3 Months = 1/4 Year!

Here’s our little guy at the beginning of the month.  I’m beginning to be able to catch smiles on camera.  He’s got the cooing thing down now and is quite noisy.  We love it!  There has even been some giggling.

Elijah is 3 months old!  He is now 13 lb 10 oz.  He got a vaccine today and smiled the whole time!  Such a sweetie!  In a way the last three months have flown by, but at the same time it seems a long time in coming.  I have to admit, while it is such a precious time and a newborn’s size alone is sweet, it is not my favorite time period.  I look forward to the coming months and years of interaction,  laughter and getting to know this little guy’s personality a little better – even if it does bring tears too!

Attacking (loving on) his dog snuggly.

The big accomplishments for this month are that Elijah is rolling over from his belly to his back, though he only does it when he’s happy, so he doesn’t help himself or me out when he’s tired of being on his belly.  The other mom’s at the luncheons we go to at the hospital think his strength during tummy time is amazing.  I’m a proud mommy!  The other big accomplishment is that he is fairly consistently sleeping through the night!  He goes down around 7:30, gets a “dream feed” around 10, then usually sleeps until 5:30 or 6 at which point he often is happy just with a pacifier and an hour or so more of sleep.  As far as other physical skills go, he is reaching out to grab toys and if he is holding one he will put it to his mouth.  In lieu of his toys, he loves to chew and suck his fingers.  After only a few minutes of this his shirt will be soaking wet with drool!  I think he has given up on the thumb.  We have also totally gotten off the Mylicon and are doing well with that previous issue.  Generally speaking, he is doing fabulously! 

Chewing his ring, or “wing wing” as Josiah calls it.

He’s even been spending a little time in his seat!  Such a big boy already.

Elijah survived my first few days of work.  He spent them with Jacob, my mom, and the sitter and did quite well, even with another eye infection and a growth spurt with the resulting disrupted naps.   I’m happy to say that I survived, too.

Elijah has been doing wonderfully with napping and going to sleep on his own (no time to rock when you have a 2 year old running loose!), but we had been struggling with bedtime.  He’d go down nicely only to wake up multiple times until his “dream feed”, then sleep the rest of the night.  I decided to ditch his normal go-to-bed routine for a few nights and just held him or stuck him in his swing to sleep to hopefully break the cycle before returning to the routine that works for us and it seems to have worked, though not perfectly.  I’ve successfully put him down normally for a few nights now.  The goal is to be able to  put him down and then be able to say a nice goodnight to Josiah as well.  So far Jacob has been responsible for Josiah and I was responsible for Elijah and attempting to rush over to Josiah for a quick goodnight. (I wrote this before his growth spurt when feedings went wild!  Now we are just getting back to this point.  Go figure!  You finally get to understand them, then they go and change!)

It’s funny, but the arrival of a second baby has made me feel more mature – yeah, that’s the word we’ll use.  Jacob says he doesn’t really feel this way, so I’ll speak for myself here.  Somehow with Josiah’s arrival I don’t really remember feeling much different in this area.  I guess because it is much easier to resume a normal pre-baby life with one than two and parents still outnumber kids.  Also, something about having two kids makes me feel more like we have a “family”, which is ridiculous.  Maybe it is the activity level of our home now that makes me feel that way.  It’s also as if “well, there’s no turning back now”, as though we could before!  Oh well, I don’t really know how to explain it since I can’t pinpoint it myself, but it is there regardless.  It is not a bad feeling, by any means, just different.  Maybe it’s just that I turned 30 along with this baby!  Either way, while I realize my carefree youth is gone, I wouldn’t give up this parenting life for anything.  My boys are so great!  (I also wrote this part a little while ago and as I settle in to our new family life this strange feeling is fading and a sense of content normalcy is replacing it.)

This handsome little man is getting so big so quickly!  I can’t believe it!

Cranberry Chicken and Rice Recipe

I have no idea why I’m writing this post.  For some reason I felt the need to post this recipe.  I’m by no means a chef, but I’m constantly trying something new, though never anything adventurous!  (I’m a picky eater.)  I thought of this one when I bought a bunch of Craisins that were BOGO and figured surely they were good for something other than salad.  I think I like it because it pretty.  While it has something from every food group, I don’t think it can be called healthy. 

I’m not so good at measuring things, so should you decide to try it, you must use you imagination and sense of judgment a little.

You will need:

1 cup rice (parboiled works well for this since it doesn’t get soggy)

~1 3/4 cup water

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

3 or so chicken breasts

Seasoning of your choice (I use Greek)

Craisins

Italian Bread Crumbs

Mozzarella or Swiss Cheese (or whatever you want)

Directions:

Season the chicken as desired and bake it in a casserole dish at 350 degrees just until done.  (If you brown it first it is tastier, but that just dirties another dish and takes more time.)  Dump out any juices when done.

While chicken is cooking, bring the can of soup and water, seasoned as desired, to a boil then cook the rice until just barely underdone.  (You will be putting it in the oven and you want the end product to be just a bit moist.)  I also add broccoli (or something green) to the rice.  When you add it depends on if it is fresh or frozen or if you pre-cook it.  This is what I have trouble with as it often ends up overcooked.

While waiting on the above, mix Craisins, bread crumbs and cheese into a food processer and chop it up.  Make enough to layer the top of whatever size casserole dish you are using.

Once the rice and chicken are done as described above, add the rice to the chicken, (if the rice seems a little dry, just add a little water  to it or use the chicken juices) then layer the bread crumb mixture on top and bake just a little longer. 

This is yummy and colorful.  Josiah even loves it, though he eats almost anything.  I’ve also used pork chops.  It sounds a bit labor intensive, but really it just involves throwing chicken in the oven, cooking rice, and a little mixing.  I think next time I’ll shred the chicken to make it more casserole-like.

Let me know if you try it, how it turns out, and if you have pointers.  I’m also always looking for new meal ideas, so please share.

A Father’s Day To Be Grateful For

(My pictures of the day are a bit random.  Sorry.)

We spent this Father’s Day with my family for the special purpose of being with Deda, my Grandfather.  He has ALS and his symptoms are worsening dramatically everyday, so we really wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate him.  We had a nice, casual, relaxing time together and I was glad to find that Deda’s spirits are good.  Deda is a wonderful grandfather and leader of our family.  We couldn’t ask for better.

    

Josiah was exhausted but wasn’t about to do more than take a quick juice break while Elijah got some lovin’ from Gram.

Even though we made special recognition of Deda, the boys and I are so thankful for the Daddy in our own household.  Josiah is so in love with his Daddy and I just know Elijah will be showing his love soon, too.  I love watching them rough and tumble and the sheer delight it brings to Josiah’s face.  I can’t wait to watch Jacob get tackled by TWO boys!  He is a wonderful hands on father.  Jacob is a big help to me and I’m grateful for the effort he puts forth to be important in their lives.It’s impossible to get three boys to cooperate all at once!

My Dad also has been a blessing in my life.  I’ve learned a great deal from him.  I always kind of laugh when it comes to buying him Father’s Day cards since they all seem to be focused towards the stereotype sports loving, recliner sitting dad who hands out money to his kids - which he is NOT.   I have benefitted from the type of dad he is, though, as I’ve developed the qualities he hoped I’d have and I have benefitted from his ability to think out of the box.  I can definitely say that because of him I have done many things most girls will never be able to say they’ve done – whether I like it or not!  :)

Everyone had to try out the golf cart my Dad got for Deda to ride in.  He, of course, can’t drive it since he can’t use his arms, but it will make it easier for him to get around their property if he can find a chauffeur.  Here they are helping Dad pick grapefruit.

As I listened to the topics of conversation today, I felt that it was fitting that it was Father’s Day as I was totally engulfed in testosterone.  My brothers’ wives were unable to join us due to sickness and work, so as is typical in my life, the males prevailed.  Jacob always seems to be in heaven when he’s surrounded by so many people who understand him and his talk!

Elijah was happy on the way home while Josiah was zonked out. 

Jacob held Elijah while he slept for awhile today (he doesn’t take the time for that very often) and he said that alone made for a great Father’s Day.  I think it was just because he got to snooze a little, too!

The Family Bed

This one will likely bore you, but I write it for my own sweet memory.

Since I am a light sleeper, Jacob and I both like to have our space when sleeping, and we like our boys to sleep where they belong, we have never really shared our bed with our boys except to play.  Really early this morning, however, there was a huge crash of thunder and lightning (I think we lost a tree) that woke the whole house up startled.  We heard Josiah screaming and so, for the first time ever, he joined us in bed while the storm raged.  I was a little unnerved too, to be honest.  We’ve always been amazed at the storms he sleeps through, but this one got him.

At first he just sat there rigidly refusing to lay down while he sniffled and caught his breath, then he finally laid down to snuggle.  He started whispering “waining…nightning…tunder…waining…tunder…nightning” which gradually grew into his loud toddler voice.  Then later, “eggs…mommy…eggs…mommy…mommy…eggs”.  All this while I nursed Elijah because it is impossible for me to be near him without doing so if he hasn’t eaten in more than 3 hours.  Needless to say, we didn’t sleep anymore, but we got some sweet cuddle time in.

I’m glad we don’t make that a normal practice.  I’m tired!  Hopefully it doesn’t become a thing now, especially since very soon Josiah will be moving up to his way-cool toddler bed so he can get out.

This is how the boys ended up while I cooked the requested eggs (that he had to be coaxed to eat!).  Doesn’t Jacob make a good looking father of 2?  (even in the morning)

The Sound Of Little Feet

“…Remember when the sound of little feet was the music we danced to week to week…” 

For those of you not familiar with country music, those are some of the lyrics to a particularly sweet country song by Alan Jackson that is one of my favorites.  That is the line Jacob said out loud the other day as Josiah ran through the house stopping every once in awhile to say “I fast!”  He’d look at us and wait for us to agree, then be off again!  Josiah really loves to run and so this is a common occurrence in our house.  He tires us out just to watch him.

After Josiah turned two, I planned to only do his progress and development updates every six months, but he has changed so dramatically in the past three months, that I can’t help but document his cute sweetness so that I can remember it all later.  So here we go:

His speech explodes with new words and phrases on a daily basis and he’s constantly making us laugh.  He points things out continually and makes short sentences that he repeats incessantly until we wise up and understand them fully.  He also understands so much more than we give him credit for and knows more about what is expected of him and how life works every day.  It is so much fun to go through the motions of each day with him (usually).  All of this is completely normal behavior, I know, but the fact that he is old enough for it blows me away.

He is all boy in that he can get filthy in an instant if given the opportunity and he loves planes, trains, and automobiles – pretty much anything with an engine.  But when he’s at Grandma’s he also really loves her play tea set, dress up heels, the baby stroller, and he particularly likes to feed the baby dolls when I’m feeding Elijah.  His favorite cartoon character is definitely Elmo and he still loves books and frequent trips to the library.

Helping Daddy fix his breaks.  He got SO filthy that he needed a bath and left a grease ring around our tub leaving Mommy with some extra cleaning.

He loves to wear my shoes.  Jacob is not sure what to think.  Notice that he is wearing the same outfit as in the above picture…my boy can do heels and mechanics all in one day!

A long time ago he was beginning to sing songs, but then he went through a phase (and is still partly in it) where he didn’t want you to sing anything to him ever.  Now he suddenly LOVES “The Wheels On The Bus” which he is always happy to have you sing with him and on occasion he’ll allow “If You’re Happy And You Know It”.  It is so funny to watch him sing all the verses to “Bus”!  Rarely we will hear him sing “Jesus Loves Me” to himself, but if you bring attention to it he’ll stop.  That is the sweetest thing to me.  I know it is probably silly, but I like to think that is the beginning of his private relationship with Jesus.  Sometimes if he is really tired and I rub his back (another favorite) while I do it, he’ll let me sing other songs to him.

   This was our impromptu trip to the splash park.  He had lots of fun!  We couldn’t get him to take off his shirt and shoes because he likes to be dressed and shoes seem to mean fun and action to him so he loves putting them on.

One thing that is a mixed blessing is that he is painfully shy sometimes.  He interacts great with other kids at his sitter’s house, the church nursery, and in other familiar settings, but sometimes he’d prefer to sit back and watch the other kids play in new places, though this is not always true.  I can’t decide if he’s truly shy or if he’s just overwhelmed by what may seem like chaos to him or if he just likes to observe, but at any rate it keeps him super well behaved!  My mom says not to worry about it because I always hid behind her legs.  She always worried about me, but thinks I turned out ok – I guess that is a matter of opinion.  I’m looking forward to Elijah being old enough to play with so that he can enter theses situations with a familiar sidekick.  It seems that while Josiah looks like Jacob, he acts like me.  Elijah looks like me, but we have yet to see if he acts like Jacob :)

Speaking of Elijah…Josiah is a far better brother than I could have ever hoped for.  He likes to always make sure Elijah has his “banket”, a.k.a burp cloth and often offers his toys.  He loves to hug and kiss him and sometimes even reads to him.  His latest thing is that he likes to straddle him while he walks down him lengthwise which totally makes me nervous.  He has hit him with toys a few times, but it hasn’t seemed vicious and instead just looked like he didn’t know how to play appropriately.  Maybe that is my naivety.  He’s only made him cry once and that was out of surprise.  He usually just ends up bored with him and moves on to the next thing, but Elijah is never bored with Josiah and tends to give him more smiles than anyone else gets.

I had to show a few pictures of Josiah enjoying his indoor tent with Elijah.  Elijah enjoyed it, too.  He really loves to have someone play with him in it…even the cat!  Unfortunately while she loves the tent, she’s not so fond of sharing it with him and leaves every time he joins her.

Josiah is just so precious to us and I love looking at life the way he does.  I even love scouring the roads while I drive to point out all the most interesting vehicles and such.  We try not to spoil him, but we have fun when we give him endless amounts of fun.  We love our little man more each day which seems crazy because at some point that should level off, right?  Maybe in 7-10 years things will move in the opposite direction as he develops into an ornery preteen??? :)