Lincoln - 6 months old

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old already!  Isn't it crazy how much he's grown and changed??

We just love him to pieces and he's such a happy little guy but still our little peanut.  We had his checkup earlier this week and he was 17 lbs (44%) and 26.3 inches (47 %).

He is very into toys now and chewing on everything.  I'm thinking it won't be too long before we see that first tooth.

He tried baby food for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it.  So far he's tried sweet potato, butternut squash and mangos and loved them all.  Gavin even got in on the action and was able to feed him a few bites and they boys always want to try everything he's eating as well :).

Not much progress in the sleep department.  With him we've realized that it's just going to be baby steps.  Our issue right now is that he keeps rolling over on his stomach and getting stuck and upset so we're hoping he will consistently start rolling over from his stomach to back soon to help with that issue.

Trying to get a picture of all three boys with everyone looking is pretty much impossible but i still try :).

This little guy loves his brothers so much and they him!  As soon as he can move he's going to be following them everywhere :).  

5 and 3 year old check ups

I thought this visit would be pretty quick and uneventful so I scheduled Gavin and Wyatt’s check-up’s together since they did so well last year.  I didn’t realize that the 5 year checkup includes 4 shots and a blood draw for kindergarten so this visit ended up being incredibly exhausting and stressful. 

Gavin actually did really well with his flu shot last year but this year was full on freak out  (nurse gave him the award for loudest screamer :))and ever since if he even hears the mention of a shot he starts freaking out.  I felt bad because I had told him several times no shots just a routine checkup and then we go back to have them get their height/weight and blood pressure checked when the nurse mentions a blood draw.  Gavin immediately picks up on that and starts panicking and asking about shots.  I try to explain that in order to go to kindergarten you have to get certain tests taken and he wants nothing to do with it and is already professing that he’s not going to kindergarten if it involves shots.  

Then we get to our room and the nurse comes in and asks if we are going to do it all today.  I have no idea what she’s talking about so she mentions that he needs 4 shots and a blood draw and this brings on the hysteria.  First the nurse comes in for the lab draw and he sits on the table really nicely and she’s explaining everything and he’s doing good.  I’m holding his other arm and then she mentions the finger prick and he freaks out screaming at the top of this lungs, kicking his legs, thrashes his arms and throws his body back.  Neither of us were quite expecting that so it was all she could do to get his finger pricked but as soon as it was done we were able to calm him as he watched the little tube fill with blood.  The rest of the time waiting for the doctor involved him going between bawling and giving me threats about what he was going to do if he had to get shots.  I’m not sure where my sweet little boy went but I was told that he would kick the nurse, spit in her face, throw up all over really any threat he could think of if I made him get shots and I spent the time trying to calm him down and bribe him with anything I could think of that might make him relax a little.  Nothing was working!

Thankfully Wyatt was amazing during all this and just sat in his chair quietly.  When the doctor came in he did Wyatt’s checkup first and he did awesome.  He answered all the doctors questions and sat still.  Gavin was a train wreck but the doctor assured me that they see this all the time which made me feel slightly better.  Finally the nurse came back for the shots and was smart and brought 2 other nurses for back up this time.  We had to force him to lay down but I think it helped because I then held his hands and laid on top of his chest which sounds awful but I think it made it better because then he couldn’t see what they were doing.  He still screamed at the top of his lungs but once it was over he was totally fine and the nurses actually thought he did really well considering all the screaming and crying he did leading up to the actual event.  He was back to normal and excited that he got extra cookies and stickers. 

It’s a good thing that they don’t need routine shots again until they’re 11 because even though he told me it wasn’t that bad after the fact I guarantee if I told him we needed to go back and get another shot tomorrow we would get full on freak out mod again.  So probably the worst doctor’s appointment to date for me as a parent but we all survived and thankfully we have 2 healthy boys :). 

Gavin’s stats: Height – 45.3 inches (88%), Weight – 44lbs 13 ozs (75%), deathly afraid of shots J

Wyatt’s stats: Height – 38.5 inches (75%), Weight – 33lbs 13 ozs (72%)

Happy 3rd Birthday Wyatt!

Happy Birthday to our sweet and spunky little Wyatt.  I look back at pictures of him when he was little and just can’t believe that he is already 3 and has grown up so fast.  He is the sweetest little boy but boy does he keep us on our toes.  He’s such a goofy guy and is always making us laugh.  He is also the outgoing one and doesn’t really know a stranger.  He’s my shopping buddy and the other day I was pushing him in the cart when he started yelling “Hey! Hey! Hey!” and I didn’t know why and then he said hey how old do you think that girl is?  He was yelling hey trying to get her attention because he wanted to talk to her. 

 Wyatt is also very inquisitive always asking lots of good questions and about everything he watches or reads.  He is still a super messy eater and really loud.  We are working on table manners and using indoor voices because he likes to shovel the food into his mouth with his hands and scream at the top of his lungs during dinner.  The other day he was eating saltine crackers and I’m not sure any made it into his mouth he made such a huge mess with crackers all over himself and on the floor.  I asked him why he always makes such a mess when he’s eating and he told me in the cutest little innocent voice “because I’m three”

Wyatt can also be very stubborn.  We’ve found that if you’re trying to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do it’s best to try and work with him somehow or it will result in a massive fit.  I know it’s partly his age but it’s so hard to deal with these fits sometimes especially when they can be brought on by anything and out of nowhere.  This kid also loves to be naked and he is very picky about what he wears.  There are many nights after dinner where we’ll just turn around and Wyatt is running around with no pants/underwear on.  I think he would live this way if he could.  He also will only wear what he deems ‘comfy’ pants and these don’t just include any type of lounge pant they have to be one of his 4-5 specific pairs with stripes down the leg.  If any of these aren’t clean it’s usually another battle to get him to wear something else.  Sure hoping this phase doesn’t last long.  

Some of Wyatt’s current obsessions:

-Costumes.  He loves dressing up and can be found in one of his costumes almost every day as you can tell from all the pictures (no they were not all taken on the same day J).

-The letter O.  For some reason he loves the letter O.  It is his favorite in the whole alphabet and he asks all the time if he has an O in his name.  I tell him that he does in his middle name so he says he wants to be called Kenton instead since it has an o.

-Lion King.  Lately this kid is obsessed with the movie Lion King and would watch it every day if he could and he wants us to tell him the Lion King story every night at bedtime.  Luckily it’s a good movie so we don’t mind watching it all the time.

-His brothers. He loves Gavin and wants to do everything Gavin does.  He’s also really sweet with Lincoln and loves giving him hugs and kisses.

This was the first year asking Wyatt the 20 questions and below were his answers:

What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite toy? Costumes
What is your favorite fruit? Pineapple
What is your favorite tv show?  Go Diego Go
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac n Cheese
What is your favorite outfit? Spiderman jammies
What is your favorite game?  Super Why game
What is your favorite snack? Yogurt
What is your favorite animal? Polar Bear
What is your favorite song? Elmo Song
What is your favorite book? The big book of Animals
Who is your best friend?  Gavin (this one melted my heart because he started to say a friend from school but then changed it to Gavin)
What is your favorite cereal? Alphabets (probably because Super Why is on the cover :))
What is your favorite drink? Apple Juice
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play football
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? New Simba toy
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  sausage
What do you want on your birthday dinner? Mac n Cheese
What do you want to be when you grow up? Football player and Super Reader (Super Why reference)

The boy's birthday party

We decided to do a joint birthday party this year and make it pretty informal with just family.  I still wanted to make it special though since the boys had to share their day so I let them each pick out their special cake.  Gavin wanted a Ninjago cake and Wyatt wanted a Lion King cake.  I thought I could just go to Hy-Vee with a picture and they’d be able to create each of these cakes but since these characters weren’t in their licensed book of cake designs it was a no go.  So I did a little searching online and found some customized cake toppers that I could buy with both themes that the boys wanted and then found a bakery nearby and ordered some cakes.  

I was a little panicked when USPS said the cake toppers would be delivered Wed/Thurs and those days came and went with no package.  Then we got to Saturday and I was all excited to get an update that they were in Des Moines and should make it in time only to find that Wyatt’s made it and Gavin’s just sat in the same sorting facility and didn’t make it on the truck for some reason.  Needless to say I’m not very happy with the USPS especially when I paid for 2 day and it took 6.  So we had to improvise with some of Gavin’s legos and some awful writing on my part.  We also noticed when getting Gavin’s cake out of the box that it was starting to lean as well.  Poor kid couldn’t catch a break!  At least both cakes tasted amazing and made up for the lack of decorations. 

Both boys had such a fun night and loved getting to see all of their cousins.  Opening presents with both of them was a little crazy with both of them flying through each gift and then all the cousins trying to help as well :).  Wyatt got some fun new costumes, a Super Why game and a stuffed Lion King doll and Gavin got more legos, a container to sort and store his legos and a science kit to name a few.  All in all it was a success and nice to be able to host things like this in our house without making everyone travel.  We were so thankful Derek and Jenny and kids were able to make it back for this special day especially since they had to head back early Sunday morning to beat the awful weather coming in northern Iowa.

And Gavin with his cake topper that of course got delivered on Monday :).

Lincoln - 5 Months

Wow, this past month has flown by and Lincoln has had several firsts.  He can now roll over from his back to his stomach. He surprised us the day after he turned 4 months by rolling over several times.  He’s still working on doing front to back which is funny because most babies go this way first.  I’ve seen him do it once but that’s about it. 

He loves sucking on his fingers and chewing on toys.  He likes being carried around facing out so he can watch what’s going on around him and is very wiggly.  He is already ready to get in on the action.  If the boys are running around downstairs playing and we’re holding him he’s flapping his arms and kicking his legs trying to move just like them.  He’s also been experimenting with his voice and making new sounds. 

We didn’t progress much in the sleep department.  I think the biggest issue here is that he just doesn’t know how to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night.  He’s too reliant on us to rock him back to sleep and this can be painful when he wakes up every 45-60 minutes.  We’ve tried letting him cry it out a few times up to 10 minutes but that was really rough and it seemed to just make things worse rather than help him get to sleep so we decided to hold off on this until he gets a little older and swaddle free. 

  

Lincoln also got his first cold which didn’t help the sleeping situation much either.  Luckily it didn’t last long but now he has another one.  Needless to say we are all ready for this long winter to be over.  We’ve also been on medicine for thrush.  I don’t think this really bothered him much but glad to say it’s finally seemed to clear up.  Overall he’s a pretty happy little guy and very smiley.  We’re hoping we can get rid of this cold and start the sleep training again in a few weeks with better success.