I'd rather eat my hand

Baby Jake turned 4 months this past week and give his stature we decided to give rice cereal a try. All in all he thought it was funny to spit the cereal out and let it drool all over his chin. In the end he decided he would rather just chew on his hand.

Don't Leave Your Child Unattended...

How many times have you read this on a warning label on a baby bath tub or a changing table or a bouncy chair, A MILLION? I don't know how many times I have read this and dismissed it as common sense, yet I find myself occassionally doing it. Wednesday nightI was getting ready to read books to the boys before bed time and I laid baby Jake on Avery's bed and turned around for 2 seconds to get some books out of the bookcase. And as soon as I turned around Jake rolled off the bed and took a head first dive for the hard wood floor. Let me just tell you, babies don't fall like cats, more like a sack of potatoes. Thankfully Baby Jake is okay. I won't go into the manic hours that followed this stupid accident but after 2 nights of restless sleeping and 2 days of watching over him, I can say he is okay.

I finally came to the conclusion that after 4 months I may be holding him too much (working mommie's guilt trip). I didn't even know that he can roll over. He's getting plenty of time to lay down now, on the floor.

Shapes

Last week Avery's school did a lesson plan on shapes. He was out sick, so we didn't get to turn in our homework; photos of different shapes from around the house. So, I thought I would share them with everyone. You can see from his expression that this is serious business....

TRIANGLE

CIRCLE

RECTANGLE

TRAPEZOID?

???????

Green Googles

Here are some snippits from Avery's swimming lesson last Sunday. His teacher let him try some goggles for the first time (notice that they are green, his favorite!).

Happy Birthday Papa Tom!

We flew down to North Carolina last Thursday to suprise Papa Tom for his birthday. I think we really pulled one over on him. I was thinking maybe we finally got him back for short sheeting our bed on our wedding night, but that was pretty bad, so I say we still owe him. Here are some pics from his birthday party and from a day at the park with Avery's cousins Lindsay and Michael.


Prepping the birthday cake for Papa Tom. Avery and Lindsay picked out three packs of candles for this little cake. After the much blowing and spitting the flames went out and Avery and Lindsay proceeded to rake the icicing off the sides for the cake with their fingers.

Superman Swing

Peek!

Baby Michael - sweet and cute!!

'Windsay' and Uncle Matt

Brothers

"I holding him, Mommy."

Even super heroes can make some time to play with thier little brothers

I never met a bottle I didn't like

When Avery was born, 7lbs 7oz, red hair and blue eyes, Kevin jokingly asked me whose baby he was. We were both 8+lb babies and although we have traced the red hair to both sides of the family, we're still not sure who has blue eyes on Kevin's side of the family. For the past three years I have been taking Avery for his check ups and he lingers around the 50th percentile for both height and weight. A friend of Kevin's at work told him that her boys doubled their height from their 2 year check up. At 2 years Avery was 32 inches tall, making him 5' 4" when he finishes growing. (Again, Kevin begs the question).

Then came baby Jake. All through my pregnancy the doctor warned me he was going to be big. After all, I gained 50lbs and was sure that at least 20lbs had to be baby weight (and not on my butt where I did actually gain 20lbs). And then he came out, 7lbs 2oz, even smaller that Avery. And then he didn't want to eat in the hospital and I thought, here we go again. So after a month of nursing trouble we decided to try a bottle and boy, did he ever like it. Ever since he has been an eating machine and has been growing like crazy. I took him for his 2 month check up last week and he weighed 13lbs, 4 oz. The doctor proudly proclaimed him 90th percentile, up from just 25th percentile when he was born!

Today I brought out some of Avery's 6-12 month clothes and decided to try some on the baby. I found an outfit that Avery was wearing when he first pulled himself up to standing at daycare, around 7 or 8 months. It fits Jake perfectly. So, Kevin finally got has his little big man!

Green my favorite

In case you haven't heard, green is Avery's favorite color. If he has the choice he will always pick green over any other color (balloons, gummy bears, shirts, etc). I wasn't sure why he likes green so much until he brought home is daycare blanket last Thursday for the weekend......


When Avery turned one and moved to the toddler room at daycare, Kevin decided he did not need his blankies anymore and stopped letting him take them into school. (I guess he is weirded out that I still sleep with my baby blanket occassionally). Anyway, Avery's daycare teachers gave him this piece of green leopard print flannel fabric and he has been attached to it ever since. I tried to tell Kevin that sometimes karma works against you. Like last night, Kevin yelled at Avery for taking his hat and mittens off in the car. A little while later he asked him for a kiss goodnight and Avery turned around and stuck his butt in Kevin's face. I guess that's what you get!!

The Ketchup Incident

People ask me all of the time how I am doing with the new baby. I tell them that Baby Jake is fine, its Avery that is my problem. I'm not sure why I thought it was okay to leave a ketchup bottle alone with a 2 1/2 year old for more than 3 seconds. And I don't know why I didn't notice his mischevious giggles from the other room. I can only blame it on lack of sleep. Apparently Ketchup tastes really good on pears, broccoli, carrots and even in yogurt (in additon to chicken nuggets). It also doubles as a excellent hair gel and is good for decorating white turtlenecks, walls, windows and floors.

More Baby Jake Pics

Baby Jake and I had our own little photo shoot this week, here are some highlights:

Let is Snow!!

We've had a lot of snow the last few weeks so Kevin and Avery took the opportunity to make our very own Frosty the Snowman. I finally found a use for those beets from the crop share!

A few of my favorite things!

Here are some highlights from Avery's Christmas extravganza! Of course we had way to many presents for a two year old so there are still a few under the tree. Below are a few highlights, we had so many fun new toys and books, too many to keep track. All in all it was a spectacular holiday. This was our first Christmas in our own home and it was just a blast with the two little guys. At one point Kevin was even outside Avery's window making Santa Claus noises and prancing around the upstairs pretending to be a reindeer on the roof!

Two nutcrackers including the new green (my favorite) one.

Avery's new trampoline doubling as a platform for eating, resting and playing with all new toys.

A new dump truck and digger from Nannie and Pop Pop

Conductor's hat and train whistle from Aunt Teresa and Uncle Pepper

and finally, never under estimate the power of a large bag or a box full of packing peanuts for a 2 year old!

Special Visitors

We were fortunate to have my mom with us the last two weeks including over Christmas. My sister Susie and nephew Patrick also came for a visit just before Christmas. Here are a few pics from the visit.

Nannie, Patrick and Avery blowing out the candles at Nannie's birthday party

Aunt Susan and Baby Jake

Papa Patrick's Pizzeria and Fat Man (Avery's version of Batman).
Let's just say there was a lot of jumping on the couch and running around the house.

Jake Justice - by popular demand

Here are a few pictures of baby Jake that Aunt Susan took during her visit this weekend. Oh - by the way Baby Jake has a new nick name - Jake Justice after his cousin Patrick's rescue hero.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Its a quiet day at our house today but we have so much to be thankful for this year - our two beautiful boys, our good health and of course are friends and family. We hope that you all had a nice and relaxing day as we did.

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving. It snowed here this morning so Kevin and Avery had a great time playing outside. We even broke out the sled for the first time this year!

Introducing Jacob Montgomery Blalock

Baby Jake and I had a restful stay in the hospital. We had a fabulous nurse, Flo, who hooked us up with a corner room with two big windows and a walk in shower. Having been through once before, I opted for an extra day in the hospital, put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and spent the extra day napping. This also gave Avery and extra day of TLC with Kevin's mom, Bebe, who thankfully has been staying with us for the last week.

Friday was our big coming home day and Bebe had plans to bring Avery to the hospital so we could make a big deal of the whole process. Avery woke up with a stomach bug and puked all over his bed. Kevin went home to check on him and after a few hours of cartoons and a couple of pieces of toast he thought maybe the little guy was okay. They packed up the car and got on the highway only to have Avery throw up all over the back of Kevin's car. Poor Kevin, this made his already stressful day even more stressful. So, I took another nap and Bebe came to get me a few hours later. Thankfully Avery was okay after he got up from his nap and we made it through our first day at home.

The weekend was relatively uneventful. We're not sleeping much at night but all in all the baby has been really good. We had a rough start with breast feeding in the hospital so we have been supplementing him with some formula. We go back to the doctor today so he can get weighed to make sure he is gaining weight. Avery has been great with the baby. He is very curious and so far has been really sweet and gentle with him. We have had a lot of support from Avery's daycare teachers as well as from Kevin's mom this past week. He has had so much extra attention the last few weeks I feel like the whole event has been very positive so far.

Here are a few more pics from the weekend. Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed and left us comments on the blog! It's great to hear from you!!

Baby Jake, taking a snooze at the hospital with his mom

Avery holding hands with Baby Jake and Bebe

Our first family pics

Baby Boy Blalock has arrived!!

Well, I got my early delivery afterall. Last night at 8:30 my waterbroke at home and our little guy was delivered at 11:20, just 12 hours before my schedule c-section. He was 7lbs and 2oz, 19.75" long. We're still working on a name. We'll update this post as soon as we decide.

Happy Halloween!!

Our little spider getting ready for trick or treating (posing next to Kevin's masterful jack 'o lanterns).

Avery making his big smile and me, ready to burst from being ssssooo pregnant. I thought there was a chance we could have a Halloween baby, but I was mistaken yet again!!

Face painting at Avery's friend Reese's birthday party last Sunday (a better day for me than yesterday as you can see).