Family portraits

Photographed by the talented Jeanette Soffe.

Simple, chic nursery

I'm so behind on blogging and instead of catching up, I will direct you to a photo tour of my little (darling, hilarious, beautiful) niece's nursery as designed and photographed by my sister, Catherine. Check it out here.

George- 2 months

George, my dear, you are your own little person. Of course, one might say, but sometimes it's hard for me to remember that you aren't Charlie version 2.0. I love you just as much as I loved little two-month-old Charlie and much of the day to day is the same as it was with him. But sometimes you'll do something that is so utterly unique and it gives me a little peek inside your unfolding personality.

For example, you have a quivery, quavering chin a lot of the time. It's usually not because you're cold, it's just part of you. It's gotten especially darling as your cheeks get chubbier and all that lovely baby roundness jiggles along with your chin.

You love to be held and often have a hard time napping on your own. But if I hold you, you'll sleep for hours. That usually doesn't happen because I have another little guy to chase around, but I enjoy it when it does. You usually take a few short naps in the morning and if I can get Charlie to nap in the afternoon, I cuddle up with you in my bed and we all sleep for a few hours. You sleep best when I'm next to you.

This past week you've started sleeping through the night! I'll put you to bed around 8 or 9 pm and you usually wake up to be nursed at 11 or 12 then you'll sleep until 6 am. And if I'm lucky, I can nurse you back to sleep until 7 or 7:30 when Charlie wakes up.

You are a sweet, social baby. You love to be held and rocked, sung and talked to. Both Grandmas are excellent at this. You have won everyone's hearts with your big smiles, little coos and the occasional, elusive laugh.

You've started to "wake-up". You aren't a newborn anymore who can sleep anywhere and loud noises bother you. This is pretty tricky with your boisterous big brother, but luckily I'm learning your the tricks to keep you happy.

You love music- it soothes you when we're driving in the car, especially. We even have a go-to song for you, I Was Brought to My Senses by Sting. We skip the first minute or so and get to the fast part of the song and you calm right down. We play it so often that Charlie now sings along with the chorus.

We feel lucky to have you in our family, little guy.

November 2011

Busy November! My dad came for a visit to meet George and be here for his blessing, we celebrated my birthday (29) with both my family and John's family, we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

I love Charlie's face in this one!

Grandpa soaking up Baby George time 

I don't think I've blown out my own candles in 7 years- love those little helpers!

Halloween 2011

We had a pretty low-key holiday this year- Charlie wasn't feeling very well and George was totally oblivious. We went to our ward party which was fabulous but crazy. There are so many little kids in our ward and they were running around crazy in the gym. I don't mind that one bit, except that it meant that Charlie wanted to run around with them. He's not really to the point where I can just turn him loose without being right next to him. John was on the committee in charge of the event, so I was essentially flying solo trying to corral a sick (but wild) Charlie with one arm and hold George in the other arm. Thankfully, a very sweet newlywed saw my predicament and offered to hold George. I took her up on it and she held him for over an hour! Thank you, Kamber!

The night of Halloween I didn't think we'd go out because Charlie was still under the weather. We answered the door for a few trick-or-treaters (including some of our new neighbors who we met for the first time). Charlie loved answering the door- he asked everyone to come in and said, "Hi, I'm Charlie!" to all the kids. After seeing him so excited about it, we went out for about an hour to a few houses on our street and in our ward. It was so fun to be out among our neighbors and to see so many little kids! That's something that definitely drew us to this neighborhood. 

My mom showed up at my house one day with boxes of her Halloween decorations and decked the Halloween halls for me. It was nice to have a few festive things up because decorating definitely didn't make it onto my to-do list this year. 

The Decorations

Skeleton tee and skeleton jammies

my little Scarecrow

the Scarecrow and the Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin

trick-or-treating

George's 1st smiles!

I love that first social smile- it usually comes right when I need it most. When you look into my eyes and give me that gummy, drool-filled, double-chinned, joyful grin, I don't feel tired anymore. Instead, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Love you, little Georgie!

George portraits

We had some Baby George portraits taken by my good friend (and now backyard neighbor!) Jeanette Soffe. George was really fussy and she still got some wonderful, sweet shots. He was only two weeks old. Thanks, Jeanette! 

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George- 1 month

Time is just zooming by with this little one! This picture is from when he was 1 month old (and he'll be six weeks old tomorrow!) 

At one month, George was a little over 11 lbs. He looks pretty solid to me! We've been getting lots of weight checks because we've been to the pediatrician almost every week, boo! Poor George had a diaper rash that turned into a staph infection so he needed an antibiotic cream. That started healing then he came down with a cold, poor baby! On the 10th (5 weeks old), he was up to 12 lbs. 6 oz. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes it up to 13 lbs this week. 

He's wearing mostly 3-6 month clothing (some 0-3 still fits). Despite having a TON of hand-me-down clothes from his big brother, Charlie and George are almost exactly 2 years and 6 months apart so hardly any of the clothes are the right season! :( Luckily, Chelsea loaned us some of James' clothes to help fill in the gaps. Isn't it great to have family? 

He's still a great sleeper and eater. He'll often sleep for 3 hours (sometimes more!) in the afternoon. And he usually has a 4 hour stretch of sleep in the night. Mama likes that. He's starting to smile, but it's still quite elusive. Both grandmas have been able to coax it out of him once or twice and I've gotten a few, too. 

I bought George a little giraffe like Charlie's so we could take these monthly comparison photos. I ordered it from Amazon and when it arrived in the mail I opened it up right away and put it on the table. The poor little toy hadn't been in our house for an hour before Charlie found it and gave it a good dunking in the bathroom sink. I have a feeling this is how it is going to go for George- he'll have hand me down clothes, toys and books that are well-loved and anything new will have to withstand big brother!

For reference: here's Charlie at 4 weeks and 5 weeks (just a note, George's giraffe is a little smaller than Charlie's but I still think George is bigger than Charlie was at this age). 

Watch out, Mama!

The other day I was driving with Charlie and George in the car when a cat ran across the road. I had to break very abruptly to avoiding hitting it. I looked back at a startled Charlie and explained to him why I stopped so sharply. I think I said something like, "A cat ran into the road and I had to stop the car quickly so I wouldn't hit him. But he ran away and he's okay now." We talked about it for a minute or two more then I changed the subject.

The several hours later, we were back in the car to go pick John up from work (we only have one car). Charlie kept saying something over and over and I was struggling to understand him. Suddenly, it clicked for me that he was saying, "Watch out, mama! Big cat in the street!" I told him that there wasn't a cat any more and that I would watch out and be careful. The rest of the evening and at least once a day since then he tells me to watch out, mama! Sometimes he tells me there are two cats in the street, sometimes it's dogs, but it's definitely a concept he has latched on to!

I love these conversations we have in the car together!

Family, faith and orange rolls

Our church holds a General Conference every 6 months and I love it- the gathering with family, the break from wrestling my kid in the pew at church, the wonderful words of inspiration from our prophet and leaders, and of course, the traditional orange rolls. 

The best part of this conference weekend is that Mark, Chelsea, James and Emma came down for a visit from Boise! They are so dear to us and we've missed them so much. Chelsea and the kids stayed for the week and Chelsea and I squeezed in some fun activities- a play date at Grandma T's house, a girls' dinner out with our high school friends, and a play date at Discovery Gateway with our kiddos. 

Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Mark meeting George for the first time

Hanging out and watching Conference

Aunt Anne just loving baby George

Quality toddler time with Anne

Grandpa T with babies George and Emma

Anne and Emma (I love how pink and perfect and chubby Emma looks!)

George's first family outing

When George was only 10 days old, we took a family outing to Silver Lake. The canyon was beginning to feel autumnal and we loved the chance to wear sweatshirts, smell crisp air and enjoy the beautiful mountains before the snow comes. Charlie loved running on the boardwalk and George slept the whole time snuggled in the BabyHawk on my chest. I felt so lucky to be in that beautiful place with my little family. We had to take a circuitous route to avoid a moose hanging out on the trail and in our backtracking ran into a pair of silver-haired couples who fawned over my babies, making me puff up with pride. We lunched at Silver Fork Lodge- it was our first time there but we'll definitely be repeat customers. It was a perfect day.

George's fan club

Grandma and Grandpa T

Uncle Steve, Sam, and Lily

Sam, Aunt Kerry and Lily (they brought George balloons and a birthday cake with a "0" on it)

Aunt Anne

McKenzie

Emily

Uncle Richard and Aunt Cat (this was really special for us that they were still in town to meet George!
 We made it by two days!)

Grandma Barbara

Aunt Kate

Uncle Sam