Mother's Day 2013

I had such a special Mother's Day this year. People celebrate Mother's Day in many different ways, but usually it's children and husbands being thankful for their mothers/wives. For me, this year though I felt completely overwhelmed with gratefulness to be these boys' mommy.

The Lord has blessed me abundantly by allowing me to be their mother, and I got emotional several times that day being so thankful to the Lord for blessing me with my two adorable baby boys. They are incredible.

This Mother's Day was extra special because we had our sweet Samuel dedicated to the Lord. Our pastor does a wonderful job with Baby Dedications. He makes them so personal and meaningful for each family. He talks about how a baby dedication is a three-fold process. Firstly, we thank the Lord for the gift of each child and how only He can give our child eternal life. He also addresses the parents of our responsibility to raise our children in a Christian home and to  instruct our children in the teaching of Christ and to provide a home life that honors the Lord. Finally, he addresses the church body to love and teach our children as we raise them.

 Our pastor takes each child in his arms and shares a blessing based on the meaning of their name. Samuel slept through the whole thing.

He wrote this for our precious new baby: "Samuel heard God's voice as a boy and led Israel throughout his lifetime. Jacob was one of the patriarchs of Israel. So Samuel Jacob, may you hear God's voice and turn to him at a young age and become a spiritual father to many over the course of your life."

Then he charges the parents and the church body and prays for our children. It was a special time for our family. What a gift Samuel Jacob is.

Matt's parents came up to celebrate Samuel's dedication with us, so after church we all had lunch at my parents' house. After lunch we went outside and watched Nathan play. It was a gorgeous day, and we all had a good time watching Nathan drive his car and play golf with Papa Joe.

Matt worked hard to help make Mother's Day special with a sweet card and a family photo session as a gift for me. He also watched Samuel that afternoon so I could get a good nap. Nathan wanted to stay and play at Grammy's house for most of the afternoon. Matt was nursery deacon that day, so he went to church Sunday night and took Samuel with him, so I could get a couple of hours to myself. I'm pretty sure that was the first time in 8 weeks that I was alone in our house. It was a nice break. It took all I had though to not do laundry or dishes. I forced myself to relax and watched a little TV and looked around on Pinterest for a little bit. Momma's need breaks sometimes. I'm so thankful to have had such a wonderful Mother's Day. It's never lost on me that Mother's Day can be a difficult day for many women for lots of different reasons. I'll never take my special day for granted.

2 Months Old

Samuel Jacob,

You are two months old! There is no "newborn" left in you at all. You have turned into a sweet baby this month who interacts with us, coos, and smiles. It's a tad bittersweet to be past the newborn stage, but for both me and your daddy, the newborn stage isn't really our favorite stage. I love the sweet cuddles and snuggles, but it's a tough, tiring few weeks for everyone trying to figure out your needs. It's easier now that you're a little older and we are better about knowing what you need and how to meet it. And the smiles, well I can never get enough of those!

You are starting to recognize faces. I love when you're lying on you play mat and I come over to see you. As soon as you see me, you light up with the biggest grin. My heart bursts every time! And how you watch your brother. If he is in the room, your eyes are always on him, watching everything he does. I'm praying he'll be a great role model for you and you'll always look up to him.

When you were 5.5 weeks old, I laid you on your tummy in the Living Room and ran to the kitchen for a minute. When I came back, you were lying on your back! I haven't seen you do it since then, and you haven't really tried either. I'm guessing it was a fluke. You don't enjoy tummy time very much. A lot of times you'll start fussing after just a couple of minutes.

But you love to lie down, stretch out, and play. You like to be held some but prefer to be lying down on a blanket. You were held all day during your brother's birthday party (Your whole family loves you so much!). Toward the end, you started to get fussy, and I suggested putting you down on a blanket, and you stretched and kicked your legs and were so happy. You're content to lie on your play mat for long periods of time. You reach for your toys, talk and play.

For most of your second month, you ate every 2.5 hours during the day and would go 4-6 hours between feedings at night- usually 8 feedings per day. You nurse for about 10 minutes per side and still take a little supplemental bottle after each feeding. Our doctor recommended cutting your food intake down a little, so for the last week or so, I've been stretching your feedings to every 3 hours and you go about 5-6 hours between feedings at night. So now, you eat 7 times per day.

You still sleep wonderfully at night. We had one night where You slept from about 10:30-7:30, but that's the only time you've slept all night. You usually have your last feeding of the night between 10 and 10:30 and have been sleeping pretty consistently until 4:00 or 5:00. I think we're getting close to you sleeping through the night. You sleep swaddled in a pac and play next to our bed.

You nap after most feedings during the day, but most of the time they are short cat naps. I don't have you on a great nap schedule. The only consistent nap I try and get you to take is after your lunch time feeding between 12:00 and 1:00 (That's when your brother naps). I can usually get you to sleep about 1-1.5 hours then. I'll start you sleeping in your crib, but you almost always end up in your swing by the end of the nap.

For the most part, you are a very content and calm baby. You have a little fussy time in the evenings. You usually get upset from some gas issues, or if you're tired. You fight sleep a lot and cry before falling asleep for most of your naps.

You occasionally take a pacifier. I picked up a few different kinds to see what you prefer, and we've found one you like better than the others, but really, you just want to suck on your fist. I have a pretty good feeling you're going to be a thumb sucker. You just have to figure out where your thumb is and how to get it in your mouth, without putting your whole fist in your mouth.

You seem to enjoy your baths. You've never cried during one and usually just chill out during them even when your brother is not so gentle when he "helps". It's hard to keep you warm enough and it breaks my heart when I see your little lip quivering when I get you out of the bathtub.

You are my swing boy! Really, you just like motion. If you're in the car and are stopped for too long, you let us know! You'll fuss, but as soon as we start moving again, you settle right down. You sleep so much better when there is some motion. You still take a lot of naps in your swing, because it's usually the only way I can get you to nap for more than 20 minutes. You usually fall asleep in your car seat when we are on walks in the evenings, but the minute we put you down and we stop moving, you wake right up.

We took you to the doctor last week for your 2 month check up. You weighed 11lbs 13oz (50%), were 23inches long (50%) and your head circumference was 16cm (75%). You seem so long to us, so I was surprised you were only in the 50% for height, and even more surprised when I pulled your brother's baby book out and found out he was the same height as you at 2 months.

You are wearing 0-3 month and 3 month clothes and a size one diaper. You have outgrown a lot of your 0-3 month sleepers because you are too long for them. I put away all your newborn clothes last week. Whew, that was tough! I still can't believe we're already to the point of you outgrowing clothes.

You are so precious to us Samuel. We've only known you for two months, but we don't know what we ever did without you!

May 5, 2013

We had our big birthday celebration with our birthday boy on Saturday, but we still wanted to make his actual birthday a special day. Since it was Sunday, our day started off with church. My big boy went to the 2 year old class for the first time. My goodness, he is growing up. Matt and I have volunteered in the 2 year old class for several years, so I knew the routine and had been talking to Nathan about what he would do during church and we had practiced many of the songs they sing.

I wish I could have watched him during class to see how he did with everything- the new toys, sharing the Little Tikes car, singing songs, eating snack, paying attention during story time, coloring. He told us he had a good time and that he played trains, of course he did.

When I was talking with Nathan about his birthday party, he mentioned several times that he wanted to eat ice cream at his party. I hadn't planned to have ice cream at his party and didn't really want to deal with the mess of it, so instead we took him to lunch at Braums after church.

After his lunch, he got a big surprise!

He loved his very first banana split. He got full pretty quickly, so Mommy and Daddy got to help too!

After lunch we came home for naps and spent some time that afternoon playing with his new birthday presents. Matt and I had a wedding that evening, so he and Samuel got to play at Grammy and Papa Joe's house for the evening. He drove his red car all over their garage and got to do whatever he wanted that evening since it was his birthday (although I don't think it's very different any other time he's over there).

We love celebrating our precious Nathan!

Choo! Choo! Nathan is 2, Part 2

We had such a wonderful day celebrating Nathan. He had the best day too. I had been talking to him about his party for a few weeks, and I knew he was really excited about it.

We decorated for his party Friday night after Nathan went to bed and set up his basketball goal (his gift from Mommy and Daddy), so when he woke up on Saturday, he had some fun surprises. He played basketball for a long time Saturday morning.

Then we got ready for the party and played trains for a while before everyone arrived.

Samuel was excited about Big Brother's party too- he got lots of snuggles in with family during the party.

As soon as everyone arrived, we sand Happy Birthday to our two year old. Nathan smiled through the whole song and has been singing it all week! I guess he's practicing for Daddy's birthday at the end of the month :)

We ate and visited with all our guests for a little while, and then opened presents.

Nathan had been very patient all morning and during the party waiting to open his gifts. He kept eyeing them and saying, "mine" but didn't open them until it was time. I know it had to have been torture for him to wait so long.

He got so many fun toys and movies, mostly train related and a couple of puzzles too. He also got a bubble lawn mower which was the hit of the party. He would yell "open, open" after he unwrapped every present and wanted to play with everything right then.

Chloe liked to help too.

We were blessed with many family and friends who celebrated with us, including all four of Nathan's grandparents, and three great grandparents, my aunt, and several friends from church. Nathan loved being the center of attention!

At the end of the party, my parents gave Nathan his big gift- a miniature version of Papa Joe's car, or as Nathan has named it, "red car."

It took him a little bit to figure out how to make it go, but he cruises all over Grammy and Papa Joe's backyard. Every time I ask him what he wants to do at Grammy's house, he says "red car."

We spent the rest o the evening playing with all his new toys especially his fun train engineer outfit from his Aunt and Uncle.

I think he's the cutest 2 year old on the planet :)

Choo! Choo! Nathan is Turning Two, Part 1

We had so much fun celebrating Nathan's 2nd birthday! Things have been hectic around here since Samuel was born, so I wanted to keep things pretty easy and focused on the birthday boy and what I knew he would love. I told myself that at the end of the day, all that mattered was that Nathan had a good time, and he did!

We had a train theme since Nathan is obsessed with trains. Anytime he sees one, he points to it and exclaims, "Train!" so I wanted to have lots of trains at his party.

I had a lot of fun baking and decorating his train cake. I think it turned out pretty well too! Nathan could tell it was a train :)

We kept decorations pretty simple. I found some Thomas the Train decorations at a party store and ended up getting some streamers and a Happy Birthday banner. Simple and cheap, but still festive.

I found this idea for favors on Pinterest, and I thought it was perfect. Originally, I had planned to decorate cookies as favors, but I thought that would be too stressful on top of everything else for the party and taking care of a new baby, so I went this route instead.

Nathan loves popcorn, so I knew we had to have some at his party. I found some cute popcorn containers to make it feel special for the party.

 

My favorite part of the party was how we served the food. I saw this on Pinterest too and fell in love with it. I knew Nathan would go nuts over the train, and it was an easy (and cheap) way to serve the food. Matt built the track for me out of painter's tape, and I glued mini oreos onto loaf pans to make the cars. Nathan shared his Thomas the Train engine and let us use it to decorate. 

 

Since I wanted to make the party all about Nathan, we served all of his favorite foods: strawberries, grapes, cheese and crackers, and vanilla wafers with funfetti cake dip, along with the popcorn, cake, and a fruit punch recipe. When I was preparing the food for his party, I kept thinking about years down the road, when he comes home from college for his birthday and I make his favorite meal to celebrate.

Planning birthday parties is one of my favorite perks of being a mom!