Time to Swim

We got a new pool today after church, and both Jack and Henry got to try it out this afternoon. I think we’ll be doing a lot more swimming at our house this summer and not so much at the neighborhood pool. I don’t think I can manage Jack and Henry by myself at the pool. Our pool doesn’t have a very good baby pool so I would have both of them in the big pool with me. Doesn’t sound very fun! First, here is Henry getting ready to swim.

And here they are in the water. The water was a bit cold but Henry didn’t seem to mind. He just leaned back and relaxed in his floatie. He even had his little ankles crossed.

Twins

Henry was wearing a gray jacket this morning so Jack wanted to wear his gray sweatshirt so they could match. Then he wanted them to both wear their hoods. Nathan walked in during my photo shoot of the gray hooded twins and wondered what the heck was going on.

We also learned about our next Fruit of the Spirit this week: joy. Jack was not so joyful the morning of our lesson so I’m not sure how much he actually learned. He definitely knows he likes fruit candy and bingo! The fruit for joy was cherries, but fresh cherries were way too expensive to buy this week. So we made individual cherry pies with cherry pie filling. Not too healthy, but we had fun making and eating them. Here is the link to the site where I found most of the stuff I am using for the crafts.

5 Months

Yesterday Henry was five months old. I can’t believe he is so old already! This month I thought I would record his typical daily schedule because I know I won’t remember it a month from now, let alone years from now when I am trying to remember his baby days. So sorry if this is boring…

7:45 – Wake up and get dressed. After Mommy and Jack eat breakfast, play and read books. Take a bath some days.

8:45 or 9 – Eat and take morning nap.

10:30 or 11 – Wake up. Play. We’ve been going on walks lately during this time. Maybe go on a little outing to the library or somewhere else fun.

12:30 – Eat and go in crib around 1 for afternoon nap.

4 – Wake up from nap. He sometimes wakes up once during his nap too and wants to eat. Play with Jack. Lately we’ve been playing outside. He eats sometime around now too.

5:45 – Daddy gets home. Go upstairs with Daddy while he changes out of work clothes.

6 – The rest of us eat dinner and Henry sits with us and smiles. I think this is his favorite part of the day because he gets to look at Jack and Nathan and smile and talk to them.

6:30 – Eat for last time and in bed at 7.

11 – Wake up to eat.

4 or 5 – Wake up to eat. (That’s right – he is still getting up two times a night!)

Teething and Top Gun

Henry is getting his bottom two teeth. He has always liked having his hands in his mouth, but this week he has taken things to a whole new level. Everything goes in his mouth. Yesterday Elmo was his victim.

Despite his teething troubles, he’s still a happy little guy. Except for today that is, but I’m writing today off as a fluke. He always has a smile for Jack.

Jack’s latest excitement is his flight suit. Uncle Will got him the flight suit for Christmas but it was too big. So he had kind of forgotten about it today. Not anymore! He wore it all day and asked if he could sleep in it. He also wears his safety goggles from the Lowe’s kids workshops. They are his flying goggles. And he wears a mini flashlight around his next. It is his dogtags until he gets real ones from Grandpa. Don’t you see the resemblance to Maverick? Or does he look more like Ice Man?

Fruit of the Spirit

BSF ended last week, so I decided I wanted to a Bible study at home this summer for Jack. The verse we will be learning about is Galatians 5:22 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.” Each week we’ll learn about a new fruit (which is also paired up with a real fruit). So today we learned about love, which is represented by a strawberry.

First, we made a Fruit of the Spirit jar. This is Jack’s favorite part by far! That is because the jar is filled with Runts candy – which are in the shape of fruit. Every time I see him showing a fruit of the spirit he gets a fruit candy. He caught on pretty quick to this concept. All day long he was “loving” Henry… giving him rattles and hugs and then reporting back to me… “Mommy, I gave Henry a rattle. Do I get a fruit candy?”

We also made a Fruit of the Spirit tree. Each week we’ll add a picture of the fruit we are studying. This week he got to color a strawberry and glue it on his tree. We also started a notebook to remember what he is learning. Today we made the “love” page. We looked through magazines and he cut out a picture of a Mommy holding a baby. He chose this because he thought it showed love. Then we wrote down the names of the people he loves and talked about ways he could love others this week.

Next we moved on to the snack – another favorite part for Jack. Today we had heart shaped pieces of bread topped with homemade strawberry jam.

Last we played Fruit of the Spirit bingo. He had never played bingo before and he loves playing games these days. So he was all about bingo as you can see. My prayer is by the end of the summer he will have Galatians 5:22 committed to memory and impressed on his little heart.

Two Firefighters

Today Jack decided he wanted to wear his firefighter hat and have his picture taken – and also have Henry wear a firefighter hat and be in the pictures too. So we had a photo shoot this afternoon. Here are the little firefighters.

I love this one of them looking at each other. One of Henry’s favorites things is watching Jack. And Jack is more than happy to entertain Henry and make him smile.

Jack also made me a very sweet card for Mother’s Day. He had it in a hiding place and kept trying to give it to me before Sunday. He drew a picture of Nathan on the front and a tree inside. He had Nathan write this message inside: “Mommy, Thank you for coming back to our not old house. I love you.” Not quite sure what that means... He was also a bit confused about what day it was. He kept asking if it was Valentine’s Day.  It was a very nice Mother’s Day.

Big Boy Stroller

Today Henry graduated to his big boy stroller. It’s actually the same stroller, I just converted it to not use the infant carrier anymore. Since the weather has been nice the past two days we’ve been enjoying playing outside and going on walks. However, I get tired a bit quicker now that I’m pushing about 50 lbs. of little boys around. Jack has a bench on the back of the stroller so he gets to ride too.

 

Here’s a few other pictures of Henry from the past week. He seems so much bigger to me than this time last week. He is really reaching out for toys now and interacting with us a lot. He is starting to get frustrated when he can’t pick something up or get it in his mouth the way he wants to. He loves to smile and laugh at Jack and has also started imitating sounds.

He loves watching the lights and listening to the music on this teddy bear.

 

He isn’t eating any solid food yet, but we got the high chair out the other day so he could have another place to sit and play.

 

Here he is cracking up at something Jack is doing.

 

He almost always has his fingers in his mouth. Here he is trying to get all of them in there at once.

Toddler Storytime Graduation

If you ask Jack what his favorite place in the world is, chances are he’ll tell you the library. The main reason for his love of the library is storytime. Every Monday morning  we faithfully go to the library for bubbles, songs, stories, shakers and a craft. But all good things must come to an end and toddler storytime only lasts until you are three years old. So, today Jack graduated. He was very excited to get his diploma and thoroughly enjoyed his last toddler storytime.  These pictures aren’t that great but I wanted to post them so I can remember our days at storytime. In the fall, Henry will start baby storytime. They do have a preschool storytime but Jack won’t go to that because he will be at preschool and Bible study on the days it is held.

Here he is listening to the story. A year ago there was no way he would sit by himself to listen to the story. He always sat on my lap. But now he always wants to sit as close to Ms. Melissa as he can.

Next here are Jack and his good buddy Sophie singing songs.

Showing off his shakers!

And, last but not least, madly shaking the parachute. He gets a bit excited during this time and has to be told repeatedly to shake gently.

4 Months

Henry is the sweetest little guy. At four months, his favorite things are watching Jack, reading books (especially his baby Bible at bedtime – he smiles every night when he sees it), listening to us sing songs to him, playing peek-a-boo and chewing on his hands. He can be pretty loud when he gets to talking to you and he also likes to talk to himself when he wakes up in the morning and from naps. He wakes up between 7 and 8, takes two naps a day and is in bed by 7 for the night. He doesn’t mind being on his tummy as long as I don’t leave him there too long and if he isn’t too tired. He “enjoys” lots of kisses and hugs from Jack throughout the day and got to go to his first Royals game last weekend.  His current least favorite thing is taking the antibiotic he’s on for a cold that just won’t go away. He hates it and spits most of it out while crying like crazy. Other than that, he’s a happy little guy who is learning more every day.

I Don't Want to be Smart

Jack is allowed to watch one TV show a day. Other than his one show we don't ever have the TV on during the day. He pretty much always chooses to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at 8:00 while I am feeding Henry and getting him dressed. However, his knowledge of the "one show a day" rule does not stop him from casually suggesting (sometime several times a day) that he might watch another show. So, when we got home from MOPS today, he asked if he could watch a show. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: You can only watch one show a day because TV doesn't help you get smarter. Reading books makes you smarter; watching TV doesn't.
Jack: I don't want to be smart. 
Me: You still can't watch a show.


And then he gave up.