4 Months

I find it impossible that my precious little love is 4 months today.  I am beyond happy to say that he has become a completely different baby this last month-in a good way!  He is so calm and easy going.  Also a little lazy.  Briggs just smiles and sucks away on his pacifier all day.  But don’t worry-he still has his share of screams and fussing, he is my kid after all. 

We had his check up today and our amazing Cubs fan of a doctor (who I totally think God put in our life for a reason) said he’s doing great.  Briggs was SO good during his appointment.  Never fussed or cried and only grunted after his two shots.  He did pee on the doctor and flirt with the nurses…such a guy.  I told the doc that’s what he gets for messing around down there.  We got the green light on cereal so we’ll try that tonight.  Doc even suggested we alternate cereals each week to give the little guy a variety of grains (oatmeal, brown rice, barley, etc.), but to stay away from white rice cereal.  We only used oatmeal cereal with Ben so we’ll start with that.  We even get to try baby food at 5 months instead of 6 and he gave us a new order to try those in from when Ben was at that point.  Food is so exciting to me when I don’t have to eat it.  I did chat with him about this kid’s HORRIBLE sleeping patterns.  Apparently Briggs is in the 1/3 of babies who chooses not to develop sleeping patterns according to time tested ways.  Yay!  He’s got 2 months to get something figured out before we try a not so nice method.

Briggs is still smaller than Ben, but still a big boy, he is B’s son after all.  His stats with Ben’s in parenthesis.

Height: 25 in (26 in)

Weight: 15.4 (16.12)

Head: 16.75 (17.8)

He did mention that Briggs has big feet-can you say Uncle Tommy???  He can also wear 6 month clothes now!

Some 4 month tidbits about my Little Love (that’s what I call him)

He has a smile that makes me melt.  One flash of it and I’ll stop whatever I’m doing to go love on him.

He is his daddy’s Mini Me.  With the exception of his toes, ears and lips he is his daddy. 

He’s starting to really enjoy his jumper and exersaucer.  He’s just starting to reach for his toys, but he’ll look at them for a good chunk of time.

He still loves to be rocked.  I think our rocker is getting more use with him in just 4 months than it ever did with Ben.

He doesn’t like tummy time too much and instead of trying to roll out of it will stick his butt in the air and shake it.  He FINALLY rolled from his back to his tummy twice this week. 

He’s started to laugh!  Oh what a wonderful sound.  I can only imagine it will be even better when both my sweet boys are laughing together.  I doubt anything in the world will beat that, not even a sweet tea from McDonalds!

He stinks at sleeping and loves, loves, loves his pacifier.  One day it’s 6 hours, the next 3 the next 5.  There is no rhyme or reason to this.  For this reason he still sleeps in our room.  I know-it’s so bad, but I don’t care at all.  Now his pacifier does just what its name intended it to do.  It’s amazing how Briggs will come to a complete stop from screaming when it’s in his mouth.  Even Ben has figured it out and will try to shove put it in his mouth if he’s crying when Mickey is on.

He loves to be entertained by his big brother.  Ben is for the most part great with him.  He loves to make him smile as much as Briggs loves to smile at him.  Ben loves to hug him and kiss him and tells him night night every night, but his sweetness only goes so far.  Case in point-as soon as this pic was snapped he tried to push him off the chair.  Not so much to be mean, but Briggs was in his way and he wanted down.

We don’t know if our family is complete yet or not and may not know that for a few more years, but we do know that God knew what he was doing blessing us with Briggs.  He is exactly what/who we needed in our family right now.  It’s like he’s another piece of the puzzle that is our family.  He just fits in perfectly and we love him more than words can say!

A little bit of this…A little bit of that

Not much is new around here.  I like to keep us hibernating and away from this heat.  Ben disagrees though, he could care less.  We have been staying busy with our playgroups.  These things have been great for us.  Ben LOVES getting to play with other kids and do fun things and I enjoy having other moms to talk to.  We even went to a junk food themed playdate the other day and belive it or not Ben wanted to play with all the toys instead of eat.  Briggs just doesn’t want me to sleep too long so he’s still averaging about 5-6 hours.  Last night though we got another 8 hours.  Woohoo! 

My sweetheart has been fussy today so he took his nap on mommy’s lap. 

Ben wanted to color while eating popcorn and watching a little Mickey one day.

So it turns out Briggs LOVES tv.  He will turn his head until he finds it and then just sit back. 

TV…baaaaaaaaaaaaaad stuff

We fit in the jumper now!  Most of the time we like it, sometimes not so much.

I was so excited when I found matching socks for his onesie!

I could just kiss the little face ALL.DAY.LONG!

Daddy’s top is off the jeep and Ben is a happy boy!

Doing some rock climbing at the mall

We had a BYOB (bring your own blanket) for Briggs’ playgroup.  All the babies were born around Briggs.  I love having a playgroup for both, but when you have all those babies so close it’s hard not to compare and it does bother me when Briggs isn’t doing something another baby is.  This kid is so laid back and lazy!

So we bought this little cradle when Ben was about 3 weeks and I was going nuts with him not sleeping.  Online people raved about it.  Well it sucked and we ended up putting it in our kitchen for him to lay in when we ate.  We took it to Grammy’s instead of the pack n’play and he slept amazing in it.  So now it’s what he sleeps in because even now he’s still not in his crib.  I put him in the pack n play once and he was up every 2 hours so now that’s folded up.  The crib is calling though…

They are my everything!

Everyday Ben asks to go outside and mow.  He LOVES mowers.  I catch him in the mornings standing  in front of his window with the blinds pushed aside watching the neighbors’ yard crews.  Who knew how excited he would get when we stopped at Sears to get Daddy a drill bit!

On Friday we went with our friends the Masons to dinner and then took the kiddos to Safety Town for their family fun nights.  Ben had SO much fun playing in the fire truck they have for the kids to explore.  He didn’t want to get out at all.

Wyatt and Ben, future firefighters maybe?

Look who we found!  Mayson’s daddy, James, is a fireman and came out to say hi.  Ben freaked and would not take a picture with him so Mommy had to jump in. 

But baby brother had no problem thanking his local hero!

After they played on the truck we went outside.  Safety Town is a town that’s on a kid’s level.  I think it’s built to 5/8 scale or something like that?  I’ve taken my kids each year as part of our curriculum (older kids get to ride bikes and jeeps).  Ben just wanted to run.  Who needs to follow safety rules anyways?

While Ben ran amuck, Briggs was channeling Rodin’s The Thinker.  Maybe he was thinking of how he can zap this insane heat wave!

After Safety Town we got some ice cream and the babies slept since they were left out.

Wyatt got to hold his own, but I’m a mean mommy who wouldn’t let Ben.

Ben and Wy causing trouble

Two fabulous weeks in Lake Geneva

Can you say AMAZING?!?!?!  What a FANTASTIC trip!  Like last year, we spent the 4th of July at Grammy’s house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  Only this time we spent two weeks instead of one.  We had such a great time and everything was perfect.  Even before we left the amazing Ashley took Briggs for a few hours so I could pack the car while Ben and B took a nap.  I was super worried about driving 15 hours with a 12 week old who had a history of being super fussy, but Briggs was just about perfect.  I fed him at gas stops (and maybe once in the car around 1 am) and he pretty much slept the rest of the time.  He fussed once for 10 minutes, but it was because he had a blowout and then the last 10 minutes of our trip, but by that time we were all ready to get out.  I won’t lie-Ben drove me nuts at first.  He kept playing the game where he throws something on the floor for me to get and then repeats.  It got old before we were even in Oklahoma.  We had to stop to feed Briggs about an hour after he fell asleep so that woke him up and then he woke up again at 3:30 and stayed awake until almost 6.  We stopped at a rest stop in Illinois at 5:30 to feed Briggs and he got to play on the playground they had.  I doubt many kids get to play on a playground at 5:30 am.  We were exhausted when we pulled up the driveway, but so proud of our boys.  I probably took over 1000 pictures (thank God for digital cameras) so sit back…

Highlights of our trip through pictures (all 55 of them):

~Briggs slept 8 hours that first night and Ben did amazing for sleeping in a twin bed alone (Daddy slept in the other one the first two nights).  Once my parents arrived the second week Ben got booted to the study on an air mattress.  B slept in there too since we knew Ben would wake up and play in the all the files.  This only lasted two days though since B got no sleep and everyone got tired of him sleeping all day because of this (okay maybe not everyone, but this momma surely did).  Thanks Mom and Daddy for switching with the boys!  Briggs and I totally lucked out with the big bed.  Love it!

~ Unfortunately B could only stay the weekend we arrived and had to fly home for work for the week before flying back out for the second week.  I’m so lucky he doesn’t have to travel much for work and hasn’t at all since the boys have been around.  Ben missed him a lot, but probably not as much as I did.  Can I just say how much I love facetime on iphones.  Ben and I LOVED getting to see daddy each night before bed.

~Playing at the beach! 

We had picnic lunches and dinners there.  Ben got to play in the sand and the playground and we got to enjoy the amazing view and weather.  Just perfect!

building sandcastles with Uncle Bob

the last one standing one night

This is how Briggs enjoyed many picnics

Ben finally made it to the top of the sand pile.  He was SO excited.  He calls all sand “sandcastles” now. 

~Going to the zoo! 

Pal and Grammy took us to the Milwaukee zoo one day while B was gone.  Perfect weather and a great time.  Ben still says his favorite animal was the choo choo train though

ha!  And B said I’d “never use” this “waste of money”-love my double stroller

So they had this chair lift that went over part of the zoo.  There wasn’t a height requirement so I thought it would be perfect.  Oh.MY.GOSH!  My child EASILY could have slipped through the bars.  I was an absolute wreck the whole time.  Ben just sat there and looked around not really getting that he was so high.  It was a great view and a wonderful idea, but kids should NOT be allowed on it.  Period!  Oh, and he looks like a ghost because I have sunblock on him.

I tried to take a few pics from above when I wasn’t freaking out.

 

Ben got off the chair lift and ran to the ponies so guess what fabulous Grammy said he must ride them!  He did great by himself.  So proud!

~Swimming!

We swam lots and lots at the pools.  Ben loved it. 

I’ve read on a friend’s blog about how great Puddle Jumpers are for swimming.  They are amazing, especially since swim lessons aren’t happening for Ben this year.  He does so well kicking and moving around the water.  He’s very at ease with them and I feel totally safe.

My little surfer even went swimming a couple times.  He loved the water when it was warm and it wore him out.

~Bath time!

Grammy and Pal have the best bathtub around.  It’s deep and huge.  Ben wasn’t a fan of the jets though, too noisy for him. Grammy bought Briggs a blowup duck tub and he enjoyed his baths each night too (after Ben went to bed).

 

~Outside fun!  Sweet Ben thrived on being able to just run and run outside and play.  Grammy stocked up on toys for outside and Ben had a blast.

Briggs just chilled on the swing while his big bro played

Occasionally you have to go to timeout during playtime

Grammy bought Ben a cute pool to play with when we were home.  The water was FREEZING but he didn’t care!

Squirt Guns!

Ben took a liking to the neighbors.  Peggy let him play on this simple little riding toy.  It was a huge hit!

Okay-there were sometimes we played inside.  Look at the MESS this kid can make in a matter of minutes!

his first coke float – just had a little taste

~4th of July! 

I stopped at a fireworks stand when the boys were sleeping one day and bought a ton of fireworks.  Too bad I didn’t have a clue what I was buying.  The 4th is B’s favorite holiday and he was so excited to share his love with Ben.  Sadly Ben does NOT feel the same way.  He totally freaked out and asked to go inside.  Poor guy, we’ll try again next year.

my little firecrackers

Sparklers with Daddy and Pops

This is the one that did Ben in

~Golf Cart rides!

  Everyone enjoyed zipping around in the golf cart.  Ben thought he was so cool!

~Hanging out with my WONDERFUL family! 

What we lack in size we make up for in love.  These people are my everything!

um, can you say Hallmark card???

We did lots of coloring on the back porch

Briggs loved his time with Grammy

Grammy and Pal

Pal is one heck of an artist

So Briggs found his spot on Grams in about 2 seconds when she arrived

Horsey Rides

Yes this is just about my entire family on my dad’s side…We are small but mighty!

Two of Briggs favorite people…Aunt Linda and Grams

Grampy John drove up to see us and meet Briggs (aka Kit).  It was exactly a year ago that he met Ben (aka Tex). 

4 generations Since I’m the only grandchild the Michalson name stopped when I got married, but we’re still super cool.

the oldest and youngest ‘Michalson’  Grampy’s childhood hero was even a racecar driver named Briggs Cunningham

so our sweet Ben wanted NOTHING to do with Grampy most of the time, but it didn’t stop Grampy from trying to show him the frog in his hand.  He used to do this to me all the time when I was little.  Funny story-when we were taking the pictures Ben looks over and yells, “Smile John!”  He can be so cute!

Ben and Pops.  Ben was a bit of stinker with him (but it’s probably because Pops kept bugging him like does to me ALL THE TIME), but Pops never gave up!

Grams and Pops took the train into Chicago to see friends one day and Ben saw them off.  Here’s my kid in his jammies and no shoes in complete awe of the big train in front of him.

this is just to prove that B really did join us on the trip

Even the deer know how wonderful Grammy’s is and come lay down and rest in her yard.

Arrggh!  I’m so mad!  This gorgeous farm is right behind Grammy’s house and in two weeks I never got a picture with my good camera.

Briggs took many naps on Grammy’s bed just like this.

Ben found a new friend at a little country chicken restaurant we stopped at.

Goodbyes weren’t a lot of fun and many tears were shed (but that’s what we do).  The drive home was just as great as the way up.  Both boys were fantastic.  Ben slept with his favorite blanket on him.

I wasn’t too thrilled to come home.  Our vacation was just too fabulous.  Thank you to my AMAZING family for taking care of us.  I never had to lift a finger.  I hope my boys know how much they are loved by some truly wonderful people who I just happen to love more than anything!  And I’m already going through coffee cake withdraws.