People person

The blocks, not Nick. Just kidding. Nick is quite the people person, now. I never would have guessed it just a few years ago when he shied away from anyone new. Now, he’s usually the first to open his mouth in a new situation.

The moon

Maybe I’ve already shared this, maybe I haven’t, but this kid for all his orneriness  is still one of the funniest kids I know. Whenever we get in the car the boys always want to find the moon and count the stars. If it is a full moon Zander will say “He must have had a big dinner.” The other night, we couldn’t find the moon at all (too cloudy) Zander however figured that it was just still eating dinner and hadn’t come out yet. I don’t know where he gets this, but apparently the moon is a hungry little thing.

So sleepy

Ben is not the kind of kid to just fall asleep anywhere (despite what his dad would tell you) but this particular night he just couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He just looks so comfy chillin’ there with his dad.

Eight months

Look how old my little man is looking. This cute little shirt my sister bought him for Christmas is making him look like a big boy and I am just not ready for it.

In the last month this little guy:

• Hopped back on the food train. He is eating just about all baby food like a champ and still chugging down about 6 or 7 ounces every four hours or so (except at night). Though he can easily hold his own bottle I still tend to do it for him so I can get a few minutes of cuddle time with just him. He still stares longingly at my food but the few times we’ve tried anything he hasn’t really like it (in fact he actually gags on it).
• Is still waiting on that first tooth. Ben’s “best friend” Graham has a whole mouth full of them but Ben is taking his sweet time. It’s not surprising considering Nick was 10 months before his first one popped through.
• Waves “Bye-bye” when I drop him off at daycare. It’s so cute, but just one more sign of how old he is getting.
• Is moving even more and faster if that is possible. He got a push-behind dinosaur for Christmas and is just starting to really roll with that, but when he really wants something he’s back on his belly and army crawling straight for it. I think it is starting to bother his older brothers!
• Is sleeping like a champ. We have a safe heater in his room (it’s over an attached garage and has two outside walls so it get very cold at night) and it has helped tons.
• Is saying “Dada” but no “Mama” just yet. It’s OK, he still loves me more --- you can ask anyone. He doesn’t actually associate the word with Mike, he’s just making the vowel sounds.
• loves to pull himself up on anything and everything he can get his hands on. He truly has no fear.
• outgrown all his “baby” gear. The swing was already gone but we have decided that the jumperoo is just not keeping him entertained anymore. If he is awake he wants to be on the move.
• has outgrown his size four diapers at night. He is still squeezing into threes during the day, but after several nights of leaking out all over his bed in the fours we decided to up him to fives at night.
• is now sleeping in a crib with a mattress lowered all the way to the bottom. We skipped every level in between even though he isn’t standing up in bed yet. It just seemed safer.

Houston, we have a problem

Namely, reading. Every week Nick brings home one sheet of homework that has his weekly sight words and letter sound that they have been working on. He does the homework and we kind of forget about it. Life is pretty busy and I figured he was doing OK in school so I kind of glossed over the sight word games and other things he was bringing home (Well that and he would pack them away in his piles so fast I barely had time to see them). We were busy and the thought of adding even more work to the load was a bit overwhelming.

Except now, we have to. Nick’s teacher emailed me this week about his reading abilities. Apparently, they are lacking. He’s not doing awful, but he’s not doing that great either. She’s asked us to spend some time each night reviewing his words. She sent home a set of flashcards on a ring and said we could tear them off as he learned them. The problem was he would miss different words every time we worked on them. Then he would get bored. And I can’t say I blame him. Flash cards are boring. So I scoured the Internet (mostly Pinterest) for a way to make sight words fun. The parking lot was the first non worksheet option I came across.

I made our first garage out of a piece of cardboard we had laying around. But, Mike and I both knew this option wouldn’t last. Nick is smart. After just a couple rounds of me calling out a word for him and him driving the car into its spot he numbered the parking spaces. I’m pretty sure if we would have kept this version for much longer he would have memorized the numbers that corresponded with the words instead of learning the words. That’s the way his brain works.

But, that wasn’t our only problem. The cardboard was also a bit warped so the car would go rolling around when they parked in certain spaces.

So I spent the rest of the weekend making a poster board version with laminated flashcards that sit in the spaces instead of having the words permanently in the spot. This way we can mix things up every time he uses the board. And while I don’t have any pictures Zander also got his own parking lot (he begged) that has cards with upper and lowercase letters. He can recognized just about every uppercase letter, but I am hoping having the lowercase letter on the same card will help him with that when the time comes.

As for the actual learning that was supposed to happen … it’s a work in progress. Nick is easily frustrated and easily distracted. I think he actually knows more than he shows, but he is just in such a hurry to get done that he says the first thing that comes to mind instead of actually looking at the word. I’m just thankful that he has such a wonderful teacher who communicated this problem with us before conferences so we could get started on a solution right away.

Where does he hide it?

The food that is. (I’m thinking maybe I should have called this post Gobble, gobble instead). I know Nick is a growing boy but his ability to out eat both his father and me is getting a bit ridiculous. Most Friday nights we make pizza. Mike and I are trying to cut back (we can both stand to shed a few pounds) but even still … I eat a piece of pizza and salad. Mike eats two pieces and a salad. Zander eats half a piece. Nick eats three pieces. Every time. This wasn’t a one time fluke or something, it’s been happening for several weeks. And when we go to McDonalds that kid can pack away a cheeseburger, four nuggets, apples and a handful of fries. And he is always ready for a bedtime snack just an hour or so later.

Thankfully, he is still active enough that the food just disappears inside his body. Yes, he is off the charts for his weight, but that is only because he is also off the charts for his height. He’s perfectly (if not ginormously) proportioned. Mike affectionately calls him “Gigantor.” I hope he doesn’t give the kid a complex. He’s obviously got enough problems already.

Gobble, gobble

That’s what I want to do every time I see this kid – eat him up. I just can’t get enough of his chubby little, dimpled cheeks or his fat little baby hands and feet. I’m really going to miss it when he is a toddler and no longer my baby. I am holding onto these minutes as tight as I can. I still rock him to bed every night, feed him his bottle even though I know he can hold his own and willingly bring him into my bed if he is having any trouble falling back to sleep in the middle of the night (though his big head is starting to make my arm fall asleep).

And despite the lazy look he has in this photo I’m thinking his baby days are numbered. He is too darn close to toddling for my comfort.

I think one of my sisters needs to get moving toward the baby-making stage. I can’t afford (literally) any baby fever in this house.