Jason

Too bad I'm running out of ideas for this blog already. You might starting hating it because it's so BORING.

Today my thoughts are on my middle son, Jason, pictured below.

He's a handsome fellow. He has bright blue eyes and and a winning smile. He has a great personality, and he is well-liked at school. He makes his brothers laugh a lot with his silliness. He is an extremely picky eater, and he is underweight because of it. He eats toast every day for breakfast, except when I make him have a pancake (no syrup, cinnamon and sugar on top), and a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. And he rarely eats supper, unless it's pizza. Or sometimes chicken.

He is in grade 1, and he is having a hard time learning how to read. In a way it annoys me because I have been trying to teach him how to read since he was 4 years old. But mostly it worries me. School is hard for a kid that can't read very well, and kids spend a lot of time at school, which all adds up to a hard life. So far he has had a great attitude, even though he has to go to school an hour earlier than his brothers, and he has to spend about twice as long on his homework as they do. He doesn't complain very much, he just does what he has to do. And his teacher is fantastic! She genuinely cares about him, and likes him, too. And what's not to like? He's a great kid. I sure do love this boy. And I worry about him.

Back on track

I took Allie back to the doctor to have her weighed. It looks like she's back on track! She is just over 11 pounds now, and doing great. I am still nursing her, but I give her 2 or 3 ounces of formula after each feeding. She is much happier, and so am I.

I got these little jeans for Allie and finally they fit. She's worn them for the last 2 days. Aren't they adorable? And the poor girl has to freeze in this outfit because I can't get enough of it.
Just kidding, she doesn't wear it much, only when the house is warm. I really do like it. Thanks Auntie Betty! (That's another post to come, too).
But really this has been an awesome winter, hasn't it? I don't even care that there was no white Christmas. Brown is just fine with me. On New Years day I saw someone wearing flip flops, and it wasn't a crazy-wear-shorts-all-year-long sort of person. It was actually appropriate footwear. Maybe Jared should get a job in Hawaii. No snow there!

Cute or ugly?

I saw this on Etsy and thought it was adorable. Is it? Or is it ugly? Because someday I'm going to make one.

Yoo r so osam!

Jason had a hard time with Allie coming into our family. When I told him I was going to have a baby he said that it "wasn't a very good idea." In the months before her birth he just had a hard time. He was not happy, and he got in trouble a lot. Then after she was born he didn't care to see her, and he refused to hold her. It made me sad and worried. But he slowly warmed up to her. I think it helped a lot when we brought her home and he saw how much his brothers adored her.
One day a few weeks ago I went into her room to get her up in the morning and I found this note that had been stuck under her door.The translation is: Dear Allie, you are so awesome. From Jason.
Oh my heart! Finally!
And now he loves his little sister every bit as much as the rest of us.
Little sisters ROCK.

Mobile

Wanna see what I made? It's a mobile for Allie's crib. I got the idea here from Five Real Moms. Perhaps the season is not quite right anymore, but I love it too much to take it down, and Allie really likes it too, because the leaves flutter when the heat turns on. I just found a branch outside and hung silk leaves with string. I was originally going to do real autumn leaves, but I was afraid they would crumble into her crib and she'd somehow choke on them. You know how our mom imaginations work.

Getting rid of a neck

I've had success breastfeeding all of my babies, but only until they were about 6 months old. Then the milk dries up and I have to switch to formula. Which is fine with me, I'm not a huge fan of breastfeeding anyway--obviously it's the best thing for babies, but it gets really annoying. So I was getting pretty nervous when Allie got close to 6 months old because she would not take a bottle. In October we left her with my mom while we went to dinner and a movie and Allie totally refused to have anything to do with that bottle. In fact, she got really mad every time my mom tried to give it to her. But for a the past few weeks I've been really worried, especially since it was obvious she was not satisfied after each feeding. Then I was pretty sure she was not gaining as much weight as she should be. I kept trying to give her a bottle, she kept refusing. So I took her to the doctor, and unfortunately all my fears were confirmed. Here's what her growth chart looks like.
In the past 2 months her weigh gain has dropped dramatically.

He said she looks healthy, though, she doesn't look sick, but when he looks at her he notices she has a neck. Most babies don't have necks, just rolls of fat and double chins. He wrote "Failure to Thrive" on her file. Isn't it aweful?? He said, "I know it sounds terrible, all it means is she doesn't weigh as much as we want her to."

Plan A was to get her to east solids. So I went home and desperately tried to spoon feed her bananas, rice cereal, green beans, anything. She mostly just spits it out, though. And I was determined that I wasn't going to spoon feed her, I want to do Baby-led Weaning like my sister did with her baby. But that's a different blog post. I was so worried about her. So we decided to tackle the bottle issue. It only took one hour of crying, then she downed it! She was such a sad baby! Even after she drank it, for the rest of the day she was still a little heartbroken. But now she is eating like a champion. I think she's trying to make up for lost time, because she just keeps eating and eating. And her diapers! They are so soggy--she soaks through them in no time, she poops all day long, and she has a raging diaper rash. And I am so happy my baby is no longer wasting away.

We will get rid of that neck yet!