February 25th! Arlo is 4 months old today!

James has decided to begin dressing himself this week.... Hilarious what he comes up with. He climbs into bed with us already dressed first thing in the morning. This began on Tuesday. This morning he is wearing plad flannel pants, a blue stripped thermal shirt with a Radiator Springs Cars tee shirt over the thermal. He likes to put tee shirts (short sleeves) over a long sleeve shirt. I love it.

Aro is also doing this cute thing where he sucks in his lower lip and makes these cute noises. He is drooling up a storm! He is also talking up a storm! He makes a whole lot of really cute noises and is very expressive in his mood. Love it!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Life here in the O'Callaghan house hasn't slowed down much in the past weeks, but we are somewhat settling into a routine and have a bit more regularity these days. James is growing like a weed! All of a sudden all of his pants seem to be too short. I swear it happened over night. He continues to just say and do the funniest, smartest, and most hilarious things. The other night I found him in his bed wearing sweatpants over his jammies. He has lots of friends and is super outgoing. His best buddies continue to be Sawyer and Oscar but he also has Rio, Tyson, and Michael. Today he told me that Augusta (a girl!) is now one of his best friends. Specifically, he said to me "Hey mom, did you know that Augusta is one of my best friends now? How cool is that?". He also has proclaimed that Jen and Kelsey's daughter Jayne will be his wife and they will have three babies. He is such a happy-go-lucky kid that is so fun to be around.

Last month we had a great time at Disneyland. James just fell in love with Uncle Rory and Aunt Nicole. What a fantastic day. James was pretty timid of some of the rides that we went on, but was super brave and was up for trying just about anything. But, he really loved the Peter Pan ride and the Winnie the Pooh ride. He also loved the little roller coaster in Toon Town. He was pretty scared during parts of Splash Mountain (he had a terrified look in the picture) and had a death grip on my hand during Pirates of the Caribbean, and said that he wanted to go home during Thunder Mountain. But, he was a trooper. He had an awesome day and went strong with no meltdowns all day (till 7:00!). He fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot. I am impressed at his memory of the day too! The other day he recounted specific events in the day with great detail.

Arlo has grown like I can't even believe. Sean and I can't even believe he is the same baby that came home from the hospital at four and a half pounds. He has little hamchop legs and is way chunkier than James ever was. In the last couple of weeks he has really just blossomed. Last Thursday he had his first real giggle (not just his regular happy sounds). It was so cute! He is super smiley and loves to just look at you and smile. He smiles all the time! We never saw that coming! He was so serious for the first couple of months. He is also just starting to reach for things and bat at toys hanging in front of him. He loves to look at Wimmer-Ferguson toys and is totally mesmerized by the shapes and colors. He is also super close to rolling over but really loves to sit up. We have just started using the Bumbo seat and he really likes it. He will now let us put him down for periods of time and is so much more content. He loves to suck on his fist and is drooling everywhere.

He also has some serious regularity. I think you can tell time with Arlo's movements. He also...sleeps through the night. Usually. One day last week he slept until 6:15 without waking up all night. I was terrified and in quite a bit of pain myself waiting for him to stir! He's a great nurser and is overall such a sweet little baby. He kicks his little legs like he's riding a bike when he gets excited. He also loves to have his little friends (little blankie with a stuffed animal head) smashed up against his face when he sleeps. I think he may be a good sleeper because we break the rules and let him sleep on his belly. His gassy barfyness has really been better since we have started tummy sleeping with him. Could be a coincidence, but either way we will take it. He is still barfy, but nothing like it was.

James is still totally in love with "his baby". He always says 'Arlo is so cute" and can I have my baby. He loves to kiss him and make silly faces at him. It is great. I am so impressed with how James does with him. He hasn't really yet gotten jealous, but has been irritated a few times when Arlo goes on a crying binge. Love these boys...

James and Buzz

James is in love with his new Buzz Lightyear toy. Here he is sleeping with him on Christmas night. He was so cute!

Christmas!

What a wonderful holiday we had! James had a wonderful time. What a blast we all had. James even stayed in bed with us (as a foursome - so nice!) until 7:30. He had a hard time controlling himself when it came to opening presents. According to him, all the presents were his for the opening. He sure had fun opening gifts for himself and Arlo. The highlight for him was "opening my Buzz Lightyear" from Santa. He was so excited for everything though. No meltdowns either. It was great. Then, after a great day and a viewing of Cars 2 courtesy of mom and dad, Jen and Kelsey and Jayne came over for dinner. I made prime rib and yorkshire pudding and it was AWESOME! James fell asleep with Buzz Lightyear tucked safely under his arm. Adorable. He saw the basketball hoop that Sean got him and said "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" It was the best.

Arlo's first smile caught on camera!

What a great gift!

Arlo and our first seven weeks as a foursome!

Life has been pretty good here in Bozeman the past seven weeks! James is shaping up to be an awesome big brother. He absolutely loves Arlo and kisses him constantly. We only have to remind him to be gentle periodically now. At first he needed a little coaching on how to handle the baby, but he mostly has it down now. He has taken the transition with ease. We had a little bump earlier this month with a little sadness due to lack of undivided attention, but he never took it out on Arlo, so that is good.

Arlo is growing like crazy! He is putting on at least ten ounces per week and has grown about an inch and a half in length. He actually is a little chubby now! It's crazy given how tiny and scrawny he was when he was born. Sean and I can't believe it is the same little guy that we brought home. He is smiling periodically and has pretty cute cooing noises. He is definitely our little snuggler! James hated to be held - not this one! He hates to be out of our arms and cries when he is on his own. Yesterday he did much better with that though. Sunday night he also slept awesome and we got seven hours of sleep - thank goodness! I felt like a whole new person! He also is our barfy kid. James never threw up (ok, maybe three times). Arlo has a little reflux, which our Dr. says should work itself out in a few months. In the meantime we just have lots of burpcloths around and are sure to do lots of burping and holding him up when he is done nursing.

We have been busy decorating the house for Christmas (our house was built to look good this time of year, in my opinion), and doing lots of holiday activities. Last weekend we did the annual Christmas Stroll downtown (see picture) and had a ball. Sunday night we went to Learning Circle (James Montessori school) Holiday party where all the kids sang holiday songs. James was hilarious. He was mostly stone-faced the whole time and didn't really sing, but occasionally chimed in. He mostly was more interested in turning around to listen and watch the kids behind him singing. Sean and I were totally cracking up. He and his buddies had a blast though. We left early (a whole nother story) which really upset James, but we had a great time anyway hanging with James's friends and their parents. He makes friends very easily and has a number of great friends. At Learning Circle he has a group that also went to Little Tree, so they have been a foursome since they were just babies. They are Oscar, Michael, and Rio. They are great boys with terrific parents too. They are just thick as thieves and have to be separated often so that they can actually do their learning lessons. We love it. At preschool, James has Tyson, who is a wonderful little guy. He is still best friends with Sawyer though, most of all.

Speaking of learning...wow! James can identify all numbers and most of the letters in the alphabet and say the sound they make and give example of words beginning with that letter. We are so impressed with how much he has learned since going to Learning Circle. He really is thriving in that environment. He is exhausted when he comes home from learning so much and playing so hard with his "homies". It is totally worth the steep price-tag. Yeah Montessori!

All in all we are adjusting to our new gig as a foursome. I know that more sleep will come and we are all happy to be together. I am looking forward to finishing up my class this semester at the end of this week, and will go back to work from home a few hours a week next week.

New School Year and a Broken Arm!

New school year pictures! James is now a big-boy and is going to two preschools! He left our wonderful little infant/toddler school, Little Tree, where he's been since he was three months old. It was pretty hard on me, but he was ready to move on. Now he spends Mondays and Fridays at Willson Preschool, right next to our house. This is where Maggie is the director and teacher (but not James teacher this year). The big change is that he is now at a regular Montessori preschool called Learning Circle. It is right next to the MSU campus, which is great to have him so close. He is loving it. His best buddy Oscar goes to school there two and they are like two little peas in a pod. James came home on Thursday SUPER dirty from the two of them playing in the sandbox together. Sand and dirt was everywhere. It was great. He goes there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is a great schedule for him. Learning Circle is great - he is in a new challenging environment where they stress independence, individuality, and a love of learning. Perfect fit for our family.

However; the independence thing has been a little bit of a challenge since we are experiencing our first broken bone! James broke his arm (humerous - a fracture/chip right at the elbow). He is healing great and didn't even have to get a hard cast. Just a hard splint for two weeks, and an extra week in a sling. He's taking it like a champ, as is his personality. It has gotten him down a couple of times, but he is really great about the whole thing and once it is explained to him, he really understands the process of healing and what it is going to take. What more could we expect from our little rule-follower. We have started calling him out little hall monitor - he loves observing safety rules and telling others how to follow them!