Nathan's two month checkup

His weight gain is FINALLY slowing down! Little Chunky Monkey weighed 12 pounds 13 ounces today. He was 9 pounds 13 ounces at 4 weeks. I'm glad it looks like we won't have a baby elephant to feed! He was 23 inches long and is in the 75th percentile for everything. Brian has always been in the 25th percentile (except his head). He had a good appointment. Nothing to worry about and she answered all of my questions. We go back at 4 months. Both boys will be due for check-ups then so that ought to be a fun appointment.

Cheerios, water fun, and a size comparison

We started our morning with a special treat of Cheerios on the couch. Poor kid has a nice shin full of bruises. After lunch we played on the new water mat today. Brian liked it and thought it was fun! I'm also posting a comparison picture of Brian at two months and Nathan at two months. Here are some pictures! By the way, we love you and miss you Dean!

2 months and a general update

Nathan turned two months old today. I can't believe how fast the time has flown! It seems like it is going by so much faster this time. He is getting so big! I was able to actually get Brian and Nathan to sit together for a picture with out major incident. Previously, Nathan would have lost an eye or an arm, but this time Brian was very loving. I was impressed how well it went!

Nathan is getting stronger every day. He likes to "stand" by pushing up off my legs. His new favorite thing is to sleep on his tummy at night. Brian always slept on his tummy (shh don't tell the pediatrician). Nathan used to be fine on his back but now he really likes to be on his tummy. I get better sleep since now he doesn't have to sleep with me. Dean will be very happy with that too! His gas problems seem to be doing better since I started adding some formula to his bottle. He is in less pain now. We go in for his 2 month checkup on Wednesday. When he was weighed at 7 weeks he was 12 pounds 5 ounces. I'm very interested in what he weighs now. I think that is about it for him.

Brian is getting so smart! He is doing very well with his sign language. He says more, eat, milk, please, and thank you. He is also starting to try to talk a bit more. He is mimicking me a lot now. He says words in his own way that only mommy understands. Those words are lellow (yellow), boo (blue), bur (bird), mama, dada, na (Nathan) and nana (bananas). I just know he is really going to start talking soon! He is becoming more loving towards Nathan and doesn't want to harm him as much anymore. He still takes his pacifier from him but will usually return it to Nathan if I tell him to. He is getting so smart and is still a little daredevil. The toddler bed is going really well. He usually plays a bit in his room, then nap, then play again. Night time goes great. He goes right to sleep at night and plays in the morning. I like that a lot. It buys me some time to get ready to go down stairs. Overall he's doing great!

Dean is doing well too. He's tired of the boat already and wants to come back to his big bed. I've talked to him a lot and he made the mistake of telling me he doesn't do much work. I informed him that when he gets home I will make sure he works and I will go take a vacation. He didn't like that idea. Brian is starting to miss daddy. He calls for him all the time. I hope it doesn't get much worse. We are all ready for daddy to come home! If daddy is reading this, We love you and miss you!

On that note, I am going to wrap it up. Have a great weekend!

My Coupon Savings today!

I've been trying really hard to use coupons to save us money. With a family of 4 and one income I'm looking to save any way I can. I've tried using my coupons a couple of times in the last couple of weeks and haven't had very good luck but I was willing to give it another shot. So off to the grocery store I went! Farm Fresh has double coupon day up to $1.00 on Wednesdays. I'm sure I looked silly standing in the store flipping thru my coupon organizer but I got it done! I got $33.65
worth of groceries for..... 13.99 including tax!!! That's a savings of 60%! My granny would be proud!

3 boxes of pasta-roni
2 boxes of Quaker granola bars
2 Pasta Sides by Liptons
2 jugs of Welches Aqua Juice
1 box of Post Trail Mix Crunch Cereal
1 box of texas toast croutons
1 bag of No Yolk Egg Noodles
2 Healthy Choice dinners

What a day!

Let me just start by saying, I'm so glad that it is finally bed time! We started our day with a horrible temper tantrum. It lasted for what seemed like forever. Eventually he settled down. Nap time came around at 11am. I usually let him nap and then play by himself in his room for a little bit. While he was napping, the washer repair lady called and said she would be at our house next. YAY!
About 1pm I went to get Brian from his room so he could eat his sandwich for lunch. That's when the day went bad! I first noticed a picture frame dismantled in his lap. When I got closer to take it from him, I noticed BLOOD! He wasn't crying or anything but he started getting upset when he saw me start to get worried. He had blood steaks on his hands, legs, shirt, face, sheets, and pillow. I tried to be postive while I took him downstairs and strapped him into his chair. I was cleaning him up and feeding him his sandwhich when the repair lady got here. I was still in slight panic mode because his finger was still drippig and I was still trying to evaluate whether or not he would need stitches. I let her in and try to explain the problem all while trying to keep cleaning, bandaging, and feeding Brian. He did soak a couple of bandaids but the bleeding did stop. Then Nathan wakes up and starts to cry because he is hungry! All of this happens in a span of about 10 minutes. In the end, I decided I didn't think Brian needed to go to the doctor, Nathan got fed, and my washer got fixed.
We played some and at 3 Brian went down for nap number 2. I could tell he was tired. He napped while I did much needed laundry. I got a strange feeling and went to check on him. My instincts were right! Brian found a tube of Balmex Diaper Cream! He had it on his shirt, legs, and on his mouth. I knew he had eaten some at that point. I brushed his teeth and then found the tube and read the dirctions on the back. It said to call Poison Control immediately. Great! I called and she told me that Balmex is pretty much non-toxic and that he would be fine. Whew! I was releived. I was so over it at this point that I couldn't wait for bedtime!
We managed to get thru the rest of the evening incident free! Brian is in bed and I am ready for Daddy to come home!

Norfolk Botanical Gardens, tons of pictures!

Me and my mom took the boys to Norfolk Botanical Gardens yesterday. It was such a beautiful day and I wanted to get some spring pictures of the boys. Even tho we were surrounded by beautiful flowers, Brian was more interested in the dandelions, sticks, pinecones and mulch. He really loved the fountains at the children's garden, I think that was his favorite part. He was soaking wet but it was a hot day! I'm really glad we got some pictures of me and the boys. It was a long day but alot of fun. We got there around 10:30 and didn't leave until 3:30! Even tho we were there for a long time, Brian was a champ and didn't melt down at all! He passed out as soon as he got in his car seat! Enjoy the pictures. I'll try to explain in captions below each picture.
The sensory garden. (It's ok to touch!)

The stone bridge.
Running through the trees.
Stopping to pick up a pinecone.
Throwing and then laughing at the thrown pinecone.
Picking hispinecone back up.
"Ooo a tulip"
Let me look closer.
Let's really look inside.
Ah ha! I got it!
What's in here?
Sniff sniff...
Oo a buttercup.
Ah another stick!
Ahhhh....
Ahhhh...
Chooo!
What is this!?
Grandma, you are silly!





Mommy and Nathan
Just relaxing on the bench.

Mommy and her boys!



Spitting frogs.
Fountains in the children's garden.



Peek-a-boo!

Dada?

Poor Brian already misses his dada. Dean usually puts Brian to bed and when I did it tonite Brian sat in his bed asking "dada? daaadaaa?" and pointing at the door. It was so sad. I felt a tear coming but I just gave him a kiss and told him we loved him. We survived the first day and we will keep on going!

Stupid washer, Stupid Sears

Our washer died. It worked just fine until Dean saw water all over the floor. Time for a new one! We went to Sears yesterday and picked one out and took it home. We got it setup and tried it out. It didn't work! It filled up, but that's the problem. It keeps on filling! So we spent 45 minutes on the phone with Sears repair center and they told us to call back today. I called back today and spent another 30 minutes on the phone being transferred to about 6 different people. Finally someone helped me and set up an appointment for the tech. YAY! But the tech won't be here until TUESDAY!!!!!! The boys have very few clean clothes left. I hope there are not any major diaper disasters!

Easter Sunday

We had a great day yesterday. Brian spent the night at his grandma's on Saturday. Me and Dean actually got some sleep Saturday night. Nathan only woke up once! I was able to get some pictures of Nathan in the morning for his first Easter. (more below the pictures)

Nathan and his seahorse.

Exhausted already?

After a relaxing morning we went over to my grandparents house for Easter lunch and a real Easter Egg Hunt. Lunch was fantastic. Brian did not really want any of the lunch food but he loved the fruit salad. It was not my idea of a balanced lunch but it is ok. After we ate Dean went and hid the Easter Eggs. He hid 26 eggs in the grass. After about 4 eggs Brian was done and Mommy walked around and picked up the other 22 eggs. He still had fun running around and he laughed the whole time! He got an easter basket from Dean and I and his grandma got him a ducky laundry basket and some clothes. We had a good day at there house. It was beautiful weather, a little chilly but very sunny! After we left there house Brian was wiped out. He slept in the car and we decided to stop at the river so that Dean could try out a new fishing spot. While he fished I took Brian and Nathan to the playground. I blew some bubbles and he ran around some more. Turns out the fishing isn't great there and Brian was exhausted. We came home and had dinner and Brian stubbled around until he went to bed early at 7! We had a great Easter!

Brian's Basket

Nathan's Basket

Brian and his Great Granny

Brian and my Uncle Chip
(first time he's ever held Brian, he was forced, Brian begged him)

Nathan and his Great-Granddaddy
(first time I've ever seen him hold a baby)

Brian and Nathan's Great Great Granny