Jimanie's Crickets: August 2014

Well, I thought I had notes written down about our sweet Peetoots from last week, but there is nothing waiting for me here, and I'm sleepy, so we'll just move on the the weekly pix! ;)

Almost as cute as "dinky" babies

Grandma Iris sent a sweet little package with a firetruck sweatshirt, and firetruck and ambulance toys! Mason is in heaven!

I forgot some papers at work on Wednesday, and since I wouldn't be going back until the following Monday, I took the boys on a field trip to campus

It's a beautiful campus to walk around

But it is hilly, and that means lots of stairs. We had to take a few breaks along the way!

Jack Jack crackin me up!

Getting very comfortable sitting in the bumbo

Apparently Duncan is more fun than his playmat!

"This ground is kind of like Rice Crispies"

Ready to take a trip to the San Juan Island on this foggy morning

We had to get in the Ferry line early to guarantee a spot

Mason entertained himself by playing in Jackson's carseat ;)

On the ferry ready for our trip!

Of course Mason very quickly spotted the fire supplies.

Jackets and blankets were definitely needed!

I was highly entertained by Jim's approach to helping Mason at the water fountain

We checked out the British camp, and learned a little about doing laundry and chopping wood for shingles.

And had a sweet little family picnic

It was a beautiful place

Spiderman needed a little Spidey nap after that adventure!

Then we went to the lighthouse. I was hoping we would spot some whales here but they were not out while we were there. Jim asked Mason to give me a kiss, and he apparently opted for a kiss on my leg :)

Ha ha, Mason does not look like he's enjoying himself

We were hoping for a "beach" where we could play in the sand, or at least throw rocks in the water. We had to use our bucket to collect rocks from the gravel, and throw rocks off the cliff down into the water.

Jack Jack was pretty happy all day. Well, there was this one moment when we were driving around not knowing where we were going that he was totally losing it, and Jim had to drop us off so we could walk around and he could fall asleep in the Ergo... but other than that he was all smiles and giggle, giggle, giggles!

Mason was able to get some good giggles out of him too.

The next day, I took both boys and Duncan out for a walk.

Jackson sat in the stroller like a big boy!

Then "chunky Dunky" needed to sit in the stroller like a big boy too.

So Mason became my walking buddy

But then he got tired too.

It was not our most successful outing, but it made for some good pictures! ;)

28: These weeks keep rolling by!

Mason

- One day, while driving in the car, the conversation went as follows: "What's a ghost, Daddy?" "A ghost is a monster with no body that wears a sheet over his head" (with not even a second pause...) "How does he poop?"

- Peetoot Orig has taken to waking at 5:30-6 am every morning. He does a pretty good job of just singing, playing, and reading in his bed and occasionally asks "is it morning time yet?" (Here in the PNW, we had to have a little discussion about how just because the sun is out doesn't mean it's morning time!). I ordered him an "OK to wake" clock (here's the one we got - it's a step up from just ok-to-wake, it will eventually help with learning to tell time). We set it to turn green at 7:00 am, which is the time we would usually go in and get him anyway... he loves it and does GREAT with it! He has not asked one time if it's morning time yet... but he definitely notices as SOON as the light turns green!

Jackson
- One word sums up his week: constipation. But really, I'm talking an entire week of being in horrible pain while trying to pass way-to-solid-for-his-little-bum poops, waking up MULTIPLE times every night super fussy and uncomfortable, eating only prunes and pears infused with increasing quantities of miralax (per the doctors order) for a week with not much progress - CONSTIPATION. Having spoken with his pediatrician and also a friend of mine who is a [new/young] pediatric dietician, they both feel like it has nothing to do with his stomach not being developmentally ready for foods, and that I should keep encouraging foods (though they had differing opinions on types of foods [purees vs soft solids] and whether or not miralax was safe [doctor says he could take it for life if need be, RD says I should never use it]).
By Sunday, I decided to give up on purees and miralax, and go back to strictly breast feeding for a while to be more gentle on his system. Spoiler alert, going into next week's details... it has made a HUGE improvement! We've had a few poop-splosions (I never thought I would be so happy to have to change BOTH of our clothes!), he is sleeping through the night again (back to his normal only waking ~once/night), and is not fussy/uncomfortable while pooping. He is also perfectly happy throughout the day, meaning I know he is satisfied with breast milk alone. I also sent an email to our lactation consultant Shannon, from Texas, and she was very supportive of this approach - reminding me that breast milk is the main source of nutrients for the first year, babies are developmentally ready to add in other food sources at different times (maybe 7 months), and that the other foods being added in are more of an "experience" until 1 year old... not necessarily a source of nutrition/calories. She is also a big proponent of baby led weaning (which doesn't actually mean weaning from breast feeding at all, it just means introducing soft solid finger foods and skipping purees). I have been interested in doing this with Jackson, but want to wait until he can sit up on his own first. So... maybe in another few weeks to a month, we'll give this a try. I do still have some frozen purees that I might play with here and there in smaller quantities to see how his stomach does.
- He also had his 6 month doctor's appointment this week. Aside from the constipation, he seems to be in good health! Lots more shots - 3 leg pokes and an oral vaccine, poor little buddy. He recovered very quickly though!
Here are his stats:
height: 25.25" (77th %ile)
weight: 16 lb, 14 oz (37th %ile - this surprises me! He doesn't seem that light weight!!)
Head circa: 44 cm (55th %ile)

Me:
- The Summer session at Western ends next week... I'm really happy to be teaching! Particularly teaching exercise physiology. =) Though, it's been a bit exhausting trying to prep a new class with two littles... occasionally needing to stay up until midnight creating power points since I spent all of my gaps during the day reading the textbook, etc. I am really excited that barring some minor edits, the class is ready to go for the fall semester, so *hopefully* my prep will be more manageable.
- With that said, I've decided to adjust my schedule this fall so that I have a sitter on Friday to watch the kids for 5 hours while I "work from home" (which will probably mean I go to the library), and then the kids will both only go to their respective schools on Mon and Wed when I'm actually teaching. Hopefully Friday (and an hour here or there between classes on M/W or staying at school late on those days) will give me enough time to prep for the following week and grade assignments, etc. Tues and Thurs I'm going to keep both boys home with me and be a mom! I keep saying that is a benefit of us staying in Washington for the next few years... the ability to spend more time with our kids while their young... but I've just been frustrated and exhausted trying to work from home while taking care of them. So I'm going to try to separate the two, and enjoy some kid time. I hope that will mean some down time too, but I've already got us scheduled to go to gymnastics and a music class back-to-back on Tuesday mornings in the next town over.
- With THAT said, I really really hope it works out and I have enough hours to get my work done, because I'm teaching 9 credit hours for Western (Ex Phys lecture, 2 lab sections, and basic conditioning and weight training activity classes) AND 9 credit hours for A&M online (Environmental Health, Consumer Health, and Human Sexuality). 18 credit hours, whew! But I've taught all of the classes before (except Basic Conditioning) and the A&M classes are more administrative... so we'll see!

Back to those peetoots:

Monday Jim was off from work, so he and Mas had some fun after school... got a new pool and did some playing. Jim found that if you say "Mason, don't show me your eyes" you could get some pretty sweet and happy looks (without the silly cheez face).

Seriously... 37% weight??

Oh these boys. I love brotherly love.

A quick breakfast of chocolate smoothie and banana bread on the way to school. Dressed in swimsuit and ready for water day!

Thinking he's funny in his "rear-facing carseat"

"Mommy, take our picture!"

Having a good time trying on Daddy's work boots

That's a multi-taskin Daddy right there.

Saturday was Mae's 2nd birthday party!

One of the party favors was these beach balls with the kids names. We tried to get a picture of all the kids with their balls. I could hardly get my two littles in one pic!

Mason wanted to get all up in the cake business to tell Mae what we got her as a present.

It was a fun day celebrating our 2-year old friend!

Jack Jack cuteness.

He has been really into moving his fingers this week, it's really fun to watch.

(But he's not really pointing at things yet)

Not sure what to think of Daddy singing right in his ear!

I left the back gate open, and Duncan got out. Pretty scary since the street right behind our house is a pretty main street, and we have big forests all around us. I didn't know if we'd ever see him again! But I remembered he always barks at two other dogs across the street, and as we were calling his name, he came running from that direction!

Back to this picture - Jim and I had ran out (I debated setting Jackson down, but ended up carrying him with me) and left Mason in the house by himself... by the time we got back into the backyard, Mason had found some shoes so he could come out and join us.