Talking, Smiling, and Counting

Spud is now 8 weeks old and growing so fast! I think she may be 10 pounds. Just last night she wore 3-6 month pajamas! She smiles a lot and is "talking" to us, coos and ohs, it's so cute. She can see farther, too, and doesn't go cross-eyed nearly as much as she used to. She also likes to look in the mirror and will smile and talk to herself. She has been waking up twice each night to eat but will fall asleep eating and I'm able to put her back in the crib right after she eats so I'm only up about 40 minutes for each feeding.

Bud is doing well, too, although seems to be a bit emotional lately. When he doesn't get his way he cries and whines. Hopefully he'll grow out of this quickly! He had a first this past Sunday - he went in his pool barefoot! This kid never goes without his socks; he usually wears them with his swim shoes in the pool but this time he took his socks off before I put the shoes on then he decided to take the shoes off when he got in the pool. He's really into catching bugs & putting them in the bug box right now. He also wants to help get meals ready which he can't always do depending on what we're fixing. He is very good at husking corn, though! We had sweet corn twice in the past week and I had him clean it for me. Sunday he was husking on the deck and I was inside getting the rest of the meal ready. He told me he was done and when I looked out to see what he was doing he was sitting at the table eating an ear of the corn - raw! I called my mom to make sure he wouldn't get sick and she said it was fine, he just might not digest it very well. He ate almost the whole ear then started on another one. Another thing he is getting good at is counting things correctly. He's been able to count almost to 20 (he misses a few in the teens), but now he actually knows the amount and assigns a number to each item. Before he would count things but count something twice, so if there were 4 things he'd count 6, etc.

Spud got some new playmates! Our friends had twin boys almost 2 weeks ago but they were 7 weeks premature. We visited them on Sunday and they are the tiniest babies we have ever held! They were 3 lbs. 14.5 oz and 4 lbs 10 oz. and are improving every day. It's hard to believe that B and my brothers were that size when they were born. It will be fun having playdates with them. And Spud has a new cousin born yesterday to B's cousin and his wife, a boy. They live in London right now so Spud and him won't get to play much until they come back to the States in a few years. And we found out that cousin Tig is going to have a baby brother! Seems to be a lot of boy babies being born this year.

Bud is going to be spending the next week and a half with his grandparents. I'm sure he'll have lots of fun but we're going to miss him! Hopefully he won't miss us too much. :o)

K

New Baby

You'll notice the new title for the blog - Bud and Spud's Adventures - because our baby girl was born May 28th! For lack of a better nickname we'll call her Spud on the website and this blog, courtesy of her uncle CPT. Today is my first day back at work therefore I have time to write a new entry. :-) Things went well this morning taking both the kids to their respective daycares and I even got to work on time. We took Spud to her daycare for the first time on Monday just for the afternoon while the three of us went to the pool! Bud had a blast (eventually there will be pictures on the website). And yesterday B and I took Spud to daycare for the afternoon while we saw Pirates of the Caribbean (very good movie!).

Besides taking care of the new baby, we've been very busy lately. Zach and Nicole were married on Saturday and Bud partied til almost midnight. It was a beautiful wedding and we all had a great time at the reception.

On July 2nd we got a call from the Connecticut family telling us they were in Iowa! A surprise visit. They came and saw us on Monday and then we went to Mom & Dad's on the 4th and spent more time with them. It was Spud's first overnight visit and it went well. Bud and cousin Tig had a great time playing together and Bud misses her. :-( I'm not sure I've mentioned it, Tig is going to get a baby brother or sister around Thanksgiving!!

Baby Spud is doing very well, growing and eating great. Just this morning she was smiling a lot and cooing after I fed her. She wakes up once or twice during the night to eat and slept through the night this past Saturday after the wedding! Two other times she went 7 hours between feedings at night but it was from 7:30-2:30 so it technically wasn't through the night. Bud slept through the night for the first time when he was 2 1/2 months old and then for good when he was 8 months. I am hoping Spud will sleep through the night earlier than that! She is bigger than Bud was and that should help. I'm really looking forward to watching her grow and develop but at the same time I know how fast the time is going to go that she is just a baby! Bud really loves his baby sister and helps out when he can. He likes to sing to her or give her the pacifier when she's crabby and he gives her lots of hugs and kisses. I can't believe he's going to be 3 in less than 2 months and B and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary tomorrow!