Beware of Pickles!

Just when I thought Blake couldn't get any funnier, he topped himself! (Oh, and if you haven't read the blog entry entitled "Ducky Did It" from yesterday, read it first and then you will find the humor in this one.)

Last night we were eating dinner and Blake had a few sweet pickles with his meal. All of the sudden he started crying and said "ow-wee" holding his finger out for it to be kissed. It was clear that he must have bit his own finger when he was eating his pickle. So when Daddy asked him "what happened?" he instantly proclaimed...."PICKLE did it!"

It was hysterical!

Turn that frown upside down!

Poor baby. I guess he didn't want to swing.

"Ducky Did It"

Funny story...

In the last few months Blake has developed a habit of needing Kurt or I to kiss his "ow-wees" every time he gets one. There are even "ow-wees" we kiss that I'm not sure ever actually happened. But we make them "all better" and he loves it. Kurt seems to think I introduced this practice to our precious little boy....okay, okay I did. I can rightfully admit that it was all my doing. I'm a mom, I was looking for any excuse to kiss my little, ever so independent, boy and I got my wish. Oh and the best part is...he'll kiss your "ow-wees" too and then ask "better?"

Anyway, Blake has also recently started assigning blame to whatever has caused his "ow-wee." Kind of funny when he tattles on each of us after some random misshap. So last night Kurt was giving him a bath and all of the sudden Blake started crying, saying "ow-wee" and pointing to his hip. Kurt asked him what happened and...you guessed it...he proclaimed "ducky did it!"

Happy 2 Month Birthday Luke!

Happy Birthday "Little Luke"! You're not actually that little anymore. You had your 2 month checkup on 9/12 and you weighed in at 12lbs, 12oz and were 23 1/4 inches long. You're really starting to fill out and look more like a baby than a newborn. Your eyes are lightening up and you are still hanging on to some of your brown hair. Your eyes nearly close when you flash that adorable little smile. You've started laughing too...what a beautiful sound!

Hard to believe you will be starting "school" in 2 weeks! Our summer together has flown by. I'll certainly treasure all the memories we made though!

We love you!!

The Home Stretch

The last leg of our whirlwind tour took us to Kenosha, Wisconsin. There we visited with Kurt's childhood friend, Josh and his wife Michelle. It was so great to see them, catch-up and just kick back with a few good beers before the 7 hour drive home the next day. They were so kind to even let Blake watch the Wiggles on their big screen tv! We also went to a really fun apple orchard with the Hudson's where Blake got to see more goats and horses. Of course I forgot to take any pictures as I so often do now.

This was also the first chance we had to relax and enjoy some hotel amenities like room service, a pool and a hot tub. Here are some pictures of us chillin' at the Kenosha Best Western!

Next Stop: Jarrett Families

Our journey next took us to Greenfield and Warsaw where we visited with Kurt's side of the family.

We had a really fun day in Greenfield with Kurt's grandparents, his Dad, Brother and some of Kurt's Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. Blake had a really great time playing with is 2nd cousin Xavier who is also 2. I wish I would have snapped a few pictures of them! Blake was so tuckered out at one point that he asked to go "night night". So he slept for 3 hours on Grandma's bed! Blake and Grandpa Dave had fun walking around the yard looking at bugs and flowers too. Blake even told a grasshopper to "go away!"

On our way to Warsaw we had a much too short visit with my good friend Autumne. It is the first time she has seen my little guys in person and I hope they weren't too obnoxious (let's just say I was quite embarrassed about the flying spoon incident)! We can't wait to find out if Baby Southard will be a little boy or girl!!

Once in Warsaw we got to visit with Kurt's Mom, his Dad again, and his Brothers and their children. It was great to finally meet baby Jonah (8 months) and see Annabelle (2) again. Jonah is such a happy little guy and too sweet for words. We just wanted to pinch him he was so darn cute! And Blake had so much fun playing with Annabelle. It was funny to see how much she towered over him! She would call him baby though she is actually 7 weeks younger!

Next stop...Kenosha, Wisconsin!

In the Beginning...

there was Campus Edge! These are the apartments where Kurt and I met eleven short years ago. He lived in the 1st apt on the left and I lived 2 doors down. We never make a trip back to Bloomington without driving past them. Plus, they are on the way to one of our other favorite spots....Oliver Winery.

We also made it down to Kirkwood and shopped at a traditional Steve and Barry's (college t-shirts galore) and walked around campus for a bit. It's always so funny to see the college students and wonder if we really looked that young when we were there. Sadly enough, I'm sure we did. Even sadder, we sure don't anymore. Good times.

Old McDonald Had a Farm...

Drew (7), Annie (9), Maddie (10), Luke (2 mos), Alex (13), Blake (2) & Jacob (7)

Our first stop was at Mammaw and Pappaw Grady's hobby farm. Blake had a blast seeing the goats, chickens, horses and dogs. He loved helping Pappaw feed the goats and also enjoyed a ride on the tractor. (See below for a video clip of Blake and the goats.)

On Sunday we were to have a Risley Family Reunion, but instead got a little visit from Ike. Yes, I do mean the hurricane Ike. Who would have thought you could go to a landlocked state like Indiana and get hit with a hurricane. Well obviously, it wasn't anything like what the folks in the Gulf experienced, but the wind we had was crazy! Unfortunately it just didn't work out for many of my cousins to make the trip to Spencer, but I did get to see my Aunts, Grandparents, and my sisters and their families. The Grady grandchildren (there are 7 now ranging from 13 to 2 months) had an absolute blast playing outside in the rain and wind. We couldn't get Blake to come inside so he ended up soaked to the bone! It was so much fun to see everyone and especially see how much my nieces and nephews have grown. I can still remember when my 13 old year nephew Alex was born...kind of scary to think of how fast time flies.

On Monday, my parents met us at our hotel (the Canyon Inn and McCormick's Creek State Park) for a wonderful breakfast. After that they were so kind to offer to watch our kids and let Kurt and I go for a visit to the IU campus (both of our Alma Mater's) and to the Oliver Winery...always a stop on our visits to Bloomington/Spencer.

Thanks Mom and Dad for spending the weekend with us. We had a great time and know the boys did too. Especially Luke, as I don't think his body touched a non-human surface for like 72 hours! Oh and for the beans and cornbread - YUMMY!!

"A journey of 1,000 miles...

(Or 1,700 roundtrip miles including our multiple stops up and down the state of Indiana) begins with a single step" and one Toyota 4-Runner packed with such precision that I question whether or not I should be working for Target or a freight company.

Well, the much anticipated "Jarrett Family Roadshow" that took us back home to Indiana for 10 days is officially complete. I joke that the 4 of us spent A LOT of quality time in a 5x5 ft area together. Thank goodness we went with the Toyota 4-Runner instead of the Camry or else we would have ended up with a U-Haul to get us there and back. It seriously seemed like I packed the entire house before we left!

Yes, it was a lot of work. Yes, there were times when Kurt and I both wanted to stick our heads out the window and scream at the top of our lungs. Yes, it's difficult to maintain a sleep schedule for your children when you are hopping from hotel to hotel every other night. But most importantly, YES, it was absolutely wonderful to introduce our newest son to all of his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. And it was so fun to see Blake interacting with his cousins and getting to spend some one on one time with his grandparents.

You may wonder where our beloved little Molly was during this trip...safe in the care of two of my good friends - Alicia and Wendy. We cannot thank them enough for taking care of Molly while we made our trek. There was no way we could have done it with her though we did miss her a lot by the end of our trip. I'm sure she enjoyed 10 days away from the boys though!

Before I go through the play by play, here are the top 5 things we learned from this trip:

5. It's a lot more fun to watch your toddler eat a powdered donut when you're in a hotel room that you don't have to clean up!

4. You can never pack enough diapers, formula or fruit snacks.
3. Road construction can be a good thing if the 2 year old in yor backseat can be distracted from a tantrum by spotting a digger.

2. Rolling the window up and down can be a lifesaver for a collicky infant who craves loud, white noise.

1. Hearing your toddler sing "Skidamarinkadinkidink I LOVE YOU" from the backseat about 50 times in a row NEVER gets old.

Here we go...

The Happiest Baby on the Block?

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I suppose he is the ONLY baby on our block so I guess that makes him the happiest by default. Though he does look pretty sweet and innocent all wrapped up in his burrito.

Anyway, the last two tools for my quest to "cure" Luke's colic came this week...the much revered book by Dr. Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby on the Block, and the Sleep Sheep (recommended by my great friend Jen). I am happy to report that on the first night using my 2 new tools, Luke slept for 6 1/2 hours (8:30-3:00). I even tried to wake him up at 10:00pm to get one last feeding in, but he wouldn't budge. I kept waking up prior to 3, because it felt so weird for him to have slept that long. Hopefully he'll do it again tonight...and the next night and the next night and so on!

We had heard about this book in a baby care class we took when we were expecting Blake, but because he was a pretty content baby and could be calmed with just a pacifier, we never looked into it further. So, I read it and it actually made a lot of sense. He proclaims that the basis for colic is that some babies are born with less of an ability to calm themselves. Well, duh. I knew that already. And that some babies are EXTREMELY sensitive and intense and that makes the self calming process even harder. Again, duh. So the best way to calm babies that fall into that category (and yes, Luke does, I went through the checklist in the book) is to try to recreate an atmosphere most like the womb. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. So it goes on to describe the 5 S's that when combined can calm an infant "within seconds" (more like minutes for us, but hey, you have to start somewhere). This was the good stuff.

Interestingly he also writes a lot about how babies in other cultures never have colic because most of the techniques he describes are just done naturally (and that in some cultures babies are not allowed to be put down for the 1st year...okay that's never going to happen in America).

The Sleep Sheep comes into play for white noise (a key component to recreating the womb). It plays 4 sounds...heartbeat, whales, ocean and rain. It plays for 45 minutes so I use it when I lay Luke down for a nap or bedtime. So far he likes the ocean the best (me too...and specifically the Atlantic on the Gulf side).

So that's my book report/product review...I would highly recommend them for any new mom, mom-to-be or other mother who just got thrown a curve ball with her newest baby. You can always borrow the book from the Jarrett family library too. It will be stored beside my collection of Harry Potter books!

The stages of colic...

oddly enough, are quite similar to the 5 stages of grief.

1. Denial - "Oh, he's just hungry/wet/sleepy ALL the time, trust us, we know what we are doing."
2. Anger - "What did are we doing wrong? Okay, so we give our 2 year old too many fruit snacks and let him watch a little tv, but seriously, colic?"
3. Bargaining - "I will buy you a pony AND let you play hockey when you are old enough if you will please stop crying."
4. Depression - "So what, I have a crier...nothing an MP3 player can't cure."
5. Acceptance - aka Dr. Brown's bottles, prune juice and gripe water (we're still waiting on the Sleep Sheep I ordered to come).

So, after a couple days of our guerilla techniques to "cure" Luke from his colic, I will say we have made some progress. New formula, prune juice, Dr. Brown's bottles and gripe water seem to be working. I probably shouldn't speak so soon, but we have gone a couple of days now without the super long crying spells. Hopefully these changes will start a new trend. I hate the thought of him being so unhappy/uncomfortable for any longer.

The video below is evidence that our precious baby boy does smile, laugh and coo. He has possessed these abilities for a while, but hasn't shown them off much!

I can't believe little Luke is already 8 weeks old today! The time is flying by and we still have so much to cram into our last 4 weeks. :(

Rubber Ducky You're The One...

You make bath time lots of fun....well you and a few soggy Wheat Thins.

Whatever it takes, right?

Labor Day Fun!

We had such a fun holiday weekend. It was so nice coming back from Duluth and still have a couple of days left to "relax" (ha ha)... or unpack, get caught up on laundry, and catch up with some of our friends.

On Sunday, we visited the Funderburk family for dinner. Blake had fun watching Jonathan use his jump-a-roo and they both enjoyed swinging in the park.

On Monday, Chloe and her parents came over for a super fun playdate. Having had 2 days off from school last week, they wasted no time and hit the ground running. Blake had such a good time showing Chloe around the Jarrett house. It's always a riot watching them play together!

So back to work everyone!