Monday, December 16, 2013

Porter's First Christmas Present!

Since the movers are coming this week and we will be responsible for transporting all of our Christmas presents to NC when we go, Maesynne volunteered to give Pax and Porter their Christmas present a little early so we could send it with the movers. 

It was a present for both boys, but it was Porter's first Christmas present ever! We thought he might have to grow into it but...
...he loves it! I put him on and he grabbed the handles and had a big grin while I rocked him. When I stopped, he started rocking himself. 
Pax loves it too of course. He liked the box almost as much as he loved the present. 
THANKS AUNT MAESYNNE!!!



Sunday, December 8, 2013

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ok, everyone always says that it's so much more magical to have kids at Christmas and I know this is such a cliche, but it's SO MAGICAL to have kids at Christmas! Paxton's first two Christmases were special and fun and great, but this year is awesome. He loves every part of it! He was so excited to see the Christmas tree and asks for the lights to be on at all times. He loved when we put up the Christmas lights and he cannot get enough of seeing lights and Christmas trees and big blow-up Santas around town. 

Grandpa Mark always has the fireplace on and he loves that too! He tries to blow it out sometimes...
I'm loving that Porter is the same size as Paxton was for his first Christmas so I can see all the first Christmas outfits again. 
And babies in Christmas jammies are my favorite thing ever. 
The boys had fun playing in the lights while Jared and I tried to put them on the tree. 

(I don't know why my phone didn't focus on anything for this picture but I love it anyway)
In an unrelated note, Scarlett climbed this tree while Jared was out of town for the week....
She was probably 17 feet up...no idea why or how...but I thought I was going to have to call the fire department to get her down (do they even do that?). Luckily Mason was able to come over during his lunch break to climb an extension ladder and bring her down. 

And back to babies in Christmas jammies:



Snow Day!

We had our first real snow of the season this week! Jared was in NC for the week finding us a house and as the weather forecast started looking more and more serious, we started worrying that he would be stuck there over the weekend. Luckily he got his flight moved up and made it home a few hours after the snow started. I loaded the boys up and headed to the airport but after about half a mile, I had already seen three wrecks and had a car almost hit me so we turned around and came home. We don't really know how to drive in the snow in Oklahoma. Poor Jared had to take a taxi home from the airport, but he made it home! Paxton was so excited to see him when he woke up from his nap. All week he had been asking for Jared and when I told him Jared was in Raleigh, he would always say "bye bye to Raleigh". He wanted his Daddy.  
Porter was wearing his snowman outfit in the hope that it would help the snow keep coming! It worked. 
On Friday Jared got to work from home so we spent the snow day in our jammies!

Around noon Jared got to take a break and we took Paxton out to play in the snow while Porter napped. 
He loved it. His favorite part was getting snow on his glove and licking it. Jared taught him to throw snowballs so he quickly became obsessed with throwing handfuls of snow. 

When Porter woke up, I brought him out for his first snow experience. He liked it at first and even touched it a little bit, but he was over it as soon as he started getting cold. 
Paxton wanted to go back out and play after his nap, but since it was getting dark and was only about 12 degrees, he and Jared didn't last very long outside. We brought a bin of snow inside (thanks Pinterest!) and let the boys play in that. Porter poked it a few times, but Paxton loved it. He kept taking bites of it, and feeding clumps to the dogs. He helped me make a tiny snowman and we made a ramp for his car. 
Then he remembered the snowball thing and started throwing snow all over the place. We might have had a miniature family snowball fight in the kitchen, but there's no proof of that. 
Snow days are even better with a little boy who gets so excited about the snow!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was a pretty amazing day. It was tough to wake up at Granny Pat's house on Thanksgiving morning without her being there, but it was such a nice feeling to be there, reminded of how special she always made everyone feel on Thanksgiving (and every other day of the year). 

We woke up and had cinnamon rolls and watched the Thanksgiving Day parade. Pax loved the balloons. 
We had lots of time to get ready this year since we only had 2 Thanksgivings to make it to instead of 3. The boys looked adorable in their matching turkey shirts my mom and I made. 
We went to Aunt Jojo's house first where Porter got some baby love from Regan. 
It turned out to be a little too much baby love and he needed Granny V to comfort him. 
(Pax talking to Granny V)
Pax also got some baby love from Regan:
But he definitely liked it. 
They were fast friends and had a great time chasing each other around and tackling each other. 
I love these two:
Paxton always requests outside time as soon as we're done eating. It was a beautiful day so we agreed. 

(Porter and Granny V)
He loved jumping down the steps. I held my breath nervously each time but somehow we avoided a trip to the emergency room. 
We even squeezed in a family picture. 
After that we headed to Gramsy's house for our second meal. 

Pax got to sit in the youth chair...
...since someone took over his high chair this year. 
Porter loved his first Thanksgiving and had almost an entire roll and some mashed potatoes. Pax ate a roll and 3 pink arctic freezes! 

(Pax and Aunt Bevynne)
The whole family:
After dinner, Gramsy started a new tradition with the boys. She let them open their first Christmas present which was matching reindeer jammies and the How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie!
Jared stayed with Paxton while we all went Black Friday shopping. We were joking that Porter got to hit the Black Friday sales while Paxton never has when Jared texted and said he found a deal he couldn't pass up and was taking Pax to the store. 

We met up and headed home with the boys in their Christmas jammies asleep in the backseat, Christmas music playing, full of good food. It was a perfect Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for our great marriage, our two sweet and healthy boys, our amazing families, and having everything we need. 

Monday, November 25, 2013

SEVEN MONTHS!

Porter is seven months old today. I was talking to Jared last night and we realized that Porter is closer to being one than a newborn. We both couldn't believe it. His first few months went by pretty slowly with his Reflux, but warp speed has resumed in the last few months. 
At seven months, Porter is:
-so much happier all the time. The Reflux medicine has made a huge difference in his attitude. He's happy so much more now. Besides sleep, the biggest difference we've noticed is his ability to just be content on the floor. He has always been easy when we are on the go. He loves his car seat and looking at people and being held. It has always been home where we have had trouble with him. With the medicine, he is always pretty easy. 
-sleeping through the night! This is huge because he had not slept through the night once until we started the Reflux medicine. I think the longest he had gone was 6 hours, but more often he went 90 minutes or 2 hours. We also moved him out of our room which helped. Now he eats around 9:00 and goes to sleep and wakes up anywhere from 7:00-9:00. He puts himself to sleep now which never happened before. He usually takes 3 naps a day: 10:00, 1:00 and 7:00. Sometimes the 10:00 nap starts later and kind of merges into a mega-nap with the 1:00 nap with just a short nursing session in between. We are trying to get him to drop the 7:00 nap because it seems counter-productive to bedtime but he is pretty fussy without it. 
-nursing 4.5 times a day. He eats when he wakes up, then between 11 and 1, then around 4, then at 7:00 and then has a short session around 9 right before bed. He doesn't usually seem hungry at the last session, but I want him to keep sleeping through the night so we stick with it. He has baby food for dinner most nights (but not always...) and likes prunes the best. He has mastered the sippy cup and the straw sippy already which is awesome since we had to work with Pax on the straw sippy until he finally got it around 15 months. 
-sitting well on his own and is good at letting himself down gently when he's done sitting instead of collapsing. 
-very close to crawling! He gets his knees under him and pushes but he usually ends up going backwards. This is another exciting one for me since Paxton just army crawled. 
-starting to really like his Daddy. When he hears him, he looks around until he finds him and then just breaks out in the biggest smile. At dinner last night he looked right at Jared and said "dada" but we are definitely counting that as a happy coincidence. 
-wearing 6 and 9 month clothes (and some 12 month because Pax was bigger than him during his first winter so the winter clothes are mostly 12 months). He is in size 3 diapers. 
-very interested in balls, cars, and toys that make noise. He loves his big brother and they already have a game where they shriek back and forth with each other. They both think it's hilarious...
-rolling and scooting all over the rug. Every time I look away and then look back down, he has moved more than I expected. He will do whatever he can to get to a cup or an iPhone. 
-getting in his two top teeth right now. The tip of the right tooth is almost to poke through. He's definitely an early teether. 

He's still so snuggly and loves giving kisses. He always holds onto my shoulder when I pick him up which I think is precious. Nursing is still going well which makes me really proud of both of us. These next few months make up one of my favorite baby stages where he is still tiny and dependent but is also really social and starting to do fun things. I'm excited to see Paxton watch him learn to do new things. Paxton was so excited when Porter started rolling over all the time and I can't wait to see his face as Porter learns to crawl and pull up and walk.