Sunday, December 21, 2014

Killean 3 months-and something about that other kid too

Killean is three months old now!  He is getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger!  He's still fitting into 3 month clothes, but I don't think that's going to last much longer.  Sleeves are getting short on sleepers.  Buttons are getting harder to fasten on onesies.  He's just starting to get too big for that size.  Looks like we may end up needing to buy a few clothes for him anyway if he grows faster than Rowan did and we no longer have seasonally appropriate clothes in the right size.  Not sure on what his weight is now, but we'll get an update at his four month check.

Killean is turning into a very smiley boy.  He's a pretty happy baby.  Until yesterday, we had only heard good laughs out of him in his sleep.  A couple of time we were holding him and he just started to belly laugh.  The best we could get out of him when he was awake was a little chuckle or a "huh" and that's about it.  Yesterday though, he started to laugh when we finished nursing in the afternoon.  I dont' know what was so funny, but something struck him as funny so he laughed.  Then we were watching Rowan play the drums and saying "bang" and THAT was hillarious.  Laughing and laughing at our brother.  It was awesome to hear.

Trying so hard to get that thumb!
Killean really want to be a thumb sucker.  We'll find his hand in his mouth while he's sleeping sometimes, but he usually keeps his thumb tucked in his fist.  A couple of times though I've been holding him and have seen him pull the thumb out and stick it in his mouth.  I'm pretty sure he'll start sucking his thumb here in the next couple of months.  We try to trade the thumb out for a pacifier, but I realize there's only so much we can do.  Hopefully he doesn't get too attached to his thumb.  If he does, we'll deal with that down the road though.

He's currently going through a growth spurt I'm sure of it.  He's eating more frequently at night so I'm guessing he's working on growing some more.  Trying to keep up with his big brother I guess =)

Rowan...oh yeah, there's another kid in the house.

Rowan is staying ever so busy.  I have felt like I've put him on the back burner a lot more lately-which I knew would happen.  Babies just need a lot more attention and he's more self sufficient.  Generally he does fine.  Sometimes though, you can tell he really misses being an only child.  He will insit on sitting in my lap while I'm nursing Killean.  He won't want me to read bedtime stories or rub his back at night if it means Killean will be with him-he'd rather have me go be with Killean and dad read books and rub back.  He's adjusting though-as we all are.  And he definitely loves his brother.  He likes to see him and is pretty tender when Killean is sleeping.  He's a two year old though, so sometimes when Killean is sleeping it's more fun to pull on a leg or tickle him than let him sleep.
"Rowan love Thomas"

Rowan's current obsessions are: Thomas and friends, Polar Express, train tracks (catching a theme here?), and Play-Doh.  He will stay entertained by Play-Doh for an hour if we let him.  We have to watch lots and lots of Thomas everyday.  And the other night? We had to sleep with our Henry and Thomas toys.  We still also love our pirate toys and our puppies.  When we went to visit Santa, we asked him for a puppy costume (thank goodness Santa lives in the day of Amazon).  Rowan's a smart and sweet little boy who continues to amaze us with all he can do and all he is.
Christmas train window cling fun

Lesson learned:If mom goes to work on laundry while Rowan takes a bath, all bath toys will end up in the bath tub

Fascinated by a new toy that jiggles when you pull it.



The jumper is much more exciting at 2 than it ever was at 9 months or so

Merry Christmas from my littlest elf!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Blessed for Thanksgiving

Play Doh Time
I'm sitting here alone in our quiet house-too tired to get up off the couch and crawl into bed-and I keep thinking about all the things to be thankful for right now.  Maybe it's the holiday spirit getting the best of me.  Or maybe I'm just seeing all the blessings we have.  But right now, life is pretty good and I'm so very grateful for that.  We're mostly settled into our new home.  We've been here less than a month and have had at least one house guest the entire time we've lived here.  I'm not complaining about that in the least.  I'm just noticing the quiet a bit more tonight since there aren't any extra bodies around.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  We welcomed my parents and their dog Skye as well as my brother and his family into our new home. All in all there were 6 adults, 5 children, and 3 dogs here.  We had a full house, but it was so much fun to have them all here.  My nephew Derick and Rowan had so much fun together.  Rowan especially enjoyed playing with Derick's Thomas toys and playing with Play-doh.  After Derick left, Rowan asked to "Play play-doh Derick again".  They became fast friends and it was fun to see them play and interact.

Anna, Alex, and Killean-the 2014 babies
Rowan also bonded with my dad's dog Skye.  He got a kick out of playing with her.  His favorite game: throwing the ball down the stairs and waiting for Skye to bring it back up again.  A close second on his list of favorites was feeding Skye.  I'm not quite sure why feeding a dog is so much fun, but it was.  So he helped feed Skye her breakfast and dinner every day.  It's the little things I guess...

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I got to spend some time with my dad butchering an elk.  No-that's not a euphemism.  That's what we actually did.  My dad went elk hunting before coming down here, and he got a BIG cow on the second day of hunting.  You could tell he loved telling the story of seeing so many elk during the trip and the adventure he had with my uncle getting their animals into their vehicles.  Sitting in my new garage with my dad brought back lots of memories of my youth when we spent countless hours on weekends processing the game we hunted.  Helped make my new house feel more like home instantly.

All 5 MacLeod Cousins
Our Thanksgiving meal was supposed to be simple. We thought we had a simple menu...and then I listed out all that we were cooking and Ian reminded me that we did not have a simple menu.  All the food was delicious.  We discovered some quirks about my new kitchen in the process, but everything was perfect-quirks and all.


But no matter how much fun the kids had playing, or how good the food was, the best part of Thanksgiving this year was having everyone at my house.  There's just something about having your family around you that makes a house feel like a home.  It's not often we all get to be in the same location, but for about 36 hours all 11 people in the MacLeod family were under one roof.  We laughed, talked, chased children, and enjoyed each other's company.  It was a wonderful holiday and I'm so very, very thankful we got to have that time together.