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:)