Blown Away

Last weekend we had a quite a storm that started in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I knew it might rain so I wasn't shocked when I heard the rain, thunder and lightning when I got up to feed Wyatt in the middle of the night. It also sounded really windy but I was still very surprised to see this when I looked across the street the next morning. (If you click on the photo below to make it bigger, you'll see the huge limb that took out the neighbor's fence and also landed on the garage. You can also see a lot of sticks and branches in our yard.)



I couldn't believe it! Wow. We have some serious storms here but I haven't seen anything like that before. Trees were down all over the place. Or there was so much damage that you had to take the whole tree out, like we had to. This is our backyard.



If you ask me, this was a special gift from God just for me. Rob would not agree. That tree had been a sore point between us ever since the squirrels planted it for us there. I wanted it gone when I saw it coming up and Rob wanted it to stay. I hated it because it shaded too many of my plants that I like which require a lot of sun. Rob liked the privacy it gave our yard. I agree that we need something tall in that area for privacy but a large bush/shrub that doesn't shade my plants would be a far better option. Rob asked me that morning, "Did you see the backyard?" I told him yes and he said, "So how happy are you right now?" Hee Hee- oh so happy! So long tree!!

Since so many people had so much damage, the city allowed everyone to put all their fallen limbs and branches in your front yard for a special free pickup they would provide. Nice. And then every street you went down looked like this.



It turned out the winds were above 70 mph in our area- woah! Anyhow, it was quite the storm. I think a lot of people were unhappy with the damage done but I couldn't be more pleased with how it all turned out for us. And now, I actually have both boys asleep in both their beds so I am going to write some thank-you notes which are long overdue!

2 Months Old

Wyatt turned two months old yesterday so it was time for another photo shoot.



I took Wyatt to the doctor today for his 2-month old checkup and he is doing just great. He weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. I looked up Rex's measurements at this point and was shocked to see that Rex already weighed 14 lbs, 10 oz at this point and was 1/4 inch shorter- what a pudge! I was sick- again!- and had to take my second round of antibiotics in just six weeks. It was something different each time. I don't get sick very often at all so this has been really crappy. But I am doing much better now. Rob's good and the boys are both good too. It's been super hot here lately (115 heat index) but is a little better now. We had a crazy storm this weekend. I have a lot to say about that and will put it in my next post with pictures of some of the damage. One more exciting thing to report is that Wyatt is now sleeping in his crib. His first night was the same night as the big storm so that didn't go too well but it's been going a lot better since. My boys are both getting so big!

Block Party

Last week, there was a block party in our neighborhood that we went to. You can get a trailer that has tables and tents (other stuff too, I think) from the city and they even come and block off your street for you.



It was a potluck and there were lots of good things to eat. It was nice to get a break from planning and making dinner. Not that I do much of that anymore but I think Rob appreciated the night off. I have a wonderful husband. Rex had the BEST time running around with the other kids that were there. When I saw Rex I asked Rob, "Did you pour some water on him to cool him down or is he just that sweaty?" Turns out, he was just that sweaty.



Towards the end of the evening, a policeman stopped by to say hello and the kids all got those little sticker badges and got to check out the police car. They all thought it was pretty cool. Hopefully, this is as close to the back- or front- of a police car as Rex ever gets.

Coo-Coo-Kachoo

It has been milestone mania with Wyatt lately. He is smiling now which I posted last time. And then, about a day later, he started cooing. These are two of my most favorite things so I am just in heaven right now. Here's a little of the cooing (you can also hear Rex screaming and having a good time taking his bath in the background).



Finally, he rolled over the other night- I believe it was Wednesday night- from his tummy to his back for the first time. I got him to do it twice to be sure it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't- he was two for two. I didn't get a video of that yet. Rex hit all his big milestones kind of late and it seems like Wyatt is going to be on the fast-track. Not that one is better than the other or anything, it's just funny how two kids from the same gene pool can be so different!

Since You've Been Gone

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! So much has been going on and for a while, I thought our computer was dead. We recently had our internet "upgraded" by our service provider which meant it started working like crap. Then one day, my computer just randomly shut itself off and I could not get it started up again. I thought for sure it was dead. I love my iMac but I was ready to run right out and get a MacBook. First though, I loaded up Rex and the iMac for a trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar in Des Moines where it started up with no problem. The genius tuned it up a little and explained some problems that our service provider is having and why our internet connection is so slow. It all works great now and we've had no more problems so time to blog!

To help ease my and Rob's workload, we are teaching our little superhero how to clean.



We are also teaching him how to give his brother a bath.



Ha! Both of those are not true- duh- but they are funny. In the first one, Rex kept grabbing the duster and "helping" his dad clean up one morning. In the second one, it was bath time and as soon as Rex got in the bathroom he started stripping down. That would explain the lack of pants on the kid. We told him to hang on a minute because Wyatt had to get his bath first. It is so funny that Rex can't wait for his bath now because he used to hate bath time.

Why is it that I think of so many good things to blog about during the day then now, when I finally get a few minutes to work on this, I can't think of anything? Wyatt was up to 11 pounds, 14 ounces when we got his weight checked on June 29th so he is growing a ton. He just started smiling on Friday and I tried to capture it with my camera but ended up getting two almost-smiles.




Rex started sleeping in his big boy bed this week. The first night did not go well at all but things have been getting better little by little ever since. Here he is spending one of his last nights in the crib and waking up from a nap in the new bed.




Rob and I haven't been up to much. Just trying to stay sane with a new baby and a 2 year old is enough. We so look forward to the day they can walk out to the car, get in it and we can all go somewhere. Or just to a time when we don't have to change any diapers anymore. I do remind myself to enjoy this phase too and that when they are more independent, then I will wish they would spend more time with us. I'm sure there is no perfect age- you just have to enjoy the good parts of each phase and get through the not-so-good parts. I have been enjoying all the flowers in my yard right now. Everything looks so beautiful out there and I will try to remember to get some pictures to post next time. I think that's all for us and since Rex just took his pants off and told me "diaper", I guess I better go get him changed!