Random thoughts from my scattered brain

I'm excited with the new blogger layout released this week I can make my photos even bigger! Because when it comes to photos of these little faces, bigger is better, I'm sure you all agree ;) That's why I've always loved this blog but never knew how to do it myself. So, thanks, Blogger.

These next two photos have always been my favorites of Bennett as a baby. He was 6 1/2 weeks here. Holy moly, no wonder people always commented how tan he was! 

In my mind, these two looked a lot more alike as babies. Now that I'm seeing this, I don't think so anymore! I had to put this outfit on Channing yesterday since it was almost 90 degrees. It's back down in the 60's today (thank-you, Iowa, for always making sure we keep our winter and summer wardrobes accessible at all times. Wouldn't want either of them to feel left out when it's not supposed to be their season, now would we?) and by the time we get back to hot weather again, he'll have outgrown it! He was 8 weeks yesterday and getting close to outgrowing his 0-3 month clothes. His 2 month checkup is on Monday and I'm curious how much he weighs.  

We've got a sweet one here, folks. I just love him. (Duh.) 

 

He's got some serious dry scalp going on. Neither of my other two ever had cradle cap or dry skin on their noggins. Anybody have some recommendations for some shampoo that will get rid of cradle cap? Preferably one you don't have to order online and something all natural or organic. (Obviously I'm not over-bathing him and drying his skin out. Ha! Don't worry, he has had a couple more baths since that post ;)

A few things I'm happy about today:

• My bestest bestie is going to be here in 21 days! My Candy girl from Cali and her adorable daughter Ava are coming for a way-too-short visit in May. I'm so thankful the Lord has provided us opportunities to see each other at least once a year (except one. We've only missed one year since we met our first year of college!) She makes my heart happy.
• Jon got asked to speak at some conference for Edward Jones agents in Oklahoma City in June and they're paying for the whole family to go along! We've never had an all expense paid trip anywhere and I'm pumped! I mean, I hear Oklahoma City is like the Paris of the Southwest. (You've never heard that? You sure? Hmmm.) But heck, I don't care where it is. We live in Iowa, remember? And they're paying for my food and I love to eat free food! (I love to eat any food.)
• I took all three boys to the mall tonight by myself. We ate dinner in the food court (love me some D.R. Deli!) and went to the Gap (extra 40% off clearance! score!) and we only had two teeny weeny meltdowns. HUGE success! Ok, Dawson had his paci for a bit (gotta get rid of that thing soon) and Channing screamed the whole way home (he still hates to sleep in his carseat. Hopefully that will change when he can actually lift his thumb to his mouth. Fingers crossed.) but nevertheless, I never once felt tense or stressed. I was so proud of my boys and myself!
• Picmonkey.com. I was heartbroken when Picnik.com announced they were shutting down. But they recommended Picmonkey and I have to say, I like it even better! These next two photos were edited with the setting "Daguerreotype" and I love it. There are so many cool ones on there. (Yes, I know you real photographers scoff at these web sites but I never claimed to be anything but an amateur so I will continue to use these web sites with no shame :)

I've been wanting to get all 30 of their little piggies in one shot but every time they've all been awake and happy, somebody's were too filthy. So 20 piggies will do for now.

Weekend Update (without Seth Meyers)

I never fully appreciated the value of a weekend for all those years that Jon owned his mortgage company. Saturday was just another day of the week. He worked when he had work to do and he was in and out of the house just like the rest of the week. But now, now I've joined the ranks of women who relish those glorious two days of having their teammate, their extra set of hands, their backup there with them all day. Waking up on Saturday morning, I just breath a deep sigh of relief. Today I am not in this alone.
This past Saturday was gloomy outside but we had fun inside. Channing kicked back and took in a new view:

And a little finger puppet show from brother:

I built cities with the boys:

I love looking around the house for something that might spark some creativity in their little minds. A big cutlery tray made a good parking garage:

I was so inspired by all my freed up time, I baked :)

And we ate them:

I was excited to get a new deep freezer. Of course the boys were even more excited to get a box:

We brought the boys over to Aaron & Bria's to meet their itty bitty new cousin:

The highlight of the weekend for the boys was the massive storm that came through that night and knocked out our power for four hours. Bennett was in heaven! For some reason he's always had an obsession with going into a room and turning out all the lights. If he has a flashlight, even better, but he just thinks its fun to play in the pitch dark. So when the power went out at 8pm and Jon brought out a bunch of flashlights, we couldn't bear to make them go to bed. They ran around together for two hours playing games with their flashlights. Bennett would come in our room every now and then and Dawson would follow behind and say, "come on, Bennett!" and they'd run out again together.
We topped our weekend off with an indoor picnic (if its not raining in Iowa in the spring, then we get hurricane winds around here.) Hot dogs, baked beans and watermelon:

And to make a good weekend even better, at 6 weeks and 5 days old, this little man figured out how to get that tic-tac sized thumb into his mouth. And, drum roll please........slept 9 1/2 hours that night! Not a peep. (Commence angels singing here.)

He's done it the last three nights too! I've actually been waking him up at 8:30am. I am in complete and utter amazement. I swaddled my other two boys so tight they never had the opportunity to suck their thumbs (kicking myself now). I may change my tune when he's 5 and can't kick the habit but seriously, babies can't get their pacifiers in their mouths by themselves until they're 6 months old. That's a lot of nights of getting up to stick that thing back in. Not to mention all the nights of searching all around the crib for that rogue paci when they're old enough to chuck it out (and my boys enjoyed that game immensely). And running back in the house when you're rushing out the door because you forgot to grab one...oh the inconveniences of those darned things goes on and on. But a thumb is always there. It can never hide or be dropped on the floor! Three cheers for opposable thumbs!

Flash back

Dawson at 7 1/2 weeks:

(And Quinn!)

And Channing now at 6 weeks:

Baby boy is plumping up! Not too much more to report in his life at this point, other than he's enjoying sitting in his bouncy seat or on his Boppy pillow a little more and loves to look around. He smiles pretty easily, eats great and still rarely spits-up (I can't say enough how much I love this part!! Bennett drenched himself and me all day every day. Probably partly because I wasn't comfortable with the nursing thing yet, and he was my laziest eater. He lost his latch constantly and probably swallowed a lot of air all the time. Thank goodness this stuff gets easier as you add more children!!)

Channing now goes between 6 or 7 hours between his nighttime feedings (10:30pm to around 5:30am, sometimes waking up once for his pacifier) and then goes right back to sleep until 8:30. Most mornings I have to wake him up then to feed him. If I didn't, our schedule would get too late and our whole day would be off. I have to feed him at 11:30am again at the latest in order to get Bennett to preschool on time. I'd be feeling a lot more rested right now except for a horrible sore throat and cold I came down with this week. So not fair to be awake at night for other reasons than your baby. Mothers should get immunity from sickness for a full year after having a baby. Scratch that. Mothers should get immunity from sickness until all their children are in school full time!!

Other news around here:

Jon's job got changed up a bit. He gained some territory in Iowa and lost some in Kansas. GREAT news for us because he's now only traveling overnight every 2 or 3 weeks as opposed to every week. I'm overjoyed.

Our new nephew was born yesterday! Jon's youngest brother, Aaron, and Bria had their first baby boy yesterday (Colyer grandson count: 6. Colyer granddaughter count: 1), named Aben Jordan. He was only 6lb 11oz despite being 6 days overdue. Makes sense though considering she threw up nearly every day of her entire pregnancy and was on IV fluids the whole first trimester. Poor thing. She had worst case scenario pregnancy and delivery. Ended up having a C-section too. (I haven't gotten the whole story yet. We'll go meet him on Friday when we don't have to bring Wild Thing 1 and Wild Thing 2 along with us). I think its the coolest thing ever that all three of my boys have a cousin 7 weeks or less apart in age! Plus, Bennett & Dawson each have another cousin 4 months apart. I didn't have a single cousin anywhere close in age so I'm so grateful for the lifelong friends (hopefully!) my boys were born with.

And whenever I have a rough day at home with my boys, all I need to do is look at these next two pictures. Melt my heart. (and a couple of grandmother's hearts along with it :)

Easter

We had a great morning at church on Easter Sunday. It was actually Bennett's first time singing up front in church, so of course I got all choked up seeing him up there, belting out a song. I was just thinking, I hope he's never ashamed to shout out praises to God! It was so sweet and he made us proud. After the service they had chicks, ducklings and lambs for the kids to hold and pet! I'm such a sucker for baby animals, I was just as excited as they were.

(photo credit for previous three: Rachel Bentzinger)

After church we let the boys open their Easter baskets from us. Here they are waiting for them with their eyes "closed":

I love these next two :)

Then off to the Colyers for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. It was really weird without my parents there but we got to Skype with them that night. I brought creamy mashed potatoes and Jon was helping me with them the night before. He couldn't believe it when I told him I'd never made mashed potatoes before. Now that my mom's gone, I have to contribute more to these family dinners than a pitcher of sweet tea and a dessert!!

And they're off:

Dawson would stop at every egg and open it and dump the contents into his basket. I guess he was more concerned with quality than quantity.

Captain America joined us after lunch.

Sweet boy's first Easter!

Family picture attempt. I know the blond hair is deceiving but Dawson's half Asian.

I'm so thankful to be the mom of these three little boys!

Channing's first hike

This ain't no Colorado or Yosemite Valley, but we work with what we've got! And that's the beauty of seeing everything through the eyes of your children; to them, it might as well be! I love seeing my boys outside in settings like this. They thrive and it brings me so much joy to watch them explore. Dawson's so hilarious on hikes, we really should video him. He picks up sticks to shoot bears and tigers and he'll stop every now and then and whisper, "I hear a bear! Shoot it!" He's just so sincere about it all, you almost believe him.

Channing slept through all the action:

Bennett keeps talking about this frog and how sad he is that it escaped because he really wanted it for a pet. Darn.

I love thinking about the day when we can start taking them on vacations where they can experience what a real hike is supposed to be! These boys just have no idea what's in store for them. That's the good thing about being born in Iowa. Your expectations start out really low.

Splish Splash

Embarrassing Fact: Channing will be 5 weeks old tomorrow and today he got his second bath. No, not his second bath of the day. His second bath ever. I know there are some moms reading this that are horrified right now. Frankly, it doesn't really bother me all that much. Its just embarrassing to admit it :)

Ugh, I'm so in love with these sweet cheeks. I try not to think about the fact that I only have a few more weeks with a newborn and then he'll turn into a real baby.

I'm feeling more and more comfortable with our daily routine. I'm learning little tricks to keep everyone happy and on schedule and a certain 2 year old out of trouble (like locking him into my bedroom with me while I'm feeding Channing so he can't get into something in another room!). He also really likes to play with toys and books in his crib and will stay in there for a good 30 or 45 minutes, so I use that time very strategically.

Dawson had to take a turn in "the boat" as he dubbed it:

So even though I can keep everyone fed and changed and I can go to the park or the library with all three without any [major] meltdowns, I have absolutely no clue how to keep up with the housework. I'm pretty sure I've only done laundry twice in these 5 weeks (Jon does ours, I just do the boys'). The dishes pile up very quickly and the kitchen's constantly a cluttered mess. My bedroom is a dumping ground and is totally Out. Of. Control. My van could also use cleaning out in the worst way. (I guarantee Jon's thinking right now, "How is this any different than it's always been???" Come on honey, its not usually this bad, right? Right?? :) So anyway, I guess I (and my husband who cares about a clean house way more than I do) just have to accept the fact that in the long run this will just be a short season of life. Eventually Channing won't be nursing every 3 hours and Dawson won't be two forever and dump out every toy in sight while he's playing. Eventually we'll have much older boys who don't kiss us as much or cuddle as much or need us as much; boys who want to hang out in their own room instead of in ours. So maybe we need to put blinders on to the mess (and lack of baths) for a short while and just soak up these last fleeting weeks of newborn-ness. We'll never have them back. Ever.