Details

I. Love. My. Kids.

Both of them are asleep in their beds right now, the house is picked up, and I only have ONE load of laundry on the living room floor that needs folding. So basically, I'm feeling pretty relaxed at the moment. I love to take a few minutes in times like this to think about how thankful I am for my sweet kids. Because when Mia is screaming her head off, or I'm dealing with a blow out or projectile vomit situation, or Jake is saying the same phrase over and over with increasing volume to get my attention (sometimes these all happen at once--the perfect storm)...I forget just how special they are. I thought maybe I should write down a few of the things that make them super special to me these days.

***disclaimer*** This ended up being a very wordy and long winded post, and it won't hurt my feelings at all if you die of boredom reading it. But it's been soo long since I've done a really detailed update on Jake's progress. I felt the need to do one today. Feel free to skip around and look at the fun pictures instead. ;)

Luckily, Mia is still a surprisingly well behaved little chick. Her longest night time stretch can be anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, and we are working hard to get her on a predictable daytime schedule. She turned 8 weeks old yesterday, and seems to be rapidly overcoming her low birthweight, with a double chin and basset hound cheeks to show for it! We are finally out of newborn size clothes, and I love spending some time each week playing "dress up" to see which of her outfits fit! Jake and I love to have Mia entertain us with her ear to ear grin and sweet little noises. Her eyes are still grayish-blue, and we can't wait to see what color they will turn.

She LOVES being carried around in her Moby Wrap (thanks jess), and HATES her carseat. In fact, anytime we leave the house (which is not often, I have a low tolerance for stress), I push Jake in my umbrella stroller, and just wear Mia in the Wrap. Probably my biggest challenge with Mia has been her delicate skin. She has infant eczema, and last week she had a big flare up and her entire face, ears, neck, and a lot of her body was covered in an awful rash. Fortunately for her, I already dealt with this when Jake was a baby, so I knew how to treat it. Her skin is finally looking more normal, and I'm hoping we can keep her comfortable and happy most of the time!

Even before we knew that our second baby would be a girl, I always felt like Jake would do so well with a little sister. He is such a softy, and really really seems to love Mia. He loves to sit on the couch and hold her, and will bring toys to her every single day, trying to see if she's learned how to hold them in the last 24 hours. When we go out, he likes to check and make sure she has a coat or blanket. I have a small pink foot stool in Mia's room, and Jake loves to pull it over to the changing table to stand on so he can "check" to see if Mia needs a change, tells me she is stinky, and then runs the dirty diaper to the trash. Then he runs back and always wants to help button the snaps on her clothes. Also, every morning he gets a kick out of helping me pick out her clothes for the day..(usually he picks something that doesn't match at all, so I've started pre-choosing a couple options and letting him pick from there). His favorite part is picking which bow she gets to wear (9 times out of 10 he wants her to wear "the red one" which matches almost NOTHING).

When she gets fussy he will run to me and say "oh no, Mia's cranky!"..and will usually offer up some solutions..."need a passy Mia?" "Wanna drink da boobie Mia? " "need your dolly Mia?" His responses to crying when we are in the car crack me up. In general, he starts out very sweet, patiently trying to soothe her with nice words, or sing her a song..then he'll try letting her suck on his finger like a pacifier..(I know, the germs, makes me cringe a little every time)...that usually works for a few seconds. When that stops helping, he will start shouting at her to calm down "MIA, BE QUIET!!! CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!! TOO MUCH, MIA!!!!" Last week when we were out shopping, I made the mistake of leaving Mia in the carseat and just sticking it in the shopping cart instead of putting her in the wrap...she ended up crying the entire time in Target. As we were packing up the car, I buckled Jake into his seat first while Mia screamed in the shopping cart. When he was strapped in, I said "be right back, I need to put Mia in the car". He looked at me in agony and said "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" No more MIA!!!!!!!!!" He then tried to explain the pros of leaving her at Target.

So yeah. Normally he really loves her, but we all have our limits when it comes to crying.

I feel like I haven't written an update on Jake's individual progress for awhile. He has come a long way in the past few months. Obviously he isn't having a hard time communicating, so that's been wonderful. Sometimes I feel a little overstimulated at the end of the day from the endless talking--but I know one day he is going to turn into a semi-rotten teenager, and probably won't want to tell me all the minute details of his life. So I try to enjoy the energetic communication as much as possible!

He loves to sing songs, and is very good at memorizing the words. His current favorites are "Twinkle Twinkle, ABCS, and a couple of church songs that he dubbed "Jesus Song, Temple Song, and Child of God".

His favorite movie right now is the old school "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"..except that he calls it "Imagination". I guess he heard that word in the theme song and just held onto it. Who knows.

He calls "root beer" "fruit beer".

He has recently started doing jigsaw puzzles, and I continue to be impressed when I see him tackle one with intense concentration, not saying a word until he is finished. Grandma and Grandpa Hurst gave him a big set of toy animals for Christmas, and he loves playing with them, and knows a lot of the names. My mom let him play with all the water animals in the tub while she was here, and he knows all of their names, and will totally correct you if you don't know them too--"no mommy, thats a manatee". (added bonus--he will now take his baths without a fight, hallelujah). Funny little detail--Of all the dinosaurs, he will say triceratops, stegosaurus, brontosaurus..but when it comes to T-Rex? (the easiest name).."SCARY DINOSAUR!!!!!!"...he refuses to call it anything else.

Probably the biggest struggle I've had with Jake over the past couple years has been his eating habits. He is an incredibly picky eater, and I've been reduced to tears many times trying to get him to eat some food. Every time I found something he would eat, after about a week he would decide he didn't like it anymore. My only comfort was that he at least drank a lot of whole milk, and between that and vitamins at least he wasn't malnourished. When Mia was born we switched to a new pediatrician, and I set up an appointment to have Jake checked out as well. The doctor was awesome, and helped me worry less about his diet, and even helped me sort out some problems that Jake had that were suppressing his appetite. Within a week Jake was like a new person!!! He is still picky, but his food intake has tripled, and is much more consistent. He has also been more willing to try some new foods, and I am just sooo relieved and grateful for our awesome new doc. So YAY for a small victory in that part of my life!

For me, being a mom can be challenging and confusing, and sometimes frustrating. But I really love it so much. Each day is an adventure. It's been 8 weeks since "kid" became "kids". As hard as the newborn thing can be, I love having my sweet baby girl to snuggle with, I love that I get to nurse again, and watching Jake learn how to be a big brother is so much fun! I'm looking forward to seeing their relationship grow as Mia becomes more interactive. As always, when I pause like this and think about my family, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel so blessed to have a supportive husband who is a great dad and a hard worker. I have two sweet, healthy, and energetic kids. It really doesn't get better than that. At least for me. :)