Layton is 7 months!

Another month has gone by, Buddy. This has been a pretty big month. Here is all about you at 7 months:

**You started sitting up really well right after you turned 6 months. You will sit in the floor for 30+ minutes sometimes (as long as someone is around) and just play. You play with your toys or just sit and watch everybody all the while flapping your arms with excitement. You really notice toys now and will reach for them. You cry if a toy is taken away from you. At church one Sunday night, you had a blast sitting in the pew next to us chewing on a bulletin. You fussed when it fell on the floor.

**You figured out how to move your head from side to side like you are saying no. This is funny. You like to rock back and forth while you are sitting down too. I am just waiting on you to fall forwards onto your belly.

**You are really jabbering. You say "da da da" a lot. I love when you finish nursing how you look up at me and just start talking. It is so cute.

**About half way through the month, you decided you only wanted to nurse on one side each time. You would fuss at me if I tried to get you to nurse on the other side. I could not figure out what the deal was. I was getting frustrated, but I looked back in Lincoln's baby book and saw where he had done the same thing once. He eventually got back to normal as did you after about a week. I'm sure eating more baby food has effected the amount of milk you want. I struggle with how much baby food to give you because I want you to keep nursing well. Right now, you get cereal/fruit for breakfast and 1 jar of a veggie at night. I'm sure over time we will increase the amount of baby food. I did realize that maybe you could go longer between feedings, so we increased that to every 4 hours instead of every 3 1/2. This helped big time! You are still nursing great on both sides, but get very distracted during it. I have to go seclude myself sometimes to keep your attention. We are on the 7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. schedule FINALLY!!! This is drastically improved your night time sleep as well. I will feed you your veggie around 8:00 p.m. and then sometimes put you down at 8:30. You may wake up a couple times around 5:00 a.m. needing your paci, but I have been able to make you wait till 7:00 a.m. for your first feeding. Other nights, I'll sneak another feeding in around 9:30 p.m. if I think you need it.

**You are napping 3 times a day still. Some times it is only for 45 minutes at a time and other times 1 1/2 hours. I don't know why you want to wake up after 45 minutes. Your naps are at 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

**I have been able to leave you several times with Kris with a bottle. You have done great with this!

**You ran a fever this month for a couple of days. I don't know what the deal was, but it was your only symptom and you were still quite pleasant.

**Still no teeth yet. Wondering where they are!

**I put you down on the playroom floor on your back with toys one day and then left the room. When I came back a few minutes later, you had scooted on the floor and were in a different place. Continued to do this as I watched you. This is the only way I have seen you move. You don't roll over and don't like to be on your tummy for very long.

**You like your baby food. You eat all the veggies pretty well. You like most fruits. I have to mix peaches and mango with something else because they are too tart for you. You will eat cereal with some fruit in it. I have tried to give you bananas cut up in your cereal. You didn't know what to think about this and so I had to smash them to get you to eat it. I don't think you know what to think about different textures yet. Here is Hannah feeding you.

Hannah loves you. She always talks to you on the way home from school. You just smile really big at her. It is still unreal to me how much you look like her.

You like to sit at the table with us for meals.

You just watch everybody.

Everything goes in your mouth.

I've been trying to read to you more. It's kind of hard because you want to hold the book and it is hard to turn the pages without you getting upset. Ha!

You still love that rascally Lincoln. He is one interesting guy.

I gave you a cracker one day to see what you would do. You knew to take it straight to your mouth.

You bit off a piece.

Gagged.

You were a little concerned, but went back for more. Not sure you are quite ready for crackers. You also haven't figured out how to get the Gerber puffs in your mouth. You pick them up, but that's as far as it goes.

You can have a little temper at times. You didn't want to be in this position I guess. You were letting me know. You do this sometimes when I put you down in your bed for a nap when you are not ready to be there. You also have started arching your back when I'm holding you and trying to get you to go to sleep. It really is better if I can just lay you down awake in bed to sleep--when you are ready.

You like this toy, but...

get frustrated when it rolls away.

Poor thing.

You try again.

Oh no!

I love, love, love your laugh! You are a very happy baby for the most part. You smile and laugh easily at those you know. You don't smile as easily with strangers. You figured out how to clap this month and get very excited to do it.

Layton - 7 months

Love you Layton! I can't wait to see what you will be up to next month!

Lincoln is FOUR!!

Lincoln, yesterday you turned four years old. I can't believe that you were once this little...

My, how you have grown!

You are a special, special boy.

I haven't posted all about you in a while, so I'm going to try to catch up a little. Here are some things I want to remember about you from the last little while:

**You have really slimmed up lately. You are getting so tall. Some days, you eat great and other days you are so picky and complain about what is on the table. Some days you are so sweet and will say, "Mom, this is good. Thanks." You are still a very messy eater. You love sweets and ask me for candy all the time. This may have attributed to your four cavities recently filled! Yeah, not good.

**Right now you are in size 4T clothes and wear a size 11 shoe, I think. You have the longest, skinniest feet--just like me. You still LOVE to wear boots--all the time. You have 3 pair.

**You have more energy than you know what to do with. Oh my word, the energy you have. I am still trying to figure out how to deal with it. I think we will put you in soccer this spring. Maybe it will help!

**You can dress yourself completely--except for buttoning your pants/jeans. However, getting you to get dressed is a huge struggle! Also, you often put your shoes on the wrong feet and occasionally, I'll notice when I'm dropping you off at school, that you have your shirt on backwards! You like to do your own hair too. Oh me.

**You still sit down to go potty. I have not been able to get you to stand up. We will be working on this soon!!

**You are SO loud when you play. I have finally realized that this is just YOU. So, different from Hannah. You love to role play with your animal figurines. You really like to play with your little horses and just recently your Toy Story army men. I will hear you saying "Hey Dad..." and then talking about a "son..." when you are playing with these little figurines. Cracks me up. You like to play with cars and blocks too. You have really enjoyed your new Leapster Explorer and love to play games on my phone.

**You love to be read to and, most of the time, listen very well. You are very interested in words that rhyme right now and are constantly asking me if 2 words rhyme. You are starting to get it! You can recognize most of your ABC's and know some of their sounds.

**You like to draw, cut, and color. You can draw people with a face and sticks for legs and arms. You draw some interesting things. You like to color and work hard at it.

**You still love to watch tv. You love movies. You like to watch Spiderman cartoons that we have found on Netflicks. You also like Scooby Doo and Dora.

**You still nap for me most days. I kind of have to force this sometimes. If I don't, I totally regret it later in the day. You just start to fall apart and the evenings are tough. If you don't take a nap, I make you have quiet time either in your room or in the playroom depending on Layton's nap.

**You have been whining quite a bit lately, over everything. I have heard 4 can be a whiny age. We have got to work on this. I don't know if there is some jealousy going on and you think you need to get my attention or what. You like to take toys away from Layton sometimes because "YOU want to play with them". Another common saying of yours lately is "But I want to do what I want to do." Ugh!

**Your best buddy is still Jack. You guys LOVE to play with each other. You are the sweetest little friends. Jack is talked about a lot by you.

**You and Hannah can be the best of friends one minute and about to kill each other the next. Such is that brother/sister relationship I guess. I love how you call her "Han". I think you have really missed her since she started school. It was quite the adjustment for you to not be able to play with her all day every day. You would ask me where she was every day for a while after she started school. Sometimes you try a little too hard to get her attention when she gets home.

**I have been concerned about your speech for a while now and recently had you tested. You didn't qualify for their free service. I was told that you were "quite bright" and that they thought your speech issues would probably work themselves out. I am not really sure about this (that it will work itself out, not the bright part. I know you are bright! :-) You are not plain with some of your sounds. So, we will probably retest you some time next year and go from there. I am going to talk to the doctor next week at your 4 year check up and see what he thinks.

**A while back I talked to the doctor about your going to the bathroom all the time. You were constantly going pee pee. I was afraid you might have diabetes. So, we had you tested. Everytihng came back fine and we were so relieved. The doctor did think that where your pee pee comes out may be extra small and need to be stretched. He is sending us to a urologist at Childrens. Of course, it takes forever to get in there and the appointment is not until May. Since then, things have gotten considerably better. I want to go ahead and keep the appointment and see what the doctor thinks, but I don't think there is a problem any more. Maybe you were still adjusting to being potty trained??

**You say the BEST prayers and you are so cute when you say them. You make this smacking sound between each thing that you say. It is adorable. You like to pray for each member of our family, for our food, for rainbows, sometimes you say for Jesus dying on the cross (all on your own), for your bunk beds, etc. Kris and I just look at each other and smile when we hear you pray.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something that I really want to remember. You are still very much a mess and keep us on our toes--constantly. However, you bring us so much joy, Lincoln, and we love you so much!!!

I took Spiderman cupcakes to your class yesterday. You are really into Spiderman right now.

Last night at home, you opened one present from us. New Batman pjs (They didn't have Spiderman.). You liked them.

You also opened one from Uncle Kurt and Aunt Alexis. A new tool set. We are planning to have a family party next weekend with my family. I think we may try out PlayTime Pizza.

Happy 4th Birthday Linc!! We love you!!

Snow days

We got some snow early last week. It was COLD!!! The kids went out and played in it for just a bit. Lincoln laid down in it and got himself too cold and so he didn't last long. It was fun, though, for the few minutes they were out there.

Snow ball fight!

Snow is fun for a little while, but after a few days of being cooped up in the house, I have to say I am not sad to see it go!

Don't really want to, but think I need to...

make my blog private. I have been thinking about making my blog private for quite some time. I feel like God just keeps putting it on my heart, so maybe He is telling me I need to do it. I hate that it kind of complicates things, but I just feel like I need to restict who is reading about my family.

SO, that being said, if you would like to continue to read this blog, please send me your email address to Jamie@keimfamily.net. I will give you permission to view it. I will leave it open until March 1st. After March 1st, it will only be available to those I have given permission to. Hopefully this will give people time to respond.

If you are someone that I know, please don't let this keep you from reading about our family! Just send me your email and I will add you!!!

Thanks!

Jamie

Kris' Latest Projects

Back in October, Kris started a project to replace the green granite looking stuff on our fireplace. We have never cared for it. This is what the fireplace looked like before. He had gotten one piece off already when I thought to take the before picture.

Green.

This is the way the whole fireplace looked before--decorations and all.

To be able to put in the new black marble tiles, he had to take the whole mantel down.

Laying the new tiles. He had to cut into the hardwood floors too to get everything to fit just right.

Putting in the grout.

When it was time to put the mantel back up, it kind of fell apart. I think it had been built on the wall in pieces originally. SO, what did Kris decide to do, why, build a new one!!! He worked really hard on it.

Looking good!! He used some really pretty moldings.

All up!! I love it!

After finishing getting the mantel up, he stopped to help Lincoln build a bat.

Love his tongue hanging out while he was concentrating.

Linc and the bat he made!

So, when I walked into the house that Tuesday after Christmas after having been gone for almost a week, I immediately smelled paint. I saw the mantel. We had talked about hiring a lady that Kris knows from work to come paint it because Kris didn't want to mess it up. I had no idea, though, that he was having it done while I was gone. He also had all the baseboards, chair rails, trim, and doors painted in the whole house. We have needed that done since we bought the house. It looked like the previous owners had put one coat of paint on everything and it just didn't look good. I was thrilled to have all that done! It looked so nice!

The After pictures.

My plan is to redo the decor on top of the mantel. I have been looking but haven't quite found what I want yet. So, for now it is the same as before.

Another project Kris did a couple weekends ago was that he put a new microwave in above our stove. I don't have a before picture, but he had to take out the cabinets about the stove. He just put a piece of wood in their place. Once he stained it, you can barely tell that it was not always like that. We have plans to paint our cabinets at some point, so this won't even matter. I did lose the cabinet space above the stove though. I had all my cookbooks in it. I had to find another place for them. But it totally opened up a lot more space on the countertop because now there is not a microwave sitting on it. It also allowed me a space for my new mixer!

I love having a handy husband!