Someone is 9 weeks old

Charlie is *almost* 9 weeks old now.  

Hard to believe that he was born exactly 2 months ago.  It has gone by So.Fast. We love how quickly those hard first months flew by and now we are starting to really enjoy the perks of a leveled out, somewhat predictable 2 month old baby boy.  

We had his 2 month check up today - He is 11lbs 3 oz.  He has gained 3lbs since birth.  

Charlie is chowing down on 4oz of Target brand "Gentelease" formula every 3 hours during the day and about every 4 hours at night.  

Charlie is wearing size 1 diapers, and 0-3month clothes.  

Charlie still requires being swaddled to sleep.  

Charlie is starting to look around at things and even smile and laugh at them!

You might not guess it form this picture, but Savannah LOVES being his big sister.  She helps with everything we ask her to.  Sometimes she even babysits - and by then I mean she sits with him while I go start the car in the morning.  They are going to be great friends though.  Crazy how much bigger she looks next to him!

Ticlwo TJs

THINGS I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT - TRADER JOE'S edition

Before Trader Joe's opened in Des Moines a year or so ago I had no idea what it was.  In fact, I actually  had it mixed up with Eskimo Joe's - and I still don't know exactly what that is. We had some good friends move to Des Moines right by Trader Joe's so we had an easy excuse to start going there about once a month and wouldn't you know it - I now get things there that we can't live without.  

Sorry the picture is so blurry - it's been crazy around here lately and I just haven't had time to take a good picture.. but you'll get the idea.  So what's in the mix? 

- Bananas.  They have other great produce too, but for some reason I really love their bananas.  I'm not all super organic or naturally by any means.  I basically just buy what's cheap most of the time and I would never dish out for organic fruit at HyVee, but their's are so good and SO CHEAP!

- Name Tag Beer.  Okay, not so much me but Travis.  He loves this stuff for some reason, and for $3.99 a six pack, we all win. 

- Toilet Paper.  This stuff was cheap and it's pretty nice feeling, if I do say so.  And we like the package.  Travis actually asked if we could frame the packaging.  We're not going to - but I thought about it. 

- Orange Juice.  It's so good.  So sweet.  And again, SO CHEAP!

- Peanut Butter.  If we run out of Trader Joe's peanut butter then we start begging people who work in Des Moines to stop and get us some.  The ingredients are 1.Peanuts and 2. Peanut oil.  It's way cheaper than buying all natural peanut butter at any store here.  

- That little green tube - that's Chapstick that I just discovered.  They sell it in a 3 pack and it's spearmint flavored and super oily.  I think it was like $3 for the 3 pack. Well worth trying.  Especially since you'll love it! 

- That big jar has A) Granola Bars and B) Fruit Leathers.  I like their granola bars.  They aren't too fruity but not too dry and are called "So this Fig walks into a bar".  The fig ones are really the best.  And every time we go there I let Savannah get a handful of their fruit leathers. They have all kinds.  She thinks they are like candy.  

- FLOWERS.  Did you know that Trader Joe's has the best flowers for the cheapest?  I never knew until recently that I was a flower person.  But I love having fresh flowers in the house.  I almost always do.  Especially in the winter.  This picture has some little potted flower I put in a mug and a pile of fresh Eucalyptus I just bought - but they have really nice sunflowers and Hydrangeas too!

Honorable Mention: 

Kitchen Hand Soap.  

Oreo (type) Cookies

Canned Beans

Joe's Os - Spaghetti Os

That last thing is Kleenex - The box looks cool but don't even bother because the tissues are rough as tree bark!

Oh, and they have kids carts and if you have a child that's between 2 and 8 years old then you probably know there is nothing better than a kids cart.  They also have stickers.  And you get a sucker if you find the pig toy hidden in the store.  

Charlie Barlie cutie face

Here's just some pictures of cute little Char face. Taken from the angles and distance I see him from all day and night.

Kid pics

Maybe you didn't know, but you probably did - 

I have the cutest kids.  I also have an iPhone, which means I can take great pictures of my kids and edit them with great apps.  My current favorite is called Big Lens.  I also use Camera Plus a lot and Snapseed.  We don't use a real camera - just our phones.  

Our friend Leann watched Charlie last week so I could take Savannah out to lunch.  Turns out Fazzolis has great lighting at noon. 

I can't even tell you how hard it was to get Charlie to hold his feet down and still. After several tries this is the best I could get. 

A few weeks ago

I'm really on the ball with everything right now - NOT. (remember that old joke!?)  

Here are some pictures I took of Charlie I took a few weeks ago when he was 4 weeks old.  I had planned with Savannah to take a picture of her sitting with the same frog stuffed animal every month for her first year so we could see her growth - I took exactly ONE of picture of her with that frog.  We'll see if I get any better at that with Charlie. Here's the first one. I'll probably take new ones this weekend when he will be 8 weeks old - unbelievable. 

Just a couple bros hanging out. It's cool. 

Words to live by

Someone asked on Facebook the other day if anyone had any words of wisdom to live by - I do!  

Here's a few of the things I say work.  Feel free to apply them if you'd like.  

Aim Low. 

What I mean by this is that you should expect the worst.  It sounds really depression and pessimistic but it's not.  If you expect a low outcome then you wont be so disappointed then things don't turn out and you'll be really excited and surprised if they go well! Be real.  For example, I expect to get 5 hours of sleep a night.  If I happen to get 6 - WOWZA!  Or, we had a youth event last week at which I expected 40 students tops to show up for - imagine my excitement when 115 students came! On the flip of that - I expect that Charlie will cry every day when we go pick Savannah up - and when he does, I just know that's life and we'll deal with it. I don't get upset - I just expect it. 

Dont dress how you feel - dress how you WANT to feel.  

This is a little variation of the the "dress for the job you want, not the job you have" idea.  If you're getting ready for the day, think about what you want to feel like.  Maybe right now you feel tired and worn out - but do you WANT to feel that way?  Probably not.  You probably want to feel like you have it together and you're ready to tackle stuff.  If you dress that way, even if you're just heading to the store, you'll have a better chance at feeling that way.  

Rinse your sinuses. 

If you have a cold at all, or if you're starting to get one, get a Nettie Pot like this one.  Then put as hot of water in it as you can stand (these are not the recommended instructions that come with it, but I recommend it), add the solution, and put it up your nose.  I'm telling you, even if your eyes water while you're doing it - go for the hot water.  I try to do this once a day always, and two to three times a day when I'm sick. It's good stuff. 

What words or things do you live by?

Makin it happen

Life around here is happening.  We have to make it happen!  I think if I had the way of my will, we would all just hang out in our pajamas all the time with the door locked and the tv on. With two kids, and one of them being a baby, I am so intimidated by the thought of doing things.   But life must go on.  It's healthy.  It's good.  It's right.  And actually - when we participate in life around us, instead of being exhausting (as one might think), it gives us more life!  (Wow - that  sounded a little new agey - but it's not, trust me.  I'm sure there is some Bible verse about that because it's so true)

So what's life looking like?  Well yesterday I went to the grocery store!  And today I made 5 freezer meals! Let me just tell you - this is the way to go.  Before Charlie was born my friend Laura had me over and we made 10 freezer meals that you pretty much just dump in the crock pot or throw in the oven. We had these any time that I just didn't have gumption to cook by 4pm.  That's most days now.  Enter 1.5 hours of prep and hopefully 5 nights of easy peasy dinners.  I was a little nervous to try to put these together with both kids around, but it worked!  

Charlie cries.  Did you know babies cry sometimes and you can't stop them?  Mine does.  

Yesterday we went to the mall to walk with our friend Lindsey.  5 laps around North Grand Mall is 2 miles.  How easy is that?  Charlie cried the entire time.  Oh well.  We made it all 5 laps!

I've discovered that time goes by really fast when A. You have an infant in your arms at least %50 of the day and B. The day is broken down into 3 hour increments (eat, awake and fine, fussy, swaddle, sleep, eat...)

Savannah is going on with life too.  She's been more imaginative lately than ever!  She pretends that she is all kinds of people.  Then she pretends that her toys are all kinds of characters.  It's a little like watching the movie "Toy Story" a lot of the time.  All kinds of voices and scenarios going on over here. 

And there's these little fingers in our life now.  That's alright.