Feliz Navidad!

 

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

The Paper Mama 2012 Holiday Photo Challenge!

Here's my entry for this year's Holiday photo challenge hosted by the lovely Paper Mama: I had great plans of getting an adorable picture of the two boys in their matching Christmas jammies, but it's easier to herd cats than it is to get a two-and-a-half-year old and an infant to do much cooperation in the photo department.  And because I'm an inveterate procrastinator, this is probably the closest I'm going to get to actually sending out any Christmas cards this year.  Be sure to check out all of the other entries by clicking below!

Charlie's four-month update

It's official--my little boy is not so little anymore.  Charlie turned four-months old last Wednesday and had his four-month well-baby appointment the next day, which is when I learned that he was now topping the charts at seventeen pounds and twenty-six inches long placing him in the 95th and 90th percentiles, respectively.  I looked up Sammy's four-month stats to see how the two boys compared since I recalled Sammy was pretty big for his age.  Well, Sammy was two pounds lighter and an inch shorter.  Yowza.  Charlie seems to have skipped the 6-9 month sizes of clothing and jumped right up to twelve-month stuff. 

During the day, Charlie is a super laid-back and easy-going baby.  But nighttime is a completely different story ever since last week.  My formerly good sleeper is now getting up almost every 1-2 hours after I put him down for the night and I am completely frazzled/exhausted as a result.  I really, really, really hope that this is a short phase/developmental stage.  Speaking of development, Charlie has become a champion raspberry blower and also recently discovered that his thumbs fit perfectly inside his mouth.

Charlie's getting pretty close to being able to sit on his own, although I'm hesitant to let him try thanks to our complete and utter lack of carpeting to cushion his fall should he decide to face plant on the floor.  He's also been supporting his weight on his legs for about a month now and can stand while holding onto my fingers.  Charlie absolutely adores his big brother and watches everything that he does--fortunately, Sammy seems to be just as enamored with Charlie and goes out of his way to make him laugh by making silly noises (a new favorite of the two is fake sneezing).

My get up and go has got up and went

Wow, it's been awhile, huh?  It's not that I've been incredibly busy since my last blog post, although the boys and I did manage to travel a total of 6,000 miles over the course of sixteen days last month.  (Sammy and Charlie are excellent travelers by the way.)  We visited with family and spent some time with friends that I haven't seen in a year and the sad thing is that I didn't even come close to seeing everyone that I wanted to...I guess there's always next year, though.  As per usual, I took approximately a gazillion photos during our trip that I'm woefully behind on editing and uploading...the last time I added to my Flickr stream was in October.  Yeesh.

I remember when I couldn't wait to write about our adventures here on the blog but now it seems that there's just not enough hours in the day.  I can't even recall the last time I was able to visit everyone's blog and, I know this is going to sound nuts, but I miss you guys; I miss reading about all of the fun and exciting things you've been up to and looking at your lovely photographs and your creative crafts.  Who knew that taking care of the two boys' wants and needs, maintaining the house (or, rather, keeping it from descending to a Hoarders level of disarray) and finding a few minutes here or there to hang out with Captain Husband after the kids are down for the night would be so incredibly time consuming?  The things that I used to find so enjoyable, like photography, just seem like another chore that needs to be done.  Hopefully I'll break out of this rut soon--any advice?

Charlie's three-month update

Charlie turned three months old last week and I just can't get over how fast he's growing.  Thanks to our trip to the emergency room for his recent bout with croup, I have a general idea as to his stats, which has him weighing a little over fifteen pounds and measuring approximately twenty-six inches long.  Charlie's currently wearing mostly six-month sized clothing, although I have to put him in nine-month sleepers at night in order to accommodate all of the junk in his trunk thanks to his giant night-time cloth diaper.  Speaking of night time, Charlie's back to waking up once or twice a night for a feeding--I accredit his recent sickness and all of the traveling we've been doing lately with this change in his sleep schedule and I really hope he gets back to sleeping through the night soon as I miss REM sleep.  In other news, Charlie's starting to support his weight on his legs and can sit up with only the smallest bit of assistance.  He's also mastered grabbing and can pass his toys from hand to hand when he's not putting them in his mouth; he's also discovered his fingers and will snack on them from time to time.  If I had to describe his personality with only one word, I'd have to go with sunny--he's almost always smiling and happy and can usually be found charming the pants off of the nearest person around.  Charlie's very ticklish and will laugh out loud whenever his neck or underarms are tickled.  He loves to watch his big brother play and will stop whatever he's doing in order to focus all of his attention on Sammy whenever Sammy's around.

Boo to you

So I'm about two weeks late with my Halloween post, but better late than never, right?  It's been kind of crazy around here lately--Sammy was sick with a low-grade fever off and on for about a week and then Charlie came down with croup so I've been busy playing nursemaid and haven't had much time to just sit down and go through any of the pictures I've taken until now.  Fortunately both boys have recovered and were happy and healthy for Halloween; Captain Husband handed out candy while I took both boys out to do some trick or treating in our neighborhood.

You may notice that Sammy was a cowboy again this year; I had purchased him a different costume but he refused to wear it and threw a holy fit, so we went with the repeat.  Oh well, he can always wear the other costume next year!  Other than the costume debacle, the evening went really well--it's amazing the difference a year can make.  Sammy went up to most of the houses on his own and even remembered to say trick or treat half of the time; it was pretty adorable and I had a lot of fun taking him around--his little pumpkin bucket was filled in record time!

Always juggling

Some days I feel like Super Mom, like when I've successfully managed to get both boys dressed, fed and out of the house without anyone having a major meltdown (myself included) and I'm able to take care of errands, put the laundry away and get dinner on the table before Captain Husband comes home from work.  And then there are the days when everyone is still in their pajamas at three o' clock in the afternoon and Nick Jr. has been playing non-stop because that's the only way I can get Sammy to take the whining down to a level that doesn't make me want to scream while I'm stuck on the couch with Charlie latched on to me every half hour...this sort of day happens more than I'd care to admit.  Of course, it doesn't help that there's a huge part of me that's convinced that I'm neglecting the boys in some way, so I just hope that at the very least I'm neglecting them equally.  Gotta keep things fair, right?

I've got so many balls in the air and I know that unless things change in some way I'm in serious danger of dropping them all; I spend so much time taking care of the boys' wants and needs that there's really no time for myself.  And don't get me started on my relationship with CH: to say that it's strained would be pretty accurate and the demands of his job haven't exactly made things any easier.  There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to satisfy everyone and since Sammy and Charlie still can't really fend for themselves, that means CH drops to the bottom of my priority list...well, actually I'm at the bottom of my priority list, which really isn't much better to admit.  If anyone has any advice for me, I'd really appreciate it.  I'm trying to find a sitter (the sitter that we loved moved back to Michigan this summer) and am looking into daycare options that would at least give me a morning or two when I'm down to only one kid to look after, but so far that's all I've got.