Jayney's Four Month Update!

Jayney is four months old! Every time I look at a calendar these days I am just amazed how much time has gone by. It all goes too fast! Today she had her four month check up and shots. She is right on track with all her measurements. Her percentiles were exactly the same as last time 50^th for weight and 95^th for length! JJ is now 13 pounds 12 ounces and 26 inches long. The stats explain why all of her pants are gigantic around the waist and so short that they look like capris! It is a good thing we have lots of little summer sundresses.

I love the schedule that JJ had adopted right now. She is still a great little sleeper, she falls asleep  after I feed her between nine and ten at night and we go in an wake her up between six thirty and seven in the morning when Dusty gets up to get ready for work.  On top of a great night’s sleep she still is pretty good about taking two or three naps each day for around an hour each.

When she is awake she is so fun!  In between the five-ish times she nurses, she is working on sitting up and rolling over but hasn’t quite mastered either. I am sure she could roll all the way over if she wanted to but she would much rather stay on her side. She also likes to sleep on her side.  She has figured out how to kick her legs and turn herself around on the floor so she can have a better view of what is going on, all while lying on her back and side. When JJ does tummy time she plays well with the toys we put in front of her for a little while then squirms and gets kind of grumpy. If I don’t help her roll to her back at that point usually she will just put her head down and rest which usually turns into sleep.

Teething toys are a big hit right now, as she has a few chompers popping through. Teething has made her a slightly crabby some evenings. Jayney gets irritable and smacks her arms up and down. Typically it works to feed her and then she will fall asleep and be fine. When that doesn’t work we give her a few dissolving teething tablets for pain relief and then she is out like a light!

We are struggling some with giving her a bottle right now. We have been giving them to her fairly consistently since she was a week old but we missed just a few days here and there and now she is resisting them more lately. Now that we realized this Dusty is giving her a little tiny bottle each morning to create more of a comfortable habit. When she is really hungry in the morning, she gobbles the bottle down but other times in the day she would rather just wait it out until I feed her, even if that time is well after her normal scheduled feeding.

 We have also found out that our Jayney has a very sensitive nose! Each time that she had been around perfumes or other strong smells she gets so mad. She will cry her little head off until we are away from the smell.  It was hard to accommodate this at first when we didn’t know why she was upset but now that we know it bothers her it is getting better and easier to manage.

Jayney and I have great conversations every day. Her favorite thing to say is “whoooo-whooo;” it makes it sound like a little owl is residing in our house!  She is a sometimes shy around new people and doesn’t talk much but once she gets going there is no stopping the chatterbox. Dusty would add “just like her mother!”  When she is playing or talking to us she loves to reach out and grab onto anything in her reach. This ranges from my hair and Dusty shirt collars, to her toys and feet!  She is getting to where she intentionally shakes toys to hear their rattle noise. It is amazing to see her learning!

I still can’t believe how perfect our little girl is for us. Dusty and I are thankful every day that God gave us an easy baby! I know we have been blessed immensely by having her in our life!

Here are a few pictures to show how much she has change in the last four months. Really it is just crazy!

Six Days

One Month

Two Months

Three months

Four months



Six Days Old Tummy Time

Four Month Tummy Time

Farm Update from Dusty

 So once again it has been awhile since I have written a blog entry, but I (Dusty) am here to give a mid June farm update. June has always been a month associated with the first cutting of hay, and this year is no different. We are looking at starting to cut Monday, June 18^th, weather permitting of course.  Given the cool weather this spring I expect it to take 7 to 10 days to dry before we start baling hay.  The farm bought another Freeman 200 baler this year (Well, My Dad, Tim, actually bought two. He went to Baker City Oregon to look at one, but they were both in really good shape and were a good deal, so he bought both, but only set one up to bale this year.) For the last several years Dad has baled about 1200 ton of hay with one baler, this year we will be running two balers which should mean less hours on each baler to get first cutting in the barn.

As I think back over spring it amazes me how fast things grow. It seems Erin and I were just at the hospital on Jayney’s birthday, then I was just fertilizing the winter wheat, and Dad and I just finished seeding the spring crops. Now, as I look around I see Jayney growing up and changing every day. I see what is looking like a good winter wheat crop starting to head out in the fields. And I see pretty decent spring wheat and barley stands filling in and turning green. We do have a few acres here and there that were seeded too wet or have some other problems, but we are pretty happy with the crops overall.  The second sprayer that Dad and I built last winter has definitely made spraying go much faster, which has been a real blessing since good spray days have been few and far between.  With both sprayers running Dad and I were able to spray all the spring wheat and 100 acres of barley on Monday, which would have previously taken at least two days without breakdowns. Spring is a time of great hope and optimism for me, I love the potential that it holds. 

 

As the crops turn green so do the pastures and that means it is time to turn the cows out for the summer. One of our hired guys, Kyle, and I hauled cows down to their summer pasture on May 15^th. This year I took the cows to one set of pastures, and decided to take the heifers to another set, leaving just steers and the bull at home for the summer.  It is really nice to have a break from feeding cows. I really do love the way farming works, it seems like just about the time you are sick of something (like feeding cows everyday) you get a break and move on to the next thing.

The pictures throughout this post were from the other day when Erin and I went to visit the cows, look at a couple fields, and just capture some of the beauty that we live in here in Eastern Washington. Hope you enjoy them, but even if you don’t, we enjoyed taking them.

Sweet Funny Face Jayney Girl

I just love the faces this little lady makes! There are some that are so sweet they just make my heart melt and quite often there are some that make me laugh because they are so goofy. Here are the latest selection of both silly and sweet! Each day with this girl is such a joy :)