Sunday, October 28, 2012

5 Month Update

So, Ian will be 5 months next week and I haven’t put pictures of him in a long time.  So I am going to do a post with an update on this awesome little guy and tons of pictures.  This post is going to specifically focus on Ian, I will try and update on the other kiddos in another post, but I wanted to make sure to get some photos of this cutie out there.  Here goes:

1 Month:

Ian got blessed at the beginning of July, actually, it was his one month birthday, so there you go.  Geri was here, and it was really sweet.  Jon did such a great job on the blessing, especially considering he had been on call all weekend and was basically asleep on his feet.  Ian was, of course, perfect.

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Such a sweet little boy, and such a sweet and tired dad:

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And Ian had a lot to think about:

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And our happy little family.

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Oh, yeah, I should maybe mention that I hacked off all my hair.  It’s sort of old news now, but it wasn’t when this picture was taken.  So far, I’ve really liked having short hair, especially biking in the hot humidity this summer.  Jon misses my hair, but I’m sticking with the short hair for now.

And cute siblings:

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I guess this little guy was taking cues from his dad:

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Grandma Geri.  We were so glad she made it out.  The kids sure do love having her around (and so do Jon and I, but I don’t think we can quite compete with the enthusiasm of our little imps).

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And a happy mama (excuse the weird shadows, it is really the only picture of me with the baby that day):

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And some pictures of the little guy over the rest of July:

We did a little photo shoot, I could only really get him smiling off to the side when he was looking at Ben off camera.  This little guy loves his bit brother.

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My mom and dad also came in town over July 4th.  It was amazing.  My mom didn’t tell me my dad was coming so it was a surprise and I was super excited to have him.  I hope my mom took some pictures of him with the kids, because this is the only picture I have of him, and I’m pretty sure Ben took it:

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At least I got a decent picture of my mom with Ian:

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More evidence that Ian loves his brother:

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And is generally a very happy and sweet baby:

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Courtney came at the end of July, too, and we had some fun adventures.  My parents and Courtney were all up for joining us in our biking madness, which was great.  We went with Courtney downtown to go to a little crepe place.  Ian loved hanging out on her lap:

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And a picture of the two of us, for good measure (and yes, I cut my hair even shorter in the interim):

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2 Months

This is the closest I have to a 2 month picture of Ian:

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And it’s blurry, but I love his little concerned look:

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Cute siblings again:

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Also, Ian started rolling:

3 Months:

During his fourth month, we took a trip to Utah/Lake Powell.  I will probably do a separate post about that, but all of the kids had a great time seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  They were also great travelers.  Here are a few pics from the month, though:

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And mother and son:

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4 Months:

Our little chunk has gotten so big so fast.  He rolls over both ways now, he smiles, and laughs, and talks.  He loves to play with his hands and feet and toys now.  He flirts with everyone and is such a sweet, pleasant, and happy baby.  I wish pictures could do this little guy justice, but I have yet to take a picture that captures just how lovable this boy is (which isn’t to say the pictures aren’t cute, they are).  He loves getting his diaper changed.  He just smiles and coos at me the whole time.  He also really loves being naked, and peeing all over everything.

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After a bath and a clean diaper, I love his little cloth diapered bum.  Plus, check out that belly.

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This happy little guy just loves to make noise.  I know the video quality is low because of bad lighting, but he pretty much jabbers like this constantly.

So there you have it, that is the best I can do today to get people up to speed on Ian.  I will try to post some updates on the other kiddos when I can, but tonight I need to get back to work on Halloween costumes.  Hopefully I will have some pictures of that later this week.

Minivan

Who needs one? Not us.  At least not yet.  We somehow managed to squeeze three car seats into the back of the Nissan.  Made possible by upgrading Ben to a booster seat and buying a seat belt extender so it is possible for him to buckle his seat belt without having to dig between the car seats.  Also, this is our version of a minivan:

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We are still biking most places with three kids.  Ben or Penny rides in the rear-mounted child seat on the bike and the other two ride in the trailer.  You can’t really see my bike because I was taking the picture by myself and I couldn’t let go of my bike because it is not super stable with Penny on the back.  My kickstand is not up to that challenge.  We may have learned that the hard way when Penny dropped her water bottle and I went back to get it.  The bike fell, Penny got a little scraped up and is now kind of afraid of the “blue seat”.  At least she and Ben don’t fight over who gets to use it as much anymore.

So here’s the set up in the trailer.  Ian has a little sling that keeps him nice and snug. This was when he was two weeks.  He seems to like it, even from day one.  He can be screaming bloody murder but stops as soon as we start going.

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Penny and I went down the street to Subway one time when Geri was here. Penny enjoyed the rain.

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It was, however been pretty hot here this summer, so temperature regulation has been an issue.  I made some little things called cool ties to wrap around the kids necks.  They are soaked in water and refrigerated and they really help cool things down.  Here are Ben and Penny wearing theirs:

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And Ian with his:

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When it’s really hot, I stick ice packs around Ian, wrapped in a light blanket.

When we go out with the whole family, there is an extra hitch so Jon can pull the trailer and I take Ben in the seat:

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In preparation for cold weather, I have been shopping online sales for some good cold weather gear for the whole family.  I figure we will try to bike as much as we can, although I probably will avoid riding when there is snow on the ground.  I tracked down some snowboard helmets that are also rated for use on bikes and got some goggles for the kids to wear (I only got one kid helmet for whichever kid is in the blue seat, it adjusts to fit both kiddos).  It keeps the ears nice and warm and holds the goggles in place.  Penny insisted on trying out all of her new gear, even though it was in the high fifties.  A little overkill, but still a hoot:

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Everyone says she looks like an anime character, which I guess is pretty accurate.  The pink balaclava (or ninja mask as my kids call them) actually came with the nice winter coat I got for Penny.  Ian has a couple of really nice buntings and both kids have good winter coats.  We will see how it goes.  We have faced off against some cold weather the last two weeks pretty successfully.

I know I am woefully behind on updating the blog and I am sure people will be mad that I finally update without current pictures of the littlest one, my goal today is to do some marathon blogging to catch people up on Ian and everything else.  Wish me luck, hopefully the kids cooperate.