Oh how I hate teething!

Michael:
Michael got his first tooth at 4 month, over Christmas vacation. This meant that he cried and cried on the car trip and quite a lot for poor grandma and grandpa that wanted a sweet baby grandson to play with. It also meant that he was way too young to understand that he shouldn't bite while nursing which led to some moments I happy to forget about.

As it turned out Michael actually got a lot of his teeth when we were on vacation. I sometimes wonder if our relatives simply thought we had an always cranky baby.

Jon:
Jonathan did not get his first tooth until after he gave up nursing at 10 months. I was told that the rate of teething seems to run in families and to expect Jon's around the same time as Michael. However, those of you who know Jon, understand that it is part of his mission in life to be as different as he can from Michael and this was no exception.

I really don't remember much about Jon teething, but since he was in a habit of waking every hour, crying for me to give him his pacifier, I don't remember a lot of specifics about life over that year as I wasn't getting much sleep.

Becca:
Our Rebecca's teeth seem to want to each have the spotlight on their own. Most kids get teeth in pairs or even 3 or 4 at a time. Becca's teeth, however, have all come in one at a time. Before each one there is about 3-4 days where she drools up a storm and doesn't sleep well. Then, a new tooth appears and life goes back to normal.

She so far has all eight front teeth and three molars. However, she has been working on this last molar for two weeks now. She chews on everything and always has a toy or her fingers in on that side of her mouth. And she wakes up crying almost every night. We have gotten in the habit of giving her tylenol when she does as it is the only things that keeps her from continuing to wake up again and again. However, no tooth yet. Every couple of days I think I feel it but then it disappears. Please oh please oh please come up through the gums and give me back my sweet daughter!

Big girl seat

It seems like such a small thing, but Becca is soooo excited about her big girl chair. She has been causing quite the scares recently because she has learned how to climb out of the high chair - even miraculously when strapped in. So the high chair has disappeared to the basement and we brought up a booster seat. Her eyes just lit up when I asked her if she wanted to sit in it.


This is the first time in a LONG time that my kitchen has been high chair free.

Our Math Wiz

Tim is using some Math computer problem sets and videos from Kahn Academy for his middle schoolers. Michael has been so intrigued. He has watch a few of the easy level ones and made it up to addition with carrying and got stumped and gave up. This week however, Tim showed him the multiplication video and he began doing the problem sets with great success! You can't see the screen well, but he has just correctly answered 10x10. :)

Jon and his pacifiers

Jon is now 3 and we have been talking with him about giving up his pacifiers. He has been fairly ok with this idea and so we finally put it into play Monday night. We had Jon put his pacifiers in an envelope and addressed it "To: A New Baby"


Then we put them in the mailbox. He went to sleep perfectly fine that night and slept soundly all night, much to our joy! In the morning he went to the mailbox and there was a package for him.


In it was a note thanking Jon for the pacifiers and giving him three new race cars from the movie Cars. He was so thrilled!

All in all it was quite the success EXCEPT...

He hasn't been able to fall asleep now during naps! Here I though we were doing a great thing getting rid of the pacifiers and now he won't nap. AAAHHHHHH!

Favorite activities

Well we are back in the swing of the school year. Michael is now at school three full days a week and we are settling into our school year routine. I took Michael to school this morning and then stopped by Meijer with Jon and Becca on the way home to do the weekly shopping. Can I tell you how wonderfully empty the store and parking lot are at 8:20 in the morning!! I love it. Jon can yell or Becca can screech without me feeling like we are bothering everyone. The isles are mostly empty so when Jon gets ahold of the cart and starts pushing I don't fear for other people's feet. And Jon could go around and help me get things and then scan them at the checkout without me being afraid that we would be holding up a line of people.

In our routine there are some things that seem to happen every day. Here are pictures of two of them I've caught this week so far:

Becca is obsessed with trying on every pair of shoes she can.


And Michael and Jon still play tackle football ALL THE TIME!

Blowing Bubbles

Becca is in love with blowing bubbles right now. In fact I'm so impressed because unlike her brothers at this age, she can actually blow and get some bubbles to come out. So the other day when the kids were playing with play-doh I started laughing hysterically when I saw her pretending to blow bubbles with a play-doh knife.

Some scrapbook pages

Here are a couple of scrapbook pages I've done recently. Pictures are from a while ago, bust wanted to share:

This was of our trip to Windmill Gardens this past spring with some new friends.

Credits: By the Lake by Hot Flash Designs; Fonts are Gayle by Darcy Baldwin and Brushstroke35.

Here is from raking last fall. I've noticed a few leaves falling in our neighbor already this year, so it looks like we might be at this again soon.

Credits: Template by Cindy Schnider, Better Together by Eva Kipler and Jady Day Studio, Old Typewriter Alpha Bits by Dahlia Co., and brown alpha by Suzy Q Scraps, font is Gayle by Darcy Baldwin

And this was pictures from July 4, 2010 that I never scrapped. I loved the big 4 on the page and how it turned out!

Credits: Paper Clip Templates - Jumbo Numbers by Libby Pritchett, Americana by Ellie Lash, font is Amanda G by Darcy Baldwin