This moment

G,
There are so many little things that I want to remember about you at this moment. At two you are so funny and continuously silly.
You make us laugh constantly.
You love to hide and to be chased.
You can turn anything into a phone or hat. Most of the time you are calling Nonnie.
You repeat things you hear in the exact context you heard them, making you sound so old and enlightened. Just today you asked me to "Hold On" like I am sure you hear everyday. Luckily, it was in a sweet and patient tone.
You love cooking with me, sitting on the counter and tasting everything as it goes in, yes everything, even things like peppers and raw flour. You add commentary like "Mix, Mix, Mix" and have the sweetest accent when you say cookin.
You have started to really play pretend with your toys. I love how the characters are often sweet to each other. I even caught you having the big bad wolf and a little pig kiss the other day. Such a tender heart you have G. There is always a daddy in your cast of characters. You even had me make a daddy snake out of play dough today. Yes, you LOVE your daddy.
I love how you say thank you. So many mornings I hand you your milk and you say "Thank you so much mommy". It warms my heart I pray that you are always truly grateful.
You still love your bed and naps.
You say prayers.
You adore Mickey Mouse and Elmo.
You love trucks. We have even hit the truck trifecta and seen the garbage truck, recycle truck and mail man in one day!
You break out in song randomly when in the tub, car or just while playing. Today you even made up your own song "Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Boy" of course, to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
You love people and bring up names of people you love randomly everyday.
You can really wing the ball and love playing catch with your dad. Swinging the golf club is a close second to baseball. You have several toys that you turn into golf clubs when we are playing inside.
You are incredibly smart. You talk in almost all broken sentence, can count to 14 and can count backwards from 10. You know all of your basic colors and shapes. You can sing the alphabet and can identify all uppercase letters. You often call out letters you see on the sides of buildings like IKEA. You can do puzzles SO well. You know more animals than I can count. You can "read" a dozen books because we have read them so many times you have them memorized. You know how old you are and what state we live in.
You light up a room. I know that sounds corny, but I have witnessed it so many times. You sweet smile and cheerfulness really make people happy.
Your mommy adores your soul. Completely. 100%.

N is 3M

So I am not going to consult the calendar to figure out exactly how late this post is, but Nolan is 3 Months old! He actually might be closer to 4 now, but again I am not getting the calendar out.



3 month olds are fabulous! Or at least this one is. He has the sweetest personality and has let us in on his laugh. Hearing that first laugh is such a big moment. Is there any sweeter sound than your baby laughing? Only thing I can think of is your babies laughing. And like I said before, this little family works to hear that laugh every day. Even G loves to make his brother laugh and smile.



Nolan is trying hard to roll over but just gets stuck on those broad shoulders. It won't be long though.

We don't have any official stats since we don't have a 3 month well check but my guess is he's staying right on that big baby curve. His 6 month clothes are getting seiously tight so it's mostly 9 month and even some 12 months clothes for this big guy. Which works out perfectly for the hand-me-down situation since it was summer again when G fit into 12 month clothes.

He still sleeps great and has regulate to a schedule that includes a nap between each feeding during the day and sleeping from 8 pm to 8 am most days. He is still holding tight to his 4 am feeding. I love the sweet snuggly time with him, so I haven't really worked to break him of it.




Something sweet I don't want to forget is how he always falls asleep and nurses holding on to something. Usually it is my shirt, but he will accept a lock of hair, burp cloth, blanket or anything that he can get that fist around. He has also found his thumb/hand/fist. He would prefer that over the pacifer most of the time. Although I have heard the thumb is a harder habit to break, watching him find and suck his thumb is the sweetest.

Bright Spots

I have so much to catch up on here on the ole blog, but I am not finding the time or the energy at the end of the day to come up with the words. Although, I collapse in bed drained of energy I go to sleep with these imprints. These thoughts of the day. These amazing bright spots. This love so incredibly intense it is impossible to describe.

These spots are my boys.

It's when we all cuddle up on the couch with a single goal to make the baby laugh. His laugh is so new and infectious to the rest of us. We are addicted and will go to lengths to hear it again and again.

It's morning cartoons.



It's being reminded of how much fun laundry can be.



It's a spontaneous run through the sprinklers.

It's a rare afternoon nap nose to nose with this face.



It's wanting to be just like Daddy.



It's a chalking up the porch after a lazy weekend breakfast.





It's G's request for a Daddy, Mommy, Baby and Brother snake out of Play-Dough.



It's Matt's funny text messages trying to fill the void I feel when I am away.



It's deciding we love Daddy's cooking "This Much!".



No matter what trouble the day held this is what remains. Tonight I am beyond thankful for these bright spots. For this love. For these boys.

Celebrating Two

He's 2!

See we have our 2's up!



How did he wake up looking older? Seriously? Look at that picture. Don't you feel like it's a glimpse of him at 3 or maybe 5. That's it, we are going to start swaddling him again and giving him bottles. I feel better already, like time is slowing down. On to the rest of the day...

The day couldn't have been more perfect! G woke up to balloons (like last year), a star shaped doughnut, very special cookies and cream milk straw and new coloring books. We had been talking about his birthday, celebrating several other birthdays and reading birthday books for at least a week, so he was excited that it was finally here. It is so neat to see him actually somewhat understanding celebrations.

After breakfast we head out to the backyard so G could see what Mommy and Daddy had been working on for weeks. His new play area; including a sand table, water table and pots of dirt for digging and burying! He loved it and did not want to go back inside.



That morning several friends came over to play in the backyard and enjoy popsicles. It was small, simple and just perfect for our little 2 year old.



That afternoon we rested up for our big date. Nonnie and Papa came over to watch Nolan while G enjoyed some special time alone with Mommy and Daddy.



We went to a hibachi grill so you could enjoy some of your favorite foods like edamame, rice, and grilled veggies. You can eat edamame faster than we can shell it for you, so you are already working on how to get the peas out yourself.



You also love the hibachi restaurant because you get to eat with "sticks". At dinner, they sang you happy birthday and brought out a special birthday ice cream. You loved it and after learning how to lick the good stuff off the bottom of the candle proceeded to eat the rest of your dessert by way of candle.



After dinner we head to Toys R Us for you to pick out a special toy. You wanted the Little People Rocket Ship and Astronaut and have been playing "blast off" ever since. Since it was your birthday they gave you a special crown and balloon too.

It was an incredibly special day, intended to be filled with all the simple things you love at 2 years old.

When I stop to think about how much you have grown and changed in this last year it is overwhelming. You are my little buddy and we chat all day long. I adore your tender spirit and wish that I could freeze time. I wish that I could memorize exactly who you are today because you are growing and changing all to fast.

Happy Birthday G! I can't wait to see what 2 has in store for us. You are adored little man!



**In case your interested, our favorite birthday books were The Birthday Box and The Birthday Fish. We checked them out from our favorite library!

Smiles

I am so thankful for all the reason I have to smile today.

Especially this one.

**Warning - This could very well be one of those videos that only a mother loves. I am risking your boredom and posting on.**



I just adore how he gets so excited and smiles that big open mouth smile. Or how when you talk to him he will smile and turn away, like he is flirting or being bashful.

G and I could just sit and talk to him forever. We say "a-goo" and then get really excited when he says it back to us.

We try to come up with songs and funny things we can do to make him smile, like playing This Little Piggy on those sweet toes.

I absolutely adore spending time with both of them and seeing how their interaction has increased and changed in 11 fast weeks. Nolan loves his big brother and it is evident by that sweet grin that crosses his face when he sees him. G loves his little brother too. As soon as he wakes up in the morning or after nap, he has to locate Nolan. Every time I am loading or unloading the car he always wants to know Nolan's where abouts. He keeps close tabs on the little guy.

These brothers give me countless reasons to smile. And seeing them smile at each other is one of the biggest ones.

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a super hero.
- Marc Brown

We've Been...

Well folks, we have just been to busy to blog about it.

In the last few weeks...

We visit a farm. G got to hold a chicken, plow the field, water vegetables and ride on a tractor. It was a blast!





G took swim lessons.
He LOVED them. He learned a few new skills like monkey crawling along the walls and jumping in to add to his bubble blowing, kicks and scoops.



We have laughed with friends.
I just adore watching G develop friendships. He loves Jamison! He will often tell me "Mommy, JJ funny!". They sure so share a lot of laughs.




We have celebrate.
We had a crazy busy 4th of July weekend that was highlighted by G's first parade. He loved the fire trucks, horses and waving his American flag.



Nolan enjoyed the parade too.



It's hard for me to believe this was our little patriot last year.



We have discovered a new love. After a visit to the fire station, G has not stopped talking about firemen and fire trucks.




We've got some new shades.




We've been singing and dancing too. G loves to sing. And sing. And sing. The same songs over and over.
After the 5th or 20th rendition I usually suggest a different song and then we sing that one over and ove again. My favorites are the ones with hand motions and how could you not love his Justin Beiber.



We've experienced Play-Dough. It sure does smell funny.



We've read some books. G joined the library's summer reading program and after having 24 books read to him he got a bucket of loot! He was really excited, especially about "dinosaur bird" tattoo. We finished 24 books in one week and that's not counting the massive number of times we read his favorites on repeat.



We started a family band.



We've been cooking and making lots of cookies. This recipe has us hooked.



We visit the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. G got to see dinosaurs, play in a pretend doctor's office and grocery store and even watch a movie in the planetarium.



Sweet Nolan has been along for the ride. Joining us on all our adventures and blessing us with sweet smiles and coos along the way!

Two, 2, Too

Well our little Smush is two months old! He is still a total Jackpot baby and as you have read here before we just adore every little thing about him.



Some of the fun things he has been doing this month are giving us easy smiles. Just talking to him brings on sweet coos and grins. My favorite is when he smiles at G. The first time I thought my heart was going to stop right then and there. But thankfully it kept ticking and I have now witnessed it dozens of times.

He is still a big, big boy! Weighing in at 13 pounds 13 ounces and already 24 1/4 inches long. That is in between the 90th and 100th percentile in both areas. The only down side is that he is so much bigger than G was so the hand-me-down situation isn't working very well. The seasons just aren't right. I just can't bring myself to put him in fleece PJ's or long sleeves and pants. He is already fitting comfortably in 9 month onesies!



We get our tummy time in when we can. Usually G and I are cheering him on with fun chants like "GO, Nolan, Go" or G's favorite "Nolan Strong".



Hi Buddy, yes I see you have your momma's chin. It looks cute on you!



He has also gotten his pout worked out. I caught the very beginning of it in this shot. So sweet and pitiful!

Nolan is 2 months and in just 2 weeks my little G will be 2 years old. It all happens too fast! Time please slow down. I want to drink in every moment with these two. They bring me joy that is beyond what I could have ever expected. These two are just too much!