Water Boy

This week was full of fun little things including an overlapping Pi Day and Taco Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, mine and Dillon's engagement anniversary (also on March 17th), and a trip down south for family time.

Sawyer:

Sawyer goes a million miles a minute and flits from thing to thing and space to space like you wouldn't believe. Nap time and bed time are no small blessings. Daylight Savings this time around actually helped us out. Ever since we moved Sawyer to his new room, he has been getting up in the morning an hour and a half earlier than he used to but with the time change, his wake up time is about what it used to be. And he goes to bed at a decent time without putting up a fight. Winning.

His two-year-old molars are starting to come in. I kind of forgot about the more teeth thing so when I was brushing his teeth the other morning I was caught off guard to see a new tooth poking its way through his gums. Two have broken through and two are swollen and look sore. He seems to be taking it well though and his mouth doesn't seem to be bothering him.

He has the funniest habit when it comes to reading books. Before I had Dawson, I would read book after book to Sawyer in the mornings. We've had to shift book time and Sawyer has decided that immediately after his bath is when he should be read to but before he gets clothes on. There will be no getting dressed until books are read. So he sits his little self, wrapped only in a towel, on my lap (or Dillon's on weekends) and we read a few books; as many as we dare before we feel like we're pushing our luck with a non-potty trained, no-diaper toddler on our lap.

Sawyer really likes to point out his tiny finger freckle that I mentioned last week. He'll twist all of his fingers around looking for it until he remembers which one it's on and then gets excited and says, "Feck-a! Feck-a!" over and over. Only he says it with more of an "uh" sound and less of an "eh" sound. It's definitely one of his... sketchier sounding words.

He loves to play in water and would live in it if allowed. I've had to stop him a lot of times already from jumping into water in our backyard that has just sat all winter (like in a bucket and wheelbarrow we had out there) and looks like it would be full of amoebas. He always gives me a look like I've shattered his world when that happens so our park trip down to St. George was much needed. It has a water area that I'm sure is still riddled with germs like all public water/play areas but at least it looks clean.

Dawson:

Dawson is loooovving the sound of his own voice, and I love it too. He'll get into talkative moods and just babble endlessly. I've been using a layer of coconut oil followed by a layer of Eucerin on his skin and it's definitely helping the dryness. I was so glad for everyone's recommendations for sad, dry baby skin and will probably try some of the others. I just happened to have those two things on hand but I have to apply it in the morning and at night and oiling/lotioning a baby four times over everyday does get a little tedious.

Daylight Savings didn't really effect him because he has no schedule. Seriously, this baby does whatever he wants. It did seem to weirdly shift his night feeding a few hours earlier but he still only wakes up once so, no complaints here.

DaNae:

This week has been uneventful for me besides for the everyday and moments of play. I will say that I am absolutely losing my mind over our mattress cover. We need a deep pocket one, but I can't find one and the one we have pops off if we even dare wiggle our big toe during the night. It makes the sheets fall off and everything so our mattress ends up half bare by the end of the night (and then Dawson inevitably has a blowout on it). I really should just order something off Amazon but then I think we might as well wear out this cover, and then it falls off and I'm irritated all over again. Vicious cycle.

I'm also trying to finish up watching the seasons of House because Netflix keeps popping up threatening reminders that it's only there until April 1st. Dawson and I like to get a little of it in during his nighttime feeding which is usually good (because nursing is boring) but sometimes bad (because I sometimes watch for longer than I should after he's done.)

Dillon:

Dillon had big plans to take care of some spring cleaning in our backyard, but I convinced him to play instead because I'm a bad influence like that. I'm so glad that he's all over the yard work because it's probably my least favorite thing about having a house. 

He's got a March Madness bracket tournament going on through his work and isn't doing too shabby at all. He puts some actual thought into his choices though. The one time I've done a bracket we chose teams out of a hat for fun, which would probably be my go to method every time because I don't follow any of that. But I'm thinking he and I should start filling out brackets every year because it definitely makes these couple of weeks in March fun. 

Picnic outside with our pies and tacos..

Sawyer got his own teeny pecan pie and actually liked it which totally surprised me

Multigram from Instragram: Gettin' our green on 🍀 #thatchbros
Pic 1

Pic 2

We went back to Thunder Junction All Abilities Park and it was definitely time well spent. Sawyer was in heaven playing in the water.

This is the perfect example of Dillon's picture taking skills. He tries. And it always makes me laugh.

From Instagram: Pure joy #thunderjunctionallabilitiespark #SawyerD

These two have identical squinty-eyed outside faces that make them look constantly ornery even when they're having a good time.

 At the end of the day in St. George, after playing all day, we went to Braden's soccer game. After the game Braden was talking to Sawyer and sat down to be at his level. Sawyer was telling him about his finger freckle. While he talked to Braden, Sawyer coughed then gagged then threw up all over poor Brade (I'm thinking he had too many snacks?? because he was fine after that). It was so gross and so funny and I felt so bad but Braden handled it pretty well. Just stripped off his soccer stuff and got in his family's truck (while trying not to gag).

Chilling with the gramps

Not the best picture but another one of their identical outside frown face

Dawson Five Months

Dawson boy's fifth month was pretty chill. He really likes to play on the floor but prefers to be on his back. He'll do tummy time for a little while and then when he gets tired of it he either sweetly rests his head on the floor and waits, or he screeches to signal he's done. He never tries to roll. There was one time that he must have accidentally tipped over (which I thought was an intentional roll that I missed) and of course it was while he was doing tummy time in his crib while I got Saywer dressed, so he of course whacked his head on one of the bars. He was not pleased. But other than that he's cool with being immobile.

Going back to the screeching..it's awful. Anytime he's not happy, if he doesn't get what he wants IMMEDIATELY, he'll do this whine/screech thing and work his way into crying.

He's become more coordinated and discovered his hands. He'll stare and stare at them while he ever so slowly wiggles his fingers right in front of his face. Then he inevitably shoves them in his mouth to give them a good chew. 

He likes teethers and will basically treat them like a binky. He gnaws and sucks on them and with his new found coordination can hold them on his own (for the most part) which is nice. He's still a bit flaily though and will occasionally hit his own face with a teether. He's currently got the tiniest black eye because of it.

He loves to be thrown and bounced around. When we toss him in the air, he'll crunch his belly and limbs all together and scrunch his nose while he grins the biggest grin. I have a feeling he'll be my daredevil/stitches kid.

When he was still sleeping in his rock n play, he kept hooking his finger like this. The first time I saw it I thought it was stuck so I unhooked it for him. He immediately put it back without even opening his eyes. Comfortable, I guess.

The vitamins. Those things look like iodine and smell terrible. It's just been this month that Dawson has stopped gagging and crying when I give them to him. He's still not thrilled about it though.

Getting a little bouncing encouragement

I find him sleeping like this more often than not. Sometimes bent so far back, his little body almost makes a letter  'C'.

His cheeks are just so kissable, and I'm pretty sure weigh his bottom lip down. There's a lot of drool happening because of it. And this is like the third time I've shared this picture...but I like it.

Love & Sunshine

Sawyer:

Sawyer is such a little helper. He loves to help me switch over laundry and to unload the dishwasher. He especially likes to take care of the plates. He gets them out one at a time and stacks them on the floor. Then he picks up the whole pile and says, "Heeevy!" while he hands them up to me.

He'll follow me and Dillon around the house when he thinks we're going to do something that he can assist with and parrot, "hepping, hepping." He's also figured out that if he says he's helping, he's less likely to get in trouble, even if it's not the most helpful thing (like squeezing out the majority of my face moisturizer on the floor.)

This past week he's decided that his little brother is pretty cool and actually interacts with him. I took a million pictures because it was just so cute. He'll play on the floor with Dawson, talk to him while he's in his bouncer, give him toys, and constantly ask to hold him (and then actually hold him for a surprisingly long time.)

He's loved being able to go outside more this week, as have we all. He's gotten to go to the school playground a couple of times and it's crazy to me how much more he can do by himself than he could before winter. He climbs like crazy and goes down the big slides by himself. He even got to go on the big kid swings after I explained to him that he couldn't let go while I pushed. 

Dawson:

Dawson turned five months old this week and has a whole post all to himself that will be up soon. He likes to watch Sawyer do things and loves when his big brother interacts with him. He's getting all sorts of chubby with particular emphasis in his cheeks and forearms.

He's got crazy dry skin. It's not even really eczema like, though he'll occasionally get patches. It's just so, so dry. His poor little cheeks are so.. "crackily" is the best term I can think of. I've tried regular lotion, eucerin, vasoline, even lanolin. I need some suggestions. So seriously, if you read this, please comment and tell me any tips you have for dry skin.

Dillon:

Besides for his everyday work, Dillon also had to work at home fixing our heater that was freaking out. There has been some blasting (at some kind of mine?..I'm not real informed obviously) that makes our windows rattle and gives our house a good shake. It's made our house settle and the metal blades of the fan in our heater shifted so that when the heat kicked on they would hit the metal frame. It basically sounded like a rocket was trying to blast off in our house and obviously made it so that we couldn't run the heater. Which meant, cold. So Dillon, being the handy man he is, took off the panel and had to bend/file some places on the blades. It took some trial and error but we're good to go now.

Since the beginning of the year, Dillon and I have chosen some kind of health related goal to complete each month. This month Dillon proposed no sugar and no pop and he's rocking it. Me, not so much. I've done fine without pop but on about day four I was an angry sugar craving monster (clearly a sign that I really should be cutting back, maybe next month). I need my chocolate, dangit.


DaNae:

I gave up on one half of our month's health goal but I've finally improved to a decent speed on the treadmill. It's still a walking speed, not running, but it's finally what I would consider an actual "exercise" speed. My poor bones took a long time to recuperate this postpartum round so it was slow going getting back into a good groove.

I finally got to get outside and use the double stroller with the boys. It's a decent stroller for a cheapy but I think I'd like to invest in a more sturdy one that Sawyer could ride in for a longer amount of time. I'm definitely taking advantage of getting outside during this window of pleasant warmth before it gets to the level of face-melting hot.

Sawyer talking to Dawson during tummy time.

Sawyer patting Dawson on the back and pointing to the TV, "Show."

I left the room to go to the bathroom and came back to Dawson fussing and Sawyer doing this while saying, "Peek-boo!". "Yes buddy, peek-a-boo, Now take it off his face."

One of the many rounds of me holding Sawyer while he holds Dawson.

From Instagram: Oh hey sunshine 🌞 Finally warm enough for time outside! #thatchbros

Loving the playground by our house.

Patient baby while brother plays.

One of the 8 million selfies that end up on my phone if I leave it unattended.

Round two of the playground, this time Dad and Dawson got in on the action.

There are few things that bring more joy to Sawyer's life than the Jeep. He was in heaven helping Dillon give it a wash and playing in the water.

Me and Dawson soaked up some Vitamin D and watched the other boys do the hard work.

From instagram: Those cheekies ❤👶💋 #DawsonD

The conversation that goes with this picture:

Me: Look Sawyer, you've got a tiny freckle on your finger. Look at the cute freckle!

Sawyer: (tries to rub it off) Stuuuuck!!

Me: It doesn't come off buddy. It's part of your skin. Look at all of mom's freckles.

Sawyer: (checks out my arm freckles and rubs them ponderingly) Dirr-ee.

Yes dude. Perpetually dirty.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos! Sawyer gets more delight in shoving the marbles in the hippos' mouths and saying, "Eat!" as he does actually playing the game.

Dawson watching the marble chaos.

Transitions

Sawyer:

We finally got Sawyer's room put together (except for a few odds and ends) and moved him in. It looked really put together for exactly 0.2 seconds and then he basically pulled everything out of its original place. Not to play with any of it, just to make a mess. I thought it would be nice for him to have a space where we could put all of his stuff (and really it is) but now he just makes a mess in his room, makes a mess in Dawson's room, and pulls bits of those messes into various parts of the house. Guys, I'm tired.

As far as sleeping goes, he's done surprisingly well...at least at night. He's been in there a week now and has slept through the night and stayed in his bed except for one night when he creepily stood by the side of our bed until I noticed him. I thought I could hear his breathing but was nonplussed by it because my mom hearing is ridiculously sensitive. I hear it all. But then I heard, "Hhhhhu....Hhhhhu....Hhhhhu," right in my ear. After I flinched away and my heart started beating again, Sawyer still just stood there so I thought maybe he sleepwalked and said, "Are you even awake buddy?" To which he sweetly replied, "Up? Bed?" So he was awake. And had managed to make it from his room to ours in the pitch black without falling, bumping into anything, or crying. He calmly came with me as I walked him back to his room and put him back in his bed. And he stayed there the rest of the night.

Naptime is a whole different ball game. I have to lay him down around a half dozen times and then give him some mean mom threats before he'll stay in his bed and fall asleep. He still needs his nap and turns into a cranky little monster without it so I make sure he gets one.

Other than that, he's basically reached the pinnacle of two-year-oldness. I'm pretty sure I say the phrase, "Why are you crying?" a million times a day because he whine/cries A LOT. He wants to do things himself, but can't. Cries. I put on sneakers, he apparently wanted boots. Cries. I hold his brother and not him, which didn't bother him five seconds ago. Cries.

I love him. I do. And he's a good boy. This phase of life is just testing both of our limits.

Dawson:

Dawson finally got moved to his crib, for the most part. He's done semi-well with the transition. He's mostly just hit and miss with falling asleep initially. Sometimes I can lay him down and turn on his sound machine and he'll drift off on his own. Other times, he'll scream bloody murder until I rock him into drowsiness. Once he is asleep though, he generally stays asleep until his early morning feeding.

After his early morning feeding, he stays awake for awhile and is a loud (but happy!) little human. I tried laying him in his crib and he does fine. But he's wide awake and has found ways to make noise. While he lays on his back, he'll lift his legs so they're perpendicular to his body and then bring them down to thump the mattress...over and over and over. Or he babbles and talks or blows spit bubbles or... So out of desperation, I've been putting him in his bassinet in the family room where he isn't so easily heard. I really need to bite the bullet though and just put the bassinet away. I just really like my sleep.

Dillon:

Dillon has been putting in extra, extra hours at work and putting aside a cash stash for my birthday. My actual birthday fell on a Thursday so we didn't do much that day, but Dillon did re-arrange his work schedule so his early day would be on my birthday. He picked up a coconut cake (which was delicious!) and we grabbed food to eat at home. Then he arranged for the boys to play at my parents on Saturday so we could spend the day in St. George and shop. He was such a good sport as we went from store to store. He always seems genuinely happy to help me shop. I got a good one.

He also went in for a checkup on his shoulder and Dr. Clark was surprised by how well he's recuperating. Dillon has been doing stretches at home, and has been pretty diligent with them, which has paid off because Dr. Clark told him he's doing so well that he shouldn't need to do any in-office physical therapy.

DaNae:

I turned twenty-eight this past week. Twenty-eight. It's such an adult number, but I still get anxiety at the idea of being old enough to be "in charge" of anything major (good thing I'm a parent...). I've noticed crows feet and other skin wrinkles where there weren't any before. All in the name of aging. Bring it on.

Thanks to Dillon (and other family members' birthday gifts) I had a major shopping spree and I loved it. I've never officially looked into the whole "Love Language" business but I'm pretty sure mine is presents/stuff. How shallow. But it seriously lifted my mood to splurge some last week. I hit it all- new clothes, shoes, makeup, accessories...and I still did a little shopping for the boys, because I just can't help it.

Sawyer's room before...

And after...

From Instagram: That little hand ❤ #DawsonD

Playing outside during some warmish weather.

He's missed the outside broom; still as big of a hit as it was six months ago.

First night in his big boy bed.

I've just now noticed that I didn't take any pictures while shopping with Dillon, lame.