Just a swingin'

Love when the weather permits for us to enjoy the great outdoors!


Surprised they're both looking at the camera!


First slide for Blake:


Wagon ride


He loves to swing!


Love this picture!


Michael Jordan pose:






Jameston learned how to swing in the big swing recently:


Sweet brothers:





Silly boy!


Crazy hair!


Looking forward to more warmer weather!

Until next Christmas

Jameston loves to sing and entertain, so he received a guitar from us for Christmas. This video was recorded a couple of days after he had received the guitar, and he already has a big fan in his little brother :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

3/4 of a year!

Well, time didn't stand still, and Blake turned another month older on January 25th. It seems these are the posts I write the most :-) It has been a difficult couple of months to say the least (more on that in another post maybe some day), but our biggest rays of sunshine are our boys. We are so blessed, and I beam from ear to ear just sitting here thinking about those two blessings!

At his check up our "big little fella," as Jameston calls him, weighed in at 25 lbs, 7 oz. (97%), measured at 31.25 inches (>99th%), and his head measured in at 97% as well. So, he is proportionally-big, thank goodness!

He is currently wearing 12-18month clothes, size 4 shoes and diapers. I am guilty when it comes to stretching clothes out as long as I can, but I have found that some of Jameston's off-season clothes fit his "little" brother, even though their birth months are 7 months apart :-)

Taking a monthly growth picture has become pretty hilarious these days! Here's a fun photo reel (and these weren't all of the pictures) to illustrate the process:

Our church had a Baby Blessing in January, and we were so glad our little boy was a part of it. We are so thankful for our church family and love that we get to raise our boys in such a loving church.

(You can see Blake holding his Gumby chew toy and it headed for Brett's face in the pic)

New this month:

• Blake is moving all over the place! He continues to roll like crazy from point A to point B, and when he tires of going in a circle, he starts to paddle and has a good army crawl down pat. He has pulled up on his knees a few times, but he is not making the forward motion quite yet (he is great at going backwards!). He is showing signs of wanting to pull up on stuff from the sitting position. I am okay with him not actually crawling yet...big bro didn't until he was 10 months old, so we'll see!

• No more middle of the night feedings for us! For about two weeks now (we had a rough patch with his ear problems), Blake has been consistently sleeping closer to a 11-12 hour stretch and usually wakes up between 6 and 7 a.m. And it is GLORIOUS!
• He is getting his top left central in, and he's acting fine...knock on wood he keeps this up and it doesn't interfere with the aforementioned milestone :-)

He is no longer a wobbly sitter, so he can sit in the duck tub, his bath seat, or confidently on his own in the bath. And like previous months, he still loves his bath!

He will even turn around 360 degrees on his bottom in the tub. Confident!

Our boy, like most boys, LOVES to be outside!!

About to slide at the park with Mommy

We frequent the neighborhood playground and often take walks in the wagon just to get out of the house. And Blake LIGHTS UP as soon as we step outside. Seriously.

 This picture makes me smile!

He does okay in his carseat, and as a second child, has taken many of his naps in it. But he seems to be ecstatic when he knows we are getting out of the car. He almost jumps out into your arms!

Cruisin' in the double stroller at the zoo!

On the food front, he is eating three meals a day and is really only interested in table food. So, he (mostly) eats what we eat, if it doesn't have too much seasoning

Love that he is a great eater!

 

New foods he has tried recently are: spaghetti, pizza, tortilla/bread, meatloaf, potatoes...I'm sure there are more. All of which sound really healthy, huh?

We've also let him gnaw on steamed veggie strips, and he still REALLY loves carrots, pears and peas! Actually, I haven't found a food he does not like :-)

I know I have raved about the puree pouches before, and they are a hit with both of my boys. I just despise spending roughly a $1.25 each since we get them a lot. So, when a friend recommended this "Squeeze Station" by Infantino, I got it. Love how easy it is, love saving money, and LOVE knowing exactly what they are eating, of course!

Some fun things to remember about Blake at this age:

• He has started shaking his head when he is upset. He has also started doing the head-back cry when he is worked up
• It is almost impossible to change his diaper these days due to him doing turns on the changing table!
• He loves to empty toys out of crates and put the crate on his head. So we usually play a good game of peek-a-boo afterwards :-)

• Brett's company gave us a monogrammed lamb pillow when Blake was born. And we just started putting it in his crib. He LOVES that thing!
• Separation anxiety is in full effect :-(
• He is wanting his pacifier a little more these days, even when awake, due to his teething pain
• No words yet, still just babbling. And he really likes to make the "t" sound, I guess also due to his new-found teeth

It is so much fun watching our boys interact. They love each other so much, and it is really such a joy to watch their friendship form :-)

For fun I made this side-by-side comparison of the boys around the same age:

And here is a hilarious one of those two. They are constantly laughing, and I think Jameston (who we know is quite the entertainer) loves that he always has a captive audience with his little bro!

Despite ear infections and his top teeth coming in, Blake is SUCH a happy baby! Cannot believe w will celebrate him turning one in a few short months! Crazy!!

We love our Blakester!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Private please

I am changing the blog back to private, again. I know, I know...I switched the blog availability to public last year, but I've had a change of heart since. So, if you read this-here-thing, PLEASE be sure to let me know. If I have your email address already, I'll add ya. If I don't have your email, feel free to private message/Facebook me your email address if you don't want that broadcasted online. And if you were a subscriber before, Blogger kept your info for me so there is no need to tell me again :-) I hope to make the change over next weekend. Thanks again in advance!

A wonderful, wonder-filled, White Christmas!

This year we stayed at home for Christmas!! Since we had already celebrated with two of our three sets of parents (and weren't getting together with the third set until New Years), we were home for Christmas Eve and day. I've been wanting to be at home on Christmas morning since Jameston was born, something that Brett and I differ on. That's what makes the world go 'round, huh? We'll see what we do next year :-) 

This year, I feel like Jameston really took in all things that we did in preparation for Christmas. We started an advent calendar this year,

found our Elf on the Shelf (named "Monkey Elf" like last year) every morning, 

and, of course, we decorated a (store-bought; Aldi's) gingerbread house

 

He was mainly concerned about eating it, as all kids are I suppose :-)

We also "wrote" our letter to Santa (he is REALLY into coloring/painting/all-things-art-related right now, so we had fun)

And mailed it at a local Macy's

This was Jameston's first year to be a part of the Christmas program at church. Our little star:

And his buddy, Emmie. They did great, even though their part was toward the end and they were the youngest participants!

These are out of order, oh well...The weekend after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas around the house. It is really hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is in the 70's outside. But we tried our best! And drank "cold chocolate" instead of hot...he couldn't believe Mommy was letting him drink milk in his pj's!

Blake was a cute little helper!

JW was OBSESSED with the tree/ornaments this year. Luckily he wanted to "help" me (i.e., rearrange) with the ornaments for only a few days after we put the tree up!

Sweet brothers in matching pj's!

And Blake, at 7+ months old, was obsessed with the lights and tree, as to be expected! I'm just glad he wasn't crawling yet :-)

My boys!

Trying to get Christmas sweater pictures with these two was almost impossible. Love that they love each other so much!

My favorite of our little post-church photo sessions:

Before the snowstorm hit, we had some nice weather, and Brett was home a lot, which we all enjoyed! Going on a walk around the hood (crazy that Boomer looks almost a big as the wagon!)

Me and the crew!

We have a fun cold-weather hat collection going at our house!

Christmas Eve we spent at home, just taking it easy. I cooked a full meal (ham, broccoli-rice casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, bread and bought a pecan pie), and we opened one gift that night. I was so excited to have them wake up in our house Christmas morning! Here are their stockings stocked!

Jameston was pumped about Santa's visits, although we had to wake him up that morning :-)

Checking out his "big" gift, some new CARS!

Blake loved his Baby Einstein treasure chest...but he probably would have loved an empty box, too!

Sharing is not a problem...right now, at least

One of Jameston's favorites from all of Christmas? A new cup...it's the little things!

I love the dog hat I found on Etsy for Blake. Like I said, hats galore!

 Jameston putting his new toy into action!

Blake kept playing peek-a-boo with the box

Daddy's favorite new toy of Jameston's: Lincoln Logs!

Jameston also LOVES his new guitar, from Mommy and Daddy. He loves to sing an "play!"

We had a WHITE Christmas for the third time in four years (in Texas?! I know, crazy!) Blake was not impressed with his first snow:

Jameston, on the other hand, ate it up! When we woke up from his afternoon nap to see there was snow everywhere, we could not get him bundled up fast enough so he could go outside!

Throwing snowballs at Mommy!

Sledding with Daddy (and Boomer) on a trashcan lid...didn't work as well as we expected!

Brett even took him to a small hill in our neighborhood so that he could go on a "real sled" that the older kids in the 'hood had. But Mommy and Blake were back inside, so no pictures to show for it :-(

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas, and Jameston has already begun his countdown until December!