Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Measuring Up



Because I was curious after weighing Andrew yesterday, I took the boys' measurements this morning.


Philip: 27 1/2 months old

Weight: 26 pounds
Height: 34 3/4 inches 

Percentiles: 15th for weight, 32nd for height

And these are mostly for posterity because I'm a dork and like to know exactly how he is still fitting in his rear facing car seat!):

Torso length: 12 1/4 inches
Seated height: 20 1/4 inches



Andrew: 4 months old

Weight: 17 1/2 pounds
Height: 24 3/4 inches

Percentiles:

84th (!!) for weight, 29th for height

Car seat measurements:

Torso length: 9 1/2 inches
Seated height: 15 1/2 inches

Andrew's measurements are as accurate as I could get with a bathroom scale, a measuring tape, and a wiggly baby! I will know for sure how big he is next week at his check up!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Andrew: 4 Months Old

Andrew is four months old! 




He's just too darn cute. And getting sooo big! He has his 4 month well baby appointment next week so we will find out for sure then, but I attempted to weigh him here at home and I think he is close to 18 pounds. Wow! Our 2 year old is only 26 pounds! Needless to say , Andrew is foiling my plans for getting extra use out of all of Philip's baby clothes. He's already in size six months. At 4 months of age, Philip was finally fitting comfortably into size 3 months clothing. What a contrast!


Andrew is such a joy. He's still a complete Mommy's Boy but he's becoming more and more comfortable with Daddy these days which is such a relief. He's still nursing every two hours hours, pretty much around the clock. Sleeping through the night appears to be a ways off at this point in time. It's okay though. This time around, I am soaking up every minute of my mommy and baby time as I know all too well how fast it goes! 


He hasn't rolled over yet but I think it's coming. When we lay him down he works really hard at trying to swing one leg over to the other side. He watches his big brother run around all day with such interest. You can tell he is just itching to get moving, too! He enjoys tummy time and is working hard at pushing himself up with his arms when he's laying on his belly. He's already a strong little boy.



He's also a very "oral" baby like Philip never was. I can already tell we are going to have to be more careful about what gets left out within his reach once he's a bit older. Everything he manages to get his hands on already goes right to the mouth!  He is also very talkative. I swear he just loves the sound of his own voice! In addition to cooing and babbling, he shrieks, squeals,  and laughs and is just a loud baby in general!





He loves to stand up. He isn't content with sitting down for long and prefers to be held standing up right so he can practice picking up his feet and moving his adorably chubby legs.







He still has blonde hair and bright blue eyes and he's just gorgeous. But I still marvel every day how two people can have two children who look so completely different. It's been discovered that, while Philip looks exactly like both his mommy and daddy smooshed together, Andrew looks remarkably like his grandpa! The resemblance to Phil's dad is just too funny: when Doug is holding Andrew it looks like he's holding his own son! 








Philip is a wonderful big brother to Andrew. He has yet to show any signs of jealousy and he loves to show Andrew his toys and give him hugs and kisses. Tonight we decided to make an attempt at giving them a bath at the same time and Philip was so excited to have his brother in the tub with him. He just adores him and you can tell Andrew is already in awe of his big brother. He thinks Philip is absoultely hilarious and will frequently smile at him and crack up laughing if Philip is also laughing. It warms my heart so much to see the two of them being to interact with each other. Truly, the best part of having two children is seeing their relationship with each other blossom. I hope they will always be best friends. I am so blessed to be the mother of two such wonderful little boys!





Thursday, December 2, 2010

Santa

Yesterday we took the boys to see Santa. Philip lead us to believe he was excited about this, after weeks of us giving him prep talks about the big day. We were hopeful that he would surprise us and actually sit on  Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas (Bigfoot and a Woody doll), as he had been saying just that since we told him he was going to get to see Santa.

Ummm.... not so much.



And that was the best shot.

On the plus side, Andrew did great!


You've gotta love this age. He had no idea he was even sitting on someone's lap. All he knew was mommy was off to his right making big goofy faces at him. I only regret not taking Philip when he was Andrew's age for his first Christmas (I had all of these silly first time mom worries about germs--ha!)--that might have been our only shot at a picture of  a smiling Philip sitting on Santa's lap! ;-)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Andrew: Three Months Old!


Andrew turned three months old this past Wednesday. How the heck did that happen already?! What they say about it going even faster with the second baby is so true. These past three months have been a blur. I can't believe Andrew is already a quarter of a year old. He's so different from the newborn we brought home in August.

He is growing and changing by leaps and bounds! Our chunky monkey is such a contrast to our first baby, who was itty bitty at 6 lbs 3 oz and is still on the smaller side at just around 25 pounds at age 2. Andrew is already foiling my plans for lots of hand-me-downs by outgrowing his clothing far more rapidly than Philip ever did. Case in point: Philip was in newborn sizes until he was 2 months old. At 3 months old, Andrew is in 3-6 months sizes and steadily outgrowing those! He's not unusually large, by any means, but he has such a nice little baby heft to him . He's so cuddly and he has the best little cheeks for lots of kisses. He's just a beautiful baby, if I do say so myself. ;-) He's got silky blonde hair, and lots of it, and the prettiest blue eyes that absolutely light up when he smiles his big open-mouthed smile.

He's definitely attached to mommy. Oh my. Most of which probably has to do with the colic and stomach issues he's dealt with, and the fact that I am his food supply, of course. He's just now starting to come around to daddy if that is any indicator of the level of attachment we are dealing with here. I honestly don't mind it though. I know before long daddy will be the one in demand and he won't be so eager to cuddle with mama. I am treasuring our bonding time together. Little boys grow up fast.

Milestones from Andrew's 3rd month of life include:

  • Improved hand-eye coordination. He loves to lay in his play mat and bat at the colorful toys dangling in front of him. He holds on to objects that find their way into his hands. He likes to hang onto mommy's necklace or hair (ouch) while he's nursing. He's got a super strong grip!
  • Cooing and babbling. He's "talking" up a storm! He'll frequently let out these long sighs that turn into an exaggerated coo. So cute.
  • Recognizing mommy. He gets so excited when he spies me. His arms fly out anda he starts smiling and cooing.
  • Eating. He's still nursing every two hours and breastfeeding is still going well.
  • Sleeping.. nothing great to report here. Lately, he's been waking up very frequently. He normally does okay until about 3 am and then he's up a couple of times per hour until morning. I think the change in the weather has caused him to become stuffed up over night and he has a hard time breathing through his nose. I've tried everything to help with this and to no avail. Such a bummer because I don't think his sleep is going to improve until we get this stuffy nose problem under control.
  • The colic appears to be subsiding--Praise God!



Andrew celebrated his first holiday on Halloween. We didn't dress him up as he slept in the Ergo while we took Philip trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Thanksgiving is this Thursday and we'll be headed to Northern Virginia to spend the holiday with Phil's family. I return to work part-time the following Monday and then Christmas will be right around the corner! It's definitely a busy but wonderful time of year, made all the more wonderful by the addition of our sweet baby boy.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A Trip to the Fire Department

This morning we participated in an trip to the Culpeper County Volunteer Fire Department that was organized by the wonderful mom's group that I belong to. We were given a tour of the department and trucks and a demonstration on how a firefighter gets into his gear. It was a lot of fun and Philip had a great time!

On our way to the fire department 

 Posing on the front of one of the engines

 Not very interested in smiling for mommy!

Gear demonstration

The inside of one of the fire engines

Painted alongside one of the ladders on top of the fire engine

"Jaws of life"

Gear and equipment

Axes and other instruments stowed inside of the fire engine

Various gauges on the truck

Daddy came too even though he was nervous about attending a mom's group get together!

Sitting inside of the fire truck


Philip was so small compared to the big fire truck!

Sitting in the passenger seat of the fire truck


Philip is always more comfortable trying new things if his buddy Elijah tries them too!





Taking a turn at the wheel of the antique fire engine!


On their way to an imaginary fire maybe?

"Don't worry, Elijah, we got this!"

Fire Chief Philip

One last photo op before we left!