Things have finally settled down enough that I am actually able to find a few minutes to finally write an entry. I think I've given up hope that I will ever be able to do one more than about once a month though.
Evan continues to grow (and grow, and grow!). At his 2 month check-up he weighed 13 lbs, 15 ozs, which is in the 93rd percentile!! I think his rolls have rolls - in fact, we counted 4 rolls on his thighs the other day!! I figure by the time he turns one my arms will be ripped from carrying him around :)
Overall, he is a pretty happy baby (who wouldn't be when you have that much chub?!), but when he gets mad - LOOK OUT! He definitely has a temper. He also is already really good at the pouty face. When he starts to get upset his whole face just crumples and his bottom lip sticks way out and he lets out this sad little cry like his whole world is ending. I have a feeling I will see that face a lot as he gets older and Grace does things he doesn't like! He started smiling in early August and now will smile almost all the time and coo/talk back at us. It's so cute!
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| Sleepy boy |
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| First bath! |
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| One month |
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| Two month |
He has also started to consistently sleep around 6 hours every night, and sometimes will even go 7 hours. I am so thankful, because it was really rough there for the first 8 weeks or so. It's hard to believe he will be 12 weeks old on Thursday. One of the downfalls to having such a chunky baby is that it seems like I only had a tiny little baby to hold for a few weeks, so that makes me sad.
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| My three kids! |
Grace also seems like she is changing every day, and seems less and less like a little toddler and more and more like a preschooler. Even her speech is improving, but it's sad, too. She used to call Toby "dado" but now he's Toby and now she will call herself Gracie instead of "Chi-chi". It seems like it happens overnight - one day she saying her cute little versions, and the next day she's saying the words perfectly. It breaks my heart a little bit to think that we'll probably never hear "dado" in our house again, unless by some chance that is what Evan decides to call Toby.
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| Beach baby |
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| Yep,she's naked under there! |
We also have to be EXTREMELY careful about what we say or do around her because she is a perfect little mimic. One day we were grocery shopping and we were just about finished and I said, "Let's hit the road, Jack" and now she says it all the time when we get ready to leave anywhere. She also says "boom-sha-ka-la-ka" and will tell you things are HUGE or any other adjective she has recently heard. She loves kids songs - her favorites are "The Muffin Man" and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". She can sing along pretty well and says the ABC's and counts to 10, and also knows opposites - she'll try to tell you something is little if you say it's big, etc.
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Pushing her baby and wearing
Mommy's sandals |
We took Grace to the Manchester, Chelsea, and Saline Fairs this year, and it was so cute to see her on the rides. Her favorite was the trucks - they had those at the Manchester and Saline fairs, and I think she would have ridden them 100 times if we had let her. My dad brought my niece, Ellie, to the Saline Fair with us for "Preschool Day" and she and Grace had a blast going on the rides together. I can't wait to see them do this every year and enjoy things like this while they grow up.
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| "Milking" a cow at the fair |
She is very sweet to Evan and is always very excited to help out in any way. If he's fussing in his bouncy seat or his carseat she will either try to rock it or put his pacifier in his mouth to get him to stop. The other day he had a little bit of spit-up on his mouth so she ran and found a burpcloth and wiped his mouth for me. I also found her nursing one of her baby dolls once. I am really lucky because she doesn't seem to be too jealous of him and seems to love him a lot and want to take care of him.
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She had been eating strawberries and
managed to get juice right above her eyebrows -
in the perfect shape of little antennae! |
We've definitely had an eventful few months. Grace came down with hand, foot and mouth disease at the end of July. It was not fun, because we had to try to keep her away from Evan as much as possible, and since I am nursing Evan, that meant I had to try to stay away from her. Yeah, right! The pediatrician told us that most adults are immune because once you have it, you're not supposed to be able to get it again. Well, Jeff must have been one of those "rare" adults who can contract it, and two days before Evan's baptism he got REALLY sick. He had a horrible fever, his throat felt like it was on fire and his whole body ached. At first we thought it was just the flu, but then he started to get the sores in his mouth and we knew he had caught it from Grace. It was especially bad timing since we were trying to get the house ready for Evan's baptism and had to clean the garage (we had planned on having it outside but there were storms forecast for that day). Thankfully my dad was able to come and help and between the two of us we managed to take care of two kids, clean the house and the garage and cook some of the food. It took Jeff almost a week to finally feel better.
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| Evan with his godparents, Ryan and Natalie Rentschler |
We went camping up in Ludington on the 10-13th and then turned right back around and had the cross country camp the following weekend. We had thought about going camping this past weekend, but Evan was EXTREMELY crabby every night that we were in the camper so we decided not to voluntarily torture ourselves again that way. Hopefully next year will be better!
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| At Lake Michigan in Ludington |
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Taking a bath in the sink in Ludington.
We have a picture of Grace in the same sink when she was
three months old. |
I am not sure if I mentioned this in any of my previous blogs, but there were three Weidmayer babies all due within a month of each other - Jeff's cousin, Nick, and his wife were due 6/12, Jeff's cousin Nicole was due 7/1, and I was due 7/12. None of us knew what we were having, so it was interesting debating who was having what and when we would all actually have the babies. Nick's wife delivered first on 6/14 and had a little girl, I was the big surprise and delivered way early on 6/21, and Nicole had a little boy on 7/3. So now there are three more cousins all within 3 weeks of each other. We had a big get-together a few weeks ago where we finally got all the babies in the same place and got pictures. It was pretty cool. Jeff's other cousin, Natalie (who is Evan's godmother) is due with twins at the end of the year, so there will be even more of us! Poor Natalie - she has a boy who turned 3 in May, another little boy who will be 2 in November, and now she has TWO more boys on the way. Not only will she have 4 under 3 1/2, but they will all be boys!
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| Four generations of Weidmayer men |
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| All of the great-grandchildren (and more on the way!) |
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| Evan and Gabriel |
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| Evan with my maternal grandparents |
Cross country has started in full swing, and that has been harder to deal with now that I have both Grace and Evan. It seems like there is never enough time to put my energy in all the different areas of my life - if I'm focusing on the cross country kids I feel like I am letting my kids down, and vice versa. Then there's trying to find time to do housework, house projects, my job as the church treasurer, etc. and a little me-time would be nice too! I am doing a lot of soul-searching right now about what is the best long-term solution for my family in terms of coaching/working/staying at home. I go back and forth almost daily on what I should do, but hopefully I can make a decision soon and commit to it so I can plan more for November after this season is done. Please pray I figure out what that right decision is!
