4 Months Old

The boys turned four months old yesterday. I wrote this sitting in the kitchen ignoring their small whimpers of protest against my institution of nap time. Mom is heartless.

Playing on the floor at Grandma Loveridge's house (Henry on left, Jack on right):

Play contraption Grandma came up with and Dad modified:

Good for Mom to sleep in too:

Henry

Henry continues to be a happy and easy-going little boy. He pretty much puts himself to sleep and does a decent job comforting himself much of the time. He's been working really hard on coordinating his hands (likely driven by his desire to return his pacifier to his mouth when it falls out since Mom and Dad take way too long) and can now, with great concentration, reach up, grab an offered object and bring it to his mouth. He likes to laugh and smile. He's not a fan of stomach time and seems to have very little desire to support his own head reliably or make any effort toward sitting up on his own. He can hold his head up, he just seems too laid back to really feel it's worth the bother. He is good at locking his legs to "stand," though. He's very interested in food and eating, and fusses a bit when we don't share our meal with him.

Dad lets him suck on some waffle:

Putting his pacifier back in while shopping with Dad at Costco (wearing a little sweatshirt that once belonged to my brother):

Smiling at Dad:

Enthused about the new toys from friends non-baby-Jack and Amanda:

Enjoying making faces with Uncle Edward:

"Knuckle sandwich":

Sleeping in his dino PJ's in Uncle's arm:

Jack

Breakfast time with Grandma:

Jack continues to be startlingly strong and has excellent head control. It's actually quite difficult to pry objects from his hands once he has hold of them. On his own, he started doing "baby crunches" and is strong enough to go from a reclined (not completely flat on his back) position to sitting up straight. He can't hold a seated position yet; he has the core strength but not the balance. He can roll over front-to-back and has been making attempts at back-to-front. He even made an attempt to move toward me the other day by grabbing the blanket on the floor and trying to pull himself forward. Once he's able to get his knees under him, he's going to be crawling. I joke that he's all muscle, but at a pound and a half heavier than his brother despite virtually the same food consumption, that may be closer to truth than jest. Jack seems to really thrive on routine and protests less and less each day about things like going to bed. He has always been expressive, and continues to develop new looks.

His first introduction to video games, Steve playing Mario 64 (which, insanely, came out 20 years before these boys were born... we feel old...):

His favorite expression, unimpressed:

(I guess it's okay that you decorated my play gym for Christmas... kinda tacky, though, don't you think?)

Worried:

Annoyed:

Still unimpressed:

Scheming (once I can crawl, you're gonna be in trouble...):

*    *    *

We continue to learn new things, such as that it's pointless to attempt to have posed family pictures. Little boys who are frequently adorable spontaneously, when faced with a photo shoot, give us the following (and these were the very best shots... sigh...).

With Jack:

With Henry:

Whole family:

Oh, well.

We'll end on a cuter picture of the boys with their new toy fox from friends non-baby-Jack and Amanda (Jack on left, Henry on right):

First Thanksgiving

My boys and I had a quiet friendsgiving this year with our friends Jack and Lucy, and their two- and seven-year-old sons. We missed seeing family, but it was a bit of a relief to opt out of the ridiculous holiday weekend traffic.

Pictures of the boys in the ridiculous turkey outfits I made them wear follow. I'm just the worst.

Henry and the little coy smile he does for the camera (instead of the beaming grin he'll do for an actual person):

Just brothers hanging out on the couch: 

 Turkey day tummy time for Jack:

 Jack is suspicious of the turkeys on his feet...

 ... and not quite sure what to do about it.

3 1/2 Months Old

My favorite pictures from the past couple weeks, Jack loves his daddy (and is interested in his hair):

The boys are continuing to grow like adorable little weeds.

Jack in a t-shirt once worn by my little brother:

(I imagine Jack is thinking, "yeah, I'm pretty darn cute, what of it?")

Steve and I are still very, very tired...

(I dunno, do Jack and I look tired to you?)

... but the boys are really good about going down to sleep at night and only waking for their middle-of-the-night feeding, so thank goodness for that.

Jack has stomach time on the twin pillow:

Steve and Jack read a magazine:

Jack has gotten pretty good at grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth, like his toy...

... and his blankets:

Jack also likes to "share" with (that is, throw in the general direction of) brother Henry:

Grab ball...

... shake...

... toss...

... and toy now sits with brother.

Happy Henry and reasonably amused Jack:

Nap time in the twin pillow, Jack with his bunny and Henry with his elephant:

Naptime with little monster and Mr. Mingo (Steve got them a stuffed flamingo from Ikea, Dad's such a softie):

Henry, lounging:

Pictures of Henry sleeping crack me up, so here's some more...

With Mingo:

In another one of my little brother's shirts from the '80's:

Yes, he seriously sleeps like this sometimes:

Awwww...

And one of Jack for good measure:

Brother time on the play mat in their retro shirts (Henry in foreground, Jack in background):

Coy smile from Henry:

Help, they've got me pinned! (Henry on lap, Jack in arm) 

Humoring Mom, The Offspring fan (Jack in white, Henry in grey): 

They've got me surrounded!

So fly, Henry:

Pretty Fly for a Little Guy, Jack:

Ew, Mom, stop it!

Post photo-shoot nap:

For the record, I did not cut Jack's hair, it's falling out and growing back in such a way that he looks like he had a trim.

Henry has become a very happy baby and developed a wide smile, which he uses frequently. It makes feeding him and soothing him pretty difficult when he grins from ear to ear in appreciation when you bring either bottle or pacifier to his mouth, causing the item to immediately fall back out. I have heard myself frequently saying in frustration, "Henry, stop smiling!" which makes me feel like the meanest mom ever.

Henry has also started to laugh, which sometimes results in him giving himself the hiccups which, while adorable, really distresses him. Poor thing.

Henry attempts to hold his own bottle:

Other hobbies include watching the ceiling fan (Henry in foreground, Jack in background):

Jack continues to build his sound vocabulary. He makes one sound which, if you're his delusional mother, sounds a little bit like "hi." He's an absolutely delightful child when he's well-rested and his anti-reflux medication has kicked in. Other times he's... well... challenging. He insists on being carried around a lot (sitting, even if being held and/or rocked, will simply not do) which, even with the ergonomic front-carrier we bought, is difficult for me. I've regained a lot of strength but my back is still very weak. Steve carries him as much as possible, but there are times I just have to do my best.

For instance, at bath time, Steve bathes one boy in our baby tub placed inside our bathtub (it'd be pretty much impossible for me to bend over the tub to bathe them), while I have the other boy in the front carrier (swaying and bouncing to keep him happy) as I shower the baby in the tub with the hand shower attachment. We found that the boys at this young age actually prefer showers to baths, so I keep the nice warm water on them while Steve soaps them up. We have it down to a science.

The boys were getting too big to comfortably share their crib (Jack on left, Henry on right)...

(The looks on their faces say to me "you've got to do something about this!")

... so now they each have their own crib (and it looks like we're running an orphanage out of our living room):

Eventually we'll be able to convert the cribs to toddler beds and the boys can use those until they are steady enough on their feet to climb into a bunk bed.

We're working on structured nap time, which is usually just fine with Henry but a bit more of a struggle for Jack... we'll get there. I captured the brief moment during my first attempt where they were actually both asleep:

Their personalities on full display while sleeping... Jack clutching his blanket, uncovering his feet after managing to peel off his socks somehow and squirming himself sideways, Henry splayed out without a care, exactly where I put him down. They are so incredibly different; it's fascinating to watch.