Two Month Stats...

**Thank you, Christy, for allowing me to totally rip this off of your blog. :)

My son turned 2 months old on Monday...and I have no idea where the time has gone?!?

We had his 2-month visit today at the Pediatrician's office and other than a few shots at the end, all went perfectly! He weighs 11 lbs, 13 oz (just under the 50th percentile) and is 23 inches long (50th percentile).

BUT...the best news of the whole appointment is that the doctor thinks that since he hasn't lost his hair by now he might keep his gorgeous dirty blond fo-hawk!! :)

He currently:

*smiles and coos like crazy!
*"standing" up and holding his head up like a big boy
*sleeping from 9pm-8am with one feeding @ about 5am
*loves his swing
*watches Hailey run around like a crazy lady and is very entertained by her!
*has started to giggle!!!
*is more content outside than in the house
*perks up when he hears his daddy's voice! :)
*has a touch of reflux that is very manageable with baby Zantac twice a day
*wakes up HAPPY...just like his sister!

**Pause, please!! It's such a gift to have this awesome healthy baby! :)

Soooo Big!

This boy is changing before my very eyes...I can't believe how quickly he's leaving the newborn stage. Pause, please!! :)

The Beach...

Thank you Leslie for taking these spectacular pictures...how you made my cute girl look even cuter is beyond me! :)

Privacy Please, Mommy!?!

Please forgive the most current "theme" of our lives lately...when it comes time for potty training, you begin to think that everyone wants to hear the "ins & outs" of the process... ;)

That said, Hailey has recently overcome her phobia of going poop on the potty. This, of course, is a HUGE deal...since it makes for NO DIAPERS to clean up!! Yay, Hails...

However, she has also sprouted a bit of an independent streak and begun going potty by herself on her little training potty. Yesterday, I used the advice of several moms and thought I'd "move things along" by giving Hailey a Fiber One granola bar. Let's just say, it was successful. She...ahem...went "big potty" 6 TIMES! By herself. And by about the 4th time, we'd walk her into the bathroom, she'd sit down, and then she'd say, "Leave me!"

We could NOT be more proud of this girl...or more excited about the lack of toddler diapers to change!?! :)

My Newly Arranged Living Room...

I decided today that I wanted my glider in the living room, so there was some re-arranging that needed to take place before it would fit...so we went to town moving things around and this is what we came up with.

Once we add a few things to the wall we'll be all set!

Bumbo...

Here's the boy...in the Bumbo seat! He doesn't quite know what to think about it, but he held his head up REALLY well. My baby is getting bigger!?! :)

Today he turned 8 weeks old...where does the time go?!?

It's a bird-bath?? Oh...

Braids and Meltdowns...

Today Hails and I went to get our hair done...and Hailey sat still long enough for a trim and TWO french braids!! (Thanks, Janet! :) After the haircut, my mom, aunt Lynn, the kids and I went to Mickey-D's for a happy meal and some play time.

Hailey is so funny! She climbs up into the big toy at McDonald's and sits in this one little cube and peeks at us sitting at the table. She doesn't play with anything, won't climb high enough to slide down the slide or anything, but will NOT come out without a fight from her little perch.

This outing, of course, pushed nap time from 11:30 to 2:15! By the time she got home she was in the midst of a complete meltdown...BUT, I promised Todd I'd get a picture of her braids before she napped (they'll be destroyed by then, of course), so this was the best I could do! :)

Pinkie and the Potty Chart

Aunt Stacy brought over a little gift for Hails the other day and it has become her very favorite stuffed animal! She named it herself...fittingly, her name is Pinkie. (What else do you name a pink colored monkey?!? :)

We've worked on several Bible verses over the past 6 months or so, but recently Hailey has lacked motivation to learn new ones. Hence, our new chart system! She LOVES stickers, so when I told her that every time she said her verses (with or without my help, of course) she got to put a sticker on her chart her heart lept for joy and she became a verse-reciting machine!! We wrote them out on poster-board and hung them above her bed.

Then we hung the chart on the wall, too. This is just what she's recited since this afternoon.

We've also really turned a corner with the potty-training (PTL!!!), so we've made a potty chart, too. She gets one sticker for going "pee-pee potty" and two stickers for "poo-poo potty" and one BIG sticker when she goes the whole day with no accidents. When she fills the line she gets to pick out a prize from the "potty prize bag"! (which is filled with Target dollar-section items!! Thank you, Target! :)

I'm slightly afraid to write this for fear of jinxing it, but in three days of wearing big-girl undies she has only had ONE accident! Including today's nap!! I'll be keeping the unopened box of Pull-Ups I just bought just in case, but hoping I can return them and get my $25 bucks back!! :)

ETA: Pinkie is Hailey and Hailey is me. Today while she was playing, she dropped her book on Pinkie. She then ever-so-dramatically picked her up, squeezed her tight in her arms and said, "I'm sorry, Pinkie! I'm so sorry! You forgive me??" while "fake crying" over her. ;)

Dreadful...Just Dreadful...

I've recently become completely phobic of the grocery store. Todd would call it laziness, but I would suggest that it has more to do with a phobia of taking my kids to the store with me. Most of the time I make a short list and send Todd, but it's been about a month since I did a "good shop", and the meals have reflected that lately.

After much discussion about the fact that the only options for dinner tonight were cereal or peanut-butter tortillas, we desperately decided to pack up both of our kids (Hailey dressed in the outfit documented above) and head out grocery shopping as a family...to Walmart. 'Nuff said.

On the way there it began raining...and then started POURING. In July...while we were on our way to the most packed-out parking lot in Western Washington and would have to run with two kids. I wore flip flops. Cool.

We got inside and realized that we grossly underestimated the number of people inside. Although the parking lot was filled to the brim, we guessed that each car must have brought at least 6 people with it. And, of course, there were maybe 3 check-stands open. Awesome.

We then realized that neither of us had thought to put a pull-up on Hailey and we were in public. We went straight to the bathroom to "try", to no avail. Then I get out and meet back up with Todd only to discover that not only have I left my grocery list in the car, but also the pacifier. Owen was wide awake. Neither of us could make ourselves run to the car in the monsooning rain, so we skipped it and braved without either item. Not smart.

It took us FOREVER to maneuver through the aisles, due to the fact that we not only had to make our way into them with the 4000 other Federal Way residents, but we had forgotten the list and had to pay very close attention as to not forget anything.

Half-way through the trip Hails asked to go potty. I took her...with Owen in the front-pack. When we got there the bathrooms were being cleaned. We waited. After we finally got in we noticed that the bathrooms were surprisingly not clean. Weird. I got Hailey on and off the potty...and it was a SUCCESS!! Yay Hails!! We washed our hands like we've never washed before and joined Todd who was attempting to shop without me...and without a list. Not good.

We finally finished, chose the shortest line we could and headed outta there.

Only took 2 hours.

At least we've got food! :)

Owen's First Smiles

The kids...

Hailey had a great morning with her auntie Sheeshe today and got to pick out a SWEET pair of shoes...and she's a girl after my own heart, as she chose a cute pair of Chuck's... :)

Here's her frustration with trying to tie them all by herself...

And here's the model pose...such a cheese! :)

Hailey made Owen wear this headpiece the other day...sorry, son!

See, Hails? It looks MUCH better on you!

(and here's a shout-out to Dr. Lisa Yarb...we are brushing like crazy!!! :)

It's okay, Mommy...

Today was one of those days...Owen was uncharacteristically fussy, which in turn left even less of me for Hailey, which caused some pretty major outbursts from her, which made me grouchy, which made things worse...get where this is going?

I finally was at the end of myself, had finally gotten Owen to sleep, when Hailey walks out of the bathroom and starts yelling at me about her undies being on backwards and needing me to fix them. This woke her brother up. I proceeded to get all frustrated and angrily tell Hailey to "Come here!" so I could fix her underpants. I fixed her up and with the saddest face I've ever seen she hung her head and walked back into the living room. Oh, Jesus...what have I done to her??

As the tears welled up into my eyes I tenderly said, "Hailey! Come see Mommy for a sec"...to which she ignored me and continued walking with her head hung. I completely lost it and started crying like I've never cried before. Forgive me, Jesus, for being so impatient and angry with this sweet girl.

I could hear Hails walking back down the hall to see what I was doing, so I hurried to try and pull myself together. I lifted my head and she stopped in her tracks and in her little sweet helium voice she asked, "Mommy?? You cryin'??".

"Yeah, Hails...Mommy is sad. I'm so sorry I was talking mean to you. I just got frustrated and should not have talked to you like that. I love you. Will you forgive me?" Mid-sentence the tears came flowing again and my sweet daughter ran right into my arms. "Will you just hold me, Hailey? Mommy needs you to hold me." She obliged and stayed in my arms for probably the longest she ever had before.

"I dry your tears, Mommy," she said as she ran into the bathroom and grabbed some tissue. "You sad? Why you cryin'? I love you!"

It took me a bit to pull myself together, but her quick forgiveness fixed me right up.

Thank you, Jesus, for demonstrating your unconditional love through my sweet little 2-year old girl.

Hailey says the darndest things...

The other morning we were in my room and I was getting ready to put Owen down for a nap...when Hailey asks, "Mommy...did you swallow Owen?" "Ummm...no...what?!?" Again, she asks, "Did you swallow baby Owen, Mommy?" "Oh...did I SWADDLE him?" :)

This morning when getting my coffee, Hailey had finished her breakfast and was VERY impatiently asking to get out of her high chair...I finally snapped at her, "Hold your horses, Hailey!" to which she replied in a very offended manner, "I am NOT a HORSE!!"

There you have it...she's the funniest kid I know! :)