Growing up

An update on Jack! He is scooting everywhere but has yet to crawl. We are not sure he will crawl as he loves to walk EVERYWHERE. We spend our days assisting him around the house. We bought a wonderful contraption called "walking wings" which hook around his middle and relieve our backs while walking around the house. He is saying "mama" "dada" and a whole bunch of babble regularly now. He has also learned how to sit from a laying position and I find him sitting up in his crib pretty regularly. He is definitely developing a great personality and is a lot of fun!

The Big Move

Prior to Brooks's birthday party there was a big event in our lives. Pat, Kim, Brooks, Bruizer, and Jinx all moved to Salt Lake! We are so excited to have them up here! They found an apartment near Mary that sits on a golf course and is quiet. It is near the freeway and perfect for getting started up here. Pat is looking for the right job and in the meantime is enjoying taking care of Brooks. Kim found a good job working in the billing office for IHC at LDS hospital. We are excited to have the boys grow up together!

Brooks's First Birthday

So Kim mentioned on her blog site she did not get picts of Brooks eating his birthday cake! It seems that is what I got the most of. Also a cute pict of Alex in his sunglasses. He is so sweet. He did not love those sunglasses and only wore them for a bit and they made his eyes all red. But he did not complain! Brooks had an aversion to the grass and only crawled on it as a last option. The red car was our present to Brooks and he loved it.

Visit from Nana

Last weekend my mom came up for a visit. At first Jack wasn't sure what to think of her. He obviously did not remember her from previous encounters. She quickly won him over and by Sunday he was giving her hugs and his signature heart melting smile. Mom got a few cute pictures of Jack, Kyle, and I before we left for work one morning when we were all wearing blue!

Sleep transition: Epilogue

So if you remember our sleep adventures from previous blogs you will remember what a struggle it has been. After Jack got sick things got really rough at night. For about three and a half weeks I was up every hour or two with Jack and he just could not be appeased. He definitely did not want to sleep with me and would nurse for a minute and then squirm and cry. The only way he seemed to want to sleep was in his carseat or sitting on my lap in our chair in the front room staring at the fire. So I would take him for a drive once or twice a night (usually at 1 and 4 am) and when I was not driving I was sleeping in the chair in the front room. Kyle was seriously worried I was going to have a breakdown. I thought maybe it was related to him being sick so finally I took him in to see his pediatrician and after a thorough examination she said she could not find anything wrong. He was totally fine during the day. Then on Saturday I was thinking about everything and I realized what the problem was. He did not want to sleep with me anymore but did not know how to sleep in his crib. Kyle and I made the decision we were going to let him cry it out and get him in his crib since he wasn’t sleeping with me anyways and it was getting ridiculous at night.
Saturday night he cried for about half an hour initially. We got him up, burped him, we changed him and layed him back down. He cried for 45 minutes! It sucked. Then he fell asleep. He woke up every few hours. If it was around three hours I would feed him and lay him back down. If it was sooner I would pick him up, burp him and lay him back down. The first night he cried it out three times, averaging 20 minutes. The next night he cried it out twice, averaging 15 minutes. The third night he cried it out once for 15 minutes and fussed a few minutes the second time. Last night he cried it out once for about 10 minutes. The woke last night three times for feedings. It is definitely getting better. I am sleeping a lot more and I don’t know what to do with all the sleep!
Anyway – I feel bad Jack was trying to tell me something for almost a month before I got it. Last night he slept a five hour stretch without waking and then in the early morning he sleep three more consecutive hours! YEY!

New Friends

Jack has been entranced by these two large stuffed animals in his room. He will just sit and stare at them and sometimes carry on lengthy conversations with the tiger (see photo).

Football Player

Kyle got Jack a little football to play with and he seems to enjoy it. I had to work late recently so the other picts are of Kyle and Jack Hanging out together (Kyle asked me not to post it... sorry hun it is too cute not to!)