Four Months

Last week I started to jot down a few thoughts about Kieran's fourth month of life. It is amazing how much can change so quickly with a wee one - half of what I wrote is being thrown out the window. I must quickly mention that Jon just returned from being out of town for an entire week and I barely survived, due in part to Kieran's ever changing-ness. When Jon saw him this morning he even commented on how much more alert, dexterous, and just bigger he seems to be. K is really into tummy time lately and loves holding things in his hands and inspecting them. He has also decided he wants to figure out how to roll over, but prefers to practice this skill set overnight which has led to a lot of sleepless nights for the two of us as he is wide awake grunting, groaning, crying out, arching his back, kicking his legs, but not even getting close to rolling!

Despite his lack of sleep recently, he is still generally in a very good mood and pretty much game for anything. If he does get fussy usually a pacifier or his stuffed monkey, Max, is all he needs to calm down. This month I continued to eat dairy products and also added eggs back into my diet. He seems to be handling both of these fine, which is a great feeling and I will probably try soy very soon.

As it is getting to be more and more noticeable that Kieran is growing up I'm finding myself very sentimental over the fact that this is our last baby and that time really does go by so quickly.

As I mentioned above, Jon was gone for an entire week on a work trip. Other than a few melt downs here and there the boys and I did pretty well on our own. I didn't really have time to take many pictures but we kept ourselves pretty busy by going to "C's" house for pizza, a quick visit from Auntie "M" and Hunky Kevin, having Nonna come over once to watch the kiddos while I went running, being treated to a homemade dinner by Shannon, Kevin, and Clara, and then getting a visit from Tio's parents Marty and Bueno yesterday evening.

Monthly Statistics

Weight: 14 lbs

Height: I'll have a number next month

Clothing Size: Clothes and pajamas are now size 3-6 month or 6 month. He still continues to be a bit of a string bean.

Kieran likes: Being held facing out, his play mat, car seat, tummy time, sensory books, his mobile, taking baths, Mam pacifiers, bouncing/jumping, being tossed in the air, playing patty cake, and his lovey (Max).

Kieran dislikes: Having a wet diaper, having his clothes changed/taken off, not being able to roll over, loud noises (cough, cough, Reed) while he's trying to nurse, and being held like a baby.

 

Nicknames: Kier, K, K Dawg (this has been popular for awhile but I haven't wanted to admit it), K-Man, Kierito, Baby Bear, Smalls, and Sneezy.

How Kieran is sleeping:  He's been going to bed around 8:00pm and sleeps until midnight, has a feeding and goes back to sleep after about 45 minutes of "re-plugging" the pacifier. He is back up around 3:00 am for another feeding and in the last few days I've been putting him in bed with me so I can hold him down, instead of letting him roll around in the crib. He usually goes to sleep really fast if I do this and then I can transfer him back to his crib otherwise it is an hour plus of rollover practice. He is up again around 5:30 for one last feeding and then usually dozes/tosses and turns until 6:30 when he's up for good. He's been going about 2 hours between naps landing at about 3 total for the day ranging anywhere from 30 minutes to 2+ hours with at least one usually being over 1.5 hours.

Favorite Moment: Is there anything better than hearing a baby laugh? It seems like Kieran has to build up to a laugh with a few grunts and groans, then comes a big burst of gurgley giggles.

 

Milestones:

02/05/14 We hear Kieran's first real laugh

02/11/14 K starts smacking his lips

02/17/14 Kieran starts grasping and inspecting toys

02/20/14 His first attempts at blowing "raspberries"

 

Favorite Photo Shoot Outtake:

Reed Says . . . February 2014 Edition

For the last few months we have declared Friday night "Friday Family Fun." It's kind of like a precursor to an official family game night, but right now it just means we will order pizza, watch a little extra t.v. and/or play a board game with Reed. He loves playing Memory, Go Fish, Slap Jack, Uno Moo, and a game called First Orchard. Sometimes we simplify the rules for him, but for the most part he is good for about one round of any given game. He is also in LOVE with doing puzzles. He is constantly asking me to get puzzles down for him. He has two floor puzzles meant for  3yrs+ that he can do almost completely by himself. He also has a puzzle of the United States that he really likes (meant for 5yrs+) that I found him attempting by himself the other day - he did probably 50% of the puzzle with no help. It is way above his skill level, or so I thought, but he thinks it is so neat when we tell him where different friends/family members are from and lately we have been showing him different states that Olympians are from.

A big change for him this month is being scared. He no longer sleeps with the sound machine on because he says he likes to "hear things" (I have replaced it with a CD player he is really into so at least as he's trying to go to sleep he's not preoccupied by what we are doing with Kieran). He also demands that we leave a night light on for him now and will sometimes even get out of bed to turn on his big light.

Enough of the serious stuff, I know what you've come for . . .

One night Reed watched as I poured myself a glass of wine, he then asked me "you have a long day Mom?"

The other day I caught The Monkey standing in the hallway admiring the big display of his artwork I have up. I asked what he was doing and he said "just lookin' at my painting skills."

On Valentine's Day I made Reed pink milk by blending some strawberries into his hemp milk. He was super excited about it until I put it in a cup he didn't approve of and had a bit of a melt down. When Jon got up a little later I asked Reed what day it was and he responded "Valentine's Day." I then asked him what we are supposed to do on Valentine's Day ( I was looking for him to tell Jon he loved him because we had been talking about how you are supposed to tell people that you love how much you care about them). Instead his reply was "cry about the special drink you made me."

Jon has the new Xbox which recognizes voice commands. We usually let Reed watch a Perro y Gato, the Magic School Bus, or lately the Olympics for a little bit before bed. When it is time to head to his room one of us usually says "Xbox pause" or "Xbox turnoff." One night when it was time for bed Reed looked at the frozen picture on the screen and said "Xbox don't pause."

Usually when I put Kieran down for his first nap of the day I will ask Reed what he wants to do. Out of nowhere one day he said "put tape on your butt because your butt is broken."

Jon was having fun with Reed, bent down, opened his arms, and said "why haven't we had a hug today." Reed walked over to Jon, embraced him, and said into his ear "because I don't like you."

On one of our game nights we were playing Go Fish. Reed didn't have the card that Jon was looking for so we prompted him by asking what he was supposed to say. He responded by yelling "BUMMER!!!"

Whenever I make pasta I let Reed pick out the type he wants me to cook. One night he picked out a bag of shell pasta and told me it was because "maybe there's turtles in those shells."

The Kiddo was wriggling around like crazy in his booster seat so I asked what he was doing. He told me he was "working out." I said "oh, are you doing a leg workout?" to which he responded "no, I'm working my head then I'm gonna do my knees."

Reed has a toddler clock in his room that changes from blue to orange at 6:00 am - this is his signal that it's okay to call for me if he's already awake. If I can hear that he's up I usually go in a bit after this time to say good morning and see if he wants to get up or hang in bed for a bit. Our power had gone out and I forgot to reset the clock so when I went in at 6:05 it was still blue. When he saw me he said "I'm waking up and it's the wrong color." I said "I think it will be changing soon." His retort was "I think you can push a button."

Making Lemonade

Last week started off so great with a Birthday party for Pepe at our house. Gran and Papa even made the trek down to join in the celebration. A few days prior I had asked Pepe what he wanted for dessert and he had said he didn't think Reed could have his favorite, Earthquake cake, because of his allergies. I told him we like challenges and that I would do my best. Searching for recipes I quickly found out what a challenge it was going to be. The cake has eggs, butter, cream cheese, and pecans in it, all of which are huge no-nos for the Monkey. I was bound to make it work and on last Sunday morning Reed and I created what we have since dubbed "Reedquake cake." Reed loves baking with me so we ended up having a great time, the cake was actually pretty darn good, and was our first "making lemonade" moment of the week.

I was home with the boys last Monday and talked up our planned visit to meet Cameron and Bri's newborn daughter Cambria the next day. We wrapped presents for the baby and big sister Daylynn and were a little disappointed when Dad came home from work and told us Cameron had come down with a bug and our visit was going to have to be delayed - lemons! Luckily yesterday we finally got to meet Little Miss Cambria - lemonade!!!

 

We had decided to take Reed to the Farm Show this year but unfortunately I had a ton of work to catch-up on so decided to stay home with Kieran while Jon and Reed went to the show - lemons. On Thursday morning they left around 8:30 but unfortunately there was a huge accident on the freeway and they were stuck in horrendous traffic for almost 2 hours before turning around and heading home. The drive to the show should take about 35 minutes and instead they made it about 10 miles down the road - major lemons, especially when you've been talking up big tractors and cows to a kid that easily gets his heart set on things. When they walked back in the door, Reed's eyes were brimming with tears and he told me he was so sad and needed a cuddly guy. He then went and got one for himself and one for Dad because he thought Jon needed one too!!! Apparently he was a Super Trooper in the car and Jon felt so bad we tried to make up for it by taking the boys out to the ranch to look at tractors with Tio yesterday. Reed of course had a great time - lemonade!!!

 

As I've talked about before, Jon and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, but now that I have kids it is fun to do something a little special. After a week of disappointments it was nice to have a pleasant day at home. I surprised Reed with strawberry milk with his breakfast. He loved the milk, but not the glass I served it in. Luckily that was our only real hiccup and the rest of the day we spent making cookies, having lunch with Auntie Amanda and Auntie "M," (during which I got to find out the sex of Amanda and Steve's baby and wrap a pair of ballet slippers in a box for them to open later that weekend - so neat - I was freaking out during the whole process), playing games, opening a bottle of wine, and making a yummy dinner.

To round out our rough week, on Sunday Reed and I discovered our beloved garden gnome had been broken by (we think) some bratty neighborhood kids. Reed was beyond devastated by this and we felt so bad for him. He broke down crying over the gnome pieces at least half a dozen times before lunch. While he napped I tried to glue the thing back together, but we are still missing a few large pieces. Again with the lemons! We decided to let him pick out a new gnome on Amazon and told him we would put the new guy out in the garden with the old guy to keep him company. This seemed to really appease him but then when Jon searched the website out of all of the choices that popped up Reed chose the gnome flipping the bird and with his butt sticking out of the top of his pants. We had to break it to him that this was not an appropriate choice for our veggie garden and so he reluctantly decided on a gnome holding a flower - lemons? lemonade?

So I don't end this post with our poor broken gnome I will share one more "turning lemons into lemonade" anecdote. We've been putting Kieran in a Bumbo chair for the last few days. He seems to like it which is awesome. Reed decided he wanted in on the Bumbo action the other day but when he tried to stand up the chair was stuck to his bum. He quickly assessed the situation and declared that he was now a snail. I love this boy and his imagination!

Shaver Lake

When you ask Nonna what she wants for a gift her answer most of the time is "nothing, just to spend time with you guys." This year for her Birthday/Christmas presents we decided to give her just what she asked for and, along with C and Tio, gifted her a vacation in Shaver Lake with the whole family. Since it has been such a dry year it was looking like there wouldn't be any snow to play in or much to do. We knew it would still be fun to hang out with everyone for a few days but were so excited when a series of storms came through right before we headed up to the mountains. It was the perfect amount for Reed to get to ride a sled for the first time (including a couple solo runs), get in a snowball fight, and build a snow man. Tio took me, Jon, and Pepe out on his snow mobiles and Jon and Tio got a full day of skiing in too. It was really wonderful getting to relax with everyone in the same house and just spend fun quality time together.

If you know Pepe you know he loves taking pictures and since I was having to juggle a toddler and an infant in snow suits in slippery conditions I nominated him official photographer for the week. He is responsible for most of these amazing shots, we are so lucky he was there to capture all of the fun!!!