3 months, and a return to big white!

it's been 7 years, but we finally made it back to big white!

at 11 weeks old, this actually worked out to be a good age for baby J to travel on a road trip. i fed him right before we left home, and he slept all the way to merritt.  once there, we grabbed a snack and i fed baby J again, and he fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway. after such a dodgy winter, we actually hit some good weather on the coquihalla.  the connector was another story...as darkness was setting in, we ran into some heavy winds and snow. fortunately for us, we ended up behind an 18-wheeler and followed safely behind.  phew!

the road trip for gabriel was a different story.  he did nap for a bit but woke up before we got to hope.  with 5+ hours ahead of us, he had a hard time just sitting in his seat.  i was so focused on baby J's travel needs, i didn't even think of any car-ride activities for gabe.  so he just sat there, sucking his thumb, asking how much longer till we would see trevor :P

once we arrived at big white, the kids had a blast. they converted the downstairs bedroom into the kids club, and trevor was determined to sleep in the bunk-bed with gabe.  well, it started out that way, but when i checked on them 20 minutes later, gabe was standing at the bottom of the stairs. so he ended up in my room for the trip :P  baby j actually slept really well on our getaway.  he would be asleep at his usual time, between 10-10:30, and then he would wake up at 4 a.m. for his next feed. and miraculously he would sleep until it was time to get up (7 a.m.)...or sometimes even later!

the skiing was great!  gabe and trevor had 2 full day lessons, while brendan was in 1/2 day lessons.  it worked out great that chris, geoff, and sunny would ski half days, and then at lunch, the boys would stay home with brendan and baby J while sunny and i hit the slopes. on our last day of skiing, we had a family day and gabe and trevor skied all day.  they even did a bit of night skiing with their daddies! it's pretty crazy to see the kids ski in the trees, go over jumps, and plow through the moguls!  they'll be out-skiing me pretty soon :P

our road trip back home was much less eventful - we had sunny weather all the way.  we had originally planned on driving to hope for a lunch break, but given the measles outbreak in the area, there was no way i wanted jeremy exposed to any potential illness.  so we had an early break in merritt and then drove all the way home.

as for baby j's development at 3 months, he's definitely more chatty with us, and is flashing his smiles at everyone he sees.  we've had a few rough nights of sleep since our big white trip, and i've had to feed him every 1.5 hours from 1:30 onwards. since we've taken a step backwards, my plan of setting up the crib in gabe's bedroom has been kiboshed.  so, it looks like baby j will be my roommate for awhile longer, and we'll have to upgrade him to a pack & play.

2 months old!

my little munchkin is growing up!  he's a whopping 12 pounds now, which probably explains the better sleep routine we've fallen into.  by better, i mean his first stretch of sleep is usually 4 hours long, and 90% of the time i can get him to sleep in the bassinet.  the rest of the night is a bit dodgy...sometimes his 2nd feed is short and he'll go back to his bassinet and sometimes he's more alert, so a diaper change might be required and then he usually ends up sleeping in bed with me (unless i give him another bottle in his bassinet).  by 8 a.m. i'm up and making my first caffeinated beverage.  once baby J is up, the rest of the day is unpredictable :-)

we've been fortunate to have 2 cars for the past month so chris has still been doing school drop-off, and i'm doing pick-up. but soon we'll be back to one car, so i'll have to be up earlier to get gabe to school in the mornings.  what's worse is that chris' dad is on vacation in april, so chris will be working 12 hour days and i'll be "single-parenting" for 3 weeks :P

in terms of baby J's development, he's been very vocal and loves to coo and screech at us. he's also been giving us little smiles which melt my heart :-)  we've been doing a bit of tummy time, and he really enjoys lying on the playmat and flailing his arms at the toys.  instead of taking a pacifier, baby J has started to suck on his fists.

as for gabriel, the worry dragon has reared its ugly head. ski lessons have been great, and he really enjoys it. floor hockey has been a disaster. chris has reported that gabe spends half the class in tears and not participating, and then we had 2 weeks in a row where gabe burst into tears and refused to leave the house. one night he actually fell asleep after dinner, and when i woke him up, he asked if hockey was over yet.  so just like soccer, we are quitting hockey.

at school they are doing a session of 6 tennis lessons.  all kids are encouraged (expected?) to participate even thought it's an additional cost for it. when i sent the payment to school, gabe indicated he didn't want to participate. well, he's had one lesson, and it sounds like it went ok.  i will have to check with his teacher this week :P

as for the rest of his kindergarten experience, he's doing really well.  by that i mean the teacher hasn't finger-pointed at me for an after school discussion...phew! with the decent weather we've been having, gabriel gets to play with his friends after school at the playground.  it's nice to see that he's already got 3 best friends, and as one of the boys tells his dad, "we're not friends, we're like brothers!"