Wesley Joseph - 4 Months

It's pretty easy to calculate how old Wesley is at any given point since he was born on the first day of the year! Our little New Year's baby is already 4 months old now. So, what is he up to these days??

Wesley is definitely a growing boy. He weighs about 15lbs, wears size 2 diapers and is already in 6-9 month clothing (mostly because of his long torso). His blue eyes continue to get brighter. I can't wait to see if they end up looking like X's (and mine) with the rings of color or stay sharp blue. His hair is getting lighter and he still has that little bit in the center of his head that sticks straight up most of the time.

Nursing is continuing to go really well although Wes is starting to become easily distracted (mostly by X) when he's eating. He is still nursing about every 2 hours and has taken a bottle once. Wes is a huge fan of the "binker" too and is just starting to be able to get it to his mouth if you put it in his hand.

Speaking of hands, Wes is now starting to grab for things. He's a little shaky and the item has to be pretty much smack in front of him, but he's definitely enjoying this new skill. And everything he grabs goes straight to his mouth!

Our boy still LOVES to stand up. He will actually "walk" if you hold his body up. I'm amazed that at only 4 months he gets the concept of "1 foot in front of the other". He is also doing really well on his stomach for as much as 10 minutes at a time. He has rolled over from his stomach to back occasionally but nothing consistent. We started putting him in the Exersaucer this week and he loves it because he can stand and see everything (did I mention that he's nosy??)

For as much as he's advancing in some areas, he has regressed a little when it comes to sleep. We moved him from the pack n play in our room (where he would sleep 7-8 hours, eat, then sleep another 3 hours) to the crib in his room at 3 1/2 months. Instantly he began waking up every 3 hours. It's gotten better, but he's now averaging only a 4-5 hour stretch. Thankfully when he does get up it's only for about 20 minutes to eat and then he's back asleep. I wonder if he'd go back to sleep on his own if I let him fuss longer, but I'm afraid he'll wake X and I really don't want BOTH kids awake in the middle of the night! Wes is still a random napper during the day. He's usually happy for about 2 hours and then needs some rest which ends up being 3-4 naps a day. But his nap times and lenght are not consistent. I know this is partly because we're often on the go and he doesn't always stay asleep long in the carseat or stroller. He still takes quite a few naps in the swing but I'm working on getting him to nap in his crib too.

Wes is still not much of a fan of the carseat, but things have improved. We're down to about 25% (instead of 90%) of the time where he goes into a scream fest in the car.

Wes has become such a happy baby on the whole. As long as he's fed and rested we see tons of smiles and he LOVES to laugh and talk. And he loves to get attention. He'll be fussing on the floor and the second you come over to him he breaks into a big ol grin and starts pumping his legs. Xavier is probably his favorite person. I see more smiles when he's looking at X than anyone else. X is the perfect entertainment too because he never sits still!

With the weather changing it's been great to be outside with Wes. He really seems to enjoy it. And we can't wait to take him swimming this summer because if he likes that even half as much as he enjoys baths, he'll be in heaven!

Happy 4 months Wessa Blessa!

Considering Cloth

Now that I have 2 kids in diapers I'm astonished at how much money I spend on diapers as well as how much trash it makes. I'm considering (don't hold me to it!) using cloth diapers for when we're at home.

Anyone have experience with cloth? I need recomendations because there are about a gigillian different kinds out there and frankly, it's making my head spin! I'm looking for something simple to use and that won't take me 50 cycles to wash. And where is the best (cheapest) place to buy them?

A Beautiful Day for a Stroll in the Gardens

Yesterday my friend Lynn and I took the boys to the Botanical Gardens. The weather was wonderful - not too hot, not too cold, sunny, and a slight breeze. I had such a good time catching up with Lynn and she was great at helping me wrangle both kids and my big ol stroller! The flowers were amazing and X really enjoyed running down the paths.

How beautiful are these tulips!

Can you spot Waldo?

Wes was NOT interested in this picture taking stuff!

X loved looking at the fish. I thought he was going to go head first into the water!

X and Lynn were like peas and carrots hanging out all morning!

Wes hung in the stroller for awhile and then took a short snooze. But he preferred to be held most of the morning. Guess he wanted a better view of the flowers.

How serene is this!

In the children's garden X had a blast making music, grocery shopping, and playing on one of his favorite things....slides!

Wes couldn't resist dipping his toes in the babbling brook.

It was a fabulous day. And the best part of it all is that the kids were so worn out they were both in bed by 7pm that night!

Lots of Good Stuff

Some weekends you get nothing done. Others seem uber productive. We swayed toward the uber side this weekend and it felt soooo good (because more often than not we are very un-uber!)


- Friday night the kids were both in bed by 8:15pm. A major accomplishment seeing as lately X has been quite the challenge at bedtime.

- Friday night also marked the first night ever that Wesley slept in his crib in his own room. I've loved having him in the pack n play in our room, but we decided he needs to get familiar with his crib. He's not sleeping quite as well in there, but hopefully it's just a quick adjustment.

- This weekend Walter and I got new cell phones. We bid farewell to our archaic cell phone plan and got matching blackberrys (buy 1 get one free plus upgrade discounts - cause you know, I gotta get a deal!) Now we just have to figure out how to use them! We are probably close to the last people on earth that don't text or have internet on their phones. It will be interesting to see if we end up liking all this additional technology or not. Walter's work covers a big chunk of the cell phone plan so without that we would have never been able to consider it. And the kids were so well behaved at the cell phone store too!

- We went to church, put both kids in childcare, and they stayed in for the entire service!!! I wasn't worried about Wes because as long as he's fed and rested he's a pretty happy go lucky guy. The big accomplishment was we weren't called to come rescue X during the middle of the service! This has never happened. And, he actually had a good time. There were a few tears when we dropped him off (it didn't help that he fell in the parking lot and skinned his elbow on the way in!) but after a few minutes he was fine. He played playdoh, had a snack, and even made a Jesus picture. I can't tell you how nice it was to attend the service without the kids. We could actually pay attention! We are really liking this new church - I'll write more on that later.

- We sold our old fridge on Craigslist. It had been on about a week with no calls. Walter lowered the price a little on Sat. morning and we had a call within a few hours. They came, they saw, they bought, and they hauled it away!

- Today Walter power washed the front porch, back deck, and patio. That lovely layer of pollen over everything is now gone.

- In prep for Walter's bday party next weekend we picked up several items needed from my parent's house and got most of the basement cleaned up and ready to decorate.

- Wesley had his very first bottle EVER tonight. In hopes that I can maybe get out once in awhile, I decided to give the bottle thing a try. To my surprise he knew exactly what to do and drank 5 oz then fell sound asleep! We'll do a few more test runs with it before I actually go somewhere, but it's nice to know it might be a possibility.


Hopefully we can keep up with more good stuff this week! And maybe I'll take some pictures because that's the one thing I have barely done lately. But here's 2 cute ones of Wes for those that just read the blog for the pics!

Snoozin on a Sunday Afternoon

First Cut of the Season

And you always need a supervisor!

Easter Weekend

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Happy Easter

Wishing everyone a blessed and Happy Easter! I taught X to say "Happy Easter - Jesus is alive!" We're having a fun and busy Easter weekend. More pics to come soon......

Toddler Bowling Shoes - Who Knew?

Last weekend was X's first bowling experience EVER! I know, he's 2 1/4 years old -- way overdue to hit the lanes. Despite not having any idea what "going bowling" meant, X was pretty excited. We met up with some friends and got down to business. One of the things that I loved about this bowling alley is that it's completely SMOKE FREE! That in itself makes for an enjoyable experience!

I assumed that X would just wear his tennis shoes, but they had toddler bowling shoes! How adorable is that!

Perfect for little ones they also have bumpers on the lanes and this cool "bowling helper" for kids that aren't strong enough to get the ball down the lane on their own. After a little demo from daddy, X was all about the bowling!

X didn't quite understand that it wasn't always his turn and kept going over to the balls and getting more. We had to have a little lesson in waiting. Also, he thought all the balls were for him to use. I turned around and he was carrying Walter's ball. Apparently X can dead lift 15 lbs!

While we all talked strategy,

Wes snoozed in the stroller!

Christine and I demonstrated our ready stance.

And what bowling experience would be complete without some pizza.

I tried to get a cute shot of all the kids. But I guess when you've got 2 cameras that flash at the same time it turns out a little overexposed!

After his nap, Wesley decided he wanted to get in a frame or two.

And here's our awkward family photo before we headed back home.

We had so much fun and I can't wait to take X bowling again. Oh, and I have no idea what our scores were because we were more focused on keeping X from getting in the way of other bowlers!!