3 months!

Teddy is 3 months old today, and while Pierce was at school, he did a little learning of his own...in the Bumbo. Here are some pics of him discovering his hands, and the joys of toys.

He's getting so big!

September Sillies

We've had a great month here in the Morris household, and it's hard to believe that Teddy is almost 3 months old. He's been growing like a weed (and his sleep pattern shows for it!), and Pierce has been loving how much more interactive he can be with his brother. Right now Pierce's favorite thing to say to Teddy is "no sad faces, Teddy, just smiles!", the proceeds to try and make Teddy laugh. It's pretty cute!

Teddy his the magical 12 week mark this week, and his personality really started to shine. His nighttime sleep is still inconsistent, though he wakes up only twice per night--you just never know when it is going to be. He now sits in his bouncy seat or activity mat for a much longer time, which has been great! It's hard to believe what a difference a week makes!

Pierce has officially entered his twos, and we have some real high-highs with some low-lows scattered in there. He takes great joy in running, being outside, and hanging out with his "favorite" friends (stuffed and human). There is a video below of him running through the sprinkler that is too cute.

This week Pierce has been testing out the no-nap thing. Not sure why he's staying up, since he is very tired. I think he may be getting his back molars in, which are making him feel a little unlike himself. Last week, after 1.5 hours of struggling to get him to stay in bed (he was happy the whole time), I just left him until the time his nap usually ends. When I went to get him up, he was asleep on his floor on a pile of his stuffed animals. He thought he had fallen out of bed, and thought it was pretty funny when I explained what happened to him!

We've had a great time this month with weddings of friends, a beach brunch celebrating Morris milestones, a trip to Philly to visit Chris, Liz, Foster and Molly. There are some pictures of the cousins together. Thanks to Chris and Liz for hosting us even though their house was threatened by flooding!

Rolling Around...

It's official...Teddy is in his own room! He's been doing a great job with the adjustment, still waking 2 times a night, but enjoying his own space. He is even testing out a brand new skill--rolling over. He has woken himself up the last 2 nights and during his naps by ending up on his tummy. On his mat, he has rolled from back to front, and yesterday rolled front to back. It's a great developmental step, but unfortunately, means no more swaddling! Wish us luck on the sleep front as he adjusts to life out of the swaddle and in the sleep sack. Looking back at Pierce's blog, we had 3 more weeks of time in the swaddle with Pierce, but he ended up being a great sleeper with the adjustment, so maybe it will work for Teddy too.

Teddy's been cooing and chatting for a couple of weeks, and especially loves "talking" during diaper changes. It's the only time Pierce isn't talking over him! There's a video of some chatting below

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Teddy's also fallen into more of a daytime schedule, with a cycle of feeding, playing and sleeping happening every 90 minutes-2 hours. It's nice to have a little more predictability in his schedule, but we are still a ways off from regular naps and feedings. Right now he sleeps between 30 min.-1.5 hours per nap, depending on the day. Looking forward to those days of some "me time" during the kiddos nap times!

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!

Summer "'Ventures"

Our family has been reading Make Way for Ducklings 3 times a day for the last 2 weeks! Pierce loves the little ducklings, pointing out the mommy and daddy duck, and talking to his friend Michael, the policeman. Last weekend we went into Boston for church and made a stop at the Public Garden first. Pierce hunted around for the swan boats, fed the ducks in the garden and tried sitting on all 9 duck statues! He talked about the trip for days--the only disappointment was that Michael was home sleeping during our visit!

Feeding the swans

Trying all of the ducklings out

Loves the big momma duck the best!

This past Monday, Pierce, Teddy and I headed out to The Butterfly Place--a gorgeous indoor butterfly sanctuary about 45 minutes away. We wandered around the paths of the garden for about an hour, watching butterflies and tropical birds fly about and Pierce used his illustrated guide to find his favorite butterfly--the glasswing! He had a blast talking about our "'venture" and is looking forward to our next one. We're thinking....the Zoo! Teddy was super cooperative and slept in the Ergo for the entire trip. He is really great at getting carted around!

On Tuesday, Teddy and I went on another "venture" of our own...to Mom and Baby yoga. Teddy was hungry right at the start of class, so I missed most of the yoga, but was able to do the baby-interactive portion of the class. We'll try again next week and maybe I can even get a workout in!

Since Pierce has been at a camp program a couple of times a week and with a mother's helper another 2 days, he really relishes his time spent playing at home with Mommy and Daddy. He's been pretending to go to work a lot lately and will often say "bye-bye Mommy, going to work". Usually, he rides his toy train to the station. Yesterday, when Halsey got home, he asked to put on Daddy's tie. As you can see from the picture below, it really completes his "commute" outfit.