The transition to 5 continues...

So we made it to our 2nd month with Kate and things are going well. When people ask how we are, my new response is..."life is full!" It's not so much that things feel busy around here, as we have kept our "extra curricular activities" to a minimum really, but each day is full with the care of our children and all that it entails!

Drew continues to thrive in his school and is loving to play with words, sounds and the language in general. He loves to rhyme words and sounds and frequently now will change the first sound of all the words in a sentence to the same sound to be silly. I.e. "Dat dis da dilly dame" (That is a silly game!) Cute, but honestly, it's slightly annoying to hear for hours on end, but be proud of me, I'm using my filter and not saying anything about it...it's just not one of my favorite things right now, but I'm letting him roll with it! I DO LOVE that he still comes home singing chapel and school songs...just love to hear him sing! And when we talk about it, he frequently how he likes that it makes Jesus happy too! Such a sweetie! He is excited about learning this year more than I've seen before and it's really wonderful! He comes home excited about shapes, spelling, and patterns! He usually does really well doing his homework and rarely complains (it usually takes no more than 2-3 minutes!) and I'm seeing his coloring and drawing change to using more colors and more specific details like coloring his and Noah's hair orange in pictures!

Drew had his first little 'love interest' this month...coming home from school one day announcing he was going to marry one of the girls in his class. It was so stinking cute! The little girl had drawn him a picture and the next morning greeted him with another picture and a note saying she was going to marry him! Adorable! Then a week later she came to school and told Drew she wasn't going to marry him anymore, but instead a different boy in their class. Drew didn't like to hear that and told the girl "That's not right!" On the way home with Grandma, he was still just a little upset about it, but said even if the girl didn't love him anymore, his Mommy, Daddy and Jesus would always love him! So sweet!

Drew continues to dote on Kate and is almost smitten with her. He will frequently get to pick a prize from the treasure box at school, and has now twice picked something for Kate instead of one for himself! How sweet is that! They have both been from the movie Frozen, a barrette and a ponytail holder! He can't wait til she has more hair to be able to wear them!

Drew has started to enter what Matthew has termed "the golden years"...the ability to take care of himself and do things on his own is growing exponentially it seems, yet there's not all the pre-teenage angst yet! He's also a great helper and can be a good listener most of the time too. A coworker of Matthew's told him ages 5-10 or 12 is this time frame of this wonderful balance apparently and Matthew has been looking forward to it for quite some time now! He is really enjoying the phase Drew is in right now for sure...the 2 of them especially have lots of games and play that they both enjoy and they get along really well. Legos and video games are the 2 favorites, but games in general, reading, and just being silly together - they are having a great time together!

Noah can be such a goof, and quite the little entertainer. He can get Drew laughing and giggling so hard sometimes, it's quite hilarious! He loves to sort all sorts of things. And I am afraid he's going to grow up to be a hoarder! With Halloween approaching, we've had pumpkin buckets out and he'll fill all 3 of them with random toys and carry them around with him wherever he goes. Sometimes he plays with them, but other times he just wants them to be there and be his and gets REAL mad if anyone tries to take one of the hundreds of toys he has! Ugh! The OCD in me is really struggling with this!

He loves to play with puzzles and games, play on the swings and chase, likes legos and Duplos, has fun with super heroes, trucks, cars and trains. He can really play on his own for quite some time, his mind always going. Even when he's watching TV or movies, he will frequently still be playing with toys...he just doesn't stop! :)

Noah is quite the little stinker, and showing his independence and strong will more and more, with our patience thinning quickly! He is quite good at NOT listening to us for our requests to clean up, go potty, get ready for bed, etc. and is even becoming a bit more openly defiant with responses like "YOU clean it up!" So his time in 'time out' is increasing on average, but I think we may need a different consequence for him...he's not phased by much! He continues to be harder to contain at bedtime, frequently getting out of bed and awake much later than Drew (who usually zonks out within 15 minutes, if not 5!). He's even had a few middle of the night wakenings and quite opposite of Drew, who would call and cry out for us to come to him, Noah quietly makes his way to our room, turning lights on his whole way and will climb right over Mommy to get into bed with us! Drew sleeps through the whole thing thankfully, because if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he has a really hard time going back to sleep.

He's not all bad though, that's for sure. He has times, usually when getting more attention, where he'll really do a great job. One day Mommy took Kate for a walk and Noah, of course, wanted to come along. So we took a longer walk than normal around the big block and did a great job of listening to Mommy and not running too far ahead. He stopped at the markers I gave him and never even thought of running into the street. We even ended the walk hand in hand...it was a nice walk! :)

With Kate's arrival, Matthew has been spending more time playing with and taking care of the boys as we expected. It's been sweet to see and hear them play together more! Matthew is such a wonderful Daddy to them and I love when they all get into that really silly and playful mood together and they are all just laughing and giggling and have such a great time together - there's just nothing better than the sounds of a happy home! Both boys have done really well still with losing Mommy time to Kate, but they both have had a few moments this month...Noah won't leave Mommy's side at church, so tags along when Kate needs to be fed or changed...that's fun! And Drew mentioned once while Kate was eating "I never get to play with you anymore!" So they are starting to feel it a little more, but overall doing great!

The weather is starting to change, though it's been overall warmer than usual it seems. The boys even enjoyed another few days in the pool! We are taking advantage of the time outside as much as we can and the boys have loved that. We've actually started letting them play outside in the backyard by themselves a little bit more and it has been wonderful! Our back wall is a wall of windows, so as long as they stay in that part of the yard, we can still hear and monitor them and they've played really well together! The pool is gated, so we don't have to worry about that...but the playground is not visible being in another section of the yard, so if they head over there, we join them outside to keep tabs. But it's so nice to give us all a little bit more freedom every now and then! They have had some good times playing in the front yard too with their wheeled toys, whiffle balls, rockets and soccer and they especially like it when our friend Seth comes down the street to join in the fun!

The boys overall do seem to be playing with each other better lately...or at least when they play well together, they play REALLY well. And when they don't, it escalates VERY quickly! But again, when they are playing well together, whether it be some game they made up outside, or playing with superheroes, it is just the best thing in the world to this Mommy! It just warms my heart and gives me hope! Which is needed because when things aren't going well, whew, it's rough! We are hearing alot of "he started it!" from both of them, and that's gotten old real quick! The time from when they get home from school to dinner is probably their worst time of day. Something switches and all the stress of the day comes out and against each other and me...that hour and a half before Matthew comes home is my least favorite time of the day, it's always just crazy! But then they play nice again after dinner and we are more frequently hearing their giggling as they lie in bed after bedtime, just making the other laugh and laugh...again, another wonderful sound to hear!

And now for Kate! Some developments this month have been more and more head control and maybe starting to grab for objects, even if at random. She's starting to open and close her hands a little bit more, allowing her to grab onto things some. She LOVES faces! She is definitely purposefully smiling now, and usually when she gets to see a face she knows! We've decided she's a very social girl and that's why she doesn't like to be laid down much when she's awake...she loves to be near people, seeing and hearing and feeling people's presence. Though that doesn't always do it. At the beginning of the month she started to get pretty fussy in the evenings pretty consistently. So the Moby Wrap has been used LOTS this month, and that seems to help most of the time. She still enjoys the outside, and we still try to get out in between naps, even if just for 5 minutes, for some fresh air.

Taking her first bottle

She is growing well and no longer fits into Newborn clothes, but 0-3 months now. She's too big for the newborn sling in her bathtub as well, so in the water even more and loving it! She LOVES her baths and they work wonders to calm her down in the evenings! Day naps have become a bit more of a challenge this month, taking longer to get her to sleep before lying her down and she has to be OUT to be laid down. So we spend lots of time walking, bouncing and have added white noise to drown out the chaos and noise of the boys! However, she is quickly stretching out her nights and I can officially say she is sleeping through the night!!! Most nights she'll go 8-9 hours between feedings, but has gone up to 10-11 hours a few times! AMAZING! We've also got the bedtime routine figured out a little bit better. Daddy was the one who actually put it together...I would hand her off to him after her last feeding and he was noticing that she was going to sleep pretty consistently around 10:20 every night, regardless of when the last feeding was. So, we've changed our expectations a little bit and don't even really try to get her to go to sleep for bedtime before 9:30. So I'll nurse her again at some point between 9:30 and 10 and if she doesn't drift off during that, then Daddy comes in to get her to go fully to sleep. Then she usually wakes up around 6, eats and goes back to sleep for another 3-4 hours! Hooray! We are so happy to have a sleeping beauty baby at night, so the difficulty during the day is much easier to tolerate for sure! Thank you God for an answered prayer!!!

Another development just at the end of the month is that she is actually starting to like her bouncer some! That seems odd, because most babies don't have a problem with those, but she's never been a fan until just recently. We think now that she can see a little better, and moving hands around more, she can actually see the toys hanging above and doesn't seem to mind being there as much. So there's hope for dinners without a screaming baby, or at least part of a dinner without holding her...that's a big deal for us! :) Oh, and just in the last few days we think we are starting to hear her giggle when we are playing with her at times! That's so fun and exciting - love as they grow and interact more! And such sweet sounds! She does make more noises to, and most of them seem out of delight and sometimes even in response to others talking, but maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself! Regardless, she's making more sounds and is a sweet, happy baby!

A few 'events' for the month: Mommy and Daddy went on their first date since Kate was born! Thank you Grandma and Papa! The kids did great and it was a nice, needed break! We also ventured out all 5 of us to the Benbrook Annual Heritage Fest one Saturday. It was nice to feel a little 'normal' again, even if just for a bit, to know that we can get out of the house - and everyone's mood was better! We all enjoyed it, though Drew didn't really want to participate in anything, he had a good time walking around with Daddy. Noah enjoyed the little petting zoo, the policeman 'motorcycle', and loved painting a pumpkin, as well as some bounce house fun! The next weekend Redeemer had their Fall Fun Fest, which Drew was VERY excited about! They both had a blast in the Bounce House and enjoyed the fun of the whole event. Drew was pumped to win a cake in the Cake Walk - the Frankenstein cake Mommy had donated even! YUM! And Noah had a blast with the basketball game - he even made 2 baskets!

Mommy and Kate had a fun month with some special events too! Sweet friends and family joined us for a Sip and See Shower one Saturday morning and it was beautiful and sweet! It was nice to see everyone, have a girls only morning and show Kate off to some more people. It also gave Nana an excuse to come for a weekend visit! As usual, everyone was very generous too!

About 2 weeks later, Mommy and Kate hit the road to visit Nana and Grandpa in Houston. It all started with Mommy being tired and wanting to sleep in the mornings when Kate would go back to sleep until about 9 or so. Since the boys wake up at 7, Mommy wasn't getting that chance. Daddy didn't like the option of sending the boys to Grandma's house because he would miss his boys. So he told me to leave! HA! He came up with the idea of Kate and I going to visit my parents in Houston for a few days so I could sleep when Kate did and he still got play time with his boys. So, we did! We left on a Monday and came back on Thursday. Kate did ok in the car, but there was quite a bit of crying, but only one unexpected stop. It was great to spend some extra time with Nana and Grandpa! We even were there to celebrate Grandpa's birthday! Nana got to show off Kate to some of her co-workers and some extra snuggle time with Kate of course. Though Kate was being a little picky and wasn't tolerating being held by anyone besides Mommy too much, and even wouldn't take naps without being held! But it was a fun time and we were glad we went. We even got a few extra projects finished for Mommy and Nana while we were there! :) It was good to get back home too of course, as the boys were starting to miss their girls. And traveling with Kate by myself at 7 weeks wasn't horrible, but glad we aren't doing that too often!