5 months old already

Conner turned 5 months old this week. He is the best baby ever. So here are some facts about Conner for the memory book-

 

 

He is ADORABLE! Extremely handsome, happy, easy to laugh, social, hates to be ignored, sucks his thumb, rolls around like crazy, sleeps 11 hours thru the night, and talks/coos whenever you look at him. His coo is the most adorable baby sound combined with a sort of gurgle. I think I'm addicted to hearing it.

 

 He is my first child to be a thumb-sucker, and I LOVE it! Not only do I think it looks adorable, but it's so convenient. No more looking for a lost pacifier at 3 a.m. or wishing we could drive home for a nap during church because he's cranky. If he needs soothing- his best pal thumb is always there. My dad took the picture below, capturing my cute little thumb sucker.

As far as his stats go, he measured at 26 in long, 14 lbs, and had a head circumference of 16 in at his 4 month well-check. It put him in the 80-90th% for height, 20-25th% for weight, and 15th% for head circumference. He's met all of his physical milestones for his age, rolling around, pushing up, looking around when he hears something....making it that much harder for me to sneak past him without him protesting and demanding I pick him up. He loves to spit up....I hate it. That may be one of my least favorite aspects of baby-dom. Hoping he grows out of it soon, fingers crossed!

His big brothers love him and have never showed any jealousy towards him. Jack is really great about playing with him and making him laugh, when I ask him to help out. Jason talks to Conner in a baby-voice, cooing at him, imitating the way Jon and I interact with Conner. It's really cute. Conner is the perfect third child- easy-going, adaptable, low-maintenance, happy, playful, and ready to get in on the action. I just hope he stays my sweet baby as long as possible before uniting with his older brothers in their crazy, never-ending, testosterone-fueled shenanigans!

I'm a sucker for....

 ...those signs with sentimental or clever quotes on them. You know those signs, right? The kind that describe words like "family" or "home." Yeah, so I will totally tear up when I read them, especially when they pack more of an emotional punch, like, for instance, describing the relationship between brothers.

So when perusing a Pottery Barn Kids, and seeing the below sign about "brothers" I couldn't help but snap a picture of it for some inspiration. My boys drive me crazy. They can be wild, sneaky, and downright mischievous. But I love that more often than not, that they get into trouble together. I hope they become great friends for life.

 Note how Conner is intensely watching his brothers wrestle, fascinated by their behavior. He is already trying to pull himself and crawl around, anxious to play with them.

 so cute, watching Despicable Me.

Projects

Do you ever feel like your life is just one big project after another? I feel this perfectly describes my life right now, after we've moved from one home to another. Our weekends are devoted to getting our house settled, and maybe a little fun if we can sneak it in.

 

I love our new house and it's much bigger than our last, so that is awesome for the kids (and me). But that also means I have more space to take care of, and decorating ideas are crowding my head, just begging to be implemented. So as always, my boys' rooms get the attention first. I seized the opportunity while Jack was away at his grandparents' house for a week to paint his and Jason's rooms.

 

Jack got a race track with Lightning McQueen-

 

I love Jack's room, and so does he. It was a total surprise to him when he came home from his grandparents'. His eyes were wide-eyed, like what happened in here? He likes to show people his room when they come over.

 

Jason got a jungle with monkeys-

 

If you know Jason at all, you know why I chose monkeys. His spirit animal is the monkey, the way he climbs and jumps over any and everything.

 

And Conner's room? He's a baby who doesn't care and his mom is tired of painting, so his room is on the backburner for now.

 

You know how it's impossible to find the "perfect" house when house hunting? Unless you have an unlimited budget, you just can't get EVERYthing you want in a home. Well, when we were considering this house, the backyard was a con on the list. It is small and quite literally a jungle. The previous owners loved trees. They loved them so much, that they planted them everywhere. EVERYwhere! Which is not so great when you want room for your testosterone-fueled boys to run, jump, and tackle each other. So the back yard was another project.

 

We brought our trampoline with us to the new house, and took for granted our last yard's open spaces. Jon had to dig out and clear out the ground space for the trampoline, getting rid of annoying small bushes and tiny trees. And if that wasn't enough work, we then had to clear out the air space. Yes, the air. We have a big tree that was in desperate need of trimming. One chainsaw session later, and the air space was cleared!

 

 The chainsaw's victims, set out for the brush pick up-

And finally, weeks after moving in, the trampoline was up!

We are happy to be in our new home and this side of Dallas. It's right where we need to be this time in our lives, with Jack starting Kindergarten in an amazing school district. We're so blessed and grateful!

Brothers

One night after bath time, I stumbled upon one of those rare occurrences when you actually get amazing pictures of your kids with the camera phone. Aren't they little heart breakers?

And while this shot was taken a couple of weeks later, I think it still deserved some attention.

Dallas Arboretum

We took the boys to the Dallas Arboretum about a month ago, and it was fun (and a little hot). They are doing an Alice in Wonderland exhibit, so there were some cool features to see.

The Mad Hatter's tea party-

playing croquet on the queen of heart's property-

Daddy- "no, Jason, you swing it this way. It's not a bat."

and this is why you don't swing the mallet like a bat, so you don't get it stuck in the fence!

Sliding down an ancient Aztec slide....

Falling down an ancient Aztec slide-

a rock wall- we must climb on it!

a view of White Rock Lake

the best part of it all- lunch at Red Robin's afterwards, yum!

Pool Time

 

We haven't been to the pool nearly as much as I'd have liked to this summer, with the new baby and move and all....but we still managed to squeeze in a few sessions.

 

Conner loved getting in the water, and just relaxed on his back for me-

 

Jack & Jason jumping in, I love the difference between their "approach" here-

 

Jack & Jason took swim lessons this year. Jack, who is a fish, did awesome. He's never had any fear of the water, jumps right in the deep end and swims across the pool. He even floats on his back without help, he just trusts the water. Here's a short clip of him swimming to his teacher. Unfortunately, I waited until he swam for 30 mins before thinking to take a video, so he's a little tired and silly in this clip.

First Bath

I gave Conner his first bath when he was about 3 weeks old, once his umbilical stump healed. And the verdict was...

 

He loved it!

 

 Bathing my 3rd child is a much more pleasurable experience than bathing my 1st, since I'm no longer terrified of dropping him or losing my grip in the slippery water. Conner just had his eyes wide open the whole time, taking in the warm water. He only got to have a few baths in this sink, before we moved :(

Here he is with Jon bathing him, in my parents' sink. (during our interim stay at their house during our move)

Now he is 2 months old! We just got back from the pediatrician's office and these are his stats:

-Height: 24.5 in (90th)
-Weight: 12 lbs (40th)
-Head circumference: can't remember the #, but it was the 50th%