Not What Mommy Had Planned

Justin went to the doctor today for his six month checkup. We have been waiting for this visit before feeding him any solids. I have been soo, soo excited to get him started on solids so today was a long awaited day. For me, the day my kids start solids is a BIG deal around here. I don't know why I think it's so big, but I look forward to the day and their reaction. Well, you can say it wasn't what I was hoping for.

I probably should have done it another day. We just got home last night from driving home from my parents. Both my kids, but especially Katelynn, are overtired and haven't been getting to bed on time. Katelynn is sick to boot. And then here we were at Justin's bedtime trying solids for the first time. I was just so excited I didn't think I could wait another day. He took his first few bites really well. He wasn't overly excited, but he took them like a champ. You never would have guessed he had just started eating. Katelynn is my big helper, and she loves to participate in everything. I had already told her that she could help feed Justin after his first few bites so I let her give it a whirl. Well, she did great at first, but then she started getting too comfortable with it and shoved the spoon in his mouth. The poor little guy got really upset. And if that wasn't bad enough, Katelynn was so upset about us telling her she was done feeding him that we had two crying kids. I tried calming Justin down and feeding him further, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it. I hope he gets over it and wants to try again tomorrow! Here he was before the tears:
And this is how we finished with eating tonight! On another note, his appointment went really well. He is now 17 pounds, 4 ounces and 28.25 inches long. He is 97% in height- one tall boy!! We talked at length about his sleeping, and we're going to try to not do as many nursings at night to see if it happens. Wish me luck- tonight wasn't so great when he woke up and I wouldn't feed him. There's one thing for sure- both my kids are stubborn!

(Lots more pictures to be added in the next few days.. promise!)

Trip to Georgia

This was our first trip to my parents house since Justin has been born. The last time we were there was nearly a year ago (Thanksgiving so not quite a year). Katelynn has been asking to go to her Grandma and Grandpa's house for months, but I was just never willing to struggle through the drive with Justin. It's only 3.5 hours, but with a little one that dislikes the car, that can be quite a trip. My mom drove to our house days before, left her car here and drove back with us and then my dad drove home with us to bring mom's car back. It was so nice having them with me for when we stopped.

We had a great time at my parents. Here are the kids playing in the pool!
This was Justin's first time getting to wear sunscreen. I put it on his head and it made his hair all spikey. Justin loved the water. He was not one bit scared. He had a great time in his float, was kicking his legs constantly, and then enjoyed splashing around while being held.It took Katelynn a bit longer to warm up to the pool. I think part of it was that the water temperature had gotten a little cool from the temperature dropping at night. Finally she ventured out of her float and started swimming with her noodle and arm floats. She thought she was the coolest ever that no one needed to hold onto her!Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house is lots of fun. They have all sorts of toys that the kids get to play with.

Not sure if you can tell or not, but Justin had no interest in sitting and riding on this. He thought he needed to stand and kept pulling up to his feet using the handles.

My Poor Abandoned Blog...

I sure hope that those of you that regularly come on here to check up on our updates won't get discouraged and stop checking here! I apologize for the long pause in my postings. Life is B-U-S-Y!!! I feel like our craziness is not going to end until September hits, but I won't leave you hanging that long!! I am actually at my parents in Georgia right now. We just got here early this morning. I may try to get some of the pictures that I have on my camera put on my laptop and post them in the next day or two. I have been taking pictures reguarly- I just haven't had time to upload them lately.

So what is new? Well, my BABY boy turns 6 months old tomorrow! I can't believe it. He has his 6 mo doc appointment on Friday back at home so we will start solids after that appointment. I can't wait to hear how big he is. He seems huge to me! This week he has started eating his toes during diaper changes. I haven't been able to sneak a picture yet, but it's pretty cute. He is also starting to pull himself to stand, but when I say that, it's probably not what you're thinking. He can't be sitting on the ground and pull his body weight up yet, but when I put him on a ride-on type toy or something where he sits and has handles, he has been grabbing the handles and standing up on his own. What else? What else? Hmm... well, he really seems to be getting more blonde hair. It was so dark when he was born, but it's really got super light and is starting to fill in! He's going to be my blonde hair, blue eye cutie!

Katelynn is keeping us busy as usual. Lately we have been discussing her birthday. She tells everyone she is going to be "TREE!". She has also learned her left and right this past month and knows what a "K" looks like and that it stands for Katelynn! Everyday she comes up with some pretty cute things to say all on her own. It cracks me up.

Well, for now I'll get off here, but I promise to get back to updating regularly very soon! We will have lots of fun pictures to share! Justin had his six month pics taken this week that I'll post. We also have our beach vacation for August so we'll get lots of great pictures (hopefully) then!

Walk to the Park

It's been a while since we have taken our walk to the park so at Katelynn's request, we all loaded up and went while my mom was visiting. We had went shopping that day and bought Katelynn new shoes. Note to self: Do not let her wear new shoes on a long walk. I didn't even think of it when she put them on, but normally she prefers to walk and her shoes were rubbing her ankles raw while on the walk. So, we did a little stroller riding and then mommy carried her on her shoulders.Grandma, Katelynn, and Justin walking on the greenway to the park. Justin is finally old enough to have some fun at the park too! He and Katelynn were "racing" down this two-person slide.

And swinging is always fun too!

Justin's 6 mo professional pics

I did not edit these pictures as the photography studio does when they print them for me. I just pulled them straight off the disk and uploaded them here so they are a little rough, but you'll get the idea.
This picture I have the exact same pose, background, and props with Katelynn at six months. One day I'll remember to compare them side-by-side for you all!

Katelynn and Justin Pictures

I couldn't help but get some shots of both kids while getting Justin's 6 month pictures done!

Big Boy Carseat!

It was time for Justin to move out of his infant carseat, and Daddy finally put the big boy one in mommy's car! I am sure you all have heard me say it before, but Justin hates the car. Really, he does. Sometimes I can't make it five minutes down the road without him screaming so hard he is choking himself. I was hoping that the change to the big boy carseat would help out some. He sits upright a lot more in his new carseat, but it didn't solve our car riding problems 100 percent. This picture says it all with his expression. He's just not a huge fan of the car!

Ikea Girl

Charlotte just recently got an Ikea store here. I had no idea what they consisted of, but let's jsut say that I am now HOOKED! I seriously want to redo every room in my house. Luckily for my husband, our budget won't allow me to do that. In any case, we have been to Ikea four times in the past few months. Katelynn LOVES the kid area with the toys and for some reason is hooked on the toddler beds. For a child who dislikes sleeping and being still so much, it makes me laugh at how long she will hang out in these beds. (And for the record- those of you who really know me know that I am not a "rule-breaking" kind of person and would never have let Katelynn even get on one of these had I been right there, but anytime I go to Ikea, we bring Daddy and/or grandparents so I can browse some on my own and of course they all let her do it! I thought it was too cute not to take a picture!) Here's Katelynn browsing the bath section with her baby all warm in the bjorn carrier. This was our compromise (to let her carry the baby in Justin's carrier) opposed to the bath towel she was trying to use that belonged to the store.

A New Friend

As many of you probably remember, we started building Katelynn and Justin a swingset this Spring. It's one of those projects around here that has yet to be completed. It's useable, but not completely finished. A few months ago, we boxed in the swingset area with railroad ties and put mulch down. Good idea? Well, we still think so but today we realized it may get a bit interesting at times since we have a creek directly behind our house! Katelynn, Justin, and I were out there playing on the swings, and I noticed a spot in the mulch that had been dug into. It had rained just the day or two before, and as I looked in the direction of the hole, I saw a head and two eyes. I FREAKED! I made Katelynn get off the swings and out of the backyard immediately, and I called Jonathan at work panicing. I thought for sure it was a snack, and I DO NOT like snakes. When Jonathan came home, he grabbed a shovel and dug the little guy out and low and behold- it was just a little turtle, who we scared to death digging him up. Katelynn thought he was the greatest and was very sad when she had to leave her new friend alone and come inside.

The Best Part of Birthdays....

.... is CAKE of course! (And more specifically- frosting!)Cake is seriously the first thing that enters Katelynn's mind when she hears she gets to go to a party. I remember the days when we attended all the first birthday parties of Katelynn's friends and I was able to avoid her eating the cake because she didn't know the difference. She hit age 2 and avoiding the sweets became out of the question. Even as we talk about her upcoming third birthday, she always just says she wants cake for her birthday. This was at her friend Lauren's party. She got a Cookie Monster cupcake.And coming in as a close second to cake is BALLOONS! Katelynn managed to get them to let her bring one home.

Only a Daddy

Yes, only a Daddy would let his daughter out of the house with unbrushed hair, a shirt on inside out, and no pants (only a pull-up) to play. When I asked him why he didn't at least make her put on shorts, he said she claimed it was too hot outside to put anything on her legs. It was hot, and I guess Daddy wasn't up for the argument with our 2.5 year old today so he went with it.

I think he was really just too excited to get outside and ride this with her to worry about it. (Note: This go-cart is going to be our next door neighbors. It's not another toy for us to keep.)

Mr. Cool

Justin's first time sitting in the grass, and he didn't seem to mind it.. or even notice it for that matter. He was too busy watching his big sister.

Dirty, Sweaty, and Goofy

There's not much more needed to describe this picture. Katelynn managed to find the most dirt she could in the ten minutes she had left before a nap today and then came inside with it covering her hair and face!

I not need a nap

Last Tuesday the kids and I attended a luncheon at my old office and got to see all my old co-workers. Since it was so late coming home, I had already told Katelynn she didn't have to take a nap that day. When we were almost home, Katelynn says from the backseat, "I not need a nap today, Mommy. I not tired." I wasn't sure why she was worried about re-informing me of this, but I said okay and then looked back in my rearview mirror not two minutes later and saw this...Apparently she was trying to convince herself she was not tired. She even crashed in the middle of reading a story! And right beside her, Justin was doing the same thing!

160-plus pictures

Are you worried that's how many I'm going to post? Ha,ha. I wouldn't put it past me! I never can choose which pictures to post, and I take a lot of pictures!! I won't post all 160 pictures, but that's how many I took on my Canon over the course of less than a week while the desktop was non-functional. I also have more on the point and shoot that I'll upload tomorrow and post, but I figured this was enough for tonight. I am leaving today's date on all these picture posts because since I still journaled over the past week, if I put the real date, they will be lost behind journal entries and everyone might miss seeing one of the groups of pictures!!

As for an update on our home improvements, our house is still a mess. I really should be working on it instead of the blog, but everyone went to bed early tonight except me so I thought I would take the time to share some of our pictures. Our kitchen walls are done. The first paint we bought and spent 3 hours painting was an awful color so we had to re-evaluate the color and paint again. It's brown though! I wanted it a little deeper, but Jonathan and I compromised, and I'm happy with the results. He is working on finishing a backsplash for it, and then I'll probably post some pictures. We still have ceiling lighting to replace and the flooring, but that may take a few months before we get to it. Right now I'm just itching to get my house fully cleaned after all the mess that was created this week!

New Fun Outdoors

Today was Justin's first time in the walker. I know there is a lot of discussions about not using walkers, but we ended up getting one for Katelynn after talking to the pediatrician about it. She ended up using it outdoors a lot when she was little, and it stayed in the garage all the time between then and now. I finally got it out the other week and cleaned it up. One of the biggest challenges outside these days (Katelynn's favorite place to be) is trying to find enough for Justin to do without just being stuck in a stroller. I figured this was the perfect toy for him to play in while she rides her bike, and it was a hit! It may be too high for Justin since I didn't adjust it, but he loved Katelynn pushing him so I didn't lower it down at all.I think he equally loved chewing on the steering wheel. It's a good thing I sanitized it the other day!