June

A month of sweet pudgy hands discovering the world....

We try to make it outside as much as we can.  Come on better weather!

These two are BFF's these days!

A routine AM search for critters.

She's ready

Or maybe not!

Oh well!  We'll try again:)

First garden harvest.  Fresh peas!

Going on a bunny hunt.

Wild strawberry picking with mommy.

Some mushroom stomping!

The smiliest kid I have ever seen!

Watch out big sister!

I sure do love these two:)

Jaxon has so many things to learn from his big sister.

Happy and clean!

It just hit me typing this that next month my Sierra will be three years old.  How in the world can that be?  Time is zooming by right now.  Jaxon turned four months old this month and is getting to be such a big boy!  It's really crazy to see the differences already in my children but so beautiful at the same time.  Both of my babies are mama's kids, they prefer their mommy to anyone, but Jaxon is a lot pickier than Sierra was.  She had a short time that she refused to go to strangers after her biopsy, but for the most part, she would grin and go to anyone.  Jaxon really looks at someone new and will sometimes cry just at the sight of a stranger.  It will be so interesting to see if he is more of an introvert than Sierra is.  She just loves people and is so different than I am in that way.  I don't always know how to handle it.  We were walking through Home Depot the other day and one of the people that works their has a son close to Sierra's age and loves to give her a hug if she sees her.  So as soon as we walk into home depot Sierra starts walking up to each of the checkers in the aisles and tries to give them hugs and kisses.  I want her to love people and be an affectionate person, but also realize there are limits.  It's a hard one for me.  I don't know if I always handle the situations like this (yes there are many with her trying to hug strangers) like I should.

Jaxon has become a very vocal boy this month.  He mostly just squeals and growls a lot.  I sure love his smile and the fact that if he is awake, he pretty much constantly has one on his face.  We visited OHSU mid month per our Dr's orders.  At one point Jaxon was standing up on my lap bouncing up and down and the Dr looked at his charts and said,  "wait, something is wrong here."  My heart dropped.  Then he said, "He cannot be only three months old."  I said that he had just turned four months old a few days earlier (the charts said 3 months because that's when I made the appt).  He commented again and again on his strength and how "smart" he was - basically that he could easily reach and grab things, had great head control, was standing and bouncing on his legs, etc.  After seeing a nutritionist and pediatrician at  the same time, and answering a ton of questions, they really said he looks great and they don't know why he isn't gaining weight but it is worrisome because he is slipping in percentiles at each visit.  He wrote up some papers to have Jaxon's blood tested and asked me to start fortifying my breast milk with some formula twice daily.  I literally had to turn something off inside of me not to freak out when he told me this because I went through the same thing with Sierra but for a different reason (her upset tummy).  I am 100 percent pro breastfeeding and worked VERY hard to nurse Sierra to her 1st birthday despite many struggles.  And I have plans to do the same for Jaxon.  I'm hoping that with the "fortified breast-milk" he will quickly put on a few pounds and then they will leave us alone.

Jaxon has started to notice his surroundings more and more and has become quite mesmerized by his big sister.  He loves to watch and listen to her, usually with a giant smile plastered on his face.  She is sometimes completely oblivious, but other times really hams is up and enjoys making him giggle.  I love to watch the interaction between the two of them and hope that they can be great friends and playmates one day.  I always said that I would never have three kids because one always seems to get left out.  So I'm hoping with just two (and ahem, we've made a permanent decision to keep our family of four ONLY a family of four) they will be forced to love each other and play together nicely.  A mommy can dream right:) 

May 2012

Jaxon is getting really good at grabbing anything that gets near him:)

Time with daddy after he gets home from work

Isn't this the sweetest thing?

Silly boy!

Lost in thought

Sooo proud of her tape measure like daddy's.

Time to plant!

Fun in the crab apple blossoms

Learning to get onto her back in the water

Jaxon splashing in the pool for the first time

Sweet moments with my baby boy

Almost too big for her 4 wheeler!

Starting seeds

Sierra picked a spring bouquet

Wisteria at Garland Nursery

A day at the park

She finds friends wherever she goes:)

So blessed with our happy boy!

He loves to watch Sierra and grins at whatever she does:)

"Oh dear!"

Sierra's guardian angel

Boo!

Pedi from daddy!

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Memorial day weekend at the beach.....

 Jaxon's been busy this month learning to.....

Grab things.....

And try to eat them

Even his hands get eaten

He also learned to spit bubbles.....

And roll around like a little log!

What a month!  Jaxon is giggling like crazy, rolling around, grabbing things with ease, and spits constantly creating a serious amount of slobber.  Speaking of slobber, after several days of some serious drooling I decided to check his gums.  The little booger already has some bottom teeth working their way to the surface.  Teeth coming through before he's even four months old!  Sleepless nights and some sore boobies are ahead I'm afraid.  Oh wait, that's how life has been since he's been born anyway:)

My little Mister's personality is really starting to come through as well.  My patient, sleepy boy has been replaced by a busy, gyrating child that doesn't want to slow down enough to eat or sleep.  He takes VERY short naps, tries to see everything that is going on while he is eating (OUCH), and is literally moving some body part every second of every waking minute.  He has super strong legs and loves to stand and jump. He really enjoys tummy time as well.  He's got some crazy Pilate's moves involving throwing his legs and arms way up in the air and the only thing touching the floor is his chest.  It looks painful, but he does it with a giant grin on his face.

He's still a super happy boy.  He grins easily and giggles more and more.  He's really ticklish and I can really get him going by tickling him or even just pretending to.  He also loves for me to stand far away and slowly get closer and closer while saying boo.  He's giggling uncontrollably by the time I get close to his face.  He still expects to be held A LOT which continues to be a challenge.

Nap/bedtime has started to really be a challenge as well.  Instead of easily falling asleep like he did at first, he now throws quite a fit sometimes and we will finally get him to sleep only to put him in his crib and have him instantly wake up.  So frustrating!  I remember going through the same thing with Sierra when she was tiny.  We moved him to his own room in his big boy crib mid month.  He actually handled the transition very well.  Every once in a while he will have a night that he will sleep 8 or 9 hours straight.  But most of the time he's still waking once or twice at night to eat.  Once he started rolling around easily, if he wakes up a little bit, and then rolls over, he gets himself completely woken up.  He's a definite tummy guy too.  We first found him on his tummy at 5 days old, but now he can easily go from tummy to back, and vice versa.  So usually as soon as I put him in his crib, he flips over onto his belly.  Not much I can do about it now!

Sierra continues to be a great big sister and is growing up more and more every day.  She's taken a real interest in dressing herself this month and putting her shoes on by herself.  This can be super frustrating if we are in a hurry to get ready, and she is taking 30 minutes to put her shirt on.  But she's learning and I realize this is another step towards independence for her.  She is also really interested in letters and sounds this month.  She has been able to recognize a lot of the letters in the alphabet for some time now, but this month we've been practicing what sounds the letters make, and I will say a word, start to sound it out, and ask what letter it starts with.  She is loving it right now, so we will keep practicing  while she's interested.  Next month will be something different I'm sure!

I took Jaxon to the Dr. at the end of the month because we are still struggling with thrush.  When they weighed him they were concerned that he went from the 87th percentile in weight at his very first appt to currently the 13th percentile.  He's still gaining every time we take him in, but has really slowed down.  Our PCP said that he wasn't too concerned but wanted to make sure that there wasn't some issue causing him to not put on weight fast enough so he sent us to OHSU.  We were hoping to never have to visit OHSU for a baby again, but we made the appt for mid June.  Sierra was always low on the "average" charts to, but mostly the Dr. was concerned because of the large change since he was born.  I'm not real thrilled about this, but don't want to miss anything either.  And now I spend every day worrying that he's not eating enough, or I'm not eating enough, or my milk isn't strong enough, etc etc etc.  You know, normal mommy worries!

We're really getting the hang of being a family of four.  I still need to grow at LEAST two more arms, but I'm making do with the two I've got:)  I wish the weekends were longer and Jesse could be home more because it's so nice to have him home to help.  I don't know how single moms do it!  We are really looking forward to summer and more outside time too.  Hopefully the rain will stop sometime soon!