Six and Six Months

I've been lazy about blogging lately, and now I'm behind. Last week Zach turned six, and Jake turned six months. Time keeps flyin' by.

I decided to start off Zach's birthday with some Star Wars pancakes. In our house we have two kinds of pancakes- "dad's kind" are basically buttermilk pancakes, and "mom's kind" are the thin, Swedish pancakes my family always had when I was a kid. The boys prefer my kind, and so do I, but they end up being kind of a lot of work for me, because they get eaten so quickly that I barely get to sit down for the whole meal. Anyway, I thought that I'd try something new for Zach's birthday, so I used a recipe for whole grain pancakes using wheat flour and oatmeal, and I added chocolate chips, because every thing's better with chocolate chips. They were very think and I had a little trouble getting them out of their molds, but the boys loved them. I feel really bad I didn't put a candle in Zach's pancake, but I was flustered because they were taking so long to cook and I just forgot. He didn't seem to mind, though.

Since my mom was here to help out while Mike was out of town for a week, she took Zach and Drew to the zoo on Zach's birthday. It was a hot, sunny day, and they had a good time. Drew asked me all winter and spring if it was warm enough to go to the zoo yet, so he was pretty jazzed to get the opportunity last week to finally go again. Jake and I hung out at home and ran a couple of errands. That night we went out to eat at the club, and since Zach was getting a free sundae for his birthday, Drew got to have a special treat, too.

The boys could pick just about anything to be on their sundaes. Zach wanted M&Ms, Oreos, and caramel, but Drew just wanted sprinkles and a cherry on top. They gave him 3 cherries, which really made his night!

Zach didn't really want to pose for this picture, but he was a good sport about it.

Mike was set to return from Washington, D.C., late Thursday night. However, because of some bad weather all along the east coast, his flight was delayed and ultimately canceled, so he did not arrive home until Friday night. Zach's birthday party was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and Friday afternoon Zach started complaining of a headache. He ended up having a low-grade fever, and we decided we'd just wait to see how he was in the morning before doing anything about his party. Saturday morning he woke up feeling great, so I baked the cupcakes for his party. Mike, Drew, my mom, and Zach went to Zach's baseball game at 11:00, and I stayed home so Jake could nap and I could frost cupcakes.

Zach made some catches,

and had a hit,

while Drew happily ate a snack. (Sorry about the blue font- can't change it.)

They returned from the game with Zach not feeling so great, and after finding out his fever had returned, he took some ibuprofen and went straight to his room and took a nap. After a tiny bit of hemming and hawing, we decided that we had to cancel the party. What a pain. I had it all set up that Darth Vader would be there, I had paid to rent the park shelter, the cupcakes were made and frosted, etc. But, we knew Zach wouldn't be able to enjoy himself if he was sick, and we didn't want to get all the other kids sick, so we had to do it. Zach woke up from his nap feeling good, at least until I told him we had canceled his party, and then he started crying. I felt terrible, but I know it was the right thing to do. We still had the grandparents over, so at least Zach got a little bit of a party, and I was able to reschedule the party for this weekend. It was good we did cancel it, too, because at some point either Saturday or Sunday, Zach's temperature spiked to almost 103 degrees, and on Sunday he took a 3 hour nap. Obviously he had some sort of bug, and I would have felt terrible had we passed that on to any other kids.

A few pictures from the family party:

Trying on the new life jacket from Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Cynthia, so he can go fishing with Grandpa.

Opening a bat and baseballs from Aunt Sandy, Uncle Will, and Anders.

A cool new scooter from Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dick.

Blue again- no idea why that happens or how to fix it, and I don't care enough to waste my time trying to figure it out.

Drew loves Zach's new Buzz (from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt) as much as Zach does. And Zach loves the Y-Wing fighter Mike and I got him. I got it back in March, which shopping for Drew's birthday present, because it was on sale for half price.

Drew was also happy to show the new Francesco car he got from Grandma Cynthia and Grandpa Kevin. Francesco is in the Cars 2 movie that comes out in a couple of weeks. (We've read the book, so I feel like we already know the main plot of the movie as well as the characters, and often when Drew is riding his bike, he is Lightning and I am Francesco.)

Zach doesn't look like a sick kid in this picture. Even though he hardly ate any dinner (homemade pizza- you know he was sick if he didn't eat much of that!), he did eat a cupcake.

I like this one just because it has all 3 boys in it.

Now for Jake. That kid is so stinkin' cute, but I am soooo ready for him to nap better! I know it was this way with Drew until sometime between 6 and 7 months, so I figure things will change any day now (fingers crossed). It's common for Jake to take a 40 minute nap, then wake up unhappy but unwilling to go back to sleep. Then about 2 hours later he needs another nap. It makes it very difficult to go do anything, because usually in that 2 hour window Jake also needs to eat, and often times so do Zach and Drew. I'm feeling a little sad, thinking about the freedom the boys and I had last summer to go spend hours at the pool, and right now, that just isn't an option for us. Plus, it's hard to get anything substantial done in 40 minutes, and I think if Jake would sleep longer, he could have longer awake periods, and we could all have more fun.

Jake is army-crawling all over the place. Its' really fun to see his curiosity in action now, as he motors around from one place to the next to check things out. He loves to touch my painted toenails, and he's very interested in vents as well. Today he discovered a doorstop he could boing, and he liked that, too, just like Zach did as a baby.

Jake was doing well with solids, and I even make some of my own baby food for him. He was doing great, but lately he hasn't been doing as well. I think part of the problem is that he's tired in the evening from not napping well, and so he doesn't really focus well on eating. I just started trying to give him some fruit in the morning, too, and that's been kind of hit or miss. Today it went pretty well, I think. He still isn't doing great with a bottle, which is frustrating. It means that I am never away from him for more than 4 hours, and I'd say that's even a stretch! I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I was away from him for even 2 hours. Most weeks I'm away from him mostly just to go to kickboxing class or to go for a run, and lately it seems like life is too busy to squeeze much of either of those in. But look at those baby blues- they do melt my heart.

Zach and Jake have such a sweet connection. Jake's face lights up when Zach talks to him. I know it's delusional to think they'll always have such a sweet relationship, but I do hope that the age difference between them is great enough that they will not fight much. I don't particularly remember fighting with my sister Sandy as a kid, and she and I are also 6 years apart. I suppose when Zach is 16 and Jake is 10, Zach probably won't have much time for Jake, but we'll see. For now, I'll watch with a happy heart as Zach and Jake bring each other joy. Wow- that sounds sappy.

I really cherish any pictures I can get of all 3 boys together, especially if I can get one of all 3 smiling, which is no small feat. This one of all 3 in their jammies is pretty decent, even though they're looking over at my mom instead of at my camera. I just love how you can see they all have the same hairline.

This one kind of cracks me up because Drew looks so pensive, or like he's posing like someone years older than him would do, but I really don't think he was trying to pose. Jake's face is funny, too.

While my mom was here, I was able to get a couple of good pictures of her and Jake.

In addition to army-crawling, Jake is also now sitting up like a champ. It's nice to be able to set him down on the floor and not worry too much about him falling over. He's not very graceful about getting down if he wants to go explore, but that will come.

To take these 6 month photos, I enlisted Zach's help, which is definitely why I got these huge smiles. I LOVE these pictures, and I love knowing that Zach helped produce those humongous grins. That is one little guy who really loves his big brother!

At Jake's 6 month appointment yesterday, I found out that he weighs 15 pounds 10 ounces, which is exactly what Zach weighed at 6 months. Drew weighed 17 pounds 10 ounces at 6 months. What's odd about that is that Jake was the biggest at birth and Drew was the smallest. I'm kinda bummed that Jake hasn't doubled his birth weight and that he's gone from the 70th percentile at birth to the 17th percentile at 6 months for weight. He was 27 inches long, which puts him in the 68th percentile, and also makes him the longest of the 3 boys. So I guess he's long and skinny. He doesn't look skinny to me, and the nurse practitioner wasn't really concerned about him not being bigger. I guess at least he's gaining weight. We just don't have big kids in this family, and I'm okay with that most of the time.

This all reminds me that Zach also had his 6 year check-up last week. Try not to fall off your chair in shock, but he's not big, either. Zach is not quite 45 inches tall, which puts him in the 37th percentile. Weight-wise, Zach was 43 pounds 6 ounces. Back in November he was up to 44 pounds, but when he got so sick this past spring, he dropped 5 pounds and is just now catching back up. It seems like my boys eat really well, so I don't know why they're always on the small side. I guess they have kick-ass metabolisms, like their dad. Lucky boys!

One last picture- Grandma Ruth and 3 of her 6 grandsons. It was great to have my mom's help while Mike was gone. Zach was really sad that Grandma would miss his Star Wars birthday party, but he was very happy she was here for a whole week. My dad had been here for a couple of days, too, before heading back to Colorado to check on the house and get some stuff done, and that was fun, too. Thanks for coming and especially for all the help!!