The Fulmer Family: Kaelan is 5 and Updates

Well, believe it or not, Kaelan Michael is now 5 years old!!!!! I can't believe it myself. He continues to be all boy and becomes a better big brother every day (good thing too...). Kaelan often shares his toys with Max or gives him something else similar to play with if he doesn't want him playing with the same toys. His imagination during play has improved as well. It is so fun and interesting to listen to him while he's playing by himself. His toys/characters have some wonderful adventures. This was a skill that I'm SO glad he is developing more and more because it will only be more and more difficult to find time for Mommy & K playtime. It will be even better when Maddox gets a little older and can truly play with his brother instead of just along-side him.
Kaelan is still not a huge fan of eating or sleeping but he's doing much better about trying new foods and eating what is put on his plate, without too much of a fight. I've started letting him skip naps and play quietly in the living room while his brother is sleeping. It hasn't lengthened his sleep in the mornings (still wakes up between 6:30-7 every day), but I think it encourages him to go to sleep quicker in the evenings. There were seriously nights that he would still be awake at 9:30-10:00 singing to himself. BTW, if anyone knows how to stop a kid from singing and/or making noises CONSTANTLY, please let me know. That is one of his behavior issues right now. He just can NOT seem to be silent...EVER!!!! Quiet singing or humming to oneself is very normal I know, but his goes WAY beyond that unfortunately. I think it's part of his "active" imagination/creativity but nonetheless, it's annoying and often times very inappropriate. He also tends to be too crazy and too loud at times, but I have to say this habit is improving...thank god!!!!! I'm hoping to nip it in the bud before Max gets old enough to create the same habits, although I fear it might be too late. Max is often the instigator in the "wrestling" or craziness. I know "boys will be boys" (Dad), but the problem is the small stuff ALWAYS escalates, and escalates quickly, especially in the close quarters of the apartment. It's just easier to nip the behavior in the bud immediately instead of dealing with the screams, injuries, etc. afterwards.
His strengths continue to be his artistic abilities, enginuity, creativity, and sense of humor. He LOVES to draw (still mostly pirates and pirate ships) and figure out how things work. He's still into all the typical boy stuff like pirates still, super heroes, Star Wars, swords/guns, cars, and knights. He loves to play outside whenever possible, especially going to playgrounds, riding his bike, or playing with friends. We recently signed him up for t-ball that is set to start in March so we're really looking forward to that. His age group will eventually move into coach-pitched at some point during the season. K seems to be better at hitting a ball that is pitched than one that is on a T so it'll be interesting to see how he does. I'm also hoping that his "sillies" can control themselves so he can really learn and not just play around and goof off like he did in football. We shall see!!!! ;) As I said above, K is a very creative littly boy which is definitely a positive characteristic (especially since his mother doesn't have an ounce of this trait). However, it can often lead to some very descriptive and vivid nightmares unfortunately. This kid remembers every little detail of his dreams, even days later. His teacher seems to think it's due to his creative personality. I just hope they don't get worse as he is exposed to more and more. They seem to be pretty innocent now, and what's super scary in a nightmare to him is still not that bad - mostly just scary faces or weird people or things talking to him. No violence or "bad guys" so that's good for now I guess.
Finally, his 5-year well visit to the pediatrician went very well. He is 43 inches tall (53 %ile) and weighed in at 42.5 lbs (64 %ile) so he is very healthy. He also didn't have to get any vaccines which made him very happy. He even got to do a flu mist instead of a shot like Max and I did. The best part of the visit however, was that I got to take both boys at the same time (which our prior pediatrician's office would not do). SO much easier!!!!! More about Max's well-visit later but here are some pictures from Kaelan's birthday weekend.

We decided to have K's birthday party at a local movie theater because he loves going to the movie and we knew there wouldn't be so many kids coming that it would be too much during the actual movie. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the kids behaved VERY well! Kaelan and his buddy Mason were "showing" Max their party favors.

"I can do that too!"

Who doesn't take a bow after blowing out their birthday candles?! haha

Max showing off his cake face along with his friend Chase (K's friend Samantha's little brother - we hang out with their family quite a bit...yay for mommy friend time!!!)

Playing with his new birthday toys. The Millenium Falcon was from Grandma & Grandpa and the Transformers Fire Station was from Nana & Papa. He LOVES them!!!!!

Well, obviously, we are expecting our 3rd baby. He will be here in May, 1 month shy of when we can move into our new house so we'll have a very interesting month late May/early June. Although it was VERY much a surprise, we are excited to have another little one and are somewhat comforted by the fact that it's another boy. A girl would have been nice, but the unknown would have amped the stress level even more. Here are a couple ultra sound pics.

Definitely a boy!

A tiny foot

Profile shot with his hand near/or in his mouth

As for Maddox, he also had a positive well-check. Because of the move, this was the first time we've been to our new pediatrician so they treated it as his 18-month visit. He got 3 vaccinations, including his flu shot which he took like a champ (only cried for a second). We all loved this pediatrician office. There are actually 2 separate buildings - 1 for sick visits and 1 for well-checks and newborn care. Everyone was extremely nice and most importantly, GREAT with the boys.
Anyways, our biggest worries with Max were his lack of growth and late speech development. The dr seems to think that he is simply a late bloomer and that his growth spurt is just happening a little late because he is proportionate and his his skull hasn't grown together fully yet. He weighed in at 22 lbs (only 2 %ile) and is 33 inches long (28 %ile). To put his growth "stunt" in perspective, he has only gained 3 pounds since June and grown only 4 inches. He also said he will probably continue this slower growth and might not fully finish growing until college. Mike continued growing after high school so it didn't surprise me to hear this and made us feel much more comfortable about where Max is with his development. As for his speech, I told him he only has 15-20 words that are understandable by people but that he has really been improving over the last couple of weeks, attempting more and more words every day. He said he won't worry about his speech development until his 2-year well-visit so I'll keep you posted.
Max continues to be a great eater, and now that he has 2 molars (on the bottom), he is able to actually chew and swallow his food instead of spitting out all that he can't break down. He is more than willing to try ANYTHING you put in front of him, and his face is priceless if he finds out he doesn't like it. :) As I've said before, he has my sweet-tooth but also LOVES meat (ground beef and meatballs are his favorite).
Behaviorally, he is still super sweet and super lovey, but he can also be quite the ornery little guy as well. He is becoming more and more little boy instead of baby boy which is both good and bad. :( He is starting to potty train which is fabulous! My goal is to get him almost all the way there before the next one comes, although 4 months is probably not enough time. I'm hoping his love of sweets will play to my favor with rewards. ;)
Here are the most recent pictures of the boys from the last couple of weeks.