Lions and Ladybugs

I am blogging from a mostly quiet house after a very NON-Quiet night! We headed over to CHOM (Children's Hands On Museum) for their Halloween festival. Let me just say...NEVER again! They have two floors but for whatever reason they only opened up one and it was crazy packed. They had little carnival games set up at stations, but it was so crowded that you couldn't even see where the lines were, not to mention that 2 year olds don't really understand the concept of "Wait your turn"...Ha! Add that to an already crummy mood and Anderson was over it in about 20 minutes and we were happy to honor his request to go home...live and learn! But on a happy note, how sweet are my little pumpkins in their costumes. I LOVE fall!!!

Seriously- Look at the crowds!!

My Little Monkeys

As those of you who know us well know...we are a little obsessed with Monkeys at this house! So when I saw these matching smocked monkey outfits I just HAD to have them. The kids wore these to church Sunday and they looked so adorable!! I sort of ended up matching them with my outfit on accident! Jeff said he refused to wear brown that day so that he wouldn't "complete" the look of the gooberish matchy matchy family! HA!

Anderson also scored a new Curious George hoodie. It is his FAVORITE show, so the $9.00 that it cost me at Wal-Mart was well worth it! This was before school this morning. How big is my baby boy getting these days???

And here is one that has nothing to do with a monkey...but I had to share. How stinking cute are those tights??

Tacky Day!

Last Friday was "Tacky Day" at Anderson's school. The room was full of crazy hair, mismatched outfits and even some u-g-l-y shoes, but our son wore the ultimate statement of tackiness...

Roll Tide!!

Rolling Over!

I got quite the surprise this afternoon. I was playing with Lydia a little on her playmat, which sadly enough we really hadn't done too much with until yesterday. Then she decided to roll over!

A couple of weeks ago I noticed her trying to turn to her left while in her bouncy seat. I told Jeff she was so strong and determined that I thought she would roll over soon. He thought that sounded way early and then I kind of forgot about it. Well today she was on her playmat and Anderson woke up from his nap, so I left her on it and went upstairs to get him. When I came back down she was on her tummy. I did a double take and thought...wait a minute...when I left you were on your back! I still wasn't sure so I put her back on her back to see if she would do it again...sure enough over she went. She proceeded to do it again about 6 times just to prove to her doubtful momma that she did indeed do it!

Anderson did that on Nov. 8th 2006 ( I know the exact date because we caught it on video as well). He was 4 1/2 months old. Lydia is only 10 weeks!! Crazy! I looked it up and everything I could find said the average is between 4 and 6 months.

Lydia is really stumping me on her little personality. She is so easy going, yet kind of a ham when I try to get her to smile. You can just see that she has this sort of mischievious little gleam in her eye when she gives a big gummy grin! However usually little "hams" can tend to be sort of high drama even as babies, but Lydia is really very laid back -which was Anderson's personality at that age as well. Another paradox- she is so dainty in her features and demeanor, yet she is ridiculously strong! She was holding her head up the day she was born. It wasn't even wobbly- it was as if she was saying- "Yeah, I can do this...so?" After this rolling over incident I am also seeing a streak of determination. I can hardly wait to see what else about her personality she will reveal to us in the coming weeks and months!

Lil Sis + Big Brother = LOVE!

Lil Sis

+

Big Brother

=

LOVE

My good friend Jennifer Cousins gave me this matching T and onesie set a while back and Lydia finally grew into it, so I took some pics of them together.

2 Months

Ok, this post is a little late- but for the sake of having this actually written somewhere here we go!

Lydia's 2 Month Stats:

11 pounds 12 ounces

22 1/4 inches long

For the sake of recording it all...

She is smiling and cooing up a storm now. In fact, today I actually watched her laugh and smile at Anderson for the first time. She was watching him laugh at me and she just looked over at him and squealed and smiled the biggest smile. It was adorable!

She is a very easy baby. We can't believe our luck having had two super easy babies now. She is totally content to be taken around town on errands or sit at home while I try my best to entertain her brother. I went to the bakery the other day to pick up Jeff's birthday cake and I wish I had brought my camera. All 4 of the Publix bakery workers were out from behind the counter oohing and ahhing over her. She was just eating it up smiling and cooing at them all. To say that we think she is a beautiful baby on the inside and out is the understatement of the century!

She loves being in the swing or in the Baby Bjorn. The play mat isn't a big hit yet and we have yet to bring out the Bumbo seat...maybe this weekend. She began sleeping through the night regularly at the eighth week and that has made us both feel human again! She is sleeping in her room, but I am still terrified of SIDS and for whatever irrational reason I feel like she is less prone to it sitting up in her swing. So that is where she sleeps on most nights, but I am slowly getting more comfortable with her sleeping in her crib since she has been napping in there for a while now.

She had been on prilosec for reflux, but I have slowly been weaning her off that to see if she still has reflux or has grown out of it. She seems to be doing fine with only one dose right now a day, so maybe next week we will try to eliminate it completely. I am still nursing almost exclusively. Sometimes a whole week goes by without her getting any formula. This is a time I adore spending with here. I am so grateful to be doing it longer this time around.

Anderson continues to love on his "baby sister". He often says "I wike her momma...she's ca-ute" or "she's Swwweeeeetttt". Every word has about 10 syllables with his thick southern accent. He almost always asks to see her right when he wakes up and usually wants to giver a kiss before he goes down for a nap or bedtime at night. One night we were riding in the car and I think he was a little scared because we were on a backroad and it was super dark. He kept saying..."Baby sister, it's Ok don't be scared. It's just dark. There's nothing scary out there." It was so cute. I think he was trying to convince himself more than anything, but it was sweet that he was being protective of her.

I am still adjusting to having two kids and for the most part it hasn't been too bad, but every now and again I look up and think I haven't showered yet and it's 4:00 or I will be sitting down to eat lunch at 2:00..then it hits me. This is a hard time and a lot of work. It is certainly worthwhile work, but tough nonetheless. I am just trying to remember that they will only be this young for a short time and not let it pass me by in the busy-ness that is life most of the time.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

My sweet husband - and baby daddy- celebrated his 42nd birthday today! I know some of you are shocked to learn his age. He really has a bit of a baby face and certainly doesn't look 40 something to me!

I planned a surprise dinner for him with some of his guy friends at Mugshots, a fantastic burger joint downtown. I picked him up from work with a yummy chocolate and cream cheese birthday cake and dropped him off there. He kept saying "But aren't you coming too?" I said nope...tonight is a time for you to enjoy being a guy without the wifey and the kids...he looked at me like I was crazy, but I think he really did have fun catching up with friends that he doesn't get to spend all that much time with between family and work responsibilities.

Then today- his actual birthday- We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him and gave him his handmade card from the kids. Lydia and I picked him up and took him to lunch at Dreamland...another "guy" place! He got a snazzy Alabama pullover and I bought us tickets to attend Dave Ramsey Live this Saturday in Birmingham. I even arranged for childcare. We have been wanting to get on this program for a while, but now with two kids and me staying home, not to mention this crappy economy- we really need a plan! I knew he would love the idea of Me asking to be put on a budget! HA!

We popped over to Niles and Pat Graham's home after our lunch since they hadn't seen Lydia yet. They are like Jeff's second parents. He lived next door to them back in our old house in Northport and they just LOVE him! I remember when I first met them after Jeff and I had gone out like three times...she pulled me aside and said "Honey, you better hold on to him with all you got- they don't make em like that anymore". I believed her then and I still do. I'm glad I took her advice! :-)

Happy Birthday Jeff! I LOVE you so much and so do our kids!