Bennett at 4 months

This little guy is 4 months old now.

(As you can tell by his blurry limbs, he never stops squirming.)

He is a great baby, although I still haven't decided if he is actually easier than the other two were, or if my perspective as a parent has changed. For instance, he eats every two hours and sometimes he'll stretch to three hours. As a first time parent, feeding a baby every two hours sounded exhausting. This time around, I know that babies are supposed to eat that often so I expect it. And when he does go longer between feedings, it's a happy surprise.

(I've actually noticed that literature about feeding babies has changed in this regard. When Dallin was born, the pamphlets and handouts the hospital gave me said babies nurse every 2.5-3 hours. When Bennett was born, all the handouts said babies nurse every 1.5-3 hours. I don't think babies have changed, just that experts are trying to show a wider range of normal. Some babies will happily go 3 hours between feedings and that is normal. Some babies eat more often and that is ok too.)

Another way my perspective has changed is with sleeping. I remember when Dallin was a newborn and we were talking with another young family at church. They said their baby started sleeping through the night when he was 6 months old. Six months straight without a full night of sleep sounded awful to me! Now, I'm used to not sleeping at night. I haven't slept through the night more than a handful of times in 6 years. And I actually feel quite rested most days. Bennett will sleep from about 9pm-4am most nights. Then he'll eat and sleep again until 7 or 8am. Because I have no expectations about his sleeping, every time he sleeps for a long stretch feels wonderful.

At 4 months old, here is what Bennett is up to:

He is spitting up far less than he used to as a newborn. A burp cloth can last into a second feeding now before getting soaked, which is a vast improvement from needing three burp cloths for each feeding.

He smiles all the time and at anyone who will look at him, but most often he smiles for his brothers.

He is starting to babble, giggle and laugh. Baby laughs are one of the best sounds in the world. I haven't gotten a good video of the laughing yet, but here is some babbling. In true Easton baby fashion, he spits up at the end of the video..... but what can you do?

He is an efficient eater. Each feeding is about 10-15 minutes long. Sometimes I want him to take longer so that I have an excuse to sit and rest for a bit.

He will fall asleep on his own, without any sleep training. This one still baffles me. Dallin and Connor both needed to be rocked to sleep until we did some sleep training around 6 months old. Because of that, I never even tried to lay Bennett down awake because I was sure it wouldn't work. I decided to try it out one day and he fell asleep on his own. He didn't even cry! He kind of grunted for about 30 seconds and then just laid there until he fell asleep a few minutes later. It's been working like that for almost two weeks now. He is awesome.

Connor likes to sing him songs before bed.

This one is called, "Go to sleep little baby."

Bennett has rolled from belly to back. He doesn't do it very often. That's probably because I don't give him enough tummy time, but I'd much rather look at his cute face that his butt. Just sayin'...

Right after he rolled over for the first time, at 3 months.

He is a very content baby. He is happy to lay on the floor on his own for a while, taking in the surroundings. I think it helps that his big brothers are always running around him. Laying around doesn't get so boring when there's always someone to watch.


He'll sit happily in the bouncy chair or the bumbo while I make dinner or do dishes. I'm sure it sounds like I never hold him, but I promise he gets plenty of time with me. The wrap and carrier I have help with that a lot.

(At the park on the one warm day we've had this year.)

We haven't had his 4 month check-up yet, but at 3 months old, he weighed 13 lbs 12 oz. I don't know what percentile that is and I confess that it is liberating to not care what percentile he is in. He is eating well and healthy; that's all I need to know.

January and February

(A lot of these pictures have been posted on Instagram. Sorry if it's a repeat for you, but I wanted to record these on the blog too.)

The past two months have been full of snow and cold weather.

We've played out in the snow a bit, but have mostly stayed inside for two months. And between Dallin getting sick a few times, me being sick for a week, and a handful of snow days off from school, we've been at home A LOT. Bennett has been fine with that, but the older boys: not so much. I've tried to come up with a few fun things to occupy them.

I saw this fun idea on Pinterest to put paint inside a ziploc bag and tape it to the table.

It's supposed to be mess free finger painting.

I think I should have used more paint. It didn't work very well because the boys couldn't quite figure out how to manipulate the paint through the bag. So 15 minutes of preparation bought me 5 minutes of them playing. That pretty much sums up parenting.

One craft project that did work came from the Kiwi Crate my mom ordered for the boys. It's a service that mails a few age appropriate craft projects to your house. Perfect for the winter months!

This crate had crafts related to baking. First they got to decorate a chefs hat and apron with crayons and stickers. Then they got to decorate a foam cake with "frosting" clay. They had a lot of fun with the cakes.

We've also played with the Periodic Table building blocks that Connor got for Christmas.

 

We spelled out the names for everyone in our family. Mine was the only one that could be spelled out perfectly.

The 3 boys all needed silent letters at the end of their names.

Other ways to keep life interesting when it's below zero:

Penguin sandwiches, floating through the cantaloupe-iceberg filled ocean, eating goldfish crackers. Connor loved it and has requested this lunch several times.

I found some Christmas pajamas on clearance for Dallin.

They pretty much made his life.

 For Valentine's Day this year, I didn't make valentines for Dallin's Kindergarten class. Too much effort for not enough appreciation, in my opinion. He chose Avengers cards from the store and we were both perfectly happy about that. Connor, however, was invited to a little Valentines party with some of his pre-school age friends from church, so I helped him make some train valentines to pass out.

I did it because 1) I only had to make 8 valentines, and 2) Connor was so excited about the trains and went crazy gluing hearts coming out of the smoke stacks. Worth it.

 Dallin's class had a fairy tale ball on Valentine's Day. The kids got to dress up as a fairy tale character. Dallin asked to be the big bad wolf and I almost made him this costume. Then I thought about how much time/money it would take, and then I remembered this costume we already had.

He was a dragon. The cutest dragon at the ball.

Connor, who now thinks dressing up in costume is part of Valentine's Day, wanted to wear something special to his party too.

So he went as Superman.

We've been to the doctor more times that I wanted to in the last two months. Once was for Bennett's 2 month check up, so that was to be expected.

He weighed 13 lbs 5 oz and is looking just perfect.

Dallin had a couple of ear infections. More doctor visits and antibiotics.

One morning just after Dallin got to school, I got a phone call that he had fallen while getting off the bus, cut his chin and would need stitches. From what I've gathered, his aid was holding his hand and Kendal's hand, and the Special Ed. teacher was holding Dallin's other hand as he was stepping down. Dallin was distracted looking at the other kids getting off buses, and with his coat hood up, his vision was limited. So when he tripped/stumbled/fell, he couldn't really see where he was going and his hands weren't really free to catch himself, so his face did the catching instead.

Luckily, Mckay hadn't left for work yet when I got the call, so we all drove over to pick him up and took him to urgent care.

He was pretty calm and happy by the time we saw him. 

He was cut badly enough to need three stitches. He HATED having his arms and head strapped down so the doctor could stitch him, but he was fighting so much that it was necessary. After screaming for 10 minutes straight, he was finally stitched up and we could leave.

As I drove him back to school, I told him he should tell his friends how brave and tough he was. His response was "I not tough! I was a little scared."

As for the rest of the month, we've been snuggling with Bennett

 and enjoying the peaceful moments.

The very rare, peaceful moments.

The Dog and the Monster

We came up with these affectionate nicknames for our boys when we went camping a few months ago. It was inspired by them wearing these pajamas:

Dallin, the monster and Connor, the dog

We didn't realize at the time how appropriate those nicknames are to the stage of life they are currently in.

Connor is very much like a dog. Right now he just wants to crawl around and get into everything. He is learning and exploring with his mouth. He tries to play in the garbage and toilet. I always catch him eating shoes or paper.

He will eat pretty much anything you give him. Even if it's a new food, he just opens his mouth and eats it. He likes to crawl around in the kitchen and pick up the scraps of food that Dallin has dropped for him.

He recently discovered he loves french fries.

He bites with his 3 teeth. 

(The best picture I have of the bottom 2 teeth.)

Especially with it being summer and everyone wears shorts with bare legs exposed, he loves to crawl around and bite legs. He drools a lot. When you pick him up he squirms like crazy, he does not want to sit still. One time in the bath he was hitting the water gently with his hand, very much the same way a dog paws at a bowl of water. Do you see the resemblance?

As far as non-dog-related development goes, Connor amazes me. At 9 months, Connor now weighs 19.5 lbs and has been coasting along at the 50th percentile for months now. He crawls with amazing speed and pulls himself up to stand on everything. He is now discovering he can stand up and hold onto a support with just one hand, while the other is free to fly about as he bounces up and down on his knees. He gets a big smile on his face when he does that.

He mimics what we do. He saw Dallin playing with sidewalk chalk, so he picked up a piece and made little strokes on the ground, completely by himself!

He watches what we do with our hands and mimics it. He will copy facial expressions. Yesterday at church he sat there in Sunday school with me, and he lifted one arm up for a good 10 seconds, as if he had a question and waiting for the teacher to call on him. It made me laugh.

I know it's late, but here is an 8 month growth comparison of the boys. First try:

I learned to take the picture faster with this one:

 

 Dallin is a monster. He has quite the temper and will yell if he does not get his way. When he is mad, he will run to his room and slam the door closed. Once it closes, he screams even louder because he realizes he can't open doors and just locked himself in there. I usually give him some time to calm down before opening the door for him.

He has very strong emotions. Most of the time he is happy, but he can also get very sad. He says "Go away." when he is sad and Connor is trying to climb on him.

Along with his strong emotions comes a great empathy and understanding of other's emotion. Often, when Connor is crying, Dallin will bring him a toy, or his water cup or a burp cloth; all things that bring Dallin comfort and he hopes will help Connor calm down as well. When I hit my head or foot on something and yell out in pain, Dallin comes running over. I explain that I got "hurt." Then later, if I yell in frustration (rather than pain) at something like the dumb computer, he comes to me and says, "Hurt?"

Dallin's language is improving. He will put together mostly complete sentences, like "I want cracker too" or "I want bath too." (He thinks everything needs "too" at the end. I think it started when we would offer things to Connor and then ask him, "Do you want a cracker too?") He says "No Connor" a lot when Connor is getting into things he shouldn't. He still asks for pancakes 2 or 3 times daily and often refers to all food as pancakes. Example: one day at dinner, I was spoon feeding Connor some puree and he kept turning his head away. So Dallin said to him, "No Connor, eat your pancakes." I LOVED that moment.

Dallin likes to organize and sort things. I stocked up on some baby food and Dallin helped me unload the grocery bags.

 He put the jars in a circle, grouping all the applesauce together on one side of the circle, with all the sweet potatoes together on the other side. He is amazing.

Dallin may be a monster, but he's a very sweet amazing monster.

Connor the lump

Connor is 4 months old now. He's a really happy baby and he smiles all the time. He eats a lot and has the girth to show for it. He now weighs 15 lbs 10 oz. and is above 50th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference. He's quickly catching up to Dallin.

(click here for previous 2 month comparison)

I love their matching pajamas! Connor is wearing a 6 month size one and Dallin's is a 12 month size. Granted, these pajamas are big on Connor, and Dallin's are really snug, but they size gap is closing between them. Connor is starting to wear clothes that Dallin was still wearing at 18 months.

Connor is not rolling over yet and hasn't really tried to yet. He's still just a lump on the carpet. I think the problem is that he is such a content baby, when you lay him down on his tummy he just lays there and doesn't fight to get out of it. He can lift his chest off the ground very well and is building some great muscle strength, but no desire to roll. We're working on it!

He does squirm a lot though. He can scoot a few inches on the floor or rotate his body around 90 degrees. He's always kicking or moving his arms around. I'd take a video to show you, but he's sleeping right now, so I'm not bothering him. But here's a flipbook video of sorts so you can get a feel for what his movements look like.

Connor and Dallin are pretty good buds. Dallin is always checking on Connor and giving him hugs and kisses. Connor often has a face like this:

He keeps a wary eye on Dallin. When the "loving" gets to be too much for Connor, he'll cry...

...and then Dallin will kiss it better.

But despite all that, Connor really does love having his big brother around. When I'm busy and Connor is left to himself for A bit, he'll fuss, and then Dallin will go keep him company by hugging him/ laying on him.

And Connor likes it.

If Dallin tries to leave, Connor will fuss again until his brother returns.

Merry December

We're coming to the end of December and I've only done one blog post this month. That's probably because I haven't taken many pictures of the boys, which I know is a cardinal sin with boys so young and cute as mine. We've been pretty busy this month. Here are a few things we've been doing:

The number one thing that keeps me busy is taking care of 2 boys. Between taking care of them and basic housework, it's a miracle I get anything else done at all. But they're so cute, it's worth it. I spend a lot of time with them like this, changing their diapers:

Dallin usually hold's Connor's hand when they're laying next to each other.

I plan to take side by side pictures like this occasionally to compare Connor's growth to Dallin's. We'll see how long it takes Connor to catch up.

We decorated our house for Christmas.

Dallin loved helping his Dad.

My brother Neil and his family stopped by to see us a week ago. They brought some presents for us to open and it felt like Christmas morning.

Dallin was so excited to open his presents. He was happy to help open (and play with) Connor's presents too. It helped him get in present opening mode for tomorrow.
More than the presents, Dallin loved playing with his cousins and aunt and uncle. Neil was very tired after a long drive from Arizona, so he was trying to take a nap on the floor. But the kids thought it would be more fun to climb on him.

The month has been full of doctor's appointments. New foot orthotics for Dallin (3 appointments), Fluid in Dallin's ears and a round of antibiotics (2 appts), and a 2 month check-up for Connor. Connor is growing so quickly. He's getting so chubby and already growing out of some 0-3 month clothes, like this awesome shirt:

And the matching shoes don't feet his big feet anymore. Sorry Julie.

At 2 months old, he now weighs 13 lbs, 4 oz (a weight Dallin didn't reach til well after 6 months), putting him around 80th percentile. Having gone through what I have with Dallin's weight, I don't really put much importance on percentile numbers. But's it's kinda nice to have a big baby for a change and to not have people freaking out about his weight. At his appointments, we get to talk about little things like his dry skin and weird toe nail, rather than weight gain and heart problems.

Connor has started smiling and it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen, tied for first place with Dallin's first smile. I'm having a hard time capturing photographic evidence.

This is the best I've gotten.

Dallin's vocabulary is growing daily. He picks up new words so well. They're not perfectly formed, clear words yet, but we can usually tell what he wants. He's now mastering 2 syllable words like Connor and cracker (which sound very similar is Dallin-ese.) He has quickly learned the word and sign for "asleep" because he's always trying to cuddle Connor while he's asleep, and the last thing I want is a baby who was woken up early. Similarly, he's learning "hurt" in an attempt to help him understand that laying on top of Connor will hurt him.

I'm not sure where he learned this sign since we weren't practicing this one with him, but he picked it up somewhere and pulled it out when we were saying bye to his Grandma Crapo on the phone.

Of course, after trying to make him perform for 5 minutes, his talking and signing quality was diminishing for the video, but you get the idea.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas tomorrow. I promise to take lots of pictures so I'll have something to post about.

Progress

After last month's excitement with Dallin in the hospital, things are back to normal and going very well. Dallin saw the kidney specialist again this week. His calcium is much better. It was 11.5, and while that is still a little higher than the normal range, it's much lower and a much safer number for him to be at. His potassium is in a good range now as well. He's getting used to all the medical tests he's subjected to on a regular basis. He hardly cried when they drew his blood. We've been taking his blood pressure at home a few times a week. He used to scream and fight when his blood pressure was taken a the doctor's but now he's used to it and doesn't care at all. As a result, his blood pressure has also been lower.

He's completely on the formula now, except for one nursing session in the middle of the night because I'm too lazy tired to get up and make him a bottle. He's taking the formula very well and doesn't seem to notice a difference. It also seems like he's gaining weight! (knock on wood) His weight has fluctuated between 14.5 and 15 lbs. for the past 10 months so I'm trying not to get too excited, but he weighed 15 lbs. 2 oz. at his appt. this week. That's almost 6 oz. more than when he left the hospital. He looks like he's getting chubbier. His face is fuller and his belly is more round. The trouble is getting him to KEEP gaining weight, but I'm pretty optimistic that he'll be getting bigger.

We are finally getting him started with a physical therapist here. It's been a pain to jump through the insurance and medical referral hoops to get therapy started for him, but we're finally making progress. I'll be meeting with our coordinator on Monday to plan out his goals for the next 6 months and choose his therapists.

He's still cautious around food, but making some attempts. The other day he tried and loved this chicken tortilla soup. He actually opened his mouth again for several bites! And it was a little on the spicy side for me. He is his father's son. Another thing he enjoys is cheese puffs.

He likes to lick the cheese off them.

And it makes him happy to be a big boy and feed himself.

We're still very far away from getting him completely onto solid food, but he's making little baby steps of progress.