Jose, oh Jose!

You are growing so quickly!  Seven months on the 28th of February. Things Jose is doing:

*sitting up for long periods of time.

*cut his first tooth on the bottom on February 21.

*sleeping from 8-2, but still reaches out for me to nurse at night. Our crazy life leads me to exhaustion and having him in bed with us is easy.  I need easy.  That should be evident by the combined monthly posts instead of devoting a post per month.

*flipping  over and over, back and forth.  He will be on the move soon.  I have already lectured the boys about leaving legos and other small toys around on the floor.  

*”talking” a lot.  Screeching is more like it.

*grabbing my face and giving me kisses. He may just want to nurse my face, but I’ll continue to pretend he wants to kiss me.

*Nini and I swear he said bye.  In actuality, he mimicked our sound, but hey. It’s a start.

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Eight Months

March 28 brought along Jose’s 8 month mark.  It’s hard to believe how quickly this year is going.  The first year of life of my babies is always the most exciting.  Regardless of the exhaustion, the firsts and amazement of new things bring such joy to the household.

 I was telling Granny B just this morning that having 4 children, while tiring, is actually easier than when I just had Frick and Frack who were 15 months apart.  I have help now…in the form of 3 strapping lads who are at my beck and call.  They get the diapers, take the trash out, hold him, watch him while I run and get something or they run and get that something for me.

So now…what’s new with Jose?

*I forgot to write down when he got his second tooth.  And I don’t know when he got his third.  But he got them.    I figured that out when he bit my nose.  I know, I know.  I shouldn’t of had it in his face.  But he was giving me one of those ADORABLE kisses where he grabs my face and pulls me to him. I’ll deal with the repercussions later.

* He is cutting the fourth tooth as I type.  Wowzers.  Last night was brutal.

*He said “hey” last night at Nini and Pops’ house for Easter dinner.

*He rocks back and forth on his knees and hands.  I’m sure he will be crawling by the 9 month post (that I write when he’s 10, 11 or 12 months old–LOL).

*He rolls everywhere.  We have those “make sure you pick up your Legos” talks daily.

*LOVES to be outside.  Whether we are taking a walk in the stroller, watching our brothers jump of the trampoline, or sitting on the front porch watching cars go by, he’s my outdoorsy guy.

*He naps better and, lately, he has been sleeping better.  Until last night.  That fourth tooth and the crawling milestone is doing us in.

I don’t know why I love this picture, but I do.

 I walked through the nursery one day and found these two sitting this way.  Frack and Jose are best buds.

 I have all the pictures and all the stats, but none of the time to log them into here.  Sigh. Basketball, Mathnasium, and Occupational Therapy appointments have us on the go all the time.  I clearly remember the days when Frick and Frack were babies and toddlers when I insisted they stay on schedule.  And now…what’s a schedule?  We have places to be!!  We are truly blessed that Jose is easygoing and ready to rock and roll most days.  He really doesn’t have a choice!

Bless.

This will be a long post catching you up on all sweet little Jose has accomplished so far.

At Two Months….

Stats:

weight:  14 lbs 2.6 oz (92%)

length: 23 in (47%)

head size: 16.5 in (88%)

Jose is:

*beginning to sleep for long stretches.   Around 5 weeks old, he started to sleep from 8:30pm to about 4:30am.  Then, the miraculous happened…he slept from 9:00pm to 6am!  He’s the first of our children to sleep so well at night.

Two month old Jose

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Three Months

Our little fella is packing on the pounds and chunking up!

He smiles all the time and really only cries when he’s hungry (which is frequently–haha), tired, or has a dirty diaper.

*He lights up when his brothers talk to him.

*He sleeps well at night

*He takes about 4 naps a day

*He was baptized on October 18 at our parish on his Feast Day.  He wore the same gown his brothers wore at their baptisms.

*He was the cutest pumpkin around at Halloween.

Three months

Halloween 2014–Jose, Frack (some kind of Spiderman), Frog (another kind of Spiderman) and Frick–Jedi.

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Four Months

*At his Four Month appointment, he weighed 18.5 lbs

*still sleeping well

*trying to roll over

*”talking”

Four Months

We had to do it. Jose had his hair cut.  Each of our boys had haircuts by 5 months.  The mullet is just too much.  His hair was trimmed with paper scissors around the ears and neck.  Poor fourth baby. Ha.

Jose’s first hair cut was on December 19.

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Five Months

He ate his first foods on December 29–peas.  He tried bananas a few days later.  LOVES it all, although this picture is of the first bite of peas.  Please excuse his scratched head.  Jose has eczema like his brothers and he loves to scratch it.  

*He’s on the cusp of rolling over.  So.Very.Close.

*Lately, he has not been sleeping well.  He’s very fussy at night and he’s also very clingy.  I’m at a loss…it doesn’t matter if it’s your first child or your fourth.  These perplexing milestones and phases are tough to deal with anytime.

But this sweet baby has been nothing short of a blessing.  He’s brought tremendous happiness into our lives and we are blessed to have him in addition to our other boys.

But this TED talk really had me thinking this morning–even with the lack of sleep as of late.

Watch this video, especially if you have young, school aged boys in your life.  It’s only 12 minutes.

Here are my thoughts:

 My comic book loving, wrestling enthusiast, nerf gun using boys are wild in a good way–the boy way.  They are 100% boy.  They love to write said topics in comic book fashion.  The books they have written are strewn from room to room here at our house.  One of my sons even spent his own money to copy a comic he wrote at Kinkos so he could sell them–$2.00 for a copy, $2.50 for it autographed.  They want to write all about boy things.  Constantly.  The zero tolerance from schools has not really squelched their desire to write about these topics, as we have been blessed with wonderful teachers who have understood their penchant for action filled writing as just that…writing.  Nothing else.

  The woman giving the TED talk is promoting better gaming ideas to help with keeping our boys involved and excited about learning.  She brings up so many wonderful points about how we as educators are losing boys.

–There aren’t enough male teachers for our boys to look up to as a role model.

–The number of children with special needs is larger with boys than with girls.  (I have a child with ADHD and sensory issues…I live that life, too.  I’m one who sees things through the eyes of an educator AND a mom of special needs.)

  –There is not enough movement in our classrooms. (Teachers ask students to sit and sit and write and write.  I know I often feel like I can’t get everything I need to teach into my day and it stresses me out.  But boys need to move.  If that is incorporated into the day, things get a little bit better because my students are ready to learn.)

— And then she adds the part about better games that teach and entertain.

I do not think gaming is the complete answer.  I think children get enough of that time at home, often without limitations or time constraints.  But it’s hard to get the attention of my students in a world that readily hands them information and entertainment via TV, computer, or device.  There are days when it doesn’t matter how many cartwheels I do in the front of the classroom, they still.don’t.understand the topic or skill.  Teaching has changed so much in the 15 years I have been in the profession.

My point is this:  There are other ways to engage our boys and girls in the classroom.  Having students move, jump, and act out gets children involved in the lesson.  Using music, small groups, and drama incorporated into lessons are also powerful ways of actively engaging students.

I did love this TED talk.  I completely agree that we are losing the boys of our classrooms.

 I just want my fellow teachers to understand that gaming isn’t the one and only answer.

]]> https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/bring-back-the-boys/feed/ 0 5580 Mandy https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/one-month-2/ https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/one-month-2/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2014 21:37:32 +0000 http://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/?p=5571 And just like that, Jose is one month old.

Jose is a sweet baby and very low maintenance.

When you enter into chaos, you kinda have to be low maintenance.

Stats at his 2 week check up:

weight:  9lbs 1.2oz (60%)

length:  21 inches (65%)

head size:  15in (96%)

Things he’s doing:

Smiling!

Sometimes sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches

cooing

Looking more and more like his brothers every day.

Here is Frog at one month:

I think they favor a bit!

Oops.

Well, here is some news….

We had a baby.

Another boy baby.

That makes four boys.

I’m tired just typing those last few sentences.

Our sweet little bundle joined our family on July 28, 2014.

He weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

He is the smallest baby I have had.

Even the doctor commented on how “small” he was compared to his brothers, when he uttered something about how I usually birth 25 pounders.

This guy came out fighting!  He swung his arms and hands around crazily, grabbing for the clamps the doctor was holding.  Doc had a good chuckle as he tried to cut the cord because our little boy wouldn’t let him do it!

The naming of this child has been discussed with passion since the day we found out we were having a boy.  You know we’ve had a girl name picked out for 10  years now.  Oh well.  And we’ve used 6 perfectly good boy names already, so we had to do some thinking on this one.

About a year and a half prior to being pregnant, Frack casually mentioned from the back seat of the car that I needed to have another baby and it needed to be a boy.  And then we would call him “Jose”, after one of his friends, “cute little Jose”, in his class.

Fast forward to the gender reveal day (no, we did not have the trendy party.  We sat in our ultrasound technicians office (Hi Jennifer!) and cried happy tears that it was in fact another healthy boy and not a girl that would require mom and dad to have an intervention on how to raise girls).

I digress…

So it’s a boy.  And as soon as we told his older brothers, Frack fist pumped the air and said, “Wahoo!  It’s Jose!!!!”

The nickname Jose has stuck.

Photo by Jennifer Murphy Photography

We are adjusting nicely to the new normal.  The big boys are so sweet and doting to their little brother.

I am enjoying maternity leave with little sleep, but hey.  I was smiled at today…a real, honest to goodness, not a smile while you sleep, not a gas related smile. A REAL smile.

It made my day.

It’s the first day of school!

Well, it was on August 20.

I’m a little late.  As usual.

Frack–2nd grade

Frick–3rd grade

Mom–teaching 1st grade.

]]> https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/trading-in-pool-bags-for-school-bags/feed/ 4 5556 Mandy 1006049_10201246788384436_123182079_n https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/first-day-of-3k/ https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/first-day-of-3k/#comments Sun, 08 Sep 2013 12:27:13 +0000 http://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/?p=5551 Frog is now old enough to be in 3K.

Sniff.

He as the same teachers Frick had when he was born.

GAH.

It does not sit well with me — when Baby Frog makes it to school–and not in a baby carrier!

His first day of school was Tuesday, Sept. 3.

I was able to leave my school and take him into his class, all during my planning period.

Time needs to stop.

Pronto.

Go Tigers!!

We spent the day with Auntie B and Uncle S watching Clemson in the garage.

We kept playing and hanging out into the evening while watching UGA play Carolina

and the pick up game of football the 15+ kids were playing in the back yard.

So.Much.Fun.

To catch you up with the shenanigans of Frick, Frack, and Frog, I have compiled our favorite pictures from the last six months.

Or possibly more.

So…Let’s start with Frog’s first trip to the dentist!

He did great and allowed the dental hygienist to do her thing to an extent.

At one point, she asked him if he would open his mouth so she could count his teeth and he promptly said, “No.”

After some convincing, he did it and all was well.

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Then, it was a trip to Legoland in Atlanta for Frack’s 7th birthday.

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The boys received new mattresses and had an impromptu jumping session on the old ones:

A perfect sendoff for old mattresses.

And tons of boy fun.

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Slides are fun, but crazy hair is even better.

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Baseball season found us camping out at the ballpark 4 nights out of the week and often on Saturdays for practice.

Frick and Frack had great seasons and love the game.

Both received game balls twice.

Frick’s team won the tournament at the end of the season…a come from behind win.  He had an awesome tournament streak  after a midseason slump.  Frick ended up getting the game ball at the Championship game.

I cried.  Lots.

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Frog has a habit of falling asleep at random times.  I love sleeping kid pics, so I had to include this:

He’s my sleeper…he still naps two hours each day, goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until 8 in the morning.

Plus these random naps, this guy has it made in the shade.

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GO TIGERS!

That’s what I told Frick to tell Cocky when we saw him at a Touch a Truck event in Columbia.

I’m guessing Cocky wasn’t a fan of that.

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Frick made his First Holy Eucharist this May:

He was so excited to make this sacrament and we were so proud.

Frack did all he could to hold in his energy over three hours.  At the time of this picture being taken, he had enough.

We were to have a big party at our house afterwards, but as luck would have it, Frog ran a 103 degree fever for two days.

Sigh.

Party moved to another location.

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June was busy with swim team meets and practices.

July brought our annual beach trip to Hilton Head Island.

Nini and Frog had a blast swinging together.

One minute, Frog is happy and having a blast.

The next minute, he’s Mr. Pouty.

Frog is quite the moody one.

He takes after me.

The boys LOVED the ocean, boogie boarding, and jumping waves.

That brings us up to present day…

We’re trying to enjoy the rest of our summer before school starts up again.

BP was to go with us, but unfortunately, he was in bed and sick, sick, sick.

The Mommy Show was on.

Frack led us straight to the very front row, which actually helps the boys pay a bit more attention.

As I genuflected and crossed myself, I said a desperate silent prayer that  these lively, precious boys would behave, pray and be non-squirmy in that very front row, with the congregation behind us.

Each boy knelt with their hands folded and angelic faces looking to the crucifix.

Frog was most precious in this pose.

After his prayer, he did his version of the sign of the cross.

So cute.

During communion, Frog was transfixed.

In the front row at our church, you must sit in your seat and not kneel after receiving The Eucharist, as people are receiving the sacrament right in front of you.

So there sat Frog watching all the people walk by and take communion.

And then he pipes up,

“Hey!  Hey guy!” (he was referring to the Eucharistic Minister) “I want some!”

I gently whisper to him that he must make the sacrament and will when he is 8.

Silence.

Moments pass.

“Ok.  I 8 now.  Gimme some.”

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The boys were perfect.  And pious.  And especially precious.

What a sight it is to see your child looking to God in the most reverent way with his hands folded.

I may have teared up a little.

Sigh.

]]> https://lifesaboutadream.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/ash-wednesday-kids-mass-always-interesting/feed/ 2 5522 Mandy