William is 5 Months Old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time seems to have gone even faster than with Thomas and Elin, then again maybe not, Nonetheless William is 5 months old.  I am trying to soak in every last ounce of his newborn squishy snuggly baby-babyness that I can, as it is all quickly seems to be fading.
The littlest big guy continues to be a very smiley happy little guy.  He cannot get enough of his brother and sister and always has smiles when they are around.  I swear he is watching them and planning out how he is going to start moving so he can keep up!   Which brings me to the fact that this guy is wiggly!  He is rolling from his tummy to his back like crazy and has started to scoot around on his tummy.   He's figured out how to kick his feet, grab his toes and get toys to play with.  He has also found a love in chewing and sucking on his fingers.  All this chewing and drooling has had us wondering about teeth, but so far we still just see him flashing his gums!
These days William is a chatter box and will here and there tell you how much he likes something with a great baby giggle and laugh.  He is using his back sounds of his voice and loving playing with the different tones and rising and falling inflections.  If only we knew exactly what he was thinking and saying as the stories he tells seem quite interesting.  I could spend all day listening to him talk to me, his Daddy, his siblings or the random object/thing he seems particularly delighted by!

William had a 5 month checkup with his doctor as we never got to see him at his 4 month appointment.  He was 26 inches and 14 lbs 9 oz.  We are going to start doing his reflux medicine 2x a day and I'm going to continue to stay dairy free, seeing here and there how he tolerates it and if I can add it back into my diet.  His doctor was very pleased with both his growth and developmental milestones. 

Play Doh

Thomas has been absolutely obsessed with playing with play doh the last couple weeks. He loves to cut it, smash it, roll it, mix the colors and make it into many different things.
His imaginative play really comes out as he makes different food items, dinosaurs and other animals.  By the end of the play session, the floor is covered in play doh.  This recipe is the best one I have found, it is easy to make and the dough is ridiculously soft.

Weekend of Fun

We spent the weekend close to home enjoying the sunny fall weather. Saturday we did some fall yard work. Raking, pulling out dying summer plants and putting in spring bulbs and hearty winter kales.  Thomas and Mike had to run to Home Depot for some supplies (while Elin and I went to get my Washington ID-better late than never).  At Home Depot they stumbled upon kids craft time where Thomas was able to paint a Thanksgiving turkey napkin holder.
We also made super yummy chicken stock.  Thomas was a great helper with chopping up the veggies for our stuffed peppers.  Sunday instead of making an all day trek to a pumpkin patch we decided to head to the nursery near our house instead.
Swanson’s Nursery was all set up for harvest themed activities. Thomas was able to make and then race a veggie car. We went on a very urban hay ride through the parking lot. Followed by dumping loads of glue and glitter on a small pumpkin. Totally a kid friendly event and Elin sure enjoyed watching all the action. Only downfall was that there were not large pumpkins for purchase there. During afternoon naps, Mike went to pick up pumpkins at the grocery store.
After the kiddos woke up we made noodles and had chicken noodle soup followed by night 1 of pumpkin carving. While Thomas and Mike carved 2 pumpkins, I put Elin in a pumpkin and took pictures! Since we were veterans at this task, it went much easier. After learning our leg holes were much too small for Thomas here our holes for Elin were much too large. Oh well! We still got some cute pictures.

Pumpkin Carving

There was a lot of pumpkin carving going on at our house the weekend before Halloween.  Thomas was a fan of using his “knife” to cut after Mike or I had already cut out the eyes, nose, or mouth. 

Elin is 5 Months

Our little lady is quickly growing and changing by the day.  She is a sweet little butter ball of smiles, squeals and we are just smitten with her.  Unless it is one of her mini wake ups, on the occasional night, for 45 minutes to hang out and talk, seriously what is that about little Miss? 

She is pretty excited about being able to move around and squirm her way to a toy or different area.  She loves to grab and manipulate her toys and everything goes into her mouth right now.  She does have two sharp little bottom teeth and is starting to show interest in foods.  We have let her try frozen bananas in her mesh teether and a few bites of banana. 

She loves to talk and sing and scream away.   In fact she is like her Mama and sometimes we just can’t get her to stop talking!  Maybe we have future speech language pathologist on our hands!  She also absolutely adores her Big Brother and has endless smiles and laughs for him.   With Elin, everything seems to be happening “faster” than it did with Thomas.  When I look back on Thomas’ monthly posts they are about in line, so it must just be our perception.  Regardless, it is daunting that she is already 5 months, we are already thinking about baby proofing and new adventures are about to begin. 

Elin Laughing at Thomas

Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle

Elin is worming her way around to reach objects she wants.  She is getting pretty good at it and I was able to get a video of her in action.  It won’t be long before she is moving like crazy, so from now until then we will start re-baby proofing the house.  Crazy to think what it will be like again to have a little one getting into everything. 

Under the Tree with Stelly Belly

Stella is such a good girl when she is around Thomas.  Mike and I have worked very hard to continue to make her “part of the team.”   We wanted to share a little bit of her wonderfulness :-)

We have had a few cooler days, so  Thomas, Stella, Mike   and I have spent time under the tree in our backyard.  This has also allowed us to get some yard work done while he is awake!  It is nice not being cooped up inside or in air conditioning all the time.  Denver has been having record breaking heat, in the high 80s and even a few days of low 90s.  So we are welcoming the cooler days and waiting for FALL fall to arrive!

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas also loves laughing at Stella when she plays tug of war. 

****for those of you,  who are like my dad,  and are constantly panicking about Stella hurting Thomas, Mike and I are very VERY VERY careful with him around the animals.  We would never want to have to “choose.”  There is a video at www.dropshots.com/laschen

Here are a couple pictures I took of Thomas scooting around in the grass.

What’s that…oh it is nummies?

Thomas made the big step into the world of baby food on September 8th, 2010. We did not know how it would go, and to be honest…his first food Rice Cereal…FAILED MISERABLY. He did not like it one bit. He closed his mouth, screamed, and arched away from it after the first few bites. So we took a few days off.

Then we reintroduced sweet potatoes. SUCCESS… Since then he has tried roasted pears, bananas, oatmeal, and a little taste of avocado. Each new food has gone better and better and he really seems to be enjoying himself.

In fact, while Mike and I were at lunch on Saturday he was sitting at the table tongue going away (how he shows he is hungry) and we were both like…hmmm…guess he does like this. That is when I gave him some of my avocado mashed up.

The hardest part is what it is doing to his tummy/reflux. We are playing around with when we feed it, right now morning and afternoon feeding, because his belly is really doing a number on him. Hopefully after his tummy adjusts his daily activities will be back to normal.

Berry Patch Farms

Thomas and I were invited by my neighbor Deb to “test out” Arvada Mom’s Club.  Best part about the "test” was that they were going to head up to a local organic farm to pick strawberries and raspberries.  So what the heck-it’s worth a try right?!

Once we got up to the farm we met up with the group.  This was a large group and we really didn’t get into the “group” stuff so I am still on the fence about joining.  Even with it being a little bit crazy, Deb and I had a great time with our kiddos picking away.  The strawberry fields were closed to replenish (I went up Saturday a.m. solo to pick them).  We were each able to pick a couple pints of yummy raspberries.  As we were walking back to the farm there were fields of flowers you could pick or take amazing pictures by…Thomas was a cooperative little guy :-)

When we headed home both the kiddos were zonked out within 2 minutes. 

With the berries I made 2 strawberry rhubarb pies, froze strawberries for us to eat, and had yummy fresh smoothies.  So excited I found Berry Patch Farms…our family will be making this a trip many more times.  My favorite thing about the farm is that they are so kid friendly.  They had local school groups touring the farm and learning about the agriculture.  What a fun field trip-and what a dream for me…maybe someday???                

Children’s Museum

Nikki and Amelia were in Denver visiting family for the weekend.  We wanted to meet up and do something fun with our kiddos.  Amelia is 18 months so we thought the Children’s Museum would be fun for her to explore.   I figured that Thomas could just tag along and look at all the kids, I was nicely surprised by all the things for both Amelia and Thomas to do.

There were so many rooms all with a theme and toys to explore and play with.  Thomas and Amelia loved walking/scooting around to see what they could get their hands on.  After a couple hours Thomas was exhausted and Amelia was hungry so we were off to lunch.  We all had a great day.

Labor Day in Minnesota

Labor Day weekend was spent as a whirl wind in Minnesota.  With both of our families “back home” we always have a full plate from the second we step off and then back on the plane.

After a 2 hour delay we got in LATE on Wednesday night.  Grandma Laschen was nice enough to pick us up so we could get some much needed rest.  We had 2 stops to make before we were off to Cloquet, lunch with Uncle Larson, and stopping to see Thomas’ Great Grandma Banana. 

Then we were off to Cloquet.  Once we arrived, there were a lot of people to try to see and not enough time.   We did however get a lot of stuff into our quick trip to “the Iron Range (MIKE THINKS IT IS!)”  I was able to see 3 high school friends and their children.  We went up the North Shore to Gooseberry Falls, ate at Fitgers Brewery, Mike and I went for a run in Jay Cooke, and went we went golfing.  It is always too quick and I am looking forward to more time “at home” in October.

Saturday afternoon we headed back down to Woodbury.   Once there we spent time hanging out by the fire, catching up with family, Mike and his dad went fishing, and we went  to the State Fair.   Tiffany and Hallie also came and spent the day with us on Sunday.  The weather never wanted to cooperate and let us take Thomas swimming in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool.    The State Fair lived up to all it FAME!   There were zillions of deep fried foods on STICKS, mullets GALORE, and the people watching was amazing!    Again Mike, Thomas, and myself had a wonderful time with our family and friends in Minnesota.   It is hard to live so far away from our families, but we are all grateful for these trips and the time we get to spend together.

Adventures in Thomas Land

Thomas Thomas Thomas…he is now 5 months old and such a fun little guy. He is really such a smiley happy baby, he loves to flirt by batting his long eyelashes, smiling with his huge dimples, and then ducking into whoever is holding him, only to start all over again a second later.

Thomas has made some big changes this month.  Where should I start???

Thomas is a mover like his parents were when they were babies.  Gone are the days when he could lay on his activity mat and just be content playing.  He now is scooting like and inchworm, turning himself in circles, and MOVING!  It isn’t crawling yet, but he sure wants to.  In the last week he has been up on all 4’s and has been rocking back and forth. This too has led to another new thing, getting bonks!  He still gets pretty startled when he gets a bonk here or there.  Daddy has named the movement the “head first slide” or what it really is is scooting.   You will have to see the video to understand (www.dropshots/laschen)  He has continued  to enjoy sitting up and is doing so at longer intervals, he also likes standing up while you are holding him and will do this for 5  minutes before his legs give out.  What he doesn’t like in fact is anything that requires him to stay still or miss any action.  Which makes changing his clothes and diapers interesting, he is rolling all over the place.   He also has discovered a love for kicking his legs in the bathtub and making splashes. 

Nothing is safe from his hands and reaching, nothing!  This has been a good lesson for us.  We are now quick to move things out of his destruction path and will soon have to baby proof our house.

Thomas also loves his animals!  I am such an animal lover and as much as Mike will try to deny it, he is a softy for them too.  Thomas cracks up when the cats and dog are around.  Try to take his attention away from them-NOT A CHANCE!  He will sit, smile, and talk to them.  He also loves to reach out and grab a handful of whatever he can, fur, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears are all fair game.

Another big one this month was his first tooth!  At first we  tthought we had gotten by easy, but we were not that lucky!  He has had some up every couple hour nights, a few days of around the clock medicine, and STILL he only has the one tooth to show for it!  The second tooth is causing him a lot more distress, BUT it popped up as this blog was being posted :-)

Thomas is now a lot more interested in food as well.  Being that I work with kids and food aversion I want to start letting him explore different textures.  When we are eating he has found his hands moving towards globs of beans, corn, and couscous it’s messy, but we love watching him learn and explore!  He has tried watermelon and mango in his mesh feeder.  He enjoys the cool feeling, but his face says he doesn’t quite know what to think of the taste!

Thomas is  is big into playing repetitive games  like stick your hand in daddy and mommy’s mouth, pull it out and do it again, I do this and then you make that silly noise, and attempting to play peek-a-boo.  He has also found an angry sound that he will let out when he wants your attention NOW!  When we tell him to give kisses and splash his feet he will also do both with enthusiasm.

As Thomas still isn’t a huge fan of the bottle, or a fan at all for that matter, I have started to try the sippy cup here and there.  Thankfully, my work schedule has made it easy to be home to feed him, but the little man is a stinker.  He likes water from the sippy, but think milk should only come from one place.

He is no longer as afraid of riding in the car, which has made life so much easier!  We tried unsuccessfully to take him off of his medicine for reflux, so we will wait another month or two to try again. 

At the doctor on the 25th he weighed 15 lbs 6 oz., they didn’t measure him or tell me where that put him on the growth charts                     .  He got a couple more shots which were not as pleasant as his shot last month.  Poor guy, so a “spa” day was used to make his legs feel better! He loves the bathtub and would stay in there for hours if you let him!The next well baby visit is at 6 months.

Some firsts for this month were:

A long road tripto go camping, trying mango and watermelon,  getting a tooth, and scooting.