3 months old!

Well as much as time flies with the first child, it goes even faster with the second!  The "fourth trimester" is over already and I can't believe it.

Brayden continues to be a joy and a pretty easy going baby.  Whenever anyone babysits they say how easy he is.  It was certainly a welcome change to the first 3 months of Tucker's life!

He loves getting baths! And he's so patient because our water was not warm for a couple days there!

He does ok with tummy time-doesn't like to be on it for too long, but he is still very good at getting his head up. He's a big fan of the play mat if he's on his back, and will thankfully lay there for awhile and just stare at the hanging things and the lights. He also likes his bouncy seat and has pretty much transitioned away from the vibrating chair.  

He can also sit in the bumbo for a bit. He's started to grab and swat at things so I can give him a toy and he'll hold it/play with it on a mat or in the bumbo.

He's been taking most of his naps in his crib (if we're home) and sometimes will sleep for 60-90 minutes and other times he wakes up after 45 min and will either fall back to sleep if we give him his binky, but more often will go back to sleep in his swing. Thankfully he likes his swing like Tucker did!

He's taking 3 naps and a cat nap for the most part.

"yay I'm 3 months"

 He spent most of his third month getting up once per night around 3/4am but has started to sleep from 10:30-7/7:30 the past week, with only a couple nights of getting up to feed him mixed in.  I, for one, and LOVING it!  He usually goes down around 8/8:30 for the night too.

love this cute face!

 He has been nursing really well and when he gets a bottle he drinks 4-5oz.  He's starting to get some chunky legs and chubby cheeks! I hope he gets nice and chunky like Tucker did!

Tucker and Brayden have started to interact a little more too.  Since Brayden smiles so much, it is easy for Tucker to get a reaction from him. He likes to kiss and tickle Brayden and B will smiled when he does it.  When Tucker gets up in the morning he is most excited to see Brayden.

We also survived our first week without Max! It was a long week, but the boys were champs-especially Brayden.  We are so thankful for this boy! I was excited to make it through those first 3-4 months (since Tucker was so hard during that time) but now that it's flying by (and B is not so tough) I am sort of wanting it to slow down a bit!  How ironic:)

Funny Ha Ha

Two (somewhat) funny stories from Tucker today.

1. (this is the less funny story-just more ironic, albeit typical at the same time) We got Tucker a mini trampoline for Christmas. He has been jumping a lot lately- both on the couches (not a fan of this and he's not really allowed to do this) and on the ground-so I thought it might be a good idea to open it up and put it together.  Well after 30 minutes of putting it together...he jumped on it for 30 seconds and then was more interested in driving his matchbox cars on it instead.  I'm hoping that tomorrow he's more into it!

2.  When I feed Brayden I just tell Tucker that he is eating so Tucker will point at him/me when i'm nursing and say "eat".  Well this afternoon when I was putting him down for his nap, he took his lovie and put it down my shirt and pointed to it and said "eat".  I guess he thought his lovie was hungry:)

This guy...

 This guy...

 ...had a bath last night and this is what happens when you dry his hair...full fro effect!

Tucker is such a ball of joy and such a source of frustration all at the same time.  We have been battling him actually sitting to eat many of his meals. Not just sit, but to eat them.  Not every meal, but many meals.  He is just too busy wanting to run around and play.  It is the one thing that makes me crazy that he does.  

But then he'll go and do something like this...

 ...and love his brother so well at such a young age, and it makes me forget that he just wouldn't eat his lunch and wanted to do something involving "choo choo" instead.

Thankfully this guy...

...has been such a joy! He's so easy going for the most part and loves to smile and elicits tons of smiles from others as well:)

 One of the benefits of being home with the kids is getting to see friends more often and getting to do fun things with Tucker.  We met my friend Danielle (she is just finishing up her maternity leave-we teach together) at an indoor play place.  Tucker started to say her kids names which is so cute Pophie/Ophie (sophie) and Noona/Nona (Noah) and he just wanted to follow Sophie around and play with her.  Such a fun place!

On a different note-ever see one of these in the bathroom? It's a chair for your kids while you pee! Awesome!! Yet gross all at the same time...

Tucker had such a blast playing with all of these different things!

 One of the few times that he is actually still! I love the concentration that he has...that and the tool belt!

Lunch with Sophie:)

He's gonna be a heart breaker:)

I've been trying to come up with some more things to do at home besides just play with toys-because it gets boring for me and probably for him too:) Yesterday's attempt at a new activity was painting!  He liked it for a bit, but it was making me crazy that he was mixing all the colors...I had no choice but to get used to it quickly:)

 Todays activity was much more successful!  We played with dried beans. He tried to eat them a couple times so this is definitely an activity that needs some supervision, but he LOVED playing with them.  He sat there for about an HOUR (something he NEVER does!) and just filled and dumped and we hid matchbox cars and dug them up and used his toy loader and dump truck to move the beans around too.  Thankfully I thought to put a sheet down where we were playing-it caught all the beans he dumped as he explored and made for super easy cleanup!  Definitely one thing to repeat!

I guess I'll have to start patrolling pinterest to come up with some other fun "do it yourself" activities!

The past two weeks...

First, this little dude, is amazing! He is such a blessing and such a joyful little baby! He is so happy and with the exception of his frequent diaper blow outs, he's quite easy.  He has his moments just like any baby does, but for the most part he sleeps well, eats well, and likes to play and smile!  A welcome change from Tucker's first few months!

Max started a new job next week at a company called InContext Solutions, based out of Chicago.  He has an office here, but he had to spend the week in Chicago for the initial training, etc.  I was definitely a little anxious about being home by myself for the whole week with both boys.  I was thinking it would be exhausting-which it certainly was tiring.  We planned something for pretty much every morning of the week and the boys took great naps in the afternoons to allow me to rest.  I also had the benefit of using our babysitter a couple days, and my parents and brother were really helpful too! So nice to have family near by who can give you a break!  We survived nicely with lots of prayer, crock pot freezer meals (the best invention ever!), and helps from great friends and family:)

Monday Addie came over to play for the morning!

Tuesday I took Brayden for his 10 week appointment (50th percentile weight, 75th height) and then went to visit Sarah and Willaim while Tucker was with miss Lynne and Addie. I even managed to give both boys baths and get them to bed with no tears!

When I got home from Sarah's, his new toy food had arrived so he had fun exploring that after his nap.

Wednesday Tucker went to play with my brother while Brayden and I went to meet my friend Lauren's new daughter, Willa! Then we went to my parents' house for dinner.

Thursday we had play group which is always fun and my parents came here for dinner.  Tucker had so much fun making/destroying forts with my dad in the basement.  My mom wouldn't let him go to bed with wet hair so she had to blowdry it-and him-just like she used to do with us:)

Friday Tucker went to play with Addie and Miss Lynne while I brought Brayden in to school to visit my friends and meet everyone.  He was so good!

Before Tucker went to play he had fun watching the oil truck fill up our tank...anything with trucks is a HUGE hit!

 Who doesn't love playing underneath a laundry basket, right?!

 Unfortunately, the end of the week didnt' go as smoothly as the rest of it.  Max was supposed to land in White Plains at 9:15pm, but he called me at 10:15 to tell me they had landed in Hartford because White Plains closed due to heavy fog.  He ended up getting a cab from Hartford, with three other people, one woman who had "horse breath", and had to drive to White Plains, get his car, and come home.  He got in at 2am.  Then I woke up with a nasty stomach bug and barely got out of bed all day.  I basically fed Brayden and that was it.  Thankfully it only seemed to last 24 hours and by Sunday night I was feeling pretty much back to normal.

This week Max has more training in the city for a few days, but at least nothing is overnight.  Just long days!  With the snow today I was feeling especially lazy (that and I went to bed late last night after going to the Night of Hope and Healing Concert with my Dad) so we spent the morning in PJs, watched some of Cars2, dove on/off of forts, and baked/decorated ginger bread cookies (from a bag-please!).

 Tucker is crazy. He never walks, always runs. He doesn't just ride his ATV around the house, he man-handles it.  And as of today, he also off-roads with it and then throws himself from the seat onto pillows-at least most of the time it was onto a pillow!

These two are great and I can't wait to see how they both begin destructing things together even sooner than I think! But for now I am going to enjoy the long naps that they take and the calmness that at least one of them exudes!

We've Been Hit!!

We've-well more like, I, have been hit with the stomach bug! Luckily it seems like it was just a 24 hour thing and I feel SO much better!  We are just praying that no one else gets it. Max was away for the last week and thankfully he came home just in time for me to get it.  Unfortunately, he didn't get in until 2am Saturday morning, only to wake up to me being sick to my stomach, needing to spend the day in bed.  He was supposed to get in to White Plains airport at 9:15.  He called me at 10:15 from Hartford because they had closed White Plains due to fog.  American got him (and three other people crammed together) a cab to White Plains (45 min past our house) so he could get his car, and then eventually get home! Poor guy! He's been a real trooper though taking care of the kids and keeping them away from me!
Thank God this seems to be a quick bug!

Stepping Stones With DD

We've had a busy week so this blog has been neglected the past week but I wanted to get these pics up from our fun trip to Stepping Stones before Danielle left.  Tucker LOVES stepping stones and he got a pass for Christmas from GG so we were able to go with D too!

(sorry for the poor picture quality-they are all with my phone)