Fun with a Car Wash

In the most recent news, we are now a family of a mini van! Mr. G weeps, but I rejoice. It will be my main driver anyways. But to sit higher up and not have to decide if a stroller or groceries can come together. Now the fun part of selling our Focus wagon is in order. Mr. G felt it needed a good wash last weekend, and of course, Eliza was quite curious as to what daddy was doing....

   

Growing Boy

Things keep cruising along in the growth department with Nolan. I took him to his WCC which was just short a few days of his 5th month birthday.

He tips the scale at 16 lbs. (51st percentile) and towers in at 27 inches long (90th percentile) with him out doing his sister with a head in the 63rd percentile. Of course shots got to accompany this visit, which later made for a very hard day with the daycare. Nothing like getting a call at work that your little man has been crying for 1.5 hours and hasn't eaten since you dropped him off.

 

This shot was taken on the morning of taking gram to the airport. As you can see, those fingers are being exercised quite well. Low and we all knew it was coming soon...two teeth! Right on the bottom, both have finally broken the surface and can be felt. Back in May I caught a glimpse of what I thought were teeth. He's been drooling and chewing on just about everything thing since I swear, the day he was born. Eliza never was the drooler, but bottom teeth seemed to bother her the most compared to cutting top ones.

Tonight, we made the switch to the convertible car seats of his sisters. This kid weighs more than his sister at an earlier age and that darned infant carrier just gets too heavy. Eliza now gets to use a five point harness booster from Evenflo.

After getting a few convertible car seat from a car seat safety check point at a local Target parking lot, we've really liked them. I wished I knew then what I know now. You can still get a nice safe car seat that doesn't break the bank or take up the entire back seat of your car. As nice as the Graco My Ride 65 is pictured on the left, it is very difficult to make it fit right in specific cars that are on the economy side of things. And I am even talking about a Chrysler TC Mini Van. Especially if you need to fit another car seat right next to it. Plus it sits high, so when forward facing, feet are kicking the head rest. 

Not to mention, we can buy two of these for close to the same price as one super-duper Graco My Ride

This new seat goes from 22 to 110 pounds and will last Eliza until she no longer needs any special seat when in the car. It really is easy to amass a collection of baby gear not being used in your garage, especially when you're not sure if the baby making factory has closed up shop for good :)

Grams Visit

The house is a little bit quieter now. Tuesday I dropped my mother off to the airport before a very long day or work and meetings. She was originally supposed to fly out the Saturday before, but Mr. G seems to have a handicap when it comes to booking plane tickets. The night before said believed ticket home, it was realized that it had been 24 hours past her plane taking off! So after several ticket changes and a 200 credit with Jet Blue to use in the next years time...she left us.

Shopping for mommy's new shoes at the outlet mall

Having fun with grams camera

There were still many things I didn't get to do with her. Having two babies this visit made it hard to find time to make it happen. I was more in demand and cooking delish meals for her fell to the back burner. I would have LOVED to have worked on a sewing project together and see what new tricks she could teach me.

Mom and I surprised daddy for fathers day with a real MAN grill. Forever in our relationship has grilling only involved a little hibachi set up with camping tanks. We surprised him by telling a story about finding a large trunk out by the road side when on a trip to the Amish store. I said it was heavy and dirty but needed to come out of the focus wagon immediately. This of course made him SO VERY ANGRY since he wasn't prepared for another new project of mine and he was relaxing playing games online.

He was so happy and laughing after the blanket was removed from the large box. Then I told him not to complain or whine about getting something out of the car for me again. I shot these from the kitchen window.

Because we are both shutter bugs, I don't even think we got an informal picture of us together. At least we'll have the JCP portraits soon :)

The night before she left, while watching The Prince of Egypt, it all started to hit me that she was leaving. Tears flowed into Mr. G's under shirt as I sat in the computer chair in the office. This was probably the best visit we've had together in a long time. No fighting or emotional roller coasters ensued. But I know Mr. G is happy to have his castle back to himself where he doesn't have to worry about what he is wearing or not wearing around the house ;) 

Friends

The weather is FINALLY starting to act like a more consistent summer, which allows for some nice outside play time. Eliza had her favorite play date pal over Friday afternoon before I headed to work.

Fruit leather break. BTW, that rocking dino was a road score :)

To think that in a blink of an eye, these two will be older and conversations will be much more complicated and genuine. I also wonder where we'll be living and if these two playmates will grow up around each other. I'm kinda found of his mommy :) This was also the first time I saw more play interaction back and fourth instead of Eliza swiping each and every toy away. I think our new daycare is helping with this.

Please, don't grow up too fast because my heart can't take too much at once!

Clean Fun

The bath can be such fun when there are two kids involved in the mess. Eliza plays pretty well with Nolan during this time. The Crayola bath crayons are pretty cool and very vibrant. Then of course you have to have some fun with bubble bath hair doos. 

I am commonly having to tell Eliza to stop making out with her brother (words I never thought I'd have to utter). But any time we give her the opportunity to hold him, she LOVES it. In fact, when we went to pick him up after bath time cuddles and pictures, she didn't let go of him very willingly. Then later on when I had briefly placed Nolan in his car seat, I hear him making noise. It was a very good reason to make noise as Eliza had him in her arms!

Like I said....she LOVES her brother!

Oh, the Places You'll Paint

The weather finally decided to give us a break and I thought it would be a good time to bust out the paints on the easel. Not to mention. a chance to get some 2 year old milestone shots. Getting Eliza to cooperate is really hit or miss these days. The will is strong in her and despite me having a zillion-in-one ideas of different compositions...I have to accept what I CAN get from her. I had this same frustration for my maternity shoot. 

Eventually, she got tired of hearing the word "no" when motioning for more paint on her paper and decided that playing by the slide would be more fun.

Maybe year three will hold for better cooperation for pictures!

Therapy

We have recently started having our therapy sessions for physical and speech. The teachers come to your home with all their "goodies" and basically play for the 30 or so minutes they are there. The toys are not anything out of the ordinary; in fact they've brought stuff we currently already have. Things like Melissa & Doug puzzles are common, as with any toy with a lot of easy pick up pieces. But in order to "play", certain tasks/commands must be completed, or tasks are made a little harder such as holding a toy higher to get them to reach and jump up to it.

Eliza loves to sit in the booster seat which the speech therapist brings with her, and gets a little mad/sad when she must be unbuckled at the end. This toy was quite popular with Eliza.

Here, she is working on getting Eliza to sign "more" for more balls to drop into the gumball machine, or trying to get her to mimic a simple sound (buh) (Mmmmm).

Some days are hit or miss depending on if the toy is something she is interested in. The last PT session wasn't the greatest due to more interest in her sippy cup and wanting to sit on mommy's lap. We used her tantrum against her in picking up weighted balls and throwing them to the ground in earnest. You can see one of them in the picture at the top as a small blue basket ball.

As recommended as a benefit, we've purchased a 48" trampoline with the help of Grandma. I'll post more about it in the near future. Otherwise, it is hard to find time to sit at the computer and get these posts out. But advance thanks is given for your patience during this crazy time in our lives :)

Have A Good Weekend?

I snapped this a little before Nolan turned 4 months. He had found the remote and seemed to find a liking for it. The weekend of course, is never long enough and I can't help but start thinking about Friday afternoon when the last kid at the youth center has gone home :)