PICTURES!

As promised, here are some pictures from the last two months.



The slideshow includes:

- A visit to Grandma Rose and Papa's house

- The Halloween costumes - Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy

- Andrew sitting up

- Andrew's messy face ( I love the messy face pictures. We have a ton of Jacob!)

- Andrew plays with Jacob's toys

- Jacob's visit to the pumpkin patch

- Boo at the Zoo



I added a few random pictures, too.

Busy Busy Busy

I haven't been able to blog in such a long time. My work situation recently changed in two ways. 1) Helen, my assistant, quit working for us. :( I completely understand, but she is already missed. So that means I am back to working 5 days a week. 2) My brother is now my boss!! I loved working for my dad (and he's still here, but strictly a salesman now), but things are much more fast-paced with Steve. I love it!

The kids have been pretty good. Andrew is cutting teeth right now, so he was home from daycare with a fever for the last two days. It's weird. He is cutting his upper canine teeth. Poor baby! I think he's finally feeling better since one broke through the gums. He is still trying to crawl, and he is eating up those solid foods! He really likes the butternut squash and bananas. He also tried sweet peas last night, but once he saw the milk wagon, he was not into eating them at all! He is sitting up so well these days, too! He has also learned what the remote control is. Whenever he sees one, he launches himself towards it. He now has his own to chew on.

And my sweet Jacob has been particularly cute lately. Yesterday was the first day he asked, "Why?" when I asked him to do something. It took me by surprise, and I hope he flies through this phase. I just don't know if I could handle it long term. Last night he told me, "Mommy, go away" when I was hanging around to see if he needed help on the potty. On the way home from school he informed me that, "Daddy stay home with Andrew. Andrew go to doctor office. Get shot. Andrew feeling better." That's a pretty good little thought process for the little guy! I said nothing about the doctor, but he did hear me tell the teachers at school that Andrew was feeling better. I think Jacob has missed his Mommy time in the last couple of months. I've been making more of an effort to spend some one on one time with him, and he seems to have a better attitude overall.

I swear that pictures and videos are coming! I feel better just telling some stories about the kids for now.

Andrew is 6 Months Old!

I am still in shock that Andrew is 6 months old! When I think of him, I see him as the 2 month old baby that he was when I went back to work. So here is his update:
  • He weighs 17 lbs, 4.25 oz
  • He is 27" tall
  • His head is 44.5 cm around
  • Today he finally became the little roly poly that I've been waiting for him to become! I saw him roll over more times today than he has total in the last 2 months!
  • He is trying to crawl. He can get up on all fours, rock, and scoot backwards. He'll be crawling around here in no time!
  • We are pretty sure he finally got a tooth. His gums are still a little swollen, but I'm about 99.9% sure his first tooth has broken through.
  • We are also working on his sitting up! He can balance pretty well.
  • His sleeping is not at all like it was when he was 2 months old. He wakes up about twice each night, and I'm just about over it. He has been spoiled since he got sick a while back. About two weeks ago, we moved him into the nursery with Jacob. Now I have to run across the house to get him in the middle of the night. It's on the list! :)
  • I gave him carrots tonight for the first time. He LOVED them! He was lunging for the next bite. I can't wait to try it again tomorrow.
  • He is the sweetest little boy! His smile makes everything worth it, and he smiles a lot! I am so happy he is a part of our family!

Here is a video of his little belly laugh. There is no better sound in the world than a laughing baby!

Back to Reality

At the end of last week, I attended a Family Business Conference. About a year and a half ago, our business hired a family business consultant to help us transition the business to the 3rd generation, and they invited us to this event. It was great! I went with Steve and one of my uncles, and we were pampered for a day and a half with great food and great company and tons of information that was pertinant to our business! We actually met a couple of guys from Wyoming who are a few years younger than us and who work in a metal shop that deals with HVAC (a little different than Astro, but it's still a family owned metal fabrication shop).

I was very eager on Friday to get home to spend time with the kids. It was probably the most beautiful day we've seen in several months here in Dallas, so Brian and I decided we would pack up the kids and have a picnic and play at the park. This is where it gets interesting!

Andrew was acting like his tummy was bothering him before we ever left the house, so I knew what was coming; I just didn't know how much! After we ate at the park, I took him back to the car to change his diaper. WOW! A major blowout was awaiting me! It amazes me how he can do that and very little actually makes it into the diaper. So it was kind of a big deal to clean him up. If we had been at home, I would've given him a bath. Then Jacob had an accident while we were eating dinner. Since I took care of Andrew, Brian took care of Jacob. He was soaked! Then we played for a while. It was really fun! The kids seemed to enjoy getting outside for a while. Then it was time to go home. Andrew was a little fussy because he was so tired. So he had barely drifted off to sleep when Jacob spilled water on himself. Not a big deal except Jacob acted like it was hurting him and cried and whined about it. All of the commotion woke up Andrew. So both boys cried all the way home and made a competition out of the entire trip home trying to out-cry the other. Brian and I just laughed in the front seat. We gave ourselves an A for effort, but decided we should've left the park about 10 minutes earlier.

Saturday morning both boys were awake and ready to go at 6:00 a.m. (side note: this morning it was 5:30. WTH?!?!). It was one of those days where once one got settled, the other had to do something to get attention. Jacob has an accident, Andrew spits up. Jacob spills milk, Andrew has a blowout. They were actually very good all weekend, but it was definitely a harsh welcome back to reality!

Now I'll brag on them! I mean, it's not their fault that I hung up my mommy hat for a few days and was completely unprepared to put it back on! :) Jacob is still doing very well with his potty training! He had quite a few accidents on Saturday, but he and Brian had gone shopping and got some cool underwear. So we let him wear some of his new underwear yesterday and told him he would have to wear white underwear if he had an accident. It worked! And I'm hoping it works again today at school. He still wears a diaper at night, and we put him in a diaper yesterday for nap time. One step at a time!

Andrew completely surprised me this weekend! He loves to look at himself in the mirror (he never gets tired of it). So I decided to give him some tummy time in front of the mirror on Saturday. He could get his little knees underneath himself and then he'd scoot backwards. Then he started practicing getting up on all fours! And then, for a special treat for all of us, he showed off how he figured out how to throw his body weight forward! So maybe we'll have a crawler soon. I also spent time helping him sit up in front of the mirror. His balance is better than I expected! I just sat there to catch him when he fell over. He will be 6 months old on Wednesday, and I just can't believe it! He still seems like the little 2 month old baby that I had when I went back to work. For his 6 month birthday, he's getting some shots including his flu shot. Oh...and Jacob gets one, too!