The Fun Never Stops!

We're coming up on the end of August, and still no cooler weather in sight. Ah well, plenty of birthday parties to cheer us up. Uncle Matt will be celebrating on the 24th, Gigi had a birthday on Monday, and Jack's party was last Saturday. Fun for all!

Jack

We hosted Jack's birthday party at our house (inside since it was sooo hot) and it was a lot of fun. Jack seemed a little irritated with us as we sang Happy Birthday to him, but he did a great job of opening and playing with his new presents. He enjoyed all the company too!













I think he was saying "open!"


















new sidewalk chalk (3-D!)













gotta stick that tongue out to open the presents!

It was either the singing or he wanted a different cupcake.

Jack has been good about sharing his new toys with Ben. His favorite words right now are "okay!" and caboose. He will hold up his train car from his Thomas the Train he got from Mimama and say what I know is caboose, but sounds like "guh-foose"!

He wants to be a big boy like his brother and keeps trying to get dressed by himself. When I got to him today after changing Emma and helping Ben get dressed, he had his shirt on his legs and was trying to put his shorts on over it. I caught him after he got into the Pull-ups stash today:





















Ben

He is growing up so fast. I think he's grown an inch since a few weeks ago when Rob put up our new height measuring thing in the living room. A year from now he'll be getting ready to start kindergarten!

Ben has been working in a pre-school workbook, tracing shapes and lines and getting ready to start writing. We've been reading a lot of books and he is starting to show signs that he can read a few words. As always, I suspect he knows a lot more than he says because I will catch him reading a word I didn't know he knew, or talking about something I had no idea he understood.

Although he doesn't seem to care for crayons, it may be that coloring books are just too plain and confining for him. This week he did lots of art with Jack's sidewalk chalk on our black side door ... and himself, and Jack:

Emma

Our littlest sweetheart is getting cuter every day. She has better control of her arms and hands now and if you hold a toy out in front of her, she can bring her hands up and grab it (and then it goes straight into her mouth of course).

She will be 5 months old next week and is already in 9 month clothes! She has another Doctor's appointment next Friday, so we'll see how much she weighs and how tall she's gotten then.

She's still enjoying her walker a lot and can entertain herself for longer periods of time.

We no longer swaddle her to sleep, and since she didn't seem all that interested in her paci (and uses her fingers now anyway) we put those away. She is sleeping 7-9 hour stretches at night and all we have to do is lay her in her crib and she goes to sleep all by herself.

She's only eating one meal with solids per day, so we'll see what the Pediatrician says about her growth and if he thinks she needs more. She usually has oatmeal mixed with something. So far we've done sweet potatoes, squash, pears, and today we did green beans and she seemed to like them just fine.

We can't decide what color her eyes are going to be yet. Right now they are kind of a silvery-gray. By this time, Jack's eyes were very clearly blue, so we're guessing she'll have either green, hazel, or brown eyes. Her hair is also growing in much lighter - maybe blonde.

Today after her bath, I was brushing her hair away from the new hair growing in on top and ended up making it into a Mohawk:

She definitely still has the hearts of her big brothers too!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum Sum Summertime...

Well it's hotter than you-know-where out (101 today, 102 forecast for tomorrow), so me and the kiddos have been trying to find ways to entertain ourselves until the weather chills out. In the last couple of weeks we all made a trip to Chick-Fil-A to play in the playground inside, then on Ben's birthday to Wilson Park in Fayetteville (early) to play on the playground and on the swings and in the sand. We brought sand toys and so the boys were very popular! That day we also went to Rick's bakery and I got the boys cookies that had icing on them made up like monsters. They didn't seem to want to eat them, but it was a fun trip anyway. We also made a trip to Wal-Mart - anything to get the kids out of the house. They love it - even Emma. Saturday morning we went to the Prairie Grove battlefield park, but even at 8:30am it was hot and sticky, so we came back pretty quickly. C'mon fall!!!!

Ben

Ben's birthday party was a lot of fun (and loud)! We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and asked our immediate family to join us. Ben was a bit shy at first - not liking everyone looking at him as he opened presents. Daddy had to help him blow out his candles too, but he loved all his gifts and his sheriff's badge from his Toy Story birthday cake.






(Cousin Havyn had to help Ben open his first couple of presents)

The behavior reward system seems to be working well because Benjamin has become a pretty well behaved kiddo. So far he has gotten to go to Chick-Fil-A (to play on the indoor playground), and has received a Buzz Lightyear and went to see Toy Story 3 with Daddy as his big prizes for 7 days of being good (although it sometimes takes a week and a half to get those 7 days). For the first few weeks he got daily prizes for being good too.


(Ben and one of his "daily" prizes)

He has become quite a good helper - especially with his little brother and sister - and will often try to soothe them if they are crying ("it's just okay Jack", "it's okay Emma, Mommy is gonna feed you in just a second").


(Somebody looooves his baby sister)


(what Rob sees when he comes home from work)

Jack

Jack has become very proud of himself for learning new words. He loves pointing to things and saying their names. He still loves having books read to him, and amazingly can name almost all the shapes in his shapes book (although it probably is only understood by mom and dad). He is also learning lots of animals and what noises they make. This week we have been playing follow the leader - he'll move his arms or hands in a certain way and I'll do whatever he does. He loves that!

We can see that he is starting to understand more because he can answer "yes" and "no" appropriately now. Also, he has been saying "oooookaaaaaaaay" when we ask him to do something (or stop doing something).


(Jack got a gift at Ben's party too! Thanks Gigi and Grandpa!)


(silly boys!)

He can still throw an amazing tantrum and wail (Rob calls it the "wahmbulance") but can also smile so gorgeously that it makes you want to cry with pride.



He also loves his baby sister and will point to the monitor and say "Emma! Emma" if he hears her cry. He also says "hi Emma" to her a million times a day and picks her toys up for her when she drops them from her walker tray.



We're having another family birthday party on August 14th for Jack since he will be turning 2 on the 11th. Photos to come...

Emma

Miss Emma is sweet as ever. She is now able to grab a toy that you hold up in front of her and bring it to her mouth. She has been sleeping 7-9 hour stretches at night most of the time. Today I am trying naps un-swaddled because she has started to get angry when I swaddle her. At 3 1/2 months I started rice cereal which gave her reflux (just like her brothers) so I switched to oatmeal after about 5 days and she does better on that. I also started sweet potatoes, but I'm not sure she is doing so well with that so I think we will stick with oatmeal for a few weeks and see how it goes.


(Emma after eating oatmeal - not as messy as the boys)

She is doing great sitting up supported, and usually loves her walker, but likes changing positions every 15 - 20 minutes or so.


(Jack isn't the only one who got a gift at Ben's party. Thanks Carolyn Carney for the cute dress!)

Emma is also giggling and smiling a lot more lately. Before we know it she'll be crawling around!


(Emma on her special handmade quilt from the Helmstetters)

That's all for now, kid followers! Gotta go feed the baby...

Odds and Ends

Conversation last night at bedtime:
Ben: Are you mad?
Me: No, just tired.
Ben: Does tired mean mad?
Me: No, tired means I just need to rest.
Ben: (after thinking for a few seconds) Are you starvis?
Me: Starvis?
Ben: Yeah.
Me: What's starvis?
Ben: Starvis is when you're really, really hungry.
Me: You mean starving.
Ben: Oh. Yeah, I'm starving.

Forgot to mention in the last post that when Jack is looking for something, he will wander around calling for it. Like "Paci? Where aaaare yooooooou?" Which actually sounds more like "Bapeeeee? Weeeeaaaaaaaaooooooooooooo?"

Emma is now doing that squealing thing which is funny because I think she sometimes surprises herself and her eyes get really big. The past 3 nights she has cut out one of her feedings. That gives her a 6 hour stretch which would be even better if it was during a time when I was sleeping the same 6 hours. Soon enough!

No Such Thing As A Quick Post...

Ben

This month Ben will turn 4 (on the 28th)! Hard to believe so much time has passed already. Before we know it, he'll be graduating High School.

I've been working on getting him to write the letters of his name. So far, B is it. heh. I have also been trying to review the letters of the alphabet and some words he used to know when he was Jack's age. He will be able to go into kindergarten not this fall, but next. I'm sure he'll be ready knowledge wise by then, and hopefully socially once I start getting him around other kids more.

We started a "Ben's Great Behavior" chart a few weeks ago. He gets a sticker for doing good things like getting dressed all by himself, picking up books and toys, etc. He also starts every day with 3 smiley faces which get taken away for things like hitting or screaming at Jack, not listening to Mommy, etc. If he has at least 1 smiley at the end of the day, he gets a small treat the next morning. So far he's gotten stuff like a bubble wand, a matchbox car out of the Cheerios box, and a cup of strawberry milk (his idea). =-) After he has accumulated 7 days (not consecutive) of smiley faces, he gets a big prize. His first prize was a trip to the indoor playground at Chick-Fil-A (also his idea). His next prize is a Buzz Lightyear action figure. We are still 5 days away from that goal.

Funny stuff Ben has said lately:

Jack went running into his room crying and throwing a fit for no apparent reason.
I looked at Ben who smiled and said "I scared him with my brain!".

Ben: Sometimes I don't love Grandpa Huber because he has a scary shirt on.
(Dad was wearing his pirate - skull and crossbones - shirt .)

Jack

Jack will turn 2 on August 11th! Wasn't he just a baby yesterday?

Mr. Personality has taken to screaming in the house and is not dissuaded by a timeout, or Mommy's angry face. In fact, he just laughs. I have been trying to spend a little time every day reading to him and playing with him one-on-one so he doesn't feel the need to do crazy things to get attention. He's great about going to bed though - no fussing at naps or at night.

Although he has his tantrum moments, he also has plenty of good ones. He is very helpful and will deliver Ben's juice to him, or his sleepy bear and Ben frequently will ask Jack to get him something, and he usually will. He also almost always says Thank You when you give him something (or "Kee Koo" which is his version for now).

He likes to wander around the house singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Barney theme song although you can't really make out many words yet. He has the tunes pretty well. He also loves to twirl and dance whenever he hears music. I remember Ben doing this at his age too.

Both boys love their baby sister and I have to watch them so they don't get too excited and poke her in the face with toys or try to feed her their lunch or dinner (or kiss her too much).

Unfortunately we had to cut the bunk-beds apart, but the boys are doing really well in them although we do occasionally find one of them in the other one's bed in the morning. Plus, now they can play in their room without me worrying that they will fall.

Ben is sleeping now from about 8:30 or 9:00pm until 6:30am and then takes a nap around 2:00pm for 2 or 3 hours. Jack sleeps from 7:30pm until about 5:45am and then takes a nap around 10:30 or 11:00am for about an hour and a half.

Emma

Miss Sweet Pea is now 15 pounds and 24" long as of her Doctor's appointment this week (at 3 1/2 months). The Doctor said she has the social behavior of a 6 month old (mostly, I think, because she was looking at him suspiciously - and cried when he reached for her - and he said stranger anxiety doesn't normally start this early).

She is in 6-9 month clothes and has been enjoying sitting upright (or standing) in her walker. She can move backwards in it, but probably not on purpose. She's always got those fingers in her mouth and is drooling like crazy, but I checked the boy's baby books and they didn't get their first teeth (the bottom front ones) until they were 8 months old.

She has been giggling more lately and smiling a lot. She is still waking up at around 11pm and 3am to eat. I am thinking of starting some mixed grain cereal in the evening tomorrow to see if she'll sleep longer.

She is still not taking a bottle of any sort, but after consulting with my Mommies group, I have a new idea to try. We'll see how it goes. Sure would be nice to get a full night's sleep after 4 months.

Emma Has Arrived!

Emma Katherine Shertzer



Our little sweetheart arrived on March 26th at 3:12pm weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 20 3/4 inches (6 days before her due date). I had a day of contractions at 35 weeks and from then on had contractions on and off almost every day. A couple of nights before she was born I woke up with a terrible migraine (very unusual for me) and it didn't occur to me until the next evening that my blood pressure could be causing it. Rob took it and it *was* high, but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the hospital so I went to sleep. At around 1:30am the contractions started again, and at 7:00am my blood pressure was still high, so we went to the hospital.

I wasn't planning to have an epidural, but the Doctors recommended it to help bring my blood pressure down. I did wait until I was 9cm though, and asked them to make it very light. I could still feel my legs and most everything - just not pain. It was the best labor I've had - no throwing up and shaking the whole time like with Ben and Jack. =-)

By Emma's 2 week Doctor's appointment she had regained her birth weight and then some - almost 10 pounds! She will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and is about 13 pounds now.

She's not sleeping through the night yet, but yesterday she did several 5 hour stints between feedings. Today, not so much. Hopefully since she is past the 12 pound mark she will start sleeping longer at night. Fingers crossed!

So far she does not like her paci (which we are fine with) and won't take a bottle either (which we are not so fine with). Other than that she is a little sweetie and her brothers adore her.

Jack

Jack has become quite vocal! He makes all sorts of grunts and growls and screams and can throw a class A tantrum at any time (and does, several times a day). He is often jealous of Ben and Emma when we give them attention so we're trying hard to make sure he gets his share.

He has started singing although he can't say the words to anything quite yet. He likes the Alphabet song, Twinkle Twinkle, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. I sing Twinkle Twinkle to him in his room before his nap and he either hums or sings along and giggles. When I come to the "up above the world so high" part he always looks up and points to the ceiling.

He can say a lot of words pretty clearly and can otherwise get the point across if he wants something. He's also started putting together phrases like "Hi Daddy!" and is in general a little giggle box. Doesn't take much to amuse him and his laughter is infectious. He also likes to let Ben pull him around in the wagon outside a lot. Let's see... his play kitchen gets a lot of use too. He will get his little plastic frying pan, put his chicken nuggets from dinner in it, put it on his stove and push the button that makes the cooking noise and then take it to the coffee table and stir it up.

Whenever a vehicle with a siren goes by outside he runs to the window and says "car? car?". He likes to point at the bunnies outside and if you aren't watching him, he will follow them wherever they run off to.

Grandpa Huber assembled the bunk bed in the boy's room and Jack did very well in the bottom bunk with rails for about a month until he figured out how to climb out and then wouldn't stay in bed for naps or bedtime. One day I found him on the top bunk so he is now back in the pack-n-play beside the bunk bed until we think he's ready.


Playing with Mommy's hat.


Letting his big brother pull him around the yard.


Ben

Ben is our little chatterbox. He pretty much talks, sings or makes some sort of noise from the second he wakes up until he goes to bed. He seems to have grown quite a bit recently and everyone has been saying how big he's getting.

We are finally potty trained! Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer took him to Chuck E Cheese today as a reward. He still won't go poo in the potty because he says "it will hurt", but he will ask for a diaper and then go right back to his "big boy underwear" when he's done. Lots better than having to change every diaper for 3 kids all day!

Ben loves to play outside and does a great job of staying in the safe part of the yard (and telling me when Jack is *not* staying in the safe part).

His terrible 2's and 3's seem to be gone for the most part. I guess he gave his share to Jack who started his very early.

Both boys have been watching the "Your Baby Can Read" DVDs and are doing well with them. It's hard to tell what Ben knows because he rarely will do things on demand. I know one day he's just going to start reading something and then I'll wonder how long he has been able to do it. Recently I've been working with him on "he" and "him" for boys and "she" and "her" for girls. He often calls Emma "him". I have also been pretty diligent in correcting his verbs and verb tenses. The way he talks now is cute, but I figure it's better to get it right early while he's still learning.

Ben loves sleeping in his top bunk! We do have to keep the boys out of the bedroom during the day though unfortunately. They are too prone to go right up to the top bunk and start jumping around.

He is still one of the most grateful children I've ever seen and will effuse "Oh THANK you!" whenever you give him something (and sometimes just when you ask him to do something). We also get to hear "I love you" or "I love you so much!" several times a day or more. =-)

Some cute/funny things Ben has said lately:

"I exploded!"

"I fell down and hit my head and I cried and I hurt my heart too and my heart is crying."

Me: "Ben? Why is Jack crying? What happened?"
Ben: "Jack fall down in the grass and I didn't do *anything* to Jack."


Watching Daddy and Uncle Dury re-roof the front porch
(Uncle Dury's recently acquired RV in the background)


In his PJs, outside enjoying the nice spring weather.

Getting Ready for Miss Emma

Finally moved Jack into Ben's room. I was waiting for the bunk beds to be finished, but since we've had a bout of snow and extra cold temps, I didn't think they'd be done in time. Then I was waiting to move the furniture around in there, but one day I just moved his pack-n-play in there and let the boys take a nap at the same time. It only took about an hour and a half the first day and they slept fine. The past 3 mornings Jack has woken up at 4:00am. Not sure what that's about, but hopefully it will pass.

They boys are really sweet to each other sometimes. If Jack is crying Ben will try to kiss him and say "It's just okay, Jack. It's just okay." If Ben is crying Jack will try to give him a kiss and pat his head.

Went to my 30 week Doctor's appointment and was measuring THREE WEEKS ahead. Then last week for my 32 week I was still measuring TWO weeks ahead. I'm guessing she will arrive the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, which would work out for a lot of people because the last week of March is Spring Break (so Rob would be off from bus driving for Lincoln Schools).

Emma seems really strong - her kicks and punches and wiggles are a lot more pronounced than with the boys. I suppose the bigger she is, the better she might sleep from the get-go. I know Jack slept through the night a lot sooner than Ben, but then they say it's different for every kid. Let's hope we get another good sleeper. =-)

Finally started converting Jack's room to Emma's this week. Uncle Eric and Christi and Grandpa Huber have all offered to help get it ready. Mimama is coming up this weekend (hopefully) to see the boys and maybe we can do a little baby shopping while she's here.

Well, as usual I can't think of the million things I wanted to remember. Rob says Jack has been saying Daddy more (or "Daaaeeeeeee"). It's really cute how much he loves his Dad. We are so lucky that Rob has been able to be at home more to spend time with the kids.

I'll try to get another post in before Miss Emma arrives!

We Love Our SMART Kids!

Jack is just amazing us lately. He will be 1 1/2 in February, but it's just incredible the things he knows. The boys were sick last week and we discovered that if you hand Jack a Kleenex, he will hold it up to his nose and blow and then wipe, AND he will go and put it in the trash when he's done! Granted, he doesn't always get everything with the wipe, but that is just cool.

He is also starting to get more words going. He'll sometimes say "hi" (also, if you wave at him, he'll wave back), and he definitely knows "ball" because he will go and get it (loves playing with bouncing balls). Yesterday I swear he said "cracker". He also knows "dog" and "baby" if you show him a picture and ask where they are (he will point to them). He loves picture books and books with textures and flaps that he can open. Also, you can ask him a question and he will shake his head no if he doesn't want whatever you just asked (i.e. "Are you ready for a nap, Jack?" - vigorous NO. he he).

ETA: He can also say "onoff" which means he wants you to hold him up so he can turn the light switch on or off. I remember when Ben used to want to do that all the time. Okay, I thought of some more. He can say "juice" and will carry his cup over to the kitchen if he needs a refill, and he will also hold out his hands palms up and say "all gone" when his food is all gone. Well, actually it sounds more like "all gah" but close enough and so cute!

We can ask him to do simple things now and he can, like "Jack, put the book back on the shelf". So fun when they do what you ask and they think it's a great accomplishment. Now if I could just get Ben to do that again...

Ben has been singing up a storm lately and not only loves "Jingle Bells" still, but will sing along to TV show jingles. His vocabulary and ability to form complete sentances still amazes me. Yesterday I heard a noise outside and knowing Ben was looking out of the window I asked him what it was. He said very clearly: "That was the recycling falling off Daddy's car" (which doesn't sound like it makes sense, but Rob had the recycling bins on top of his car to drive them back up the driveway). He's also starting to show more of an interest in reading again. He loves "Go, Dog. Go!" (he likes to tell me all about what's happening with the dogs on each page) and "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb". He often asks what things say and I tell him, and then tell him that when he learns to read he will know what everything says (and that he can teach Jack to read).

He's getting a lot better about playing nicely with Jack - it's Jack that is doing lots of pushing and trying to take things away from Ben now.

Re-potty training worked great for about a week until the boys got sick and then for the first 2 days Ben would still tell me when he needed to go, then all of a sudden we had puddles on the floor every time again. I haven't had the energy to start again with the taking him every 15 minutes thing. Someday!!

I've started using the new TV in the boy's room as a tool to get an extra 30 minutes of "us" time at night. I just ask Ben to pick out a cartoon DVD to watch, get him ready for bed and then tuck him in and set the sleep timer on the TV to 30 minutes. So now he is quiet from about 7:00 or 7:30 at night and I think he gets more rest (Jack wakes him up at 6:00am) - and never complains about bed time! Not sure what I'm going to do when I move Jack in there - which needs to be soon!

Rob took a 29 week picture of me (last week) so only about 8 weeks to go +-. Like I said, need to get Jack moved into Ben's room and get Miss Emma's room ready. I've got to paint and sort through all of her new clothes to see what I've got and what we might need still. Also would be good to start stocking up on diapers! I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow - routine. She has been kicking up a storm.

I'm sure there are a million things I meant to include in this post, but as usual, when I sit down to write I forget most of them! Gotta go... the boys would like more crackers!


Me and Miss Emma at 29 weeks:



The boys the week before they came down with a little virus: