100 Days Smarter

Yesterday was Benson's 100th day of kindergarten. Everyone in his class brought 100 pieces of something to add to their 100 day trail mix and Benson picked m&m's. He counted out his 10 piles of 10 m&m's all by himself.

This kid LOVES to learn. Almost every conversation he has starts with him saying "Guess what?" followed by some fact that he has learned. His favorite topic has been dinosaurs for a while now, but he is also interested in all animals, geology, paleontology, pretty much every -ology that's out there. His memory amazes us every day.

2 months!

It's hard to believe that it's been two months since our little love joined our family. Some things about Jillian at two months of age:

• She eats about every 3 hours during the day. Most nights she will go 6-7 hours, eat, and then go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Not too shabby.
• She is still a little fussy in the evenings after the other kids are in bed. I think she just wants to make sure she gets her "I'm the only child awake and I want all your attention" time. Very effective.
• She loves to be held and snuggled. Her favorite position is laying down with her head facing you and snuggled into the crook of your arm. She also really loves the baby sling and Baby Bjorn.

• Grace can calm Jillian down almost better than Mike can. She has this way of holding her that puts her to sleep. I think it looks uncomfortable, but she apparently likes it.

• If I had to pick one word to describe her it would be Sleepy. Maybe it's just because it's been a while since I've had a baby, but I swear she is the sleepiest baby. I still feel like I hardly see her some days because she is just napping all day long.
• She started smiling a few weeks ago but her smiles are getting more frequent and bigger. We see the best smiles when she wakes up the second time in the morning which is usually between 8 and 9am.
• She doesn't spit up as much as Sabrina did, but she's a close 2nd. The good news is that she is a "happy spitter" like Sabrina was. So the spitting up doesn't seem to really bother her, she doesn't really cry. It's just messy.
• She prefers the baby swing to the bouncer, which is a first for our family. Everyone else preferred the bouncer.
• She makes a funny little face we like to call her turtle face ALL the time. She opens her eyes REALLY wide and then puckers her top lip so it looks pointed in the middle. It's hard to describe, I really need to try and take a picture of it.

Here are her stats from her 2 month Dr appt: Weight - 10 lbs, 6 oz (21st percentile), Height - 22.25" (25th percentile), Head - 39cm (38th percentile)

I was looking at the other kid's stats from their 2 month appointments and Jillian is by far our slowest growing baby. She has only gained 2lbs and grown about 2 inches.

Benson was 7lbs, 11oz at birth and at 2.5 months (his appt was 2 weeks late) he was 13lbs

Grace was 5 lbs, 1oz at birth and at 2 months she was 10lbs, 3oz

Sabrina was 7lbs, 11oz at birth and at 2 months she was 12 lbs, 2oz

And here are some of her first laughs!

January, oh January, where did you go?

Well the month is over and I have no idea where the time has gone. I feel like I have nothing to show for January other than 4 children who are still alive and relatively happy. I guess that's good enough for right now.

Since realistically I'm never going to catch up, I'm simply going to recap.
Here are the Top 10 things that happened at our house in January:

10. We made it home from Grandma's house alive...barely


9. Jillian turned 5, 6, 7, and 8 weeks old!


Holding Jilly on her 6 week birthday

8. Play dates! (indoors since it was only nice enough to play outside maybe 1 day the whole month)




7. Library Day moved from Wednesday evenings to Saturday since Jillian likes to be fussy still some evenings


6. A smashingly successful Primary Activity - we learned about Fire Safety, practiced the new song "I Know that Jesus Loves Me," and introduced the theme for the year with some visitors from the past. Finished up with hot chocolate and donuts for treats! (btw I was called to be Primary President in late September...it's keeping me busy)


5. Grace and Sabrina learned the joy of crafting




4. Wicked awesome stomach flu - just for half of the family - Grace, Jillian, and Mike were spared
No pictures - you're welcome!

3. Jilly and Daddy worked on some tricks...they'll be joining the circus in February


2. Fabulous family pictures! Thanks Aunt Julie!


1. Mike grew a beard! (a first for him, he hasn't shaved since Jan. 1)

Wow!

**Make sure you scroll down to see my catch-up posts.

I seriously can't believe how behind I have gotten on my blogging. Actually, I've pretty much gotten behind in everything. I guess that's what happens when you have a new baby in December. What a busy month!
We are "enjoying" the remnants of our 4th snowstorm since Jillian was born. Yes, we have had snow in our yard for a solid month! CRAZY! It has obviously been ridiculously cold as well. When we went to Oklahoma the week after Christmas we were running around in sweaters with no coats for the first few days because these days even the 30's feel warm to us! Tomorrow will be Benson's 4th snow day since the beginning of December. I am really hoping that all this cold weather will mean another mild summer. Welcome to Kansas, I guess.
Jilly is growing like crazy already. She tends to be a little fussy in the evenings which cuts into my blogging time after the other kids are in bed. She is also pretty spitty like Sabrina was which means that between caring for her and doing laundry I often feel completely overwhelmed. And I've hit a wall where my new mommy adrenaline has worn off and all I want to do is sleep as soon as she falls asleep. But we'll get there. The first few months are always the hardest, right? So I will probably be trying to catch up for a while. We have just started to get a few smiles out of her. Here's a video of Mike trying to get her to smile from this past Sunday night. He got some better ones out of her earlier, but this one was still pretty good. Even with all the work and lack of sleep, we are so happy to have Jillian and love her tons! We think she's pretty darn adorable.

Jillian's Special Day

Yesterday was a special day for Jillian. She turned 1 month old and she was given a name and a blessing. She was blessed by her Dad at Grandma Stacey and Grandpa Jeff's house in Bartlesville so more of our family could be with us.

Jillian is wearing the dress that her 2 older sister's also wore when they were blessed




1 - The men in the circle for Jillian's blessing - Great Uncle Ryan, Grandpa Gary, Dad holding Jillian, Grandpa Jeff, Uncle Bryce, and Uncle John; 2 - Our family (we were all dressed alike for our family pictures), 3 - The Richards side in attendance, 4 - The Burkinshaw side in attendance


Grandma Stacey holding Jillian Stacey


4 Generations - Grandma Stevens, Grandma Stacey holding Jillian, and Me


Grandma Stacey and Mommy doting on Jillian

What a great way to start out 2010! We are so grateful for Jilly and her safe arrival in our family.