Thursday, July 15, 2010

We have a cousin!

Welcome to the world, NOLAN ANDREW SHERWOOD! Born this morning at 10:05! He was 22 inches and he weighs 9 lbs. 1/2 oz. What a big boy! :) The most amazing thing was I was able to "listen" to the birth via the phone since she lives like 10 hours away. Holly delivered at a midwifery center and had calm relaxing music. They kept telling her good job, etc. I could hear Holly breathing and a little of what was going on in the room. Then I heard the baby cry and it was amazing! :) What first time Mom has a baby ON THEIR DUE DATE! WHOA! And totally natural...go Holly!

Claire will be glad to have another little baby to give kisses to in addition to Alexander!

Alex was also very excited about his new baby cousin and wants to know if they can lay next to each other soon! :)



Monday, July 12, 2010

Return of the Jedi

Love the Yoda shirt :) Thanks Uncle Aaron!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Big Girl Room

Thought I'd post some pictures of Princess Claire's room! Here is her big girl bed!!!
She's buried in there reading her book:

She calls the Princess Canopy her "pink forest!"

New curtains, rods, and tie-backs. My desk is no longer in front of the window. Now I just need to get the filing cabinet out of there!



A big thanks to Oma and Opa for helping get things set up and giving Claire these things for her big 3rd birthday! :) (WHOA! She is gonna be three so soon!)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Mr. Happy Pants!

Who is my happy boy??
HERE IS MY HAPPY BOY!

You can almost hear him laughing in this one???


That's my Mr. Happy Pants!!!

Alexander weighed 16.13 last night at the breastfeeding group at 2.5 months. :)
Momma's Milk, Momma's Milk, What a wonderful Drink!!! It makes darling children, don't you think???


Thursday, July 8, 2010

Full of Fail

I've felt full of fail lately. Like there's not enough time to do stuff. Always laundry. Always dishes. Always an empty fridge...lol. Always full laundry baskets and full trash cans. Sigh. I should be in bed and I was but I can't sleep. Claire is in love with preschool now and asks to go every morning. She had some tears the first few times, but now is totally in love and wants to draw pictures for her teachers to bring them. :) Aww.

Dropped Claire off at preschool. Noticed lots of cars in the parking lot. Got excited that the church might be having a rummage sale. Pulled closer and saw a hearse. Fail.

Got Starbucks hot chocolate to enjoy on my grocery shopping trip with Alex. Dropped the totally full cup on the parking lot ground and got hot chocolate all over my sandaled feet. Fail.

Went to Tumbling last week and nobody called us to tell us that class was cancelled. Fail.

Took Claire to the dentist. She has 4 cavities. FAIL. One in each of the pre-molars. Sigh as everyone I tell says something like, "TOO MUCH JUICE? CANDY? COMFORT NURSING? ETC?" Of course it's all my fault. I brush and floss them EVERY DAY! She had a perfect check-up 6 months ago...???

Have a pile of thank-yous I "STILL" haven't written from when Alex was born.

Josh's grandma Peggy is dying. I'd like to go with Josh and have her meet Alex, but it's a 10 hour drive. Tickets even on the cheap are 200/each. So that's a big fat fail, too.

I went to church on Sunday. Alex started rooting. I tried to nurse him and Claire started to stick her head there even though she hasn't nursed at church forever...so then she started to throw a fit. Of course this was right as he was starting the sermon. Then I take them out and go to the nursery to rock. They have 2 chairs. One is missing an armrest. The other had a broken support on the bottom. It seemed fine. I sat in it and rocked and talked to the attendant for a few. So then it broke about 5 min. later and me and Alex are on the floor. He's screaming cause he's not nursing and plus it was jarring. My butt hurt. FAIL! I told you that I break things.

I go to bed with the kids and I'm still tired. So why not stay up late and blog and still be tired...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Alexander at 2 months

A day in the life of Alexander:
Sleep
Nurse
Poop
Nurse
Sleep
Pee
Nurse
Sleep
Poop
Nurse
Pee
Sleep
Rinse and Repeat...

LOL! Well he does have happy alert time particularly in the mornings. He is cooing and laughing and loves to smile. He is very tolerant of Claire getting in his face and showing him books and toys way too close. He still sleeps more than he is awake. He is a great sleeper. He isn't a huge comfort nurser. He will take a Binky, which Claire never did. I am trying to switch between a Soothie and a Nuk so he doesn't favor one, and it didn't affect his latch at all. I waited until he was about 5 days to give him one. Mostly, I like it for the car so we don't have to deal with car screaming. I feel it's way better to have him sucking on a Binky than screaming. I know some of you out there hate them and think any type of plastic in a baby's mouth is going to kill them immediately, but it's so minimal, and let me tell you, it's so nice ;) Sometimes I really need an extra minute to set Claire with a snack or something before I can nurse him.

He doesn't sleep with a Binky at night. They only time I'd let him sleep with one is if we are out and about or in the car. They say sometimes breastfed babies will stop taking a Binky around 3-4 months which is a common time for bottle refusal, but we'll just wait and see what happens.

Monday we went to his 2 month check-up and his head measured 16.3 inches at the 80%. He is so long! He was 25.5 inches long which is at the 99% and he weighed 15.41 lbs. totally naked, no diaper. His checkup was really fast since I had no concerns other than I think his tear ducts may not be fully opened, particularly in the right eye. She said that most of the time they will open by 6 to 12 months. I notice his eyes get very goopy/crusty in the morning. Not just a little sleep, but lots and very wet. It doesn't seem to continue when he's awake though so it's not a severe case as she said, so it should fix itself with time. It's apparently very common?

He is wearing size 2 diapers, which he has been for about 4 weeks! The next time I'm going to buy 3s since they start at 16 lbs already! His sleepers are size 6-9 months. I actually pulled out a 9-12 month sized outfit and it fit great. I might just start packing away the 6 month stuff since he is so long. It's such a shame that he didn't get to wear a lot of smaller stuff. Luckily, we only got one gift that was too small that he never wore. How do you write a thank you for something the kid never wore? Don't people realize that babies are supposed to double their birth weight by 4 months and triple it by a year. That's flying through the sizes most of the time!

Preschool Day 2

Claire didn't want to go to preschool this morning so I just told her we were going bye-bye (haha!!!) and then when we pulled into the parking lot I acted all excited that they would get to play outside today and prayed to God that they would actually do so...lol! And they did so my "plan" worked out! But she got out of the car and didn't look back again today! They come to the car and get them out as well as bring them back out. NIIIIIIIICE! :) No having to go in and out with Alexander!

So I asked her what they did today. She said they read a book about the littlest duck, but it wasn't the same duck book as last time. Then they went outside to play! They have a big slide and a tunnel and lots of steps. A boy held the gate open for them that was "very nice" of him! She said they played outside and she got all hot and sweaty! Then she said that she gets sweaty when she goes swimming. I said, no, you get wet. Sweaty is like being wet. LOL! That was really cute. Then she said they sang some songs but she couldn't tell me what. Then later she was singing "Happy and You know it" and I asked if she sang that. She goes, "YES!!!!! And Patty-Cake!!!!" Then she was singing "SSC--SUPER SUMMER CAMP" and doing some hand motions so that's cool she's picked up a new song only from 2 days.

She said she went potty and nobody helped her and she didn't go potty last time because she didn't have to go. Then she washed her hands and they had step stools in the bathroom! Then they had a snack and she sat by the same boy who stepped on her foot last time, but he didn't step on her foot today! They had pretzels and apple juice from an open cup! (I'm using lots of !!!!!!!!!!!!! because she talks loud when excited!) They they had a puppet show. They went back outside and planted sunflower seeds in glass jars that they decorated with stickers. They also made butterflies out of tissue paper with a popsicle stick body and pipe cleaner feelers. She also colored a picture of an octopus.

I'm not sure about the order of this because time is still something she is learning but when Miss TT buckeled her in the car it looked like she had been crying (red) and she said she didn't cry as much as last time. The teacher said it would get less each time and she's doing good. I'd really like to talk to the teacher for more than 30 seconds when she straps Claire in, but I pump Claire for more info throughout the day. I asked if she learned a new friend name, and she said MADISON! So that's cool that she knows both her teachers and 1 classmates name already.

And I'm glad she's having fun while I have time to run errands with just sleepy Alexander. I'm really going to like the fall when she has it 3 days/week. :) I'm sure I won't give you such detailed updates in the future, but her excitement rubbed off on me.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Preschool Girl!

Claire made this "princess crown" at Preschool. She wanted to wear it to Tumbling...which was fine, but didn't work so well with the forward rolls! You can see Alexander in the background wearing a much too small 3-6 month outfit. ;)
This outfit fits a little better! He is having a "picnic" with Claire. You can see the teapot next to him.

He loves to smile and laugh! He is such a happy and laid back boy. I love this outfit because it says "BABY BUDDIES" and I call him my baby buddy!


You can see the ultra-healthy picnic feast of ice cream and Melissa and Doug cookies! Alex says yummy!



Her shirt says "What happens in Preschool stays in Preschool!" which she wore on her first day of summer camp.

Claire had her first day of "Super Summer Camp" yesterday! It's a lot of fun play stuff! She didn't even look back when I dropped her off so I made a quick exit! :) When I picked her up the teacher said that she decided to cry about halfway through. I asked her why and she said that a boy stepped on her foot! :( So I'm glad that she didn't miss me! She goes 2 days/week on Tues/Thurs through the end of July. It will be a great warm-up for her and she will go 3 days/week in the fall. I hope she has the same teachers. I'll have to ask.
I asked her what they did. She said that they read a book about ducks, made something with toothpicks and marshmallows, and had a snack. For snack she had one Oreo cookie and one brown cookie. (PS: I WILL BE THE MOM THAT BRINGS SOME CARROTS WHEN IT'S OUR SNACK DAY! SHE LOVES CARROTS!) And they had orange juice that wasn't orange....lol...whatever that means? Pineapple? Then she said they played basketball and Ring-around-the-Rosies in the big gym since it rained yesterday. They colored pictures and made Princess Crowns. They went potty and sang some songs but she couldn't remember what they were. I'm not sure if they did something else or what order that was in but she wanted to go again today, so that was a good sign!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Miss Smiles


Little Miss Claire loving her car!

Mr. Smiles

Who loves boobies? THIS GUY!
Little Mr. Alex is now 8 weeks already!

Monday, June 14, 2010

EXCUSE THE THIEF

I've been trying to teach Claire to say "excuse me" when she wants to tell someone something instead of interrupting. So she likes to say "EXCUSE ME!" before she says something now. Claire said "Excuse me!" to Josh when he got home from work today. Then she said: "I LOVE YOU."


It was raining out. She wanted to wear her sunglasses. I asked her why. Her reply? "So rain stays out of my eyes." I told her they were for when it was sunny out. She goes, "OH! So your eyes no get sunburn!" Kind of!


We have a little thief. I saw her playing with a white silky scarf I didn't recognize. Uh-oh. I asked her where she got it. "I got it at the garage sale!" Um? I didn't pay for one? So I asked her which one! She says, "The Sleeping Beauty garage sale!" Great! So she jacked it. So do I take it back...or offer her (the lady whose house we got it from) a buck for it? Now I know how parents don't notice things...oops.

Little Lion


Alex doing his best Lion impression. GRR! I'm a tough baby!

Muffin Tin Snacks

Muffin Tin Snacks are basically a variety of snacks presented in a muffin tin. Ideally, you can let them sit out all day and your child can graze as he/she wants to! I remember first seeing this in a parenting magazine before I even had kids. It's such an awesome idea!

My sweet Claire-Bear!



I am not trying to wean Claire overnight, but I'm also trying to cut her way back since if I let her, she would nurse more often and longer than the newborn...even at night. Sigh. SO I am trying to load her up on her favorite foods and snacks! Here is her mid-morning snack...which is also her "snacks" for the day. She was down to pretty much just nursing before sleep/at night, but then tada...lots of milk and she was going nursing crazy. I'm over it now. I NEED to cut her back or I am going to go crazy. I was thinking I would like to have her weaned by Christmas, but definitely by the time Alex turns one...I don't know how to though! It's so hard! Thoughts? My reasoning is today, she pushed his head off my nummie and latched on. I was on the phone and dropped it so as to catch Alex. NOT ACCEPTABLE CLAIRE!


Carrots, cheddar bunnies, purple grapes, banana, honey roasted peanuts, and oranges are all a favorite!



Sunday, June 13, 2010

Rock Stars

Yesterday we went to the Rock Stars Cars Guitars display at The Childrens Museum. It was pretty cool. Of course they had things for the kids that were hands on. The really cool thing was that they had Ryan White's mom and sister there and I got to say hi to them and get a picture with them with Josh's phone. We didn't bring the camera yesterday so no other pictures. What? Trying to keep tabs on 2 kids is enough without trying to hang on to a camera that you don't want to leave in the stroller someplace.

Some cute things Claire has said lately:

"Alex looks like a caterpillar baby!" when he's on the floor during tummy time.

"Wipe my other face!" when she wanted me to wipe her other cheek!

And we've started letting her go on the ponies at the Museum that move on the carousel since she going to be 3 soon and they don't check IDs ;) They are supposed to be three. Haha. She calls them "Up and Down Ponies" and loves to pick which one she wants to ride on.

Friday, June 11, 2010

This is why I LOVE garage sales!

Garage Sale 1:
Care Bears Seek and Find Hardback
Carebears ABC flashcards NIP (new in package)
Pooh Number match flashcards NIP
Pooh's Go-Together Game NIP
19 Berenstain Bear Books (I think that may be nearly the whole series!)
Wooden World Atlas puzzle with all the Continents! NIP.
all from the same sale for...$1.50 total! WOW

Garage Sale 2:
Hello Kitty Paperback Ballerina book .25
Pirates of the Caribbean 63 piece cardboard puzzle NIP .25
Usborne Fairy Cooking book .25
Harback Fairyopolis lift the flap book .25
Apples to Apples Game $1
Pink/White Nikes $1
Tinkerbell fleece lined Clogs $1
Brown Mary Janes $1
Ariel Lunch box .50
Purple/Black sparkle Leotard for tumbling 1.00
Black Leotard .50
Black tutu skirt .50
Princess Baby Doll Sleeping Beauty - Free :) I told Claire no. The lady working there apparently wanted to get rid of it. She said, "Take it!" So we did.

Garage Sale 3:
Bright Starts Circle Teether NIP .25
Classic Pooh Pacifier attacher NIP .25
Huggies Disposable Changing pads NIP .25
Princess Birthday invites/thank yous NIP .25

Garage Sale 4:
Grover "I Have to Go" potty for Alex .25
Wicker Picnic Basket play set with settings for 4 "tea set" NIP 1.00
Princess Baby Doll Cinderella .25

Garage Sale 5:
Insulated Thomas the Train Lunch bag .50 and it looks new
4 Thomas Trains, wooden assorted cars (I don't know their names!) $2

Not bad, not bad. There are more sales tomorrow, but I think I got my "fix" for a few weeks. :) LOL! That and it's too hot!!! Luckily, there was lots of shade and I had Gatorade with for Claire and I. These were all within walking distance of my house. We were gone only about an hour and we scored really big, I think! Little Alex slept in the stroller the whole time!