In the middle of the night I write the best posts while laying in bed and can’t possibly writing anything down and can’t remember any part of it. It makes me so sad. I had the best stuff going through my head about this and now I’m just writing this drivel.
Anyway I used the app 1 Second everyday to compile this video and I’m so glad I stuck with it. I love this video and can’t wait to see next years.
For months and months, Ok about 4 months or so Lily had been asking to ride a horse. I kept putting it off for 2 reasons; 1) where do you find a horse to ride when you aren’t in the horse scene and 2) Lil’s really timid so I didn’t think she would actually ride the horse and it would be traumatic for her.
A few months ago we started doing a Special Day each month with the kids, really for now it’s just for Lil, but eventually it will be for both of them. Each month one of the parents take a child and does something special with that one, then they switch up the next month.
One day on one of the local Facebook homeschooling pages someone asked about where to ride a horse locally, I started following the conversation and then messaged the two people that we were told would do rides/lessons. One of the ladies-Hannah and I struck up a deal and Lily’s horse riding adventure started to come together. I decided that it would be a great Special Day thing to do and I also decided that if all Lil did was look at the horses it would be worth it.
Even though we decided it would be a Special Day all 4 of us went to see the horses and it was a huge hit. Hannah had 4 or 5 horses and one pony. All of the animals were very friendly and we all petted, snuggled and gave treats to all of them. Then the big moment came and Lil got on a horse; Oakley and rode around a ring with Hannah leading. It was awesome. Lil had a fantastic time and wanted more.
Since dance was not happening during the summer we decided to do 2 riding lessons a month during that time. We went to her second lesson last weekend and I was so proud of Lil. About halfway through the riding part of the lesson Hannah asked Lil if she wanted to try riding two handed, rather than using on hand on the horn and on hand on the raines, Lil gave it a try and had really no problems with it. Hannah then let go of Oakley and Let Lil control her herself and Lil did great. Oakley is trained to follow or go to Hannah so Lil had to keep fighting her, but she did great. Hannah was really impressed and so was I. My little cowgirl.
Lily meeting on of the horses (Cleo I think) for the first time.
Jake loving on Cleo.
Lily’s first lesson. Getting a feel for Oakley.
Lily’s first lesson.
Lily’s first lesson. Hannah let me get a few good pictures. 🙂
How meta. Mark took this one of me taking pictures of Lil during her first lesson.
Lesson 2. Hi Oakley. She’s so much braver already.
Using two hands with Hannah close.
Using two hands, all by herself. I believe she’s stopping Oakley here.
Around she goes.
Saying goodbye.
Because I can’t stop myself, here’s a couple videos of Lil riding.
I wrote this right after Jake turned 10 months old. I’m publishing this just before he turns 11 months. I really need to do better at being timely. 🙂
This boy of mine is such a joy, so sweet and just too cute for his own good. He turned 10 months last Sunday. He’s can crawl on his knees, but prefers to army crawl. When he pulls himself up to his knees and crawl Waldo says he looks like a robot. Jake can pull himself up on just about any surface and do it quickly. He cruises around the furniture, he will occasionally sign the correct sign for nurse, but most of the time he does this arm shake that means a cross between nurse and Mom. I say that he’s signed more a few times and eat a number of times, Waldo thinks I’m being really hopeful. And even more hopeful when I swear Jake says Love you after he kisses me, which he does all the time and it’s the best thing ever. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of things he can do, but those are the most often so they stick in my head.
He was born with such thick dark hair and everyone said it was going to fall out and by about 3 months he still had it so we were like, bam our kids different and he’s keeping all of that beautiful hair. Que male patter baldness. Now’s it’s grown back, but it’s very light. When he’s in normal light it’s very white, but it can look very red or brown depending on the light. I can’t wait to see what it ends up. His eyes are still very blue and I love them. I really hope they stay blue, but I won’t be disappointed if he’s got hazel eyes like Lily and Mark.
Lily is the best big sister since well me. 🙂 She’ll do anything for Jake, except call him by his name. He’s brother or Buddy, I can’t even trick her into saying his name. Silly girl. Jake adores her. It’s so sweet to see them together. For the longest time Lil was the only one who could get him to laugh. Now we all can, but she can still do it the easiest.
Most people will tell you when you are pregnant with your second that you need to prepare because they won’t be anything like what you already have. Well, that’s just not the case for us. Jake is SO MUCH like Lil was when she was a baby. He’s just as shy as she was, he really doesn’t want anyone holding him except me or Mark. He wants to be held almost constantly. We went out to dinner the other day and I had to use the changing table in the restroom for the first time, he started screaming the second I put him on it, just like Lil did. He gained slowly just like she did and I’ll get to that in one second. He’s as bad of a sleeper as she was if not worse and that’s saying something.
Sleep: Ah how I miss it. I’m so tired all the time. His sleep got so bad that I started tracking it on a note pad a few months ago. I now have 3 full little yellow note pads with his Up and Down times all over it. I’ve tried everything, routine, massage, sound machine, keeping him up longer after he shows he tired, putting him to bed the second he shows he’s tired, bath, some essential oils, co-sleeping and bed sharing (he has a pack and play in our room that he takes naps in),swaddling, feeding him solids right before or a few oz of formula to top him off. The only thing I don’t do is cry it out. None of it matters. I’ll put him down for a nap and then anywhere from 1 minute to an average of 25 minutes later he’ll be up. Sometimes I can get him back to sleep, sometimes that power nap is all he needed. Occasionally he will sleep for an hour, it’s very rare, but once or twice he’s slept closer to two.
At night time I nurse him to sleep and put him down and that same 1 to 25, but sometimes 45 minutes later he wakes up and I nurse him down again. Repeat till we go to bed. After we are in bed I’ll bring him to our bed once he wakes up. Then depending on the night he will snuggle next to me and we will sleep with some dream feeds all night long, but most nights he will wake up and I have to either sit up on the bed with him nursing back to sleep or way more often than I’d like we have to come out to the living room because he’s too away and will wake Mark. On average once we go to the living room we reswaddle and sit on my ball chair and he nurses back to sleep and I’m back in bed in an hour, almost on the dot most nights. Occasionally it’s a little less and a few times it’s been more like two hours. Kill me. Take last night: 4-5 Lily and Mark took a walk with Jake in his new to us stroller and when they got home he was tired, but I was making soup and couldn’t stop. At around 7 he was melting down and ready for bed. Between 7:30 and 9:30 he had to be put back to sleep twice. Once we got in bed he woke pretty soon and I brought him into our bed. He was fussy, but I got him back to sleep, around 1 he was really fussy again so I sat up and got him back to sleep and down by around 1:35. At 4:20 he was wide awake. We went to the living room and were back in bed around 5:20. He was awake again at 6. It was a very long day for me. It’s such a good thing that he’s cute and normally very happy and I love him lots. This sleep thing is just like Lily, although he may be a bit worse with the getting ups. At least I have lots of practice and I know it won’t last forever.
I can’t believe that Jake’s been here for 4 months already and at the same time it feels like he’s always been here. He’s getting so big (for him) and doing all the really cool baby-growing-up-things; he’s holding his head up really well, he can roll from his front to his back, he smiles so much and I melt for him each time, he chatters and coos and he’s just the coolest little man. He’s not giggling yet, but with Lil it took a lot to make her laugh so I feel we just haven’t figured out Jake’s thing yet. He likes it when I have my hand holding my breast while we nurse and he’ll either hold my finger or rub my hand. It’s the sweetest thing.
Last Friday I took Jake to the doctor for his 4 month well child check up and he’s made it to 10 lbs finally. In 4 months he’s gained 4 pounds. He’s in the .2%tile just like his sister. He’s taller than Lil was at this age, he’s 24 inches and because of this he can’t wear his newborn sized pants unless I want him to look like he’s wearing capris. Otherwise he can wear newborn onesies. We are breastfeeding and that is going really well, but just like with Lil the doctor wants Jake to gain more weight so we are supplementing formula everyday. It had been 2 ounces a day, but they want me to go up to 4, but I’m not so sure. He’s great (the doctor said so too) and this is just what my kids do.
Lily is the best big sister. She is crazy about Jake. She still refuses to call him by name, although she refuses to call most people by name. She calls Jake Brother. Jake’s other nicknames are Pumpkin, Honey Bunny and Professor Pickle Pants or Professor.
He’s completed our family and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Edited to add more nicknames that I can’t believe I forgot about when doing the original post. Buddy and Buddy Boy are used all the time.
The other day Lil and I were sitting at the kitchen table and out of nowhere we have this conversation:
Lil “Mom when is that special day for you and Dad?”
Me “What special day”
After a moment of thought “The day when you and Dad decided to not just be friends anymore, but to be a family.”
Awe, I think that’s the perfect description for getting married. I love how her mind works.
These pictures don’t have anything to do with this conversation except that they are of Lil. I just wanted to add them.
