Annnnd, we're back :)
Since we've been gone, Brendan has turned TWO years old and Griffin has turned FOUR months old! We had Brendan's party on January 7th. It was construction themed because he loves construction equipment. He had such a great time. I think he sort of "got" it this year. Here are a few pictures:
On the day of his birthday (the 6th), we put these up while he was napping so when he came out of his room after his nap he had to come through these. He thought that was fun.
Birthday Cake
One of the decorations
Blowing out his candle :) He's a pro at this!
We had his two year appointment on his birthday. We had gotten his shots a couple months before so he didn't have to get any shots on his birthday. He is 36 inches tall and 31.4 pounds. I can't remember head size. He is taller than 9 out of 10 boys his age, heavier than 8.8 out of 10 and I think head size was bigger than 9.5 out of 10. Still has a big head ;) He is happy and healthy and full of mischief! He wants to run everywhere, prefers being outside at all times, loves candy, cheese, juice (watered down), MILK, and Chick-Fil-A. He is sleeping pretty well but has started waking up at 5:45 AM, which is not very fun. Luckily, we are able to turn on Mickey Mouse Club for him and he watches it quietly and plays on his own so we are able to catch a little more sleep when we want to. Our bedroom is right next to the living room so we just leave our door open and can hear any moves he makes. Speaking of, he also loves Mickey Mouse Club, Blues Clues and Dinosaur Train. He's only allowed to watch TV in the morning and right before bed (except sometimes on the weekends we let him watch a little more) but that doesn't stop him from asking for a "show" multiple times throughout the day. He is still really loving school and gets SO excited whenever he gets to go to school. He is such a sweetheart and really just becomes more awesome every day!
Griffin is now four months old and has been developing his own little personality. He seems like he will be our tenderhearted little one and possibly shyer than Brendan is. He is VERY attached to Mama, which can be sweet but also can prove to be difficult when I need to do other things! He is ticklish already and I can just barely touch his rib area and he cracks up. He is the same height as Brendan so far (age-wise) but is
a lot thinner than Brendan!
He was sleeping through the night (10-12 hours) starting right after he turned two months old until a little after three months old. Then, he started waking up more again. We realized that he had a dependency on the pacifier already for sleeping - not unlike his brother at the same age - and started waking up sometimes
eight times a night for pacifier replacement. He would get the paci and go right back to sleep. Everyone needs better sleep than that, so we made the decision this past week to attempt to take away the pacifier and the swaddle (the doctor said we need to get him off the swaddle) and let him cry-it-out some if necessary. I started with naps on Friday. He is going to sleep at night without any fuss. For some of his naps he will fuss for a few minutes before falling asleep but it is no longer actual crying. Last night, he woke up for 40 minutes fussing (never actually crying) but then went back to sleep on his own and never woke up again before 4:30, which is when he has normally been eating. The first day and a half was rough without the paci because he would get very upset and I could tell that was all he wanted but now he seems to have already forgotten about it. Hopefully soon he won't wake up fussing at all.
He also has torticollis, which basically means his neck muscle is tight on one side so he holds his head to that side. For him, it is the left side. We have been going to physical therapy for the past two months and are now going every other week. The physical therapist said she can already tell a big improvement and so can we. She really wants him to start rolling over because apparently that will help a lot with getting him leveled out. Today he rolled from stomach to back for the first time! We were only able to get him to do it once but both Tim and I were watching and got to see it happen. We cheered and it scared him because loud noises scare him right now and he started crying. Poor Griffin!
At his four month appointment he was 26 inches long (about 88th-90th percentile), 14 pounds (25th percentile) and 16 inch head (65th percentile). His weight dropped from 50th to 25th but the doctor was not concerned because his height percentage also dropped from 97th to 88th-90th. He said when both percentages drop like that it usually signals they are about to have a growth spurt. Hopefully at the next appointment he will be back up. He told us to go ahead and give him some solids but I've determined he's not ready, yet. He acts like he needs to sneeze whenever we try to feed him something and Brendan did the same thing when we first tried to feed him and he wasn't ready. Brendan ended up being ready at about 4.5 months so we will try again at that point with Griffin. I hope to make all of Griffin's food like I did with Brendan.
Here are some new pictures of Griffin:
Four months old!
Griffin was baptized on January 8th at White's Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake (where Brendan also goes to school). I don't like this picture of me, but he deserves to have some evidence of his baptism :)
Happy boy!
Very excited about all the festivities at Christmas ;) Needless to say, I think next year will be more fun for him.
So that's a LONG general update of what is going on with us. I have a New Year's resolution to start posting once a week at least, so I will hopefully keep that up even though I am starting a little late. As you have probably already noticed, the blog is now public again so I can make sure all family can see it that wants to.
Have a great week!
