Bath Fun

Bennett has graduated from the sink baths to the bathtub.  The sink baths were getting old and since it's cold outside I was always rushing to get him clothes quickly.  Now that he is a little stronger and much better at holding his head up we have moved to the bathroom.

His first tub experience was overall great.  He only cried when I turned the faucet on rinse him off.  The second bath experience Scott was home and was able to help.  Which was great since wanted to get a few more pictures.  He isn't 100% sure about the whole process just yet.  Gabe does like to watch and make sure everything is ok with the baby. 

Back to work

It's official, I'm back at work.  I came back to a whirlwind of interesting things that happened while I was out.  Although I miss seeing Bennett everyday and taking Gabriel to Miss Mary's house in the morning, I am happy to get back into the swing of things.  I really did miss adult conversations during the day - even if we only talk about TV shows. 

On a plus side, my blog will be back up to date soon.  I'm sure what readers I have will appreciate that!.

Handy Man Gabriel

Scott has been busy working on things around the house.  And Gabriel has been right there "helping."  Back in September when Scott put in the new flooring, he ran out of time and didn't add the transitions around the doorways.  So, over a couple weekends he completed those and it's amazing how much that little bit can change a hallway!

 

While Scott was hammering and/or pushing the transitions into place Gabriel would say "Daddy, knock, knock, knock."  He of course had to watch Scott on the last one.

After a lot of searching stores and the internet, Scott and I finally found a decent buffet/server for our kitchen.  And after 3 months of feeling cramped with lack of counter space we finally bought it.  It looks great and it really completed the kitchen. 

Since I had to order the buffet/server from Amazon, it came in 1,000 pieces.  So one night after dinner Scott and Gabriel put it together.  It took 2 and half hours to build and it makes the kitchen so livable now. 

Also, bought some art for the walls.  I found an "A" at Hobby Lobby and Scott spray painted it to the color that works for us.  I have to say, I really think our kitchen is complete and looks updated.

Science Center

Wayyyy back on New Years Eve we decided we needed a family outing before taking the boys over to my in-laws house for the night.  We needed somewhere indoors and something fun.  We decided the Science Center would be a great place for Gabe to run around and explore things. 

I took Gabriel there last February to meet up with some friends from Chicago while Scott did some work.  Gabe loved it and it wore him out.  So off we went.  Gabe still enjoyed everything and ran around.  He really loved the earthquake machine and the tornado.  Plus there were dinosaurs there that roared! 

Bennett slept through most of the entire experience.  He really only woke up to eat, he is an extremely easy baby(makes me think #3 will be just like him(maybe)).

Enjoy our trip in pics.

How Tornados work

Dinosaur ROAR!

Roar!

How to build the Arch

EARTHQUAKE!

January

How  I feel

I am not a fan of this month.  It's right after the busyness of the holiday season and it's cold.  It can be really cold and I never want to leave the house.  We never have anything going on and it's a little boring. Football for the most part is over, baseball doesn't start for another couple months and hockey never gets enough recognition, so our sports watching is limited. 

 

The worst part of the month is that it seems to drag on forever.  We have so many things to look forward to in February that January takes too long.  Our big upcoming events are:

 

Gabriel's Second Birthday

Bennett's Baptism

Visits from Grammie and Grandpa John

Zio Andrew makes an appearance

Reily's Birthday

 

So many things to look forward too!

Big Boy Room

We started work on Gabriel's big boy room back in July.  It's finally getting closer to being finished.  We've been adding things here and there and I'm very happy with the changes.

The best news is that Gabe is pretty much moved in.  He has slept there every night and nap since my mom left in early December.  

When my mom came up, we hung a few pictures that I had made.  My goal is to get canvas pictures made of baseball stadiums that we've visited.

I have a picture of Opening Day at Busch that needs to be printed out.  Right before Christmas I bought a new quilted bed spread and it was a huge hit.  Gabriel walked in and said wow!  

We recently added baseball pennants to boarder the top of the wall.  It is a great addition to the room.

Gabriel does like to play in his room a lot and I feel like he really has his own space.  

2 Months

How is it possible that this adorable little boy is 2 months old already?  It seems like not that long ago it was just the 3 of us.  My how our house is really feeling like a home.

Bennett has his 2 month doctor appointment on the 9th so I don't have any updated stats just yet.  However, he is HUGE!  I think he is at least 12lbs and is quickly out growing all 0-3 month clothing. He is smiling up a storm these days. He loves to smile at me during diaper changes and that makes them so worthwhile.  He is starting to laugh little too.  We have found he is ticklish on his side and tummy.  He can hold his head up like a champ.  He has some really long eyelashes and brown hair coming in.  We are still unsure of his eyes, they are still pretty dark.

Bennett's 2 Month Stats
Weight - 13lbs 8.5 oz (75%)
Length - 23.75 inches (78%)
Head - 39.2 cm (47%)

He weighs more than Gabriel did but the length and head about about the same.  Big Boys!

Gabriel still loves to kiss and hold his brother.  He is really doing much better than I thought he would with a new baby.  It is really sweet to see them together, even when Bennett is crying.

Speaking of Gabriel - check out the similarities between them at the same age.

Happy 2 Months Little B!

Gabriel

I feel like Gabriel has not received much blog love since Bennett's arrival.  A lot is going on in his world over the last 2 months.  He has had his first sinus infection, which made him just a peach to live with.  He has also moved into his big boy room.  The last week my mom was up here, the week after Thanksgiving, he started to scream at night and climb out of his crib.  It was time to move him over to the big boy bed so that he wouldn't hurt himself.  So the day my mom left, we started naps in the new room and we haven't looked back.

Busy working on his phone

Where's the weight room?

He is a great big brother and still loves to hug and kiss on Bennett.  It's really sweet to see.  He has to know where the baby is and is very concerned when he is crying.  He is very helpful with grabbing diapers for us and getting blankets if needed.  He has become very concerned with where Reily is at all times.  He is asking for his WhoaWhoa(woof woof aka Reily).  He loves to play fetch with Reily still.

Gabriel is changing so much every day.  His vocabulary is constantly increasing.  His new word for the week is robots.  He watched The Incredibles and saw the robot in it.  So now he builds robots with Scott out of Legos.  He always amazes me.  He still loves to cook and help us cook anything.  He loves Friday nights when we make homemade pizzas.  He is a great helper.

New Year, Must Clean

I tend to go through random cleaning moods.  I get it in my head that the house needs serious cleaning out and then get out of my way.  Our basement storage area has been on my list for some time.  Back in the day, Christmas vacation 2011-2012, I had the need to really organize a lot of the wasted space back there.  The down side was I was home doing all this while Scott was, luckily, at work.  So I didn't really throw out any of his stuff.  I did manage to get rid of boxes that were falling apart and replace with large Rubbermaid bins.

This maternity break I've been meaning to get through the basement and have Scott help me.  Thankfully, the cards aligned and he was off January 2 and Gabriel's sitter was open.  That was one kid down, the second, Mr. Sleepyhead, took a long 4 hour nap so we could tackle everything.

We managed to finally get the good China, we each have a set, out of boxes and into Rubbermaid bins for better protection.  We also donated over 200 books.  Scott has a book collection and is very proud of it.  However, a lot of his books are just sitting in the bins, not being read over and over or have even been bought digitally; so there was no point to keep them.  The local library was very impressed with his donation, as was I.

All in all, we still have a few boxes that we need to trash and move around.  Once our weekly trash pick up comes we can dispose of the leftovers.  It really puts my mind to ease knowing that this is done and we found some great decorations to help with Gabriel's baseball room.

New Years Eve

We had a great, relaxing New Years Eve. A big, HUGE, thanks to my in-laws for watching both boys for the entire night!

We hadn't had a childless night in a very long time, much less a full nights sleep.  It was great!  

Scott and I stopped at the grocery store after dropping the boys off.  We decided that we'd get some steaks for dinner.  It was perfect.  We got home and embraced the quiet.  It was really weird.  

We had steaks, baked potato, broccoli and then cake for desert.  It was a wonderful dinner!

How awesome does that look?!

My handsome NYE date

After we spent the night watching movies(not Disney).  We rented The Interview to see what the hype was about.  It needed to hype, that movie would have bombed without it.  We also watched This is Where I Leave You, kinda depressing. 

We managed to stay up till 10:30.  It was nice to lay down and not worry about when we'd be woken up next.  

On New Years Day we took our time getting up, made Eggs Benedict for breakfast and went to see the boys.  Both had a great night.

Watching the Mizzou game on New Years Day

We really enjoyed our night but missed those two like crazy.  Our house just isn't the same without them.