Weighing in

We made a family visit to Dr. Rodger's office last week and had the boys' checkups - Miles' 18 mos and Grant's one month. Mason went with me for an extra set of hands to contain Miles.
Here are their stats:
Miles - 27 lbs 10.5 oz and 33 inches. His noggin was 52 cm (we are now under the 100th percentile - 97th. Glad to hear the curve is catching up to us.)

Thanks Aunt Marci for my new PJ's. They are Dino-might!
(They have dinosaurs on them. You can't really see that in the picture.)
The weather has finally gotten cool enough to need long sleeves at night.

Grant - 13 lbs 9.5 oz and 21.75 inches. I don't remember how big his head was - big enough I know. I knew that Grant had hit the 12lb mark but didn't have any idea he would be so close to 14 lbs. I thought we were filling up those 3 mos onesies awfully fast. Actually we have graduated to the 3-6 mos sleepers. Seriously. I can't snap them. Another long bodied baby. And I had to move him to #2 diapers earlier than I did with Miles. The tabs on the #1's would barely reach all the way around. Now I know why.

Our big-boy Grant. At this rate he will be beating up on Miles before he is a year old.

Also, the same day we got a call from the nutrition center at Children's Hospital to inform us that we were not accepted into the study because Grant's birthweight was too high. So long free diapers. I will miss them though the pressure to exclusively breastfeed isn't there anymore. I want to continue giving him breastmilk to help with family allergy issues and the genetic predisposition for being overweight. (They say breastfed babies don't have as many issues with being overweight.) On the other hand, if we want to go on a weekend getaway, I don't have to pump like a creamery and he could have formula. That is nice. But free diapers for a year would be nicer. Oh well. Not much I could have done about his birth weight.

On a sidenote, Miles is spitting out lots of new words as long as you say it first. He doesn't say them on his own but will repeat things. Last night on our way home from church we passed through downtown and he kept pointing at all the big buildings. I said something about big buildings and he said emphatically "BIG" as he reached to the sky. It makes me more than happy to know that things are clicking in that sweet big head of his. I am also excited at the possibility of him being able to communicate instead of playing cherades to figure out what wants! I've never been very good at cherades anyway.

Look at that sweet face!

Family Outings

We have settled into a kind of a routine and life seems more comfortable these days. We have been on several little family outings. Anyone who knows me knows I get a little stir crazy staying home, so on the weekends we have been getting out. Also, I want to take full advantage of Grant's infant portability. I did not realize how flexible and portable infants are until Miles was older and we found out how easy taking care of a newborn is compared to an "older" baby. And now that we have our stroller things are much easier. I see progress in Miles' adjustment to having a sibling every day - though yesterday was an exception with two episodes of not-so-soft touching and running his school bus over Grant's face. He didn't cry too much.
Enjoy the new pics.

The new double-decker stroller on our trip to the "Big Dam Bridge"
(The longest pedistrian-only bridge in the world my bridge designing honey tells me.)

Baby in the Back

Big-boy in the front

Here we are at Wooly-Hollow State Park. Its about an hour drive from home.

Mason and Miles at the old homestead in the park.
Miles was saying his infamous "Whatsthat" as a motorcycle roared by.

Miles in the baby backpack. We hiked a whole maybe quarter of a mile. Mason was carrying Miles and I had Grant in the sling.

Family portrait at the playarea. That motorcycle kept driving around.
We couldn't keep Miles' attention.


In order for the boys here to keep their sanity during this whole big brother transition, my friend Kathy and I have arranged weekly playdates for them. Here they are playing in the dirt.
Sam has a new baby sister at his house and has been through some adjustments himself.

Miles with shovel in hand. He was absolutely filthy after playing. I kept finding wood chips from the playground all over the house for the remainder of the afternoon.

Update.

Here are a few pics from the past couple of weeks. Sorry for the delay - we have been a tad under the weather here on top of the whole new baby thing. Since Miles has started Mother's-Day-Out he has already brought home a cold and stomach bug to share with the family. Luckily Grant has avoided the stomach bug (knock on wood).
I will say that it has been a long 3 weeks. I feel like Grant should be atleast 6 weeks old...but before I know it I am sure he will be walking so I won't wish my days away. We have visited Mason's grandparents in Camden and all the family in Searcy to show Grant off. Grant is growing - I think he weighs at least 12 lbs now but I'm not sure. We haven't weighed him here at the house yet but at his last doc's apt. he weighted 9 lbs. 9 oz - he had gained 5 oz. in 3 days. So at that rate I am sure he is 12 lbs! He is doing well at night - waking up about every4 hours and occasionally I get a 5 hour stretch to sleep which is really nice.
Miles is getting more accustomed to this whole big brother thing. He doesn't seem to mind as much when I am feeding Grant or holding him. We have started reading books - or look at pictures in books - while I feed Grant and that seems to help with the attention issue being that feeding a newborn takes a lot of time. He even walks over and will give Grant a little kiss every so often. Now we just need to work on not sticking our fingers in Grant's mouth. Miles thinks that is very funny. We don't really agree.
Oh and we finally got our new double decker stroller ! (It only took 2.5 mos.) We can now go for walks around the lake even when Mason isn't home.
Enjoy the pics.

Tummy Time! (Grant does not seem to mind this as much as Miles did.
Miles would scream - Grant just grunts.)

Strike a Pose!

Call me crazy but don't babies look like Yoda when you put a onesie on them?

Note Miles' new big boy shoes. He looks so grown up in them.

My budding musician. He really is quite musical for his age.