The Month That Was May

Right after my last post, the month of May began to escape from us. We all came down with some type of virus right before Mother's Day weekend. It started with Kai, moved to me, then Finn, and finally Reid. I would not be exaggerating to say that I felt completely miserable. It just felt like if I got some sleep I could shake it, but unfortunately Finn was miserable too and not sleeping. So, it was one of the worst weekends ever.

Thankfully, we started feeling a bit better by the time Monday rolled around. It was just in time to get ready for Grammy and Papa's visit (Reid's parents) and Kai's birthday. So, I guess that's where we'll start. I think I have a lot to share: Grammy and Papa's visit, Kai's birthday, Reid's birthday, and finally a Finn update. Hopefully I'll get it all done soon!

The Things Kai Says

"I'm much to busy to eat my poptart."

Me: "Kai, can you be careful. This puzzle is really hard." Kai: (a moment of pondering) "Do we have a soft puzzle, momma?"

"Oh shucks!"

"I love my baby!"

"We are a happy family."

"I grew up!"

"I don't want to be 3. I want to be 20!"

"I'd be much happy if".....fill in demand of the moment.

There are so many more. As I think of them, I'll come back and add to them here. He's just been full of random funny things lately and it always makes me smile. While we were coming down the stairs this afternoon he said "Ants help the soil." Just one of his completely random statements. We weren't talking about ants at all.....but apparently he was thinking about them!

Teaching Moments

Today is a slow day. Really slow. We have a couple of days a week like this normally, but I think today feels worse because yesterday was slow, too. Kai has watched way too much TV and doesn't want to play. I feel guilty making him play by himself so much while I'm sitting with Finn protecting him, feeding him, putting him to bed, etc. So when Kai pulled out playing cards this morning I figured we had time to talk about them. I took all of the cards out of the box and talked to him about the "A" for ace, the four different suits (I didn't use that word but rather "shapes"), all of the numbers and the picture cards. And then I handed him cards and had him match them and put them in order. I doubt it'll stick with him, but it definitely took up some time and it was time that I felt was much better spent than it would have been otherwise. I love little teaching moments with my buddy and he really does give me quite a lot of them. Here's Kai and his cards.

Notice one card out of place. He quickly fixed it.

Kai's pictures

I was downloading pictures off of the camera and found these. We had friends over for dinner on Sunday and Kai must have gotten ahold of the camera while the kids were playing in the basement.

This 9 year-old is the one that has asked her mom if she could marry Kai. It makes us smile that Kai has so many friends and he does love to play with Micah!

Finn's 6 month pictures

Finn's pictures turned out great! I'm sad I can't afford to buy them all. But they will be online until May 30th. I'll just have to enjoy them as much as I can until then!

Click here and enter the password "jones6mo" to see our happy boy!

Brothers Who Play Together

I love watching the boys when they are playing nicely together. Finn even instigates as often as Kai does. Finn just loves his big brother (most of the time) and will lean over to grab him and get his attention. It's so cute and Kai loves it, too. Here's a clip from Saturday morning. They had been at it for about 5 minutes before Reid got out the camera and by that time Kai had pretty much abandoned the game he was playing and wasn't waiting for Finn to "get him". But you can see the smiles on both faces and hear the giggles. So fun!

Baby Food

Admittedly, when Kai was little I didn't feel any need to provide him with food other than the store bought kind.  With Finn's additional caloric needs however, I have really felt that it would be best to be more aware of what he is getting and ultimately, to make it myself.  Instead of pureeing his fruits and veggies with water like the store bought ones do, I can puree it with formula.  Presto--extra calories!!  So, last week we started with a little bit of fruit, avocado to be exact.  It's the highest fat and calorie fruit there is.  And yes, it's a fruit.

Avocados are very easy to prepare.  I purchased an avocado already ripe, sliced it, dipped it in a water/lemon juice bath and then froze it.  When it's time to eat, I retrieve a slice, microwave briefly, add in formula and it's ready.  I get at least 6 slices out of one avocado--that's 6 days of fruit.  So far, Finn doesn't seem super-excited about it.  He's not rejecting it, just not overly excited.  We've had 4 days of avocado, so I'm going to move on and see if we can find something he loves.  Yesterday I made a sweet potato puree.  Which, once again, was easy.  Just bake the potato, take off the skin, and then puree with formula.  I then put the puree in an ice cube tray for easy freezing and transferred to a ziploc bag that was labeled and dated.  I got a little over 10 cubes out of one big potato.  I'm anxious for him to try it.  (Yes, I know it says the general recommendation is to not freeze formula, but I couldn't get it to puree without a liquid. So, I did use just a little formula.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm sure I'll have to thin my cubes anyway because there's not much in there at all.  If the cubes seem a little weird I'll just redo it with water and see how that works.  Like I said, I'll have to thin them later anyway with more formula.)

I don't plan on making all of his food, just the ones that I feel I can add to.  The fruits and veggies are real easy and while I'm at it I'm hoping that I can introduce Kai to some new things as well.  He could stand to gain some weight, too.  If you're curious, I've been using this site for recipes, tips, and ideas.  I love all of the information that they have from storage to new fruit and veggie ideas, to how to cook/prepare, etc.  On Saturday I made a baked banana for Kai that we really enjoyed.

So, here's to continued cooking and hoping that Finn will appreciate the efforts!