Bennett's 4th Month!

It is hard to believe that another month has gone by. Benny continues to be the sweetest, snuggliest, and most laid back baby ever. I just can't imagine our family without him, he has brought all of us so much joy and happiness these last 4 months!

So far, Benny is the biggest Nichols boy yet. At his 4 month appointment, he weighed in at 15 1/2lbs, a full pound and a half bigger than Mac was at the same age! He is in the 90th percentile for height at 26 1/2 inches and his head is in the 99th percentile. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes, size 0 and 1 shoes and is in a size 2 in disposable diapers and is still in prefolds for cloth diapers, though I am sure he is big enough to start moving into his pocket diapers.

This month, Benny has finally woken up from his newborn sleepiness and is actually awake for the better part of the day now. He takes about 3 naps a day, sometimes nice long ones, and sometimes short little cat naps. He has started to fight sleep, and it takes some effort on my part to get him to nap now. He will usually take his first nap of the day in the wrap (that's where he is right now) and then nap while we are out and about in the afternoon in his car seat. If we are at home in the afternoon, he will sometimes nap in his swing, and a few times I have even been successful at getting him to nap in his crib. He takes his last cat nap in the wrap again, usually while I am making dinner. I don't know what I will do once he is too big to wear for his naps! Benny is super laid back and even if he doesn't get a great nap, he is still mostly all smiles.

Being a dream sleeper at night is a thing of the past and having such a crazy schedule over the holidays certainly did not help. Benny is so easy and flexible, we were just putting him to bed whenever we went to bed, and for quite a while he would just sleep most of the night away. But as the last month went on, his sleep was getting worse and worse. Once the craziness of Christmas and having family in town was over, we started a bedtime routine and moved him into a crib in our bedroom instead of the cosleeper right by our bed. He now gets a quick bath every night right around 7 and then after some quick snuggles from his brothers, I nurse him in our room and put him to sleep in his crib. We stopped swaddling him and he is now in the magic sleepsuit that we bought for Mac around this same age. I wouldn't say it has been magic for him, but he is sleeping in the crib and some nights has some pretty decent chunks of sleep. I am hoping that since he was such a good sleeper in the beginning, it is still in him somewhere and one day he will start sleeping through the night again!

Benny got a wooden toy bar for Christmas and a few little toys to chew on. He loves laying under his bar and has started chewing on toys if you put them in his hands. He has also recently discovered his hands and loves to suck on his fists. If he is awake, he almost always has his fists in his mouth. I have to pull them away from his mouth to see his smiles!

We found out that Benny was a boy last February and I had the nurse tell Tim over the phone and then he told me a few days later. He gave me little blue shoes and an outfit to tell me that he was a boy. The shirt and shoes he wore for the first time in the picture below. It was so special to see him wearing the first things that had been picked out just for him when we found out he was a boy!

Benny is pretty strong, but with that big old head to hold up, he has not started rolling over yet. He does pretty well on his tummy for short periods of time before just giving up and rubbing his face into the ground. He never makes a fuss though and just waits for somebody to roll him back over and he will continue to just lay on his back and suck on his fists.

Both older boys continue to be just awesome with Benny. They love him so much and I feel so lucky that neither one of them had a hard time adjusting to having a new baby in the family. James loves to hold him, and Mac pretty much only asks to hold him if James does first and then he insists on holding him right that very second. When it comes to being helpful, Mac is absolutely awesome. He always makes sure that he has a toy nearby and loves entertaining him while I cook or get ready in the morning.

Benny definitely lights up when anyone talks to him and loves it when anyone will sit down and pay attention to him. He just smiles and coos and soaks in every second. He always has big smiles for the 4 of us and James and Mac get so excited when they can make him smile or laugh.

I know how fleeting this baby time is and I am soaking up every squishy, snuggly minute of it.

Christmas Festivities!

I finally uploaded all my photos off of my camera and phone from December, so I am doing one giant Christmas post since I actually have time to sit down at the computer. December is always such a fun month. All of the events leading up to Christmas make the entire month so exciting, and having kids makes it all so magical. Having Benny made everything even better, we truly has the best Christmas ever!

We got out all of our decorations the first weekend in December and went and got our tree the weekend after that. We missed cutting down our tree this year, and just went to a local tree farm in Longmont.

James was convinced all of the trees had too many branches and were too full, but he and Mac finely settled on one.

Each boy gets a special ornament each year and they love unpacking all of their old ones and putting them on the tree. It is a fun way to remember what they were into each year.

This year, Mac got a Flash ornament, James got Yoda and Benny got a Baby's 1st Christmas with the book, On the Night You Were Born on it.

One of the boys favorite things to get out is all of our holiday books. They spent countless hours this month reading all of them multiple times.

Mac had his holiday show at preschool, which as usual, was completely adorable.

 We went up to Santa Brunch at Ptarmigan, which we always look forward to.

 I enjoyed dressing up Benny in all of his holiday themed outfits :)

We went to the 6th annual Santa party at the Nelson's house. The kids wore their pajamas and ate cookies and Santa came and read them a story, and brought a book for each kid.

We also had our 6th annual cookie decorating party with all of my friends from growing up. The boys always look forward to it and it is one of the only times James has to catch up with his buddy, Alec Sungy all year.

I always give the boys a hard back Christmas book each Christmas Eve morning. They love adding to their collection, and I love picking out books for them each year.

 We had brunch at my parent's house and then headed up for Christmas Eve with all of the Nichols. The boys love playing with their cousins and exchanging presents, and I love that they all still love wearing matching pj's :)

 Christmas morning, the boys ran out to see that Santa came and left them just what they asked for. James got Minecraft Legos, Mac got Bucky's Deluxe Pirate Ship (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and Benny got a toy bar to lay under.

 Santa ate his cookies and milk!

 After the boys had checked out their Santa gifts, they saw he had left another surprise-Lego Santa's Workshop set up by the train he left last year. To say they were excited is an understatement.

 Both boys declared it the best Christmas ever multiple times. I love seeing them so excited!

 Benny checking out his stocking.

Christmas morning was abolutely perfect. Benny snuggled up on me and took a nap after breakfast and I got to watch the boys unwrap their presents. Mac jumped up and down for each one. It was magical and my favorite part of the day.

Having my parents back in town was wonderful. My uncle and Leo, and my grandparents were all in town for Christmas. It was so much fun seeing everyone and having so much family time.

 Christmas night, while watching Home Alone 2, James wiggled out his top tooth! He could not look any cuter with his gap toothed smile.

 Jenny, Ian and Zephyr came into town the day after Christmas, so our festivities continued even longer!

 Zephyr had never seen snow before, and I was so excited when it snowed on Christmas right before they got here!

 My grandparents enjoyed being with all of their great grandchildren.

 My parents had a party at their house for all of our family friends from Arvada. It was great to see everyone and catch up.

We had a busy month and I for one am ready for school to start back up on Monday so we can get back into a normal routine with normal meals and normal bedtimes! Christmas was wonderful, but we are all ready to get back to normal!