They are both doing pretty well adapting to life with a new baby brother. They’re learning to depend on me less which is a good thing but makes me feel guilty sometimes. I keep telling myself in a year from now they’ll be able to play together and I can do things with all 3 of them a lot easier. Ryder is starting to really talk, laugh, and “play” (kick and grab for toys) so they are more interested in him. We set up Ryder’s booster seat (which reclines quite far back for infants) and he now sits with us at the table during meals. He loves watching us, I love eating with 2 hands, and the twins think it’s fun he has his own chair.
Speaking of meals, Walker and Jocelyn are doing SO much better eating now. They both have tons of teeth, including molars, which helps the chewing process. They eat everything we do for the most part. They’re working on using utensils and we’re getting there slowly. Their new favorite thing is eating their cereal and bananas in a bowl with a little milk in the mornings. They think that is super cool because Mom and Dad do that. One thing we think that has really helped is we took their trays off of their booster seats and moved them up to the table with us. Daddy bought them some super cool Sesame Street place mats too!
They are doing great sleeping. I really wish that 18 months ago I would have been able to see that!! LOL They are good sleepers now though and that gives me reassurance that as Ryder is ready he too will get there with a little help from me. :-) They wake up in the morning between 6:30-7:00am. I try not to get them up until 6:45am at the earliest unless someone is really throwing a fit. Ryder wakes up around 6am and is happy kicking and playing after he eats so that gives me time to get ready for the day before getting Walker and Jocelyn up. Then they drink a cup of milk while they watch some morning cartoons. They’re not breakfast first thing in the morning people. Totally unlike me so it took a while to figure that one out. That would be inherited from their Dad! :-) Then we have breakfast, get dressed, play for awhile and try to do some learning in there. We usually have a snack around 9:30ish. Then we have lunch about 11am and they are down for a nap between 11:30 and noon. They just switched to one nap about 3-4 weeks ago so we’re finally starting to get used to this routine. They sleep until 2pm – 3:30pm. I know that is a big difference but it’s just what happens. They do MUCH better if they sleep until 3pm but some days Miss Jocelyn *thinks* she only needs to sleep until 2pm and throws a fit until I come get her (and try to leave Walker asleep). Normally they have a snack between 3-4pm. Dinner is at 5:30pm, then baths and bedtime is 7:30pm. This schedule has worked out pretty good for us. I can’t wait to get Ryder on a schedule and down for regular naps but I know we have a couple more months before that will realistically happen. He’s starting to sleep laying down better now so that is reassuring. I know the twins were about 3-4 months when they starting finally sleeping in their beds better. It doesn’t help that I am a complete sucker and I just love cuddling my babies. LOL You can’t get this time back and it goes by so quickly that I just quit feeling guilty about it and just enjoy cuddling and watching a sleeping baby. :-) He does awesome playing and sitting by himself when he’s awake but when he’s tired he really wants to cuddle. We’ll get there with him and hopefully sooner and easier than we did with the twins. But they are proof positive that even after the worst sleeping habits things can change. When it’s time for naps or bedtime we just lay them in their cribs with Paci and Blankie, say goodnight and walk out. Voila…done!
Paci’s….that is our next challenge. I’ve been very relaxed about them with the new baby here and quite honestly I just can’t handle more whining right now. I know I need to suck it up soon though. Their Pediatrician didn’t say anything about it but I know it will just get harder the longer I wait. SO I think starting on the 26th (when they turn 19 months) I’ll limit Paci’s to bed only. We’ll see how they do with that one and figure out when to take them away completely. I’m scared I won’t lie. LOL
The other two things that will come up in the next 6 months are converting to a toddler bed and starting potty training. Both of which scare the living daylights out of me!!! SO – if anyone has any pointers on these please feel free to send them my way! :-) I’m not in any hurry to do either one right now. They just don’t seem ready. They aren’t trying to climb out of their beds and Ryder has his own crib so it’s not like we need theirs for him. They also don’t seem to mind wet diapers until they are pretty bad (which can happen pretty fast the way they drink water!! LOL) Jocelyn does seem to notice when she goes potty and grabs her diaper and whines a little SO she may be getting close to being ready. They don’t stay dry for long periods of time though so I just don’t know if physically she is 100% ready and I’m not sure I want to dive in to this HUGE project if they are not ready. I just don’t have the time and patience with the little guy being so little right now. We’ll play things by ear and I’ll have to suck it up and dive in sometime. LOL
Their 18 month visit at the Pediatrician’s went well. They didn’t have to get shots since they had them all done at 15-16 months but Jocelyn had to get a blood test because her Iron level was low at the last WIC appointment. Hopefully that comes back normal since she is eating better now. We had all 3 kids with us and the nurse didn’t write the numbers down for us so I only have rough weights on them. Walker was 26 lbs and ? oz and Jocelyn was 22 lbs and ? oz. I tried to measure them this morning and Walker was about 32 inches and Jocelyn about 29 ½ inches. Ryder’s going to catch up with Miss J before we know it! She definitely takes after her Momma! She’s a little thing but I think she’s got her Daddy’s fiery temperament. LOL Don’t make her mad! ;-)
They go to the CDC (Child Development Center aka Daycare) once or twice a month whenever we have appointments. They are doing great and are now in the Toddler room (vs. the PreToddler room). This room has bigger toys and older kids which they do better with. I think it’s great for them to learn to play and get along with other kids. Since I’m a stay at home mom it helps them prepare for school a little bit. Next week all 3 of them get to go to the CDC two days in a row because I have a couple of appointments. It will be Ryder’s first time there and I’m having a lot of Mommy anxiety about that but he’ll be 11 weeks on Saturday so he’s not horribly young for it. It helps that we’ve gone through it with W&J and I know how great the people are at the CDC. I figure if I can get the hang of taking them by myself then maybe once a month even if I don’t have an appointment I can take them all in and go do something nice for myself. Go shopping, have lunch with my wonderful husband, come home and take a hot bath without worry of a kid screaming. LOL I suppose it would be nice to do those kinds of things here and there. I really don’t leave the house hardly at all or talk to real live adults to often (other than my husband in the evenings which makes me cherish him even more LOL) SO I need to do that sometime.
Speaking of my wonderful hubby – he is doing great in his new career. He’s a little bored right now because he joined a unit that is not even activated yet. They’re basically starting from scratch and getting all their people in. SO they aren’t doing a whole lot right now. They’re trying to get them through a lot of training classes right now and he’s enjoying that. He took a combat life saving course last week and enjoyed that. It was definitely interesting hearing about that. I can’t imagine having to give or receive a nasopharynx tube or whatever (the tube that goes up your nose and down your throat)! They had to do that (for real!) to each other. Ewww! Makes me gag just thinking about it but he’s a champ and had no issues. The great thing about them being slow is he should be able to get his OCS (Officer Candidate School) packet pushed through relatively quickly. We hope! Things are changing in the way they do it so it may take a little longer but hopefully all will go smoothly and he can get to OCS real quick. I hate to see him gone again but it’s for a very good cause. I think he’ll make a wonderful Officer and hope that he gets that chance very soon. We’re also kind of hoping it gives us the chance to move to another duty station. Fort Bliss isn’t BAD but it’s not great. We’re so not desert people and sadly the mountains have lost their curb appeal. Especially once the “normal” day is well past 100. We get super excited when there are thunderstorms (far and few in between) but unfortunately usually all we get with those are thunder, lightening, and a couple of raindrops! LOL I do hear August is monsoon season (like Arizona) but with that brings humidity plus the 100’s – ICK! We are dealing with it but I think we’re getting a little excited about possibly getting another station after OCS.
Nathan is doing well in Kansas with his grandparents. It looks like he’ll get his diploma in October now due to a couple other classes he needed. He’s still talking about going into the Navy right after he graduates so crossing my fingers everything works out!
I turned 36 on June 12th. Wow! When did I get old!??? LOL It turns out 36 isn’t old at all because I certainly don’t feel old. It’s all in your head apparently. Although one thing I’m learning as I get older is time really does start to go faster!!! It flies by now! Hopefully it will go slow enough I can enjoy my munchkins being little for awhile longer!! ;-) Nathan moving out was a big reality check on just how fast they grow up!
Here’s photos from the past month:
May/June 2010
And here are portraits we did the day before Nate moved (our first time trying it at home so don’t be too critical…LOL). I’m still working on Ryder’s 4 week pics so I’ll get those done someday. LOL
PORTRAITS - MAY 30, 2010
Well all he** is breaking loose at the OK Corral here so I better run! I'll try to get some videos up next time around. There are a couple random ones on my Facebook page if you're interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment