Sweet Success

Just had to document today's successes, after feeling like a total failure earlier in the week...

Emmett only woke up twice last night!! He slept for two good three-hour stretches and only woke at 1:45 and 4:45, which was totally awesome! The night before he was up almost every hour and a half so this was a big improvement. I hope tonight is just as good, although I'm not counting on it. He has also been napping much better today with less fussing beforehand. Hopefully I didn't just jinx everything by writing all that.

We went to the park today to let Jackson have some fun and enjoy the sunshine. I managed to wait until it was almost time for Emmett to eat again, then tentatively took him out of his crib and placed him in the car seat. He did get a little upset, but was able to wait until we got to the park to eat. He then stayed awake the whole time at the park (a little over an hour) without fussing! I was able to put him in the car seat without having him fuss and he actually almost fell asleep on the way home. When we got home I was able to transfer him to his crib successfully and now both boys are sleeping. Hooray!!

I know not every day will be this easy, but we've been having a rough week so I thought this deserved a mention. It's crazy how you can feel so defeated as a parent one day and the next day feel like you can conquer the world. I guess that's what keeps life interesting. Now I'm off to lay down myself...

Grandparent Gifts

We had gorgeous, sunny near 90-degree weather today, so we spent some time outside. Someone didn't want to keep his hat on, so we tried to stay in the shade. Klamath sun is very intense.

Jackson, Phil, and I love our new double jogger... thank you so much Nana and Papa Swoop! Unfortunately, Emmett is not so fond of it yet. He's actually not in this picture... he's hanging on to my chest in the Baby Bjorn. He's going to have to learn to like it, though, once I start running again. J was not wanting to pose for this picture - especially with that hat on. I was able to peek into his mouth the other day when he was upset about something and noticed that he's in the process of cutting 5 or 6 teeth just on the bottom. I guess he has a right to be a little grumpy.

And, there goes the hat...

Your package finally arrived, Grandy and Popeye! Thank you!

Cute- E- Pie!

Just had to post some recent cute pictures of Emmett. He's such a chunker compared to Jackson! We can't get over his cute baby rolls. I'm trying to be good about taking pictures of him so he doesn't end up with second-child syndrome because we have 2,407 pictures of Jackson's first year and 34 of him.

My friend, Katie, gave Emmett this onesie and I love it because it says, "mc dreamy" on the front. For those who don't watch, McDreamy is the nickname given to Patrick Dempsey's character on Grey's Anatomy - I love that show.

Not picking... just looks like it!

Today Emmett was actually enjoying his bouncy seat for a few minutes while sucking on his pacifier. Eventually the paci fell out and E started to fuss. I was washing dishes, so J ran right over there and tried and tried to put the paci back in Emmett's mouth, to no avail. It was so sweet, though - I had to capture it.

Totally Worth the 90-Minute Drive

We get bored over here in our tiny town sometimes, so we take frequent day trips over to the nearest city for some shopping and civilization. We went over last Wednesday to get a protective coating put on our new van and actually had a pretty nice time. We even went out to eat as a family of four for the first time. We went to a great pizza place that is just like our favorite pizza place in Alaska, Moose's Tooth. Not quite the same, but close.

Jackson got to pretend-drive Dad's truck and play with all of the buttons during a nursing pit-stop.

While Dad was at the car dealership I spent some time at the mall with the little boys. Jackson loved the mall play area. Oh, how I wish we had a mall over here!

He's decided that he prefers to go down slides backwards for some reason. We never showed him how to do that - one day he just turned around and slid backwards and has been doing it ever since!

I Wish I Had a Padded Seat That People Carried Me Around In...

Well, maybe I spoke too soon about Emmett hating the car seat. I think he only hates it at certain times - like when he's hungry or wants to be held (which, as I mentioned before, is very often). We had two good walks yesterday and today, though, during which he fell asleep in the car seat. He had just been fed, so I think that helped. He slept in it yesterday while we were in Fred Meyer, too (although he woke up and screamed on the way home - hungry), and today we went to the park and he slept in the seat for almost 2 hours. So maybe there's hope for us yet!

Phil and I got really frustrated last Monday when the weather was rainy and cold here and we were driving around trying to find an indoor play area for Jackson. The one option we had is closed on Mondays, so in our frustration we went to Wal-Mart and bought a swing, small plastic slide, and bouncy thing and set them up in our garage for J. He loves that swing (so much so that we now need to take it down when we're not using it b/c every.single.time we go into the garage he wants to swing and gets upset when he can't) and loves the slide, too, but is not too sure about the bouncy thing. We might take that back. The slide also works well outside in the grass on sunny days, as would the swing if we had any trees to hook it to.

Here are two more videos to keep the grandparents happy... :)