4 Months!

I can't believe Callan is four months old! He is still such a baby! But he has grown so much. His appointment was last Tuesday the 24th. Here are the stats:

12.74 lbs - 5.65 percentile

22 inches - "less than 2 percentile"

head circumference 15.5 in - 3.5 percentile

I think all his fat is in his face. His body has definitely filled out, but it still seems like his body is way more long and lean than Easton's rolly polly blob was:) He still sleeps really well. He smiles all the time and does a lot of "oh"s when he talks to you. Lately he has been doing some PURPLE crying which he hadn't really done until this point. It drives me a little bit insane, but I still think he's just the sweetest thing. Also when I stop feeding him half-way through his meal to let him burp he does the brattiest little scream until I start feeding him again. It is so funny.

Callan frequently has this are you gonna save me from this kid? look on his face

Is anyone else wondering...

WHERE IN THE HECK IS SUMMER?????????

We had one delightful summer-ish day a few weeks ago (before Easton's haircut:) This picture says...

Hooray for undies outside!

Side note: Easton LOVES "shorts undies." Every day he searches through his drawer for them and is disappointed when he runs out and has to wear briefs.

Don't you wish you could still do this? Easton made me get down and try it. What is it that makes hose water so much better?

Note: The 2 pictures above were taken just minutes apart from each other, but Easton has a severe OCD complex about getting his clothes wet. I have to bring several outfits wherever we go because if he gets a single drop of water on him, he has to change- undies and all.

Dad and Cal having a lazy nap

Easton's been on a roll lately, but I've been bad about writing the things that he says down. This was part of his conversation in the bath the other day:

"Here we go pig. First, lets wash our hands before we make a tasty treat. Then, we'll get some long bubbles. And put them in the pantry. So they can dry off. Yay they're dried off! Um num num num. Yummy."

Driving in the car the other day he told me that his window was shaped like a square and my window was shaped like a slide.

He's been saying a lot of I hope so's and probably not's. ie:

"Ok it's time for bed!"

"Um probably not."

He keeps saying, "So... Mom... You had a great day at work today?" Sometimes its when I haven't even worked.

He's been really into taking cushions off couches and making slides. (So annoying because it makes the house look like a mess!)

He's also been throwing up a lot lately - randomly. Can't figure that one out.

It may have something to do with this though...

This is the second time we've caught him biting chunks out of the cheese! He would live off of cheese, pickles, and olives if he was allowed to!

Kangaroo Zoo

Last weekend we called some friends and took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo. We had so much fun! Easton and Ace jumped around like crazy and got all their wiggles out before bed. It amazes me that these tiny little bodies can pull themselves up the huge ladders and everything by themselves!

Easton is totally fearless...it makes me a little worried!

Best Buddies

Rehydrating in the dinosaur's mouth

The babies were really good too! I love this picture of the proud dads. Just for the record, both dads thought we were going to an actual zoo exclusively for kangaroos. Casey thought Kristi was crazy when she told him it was indoors.

Casey and Van - Tyson and Callan

Moms

Saturday we celebrated Collette's 10th birthday. The weather was nice for a little while and Easton got to go on Grandpa's motorcycle.

Want some Easton one-liners? He has been really defiant lately. Tyson jokes that if you tell Easton the sky is blue he'll probably freak out and yell, "NO IT ISN'T!" just because he likes to go against whatever you say. In a typical day I probably hear all of these lines at least ten times...

"Just stop it mom!"

"I'm really sad of that."

"Stop talking to me!"

"I'm sick of this!"

"No! I won't! I won't do that!"

Actually most of the time he says them all together in a screaming tantrum. ie:

"Easton go sit on your bed, you don't hit mom like that."

"No! I won't go sit on my bed! I won't! I'm sad of that! Just stop talking to me! I'm sick of this! Just stop it!"

It's really funny. And hard to discipline. :)

Selsun Blue

I just did a post about Callan, but I totally forgot something. I wanted to post about our cradle cap discovery. The night before Callan's blessing Tyson gave him a bath and scrubbed his head. Because of his cradle cap, all the dead skin got into his hair and I got so mad at Tyson for doing that the night before the blessing! We had a little disagreement because I thought you were just supposed to leave cradle cap alone and wait until it goes away but we did some research online and found out that you are supposed to scrub it. It also suggested a few different shampoos and one of them was Selsun Blue which we already had because Tyson uses it. The next week I washed his hair with the Selsun Blue and scrubbed it lightly with my fingernails and after just one wash his cradle cap was all gone! I've done this almost every day and he hasn't had any cradle cap or dry skin AT ALL! I think it's a miracle! So, you should try it out. Make sure you get the original Selsun Blue with selenium sulfide. I'd like to find out if it works for anyone else!

Mamma's Boy

My little Callan is SUCH a mamma's boy! He is a good baby, but he wants to be held all the time! He will rarely sit in his bouncy chair, high chair, or boppy, and if he does it's not for more than 5 minutes. He wants to be held - and not just laying on my lap or sitting on my hip. He wants to be held right up to my chest with his forehead touching my cheek. I think he's trying to make up for all the times in the first three weeks of his life when we couldn't hold him - and I'm ok with that:)

He still sleeps A LOT and already sleeps through the night! I was so bummed when he got RSV because he was doing so well at night. As soon as he got better he started sleeping through the night right away. I feed him around 10PM and he wakes up between 5 and 7 in the morning. It's awesome! I figure I deserve that after being up with Easton several times a night for 2 and a half years!

I just think Callan is so cute! Tyson thinks it's because he looks just like me. I've been trying to be better about taking pictures of him! I hardly have any! I took a whole bunch last week and ... long story short someone deleted them. So I tried to take a few yesterday and today.

First, here's some pictures of pictures of me.

I think I win the hair contest...

And here's our Callan. See the resemblance?

Ya, we know his belly button is huge:) About that, on Sunday Cal got us out of church a little early. I went to change his diaper right before the last hour and I noticed his hernia was dark blue. I tried to push it back in, which is usually does with no problem, and it was hard as a rock and bigger than I've ever seen it. I worked on it for about 20 minutes with no luck. It wasn't budging he screamed whenever I touched it. This was very unusual and we have been warned about the intestines getting stuck and "strangulated." I went and got Tyson. He worked on it for a while, but we knew we needed to take him in. I'm so done with Alta View Hospital so we took him to the Primary Children's extension in Riverton. We took him into the instacare and the receptionist sent us right back because they were afraid they were going to have to get a surgeon. The doctor came over and spent about 30 seconds pressing his intestines back in. She was pushing so hard, I thought his stomach was going to explode! It seemed like forever, but she finally got it back in. He hasn't had any problems since! (Well it's still there...I just mean it's not stuck anymore.)

Easton LOVES his brother and is so good to him. I frequently hear him saying, "It's otay Ta-win. Easton is here."

Fat Face

Mad Face

Such a sweet little thing! We love him!

Things I Forgot to Blog

I blogged a little about Easter, but I didn't know Tyson had taken this picture of Easton. I thought it was blog-worthy.

Cutest little Easton bunny I've ever seen. The ears got passed around and they look just as cute on Crew! Amanda had this on her blog as "Little Bunny Crew Crew." So cute!

We all scored at the annual Easter egg hunt at the Pages. We each got a 7 Peaks/Trafalga pass! We can't wait to use them!

Baby Callan during the hunt

And another thing... you know you're getting old when you forget to blog about your birthday! For my birthday a couple weeks ago I wanted to go on a date with Ty to the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU. It was so nice to get away for a couple hours and we really liked the exhibit. This was my favorite painting. I have a tender spot for little boys:)

I was worried that Tyson would be bored out of his mind, but I think he enjoyed the exhibit, too. On our way home we stopped at the University Mall to redeem some gift certificates to Argento that I got for Christmas. I got two new pairs of earrings that I love!

While we were gone, Easton made me a cake.

I think he did a great job!

He helped me blow out the candles and it was so yummy! (Thanks mom!)

I got clothes and money for my birthday - both very much needed!

Skater & Superheroes

This is skater - Easton's favorite bath toy. I would even say he's Easton's first imaginary friend. Every day when he gets in the bath he searches through his massive bucket of bath toys until he finds Skater. The whole bath revolves around Skater's adventures.

Skater is really a water pump that came with a set of horses and fences, but Easton thinks it looks like it's on a skateboard. Therefor it turned into a person named Skater. I love hearing him tell me all about the funny things Skater did in the bath each day.

I've been meaning to post this for a long time...sorry Kelsey! Aunt Kelsey sewed Easton this cape! He has had a thing for super heroes for quite a while now. He even has his own song that Aunties made up, "Easton is a super hero, Easton saves the world!" It has a catchy little melody, too. We find ourselves singing it a little more often than we should!

And of course in Kelsey's true over-achiever style, it's double sided.

We really enjoyed the warm weather we had last week! We even got sunburned! The smell of sunscreen made me SO EXCITED FOR SUMMER!!! Too bad it's been raining non-stop for the last 4 days...

Easton, Tyson, and Aunties flew this Buzz Lightyear kite.

Easton and Tyson went on a hike one day to a pond and Easton loved throwing rocks in!

Easton, Callan, and I also visited Wheeler Farm and Temple square. We went to visit Grandpa Cook in his office and he was able to take a break and come walk around Temple Square with us. I was glad to have him, especially since Easton had some extreme energy that day!

Yesterday Easton threw up three times in 30 minutes. It was so weird because I ate all the same things as he did. We went to Subway, and he fell asleep on the way home. I put him in his bed and 5 minutes later he was screaming because he was throwing up and didn't know what was going on. It was so sad. He was really pale and weak for a few hours after that, but seems fine now. I just had to throw that into this post because I think it is so weird how much sickness we've had lately! In the last year we've had tumors, pityriasis rosea (Easton's 3 month rash), hernias, pre-term labor, pink eye, RSV, and countless cases of cold and flu. I'm not sure what we've done to become so immunocompromised, but I'm getting sick of it! I'm about ready to buy into Noni juice or something. We need a super fruit around here!

A post wouldn't be complete without some good Easton lines. One thing he's been saying a lot lately is "else" as in someone else. He uses the word "else" in place of the word "rest."

ie:

"The else of the water isn't draining."

"The else of those kids are playing tag."

"I already ate the else of my dinner."

He's also been using the word "strange."

ie:

"The else of the water isn't draining. Strange."

I got some strawberry on my face. That's strange."

He likes to throw the words "you know" at the end of his sentences when he's trying to drive a point home.

ie:

"I am a super hero YOU KNOW. I save the world."

"I am a big boy YOU KNOW!"

"I dont't want to go to bed YOU KNOW!"

Another common sentence finisher is "that's why." Usually followed by something he "just needed" to do.

ie:

"How come you poked Callan?"

"I just needed to poke him. That's why. That's why I did that mom. You know."

"Why did you make this mess?"

"I just needed to. I like making messes you know. That's why I did that. That's why."

He's a crack up. He came into our bed in the night of course. Tyson left for work this morning and a little while later I woke up and Easton wasn't next to me. I sat up in bed and could see that the light in his room was on, but that was the only one in the house. Usually if he gets up he just goes right out to the TV and turns it on, but it wasn't on. I started to panic a little when I heard a tiny whisper, "Um mom, I need you to find Woody's hat." It took me a while to find him, but he was hiding behind the rocking chair right by Callan's crib. It was a little freaky actually and I'm not sure why he was there, but Callan was fussing a little bit so I don't know if Easton was the cause of that, or if he went over there to try to help. Anyway he led me into his room and got down on the floor and pointed to Woody's hat clear under the bed. "I just need you to get that hat, it's all the way back there. Then I need you to find Woody my cow doll and he's gonna say, 'there's a snake in my boot!' " This was at 6:30 in the morning! He was acting so weird! He must have dreamt about Woody - we watched Toy Story yesterday when he was sick. That's the only reason I can think he would wake up begging for a toy he hadn't seen in weeks or months!

One last thing, we have a new photoblog! Click here to check it out!

Thoughts on Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day everyone! Especially to my own mom and mom-in-law - I am the luckiest! Tyson was kind enough to give me the gift of sleeping through the night last night! He got up with Callan and gave him bottles. It was a much needed break after 3 and a half months! In the morning I decided to have a lazy morning and didn't do much of anything. Tyson, on the other hand, did dishes, laundry, cleaned glass, bathed Easton, made Easton's breakfast, and just kept going and going and going. He always knows just what will make me happy and I'm so grateful for him. Unfortunately Tyson had to go to work around 10 and it all went down hill for me from there:)

After Tyson left, I realized how little time I had to get myself and the kids ready for church. It was at that point that I started to get discouraged about how if I take any time for myself to relax, it ruins the whole rest of the day. I should have just gotten up and showered and got going at 6:00. I pretty much turned into a real "Debbie downer" (to quote a phrase I just learned) for the rest of the day.

I got showered and wanted to straighten my hair which I so rarely have a chance to do since I'm always chasing kids. Taking the time to fix my hair prevented me from being able to finish the mothers day projects I was working on for my moms so they didn't get presents which caused me a lot of guilt. And it ended up pouring rain all day so my hair was a waste. Easton got our coin bucket and dumped money all over the house. I fought with him for a half hour over cleaning it up and he just refused. Finally I said, "Do you want to clean it up or get a spanken?" He said, "I want a spanken mom. Just give me a spanken!" Well what do you say to that? A two-year-old using reverse psychology on me? He never did pick them up. We fought and fought and I finally just did it myself. I was not feeling like a good mother at all at this point. I finished getting ready...I straightened my hair which is falling out at an incredible rate thanks to my post-partum hormones. Seriously if I had to guess, I would say I lose thousands of hairs a day... It's a miracle I have any left.....I put on my make-up and did my best to cover up all the acne - also being caused by the post-partum hormones along with the stress the children bring...And I got dressed - only to find that none of my skirts will zip up over my childbearing hips.

After all of this and a whole weekend full of "baby weight" comments and

"You look tired."

"I am tired."

conversations, I was feeling like this whole motherhood thing is kind of the pits! I felt like mothers day was an excuse for men to throw chocolate, service, and inspirational speakers at us to try to convince us to stick it out for one more year!

The last thing I wanted to do was go to church. However, I was glad I did because things started to change right when I got there. I was so glad to see one of my favorite moms in the ward was speaking. I loved her talk, but couldn't help feeling a little bit inadequate after hearing about great mothers who teach their children so well. A lot of things were going through my mind like, I need to make sure we pray at night with Easton. We need to read scriptures, etc... Then the primary got up and started to sing, "I see my mother kneeling with her family each day...." and Easton whispered to my parents, "My mom sings this to me in my bed." When my dad leaned over and told me what Easton had said I tried to act like it wasn't a big deal, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed to hear right from him that I was actually teaching him something! That I was doing a good job at something! I started to feel a little better and continued on to the next 2 hours of church. After church Easton ran up to me with this card he made in nursery. I cried and laughed and knew everything was going to be ok:)

That is the silliest smile I've ever seen. After church we picked up dad from work, had a great dinner at his mom's, and went to plant great grandma Page's flowers. I lucked out and got to stay inside with the baby, but everyone else got soaked in the pouring rain!

So I guess Mothers Day turned out ok after all. I'm so lucky to have my two sweet boys and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I definitely have my days, but overall, I LOVE being a mom!

Blessed!

Callan was blessed yesterday! It was such a special and fun day. Thanks to everyone who came to share it with us! Tyson gave a beautiful blessing. Thanks Cassidy for writing down some important little pieces of it. That will be a great reminder for him!

For as sick as Callan was, I consider it a miracle that on Saturday he suddenly had major improvements and we were able to enjoy the day of his blessing! I'm so glad he was able to wear the same outfit as Easton! I had my doubts, but it worked out perfectly!

Callan didn't quite fill it out like his rolly polly brother did, even though he is almost twice as old as Easton was at his blessing:)

Hayden and Nicole - never looking at the camera at the same time:)

"Old" Grandma and Grandpa Page (according to Easton). Sorry Pages, we caught you out in the BRIGHT BRIGHT sun! We're just glad the sun was shining!

Grandma and Grandpa Page

Kelsey, Desi, Tony

Tony scheming a dodgeball plot against Easton

Some of the Knowlton family.

(I'm going to be in big trouble when Tyson sees my out of focus camera work...oops, sorry)

Callan and Auntie Katie, as Easton now calls her

Uncle Josh

Callan's Great Grandma Allen

Grandpa and Grandma Cook

Thanks mom and dad for hosting the luncheon! Everything was perfect!

And our little fam.