so much to catch up on!!

well, we've has a crazy couple of weeks.  on december 14, the stomach flu decided to visit our house:(  i had to go get max because he had gotten sick at school and it was pretty much down hill from there.  we all got sick...it was a horrible, horrible nightmare and i hope we never experience it that again.

 trying to sleep it off:(

poor max got it the worst...he was sick for a solid week and it took about 10 days for him to feel normal again.  luke and i had it for about 3 days and little jake had it for about a day.  we all lost a little weight and i think the only one that was good for was me:)  that pretty much took us into having christmas company for a week.  we did our best to get the house sanitized before everyone got here (carpets and furniture cleaned, whole house cleaned).  we had a great time with all of our company (papa's family).

the boys are doing great.  jake had his 2 month well check and it is confirmed, he's ginormous.  15 lb and 25.5 inches (over 95% for both).  he cried when he got his shots but overall handled it pretty well.  he's really starting to smile and recognize faces.

 seriously cute!

max is talking up a storm and we are finally getting him to say please and thank you...its pretty darn cute.  he loves all of his christmas presents and is still loving anything that has to do with trucks or curious george.  max also loves to stack things...its pretty awesome!  now for some pictures.

smiling at grandpa smart

enjoying his new vader hat and the sticker that came with it!

presents!!

the best family shot we got:)

amelie opening her presents!

2 months

Jake is 2 months old today! Boy, has that gone fast:)
Unofficial weight 14 1/2lb. He's a big boy!! Has his 2 month well check next Monday. I will try and come back after that with official stats and more pics! Jake is starting to smile a lot more. Max is starting to act more like 2 year old:) I guess they balance out!
All phone photos...it's the best I can get of max:)

2 years

in the middle of adjusting to a new baby, my first baby turned 2...OMG!!!  we just kept it low key and max had some of his little friends over for a playdate....he was so excited to have everyone over (i'm pretty sure he enjoyed the playing more than the presents!) and he had a really great time.  i made rice krispie treats for the kids for the playdate and for max to take to school.  i think the kiddos liked them:)
max had his 2 year well check earlier this week.  it went really well and included some streaking...the nurse opened the door to the room so we could go out to the scale and max took off as fast as he could down the hallway...he's getting really fast these days!  he's weighing in at 29lbs 4oz (50%) and is 37inches (97%).  we are going to be sticking with whole milk because he's lean (dr. j's words) and we don't want to cut those calories out of his diet yet.  his language has really started to take off, even since we've been to the dr's.  she had asked how many words he had and of, course, i can't do any spur of the moment thinking, so i was thinking closer to 25.  she said that was on the low end of normal but nothing to be worried about.  i went home and made a list:)  on tuesday, he had well above 50 and i bet now he's pushing 75:)  its crazy how it just takes off like that.
my parents got him a y bike for his birthday and he was just fascinated by it the first week or so.  he wore his bike helmet almost all weekend:)  he doesn't go on it quite so much now but mostly i think that's due to the fact he just doesn't have as much opportunity to do it.

my parents left about 3 weeks ago so max doesn't quite get the attention or the playtime that he used to.  its hard when we have jake to think about:)  for the most part though, i think max is doing really well with the whole adjustment, especially considering his age!

jake is doing really well...he'll be 8 weeks this thursday.  last time we weighed him, he was 13lb.  he has his 2 month well check on the 19th and i'm guessing he'll be 14lbs!  he's mostly in 3-6 month clothes. 

someone's gaining on his big brother fast!
most of these pictures are old but i figured its better than nothing.  the last post i did from my phone is the most recent picture of the boys. 
this last picture pretty much sums up our days...what max does while i'm feeding jake.

i'm sure i'm forgetting to tell you a million things:)  i'll try and catch them next time!!

Mobile

So apparently I can blog from my phone!! Who knew?!?!
Just seeing if this works:)
Most recent pics of the boys...max saying hi to daddy and jake chilling' in the kitchen!

oh, my!!

who knew the days would go even faster?!?!?  i would say that we're settling in pretty good over here.  now we're going to have another big adjustment when my mom leaves (10 days...sniff) but i'm sure we'll do just fine!
jake is such a good baby (knock on wood) and max just loves to love on him!!  max loves to pet his head and give kisses.  if jake is upset, max always tries to give him his pacifier:)

its so sweet to see max interact with jake.

we did manage to get max dressed up for halloween. he was wolverine, a la hugh jackman, or as luke likes to call him "spoonverine" we all got a pretty good chuckle out of his chops and taped on spoons!

this one papa likes to call "sexy spoonverine"!

jake is growing like crazy...he was 10lb and 23 inches the day before he was 3 weeks old...here's a pic just outside the dr's office.

my dad gets here wednesday and will be here for a week and then grandma and grandpa are both going home:( i'm sure my blogging will be even more infrequent but i'm going to do my best to keep up! i'll leave you with what feels my days and heart with so much love!!!!

jakob riley

well, little jakob riley has made his appearance into this world and boy, oh, boy was it a quick one!! he was born on october 13 at 610am, weighing in at 9lb 1oz and 22 1/4 inches long. he looks a lot like his older brother did but with chubbier cheeks and a little less hair:) here's my attempt at his birth story. i had been having some cramping over the weekend but nothing that was regular or strong. wednesday morning (10/12) after dropping max off at MDO, which is still going fab by the way, my mom and i ran some errands. for the last hour of our errand running i was starting to feel crampy again and they were a little uncomfortable. we came home and i took shower and put my feet up and the contractions went away. i packed my hospital bag and downloaded an app to time my contractions. i callled luke and told him about the contractions and told him he might want to be ready not to back to work the next day:) i had a dr's appt that afternoon so i thought we get some good info there. at my appt, dr L said i was 3 1/2-4 cm dilated and 80% effaced so labor was probably in my near future. she said she was on-call over the weekend so it could be perfect timing:) that night i started to have some pretty regular contractions but when i started to time them they got further apart and i fell asleep so not too bad. i woke at 3am to pee and when i got back in bed i had a pretty strong contraction so i started to time....they were about 7ish minutes apart at that time. around 4am they were getting closer together so i woke up luke and we decided i should probably call the dr. dr W was on-call and she said to head on in. we packed up and gave the monitor to grandma. right after i got off the phone the contractions started getting stronger and pretty close together...thank goodness we're only 5 minutes to the hospital. we probably checked in around 5am, maybe a bit before. i got changed and the nurse checked me and said you are 9cm dilated...i was SHOCKED! i think the first thing out of my mouth was "i suppose that means no epidural" and she said yes there was no time. they turned me on my side and that made my contractions come really fast and strong. my water still hadn't broken so when dr W got there she broke my water and it was pretty much time to push. i think i pushed for about 20 minutes (the most intense 20 minutes of my life) and jakob made his appearance into the world!! i got to hold him right away and boy, did he look a lot like his big borther just chubbier:) they took him to get cleaned up and they had to do some stitching (i had a 3rd degree tear) and work on the placenta with me for a bit....let me tell you, that did not feel good:( when they weighed him and said he was a bit over 9lb, i just couldn't believe it!!! i got my sweet baby boy back and he nursed for almost an hour before they took him to do some more testing. due to his large size, he had to have 3 blood sugars drawn...he aced every one! i was able to pee right away so i got my IV out pretty quickly so i was able to be showered and in my own PJ's by 10 am. i felt so much better than i did after i had max...i think it was just a combo of the super short labor, no meds and no first time parent anxiety. my recovery has been so much faster and it has been so nice. max and grandma came that day after max's afternoon nap so he could meet his new little brother...jake had brought him star wars watch so that was pretty cool. max was more interested in all the fun stuff in the room at first but toward the end of the visit he wanted to hold jake and he did a great job. in general, max has been great with jake...he brings him his pacifier and wants to share his toys with him. he likes to pet his head occasionally, its so sweet.

we got to come home friday evening. we just had to go back to the pedi in the AM so we could do a weight check. that day jake went about 13ish hours without peeing so we called the dr and had to start supplementing. feeding jake has gone just about the same as with max so as i am still breastfeeding, i just don't seem to make very much milk so we are supplementing with formula and will continue to do so. jake eats like a champ and has been sleeping really well the past couple of days so we're all doing really well around these parts. on sunday, i had to make a quick trip to the ER for a doppler study to make sure i didn't have a blood clot in my left leg. turns out i do have a superficial clot but not deep so we just have to monitor the symptoms and make sure they don't get worse...that was no fun for anyone but its done and we're glad it was nothing serious.

i leave you with what jake does most of the day:)

long time gone

sorry its been so long since i've posted...we've been busy and we've been slacking on the picture taking! MDO has been going great! max hasn't cried for drop off for about 2 weeks...today none of the kiddos were crying so that is really nice. he does have a few things he usually takes with him to make him feel better...his hat which apparently he wears the entire time:) and usually his stuffed mini grover and/or elmo. my mom got here last saturday and its been great having her here...she'll be staying about 5 more weeks. max is really enjoying having her here and we're hoping it will help with the transition with baby J:) speaking of baby J, my due date is this friday...woot! we are all ready for him and are all eagerly anticipating his arrival. i have a dr's appt on wednesday so here's hoping to some more progress!!

39 weeks 

max is talking up a storm these days...he'll say just about anything and its really fun to hear him talk. sometimes its a guessing game as to what he's saying but that's half the fun! he got a haircut, finally:) and we've slowly been gathering items for his halloween costume...hopefully it turns out like we think its going to!

max has taken to giving concerts at the piano (yes, he did the chairs himself)!

the weather has finally cooled off here...most days we're in the mid to upper 80's so that has been really nice. we even got some much needed rain this weekend! max is all over the ipad these days...he absolutely loves the pbskids.org app.

getting the ipad after mama put it up

i leave you with some cheese face:)

schooooool!!!

so max started school/MDO (mother's day out) last week. he is going 2 times a week for 4 hours. the first day of drop off went pretty well, second day (today) not so much:( poor little guy lost his mind when i started to take off his backpack. i felt awful leaving him crying with a room full of people he doesn't know but i know in the end its best for everyone involved! i took some pics on his first day last week

here's his lunch:)

its cooled down a little here...last week the highs were only in the mid-90's and we were able to sleep with windows open overnight...woot! its back into the 100's this week but i'm keeping my fingers crossed its just for this week. there are some massive wildfires here in central texas...the closest in bastrop which is about 35 miles east of us. its been burning for about a week and has destroyed about 1500 homes...its awful! it really is just so dry and we a desperate for rain. i think its been close to a year that we've had any significant rain fall here in central texas. max and i are still getting to the park most mornings...sometimes he likes to take friends:) this is max helping papa with some yardwork:) mama made another fun 3 layer cake...malt cake with milk chocolate frosting...this was for the labor day BBQ we didn't get to attend...the cake made it to the party and the R's were nice enough to send food to us...win for everyone!!

mama helped host a baby shower over the weekend for her friend W, who is due with her baby girl just a couple of weeks before baby J gets here. these are the lemon drop cupcakes i made.

max love to help me in the kitchen when i'm baking...he moves his tower over by the mixer so he can watch...if you look closely you can see the batter on his mouth...he loves to taste what mama is making:)

max is all about the ipad these days...he knows how to get his apps going and he would play with it all day if we would let him!

papa and max had some fun with the camera while i was at the baby shower over the weekend...here are my favs!!

mama and baby J are doing great...i was 35 weeks on friday! will try and get a new pick soon!

boring

i know i haven't been blogging too much lately but that's frankly cause i don't have much to blog about:) that and we haven't been taking too many pictures...probably because by the time i waddle to get the camera the moment is over:)
we've just been trying to beat the heat but we've had some of our hottest days recently...i mean 110, really, is that necessary. we still try and get out most mornings but yesterday we were leaving the house at 9am and it was already close to 90. mama doesn't last too long in that heat:( its supposed to start cooling off on thursday (highs only in the 90's) and gasp, there is some rain in the forecast...please let it rain!!!!
max is really saying a lot of words...keys, cheese, juice (he calls his milk juice), help, up, ouch, itch, hot, down, no, truck...and then a whole lot of nonsense that i have to struggle to figure out what he means:) he mimics everything, loves papa's new computer, is becoming quite proficient with his apps on the ipad, he took his first shower, he gets that baby J is in mama's tummy:) we are taking a sibling class tomorrow evening at the hospital so that should be interesting!

he loves using the keys to "get into the mailboxes"!
mama tried her hand at a 3 layer 8in round cake over the weekend and had purchased some piping bags and got to try those as well. it was a lemon drop cake and my, oh, my was is delish:) here is how it looked...not bad for my first try!

that's all i got and the beast is awake!

a little of this, a little of that

not too much going on here in ATX except the unrelenting heat and who wants to hear about that...its miserable, by the way!
we're surviving, i'm sure max would say that some days mama is hanging on by a thread if he could:) max got a potty chair last week, no, we are not starting potty training yet grandmas (i know you both are thinking it!) but we thought it would be a good idea to get a chair and start to let him get use to it. he climbed onto the actual toilet and that is what prompted the purchase...that and the fact we needed another stool for handwashing and this potty chair doubles as a stool! max will occasionally sit on it but is mostly obsessed with putting toilet paper in the real toilet and flushing...loves it! he definitely knows when he goes and has "uck" in his pants but we don't get any forewarning yet!
on the real potty

on his chair


let's see, what else...he really likes the hair dryer and sometimes even actually uses it.

last time we were at target he insisted on riding in the back of the cart instead of the seat upfront:)

he continues to love his jumperoo!! he actually put himself in there yesterday!

he got an abacus.

he's just really picking up on so much stuff...he put emlo in the shower, when he got him out, he toweled him off:)

he wanted us to help him put a diaper on one of his stuffed animals. he's started to help get himself dressed...getting his pants over the hump of his diaper is a big challenge...hee-hee! he tried feeding my belly button a grape and a goldfish...he didn't want baby J to go without a snack!
he's shut himself in the cabinets a couple of times:)

mama and baby J are doing great...he's been moving like crazy the last few days...alien in my tummy type movements:) that's all we got folks! stay cool.