We've been having a lot of fun the last couple weeks with the weather being warmer. My only complaint is the constant smell of sunscreen on my hands. I use the spray stuff for arms and legs, but I still use lotion or the "gluestick" for the face. I really have to get their ears good. Last year we had a lot of ear blisters and I don't want a repeat of that.
Sometimes the baby gets to come outside, when it's not too windy. He likes to just snuggle outside. It's so bright that he's always squinting his eyes closed and inevitably falls asleep fairly quickly.
The latest game, or activity that we have been doing outside, is the river. They love to get the hose and send it through a rain gutter. We've done it so many times now that the water follows that path pretty quickly and they get a nice little splashing puddle at the end.
Most days we try to wait until at least after lunch to do the water so I'm not having to clean up before and after lunch, but sometimes I can't help it. It's really nice to have an activity where they all stay together and I can go in and feed the baby or change a diaper, or whatever.
If they don't have something like this to keep them busy, the older boys end up cruising around the road on their bikes with poor Tragon trying to keep up while pushing his lawnmower. He's not quite fast enough so he ends up somewhere in the middle of the road by himself, so I'll take the water and the mud and the mess, because they really have a blast and we might as well enjoy the empty lots next to us while we can.
Damon bounces back and forth either copying/following Logan or Tragon...I think I prefer him following Logan though, rather than acting like a 2 year old again. :) Damon is usually the one that starts the mud fights, but doesn't really like to get hit himself.
Logan has become master of the water outside (Damon seems to be master of the water inside...I have to lock the bathroom door downstairs if I'm not down there with him or we end up with rivers on my basement carpet....I digress). He loves to grab the hose and get it all started and make sure the river is going the right way.
This is pretty much our garage on a typical day now. The extra chair is usually for neighbors that come over and play too. I really love being able to go outside and have the boys outside getting all their energy out.
My baby Jaron is doing wonderfully now. He sleeps a good 6-8 hours every night, with the exception of the last couple nights he's been waking up, but will go back to sleep with a binky, so it's a pretty quick interruption to my sleep.
He's starting to wear 3-6 month clothing now, so I had to get some pictures of a cute outfit he was given.
He has a really strong neck and loves to be held and walked around. He's not really one for sitting still for too long.
He still eats great and gives us some wonderful smiles. He's so close to laughing, but not quite there yet.
He loves his big brothers and loves when they are around. Logan can get some really good smiles from him when he's not trying to play Ice Age peek a boo (where the tiger is scaring the baby and he says peek a boo in a very tiger-ish voice)
Jaron has been a good and challenging addition to our family and he makes it feel complete. I can't imagine our family without him now.
He reminds me most of Damon as a baby and even looks the most like him, but there is enough of all the other boys in there too to really bring our family together.
Froggy bum!
And to end with, a sleepy smile that I was able to catch the other day. He's really good at putting himself to sleep when he's tired. I usually try to put him down when his eyes start drooping and he can usually settle himself into a nice nap without any problems. Naptimes are my favorite times of the day. :) Until next time....since my baby just woke up hungry....
Tragon has been the messiest eater by far, but he also started feeding himself the soonest, it's the price I pay and most of the time it's worth it. I just have to make sure I'm not feeding the baby when he gets done eating or I have peanut butter/noodles/etc all over the house.
Damon is still my best eater and loves making silly faces for the camera.
Logan thought the cracker sandwiches were pretty silly and decided to make his string cheese into "grass" (strings it out and then eats it off the table while making mooing noises).
Gotta love it. Until next time...
I can't believe my first baby is 5 years old now and will be starting Kindergarten this year. He has grown so much in the last year. I think we started a new tradition this year. I asked Logan if he wanted a special hat to wear because it was his birthday and he chose a pirate hat. So, I made him a pirate hat. Of course he had to have an eye-patch too.
"Arrggh, matey" I'm not sure what brought on the pirate theme again, but for the last little while, he's been into pirates. Some of my favorite things about Logan right now are:
They also got to ride on the ponies. Logan and Damon were able to ride around all by themselves, but I stayed by Tragon, just in case.
He loved watching the ponies go around while we were waiting for our turn.
He kept pointing and calling them cows. Hehe, I'd correct him and he'd say horse, and then he'd call them a cowse, then back to cow. It was pretty funny.
Logan had a lot of fun at the farm.
Damon like the pony ride, but would only ride on a little pony, not the "medium" or "big" pony. :)
Tragon did really good and I think he had fun on the pony ride.
And of course we had to take a picture on the cow before we left. It was a really fun day, we may have to look into getting a pass. We'll see...until next time....
We have been able to use the same blessing outfit for all our boys and so far it has made it out unscathed, until now. Not too long after the blessing he had a poopy diaper that leaked onto the outfit.
He almost didn't fit the outfit either, so I'm glad we didn't wait any longer to have his blessing. It was so great to have so many people there to show love and support. We are truly blessed to have such great families.
Morgan said he peeked during the blessing to check on him and said he was just smiling and grinning and loving it. He gave the crowd a little smile when Morgan showed him off after the blessing too. It was perfect.
I was only able to get Tragon to sit still long enough to take some pictures with Baby Jaron.
After the meeting we had some cookies and punch at our house and I had a cousin take a family picture before everyone headed out. It actually turned out pretty good considering it was a last minute thing. I sure love my boys!
The first one captured all the silly faces my boys make, and the second one they all have the squinty smile. They are too cute.
Logan really wanted a picture of him flying. It was such a beautiful day.
Damon also needed a flying picture, but Tragon doesn't really liked to be tossed up. He grabs onto Morgan's arms so he doesn't get airborne.
It was a fun game and I'm glad we had some extra help there with all the kids. I think it will be a while before we brave taking all the kids with us again, but Logan really had a blast and was shouting and cheering the whole time, it was great!
They each got a little treat in their basket, but we saved most of it for the Easter egg hunt outside.
My parents and my brother and niece Harlee were with us. Logan was pretty excited, he's a little older now so he gets it a little more.
Logan had his basket filled pretty quick.
Damon got the hang of it, but Tragon wasn't quite sure what to do.
Damon filled his basket all the way to the top.
I was able to put him up on the counter by the stove so I could watch him and make the oatmeal and not have to do either one-handed.
He was really liking in and smiling and laughing for a while, but I couldn't ever get a really good picture with his cute grin.
We tried it a few days later and he's already got some better control of his body.
Most of the time he sits in it he looks like a little bobble head doll. I snapped the camera just a little bit too early to catch his smile. His big brothers were making faces at him and getting him to smile. He loves to be where his brothers are and he likes to be in motion walking around. Unless he's tired he does not want you to sit down while you hold him, and he always wants to be held. And for the last 3 nights in a row he has slept for 8 hours!!!! Wahoo. I hope I didn't just jinx that, but I really don't mind holding him all day when he's awake if he's going to sleep through the night. We love our Baby Jaron. :) Until next time....which is in about 5 minutes.
They did pretty good too. They were able to avoid each other's kites and were able to keep them up on their own.
Damon, especially had a blast. He thought it was so cool that he was flying a kite, however, when he was done he just said, I'm done and let go and the kite flew away. Luckily it got tangled in a nearby tree and we were able to salvage it.
Logan had a fun time, but wasn't patient enough with the pictures to get a good shot.
Tragon just loved being outside. I'm actually surprised he wasn't trying to get the kites from the other boys, he just had fun watching them and being able to run around.
Thanks Papa for bringing Grandma up and for flying kites with the boys.
We did save the kites so when we have another good kite weather day we'll have to go out and see if they remember how to fly them.
Tragon is a Papa's boy on both sides of the family. I think Papa was one of his first words. By the end of the week I think Grandma had things evened out. :)
My baby is growing so fast and getting so big.
He has definitely been a joy in our lives and brought such a sweet spirit with him. He definitely brought with him some challenges, but I think we're up for the task....I guess that's easy to say when they are all occupied right now though. :)
