Rice Cereal

Ben had his first "solid food" this weekend. We're starting him on rice cereal and he seems to love it.

He did a great job eating and seemed to get the hang of it quickly.

He's never been a big eater so we were surprised at how happy he was to finish the entire bowl. I don't think Sam ever finished a bowl of rice cereal until we started mixing it with apples or bananas.

We got the high chair down from the attic. Ben loves sitting at the table at our level.

It was a big event as we all gathered around the table together. Sam asked lots of questions and provided lots of input too, like .... "he likes it when you call him big boy."

Ben at 4 Months

Ben turned 4 months old last week. He is 18.5 weeks old today. We went to the pediatrician for his well visit and vaccinations yesterday. Here are the stats ...

Weight: 13 lb 13 oz (25%)

Length: 25 in (48%)

Head Cir: 15.75 in (5%)

He got the same three vaccines as last time: Pentacel, Prevnar, and Rotavirus. He stayed home with me yesterday so he could get lots of sleep. In addition to the vaccinations, he has started teething, so he was a little fussy, had a little fever, and hardly had any appetite. He even had a little diarrhea from the Rotavirus vaccine. He's also got a little cough left over from his cold and exacerbated by all of the drooling from teething. Poor baby!

Ben is doing all the things on the 3 - 6 month checklist:

• follow moving toys or faces with their eyes
• startle at loud or new sounds
• wiggle and kick with legs and arms
• lift head and shoulders while on stomach
• smile back at parents or other family members
• make sounds, like gurgling, cooing or sucking sounds

He's even doing some of the things from the 6 - 9 month checklist

• explore toys with hands and mouth
• roll over front-to-back and back-to-front

"Standing while supported" wasn't on the list any where, but the doctor commented that he was ahead of schedule on that too.

Ben is having a lot of fun playing in the exer-saucer. He is very social and loves going to day care. We took him out in the Baby Bjorn baby carrier last weekend and he LOVED it. He usually gets cranky when we take him out and leave him in the car seat. Last weekend we were able to take him ice skating, to a hockey game, and to IKEA in the baby carrier. Some outings were as long as two hours and he did great. I keep thinking he should be dropping his evening (fourth) nap soon, but his naps are so short at day care that he seems to still need it. Most babies are down to two naps per day by six months, so his schedule should be in flux for a while. I think we'll even be trying rice cereal and other stage 1 foods soon.

The pediatrician referred us to a physical therapist for Ben. She's concerned that he has a tight muscle in his neck on his left side. It's called Torticollis. We are going next week. They are supposed to teach us how to do some stretches. I'm assuming they'll evaluate him and determine if it's a one time visit or if we'll need to have reoccurring visits. I had physical therapy for tight muscles in my neck about six years ago and I had to go two or three times a week for several weeks, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Ben has started to like books, especially pop-up books. Sam loves picking out books for us to read on the weekends.

I love holding this little guy.

I think Ben looks just like Chris.

Ben LOVES Sam. He saves the biggest smiles for him. He watches every move he makes.

Sam thinks that is cool and puts on a show.

Sam has his 6 month follow-up with the ENT tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's been six months since his surgery.

Trick Tracks

Hot Wheels Trick Tracks are the coolest toy I've seen in a long time. You "collect" (buy) stunts and connect them together. Each stunt sets off the next stunt. There are lots of different themed sets: robot, dino, rocket, sport, daredevil, etc. They even connect with other Hot Wheels tracks that aren't specifically Trick Tracks. Mattel doesn't seem to be doing a great job of advertising or distributing these toys though. I'd never heard of them until we saw them at a friends house. I've searched online, but I've had trouble finding a single source that sells them all. (Of course this may be because they've been out for over a year and I live under a rock.) Each set seems to have a big stunt that sells for around $20 and then two or three other smaller stunts that sell for about $10 each.

Here's a video of the Trick Tracks that Sam and I set up the first day. It includes the booster and loop from a track he got for Christmas. Sam has a lot of fun playing with this, but he sometimes has to ask us to help him connect the tracks. He can definitely load up the cars on his own and set them off though.

There's also a lot of videos of these on YouTube. Here's a few I liked ...

Random picture of Sam and me with blue tongues after eating Valentine suckers.

Funny is Better

Sam was quite difficult today. He threw a fit that lasted one and a half hours because he didn't want to say "please" and "I'm sorry". At the end of the day, I'd rather think about the times he made me laugh this week.

Sam had chicken, carrots, and grapes for dinner tonight. He ate all of the carrots, most of the grapes, and hardly any of the chicken.
Sam: How many more bites do I have to eat?
Me: Six bites of chicken.
Sam: But grapes are foodier.

Chris went out of town on business this week. He was prepping Sam the night before.
Chris: I'm not going to be here tomorrow night. You need to be good and mind Momma. Momma will help you get ready for bed and read your books.
Sam: Why aren't you going to be here?
Chris: Because I have a job to do.
Sam: Why?
Chris: Because I have to make money.
Sam: Why?
(etc. etc.)
The next night Sam and I were eating dinner, when he asks ...
Sam: Is Daddy still in the money town?
Me: Yes.
Sam: And we're in the home town?
Me: Yes
Sam: I love him. Let's go make him a card.

I found Sam in the dining room, in the dark, talking to Cleo, and pointing at the alarm keypad. The light was red because the alarm was armed.
Sam: When the light turns green the house is going to take off.
Me: Sam, what do you mean "the house is going to take off"?
Sam: The balloons will come out and the house will take off. (like in the movie Up)

Sam was playing in the backyard today. He ran around the side of the house, and when he came running back screamed ...
MUDCRACKER!

Preschool Math Concepts

Sam has been learning math at his new preschool. Up until a few weeks ago he was only learning the concepts of zero through ten. (I love that they start with zero! Yes, Melanie, I'm a dork.) He must have graduated to larger numbers recently. They have a wooden board which has little pieces (like Scrabble tiles) with numbers 1 to 100. The kids have to put the numbers in order. He currently isn't doing any work (that I'm aware of) with numbers larger than 100. So one day he comes home and announces ...

One hundred is the last number.

Since I was getting dinner ready, I lazily responded ... Really?

I meant to come back to that later and talk to him about it, but of course I forgot. Then he comes home the next week and announces ....

Infinity is the last number.

Now I'm not sure who told him this, and I wasn't sure how to respond, so I once again lazily responded ... Really?

A few more days go by and infinity morphs into one-finity ...

I can count to one-finity. One, two, three, ..., twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-ten, twenty-thirty, ... one hundred, one-finity.

So in addition to making dinner and getting the kids ready for bed, should we take time out from telling Sam to stop picking his nose and stop jumping on the couch to explain the concept of infinity? Or should we just keep loving the fact that he says one-finity and let him learn that concept when it is developmentally appropriate?

My other current favorites ...

bachine (machine)

jajamas (pajamas)

chocklick (chocolate)

crown (crayon)

My mom (a math teacher) let me keep saying liberry (library) and cuvvurd (cupboard) until I was older just because she thought it was cute, so maybe it's ok to keep one-finity around for a little while longer! (Though she did get upset with me when Sam asked, "Why is the moon out?" And I said, "Because it is night time.")

My Snowy Valentine

Wow! Did we get some snow or what?!?!? It looks like we got around 9 inches, and it was the prettiest, fluffiest snow ever. Sam thought it was Christmas again because of the snow.

It was still coming down late on snow day #1 when Sam and I decided to suit-up and head out to play. We were immediately greeted by our neighbors who started throwing snow balls at Sam.

Chris had been working an outage at work and had pretty much been up for 48 hours straight, so he was in bed and didn't get to come out and play. Ben was sick with his first real cold/cough/fever, so he didn't get to go out either. If you look really close, you can see the baby monitor in our doorway. It was all Sam and snow, and he loved it!

More neighbors and little boys. They knocked over this snowman and started playing king of the mountain.

Another shot of the boys.

The snow didn't pack together well so it was hard to get this snowman built. It was even harder since the boys wanted to attack him.

Here's a video of snow day #1.

And here is where my point and shoot camera ran out of batteries. It's amazing how the cold can do that. Soon after that we went to the neighbor's house for hot chocolate and cookies. Sam did not want to go home. He ended up playing in the snow in our backyard even when it got dark out.

It kept snowing all night, and we headed out to play as soon as Ben went down for his first nap.

Daddy came out with us for a little while that morning and took a few pictures.

We got the ski gear down for the second snow day. I knew we were going to be outside for a while and I wanted us to stay warm and dry.

The snow was so deep, and it was real snow! ... not that icy stuff we usually get. That big mound in the background that looks like a bush is actually a tree, a wax myrtle. A responsible adult would have knocked the snow off as it was building up, but it was just so pretty. We have a few broken branches to trim now.

Sam had a little trouble walking in the snow at first. Of course every time he fell was an excuse to make another snow angel.

Sam went straight to the neighbor's house, rang their doorbell, and asked if the boys could come out to play.

The new snow covered up the snowman's face, so the boys tried to make him a new one.

And then they started attacking him again.

They REALLY wanted to knock him down.

Pure joy!

Timothy loved eating the snow.

The boys started doing experiments with the snow. They were fascinated at throwing snow in the street, watching it soak up the water, turn from white to gray, and then melt. They did it over, and over, and over again.

The boys wanted another neighbor to come out and play. He scared them when he opened the little window on his door instead of the door itself.

After this we headed to our house for lunch and some indoor play. Once again, the boys were not happy when it was time to go.

Daddy was able to come back out later in the day and play in the snow with Sam.

Sam was soooo tired, but he did not want to stop playing in the snow. Later that evening, Sam got to go to movie and pizza night at Timothy and Adam's.

Here's some video from snow day #2.

It just so happened to be Valentine's Day too, so Sam and Ben got some treats from Lulu, Yiayia, and Nanner.

Here he is in his sweater, long underwear, and wool socks. This was what he had on under the snow suit.

We made Valentine's Day cookies ... you know the regular Nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, but add red, pink, and white M&Ms. Yummy!

Poor Ben! All that snow and fun, and this is what he got to do. He did have fun watching all the boys play when they came over the second day.

He's starting to travel around his crib, so he's waking up and crying in the middle of the night when his arms or legs get stuck in the crib slats. He's usually in a sleep sack, so it's mostly his arms that get stuck.

Ben is feeling better now though he still has a little cough. I swear he just grows bigger each night. He's starting to play more so we got all of Sam's baby toys out of the attic and cleaned them this weekend. He's a lot of fun and smiles a lot.

Superbowl Watch Party

WHO DAT!

What an amazing end to an amazing season! The Saints just won the Superbowl!!!

We watched the game at home with the boys. Chris yelled the first time the Saints scored while he was holding Ben. It scared the hell out of Ben and he started crying. Sam just thought it was funny that we were yelling at the TV.

We put the boys in their jerseys for the special occasion. Sam wanted to hold Ben and hug him.

Playing in the Bumbo chair during the game.

I love that look.

After ice skating, soccer, McDonald's, new Hot Wheels, pizza, and a movie last night, Sam was not digging the fact that it wasn't all about Sam tonight. He had several "look at me" moments, so we finally paused the game and put the boys to bed.

Side story ... we went to the grand opening of the McDonald's by our house on Saturday. They had Ronald McDonald there signing autographs. Sam wanted to go see him, so we waited in line. When Ronald handed him the photo with his autograph, Sam said, "that's not my name!" And, Ronald said, "I know. It's mine."

Yes, Ben has figured out how to grab toys and put them in his mouth. Let the drooling begin!

Sharing Miami

We stayed up a little late tonight watching a movie. This is the conversation I had with Sam when putting him to bed.

Me: You might get to stay up late tomorrow night too. There's a big football game on TV.
Sam: Are we going to go?
Me: No, it's on TV.
Sam: (starts whining) But, I want to go.
Me: We can't go. It's in Miami.
Sam: Why is it in Urami?
Me: What?
Sam: Why is it in your-am-ee?
Me: (laughing) Not my-am-ee. Miami. It's a city.
Sam: If something belongs to you, you have to share.

Gymnastics Recital

Sam had his gymnastics recital the week before his Christmas break started. Sam has been participating in gymnastics with the same instructor since he was about two and a half. He LOVES tip-overs. Sam was very excited to get a medal, but was even more excited that I was there to see him.

Balance beam.

Ms. Amy has been trying to get him to do backwards rolls and to flip over the bar, but Sam is scared to try sometimes.

Here's a video of Sam doing his gymnastics. Watch for the little happy dance that he does close to the end of the video. He does that little dance all over the house when he's excited.

Ben Update: Ben is back to sleeping through the night most nights (knock on wood!). It took him a few days and nights to get used to sleeping without the swaddle, but it wasn't too bad. He really seems to like his sleep sack because he stays warm and can get his hands in his mouth. Most mornings I find him sleeping on his side with his thumb in his mouth in the corner of the crib. The last two mornings he was on his stomach, so he's really mastered turning over. Ben is getting bigger and stronger every day. Sometimes it seems like he grew overnight. He's starting to sit in the Bumbo chair for a few minutes at a time, and he struggles against the straps to try to sit up when we put him in his car seat or a stroller. He's still very happy and is starting to laugh. His fourth nap of the day is turning into a very short 30 to 45 minute catnap, if he even takes it. This means that Ben is now awake most of the evening so we get to spend more time with him. I'm not sure Sam is thrilled about that idea because he used to have Mommy and Daddy to himself in the evenings. Hopefully we get some more pictures of the boys to post this weekend.

Emily Update: I've been back at work for two weeks now and everything is going well. I'm working on a new project and am really enjoying it so far. Work and family life are still balanced so far. I'm still working from home so I'm able to get some stuff done around the house on my lunch break.

Chris Update: Chris was promoted from Sr. Manager to Director this week. Congratulations, Chris! He's still grilling away on the Big Green Egg. We need to get him to do a post on pulled pork because I think he's mastered it. Yummy!