Henry Mercer - 2 years old

What? Two? For realz?? It seems like just yesterday he was a little pink line and a dream in my heart.

2 Year Stats

Height - 3' exactly, 88th percentile
Weight - 31 lbs, 6 oz, 85th percentile
Head - 49 cm, 50th percentile

Loves:

Cheese. Grilled Cheese. Mac n cheese. Cheese Quesadilla. Cottage Cheese. Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper. Cheese-its. You get the picture.
Dinosaurs
Robots (the movie)
Curious George
Spoons
Making tents then saying, "dark in here"
Trying to dump water on his brother in the bath
His Grumpa (sorry grammy!)
Running

Hates:

Vegetables. all. of. them.
The potty.

Since I'm so overwhelmed with emotion I leave you with a two year review of my favorite Hank the Tank photos... love love love this child!

Henry Mercer - 22 months old

And we can't have an Owen update without a Henry update :)

This kid is the best! He is just so funny and loving. He is finally saying "mom" (or bom) and I love it. He runs around the house looking for me, "bom, bom bom BOM!!!"

He walked in our school homecoming parade (well, rode in a wagon) and I'd hear "bom bom bom" - just to turn around and he'd ask "What's that" while holding up his sucker. Over and over - too cute!

He is not very nice to kiddos who are smaller/younger than him - but he loves to play with older kids. He pushed his poor friend Jack down last night - in a very mean way. Something to work one I suppose!

Henry only likes to eat cheese ... grilled cheese, cheese quesadilla, cheeseburger hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese. Or hot dogs and ketchup. He doesn't take after his mother at all. *grin* No vegetables - though we did just try out Kraft's new mac n cheese that has cauliflower somehow in the noodles - and he did fine with that. Time to get sneaky!

I haven't uploaded any recent photos, but here's a couple from the last month or so:

Owen Roger - 18 weeks old

Last weeks Watch Me Grow photo (17 weeks old)

Working full time has turned me into a bad blogger mommy!!

Owen had his four month check up this week. His stats are:

weight - 15 lbs 10 oz - 65 percentile
height - 26 inches - 84 percentile

WAKE TIME
Owen averages being awake for about 2 hours before he needs a nap -- a little shorter in the mornings, a little longer in the evenings.

Formula
Owen averages four 6oz bottles a day. About 4 out of 7 nights, he wakes up for another bottle.

Solids
We've started giving him rice cereal in the evenings -- he still has the tongue thrust reflex, so he spits most of it out -- but seems to enjoy the experience. I'm hoping as we practice, this will help eliminate the night time wakings.

GAS
Owen has some days where he still needs gas drops and is in pain. Other days, he's completely fine. I have no idea what causes the change.

NAPS
At home - Owen does not sleep for more than 30 min. in his crib -- then we finish his naps in his bouncey. At daycare, it seems that he sleeps just fine! He takes a morning nap, a little longer afternoon nap, and then a bouncy or swing cat nap in the evening, usually during our dinner time.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP
Owen goes down for bed around 7:30 or 8pm. He may cry for 10-15 minutes, then is fast asleep. As I said with his bottles -- half the time he sleeps through the night, the other half he wakes up hungry. We always try to paci him and let him talk a little first, because he may just go back to sleep. I can usually tell if he is moving his mouth a lot when I try to paci him if he's hungry or not.

OMM
Owen had an OMM appointment last week for his poor crooked head. They want us to use a sleep positioner so he can't turn his head the way he likes at night - and also just to turn it as much as we can while he's awake. I haven't done the positioner because they make me nervous. I get that it's a long time for his head to be turned that way - especially when he sleeps through the night because it's 9+ hours. But it makes me nervous. We are doing better with tummy and siting up time - esp. now that he sits happily in his exersaucer for 15-20 min. at a time. I dunno - we'll see what happens.

FTWM
Working full time is hard for me. It's easy when I'm at school, in the "zone" - but when I look at all the things I want to do and get done in my classrooms vs. all the things I want to do with my boys - I struggle. It doesn't help that I'm teaching a new grade level that has a lot of extra prep work - especially since I'm having to make copies of all the materials - but also that I'm the type of teacher who does better, and teaches better when I'm well prepared (wait ... shouldn't all teachers be that way? :P ) It's all a balancing act and some days I do good, and some days I don't. I will say that I am loving third grade - and I absolutely love all of my students. I don't think there's one that I wouldn't take home. Yes, CP friends, even that *one*, holds a special place in my heart.

I've also been slacking on the photos -- did I ever post his 3 month photo session here? *checks back* Nope, sure didn't. Here's a few from a month ago, and maybe one or two more recent ones!

Brothers, much?! :)

Take the Henry vs. Owen challenge ... can you tell which babe is which? Exact same outfit, exactly the same age in life....



They don't look identical ... but I think it's pretty stinkin' cute how similar they look!

There's dust all over my house!

Dust in the Nursery

The following is by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton and was published in the Lady's Home Journal in 1958 as "Song for a Fifth Child."

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.



So so true --- can you believe Owen is 3 months today?!? Hoping to have time for his photo shoot this weekend before back-to-school/work madness continues!

Owen Roger - 12 Weeks Old

WAKE TIME
Owen's waketime has extended to about 1 hour and 30 minutes. His first morning nap sometimes comes earlier than this -- and in the evening he can often go 2 hours.

Feeding
Owen generally eats 6 six ounce bottles a day - sometimes he takes great naps and it's less.

GAS
Getting better. We are actually experimenting today with no gas drops at all - so far so good!

NAPS
Owen's naps average about 45 minutes ... I think we've got a major case of the 45 min. intruder here!! Sometimes he'll go back to sleep in his bouncy after waking up, sometimes not. Eventually he just gets tired enough to make it through the intruder and sleeps for a couple of hours.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP
We have transitioned to the crib, and it's gone very nicely! Owen goes down around 7:30-8:30, gets up for a bottle around 3-4am, then is down for the count until 7 or 8, unless I have to wake him up earlier. Once in a blue moon he'll wake up closer to midnight, but usually a paci does the trick.


SAHM
Has pretty much come to an end. The boys went to daycare 3 days last week, and on the other two days Nick and I each took a half day with them, and the other half in our classrooms. This week they'll go another three days - then we've got a 5 day weekend together before it's off to the real world :(

CIO
We started CIO this weekend -- if you can even call it that. Recap:

• Night 1: falls asleep during bottle, stays asleep, no crying
• Nap 1: cries/yells for 5 min, paci, 10 more min, paci - sleeps
• Naps 2 and 3 I'm not counting b/c I left Nick to do it and he didn't really follow protocol!
• Night 2: It took 30 minutes for Owen to fall asleep on his own, with two paci checks, and one pick-up-calm-down session
• Nap 4: No crying at all, straight asleep
• Nap 5: 2 minutes of crying, but then only 10 min. of sleep before a poop interruption, finished nap in bouncy

I just hope he gets to be as good of a sleeper as his big brother is!

Henry Mercer - 21 months old

This kid is hilarious. Seriously. And he loves the attention he gets from it!

His current favorites: still balls, balloons, Word World, slides

He knows the letters i and o (because of watching Word World all summer). Sometimes he can pick out T, E, and D.

He's learning new words everyday - but won't always use them.

He loves to throw away dirty diapers. If you try to do it without him, he'll chase after you yelling, "trash! trash!"

Yesterday - I told him he had to say "grapes, please" before I would open the fridge. He gave me a big kiss. He always wins!