4 Months

Tanner is 4 months old now!  Unfortunately, he spent his 4-month "birthday" at the doctor's office with an ear infection.  But he's feeling better now and today we went back to the dr for his well-child check up.  Tanner weights 14 pounds, 10 ounces and is in the 39%!  He is definitely my biggest baby!  We love those chunky legs of his!!  I'm not sure how long he is.  Today they measured him at 23.39 inches (4%), but the other day they measured him to be 24 inches (18%).  So, somewhere around there!  

Tanner also had his physical therapy today.  His head hasn't changed in the past month-- it's still at a 7.  It's a good number, but we need it to go down some more.  He still resists looking to his left-- especially when on his tummy.  He also resists the exercises we do with him now.  It's harder now that he can fight us on it.  Plus his head is so much bigger and doesn't fit as easily in just one of our hands.  So, we just need to do better at helping him with tummy time and exercises.  Who knew it could be so difficult to remember to do it...5 or 6 times a day!

Here are some fun things that Tanner is up to lately:

*Laughing and cooing!  We just love to listen to his baby babble and giggles!

*He tries really hard to roll from tummy to back.  He's done it a few times, but never on purpose.

*He is still a drool machine!

*He loves his bottle!  He eats 6 ounces every 3 hours on the dot!

*He can usually sleep for 7 hours straight.  He might wake up around 4:00 AM, but we can usually soothe him by putting his binkie back in.  Until he sleeps soundly through the night, he's still in our room at night.

*He loves to jump, jump, jump!

*He's a very strong boy.  The dr said he has the strength of a 6-month old.

*He loves to hold toys and put them in this mouth.  He's beginning to reach out and grab things more and more.

*We got the Bumbo out.  He's not always a big fan of it, but hopefully he'll warm up to it more.  It sure is a nice convenience!  

Some Days Are Like That

Not a great day.  In fact, so many things seemed to go wrong, that it might be worth writing about.

Last night we went to bed with two sick boys.  Tanner has had a horrible cough all week long- and it just gets worse at night.  Ian had come down with a cough the night before and had been coughing non-stop all day long.  Nothing we did seemed to make it better.  At dinner time Ian couldn't even lift his head up, he was so tired and not feeling well.  He know had a fever.  I whispered to Brent that when Ian gets fevers, he always throws up, so to brace ourselves for that.  Sure enough, just after midnight a crying Ian threw up all over Brent.  Once things were cleaned up, Brent went downstairs to put Ian back to bed and sleep on the couch downstairs.  (Sleep, yeah right.)  I stayed upstairs with Tanner to help him through his coughing attacks during the night.  No one got much sleep.

Brent left for work at 6:00 and Tanner and I went downstairs to sleep near Ian.  Just as I was falling asleep, I awoke to Kirstie standing over me, wondering why I was down there.  I sent her back to bed just to have her reemerge a few minutes later with a bloody nose.  For those who know Kirstie, bloody noses are pretty much the end of the world.

To make a long story short (too late), a trip to the dr revealed that Tanner's cold was all in his head, not his chest- thank goodness.  But he did have fluid in both ears, and an ear infection in one.  That explains why he's been scratching at this cheek lately.  Ian didn't fare so well.  Her exam was not fully conclusive but the two sides of this lungs sounded different and she was pretty confident that he has bacterial pneumonia.  He is one sick, miserable boy.  His fever keeps rising to 103 and we can't get it to break.  Tanner is cranky and needy and everyone is miserable.

And then because we just need to add one more thing to the day--- when Kirstie and I were walking home from the Grand Event at her school this evening, she tripped and fell hard, chipping her front tooth.  Seriously?  She spent the night whining about her tooth hurting (which I'm sure it did) and the little drop of dried blood from a scrape on her hand. Oh the drama.

Tomorrow will be better.  It has to be, right????

Budding Talent

Kirstie went all out with cards she made for her grandmas for Mother's Day this year.  She wrote songs for each of them!  She has the words written out with quarter and half notes written above them.  They were so cute I just had to share them before she gave them away.  I don't know where she comes up with some of these things!

#1: Mother's help us.  They care for us.  You are important to us. 

Chorus (where the moms sing): You are the special ones.  You give a kiss and a hug.

You're the loveliest.  Love is for you.

#2: You feed us.  You can do anything.  Good luck on you.  I am counting on you.  Can you hug us.  Hug for you.

#3:  Your heart is open to the love in you.  You open my eyes and I see you.

The Boy Who Had No Fear

Ian is crazy-coordinated.  It's unbelievable to watch him do things that come so naturally to him.   Riding a bike is one of those things.  We promised him last year that we would take off his training wheels after this year's Easter.  He held us to that promise.  One afternoon Kirstie was out riding her bike and he wanted to give it a try.  He couldn't even touch the ground, but once he started pedaling, he was off!  No problem whatsoever. So, we took off his training wheels and he just started riding down the street.  No wobbling, no parent holding on to the back, nothing.  Only problem was that he wasn't great at breaking, so Brent had to RUN down the street to help him.  Instead of braking, Ian would just jump off the bike. (How has this kid not broken something?)  Since then we've mastered braking and he has even shown me that he can ride with his feet up on his handlebars.  (What??? Keep your feet on those pedals!!!) He and Kristie can't get enough of riding their bikes! And I love that he has no problem riding a princess bike.  He's never even given it a second thought.  As long as it goes fast, he's fine with it.  Next year we'll buy him his own bike that he can grow into and will last longer than a year.

3 Months Old!

This little dude is 3 months old!  Although he's growing up way too fast, this is such a fun age.  

Things that I love about him and this age:

*He is full of smiles.  He loves to smile for Kirstie and Ian especially.  They still ask where he is first thing when they wake up.  And nothing brightens me day like his sweet grin when he sees me!

*He is so ticklish!  Changing his clothes is so much fun because he's so ticklish and he just laughs when we take off his shirt.  He's come to expect the tickle and looks away in anticipation.

*He LOVES to look at his mobile or the toys on his playmat.  He gets all excited and kicks his legs and starts breathing fast.  He could lay in his bed and look at his mobile all the time!

*He talks and talks and talks and talks!

*He's getting better at sleeping longer stretches at night.  The other night he slept from 11 til 7!  Of course it hasn't happened again since!  Some nights are better than others, but we're getting there!

*I love watching him look around and take everything in.  What a curious boy!

*He loves to stand!  He has strong legs and lately loves to jump as well!

*He likes to sit in the bumbo, for small amounts of time!

*He is doing so well in his physical therapy.  His rotation is really great, although he's resisting the exercises we're supposed to do with him.  It's crazy to think about how much he's grown since we started.  The exercises were much easier to do when his head was smaller and fit right in our hand!  The tilt he had is just about completely gone (look how straight his body is in the picture below!)  And our last measurement of his head was 7 mm (or cm?).  He started out at 15, and our goal is to get down to 3.  The good news is that we are now below the range for needing a helmet!  

There are a few things hard about this age too:

*He drools like crazy.  This poor boy's shirt is always WET.  Ian was this way too I remember.  My little drool boys!

*He does not like Brent to put him down for bed or naps.  He cries and cries.  One night I was not home at bedtime and Brent said Tanner cried on and off for an hour and a half.  I'm not sure why he prefers me, but it can make for some frustrating nights!

*He's becoming a thumb sucker.  I'm not sure how I feel about this as neither of the other kids did this.

Happy Easter

Coloring Easter eggs.  It's too bad my family doesn't really eat hard-boiled eggs because coloring eggs is a lot of fun.  We could've colored dozens of eggs rather than the dozen eggs we split between the kids.

With General Conference being the same weekend as Easter, it was hard to squish all our activities in between sessions.  We colored eggs between Saturday sessions...

...and visited Grandma and Grandpa Olsen on Saturday evening since it was our year to spend Easter with the Buchanans.  Actually, we didn't see Grandpa because he was at Priesthood session.  But we had a little egg hunt in their backyard that evening.

Even Tanner got some mini-eggs.  He was happy to share his jellybeans with Kirstie and Ian.  

The kids woke up bright and early, ready to see what the Easter Bunny brought.  The Easter Bunny decided to go with the kids' talents and brought baseball bases for Ian...

...and a primary piano book for Kirstie.  They both also got a coloring book, a painting set, sidewalk chalk and a few other little candies and things.

Tanner got a fun new toy that makes cool noises and should help him in learning to track things and look both directions.  He also got a new onesie, a book and of course, a can of formula.

It was about 8:30 when we were out doing our Easter egg hunt.  If the kids are awake, then why wait, right?  Besides they would've found them all by looking out the window if we'd waited until after breakfast.

Time to sort and divide our eggs!  This was our candy supply for our General Conference games!

That afternoon we noticed a police car parked next door to us.  Then another police car came followed by a fire truck and an ambulance!  What a great day for this 4-year-old! (Maybe not so great for the woman on the ground across the street.)  Apparently it was some sort of drug overdose or something.  The police officer came over and asked me a few questions about the man living there and asked if we ever noticed any suspicious activity there.  Uh...yeah.  That house should be on their constant radar.  It's one of the few things I dislike about our neighborhood.

After conference, we headed over to the Buchanans for dinner and another egg hunt with our cousins there.  

Blessing Day

 We were finally able to bless Tanner on March 29th.  We had originally planned to do it the first Sunday in March, but had to postpone it due to him being sick.  He did great, only beginning to whimper towards the end.  Brent gave him a beautiful blessing.  Tanner was surrounded by 9 priesthood holders-- Brent, Grandpa Olsen, Uncle Steve, Uncle Brian O, Grandpa Buchanan, Uncle Brian B, Grandpa Bunting, our friend Chad, and the Bishop Smith.  A great group of worthy men!!  When Brent held him up for the congregation to see, there was an audible "Aaahhh!" from them.  Yes, that's right-- we have an adorable baby!!

The white blanket he's sitting on is a blanket that the ladies I taught school with made for me when Kirstie was born.  In addition to that, each baby has had their own special blanket for their blessing day.  I crocheted this blue blanket for Tanner.  I had great intentions on working on it for many weeks prior to the blessing.  I didn't get as far as I thought I would and was up all night the night before his blessing trying to finish it.  But I think it was worth it.  I like having something special for them.

Tanner has big, big eyes and this picture captured them perfectly!  I love this adorable face!

Look at this cute family.  I am so blessed to have a loving husband and three wonderful children!

We are also very blessed to have all our family members nearby.  Everyone is within 20 minutes of us, how lucky is that?  We had almost all the family there.  Brian's family was sick, so just he and Emma came.  Ben and Stacy both had to work, but everyone else came.  (And brought yummy food to eat!)

My parents and sister have been so helpful the past couple of months.  They've gone above and beyond to help me in every way-- especially babysitting while I've taken kids to various dr appointments and/or helped in the classroom.

As I mentioned, we're very lucky to have both sets of parents nearby!  Brent's parents have also been wonderful to help out as we've adjusted to life with a new baby!

Brent's grandparents are wonderful as well!  They are such sweet, loving people and I'm so blessed to be part of their family.  They really are amazing people.

Tanner and his great-grandpa Bunting-- how sweet is this?  Grandpa had Tanner's full attention as he held and talked to him.  I think this is one of the most precious pictures.  I sure do love Grandpa Bunting!