A Very Mellow Christmas

Christmas Day was a bit blurry for us as our Christmas Eve night was a little too eventful and a little to sleepless.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve day...went to see a very impressive gingerbread house, took both boys to our Christmas Eve service at church, had both boys tucked into bed by 7:45 so visions of sugarplums could start dancing in their heads. Santa's elves went right to work. We even enjoyed some of Santa's cookies and milk. Then, we heard a "uh-oh mama dada" come from Carter's room. Went upstairs to check on him and poor little man had gotten sick all over his bed. Hello stomach bug.

We quickly asked Santa's elves to undo all they had previously done, restocked the cookie plate, and brought Carter downstairs for to watch the Polar Express for a bit while we cleaned his room and prepared for another stomach episode. An hour later, all seemed to be good. He was very still and calm, but seemd ok. So we tried putting him to bed again. He called out for us about 5 minutes later so I went in to check on him, while Daddy was having his turn with the stomach bug. Lovely. I was scratching Carter's back and then he burped and got sick again. I grabbed the trash can and he got sick 2 more times. Mommy's heart was breaking at this point. So we cleaned everything up again and decided we would have to divide and conquer for the night.

Since Adam already had the bug, we decided to let him sleep with Carter for the night. It seemed that Carter was more comfortable and not as nauseous sitting up (plus I was all out of clean mattress pads at for the toddler bed at this point!) I would take care of Ben and hopefully keep both of us stomach bug free.

Carter and Adam fell asleep on the couch around 11:00. I cleaned everything up and started a very dirty load of laundry. Very thankful for the sanitize cycle of our new washer and dryer. Ben woke up to be fed around midnight. Once he was back asleep, I woke up the other boys and they moved to our bed. Then Santa's elf got right to work. Wow. What a night.

Here is what Santa left for Carter...


And for Ben...


Carter woke up a bit groggy but still asking for Santa Claus. He wasn't bouncing off the walls quite as much as I expected before he came down with the bug but thankfully the worst of the bug was behind us and he enjoyed a mellow Christmas morning.

You can definitely see the tired in his face in this picture.



Here is Ben enjoying some of his new toys.



Carter did most of the opening and then would take Ben's new toys to him. (after testing them out for himself first.)

Carter definitely mastered the art of present opening this year.



We didn't open the last present until 5:00 yesterday afternoon. Thanks family for all of the wonderful gifts and for sending them to us even though we didn't travel this year. :) After reading what germs we had floating around our house this Christmas, you are probably glad we decided to stay put this year. Ha!

Late yesterday afternoon, it started snowing. Our first white Christmas. Here is what it looked like on our front porch this morning.



I think we probably have 5" now. All 3 boys are napping as I write this, but I am thinking the 2 biggest boys will be getting out the sleds after naptime.

Merry Christmas Eve

We visited the legendary Santa yesterday morning at the Children's Museum. There were no tears. And Carter asked Santa for dinosaurs and trucks and for a train for Ben.



We even saw Santa come down the chimney. Pretty cool. Here's hoping Santa can come through with Carter's requests.

After the big picture, it was playtime. I think Carter had a week's worth of no school, sick mama and dada pent up energy inside. He let it all loose at the museum. Running from exhibit to exhibit. So excited. Perhaps there was a little Christmas excitement in his step too.

We visited the apple tree...



Climbed all over the dinosaurs and gave our best dinosaur roar...



And he probably loaded this truck with the life size vegetable 10 times...



Then he would climb in with the vegetables until he would get stuck and ask for help to get out.

Ben chilled in the stroller and even managed to take a decent nap with all of the noise.



Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Holiday Granola

This year we made holiday granola to hand out to some neighbors, co-workers, and friends. It was fun and easy to make and turned out pretty yummy, so I thought I would share the recipe with you.

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup grade A dark amber syrup
2 T butter
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 325
2) Mix together the first 5 ingredients



3) In a small bowl, stir together the syrup and melted butter.
4) Pour the syrup mixture over the dry ingredients, coating the dry ingredients well.
5) Spread this mixture onto baking sheets (either greased or lined with parchment paper)
6) Bake at 325 for 30-45 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally.



7) Add the craisins, dates, and chocolate chips or whatever dried fruit combination you prefer.
8) Eat and Enjoy!



The above recipe makes approximately 5 cups, but I am pretty sure we only had 4 cups left after each batch because we ate so much while we were making it!

jingle bells

Carter's First E-mail

You will never guess who sent Carter an e-mail this morning...

SANTA CLAUS!

Actually, it is a video just for Carter.



Santa talks to Carter about being a good boy, saying please and thank you, and about becoming a big brother this year.



He also hints to Carter that he knows exactly what he wants for Christmas.

Carter told me I could share this special video with you. To see the full message from Santa click here.

Thanks to the folks at Portable North Pole for sending Carter this special note from Santa!

First Blast of Winter

Last year we got LOTS of snow. More snow in one year than I had seen in my previous 30 years. During one of the snows, Mimi was in town, so she kept Carter while Adam and I walked to a nearby sledding hill. We proudly brought our trash can lids and were ready to soar down the snow covered hill. Well, we soared about 5 feet and then came to a stop. No matter how fast of a running start we had, the trash can lids just didn't cut it. So, I invested in a couple of improved sledding options this year. I was hesitant to make the purchase because I was convinced that once I was prepared for the snow, we would not see one flake. So take that, Winter. I bought a sled and we have snow. And Carter LOVED it.

Here he is trying on his new hat and gloves.



Carter and Daddy ready to play.



And play they did.

My Monday

We woke up to this Monday morning...



Just an inch or two of the white fluffy stuff. Enough to coat the trees and yards but not enough to cause any travel problems or tear off any gutters. Perfect.

Still, I decided to stay in with the boys today.

Carter helped me make some homemade holiday granola...



Ben explored the glorious exersaucer (and Carter showed him how all of the toys worked)...



Carter and I worked several puzzles...



And I had several loads of laundry to fold...



It was nice to stay warm and cozy all day and just play with my boys.

Joy & Peace

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. I know I have been quiet on the blog front lately. The holiday to do list always seems so long. And the boys naps are not overlapping as much as I would like so I have very few quiet moments during the day and can't bring myself to get out the computer at night. But, I promise to be back soon with pictures, stories, and VIDEO. :)

Turkey Day Crafts

We had a full house for Thanksgiving and I loved every minute of it. I am pretty sure Carter did too. Except for the part where he was supposed to take naps. He didn't like that part very much.

Before we kick into Christmas mode I thought I would take a minute to share a few of our Thanksgiving crafts...

First up, our Thankful Tree. Carter helped me come up with the list of things he is thankful for this year. Here they are:

All the Grandparents
Mama and Daddy
Carter and Ben
Susan, Warren, Robert, & Jack (aka Ra-Ja-Poo-N when Carter says all of their names really fast)
Nelson and Kathleen (our wonderful neighbors)
Ms. Julia and Ms. Megan (his school teachers)
Stickers & Crayons
Jumping, Singing, Talking, Dancing
Puzzles
Hippe, Teddy, Pacis, Blankets (his sleeping necessities)
Food: Oranges, Mini Wheats, Ice, Sausage
Clothes
Tee Tee and Poo Poo (this one was ALL Carter)
Books
A,B,Cs
Dinosaurs
Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie (and duck), Big Bird

That's a pretty good list. I helped him with some of them, but he came up with most of them on his own. Here is a picture of the finished tree.



We also made yummy turkey cupcakes. I found this idea online and the boys had a lot of fun decorating them.





And finally, we made Indian headbands. I bought a sheet of brown foam and a few bags of inexpensive feathers and the boys got to decorate their headbands. Robert made a pattern (green, red, orange, green, red, orange, etc.) Carter just wanted as many feathers as possible and I think Jack was still trying to finish his dinner at the table. Once they were made, we had a parade, of course. The boys found every single instrument we had and paraded around the house.



Surprisingly, Ben just chilled in his swing as the parade went by.

Ben - 2 Months

I was just about to write Ben's 3 month post, when I realized I never posted his 2 month update. So here it is an entire month late. Oops.

Ben is now 2 months old. Not too much has changed in the past month. He is still a newborn. He basically still eats, sleeps, and makes wet diapers all day long. Here is our typical day at 2 months.

7ish - wake. Ben is usually in bed with me or in bed with daddy in the nursery by the time the morning rolls around. We both struggle with getting him back to sleep after the 5:00 feeding, mainly because we are so tired, so we just let him sleep with us. Never did this with Carter. Hope this doesn't come back to hurt us later.
Ben is awake and just chillin while we all get ready in the morning. Apparently that tires him out as he takes a 45 minute power nap around 7:45 or 8:00.

8:30 - feeding time again. then play time for 30 min to an hour. By the time Ben is ready for another nap, I try to have everything ready to walk out the door for either errands or for a fun Carter outing. At some point I will need to make this nap time be his regular morning nap in his crib, but I haven't gotten there yet.

11:00 - snack time for Ben. Our daytime feedings are usually 2 1/2 hours apart. Even though I feel like a feed all day long, I tell myself the more he eats during the day, the less he will need to eat at night. Not sure if that is true or not, but that's my story.

This is the time of day that gets a little tricky for me. Any advice from moms with more that one is welcome. I find it tough some days to get Ben fed and happy, feed Carter and myself, then get Carter down for nap time. I am trying to keep Carter's lunch/naptime as routine as possible, especially with the recent big boy bed transition, but some days it is tough to keep both boys happy. I must admit, the recent swing purchase has been a lifesaver. It will usually keep Ben happy for 10 minutes or so which is fantastic.

3:00 - Both boys up and Ben eats again. Playtime for Carter and late afternoon nap for Ben.

5:30 - Ben has early dinner.

6:00 - the rest of us have dinner.

6:45 - Ben bath time, then bedtime feeding.
7:00 - Carter bath time.

With any luck (ok, lots of luck) both boys are asleep by 8:00.

1:00 - Ben has been waking pretty regularly at 1:00 or 1:30 for a feeding. We are very very thankful for this 5 hour stretch. Woo hoo!

5:00 - Ben gets hungry again? Not sure if this is a hunger waking or just a "I've been laying here for hours, aren't you guys ready to play with me yet?" waking. Hoping he can start stretching this one out to 6:00 or even 7:00.

I am sure that bore most of you, but thought our long distance parents might like to read what goes on around here every day.

We have been back to the doctor a couple of times. Ben (and Carter) came down with colds this month that lasted over a week each. Plus, Ben started having baby acne that spread to his shoulders and chest, so we got him checked to make sure it wasn't chicken pox, given Adam's recent shingles experience. And, Ben's thrush is back so we are on medicine once again.

He is smiling and cooing all the time now. So much fun. Love "talking" to him. Really can't get enough. He is starting to enjoy some toys that play music and definitely loves his big brother. :)

So that is month 2.

Thankful.

Things have been busy lately and blogging has taken a back seat.

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and the last thing I am going to be thankful for today is my pillow, which I hope to find in the next 15 minutes.

I have uploaded a new photo album for November with pictures from the past couple of days. Stories to come later.



Hope you have had a day full of family cheer, yummy food, and good memories. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

A few shots of our Halloween weekend...

First...the sweetest little dinosaur you have ever seen.



And a family shot...



This was one of our first family of four shots since the hospital. Sometimes it is still a surprise to me that we have 2 little boys now!

We trick-or-treated Saturday afternoon in Carytown (or Scarytown as they called it that day.) All of the shops were handing out candy.



Then we collected some more loot Sunday night in our neighborhood.

Here is Carter and our neighbor Super Ian raiding the candy bowl from a neighbor.



It was a great night to be out and about and the neighborhood did not disappoint. I wish there were more nights where everyone sat on their porch and welcomed people just walking by. We met so many new people and had a great time.

Carter was a little timid at first, but eventually started saying "more candy more candy" as we left each house. I think he would have gone to several more houses or even streets if we hadn't steered him back home.

Happy Halloween!

Musical Beds

Among the many transitions going on in our household over the past weeks is our sleeping arrangements.

One Month Ago: Carter in crib, Ben in bassinet in our room, guests in twin bed in nursery

Now: Carter in big boy (toddler) bed, Ben in bassinet in nursery, mommy or daddy usually end up in twin bed in the nursery by the end of the night, guests on couch

Near Future: Carter in big boy bed, Ben in crib in nursery, mommy and daddy in their room (sleeping 8+ hours a night), guests on twin bed in Carter's room.

I didn't want to buy a second crib, but Carter wasn't ready for the big boy bed transition when Ben was born so we have been playing musical beds over the past weeks. I found Carter's toddler bed on clearance for $45 at Bed, Bath & Beyond and it is perfect. The second crib mattress was another generous hand-me-down from our favorite nephews.

The first step towards our end result was transitioning Carter to his big boy bed! We put the bed together the day before Ben was born and it has just been hanging out in his room. Occasionally he would go play in it, read books in it, or even pretend to go night-night in it. I didn't want to push the transition, but the other morning, Ben woke up a bit scrunched up in the bassinet. Somehow he had shifted diagonally and his head and feet were touching the edges. Perhaps a delirious mommy or daddy put him down crooked in the middle of the night? In any case, that day, we switched places between Carter's crib and his big boy bed in his room and he took his nap in his big boy bed. That was last Wednesday. So far we have only had one napless day. :) He has done great and we are so proud of him.

Here are some pictures of our transition process. Warning - there was a little bribing/rewarding involved.

I made a reward poster for Carter. He got to put a sticker on his poster each time he took a night night in his big boy bed. He also had to stay in his big boy bed until mommy or daddy came to get him. I didn't want Carter to start getting out of bed on his own and mommy and daddy continuously having to put him back to bed, and so far, this has worked. I am sure I will hear the choo choo trains running on the track during night night time at some point, but so far, so good.



After 5 stickers, he would get a prize.
Here he is the morning of the 5th sticker. (We had to break out the fleece Christmas pjs because it was dropping to the 30's overnight) I only had time to take one picture before he sleepily fell over backwards. Thankfully the pillows cushioned the fall - even though it was only a few inches.



He wasted no time tearing into his big boy bed reward.



And here he is pretty excited over the prize.



He has really been enjoying his kitchen lately. In fact, he has been bringing me cereal, beans, eggplant, etc. to "eat" as I write this post. Yesterday he spent a good bit of the day studying all of his new food and filling up grocery bags with all of his new food.

Next on the list, moving crib to nursery, and Ben to crib. Here's hoping the next transition goes as smoothly...

Carter - 28 Months

Today marks Carter's 28 month birthday. Here are just a few ways he has grown over the past month.

This age has its trying moments, but overall, Carter is just a joy to be around. He loves to give his mommy and daddy hugs and kisses - and he especially loves the double hug (as do we). He cracks me up multiple times a day. Often times at dinner Adam and I have to cover our laughter to not encourage whatever silly thing he has just said or done. His teachers at school refer to him as mr. happy-go-lucky and I think that fits him just perfectly.

One of my favorite Carter pictures of the month...he was 'helping' with the laundry and ended up with this silly t-shirt hat on his head which he wore for quite a while...



Words:
"ah-goo" whenever Ben is awake
"Ben Calm Down"
"...are you?" for whatever he is looking for - "Mama car are you?" as we look for it in the parking lot
Lots of opposites - inside/outside, upstairs/downstairs, open/close
he is repeating lots of what we say - and we are trying to work on his pronunciation of words. He still needs his mommy and daddy translator. :)

Carter is now sleeping in his big boy (toddler) bed. More to come on that in a separate post.

He is still doing great at school. Most days when we leave he always wants to give his teachers a hug to tell them bye bye. He has started doing hand motions to songs that he is learning at school. I have no idea what these songs are - need to ask the teachers. He started pushing a bit. We are thinking he learned this at school. When it started we thought it was just a game. But then it happened a few more times and we decided it wasn't a good game. So we have implemented a "thinking spot" for when he disobeys.

He is still a fantastic Ben helper. He will bring me a diaper when it is time to change Ben; he likes to put Ben's paci in his mouth, or even his finger (as he has seen mommy and daddy do), he likes to help push Ben's stroller, and yes, he still ALWAYS wants Ben to be awake. Even when mommy tries so hard for Ben to take a good nap.



He has learned how to jump this month - there is actually a little bit of air between his sneakers and the ground when he jumps.



We are starting to see the first of his imaginative play. Especially with some animal figurines and his kitchen.

The beautiful fall weather has allowed for lots of afternoon walks to the school playground and lots of afternoon play in our front yard with the neighbors.

As always...looking forward to what the next month brings. :)

Ah-Goo

A few sweet noises for a Saturday morning. The cooing and smiles are just the best. Carter is a big fan of trying to get Ben to say ahh-goo. Maybe we should try to get him to say War Eagle today!

Random Update

Advance warning - this is a very jumbled post with lots of random stuff - but I felt like sharing - so here goes.

First, I want to take a minute to brag on our big brother. Carter really has been fantastic. One morning this week, Adam was in the shower, I was drying my hair, Carter was reading books in his room, and Ben was chillin' in his bassinet in his room. I went to check on the boys, and Carter was standing at the bassinet and holding a paci in Ben's mouth. What a sweetheart. Whenever it is time to change Ben's diaper, Carter always brings me a diaper for Ben. And he is very particular about which diaper Ben wears - sometimes it must be Cookie Monster, other times only Elmo will do. Unfortunately he also decided to share his recent illness with his little brother.

Carter had a pretty bad head cold this past week, that I thought sounded croup like one night. But he was still taking nice deep breaths, so we avoided a trip to the doctor, as I was afraid they were going to put him on steriods again, which was not fun the first time. Now Ben is pretty congested. He didn't sleep in his bassinet at all Thursday or Friday night because he just had too much congestion. Poor guy. Thankfully, I think both boys are starting to turn the corner.

Here is a recent Ben picture, just because I am sure that is really why you decided to check our blog.



We enjoyed a great visit from Gram this weekend. It was a short visit, but we packed a lot in, and she helped tremendously. Friday night Adam had to work late, and I was at my breaking point. I had very little sleep Thursday night because of Ben's cold, and my throat was pretty scratchy by the end of Friday. With both boys not feeling well, and mama working on just a couple of hours of sleep, I was spent. Thankfully Gram stepped right in. She brought a roast for dinner, held a crying Ben while I bathed Carter, and then put Carter to bed while I tried to comfort Ben. Couldn't have done that night without her.

She brought Carter several new books - and read a certain Elmo book with Carter over 50 times without a doubt. Carter loves his Gram time! This morning, before she got on the road, she had a small Halloween goody bag for him with his favorite - STICKERS! He immediately started saying - "open stickers please" I told him we could open the sticker after Gram left, and he then said "bye Gram". He does love his Gram and his stickers. :)



In a moment of desperation on Friday, I broke down and purchased a swing for Ben. I was anti-swing with Carter. When we were pregnant with Carter we were living in less than 600 square feet, and all of the baby stuff just seemed so big (and expensive!), so we decided we could do without a swing. I finally caved. And I am so glad I did. We have it set up in the dining room and have actually had a few meals together as a family recently with both mommy and daddy eating at the same time while Ben swings away. I had a good coupon and some good store credit and it was worth every penny that I had to spend.



With another kiddo here to take adorable pictures of, I decided I wanted to improve my photography skills so I signed up for an online photo class called "Momtography". Isn't that a cute title? It is teaching me how to use the manual mode of our Nikon D40 camera. Our "homework" this week was to play around with aperture, which affects how much light the camera lets in on a particular picture which then affects how blurry or focused the background is. (or at least that is my very limited understanding of it for now) I like the blurry background look, especially when I am taking pictures of our little ones, so I was excited to figure out how to take these 2 pictures and achieve different results only by changing the aperture settings.



We took a walk through the neighborhood last weekend to enjoy the nice weather and to get landscaping ideas for our front yard for the spring. I decided that I want to change out the pictures in our dining room for the fall. Here are 3 of the pictures that will be hanging soon. Now, I need to find 5 more fallish things to shoot to change out the rest of the summery flowers.



OK, I guess that is all for now. Thanks for reading, those of you that made it to the end. :)

Sunday Smiles...

Ben is starting to respond to our smiles and all of the ridiculous noises we make at him...



Happy Sunday!

Maymont Fun

We have had several fun excursions lately and I am way behind on blogging. Surprise surprise. Going to begin the catch up process....NOW.

We visited Maymont - a fantastic city park complete with a Children's Farm, Japanese and Italian gardens, and more. This park used to belong to the Dooleys, a very wealthy Richmond family during the times of Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. The mansion and surrounding property were left to the city upon their death and has remained mostly intact. It truly is a gem of the city and we should visit more often.

On the day we did visit, we stopped first at the children's farm...



Carter enjoyed feeding the goats...



And then ran to show Daddy his slimy goat licked hands...



We saw lots of other animals...but opted against trying to feed them.



Next up, the Japanese gardens - which were beautiful. And so peaceful (minus the screaming children running all around - including Carter.)



We stopped at this gazebo that overlooked a pond filled with GINORMOUS goldfish for a picnic.



Ben even woke up for a bit to enjoy the surroundings...



Carter is taking more and more time to explore his surroundings these days. We are seeing the first of his imaginative play develop as he stops to explore and chat with anything and everything in his path.



After a LONG hike back up to the top of the two really big hills we leisurely strolled down, we were all thoroughly pooped. Ben enjoyed the ride down in the stroller with infant carseat attached. On the way up, I carried Ben in the bjorn, the carseat was on top of the stroller, and Carter chilled in the stroller. Whew. It was a wonderful day with wonderful weather. Looking forward to our next visit.