Nate is 9!

Thankful for a healthy birthday and birthday party this year for Nathan! Last year we had to call off his party the morning of due to what ended up being a three day fever. So glad that him and all his family and buddies we wanted to have at his party were healthy!

So... NINE years old! Can't believe that next year we will be looking at double digits! (let's just forget that fact for now)

Check out the cute Star Wars cake!

At school he decided on bringing mini cinnamon rolls to celebrate (only just within the last few months has he taken to those).

His birthday this year actually fell on a Saturday, in which we had his birthday party! I made him pancakes and bacon for breakfast (his wish), followed by his party that started later that morning and went through the afternoon.

Again, we hit up Flipside (a bowling/bumper car/laser tag/arcade kind of place). Kind of a pricey place but one the boys enjoy going to every once and awhile. Plus, with missing the guy's birthday party last year we felt he deserved a good one this year!

With Aaron and his buddies Mons and Ben

Pizza time

Too busy mingling and running the party to get many pictures . Baby P even did well being out for awhile, took a catnap at least!

Once we got home we opened gifts and Nate spent the rest of the short day , then, playing with what he got. I think he was just so happy he got to have a party more than anything else!

Some facts about our newly nine year old!

--Not a lot has changed in the diet area :p Still prefers kid food. He's branched out more and has gotten lunch at school some. I'm glad at least there's variety and healthy choices (more so now) with that. He no longer wants the main protein I used to have to pack everyday -- PBJ--and other than chicken nuggets doesn't eat much meat (oh wait, pepperoni and bacon). In fact, neither of my boys eat much meat! (Aaron only eats bacon & some pepperoni) Drinks milk by the buckets still, though. If he had his way it would be Pop Tarts for breakfast, maybe some mac & cheese for lunch and pizza for dinner :p

--Appreciates saving and earning money more so now. As I mentioned last year, Nate saved money to put towards Disneyland tickets. This year, for his birthday, he wants to save money to put towards Legoland tickets. I'm glad he's saving $ for things like that than toy after toy, after toy...

--Still my protective, follow the rules little adult. That's okay, I'd rather have that than a troublemaker! He's definitely the anti-troublemaker.

--This last year has lost many teeth! Few on the bottom, 3-4 on the top I think.

--Has two good buddies, Mons and Ben.

--Likes Kids Bop CD's - kids singing modern day songs.

--Also likes video games. Got a Wii for Christmas and some extra games for his birthday. Now a weekend activity some with daddy.

--Favorite subject is Science. He was excited to get some science kits for his birthday,too. Least favorite : probably anything to do with writing!

--Likes Angry Birds games. Daily electronic time and that's what he does.

--I';m glad he still enjoys playing with Aaron, and Preston too. I hope that lasts for a long, long time. One reason why I don't have the boys signed up for much outside of school - taking advantage of them WANTING to be around each other and just PLAY! They both get irritable if they don't have that down time.

--He might hit me for this later - but he's STILL fascinated with bathrooms! :) This has been a thing for a long time as well. Well, not so much for bathrooms but the toilets that are in them. The maker, how it flushes, if it works, etc. Boys! Though my boys do have their engineering "want to fix it" vibe that they surely got from Josh.

--Is still in Cub Scouts. He's starting to say he doesn't want to be in it anymore, but we'll see. Next year Aaron will officially be able to join, which I think he wants to do. It sort of feels like he's already been a scout since he has joined Nate on so many activities already!

--Was in Running Club. It just ended for the season. He decided, though, that he didn't want to partake in any of the races this year. Perhaps he was just in it for the donut party at the end. Oh well, it was an activity that involved exercising so that was a plus. Have to admit, mama is kind of ready to be done with 7:40am practice a few times a week now (zzzzzzz).

--Continues to be a long, lean boy. All of the boys in general.

--Still concerned about our "schedule" and activities planned, haha! Oh I can just hardly wait for Spring Break to be here so he asks about what we're doing all day, everyday for two weeks! :p

--At the point where I think he (and probably Aaron) are wanting another dog. I have to say, Nate has definitely become more responsible. But, I'm just not sure yet we want that for our family. I would almost still want to wait until baby P is more independent, too, before I add on something else to possibly take care of.

--Enjoys being outside. I feel like I'm forever going to say that.We just acquired this table so the boys both like eating outside on it. They both also love riding their bikes together.

I'm thinking that's a lot of things in a nutshell! Can't believe we've been parents for nine years, how did he get so old?!

5 Month Comparison

Time for another edition of, "do the boys look like brothers?" :)

Answer key! : Picture A - Preston, Picture B : Aaron, Picture C : Nathan

Wow, two of my boys had some hair anyway!

Preston is 3/4 Months Old!

Yelp! It's going to be a bit hard now to recall what some 3 month and then 4 month traits are of our little guy. Crazy times!

This was a definite 3 month event, however! He hasn't rolled over onto belly yet, but can roll to his sides and from his tummy to his back.

Always lots of cuddles with mama

He hasn't been too interested in his feet, definitely more so his hands! We have started putting hands and objects into our mouth, making bubbles, drooling, etc. You can tell he has much better vision now - he can see things from a distance and he's getting better at grasping toys/objects close (a new favorite : hair! gimme all the hair!)

Still lots of smiles for brothers!

He now weighs ~ 14 pounds, 25 or so inches long, wearing 6 month clothes. Within another few weeks I'm sure it'll jump to 9 mos! Still on a reflux medicine. I glanced back and noticed that at Aaron's 4 month dr visit was when we were told he needed to wear a doc-band (to help re-shape a flat spot on his head), but I'm happy to report that Preston's head seems to be just fine. We were also told to wait until he is six months old before trying any solids, including rice or oatmeal. Just dining at mommy's restaurant, the doctor said!

This past month has been a doozy. We had our first (I think) family flu! Or Nirovirus I should say. Talk about stress! Especially seeing that it was knocking down family members one by one I totally went into panic mode for baby P. And boy, I've never had to nurse and take care of a little baby while having the flu! In fact I literally had to dislatch and put baby P on the floor quick so I could run and take care of business :( The total pits. I remember that I could barely pick him up, he felt so heavy! It's so not fun to be a mother whilst sick.

THANKFULLY, ever so thankfully, Preston was the only sole survivor of the bug - he never got it! This makes me ever so glad with myself that I have stuck out the breastfeeding, because I'm pretty sure that  is what saved him - I produced antibodies to protect him from the illness.

On that note, there was something else that happened in Month 3 - Preston and I got our first breastfeeding infection. It was a thrush/yeast infection, which we both had to be treated for 4x a day with both oral and creams for two weeks. Again, it makes me glad I didn't throw in the towel then because of what happened last month. It's actually a common infection along with mastitis.

He's doing way better at keeping his head up and at tummy time

Just like Nathan at this age, can hold his own bottle! Aaron did not. 

Preston does like to be on his legs and stand.

He loves it when people give his tummy kisses!

He's getting more into toys that light up and play music.

Lots of smiles and giggles!

 Yes, on that note...!

Right as the dreaded virus entered our house we just began with a sleep coach for Preston. When Aaron was around the same age I had a friend at the time that was a sleep coach and helped guide us towards Aaron sleeping better/ sleeping through the night. Same deal here! Only, I also wanted to transition Preston from sleeping in our room and the swing for naps into his crib for all sleep.

He slept good in the swing, but I wanted to get rid of the relying on movement action for sleep. At night interestingly enough he would sleep fine without moving, but it varied where he slept (in the pack n play, in our arms,etc) Plus, it seemed like any of our movements and noise would wake him up.

Long story short, we just finished working with the sleep coach now for just about a month. The latest is...

--he now takes naps and nighttime sleep in his crib
--has a nap and bedtime routine
--on a schedule (eat and sleep at certain times). Our clan always seems to do better with predictability!

Also in January (but thankfully after the virus had already passed through everyone), Preston began the 4 month sleep regression a bit early! Meaning, his naps and nighttime sleep haven't been as long as before. So, I was skeptical on how sleep training would work with this going on. But, he is taking 3 naps for about an hour (give or take, less or more) each day, goes to bed around 6:30/7, stays in bed until 6:30/7 the next day. For now he is only eating twice during the night, about every four hours. We are still training him to sleep all the way to those points. Before having help I was getting up every 1-2 hours to nurse him back to sleep! :( It was just not sustainable. Even now I'm nervous to let him cry a bit more until it's time for him to eat, since Aaron is just on the other side of his wall/room.

Looking back at Nate and Aaron, by 5 months is when they both started to sleep through the night/longer durations. So I'm really, really hoping in the next month we'll start to see our guy go longer stretches or at least make it to the feeding points without having to console him.

If that could just go ahead and coincide with Josh having to leave for Japan for a few weeks next month, that'd be great! (ha) We're trying hard to be consistent.

Our sleeping coach gave us tips and schedules for down the road as well, so I'm thankful we used her and hope to see her knowledge pay off soon.

I think that pretty much sums up where we're at at Month 4!