And on Monday, they slept

Today was fantastic. Why? Because these boys napped like never before!

Harrison, who has never been a good napper, slept from 12:40 to 3:50!! Mark and I do believe this was the longest nap he has ever taken.

And Barrett, who likes to nap, but lately hasn't been napping at the same time as Harrison, slept from 11:30 to 3:50!

They both woke up within a minute of each other, which was probably best because I was starting to worry...I mean this has NEVER happened.

Let's hope this is the start of good things to come :-)

Barrett Update

I feel like I haven't said much about Barrett lately, so I thought I'd take a minute and update everyone on how he's doing.

On Thursday we had his two-month check up. He was, of course, a model baby, smiling and cooing at everyone. That is, until he got his shots. Boy did he hate those! My sweet, happy boy turned beet red and just screamed his head off. So sad to see him like that. He still has a fever from them today but at least he's back to being cheerful when he is awake.

Here are his stats:
11lbs 7oz (40th %) (6lbs 15oz at birth)
23.25" (55%) (21" at birth)

At his two-month check up, Harrison was 11lbs 3oz and 22.75". Of course I had to compare them, just to have some frame of reference for how he's doing. No, I won't spend their whole lives comparing them and giving them some sort of complex, don't worry about that :-)

He seems to have grown so much in the two short months he's been around. He definitely doesn't seem as fragile as he was when he first came home. He's super smiley when he's awake and really likes to try and talk to you. His little cooing noises are very sweet. He likes to sit under his floor gym for 10-15 minutes at a time, but that's all he can take before he squaks and is ready to move away from the stimulation. He still likes to have his body swaddled when he naps, but we are leaving his arms out now because he is definitely trying to suck his hand and/or thumb. Overall he's just a really easy-going baby. He only cries or fusses when he's hungry or tired, and as long as he's not either of those he's pretty happy to be awake and watch the world go by.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Four Weeks Old:


Five Weeks Old:




Six Weeks Old:




Eight Weeks Old:

Harrison's adventures with his cousins

At the beginning of June we had a great 10-day visit from my sister, her boys and my mom. Mark's mom even came to join the fun for a couple of days as well.

Nonny and her four grandsons:


Aunt Susie and Jeffrey meeting Barrett:


Charlie was very excited to get to hold a baby for the first time:


Harrison had a fantastic time hanging out with his cousins Jeffrey and Charlie from the minute he woke up until he crashed into his bed exhausted at the end of each day.

Hmm...that looks good. Can I have some?

Charlie and Harrison:



Barrett was a model baby, accompanying us pretty much everywhere we went and generally sleeping most of the time. Here he is at the pool, during a rare moment when he's not asleep in the stroller but instead asleep on me.



We made five trips to the "whale pool", which served to wear the kids out quite well. Harrison even got to go down the big slide this year (with an adult) and LOVED it. He laughed and squealed the whole time and asked to go again and again.

The "big" slide:


Going down with mommy...we just kind of cruise on down.


Going down with Daddy...he goes FAST!



When we weren't at the pool we had fun at the park by our house, and had a LOT of fun in the backyard with the hose. Once the boys figured out they could strip down (nekkie as Harrison calls it) and run around the backyard they had loads of fun. They covered each other in mud, sprayed it off, and were just 100% boy. They were incredibly dirty and enjoyed every minute of it.

Civilized play at the sand and water table...


Which quickly turned into this...


Resulting in quite a bit of time here:

It was exhausting keeping these boys busy every day, but they all had a fantastic time and really got to enjoy playing with each other. Harrison keeps asking where everyone went. Poor guy went from having built in playmates all day to being stuck with just me (and Barrett) again.

Memorial Day week

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday we met Mark after he played golf and went swimming at Austin Country Club with some friends. Harrison was so excited for his first trip to the pool this year. The kiddie pool there was great! It was covered with a shade top, and had a wade in area at one end and fountains at the other. Harrison had such an awesome time. He just hopped around in the pool like he owned it, and seriously wore himself out.

While Harrison was busy playing Barrett slept in his bassinet stroller. He had a nice shady spot in the corner and must have been very comfy because he slept for almost three hours!

Prior to going to the pool Harrison decided to take all of his paper plates (zoo pals) out of the pantry and play a matching game with them. Messy? Yes. Educational? Yes...so I guess I can't complain.

On Monday we went to a different pool and once again he thoroughly enjoyed himself. This is our regular pool which has a small slide for kids his age and a big wading area. I have a feeling we'll be back many times this summer based on how much he enjoyed himself.

We got him some goggles and he wore them for a little bit. He looked so grown up!

Once again Barrett slept in his stroller while Harrison enjoyed the pool. He sure makes it easy on us!



Here is Harrison pointing out an iron. He innocently asked me what it was...and I realized he hasn't ever seen me iron and probably won't anytime soon. Whoops!

We were looking at some Dinosaur Train videos and came across one that showed how to make a Halloween costume. A light bulb went off in his head and he raced upstairs to get his costume from this year and had to wear it around for a couple of hours.

Here are the two boys together. Harrison was being sweet and showing Barrett all of his dinosaurs. Harrison still likes his brother a lot and has had only a few moments where he isn't being sweet to Barrett. He likes to hold Barrett's hand, which is so cute!

20 Questions

Now that the verbal floodgates have opened, there is no turning back.

This week Harrison started asking, "Why?" about anything and everything. And you better have a really good answer to the question or he will just keep asking!

In addition, he wants to know everyone's name. And I do mean everyone.

We were getting out of the car at Target over the weekend and someone was getting into the car next to us. He demanded to know her name. When I told him I didn't know her and therefore didn't know her name, that was definitely not an acceptable answer. He kept insisting, "Name!".

He asks the name of new kids that enter the playground, of the checker at the grocery store, and of the man driving the garbage truck, just to name a few. I have started getting creative and am learning that if I answer with strong conviction and use a name he hasn't heard before, he will usually accept that answer.

Now I just have to hope he won't ask me the name of the garbageman next week, because I forgot what name he accepted yesterday as we were watching the truck.

The best part is that if he is asking me a question relating to dinosaurs, which he does often these days, and I don't know the answer, he demands that I, "Look up!" and points to the computer. He believes that it provides answers to all of life's difficult questions...if only that were the truth.

Ahhh...the joys of an inquisitive two-year old. This is definitely quite an entertaining age!

Harrison's Quote of the Day

Harrison: "Daddy play!!"

Daddy: "Harrison, how do you ask nicely?"

Harrison: "NICELY!!"

Ahh...the joys of a toddler attempting to learn manners :-)

One Month Old

It is really hard for us to believe that Barrett is already one month old! It seems like he's been here a lot longer than that.

He is still such a sweet boy. He has a great disposition, and really only cries if he's hungry, has gas, or is tired and ready to be swaddled up and put to bed. He really likes to sleep (whoo hoo!!) and spends most of his day sleeping or just kind of hanging out looking at the circus that goes on around here.

Here he is just hanging out at the park this morning:

We have taken him out at least a few times each week and he seems to just go with the flow when we are out. He'll either ride in his bassinet on the stroller or strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn carrier. He seems happy doing both.

I did take him to the doctor on Monday because he developed a cough over the weekend. Thankfully he just has a cold, so there isn't anything we can do other than try to keep his head elevated by having him sleep in his papisan as much as possible until this clears up and he's better. He was fully clothed when they weighed him, and he was 9lbs 15oz! I weighed him that night without his clothes on and he was 9lbs 11oz. So, in just four weeks he has gained almost three pounds. Not too bad!

The few really tiny outfits that he was able to wear the first couple of weeks we brought him home are definitely too small now. It's hard to believe he is already growing out of things. He's still in the size 1 diapers and definitely still in newborn clothes, but it seems that he's already growing up so fast.

He celebrated his one-month birthday with a bath:

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's birthday was Friday. Harrison helped me make cupcakes to celebrate. He is a great assistant as you can see!

He really liked the cupcake batter...I had to remove him from the counter because all he wanted to do was dip his finger into it and lick it off.

I put the icing on and tried to let him spread it around, but that didn't last long.







He REALLY liked the chocolate icing!

Barrett's Third Week

On Friday we took our first solo trip to the park, just me and the boys. We have a stroller with a bassinet and Barrett seems very happy hanging out and sleeping in there. This is great, because we can just wheel him over to the park and let him hang out while Harrison and I play.





We started out Mother's Day by going to Kerbey Lane for pancakes. Normally the wait for breakfast there is pretty long, but when you are out of the house before 8am it isn't so bad. I guess that's one benefit of Harrison being an early riser! As we were waiting for our food, Harrison kept talking about pancakes, and every time the waiter would come by our table Harrison would just yell "pancakes!" at him. Too funny, and he really did enjoy his pancakes!



Later that day we went to Central Market so Harrison could play on their playground and we could pick up a few groceries. He had a great time and even got to touch a baby turtle at the pond and kept talking about it all afternoon. Barrett napped in his stroller, oblivious to all of the kids running around and didn't even wake up when we went through the store. I'm keeping my fingers crossed his love of sleeping continues!

Sunday night we gave Barrett his first real bath. He didn't really know what to think of it.



On Monday Barrett was up to 9lbs, so he is still growing great! He looks really chunky now compared with how he was just a couple of weeks ago. I would definitely still describe him as mellow, although he does have his moments when he wants to make sure you know he's still around.



Harrison is still just loads of fun. He's been really good, considering he was used to getting out of the house a lot more than he is now that Barrett is here. We are making it to the park, so thankfully we are able to do that. And he has school twice a week so that helps a lot too.

Yesterday we did get out to visit his friend Hunter and play and have lunch over there. As usual they had a great time and still play really well together. At one point they were each on a ride-on toy and were cracking up ramming into each other. Ahh...boys!



We have spent a lot of time reading, playing trains and cars, and setting up all of his little animals. He has about 30 of the little plastic ones, and we divide them up based on where they belong (farm, sea, dinosaurs, etc.) and play with them that way. Yesterday I set up all of the dinosaurs in a circle, and he informed me they were having a "block party". We got the Dinosaur Train CD and he has been listening to it a lot. One of the songs is about a block party so I guess that's what he thinks a block party is.




He still LOVES to ask for hugs and now he's into "two hugs" where he has Mark and I both hug him at the same time. It is SO cute and his face just lights up when we do it. It's definitely the little things like this that make the days worth it.

He is talking so much and continues to repeat just about anything, along with getting better and better about telling us what he wants, which makes things so much easier.

We've had a couple of great moments this week. First, on Monday Harrison decided that he needed to hug Barrett right then and there, as I was trying to get Harrison dressed. I hope they always like each other this much.

Then on Wednesday we went into get Barrett when he woke up, and Harrison said "pick up baby" and proceeded to attempt to do so. I informed him that only mommy and daddy can pick up baby, and now he likes to tell me that whenever I pick up Barrett.

Two Weeks Old

Here are some pictures of Barrett at two weeks old. He is growing great! At his checkup he was 8lbs, 7oz, up from a birthweight of 6lbs 15oz. This boy likes to eat!

He is pretty mellow still and enjoys just hanging out and watching what goes on around here or sleeping.

Harrison is still his crazy self. He has adjusted really well to having a brother around and doesn't seem to be jealous. He's only banished Barrett a couple of times, so I consider that a victory :-)

Nonny got Harrison a window washing kit and he LOVES to wash the window at his little table in the kitchen. He has mastered the sprayer and would enjoying spraying anything and everything if he were allowed to. He's pretty good with the squeegee too, and likes to remind us that Curious George cleaned windows in one episode.

Here are both of the boys hanging out with Daddy. They love to do that!