Anders Update:: 6 Months

Before Anders was born, I started getting nervous about taking care of a newborn baby. Aiden had been in the NICU for the first 17 days of his life so we mostly missed his newborn stage. We were there, but it's not like being at home. We had this huge training course complete with round the clock professionals helping us take care of our baby. When we finally got to take Anders home 9 days after he was born, I realized very quickly I could take care of a newborn. He needed to be fed, changed, and loved. I definitely could do that! 

The reason I tell that little story is because when I think about Anders at six months, I realize he's nothing like Aiden was. So even though I thought I knew what to expect (since Anders isn't our first), Aiden didn't really prepare us for Anders. They're just so different. 

Here he is at six months. He's big. We weighed him about a month ago and he was already 21 pounds. He wears size 9 month and 12 month clothes. Mostly 12 month. He wears a size 4 diaper. He likes baby food and is an ok sleeper. He gets up 2-3 times during the night & only takes short naps during the day. 

Anders is always moving. As I tried to get the photo above, most of them looked like this: 

(He has a smile on his face most of the day too.)

This boy does not sit still! When you change his diaper, he's rolling all over, trying to grab things that catch his eye. When you put him down, you have to survey the whole room to make sure there isn't something he might choke on or get hurt by. (We never really had this issue with Aiden because he never went anywhere! We put him down and he stayed right there.) 

Anders is pretty social. He likes being around us. He'd rather take his nap where he can see me rather than in a different room. I just love how relaxed he looks here! 

He's already undressing himself! (And he spends a lot of time playing on his belly.) Sidenote: this was the first time he wasn't wearing a onesie. Guess he really needs one still! 

Like I said before, he's a super smiley guy! We are so so lucky he's ours! 

When you smile at Anders, he smiles right back. If you have a stern look on your face, he'll usually start crying. I stuck my tongue out at him to see if he could copy me. Here he is, concentrating so hard on copying me. :) 

Last, he is a snuggler! If you hold him upright, he'll grab onto you around the neck and squeeze so tight. :) It's the biggest baby hug and it's so cute! If you hold him a different way, he'll figure out how to grab on & hold tight. He fell asleep like this yesterday. :) 

He's growing and developing so fast! We joke that he's going to catch up to Aiden soon, but in some ways it may not be far from the truth. 

Just don't grow up too fast, Anders! 

Aiden Update: 28 months

Aiden is almost 28 months old. Right now we are waiting for him to start talking. He can say lots of words and has said some sentences, but he usually prefers to point and say "uh." We are trying to get him to use words, especially when he gets frustrated about something, but it rarely works. Or if he says words, we can't understand them at all. 

Out of all the words he knows, he loves to say "Baby!" the most. :)

I wish I could say he's been sleeping well. At home he was, but since we got back here he hasn't slept through the night at all. Last night he was up 4 or 5 times. Sometimes he's bawling and hysterical and there's not much we can do for him. Other times he just wants some more milk & he'll go right back to sleep. He's still taking great naps so that helps. If he's up early, he'll take a couple 2 hour naps. 

If Aiden is hungry, he'll eat whatever we are eating for dinner. Most of the time he's not hungry when we are eating. He ends up picking at his food, and his appetite shows up a few hours later at bedtime. A couple nights ago, we had taco salad for dinner and he couldn't get enough of it! It's the first time he's eaten tomatoes. He loves chocolate, almond milk, coffee, eggs (fried or scrambled), spaghetti, and p and js. 

Aiden's favorite toys right now are his go-go Smart Wheels tracks and cars, his "Clover" stuffed bunny, and his MickeyMouse  book. He also has a shake n go Lightning car and Mater truck that he plays with off and on all day. When we went home for Christmas, we got the original Cars movie on our iPad for Aiden to watch. It was a huge hit and now he recognizes the characters and thinks they're so cool. Having the movie to replay a couple times made the trip a lot easier. 

Here's a few other little random things: Aiden is stingy with his kisses. Some days he freely gives them and other days he won't at all. He loves giving hugs but he hasn't figured out that you should use your arms when you give a hug. He'll put his head up against you for a hug. Aiden is figuring out a little here and there that he can play with Anders. It's so cute seeing them together! 

Tuesday Link-Up:Organization

Andrea at www.Momfessionals.com came up with some fun blog post ideas for every other Tuesday. Today's is all about organization. 

I don't have a good set-up yet, but I've been thinking a lot about this topic. We are moving into our new house soon, and I've been very deliberate about planning my organization in the new house. If something doesn't have a place, it's not making the move. 

I found an excellent article about organization and de-cluttering. It's HERE if  you want to read it. 

I really like how she says to take everything out so it's right in front of you. Let your over abundance of things (clothes!!!) overwhelm you. Then you'll be ready to get rid of things. 

In the new house we have a fairly small walk-in closet. I'm going to have to be super organized with what I'm wearing/not wearing and constantly be changing things out based on size (pg-related) and season. 

When my kids are too young to dress themselves, their clothes will go in the laundry room (on the main floor). When they learn to dress themselves, the clothes will go upstairs in their closets. 

The two biggest questions I have about organization have to do with diapers/wipes (where do you keep them when you always need them to be close by???) and MAIL. We are do bad about mail. What's a good system for us to use? 

Weekend Recap:: We Stayed Home Edition

This weekend was full of sitting at home playing with Aiden and Anders while Dave worked like crazy. He just started a month straight of 12s with no days off. 

So here's what we did while Dave worked. 

I watched Chicago Fire on my laptop. 

Anders spends a lot of time in his jammies and a lot of time in my lap. He's rolling all over the room these days and eating lots of baby food. He smiles like crazy!! 

Big brother, so proud to hang with his baby. :) 

Aiden loves these vtech go-go smart wheels tracks and vehicles. Keeps him busy for hours & hours! Anders likes his stroller. 

Aiden loves when Dad gets home, especially when he reads books! 

Here's Aiden doing some tummy time with Anders. He loves hanging out with his little brother!! 

Have a great week! I have a feeling we'll be doing lots of all these things all week long over here. 

Friday Favorites: Sleeping Edition

One of these Fridays I'll do the linkup with Momfessionals for this Friday Favorites, but for now I'm doing it for fun on my own. Today it's one big huge Favorite! 

I think every mom will agree with me on this one. One of my very favorite times of the day is when both of my boys are sleeping! This doesn't happen very often (it's actually pretty rare), so when it does, I LOVE it!!! We are going through some rough patches with sleep, so I cherish a quiet moment around here. 

For fun, here are some cute photos of my boys sleeping lately. 

Aiden wanted to snuggle up with me one evening before bedtime. He fell asleep like this. 

Anders loves snuggling too! 

Aiden missed his nap this day, so by late afternoon he was super tired! He fell asleep at a basketball game with Auntie Heidi. 

And one last photo. Anders snuggling up during a naptime at home. When it was super cold, he always wanted to have lots of blankets and pillows for his naps. 

I was always right there with him... I know he's too young for blankets and stuff. 

Happy Friday! 

On the Road:: Prince Farming's State

We are still on the road. It's a long drive but the boys have been so so good today! Aiden is busy watching Cars on the iPad and Anders likes his new car seat. 

Whenever we drive through Iowa, we see lots of this. Fields. 

And more fields. And then you drive a couple more hours and you see the same thing. Another field next to their neighbor's field. Those clips of The Bachelor Chris in Iowa aren't exaggerations! And we even drive through Des Moines - the big city :)

Here we are all packed up in the van. 

Mid-Week Update

We've had a busy few days lately with the visitation and funeral for Dave's dad. It is so heart-warming to be on the receiving side of so much love shown in so many different ways. 

Dave got to town late on Saturday and we didn't spend more than a couple minutes sitting down for the next several days. 

Aiden likes to help with the dishes and sometimes having him help is the only way I can get them done. Otherwise he's busy bugging his brother and I have to jump in every minute or so.

When I was unloading the dish rack after Aiden loaded it, I discovered this. :) Way to line up the forks, bud! 

Anders has been interested in food a lot lately so on Saturday I decided to attempt a little more than a spoonful. If this picture tells you anything, I'm sure you can see how much he liked it. I'm happy to feed him baby food and real food. It takes some of the pressure off of me...

Later on Saturday, we celebrated Anna's birthday with a dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants. 

We made a few photo boards to be displayed during the visitation, and I came across this photo. It was two summers ago at John's 80th Birthday party at the camp. Here's John & Pril with 13 of their children. 

Aiden was all set for the visitation on Monday afternoon! 

The funeral was yesterday and afterwards, some of the adults went to Pril's house to write thank you cards and visit. Even after several hours, we didn't want to leave. 

Today Dave and I spent the day doing errands and packing up. It's a big job. We are also closing up our house for the winter so we had lots of extra things to do for that. 

We visited at my mom and dad's for awhile, then went to Dave's mom's before we headed outta town. 

It was so hard to leave. 

Sad and Joyful Day

Dave's Dad passed away peacefully early this morning. He has achieved the greatest victory but we will miss him so much! 

Here's Grandma Pril, Grandpa John, Anders, and Lynette at the babies' baptism in August.