1. Jay checking in on Charlie [...]]]> Since I have enjoyed having the opportunity to share all of those random phone photos that I take throughout the week here’s another Friday phone dump… I know it’s almost a week late but there are some really cute ones that I just had to share!

1. Jay checking in on Charlie during his nap

2. sleeping baby

3 & 4 painting decorations for his party

5. finished product

6. about half of the cars that I found in Jay’s bed after his nap

7. one of Jay’s new favorite “hiding” places

8. sleeping baby again

9. sweet boys- a favorite

10. happy boy

11. chubby kitty

12. giraffe lovey

13. tastes better when you wear it

14. thumb sucking success!

15. outside weeding with Mom

16 & 17 duplo, duplo and more duplo

18. happy little boy

19. hiding in a box

20. squishy baby in my carrier

21. the result of captain destructo- I found this after his nap

22. all smiles for the birthday boy at breakfast

23. indoor race track side the weather was less than desirable outside

Two- two, you are two today!!  Holy- Moly guacamole, I am in disbelief.  Every day I stumble over the reality that you are mine… you light up my life and make each day better than the last.

You are a constant joy to be around little one and when I say constant I [...]]]> Jay Bird,

Two- two, you are two today!!  Holy- Moly guacamole, I am in disbelief.  Every day I stumble over the reality that you are mine… you light up my life and make each day better than the last.

You are a constant joy to be around little one and when I say constant I mean it!  You talk constantly, you move constantly- you are ALWAYS on the go.  Most frequently you are either playing cars or finding more cars to play with.  To say that you like cars right now would quite possibly be the understatement of the century, my sweet little boy you are obsessed!  Cars are you world;  they are literally the first thing that you talk about in the morning and the last thing you think about before closing your eyes.  They watch you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  You ask to get down from the table to play with them, we must have at least one of them with us at all times and they clutter every corner of your bed as you sleep.  You play with them nonstop, making them go fast, flip, crash, jump, fly- you name it, they do it.  I love watching you while you play; your imagination is immeasurable and man that is so, so wonderful!  This is not to say that you don’t enjoy other things aside from cars, you do.  You love to color, use stickers, work puzzles, play with your duplos and read stories.  Your attention span is honestly quite amazing, you can sit through stories that some third graders would loose patience with- it’s a fact that constantly amazes your Daddy and me.  It also makes your Daddy very proud…he LOVES to read with you and will read any story that you put in front of him, he even reads them multiple times in a row (which you do ask him to do).

Hugs and kisses are plentiful in our house, which I love.  I am pretty sure that you are the sweetest boy that there is; sure, I know I am biased but it  isn’t far from the truth.  You greet everyone that walks through our door with a shy smile and usually by the time they leave you are hugging, kissing them and telling them that you will “see them tomorrow”.  Frequently, for no reason you will walk up to me and plant a big wet (yup- they are usually wet) one on me and follow it will an “I love you, Mommy”- melt.my.heart kiddo, melt my heart!  Just yesterday I was playing with Charlie on the floor while you played with your cars and for no reason at all you stopped what you were doing walked over to Charlie kissed him on the head and told him you loved him.  And you do, you love your little brother in such a way it makes me burst at the seams with pride.  You are always wanting to know what he is doing, you frequently bring him your blanket to use and not just any blanket your favorite I-can’t-sleep-without-this-blanket and when he is crying you will look at me and say “Charlie isn’t very happy” then look at him and tell him it will be okay.  I can’t wait to see your relationship grow as the two of you grow.. how wonderful it will be.

This isn’t to say that our time together is all rainbows and roses kiddo, we have our moments.  You drive me up the wall, I threaten to sell you to the highest bidder before your Dad gets home and when he does get home I say- “take him, he’s your son tonight”.  But honestly, those moments and those bad days are far out-numbered by the good.  I frequently have a hard time believing that two years has already passed since you made me a Mama.  My sweet little Jay Bird, it feels as though you were just born yesterday and yet have always been a part of my life- and maybe you have been, you just resided in my heart until two years ago today.  And what a wonderful day that was-  I fell in love with you the very moment I saw you and that love continues to grow with each passing day.  Every night when we put you to bed I stand in awe of you kiddo… amazed that you are mine, grateful for all the time we get together and looking forward to all that is to come.

I love you sweet boy, happy birthday- here’s to many, many more.

Love,

Mommy

and since we aren’t heading out to take your two year photos until Sunday and because every post is better with a photo here is recent one of you and Dad driving that makes me smile

1. my favorite time of the day

2. stretch!

3. toes

4. silly faces

5. cars

6. cheese!

7. raising the crib mattress (I did this all by myself- go me!)

8. sweet big boy

9. sucking his thumb

10. avocado bagel- yummo

11. serious face

12. blueberry thief… he ate half [...]]]>

1. my favorite time of the day

2. stretch!

3. toes

4. silly faces

5. cars

6. cheese!

7. raising the crib mattress (I did this all by myself- go me!)

8. sweet big boy

9. sucking his thumb

10. avocado bagel- yummo

11. serious face

12. blueberry thief… he ate half of the bowl before the muffins were even made :)

13. daddy and charlie

14. smiles

15. “frosty no-men” lunch for jay

16. stickers by jay

17. more smiles

18. snoozin’ in the crib

19. “color whales mommy, color whales”

20. self portrait with sleeping squishy

21. “fix cars tires”

22. mommy’s “fip fops”

23. bath time smiles from charlie

2 months old!

I tried to have this post ready ahead of time so that it could be up early this morning; however I baked a cake, hooked a ton of cars for Jay and had some really good cuddle time with Charlie while Jay was napping so I don’t feel that bad about [...]]]>

2 months old!

I tried to have this post ready ahead of time so that it could be up early this morning; however I baked a cake, hooked a ton of cars for Jay and had some really good cuddle time with Charlie while Jay was napping so I don’t feel that bad about this posting so late ;)  Also, I don’t have his statistics yet since we haven’t gone to his doctor appointment yet but I will post those when I get them.

Things of note-

Sleeping- Charlie is sleeping anywhere from 3.5-5 hours a night for about the last week (the 5hours is new).  However, we didn’t start his nighttime routine until just recently and I think that has really helped his sleeping patterns.  His nighttime routine consists of a bath, nursing and cuddling with Mommy, being wrapped (like a swaddle but with his arms out), Good Night Moon and then being tucked in with Jenny playing (his sound machine giraffe). During the day he takes a few naps; his best nap is usually in the morning and he really likes to sleep on his tummy (shh, don’t tell the doctor).

*He snores and snores loudly!

*As far as eating is concerned- things are going fabulously!  He eats really well, usually every 2.5-3 hours during the day.  He is very quick and efficient and usually doesn’t dawdle when he nurses- this little one means business when he eats!  I am anxious to see how much he weighs when we take him to the doctor since he seems to really be packing on the pounds and chins :)

*He has been smiling and cooing frequently lately.  It’s enough to make your heart puddle right then and there- I swear.  He is usually happiest right after he has eaten and we are playing but he also smiles frequently during other times of the day.  Usually I can rub my finger on his cheek when we are playing and he will give me a huge grin.  He also smiles when I kiss his cheeks- I love it!

Likes:

*Facing out. Unless he is sleepy and wants to nap he likes to be held out so that he can see what is going on.  He has really started to be aware of his surroundings and has taken notice of things a lot more lately.  He prefers to be sitting up instead of reclining and if you will walk while holding him that is a plus too.

*Holding hands-  Frequently, if he is upset you can calm him down by holding his hand.  I don’t know if it makes him feel more secure or what but whether we are walking, riding in the car or just sitting holding him, grabbing and holding on to his hand calms him down when he us upset.

*The morning.  The morning after his first feeding is usually his happiest time.  He is the most alert at this point and will play with me for quite awhile.

*The fan-  Charlie loves looking at the fan and lights just like Jay did- the fan is his buddy, his pal.

*Books-  The colors book is one that we frequently “read” during play time and he loves the black and white zebra page or the monkey page in another black and white line drawing book that we have.  He will smile and kick when we turn to those pages.

*Being outside.  Just like with Jay you can walk outside while Charlie is fussy and he usually calms down pretty quickly.  He just loves to be out there enjoying the sun.  He also likes to sit in the sun coming in through the window in his bouncy chair- it’s almost as good as being outside.

Dislikes:

*Turning off the lights or walking into a dark room.  I honestly can’t think of many things that he dislikes (he’s a pretty easy baby and we are really lucky) but the one thing he really doesn’t like is to walk into a dark room or when you turn the lights off in a room.  Almost immediately he will start fussing but as soon as you go into a room with lights he is all better.

I think that pretty much sums up Charlie at this point. We are still adjusting to our new family of four and Jay has gotten much better about him being around- guess he figured out that he was going to stick around.  We are still working on being gentle, which is really tough for his two year old self, but we are making progress.  He really likes to hug and kiss Charlie which translates to slobber and squish Charlie but again we are making progress and at this point I am really just happy that he isn’t ignoring him anymore.  Jay also really likes to help with Charlie.  He will carry my nursing pillow around the house when my hands are full, he notifies us when Charlie is crying (as if we can’t hear it ourselves), usually tells him it’s okay when he is crying and if Charlie is within reach he will put his or Charlie’s paci (whichever is closer) in his mouth when he is crying.  It’s really sweet to watch them together and I can’t wait to see where their relationship will take them.

Here’s some more photos from our “shoot”.  As you can tell he is really a very happy little boy :)

the traditional month by month pose

smiles :)

big smiles!

cuddling at Mom's on our baking day

at Mom's on boxing day

toddler- 0 masking tape- 1 parents- 5 (it was darn amusing)

We visited Lou Gardens, played outside at the park a lot and celebrated our sweet little Jay Bird’s 1st Birthday.

Februrary

We decorated a bunch of cookies, reorganized the kitchen and we harvested a large crop of carets and beets from the garden.

March

Jay really started walking on his [...]]]> January

We visited Lou Gardens, played outside at the park a lot and celebrated our sweet little Jay Bird’s 1st Birthday.

Februrary

We decorated a bunch of cookies, reorganized the kitchen and we harvested a large crop of carets and beets from the garden.

March

Jay really started walking on his own, we picked a ton of Strawberries and made Jam, hosted the crawfish boil and found out we were expecting our second kiddo!

April

We frequented the zoo, picked and ate a ton of strawberries, we played outside with the water table frequently, hunted for Easter Eggs, finger painted for the first time and got to tell our family that we were expecting again.

May

Jay started coloring a lot, we played outside in the hose frequently, we celebrated Mother’s Day by playing outside in the kiddie pool, picked and ate peaches off of our tree in the backyard, Jay started swim lessons and he had his first haircut.

June

We played outside in the rain, I hosted a bridal shower for Nicole and we spent a week at the Beach with Jamie’s family.

July

We went to cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a, we visited Mom and Ed at their condo in south Florida, we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, Jay discovered cars, we celebrated my 29 birthday and announced that we were having another little boy!

August

We took our first trip to the splash pad, Jay’s obsession with cars grew, he began using utensils on his own and Jay completed his Infant Survival Swimming Course.

September

We flew to Canada to celebrate my Grandma’s 85th birthday, Jamie and I survived a very long plane ride with a toddler who wouldn’t nap, we made considerable progress with putting together Jay’s big boy room and Dolce got really sick and had to have major surgery.

October

Jamie celebrated his 31st birthday, we took a rode trip to North Carolina to celebrate Jamie’s sisters wedding, we carved pumpkins, Jay took his first pony ride, went trick-or-treating and Jay decorated cookies for the first time.

November

We finished up a few projects around the house in preparation for our second little one to arrive and we welcomed Charlie into our family 10 days earlier than we had expected!!

December

We adjusted to being a family of four, Jay slept in a big boy bed for the first time, we decorated our house for Christmas (which included a tree with only lights on it), and celebrated the holidays with lots of family and friends.