Trick or Treat!

We had a very wet Halloween this year!  It rained all day, and we were worried that we were going to have a very difficult time trick-or-treating in the evening.  It would have been such a shame for Jimmy's first Halloween experience.  Fortunately, right as we were getting ready to leave, the rain stopped!  It stayed dry the whole time we were out, and it ended up being quite a beautiful evening.  Everyone was out at the same time, and the mood was quite festive!  Anna ended up with a ridiculously huge haul, and Jimmy ended up with a lot too (considering he's a baby and can't eat most of it!).  Ms. B was so cute while she was trick-or-treating: this was the first time she would go up to the houses by herself, ring the doorbell, say, "Trick or treat!" get the candy, and then say, "Thank you!  Happy Halloween!"  It was wonderful to see her be so excited about the evening and so polite at the same time.  Some people were so impressed at her manners that they ended up giving her more candy because of it!  Jimmy tried his first piece of Halloween candy when we got home (a 3 Muskateers), and, while he seemed to enjoy it, he didn't even finish the mini-size!

Fright Fest!

Jimmy got to go to his first Fright Fest yesterday!  Anna went to her first Fright Fest 4 years ago, and it was a little different than this time around, I'd say!  Jimmy does not appear to be a thrill-seeker like his sister; she loved all the rides she went on, but Jimmy seems mostly content to just watch the rides.  The only one he seemed to really enjoy was apparently the "Krazy Kars," which is probably because he got to have a steering wheel to turn.  For the most part he was happy during the day though, because there was so much for him to see I think he must have been entertained.  Anna was in her element and rode as many rides as we had time to do.  There were so many people that we didn't get to ride as much as we wanted (I really wanted to ride the Whizzer, but it was just too long of a wait).  We did, however, get to ride the Dark Knight together, plus a lot of the little carnival-type rides.  Us adults also got on Raging Bull, Giant Drop, the Eagle (backward!), and by a last-minute fluke, the new X-Flight.  While we ran right onto that one, Anna and Uncie Eye managed to run onto the last Demon ride of the night.  She was so excited about it, even though it went upside down (she was terrified to go upside down, but she absolutely loved it)!  So it was a long, tiring day, but it was lots and lots of fun!  We were very glad to get to spend time with Uncie Eye too!

Baby on the Move!

I guess I spoke too soon, because it seems as if Jimmy is mobile now!  He's not actually crawling yet (at least not conventionally), but he is definitely able to get around.  He does a sort of crawl/scoot type of thing, where his hands and one foot are on the floor, and then he scoots on his bottom.  He's getting pretty good at it!  Plus he can pull himself up to standing very well, and he even can cruise just a little bit!  It's amazing how quickly all of it can come together.

Why Isn't He Sleeping???

For the past couple weeks, Jimmy's sleep patterns have been insane!  Toward the end of the summer, we were in a great groove: he would take a short morning nap, a long afternoon nap, go to sleep at around 9:30, wake up once during the night to eat, and then sleep until about 8:00!  It was great.  Now he goes to sleep anywhere from 10:00-11:00 (or tonight it was 11:30...), take one afternoon nap, and then wake up once or even twice to eat at night!  AHHH!  I don't know if he is having a growth spurt, but somehow I don't think so.  His growth has slowed down considerably since birth.  It's possible that it could have something to do with his desire to get better at standing.  I keep waiting for the day that he figures out how to cruise.  Maybe once he does he'll go back to being a better sleeper.  One can hope, anyway!!

Baby (not) on the Move

Jimmy's 9-month birthday has come and gone, and the crazy little boy is still not mobile!  I know that one day I will look back on this and think, "Why on earth was I in such a hurry for him to move?!"  But as of right now, it is quite a surprise.  Tim and I did notice today that he is able to lunge and sort of slither forward.  He is quite unconventional and inconsistent with how he gets around.  Jimmy's interest does seem to lie mostly with standing.  He's getting marginally better; slowly but surely he is able to stand a little better, but he doesn't seem to understand that he can't stand on his own yet!  Sometimes he just lets go!  So, in any case, Jimmy's road to mobility is definitely a slow one!  We'll see what ends up happening with his "walking" progress...

Vacation!!

We took our first all-out vacation as a family of 4 the last week of July!  We ended up going to Holland, MI, so that we could keep the car ride short and everything a little low-key.  We had a very good time!  We started off the vacation right: at the beach!  The water was icy cold, but the air was pleasant, so we mostly stuck with playing in the sand.  We ate at a place called New Holland Brewing Co. and had a VERY good meal, followed by delicious coffee!  The next day there was a threat of rain, so we tried to pick things that also had indoor things to do.  We started out at DeGraaf Nature Center, which Anna found fascinating (she actually liked the indoor exhibits more than the nature trails).  It was pleasant though, and none of the trails were particularly long, which works well for little ones.  We then headed over to the Windmill Gardens, which was one of my favorite places of the trip.  There was a huge, still operational windmill, and they give tours and show you how it works and everything.  We were surprised that Anna was so interested in learning about it.  We even got a bag of the flour that they grind there!  The rain held off long enough for us to tour the grounds, learn about/hear the street organ they have (unique and very cool!), play at their bebow, and get Jimmy on his first carousel ride!  We then went to John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, which was built on a hill and is very shady.  It was beautiful, and we had a great time!  I think Jimmy even liked it there.  Ms. B's favorite part was the treehouse bebow, which of course has nothing to do with animals.  It was pretty neat though, so I can't fault her there.  The next day we drove to Kalamazoo and spent the day at the Air Zoo.  They had tons of airplanes, space exhibits, simulators, and even some carnival-type rides.  I think Ms. B enjoyed the rides the best, and I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't super excited about the space stuff.  That's not the type of reaction one would expect from a future astronaut!  The next day we went to the Dutch Village, which was jam-packed with stuff to do.  We didn't expect to stay from open to close, but there was so much to do!  Anna enjoyed the "zippy line" the best, but there was also a dutch dancing show, shoe carving, Delft-making demo, swings, goat walking (seriously), a slide, a street organ, and various little tidbits about dutch living.  Our last full day in Michigan we spent in South Haven.  We walked around the downtown a bit, went to the beach (which was ridiculously crowded), and ate at Clementine's.  Jimmy wasn't very cooperative during that meal, so that wasn't too fun for me.  Actually, it seems like he got less and less happy the more we ate out.  That's rough when you eat out at virtually every meal!  But I'm imagining it was pretty boring for him.  Anyway, we also went raspberry picking, which was fun for everyone!  Our last day it was raining, so we had to just buy already-picked blueberries instead of picking them ourselves.  Oh well.  It was a very fun vacation!

Michigan

We took Jimmy's (and the Ford Plex's) first trip out of state this past weekend!  We went with Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 to the farm.  It was probably the busiest we've ever been there; usually we slow down and take it relatively easy.  We got up there Friday evening, so we pretty much took it easy and went to bed.  Saturday we went to the beach, where the water was really, really nice!  Jimmy was pretty unsure about the whole thing, but he ended up tolerating it alright.  Anna still isn't very interested in getting better/more independent at swimming.  She just wanted to be held the whole time!  But everybody had fun.  We ended up going to a really fancy chocolate place, had a "tasting" (all three of us), and each of us picked out a package of our favorite truffles.  Yum!  Then that evening we had a bonfire and discovered that our bug spray does NOT work.  But Anna loves roasting marshmallows, so she didn't seem to mind too much.  She kept getting up early too!  Luckily Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 didn't seem to mind, and Anna ended up getting to help make breakfast, which made her very happy!  The next day we went blueberry picking and got almost 10 lbs!!  Anna picked 1.5 pounds all by herself!  So everybody had a great time, and we're looking forward to going back again sometime!

7 months!

Jimmy is 7 months old today!  How time flies.  He can sit quite well on his own now (he mostly runs into trouble when he tries to grab something out of reach - then he topples over!), he babbles ("Babamama"), and just this morning he almost pulled himself all the way up when holding onto the laundry basket!  He gets along great with Ms. B, he loves to cuddle, but he still loves to have his "alone time."  One surprising dislike: solid foods!  We've tried rice cereal, carrots, and sweet potatoes, and he takes maybe 3 bites and will have nothing to do with the rest.  We'll try green beans next.  Other than food, Jimmy still loves to put everything in his mouth, especially cloth!  Jimmy has developed a bit of an anti-Da phase, but I'm guessing that's because he spends his whole day with me.  He is a very smart, happy, healthy boy!

5 Months!

I can't believe Jimmy is 5 months old!  He is getting so big.  He is now rolling over very frequently, though still almost exclusively from his back to his front.  He can even sit up for a little bit, though he will inevitably topple over!  One thing that Jimmy isn't doing is talking.  He almost never makes "normal" baby sounds, like "ga," "ma," ba," or "da."  If he makes any sound at all, it's usually, "ah" or bubbly sounds.  So I'm not sure what's up with that!  Maybe he figures Ms. B does enough talking for the two of them!  He's getting better-behaved in church, and he seems to have settled on a couple short naps during the day.  One in the morning, then a longer one in the afternoon.  Sometimes he'll snooze in the evening for a bit too.  I'm hoping to get a decent nap routine in the summer, so we'll see if I'm successful.  He can spread out the eating now, when he wants to.  But now he gets very distracted if I try to read to Ms. B and feed him at the same time, so that hasn't worked out very well.  Some of his current likes are:

Bouncy Balls (even just watching them bounce amuses him)
Smiley faces - he will almost always smile back!
Being sock-less!  Let those little toesies be free!
His giraffe - yummy!
He LOVES to grab newspapers and things to chew on, which is quite fun... actually, anything he can put in his mouth he loves, particularly his fingers!

Dislikes:
Being ignored for more than a couple minutes... a couple seconds if you actually leave the room!
Putting clothes on, although he gets over it quickly
Loud noises - can't blame him there.
Hair, apparently!  He's losing it all!  My poor baby looks like he'll be bald soon!

Swimming Lessons

Anna just started another round of swimming lessons at the Y!  I'm really hoping she'll learn how to swim this summer.  When we were walking over to the pool, I told Ms. B to make sure she listens to the teacher and doesn't get scared.  Very confidently she said, "I'm not scared!"  Well, one of the first things we did was blow bubbles in the water, and of course she was scared.  She didn't even want to lie back and float, despite the fact that I was holding onto her!  So we've got a ways to go, that's for sure.  Oddly enough, the one thing about swimming that she loves and isn't scared to do is jump in the water.  In her second lesson she was able to doggie paddle with assistance from a noodle and floaties, so we're making progress... hey, at least she looks adorable in her bathing suit!

Preschool Graduation

Anna just finished her first year of preschool!!  She had a really great year with a wonderful teacher - Miss Kochan.  She started off the year with little to no fear, seemed to make friends very quickly (especially considering that was what I was most worried about), and further developed her love of learning.  She can now count to over 100, she can talk to others with relative ease, and she has quite a good imagination!  I love listening to Anna play by herself.  Things she liked best about this year:

~The "dowl" house (doll house).  At least for the first part of the year
~Books on CD, in particular "Storm is Coming!"
~Having a job, especially the calendar helper
~Library.  Hearing her act out Three Billy Goats Gruff is priceless.
~Art center.  She has developed a deep love for stickers!

Apparently Anna has also impressed the teachers with her knowledge of Beatles songs.  She has been asked to sing them for a number of the teachers, including the 4 yr old teacher and the kindergarten teacher!  I asked her which ones she sang, and she said, "Eight Days a Week and the 'Da da da da da dum dum da' song," which is From Me to You :-)

Her celebration on the 22nd was a lot of fun.  She got to play lots of games, including a whipped cream eating contest, a race to put on cowboy clothes and ride her horsie to the finish line, Bozo buckets, etc.  Then she got on stage and did a couple songs and prayers for us, which was super cute.  I'm so glad she had such a great year at school.

4 Months Old!

Jimmy just turned 4 months old already!  Here is what he is like now...

He's almost sleeping through the night.  He falls asleep sometime between 10 and 11, then he'll wake up once around 3 am, then he'll sleep until about 8 on the weekends (but I wake him up during the week so that I can feed him before I leave).  He'll eat every 2 hours when I'm feeding him, but he only eats 2 bottles during the day.  He hates bottles!  Luckily he at least will take them now.  For a while he'd actually refuse, and it would drive me crazy that he'd go the whole day with barely any food!

Jimmy is a very sweet boy.  He loves his sister!  Anna can always make him smile, especially when she acts silly (which she is very good at).  He gives us big smiles, but he's pretty conservative with his laughs.  His favorite things are silly noises, particularly squeakers from some of his toys and goofy voices.  He also loves Bubby's tickles, which is one of the only ways he will laugh for us!  He's also very stubborn... and not at all easy-going!  I call him my high-maintenance baby!  We're going to the doctor this afternoon to see how he's measuring up!

Bye Bye, Original Sin!

Sunday we had Jimmy's baptism.  It was performed during the 10:00 mass with Father Roger, and he did a lovely job.  It was very different from Anna's baptism, but in a good way!  First, he had us come up to the front of the church and announce his name.  Then after the homily we came up onto the alter, where he did the baptism so that the entire church could see.  Then he held Jimmy up and announced him to the church, which I thought was kind of neat.  So it felt like a very special service, which is exactly what Jimmy deserves!  He was well-behaved during the first part of mass, then fell asleep right before getting holy water poured on his head.  That woke him up!  He started to cry for that part, but then Auntie Carrie was able to get him back to sleep.

Afterward we rushed over to Proksa Park (aka the Buzzy Bebow) and had to set up the reception while everyone was waiting there, which was a little stressful.  We had lots of people helping out, so it was done rather quickly.  We had lots of tasty food, so everyone seemed happy enough.  Jimmy was even happy at the reception!  The weather, miraculously enough, cooperated for us too.  After a month of cold temperatures and record-breaking rains, we had a sunny, 55-degree day.  It was amazing!  I'm glad Jimmy was able to have a nice special day, just for him!

Back to Work

This was my first week back at work.  Boy, has it been rough!  Even though there were some tears (from me), it's nice to have Bobby watching the kiddies so I don't have to worry about them.  At first it was a little rough on everybody: Jimmy would scream and cry about taking a bottle, Anna acted defiant and bratty, and I was just exhausted and stressed.  I had a talk with Anna about her behavior (she seemed to think it was Bobby's fault that I had to go back to work), Bobby was persistent with trying to get Jimmy to eat, and I just tried to survive :)  But by today, Jimmy ate 2 bottles without a fight, Anna behaved herself fairly well, and I'm celebrating the weekend!  So it all worked out... so far!

Anna the Astronaut

Anna has a new obsession: space!  She started out with an interest, and it has grown into a passion!  We just watched Apollo 13 (well, not all of it, but the relevant parts), and Anna almost immediately wanted to watch it again!  It's pretty fun getting to watch movies that I really enjoy, but it makes bed time a bit tricky when we don't want to turn it off!  For my birthday Daddy took the day off and we went to the planetarium.  There was a lot of stuff there that was a little too grown-up for her (lots to read, historical artifacts, etc), but there was also a lot of hands-on space stuff that she absolutely loved!  Her favorite thing was this interactive show that we saw, where we got to basically zoom through space and see various starts, planets, moons, constellations, and even other galaxies!  She also liked this kids area that was very hands-on, and it had things to play with, a space ship that she got to "launch," and so on.  I think we might have to go back again sometime!  Preferably when there's not a snow storm...

Mr. Chatty and Some Jealousy...

Jimmy is now 8 weeks old and is more fun than ever!  He's begun finding his voice and can now makes all sorts of "ahh," "ooh," and "gheee" noises!  When he locks eyes with me and makes an excited, "Ahhh!" sound, it makes me the happiest mommy in the world!  He's a very strong boy too, and he has very good control of his head and neck.  If I prop him up with pillows, he can actually finish sitting up all by himself!

He's getting in some fairly consistent stretches of sleep at night, usually 3-4 hours at a time.  11:00-3:00 seems to be his best time.  Sometimes he can even make it close to 4:00!  So we're definitely making progress in the sleep department.  I find his independent streak to be quite baffling; I had no idea there were babies who sometimes just want "alone" time!  Jimmy is also a big fan of lights and ceiling fans; he will sit mesmerized just watching!  That's how he is with his Mickey mobile too.  He'll lie there quietly just watching the Mickeys spin around, and then when it stops, he starts to fuss until we get it moving again!  It's pretty funny.

Now it must have dawned on Anna that Jimmy is here to stay, because she is definitely showing some major jealousy.  She is acting very differently toward me (probably because I spend the most time with Jimmy), and no matter what she will always try and climb on the person who happens to be holding Jimmy.  She does NOT want him getting anyone's undivided attention!  I do my best to pay attention to both of them as much as I can, but of course it's not good enough for her.  I am shocked at how naughty Anna has been lately; tons of time-outs, treats being taken away, and when those stopped working we even wrapped her thumb so she couldn't suck it!  I miss my sweet little girl, and I really hope this is a short-lived phase!!

6 Weeks!

Jimmy turned 6 weeks old yesterday!  All at once the fastest and slowest 6 weeks ever... really, there's no denying that it's a tough time!  He still generally eats about every 2 hours, although once in a while he will give us longer stretches.  A couple nights in a row I actually got 4 consecutive hours of sleep!  Miraculous!  He's been awake a lot more often, especially in the evenings.  He's also been showing us lots more smiles!  He can hold his head up really well too.  Some of his likes are:

Eating.  Duh.
"Running legs."  Seriously, if you play with his feet or legs, it's almost a sure-fire way to calm him down and make him happy.
Bubby and Bobby; no matter what, they've always been able to make him happy!
Dance parties!
His swing and/or blue bouncy seat... but only if he's in the mood.

Dislikes:
Not eating!
Tummy time (he did like it for a while, but it seems like that phase is over!)
Baths
Church!  At least the last couple weeks...

The thing is, when Jimmy gets agitated, often there's just no way to console him!  He can be a pretty tough baby!  Lucky for him he's cute :-)

Birthday Girl!

Unbelievably, Anna turned 4 today!!!!  She is such a sweet and special girl.  Here's how she is now:

She is obsessed with Octonauts.  Luckily, I happen to enjoy the show too.  It is, however, a British show (despite being on Disney Jr), so all the "merchandise" is very difficult to find and is pretty much all overseas!

Some other favorites of hers: "reading" books (she can actually memorize entire books and recite them!  It's quite good), doing puzzles (this is quite a talent of hers), balloons, and playing games.  She got a Minnie matching game for Christmas that she plays every single day.  Out of all the times I've played with her, I have won exactly ONCE.  She also loves learning about science-related things, like the solar system.

She has been loving preschool and has fit in very well there.  That makes both of us happy!  She is smart and excels in math.  She can count to 100 with just a little bit of help!  She also learned how to work zippers and is starting to get buttons as well!

My little Anna Banana will always hold a huge part of my heart, and I'm so proud of her.  We had a great day today, despite not really being able to go anywhere because of the bitter cold.  Happy Birthday to my little angel!

Welcome Jimmy!

We are so happy to have a new member of our family!  We've been hoping Jimmy would come into our lives for quite some time now, and it's amazing that the day finally came... albeit 3 days late!  We celebrated Bobby's birthday, and I decided that I would try a few last-ditch attempts at going into labor.  I ended up walking about 6 miles throughout the day, and then we ordered some greasy pizza from Brando's for dinner (pepperoni and bacon!)  Sure enough, around 11 pm I got some clues that labor would be starting soon... so there was no chance of me getting any decent sleep!  I got all our Christmas presents packed up and tried to get any last-minute things ready to go, but there were intermittent contractions keeping me from resting.  Around 5 am the contractions starting becoming more "real" (I had tons of fake contractions before then), so I took a shower and got Tim up too... we dropped off Abbey, dropped off Anna, and just a couple hours later Jimmy was born!  He's a big boy too!  8 lbs 15 oz, 21 1/4 in long!  He's an eating machine too, but luckily for me he had absolutely no latching issues.  He has been eating basically every 1-2 hrs, no matter what the time of day (yaaaay)... luckily now that we've gotten to the 1 month point, things are settling down a bit.  He can sometimes give me a 3-hr stretch between feedings, so that's good.  And he loves his Bubby and Bobby, which is great!! 

Anna has been a fantastic big sister.  She loves to hold him, read to him, sing to him, and even just talk to him.  She's also a great help to her mommy.  She always picks out his outfits and helps with the diaper changes, and if I ask her to bring me something like my glass of water, she is more than willing to do so.  She also hasn't asked if we can give him back yet, so I'm wondering if she understands that he's here to stay!

We're a very blessed family.  What wonderful children!!