Jonah at 5 Months

I really can't believe Jonah is another month old. This year is going by way too fast. Jonah is growing and changing each and every day. This month he started playing the the exersaucer and thus far he really likes it. I was amazed at how quickly he figured out how to turn the seat and play with all the different toys. He seems to mainly use it as a way to watch his brothers and their comings and goings in the house. Jonah is now completely over the swing. I've tried putting him in it a few times and he arches his back so I can't get him seated. Thankfully he'll still sit in the bouncer and on his play mat while I exercise. Even though he's plenty old enough, I haven't started Jonah on solids yet. He still has the tongue thrust reflex that makes solid feeding next to impossible. Hopefully he'll grow out of that in the next month and we can start with fruits and veggies. Jonah is still in 3-6 month clothes but he's about to move up to 6-9 month. I just need to get them out of the closet and all washed up. We're slowly weaning off the miracle blanket. He's only using it at night now. Jonah is a very observant little boy. He's always watching what everyone is doing. He's also starting to purposefully reach out to grab things. He loves touching my face and holding my fingers. He's also been to laughing and giggling when I tickle him. Thankfully with the help of some Selsin Blue we've almost gotten rid of the horrible cradle cap Jonah has. It was so gross and trying to pick it off was also pulling his hair out. That's about all I can think of that is new in the world of Jonah. Pictures will be posted soon.


Exploring the exersaucer

From Photos for Blog

Cutie pie

From Photos for Blog

January's Work on the Land

As I said in an earlier post, the trailer was placed on the land in the middle of December. We were finally able to go out to the land in the middle of January. It was quite the learning experience figuring out how to turn everything on and get everything connected properly. Once we got the trailer all set up and a movie going for James and John, it was time to get to work. Brian cut down two dead trees that were bordering a large clearing. Once he got them down and all cut up, I moved everything to the burn pile in the center of the clearing. He also cut down a tree that had snapped and partially fallen down. Since the wood was good, we saved some of it for future campfires and put the rest on the burn pile. Unfortunately, it rained off and on all weekend long so that was all we were able to accomplish between the showers.

Our second weekend was very successful as well. Even though there was a fairly high chance of rain, we only got a few light showers the entire time we were there. With the burn ban lifted, we were able to get the burn pile in the clearing all burnt as well as an older brush pile up at the front of the property. We were also able to cut down the two remaining trees we had hoped to cut down the prior trip and start a new burn pile with the branches and logs. Hopefully we'll be able to burn that pile on our next trip up. We also want to continue working to clean up two sections at the front of the property and improve the "curb appeal".

A HUGE thanks to my parents for watching Jude and Jonah for us while we went up to work.

Here are some photos I took. I added captions so you know what you're looking at.

Pinewood Derby Photos

As promised, here are the pictures from Pinewood Derby.

Pack 542 Pinewood Derby

This past Saturday was James' pack Pinewood Derby. Brian and the boys worked very hard on their cars this year and the day had finally arrived for them to actually race. Brian, James, and John got up early that morning and headed to the church to help set up and check all the cars in. The babies and I arrived right on time and were able to get seats before the races actually began. First up were the Tiger Cub races. Both Brian and I were amazed at just how fast James car was. He won all three of his races and was the fastest car in his whole den. After the Tigers, all the other dens had their races. Once all the dens finished their races, it was time for the first place winners from all the dens to race against each other in the Pack race. Again, James' car did very well and he ended up winning second place in the Pack. Next up were the sibling races. John's car did fairly well but there was a lot of competition. I think he ended up in 5th or 6th out of 15ish cars. Finally they raced the parent cars. I was shocked at how slow their cars actually were considering they had far fewer rules to follow. Well, there was one parent car that had a remote controlled fan attached to it and therefore it was a whole second faster than any of the kids cars. The event ended with cupcakes and awards. Each kid that entered won a certificate and the top three winners in each den and the pack won trophies.

Below are videos I took of the cars racing. I'll be sure to post a slide show of the pictures I took soon.

Video of Jonah Rolling Over

I finally caught Jonah rolling over on camera this morning!! He's done it a few times but each time I break out the camera, he decides he doesn't want to anymore. He can almost get from back to front as well. He just needs to figure out how to turn his hips over.

Video from John's Christmas Program

Here's a long overdue video of John's Christmas program. I just realized I never got it off the camera.

Jonah at 4 months

Jonah is four months old now and lots of changes are about to take place. He's now old enough to start solids, play in the exersaucer and hopefully start transitioning to his crib. He's still taking Prevacid for his reflux and I've started adding rice cereal to his formula to help with his excessive spitting up. It definitely seems to be working thus far. He still spits up some but definitely not as much as before. Jonah had been sleeping well at night for the past several weeks in his bassinet that I attempted to move him to his crib last week. After three nights of lots of crying, I gave up. He's again sleeping happily in his bassinet. As long as he's sleeping all night long, I won't complain about him being in our room still. We'll try again in a few more weeks and see if it goes better. Jonah recently discovered his tongue and that he can make noises with it. Hopefully that won't impede his ability to eat solids. I'm not a fan of having rice cereal spit at me. Jonah's check up went well. He's now up to 14lbs 9 oz and is 25" long. All in all, he's growing really well and is hitting all of his milestones. He had to get two shots and one oral vaccine. He was already upset for some reason so the shots didn't upset him that much. He stopped crying shortly afterwards. Jonah is definitely starting to outgrow the swing and bouncer. They don't hold his attention and he tries to roll out of them. Thank goodness for seat belts. He had his first experience in the exersaucer at my parents house on New Years Day and seemed to enjoy it. It's still a chore for him to hold his head up so he didn't stay in it for too long. He really enjoys the play mat right now. He likes looking at the toys and grabbing them. I'll keep you posted with all the new experiences as they occur.