Photo Every Hour: May 21st

7:00 Connor's new favorite past time--finding every last little crumb of food (or anything!) that has been left on the floor

8:00 Breakfast time!

9:00 Apparently when Mommy has to put laundry away in the nursery, everyone decides they also have to play in the nursery

10:00 I was supposed to drop the older two off at Grandma's house so I could take Connor to a baby story time just the two of us, but Grandma was running behind schedule (shocking), so instead we all loaded up and headed to the library

11:00 No picture from the actual story time, but we got this fun song book to take home with us!

12:00 Grandma finally got home from the lake, so time to drop the older two over there and start some man-to-man coverage. Which is good, because this kid a currently a teething monster (don't let that smile fool you--the minute I try to set him down he starts screaming)

1:00 Laundry time for Mommy means (short bursts) of play time for Connor until he decides he's unimpressed with not being held and starts fussing again

2:00 Somebody didn't think he needed a nap and fought me tooth and nail. But, as usual, Momma knows best

3:00 What started as a quick online shopping venture to get William new swimsuits for the beach turned into a very long "I have to look at everything because the whole store is on sale" shopping experience (that resulted in my spending quite a bit more than I intended too #whoops #suckerforsales)

4:00 Costco snacks are the best snacks

5:00 Play time in the garage while Mommy finishes dinner (this is normal, right? Because my boys think playing in the garage is awesome)

6:00 A little late for us to be having dinner, but that's what happens when Mommy is operating as a one-man show because Darrell had to work out of town today and won't get back until late

7:00 Anything William does is hysterical to Connor. Seriously.

8:00 One down, two to go

9:00 Enjoying some girl time while ignoring the fact that my oldest two still aren't asleep (thank goodness Darrell will be home soon!)

10:00 These girls are good for my soul

11:00 I'd say that two bottles of wine between four friends is pretty reasonable, but one of the girls is pregnant and not drinking (not me) and the other only had a small amount because she is nursing and had to drive home (also not me), so yeah. Let's just say I had a fair amount of wine

12:00 Finally said my goodbyes and did a quick clean up before heading to bed

Oof. I am definitely going to be paying for this tomorrow. Minimal sleep plus wine hangover plus parenting is a bad combination. It was (mostly!) worth it though :-)

Connor: Eight Months!

Height/Weight: Bigger than his brothers were at this age. Not sure exactly what the numbers on the scale will look like, but I'm pretty sure he's getting close to what they were at a year (they were both 19 lbs, 15 oz and right around 29 inches). We'll see how close I am next month.

Wearing: It may have been a little premature, but his closet is pretty much completely switched over to 12 month clothes. Some of it is still a little big, but the nine month stuff was consistently getting too small (some of his pants may have well been capris!), and it was just easier to make the switch than play a guessing game going back and forth. And naturally, all three boys switched over to the next size of clothes at pretty much the same time--which also happened to coincide with the transition into summer apparel--so our house was a mess of totes and clothes for a solid week, so I was also just desperate to get the switch made. He's still in size three diapers, although we're finishing out our last box of those and I'm fairly certain the size fours will fit just fine.

Eating: Solid foods are still going fine, although his enthusiasm seems to be waning. I honestly think he's just getting bored with the single-food purees, because he generally does much better when we give him finger foods (when he actually gets the food to his mouth, that is), so hopefully once we start transitioning him into our "real" table food we won't have any issues.

Sleep: Ugh. His sleep habits feel like a constant one step forward, two steps back. We're back to (somewhat consistently) having nights where he is up three or four times, and even on the nights he is only up twice he is usually bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after the second feeding, no matter how early in the morning it is. His days aren't much better either; some days he can go three or more hours between naps and other days he is ready to go down ninety minutes after waking up--not to mention lots of inconsistency with the length of his naps--which makes it really hard to even attempt to plan anything around his "schedule".

New Stuff: Well, after weeks of speculation, we finally have some teeth! His bottom two middle ones poked through within days of each other a week or so before he was eight months. He seemed to tolerate the actual cutting of them okay, but a week or so before they cut he was miserable. We're talking three days of a pretty constant low-grade fever, a nursing strike, and a refusal to sleep if he wasn't being held. While we are fairly certain that it was related to the teething, I kind of hope that it wasn't, because I don't think I can handle that EVERYTIME he is getting ready to cut more teeth. Connor also hit some pretty significant gross-motor milestones: he is now fully crawling on his hands and knees and he can pull himself into a seated position by himself. This has been great for his entertaining himself, although not so great for his brothers because they still haven't quite learned not to leave stuff on the floor--or if they do move it, they don't always put it up high enough because his reach from a seated position is much better than from his stomach. And I'm sure that just as soon as William and Garrett start to get better about putting things up higher Connor will start pulling himself up to reach those things. It's no wonder subsequent children tend to move earlier than their siblings--they have to figure out how to reach all those cool "toys" that keep getting taken away from them and put in a different place!

Photo Every Hour: April 21st

12:15am A little later than he's normally up for his first feeding, but he must have known that I was taking pictures on the 21st so he wanted to wait until after midnight so he could monopolize as many pictures as possible

4:05am Night feeding number two #goodthingheiscute

7:00 Guess who is ready for breakfast (and subsequently won't let Mom sleep in?)

8:00 William read about the game "Sorry" in a story yesterday. This morning Darrell revealed to him that we have the game in our house. Of course we immediately had to play it

9:00 Saturday morning swim lessons with all three boys! First up--Garrett (circled on the left) and Connor (on the right with Darrell)

10:00 And next is William's class!

11:00 Quick run to the grocery store to get some necessities for dinner while Darrell bathes the boys

12:00 Getting Connor's lunch ready (pureed carrot--hence the weird looking orange blob) while cleaning up lunch from the older two. Because it would be too easy if they would coordinate their hunger schedules

1:00 Oh, if pictures could talk. This one would tell you the story of a particularly stubborn three-year old who decided to sit in his room and cry for the majority of nap time instead of being a good listener and going to bed #lifeishardwhenyouarethree

2:00 I foresee a lot of "Sorry" games in our future--at least until he moves on to his next obsession

3:00 Look at that sweet face. It's almost hard to believe that he threw a tantrum for nearly an hour before finally settling down to take his nap

4:00 Somebody is in a good mood after having a little afternoon snack with Mommy

5:00 Dinner prepping like a boss (not pictured--the clingy seven month old who insisted on being attached to my hip)

6:00 The aftermath of dinner with a pokey little eater still at the table

7:00 Homemade chocolate pudding for a snack before bed. Because why not?

8:00 Reading before bed #ilovethesemoments #pleaseignorethemess

9:00 Dishes in the sink, "Friends" on the iPad, monitor on my quiet littlest one--and not pictured is a super uncooperative middle child who is refusing to go to sleep (again). So glad Darrell has been working at the circus for the majority of the afternoon/evening so I get to deal with his attitude by myself #not

10:00 I can count on both hands the number of things I should be doing right now... But sometimes, a glass of wine and some mindless browsing on Facebook is just what the doctor ordered

11:00 I should have gone to bed earlier. I should have been more productive after the kids went to bed. I should have... Well, a lot of things. But I didn't. And that's okay. Because I "ain't goin' down 'til the sun comes up" #not #iamgettingreadyforbednow #itisalreadypastmybedtime

Goodnight!

11:35 Psych! Somebody wanted to get in on one last picture for the day #somedayhewillsleepthroughthenight

Connor: Seven Months!

Height/Weight: No good guesses here--just that he's definitely bigger, taller, faster, stronger

Wearing: The size three diapers definitely seem to be getting a little snug, and he's been peeing through them pretty frequently at night (unless we change him when he's up for a feeding, which is a major pain), so we might be making the move up to fours soon. At least at night. He isn't growing into the twelve-month clothing quite as quickly as I thought he would--the fact that he is constantly moving might have a little something to do with that--so he's still mostly in nine month clothes.

Eating: Solid foods! And still plenty of Momma's milk. Introducing solid foods has been going incredibly well though. The first night (with oatmeal) he was reaching out for the spoon and helping to pull it toward his mouth, and he hasn't looked back. So far he's tried oatmeal, sweet potato, avocado, cauliflower, peas, pears, and carrot, and they've all gone over pretty well. We started with just offering him food at dinner time, and last week starting offering oatmeal in the morning and a fruit/vegetable in the evening. I'll start offering him something around lunch time soon--he always gets excited when we put him in his chair to eat, so he might as well get started eating the purees we've been freezing (before he starts refusing them and wanting table food--and there are some nights where it already seems like that is the case!)

Sleeping: I think (fingers crossed, knocking on all the wood) we've finally hit a good--or at least tolerable--groove with his sleep. He's usually in bed by 7:30, and then wakes to nurse at 10:30 (give or take thirty minutes) and 3:00 (give or take an hour). And then he's usually up for the day around 6:30. I would love for him to consistently drop to one feeding at night--and there have been a few glorious nights where he has!--but at least he's pretty stopped waking up except at those times to eat, so I'm not going to get too greedy. His naps are still pretty inconsistent, which is probably just going to be par for the course with two active older brothers, but when we're home for naps I can pretty consistently count on him to sleep for at least an hour (usually on his side, of all random things), which is pretty nice.

New Stuff: Well, it shouldn't be too surprising given that this kid goes somewhere in the car just about every day of his life, but he is pretty much a traveling rock star. In mid-March my cousin in Minneapolis was playing the role of Aladdin in his middle school's production of Aladdin Jr. We really want to make a show--but the only one that worked in our schedule was the Sunday matinee. And it only worked for us to go up Sunday morning and come back almost immediately after the play. We decided that was probably too much road time for the older two, but packed Connor up with us--and he was great. On top that, he and I drove out to Kimball, SD (a four-hour drive round trip) the following day for his six-month photos. The kid barely batted an eye. As I mentioned earlier, he is starting to get more mobile, and is desperately trying to figure out crawling on his hands and knees. He frequently pops himself into this position from his tummy, and if you are trying to lay him down on the floor, he automatically tucks his knees underneath him in a crawling position. He has also figured out clapping, and although he won't do it on command, it's pretty darn adorable whenever he does it (and we're not biased in the least, of course). The most concerning development is that his obsession with putting things in his mouth has taken a somewhat dangerous turn--the other afternoon I went to get him after his nap and he had managed to shove his entire pacifier in his mouth. So in addition to making sure he can't get to things that are small enough for him to choke on, we also have to make sure that he isn't shoving larger items completely in his mouth that could get stuck or cause him to gag or otherwise obstruct his airway. Needless to say, he's definitely keeping us on our toes--if we ever thought that we'd be able to "coast" a little bit by the time we had our third kid Connor is certainly proving that that isn't the case!

William: Five Years!

Five. Halfway to ten (double digits!). Kindergarten in the fall. Full on kid through and through. When did all of that happen?!? (And yes, I know this is late, and I have other posts waiting to be published, but I'm trying to get them done in chronological order. And the birthday of my sweet five year old comes first).

Summer fun at the lake!

I've decided to start a new birthday tradition--while simultaneously simplifying my birthday posts (in theory at least!). I created a little birthday interview to ask the boys each year (starting at five), so I'm going to share William's answers on here. I've got a few other tidbits to share as well, but there's honestly so much I could say that I couldn't even begin to cover it all, so I'm not even going to try.

Turns out the boys think our sofa in the basement is a trampoline. Turns out we don't really care that much

William's Birthday Interview
Age: 5 
Height: 3 feet 5 inches 
Weight: 40 pounds 2 ounces

What is your favorite color? Blue (No surprise there)
What is your favorite animal? Giraffe (This one was news to me!)
What is your favorite book? Curious George Rides a Bike (He got that story new for his birthday, so naturally it immediately became his favorite)
What is your favorite song? Polly Wolly Doodle (Super random. It's in a songbook that we sing out of for bedtime songs, but I honestly think I've only sang it twice)
What is your favorite sport? Football and Basketball (I was expecting golf, but it's been months since he's played golf so I'm not surprised that the other two--which he plays indoors with Garrett all the time--are foremost in his mind)

At the driving range last summer

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Play chess (Long story short, but Darrell has a chess app on his phone that he lets William goof around on occasionally and now the kid is obsessed with chess)
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play Giant Memory (This was a birthday gift Garrett got--and I'm not actually sure he's ever played it with Darrell. Whatever)
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go around the block (Again, one of the few things we've been able to do outside lately, so no surprise that it's his current favorite)

Playing outside at Falls Park

Where is your favorite place to go? The Pavilion
What is your favorite fruit? Blueberries
What is your favorite vegetable? Carrots and radishes (Don't judge him on the radishes. We roast them up and they are pretty darn fantastic)
What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow Treasures and Cookie Crisp
What is your favorite treat? Cake
What is your favorite meal? Enchiladas and Beer Cheese Soup (Are you noticing that he's having a hard time just picking one favorite of things? He's my kid for sure)
What makes you happy? Playing with trains (Yes. Yes. 100% yes)

Happy Boy at a Model Train Show

What makes you sad? Not playing with someone else (A surprising answer from a kid who is very introverted and shy)
Who are your best friends? Kason
What do you want to be when you grow up? A basketball player
What was your favorite part about last year? Doing my sticker book (Apparently that was ten dollars that was really well spent!)

Proof. He loved that sticker book. And he now begs Garrett on a regular basis to let him work on his

What is one thing you want to do this year? Go to the bowling alley (Already in the works for next week!)
(And although this isn't "officially" a question on the interview--because although it's kind of cute to reflect on now but probably not so much when he's thirteen--I want to note for my own sake that at bedtime he still always takes his blue blanket, Sammy his stuffed black lab puppy, and a water to bed. So we'll see when--and how--that changes)

So that's a little bit of a summary of William in his own words--now, a few of mine:

William will not last in the Midwest any longer than he has to. Seriously. On the radio one morning--after a few fresh inches of snow fell--the DJs were talking about how beautiful it was outside. William asked me--very seriously--"Mommy, why are they saying it's beautiful outside? It's only beautiful when there are leaves on the trees, and there aren't any leaves on the trees right now, only snow. That's not beautiful." Wait until he learns there are places he could live where that is a reality. Mind=blown.

If you zoom in on the picture you'll see just how massive his smile is. This kid was in heaven at the beach last summer

However, he does have quite a bit of separation anxiety. I can only hope that maybe that will keep him close to me when he grows up. Because right now, when he has to go somewhere for a day (or even half a day!) that isn't with Mommy--or another family member that he is super comfortable with--he usually cries. So yeah--kindergarten will be fun this fall.

See that face? He knows that once he gets on that bus he will be away from Mommy for four hours. But he can also tell that Mommy is super excited about his going to this camp, so he's trying to be excited. Even though he's not. Thankfully, by the end of the two weeks, he was much more okay with going to camp (and even smiling in a few of the pictures the camp posted to the parent website!)

Additionally, he is not the best at participating in group things (day camp, Sunday school, library story times, etc). Even if it is a song he knows (like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"), he usually won't sing along or do the actions in a group setting. However, even if he doesn't participate, you best believe he's still paying attention: at a library story time a few months ago they did an activity with tapping out the syllables of words, and even though he didn't participate at all at the library, at home a few days later he was sitting with a story and clapping out the syllables in the words. So he's still learning, which I guess is the ultimate goal. And slowly but surely repeated exposure is helping as well--he's been in Sunday School since the September after he was three (so a year and a half ago), and finally (finally!) at the Christmas program this past year he actually sang AND did the actions!

Swimming lessons without Mom or Dad was also a big step, but after a few weeks he was doing much better interacting with the other kids and following the directions of the instructor

One of the more frustrating things from the past year is that William started to show some pickiness toward food. We'd been warned this was coming, but we had a kid who willingly eats beets and Brussels sprouts, so we thought maybe we'd miss that phase. The good news is that he still eats pretty much everything he used to (including the "weird" stuff), but he just doesn't like trying new recipes. One of the first things he asks at dinner if it is an unfamiliar recipe is "Have we had this before?" So we're coaching him through that and slowly working on being more open to change. Fun times.

One thing he always wants to eat? Donuts

I know I commented on this last year, but William is a wonderful brother. I honestly don't think he even remembers not having brothers, and I think that is part of the reason he is so great with them. Sometimes he is a little bi-polar in his interactions with Garrett, though; when it comes to matters of opinion/making choices, he always wants Garrett to pick first so that he can pick the same thing as Garrett (he'll even change his request--such as switching to blueberries instead of raspberries--if that's what Garrett chooses). But when things are a little more "black and white", like when playing a game or doing a puzzle, it's William's way or the highway. Admittedly, William likes to the follow the instructions to the letter of the law, which probably isn't a terribly thing, but Garrett doesn't always get that concept--plus sometimes he like to make up his own rules--which we constantly have to remind William is perfectly okay as well.

Thankfully they can usually agree on trains. Although William usually has a much higher stamina for watching trains than Garrett does

His relationship with Connor is primarily based on laughter, which is awesome. Unlike Garrett, who tends to be a little smothering with Connor, William does a good job of respecting boundaries, and Connor loves him all the more for it. Sometimes it seems like all William has to do is look at Connor to get him to laugh, and this especially comes in handy when Connor is being fussy. I'm really excited to watch their relationship continue to develop.

Story time! (A train story, of course)

And now, just because I don't share nearly enough pictures on here throughout the year (maybe that's a good thing? Probably depends who you ask), here's a little bit of a photo dump.

It takes serious concentration to drive Grandpa's pontoon

Riding a train in the Black Hills. This kid was in paradise.

Playing with Daddy at the indoor waterpark for his birthday outing last year

His first fish at Swan Lake!

Crazy hat hair!

Silly boy at the park

Happy Fifth Birthday Sweet Boy!