Here’s the stats and a [...]]]> Our visit with the doctor went really well today- they said that Charlie looks great, is growing on track and even recommended a little something to mix with his pear juice to help with his ‘output’ issue.  That last bit might be TMI but it’s super exciting news for us!

Here’s the stats and a few photos I took a couple days ago- love my super smily little guy!

Height- 25.5 inches (25%)

Weight- 17lbs 7oz (50%)

Head- 17 3/4 (75%)

He’s watching Jay in this photo… love how they adore each other ;)

and one of both my boys just because it makes me smile…

6 months old!!

One word for that…

I find that the time is flying by kind of like it did when I was pregnant with Charlie… One moment we were announcing that a second little one was on the way and then after blinking I was in the hospital holding my sweet little [...]]]>

6 months old!!

One word for that…

I find that the time is flying by kind of like it did when I was pregnant with Charlie… One moment we were announcing that a second little one was on the way and then after blinking I was in the hospital holding my sweet little boy.  These days I frequently find myself looking at him and catching glimpses of his personality and wondering when he got so big.  He truly is the sweetest, happiest little guy around. He has a sense of peace about him that I envy; he sits back and takes it all in with such joy, amazement and smiles- oh boy does he smile…

Stats-  we are headed to the Doctor tomorrow and I will be back to post his stats after we see what they are ;)

Teeth- none as of yet although, he’s working on them and we have he occasional cranky-pants and drool to prove it!

Things of Note-

*Charlie has been sitting up for almost a month now.  Just after turning 5 months old he began tripoding really well and since then he has been sitting pretty well on his own.  Right now he sits for long periods of time on his own and rarely falls; however, when he does he just rolls to his side or tummy and plays that was for a while.

*Mobility is coming- as of right now he rolls to get whatever he wants.  It doesn’t always work in his favor (he has no direction control); however, he is usually content wherever he ends up and with whatever toys ends up closest to him.  He is also starting to scoot a little when he is sitting up.  He has to be on a slick surface to do this but it’s still movement so I count it.

*Foods-  Little boy can eat and has been able to from day one.  We have been trying solid foods for about a month now, we started feeding them to him to hopefully help with his acid reflux (the theory is that heavy food in their tummy helps keep him from spitting up milk).  The food has helped to keep things down- less spit up- but since he rejects prunes (too acidic), peaches or pears, it has also helped to keep things in.  So with one solution we have created another problem and we are working on fixing that right now.  His favorites so far are peas and sweet potatoes and he really won’t eat any of the fruits that I have tried to give him other than pears with blueberries- honestly, if he didn’t look so much like me I would swear he wasn’t my kid because of how much he hates the fruit!

*Thumb Sucker-  sweet boy loves his thumb.  He will take a Paci every once in a while however he only uses it as a teether. But that thumb, oh he has a thing for his thumb… and the way his pointer finger wraps around his little nose when he sucks on it just melts my heart.

*Sleeping has been going well and continues to go well.  He sleeps for the most part from 8 or 8:30 every night until 7 or 7:30 and when he wakes up in the morning he usually plays quietly in the crib.  Frequently I will go and get him and find him playing with his blankets or his ugly doll (adorable stuffed toy given to him by his godfather Michael), pleased as punch to just be there.

*Pretty much everything within Charlie’s reach these days is fair game- be it toy, blanket, duplo (Jay’s), car (Jay’s), bowl of salad, drink, phone… you get the picture.  If he can reach it, it’s his and it will go in his mouth.  The phone is a favorite but I think it might be because we use them so frequently… sad to admit… :(

*He is camera shy.  If there is such a thing in a photographer’s house, this little boy is somewhat camera shy.  He clams up and stops talking, cooing, smiling etc whenever he sees the camera or the phone out.  It makes it a challenge to capture just how smiley this little one is; however, I have gotten pretty good at shooting from the hip so he won’t see them camera.

*His relationship with Jay is growing by the minute and is probably my favorite thing lately.  He adores Jay, watching him, smiling and belly laughing at the things he does.  Jay is just as enamored with Charlie as Charlie is with him.  He is always asking where he is (if he’s not around- usually when he is napping), is immediately concerned if he is crying, talks about him all of the time and shares things with him too.  Having two this close together is tough on even a good day but seeing their relationship grow the way it has been makes it all the worth while.

Likes:

*WATER!!  He loves bath time especially if he gets a few minutes in the tub all to himself to splash around.  He does enjoy the bath with company as well, it’s just that he gets to do a little more kicking when it’s only just him in there.  The few times that we have taken him in the pool he has been all ear to ear smiles!  He loves to splash and spin around!

*He likes to be tickled and when you love on him.  Frequently throughout the day I will get his neck and or his belly and he laughs and laughs.

*He likes when we sing songs and read nursery rhymes.  He will sit through a few toddler books when I am reading to Jay but he prefers the nursery rhymes and rhythmic stories over the others.  Some favorites right now are Hand, Hand Fingers Thumb and a book full of Mother Goose rhymes.

*Watching Piper and Bella.  From as early as I can remember he has enjoyed watching Jay, he’s kind of hard to miss these days, but lately he has really taken a liking to the animals.  He loves playing with Piper’s fur and feet and he watches both Piper and Bella whenever they are around.

*Being outside- Charlie loves to play outside.  We frequently take a blanket outside and sit under the shade to play.  It’s a very nice change to being inside all of the time; however, I am not looking forward to the summer when it is even hotter outside than it is now.

Dislikes:

*Honestly, I am at a loss for what to put here… other than the completely normal dislikes of any other tiny human- being tired, being in one place for more than 30 minutes, not being able to poop- he is pretty much a breeze.  We are lucky and I know it ;)

Here’s a few from our photo shoot… I took a few in front of our chalkboard wall in addition to the blocks and I LOVE them- it was so hard to narrow it down to even this many!

this one makes him look bigger he is, or at least that is my opinion…

and yes he will probably hate me for the next few but I took similar pictures of Jay so he’ll have company ;)

I pretty much adore this one, sweet chunk of love…

Because even though some days and moments are rough, we are happy healthy and together and therefore so richly blessed.

It’s taken me a while to be able to write this, I still tear up whenever Jay asks where Dolce is and I am just now getting used to the new quiet of our house without Dolce; it was a hard and unexpected goodbye.  It’s no secret that I am not a kitty person… [...]]]>

It’s taken me a while to be able to write this, I still tear up whenever Jay asks where Dolce is and I am just now getting used to the new quiet of our house without Dolce; it was a hard and unexpected goodbye.  It’s no secret that I am not a kitty person… I never have been… however, this guy had a way with people and although we had a love/hate relationship he was nothing but sweet just as his name implies…

thank you Dolce for being patient with me while I learned kitty…  thank you for understanding when I jumped in the beginning every time you jumped to sit behind me on the couch… thank you for forgiving me when I got mad at you for things that were out of your control… thank you for not holding it against me when I kicked you out of the bedroom after marrying your Daddy- I know that the couch was not nearly as great as the bed you once got to share… thank you for every early morning wake up call you gave us- occasionally you saved us from being too terribly late for work… thank you for your amusing taste buds: carrot muffins and ramen noodles- really?… thank you for not holding it against me for bringing a d-o-g into your home… thank you for learning to love her, tolerating her puppy phase and becoming her friend- she loved playing with you and misses you… thank you for all of the hours you sat with me while I was pregnant with Jay- although my lap was shrinking by the minute you always made room for yourself there… thank you for accepting and loving the tiny humans that we kept bringing home from the hospital with us… thank you for letting Jay crawl all over you and love all over you despite him not being so gentle… thank your for all time you spent and the laughs you gave us… thank you for all the love you gave us… you are missed, sweet kitty, you are missed…

a few of my favorites of him…

Over Mom’s spring break Jay spent the night at her house twice. It was nice to be able to check a few things off of my to-do list while he was gone and it was especially nice to have some good, uninterrupted, one-on-one time with Charlie. I met Mom over at Lucas Nursery to [...]]]>

Over Mom’s spring break Jay spent the night at her house twice. It was nice to be able to check a few things off of my to-do list while he was gone and it was especially nice to have some good, uninterrupted, one-on-one time with Charlie. I met Mom over at Lucas Nursery to make the switch and before we parted ways- she with Jay and me with Charlie- we toured the nursery, picked up a few plants for the front of the house and made a trip through the butterfly garden they have. Although it took him a while to look up without prompting he finally got the hang of it and started to spot the butterflies on his own. Jay loved looking at the ‘buhflies’ and held tight to his species diagram the whole time we were there.

I am embarrassed to say that I have had this post written for quite some time, especially since Jay is fast approaching 2.5 years old!  I kept waiting for Jay’s two year old photos to be finished (something that took forever since it kept getting trumped by other things) so I could post some along [...]]]>

I am embarrassed to say that I have had this post written for quite some time, especially since Jay is fast approaching 2.5 years old!  I kept waiting for Jay’s two year old photos to be finished (something that took forever since it kept getting trumped by other things) so I could post some along with the update.  Well, needless to say time has passed and MANY things on this list have changed; however, I didn’t want to forget any of it so here it is a few months (eek) late but better late than never…

Jay turned two a little over a week ago- two, two whole years old and since I haven’t written a proper update on him since this one I figured that I was due.  Especially since there are so many things that he says/ does that I don’t want to forget…

Stats- here are his stats from when we were at the doctor last week.  They measured him on a big boy scale and got his height by asking him to stand up against the wall- such a big boy he is.

Height- 33 inches

Weight- 26lbs

Both of these put him in the 25-50% making him a little smaller than the average two year old.

Things of note-

-He can count to five reliably; however he occasionally will go until 7 or 8.

-He knows his colors with the exception of red and orange which he mixes up from time to time.  He also knows silver and that it is the color of both Mommy and Daddy’s cars.

-He can name almost all of his body parts including (but not limited to) head, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, belly button and elbows.

-He knows his right from his left and when you ask will hold either his right leg or foot up as high as it will go.

-He still can’t jump but man o’ man does he sure give it his best effort.  I love to watch him bounce around the house and will probably be pretty sad when he can actually jump.

-When you ask him how old he is he will enthusiastically tell you “2!” and then he holds up both hands showing at least 6 fingers but most often holding up all ten.

-He blesses people when they sneeze.  He even tells himself “Bless you Jay Bird” when he sneezes.

-He thinks that his name is Jay Bird.  When anyone asks him his name that is his response, one that I usually have to repeat and explain to people who don’t know him.  It will be an interesting day when we have to explain that his name is actually James and that we call him Jay and that Jay Bird is in fact just a nickname.

-We are working on learning the alphabet; however, he is having a hard time getting past the fact that his name is Jay but it is spelled – J-A-Y.  I think it would confuse him far less if his name wasn’t also an initial.  He can sing part of his ABC’s but it usually comes out sounding like just a jumble of letters smooshed together in no particular order.

-He can name every single car that he owns… some of them have names from the movie Cars, for some he will tell you their given name- coupe, Porsche, jeepster, and then the rest have an assortment of random names that he has given them .  One of which is “new car”… it’s not new at all but that is what he started calling it form the get go and that is what it has stayed.

-He hooks EVERYTHING.  He has four cars that have tow hooks (three Maters and one “big guck”) and not an hour goes by that some car is not being hooked or towed by one of them.

-He frequently says- “Jay Bird needs” when he is looking for something or wants something.

-He likes to look at the DVD’s and Blu-rays that we have.  Frequently he will sit there for a few minutes (this equals forever in the toddler world) looking at the covers and taking in all of the details on each one.

-He is thrilled when Jamie gets home from work.  As soon as he hears Jamie’s truck in the driveway or the garage door opening he starts squealing “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” while doing this circular skipping dance.  It is really one of the sweetest things and really brightens my day, which frequently feel long by that point.

-He has been sleeping in his big boy bed for over a month now.  He can get in and out on his own and has not had any problems with it thus far.  There were a few weeks at first when he realized he could climb out on his own that he would get up and play with his cars quietly in his room after we put him to bed.  He would play for hours without making a peep until we went in and told him he needed to sleep.  He always turned his bug light on so he could see to play.  Thinking that we were smart we put a timer on his light hoping it would stop him from getting up.  It surely did not, he just found another light in his room to turn on and when we unplugged that one he turned his closet light on to use.  Clever little boy he is!

-We are currently working on potty training and not because we pushed but because, you could say, Jay wanted to.  We started by putting him on a little potty every night before his bath (since he always peed as soon as he got into the bath) and it didn’t take long for him to catch on.  Well last week he started taking off his diaper on his own and after having a few accidents on the floor I started putting him on the potty during the day and asking him frequently if he has to go.  Every time he has been put on the potty since then he has gone and gotten a treat (one skittle… his favorite part) for going.  This is as far as our training has gotten but it is major progress in the right direction and we understand that it isn’t going to happen overnight, especially at his age.

-He loves, loves, loves his little brother.  He is frequently asking where baby Charlie is or telling me that he is crying.  He usually offers to share his snack, cars or whatever he has at the moment with him.  When we get in the car he always points to Charlie’s carseat and tells me that that is where Baby Charlie goes.  He can barely stand for him to take naps and I have to watch him like a hawk because otherwise he will sneak  into his room and ‘accidentally’ wake him up when he pulls up on the side of the crib and yells -”good morning baby Charlie!”

-He knows when he isn’t supposed to be doing something or if he has something that he is not supposed to.  If he grabs something that he isn’t supposed to have he always puts it behind his back and walks away from us (so that we can see whatever he is hiding).  And when you ask him what he has he will without fail announce whatever it is that he has with no reservation.

Favorites-

-Foods- he is picky from time to time when eating (most simply put: he is two) but without fail you will always scarf down a bowl of yogurt or a handful of blueberries or a waffle with butter and syrup.  When we ask you how many blueberries you would like your response is always “5!”

-He loves to color and use stickers.  Almost every day he will ask to color and frequently he asks multiple times a day.

-Song- Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys.  This started a few moths ago when he was walking around saying “bob, bob, bob” and in response I started singing Barbara Ann.  He frequently will sing it (and dance along) on his own while he is walking through the house or eating breakfast or anywhere for that matter.  His other top favorites are Frosty the Snowman (which he knows the majority of the words too), the Itsy Bitsy Spider and we are working on I’m a little Tea Pot.  He loves the “washes the spider out” part of Itsy Bitsy and he loves to tip himself out when we sing I’ m a little tea pot.  Just today he was singing Barbara Ann and Frosty while we made our way through the grocery store.

-Toy- by far his talking matchbox Lightening McQueen although Finn McMissle is a very close second ;)

-Books- The Little Red Caboose, One Yellow Lion and Little Blue Truck are probably amongst his top right now although he loves so many that it is really hard to specify a favorite.

The other day, Jamie was working from home and Jay had been [...]]]> We have a new wooden sign in the kitchen that says- I Scream, You Scream and it has a big ice cream cone on it.  My Little Bird likes to point at it and say “I scream, you ice scream”, makes me smile…

The other day, Jamie was working from home and Jay had been especially good during the day so we had an early supper, packed up the car and treated Jay to his first ice cream cone!  If you know anything about us, you know that we (maybe mostly me, but it’s rubbing off on Jay too) have a thing for ice cream.  If you take a look in our freezer at any given time you can find at least 4-5 different flavors- it’s our own personal Baskin Robins ;)  So a trip to get an ice cream as a family was a very fitting treat.

At the end of it all Jay was a super sticky mess- a head-to-toe mess of melted ice cream.  But I am pretty sure he loved every single bite of his super huge “banilla” cone (btw- we ordered  him a small cone, I would hate to see what the medium or large looks like).  And as for this Mamma, the ice cream was yummy but spending a quiet evening just the four of us was more of a treat than I could ever ask for.  Lately, the days and evenings have been kind of crazy, with Jamie’s insane work hours and everything that comes along with having two boys under 2.5 years old, so these moments have been rare but oh so sweet when they happen… Can’t wait to do it again ;)

ordering- he loved watching the cones being made

“that’s really huge Mommy”

ice cream smiles

happy boy along for the ride

a fantastic mess

good to the last bite

My mission- a delicious dessert, that wasn’t cookies, that was easy to make/eat and didn’t require utensils… the result Banana Pudding Bites!

I landed on banana pudding when I was searching through recipes to make for the shrimp boil we hosted on Saturday (more photos of the shin dig coming soon); it was [...]]]>  

My mission- a delicious dessert, that wasn’t cookies, that was easy to make/eat and didn’t require utensils… the result Banana Pudding Bites!

I landed on banana pudding when I was searching through recipes to make for the shrimp boil we hosted on Saturday (more photos of the shin dig coming soon); it was simple enough and would compliment the spicy shrimp perfectly, besides you can’t go wrong with a classic.  The only problem was I didn’t want to serve something that needed bowls and utensils and I needed something that would withstand being in the heat for the better part of the afternoon. So what do you do with this kind of dilemma you make it cute, you make it bite sized.  Honestly, I must say that I am rather impressed on how fantastic these little guys turned out, I was fully prepared for my experiment to be a disaster.  However, this is defienetly a ‘recipe’ that I will store in my make again soon (real soon) file and if you like banana pudding you should too!

Here’s the gist…

I used this delicious banana pudding recipe from Paula Deen (and no there isn’t tons of butter in the pudding- but it is the best banana pudding recipe I have EVER come across and I have tried a few) and instead of arranging the chessmen cookies and sliced bananas in a 9×13 like recipe calls for I piped the pudding on to individual cookies using a disposable pipping bag and my jumbo closed star tip and topped each of them with a thick slice of banana.  Call it deconstructed banana pudding if you will ;)

Oh, and in case you want to try it… let me give you two suggestions- 1. buy 3 bags of chessmen cookies, the banana pudding in the piping bag goes a long way and 2. if you mix your pudding early and leave it in the fridge make sure to leave the pipping bag out for a few minutes before pipping your cookies. The pudding is really thick and was difficult to pipe while cold.

Oh and in case you [...]]]> So photographing a 5 1/2 month old along side his 27 month old brother on my own is NO easy feat, let me tell you!  I was happy to get the few that I did but I just couldn’t resist sharing a few of the outtakes- happy Monday to you!

Oh and in case you are worried- although it doesn’t always appear this way Charlie was loving all of the snuggles and attention from his big brother :)

he was trying to turn Charlie's head to give him a kiss... and Charlie was really okay with it all and didn't fuss.

Jay was pointing out Charlie's ears in this one- again no fussing