14 & 15 Months (2/18/2016 & 3/18/2016)

Oh boy!  I'm really struggling in the blogging department.  I could come up with a million excuses--Andy was out of the country for 2 weeks, I had a lot of work to do at night, I was tired, I needed to watch Fuller House on Netflix… The list goes on and on, but I really want to get better again!  Life has been busy, but good.  I'm going to combine the last 2 monthly updates for Josh (sorry, buddy!) and then finally get started on bump posts for baby #3 (sorry, baby!).  Let's just hope they don't compare notes someday.  I think it's safe to say that the more babies I have, the less time I will have to blog!  For the record, I love all my babies equally, which is a WHOLE LOT!!  (Side note: I took the pictures on time, I'm just behind on posting them.)

GENERAL:  Josh is the happiest little guy.  He had his 15 month check up and had ear infections in BOTH ears again.  Aside from him putting his fingers in his ears on occasion, we had no idea!  Poor guy earned himself a referral to ENT and I'm guessing he will need ear tubes.  While I definitely don't want him to have to go through this, I hope it will keep him healthier and that he will eat better and his balance will be better.  He has been crashing and falling a lot lately.  So many bruises for one little body!  He had a flu bug when Andy was gone (of course!) but has otherwise been doing well.

SLEEP:  Sleep has still been fantastic around these parts!  Josh goes to bed around 7-7:30 after a book and snuggles with Ben, and he typically sleeps until around 6:00.  Sometimes it's a little earlier.  Daylight savings did not throw him off one bit!  I thought we would get an extra hour of sleep, but no such luck!  He typically sleeps through the night and it has been amazing!!  (Ahh!! He literally just started crying when I said that...)  He is still taking a nap everyday.  At school, they say he falls asleep instantly in his crib.  My only guess is because it is pretty dark where he sleeps, because he doesn't usually fall asleep for naps very quickly at home!

EATING:  Josh's eating is truly hit or miss.  Usually miss if you ask me.  Meal times stress me out like no other!  Dinner was actually good tonight because everyone was eating decent foods and I didn't have to tell Ben to get back in his chair 18 times, but that's unfortunately a rare occasion.  Josh still prefers crackers and fruit to anything else.  He ate a whole thing of string cheese tonight which was great!  We can't get him to eat meat anymore, which is frustrating.  He's still working on his whole milk and will usually have around 10oz a day, I think.  I'm still nursing him in the morning and evening as well, but there can't be much left there!

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION: He's such a chatterbox lately!  I love having little conversations with him.  In baby talk, of course.  He gets really serious like he is trying to tell us something important!  He DEFINITELY knows what he wants, so I can't wait until he can tell us more.  I think he gets frustrated when we don't know what he wants.  "Ball" is his favorite word and he also says, "uh-oh" a lot and then covers his mouth with his hands like Ben always does.  It is so cute!  He's really good at following commands and is starting to point to body parts too.  He knows his nose, ears, hair, tummy, and piggies.  He loves, loves, loves to dance and it's so adorable!  He also gives the sweetest kisses and he is so gentle when we tell him to be gentle.

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  Joshy tries his hardest to keep up with his big brother!  He is running and climbing all over the place.  He loves to do whatever Ben is doing.  I love watching them together.  He getting really good at puzzles and likes doing the puzzles Ben does, even if they have 50 pieces.  :)  He can throw and kick a ball like a champ.  I wonder where he gets that from….

I am just obsessed with both of by boys.  They are the sweetest, most loving, silly, and happy boys.  They make my heart so happy on a daily basis and I just love watching them grow and learn.

14 Months (11/13/13)

Dear Ben,

Happy 14 months, Ben!  You are waaay too smart for these monthly stickers!  The only reason we finally got a semi-smile out of you is because you are holding dog treats and calling for "Ra" to come in to your room.  :)

GENERAL: I haven't measured you lately, but we have a doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I'm sure they'll measure you then.  On our scale at home, you are 18#13oz, so you gained almost a pound this month!  You continue to be the sweetest, happiest, and most loving little boy I know.  You make friends everywhere we go including the grocery store, church, restaurants, story time at the library, and even at the cell phone store.

EATING:  Benj, feeding you is still not my favorite thing to do with you. :)  It has been rough so we went to see a GI/feeding doctor.  Unfortunately, that was not helpful, but we have an appointment in the feeding clinic in February, so hopefully that will be better.  It is a lot of work to get you to eat!  You love your fruit, just like momma, but when it comes to foods with protein and fat you are not interested!  Your favorite foods right now are blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and pretzels, probably because you can feed yourself all of these things.  We have to work really hard to get you to eat your other foods.  For breakfast, you usually have fruit and yogurt.  We mix a high protein/fat baby food jar with a container of mac & cheese (stage 2) or something similar for both lunch and dinner.  We have to sing, dance, stack toys, find new toys, and do anything else possible to distract you enough to get you to eat.  You will only open your mouth if you are quite distracted.  You are now starting to bat our hands away even when you are distracted---you're too smart for us.  You will sip water throughout the day, but other than that you do not like to drink much during the day.  You'll take 6-7oz of formula in the night and then and maybe another 4-5oz in the morning when you wake up before breakfast.  You will usually have 3-4oz before bed too.  You really do not like whole milk at this point.  Maybe we need to offer it more often?  We're trying not to let you snack too much throughout the day, but you do typically have 2 snack a day, which is usually fruit and crackers.   We'll keep plugging away!  We tried really hard this past month, so your weight gain is reassuring.  The doctor told us to have a goal of 30oz a day between fluids and pureed baby foods.

You might not like to eat in the kitchen, but you certainly like to play there. 

SLEEPING:  Your sleep has been pretty good.  There was even 1 day where you slept through the night after Nana put you to sleep.  It was great, except I woke up a few times worried that you hadn't woken up!  Typically you wake up around 1:30 or so.  We will give you a bottle and then you go right back to sleep.  We are going to wait until after you're recovered from your surgery before we try and get you off of this nighttime bottle.  I imagine you'd drink more during the day if you did not drink at night, but I'm (we're) so desperate for you to get fluids that I don't really mind that it is in the middle of the night.  You drink the bottle really quickly and then go to sleep until 6:30ish.  You've actually been falling back to sleep on your own for another hour or so after you wake up in the morning.  You'll turn on the little fish light/music machine on your crib and you'll watch it until you fall asleep.  It is so cute how you lay your little body parallel with the short side of the crib so you can see the fish and then you fall right to sleep.  We love watching you on the baby monitor.  :)  You are usually doing 2 naps a day, but this depends on the day.  You've been going down amazingly well for both bedtime and nap time!  You're even sitting still longer to listen to books before bed!  You get your nuk when you sleep, and you're great at putting it away and then waving "bye bye" to it, after you wake up.

Still sleeping with your hand on your face :)

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  You continue to be a busy guy!  One of your favorite things to do right now is to climb.  You got a new chair that you can push around very easily, so you will move it wherever you want it to go and then you'll just climb right up.  You like to put it next to the couch so you can climb on to the couch and then run across it.  Actually, you'll run pretty much anywhere and everywhere.  You remain curious and you're always trying to figure everything out.  You are starting to get really good at putting the correct shapes in the shape sorter and you're kind of starting to get the hang of puzzles.  You love stacking things and knocking things over too.  And last, but certainly not least, you absolutely LOVE feeding Rosco treats.  We (try to) use this as motivation to get you to eat.  It doesn't always work, but it at least distracts you enough where we can get a few bites in.  We will put the treats into a little container, and one by one you will pull out a treat and give it to Rosco.  Not only do you like giving her treats, but you also like giving her anything else that belongs to her.  We're working on petting her "gentle," as you often get so excited when you see her that you just run right at her and squeal with delight.  She is a little afraid of you at times, but you two are still good buds.

Having fun with Uncle Joe & Daddy

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION:  I cannot believe I've forgotten to mention this in the past, but my favorite thing that you do these days is give kisses!  You've been kinda sorta doing this for a month or two now, but you're getting better and better.  You also make sure that you give kisses to everyone in the room.  And then you do it all again.  It is the cutest thing ever and I need to get it on video, since I don't imagine this is something you will be doing forever. :)  You are still babbling a lot and you certainly are able to communicate your needs.  I love all of the little noises you make.  Again, I need to get these on video.  You definitely use your "ma ma," "da da," "na na," and "ra ra" correctly.  We're totally biased, but we think you are the smartest little guy.  We know there is a lot going on in that red-headed noggin of yours!

Running on the couch & pushing all of the pillows off

That's all for now, my little love!  Only 3 more days until your surgery--eek!  Luckily you're much braver than your mom!