Baby Loves Swaddle

Maverick has some habits that are all his own, one being swaddling. He demands/requires swaddling for sleeping and napping. My other boys slept in swaddling blankets for nighttime when they were really young, but never for naps. Once they outgrew the infant swaddling blankets, that was it. Not Maverick. He will be swaddled to sleep or he will not sleep. He's outgrown the infant wraps that we like to use for nighttime, but luckily just for him the company (Halo Wraps) has finally made a 3-6 month size. YEAH!

As for naptime, I got these great Aden and Anais muslin wraps from Target that work great for swaddling. They are really thin, so he won't over heat and he loves them. You can always tell when naptime has ended because he has broken "free" and you can hear him happily sucking on his hand over the monitor.

Such a cutie pie!

Here he is as a little burrito. We'll see how long the swaddling phase lasts, but for now it's working great. I'm always wondering if he likes to be like this since he came so early and still wants that cozy feeling.

Swimming Lessons!

We have hired a swimming instructor to come to our pool to teach our boys and their buddies (Hayden & Patrick) how to swim. I really wanted the boys to get more comfortable in our pool this year and this was the perfect solution. There was no way I was schleping 3 boys to a local pool when we have one right in the backyard. This works out great with Maverick napping happily in his crib while the lessons are going on. I've still had a helper each day with me so I can have an extra set of hands if need be. The instructor, Hannah has been awesome with the boys. With our cooler weather this week, the pool has been a little on the chilly side and Brighton & Patrick have gotten easily chilled. The big boys have done great though.

Here's Chandler reaching and pulling with Hannah. He's so confident in the water with a life-jacket on, but our goal is true swimming this summer. At least he can stand in the shallow end this year, so that helps. He actually jumped in the deep end to Hannah with out a life jacket on his third lesson. I know that took a lot of courage and I'm so proud of him. These lessons should really come in handy next week when we are at Great Wolf Lodge!

Brighton has not been his normal fearless self this week. In fact, he didn't even get in the water one lesson. I'll admit, he has a cold and probably isn't feeling the best, so I didn't push it. Of course Chandler didn't mind the extra time. Brighton had just had lessons with me in February, and would blow bubbles with me in the water there. He's not too sure about blowing them through his nose like Hannah was trying to get him to do here.

And here's the whole gang having lunch after a lesson. What a great opportunity for our boys and a fun time with friends. Here's to more swimming fun soon. I'll have to post a video to show our progress.

Kittens!

You'll never believe what we found under the dog house last night......kittens!

If Derek had time to blog about this, I'm sure he'd make this post a lot funnier. I had actually called animal control on Tuesday of this week because we've seen a stray cat in our yard and it's driving Katie crazy. Animal control told me that it could be a week or more before they could come by with a trap. Okay, no problem.

Well, last night I was watering my tomato plants and Derek said he just saw the cat dart out from under the doghouse and climb the fence. I went over by the house to investigate and heard "meow, meow, meow". I immediately knew now why this cat had been hanging around so much. She was a mom cat and had a litter of kitten under our doghouse!

Now I'm thinking....should we leave some food out? As a fellow nursing mom I immediately felt compassion for this cat and all the energy it takes to nurse your babies. Derek thought it was hilarious that one moment I wanted animal control here and now I'm wanting to feed our unwanted guests. Long story short, Derek contacted a co-worker that is big into cat rescue and he found somebody willing to take this litter and bottle feed them every 2-3 hours!

It was quite the feat for Derek to reach the kittens. They were WAY under there!

Of course, the boys wanted to hold them. We estimated them to be about 1 week old due to their size and the fact their eyes weren't open yet. Chandler wanted to hold an orange one.

Derek ended up finding four kittens. One black, two orange, and one that was colored like the mother....black and tan. It's hard to see the coloring of that one, but it's the dark kitten on top of the orange one in the picture.

Brighton picked the black one to hold and shortly after that, Derek was off to meet the woman who would be caring for these little ones until they could find a new home.

It certainly was a crazy end to our week!

Head's Up

I like posting pictures for comparison. Everybody thinks my boys (especially Brighton and Chandler) look so much alike. I really don't see it. Here's a picture of each of my boys at about 2 months old. Brighton had so much dark hair! I can see similarities much more between Chandler and Maverick. What do you think?

Here's Maverick

Chandler

and finally....Brighton

Summer Camp

Today was the first day of a week long summer camp that both Chandler and Brighton got to attend this year. The theme of the camp was reptiles and amphibians. The boys had a blast and mommy got a much deserved break and enjoyed some one-on-one time with Maverick. This was Brighton's first time in a preschool-type setting and he did great. You'd never know this was his first time away from mommy. He fit right in!

After such a great experience we've decided we'll do another camp at the preschool in August. Can't wait!

Baptism Day!

Today we baptized Maverick. We normally attend the 11 o'clock service at our church, but attended the 8:30 a.m. service today since it was graduation recognition Sunday and we couldn't fit it all into one service. Maverick normally sleeps till 8:30 or 9 a.m. so of course, waking him up early meant he was ready for a nap right about the time he got baptized. Sleepy baby = crying baby. Oh well....

Here's Pastor Jay holding him just after he was Baptized. He made some joke about forgiving Maverick for embarrassing the preacher and quickly handed him back to me.

Here's the whole family gathered for a picture. Obviously it was taken quickly and not much thought was taken into making sure you could see everybody. I wasn't in charge of that.

Luckily with Derek back behind the camera we were able to get some more shots outside. I love this one of my three boys with their Godparents, Erin & Joel. We had a great day and are so happy that our family could be here for this important occasion.

Baptismal Dinner

Here's the guest of honor being held by our # 1 Godmommy, Erin. We had a dinner at our church to celebrate that we would be baptizing Maverick on Sunday. We had about 30 or so of our family and friends there with us. I made spaghetti pies and had help from Grandma Diane with the punch, salad, dessert, and bread. My Aunt Judy also made two desserts (although I considered one a fruit) and my mom brought some tea.
Here's the kids table. Chandler and Brighton sure enjoyed having some guests their size at the party. I think a good time was had by all. We are so blessed that our heavenly father gives us the gift of baptism and we are able to baptize Maverick tomorrow. What a special day to remember.