Happy birthday Hank!

Hank is one! OK, so I'm a few days late and obviously not doing all that well in the resolution department but here it is. We had his birthday party last weekend and his check up on Wednesday. The party was a lot of fun with our huge family and lots of playing outside. We got a lot of new outdoor toys that all 3 boys can enjoy. The check-up went well too. He weighs 27 lbs 3.5 oz (94th) and is 31.25 inches (89th). His tubes look great and so far are working like a charm. His 8th tooth popped through this week and the doctor thinks we should get a little teething break now. He eats almost entirely table food and is starting to cruise. He babbles up a storm and climbs like a little monkey. He says some version of these words: Dada, yum yum, no no, done, bye bye, Jack and Charlie. Some sound more like what he is trying to say than others. Charlie for example sounds nothing like Charlie but he makes it very obvious that he is calling for or talking to Charlie. He signs more and is drinking about half time from a straw cup. He still is not the best sleeper but I guess you can't have everything. He loves to play ball and can throw amazingly well for a 12 month old.

Jack and Charlie are growing up fast. We play outside a lot these days. They love to be out there and almost everyday ends with the sprinkler on. Charlie is quite the story teller and keeps us laughing. Jack stays busy reading and writing and loves art and music. The school year will be over soon and I'm trying to figure out how to keep us busy this summer. Stay tuned.

Did you feel that?

It was time whooshing past. I feel like I just wrote the last post which I see is dated Oct. 31. My new years resolution is to keep the blog more up to date. Obviously I'm not off to a great start but I'll keep trying.

Hank is just over 9 months now and seems to think that crawling is for babies. He has his own way of scooting around that involves a lot of sitting up, lunging towards something, rocking a bit on hands one knee and one foot, then returning to a sitting position. I know that sounds terribly inefficient but he can actually move surprisingly far, surprisingly fast with this method. He began going from lying to sitting a couple days before he hit 9 months. The same day he started clapping and saying Dada. Now he is trying desperately to pull up and isn't too far off. He can put a good bit of weight on those thick little legs and has great balance. I'm thinking we're headed straight for running.

He continues to be big. At his check up he weighed 25 lbs 11 oz (98th) and was 30.5 inches (97th). He wears all 12 to 18 month stuff now. He also seems to have Jack's feet. I bought him some size 5 shoes that I thought he would grow into only to find that they fit snugly now. He has 6 teeth and would eat all table food if I would let him. He is really a sweet baby and laughs all the time. People think he must be at least 18 months and try hard to get him to talk to them when we are out.

Jack and Charlie continue to love school. They bring home lots of art and good reports. They are both really interested in music and we may start lessons in the spring. Jack has really taken to sign language as we started learning some to use with Hank until he can talk. He loves to learn and can read. We found out at Christmas that he can write his name. He is also almost potty trained (hallelujah). Charlie continues to love animals and has really taken an interest in cooking. He has a very active imagination and talks non-stop, keeping us very entertained. He particularly loves to paint and keeps us covered in art!

In other recent news we found out that Meredith, our beloved babysitter and good friend, will be moving on soon. We will all miss her greatly but (good news for the grandparents) she will continue to give the boys french lessons. Also, we just bought a small plane. The boys claim to be very excited about it although I'm fairly sure they don't really grasp the whole thing. Charlie is constantly telling us that he wants to go to Africa or the north pole or where ever so I'm sure this will cut down on our travel expenses ;).

Long overdue

So things have been very busy to say the least. Preschool is a smashing success - it was going so well after 3 weeks that we had to add a day. You'd think this would leave me a great deal of free time but...so far we have been through two rounds of illness on top of the work it takes just to get them and everything ready to go each morning. They do love it though and we are really grateful for that. It also gives me the opportunity to spend some time alone with Hank.

A couple of weeks ago we had Charlie and Jack's big carnival birthday party. I think they really enjoyed it. I lost my camera in early September so I haven't been able to take as many pictures lately. I will post some soon though, just need to save the ones that family took.

At the 3 year check-up Jack weighed 41.5 lbs (99th percentile) and was 38.75 inches (80th percentile). Charlie weighed 36 lbs (87th percentile) and was 39.75 inches (93rd percentile). They are big kids. Jack wears size 11.5 shoes which the shoe store chart says is a 5 year-old size.

Hank just passed the 6 month mark. Still just 2 teeth but 4 more to come in any day. He can sit on his own but only if you put him there, roll both ways, transfer toys from hand to hand. Figured out yesterday that multiple rolls will move you across a room. Desperately wants to crawl. He is also big. At his check-up he weighed 22 lbs 5.5 oz (97th percentile) and was 28 inches (90th percentile). Most people guess that he's close to a year old. He can still wear a few 9 month things but mostly is in 12 months now. He continues to be one of the happiest babies I've ever been around. For those of you who know about the "offices" at our house, the bouncing has begun. He is working hard on several new skills and I'll try to keep things up to date as they happen.

The first day

Went a little too well. They both went straight in and began playing without so much as even looking back. I had to tear them away from their toys to tell them I was leaving - they went right back to the toys. At pick up time they both looked up, saw me and went right back to what they were doing again. They both reported having lots of fun and liking the slide. Charlie tells me Jack cried a little at rest time. Ms. Diane tells me Charlie did too. Neither ate very much or slept at all. Both took a nap as soon as we got home. They want to know if we can go back tomorrow. (Mommy managed to make it back to the car before crying just a little and did not throw up even though she wanted to.)

A tooth

After days just below the surface, Hank's first tooth has finally poked through. The second seems to be right behind it. So far it is very hard to see as he mostly keeps his tongue over it but I'll try to get a picture later.

3 little movers and shakers

It finally happened this morning - after lots of hard work and trying, Hank rolled from his back to front and back again. He never could figure out how to get his trailing arm out from underneath him (which is probably why he went back again) despite several attempts. He had a big smile on his face when he did it like he knew he had finally accomplished his goal. Now that he is on the move too I'll have to dust off those eyes in the back of my head. The picture above was taken a week or so ago on our most recent beach trip.

THE LIST

Back by popular demand is the list. Once again you can click on each item to see a picture/description. This one was a little more fun to make as, for the first time, they have actually asked for a couple of the things on it.

Slideshow of our summer so far

The fog is lifting

The overall confusion and exhaustion that is life with a newborn (and 2 toddlers) is beginning to settle out and I'm starting to feel like we have a normal life again. Lots of fun things have happened in the almost 3 months (really, where does the time go?) since Hank made his entrance. Here's a quick list:

• Saw Thomas the Tank Engine in Chattanooga
• Flew on a plane to the beach
• Mastered swimming in life-jackets
• Played at the water park
• Drove Uncle Brown's boat
• Rode a camel at the zoo (Mommy got to ride twice)
• Learned all the states and their capitals

Despite a baby who is just now starting to have a "schedule" and wants to eat 6-7 times a day we've managed to stay very busy. Having a summer baby has been a mixed blessing. It's great to be able to get out without too much worry over the germs etc you get in the winter but a little hard when J & C just want to be outside all the time and Hank can't really tolerate too much heat.



We spend about 3 days a week at Grandmomma's pool and meet up with the great-aunts and cousin Coen for weekly play dates. I bought the boys a US map puzzle to take to the beach and they have worked on it non-stop until they know all the states by site and can say their capitals. Charlie is officially potty trained, Jack is not. Preschool is less than 2 months away so we'll be giving it another go next week.



They've started to like Hank. Jack gives him hugs and kisses, Charlie tries to stop him from crying by gently patting his little hand or trying to hand him his binky. Yesterday Jack sang twinkle-twinkle for him when he was upset. He is so close to rolling over. He'll spend 10 minutes or so working on it then get really mad and pitch a fit. It looks like he is going to do the same funny folding-in-half type move that Charlie did to go from front to back.

Hank the Hunk (or should I say chunk)

First let me say that I will try to do an update post in the next couple of days. A lot has happened in the past couple of months. But back to the chunk...

Hank had his two month check-up yesterday. He weighs 15 lbs 3.5 oz! This is 96th percentile for his age. HUGE! He is also 24.25 inches which is 84th percentile. With his head in only the 41st percentile he actually looks like a little adult since he doesn't have that usual enormous newborn head. We are now in a race to wear all the nice 3 month clothes before we have to move on to the 6 month stuff. He is fat and happy though as he now smiles a lot and laughs out loud. When we were leaving the doctor's office he was laughing at the hand sanitizer dispenser. It takes so little to amuse a 2-month-old. (His hair is not nearly as dark as it looks in this picture, bad lighting I guess)

Caroline is a big sister!

Congratulations to Leslie, Josh and Caroline! Baby Jackson was born last night and we know they are all thrilled to finally have him here. We can't wait to get the little boys together. Let the mayhem ensue!

We're big brothers!

Baby Hank was born Monday evening. The best part for Jack and Charlie was playing in Mommy's hospital bed. Luckily we made it out having only called the nurse once while frantically pushing every button in sight.

Hoppy Easter!

Jack and Charlie made their first bunny cake on Friday. Chip's mom has made a bunny cake every year for 33 years now. She came up for the day and the boys "helped" along with cousin Hayley. Then yesterday the Easter bunny visited. Daddy has to work today so we did baskets early. Thursday night he asked me if we had anything for them. I laughed, I think he was shocked to see just how much we did have for them.

Bowling, shoes

On Saturday the boys and I went to the bowling alley for Meredith's birthday party. I really had no idea how it would go. I expected that at least one of them would not like all the noise, etc. I was very wrong. They loved it. There was a little ramp type thing that they could put the ball on and push it down. They really enjoyed getting their yellow ball, carrying it to the ramp, pushing it down and running immediately back to the ball return to watch for their yellow ball. Charlie even bowled a strike once, but that was completely lost on them, they didn't care at all about the pins. Daddy was out of town so sweet birthday girl Meredith was stuck helping me to corral them both while we were there. They adore her and would much rather hang with her than me anyway.

In shoe news - we went yesterday to have their feet measured. I was pretty sure that Jack had outgrown most if not all of his shoes. It had gotten to the point that he would pitch a total fit when we would try to go anywhere and then we would battle to get his shoes on for 5 or so minutes. It turns out I was right. When we had their feet measured last year at this time Jack wore a 7.5 wide, and Charlie wore a 7 wide. Yesterday Jack measured just over a 9.5 wide and Charlie measured just over an 8 maybe wide depending on the shoe. The bad news is Jack has been wearing 8's and 9's (obviously too small, thus the fits and battles), the good news is that at least for the time being I'll only have to buy new shoes for Jack as Charlie can wear Jack's old ones. We bought Jack some cool new tennis shoes while we were there and boy is he proud of them. He ran several laps around the store before we left and kept them on for the rest of the day.

Times, they are a changin'

So we've been absent from the blog for a little while as I've tried to deal with 2 busy and constantly changing toddlers and prepare for the baby. We've had some really warm, sunny days followed by rain and cold. The boys got really used to playing on their swing set for hours at a time and I got really used to them sleeping especially well, so it's though to deal with the several days of yucky weather we've had here recently.


We've also had to adjust our longstanding 7 pm bedtime (gasp!). Charlie, who has always been our best sleeper, just decided that he didn't want to go to bed one night. After enduring a week of trying different tactics to end the 2 hour crying sessions each evening we have finally settled in with Jack going down about 7:30 and Charlie at 8. This has been a little tough on me as there's less time to relax/get other things done in the evening.


Charlie continues to potty train with mixed success. Some days we do really well, others not so much. Jack has finally started to show some interest and I think that may push Charlie to finish up the training. I was hoping to have one of them trained before the baby comes but with less than 6 weeks left now it's looking doubtful.


Other things they are doing/interested in these days are: dinosaurs, planets and space, Blue's Clues, spelling, states, French and drawing/coloring. Jack loves to dictate things for you to draw or words for you to write. He can recognize about 15 words by site. He can also correctly identify about half the states when you hold up their pieces from his puzzle. Charlie talks non-stop and frequently lists off colors etc in English and French. He is our puzzle expert and can complete any new puzzle within just a few minutes. He is also a very good sharer most of the time and is usually trying to ensure that everyone is included. They continue to have very different personalities and interests but really love and enjoy each other most of the time.


I'm busy trying to get us all ready for a third little boy. I've almost finished his room and am trying to get all our other ducks in a row for the next few months. As we are going on vacation at the end of May (read with a 5 week-old) I'm hoping to get as many of the logistics settled now as possible since I know I won't have time to think between his arrival and that time. I'm also working on getting the boys registered for preschool this fall and getting as ready as possible for another vacation in August. We've decided that the 3 boys and I should fly to both vacations so that adds an extra step to prepare for but I'm sure it will be the best way to go overall (I will have help flying with me).

Happy Third Birthday, Caroline!

Here's hoping you have a fun filled day. We love you sweet girl.

An update from the edge of Spring (hopefully)

Things around here are hopping. Charlie has been potty training for a few weeks now and is doing really better than I expected. What I didn't expect was how hard this has been on Jack (who is almost totally uninterested in going to the potty). He really gets upset when we have to interrupt something he is doing to run Charlie to the potty. Thankfully this is getting better too. We had an entire week of snow on the ground and big time cold last week, followed this week by temps in the mid-sixties to seventy. We've played outside a lot over the last 4 or 5 days but it is supposed to storm this afternoon putting an end to that. The boys have enjoyed trying out the hammock I got for Christmas. It's really pretty funny to watch as they are both very still and stiff, not sure how the whole thing works. Jack looks like he is holding on for dear life.

I've also been busy trying to get ready for the baby's entrance in the next couple months. Time is flying by and I'm feeling pretty under prepared although I'm not really sure why. We have pretty much everything we could possibly need, it's just a matter of digging it out.

A "big" snow

It snowed pretty much all day yesterday and all night last night. It's definitely the most snow we've had in the boys lifetime despite only being about 1 - 1.5". This morning everything is white but yesterday it was really only sticking on the grass and trees. We took the boys out to play in it a couple of times yesterday. They really liked being out there and looking at all the snowflakes but they wouldn't really get their mittened hands in it. Nonetheless daddy made them a small snowman (read less than 1.5 feet) and since Jack kept insisting - cleaned off the slide and let each of them go down a couple of times. Overall it was a big hit.

Elmo makes music

On Sunday we went to Chattanooga to see Elmo Live! The boys were excited to see the "real" Elmo as daddy kept telling them but I don't think they really understood until the show started. They loved it and did better than I could have ever imagined. They were completely enthralled. Mostly they watched wide-eyed, clapping and dancing just a little. They remembered the letter and number of the day and were able to tell daddy afterward. By far their favorite part was when all the characters sang the alphabet song. I wish I could have captured the look on their faces when they started to sing. Pure elation! We went with a big crew of the Chattanooga relatives but need to really thank Mimi for getting the tickets and arranging the whole thing.

Post-Christmas/New Years post

Our Christmas was great and a lot of fun with the boys. They were really into opening presents for about the first 3, then they just wanted to play with those rather than open the others. They got lots and lots of great stuff and have been busy figuring it all out/taking it apart ever since. Santa brought them a Gator power-wheels type car. It was a big hit and on the few non-raining days we've had since then you can catch them driving in circles around the driveway. They don't really get the whole steering part yet but they haven't really hit anything so that's a plus.

In general news Charlie is now talking non-stop. He is very into animals and colors. At least once a day he gets out and lines up the 50 or so animal figurines we have naming each one as he does. Jack is still very into his ABC's and has taken to calling it the "alphtibet". He is also very into playing basketball and singing. My current favorite saying around here is "Looks like a soccer ball but it's a bead" referring to a black and white spotted stringing bead they got for Christmas. There is just something about the way Jack says "but it's a beeeadd" that is just too funny. They are both getting pretty good with their French. Both can count to 20 and say several short phrases. I'm going to have to brush up a little myself as they seem to know that I'm not that great at it and mostly speak it with Meredif (as they call her). Charlie seems to be about ready for potty training (Jack shows no interest) so I'm readying myself to start that soon. They have to be trained to start preschool in August so that gives me several months. It would be great if I could get at least one of them trained before the baby comes but I'm not holding my breath.