Growing up fast!

So, I thought time suddenly sped up once Law was born. Days and weeks used to drag by, but when he arrived, it was like months flashed before my eyes. Having a second child has REALLY put life on fast forward! I can't believe Andersen will be 12 weeks old in two days.

I'm hoping what I've missed out on documenting on the blog and in his baby book I've been able to capture with photos. I've been really making an effort to take lots of pics so AJ doesn't end up with typical "Second Child Syndrome." I think I'm doing a decent job because he seems to recognize the camera better than he recognizes my face...

Here are some of our favorite pics of Mr. Man since the last time I posted:

Andersen Updates:

• He's doing MUCH better now that we have the MSPI figured out.
• Dairy seems to bother him much more than soy, but both are problematic. If I eat anything with even a TRACE of dairy in it, though, he's a hot mess for an entire day afterward.
• He's super smiley and coo-ey lately!
• He loves his hands! He's been diligently trying to figure out how to get them into his mouth and keep them there lately. I think he may become a thumb sucker. (Nana -- keep your job, please!)
• He likes the Papasan chair. Awesome, since I bought a brand new bouncy chair because Law hated it and I figured the next baby would, too.
• He's very snuggly and cuddly.
• His hair is still reddish (and no bald spot, yet. ::knock on wood::)
• He rolled over a few weeks ago and does it whenever we put him on his tummy now...proving "tummy time" to be rather ineffectual...
• He loves his brother!

Some pics of our big boy!

Note the BIG big boy bed! The crib/toddler bed is no longer! He loves it and Mike and I love being able to have special time in the evening lying with him and reading books.

Does he not look about EIGHTEEN in this picture? OMG! Where did my little baby boy go??

Lawrence News:

• He's been singing and it's the cutest thing EVER. He sings the "clean up" song, "Twinkle Twinkle" (which we didn't even know he knew! He just started singing along when AJ's mobile played the tune the other day!) and, my favorite, T.I.'s "Whatever You Like."
• He wore underwear yesterday! Of course, he ended up soaking Thomas the Tank Engine, but he kept them dry all morning (which Thomas appreciated, I'm sure).
• He knows his colors, but likes to pretend his doesn't to annoy his parents.
• He's obsessed with balloons, bubbles, art, tractors, outside and all things "choo choo."
• His sassiness is chilling out (for the moment).
• He scares the crap out of me every time he gets out of bed himself. I don't hear him coming and suddenly he's behind me and it freaks me out!
• He loves his brother! (but he refuses to call him by his name. He's just "baby.")
• He still has a "MiMi" (pacifier) and I have no idea how we'll break him of it. (again, Nana, please keep your job)
• The way he says "color" is at the top of my list of favorite things.

Law genuinely loves his brother. He wants to know where he is all.the.time. He's super sweet with him. I'm so proud!

And our two little studs together. They have the "serious" look down pat.


Me with my little guys.

The girls and the boys on Auntie Jill's birthday:

We went to the Children's Museum today with Holly and Owen. The boys had a blast and wore their mommies OUT!

A few Mike/Jess updates:

• Our kitchen flooded a few weeks ago. So, we had to replace the cabinet. And the floor. To take out the cabinet, we had to take off the counters. To take off the counters, we had to take out the backsplash. While we were at it, we decided to replace the sink. Which meant we'd replace the faucet. Then we decided to get a new dishwasher. And hardware. And new window treatments. And a new table. Which meant a new rug. So, basically, we're in the middle of a total kitchen overhaul. And it's a MESS. The floors are done and they look great (thanks, Mike!) The counters go in Friday and then the sink. Then the backsplash. Oy! I can't wait until it's done...but I'm sure Mike's even more anxious for it to all be over than I am!
• I'm back at work and it's going really well. I love my job and my part-time schedule. I have the best of both worlds!
• I'm hungry. All.the.time. And I miss cheese. Like, a LOT.
• Mike's as busy at work as ever.
• We're tired of the cold weather. Bring on spring!
• I get my braces off on Thursday!!
• We broke not one, but TWO vacuums in a week. Now we have yet another new one. And it's da bomb (and, no, it's not a Dyson).

Hope you're all doing well. Stay tuned in the next couple weeks for updated pics, a before/after of the kitchen and hopefully the launch of a new site. I also have been planning on starting Project 365 -- I'd take pics depicting our daily life every day for a year. I feel like I concentrate so hard on getting great pics that I miss out on a lot of the fun/funny stuff that happens in our household on a daily basis. Of course, that would require a bit of time and organization, which are two things that seem to be in short supply lately.

Hope you're all doing well!

Ugggggggggh.

Well, we FINALLY have an answer to Andersen's fussiness/throwing up/nasty diapers. The results came back from his tests we had done a couple weeks ago and he has MSPI (Milk Soy Protein Intolerance). They did a study of his stool. In normal babies, the level (can't remember what the name of what they were testing for was) should be under 50. Andersen's came back at 672! Yikes! The good news is that now that we know what we're dealing with, we can treat it and get him feeling better. The bad news is that I have to stop nursing for the time being and cut out ALL dairy and soy. I've been off of dairy for two weeks now, but it's only made a minimal improvement. He's on Alimentum now -- a hypoallergenic formula. It's idiotically expensive and smells awful. Poor AJ doesn't really like it and it's making him consitpated and have awful (and smelly!) gas. Hopefully our little guy will be feeling much better very soon. I just wish we'd found out a bit sooner since I started back to work this week and AJ went to daycare -- it was a lot of adjusting all in one week for us.

Andersen on his first day of daycare:

In other news, Law moved to his BIG big boy bed last weekend. He was in his crib converted to a toddler bed and now he's in a full. He loves it. We love it, too, because we can climb in and read him books and snuggle.

We hit the zoo last Friday with Nana and Aunt Si Si. It was a nice day and lots of fun. Andersen was a trooper and Law loved running around and seeing all the animals.

Today was quite a change from the nice weather we'd been enjoying. We have almost 7" of snow on our deck. Law helped daddy snow blow/shovel this afternoon and did NOT want to come in.

Here are a few random recent pics:

Hope you're all doing well!

What a gorgeous day!

We ventured outside today to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was in the 50s! Lawrence was on cloud 9 -- he LOVES playing outside and asks all the time to go out, but it's been too cold. His face absolutely lit up when I asked him if he wanted to go out when he got up from nap and I could hardly get my shoes on fast enough for him.



Lawrence stepped in mud while he was playing. If you know me at all, you know that mud + shoe = a freaking out Jess. You'd be proud, though, because I was chill about it. And my mother probably wouldn't believe me (I could hardly believe it myself, even as I was saying the words), but Law said "uh oh" about the mud and I told him "It's okay -- we can get dirty outside."

Lawrence is definitely my kid, though...because being dirty really bothered him. I kept telling him it was okay, but he found a leaf, dipped it into a puddle and tried to wipe off his shoe.

While cleaning his shoe, his hands got messy...and then he wanted to go inside. I was almost moved to tears!

Not at all a good photo, but in case you were wondering, Andersen enjoyed the nice weather, too. He was snuggled in my BeeByMeCouture wrap (which he loves! Sometimes, it's the only way I can calm him down) all the while Lawrence and I were coloring with chalk, driving his new trike and freaking out about getting dirty.

In other news, AJ gave me his first true smile yesterday. I was starting to freak out just a bit because my weekly baby development updates keep telling me I should be "enjoying baby's smiles" and I hadn't gotten any intentional ones yet...only the ones in his sleep. It was so cute, too -- I was talking to him and he suddenly grinned and then he seemed to get all embarrassed and looked away. Andersen shared the love with his daddy this morning.

Hope you all have a fabulous Super Bowl Sunday!

It's all going too fast!

I knew it would...time went far too quickly when Law was a baby and I knew it would only go by faster this time around. It's hard to believe Lawrence is now TWO and Andersen will be six weeks old tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of my big boy:

And here are some of Andersen over the past few weeks:


Around two weeks old:

First smile on camera:


you can see his red hair in this one:

...and his chunky cheeks in this one (I can stop kissing them! They're so squishy and delicious!)

And here are some of them together. Lawrence still loves his brother and hasn't shown any jealousy. He is, of course, still a normal two-year-old and spends plenty of time in time-out, though.

The boys just before bed in their matching onesies:

Lawrence had a great birthday. He started off the day with an extra-special birthday donut (the remnants of which can be seen on his face):

After breakfast, we went to the Durham Museum to see the trains. He LOVES "choo-choos."

We had birthday cake at Nana & Papa's that night:



Law had his birthday party this past Saturday. It was a "Choo Choo! Lawrence is turning TWO!" party.

He had SO much fun!

He had a great time with his friends and family and the slide he got from Grandpa was an especially big hit!

A pic of mommy and her little guys:


Tonight, the boys had their first bath together. I think Law was a bit annoyed to share...his LOVES his bathtime and AJ's tub took up more room than I think he was happy about.

Hope you're all doing well and having a great start to your 2009!