first 'friend' birthday party

Today Connor went to his first birthday party for a friend. My boss' daughter, Ana, shares the same birthday as Connor (date and year!) and she celebrated her birthday today. There were lots of arts and crafts, trucks and cake! Connor did great, he only participated in the crafts for a little bit unfortunately (there were FAR too many trucks to play with in the living room), but he was pretty well behaved and even wore the birthday hat (even tho I didn't get a picture of it...he did, I swear). Kudos to Liwanag and Eric for hosting six 2-3 year olds (plus a few older siblings), I'm not sure I'm ready to do that quite yet, maybe we'll try it at age 4 :)

Getting ready to watch the birthday girl blow out the candles

Connor wondering what's taking so long...he's ready, fork in hand.

Second helping of cake, he eats all of the frosting first. Definitely my child.

grayson newborn pics v1

I just got the first set of Grayson's newborn pics today, excited! These were taken by my friend Michelle and then I also took him to our wedding photographer, Dan Dinsmore of Dinsmore Photography, but haven't gotten those back yet. Grayson wasn't overly cooperative (ie not very sleepy) for this shoot and it was kind of chilly in my house but I'm so happy with how they turned out! Thank you, Michelle!

one week apart?

Who would think there was only a week difference between these two? Had lunch with Angie, Miles and Matt today. Was fabulous catching up and hanging out. Now we just need the weather to cooperate so we can get on some walks together.

Hoping these two will be buds just like their older siblings (see below)

 ha.

first day of preschool

Today is Connor's first day of preschool! We've been prepping him all weekend, talking about how proud we are of him, how great it is, all his old buddies are there...as I was anticipating a bad drop off. And...it was :( But, it was really sweet that a few of his old friends greeting him with a big "Connor!" when we got to his new room, didn't help the tears, but hopefully he's over it by now.

Dressed to impress on his first day. 

I asked if he wanted a t-shirt under and he told me, "that's silly mom, I only wear one shirt everyday."

Hopefully we get a good report when we pick him up at the end of the day, today!

Grayson: Two Weeks

Grayson had his two week checkup Monday. All is good! The nurse questioned me if he was only two weeks old...come on people, he's not THAT large :) (she was kidding, well, it was said in a nice way, we'll put it that way)

Stats:

9 lbs, 4 ounces, almost back up to his birth weight. Puts him at the 60th percentile (was actually surprised, thinking it would be so much higher considering his weight)

21.5", 85th percentile (hmm...shrunk an inch? I do think it's pretty hard to accurately measure these squirmy little babies, so who knows who is right)

14.5" head circumference, 50th percentile

I can't for the life of me find Connor's stats, but for sure was lighter since he was only 7 lbs 12 ounces at birth and I think lost a fair amount the first few weeks since we were at Children's and he was fed via IV.

two days

 two weeks

I'm not great at doing something consistent, car seat, toy, chair, etc. So it's not ideal to monitor growth...just be happy I got a picture :)

Things we're up to:

-eats about 1.5-3oz at a feeding

-nightly feedings happen around midnight, 3am and 7am. For the most part he goes right back down, but the 3 am feeding seems to be the hardest to get him back down

-burps like a champ

-knock on wood, but he's way less of a spit-up baby than Connor, however out of habit I always have a burp cloth prepared

-have been pretty 'busy', today is my first day home with him that I have nothing to do or anywhere to go, looking forward to a nap or two :)

-shockingly doesn't wake up Connor in the middle of the night, especially considering the changing table is directly on the other side of the wall where Connor sleeps, and Grayson is not a fan of diaper changes

-is not in love with the nuk like older brother, I actually did use it last night when he was wide awake at 3:30 and it did help him fall asleep, but typically he doesn't really like it (which we're okay with, obviously)

-Connor is certain he loves Mighty Machines (new favorite equipment show)

-more and more alert which is fun, can't wait for the smiles (well, the non-gas related smiles :))

and then there was one

Totally forgot to mention that I attended my friend Aleta's baby shower this weekend. She looked stunning and it was a great shower. Also was of course great to see Angie and Sarah as well :)

 

 down to only one preggo in the group, excited to resume our monthly girls night in April after taking the month of march off to have babies

just before digging into the amazing cake pops 

Miles on the left, Grayson on the right

Grayson looked so much older than Miles, and he's only a week older. 

Probably didn't help that I had him in a collared shirt and jeans or the fact that he's like 1.5+ lbs larger :)

take a picture, mom!

Pretty laid back weekend around here, lots of basketball, church, relaxing, etc. Not complaining :) I have Grayson's 2 week appointment (it's actually kind of depressing that 2 weeks of my maternity leave are gone) tomorrow and we're officially switching to cable instead of dish for TV. Bryan is pretty excited to get channel 12.

So nothing too exciting. Every time Connor holds Grayson he wants a picture taken. And yes, Rachel, both of my kids are on the counter. Not the first time, and certainly not the last :)

Connor of course thinks he's hilarious sitting in Grayson's chair and really has been wanting to help more...unfortunately that means wanting to pick him up, feed him, etc. I only say unfortunately because he obviously isn't quite ready to be helping with those duties quite yet.

connor three year pics

The same day my friend Michelle took Connor's Valentine's Day photos, she also took some to use for his birthday party invite. Figured he wouldn't change THAT much so am considering these his semi-official three year photos :)

Showing us how old he's going to be.

counting his toes for Michelle

 being a total goof.

we had the green blanket on the floor in Bryan and I's room, so he'd run into his room across the hall then come racing into our room, slide onto the blanket, let Michelle take one photo, get up and repeat.

connor update

It seems like so long ago that we had Connor's procedure, but it's only been three days. He has yet to go into the bathroom on his own 'feeling' that he needs to go, but in our dedicated toilet time, he's successful about half of the time. He's having less accidents throughout the day which is great, we just need to be careful that it's because he's forming better stools, etc., versus getting backed up again. Today at daycare he apparently made a 'face' and although he had started going in his pull-up, he finished in the toilet, so that's great news. He's never made 'the face' for us before so hopefully he's starting to feel it.

He officially starts preschool on April 4th which is great, maybe even being around so many other children that have this figured out will help in itself.

So that's really all we know for now. We're waiting to hear back from the GI specialist to see if she has any other recommendations or if she wants a follow up appointment.

Grayson's first friend

Well, aside from his big brother of course, but my friend Angie had her baby yesterday! It was a little boy, Miles Jay Nessler, you can read all about it on Angie's blog. I met the little man today and he's adorable, of course. Mom, Dad and Miles all seem to be doing great!