Danielle's been home and lots of smiles:)

We have been having a blast with Danielle being home-Tucker especially.  He woke up from his nap and was running around the house yelling DD DD for awhile after he woke up...unfortunately for him, she wasn't here:( Tomorrow is our last day with D for another 6 months, which, if I actually force myself to think about it, is incredibly depressing.  It's a good thing I am very much on board with what she is doing in Tanzania, because it makes it a little bit easier to be away from her for so long.  Tucker is not going to know what to do when she's not here in person, but we start talking to her on the computer again.  We have just gotten to the point where we can open the computer without him yelling DD DD and pointing at the screen because he wants to video chat her.  He was very confused when she first came home and she was here in real life, not on the computer:)

showing her Mater and his other new cars

brayden cuddles 

we went sledding where D, Chris and I used to go when we were little at the church at the top of the hill. Max accidentally tipped Tucker out face first into the snow before he even took his first run, hence the less than thrilled face. That, and it was FREEZING and windy.  D, Max and I managed to get a few runs in on the toddler sled too:)

when he fell out:(

lots of fun times...this is about one minute before he puked from getting flipped upside down by D and before this my dad was holding tucker over his back by his ankles and running around the house...go figure

 Max has been off all week which has been awesome! He was committed to making better and better forts, despite the fact that Tucker kept destroying them.

Brayden is SUPER smilely! I have been able to capture many of my phone too-enjoy!

Two of my friends from high school have recently had their 2nd and 3rd (twins) babies and the other had her first! We were able to have a quick visit while everyone was home at Christmas.

l-r: brayden, henry, adilene, and landon

Max with the twins and Brayden

Love that our boys get to grow up with these girls!

We found this house in Easton-would love a house like this some day! The porch-just love it!

I made 5 freezer crock pot meals this week and each makes two meals-10 meals made in 2 hours! Amazing! Let's hope they taste good:)

We finally made it down to Fairfield beach to see some of the Sandy devastation.  There is still tons of sand even 2 months later.  You can also see some of the homes that were destroyed.  Such devastation!

We also had a really fun trip to Stepping Stones with D, but that will be another post because I've got to go to sleep!

2 months old!!!

I said it every month with Tucker, and I will most likely say it every month with Brayden-I can't believe he's TWO months already!  My how time flies...which with newborns, is sometimes a good thing:)  Brayden is so cute and snuggly (way more that Tucker was) and is a much easier baby than Tucker, but I still get excited thinking about the day/night when he sleeps through the night!

Brayden is probably an average baby, but I still think he's not too bad, since he has been much easier than Tucker was so far.  I keep waiting for the craziness to begin and just when it gets close, he goes back to super pleasant baby!  Thank God!

He's eating much quicker (anywhere from 15-20 min for the most part, but some up to 30) and is lasting more like 2.5-3 hours in between feedings during the day.  He cluster feeds in the evenings and has lately adopted a 4-6-8ish schedule.  He gets up once at night sometime between 3 and 4am usually, but he has made it a couple times to 5!  He is not a fan of the dream feed bottle, unlike Tucker, which kinda sucks for me! He was getting his last feeding at 9/9:30 and then Max would struggle to give him maybe .5 oz at 10:30/11.  The past week I've started to feed him at 8/8:30 and then put him to bed.  Then I'll wake him up between 10/10:30 and change him and feed him before I go to bed.  It's been working out pretty well, although there have been some nights where I just want to go to bed at 9 and can't!  Oh well-he's still doing better than T.  And then he will get up sometime around 7:30 usually.  Nothing to complain about!

He is so cute and VERY smilely!  He has started to coo a bit and has rolled over from stomach to back twice.  The first time we missed it, but then both Max and I saw the second one.  Most likely they were both flukes, but we'll see if he repeats it more frequently now. He likes to lay on his playmat and swat the animals that hang.  He's not a huge fan of tummy time for mroe than 5 minutes, but he can hold his head up pretty high.  I put him in the Bumbo for a few minutes today and he did pretty well with that too.

He seems to be growing steadily but I will find out next week when he goes for his 10 week appt.

He has started to get a little fussier-not sure if it is typical 2-4 month fussiness or if he is having some stomach/gas issues.  He is not a fan or sleeping for more than 45 min for the most part during naps.  I can usually get him back to sleep, but sometimes it requires some effort and screaming from him...not fun! He is coming around to the swing, which is helpful to me, but sometimes we can swaddle him and put him in his crib.  He is also a big fan of his binky-especialy to sleep-which is when he gets it for the most part.

He still resembles Tucker, especially when his eyes are closed, but he is certainly starting to look like his own person!

We love him very very much and have enjoyed seeing all the changes that have happened in the past two months:)

Tucker-speak

Tucker is 21 months today so I figured it was time for an update.

Tucker has started to speak even more (the usual progression, I know) in the past few weeks.  It has been so cute to see/hear him use more words in a row and randomly start saying new words.  He's also changed the way he says some words to more understandable versions, which is always helpful.

A couple of his favorite/our favorite things that he says right now are: "bite-a-bite-a-bite-pease-pease"-translation= bite please.  "elp pease"= help please. "oh, da baby" and "oh baby" when he sees Brayden.  Max has also taught him to say "poop" and "deuce". He uses poop more often to refer to when he pees, poops, farts, or hears a fart.  He will say what he wants 3-4 times too, which is cute most of the time.  For example, if he wants to get up he'll say, "up up up up."  And one of his favorite new words is "cookie." Just in time for the holiday season, complete with a wide variety of cookies.

He has just started to say "bible" and milk is finally sounding more like "milk" instead of "muh".  I get really confused whenever he says snow, because it comes out like "no" and I am wondering what he's saying "no no no no" for when we are in the car or if he's looking out the window.

He also thinks that if he says "peas" it means he should get it.

He's been doing some other funny things too lately that I want to write down so I don't forget. He is a bundle of energy and literally doesn't stop the entire day.  I am used to it, but a couple different people have watched him lately during the day and their comment is always the same when I return: "He just doesn't stop, does he?"  Nope- he's always on the move.  The rare moments that he will sit and read or play with his trains/cars while standing somewhat still are wonderful!

Anyways, he's started to gallop around the house in a circle over and over again (he does the same thing at anyone else's house where he can run in a circle, but usually without the gallop) and will intermittently "neigh".  If he doesn't something that he knows he isn't supposed to do, like throw his milk cup on the floor, he makes this face, which I have yet to capture on camera, with eyes and mouth wide open and he will sometimes bob his head.  It's so funny, but I have to keep a straight face-which often results in me turning around before I reprimand him so I can get a laugh or smile out first.

He's still super social and loves being the center of attention.  He was loving all of the holiday gatherings where he could hang out with people-especially DD, since she's home.  My brother is slightly excited for D to go back to Africa this weekend because he'll be the favorite again...but no one can hold a candle to how Tucker feels about my dad, Papa.  If I am on the phone, he thinks it's Papa (we facetime him sometimes).  In order to get him in the car one day last week I told him we were going to see Papa-we weren't-oops! When we got to my grandma's and my mom came in, he said hi and then ran by her to look around the house for where Papa was.  Big oops! Last time I lie about that to him!

He is certainly a strong-willed child and has increased his meltdown frequency-oh joy!-which I am unsure if its because of Brayden or his age or both-I'm leaning towards both.

For the most part he is an incredibly loving and fun kid.  He loves his brother and loves to give him kisses and tries to play with him, and he's usually gentle, and one of the cuter things he does with Brayden is if Brayden is crying and really upset, Tucker gets upset too and has even come and tugged on me a few times if I'm not coming right away so that I will help him.  Love it!

Fun times with DD as always!

loved his Christmas outfit so I just had to put it in (ignore the shoes-I didn't feel like buying black ones to match!)

Christmas Festivities!!

Well this Christmas was just as busy as year's past, but with many differences.  It was probably one of the most fun Christmases we've had since we've been married, because we got to share it with a little boy who was able to enjoy all of the festivities!

We had six Christmas celebrations this year again, but this year was MUCH more tolerable because they were spread out.  

The biggest change/adjustment for me was that I didn't wake up at my parents' house for the first time in 30 years on Christmas morning.  For as long as I can remember I have been woken up by my Dad blasting the Hallelujah chorus loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.  I was a little sad but seeing Tucker enjoy opening his presents at our house Christmas morning made up for it.  We also didn't go to Max's mom's house on Christmas night for the first time since we've been married.  We've been celebrating with his sister and mom on the day after Christmas for awhile now, but we usually go up on Christmas night.  Despite the change in tradition, we really enjoyed not having to load the car with everything extra we would have needed to spend the night at the various houses. It made for a bit of relaxation amidst the craziness of our Christmas celebrations.

#1: Christmas Eve brunch at my parents' house with my grandparents and my uncle mike's family

and no, the color coordinating and spacing was not planned.

#2: Dinner at our house with my family- complete with Just Dance2 dance offs and lots of laughs and funny stories being told!

we had one candle, but our neighbors had 26 candles lit in memory of the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook.  

#3: Christmas Morning at our house!

yes most of the gifts are for tucker....but half of them were clothes that he needed that I wrapped up so he could have fun opening:)

we had to wake him up at 7:30 so that we could get the gifts opened in time to get to my parents' house for brunch.  Tucker was a little cranky and sleepy still.

it didn't take long for him to dig in!

Brayden's first Christmas morning!

he picked the two biggest gifts to open first

thankfully we got snow yesterday so now he can go try it out!

we're tempted to have him wear this around the house since he's so clumsy!

he has cultivated a major obsession with Thomas and Friends...ughhh 

#4: Christmas morning at my parents house!

i think he has enough match box cars for life! They are getting rationed

everyone got great gifts made by disabled artisans in Tanzania from a business one of D's friends started called Karama (I think that's how you spell it).  They are all awesome! This is a cute ball! Tucker and Brayden also got prints that my dad made frames for and they both got Owl stuffed animals.  I got an awesome headband and necklace and bracelet.  I'm sure there were more but I can't remember. 

here's the headband 

having fun with DD...he kept taking pictures of everything.

these are the most adorable PJ's Tucker got from my mom-of course they are Thomas.

my bro's girlfriend Anggy came this year too! It was so fun having her there!

my dad made tucker a stool just like the one the one he had made my brother when he was little! It's awesome!!

 #5: Christmas dinner at my aunt's

our fam:)

 #6: Christmas at Max's mom's!

opening gifts from the Baldwins!

I might be more excited about T's new play kitchen from GG than T is yet:) Max is getting it set today!

cousins pic...minus Brayden-he was asleep!

Well it was a fun but tiring but very fun few days!! I can't wait until next year:)