Growin' Boy

We had Jax' 4 month check-up this week. He measured at the 70th percentile for both height and weight - 16 lbs., 4 oz. and 25 1/2 inches tall.  He was at the 25th percentile for head; we have small headed children.  It's makes it much easier to deliver them that way!

Their only concern was that his soft spots seem to be disappearing a little early.  They sent us for an x-ray of his head to rule out craniosynostosis, which is where the bones of the skull fuse too early which limits the growth of the head.  The radiological report said that he did not have craniosynostosis but the pediatrician does want to check frequently to be sure his head is growing properly.  Ben keeps telling me it's nothing, but I must admit - I feel a little stressed about it.  There is no greater stress in the world than that of a mother worrying about the health of a child.  I'm sure it's nothing, yet I'll probably lose sleep over it anyways. 

The pediatrician was super impressed with every other aspect of his development.  He is very alert, social, and giggly. He is healthy, growing, sleeping, eating, and thriving.  I feel so blessed :)  Sadie and I dote on him and play with him all day. 

Life is good right now.  Oh, so good!  We just love, love, love this happy little baby. 

My Interview w/Sadie

Sweet Little Voice

These are a few sample videos so you can see how cute Sadie talks.

Also, the speech pathologists recommended these websites: http://www.speech-express.com/ and http://talkingchild.com/.  I haven't had a chance to look at them much but I'm hoping to get some ideas of activities I can do with her.

Fire Station

Do you know that I try really hard to be a 'fun' mom?  Almost every day I try to think of fun things to do and places to go.  And do you know what my precious little one usually says, "Want home!" 

I take her to the library...."Want home!"
I take her to church...."Want home!"
I take her to the park...."Want home!"
Shopping, playdates, Grammie's house, out to lunch...."Want home!"

She is her father's child: a homebody!

I am always telling her, "Sadie, this is suppose to be fun.  This is what good moms do!  Try to enjoy it a little."

Once we arrive at our destination it usually takes her 45 minutes of observation before she'll participate.  Thankfully, once she does warm up she almost always has a fabulous time.  And don't you know that when it is time to head home she is usually devastated and cries. The irony!

Which means - I endure the car ride of hearing her say "want home", the 45 minutes of her wanting to sit on my lap and me trying to encourage her to play, and a meltdown when we have to leave - all so that she can have 15 or 30 minutes of enjoyment.  Is is worth it?  I hope so!

Anyways, that's how this play date to the fire station went.....

This is as close as I could get her to the truck until the very end.

Sadie's good friend, Andrew.

FINALLY, she sat on the front of the truck :)

This is her group of friends.  So cute!

Speech Analysis

Love that little face!

For quite some time now I have debated whether to have Sadie tested for speech problems.  She is 2 and three-quarters and just barely starting to use two and three words.  She has a vocabulary of about 50 - 100 words but many of them are only decipherable to me.  Her comprehension of language is outstanding, but her ability to produce speech is very limited.

Last week I decided it was time. 

So, today she and I headed downtown for 'school' (that's what I called it).  They did a full developmental and speech analysis.  They asked her hundreds of questions....Which is the boy?  Where is the ball?  Which one is yellow?  Can you hand me the big one?  Who is taller?  Can you kick?  Where did the ball go?  Who is the daddy?  Can you sing a song?  What's your name?  How old are you?  Which utensil would you use to drink soup?  Can you walk backwards?  Where is your nose?  It went on and on and on.  Luckily she was really enjoying herself and the women there were wonderful with her.  She had four 'teachers' all to herself.

I was bracing for bad news at the end of our eligibility screening, but they informed us that she is well-within normal range.  I was pleasantly surprised!  The normal range for her age group was a score of 80 - 120 and her overall score was a 92.  Hmm. 

Although I'm grateful she's *normal*, I still feel like she would benefit from speech therapy.  They provided me with resources and suggestions of exercises. So, I guess I will run my own speech therapy program at home with her.  Perhaps our first assignment will be creating a video of her saying all the words she currently knows.  Stay tuned for that and then give me your two cents!

So grateful....

Sadie the Babysitter

Since my pregnancy and the arrival of Jax Sadie has become quite a little mother. Her favorite activity is playing with 'Fufu', her little bunny. She feeds him, rocks him, puts him in Jax's bouncy seat, and even *tries* to change his diaper.

The other morning I was washing dishes and peeked over the counter to find her smearing vaseline all over Fufu.

Sadie shown above with her bunny fufu

She uses an empty eye drop container for his bottle.

Sometimes I will ask Sadie to 'babysit' Jax so I can get something done i.e. sit with him and make faces. She always happily cooperates. One day I was working on a blog post and had her babysitting Jax in our futon chair and noticed she was getting frustrated. I turned around and saw this:

She was trying to stack coins on his head and they kept falling off.  She's one funny little kid!

Sadie shown above babysitting Jax.

A few days later I was washing the dishes (I feel like I'm ALWAYS doing dishes!) when Jax started fussing in his seat. I asked Sadie to play with her brother so I could finish my last couple pots. They were being remarkably quiet and I, again, peaked over the bar to see this:

Jax loves for his sister to be near.

She had sat down with him in his bouncy seat and was stroking his forehead.  He was as happy as could be!  So, I stopped and quick took a picture. Then I hustled to get my dishes done.  Well, they sat like that for at least another 20 minutes.  My kitchen was sparkling!

She is such a good big sister!

I'm so happy they have each other.  Probably one day, in the not so distant future, the bickering will begin; but, for now, I am really enjoying watching them interact.

Jax Laughs

Sadie Slides

Sadie had the best time on the slides tonight.  She has graduated from the small to the large slides.  I think she's really proud of herself!  Can you see how she was just glowing with happiness? 

Our Little Man

He. Is. PERFECT!

I feel like I've won the lottery!  Jax is as healthy and happy a baby as I've ever known.  These are some of the things that I adore about our baby boy:

• He loves to be held and loved (and is quite cuddly) but is also content when I set him down.
• He is asleep for the night by 7:30 and usually makes it until 5 am before his first feeding.  This past Wednesday I fed him at 8:30 when I got home from YW, he went right to sleep, and slept until....7:15 am!  Unbelievable!
• He usually falls asleep while eating his bottle, but if he doesn't I can just lay him down and he falls asleep on his own. 
• Oh my goodness, he smells amazing!
• He's one tough cookie!  He had his first 'illness' this past week.  He had terrible runs and was slightly warm.  However, he wasn't extra fussy, still slept fine at night, and recovered after a few days.  Well, Ben was sitting making him laugh tonight and noticed his first tooth his pushing it's way through!  I think he's been teething the past two weeks (extra drool, too) and has been rather happy through it all.  Amazing!
• He smiles and laughs so easily!  This is not an exaggeration: If I even make eye contact with him he usually beams from ear to ear.  It is effortless to get smiles from him.
• Jax is extremely ticklish!  When we give him his nightly bath he giggles and giggles when I wash in his neck creases and his little feet.  
• He loves to rough house, already!  You probably think I'm making this up, but he really does love to be played and wrestled with.
• I do think he has a slight preference for me (which I'm elated about) but he is happy to be held my anybody.
• In my humble opinion, I think he is a rather good looking baby.  I love his puffy cheeks, wide face, big smile, soft hair, manly hands, solid build....all of it!  I just love ALL of it!!

Jax, shown above, age 3 months.

But, I don't just love him because he's good!  (Although, it sure does make my life a lot easier.)  He just has such a good little soul.   I feel like we were all made for each other; Ben, me, Sadie, Jax...we just go together.  It's chaos at times, but it's my heaven on earth. 

Can you see what I mean about the drool?

Such a happy little baby!  Love, love, love him!!

Piggy Bank

Some of the things Ben found in the tape and CD player.

Sadie loves to play in the van.  I love it when Sadie plays in the van.  It provides me with a few free minutes to get things done. Win-win situation, right?  WRONG!

Recently I noticed that my CD player was making a terrible grinding sound and would not work.  Our mechanic looked at it with a fancy small camera and said it was full of objects: bobby pins, coins, and hair clips!

Ben shown above looking handy and focused.

So, Sadie and Ben disassembled the dashboard this week and emptied out Sadie's 'piggy bank'.  Lots and lots of things came out, but it wasn't enough...it still doesn't work!  I guess I'm stuck listening to the radio.

Moral of the story: Supervise children more closely? Remove coins from the car?  I'm not sure.  I'm still trying to figure it out.

Who could ever be upset with that little face?