11 weeks

Mr. Chubba bubba is chugging along. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel this week when Callan slept from 10pm to 6am! It was awesome! The next night he slept till 4:15 so I am really hoping the light gets brighter and he keeps pushing that middle of the night feed out! He is taking better naps as well, but he has good and bad days. He smiles and coos like crazy, and this week he really enjoyed watching his brothers dance and act silly in the living room. One unique thing about Callan is that he is my drooler. None of my kids have been droolers but already is. He is a very lovey baby and loves to cuddle.

Giving Thanks

family photo

Cam enjoying his pumpkin pie

Brian and Will

baby Callan snuggling with Oma

Opa with Camden
Oma and Callan
Grandma and Grandpa

The Niebuhrs

Grandma Ellen enjoying time with Callan

All the Grandkids

We have had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend. It has been productive and restful and we even fit in some family fun. We started thanksgiving day by going to my parents house and having a wonderful turkey dinner. The kids all played and then took naps while the adults played a mean game of liverpool rummy. I of course lost, but we all rallied together to make Chad lose and we accomplished our goal and he finished second to last. He was in the lead the whole game until the last hand. We then packed up our stuff and headed to the Hardt family thanksgiving. Faith hosted it at her house and the kids loved playing with all the toys. We got home late and the kids slept in until 7:15. It was a miracle! We have spent the rest of the weekend playing, shopping, relaxing and knocking things off our *to do* list. Carter and Camden had their cousins over this morning to play and eat lunch and that was lots of fun. I got some great video of them dancing to Christmas music. We will finish off the weekend with the Scribner meal tomorrow at lunch. We hope you all had a great weekend as well. We are so thankful for our friends and family. Even though some of our days our rough, we know we are so blessed.

10 weeks

Another week older. I can't believe that he is almost 3 months old and I am going to be heading back to work! This week hasn't been too exciting but Callan did sleep from 10pm to 4am and then didn't wake up till 7:30am. It was nice, and I hope he stays doing that. Wishful thinking I am afraid. He also took a 2 hour afternoon nap in his crib on Sunday. For those who don't know Callan doesn't particularly sleep well during the day and takes short cat naps all day long. That is unless I am holding him, and even then he wakes up frequently. For sanity sake I usually do have him nap with me during the afternoon when the other boys are napping. Probably not the best habit to continue and I am hoping he will start napping in his crib for longer periods soon. However we have mastered night time routine with him and he now goes down and 7-7:30pm and I wake him at 10 to feed and then he goes from 10 until 2-4 and then 6-8. I need to drop out the 10pm feed soon as well and see how he transitions. Babies change so much and so often that I am content where we are right now and hate to change up to much. I feel like he is eating has become more efficient and is done in 15 minutes or so. I find myself trying to keep him latched longer for fear he won't get enough. But who am I fooling. The boy is a huge chub! He is more and more alert and watching his surroundings. He freely gives smiles now and has started smiling at Carter and Camden a lot. He hates tummy time and he is pretty lucky because I forget most days to even do it. The other thing he does that neither of my other boys did is that he hates to have a poopy diaper. If he is fed, napped, and other wise should be happy but isn't, one thing to check is his pants. He is the first kid that really cares if he his dirty. He doesn't care about being wet but doesn't like the other. I can't wait to find out more things about my little chubby bubby.

Growing up

Preschool picture

Carter thinks he went to the apple orchard to get this picture taken

Carter's fabricated *about me* poster

Carter is growing up so fast. Chad and I felt like real parents the other night when we attended preschool conferences. They went really well and Carter's teacher Mrs. Fanton says he is a sweet boy who gets along well with all his classmates. He is really loving the time away to do his own big boy thing. The teacher said he is always eager to try new things and is the first to volunteer. He loves being able to do arts and crafts every day. It is now a typical thing for him to ask if he can draw/paint/color. Gluing things tends to be a favorite. I am just glad that preschool allows him to do this so I don't have to clean it up everyday. The last picture is of a project he did. If you click on it and enlarge it you can see the answers he gave. Super funny. This boy always says the things he wish he had or wish he was doing, or whatever is on his mind at that minute. We are pretty sure that someone before him said they had a cat and bunny but he even forgot one of his *actual* dogs. We think he said beans because he really enjoyed playing in the bean table at school where you can play with dried beans. We guess his favorite color could be brown but who really loves brown? Anyway we got a kick out of this when we saw it.

9 weeks

Callan turned 9 weeks on Monday. Unfortunately it meant a trip to the doctor for his two month appointment. He weighed in at 13lbs 13.5ounces which puts him in the 90th percentile. He was 24.5 inches long which was the 92nd percentile. Head was 15.75 inches and 48th percentile. Everything checked out nicely and we ended the trip with two shots (5 diseases) and one oral vaccine. This lead to a fever the rest of the day with the high getting to 103. Poor baby. It was down this morning and he was feeling better. Not a whole lot new has happened except he is starting to push out his morning wake up time. He still wakes between 2:30 and 3 and used to wake up around 5:30-6 and now he is getting up after 6:30. It has been averaging around 7 and one morning it was 8. I hope this continues and I wouldn't be sad if he went longer after the 10pm feed either. All in all things seem to be going pretty smooth.

8 weeks

Chubs Magee is 8 weeks old! Time is still flying by! Callan is smiling and cooing a lot and enjoys looking at our faces. He likes watching his brothers play and really enjoys the noise. He is still doing about the same sleep and feeding wise. He is going down for bed at 7:30 and doing a good job with that. Now I am ready for him to space his feedings just a touch more. He is so chubby and squishy. I just love his cheeks and his double chin.

Kids Schimds

sleeping with grandma

messing with their brother

bathtime

they love their spaceship jammies

reading with dad

not to happy with the bumbo

passing the time indoors

happy boy

brothers

unhappy "little stinker"

building forts with dad

the start of pink eye

a typical day

one of the many times he asks to hold him

sleepy boy

my little ham

I try to put him down where ever I can

playing with the tape measure

messing around on a husker game day

my newest baby!

the boys

me with my kids

It has been such a long time since I have done a regular "what are the kids doing" post that I need to do it. Plus I have a bunch of pictures that I haven't posted. Warning, this might get a bit long.
To start off the two oldest kids got pink eye last weekend so we have stayed around home and tried to make sure that we are all cured. We had to wipe down the house and all the toys and it was a nightmare. Now, tonight, we are afraid that Camden has it again. We put some drops in his eyes and Carters to prevent him from getting it. I don't know how he would get it again when we haven't even been anywhere. Hopefully this is nipped in the bud soon. We have also had a listening issue at our house that has gotten out of control. I decided that a listening chart was needed to help us remember to use positive reinforcement and for the kids to have a visual reminder to listen. It has worked pretty well, for Carter anyway. Camden doesn't quite get it yet. Things have gotten a bit better, but I sure having the Super Nanny come wouldn't hurt. :) We did a toy sort and toy swap to give the kids some "new" toys and put some of the old ones away. Hopefully the newness of the old toys helps with some of the behavior issues as well. It has also been getting colder which means less time outside which is killer for these active boys. They still go out but don't stay out as long.
Carter is really starting to pick up on all that we say and repeats a lot of it in appropriate situations. I say things like "oh kids, schmids" when they start to get unruly and now Carter will say it when they start to get unruly. He also says "for crying out loud" which is what Chad says a lot but he will put it in the correct context. He also says "yeah sure" when you ask him to do something which I recently realized that he gets that from Chad as well.
Carter is also really trying to understand the world around him and why things happen. He is constantly asking us why we do things. His new thing is to say to us "you tell me" after he asks us a question. I think he gets it from us saying to him "you tell me why you were in time out" or we have to say "you tell me" after he has asked the same questions several times in a row and we already gave him the answer. When I tell him something like "we can't go outside right now because it is too cold" he will say "why" and then "you tell me why". Silly boy. I also like to see him try and repeat things that he hears us say but are hard for him. Like the other day he asked me where the "bouncy set" was. I said you mean the bouncy seat? and he said no, the bouncy set and made an oval motion with his hands. (we were sitting in my room and had recently taken out the bassinet) So I said oh you mean the bassinet, and he said yes the "bassy set" The newest least favorite thing he says now is "mines" for mine. We keep correcting the word but it doesn't seem to help. We also know that he is soaking up the world around him when the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz came on the radio and Carter was able to sing a decent amount of the lyrics. We do have the radio on a lot during the day and I usually sing with the song but it was cute when he chimed in. Camden even did a little too! We also had another funny thing happen a few weeks ago when Chad was playing with the boys in the living room. He looked right at Carter and said Camden. So Carter looked right and Chad and said "I'm Carter" very matter of fact. It was hilarious and one of many times this will happen to him. We also see his imagination exploding right now. He tells us lots of stories and ends them with "i'm just teasing you mommy". He talks with his toys a lot and tells me of all the things he is having them do. A lot of it are things that are happening to him or things he wants to do. He also has learned that being 3 means that you don't get to do a lot of things you want to do. We use the phrase "that is just for mommies and daddies" or "when you get bigger you can do that". He uses the phrase "when I get bigger I am going to do that" a lot. Carter still enjoys playing with Camden and wanting him to be a part of things. He also gets frustrated when Camden ruins things he is playing with. He always wants to know where "new baby" is and asks to hold him about 100 times a day. He loves him and treats him very nice.
Camden my handsome little devil. This boy is finding his defiant self lately and pulling out his charm to try and get out of things. He has started to hit and push Carter more and his days of being nice and helping pick up are things of the past. He has a great relationship with the time out chair and loves to test every boundary he can. We did finally break him and he will try his veggies or eat more of something to get a chip or dessert. Not all of the time but he has finally given in and done it a few times. Camden is amazingly loud. I guess he thinks he is not heard thru all the noise in the house. He yells "milk please" and "ceweal" (cereal) non stop. We are working on not yelling and asking nicely. His language is blowing us away. He is now saying three syllable words with no difficulty like basket ball, and ice cream cone. He is also putting together small sentences like i love you mommy, I'm sorry mommy, shoes and socks on, jacket on, zip it up,and i want that. He knows all his animal sounds and can point out random objects in books, even ones we didn't realize he knew. He also knows character names. He can name sesame street characters, Cars Characters and a few random ones like Nemo. This was something we never remember Carter doing at that age. He likes singing and will sing the end of phases on songs like "bumpin up and down in my little red wagon", "if your happy and you know it", and "jesus loves me" He follows along with all the actions that Carter teaches him. I have some video that I need to put on here.
I will update on Camden tomorrow with his 8 week post. Sorry for the long post.

Smile

I was able to capture one of Callan's first smiles. He gave the first one on Halloween and ever since it doesn't take much to get him to smile. I love that he is turning into a little person and is reacting to the world around him.

3 of a kind

They are all so different, but depending on the picture they can look alike. This shows how different they are and how small Camden was. Callan is bigger in this picture at 7 weeks than Camden was at 18 weeks!

7 weeks

Mr. Callan Reed Scribner is 7 weeks old today! One huge milestone he met this week was he smiled for the first time on Sunday October 31st. So sweet. He has done two more times for me, and I love it! I am so excited to start seeing his personality come alive. He is still eating and sleeping the same. Napping a tiny bit better. He is getting more and more aware of his surroundings and enjoys watching his brothers. He had a great Halloween and we are hoping for longer stretches of sleep at night in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it will happen.

Halloween Fun

At Oma and Opa's house

baby Callan with Opa

Cat in the Hat

Ready to trick or treat

trick or treating with the neighbors

Thing 1, Thing 2, T-Rex, Butterfly

grandparents

hanging with aunt Julie

grandpa singing

woody and thing 1

We started our day by going to Oma and Opa's house for treats and fun. The boys played while Chad and I chatted and ate some cookies. We then went to my parents house and trick or treated to some of their neighbors and of course got treats from them. We then rushed home to meet up with Emma and Jackson to go trick or treating with them around the neighborhood. It was pretty cold so baby Callan only went to two houses, and then went home with Chad to make a quick dinner for the kids before heading to Al and Karen's house. Carter was super excited about trick or treating. He caught on right away and took off with Emma. They loved it and I am pretty sure Carter never wanted to stop. Camden took about 5 houses before he caught on and then he really liked it. His poor little legs would not keep up with his big brother but he sure tried. We then went to Al and Karen's for some pie, cookies and family. The boys played with cousins and then we left with two wild boys and didn't get to bed until 9pm! Yikes! They have been okay behaved today, but I am just glad this is not our normal day.