Brody is two!!!

Notice Brody still holding his balloons in this photo:
Austin and Grandma having a conversation:

Noah and Brody:


Aunt Lisa with Austin - ready to give someone a left hook if they wake him up:

Pizza (Noah, Brody and Jacob in the light):

My little guy is now a full fledged two year old! His well child appointment is next week, so I'll fill you in on his height and weight then. As far as his personality at two.... it can be summed up in one word: DRAMA!!! When he is mad, he IS MAD! But when he is loving, ohhhh can he give a sweet little smile and hug. And, he can go back and forth between emotions in an instant. His favorite saying used to be "SURE" (Shuure), but lately it's been a tie between "Okay" (Ohhhh-kay) and "Momma, Ma, Mom, Momma, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Momma...". We start the morning at about 5:30 with the nonstop Momma's when I go get him and he snoozes with me/watches tv in bed until Jacob wakes up and we end the day with the same nonstop Momma's in the evening when he is supposed to be going to bed. It would drive me absolutely crazy to hear him calling me 500 million, billion times a day if it weren't so hilarious. Life is funny. Not too long ago I couldn't wait for a baby to just call me "momma" once. Now, I hear it so often that some days it makes me lose my mind!! The other funny thing about the non-stop Momma's is that Aaron will often mock Brody and start saying "mom, momma, mom..." too and Brody.gets.ticked! Brody makes little fists and shakes his arms and angrily says "NO DADDA!".

What else about my spirited little prince? He loves all things CARS. The only thing he loves more than Lightning McQueen is Austin. Of course he loves Jacob too but he really loves being a big brother so far. He still likes to make huge messes. He likes to remove puzzle pieces and never attempts to put the pieces back. He prefers them scattered on the floor. Brody is a great communicator. He has a great vocabulary and if for some reason you don't understand what he is trying to tell you he is pretty good about showing you.

Brody also likes to remove his pajama's and pee on the floor if he disagrees with my foolish idea that it is bedtime. Thankfully he doesn't know how to remove his one piece jammies (yet), so one point for me :)

Above are some pics from a family party we had...

What Brody does when he is not ready for bed...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Check out those chubby cheeks!

Austin says "Go State!" with a *Fist pump*

Big smiles!!





What a strange mild winter it has been! Sunday we checked out of Crystal Mountain and on Monday they officially opened 9 holes on one of their golf courses! By Wednesday, 18 holes were opened and 83% of the slopes were still opened! Gotta love Michigan... there aren't many places were you can ski and play golf in the exact.same.place.

Friday was my first official day helping out at Jacob's preschool. 18 three year olds + 4 adults = a lot of work! It was a good day though and I'm so glad we made the switch, I <3 style="font-style: italic;">"I'll remain hungry and wait for my mom, thankyouverymuch". Brody was pretty ticked off to wake up and find me gone though. The only thing that calmed him down was Lightning McQueen - thank goodness for DVR! My next day to help out is at the end of April :)

Let's see, what else... the big boys and I went to the salon yesterday for hair cuts (everyone) and highlights (me). I brought the dvd player and Brody did pretty darn well! Jacob always does great :) After the boys were complete, Aaron took them to the park while my hairdresser worked on my hair. The salon is located pretty close to downtown so we got to see a drunken lovers quarrel in front of the salon. Ahhh, gotta love St. Patty's day.

The bunk beds have still not shipped... getting a little impatient with that! But I do have all their bedding purchased - just some simple blue stripes from Target. We should hear Jacob's preschool assignment (days and times) for next year sometime this week. Since we are currently members, we have first priority - thank goodness for no waiting lists! And we are hoping to get Austin baptized next month. Guess that is about all for now!

Weekend at Crystal

The dangerous fireplace was a big hit with the boys...

Last weekend we went on our annual trip to Crystal Mountain with Kim & Peggy and Debby, Bob, Robert, Scott and his friend Rich. The weather was pretty crazy! It had rained pretty hard on Wednesday and Thursday nights, so the snow conditions were not great but the slopes remained 100% open. The conditions were just fine for the teenage boys though who snowboarded alllll daaaay on Saturday. It was fun to catch up and visit with everyone again and to watch the little guys play. Brody was on his best behavior and only hit Robert with a large, hard puzzle board once (gently, thankfully)! And no biting! He did try to hug Robert a few times too many and I think Robert may have been more offended by that than the puzzle-board incident! Although Brody and Robert are only 6 months apart, it was Jacob and Robert who were the best buddies. They loved playing together and it was so.darn.cute. I didn't end up taking many pictures, but you can see more at Debby's blog.

We miss our friends already and can't wait to do it again next year!

My Aunt, Uncle and many, many cousins also happened to be staying at Crystal the same weekend! After we said our goodbyes to our friends, we headed over to visit with the Dolphin (their last name is Dolphin) crew. It was pretty chaotic (they had 20 people in a 5 bedroom unit!), but great to see everyone! I think even our boys were a little overwhelmed because Austin was a bit fussy there and Jacob and Brody only wanted to play outside on the deck! The deck didn't have any toys, but Jacob thought of a game all on his own: Let's race! While most people would think that meant "start here and run to there as fast as you can", Jacob's version of it meant "start here, pit stop there for new tires, try not to wreck and finish there". I think someone has been hanging around a NASCAR driver too much... :)

Planning another Florida trip...

As you may recall, mom and I (and Debby and Robert for a few days) headed to Florida with the boys last April while Aaron was fish planting all week in the Upper Peninsula. We had such a good time we are planning on doing it again! Except that this time we will be driving down and I don't *think* Debby will be joining us, although I'm sure I could persuade her if I promised her unlimited quantities of her current pregnancy craving. The key is finding out her craving at that moment. Anyways... this year Disney has a promotion going called "Give a Day, Get a Day". If you read my blog links, you may have noticed that Amy participated in the program earlier this year (check her January 24th archives). Sooo, I perused the numerous volunteer opportunities and discovered one through Safe Kids North:

Safe Kids North Shore is the local Coalition of the Safe Kids Worldwide Organization. We are a non-profit group comprised of volunteers from local agencies and businesses. Unintentional injury is the number one killer of children ages 14 and under! Our goal is to reduce the occurrence of unintentional injury. We focus on child passenger safety, helmet safety, water safety, distracted driving, winter/summer safety and more!

The task was to make a blanket for a baby in the NICU and make a scrapbook page to go along with your blanket for the families with a child in the NICU to look through. I jumped at the opportunity and ran to the store with my mom to pick up my materials. While you could choose to make a "no sew" blanket by simply cutting around the four sides of the blanket, I chose to use embroidery floss to make a blanket stitch around the sides. Not to brag, but I was a pretty good cross-stitcher when I was 8, surely I would excel at a simple blanket stitch. I looked up instructions on how to make the stitch on the internet and felt pretty confident. Fast-forward to later that night... I spent two full hours working on my blanket and got a 4" section of it complete. My childhood skills had failed me. At the rate I was going our Disney trip would have come and gone before I received my free ticket. I was about the throw in the towel and grab the scissors when Aaron said "give me that thing" and began sewing with the speed and precision of a professional! As it turns out, the "blanket stitch" is very similar to the stitching they use to repair fish nets - lucky me! So for the next two nights after the kids went down we sat down on the couch and Aaron finished my blanket for me. There was a lot of mumbling from him that he couldn't believe he was working on something so that I could go to Florida, but nonetheless he still helped me out.

As for the scrapbook page, I wish I could take all the credit for that too! I belong to an online message board and one of the ladies on there happens to be an excellent writer who is very creative. She has graciously offered in the past to write for anyone on the board, so I consulted her with my project and here is the poem she came up with:

Sleep well, tiny angel, snuggle down, nestle in

Wrap up in your blanket, from toes to your chin

Love is around you, you’re safe and you’re warm

Cuddle up, tiny baby, sweet dreams, ‘til morn.

So a special thanks to Sarah Aarssen, who lives in the Netherlands (!) no less, for providing me with the perfect poem to put on the page :)

We participated in the "Give a day, Get a day" program in the nick of time. Last week when I went to check out what other opportunities were available (to get a ticket for Aaron, in case his trip was canceled) I discovered the program has ended as it has reached its goal of 1 million volunteers in just two and a half months! If you are interested though, you can still sign up for volunteer opportunities like this through handsonnetwork.org.

A little more about Austin at 2 months...

Likes:
Making a liar out of me (ie- smiling, immediately after I tell someone he doesn't smile yet)
Making super sad faces
Giving huge smiles
Eating
Sleeping
Hanging out in the moby wrap
Bath time
Car rides (usually)
His Brothers
Drooling
Looking at the toys that hang over the diaper changing area
Back pats
Bouncing on knees

Dislikes:
Predictable sleeping schedules
Bjorn baby carrier (Aaron is determined to change his mind on this one)
Bottles


And he is indifferent to:
Pacifiers
Swaddling
Swing
Bouncer
Tummy Time

Nicknames: Austin-tacious, Sits (screams) with fists, Brody (well, this isn't so much of a nickname, but he might grow up thinking this is both he and his brothers name since I call him by it all the time...)

The strangest thing the nurse asked us at his well child appointment yesterday was if he is starting to appear bored at times. Aaron and I both laughed... bored?! He has two loud, active, crazy brothers that harass - er, love on him just at just about every waking moment. Bored? No. Smothered and overstimulated? Yes.

2 Months!

Austin is two months old! Aside from his mild cold, he is doing great! Here are his stats:

Height: 23 7/8" - 85%
Weight: 12lbs 14.7oz - 80%
Head: 40.3cm - 55%

I'm nursing right now so I can't go look up Jacob's 2month stats, but these are from Brody's 2 month visit:

Height: 24.25" - 97%
Weight: 14lbs 10oz -99%
Head: 16inches (40.64cm) - 80%