Brenham- 4 months!

Brenham is 4 months old!

Our Mr. Serious smiles! We even get an occasional giggle!!

But he's still pretty choosey with them. More often than not he's observing... everything...

And he's also found his thumb.

He's been called our Zen baby- and that's a great way to describe him!

A constant thinker...

Brenham was 14lbs at his 4 month appointment. He usually sleeps from 7pm-2am, then again from 2:30am-6:30am. So I can't complain! However... that's only if he sleeps in his swing. Little guy does NOT like his bassinet and will only give me about 45mins if I force it.

He can roll over and likes to sit in the Bumbo. Big Brother likes that too. Bradley will bring Brenham his toys when he's in the Bumbo and also sings to him.

Brenham braces himself for Bradley's "hugs".

Brenham calms down almost immediately when I sing... wait for it... New Kid's On the Block's "The Right Stuff". I don't even know why that song came to me one morning, but it instantly stops his crying, so now it's making a comeback at the Hill House!

This is the first month where I see the two brothers looking different:

Brenham's little personality is starting to show and he has brought such joy to our house!

Goodnight Moon, Continued

Continuing our week of "directed play" featuring the book, Goodnight Moon:

I made a wheel that shows various items that are circles. Bradley was able to pick out the items and place them on the wheel (I printed on sticky paper). He couldn't really turn the wheel very successfully, though, so all in all it was a lot of prep work for about 5 minutes of activity.

I printed off some coloring pages of the nursery rhyme that features "the cow jumped over the moon":

(We also read some nursery rhyme books as well as the creation story of God making the sun and the moon in our Jesus Story Book Bible.)

I cut out a bunch of "mittens" in three different colors and let Bradley play with them:

Then I helped him sort them into color groups:

Bradley really enjoyed using the dot stamper to fill in the "M is for Moon" page:

And matching the different sized circles:

On the last day I thought I'd see if he would be interested in tracing the shapes:

It held his attention for a short while, but he quickly wanted to trace his hand several times!

All in all it was a fun week! It didn't take a lot of prep and it made our afternoons much more smooth. I think our next book will be We're Going on a Bear Hunt or Jesse Bear, what will you wear? Post and ideas you have in the comments!

Mini Mommy School

In an effort to stave off afternoon boredom, I planned a week of fun activities for Bradley and I. A got the idea from a book called, Before Five in a Row which suggests that you read a book five days in a row- adding on various activities each day.

This week we did Goodnight Moon. Here's part of our first day.

We made "Red Balloons". Here's Bradley, mixing the flour and water:

I added in red coloring and we dipped cotton balls into the mixture:

(You'll also notice I got smart and took off his shirt!)

We started dipping with the clothes pins, then moved to just using hands:

Then we washed hands while the covered cotton balls baked in the oven.

This might have been Bradley favorite part!

The result was about two dozen hard "red balloons" that crunched when stepped on!

I thought Bradley would love stomping on them, but instead he wanted to dissect them:

 Taste them:

And listen to the crunch:

All in all, I think he really liked it!

And I learned that the process is MUCH more fun for toddlers than the "goal". AND I learned to be flexible and let him decide what to change/how long to spend on each thing. (We spent 15 minutes making the "red balloons" and 25 minutes "washing hands"!) All in all a good first afternoon!

Bouncy Houses and Hibachi Grills

We ended our Christmas week in Baton Rouge with a trip to an indoor bouncy house park and a meal at the hibachi grill!

Lucy and Bradley LOVED the bouncy houses. Lucy was a little timid at first, but she warmed up after a few slides with mama!

Bradley, on the other hand, ran to the first slide he could find!

Then he ran to the BIGGEST slide he could find:

He climbed up that two story ladder with ease and fearlessly slid down:

That kid.

Later that evening we took the whole clan to a hibachi grill. Best.Idea.Ever.

The kids LOVED the show!

And did great with the chopsticks!

Yes. This was a "win" with the toddlers and adults alike!

And a great way to end a wonderful, family-filled week!

*After naps, Bradley came out and asked to wear the red bow tie. He proudly wore it the rest of the day and night! What a dapper fellow.