Happy 2nd Birthday, Russell!

Russell is two years old! (his birthday was Saturday, so this is a little late.)

Weight: 29 lbs 12 oz (75th percentile)

Height: 35 3/4 inches (75th percentile)

Head: 19 inches (forgot to ask percentile!)

He is wearing size 24 month or 2T clothes, size 5 diapers, and size 6 shoes.

Favorite foods: blueberries, cheese, anything with ketchup or ranch on it, and anything sweet

Favorite drink: juice (we give him half juice, half water)

Favorite TV shows: Caillou, Curious George

Favorite books: changes every week, but he still loves to be read to

Favorite toys: all transportation toys

Favorite activities: playing on his swing set, playing with cars/trucks/trains, reading books, peek-a-boo, chase, horsey (with Daddy), pretend talking on the phone (always to Daddy), kissing and hugging everything

Dislikes: vegetables (he does eat corn, peas, and very occasionally other veggies), being told no, big crowds (or even small crowds really), diaper changes, shirt being pulled over his head

Language: Russell’s language has absolutely exploded lately! And just in the past week, he’s started putting 2 words together. Some of his most used words: Daddy, Mama, baby/sissy, uh-oh, car, truck, bus, crash, whoa, up, down, in, out, more, yeah, hug.

Russell, you are such a sweet and loving boy! In some ways, we cannot believe you’re two years old, but you are growing and changing and learning so much every single day. There truly isn’t a day that goes by without you doing something new – and many times that new thing makes us laugh We love you so much!

The trip that almost drove us insane

With Russell’s birthday being the weekend after I was in an out-of-town wedding, and having a 2-month-old to boot, I already had serious reservations about throwing him a big party.  And then we found out that Jason had a mandatory company-wide trip over Russell’s birthday weekend, and that the trip just happened to be right near my parents’ house.  “Perfect,” we thought, “visit my parents, small family party, win for everyone!”

Well, it didn’t really turn out that way.  I was going to go into detail about all the things that went wrong, but writing it just made me depressed.  Suffice it to say: my children hate the car; extremely fussy baby all weekend; car trouble which means our car is still in a shop 5 hours away from our home.  That about covers it!

Good things did happen, though.  Mainly in the form of lots of family time.  My extended family got to meet Meredith for the first time – including the fact that her only living great-grandfather got to meet her

We will not be taking another long car trip until we manage to forget this one.  Right now, that sounds like a long time away!

To end on a good note: one highlight of the weekend for me was getting some one-on-one time with my grandfather (Grampy).  He said something to me that made such an impact that I may always remember it; it was exactly what I needed to hear on this stressful trip.  He said (about child-rearing), “As they get older, there aren’t so many things to do for them, but the rewards are greater.”  Reminds me that this is truly just a season!

Russell’s Birthday Party

Russell had a small, family-only party this year at Pops and Mimi’s house. I have heard if there’s a year not to make a big deal of a birthday, it’s the 2 year old birthday. Normally I would do a big party, but due to lots of crazy circumstances, this just seemed easier (I will hopefully have time to write another post about the trip in general, which will talk about those circumstances).

Anyway, Russell and Meredith were the only kids at this party, and I think Russell probably preferred it that way. He likes adults better than children at this point, and he doesn’t like big crowds, so this worked out well.

The theme was Cars (the movie), naturally! Russell loves Lightning McQueen and all things cars.

The party pretty much consisted of dinner, presents, and cake – nothing fancy! But we all had fun!

Some of the party guests:

It was fun watching Russell open presents – he really gets it now Russell pointing out the car on his new cup:

New wagon! “Awesome,” as Russell would say!

Dinner was hot dogs, baked beans, “pistachio fluff” (that’s what my family calls it, anyway), and chips. Oh, and ketchup.

Cake time! Look at that pretty cake – from none other than Sam’s, who knew?

I thought Russell would be excited to see the cake, but all he did was point to the cars and say “off, off” – he did NOT like it when we told him we had to wait until later to take them off! But he sure did enjoy eating it (I’m told…I was dealing with a certain Miss Priss at the time.)

Russell, you are so lucky to have such a loving family. And Mommy is so lucky to have a mommy who will plan and execute a birthday party so that she doesn’t have to do the work!! Thanks, Mom!

Our 2 month old, 2 year old, and Jason and me:

Happy 2 years, Russell Micah! Here’s to many, many more!

Pre-Party

Russell got a little pre-birthday party today.  Since we will be visiting my parents this weekend and having a family-only party, and I was scheduled to host playgroup today, I thought we could have a small celebration.  And by small, I mean singing happy birthday and eating cupcakes – seriously small

Russell is absolutely mine and Jason’s child – he dove in icing-first…

…and tried to eat Lily’s cupcake too (see him eyeing it? He actually tried to grab it after his was gone.)

Cole and Eliza enjoyed theirs too!

Sorry Meredith, no cupcake for you – next year, dear!

Father’s Day

Honestly, this will probably (hopefully) not rank up there with Jason’s best Father’s Days in his life.  With a newborn and a toddler and just coming home from out of town, the day was very chaotic (think unpacking, lots of cleaning, a whiny boy who just wanted our attention after not seeing us for a few days, etc).

However, Jason did get a couple of presents. At preschool, Russell fingerpainted a coaster for him, and I got Jason a “Dad’s Ice Cream” bowl (and Cherry Garcia fro yo, of course).

Paw Paw was there to share in the fun – happy (grand)father’s day to you too, Paw Paw!

Russell, Meredith, and I are so blessed to have Jason.  He is a great daddy and I know he sacrifices a lot of his wants for our family.  He was the first person Meredith smiled at, and Russell runs to the door saying “daddy!” every evening.  We love him so much!

(And happy Father’s Day to Pops too – my wonderful dad – we can’t wait to see you this weekend!)

Wedding Weekend!

My wonderful sorority sister and college roommate, Alisha, married her sweet fiance Brian this weekend!  Jason, Meredith and I had a fabulous time (and I hear Russell had a great time with Paw Paw and Kacki – I am not crazy enough to bring both kids to an out-of-town wedding that I’m in!)

The rehearsal was on Thursday afternoon, so Meredith and I drove the two hours down by ourselves since Jason (with his new job) didn’t want to have to take two days off.  She was so wonderful – slept all the way down, all the way through the rehearsal, and much of the way through the rehearsal dinner.  So I had some time to visit with my friends and enjoy my food hot – both rare opportunities for me

The bride and groom making a speech:

Brian’s groom’s cake was a surprise to him.  Alisha got an exact replica of his golf bag on the cake (Brian loves golf and played in college).  Um yeah, of course when the cake was about ready to be served, my sweet angel baby decided she was starving.  So I did what any good mom does – stuck a paci in her mouth for 10 minutes so I could eat cake It was delicious, by the way!

The next day, we had no “wedding duties” until 1 pm.  Jason had met us at the hotel the night before.  So we walked around the quaint little downtown area.  At 1 (ish) the bridesmaids all met at Alisha’s parents’ house to get ready.  (If Erin wasn’t in med school, she would be a hairstylist! Ha!)

Alisha and Brian’s wedding was held at a beautiful botanical garden.  It is huge and holds plenty of weddings, so they had a nice bride’s room, which is where we got dressed and waited around…and possibly took sorority-style pictures…

Alisha and her mom:

Ceremony time!  It could have been a lot hotter than it was – we lucked out with some cloud coverage!

They’re Mr. and Mrs!  (Well, Dr. and Mr. technically – ha!) Look how happy

Family photo:

Again, our sweet girl was wonderful for the wedding – she even timed her nursing schedule perfectly (about 45 minutes before the ceremony and a few minutes before the bridal party intro at the reception), and then slept a lot, even though we were seated right next to the (incredibly loud) speakers.

What an awesome weekend!  Congratulations to two of my favorite people – you couldn’t be more perfect for each other!  We were so happy to be a part of this special wedding.

Two Months Old!

Our little baby is 2 months old today!

• wearing size 1 diapers
• wearing some 0-3 month clothes and some 3-6 month clothes (she is L-O-N-G!)
• still breastfeeding exclusively – hoping to go a full year like I did with Russell
• tummy rarely seems to bother her now! yay!

*update: Meredith had her 2 month doctor's appointment on 6/21. She weighs 10 lbs 12 oz (50th percentile), is 23.75 inches long (90th percentile), and her head circumference is 15 cm (forgot to ask the percentile on that one). She had 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine - she did not like those shots but has been sleeping away since we left the office!

Meredith is getting more of a little personality as she sleeps less and is alert more. Here are some of the things she’s doing these days:

• started smiling at around 5 weeks – but of course, never for the camera!
• she may become our little social butterfly. She can be fussing away, and if someone comes over and talks to or plays with her, she will start smiling and cooing like nothing was ever wrong.
• Jason and I have heard her laugh a few times in her sleep – SO cute!
• she has started sleeping in her crib now, instead of the bassinet – we started this around 7 and a half weeks old.
• sometimes puts herself to sleep – this is a HUGE shock to us as Russell absolutely never did this until we sleep-trained him. Meredith has even fallen asleep on the floor – again, never in a million years would Russell do that. I swear I heard the Hallelujah Chorus when that happened with Meredith
• As sweet as she is, she does of course still have some fussy times, but usually there is a reason for them: hungry, tired, bored (she does get bored, as I said, if someone isn’t playing with her sometimes), dirty diaper. And sometimes she cries for no reason, like any baby, but those times are becoming fewer.

What an awesome daughter we have! Can’t wait to see what the coming months bring