carter's 6 month update

our little buddy is six months old today! He is weighing in at 18 lbs. 4 ounces, I now know why my back is hurting so bad! he had to get four shots today and emerson was so sweet. she said, "mommy i want to sit by carter and hold his hand." he is crawling all over the place...very slowly but definitely makes his way around the room. He is still a sweet little cuddle bug, which just melts my heart. We can see his bottom teeth and hopefully they won't take too long to pop through because he is very fussy. He eats anything any everything...babyfood that is. we are going to start cheerios and other soft foods, which will be fun and messy! He takes two great naps during the day and sleeps 12 hours at night (some nights he wakes up and needs his pacifier). carter loves being in the middle of it all...he doesn't want to miss anything.

Preschool open house today!

sitting on the front steps of preschool


playing with the animals

it's official...emerson is starting preschool! I just can't believe it!!! She is growing up so fast. We went today to meet her teachers, see her classrooms, and meet some of the kids in her class. When we got her up this morning she was so excited and wanted to get dressed right away and said, "i'm ready to go!" When we came downstairs she went right over to put her shoes on, but we had to remind her that she needed to eat breakfast first! She was a little shy at first and stood very close to me and after about ten minutes she was ready to play and talk to the other kids. She loves her teachers and told one of them, "when i come back next week i'm going to wear my green dress...okay?" (we took her shopping last week and told her she could pick out a special outfit for the first day and of course she picked a dress) oddly enough there is another little girl in her class named emerson, what are the chances? thankfully she goes by emmy.
the other night nick and i were watching her play and just couldn't believe how big/old she is. she seems so tall and speaks so well. my little girl is growing up right before my eyes and i am enjoying every minute of it. emerson starts preschool next week by herself. the first couple of times may be hard for her because it takes her awhile to feel comfortable, but we are so excited for her and think that she will love it!
we are going to be very busy this year with preschool twice a week, singing class, and gymnastics. it's going to be so fun to watch her grow and learn this year, just can't believe how fast it all goes!

snuggle bugs

first time painting emerson's nails...so shocked she let me do this


splash pad...loved it


where's emerson? and believe it or not...all those animals have a name


we have the same picture of emerson and these two are starting to look more and more alike


my two pink sleepsack kiddos




I feel very lucky that emerson and carter love each other so much. every morning carter and I go in emerson's room to get her up and all she wants to do is snuggle with carter. carter lights up in the morning when he sees her and can't stop smiling. emerson then wants to lay right by him and read him a book. i usually leave the two of them up there and make breakfast but often hear, "carter don't eat my sleepsack, oh buddy don't eat the book, carter you roll over there." And yes poor carter is in a pink sleepsack, i hope someday he forgives me.
carter is very active and yesterday he went from sitting to belly, belly to back, back to belly, and then belly back to sitting. Emerson and I were so proud of him saying "yay carter!"
it has been a very long week and I can't wait for the weekend. after five days in a row with nick not home, emerson dumping yogurt on my head, carter screaming in the late afternoons (just wanting to be held), and my back in so much pain (carrying a 25 pound toddler and a 17 pound baby)...i am looking forward to nick being home all weekend!

Fun at the park!

Happy August

emerson is saying, "where's your smile girls?"


fashion queen is wearing a skirt as a shirt...oh emerson


fashion queen #2 is wearing a blanket as a dress with a chip clip holding it together in the back


playing in the trampoline together...not the last time i'm going to say, "you two please be careful!"


we finally used emerson's giftcard she got for her birthday to build-a-bear. she built a cute pig and named her nora


fashion queen #3 is wearing a dress with a skirt underneath and strip socks...and yes i let her wear this out to the grocery store! she thought she looked so pretty with a dress AND a skirt


fashion queen #4 is wearing my dressy shoes, nick's watch, and she is using the gift bag as her purse


look at that hair!


great smile carter...emerson has the same one!


carter sitting all by himself


on all fours rocking


sweet boy


where are you going buddy?

wow...summer's going to be over before we know it! carter is five months today! he has being a little stinker lately. I don't know if it is seperation anxiety or just wanting to be held but i can't leave him without him crying. I love that he likes to cuddle because emerson does not, but sometimes I need just a second. He is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and sometimes jumps forward to get something out of reach. He is now eating squash, peas, and pears. He really will eat anything we put in his mouth. I gave him a frozen pancake this morning and after chewing on it for a few he decided to crumble it up and make a huge mess. His favorite place is in emerson's room laying on her bed. emerson thinks it's pretty cool, for now anyway.
After dinner we always go outside to play and we are trying very hard to teach emerson about the street and all the rules that come with it. She is pretty good but sometimes she forgets and just runs right out in the middle, thankfully there has never been a car. The other night we were walking together and she said with a tone, "mommy, you understand...we do not run in the street...you understand me?" i couldn't help but turn the other way and laugh for a minute and then said, "yes i understand that the street is very dangerous and not a place to play."

oh my...time is flying!

carter enjoying the exersaucer

emerson and jack playing in the pool

as we were taking this picture emerson said, "my big little buddy, i love you"

emerson and her best girlfriend lauren...they are so sweet together


Let's see...what have we been up to? Not much really, just been hanging out with friends, going to the park, and cleaning out all the junk in the house. Since the last post I want to say that carter is sleeping great! He hasn't cried when going to sleep in weeks. He takes two 2 hour long naps and then goes to bed at 6:30. We are very lucky that he figured it out so quickly. Also he loves to eat real people food. He has been eating cereal with prunes once a day and tonight he tried squash and loved it. This is the complete opposite of emerson...she didn't like/get eating until she was about 7 months. He has almost mastered sitting and is getting up on all fours, but not mobile yet (except for rolling EVERYWHERE).
Emerson has quite the imagination and talks to everything as if it were a person. She will be sitting eating lunch and start talking to her water bottle saying, "oh water, you are getting so tall. let me pick you up girl. oh water did you have a bonk? let me kiss it. it's ok sweet girl, you'll be ok." then she'll start rocking her water and say, "mommy you need to be very quiet because water needs to have a nap." I thought it was cute when she would do this with her babies, but now she will pretend anything/everything is real...it makes nick and I laugh. She is just so sweet and loving to all her stuff.
I can't believe July is almost over! I will say that we are having a lot of fun hanging out as a family and enjoying being outdoors.

carter's 4 month update

carter is a growing boy and doing great! He is weighing in at 15 pounds and is 25 inches. carter did much better with his shots this time...emerson was still really sad for him. friday night we did a first...we let carter try it out for bedtime. nick and i went round and round about this because we never let emerson cry it out, but with much advice from our pediatrician we did it. He cried for and hour and ten minutes the first night, ten minutes the second night, and an hour tonight. It is very hard to listen to him cry, but we are very proud of him for learning how to put himself to sleep. He is taking two naps. The morning is about an hour and a half and the afternoon is three hours. He is a very happy, smiley boy! We started rice cereal and he really likes it, in a week we will add a veggie. He says "mmmmm" all the time and we tell emerson that he is trying to say her name...she loves it!