Nikolai's Two Month Check In

Somehow we are already at Nikolai's two month mark!

At two months, he continues to be an overall happy baby.

These two continue to grow in their love for each other!

Nikolai has just recently begun to find interest in toys and so big brother had to join when baby started laughing at his new mobile.

Alexander getting some snuggles with Grandmomma

I cannot get enough of these two together 

Much like big brother, this baby likes to be on the go! He loves walks and just recently progressed to outward facing (sometimes).

Potatoes is great at including Nikolai in his play

Grandmomma hanging with Nikolai at the bouncy house

Watching Home Alone

Milestones

In addition to enjoying hanging toys, this little guy now SMILES and GIGGLES

These are easily making my heart melt

He weighed in at 12.5lbs on an empty stomach, putting him in the 53rd percentile  and 24.1 inches, which is the 91st percentile for his age.

He loves tummy time!! He likes to be upright, so I guess he wants to practice his moves so he can be upright independently as soon as possible!

He stands with only assistance for balance, until he gets all wobbly legged and collapses.

He sleeps until midnight and then again until 3 or 4am, but has his witching hour at 4am...wanting to play or cluster feed, or anything other than go back to sleep.

Zoey is protective of him, but Potatoes still holds her heart as her favorite.   She will step over Nikolai to get Alexander kisses so we have to check her enthusiasm sometimes. 

Photo Drop

Future model? After climbing and jumping and his regular antics, Alexander strikes this pose and asks me to snap pcitures

Cheering on the Dawgs against A&M

Sleepy after vaccines, but he handled it like a champ!!!

My three boys

Gammie Goes Home

After 7 weeks of helping me adjust to being a mom of two, with countless diapers changes, bottle feeds, dishwasher and laundry loads, Zoey walks, school drop offs, bed time and nap time books and so much more, it was time to say goodbye to Gammie.

These two....  My mom says neither of her kids are as much like her as her first grandson is.

We took advantage of a day off from school routine in Gammie's last week and headed to SeaQuest to play with sharks

Alexander may have been a bit scared to touch the sea star, but Gammie wasn't!

We had a hilarious moment when a stingray actually jumped out of the tank at my hand, thinking I had a shrimp in it (I was actually pointing to Alexander's clump of shrimp floating away so he could watch for the animals to eat it).  We all got splashed and I may have screamed just a bit!

I bought more shrimp to feed the hungry stingray, and yet he couldn't get it together!  I kept putting a shrimp in front of him and he kept missing it.  I then managed to drop it DIRECTLY in his mouth, and he let it fall out!  Silly stingray...

We got to meet Marina the Mermaid

Nikolai certainly has an adjustment ahead.  He is used to being held every time he cries.  I have already started working on teaching him to self soothe and extend his time between meals to three hours.  He may not have taken to it initially, but I got the best sleep of his life thus far last night!

Where's my Gammie?!

Grandmomma is stepping in with some snuggles, but has proclaimed to not be a fan of a crying baby.  She enjoys a hug here and there and will talk to the boys, which is great for working on her speech!  She is also eager to join us on outings and walks to the playground.

Wearing one if his shirts made by Gammie

Looking like such an angel in the PJs from Ganrmomma

Silly boy

We miss Gammie already, but are looking forward to figuring out our new normal!

Ding Dong- Surprise!

After laying low all day on Friday after Halloween, we were playing blocks on the floor upstairs when we heard the doorbell rang.

Thinking it was one of our neighborhood friends wondering why we weren't at the playground, I came down prepared to send them on the way.

Instead of neighborhood friends, I opened the door to Grandpa and Grandmomma!

Alexander was so, so excited!  Though his feeling under the weather had him not talking very much (hard to believe, but yes!), he quickly jumped into playing with Grandpa and learning how to make paper airplanes from him.

Nikolai thought Grandpa was very entertaining, and loved that Grandpa introduced him to the big television lights and sounds

They were so thoughtful in bringing me a beautiful bouquet!

Alexander wanted pictures of all the girls and all the boys separately.

Paper airplane making.  They were able to throw one and have it land on the fan blade.  Experts!

We are excited to have Grandmomma stay with us for a bit and let Grandpa enjoy some solo time, meeting up with old friends and rejuvenating a bit!

A MARVEL-ous Halloween

From wanting to be a cat, to a spider, Alexander finally decided to go with our regular play characters- heroes!

Because the mask was not going to stay on, Daniel rocked the Hulk makeover while allowing our little dude to be comfortable

He looked legit!

Captain Marvel and Baby Groot

Our Baby Groot loved his fluffy costume so much, he cried every time I tried to dress him in anything else.  We decided we needed to go back and buy a second.  I joke that I'll be delivering him to kindergarten in a fluffy bear suit!

So comfy

Trunk-or-Treat

In additional Halloween fun, Bryan, Daniel and I ventured out to a zombie infested city to attack and kill zombies for the safety of Las Vegas.

Zombie Apocalypse is a Veteran owned and operated business, where our zombie fighting team was led by a former Marine Spec Ops operative.

We had so much fun! 

 

Our zombie adventure marked the first time I left Nikolai, and the first time Gammie hung out solo with both grandsons.

 They had a blast!

 Fall means pumpkins and pumpkins mean pumpkin pie!  Gammie is known for making from scratch pumpkin pie, and with Alexander's love of baking, this felt like a must have tradition!

Alexander insisted baby brother participate, too

Pumpkin carving, of course!

School party

We love both of his teachers so much

Alexander had been a bit off all week, throwing fits and crying at a capacity that is not normal.  I told his teachers that this typically meant a fever was coming.  Well, after one block of trick or treating, he was shivering uncontrollably and asking to get home.  Within an hour, he had a fever and that night, his cough sounded like a barking seal.  He has a very mild case of croup, and the hardest part is not being able to snuggle his brother.  Luckily, the doctor said babies nor adults typically get croup.  Just nearly four year old boys, I guess!