Owen is 4!

This little guy is 4!  So hard to believe. 

I have no stats for ya as his doctor had to cancel the appointment and we don’t go for another week or so.3 was a hard year for this guy.  But I’m already starting to see hope in the age of 4.  He’s been so helpful and sweet lately with his little brother.  I’m hoping for an awesome year.I love watching his imagination.  He loves to make up stories and is very into telling me about his super hero powers right now. He is an individual that’s for sure.  Here are his toes painted in a pattern of his choosing after seeing Ellie and I do our nails. He’s quiet (in public), inquisitive, and a deep feeler.  He still doesn’t sleep through the night, although is becoming less of a picky eater. He loves to draw and reading books is always a favorite thing to do.  So looking forward to our school time starting again this fall and watching him learn!Happy 4 years to my firstborn!

Miles {1 month}

This kid is one month old (ok, 6 weeks upon this posting but who’s really counting besides me).  I was wanting an “official” weight before posting and got it this morning.  We don’t have his official appointment until next week, but Miles is a part of a U of I study called Illinois Strong Kids and he had his 6 week visit today where they weigh him. (side note – if you’re having a baby soon here in C/U you should sign up for this study!  Every visit they do comes with gift card!)

He’s 12 lbs, 4 oz!  Holy cow, no wonder he’s in size 2 diapers and in 6 month clothing.  I had to exchange several packs of diapers that were too small.  I’ll admit I was a bit sad packing away his untouched 0-3 clothes as I didn’t get to cuddle a small newborn for very long.  But I’m so thankful he’s healthy and a great eater!Eating: He’s a great nurser and is getting on a good eat, play, sleep pattern.  He takes a bit longer to eat than my first two did and definitely has to eat from both sides.  He is an awesome burper when he’s done.  Thankfully, his little body is dealing just fine with the copious amounts of caffeine I’ve been drinking. :)Sleeping:  Knock on wood, he seems to be a better sleeper than my first two.  But he HAS to be swaddled.  If he so much gets a fingertip out of the swaddle, all bets are off and he’s screaming.  We even use the swaddle blankets in the car seat to make those rides more enjoyable for all of us.  Having firm pressure also is the best way to calm him as opposed to bouncing or rocking.  Day naps are falling into a 5 nap “routine” and his bedtime is slowly moving up.  He usually goes down between 8-9 and sleeps until about 1 (twice he made it until 2:30!).  But from them until the morning, he’s usually awake every hour or two.  Because Owen and Ellie still get up in the night (ugh) William is in change of those two and I focus on Miles.Random info:  He has an adorable dimple on his left cheek (just like his sister).  His first 3 weeks, he HATED diaper changes but I think that’s starting to get better.  He loves his pacifier.  His eyes are blue/gray and definitely lighter than the other kid’s.  Still not sure if they’ll go brown like there’s though or stay in the blue family like mine.
How we’re all doing: Well, in general I’d say really well.  I think I was a bit worried about the transition to 3 from everyone who keeps saying “you’ll be outnumbered.”  “You’re going from man-to-man defense to zone defense, etc.”  But so far, it’s felt pretty doable!  Yes, you just need to plan an extra 45 minutes or so to get out the door.  That means packing up the extra stuff and fitting in a feeding.  But I’ve gotten out by myself quite a bit with all 3.  Just not grocery shopping.  That’s happening in the evenings now with just Miles in the Ergo carrier.  For me 1 to 2 kids was harder than 2 to 3.  I also like that Owen and Ellie can play (and fight) together while I’m occupied nursing.

Bed time is hard.  With 2 older kids that have a hard time going to sleep and staying asleep, William and I both dread this time. 

Owen loves him and gives him kisses, but isn’t too interested in holding him.  Ellie loves giving him a pacifier, but whoa is she needy!  I kind of figured she’d be the hard one and that’s proven true.  She’s whinier and needs to be held all the time!

Oh one other thing.  I felt like my bonding took a little more time with Ellison than it did with Owen.  Maybe it was just learning how to give 2 kids what they need.  But with Miles it was instant.  Maybe it was watching him being wheeled away to the NICU without me.  But wow if I didn’t fall instantly and completely in love with this little guy.So in general, I love it.  I love that while before, William and I each could have a “kid.”  But now we’re a whole team.  And yes, everyone asks if we’re done.  And I don’t have an answer on that quite yet.  But I will say that if I had to answer today, I want 4 and William’s fine with 3.

We love you Miles Grayson Pool!

Some more pictures from our 1 month shoot:    

first pool day

I’ve been a little sad as I’ve started to see all these great pool pictures from friends taking their little ones swimming.  I didn’t get a pass this year as I knew taking 3 kids to the pool by myself wasn’t going to happen.  But this morning, my friend Lori asked if we wanted to meet at Sholem.  Her girl, Avery, is a fabulous babysitter-in-training.  She held Miles for a good majority of the morning and had no problem missing out on the swimming fun.    Owen and Ellie acted like they hadn’t missed a beat with swimming and were both braver than I had anticipated them to be.  They blew bubbles in that water and both went down the slide. I definitely could not have done it by myself.  Ellie refused to get out while I nursed Miles, so Lori played with her.  And taking Owen to the bathroom was much easier without having to drag the other two along.  And the best part – the long afternoon naps had by all.  Even Owen who hasn’t taken a nap in quite a while!Thanks ladies (and Ryder).  We can’t wait to go again!   

t-ball!

Tonight was Owen's first venture into the world of organized sports - t-ball!  Athleticism is not something that really runs in the Hoerr family, so I had set the bar pretty low. :)  We’re just doing it through the Savoy Rec Center, so I didn’t anticipate as big of a crowd as there was.  There were about 40ish kids in all.  Despite the large number and the fact that many had no idea what was going on, Lexi and her helpers did a nice job keeping the chaos pretty organized.  They started by running around the bases together. Then they did a little throwing practice:
Then, every child got a turn to bat.  Out of all the kids, one decided he didn’t want to even try to step up to bat.  Want to guess which child that was? :)  Oh well maybe next week!  And maybe next week I'll be a more prepared t-ball mom and bring a blanket or something to sit on.

Owen’s 4th birthday!

Owen’s  birthday celebration began early on Saturday.  We’ve been talking a lot about what kind of bike he wanted.  So we headed to Toys R Us to try some out.  He immediately gravitated towards this orange bike, even though he’s been saying from the get to that he wanted a blue bike.  He hopped on it at the store and rode like a pro.  After trying a few others ones out, he still said this was the one he wanted.  So it came home with us, along with a hot wheels helmet!We struggled to get him back inside after riding.

On Tuesday (his real birthday), he woke up to this:   He of course wanted to open his presents immediately. We had birthday donuts for a special treat.Elmer and Jackie (William’s parents) arrived later in the day and he got to open even more presents!

Owen wanted to help decorate his own cake.  So not Pinteresty but fun to do it together.

For the last part of his birthday celebrations, he got treated to a movie with his best buddy, Sam.  Carrie and Rob (and baby Jack) came to pick him up Saturday morning and they all went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.  He had an absolute blast.

All in all, it was a super fun week of celebrating him!  Definitely not a birthday party complete with animals, but we’ll go big again next year when I haven’t just had a baby. :)

DIY paper airplane mobile

Now that I’m trying to get back in the regular routine of blogging, I need to show off some of Miles’ room cuteness.  Since I overhauled the plan for his room about 2 months before he arrived, his mobile plans also needed to change.

I just couldn’t land on anything I loved.  I’m not a “themey” person when it comes to my kiddo’s rooms, so I had colors in mind but not a shape.  I was going to just do a cute circle one with my leftover fabrics and then I spotted this on Etsy:

(source)

Adorable, expect for the price tag and I wanted to add a few more pattern instead of just solid papers.  So I busted out my trusty glue gun and got to making one myself.  Here were all the supplies I used:

• 2 wooden embroidery hoops – 8” and 10”
• paint for the hoops
• hot glue gun
• about 8 different scrapbook papers in gray, yellow, and white
• fishing line – I wish now I would have used line that was a bit thinner and more transparent, but you can’t be picky when you’re nine months pregnant and doing craft projects
• little white hook to attach everything to the ceiling

1. There are a few tutorials on how to make your own paper airplane mobile here and here.  Mine isn’t super detailed as I forgot to take pictures of lots of steps.
2. I only used the insides to my embroidery hoops, not the outside part that has the hardware on it.  You can discard that part (or save it for another project).  Then I started by painting my hoops with a gray spray paint I had and hated the coverage and color.  So I switched and did 2 coats using a acrylic craft paint and loved it much more.3. Make your airplanes!  There are a million different ways to make your paper airplanes.  Look here for some good examples here.  After lots of trial runs, I decided I wanted something very simple with very few fold lines.

• I cut my paper into 4.5” x 5” rectangles.
• fold your paper in half
• open it back up and fold each top corner down and line up with the fold down the middle
• fold in half again
• Take each side and fold down so the top fold line, lines up with the bottom of the plane.  Does that make sense?
• And that should make your simple airplane!
• I hot glued it together in all the places it could come unfolded and while the glue was still hot, I stuck in a long piece of fishing wire to hang it

4. I tied 3 fishing wires evenly around each hoop (6 lines total) and tried as best I could to hang the 2 hoops so they were even with each other.  They’re actually not tied together in any way.

5. After I made lots of airplanes, I tied them loosely around the hoops to figure out how I wanted to space them, which colors I wanted where, etc.  When I was happy with the placement, I tied the fishing wire as tight as I could and added a small dot of hot glue to secure it.  Then I cut off the excess fishing wire.  (the beginning stages of mobile is hanging from the ceiling fan in this picture)6. Lastly, William helped me measure and hang it from the ceiling just using a little white hook.I love how it turned out and I hope Miles enjoys this view from his bed.