Bye Bye Binkie

It's been just over a week since we officially said bye bye to Jackson's binkie and we are so proud of him for finally giving it up! I really thought this day would never come as he's grown SO attached to it, but it just kind of happened and we ran with it. 

Lately he has been biting all of his binkies and putting big holes in them, so we were literally down to 1 binkie that had 2 pretty big holes in it. (I'm assuming he bites them because he's still working on getting his 2 year molars.) We agreed that once this binkie was broke for good, we weren't buying anymore.

The Monday before I went back to work after being on Maternity Leave,  I thought it would be nice to do something fun with Jackson. So we met some friends up at the Magic House while my mom kept Avery. We spent the entire day there and didn't leave the Magic House until 4:30 that afternoon. So as soon as we got on the road to come home, Jackson was sound asleep. He always wants his binkie in the car, so as always, I gave it to him. When we got home, I got him out of the car not noticing that his binkie had fallen out of his mouth and into his car seat. He ended up staying asleep the rest of the night and didn't notice it was missing til the next morning. 

When he asked for it, I figured it was out in my car and went out there to check before I left for work. He had school that day, so I left it in the cup holder of his car-seat and told my mom that's where it was and he could have it after she picked him up from school later that day. (She was using my car that day to get the kids back and forth from Jackson's school.)

So after school he didn't even notice it was in his cup holder and he ended up going into her house without it. He did ask for it once while he was with my mom after school and she just jokingly told him he had left it at the Magic House the day before and he went on with what he was doing and didn't really question it too much. 

That evening we had church, so before I put him in the car, I hid the binkie in the diaper back so he wouldn't see it in the carseat.  He did fine on the drive to church but did ask for it again at church when he saw Mason with his. I just went along with the story that we had left it at the Magic House and he thankfully accepted that and went on with what he was doing. That evening after church, we got in the car and he ended up falling asleep on the way home not even asking for it, which is huge!

He went all night without it and has gone without it ever since. He asks for it periodically, but has accepted that he left it at the Magic House and has only cried for it once for just a short while!! 

I seriously cannot believe how easy this has been as I was DREADING giving it up. I just knew we would have meltdown after meltdown without it, but so far so good! I cannot thank my Mom enough for coming up with such a brilliant story. Who would have thought this would work? Certainly not me! I was just waiting to get myself psyched up to endure long nights of crying after saying bye bye to the binkie, but I am so relieved with how easy it has been!

 Now if we could just get him potty trained!

Avery's Second Month

Avery,

As of this past Saturday, you are 2 months old! I can't believe my sweet girl is 2 months old already!! I will probably say this every month, but it just goes by so darn fast!

 Weekly photos for weeks 5-8. (You can see her weeks 1-4 pictures in her 1 month post here.)

 

You gained a few more pounds this month! At your 6 week check up you weighed 11 pounds 12 ounces and were 23 1/4 inches long. This is just about the same weight and height that your brother was at, at his 6 week check-up! You are wearing your 3 month and 3-6 month clothes now and have even wore a few 6 month sleepers! We bumped you up to size 2 diapers this month as well.

You are still eating great. Since Mommy has gone back to work we are exclusively formula feeding and that seems to be working well for all of us. You eat 5-6 ounces every 3-4 hours throughout the day and then you generally take your last bottle of the evening between 8:30 and 9:30 and will then sleep until around 5:00 a.m. the next morning. Mommy gets up and feeds you then and then you'll usually go back to sleep and sleep until around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. This schedule is working out perfect now that I'm back to work because you sleep while Mommy is getting ready for work and that is so very helpful. :-)

You are smiling all the time now and will even try talking to us. You have a lot to say and I just love hearing you "talk". :-) It's got to be the cutest thing ever. You study our mouths when we are talking to you. I think you'll be an early talker. ;-)

You officially slept through the night this month! On June 16th you slept til 5:30 in the morning and then the next night you slept til 6:30 a.m.!! You've been sleeping through the night ever since! You still like to be swaddled up to go to sleep and your new thing is that you like to bury your face in my arm to fall asleep. It's so sweet!! You are starting to like your binkie more and more and I always use it to get you to sleep. You don't really want it throughout the day, but you do like to have it when I rock you to sleep.

You are still loving bath time. I put your little bath tub in the big bath tub so that I could give you and your brother a bath together and you both seem to enjoy this. Jackson likes putting his cars in your tub and you like watching him play!

You celebrated your third holiday this month... Father's Day. :-)

(You and Daddy)

(You and Papa)

We also had you dedicated this month at church! I will write a more detailed post about this special day in the next week or two, but you looked so pretty and did so good.  :-)

Well, I think that just about sums up month 2! You are such a sweet girl and I just love being your mommy. You are so pretty and we get compliments all the time about how beautiful you are. You get lots of love from family and friends. People line up at church to hold you. :-) You are certainly a blessing from God! Mommy loves you to pieces!

 XOXO - Mommy

Explore St. Louis: Purina Farms

Back in April, 2 days before I had Avery, we took a Saturday and went to Purina Farms with Jake's Mom, his Brother and his Brother's family. It was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. It had been years since I had been there. I was probably still in elementary school, so it was fun to go back and take Jackson!

My nieces even got to milk a cow!! Jackson wanted no part of this, Ha!

After spending some time in the barns with the animals, we headed over to watch the dogs compete in the pool! As a dog lover, this was so much fun to watch!

Jackson sharing some popcorn with his cousins during the show.

After watching the dog jumping show, we took a wagon ride around the farm!

And of course, we couldn't leave the farm without getting a picture of Jackson with the STL250 Cake that is there!! (He was too busy to pose for a nice picture so this was the best I could get, Ha!)

It was a super fun day spent with family!

Avery's Birth Announcement

I finally got Avery's birth announcement out a week or so ago! They have been received by all our close friends and family so I thought I'd go ahead and share it here as well. :-) I am SO happy with the way they turned out! I used mixbook.com as I have for Jackson's yearly photo books as well. I love this company. Their website is so user friendly and you can do so much with your books/cards. I was able to coordinate the colors of the writing on the announcement to match her tutu, and when her name banner didn't match, I was able to recreate it using picmonkey and upload it onto the announcement itself! They always have coupon codes and great deals, in fact they have a coupon code for up to 50% off right now! I've never paid regular price for anything I've ever ordered from them. I highly recommend them!

 (front)

(back)

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program!

Sadly enough, my 8 weeks of maternity leave ended yesterday as I went back to work and had to leave this pretty girl at home with Maw Maw.

 It went better than expected and we're trying to get back into our routine. Thankfully, Jackson went to Vacation Bible School every day last week, which started at 9 a.m., so that was a good way of easing back into a morning routine. 

(Jackson's first day of Vacation Bible School)

Avery is sleeping really well through the night, only waking up once between 4-6 to eat a bottle and then she goes back to sleep until around 8 or 9! So that's super helpful because both Jackson and Avery are asleep while I'm getting ready for work! That makes life a whole lot easier for me. Just hopefully this schedule continues! Anyone with a baby knows that their sleep patterns can change in an instant.

Avery sleeps great at night, however, she doesn't take very good naps. :-( So in the evenings when she's fussy, I have been putting her in the stroller and taking her and Jackson for a walk up to the park. She loves being outside and going for walks and will often fall asleep, so its a win win because it calms her down and it lets Jackson get rid of some energy!

So hopefully now that things are sort of back to normal, I'll be blogging a little bit more often. I have a lot to share from the time I've had off with the kids. We tried to do as many fun things as possible and hope to continue that the rest of the summer with some fun things we have planned. :-)

Explore St. Louis: The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

As I've mentioned in a previous post here, the city of St. Louis turned 250 years old this year and they have placed 250 cakes around the city and surrounding areas to commemorate the city's birthday. These cakes are at historic locations and cool places to visit and eat. Many people around the city are searching for these cakes and trying to find all 250 of them. Jackson, Jake and I are doing the same and are now up to 53! 

I say all of this to say that The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge is one of the 250 locations that has a cake. So a couple Sunday's ago, I decided to take Jackson, Avery and two of my nieces to walk across the bridge. 

The bridge is a mile long and was built in 1929. It was a significant landmark for traveler's driving Route 66. In 1967, the new Chain of Rocks Bridge was built just 2,000 feet upstream and the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge closed in 1968 and just sat there and deteriorated. It was originally going to be demolished, but in 1999, they decided to reopen it to the public as part of the Route 66 Bikeway.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so I took my camera along to get some cool pictures on the bridge. Here are some of my favorites. 

The city of St. Louis from the Bridge.

Avery was such a good sport on our 2 mile walk. She slept the whole way. :-)