The J Squared Jungle

30

2012-02-09T21:20:00.001-05:00

“Remember when thirty seemed so old…”

Today, I am 30. And unlike a lot of people, I’m completely okay with turning thirty. I don’t have a perfect life, but I have a wonderful, amazingly blessed life. I’m wife to a sweet husband who is an awesome spiritual leader, who makes me laugh all the time, and who is handsome as all get-out I have an energetic yet sweet son who makes me laugh while he tells me about his beard and melts my heart with his I-love-you-very-very-much’s. I have a precious brown-eyed baby girl who lights up a room with her giggle and keeps me on my toes as she crawls quick-as-a-flash from one room to the next. I have a part-time photography business that keeps me as busy as I want to be. I live in a great area of town, have a wonderful church, have helpful family and friends who can relate to my crazy life. And so much more. Thank You, Lord.

_______________________________________________________

We had our small group over for dinner tonight as a little birthday celebration. I love, love our small group. What a godly group of men and women. (And we definitely feel the absence of our other family who moved across the country last month!)

Ladies (and little lady):

…and the girls:

Mmmmmm, mac and cheese!

I told Jason I wanted a cookie cake. He delivered

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5 great things about my twenties:

I earned 3 degrees (2 bachelors and one masters), two of which came from this great institution:

I lived in 3 towns/cities and moved 4 times (I think).

I had 2 1/2 careers: media buyer, student teacher (that’s the half!), and photographer. Well, and stay-at-home-mom – my most thoroughly exhausting and fulfilling “career.”

I married the love of my life

and we had 2 beautiful babies!

And that is why I’m not sad about turning 30. Based on how life is going, I expect my thirties to be even better than my twenties! Of course, that’s not in my control, though! I’m just grateful for everything we have.

Meredith’s Nursery

2012-02-07T13:58:00.001-05:00

I recently realized that I don’t have photos of Meredith’s completed nursery on this blog. I really want these as a record for me – after all, they are in nurseries for such a short time.

Walking in (some of these are phone photos and some are camera):

I still think that vinyl over her crib is the best thing I purchased for Meredith’s room. The sweet, perfectly matching rug was a gift from Kacki. The headband holder on the wall on the right is something Jason and I made after I had trouble organizing Meredith’s hair accessories – obviously, not all of them fit, but this helps!

Mimi made the valances for both windows and I made the bow holder.

Nothing has really changed here from the last photos I posted (in May, maybe?) I love the pink basket on Meredith’s changing table/dresser – it’s such a great catch-all. The one thing that has changed since I last posted about her room is that the photo frame on the shelf now holds a 3-month picture of her instead of an ultrasound photo!

The reading/nursing corner: that basket is full of books. Also, I’m planning to put several more canvases on the wall – it just hasn’t happened yet!

Next on the “home project” agenda is to FINALLY finish Russell’s big boy room – once that’s done, I’ll post photos of it too!

Funny because it’s true

2012-02-06T14:09:00.001-05:00

Superbowl Party

2012-02-05T21:14:00.001-05:00

Russell was very excited to go to our friends’ house for the Superbowl party tonight. He didn’t remember Parker (it has been maybe a year since we’d really seen him), but he was excitedly saying, “Go to friend’s house and watch the football game!” I think he was stir-crazy from being sick last week!

Parker had plenty of cars to play with! I think Parker’s mom (my friend Devon) got a kick out of how excited Russell gets when he sees cars. And Meredith wanted to be right there with the big kids.

Devon and Chad made chili and cornbread, and we had some apps and desserts as well. Delicious!

Meredith had a blast playing on the couch while Jason watched the football game. She also really loved their big dog – she just cracked up while he sniffed and licked her. Silly girl!

Jason and Russell did watch some of the game! Jason was pulling for the Giants while, according to Russell’s preschool craft, he was pulling for the

Who knew?

Portraits of a Saturday

2012-02-05T14:09:00.001-05:00

We had such a nice Saturday. My parents came up so we could celebrate my 30th birthday a few days early. My mom and I went to afternoon tea at a nice hotel here in town, and we all had pizza and birthday cake for dinner. That’s all I wanted, really. I used to want 3-hour gourmet meals at The Melting Pot and other nice restaurants here in town. Now when I think about those types of things all I can think is either a) we have to find a babysitter or b) how will I keep the kids entertained at a “boring” restaurant?

Anyway. So what else did we do on Saturday?

We gave Russell a hair cut. This was the “downer” of the day. If you’ve never seen Russell have a hair cut, you never want to. He is more frightened of hair cuts than of anything else in the world. Sobs, screams, sweats – you would think we were cutting off more than just his hair. We’ve tried snacks, sippy cup, his favorite movies playing, scissors vs clippers – everything. This time, we gave two of his animal friends “hair cuts” in an attempt to show Russell it wasn’t bad.

It didn’t help. Oh well, at least it’s over until next time!

Then, more fun things: there was lots of play time with Pops and Mimi!

A great day with some of my favorite people!

Our Second Home

2012-02-01T20:53:00.001-05:00

“Going to the doctor is not always fun to do

But Mommy says it will be all right, because she will be there too.” ~from a board book entitled Going to the Doctor.

We have been to the doctor on Sunday (urgent care), Monday, and today. I think we are single-handedly keeping them in business – at least, it feels that way. First diagnosis of bronchial infection was wrong (from the urgent care). Monday, it was croup, which was correct – he had a round of steroids and that’s better. But today, he still had a fever. Ear infection. The good news is that it’s the first one since tubes. The bad news: tubes are clogged. I didn’t even know that was possible. But the antibiotic will take care of it.

And hopefully the doctor’s office will quit being our second home for a while!

Week in Review

2012-01-28T13:47:00.001-05:00

I know my blogs have been boring lately, but sometimes, life is just same-old. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.

This week:

Meredith and Russell have started wrestling. Meredith just laughs and laughs…that is, until it gets a little too rough. I don’t really know how to referee this.
I’ve played “single mom” 3 days (Jason had a work function one evening and our church’s men’s retreat this weekend.)
Meredith had her first mac-n-cheese and peas meal and loved it!
Russell started to review the letter “C.” (We are re-learning certain letters he’s having trouble identifying.)

Russell is loving “Lady and the Tramp.” This is a nice change from all-CARS, all the time!
I had a meeting about Russell’s speech therapy. Pending an evaluation, we are thinking of exiting him when he turns 3. That’s when he’d have to “graduate” to a new program and new therapist, so it would be a good breaking point.
Meredith is standing on her own sometimes – no holding onto anything!
We ate and played at Chick-Fil-A (love that place!)

Today, we went to the gym and are going to a first birthday party this afternoon! And doing anything else to keep our minds off of Daddy being gone – we’ll be happy to see him tomorrow!

Assortment

2012-01-22T22:08:00.001-05:00

January is a month of getting back into routines, of cozy houses, of family time. January has never been my favorite – a bit of a letdown after the holidays, and coldcoldcold…but we’ve been trying to make it fun by:

Reviewing our letters

We have a magnet set that we play with on a cookie sheet. I print off pages from homeschool websites; the pages have white circles where you are supposed to put the magnets, which helps teach one-to-one correspondence. Russell really enjoys “playing magnets.”

We also sometimes break out the Leapfrog alphabet set. I make him tell me the name of each letter before he picks it up and puts it in.

Hosting “birthday parties”

I bought Russell a set of pretend cookies at Target for $2. He has had a blast with them. He tells me it’s his birthday, asks me to sing happy birthday to him, gives me a certain amount of cookies (“here, Mommy, have three cookies” – and he’s been giving me the right amount!), tells me they need to cook, that they’re too hot and need to cool off…he can spend 30 minutes just playing with these cookies!

Having Bathtub Fun

Meredith still just loves bath time. We’ve been bathing the kids together for a while now and it’s a fun family activity. She gets so excited when she hears the water running, and crawls into the bathroom to stand and watch Jason fill up the tub (while Russell does what we call his “naked baby run” around the house).

That’s just a bit of what we’ve been up to lately!

Pinned and Netted

2012-01-17T20:20:00.001-05:00

I seriously don’t know what people did before the Internet. (I mean, okay, I was alive, but I wasn’t at the point of finding a job or decorating a house or entertaining children.) I love Pinterest (probably a little too much) and recently found some uses for a few of my pins.

Russell made this snowflake painting for a devotional our family did. The theme was “He has made us white as snow.” And decorating with candy conversation hearts was another Pinterest idea!

Another Pinterest idea: learning/reviewing alphabet letters by using them as Matchbox car parking spaces. I knew this was right up Russell’s alley, and he loved it! (And this is the weird face I got when I asked him to smile! This kid cracks me up!)

This is from the Internet in general, not Pinterest: I was looking up free printables to find a couple new decorations for our house, and happened upon two great ones. The first is now hanging in our kitchen. The second is on our mantle – perfect for Valentine’s Day coming up.

So that’s a little peek into our “pinned and netted” home!

9 months

2012-01-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

3/4 of the way to Sissy’s birthday! What?!

(see the two bottom teeth?)

Weight: 16 lbs 2 oz – 10th percentile

Height: 28 in – 50th percentile

Head: 17 in – 50th percentile

She is “slender” as the doctor said. He said he isn’t worried because Jason and I are too. However, I’m trying to feed her more. But she will only eat the amount she wants to eat and when she’s done, she lets you know.

Speaking of eating:

Meredith eats 1 jar of baby food (or oatmeal) for breakfast plus however much table food she will take; 1 jar for lunch and table food; and 1-2 jars for dinner plus table food. We also try to make sure she has a sippy cup of water during all meals. She generally would rather eat table food than baby food, but I feel like the baby food is a better way for me to gauge her calories, so I make her eat that too.
Table foods she has had so far include: pasta, peas, corn, lima beans, squash, tomatoes, bananas, mangos, Cheerios, avocado, muffins, blueberries, strawberries, bread, shredded cheese. I’m always trying to think of new things to add! She has a great pincer grasp but has to resort to “raking” the mushy stuff that is hard to pick up.
Meredith is nursing 4x/day, around 7 am, 11 am, 3:30 pm, and 7 pm.

Meredith wears size 6-9 month and 9 month clothes.
Her shoe size is technically a 2, but I bought her a pair of 3s so she won’t outgrow them too quickly.
Still takes 2 naps a day, the first from about 9:30-10:30 and the second from 1-3 or so.
Her first 2 teeth came in around Christmas, one right after the other – the bottom middle ones.
She is definitely Mommy’s girl. She would much rather be with me than anyone. This is good and bad. It’s definitely causing some separation anxiety.
As I’ve mentioned, she is pulling up EVERYWHERE. No cruising yet. She lets go of things to try and stand on her own, but falls quickly. Crawling as fast as anything!
As far as reading goes, she will only sit still for her favorite books. If you try and read anything else, she’s gone. Favorites are That’s Not My Fairy, The Secret Life of Fairies, Ten Little Ladybugs, a Precious Moments book called Hugs Are Special, and a few books about babies. It’s looking like the one Pops brought yesterday called On the Farm might get added to the list!

This girl is so precious to us!

The Big 9-0

2012-01-15T21:37:00.001-05:00

That’s right, 90! My grandmother’s birthday was on Friday, and we celebrated in a big way on Saturday. Some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins flew/drove into town and were here for much of the day Saturday. In the afternoon, there was a drop-in party for Grandmother’s friends and family from 2-4 pm. We made it for the latter part of that, after the kids’ naps.

I don’t think Russell and Meredith had ever met my cousin Brian before (who lives in Baltimore and also Florida, with his wife). Brian was playing with his nephew Tyler and Meredith got in on it (and may have tried to take a few toys from Tyler…oh dear…)

Uncle Jon came in town!

Grandmother with Diana and Kelly:

Our little family went home for a bit to get the kids fed and for us to change into our nice clothes. We had dinner reservations at Grandmother’s country club. (It was the same room that my bridesmaid’s luncheon was held in.) We left the kids at home with our favorite babysitter – great decision! I’m sure they had more fun watching CARS, and we definitely had a more relaxing evening.

The whole group – we were missing a few family members, so it didn’t feel quite right, but we all had a great time:

The birthday girl with her ice cream cake – she had just turned a candle upside-down so it said 60 instead of 90

So glad we could celebrate such a special person!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T21:22:00.001-05:00

Nice Weekend

2012-01-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

We had a nice, low-key weekend that involved Paw Paw and Kacki, a double date with my college roommate and her husband, shopping and a photo session(for me), woodworking (for Jason), of course church…all around fun!

I managed to get a few photos today. Happy Sunday!

I might be crazy.

2012-01-06T21:59:00.001-05:00

In addition to this blog and this blog, for January, I am doing this blog. I just needed a little push to challenge myself photographically/artistically. Just mentioning it here so everyone knows why this blog might be a little less active in January. Or not. We’ll see!

Russell’s Sayings

2012-01-03T14:57:00.001-05:00

Just for my memories, just to document some of the funny things Russell regularly says, just because:

1) “Mommy, mommy, mommy (or Daddy)! I don’t know what I think.” (there never seems to be a reason for him to say this – maybe in his mind there is!)

2) “Go faster!” (when we’re in the car, riding in his stroller, etc)

3) “One {mommy/daddy/Meredith/cup/Puff/what-have-you}, sitting all alone.” (this is a phrase from a book we have.)

4) “Last time.” “ Just one more time.” (when asking for another turn at anything.)

5) “Meredith, no ma’am!” (when M is encroaching on his toys.)

I’ll think of more later, I’m sure!

Little Miss I-Pull-Up-On-Everything

2012-01-01T21:39:00.001-05:00

Since Meredith already pulls up on everything she can reach, I put the legs on this learning table. She loves it! I’m quite sure she’ll be walking before she’s a year old. I can’t decide if that’s good or bad!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T20:21:00.001-05:00

We didn’t host a New Year’s Eve party this year. It may have to be an every-other-year thing – the years when we don’t travel so far.

However, our wonderful friends Jamie and Heather had us over for a small party, along with our friends Justin and Sarah. We had pizza and brownies, the kids ran around, and we just generally enjoyed each other!

The babies, Chase and Meredith, were both a little out of sorts (although you can’t tell in this picture). Both teething.

Kids’ table for dinner:

Jason and Jamie eating their pizza and having some man talk, I guess:

Happy new year from our family! We have had a really great year and we are so grateful for the Lord’s blessings. Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!

Christmas at Pops’ and Mimi’s: day 3

2011-12-31T13:29:00.001-05:00

On our last day at my parents’ house, we spent some of the morning at a nearby mall with the goal of getting some of Russell’s energy out and having fun. Mission accomplished!

Sweet Mimi paid for 2 rides for Russell – the bus ride (above) and the race car ride (below).

Bass Pro Shop had a huge fish tank – Russell loved it!

Russell and Mimi decorated cookies in the afternoon. He had a great time – did a little decorating and a lot of eating

Meredith did some reading with Jason, some playing, and some crawling around.

On day 4 (Thursday), we drove home. We had an awesome trip – soooo much better than the last one (in June, for Russell’s birthday). Both kids slept well (a miracle in itself!) and ate well, and no one got sick – well, except for the thrush Meredith and I have again, but that doesn’t really count! We were sad to leave but will see most everyone again in a couple weeks for my grandmother’s birthday!

Christmas at Pops’ and Mimi’s: day 2

2011-12-30T14:26:00.001-05:00

On day 2, we did a little baking and more visiting with family!

I meant for us to bake a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day, but somehow it slipped my mind. So I packed up the cake mix, icing and candles and brought them with us to Georgia. Russell enjoyed this project.

Jesus had a Funfetti birthday cake As we couldn’t put 2,000 candles on the cake, we opted for 5. Uncle Jef lit the candles while Russell tried to burn himself on them (not pictured!)

“Happy birthday, dear Jesus, happy birthday to You!”

Aunt Jane (my mom’s sister) came to visit for a couple hours!

More presents! These ones were from Uncle Jef and his girlfriend Sejal, and Aunt Jane and her family. These children are so blessed to have so much!

The ~~boys~~ men inspecting the new cars while the kids play:

Day 2 of our vacation was a great day at Pops and Mimi’s house! I ended the day with a few photos of their tree:

1) Christmas tree light bokeh – easy to achieve using MF:

2) Shot wide open, overexposed per the meter, slow SS:

3) Similar to #2 but a close up. I love this one because it’s a pretty Nativity ornament. “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in!”

Christmas at Pops’ and Mimi’s: day 1

2011-12-30T13:54:00.002-05:00

We left bright and early Monday morning to go to Pops and Mimi’s house – in our BRAND NEW (to us) minivan, which I love! (Well, as much as anyone can love a minivan!) This was also Meredith’s first time in her big-girl car seat – what is happening to my baby?

The drive was okay. There were some rough times, as we expected. But we kept Russell mostly entertained with DVDs (another parenting thing I swore I’d never do – DVDs in the car) and Meredith was able to sleep a little.

We pulled in to my parents’ house around 2:30 pm – way past naptime and Russell doesn’t sleep in the car, but he’s at the age where a late nap isn’t the end of the world. So we made it even later by visiting and opening Uncle Jon’s presents!

After nap snack – this girl would much rather feed herself now than eat baby food!

Day 1 was pretty uneventful - just recuperating from the long drive. Day 2 coming up next :)

Christmas!

2011-12-29T21:39:00.001-05:00

Christmas day was very low-key. We popped my family’s traditional strata in the oven to cook while opening presents, and in the afternoon we packed for Pops’ and Mimi’s (my parents) house, where we stayed the 26th through the 29th. So on Christmas, we enjoyed a quiet day - time with the four of us in the morning, and with Paw Paw and Kacki in the afternoon.

Stockings from Santa!

(The goldfish were in Russell’s stocking – she loves his stuff.)

And here they are with some of their presents from us:

Sophie the Giraffe. I couldn’t wait to give her this; Meredith is very picky about what she wants to chew on, but she needed some teethers she would use since her first tooth is finally in, and I think others will be close behind!

Russell’s car city is a big hit!

Meredith’s first purse – it includes a mirror, key, fake dollars – super cute

I love spending this time and making memories with my husband and children, having fun together and celebrating Emmanuel!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T22:09:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve was a big, busy day for us! Paw Paw, Kacki, and Nannie came over around 11 and we all visited for a bit (in between preparing our big lunch):

Sooo much good food for lunch. Kacki brought the ham, pineapple cheddar casserole, broccoli casserole, and lemon pie, and I made strawberry salad, corn pie (my Mama Addie’s recipe), rolls, and fudge. Yum!

After the kids’ naps, we went to the 4 pm Christmas Eve service at church. We came home and took a few photos of the kids in their nice Christmas outfits. I could not get a pic of them together for the life of me – Meredith would start crawling away immediately when I put her next to Russell!

Then the kids opened TONS (and I mean tons) of presents from Paw Paw and Kacki and Nannie.

Russell with his first present of the year – a dump truck from Nannie! He loves it!

Meredith was much more impressed with the wrapping than her baby doll – typical – but she did decide later that she enjoyed chewing on the baby’s feet.

More presents.

We so appreciate all the presents, and the kids just loved them. And more than that, we loved spending all day with family, eating an awesome meal and enjoying each other’s company. Most of all, we know – and Russell is understanding too – that Jesus is Who we celebrate at Christmas. We pray to have a faith like Mary’s in Luke 1:38 when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be unto me as you have said.”

Favorite Christmas photo

2011-12-25T21:38:00.001-05:00

This is my favorite photo from our family Christmas this year. It perfectly captures Russell and his complete excitement and anticipation. You see, whenever Russell is abnormally nervous, shy, excited, or anticipating something, he puts his hand to his eye (as in this photo) and you can just see all his emotions on his little face. I love that I captured this quirk of his. (He was opening the movie Mater’s Tall Tales – which he now loves.)

Preschool Christmas Program

2011-12-21T13:55:00.001-05:00

Russell’s preschool held their Christmas program today! I just love things like this – so sweet to see all the children dressed as shepherds and donkeys, ringing handbells and dancing and singing. Jason, Meredith and I, and Grandmother too, all came to see Russell’s stage debut.

Russell’s class dressed as angels:

All week, he’s been walking carefully around the house, saying “fly like an angel” – so cute. Now of course, when the time came for them to fly in to the gym (the program was held in the church gym), I don’t think one two-year-old tried to fly. And Russell was the only one who made a break for Mommy! But he was happy and wasn’t upset about going back to stand with his class.

They processed around the gym and landed in front of the Christmas tree.

Two-year-old chaos!

Ballerinas and angels and donkeys, oh my!

Russell did so well during the show. He sat very still. After the show was over, all the kids went back down to their classes to wait for their parents. Well, when we got down to Russell’s class, he was very upset. His teacher told us he broke down when they had to leave the gym because he wanted to get down and go to us. Poor kid!

Jason got some good video of the program so after we edit it, I’ll post that too. Altogether, I think Russell’s first performance was a success!

Playgroup Christmas Party

2011-12-16T13:36:00.001-05:00

Our regular playgroup had our 2nd annual Christmas party/book exchange today – so much fun!

We were the last ones to arrive (not shocking – I used to always be on time/early everywhere…well, that ended when I had children because now I’m on their timetable.) Everyone sat down for a snack when we came in.

And Meredith sat down with her sippy cup

There was a little time for play before opening presents.

I got a cute picture of Cole!

Baby Micah is the newest in the playgroup at 8 weeks old – he is Joshua’s baby brother (not his sissy, like Russell thought! Russell thinks every baby is a “sissy!”)

Time to open presents! We number all the gifts, then each parent picks a number, and your child gets that present. We sit the big kids down on the couch for a few pics (this is a total Mommy shot, not pro-worthy, but sometimes it’s enough just to get a photo. L to R: Eliza, Cole, Lily, Joshua, Russell):

Then they get to open their present! Russell’s book is about baby animals going to bed. It’s very cute; we read it before his nap today and he liked it, so thanks, Heather!

Meredith had a great time, per usual. She was getting into everything and had no fear. She’s going to be our Miss Curious and Miss Independent – quite different from her Mr. Cautious brother.

Just 9 days until Christmas!

Christmas Photos–through the years

2011-12-15T13:58:00.001-05:00

I love giving and getting Christmas cards every year. So much has changed for our little family since we started sending photo cards! (The first couple years of our marriage, I didn’t send photo cards – just store-bought cards.) Here are our Christmas card photos from past to present:

2008 (pregnant with Russell):

2009:

2010:

2011:

8 months old!

2011-12-15T11:59:00.001-05:00

This was a big month of growing up for Miss Meredith!

I have no idea about her length/weight/head circ – next well check is at the end of January.
Taking 2 naps per day at around 9:30 am and 1 pm – length varies by day.
Bedtime at 7:15ish and wake-time at 6:45ish.
Eating solid foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner: breakfast is either baby oatmeal mixed with juice or a jar of fruit; lunch is a fruit or a veggie; dinner is a fruit and a veggie. We’ve added yogurt to our options now, too, which she likes!
We have given her Puffs on occasion as a snack. She is very good at getting them in her mouth, but sometimes sticks them too far down her throat. I don’t really know what to do about that so hopefully time will fix it.
Still exclusively breastfeeding 5x/day…but that is about to change as Mommy’s milk supply totally tanked. That could be a whole post in itself. I am trying to tell myself that at least she got 8 good months of solely breastmilk, no formula – and she still hasn’t had formula yet so there’s still hope – and I know in my head that formula is just fine for babies, etc, etc…I was just personally hoping to breastfeed her until 1 year like I did with Russell. We will see.

Now, the fun stuff!

Meredith is now full-out crawling, not just army crawling – although sometimes she will still army crawl to get somewhere quickly.
We had to drop her crib to the lowest setting because girlfriend pulled up – twice! What?! How old do you think you are, missy? (She hasn’t pulled all the way up since, but does get to her knees.)
Likes Peek-a-Boo (especially pulling a blanket off her own head) and silly songs.
Loves to watch Daddy dance and to have family dance parties.
Does not like her car seat. She is really ready to move up to the convertible car seat – we just need to find time to go buy another one.
She and Russell have started to play together a little. He loves to tickle her and make her laugh, and wants so much for her to chase him (she’s just a little too slow at this point)!

Happy 8 months, Meredith! We love you!

2 and 1/2

2011-12-13T14:56:00.001-05:00

Two and a half is such a fun and funny age! I just love to hear the things Russell comes up with.

1) While driving home the other day, we passed a car dealership. Russell’s comment (no prompting): “Look at all those cars. It’s beautiful.” Well, yes, I suppose you would think so!

2) I was cleaning out Russell’s little potty earlier this morning and Russell was standing behind me. I must have done a good job, because he told me “That’s great wiping!” Thanks for the encouragement, bud!

3) One of Russell’s favorite things to do is hide. The other day, he was “hiding” (I could actually see him quite well) in a little corner of the kitchen. When I looked over at him, he said, “I’m hiding. Mommy, say ‘Peekaboo.’”

What a silly boy!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

2011-12-09T13:45:00.001-05:00

Our church had a birthday party for Jesus today. I was so excited about this! It seems like so many children’s Christmas events center on Santa: breakfast with Santa, pictures with Santa, movies about Santa. {We decided this year that we will “do” Santa, but it will be very modified and very small.} It was so great to go to an event for Russell’s age that was only about Jesus.

I had to get a couple pictures of the kids before we went. I just love Russell and Meredith’s matching outfits! Kacki is an awesome seamstress!

We got to church and spotted some friends:

We listened to a few stories and sang “Happy Birthday to You” and “Away in a Manger.” (In the below picture, Russell was turned around playing with Meredith. He is usually great about sitting for story time, but he was pretty distracted today for some reason.)

Then we did a quick craft and ate cake! This was what Russell was waiting for the whole time. At the beginning of the party, Diane (the leader/coordinator) went through the schedule for the party– well, as soon as Russell heard “cake,” that was it. He asked me every 5 seconds when we were eating cake.

I know there are no pictures of Meredith at the party, but she was such a good girl. There was nothing for her to do, but she was very content to play with a package of baby wipes and watch the bigger kids.

Such a fun party! I do hope Russell is gaining a little understanding of Jesus’ birth. I can sometimes see his wheels turning when we talk about it.

“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” ~ Isaiah 9:6

Sharing

2011-12-07T13:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Russell decided that the Jump-Up seat wasn’t enough entertainment for his sister. So he buried her with toys.

He kept making trips to get more, bringing them to her and saying, “Here ya go, Sissy.” She enjoyed it… until she couldn’t see anymore.

The culprit/helper/sharer:

Oh, Christmas Tree

2011-12-03T21:08:00.002-05:00

We got our tree today!

After the kids’ naps this afternoon, we drove to the same church we went to last year. They have a lot (that I suppose they rent out?) on which workers from a tree farm from the mountains sell Christmas trees. All the trees there today had been cut in the past week.

This sweet girl was quite content in the umbrella stroller.

Russell was a little interested in the Christmas trees, but more interested in the cars on the road behind the lot, just like last year. However, he loves to see the decorated trees at stores and our church – he always points them out and tells me they’re “beautiful” – so I think he’ll be much more interested in our tree once it’s decorated.

Once we picked our tree, the workers had to cut it a little with their chainsaw.

The look on Russell’s face was hilarious – he had his head tilted like this for a couple minutes without moving.

Before we left, I had to get a photo with my favorite girl!

The tree is home and up in our living room, but that’s it. Hopefully we’ll trim it tomorrow. Tonight, we decided it was more important to take a walk to our local park and enjoy the luminaries, candy canes, and Santa sighting. Priorities!

Crawling and Jumping

2011-12-02T13:08:00.001-05:00

There’s a lot of movement around here lately!

Meredith has decided that army crawling is not good enough for her anymore. She is trying her hardest to actually crawl. She will sit down, then put her hands forward so she’s on her hands and knees, then try to move her knees and end up with her bottom in the air and straight-legged, and then sit back down. She tries over and over but can’t quite move anywhere!

Russell started jumping (with both feet off the floor) a couple weeks ago. He has now taken to jumping off of his bed. I’ve decided not to fight this battle as it’s a low bed and he’s unlikely to hurt himself. He enjoys it

Another Children’s Museum

2011-11-27T21:19:00.001-05:00

We never miss an opportunity to go to a children’s museum! So on Friday, we went to the one near Paw Paw and Kacki’s house.

The first thing we saw was this bus. And when asked later what his favorite part was, Russell said “the city bus.”

I intended to carry Meredith in the Ergo. Normally she likes it. She was in it for about 10 minutes. I guess she wanted to be a part of the action!

Another favorite – the red car.

Meredith loved playing in the baby area (for 18 months and younger)! It was nice to put her down and not worry about her being run over. Plus, the toys in there were perfect for her age and she was just fascinated. It was great to have several adults there, so Meredith could get some one-on-one playtime – at places like this, she normally is kind of along for the ride since Russell runs from here to there and I have to chase him.

Russell is at an age/stage where he loves to help or to have a job to do. We asked him to “mow the grass” – he mowed this little patch of “grass” for 10 minutes.

One of the last areas we went to was the basketball area – there were several hoops set up and kickballs to play basketball with (I did find it odd that there were no basketballs!) Russell played for maybe 5 minutes. I did get this cute picture of Russell’s slam dunk though!

Fun morning = great afternoon naps! Happy for everyone!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T15:10:00.001-05:00

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed to Jason’s aunt’s house (about an hour and a half(?) from us). We did this two years ago also, and it’s really fun because Jason’s cousins have 2 little girls a little older than Russell, and his step-cousin has a son a year older than Russell. It is definitely a bit crazy with all those kids running around!

The Thanksgiving chefs and hostesses, Aunt Nancy and Kathy:

The guys watching football and talking:

Poor little Meredith would.not.nap.ALL.DAY. (Should I really say “poor Meredith,” or should I say “poor Mommy and Daddy?”) She catnapped in the car for maybe 45 minutes total over the day. I think the combination of too many people, unfamiliar place, lots of driving, and lots of commotion just got to her. She was really good considering, but completely broke down around 5:30. We went back to Jason’s parents house, where we stayed the weekend, and she was asleep by 6:30 and slept until 7 am.

Since we got to Nancy’s house around 12:30, we put Russell down for a nap immediately. He did great – went right to sleep and slept for 2 hours. But that meant he didn’t eat with all of us, since we ate at 2. So here’s the kids’ table – minus sleeping Russell:

And then he woke up…I really like this picture of me and Russell even though it’s a phone pic!

We had a nice time with family! Happy Thanksgiving – I’m ready for my favorite, Christmas!

I’m sorry, Fuzzy

2011-11-21T14:06:00.001-05:00

Each of our children has a lovey. And each of them is very attached to their own lovey (and actually, they are both quite fond of each other’s lovey, too). As I’ve mentioned, Russell’s lovey is named Fuzzy and Meredith’s is named Kitty.

Fuzzy is well-loved. He has slept with Russell for every nap and every night since he was 5 months old.

(Russell and Fuzzy in January 2010)

Fuzzy had to have an emergency arm amputation 4 or so months ago. Russell used to chew on Fuzzy’s arms. Inside each arm is a little bag of white plastic beads. Russell had chewed a hole in one of Fuzzy’s hands, and chewed another hole in the bag, so the little white beads ended up in Russell’s mouth – not safe! As I have somehow lost my sewing kit and time was of the essence (I couldn’t have Russell still chewing on those beads, but I couldn’t really stop him without taking away Fuzzy), I had to cut Fuzzy’s arm off.

(Russell and Fuzzy in June 2010 – better days, with 2 arms)

I explained to Russell what I was going to do. He was very calm about the whole thing, watched me do it, took Fuzzy’s arm to the trashcan and waved bye-bye. No problems.

Fast-forward 3 months. We are all in the car driving and Fuzzy is there. Russell is talking in the backseat as he often does. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Russell says, “I’m sorry, Fuzzy. Took your arm off. Fuzzy have too many arms.”

Well, I never did explain why Fuzzy’s arm had to come off. Apparently he thought I had to take an arm off because Fuzzy just had too many!

(Russell, Meredith and Fuzzy: Sept 2011)

We still love Fuzzy, even with one less arm! However, I am contemplating finding a “back up!”

Big Boy Bed

2011-11-17T14:18:00.001-05:00

We decided to move Russell into a big boy bed this past weekend. I was very nervous, thinking he might be scared, or get up in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. He loves it!

Now I just need to get my act together and transform his room into a big boy room! The decorations are all still from his nursery and aren’t really suitable for a 2 1/2 year old. The new theme will be football – hence the football toy box next to the bed!

Hiding

2011-11-16T20:22:00.001-05:00

When I left Russell and Meredith in Russell’s room today, Russell was playing on his bed and Meredith was playing with toys in the middle of the floor.

A few minutes later, I came back (from doing a quick chore) and found them like this:

Hilarious!

When I first went in, only Meredith’s little legs were poking out from underneath the table, and I didn’t even see Russell. So I said in a surprised voice, “Oh my gosh, Meredith, what are you doing?!” That’s when I heard lots of little giggles and Russell said, “Oh my gosh, Russell, what doing? Hiding!”

These two crack me up!

7 months old!

2011-11-15T13:37:00.002-05:00

{Photos were tough this month – she wanted to crawl right off the chair! T-R-O-U-B-L-E!}

At 7 months, Meredith is:

Wearing 6-9 mo clothes and 9 month clothes
Wearing size 3 diapers (they are too big around, but 2s were too small lengthwise)
possibly transitioning to 2 naps per day
Sleeping from 7:30 pm to 6:30 or 7 am – through the night consistently!
Eating solid food for breakfast (at 8 am) and dinner (at 5:30 pm). She has gotten a little pickier and now will spit the green veggies back out at me if she has several bites in a row, so I have to trick her by giving her a bite of fruit, then a bite of veggie.
Nursing 5x/day - at (roughly) 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 3:30 pm, and 7 pm.

Sleeps on her side or tummy, sucking 2 fingers now (instead of her thumb like last month), but still keeps Kitty right next to her face.
Army crawls (as I have mentioned)
Prefers to play with anything that is not a toy (computer cords, remotes, phones, shoes) or her brother’s Matchbox cars
{those two previous facts mean that I have got to find some time to better baby-proof our house! I constantly find her with something she should not have in her mouth!}
As of her last doctor’s appointment (Friday), she weighs 15 1/2 pounds.

A comparison: Russell at 7 months (left) and Meredith at 7 months (right).

Happy 7 months to our Sissy girl!

Big Kids Now

2011-11-09T20:17:00.001-05:00

Our little ones are growing, learning, and changing so much!

We have done a couple of family devotionals. Russell seems to really like them, and seems to be learning. I know there’s only so much a two-year-old can grasp, so really, we’re just setting a foundational routine in place. But he does say the Bible verses occasionally of his own initiation, so that’s something.

Last week, our devotion was about King David, so we made a crown. We painted a paper plate yellow, let it dry, decorated with “jewels”:

and then cut out the points:

This week, our devotion was on the fruits of the Spirit. We talked about being nice instead of mean, loving instead of hateful, etc, and then put fruit stickers on a person’s heart. I wrote a fruit of the Spirit on each fruit sticker.

As for the “growing and changing” part – look at these two big kids! Meredith is sitting in the high chair/booster seat to eat now (after a falling-out-of-the-Bumbo-almost-Mommy-heart-attack incident) and Russell had been asking to sit in a big chair, so:

And now Meredith is sitting straight up in the stroller, so Russell is on the jump seat (I think that’s what it’s called)!

And just because she’s so cute – look at this sweet girl

Now if they could just get well…we are currently working on cold, ear infection, thrush (Meredith) and cold (Russell) and a missed trip to visit family because of it. I know in my heart that I should just be grateful that none of those are anything serious – and I truly am. What a blessing these two children (and their (relative) health) are to us!

I guess you would call this army crawling

2011-11-04T13:58:00.002-04:00

Meredith, stop growing!

Our little girl is on the move! Well, she’s been on the move since she could roll at about 2 months old, but within the past few days (or maybe the last week) she’s been using a very slow army crawl as her mode of transportation. I caught it on this video. Like I said, very slow, but she gets where she wants to go!

First Pics

2011-11-03T20:35:00.001-04:00

First photos from my new Nikon D5100!

Which are also the first photos of Meredith trying out a sippy cup – big girl!

She did great for her first time; she knew exactly which part to put in her mouth.

Russell wanted to point out that he knows how to drink out of a sippy cup, too.

I love my sweet kids and my new camera!

Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:04:00.002-04:00

I’ve never been a big Halloween fan. I am a big scaredy-cat, so that may have something to do with it. But I love an excuse to make my cute little ones even cuter, and nothing does that like a costume. And candy? Yes please! Holidays are so much fun with little children!

We started off our Halloween with Mimi’s homemade pumpkin bread for breakfast. Then, while Meredith took her morning nap, Russell and I decorated a pumpkin. I asked him whether he wanted to use paint or dot markers – dot markers it was!

We went about our day with nothing else Halloweeny until dinner: mummy hot dogs!

We dressed up our little Calvin and Hobbes and headed out the door for our very first Trick-or-Treating experience!

Before we left, I explained to Russell what we were going to do. He was very excited. And not just about the candy – he was excited about knocking on people’s doors, saying “trick-or-treat,” and the candy part. I think he was happy to do something out of the ordinary.

Our first stop was Grandmother’s house – where Calvin played with trucks and Hobbes needed baby food.

We quickly rushed to our friends David and Lisa’s house. The plan was to get some candy there and then come back and trick-or-treat in our neighborhood (we live 5-10 minutes from them). But once we saw the great fire they had going in their fire pit, we decided to just trick-or-treat around their neighborhood and come back and hang out by the fire. (I know Lisa has a few pictures of that so maybe she will send me some that I can post!) (edit: here's a pic from Lisa!)

Russell loved “chasing the fire” (really running through the smoke) and blowing on the fire. I’m not sure if he was blowing on it to stoke it or to try to cool it off.

We all had a great time! We stayed until Russell’s bedtime – past Meredith’s bedtime – but they were both being good!

Happy Halloween!

Pops and Mimi visit

2011-10-30T20:25:00.001-04:00

We had a wonderful, low-key weekend at home with my parents in town. (It would have been more wonderful had Russell not been sick again, and had we been able to go to the 2 parties we were supposed to go to this weekend…but that’s life I guess.)

On Saturday, Mimi and Meredith read books – well, Mimi read books while Meredith tried to eat them. I don’t remember Russell trying to eat books, so this is a little new to me. I always have to have a toy or paci on hand when reading to Meredith so she doesn’t grab and eat the book.

My lovely parents (and sweet Bogie).

My aunt came into town and visited with us for a little while on Saturday afternoon. Russell just loves Aunt Nancy. The feeling must be mutual because she will play cars with him for a good long time!

We went out to dinner at CiCi’s Pizza on Saturday – close to our house, cheap, Russell loves pizza – can’t go wrong, right? It started well: Meredith’s first time sitting in a high chair instead of her car seat and she was so happy and good, and we were excited to go out with my parents. But we noticed Russell wasn’t eating (very unlike him) and was being pretty whiny but wouldn’t tell us what was wrong. So I felt his forehead and he felt warm. Then, he threw up all over his plate in the restaurant. Not one of my favorite moments. We went home immediately and did baths and bed. I actually think he just got worked up – I don’t think it was a stomach bug. He had a low-grade fever this morning (99) but that was it. Who knows.

Anyway, because of that, my parents kept Russell at home this morning while the rest of us went to church:

He was better this afternoon (and even before nap time today) so we are ready for our first trick-or-treating experience tomorrow night!

Bad and Good

2011-10-26T21:15:00.001-04:00

Two completely different things from the past 2 days:

1) Poor little Meredith has thrush and an upper respiratory infection. Thank the Lord I don’t have thrush (yet at least) – well, I don’t think I do – I’ve been told I’ll know if I have it. The doctor said hers is very mild. As for the infection: she did have a cold last week, but since yesterday afternoon, her main symptoms have been not sleeping well, not eating well, and pulling at her ears, so obviously I thought she had an ear infection or was teething. It wasn’t until tonight that she had a fever. She’s now on Ny-something (for thrush) 4x/day and if the infection doesn’t clear up we’ll start Amoxicillin on Friday. Poor baby girl!

On to better news:

2) Some family friends have started doing a devotional with their little girl once a week. Just by her telling me, it made me want to do it – so thanks for the great inspiration, Kathy! Our first family devotional was last night. We had a lesson on Jesus calling His first disciples (Matthew 4:17-19). We read the Bible verses, had Russell repeat verse 19, explained it (the best we could) in 2-year-old terms, and made a “fisher of men” door hanger craft. We all really enjoyed it!

So there you have it: one thing I hope continues for 17+ years (family devotionals) and one thing I hope ends very very soon (illnesses)! I’m nervous about this winter, sickness-wise. We had plenty last year with just 1 kid – what will it be like with two?

Meredith’s 6 month Photos

2011-10-22T20:22:00.001-04:00

Well, I was going to try to get a few more 6 month photos of Meredith, which is why I hadn’t posted these yet. But since everyone in this house has been sick except me, it just doesn’t seem like it will happen – and I’m very happy with the ones I have! So here they are!

Favorite:

She was holding Kitty in this one

And one non-tutu/fall-ish shot:

Love this sweet baby!

Things to Remember

2011-10-18T15:11:00.001-04:00

{We have had a low-key week – Russell ended up getting croup on Wednesday (although we didn’t know that’s what it was until Saturday, it was misdiagnosed at first) – so we’ve been keeping to ourselves. He’s over it now though, so we’ll be out and about again starting tomorrow!}

All of these are cell phone pics – this one is Russell playing in our trailer:

I just want a little snapshot of Russell at this point in his life. He’s growing and changing so fast! Here’s the newest news about him:

Favorite song: Wheels on the Bus. Every time we’re in the car, he wants it on repeat.

Favorite thing on TV: CARS. While he was sick this week, he watched the entire thing every day. When he’s not sick, I limit it to 30 minutes of the movie per day.

Favorite foods: yogurt-covered raisins, Graham Bites (graham cracker-ish things that are in the shape of the CARS characters), grapes, strawberries, cheese.

Favorite drink: “apple juice.” (half the time, it’s some other type of juice, but he thinks it’s all apple juice.)

Funny things:

1) The bathroom is right next to Meredith’s room, so when Meredith is sleeping and Russell has used the potty, I sort of whisper “yay! you pee-peed in the potty! I’m so proud of you!” So now when telling someone else he went, he’ll often whisper, “pee-peed potty today! So so so proud of you!” (yes, he calls himself “you". And he always adds “today”.)

2) Cooking dinner is a huge accomplishment for me because both kids get crazy around 5 pm and they both just want to be held. Generally, what ends up happening is that I’ll complete a small part of cooking, then have to hold Meredith in one arm while gathering ingredients/stirring/etc with the other. Russell has been taking it upon himself to then grab both of my legs and walk with me, saying “goofball. Goofball.” (because that’s what I call him when he does this.) I wish I could take a picture – I know this is quite a site.

3) Russell can say entire prayers now. At meal times, he will say, “Dear Lord, thank you for this food. Amen.” At bedtime, I’ll say, “Dear Lord, thank you for” and before I finish, he interjects his own thoughts. Some examples: Daddy, Fuzzy, lunch.

There are many, many more funny things; at least this way I’ll remember these few!

Happy half-birthday, baby girl!

2011-10-15T20:53:00.002-04:00

Meredith is 6 months old!

At 6 months, Meredith is:

Wearing 6-9 mo clothes and 9 month clothes
Wearing size 2 diapers
Taking 3 naps a day, (loosely) at 9:30, 12:30, and 4:00 – first 2 are 45 minutes and the last is an hour and a half.
Sleeping from 7:30 pm to 6:45 or 7 am – sometimes she wakes up once to nurse and sometimes she sleeps through the night.
Eating peas, squash, apples, pears from a jar, and homemade butternut squash and banana, and rice cereal mixed with breastmilk – loves all of it!

Sleeps sucking her thumb (since we took away her paci for sleeping) and with her kitty (lovey) right next to her cheek – it’s so adorable.
Favorite song is “I love you a bushel and a peck” – she gives a huge grin just from hearing the first line.
Sits independently, but still falls over reaching for toys, so I usually leave the boppy around her.
Is definitely teething, which has caused a couple of rough nights. Her top gums are swollen and we can see the top two front teeth under the surface.
We expect her to crawl within a couple months (at most) – as I’ve said before, she gets up on her knees and elbows and scoots herself forward, and today she was rocking on her knees and elbows. If she can get up on her hands, she’ll really take off!

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 26.25 in (75th percentile) - still tall and skinny
Head: 16.5 in (25th percentile)
Had 2 of her 6-months vaccines today plus a flu shot - she cried but recovered quickly!

Meredith is our little sunshine – our squealy, cheerful girl – and she lights up our world with her frequent smiles! Happy 6 months, baby!

Farm Fun

2011-10-08T21:08:00.001-04:00

We had so much fun last fall at a farm about 20 minutes away from us, and we knew even then that we would do it again this year. Well, it was very different having a baby with us, but Russell had a blast! And Meredith was pretty content, even though she was very overdue for a nap.

A friend organized the outing so that a bunch of families from church could go on the same day. It was fun to see all of our friends!

When we first got there (after a potty break for Russell) we headed straight to the area they staged for photos. I knew we wouldn’t get them otherwise! From a mom standpoint (though not from a technical/photographic standpoint), I love them!

We then made our way over to this tractor where Russell found his friend Elaina. I just love this photo – looks like they’re having a sweet conversation!

Then we headed for the swings and the teetor totter. I wish I had a photo of Meredith and me on the teetor totter – she just loved it! She was laughing and smiling like crazy. And so was Russell.

Teetering with Eliza and her dad!

Russell and Jason rode the cow tractor ride again this year. I don’t know what happened, but it took them forever to get going. The driver kept getting off the tractor and checking this and that. I was thinking when they finally did get going, they might not make it back!

Meredith was ready to get down and play. I ended up picking her up again because she just wanted to eat the grass. By the handful.

We finished up with the hayride:

I think we’ll go again next year!

Sibling Love

2011-10-05T14:24:00.001-04:00

I just love watching my two children interact with each other. Throughout the day, Russell comes up to Meredith often to show her a toy or give her her paci or sing her a song. He tries to carry her car seat when we’re going somewhere.

And he just comes up to her and lays his head on her belly like this:

She eats up his attention. She gives him great smiles and laughs. It’s truly adorable!

(And on the pottying front, we are doing much better than Monday, thank goodness. But we’ve still got a long way to go. Just wanted to update so that my last words on the subject weren’t negative Oh, and there will probably be lots more pics of Russell without pants because of the potty training thing!)

Potty: Day 3

2011-10-03T19:45:00.001-04:00

Today was nothing short of bad. Blah.

Seven accidents. He just wouldn’t use the potty. He wouldn’t stop playing. I would ask and ask, and 2 seconds after I asked and he said no, he would just go. And he didn’t stop anymore once I picked him up; he didn’t get a drop in the potty – not even once. So discouraging, because I know he can do this! He did great yesterday! I know he has control because once again, he kept his naptime Pull Up dry. And he would go 3 or even 4 hours without peeing.

We aren’t really sure where to go from here. On one hand, we could just put him back in diapers and try again later. But on the other hand, I know he can do this, and I’m afraid he’s just testing his limits to see if he can get away with peeing whenever and wherever he wants. And if that’s the case, I think it would just be harder later, because he’d be even more set in his ways.

Anyway, I know that if this is our biggest problem, our family is doing pretty well! And I also know that Russell will be potty-trained eventually. But I would have to tell the self-proclaimed “Potty Queen” (author of the e-book) that I don’t agree with her – not every child can be potty-trained in 3 days!

Potty Extravaganza Day 2

2011-10-02T20:42:00.001-04:00

Day 2 of our potty training. Jason and I both woke up with a bit of a sense of dread – it was HARD WORK yesterday! But the morning started out okay. I think Russell had a total of maybe 5 accidents all morning? This was a definite improvement!

The afternoon was even better – much better! Russell woke up from his nap with a dry Pull Up – hooray! We were completely not expecting that. Not only that, but he only had one accident from naptime until bedtime!! Awesome progress!

Things we are still concerned about:

1) Russell does not tell us when he has to go. He has pretty much just started to hold it until he can’t anymore, and then he has an accident. I don’t know if you can even call it an accident because he knows exactly what he’s doing. So, this afternoon we started taking him to the bathroom every so often (which is not what you’re “supposed” to do according to this method, but oh well). This helped some…but we really want him to tell us when he needs to go.

2) In 2 days, Russell has not gone #2. Not a good thing. I know this is common, but we’ve also heard some bad stories about complications from holding it. I’m going to read up on what we can do to encourage him.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day of the intensive potty training. I really don’t know how intensive we’ll be, since it will be just me (since it’s Monday and Jason has to work). We may even throw on a Pull Up and head to the Children’s Museum. Not going to help the end goal of pottying, but it will certainly help with everyone’s morale!

Potty Extravaganza: Day 1

2011-10-02T20:41:00.001-04:00

It’s the end of our first day of the 3-day potty training method! I’m going to document day-by-day – mostly for myself and interested family, because I know this is probably really boring to everyone else!

It’s hard enough for the 4 of us to stay home all day – we all like to be out and about (including Meredith – when she’s not tired). But it’s even harder when trying to keep a vigilant eye on the two-year-old. This method recommends that instead of asking the trainee to go potty or taking them every, say, 15 minutes, you just catch them (every time) in the act and rush them to the potty. Obviously, this means accidents are guaranteed. However, with consistency and lots of praise, supposedly this will help the child learn his body signals quickly. We’ll see!

Day 1:

Woke up, ate breakfast. Changed into “BIG BOY UNDERWEAR!” around 9 am and just a t-shirt – no pants so everyone knows when something’s happening! I felt like a broken record – one that only says “you’re clean and dry!” or “remember to tell Mommy or Daddy if you have to pee-pee or poop!”

Oh, and one more phrase – “yuck, your underwear is all wet!” – that one, while running with a bewildered toddler who had started to pee on the floor.

I tried to take Russell’s picture in his first pair of underwear – well, while I messed with my settings, he started peeing. So here’s a picture of him in his second pair:

For the first 3-4 times, Russell didn’t get anything in the potty. When you think about it, it takes a while to get there: he starts peeing, we run him to the potty, we get his underwear down, we get him settled on the potty (this is a little harder with boys than girls). So by the time he got there, nothing was left.

However, he started to get it later in the morning. He would start peeing, and when we said “yuck” and picked him up, he would stop, and wouldn’t start again until on the potty! Yay, progress! Come afternoon, he still wouldn’t tell us when he had to go, and would start to go in his underwear, but it didn’t even make it to the floor before he stopped and gave us the look that meant “get me to the potty!”

So while we went through a good 25-30 pairs of underwear, we “only” had to clean about 15 accident spots.

I had all kinds of fun activities planned for the day. Some recent favorites: watching Cars (the movie), racing our Lightning McQueen and Mater toys, playing football, reading books. Some new activities: a new set of animal window clings, some foam pumpkins and stick-on rhinestones, Play-Dough and cookie cutters.

I’m spent. So is Jason. We’ve definitely seen progress, but we’re really hoping he’ll start telling us when he has to go!

Almost Sitting!

2011-09-28T21:36:00.001-04:00

Meredith is really hitting some great milestones lately! Today, I got some pictures of her sitting with only the Boppy for support. She did such a good job!

She seemed to really enjoy sitting and reading/eating her book.

Meredith is also getting up on her knees and elbows (not hands yet) and scooting herself forward by little inches. Maybe I’ll get pictures of that soon! Good job, sissy girl (as Russell says)!

Fun-packed Weekend

2011-09-25T22:01:00.002-04:00

Parents and family and friends, oh my!

I barely sat down this weekend, but I loved it anyway! On Friday afternoon, my parents drove in town and spent the entire afternoon and evening with us. How nice that was! They don’t normally make it up here until Saturday on the weekends that they come, so this was wonderful!

We were all laughing at this point because both the kids just wanted Mimi – Russell wanted her to rock him like a baby and Meredith was just fascinated by (eating) her toes.

On Saturday morning, my parents and the kids and I drove over to see Uncle Jon and Kelly. I hadn’t seen his place and he hadn’t seen the kids in a couple months. More importantly, I wanted to have a “trial run” with Meredith to see if she had gotten any better about sleeping away from home. (She hasn’t. But she was a pretty good trooper anyway – until we got home and she was exhausted and cried in her crib for an hour before going to sleep.)

It was a low-key morning: visiting Jon and Kelly, going for a walk by the lake, and Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Jon has 2 big, energetic (but very well trained) dogs, and Russell was a little unsure of them at first, although he did warm up. It was the first time Meredith had really been close to dogs, and she seemed to like them. They definitely liked her!

Bababunda licked her head in this picture! (She had a bath later!)

The rest of Saturday was spent driving home, relaxing, and having a date!

Then, we got a few pictures today before church; look at this beautiful girl!

(and yes, I was still in my PJs – got everyone else ready first, but I did eventually get dressed – I didn’t go to church like this!)

This afternoon, we had a reunion for our old singles Sunday school class. It was so much fun. Just a bit of trivia: 22 now-married couples met in that class! We have lots of memories and are still great friends with many of the people with whom we were in this class.

Like Lisa (and hubby David, who wasn’t in Crossroads). We were roommates; we were in each other’s weddings. And we are such good friends, in fact, that she stole my baby right when we got to the park. And I was COMPLETELY happy with that I love love my babies, but I also really love people who will love my babies and give me a short break!

Some of our friends at the picnic:

Jam-packed weekend! Whew! Somehow I doubt the week ahead will give me a chance to catch my breath – but that’s life with 2 children!

Baby Food

2011-09-22T13:42:00.001-04:00

I was so diligent about making Russell’s baby food, both for cost reasons and health reasons. I very rarely bought his baby food. Not the case with Meredith! I haven’t made her a single bite of baby food. Thankfully, she loves the store-bought stuff anyway.

Squash face:

Carrot face:

Sweet potato face:

She had peas last night and loved them just as much as anything else. Hopefully she’ll be a good eater like her brother is!

The Truth about Lunch

2011-09-20T13:21:00.001-04:00

I’d love to do a real “day in the life” post one day about what happens here moment to moment so that a) I don’t forget and b) I can point people to it when they ask what I do all day For now, we’ll start with lunch time.

The reality of having two very young children is that Mommy’s eyes cannot be everywhere (despite what we may tell them). Lunchtime is tough because we’ve usually been out somewhere and are just getting home, and it’s almost naptime. Often, no one knows whether they want to eat, sleep, poop, or play, and that causes a lot of whining and crying.

Today was typical. I could almost hear Russell’s thought process (in the span of 30 seconds, literally):

1) Lunch. I need lunch.

2) Take my shoes off.

3) Where’s sissy?

4) WHY is lunch taking so long?!

5) Oooh, Sesame Street book.

6) I don’t want to sit in my high chair!

7) Oh look, it’s lunch!

And of course, Meredith was tired and hungry also, so once Russell was settled, I fed her…and she spit up all over her 4th outfit of the day {having changed earlier due to spit up and a poop that was so bad it caused a bath, making us late for story time this morning}.

As I was changing her into a new outfit, I heard something happening in the dining room. Hmmmm.

Apparently, it was the sound of Russell grabbing the graham cracker box (which I must have left within reach) and dumping them out all over. When I came in and said “Oh, Russell,” his explanation was “Want some more graham crackers.” Yes, I see that.

Two bites later (out of 2 different crackers, mind you): “All done.”

And that, my friends, is the story of lunchtime – a normal, typical lunchtime. (I’ll spare you the aftermath of a crying overtired baby and immediately changing pants from fruit snack stickiness…)

Photos

2011-09-19T21:05:00.001-04:00

We had some time this afternoon, so I decided I wanted to do an outdoor photo shoot with the kids. I had 2 goals: 1) to get a good pic of the kids together, and 2) to get a photo I can put on a canvas in Meredith’s room (you can get a free one here, just pay $14.95 shipping).

Almost went with the next one for the canvas:

But decided on this one instead:

They were both happy to be outside – even though we had already gone to the park in the morning! And I got the photos I wanted!

What a big boy!

2011-09-15T21:42:00.001-04:00

Warning: this is a potty post! If you’re not okay with that, stop reading here! I’ll even give you some blank space below so you don’t have to see pictures

Our BIG BOY pee-peed in the potty today! (Yes, I did blur part of this photo! He’s getting up to look at the camera, saying “see picture Russell.”)

We have not started any sort of potty training with Russell. The only things we have done are: read a potty book (but it’s been weeks), and watched friends pee-pee in the potty (I know at some point soon this will be very unacceptable, but right now it’s very useful!)

Today, I was getting Meredith up from her nap, and Russell told me he wanted his shirt off. Okay, done. I went back to tending to Meredith. Next thing I knew, I saw Russell walking in the bathroom, pulling his shorts down, telling me he wanted to go potty. So I got him undressed and gave him a book, telling him to read it until he went. Soon after, he got up and said “Russell pee-pee in potty.” I was in the middle of saying “no, you didn’t, but good try” (because I just expected him not to!) when I looked and saw that he actually had! I was so excited!

Russell got lots of praise and the chance to wear “big boy undies” (Pull-Ups – I was not going to test my luck with underwear!) That was the only reward he needed, once he saw that Mater and Lightning McQueen were on the Pull-Ups!

We called Daddy and Mimi, who were both happy to lavish praise on him! Way to go, Russell!

I guess now it’s time for Mommy to get serious about potty training!

5 months old!

2011-09-15T13:56:00.001-04:00

Our little lady is 5 months old! Wow!

At 5 months, Meredith is:

Wearing mostly 6-9 mo clothes, and some 3-6 mo and 6 mo – it just depends on the brand.
Wearing size 2 diapers.
Sleeping is going pretty well! At night, she sleeps from about 7:30pm-7am, waking once to nurse. She still takes 4 45-min naps most days, although over the last couple days she has taken just 3.
AND she’s even been napping well at church on Wednesdays (for our morning Bible study) and Sundays! Maybe we will be able to travel soon? (Jason is still deathly afraid after our June trip to my parents’ house!)
Eating baby food for dinner. She absolutely LOVES rice cereal and squash (the only 2 things she’s tried so far).

Finding her voice finally! At the 4 month doctor appointment, I had to tell him that she doesn’t coo – she was just so quiet (although she would laugh). Now she is much more vocal, and that mostly means a high-pitched squeal mixed with a little cooing.
Still very happy and easy-going, although she is starting to let us know that a few things frustrate her. Namely: when she can’t work a toy the way she wants to (or reach the one she wants), and when her brother is a little too rough with her.
Rolling all over the place – when she wants to! Often she’ll stay in one place for quite a while, and it’s almost like she forgets she can roll. But other times, I’ll put her down, go in another room for 5 minutes, and come back to find her halfway across the room looking very pleased with herself!
This isn’t really developmental, but baby girl has more nicknames than you can shake a stick at! {and now I know I’m truly a member of the R family since I’ve used that phrase! next thing you know, I’ll be lamenting NC State’s loss of Phillip Rivers!} Anyway, we call her Sissy (and variations: Sissy Bean, Sissy Girl, Sis), Mer Mer, Mer Bear; Russell loves to call her Sunshine. I’m trying to call her Meredith sometimes so that she knows that’s her real name!

What a precious blessing you continue to be, Meredith Claire! You are so loved!

Outtakes

2011-09-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

Could not get a good photo of the kids together today. Could. Not.

I thought giving some instructions might be useful. Russell tries to follow directions most of the time.

“Russell, play with sissy.” (He took this to mean “push down on her head.”)

“Hold Meredith’s hand.” (I think he’s in the middle of saying “holding hands” in this photo.)

I did not give this instruction. He told me he wanted Meredith to eat his arm. I have no earthly idea why. But she obliged.

I gave up after that one. Maybe tomorrow

Recent Phone Photos

2011-09-11T21:58:00.001-04:00

With one or two diaper bags, a car seat, a two-year-old, and miscellaneous items (lunch bags, Matchbox cars, etc), I just don’t always have extra hands to carry my “nice” camera with me. Or feel like messing with the settings. Thus, here are a few cell phone pics from the past couple weeks.

We met some sweet friends at the park. I spread out the blanket for Meredith, of course, but Russell hung out on it a lot too:

I love this cute little skirt!

We had a rainy, dreary day last week, so I built Russell his first blanket fort. He has requested one every day since. (And I have obliged.)

First day of preschool, and all I had was my phone! I really should have brought my DSLR for that one. Oh well, he wouldn’t stay still anyway – he now says “cheese” for a split-second and then runs over saying “see picture Russell.”

Anyway, this was taken out in front of the preschool entrance. He enjoys wearing his backpack now – I think it makes him feel like a big boy!

And that’s it for now

First Rice Cereal

2011-09-09T23:16:00.001-04:00

Last night, Meredith had her first baby food meal – rice cereal!

She thinks it’s great! She must have been ready to start eating, because she didn’t really make any “what is this?” faces – just lots of smiles!

Jason and I – and even Russell – each got a chance to feed Meredith. She kept grabbing at the spoon and sticking it farther into her mouth. And naturally, after many bites, the fingers/thumb went in the mouth too. She’s such a thumb/finger/fist sucker.

We started baby food at exactly 4 months with Russell – we were so eager to try new things with him. With Meredith, I would love to keep her a little baby longer Also, the doctor said introducing it anytime between 4 and 6 months was perfectly fine. I do think it’s good that we started now, as she proved she was definitely ready. And after a few days of this, the fun part comes: veggies and fruits!

Happy Friday!

2011-09-09T14:15:00.005-04:00

I don't know what your Fridays are like, but this is what ours are like! Smiles, tears, crafts, play - a happy kind of chaos!

One, two, three

2011-09-06T14:41:00.001-04:00

Guess who found her feet?

Chick-Fil-A

2011-09-05T22:23:00.001-04:00

We love Chick-Fil-A. Clean, friendly staff, play area that even kids scared of climbing too high (Russell) can play in, great food – can’t say enough about it! Last week, we met a few friends for lunch. It actually wasn’t too chaotic! Maybe the “big kids” (2 year olds) are getting more mature at restaurants? I don’t know, but it was nice!

Russell, Lily, and Cole played before lunch.

Meredith (and baby Chase, whose photo I didn’t get) were pretty content to watch. Meredith is a little happier in her carseat now that I put the toy bar on it.

As a treat, we sometimes get Russell chocolate milk when we go to CFA. He has started realizing this and gets really excited about it!

Food + friends always = fun

Copycat

2011-09-02T22:56:00.001-04:00

Anything you can do…

…I can do better.

He had just as much fun as she does in the exersaucer. And he’s already confiscated the one car that came on it.

Comparisons

2011-08-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-24T20:52:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-22T21:44:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-20T21:25:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-17T14:45:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-08-15T07:02:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-12T13:15:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-08-09T21:06:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-08-07T16:13:00.001-04:00

Before church this morning:

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

family visit

2011-08-07T16:05:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-03T14:40:00.001-04:00

Kacki’s Shorts

2011-08-01T20:50:00.001-04:00

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!

Everyday Stuff

2011-07-28T13:52:00.001-04:00

1) Russell and I are still doing our weekly letters. We’ve done A and B and are working on C currently. He knows A and B well, but calls b “d” because of his speech. Should be interesting when we start D next week – I wonder if it will confuse him!

We still do lots of coloring and computer work – when he wants to see the PowerPoint, he goes to the computer and says “A apple.” We also use Starfall (a free educational website), and have started with Do-A-Dot markers (in the high chair pic below, he’s using Do-A-Dot markers for the “B is for Bus” page). We used stickers on the “C is for caterpillar” page (pic below), which Russell really enjoyed…although when Meredith woke up, he decided it was more fun to decorate her with the stickers!

2) Russell’s speech is growing by leaps and bounds!! It’s so exciting to watch. He started saying “no” yesterday. I know most parents hate that word, but it is much more useful than the screaming we used to get! For example, now if we ask “are you all done eating?” he can say “no,” instead of a blank stare. In fact, yesterday when asked that question, he replied, “no, still eating crackers.” What a HUGE improvement!

3) Both Russell and Meredith love to be read to. Hopefully this will really cultivate a love of reading and learning for them for life! I can’t keep both of them on my lap together (Russell tries to sit on Meredith – not out of spite, just because he’s trying to get more comfortable) so they lay down next to each other while I read. Well, one day Russell decided to pick up a book and read to Meredith! I know they look like deer in headlights in this photo, but I wanted to capture the moment!

4) Meredith continues to be our little sweetheart! I love our time together on Thursday mornings while Russell is in preschool – that’s the only “alone time” she usually gets! This morning we did a lot of reading, patty-cake, and laying and talking on this blanket:

blog makeover :)

2011-07-25T15:16:00.001-04:00

Jason never liked the name “Faith, Love and Blessings” so we’re now “The J-Squared Jungle”…because it feels like a jungle or zoo in this house and we are the zookeepers (but our names start with J so jungle it is)! Thanks to Leslie at Sweetie Baby’s Designs for our fun new look

Family-filled Weekend

2011-07-24T21:20:00.001-04:00

We got to see lots of family this weekend! Paw Paw and Kacki came down, and I think Russell was beyond excited. They came on Friday night and left late tonight (I had a photo session, so Jason really wanted their help with the bedtime routine).

Everything is better with Paw Paw and Kacki – like reading!

We also ended up seeing some of Jason’s extended family, which was really fun. They live 30-45 minutes from us. We all got together for dinner on Saturday night.

Nanny just loves to hold Meredith (but who doesn’t?)

Aunt Terri and Kacki:

Russell cracked me up. Cousin Jordan completely spoiled him by feeding him, and then Aunt Terri got out the matchbox cars they keep for their grandchildren. I think Russell could have stayed there all night – between those two things, he was in heaven! (In the picture, he was saying cheese.)

Weekends always go SO fast – that’s the worst thing about them! I think we all had fun – I just know all I’ll hear this week will be “Da Da, Kacki, are you?” (Russell-speak for “Paw Paw, Kacki, where are you?”)

Great-Grandmother

2011-07-19T20:10:00.001-04:00

Jason and I often talk about how we wish our parents lived in town.

Oh, we absolutely know how blessed we are – we have two healthy, beautiful children, the ability for me to stay home, and so many more blessings from the Lord. However, it truly does take a village to raise young children, and a big portion of our village is out of town.

That’s why I’m so grateful for my grandmother. She lives just down the road from us, and she loves to see and help out with the kids. She acts forever young She will play trucks with Russell, hold a fussy Meredith, take us out to lunch or her country club pool, and just generally be a wonderful grandmother and friend to me. We see her about once a week.

Last week, she watched Meredith while Russell and I played in the pool, and then we all had lunch together.

This week, we visited her house. She is so sweet to keep a basket of toys (mostly trucks) that Russell loves to play with.

What an awesome Great-Grandmother she is! We cherish all of our time with her.

3 months old!

2011-07-15T13:22:00.002-04:00

Meredith is 3 months old!

Look at that precious little face

Meredith is wearing size 1 diapers still, and 3-6 month (and some 6 month) clothes. I have no idea about her height and weight – no doctor’s appointment this month.

We had a little sleep trouble right when Meredith turned 2 months old, and we decided Meredith was telling us she needs a sleep routine. Once we put one in place, she started sleeping great! We can put her down in her crib awake and she goes right to sleep. However, she pretty much has to be in her crib to sleep – too many car seat naps totally undo the sleep routine.

Sleep-wise:

Meredith sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 pm to 7:30 or 8 am, but she still wakes up twice to nurse (then puts herself right back to sleep, so it’s not a big deal).
She takes about 4 naps a day; she will be awake for about an hour and a half at a time before she gets tired.
Prefers to sleep on her side or stomach most of the time.

What else is Meredith up to?

I heard her laugh twice yesterday! So sweet!
Rolling from back to belly! Normally she will just roll onto her side, but she can roll all the way over (but her arm is still caught under her, so I’m not sure if it totally “counts”).
And just today, she started rolling from belly to back! She's done it several times and I even got it on video.
She is still a bobble-head, but is getting better at holding her head up by herself and is now able to tolerate tummy time for a minute or so
Loves her activity mat
Loves to be read to – she looks right at the book and gets pretty excited.

Meredith is just so laid-back and happy. We love her so much!

Mer Bear

2011-07-13T14:25:00.001-04:00

Just a post to show how cute and sweet our baby girl is!

Meredith is growing so fast! We put her in the Bumbo for the first time over the weekend. She’s still a bit unsteady in it but can sit in it for a few minutes at a time.

And the photo below is from yesterday. I’m having a hard time getting her precious smiles on camera, because she goes from smiley to stone-faced as soon as I bring out the camera. But yesterday I caught some of her normal happiness – maybe not exactly a smile, but she was quite excited!

And lastly, I have to dress my kids up in UNC clothes while I can, because I know they will be ~~brainwashed~~ persuaded otherwise by Jason’s family (and my dad and brother)very soon. Carolina girl, sweet Southern pearl…

Meredith’s Dedication

2011-07-10T15:55:00.001-04:00

Today, we had Meredith dedicated at our church (meaning Jason and I and our families promised to raise her up in a Christian home). What a special, special time of worship and prayer over our child! Meredith was blessed to have Paw Paw and Kacki, Pops and Mimi, Nanny, Great-Grandmother, and Uncle Jon come to her dedication.

We chose Romans 15:13 as Meredith’s life verse: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Russell and Meredith were both very good on stage. Russell was distracted by our live video on the big screen – he was pointing to it and saying “Mama, Daddy, Russell, Meredith.” So funny! Russell went to the nursery afterward, while Meredith stayed for worship music and part of the service before she got sleepy and I had to take her out.

Everyone came back to our house afterward for a little celebration.

I thought the cupcakes turned out so cute!

Our sweet girl, all dolled up:

We love our two sweet ones! And they love each other

We had a wonderful time with our family! Thank you, Lord, for these precious blessings.

Letter A

2011-07-06T21:01:00.001-04:00

Well, I can’t promise I’ll keep this up, but I wanted to start doing a “letter of the week” (and a corresponding Bible verse) with Russell. We started this week and I think we’ve both enjoyed the activities so far. Some of these are Tot School activities (great site!).

Here’s Russell coloring the coloring page for our Bible verse of the week: All we, like sheep, have gone astray – Isaiah 53:6. I discovered he likes coloring with markers much more than coloring with crayons.

Russell actually was interested in this apple puzzle, despite the fact that he had a car in his hand (per usual). We worked on top, middle, and bottom – he liked the fact that the apple has a bottom because he knows he has a bottom – haha!

Russell’s favorite thing was this PowerPoint I made – we have watched it over and over.

I have Russell in preschool right now, but recently I’ve been thinking more and more about homeschooling (something I said I would never do – seems like every time I say I’ll never do something, I end up doing it! ) Thankfully I have other friends who are thinking about it too. We’ve got time, though, and I’m in no rush to decide!

Fourth of July

2011-07-05T13:32:00.001-04:00

Just one photo (and not a great one) from a cookout with Jason’s coworkers:

We had a busy (lots of errands/chores) long weekend, but the house is pretty clean for once! Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

2 Year Photos

2011-07-02T21:50:00.002-04:00

This is the last post about Russell turning two

I hadn’t taken good, professional photos of Russell since he turned one. You would think I’d take plenty, especially since I have my photography business. However, it is a whole lot harder to take photos of your own kid than photos of someone else’s. At least at this age. And at least, my kid.

Anyway, so tonight we took Russell out to the beautiful park near our house and I ended up with a few photos I really like. These are my favorites.

Yeah, it was really hot, and of course Russell was running around, so he is very sweaty in some. Oh well – he’s 2, and I can look back at these and remember how much exercise he got! And wonder how I ever kept up with him!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Russell!

2011-06-28T21:08:00.003-04:00

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

2011-06-28T13:47:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-27T14:51:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-22T21:13:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-20T14:06:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-06-18T15:44:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-06-15T14:02:00.002-04:00

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

Big Brother and Brown-Eyed Girl

2011-06-13T22:19:00.001-04:00

What a sweet big brother we have on our hands!

So that I don’t forget, here are a few of the sweet things Russell does for Meredith:

if he can hear me patting her on the back to burp her, no matter what room he’s in, he’ll come running over saying, “help, help” to pat her on the back and help burp her
when I’m getting her dressed, he thinks it’s funny to point out her belly button
he absolutely loves it when I play “patty-cake” or “this little piggy” with Meredith; he asks for more when I’m done
he tries to share his toys with her by putting his beloved cars in her hand, and today he shook a rattle for her
if he notices that she’s lost her paci and is crying, he sometimes says “uh oh” and reaches to put it back in
he tries to feed her Cheerios and goldfish, and tries to let her drink from his sippy cup (we are obviously putting a stop to this, but it’s still cute)

Meredith loves Russell just as much: she follows him around the room with her eyes, and rarely gets upset even if he is a little too rough with her.

Speaking of Meredith, look at those BROWN eyes! They were never really blue, even when she was first born. She is our little brown-eyed girl (and you can bet that Mommy sings her that song!)

I love to watch these two interact and can’t wait to see how close (hopefully) they will become as they get older.