Welcome to Summer

Summer has officially begun at the Bolander house now that we have celebrated Memorial Day weekend. School is over for Rick, the weather is starting to heat up, the summer project list is ready & we are looking forward to enjoying a lot of time outside soaking in the sun & just having fun. Rick had his last weekend with his USC classmates down at Rancho Bernardo in San Diego & thanks to my sister Kimberly watching Johnnie & Joey, I was able to take Jimmy down South with me to enjoy the closing festivites complete with singing (by daddy), skits, a nice dinner & lots of laughs. Then on Sunday we had some friends over for an afternoon of water fun & dinner. It was Joey's first time in the water & he loved it. After we changed him, he still went in the wading pool in his sweatsuit because he was having too much fun to stop. Once all the kids were dry we tried to get a photo of all of them together. The entire series makes me laugh especially if you pay close attention to Joey & his efforts to get front & center including using Johnnie's hair to balance in the 3rd pic. What a ham! And Jimmy went & turned 13 weeks old. This is a photo of him being very tired. He rubs his hands together & against his face & his lips get even more pouty than usual.

My Baby Bird

Jimmy you are getting so big. 3 months old. 14 pounds 12 ounces (80%) & 24 3/4" (80%). I call you my baby bird because you are often just sitting there watching me move across the room opening & closing your mouth sucking on your hand waiting for me to feed you the way a baby bird waits for their mama. You eat 7-9 times a day. You are still having feedings 1-2x a night but you always go back to bed right after. You are so happy now during your awake hours. Smiling. Laughing out loud. Super ticklish especially your neck & thighs. You spend time during the day doing tummy time which you can do for 5 minutes at a time without getting upset, you lay on your playmat pumping your legs & cooing, you watch me cook & eat sitting in your bumbo & you absolutely LOVE to be held while I sing to you. You only like the swing when you are wide awake & sit there yelling at the birdies & you can always be soothed by bouncing you in your vibration chair. You are enamored with your brothers, especially when they talk to you & poke at you. Your hair sticks straight up off your head, you always stick your tongue out & you are constantly trying to sit up. You are growing so fast baby boy & your daddy & I love you so much!

10 on Tuesday- Gramma Visit

1. Gramma just left after an 11 day visit. We were sad to see her go & look forward to our next visit. Here are some photos from the visit showing how much fun the boys had with her. Jimmy got to meet her for the 1st time & eventhough he's not smiling in the photos gramma did get to see a lot of those especially while she talked to him.2. We were lucky enough to have really nice weather during the visit so a lot of time was spent outside. One of the favorite activities was bubbles. At first gramma just taught Johnnie how to blow them himself. And after each set of bubbles he would say look gramma. Bubbles.3. Then Joey wanted to see what they were doing.4. He was so excited that he started chasing after them.5. Johnnie has always enjoyed saying "Roar" like a lion. Lately he has started covering himself with a towel or blanket to play peek a boo & when he uncovers himself he says "Roar" & now Joey does it too. They were doing it today to gramma.6. And then Johnnie asked gramma to get under with him to play & he was enjoying her participating.7. Johnnie had gramma build with him using tinker toys while Jimmy watched on .8. Rick loves to have his hair played with & I guess he has ever since he was a kid. His mom used to do it to him & now Joey enjoys it. 9. Look at gramma being excited enough for both her & Jimmy. But again let me say that he had lots of fun & gramma did get to see lots of his smiles.10. And lots of reading time. I think it's one of gramma's favorite activities & I know it's one of Joey's. Check back this week for more photos.

Fight On

It seems like it has been a long road but it has only been 21 months & they have gone by quickly (for me at least... maybe because we gave birth to 2 sons in that time :-) Rick all your hard work has finally paid off & you are now a graduate of the USC MBA program. I probably could only be more proud of you if I were your mom who I'm very glad got to see you graduate in person. I wish your dad had been here too but I know he wished you well from Vermont. Your mom, my dad & I sat in our seats waiting anxiously for you all to parade in to the Galen Center. We sat there trying to pick you out of the crowd of 300+ graduates & we found you sitting with your buddy Miles. After listening to many speakers & watching all of you get your diplomas we were all surprised when the USC band came marching in playing the USC fight song (Fight On For Ole SC). It was really very cool & such a nice way to end the road to higher education.
I am so proud of you & wish we could have thrown you a big party which is what you deserved but I hope you know that I love you, I'm glad to have you back & can't wait to see what new opportunities become available to you. And no matter what I hope that you & all your fellow graduates realize that at least now you are prepared for whatever business opportunities come your way. Congratulations & Fight On!

Why oh Why

There are many phases that our children go through that I look forward to BUT there are also those things we have to teach them that seem fun at first but end up being the bane of my existence. For me this is letting children learn to feed themselves. NEATLY. NOT. Johnnie is pretty self sufficient at this point & most of his food actually ends up in his mouth, but it took a lot of messes & mishaps to get there. Well now we are starting over with Joey & to get attention Johnnie sometimes misbehaves with his food too. They both love yogurt but WOW! it takes a lot of patience to let them eat it on their own. But we deal with it especially because it makes them so happy. As you can see they actually feed themselves but just like Johnnie when Joey is done, he's done. Again I ask why can't they just know how to eat the way they know how to nurse? And the better question is why can't they just leave everything on their tray when they're done?

Just One Photo Please

One Nice one that is. That's all I wanted for Mother's Day. Easier said than done with 3 boys under the age of 3. One of the boys MUST be held, one usually has to be & well one is 2 years old... do I really need to say more. My day started off great. Jimmy only had feedings at 9:30pm & then again at 5am. Rick let me sleep in & took care of the boys all the while making me & his mom breakfast. I even got to go to the gym before it was picture time. All the boys were awake so there was actually a chance I could get all the boys in a photo with their mama. So here goes.

Jimmy was sitting on my lap & Johnnie came over to sit on my other lap, so I just needed to grab Joey but he wasn't so happy about that. So then I put him on my lap & read a little to him & he was calm. All seemed well until I took Johnnie's pacifier out of his mouth. Tantrum galore. Okay so that wasn't working so I gave it back & he started to calm down. Sort of. Well this final photo is as good as it was gonna get. A pouty 2 year old. Cooperative toddler & baby looking forward. And a VERY HAPPY mama on her day. Thank you to my sons who made me a mama & in doing so have added so much to my life. I love you all more than you will ever understand (well until you are a parent yourselves.) And thanks to their daddy who gave me flowers, cards, a beautiful day & most importantly the chance to be a mama.Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mamas. Hope your day was filled with love.

Ten on Tuesday

1. If you didn't notice my new blog header, check it out. This is how it came about. Jimmy was laying on the carpet & Johnnie came over to give him a hug. Then Joey wanted to get in on the action & jumped on in. It's my new favorite photo of my 3 boys together.2. Joey is constantly chasing Johnnie around the house, Doing whatever he's doing & Wanting whatever he has. And Jimmy is slowly becoming part of the cycle. Here they all are wanting the same spot on the couch.3. Joey turned 16 months old on April 30th. He is such a little character. Answers "yeah yeah" when you ask him if he's hungry. Drops everything to go upstairs & take a bath. Cries if you don't let him try & feed himself, but often times this turns in to him playing with utensils.4. Johnnie has always loved books. Reading them. Looking at the books. Being read to. And now Joey has been infected with the reading bug as well. He will grab books & come sit on your lap waiting for you to read to him. And he will even sit on his own with a pile of books flipping through the pages. 5. My mother in law arrives at our home on Thursday. She will be here to celebrate Mother's Day, Rick's graduation & she will be meeting her newest grandson for the 1st time.

6. Now that we have taken Johnnie to Disneyland he keeps asking when we can go again. Lucky for him we bought an annual pass & we plan to go with gramma.

7. Nothing special about this photo. Just thought it was very cute. I have been sitting Jimmy up in the corner of the couch & after a little while he tips over sometimes landing face down in the cushions if I don't move fast enough. Bad mama. Hehe!8. After one week of sleeping in his big boy bed I think it's safe to say Johnnie is officially out of his crib for bedtime anyway. He still likes to nap in his crib which is fine by me since he still takes 2-3 hour naps. The only downside is that when he wakes up in the morning, he's up. This is 6:15am which isn't that early but he used to stay in his crib until 7am. Oh well. Gotta look on the bright side, right?

9. Sunday night Rick & I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday & our 5 year anniversary. It seems like such a small amount of years considering we have been together for 11 now. Thanks Kayci for watching all 3 boys & thanks babe for such a nice evening.10. Jimmy is now 10 weeks old. Smiling all the time now & talking a lot.