August

Firefighter training at the Benton County Fair

Sierra loved the rabbit/cavy/poultry exhibit

Jaxon willing himself to be big enough to play with his sister

Feeding the llamas!

She had so much fun!

The reptile exhibit was her favorite:)

A few too many times around

A special daddy/Sierra day at the coast

Sweet brown eyes can make daddy do just about anything!

LOVE!

Daddy's 31st birthday.  The cake didn't melt either;)

So much joy!

On your mark, get set......

"He. won't. stay. still."

"Who me?"

Smoothie face!

Sierra's first kite flying experience

He's sitting in one place!  This lasted about a half of a second.

First time in the pool.  He was very serious but loved it.  This picture doesn't quite give that impression.

Weeee!

One cool dude.

The army crawl has been perfected.

Sheet changing day.  It only took 45 minutes.

:)

August has been kind of a rough month on the homefront.  Jess has worked a lot of overtime this summer, is playing softball and gone in the evening some nights, and Sierra is going through something!!  I guess the terrible 3's are here already.  Holy cow!  We are dealing with lots of temper tantrums, she's waking up a lot at night, she wants held and rocked, and to be honest some days she scares the crap out of me.  She's down right mean sometimes.  She told me for the first time that she "doesn't even like me."  She will hiss at me like a cat if I tell her no.  She also showed her first signs of aggression towards Jaxon.  She was mad at me for something and I was holding Jaxon.  He was smiling at her sweetly and she just reached over and pinched him.  It wasn't hard enough to make him cry or anything but we had to have a serious talk.  When I asked her why she pinched him she said, "I didn't want him to smile at me."  I then asked her how she would feel if she was happy and smiling at me and then I just reached over and pinched her.  She thought about the question for a little bit and then cried and cried.  It's been the only incident so far, and I know it is common, but it broke my heart.

This is the kind of reaction that I expected when Jaxon was first born.  I'm not sure why all of a sudden we are reverting to temper tantrums and other toddler like behavior but it's been rough.  Jaxon is getting more and more mobile and demanding more and more attention from me, and I guess maybe she's tired of it, but good grief. 

Jaxon is raring to go.  He is perfecting the army crawl and does get up on his hands and knees and will sometimes get some forward motion in that stance, but generally lunges out onto his belly and slithers forward.  He gets places though - generally to places and things that he should not.  I have so many tiny things to put up!  I'm not sure how Sierra is going to react to all of her favorite teeny toys put in boxes for quite a while.  My house will probably be a lot cleaner.  One can only hope.

We are delving into the world of food with Jaxy and he is loving it.  It's nice to not be worried about every single thing that goes into his mouth causing a tummy ache.  He has liked pretty much everything he has tried.  He does well with pureed food and cereal but has also done well with rice puffs, graham crackers, and some homemade smashed food rather than pureed.  I've got lots of berries in the freezer and so I just add some frozen berries, breast milk, and some cereal for a yummy baby smoothie.  He can drink out of a cup if I hold it and uses a sippy well but needs help tipping it all the way up when it runs low.  He's putting his teeth to good use and chomps things right up.  His two uppers have been working their way to the surface this month but no more teeth came through.  He has taken to biting though.  My shoulder, my arms (I have bruises!) and um, some more sensitive areas.  I never had to really deal with this with Sierra, so I'm having a hard time trying to decide how to handle it.  If he's nursing I try to unlatch him without losing my nipple and always say NO bite but instead of a low stern voice, I'm usually speaking in a super high borderline hysterical voice.  

Jaxon is taking more consistant naps and actually sleeps in his crib during the day for longer than 20 mins!  He usually takes his morning nap around 9:30 and sleeps anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.  His afternoon nap is generally around 1:00 and lasts an hour to 1.5 hours.  He still kind of needs a late pm nap, but we rarely have time to get him to sleep so he is a little fussy sometimes in the evenings and very ready for bed.  He started really having a fit at nap and bedtimes so I started sleep training this month at night.  With Sierra I let her cry herself to sleep around this same time and it was awful but really did teach her to sooth herself.  Jaxon is a very different creature and has responded so well to my "training".  I started putting him in his crib and letting him fuss a bit but if he gets too upset I will go in and pat his bottom a bit.  If he calms right down I will pat and hum until he goes to sleep.  If he still fusses and squirms I'll leave the room for a few minutes again and then come back and try patting again.  At first it took quite a few times but by the end of the month sometimes I just lay him down, pat him for a bit, and then stand there till he goes to sleep on his own.  But it goes in cycles and sometimes I feel like I've made great progress only to have the next few nights go worse.  Naptime is still more difficult than nighttime but one thing at a time.  Sierra didn't go to sleep for her nap without some sort of intervention until after Jaxon was born.  I wish I could report that he was sleeping through the night but this month was rough sleeping-wise.  With Sierra waking a couple of times a night randomly and Jaxon usually still waking twice a night to eat, I feel like I will never catch up on my sleep and my patience some days is, well, non existent.

We enjoyed a few days at the Benton County Fair at the beginning of the month.  Sierra would only try one ride (not really a ride but a jungle gym type thing) and I had bought bracelets for both of us but could not get her to go on anything else.  We came across one of my friends from high school and her two kids and they asked Sierra to go on some rides with them.  She did!  And after than gained a lot of confidence and felt good enough to go on several rides by herself.  She still refused the big slide and the roller coaster but I was so proud of her for going on the rides that she did.  She loved the animals and was especially excited about the reptile exhibit where she got to pet a snake. 

We have all of a sudden kind of moved past the Why stage and are onto the "Look mommy, look" stage which doesn't mean you glance and make a comment, in means you have to look at what she is doing the WHOLE time she is doing it.  This is hard when you are trying to keep track of another baby too.  The more I type tonight, the more her attitude this month makes sense.  I'm not justifying her tantrums, and she doesn't get off scott free when she talks nastily to me, but I can see that her world is turning more and more upside down.  How do we handle this?  I'm trying to figure it out.  And I pray nightly for wisdom.  And patience.  Hopefully next month will go a little more smoothly.....