What I Really Want for Mother's Day

I watched a video about what Mother's really want for Mother's day and I could agree more with most of the responses.  The best gift anyone could give would be to remove any responsibility surrounding being a mom.  No shopping, meal planing, cooking, cleaning, disciplining, nursing, answering the same question a million times, listening to whining, fight and crying, etc.  Really all I want is to be by myself and not to have to do a bunch of work to get there.  I am pretty sure that's not going to happen this year.

Deloitte Family Event

Deloitte had a big family event out at their training facility campus in Southlake.  It is basically just a huge hotel with conference rooms on the ground floor and an awesome workout facility.  Outside they have lots of paths and an upscale barn.

At the party they had face painting, caricature, balloon making, popcorn, dinner and more.  It was fun to have a free family evening.  The kids loved chasing balls and Frisbees around in the open field...and helping themselves to snacks as we wandered around the main building.  The balloon person as really talented.  We had to wait in a long line but Kherington got a pink mermaid and Kevin got a fire breathing dinosaur (that he promptly popped during the car ride home).

Jonathan - 4 Months

Jonathan keeps getting more chill which I love.  I don't so much love that I still nurse him just about every 3 hours (including at night time).  I need to work on that.  We started having him sleep in his crib in the kids room.  He usually gets put to bed there, then in the middle of the night ends up in our room either in our bed or in the bouncer next to it.  The bouncer is a little hard because he prefer to sleep on his tummy (just like his mom).

He has started cooing, smiling and laughing which is pretty cute.  I have been trying to put him on the floor more.  I feel like he's a little behind because I have been keeping him contained (the other two kids just aren't all that soft with him no matter how hard they try).  He can roll stomach to back and back to stomach and pivots, but where isn't much forward movement.  I guess there is a little backward movement but it doesn't seem to be intentional.  Just enough that I have to be careful about leaving him on our bed. 

Jonathan doesn't love his pacifier, but definitely likes it....it just isn't a cure all.  He likes the hospital one.  I keep trying to switch him to the nuk, but he likes to gnaw on the rubber side which isn't as nice when it is plastic.  He has really bad cradle cap that I should probably figure out how to fix.  I'm not sure how is hair can grow when it is this bad.

Jonathan's 4 month stats:
Height: 24.75 inches (25%), Weight: 13lb 10oz (25%), Head: 16 inches (20%)

Pre School at Our Place - Getting Crafty

Pre school was at our place this week.  We were supposed to learn about the numbers 9 and 10 and we did a little, but I focus most of our non-play time on craft.  We made flower pots complete with flowers with the kids faces in the middle.  Here are the kids pictures I snapped (silly and real).

We painted outside on the balcony. To cut down on the mess and make the project look a little more put together, the kids each got to choose just one color to pain their pot.  For the most part they did really well listening.  We were able to use the aprons my kids have collect by going to the kids craft days at Lowe's and HomeDepot so that worked out nicely too.  On Tuesday we painted some pots I've had for a couple years (I pre-sprayed them with acrylic sealant).  After the kids painted them, I let them dry for a day before adding a couple coats of acrylic sealant.  Then Thursday we made the Popsicle stick flowers and put them together.  I had precut the flower shapes and they got chose how to glue them together.  Two of the flower had their faces in the middle and the rest had jewels.

Life Keeps Going

Adjusting to three kids has been pretty challenging.  The first 3 months were pretty crappy.  Jonathan was not the chill baby I remember Kevin and Kherington being.  That stacked with moving to a new country, going from 1 to 3 kids (in Belgium Kherington was in school, but she isn't here), and Ryan being in busy season January - April working late nights and most weekends made for the the prefect storm.  Someone told me she is pregnant with her third and all I could think is I don't wish that on anyone.  Two, easy.  Three, just don't do it.  So was my mindset for the first 3 months.  Then just after Jonathan turned 3 months, everything became easier.  He is now much calmer.  He still eats every 3 hours which I'm trying to space out to 4.  He just lost the crying (for the most part).  It makes such a huge difference. 

Anyways, through this, we have tried to keep doing fun things with the kids.  Painting was one of Kherington's coupon activities.  Both kids love to help in the kitchen and usually make sure they are dressed up in some form to help.  Plus we try to get out so I don't go crazy with the lack of a yard.

As you can tell there have been plenty of family movie times in the last couple months and the kids love to include Jonathan.  They are are pretty cute together.  I can't wait for Jonathan to be old enough to really join in the fun.

Swim Lessons

The kids had their first day of swim lessons this morning.  I was able to sign them up for a lessons at the Y that are 30 minutes after my workout class I go to.  I just pick them up from childcare, change them and we're ready. 
This lesson they practiced kicking their feet and just got used to being in the water.  They were both happy and excited for the next one.  They'll have it twice a week for the month of May.  It is nice that I can sit and watch so once lessons are over we can practice on our own.