Fall Festivities

On Saturday we attended the Hillside Ward Fall Festival with my parents, Mackenzy, and Grandma Taylor. Before heading over to the church building for the party, Ethan, Josh, and I carved a jack-o-lantern. It's fun having a child old enough to really get into the holiday festivities this year. He helped scoop out the seeds from the pumpkin and picked out which facial design he wanted from a few that Josh sketched out. After carving the pumpkin, we got the boys ready in their costumes. Ethan is a safari guide this year, and Jacob went from being a surfer boy to a train conductor to a slumber party baby. My mom dressed up as a slumber party girl and Mackenzy was a gangster.

Today I'm taking the boys to the Live Oak Pumpkin Patch with the mom's group from my ward. I took Ethan last year and he enjoyed seeing all the pumpkins. Plus they have a petting zoo with goats and some other types of animals.

Next Thursday is our ward's primary Halloween party at a retirement home. The kids get to dress up in their costumes, then they will sing for the residents, and at the end, the residents like to hand out candies to the children. Although Ethan isn't officially primary age, I'm going to dress him up and let him trick or treat to the residents since he will be there with me anyway. It's one of the perks he gets for having his mommy serve in primary.

Next Friday we are driving out to Mesa to visit my sister and her family. Since that is Halloween day, we plan on taking the children out trick or treating to some of her friends from her ward. All in all, we are having an enjoyable holiday season and look forward to the upcoming events. I will post more pictures soon!

Family Pictures

Where has the month gone? I can't believe September is almost over and this is my first post for the month... possibly my last. Yesterday we went to the JC Penney photo studio to get new family pictures with Jacob. Doing a photo shoot with Ethan is quite a circus. He can't stay still enough for the poor photographer to take his picture. He kept falling off the little wooden box that she had him stand on because he was wiggling around so much. She made the comment that she's never had a kid fall off the box before. Ethan is such a crack up. The family picture we finally decided on has Ethan with his mouth wide open. He couldn't follow two directions at once: to keep him arms down and his mouth closed, so we just settled for an open mouth. It captures his personality anyway and it's very cute. I can't believe how fast time has flown once we started having kids. Our most recent family picture before getting these done yesterday, was taken August of last year. Ethan isn't even two-years-old in those pictures. Anyway, I'm glad we updated that. There are still some other pictures on our walls that need some updating, like the ones of Ethan when he was five months old that hang next to our Family Proclamation. Life is so busy with two kids. Our poor future number three child will be lucky if he/she has any baby pictures!

Just a side note: Ethan wore big boy underwear to church today for the first time and he stayed dry! Hooray! My little guy is potty trained! Jacob is still such a sweet baby. He's happy, sleeps well, and makes the cutest baby noises. I love my boys!

DCA & Disneyland

Yesterday we went to Disneyland & Disney's California Adventure (DCA) for the first time this year. It was Jacob's first visit ever. He loved people watching with me, and Ethan had a great time going on rides with Josh. It was fun spending the day with Josh's parents and Aunt Sue, who were all super helpful with our kiddos. We took two strollers since Jacob is too little to sit up in our double stroller. We spent most of the day at DCA since it was less crowded. We went on the new Toy Story ride and found it to be quite enjoyable! It is very similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland. The ride moves around to different screens where the rider gets to shoot their cannon at different targets building up his/her score. We then spent a lot of time in the Bug's Life area of DCA. The rides there are appropriate for kids Ethan's age, so he was able to go on all of them. Jacob even went on one ride with us ... the Heimlich caterpillar train ride. We finished off the day at Disneyland, where it was more crowded (but not terrible, considering it was a holiday weekend). Josh and I went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, while Josh's parents and Aunt watched the boys for us. All of us enjoyed some delicious ice cream before heading home. All in all, we had a wonderful day. We are going back in September and October because we have the $99.00 Southern California 3-day hopper passes, which expire in the middle of October. It's fun experiencing the Magic Kingdom through the eyes of a child. What a fun place to create lasting memories with our family!

A note to moms of babies: Going to Disneyland with a new baby can be somewhat of a challenge. It wasn't terribly hot yesterday, but it was humid and Jacob kept sweating around the back of his head whenever he was in his stroller. I took him out as much as possible so he could stretch and air out his neck and head. Nursing is also a huge factor when taking a new baby. When we took Ethan to Disneyland for the first time, Josh's mom informed me of the Gerber Baby Station located on Main Street. Inside they have a private area with rocking chairs for nursing, another area with changing tables, and a nice little kitchen with a microwave and high chairs. It makes it so convenient being at the park with a baby. This time around, we discovered that there is a similar baby station at DCA, just next to the Mission Tortilla Factory. It has the same conveniences, except there are only two nursing areas which are completely curtained off for privacy. The nursing area at Disneyland is a private room, but it has about 8 chairs in it for nursing, which means you are in there with other moms.

2 Month Checkup

Jacob is healthy and right on target for weight, height, and head size. During his checkup, he was happily cooing and babbling with the doctor and me, until he got the dreaded three pokes in his legs. I know it's for his own good, but as every mother knows, it's hard to see your baby in pain. So far he hasn't had any side effects from the immunizations. If I recall correctly, Ethan didn't have any side effects from the first round either. It was the second round at 4 months old that he became fevered with.

The nurse gave me some information on two month old babies, and one part that I read said that breastfed babies should take vitamin D supplements. That seemed strange to me, since I had never heard anything about it when I was nursing Ethan, so I asked the doctor about it. Apparently, about 7 years ago, there was a case of a Nigerian mother who was living in Massachusetts when her baby was born. I've never been to Massachusetts (I'm surprised I can even spell it right), but apparently it is very cloudy and dark there for a lot of the year. The baby didn't get enough sunlight because of his dark skin and the persistent cloud cover, and so his body couldn't metabolize vitamin D. He ended up developing a bone disease. The doctor said that after this case occurred, pediatricians began recommending vitamin D supplements for breastfed babies. Since we are in sunny Southern California, and Jacob is very fair skinned, the doctor said we need not worry about the supplement.

I also asked if I needed to awaken Jacob at all during the night to nurse, or if I should allow him to awaken on his own when he is hungry. The doctor said not to worry about awakening him. I think he is such a good sleeper because it fits with his personality. He is calm and relaxed, and it helps him settle in for the night. My older son, Ethan, did not sleep through the night until he was a little over one year old. I think Jacob will accomplish this much more quickly. We will see!

Potty Training and Swaddling

Josh and I decided to pull up our blog last night and discovered that our previous and only post so far is dated December of 2007! I decided that I'd like to actually attempt to keep up on our family blog.

Right now our almost three-year-old son is sitting on the toilet, trying to earn a lollipop. Using the toilet is somewhat of an inconsistent game for him. He knows how to do it, but doesn't seem to care if he makes it to the toilet or not. For now, I'm not worried about it. I'm going to try putting him in underwear after he turns three in October. Other moms of boys have advised me that three is a good age for potty training boys. We will see if that is the case for Ethan.

Another note about Ethan. Yesterday he got a deep gash in his forehead by hitting it on the edge of his table. Josh and I thought for sure he would need a stitch or two, but it turned out that the doctor thought otherwise. After cleaning out the wound with iodine (poor little guy!) they closed it up with a couple of Steri-Strips. Those are basically little sticky bandages that hold the wound together for a couple of days and then fall off. We are supposed to keep the wound dry for two days. As of last night, it hadn't stopped bleeding, so the bandage covering the steristrips slid around a bit on his head. Josh has a similar scar on his forehead from when he was about the same age and he ran into the corner of a wall. He had to get two or three stitches in his head. I'm glad Ethan didn't have to go through that! I find it extremely coincidental that Ethan, who takes after his father's looks and personality, will now have a matching scar.

Jacob is two and a half months old and absolutely precious! He is the most content baby I've ever known and I'm having so much fun mothering a cuddly baby. Last night he slept in one of those SwaddleMe blankets and slept all the way from 7:00pm until 6:00am, awakening only once at 2:30am for a feeding and diaper change. I'm already a big fan of the SwaddleMe blanket and would highly recommend it to other moms with new babies. They come in either flannel or cotton, depending on the time of year and the weather, and they keep the baby swaddled with little velcro tabs so he can't wiggle out. Since it is August in California, and nice and hot outside, last night I put Jacob in just his diaper and then used the cotton SwaddleMe. He slept the best he's ever slept up to this point in his life... which means, I did as well!