Gloves and Tape

Caden has always sucked on his middle and ring fingers on his left hand since he was a baby. He used to suck on them all the time but now he mostly only does it while he is in bed going to sleep, but since he is about to turn three, we decided it was time for him to stop. It is not as easy as taking away a paci would be! :/  Out of the couple different things that we have tried, this one seems to work the best so far.

Yes, we had to tape gloves onto his hands! Even though he only sucks the fingers on the one hand, we tape them both because he would use his other hand and pick at his lip (sometimes making it bleed). Sometimes he somehow gets the tape and gloves off but most of the time he keeps them on. Hopefully this method will work (although I'm not sure how long it's going to take)!

Old Friends New Friends

Jimmy had to go to Wake Forest, NC last weekend as part of his seminary class that he is taking so we decided to meet up with some old friends who live nearby to hang out for the weekend and get our kids together.

We had our bags all packed and left Friday mid-morning. Noah screamed for the first 1 1/2 hours until we stopped for an early lunch and so I could feed him. Thinking/hoping/praying he would take a good nap, we set off again. 25 minutes later he woke up.  :/  I climbed in back to try to entertain him  but it didn't really work as well as I had hoped. Oh well, had to keep driving. He ended up taking one more 25 minute nap before we got there. Caden did great and didn't seem to notice Noah's crying. 1.) because he is used to him crying in the car by now and  2.) because we had borrowed a portable DVD player from a friend and he was able to watch movies the whole trip.

We made it to the hotel and checked in then met up with Shonica, Bethany, Aaron and the kids for an early dinner before Jimmy's class that night. We dropped Jimmy off at school :) and went to Shonica's apartment for the evening. The kids had fun getting to know eachother and we had fun catching up. :)

Saturday, Jimmy had class at 8:00am so Shonica came over to help me with the boys and we drove to Aaron and Bethany's house to hang out for the day. Austin and Caden became best buds and played together all day, Aubrey didn't care to play with the boys too much and the babies just did their own thing. Jimmy's class ended early and was able to meet up with us just after lunch where we then went to a firetruck parade. The boys were excited and thought it was really cool! They had a lot of fire trucks with lights, sirens and horns blaring and they were throwing candy! What could be more fun?! Went back to the house to play some more before dinner and before saying goodbye to our old and new friends.

Sunday we were leaving to go back home but took the boys for a swim in the indoor swimming pool before leaving. Caden LOVED swimming in the pool. He was not scared of the water (I didn't think he would be) or of jumping in. He started off jumping to us from the side of the pool but quickly learned he wanted to do it by himself. He would jump and go all the way under then pop up, laughing and saying "do it again!" Not sure what Noah thought about it but he seemed okay with it too.

On the car ride home, I sat in back most of the time talking and playing with Noah and trying to get him to take a nap again. We made a stop for lunch then continued on. While driving through the mountains about an hour away from home, Caden gets sick and throws up everywhere. (not sure if it was lunch or car sick or a combo of both) We are on a narrow mountain road with no where to stop so I use a bunch of wipes to clean him and the carseat up as best I can until we get home. While I am cleaning him up, his movie ends so he is more worried about me putting a new movie on for him then getting clean. :p We made it home, Noah went to sleep and Caden got a bath. He was fine the rest of the night and next day.

We had a great trip!! So thankful for getting to spend some time with friends and seeing our kids start building their friendship!

Pictures from our trip

The boys in the car - Caden watching movies and Noah screaming

 

Going into the hotel

Caden, Shonica and Austin at the firetruck parade

Firetrucks!

Old friends and new friends

Austin almost 4, Caden almost 3, Aubrey 2, Charlie 8 months and Noah 3months

Noah and Charlie

First time in a hotel

Swimming

Daddy with the boys

The Things We Do

What we have been up to lately...

Reading books in the tent

Building forts
Building zoo animals in their cages (see the giraffe?)
Taking turns sitting in the bumbo chair
Bouncing/learning to jump
"Playing" together

3 month Cheeeto

You were 3 months old yesterday, we didn't go to the dr this month so I don't know your official stats but I weighed you the other day and you were over 18 lbs!

Hands are usually clenched together playing with your fingers in front of you

Found your thumb to suck on :/ Trying to stop that one and get you to take the paci since we are having such a hard time getting Caden to stop sucking his fingers...but I don't think it is working

You LOVE to play Pat-a-cake...makes you smile and giggle :)

VERY ticklish...I love hearing you laugh as Daddy tickles you when he is getting you changed

So snuggly and loveable

Very interested in watching your big brother

Still waking up once at night to eat and eating about every 3 hours during the day

Daddy thinks you have big hands

Sunday morning

Just as we are about to leave for church Sunday morning, this is what happens...

They of course both had to get changed after that! :)
(but not before I got a picture)

"School"

The new school year has started. We had our first day at "school" (AKA Mother's Day Out) yesterday. Mommy goes to teach while the boys go to their classes. Overall, we had a good first day. Caden loved doing a handprint painting project, learning about Noah's Ark and had fun in music! And he of course loved playing with his friends and getting a treasure (a ball - it's actually the planet Uranus but he calls it a ball) from the treasure box! He also told his teacher that he was going to heaven, I think she was a little surprised by that. Noah did great too! I was able to feed him once and he took a bottle from his teacher for the next feeding!

2 months

Has it been 2 months already?! You are growing so fast!

At 2 months, you still sleep a lot but are starting to be more awake during the day. During the day you are still eating every 3 hours, but thankfully this week you started sleeping for 5-6 hours at night :) Mama loves that!

You spit up a lot, which means two things...burp cloths are very important and are everywhere around the house and it makes for a lot more laundry.

We went to the doctor and had to get 3 shots, you screamed until I picked you up. Mama's eyes watered a little bit too, I'm not sure if the shots are harder for you or me. :( You didn't run a fever or anything.

Stats from the doctor: 16 lb. 10 oz. and 25.5 in. long The nurse said that puts you in the 100th percentile! You are a big boy! You look it too! I just love all your rolls and your chubby cheeks! Everybody just wants to squeeze you! One day I noticed the bottom of your big toes felt like balls. Asked the doctor about it just to make sure nothing was wrong, but was assured that it is just fat! :)

Had to put away the 3 month and 3-6 month clothes. :( You are now in 6-9 month clothes.

Tolerating the bouncer for a little while, but you do not like being on your back. You found the animals above your swing, so now you will stay there for a little bit longer, maybe 15 minutes, while you "talk" to the animals. You started smiling around 5-6 weeks old but now you are smiling a lot more. You are making cooing noises to talk too! Love that!

You hate riding in your carseat. After only about 5-10 minutes, you scream the rest of the time and a paci does not help at all! :( Unfortunately we live 40 minutes away from church/school/friends houses so whenever we go to Greeneville, you scream for a half hour until we take you out of the carseat. I hate that I can't do anything to help you.

Your favorite position is to be cuddled up on someone's chest. You love to snuggle!!

Caden has nicknamed you Cheeto. I am not sure why he came up with that name, but that is what he has started calling you.

2 months old

Practicing holding your head up

Big brother likes to play with your toys