Roberts Family Blog

Let me just tell you all that I spent over an hour last night updating this blog, and something went wrong and I LOST it all!! So frustrating. I don't really have time to update today, but I'm going to try so I don't let all my memories from the trip fade into oblivion....

Let me start with the day before we were scheduled to leave for the trip. On Friday I took Pierce back to the doctor to get the all clear on his health. The doctor had indicated on Tuesday that if Pierce didn't improve (wheezing and ear infection), that it might not be safe to travel on a plane. Well....honestly Friday rolled around and he was in great spirits and seemed much improved. So the doctor's appointment seemed a mere formality. Not so. Raging ear infection still, and a wheezy chest. WHAT?!?!

Immediately I knew that air travel was NOT going to happen for our little sick man, and at that point I went into super planner mode, trying to figure out how we were all going to get to Colorado safely. Talk about throwing a wrench in the plans!

To be on the safe side, I dragged little Hayden into the doctor an hour later to have his ears checked, figuring that if the antibiotics weren't working for Pierce, that perhaps they also weren't working for Hayden. Bingo - he still had a raging ear infection as well. Futhermore, his chest sounded wheezy!! That poor little boy has been dreaming and talking about going on an airplane for a MONTH now, and I had to try to explain why that was no longer going to happen.

So by now it is 3 pm on Friday afternoon, and it is clear that we are NOT going to be on our noon flight the next day. American Airlines, after a lot of negotiating, was willing to waive the change fees for our flights, which I changed from roundtrips to one-ways home. Then Nate got online and booked a rental car one-way from Dallas to Denver to the tune of a very high and unpleasant price. By 7 pm we were in the car with two little boys and were on our way to Denver - ROAD TRIP!

Let me just say, I don't think I have EVER stayed up all night before. Not fun. Also, we had conveniently blocked out the fact that there was a major winterstorm and ice storm that had just hit Oklahoma, and 2 hours into our trip we were down to 20 mph and driving on a complete sheet of ice. Terrifying. For literally about 150 miles we moved at a maximum of 40 mph, and poor Nate white-knuckled that steering wheel through some very trecherous road conditions. We passed into Kansas onto the tollway at about 2 am, and although the weather conditions had not improved, the road conditions luckily had, and we were able to move safely at a reasonably high speed. Thank god! Otherwise I think we probably would have thrown in the towel and pulled over to a hotel.

Well after a long overnight of listening to Dr. Laura on satellite radio, and drinking about 8 redbulls, we finally pulled up to Denver International Airport to pick up my parents (who took the flight we were supposed to be on!).  We actually beat them, so Hayden was able to watch airplanes take-off and land for about an hour, which was a total bonus   Then off we went to the mountains. As usual, pulling up to Grand Timber Lodge was thrilling, knowing that our week ahead would be full of great family memories and fun snowy experiences, and the unit we got this year was the best ever, with a great view of snow-capped peaks and trees. Nate and I kept thinking of how wonderful it would be to wake up to that view out your bedroom window each morning!

Even though we were there a whole week, it just seems like it flew by! Some of the best memories were made with our friends and family who came up to visit. Since we used to live in Fort Collins, and Nate's entire family lives in the Denver area, we always have a lot of people we want to spend time with, and my parents are generous enough to share their time and space! This year we had two of our good friends and their significant others up to ski with us for a few days, which was AWESOME! And as luck would have it, Nate's mom and sister and our nephew were able to come spend an evening with us too. Hayden just loved playing with his cousin Liam who is a year younger, especially after a whole week with no friends around - just adults! And he was literally so excited to see his mammaw that he was like dancing a jig and smiling so big I thought his smile would crack his face!  He was just THRILLED!!  He wouldn't let her out of his sight, and I'm pretty sure she got enoug hide and seek in to last a lifetime LOL.  So good times all around.

However, for me the absolute highlight of the trip was seeing Hayden ski for the first time, and be as passionate about the sport as I am at such an early age. It thrilled me and gave me a glimpse into the future and all the fun we will have as a family on the mountain. It also gave me a glimpse into my past LOL in that I never had any idea how hard my parents worked to get us on the slopes! As you can imagine, a child is fairly incapable of literally walking in ski boots, let alone carrying gear! It was exhausting, but totally worth it.

We started out by just taking Hayden to the ski rental shop to see if he even wanted to try some gear on. You never know with him, and we certainly did not want to force the issue at 2 1/2 years old. But I should never have doubted him. He was the absolute life of the ski shop that morning - telling everyone how he was going to go on the chairlift and ski down the mountain, complete with hand motions showing him wooshing down the slope LOL. And sure enough as soon as we got his gear all fitted, he wanted to immediately try it out, so we set him up in a snow bank next to our condo to give it a shot. LOVED IT! Cried when we took the skis off. He demonstrated a pretty keen ability to balance in the skis, so later that afternoon we took him to practice on a gentle sloping run near our condo. We were all hooked up with one of the those "wee-ones" child harness systems, and off we went! "Faster daddy faster" was all we heard the whole first time down the hill....while I trudged along with a camera and Pierce on my back in the baby-backpack. Well we got to the bottle of the hill and he was just buzzing with excitement, telling us "let's ski again mommy!". Thus began our arduous journey back to our condo (via shuttle since I was scared to put him on the lift so soon). Obviously, because why not, Hayden needed to go potty before our next run, so the clothes ALL had to come off, and back on again, while Pierce tried to patiently wait in his hot snowsuit in the backpack. Ugh. But we eventually made it back out for a second run where I skied this time and Nate lugged the big babykins along on his back LOL. Tons of work. Super fun!!

In fact, it was so successful that we hesitantly decided to take him on the real slopes on our last day in Breckenridge. I was super scared about the lift, but we found the beginner section of the mountain, and although it was a high-speed 6 person lift, it boarded so slowly that it would have been impossible to mess it up. Thus we were off, all the while with Hayden exclaiming that we were flying, and his daddy and I clinging to him for dear life! But he didn't wiggle at all, and seemed to understand that it was important to sit still on the lift. It was actually smooth sailing on and off! We did the whole route twice around, with his cruising down the hill like a pro and constantly telling me to go faster LOL. He continued to balance well on the skis, although he clearly had no concept of turning or stopping - those skills he will hopefully learn next year when he is old enough to attend ski school. But let me tell you, Nate and I were both beyond proud of that little man, who braved the cold and wind, and uncomfortable ski boots and googles and helmets, all with a complete smile and sense of adventure. I cannot wait to see what all he accomplishes next year, and I'm fairly certain he'll be hitting the double blacks with Nate and I before we know it LOL. And I'm sure he'll ski them better than his out-of-practice/shape parents

In addition to skiing for the first time, Hayden and Pierce both loved the free gondola that "flew" from town up to peaks 7 and 8 on the mountain. My mom generously offered to watch the kids so I could ski, and this was their daily activity - brave woman to do it alone!! We also did a ton of delicious cooking, some hot-tubbing and swimming, and had a few nights on the town (although these were few and far between given the fact that I do have a 10 month old and 2 1/2 year old LOL).

Pierce seemed to grow up on this vacation - completely perfecting his fledgeling skills of clapping, waving, and crawling. Additionally, he learned the phrase "uh oh" from my friend Stacey, and can't get enough of it (while repeatedly dropping something from his high chair to the floor of course). And now since we've been home for two nights he's been playing peekabo with us using blankets, towels, and hiding behind furniture and then popping out. SO CUTE! He's like a little toddler now instead of a baby. Of course we managed to have our camera stolen out of our un-locked car in the driveway just before our trip so I have NO VIDEO of all these cute behaviors...but hopefully we'll fix that soon by getting a new camera.

And as a final note to end this post, I'd like to thank my parents for hosting us for this trip.  As always, it was our favorite week of the year, and I can't thank them enough for their generosity and their absolute devotion to their grandchildren so that Nate I could enjoy ourselves on the slopes and in the hot-tub, and with our friends who came to visit.  I'm fairly certain that my kids are in grandparent withdrawl now that they are home, after all the fabulous attention they got all week.  So big kisses and thank you!

Well this post has turned into a doozy! I have so much more to write about Hayden and potty training (total success lately), and Pierce's feats of growing up, but I'm going to have to call it a day.

Today we got a recipe for playdough from a friend, and it saved the day!  It was just one of those days that seemed to drag on forever and no one was having much fun.  Pierce is getting his top teeth, and is still recovering from a cold and ear infection, so he was a crabby mess, and Hayden is also mending from an illness, so he was equally disagreeable.  Meanwhile, I was having a very busy work day and wasn't devoting to them the attention they deserved.  Did I mention also that it rained ALL DAY?!  By the time 5 o'clock rolled around and Nathan got home, I was more than ready to run out for a bit, and playdough ingredients were the perfect excuse!

After dinner we broke out the recipe and Hayden got to choose two colors to make - and he chose yellow and blue.  Our little helper measured out, poured, and mixed up the ingredients, then watched as we heated them over the stove.  Finally, we put the mixtures into plastic bags to knead until they were smooth, and eventually we broke up the batches and added more food coloring to create orange, green, and purple.  FUN!  Hayden just had a ball and played with this play dough for over an hour, and we saw more smiles in that hour than we had all day, so it was very rewarding.  A perfect end to a somewhat challenging day.  Thank you for the recipe Andrea!!

Little PJ is quite the crawling machine now WOW!  I am dying to take a video, but unfortunately our camera was stolen out of our truck on Monday night!  I was shocked because I've always thought of our neighborhood as safe....but I guess I was being niave.  Anyway, he has taken off and it's quite interesting to see the pickles he's managed to get himself into.  He crawls under chairs and can't get out, beelines for outlets and cords, and has already managed to put everything he shouldn't into his mouth (today I found an old leaf).  He's certainly keeping me on my toes!  In an attempt to relieve everyone's boredom today, I agreed to an impromtu afternoon bathtime party.  I began to draw the bath while Pierce was still out in the living room playing with toys.  After about 2 minutes I came back out to get him, and lo and behold the lil stinker was well on his way to the sound of the running water, and was halfway to me in the foyer!  It was so so so cute.  He wasn't about to miss bathtime!  Here are some photos of his crawling over to the train table and pulling himself up to play.

Well needless to say we are all more than ready to head to the mountains on Saturday!  I can't wait to leave work behind for a whole week, and to see the joy in Hayden's eyes as he sees snow and puts skis on for the first time, and to watch Pierce explore his new condo and get into trouble LOL.  We are going to see some good friends and family while up there, and just get to spend time together without any of the stresses of regular life.  COUNTING THE MINUTES!!

Hey all! We continue to operate under sick house mode. After giving PJ breathing treatments around the clock for 24 hours, he woke up yesterday seemingly much improved to me. He was alert, with great color, and lots of laughs and smiles. Therefore, I was really expecting a great outcome at his re-check yesterday afternoon at the doctor's office. Well....she immediately agreed that he looked ten times better than two days ago, but unfortunately his lungs still sounded "crackly and wheezy". Her recommendation was to continue the frequent breathing treatments, and to bring him back him before we leave our trip. Apparently if the wheezing hasn't resolved itself by then it might not be a good idea to take him on a plane. But she did feel that the natural progression of this illness would place the peak of symptoms the past two days, and things should be improving a lot before Saturday. I sure hope so!

Unfortunately Hayden seems to be a few days behind Pierce and he is definitely at the peak of his symptoms right now. Poor little dude. Last night he kept waking up from coughing and he'd just lay in his bed crying and calling for me. Finally at midnight I set up the air mattress in his room and just laid there with him to comfort him when I needed to. That cough was really intense! So we are taking him back to the doctor this morning I want to make sure that there is no ear infection starting, and that his lungs are still clear. I am sooooo ready for this illness to leave our house! Here are some photos of my guys doing their breathing treatments.

And here is a funny one of H eating his breakfast under his art table

Pierce, despite being sick, continues to excel at crawling and I'm totally in a whole new world suddenly!  Last night he crawled right over to the fireplace and starting playing with the doors of it, and then he got over to his dehumidifier and was pulling on the cord.  Oh lord....what are we in for LOL!  But I love his newfound independence and freedom.

And I do have a funny Hayden story from last night. After we put Hayden to bed, I heard some rummaging around in his room but I figured he was getting books or toys to bring into bed with him. I said to Nate, "I wonder what he's doing in there" but we both kind of shrugged it off. Well a few minutes later Nate went to check on him and I heard him saying "oh no buddy, oh the fish can't eat that much food, oh no", so I went in there and Hayden had gotten his stool from the bathroom and pulled it up to the dresser, had opened the top of the tank, and had proceeded to feed like half the container of fish food to the fish. Oh my gosh - SO FUNNY!!! Nate I were struggling not to burst out laughing.  There was fish food EVERWHERE! It was like a fishy buffet gone wrong LOL. They were in a frenzy and there is Hayden just calmly feeding them on his step stool, so proud of himself. Well we had to suction out all the food and refill the tank and it was just a major ordeal, but man was it FUNNY. Poor kiddo just trying to help.  Needless to say, the fish food will now be stored in a very high place!  But we both agreed that it is cute to see him try to take care of his little animals. 

Well sickness has firmly come to our home.  I feel like we have been in and out of sickness ALL winter between the four of us and I'm good and ready for it to be over. 

Last night we decided that we would take Pierce to the doctor first thing because his cough was sounding wheezy.  Then during the night Hayden got up several times and needed some rocking and cuddling, and he felt very feverish and his cough and runny nose had ramped up.  So we got the joy of a joint doctor's appointment this morning, and thankfully my mom was free to come along with me, because it ended up being quite a long one.  Hayden was checked out first (he insisted - he knows exactly what to do with all the equipment and tells the nurse so!), and she deemed it just a cold with no cause for major concern.  Unfortunately Pierce was a whole different story.  She said his chest sounded "wheezy and crackly and gurgly" - none of which is good!  She diagnosed him with bronchiolitis.  What is that you ask?  Well....

"Bronchitis is inflammation of the large airways in the chest and pneumonia is inflammation of the lung. Bronchiolitis is inflammation of the smaller airways connecting the two.  Bronchiolitis is usually a viral infection. RSV is responsible for the illness in most children."

So....my little man mostly likely has RSV (although he wasn't tested b/c the nurse said the treatment plan was the same no matter what the underlying virus was), which has turned into bronchiolitis and potentially pneumonia.  So we had to hang out at the doctor's office for two hours today while he got breathing treatments and his oxygen levels were then checked.  This poor little guy does NOT like breathing treatments, however we are giving them to him every 2 to 4 hours for the next two days at least. 

The worst part is that he has also been dealing with a double ear infection!!  This poor child.  So he is on antibiotics for that, which will also hopefully fend off the pneumonia if it develops.

This is such a nasty virus!  All of my friends kids are down and out too with varying degrees of severity.  I am VERY much hoping that everyone gets well soon, and that my boys are healthy when we board our plane on Saturday.  

Ok.  I am just going to admit this even though it pains me - I am a slob!  I have turned into a "mom who doesn't shower" until 4 pm in the afternoon.  My moment of awakening came late last week and wow it really made me take a look at myself in the mirror and question some of my habits of late.  It all happened because, in typical "me" fashion, I completely forgot that I had volunteered to bring a sick friend dinner, and it was just past lunch time and if I was going to have a meal prepared and delivered by dinner, I was going to need to go to the grocery store asap.  So I grabbed the kids out of their high chairs and headed to Target.  After running like a lunatic through the store grabbing items I needed, I was standing in line to check out.  In the meantime I had noticed chunks of macaroni and cheese in Hayden's hair, and definite smudges of sweet potatoes on Pierce's cheeks.  Additionally, I was dressed in my uniform of yoga pants and a sweatshirt, with a greasy ponytail and flip flops.  No make-up (except perhaps smudges from yesterday's mascara).  Not cute.  Just yeah.....yuck.

After loading my groceries on the belt and trying to keep my patience with Hayden who was grabbing candy bars and toys off the rack in the check-out lane, I glanced behind me to see one of the CUTEST pregnant girls I have ever seen.  Totally stylish and put together from head to toe.  Her designer maternity pants and high-lighted locks were capped off by a look a sheer terror on her perfectly made-up face!  Now she could have been thinking one of two things, either "Oh my god what have I gotten myself into", or "I will NEVER let myself go like that after I have my baby", neither of which bodes well for me LOL.  I just felt my cheeks redden, and I thought my god, it's 1 pm in the afternoon and I looked like I just rolled out of bed.  This is just not acceptable!!

In my defense, I do have a rather hectic routine in the morning that doesn't lend itself to a long and drawn out beauty regime.  Typically I am up around 6:30 am to feed Pierce, and while he goes back to sleep for another hour or two, I will get to work while the house is quiet and peaceful.  Once the kids get up I am making breakfasts, getting them dressed, etc, and then by 9 am I am typically in meetings for work.  However, I am going to turn over a new leaf of at least showering first thing in the morning and perhaps even putting on some light make-up and blow-drying my hair.  The fact that my boss recently instated a web-cam policy for our team meetings, and jammies aren't part of the RMS dress code, is going to help me keep this habit up I'm sure!  Undoubtedly this will help me feel more professional and polished, as opposed to a sloppy mom with no sense of hygiene!  Ok there, rant over!!  On to kids stuff!

So....both my little men are sick with coughs and runny noses!  Pierce seems to be suffering more than Hayden at this point, but luckily it hasn't affected either of their sleep or eating habits.  They are both just a bit whiny and uncomfortable.  I'm just thankful that we are getting this out of the way this week, instead of next week in Colorado.  Now Nate and I just need to stay healthy!!

And drum roll please, Pierce is crawling!!  Although he has been practicing for awhile now, just finally yesterday he took a few small crawls across the living room - REAL crawls!  Now of course today he is weak and crabby from being sick, and won't repeat his feat, but what can you do?  I'm excited to see him take off once he is healthy again.

And another drum roll please, Hayden is potty trained!  Ok I'm totally jinxing myself, but ever since my whining post about potty training last week, he has been doing FABULOUS!  Rare accidents, and no fear at all about going brown.  In fact, he probably wants to go too often now that he has the hang of it LOL.  I'm very proud of him, and feeling like the hard work has paid off.  It's very nice to not have to change him or buy diapers anymore (for him atleast!).

I will leave you all with some photos of the boys from this weekend.  It was low-key in preparation for our big vacation coming up in 6 days YAY!

Here we are starting to pack with a little help from the boys

A little Sunday afternoon relaxing time in the Fort I made for him while he watched some "shows"

Let's paint!  My little budding artist loves the bingo markers my mom got him for Christmas.

And look who we found on the shelf in our closet when we were cleaning and re-organizing LOL.  Hayden has always loved to get up here, and it looks like Pierce is following suit.

Hello everyone!  Well we are home from our much anticipated Oklahoma trip and it was fabulous!  I've debated blogging the details, but I've decided just to summarize the trip in Hayden's words instead

We drove for about 2 1/2 hours before we passed over the Red River indicating we were in Oklahoma.  For the whole first 2 1/2 hours Hayden kept asking us "are we in Oklahoma??".  Once we passed into Oklahoma it became "YAY mommy we are in Oklahoma!".  Can you tell we have been prepping him LOL.  I wonder what he thought Oklahoma was?

The first night, as I was getting him ready for bed, after a great evening of food and fun and friends, I asked him if he was having fun.  His answer, "mommy this is the best place in the whole wide world!".  Aww....cue heart melting!

We woke up early on Saturday morning, and instead of crawling into my arms as he usually does, he insted padded right over to the door and very matter of factly told me, "mommy I go see all my friends" and proceeded to head out into the living room!  He's no dummy - he knew that Ryan, Keegan, and Jack were better company than me in the morning! 

The green porch swing on our cabin's deck was like a beacon for little toddler boys, and all of them kept pushing it until it would rebound and knock them over, at which point tears would ensue.  Finally, after a particularly bad fall by Jack which resulted in him sobbing and having to head inside with his mommy for some hugging, I had to intervene and tell the boys that the green swing is not a toy, and they can sit on it, but not push it.  Well...my son quickly became the swing patrol.  Every time one of his friends would go near the swing, he would quickly tell them, "that swing is NOT a toy!".  It was super funny - he wasn't taking any chances because he was pretty shaken up seeing Jack's fall and tears.  He even thanked God, "for that green swing that is not a toy" during his evening prayers.  It clearly made an impression!

Hiking was Hayden's number one priority on this trip, despite the fact that it rained cats and dogs practically the whole time!  He would come up to me regularly saying, "mommy let's go hiking!".  So really, I just gave up on him being warm, clean, or dry, and we tramped around in the woods near our cabin, played hide and seek behind the trees, and had a fabulous time overall.  Hide and seek is a concept he is slowly learning to grasp, but all weekend I would count to 10 and he would hide (he was good at that part) and as soon as I yelled "here I come" he would pop out of his hiding spot and yell "mommy here I am" with glee!  I have to teach him to stay quiet and hidden LOL.  But it was really cute.

The whole weekend was a roaring success - with kids that slept well (Pierce slept through the night both nights), happy and well behaved toddlers, and parents who were super enthused to be able to spend some time relaxing together in the evenings after the kids went to bed.  My secret fear before going was that we were all going to wake up that first morning and look at each after getting no sleep and think "what the heck were we thinking??" and then have to soldier through the remaining day and night.  I couldn't have been more off base and the weekend was just wonderful all around.  I will hold tight to these memories and I'm hopeful that Hayden will as well!

I do have a few newsy items to blog about quickly before I end this entry for the day.  First of all, I have to share the news (well shout the rooftops actually) that Pierce is officially sleeping through the night!  Suddenly sometime in the past 10 days some sort of flip switched in his brain or something, because he went from waking 2 or 3 times a night, to sleeping 10-12 hours straight.  Now don't get me wrong, we occasionally have to let him fuss himself back to sleep in the middle of the night, but the crying is short-lived, and he's peacefully sleeping in no time.  I'm just thrilled to have reached this new milestone with him, and I feel like my whole outlook on life is improved by simply getting better sleep at night.  He is also a much happier little guy in general, and it seems like he learns some new skill each day with his newfound energy.  He is clapping now like a pro (see the video below) and it is by far his favorite thing to do (that and giving high-fives....and he's also experimenting with a little wave).  He is still "this close" to crawling (which I guess means he wasn't that close before LOL) and I keep expecting him every day to just motor across the room!  But alas he continues to just scoot and roll, but we'll get there.  Love that little fuzzy peach so much!!

Potty training continues to be the bane of my existence currently.  Ok yes I'm being dramatic, but potty training is one of the hardest things I've undertaken as a mother and I sometimes wonder whether I am up to the task!  Like all things with parenting, in general any failure on the child's part is truly a parenting failure, and nothing could be truer than with potty training.  If I had blogged 3 days ago, that would have been my low point.  He had started having more wet accidents, and was still refusing to do "brown" on the toilet, and Nate and I were both starting to wonder if we should just throw in the towel for now.  Then I realized it was really my fault, because he would have a good day, and then the next day I would relax my regiment and instead of insisting on him going potty before and after every outing or meal or sippy cup, I would wait for him to tell me he needed to go.  Well...he's just a little guy and I think sometimes the urge comes before he realizes he needs to get to the bathroom.  I NEED to just keep up the routine and consistency.  Every since I took on this new mentality, the past few days have been much better, and he has also miraculously overcome his fear of going brown.  In fact, his fear has turned to fascination.  Yesterday I think we spent a grand total of about 50 minutes on the toilet while he did his thing - typical man right?!   My patience level for this drawn-out time on the toilet is low, but I am going to just suck it up because it's such a great break-through.  I am determined to stick with it and facilitate this success for Hayden.

Ok, speaking of Hayden, my little prince just woke up and is in my lap, which makes typing hard!  More later   Good bye!

Hey all.  This weekend we are taking a little weekend trip to Broken Bow, Oklahoma.  Ahh....just what we need.  A little getaway!  Picture me sipping wine on the veranda with a good book, listening to the sounds of nature.  And by book I mean "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by sounds of nature I mean 4 wild monkey toddlers, and by wine I mean lots and lots of coffee LOL.  We are loading up the truck with lots of baby toys and heading out to meet up with 3 other families at a cool little cabin in the woods and mountains of Oklahoma.  In addition to 4 toddler boys, there are also going to be 5 babies.  The adults are out-numbered on this trip thanks to a pair of twins!  And of these 9 kids, only ONE is a girl!  I think we'll have to organize some sort of flag football game with all the boys.  So despite the fact that this will obviously not be a relaxing trip, I think we are just going to have a blast hanging out with all our good friends.  The house looks spacious, and there is a playground for the kids and a hottub for the adults for after bedtime.  Our friend Bryan brewed a bunch of beer for the trip, and we are all taking turns cooking the meals.  So today is a big grocery shopping trip and lots of packing, and then we are OFF first thing tomorrow   Here's hoping the kids sleep well and that the trip is as fun as we are anticipating. 

I also just wanted to throw in a little video of Pierce playing his favorite game - bouncing between his Laugh and Learn table and his little chair.  Growing up!

Today was PJ's 9 month check-up with Dr. Kelkar (wow time is flying).  Through a serious of unfortunate events (ie at Grammy's house with no paci), he managed to make it until his noon appointment with no nap!  Yikes - so I was prepared for the worst in terms of tired baby crabbiness.  But my little peach surprised me and was a social butterfly and full of smiles and giggles for the doctor and nurse.  She proclaimed him "perfect" and all the nurses were oohing and aahing over his pretty blue eyes, which of course makes me proud   Dr. Kelkar wasn't worried at all about his lack of crawling and thought that he was super sturdy on his legs when standing and that perhaps he might go straight to walking in a few months.  Only time will tell!  She was very impressed that he is saying "mama" and "dada" in association with us. The best part of the appointment was that he didn't need any shots, so we arrived with a smile, and left with one too!

Now, on to the cool part.  Pierce has always been a little, shall we say, sturdier than Hayden was.  Well he has been slowing thinning out as he's gotten more active, and he weighed in at a respectable 22 pounds even today, at a length of 30 inches.  After consulting Hayden's baby book when we got home, I was shocked to see that Pierce is exactly the same size that Hayden was at this age, down to the pound and inch!  How cool!  These measurements correspond to the 90th percentile for height (another tall boy), and 50-75th percentile for weight.  I don't know....I may not be able to call him chubbikins wubbikans any longer! 

Hayden 9 months                                          Pierce 9 months

Wow.  I've come to realize something recently.  It happened one afternoon last week, when PJ called to me from his room after a nap.  Hayden perked up right away and said, "mommy baby Pierce is up, let's go get him!".  So we ran into his room, Hayden climbed up to lean over the crib rail, and he exclaimed "Hi Wubby!".   And it sunk in.  I am that mom who spent months and months coming up with the perfect name for our little bundle of joy, and he probably won't be called by it until he goes to college because I am just such a nicknamer!  And dear grammy is better.  Between the two of us this child will grow up with major name confusion!  Here are a few of the most common names for our little lovy.

Chubbikins Wubbikins - which was an ode to his very chubby legs at about 3 months, and of course we couldn't just call him Chubbikins - it had to have a cute little rhyming ending.  Recently this has been morphing into Chubby Wubby, Chubby Boo, or just Wubbs, Wubby (hence Hayden's greeting above), or Wubsy.

Fuzzbucks - Directly connected to the fact that I often put him to bed or down for a nap after a shower or bath, and he wakes up with the fuzziest blonde head you have EVER seen, and usually there are little tufts sticking out here and there.  Sooooooo cute.  Fuzzbucks is my after-naptime snuggler

Monster - this is what daddy calls him....well....simply because sometimes his personality lends itself to this nickname!  He can be quite stubborn and impatient sometimes.  Of course it is meant in a purely endearing way

Peej - just an easier, shorter version of PJ, which, you know, is an easier, shorter version of Pierce Jeffrey.  Yes....apparently we are lazy!  We have to abbreviate an abbreviation..... 

I was a notorious nicknamer with Hayden too.  Most notable (and still sticking) are H-town, H-man, Haydenator, and Hayds.  Luckily for him we've moved on from Heinie Dumpty (he used to call himself Heinie instead of Hayden and we couldn't resist), and his infant name of chunky monkey ;)

So, now that the fact of the matter is clear, what remains to be seen is whether I'll actually start calling them by their given names!?  We shall see

Ok, first things first, the new background is in honor of our annual ski trip to Colorado that is coming up in three short weeks!  I keep asking Hayden if he is ready to go on an airplane to Colorado and he tells me , "no mommy, I'm going to fly on an airplane to see mountains and ski!".  Apparently he thinks of Colorado as the place where he sees his mammaw and cousins, and the idea of mountains and skiing being part of that hasn't yet sunk in!  It all goes together   But I'm SO excited for the trip.  It's always one of my very favorite weeks of the year.  My parents have a timeshare at this beautiful ski-in/ski-out mountainside resort in Breckenridge, and this will be our 5th year going!  Imagine skiing all day, warming by the fire with a hot cocoa spiked with some warming alcoholic agent, then a dip in the outdoor hot-tub, a nice home cooked meal in our cozy condo while the snow falls outside, ending with a rousing game of cards in our flannel pajamas.  Perfection!  My mom has generously retired her skis to watch the boys during the day so that Nate and I can hit the slopes.  This year we have a couple of good friends who live in Colorado coming up to share a few days with us, and I'm just counting down the minutes to this trip!  So....that explains the new background

Well I have to post about my little Pierce, who is making changes every day!  He is "this close" to crawling!!  He will regularly tip forward and up onto his hands and knees and rock back and forth a bit, but then he goes splat on his tummy and gets frustrated.  He is able to scoot backwards a bit, and he can spin on his tummy and roll with great skill, so generally he can get where he wants to go.  But his true joy in life is standing!  I will prop him between this little chair that he has, and his table, and he'll just bounce from sitting to standing, all with a HUGE smile on his face and a look of what can only be extreme pride  

Pierce and his daddy have developed quite a strong bond since I weaned the little guy.  Although he has been sleeping better at night, there are still occasional night feedings, and Nathan will pitch in half the time which is wonderful.  He'll crawl back into bed after feeding him a bottle, and I'll ask him how Pierce is, and he'll just sigh and say "that kid is so cute".  I mean what dad says this about their son at 2 am??  Definitely the love is growing there.  That reminds me of a quote I came across last week that so completely hit home:

"We find a delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Could there be a truer sentiment?  I've often mentioned before how I'll feel my heart actually swell when I witness something particularly special that my children have done or said, or made me feel, and I think this quote really embodies that experience.  Children DO make your heart too big for your body, and could there be a better feeling??

This morning Hayden woke up while I was feeding Pierce a bottle on the couch.  He always shuts his door behind him, but this morning he also decided to shut the bathroom door, and Pierce's door.  So I'm sitting out here listening to three distinct slams, and then out walks my little blonde bed-headed boy and he very seriously comes up to me and says, "Mommy I shut one, two, three doors!", while looking down at his hands and raising first one, then two, then three fingers very awkwardly.  Oh my gosh it was so cute.  Then he crawled onto the couch and asked for a "group hug" with Pierce and I.  Again - dying from sweetness.  Then the boys curled up together watch a little "Blues Clues" and I got a good brotherly shot.

And just a couple parting photos of my boys!

Here they are again watching a show together - I love how close Pierce gets to his big brother - he just adores him!

Hayden counting out the chalk pieces - he is so meticulous!

Piercey enjoying his finger foods - cottage cheese, sweet potato fries and avocado - yum!

And this was so funny!  Last night Nathan asked Hayden to go get a peice of toilet paper to wipe PJ's nose b/c we were out of kleenex.  So Hayden grabbed the toilet paper and literally walked with it out to Nate, all the while unrolling it and creating a huge toilet paper trail from the bathroom into the living room.   The funniest.