Monday, January 24, 2011

Jackson - Watch Me Grow - 4 Months

I know Jackson has the duck behind him for support, but I couldn't believe how straight he sat up when I plopped him down for his 4 month picture! He's getting so big already! You'll notice my date for taking the pictures was off by a couple of days. That's because we were having such a hard time getting healthy this month. I thought Jackson was finally feeling good enough to take his Duck picture but bless his heart he started vomiting all over the place which obviously ended our photo session. Poor baby! No wonder he wasn't giving me his usual big smiles!
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Jackson - 4 Mon - 13 January 2011
Jackson - 3 Mon - 9 December 2010
Jackson - 1 Week - 17 September 2010
Jackson has continued to be a super sweet baby. He loves to smile at everyone and has developed a game of playing shy where he buries his head in your shoulder while someone else is talking to him asking him if he is shy. It is absolutely adorable!
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His eating and sleeping patterns haven't changed much. He still wakes up several times per night long enough to eat and promptly fall back to sleep. He is taking several naps during the day but we don't really have a set nap schedule yet. When I'm lucky he takes an afternoon nap at the same time the girls have rest time but that's kind of hit and miss. Bedtime is pretty consistently between 9:00-10:00 and he's usually up for the day by 7:30ish.
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Being a little boy, and given our girls unusual track record of peeing fountains and pooping across the room, we were expecting the worst from Jackson during diaper changes... Well, believe it or not, he sprayed us for the first time in mid December. Not that I'm complaining, but again given our girls' track record, what's up with that? lol :)
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Jackson has been busy teething and his first tooth has just barely broken through the skin on the lower left hand side of his mouth. It's kind of in a strange place. That said, he's definitely into chewing and drooling!
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Jackson appears to be more of a thumb sucker than a paci lover. He definitely takes the paci but he's not devoted to it like the girls.
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I'm not sure which of his blankets will end up being his favorite yet, but like his big sisters (and Mommy too) he does love to be snuggled up. :) I think his most prized possesion is likely to be one of his blankets in the future. What can I say? We're a house full of snugglers! :)
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Jackson started using the jumper in December and obviously has started working hard on sitting up. He also loves to try and stand. He's not much for tummy time but he likes to try and roll from back to tummy. I just can't believe he's already big enough to be reaching these baby milestones!!!
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We have a little talker on our hands! Jackson has made it quite clear that just because he has two older sisters who like to talk he'll be contributing every bit as much as them. This boy has things to say and knows how to be heard! He yaks and yaks and yaks. He is so funny the way he talks all the time! lol :)
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Speaking of older sisters, Jackson loves them! They can bring a smile to his face as quick as anyone. He loves for them to talk to him! It cracks me up that both Reagan and Kennedy tell him and ask him things like "Are you such a sweet baby boy?" or "Are you the sweetest baby brother?" They all three love each other and can't wait to greet each other first thing every morning. So precious! :)
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We all love and adore you sweet baby boy! :)

Hot Chocolate

We had two full weeks in January where we couldn't get every one healthy and feeling good at the same time. :( We had at least 3 different bugs with different symptoms that were traded among us. We also had a lot of great snow that we were missing out on playing in because we were alternately so sick. :( One day in the middle when I thought we were all on the upswing we took advantage of the opportunity to get ouside and do some more sledding. When we came back in we decided to fix some hot chocolate since we were wearing our hot chocolate PJs. Reagan was so cute and funny because she kept telling me (and Tim too when he came home from work) how "perfect" it was that we drank hot choclate since we had hot chocolate PJs. :) We also enjoyed some yummy snowmen marshmellows Aunt Arla sent the girls. Snow days are so much fun outside and in! :)


Cute Kids

The girls love to share their blankets and toys (specifically princess dolls) with him. He can sometimes end up with quite the pile around him. lol :) He doesn't have so much around him in this picture, but I did want to capture that they do this for him and especially that they both love to share their most treasured possessions - Reagan's purple blanket and Kennedy's pink blanket. They both love and adore their little brother!
Then the girls decided they both wanted a picture with Jackson too. Love it! :)
That same evening Kennedy and I had a knock down dragout regarding wearing PJs. Kennedy is such a sweetheart we hardly ever have to put her in time out. In general she is 100% easier to deal with 95% of the time. But I'm telling you what, when she decides to dig in her heals she is absolutely immovable! She ended up falling asleep on the steps after a long battle of refusing to go in to time out at all. When I woke her up I told her I was sorry for things getting out of control. She very matter of factly told me "I not, I not." In a surprised tone I said "Kennedy, I'm sorry, aren't you sorry too?" She simply responded "No." What a little stink she can be!


Curly Hair

On New Year's Day (sorry I messed up the order of these posts) I decided to curl the girls' hair and see if we could figure out anything for Aunt Julie's wedding. I couldn't believe how much they both loved to have their hair curled. They sat so still and have wanted me to curl it multiple times since.
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Kennedy's curls may have been a little tight... I don't know that I have any better idea what I want the hair dresser to do with Kennedy's hair but I least I know how to give her hair some volume now. :)



Reagan wanted her hair to look like Clara's from the Nutcracker


I do love having little girly girls! :)

Lexington Children's Museum

On Sunday, January 2nd, we decided to visit the Lexington Children's Museum. We had a wonderful time and Grammy and Grand-Dad were kind enough to purchase a family membership for us for 2011. Thank you so much!!!
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Kennedy and Grammy had to try out the first horse they spotted :)
Kennedy demonstrating how much "horse power" she has
The girls loved playing with and riding on all the horses. Here Reagan kept yelling "Yee haw!"

Off to the races!

Water is always lots of fun!

Grammy and the girls enjoying the puppet theatre
Enjoying a moonwalk
The Bubble Room
Kennedy fell into the big bubbles and Grammy tried to help her dry off a little
Catching big bubbles

Reagan got pretty good at creating a bubble around herself
Their was a special train exhibit that was just finishing up after the holidays


There were different buttons you could push to interact with the exhibit. I believe Kennedy and Grand-Dad are making a helicopter fly here.





Jackson checking out the floating balloon and learning how gravity works
Working together to fly the shuttle
The girls love to spin anywhere, anytime so exploring how to spin faster was (and I imagine will continue to be) a huge favorite!

One really cool room we spent a good deal of time in, but you couldn't really take a picture of, was the shadow room. There was this neat wall that would hold the shape/imprint of your shadow after a flash of light. It was so much fun! :)
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Thank you Grammy and Grand-Dad for the membership! We are going to love using it throughout this year!!! :)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

New Year's Eve 2010/2011

New Years Eve Grammy and Grand-dad drove back from Wisconsin in time to watch 5 little kiddos so Dan, Dorothy, Tim and I could go out for dinner to celebrate the new year. We had a wonderful time and then came back to join everyone in welcoming in 2011. Thank you Grammy and Grand-dad for baby-sitting and for Champagne and Sparkling Grape Juice to celebrate the new year!
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Reagan (3 1/2 yr), Jackson (3 1/2 mon) and Kennedy (2 yr) sporting their New Years hats - we had fun hats for the kids and I apparently took many pictures of Reagan, Kennedy, Jackson, Heidi and Holden wearing them. lol :)






Daddy is hard at work raising the next generation of Axis and Allies players! :)
Grand-dad hard at work preparing the Champagne

Every one except the two little boys made it to midnight - Happy New Year! :)
The girls had sparkling grape juice so they could participate in the "Cheers" too
Heidi used the play kitchen to make some special drinks for "all the girls"
Kennedy announced she wanted to sleep with Grammy and it didn't take long for Reagan and Heidi to hop into bed too :)
While we were up with little ones during the night I noticed these two sweet girls all snuggled up together. Reagan's hand was actually over Heidi's when I first saw them but I unfortunately didn't capture that shot. Actually this picture just couldn't do justice to how absolutely precious the two of them looked together. I'm so glad they have each other to grow up with!
Happy New Year everyone! We hope 2011 is off to a great start for you and it brings much joy and happiness to your lives! :)