recent INSTAGRAM happenings

Wearing her favorite pink dress. 

Practicing his "dad face".

Busy day for this one...

Her cozy bath in a bucket.

Meeting Aunt Ashley. 

More chillin'.

Birthday party at Kiddie Acres.

This ride was their favorite.

First time on a pony.

Almost ready for bed.

The day he turned four. Guess what he wanted for his bday?

Shopping for Halloween. 

Friends that rest together stay together.

He gets his furrowed brow from me.

Wearing her new favorite pink dress.

Rookie pumpkin patch pic. Lots of room for improvement here.

So much love!

happy TWO months

Age: Two months

Height: 23 3/8" (50-75%)

Weight: 12lb 13oz (50-75%)

Head: 39.6 cm (50-75%)

Does this outfit look familiar? Blue was four months in those pictures. Brother at two months... He is a wiggly baby and (much like Blue) never choses to be alone. He is much happier in the company of someone playing with him. He has a delicate relationship with the car seat. After crying for a bit he will eventually fall asleep, but if you stop too long at a light he wakes up screaming again. He eats about every two hours during the day which is fine because he doesn't eat at night. He sleeps at night. I'll take it. He is super-strong. Probably from all that wiggling. He can support his weight on his legs and loves to be upright. He is smiley as long as it is not a camera in his face. Love him!

* I am feeling out of my picture groove recently. I took about 50 photos in this series and there were only about 16 that were in focus. I am going to take my camera in for a tune-up. Wouldn't it be nice to just blame the equipment! 

our DAILY naps

Blue was due for his four-year well-check with the doctor and Brother was due for his two-month. Wiley still needed to catch up on missed vaccines from our time in Tokyo. Everyone needed shots. So I don't know if it was crazy or smart but I scheduled all three of them to happen at 1:30pm this afternoon. Luckily, I knew where to recruit some skilled extra hands and my mom joined us. It went mostly as expected. Wiley was bawling crocodile tears until she was offered a lollipop and then abruptly turned them off and proceeded to calmly eat her candy. Brother was sad and offended until we gave him a bit of a bottle and he went right back to sleep. Blue had plans to be brave and sat nicely on my lap until the first needle pricked his skin and then proceeded to have a meltdown. He took the longest to recover and was still wimpering about them through dinner.

I ended up getting some pics of the kids during their rest times today. Thought it would be a nice visual of our afternoon and a glimpse into their different personalities...

Brother is very stretchy and unless his head is propped up he often finds himself in this sort of position. He usually is wearing pants though.

Sweet Blue mostly doesn't nap but I'm never surprised to see him cuddled up in his blanket. 

And then Wiley-girl. My wild card. She will go a whole week without napping and then take a nap everyday of the next. When she doesn't nap she is usually perfectly quiet but somehow manages to upend her closet and try on all manner of clothes and shoes. Today was a no-nap day.

Blue getting a sweet wake-up request from Wiley...

the PARTY week

Blue was obsessed with this birthday. It is the first one that he really gets. Most of his friends at school have already turned four so he was anxious to join their ranks.  We have been counting down the days for weeks and planning out just what he wanted to eat and do. He wanted cantaloupe and cashews for snack. He wanted chicken nuggets for dinner but we settled for his second choice - BBQ - which has a wider appeal. He wanted chocolate cake but ended up being so distracted by his presents that he didn't eat a bite of it. And he wanted superhero stuff. Which he got in the form of costumes, toys, and legos. We have been coaching him about what to do and say when someone gives him a present and in the moment he was way too distracted by everything to remember. But after the initial excitement had passed he had the sweetest unprompted thank yous for everyone. 

We had a party with his friends the following Saturday - he invited six boys and two girls and most of them came. It was a very cute little crew running around the house. It was supposed to be at a nearby park but as luck would have it the weather was bad. We pushed all the furniture up against the walls and the kids seemed to have a good time regardless.

They played with toys and jumped on the bed, designed their own shield, had a Silly String war, and ate chocolate cake. Everyone came dressed in superhero garb and Wiley wore her favorite pink dress. Graham and I hear a lot about Blue's friends but we don't get to watch them all play together very often. It was a fun morning for us all.