Ayden - 8 Months Old!

A post about Ayden is long overdue, he is 8 months TODAY!! I never got a 7 month post written - whoops! But I will start with some random pics of the kids from a couple months ago...(because I started this post - a couple of months ago!)

We had to take my van down to Madison to get checked out and serviced right before our trip to Missouri. We grabbed some lunch and found a park for a little playing. 

"Anything you can do, I can do better!" 

Such a big boy, gotta watch him on a playground!

The kids did great on the trip and while driving through Madison we all noticed a billboard for Rumchata. I didn't say anything. A few miles later, Kate said, "Mom! Did you see that sign for that drink that Andy and Kylie like?"  :)  I said yes. A minute later, I hear her say, "Rum chata." Then I hear Collin saying, "Rum cha cha. Rum cha cha. Rum cha cha." :)  

All three my angels. Yep, they are always angels.  :) 

We were talking about the Peterson's going to see their family in Pennsylvania and Kate asked me why it is called Pennsylvania. (Gotta love the questions!) I said, hmmm, I'm not sure. She thought a moment and then said that she thinks someone has a pencil factory there. And "Vania" must be the name of the guy who built the factory.  Love her logic!

Helping make zucchini muffins

Our beautiful CSA! We continue to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our CSA
We are probably going to opt in for the "winter/storage share" this fall too!

Now on to Ayden! This chunky monkey is 8 months old. He is changing every day, there is so much that he has started doing since his six month post! He crawls, he pulls up, he is eating puffs. He is doing nuclear science. I mean practically. And I want to cry about it. 

This was his favorite pose during month 7. 

Up and moving! Look out!

Skillz
He started really crawling up on all fours down in Missouri. And then, the day before Kate started Kindergarten (August 31) he started pulling up on furniture. Just tried it once and it worked. Done. Then he wouldn't stop.  :)

This was the first time he pulled up on furniture!

Kate starting all day/every day Kindergarten means a new era in my life at home! It's me and the boys. I'm in trouble :) But it has been wonderful so far. The house is actually quieter (Kate never. stopped. talking. - I know, I know, I have no idea where she got that. Collin is a screecher. He screams. Loudly. Super high pitch. It's awful. And mostly when Kate is chasing him or torturing him. So that is not happening much either:)

Double Trouble

Plotting....

When we went in to get Ayden the morning of Friday, Sept.4 (7.5 months), he was standing in his crib! Boom! He is probably fine with the mattress where it is, but we may lower it just to make sure. The others never crawled out of the crib, but he probably will. 

The boys playing

He will crawl after Abby and try to climb her. Abby is amazing and just sits there. But I kind of have to watch it. He will climb under the table and chairs, occasionally getting stuck. He tried to climb onto the little end table in the living room, I've had to move everything off those again and he'll be getting stuck soon, I'm sure! There is a little more frustration for him these days as he will get standing and then can't get down, or crawl somewhere and then get stuck:) 

We need to get a gate up between the sun room and living room. That won't be fun for the big kids. But Ayden can climb up the step but not down. Though he goes for it. I know it is soft carpet, but there are also hard corners right there. We need a gate, I think. 

Eating
He started eating puffs this week! I hadn't thought too much about it (mostly would forget as soon as I thought of it) and I finally ordered some - yes, I Amazoned it. And yes, I think that is a verb now. Anyway, he loves them! Woo hoo! So excited to break those out during a meal out in a restaurant. We also gave him a teething biscuit/cracker thing and he liked that too. 

He definitely is teething: drooling, endlessly chewing/biting things, fussier than normal sometimes. But it has lasted a long time. Those first two teeth came up much easier. I'm not even sure which ones are coming, I can't seem to see his gums well, he's quite strong! Get ready for me to say he is teething for the next six months straight...

Right here, Mom. It hurts right here...

I'm still nursing him. Less frequently as we are increasing solids. As Collin was (and I'm guessing most babes with older siblings, he is SUPER distractable while nursing which make it hard. The peaceful nursing sessions are the bedtime ones for sure. He is also just..strong and crazy when he nurses. He flails his arms, kicks me, pokes/pulls on my lips, nose, ears, hair...My goal is to nurse him for 12 months. I've always made it through, but I would say I am eager to get down to the nursing when he wakes and before bed. I always treasure those times. The others...:) I'll be happy to say goodbye to sometime in the next 3 months!

He likes most solids we've tried. Sometimes makes a face but keeps eating. I'm still making baby food, in fact, I have some squash and apples to blend up after writing this. But we are also slowly just blending up what we are eating (chicken noodle soup, egg quinoa muffins, etc) It's always fun to feed them at this stage. Experimental, messy, funny:) 

He still spits up! I'd say he does it less these days. But now, you sometimes get the spit up of a little man eating various solids....yuck. And now that he is crawling and pulling up, I find the puddles or hear Collin yell, " 'pit up! 'pit up!" Yuck.

Growth
He is wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. He is currently wearing Collin's winter 12 month clothes, I'm thinking he may surpass his brother in size, so not sure how much longer he will be able to wear hand-me-downs! It would actually be helpful if the weather turned cooler. Then we could get more wear out of them:) 

I just hopped on the scale with and without him... his unofficial weight is 22 lbs 4 oz.
We will get into the doctor in about a month for his 9 month checkup (and Kate's 6 year check!) He is super strong too! When he is in his walker, Collin will hop on the back of it - all the way up on the rail things. Ayden can still walk around, carrying all of Collin's weight. It's like a mini football practice here! Collin is definitely more of a QB or wide receiver. Ayden is more of a linebacker, OL/DL :) But it could change, we'll see!

The big man staring me down

Siblings

Everybody out at The Driftless Cafe & Bakery in Viroqua

Collin and Ayden get a lot more time together these days! They crack each other up and I think will be quite close. Ayden still lights up when he sees his siblings. Kate requests play time with him when she gets home. Collin will crawl around on the floor with him, talk to him, bring him toys, definitely steals toys away and sometimes will try and move his hands, feet for him...eek, that I'm trying to stop. 

They were ready for the first Hawkeye game:) 

We've started bathing the boys together. Ayden sometimes sits in a little blue tub and then Collin in the big one. Apparently, Dave did them together in the big tub tonight!

Sleep
Well, with the teething and his recent cold (he's got it the worst of all of us) he has not been sleeping well. I'm back to a very difficult place in this regard. He's sick and was very snotty, red eyes, coughing and miserable. We soothed him. We picked him up. I nursed him. He is now on the mend, though not all the way better. But we have created some bad habits again. I'd say I'm up every 1.5-2 hours with him lately. (ahhhhhh!!) He usually wants just me and he usually wants to nurse. Since I know he needs fluids, I do it. But I'm ready to cry it out again. I don't think I can keep sleeping (not sleeping) like this. But we don't want to do it until he is healthy. So please pray he gets better soon! And ugh, the upcoming travel is not going to be helping either...we'll definitely get back on tract in October. 

Toys
Let's see, what are his favorite things right now....he likes his lovey, any teether, he'll chew on a pacifier, he's starting to reach and get the cords of things, destroy magazines, pull down the towels in the kitchen. He LOVES to stand up at a toy, like those little play table things. He likes a lot of Collin's cars and his school bus, though Collin doesn't like to let him have them:) He likes Sophie the Giraffe, stacking cups and anything that can make noise. That's a lot. We are really getting into the stage of liking anything he can hold, break or make loud:)
  

He loves the taggie blankies from Gma Bobbi!

He thought this looked good. It does!

He is still a very, very happy baby:) Most of our friends say things like, "Does he every cry?" "I've never heard him fuss!" "Is he always this good?" Now, some of you family members have definitely seen him when he is fussy, but he still takes the title of Happiest, Easiest Lenninger Babe. 

I'm sure there is more I should say, more to put down, but I'm too tired to figure it out! 

He's just a cool dude

First Day of Kindergarten!

Our baby started Kindergarten today. I really do feel wonderful about this, but being the one that manages the logistics of such things, I've been a little preoccupied with all the changes that need to happen and though ready for a little break from my chatty, little mini-Erin, I'm also trying to deal with not having this girl in the house all day!

Last week was busy, I was trying to get us unpacked from our road trip, ready for school to start, we had a wonderful visit from my Grandma Oehlke and (great-cousin?) Diana and then a showing which we thought was promising but turned out...not so much (grrrr...). I also couldn't decide on Kate's school transportation - the boys sleep and nap frequently and if I were to drop off and pick up as I did last year, I would be seriously messing with their schedules. But putting her on the bus scared me. I was a bit stressed out and called my mom, as one does whenever they need love, advice, help, reassurance:) A little later that day, she texted and said she was going to come up here for the first day of Kate's school:) Mom's know. And I'm beyond blessed that she is just two hours away. I do know this!

Dave was on call this past weekend and it turned out to be a bit of a rough one. He was in the hospital both days and had a difficult, on-going case. We did make it to church on Sunday, but we had to pull over on the side of the road to switch the big kids back to my van (they always want to ride with him) so he could go straight to the hospital. I was very happy that Mom was coming later that day!

We spent Monday running some errands in town, swimming in the pool, on the boat and out to supper - a really lovely last day of summer for Kate! People in town would ask if I had any kids starting school...I would say my oldest was starting Kindergarten and everyone would stop, give me a sweet look and tell me it was going to be okay. Seriously! And I appreciated it:) She kept saying that she was going to miss Ayden the most:) She would also say she would miss Collin, when prompted and I don't think she said she would miss me at all! Later that night, I packed her lunch - her request was tuna salad sandwich since they can't have peanut butter in the classrooms.

Started out cloudy, but fun in the pool by ourselves!

Sun came out, it got hot!

These two have been begging to get back on the boat
They both want to sit in this seat. This time they actually sat nicely together!

Ayden temporarily on Captain's duty

Kate driving?!  :) 

We boated over to Carlson's Rustic Ridge for supper. Beautiful night.

Me and my babies. Strong babies.

We ended up settling on sending Kate on the bus every morning and most afternoons. She has gymnastics starting in a few weeks and I will have to pick her up on Tuesdays to get her there in time. We discussed the logistics of the first morning and Dave and Mom convinced me to drive to school after she was picked up on the bus. Since Mom was here, she could watch the boys while I took in her heavier things (shoes, extra clothes, paint smock, etc). Then I could see her one last time after the bus ride and before school.

Tuesday, September 1 - First Day!
Unfortunately, Ayden did not give me a very good night's sleep:( but I was up around 6 a.m. When I went up to wake Kate, our conversation went like this,

"Time to get up, honey"
"School Bus?"
"Yep!"
"Okay. Let's go."    :)
I may have hesitant feelings about the bus, but it may be the highlight of school for Kate right now. She couldn't wait to ride the bus. (and every time we talked about it, Collin would say, "Me ride bus too." Umm....sorry, not so much, buddy....:(

Gma helping with her hair before school

Ready for that school bus!

Our big girl! :) 

We had her ready, Dave was able to see her off as well. The boys both slept through it all. We stood outside and watched the (brand new!) bus come down our street, go around the cul-de-sac and stop at our driveway. I walked with her to say hello to the bus driver. Kate climbed right on, told him her name and went to sit in the first seat. All I got out to Jason, our driver, was "She's five!" then I turned around and started crying:) She is riding bus #1, it has a picture of a cat in the window. She gets on at 7:05 a.m. I was basically just tearful, no big outbursts! Dave had to go to work. I gathered up her stuff and left to go to the school. The boy were still asleep, which helped me reason it was good to send her on the bus!

I stopped for a coffee at the Kwik Trip in New Lisbon and watched as the buses came right by. I was able to see her bus go right past me at 7:39 a.m.! So that makes about a half an hour ride for her. I parked a block away from the school, walked in and was talking to another mom in the hallway packed with people when I looked ahead of me and there was Kate! Two people in front of me! So weird, I grabbed her and started asking questions. She said the ride was fine, not too long. She was very excited. We found her room, unpacked her bag, said hello to friends and went it to get her breakfast.

They get breakfast in their rooms and I helped her open up the milk and applesauce. Some of the other kids needed help with various things, so I did a little of that too:) Kate's teacher, Mrs. Dummer, doesn't have a helper! Her class is one of the biggest they've had, there are three Kindergarten rooms of about 17 each. If I didn't have the boys at home, I would come in and help, good grief! Mrs. Dummer is going to work with her on learning to spell Katherine as they used Kate last year (Kate knows how to spell Kate and Katie). Mrs. Dummer is very nice, I've heard she is very good. She falls more into the category of serious than super smiley but I think that is just fine.

Ready, Mom!

After another picture and hanging around as long as I could, I left. I walked back to the van, drove home and realized it is just me and the boys now! 

The boys

They had both slept in and Gma had them playing when I arrived. I was doing fine, really:) Collin kept asking about school, the school bus and went and put Kate's old backpack on and then his shoes. Then he kept saying, "Ride in Mommy's car." It was so sweet. He is definitely going to have some adjustment to this as well! We all noticed him being a little to aggressive with Ayden over the weekend, they are starting to interact much more and there are super sweet moments and lots of telling Collin, "No!"

Collin refusing to take his pjs off and asking to get on the bus

I did get some breakfast in us and then Collin played outside for a bit. I couldn't get Ayden down for his nap! He is definitely off right now. So, Collin got his wish of a car ride and I loaded the boys up in hopes of getting Ayden to sleep. He did fall asleep and Collin was on his usual lookout for tractors, campers, motorcycles, buses, etc. After awhile, I parked in town, as I didn't want to just keep driving aimlessly. Ayden woke up and we drove back home. Definitely not going to be our normal routine, but today is a crazy day anyway.

Ayden didn't want to nap - just crawl up on things!
Even my "little" baby is growing too fast!

After some lunch, Collin played super nicely (and much quieter than Kate!) and then went down fine for a nap. Again, I tried getting Ayden down and he wouldn't have it. Argh. These new teeth need to just get here! Normally, I can get both boys down for an afternoon nap, giving me a little alone/quiet time in the house (I have roughly 83 things in mind that I could do during that time:) 

Since it is Tuesday, we needed to pick her up (though gymnastics doesn't start yet). Dave actually was done with work in time to join us in getting her on the first day. We sat for quite awhile waiting for her to come out - I was just about to go in and get her when she came out with her teacher. A big hug for Mrs. Dummer and she skipped to the suburban. :) When I asked her what her favorite part of school was - she said riding the bus!  Good grief, my scariest part is her favorite:)

I wanted to celebrate her first day and make it special, so I thought we should go get custard at Culver's. Well, with the road construction and traffic (and tummy-aches later) we probably didn't need to do that. Lesson learned. Over ice cream we learned that the bus ride was fine. Some kids got in trouble already. A "bigger girl" did sit with her on the bus. They learned the rules today. She played "girls scouts" at recess and she was the Girl Scout Leader:) She played with her new friend, Jillian. 

As soon as she got in the car, she wanted to open her lunch and eat something (hungriest. child. ever) She opened her lunch and it looked like she hardly touched it! I asked if she had enough time, if she liked it, etc. She said she did and she ate plenty, but I would say the majority of it was eaten in the car after we picked her up. My guess is, she'll be eating on the bus ride home. Also, the highlight of lunch was the fun new containers I bought, she was requesting more of the silicone cupcake liners for tomorrow. 

Hugs after being apart for one whole day!

Ice cream for everyone!

Biking around in the heat and humidity like they normally do each day!

We'll see how long it takes us to get into a good routine but I am definitely going to welcome some consistency. Tomorrow is the first day we have Katie get off the bus at our house! And the first time Collin sees a school bus up close and personal:)

She kept saying she had so much fun and can't wait to go to school tomorrow. Okay, I better go pack her lunch. I think I'm ready for Day 2:)