Baby Shower

My friends Rocky and Lana gave me a "Welcome, Emmett" baby shower a few weeks ago. It was at a spa and everyone who came got to have mini-treatments (mani, pedi, massage, etc.) done. It was a great time! We all just hung out and talked, laughed, drank some wine, ate lunch and cake, and got pampered. I almost left Emmett at home, but decided to bring him so that people could meet him. Several friends took turns holding him the whole time and he was pretty good. Here are some pics:

Getting a much-needed pedicure. Lana and Rocky treated me to a longer, special pedi. It was wonderful!

Rocky and I...

Lana and I...

Alexis holding Emmett...

Cute diaper truck that my friend Lindsay made. We thought it looked like Towmater's (from the movie Cars) girlfriend...

My friend Katie made this adorable flight suit onesie for Emmett. It looks just like the one that Phil wears (in onesie form, of course)...

Getting sleepy... Emmett refused to sleep at all during the shower, so when we got home he was totally tuckered out and slept for almost 4 hours straight...

Emmett at Two Months

1. We call him Squeakers because of the little squirrel-type squeaky sounds he's made since he was born. Now the name still fits him b/c he sucks so hard on his pacifier sometimes that it makes squeaking sounds (just like baby Maggie on the Simpsons). **update: I typed this a week or so ago. Since then, he has pretty much given up the pacifier. Oh, well - it was fun while it lasted.

2. He's starting to smile... not too often, but every once in a while I'll get a big one and it melts my heart! He has a pretty big dimple on his left cheek that you can see when he smiles - it's great. He's also starting to make little cooing noises... again, not too often, but they're priceless when they do happen.

3. That crazy, dark hair that he had at birth? It's starting to fall out! He has an almost-bald strip around the middle of his head. I'm wondering what color it will be when it grows back.

4. He's a great eater, burper, and pooper. He's very efficient at getting as much milk as possible in the shortest amount of time. He gives me several good burps as soon as I put him up on my shoulder. I don't even have to pat his back at all! He used to have a poopy diaper every time we changed him, but thankfully he's slowed down a bit. He's started limiting his poopiness to the daytime, which is really great. It's nice not to have to turn on the light at 3 A.M. to change a poopy diaper. :)

5. He is very stubborn when it comes to sleep. He will fight it with every ounce of his being! When he does finally give in, though, he sleeps really well.

6. He's very strong! He loves to put weight on his legs and can push his chest up off of the ground with his arms straight. He also just learned to flip from his stomach to his back.

7. He's still a chunky monkey - I've officially packed up and put away all of the 0-3 month clothes. I'm looking forward to finding out his length and weight at his 2 month appointment next week.

8. He is adorable and we all love him so much! (Sorry for the large amount of pictures... it's hard to pick favorites when I think they're all so cute!)

Bubble Craziness.... and Baby

Becky bought Jackson a bubble machine the other day. He thinks it is the best thing ever. The plethora of bubbles makes him a little crazy - as you can see from these videos. Too funny! By the way - he was totally fine after he fell down at the end of the first one. We think he was pretty dizzy.






This video is not quite as exciting, but I felt bad that I haven't been taking or posting any videos of Emmett. Not much action, but he does give a few good smiles!

Finished Projects

Becky and I finished most of our projects on Wednesday night. Yahoooo! We're still working on another project, though - making invitations for Jackson's birthday party. Here are some pictures of what we've accomplished so far. I feel like I have a new house - it's great! :)

First, we landscaped the front yard. Phil dug out flower beds before he left and Becky and I laid weed-block liner, dug holes for and planted almost 40 bushes and perennials, and spread a thin layer of bark mulch. We'll have to lay down more mulch later, but Phil has to put in some lines for our drip sprinkler system first. So you'll have to ignore the black liner showing through - it will be hidden soon. And the hose reel in the front - that will be gone, too. I just need it there now for watering. It was hard work, but luckily we had great weather for planting. Landscaping is fun, too, because you can instantly see the results of your hard work. AND you get to watch it get better and better over time! I can't wait until it fills in a little bit more. It already looks so much better, though!


Our second project was to repaint a wall in my front living room/dining room. We actually painted this wall when Beck was here last summer, but we both ended up not liking the color. It was a rusty reddish-brown color. Anyway, as you can see - it's now blue. I LOVE it. It's really a bluish-gray color, but looks more bright when the sun hits it. It makes the room look much bigger and more airy. We got some great family pictures taken after Emmett was born that I'm going to frame and hang between the two windows.


I am totally in love with that white sectional. It used to be in our main family room, but as Jackson started getting older and climbing all over it I became increasingly stressed about getting stains on it. We obviously bought that before we ever had a child. :) Our family room is an odd shape, so it didn't fit really well in there, either. A few weeks ago we ended up getting a relatively inexpensive leather sofa for the family room and moved the sectional into the less-used room. Now the leather one can get jumped on and spilled on as much as Jackson wants. Okay, not really, but I will be much less worried about it getting ruined.

This isn't a project, but here's another cute picture of Jackson almost making it back into bed after deciding that he wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. I put him to bed that night and heard him playing with his remote-control (or "mokentrol" as some of my third-graders used to write) airplane a few minutes later. I checked on him about 30 minutes after that and found this. When I picked him up to put him in bed he was totally limp and didn't even wake up. :)

Happy Days... But Still Missing Daddy

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We've been really busy with Phil gone and Aunt Becky visiting. It's sooooo great to have another pair of hands in the house, and we've been tackling some great projects together. Beck is my best friend and I love spending time with her. She's such a huge help to me, too. I'm so glad she's here!

Here are some recent pictures of the boys. Becky bought several matching outfits for them, so look for more matchy-matchy pictures to come. I love them!

Here's Emmett at 6 weeks old (I stole this idea from a few other bloggers and I hope I can keep up with it)...

Jackson's new favorite thing: setting up his stool...

... and turning the hallway light on and off.

Here's Emmett chillin' out before church on Sunday... his hair goes into the most perfect little "faux-hawk" in the middle of his head. Church was great, by the way! Emmett slept in the nursery for almost the entire service and Jackson had fun playing in the toddler room.

My sweet, handsome big boy... love him so much!

Here's my sweet, handsome little boy who is growing up too fast! He's already too big for 0-3 month clothes, which is way weird for me since J could almost still wear 0-3 when he was 6 months old.

Matching outfits! So cute! :)

Sweet kisses...

Here's a nice sequence of when Becky and I were trying to get Jackson to hold his brother for a picture. You can see how well that worked! Watch as Emmett slides further and further down the side of the chair. Poor baby didn't fuss at all. What a trooper!


It's amazing to me (and a little scary, too!) how much Jackson understands now and how much he observes and picks things up from me. A few examples:

1. He's had a runny nose lately and I've occasionally been sucking out some yucky bogeys from his nose with the bulb syringe, which he pretty much hates. On a side note, I've been asking him to help a few times by throwing things away in the garbage for me, which he pretty much loves. I was looking all over the house for the bulb syringe the other day so that I could attack Emmett's nose with it and could not find it for the life of me. Something told me to check the trash can, and there, under some coffee grounds and a paper plate, was the bulb syringe. Little stinker had thrown the dreaded thing in the garbage!

2. Those who know me well know that Heidi (our basset hound) is always on my sh*t list lately (and usually for good reason). She came in the house the other night and I was yelling at her asking her nicely to go lay down in her bed. Jackson, the great little helper that he is, promptly ran over to her and gave her a smack on the back. I don't know where he learned that spanking the dog gets her to do what you want. Great parenting, Heather.

Stay tuned for pictures of Heather and Becky's first completed project! :)