Happy Birthday Ducky!

Stanton here with one of my rare and elusive guest appearances. It takes a lot to get me out of my blogging hidey hole, but wishing my amazing Mom a Happy Birthday is a no brainier. She is one of the sweetest and generous ladies we know and will stop at no ends to care for those that she loves. I freely credit her for most of my better qualities and hereby take upon on myself full responsibility for all of that other stuff I do that might and sometimes does bring about public ridicule. Happy birthday, Mom. I love you.

Here's an extra special message from some tiny tots. You're one quack-tastic Ducky! We love you.

Half Birthday

Jacob Stanton Greer is 6 months old (and 2 days). He's a handsome chubby little fella. And a true delight to be around. His little personality is so joyful and so perfect. He has filled out in the face and in general all over since we started him on the different cereals. We have yet to introduce any fruits or veggies, but they are coming soon. We won't get the official weigh in and other details until we go to the doctor in a couple weeks, but he seems a lot more hefty than he did previously, so I imagine he'll move up on the comparative weight scale.


Here's what my little man can do:

• Rolls from back to belly
• Learned to enjoy tummy time a bit more
  
• Has excellent neck strength to hold up his head
• Can follow Chaselyn and Holly with his eyes all around the room
• Sitting up...almost. He's not quite there yet, but I really feel like he'll have it in less than a week. Right now it's only for a couple of seconds when he feels like it.
• Standing. Obviously not on his own, but up until the last couple of weeks he had shown no interest in using his legs to stand on. Previously his legs were strictly used as feet holders.
• Laugh. The boy is ticklish and apparently all the people around him are hilarious. It's a glorious sound.
• Gurgles, raspberries, Chewbacca noises, etc.
• Grab items and put them directly in his mouth. Good because he can recover his dropped paci on some occassions. Bad because he's not at all discriminatory as to what goes in his mouth to pacify.
• Sprout teeth. His bottom two front teeth popped up a couple weeks ago!
• Hold out until you do what he wants. He can be very patient, but when he's had enough, he lets you know. He'll go along with pretty much anything for a while, but then he will go crazy and you better figure out what it is that he needs fast.
• Take all kinds of love. Even the kind of love that is displayed by bonks on the head from his big sister. Not that she intentionally bonks him on the head, she just wants to be close to him. And sometimes she doesn't realize how close she already is. Squeezes, blanket hugs (i.e. Chaselyn laying on him like a blanket), slobbery kisses, and more. It's amazing to watch for a minute and then I realize that I need to be the referee.

It's amazing to know the love of having two children. I think I can appreciate the little things in Jacob that maybe I missed a little when Chaselyn was an infant. Now I know not all kids do particular things. I see the differences between them and it's still hard to explain how they are different. All I know is that I'm thankful for the inexplicable love that I feel from a tiny baby boy that you wouldn't think would be able to show love.

Jacob,

In the past 6 months you have made us realize that there is no limit to the amount of love a person can have in their heart. Just when we think we can't love any more your precious smile and laugh just push us that much further. We are so thankful that God has blessed us to have you in our family. We look forward to seeing the man you will become. We treasure these times we have to literally hold you in our hands. We can see that these days are quickly slipping away and we want to snuggle and cuddle and love on you as much as possible while you'll still let us. You are an amazing gift and we are so thankful.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy.

Treat Night

I did it. I finished the costumes a full 22 hours before they were needed. And I think they came out fantastic. Because of the timing though, we could only immediately take pictures of the empty costumes.


But even still don't they make you smile. Especially the big Mr. Potato Head.

We participated in Treat Night last night on the Baylor Campus. It was super great. I got word from 2 of my students that their dorms were doing Pixar movie themes. So we tromped over to Kokernaut and Brooks Residential dorms (Nice digs BTW). For Kokernaut we decided to leave the stroller downstairs and carry around our little Mr. Potato Head. But before we got started we needed a family photo.

Then we took off. Toy Story was the theme for the first floor. So we found some nice decorations/ photo-ops.




2nd floor was Finding Nemo (that's where the balloon came from), Monsters Inc. (Chaselyn was kind of afraid of the monsters, so Boo came and helped out.) and then Wall-E (this was on the boys side of the dorm, so there were only like 2 guys with open doors giving candy. But by that time Chaselyn's bucket was almost full already. So we decided to head over to Brooks College and see the decorations there. We diecided to keep the stroller with us since our Mr. Potato Head was asleep. That was a mistake because this dorm didn't have you snake up the halls. You would go to the end of a hall and then have to back track so there was a lot of traffic and a double stroller in traffic is not so great. But Mr. Potato Head got twice the smiles and stayed asleep.

We saw a Big Jessie when we first entered. Chaselyn wasn't sure what to think about that. But she did like the Cars decor on the first floor. Then we immediately went up to the 3rd floor for more Toy Story.

Chaselyn had a great night. She really took a liking to being able to just go near people and they would give her candy. We didn't get any "Trick or Treat's" or "Thank you's" out of her around other people, but it was fun and cute. Jacob was definitely a hit.

Now for a short PSA: In case you aren't familiar with the whole Toy Story movie, Woody has a brown hat, a yellow shirt and a vest. Jessie has a red hat, a white shirt with yellow trimming and cow print chaps. So even if you can't tell whether a child is a boy or a girl, now you can at least identify their costumes appropriately. This PSA brought to you by one frustrated Mommy.


After we were done, we saw one of our friends Nathan from church. And how awesome, he was Woody. We didn't get them together really, but how cute are they?!


So in summary, I am super proud of both of the costumes. They came out almost like I had planned. We have to figure out a more secure way to keep the Potato face on, because if he's awake Jacob will just pull off the pieces and try to eat them. And that seems to be like one step past cannibalism to eat yourself. We never figured out a good way to do Jessie's wig and we weren't sure if she would keep it on any way.

A little big for my britches?

No, this is not relating to actual growth at all. As you have undoubtedly read in my previous posts, one of the biggest parts of being a SAHM I was worried about was that side of SAHM's that seem to always have the niftiest, cutest little costumes and special touches to parties and such. Well, I must say, I am proud to announce that apparently that crafty side does indeed kick in when you stay at home.

Maybe it's being around the very creative, very influential brains of the kids. Maybe it's trying to find ways to save a couple bucks here and there. Maybe it's the inner child in me who has been bound by formulas and figures and logical thinking for too long. But my friends, my creativity is flowing!

A few posts back, I showed you the dress I made for Chaselyn. A success. I won't let any of you look at the stitching on it, because its crooked like a snake. But nonetheless, it's a dress that works. That gave me the confidence I needed to really start letting my creative juices flow. So since then, I've made a similar dress to send up to Indy for a certain special little BU tot who just had a birthday. It too has it's imperfections, but I'm learning as I go. And for some reason Crafty Brandi is OK with imperfections. Crafty Brandi can appreciate the task and it's completion for what it is. This Crafty Brandi has since thought of a lot of new projects and thinks that they'll be easy to get done, if I can just get to it. On my list of things to do:

Jessie Costume for Chaselyn

• cow print chaps
• white trim on hat
• cuffs and collar detailing for shirt
• beautiful yarn full of hair...hair full of yarn

Mr. Potato Head Costume for Jacob

• find sz 6-9 months plain brown onesie
• sew a pillow pocket on the inside to stuff the potato
• figure out how to secure Mr. Potato Head parts to onesie

Tutus for Chaselyn's 2nd Birthday

• acquire lots of tulle and ribbon
• cut tulle in equal lengths
• tie many, many pieces of tulle around ribbon

Tutu cupcakes for Chaselyn's party

• cupcakes upside down, but how to accentuate the tutu-ness of them?

Tutu's and Tunes will be the theme for her party in Waco (tentatively), how do I incorporate the tunes for something cute for the boys?

Tutu's and Touchdowns will be the theme for her party in AR. To be held on game-day after Thanksgiving. Not too much extra to do there. :)

So while I LOVE that my creative juices are flowing, I think I may have over committed myself. But I can't think of one single thing I want to scrap from the list.

We'll see how long Crafty Brandi lives. If she only really exists during nap time and from about 9pm-11pm at night, she might not stick around for too long.

Prayer time with Daddy and Chaselyn

Stanton's prayer said line by line for Chaselyn:

Dear God,
Um
Keep us safe
and loving you
and each other
more and more
everyday
Amen

Chaselyn's line by line response:

Dear Dod,
Um
us face
and living room
each udder
more more
very day
MEN!

Mommy trying not to bust up laughing nearby. :)

Getting bigger!

Jacob is growing, fast. He's such a baby boy now. He's at the fun stage where he's starting to really get the giggles and coos. Tickles and tosses definitely bring out the smiles. But Daddy also tells the funniest jokes in baby gurgles. Jacob laughs and laughs. And about once a day Jacob gets some up close and personal time with Chaselyn. She talks with him, hugs him, kisses him, tickles him and just generally loves on him. It's the sweetest. I'm trying to catch it on video, but haven't succeeded. Chaselyn is very much a camera fiend.

Besides laughing, Jacob loves to be held. He is enjoying time on your own on the floor a little more, but he would almost always rather be held. And more specifically, he likes to be held facing out kind of scrunched up on the hip. It looks completely uncomfortable, but he's been known to fall asleep in that position. He also likes to ride in the car seat. Jacob is a very good traveler and shopper as long as he goes in the car seat.

As far as his size, we figure he's around 16 lbs. based on our rough measuring on our scales. He's wearing size 3-6 month clothes, except for some shorts. The 0-3 month waist is still fits, but the pants are a little short. It's a problem I can't say I've ever faced before. He's still a hungry little fella. He eats 4 ounces every 2.5 - 3 hours. Jacob gives Mommy a great night of sleep usually, by sleeping from about 11 pm to 7 am. He's regularly sleeping through the night, so we think he'll be ready to move into the crib before too long.

Jacob rolls from back to belly, but not belly to back. That may be our fault for not leaving him on his belly long enough for him to figure it out. He will sit in the Bumbo seat and exersaucer for a while, but doesn't quite have the core strength to stay in the seats for too long. His hand eye coordination is getting much better. He has on occasion pulled his paci out and successfully got it back in. He's also pretty good at grabbing for toys during tummy time and while hes sitting in one of the seats.

Dear Jacob,

You are wonderful and amazing. I am so thankful that I get to be home with you so much to see how you grow. Your personality is really starting to blossom and shine through. You are so sweet and precious. The words I've just used to describe you may not be as manly as you like, but I must also say that I can already tell that you are going to be an All-American boy too. Your facial features are more distinctly masculine, you love to watch football with Daddy, and you love to flirt with the ladies. You are such a joy and I'm thankful for every little cuddle and coo I get to share with you!

I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Fun with Chaselyn