Baby Jack's Blessing

In our church it is tradition for fathers to bless their babies in church within the first few months of life, and last week was Jackson's day! We were grateful to have so many family members join us for the weekend (and we definitely missed those who couldn't make it!).  My mom, sister (Laura), brother (John), and Nana flew in, as well as Toren's parents.  My sister -in-law (Mallory) and her husband (Brent, who is not pictured because he went home with Harper for her nap) live here in Las Vegas and came for the blessing to.  

I wish we could have taken more pictures, but the wicked Las Vegas wind made it almost impossible to get a decent one.  At least we have a record of the day.  Also, never mind Austin's scraggly look.  Sunday is a success if he sits quietly through sacrament meeting.  I consider it a bonus if his shirt stays tucked in and his hair gets done!

It was a great weekend, and an wonderful blessing.  I am grateful to have a faithful, righteous, and worthy husband to give such blessings to my children and serve as a great example for them.

Daddy and Jackson.  Notice Austin photobombing in this one.  He was less than thrilled to be taking pictures.

In other news, I love comparing both kids!  Here they both are around 8 weeks.  Jack Jack is definitely bigger at this point than Austin was.  He is also a better sleeper (thank goodness!).

BYU Football Game Weekend

Toren and his dad have made going to a BYU game a tradition for years, and in the last couple of years we've made it a tradition to join them!  Originally baby Jack and I were going to stay home and have a quiet weekend (with plenty of sleeping and takeout!) this year, but with enough begging from the boys (and the grandparents who hadn't met Jack yet) we happily packed our bags and headed out.

Toren has focusing on indoctrinating Austin with BYU Cougar fever, and now Austin is a total BYU fan boy.  He's too young to really sit through an entire game, but he loved walking around campus with Dad and Grandpa.  He even saw Cosmo the Cougar...which was the highlight of the trip for him!

Even little Jack was eager to show his Cougar pride!

We spent some time at the BYU bookstore and eating out at delicious restaurants, which made the trip worth it for me...  Oh, and I met up with my BFF Amanda and her little boy who is a little older than Jack.  We didn't take a picture, but we did enjoy a nice lunch and lots of chatting.

Baby J is One Month Old & Austin Starts Pre-K

I can't believe it's been a month already (last week!).  Time is flying by faster than it ever has!  Baby Jack is as perfect as can be.  He eats great, sleeps great, and he's only pooped and peed on us a handful of times (though it has only been a month, right?).  He had a doctors appointment on Monday and he's growing fast.

Jack's One Month Stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 14 ounces
Height: 24 inches

He's gained over 4 pounds and 4 inches since birth!  He loves to be held, swaddled and swinging in his swing.  He's a pretty calm baby and only really fusses when he's tired, hungry or poopy.  Also, I've taken far fewer pictures of Jack then I did with Austin up to this point.  We're averaging a couple pictures a week...and they are crappy cell phone pictures at that.

Before baby Jack was born I really worried about how Austin would react.  I didn't think he would suffer feelings of jealousy, but he's a kid who thrives on routine and I knew this change would throw us out of our routine for a while.  The last big change we had was when we moved to Las Vegas and Austin went berserk!!   I swear he temporarily turned into a wild animal.  He lost his ability to cope, had a hard time reasoning with us, and was just generally ill behaved.

So I set my expectation for for Austin's adjustment to life with a new baby low...really low.  And I was actually quite surprised.  Perhaps it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father after a long, puke-filled pregnancy, but Austin has done very well since Baby Jack was born.

Of course that didn't stop me from counting down the days until he started school again.   Just because we didn't experience World War III doesn't mean we can't use a 3-hour break from each other 3 days a week!  And so, last week he was off to pre-kindergarten.  He loves it!  As do I.

Can you believe how much he's changed in a year?!?

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

Labor and deliver with Jack was a breeze compared to my experience with Austin, so by the time we came home from the hospital I was really feeling great.  Toren had two weeks off of work so, in between catnaps with the baby, we enjoyed a little family stay-cation.

When we first moved to Las Vegas we made a bucket list of places to explore, and one of them was the Natural History Museum.  We went about a year ago, and Austin has been begging to go back since.  His favorite exhibit has life size dinosaurs that roar when you push a button.  This time, they also had an additional dinosaur exhibit where Austin could pretend to be a dinosaur and protect his eggs.  He also excavated some fossils and almost had his head chomped off by a T-Rex.

Another vicious carnivore almost attacked baby Jack....luckily he wasn't even fazed.

Introducing Jackson Eric Forsberg {{and our family blog resurrection}}

I used to be a pretty faithful blogger, but then life took over and we had a lot of things happen {and a lot of things not happen} that blogging became just one more thing to do.  So I took a long hiatus to focus on other things.  Perhaps I'll fill in the highlights of the last couple of years at some point, but for now I'll just start with where our family is at today.  And, there's no better way to resurrect the ol' blog than introducing a new baby!!

Jackson "Jack" Eric Forsberg was born on August 19 at 11:33 pm...an entire week early {yay!}.  He looks an awful lot like Austin did as a newborn {comparison pictures to come, obviously}.  He spends most of his days and nights eating, sleeping and pooping.  We are completely in love with him.  He hardly spends any time out of someone's arms during the day, and we don't feel guilty about it for one second.  We waited a long time for him to come, and he's been totally worth the wait.

Jack's Birth Stats:
Weight: 6 lbs 12 ounces
Height: 19.5 inches
Head: 13.75 inches

Here's Austin's introduction, just in case you, like me, can't believe he was ever as little as baby Jack.

Labor and delivery post to come soon...

The Tender Mercies of Potty Training

Disclaimer: This post contains a lot of potty talk, which shouldn't be a surprise given the title.  If words like pee and poop gross you out then 1) you're probably not a mom and 2) you shouldn't read this post.

We started potty training last weekend.  Originally I planned on waiting until around Christmas, but I knew Austin was ready and I decided that I'd rather spent these few weeks cleaning up urine and be able to enjoy the holidays.

On Friday we went out and bought some cool undies, treats and toys.  I made Austin a potty chart that night, and I was even sort of excited to see what would happen.  Well, the first day was terrible.  Austin didn't successfully make it into the potty once.  It was so frustrating because sometimes we would put him on the potty for a few minutes, he wouldn't go, and then he would pee two minutes later.  Luckily, he would hold it for two hours in between accidents, so I wasn't cleaning up pee all day long.  By the end of the night, though, I was pretty defeated.  I wanted to quit.  I thought maybe he wasn't ready after all, but I figured we'd give it just one more day...if for nothing else then to pinch his cute diaper-free tushie a little more.

I know the last one is blurry, but I just love it.  Austin's always flying down the couch like a maniac.

The next day he had an accident in the morning, so we weren't off to a great start.  I took him in for a "quick try" about a half an hour later.  After sitting there for 30 seconds Austin said, "I'm all done Mom."  I told him we'd try for just another minute -- and he almost started peeing immediately!  He was in shock.  I whooped and hollered more than was probably necessary, but I was just so thrilled!  He didn't have another accident the remainder of the day.

In fact, he only had TWO accidents all week!  I was beyond proud of our little monkey man, and glad I stuck it out a second day.  I felt like we had a potty trained toddler on our hands.

And then the weekend came.  I don't know if I just had too much confidence in him, or if I wasn't being as attentive to how much he was drinking or how much time had passed.  We ran a few errands on Friday and Saturday and he peed almost EVERY SINGLE TIME we drove anywhere -- and I had usually taken him to the bathroom just minutes before.  He had three accidents in his car seat and one accident in the checkout line at Costco.  Talk about mortified.  Luckily I had a change of clothes for him, unlike the day before when he peed on his shirt (and undies and pants...but I had those) and had to wear my scarf through the remainder of our errands.

In addition to the potty training set back, Austin has been particularly naughty lately.  Maybe it's a case of the terrible two's.  Or maybe it's because he's been waking up before 7 and not napping as well, so he's sleep deprived.  Or maybe it's because it started raining after an 80-day dry streak, and he's not used to staying in the house.  Whatever the reason, he's been more than his usual handful.

So, I was ready to quit this morning (Toren was in Utah for the BYU game) after Austin pooped in his underwear, dumped olive oil all over the kitchen floor, and peed in the closet...and whined incessantly about everything.  I decided that we weren't going to church because I was just so overwhelmed, exhausted, and not in a very good mood.  I pulled myself together, though, and decided that a day like that is when I/we most needed to go to church.

As I sped to the church building because we were running late (of course), I said a quick, pleading prayer that Austin wouldn't have any accidents at church.  I brought two changes of clothes anyway, but dealing with pee at church would have just set me over the edge.

Guess what?!?  He had no accidents!!  He peed on the potty three times at church and came home completely dry.  I admit, I was shocked.  Based on the lack of success we'd had the two previous days being away from home I was sure he wouldn't make it through church.  While driving home I said another prayer thanking Heavenly Father for answering my small, seemingly insignificant prayer. It reminded me of Elder Bednar's great talk on the tender mercies of the Lord.

"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live."

You can read Elder Bednar's whole talk here.

This was truly a tender mercy for me, and one that I will be able to look back on often and remember that if the Lord loves me enough to answer my prayers about pee at church then he loves me enough to answer my bigger prayers too.  I'm so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord to remind me that there is much more to this life than laundry and spilled olive oil.

Quick Austin Update

I'm taking a quick break in my blog catch-up to give an update on Austin.  As a mom, I feel like I've finally reached a point where I don't spent all day counting down to nap time and bed time.  I swear 18-months to 24-months was probably the hardest for me...thus far.  Far worse than the newborn days.  Austin's become much more of a pal now that he can fully communicate and actually do fun things with us.

That being said, he has also reached a new level of naughtiness and disobedience lately too.  I struggle daily to appropriately and patiently discipline him with love and peace...while getting the results I want (i.e. for him to pick up the fishy crackers he dumped for the 5th time).  Hopefully someday I'll feel like the struggle was worth it!

A few days ago I was changing the laundry, and when I came out of the laundry room Austin had escaped upstairs.  As I walked up the stairs to retrieve him I was overwhelmed with the smell of baby powder.  I ran up and discovered this:

And then I found Austin who looked up at me as said, "Look, Mama, I making powder!"

Our days are more successful if I have a few activities to engage Austin in to keep him busy.  The downside is that often these activities will still only keep him entertained for 5 minutes.

Or, they backfire completely:

You can't tell in the picture, but Austin caked the nasty, green slime all over his hair too.

Luckily he's a total cutie.