The promised video

Plus some others I haven't gotten around to posting.



I don't remember what any of these are, I hope you enjoy them!

Happy Halloween!!!

Or, as we might call it around here, "more candy in my hand, please" although, frankly if Gwen says anything to our neighbors, I would be happy. Seriously, Eric has been diligently practicing with Gwen, which I guess means he gets the honor of taking her trick or treating. Gwen enjoys her costume so much she likes to wear it around the house.

We wanted to get some pictures of the kids together to send out to the Grandparents. It didn't work out as well as we would have hoped. Eric got a little impatient because he could see some melt downs in our future...he was right as soon as we got the last picture the melt downs began. With 2 you never know if you will got those kind of opportunities again.

Today, oh I mean yesterday by the time this posts, we went to our SS Halloween party. Gwen was so excited she wouldn't nap! Seriously, she said several times to me she would take of her socks "after she went to the party". The bad thing about the no nap is she chatters INCESSANTLY! It was enough to drive me crazy today. I took a video and as soon as it uploads I will post it on here so you can see what I mean.

Nate at the party with his friends that have been born this year...he is the youngest, can you tell? I will also upload some action shots from tomorrow. Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Carving the pumpkins

Eric tells me that he hates winter and believes that as soon as it dips below 70 it is winter...he starts moaning about winter coming long about June. What does this have to do with carving pumpkins you ask? He seems to forget about fall/autumn/the month of October, which I think is his favorite month...not just because it is my birthday month, the month we started dating or the month we got engaged, but because it is the month that has apple cider/pumpkin pie available, pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, corn mazes and Halloween. I am beginning to wonder if he loves this holiday more than he likes Christmas? Does anyone else wonder when he is going to start dressing up for Halloween, when he takes the kids trick or treating? Becuase I forsee this is going to be how it is, I am going to be at home passing out candy and Eric will be dressed up taking the kids trick or treating, or will he dress up and pass out candy, I don't know. Eric also really seems to enjoy carving the pumpkins, which is why is pumpkin is sitting outside all moldy because he carved it almost 2 weeks ago. This weekend I broke down and carved my pumpkin and Eric carved Gwens...she requested a pumpkin with a big smiley face. He did as she requested and although I have no pictures to post of our pumpkins, I do have pictures of Gwen helping Eric pull out the guts! Why did Nate not help, I am pretty sure it was because he was sleeping.

Pumpkin patch

When Mom here we also went to a pumpkin patch...we had wanted to go to a cornmaze, but apparently the maze was closed (we missed it by 1 minute), more on the cornmaze, possibly tomorrow! I have a recipe for a pumpkin apple bisque and Eric loves to carve the pumpkins...a win-win! We also got to ride on a tractor for the hayride to the pumpkin patch, did I mention it was a win-win!? I know Gwen doesn't look super happy in this picture, but I think she was surprised!

Mom and Gwen searching for a pumpkin, it was a futile effort, Gwen could not pick.
Nate and I and our star pumpkin, it tasted yummy in soup!

A family portrait!


ok, so not so much family portrait, but the family together, in a bunch of pumpkins!

A visit

The day my Mom arrived we went to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins. We had a nice time, they got to meet baby Nate and Gwen got to play with her cousins. I don't know what was going on here, because I was in a different room.
We got a picture of the kids together. Have I mentioned that Nate loves to look at the top to his carrier. I don't know why, but he is obsessed.

Fall

We've had a busy couple weeks around here as you may have surmised by my lack of posts. Maybe I am just gearing up for NaBloPoMo...Kara you with me? Liesa, Beth, Jenni? For those not in the know, it is blogging everyday for the month of November. It would be a tall order, but I think I can do it and all it takes is a positive attitude, right! I will probably start posting more regularly to get ya'all up-to-date!

The night before my Mom was to arrive we went for walk after dinner, enjoying one of our last evening walks before winter sets in. We were swinging Gwen in between us and we got a little overzealous and we popped her elbow out of place (commonly known as nursemaid's elbow). Gwen was very upset and Eric took her to the hospital. They had to try twice to pop it back into place. Not pleasant for me to think about it. But they had given her some Motrin or something because she certainly didn't care and she was overtired, we could hardly get her to stop talking and moving! I tried to take pictures, but as you can see kind of blurry and not the best!

Gwen was super excited to show me her bracelet, can you tell?

Organize this

So, how are you doing? I am super tired and busy! Is anyone else thinking maybe I shouldn't have mentioned to my Mom that I needed to clean/organize some stuff while she was here? Dude, I am tired. Maybe it is just today, I spent a lot of time hunched over looking for stuff and finding stuff and reorganizing where stuff was. Watch out cave, I am really on fire to throw out some more crap! (FYI-the cave is the area under the foyer that we use for storage) Granted, we have had some fun, hung out with the kids, but seriously, I have organized and cleaned out some stuff, and now I have some empty spaces, so I can buy more stuff with my gift cards! Not clutter mind you, clothes!

During this time we have established that fall organizing is necessary if you have been pregnant and you just couldn't get to stuff. We also know that it is important to be ready to toss stuff, you can't be forced. It is also very helpful to have someone around you likes to organize and clean to help you get the fever. And most important it is helpful to have an extra set of hands in case some one wakes up early from a nap.
In other news, it is important when you are holding a prewalker on a hardwood floor, it is important to make sure he is wearing socks with some sort of resistance or he will be doing the splits! BTW-he won't care that he is doing the splits. He might even think it is funny.

And, have I mentioned that baby Nate is now sitting up unassisted? He is also rolling front to back. Does anyone else feel like baby Nate is growing to fast and blowing through all his gross motor milestones? Should he be able to sit up at 4.5 months? I didn't feel this way about Gwen did I? Does anybody remember? I went back to look and I didn't seem to care how fast Gwen was moving through the milestones, I was so excited that she as my first child was on time/a few days early that I didn't care how quickly the milestones come. But, I guess after having a child already you know that Nate going backwards leads to crawling and I will some how have to figure out how to keep the little pieces of crap off the floor...this was much easier when I didn't have Gwen dropping stuff on the floor, like crayons.
I just realized I posted the same picture 2x, but not really, the last 2 pictures were taken by Mom and we seemed to have gotten almost the same picture of Nate the Great! Wait til you see his winter hat!

Hope ya'all are having a great week. Maybe we will soon be posting more pictures. Maybe some that feature Gwen?

Sleepy baby

I have noticed that Nate has been sleeping on his back the last couple of days, I haven't figured out if that was sheer laziness on his part, or it had to do with the sickness and he just didn't have the desire to lay on his belly, but today I went into our room at naptime and this is what I found... I don't think the top view of this really does it justice, so I will show you the view from the side!
Isn't that just the cutest thing! I never really understood the things on the butt for this age, but now...so hilarous, at least I think so! At first, after Nate's dr's appt I thought gosh he is getting big, but how big he is getting really was put into prospective for me today when we were talking about car seats. If Nate continues to grow at this pace, which he won't likely BTW, breastfeed babies pack on weight in the first 6 or so months and then taper off, formula feed babies I think have a more even weight gain. But, if he were to grow at this pace we would have to buy him a new carseat for Christmas, I think our carseat goes to 20-22lbs. Gwen got her new carseat at 9 mon, but we could have waited a little longer. I am glad to hear there are some cute little petite girls out there for our strapping young man!
In other news, Grandmom, I thought you would like to hear a story about Gwen's dolls. Gwen has many dolls, as I have alluded too, all of these dolls are naked. The first thing she would do when she would get a doll is strip them! "Clothes off" she would say (cause she was little then!) but yesterday we were upstairs and she told me baby needed clothes (cause they don't have names, yet) because she was cold! I said ok, let's look for the clothes. And, she insisted I put clothes on her babies (after about 10 months of nakedness!) I dressed all her babies. Then she decided she wanted to go on the back deck and as soon as she got out there she started stripping the baby again...I guess she was warmed up enough! But that is only 1 stripped baby, the rest of them are still clothed. (Grandmom often asks the status of the naked babies clothes!)
Gwen also might have a cold. I don't know for sure, she is coughing some and very stuffy, but I have heard that many of my friends who have bad allergies are also suffering as there has been a change of seasons. So, Nate appears better, and Gwen although not acting sick has a runny nose. Not much else excitement around here, but I am wondering if we should have a poll to see how long it is before Nate is bigger than Gwen...he only has about 8lbs and 7in to go! I don't know if he will, because I think the slow down in growth is coming. Have I mentioned he is trying to crawl? Obviously from the second picture you can see he gets practice getting his legs under him, if he gets himself some traction he is going to be on the go and then we will be in trouble! He is currently moving backwards a smidge, so soon I will have a Kara post about chasing Nate around the house moving crayons and whatnot out of the way! Dude, we need to re-baby proof! (I don't honestly think he will be crawling before 6months, but the CRNP said he might be an early walker when she stood him up, I hope so, because he will likely be pretty heavy at a year!)

Dr. appt

Here are the vital stats:
Weight: 17lb 13oz (90%-95%)
Height: 26.25in (90%)
How does this compare to his 2 months stats...that is a whopping 4lb, 8oz. and 2.5in. I guess we should expect that being that averages to just over 2 lb and 1in gain a month, but still, does this explain why I have to put away all his 3-6mon clothes!
In other news, Nate is super above average in all other skills. The CRNP said Nate was right on track, but I think she meant early, cause the nurse seemed shocked he could sit to get his weight checked! I mean I am just interpreting here, but that is what I suspect she meant. :)

DUH!

I guess I should have to say, that just because you are a second time Mom and just because it was a short 2 yrs ago since my older child was this age, doesn't make me any smarter. Part of that might be sleep deprivation, although I am pretty sure I am not sleep deprived, really. I might be getting up a little more than usual, but I have finally gotten to the bottom of the what is bothering baby Nate! Can we say teething!? DUH! (do you see the drool?)

So, yesterday I was in a panic becuase poor baby Nate had a stuffy nose, I was confused though because he didn't seem to have any other symptoms of a cold, he wasn't feverish, didn't really act like he didn't feel well, just was stuffy. (the bulb unfortunately got some good use, and crazy enough, he didn't really seem to mind, after he got used to it! FYI not a good thing to try in the dark at 2am). Today he seemed fine. Yesterday when I dropped him of at my friend's house for swim class he was fine, but by the time I got back he had apparently been crying for 30 minutes, but when I put him in the car with his chew toy he stopped crying and was fine when we got home. Strange. But it wasn't until this morning that I put it all together, maybe he is teething. And we checked his mouth and low and behold it looks like 2 of his bottom teeth are trying to make their way through his gums. Huh! Wish I would have thought of that before. So, let us hope that when this teething bout is done he starts sleeping better again!
This weekend we finally made it to build-a-bear to make baby Nate's bear, except we decided on a turtle. He just doesn't seem like the bear type. Gwen seemed a little overwhelmed and grabbed herself a doll to stuff as soon as we got there...unfortunately for her we did not get it for her, she does not need another doll! She wouldn't help stuff the turtle, which let's face it the loudness of that stuffing machine is a little dauting! But, she did pick out the heart to put in, and now has his own heartbeat turtle...which for those of you that think that we knew the baby's sex but didn't tell you, should I mention we did Gwen's bear ahead of time and put her name write on the "birth certificate", but had we known Nate was going to be a boy we would have done the same thing. More excitment this week, baby Nate is able to sit in the high chair and "join" us for dinner. We have not started solids, although I am sure that at tomorrow's Dr's appt they will talk to me about it, but I don't think we are going to start him yet, especially with the teething. Probably next month when he is a little older!
Today when I was attending to Nate upstairs I heard some strange noises and this is what I found! I am still not quite clear how she got in there, but following this picture is a video snippet of what my day is like with Gwen.

Next we bring you our post nap "routine". As I have said previously Nate is usually awake when I get Gwen from her nap, Gwen likes for Nate to come into her crib with her and talk to him about stuff. She gets real mad when I tell her time is up, it is time for Nate's nap and I am going to put him in his own crib. She gets over it though.

4 months

Unlike Gwen, Nate has made significant strides in his overall life! As I mentioned previously we are still working out the kinks...I have been dealing with more sleep deprivation, but mostly of my own doing. I need to go to bed earlier! Nate has started to sit up assisted, I think they call it...this means he can sit up for a couple minutes while using his arms before he flops over. As you can see by the next series of pictures. I have been steadily sitting him up so he can practice.

Nate is also getting good at holding stuff in his hands. He can grasp things and still hasn't mastered the idea that his hands can control the object and make noises. But I don't think that is something he will understand until later.
Nate LOVES to be bounced. I put him on my legs and sing little songs and he laughs pretty hard. So funny. He has a big drolly gummy smile! If he stays this sweet all the ladies are going to love him!
Nate is showing some interest in crawling. He can get his feet up under him and today he was crying because he had actually gone backwards about an inch from where he wanted to be. But he couldn't reach his toy any longer. Poor little man. I know it will be a while before he is really crawling, but he is definitely moving in that direction! Lets just see if he goes forward first, or continues in his backward quest. Despite the being upset for a minute today, he is still a happy and mellow baby. He only cries for a reason, which is a nice change from his older sister. I can usually figure out rather quickly what he wants.

27 months

Today Gwen is 27 months. I was thinking there is a point when I don't need to tell you about how much she has changed in a month, because she hasn't changed, but we aren't there yet! This month has brought some new developments...it is the month of MINE, my and other possessives. Everything is "mine" I am beginning to suspect that I might not be the best teacher of that is not YOURS, it is MINE! I think this is where my being an only child really hinders my parenting. I am not sure I really know how to teach Gwen how to share, let's face I have never really liked to share!

This I realize is not my only difficulty in being a Mom, my lack of patience is really going to hinder me. We are now also in the phase of "what is .... doing?" ... = whatever she sees or desires to talk about. Sometimes she will ask me over and over what is the guy doing? I then realize I am not giving her the right answer and I ask her and she tells me and we move on. Now this doesn't always work, otherwise I would go right to the question. As Eric said this morning she makes me tired, what I think he meant to say is her "what is ... doing?" questions were sucking the life out of him. This will hopefully prepare us for the "why?" phase.

Now that I have all the "negatives" out of the way, Gwen has so much to say and it is often humorous because as she learns what words mean she says so funny stuff. The other day we called Eric and left him a message, she insisted! Then she actually talked on the phone and told him stuff, like I love you! So sweet. I ask her in the mornings what she dreamed about and she'll say, Daddy hugged me. Or she will tell me last night for dinner she ate cereal. She wishes!

The signing and dancing still is hilarious. The other day one of the versions of the alphabet song came on and Gwen did about 1/3 of the letters, Eric and I were shocked. Her knowledge of such things often amazes us.
Gwen has started talking to more people. She still kills me though, we were waiting for the car and she was excitingly telling this elderly woman next to us that she saw a train on the way to the car place, but when the woman asked her how old she was she "melted" into me. And didn't want to talk to her. I tried to explain to her, you started talking to her, you should respond when she talks to you. Oh, well, maybe one day!
Gwen has now been to 2 swim classes and she is doing much better. She is participating, maybe not when the instructor is looking, but she is actually blowing bubbles and doing alligators and what not. And in closing, I have nothing, but for those of you who made it this far get rewarded with a video!

I won't tell you who she is mimicking!