12 Posts of Christmas {2} Cut-out cookies

For the first time in many years, I decided to make cut-out cookies.  Mainly because I have a two year old "helper" who I thought would have a blast decorating (and of course eating) cookies and because this is one of those fun Christmas traditions I want to do with my family.  So last week after lunch we made the dough, rolled it out and went to town.

And as we were making these, I realized why I haven't made cut-outs for so long.  They take for.ev.er to make.  Rolling, cutting, pulling away excess dough, scooping cookies onto sheet, ball up extra dough and repeat.  Over and over again.  And of course as I mentioned in my last post, with a toddler as your assistant, the project takes twice as long.  So we made one batch of cookies and then I declared it nap time so it wouldn't take us four hours to finish the rest of them. 

this one's for you Dad!

For some reason, they turned out kinda dry.  But I figure with enough frosting no one will know the difference!!

12 Posts of Christmas {1} The Tree

So in an attempt to capture the Christmas moments this year (both big and small) I've decided to do 12 Posts of Christmas.  I can't promise they will be exciting or even worth reading to most of you, but this is my way of remembering, since I don't scrapbook or journal.  (Does anyone actually scrapbook anymore??)  And yes I realize today is December 15 and that 12 days from now it will be Dec 26, one day after Christmas, but given that I have a very busy 2 year old and a sometimes very fussy 3 month old, I haven't had time to get to this until now.  So here goes .......

---------------
The first weekend in December we decided to put up the Christmas tree.  I'm finally getting used to putting the tree up earlier in the season.  In my house growing up, we were lucky if the thing was up and decorated the week before Christmas.  And one particular year we were putting up ornaments on Christmas Eve.  So the thought of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving was beyond bizarre to me.  But I'm coming around.

I would absolutely LOVE to have a real tree for Christmas.  But every year we're either in a place where we can't have one or we can't afford one.  So out of the box it came.

Brooks insisted on helping put the tree together.  So it took twice as long.  And I have to admit that both Chris and I are task oriented people and like to finish a project quickly.  (hello first born)  So it's a stretch for us to step back and allow Brooks to "help".  But it's good.  We're learning.

Brooks fixed the tree for us.  Whew!  Thanks buddy!

Then came time for the ornaments.

Brooks was a super helper.  He arranged all the ornaments.  And they've since been re-arranged at least a dozen times.  They're basically cool toys you can hang on a tree.  We've found Christmas ornaments in our bathroom sink, on the kitchen floor, in his bed and just about everywhere else you can imagine.  And when we ask him to put them back on the tree, they all get clumped together on like three branches.  (let go of the need to space the ornaments evenly, Ashley.  Just let it go.)  Christmas is so.much.fun with a two year old!!

Oh, and where's the baby you ask?  Here's how Carter spent his first holiday decorating.....

He was having a great time, can you tell??

But I loved seeing his face when he woke up and saw the tree!

The lights are pretty much awesome! 

And now every morning when Brooks wakes up he says "I go downstairs and see my tree".  He's pretty proud of it, and so are we.

Watch Me Grow: 3 Months

Happy 3 months to my sweet, smiley, pudgy little boy!

Who doesn't love a baby in a sweater vest??

Here's some highlights from month #3.

• We finally weighed baby C.  He's a whopping 14.5lbs!  That means he's gained 6 pounds in 3 months.  And he's got the rolls to show for it.  I LOVE having a squishy baby. 
• Carter is a champion eater (hence, the rolls) and he still eats often, usually every 2 - 2 1/2  hours during the day.  He will go longer stretches at night (4-5 hours) between eating which is nice for me.  But when he does wake up to eat, I put him in bed with me, latch him on and we both go back to sleep!
• We co-sleep full time and bed share part time.  Translation: Carter sleeps in our room every night in a bassinet/pack n' play next to our bed.  He starts the night sleeping there, but at some point (usually around 5am) he'll just stay in our bed after nursing.  We love our snuggle time but to be honest I think we both sleep better when we have some space.  If I'm too close to him for too long, he'll start fidgeting and fussing until I move over.  Sheesh.  He's already a bed hog.
• I celebrated Carter's three month birthday by packing away most of his three month clothing.  He's wearing all 6 month clothes now.  And the funny thing is that these 6mo pants that fit him so well are the same ones that fell down off of Brooks when he was six months old!
• Carter is full of smiles and babbles.  He knows his Mama and Daddy well and smiles at us often.  He's even starting to respond to Brooks.  Just yesterday both of them were laughing at each other during lunch.  It was great!
• Carter has a fascination with the light fixture in our living room.  Not sure why.  There's no fan.  It doesn't move.  It's just round and shiney and he loves to smile and "talk" to it.  Silly baby.
• He's just starting to notice toys.  We have a floor play mat that we'll lay him on occasionally and last week he realized that there's toys on it!  He isn't grabbing anything yet, but will swing his arms and hands at them and watch them move.  It's SO fun watching him grow and learn!
• Carter took his first big road trip to visit Grandma Marty and Papa Dave for Thanksgiving.  Overall, he handled the ride well.  We made one big stop for lunch/supper and several small stops to nurse the baby.  The ride there was rouger than the ride coming home though.  The first day in Green Bay Carter spent most of the day nursing to recover.  Grandma and Papa had a great time playing with C.  And Carter loved Papa Dave's beard - he'd just press his face into it and close his eyes as he felt it.
• Carter has become a thumb/finger sucker.  He's not partial to any particular finger, just whatever he can get in his mouth - sometimes the whole fist.  At first we weren't sure that we liked this new habit, thinking of how difficult it could be to wean him of it later.  But when I found that this ...

led to this ....

Well, I can't say I hate it so much.  Carter will still take the touchie (aka pacifier) sometimes, but mostly prefers his fingers or thumb.

Here's a few more pictures of the little one.  (and some of the big one :)

Bath time!

mmm, chubby baby

Bye Bye Charlie

This last weekend we spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Green Bay.  We had a wonderful time, but we came home with one less family member.  Don't worry, we remembered the boys but Charlie didn't make the trip home. 

It all started a few months ago with the "we should get rid of the dog" conversation Chris and I had.  He'd been part of our family for over four years, but between the constant barking that woke the baby, the peeing on the floor and jumping up when guests came to visit and him tripping our son this summer that required a trip to the dentist with x-rays, I just couldn't take any more.  He was a good dog, but not really a good fit for our family any more.  And since we now had two children to take care of, the poor pooch was constantly being pushed off the couch, pushed out of our laps and in general, just pushed away.  And as much as that dog annoyed me, I knew he deserved better than that.

So we put out an ad on Facebook.  Free dog to a good home.  Then my high school friend Jenny (who now lives in the Chicago area) called and said she works with some folks who are daschund enthusiasts.  Frankly I never knew such people existed.  Everyone I talked to who had owned a weiner dog said they would never own one again!  But one gal, Bonnie was interested and we started e-mailing back and forth - her asking questions and me sending pictures.  And after some correspondence she said she would LOVE for Charlie to come live with her.

Ok.  So this was really happening.  We'd always talked about getting rid of the dog but now here we were really doing it.  So I met up with Jenny over the weekend and she took Charlie down to his new home in Chicago.

And just like that he was gone.  For good.  We'd had several (I mean, several) conversations about this and we'd agreed over and over that this was what's best for our family.  But I have to admit, it was a sad moment.  Brooks took the transition in stride, but even he was a little sad.

And now it's quieter around here.  (And I say quiet-ER because with two boys this house is never truly quiet)  And that was the goal, I will admit.  But we're still getting used to not having him around.  I'm still conditioned to hearing barking when someone knocks on the door.  And I half expect to hear our tap dancing dog (hardwood floors) scamper up the stairs to bed at night.  And I never realized just how messy Brooks was when he ate.  The best thing that dog ever did was clean up crumbs from under the table.

And even though that dumb dog peed in my shoe the last day we had him, I kinda miss the little guy.  But from what Bonnie tells me, he doesn't get put in a kennel during the day, he gets to ride in the car to the dog park and he sleeps on her bed.  Um, yeah.  He's totally loving it there!

Watch Me Grow: 2 Months

those are not bunny ears by the way ...  they're my feet :)

My sweet baby boy is 2 months old!!  Can you believe it??  I keep thinking that the 8 weeks leading up to his birth took forever and the 8 weeks since have flown by.  Here's what's new in life with Carter.

•  This month Carter earned a new nickname.  Captain Fussy Pants.  But after a chiropractic adjustment and cutting dairy out of my diet (sad), I'm happy to say he's doing much much better.  Now he's the sweet and smiley boy that I always knew he was.
• He's nursing about every 3 hours or so.  Sometimes less, usually more.  He's a pretty efficient eater now.  We can be done in less than 10 minutes.  
• Carter is sleeping longer stretches at night, usually only waking twice to eat.  And after eating, he'll go right back to sleep.  Awesome!  Despite his fussy-ness during the day, he's always slept well at night.  And after our early morning feeding, he just stays in bed with us and snuggles.  I love it!
• He's getting stronger every day.  He can hold his head up really well and when supported can put all his weight on his legs.
• Speaking of legs, they're super chubby and cute!  He's really filling out and I love his pudgy little rolls.
• When you look at Carter and smile, he'll smile right back and coo at you.  Melts my heart every time.  What mother doesn't love those huge toothless grins?  Usually when I pull out the camera Carter just stares at it in amazement rather than smiling.  But Chris was able to capture these few smiles before we headed out one evening.

Isn't that hat just adorable?  It's ok, you can say it.  He's pretty much the cutest kid ever!

No More Cheese

Wow, it's been a whole month since I've posted anything. I've wanted to, believe me, and I have several posts already written ... in my head. But given that Carter's new nickname is Captain Fussy Pants, most all of my time lately has been rocking, nursing and in general holding baby C.  I'm ok holding him.  Really.  In fact, I prefer to hold him rather than just set him in a chair for most of the day.  But even while holding, rocking, swaying, wearing, swaddling, bouncing, walking, and shushing him, he would still cry.  The only time he wasn't crying was when he was eating (all the time) and when he was sleeping (hardly ever).  Oh, the frustration.  And during this time his poops have been ... well ... let's just say less than lovely.  My purely breastfed baby is supposed to have sweet smelling diapers and his were anything but.  Something wasn't right.

So after a few weeks of this I took him to the chiropractor.  I figured I'd start there.  Dr. Marsh adjusted him and then suggested I start limiting my dairy intake.  I had thought that maybe my diet was contributing to the problem, but didn't really want to believe it.  I mean, do you know how hard it would be for this Wisconsin girl to stop eating cheese??  But it was worth a try.  So starting that day (which was exaclty two weeks ago now) I stopped consuming dairy.  No milk. No cheese.  No yogurt.  No sour cream.  No butter.  No cottage cheese.  No nothing.  (ok, I know that's not grammatically correct, but you'll have to forgive me ... I'm dairy deprived!)

I was hoping for an immediate improvement but we all know that didn't happen.  But Carter did seem to get a little better.  In fact he was on an every other day schedule.  One day crabby and fussy as usual.  The next, smiley and happy.  And then back to crabby.  This went on for a week.  Then this last week he's had more and more happy days.  And finally two weeks later, I believe we've solved the problem.  Carter has been an amazing napper!  He's smiling and cooing and it's fun to be around him again.  Oh and his poop??  (because you were all dying to know)  Yep, back to normal.  Which makes risning and washing diapers much more pleasant.

So I guess that makes giving up my favorite food group worth it.  And as an added bonus, I'm dropping the baby weight faster and saving money to boot.  Milk is expensive!  Now my my only problem is ... what do I make for supper????

Watch Me Grow: 1 Month

Yep, our little Carter James is one month old.  Crazy, huh?  Here's some highlights from his first month of life.

• This kiddo LOVES to be held.  And that's probably because I hold him all the time.  But can you blame me?  He's so adorable!!
• Not only does he like to be held, but he also has taken a liking to sleeping in our bed.  He starts out the night in his bassinet in our room, but at some point in the night he always ends up in bed with us.  He sleeps better that way and I .... well, I actually sleep.
• Carter has earned the nickname "Squeaker".  When he wakes in the night to eat he doesn't cry (nice, huh?).  He just grunts and squeaks.  It's really cute.  But don't think we have the world's easiest baby.  He cries plenty during the day - usually when he's not being held.
• He likes to look at our red curtains and at lights; especially the lights in our bathroom.
• Mirrors make him stop crying.  That is very helpful to know!
• The best way to get Carter to sleep is to bounce on the exercise ball with him on our chest.  Does it almost every time.  It's tiring but at least I'm getting some exercise!
• A few times he's cracked a smile at me.  And he didn't immediately poop afterwards so it's not just gas :)
• He eats every 2-3 hours, sometimes more often.  He'll go a stretch of abou 4 hours at night between eating.  That's nice.
• We started cloth diapering with Carter.  At first it wasn't going so well - he was leaking out of them all the time.  I couldn't figure out if it was me or the diapers.  Then we switched to FuzziBunz and no more leaks!  Good to know it wasn't me.  Now I actually enjoy it.  And washing them is so easy - not as gross as everyone expects.
• He's already grown out of his newborn clothes.  Sure didn't take long.  But the way this kid eats, it's no wonder he's growing so much! 
• Brooks LOVES Carter.  He's always getting him his pacifier, covering him with blankets and rocking him in his chair.  Now I'm just teaching him that Carter doesn't need his paci when he's already sleeping, blankets don't go on the baby's head and we don't need to launch Carter out of the rocking chair.  But he's learning and he's a good help.  He's such a good big brother!!