Hank at Four!

 

Hank turned four in September.  I look at him and just can not believe I have a child that big now.

 

In early October he had his annual check-up and he was in the 90th percentile for his height (42 1/2 inches  ) and 95th for his weight ( 47.8 lbs ).  He really grew so much during the summer!  When we were at the ocean in June he was not big enough to go on the water slide (had to be 42 inches).

Currently he wears a size 12 shoe.  He wears a size 5T or a 4.  I have even been buying size 5 and rolling the sleeves or pant legs up, because some of the size 4 pants are tight. 

 

Hank has really gotten into pretend playing.  His little imagination works overtime and I will hear him having conversations and telling stories while he his playing with his toys.  He has also gotten attached to a stuffed bear, who he calls "Teddy."  Sometimes he has me watch him, when he goes outside to play, and he gives me instructions on how to care for him!

We switched him to a new preschool in October and he really likes it.  I had a conference with his teacher this week and he does very well with circle time and likes to listen to stories and songs.  He needs improvement on sitting still and following instructions when they do their written work.

He also started going to Sunday School this year.

 

Hank likes to play with all of his toys, including his hot wheels, trucks, tractors, guns, action figures and Little People.  He enjoys doing things outside with his Daddy, like going into the woods, and taking "mo mo" rides, and riding his bike.

 

Some of his favorite foods are candy.  Any candy, but his current favorite is Tootsie Rolls.  He likes oodles of noodles, pepperoni, crackers, fruit snacks, peanut butter sandwiches, and fries.  He loves all breakfast foods and really loves fruit

 

Currently his favorite TV shows are Caillou and Scooby Doo.

 

 



11 months and counting!

 

Luke was 11 months on 11/3/12.

Right now I am busy working on his First Birthday party.  It is so hard for me to believe he is getting ready to turn one year old!!  I really do feel this has been the fastest year of my life.

During the past month he started to pull himself up and started to crawl on all fours, instead of the army crawl.  He got his second hair cut and his first pair of real shoes.  He has a size 5 wide foot.  He weighs 24.8 lbs and started on a few new foods, including pieces of donut and cake / bread, mashed potatoes and noodles.  He was pointing and "talking' a lot.

Super Hank!

Hank turned 4 on September 18, and we had his party the following Sunday.

The theme was Superheros, which he was into until recently.  Now he says he doesn't like Batman!

That will probably change again!  Three was a challenging age...we shall see what four brings to us!

 

The party was very nice and we were blessed with great weather.  Hank loved the decorations and the pinata was a hit for him and the other kids!

 

The weekend before his birthday I took him, Luke, and Mimi to the ocean and on our way back we stopped at Toy's R Us to pick out a big boy bike.  Hank was in Heaven in the toy store and had to try out every bike.  He chose an orange one, his favorite color!  He always says, "thanks for buying that bike for me!"

 

He was upset on his actual birthday, because he could not understand why people were not there for his party!  I tried to tell him how lucky he was because he got to celebrate twice!   He didn't get that.

 

Anyhow, here are some photos, well a lot of photos:

 

 





 

Batman cake pops!  Mama works hard for her boys.

 

Super Gavin

 

Super Dean

Wonder Aubree

 

Super Luke

Batman and Robin, or Hank and Max?

Wonder Laina

Super Savannah

 

Super Son!

 

Hope all his wishes come true!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



8, 9, 10!

 

 

This has been the fastest year of my life!  I can't believe Luke is going to be one in just two months!!

We had a busy Summer, and just had Hank's fourth birthday and his big party.  Now we are working on getting ready for Halloween and all the fun things of Fall.

 

I hope to post some of the highlights of our Summer in another post.

For now, lets talk about my baby...

 

He got three more teeth.

 

He started doing the army crawl right after he turned 8 months, and just last week he started to pull himself up onto furniture, and the bathtub.  He still has not crawled on his knees.  He gets himself up on all fours and can't figure out how to move, so he gets down and does his army crawl.

 

He claps his hands and makes all kinds of noises.  He says Mama now too!

Last week I started giving him the puff snacks and he eats stage 3 baby foods and mashed bananas.

He still gets breast milk.

He is not a good sleeper.  He wakes up around 2 am and then comes into our room to nurse.  He ends up staying there the rest of the night.  Bad habits started already, but before we know it he will be a teen, and not want to come around us:(

 

In September he had his 9 month check-up and he was in the 95th percentile for his weight and the 98th for his height, and 75th for his head:)

 

He also got his first haircut in August!

 



7 Months!

Luke was 7 months on July 3.

He weighs 21 lbs 11 oz and is 27 3/4 inches.  He is in the 90th percentile for his height and the 98th for his weight.  He is a big boy!  A few times at the grocery store the girl at the deli counter has asked me if he wants a piece of cheese...at the time he was barely eating baby food!

I have been adding new foods every week.  So far he likes the meats and vegetables.  He is not so much a fan of fruit.  He does eat it mixed with his rice cereal.

He loves to get his bath and likes to swim in Mimi's pool.  Mimi has been watching Luke and Hank during the summer, so he swims every day.  He is such a happy smiley baby and loves to belly laugh.  He also "yells" and screams.  He does this much more than Hank ever did.

I just moved him up to a size 4 diaper, because he was leaking at night - usually in our bed!

He has gotten so that he gets up in the middle of the night now and he ends up with Mommy and Daddy!  I know a bad habit, but when you have to get up in the morning and go to work, you don't feel like letting them cry it out!

He still loves his jumperoo and likes to roll around on the floor.  He is playing with more toys now too.

He wears mostly 12 month clothing now.

I can't believe how fast his first year is going.  I am trying to savor it all, since this is going to be my last baby.

We love both our boys!!



Pink in the house!

Two weeks ago I had my cousins baby shower.  She is having a little girl in early August.

So much fun having little girl things in the house.  The funny thing is she and I were very close growing up even though she was always a Tom Boy and I was always into the dolls and purses.  So now look at us....I have the boys and she is having a girl!  I told her we can trade off from time to time.  She can take my boys camping and I will take her girl shopping:)

fluffy sheep cupcakes.



Diaper motorcycle.  Thanks Pinterest!



Some of my baby clothes.  The Mommy to be got to wear them too!



We are going to be in BIG trouble in a few years!!



I can already envision the stories yet to be made!



Come on baby Haley.



Only boys three and under were allowed!



Haley's first sunglasses.  To wear fishing next year!



Two August babies...both girls!



These women only know how to have girls..seems kinda fishy to me!



Tiny toes!

5 & 6

I never posted Luke's 5 or 6 month photos.  Life is busy!

He has his 6 month Doctor appointment this Monday so we will see how big our chunky monkey is!

He currently is wearing a size 3 diaper.  I have moved into the "cruisers" because the "swaddlers" don't seem to fit around his waist as well.

He wears size 9 and 12 month clothing.

Many things have been going on with Luke over the past two months.

He started to eat solids.  At first we tried rice cereal.  He did not seem too impressed, so it was a while before I tried something else.  So far he has had sweet potatoes and green beans and likes to eat now!

He also got in the swimming pool for the first time and this past weekend had his toes in the ocean!

He started saying Dada this month loves to shout and scream.  He is a louder baby than Hank was.  He still loves to jump up and down in his jumperoo, and play with a few toys.  He got a Sofie the Giraffe teething toy this month and he loves it. He also likes to use our chins as teething rings!  He has not been sleeping as well as he once did.  Not sure if that is related to teething, but he is becoming spoiled, just like Hank.  He wants to be in our bed and has been waking up in the middle of the night.

5 months



6 months



No Bow Ties!

Life has been busy busy busy!  It is hard to find time to post, but I wanted to post about Luke's baptism.  It was the last Sunday in April and turned out very nicely.  Hank went up to the front of the church with us and things were kind of dicey, because he was not listening to us very well!  Thankfully Pastor Carletta included him in the service and that helped a lot!

At some point the day before the baptism Hank told me he did not want Luke to wear a bow tie.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  He said:  "You said Luke Thomas was going to to wear a bow tie and go to church!"  I finally figured out he meant go to church and get baptised!  So funny!!

Big brother ready to help!

Some of the important women in Luke's life.

Mommy and the handsome men in her life!

My Grandmother Krouse's carriage.

Easter.

Hank looks so  big now.  No longer my baby!

Hank was telling Luke he was not allowed to eat Hershey Kisses yet because he is "just a baby.  All right!"  They both look so serious!

So hard to get a good photo of the both of them.  I was lucky to get this:)

It has taken me forever to post these photos!  Anyhow we had a great Easter.  That Friday was our ten year wedding anniversary!  We celebrated by having pizza and an ice cream cake.  We are always so tired by the time Friday rolls around, that it is hard to be motivated to go out, but it was nice to be with our two little men.

Saturday we dyed our Easter Eggs and went to an Easter Egg Hunt.

Sunday we went to church (Luke's first time) and then spent the rest of the day celebrating with our families.

Luke at Four Months.

Luke turned four months on April 3.

He had his four month Doctor appointment last Monday and he weighed 18 lbs 12 oz.

He was 26 1/2 inches.  He is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight.

He now wears a size 3 diaper.

He chews on his hand a lot and likes to follow people in the room by turning his head.   He has been sitting in his bumpo seat and started to pull his legs and feet up in the air.

He wears size 6 or 9 month clothing.

In the past week he has been enjoying time in his jumperoo and excersaucer.  He loves to laugh and yell out.  He also rolled over for the first time this past Friday.

Hank at 3 1/2

Hank is now 3 1/2 years old.

This has been the most difficult stage yet!  Two was wonderful, but three is a challenge!

He continues to go to school twice a week, and talks about his "buddy's" at school.

He just recently started saying his prayer, that he learned at school, before we eat!

He loves watching Scooby Doo and Batman on TV.  Those are his two favorite.

He loves Superheros, and Hot Wheels.  He also likes to play with Play Dough and spend time outside.

He is 40 inches and 41 pounds.

He is currently obsessed with games on the "puter."  He likes to play on Daddy's IPad or if someone has an IPhone...look out because he will try to take over your phone.

He loves to play Angry Birds, or as he calls it, "Naughty Birds."

He says lots of funny things, which I try and write down in his quote book  He has the best memory too and remembers everything.  He still loves to talk and will say, "Hey you remember when...." and then proceed to tell us something that happened a year ago.

Even tough he has had some challenging behavior, he is still a good boy and we love him lots!

Showing off his "Naughty Birds" tattoo

Luke at Three Months.

Luke was three months on March 3.

I went back to work on Monday March 5, so that is the reason for this months delay.

Thankfully he got over the RSV he had in February.  I took him back to the Doctor the week following his E.R. visit and he then had an ear infection!  I am so glad I had decided to take him for a f/u appointment.  We were getting ready to go to Deep Creek for a long weekend and I wanted him to see the Doctor first.  He got on an antibiotic and was much better after a few days.

When we got back from Deep Creek I put him back in his bassinet to sleep ( he had been in his swing for weeks), but he was too big and kept hitting the sides all night.  The next night we put him in his crib and he did much better.  He starting sleeping from 9 pm until 5 am.  Of course now that I am back to work he gets up around 2 am.

He was very fussy with taking a bottle that first week I went back to work, but he eventually gave in and has been taking it well.

When he was at the Doctor on 2/17 he had weighed  15 lbs and 10 oz

We had him back to the Doctors on March 9 to f/u on his ear infection and he was just over 17 lbs!

Currently he loves to sit up in his Bumbo seat and watch the mobiles on his swing and in his crib.  He has been chewing on his hands a lot and cooing for us.

He is still in a size 2 diaper and wears 6 month clothing.