Easter

We had such a good Easter!  This is the first year that Henry really understood egg hunts and realized that the Easter Bunny left treats (sidewalk chalk, Texas Rangers tattoos, bath color tablets, and jelly beans) in his basket.  So fun.  We read the Easter story a few times this year.  He was really concerned about why everyone was crying, what Mary's name was, and why one disciple had a big nose.   He may have missed the point.

First he got to do an egg hunt with our Friday play date group at a friend's house.  The night before, we practiced the concept of looking for eggs and putting them in your basket when you find them.  There weren't any treats in the eggs, so he lost interest quickly.  At the real egg hunt, he realized there were treats inside, and stopped after every egg to open them, and try to convince me to give him the candy or stickers right then.  He ended up with 4 eggs at the first hunt, but was happy as can be.

He also had an egg hunt with his class at school.  We all sent in a dozen unstuffed eggs, and the teachers just threw them all over the playground floor.  The kids were interested for a few seconds, then just played on the playground. That's about how long 1 and 2-year old boys' attention spans are.

Then Easter morning he hunted eggs at church.  He still opened every egg and pleaded his case for the candy  inside ("Mama, open please!"), but did it a little more quickly.  It looks like he got a TON, but most of his basket was filled with grass, so he really got about 8 before I made him stop so others could have a turn.   :) I'm sad Sam didn't get to come to church because he crushed his big toe the day before, but we still had a lovely little Easter.

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Sawyer is 5 Months Old!

Sweet Sawyer is 5 months old!  He is such a happy guy.  He has the best laugh, makes a high-pitch squealing sound when he is excited, and has a huge gummy smile.  He has started talking a lot, and has a deep, raspy voice. 

His favorite toy is his feet.  He can be surrounded by toys, and prefers to play with is toes.  I don't blame them.  They're pretty sweet.  

He has not rolled over yet, and doesn't really seem to want to.  He is getting pretty good at sitting up, and still does not love tummy time.  He has started eating oatmeal cereal once a day, and still wakes up once at night to eat.  He sleeps in a bassinet in my closet which sounds a little crazy, but works for us for now!  It's dark, quiet, and doesn't wake up Henry when Sawyer cries at night.

At his 4 month appointment he was in the 16%ile for weight and 20%ile for height.  He seems to be getting a little chunkier, so I'm interested to see how much he weighs at his 6 month appointment.

Henry and Sawyer adore each other.  Sawyer watches Henry like a hawk, and always has his hands on him if Henry gets still enough.  Henry hugs and kisses his "Yaya" constantly, and brings him toys and his blanket.  He is still the first one to tell me if Sawyer is awake, and always says, "I'll get him!" when Sawyer wakes up from a nap.  I can't wait to see these two grow together!  We adore our little surprise Sawyer.

Welcome to my circus.

I decided to take the boys to the science museum after school today.  As I was telling Sam about our little outing, I realized how crazy I must look to others in public.  The boys and I are a travelling circus.  I should have that circus clown music following me around wherever I go.  The following events are all true, and happened in less than 1 1/2 hours today.  Just imagine what the rest of my life looks like.

Just getting everyone out of the car, one in a stroller, pacifier located, coats on, keys located, phone located, museum pass located, sippy cups in hand, making sure Henry keeps one hand on the car so he's not wandering around the parking lot, etc is a task.  Also, Henry really enjoys hopping right now.  ("I HOP, OK?!")  He has to hop everywhere instead of walk.  Two year olds do not walk fast.  Imagine how long it takes them to HOP 100 yards to the entrance of the museum.  And it's cold. And Sawyer hates being in the stroller, so he's screaming the whole time.  Cue the circus music.

We made it inside and looked in my wallet for my driver's licence because I have to show a photo id with my museum pass.  It's not in my wallet.  Or my purse.  Or the stroller.  Thankfully the ticket lady had the decency to break the rules and let me use another form of id.  I guess she just didn't have the heart to send the crazy sweaty lady with the hopping toddler and screaming infant back to the car to look for a driver's licence.  May the Lord bless her greatly.

Henry was able to stick his face over the huge blower machine (it's supposed to be used for learning about aerodynamics, but whatev.) for about 10 minutes before Sawyer ever so politely mentioned that he was hungry and could not last another moment without food before he wasted away to nothing.  So I dragged Henry away from the scientific face blower and found a nursing mom room (I wanna give a shout-out to the museum for having those rooms!).   I gave Henry a snack to keep him busy, and started feeding Sawyer.  Henry quickly finished his snack, and discovered that the lock on the nursing mom room was very much at 2-year old little boy height.  An actual real, working lock was just too much for his little engineering mind to handle.  He HAD to know the inner workings of that lock.  So I spent the rest of the time holding the door shut with my foot so that Henry did not fling the door open while Sawyer was in the middle of his mid-afternoon snack.

We were able to explore for about 4.35 minutes before I started smelling poop. Back to the mom room we go.  I had to put Sawyer back in the stroller so I could change Henry, so Sawyer began screaming.  Apparently Henry thought the changing table was covered in jagged shards of glass, because he screamed and squirmed the whole time I changed his poopy diaper.  Hands got washed, the lock was again investigated, and again we were able to enjoy the museum.

This time we made it about 9 minutes before I had to use the restroom.  I held Henry's hand, had Sawyer in my arms, pushed the stroller, and tried to find a bathroom.  I peed while holding Sawyer, and looked up from washing my hands in time to see Henry face-down on the bathroom floor, investigating the little drain in the floor. Oh my gosh.

15 minutes later.  Sawyer is angry.  This child cannot handle being wet or dirty for any length of time at all.  Back to the restroom we go.  Sawyer was changed, the lock was thoroughly investigated, and back into the museum we went.  Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you not keeping track, that's 4 bathroom trips in 45 minutes.  

There is a really cool Wizard of Oz exhibit there now, which I am sad that Henry and Sawyer could not fully appreciate because they have never seen the movie.  As I was running around, trying to get them excited about munchkins and yellow roads and stuff, a museum worker came up to me and asked if my child was missing a shoe.  Um, no, I totally would have noticed if my kid was running around without a shoe.  Then she proceeds to hold up Henry's shoe that she found on the floor several minutes ago.  My child was running around the science museum with only one shoe on, and I didn't even notice.  And the award for Mom of the Year goes to.....

The best part of the museum, second only to the face-blower, is the elevator.  I promised Henry we would ride the elevator before we left.  However, I did not know that the museum was holding a very formal, very nice reception in front of the elevator.  But a promise is a promise.  I held my head high and followed my hopping toddler to the elevator.  We rode up and down a couple of times, each time pausing long enough for the doors to open and let the fancy reception people get a good look at us before closing again and heading back up.

At this point the museum was closing and I was DONE.  We hopped back to the car and called it a day.  But what's so sad, is this is not an isolated occurrence, or a bad day,  this is every time we leave the house.  I feel like I have so few brain cells left, and the ones I do still have are barely hanging in there.  When Sam got home, he asked me where my car keys were.  Umm, my kid ran around a museum with one shoe missing today and I didn't notice. You think I have any idea where my car keys are?!?

 PS- they were in a little cubby in the rear passenger side door.  Where else would they be, Sam?!

Welcome to my circus.

Henry-isms

Henry is growing up so fast.  I needed to write down all his funny Henry-isms before I forget them all!  I have decided that 2-year old boys are the best little creatures in the universe...most of the time.  As I write this, he is in his play kitchen making up a ballad about chicken. ("Bok Cheeeeeeeee!  OHHHHH bok cheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!)

He talks ALL. THE. TIME.  We understand most of what he says.   Here are my favorite Henry words and their translation:
Chicken:  "Bok chee"  The sound a chicken makes, combined with the word chicken.  Obviously.
Coach and Sweetie:  "Gooch and Weewee"
Sawyer:  "Yaya"
Water:  "Lala"
Dad:  "Dam"  I secretly hope this one sticks.
Henry:  "Heenny"
The most common phrase we hear is "I do it!" He does not understand that he is two, and cannot do everything adults can do.  That is the source of 90%  of tantrums around here.  He also says "I funny", "Sawyer shy", "Sawyer sad", and "I found it!" a lot.

Some favorite Henry stories from the last couple of weeks:
*Last night Henry and I were at Wal Mart in line behind an Asian family with a baby in the cart.  Henry pointed to the baby and yelled, "Sawyer!  I found him!"
*Last week we were driving to school and I asked him if the sun was in his eyes.  He looked at me like I was stupid and said, "No, it outside."
*Henry's new favorite place is the Science Museum.  There part where you can experiment with wind and use different materials to play with aerodynamics.  Henry likes to stick his face over the blower.

 Henry has a few household chores right now.  He puts away the forks and spoons when I unload the dishwasher, cleans up his toys, and cleans the windows.  And he's so stinkin' cute doing it.

 We took a drawer out of the coffee table, and it has become his new favorite tv-watching spot.

Heading home from school, we were stuck in horrible traffic.  This is Henry's reaction to me wildly dancing and singing to the Toddler radio station.  He thinks his mom is hilarious.

 This is the outfit he chose for me to wear on Valentine's Day.

He loves feeding the ducks when we go on a walk.  He chases them around yelling, "DUCKS!!! COME HERE!!!!  EAT!"

This is the rooster he made during library toddler time.  He has a Picasso style about his crafts.

I told Henry to go brush his hair to get ready for church.  He came out wearing my headband and said, "I CUUUUTE!"   He also called the auto parts at Pep Boys cute.

This weekend he started sleeping in a toddler bed.  The first night was great, he didn't move a muscle.  The second night he played for a little while, then got quiet.  I checked on him about 2am and found him like this, sound asleep.

I love having someone to eat cookie dough in the kitchen floor with me.

Wearing his pig ears at the stockshow.

He thought eating spaghetti was hilarious.

*He constantly tries to find a way to get around our rules.  He was jumping on the couch, and I told him to stop jumping.  He did it again and said, "I hopped!"  He was using his wooden hammer and hitting the wall with it and I told him to stop hitting the wall.  He said, "Ok I hit the door."  Little stinker.

Sawyer is 4 Months Old

Sawyer is 4 months old!  He is such a happy little guy...as long as he is being held :)  He is very ticklish and laughs a lot.  His favorite song is Pat-a-cake.  Sawyer smiles all the time and watches his big brother very carefully.  He is 100% a mama's boy, which I'm really ok with right now.

We have started sleep training this week.  Sawyer was waking up every few hours throughout the night, and I was so worried that he would wake up Henry that I just fed him to make him happy and quiet.  He has been sleeping in his swing right beside our bed (or in bed with me!) and I decided he needs to learn to sleep in a crib.  I started lots of bad habits that needed to be broken.  I moved his bassinet into my closet so that Henry would not be able to hear Sawyer when he wakes up.  The first night in the closet was rough.  But he has the hang of it now, and only eats once at night.  I think he likes his dark, quiet closet now.  It may be his new home for the next several months.  I miss snuggling with my cuddly boy, so we still nap together :)

Sawyer is 3 Months Old!

Sawyer actually turned 3 months old a couple of weeks ago, I've just been really bad about blogging lately!  Here are a few pictures of this sweet, snuggly boy.

Sawyer loves being held and cuddling. He takes only takes long afternoon naps if he is curled up next to me in bed.  Sawyer has lots to say these days, and has started laughing when he gets tickled.  His favorite things are his elephant pacifier and his green blanket.  

Sawyer still eats every 3 hours, and is developing quite a few thigh rolls to show for it.  He goes to bed about 10:00 at night, and has been waking up every 3 hours to eat at night.  Mommy is ready for this growth spurt to be over!  

Getting photo bombed by big brother

Sawyer's best friend is Henry.  He loves to watch him and is pretty tough when Henry's love gets a little rough.  Henry always gives him hugs and kisses, and wants "Ya-ya" to be awake and playing at all times.  

Henry is TWO!!!

My little baby boy turned two Saturday.  I was ok when he turned one, because one still sounded little. But two sounds like a big boy. People always tell me how fast it goes, and there are so many little things you think you'll NEVER forget, but you do.  There are stages in Henry's life so far that I don't remember until I see it in pictures.  I'm doing my best to soak in and try to remember every minute with Sawyer, and every moment with Henry from here on, because I know I will never get this time back.  I will never again have a 2 year-old Henry to snuggle with, wrestle with, play cars and trains with, to sing with...it's so sad!  As frustrating and exhausting as he can be sometimes, he brings so much joy to our life.  He is so sweet to Sawyer, and is constantly kissing his head, giving him a pacifier, and sharing his blanket and toys. I love that when he does something kind for Sawyer, he says, "I NIIIIICE!"  He is the first to let me know when Sawyer is crying ("Sawyer sad!"), and the first thing he wants to see in the morning is his baby brother.  He has so many qualities that make him a difficult toddler, but will make him an awesome leader when he is an adult. He is independent, fearless, and does not change his mind easily.  He is not afraid to sing at the top of his lungs.  He has endless energy.  Just this morning Sam said, "How does he have this much energy in the mornings?"  He attacks the day full-force, and does not slow down until we make him go to bed.  Even then, he talks and plays for awhile.  Henry loves to see how things work.  He likes to take apart the vacuum cleaner and put it back together, and see the parts of his toys.  Henry likes to test everything out, which lands him in trouble sometimes :)  He wants to do everything himself ("I do it!").  I am interested to see how our silly, compassionate, strong-willed little boy grows into a man.  I know it will come too soon.  

And now, here are pictures from his party!  He loves trains, so we went with a train theme. 

His cake looked so cute.  It tasted like I imagine a kitchen sponge would taste.

For snacks, we served Henry's favorite foods.  Chick-fil-a nuggets, chips, salsa, fruit, and
pigs in a blanket that we could not serve because I burned them in the oven :)

He ate his weight in nuggets

Blowing out his two candles 

Luckily, it was pretty that day so we could all go outside

I know this is not birthday-related, but this is a rare picture of my whole family!  I have not seen my brother and his wife since August, and they drove all the way from Sonora to come to Henry's party.