Four Months Old

Today is Jack's big four month birthday.  He celebrated this morning with some fun tummy time.  He is getting so much stronger!  His head control  has improved so much over the past two weeks.  Of all three boys he is the only one doesn't seem to mind tummy time.  Maybe that is because he usually has a brother around willing to lay down and play with him. 

So what is new with Jack at four months old?  He loves chewing on his hands.  Bibs seem to always end up in his mouth since they are so close to begin with, he can't seem to coordiate his hands enough to get other things to his mouth.

Jack has also realized that there are these really cool little things at the end of his legs called feet.  He looks at them all the time and tried to grab them, but he isn't quite coordinated enough to get the job done yet. 

He is an incredible nighttime sleeper, unfortunately that doesn't quite carry over to his daytime sleep.  The only way I can get him to nap at all during the day is when I put him in his swing.   I have a feeling that I'm really going to have a tough time breaking him of the habit in a couple months, but hey, for now it is working. 

We have Jack's four month appointment tomorrow, I hate the fourth month check up because I know there will be shots.  Lots of shots.  Hopefully Jack will be a little trooper.  As you can see his thighs have plenty of padding, so maybe the shots won't hurt as much.  A momma can hope, right?

This Kid. . .

He just cracks me up.  One of his new favorite toys is this this plastic bucket. Usually this holds the boys' cars, but lately it has been used for anything and everything else that Will can think of.  He carries it around the house so he can have a chair at a moments notice.  Today he decided that he made a really great hat.  He didn't even care that it smashed his nose.  I couldn't stop laughing!

Here is one more Will shot that makes me laugh.  He was having so much fun at Jack's baptism party, but he was crushed when he woke up and everyone was gone.  There were lots of tears until he saw this cake.  Then he was all smiles.  I was just glad he didn't put his whole face in it.

On a side note, I just got a call that my camera has been fixed and is ready for pick up.  I'm so glad that I will have more than just phone pictures to post. 

Jack's Big Day

 Sunday was amazing. We gathered with our friends and family to officially welcome Jack into the Catholic Church.  I have to admit that the deacon was pretty wordy and I wasn't too wild about it, it was still very special. 

Aunt Anna and cousin Tony were proud to step in as Jack's new godparents.  In fact they were both thrilled, Tony especially.  It warms my heart so much to see how they love my little boy.  In fact Tony made sure that Great Aunt Carm got a picture of him with his godson. 

 After the ceremony was finished we took a few pictures.  Our sweet little family of five. . .

 Our family with the proud godparents.

 Then of course one more with the grandparents. 


 
 They boys were great during the ceremony.  Max wanted to stay close to make sure Jack was okay and Will just about went headfirst into the baptismal fount . . . just when I was thinking that he seems to be listening better. 

 We continued the celebration with a party at our house.  Of course no baptism would be complete without a God Bless cake.  I know I say this all the time, but how did I get so lucky!

Our Kindergartener

 I just don't see how it is possible that Max started Kindergarten last Tuesday.  He was all smiles before and after school so I will take that as a huge success.  

My plan was to have him take the bus the first day, then Brian told him how he remembers his mom always driving him to school the first day.  So I loaded up all three boys and we headed over to Henry Elementary.  As we pulled up Max started yelling from the back seat, "Hey, there is my teacher from Claymont!"  He was thrilled to see his jumpstart teacher and I was thrilled that he had a familiar face.  Max hoped out of the car and she helped to make sure he got to the right place. 

I looked at the clock all day long and wondered what Max was up to.  I couldn't wait for the little boys and I do head to the bus stop to pick him up.  In fact I was so eager that we were at hte corner almost 15 minutes early.  Seeing his huge smile as he got off the bus let me know he had a great day.  So far we have a week under our belt and there have been a whole lot of those smiles. 

Last Day of Summer

Today was Max's last day of summer vacation.  Tomorrow he wakes up a kindergartener . . . this makes mama want to cry.  But moving on, we had a great last day of vacation today. We picked up Nonna and headed to the zoo. 
   

 

Every time we check out a different section, after riding the train of course.  Today it was the sea lions.  The boys, Nonna and I enjoyed watching the sea lions swim all around.  Jack and Will were worn out by that point, but Max just couldn't get enough.  He thought it was pretty crazy that they swam upside down.

We picked up lunch and headed back to Nonna's house.  While the little boys rested, Max, Nonna and I baked oatmeal cookies.  Yum.  They alwasys remind me of baking with my grandma when I was little.  It warms my heart to watch my boys with their Nonna.  So sweet.  Anyway, Max was a bit dissapointed in the cookies and declared that we should have made chocolate chip cookies instead.  Oh well, at least Will liekd them when he woke up.

Tomorrow my baby heads off to Kindergarten.  I really can't believe it, time just needs to slow down

Cheese

There was a point when Max would snag my phone and run around the house taking pictures.  He thought it was the funniest thing ever.  Will has entered this stage.  It is adorable.  Our little photographer walks around taking pictures and saying 'cheese'.  Here are a few masterpieces. . .

Cheese Dada

Cheese kitty

Cheese door

Cheese Max

Our little man in the middle just cracks me up.  He can drive me crazy with his antics, but he can always turn on the charm and make me smile.  Here is one more for good measure.  And for the record he climbed up there all on his own. . .sigh I'm in the trouble.

Painting Paw

We are huge fans of the St. Louis County library.  The boys and I are there weekly to pick out new books and they have pretty great story time options.  Max and Will both finished up their summer reading program this past week.  I have to say we have been a bit disappointed with the library prizes this year.  The first level was a one inch plastic stingray stuck in a block of plaster that he had to dig out.  The second level was a three foot beach ball and the third level was a ticket to the Magic House.  I think the library is responsible for sending a maid to clean up the plaster dust, sending a person to blow up the giant beach ball, and providing supervision for my wild men while at the Magic House.  Somehow that part didn't happen.  I guess I shouldn't be picky, but last years prizes were great.

This morning we headed to the Painting Paw pottery studio to redeem one of Max's library prizes.    Max did get a coupon to paint a tile for free, so we met a friend and her little girl over at the pottery studio this morning.  There were two of us with five crazy kiddos and it was so much fun!  Both Will and Max did a great job painting their tiles, who knows what they will look like when we pick them up next week. 

It was the perfect craft project and just took about 40 minutes.  Right when the kids were about to melt down we were finished.  I think we may return at Christmas because they had some really cute little ornaments to paint. 

After the spectacular tiles were finished we crossed to road to enjoy a Chick-fil-A lunch.  The kids just loved that they had so much time to play on the indoor playground because it was pouring! 

Today is the day I would have gone back to work had I not taken a year off.  It is finally sinking in that I'm officially a stay at home mom.  I'm so glad that my good friend Jothy is home with her kiddos too.  We can help to keep each other sane with more outings like today.  So much fun!

Our Little Firefirghters

 

Today was so much fun!  Aunt Anna is still in Columbia working on her masters degree - way to go Anna.  Since we don't get to see her too often we thought we would visit.  Brian took the day off work and we headed to Columbia this morning.  We got to see Anna's new apartment, which was much nicer than the places we lived during college.  Then we headed to the Boone County Firehouse for a behind the scenes tour!

Aunt Anna's very sweet boyfriend is a firefighter in Boone County.  He kindly offered to give the kids a tour and it was perfect.  They got to climb up into all the different trucks and Max even got to turn on the lights.

The boys were shocked at how heavy Scott's firefighter helmet was, but they sure looked cute trying it on.   They also learned a few ins and outs of being a firefighter.  For example the door of hte truck is always open.  The firefighters uniforms are always ready for them to step right into.  And I think their favorite was the sting that hung from the ceiling with a handle on it.  I think Will was pretty shocked when he pulled on it and the door opened.

I can't think of anything that we could have done today that would have been more fun for these two big boys.

I'm sure the boys could have spent all day on those trucks, but we had  big lunch plans - Shakespeare's Pizza!  Max loved it, Will was too tired to eat, and Jack passed out after some milk for lunch.  He sure looks comfy with his Aunt Anna doesn't he?