Week 4 - Sick again??

We got back into the swing of things this week by attending a couple of playdates with our playgroup. It was nice for Jacob to play with his friends again and for Mommy to get out and visit with her friends as well. Unfortunately, with the return to 'society' comes the exposure to illness. Jacob once again has picked up a little cold. I sure hope Luke doesn't pick up as much as Jacob has in his first 2 years of life. It seems we are always dealing with something. Hopefully he'll get over it quickly without passing it along to the rest of the family, especially Luke.

We are battling the 'terrible twos' right now, which makes naps and bedtime a battle (fortunately, not a crying battle, just a "I'm not staying in my bed" battle) and many days are quite stressful in general. So many people have told me that the 'terrible threes' are worse - I don't know if I can handle it if they are. Jacob is insistent on proving his independence and testing (and testing and testing) his boundaries. Sometimes I wonder how he can be so strong willed, but then I remember where his genes came from. I've tried every parenting tactic I know to curb some of the behaviors, but often times, my attempts are to no avail. We'll get through this time, I know, I just wish it didn't have to be so hard. It just breaks my heart to scold, raise my voice, and punish Jacob, but it needs to be done.

Luke continues to grow. Rachel even commented on Saturday on how much he had filled out in the 2 weeks since she had seen him. You can probably see in the pictures too how his face (and everything else) has plumped up. He definitely feels heavier lately too, but with the way he eats, I'm not surprised. We are consistently getting 3+ hr stretches of sleep between feedings at night, but he still eats every 2-2.5 hrs during the day. Of course, we do have about 1 night every week where he is fussy, doesn't want to sleep, and can't be comforted. I'm not sure why on those nights, we have difficulties. His awake times seem to stretch longer everyday as well. He still loves to be held when he's awake, and isn't happy on his own for too long. I hope I'm not fostering a bad habit! I also notice him examining people and things more closely. It is neat to see him change and grow. Go here for the rest of this week's pictures.