Here are some pics Naomi took with her phone this week (below). Unfortunately she had to give her notice yesterday. I didn't realize she lived in Bentonville and has been driving an hour here and back every day. She has been offered a job closer to home, but will stay until April 3rd (next Friday).
After that, I've decided to be a stay-at-home, work-from-home Mom. I will get up and work a couple of hours in the morning before the kids wake up, and then a few hours at night after they go to bed. If I can get in an hour during the day when they are both asleep, so much the better.
Benjamin is getting better and better at describing things, asking questions, etc. He will watch his shows on TV and say things like "Did it go up Mom? Did it go up?" or "Is he crying Mom?" Also, when he is expecting someone to come to the house he will say something like "Is Naomi home?"
I took him to a dinosaur event at the Springdale Public Library last Saturday. He listened to a couple of the books they read and then that was about it for his attention span. He was hungry and kept saying "Some mac cheese mom? Some pea'butter jelly?" Plus it started at 11:00 and noon is his naptime, so we had to leave before the craft and singing and dancing. It was still fun though. When we got back out to the car, there was a black mini-SUV parked beside us and he pointed to it and said "That Mimama's car?" ("Mimama" is Rob's Mom who has a black Mercedes SUV).
He is also still learning new words, but is stubborn and won't tell you what they say if you hold the word cards up for him. Although, he did get "dog" last night (it was the first card I held up) but then he was being goofy and saying every card I held up was "dog".
He is also starting to be able to sing parts of songs. I'll ask him what he wants to sing, then I'll sing part and then stop and he'll fill in. It's really cute.
Speaking of cute, I found him in his room last night with the baby wipes cleaning up the "poop" from his doll (my old Cabage Patch Kid). I got some video. I'll see if I can get Rob to clip it so I can post. Just for the record, there really wasn't any poop. He is getting good at pretending. He also pretends to "fix" everything with his tools and still plays with his toolbench almost every day.
Jack is doing fantastic. He is getting better at sitting up by himself for longer periods of time. He is babbling more (dada dadada da da) and screeching less and continues to sleep well and eat LOTS. He is now on 3 babyfood meals/day. We put him down about 6pm and he wakes up usually just once between then and 6 or 7am.
I started giving both kids a bath at the same time. Jack seems to really like the infant seat and kicks and splashes. Ben likes to "wash baby" by pouring water on Jack with his cup.
Guess that's all for now. Best get back to work!
Jack's 6 month shots visit was February 26th. Here are his "stats" as of that date:
Weight: 18.79 lbs (!!!!)
Height: 27.01 inches
Head Circumference: 17.8 inches
He is now in the 75 percentile. At his 2 week he was in the 25%, and at his 3 month he was in the 50%, so the Pediatrician was pleased. He is also proportional, so he is not in the 75% in weight, but only 50% in height, etc.
He is also now in Ben's 12 - 18 month clothes already! I don't think the hand-me-downs will work for long before I have to buy 2 sets of clothes for them. Ben wasn't 18 pounds until he was 8 months old. Jack already has him beat by 2 months.
Jack also has been sleeping great again. 2 nights this week he slept from 6:30 or 7pm until 5 or 6am without waking once and after breaking out of his swaddle - and no paci! What a great kid!
Here are a couple of pics of Jack - you can see how big he is getting. He's starting to be able to sit up by himself, although he's still pretty active and so will fall over.
(Pic 1) With his favorite giraffe toy.
(Pic 2) With Emily this week during our warm weather days (in an 18 month onesie and 12 month jeans).
Ben is getting just smarter and smarter. He is using complete sentences now and will say things like "Is it broken Mommy?" or "Do 'itsy spider' Mommy?" So cute! He is also watching Mary Poppins a lot now and seems to like the "Chim Chiminey" song and dance. Sometimes he will get up and start dancing and say "I'm dancin' Mommy. I'm dancin'." He has started identifying colors more lately too and the other day counted the buttons on Jack's shirt.
Our latest fun activity after Jack goes to bed at night is to build a "fort" by putting the couch cusions on the coffee table and resting the other end on the couch, then covering the ends with blankets. He can crawl under there and still see the TV from under the coffee table. So.. "Build fort Mommy?" is another new phrase.Since the time change, Ben has been sleeping from 8pm to 6:30 or 7am, so that's much better for Mom and Dad!
Still no progress on the potty training thing. We keep asking him if he wants to use the "big potty" or "his potty" which I moved into his room thinking the privacy might help, but he just shakes his head and says "no".
Here are some recent pics of Ben:
Eating a grilled ham and cheese today. Today is Emily's last day and our new Nanny, Naomi, starts on Monday. She just found out she is pregnant, so we'll be looking for a new Nanny again before we know it, but I'm looking forward to Naomi starting. I also found out that her middle name is Katherine (mine is Catherine with a C) and her birthday is November 2nd (mine is the 4th) so that's kinda neat. Her first doctor's appointment is on the 24th, so she'll find out the due date and all that jazz then. Everyone cross your fingers that she is one of the lucky ones who does not get any morning sickness at all. =-)
Sorry for the long delay between posts. It's been getting pretty busy around here!
