My 5 month olds

Here they are:

Jack

Cora

Luke

This is such a sweet stage.  Nice and sturdy, super loving and interactive, immobile :)  All our babies were 19 lbs at 5 months, so lots of squishy sweetness :)

Why I know you'll do great in Kindergarten

You are kind.

I'm always trying to think of conversation starters at dinner, so tonight, I asked "What is one kind thing you did and what is one kind thing someone did for you today?" ... "Jacob?"  While Jacob was talking, I saw a light flash in Jack's eyes and he jumped in "When I saw someone crying at school, I was thinking about asking them to sit by me, but both spots by me were already taken."  I love that he had this impulse. (Jacob did add, "well, were the spots by that kid taken?" ) I also really love that the conversation we had last week about "what would you do if you saw someone feeling sad" flashed through his mind in a real life moment out in the world.  

You are curious.

All the words that come to mind when asked to describe you are synonyms with curious.  You just plain love to learn.  We have 8 books out from the library on the Great Chicago Fire; we have requests in for books about astronauts.  You hear about something, you want to know more, and you track down the info (i.e. you hound us relentlessly until we read it/look it up/request it.)  You love "why."  You know you are going to learn to read this year and I'm so excited to see the power this gives you.

You are ready.

With you at Kindergarten today, I felt oddly at peace.  I know you will encounter many situations and new experiences out in the world, but I trust the little person you are becoming and I know you are ready to try, to fail, to learn, to succeed, to grow.

It's not all sunshine and roses.  You can be so erratic, but there is so much goodness in you and, as a former teacher, I would have loved having a Jack in my class :)

Luke at 5 Months

Luke's life has had big changes in the last month, although some things have stayed the same:

He's still chubby, chubby and he's still our sweet, sweet baby.

5 months: 19 lbs - just like his big brother and sister at that age!

No visible teeth, but LOTS of drooling and gnawing!

He is now the most eligible bachelor at the daycare center at my work.  He had a ridiculously sweet three week entree into the world of daycare being one of two babies at the center.  Our center is a mix of care for staff children and children of our accelerated high school students.  The high school babies didn't start until mid-August, so now there are a total of four babies with his teacher.  Four babies makes the room a more hopping place and Luke isn't getting those same amazing naps he had been at home.  Last weekend, he was home for a 3 day stretch and he was still napping 6-7 hours a day, like he had been pre-daycare, but, where he might take a 2.5-3 hour nap at home, his daycare naps tend to be 45 minutes. Yikes!!  I hope we can figure this out over the next month.  It's a huge boon that I work part time because he gets some breaks to nap at home, but he does have some longer days at daycare and I want to know that he's getting the rest he needs.

Luke and I both love his teacher, Ms. Larita.  She's a blessing - great care and very easy to talk to, which is important since I am able to pop over and nurse him for about half his feedings.  I also have been nursing him upon arrival.  This makes sense for a lot of reasons:
1) It's easier to get out of the house without needing to feed him first.
2) It's a gentler way of dropping him off.
3) It makes it clear that his belly is full, so, even if he's fussy, it won't look like hunger is the culprit.
4) It maximizes the time between feedings.

Because of less optimal napping, Luke's bedtime has inched up to between 6-6:30, with some 5:30 days this month!  I still wake him to nurse between 9:30-10 and he still sleeps all the way through the night, often with me waking him at 6:30.

With the big kids starting school next week, I hope we can get on a better rhythm as a whole family because I'm done with having every day/week be different!  If we have a better schedule, I think it will help Luke have a better schedule.  Not that he's complaining.  He continues to be the easiest baby - adapting to whatever each day brings.

 Other big adventures this month:

First trip to SC to visit Grammy and Big Papa

Time with cousin Billy (both boys post-nap)

Flight home alone with Mom - the precious moments of "only-child-dom"

Reunion with brother Jack who didn't make the SC trip

Luke was baptized on the 16th and it was such a special day.  Luke is our third baby baptized by our pastor, Callie, at Rayne, our church.  Our Rayne family is certainly an extension of family for us here in New Orleans.

Wearing my big brother's baptism outfit and a kiss from my big sister

Luke is such a joy to our family!  We think he's our little blondie with more light peach fuzz appearing daily :)

I-Need-a-Fresh-Start Days

Please tell me I'm not the only one who, at some point during a day, starts to think that that particular day is nearing unsalvageable and a new day is needed.

The problem this week was that it seemed like every day was one of those days.

I don't want to be too harsh on myself as Cora bookended last week with differing episodes of sickness, was out of school four days, and it was only my fourth week back at work.  Not a "typical" week, for sure.

Still. A few too many days like this together and you start to feel a little lost in the crazy and not quite sure what you're doing wrong.

If your child starts being rude and erratic within 2 minutes of being in your car after pickup from school, it might not feel like your fault per say, but it also can set off a chain of events that leaves you pretty quickly feeling like you need a fresh start day.

When your sick-but-not-acting-sick child starts to fall apart from 4:00 on, it can be hard to remember that she probably isn't feeling well and it can be VERY hard to still treat her with patience and compassion.

And then there's your baby, but no wait, he was his usual sweet self. He seemed to be saying "Mom and Dad, you look like you have your hands full, how about I go take a 3 hour nap and get out of the mix?" or "Gee, you guys seem busy, want me to knock off for the night at 5:55?"  And then he'd reappear for his 10:00 feeding and give us some sweet smiles and help give us the fresh start :)

So...in trying to figure out what we might could do to set us up for a better week, we:

• Made sure both big kids napped on both weekend days as I think lack of naps and sleep was the chief culprit last week
• Used the weekend naps to better plan for the week so there can be some better balance between work, school, and quality time together
• Will now be very proactive with some Miralax because a constipated, willful child (i.e. one who can resist for HOURS in the middle of the night trying not to poop) is NOT someone you want to live with long term

Here's hoping!