Big Boy Bed, Valentine's Day, Snow, & More

Well, it is official...Jackson now has a big boy bed.  He has been super excited about the whole process!  I selected a few choices for bedding and let Jackson pick.  It was not even close...he wanted the trucks!  After the bedding arrived...he could not contain his excitement...he wanted me to lay out the blanket so he could roll around on it.

 Jackson and Dillan "helping" Walt put together the bed.  Notice Jackson is dressed for the part :)

 Jackson sitting on his new big boy bed...I will post pictures soon of the completed room.  We just finished decorating the room yesterday, but I have not taken any pictures yet.  He has been sleeping in the bed for a little over a week and he has done great.  It was a non-event in the since that it has not altered his sleep habits at all and he has not gotten out of the bed yet...which is also good.  Since Walt shared a room with his brothers when he was young, he wanted Jackson and Dillan to have the same experience.  Tonight is the first night Dillan will sleep in the room...I'll let you know how it goes :)

Jackson, Aiden, and Walt hanging out in the playhouse 

 I was not sure how Dillan would react to Aiden, but he has done great.  He is so sweet to him.

 Sweet Aiden

 Aiden has been a bit of a challenge...sometimes he is so fussy and we don't know what to do.  So the doctor sent us to a GI specialist this past Friday.  He had some suggestions, but also mentioned that sometimes colicky babies magically get better around 3 months.  Without having done any of the doctor's suggestions, Aiden has actually done really well the last few days....so we are going to see if maybe he is naturally moving past the fussiness on his own.  I think a large part of his change is that he is getting better at finding his thumb and making it in his mouth.  Today was the first day that he did not take 30 minute naps.  He stirred around the 30 minute mark and we went in their and patted his bottom and he went right back to sleep.  (Oh yeah, he is sleeping on his stomach which gave me a lot of anxiety at first, but it was the only way he would sleep well.  We have one of those baby monitors that goes off if the baby stops breathing...so that makes me feel better and in some ways, I think he is safer now with the monitor.)  Since he usually does only take 30 minute naps, I kept going to check on him today and a lot of the times he had his thumb in his mouth.  So it seems he is starting to self-soothe himself.  So I think if he continues to take good naps and gets better at sucking his thumb....I think he will be a happier baby!

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He definitely has a serious face at times, but can also be really happy.  I just have a harder time capturing those moments because as soon as I get the camera out...he stops smiling and is in a trance looking at the shiny black thing in front of his face.

 Jackson and Dillan getting their Valentines gifts.  Dillan got "Elmo" and Jackson got some cars.  They were both very excited!  Jackson made Valentine cards for his teachers and classmates, but unfortunately was running fever and was unable to go to school that day.  Hopefully, he can pass them out tomorrow.

 Dillan has never really been into watching tv shows other than the praise dvd.  Nothing seemed to be able to hold his interest until one day I put on a dvd of Elmo's world.  Now all day long I hear..."Elmo?" because he wants to watch it.  He also asks for "Up Up Up"...the name of the song that he dances to with his daddy and Jackson.  He LOVES to dance to that song!  It is pretty cute!

 Jackson LOVES cars....he plays with them all day long!

  

 Another unflattering picture of me, but as I have said before...this is the reality :)

 It snowed on Saturday evening...so before it got dark, I had to document Aiden's first snow.

 After the boys woke up from their nap...they were so excited to see the snow.  We bundled them up and they went outside to play.  They had so much fun! (fyi...this was Dillan's first snow experience, too).

 Occasionally we put away some of their toys with the intention of bringing them out at a later date.  This is how I found Dillan :)

 Our fireplace door & screen just arrived and just in time for the snow...now the boys can safely sit in front of the fire (with supervision of course).  I am not sure what Dillan was doing :)

 Walt and the boys hanging out after nap time

 We may have a thumb sucker in the family :)

 This is the life :)

I LOVE MY BOYS!!!  I AM SO BLESSED!!!!

Rest of January 2012, Circus, and Two Months Old

Aiden has been off the reflux medicine for a couple of weeks now and I think it was the right call.  He is the same amount of fussy that he was when he was on the medicine :)  He is starting to smile more, but he is still a very serious baby.  He has a hard time going to sleep and sometimes I have to jump through hoops and the last 2 days I have been putting him on his stomach and he has been doing so much better.  I feel very guilty about this because they always tell you to put them on their back, but I guess he wasn't doing that either as he has always slept in the incline position based on the recommendation of our pediatrician.  At least now I have a movement monitor where an alarm will sound if he stops breathing.  So I tell myself that he is actually better off now than he was before, but I still check on him relentlessly :)

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Aiden is starting to engage with us more and more each day and he loves when his brothers talk to him.  He is not very good at tracking toys yet, but the pediatrician says that is normal.  There is probably so much going on around him that is much more interesting than whatever toy we could put in front of him :)

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Here are his 2 month statistics:

Height:  24 inches (90th percentile)

Weight:  11lbs 5oz (30th percentile)

Head:  40.4cm (85th percentile)

I think he is taking after the Louis side....long & lean :)

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Aiden all bundled up to go outside

 Sleeping on his Daddy

 While I was putting Aiden to sleep and Walt was MIA...the boys dumped out all the clean laundry and put it in a pile and were running and jumping on it.  It was almost bath time which is why they were in their bare essentials :)

 I know he is only in the 30th percentile in weight, but he has put on little bit of "chub" since he was born :)

 Jackson and Dillan LOVE Aiden.  They are so sweet to him. 

 Aiden had spit up and Dillan was using Aiden's pajamas to clean it off :)

 I got this idea from a friend on facebook....such a great idea!  Jackson played with it a little bit on the first day, but lost interest after that.  Such a cute idea...I am surprised that he didn't get more of a kick out of it.

 The pond in the corner with fish, etc 

 The railroad tracks and road leading to the barn

 

 The Landfill (aka the airport per Jackson)

 Another train track & fishing pond

 Jackson trying to "teach" Aiden how to hold his toys 

 Dillan eating a late lunch after picking up Jackson from church.  Note the crazy hair as usual...I comb it every day, but as soon as he takes a nap..it goes right back to being out of control :)  On this particular day, I had to wake him up after a 3 hour nap to pick up Jackson on time...no, he does not usually nap that long.  I knew something was up because he also took a nap that afternoon.  He started running fever the next day.

 Jackson cleaning the tables while Dillan ate (please note, he asked for the sponge...he loves to clean)

 Aiden just hanging out while Dillan ate and Jackson cleaned

 My dad got Jackson a stretchy lizard when he was a baby and he has always liked it and now Dillan is a fan, too.  The only problem is that there is only one :)  The boys would go crazy over it and constantly were asking for their turn with the lizard...I don't get why they like it so much :)  Thankfully Nonni came to the rescue and ordered more lizards.  The boys were so excited and played with them for the rest of the afternoon.

 Since Aiden's arrival, we have not been able to go outside much.  Between the cold weather, his short naps, and the other demands of a newborn...it was hard to find a pocket of time to go outside.  Now that he is on his tummy, he is taking longer naps so the boys and I were able to go outside yesterday and enjoy the beautiful weather.  The boys played with worms and dirt.  Good times :)  There are a bunch of pictures because I am having a hard time getting pictures of the boys these days.  When I tell Jackson to smile, he gives me the cheesiest grin with his eyes closed.  Dillan is hard to get a picture of because he is always on the move and won't stand still for a picture and if he does...his hair is usually out of control :)  But I feel these pictures captured the moment :)

  

 Here is the serious face I was referring to :) 

 A hint of a smile

 Not quite sure what this expression says :)

 Look at those cheeks :)  I love kissing on them!

 Another faint hint of a smile 

 Since Aiden's arrival, I have decided that once a month I am going to have special one on one time with one of the boys.  This month was Jackson's turn and I took him to the circus.  I wish I would have gotten better pictures, but as you can tell from the below picture....he was a little apprehensive at first and was glued to my lap.  We got there right as everything was starting and it was dark and loud and there were a lot of people...so I am sure it was all very overwhelming.  But he loved it.  He was clapping after each performance and talking about what a good job they did.  I could feel his body relax as the performance went on.  We had a lot of fun.  His favorite part were the motorcycles.  As you can also tell from the picture, my one handed photography skills are lacking and I cut off the top part of his head :)  I hate that I did not get a good picture of him due to my one arm limitations, but I must admit...I enjoyed having that sweet boy in my lap :)  I loved getting to spend some time with just him.

  

 Jackson's version of a smile these days :)

 The only semi-decent picture that I got of the actual circus.

 One last random picture...riding the zebra around can make you thirsty :)

 Here are some random tidbits:
* I believe Dillan's first official sentence was "I want this" :)
* Jackson is about to move to a bed boy bed...he is super excited...especially since he got to pick out his truck bedding.  He is also going to start sharing a room with Dillan.  He is also excited about that and wants Aiden to share a room with them, too :)  We got him a bunk bed with the intention of the boys using them one day, but right now Jackson will just use the top part of the bed since it has railings on the side.  Today he saw a picture of the bunk beds on the side of the box they came in and he said that he would sleep on the top part, Aiden would sleep on the bottom part, and Dillan would sleep in his old bed :)
* The boys love to dance....especially Dillan.  He has been on a kick lately and asks me multiple times a day for "Up Up Up"....the name of one of the songs they dance to with Daddy.  He also asks multiple times a day for Elmo.  It is funny how quickly he went from not wanting to watch tv shows other than the praise dvd to asking for Elmo all the time.
* The boys also LOVE being outside!
* There is so much more, but as I always say...I need to do a better job of jotting things down so I won't forget.  Basically, I LOVE my boys...they are so much fun and we are so blessed to have 3 amazing boys!