Months of Miles: 4 Months

Weight: 18 lbs 15 oz

Diaper Size: 4

Clothes Size: Mostly 3-6 or 6 months

Things you Love: Being Held, Eating, being outside, your thumb, hanging toys on your bassinet and play mat, being sung to, getting your clothes changed (most babies don't love this, but you just giggle so much on the changing table)

Things you Don’t Love: Being hungry, your car seat, loud noises

Milestones: You still eat and sleep pretty well. You are visually exploring so much now and love looking at your toys and reaching for them. You've been showing more interest in brother this month and will laugh when he talks to you. You are doing better at tummy time and will hold your head up and stay on your tummy, especially when you can look in the mirror or when I sing to you while you're there. You do frequently roll over when I put you on your tummy.  I cut dairy out of my diet last month and you have done so well and all of your reflux symptoms almost immediately disappeared, so that has been a new adventure for us both!

My sweet baby boy I just can't get enough of you.  I kiss your cheeks about a hundred times a day and could just sit and stare at you forever.  I love watching you interact with your brother and laugh at him when he tries to entertain you.  I can't believe we're a third of the way through your first year, but I'm just trying to soak up all of the moments.  It's been fun starting to see your personality come out and I can't wait to continue to watch you grow.  Miles, we couldn't love you more if we tried!  

Sew Fun: Jon Jons

It has been really interesting to see how different Cooper and Miles are so far.  One of the main differences already is their size.  Miles at 4 months is about the size Cooper was at 9 months.  Which means that a lot of our holiday stuff won't work for M even though he will be younger than Cooper was during the holiday seasons.  So I'd been on the lookout for some other clothes for M and kept seeing cute shortalls/longalls/Jon Jons.  Because Cooper was so slim onesies and pants worked great for him, but Miles definitely seems to fit better in one piece outfits.  So after looking at all these expensive outfits, I thought I'd see if I could find a pattern to make them.  I found this pattern on etsy and decided to try it out.

I started out with the shorts version.  One of the things I love is that it is reversible!  So the other side is a plain blue with a dinosaur on it.  I cut all the fabric one evening and sewed the whole thing in little pockets of time last weekend.

Our sweet little model trying it on!

Then I wanted to try out the long version.  I decided to try a reversible Baylor/OU outfit. 

I finished this one up today.  Right now it's a little long on Miles, but I'm sure he'll grow into it soon enough!   

It was a lot of fun getting to be at my sewing machine again creating something for my boy.  And I am pleased with how they turned out!  I'm looking forward to trying some more!

Ninja Warrior Course

So before "all of this" aka COVID happened, Cooper was supposed to go to preschool one day a week at Obstacle Warrior Kids.  We had taken him a few times to play there last year and he always loved it, so we thought it would be a good place for him to learn and play.  But we pretty quickly decided we weren't going to be doing any preschool (or most of our activities) this Fall.  So I had the idea to build our own Ninja Warrior obstacles for the backyard.  I found several plans on Pinterest and we bought the wood and supplies through Home Depot's curbside pick up and got to work.

We knocked out a lot of it over Labor Day weekend.  David measured and marked up the wood and together we cut it and screwed everything together.  We still have a few more things to do, but this was a start.

1. A long plank.  This is an 8 foot piece of pressure treated wood that we marked up every foot.  The intention is to cut it into 8 12"x12" pieces for Cooper to jump to, but we didn't get to that yet and he wanted to include it in the course-- he loves walking on it.

2. A balance beam.  A 8 foot long 4x4 with 2x4 supports screwed in

3. The easiest and cheapest obstacles.  $1 pool noodles from Walmart held up with pens.  We have a plethora of extra pens in our house, so I stuck them in the ground and the noodle ends fit over them.  I did the red ones further apart for a lower obstacle to jump over and the blue ones closer together as an obstacle to crawl under.

4. The floating steps.  These are at the beginning of most ninja warrior courses so we wanted to include them.  The top is plywood measuring 24"x16" and the legs are 2x4s.  We have enough wood to make 2 more so we'd have 6 total steps but 4 was a good start.

5. Rock climbing holds on our tree.  I had had my eye on some rock climbing holds and recently found these on sale on Amazon, so I used a gift card to buy a set.  You put the holds on the included rope and then it has equipment to ratchet it tightly around the tree.  Very easy to put up.  Cooper will only climb these with help right now, but he really enjoys them!

It was so fun seeing him enjoy the obstacles we created!  Looking forward to lots of time to play in our backyard this Fall!

Superhero School

We kicked off our year of preschool at home a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd share a few of the details of our first 2 weeks!  Since Cooper isn't going anywhere this year, I decided I wanted to do some learning activities with him at home and have a more regular schedule.  I looked at a ton of different curriculums/resources/Pinterest ideas and decided on Hero Training from Steadfast Family which is a Christian based study focusing on character traits and then I'm supplementing some letter and number activities each week.

I had been talking up "Superhero School" for a couple of weeks leading up to our start date and Cooper was ready!  The first day I made him a sign and a new cape along with "superhero pancakes" (with a star shaped pancake and blueberries and strawberries to look like Captain America's shield)

He was so ready!  We've been doing our lessons each morning Monday-Friday while Miles takes his first nap of the day and it's a great way for us to connect together.

We start every day with this morning binder page from Gentle and Classical Preschool.  This curriculum was recommended to me by a friend who homeschools and they have their first year available for free.  I looked it over and decided it was more than we were ready to take on this semester, but we may look at doing it next year.  But I did love this morning binder page where Cooper practices his name, age, and how he's feeling.  

The first week of Hero Training is about being helpful.  So the first day Cooper's mission was to help with a chore and he helped me clean our bathrooms!  He loved spraying the cleaning spray and dumping out the small trash cans into the big trash.

Little brother got in on the superhero dress up too.

Letter tracing.  Each week I focus on a letter and a number with Cooper.  For the most part the letter is just the first letter of the character trait.  Each day we talk about the letter and what sound it makes and then 1 or 2 days a week I do an activity with it for tracing or finding the letter.  This day we traced the letter with our finger and then with stickers!  I found a bunch of free Superhero preschool printable activities for FREE on Pinterest and they have given us lots of additional things to practice. Then I just make up a few of my own too.  

A few of the sites I've pulled from:

http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printable/superhero-pack

https://moneysavingmom.com/free-super-hero-math-printable/

http://moreexcellentme.com/category/preschool/printable-packs/page/2/

https://thekindergartenconnection.com/super-hero-alphabet-play-dough-mats/

One of the hero missions the first week was to help make a snack or meal.  Cooper chose to help cook dinner and I gave him a choice between making spaghetti or making a sausage and veggie sheet pan.  He chose spaghetti because "spaghetti is my favorite" (which he says because of a Daniel Tiger episode where they eat spaghetti).  So that evening he helped me stir the sauce, pour in the spaghetti, butter and salt the garlic bread, and serve everything up.  That night he told me "Thank you so much for letting me help you cook dinner!"  I have always wanted to include him in cooking, but honestly it's so much easier to put on a TV show for him while I have time alone to cook.  But this was a good reminder of the value of making an effort to include him at least some of the time!

Each week when he completes his hero challenges (including memorizing a new Bible verse and doing his letter practice along with the other Hero Training activities) he gets a new badge for his cape!

Week 2 was about self-control.  His memory verse for the week is "A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls" so one of the tasks was to build a city with walls.  We did this lesson on Labor Day so Daddy got to join in the fun too.

Playdo mats for our letters and numbers.

So far we're both having a good time and Cooper has done great memorizing 2 Bible verses!  Hopefully we'll keep up the momentum.

August iPhone Rewind

Another month has come and gone!  Here's a look back at August

We kicked off the month with another trip to Ham Orchards to stock up on salsas and other goodies before they closed for the season.  

Celebrated National Watermelon Day by letting Cooper dig in to this half of the watermelon and play with it.  We also made watermelon popsicles.

Worked on spelling Cooper's name with a morning activity.

Little man in his Doctor jammies.

I got Cooper a (new to us) Incredibles Costume and he would wear it nonstop if we let him!

I bought a wok based on a heads up about a sale from my friend Amanda, so I sent her this picture the first time I used it.

Cooper still loves the games where he can rescue toys from ice!

Helping brother with his bottle.

Just a typical morning walk ;)

Cooper has 5 paces in this picture... one in his mouth and 4 in his hands.  He is definitely still a Paci addict.

Miles's first time in the Merlin Sleep Suit.  Adorable.

We set the high chair up reclined so that Miles could sit with us at dinner sometimes.  Cooper was less than pleased that we are giving "his" high chair to baby brother, even though he rarely ever sits in it.

When I gave him a spray bottle of water back in March when quarantine began, I never could have imagined he'd still love it in August.  He loves spraying the windows and the outside of the house and his outdoor toys

Matching brothers.

David was getting the grill ready and the boys fo9und a little frog on our patio.

Watching Toy Story with his Buzz Lightyear wings.

That smile.

Seems like this guy is not going to be a Paci addict like his brother, but he sure loves sucking on his pointer finger-- which may be an even worse habit.  Time will tell, but for now it's pretty adorable.

Miles has pretty much outgrown these pajamas, so we got one last night of matching star pajamas in.

Since Cooper isn't going to preschool this Fall, we're doing some school at home.  We started yesterday with Superhero School--more details to come, but he had a great first day!