Baby J

Baby J has arrived!!

He's so wonderful.  He has a full head of dark hair and is just a little bundle of awesome.

I am already so in love with this little boy that I can hardly stand myself.  Adjusting to life with two little boys has not been nearly as difficult as I originally thought it would be, it's actually been a ton of fun!  L absolutely loves his brother and wants to hold him on his lap every chance he gets.  He will wipe baby J during diaper changes and loves to wipe his umbilical cord with an alcohol pad.  He's so gentle and sweet with him!  He brought him a present to the hospital and was sure to give it straight to him!

I quickly discovered that there is no better feeling on earth than holding both of my babies at the same time.  They are both so incredibly sweet and amazing!

I love watching them together.  :)

We were somewhat able to snap a family picture.  haha Our nephew hopped in with us.

It's just the sweetest thing to see my boys together.  L is the greatest big brother on earth!

Working Man

So L loves to work.  I think if we did chores all day he'd be the happiest little boy alive.  Today he helped me clean the mirror in his playroom and kept wanting me to spray more on it so he could wipe it.  He dusts all the time and helps with dishes both in the sink and the dishwasher.  It's so cute when we unload the dishwasher he runs to get his small stool and brings it back to the kitchen so he can reach the glasses in the top drawer to hand to me to put away.  He's great about loading it up too.  He mostly loads plates and silverware.  He's been helping us cook for quite some time by handing us items on the counter or helping us mix or cut things on the counter but tonight I got brave enough to put his Learning Tower in front of the stove and let him help me stir.  He did excellent!  He kept his hands where I showed him to put them and stirred for a while.  One of his favorite things to do though is to help his dad cook eggs.  Even if he's not hungry he'll run to the fridge and ask my husband to cook eggs :).  He will gently hand over eggs from the carton, watch my husband crack them and then help stir them into scrambled eggs.

He's getting really good about doing dishes, he wipes them with the soapy water and rinses them.  Of course there's a lot of scooping and pouring that goes on too, what toddler wouldn't love some serious scooping and pouring action?

He's also really into bubbles lately.  He has a book about bubbles and he runs around saying "Babul" all the time.  So we bought him a big thing of bubbles and he really really loved them.  He loved watching his dad blow bubbles for the longest time, and he liked watching them pop too!

After a while though he wanted to dip the stick in the bubble solution.  He had trouble blowing on it though so he mostly ended up licking the stick lol.  Then he figured out to bring it to my husband or I to blow for him.

The White Coat

On Thursday we went to my husband's white coat ceremony.  I am so incredibly proud of him for the work he has done to get here!  I think I was more nervous than he was before the ceremony began haha.

I could tell he was so excited though to walk across the stage and get his white coat.  When he came out on the stage he had the biggest grin on his face, it was so cute!  I love this man.

He also got a stethoscope, which I have already tried to use to find the baby's heartbeat :P.

It was so cool to hear the class of 2016 take the oath of commitment.  Afterward there was a little reception and we snapped a few family pictures.  What a great day!

A Date With Mom

So my husband started school this week, and since I'm due any day now I decided to take a special day for L and I to go on a date together.  We went to a Mexican restaurant to eat and in typical male fashion, L watched the TV most of the date and wasn't much for conversation.  :)  He loved the nachos and salsa though.  I was pretty impressed with his ability to not make a mess of them haha.  I put him out a little bowl with chips that I had crushed into smaller pieces, bite size for him and he also had a salsa bowl.  He was very careful to dip the tip of his chip in the salsa and not get any on his fingers; it was quite adorable.

After we finished up with lunch we went to the library to return our books and get a new set.  This was a real treat for L since he loves the library so much.  He can hardly contain himself when he goes there.  This time he played on the kids' computer for a little while.  He would put his hands on the keyboard like he was typing and move the mouse around a little bit, it was so cute.  It was a touch screen computer so occasionally he would touch the screen and interact with the little game on it.  He could have played on that thing all day!

Book Madness

So L has been REALLY enjoying his library books today.  I didn't realize just how bored he had become with the books we own until we brought new ones into the house.  After breakfast this morning, I asked him if he wanted to read the books we had brought home from the library yesterday and he did his excited dance.  I showed him the new basket I got for the books and we began reading.

After I read him quite a few books, he wanted his daddy to read to him.

At bedtime tonight we read them all again for about an hour.  He's loving all these new books!!

The Library

So this morning got off to a rough start.  I was quite miserably pregnant and not in the best mood and I'm pretty sure I rubbed off on L because he very quickly became cranky.  We played outside for a while but nothing was really satisfying him so I decided to break out the water beads.  It's been months since he's played with water beads so it worked out perfectly.  He had a great time swishing them around, trying to pick them up, and putting them into different containers.

Of course, he eventually ended up in the bin of water beads...it's way more fun when you use your whole body!

I can see such an improvement in his fine motor skills lately.  He's really into stickers and markers/crayons so I think that's what's doing it.  He would challenge himself to pick up one water bead at a time and put it in a container.  Such a hard worker!

After nap we painted on the easel outside, and of course he painted himself :).  He ended up mostly blue and was very content to be so.  Then we went to the library, and we were in for a treat.  L was so excited to be there that he couldn't contain himself.  I took him to the children's corner and there were puzzles, bead mazes, toy animals, and tons of books!  He couldn't contain his excitement at all and ended up very out of breath.  We picked out 16 different books together and brought them home.  I read to him for at least an hour straight before we took a break, and then we read some of them again at bedtime!  There were several books about babies that were among his favorites and a big book where you pull back the flaps and see what's inside.  He's really into counting, in the flap book it has a number section where you count the items under the flap and he would watch very intently as I counted the items.  He wanted to read that section multiple times.  He also picked out an I Spy book while we were at the library.  I originally thought that it was above his level but since he picked it out we brought it home.  I was so wrong and so thoroughly impressed!  He could find almost all of the items that he was supposed to!  He LOVES that book too, he even took it to bed with him tonight haha.  I love this kid, he's so amazing!

We have decided that the library will be a regular trip for us!

Winding Down

Well, for us the summer is winding down.  My husband starts medical school next week and I'm really not looking forward to him being gone all day again.  L and I are so used to him being here all summer and I'm not sure how things are going to go over when he's gone.  We're still trying to enjoy our last week while we can though and in no time baby J will be here!  We recently decided to get rid of all our TV's and we actually haven't missed it one bit.  There are specific times though that remind me exactly why we decided to get rid of it in the first place, and one happened just the other day.  We had a rainstorm and my 20 month old was perfectly content to stand on his stool in front of the window and watch it.  It doesn't sound like much, but it was a very heartwarming experience.  We were able to talk about rain and weather, discussions that usually don't come up when the TV is on.

Also, L has suddenly shown an interest in his sunglasses and it's freaking awesome.  I snapped a couple shots of him today with them on.  He's such a great kid!

He's also learned to steer his power wheels four wheeler, which is an excellent milestone!  We no longer have to run after him and keep him from running into cars and things haha.  He'll ride it right out of the driveway, take a left and head down the road.  It's pretty adorable to watch him ride it!

He loves all of his road toys, cars he rides in, the train he pushes, the lawnmower, and his power wheels.  Our morning ritual always consists of playing with these things for quite some time.  Of course, we're getting plenty of sandbox play as well.