Alex is 2 Months!

Alex is 2 months old!  Time is going even faster than it did with Colin!

Height:  22.5"

Weight: 13 lb- 2.5oz 

Clothing Size:  Alex wears all 3 month clothes right now.  He also hates being dressed lately.

Diaper Size: 1/2.  He should probably still be in 1s, but we have 2s.  So he's currently in 2s. :)

Eating:  Alex eats on a fairly regular schedule now.  While I no longer track my nursing in the calendar, he usually eats every three hours with one long stretch at night (sometimes) of between 5 and 7 hours.  He rarely hangs out and eats except at night.  He is also incredibly loud when he eats.  (Sorry Auntie Cheryl!!)

 Sleeping:  We moved Alex from his bassinet to a rock and play.  He seems to sleep a little better in it, especially at night.  He doesn't have a set schedule, but he seems to follow one of two routines.  He either falls asleep at about 8 for his long stretch or closer to 11.  He sleeps better when he falls asleep earlier.

New Skills: Alex really started 'waking up' this month.  He has much longer stretches of alertness.  He's also just starting to smile and coo.  The other day sitting in the playroom holding Alex and watching Colin, I looked down to see him staring at me intently and then he gave me the sweetest half grin.  It was one of those moments that just makes me stop and remember how incredibly lucky I am to have these precious boys in my life.  

This month was also Alex's first holiday (4th of July), Party ( Willmunder's 4th part), & Vacation! (Roadtrip to Vegas).  Busy month!  Mommy also went back to work. 

Happy 2 months little guy!

We Play Loud!

A few weeks ago my facebook erupted with pictures of all of Colin's adorable little friends playing at a new indoor playground nearby.  I immediately started plans to join the fun!

 Last Friday we had a chance to check out We Play Loud.  We are fans!!

Colin is at the perfect age for the facility.  There is plenty to keep him occupied and there isn't much he can get into trouble on. 

Even with me wonderful camera,  is was difficult to get good pictures of Colin who was barely still the entire time!

Colin loved the big slide.

They also had a rocking boat and plane. When we arrived he freaked out about the plane, but by the end he loved it. 

I thought the place was great. The staff was friendly and constantly cleaning everything. Hopefully they can keep it up!! 

Mom's Blinks: Toddler Words

Colin learning to talk is about the coolest thing ever.  (Something only a parent could say, I know, but so true!!)  Suddenly this little person can tell me what's going on in that head of his!

Some of my new favorites:

'Hug"
"Please" (boy does he know how to work this word.)
'Self" (I have a love hate relationship with this one...)
"Colnin"
"Alex"
"Teeth brush'
"Seat down" (sit down, usually accompanied by a location)
"Refreshing"
"Tepid"
"Hummus"

Of course my all time favorite is still "Mommy."  Even when it's whined, or shrieked or said a zillion times in a row when I'm trying to sign the grocery delivery paperwork, it's music to my ears that I wasn't sure I'd ever have the opportunity to hear.

I also love how Colin narrates the world around us. "Tree, Vroom, baby, buf-fly, house, bunny, puppy."  His vocabulary is growing so much everyday.  While he isn't using sentences, he does string words together intentionally. "Buh-bye, jammies, in, grandma's" combined with hand motions and props conveyed to me that he'd like to pack to go to grandma's house for example.  

Another favorite activity is copying daddy's words.  They did the entire alphabet twice yesterday!

It's hard for me to believe, but someday I will have to work hard to remember his adorable toddler voice and careful mispronunciations. I try to remember to enjoy every second of it right now.

Hey Bab(ies) let's go to Vegas!!

When you think of the best place to tkae a 5 week old baby, you know what's always on the top of the list?  Vegas! :)  Just kidding, but Grandma's house is, and since daddy needed to work in Vegas, we decided to take the whole family out for some time with our grandparents.

Going to see Grandma!

I'd been planning for the trip since before Alex was born.  Just making a mental list of what we would do and how we would best get there with sanity intact.  Of course, daddy's injury sent that plan a bit out of whack, but we adjusted.  The travel went much better than expected.  The boys did fantastic.  

We packed up the car before we headed to the 4th of July party.  Boy do these kids need alot of stuff...  When Alex woke up for his 3 am feeding, we loaded everyone up in the car and headed out.  As we'd hoped, the boys slept almost the entire way.  Outside of Baker we stopped to feed Alex and let Colin stretch.

Mom needs a break, I'll drive for a while.

It was a huge improvement over Colin's first road trip. Gavin and I regularly debate if Alex really is that much easier than Colin or if 19 months of parenthood have just softened our sense of what's difficult. :)  

New car Toy! "Should I tell you...."

Paci for the ride.

For the drive home, we left at night and both boys slept all the way home! Including a gas stop!!  But even if the drive had been difficult, it would have been worth it!  

Most excitingly, Alex got to meet his godmother Auntie Cheryl!!

 Colin got lots of fun pool play time.

Alex 'saw' his first rainbow.

Colin helped mommy feed Alex!

Our biggest outing of the trip, was a trip to Bass Pro Shop.

Colin still finds racks of clothing almost as much fun as displays of giant stuffed animals, so it was an exciting trip!

Mommy's favorite is the acquarium.  Colin was fascinated by the scuba diver inside.

I love the wonder and fascination in Colin's eyes as he discovers things around him.  He loved watching the fish.

The trip also meant some much needed rest for our family. Mommy even had her first real outting without Alex!

I didn't photograph it, but I snuck away and had a lovely lunch with my friend Jennifer who is moving miles and miles away (we'll miss you !!!)  It was nice to have a break when there were so many people who love the boys around to take care of them.

Sadly, the main catalyst for the trip, the World Series of Poker, didn't amount to much this year, but it was still a great time to spend time as a family.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for spoiling all of us for a week!

Life is good at Grandma's!

Mom's blinks. Verbal snapshots of life with our family.

I wanted to make a way to capture the small moments that make up my days.  Today they seem like thing I'll never forget,  but time flies with my little guys. My mom suggested titling them blinks and recording them here.  Here's my first one.

We were visiting my parents in Vegas.  My mom had very sweetly left some candy for us in the guest room.  Colin found it, opened it and was working on unwrapping it. He asked me to help, but wouldn't give it to me. I didn't want him to have it because it was peanut butter.  Rather than arguing,  I just told him it was icky.  He stopped unwrapping and looked at me, 'Ick?'  'yes, Ick.'  He immediately stopped, stood up and started to toddle off.  I was kind of impressed it was so simple.

He walked to my mom's room,  to her bathroom, opened a door and promptly dumped the candy in the garbage bin I didn't even know was there. 'Ick.' he conlcuded.

 I guess that's what mommy gets for fibbing!!

Fourth of July

Things have been crazy around here.  On the third of July daddy crashed his bike and broke his collar bone!!  He's doing okay so far, although we haven't seen the specialist yet.  As a result, most non-essnetial tasks (including blogging) have been pretty much suspended.  But I had a minute, so here's a minute long post about the fourth of July!

Patriotic!

We are always so grateful to Jax's family for hosting such a lovely party for the fourth. This year Jax and Colin were old enough to start really interacting.  It's so fun to watch these boys grow up!

We didn't stay for fireworks (mostly because we didn't want to be stuck on the opposite side of Ladera post firework show!!) but Colin did great.  He was up until almost 10 pm!  Alex is still too little to really have a schedule and spent almost the entire party sleeping soundly in mommy's carrier!

Mommy with her clashing carrier and daddy with his sling. Quite a family!

Thanks again to the W family for a fun fourth of July!