So, We Pretty Much Suck at This...

...you know, the whole update the blog thing. Not like we're busy or anything!

Ever since Aaron was born, simple tasks are three times as hard, and the blog kind of takes a back seat to things like feeding the children or clean clothes. Plus, trying to sell and buy a house, and being completely exhausted all make things even harder. (By the way, I know John posted that Aaron was sleeping 7-8 hours and only waking once a night about 2.5 months ago. Well, that was the last day that Aaron did that. He is currently sleeping one 3-4 hour stretch, then waking every 1-2 hours after that. And during the day, his naps are always less than an hour long, and conveniently never during Jacob's naps, so Mama is VERY tired.)

Anyway, so I uploaded pictures from the big camera today, and when I realized there were pictures from a month ago still on the camera, I knew we were slacking off. So, I made it a priority to do a post today. It may take me all day, but it will get done!

This first batch of pictures goes back about a month, to the middle of July. Many of the pictures are from our recent trip to Rocklin for Emily's wedding. We decided to fly and my mom was amazing enough to agree to drive and meet us there to help out. We are so thankful that she was willing to come! The trip would have been much harder without her! This was the boys' first airplane ride and they did awesome. Of course, we only got one picture of Jacob while on the plane, since airports and planes can be very hectic with two small children, and I can't find that particular picture. Figures.

July/August 2009

This second album is to demonstrate why we are so crazy busy this month. Here is our new house! We should be moving in at the end of the month, and are very busy with signing papers, packing boxes, appraisal and inspection reports, and keeping up with the work on the new place. But we are very excited and looking forward to getting settled in the new place!

We're In Escrow

So, it only took me 5 hours from start to finish for this post! Pretty good, huh? And, I got a nap in (thanks, Aaron)!

Update: So apparently John had the two plane pictures on his phone and has uploaded them to the first album. Yes, Jacob slept the entire flight home. Aaron only slept at the very end of the flight.

Camcorder moments

We finally loaded some of our camcorder footage onto the computer. We have a few gems from this week. First, here's Aaron, who really likes to be bounced:



And here is some footage of Jacob singing the alphabet song. It also provides a little insight into why we don't have much camcorder footage of Jacob any more:

Red-Letter Day

Aaron rolled over today. He was on his back, under the activity gym. I was on the phone with my mom and went outside to check on Jacob. I came back in, and he was on his tummy, still under the gym. He had this look on his face that said, "Finally! I've been trying to do that for so long! Now what?" He still doesn't have any teeth, although he's been teething for over a month.

Also today, I've come to the realization that naps may soon (or already be) a thing of the past for Jacob. This saddens me greatly. He's not even 2.5 yet. But, he went from 2 naps a day to only 1 nap a day very young, as well (11 months). I had a feeling this would happen early. I'm not going to give up yet. He's still going to be put down for a few more weeks, and we'll see what happens. After that, he will be required to have an hour of quiet time every day. Still, this will be a major adjustment for me, as I well know that nap time is as much for the caregiver as it is for the child (if not, more!)

We have some pictures floating around. We'll get to posting them soon. For now, I'm going to bed very, very early.

Avocado Lunch

I decided to start Aaron on solids. I was going to wait until 6 months, because starting solids with Jacob did not go well. So I figured, I might as well wait, but Aaron was showing all the signs of being ready. I did a little reading on good first foods to introduce, and found out that avocado is an excellent first food for baby. I didn't really want to start with cereal anyway (Jacob never liked it), so I figured why not. I can get cheap, fresh avocados at the local farmer's market. So today, after Jacob and I had our lunch. Aaron had his. He only ate a little, maybe a teaspoon or two. But he smiled and grinned.



I think he likes it!

Update: Oh, by the way, here are the stats from Aaron's four month check last week: Weight: 17.5 pounds (91 percentile) and Height: 27 inches (97 percentile). He is wearing 9 and 12 month clothes. This is one of the reasons why I decided to try solids. He's growing so fast!

Splash Pad

It was just one of those mornings. After 3.5 days of Aaron being mad at the world, and two weeks of trying to keep the house spotless, I just needed to get out. But it's hot and I didn't really have any errands to run, just a few things on the Target list is all. Since it was almost time for Aaron to take a nap, I thought we'd head to the Spectrum Target, so Jacob and I could wander around while Aaron slept in the Moby wrap. Nice idea, in theory.

We pulled into the Target parking lot, and Jacob immediately starting asking for fountains. Aaron fell asleep the instant I put him the Moby, so I figured we could start with fountains and hit Target on the way out. Another nice idea, in theory. The first fountain we came to was the splash pad. In the past, when I've taken Jacob to the pad, and been completely prepared with swimsuit, towels, sunscreen, etc., Jacob has refused to go in. So, I thought, "Well, he probably won't get wet, except for maybe a little, and it's hot, so he'll dry. And if he does get wet, I have those spare clothes from the beach in the backpack." Another nice thought, in theory. Jacob proceeded to get soaked. Completely soaked. And being the completely unprepared mom that I am, I did NOT have the spare clothes I thought I did. And Aaron started to fuss. So, I managed to drag Jacob away from the pad after about 20 minutes, and bring him into Target, where I stripped him down to a diaper, wrapped him in a receiving blanket, and headed to the kid section to buy some cheap, dry clothes. By the time I was done paying for them, Aaron was back to being completely mad at the world, instead of taking the nap I thought he would. So, we headed out to the van and drove home, without Aaron having more than a 15 minute nap, no snack for Jacob, and not getting anything on the Target list. But hey, at least Jacob had fun.

Busy July

Our family has had a very hectic month! We've recently listed our home for sale. We decided the time was right to move on and find a real house with a full-sized backyard and four walls all our own. Our agent has put together a very slick web site, 3 Holly Hill.com, that prospective buyers can look at. So we've been forced to maintain the house in a constant near-pristine state in case visitors come, which is a special challenge with two little ones. We've already had one offer that fell through after some back-and-forth negotiation, and a few other nibbles as well. Our fingers remain crossed.

We haven't been keeping up with photos as much as we used to. With two little ones, you spend less time holding a camera and more time chasing one or holding the other. So I've uploaded a set of photos, but most of these are from July 4th. We really didn't snap that much else this month. (I do have some video that I've been meaning to sift though as well, but most of that is even older.)

Busy July

I do have one story that's too good not to share. Last night, Mandi was awakened repeatedly by Aaron, at least four times. So this morning she was naturally even more tired than usual. To help her wake up, I brewed a small pot of real (full-caffeine) coffee. We've been stashing the coffee grinder in the cabinets to keep our counters clear, so when I was done making the coffee, I put the grinder back into the cabinet. This evening, Jacob broke into the cabinet, got out the grinder, opened the top lid (where the not-yet-ground beans are stored) and began eating coffee beans. We have no idea how many he got his hands on, but he likes them--he likes anything crunchy, and he likes the taste of coffee. This evening, we had one wired little boy. I took him to the park to run off some energy, but he was still bouncing off the walls a bit. Last I checked, he was still in his bed, chattering away. Goose!

Busy, busy, busy

We somehow always manage to keep busy. If it's not one thing, it's something else. Since we apparently aren't busy enough, we've decided to list our home for sale and look for another one. So, the last several weeks have been filled with cleaning and prepping the house for potential buyers and looky-loos, as well as visiting several homes already on the market, trying to find that perfect new home. Also, we have been visited by Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Nana and Papa. Finally, we made a trek up to Santa Clarita in the middle of June to visit the great-grandparents and lots of extended family. We just keep busy!

The boys keep busy, too. Jacob loves his school, and loves to read. His school is having a summer reading program where each child is to log the books that are read to them and they work their way toward a class ice-cream party. Jacob has already met the goal, after one week. When he's not reading, he's usually drawing, playing outside, or rearranging the items in our home to his liking. His current favorite movie is Tarzan, and his favorite foods continue to be pancakes and french fries. Aaron is just fascinated by faces and will grin anytime he sees one. He is trying to grow some teeth, and it's hard to see our normally very content baby be so uncomfortable. He is also starting to reach out and play with things in the activity gym and rocker, and it's fun to see him interacting with the world around him. As Papa says, he's not a slug anymore!

We have lots and lots of pictures, but finding the time to sort through them seems to be a challenge, so they will need to be posted another time. Happy July!