Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero has invaded our home! When Nathan started playing yesterday, Madeline went to her own guitar and told Nathan "Daddy, I want to rock with you."

Madeline's favorite things...

Wow! Madeline got some great stuff. I'm so jealous. Check out these favorites... Maddie especially loved the guitar and piano from Amanda and Frank and the princesses from Grandma Rita.

Photo shoots

We loved celebrating Henry's and cousin Landon's first Christmas. We had way too many paparazzi photo shoots. The good news is that they couldn't walk away from us like Madeline did....

Henry's first Christmas

Henry had a great Christmas, but slept through all of the action....

Enjoying the snow

Madeline made her first snow angel and first snowman this year!

Henry's baptism

Henry got baptized on the 23rd via "immersion." He did not like it one bit!!

Visitors for Henry

Henry had some very special visitors today! Abby, who is just 2 weeks older than Henry, and her mommy Emily came to meet him. Henry obviously is off the charts, whereas Abby is an adorable little peanut. So, we couldn't resist sizing them up... (But she's not as little as the 2nd picture looks - her legs are pulled up a bit.) Abby is the sweetest little girl!!

Henry - 7 weeks

Henry reached his first big milestone - he is smiling now!









Speaking of milestones.... It's interesting how expectations are set with baby #2, because you already have been through them. Some are exciting, while some are rites of passage. For example, when Henry was 6 weeks old, I was thinking "I haven't had to change a blowout yet." I was so impressed with how well Henry was "behaving." Such a good boy! Sure enough, he treated me to my first blowout -- one of those "rite of passage" milestones -- the very next day. But, I viewed it as a great opportunity to put him into another one of his adorable outfits. I even said to myself, "How lucky I am to have gone 6 weeks without one of these blowouts."

That was last week. Since then, we average two blowouts a day. And the rosy glasses are off... I am no longer as tickled pink to peel off his onesie and play dress-up with poor Henry. So, I'm looking forward to his next milestone - however unimportant - assuming that it is not so messy.

Just checkin' in...

Since Madeline was playing by herself downstairs in the basement, I thought I'd check in on her:

Mommy: Madeline, what are you doing down there?
Madeline: I'm not pooping.

And I never really got much more information than that!

The best of the worst

With Henry born in late October, I wasn't really on top of it to get a newborn and a 2 year old off for Christmas pictures. I can do it myself, right? WRONG!! I had 3 different paparazzi photo shoots, and ended up with a completely mediocre shot that will be sent out for our Christmas cards. So, sorry to all of our family and friends - hope you weren't expecting much.... You'll just have to keep checking out our blog to see how cute they are!!

But, since the pictures were such a disaster, I thought I'd include "the best of the worst" here. Who know smiling could be so difficult?

Henry's routine

Henry is our big boy! At 6.5 weeks, I was sad to put away his 0 to 3 month clothes today and pull out the next size... But, what a relief that he is growing and eating well!

He is on an interesting routine. The past few days, he's eaten at 3:30 p.m., played for an hour, and then goes down for a nap at 4:30 p.m. Well, we think it's a nap, but it's apparently the beginning of his night down. I wake him up at 9 p.m. to feed him, he sleeps until 2:15 a.m., and then is up at 6:30 a.m. So, he has been sleeping for 14 hours each night with 2 feedings during that time! At this point, I consider 5.5 hours between feedings just fine. He usually takes a few 1 hour naps in the day, too. It's nice that it's predictable (for a newborn anyway), but it certainly is much different than Madeline.

I don't know what it is about our kids getting up so early in the morning. It's good for our M-F schedule, but not good for mommy on maternity leave.

The serious side of Madeline....

At age 2, it's not surprising that Madeline takes herself so seriously. Here is evidence:

1) Latest quote: "I'm growing up. Just like you."
2) When I ask her if she's thirsty/tired/hungry: "No, I'm just fine."
3) I was loading the dishwasher, so the door was down and she climbed on it. When I scolded her very firmly (because she does this frequently), she stuck out her bottom lip and sent herself to the naughty step.
4) She was flipping through the Madeline's Rescue book, that talks about a dog that is kicked out of the orphanage. She referred to lead character in the book in the first person, saying "Oh, no! My dog is lost." Then, she started crying as we flipped through the pages describing the search for the dog. I had to quickly flip to the end to show her that Madeline did find the dog for her to stop crying!

Happy birthday, Nathan and Erik!

The twins turn 31 on Monday! We went out on Sunday night for a yummy dinner to celebrate. Here's a shot of the male bonding that took place....

Nathan's buzz cut is due to an unfortunate incident with the clippers without the guard on. Oops. Due to the 2" x 4" missing patch of hair, he trimmed 'er down to 1/8". He'll look twice at the clippers next time!

Madeline's quote board

1) Those are our neighbors. I'd like to say "hi" to them. HI NEIGHBORS!!
2) That's not awesome.
3) Do you want a present from Santa? Do you want a pink dinosaur? I'm a cute monster. I'd like a dinosaur monster for a present.
4) He's my friend. He's nice. He's not mean.
5) Oh, no! Henry's music turned off. I'll get it for you, Henry.
6) I'm the Beauty. You're the Beast.

So much to be thankful for...

.... including a GREAT night! Henry slept from 7:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and then again until 5:30 a.m. I'm feeling so well rested this morning! It's hard to believe he's 3 weeks old already. The time has gone by so quickly.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We certainly have so much to be grateful for.

Scratch that... It's been a very princess WEEK.

Madeline got a ton of beautiful princess dresses from Grandma Rita for her 2nd birthday this summer, but she's just now getting into them. Here she is in her Tinkerbell and "wedding girl" dresses. She hasn't let me do her hair in months, but she let me put in pony tails in order to make sure the veil stayed in place better.

Everyone has been asking how she has been adjusting to Henry's arrival.... Generally, we think she's been doing fairly well. She largely ignores Henry, but she has her moments when she wants to give him a BIG hug and a kiss. Maybe too big, but she means well.

Her favorite phrases lately have been "that's my friend, {Henry}," "I'm growing up," or "I think I want to {watch something}." She also has been HUGE into Dora and Diego and is reciting stuff from the show (including counting to 10 in Spanish!) She's a huge ball of energy, but she's hilarious and keeps us laughing.

A very princess day

It was Snow White in the morning (and through nap time) and Cinderella this afternoon. It took several attempts to get a smile out of her with her eyes open. I was not successful.

To some, it's a baby straight jacket...

.... but we prefer to call it "The Super Swaddle." We're loving these new Miracle Blankets that we picked up.

Lots of visitors!

It's been so fun to introduce Henry to the many visitors we've had so far. Everyone has been so generous with gifts and food. Thanks so much!!! (I don't need to cook all week!) This past week, Grandma Rita, Aunt Katie, and cousin Landon stayed with us. It's so fun to have the house full of kids!




We've also had fun getting to know Henry. He has been such a good baby so far and usually gives mom 3 to 3.5 hours between feedings in the middle of the night. Madeline has been adjusting well to her new baby "bruddah" as well.

Okay, so I know he's not smiling at me (yet)....

...but this little smirk sure makes my heart melt!

Some more Halloween fun...

Last Sunday before Henry made his appearance, we stopped at a little "farm" that sold pumpkins, had a petting zoo, etc. for Halloween. Madeline bought a small pumpkin for baby Henry and had fun feeding the animals.

Halloween

This was the first year that Madeline really understood Halloween. So, it was a bummer that she refused her nap this day and was a cranky pants all night. (She NEVER refuses her nap - we think all of the action around the house kept her up.)

We easily got her into her tiger costume, but the hood was a no go. And, yes, honey, that IS a tail on the back of your tiger costume. Nathan took her - scratch that - carried her to several houses in our neighborhood and came home about 20 minutes later. She seemed to have more fun handing out the candy to the kids.

We got her into the costume about a month ago, so here's what should have been....

Home from the hospital!

We came home early from the hospital, arriving back around 3 p.m. yesterday. I was worried that we were pushing it coming home, but it was so nice to sleep in my own bed last night. Grandpa and Grandma kept Madeline, too, so we were able to continue our adjustment (and my recovery) for one last night before taking on a wild toddler.

Sully was very curious about our new addition. He'll probably take awhile to settle down.