Chase Patrick: 4.5 Years Old

Oh 4, you are like a split personality. One moment I'm having a nice conversation with my sweet little boy and laughing and two seconds later, with no warning, I am watching him squirm around on the floor while he throws the biggest tantrum over something so silly. Completely bizarre and I never know what is going to set Chase off.
With that said, Chase really has become my main helper, someone I bounce ideas off of and is the person I have the most 'adult' like conversation with during working hours. He is still a smart kid and always is pondering something in that brain of his. I look forward to hearing his questions and thoughts on such various topics; when can I fly to the moon? can I hold Cisco when we move house? when can I get a goat?
He really is the biggest sweetheart. He always thinks of others; he gave his friend at school a duplicate of a book we have, loves to pick flowers for every family member, and if he hears anyone is sick he wants to know they are ok.
He is the absolute best big brother. There are exceptions, but he is so patient with Asher. He will take Asher's beating and teasing, he always will help him out if he needs it and as soon as he gets home from school is back by Asher's side playing. I wondered how Chase would do with the addition of Hayley and he has blown me away. He is her protector, tries to comfort her when she is crying and loves to feed her. If only I could get him on board with diaper changes!
I am beyond proud of the boy Chase has become. He taught me how to love selflessly and he is destined for great things!!!

Stats: Surprise, surprise Chase is still a lightweight, still hasn't crossed over the 30lb mark. I believe he is in the 1 percentile for weight. He has gotten taller, around 41 inches.

Sleep: Not much has changed here, he still sleeps a solid 12 hours at night. More often than now I have to wake him for school in the mornings and that's at 7:45am. He barely falls asleep in the car anymore either.

Social: He has certainly become more outgoing than a year ago and I think that's due to school, being a part of the soccer team and having a ballsy brother. He is playing spring soccer and is on the same team as he was in the fall. He has been getting a bit more daring during the games and going in for the ball. He is still loving school and has branched out in that he talks to more kids in his class now. If he is playing on the playground he will happily strike up conversation with other kids to play with them. This is something he never would have done a year ago. He loves his friends and quite often asks for them to come over.

Diet: I really don't understand he still weighs less than 30lbs when he eats as much as he does. He clears his plate each meal and probably eats 3 or so snacks a day. His favorite foods lately are; hot dog, fish sticks, avocado on toast, soft pretzels, and any fruit. His favorite restaurants are still Red Robin, Chilis, and Chick Fil A. We have also introduced them to Friendlys and he enjoys going there.

Skills/Milestones: He can write his name. His drawing skills are really good and legible. He all of a sudden loves to jump off of everything. Has started reading and basic math.

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Asher, Hayley, grandparents, Cisco, puppy dog (and stuffed animals in general), Lightening McQueen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, riding his bike, Hot Wheels, space.

Easter 2017

First holiday as a family of five in the bag! And it was a good one! Easter is very relaxing for us, sure we do a few egg hunts, the kids get a small Easter basket and some goodies from the grandparents, but we really focus on what Easter is all about. Oh I also don't cook on Easter which is always a plus for me.

We enjoyed a wonderful service at church followed by brunch buffet at DaVinci's with family. We ended the day by hanging out in the backyard while the boys played and burned off the Easter candy they had consumed earlier in the day.

Lets talk about those Easter baskets, three little baskets. Not two like previous years, but three! It's not what is in them for me, but the fact that I have three Easter baskets to fill. How blessed am I? God is so good, giving us these 3 children to love on and raise. More often than not, I sit back and look at them in amazement. Life really is so so good!

 

 

Hayley Ann Mae: Three Months

Oh how I love this little girl. Her personality has really started to shine this past month. She is an absolute joy, unless she is hungry, and oozes sweetness. I could literally kiss her cheeks all day, especially because she loves when I do. Her face lights up whenever she sees myself, James or one of the boys. I love rolling over in the morning to her big beautiful smile. She is a girl of routine. She likes to take her last bottle of the day around 7:30pm and once she is done eating, will snuggle up in one particular spot on my shoulder so that her cheek is touching mine and goes to sleep. It is the cutest thing and I love that we end our day that way.
Hayley has started to notice different toys and favors toys that play music. In general she is a fan of music. Throughout the day we have Pandora playing and her naps are always longer if there is music on in the background.
This past month has been my favorite yet. She is still relatively tiny but is more interactive with us and I could seriously watch her smile all day long.

Stats: While there is no official check up and weigh in at 3 months, we did have to visit the doctor for a cold and she weight right around 13lbs. I have no doubts that she is growing as she is starting to outgrow some of her 0 to 3 months clothing. Excuse me while I wipe the tears.

Sleep: At about 2.5 months old Hayley started sleeping a solid 12 hours every night. Yes I said 12 hours! She has her last bottle around 7:30/8pm and goes right to bed afterwards. She starts her day anywhere between 7 & 8am. During the nap she naps for about an hour at a time.

Social: Hayley had her first holiday with us, Easter. She went to a total of 3 egg hunts for moral support for the boys. She got to meet Grandma & Grandad Redfern this past month and loved chit chatting with Grandma. This past month was also her first time attending church and going into the nursery. For saying it was the first time separated from James and I, she did really well.

Diet: Nothing much has changed with her diet, she is still on 6oz every 3 to 4 hours.

Skills/Milestones: Her babbling has really taken off, she will talk away to herself, specifically her hands as she's recently discovered those. She really likes to talk while sitting in her bouncer chair. One night, she woke up around 4am having a good old chit chat and then after about 15 minutes went back to sleep. It was very cute and I'm oh so happy she put herself back to sleep.

While Mum & Paul were here, Hayley decided she was going to roll from front to back. At first I thought it was a fluke but she proceeded to do it multiple times so I consider that goal reached.

 

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Chase, Asher, looooves music and being sung to, enjoys bath time, her dolly, being outside, her cheeks being kissed.

Easter with the Bozzos

We have a roster of egg hunts during the Easter season and one of our all time favorites is at James sisters house. With all of our busy schedules it's hard to get together as often as we would like, but we all have the best time when we can make it happen.
Anita cooked us a delicious meal, as usual, and gave us plenty of fuel for our egg hunt. Between us we have close to 200 eggs. The boys were sooo excited! This year Jenna decided to help Asher hunt instead of filling her own basket. She's the sweetest!!! So the 3 boys cleaned up and had enough candy to last them until Halloween. Each year, there is always 1 or 2 eggs that we have to hunt extra hard for. We all find it hilarious, and this year was no different.
Whenever we do get together the time just flies by and we leave looking forward to the next time we can all hangout.

Egg Hunt

For the third year we hosted our egg hunt for the boys friends, well lets be honest, our friends. Any social activity is just as much for us adults as it is the kids.
Some of our nearest and dearest came over with stuffed eggs, yummy eggs and lots of excited kids. Oh and the weather was bee-autiful! I really think this is my boys favorite holiday next to Christmas. They could egg hunt, all day, everyday. In fact they have been doing their own egg hunts just the two of them for the past couple of weeks.
Plenty of candy was shoveled into little mouths and then they proceeded to burn off said sugar by playing out back for hours on hours. Meanwhile, us adults got a chance to catch up, and have a few drinks.

Hayley Ann Mae: Two Months

Seriously two months already? I am just eating up every single moment with my little girl. She is the sweetest baby around and I could kiss her cheeks (which are becoming chubbier by the day) all.day.long!
It has been a hectic month. The flu hit our household, and not only did Daddy go down with it, but so did Hayley. It was the scariest thing and at the peak of it looked absolutely terrible. My heart broke for her as you could tell she was so uncomfortable and just wanted to be cuddled around the clock. The Tamiflu was harsh on her little tummy and would cry out in pain. Hopefully we don't have any other nasty bugs this winter.
On the bright side she is deliberately smiling and oh my gosh, I die. Her whole face lights up and I just want to freeze time. During bedtime she loves to nuzzle her head up under my chin and coo.
We are all loving our days with Hayley and I don't think any of us can remember life before her.

Stats: Hayley has gone from having little chicken legs to rolls on rolls. I'm not going to lie, I'm loving the chubby little legs and can't wait to be showing them off this summer. She currently weighs 12lbs 2oz (70th %) and is measuring 22 inches long (29th %).

Sleep: Hayley is a dream! Typically she goes to bed around 9pm and wakes up around 5am to eat and drifts right back off until around 8am when she wakes for the day. During the day she is typically awake for 2 hours and naps for an hour to two hours. She has really put herself on a good little schedule.

Social: She is certainly becoming more aware of faces she recognizes and those that she doesn't. After she caught the flu I've really been limiting taking her anywhere so she doesn't catch any of the other funky bugs going around.

Diet: She has been taking 5 to 6 oz every 3 to 4 hours during the day. She is certainly no slouch when it comes to eating.

Skills/Milestones: I like to consider sleeping through the night a milestone. One I'm probably more happy about than her. She has started batting at the toys on her baby gym. Tummy time is going great and she can now do full pushups and stay up for a while. Hayley is smiling and it is THE cutest thing ever. What a pretty smile she has!

 

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Chase, Asher, looooves music and being sung to, enjoys bath time, likes to sleep with her hands up by her face.

Hayley Ann Mae: One Month

 

Stats: So our doctor calls Hayley an overachiever as she has gained 2+ pounds since her first weigh in coming out of the hospital, girl sure does like her food! At one month she weighs 9lbs 80z (57%) and is 20.75 inches long (29%).

Sleep: seriously, this child is too good to be true! she was sleeping 4 hour stretches in the hospital and it's only gotten better since then. During the day she does 3 to 4 hour stretches and has periods awake time of an hour or so. At night she will usually sleep 8pm to 10:30pm, eat, then go back to sleep until anywhere from 4am to 6am, eat and go back to sleep until I need to move her to get going for school drop off.

Social: currently not much going on here lol. She has met a lot of family and our friends, though her favorite people are her brothers. If she is awake and hears them she turns her head right to them. Over the past week she's been having more frequent awake time where she will play on her baby mat gym thing and does a little tummy time. She also loves music and has joined in on a few dance parties courtesy of Daddy.

Diet: Like I said, our girl loves her food! By two weeks she was eating 4oz every 3-4 hours and now she is up to 5oz every 4 hours.

Skills/Milestones: She's doing everything a one month old should be doing, chugging bottles, making some nice poopy diapers and snoring her little head off while she sleeps. She is tolerating tummy time pretty well, starting to try and reach out for the toys hanging on her playmat and is making aaaa, and uuuu sounds. She's quite the talented little lady :)   

 

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Chase, Asher, looooves music and being sung to, likes to sleep with her hands up by her face.

Umm yeah one month already?? I mean seriously? I am absolutely soaking up every little thing and moment as I know this first year is going to go by in the blink of an eye and I don't want to miss a thing. We have stayed home a lot, making time for lots of snuggles. The laundry has piled up more frequently than I care to admit and there have been quite a few days I've gone to bed with things strewn about the house. I am positively ok with that though as I'm never going to get these days back with a newborn. It's also been good for Chase and Asher as we've really had time to just be us and adjust to being a family of 5. I cannot say enough as to how good the boys have been with Hayley. They love her dearly and have not shown any signs of jealousy towards her. One of the them is always asking to hold her, or checking on her. I knew they would be good with her but have surpassed any expectations I had. Hayley has slotted right in to our family just like it was meant to be, well, because it was. I cannot express how beyond blessed we feel to have her in our lives. To think that a year ago I was going through invasive fertility tests and taking meds to get pregnant, and now she is here, is just amazing. She was worth all of that and then some. We all adore our lady Hayley.