3 months

Hard to believe he is 3 months old, but at the same time, I feel like he was born years ago and there was never life before him.

Super blessed that he is an incredible night sleeper...typically asleep by 8:30 and I do not hear from him again until 5 or 6 the next morning...then back down until 8:30 or so. However, this is translating into three 30 minute naps a day! Whaaat?!?!? Guess I can't have the best of both worlds. ;)

My favorite thing in the world is when he talks and laughs at me. He has an absolutely beautiful smile!

Pretty typical 3 month old with a 3 year old brother, not a lot of activity outside my arms, the swing, bouncer, floor blanket and car seat. I do have some concerns (I know this comes as a surprise to most of you). I do not believe his neck strength or mobility is where it should be. After some self diagnosis on web-md I think he may have Torticollis. I am taking him to doctor this morning to check him out. Nothing serious that some physical therapy can not help, but I would like to catch it early. The boy WILL not turn his head to the left without some heavy enticing or moving it with my hands. More to come on this...

Despite the little day time sleep he is a very happy baby. He is really only cranky when he is tired or hungry. OR if you are holding him in a position that he does not like he will let you know pretty quick. He list of preferred holds is pretty short!

Here are some cute pics:

Summer ideas

Okay, so here it goes....my attempt at keeping John stimulated this summer....(note: these are outside of our everyday playing and things around the house, just some things to make each day "special", even if only for half an hour)

Places we can go:
- Zoo (we have a membership, so this is free (excluding gas for the car)
- Neighborhood pool (yes we have one, but it is fun to change it up)
- Indoor Safari park; i.e. play area with trains and animals (I have a coupon to go twice to this place)
- Friends houses (now accepting invitations)
- A Park tour (trying out a new park each week around the area)

Things to do:
- Arts and Crafts (I have these little decks of cards with ideas on them that are coming in handy)
- movie days (saved maybe for rainy days)
- Swim in our pool (could be tricky with Matthew)
- Alphabet days. Each day will be a different letter of the alphabet and will have a theme/activity that will start with that letter. I will try to incorporate colors and food and other things that start with that letter as well. Here is where I am soliciting specific help. As you can see, some ideas are lame and I am missing some letters... any ideas on ANY letters would be appreciated

A - Art
B - Books or Board games
C - Camera or computer
D - Drawing or Dancing
E - Eating
F -
G - Games
H -
I - Insects
J - Jungle
K - Kitchen
L - Love
M - Music
N - Nature or Numbers
O - Outside
P - Plants or pictures
Q -
R - Reading
S - Swimming
T - T-ball
U -
V- video
W - water
X
Y - Yellow
Z - Zoo

Last day of MDO for 2010-2011

Here is a picture on his last day of MDO:

Followed by a picture on his first day of MDO:

Notice he is wearing the same shorts. When I realized this, I almost changed him for pictures, but decided that I would leave him because it is such a telling story of how much he has NOT grown in his waist this year.

I am pretty nervous about summer. Entertaining a 3 year old all day long is A LOT of work.... then multiply that times 7 days a week for 3 months....PLUS an infant to care for....EEK! I have decided that we are going to have to have something
to do or focus on everyday to keep me sane and keep him interested. Even if that something is running errands. I have some ideas up my sleeves...will do a separate post on that soon, I will also be soliciting feedback and ideas at that time. :)

G.W. Exotic Animal Park

We vistied the G.W. Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma. John loved it, it was right up his alley. They have countless tigers that they have rescued, but they also have bears and lions and monkeys and pretty much everything. The stories are sad, but they are at this park and being taken care of which, although may not be ideal (totally runs off donations), is much better than the alternative.

We got to play with a 10 week old baby tiger cub. His name was Orlando. I did not filter the pictures, so stay tuned for the tiger cub ones at the end.

Happy 2 Month Birthday Matthew!

In some ways, these past two months have flown by... in others... they have crawled. This age is so easy and so hard all at the same time. You really do not realize it until it is your second.

His 2 month well check up was good. Doc wants him out of the swaddle and swing. I started with the swing and the intention of dropping the swaddle tonight, but he got a 100.1 fever from the vaccinies, so I could not let him cry like that. He is up there swaddled and sleeping soundly.:)

So....he has a third nipple...yep...in the EXACT same place that his Daddy does (ooohhh I am in trouble for publishing that information). :) Pretty common apparently, I did not even notice it until he pointed it out to me. Changes from when John was 2 months old, they no longer give Tylonel with the vaccines. There was a study done that basically said that more vaccines were absorbed when no tylenol was given. BUT...he got a fever, so we gave him some tonight.

Nurse said that his eyes will not be brown, that they will be "colored"... I guess she has seen a lot of babies, but MAN do they look brown right now. We shall see.

He will smile and coo at us pretty good, but he is not grasping things all that well. Other than that, no major developments this month. I am going to do a seperate post on the sleeping later this week. That is really the biggest thing with him right now.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 12.3 (62%)
Height: 23 1/4 (61%)
Head: 15 3/4 (51%)

Compared to John at 2 months he is almost exactly the same. Matthew seems a lot chunkier to me, but maybe they carry it differently. I am projecting that John has more of Carl's body type while Matthew will have more of mine (poor kid).

Here are a few pics:

A Week in the Life: 3YO and 6WO - Sunday

much shorter post below - we all get the idea by now. :)

10:45, 1:30, 4:15, 6:15 - feedings - a bit more snacking going on last night, could not really wake him up enough to eat a full meal. He was teh one who woke up, not me...we'll have to have a talk about that this morning. :)

6:35 - 7:45 - Shower, coffee, get ready time for me.

7:45 - 8:15 - Carl works out and I get Matthew up and talk with him upstairs.

8:15 - Get John up and open his Easter basket! He liked the Dinosaur sticker book the best at first, but I think he will really like the music CD as soon as I can play it for him. The candy... no big deal. :):

8:30 - Make breakfast (dino oatmeal and an orange) while Matthew is in his swing (awake).

9:00 - feed Matthew, get John ready, Daddy get ready, leave for Nana's

10:00 - 6:00 - At Nana and Da's for Easter Sunday. Matthew slept in Nana's arms, Da's arms or in his swing the vast majority of the day. With the exception of eating every 3 hours on the dot and then for about 30 minutes while we were outside playing.

We had a great day dying easter eggs (3 dozen!), decorating easter eggs and hunting easter eggs. John laid down for a nap, but we woke him up after an hour becuase the weather was set to be bad, and wanted him to swim and hunt eggs.

Lunch was a shrimp salad with avacado, tomato and cucumbers (McDonalds for John) and dinner was BBQ chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, and garlic bread. YUMMY!

6:00 - Feed Matthew and then head home for bath and bed. MAtthew did not want to give it up, so he slept in his swing until 10:00 and then we all went to bed.

A Week in the Life: 3YO and 6WO - Saturday

1:45, 4:45 feedings

7:15 - 9:00 - Feed Matthew and then cuddle for a while until I hear "Mama, I am ready to wake up", the kids will NOT get out of his bed on his own. Matthew and I go up and play on John's bed for awhile, then head downstairs for breakfast (toast with PB and honey, banana and carnation chocolate milk).

9:00 -  10:00  Daddy wakes up and we eat breakfast and drink coffee. Matthew is in his swing and Daddy and John head upstairs to play. John just has this mischievous attitude this morning... could be an interesting day.

10:00 - 11:00 - Feed Matthew and then all four of us upstairs playing in the playroom. Daddy and John rough housing makes me nervous. :)

11:00 - Nap time for Matthew. Daddy hangs out and John and I go upstairs to do excerises! This is DAY ONE Of P90x for me! YIPPEE! I am ready to have a full wardrobe again.

12:00 - down stairs for lunch. Daddy and I have leftovers and John has chicken nuggets, soy beans, cheese, crackers and blueberries.

1:00 - nap time for the whiny baby that is John. Eating time for Matthew and work out time for Daddy.

1:30 - 2:15 asleep almost instantly in the swing but just for a short nap.

2:15 - 2:45 - play on the floor, with LOTS of yawns. So back in the swing.

2:45 - 3:30 - shower for me, swing time for Matthew. John is up at 3:30! Daddy went to the store to get ingredients for a dinner he is making tonight! WOO HOO!

3:30 - 5:00 - play with John upstairs. When Daddy gets home, John and him clean a WHOLE lot of mussels.

5:00 - 7:00 Feed Matthew, eat dinner (whole wheat spaghetti with tomatoes, zucchini and mussels in a white wine sauce for us and carrots, yogurt, blueberries, turkey and bagel with honey for John), spend an hour walking, rocking, laying, swinging, playing, sitting, dancing and anything else I can possibly do to make Matthew happy. Not a great evening for him. Quick bath for John, downstairs to do chores, and then he got his wall fish stickers because he did his chores all week long.

7:00 - 8:00 Matthew's bedtime routine, he did the whole screaming thing again while he ate, so I am not sure how much he actually got. He was asleep by 7:45 or so. John went to bed, Carl got the truck inside for more bad weather, I fed the dogs, went back to comfort Matthew two times, etc.

8:00 - 8:30 - clean the kitchen, make Easter basket, have an evening.

A Week in the Life: 3YO and 6WO - Friday

12:00, 3:00, 5:00 feedings. I spend most of the feedings checking email, facebook, words with friends, blog reading, app shopping, making to-do lists, etc. I know this is not ideal. If he is awake during the day with his eyes open, I do talk and interact with him. But if his eyes are closed, how does he know what I am doing?! :)

5:45 - Matthew back down and grunts until about 6:15.

6:30 - 7:00 Carl is up getting ready for the day. It is Good Friday and his office is closed, but he has a little work to tend to this morning. I am typing blogs, drinking coffee, doing my normal wake up, alone time thing. :)

7:00 - The grunting begins again, I decide to go get him. we cuddle on the couch. he was not ready to get up. he falls asleep on my chest and then when I lay him down at 7:30 in the moses basket, he stays asleep.

7:30 - 8:00 - John is awake. We get up and he makes another game up with these 5 little cars and racing them back and forth on the glass table. Then I head downstairs to make breakfast (blueberry waffles and a pear).

8:00 - Matthew eats and then lays back down for a bit while John and I unload the dishwasher (one of his chores for this week) and clean the kitchen up.

8:30 - 10:00 Matthew is awake and the four of us play on the floor, put together puzzles, look at photo albums, play and dance while I pump, and just be together.

10:00 - 11:00 John colors on the ipad and Matthew is having a little swing time. Once he falls asleep in 5 minutes and John and I go upstairs to play with legos and color.

11:00 - Matthew eats and John plays upstairs with dinosaurs and dragons.

11:30 - Nana calls to talk to Matthew. It was the longest and most big boy conversation I have heard him have. He held the phone and walked around the house talking and talking and talking. I only heard one side of the conversation, and it was so cute!

11:30 - 1:30 - Eat lunch (chicken fingers, sweet potato french fries and gogurt) and then play with Daddy. Matthew and I head to the store.

1:30 - we get home and Mr. Dan is here to visit Matthew and John. Then Daddy puts John to nap.

2:00 - Matthew eats and then falls back asleep.

4:15 - 5:15 - Daddy goes to get John up from nap and comes down for snack and little TV time "Dual Survivor". Then he goes to get John's medicine.

5:15 - 6:00 - Daddy gives Matthew a bottle, I pump and then make and eat dinner (Chicken Ropa over shredded lettuce and a southwest black bean salad)

6:00 - Daddy takes John to go get us some frozen yogurt! YUMMO. Matthew and I hang out.

6:30 - 7:15 - Bath time for John, then chore chart, play, etc.

7:15 - feed Matthew (hardly anything, he is crying every few minutes while he eats) and put him to sleep with no problem

7:30 - 8:00 - play with John and then get him into bed.

8:30 - Matthew is up, try to get him down, end up feeding him at 8:45. get him to sleep for a fee minutes. Wakes up again around 9:15, Daddy takes a turn and gets him to sleep pretty quick. Note: John is still wide awake in bed talking and singing.

9:30 - both of us downstairs for a relatively short evening.

A Week in the Life: 3YO and 6WO - Thursday

2:10, 5:30 - night feedings, pretty typical, a little longer stretches tonight!

6:00 - Matthew is grunting for quite a while. I sure hope he does not think 6:00 is time to wake up, although that seems to be the pattern. I type up yesterday's blog and start today's while I have some coffee and Carl is getting ready. I cherish my morning time with no kiddos, if Matthew things 6:00 is time to get up, then I am going to have to get up even earlier... then I wonder if I will cherish sleep even more. :)

7:00 - Matthew starts to grunt again. I go up and watch Matthew for about 15 minutes while he grunts. He is asleep, has no idea I am there. When he grunts, he lifts his legs up, wiggles for about 5 seconds. Then silence for about 3 minutes, then repeat until he stays silent for longer (around 7:30). I get ready, and tootle around the house a bit doing odds and ends.

7:45 - both boys up at the same time. Yeah! (no sarcasm) Although I love my kid-free time...I really do miss them when they sleep. Get them both downstairs (told John the Easter bunny left him something which ended up being two books about Easter) and John eating (toast with PB, Greek yogurt and orange juice) while Matthew playing in his mat. This is favorite time in his mat, he talks and coos and smiles and laughs.

8:20 - feed Matthew and then swing time (asleep in 5 minutes). John and I go upstairs and we do Easter egg hunts.

9:15 - pump while John is upstairs playing with this Rio toys.

9:30 - play legos upstairs with john, have snacks, play with dinosaurs and kitchen, draw on the wall.

11:00 - 11:15 - Matthew wakes up, we try to play with upstairs but he just isn't happy. I change his diaper and feed him.

11:15 - he eats A TON, and then falls asleep in the swing in 2 minutes while I make lunch for John (chicken noodle soup, whole grain crackers, cheese and turkey roll ups)

12:30 - John is done eating (not one bite of soup actually made it down to his belly), and feeling worse, so I give him some meds. we head upstairs to play a bit before nap.

1:00 - Both boys down for nap.

1:30 - I have a couple of neighborhood ladies over to work on a project.

3:00 - 4:00 Matthew up to eat. John up about 3:30.Matthew and I go up there and John makes up a game. I had to help it along a bit, but he was LOVING making up his own game. It involved a blanket, a dog, a walrus and 2 toucans. Daddy home because I have to take John to the Dr. We sort of play hand off with Matthew for a while so that we can get John ready to go.

4:00 - 5:00 - John and I out the door to get dry cleaning and go to Dr. Bill. John likes going to the Dr. now. He does everything by himself and answers all the Dr. questions. It is so cute and sad at the same time because he is growing up.

Sounds like Matthew was awake the whole time we were gone and the time was spent trying to get him not to cry. I think these two are still figuring each other out. :) I do think Matthew is a little particular about his holds, positions, desire for paci, etc. and he will tell you about it when it is not right.

5:00 - 6:00 - cooking and eating dinner. "Glorious mess" adapted from a neighbors recipe. Basically a lightened up chili (without chili seasoning) or a stew type thing. Ground beef, pinto beans, tomatoes, and then I put in celery, carrots and corn. All with just the juices from the cans.

6:00 - 7:30 Matthew is up to have a little dinner of his own. Then I take John to bath and then back down to do chores and clean the kitchen. Daddy is hanging with Matthew, he is in and out of sleep on his lap.

7:30 - I try to put Matthew down without feeding him. 20 minutes later I hear "Mama, Mama. I just wanted to check on you" in the sweetest whisper voice ever. In comes my precious big boy. I love him. Matthew was not giving it up easily, so I took him in with us to say goodnight to John, John liked having all 4 of us in there.

8:00 - 8:30 - feed Matthew and put him down with no pacifier, just like in the middle of the night... went to sleep and did not wake up until midnight!

AN EVENING!

A Week in the Life: 3YO and 6WO - Wednesday

Note the time stamp on this is Thursday - yesterday evening did not go as planned....

Wednesday

1:20 and 4:20 night feedings. pretty typical, 30 minutes, ate good.

6:00 - wake up call, but I just hold the pacifier for a bit and he falls back asleep.

6:15 - 7:00 - Carl is up, I am packing lunch (turkey and cheese, frozen gogurt, strawberries, sack of little oat cereals)

7:00 - 7:30 - feed Matthew, change diaper get him ready

7:30 - 8:30 - while I am waking up John, Matthew is in his swing. Get John up and eat, he was in an exceptionally good mood. I was loving this and hoping it meant it was going to be a good day! After breakfast, we played with Matthew in his play mat, colored, and then I pumped while John watched a show and played and Matthew was with me in his bouncy thing.

8:30 - 9:00 out the door to drop off dry cleaning before school.

9:00 - play on the floor with Matthew, then his swing, change clothes and diaper, then holding him. he can't quite seem to decide what he wants this morning.

9:45 - eat and then swing

10:10 - 12 - Matthew sleeps while I work on my projects, to-do lists, clean, shower and get ready.

12 - 12:45 - walking, holding, cuddling with Matthew while he has some serious gas and poops.

12:45 - 1:15 - eat and cuddle

1:15 - 2:00 - get Matthew and I ready and out the door to stop by the store for a couple of things. Then on to school to get John. Today, when I got there he was playing with Carson and a dinosaur puzzle.

2:00 - 3:00 - John is SUPER snotty and I can tell he does not feel well. He has a snack (whole grain crackers) and watches Babar: The Prince of Badou while I sit with him and hold Matthew. Matthew falls asleep briefly, John and I try to play upstairs, but Matthew wakes up. Both the boys are crying for me. This was the first time this has happened and I have had no Daddy here to help. It was a SUPER guilty feeling.

3:00 - 4:30 - feed Matthew and he falls asleep, so I put him in his swing. He fights it (happily though), but eventually falls asleep. I go up and play Chicken Blaster with John on the TV. Can't remember why, but he throws a fit and starts screaming... guess what...Matthew woke up. I go downstairs and have both boys crying for me again. My nerves are a little frazzled at this point. Matthew and John are both super cranky. So I spend this time trying to balance the two of them, hard job.

4:30 - Daddy is home early.. WHEW.. my night in shining armor! He brought John these little Rio movie toys (not necessarily an appropriate reward for how he was acting today, but Carl likes to buy him things when he is sick :)) . John was loving those on the kitchen floor for awhile.

5:00 - 5:30 - make dinner (Beef and Broccoli over wheat noodles for us and spaghettio's, cheese, whole wheat bagel with honey and strawberries for John (I know, random))

5:30 - 6:00 - I give Matthew a bath. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike giving newborns a bath. I do not remember being able to tolerate it until John was sitting up and in that inflatable bath thing. Not sure why I dislike it so much, but I do. Matthew has gotten a lot better, he only screams at the end now.

6:00 - FIRST BOTTLE FROM DADDY! He did great, not even a blink of an eye. He at 4 oz like it was nothing. And he had minimal over flow spit up, so maybe he is ready for 5 already.

6:00 - 7:00 - I am upstairs playing with John, it was nice to have uninterrupted time with him. We had fun, which was nice since he was having a rough day and I was praying for patience a lot. Then he gets in the bath and take some medicine for his fever, cough and runny nose.

CHORES - I had forgotten to post this on Monday, and we forgot to get our magnets on Tuesday, but this is a big part of our evenings now... he has the Melissa and Doug responsibility/chore chart that we have been using for about 4 weeks now. He picks his chores every Sunday and then in the evening, we talk about the day and decide if he has done them all and if he gets a happy face magnet for that day. He has yet to get all chores done every day all week, so we have not gotten a prize yet. I have several in the closet, ready to go. SO, I decided that this week is going to be softballs and he will get them all, so he can see what it is like to get the prize at the end of the week. I think it is working pretty well, the first wee we did it, one of his chores was to clear the table... since then, he does it on his own about 50% of the time or he will do it immediately and happily if I remind him 100% of the time.

7:00 - I try to top of Matthew and put him down. 30 minutes later he is still staring at me with bright eyes. I am not going to make myself crazy over bed time like I did with John. SO, he cam downstairs and had some swing time. Seriously, the kid did not fall asleep until 9:30 in my arms on the couch. Thus the reason for the blog a day late. :)

10:00 - feed Matthew and put him down with no fuss.