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 :-)