Comparisons

I’ve been meaning to do some comparison photos for a while now.  I don’t really see resemblances here, but maybe others will.

Meredith is wearing this as her PJs tonight, so I did a quick comparison photo of her and Russell at the same age in the same outfit.  His hair was so funny looking at that age – but at least he had some (poor Meredith)!

And just for fun, a comparison of Meredith and Mommy – 99 percent of the time we hear she looks like me.  (If I had a baby pic of Jason on this computer I’d do a comparison of them too):

Family Heirloom

At one of Russell’s baby showers, he received a very meaningful gift.  Along with it was a note:

The {R} Version of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

In 1942, E. Eugene R joined the U.S. Navy, even though he was officially too young.  As all seamen, he was issued the standard navy uniform, including peacoat and bellbottom pants.

Eight years later, he had returned home, married Jessie Mae W, and was a daddy for the first time to their son, Micah Eugene R.  The talented new mom reconstructed Gene’s Navy bellbottoms into this romper suit for their firstborn.

Twenty-nine years later, Mike became the proud daddy of his own firstborn son, Jason Micah R, and his mother passed this suit down to her first grandson.

Now, another twenty-nine years have flown by, and the suit is being passed along again by another happy grandmother to Jason and Jennifer for their precious firstborn son,

Russell Micah R.

Dan-dan (Jason’s grandfather), Paw Paw, Jason, and now Russell all have photos in this suit.  If I can find and scan the other photos, I’ll add them to this post later.

As a side note, Russell LOVES this suit.  All on his own, he started calling this his “work outfit” – I guess it looks to him like one of Jason’s suits.  He loves to put it on and say he’s going to work.  Then he says he has to take the garbage out and he’ll be right back.  Hilarious!  I guess he knows that Jason takes the trash out in the mornings before work!

Thank you to Kacki for the precious note that will be kept for generations (and probably expanded upon), and of course to Nanny for the romper suit. I can barely read that note without crying – what a sweet and meaningful tradition.

Last Toddler Class

Thursday was Russell’s last day in his toddler class at preschool.  (Yes, he had preschool this summer – that’s one of he reasons I chose his preschool!)  Starting after Labor Day, he will be in the two-year-old class.

I can’t believe how much this little boy has changed and grown since he started preschool in February.  When he began, he wasn’t speaking, was having awful separation anxiety, and needed his lovey and sippy cup (both) constantly in his hands in order to feel even a little comfortable in preschool.  Now he’s talking up a storm – his teachers told me last week that they talked a lot about Meredith that day, is happy to go to preschool and always has a smile when I pick him up, and doesn’t need Fuzzy or the cup anymore (even though he has it in the pic above )!  What a relief for me!

We brought his teachers a thank-you gift: “Kisses for my teacher; thanks a latte!” jars of Hershey kisses and Starbucks cards.

We had promotion Sunday at church this week as well, so he’s in the two-year-old class there too and I was told he did well – but of course, always had a toy car in each hand!  I know I’ve said it before but I can’t stress it enough: we are so, so grateful that he’s doing so well in childcare situations now!

FOG at the Lake

Our Sunday School class had a day at the lake today!  (The name of our class is Families on the Grow, aka FOG.)  Our good friends and small group members, the T family, have a lake house and invited our entire class down there for the day.  It’s about an hour from our house.  {Actually, my aunt and uncle live at the same lake but we didn’t see them today.}

We decided to only go for half the day, so we got an early start and got there about 9:30.  I was a little worried about the weather – it sprinkled a little on our way there – but the morning was really perfect!

We were the third family there (after the T family, of course, who had spent the night there, and another family got there before us).

Meredith and I shortly after we arrived (I forgot my camera so there are all cell phone pics):

We all walked down to the dock to check out the lake right away.  Russell kept telling us he wanted to get in so he could wash his Matchbox cars (at home, he loves when I plug the sink so he can have a little car wash) – he didn’t know or understand the 30-ft depth of the water!  He also kept asking to take all his clothes off as if he was getting in the bath tub!  Silly kid!

Shortly after we got there, he got to go on his first boat ride!  Meredith and I stayed behind while Jason, Russell, and everyone else rode on the boat.

Jason said he seemed a little nervous about all the wind on the boat and he just sat quietly in Jason’s lap the whole time.  But of course he talked about it the rest of the day – on the way home we heard, “have fun lake, get in boat.”

I’m going to take this time to say what a sweet, sweet girl we have.  She totally went with the flow this morning.  She had fun outside, and inside there were plenty of baby toys to entertain her.  The only issue she has is her sleeping issue: that she has to be in her crib to sleep (or a moving car).  So she slept on the way there and on the way home, but didn’t nap for the 3 1/2 hours we were there.  That’s a pretty long time for a 4-month-old to be awake, but you couldn’t tell; she was still happy as a clam!  (I will say that we totally paid for it when we got home and she was overtired all afternoon, though.)

We pretty much hung out in and around the lake house the rest of the morning: played in the basement with lots of toys, ate a potluck lunch, and played in the baby pool.  Okay, Russell didn’t actually get in the baby pool (no matter what I did, I could not convince him to get in), but he did play around it:

What a nice time to share with friends!  It will be a sweet, fun memory

Science Center

Russell, Meredith and I met our friends Kathy and Eliza at the Science Center today.  Russell hadn’t been since February, I think, and based on his reactions I don’t think he remembered it.  It is still definitely an adventure to bring both children to places like this – I’m constantly chasing Russell while at least keeping an eye on the stroller – but Russell really enjoyed it and Meredith was good (per usual) so I’m glad we went!

The Science Center has a small zoo with monkeys, otters, tigers – all kinds of animals – so we started there.  I’m not really sure what exhibit they were checking out here.

Meredith was in the stroller most of the time, but she seemed to like the views!

Both kids in the stroller as we were heading inside after the zoo – Meredith was very sleepy and actually did fall asleep for a few minutes:

There is a good-sized toddler play area inside, so we spent a little time in there.  In addition to playing on the train table (which was a given), Russell found some “food” and went grocery shopping – I thought it was so cute, as he’s never really done this before.

I asked Kathy to snap a quick photo of me and the kids before we left.  This is the best we could do under the circumstances (circumstances being distracted, hungry, sleepy children) – neither looking at the camera but at least they’re not fussing!

4 months old!

Sweet Meredith is 4 months old! (Really?! “They” aren’t kidding when they say it goes by so much faster with the second child!)

She’s wearing size 2 diapers now, and 3-6 month or 6 month clothes.

• Weight: 13 lbs 4 oz (30th percentile)
  
• Height: 25.5 in (80th percentile) {I figured - it is so hard to find clothes that fit her long, skinny frame!}
  
• Head: 15.5 in (20th percentile)

The doctor and nurse both commented on how sweet and friendly she is! She didn't even cry for the first shot, and cried only for a second after the second one. She has such a great temperament :)

Sleeping: Once again, Meredith changed things up on us! She was pulling her paci out so much (especially during naps) that she would constantly wake up, and then not ever go back to sleep, so she was exhausted and falling asleep at like 5 pm. So we had to take the paci away for sleeping. It was a rough couple of days, but now I think she’s truly sleeping better and hopefully it will stay that way! She’s taking 3 or 4 naps per day (anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours long). Her bedtime is around 7 pm and she will nurse once or twice during the night.

What else is Meredith up to?

• Girlfriend loves her baths! She’s so cute kicking in the water.
• We let her have a paci when awake (if she wants it) – she entertains herself by pulling it out of her mouth and trying to put it back in. She also loves to suck on her fingers.
• Meredith rubs her eyes when tired; I didn’t remember it starting this early with Russell, but maybe?
• She eats about every 3 or 3 1/2 hours.
• She is still so laid-back; it’s evident that that is just her personality – very even-keel. I really don’t know where she gets that from (except maybe my dad and my brother Jef) – everyone else around here is more frenzied and energetic, but she just goes with the flow!

See her feet? They are usually like that – up in the air! So cute What a little dollbaby we have!

Playgroup Version 2.0

I hosted our playgroup at our house today.  Out of the 5 families represented in our playgroup, 2 are pregnant with their second child now, and 2 have had their second babies already.

So here’s playgroup version 2.0: Chase (6 months old) and Meredith (almost 4 months):

Uh oh, does Jason already need to fight off a boy?

Just for comparison, I found a photo of Cole and Russell at about the same age from October 2009:

And here were Cole and Russell today!

My goodness, time flies!  I can’t say enough how much we love your friendship, T family, as well as all of our playgroup friends!

Cookie Day!

Russell is now very familiar with the letter C, but we’re doing a review of C and D this week because, well, I had some cute activities I wanted to do

To review C, today was cookie day!  It turned out to be really fun!

First, we made a puffy paint chocolate chip cookie craft.  I’m never sure which crafts will be a hit with Russell (because it’s about 50/50), but he loved this!

I got the idea here.  The idea was supposed to be fingerpainting, but Russell didn’t really want to touch it.  He really enjoyed stirring the puffy paint with a wooden spoon and painting it on the plate with a paint brush.

I cut out brown paper “chocolate chips;” not sure why, but Russell decided they should all go on the edge of the plate.  Here’s the finished cookie:

After that, we sang “C is for Cookie” (you know, the Cookie Monster song), and I found a video of Cookie Monster singing it on YouTube so we watched that a couple times.  We also own a book called Too Many Cookies, so we read that.

After all that, of course Russell was begging for his own cookie.  So we went to Starbucks.

Such a fun day!  Honestly, I don’t know if he understood the “C'” correlation or not – but he did point out the C in the title of the book and saw it on the YouTube video.  Regardless, it was a fun theme for the day!

Matching monogrammed cuteness.

Before church this morning:

I can only match them for a few years and I’m taking advantage!

family visit

We had such a nice time with my family yesterday (and a little bit before church this morning!)  We really didn’t do much of anything…and that was a good thing

Uncle Jon got to come and had lots of fun playing with Meredith and Russell.  He made up a new “jiggle-wiggle” song that both kids got a kick out of, and he helped to wear out Russell with chasing, horsey, and playing outside.  Always helpful to us to have a tired toddler at the end of the day!

I love Meredith’s hairbows, but they do end up very askew – I think they look a little silly when they get so high up on her head…but like I said, I love them!

We went to Grandmother’s house for appetizers before heading out to dinner:

Russell enjoyed the appetizers too!  (Do you see what I mean about him being worn out?  See how sweaty that child gets?)

Family photo in front of the fireplace

Wordless Wednesday

Kacki’s Shorts

Kids say the darndest things! (isn’t that how the saying goes?)  Russell has been coming up with a number of funny/sweet things to say lately.  (I’m putting random pictures in this post that may or may not relate to these little stories, but all posts are better with pictures!)

Jesus Me: Meredith’s naptimes (4 each day) are tough times for both Meredith and Russell.  Tough for Meredith because it sometimes takes a few minutes of crying; tough for Russell because he has to try to be quiet while I’m putting her to sleep.  Since Russell wants to be wherever I am, he is sometimes in the room when I’m putting her to sleep.  Lately, when I start to rock her, he always requests “Sing Jesus Me” (aka Jesus Loves Me).  I used to sing that to him while rocking him, so I guess he wants to continue the tradition!

(Picture: Meredith has started being interested in toys and playing!)

Yay, have fun church: After a year and a half of terrible separation anxiety – screaming and sobbing pretty much the entire time I was gone – Russell finally started to get better with us leaving him in the church nursery around the time Meredith was born.  They say most kids regress after a new baby is born, but Russell was the complete opposite; he actually became much more independent, mature, and just happy.  Now whenever we tell him we’re going to church, he says, “yay!  Have fun church!”  Sweetest words to my ears!  And when we pick him up from the nursery, he says the same thing.

Meredith is just a doll in the nursery (she’s been for 3 weeks now) – they always tell us what a good baby she is.  We never heard that with Russell, so it’s such a nice thing to hear and we don’t ever take it for granted!

(Russell and his friends celebrated Cole’s birthday on Saturday – they were so cute eating lunch at this little table!)

Kacki’s Shorts: On Saturday morning, we were getting dressed to go to Cole’s second birthday party.  We put Russell in his green striped shirt and Jason and I were having a discussion about what shorts Russell should wear.  Jason asked me if he had any navy shorts; I said “no, just put him in the khaki shorts.  The khaki shorts are in the dryer.”  We each said “khaki shorts” several times.  Finally I got them out and told Russell to step into them. 

He answered, “No.  Kacki’s shorts.”

We all laughed and I had to explain to him that Mommy didn’t mean it – they weren’t Kacki’s shorts, they were Russell’s shorts.  After that, he had no trouble wearing them!