Happy 3 months, Brooks!

Brooks is 3 months old!

 Look at that belly!

 Happy boy!

 Tummy Time!

 Concentrating hard on holding his head up!

So strong and smiley!

Somehow three months have flown by since Brooks has been born! I have no idea where that time went! Brooks is growing up and changing so fast! Even his physical appearance is changing, I think. I thought he looked a lot like Jon when he was first born. Those big, Barlow eyes were definitely standing out for me. But as time has gone by, Jon and my mom (and even me a little), think he is starting to look more like a King. This is especially true in the shape of his head, his nose, and mouth. Besides changing in his physical appearance, this has been a BIG month for Brooks in the way of milestones...

Brooks still loves to cuddle with mom and dad. When he cuddles with Jon, he likes to lay in the crook of his arm on his back. When he cuddles with me, he likes to lay on my chest on his stomach. I call these two spots his happy places! He can go from screaming to smiling in an instant when he goes to his happy place! :) Brooks is a MOVER! He loves to wiggle and squirm and move all around especially when he is laying on the floor! He also still loves the pacifier. He can easily be soothed by popping the paci in his mouth. It's definitely I nice tool to have. He is LOVING his car seat, just like his big sister. He can sleep for hours in that thing. It's nice when we are out, but a little too tempting when we are home. Sometimes I just want to stick him in there just to help him get a little more sleep, but I have not given in to that temptation yet. He also seems to enjoy bath time. He settles in to the warm water, and relaxes the whole time.

As for things he dislikes, he puts up the biggest fuss when he is tired. I try to get him to settle down for naps before he gets over -tired, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. So when he is fussing like that, the best way to settle him is by holding him until he calms down. Then he can be put down in his crib or bouncer for a nap. He also HATES when I stop feeding him to burp him. He screams like he is dying of starvation until he gets the bottle back. It's a little dramatic...but then again he is our little Sagittarius (it's a fire sign)! I don't think he likes to be cold, which is the opposite of Kylie who seems to prefer it. He doesn't sleep as well when he is chilly. He still doesn't love tummy time, but will put up with it for 5ish minutes at a time.

As I said before, Brooks has changed a lot this past month. He is meeting milestones left and right. The biggest one is that he can roll over from his front to his back. Last week, he was rolling every time I put him on his tummy. This week he has been a little more sporadic, so maybe it's not technically a skill yet. He can hold his head up during tummy time for 15-30 seconds at a time, and put it down in a semi-smooth, soft way...Not more banging it on the ground! He is also starting to push up when on his tummy. He brings his hands together, and up to his mouth. He even tries to get his fingers/thumb in his mouth all the time! I'm still interested to see if he sticks with the pacifier or switches to his fingers once he can get them in there in a more controlled manner. He is now sleeping in his crib, and the transition was actually quite easy. Speaking of sleeping, he is doing really well especially at night. He is fairly consistent in sleeping from about 10pm to 7-8am. He still has nights sometimes when he wakes between 3am-6am, but they seem to be becoming fewer and farther between. My goal for next month is to drop the dream feed and get him to bed around 8:30pm. Sleeping during the day is another story. He follows the 3 hour eat, play, sleep cycle really well, except that he usually only sleeps on his own for about 30-45 minutes. This means that I almost always have to help him back to sleep before the next cycle begins. Of course, if he in his car seat or being held, he will sleep for hours, but I would really like to have him nap in his crib. He is eating 6 times per day at approximately 8am, 11am, 1:45pm, 4:30pm, 7:30pm, and 9:45pm. He eats about 4-6 ounces per feeding for a total of 28-29 ounces per day. I'm pumping more than he eats, but not like I was with Kylie. I am able to save about 6 ounces per day, which should come in handy when I am ready to be done pumping! :) Brooks is becoming a big boy, and he is built like a rock! I bet he weighs close to 14 pounds. He is wearing size 2 diapers. Also, he is still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but I think he will be moving up to 3-6 months clothes before next month.

We are loving our sweet, little man more and more each day! I can't wait to see how he grows and changes over the next month!

Life is Good!

We had a great week! We weren't stressed about keeping the house clean, the kiddos are healthy and happy, and we got to play A LOT! :) Brooks had a pretty big week, which is why he is featured in this weeks' photos. 

2/15/13

 Brooks and Blair are 3 days apart in age. 

I'm secretly hoping they will be boyfriend and girlfriend someday.

Unfortunately for Brooks, he has A LOT of competition...Lots of baby boys for Blair to choose from! 

2/16/13

 I'm starting to get a little sad that we will soon be moving out of our first home.

After all, it was where our story began!

2/17/13

 Look how strong!

2/18/13

 I'll confess that I forgot to take a picture, but this is truly what I see 75% of the day.

It's a bottle, a burp cloth, the TV remote, and the TV!

2/19/13

 Brooks is ROLLING!

He actually rolled over for the first time on February 12th, but I thought it was a fluke.

Since then, however, whenever I put him on his tummy, he proceeds to roll right over onto his back.

Here is an action shot!

2/20/13

 My sweet little babes!

2/21/13

We went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time.

Kylie LOVED the tractor ride. 

She played in there for a LONG time!

Kylie is 27 months!

Some pictures of our Kylie Girl at 27 months!

Sweet Girl!

She looks a little tired because she had just gotten up from her nap.

But she still humored me with a photo session! 

WOW! Kylie is growing up so fast and still changing and developing at such a rapid rate. She learns new things EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! Most days I can hardly believe my ears as she says the funniest things. Two word combos that have come out of her cute, little mouth recently are, "thumb toe," when talking about her big toe, and, "hair soap," when talking about a product that I was putting in my hair! So cute! :)

Kylie is becoming very independent and opinionated. She seems to have an opinion on everything. I would go as far as to say that her favorite word right now is, "nope." I can no longer ask her to do things, I have to tell her instead. If I ask, she almost always says, "nope." Little stinker. Her favorite toys are her crayons, books, shopping cart, and princess shoes. She has these little high heels that she wears around the house all the time. It's really sweet to watch her walk around in them. In January, she had lost her phone privileges because she broke my screen, but she recently got them back. So she has a new found love for the phone! She can totally run it on her own...She looks at pictures, watches videos, and plays games. It keeps her entertained for long periods of time. The trick is getting it back when I need it! :) She loves her little brother, and often pretends to take care of her babies like I care for Brooks. She feeds them bottles, changes their diapers, tries to dress them, and calls them, "baby boy," and, "little man." She also likes to be "naked," which is really down to a diaper. She can take her pants and socks off on her own, but usually needs help with her shirts. I am typically able to keep her fully clothed in the mornings. But since she naps with her pants off, it is nearly impossible to convince her to get dressed in the evenings. She also likes to go potty in her potty chair. She likes to eat her meals in her big girl chair (the bar stools in the kitchen). She likes to watch, "movies," especially Elmo, Dora, and Barney. She enjoys chasing Huey and wrestling with dada. She likes playing with her friends, especially Witt, Helen, Ella, Annabelle, and Halle. She LOVES gymnastics. She asks to go to "nastich" every day. She is extremely polite. She says, "please," "thank you," and "sorry" at least a hundred times per day! I love that!

She is still pretty easy going that there are not too many things that she blatantly dislikes. Like I said above, she doesn't really like being clothed. She takes her pants off several times a day! :) She also doesn't like to share her toys (what 2 year old does), but she is pretty good at sharing other kids' toys. A recent development is that she no longer likes to be strapped in the stroller. She always wants to, "walk." She does fine as long as the stroller is moving, but as soon as I stop she wants to get out. So when we are shopping, I can't really browse slowly unless I am willing to either listen to Kylie whine or let her get out and run free. This could pose a problem this spring when I start to run outside again! I guess it will be further motivation not to stop! :) No water breaks or shoe-tying stops!

As for her milestones: She has changed sooo much over the past three months. She is talking more and more everyday. She says two and three word sentences, and sometimes more. She knows hundreds of words, and her vocabulary grows everyday. When Jon comes home from work, he always asks if Kylie learned a new word. She almost always has. She is learning her colors. She knows pink, white, and black consistently. She gets, "red" right about 50% of the time. If she doesn't know the color, she always says, "blue." She is also learning some letters. She can identify B, C, D, E, H, K, M, and O. She is learning how to count. She can usually count to three. After three, she says, "four, five, seven, eight." I guess she doesn't like the number 6. She likes to sing songs. Her favorite right now is, "Happy Birthday." She is loving going potty in the potty right now. I need to start potty training soon, but I just haven't worked up the energy quite yet...Maybe that will be our goal for her 30 month post! :) She is learning some new motor skills, especially at gymnastics. She runs, jumps, marches, kicks, walks on her tip toes, bear crawls, hops like a frog. She can do a table pose, straddle, pike and tuck positions, and forward rolls. She listens well to directions, but likes to go either first or second when she is told to go. She also loves to jump in the foam pit. She is a good dancer...She moves her hips back and forth and actually has good rhythm. I have no idea where that comes from! :) She continues to be a great eater. There are definitely foods that she won't eat, but she likes several foods from each food group. I'd say her favs are peas, corn, green beans, broccoli, apples, grapes, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, milk, cheese, bread, ravioli, lasagna, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, and, of course, cookies, candy and cake! :) She is also an awesome sleeper. She sleeps from about 8pm-8am and naps from about 1:30pm-4:00pm. She is stilling wearing 2T clothes, but I just bought a few 3T things for next year only to discover that they fit pretty well right now! :) She wears size 6 shoes, but can also fit width-wise into size 7. She is now officially wearing size 5 diapers. I'm hoping the next transition is into big girl undies!

Kylie is such a sweet, kind, loving, beautiful girl! I can't believe how awesome she is, and that I am partly responsible for creating that! I can't imagine how I could love her any more than I do right now, but I'm sure I'll find a way to love her even more tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from my little loves!

Two beautiful children, one handsome husband, a dozen roses, and a moment to enjoy a glass of wine with the love of my life...What more could a girl ask for?!?

That's More Like It...

This week was much better than last week. We are pretty much all back to normal. It was good!

2/7/13

 All of Kylie's toys were put away while we were showing the house.

Then we had the inspection and the appraisal, so the toys stayed hidden.

She finally got them back...and she was SOOOOO excited!

2/8/13

 One of our favorite past times...shopping for fabric!

2/9/13

Jess, Sari, me, Reba, Danielle 

Erica and Kristen were there earlier...and we were missing Mel, Anne and Catherine. 

The girls gave me the BEST birthday ever!

They took me on a food tour to all of my favorite restaurants, and gave me my favorite things as gifts.

We went to Chesters, 300 First, Pescara, and The Loop!

And I got Diet Coke, Boone's Farm, Snickers, M&Ms, Magic Erasers, and Wisconsin stuff, just to name a few!

It was amazing!

I am so thankful for each of them!

2/10/13

 Mr. Handsome all dressed up for church!

2/11/13

 Kylie wanted to show Brooks how to play with his toys.

2/12/13

 Brooks tried out the Bumbo for the first time.

I'd say he's starting to get the whole holding the head up thing down.

2/13/13

 Kylie figured out how to take pictures of herself.

I have about 10 of these that look exactly the same! :)

2/14/13

My sweethearts!

Craziest.Week.Ever.

To put it mildly, last week was a wild week! The pictures will tell the story, but in short, on top of having a toddler, an infant, and a house on the market, both Kylie and Jon were very sick, the house sold, and our furnace was possibly leaking carbon monoxide forcing us to vacate the house!

1/24/13

 Before the chaos!

1/25/13

 Me and my little boy!

1/26/13

 My 30th birthday!

My mom watched the kids so Jon and I could have a date night.

We went out to eat and to a movie!

1/27/13

Brooks is 2 months old today!

1/28/13

 And the the wild week begins...

We signed a purchase agreement to sell our house at 10am.

By 2pm, Kylie had thrown up several times, and Jon fainted at work.

He hit his head when he fell and had to go to the ER.

By the time he got to the ER, he was feeling very ill with muscle aches, chills, and nausea.

I wasn't sick, but at this point we thought I might catch the bug too, so Jon recommended masks.

 1/29/13

 The ice on the tree from the ice storm the weekend before...

Jon stayed home from work for the first time ever due to the illness.

Kylie and Jon both slept about 20 hours!

1/30/13

My new obsession!

 I have been watching Downton Abbey on the Ipad while my patients sleep their illness away.

Jon stayed home another day from work.

And the GI bug continued to work its way through the system!

1/31/13

 I needed this boy's smile today!

Kylie and Jon were still terribly ill four days after the sickness started.

The inspection on our house was today, and we were supposed to leave for it.

Since Kylie was sick, I couldn't go to anyone's house during it for fear of infecting them.

We went to the mall instead with the plan of keeping her strapped in the stroller so not to spread germs.

While at the mall, Kylie began to have diarrhea.

I changed her diaper, and went to buy Brooks a new outfit.

As I was walking through the store, Kylie became agitated and I noticed an awful stench.

Sure enough, another episode of the runs!

I went to the bathroom to change her only to discover I only had Brooks' diapers with me.

So I put Kylie in a diaper that was 3 sizes too small.

I decided to check out and get out of the mall as soon as possible.

As I was checking out, Kylie again became agitated.

I look down only to actually see the diarrhea spewing out of the diaper and down her back.

It dripped on the floor...The cashier gave me the stink eye!

We ran back to the bathroom to change Kylie again.

There were no more diapers left.

So I fashioned a burp cloth into a diaper and stripped Kylie down to a pair of jeggings and her winter coat.

I loaded her into the stroller and ran to the car...We made it!

As I was driving home, I received an email that our furnace was cracked and likely leaking carbon monoxide.

I was told that it wasn't safe to stay in the house.

We had to find somewhere to stay with a sick toddler and man.

So to Hudson we went...

2/1/13

 The house is officially off the market!

We had to buy a new furnace, but it still made my day to see the sold sign!

And Kylie was back to her old self again! YAY!

2/2/13

 This is what time Brooks woke up!

He slept from 10pm-6:27am!

I felt very refreshed!

2/3/13

 Elias' birthday is on February 5th!

Here he is posing with his gift from us...wrapped in a Target bag! :)

2/4/13

 Jon had to work on Monday, so we moved from Hudson to The Farm until the furnace could be replaced!

2/5/13

 My big boy had his 2 month well child appointment today with Dr. Molly!

He weighed in at 12 pounds, 9 ounces...64th percentile!

The new furnace was put in today, and we were able to move back home! YAY!

2/6/13

Kylie started her second session of gymnastics today!

She did amazing and loved every minute of it!

And hopefully the craziness of the past week and half has finally subsided.