Out of the Blue

Jack is a hardcore thumb sucker.  Since, well, always.  It's such a grody little habit.  Yesterday, after leaving Urgent Care to pick up the x-ray pictures, I reminded him not to suck his thumb until I had a chance to sanitize his hands.  To which he replied, "I don't want to suck my thumb." (This was strange because usually he's at it every opportunity). I really thought at this point it was just a one time deal.  However, throughout the rest of the day, he made it clear he really didn't want to suck his thumb ANYMORE.  Once when I caught him doing it, I said, "you're sucking your thumb" and he said, "oh, I don't want to do that anymore" and jerked it out of his mouth.  And this trend has continued ever since.  We are certainly hoping that this is IT!! (And, I'm shockingly a little teeny tiny bit sad at the possibility...because it's been such a part of who he is.)

-------------

Update 8/7/2012: This was a no go.  Once he went to bed and fell asleep, the thumb went back in his mouth, and he essentially forgot about his new plan after the first 2 days.  Oh well, we'll keep working on it!

Out of the Mouths of Babes Vol. 1

Ever since I got out all of Jack's old baby toys this weekend, Jack has done nothing but play with them. He got out a little baby hammer and was banging on toys, the floor, etc. Then I looked up and he was about to "bang" it on Ben. I told him to stop and if he even touched Ben with it, he'd go to his room. To which he replied, "I was just trying to make sure he didn't fall apart."

Writing 101

Jack has been working hard for the last couple months at writing his letters. It was like one day he could only barely copy what you wrote, and the next he could do them all from memory on his own. And he loves to practice.

The words he knows how to spell by memory are:
-Jack
-Daddy
-Mommy
-Ben
-TT
-cat
-Poppy

He can get most of Grandma and Grandpa, but they are just a hair too complicated.

He can sound out a lot of words but e i and o sounds sometimes confuse him.

Our Wounded Warrior

 (7/28/12)

This evening we were getting ready to run a bunch of errands and Jack hurt himself.  He was apparently running around on all fours like he was a horse...and next thing I know he's crying and says, "I stepped on my sumb (thumb)." Since he's the craziest child on the planet, and not a day goes by that he doesn't somehow get hurt, I brushed it off and said, "Oh you'll be fine." And a few minutes later, he was done crying and we went on with our day.  A couple hours later, though, his thumb looked swollen and wouldn't extend. So Jack and I traipsed off to Urgent Care at 9:15pm.  The first one we went to had a 2-3 hour wait.  Um no thanks.  I tried to convince him we could wait until tomorrow, but he wouldn't have it.  So we went to a different one, who got us right in and took some x-rays (after a little disbelief that one could actually step on their OWN thumb). The x-rays didn't show any fracture or dislocation, so they splinted it and wanted us to see an orthopedic doctor in the next couple days.  

We kind of got the run around with the orthopedic clinics, so we only saw our regular pediatrician today, who really wasn't concerned after Jack thumb wrestled him.  But, we'll continue to keep an eye on it since it still doesn't extend fully.  

New Milestones

Ben has met a lot of new milestones in the last couple weeks.

On July 21st, he started pulling himself up to stand and perfected getting himself into a sitting position. Since then he has gotten pretty brave.

He is also starting to move away from the much favored army crawl to belly off the floor crawling...unless he is in a hurry. And, in that case, he drops down and uses his old standby.

Speedy little feller...

Growing Up

July 23, 2012

Ben was getting a little too crazy in the little tub in the sink.  Not only was he sharing his bath with counter tops, but he was trying to stand in the tub, which might have been slightly hazardous to his health (and my sanity).  So today we made the intermediate step from baby tub to big boy tub--the blow up tub.

Here is Jack in the same tub at the same age (within a few weeks).

Hot, Hot, Hot

We went to Aunt Barb's the beginning of July.  We LOVE going to the lake.  It's so peaceful (or at least it used to be before we invited the children along lol).  This year was the first year that I'd been where it was unbearably hot.  We definitely roasted, but we survived.

This was on our first night.  Even in the dark, it was sweltering.  But I just love sitting on the porch swing, listening to nature by the water, and usually reading a book.

And then we have the boys...