4th of July Recap

We initially had planned to spend 4th of July at my parents with our good friends but Alison & Mark had their baby the day before (yay!!) and Nicole wasn't feeling well so we decided to re-schedule that party for another day later in the summer.  We did still go to my parents though and had such a relaxing day.

We spent most of the afternoon in the pool, ate a delicious meal for dinner and even had a mini firework show in the evening :)

Charlie at Seven Months

Charles Davis... you are seven months old!

This smile says it all.  You are happy, happy, happy and we are loving life with you.  You seriously have the best smile and are constantly getting compliments from strangers when you flash them your gummy grin.  

You weigh about 17 1/2 pounds and are wearing size 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes.  You are still taking 5-6 bottles a day with 6 ounces of formula and are eating food in the morning and at night. You are eating pureed food and so far you do not seem to be too picky.  I have tried a few puffs and yogurt melts but you do not seem too interested in that yet.

You continue to love the water and are very content hanging out in your float.  This is great since your brother requires so much attention around the pool now!

We had several firsts this month including one that I hope doesn't repeat.  You came down with Hand-Foot-Mouth disease and it was awful!  Your poor face was covered in red spots and your hands and feet had terrible blisters.  You can't see it in the picture but your chin was the worst. Your chin periodically breaks out and is red from drooling anyways and when you add that to HFM, your chin was so inflamed.  Your pediatrician deemed this to be "As bad as it gets for Hand-Foot-Mouth" and it was a good 10 days before your skin cleared up.  You were out of daycare for a couple of days since this is highly contagious and thankfully no one else in the family picked this up.  We were supposed to get you baptized during the middle of this but moved the date back to August. For as bad as your skin looked and the blisters that you had, you were still smiling and in good spirits for the most part.

We love watching the relationship between you and your brother and while it excites me, it also makes me nervous for the years to come.  Your brother is always being silly around you and you just love to laugh and smile at him.  Of course this only encourages his silly behavior and while right now I have a hard time holding back my giggles as well, I know I may not feel this way in years to come when you're both acting up.

You are sitting up like a pro which makes life so much easier!  You love to be on your mat playing with your toys and you're happy as long as I'm in your eyesight.  You are such a mamma's boy and I have to say that I love it.  There are times that I wish you would be content with someone else holding you but there is nothing better when your eyes follow my every move and the smile that comes across your face when you realize I am coming to pick you up.

So one topic I cannot ignore is sleep.  You are so different than your brother here and I'm continually reminding myself that one day we will all sleep and that this is just a phase.  I truly thought we were over the sleep hurdle when we had a solid 6 nights where you slept through the night.  You were out of a swaddle (finally!) and sleeping in a sleep sack and were doing great. Then the dreaded HFM disease hit and you were back to waking up at night.  Of course I had to rock you since I knew you were uncomfortable and I fed you since you were not eating much during the day.  This of course created a new habit and we are back to square one with you waking up again at night and then up for the day between 5-6 am.  On a positive note, you are napping in your crib! We are working on a routine but I can usually get you to nap once or twice a day for at least 30 minutes or more.  You still take quite a few short naps in the car but it seems to be working for now.

Another first is transitioning you to the duck float in the bath.  You love to sit in here and splash around and play with toys.  Usually the bath toys end up in your mouth but that seems to be the case with all your toys at the moment.  You do not have any teeth yet but I would guess we are close with the amount of drooling that is going on.

We also have started to put you in the front of the cart when shopping and you love it!  It's a whole new world when you can look around and makes shopping much more fun.

You have not started crawling yet but are so close.  You can definitely get around by scooting when you are sitting up so I imagine it's only a matter of time until you start crawling.  You seem to be much more active than your brother at this age which is a little terrifying since he can be pretty crazy but I imagine that you are simply trying to keep up with him.  You are always trying to grab his cars and trucks instead of your baby toys in front of you which only frustrates him since he's having to learn a new lesson of sharing at home.

Charlie boy, you are such a sweet boy and we are absolutely loving you and your personality that is coming out.  Looking forward to the months to come!

Alison's Baby Shower

A few weeks ago Nicole and I hosted a baby shower for our good friend, Alison, who is expecting her first baby this July.  We are so excited for Alison and Mark and had a blast putting this shower together.  Alison and Mark are not finding out the gender (which I love but could never do!!) so we decided to go with a mint and gold color scheme for all the party decor.

My mom generously offered to let us host the shower at her house and we took her up on that!  I also have to give her a lot of credit for the cute party decor.  She found the perfect coordinating papers at Paper Source and made the fabulous banners and fans :)

We found the invitations at Etsy which really set the tone for the shower.  The invitation was very classy and we loved the colors.  Seemed to be the perfect invite for the classy mom-to-be!

We decided to keep things easy and ordered most of the food from Hubell & Hudson.  This was seriously the best idea since the food was delicious and we didn't have to worry about any food prep.  We both had to work the day before the shower and knew it would be difficult trying to get it all together, especially since we both have little ones at home!

For dessert we ordered macaroons from Macarons by Patisse and they were absolutely delicious! They have so many good flavors and we kept with the color scheme when making our selection and they did not disappoint.  We also offered guests to take the leftover macaroons home with them as a favor.

Nicole and I - Had so much fun hosting with this crazy lady.  Enjoyed the planning, the showering, and then the after partying which included way too much prosecco ;) 

My mom and I :) 

And finally with Alison - the beautiful mom-to-be!  It was such a fun day and we loved being able to spoil her for a few hours.  We can't wait to find out if we'll be loving on a he or a she but either way, we're beyond excited and can't wait for her to join the Mommy club!

Henry at 2 1/2

Henry Ryan... you are two and a half years old!

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that my baby boy is two and a half.  I know I've said this time and time again but seriously, this is the best age. You are so much fun and have the goofiest personality.  You can be shy around people you don't know but around us and family, you are hilarious :)

At two and a half, you are all boy.  You're all about cars, trucks, playing in the dirt and being sweaty.  I can't even imagine what you will be like as a teenager.  You also want to be just like your daddy.  Whenever he is mowing the grass you have to get your lawn mower out. Whenever he is blowing the dirt, you have to get your blower out.  And when he is finished doing the yard, you have to place your lawn mower and blower right next to his.  While I wish you were more of a mamma's boy, it's pretty cute watching you follow in your Daddy's shadow.

At two and a half, you have no fear when it comes to the pool.  It's completely different than last summer and you are ready to swim.  You are kicking and even jumping off the side by yourself. As a mom, this is terrifying yet so exciting all at the same time.

At two and a half, you like to eat.  A lot.  I'm pretty sure mac n'cheese is your favorite and you would eat this every night if we let you.  You're also obsessed with donut holes.  You stayed with your grandparents recently and you ate 12 donut holes... It doesn't surprise me but don't expect to get that much when you're with us!

At two and a half, you are very chatty!  It is so fun to have conversations with you and I am surprised daily with the words and phrases you have picked up and are saying.  I can't say that I understand everything you say but it is close.  Most of your conversations revolve around cars (whether they are fast, red, a police car...) trucks (firetrucks, dump trucks, trucks with big tires...) and playing in the mulch.  You also love to watch the movie Cars and Airplanes and your favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sheriff Callie.  You're always repeating phrases and know all the characters.

At two and a half, you are so full of life.  You have so much energy and are truly such a happy boy. Your smile is contagious as is your belly laugh.  You still do your "happy dance" whenever you are excited and it is awesome. You give the best hugs and sweet kisses.  You also love your little brother which makes me so happy.  I can't wait to see your friendship grow over the years.

Love you H Man!!

Charlie at Six Months...

Charles Davis.... you are six months old! 

This has definitely been the best month yet!  You have changed so much and we are really seeing your personality.  You are such a sweet baby and seriously have the best smile.  You weigh 16 1/2 pounds and are wearing 6-9 month clothes.  You are in size 2 diapers but as soon as we finish this box we will move you up to size 3.

We tried food again and you can't get enough of it!  I started off giving you food just at night but we've giving you food in the morning now too.  You have had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, apple sauce, bananas and pear.  You are taking 5-6 bottles a day with 5 ounces. You always drink your bottles but you definitely seem to be taking more of an interest in food lately.

And again, I just can't get enough of that sweet smile :)

I recently looked at baby pictures of your Dad and I think you two really look alike as babies. You seem to have the same body type as your dad and as I've mentioned before, you're very strong and muscular!

You love to be on your tummy and will play on our mat with toys for a long time.  You're also very interested in all the Disney shows that your big brother likes to watch :)

Our biggest challenge with you is sleeping through the night.  I have started leaving one arm out of your swaddle and that seems to be going pretty well.  You still wake up sometime between 1-3 am and one of us ends up going and putting your pacifier back in your mouth.  I have tried letting you cry it out but can't let you go more than just a few minutes.  You then usually wake up between 4-5 am and at that point you're ready for a bottle.  Once we give you a bottle though you go back to sleep for a few hours.  This works out fine on the weekends when we can sleep in but the mornings are a little rough during the week.

Naps are also not consistent.  Some days you will take several naps and some days you barely nap at all.  Most of your naps on the weekend are in your car seat and while I know we need to work on this and get you used to sleeping in your crib, it's hard because the weekend is normally when we're on the go.

You went swimming for the first time this past month and I think it was a little too cold.  You weren't very excited about getting your feet wet but I'm hoping you'll get used to the pool as the water warms up this summer :)

I think my favorite milestone this past month is that you are sitting up!  You still lose your balance every now and then so we need to make sure you're on a padded surface but I love that I can set you on the floor with a few toys are you are content.  You constantly have something in your mouth so we have to make sure you are surrounded with toys with usually isn't a problem with your big brother....

Speaking of big brother, you love Henry and he loves you!  He is always bringing you toys and constantly wants you to hold his "Leo".  You give him the biggest grins and don't even seem to mind the fact that he always wants to hold you or lay on top of you.

Brotherly love...

I know I mentioned that you liked to eat but I don't think I mentioned what a messy eater you are!! I don't remember Henry making such a big mess at this age which is a little worrisome but you are definitely pretty cute. Who cares if you have carrots all over your face, chair, wall....?!?

We celebrated Mother's Day this past month and I couldn't be more blessed to be the mother of you two boys.  Life is a little crazy and chaotic right now but I love it and wouldn't change a thing. I'm also so excited about the relationship you're going to have with your brother as you two get older.

One of your favorite things to do is play airplane.  You love when we lift you in the air and you give the best giggles :)

And lastly, I have to include an action shot.  You are ALL about the toys lately and your dad likes to call you bam bam because you're always banging your fists or toys against your body.  It's pretty cute but also can be a little dangerous if you get in your line of fire...

Charlie boy, we are so in love with you and you are such a perfect fit to our family.  Looking forward to this next month!