two months today...

What a blessing this guy has been! It seems like yesterday we were coming home from the hospital but like he has been part of our lives forever.

CJ still loves his brother and is such a good helper. He wants to "hol-hol," or "hold, hold" translated, him all the time. I am so excited for the day when they can really play together. But for now, CJ loves holding him, doing tummy time with him, and giving him a bath. Will has started to spit up some, and that is the only thing CJ thinks is "shew, shew" or shew-ey (like shew-ey your diaper stinks!). CJ also wants Will to have his toys. Whenever he plays with his dishes, Will always gets his own bowl, spoon, and cup, and CJ has even designated one of his cars as Wills. They are going to be quite a pair.

Will has already changed so much. He is getting SO long. We go to the doctor tomorrow for his two month check-up, and I know they are going to tell me he has gotten longer. He is already stretching to the end of some of his three month jammies! He can also hold his head up well now. But my favorite new thing that Will does is this...

Could those smiles be any cuter??? He will look at you and just coo and smile. Even when I think I am going to pull all my hair out, he looks at me with that big toothless grin, and I just melt.

valentine's fun...

I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I would much rather Scott get me flowers on a random Tuesday, than be forced to think of something romantic to do on Valentine's Day just because Hallmark says he should. And honestly, since we've had young kids the last two Valentine's Days, we really haven't been able to do something super-romantic. This year we actually bought each other a Kindle for Valentine's Day... it's totally awesome! But I did get a fun surprise of a beautiful hydrangea and lots of chocolate... yummy and extra special because I had said to Scott a few days before how I really wanted a certain kind of chocolate and not only did he remember that, but he remembered that hydrangeas are my favorite flowers.

But just because I am kind of a Valentine's Day scrooge, doesn't mean that I want CJ to miss out on all the fun... because for kids, it's honestly a lot of fun. Here are some of the things we did...

We painted with red paint, from a red cup with red yarn. I am trying to do things with CJ that challenge his strong dislike of being messy. This was a great activity to push his sensory barriers...

And then he realized his fingers were dirty...

After some convincing that it was really ok, he continued onward...

This activity was actually A LOT of fun. And if you know me, I'm not the girl who would ever say her kitchen counters looking like this is fun. But it totally was. I guess this not only pushed CJ's messy boundaries, but mine too! We will definitely do this again in the future.

Then we worked on some fine motor skills. He loved this! These small tongs are from the outdoor party section at Hobby Lobby and the muffing tin is just a dollar store cheepie. From the get-go, I told CJ that he couldn't put the hearts in his mouth, and he only tried once. After he realized I was serious, he never tried again. He got really good with his tongs, and when he would see the muffin tin on the counter, he would say "har, har" or "heart, heart" translated. It was great to give him while I needed to do something in the kitchen that he couldn't help with.

And CJ REALLY liked it when granddad would talk with the tongs like they were a puppet. I was hilarious!!!

And here is another chepie fun thing. These heart cookie cutters were totally worth the $1.83 from Wal-Mart!

First we used them like nesting cups. We talked about big and little and got to practice some words/phrases I have been working on with CJ - turn over, scoot, keep trying, and one more time.

CJ thought my game was ok for a while, but then he had a better idea of what he could do with the cookie cutters...

The cookie cutters were also a great addition to CJ's sensory tub. I changed out the animals and we added some fun Valentine's things. This has also been a great way to stretch CJ. The sensory aspect of it is great for getting him (and me) to deal with a little mess. But, it has also been great to help me work with CJ on being bossy... don't know where he gets that from! :) He has definite ideas for who get what's cup, what spoon and what you are supposed to do with them. At first it was funny. But then I started thinking about him playing with other kids, and they aren't going to be as accommodating as his family. So we have started having moments I like to call "CJ looses." It's hard. It's not fun. But being a parent isn't all roses. :) So sometimes I play like he wants, but other times I won't play with the spoon. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it causes a melt down. But, in the end, it will all buff out, and hopefully, he will be able to play well with others as he grows up.

But I digress, here's CJ playing with his beans...

When he wants them hunt them again, he puts them "night, night." So stinking cute...

And he really liked hunting for them with the cup. He would laugh and laugh when he would scoop us the small ones into the cup. And it was neat to see him figure out that the big ones wouldn't go inside the cup like the small ones... see more big and little ideas building here?

And on Valentine's Day, we had lots of fun cooking. In the morning we made pancakes together. CJ is always a great helper...

At lunch we ate heart grilled cheese sandwiches, red jello salad and strawberry yogurt...

And before dinner, CJ and daddy made cupcakes together...

Scott held the mixer in place, and CJ turned the bowl. He was so funny because as he turned he kept saying, "turn, turn."

We also did a few other things:

-We painted with heart doilies.

-We ran from one heart doily to another heart doily

-We searched for hearts I hid around the living room

-We sang a lot of Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children

tummy time...

Besides being absolutely adorable, CJ and Will are really different. If you put CJ on his tummy before he was 6 months old, he would FREAK out - like totally freak out, kicking, screaming, crying... it wasn't pretty. Will, on the other hand, is totally mellow even on his tummy. I think Will did more tummy time in the first week of his life than CJ did in his first 6 months.

What I think is totally adorable though, is that CJ wants to do tummy time with Will now. If I get out the mat to lay Will on, CJ starts to say "mat, mat" and runs to play with him. Love, love, love how much he loves his brother...

very important visitors...

AHHH! I realized the other day that I hadn't blogged about two very important visits, and one of them happened LAST YEAR!!! First, Granddad and Grandpa Dick got to come visit. They came the end of January and my dad was able to stay through the beginning of February. The boys had a great time with them. CJ especially likes it when they are here because he gets lots of outside play time...

It was a blessing to have family here for so long. There is no way I could have made it without them after my c-section. We are truly blessed. And our kids are blessed to have so many grandparents who cause an endless stream of traffic in the guest bedroom... and they aren't here to see me and Scott!

And our special visitor from last year was one of my besties from college, Lauren. She got to come see us for a whole week. It was so much fun even though we didn't really do anything except hang out. We hung around the house, when for walks, chatted by a fire and ate good food. What more could you ask for??? It was so great to have her here... just like family - no stress, no need to impress, just being ourselves and having fun. And we were actually so relaxed, that picture crazy me didn't even take ONE picture! These are from Lauren's camera (thus the delay in the post), and blogger actually loaded them backwards; sorry...

CJ helping Lauren with her bags as she was leaving. He loves bags, so he was excited. This was definitely a big bummer for me though. :(

And one beautiful afternoon when the rain and drizzle finally stopped, we headed down to the river walk. It was so nice to be outside and walk. It's really peaceful there, and one of our favorite places in Columbus. Lauren and CJ had lots of fun playing with sticks. :) They are such a cute pair. Hugh better watch out, or CJ might try to take Lauren away from him! He really liked her...

And here we all are. This makes me laugh because I was SO pregnant in this picture. :) Fun times with a sweet friend are never long enough. It makes me wish we lived next door to each other... wouldn't that be nice.

today...

This morning while Will was doing this...

We were doing this...

First we played beans and playdough which don't lend themselves well to being photographed. Then we colored...

Then CJ helped me take the laundry to the laundry room. Remember the post about family? Here he is in the laundry basket just like Moses was in the basket!

After this we played chase which consists of CJ running around like a crazy person and me chasing him. He was really disappointed when Connor was outside and couldn't join in the chasing. Then we went to the boy's room and played throw the ball into the crib, roll the ball under the bed and scoot under to go retrieve it, and read books.

And now that they are both sleeping this afternoon, I am doing a million things, including this!