Jackson- 3 months old!

Tuesday marked Jackson's "12-week old birthday". Wow...his personality has really developed over these last few weeks from "newborn fussy" to "content, happy baby". It seems that both he and Lily were fairly fussy in the first few weeks until their vision improved, and now it's a whole new world! I have determined I have very curious and energetic children that want to be a part of the world...and NOW!

Jackson is now cooing and having "conversations" with us all the time. He loves his activity mat...especially the star that lights up in the middle and enjoys smiling and cooing at it. He is batting at the birds that dangle from it as well. He has excellent head control and does great with tummy time. As I have mentioned before he LOVES looking up. In fact, it is difficult to get a picture with him of his head upright without him arching backward toward the ceiling! He has also figured out that Daddy has two deer heads hanging on our wall. He loves to smile at them and has a look of concentration as if to suggest he is thinking, "Now how do I get one of those?!" I think Justin is enjoying his son's interest!

We are really enjoying all of his grins and occasional giggles. Jackson is completely enamored with his big sister Lily. Every time she enters the room, he follows her with this eyes and loves her attention.

We have no doubt that once he figures out his crawling coordination, he will be GONE! I'm thinking we may need to baby-proof our house a little more this time around :-)

Enjoy a few recent "happy Jackson" pictures!

9 weeks

11 weeks

the Elf on the Shelf

On Lily's birthday, Grandma B. brought over this wonderful book. It comes in a kit with a little stuffed Elf.
In reading the book, you learn that the Elf is one of Santa's helpers sent to your house every day until Christmas Eve to watch and listen to you and report back to Santa every night what he has seen and heard to determine if you have been bad or good that day.
You are to name your Elf and go onto the website to register him for your family.
You cannot touch the Elf or he "loses his magic" and will not be able to report back to Santa nightly.
Lily just LOVES this Elf. His name is "Elmo" and she talks to him daily.
The kicker of this book for the parents is that the Elf flies to the north pole nightly and returns back to your house by the morning. So....he has to be in a new spot every night!! It has been quite funny the panic this little Elf has caused Justin and I when we have forgotten to move him.
In fact, earlier this week we did forget!
Lily walked in the living room and said: "Daddy, the Elf did not move!"
Justin replied: "He didn't? (nervous pause) Well, maybe he got tired and just wanted to go back to his old spot! Hey Lily, did you remember to turn your light off downstairs?"
Lily: "No"
Dad: "Well, go turn it off please."
(Justin quickly moves the Elf)
Lily returns: "Daddy, he moved!!!"
Dad: "He did?!?"

Here are a few places "Elmo" has been in our house so far:



This will be such a fun tradition for years to come. And I know Lily and Jackson will be on their toes every year as to where "Elmo" will be next. Thankfully, Mommy & Daddy have smartened up and set alarms on our cellphones so we don't forget! (Thank you technology!)
And thank you Grandma B. for introducing us to a new fun activity for the Christmas season!

Lily's 4th Birthday- Princess Party!

Last Saturday, Lily celebrated her 4th birthday! She is such a big girl now and we are enjoying watching her personality develop.
We celebrated with a princess/dress-up party! All the kids were invited to dress up in their favorite costume. Aunt Sarah B. and her friend Jennifer were both "Princesses" for the day and did a fantastic job leading a couple of games (find the "poison apple", freeze dance, and hot (potato) "slipper"). The kids LOVED having the princesses there. Lily didn't know what to think seeing her Aunt Sarah all dressed up with her princess attire!
Aunt Sarah from California was in town as well and she painted all the kids' faces. They also decorated their own crowns to take home.
Grandma B. sent them off with fabulous gift bags that she made with their names on them.
Lily continuously thanked us for the "wonderful party" and she is still talking about all the fun she had!
Happy Birthday Lily! We love you, Princess!

Jackson the Electrician?

Jackson is now 10 weeks old! My how time has already flown by.
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed he has a new "friend". He has a minor obsession with one of the can lights in our living room. And when I call the light a "friend", I mean it. He is ALWAYS looking up at it, smiling at it, and has recently started cooing at it!
We are not sure what the fascination is with the light, other than the contrast of the dark center to the light ceiling.
Makes me wonder what he is thinking? We might have a future Electrician on our hands!

Jackson's first smile!

Jackson started smiling at 5 weeks old. He is so precious. It has been difficult to get the moment on camera and I was finally able to with my phone at 6 weeks. What a challenge!
He is such a big boy! He has already exceeded Lily's weight at 8 weeks by 2 lbs. Solid, chunky boy! He also grunts all the time. Don't know where he got this from, but it's hilarious! Apparently, his Uncle Chris and Daddy have now nicknamed him "Grunt". Poor guy :)
He is picking up his head really well and enjoys being on his tummy.
I am looking forward to his 2 month visit to see how much he has grown. He is almost out of his 3 month clothes and moving on to 6 months!
We are really enjoying watching Jackson grow. He is such a joy.

Lily's 1st hunting trip

After church on Sunday, Justin decided to take Lily on her first "hunting" trip. Boy, was she excited! She had a whole list of things to do to prepare. First, we had to coordinate a "dark-colored" outfit for her since she doesn't have any camo...yet. We chose a brown sweat suit and a black top. It was very important to Lily that she was in all dark clothing so the "deer would not see me".
Next on the list was coordinating the snacks and entertainment. I mean, what is hunting if you cannot eat and watch a movie, right? Right. So, she received some fruit snacks at Grandma's house that she transferred to a "quiet" bag so as not to disrupt the deer while chomping on her snacks. She made sure to have Justin charge the DVD player so that she could listen "quietly" to her movie with headphones while waiting for the deer to arrive.
It was amazing to me to watch her get so excited about this trip. Since I did not grow up with hunting in my culture, it was a new experience to see my own flesh-and-blood get excited about something other than shopping :-)
As you can tell by now, this was not a "true" hunting excursion for Justin. He was prepared to come home early if needed and just make this trip about her experience. What a great dad he is.
When they came home after dinner, Lily was asleep. In fact, she was so excited she did not take a nap all day, so she was OUT! I didn't get to talk to her about her experience until this morning. When I asked her what her favorite part about going hunting with Daddy was, she replied, "spreading the corn, watching a movie, and eating my fruit snacks". I guess one out of three odds isn't too bad! :-)
Justin said she had a great time and although Justin spotted a couple of deer and alerted Lily, she was too busy watching "Annie" to notice.
Looking forward to many more successful hunting stories to share!

Lily the big sister

Jackson just turned 6 weeks old and Lily has been having a great time with her new little brother! I anticipated that she would be quite the helper, but of course you never know until the baby arrives what will actually be the case.

I have to say...thankfully, I was right!

Lily is fantastic. Every time I need to change Jackson's diaper, she is right there racing me to the changing table to get his diaper for me. She even runs to get her step-stool so she can watch the whole diaper-changing process. When he is crying in the other room, she goes to "calm him down" (as she likes to say). His crying doesn't seem to irritate her and it's very funny to hear her voice jump up about 3 octave levels when she speaks to him. Apparently, that's how you talk to a baby!

Yesterday was my 6 week checkup at the doctor. I had asked Justin to come, but then decided I could handle it on my own. Big step on my part. Jackson does not like being awake in his carseat right now. In fact, he REALLY does not like it. So, here we are in the doctor's office and Lily is "in charge" of Jackson. I had to laugh at myself as I was giving her instructions. The fact that she is almost 4 years old, yet I talk to her as if she were 10 does surprise me at times. She was supposed to rock his car seat AND hold his pacifier for him so he did not spit it out. This was all while she was eating a sucker that one of the nurses had given her. Honestly, I did not think she could handle it. I had given her a lot of tasks and figured I was just going to resolve to the fact that I would have a screaming baby in the exam room. Well...she did it! When my midwife came in, she was shocked that Lily was so responsible, caring, and affectionate toward her little brother.

I know there will be times coming that I will be blogging on sibling rivalry, but for now, I am very happy that Lily loves her baby brother and they are bonding as siblings.

Announcing Jackson Lee!

My sister created this and I just couldn't wait to post it. It's so creative and just perfect!
Thank you Aunt Sarah for creating this wonderful announcement for Jackson!

Pumpkin Patch

Today was Lily's trip to the Pumpkin Patch with her Preschool. Her director holds this at her house every year. She has a huge property in northern Independence that she sets up yearly with a S'mores pit, kettle corn station, pumpkin patch, playground area, and maze. They even have cows wandering around as well. Lily had a blast and got to see a few of her new friends as well!

Here she is in one of her Halloween outfits...and brother Jackson too!

Check out this face! Can you tell she was excited to get on the hayride?!

In the Pumpkin Patch

In front of the S'mores pit

With her pumpkin of choice

New Preschool

On Monday, Lily started a new preschool....Sycamore Hills Baptist Preschool. She will be attending Monday/Wednesday, half-days. This transition came after I went on maternity leave, as the school is closer to home and more convenient for our schedule. We visited last week when Grandma L. was here and she got along well with the teacher and kids in her class.

We are excited for Lily as she meets new friends and develops new relationships.

We are headed to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday! More pictures to come.

Jackson Lee has arrived!

We had quite a surprise earlier this week when I started having contractions (almost 2 weeks before my due date) on Monday night and we went into the hospital only to determine it was a "false alarm". We came back home and got some rest only to have the contractions start up again at 5:45am on Tuesday morning. Only this time it was the real thing!
We decided to drop Lily off at daycare and then head to the hospital...after a shower and throwing some last-minute things together. It was about 6:45am when we left the house...near "prime-time" for traffic on a Tuesday morning. By the time we dropped Lily off at daycare at 7:00am, I was having MAJOR contractions- about 2 every 5 minutes and it was still at least a 20 minute commute (or more given the traffic) for us to the hospital. We didn't make it to our hospital of choice (St. Luke's- Plaza) and stopped off at another one on the way (St. Luke's East- Lees Summit). By this time, my water broke and we were headed to the labor & delivery room.
The nursing staff was fantastic at getting us to a room right away- I was dialated to a 5 and 80% effaced. We checked in at 7:10am and after exactly 3 hours of labor, I delivered our son, Jackson Lee Bolinger at 10:10am.
His statistics: 8 lbs. 6 oz. 20" long

We are overjoyed with our new arrival and Lily is so happy to finally be able to hold and kiss her new baby brother.
Welcome to the world, Jackson Lee! We love you and are so happy you are here!

Sibling Class

Last night, Lily attended a Sibling Class at the hospital to prepare for her new brother.

This class was geared towards siblings between 3-9 years old and gave many helpful age-appropriate tips on how to handle the babies and what to expect. She was taught how to hold the baby and what not to give them (i.e. keys, coins, and other small objects). She also watched a silly video about diaper changing and her important job of being a "Big Sister".

The nurse instructing the class provided each child with a little stuffed duck to wrap and put in a basket at the nurses' station until the baby arrives. Once I have the baby, Lily will go with the nurse to get her gift for her brother and give it to him. Great idea and what a great way to involve Lily in the celebration of her new brother!

We got to tour the mother/baby unit and Lily got to see one of the rooms where I might be staying. We also got to see a baby in the nursery through the window. Lily was sure to ask the nurse what the "low-jack" band was for on the baby's foot. She also wanted to know why one of the other babies was crying in the background when they were checking weight/vitals/etc.

Overall, this was a great class and a wonderful opportunity for Lily to be involved in welcoming her new brother soon!

On the way home, Lily talked about how she was ready to be "Mommy's helper". I'm ready for that too!

AWANA

Last week, Lily started AWANA's at our church. She is currently in the 3-4 year old "Cubbies" class.

We have been so excited for her! I explained to her earlier on in the week what AWANA's was all about and she kept saying "Mommy...I'm so excited for Iguana's!" :-)

Our church offers a great program for the kids and Lily is all set with her blue "Cubbies" vest, her booklet with Bible verses to memorize, and she brings her Bible. In her class, they incorporate games, puppets, crafts, and awards as a way of encouraging them to learn God's Word.

Her first two Bible verses were "Jesus Loves Me" and "God loved us and sent his Son". She had those down by the second day and has been repeating them throughout the week.

Her Daddy and I look forward to seeing how she grows in her knowledge of and love for God throughout the year in AWANA!

Here's a picture of our "Cubbie"!

Transition to Big Girl room

This week, I decided it was time that we transition Lily officially from her "baby" room into her "big girl" room. I am currently 33 weeks pregnant, so we only have 7 more weeks to go until baby brother is here!

We finished moving her clothing into her closet, and the room has been decorated in her owl theme. I blogged about her new bedding a while back:
http://lilymb.blogspot.com/2010/04/big-sister.html
It's just adorable. She has owl, tree, and bird decals on her wall and I have caught her, on occasion, talking to them. She loves her new "big bed" and the fact that she can now have multiple stuffed animals, or "babies" as she refers to them, in bed with her...comfortably.

The first night of transition, I have to admit, I was anxious. I decided to sleep downstairs on the couch just in case there would be multiple ups and downs. I figured...better to be downstairs than climbing up and down while I'm half asleep!
We did our normal bedtime routine, then Lily said "Mommy, I'm really tired. I'm going to sleep." She asked me if I was going to stay downstairs and I told her I would, so I'm thinking that was of some comfort to her. Then I tucked her in and that was it!
I went upstairs and got ready for bed and when I came down, she was out. I just watched her for a few minutes...my little 3 1/2-year-old in a full-size bed with her owl stuffed animals (Penny & Joy) tucked under the covers right next to her.
She is really growing up.

The next morning she did not want to get out of bed! She insisted that Daddy come downstairs and see her in her "big girl bed" before she got up. We congratulated her on a successful night in her new room and she has been looking forward to it every night since! Who would have thought it would have been this easy!? Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon....

Baby Brother Shower Weekend!

This past Saturday, my friend Ashley put on a wonderful baby shower for our little boy to come. What a wonderful shower! It was in the sea turtle theme of his room, complete with octopus cupcakes! We had a brunch with very tasty food, and Lily was graciously given many "Big Sister" gifts to open! There were family and friends there to celebrate with us. Lily even had some little girls to play with at the shower as well: her cousin Maryanna, and friends Ava and Holly.

We also were blessed to have some of our California relatives out for the celebration as well! Grandma, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Liz, and cousins Allison and Kristin flew out for the event. There were a lot of ladies in our house and boy did Lily have a blast! She got her nails done by Aunt Sarah, and hair done by cousin Kristin. It was a great weekend of "girl time".

Enjoy some pictures of the shower and the fun weekend:

The gifts to the right of Lily were all for her! She was spoiled with all sorts of "Big Sister" gifts!

Wearing her "Big Sister" sticker proudly!

With the girls: cousin Maryanna, friends Ava & Holly, and Lily

With the Bolinger family- Aunt Carissa, Aunt Sarah, and Grandma

With our California family- cousin Allison, Aunt Liz, Aunt Sarah, Grandma, and cousin Kristin

With hostess Ashley

Something I don't want to forget..

I'm currently in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Needless to say, the moments of aches & pains/tiredness/crankiness/etc. have become more frequent. This pregnancy, I have had sciatic nerve problems among other issues, and it seems this time around has been overall more difficult than Lily's pregnancy.

Anyway, the reason for my sharing that information is that Lily has been observing every move I make. If I am sitting on the couch, exhausted, she will come up to me and give me a hug. When I am grabbing my back or leg in pain, she is right there giving me little pats or rubbing my back.

I just can't help but wonder, are most 3 1/2 year olds this observant and emotionally-connected to their parents' needs? Is this just her personality or do most little ones react this way?

I have loved every moment of this and it just warms my heart every time she asks me "Are you OK, Mommy?". She is such a sweet, loving little girl and even though my temper throughout this pregnancy has been short (sad to say...many times), it has not seemed to phase her much. Typically, I will apologize to her if I know my frustration is due to pregnancy and not her behavior and she will just respond, calmly, "It's OK, Mommy".

I'm looking forward to watching her grow and interact with her baby brother soon. I know she will be very attentive to him (possibly more than I am ready for :), but most of all, affectionate and loving. And that's more than I can hope or ask for.

Leo Carrillo Beach Trip

Last week, we had our annual beach camping trip to Leo Carrillo Beach. This was our group's 29th year! It was such a fun time of hanging out with old friends, family, and watching our kids get to play together.

Of the MANY kids that were there, there were about 5 girls including Lily- ranging in age from 3-7 years old that played so well together.

Emily & Lily

In addition to the hours of beach time they spent together, we had a manicure/pedicure morning put together by moms Katie & Liz, and face painting from Kenny.

Manicure/Pedicure time with Kalynn, Brooklynne, Emily, and Lily

Butterfly face painting from Kenny

Mrs. Swete also went out with the other grandmas during the week and bought the girls matching butterfly swimsuits. Adorable.

Matching beach babes- Brooklynne, Kalynn, Emily, & Lily

Of course, we also had lots of fun together as a family. Sam and Aunt Sarah ended up with a stomach bug so we did not get to spend as much time with them this trip :-( As usual though, there is always "camping fun" when the Losie group is together!

Lily and Grandma snuggled by the campfire

Lily, Jake, and Sam ready for breakfast

Trip to McDonald's before heading out to the campground

Major Announcement

Last Friday, Lily told us after school that she is getting married! And the date is set for her birthday!

There is a little boy in her preschool class named Carter- adorable little blonde boy. We coincidentally know his parents, so this made the announcement even more humorous.

According to Lily's teacher, they were walking around hand-in-hand at school announcing they were getting married. Carter even approached Justin to let him know the announcement when he picked Lily up from school.

Funny thing is...all of her teachers have pegged the two of them together.

So...it has begun. She's only 3...I'm not ready for this.

Brother's name

So, Justin and I have decided to keep the baby's name a secret. We just wanted a little element of surprise with this one, but boy has it created quite a stir! The grandmas will have to keep their embroidery machines on standby until October :-)

When my parents were out last weekend to visit, my mom was quizzing Lily..."So Lily, what is your brother's name?" Her response? "Diego!"

Hilarious. I think we know better than to tell our chatterbox Lily any secrets.

Hint: The baby's name will not be Diego.

Reading Corduroy, March 2010

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Swimming lessons

This month, we enrolled Lily in swimming lessons twice a week at the local aquatic center. Although we have been lucky to have Grandma & Grandpa B's pool at the lake to give her great exposure to the water, she was ready to move on to the next step with formal training.

She has done a great job in learning new skills- like floating (back and front), using a kick board, and jumping in from the side.

Here she is practicing her "front float":

During the past two classes, they moved on to jumping off of the "high dive". I had a bit of anxiety about this big step, but did my best not to show it. She could barely climb the ladder because of her short legs, but somehow managed to get up there!

Here is the step-by-step from my cell phone (sorry about the poor quality- go figure I forgot my camera at home for this lesson!)

walking the plank :-)

not too sure if she is ready or not

and...she jumped!!

We are so proud of our Lily and how comfortable she has become in the water. Although, she still has a way to go before we are ready to remove the life jacket completely, she has made great strides in learning how to swim. Great job, little mermaid!