Roll Tide!!

The house is almost ready!!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and daddy for our boys! He is such a great help with the boys - even getting up sometimes at 3 am to feed John-Mark! He takes such good care of us and works so hard so that I am able to stay home and be with our boys. As most of you know, several months ago he came to me with a "dream" to buy an old run down house on 8 acres and remodel it. He has always wanted to have land and especially with two boys he wanted to have a place where they can run and explore. I was VERY cautious of this idea but he really wanted it so we moved forward with it. Well, hopefully in the next week or so we will be living in our newly remodeled house on our beautiful piece of property and the house has turned out even better than we expected. Sometimes it's hard for me to let Jeremy really "lead" us because I'm a control freak but I'm glad I let him take the lead on this. I know this is going to be a wonderful home to raise our family in!

Pics from the week

Here is my strong boy John-Mark - he's been doing this since birth almost! My mom thinks one of the reasons he gets fussy sometimes is because he's frustrated he can't walk yet!:) I thought since James is so wild that my second baby was going to be my "chill" baby - guess I don't get one! He and James will be wrestling around before I know it!!
Look how big he's getting already! He's over 10 pounds now. Thank you for all your prayers concerning his tummy - I really think he's getting better. We haven't had any major melt downs in a couple of days. He is still spitting up and gassy some so keep those prayers a comin'! The greatest news of all is what a great night time sleeper he is. Last night I fed him at 10, put him down at 10:30 and he slept until 4 am and then went back down until almost 7:30. That was just icing on the cake because he usually goes until 3 am which is awesome in itself so that extra hour of sleep was wonderful! We'll see if it was a one timer or if it continues!
;So, James has taken an interest in using utensils. I've always let him play with his spoons when he wasn't eating because I heard that was good for them to get used to holding them or something - but actually using them to eat I thought would be a ways off. I don't really like the messier parts of motherhood so anything I can do to avoid a big mess I will do. I had friend who let her one year old feed himself applesauce and I thought she was crazy! Anyhoo - I gave James a fork the other day and he did pretty good with it - I had to help him stab the carrots but he had no problem getting them in his mouth! It will still be a while before we tackle applesauce!
The hands are still the best for a quick bite!
This is our mouth is full grin-
New favorite toy- The Ladle - my little chef-boy-r-d. We do watch a lot of The Food Network in the afternoons!

Oh, a new seat for James!
Also, I forgot to put James one year check-up info on the last blog. He's now 22 pounds and 30 1/2 inches long, the 50 and 75th percentile. As much as eats I thought he would weigh more but now that he's walking I guess he burns a lot more calories -
I also forgot to mention that I took both boys, all by myself to the pediatrician - got them undressed and everything! Then I took them both to Wal-Mart! I think I may have super powers!! :)

Getting into our routine

Well, John-Mark will be 6 weeks old this week and each week I feel like we get a little better on a routine and know what he needs when. He's had some tummy troubles which have been difficult to handle but we're working through them and the poor little guy appears to be feeling much better! It's really unbearable when you have a baby that you can't console - rips your heart out! But with the help of our pediatrician and chiropractor he's doing much better - Please pray for him to feel 100% better!
This past week we went for his 1 month check-up and everything looked good (aside from his reflux). He weighs 9 lb 9 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long (40 percentile for both). He continues to be exactly 5 oz behind where James was at his age but the same height.
We're starting to get some smiles but ofcourse I'm not quick enough to catch him with my camera. This morning when Jeremy unwrapped him from his swaddle he gave him a big grinner - those are my favorite - when they stretch their little arms and legs out and look at you like "Freedom!"
Here are a couple of pictures from the week -
John-Mark is so strong! He loves to hold his head up and look around all the time. The pediatrician was shocked when she laid him on his tummy and he pushed up on his elbows and had his head up!
!
I was trying to catch a smile but was too late-After bath time which he loves but in this pic he looks a little frightened - sometimes the lights on the camera startle him so we get this face a lot

We were pleasantly surprised that he likes to sleep in his pumpkin seat which James only did when it was in a moving car. With John-Mark once we get to our destination I can take him in and leave him in his seat and he'll sleep for hours! We were able to get tons done at the new house yesterday while he slept away!Saturday, Gameday, I put James in his Florida shirt for his daddy - Most Saturday's he's in his Alabama gear! Here I was trying to teach him to say Roll Tide and do the motions with his arms and this is what I got - he's getting close!

Lastly, I leave you with this - James has learned how to whine and fuss when he's not happy which makes us not happy because it's not pleasant - Here's his fussy face -

The Miracle Blanket!!

I just had to post about this new blanket I got and that has truly been a miracle in our house! It's called the Miracle Blanket and it's a swaddle blanket but it has two extra pieces of material inside the blanket that you wrap the babies arms in so they can't get out. John-Mark was IMPOSSIBLE to keep in a swaddle - he can honestly break out of one in less than 5 minutes which makes it hard for him to stay asleep because he wakes himself up with his arm jerking so someone suggested I try this blanket - and it works!! Middle of the night feedings have been a struggle because it was so hard to get him to go back down to sleep but now I can feed him, burp him, change him, swaddle, and back down he goes for another 3 to 4 hours!! I'm actually getting two good 3 to 4 hour stints of sleep a night and he's also sleeping better during the day. I don't swaddle him during the day but he still is getting much better nap times! I've always heard that the better babies sleep, the more they sleep and that appears to be true with John-Mark. So, if you or anyone you know has an impossible to swaddle newborn, this blanket will do the trick!!

1 is so much fun!!

I can't believe John-Mark is almost one month and James is almost 13 months! I often find myself referring to John-Mark as the baby to James as if he's a big boy now, but he's still a baby too! It is truly amazing how much he has grown and developed in just one year - I have an interesting perspective on this since I can look at John-Mark and think, this is where James was a year ago and look at James and think, this is where John-Mark will be in a year!
Anyway, 1 truly is so much fun! Everyday James does something to crack me up and I want to call my mom and Jeremy and say, "listen to what James just did!"
A few of my favorite things he has done lately -
--James LOVES to dance!!No matter what he's doing, if you play music or start singing or if he hears a song on a tv commercial he starts bouncing at his knees, twisting his waist, and moving his arms. He's recently added spinning to his moves. And he knows he's cute because every time he starts dancing he looks at you with this "look how cute I am" grin!
--Yesterday I went into his room with him and he picked up one of John-Mark's diapers (not used) and took it over to the diaper champ and put it in - he thought he was so funny and I did too - and ofcourse a genius!
--James loves to walk over to John-Mark while I'm holding him and gently rub is head - so sweet! We never taught him this but it's like he knows to be gentle with him.
--Kisses! James loves to give you big wet kisses. He's been kissing us for a while but he's gotten way more affectionate with us - I think this may have started when John-Mark arrived!
--James loves to play chase - he wants me to chase him all the time and the sound of him giggling as he stomps around the house is the best sound in the world!!!
--Walking outside - now that James is walking he loves the freedom of being able to go outside and walk around on his own and explore - I just have to watch closely what he picks up and make sure it doesn't go in his mouth!!
--Sitting in everything that will hold him - James is constantly climbing into boxes or laundry baskets, even trying to fit into kitchen bowls!!
I hope this gives those of you who don't get to see him very much a good look at what is going on with him. I tried to get some pics of him doing some of these things for your enjoyment - I've also added some new pics of John-Mark too :
Sitting in one of his toy bins -
"Look how funny I am mom!"

"look mom, I can fit in the pasta strainer bowl!"

We keep John-Mark's swing blocked off by the couches so James can't get to him but James loves to go and check him out - when he's playing he gets up every now and again and goes and checks on him - so sweet!Right now the only time we really get a smile out of John-Mark is when he's sleeping and I was able to catch a little of one today!
Look at that sweet baby face!!

Another week down!

We made it through our first week with no extra help and just me and the boys all day! We had some good days and some not so good days but we're getting into the hang of things. James is really doing pretty well considering he's only one and he doesn't really understand what is going on. For the most part he's fine when I'm holding John-Mark as long as I don't leave the room, then the wining starts as he follows me all over the house! He's pretty good at playing by himself but he just doesn't like being the only one in a room. I'm really working on trying to get them on opposite schedules right now so that when James is sleeping I can focus on John-Mark and vice-versa - some days that goes as planned, some days not :)
John-Mark is a very alert baby. When he's awake he just looks around with those big blue eyes taking everything in. James has recently learned to say "eye" and likes to poke you in the eye as he tells you so I have to be careful when he wants to show John-Mark his eye! But John-Mark seems pretty interested in James. It's funny that neither one of them really cries when the other one is crying - they both just kind of look at each other if one is crying like "what's the problem!". Ofcourse that could be because the one that isn't crying is usually the one being held so they are perfectly content!
On Wednesday of this week we had a pretty good day - both boys took good morning naps- and the weather was beautiful so I decided to take them to the park. This was my first venture out of the house, alone, with both of them. I was so proud of myself! John-Mark loves the car seat so he did great in the stroller and now that James is walking he was able to adventure all over the park! We had a great time and I'm excited for the weather to cool down so that we can go more often. I'm so glad I found something we can do to get us all out of the house!!
Here are some pics from the week - they are mostly of James since he is so active and is always doing something to crack me up and get the camera flashing. Most of the pics we take of John-Mark are those sweet sleepy baby pictures right now. I'll post more of him soon - he's already starting to look different from when he was born!

John-Mark - awake and alert!
We usually get as much water on our shirt as we do in our mouths!
The new game is to climb into anything that he can fit in to!
Doing a little vacuuming - sometimes he pushes it, sometimes he drags it all over the house!

Roll Tide!!