Dear Jude: 5 months

Dear Jude,

Sweet boy, once again another month has passed! I can hardly fathom that you are nearing half a year old, it seems like just yesterday that you were born. And at the same time, it's hard to remember life without you, precious one.


Growth-wise, you seem to have really bulked up this month. I think you are right around 18 pounds and 25 inches long. You are wearing size 3-6 month clothes and size 2 in disposable diapers.


You are nursing about 6 times a day. When I'm a work you take a 6oz bottle of breast milk. You are a wiggly, fussy nurser. But you continue to thrive, so I will press on. We've given you cereal a few times and you seem to enjoy it, but you haven't lost the tongue thrust reflex yet, so you spit out more than you swallow.


This month, you mastered rolling from belly to back and learned how to roll from back to belly! You love to sit in your exersaucer or bumbo seat so that you can see the world around you. You especially like to watch your brother playing, you seem eager to join in his antics!


You've begun a mad love affair with your fingers and hands. You love to break out of your swaddle sack and suck on your fingers. Speaking of sleep, if you want to focus on that this month that would be great! You usually go down for bed by 7pm and wake at least once in the night to eat. Depending on how well you did/didn't eat during the day you are sometimes up twice. Hopefully, more cereal will fill up that belly and we can get some longer stretches soon!


Sweet Jude, you are our attention hog. You are constantly trying to catch our eye and heaven forbid we walk past you without stopping to talk to you!


We are so proud of you, darling boy, and so very glad that you are a part of this family! You have definitely made things more wild by your presence, but we wouldn't have it any other way! I'm so excited to see you grow and develop, and so sad to see your tiny-ness disappear. Thank you for making us slow down and snuggle you.

Love you forever, and ever,
Mommy

Picture this:

If all four of you blog readers were wondering why I don't post very often let me paint a picture for you of just 5 minutes of my afternoon...

Jude had a massive blowout and needed a diaper change. As I was carrying him into our room to change him Liam and Gus followed me. I tried to get Liam to leave (so as not to break Ryan's glasses or eat loose change) and he started having a temper tantrum. Meanwhile, Jude is now crying because he has poop all over his back (it was all over my leg and I wasn't crying, but whatever). I thought I had a better chance of getting Liam out if I got Gus to leave so I tried to shoo him out the door, while asking him to leave loudly. Oh, and I was also on the phone with my husband.

So, phone on my shoulder. Leg covered in poop. Holding a crying baby with poop up his back. Dragging a screaming toddler. And using my foot to shoo the dog out of the room while shouting at him.

Yeah, I don't have time to blog. Or, have phone conversations. :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2.5

Dear Liam Davy,

You are two and a half years old, today! You are such a blessing to your mommy and daddy and we are so proud of our big boy!


You weigh 38 pounds and are 38 inches tall! You are so big that you are often mistaken for a three, or four, year old. You wear size 3T in clothes, a toddler 7 shoe, and a size 5 diaper.


You are still a great sleeper, even in your big twin-sized bed! Bedtime is 7pm and you usually sleep until 7am. Naps are touch and go these days, if you take one it's 2-3 hours. If you don't, you still play in your room for an hour or so.


Your eating habits are not as glorious as they once were, which we expected. You still eat a lot, but do not enjoy trying new foods. I think you have some issues with textures, you don't like to eat mushy things. The only meat you will eat is chick-fil-A nuggets, you eat a lot of beans and dairy for protein! Foods you love: yogurt, any fruit, milk, chips, kashi cereal bars, rice chex.


Liam, you are such a silly little lad! You love to play with random objects, recent examples: silicone potholders, jar of nutella, bags of Starbucks coffee, a hallmark Christmas tree ornament of a house, and tums containers. You definitely keep us laughing.


You are also very, very, very strong willed. We had a hunch that our offspring would be stubborn. Man oh man, once you make up your mind to do something it's all you think, or talk about. Most often, it's your desire to go outside. You will put your shoes on and let yourself out the door faster than we can tell you no most days. I've been slowly reading through "the strong willed child" in hopes of gleaning some tips in parenting you. So far you do not respond to stern talks, spankings, or bribes. Thankfully, you will usually calm down if put in time out.


You've been a big brother for four months now, and we are pretty sure you like it quite a bit! You love to laugh at "bebe jooooode," and pet his head. You also bring him toys to play with and like to lay on the floor with him. I pray that you always love him and that you two grow up to be best buddies.


Reading is your favorite thing to do which makes your nerdy parents so very happy! Your favorites right now are "The Little Blue Truck," which you know every word to, and "Walter the Baker." Your second favorite thing to do is play outside. You run around like a mad man! You know and recognize your numbers 1-10, hexagons are your favorite shape, and you love to make all the barnyard animal sounds!


Buddy, your joy is contagious and your daddy and I love to be on the receiving end of your smiles, hugs, kisses and declarations of "lobe."

Love you forever, and ever,
Mommy

And just to make me weep... Liam at one month