Alison is 5 months old...almost!

Fun in the Jumperoo!


Sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed


Flirtin' with baby Luke!


First time in the swing


"Clicking" back to Mommy


Loving her brother!

Wow, it is AMAZING how fast the time flies by with your second baby! You hear it all the time, but it is so true and now I know first hand. Alison is such a sweet, loving, "good" baby! She still isn't sleeping more than 6 or 7 hours at night, but I am getting used to it and I'm hoping that in the next month we can get her to 12 or 13 hours like her brother. She rarely cries, but usually if she does it is just because she is hungry and I didn't get to her before she got too hungry because I was dealing with Zachary. I always know when she is getting tired because she starts getting unhappy and as long as I catch her before she starts fussing too much, I can put her down in her crib wide awake and she gets to sleep on her own. I LOVE that! Z was the same way and that was something that I really wanted with her too, so I worked hard to make it happen. The great thing about her, though, is that she will also let you rock her to sleep if you want! Zachary, once he was tired, just wanted to be put down...no cuddling. Alison, however, LOVES to cuddle and usually sleeps next to me in the mornings after her 5/6 a.m. feeding until Zachary wakes up...then we're all up! We started Alison on solids when she turned four months and she really loves cereal and baby food! The first night, after we fed her, she was SO happy! She was super smiley and squealed so much! So far she has had rice cereal, bananas, avocado, apples, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes and oatmeal. We will be trying peas and green beans next, and then maybe some squash and corn. I feed her in the evenings and she eats like a little horse that's never been fed! I think she's already gained almost 2 pounds since we started with the solids...that's a lot in less than a month! :)

Okay, so I like to write down things about the kids every once in a while so I remember what they were like at different times in their lives. Here are a few more things about Alison:

-She is really strong and holds her head up really well...hardly any "bobbling"
-She's been rolling both ways since the day after her 4 months birthday
-She can push herself up off her chest while on her tummy
-She found her toes about a month ago, but has just gotten really interested in them and now tries to chew on them
-She doesn't giggle much (like her brother) but is very smiley and squealy
-She can squeal so LOUD...she hurts our ears sometimes! It's amazing how much noise someone so small can make!
-She still wears almost all of her 0-3 month clothes, but I also put her in 3-6 month clothes and they fit her "okay"
-She just outgrew her size 1 diapers
-She gives really good kisses!
-She loves toys and faces and reaches out to anything she sees
-She rubs her eyes with the backs of her hands (SOOOOO cute!)
-She clicks her tongue and "razzes" and will do it in response to you doing it to her (when you razz, she razzes)
-She pulls her knees underneath her (while on her tummy) and "scoots" forward
-She can get up on all fours now too!
-She has started putting her hand on the back of her head and then scratching the back of her head up to the side of her head...I am really having to watch her nails. She does this a lot while nursing.
-She's also started pulling on her ears a little...like as a comfort thing. Also does this while she is nursing.
-When she doesn't have a paci, she is loving her fingers or fist...no thumb.
-She can put her pacifier in her mouth by herself (she's only done this a couple of times so far)
-We love her SO much!!!!!

All things Zachary

Zachary and Daddy found a frog!


Learning how to use the pedals


"Posing" on his new tricycle


Watering the tree


Fun in the water hose with Mimi!


Pretty sure that the elastic is SHOT in these shorts...what do you think?

Some funny things Zachary has said lately...

Mommy: "Zachary, go to time out for jumping on the couch and not listening. I want you to shut the door and stay inside for two minutes."
Zachary: (as he's walking away) "I don't think so."

Mimi: "Zachary, Mimi is not happy with you, not happy AT ALL."
Zachary: "I'm happy at all Mimi." (with a big, happy smile)

Daddy: "Zachary, did you just throw a big fit?"
Zachary: "I don't think so". (I guess he says that a lot these days)

Zachary: (In the car driving back from somewhere) "I want some wine."
Mommy: "WHAT?"
Zachary: "I need some wine".
Mommy: (Mommy and Daddy are laughing at this point) "Did you just say you need some wine?"
Zachary: "yeah, wine is fun." (Very matter of factly)

Mimi: (While out shopping, Zachary is sitting in the shopping cart) "Zachary if you do that again Mimi is going to pop your hand."
Zachary then repeats the offense and gets popped on the hand.
Zachary: (While looking at the lady standing right beside them and holding his hand out) "What happened to my hand?"

Daddy: (As he's opening the package to a "play" violin) "Zachary, what's this?"
Zachary: "It's a baby violin!" (We had been telling him he was getting a "baby" violin)
Zachary: (After Scott gave it to him) "Daddy, it's a musical instrument!!!!"

Zachary: (As he's pushing the iPhone under the bathroom door where Scott is) "I want a new game."
Daddy: (Pushing the iPhone back to him) "No Zachary Daddy got you a new game a few days ago." (No, my child is not spoiled...ha, ha!)
Zachary: (Sliding it back under the door to Daddy) "Daddy, I need a new game!"
At this point Scott picked up the phone and realized that Zachary had put it on the application where he downloads new games/applications. And no, he did not get a new game...until the next day. :)

Some other things Z does these days:
-Anytime he gets hurt he automatically says, "I'm okay".
-He must be covered up at night now and so must his monkeys
-He has been very outgoing lately and has started to get more excited about friends
-Loves riding a tricycle, although he won't leave his feet on the pedals and instead pushes with his feet on the ground
-LOVES to help mommy clean...funny how all his help slows things down SO much. :)
-LOVES Rice Krispies and pancakes and would eat them at every meal if I let him.
-Can tap the beat of a song and will even say, "What song is this, Mommy", and I have to try and figure it out.
-He has learned to sing really LOUD! Why do kids think this is cute? (okay, it is...sometimes) :)
-He is really into Thomas the Train these days and loves anything to do with a choo choo train.
-Still loves school buses, UPS trucks, diggers, bulldozers, dump trucks, garbage trucks, etc...
-Has started in the past week to throw more fits, give us a really hard time at bed time, and has started using the dreaded "my/mine" for everything...even things that are NOT his.
-Has also started screaming demands to us. For example, "I want MY iPhone!" I am working really hard to nip this in the bud and make him say, "May I have .... please?"
-He LOVES "Baby Alison" and is getting more and more interested in her as she gets older. I wonder how interested he'll be in her once she can crawl and get his toys?
-We LOVE him and count each day with him as a blessing...even though he is 2 and stresses us out! :)

We had pictures done!

A little over a month ago we had a local photographer take some family pictures. I went early to try and get some shots of Alison, while Zachary and Scott came a little over an hour into the session. Zachary, being 2, was very uncooperative and just wanted to play...imagine that. For that reason, we got no pictures of Zachary with Scott and I individually, and only one picture of Alison and Zachary. Trying to get a family pictures was torture because neither one of the kids wanted to cooperate at that time, but we ended up with a couple of decent one...thankfully! To say it was a stressful couple of hours is an understatement, but Cassie (the photographer) was great and was really patient and kind. The funniest part was how she jumped up and down making funny noises and acting like a frog to try and make Zachary smile...I wish I had it on video! Hope you enjoy the pictures, we really love them! Hopefully we'll get to have another outdoor session with Cassie in the fall when the kids are a little older!

Our little squealer!

The Little Squealer from Alex Wuenstel on Vimeo.

Alison is 4 months old!

Alison had her 4 month check up yesterday and weighs in at a whopping 11 pounds and 11 ounces!  She's in the 5th percentile for her weight and height...a big change from her big brother who has always been in between the 75th and 90th.  She's healthy as a tiny horse, though, and her development is right on track.  She is very social and is starting to laugh and squeal a lot more just in the past couple of days.  She still isn't doing so great in the sleep department, but I am going to go ahead and blame that on her being so little, even though I know that doesn't really mean anything.  However, for the time being and until she gets a little more weight on her, I am going to continue to feed her at least once during the night.  We started her on some rice cereal and she LOVES it!  She was soooo happy after her first "meal" and was talking and smiling and squealing a ton!  She is so fun and we are so lucky to have her in our lives!  Zachary loves her SO much too and says she is his best friend and he loves her the most...too cute!  

Easter fun!

Today we had a play date at our house and we made it into an easter party! Usually play dates around here consist of around 5 or 6 moms and their kiddos, but today we had a total of 46 people in our house! Yes, it was chaotic, but it was "controlled" chaos and was actually a lot of fun...even for me. :) I was really lucky to have "Mimi" around to help clean and cook and take care of kiddos, otherwise I could have never done it. We had a craft for the kids, tunnels and a bounce house, tons of food (everyone who came brought something), cute easter decor and an indoor easter egg hunt...actually we had 2 because there were too many kids to do it all at once. It was tons of fun, but I sure am glad it's over. :) Here are a few pics of the kids from today after everyone had left since I didn't have time to take any while the craziness was going on...









And a few "pre-Easter" Easter pictures...

Fun with Grandpa & Daddy's a Tiger!

I am seriously behind on blogging...oops! That's what happens, I guess, when "life" takes over. :) I will TRY to take more pictures and I will TRY to get them up here more often. I do agree that a 3 week gap is way too long!

Okay, so Scott's dad was here for the past week and we really enjoyed having him here! He helped us get a lot of stuff done around the house and we are really thankful to have his "know how" and his willingness to help us out. Being first time home owners, we aren't that knowledgeable and like I mentioned before, life seems to take over most of the time and things get put on the back burner. Some of the trim on our house wasn't looking so good, so Paul started that project for us and showed Scott how to do the rest. Now we just need to pick a color (since we don't have to paint it the same color) and get to work. The front of the house by the kids' windows also needs some work and to be repainted. Most of this will be Scott's job because it involves ladders, etc. but I should be able to help re-paint the porch. The other big thing we got done while Paul was here was to get the tree in the front yard cut down. When we moved in it was "sick" but a tree expert had come to look at it and trimmed it back, etc... Well, it never got healthy again and it was just a complete eye sore. Paul found a guy who cut it down and hauled it away for $100! Yay! Our yard looks 10,000 times better and the new trees that we bought haven't even been planted yet. Scott and Paul did plant some cherry blossoms on the fence line on the side of the house and a couple of them already have little blossoms on them...so cute! We're also going to do a little flower garden over the space where the old tree was because the stump and roots are still there. I can't wait to finish it all and get pictures on here because it is going to look awesome!

So, the main reason Grandpa came up here (besides to see Z and Alison) was to go to Scott's graduation from B-2 training. Well, as luck would have it, the graduation got changed. It actually has changed dates about 4 times now and at this moment there is no date! In place of a "real" graduation, we decided to have a little gathering at our house. We had a nice time and it was fun to get together one last time as a class. Two of the graduates went to the 13th bomber squadron and two went to the 393rd bomber squadron. Scott is going to be in the 393rd...a Tiger! Here is a little history on this squadron if you are interested. http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-071108-045.pdf We are very proud of him and can't wait to see what the future holds with the B-2 "family"!