Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Kids update, November
OK, i figured as long as I'm here, I may as well post some progress updates. Will try to keep this short, though, cause my brain is pretty foggy this morning.
Austin
Austin's flourishing in school. As mentioned last month, his creativity is just exploding. He loves to color and is really good at making pictures of just about anything. He has a talent for translating images from his mind to paper. He's also really into reading and writing now; he learns new words every day, and has developed the skills to begin figuring out words by sounding them out. He can pick out several words instantaneously now. I love it. LOVE IT.
Austin got what we think was a sinus infection 2 weekends ago which was making him miserable. He spiked nighttime fevers for several nights, but would feel fine during the day; this continued until last Monday when he got a really bad headache and slight fever at school. I signed him out and took him to the doctor. They gave a flu/H1N1 test at my request, and that came back negative; so it looks like a sinus infection was the culprit. He's on antibiotics and they seem to have done the trick.
Austin's got 2 loose teeth on the bottom (1 about halfway loose, the other somewhat less so) and an adult tooth growing in behind them. I'm hoping the loose teeth are ready to come out soon, I'm very excited!
Jonas
Jonas is Jonas...still a one-man wrecking crew. :) He seems to be calming down a little bit recently, though. He talks more and more clearly every day and picks up lots of words. He can make coherent sentences, sometimes 6 to 10 words long; and can even have fairly extended conversations. He gets complex ideas as well, which is nice.
2 weekends ago Jonas moved from a crib to a toddler bed and is doing very well in it. He still gets up out of it sometimes, but no more often than he did with the crib. I think he's getting used to putting himself to sleep again, though it's hard to tell for sure--usually we have to sneak him into the bed already asleep, but sometimes he'll be awake and will lie there till he falls asleep. Other times, not so much. But i'm working to break him of the habit of getting out of bed repeatedly until Mom and Dad's nerves are shot.
Jonas developed a fever last night, a pretty significant one; it woke him up several times in the middle of the night, but oddly he doesn't act sick. More tired and quiet than usual, maybe, but he's still in a good mood. The only other symptom he displays is hoarseness, i.e. sinus drainage, so we're wondering if he doesn't have sinusitis too. If the fever doesn't break by tomorrow I guess we'll be taking him to the doctor too.
Devon
Devon's doing great. He also has been sick recently; on Halloween he was positively miserable, crying and whining and being generally pathetic all day. Thankfully that was over quickly. He hasn't sported a fever in a while but continues to be congested and snotty, so we think he's got a cold. Other than lots of snot, though, it doesn't seem to bother him.
Devon can now sit himself up--i guess he's been doing this for a couple of weeks--and crawls functionally. It's not a perfect crawl and he can't sustain it very long, but it's more than the army arm-crawl he was exhibiting until recently. It's certainly enough to make him mobile (see the most recent video as an example). He hasn't quite figured out how to keep his knees under him all the time, though, so sometimes he'll get his feet under him and push up until he's in a full bear-walk stance. I haven't seen him try to move in this position yet, and he probably can't, but it's pretty funny to see him do it. And impressive that he can balance himself that way for several seconds. I wonder how long before it'll be before he's pulling up.
Let's see, what else. Oh, he babbles a lot more now, and it sounds like he's trying to talk. I tried to capture this on video (including one that I haven't gotten uploaded yet--hopefully tonight). It's extremely cute. He still has 2 teeth, both lower teeth; we thought for a while he was cutting upper teeth, but I think that was a false alarm.
I think that's it for this edition. More next month...
Austin
Austin's flourishing in school. As mentioned last month, his creativity is just exploding. He loves to color and is really good at making pictures of just about anything. He has a talent for translating images from his mind to paper. He's also really into reading and writing now; he learns new words every day, and has developed the skills to begin figuring out words by sounding them out. He can pick out several words instantaneously now. I love it. LOVE IT.
Austin got what we think was a sinus infection 2 weekends ago which was making him miserable. He spiked nighttime fevers for several nights, but would feel fine during the day; this continued until last Monday when he got a really bad headache and slight fever at school. I signed him out and took him to the doctor. They gave a flu/H1N1 test at my request, and that came back negative; so it looks like a sinus infection was the culprit. He's on antibiotics and they seem to have done the trick.
Austin's got 2 loose teeth on the bottom (1 about halfway loose, the other somewhat less so) and an adult tooth growing in behind them. I'm hoping the loose teeth are ready to come out soon, I'm very excited!
Jonas
Jonas is Jonas...still a one-man wrecking crew. :) He seems to be calming down a little bit recently, though. He talks more and more clearly every day and picks up lots of words. He can make coherent sentences, sometimes 6 to 10 words long; and can even have fairly extended conversations. He gets complex ideas as well, which is nice.
2 weekends ago Jonas moved from a crib to a toddler bed and is doing very well in it. He still gets up out of it sometimes, but no more often than he did with the crib. I think he's getting used to putting himself to sleep again, though it's hard to tell for sure--usually we have to sneak him into the bed already asleep, but sometimes he'll be awake and will lie there till he falls asleep. Other times, not so much. But i'm working to break him of the habit of getting out of bed repeatedly until Mom and Dad's nerves are shot.
Jonas developed a fever last night, a pretty significant one; it woke him up several times in the middle of the night, but oddly he doesn't act sick. More tired and quiet than usual, maybe, but he's still in a good mood. The only other symptom he displays is hoarseness, i.e. sinus drainage, so we're wondering if he doesn't have sinusitis too. If the fever doesn't break by tomorrow I guess we'll be taking him to the doctor too.
Devon
Devon's doing great. He also has been sick recently; on Halloween he was positively miserable, crying and whining and being generally pathetic all day. Thankfully that was over quickly. He hasn't sported a fever in a while but continues to be congested and snotty, so we think he's got a cold. Other than lots of snot, though, it doesn't seem to bother him.
Devon can now sit himself up--i guess he's been doing this for a couple of weeks--and crawls functionally. It's not a perfect crawl and he can't sustain it very long, but it's more than the army arm-crawl he was exhibiting until recently. It's certainly enough to make him mobile (see the most recent video as an example). He hasn't quite figured out how to keep his knees under him all the time, though, so sometimes he'll get his feet under him and push up until he's in a full bear-walk stance. I haven't seen him try to move in this position yet, and he probably can't, but it's pretty funny to see him do it. And impressive that he can balance himself that way for several seconds. I wonder how long before it'll be before he's pulling up.
Let's see, what else. Oh, he babbles a lot more now, and it sounds like he's trying to talk. I tried to capture this on video (including one that I haven't gotten uploaded yet--hopefully tonight). It's extremely cute. He still has 2 teeth, both lower teeth; we thought for a while he was cutting upper teeth, but I think that was a false alarm.
I think that's it for this edition. More next month...
Videos!
I finally got around to publishing home videos. There are about a dozen (give or take) on YouTube now, starting here: http://www.youtube.com/grover173#p/u . They go from July through last weekend. Most of them are pretty boring and don't show much, but every once in a while there's some entertaining moments. The longest and most recent video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7mFBajd7Dw) is about 7 minutes long...it's a pretty decent watch.
Videos are a huge pain in the behind to upload, I've found out (that 7-minute one took upwards of an hour to upload), so as I record them I'll try to put them up one by one. We don't pull out the video camera very much but maybe we'll try to change that, especially with the holidays coming up.
Enjoy...
Videos are a huge pain in the behind to upload, I've found out (that 7-minute one took upwards of an hour to upload), so as I record them I'll try to put them up one by one. We don't pull out the video camera very much but maybe we'll try to change that, especially with the holidays coming up.
Enjoy...
Saturday, November 14, 2009
October 2009 photos up!
I know it's 2 weeks late, but it's been a crazy month. Anyway, family photos from October 2009 are up and ready on the photobucket site. The album includes candid shots, going to the pumpkin patch, a trip to Cypress Gardens in Moncks Corner to visit the butterfly house, and of course Halloween. Enjoy!
Also, I meant to put up several short video clips tonight, spanning several months' worth of time; but it took me almost 2 hours to get the stupid photographs downloaded, processed, uploaded (this was especially painful, thanks to the piece of s*** that is photobucket), commented, and tagged. It's currently 11:20pm and I'm writing this in the dark as Amy attempts to sleep behind me. So maybe later this month video clips will go up, but not tonight.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
Also, I meant to put up several short video clips tonight, spanning several months' worth of time; but it took me almost 2 hours to get the stupid photographs downloaded, processed, uploaded (this was especially painful, thanks to the piece of s*** that is photobucket), commented, and tagged. It's currently 11:20pm and I'm writing this in the dark as Amy attempts to sleep behind me. So maybe later this month video clips will go up, but not tonight.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
October update
AUSTIN
Austin's creativity has fairly exploded recently. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I really think kindergarten has a lot to do with it. He does art every day (or nearly so), practices his letters every day, and has some sort of "special" activity (music, art, P.E.) every day. His brain is just bursting with creativity. In just the last few weeks he's begun to draw at home almost every day. Detailed, complex drawings too, like cats and trees and clouds and people. There is amazing attention to detail. He also loves to build things whether with blocks, tinkertoys, legos, or what have you. He can look at a schematic and build it. (He still needs help with lego instructions, but is improving.) His imagination is incredible, and he thinks in 3-D. This is something I've always had trouble with, which is ironic because lefties are supposed to be spatially-oriented. I am, and very much so, in my head; but I can't usually translate it to a physical object. Austin can, though (and he's a leftie too). My youngest brother Travis (also a leftie) has this gift too, it's something I've always envied. When I play with legos or tinkertoys, everything I build from scratch comes out very flat and two-dimensional.
Austin is also learning to recognize and write sight words. He wrote "like", "my", and "the" last night with absolutely no prompting or assistance from anyone...shocked the heck out of me. He's also getting better at sounding out words.
Truly, Austin is blossoming. It is so rewarding to watch it happen. This really is what I've been waiting for, this awakening of his mind and talents. It fills me with immense joy. Kindergarten is really helping to move him forward and I am so thankful. I think he's going to be a really good student.
Austin also has his first loose tooth and the adult tooth coming in behind it. Should only be a few weeks before it really starts to get wiggly. Exciting!
JONAS
Jonas....*sigh* Jonas is brilliant, but he uses his intelligence for evil. :) He is full of life and energy. His spirit burns brightly, I like to say. But he's also full on into the Terrible Twos and boy, are they terrible. He has quite a temper and a hair trigger on it. He will scream for an hour if he doesn't get his way. He has learned how to defeat much of the childproofing in the house--only the locks that are physically too strong for him to unlock are still working. He knows how to reach things in high places (he moves a chair) so nothing is safe. He resists punishment and doesn't really understand it yet, so timeouts and other diversionary discipline are largely ineffective. He doesn't like to eat dinner most days, so if it's something he doesn't immediately recognize/like he will pick at it at best, maybe eating 2 bites if we're lucky. Going to restaurants with him is pure misery...he wants to stand up, play under the table, wander, scream, switch seats, etc. Oh, it's awful. We don't go out nearly as much as we used to.
He still gets up around 5:30 to 6:00 every morning, and now he doesn't even come to get one of us. The other morning Amy found him awake at 5:45, chair pulled up to the counter in front of the coffeemaker, calmly mixing together coffee grinds and sugar from the sugar bowl. With the biggest smile on his face.
And he's Mr. Destructo. He will knock over, color, step on, vandalize, shred, bite, or rip apart anything in his path. Ripping up books seems to be a favorite lately, as does coloring over pictures Austin's already drawn (Cory used to do this to me--drove me crazy).
And (yes, there's more) he likes to hit, and occasionally he'll bite. He hits Austin for the tiniest perceived infratction...he'll also try to hit Amy and me. He'll hurt Devon if you give him half a chance. I don't think he's intentionally trying to hurt the baby--he just plays really, really rough. But we can't convince him what he's doing is harmful. Yesterday he slammed the door while Devon was bouncing from a bouncy seat hanging in the opening, and almost smashed Devon's face.
Jonas knows how to push our limits and push our buttons, and does so with reckless abandon. He is learning independence and his place in the family, though, so we try not to lose it with him. There are times, though, when I want to smack the everloving mess out of him.
Despite all that, he is still such a sweet boy. He's very outgoing, loves to flirt, loves to play games. He has a great sense of humor and loves to cuddle. His emotions are turbocharged, basically....like I said, his spirit burns brightly. I'm just hoping once he starts to talk more that he starts to *understand* more too, and all this misbehavior starts to mellow.
DEVON
Devon's still pretty immobile...but not for long. The floor is one of his favorite places to be. He can roll himself pretty much anywhere, and is starting to figure out he can propel himself forward. It's not quite crawling, more like a one-shot lunge. But he's getting the mechanics down. He gets up on all fours and rocks quite frequently. He's also sitting up more and more...sometimes he'll go a couple minutes. He grabs at *everything* and is insatiably curious. He's starting to make babbly noises and is very interested in watching your mouth when you make sounds at him.
Devon has one tooth already through the gum (lower right) and another one is just days, if not less, from rupturing too. It makes him a little bit miserable sometimes, but overall he's dealing exceptionally well with teething. He might even be a better teether than Austin...I didn't even know his first tooth was coming through, he was so nonchalant about it.
He still spits up a lot, but it's just something we have to deal with. It doesn't seem to bother him (just us, because he always seems to miss the burp cloth...and it smells terrible). He is eating "people food" more now and likes it a lot, especially fruits.
He still sleeps great--normally goes down between 5 and 6:30, sleeps till Amy wakes him up the next morning (or 7:30, whichever comes first). Almost never wakes up at night and when he does, usually some pats on the back is all he needs. Usually takes one nap a day, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for three.
Overall Devon is a VERY happy baby and is almost always in a good mood. He loves both his brothers tremendously, especially Austin. He likes Jonas better and better each day, especially when Jonas lies down next to him, and puts up with Jonas's wrestling with great patience. Usually he just waits patiently for Mommy or Daddy to rescue him. :) Austin can make him laugh at any time, and Jonas is getting better at it.
I think that's it for this time! The kids are excited about Halloween coming up...will be sure to post pictures. Hope everyone's having a great October.
Austin's creativity has fairly exploded recently. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I really think kindergarten has a lot to do with it. He does art every day (or nearly so), practices his letters every day, and has some sort of "special" activity (music, art, P.E.) every day. His brain is just bursting with creativity. In just the last few weeks he's begun to draw at home almost every day. Detailed, complex drawings too, like cats and trees and clouds and people. There is amazing attention to detail. He also loves to build things whether with blocks, tinkertoys, legos, or what have you. He can look at a schematic and build it. (He still needs help with lego instructions, but is improving.) His imagination is incredible, and he thinks in 3-D. This is something I've always had trouble with, which is ironic because lefties are supposed to be spatially-oriented. I am, and very much so, in my head; but I can't usually translate it to a physical object. Austin can, though (and he's a leftie too). My youngest brother Travis (also a leftie) has this gift too, it's something I've always envied. When I play with legos or tinkertoys, everything I build from scratch comes out very flat and two-dimensional.
Austin is also learning to recognize and write sight words. He wrote "like", "my", and "the" last night with absolutely no prompting or assistance from anyone...shocked the heck out of me. He's also getting better at sounding out words.
Truly, Austin is blossoming. It is so rewarding to watch it happen. This really is what I've been waiting for, this awakening of his mind and talents. It fills me with immense joy. Kindergarten is really helping to move him forward and I am so thankful. I think he's going to be a really good student.
Austin also has his first loose tooth and the adult tooth coming in behind it. Should only be a few weeks before it really starts to get wiggly. Exciting!
JONAS
Jonas....*sigh* Jonas is brilliant, but he uses his intelligence for evil. :) He is full of life and energy. His spirit burns brightly, I like to say. But he's also full on into the Terrible Twos and boy, are they terrible. He has quite a temper and a hair trigger on it. He will scream for an hour if he doesn't get his way. He has learned how to defeat much of the childproofing in the house--only the locks that are physically too strong for him to unlock are still working. He knows how to reach things in high places (he moves a chair) so nothing is safe. He resists punishment and doesn't really understand it yet, so timeouts and other diversionary discipline are largely ineffective. He doesn't like to eat dinner most days, so if it's something he doesn't immediately recognize/like he will pick at it at best, maybe eating 2 bites if we're lucky. Going to restaurants with him is pure misery...he wants to stand up, play under the table, wander, scream, switch seats, etc. Oh, it's awful. We don't go out nearly as much as we used to.
He still gets up around 5:30 to 6:00 every morning, and now he doesn't even come to get one of us. The other morning Amy found him awake at 5:45, chair pulled up to the counter in front of the coffeemaker, calmly mixing together coffee grinds and sugar from the sugar bowl. With the biggest smile on his face.
And he's Mr. Destructo. He will knock over, color, step on, vandalize, shred, bite, or rip apart anything in his path. Ripping up books seems to be a favorite lately, as does coloring over pictures Austin's already drawn (Cory used to do this to me--drove me crazy).
And (yes, there's more) he likes to hit, and occasionally he'll bite. He hits Austin for the tiniest perceived infratction...he'll also try to hit Amy and me. He'll hurt Devon if you give him half a chance. I don't think he's intentionally trying to hurt the baby--he just plays really, really rough. But we can't convince him what he's doing is harmful. Yesterday he slammed the door while Devon was bouncing from a bouncy seat hanging in the opening, and almost smashed Devon's face.
Jonas knows how to push our limits and push our buttons, and does so with reckless abandon. He is learning independence and his place in the family, though, so we try not to lose it with him. There are times, though, when I want to smack the everloving mess out of him.
Despite all that, he is still such a sweet boy. He's very outgoing, loves to flirt, loves to play games. He has a great sense of humor and loves to cuddle. His emotions are turbocharged, basically....like I said, his spirit burns brightly. I'm just hoping once he starts to talk more that he starts to *understand* more too, and all this misbehavior starts to mellow.
DEVON
Devon's still pretty immobile...but not for long. The floor is one of his favorite places to be. He can roll himself pretty much anywhere, and is starting to figure out he can propel himself forward. It's not quite crawling, more like a one-shot lunge. But he's getting the mechanics down. He gets up on all fours and rocks quite frequently. He's also sitting up more and more...sometimes he'll go a couple minutes. He grabs at *everything* and is insatiably curious. He's starting to make babbly noises and is very interested in watching your mouth when you make sounds at him.
Devon has one tooth already through the gum (lower right) and another one is just days, if not less, from rupturing too. It makes him a little bit miserable sometimes, but overall he's dealing exceptionally well with teething. He might even be a better teether than Austin...I didn't even know his first tooth was coming through, he was so nonchalant about it.
He still spits up a lot, but it's just something we have to deal with. It doesn't seem to bother him (just us, because he always seems to miss the burp cloth...and it smells terrible). He is eating "people food" more now and likes it a lot, especially fruits.
He still sleeps great--normally goes down between 5 and 6:30, sleeps till Amy wakes him up the next morning (or 7:30, whichever comes first). Almost never wakes up at night and when he does, usually some pats on the back is all he needs. Usually takes one nap a day, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for three.
Overall Devon is a VERY happy baby and is almost always in a good mood. He loves both his brothers tremendously, especially Austin. He likes Jonas better and better each day, especially when Jonas lies down next to him, and puts up with Jonas's wrestling with great patience. Usually he just waits patiently for Mommy or Daddy to rescue him. :) Austin can make him laugh at any time, and Jonas is getting better at it.
I think that's it for this time! The kids are excited about Halloween coming up...will be sure to post pictures. Hope everyone's having a great October.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
September 2009 photos up
New photos for September 2009 are up! Strangely, Austin's in hardly any of them. Part of that's because he takes some of the photos, and part of it is because he won't pose anymore - he's always got to make obnoxious faces or move around so much that none of the photos come out well. It's annoying, but hopefully it'll pass. Anyway...some favorites:
Friday, September 4, 2009
September kids update
What's been happening recently...
AUSTIN
Austin's struggled with behavior issues in the past couple weeks, pushing both Amy and me past our limits more than a few times. He uses a variety of tactics...ignoring, arguing, defiance, sneakiness, even intimidation. He has this "mean face" that he puts on and gets right up on us like he's trying to bully us into changing our minds. It's gotten to the point that we immediately put him in time-out anytime he gives us the mean face.
I'm not saying he's always bad, he just acts out more than I'd normally expect--especially when Jonas is in the room. He's constantly testing and pushing buttons.
However, it seems like he's been improving slowly over the last week. And he's been on best behavior the past couple days, not least because of our impending football weekend. I think his kindergarten teacher's discipline methods are helping him too (especially when I try to mimic them). He's so much more pleasant when he's behaving. It's amazing to see how creative, loving, affectionate, and funny he can be when we're not constantly struggling with him to control his behavior and temperament. He's taken to randomly hugging me and saying things like "I love you, Dad", "you're the best dad", and last night he broke out "you're wonderful". It's so sweet.
In the last 2-3 days he's even started being markedly nicer to Jonas, which is eye-popping in its contrast to the usual dynamic there. There've been times when Jonas has pinched, grabbed, or hit Austin with little or no provocation, and Austin's just looked at me and said "I didn't hit back and I still love him even when he's mean." *boggle* WHO IS THIS ALIEN AND WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH AUSTIN?!!
I'm leaving in about half an hour to pick up Austin from school and take him to Clemson for the weekend. He is so excited he can barely stand it. I am too! But I'm excited about football...he's more excited about "special time with daddy", eating in restaurants, and staying in the hotel. But hey, whatever works. :)
JONAS
Jonas is talking more and more these days--he has a rapidly growing vocabulary and is putting together fairly sophisticated sentences too. He's still pretty hard to understand unless you're used to him, and even then it's not easy, but he seems to improve daily.
He is OBSESSED with books. If he can get away with it, he'll make us read him 10 books before bedtime...some nights we literally have to pick him up and carry him away from the bookshelf to go to bed. He's even starting to memorize some of the books because he's read them so many times. It's pretty awesome. He watches TV, but not a whole lot of it--he'll watch Blue's Clues till the sun goes down, and likes Phineas and Ferb because Austin watches that one a lot. But other than that, he doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to TV (as far as i can tell, anyway).
He's got all his colors down pretty well now. It's funny to hear him say them...."duh-wed" ("red", actually we think it's "the red"), "bwoo" or "duh-woo", "wee-whoa", "geen" or "duh-geen", "or-nange" (this is cute enough to melt steel), "buh-wack", "duh-wyee" ("the white"), "duh-peenk", "purple" (oddly, he says this one almost perfectly). Guess what his favorite color is? ORNANGE! I'm raising him right. :)
Much like Austin, Jonas has distinct and developing musical tastes. He tends to like high-energy music like dance, electronica, and old-school hip-hop (while Austin prefers electronica, heavy metal, and speed metal). He loves to ride in my car because it's a "special occasion", and we always listen to energetic music. He laughs and bobs his head and "dances" in the car seat.
Jonas still an incredibly sweet boy with an incredibly big mischevious streak. I really love being around him when he's not driving me crazy getting into trouble. :) He is a specialist at getting into trouble, though. He'll grab anything that he can reach, even if he knows he's not supposed to. He knows how to use chairs and toys to climb on and reach higher spots. He can be a real terror at the table, pushing the table and his chair around, tipping backwards, etc. He really loves to step on and/or destroy things Austin has built (lego buildings and cars, forts, etc). And lately he's developed an interest in the computer too, which leads to fights over whose turn it is to be in the computer chair.
On the sweet side, though, he always comes sprinting to the door when I come home, laughing and shrieking "DADDY!". He likes to sit on my lap and watch TV or read. He can sit still for much longer than Austin can, so it's nice to chill with him on the couch. He loves to share with everyone in the house--his new thing is to say "here!" and share whatever's in his hand. He's really good about going down to bed, FAR better than Austin ever was--it almost never takes more than 15 minutes to get him down for a nap or for nighttime. He has a great sense of humor and sometimes he flat-out cracks me up, especially when I'm singing lullabyes or holding him. He loves being a comedian. He is also getting much better with Devon, backing off on the intentional startling and the random smacking. We still can't leave them alone in the same room because Jonas will still try something every now and again, but at least now we don't have to be right next to the baby every second.
DEVON
Devon'sbeen off Zantac for the past several days and seems to be responding well. He's started to eat oatmeal and pureed fruit. He really loves applesauce. We think he might have an allergy to rice cereal, as he developed a really nasty rash a few weekends ago that we couldn't get rid of. When he stopped with the rice at his doctor's suggestion, though, it was gone within a day. Weird.
He's also holding his head up very well and turning over with ease. He loves to be on the floor. He's figured out how to push himself military-crawl style across the floor in small intervals, so he's becoming somewhat mobile--at the very least, he can turn himself in a circle to see everything around him. He's constantly trying to get his knees underneath him so he can start crawling (and keeping up with his brothers). We introduced him to an exersaucer a couple weeks ago and he seems to like that pretty well...won't stay in it for a long time, but often will go long enough for us to eat dinner.
Devon's personality is also very sweet, he loves to laugh with Daddy and Mommy and his brothers. He doesn't seem to mind strangers too much and is usually in a good mood when he wakes up--even when Amy has to get him up at 6:15am to get Austin to school in time. He's starting to "watch" TV and will sometimes even pay attention when we're reading books. He's really good about going down to bed; by 6:30 or 7 he's ready for his final nursing of the night and then he'll typically stay asleep until the next morning, sometimes sleeping till 8 or 8:30. Hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night anymore; if anything, he'll wake up around 9-10pm because of gas bubbles, but he doesn't like being awake that late. Sometimes if he's up past 7, Amy will put him down in the crib (so she can take care of some errands) and eventually he'll put himself to sleep. That's something neither Austin or Jonas would ever do as a baby, so it's REALLY nice (almost heavenly) that Devon will do it once in a while.
And lastly he still likes Austin more than anybody except maybe Mommy, but is warming up rapidly to Jonas too. Jonas isn't as mean to him as he used to be, which helps, so often I'll catch Devon grinning and giggling at Jonas like he's never done before. It's really heartwarming to see them interacting better.
I think that's it! "See" you in about a month.
AUSTIN
Austin's struggled with behavior issues in the past couple weeks, pushing both Amy and me past our limits more than a few times. He uses a variety of tactics...ignoring, arguing, defiance, sneakiness, even intimidation. He has this "mean face" that he puts on and gets right up on us like he's trying to bully us into changing our minds. It's gotten to the point that we immediately put him in time-out anytime he gives us the mean face.
I'm not saying he's always bad, he just acts out more than I'd normally expect--especially when Jonas is in the room. He's constantly testing and pushing buttons.
However, it seems like he's been improving slowly over the last week. And he's been on best behavior the past couple days, not least because of our impending football weekend. I think his kindergarten teacher's discipline methods are helping him too (especially when I try to mimic them). He's so much more pleasant when he's behaving. It's amazing to see how creative, loving, affectionate, and funny he can be when we're not constantly struggling with him to control his behavior and temperament. He's taken to randomly hugging me and saying things like "I love you, Dad", "you're the best dad", and last night he broke out "you're wonderful". It's so sweet.
In the last 2-3 days he's even started being markedly nicer to Jonas, which is eye-popping in its contrast to the usual dynamic there. There've been times when Jonas has pinched, grabbed, or hit Austin with little or no provocation, and Austin's just looked at me and said "I didn't hit back and I still love him even when he's mean." *boggle* WHO IS THIS ALIEN AND WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH AUSTIN?!!
I'm leaving in about half an hour to pick up Austin from school and take him to Clemson for the weekend. He is so excited he can barely stand it. I am too! But I'm excited about football...he's more excited about "special time with daddy", eating in restaurants, and staying in the hotel. But hey, whatever works. :)
JONAS
Jonas is talking more and more these days--he has a rapidly growing vocabulary and is putting together fairly sophisticated sentences too. He's still pretty hard to understand unless you're used to him, and even then it's not easy, but he seems to improve daily.
He is OBSESSED with books. If he can get away with it, he'll make us read him 10 books before bedtime...some nights we literally have to pick him up and carry him away from the bookshelf to go to bed. He's even starting to memorize some of the books because he's read them so many times. It's pretty awesome. He watches TV, but not a whole lot of it--he'll watch Blue's Clues till the sun goes down, and likes Phineas and Ferb because Austin watches that one a lot. But other than that, he doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to TV (as far as i can tell, anyway).
He's got all his colors down pretty well now. It's funny to hear him say them...."duh-wed" ("red", actually we think it's "the red"), "bwoo" or "duh-woo", "wee-whoa", "geen" or "duh-geen", "or-nange" (this is cute enough to melt steel), "buh-wack", "duh-wyee" ("the white"), "duh-peenk", "purple" (oddly, he says this one almost perfectly). Guess what his favorite color is? ORNANGE! I'm raising him right. :)
Much like Austin, Jonas has distinct and developing musical tastes. He tends to like high-energy music like dance, electronica, and old-school hip-hop (while Austin prefers electronica, heavy metal, and speed metal). He loves to ride in my car because it's a "special occasion", and we always listen to energetic music. He laughs and bobs his head and "dances" in the car seat.
Jonas still an incredibly sweet boy with an incredibly big mischevious streak. I really love being around him when he's not driving me crazy getting into trouble. :) He is a specialist at getting into trouble, though. He'll grab anything that he can reach, even if he knows he's not supposed to. He knows how to use chairs and toys to climb on and reach higher spots. He can be a real terror at the table, pushing the table and his chair around, tipping backwards, etc. He really loves to step on and/or destroy things Austin has built (lego buildings and cars, forts, etc). And lately he's developed an interest in the computer too, which leads to fights over whose turn it is to be in the computer chair.
On the sweet side, though, he always comes sprinting to the door when I come home, laughing and shrieking "DADDY!". He likes to sit on my lap and watch TV or read. He can sit still for much longer than Austin can, so it's nice to chill with him on the couch. He loves to share with everyone in the house--his new thing is to say "here!" and share whatever's in his hand. He's really good about going down to bed, FAR better than Austin ever was--it almost never takes more than 15 minutes to get him down for a nap or for nighttime. He has a great sense of humor and sometimes he flat-out cracks me up, especially when I'm singing lullabyes or holding him. He loves being a comedian. He is also getting much better with Devon, backing off on the intentional startling and the random smacking. We still can't leave them alone in the same room because Jonas will still try something every now and again, but at least now we don't have to be right next to the baby every second.
DEVON
Devon's
He's also holding his head up very well and turning over with ease. He loves to be on the floor. He's figured out how to push himself military-crawl style across the floor in small intervals, so he's becoming somewhat mobile--at the very least, he can turn himself in a circle to see everything around him. He's constantly trying to get his knees underneath him so he can start crawling (and keeping up with his brothers). We introduced him to an exersaucer a couple weeks ago and he seems to like that pretty well...won't stay in it for a long time, but often will go long enough for us to eat dinner.
Devon's personality is also very sweet, he loves to laugh with Daddy and Mommy and his brothers. He doesn't seem to mind strangers too much and is usually in a good mood when he wakes up--even when Amy has to get him up at 6:15am to get Austin to school in time. He's starting to "watch" TV and will sometimes even pay attention when we're reading books. He's really good about going down to bed; by 6:30 or 7 he's ready for his final nursing of the night and then he'll typically stay asleep until the next morning, sometimes sleeping till 8 or 8:30. Hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night anymore; if anything, he'll wake up around 9-10pm because of gas bubbles, but he doesn't like being awake that late. Sometimes if he's up past 7, Amy will put him down in the crib (so she can take care of some errands) and eventually he'll put himself to sleep. That's something neither Austin or Jonas would ever do as a baby, so it's REALLY nice (almost heavenly) that Devon will do it once in a while.
And lastly he still likes Austin more than anybody except maybe Mommy, but is warming up rapidly to Jonas too. Jonas isn't as mean to him as he used to be, which helps, so often I'll catch Devon grinning and giggling at Jonas like he's never done before. It's really heartwarming to see them interacting better.
I think that's it! "See" you in about a month.
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