Off to the races

 (Apologies in advance for the writing of this post -- my brain is absolute mush.  I have been flying solo since Saturday, that post is coming...)

Two weekends ago, some of my family came into our state for a ATV MX race at Briarcliff Race Track.  Being that family was only 2.5 hours away, we were on our way!  We had a great day hanging out at the race track and got to see quite a couple races.  Finn LOVED being there.  I'm not sure if she loved the racing as much as she loved Freddy, Nan, Carly & Tyler.  I think that the fact that we basically let her play with ice & water all day made her pretty happy as well as the fact that we let her eat all day too.

Fish was really good at the races.  It was pretty loud and I was uncertain as to how he would do.  But after the initial startle response of how loud the actual races were, he was an absolutely DREAM all day (until we were driving home.  Although he did nap quite a bit during the day, it wasn't as much as he usually does and it was in the carseat.  By the time we were driving home, he was O-V-E-R his carseat and overly tired.  We had to pull off to the side of the road so I could get him out of the car to rock him to sleep before continuing on the 2.5 hours home).

Handing and waiting

Tyler all suited up

 

Napping at the track

I swear I clip his nails -- he just has amazing nails that grow so quickly and are so sharp!

Dirty Finn -- halfway to the final result.  The only photos I got of the final result are phone photos which don't display her dirtiness as much as was in real life.

Gone fishin' at 20 weeks

• Unscientifically, Fish is topping the scales at 19 pounds and is 27.5 inches long!  Hello, Chunky Chunkerson! 
  
• When he was born, he had a head of dark hair.  That quickly faded out and became the same light blonde color that Finn had.  She didn't get a full head of hair until around her first birthday.  And although he has more hair than she did, I think that we may still have the same story.  He has quite the little sprouts going on upstairs with a couple long stragglers that are overachievers.  My current favorite past time is rubbing his soft fuzzy hair on my cheek.
• There is absolutely no doubt that he is going to be a spitting image of E.  There are times when he looks exactly like Finn and then there are times where he doesn't look similar to her at all.  But there is no mistaking E's resemblance there.  He has the same eye structure as him and the same ears.

 

• We started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago.  We are now up to a tablespoon & a half in the morning and a tablespoon & a half at night.  We had some minor inconveniences of introducing rice cereal, namely no more daily poos.  He now saves up for an extravaganza of poo every 2-3 days.  This usually results in an entire outfit change and sometimes a bath if I can't get to it immediately (and I'm talking immediately).  I'm afraid to up the amount during a single sitting as the amount going in has to come out.
• We have a love/hate relationship with tummy time.  He is excellent at it and loves the attention he gets for being so good at it initially.  But after about 3 minutes, the novelty wears off and he gets pissed.  Yesterday we had a good five minutes before a meltdown ensued.  He also is notorious for puking copious amounts all over his mat.

 

• He is now double-fisting.  He will hold things in his hand and can pass them from one hand to another.  He likes to take out his bink and look at it.  He can't really put it back in his mouth, though he is trying.  He is also reaching out and grasping at things, like the little stuff toys that are hanging overhead when he is in his pack-n-play.  But his two favorite thing to do with his hands are still shove them in his mouth or find his feet.
• He is in a size 3 diapers.  Pretty crazy considering his older sister is only in a size 4.  I was thinking that we may stay in 3's for a while, but if he keeps growing, it won't be but a couple of months.  When wrapped around his little chunky tummy, the closures are already more than halfway towards the outside edge.
• He is still sporting 3-6 month clothes.  But this is mostly because I haven't bought a lot of 6-9 size stuff.  So right now we are basically living in about 4 onesies and 3 shortie-onesies and since it's summer I can get away with it.  I dressed him up last weekend to visit family and the shorts fit -- but the poor dude looked like a 10-pound sausage in a 5-pound casing.  The muffin-top was quite extreme and I ended up not putting his shorts back on after his first diaper change because I felt bad.  So I think it's safe to say that he should be wearing 6-9 month clothes, but I'm just too lazy to switch out his clothes.

 

• We are still breastfeeding, which is going well.  A couple of months ago when he was a wee one, I was making too much milk to feed him on both sides, not the case now.  He still eats every two hours at least.  There are times when I feed him on both sides, but the majority of the time I don't.  Why you may ask, especially if he is eating so frequently?  Why not feed him both sides to space out the feedings?  He pukes.  If I feed him both sides, he will most likely puke a lot of it back up and then I end up feeding him again in an hour or two anyways.  (Part of the reason why we started him on the rice cereal)
• Another part of the reason why we are eating so frequently is he now realizes that there is stuff going on around him.  He'll start eating and then see something out of the corner of his eye and turn to check it out.  Most of the times, it's just me & my face.  He'll turn and look up at me and then give me the biggest sh*t-ass-grin and then turn back to eating, only to do that again within 15-20 seconds.  It's too adorable to get annoyed with.
• Our nap schedule is pretty routine (sort of).  He will take a 2 hour nap in the morning, a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, and an hour nap in the evening, until a couple of days ago, that is.  He is now quite finicky about napping.  His naps lately haven't lasted more than an hour and he is telling me how tired he is about 45 minutes after waking up all day long.  Nothing has changed, I think that he is just slowly "waking up" so to speak and he is pretty cranky about it.

 

• Nighttime sleeping is still pretty good-ish.  We hit the hay around 8:00-9:00.  And he doesn't wake up for the day until around 7:00am.  But he wakes up at least 3-4 times during the night.  Last night was a good night and I think he only woke up twice.  He was down to a single feeding, but not the case anymore.  It actually went hand in hand with when he started getting so distracted during feeding during the day.  I'm hopeful that this won't last longer than a month or so.
• Brother LOVES to sit up -- with help, of course. And he does it like its his job.  We do a countdown (1, 2, 3) to sitting up and he will start to try to sit up by himself at #2.  Once he gets up, his head starts bobbing around, checking out his surroundings.  He also now LOVES to stand up.  He is able to put his weight on his legs for a good chunk of time -- but still needs support.  And if he could choose between standing and sitting, he would choose standing every single time.
• He is also a Mama's Boy.  I can't leave his line of sight.  If I'm near him, he will usually play on his own.  But if I walk out of the room, all holy hell breaks loose.  In fact, right now he is sitting on the computer table, preoccupied with a mobile on his bouncy chair (but just two seconds before he was sitting in his play-n-pack screaming because I walked out of the room to throw his dirty diaper away.

 

• He has become a big talker lately.  And it's funny to ask Finn what he is saying, thinking that she would make something up.  Nope.  She tries to imitate exactly the noise that he was saying, usually long drawn-out monotone "aaaaaaaaaah"s.
• Speaking of Finn, Fish is enamored with his sister. He will sit and watch her for the longest time (which isn't very long).  But she gets the best smiles and laughs.
• He is also a big mover and shaker.  Lots and lots of kicking going on when I'm changing diapers.  And lots of kicking going on when he is in his bouncy chair as he realizes that his kicking makes it bounce.  Also lots of kicking at the mobile in the pack-n-play, knowing that the kicks move the entire thing and make the mobile sway (or sometimes he gets lucky and kicks them himself).
•  Another favorite of mine currently?  The tickle countdown.  Fish will be laying down.  I'll hold his wrists and count "1... 2... 3!" and on 3, I'll push him wrists down on either side of his head.  Then I go in for the kill and bit on his ribcage.  It's the hardest that I've ever heard him laugh.  In fact, he starts giggling after 2, knowing what is coming next. 

A Week (or Three) in the Life (v.2014.17)

We stopped by Daddy's work and Finn snapped a shot.

Jabber jaw...

At Fish's four month check-up -- 97% in length (26.5 inches) and 85% in weight (17.6 lb).

Someone likes jumping around.

Jump around! Jump around! Jump up, jump up and get down!

My life right now...

Making funny faces (v.1)

Love my girl

Got to have drinks with an old friend two weeks ago -- miss his face...

We celebrated National Donut Day right.

Doing our numbers in the post office

We can fit our entire solar system on our sidewalk!

"I'm trying to make him feel better"

Two Mondays ago, Munk went in for surgery.  He had two (benign fatty) lumps removed and his teeth cleaned.  This is his last moment of freedom before arriving at the vet.

Fish still figuring out how to eat real food.

I think someone is going to be a chef with the way that she likes to cut up her food.

Whach' you talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Who's that handsome devil I see in that little black box?

Making faces (v.2)

Hanging in the lawn chair

At the races

Watching the quads jump high!

Someone had a lot of fun!

Brother and Daddy on Tyler's quad

Future racer

To say that someone had fun at the races was an understatement -- her clothes were originally white (due to the predicted hot temps and sun, I tried to put light clothes that would cover on).

Brown is the new white.

The next morning photo of her sock line.

Good morning, Tiger!

I love my Tiger!

Ma, can you STOP with the photos?

Group selfie

Munky loves Baby Brother

So does Mommy

Some of the recent researches to led people to the website.  Apparently someone didn't think that she could go fishing at 38 weeks pregnant.

Munky thinks that Fish is going to be his new best friend and already wants to play ball with him.

We had a breakthrough on Monday at the library!!!!  Someone shared!!!!!!!!!

Our first big puzzle completed at the library.  She was so proud.

Brother is getting ready to have a meltdown as sister continues with her puzzles.

We had our first water balloons of the season.

She hasn't realized what they are yet.

Daddy bought these daisies for Finn to give to Mommy (bc she was a bad girl that day) -- that was over two weeks ago and they are still thriving!

I noticed that Munky tore his stitches in one site.  He was restitched on Monday.  We have an appointment on Thursday to see if we are still okay to head to Iowa this weekend.

The Cone of Shame

 

She loved her first Princess Leah buns.