Full Hands...Full Hearts: Time is flying by...

Stratton turned 5 months on Sunday, Beck turned 21 months on Friday, and Kylie hit 5 1/2 on Wednesday of this past week. Whew! Time sure does fly by when you got these crazy kids to keep you going! Where to begin...

Stratton has now given us 3 nights of sleeping through the night, although it hasn't been consistent. I still consider it progress, but in general he's been sleeping rougher than he use to. I know this is partly because he's teething, but the other part is he's now breaking out of his swaddle and waking himself up many times throughout the night. I ordered a new swaddle contraption last week and I'm hoping to get it in tomorrow, so I'm praying that this will help! The other thing is that this boy is an eater to a crazy degree! I'm now feeding him baby food at breakfast, lunch, and before bed time (as well as rice cereal in his bottle before he crashes at night). It is AMAZING how much this boy can eat! So when he does get up to eat in the middle of the night its tough to get frustrated because he usually downs 6-7 ounces and falls right back to sleep. Still, I would LOVE to start getting more rest at night. I was amazed how much better I felt on the days after he slept through the night. I've been sleep deprived for so long that it is now the new normal....

Beck is starting to talk so much more now. We've been introducing colors and he knows blue and red so far (you have to start somewhere right?) It's funny because he loves to watch the cars and trucks whenever we're driving around and he'll now point and say, "blue car" or "red truck" when he sees them. I've decided for MANY reasons to hold off putting him in school this fall. I actually made the decision that we were GOING to enroll him and for the next three days I thought of nothing else. It will have to suffice to say that it just didn't feel right, which is really the only explanation I could give my husband as well. There is still the slightest bit of baby in him that needs the nurturing of a mom who loves him...and the life lessons that he'll learn when he starts school will be there when he's ready and when the time is right. Speaking of getting big... This weekend Beck let me know BEFORE he needed to do the deed in his diaper. Im use to him telling me after the fact...but this is a sign that this boy is getting close to potty training, and I'm very much looking forward to getting at least one of them out of diapers! We also made the move last weekend to take Beck's blanket away during the day in hopes that this would cut down on the thumb sucking. And so far, so good! I usually grab his blanket when he sets it down in the morning and hide it until nap time. The amount of time his thumb has been in his mouth has decreased SO MUCH! I'm glad we made the move and I really feel that the time was right.

Kylie is counting down the days until Kindergarten starts! This past week Stephanie and I took Ky and Makenzie to get school supplies. We wanted to beat the crowds and since we have vacation the week before school starts, we figured we would go ahead and get it out of the way. Ky had so much fun picking out all her stuff and came home and immediately put it all in her new backpack after showing daddy. I'm hoping my mom can embroider her name on her backpack, so I'll be sure to post a shot after we attempt to do that. This weekend we are taking Ky to the water park and having her first sleepover at our house. She's excited to the point that she had me print out a calendar so she can mark off the days till we go. (I'm a fan of this since it cuts down on how many times I have to answer the ?...mom, how many days until we get to go?)

I think that just about sums up the happenings at the Alcorn house over the past week or so!

Here's a shot of Ky and Kenz playing at the sand/fountains in Allen this past week...