Jackson: 6 months

Happy Half Birthday Jackson!  You sure are handsome!

 Jackson is officially 6 months old!  That means I no longer have to set my alarm for every 2-3 hours at night to make sure he is still breathing because I am that scared of SIDS!  Woohoo!!!  I can't believe 6 months has already passed!  Of course, we all love Jackson to pieces and love watching him grow and develop.  A few updates from this month, which I will try to intersperse through the pictures....

•  Jackson loves to play with his toes and occasionally get them into his mouth.  This is a fun baby trick I always wait to see!
• Jackson is 16 pounds 8 ounces (25%) and 29 inches long (95%).  His head is somewhere in the 60%, I forgot the measurement exactly.  He is a string bean, and definitely seems like he needs more than milk. He tried carrots a few weeks ago with a very comical (read: grossed out) reaction!  He liked eating grits though, so perhaps he will be my oatmeal baby.  We will commence with sweet potatoes this week and see if that goes any better. I'm in no rush to get him onto baby food, he just seems like he wants it!

•  Jackson is working on sitting completely unsupported right now.  He does great if his hands are on the floor in front of him, and he will occasionaly straighten up his body and hold it for a few moments-not independent yet, and he will absolutely throw himself backwards into the floor if there isn't a foot or a hand behind him to stop the head cracking.  He always seems really pleased with himself when he is sitting!

•  Jackson also loves to scoot around on the floor.  He can move himself in a 360 on his belly and will push himself up onto his hands and scoot himself backwards--he frequently pushes himself mostly under the couch.  He likes playing with very nonconventional things on the floor, especially individual bags of chips.  

•  Jackson still loves his swing and that's his go-to place to sleep.  He sleeps from about 8:30pm until 6am, only sometimes needing a 10/11 feeding.  He might wake up in the middle of the night fussing, but absolutely doesn't need to eat anymore, and I rarely even go to rebinky him-he will just slip back to sleep.  This is normaly the time period when I will transition babies to their own room, but I am not convinced how to best do that with the roomate situation...it will likely be Karianna and Jackson moving in together, and Sara and James moving in together.  Thats a lot of moving around though, so I will have to start making those arrangements over summer in between surgery, summer activities, potty training, etc.

•  Jackson loves toys of all sorts right now, he loves clasping his hands together with his fingers interlaced, and he loves standing on anything and everything.  He will stand at the ottoman if propped up, though he dances his feet around so much, it doesnt last long. He loves playing in his exersaucer outside, and spends at least an hour out there everyday with the kids playing all around him.  He loves sucking on anything and everything, and babbles a ton-mostly ma, ba, and wa.  He is a very content baby-only sad when he needs something.  He is definitely still a mommy's boy though-sometimes I'm the thing that he wants!  He spit up maybe 3 times this month, and only poops once a week-though that one poop is ridiculously gross.  

•  Jackson still is unsure about baths-he seems to like them at first but very quickly needs to be done.  He doesn't mind strangers and will shoot smiles at pretty much anyone-although, if he sees me in the vicinity, he wants me.  He gets to hang out with other moms in primary all the time, and does pretty good with that while I am leading music.  

•  Karianna is still a "best babysitter" for Jackson-he loves her so much.  He rarely falls alseep on people any more, but just the other day, he fell asleep in Karianna's lap in the picture below--he only woke up because of the flash.  It was pretty adorable!

•  Just a funny note:  Jared is convinced Jackson only takes 15 minute naps and nothing longer.  In reality, Jackson takes 3 good naps every day, somewhere in between 1 1/2 to 2 hours apiece.  Jared has been victim to some cat naps for whatever reason and now just assumes that's Jackson's go-to move.  Its not, but its funny to me all the same! Jackson is still really good at falling asleep wherever we are when he needs it.  I love that he does NOT have to have a quiet, dark room to sleep. That's not realistic in our home, and its not how I "sleep train" babies anyway.  Nighttimes are different, but I am glad he can fall asleep when and where he needs to during the day.

 And that' the 6 month update!  Love to Jackson and the happiness/joy he brings to our lives!

Karianna for Treasurer!

 Karianna has spent the last week campaigning for student council.  We found out today that she didn't win for the pool of 12 students who were running.  I was so proud of her reaction though-she didn't get down, rather we spent  lot of time chatting about how many neat things she learned/got to do throughout the process!  She came up with her own slogan/theme, which centered around her rainbow loom bracelets as her treasures-she started calling herself "The Rainbow Girl", she wore her bracelets, necklaces, rings, hair accessories, etc every campaign day, and she passed out over 120 bracelets that she had made.  She complete a student/teacher petition, designed and made 2 posters, wrote her own speech, and delivered it on BBS, live!  I really only helped her very minimally, and like the Science Fair, I was so proud of how much work she put into this project-and it was all her, she came home one day and said she wanted to run.  It is really hard to win as a 4th grader, which we expected.  But again--the whole experience was so worthwhile, and I am so proud of Karianna and the hard work she puts into everything she does.  Congratulations Nana!

Her spech day outfit--very fitting!

Merry Christmas!

We finally purchased our Christmas bench that my mom paid for!  Woohoo!  We went to IKEA for the first time and while this bench is a bit longer than our table, it is perfect for all the kids to sit on, which is what I wanted in a very small kitchen.  Eventually we will replace the chairs and probably get a 2nd bench, but while staying in this house, we'll just make the table work as is.

By the by, I LOVE IKEA.  I can't believe I have never been there, and the prices are much more reasonable than I thought.

Mother's Day Spa Day

 Karianna and the achievement day girls went all out for Mother's Day this year!  They "trained" on how to do manicures, pedicures, calf massage, and facials and then proceeded to provde mothers with all of the above.  It was super relaxing-my favorite part was the salt foot bath and the homemade sugar hand scrub that seriously made my skin so soft!  It was a lovely day, and I really enjoyed hanging out with Karianna-it was so sweet of her and all the girls honestly.  Just a fantastic mother's day gift from my very amazing daughter!

 This is such an awesome picture of me, I know.

Jordan's Mother's Day Program

This was such a cute day, and such a prime reason that I will always request Jordan's teacher, Ms. Davis, for kindergarten!  Look at that face in the front row!

Jordan has had such a great year in kindergarten-he continues to just love school, and although he gets out of sorts at home, he is so well-behaved at school, and I am so proud of him for that!

Today though was meant for Moms!  Jordan's class prepared an elaborate Mother's Day singing celebration, and it was just so fun.  He made me and Grandma Erickson beautiful necklaces made out of beads...

And then they sang about 12 songs that they have been singing throughout the year-some with hand puppets, others with books, and each with a narrator.  Jordan got to introduce a song, and he did a great job speaking clearly!

This was probably my favorite part-James really wanted to go up and sit rightin front of the book!

Here's Jordan reading his sign to introduce his song, "I can Spell Hippopatomous!"

For some reason, Jordan kept squinting and blinking his eyes, and I can only assume he was suffering from allergies of some sort.

At the end of the presentation, Jordan served me and Grandma Erickson cookies and juice, and we got to hang out together in the classroom, where they also gave us some flowers they made and a lovely poster.  It was such a sweet presentation, and an awesome culmination of the year.

Both Logan and Jordan-they did great being in kindergarten together and became even closer buddies!

As a conclusion to an awesome afternoon, here's my favorite bulletin board (and if you know me, you know I love good bulletin boards!).  It is titled, "If Mothers were flowers, I'd pick my mom!"  The kids drew portraits of their moms for this bulletin board.  Can you fine me?

Here I am!  I told Jordan it looked like I had a sharp instrument of some sort through my head! It is an awesome rendering, and I sure do love my little kindergartener-best Mother's Day present ever!

Just a comparison: Karianna and Sara

She's Done!

 We received word a few weeks ago that Sara has officially mastered all of her speech IEP goals at EMECEC and is going to "graduate" from preschool!  Her last day of preschool is tomorrow, and I will officially attend her final IEP meeting on Monday. She has been making such strides in her speech, and we are so proud of her hard work!  She still has some sounds that are difficult of course, but at this point, they are all developmental, and thus do not require an IEP.  All in all-she has ben doing great and is ready for bigger and better things!  
 We are very undecided at this point whether or not to send Sara on to kindergarten next year.  We are going to have her tested for early admittance, and I will probably even register her/request a teacher....but we may very well pull her before August rolls around.  To be frank, I think that's what we will end up doing.  She has all her pre-k skills down and it wouldn't surprise me if she starts decoding words over the summer.  She has been in a classroom environment for 2 years now and is very mature in that sense.  She is well-behaved and physically meets the mark.  Even still, we are not fully convinced this would be the best move for her in terms of always being the youngest in her class by a lot.  For Karianna, it was an easy decision-it felt right.  I don't have the same feeling about Sara....yet.  And maybe not at all.

 So, end of the day, we are just super proud of Sara for coming so far with her speech.  If we move her to kinder next year, great!  If we opt to wait another year, I'll have to find a pre-k program that will keep her interested/active.  She seems fine either way, still very much wanting to go to preschool, but has had enough conversations with me by now to know she may stay home for another year.  I'll be happy to have her honestly-being done with kids has made me start to realize childhood is going by way too fast.  As difficult/frustrating as some days are, I know I am going to miss them all too soon.

Arizona, How Do You Do?

Karianna was able to perform in her 4th grade play tonight, entitled, "Arizona, How Do You Do?"  In all honesty, it was probably my favorite play that Bush does!  It had a lot of info in it, but also some comic relief and chances for the kids to really try out some acting skills.  Super enjoyable performance and Karianna played her part as a Hohokam indian quite well!  Her lines were perfectly practiced and fluent, and she sang beautifully on all the songs (of course).  Congratulations to Karianna and a job well done!  Here's some pics that I was able to snag:

Helping Me Work

Given that I work from home upwards of 40-50 hours a week, the kids are very good at knowing there are certain times that I need to work.  Thankfully, Jared and I generally keep those time periods to when the kids are asleep or when he is home to take care of them....I really try to limit any work hours while I am monitoring kids.  We have been very blessed in this area, and are very grateful.

Jacks is the only one to throw a curveball in this plan!  He gets on more of a schedule every day, but is still somewhat unreliable, esp in terms of his bedtimes.  So, he occasionally (frequently?) gets to help me work, and this, my dear readers, is how to multitask parenting and work.  Of course, I can only have a baby in my arms for so long before I have to take a break for goofy faces and snuggles!

Final Orchestra Concert

Karianna has had a fabulous year in orchestra, all the more exciting because it is her first official year playing the violin.  We have been so proud of her hard work and dedication-she has a great ear for music and can pick up a tune, memorize words, and mimic a song very easily.  She has always done that on her recorder, singing, and with the piano when she has the chance--I love her musical inclinations, as a singer myself!  

Karianna's final concert of the year was tonight, and she did beautifully playing with the 4th grade orchestra.  As my mom said, she has a very smooth stroke on the strings, and she holds her violin very professionally, for lack of a better word, while playing.  She looks so grown up playing and has gained a lot of confidence, as well as practice reading music.  She has also made lots of friends in orchestra, and we have appreciated her teacher's guidance.  We are working on getting a tutor for summer, as we plan to continue renting her violin throughout the summer months.  Great job Karianna!

Flashback: Then and Now