Disclaimer

This is what happens when someone like thiswho knows what they are doing (see Charlotte Geary Photograpy)

Takes pictures with my camera.
I got to spend some time with some high school friends this weekend and Charlotte is one of them. We all had a great time laughing, eating, catching up and watching old colorguard footage! What a hoot!

Milestones

So we've been hitting milestones around here lately. Andrew has rolled over, front to back and back to front, started eating rice cereal and is going to sleep rather easily at night. BUT! the big news is. . . . . .

NO MORE DIAPERS FOR ALISON!!!

I didn't understand how big of a deal this was until we were faced with it. Potty training isn't just something the kid needs to be ready for - the parent needs to be ready, geared up and prepared for it. I was given the potty training in less than a day book by a friend and I decided Monday would be the day.

I spent all last week talking about her elmo panties and saying good bye to diapers and using the toilet. And then Sunday night I put on her last diaper, we said bye bye to rest of the package and she picked out her byebye diaper book for me to read to her that night.

Monday morning came and we got down to it. For 5 hours it was nothing but:
"are your panties dry?"
"let's go sit on the toilet?"
"Hurry hurry so you don't have an accident!"
"here's some more juice/milk/water"
"good job! here's an M&M"
"daddy/grandma/grandpa/elmo/mommy/annie,leo,june,qunicy will be so proud of you!"

I was beat by lunch. But with just two accidents (one of them being right in front of the toilet) she was good to go. She knows when she needs to go and goes. She made it through her nap yesterday. AND through the night last night! And no accidents today even. I'm amazed and convinced she is a potty genius. Whatever - that book was the key! (Thanks, Karen!) Our next step will be conquering the fear of public toilets. I think she gets that from me.....

Last night she was exclaiming, "I'm so happy! I have hello kitty doll on my panties! I'm so happy! I use the potty!" She looks cute in her undies too - I didn't snap a picture - but maybe I will tomorrow. Would that be 'inappropriate content'?

4 months!

So Andrew is 4 months old today! He had is check up yesterday and weighed in at 13 lbs 5 oz and 24.5 inches long. He was great at the doctor until they gave him his shots. We got real tears this time. Last visit it didn't phase him at all. The doctor tested him to see how well he keeping his head up and she was surprised how strong he is and that he is rolling already. She asked if he was showing interest in us eating. I described to her dinner from the previous night. He was sitting in his swing across the room, leaning forward in his seat, staring intently at us while we ate. He also puts everything in his mouth. So she said he was ready and we gave it a go tonight. Here's a little video. . .


Alison is getting to be very clever. She is speaking her mind and coming up with stuff on her own instead of just repeating what she hears. I wonder what goes on in her head half of the time.

Here's a conversation from the other day when I caught her post- digging through my purse.
Alison: (looking guilty) I ate them!
me: ate what?
AK: I ate them!
me: have you been in my purse?
AK: yes
me: you ate my tic tacs didn't you!
AK: I ate them!
me: get the box and throw it away - now they are all gone and we can't have any treats.
AK: well mom, you need to go to the store and buy some more!
me: what? no, you ate them they're all gone now.
AK: C'mon!!

she's getting a little sassy. She got sent to her room after that.... I had to - i was on the verge of laughing my head off! I can't get caught laughing when I'm trying to discipline her!

Welcome baby Ryan!

Congratulations to my brother Jason and his wife on their new baby! He is so cute and I love that he and Andrew are so close in age! What a cutie, I can't wait to meet him!

randomness

How cute are baby shoes? Andrew wore some for the first time on Sunday. It's official: I'm obsessed with baby feet.I got Nick to snap this tonight while we were have reading/singing time with Alison. She wanted to include Andrew and she actually got him to settle down. She was holding/hugging him and he stopped crying. We may have to wake her up at 10 pm to help him out when he's super cranky!

Photoshop tip: you can apply the diffuse glow filter and minimize the shiny forehead action!

Playtime with Andrew

Andrew is now getting big enough and is awake enough to have some fun with. He gives us lots of sloppy smiles and is on the verge of laughing. Don't get me wrong, he still loves to scream when he's tired and you lay him in bed.

He was taking a nap on our bed and Alison wanted to play with him - peekaboo is better when both parties are awake. . .

So she just pretended to sleep. I don't know who sleeps like that with a big smile on their face.Here I had put Andrew in her bed while I got her ready and read stories. She got really upset when I took him out. So I let them hang out for a minute. She is being her usually silly 2 year old self and Andrew's got a look on him that says, "what have you gotten me into?!!"Playing super-baby with Daddy

"Uh oh, what are they doing to me?!"

I made Andrew a hat like Alison's - he looks like a little snowboarding thug here, cheshire grin included.

He thinks he's funny too!

Someone commented that there weren't any pics of me with him on here. So my friend took this for me a couple of weeks ago. Please note, Andrew is asleep while I am holding him. This has only happened with Alison once, maybe twice. And that was just last year.

Happy Mother's Day

I feel like a total slacker today when it comes to accurately expressing my thanks to my own mother on Mother's day. I didn't send a card, I didn't find the perfect gift and our phone call was interrupted by a hungry and cranky 2 year old and hungry and cranky baby. I guess that's typical in the day of a mom. Besides, no gift or store bought card (read: cheesy card) would suffice in expressing my love for my mother. She is amazing and I was indebted to her the day I was born and have only grown deeper in debt every day since then. She is strong, loyal, loving, funny, a walking encyclopedia, and is the one person who can get Alison to sleep just by cuddling with her! She saved me after Alison was born and sacrificed some important time with my dad to be with me after Andrew joined us. I bug her daily with a phone call - often still catching her in bed ( I hate the 2 hour time difference!). I offer unsolicited (read: annoying) advice, and she loves me anyway. I'm proud to be her daughter and hope that I turn out half as good as she is. I love you, Mom!
P.S. When are you coming back!? I promise I'll make you a nice big mother's day brunch when you come.

Not-so-terrible-twos

I was talking to my friend Megan who also has a two-year old. She was remarking how 2 year olds take center stage of their family blogs. It's true - if there is a two year old in the house there is always something funny going on. So even though Alison drives me crazy some days - most of the time she is amazing me with her conversations, observations, antics and physical comedy. So, yes, I do get frustrated when she doesn't nap, or when she doesn't listen, or she shouts, "i do it!!" when I'm trying to help - but, she is sweet and funny and overall a good kid. Not too bad for a 2 year old.

She was so tired out from the weekend with Aunties and Uncles in town, she fell asleep on the couch at 10:30 Monday morning. She was in just a diaper because she had taken her pj's off so she could put on her shoes. She loves shoes (such a girl!). I left to change Andrew and got on the computer and then I realized it was really quiet, that eery- what-has-she-gotten-into kind of quiet. So I rushed into the other room and found her sound asleep. Heavenly. She's taken 4 naps this week - those of you who know how she's been about napping can only imagine how much happier we all are about this!!!


I was doing yoga the other morning and was in a pigeon pose (basically on my stomach with one leg bent under me - good hip stretch) and Alison came running in and hopped on my back like we were going to play horsie. Actually, her extra weight helped me get a deeper stretch. I couldn't quite snap a picture of that - so I got one of her resting on my knees while I was on my back.


Like I said, she loves shoes. She loves taking them on and off. It doesn't matter where we are.

Blue and Brown Photoshoot

I had a little alone time with Andrew this afternoon and he was happy so of course Ihad to get out the camera!! Plus, he coordinated so well with his blanket!

rolly-polly

I finally captured some good smiles!

Here he is all smile-y and squint-y eyed

Sneaky smile

Gurgle-y smile

This shirt says it all!

Water Works

Andrew has finally decided that his bath is not so bad. Until I start washing his hair!

If he's anything like Alison - he'll be turning into fish within the next year. She loves the bath, the pool and playing with the hose. We were out gardening (See my other blog) and she was dry and clean when we started. I should have taken an after picture. Dirt and soaking wet clothes. But we had a good time. We were making a soil mixture and so we got to dig and stir and basically play. Now I just have to teach her not to pick the leaves off the plants.

random images

XANADU

(We figured out last week that the swing is perfect for that "fussy" time in the early evening. Puts him to sleep almost every time.)

***
Okay - Andrew totally reminds me of Alison. I'm not sure if I just see it more than most people because I'm the mom or what. I know they have different coloring (and he has hair!) - but their faces are so much the same. Here's a shot of AK and AG at about the same age. What do you think?

***
It's a bird, It's a plane! Nope, it's the military helicopters that fly over our house quite often. The president's chopper fleet, Marine One, has it's airbase on Quantico.

She likes to wave at them - I don't have the heart to tell her they can't see her. (although... maybe they can with all their fancy equipment...)

***
Where DID she get those curls?

Time for some videos!

I've wanted to post this for a while but I hadn't downloaded the videos off of my old camera. We bought a treadmill in January so that there would be a hope of me working out. After it got set up Nick decided Alison needed to try it out. Enjoy! (I might add that yes, it is getting used, by me even! Someone commented on how they were glad to see it hadn't turned into a clothes hook yet - haha.)


This one I took tonight. I told Alison to go pick out some books for me to read to her before bedtime and when I got in there she was reading to her baby doll. Now if you could see the books and hear her better you would really see that she knows these books by heart. It's so crazy how she picks up on stuff like that. I know all kids do this - but when you see it first hand it's hard to not be amazed. And I'm surprised how much she likes to copy what I do with her (see previous post of her "feeding" her baby). She now pretends to cook food for me that I have to "eat" - the reality is that it's usually a bowl full of beads. Not mac n cheese like she says. Too bad, I LOVE mac n cheese!

2 Month Check Up

Andrew had his 2 month check up on Wednesday and weighed in at 12 ;bs 2 oz and 22 3/4". He's definitely bigger than Alison was at this age - by 2 lbs! He's got this curl sticking up on the top of his head now, but I didn't capture it so well in this photo.I would also like to say that he has slept 8-9 hours every night since Monday! I think we've done it! I feel like a new person.

His Close-up

I was just paring down my recent shots of Andrew (that continuous shutter option is a blessing and a curse - I end up with SO many pics!) and I ran across this one. I thinks it's SO cute - he has a sweet little face (of course I'm totally biased). I took this on 3/17 - he looks even older and bigger in those two short weeks.

A Little Shut-Eye

I HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE! are you ready??

ANDREW SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!!!!
He ate at 10 and then again at 6am! He squawked once during the night and I gave him his binky and I didn't hear a peep out of him after that. In fact, he probably would have kept on sleeping at 6 but I wanted to keep his wake up time consistent.

I'm so happy I could just cry!! I wanted to climb on my roof to shout it to the world, but that didn't seem too safe - and I don't have a ladder! So I'm climbing on my cyber-roof to let everyone know! If this continues I have high hopes of returning to a somewhat normal state of rest-edness. It's amazing what a straight 7 hours of sleep will do when you haven't had longer than a 4 hour stretch for several months.

Can I get and Amen? I know all of you moms understand what I'm talking about!

Our Little Visit to the Hospital

Andrew started acting particularly fussy early Thursday evening and wouldn't be consoled to go to sleep that night. I finally realised he was a little warmer than he ought to be. He had a temp of 100.4, so I called the doctor Friday morning and they told me to bring him in. By then his temp was up to 101 and they wanted me to bring him to the hospital to get him tested for RSV and to stay for observation. Mostly because he's so little and that it was the weekend and they didn't want us to get stuck without anyway to see a doctor over the weekend. Of course, as a postpartum hormonal mother I started to panic. But luckily he's only had the flu and they've managed him well and he's doing much better. I even almost got a smile out of him today. The nurses have been great too.

The best part of all this is that I found out they make little hospital gowns. Of course I had to take a picture. Poor little guy - but he sure looks cute! At least when his backside is exposed it's s tiny and cute!

This was taken the night we got there.

He had to wear a mask when we went down to xray - but it was a little big for him so the pic's not so good.

I took this today while Daddy was here to visit. He looks a little tuckered out.

Week 7 - Chillin' out with Sis'

"I could get used to this."

"Hey, he's in my chair!"

"Well I guess it's okay!" She really is cute sharing with him all her stuff - blankets included, that's a BIG deal!

What a cute little lion's roar.

I do love a good profile shot.