New Truck

Eric finally decided after 333,333 miles that red could retire and he would get a new truck. And now we have a great family vehicle that Eric can haul things in as well. Super excited!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RT7yGq2wAkVt3p2i7

Merry Christmas

It was a fun Christmas this year. Tom is finally old enough now that he sort of understands how everything works. He was even somewhat calm about the Christmas train this year. We got a lot more enjoyment out of it since he didn't try to destroy it every time he saw it. He also understood the Christmas movies a lot more this year and started to understand Santa. I even sort of taught him how to sing part of Jingle Bells.

For the grandparents we made talking ornaments again. Since Tom had a lot more to say this year we made longer ones. I cut together a bunch of clips of the kids doing different things and put it on a little recorder and then stuffed it inside an ornament. Tom had fun talking into the camera and of course the grandparents love it.

Eric was really dreading seeing Santa this year with how squirmy our boys are. So I told him that I would record the Seahawks and we would go during the game and hopefully there would be less people in line. I am so smart. There was not a single person in line. And we got a good smiling picture this year and I didn't even have to be in it because someone was freaked out by Santa.

We were glad to see everyone around the holidays. We went to the Robert's on Christmas Eve and then stayed the night at my parent's house. When Tom woke up in the morning he saw that Santa had eaten the big Santa cookie that he put out for him. And under the tree Santa left him a cool race track for his cars. And Tom got started to learn that not all toys are for him. Jake got a cool ferry boat that Tom had to learn wasn't his but he could ask his brother to share.

This year for Lena we got her the Frozen CD and a blanket that has a hood with Anna braids on it. Never would have guessed that would have kept her busy for so much of Christmas Day. She was dancing and singing all over the place. Tom and I joined in a little bit, but mostly it was just Lena doing her thing. 

So excited for all the fun holidays to come and seeing the joy on the kids faces as they experience the wonder of it all.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nLnSiz7Txg1qdauy9

6 Month Check-Up

Jacob had his 6 month check-up. He's doing going. More shots. He gets to start on fruits and vegtables. Yeah!

Date	Weight	Length	Head Circumfrance
Tom Birth	8 lbs. 11 oz.	19.7"	14"
Jacob Birth	8 lbs. 15.4 oz.	19"	14"
Tom 2 Weeks	9 lbs. 5 oz. 69th percentile	22" 91st percentile	15.25" 85th percentile
Jacob 2 Weeks	10 lbs. 8.2 oz. 89th percentile (cast 5 oz)	20" 18th percentile	14.5" 38th percentile
Tom 2 Months	12 lbs. 14.8 oz. 61st percentile	23.5" 68th percentile	16" 87th percentile
Jacob 2 Months	14 lbs. 7.2 oz. 94th percentile (brace 6 oz)	24" 82nd percentile	15.75" 46th percentile
Tom 4 Months	16 lbs. 15.6 oz. 85th percentile	26.5" 92nd percentile	16.75" 55th percentile
Jacob 4 Months	16 lbs. 4.6 oz. 78th percentile	26.25" 91st percentile	16.5" 41st percentile
Tom 6 Months	19 lbs. 15.8 oz. 86th percentile	29" 99th percentile	17.5" 70th percentile
Jacob 6 Months	18 lbs. 10.4 oz. 66th percentile	27.25" 73th percentile	17.2" 44th percentile
Tom 9 Months	21 lbs. 9.6 oz. 68th percentile	30" 94th percentile	18" 63.5th percentile
Tom 12 Months	23 lbs. 9 oz. 60th percentile	31.25" 89th percentile	18.5" 67th percentile
Tom 18 Months	28 lbs. 3 oz. 78th percentile	32.5" 56th percentile	19" 65th percentile
Tom 2 Years	33 lbs. 93rd percentile	37" 98th percentile	19.5" 72th percentile

Happy Anniversary

Eric and I and the boys went out to Mizu to celebrate our Anniversary. The boys were very nice to give us a quiet meal. The food was spectacular. And Tom gave us a shock. When he saw us eating with chopsticks he asked to have his own. We handed him some chopsticks and without any coaching from us he managed to get some food in his mouth with them. We were dying laughing about it. And the waitress even brought some kids chopsticks they made with a rubber band to make it easier to hold together.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x8Xuh7zCxgTWbFXt6

6 Months Old

6 months old today!

Jacob had his first his first School Pictures and his first Thanksgiving this month. He also had his first snow and got his first Christmas tree. Of course he loves to look at the lights. It will be exciting to see how he likes all the flashy wrapping paper.

He has been babbling and making more noises this month. He even kind of started blowing me some kisses and raspberries. 

Jacob got his first two teeth this month. The two little bottom ones. We were nicely surprised that he did not have any big meltdowns like Tom with the temperature and puking and up all night. We have had a lot of drooling, and some fussiness. He was sleeping OK at nights for a couple weeks and then the teething really tarted and he was up every couple hours again. He wants to use those teeth really bad too. I have been giving him some rice or oatmeal cereal and he is pretty bored with it. He will take a couple of spoon fulls and then he just wants to grab the spoon and stares at our food and complains. We have our 6 month check up next week and then we will bring on the more interesting food.

He is such a big boy. I think he might be even bigger than Tom was. He is definitely chubbier. Tom at this time was getting sick every couple weeks from teething and he was also wanting more to eat than I could provide with nursing. At one point Tom was getting up every 15 minutes to want to eat. I wasn't even go there again. With Jacob, as soon as I noticed that he started to get fussy that there was as much milk as he wanted I switched him over to formula. He was a little upset about it at first but once he got the hang of it he was fine with it. And I think Jacob may be longer too. We have already swapped out the dresser to have mostly 6-9 months clothes. And for sleepers and some other stuff he is in 12 months. I was looking at Tom's first Santa picture when he was 8 months and the outfit Tom was in was a 12 month outfit. Jacob is barely squeezing into that outfit at 6 months. Can't wait till next week to see how big he has gotten.

He is also trying to crawl and is getting pretty close. He can get his stomach off the ground for a little while and either kind of lunges forward and falls on his face or goes backwards. He is really frustrated because he wants to get to wherever brother is so he can watch him playing. One day Tom was playing behind the couch and baby was in the jumping and complaining a lot. So I took the jumper to the other side of the couch and put him right by his brother. I didn't hear any complaining for quite a while. I keep trying to convince Tom that he should play right next to wherever baby is but Tom really likes to be in charge and doesn't like to follow my suggestions on how he should play.

I think the biggest development of this month was we did not have to take Jacob to the doctor at all this month and I only had to take Tom on one brief trip to get a flu shot. In Jacob's first 5 months I believe we went to the doctor 25 times. I know this is a lot less then some kids with really difficult medical conditions. But it was pretty rough on me especially since I was working full time and really didn't have time to miss work so I had to make it up later. So this month was so wonderful not having any doctor appointments especially since Eric and I have been really busy with work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xuMqm43XXM358rfV9

Here is a look back at Tom at 6 months old.

New Chairs

Eric and I decided to get ourselves Christmas presents this year while out shopping on Black Friday at Fred Meyer. We have been sitting on 20 year old couches that we got from my parents. You can hear the springs in them and everything. So we decided to get to comfy arm chairs that were half price. Nothing to fancy, but they are a lot more comfortable. We kept one of the old couches for the boys to destroy. The nice part is they swivel so mine is set-up at my computer station to where I can swivel to the computer and back out to the living room. Makes it a lot easier for working when I can actually use my computer desk how it is supposed to be used.

Tom really likes the new chairs too. And he liked playing with the box of course. We couldn't keep it around for too long because it too up so much room. But he had fun while it lasted. Of course the first thing he did with it was make a parking garage.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ozDVqaE4KMR76obY6

Eric's Birthday

We had a quiet Birthday party at home for Eric. I made his favorite chicken enchiladas. And Tom got to do his favorite thing which is singing Happy Birthday and eating cake.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yhUdPg1yPxPxV7d18