Jack: 8 Months + Max: 3.5 Years

Max had a half birthday the other day and Jack just turned 8 months so it's time for a post! We are having a pretty great summer over here, at least when I can get past the fact that everything takes way longer than it should, requires way more crap than it should and involves way more patience than it should, ha!

Jack had another big month- officially crawling around everywhere, mostly army crawling but that kid is fast I'll tell ya! Not surprisingly, crawling seems to have made him happier because now he can move around everywhere and steal all of Max's toys. Max is not amused about the toy stealing but he isn't holding a grudge and seems to love Jack more and more every day. But he will grab his toys back every time.




Jack is interested in EVERYTHING, he wants to touch everything and put everything in his mouth. While he is interested in toys (particularly Max's toys), he also really enjoys cords, red solo cups and our fireplace (obviously not on). He still watches everything Max does and loves if Max (or anyone else really) is being silly. Jack is not yet interested in books, other than eating them... which is always fun. There is literally no food he will not try (and enjoy). So far I think his favorites food is pickles, which is so funny because I have always hated pickles and give Eric mine, now Eric has competition.

He is doing a lot of babbling and laughing these days. He says ba ba, da da and most recently ma ma! Unlike his brother who LOVED (and still loves) being thrown up in the air, he gives a skeptical look whenever Eric tries. He likes the car more than his brother did at this age, but he is still not a good person to bring on a road trip. He doesn't sleep for that long in the car even if it's nap time (I think because he prefers to sleep on his tummy) and when he wakes up he will only give between 15 and 30 minutes or so before he starts to yell. Just like his brother, music helps, especially 90s rap and hip hop. Don't ask how we discovered this ;)

Likes: crawling, blowing raspberries, eating everything

Dislikes: when I'm in the room but someone else is holding him, staying still (especially if the car stops moving in traffic or at a red light)

Eating: at least 2 solid food meals a day (usually 1 fed to him and 1-2 he feeds himself), nursing 4-5 times a day ish... I don't really know since he's not really on a schedule

Sleeping: 8pm bedtime, wakes up around 7-7:30... sometimes sleeps through, sometimes cries randomly during the night...I really have no idea what this child is thinking half the time. Starting to transition down to 2 naps per day, one at about 9am and the other at about 1-2pm, most naps around 1-2 hours long.

See how happy this guy is at restaurants?




Jack's big brother Max is a pretty different kid than he was a year ago- or even six months ago! Unless tired or hungry, he handles transitions pretty well now. I think I went through about a month this spring where I typed a picture schedule for him on my phone, and eventually he just didn't even ask for it anymore but would leave the house without a big fight. Thankfully! Another huge change is how social and interested in other kids he has become! Yesterday we took him to a museum and there was a small, dark room with probably 10 loud kids in it. He went right in and was laughing and playing along with all of them. Hard to believe he's the same kid who told me last summer at library storytime, "there are too many kids here, let's go home!" A combination of these two changes made his first day at camp last week a smooth one. He will only go 2 or 3 days this summer but we just wanted him to remember the routine of school/camp so September isn't too hard!



But don't worry, not everything has changed with Max! He still loves ice cream and books, walks on his tip toes and owns every truck he could ever need. He loves to "fix" things, do puzzles (yay!) and go on adventures. Every night he asks, "where are we going to go tomorrow?" He is still unbelievably sweet and unbelievably stubborn, all at once.



His love for adventure seems to extend to amusement park rides. His current favorite is the ferris wheel that he got to ride at the town carnival. I don't think he's been on a ride he didn't love. He has become a bit more cautious about swimming. He doesn't want to jump in anymore and he requires a bit of pushing to actually put his head underwater. He also is a little hesitant about animals- he refused to touch a lobster on our boat ride the other day and he will only pet a dog with some prompting. He's interested in them though!



He still brings a ridiculous number of items to bed with him and sometimes even sleeps cuddling up with his helicopter ;)


He learned how to open the gate from his room so we took it off a month or so ago. Now he comes downstairs every morning with a new story that he has usually made up. He continues to love routine, especially his beloved 3 story bedtime routine, followed by hugs, pretending to be pillows and "sleeping together" for 5 minutes... though lately 5 minutes has changed each time from 1 minute to 100 minutes to the made up time of "twenty boohaken" minutes. Then, we stand at the door (or one of us depending on who is doing bedtime), he takes a sip of his water and hugs his doggies. Then Eric says, "see you tomorrow!" and he says "tomorrow is a home day!" and then we either say it is or "it might be a school day." Since it's summer now, he says "where are we going to go tomorrow?" and we usually tell him if we have a plan yet. Good times at our house between 7 and 8pm!

I could really go on forever about Max because he has such a personality these days. He has so many interests and fascinating things that he says, half the time we don't even know where he comes up with it. Yesterday I came downstairs and he randomly complimented my shirt. He is obsessed with states and says his favorite state is Texas and second favorite state is Maine. We will likely still be changing his diaper when he is 16. He has been interested in letters and numbers for over a year now, but he's now asking me what words say. He is SO enthusiastic about everything and that just makes it SO much fun to do things with him. He's possessive of his toys. He can be wild and crazy but he still really needs his down time- watching tv, reading books and playing by himself. He loves big kids. He is ALWAYS thinking.

Alright, that's enough for now. Can you tell I love these kids?