ANDY

Happy weekend, y'all!  Hope everyone's weekends are off to great starts!

Both boys slept through the night great last night, but Eddie and I managed to be up about 50 times.  We both got hot, so we kicked off all of the covers, and then 20 minutes later, we were cold, so we pulled the covers back up...this went on ALL night! Go figure! After I do this little update, I just might go get a little shut eye.  It's doubtful, but I am going to try!

I felt the need to update on my sweet little nugget, Andy.  Gah, I love this kid.

So, my last post was about weaning him down from nursing.  Last Saturday, I dropped down to one nursing: just before bed.  On Sunday night, as I was nursing him, he noticed that I didn't really have that "let down" feeling of my milk coming down like I used to.  Then I noticed that he really wasn't getting a whole lot from me... but the snuggle time was awesome nonetheless so I just snuggled in a little tighter and kissed his head a million times.  While I was rocking/kissing him, I started to think that he this right here might very well be my last time nursing ever!  I don't know if we will have any more kids, and if we do, if that baby will go the breast-fed route (since we all know it is up to the babies!).  That, of course, got me all kinds of emotional.  Breast feeding is NOT for everyone...maybe people count down the days until they are done with it.  For me, I really like it! ANYWAY... before I get all sappy on here, let me just say that while I was rocking him on Sunday night, I realized that it was time for him to be done nursing...and that was it! I haven't nursed since then.  And Andy is doing GREAT!

He chugs his sippy cups of milk like a champ-- still refusing a bottle.  I chatted with my pediatrician about it and she said skip 'em all together, so we have!
He is sleeping great- taking 2 naps a day, the afternoon one usually over 3 hours, and sleeping through the night (can I get an halleluiah?! ).

He has quite the healthy appetite and it cracks us up to watch him eat.  He literally shovels food in his mouth.  This morning, Eddie was loading him in the carseat and Andy saw a cracker crumb in the seat (note to self: vacuum car this weekend) and Andy dove onto the cracker bit to shove in his mouth before Eddie could take it away.  He refuses to wear a bib and has found a way to take off any kind (Cal was the same way!), so meal times are usually quite messy. 

Andy is such a speedy little crawler.  It is pretty amazing how fast he can go! Cal never crawled the normal way, so it's cute to see Andy's little bum sway back and forth as he scoots down the hall.  Andy pulls up on everything, but he is a little hesitant to let go (with both hands).  If I am standing behind him holding his hands, he will walk great--and fast!-, but he doesn't like to have me let go of him.  I think it will be a while still before he walks since he can move so quickly by crawling.  And, I am totally fine with that! He's growing too fast as it is!

 Andy's favorite "toy" right now are books! He looooooves looking at books.  He will crawl through the playroom full of toys right over to the basket of books and he'll just sit and flip through the pages-- it's really sweet!

Speaking of sweet, Andy is my total snuggle bug.  He wants nothing more than to snuggle on me and I LOVE IT.  He curls his little legs up and tucks his head right under my chin and puts those two fingers in his mouth and snuggles right in.  If I am laying on the floor playing, he will crawl over to me, wiggle his way onto my stomach, and then inch his way up to "the position."  I am going to have to have Eddie take a picture of it one of these days.  It seriously makes my heart hurt how sweet it is.  I am leaving him for the first time in a few weeks (gulp...) and I just told my mom I am terrified he won't want to snuggle on me when I get back.  (how irrational am I?  I know, I know...).

His other favorite "toy" is his big brother! These boys love each other and I love watching them.  I know they are going to grow to become the best of friends...or wrestle buddies...whatever.

Enjoy your weekend!  Looks like the rain is stopping here today to clear out for some SUN SHINE!

Weaning part 2

Weaning Mr. Anderson is going well so far!  I am down to nursing him one time a day (right before bed time) and he is doing really well with this.  He still will not take a bottle and gets really mad when I offer him one.  He screams, turns his head, shoves it away, smacks at my face and thrashes around.  Hmm...he is just not a fan of that thing! HA! I have pretty much stopped offering him a bottle, but instead, he is drinking milk from a sippy cup all through the day.  I have it out by him when he's playing and he drinks from it continuously, and especially at meals.  This way, I know he's at least getting enough milk during the day (or at least, I am hoping he is...). 

Cal always had a sippy cup by him when playing, but it was filled with water.  I am still offering Andy water, but I am trying hard now to just get the milk in him.

And, I don't want to jinx anything, but Andy slept 13 hours last night! True to Williamson kid fashion, he waited until now (almost 10.5 months) to sleep through...just like big brother Cal--almost to the day...! He has slept 12 hours the past few nights and then 13 last night.  I pray that he will keep this up as I drop the last nursing before bed time.  I think I am going to attempt a bottle before bed when that time comes (this weekend), just to say I tried it. 

After having a week of company after a week in Mexico, it's time to have another adjustment period! Cal got a little spoiled having his grandparents and then his aunt here this past week.  There was always someone there to play with him whenever he wanted.  Today, he has had several fits because we have not dropped everything we were doing to go play trains with him.  I will break him of this soon, hopefully...

Not too much going on this week...I am just looking forward to getting back on track... in time for our next trip: to the beach for Easter!  I'll get everyone nice and back on routine and then I will throw a wrench into it all.  Why not?!  That's what makes life interesting...ha!

And, two random pictures because a pictureless post is boring:

he's pumped for Easter

Sunday after naps...all my my favorite boys xoxoxox

Flashback Friday

same outfit, different boy:

andy: 10 months old

cal: 11 months old

Since we've been home...

We have had an interesting week back in the REAL WORLD! In Mexico, there was this waiter by the pool names Luis who was FAB-U-LOUS and waited on us hand and foot.  Let me tell you, my friends: I want Luis to move in with me!  There have been several times this week that I fantasized about my little Mexican waiter (but in the fantasy, he is changing diapers and loading the dish washer and bringing me a drink-a strong one- and dealing with the crying it out......)

We've have a lot going on since we have returned... I'll start with Andy...
I am starting to wean Andy.  He was down to nursing about 3-4 times a day, and we have a trip coming up, so it is certainly time to wean the boy down.  I started on Saturday (we got home Friday night) at his afternoon nap time. I was nursing (most days) in the morning when he first got up, when he went down for afternoon nap, and before bed time.  He refused the bottle when I tried.  Wanted nothing to do with it.  Off to a great start!    I tried two different bottles and he was NOT having anything to do with it and was pulling at my shirt trying to get the goods. 
Meanwhile, we are having lots of issues with Cal going down too (more to come on that in a minute), so he was screaming his head off in the other room too.... not helping the situation.)
Thankfully, we started this process on a Saturday so Eddie was there to help me deal with the wild ones. 
He went down for his nap without milk and woke up cranky (I am sure hunger had something to do with it!).  He was also up in the night that night screaming for hours.  The next day, I tried and had the same results, including the night screaming (again, hours).  Then finally, he took the bottle after nap time, instead of before-- go figure.  That night, he slept through the night (but Cal was up multiple times....more on that in a minute...).  So then I realized that maybe I needed to alter my feeding times a little bit.  Well, that one time was a fluke because he has not had a bottle since then!  Just flat out refuses it and gets REALLLLLLY mad when I try!
Yesterday, I poured him some cold milk in a sippy cup and gave it to him in the morning.  He drank quite a bit... and then continued to drink it throughout the day and drank a ton with dinner.  Looks like we will be skipping a bottle all together...? 
Tomorrow, I am dropping another feeding...it'll be interesting to see how that goes.  I am dropping the morning feeding and am going to try a bottle again, but I am feeling doubtful that he will take it.  Any of you smart moms out there have any advice on this one?  I'd love to hear it!

at a birthday party for a friend of Cal's...such a big boy! I remember Cal wearing this outfit...

Other than the weaning, Mr. Andy is OVER baby food.  He wants nothing to do with us feeding him.  He is all about feeding himself big people food.  I was super hesitant to feed him solids because of his (lack of) teeth, but he seemed ready, so I started slow... he was ready.  He LOVES to eat!  He gets really focused at meal time and shovels the food in using his (left!) hand.  So far, he has had (and loved): strawberries, chicken, ground beef, avocado, cheese, bread (broken into really small pieces), ritz crackers, melon, pineapple, cheerios, hmmmm.... can't think of what else...

get. in. my. belly.  I will crush you, strawberry.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow after we drop another feeding.  Do y'all know if there is a certain amount of milk they have to get every day? Does he need to have milk at 3 set times a day?  Or is it okay to let him drink it throughout the day?

yummm....cupcake...

So, now on to CalBoy!

In Mexico, we would lay down every night with Cal to get him to fall asleep.  We just did this because it was a strange place and we were worried he would be scared to be in a room all by himself.  Well, we got home and Cal decided that he wanted to continue that trend.  It was ridiculous! We would put him down for bed time and he was screaming his head off for hours.  Not just crying.  SCREAMING.  Like flailing around in the bed screaming louder than anything I've ever heard come from his mouth.  He was doing the same thing at nap time.  So this craziness is going on across the hall while I am trying to shove a bottle into a screaming kid's mouth-- IN SANE.
I tried being sweet to Cal.  I tried yelling at Cal.  I tried ignoring Cal.  It was NOT working.  Monday night, he screamed himself to sleep (notice I am not writing CRY) and then woke up so many times in the night crying.  It was IN.SANE.  Finally, I gave in and went in there at 3:30-- he had been up since 3 and I was afraid he would wake up Andy (which he finally did-- the night that Andy decided to sleep through the night-- Cal woke him up at 6). Eddie finally got up at 4:30 and got in bed with Cal, trying to get some sleep.  Cal refused to let Eddie sleep.  He was tapping him on the shoulder, whispering to him, trying to tickle him... around this time, the thunder started and Hank started his normal freak out session.  Soooo, I wasn't going back to sleep either.  Eddie came back into our room at 5:15 and threw his hands in the air and was spent.  I took Cal to school on Tuesday morning after he had been up since 3am.  His teacher said he was fine, but I can't even imagine what a little pill he must have been!

Tuesday night, Eddie and I agreed that we HAD to break him of this little habit.  He started out screaming when we put him down, but quickly fell asleep.  The next day at nap time, I sat on the end of his bed, not talking or looking at him, and he fell asleep quickly then too.
Wednesday afternoon, he woke up from his nap a little warm.  By Wednesday night, it was a full blown fever.  He now has what Andy had while we were in Mexico.  He is great when the medicine is in him, but as soon as it wears off, he is burning up.  I am hoping we are on the tail end of it now... he was up 4 times last night... once at midnight with the fever, needing meds, once at 1:30 because he kicked off all of his blankets while he was in the midst of the fever and he was cold now that the fever was gone, and again at 3:30 thirsty, and then again at 5 wanting to go potty....

these pictures were from today...the medicine wore off while we were out running errands.  Cal was talking a mile a minute in the backseat and then it got really quiet.  I looked back and he was out.  I woke him up when we got home and carried him to the couch.  He fell sound asleep there and Hank decided to keep watch.

 Oh, and one last thing about Cal this week is his efforts to prolong going to bed every night/nap time.  He climbs up on the potty and claims he has to poop.  Then he pushes as hard as he can until he actually does poop.  This is great in that I have not changed a poopy diaper of his in a while, but bad because sometimes he will sit on the potty for a loooong time.  I took a really funny video of him going the other day and explaining to me about "more poop is coming! Can you hear it??" But I thought I was holding the camera high enough to cut out his "parts" but in some of the video, he leans back just enough that you can see 'em.  And I just can't do that to my kid (anymore).

That's about it for this week!  Eddie's parents came on Tuesday and left this morning, and Eddie's sister is coming tonight for the weekend.  After all of the activities we have had from 10pm until 5am, I gotta be honest.  This momma is SPENT!  I am going to watch the HEELS tonight and then I am going to crash.  Maybe tonight will be the night BOTH boys sleep???  PLEASE??? 

check out those teefers!!! We think Andy might be our braces kid...hahaha

 long post...can't help it.  I'm long-winded, always!

GO HEELS :D

MEXICO!!

We are back!!

We had such a wonderful time on our vacation to Mexico... the hotel was amazing, the weather incredible, and the kids did really well too!

On the way there, we flew through Atlanta.  The kids played hard in the ATL airport with hopes of wearing them out prior to the 3.5 hours flight down there.  Andy fell asleep prior to take off and woke up about 20 minutes in.  Cal fell asleep right when Andy woke up.  Andy did not go back to sleep and he was suuuuper busy the rest of the flight!  He wanted to jump, lean, stretch, etc etc... Cal was asleep on Eddie so I was wrestling with Mr. Squirmy pants for most of the flight.  We landed and it felt like I had been lifting weights for 3 hours- ha!  Other than that, though, the kids were both great flyers.

The resort where we stayed was all-inclusive and SUPER nice.  We lucked out and got a suite so we could put Andy in one of the bathrooms, and then there was a huge living room area and then a bedroom with two beds.  We also had a great balcony.  It really was the best layout we could have hoped for. 

The boys had so much fun there and we are really glad we took them.  It is such a family-friendly resort; I know we would have been really missing them if they weren't there!
Cal walked around saying Hola! to everyone we saw, and then he would say gracias! to the wait staff.  He was timid in the water for about the first 5 minutes and then he loved it.  There was a little pool which came to about his chest, and there was a little ledge that went around the pool.  Cal stayed in that pool most of the time.  He would hang on to the side and go under over and over and over again. 
Andy also had fun, but he wasn't feeling great.  About the third day there, he woke up burning up-- like hot to the touch.  I think his teeth coming in were just really upsetting him.  I brought some ibproufren, but it wasn't touching this fever, unfortunately.  Thankfully, the friends we knew on the trip had some tylenol as well and told us to rotate giving advil and tylenol every 2 hours, and that brought the fever down.  It was pretty bad for two days-- it was like Andy couldn't stay awake.  I knew he was hurting so bad and I hated being so far away from his bed and home.

Anyway.... other than the fever, we had SUCH a great time! Eddie's friend from Baylor, and his sweet wife, Allyson, were also on this trip.  They brought two of their kids...they have TRIPLETS!!! So they brought their oldest son, whom Cal adored, and one of the triplets, who is about a month older than Andy.  This family is one of those that you just love to travel with.  They are super fun and easy going...and they were totally understanding when my boys hit a wall at dinner every night!
 I took 545 pictures while we were there.  In sane, I know.  I will spare you all of them, but I will share some (okay, a lot) here...

POOLSIDE:

Harper and Cal.  Cal loooooved watching Harper and wanted to be JUST like him!

they had water aerobics every day at noon.  Allyson and I participated the first day-- it was actually really fun! haha!

getting comfortable in the water, sticking his face in...

Andy has the life....

post-swim relaxation in the stroller

having a ball

the "kiddie" pool where Cal loved to play

Allyson and Hampton with me and Andy! Hampton is one month older than Andy

I love Andy's excitement here

chewing on a pineapple...maybe it will help with the teething...?

best buddies

getting so brave

all the way under!

this was the day Andy didn't feel well... he had just woken up from a nap and stayed awake for about 30 minutes before he was back out again...

snuggling my baby...

hahaha- not sure what he is doing here...

he literally did this over and over and over again!

me and my boys (and my mimosa!) poolside!

CAL:

ANDY:

we were trying to get ready for dinner and he was into EVERYTHING! So we contained him in his crib- ha!

at dinner one night munching on some cheese

he is pulling up on everything possible

dinner buddies with Hampton

these boys could crush some puffs

surf's up

he wasn't feeling well at this point-- you can see in his eyes how awful he felt

and yet, I still tried to take pictures.... poor guy.  The sunset was just too pretty to miss out!

i love this little nugget

really not feeling well here...at least woody was there to keep him company!

THE BOYS:

"I hold AH-NDY"

"no more, please!"

looks like such a sweet picture...until you look closely and Cal is about to bite Andy's nose...

THE FAMILY:

PHEW!  That was a LOT of pictures!!!  

We really had a ball and it wasn't even too crazy taking the kids with us.  Getting back home and back to a routine, on the other hand, is out of control crazy.  We had to lay down with Cal each night and at nap time in the hotel to get him to go to sleep... now he won't go to bed at home... I will write another post on our "adjustments" to getting back to the real world later.

Until then.... good to be home!!!