When it comes to children, one plus one does not equal two. Which is why I am so bad at updating this blog since Jameson has been born. I don't get as much free time and when I do I usually choose to spend it watching The Office on Netflix and eating food I don't have to share with anyone. To my credit, I was doing pretty good at updating Jameson's baby book, until like two months ago... I don't think I did his 9 month update and he turned 10 months on Saturday and I haven't done that either. What has really given me a kick in the pants to get on here and write is that I've been watching Jameson go through all of these things as he grows, and I have a really hard time remembering what Quinn was like at the same age. I have some memories but I am so, so glad I took time to write things down about her.
So, here is a bit of an update on us. We moved to Richland, WA in February. Kelly still works in Boardman. His commute is about 45 minutes. I've been teaching at Gold's Gym in Kennewick on Wednesday nights, with occasional subbing jobs in Richland and Kennewick. I love teaching classes again, and I'm so glad I am able to do it. I really thought I'd be giving up teaching when we moved to Boardman at the end of 2015, I just didn't see how it could work with the gym being so far, two kids, gas money, etc. A few months after the move, I had a change of heart and with Kelly's support I was able to continue to do something that I love. It is way easier to do it now that we live here, and I am planning on attending another teaching certification in June. It's definitely been harder to find time to practice choreography and prepare for classes but I feel so good when I get to lead a class through a workout and it's so much fun. I'm learning to find balance between my family and when to take time for myself. At the end of the day, I have to be able to take care of my family and that means missing classes when my kids are sick, or not going to the gym if I'm so tired that I'll just be more grumpy afterwards. But I love having a hobby, setting goals for it, and finding ways to get better at it.
Let's move on to the children.
We took a trip to Utah in December for Jackson's wedding. The kids did well on the drive down. Jameson did horrible on the drive back.
Christmas morning. We actually had a rather crappy Christmas this year. Really, the whole winter season was hard on us. The kids got sick the first week of December, which was awful. Quinn woke me up like every 30 minutes for a few nights when she'd cry and yell "I NEED A TISSUE!" Her nose was really runny and I had to keep wiping it for her. I don't know why she didn't just do what lots of other kids do and wipe it on her shirt, or her blanket, or anything really. I didn't care. I just wanted some sleep. I yelled at her one night to wipe her own nose. It's not that hard. Then Jameson got sick. And his nose was running so he slept horrible, too. No sleep for me. Then I got sick but it wasn't too bad because I know how to blow my nose. Then we were fine for a few days but we were traveling. We came home for two days and then we headed up to our Quincy on Christmas Eve but Kelly was really sick. I was sure that he had what the kids and I had had, and I kept telling people he had a man cold and he was just being dramatic. He stayed at his mom's on Christmas Eve while I took the kids to my parents house for some cookie decorating and then to his grandma's house for a family party. Christmas Day he still wasn't better. I took the kids to church, then to my parents for lunch, then to another family party that evening. Kelly wanted to go home so we packed everything up and we drove back to Boardman that night. A day or two later I got what Kelly had. And it was definitely worse. I was supposed to teach at the gym the next day. I felt horrible but I took a bunch of cold medicine and went, because I had missed three classes in a row due to the kids being sick, a blizzard, and then the wedding. About two weeks later, I got really sick AGAIN. I had a cough so bad that breathing felt like I was inhaling sand. I went to the doctor after about five days, and I had a sinus infection and a double ear infection. I hadn't been that sick since I first moved out of my parents house and I was really poor and probably malnourished living on ramen and cereal. I could hardly hear anything. Another week later and I was feeling better but my hearing kinda feels like it's still not 100% back.
During the month of February, Jameson got six teeth. He slept horrible. Then, as we were in the process of moving, he had a double ear infection. After his ears got better he slept great for about three days, and then for almost two weeks he slept horrible. And I'm not positive if this is why, but his pajamas had gotten really tight but I kept squeezing him into his fleece footie pajamas. The day that I put him into some cotton two piece pajamas he started to sleep better. The next day I went out and bought him bigger pajamas and he has been sleeping way better. He still wakes up two times during the night, around 2:00 am and then he wakes up at 6:00 and eats and then goes back to sleep. It finally feels like we are making our way out of the clouds. I really struggled for awhile with the lack of sleep. Parenting is hard. There are some really high highs, and some very low lows. After being up with him so much one night, I was considering driving to a hotel and leaving it all so I could be alone. I just really needed a nap. Sleep deprivation makes everything so much worse, which is why it is a form of torture to wake someone up over and over again just as they've fallen asleep.
Aren't they cute?
During the month of February, Jameson got six teeth. He slept horrible. Then, as we were in the process of moving, he had a double ear infection. After his ears got better he slept great for about three days, and then for almost two weeks he slept horrible. And I'm not positive if this is why, but his pajamas had gotten really tight but I kept squeezing him into his fleece footie pajamas. The day that I put him into some cotton two piece pajamas he started to sleep better. The next day I went out and bought him bigger pajamas and he has been sleeping way better. He still wakes up two times during the night, around 2:00 am and then he wakes up at 6:00 and eats and then goes back to sleep. It finally feels like we are making our way out of the clouds. I really struggled for awhile with the lack of sleep. Parenting is hard. There are some really high highs, and some very low lows. After being up with him so much one night, I was considering driving to a hotel and leaving it all so I could be alone. I just really needed a nap. Sleep deprivation makes everything so much worse, which is why it is a form of torture to wake someone up over and over again just as they've fallen asleep.
ANYWAYS, the kids are doing fantastic. And I love the crap out of 'em. I wish I had more recent pictures, but they are all on my phone and I don't want to take the time to put them all on the computer so you'll just have to wait until the next post. AND, I take way less pictures of Jameson than I did of Quinn when she was a baby. The stereotypes about the second child are all true in this house.
Quinn turned three one month ago. Three year olds are like tiny crazy people. She says some hilarious things but she also has like a million unexplainable emotions. Some days she just says and does the opposite of whatever I want her to do, on purpose. I try to remind myself that she is three and I am not. But she also does really funny things like she calls me "your majesty" which is perfectly ok with me. She got Candy Land for her birthday from my mom, and every day she asks Kelly and I if we want to play her "beautiful game." Kelly has had to teach her how the game works, that she can't get the ice cream cone or the lollipop card every time and that she can't get mad at us for drawing those cards instead of her. I'm glad he had the patience to teach her that, because when we'd play alone I'd just stack the deck so she'd get whatever she wanted but now she really grasps the game and even gets that the object is to get to the end before everyone else.
She loves everything that is girly. She wears a tutu every day. I bought her a pack of hair clips at target a few weeks ago and she will only wear her pink ones. The other colors just don't measure up. She also loves to color. She colors or paints with water colors every day, multiple times a day. Sometimes she asks us to color with her and we both get to try to color the same picture at the same time. She colors really well for her age. She can stay in the lines for the most part, which I still struggle with so good job, Quinn. She gets really excited when Jameson gets up for the day. They are starting to play together quite a bit and it's really fun to watch. She runs in circles around him and he laughs his head off. He likes to follow her around and get into whatever she's working on. They play in her room together a lot. Sometimes, she shuts him in her room so he can't get out and he cries. One day, I was just trying to go to the bathroom and I kept hearing him cry and I came out and she had shut him in his room with the light off. I was pretty mad. Another time, I got out of the shower and I heard him crying again and I kept yelling for her to stop doing whatever she was doing to him. I came out of the bathroom and found that she had put a laundry basket over the top of him and he couldn't get out, and she was just standing there, watching him struggle. That also made me mad. But for the most part, they play well together and I love that they are friends.
Jameson is a big sweetheart. He gives big, open mouthed kisses. He's done that since he was seven months old. He crawls over to me while he is playing just to sit on my lap for a minute and then he goes back to playing, sometimes looking over to make sure I'm still right there. I love his sweet disposition. He seems huge to me. He wears 12-18 month clothes. He weighs ~23 lbs according to my bathroom scale. He LOVES to eat. If you eat in front of him without sharing, he makes it clear that he wants some. He still nurses a lot, like every 3-4 hours. I am pretty sure when Quinn was this age she just ate before naps and bedtime. He will crawl over to me during the day and want to nurse. Quinn never really demanded to do that, she just ate when it was offered.
He gets into EVERYTHING. I know that he understands what "no" means, but I think he gets into stuff he knows he isn't supposed to because he knows I will come over and get him. We have three sets of vertical blinds in this apartment, which he loves to play with. When I tell him "no," he just looks at me and smiles and holds his arms out for me to come pick him up. If I don't come get him, he just keeps doing it, the little stinker. It's hard to get mad at him when he smiles at me like he does. I swear, his default expression is a big happy grin. Since he was 3-4 months old, if anyone looks at him, he smiles back. He's not afraid of strangers, he loves people. When Kelly comes home from work, Jameson will crawl over and pull on his pant leg. So cute. There was something else I wanted to say about him but I can't remember and I've got to wrap this up because I told Quinn we'd go to the park today and I still need to shower. Hopefully I don't go as long between posts next time.
