FIVE months old!

WOW! Sweet little Andy is now 5 months old.  Once again, I will say that time is flying by.  I can't get over it!

Andy continues to be THE sweetest kid-- he is constantly happy.  He very rarely cries... if he's wet or tired, he'll let you know, but otherwise, he's just kind of happy as can be!

I seriously can not get enough of him... I know that sounds so stupid, but I just want to kiss and hug and snuggle and kiss some more.  I LOVE THIS KID!  It's crazy to think you can love another kid as much as your first, but you really do!  Your heart just kinda grows, I guess!
 

 Mr. Andy is HUGE.  People do not believe me when I say that he is 5 months old.  He isn't fat at all (he sort of looks chunky in pictures, but he really isn't--well, he does have a few chins....), he's just really long.  His legs are incredibly long-- and they are constantly in motion.  He is kicking his legs non-stop! 

I thought maybe earlier this week he was having a growth spurt because he wasn't sleeping through the night any more (waking up around 5--STARVING), and he was kicking his legs all the time.  I thought maybe be was doing that because of leg cramps.  Growing up, I had horrible leg cramps- they were awful-- when I hit my growth spurts, so I just didn't know. 
He looks HUGE to me, especially lately.  Clothes that Cal wore for a while, Andy has blown through.  (my heart just started hurting as I was typing this... why do they have to grown up so fast?).  Andy wears mainly 9 month clothes now, but he's pushing his way out of those too.  I went ahead and put him in a size 3 diaper, which seems HUGE to me-- can he really be in a size 3 diaper???  Yup, he sure can.  

In order to try to get him back sleeping through the night, I have added some food to his diet.  He was has been eating oatmeal for almost a month now, and he likes it, but I think it was getting a bit bland for him. 

I started with sweet potatoes, which is what I started with with Cal.  Andy wasn't really a huge fan.  I tried giving him a spoonful of just the potatoes, and he automatically spit them out-- well, they kind of seeped out of his mouth.  So I took a spoonful of the oatmeal and dipped it in the potatoes and he didn't better like that, but he still wasn't devouring it like I thought he would. 

I wanted to start him out with veggies because I've heard that if you start them with fruit, you will have a really hard time getting them to eat veggies at all (any of y'all heard this??).  I am tempted to try pears, a favorite of Cal's, to see if that gets him going. 

Right now, Andy just eats food at dinner time.  I am about ready to start giving him some food at lunch time as well.  He will typically eat about 4-6 ounces of breastmilk-mixed oatmeal at a feeding.
 

Andy has been enjoying the jumper more and more and I am hoping to get him in the door jumper that Cal loved so much soon... I have to be careful though because every time I put Andy in it, Cal thinks he should push him like it's a swing.  There is NO unattended play going on over here, I can promise you that!

And finally, here is a picture of Cal when he was 5 months old...

I will survive...

RIGHT??

Obviously, I can do it, but I would love some positive and energetic (and patient) thoughts sent my way. 
Apparently, I am trying to win the Wife of the Year award... I kissed Eddie goodbye this morning as he left with a friend for Napa.  Since I am nursing, I told him to take the trip and I would stay home with the munchkins.  This is another one of those amazing Jones trips (where Eddie works) where you stay in the nicest of the nicest hotels, and it is really just top notch. That's right.  Eddie is currently on his way to Napa Valley while I stay here in (beautiful!) Chapel Hill...with two kids...


In order to prepare for the solo week, I have done the following:

--hung black out curtains in Cal's room (oh, he WILL be napping this week!!!)
--caught up on ALL laundry
--changed all sheets on every bed/crib in the house (this just made me feel like it was a fresh start)
--restocked all diapers, wipes, toilet paper, etc etc... (I can't holler down the hall for Eddie to bring me TP- haha!)

Okay,  I am being a tad facetious about all of this (well, not the curtains-- I was TOTALLY serious about homie napping this week).  It is going to be a great week and we are all going to be fine.  Just, if you get a chance, shoot me some positive energy and a whole lot of patience pills... I will need them!

Kind of funny-- Andy has been sleeping like a champ lately- 13+ hours a night (from 7pm until 8am) and Cal has been sleeping in until 7:30.  I can handle anything on a good night's sleep... well, Eddie left this morning at 5.  Andy was up at 3 and would NOT go back to sleep!  Finally at 4:45 I went in and fed him (he chowed down-- he was starving!), I got him back to sleep and then I couldn't fall asleep.  Cal woke up at 6 and was calling out: "Mommmmma! I neeeeed youuuuuu!" hahah  I went in his room and he was wide awake pointing at his diaper saying "poopoo potty, momma!" I knew he wasn't going to poop on the potty, but I took him anyway and changed his diaper, etc.  Well, he had NO desire to get back in his crib.  I brought him in bed with me, but there was no sleep coming. 

These boys better get back to their regular sleeping habits while daddy is gone! 

And, I have to admit I am not doing thise totally on my own.  My parents live all of 6 minutes away so they will be helping me out as much as possible.  Cal is even going to have a slumber party over there one night (how fun are my parents??).  My mom is leaving on Thursday for the 3 day walk for breast cancer (go mom go!), so next weekend will be a BIG kick in my rear. 

Thanks for listening to me pump myself up.  I am going to try to post this week when I can... I imagine we will be doing all kinds of activities....anything to keep us occupied (and out of trouble!).

My little nuggets.  Bring on the week!

Andy's Baptism

On Sunday, October 9th, we had Andy baptized.  It was a beautiful day and Andy did GREAT!

As I have written previously, Cal has been a bit of a handful lately, so there was just no telling how he would be during the service.  We put him in the nursery for most of the service, and then went and got him for the baptism.  We were also a little nervous that Andy would have a major blowout in his little white outfit that my mom made him (thanks, Momma!).  When we tried the outfit on 2 days before, he had a HUGE blowout in the clothes he wore over to their house, so I was terrified it would happen again (because he hadn't gone number 2 since the massive blowout....), but, all was fine!  No blowouts!

It is actually pretty amazing that everything went as well as it did with all of the factors we had going on!

Cal has become EXTREMELY opinionated on what he wears every day and it has been an ongoing battle with us.  I was worried that the morning of the baptism he would only want to wear his firetruck jammies or his God awful sweatpants (Lord help us all), but to my surprise, he saw the outfit I had for him laid out on the bed and he was SO excited to wear it!  He thought the tie looked like Daddy (even though Eddie has never worn a bowtie), and he thought the shoes were just like my dad's, so he kept saying Poppa's shoes! He could hardly wait to get dressed-- thank you, LORD!

He woke up and his hair was all kinds of a mess so he took a shower with Eddie-- a special treat for Cal!  he loves to take a big boy shower... while he was waiting to get in the shower, he was just so excited about everything-- it was hilarious.  He was ripping off his clothes and then he decided he wanted to put on Poppa's shoes right then.  So he was completely naked except for Poppa's shoes, while running to get in the shower.  It was like all the excitement was just too much for him.  I took a video of this, but I am going to save Cal's embarrassment and not post it on the blog. 

Here are some pictures from the day....

you see?  up to NO good!!! 

My mom made the perfect little outfit for Andy-- I just loved it!  It was the same outfit that she made for Cal, but each one has their monogram on it.  The boys both looked so sweet in them when we baptized them...

this was before the service.  He wore the bib to catch the spit up/drool, but the bib came off for the service

Cal was SO excited when my dad got there and was wearing the same shoes that he was! It was impossible to get a picture of them because Cal kept staring at their shoes side by side

 Before church started, we tried to get a family shot of the 4 of us.  SUCH a challenge!  We could get a picture that was great of the kids, but my eyes were closed.  Or Eddie and I were talking and the kids were staring off in the distance.  This was about the best we could get, and poor Andy is eating his bib! Oh well-- I'll take what I can get!

 And I just love this one of me and my little sweet potato french fry..... he is making a face like "just wait mom... if you think Cal is naughty......." hahaha

 My sweet momma-- she is so amazing.... I am LUCKY to be so close with her. Andy loves her too-- see how he is looking up at her? 

So, before the baptism is the sermon.  Then there is a song and then the baptism starts.  When the sermon was wrapping up, Eddie went to the nursery to get Cal.  They walked back into the sanctuary right as the minister was making his final point.  He did one of those pauses for dramatic effect, and Eddie opened the door, and Cal walked in and said "HI!" suuuuper loudly-- like he was so pleased to see all of these people here just to see him!  It was hilarious!  Everyone started chuckling and I thought Eddie was going to crawl through the floor with embarrassment.  

My mom had a few little cars and trucks in her purse, as all grandmothers do, and Cal found a few.  He decided to take them up on the alter with us during the baptism. 

 During the ceremony, Cal just wanted to squat down.  We didn't know why, but he was being really good, so we let him squat.  He was holding his cars and was being still, so we were pleased. 

Eddie and I decided to ask two amazing people to be Andy's Godmothers. Cal didn't have Godparents.  There wasn't a real reason behind that decision; we just decided that he didn't really need them. Andy doesn't really need them either, but I am blessed enough to have these incredible women in my life and I really wanted to honor them and let them know how much they mean to me and my boys.  Here is Andy with his Godmothers: Andrea and Julie.  I get teary eyed thinking about how much these two mean to me.  love love love y'all!

 After church, we went over to my mom's house for brunch.  We sat out on the patio and it was beautiful out!  Not too hot, a nice breeze....it was just perfect!  I got this picture of Andy, and sadly, it is the only picture I got of him in his baptism outfit!

And, just for comparison's sake.... here are two pictures from Cal's baptism...

We feel super blessed and loved having the family together in church to celebrate Andy!

Mother/Son Date Knight

The amazing Chick-fil-a had a Mother Son Date Knight last week.  Sally emailed to see if we wanted to go, and I was ALL about it!

You had to make reservations ahead of time and they were selling out fast!  We ended up going to the Chick-fil-a in the food court at the mall.  It was still super cute and super fun. 

They had the cow dressed up in a knight costume and two maidens were there to show you to your table, which was covered in a table cloth and had balloons on the chairs.  Once we ordered and were seated, the maidens brought over our food on silver trays and brought over some cool coloring stuff for the kids.  They also gave each kid a little stuffed cow...

Andy hung out with grandma and grandpa so I could have a little special time with my little man.

Cal wanted to say hi to the cow, but refused to get too close...

 He was suuuper excited...

...but was leaning so far over away from the cow that he tipped over!

After dinner, Cal and Brad climbed on some of the statues in the mall.  They had some ice cream (see below) and had quite a bit of energy!

Eating the ice cream cone...

 Yummy!

Brad wouldn't take his eyes off of the cow.  He was staring him down here, and totally forgot about the ice cream cone he was eating-- see it resting in his lap?! hahaha

We had a great time together!  I should mention, though, that this date night was on a Thursday night, after Cal had school and he didn't nap this day... he was having a MEGA meltdown when we dropped Andy off at my parents house; he wanted to stay and play with them.  He screamed his head off all the way to the mall... total meltdown mode.  We walked into Nordstrom and he fell onto the ground in a fit.  It was IN SANE.  He finally "shook" the meltdown in time for us to eat.  I was about to turn around and leave when he dropped to the ground, but he was able to shake it (because I kept telling him we wouldn't see Brad if he kept screaming...isn't that horrible??). 

Anyway-- I loved having some one on one time with my little guy.  He was a perfect date!

Cal "training" Hank

Cal has become quite bossy when it comes to Hank...

He's a good dog...!

Poop-a-pa-looza

Are you starting to feel like the majority of my posts are about bodily functions??  I guess that's the life with two boys...

The other day, Andy was sitting in his chair, happy as can be, while Cal and I ate lunch.  It was close to his nap time, but he was so happy... he let out a little fuss while I was cleaning up lunch so I went over to get him.  He was COVERED in poop.  It had some how managed to go around the front of him and up his chest (along with up his back).  This was mega.  At first I thought he had a massive spit up because there was so much down the front of him....nope-- it was poo!

I picked him up and tried to asses the damage.  It was pretty severe.  I begged Cal to come up the stairs with me and Hank decided he wanted to join us too... so the 4 of us (me, two kids and a dog) made our way through two baby gates and up the stairs (I add this detail because going up the stairs is a challenge-- the gates are tough while holding the hand of a 2 year old and a squirmy 4 month old...add in the poop, a kid who didn't want to come upstairs, and a wild dog and you have my scene). 

After laying Andy on the changing table, it became extremely evident that a bath was necessary.  His outfit was a one piece that had to go over the head to take off.  Sigh. 

Removing the clothing caused all kinds of smearing.  I won't go into details, but I will say it was in the hair, up the nose, etc, etc...

Running a bath while trying to hang onto a poop-covered wiggle worm is a challenge.  I am all about a challenge though.  He was sliding through my hands while laughing because that's just what Andy does now!

Oh, and while I am wrestling with the poop head, Cal and Hank are having their own wrestling matching.  Cal was running up and down the hallway while holding Hank's baby behind him, so Hank was chasing him.  Cal was screaming: "Hannnnk!  Where areee youuuuu????" followed by "HANK, NO! NO, HANK! HANK COME!" over and over again. 

Cal was laughing hysterically the entire time, and he would fall down from laughing so hard and Hank would pounce on him and lick him.  He was screaming with laughter-- the more he screamed, the more Hank would bark, which would upset Andy, which would make him cry... it was a crazy cycle. 

Just a little peek into one afternoon with me....

Here is my little poop head (literally)

TWO YEARS OLD: wow.

 I've already written this, but I seriously can not believe my little boy is TWO!  He is getting so old!!!  This update is long over due, but I wanted to wait until our two year check up, which was this morning so I could do the complete update with stats, etc...be prepared for a long one!

The past few weeks have been...challenging... Cal has hit the terrible twos (or should I say they have hit him??) and lately, there have been a LOT of battles.  When he is sweet, he is the sweetest kid you will ever meet.  He loves to take my face in his hands (or Eddie's) and pull us in for a big ol' kiss. He loves to kiss Andy and he will walk over to you and ask for a hug-- let me tell you the heart melting that takes place when he does that!!!  He loves to laugh and he is constantly cracking himself up.  He is a tough cookie and will bounce right back up when he falls and "brushes it off" without a problem. 

But, when he is naughty, BOY is he naughty.  (Disclaimer: I am not writing this to complain... just to look back on these days and say, WOW-- glad we have moved past that...because that's what is getting me through this craziness right now: knowing that this stage shall pass....).  Cal is very opinionated and really wants to do things on his own.  If he doesn't, a meltdown will follow.  I should also write what a meltdown is these days: throwing his body on the floor, face down, kicking, screaming and thrashing.  The meltdown does not pass quickly.  In some cases, the meltdowns last for several hours.  Oh yes.  Hours.  He goes to timeout to attempt to calm down and I tell him when he is done, he can come out and play.  He catches his breath, says sorry, then comes out and within the next 30 seconds is screaming again.  It's like he can't "shake" the meltdown.  We never really know what will cause the meltdown... in the past 2 weeks, we have had meltdowns over:
-nap time (duh)
-not being able to get the dustpan off of the broom
-wanting his shoes on (and me not doing it fast enough)
-leaving my parents house
-picking out clothing
-wanting me to build a bridge for him (we play blocks together every afternoon and he loves when I make bridges for him.  In this case, I was trying to get dressed to take him to school and couldn't sit down to play and he LOST it.)

Anyway, those are just a few of the meltdowns we have had lately... bless his heart, he can't help it: He's TWO!  I have gotten VERY good at counting to ten.  Once the meltdowns finally pass, he is back to that sweet sweet boy who loves to kiss, but let me tell you, my friends... those fits are TOUGH! Phew!  Eddie hadn't really witnessed them very much and one evening I was just spent from a 3 hour session and Eddie didn't understand why I was so exhausted/exasperated/frustrated/etc.... THEN, the next morning, Cal put on quite the show for Eddie and he was in shock.  haha-- he now gets it!

He took Cal to the golf course one afternoon to play, and this is what happened when it was time to come home:

Besides the fits, Cal is really SO SO much fun right now (I sound like I am contradicting myself, and I don't mean to...but he really IS fun!).  In the past two weeks, he has started talking in complete sentences and it just blows our minds how much he has to say!  He is also starting to become helpful with Andy.  I can ask him to go get a burpcloth or a diaper and he will run off and do it.  It's pretty amazing!  I have plenty of friends who had a 2 year old little girl (or older) when they had their second and they all think I'm crazy for thinking this is great-- their kid has been helping all along.... well, Cal hasn't... he is now very helpful!

We had an awesome check up this morning.  I wasn't sure how it would go with him...but he was great!  I also wasn't sure how it would go with weighing him in and measuring him, but he was a trooper!  He laid perfectly still when measured and stood up on the baby scale and thought that was so cool- ha!

Here are his stats:

Weight: 28 pounds, 11 ounces ---> 50th percentile
Height: 36 inches ---> 90th percentile
Head circumference (I don't have this number...?) ---> but she told me it was in the 97th percentile...ha!
Body Mass Index: (we've never gotten this one before) 25%

Other updates:

Sleeping:
Cal is a wonderful sleeper at night.  No complaints there. Down around 7, up around 7 or 7:30.  We are battling nap time still.  When we were potty training before, I think he sat in his crib at nap time thinking about going potty and not wetting his bed (even though we put him in a diaper for nap time), so he wouldn't go to sleep.  This is one of the reasons we threw in the towel on potty training.  He goes in his crib every single day for nap time, and he only naps about 4 days a week (unfortunately).  The days he doesn't nap are VERY hard on us for the afternoons.  He is just so worn out that everything set him off.  He goes in his crib every day at 1:00 and I do not let him come out until 3:30 at the earliest.  He can stay awake in there if he wants to, but he's going to have quiet time... it's a great break for both of us.  After about an hour and a half of him not sleeping, I will go in and give him some books to read (during the potty training phase I did this and he peed all over the books.  It was awful).  We also had the "get naked" phase during nap time, but thankfully, I *think* that has passed.  I haven't been putting him in jammies for nap time lately and he has been staying dressed.  If I catch him getting naked, I immediately put him in jammies.  Lately he has been stripping the sheet off of the crib during nap time.  He wakes up from his nap in the BEST mood and wants a huge hug-- I love going in to get him and seeing the big smile on his face. 
He has 3 animals he sleeps with every night: a cow, an elephant, and a zebra.  The zebra is new from my mom and he LOVES him!  It's really cute-- when I put him in the crib for bed and nap, he gets all 3 animals tucked in his arms and kisses each one and says "night night, ____" to each animal.  Talk about sweet! Sometimes when he doesn't nap, I peek in and see him talking to the animals... he lines them up along the crib and talks to them and then says "now go night night!" and then puts them on the pillow and puts a blanket over them, just like I do when tucking him in-- so cute!
Our pediatrician is strongly suggesting we get some blackout curtains for his room to help him take naps.  She is concerned about him getting overly tired since he is so active and sleep is so important for him.  I didn't want to tell her I dropped my nap altogether at 2 years old (sorry, mom....!!!). 

Potty Training:
Oh, potty training....!  It was going SO well for a while.  We were about 90% there... he was peeing every single time on the potty, and the accidents were getting fewer and fewer... then he started the camp this summer.  We LOVED camp, and I will not say anything negative about it!  Cal was the only one in his class training and the first few days he didn't mind getting pulled away to potty, but then he realized he was missing out on the class when he had to leave (these are my words, not his, obviously!), and so he started resisting going potty.  At home, I knew he would have to go (he was showing the signs, and it was time since he just drank a bunch), so I would ask him and he would give me an adamant NO, then he would have an accident immediately.  I started forcing him to go into the bathroom and it was a wrestling match every time.  He was kicking and screaming NO NO NO every time, but then I would put him on the potty and he would pee like crazy, all the while screaming NO POTTY!
Let me tell you how NOT fun that is!  You should not have to go through that to get your kid to pee!  We tried a reward session...Cal loves lollipops, and it got to the point that he would scream NO poppop because he knew that meant he had to stop playing to go potty. 
We decided to back way off.  I think there was a correlation between no nap and potty training too...so we are taking a break from it.  He still pees every time you put him on the potty (before every bath), but we are really not pushing it at all.  We will try again in a little bit, but for now, we are fine with waiting!

Eating:
Cal LOVES to eat and will eat just about anything I serve him, thankfully!  He loves sitting at the table in his high chair and is super happy to chow down!  I love his appetite because Eddie is a bit picky and kind of (really) hard to cook for.  Now that Cal eats so well, I can cook more and I love it. Our pediatrician was very pleased with everything he is eating and suggested we keep it up. Done and done.

School:
Cal is in school 2 days a week: Tuesday and Thursday.  He has yet to have a meltdown in school and they always say how sweet he is (phew!).  His teacher's name is Terencia, and Cal is just about able to say her name-- he is SO sweet trying!  I make him say goodbye and thank you to each of the staff members as we leave, so he is working hard on all of their names.  He now will go over and hug them as he says thank you-- sweet little guy.  As we were leaving last week, the director said, "that Cal sure does have a lot of personality!"  He suuuure does! 
Cal really enjoys school and we are so grateful he's happy going there.  They sing songs often because he comes home singing.  This morning I found him in my closet, sitting on the floor by himself, singing The Ittsy Bittsy Spider and doing all of the hand motions.  It was pretty darn awesome.  Oh, and he had on some of my shoes too-- made it even cuter. 

Talking:
We are blown away with how many words Cal knows now.  It seems like in the past 2 weeks he has just developed so much to say!  He is repeating everything we say now...so we have to be careful (and by we, I mean me.  I have got to be careful....damn it.).  The other day Andy had a poopy diaper and Cal walked in and said "HOLY COW!"  HAHAHAHAHAH!  I about died laughing.... no clue when that was said, but I thought it was hilarious.  He also is learning more and more animals names and sounds.  At the pumpkin patch, he started "bahhhhh-ing" at the goats...didn't know he knew that one!  He picks up on everything around him... it's pretty amazing to watch him learn.

Other stuff....
We are working on limiting the paci.  He only used it in the crib and car, and we dropped the car use completely, but a road trip brought it back.  I was firm about dropping in the car last week.  I am still letting him use it in the crib, especially at nap time... we need all the help we can get to get him to sleep!

He is still in love with golf.  No shocker there.... he is going out on the course with Eddie this afternoon.  I am excited for him to get to run around!

We are flying with both kids to TX later this month. Praying there are no meltdowns up in the air...!!!

There is the update-- I am impressed if you actually read it all!  Cal is at a really fun age and we are having SUCH a fun time with him.  He is challenging, but so so sweet too.  I fall more and more in love with him every day and I can not imagine my life without him in it.  He makes me a better person and I just feel like if I kissed him a million billion times a day, that it isn't enough... I want to kiss him a million billion plus one.... I just love him that much!

Sorry for the length of this... phew! 

iPhone Update

Some pictures from the iPhone...

blowing kisses to the spider

he brought his chair in to our bedroom to watch football. I literally turned around and saw this.  such a guy.

Andy wearing the new shirt from his Aunts

the boys having a little cuddle time (watching football)

he reallllly wanted to wear dad's socks.

he really wanted to wear MY sock here (just one) and my bridal heels (well, singular) and a Tory Burch flat...

the kid loves to suck his fingers...and smile.... and I LOVE it

again with the smiling.... nothing cuter than a kid in overalls

playing at Brad's house with Brad's dad and dog

a self portrait

getting a little encouragement from Hank during tummy time

tummy time wore Hank out

wearing his new crewcuts shirt and rainbow flipflops.  looking way too old

he's quite happy...have I mentioned I LOVE it?

because, oh my GAH, I LOVE IT.  I love this little nugget head!