Around the House

Some new pictures of the boys! Life is still hectic but lots and lots of fun. We're leaving for Ocean City, NJ early on Sunday morning so will be sharing lots of cool shots from the trip!

Jake eating cereal like a big boy! (Pretty good at it now too!!)

Hmmm, how can I get him out of here?


Maybe if I sit on him he will move!

Fatty bo-batty man Josh in the Bumbo chair!

Jake still fits in the Bumbo chair. He still loves it!

Funny Jake Sleep Story

Just a quick anecdote to share...

As you know, we have struggled for the last month or so with Jake sleeping in his new toddler bed (since he so conveniently figured out how to climb out of his crib WAY before we were ready for him to). Well we have had a breakthrough over the past week. It started off with about an hour of screaming and wailing from behind the gate we have up on his door but that quickly subsided to just a two to three minute fit.

His newest thing (and he has done this to me twice now), is screaming for about 30-60 seconds and then he shuts the door behind him and climbs into his bed and goes to sleep. The twist on that tonight was that he laid in bed quietly after I left him then about 5 minutes later, he screamed for a minute and then slammed the door and was quiet. About 5 minutes after that, he opened the door and screamed for another minute at the gate and then slammed the door shut again. He did this about 4 times and now he has been quiet for about 45 minutes so I assume he is sound asleep at this point.

What a little stinker. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as he did it. I would have expected that sort of defiance from a teenager perhaps so it was quite amusing to see it come from a 2 year old!! Oh my sweet Jakey :-)

Philly Trip to Visit Family

Last Tuesday, the family (me, Paul, Jake, and Josh) took a trip to Philly (Lansdale, PA to be precise) to visit Paul's grandmother. This was the first time that Joshua got to meet his great grandmother! We were also able to visit with Paul's Aunt Ilsa (his grandmother's sister) so the boys got to meet their Great Aunt Ilsa as well! Jake loved climbing on Aunt Ilsa's walker and managed to hide quite a few of his nummys and one of his toy cars in the hanging pockets on the walker. He was very proud of himself.

After a couple hour visit there, we headed back down south and stopped in Wilmington, DE to have dinner with Paul's second cousin, John and his wife, Anna, and their 9 month old son, Owen. Owen is walking already so he and Jake had quite a good time playing. Jake was so thrilled to play with toys other than his own and he especially enjoyed the slide! Aunt Gege and Uncle John came over to visit with us and the boys as well.

After leaving around 9:30am, we made it back home around 11pm and we were exhausted! Thank goodness Paul was awake enough to make it all the way home because I fell asleep!! We had a great day visiting with family though. Pictures below!

DC Trip

Last Sunday, the whole fam (me, Paul, Jake, and Josh) ventured to DC with Nick and Chloe to walk around DC and see the memorials/monuments. Not like we haven't all seen them before but it was a great way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon. (And get lots of good exercise too!)

Chloe was quite the helper. She pushed the boys around in their double stroller ALL day! Paul and Nick and I all tried to offer to help or take over but she had it covered all on her own! She is going to make a great babysitter and a wonderful mom one day.

Enjoy pictures from the slideshow below!

Photographer Jake

Little Jake man has taken up a new hobby -- photography! He loves grabbing a hold of our camera and taking some candid shots! Below is some of his work photographing Daddy and Joshy and himself!!

(Camera for this birthday perhaps? At least then he will stop dropping ours on the ground!)

SLEEP

So the sleep saga with Jake continues..... BUT tonight was the first night that I have gotten him to go to sleep on his own in his toddler bed. Victory, perhaps?!? We'll have to see what the night brings. He did cry/scream/wail for about 45 minutes or so and I went in there 3-4 times to quickly console and tuck him back in. About 5 minutes after I came downstairs, it was dead silent. I thought for sure he fell asleep on the floor in his room. I waited about 10 minutes and I went upstairs to check on him and sure enough, he was sound asleep in his bed. Go Jakers!

Update from the next morning -- Jake slept through the night until 6:15am. Woo-hoo! And Joshua slept for 5 1/2 hours straight in his bassinet. Small victories are the sweetest!

4th of July Weekend!

We had a blast for the 4th of July weekend this year! (Except we wish Paul didn't have to work all weekend! Hopefully next year will be different.)

On Friday, I went to the Sheryl Crow concert at Wolf Trap with Allison, Gretchen, Eva, and Lauren. Great ladies night out and I even had two Coronas.... whoah!! (Look out, everyone.) While we were at the concert, Paul took Jake and Josh to South Riding for their 4th of July (3rd of July) celebration and saw fireworks there. The report back was that Jake got a kick out of the fireworks but he fell asleep halfway through them and Josh stopped fussing (he was probably hungry without me there) to watch the fireworks and then he started fussing again. Guess my boys like the boom-booms! (Which is great because Paul and I LOVE fireworks.)

On Saturday (the 4th), the boys and I went to the 4th of July parade in Fairfax City with Gma and Gpa Gunning (Paul's parents). Jake loved it! Josh slept through the whole thing. After the parade, Gretchen and Allison joined us to watch the volunteer fire department competitions. They do three different competitions that involve their fire hoses and water and basically the whole point is that all the kids get soaking wet and they love it! Jake included, who was nice and sopping wet by the end. Then we went back to the Gunnings for dinner and headed over to near Fairfax High School to watch their fireworks. We ended up not having the best spot to really be able to see them well but they had one heck of a grand finale!

On Sunday, the boys and I, along with Gma and Gpa Gunning, and Gretchen and Allison went to the Aunts for a BBQ dinner. This was Josh's first time meeting his Great Aunt Barbara and Great Aunt Judith! Paul got stuck at work selling a car that evening but at least it was a good deal with a little money involved :-)

All in all, great weekend and we were all exhausted by the end of it!

Picture above from the 4th of July festivities!

Josh's Bouncer Seat

As you can see from the videos below, Josh loooooves his bouncer seat! He will sit contently in that thing forever if you let him. He's 9 weeks old in these videos.

Two Months!

Today Joshua is two months old and he had his two month wellness check with his pediatrician. Healthy as a horse, of course! He had his first set of shots and he was a trooper. Even though I knew what to expect, I did of course get a little teary eyed when he screamed bloody murder when he got stuck with the needle three times. As soon as it was over, I picked him up and he calmed right down. I even got a smile about 2 minutes later! Here are the stats:

12 lbs. 2 oz. (62%)
23 1/4 in. (64%)
~50% for head size

Since Jake has always been about 30% for weight and 80% for height (on average), it will be interesting to see of Joshua maintains a slightly different body shape. I guess you could say that Josh is your average size 2 month old.... but not average to us in any other way ;-)

Josh has still maintained his sweet disposition. He is a pretty easy baby (and I am not just saying that). He has his fussy periods in the late afternoon/ early evening but I think I recently discovered that it's probably because he was ready to go to bed earlier than I was getting a chance to put him to sleep. Since it's usually just me at home with the boys in the evening, I always get so wrapped up in getting Jake situated for bed that poor Joshy wasn't getting to sleep until about 9:30 or 10pm. Tonight he was fast asleep at 8pm (and probably loving it). He is sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night so most of the time, I am really only waking up once at night to feed him. Needless to say, the sleep is nice! He still eats like a champ but definitely perfers nursing to anything else (what baby doesn't) but we're still working on getting him used to the bottle so his transition to daycare isn't too rough. Josh is also squealing and starting to laugh now! Yesterday I had him in his bouncer chair for a little bit and boy, oh boy, I don't think I have ever seen him so happy and animated! He entertained himself for a good 30 minutes by kicking his legs and cooing and squealing; he sounded like a little piggie! I think he got a kick out of watching the toys on the bouncer chair moving about.

We also celebrated today with me going in for an eye exam and ordering new glasses (so excited, yay!). I desperately need them and my last pair was about 7 years old and Jake just recently broke them... I tried contacts but I don't think they are for me. I'd rather just be able to take the glasses on and off as I need them. After the doctor's appointments, Paul and I took the boys to Splashdown water park in Manassas. Jake had a blast! He played in the toddler area and went down the little water slides about 20 times. He also rode on the lazy river with Paul and played a little bit in the regular pool. After two hours there, he was beat. Josh had a good time too. He and I mainly hung out and we talked and laughed together until he fell asleep for an afternoon snoozer.

Now it's time for Paul and I to clean out my car.... that should keep us occupied for a while. What a mess a two year old can make in the car!

Anniversary Weekend

This past Monday and Tuesday, Paul and I celebrated our second year wedding anniversary at the Gaylord National Resort at the National Harbor in Maryland. I put together a slideshow of our pictures in the posting below.

This was a surprise that I devised so all I told Paul was that I was picking him up at 4:30pm on Monday and we were off. My parents watched Jake for the night and his parents watched Josh for the night (god bless and thank you, thank you, thank you to both sets of grandparents!!). Paul was excited when we took the exit for National Harbor so I felt like I had done my job :-) I had been there once before in November for work but didn't really get a chance to explore the resort or the surrounding National Harbor.

While we were there, we ate at a couple amazing (and highly recommended) restaurants. For dinner on Monday was Moon Bay at the resort -- a modern seafood restaurant. We ate on the patio outside of the hotel and watched the sun set. We had a breakfast/brunch buffet at the resort on Tuesday morning -- at the Pienza Italian Market. For lunch on Tuesday, we ate at Rosa Mexicano which has an outdoor patio overlooking the Potomac. Before we left on Tuesday, we had dinner at Grace's Mandarin -- an elegant Asian restaurant (also great views of the Potomac).

Besides stuffing ourselves with great food, we walked around National Harbor to check out the shopping and real estate (had to visit the store called Jake's at National Harbor and Ben & Jerry's, of course!). On Monday night we went to the Pose Ultra Lounge on the 18th floor of the hotel. It has floor to ceiling windows so you have a spectacular view of Alexandria and DC. We also relaxed in the hotel's pool and hot tub as well and maybe most importantly, had 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

By Tuesday evening, I was ready to see the boys again but the 24 hour "vacation" was much needed and allowed both of us to recharge and really enjoy spending time with just the two of us. I think we'll make it an annual tradition to do something like this :-)