Haisley is 22 Months

 Our girl is 22 months, almost two!!  WOW!!  I feel like she has transformed from a baby to a little girl so much in this one month.  I'm not sure if it is because we have Benton now or what, but it is so much fun.  It is so fun carrying on a conversation with our love bug and hearing how her little mind works.  There are a few things that I want to remember her saying:
-Haisley was eating supper the other night and I was nursing Benton on the couch.  I looked over at her and said, "I love you, Haisley Grace."  She responded with, "I love you 2, 5, 6."
-Haisley was bouncing on the couch (which is a big no no at our house) and Mark told her to stop.  She raised her hands, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "But why, I Tigger." 
-"War Eagle, firecracker field."  Although when I sing the song, she can fill in every word that I omit.
-Singing, "Hot dog, hot dog, solveeeee."
This month she has really gone from repeating what we say to thinking up her own sentences.  It is so precious!


Size:  The girl is growing by leaps and bounds.  She is in size 4 diapers, size 5 shoes, and mostly 18 month clothes.  I have no idea how much she weighs or how tall.
Teeth:  She finally cut the two top eye teeth.  It has been a long time coming...14 total.
Eating:  She eats ALL THE TIME.  Seriously, she wakes up asking to eat, goes to bed asking to eat, and all the time in between.
Skills:  She is really counting pretty good, although she skips three and four when counting to eleven.  She cannot name colors, but when given two or three to choose from, she can identify the correct one. 
Potty Training:  NIGHTMARE.  Mark and I thought it would be a good idea to try and potty train while he was off work for Benton's birth.  I cannot express in words on this blog how terrible it was.  We rolled up all rugs in the house, yet she choose to go have accidents on the rolled up rugs.  She was awesome at telling us she needed to go potty, and got a lot of poop in the potty.  Number one was a different story.  She told us she needed to go, run to the potty, sit, tell us she was all done, then stand beside the potty and pee.  I will need to stop breastfeeding before we try again, mainly because I am going to have to drink heavily to get through it.  As you can tell from the picture below, she had a ball getting treats on the potty.  OUT OF CONTROL!

 

This is were she stood when we told her we wanted her to take a picture with Benton...right in front of him. 

 

Sweet, precious, generous Aunt Amanda showers our baby girl (and now boy) with gifts all the time.  The latest gifts included this adorable jacket and Ugg boots.  (Actually, another gift of precious Christmas pjs were given just today)  We love you Aunt Amanda, thanks for being so good to us!

 

Dirty dancing move...nobody puts baby in a corner!!

 

Benton's 1st Month

Benton's first month has flown by, even more quickly than Haisley's.  I took Benton to the doctor yesterday and he was a champ.  I actually took him because he has been spitting up pretty bad.  Since we were a day early from his one month birthday, I have to go back for his shots next week.  Our sweet angel had the following stats:
Weight:  9 lbs, 2 oz ~25 %
Length:  21 inches ~25%
Weight for Length: ~50%
Head Circumference:  14.5 inches ~25%
He is definately bigger than Haisley!  He has been in size 1 diapers since we got home from the hospital.  He is mainly in newborn and 0-3 month clothes.  Sleeping at night has been quit interesting.  I swore I would be putting him in the crib from day one, but it is so much easier for him to be in our room since I am nursing him.  I have noticed a trend with him wanting to take an afternoon nap about the same time that Haisley does everyday.  Cue the Hallelujah chorus!!!  Such a blessing!  Plus, the last two days, he has taken that nap swaddled in his crib, and slept in his crib at night!!  He eats every 3 hours.  I am not nearly as bad of a schedule nazi like I was with Haisley.  With Haisley, I did not allow her to eat a minute before or after three hours.  With Benton, I will go ahead and feed him if he is screaming at 2.5 hours, and let him continue sleeping beyond the three hour mark. 
Benton has definately had a more eventful month than Haisley did.  Breastfeeding is going very good, so I feel comfortable leaving the house (minus the pumpkin patch debacle).  We are adjusting to having two little ones, and Haisley continues to be a great big sister.  She is always ready to give a paci, give hugs and kisses, and is usually pretty gentle with the little guy.  You are very loved, sweet Benton!  We can't remember our lives before you! 

 

Our little Auburn elf.

Benton at 3 Weeks

Ok.  So I realize that it is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous to update this blog every week of Benton's life.  I this realize now, now that I am on my second child.  I updated on Haisley weekly for her first month of life, so I am going to do it for Benton too. 

Our sweet love bug is such a joy at our house.  For the most part, he is very laid back and only cries when he is hungry.  He has had some gas this week which makes for a little fussy fella'.  He has been such a bright eyed little guy when he is awake.  He has been sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room, but took his first nap in his crib today.  We will probably be moving him to his crib tonight. 

 

 

He didn't want to miss out on the corn pit at the pumpkin patch.

Ready for gameday.



It is quite possible that his face looks like that because he is mortified by how his mother looks.  His tired, waking up every three hours to pump, mommy looks.  Love you buddy!

 

Precious foot

 

I noticed that we are not holding this baby in hardly any pictures.  I promise we love and cuddle with this love bug.  It is just very differenct this time around!

 

Happy three weeks angel baby.  We love you to pieces!!

Halloween Festivities

We are not huge fans of Halloween at our house, but I did want Haisley to enjoy dressing up and get the rare treat of a piece of candy!  We started the Halloween week by celebrating a Fall party at Haisley's school.  I'm not going to lie, it wasn't much of a party.  We basically went in to watch the kids eat snack, but it was fun to see her interacting with the other kids.

 

The next day, we headed to the pumpkin patch.  Dreamfield Pumpkin Patch, actually.  To us, it was more like a nightmare!!  We are still getting used to going out and about with two children, one of which has to eat every three hours.  Eat, like nurse, not like bottle.  Upon our arrival, we noticed about 8 Montgomery County School Buses.  We thought we had picked a great day to go and that we would have the place all to ourselves.  We quickly realized that wasn't going to happen!  As we walked up, Benton peed all over himself and me before we even paid to get in the pumpkin patch.  It is beyond me how the child can pee on everything and still have a dry diaper...it is a boy thing I guess!  We pay our admission, and I go to the girls bathroom to change his clothes.  When I came out, Haisley had peed all over her bloomers.  She has never peed on her bloomers...EVER!  So I go back in the bathroom and change her.  By this time, it is time for Benton to eat.  There were about 15 picnic tables under a shade tree, and they weren't being occupied by ANYONE so I decide that I could feed him there while Mark and Haisley enjoy seeing the farm animals.  I get all set up to feed him and two Asian women come sit basically in my lap.  It was a disaster.  About 3 minutes into feeding him, a gazillion children file up to the picnic tables to eat lunch.  Did I mention DISASTER??  I'm pretty sure I flashed at least a dozen elementary aged children.  We figured that while the other children ate lunch it would be a great time for Haisley to get able to do some of the activities.  We got through the tractor exhibit and walked to the corn pit when Benton had an enormous blow out.  His second (and only) backup outfit was covered in poop.  We made our way back to the bathroom and Mark volunteered to change him.  They stayed in the bathroom about 15 minutes and when they came out Benton was naked and Mark said that we should probably go.  Benton had peed on EVERYTHING in the bathroom.  At this point in our day, every person in our family was covered in pee.  We had been at the pumpkin patch for a little over an hour, spent thirty dollars, driven over an hour, and had not even taken the hay ride down to the pumpkin patch!  When we got to the car all we could do was laugh!  Mark said that he did not have fun and the only pumpkin patch he was going to in the future was one at Wal-Mart!  Funny coming from Mark!  Anyways, you would never know from these pictures that we were all miserable!

 

As if we had not had enough fun for the day, we decided to carve a STORE BOUGHT pumpkin when we got home.  I mean, what better to do with two fussy children who had too short a nap??

 

Isn't Haisley dressed cute??  And, that's right, Haisley Grace is in panties.  She requested to wear them, so I let her.  It wasn't too long before they were soaking wet.  We were all already covered in pee, so why not??  If you are wondering where Benton and I were, he was eating...AGAIN!!

 

To finish a too long day, we went to the fall festival at Parkway.  That was probably the highlight of the day for Haisley.  She looked pretty darn cute dressed as a cowgirl.  Benton was dressed as a precious, adorable newborn baby boy!!

 

The next day we enjoyed trick-or-treating with Aunt Amandas family.  I had practiced with Haisley about how it worked.  I told her that she would knock on the door and say, "Trick-or-treat" and they would drop candy in her bucket.  She arrived at her first house and when they opened the door her response was, "Drop it."  Too funny and precious!