie: 3! Me: Are you sure? Jamie, realizing but deciding to be silly: Four....teen!
What did you do for your birthday? Eat cake
Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Mommy
What is your favorite color? Green
What's your favorite TV show? Curious George
What's your favorite movie? the Star Wars movies (he's never seen them)
What's your favorite outfit? the Darth Vader one with the cape
What sport do you like best? Swimming
What song do you love? Twinkle, Twinkle
What's your favorite food? Hamburgers
What is your favorite fruit? Grapes
What is your favorite vegetable? Peas
What is your favorite candy? Candy canes
What food do you think is yucky? Lettuce
Who is your best friend? My preschool friends Me: What if you had to choose just one? Jamie: Teague (who wasn't in preschool with him...)
What do you like to do best with your friends? Play
What do you want to be when you grow up? Construction worker
What is your favorite book? Busytown (aka Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?)
What are you really good at? Legos
Where do you wish you could go on vacation? To the beach by myself
What is your best memory? Going to the baseball game (interesting answer because we've only been to a baseball game once and it was when he was 2)
What would you buy if you had $1000? $1000
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate and vanilla
Who is your biggest hero? Me!
What is your favorite holiday? Valentine's Day
What is your favorite restaurant? Honey Cafe (meaning Tupelo Honey Cafe)
What is your favorite animal? Rabbits
What is your favorite toy? My Shredder toy
What is your favorite game? Uncle Wiggly
What is your favorite thing about Daddy? He makes black bean burgers.
What is your favorite thing about Mommy? That you play with me.
Where do you live? In a apartment
What are you afraid of? Nothing
What is your favorite place to go? France, of course (said in a tone like, duh)
What makes you happy? Monsters. I want monsters to be real.
What is your favorite thing to do? Legos
If you could have a wish, what would it be? That monsters were real
What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Play all the ninjas

Jamie is 4!

On the 15th, we celebrated Jamie's 4th birthday!


At 4 years old, Jamie loves Star Wars, superheroes (especially Batman and Ninja Turtles), trains, cars and trucks, dinosaurs, dress ups, puzzles, and board games. He's extremely good with Legos, he loves books almost as much as I do, and he's getting better at drawing/writing recognizable pictures and letters. He is very creative and spends most of each day pretending, whether he's being a doctor, fireman, construction worker, knight, dragon, Jedi, plumber, author, dentist, paleontologist (the list goes on...) or acting out one of his books. Almost nothing scares him. He loves monsters, witches, ghosts, mummies, really anything associated with Halloween. He loves food--he eats as much as some adults and isn't very picky except he doesn't like raw vegetables and he has a crazy sweet tooth. He's super wiggly, always in motion, and never quiet. As we've been saying since he was a baby, Jamie is extremely fond of jokes and tricks. He's just so silly. Though he at times drives us crazy with his incessant questions and inability to use an inside voice, we feel so lucky to have this boy in our lives!

He woke up so excited on his birthday and just had to open his presents first thing. He got a lot of awesome gifts: a Darth Vader mask and cape, two floor puzzles, a Richard Scarry board game, several books (The Sneetches, The Day the Crayons Quit, all the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, and a book of Batman stories), a Ninja Turtles coloring/sticker book, a book of mazes, green shorts, a Shredder action figure, and a train whistle. Plus a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card, which he just used to choose some more books: Dragons Love Tacos, I Need My Monster, and 3 Berenstain Bears books. Lucky kid!
In the bottom right picture, he was so excited about his new game that he was clapping. It was really cute.
 For breakfast we had French toast and strawberries. And we wore party hats.
even Jacob :)
Jamie spent most of his day playing with all of his new things.
 
 

He finally has all the turtles plus Shredder.
My mom had a tradition of taking a picture of us sitting on the couch with all our presents, so I like to do that with Jamie too.

I took him outside to try and get a good birthday picture. That kid is not very cooperative, but here are some that turned out all right. I love that one of him with the stick. Any time he sees a stick on the ground, he has to pick it up. And I bribed him to pose with the promise of wearing his new Darth Vader dress-up in one.

For dinner he requested pizza and corn-on-the-cob. We had a lot of fun making the pizza together.
 
He chose pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and pineapple.

And after dinner, of course it was time for birthday cake! I saw this idea for a cake online a couple of years ago, but last year we were in France and I wasn't able to make his cake, so it had to wait for this year. I love how it turned out! The dirt is crushed up Oreos and the highway cones were made from orange Starbursts. They don't really look orange here because the lighting in our dining room/kitchen is really bad, but you get the idea. Jamie loved his cake, but he especially loved the highway cones.
Happy birthday to you!

It was a great birthday for my cute four-year-old boy!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Jamie's birthday party

Last week we had a really fun party to celebrate Jamie's birthday! The party was at a nearby park, and we lucked out and had perfect weather after a very wet week. Seven kids came, plus their assorted siblings.
the birthday boy!
Once everyone arrived, we played a few games. I put Thomas in charge of them since he's so good with the kids. They played duck, duck, goose, had a "cake" walk with stickers and bubbles instead of cake, and had a ring toss, They loved the ring toss the most.
 
 

Then Jamie got to open presents.
 
cute Daddy and Jacob selfie
Once the presents were all opened, it was time for food. First we sang "Happy Birthday" while Jamie blew out candles on his cupcake. He was in a hurry and blew them out before we were finished singing :)

 
I didn't get a picture of the food at the party, but we had crackers and cheese, strawberries, grapes, and of course cupcakes.
I think they turned out pretty cute!
 Finally, since we were at a park, everyone got to go play on the playground. The main form of entertainment there was chasing and attacking Thomas. I think he had as much fun as the kids!

It was a great party! Jamie had a wonderful time and loved getting to go home and play with his new toys afterwards.
my cutie, post-party with his cupcake face :)