Swearingen Family: January 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My big brothers are soooooo funny!!!!!

Pinewood Derby

Last night Joseph's Scout Troop held their Pinewood Derby. Joseph and Daddy worked hard on his car.

We enjoyed some pizza before the meeting started.

Joseph made a "car slide" for his neckerchief. . .

. . . posed for his photo opp. . .

and waited patiently for his turn to race.

Race Time!!!

Joseph did not get a medal and was pretty disappointed but not as disappointed as his brother who almost burst into tears and talked smack to all the big kids. He did have a very good race-time though and we picked up alot of tips for making a faster car in the future.

Zoo Day

Last Monday Joseph did not have school because of MLK Jr. Day. He helped me run errands in the morning and then we had a lunch date with Daddy.

coffee/hot chocolate break with lemon pound cake at Starbucks - our favorite mother/son thing to do.

she is so happy - except when she's "starving"

Afterwards we decided to pick up Jacob early from school and head to the Zoo so we could enjoy the gorgeous day!!!

We took a ride on the Carousel first thing.

Denbigh's first Carousel ride!

And then visited a few of our favorite animals.

bare feet!

And burnt off some energy on the playground.

It was so great to have a beautiful warm day in the middle of all the cold we've been having.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Saturday morning laziness

Rarely do we get a lazy Saturday morning but today started out that way. And I love that the whole family fits in our bed. Throw in "Harry Potter Weekend" on TV and the smell of homemade bread. . . . . great start to the weekend.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Baby food and kid food

I mentioned before that I've been making some of Denbigh's baby food as I did for the boys. Well - as opposed to my old method of pureeing and then freezing in ice cube trays - I've been using an extremely useful gadget from Target and these pouches. It is so much easier than the trays and big ziploc bags of frozen cubes.

Our boys have never been big snackers between meals . . . until recently. They are always "starving" and I've been on a hunt to provide them with healthy options that they actually want to eat. I decided that my baby food pouches didn't need to be exclusively used for Denbigh and made these blueberry/greek yogurt smoothie pouches for them. We keep some in the fridge for easy snacks and some in the freezer to send in Joseph's lunch. I am looking forward to creating a bunch of different flavors.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

well -visits: the stats

First - the 7-year-old

Joseph is 50" tall and weighs 55 lbs. That puts him in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th for weight.

Joseph still loves school and loves his teacher. She spends extra time challenging him in math (his favorite subject) and in reading. He has started bringing books with him to the breakfast table for a final read-through so he can take AR tests as soon as he gets to school. We are very proud of him for working so hard to achieve his goals.

Joseph also loves to play. Sometimes his playtime includes math and science at home and he will beg to log-in to: Coolmathgames.com and also do science experiments. He also will be playing soccer again this spring. If he's not playing games on the computer or playstation you will usually find him up in his room playing with his brother. Or sweet talking to his sister.

His latest hobby is playing the piano and he has lessons on Thursday afternoon. He protests practicing sometimes and would rather make up his own music. His teacher gave him some graph paper and he composes songs for her to play.

It has been so much fun watching this kid grow from baby to toddler to kid. He's on the cusp of "young man" and it's freaking us out a bit. The honor of raising him (and his siblings) is overwhelming/challenging at times as we try to parent "with the end in mind" and the character qualities we desire for them to have as adults. At the same time we try to cherish each day of their childhood.

This little one had her 6-month well-visit at the same time and while Joseph escaped vaccines, she did not. She is also finally old enough for her flu shot - yay! She handled her shots really well and other than a little extra napping and snuggling, we didn't see any other effects.

She had gained a few ounces since her birthday and was 17 lbs. 6 oz. on Tuesday keeping her in the 50th percentile. She measured 26.5 inches putting her just over the 50th percentile. She's our "little" peanut. :)