Good night sleep tight!

Ahh sleep, normally bedtime is something I look forward to. The past several months when it gets past 5 pm I get nervous wondering what "excitement" the night will have.

There is a saying that no 2 babies are the same, no 2 pregnancies, births and ect. I agree with this, but I am shocked at how different my 3 kids sleep.

I wanted to post a 6 month photo of each of them and I thought I would include a little bit about how they slept at 6 months old. Whenever I am out in public the one thing I hear repeatedly is how much alike or related the kids look.

Andrew was my super sleeper.  He loved to sleep, I had rule to not let him nap over 3 hours at a time. Yes, he would take 3 hour naps and sleep really good at night.  He woke up a little to eat and then would sleep some more. Andrew seemed to thrive on a schedule, you could set your watch by him. It was tough at times because he did not handle getting his nap interrupted or bed time pushed back very well.  At 6 months old he liked going to bed at 6:45 pm and would sleep until 7 am and then take 2 naps a day.  I had so much free time during his naps, I often got bored wanting him to wake up so we could play. When I would read about how much sleep your baby needs, Andrew would often add another hour to that grand total number. I knew he was a excellent sleeper.  After 3 months Andrew never really slept in the carseat and would get very mad if it was nap time or bedtime and he was in the car. This excellent sleeping lasting until he was 3 years old.  I think he logged all of those sleeping hours and saved them and is cashing them in now, because he needs very little sleep and has a hard time giving in and letting his body go to sleep.

Lily was my night owl, she preferred staying up late. However she was excellent at going to sleep I did very little "sleep training" so she didn't really cry it out much at night or naps. She was and still is very flexible.  She never logged as many sleeping hours as Andrew did but she slept through the night at 3 WEEKS old! She was not the best napper but did still does good.  Some days she goes down early for nap at 11:30 and other days at 1:30. She can also miss a nap and not fall apart :) Lily did not like the carseat at about 3 weeks old she screamed every time she was in it and never would sleep in it. Overall Lily was such a flexible easy sleeper. I hope she will keep her naps past 3 years old and not drop them like Andrew did.


And then there was 3.....

My favorite line that people tell me is "Isn't the 3rd baby supposed to be so easy, and laid back?" hahaha is my response.

Actually Will is very flexible and maybe a little too flexible.  Since turning 6 months old I have been able to transition Will to a 7 pm bedtime.  This has been nice, and I could tell he needed it.  He still not sleeping through the night. Yep, for the past 6 months he has gotten up at least 2 or more times in the night 95% of the time.  Most nights he wakes up at 12, 2, 4,6 and 8 am to get up. I know I lucked out with the first 2 kids sleeping great but I can honestly say I was not prepared for this. I am amazed at how well (or at least I think I can function) on sleeping in 2 hour chunks for a extended period of time. Will is my best car ridding baby, he loves to nap in the carseat. Sometimes this is great other times I am amazed at how fast he can power nap.  I remember friends telling me about the dreaded car nap that messes up night time or nap time and never really getting it because my kids never slept in the car. Well now I get it. Naps are really short for Will he has a hard time going back to sleep after the 45 REM cycle. I am thankful that he can handle his morning nap to be short and in the car on the go, since that is what has to be done some times.

We currently are at the stage where I am trying really hard to be home at 6 pm and start the bedtime routine with him. It stinks to leave things early, but I can tell it is really helping Will, and I am so tired that I don't care :) I affectionately call Will my baby that never sleeps. I can tell that is hopefully changing soon.

I know why there are 100's of baby sleep books for sale, because every family, and baby are unique  and different.

Well they all 3 are adorable and look like their own unique self but still very related.  I love all 3 of the kids will all of my heart and before I know it they will be big kids that I am dragging out of bed in the morning to take them to school.

I am secretly hoping next month I will have discovered some hidden secret trick that gets Will to sleep through the night :) For now I can relate to the mom who had a baby with colic, and that didn't sleep through the night, and hopefully encourage her that is was a short time frame in the big picture and that it gets better.

Rocking and Rolling into 6 months

Will turned 6 months old last Saturday! He has been very busy during month 5 of his life, he got 2 teeth, can now rock on his hands and knees, do a plank position, do a army crawl where he throws his body forward and two days before he turned 6 months old he mastered this...

Sitting up.  Will now gets a new view of his world.  It amazes me how I will work with him (or the other kids) to do something (like sit up, crawl, walk and ect.) and it seems impossible that they will ever master it and then one day they sit up all by themselves like they have done this their whole life.

On Saturday the day Will turned 6 months old he got to try rice cereal with milk.

This is all Will likes to do in the bumbo seat, try to fall out and try reach things. He does not like this seat.

 Here we are all excited to see if he will like it, he has been very interested in the food on my plate lately. Lily and Andrew were close by to cheer him on.

 Aww look at the sweet face.  He took it well and even swallowed a bit or two.

 A sweet smile.

 He loved the spoon.

 Watching Will eat got Andrew hungry, so he was eating sun chips and enjoyed getting his picture taken with food too.

 Here I am saying "open up."

Latter that night we went to a party and I told all my friends how much Will liked food and how well it went, because it did.  The next day I try to give him rice cereal and he refuses to open his mouth at all, the same thing happened the next day.  Then I gave him bananas and he gaged when his tongue tasted them.

On Thursday we went to my parents house to watch the Tech game and I let Will try cucumber and he loved it, on Saturday he still loved it. I think liking cucumbers is a genetic trait passed on to the kids. I hope Will continues to love cucumber like his big brother and sister do.  He also tolerated 2 bites of peas. I guess Will wants to stay my baby for a little longer :)

Will's eyes have completely turned brown.  They are a beautiful dark brown color, just like his Daddy's.

 His expression doesn't show it but Will loves to fly and bounce.

It seems like each week Will stays happy on the floor longer and longer.  He is at the frustrated of wanted to crawl but not there yet.  He knows which toys are his which ones aren't, he will find a way to move to get to Andrew or Lily's toys or shoes and paper left on the ground. Will still enjoys snuggles but more often now I find him wanting to get down on the floor and explore.

Will loves to talk and coo and is smiling a lot more now. Hopefully I can capture more of these adorable grins on the camera.

At the doctor appointment Will weighted 18 pounds 54% and is 26.5 inches long (24%)

Boys vs. Girls

No boys allowed in my room, according to Lily.  Andrew has recently become very aware of girl toys, movies and ect. and boy things. He now often refuses to play something that is "girly" or watch a girl movie.

Lily got a girly journal in her happy meal, Andrew was torn, he really wanted to write in it but it was pink and purple. I found a blue "boy" notebook around the house for him to use. The kids were sitting next to each other drawing and I thought it was cute how girly Lily looked and Andrew was in his cement truck shirt.  Lily is picking up on all of this too. One day she told me she doesn't like cars and trucks because they are boys she likes dolls. It is so funny when they fight over what is boy and what is girl stuff. I noticed at Andrew's preschool open house that he is not friends with the girls in his class, he even told me not to talk to a sweet little girl when I was there with him.  Thankfully Anna and Clementine are still considered close friends.

 All boy

 All girl

 Lily loves her phone, it looks like a iPhone and is the same color as my phone.  Here she is taking my picture with her phone, telling me to look into the phone.  Bobby and I laughed at how this is something we would have never played as a child.  It is also funny when the Andrew will tell me text someone.

 Lily loving on Will.  Lily loves to play, care and boss Will around.

Will has been doing this for 2 weeks! I still can't believe he is 6 months old now and trying really hard to crawl.  I can't wait to post his 6 month pictures latter this week after his doctor appointment!

Preschool!!!!

I can't believe I just dropped Andrew off at preschool! That means next year it will be kindergarten!!! Oh my! He really is growing up so fast.  

Here is the run down of this morning.  In my head I had imagined us waking up having a fun special breakfast and enjoying the morning.  Well I overslept and I woke up at 8:15 to Lily telling me she was awake.  By 8:30 I get Andrew up, sleepy eyed because we haven't been getting up until around 8:30 or 9 most days this summer.  Both he and Lily want to wear costumes to school. Umm no so there was a little clothing battle.  Andrew decides to eat a few bites of dry cereal and drink water for breakfast. That was defiantly not the nutritious meal I had envisioned.  Then there was back pack drama.  I have been looking everywhere for his Thomas the Train back pack we had it last week and now it is lost. So he had to use his other backpack that he doesn't like because he calls it a baby back pack.

This face it hilarious, although lets be honest it wasn't the smoothest morning for us.  Thankfully and juice box, cookie and pretzel chips in his lunch brought a smile to his face.

Lily wanted to be in every picture and Andrew wanted Mr. Bunny a wash cloth puppet we use when bathing Will, to be in the picture too.

 My big boy getting in the car. On the way to school he made it very clear to Lily and I that we are not allowed to do girl things while he is at school.  We were instructed to play trains in his room and then play legos and we could only play boy dolls (I have no idea what that means).  Obviously Andrew heard me talk to other about how I was looking forward to some girl time with Lily while Andrew is at school.

 We made it to school!

Lily wanted her picture taken too. There happens to be a girl in Andrew's class named Lily.  Lily ran into Andrew's class before he was able to, thankfully she didn't mind walking out with me.  When we got home I put Will down for a nap and I asked Lily what she wanted to play in her room and she demanded trains.  We settled on coloring in her princess book while hiding in her room from Captain Hook.

I hope when I pick Andrew up this afternoon he will tell me a little bit about what he did today.  Last year he always seemed to forget by the time he walked to the car! Oh little boys!

Camo cuties

Here are some fun pictures from last week.

 The past couple of week Andrew has been playing with his trains again.  I love making train tracks and playing trains, so I am enjoying it too.

 Lily wearing her butterfly costume from last halloween, playing with the pirate telescope and doing the exercises she watches me do with the paper plates. Lily has many interests.

 Look at those adorable arm rolls!

 We got to cousin Ava a couple of times!

 We tried to stay cool in these 100+ temps.  Our YMCA pool is closed now so we will be utilizing the kiddie pool for a while.

 A cool shot of Will in the sunshine.  Since he is just a few days away from turning 6 months old I put sunscreen on him.  I was nice to not have to worry as much about the sun.

 Lily all wrapped up in her princess blanket that Nana made her.  Right now anything pink or purple is considered to be princess according to Lily.

 Horsey rides.  Football season has started.  So we will be at Mimi and Gramps house a lot watching the good guys beat the bad guys (according to Drew).  When we watch football there is usually some wrestling or horse ridding that happens to during commercials.

 Camo cuties!  My cousins son's Zack ad Evan turned 1 and they had a Duck Dynasty party at the Little Gym.  I love how Bobby and Will's camo match.  I think I am one of the only people in Texas that has not seen Duck Dynasty, since we don't have cable. I will catch up whenever it makes it on to Netflix.

 These 2 are adorable.  Andrew was sad he didn't have a camo shirt, but I told him he was wearing a hunting shirt.  I pulled out Andrew's box of 2T clothes to find a pair of short for Lily since she doesn't usually wear camo.

 Rolling around in bed while I was trying to get a picture of him smiling, which is becoming nearly impossible.

Drew and Lily have a new game they play, they take the bins off the shelves to Andrew's bed and they crawl up there usually with pillows and blanket and pretend they are sleeping on a boat.  I love that Bobby makes furniture so sturdy that I don't even thing about the fact that 50+ pounds are on the shelf.

This was Bobby's first week home all week at night.  It was kinda weird him going to bed at around 10 or 11 in order to wake up at 6 am. We all loved having him around at night to help with bed time.