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.