Amazing Ben

So as I was sitting in the living room writing the las post, Ben did something amazing! Don had just finished changing his diaper and decided to give Ben some tunny time ( only the second or third tummy time he has had). I sat watching him lifting his head up, which is the point of time spent on the belly, and he started to squirm a bit. All of a sudden he rolled himself up onto his side and I thought he was just going to chill there or maybe roll back onto his belly when he rolled the rest of the way over. You got it, Ben rolled over and he isn't even a month old yet!!!!! Ok so he will be a month old on Monday but he isn't that old yet and even if he was it is still amazing to roll over at a month old. He worked so hard on rolling over that he needed to eat so we have not tested to see if he can duplicate his feat, but I am sure he will be able to. He had rolled onto his side from his back earlier in the day so I bet he can roll from his tummy again.

All about Jackie

Jackie has been up to all of her normal stunts and added a few new ones in the weeks since we last had a post mainly about her. She is adding new words to her list (apple, shoe, bird, Ah-boo, pretty, yeah, probably some others that I can't remember) like Ben and no. And I know what you are thinking: here comes the endless barrage of "nos." But it is actually nice to receive an honest answer about what Jackie wants instead of yeah to everything whether she wants it or not. And so far Jackie doesn't say no to everything we ask her to do, just to some things. I think she likes the capability to express her discontent and so far has not abused the privilege of saying the word although I know at some point she probably will.

Jackie had a nice Easter with her cousins. Jackie went to an easter egg hunt the town of Norfolk had last Saturday. She had a blast running around the field at the end of the hunt with her basket. She however did not quite understand the purpose of the hunt. The field was divided into sections by age so that the older children would have a more challenging hunt than the younger children. The section for two and three year olds had little foil covered chocolate eggs literally all over the ground, you almost could not walk without stepping on one. Jackie would not pick up the eggs unless I was standing there telling her to pick it up and put it in her basket. I picked a few of the eggs up and put them in her basket thinking it would help her understand the object but it had no effect. I even handed her a piece of the chocolate to eat thinking it give her a little incentive, it didn't. But when she participated in the family Easter egg hunt on Sunday, she finally got the point and she did quite well collecting eggs. Although Papa, Uncle Anthony and Aunt Mary helped Jackie fill her basket a little bit before she finally understood about collecting the eggs. So we shared her found eggs with Kaelin who was too busy eating what she found in her eggs to pick up many. There should be pictures posted soon from Easter so you will be able to see Jackie hunting for her eggs.

On a slightly sad note, Jackie has an ear infection. It is only the second one she has had but it is still no fun. She has had a cold for about a week and had seemed to be getting better until Tuesday night. That was the worst night we have had in some time. We no sooner finally got Ben to sleep at 1 in the morning when Jackie woke up with screams. And nothing would console her. So Jackie ended up "sleeping" in our bed, we all got about two hours of sleep. So Wednesday morning Don called the doctor and I took both kids to the doctor by myself. It was our first outing alone. Jackie was such a big girl at the doctors office even though she didn't feel well. She followed all of my directions and held my hand in the parking lot so she could walk and not be carried. She was very grown up.

Because our trip to the doctor went so well, I felt brave enough to take Jackie to the park on Friday. The weather was a beautiful 70 degrees, which we haven't seen in MA since August or September of last year. And the town has a very nice playground with all sorts of toys. She was a little tentative at first but saw a ball and went over and picked it up and just stood there holding it, looking at all the kids playing. After a few minutes she decided it was safe to look around some. She found a little pail and carried it around as she explored the playscape. Jackie spent most of her time walking back and forth on the ramp of the playscape. I only got her to go down the slide twice even though she enjoyed it. She also had a nice time in the swing but didn't want to swing very long. She just enjoys being outside and running around and watching other kids.

One other cute thing that Jackie has done recently is that she has decided she needs a pillow when she sleeps. After sharing the room with Grandma in March around the time Ben was born, Jackie started wanting to sleep on the futon in that room with the pillow and the sheets pulled up over her. So Don and I went to Target and found a travel sized pillow for Jackie to use in her bed. So now at night Jackie lays down on her pillow and waits for us to put her blanket over her like a sheet and cuddles up with her puppy (woof-woof as Jackie now calls dogs) and a light-weight blanket and goes to sleep. I think as soon as we move, Jackie will move into a big girl bed. She is growing up so fast, it is hard to believe that just 20 months ago she was as little as Ben is now.

I think this gets everyone up to date on Jackie's escapades of late. I'll try to start having a few posts every now and then that focus on just one child and what they have been up to lately. Hopefully I will be able to actually accomplish this.

~Tiffany

Life since Ben came home

We have had a busy three weeks since Benjamin came home from the hospital, but they have been a mostly good three weeks. I sat down a week ago to write this post and then Jackie woke up from her nap and I am just now getting back to the post. 

Life with a second child is definitely different and crazier than life with one child. And I think it is a harder transition to two children from one than it is from no children to one. Jackie has for the most part been very good with Ben. She spent the first week mostly just fascinated by his feet and hands, and she understands she needs to be gentle with him. Even if she doesn't always remember exactly how soft gentle always is. Jackie has become more loving toward Ben as he gets older: she likes to give him hugs and kisses and likes to "hold" him. When Jackie holds Ben she wants his bum resting in her lap but she is too little to understand the need to hold any other part of him, like his head, so I hold the top half of him so she can pat his head or touch his hands while she "holds" Ben. It is pretty cute. This week she has also started giving Ben kisses and hugs on a pretty regular basis.

Whenever Ben cries, Jackie points to him, looks at me and generally says Ben although Jackie's "Ben" does not have a hard "n" sound at the end. If we are in anther room than Ben when he starts to make noise she runs toward the room he is in while doing the above. She wants to make sure I can hear him and will take care of whatever he needs. She does not like to hear him fuss. And yesterday (4/17) when we were getting ready to leave the house, Ben started crying in his car seat and Jackie tried to put his pacifier in his mouth. Mind you she was holding the nipple and trying to put the other end in his mouth but it was pretty cute. It was also the first time Jackie seemed to understand what the pacifier was for and use it appropriately. Before then Jackie was just fascinated by it because she hasn't seen a pacifier since she was three or four months old. So she would pluck it out of Ben's mouth or grab it from wherever we left it and look at it or stick it in her mouth.

I'm sure everyone would like to know what the progression of Ben's weight has been. He was born at 7lbs 9oz and was discharged from the hospital at 6lbs 15oz. That Monday we had a visiting nurse come and she weighed him at 7lbs 1oz and on Wed. at 7lbs 2.5oz. Thursday Ben had his first pediatrician visit and they weighed him at 7lbs 3.5oz. Two weeks later (or the Wed. before Easter) Ben was weighed again at the hospital when he went for his "procedure" and he was a whopping 8lbs 5oz. That made all the sleepless nights a little more tolerable. I am so thankful that breastfeeding is going more smoothly than it did with Jackie. It has been nice to spend the first month mostly at home and not in and out of the Dr's office and the hospital like we did with Jackie.

And Jackie and I are getting a little more used to life with just us and Ben during the day. The very first day the three of us spent alone was fairly traumatic for Jackie and I, Jackie especially had a rough time. But we have sorted life out and Jackie is getting more patient and I am getting better at doing things for Jackie while Ben is eating (which seems to be most of the time). We even made it out of the house a couple of times in the last week. I think I am finally getting the hang of being a mother of two and Jackie is getting the hang of being a big sister. Now if we could just get a little more sleep all around life would be good.

~Tiffany