Look A-likes?

There is hardly a day that goes by that I don't make some comment about how much Jaymes looks like and reminds me of Isabella. I think they look / act exactly the same! Judge for yourself. :) Isabella is a little older in these pictures, but they were the easist pictures for me to find.

Baby Isabella

Baby Jaymes

So Happy!

My Girl

Jaymes seems to be getting most of my blog attention because, well, he's a baby and constantly changing. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten about my sweet girl! :) My little 4 year old is getting so grown up! She has turned into an amazing big sister to Jaymes, and loves to play with him (except for a brief moment today when he spit up on her blanket - how dare he!). She's kind hearted, a huge people pleaser, and still extremely sensitive (maybe too sensitive I worry).

I've been teaching her to read lately, and that has been very exciting for both her and I! She will be attending preschool this coming fall, which she's quite excited about. I was okay with it until we got the letter yesterday telling us that preschool will be changing to 4 days a week. In our school district, kids cannot go to preschool until they are 4 (which I totally agree with), so this is their first school experience, and my opinion is that 4 days a week is too much when they are just starting out. I did call the teacher today, and learned that I am not the only parent concerned about this, so they may in fact leave it at 3 days a week, and if they do decide to have it 4 days a week, we don't have to send her the full 4 days (since we are paying for it, we can decide) we can just have her go 3 days a week, which is definitely what we will do. So it looks like she will be going 3 days a week, either mornings or afternoons starting in August. We have been open to all sorts of schooling options (homeschooling, private, and public). We have decided that for now homeschooling is not for us, the private schools are just too far away (20-30 miles, we'd never be able to get to them with our horrible winters, plus the cost, and our public school is very good, and nice and small). Plus, our public school has a 4 day week (Mon-Thurs), so I'll always have my kids home with me 3 days a week.

This was taken today, I can't wait for ALL the snow to melt, but I don't think it will happen soon.

Icicle!

These were also taken today at Gymnastics, Isabella is in the blue leotard.








I had a good laugh when I saw this picture. Check out the girl laid out flat on the right side of the picture, apparently she's had enough!

Baby Blues

Can't get enough of these big, blue eyes!

Jaymes update

Jaymes had his 6 month checkup on February 11th. It's hard to believe in just another week he'll be 7 months, I'm not quite sure where the time has gone! His checkup went well, he was 16 pounds (40th percentile) and 26 and 1/4 inches long (55th percentile). He's starting to seem long and thin, and is losing his chunky baby fat rolls that were so cute. He is rolling from both front to back, and back to front, and doesn't stay put when put down on the floor on a blanket, he likes to scoot around. He doesn't have any teeth yet, and I will be surprised if he gets any soon. Isabella didn't get her first tooth until she was 2 weeks shy of her first birthday. I can't believe it, but he still loves to be swaddled (he can't roll while he's swaddled)! I just this past week had to get out the 6-9 month clothes, and need to get most of his 3-6 month clothes packed away. He started eating solids about 6 weeks ago, and loves them! He wasn't big on rice cereal, though, once he tried oatmeal, so he no longer has rice cereal. He has one meal a day of oatmeal, a fruit, and a vegetable. So far he's liked all the fruits and vegetables. He is still going to bed around 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening, then sleeping 11-12 hours straight until around 5:00, when he gets changed and eats. I then put him back to bed, and he usually sleeps until around 7:00. Sometimes it takes him awhile to fall back to sleep, and he lays in his crib cooing away, it's so cute! I love baby coos! He usually takes 3 good naps a day. His favorite person BY FAR is his big sister! He is completely enamored with her, and she loves that she makes him laugh so much. She's come a long way since Jaymes first came home, and she had some jealousy/adjustment issues that were very sad for me because she was very sad. She is great entertainment for him, because all we have to do is set him down by where she is playing, and he is completely occupied with watching her play.

His acid reflux has gotten SO much better, and I am so glad that the worst of that is behind us (I hope!). He's even been off of his meds for it for about 6 weeks now. He loves his Jumperoo and sitting in his high chair with toys on the tray, and he really loves his mobile, oh, and looking at himself in mirrors! He is a happy little boy, and we are so in love with him! He LOVES his blanky, and has to have it to fall asleep, so we let him have it, keep checking on him, then when he has fallen asleep we take it away.

Unfortunately at 3 and a half months we had to put Jaymes on formula. He was having such a hard time with my milk - bad tummy issues and couldn't hardly keep any of it down. I tried giving up SO many things in my diet, including dairy, and nothing seemed to help. Oddly enough, my mom had this same problem with me! He and I had been through so much, he was a terrible nurser (my kids are HORRIBLE nursers), I pumped some from the beginning, and at first we had to feed him with a syringe for awhile, then I thought he was doing better, but realized after many yield checks he was only getting ONE ounce in one hour, but when he had a bottle he would take 4 ounces (and still does only take 4 ounces). No wonder he was hungry all. the. time. Anyway there were other issues, too, with nursing and his reflux so I decided to pump pretty much exclusively, and was committed to doing it for the first year. So when we had to switch to formula I was devastated. Some women family members acted like it was no big deal to switch to formula and actually laughed when I said I was really sad about it, that really hurt. They obviously had no idea what that bond is like. It took a while, but I now realize this is what's best for Jaymes, and am completely fine with the decision. It turns out that it was the lactose in my milk that he couldn't handle, and a woman produces a certain kind of lactose in her milk whether she is having dairy or not. Because of the whole situation, and the formula he needs, insurance is paying for his formula, which is great! I hesitated to blog about this before because I know there are a lot of formula haters out there. :) Anyway, on to some pictures . . .

He didn't start taking a paci until about 3 months, I was so glad when he did! He doesn't get it too often (mostly to fall asleep, or when we travel and are out and about) but I'm really glad that he takes one now!