Jax : 4 months

 

As you can see from the pictures this little guy is not so little anymore. I have a friend who has a 10 month old boy and they are about the same size! He loves his mama's milk. We got over all the nursing problems (or at least they have cleared up) so that has been a relief to ME!! I totally understand why people quit nursing after going through all that for the last 2 months. Now I just need to get on a regular pumping schedule so I can have some milk saved for when I go back to work. I plan to nurse him until he is at least 9 months old, I wanted to go to a year with Colt but I started coaching track when he was 8 months and it got too hectic, we switched him to formula around 9.5 months. I am going to try to be more flexible with Jax and just see what works, if I don't have enough milk when I go back to work I may have to supplement him with formula which I will just have to be okay with because I don't have a choice. I still have about another month and a half before I go back so lots of time to figure that out. Jax is such a laid back easy going baby, I am loving all the snuggles and smiles he gives me. He is at that stage where if you smile at him he almost immediately will smile back, it does not take much to make him smile. He has also started doing little giggles and we are just waiting for that big laugh because he is so close to just letting it out. He has found his hands and feet and is constantly playing with them and putting them in his mouth. He also really loves loves loves the baby einstein playmat, he will lay under there for a good half hour and hit the animals to make the music play. He usually ends up just spinning around on his back and roling from side to side getting his legs stuck in the bars, he is mesmorized by it and loves to "talk" while he is under it. It is kind of funny too because a couple months ago I was thinking what a waste of space that thing is because Colt never used it all that much but I am so glad I kept putting Jax under it because he is so happy and it gives him a change of scenery and also lets him work on tummy time without me always having to lay right there with him. The other baby item(s) that he enjoys is the Baby Bjorn or baby sling. Again, this was something that I had with Colt but did not use too much, I use it all the time with Jax when we are out and about. That way I have two hands free to deal with Colt and Jax loves to snuggle in them both. Lastly, my most coveted and prized baby item is my BOB double jogger. I can not even explain what a wonderful gift this has been to me. If anything else for peace of mind. Almost every morning (unless I am feeling particularly ambitous and get to the gym by 5am before the kids wake up) I put both kids in the stroller, give Colt a cup of water and a snack and hit the road running with it. Though it is still much easier to run without pushing a stroller this is a very easy stroller to run with and it already has alot of miles on it. I trained for the half-marathon that I did with my sister using that stroller. I even did a couple 10 mile runs with it, for me it has been my stress reliever! The kids are both happy in it too and most of the time its a pretty peaceful time for me to get some excercise and for the kids to get some fresh air.

Jax does not have his 4 month appointment until October 8th so I will update his height and weight stats then. He is wearing 6-9 months clothing now and some of the 6-12 month clothes are fitting as well. He is like his brother in that regard though I would bet he is shorter and still weighs less than Colt did at 4 months. I am going to wait another month before starting rice cereal, I would like to wait until he is 6 months but I think it would be better to see if I can get some solids in him so he will not need as much milk when I go back to work. He is sleeping so much better, he goes down about 7 and wakes up around 5 to eat then back down until 8ish. Colt is still waking up at least once a night (on a bad night its like 5 times), so I still feel tired all the time but I am starting to get used to it. I am loving being home with both my boys and feel so blessed to have them in my life. Life is Great!!

Letter to Jax

September 24, 2009

Dear Jax,

As I type this you are asleep on my chest, snuggled into my neck and breathing just lightly enough so I can hear you. My sweet second son you have been such a blessing to our lives in the last 3 months. I did not know how I could love anyone like I love your brother and I worried when I was pregnant with you if my love for you would be less. The minute you were born and I heard you cry my heart just got bigger and my love for you equals that of which I have for your brother. When the doctor said "its a boy" I was thrilled, I secretly wanted another boy because I wanted you and Colt to always have each other and to get to grow up playing together, wrestling together and going on lots of fishing and hunting trips with Daddy. At the same time it is bittersweet for me as I know that when you do finally grow up I will someday have to allow you to leave me and begin your own family. I know this moment is a long way off but it feels like each day with you is not long enough, each time I feed you it's too short, each smile you give me leaves me aching for me, when I snuggle with you I want it to last forever. You are growing so fast Jax and I just want each and every moment with you to be one that I never forget. I pray for you daily, most of the time more than once. I pray you grow up knowing Jesus and that you use your talents in someway to reflect him in your life. I pray that your dad and I can give you the love and guidance you need to someday go out on your own and begin your own life with your own family. I pray for your health, for your growth both physically and spiritually and I pray for God's plan for you and that you will choose to follow it.

Becoming a mother for the first time when your brother was born changed me in so many ways, I became more loving, more caring and much more reliant on God. When you were born I was changed again, just in a different way. Having you has made me slow down, I have spent much more time just enjoying being with you, holding you, making you smile, talking to you. I care less about what the house looks like, what I look like, I am more patient and I pray even more.

 Found this on August 26, 2014 unfinished.

Dave & Jax

End of Summer.....

 

 

 

 

We have been trying to enjoy these last few days of summer weather by taking advantage of the outdoor activities. We spend alot of our afternoons hanging out in the backyard, kicking balls, playing baseball, making things out of playdoh, running up and down the yard, feeding the alpacas (our neighbors have an alpaca farm right behind our house) and enjoying some tasty cool treats. It has still been in the high 80's low 90's around here and I am ready for some cooler weather but Colt loves the outdoors so its nice to be able to enjoy it a bit longer before it gets too cold.

Firestation

 

 

Since I am on maternity leave until November I have been taking advantages of all the fun things that stay at home mom's get to do on a daily basis. One of those things is a program called MOPs (Mothers of Preschooler's) but it is really just for anyone who is a mom that has kids preschool age or younger. We meet on the second Tuesday of every month for 2 hours, they also have childcare set up for your kids as well. The first one was earlier this month and it was wonderful to have 2 hours to myself (well with Jax but he slept the entire time) doing fun activites and chatting with other moms. The sad part was that Colt cried almost the entire 2 hours he was in the daycare. I felt bad, not just for Colt but for the workers having to listen to him cry.  Apparently he cried so hard he fell asleep on the floor for a good hour but then woke up about 10 minutes before I got there and started crying again. He has also has had a really hard time going to church lately, he cries during his sunday school class unless one of us stays with him the entire time. Anyway, they also have a MOPs playdate once a month from 9-11. Today we met at the park for the first hour and let the kids play and then walked over to the firestation and did a tour. Colt loved it, he was on the move the entire time running from place to place. He got to go in the fire truck and even got to help spray the firehose. I can not believe how the kid can move, he just can not stand still. Even though there were other kids there his age it seemed like most of them would stop while the fireman was talking about something and listen. Not Colt he would listen for a second then run off to look at the next think. The nice thing was that he was very well behaved and listened to me very well he was just very interested and did not want to miss a thing so I guess I can't complain too bad about him running around so much.

Boys Picture of the week!!

All little boys like to climb around in a tree!!

This little boy loves his baths!!

My "other" family

Randee, Julie, Kenzie, Katie

We went over to Kennewick to have our annual christmas card pictures taken and to celebrate Julie's birthday. This is just the cutest photo. As you can see they all look a lot like there mom.....

.....and they love to have fun!!

Dave's gorgeous sisters!

It is pretty obvious that I DON"T belong!!

I realized that I don't have a lot of pictures of Travis up on my blog and I have had so many people ask me about him when I tell them about Katie's husband so I thought I should put one on here. Travis is AWESOME!! We all love him and the kids think he is the best thing ever. Right now he is in training for the Army, he will finish that in December and then him and Katie will be moving to Lousianna in January. We will be so sad that they are so far away. Travis is so much fun to be around and he adores Katie, it has been so much fun to watch there relationship grow and they both have so much fun together. It helps that he is cute too huh??

I had to include my cute niece in this post too.....Camryn Ann.

We took a lot of family pictures but I don't want to include those because they are for the Christmas card and don't want to spoil the surprise. After pictures we had an amazing dinner of steak and steelhead (caught by my main squeeze Dave), baked potatoes, salad, homemade breadstix and baked beans followed by a delicious assortment of desserts.

 

We started a campfire outside (Colt loved the marshmellows) and then all came in for a board game (which I did not play since I was feeding Jax) and then got home late. Time spent with Dave's family is always FUN!!

Indian Summer Half-Marathon

 

 

 

My little sister Marni and I competed in a half-marathon today! When I was hugely pregnant with Jax I started looking for something to compete in that would force me to get back in shape. I found a half-marathon in Richland and called Marni to see if she would be interested in running it with me and she was! The race started at 8am so we were up by 5:30 this morning. Dave and Colt stayed home and my mom drove Marni, me and Jax over to Richland. I fed Jax one last time right before the run and then my mom watched him during our run. It went pretty well, I felt good for most of it and Marni really pushed me to keep the pace pretty fast. Around mile 10 both of us got pretty tired and I was fading fast those last three miles. Marni was a constant chatter box beside me telling me stories and trying to keep my mood positive so I would keep going (of course I would not have stopped but I would have probably ran a lot slower!!). I was so glad when I saw the finish line, both of us ran across it together (well Marni was actually a step in front of me) but we did it in 1 hour and 49 minutes which is about a 8:20 mile pace. We had a goal of finishing in under 2 hours so I was pretty surprised when we got close to the end and we could see the clock. Neither of us had brought our running watches we just decided we would go and run with how we felt. It was sooo much fun (I can say that now that I am finished). We are both a little sore but overall feel good. We are already planning our next run together. My little sister is amazing, if I had not been with her she probably would have run it in 1:45 or less. You got to love her for staying with her old sis and making sure she finished strong!!:)

They look like BROTHERS..........

............they look like there DADDY!!!

Colt and Jax : Updates

 

 

 Notice the Texas jersey #12 (Colt McCoy's number).

Colt is loving the outdoors right now. He is all about playing with his football, baseball, basketball, soccer ball. He asks me every day if we can play catch or kick the ball. The problem is that he no longer wants his little  balls that are his size, he is more interested in playing with the "big" football, basketball, soccer ball and when he throws them at you unexpectedly it kind of hurts!!  He is not afraid of too many things (unless its me leaving him somewhere then he cries and cries) and he is one tough little guy. I can't even believe the number of times he has fallen and scraped his knee or hit his head (bleeding and all) and he just gets up and says "mommy I fall down, just a little blood mommy" and he is off playing again. Dave attributes his toughness to the fact that they always play rough together but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he has daddy's tough gene! Since Dave has been gone fishing so much he is also very interested in fishing himself. We often go and play at a park that has a small stream running through it. He always finds himself and me a big stick and then we go and lay on our tummy's and fish out of the stream with the stick. He thinks it is the best thing and of course he always catches a "big fish" he always says "look mommy a 5 pounder!" not sure if Papa and Daddy would think that is big but to him it is! Not to put a damper on the funny things Colt is doing but he is also starting to drive me a little crazy at times. He can be soooooo naughty and is really testing my patience lately. I am reading a book by Dr. James Dobson called "bringing up Boys" and trying to follow the ideas and discipline strategies that he refers to in the book.To me the most important thing he refers to that all mother's of boys should remember is that boys need "structure, they need supervision and they need to be civilized."  It goes into more detail about different approaches and techniques to try but I always try and go back to those three pieces of advice whenever he is being naughty. Most of his naughtiness is occuring when he is not being supervised or when he is getting bored (no structure). His latest thing to do is throw himself on the floor when I am trying to get him to go somewhere. He does it everywhere...at other people's houses, on the street, at home, in the yard. I pray everyday for patience and that I am doing the right thing in regards to disciplining him. This is by far the hardest and most difficult part of being a parent that I have encountered so far!

 

Jax is all about smiling now. He does it often and is really a happy baby. I keep asking myself when he is going to get difficult because Colt was an easy baby too. Is it possible that I get two easy babies in a row? There personalities seem very similar at this age which means that if it continues when Jax turns 2 I am really going to be in for it! He is sleeping like a champ now for the most part from 7:00-5:30 or 6 then back to bed till 8 or later. Once I really started enforcing the Babywise techniques he became a completely different sleeper. I will have to remember that if we ever have a 3rd. I started Colt off right away using Babywise and I should have been more strict early on with Jax but it was so hard with Colt getting up during the night as well. At any rate I am thankful for the uninterupted night of sleep, Colt is getting up around 5 these days so I am always up really early!! Jax is a big talker and loves to be spoken to and smiled at, he will go crazy cooing back to you and giving us little giggles. As I type this he is snuggled up on my chest sleeping away, I love the fact that he is still small enough to sleep on me and I try to enjoy it for at least an hour or so once a day. Having a second child has really made me slow down and appreciate even more each moment of him being little. I wish I would have done that more with Colt, when he was little I always felt that when he slept I needed to be cleaning, or doing laundry, or working out, etc. I wish I would have taken more time just so slow down and relax and enjoy the feeling of snuggling him. This baby stage goes way toooooo fast and though I love watching my kids get bigger and change I think I will forever say that the baby stage is my favorite!!

Quality Brother Time.....and Byson too!

I can't seem to get enough of this little guy!!!

This chubby little boy is smiling and cooing all the time now!
His days consist of eating every 4 hours, tummy time with brother entertaining him, laying under his playmat listening to music, a couple catnaps and one big long afternoon nap, lots of cuddling with mommy and evening snuggles with daddy. I am also happy to say he is starting to sleep well at night! He has been consistently sleeping for about the last week from 7:30 - 5ish and then eating and going back to sleep until about 8 (now if I can just get his brother sleeping until 8 maybe I will feel human again!). He is an absolute joy to be around and I am loving every single minute of this baby stage (as I learned with Colt it goes way too fast!!).