Colorado travels

We had the great fortune of traveling to Aspen for a family wedding last week and made a vacation out of the trip with the whole Morris clan (Darcy, Marmie, and Papa). Traveling as a family of 4 seems to have quadrupled the amount of luggage required to travel, especially with all of the infant gear! Thank goodness we had lots of extra hands helping us through the airport. Also, we quickly realized why they invented those smart carts. Genius!

The boys were both great travelers, even tolerating a 2 hour layover in Denver. Pierce had his own seat on the airplane since he is now 2, and Teddy slept comfortably in the Ergo for the entire trip there and back!

The wedding events were beautiful, and Teddy attended them all while Pierce stayed at the condo with a sitter. However, we managed not to snap a photo of all of us dressed for the events the entire weekend.

In between events, we went on many walks, hikes and gondola rides. At the top of Ajax mountain they have a sandbox, frisbee golf course and nature walks for kids, so we all stayed busy even though there wasn't any snow.

Thanks to Fred and Liz, Halsey and I were also able to go out fishing for an entire afternoon while they watched Teddy and Pierce. Teddy challenged them by not sleeping, which he is getting to be really good at! Here are shots of our catches below. Halsey and I caught some big fish. Our guide even said that I caught the biggest brown trout on the river this summer. He put up a good fight!

Fighting the good fight

Halsey's big rainbow

It was a great trip, and a relief to have that first travel experience as a family of 4 under our belts. Now we know we can do it!

2 years old and 2 months old!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Pierce!

Both boys had their check-ups on Monday (Pierce's actual birthday), and both are healthy and hitting all of their benchmarks. Pierce's stats are that he's 36 in. tall (89%) and nearly 34 lbs. (95%). Dr. Joyce was impressed by his verbal abilities and how large his vocabulary is for a 2 year old. She thinks he is about 6 months ahead of his age with language and other areas of development (potty training, etc.), and has no concerns with his health! Then Dr. Joyce impressed Pierce with 2 Elmo and 1 Cookie Monster sticker.

Teddy is growing like a weed--straight up. At 7 weeks old, he weighed in at 11.2 lbs. (50%) and was 24.5 in. tall (97%). Both boys get tall before filling out! We talked about Teddy's fussiness/gassiness, and that, in combination with his rashy skin pointed to a slight lactose intolerance in the little guy. Sadly for me, that means cutting out most, if not all dairy for the time being. Fortunately, it is usually something that babies outgrow in a couple of months. However, thinking about the whole month of August passing without ice cream is torturous! Teddy also got his 2 month vaccines at his appointment so that we could travel by plane with him immunized, so the poor little guy was knocked out for most of the day afterward--which actually gave me the ability to spend some QT with Pierce on his big day.

2 months old!

Pierce celebrated his birthday with his party at our local splash park. All of his buddies came out for the day, and we had the park all to ourselves, which was fantastic! We had a wonderful time playing in the sprinklers, eating lunch at the picnic tables, and enjoying some yummy cupcakes! Pierce made a special request to have his picture taken with Erin Bourque again and again. Those two are too cute! Pierce cried when everyone sang him happy birthday, but cheered up when he was shown all of the frosting he got to eat. :)

Mmmm. Cupcakes!

Perfecting his "cheese" smile!

Six weeks, smiling, and celebration!

Teddy hit the six week mark, and along with it, started giving us some real, social smiles. He was hinting at them last week, but this week, shows his grin with more regularity and purpose. Diaper changing time is prime time to catch his smile, but he has also been showing his gums when Pierce sings to him, and when sitting on our laps. I attached a couple of photos of these early smiles--they are so rewarding after weeks of work, and serious expressions. His little personality is starting to shine, too. I think Teddy may be my momma's boy. He loves having one of us stay near him while he plays on the mat, sits in his chair, or does tummy time. Unlike Pierce who would "play" independently doing his stations for 20 minutes or more, Teddy tolerates a max of 10 minutes unless we're there with him. I don't mind, since it means that he also loves to snuggle on your shoulder.

This past week, we also went to the Adirondacks with the Little family to celebrate Pops' 65th--which gave both Pierce and Teddy many reasons to smile. Pierce and Foster had a blast on the beach, playing in the backyard, and inventing new games in the house. It was a great vacation with everyone, and a fun excuse to celebrate Pops' milestone birthday!

Cousin Time

Celebrating Pops!