Good times

A few weeks ago, my parents came out to visit us, get to know Alex and spoil Brendan. It was awesome having them in town and I wished they never had to leave. It’s hard being so far from our families.

Brendan loved playing with Grandpa George and doing all sorts of things that I can’t/won’t do with him. He had so much fun, and I think my dad did too. He was a pro at soothing my sweet baby and putting him to sleep. (I had to get a shot of Alex’s rad baby mullet!)

My mom really wanted to take Brendan to the Build a Bear workshop and it turned out to be an excellent idea. Brendan was so excited to pick out his very own special bear.

Brendan loved helping stuff, wash and dress his bear. He picked out the clothes and everything. He even named him. At first when asked what he wanted to name his bear, he replied “Teddy” but since he already has a bear named Teddy, he picked another. His second choice was T. Bear and I think it is the cutest name ever. It amazes me what this kiddo comes up with.

These are not the happiest photos but trust me, he loves his T. Bear. He sleeps with him every night and carries him around the house. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We also blessed Alex on November 4th. It was a special day for us and I really wish I had better pictures of that day but all I have are dark pictures and Alex is crying in every. single. shot. Oh well.

At least Brendan was smiling and had fun with my camera’s remote.

Brendan also finally saw a dermatologist for his scalp and we got him some medicine requires him to swear a shower cap at night. It’s pretty hilarious but the good news is the medicine works like a dream!

And here he is showing off his cool cap and pounding his chest like Donkey Kong, his latest obsession.

And on the 16th, I turned the big 3-0. Crazy.

Brendan was a little confused and thought it was his birthday so he helped me blow out the candles and open my presents. He even helped me eat one of my presents (a bag of my favorite candy- Swedish fish). Brendan’s always ready to help when a treat is involved. :)

Well, that is all the exciting stuff going on here. And now, I’m ready for Christmas preparations!  

Some kind of magic

First off, some pictures of my sweet baby. He had his two month appointment a couple of weeks ago and he is officially 10 lbs now! 10.1 to be exact, which puts him in the 14th% for his weight. I love my tiny baby.

This little guy just kills me. He’s so sweet and cuddly and loveable, and he knows it too. He’s definitely a mama’s boy so far (finally! Brendan was always a daddy’s boy) and I’m eating it up. He’s starting to smile at me and it is the cutest thing in the world. I had forgotten how amazing it is when baby’s start to smile. I’m definitely under his spell.

I couldn’t resist this “getting sleepy” face. Alex is still a pretty good sleeper and I couldn’t be more thankful since I know how rough it is to have a bad sleeper (aka Brendan), although if he happened to want to sleep a little longer at night I wouldn’t complain.

And of course his confused face. I love when he furrows his eyebrows and how his little forehead scrunches up. The cuteness never ends. Until…

my other favorite boy enters the picture, and then things usually end up like this-

Poor Alex. Brendan doesn’t quite know what to do with all the love he has for his baby brother and so he ends up being a little more rough than he means to be. But Alex takes it in stride and I know down the road, these two boys are going to be the best of friends.

Much better!

An Epic Post

I have tried to write this post a half dozen times over the last week or so but it seems that as soon as I sit down at the computer something comes up. Currently Alex is asleep in my arms and I’m typing with one hand, so please excuse any typos or errors but I’m determined to get this done!

A couple of weeks ago, Chris’ parents came to visit and help us out. We loved having them here-Brendan especially loved all the attention and extra play time.

We were sad to see them go but so very grateful for all their help and love. Every time Brendan sees a plane he waves to it and says, “Hi Grammy!”- he really misses his grandparents.

Brendan was totally stoked about Halloween this year. I found some glow-in-the-dark skeleton pjs and they had to be ours. I think I loved them as much as Brendan did.

 

It didn’t take long for Brendan to decide what to be for Halloween- he saw an ad for PartyCity that had a Mario costume in it and it was love at first sight. He HAD to have it. When we went to the store to pick it up, they were out of his size which really ruined Brendan’s day. He cried and cried until we finally went online and found one for him. When it arrived in the mail, he put it on right away and modeled for everyone.

The mustache was my favorite part but unfortunately the sticky side lasted about 2 seconds so we ended up painting a mustache on him.

The size that we ordered for him was a tiny bit small on him, as evidenced by Brendan pulling out his permanent wedgie. That didn’t stop him from loving it though.

We went trick-or-treating with the Andersson’s and Terry’s (which made trick or treating enjoyable for us too since we got to hang out with our good friends). It would have been perfect if Brendan had been Woody to complete the Toy Story theme Ella and Josh had going on, but Mario was still awesome. Brendan absolutely LOVED getting candy and the kiddos ran non-stop for the first half hour, they were so excited to go to all the different houses and get more candy. Towards the end, Brendan figured out how to get extra candy. He would ever so sweetly say “trick or treat” and get his candy. But instead of leaving the house, he would say “Wait. Just one more.” and of course no one can resist the cuteness of my child (especially in his awesome costume) so Brendan would inevitably get an extra piece of candy. Chris was delighted by this.

Brendan hasn’t eaten a single piece of his stash but on Monday morning, he dumped out his bag and began sorting it. He spent about an hour grouping all the different candies together in different arrangements. First it was by type, then by color and then by size. It was pretty awesome.

We also carved a pumpkin and this is the first year that Brendan actually participated. Brendan went back and forth deciding between a happy face or an angry face. In the end, a happy face won out. He was a bit grossed out by the inside of the pumpkin and lost interest in it after that so Chris finished up the job. I don’t have a good picture of the finished product but trust me, it was cool.

And of course, I can’t leave Alex out of this post.

He’s definitely starting to pack some fat onto his little body and I constantly want to kiss his chubby cheeks. He’s still a pretty good sleeper and really is the sweetest baby ever. I’m slowly adjusting to having 2 kids and figuring out how to get things done but it’s definitely been a challenge at times. I’m looking forward to Alex getting on a schedule hopefully sometime in the near future, which I think will help things. Every day gets a bit easier though and I’m grateful for that.

See, he’s getting chubby! This a classic Alex expression- he always looks a bit skeptical or confused and it never fails to make me laugh.

I can’t believe how big he’s getting. And these pictures were taken almost 2 weeks ago.

My parents are coming into town tonight (hurray!) for a week long visit so I’m sure I’ll be absent from the blog again for a little while. Hopefully these pictures will hold every one over.  Until next time…

Our Alex

Our little Alex is slowly getting bigger. At his two week appointment this past week, he weighed in at 6lbs 8oz- which is a full pound heavier than he was when we took him in to check his jaundice levels when he was 3 days old. Alex is a good eater and I'm grateful for that.

Alex loves his swing and it's the spot you can find him the most... well, besides my arms, that is. He loves to suck on his lower lip and it's constantly tucked into his mouth. He hates yawning.

He loves looking around him when he's awake, which is started to be for longer periods of time now.

And he loves his big brother. Which is a good thing since Brendan loves to give Alex kisses or love taps constantly.

Alex is such a sweet, good-natured baby. He rarely cries and when he does it's not for very long. He's great in his car seat and seems to enjoy car rides. He sleeps well and thankfully lets us get 3 hour stretches of rest at night (usually). We're lucky to have this little boy in our lives. He's such a blessing to our family.

A bit of a rough start but things are looking up

My first week on my own with two kids was off to a rocky start. Brendan picked up a nasty virus somewhere and proceeded to spend 5 days vomiting and battling horrible diarrhea. Being puked on multiple times a day was really not what I imagined our first week alone to be like, but we got through it... somehow.

My sick boy was back in pull-ups since he couldn't control his bowel movements. I felt so bad for him! Unfortunately, Brendan passed on his virus to me but luckily mine only lasted about 24 hours. Chris was able to work from home a couple of days to help me out, which was a huge help both physically and emotionally. It's probably no surprise that I was a bit of wreck worrying over Brendan not being able to keep even water down, worrying over the possibility of Alex getting sick, and being stressed out to the max. I'm extremely grateful that I have such an amazing husband and I'm also extremely grateful for prayer. There was a lot of praying going on and I know that we heard and were blessed and strengthened. I couldn't have gotten through those few days without that extra comfort and strength.

Luckily, we are all now back to normal and are all healthy.

Alex was a little jaundice as well, which I found out runs higher in the second child if the first was jaundice- and Brendan was very jaundice and spent a few days on a bilibed for light therapy. Luckily, Alex's levels were never high enough to warrant light therapy and his "tan" has almost completely faded at this point. And don't you love how he's sucking on his fingers? I sure do. Alex loves to suck on his hands and fingers when he can get them by his mouth long enough to get a hold of them. He melts my heart.

 

Now it's time for some cute photos that don't need much commentary from me.

 Brendan took advantage of Alex's changing pad being free and decided to lounge on it... naked, of course.

Brendan also loves my nursing pillow and constantly wants to use it. He gets mad sometimes when I need to use it and he can't.

One tired dad and one sweet baby. I love my boys!

I'm looking forward to this next week going much more smoothly than this past week- wish me luck!