March 6, 2016

Jenson Update: 2.25

Since toddlers change less than babies, I wanted to switch to quarterly posts for Jenson after age 2. This post is nearly 2 months late and reflects up until 2.25 years, shortly after Marlowe was born. With the addition of Marlowe to the family, life is a lot different for Jenson now, but he couldn’t have handled it any better.

Even within the first week, we could tell that he loved being a big brother and is happy to have Marlowe around. We had people visiting and/or staying with us off and on for mostly a month after Marlowe was born, so we had a lot of help, as it made the adjustment easier for Jenson. He still had plenty of attention, even with that exhausting crazy first few weeks with a baby.

But backtracking, when I was pregnant, Jenson was all about my belly. He would kiss it, lay on it, and talk about the baby in there a lot. I tried to make the best of his last fall and holiday season as an only child, so we went to lots of seasonal events and spent a ton of fun time together. Even when we were just at home, we played outside whenever possible and did lots of snuggling. And of course, we went to the library a lot. We were so excited to have the baby, but I really cherished the last couple of months with Jenson and would get sad thinking about how much things would change and how my time would be split. I talked about that in this post here, before she was born.

As I looked back over the 1000’s of pictures from these 3 months, I’d have to say it was probably my favorite period of time with Jenson. We had so much fun together in the fall and through the holidays – this was the first year he started to “get” what Halloween and Christmas really entailed. And seeing how he adapted to big brother-hood made us so proud of him. He immediately seemed so grown up and big to us. He’ll always be my baby boy though.

Jenson update: October 6, 2015 – January 6, 2016

Age: 2.25 years old
Weight: 27 lbs.
Length: 33 inches, although once we brought Marlowe home Jenson was suddenly a GIANT.
Size: 24/2T clothing
Sleeping: We FINALLY got his bedtime straightened out insofar as it only takes 15 minutes to get him in his crib for the night – 3 books, 3 songs. We try to get him to bed by 7:30 pm now – seems so early, but he wakes early. He sings and plays in his crib anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. He was sleeping until 7 on most days, but after Marlowe was born, it was anywhere from 530-620 am. She’s in our room all the way across the house, so she’s not waking him.

Eating: He’s still not a great eater, though he did eat some eggs and sausage on occasion. His list of food hasn’t grown any. All fruit, plain yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, bread, cottage cheese, pouches, smoothies, muffins, pancakes, mac and cheese. One night though, he ate a pea, small piece of broccoli, and licked a carrot – that was huge! He also started eating cheese pizza, and much to Lo’s chagrin (because he has to share his pizza) – he can eat A LOT of pizza…like 2 or more pieces! He loves cereal. It’s usually a mix of cheerios and kix. He still falls asleep eating lunch every now and then – no complaints here…it makes it easier to put him down for a nap.

Word Up: There is really no limit to his language. He talks in sentences and is trying to get a grasp on grammar and such. Everyone is “him” or “he” typically, whether boy or girl. He says really funny things, which I’ve been starting to document in “From the Mouth of Jenson” posts. My favorite thing that he has said still is “Oh, it’s a turtle!”, when he came to meet Marlowe at the hospital. She was in the bassinet wearing the eye mask under the bili lights for jaundice, so I guess it thought it was an aquarium?

Milestones:

He became a big brother!!
Trick-or-treating
Decorated Christmas cookies (mostly tried to eat the sprinkles)

Favorite Toys/Activities:

Books, books, and more books

Puzzles – he loves them
Going to the library or places that we will see “kids, people, and babies”
Bathtime – he insists on one almost every day
Playing outside or at the playground, until it got too cold

Daniel Tiger figurines that he got for Christmas. He calls them his friends.
His stuffed animals

Matchbox cars, trains, and trucks
Play food
Watching his shows (Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street mostly at that time) or videos and pictures on our phones
Coloring with crayons or color wonder markers. He asks us to draw people or different shapes, like bikes, trains, circles, trees.
Blocks

Seeing his friends, Jaxon and Emmy. Lo used to work with Jaxon’s mom and works with Emmy’s grandma, and we got together with them for a few Halloween events and Jaxon’s birthday party. They are 4 and 6 (ish), so a bit older, but he loves being around them and talks about them a lot. Jaxon has handed down some clothes to Jenson, and he’s always excited to wear clothes or a shirt that we tell him were Jaxon’s.

Dislikes:

Meat and veggies
Having his diaper changed – mostly because he doesn’t want to stop playing. He plays really well on his own any time his diaper is full of poop…I think because he doesn’t want to draw our attention to it.

Looking forward to: Spring weather!! It will be nice to go outside to play, but it’s too cold for Marlowe usually still.

Scenes from October: