20 months

Jonathan turned 20 months old on Sunday. I can't believe my little man is almost 2 years old!!

Motor skills

Just in the last week Julianna has started to be able to reach out and grab things around her that she sees -- her blinky car seat mobile thingie, the toys on the exersaucer... and the phone when Jennifer is using it and holding her, haha.

The latest

For better or worse, there really hasn't been much of noteworthiness going on at the ol' Casa de la West as of late. Jonathan is doing good. He's still not talking but our pediatrician says it's nothing to be concerned about yet. He crawled and walked relatively late but as soon as he started doing it it was as if he'd been doing it for weeks already -- when he walked for the very first time he walked across our kitchen, and his second walk was nearly halfway across of our house. I figure when he decides to finally start talking he'll just bust out in multi-word sentences. I have a feeling we'll be in for a case of "careful what you wish for" when he starts speaking, haha.

And speaking of walking, he's running now. Well, it's really more of a bouncing speed walk than outright running, but the little man can really move! I think I've got some video of him running that I can post up on flickr. He loves for me to run and chase him around the house and backyard.

Julianna is finally sleeping better (again). She seemed to go through phases where she'd sleep good for a week or two, then, not so good, for a week or two. About three weeks ago it was getting really bad though; she wasn't sleeping for more than about two and a half hours at a time at night before waking and wanting to nurse, and this was going on for days. It wasn't that she had her days and nights mixed up, it was that she simply had no night!

After an exhausted Jennifer talked with an OB friend of hers and with our pediatrician, we decided the problem was three-fold: first, Julianna was napping too much during the day, second she was sleeping in the same room with Jennifer, and finally she wasn't going to bed on a full tummy (we think she's more of a "snacker" type eater). Based on that we implemented some changes to Julianna's schedule and her sleeping improved immediately. She went from waking every three hours to only waking up once, quite literally, over night! She only takes two, sometimes three naps during the day now. Her mid morning nap is usually about an hour or so long. Her late afternoon nap usually lasts 2-3 hours, and then she'll usually take a quick 30 minute cat nap in the evening as well. We're keeping her up about an hour later in the evening - not putting her to bed until around 10pm - and instead of Jennifer nursing her last thing, I'm feeding her a bottle of formula and making sure she finishes off at least 3 oz of it. And lastly, Julianna is sleeping in her own room now instead of the pack-n-play in our bedroom. All of this combined has led to both Julianna and Jennifer getting some much needed rest at night.

Oh yeah, she rolls herself over so much in bed now that we have to pile blankets on either side of her when we put her down to nap or to sleep to keep her from flopping herself over and waking up, haha.

Happy Mothers Day

I just wanted to wish all the mothers out there HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

The Little Lady has officially rolled over. Julianna's a tummy-sleeper, but when Jennifer went in to get her after her post-feeding morning nap this morning, Julianna was on her back staring up at the ceiling.

She's also working on being forwardly mobile too -- the past couple of nights she's managed to wiggle herself forward from laying in the middle of her pack-n-play to having the top of her head butted up against the side.

Happy Easter!

You know me, always posting things late... such is the case though with two little ones under the age of two, a full time job, and a business to run, haha. And like most holidays the past couple of years Easter seemed to sneak up on us this year, and just as quickly as it came it disappeared again. We did manage to get an Easter Egg tree done in the front yard, but no eggs were dyed this year unfortunately (mainly due to me being slightly incapacitated due to recent surgery).

Anyway, on to the photos! Grandma T made a beautiful Easter dress for Julianna, complete with slip, booties, and a bonnet!

Sick little boy

Our boy has a sinus infection but has been playing as hard as he can through it and skipping his naps or taking very short ones until last night. He finally decided he needed to sleep. He laid down at 4:30pm for his nap and decided he was down for the night. He woke for short spurts during the night but never cried or wanted out of his crib, he just played for a little while with his music toy in the crib and went back to sleep. It is now 9:00am and he just woke up. Wow what a way to make up for lost sleep. Now if his sister would sleep like that we would have it made.....