Graeme turns two

He's two.

Where do I even begin?

My little firstborn is not so little anymore. In fact, he's grown from 8 pounds, 6 ounces to 30 pounds, 2.5 ounces. Even more astounding is that he's gone from 20.5 inches to 37.5 inches (he's always flying right off those charts for his height!). In two years he's gone from being a little baby that basically only slept, ate, and cried (sometimes he cried...I mean he was basically an angel) to a little boy that can run and jump and imagine and talk and do so many things! (And still does his fair share of crying too!)

Graeme Grayson started off his third year of life on a bit of a downer...he had a stomach bug on his birthday. Thankfully, it came and went quickly. We will for sure never forget his second birthday (as much of it was spent cleaning up vomit), although I'm glad he will.

Even though his actual birthday was not as fun as we had planned, he did have a super fun Curious George birthday party the weekend before. For the second year in a row, a whole week of super warm days ended in a chilly day for our party at the park. It didn't rain though, so that was good.

It's hard to believe that he wasn't even walking at his first birthday. He's changed and learned so much in a year...

Since his first birthday, Graeme has...

• Started walking...and running and jumping and climbing! 

• Given up all bottles. This happened pretty quickly after his first birthday since he was only having one at bedtime at that point. He also gave up the pacifier around 15 months without much of a fight since he was only allowed to have it when we were out and about.

Sippy cups only...but only the ones with straws are allowed according to him!

•  Added hundreds and hundreds of words to his vocabulary. He can repeat any word you ask him to and carries on coherent conversations with us. He is constantly cracking us up with things he says. Lately, he adds "honey" to the end of random sentences. "Thanks, honey!" "Let's go, honey!" He can count to 10, knows his shapes and colors, and he can help us read most of his books.

• Travelled to Florida, Tennessee, Myrtle Beach, and Carolina Beach

• Become a big brother! 

• He's done a lot of other things, but I think we'll move on...

Graeme loves...

• Trucks
• Trains
• Watching TV (Curious George, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and most recently, Cars)
• Going to the park/playground
• Playing outside with chalk and bubbles
• Playing with Playdoh
• Baths (especially bubble baths!)
• Reading books (he has many of his books almost memorized)
• Going to his grandparents' houses. And he loves his grandparents. He loves them all so much and I'm so glad he is close to them.
• Helping work at Journey (and getting chocolate every time he is there from his various "chocolate dealers" that hook him up)
• Milk and "Juice" (it's mostly water, unbeknownst to him)...I think he would live on liquid if that was an option
• Cheerios (I feel like it's the most boring cereal ever, but he LOVES Cheerios and will often choose it over something more fun such as cheddar bunnies)
• Changing the food he likes daily to always keep me guessing (Cheerios might be the only constant)
• Playing "Run" (running up and down the hallway downstairs) and "Hide-and-Seek" (he almost always cheats and peeks though! Ha!)
• His cousins and his neighbor Joseph...those are his friends that he is always asking for!
• Penny (We are still unsure if he completely realizes she is a dog...the relationship between Penny and Graeme is too adorable. Right now, he still loves Penny more than Maisy. Ha.)
• Maisy (Deep down, we know he loves her and will only love her more and more as they both grow. Every once in awhile, when he thinks no one is watching, he will be so very sweet to her.)
• Daddy (he still doesn't pronounce the "ds" in the middle, so "Da-ee") Graeme and Aaron have bonded especially since Maisy was born. It's super sweet. His favorite thing to do with Daddy is read books!
• Momma (every once in awhile he will say "mommy," but I'm still "momma" mostly). Graeme is a momma's boy through and through. And as much as he loves me, I love him so very much more. He is my little buddy and I wish I could bottle up all of his sweet hugs and smiles and the thousands and thousands of times I've heard "Momma!" this year.

Graeme Grayson, happy second birthday! Momma loves you too much to even say! I am so excited to watch you grow more and more this coming year, and I can't wait for all of the adventures we will have. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, Buddy! I am so glad God gave you to me and me to you. I love being your mom. Always.

Maisy Katherine is 2 months old!

Oh my, oh my! Maisy Kate is two months old today! It was a great day, although poor little girl had to get 3 shots this morning. She was quite fussy this afternoon and evening, but I'm hoping she can get a great night of sleep and wake up feeling like herself again tomorrow.

Maisy checked in at 10 pounds, 12.5 ounces (38%), and measured 23 inches (76%). She's on track to be a genius like her big brother with her head growing like it is...39.4 centimeters (84%)! I was very curious to compare her stats at two months to Graeme's at two months. He had her beat by everything, although he's a boy so he's supposed to be bigger anyway. He was 3 pounds heavier and almost 2 inches longer than her at two months. Their heads weren't too far off from each other though (his head circumference was 40.2cm).

Graeme and Maisy at the same age. 

Praise the Lord, Maisy is growing perfectly and we cannot thank God enough for a healthy little girl. She is such a joy in our family and we all love her so much! Even when Graeme gets a little jealous of her, I know he really does love her. The other day, unprompted, he went over and kissed her and touched her head and said "Awww!" So sweet. And last night, when he realized "Maisy has chair!" (I put a highchair at the table for her finally because she is now starting to be awake while we eat dinner), he was so excited!

If we want to have friends, we really need more chairs at our table now...

Two months into having two kids under two finds me loving this life. I'm not saying it's not hard, but I honestly really love it! Something about the task of figuring out how to accomplish things with two kids is fun to me. Whether it's getting everybody fed in the morning with the least amount of tears possible, or going to Target by myself with them to get groceries and avoiding major meltdowns. I would much rather tackle getting out of the house with them than stay home all day. A day at home is nice maybe once a week, but any more than that and Graeme and I go stir-crazy. 

We like adventures. So does Maisy. Even though she just sleeps through them right now.

I will say the baby carrier is a life-saver this time. I didn't wear Graeme too much, but Maisy goes in the Moby Wrap or the ErgoBaby at least once a day. Having a toddler makes the idea of Maisy taking all four of her naps at home in her bed impossible. Graeme and I would both be miserable. So, she is perfectly content to sleep in a carrier and I'm so glad for that!

Well, what else about Maisy?

1. She likes baths, but she doesn't like getting out of them. 

   

   Haha this picture really does make her head look big!

2. Her and her carseat have a love-hate relationship. If she falls asleep and the car stays moving, she's fine. But if she's tired (or hungry) and in her carseat, she is not happy. ESPECIALLY when the car has to stop moving.

   

   We were at a stoplight, don't worry.

3. She eats every three hours during the day. She is pretty rigid on this schedule. She's typically not hungry before three hours have passed, but you had best not make her wait too much longer than three or she will let you know that she is starving to death. She never wants more than 4 ounces. We've tried, but she is perfectly content with 4 ounces or less.

   

   She was on a three hour schedule from day one. No complaints.

4. Unlike Graeme, who could not stand to have his arms swaddled, Maisy needs hers swaddled and doesn't mind it. Her hands wake her up otherwise. Although it is her life goal to break our swaddles.

   

   Victory!

5. She has her last "daytime bottle" at 6pm and goes to bed for the night. We have discovered that she has better nights without a "dream feed" (at least right now). We always did a dream feed with Graeme, but we may not need to do it for her. Most nights she will sleep from the 6pm bottle until around midnight when she will wake up to eat. And then she will sleep the rest of the night until 6am. I am kind of playing this by ear and will add a dream feed if we need to in order to instead have an 8 hour stretch from 10pm-6am.

   

   I forgot to mention anywhere else that I am IN LOVE with her hair.

6. She has the prettiest smile and she loves to talk to us. Of course, by "talk" I mean make the cutest baby sounds ever. She stares into our eyes and has so much to say. She is also becoming great at following us with her eyes as we walk around and she especially loves to watch Graeme play. She has a strong little neck and holds her heavy little head up high to make sure not to miss what's going on.

   

   He didn't want to stop playing to take a picture. 

7. She uses a pacifier but I won't be surprised if she trades it in for her fingers or thumb soon enough. We took Graeme's pacifier away at three months (although we eventually would give it to him in the car, on a trip, or in a restaurant) because we weren't up for the task of giving it back to him constantly so he could stay asleep. I'm not sure yet what we will do with Maisy and the paci. If she does trade it in for her fingers, at least we don't have to help her find those. 

   

   "Wait now...you would take this away from me?!"

There's a little bit about our Maisy girl at two months old. Oh how the time is flying by. This time around, I'm of course sad that she is growing at the speed of light, but on the other hand, knowing what fun the future holds since I've already seen one baby grow, I also look forward to getting to new phases and stages with her. Each month truly is more fun than the last even when it doesn't seem possible.

We love you lots and lots, Maisy Kate!

It doesn't get much funner than playing dress up the cute baby girl.