Thanksgiving

Is there any question what I'm thankful for this year?

Big brother moving in for a snuggle

First Haircut

Gratuitous adorable baby picture

I decided it was finally time to tame the toddler curls before the holidays, so we headed to Lil' Cuts (yes, the misplaced apostrophe in the name bugs the heck out of me) to get Ryan's hair trimmed. Here are some before shots:

The horse chairs and videos were not enough to convince him to sit still for the cut, unfortunately, so I held him on my lap. Grandma Nancy was feeding Baby Jack, so we don't have any pictures of the actual haircut adventure. He got a sucker during the cut, too, which is a VERY rare treat.

Here's the after - the sides are not quite even, but I can't blame the stylist - it can't be easy to work on a moving target (with awfully pointy sharp scissors, no less), which is why I didn't even attempt to do it myself. Yep, he got another sucker afterward, too.


She gave us a curl of his hair in a little envelope and a certificate for his baby book:

Don't worry Jack, you won't need a haircut for another 22 months or so....

Re-run

I was looking back at Ryan's early photos and found this darling one of him around two months old. Look at those cheeks!

We still have the seat and the jammies, so I decided to pose baby Jack in the same spot so you can see the similarities and the differences between the two.

Jack is not shorter than Ryan was (on the contrary, he's almost an inch longer!) - he was just scrunched down in the seat I think.

Happy Birthday Ali!

Ryan helped Ali celebrate her 2nd birthday at an Elmo-themed party. The cupcakes were adorable - frosted in red with big googly eyes and an orange gumball nose.

Did I mention the frosting was RED?

The party favors were red bucket hats adorned with big googly eyes and orange pompoms.

Ryan did not want to wear his, so Lyndsay and Sam staged a sneak hat attack. It was on the floor seconds later.

Did I mention the frosting was RED?!

2 Months

Jack had his two month check up yesterday - he is strong and healthy, right on track milestone-wise, and displaying quite a different growth pattern than his brother. While Ryan topped the charts in both height and weight (at 2 months he weighed 13 lbs 2 oz and was 24 inches long), Jack is a long and lean baby weighing in at only 10 lbs 14 oz (40 percentile) but stretching out to 24 3/4 inches (97 percentile). Both the nurse and the pediatrician were incredulous at his length and impressed with his grip strength and ability to hold his head up and steady already.

Ryan takes after my side of the family with my dark eyes and fine hair and cheeks that have yet to lose their chubby baby chunkiness. Jack, on the other hand, appears to be a Fleming through and through - his hair is darker and his eyes appear to be staying blue. His feet and hands seem too big for his little frame, which leads me to believe that he will be quite tall (and has already created wardrobe difficulties, since he's too long for the 0-3 month sleepers but too skinny for the 3-6 month ones!).

He is a darling little baby, generally content as long as he is nursing or being cuddled. Even when he squawks he is easily consoled, and he's beginning to spend more time awake and alert. I've coaxed wide grins and gummy smiles from him, and he is certainly aware of his toddler tornado brother. I think he's been toted along to more outings in two months than most people see in their first two decades: the railroad museum, Costco (twice), the zoo (twice), hiking Green Mountain (twice), a pumpkin festival, three different trick-or-treating venues, Music Together class (twice), and our weekly toddler gymnastics meet-up with Jena and David. The only thing he hasn't done that his brother had already experienced by this time is fly in an airplane, and that most likely will not happen until we head to Kauai in late April 2011.

I'm also happy to report that he seems to be settling into a nice sleep pattern - he's been asleep for almost an hour now, and will likely sleep another 1 and 1/2. Now if only Ryan stays asleep too, I might be able to get some things done around the house!

Colorado Railroad Museum

Today was a free day at the Colorado Railroad Museum, so we bundled up the boys and headed out to Golden. It was a homecoming of sorts for Sam, who previously (i.e., before he met me) spent a lot of time volunteering at the museum as a restoration specialist.

This is one of the cars Sam helped restore

A Galloping Goose

David and Sebastian and their parents joined us