Rainbow Dash

My sweet little Emily decided to become "Rainbow Dash" (from My Little Pony) on day 1 of our roadtrip today. We let her have markers in the car...and she decided to color herself!

Everett Jacob -- 23 Weeks

It's Tuesday! And Everett is 23 weeks!

He has discovered he has a voice!! He's been babbling and talking so much more this week...to everyone! So fun!

He is doing so well in his cranial band! I have been so impressed with him!

Elliott & Emily have now started "fighting" over Everett. Now that Everett is "talking"...they want to be the ones that he talks to! They love this little guy!

Cranial Band

Well...here it is. Everett's new cranial band!

We have to do skin checks every 3 hours for the 1st 2 days. It just ensures that it's not applying too much pressure and allows him to get used to it. He should be in it full-time by Friday.

Patrick had fun designing it last night...and we had to apply 5 coats of mod podge.

Love our cute little harry potter!!

Everett Jacob -- 22 weeks

Another week...and Everett is now 22 weeks old!

We are having such a fun summer so far!!

Elliott is taking swimming lessons this week....so Everett got to go for his 1st swim today! He seemed to love it. I even dunked him. He was surprised...but didn't seem to absolutely hate it...and didn't cry.

We are still working on his sleep schedule...I really can't wait to get this under control!

He loves playing with his toes...and sucking on his hands. He loves attention...but what child doesn't?!? He hates tummy time...but again...what child doesn't?!? We are having to do an hour a day. He loves being in the middle of all the chaos and doesn't want to miss a thing!!

Everett will be getting his cranial band this afternoon!

We love this little dude!!!

I have 15 pictures here...I was going to weed some out since there are quite a few that are the same...but why....so here they all are!!

Emily was in a mood and didn't want to smile! But they are all ready to hit the pool this morning.

TOES!!!

HANDS!!!!

MORE TOES!!!

AND MORE HANDS!!!

Father's Day 2016

Happy Father's Day to my amazing dad and...to my husband who is an amazing father as well!!!

I love this pic of my dad....he is so tender here with my kiddos!!!

We had the kids complete these for their grandpas. Emily's favorite movie is obviously The Good Dinosaur...she put that down for everyone's favorite movie!!

And we had a fun Father's Day. We got Elliott & Patrick matching blue CTR ties...you can see them in the pic below...I somehow completely spaced on getting a pic of it. I really wish they had them in infant sized so I could get Everett one too!

The kids completed this for Patrick too. So fun!! Emily is obviously on the right in my handwriting.

And this right here....my whole world!!! I can't even put into adequate words how much I love every one of them!!!

And it's a tradition...I had to do this. I originally started it when it was just Elliott and he was around 7 months old. So fun that we now have 3 kids for these DAD letters!!

Everett Jacob -- 5 Months

Everett is 5 months!! Seriously!!

So this little turkey is not sleeping through the night anymore!!! After we took our trip to Arkansas for Memorial Day Weekend...he hasn't slept through the night once! Sometimes it's every 3 hours...like a newborn! Others aren't as bad and will wake just once...like last night...he just woke up at midnight. 

He is so funny in that he's so unlike the other 2! The other 2 loved their sleep at night and was consistently sleeping through the night by 2 months.

He's still using his binkie...the others didn't want anything to do with it.

He loves attention...especially from me. He'll scream and scream bloody murder...and then he'll be just fine if I hold him or just talk to him. =

He is loving his johnny jumper a whole lot more...he usually hangs out in the pantry while I'm making dinner. And he sits in his bumbo on the dining table while we are all eating dinner.

I was snacking on some nuts while I was feeding him a few days ago. He was so not a fan! He'd stop eating and give me the most insulting look! I think he's ready for solids. But we are going on a trip soon...and that is not an extra thing I want to deal with then. But when we come back...I'll start with him.

We love this little guy so much!!! He is so much fun and we love seeing his little personality emerge!!!

Since we took some Father's Day pics before church...I just snapped a quick one here of Everett.

But then....I decided to snap a few more in the nursing room at church.

  

Everett Jacob -- 21 Weeks

Everett had quite the busy week!!

Summer is in full force here. We've been quite busy!

Everett has been referred to Cranial Technologies due to his misshapen head. I noticed it about 6 weeks ago and asked the pediatrician about and she referred us. So Friday Everett had his head measured to confirm my suspicions. And I was correct...my little guy is going to need to be in a helmet (it's called a DOC band). Here are some of his stats from the initial appointment:

Here's his head viewed from above...you can see how it's not completely round.

His 1st measurement was in the mild range...not a concern at all.

 His 2nd measurement is definitely off and in the severe range.

 And his last measurement is definitely off the charts.

These are the stats they send off to insurance and they did recommend the doc band for Everett. They were great at the office and instructed me on some physical therapy for him. So we've been working on that ever since.

Today, we went in to get more detailed measurements so they can make the doc band specifically for his head. We will go in next week to get it. And they said he should be in it around 7-8 weeks...but that all depends on how he is doing with it.

We also need to continue tummy time. But a lot more! About an hour a day with 10 minutes at a time. He's fine and happy the first 4 minutes...but after that...he's ticked! So we haven't made it to the full 10 minutes yet...I usually give up at about 7-8 minutes.

So he has gotten a lot stronger and can sit up better in the bumbo. And he's rolling over more. Probably to try to get out of tummy time!!

Here's our 21 weeks pictures.

My 3 cute kiddos!!

Happy at first....

 ...and then not so amused.

And my favorite pic...love this smiley little boy!! And he's been loving playing with his feet/toes.

My Little Readers

Confession: Sometimes...the thought of summer break...scares me! Will I be able to entertain these kids all day long...without it ALL being screen time. My mom skills will definitely be tested! So we started out with a bang...we went to the library last Friday. Both kids got stocked up on books. Elliott is really excited with all the summer reading programs.

We do reading time at 3 pm. It's the hour before Patrick gets home...the kids start getting stir crazy...and this is a way to calm them down and for me to relax. So Friday...Elliott pulls out the 1st book and reads it...while I read to Emily. He finishes, so I help him log it on his reading list. He then shows me a pic of 2 princes kissing! What?!? I quickly read this book to myself....and discover the hidden agenda of this book. I'm shocked and appalled. I wasn't quite ready to have this talk with Elliott. And I hate that I had no clue what the content of this book was prior to HIM reading it by HIMSELF!! FYI...this book is called King & King (I guess I should have clued in by the title...but I didn't)...and it's way below is reading level...he's on a 2nd grade level.

The next day, I had a chat with the children's librarian about this book. She actually removed it from the little kids section and put it in the 3rd- 6th grade section....because of the content. She did say I can challenge it on their website...which I am planning on. Just not appropriate for these sweet innocent little kids. 

But I am so proud of Elliott and  the kind of reader he is becoming. I absolutely LOVE that he LOVES reading! He finished up reading all his books yesterday so that we could take another trip to the library today.