Catch up for May and part of June

Well May ended up being quite the month. I sprained my back very badly on my trip to visit my friend Francene and her kids and I spent 5 weeks unable to really do my job of taking care of these kiddos. As a result, Nick worked from home a bit and my mom drove up and stayed at my in laws house to help me for a week and then we all went down to my parent's house in NC for another week so I could have help. The doctor told me I should not hold the children for 3 to 4 weeks to allow the back to heal completely. Everything is a lot better now. I am able to pick up the kids with just a little soreness so that is good considering I am alone again and have to do it all myself. Here is the photo documentary of the month of May.

Right before we went to my friends house I met my friend Sarah (a friend from GA who has now moved up to Northern VA). Isabella and Jackson enjoyed seeing each other. We met at Chick-fil-A and they played on the playground together.

Here at Francene and Brett Tucker's house in Apollo, PA (where the back pain began) on May 19th. Jack (9 months) played with his friend Jacob (11 months here). Jack wasn't able to get to sitting yet from his belly so he spent all his time army crawling around the place.


Here the next week I started feeling a little better so I started holding the kids again and doing too much, then after this I really really hurt my back I was really not able to do anything. Jack got better at walking around on his own. Here we went to the park with Katie and Gianna.

Isabella makes Jack laugh like crazy. Here is one example:

This is May 26th. We set up the ottomans in the living room so Jack could walk all around the room. He loved cruising the furniture.

On May 29th he started saying Bella. He has been saying Mama and Dada but we weren't sure if he knew what he was saying or if they were just sounds. When he started saying Bella we realized he did get it. Now he says Nonna, Bye Bye and Night Night too.

Then came June...after my back got better it got worse. My mom came up to VA for a week to help me out and then we went down to NC the next week so I would have full time help with the kids.

My dad took Isabella to a friend's pool with a couple of dogs, one is his and the other is my sister Kate's. Her son Noah was down visiting with my parents so Isabella spent the week playing with her 10 year old cousin. She loved it! It is also really exhausted her!
Jack enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. He really started getting around. He started figuring out how to pull himself up to standing and started crawling on hands and knees. He also took his first couple steps on Monday June 7th. I think it kind of scared him. He did it twice and then he hasn't done it since.

He loved playing ball with my parent's dog Jazzy. She is crazy and will play ball with anyone who is willing.



Laying on Sully
We spent a lot of time in the back yard playing in the water and doing wood working with my dad.
Since my mom and dad were the primary caregivers since I couldn't hold them they also got the joy of being spit up on. My dad said it had been a long time since this happened. He walked in the house and he hadn't even noticed it had happened. My mom had to tell him. Pretty funny!
Jack's new Huggies jean diapers.
I think that is a long enough post, but I want to make sure to document everything. I am going to do another post to bring us up to date.

Jack signs "milk" and starts to crawl or "inch"

Yesterday Jack signed milk for the first time at lunch. I managed to get him to do it again for the video. I was super excited!!



Jack has become an inchworm. He inches his way along the floor. It is adorable!

Catoctin Zoo and random stuff

I have been meaning to post about our trip last week to the Catoctin Zoo in Maryland and I totally forgot to go back to my post and edit it until just now. So here it is because these pictures are too cute to pass up. We met my parents and my nephew David at the Catoctin Zoo for the afternoon one day last week as everyone was waiting for Cristina to have baby Henry. (He is here by the way, and I am going up to meet and visit with them today, so pictures to follow) We had a great time. David is super easy going in his stroller so he just enjoyed strolling around outside and taking in the sights. He did get out feed some animals but then he was ready to get back in his stroller and move. Here is David with my dad and his grandpa David feeding a llama....so David and David!

Isabella feeding a llama
That was one big llama
They had little apes and a couple of them had babies. Here is a mother and her baby.
Isabella and the apes.

Grandma and my nephew David

We saw a little goose family...so cute!

A priceless face from David

Jack has been really busy lately getting in to everything. When he is in the walker he is a real menace. I walked around the kitchen island and saw this. Jack with the plastic wrap.

The I walked around the other way and saw this. He was so proud of himself.

First tooth for one and Bunkin free for the other!!

This is something I want to document for our files.

Isabella is bunkin (aka pacifier) free! We took them away at night 2 nights ago and it really hasn't been too bad. She didn't love the fact that she didn't have the bunkins on Saturday night but she cried and yelled for a little while and then eventually fell asleep. The following morning she told us all about how she was not very nice when she went to bed the night before. We told her the Bunkinman came and took her bunkins because he knew she was a big girl and didn't need them anymore and that have gave them to the babies that need them. She didn't like that story. She wanted him to be a mean Bunkinman who stole them from her. So I complied last night and told her the story of the mean Bunkinman who stole her bunkins and then of the nice bunkin fairy who took the bunkins from the mean Bunkinman and gave them to the babies. She liked that one better. A little drama last night but not as bad as the night before. I threw them in the trash yesterday morning, so no going back. :)

Also, Jack got his first tooth on Friday morning. It finally broke through. I am sure the other bottom one will follow soon. Jack is also standing with no help for 2-3 seconds at a time. He walks around his pack n play now, if we get him to standing. He is starting to do forward motion if on his belly, but I wouldn't call it crawling, more like pulling or scooting his body. Video to follow! :)

Some cute pictures of Isabella

Here are some cute pictures I took of Isabella the other day. She is really growing up so fast.

Jack is 8 months old

Jack is 8 months old today which makes me realize that we are now 2/3 of the way to 1 and in 4 months I will be the mother of a 1 year old and a 3 year old!! Amazing how time flies! Jack is standing well on his own while holding on. He is just starting to realize that if he lets go he falls. He only really wants to stand but does play fairly well on his own sitting with a basket of toys. He isn't crawling yet, but he does move backwards if you lay him on his belly, so I hope crawling is going to follow fairly soon. Of course, it is probably a blessing that he hasn't started yet because there are all sorts of things to get in to at Nonna & Pop-pop's house. It has been nice that Isabella is past baby proofing for the most part and Jack isn't quite there yet.

Jack is growing like a weed though. We were in the doctors office 10 days ago for an ear infection and he weighed in at 23 lbs 14 oz...so exactly 16 lbs more than at birth! He is already wearing 12-18 months size or 18 months depending on who makes them, for those of you who were wondering. It is a good thing it is summer or we would be rolling a lot of pants!

Sleep is still going beautifully. I hope that never changes. He sleeps from 8 to 7:30 or so in the morning and takes about an hour nap in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon (when Isabella takes her nap...woo hoo!!) I love the predictability of this age. I mean he has been sleeping like that at night since about 4 months, but it is just nice to know that it hasn't changed in a while. The wonderful thing is that this time around we didn't have to "sleep train" so to speak, it all just came a little easier than with Isabella.

Anyway, so both kids are a joy. I still love my job more than anything in the world. There is no job I would enjoy more and no job that I think would give me the same satisfaction as spending my days with these two little blessings. A special thank you to Nick for working so hard to support our family and support me in what I believe is my calling...to be a mom. I love you Nick!

Well Jack is pooping again...so doody calls! :) Here are some cute pictures of little Jack.

Spring has sprung!

Lots has been going on lately. I have been terrible about blogging as my wonderful brother-in-law Doug pointed out to me, so I decided to update.

We recently took a trip down to NC to visit my parents. We took a little trip out to the beach and had lunch and then played. After a little play time we went to the NC aquarium. It was a lot of fun. Julia and Josephine were also in from TX so we got to spend the week with them. Josephine is 11 months in in these pics and Jack is 7.

Grandpa and Jack




Aquarium:


Julia's pregnant 13week belly
We also went to an Easter Eggstravaganza at the base. There were pony rides, face painting, bouncy houses, a petting zoo and more. She loved it!

Then we went back up to VA for Easter. Isabella colored eggs with Nonna.

The Easter bunny brought Jack and Isabella some great stuffAnd after church we did an Easter egg hunt with Gianna and Isabella. Isabella insisted on putting on her tutu under her Easter dress that is why she looks like she is wearing a hoop skirt.


Jack in his soaking wet Easter outfit (from his drool).

Isabella wanted to feed her brother.
Giving him kisses.
Here is a funny picture from a little while ago. I came across it and thought I would share.
And that is about that.