Happy Halloween!

We have been doing some Halloween activities over the past week. Last Sunday we went to a pumpkin patch/hay ride. The advertisements we had seen talked about a hay ride, pumpkin patch, face painting, pony rides, free pumpkin for kids and bounce house. Needless to say, we thought it sounded fun. Apparently however, they were just very good at advertising. They did have everything that was listed, but it was very small and very low budget. We were pretty disappointed. Oh well.. at least Jax doesn't care yet!

On Monday we went to a better place to pick out our pumpkin to carve. We stopped by the store on the way home and picked up the ingredients for pumpkin pie. We made the pie later that day. We carved our pumpkin a few days after that. On Friday we went to Ryan's work because they were doing trick or treating in the battalion hallway. We spent about an hour there, then came home and had dinner and a marathon of The Office.

Today we spent the day being lazy and just relaxing. In the evening, we met up with the Levy's and the Lee's to go on base and go trick or treating. Even though Jax is so young, it was still fun to do the Halloween thing with a kid!

Here's some fun pictures of all the festivities...

The perfect pumpkin

He loved the way the hay/grass felt

Punkins!

Smiles

Our little family

Peek-a-boo

Daddy and Jax

Taking after their Army daddies!

LOVE IT

mmm.... this is delicious

Jax holding his candy!

Mommy, daddy, Jax and Mojo

Cheese :)

Yummy Tootsie Roll!

Success!

Banana, Avocado, Sweet Potato

This should last me about 1-2 months!!!

Daddy is home and it's time to eat!

I've been giving Jax some bits of food here and there. I gave him oatmeal cereal twice, but didn't give him very much. I just wanted to test it out and see if he was interested. I also have given him some bites of applesauce when I have some myself. He loves that stuff. But today was the first day that we officially started him on solids. We gave him oatmeal cereal and HOLY COW, he LOVED it. He was trying to grab the spoon and he just had his mouth wide open the whole time. He also did such a great job swallowing it and not spitting it back out. I'm sure I could have started him a few weeks ago, but I'm really glad I waited for Ryan to get home. He was so thrilled to finally be able to feed him. Daddy-son bonding time. So. Cute.

Yummers

I'll just feed myself, thanks

Give me the food!

Bonding time!

Stop teasing me, dad

I'm so big now!

Oops!

I've decided to make my own baby food. It's much cheaper, not to mention fresher and better for Jax. I figured that I don't want to feed him something that I wouldn't eat myself. At 4 months old, babies are allowed to have sweet potatoes, bananas, avocado and applesauce. I decided to start with sweet potatoes and bananas. I wanted to do sweet potatoes first because I don't want Jax to get used to the sweetness of fruit and then not eat veggies. The plan is to make batches of food at a time and then freeze them in individual servings (ice cube trays). I decided to get to work today on the sweet potatoes and bananas.

I'm using the book Super Baby Food as my reference for all of this. There is tons of advice, recipes and tips for homemade baby food. I read up on sweet potatoes and bananas and got to work. The book says to put the sweet potatoes in the microwave for 14 minutes. I only had one sweet potato because I forgot that I had purchased them for Jax, and I ate one last night. Oh well. I took my one sweet potato and stuck it in the microwave for 14 minutes. I went back to the bedrooms to get some laundry started. When I came back out (approximately 14 minutes later), I immediately smelled smoke and ran to the kitchen fully expecting flames. Thank God there was nothing on fire, but my poor sweet potato had been burnt TO A CRISP in the darn microwave. Upon further investigation, I realized that the time given in the book was for 4 sweet potatoes. I only had one. And it was a smallish one. So now I have no more sweet potatoes, no baby food sweet potatoes for Jax and a house that seriously smells nasty. I've had the windows open all day with every single ceiling fan on high. Good thing that it wasn't freezing outside today! There is still a lingering smoke/burnt food smell, but I think it's just about gone. But let me just say, I'm a darn good cook, so please don't let this influence your opinions about my domesticity.

On a positive note, bananas take no cooking. So I stuck them in the food processor with some water and hit 'on'. I let them go for a minute or so and then portioned them into my ice cube trays. I wrapped them tight in plastic wrap and foil and stuck them in the freezer. Tomorrow, I will transfer them to a plastic food storage bag. Then all I have to do is pull out how many I want and stick them in the fridge to defrost overnight. In the mornings, Jax will have homemade 'nanas to eat!!!

PS- Ryan come home the day after tomorrow, YIPEEEEE!!!

While daddy is away, the kiddo will play...

Big boy

Staring contest... Jax usually wins

So, I like to kick back in my high chair... I'm cool like that

I love my teething ring!

Hi there

All nakey for the bath

I love it in here!

Phew, I'm so worn out from all the fun... nighty night!

Yipee!

Ryan comes home in 2 weeks from today and I can't hardly wait!!! This past month has definitely gone by pretty fast, so I know these last 2 weeks will fly by. Especially because I have something planned almost every single day until he gets home. Bible study, mommies group, grandma visiting, church etc... so exciting!

Although I'm not a fan of weekends while my husband is away, this weekend has been surprisingly full. I took a nice walk yesterday morning, came home and showered then got to talk to Ryan for a while. In the afternoon I went to price tires because the Pilot tires need replacing. I decided to get them at Sam's Club, which is where we got our Accord tires. I planned on going fairly early this morning to get them replaced. I got there at about 845... and ended waiting almost THREE hours! Yuck! It was 1130 when I left. Good thing I didn't have anything better to do. I came home and Sandy and Brody came over with Subway sammies in hand. We settled on the floor with the kiddos and watched Grey's from the other night while the kids played. I'm currently sitting here watching football, waiting for laundry to finish and for my oven timer to beep. I made brownies and I am making some homemade whip cream to go with them. Don't you wish you were here?! Now, don't think that all this is just for me. Lord knows I don't need that mess on my thighs... The Levy's are coming over for pizza and beer as a trade for having Doug mow my lawn, which was supposed to happen today but God decided that Fayetteville needed rain. So, needless to say that the mowing of the lawn will happen a different day. As long as it happens before Ryan gets home, then I don't really care what day it is!

Tomorrow is church, which means getting up nice and early to work in the nursery at 8am. Then Jax and I will be going to the 10am service. I originally put him in the nursery during the 10am service but it's the most crowded service, which means it's the most crowded time for the nursery. There are waaaay to many children (who are usually all crying) and far too few adults. I don't want him to cry everytime he is in there. So for now, he hangs out with me during worship and then takes a nap in my arms during the sermon. He's such a great baby, it's really easy to just keep him with me. At some point this will have to change, but for now it works.

The smell of brownies is wafting this way, so I'm off to see if I can take a bite yet! YUM!

One third of a year

Jax turned 4-months-old on Saturday and he had his 4-month doctor's appointment this morning. Here are the stats:

• 15.4 pounds- 50th percentile
• 24.4 inches-25th percentile

He is in lower percentiles, for both height and weight, than he was at his 2-month appointment. The doctor wasn't worried about it though. The most important thing is that he is growing. She also said I could start him on solids... which I figured she would say. I have tried baby oatmeal a few times and he seemed to do okay with it. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to give up the sweet-smelling breastmilk poop for STANKY solid food poop. I might just start nice and slow...

A few more fun four-month facts (say that 10 times fast!):

• He is getting really good at sitting on the floor on his own. He can hold himself up for about 10-15 seconds
• He wakes up talking to things in his crib
• He is very smiley, but isn't really into the whole laughing thing
• He likes playing on the floor with mommy
• He is getting good at sleeping through the night (930-630) instead of waking up once to eat
• He hates tummy time
• He takes 4 or 5 short naps through the day, but refuses to take them in his crib
• He likes to sit in his high chair and watch mommy make dinner
• He loves to mouth anything he can get his hands on
• He loves to stare at anything he can get his eyes on
• He is starting to teeth and drools a ton
• He doesn't like to be left out of whatever is going on around him
• He still loves to snuggle on my chest and has done so since the day he was born

Happy 4-month birthday, baby! We love you so much!!!

More phone pictures!

mmmm... this horsie's head looks so yummy

Hello! I'm a big boy

I'm a good sitter-upper!

I help mommy with the laundry

And I sit with the other kids at church!

I need to apologize

I may not be a real "glass half-full" kinda girl, but I'm definitely not a "glass half-empty" kinda girl either. I'd like to think that I'm right in the middle... a "glass that has some amount of water in it" sort of thing. And because of this, I need to apologize for being such a Debbie Downer recently. Yes, there are things in my life right now that are tough, frustrating, sad and not fun, but that is no reason to just sit and complain a lot. Everyone has tough times, everyone goes through struggles in life... especially those of us with kiddos! So please accept this sincere apology and appreciation for listening to me complain.

I feel ashamed to think that Jax may someday read my last post and feel as though he isn't good enough or I don't love him as who he is. He is my perfect baby boy. I need to stop focusing on the stupid little things and focus on the fact that, well, I can't even put into words how much I love and adore him. He will roll, he will crawl, he will walk... it's inevitable. And if, for whatever reason, God chooses for him to be immobile, then I will still love him just as much. He is 4 months old today and these last four months have been the best times of my life! I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

So, again I'm sorry. Please watch this video as a little reminder that it's not fun to be a Debbie Downer... ok, well maybe it's a little funny...

Trying really hard

I know all babies are different, but it really doesn't make me feel better. I try to avoid comparisons, but it's pretty hard not to.

My friends' babies, who are all younger than Jax by anywhere from a week to a month+, are doing things that he isn't doing. He STILL hardly ever laughs. He sort of giggles sometimes. But he'll do it once or twice, then stop, even if I'm still doing the same thing... Example: tickling, playing airplane, making faces, etc. He also hasn't started rolling. And he still hates tummy time which you would think would help because he just wants to be on his back but noooo. Every time I put him on his tummy, he starts fussing within about 60 seconds. He tries to roll, but he can't shift his weight enough or get his arm out of the way. He just flexes his back muscles, his legs lift in the air, he starts rocking back and forth a bit and he gets super mad. I keep trying to help him back and forth but it doesn't seem to be doing much. Again, I know all babies are different. Blah blah blah. It still really bothers me that he seems so slow.

He's super good at using his upper body strength to hold his head up and he can even sit up if I position him right. He falls once he tries to move, but I guess it's good that he can hold himself up in the first place.

I'm trying really hard to stay positive, it's just hard. Either way, I love him to PIECESSS!!! And I guess that's the most important thing.