Hard to Believe

It's hard to believe Wyatt is already 4 months old. He hit the milestone on Sunday so we did another photo shoot.



He also had a well-baby exam this week and he is doing great. He weighs 15 pounds, 9 ounces (65th percentile) and is 26 inches long (85th percentile). I'm also happy to report he has a completely average size head (unlike the giant melon on top of Rex's shoulders) so maybe he can actually wear some baby-size hats and it won't be such a struggle to get a shirt over his head every day. He had to get just two shots this time and he did great with those too- a little crying at first but that was it. We talked about what he is doing and the best thing is that he is laughing now. I love it. He's trying to turn over from his back to his tummy but so far has only got up on his side and then can't quite finish. He hates laying down for tummy time or back time so it's hard to work on that. He still wakes up a lot in the night sometimes and now I know why. I always put him down in his crib after I get him to sleep so any time he wakes up, he thinks, "Wait- how did I get here? Where am I and where's my mom?" He usually goes right back to sleep once I hold him and rock him (sometimes with feeding and sometimes not). The doctor said I should get him used to going in the crib while he is still awake to help stop this but I'm having trouble with that. The doc said he'll probably cry at first but then he'll get used to it. The crying we could deal with except Rex usually goes to bed at the same time and I don't want Wyatt waking Rex up. So, we'll just keep doing what we're doing for now. When Rex was a baby, I always put him in the crib once he'd fallen asleep and there was just a natural point to make the switch where I would put him down while he was still awake and it went fine. I think (I hope) there will be that natural point with Wyatt too and I'm not ready to force the issue just yet.

When we did the 4 month photo shoot, I had a really hard time keeping Rex off the bed and I finally gave up. I had him get up there so I could get a few pictures of them together and this was the best one.



They really like each other so much and I hope they always do! Wyatt will have a big smile and coo at Rex anytime Rex gets close to him and Rex just loves to give him kisses and talk to him. It's a lot of fun to watch my two boys interact with each other.

Meeting George

This past weekend, there was a special storytime with Curious George featuring an appearance by George himself. Right away, Rob and I made plans to go because we knew Rex had to be there. Curious George is a pretty special guy. Whenever you see a picture of Rex, George is usually close by. We are redecorating Rex's room with George stuff- my mom's making a quilt and we've gotten some wall decals and a poster. They started out with a storytime for all the kids followed by a little meet and greet time with George.

There were way too many people for the small area but we all managed somehow.



Since it was just me and Rex, I ended up holding Rex for most of the time. I think I'm ready for one of those Strong Man competitions now. Anyhow, I was so excited for the part where Rex could go up and meet George and we could take a picture. I thought he would just be so excited and all over him.



I was wrong. He wasn't afraid of him- I think apprehensive is probably a good word. He was fine with getting this close and waving and saying hi but that was it. I tried to get him closer and he did not want to. So we got a little souvenir and headed home.



He plays music and scoots along on his little scooter. Pretty cool but the song (Camptown Races) plays at like 250 decibels so we've got to fix that somehow. I think Rex had fun and I'm glad we went even if it didn't turn out how I'd envisioned it- things rarely do in life.

Rob worked on getting the rest of the bike shop demoed (demo'd? demo'ed?). Hopefully the weather cooperates this week and weekend so he can get the roof done. Here he is removing the ceiling.



I just have one more funny photo of something Rex does. He has OCD-ish quirks just like his mommy and daddy and has for a while now but this is the most recent.



For a kid who tears through the house all day and leaves it looking like Hurricane Katrina part II just blew through, it is so funny to see him line up his little cars in a perfectly straight line. But he does. All the time. I just love that kid.

Family Room

Recently I insisted to Rob that we had to find more space in this house for me and the boys to spend time in every day. Our living room space is pretty large but we use half of it as a dining room so that makes the living room a little tight. You can't spend much time outdoors from November-March so maximizing your indoor space is critical. I have just barely made it through the two winters Rex and I have spent at home so far. Now that Rex is up and playing more and we have Wyatt, I realized I would never make it through this winter in the space we have. There were two options- fixing up either the basement or converting our 3 season room (known as the "bike shop") into a family room. Spending time in the basement still seems strange so we decided we'd rather be above-ground. It only gives us about half the additional space the basement would (250 sq ft as opposed to 500 sq ft) but the family room will be a lot nicer space. The first step was to remove the old windows and install new ones which Rob was able to do. He spent the last two weekends on it and is all done now.




He still has the trim to put on the outside of the house but that's not so bad. I've helped as much as I can- thankfully, Rob didn't need much help since I need to keep an eye on the boys. Here's what happened when I went to help Rob yesterday.



Rex was having a snack and I thought I could just leave him eating his yogurt while I helped Rob for a few minutes. When I came back in, Rex had smeared the yogurt on everything within his reach. I just laughed. I didn't know what else to do. I got Rob to come in and look and he started laughing too and said, "How do you get mad at that?" Exactly. I know he loves to smear his food in his hair so what was I thinking when I left him alone with a full container of yogurt? Anyhow, someone is coming by to help us make a decision on the roof- it is a flat roof that has leaked in the past and we need to make sure that won't happen again. Then it will be on to the drywall, electrical, flooring and maybe a few other things too. It's a good thing Rob likes to have a project and be busy around the house!

Everything else is going good here. Rob has been our chef since Wyatt was born so I've been doing a lot of cooking now that Rob is busy with the family room project. I got a new crockpot because I had to. The old one would have things boiling hot when set on low. The new one did fantastic with the roast I made last weekend and I think I'll be relying on it a lot this winter. Wyatt is awake and crying now so I better go before he wakes up Rex. Here he is in a much happier mood.

I Am Old

I just ordered a new cell phone today because the old one is about 98% dead. It has been randomly shutting itself off (a trick my last phone also used to do to me) and now you can only talk on it using the speakerphone. The speakerphone is not really an option when you have a 2 year old that likes to talk loudly while mommy is on the phone and a 3 month old who may or may not be quiet when I want him to. So as I am looking through the phones on the website (because they are cheaper there and I don't have time to go to the store), I can hear myself thinking things in my head that definitely sound like someone I can't believe I have turned into. Things like "What the heck is an android phone? I see the commercials but I don't think my arms will actually start turning into robot arms so what does this phone actually do?" And "What's the difference between email and mobile email?" Then "Can't I just find a damn phone that I can talk and text on? I'm just a stay at home mom who doesn't twitter, facebook or have the need to put a bunch of music or tv on my phone!" I don't know how I got so out of touch with cell phone technology but I did. I was trying to get up to speed in about 20 minutes but I don't think I learned anything. I do still care enough though that I picked one of the cooler looking phones (I hope) so at least I look like I have a clue. I will have a huge learning curve when it gets here tomorrow. I ended up ordering one of the android phones, still not knowing what it does and why it's an android so if you see me and I have robot arms, please help me!

If You Just Heard That Thunk...

So here's the story of Rex dropping the F-bomb on us. All four of us were in our not-so-spacious bathroom because it was bath night for both boys and it takes everyone to get through that. I was working on getting Wyatt cleaned up while Rob was trying to get Rex undressed and in the bath. Rex bonked his head on the cabinet and Rob told me, "If you just heard that thunk, it was Rex's head hitting the cabinet." Apparently Rex thought "thunk" was a funny word so he kept trying to say it. At first it sounded a little like thunk but as he kept trying to say it, it ended up sounding exactly like the F-word. I was laughing so hard but I had my head down and kind of turned so Rex couldn't see me. I managed to not make a sound with my laughing which is very important- once he hears a laugh, he will just keep going and going with something. There were also tears running down my face from laughing so much. Rob was doing the same as me, laughing with no sound, but he pulled it together a little faster than I did. So, Rex dropped the F-bomb without hearing it from anyone and even better, has not ever said it again since. Here's my funny guy now, with my headband on his face. Apparently, he thought they were glasses.



Rex is pretty helpful now. He keeps the fridge stocked for me with Coke Zero.



He has quite an imagination and he likes to pretend a lot now. One of his favorite things is to pretend like he is going to Lowe's or the grocery store. He gets his keys and my old sunglasses on, sometimes he puts on shoes and grabs one of his phones too, and tells us "time" (which means "have a good time") and tells us he loves us then proceeds to the door. It is so so funny.



Wyatt is doing good too. He is a terrible sleeper. I hope that when he starts on rice cereal in a few weeks things will get better. Last night, he went to sleep around 10:30 and woke up at 1:00 a.m., 4:55 a.m., 6:20 a.m., and then it was touch and go from there. That is too much getting up in the night. He has times where he'll sleep 6 or 7 hours but those times have been very few. He is so different from his brother. I knew Rex was an easy baby and I was afraid this time would be more difficult and it is. I'm sure it could be worse though and really, it's not so bad. Knowing that it won't always be like this makes me feel much better. We've got to be getting past it soon. Wyatt also isn't as smily as Rex was. We took him to get his 3 month old photos taken a few weeks ago and he would not smile. Even when I tried to take his 3-month old photos that I do at home that same day, he wouldn't smile for his mommy either. Very serious kid and if you get a smile from him, you know you earned it. Wyatt's a great kid, he is just a little more work than his brother was but Rex was seriously the easiest baby in the history of the world. Seriously. Here are some of the photos I took for the 3 month old photo shoot.



Okay, I did get a little smile out of him- finally!


I'm going to try and do better with my blog posts this month. It is incredibly hard with Wyatt though since he doesn't nap much and always wants attention. I promise to do better than last month though!