My BIG boys!

It has been a total joy to watch these two boys get so BIG!  We celebrated their third birthdays yesterday at Pump it Up.  It is hard to believe that they are already three.

Sammy was a bit leery of the jumpers at first, but then LOVED the big slide.

Daredevil Brendan had no problem getting right into the the huge jumpers.

Shanda made it all the way from China

  

Andrew slept through most of the party, can't wait until he can play too!

Yearbook Camp Swimming

At camp we spent a several hours playing at the pool.  After feeding Andrew, we had about 1.5-2 hours to play at the pool.  Thankfully the "adult" pool (where yearbook kids aren't allowed to go) is in the shade 90% of the day.  Because of this, Andrew did not have to be slathered in sunblock and we could take off his hat.  The water was in the 80's so there was no cold shock for the baby.

 

 Daddy taught me to kick and splash.

 Yeah, there is no denying that they're father and son!

 Getting Andrew's swim diaper on deserves smiles (well, of course, everything deserves smiles in Andrew's life)

 Mommy and Andrew can make the same faces too.

Family shot in the pool!

A year ago

Exactly one year ago at this exact time (6:55 am), I got up and drove to CVS to buy a pregnancy test.  I'd been home from yearbook camp less than 12 hours and was convinced that I wasn't pregnant, but I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was going on.  I couldn't sleep and tossed and turned all night thinking about the possibilities. 

The test was really just suppose to confirm what the doctor's had said that pregnancy wasn't going to occur naturally.  Instead, when I looked at the stick as it sat on the drywall dusted ladder in the unfinished master bedroom, I saw a VERY clear + sign.  The gittery feeling of complete and total disbelief is still very clear in my mind.  I also find it kind of funny that I didn't pee on another stick (like I now know a bunch of people do), but instead I called Kaiser immediatly to get it confirmed by the doctor (the top square test). 

It is amazing that July 30th last year Andrew was the size of a lima bean and on July 30th this year he is a little boy full of smiles and personality. A miracle created by a loving God!

Yearbook Camp

This week, Andrew, Dave and I headed to Indian Wells (close to Palm Springs) for Camp Yearbook 2011.  As with the past three years, I was the instructor for the Middle School classes and the Orange Color Group.  Last year, I had no students to bring with me which was a sad experience.  This year the fact that I didn't have a staff was sad, but I didn't have very much time to think about it because the baby was there.  He was a hit with the campers and camp staff.  Everyone was impressed with his happiness and ability to sleep through all the noise and activity going on around him.

 Cindi, Camp Organizer

 Daddy had Andrew when I was teaching and did a lot of camping out in the hotel room as Andrew napped.  My boys met me at meals between my teaching schedules.

Andrew was a big boy at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He flirted with the high school girls and played with the advisers.  The happy baby moved from friend to friend as he charmed his way through my camp friends.

Andrew's name tag (a la Cindi)

Happy Birthday Ivy

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Ivy joined the world!

From this tiny little bundle of joy

to this adorable bundle of personality

Happy Birthday Ivy

 Andrew wants to play with you, but he can't quite figure out what's going on. 

Maybe in a year from now...

Andrew's New Toy

Andrew is fascinated by the fact that he has contol over the spinning lizard. 

Andrew holds up his head pretty steady and LOVES to stand up, so I thought it might be time to get the Jumperoo out of the closet and see what happened.  Not only does he actually jump and kick his legs, but he likes the things that are attached to the actual jumper. 

"Singing" with the music that plays when he hits the toys.

Baby Food Makin'

Three gala apples made 24 1 oz cubes

I'm cheap and baby purees are expensive, so I decided that it would be easy enough for me to make my own.  I ordered a cookbook online that divides up the recipes by months that they are recommended to be introduced.  I picked a few out of the 6-month chapter, made a shopping list, and went to the grocery store.  I spend $12.74 total.

None of the recipes are hard, nor did any of them take a huge amount of time. The apples were the 'hardest' only because it wasn't easy to peal the apples after they were mushy.  The sweet potatoes were probably the easiest.

Three large sweet potatoes made 48 1 oz servings

Thee large bananas made 12 1 oz servings

After they froze in the ice cub trays (with lids), I transferred them to a zip lock bag and into the deep freezer.  I really want a vacuum sealer, but they are expensive and I keep reminding myself the whole point of this is to save money.

Andrew and his dog

They have a special relationship. 

Most of the time, Andrew doesn't know that she exists; however, I think we're getting closer to him "getting" who she is and actually touches her whenever she is close enough. On our trip to San Diego, he looked at her in the car for a while and actually smiled right at Reese.

Reese, knows Andrew exists and has actually become the guard dog.  She looks for the baby when he isn't with mommy by running in and out of rooms until he finds Andrew.  She stands nearby when he's crying and tries to calm him by licking his toes when he's in the car seat.  She even has decided that she likes the taste of his spit-up and "cleans up" for mommy (really disgusting, I know).

Who knows why he made this face, but I had to share...

Grandparents

 In the last two weeks, Andrew has seen his four grandparents and one of his Great Grandmas.

Playing with Grandpa and Grandma Pfeffer

This past weekend, we made a trip to Lakeside to visit the Pfeffer house.  We spend two days hanging out, playing, and eating yummy food.  Everyone even got the special treat of Andrew's spit-up on their clothes ;)

My mom came to our house last week for three days of laid back hanging out and playing with Andrew.

Grandma with her grandbaby and grandfurbaby

Last weekend we made a special trip to Bakersfield to get a few things and spend the night with Great Grandma Bennett.  She had a great time holding and playing with the baby too.  She spend a lot of time talking to her.  On the way home, we stopped in Lakewood and Granddad got to hold the little man for some special bonding time.

More Swimming with Daddy

I can stand up in the water mom!

Our little pool in the backyard has been fun for Andrew.  Because the water sits in the sun most of the day, it is nice and warm.  Dave has gotten in the pool several evenings to play with the baby.

We can sit in the water...

He floats pretty good too (watch those legs, they do kick water right into your face).

Bath Time fun

Andrew has outgrown the sink in the bathroom (it is too shallow), so we've moved on to the kitchen sink.  He, of course, doesn't really notice the change in location.  We still have a bath lover on our hands.  He especially likes running water and being splashed (as long as it isn't in his nose and mouth).  He licks the water on his face and tries to lick my hands as I wash all those neck rolls.  In the picture below, I am pouring water right on his head as he smirks. 

Meeting Aunt Pauline and Uncle Ralph

Dave's sister, Pauline, and brother-in-law, Ralph, drove through Riverside on the 4th of July and stopped to meet the little man and have lunch with us.  Andrew was fast asleep when they got here, so they were treated (or tortured) with a grand house tour (the last time they were here we had no use of the master bedroom and the master bath literally had no floor, just floor joists). 

When we saw them last, Andrew was a 23 week inside baby and we'd just found out that he was going to be a boy.  Oklahoma shared two special people with us for a few hours.

My body hates me

Can I leave it at that?!?

All I can say in my PCOS is in full blow 'breakout' stage... I think that 'it' doesn't want me to forget about everything it could do to my body by putting my poor self through every symptom known to man (even many that I didn't have pre-pregnancy).

Okay, enough complaining, off to pluck out those man hairs on my chin, do my hair to cover the man-style receding hairline, and cover the major dark spots on my face so I can go to the grocery store.

Swimming with Daddy

We set up a five foot pool in the backyard to swim. Andrew and Daddy got in together yesterday!

Three Months Old

 Developmental Milestones this Month: Andrew  still is pretty textbook for his development. He can do the following (all age-appropriate according to What to Expect the First Year): lift his head and chest 45 and 90 degrees while on his tummy using his arms for support, roll from his tummy to back, smile in response to others' smiles and smile spontaneously, squeal in delight, bring both his hands and feet together purposefully, follow an object as small as a raisin 180 degrees, reach as short distance and grasp onto toys, hold his head steady when held upright, bear some weight on his legs when held in the standing position, turn in the direction of mommy and daddy's voice, make LOTS of sounds in all different vowel-consonant combinations.

Physical Growth this Month: These are "at home" measurements because Andrew doesn't go back to the doctors until four months.  On Wednesday at WW, Andrew weighed in at 13.9 lbs (gain of 1.5 lbs in one month that I swear is all in his face).  I tried hard to measure his length and got three different measurements, averaging out at 25.5 inches.
Things Andrew likes: Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Melissa are his favorite people right now--although, anyone who is willing to play with him and make high pitched sounds, he'll smile at.  He still loves Mr. Octopus and his play mat, along with his crib mobile.  His hands have also become a constant toy (they are always in his mouth) and he loves playing with his tongue.  He has a lion that crinkles and he loves it in the car; from the front seat, I can hear him crinkle it for over 15 minutes as he tries to eat the lions ears.
Things Andrew doesn't like: his acid reflux/GERD makes Andrew hate spitting up, but other than that, he's a pretty laid back baby.  He gets "scared" at loud noises, but doesn't cry.  He doesn't like the process of going to sleep, nor when you take the bottle out of his mouth during a feeding.  Raspberries on his belly make him stick out his lower lip in a quiver.

I had to give you a 'melt down' picture or it wouldn't be a monthly update!

Sleeping: Andrew is a champion sleeper thanks to the Baby Whisperer (I love this woman).  During this third month of life, he slept through the night (that means 6 hours or more), 27 of the 31 days!  The nights have gotten longer and longer, averaging about 9.  Last night, he gave us 12 long sleeping hours.  During the day he takes three naps ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours.  Usually the morning nap is shortest.  He's also proved that he can pretty much sleep anywhere.  When we went to Bakersfield to visit Great Grandma Bennett he slept well in his pack in play, he's also sleep on the floor at many places, in several beds, in the RV, in the car, and on mommy in his sling.
Eating: Andrew transitioned himself to a four hour schedule during week eleven and because of this the amount that he eats has gone up dramatically.  He now eats 6 oz (or more) in one bottle five times a day.  We needed to switch this past week to the medium flow nipples in the Playtex bottles because it was taking him almost 45 minutes to eat one bottle (with medium, he's back down to 20 minutes or so).  He was eating about 27-30 oz at the end of his second month, and now he's eating between 30-32 oz so in reality he doesn't consume all that much more.  We started him on Zantac for his GERD on June 14 and upped his dosages just this week (it's weight related).  The medication helped the pain from the reflux go away, so we no longer have a cranky baby who wants to eat, but hurts when he eats.  The spit up amount has not decreased, but at least it isn't bothering him anymore.  Mommy and Andrew both change clothes at least twice a day and average about four burp cloths a day.  Also, Andrew no longer wakes up from his naps starving.

Playing: Andrew now stays up almost two hours after every bottle, so we have started playing together.  We spend the first 15-20 minutes after a bottle sitting upright on mommy's lap or in his rocker chair (to help with reflux/spitting up) playing with our hands and feet, singing 'this little piggy' and 'if you're happy and you know it.'  We then move on to a circuit of different activities; 1)to the play mat to practice being on our tummy, rolling over, talk to the baby in the mirror, shake Mr. Octopus, kick the elephant and whale, and scoot around, 2) in the crib to practice more tummy time and rolling over (on a super padded surface this time), talk to the mobile, or sing the nursery rhymes with the CD, 3)in the Bumbo to practice assisted sitting, or 4)in the Baby Bjorn or sling to walk around the neighborhood with Reese.  All the time Mommy is talking to Andrew (or reading Facebook out loud to him) and he has started talking back and making up his own conversation. Andrew is learning and watching all the time and strangers always comment on how alert he is when we are out and about.
Diapers: We switched to size 2 in the middle of the month because we ran out of size 1 and I didn't want to purchase another huge box from Amazon Mom (by the way, if you haven't looked into this mommas, you want to).  There were a bit big for the first two weeks and we had a few leaks, but now they are fitting fine.  In total we used 557 size 1 diapers and we have already used 92 size 2 (don't you love that I keep track for you?!?).

Clothing: Andrew is (still) wearing 0-3 month clothes. He's outgrown the sleepers, but hasn't been wearing them anyway because it is so hot at night.  His tallness is all in his legs, so the 0-3 month clothes are perfect right now.  I'm sure in the next few weeks we'll switch to 3-6 months (I've already gotten them from Tawni and Rachel and started organizing so they will be ready when we need them).  Most of the pants/shorts that we have in 0-3 (still) fall off his belly so we roll them up to fit.

Photos were hard this month because Andrew wants to MOVE and his hands are constantly in his mouth!

Important Events of Month Three: Fathers' Day, 4th of July, met Aunt Pauline and Uncle Ralph, visited Great Grandma Bennett and first road trip, and mommy's favorite, learned to SLEEP well!!