3 Month Fun

Forrest has been such a joy to have in our lives! This has been a really fun month . He's been growing and changing so much and is becoming his own little person. He loves being held and talked to and he gives the sweetest smiles and coos back at you. He's a great baby. We traveled about 5 of his first 12 weeks and he did wonderfully - stayed on the same sleeping schedule (in his pack-n-play), did good in the car, ... basically just rolled with the punches... so sweet.

The week he turned 3 months he started sleeping thru the night! He sleeps an average of 11 hours a night!! Wow - I had no idea a baby could do this. (Andrew was only sleeping 8 straight hours at 5 months.) He's also become so playful in the last couple of weeks. He loves sitting in his Bumbo watching Andrew plays cars and trains. He loves his Einstein playmat. And he LOVES his Einstein exersaucer! Here are a few pictures...

This picture was taken on his 3 month birthday. The next 3 are more recent, from the past week or so.

Can you tell how much he loves this?! He even plays with all the toys - pushes the buttons to make animal sounds and spins the wheels - so cute.

Tummy time in the crib - oh, he rolled from tummy to back for the first time yesterday!

and i think we're working on a tooth, too!! His hands are in his mouth ALL the time and you can see he's put the ring in his mouth too.
(He is usually dressed... this picture was taken yesterday when we lost power for awhile. We were both hot so I let him swing in just his diaper.)

What a fun month it's been with this little man. I love him so! Can't even begin to imagine our lives without him.

Sweet Times

Welcome Forrest! (just a little belated)

We finally finished the video welcoming Forrest into the world and wanted to share it with you. I think we enjoy the video a lot more now that we can look back and reflect on yet another huge blessing in our life.

On another note, this is our 100th blog post!

The Boys... Together!!

The boys were so cute yesterday and we FINALLY got some good pictures of them together. Andrew has definitely taken more of an interest in Forrest lately. He loves giving him a kiss on the forehead and singing him a song... always "Row, row, row...". He also likes sitting by Forrest on a blanket or on the playmat with toys. And Forrest is never without music when in his bouncy seat... Andrew makes sure to keep it going for him... what a sweet big brother! :)

I know I've posted alot of pictures, but we were so excited to have 2 happy boys that we took lots of pics!

A couple of cute things about Andrew during this time...

1. the way he "wrapped" the boppy around him - like the way he's seen me do

2. After we had stopped taking pictures and Wilson had taken Forrest with him to another room, Andrew was sitting on the floor playing with the boppy. I heard him say "cheese". So cute! We've said "Say cheese" a couple of times to him recently when taking his picture. I heard him say "cheese" again and I looked over to see him grinning from ear to ear. So, of course, I grabbed the camera to take his picture! It's the one of Andrew by himself.

Breakin It Down!

Just wanted to share with you Andrew's new dance moves. We still can't quit laughing and we promise this was totally his doing, no prompts from us. We are also baffled at where he learned his moves. We think it may be from Bratley DNA. We have tried other dance songs like "Brick House" but only "Hamster Dance" seems to turn the switch on. When he was very little and crying uncontrollably Wilson used to put him in front of the computer and play the dancing hamsters with the terribly annoying music...for some reason he loved it - so here you go!

2 Beautiful Boys, 1 Talented Photographer...

Andrew and Forrest had their pictures made by Allison Muirhead last Tuesday - Forrest's 3 month b-day. My mom has several outfits that my dad wore as a baby boy, and it worked out that 2 of them fit the boys right now- a cute little "sailor" button-on suit fit Andrew and a sweet yellow bubble fit Forrest - it was perfect! Mom has been planning this for a while and was hoping that it would work out that the clothes would fit the boys at the same time so they could get their picture made in "Bubby's" clothes.

Allison has posted some pictures on her blog and I thought you might like to see the boys... she is so talented and is just great with children.

It was so funny because Andrew is actually in kind of an anti-camera stage. Whenever I want to take a picture of him he'll rarely look at me or the camera. Mom and I were unsure how he would do with Allison, but he was great! And Forrest who is such a laid-back baby and smiler was the one who was fussy. But she was wonderful with him and still got him to smile. We can't wait to see the proofs!

In the pics on the blog, Andrew is wearing Bubby's outfit... We love the "vintage" look of the photo. Forrest is actually just in his diaper. She took some basic 3 month photos of him while we were there and that is what she posted of him.

* hope to post some july pics later this week!

Hello ladies...

Forrest

Let me backtrack a little and share Forrest's "stats" from his first check-up. We actually took him at 7 weeks and he was doing great! He weighed 13 pounds, 11 ounces (95 %) and was 23 inches long (90%). Just for a little comparison, Andrew weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces at 8 weeks, so Forrest is definitely growing faster! And the funny thing is that Andrew always had a chunkier look then Forrest does. Andrew had a huge belly... and still does! Forrest is 9 weeks old today. His personality has really begun to come out in the last couple of weeks. He is a very happy baby. He loves "face time" as I call it - just looking at you... smiling and cooing. I love it!!

I took this picture of Forrest today.

my boys

some new pictures of my sweet boys... i love these little ones so much. how blessed i am!

2 smiling faces!

what a happy baby this boy is! he absolutely loves May-May's cradle swing.

1 word... precious

Andrew - talking on the cell... the orange thing in his hand

Forrest - smiling at his friend, red bird

Memorial Day pictures

oh, to be a kid again...
did we ever have a pool like this when we were little?!

"a ball"... one of andrew's favorite things!

sweet forrest

A trip to see Izzy & Bryan

We all went on a little trip last week to see Izzy and Bryan in Memphis. Wilson had a conference, and since Elizabeth and Bryan live there, Wilson and I decided to make it a family trip. Wilson was actually busy for most of the time, so the boys and I had fun with Elizabeth and Bryan. They were so sweet to have us and such a big help with the boys - who are quite a handful! :) We had a great time, and Andrew loved spending time with Izzy and Bryan. I just hope we didn't wear them out and that they'll let us come back sometime!!

Izzy and Andrew at the Zoo in the China Garden - where the pandas are!

Andrew really enjoyed seeing the animals. We loved the pandas! This one walked back and forth in front of Andrew and even posed for us - see below.
We also saw seals, polar bears, monkeys, the big cats, and giraffes.... to name a few! How fun, especially since Andrew has been seeing lots of these when he watches Baby Noah lately!

Thanks again, Izzy & Bryan, we had lots of fun!

First Smiles

Forrest is a precious baby boy - we are enjoying him so much!! He's a cuddler - and I love cuddling with him! I'm sorry that I have not been very good about posting pictures of him - he is growing so fast. He shared his first real smiles with us last week, and what big smiles they are! I love his dimples! The first 2 pictures below are of the morning he first began to smile at me. I quickly grabbed my camera to catch it. I apologize that the lighting is not so good. And just for fun, I've posted 2 pictures of Andrew's first smiles - also at 5 weeks. Do you think they look alike??

The Beach

We took a little trip to the beach last week. It was wonderful to have a getaway and a change of scenery. We were still up at night and very busy so we definitely didn't call this a vacation... but we didn't expect that with a 5 week old and a toddler anyway! It was just nice to be together and out of the house for a few days. Wilson and Andrew had so much fun playing in the sand - the water was a little too cold for Andrew - and Forrest and I enjoyed watching them! Now that we're home, we can't wait to go back!

relaxing under the umbrella on the deck

the ride to the beach!

I'm so excited he likes the beach! Andrew - digging and playing in the sand

more deck time for me and Forrest :)

the boys, checking out the water

I love the beach (& Oreos)!

sweet times together!

It's good to be home and well...

So, here is a picture that represents last week for us. When we took Forrest for his 2 week check-up, we discovered that what we had first seen the night before and thought was a blocked tear duct had actually become a pretty bad eye infection in Forrest's left eye. The doctor did a blood count and Forrest's white blood cell count was high and he had a little fever. She sent us straight to UMC Children's Hospital so our sweet little one could get IV antibiotics. It was a sad day - especially for me! The last thing that you want to do with your 2 week old baby is to be taking him to the hospital. God was good and after one day of antibiotics we saw a huge improvement in Forrest's eye. We stayed for a 2nd night and more medicine then came home on Thursday.

While this was going on with Forrest, Andrew came down with strep throat - for the 2nd time in 2 weeks! (He had been diagnosed with strep the day before Forrest was born.) He got a shot and the strep was taken care of with that but he had a yucky viral infection that kept him sick and feverish thru the weekend. With him running fever, the pediatrician wouldn't let him be around Forrest. So, Andrew didn't come home until Sunday. We hated having him away that long. Boy, did we miss him! Thank goodness for my sweet parents. They were so wonderful to take care of him when we couldn't. I really don't know what we would do without them!

Praise the Lord we are all well now! And so thankful!! I knew that I loved my boys, but all that happened made me realize it even more. They are such blessings and it is MISERABLE to see them not feeling well and to be apart from them. Here are some pictures from the last few days of being home and feeling good.

Forrest napping in his Moses Basket

Andrew, relaxing in his chair, getting a kiss from Daisy

Having some good "awake time" in his crib on his 3 week b-day

A mouthful of juice... playing on May-May's back porch

Getting ready for a walk around the block.
(This is one of the few pictures of the boys together. Andrew doesn't sit still very long for posed pictures these days!)

he's here...

Visit our new blog: http://web.mac.com/theshirleycrew/Site/Blog/Blog.html

What are you doing? :)

Who me?

....Oh, .... just having a little snack with the puppies. Is that ok?

They like Cheerios!


(Notice the pile of Cheerios beside Andrew's leg. One for Andrew... one for Magnolia... one for Daisy... No wonder the puppies love Andrew so much! :) )

Easter Pictures

Andrew loved dying Easter eggs this year! I wasn't sure how he'd like it... he hasn't been too interested in crafty things yet (I've been hoping this was just because of his age). He loved it though! I let him use his hands to pick the eggs up and drop them in the cups of dye - you may have noticed his lovely dyed hands. He was so interested to see how they looked when we pulled them out, and he couldn't wait to get another egg to dye. What a fun day!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. After going to church, we headed over to my parents and enjoyed visiting, a delicious lunch, hunting eggs, and relaxing. I've posted a few pictures from the day.

This is the best picture I have of Andrew in his Easter outfit. He was playing ball (a golf ball in each hand) and not too interested in slowing down to pose!

Check out Andrew's new ride! Thanks Easter Bunny!

A family picture

Wilson and Andrew playing... I think my boys are super cute. :)

Andrew and May-May hunting eggs... Andrew loved this Easter tradition, too!