Teeth!

 

Random

Tuesday's Randoms

1.  I have been sick for over 8 weeks straight now.  There was a brief respite of about two days when I was finally getting better and only had a sore throat, but that was just the segue into yet another cold.  8 weeks, people.  I think I've forgotten what it's like to be healthy.  I know my co-workers are loving all my germs but they can take it up with my two year old and his insane need to touch everything in a 10 foot vicinity.

2.  I just remembered that we have two boxes of Girl Scout cookies still in our pantry, hidden behind the bags of chips at the very top.  I hope I forget again so they can stay there a little longer. 

3.  Speaking of #2, Barrett has a very lively sweet tooth and Tim likes to blame me.  I did eat a lot of oreos while I was pregnant with him but that was only to encourage me to drink milk.  It was for his own health.  I deny that it's my fault he loves sweets but let's face it, it probably is.  He looked at me Saturday morning when I asked if he wanted eggs or cereal and said with a straight face "jellybeans." Yeah right, coming right up. 

4.  Yesterday Payton was sniffing around Audrey's seat while I was buckling her in and Barrett points at him and says "No Payton!  Dat's B-Audee's.  Walk away!"  It cracked me up.  Daycare tells the kids to walk away when they come around looking to get into trouble.  I am guessing he hears that said to him more than once or twice a day.

5.  I finally got the Pottery Barn kids chairs that I've been eying for a year now. I got an email that they were $20 off on Saturday so ordered one for each of the kids.  They are so cute and I know Barrett will like it, so I finally bit the bullet. I am excited to see how he reacts to a chair his size just for him.  Here's the chair, minus the name obviously:

6.  Tim and I had an actual date night Saturday night.  It was pretty great - we had a dinner where we both were seated at the same time, didn't involve food being thrown on the floor, forks being banged on the table and didn't end in tears. Then we went to see Hunger Games.  Loved it!  It was our the 3rd movie we've seen in the theaters in the last 3 years.  Of course once you added up the cost of dinner + movie + babysitter ($$$!!!), we might as well have just gone on a cruise. 

Those are my randoms for today.  Clearly it's not all fireworks and parades in our lives these days, this is all I've got. 

Looking forward to seeing my sister and her family this weekend!

Packrat

Barrett's packrat tendencies have hit an all-time low. 

Easter

Easter was a wonderful time this year.  My parents came up to visit, which was fun since they hadn't seen the kiddos for a few months.  And it's always fun to have someone else to gush over their adorableness with!  My co-workers can only take so much. 

They came up Friday night so we had pretty much the entire weekend.  Saturday was spent at the Children's Museum, I caught an afternoon nap (yeah for 2 more sets of hands to watch the kids!) and we went to Heaven on Seven that night, a cajun restaurant that is oh so delicious.   Sunday we went to church to celebrate Easter and made lunch.  We ate ham, fruit salad, rolls, and a three cheese mashed potato casserole (sans butter) that was delicious. 

I forced everyone outside for pictures and Barrett's day was made by a fire truck that went by our house as we were taking photos.  He continued to talk about it through the next day. 

The following photos were accomplished with the help of a little bribery of doughnut holes and jellybeans. Hey, they worked!

an actual family photo?  Must be an Easter miracle

a little too sunny I think

 Not a great picture, but this is the only one that shows the kids' Easter baskets

the sweetest little bunny I've ever seen

I failed at doing an Easter egg hunt and dying eggs this year.  Barrett did do an egg hunt at school, so at least he got one experience with it.  Next year we'll do both for sure!  There just aren't enough hours for everything I want to do in a day. 

We had a great time with my parents and Barrett asked for Mimi and Papa the next few days. 

Barrett lately

Not to be outdone with all Audrey's monthly updates, I want to make sure I write about what's going on with our other kiddo these days too.  He is in the midst of being two and a little dynamo!

Barrett is soaking up words non-stop.  He will whip out these words that I didn't even know he knew, like pointing out geese to me the other day.  I didn't even know he knew the difference between birds and geese.  He really is speaking in sentences lately of about 2 to 4 words.  He still loves to point out what belongs to whom and what's his.  He is definitely exerting his independence by requesting "I hold it" when he wants to carry something and wanting to pull his wagon down the sidewalk instead of being pulled by us. 

Food is still an annoying issue, for our little picky one.  His latest loves are doughnuts and bagels (pronounced do-notes and baay-gahs) and jellybeans. Healthy, right?  He continues to drink a ton of milk and would eat only fruit if I let him.  He loves cereal and his favorite activity is taking all the cereal boxes out of the pantry, opening them, and pulling out the bags.  His favorite color is blue and he's always requesting a blue cup or blue plate.  No more toddler silverware, now he must have the regular forks and spoons. 

He is learning his letters and numbers.  He can point out the letter B and we're working on some other letters, like E and M. He's so cute singing the alphabet song, which he probably half knows.  He can count somewhat when prompted and is very good with pointing out two of things.  But if you ask him to count other numbers, he often says "seven, eight, nine, ten," so he's no pro yet.  He also knows his shapes.  I love hearing him say diamond and oval, with his little baby voice. 

He loves books and his favorite now is "Big Elmo bookie."  He still loves Elmo and The Wiggles.  He loves to dance and is really into music lately.  He has zero interest in his old bear Baby and hasn't for months now.  But he's still obsessed with his blanket "Blue Body" and lugs it around to daycare and back every day and refuses to sleep without it. 

His favorite games are flying through the house "I fy!", being chased "Run, mommy!" and collapsing onto the sofa to be tickled and hugged.  He still lets me give him hugs and cuddles but sometimes squirms away.  He is good at holding my hand when we walk.  I think he misses our time together when I was on leave because he's always trying to get my attention in the evenings and weekends. 

Barrett is into EVERYTHING these days.  He's up on the table, up on the island, pulling open drawers.  Thank goodness he hasn't figured out doorknobs yet.  His teacher told me he's her little Curious George and I can't say I disagree!  She told me that last week she turned her back to hand a parent a sheet of paper and in that time, Barrett managed to find the paint and spill it all over himself.  She said in all her years teaching no child's ever found the hiding spot for the paint but wouldn't you know that our little Bear would?  He's such a monkey!

He makes us laugh, he drives us crazy, he's such a silly little boy!

Audrey - Four months

Dear Audrey girl,

happy 4 months!  To me, 4 months always seems like a little bit of a milestone, I don't know why.  It seems like that's where a baby turns from a newborn (1-3 months) into a baby.  4 month olds just seem bigger, more substantial, more aware.  And you definitely are.

You are an observant little thing.  You are typically perfectly happy just chilling on your own and watching everything around you.  Your eyes move as you watch the action.  But then when someone comes over and sweet talks you, watch out!  Those little arms and legs start kicking and you get a big goofy grin on your face.  You love getting attention.

You are still as happy as can be.  You go to sleep on your own, which still continues to amaze us.  We are still swaddling you for bedtime but not for naps and we put you down awake and you just drift off on your own.  And then you wake up just as happy.  You go to bed around 8pm and I wake you up most days at 7am or so.  What an easy night you give us.

You are eating approximately 5 bottles, 6oz each per day.  I am so happy that we're over most of the eating bumps that we went through.  There were nights in the past where I would cry from worry about your weight and lack of eating.  But you are eating so well now and I think it was just the fluid in your ears that was holding you back so long.  You're still rather slow a lot of times and can still take an hour to eat a bottle, but that isn't the norm.  If you don't want to eat, there's definitely no persuading you.  You'll turn your head this way and that to dodge the bottle. You are showing a lot of interest in sucking on your fingers and hands and I wonder if you'll be a thumb sucker.  You are incredibly drooly and we have to put a bib on you at all times because your shirt is soaked in 10 minutes.

Size wise - you are 12lbs, 10oz and 23 1/2".  That puts you around the 23rd percentile for both.  Not a big girl, but plugging along your growth curve okay.

You continue to be a joy in our lives and such a wonderful little baby.  We hear all the time how beautiful you are and so sweet and I agree!

As always, as soon as your big brother sees us taking pictures of you, he has to join in!